Post by iris89 on Nov 22, 2013 6:54:48 GMT -5
Abrahamic Religion - What Is It?
INTRODUCTION:
Many use the term "Abrahamic Religion" when referring to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and sometimes with regard The Druze, the Bahá'í Faith, etc. But in brief, the term means coming through and/or originating with the descendants of Abraham in its simpliest form.
To Abraham, the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Noah, etc., the creator of all there is, he promised that his descendants would forever inhabit the land. Abraham's first son, Ishmael, the ancestor of all original Muslims, was not by his wife, but by her servant, Hagar; whereas, his second son whom the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Noah, etc., the creator of all there is, said the promised seed would come was by his legal wife Sarah, and per Genesis 17:19, "And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." (Authorized King James Bible; AV).
Thus, the Islamic religion came through Abraham since a descendant of his son, Ishmael, Muhammad (pbuh), started it about 2,000 years after Abraham's death. His son, Ishmael, like all of his household, was a worshipper of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Issac, Ishmael, Noah, Moses, etc., the creator of all there is, but many centuries later, many of the descendants of Ishmael went to following false god(s) such as Allah and Baal which some believe to be one and the same.
Both the Jewish and Christian religions came through Abraham's son Isaac, the one to whom the everlasting covenant was established with. Both of these religions originally worshipped exclusively the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Issac, Ishmael, Noah, Moses, etc., the creator of all there is, but later some in the so called Christian branch that came out of Judaism went following pagan god(s). All the founders or genuine (true) followers of Christianity, the apostles of Jesus (Yeshua) were born Jews, the descendants of Abraham's son Isaac. However, later the "path" or way to be genuine followers of Jesus (Yeshua) was opened to none descendants of Abraham's son Isaac.
THE ISLAMIC ABRAHAMIC RELIGION:
PART A - GENERAL ON ISLAM:
First let's look at what an encyclopedia says about Islam.
<<<"Islam, is a monotheistic religion originating with the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. It is the second-largest religion in the world today, with an estimated 1.4 billion adherents, spread across the globe, known as Muslims.[1] The word "Islam" means "submission", referring to the total surrender of one's self to God Allah), and the word Muslim means "one who submits (to God)".[2]
Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad and that Muhammad is God's final prophet. The Qur'an and the traditions of Muhammad in the Sunnah are regarded as the fundamental sources of Islam.[3][4] Muslims do not regard Muhammad as the founder of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Jesus, Moses, Noah, and other prophets. They hold that part of the messages of these prophets became distorted over time either in interpretation, in text, or both.[5][6][7] Like Judaism, and Christianity, Islam is an Abrahamic religion.[8]
Today Islam is the predominant religion in North Africa, West Africa the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of the Indian subcontinent. Large communities can also be found in China, the Balkan Peninsula and Russia. Only about 20 percent of Muslims originate from Arab countries.[9] Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity in many European countries, such as France, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe and the United Kingdom.[10][11]"
Etymology and meaning: The word islam is "the infinitive of the fourth form of the Arabic triconsonantal root s-l-m meaning 'to submit,' 'to surrender'";[12] therefore Islam effectively means "submission to God". Followers of Islam are expected to submit to God by worshiping him, following his commands, and avoiding polytheism.[2] The word islam is also based upon the Arabic word for peace (salam) and could be applicible to the religion of Islam if it is taken to mean that "true peace resides in submission to God".[13]
The word islam takes on a number of different meanings in the Qur'an. In some verses (ayat), the quality of Islam as an internal conviction is stressed, for example: "Whomsoever God desires to guide, He expands his breast to Islam."[14] Other verses establish the connection between islam and din (usually translated as "religion"), and assert that only the surrender of one's self to God can render unto him the worship which is his due: "Today, I have perfected your religion (din) for you; I have completed My blessing upon you; I have approved Islam for your religion."[15] The final category of verses describe Islam as an action (of returning to God), more than simply a verbal affirmation.[16][2]
Beliefs
Muslims believe that God revealed his final message to humanity through the Islamic prophet Muhammad via the angel Gabriel.[17] They consider Muhammad to have been God's final prophet, the "Seal of the Prophets", and the Qur'an to be the revelations he received in his 23 years of preaching.[18] Muslims hold that all of God's messengers since Adam preached the message of Islam - submission to the will of the one God. To Muslims, Islam is the eternal religion, described in the Qur'an as "the primordial nature upon which God created mankind".[19][20][clarify] Furthermore, the Qur'an states that the proper name Muslim was given by Abraham.[21][20]
As a historical phenomenon, however, Islam was originated in Arabia in early 7th century.[20] Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as prophetic successor traditions to the teachings of Abraham. The Qur'an calls Jews and Christians "People of the Book", and distinguishes them from polytheists. However, Muslims believe that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, the Tawrat (Torah) and the Injil (Gospels), had become distorted as indicated in the Qur'an - either in interpretation, in text, or both.[22]
Islamic belief has six main components - belief in God; his revelations; his angels; his messengers; the "Day of Judgement"; and the divine decree.[23][24]
God
Allah, God, Islamic concept of God, and Tawhid [no Trinity]. The fundamental concept in Islam is the oneness of God (tawhid): monotheism which is simple and uncompounded, not composed or made up of parts.[25][clarify] The oneness of God is the first of Islam's five pillars, expressed by the Shahadah (testification). By declaring the Shahadah, a Muslim attests to the belief that there are no gods but God, and that Muhammad is God's messenger.[26]
In Arabic, God is called Allah. Etymologically, this name is thought to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic words al- (the) and ilah (deity, masculine form) - al-ilah meaning "the God".[27]
The first sura in a Qur'anic manuscript by Hattat Aziz Efendi.
The Qur'an is considered by Muslims to be the literal word of God, and is the central religious text of Islam. It has also been called, in English, the Koran and, archaically, the Alcoran. The word Qur'an means "recitation".[32] Although the Qur'an is often referred to as a "book", when Muslims speak in the abstract about "the Qur'an", they usually mean the scripture as recited in Arabic rather than the printed work or any translation of it.[33] Muslims believe that the verses of the Qur'an were revealed to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and his death on July 6, 632.
References:
1. ^ Teece (2003), p.10
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Islam", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
3. ^ Ghamidi (2001): Sources of Islam
4. ^ Esposito (1996), p.41
5. ^ "If...they [Christians] mean that the Qur'an confirms the textual veracity of the scriptural books which they now possess-that is, the Torah and the Gospels-this is something which some Muslims will grant them and which many Muslims will dispute. However, most Muslims will grant them most of that." Ibn Taymiyya cited in Accad (2003)
6. ^ Esposito (1998), p.12; Esposito (2002b), pp.4-5; F. E. Peters (2003), p.9
7. ^ a b c "Muhammad", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
8. ^ Gregorian (2003), p.ix
9. ^ Esposito (2002b), p.21
10. ^ Muslims in Europe: Country guide. BBC News (2005-12-23). Retrieved on 2006-09-28.
