Allah The God

 

 

ALLAH THE GOD - ON CHRISTIANITY

 

INTRODUCTION

 

We begin by explaining that as a word ‘Allah’ is the exact translation of the Greek word ‘o Theos’ and the English ‘the God’. He is not a god peculiar to Muslims or to Arabs but the Only True God all monotheistic religions subscribe to. It is made of the Arabic definite article ‘al’ which is the equivalent of ‘the’ in English and ‘ilah’ which again is the equivalent of English ‘god’.  Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic as his native tongue and believe it or not he also called God ‘Allah’.  His oft-quoted cry on the cross “eloi, eloi lima sabachtani’ means “my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?” which in Arabic becomes “ilahi, ilahi lima sabaktani’. So close is Arabic the tongue of Muhammad (sws) and the Aramaic the tongue of Jesus (pbuh)! Which means regarding Islam as an outsider to the overall Semitic tradition is a grave misconception and seeing that both Jesus (pbuh) and Muhammad (sws) called God “Allah” (and to this day the Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christians call God ‘Allah’) and the Assyrian Gospels still use the same term- the proximity of Islam and the original teachings of the Christ Jesus must be recognised.

 

Of all great world religions none are closer in time and spirit as well as spread as Islam and Christianity.  Both are monotheistic, Semitic and Biblical-based, universal in outlook and in following and highly moral and spiritual. 

 

They share a vast catalogue of prophetic personalities and revelations as well as mystic ideas and ideals.   Muslims and Christians own up to all Biblical Prophets including Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ  (upon them be peace) and regard stories about and teachings reported from them as integral to their faith.  Both are equally related to Judaism but at times in different ways. Christians are closer to Judaism in time while Muslims are so in theological and legal aspects. The theology of the Qur’an (wrongly spelled as ‘Koran’) is the very same as Judaism minus the exaggerated and exclusive importance of the Jewish race while the Law promulgated by the Qur’an is nearly identical with that of the Torah. Dietary laws, animal sacrifices, ablutions, prayers and fastings… are quite analogous. As such Islam is the more faithful continuation of the Old Testament theology and law than Christianity on top of being expressed in a Semitic language, Arabic which is a sister of Hebrew. 

 

So there are no two consecutive monotheistic religions named Judaism and Christianity being challenged by an outsider called Islam but the closer two religions are Judaism and Islam and the odd-man-out is Christianity which is a Graeco-Roman loose and deviant edition of Judaism. In it suddenly God undergoes a transformation so radical that both Judaism and Islam regard it a blasphemous aberration, the twin blasphemy being the division of the Divinity into three and emergence of a god who is a man named Jesus! This is utterly inadmissible in both Judaism and Islam which agree on almost everything except the position of Muhammad.  But the Christian propaganda since the advent of Islam defended the wrong thesis that it was the reformed version of the Biblical tradition and not Islam. Surely Jews agree that Islam is far closer to their version of faith and practice than Christianity although they dismiss both as unworthy rivals. For its part, Islam does not see its two older sisters as rivals but as superseded versions of Semitic traditions which were good and valid in  their better days.

 

Muslims agree on the validity of Jewish prophetic heritage which they also took on but they depart from the Jewish tradition by declaring God more universal and egalitarian in outlook and not partial to Jews.  On the other hand Muslims agree with the Christians on the absolute universality and egalitarianism of God. In both all men of all races are equal among them and equally worthy of God’s regard except what each man earns for himself as an extra from God.  One’s worth in the Sight of God is not determined by his racial or class origin but by his unitarian,  universalist faith and his moral rectitude and conduct.
But the two religions also disagree between them in that Muslims regard Christianity as a prelude to Islam and in itself rightly begun but wrongly evolved.  This argument we shall see explained by Allah- the God-  in His Qur’an.  In fact Allah’s explanation and expounding of Christianity’s loss of direction and deterioration of content are, in one word, unanswerable, as we shall see in this essay. 

 

The main problem for Christians has been this: They could never even contemplate the coming of another prophet and messenger from God and despite the astounding success of Muhammad as one, they hurried not only to deny both him and the magnificent revelation (the Qur’an) he claimed to have received from God but also they terribly condemned and misrepresented him.  As a result while Muslims regarded Jesus Christ as a true prophet and messenger of God and perfect as a man in every respect and venerated him without any reservations as they venerated all fellow Biblical prophets like Noah and Moses, Christians could not be more hating and abusive of the Arab Prophet truly descended from no less illustrious an ancestor than our joint father Abraham the Upright.  That Muhammad did not deserve any of the abuse and rejection is only too clear to us and many other fair-mindedd people and among them are some greatest Christian scholars who have been increasingly appreciating him since about two centuries. Today there is hardly any western historian and even respectable churchman who will not attest to Muhammad’s worth as among the spiritual greatest and the Qur’an among the most brilliant and well-meaning of the world’s holy scriptures.  The late pope John Paul II was one, the late professor Arberry another.
Before we discuss the matter before us further we may remind ourselves the scientifically creditable history of the evolution of Christianity.

