Muhammad Rasheed – [watched video clip of Mario Joseph explaining his conversion]
Mario Joseph - “But he asked me, ‘Who is Jesus?’ I was preaching He is not God, to know who is He, I read the entire Koran once again…”
Muhammad Rasheed – I don’t understand what he was looking at as he was reading it. He didn’t have to do that weird numerology word-shuffle game… the Qur’an is very perspicuous and exact when explaining who exactly was Jesus.
1.) 4:171 - O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a messenger of Allah…
2.) 5:17 - In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary.
3.) 5:75 - Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!
4.) 9:31 - They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but One Allah: there is no god but He.
5.) 5:116 - And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah'?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, Though I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden.
6.) 3:84 - Say: "We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them…”
There is no ambiguity within the Qur’an as to whether Jesus is a divine son-entity or not; God is quite clear on this: Jesus was one of the brotherhood of prophet-messengers of God and nothing more. I do not understand what this dude was seeing as he was reading it, and why these extremely clear verses explaining who Jesus was and how his true relationship to God and the other messengers completely went over his head like that.
Mario Joseph - “When I read it, the name of Prophet Mohammed I found in Koran 4 places, but the name of Jesus I found in Koran 25 places. There itself, I was a little confused. Why does the Koran give more preference to Jesus?”
Muhammad Rasheed – This is a case of the dude skipping right past the actual message to manufacture a fake message that simply isn’t there. [in addition to the 20+ times He says “Jesus,” there is an additional 12 times when God calls him “Christ” instead.] Why does God mention Jesus so much, and his mom? Because one of the duties of the revealed scripture, in addition to delivering the good news, the warning, and confirming & fulfilling the messages that came before, is to correct those areas that the previous guardians allowed their guardianship to slip and introduce errors into the message. And there were many grave errors that needed to be corrected because of Paul’s usurpation of the Gospel. What did God say?
“3:55 - Behold! Allah said: "O Jesus! I will take thee and raise thee to Myself and clear thee (of the falsehoods) of those who blaspheme…”
God promised His messenger that He would clear him of the falsehoods those folk had said about him, and there was one more revelation of God on its way for this purpose… one that the Christ prophesized was coming to Comfort the masses. That’s why God mentions Jesus so much in the Qur’an, to show him in his correct place as one of the many prophet-messengers and how he and his message fit within that brotherhood, and to explain that he was only a human being like the rest of them. To fulfill His promise, and surely Allah is the best of those who fulfill their promises!
Mario Joseph - “And the second thing: I could not see any women’s name in Koran…”
Muhammad Rasheed – Of all the women mentioned in the Qur’an, Mary was the only one that was being worshiped. God’s mention of her was no different than why He was mentioning her son… to explain what her true role was, as a righteous parent and mother to the messenger of God. Her story was similar to that of other righteous believing mothers like Samuel’s mom (peace be upon the righteous servants of Allah). Showing Mary’s story so that the wise and intelligent reader would see the clear similitude should put her in the correct perspective within scriptural history, instead of where those sects of Christians go when they decided to blaspheme and worship her.
Mario Joseph - “So I was very curious to know ‘Why does the Koran say all these things?’ About Mariam, Holy Koran chapter 3 verses 34 onwards says that Mary was born without original sin…”
Muhammad Rasheed – There is no ‘original sin’ concept in Islam, that’s why. People are born pure, and only taint that purity when they reach the age of discretion and then deliberately choose sin once they know better.
Mario Joseph - “…she never committed any sin in her life…”
Muhammad Rasheed – I believe Mary died in righteousness as a believer and will be assured of paradise, but the Qur’an didn’t say that she never committed any sin in her life. Like any other person she probably did sin -- and in her case probably on some minor level -- that she promptly repented of and wiped from her record.
Mario Joseph - “…she was ever virgin.”
Muhammad Rasheed – The same as above. Obviously this dude converted to one of the Christian sects where they worship the 'divine virgin Mary' concept. The real life Mary had lots of kids, including James the Just, leader of the First Church of Jerusalem.
Mario Joseph - “Koran chapter 50 verses 23 says that she went to Heaven with her physical body. Even the Assumption is written in the holy Koran.”
Muhammad Rasheed – The Holy Qur’an 50:20-26
20) And the Trumpet shall be blown: that will be the Day whereof Warning (had been given).
21) And there will come forth every soul: with each will be an (angel) to drive, and an (angel) to bear witness.
22) (It will be said:) "Thou wast heedless of this; now have We removed thy veil, and sharp is thy sight this Day!"
23) And his Companion will say: "Here is (his Record) ready with me!"
24) (The sentence will be:) "Throw, throw into Hell every contumacious Rejecter (of Allah)!-
25) "Who forbade what was good, transgressed all bounds, cast doubts and suspicions;
26) "Who set up another god beside Allah: Throw him into a severe penalty."
I have no idea what he’s supposed to be talking about. As you can see, the verse he mentioned is in the middle of a section talking about the Day of Judgment, not Mary at all. So did he read the Qur’an as he claimed? At this point it seems like he did not… there is way too much clear/obvious stuff that he completely missed on his hurried way to grab whatever he preferred to grab… like he instead just read some skewed, cherry-picked and altered quotes found on some anti-Islam website.