11. ^ Religion In Britain. Office for National Statistics (2003-02-13). Retrieved on 2006-08-27.
12. ^ "Islam", Encyclopedia of the Qur'an (2005)
13. ^ Sells (2003), p.30
14. ^ Qur'an 6:125, Qur'an 61:7, Qur'an 39:22
15. ^ Qur'an 5:3, Qur'an 3:19, Qur'an 3:83
16. ^ Qur'an 9:74, Qur'an 49:14
17. ^ Watton (1993), "Introduction"
18. ^ "Qur'an", Encyclopedia of Christianity (2001)
19. ^ Qur'an 30:30
20. ^ a b c "Islam", Encyclopedia of Religion
21. ^ Qur'an 22:78
22. ^ "Tahrif", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
23. ^ Sahih Muslim 1:1
24. ^ "Iman", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
25. ^ "Tawhid", Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
26. ^ Griffith (2006), p.248
27. ^ "Allah", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
32. ^ a b c Teece (2003), pp.12,13
33. ^ C. Turner (2006), p.42
[source - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]>>>.
PART B - ON THE QURAN:
Muslims believe that Muhammad (pbuh) received the Quran from an angel, but reality is very different. It is a distorted copy of the inspired word of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Issac, Ishmael, Noah, Moses, etc., the creator of all there is, the Bible, although most of Islam denies this reality. Details can be found in a recent book review as follows:
<<<" A book review of Christoph Luxenberg, a world renown linguistic scholar, clearly reveals that the Quran is nothing but a distorted knockoff of the inspired word of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, creator of all there is, the Bible.
This book review is contained in, "HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES," book review of Christoph Luxenberg (ps.) Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran; Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur'ansprache. Berlin, Germany: Das Arabische Buch, First Edition, 2000. Pp. ix + 306, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 2003.
[http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No1/HV6N1PRPhenixHorn.html ]
THE evidence:
Let's look at the evidence contained in the book review of Christoph Luxenberg's latest book in German, "Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran; Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur'ansprache." He clearly shows that the Quran draws on personal names of Biblical origins, that the name "Quran' even indicates its origin, that it was NEVER intended to replace the written source - the Bible, that it was distorted from the writings of Muhammad early on, as follows:
<<<"The rest of the section draws on personal names of Biblical origin in the Qur'an to demonstrate that the so-called Arabic matres lectionis, 'alif, waw, and ya, must also be polyvalent. Luxenberg points out that Islamic tradition admits a reading of the mater for long /a/ in certain instances as /e/ because this pronunciation was a peculiarity of the Arabic of Mecca. Luxenberg shows that the term harf, "sign" must also carry a meaning synonymous to qira'at, "(way of) reading" and that this is not only supplying the vowels in an unvocalized text, but also supplying the diacritical points that distinguish consonants. It is only gradually that these diacritical points became fixed so that consonants came to have just one reading. This process of determining the value of each letter of the Qur'an unfolded over some three hundred years. This is known from the oldest manuscripts of the Qur'an which do not have the diacritical points distinguishing readings of a single consonant. By the time these became commonly used, Arabian commentators were no longer aware that many words were either straight Aramaic or were calques peculiar to Meccan Arabic. From this resulted the difficulties that the Qur'an posed to even the earliest Arabian commentators...
The section concludes by demonstrating that the technical meaning of "lectionary" is preserved in the word qur'an. Most striking is the conclusion that the term umm kitab, an aramaism, must be a written source and that the Qur'an was never intended to replace this written source. One might complain that the details of the argument for the reading of suras 12:1-2 and 3:7 are squeezed into footnotes, but nevertheless the argument is clear. Luxenberg proves that the term qur'an itself is the key to unlocking the passages that have given commentators in and outside of the tradition frustration. If quryan means "lectionary," and if the text itself claims to be a clarification of an earlier text, then that earlier text must be written in another language. The only candidate is the Old and New Testament in Syriac, the Penutsta. Hence the influence of Aramaic on the Arabic of Muhammad has an identifiable, textual origin. At the very end of the work, Luxenberg makes a compelling argument that sura 108 is a close allusion to the Penutsta of 1 Peter 5:8-9. Indeed this sura, which is only three lines long, is one of the most difficult passages for the Arabian as well as the Western commentators. Luxenberg shows why: it is composed of transcriptions into Arabic writing of the Syriac New Testament text, i.e., there is almost no "Arabic" in the sura. These are "revealed" texts, and insofar as the Qur'an contains quotations or paraphrases of them, the Qur'an is also "revealed." ...
Many dialects of Arabic existed at the time of Muhammad. In the ten places where the Qur'an claims to have been written in Arabic, Luxenberg shows first that these passages have grammatical forms which are difficult for the commentators and have varying interpretations among the translators. He notes that in sura 41:44, the Arabic fassala means "to divide," but the context here requires "make distinct" or better "interpret." Nowhere else does the Arabic word have this meaning, and the Syriac-Arabic lexica do not give the one as a translation for the other; tarjama (a direct borrowing from Syriac) is the usual Arabic word for "interpret." However, the Syriac praš / parreš can mean both "divide" as well as "interpret" (like Hebrew hibdil; also this is an example of a "semantic calque" mentioned above). Tabari too understands fassala to be a synonym for bayyana (sura 44:3), which also has the meaning "interpret." Sura 41:44 also clearly attests to a source for the Qur'an that is written in a foreign language. Luxenberg, following Tabari, notes a corruption in the text of this verse that clearly shows that part of the Qur'an has a non-Arabic source. His argument here is somewhat weak if not for the further evidence deduced from eleven other locations in the Qur'an where Luxenberg consistently applies these and similar arguments to difficulties all of which center on the terms related to the revelation and language of the Qur'an. These arguments leave little doubt, that Luxenberg has uncovered a key misunderstanding of these terms throughout the Qur'an....