 

 

BRIEF NATURAL HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

 

All scholars of religion except the too traditionally dogmatic and committed Christians are more or less agreed on the following history of Christianity which they are able to document.

 

About two thousand years ago in Palestine a boy was born to a jewish girl named Mary.  It was a place where East and West met in a great and turbulent mixing and merging of ideas and cultures.  The rule was solidly and invincibly Western (Roman) while the culture was intellectually Greek and spiritually Oriental.   The upper classes of the Jews were more or less Hellenized (as were their Roman masters) but the humbler jews were same as before-  living on a mixture of Law (Torah) and home-grown mysticism (Hasidism) and bent on fighting the Hellenic influence. 

 

But the population both in and around Palestine was a great and unwieldy mix of races, tongues and cultures and were only united more or less by the Greek language (and occasionally the Aramaic) and the strong Roman discipline imposed on them.
From Rome to Babylon and Egypt a bunch of intimately related cults commanded the spiritual lives of both mere superstitious and really pious souls by the millions which cults shared a notion of parent (usually Father) and child (usually son) gods and in some cases a trinity of godhead reflecting influences from as far afar as India and as old as Egypt and Babylon.  From mother Demeter and her dead and raised daughter Persephone to similarly dead and raised son gods Adonis and Tammuz legends many dualities or trinities of gods were assumed. the son gods were born only to die a tragic death in order to pay for the sins of mankind and then to raise in triumph to rule and judge the world.  These similar and rival faiths were practiced in cults based on the regular commemoration of the central drama in the form of greatly emotional passion plays and processions and partaking of the popular ‘dead and risen’ god by a sacrament of ‘eating and drinking’ the god-  all of which came to become duplicated in Christianity.

 

For his part Jesus as a faithful, Hasidic and zealous Jew of the Torah could hardly be more averse to these cults.  He was a Torah and prophets- spurting orthodox and mystical Jewish prophet whose mission consisted of washing away the sin and hypocrisy of his Jewish audience, especially the learned but thick-headed and stone-hearted clergy of the Temple with whom his relations could only deteriorate.  He was cautiously respectful of the Roman authority and even the Roman governor could not fault him on that.  He positively stated that the Kingdom he invited his fellow Jews was not of this world but spiritual.  And all his preaching was accordingly on true piety as reflected by love and compassion and a not blind but spiritually insightful and saving application of the Torah Law (as in his saving the woman accused of sexual sin from stoning).

 

His increasing popularity with the humbler classes of Jews coupled with his increasing unpopularity with the Jewish elites produced the deadly tensions which were set to explode his career.  The elites had to persuade an unwilling Roman governorate to try and punish him and that was put into motion.  But what actually happened became a moot point. According to the established Christian teaching he was tried, tortured and executed by crucifixion; then had risen from the dead and ascended the Heaven. But another thesis also persisted for several centuries to the effect that he had escaped the trap and fate intended for him and somebody else was punished in the belief that he was Jesus.  Islam upholds this version and not only it is not in any way intrinsically untenable but overall more realistic and spiritually pleasing as we shall see a bit later. 

 

The Christian version may be more pleasantly tragic but it becomes only too suspect by its almost perfect fit with the pagan cults then ravishing the whole Roman lands.  In other words the Christian teaching smacks too much like an effort to convert the already existing cults into a Jesus cult as the easiest and smoothest way forward.  And this diagnosis is only too well supported by its evolution first began by St Paul whose alternative interpretation of Jesus had so much angered the real-life disciples of Jesus and had resulted in their disowning and condemnation of the upstart.

 

It will be obvious to all readers of the Acts that the real-life disciples of Jesus, who formed the Jerusalem church under ‘James brother of the Lord’  were through and through orthodox Jews as their master was.  Their sect was spreading far and wide among the Jewry with only few converts from among the Gentiles for Judaism always tolerated minimal conversions from among them.  Syrian cities like Antioch and Tyre had well-established congregations of the sect to whom Paul was to pay visits. 