Mario Joseph - “And then about Jesus when I read chapter 3 verses 45 to 55 verses, there are 10 points which the Koran makes about Jesus. The first thing Koran says, […] the Arabic word which means ‘Word of God,’ and the second thing […] which means ‘Spirit of God.’ And the third is […] which means ‘Jesus Christ.’ So Koran gives the name for Jesus: Word of God, Spirit of God, Jesus Christ.”
Muhammad Rasheed – And when God said Jesus was the Word, Spirit and the Christ it was always while He was emphasizing that he was also only a human messenger, who had to eat food like any other mortal. That he was no different than any other of the messengers in that brotherhood. He said that they all should be treated the same because their message and role was all the same. That means that whatever Jesus was, they all were. That whatever name of praise God gave the one, it related to them all. God called Abraham “friend.” Why? Because of Abraham’s uncompromising and pure worship of the One God. Was he unique in this? No! They all shared that same trait and was why they were chosen. Their jobs as messengers were to preach only the Word that God revealed to them. That means they all were in the role of “Word of God.” All of them. They were all the righteous, mortal messengers of God with a very specific job to do: Preach the Word as it was given to them, instruct mankind in scripture and wisdom, give those who love doing good the glad tidings of the good news, and the warning of the inevitability of the Last Day to those who love sowing mischief in the earth.
Mario Joseph - “And then Koran says that Jesus spoke when he was very small, like 2 days old, after his birth. He began to speak. Koran says that Jesus created a live bird with mud. He took some mud, formed a bird; when he breathed into it, it became a live bird. So I think that he can give life. He gave life to mud, clay. And then Koran says that Jesus cured a man born blind and a man with leprosy, etc. Curiously, the Koran says that Jesus gave life to dead people; Jesus went to heaven…”
Muhammad Rasheed – It’s weird that he missed all the times when God said that it was through His permission that Jesus, and other miracle performing prophets like Moses, were able to do these things solely by the leave of God and His permission. That they did not accomplish these things without God. He seems to lack a fundamental comprehension/insight into what the text is saying.
Mario Joseph - “He is still alive and He will come again.”
Muhammad Rasheed – 2:154 - And say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah: "They are dead." Nay, they are living, though ye perceive it not.
It is clear that the martyrs, and anyone of a righteous station even above that, like the messengers of God themselves, bypass Judgment altogether and go straight to paradise when they leave this earth. The rest of us who will wait to be judged will indeed be dead, but not these others. They are the A+ believers who will arrive early in paradise on a First Class flight. And all the prophets will come again to perform the final duty of their prophethood. They’re all coming back. Jesus is not unique in this.
Mario Joseph - “When I saw all these things in Koran my thinking what the Koran says about Mohammed. You know, according to the Koran, Prophet Mohammed is not [lists miracles Jesus was allowed to perform]. So there is a lot of difference between these two prophets. I didn’t call Jesus, God, you know. My idea was “He’s a prophet, but he is a prophet greater than Mohammed.”
Muhammad Rasheed – God said none of them are greater than the others; that we are not to give any preference over any other because they had the same role, and all gave the message of God to mankind. Why would the fact that some were able to perform miracles through God’s permission over others be the determining factor as to which ones were the greater of them anyway? If anything it should be – considering their job was messenger – it should be how many people accepted the message during their lifetimes. If the primary skill needed in your job function is the Persuasive Argument, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that how many people you were able to sway to your philosophical position should be the marker for who is great or not in that particular job? Between Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses (peace be upon the three of them), two of them performed miracles all the time, and one did not. One of the miracle workers had no more than 20 followers in his lifetime, while the other miracle worker was the guardian over the most rebellious, obnoxious group of “followers” in recorded history, who needed to constantly be checked over and over and over again. The one prophet who did not perform miracles of the three was one of those legendary king figures who was able to unite several savage warring tribes into one cohesive nation of dedicated and devoted believers who would’ve done ANYTHING for him. So much so, that when he left the earth, their grief was so intense that the First Caliph had to remind them that it was not the prophet they worshiped, but Allah. So of any truly objective criterion – and of course if such a contest was allowed by God – which of those three would realistically be considered the greatest prophet? I mean really.
Mario Joseph - “If my teacher says that the Word of God is Creator, which means Jesus is Creator…”
Muhammad Rasheed – I’m not following his logic on that one. God created reality with His Word. God also used His Word to instruct mankind on how to follow His Path. He anointed the brotherhood of messengers for this task, and instructed them in His Word to give to mankind. Each prophet knew the Word, and showed mankind how to walk it; each of them was the Word in the flesh – both orators and performers of the Word of God. How the dude found “Jesus is Creator” out of that clear message in the Qur’an is like a funky David Blaine slight-of-hand trick that makes me wonder if even he understood it himself.
RESPONSE - "A Message to President Obama from a Former Muslim"
RESPONSE - Former Muslim Turned Christian Conversion Tale
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