In section twelve Luxenberg demonstrates that not only the origin and language of the Qur'an are different from what the commentators who wrote two hundred years after its inception claim it to be, but that several key passages contain words or idioms that were borrowed from Syriac into Arabic. From his analysis of sura 19:24 (in the so-called "Marian Sura"): "Then he called to her from beneath her: 'Grieve not; thy Lord hath placed beneath thee a streamlet,'" he concludes that it should be read "He called to her immediately after her laying-down (to give birth 'Grieve not; thy Lord has made your laying-down legitimate.'" Luxenberg's lengthy discussion of the complexities of this passage resolve grammatical difficulties in the Arabic in a way that fits the context: Jesus gives Mary the courage to face her relatives even with a child born out of wedlock. The section then presents lengthy arguments dealing with various lexical, morphological, syntactic and versification problems in sura 11:116-117...
In that same section, one also finds a study of how Syriac roots were misread and altered by later commentators. In one case, the word jaw (sura 16:79) misread "air, atmosphere" is from Syriac gaw, which means both "insides, inner part" and can also be used as a preposition meaning "inside." In sura 16:79 Luxenberg demonstrates that the prepositional use makes more sense than the solution posed by the commentators. Classical Arabic grammar, which was created three hundred years after the Qur'an, does not recall the prepositional meaning of the word. However, dialects of Arabic preserve the original Syriac prepositional use. So where sura 16:79 reads fi jaw as-sama' "in(side) heaven" referring to birds held aloft and kept from falling down by God, the dialects agree: fi jawwat al-bet "inside the house" is perfectly good Arabic. The misreading of Qur'anic Arabic jaw as "air" has become part of the technical vocabulary of modern standard Arabic: "air mail," "air force," "airline," and "weather report" all use jaw. The imaginary meaning of the grammarians lives on. ...
Section sixteen follows this investigation as it points to a similar misreading of paradise's grapes as youths, Arabic wildun. Sura 76:19 "Round amongst them go boys of perpetual youth, whom when one see, he thinks them pearls unstrung" (sura 16.1, citing Bell's translation). Wildun is a genuinely Arabic word, but it is used in a sense which is borrowed from Syriac yalda. Youths like pearls is somewhat suspicious, especially given that "pearls" are a metaphor for the grapes of paradise from the previous section. Luxenberg uncovered that Syriac has the expression yalda dagpetta, "child of the vine," appearing in the Penutsta: Matthew 26:29, Mark 14:25, and Luke 22:18, in which Christ foreshadows his death and resurrection: "I will not drink of this child of the vine (yalda dagpetta) until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of my Father." Here it is the juice of the grape that is the "child." Entries in the Arabic-Syriac lexica for each of yalda and gpetta give in addition to "child" and "vine" "fruit" and "wine," respectively. Luxenberg gives further evidence from suras 37:45, 43:71, and 76:15 that Ephraem the Syrian's depiction of the grapes of paradise is behind the original Qur'anic text.
A central question that this investigation raises is the motivation of cUthman in preparing his redaction of the Qur'an. Luxenberg presents the two hadith traditions recounting how cUthman came to possess the first manuscript. If Luxenberg's analysis is even in broad outline correct, the content of the Qur'an was substantially different at the time of Muhammad and Uthman's redaction played a part in the misreading of key passages. Were these misreadings intentional or not? The misreadings in general alter the Qur'an from a book that is more or less harmonious with the New Testament and Syriac Christian liturgy and literature to one that is distinct, of independent origin. " [source - book review is contained in, "HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES," book review of Christoph Luxenberg (ps.) Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran; Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur'ansprache. Berlin, Germany: Das Arabische Buch, First Edition, 2000. Pp. ix + 306, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 2003.]>>>.
THE Reality:
Muhammad (pbuh) had Christians in his family from whom he learned about the Bible from and scribes to read it to him as he was illiterate. After learning much about the Bible, he started dictating to his scribes what he wanted written down, and as all know a process like this can only product a distorted product as compared to the original, the inspired word of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob, creator of all there is, the Bible.
Now most in Islam will not agree with this reality, the truth, per John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Authorized King James Bible; AV), but the facts sustain it. Let's look at his connection to Christianity through his relatives as reported in an Islamic source.
Many Muslims have argued that Muhammad only met Jews or Christians only on very few occasions, by far too short to be sufficient to gain any real knowledge of the earlier scriptures. In particular, they were not translated into Arabic at this time. The content of the Qur'an therefore does not come from human sources but can only be through direct revelation from God.
I agree that the scriptures probably did not exist in Arabic at that time, at least not completely or widely known, but with the other statements I am not in agreement. And even the non-existence of scriptures in Arabic is irrelevant as we will see in the following.
The Muslim sources tell us about a certain Waraqa bin Nawfal and in what way Muhammad was related to him.
<<<"Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 1, Number 3: Narrated 'Aisha:
(the mother of the faithful believers) The commencement of the Divine Inspiration to Allah's Apostle was in the form of good dreams which came true like bright day light, and then the love of seclusion was bestowed upon him. He used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days before his desire to see his family. He used to take with him the journey food for the stay and then come back to (his wife) Khadija to take his food like-wise again till suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet replied, "I do not know how to read.
The Prophet added, "The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, 'I do not know how to read.' Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, 'I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?' Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, 'Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists) has created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous." (96.1, 96.2, 96.3) Then Allah's Apostle returned with the Inspiration and with his heart beating severely. Then he went to Khadija bint Khuwailid and said, "Cover me! Cover me!" They covered him till his fear was over and after that he told her everything that had happened and said, "I fear that something may happen to me." Khadija replied, "Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your Kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously and assist the deserving calamity-afflicted ones."
Khadija then accompanied him to her cousin Waraqa bin Nawfal bin Asad bin 'Abdul 'Uzza, who, during the PreIslamic Period became a Christian and used to write the writing with Hebrew letters. He would write from the Gospel in Hebrew as much as Allah wished him to write. He was an old man and had lost his eyesight. Khadija said to Waraqa, "Listen to the story of your nephew, O my cousin!" Waraqa asked, "O my nephew! What have you seen?" Allah's Apostle described whatever he had seen. Waraqa said, "This is the same one who keeps the secrets (angel Gabriel) whom Allah had sent to Moses. I wish I were young and could live up to the time when your people would turn you out." Allah's Apostle asked, "Will they drive me out?" Waraqa replied in the affirmative and said, "Anyone (man) who came with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility; and if I should remain alive till the day when you will be turned out then I would support you strongly." But after a few days Waraqa died and the Divine Inspiration was also paused for a while. ...
Some essential statements above:
1. "his desire to see his family."
2. "You keep good relations with your Kith and kin"
This shows that Muhammad was a "family man", and given that the middle eastern culture is well known for its family orientedness (something I very much appreciate in Muslims) and that in this setting Muhammad was seemingly even a very good example (otherwise this would not have been mentioned as special virtue) we can deduce that he probably spend much time with his relatives keeping a good relationship, and that means regular visiting.