 

This same Paul whose original name was Saul was a Pharisee by his admission who initially had only too badly opposed and persecuted in an official capacity the disciples of Jesus and had seen some of them off to torture and execution.   To do such things so passionately shows that he was that intellectual type of fanatic whose enormous need and energy for a radical faith or ideology is so great that he will not hesitate to change sides if one faith or ideology shows more promise of success and popularity.  Hence while he initially subscribed only too vehemently to the cause of the Jewish elites, himself being a Pharisee after all,  he was dismayed and impressed by the tenacity of the new sect and the great sacrifice its members were prepared to make for its sake.  As is the case with all fanatics he found the new sect to have more potential for his justification-needing soul but being too ambitious to limit his future to that tiny and already too troubled Jewish nation and thirsting after a universal vision he saw his opportunity in the following:

 

“I can never be a credible rival to the real life disciples of Jesus. What is more I am only too culpable against their master and my status among his later followers can only be one of a gloomy and doomy repentant.  Again I am a learned and an intellectual man versed both in scholarly Judaism and the Greco-Roman culture.   How on earth can I get along with all those ex-fishermen etc.  whose own fanatical Jewish faith and observances put off the Gentile world in which they are drowned and doomed.  In actual fact there are so many cults with mystical and richly spiritual elements wedded to them and which are so popular, so widespread and as potently emotional as this new Jewish sect of ours.  Why not include the unlimited Gentile world into my audience and followership by bridging the gap between this terribly brilliant and charismatic Jewish prophet and the Gentile spirituality and produce a great universal synthesis?  But there is one great, in fact two obstacles.

First is the harsh requirements of the Jewis Law which the Gentiles came to detest and fear.  Like circumcision and dietary laws.  Secondly there is this holier-than-thou Jerusalem church to which I cannot hope to impose my views.  But what a bad luck. They are already established and spread all over Syria however tenuously. Who am I to speak about Jesus, being an ex ferocious ex-infidel, except as a humble servant to these creditable giants?  The only viable way forward is to beg them to let me in and let me preach as one of their roving preachers”.  The disciples in true Jesus spirit forgave him and let him preach albeit in the company of one of their trusted members Barnabas.  But Paul was too big for the boots given him and far too ambitious in spirit and far too big in outlook: He had set his eyes on the wide world where he could play the role of the sole master and where the restrictions of the Law could not encumber him any more as it would within the Jerusalem church. 

 

So at best his unconscious mind played the required trick and provided him with his vision ‘on the way to Damascus’.  True, this only happened earlier than his joining the Jesus sect but all the above-mentioned thought and emotion turmoils must have had raged in his mind or at least sub-  and fringe-conscious mind as he was observing the dignified commitment and resignation to fate of the ever-increasing members of the new sect.  How could a spiritually ambitious fanatic sort of personality could fail to take in the mouth-watering lessons of such observations and build up hopes of leading such a high quality movement on a largest possible popular base.   Which could only be the Gentile base.

So he suddenly converted and manoeuvred for leadership just like a most ambitious fanatic could.  Once he made his own following at the cost of those already strained and hypocritical relations with his superiors in the Jerusalem church (which dubious strained relations are stickily dripping from the lines of text of the Acts) he made a bold and final break and became the roving ambassador of his own mission with his own message in the name of ‘Christ Jesus’ about whom he knew so little that he could not quote a single word from him but produce entirely his own ideas under his trademark.  In other words his Jesus was only a name and all teachings under that name was Paul’s and bore no relation let alone resemblance to that of real historical prophet Jesus.

 

The actual teaching and practices of Jesus survived in the Jerusalem Church and Paul had no interest in that.  Jesus was an orthodox Jewish prophet, defended and observed the Torah (Law) and so did his disciples.  It was only subsequently that Paul’s Gentile followers came to learn about actual historical Jesus which then some put into some early Gospels.  These gospels were so numerous and differed in detail so much that they gave ground to many rival and warring sects in the course of the evolution of Christianity which in itself had proven so unstable that it still keeps evolving as before.  Like a powderkeg or fireworks the arbitrary, haphazardly accumulated and syncretic nature of Christian dogmas have been such that it has inexorably bred mutually intolerant sects and sub-sects, all with their new ‘infallible prophets’ , to this day and more blood has been shed and lives extinguished in Christianity’s name among Christians than all other religions put together, including Islam’s all jehads.