Furthermore, nobody will deny that Muhammad was already religious before he had this first encounter in the cave on Mt. Hira. After all, he went there to meditate and pray. As the hadith says, it was a habit of his: "He USED to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days..."
The big question now is:
What will such a religious man talk about when he visits his relatives? Would it be too much to guess that religion will be a major part of these conversations?
And what do we see happening here when Muhammad is disturbed and frightened by a "religious experience"? After calming down a bit at home with his wife, who is the person they visit first?
Waraqa bin Nawfal. Seemingly, he is seen by Khadija and Muhammad as an authority in spiritual matters. And he is the cousin of his wife. And he is a Christian familiar with the scriptures since, after all, he is making copies of the scriptures, whether for personal study or for a fellowship/church of Christians.
So, these are the facts:">>>.
So Islam's argument that he, Muhammad (pbuh) had little contact with either Jews or Christians is an outright lie as is the other claims made for the Quran. Most of the other claims are quite similar to those of Joseph Smith for the Book of Mormon; to wit, the book was received from an angel.
PART C - THE MYTHICAL GOD, THE OLD MIDDLE EASTERN CELESTIAL MOON GOD, "ALLAH," WHO ONLY EXIST IN THE IMAGINATIONS OF DECEIVED MEN, BUT HAS NO PHYSICAL EXISTANCE,
Many in Islam claim their god is the same as the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob, creator of all there is, but this is not true as will be shown:
Origins of the word "Allah," let's look at the facts from renown historical sources:
The well-known Middle East scholar H.A.R. Gibb has pointed out that the reason that Muhammad never had to explain who Allah was in the Quran is that his listeners had already heard about Allah long before Muhammad was ever born [source - (Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey, New York: Mentor Books, 1955, p.38)].
Dr. Arthur Jeffery, one of the foremost Western Islamic scholars in modern times and professor of Islamic and Middle East Studies at Columbia University, notes:
"The name Allah, as the Quran itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Africa" [source - Islam: Muhammad, and His Religion, New York: The Liberal Arts Press, 1958, p. 85].
The word "Allah" comes from the compound Arabic word, al-ilah. Al is the definite article "the" and ilah is an Arabic word for "god." It is not a foreign word. It is not even the Syriac word for God. It is pure Arabic. [source - There is an interesting discussion of the origins of Allah, in "Arabic Lexicographical Miscellanies" by J. Blau in the Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. XVII, #2, 1972, pp. 173-190].
Neither is Allah a Hebrew or Greek word for God as found in the Bible. Allah is a purely Arabic term used in reference to an Arabian deity. [source - Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics I:326, T & T Clark], states:
'"Allah" is a proper name, applicable only to their [Arabs'] peculiar God. '
According to the Encyclopedia of Religion:
'"Allah" is a pre-Islamic name . . . corresponding to the Babylonian Bel' [source - Encyclopedia of Religion, I:117 Washington DC, Corpus Pub., 1979].
For those who find it hard to believe that Allah was a pagan name for a peculiar pagan Arabian deity in pre-Islamic times, the following quotations may be helpful:
"Allah is found . . . in Arabic inscriptions prior to Islam" [source - Encyclopedia Britannica, I:643].
"The Arabs, before the time of Mohammed, accepted and worshipped, after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah" [Encyclopedia off Islam, I:302, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1913, Houtsma].
"Allah was known to the pre-Islamic . . . Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities" [Encyclopedia off Islam, I:406, ed. Gibb).
"Ilah . . . appears in pre-Islamic poetry . . . By frequency of usage, al-ilah was contracted to Allah, frequently attested to in pre-Islamic poetry" (Encyclopedia off Islam, III:1093, 1971].
"The name Allah goes back before Muhammad" [source - Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, I:41, Anthony Mercatante, New York, The Facts on File, 1983].
"The origin of this (Allah) goes back to pre-Muslim times. Allah is not a common name meaning "God" (or a "god"), and the Muslim must use another word or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity" [source - Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I:326, Hastings].
To the testimony of the above standard reference works, we add those of such scholars as Henry Preserved Smith of Harvard University who has stated:
"Allah was already known by name to the Arabs" [source - The Bible and Islam: or, The Influence of the Old and New Testament on the Religion of Mohammed, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897, p. 102]
"Ilah is the Arabic for "deity". It is cognate to Northwest Semitic ' and Akkadian ilu. The word is from a Proto-Semitic archaic biliteral meaning "god" (possibly with a wider meaning of "strong"), which was extended to a regular triliteral by the addition of a h (as in Hebrew Eloah). ...[omitted as not English characters] with an optional diacritic alif to mark ...; (as is the case with Allah), or (more rarely) with a full alif...; .The feminine is;hah "goddess", with the article, al...[omitted as not English characters]; according to Lane's 1893 Lexicon referring to the great serpent in particular, "because it was a special object of the worship of some of the ancient Arabs", or the new moon (see also Allat).In Islamic context, an ilah is the concept of a deity, lord or god and does not necessarily refer to Allah. The term is used throughout the Qur'an in passages detailing the existence of Allah as the only Ilah, and of the beliefs of non-Muslims in other Ilah(s)."[source - Wikipedia free Encyclopedia]
[source - The Archeology of the Middle East]"[additional references - "South Arabia's stellar religion has always been dominated by the Moon-god in various variations" (Berta Segall, The Iconography of Cosmic Kingship, the Art Bulletin, vol.xxxviii, 1956, p.77).; Isaac Rabinowitz, Aramaic Inscriptions of the Fifth Century, JNES, XV, 1956, pp.1-9; Edward Linski, The Goddess Atirat in Ancient Arabia, in Babylon and in Ugarit: Her Relation to the Moon-god and the Sun-goddess, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica, 3:101-9; H.J.Drivers, Iconography and Character of the Arab Goddess Allat, found in Études Preliminaries Aux Religions Orientales Dans L'Empire Roman, ed. Maarten J. Verseren, Leiden, Brill, 1978, pp.331-51); Richard Le Baron Bower Jr. and Frank P. Albright, Archaeological Discoveries in South Arabia, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1958, p.78ff; Ray Cleveland, An Ancient South Arabian Necropolis, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1965; Nelson Gleuck, Deities and Dolphins, New York, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1965).; Another Aramaic Record of the North Arabian goddess Han'Llat, JNES, XVIII, 1959, pp.154-55.]
See Part 2
INTRODUCTION:
Many use the term "Abrahamic Religion" when referring to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and sometimes with regard The Druze, the Bahá'í Faith, etc. But in brief, the term means coming through and/or originating with the descendants of Abraham in its simpliest form.
To Abraham, the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Noah, etc., the creator of all there is, he promised that his descendants would forever inhabit the land. Abraham's first son, Ishmael, the ancestor of all original Muslims, was not by his wife, but by her servant, Hagar; whereas, his second son whom the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Noah, etc., the creator of all there is, said the promised seed would come was by his legal wife Sarah, and per Genesis 17:19, "And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." (Authorized King James Bible; AV).
Thus, the Islamic religion came through Abraham since a descendant of his son, Ishmael, Muhammad (pbuh), started it about 2,000 years after Abraham's death. His son, Ishmael, like all of his household, was a worshipper of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Issac, Ishmael, Noah, Moses, etc., the creator of all there is, but many centuries later, many of the descendants of Ishmael went to following false god(s) such as Allah and Baal which some believe to be one and the same.
Both the Jewish and Christian religions came through Abraham's son Isaac, the one to whom the everlasting covenant was established with. Both of these religions originally worshipped exclusively the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Issac, Ishmael, Noah, Moses, etc., the creator of all there is, but later some in the so called Christian branch that came out of Judaism went following pagan god(s). All the founders or genuine (true) followers of Christianity, the apostles of Jesus (Yeshua) were born Jews, the descendants of Abraham's son Isaac. However, later the "path" or way to be genuine followers of Jesus (Yeshua) was opened to none descendants of Abraham's son Isaac.
THE ISLAMIC ABRAHAMIC RELIGION:
PART A - GENERAL ON ISLAM:
First let's look at what an encyclopedia says about Islam.
<<<"Islam, is a monotheistic religion originating with the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. It is the second-largest religion in the world today, with an estimated 1.4 billion adherents, spread across the globe, known as Muslims.[1] The word "Islam" means "submission", referring to the total surrender of one's self to God Allah), and the word Muslim means "one who submits (to God)".[2]
Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad and that Muhammad is God's final prophet. The Qur'an and the traditions of Muhammad in the Sunnah are regarded as the fundamental sources of Islam.[3][4] Muslims do not regard Muhammad as the founder of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Jesus, Moses, Noah, and other prophets. They hold that part of the messages of these prophets became distorted over time either in interpretation, in text, or both.[5][6][7] Like Judaism, and Christianity, Islam is an Abrahamic religion.[8]
Today Islam is the predominant religion in North Africa, West Africa the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of the Indian subcontinent. Large communities can also be found in China, the Balkan Peninsula and Russia. Only about 20 percent of Muslims originate from Arab countries.[9] Islam is the second largest religion after Christianity in many European countries, such as France, which has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe and the United Kingdom.[10][11]"
Etymology and meaning: The word islam is "the infinitive of the fourth form of the Arabic triconsonantal root s-l-m meaning 'to submit,' 'to surrender'";[12] therefore Islam effectively means "submission to God". Followers of Islam are expected to submit to God by worshiping him, following his commands, and avoiding polytheism.[2] The word islam is also based upon the Arabic word for peace (salam) and could be applicible to the religion of Islam if it is taken to mean that "true peace resides in submission to God".[13]
The word islam takes on a number of different meanings in the Qur'an. In some verses (ayat), the quality of Islam as an internal conviction is stressed, for example: "Whomsoever God desires to guide, He expands his breast to Islam."[14] Other verses establish the connection between islam and din (usually translated as "religion"), and assert that only the surrender of one's self to God can render unto him the worship which is his due: "Today, I have perfected your religion (din) for you; I have completed My blessing upon you; I have approved Islam for your religion."[15] The final category of verses describe Islam as an action (of returning to God), more than simply a verbal affirmation.[16][2]
Beliefs
Muslims believe that God revealed his final message to humanity through the Islamic prophet Muhammad via the angel Gabriel.[17] They consider Muhammad to have been God's final prophet, the "Seal of the Prophets", and the Qur'an to be the revelations he received in his 23 years of preaching.[18] Muslims hold that all of God's messengers since Adam preached the message of Islam - submission to the will of the one God. To Muslims, Islam is the eternal religion, described in the Qur'an as "the primordial nature upon which God created mankind".[19][20][clarify] Furthermore, the Qur'an states that the proper name Muslim was given by Abraham.[21][20]
As a historical phenomenon, however, Islam was originated in Arabia in early 7th century.[20] Islamic texts depict Judaism and Christianity as prophetic successor traditions to the teachings of Abraham. The Qur'an calls Jews and Christians "People of the Book", and distinguishes them from polytheists. However, Muslims believe that parts of the previously revealed scriptures, the Tawrat (Torah) and the Injil (Gospels), had become distorted as indicated in the Qur'an - either in interpretation, in text, or both.[22]
Islamic belief has six main components - belief in God; his revelations; his angels; his messengers; the "Day of Judgement"; and the divine decree.[23][24]
God
Allah, God, Islamic concept of God, and Tawhid [no Trinity]. The fundamental concept in Islam is the oneness of God (tawhid): monotheism which is simple and uncompounded, not composed or made up of parts.[25][clarify] The oneness of God is the first of Islam's five pillars, expressed by the Shahadah (testification). By declaring the Shahadah, a Muslim attests to the belief that there are no gods but God, and that Muhammad is God's messenger.[26]
In Arabic, God is called Allah. Etymologically, this name is thought to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic words al- (the) and ilah (deity, masculine form) - al-ilah meaning "the God".[27]
The first sura in a Qur'anic manuscript by Hattat Aziz Efendi.
The Qur'an is considered by Muslims to be the literal word of God, and is the central religious text of Islam. It has also been called, in English, the Koran and, archaically, the Alcoran. The word Qur'an means "recitation".[32] Although the Qur'an is often referred to as a "book", when Muslims speak in the abstract about "the Qur'an", they usually mean the scripture as recited in Arabic rather than the printed work or any translation of it.[33] Muslims believe that the verses of the Qur'an were revealed to Muhammad by God through the Angel Gabriel on numerous occasions between the years 610 and his death on July 6, 632.
References:
1. ^ Teece (2003), p.10
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Islam", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
3. ^ Ghamidi (2001): Sources of Islam
4. ^ Esposito (1996), p.41
5. ^ "If...they [Christians] mean that the Qur'an confirms the textual veracity of the scriptural books which they now possess-that is, the Torah and the Gospels-this is something which some Muslims will grant them and which many Muslims will dispute. However, most Muslims will grant them most of that." Ibn Taymiyya cited in Accad (2003)
6. ^ Esposito (1998), p.12; Esposito (2002b), pp.4-5; F. E. Peters (2003), p.9
7. ^ a b c "Muhammad", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
8. ^ Gregorian (2003), p.ix
9. ^ Esposito (2002b), p.21
10. ^ Muslims in Europe: Country guide. BBC News (2005-12-23). Retrieved on 2006-09-28.