Only ‘yesterday’ a sect blew itself up in flames in Waco, Texas fighting against the forces of law as heroically and suicidally only Christian sectarians are capable of.  This perennial misguidance and incurable bad luck of Pauline Christianity is the most conclusive sign that it was ill-conceived and survived into a ill-starred future. Put simply Jesus of Jerusalem Church was nowhere good enough for Paul. He had to invent his own in a way that would appeal to the generally anti-Semitic, anti-Law and dualist or trinitarian cultish habits of the Roman world of the times.  The very popular cults of Isis, Adonis, Tammuz etc. had to be replaced by a single analog with Jesus replacing the central tragic hero whose dead and resurrection would also replace theirs and save the humanity as they were supposed to have done. Nothing like that could even cross the mind of Jewish Prophet Jesus but equally it was foisted upon him after he could no longer defend himself because he was no more  around.  In other words Paul’s Christianity was based on cheating on Jesus which automatically became cheating itself. Its interminable and insoluble ills made its subjects so exasperated that in the end secularism and even atheism had to be brought in to stop the festering quasi-holy mess retaining much influence in the affairs of men.   But let us look at the

 

   
EVOLUTION OF ISLAM 

 

There is not a single universal and classical religion whose either origins or founder’s history is established to any full or credible degree or its original texts and teachings recovered.   Except Islam.   It is a wonder of history that from a material point of view the most disadvantaged future founder of a great religion, namely the poor and illiterate arab orphan boy Muhammad of the upstart shanty town Mecca with no tradition in high religion but crass and risible idolatry would both receive the most high-flown and noblest and most voluminous Revelation ever to a single individual and even more wonder that this and only this Revelation would be allowed by the Providence to come down to us in its entirety and entire authenticity-   The Qur’an!  A Revelation which completely accurately if briefly summarized the history of all revelations and propets before it,  diagnosed the accidental or deliberate losses and corruptions that befall them and pointed out and judged their differences and set the records straight in itself.   

 

Not only the Revelation made to Muhammad was preserved but his own history and full example as well, in books we call the Hadith collections. Again the Providence must be behind this second miracle and privilege for it is both unprecedented and subsequently unsurpassed.

 

The Qur’an is the only claimed miracle that survived its prophet.  Other miracles claimed on behalf of other prophets, like Jesus reviving the dead, are just that- claims, they cannot be verified. The Qur’an is with us and can be judged on its claims.  For example it predicted that after the defeat of the Romans by the Persians the former would beat the latter in a few years. They did.  It says that Allah built up the heavens and is constantly expanding them.  Proven by science as the ‘Expanding Universe’.  It says that men will attempt and change God’s very creation.   They are doing it now through genetic manipulations.

But Qur’an has also timeless qualities unavailable in any other text. For example it is neither in poetry nor prose but has a unique and  unimitable style in which aesthetic effects just ebb and flow, rhyme and flex to create an impression of coming from a Unique Author unbound by anything but instead  totally dictating, judging and in control. Wise in the extreme, unanswerable in any of His arguments.  Compelling in His appeals and totally winning in His promises and disarming in His compassion.  Terribly deterring in His threats yet only too ready to forgive and forget at the slightest indication of apology from the respondent.  Everything seems to be geared towards the supreme salvation of the readers and listeners and no stone remains unturned to prove a point and to elicit submission in both fear and love!  Indeed it is the greatest sermon ever delivered by anybody-  all six thousand plus verses and  eight hundred plus pages of it.

 

Lastly the message is the most universal and egalitarian ever found in any holy scripture as well as meant for all time to come.  It respects no racial, geographical or social distinctions and barriers and rules out nobody’s salvation or damnation, both on the basis of personal conduct.  Just believe in God’s revelations and act on them and you are the greatest person among mankind!   No magical tricks, no unearned privileges are given a chance to cheat God’s fully egalitarian and meritocratic Law!  Nobody saves nobody else either by being punished for the other’s sin or resorting to nepotism or favouritism.  No other faith has done this, at least so perfectly and unambiguously.  Islam IS the universal religion, Islam is the supreme and ultimate survivor among all religions and presently the fastest growing despite the subversive efforts both from inside and outside.  Those so-called muslims who are doing everything possible to give a bad name to Islam through their sick fanaticism and and even sicker savage methods are its internal subverters.  Ultimately they also will be defeated and remain a sad footnote in Islam’s history as the Kharijites, Qarmatians and Assassins did.  These were deranged sects which regarded all other muslims unmitigated infidels and regarded them fair game for their terrorist acts and and robberies.  Islam is not what they present to the world whatever the decibels of their propaganda reach.