11. ^ Religion In Britain. Office for National Statistics (2003-02-13). Retrieved on 2006-08-27.
12. ^ "Islam", Encyclopedia of the Qur'an (2005)
13. ^ Sells (2003), p.30
14. ^ Qur'an 6:125, Qur'an 61:7, Qur'an 39:22
15. ^ Qur'an 5:3, Qur'an 3:19, Qur'an 3:83
16. ^ Qur'an 9:74, Qur'an 49:14
17. ^ Watton (1993), "Introduction"
18. ^ "Qur'an", Encyclopedia of Christianity (2001)
19. ^ Qur'an 30:30
20. ^ a b c "Islam", Encyclopedia of Religion
21. ^ Qur'an 22:78
22. ^ "Tahrif", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
23. ^ Sahih Muslim 1:1
24. ^ "Iman", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
25. ^ "Tawhid", Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
26. ^ Griffith (2006), p.248
27. ^ "Allah", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
32. ^ a b c Teece (2003), pp.12,13
33. ^ C. Turner (2006), p.42
[source - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]>>>.
PART B - ON THE QURAN:
Muslims believe that Muhammad (pbuh) received the Quran from an angel, but reality is very different. It is a distorted copy of the inspired word of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Issac, Ishmael, Noah, Moses, etc., the creator of all there is, the Bible, although most of Islam denies this reality. Details can be found in a recent book review as follows:
<<<" A book review of Christoph Luxenberg, a world renown linguistic scholar, clearly reveals that the Quran is nothing but a distorted knockoff of the inspired word of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, creator of all there is, the Bible.
This book review is contained in, "HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES," book review of Christoph Luxenberg (ps.) Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran; Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur'ansprache. Berlin, Germany: Das Arabische Buch, First Edition, 2000. Pp. ix + 306, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 2003.
[http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol6No1/HV6N1PRPhenixHorn.html ]
THE evidence:
Let's look at the evidence contained in the book review of Christoph Luxenberg's latest book in German, "Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran; Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur'ansprache." He clearly shows that the Quran draws on personal names of Biblical origins, that the name "Quran' even indicates its origin, that it was NEVER intended to replace the written source - the Bible, that it was distorted from the writings of Muhammad early on, as follows:
<<<"The rest of the section draws on personal names of Biblical origin in the Qur'an to demonstrate that the so-called Arabic matres lectionis, 'alif, waw, and ya, must also be polyvalent. Luxenberg points out that Islamic tradition admits a reading of the mater for long /a/ in certain instances as /e/ because this pronunciation was a peculiarity of the Arabic of Mecca. Luxenberg shows that the term harf, "sign" must also carry a meaning synonymous to qira'at, "(way of) reading" and that this is not only supplying the vowels in an unvocalized text, but also supplying the diacritical points that distinguish consonants. It is only gradually that these diacritical points became fixed so that consonants came to have just one reading. This process of determining the value of each letter of the Qur'an unfolded over some three hundred years. This is known from the oldest manuscripts of the Qur'an which do not have the diacritical points distinguishing readings of a single consonant. By the time these became commonly used, Arabian commentators were no longer aware that many words were either straight Aramaic or were calques peculiar to Meccan Arabic. From this resulted the difficulties that the Qur'an posed to even the earliest Arabian commentators...
The section concludes by demonstrating that the technical meaning of "lectionary" is preserved in the word qur'an. Most striking is the conclusion that the term umm kitab, an aramaism, must be a written source and that the Qur'an was never intended to replace this written source. One might complain that the details of the argument for the reading of suras 12:1-2 and 3:7 are squeezed into footnotes, but nevertheless the argument is clear. Luxenberg proves that the term qur'an itself is the key to unlocking the passages that have given commentators in and outside of the tradition frustration. If quryan means "lectionary," and if the text itself claims to be a clarification of an earlier text, then that earlier text must be written in another language. The only candidate is the Old and New Testament in Syriac, the Penutsta. Hence the influence of Aramaic on the Arabic of Muhammad has an identifiable, textual origin. At the very end of the work, Luxenberg makes a compelling argument that sura 108 is a close allusion to the Penutsta of 1 Peter 5:8-9. Indeed this sura, which is only three lines long, is one of the most difficult passages for the Arabian as well as the Western commentators. Luxenberg shows why: it is composed of transcriptions into Arabic writing of the Syriac New Testament text, i.e., there is almost no "Arabic" in the sura. These are "revealed" texts, and insofar as the Qur'an contains quotations or paraphrases of them, the Qur'an is also "revealed." ...
Many dialects of Arabic existed at the time of Muhammad. In the ten places where the Qur'an claims to have been written in Arabic, Luxenberg shows first that these passages have grammatical forms which are difficult for the commentators and have varying interpretations among the translators. He notes that in sura 41:44, the Arabic fassala means "to divide," but the context here requires "make distinct" or better "interpret." Nowhere else does the Arabic word have this meaning, and the Syriac-Arabic lexica do not give the one as a translation for the other; tarjama (a direct borrowing from Syriac) is the usual Arabic word for "interpret." However, the Syriac praš / parreš can mean both "divide" as well as "interpret" (like Hebrew hibdil; also this is an example of a "semantic calque" mentioned above). Tabari too understands fassala to be a synonym for bayyana (sura 44:3), which also has the meaning "interpret." Sura 41:44 also clearly attests to a source for the Qur'an that is written in a foreign language. Luxenberg, following Tabari, notes a corruption in the text of this verse that clearly shows that part of the Qur'an has a non-Arabic source. His argument here is somewhat weak if not for the further evidence deduced from eleven other locations in the Qur'an where Luxenberg consistently applies these and similar arguments to difficulties all of which center on the terms related to the revelation and language of the Qur'an. These arguments leave little doubt, that Luxenberg has uncovered a key misunderstanding of these terms throughout the Qur'an....
In section twelve Luxenberg demonstrates that not only the origin and language of the Qur'an are different from what the commentators who wrote two hundred years after its inception claim it to be, but that several key passages contain words or idioms that were borrowed from Syriac into Arabic. From his analysis of sura 19:24 (in the so-called "Marian Sura"): "Then he called to her from beneath her: 'Grieve not; thy Lord hath placed beneath thee a streamlet,'" he concludes that it should be read "He called to her immediately after her laying-down (to give birth 'Grieve not; thy Lord has made your laying-down legitimate.'" Luxenberg's lengthy discussion of the complexities of this passage resolve grammatical difficulties in the Arabic in a way that fits the context: Jesus gives Mary the courage to face her relatives even with a child born out of wedlock. The section then presents lengthy arguments dealing with various lexical, morphological, syntactic and versification problems in sura 11:116-117...
In that same section, one also finds a study of how Syriac roots were misread and altered by later commentators. In one case, the word jaw (sura 16:79) misread "air, atmosphere" is from Syriac gaw, which means both "insides, inner part" and can also be used as a preposition meaning "inside." In sura 16:79 Luxenberg demonstrates that the prepositional use makes more sense than the solution posed by the commentators. Classical Arabic grammar, which was created three hundred years after the Qur'an, does not recall the prepositional meaning of the word. However, dialects of Arabic preserve the original Syriac prepositional use. So where sura 16:79 reads fi jaw as-sama' "in(side) heaven" referring to birds held aloft and kept from falling down by God, the dialects agree: fi jawwat al-bet "inside the house" is perfectly good Arabic. The misreading of Qur'anic Arabic jaw as "air" has become part of the technical vocabulary of modern standard Arabic: "air mail," "air force," "airline," and "weather report" all use jaw. The imaginary meaning of the grammarians lives on. ...
Section sixteen follows this investigation as it points to a similar misreading of paradise's grapes as youths, Arabic wildun. Sura 76:19 "Round amongst them go boys of perpetual youth, whom when one see, he thinks them pearls unstrung" (sura 16.1, citing Bell's translation). Wildun is a genuinely Arabic word, but it is used in a sense which is borrowed from Syriac yalda. Youths like pearls is somewhat suspicious, especially given that "pearls" are a metaphor for the grapes of paradise from the previous section. Luxenberg uncovered that Syriac has the expression yalda dagpetta, "child of the vine," appearing in the Penutsta: Matthew 26:29, Mark 14:25, and Luke 22:18, in which Christ foreshadows his death and resurrection: "I will not drink of this child of the vine (yalda dagpetta) until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of my Father." Here it is the juice of the grape that is the "child." Entries in the Arabic-Syriac lexica for each of yalda and gpetta give in addition to "child" and "vine" "fruit" and "wine," respectively. Luxenberg gives further evidence from suras 37:45, 43:71, and 76:15 that Ephraem the Syrian's depiction of the grapes of paradise is behind the original Qur'anic text.
A central question that this investigation raises is the motivation of cUthman in preparing his redaction of the Qur'an. Luxenberg presents the two hadith traditions recounting how cUthman came to possess the first manuscript. If Luxenberg's analysis is even in broad outline correct, the content of the Qur'an was substantially different at the time of Muhammad and Uthman's redaction played a part in the misreading of key passages. Were these misreadings intentional or not? The misreadings in general alter the Qur'an from a book that is more or less harmonious with the New Testament and Syriac Christian liturgy and literature to one that is distinct, of independent origin. " [source - book review is contained in, "HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES," book review of Christoph Luxenberg (ps.) Die syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran; Ein Beitrag zur Entschlüsselung der Qur'ansprache. Berlin, Germany: Das Arabische Buch, First Edition, 2000. Pp. ix + 306, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 2003.]>>>.
THE Reality:
Muhammad (pbuh) had Christians in his family from whom he learned about the Bible from and scribes to read it to him as he was illiterate. After learning much about the Bible, he started dictating to his scribes what he wanted written down, and as all know a process like this can only product a distorted product as compared to the original, the inspired word of the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob, creator of all there is, the Bible.
Now most in Islam will not agree with this reality, the truth, per John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Authorized King James Bible; AV), but the facts sustain it. Let's look at his connection to Christianity through his relatives as reported in an Islamic source.
Many Muslims have argued that Muhammad only met Jews or Christians only on very few occasions, by far too short to be sufficient to gain any real knowledge of the earlier scriptures. In particular, they were not translated into Arabic at this time. The content of the Qur'an therefore does not come from human sources but can only be through direct revelation from God.
I agree that the scriptures probably did not exist in Arabic at that time, at least not completely or widely known, but with the other statements I am not in agreement. And even the non-existence of scriptures in Arabic is irrelevant as we will see in the following.
The Muslim sources tell us about a certain Waraqa bin Nawfal and in what way Muhammad was related to him.
<<<"Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 1, Number 3: Narrated 'Aisha:
(the mother of the faithful believers) The commencement of the Divine Inspiration to Allah's Apostle was in the form of good dreams which came true like bright day light, and then the love of seclusion was bestowed upon him. He used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days before his desire to see his family. He used to take with him the journey food for the stay and then come back to (his wife) Khadija to take his food like-wise again till suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet replied, "I do not know how to read.
The Prophet added, "The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, 'I do not know how to read.' Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, 'I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?' Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, 'Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists) has created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous." (96.1, 96.2, 96.3) Then Allah's Apostle returned with the Inspiration and with his heart beating severely. Then he went to Khadija bint Khuwailid and said, "Cover me! Cover me!" They covered him till his fear was over and after that he told her everything that had happened and said, "I fear that something may happen to me." Khadija replied, "Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your Kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously and assist the deserving calamity-afflicted ones."
Khadija then accompanied him to her cousin Waraqa bin Nawfal bin Asad bin 'Abdul 'Uzza, who, during the PreIslamic Period became a Christian and used to write the writing with Hebrew letters. He would write from the Gospel in Hebrew as much as Allah wished him to write. He was an old man and had lost his eyesight. Khadija said to Waraqa, "Listen to the story of your nephew, O my cousin!" Waraqa asked, "O my nephew! What have you seen?" Allah's Apostle described whatever he had seen. Waraqa said, "This is the same one who keeps the secrets (angel Gabriel) whom Allah had sent to Moses. I wish I were young and could live up to the time when your people would turn you out." Allah's Apostle asked, "Will they drive me out?" Waraqa replied in the affirmative and said, "Anyone (man) who came with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility; and if I should remain alive till the day when you will be turned out then I would support you strongly." But after a few days Waraqa died and the Divine Inspiration was also paused for a while. ...
Some essential statements above:
1. "his desire to see his family."
2. "You keep good relations with your Kith and kin"
This shows that Muhammad was a "family man", and given that the middle eastern culture is well known for its family orientedness (something I very much appreciate in Muslims) and that in this setting Muhammad was seemingly even a very good example (otherwise this would not have been mentioned as special virtue) we can deduce that he probably spend much time with his relatives keeping a good relationship, and that means regular visiting.
Furthermore, nobody will deny that Muhammad was already religious before he had this first encounter in the cave on Mt. Hira. After all, he went there to meditate and pray. As the hadith says, it was a habit of his: "He USED to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days..."
The big question now is:
What will such a religious man talk about when he visits his relatives? Would it be too much to guess that religion will be a major part of these conversations?
And what do we see happening here when Muhammad is disturbed and frightened by a "religious experience"? After calming down a bit at home with his wife, who is the person they visit first?
Waraqa bin Nawfal. Seemingly, he is seen by Khadija and Muhammad as an authority in spiritual matters. And he is the cousin of his wife. And he is a Christian familiar with the scriptures since, after all, he is making copies of the scriptures, whether for personal study or for a fellowship/church of Christians.
So, these are the facts:">>>.
So Islam's argument that he, Muhammad (pbuh) had little contact with either Jews or Christians is an outright lie as is the other claims made for the Quran. Most of the other claims are quite similar to those of Joseph Smith for the Book of Mormon; to wit, the book was received from an angel.
PART C - THE MYTHICAL GOD, THE OLD MIDDLE EASTERN CELESTIAL MOON GOD, "ALLAH," WHO ONLY EXIST IN THE IMAGINATIONS OF DECEIVED MEN, BUT HAS NO PHYSICAL EXISTANCE,
Many in Islam claim their god is the same as the true God (YHWH) of Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob, creator of all there is, but this is not true as will be shown:
Origins of the word "Allah," let's look at the facts from renown historical sources:
The well-known Middle East scholar H.A.R. Gibb has pointed out that the reason that Muhammad never had to explain who Allah was in the Quran is that his listeners had already heard about Allah long before Muhammad was ever born [source - (Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey, New York: Mentor Books, 1955, p.38)].
Dr. Arthur Jeffery, one of the foremost Western Islamic scholars in modern times and professor of Islamic and Middle East Studies at Columbia University, notes:
"The name Allah, as the Quran itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Africa" [source - Islam: Muhammad, and His Religion, New York: The Liberal Arts Press, 1958, p. 85].
The word "Allah" comes from the compound Arabic word, al-ilah. Al is the definite article "the" and ilah is an Arabic word for "god." It is not a foreign word. It is not even the Syriac word for God. It is pure Arabic. [source - There is an interesting discussion of the origins of Allah, in "Arabic Lexicographical Miscellanies" by J. Blau in the Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. XVII, #2, 1972, pp. 173-190].
Neither is Allah a Hebrew or Greek word for God as found in the Bible. Allah is a purely Arabic term used in reference to an Arabian deity. [source - Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics I:326, T & T Clark], states:
'"Allah" is a proper name, applicable only to their [Arabs'] peculiar God. '
According to the Encyclopedia of Religion:
'"Allah" is a pre-Islamic name . . . corresponding to the Babylonian Bel' [source - Encyclopedia of Religion, I:117 Washington DC, Corpus Pub., 1979].
For those who find it hard to believe that Allah was a pagan name for a peculiar pagan Arabian deity in pre-Islamic times, the following quotations may be helpful:
"Allah is found . . . in Arabic inscriptions prior to Islam" [source - Encyclopedia Britannica, I:643].
"The Arabs, before the time of Mohammed, accepted and worshipped, after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah" [Encyclopedia off Islam, I:302, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1913, Houtsma].
"Allah was known to the pre-Islamic . . . Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities" [Encyclopedia off Islam, I:406, ed. Gibb).
"Ilah . . . appears in pre-Islamic poetry . . . By frequency of usage, al-ilah was contracted to Allah, frequently attested to in pre-Islamic poetry" (Encyclopedia off Islam, III:1093, 1971].
"The name Allah goes back before Muhammad" [source - Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, I:41, Anthony Mercatante, New York, The Facts on File, 1983].
"The origin of this (Allah) goes back to pre-Muslim times. Allah is not a common name meaning "God" (or a "god"), and the Muslim must use another word or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity" [source - Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I:326, Hastings].
To the testimony of the above standard reference works, we add those of such scholars as Henry Preserved Smith of Harvard University who has stated:
"Allah was already known by name to the Arabs" [source - The Bible and Islam: or, The Influence of the Old and New Testament on the Religion of Mohammed, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897, p. 102]
"Ilah is the Arabic for "deity". It is cognate to Northwest Semitic ' and Akkadian ilu. The word is from a Proto-Semitic archaic biliteral meaning "god" (possibly with a wider meaning of "strong"), which was extended to a regular triliteral by the addition of a h (as in Hebrew Eloah). ...[omitted as not English characters] with an optional diacritic alif to mark ...; (as is the case with Allah), or (more rarely) with a full alif...; .The feminine is;hah "goddess", with the article, al...[omitted as not English characters]; according to Lane's 1893 Lexicon referring to the great serpent in particular, "because it was a special object of the worship of some of the ancient Arabs", or the new moon (see also Allat).In Islamic context, an ilah is the concept of a deity, lord or god and does not necessarily refer to Allah. The term is used throughout the Qur'an in passages detailing the existence of Allah as the only Ilah, and of the beliefs of non-Muslims in other Ilah(s)."[source - Wikipedia free Encyclopedia]
[source - The Archeology of the Middle East]"[additional references - "South Arabia's stellar religion has always been dominated by the Moon-god in various variations" (Berta Segall, The Iconography of Cosmic Kingship, the Art Bulletin, vol.xxxviii, 1956, p.77).; Isaac Rabinowitz, Aramaic Inscriptions of the Fifth Century, JNES, XV, 1956, pp.1-9; Edward Linski, The Goddess Atirat in Ancient Arabia, in Babylon and in Ugarit: Her Relation to the Moon-god and the Sun-goddess, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica, 3:101-9; H.J.Drivers, Iconography and Character of the Arab Goddess Allat, found in Études Preliminaries Aux Religions Orientales Dans L'Empire Roman, ed. Maarten J. Verseren, Leiden, Brill, 1978, pp.331-51); Richard Le Baron Bower Jr. and Frank P. Albright, Archaeological Discoveries in South Arabia, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1958, p.78ff; Ray Cleveland, An Ancient South Arabian Necropolis, Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 1965; Nelson Gleuck, Deities and Dolphins, New York, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1965).; Another Aramaic Record of the North Arabian goddess Han'Llat, JNES, XVIII, 1959, pp.154-55.]
See Part 2