The Straight Path :.....of Judaism, Christianity and Islam..

Friends,

I find, London based Hussain M Abbara's " The Straight Path " a good, worthwhile read. I think this book that come in two volumes, is easily available here since the publisher is KL based. Try, http://www.hikmahmedia.net/ or editor@hikmah.net

I reproduce here an exceprt from chapter three of the book, in which the author did a short discourse on the similarities and differences of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for your 'sample' reading.

Dr Nik Howk

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Muslims admit that there are certain similarities between them, since they believe that all Divine Revelations came from the same Source, the One Universal God. They also believe that there was relationships between authentic original Scriptures, but those Sciptures in the present form have been adapted to changing beliefs and conceptions. The Bible, for instance, is found in several versions.

Some parallels are bound to exist in the various moral systems but there are nevertheless certain basic points of discord. As Dr G. Badawi has pointed out, some of these many essential differences refute the thesis of the Judaeo-Christian origin of Islam.

Such differences cover a wide spectrum of topics, including the concept of " original sin ", the necessity of blood sacrifice, forgiveness of one's sins through someone else, the question of intermediaries between man and God, the necessity for the authority of a religious hierarchy, the concept of the sabbath, the concept of prophethood, essential information about previous prophets, the presence or absence of an inherent conflict between matter and spirit, and between body and soul, the concept of man's role on earth and the meaning of "religion", and whether religion covers just the spiritual aspect of man's life or the totality of it.

A discussion of such differences could extend to almost any lengths.

Islam reaffirms all previous Messengers, including both Moses and Jesus, as proponents of Islam, since they preached the worship of One God. Muslims, therefore, are urged by their faith to respect all prophets and revere all of them in equal measure, giving them as much reverence as they give Prophet Muhammad. " And verily We gave unto Moses the Scripture and We caused a train of Messengers to follow him and We gave unto Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proof of [ God's ] Sovereignty and We supported him with the Holy Spirit. Is it ever so, that, when there cometh unto you a Messenger [ from God ] with that which ye yourselves desire not, you grow arrogant? Some ye disbelieve and some ye slay. " [ 2 : 87 ].

Christians believe that Christianity is the only true religion, with Judaism as its precursor. " Both Jews and Christains say, " We are God's children and His beloved ones.' Say: ' Why then does He cause you to suffer from your sins? Nay, you are but human beings of His creations." [ 5 : 18 ]

The Jews believe that God chose the Children of Israel of all races and people for the purpose of revealing His religion. It is confirmed by the Quran that God blessed them and favoured them above all other people, and sent Prophets to them, but when they rejected the message of Jesus because it was not according to their desires, they denied the Truth. All who deny the truth are rejected by God. " Shame and misery were stamped upon them and they incurred Wrath of God. This is because they were rejecting the Signs of God." [ 2 : 61 ].

The Jews did not accept Muhammad, the Last prophet of God, any more than the Christians do. The Muslim believes in the Divine Origin of the other two monotheistic religions, viz. Judaism and Christianity, and in their Prophets, and has a profound love and respect for both Moses and Jesus, believing that God is the loving Creator of all the peoples of the world without discrimination.

"Verily, the noblest of you in the Sight of God is the one who is most deeply concious of Him." [ 49 : 13 ]. This verse refers to people of all religions and places, not just Arabs or those who call themselves Muslims but are without true belief and piety.

There are many uncertainties in the New Testament. The Gospels tell the life of Jesus in different ways. " He has left no written law. His Gospel was written on the tablet of his heart and he delivered his Message of 'Good news', not in script, but orally." The Children's Encyclopaedia Britannica teaches us that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were written for Christians who did not know the full story of the life of Christ.

John, who wrote his Gospel last, took it for granted that the story was well known. The Books of the New Testament began to be collected together in the second century and were finally declared to be Word of God in 397 C. E. [ after the Roman Empire had become Christians ]. They were probably written in Greek, though Jesus himself spoke Aramaic. This may be why, in many places, the Gospels conflict with one another. There is no Gospel extant which is written in the language Jesus spoke.

The Old testament was written in the 10th Century B.C.E. and additions were made to it over the next few centuries.

The Quran, on the other hand, was immediately memorised and written down by Muhammad's companions and remains the same to this day. In any case, the very words of the Quran are, in terms of form and content , beyond the ability of the highest scholar, in so far as its content observes the genuine previous content of the Old and New Testaments.

As God is the Author of the Quran, its words are superior to those of the previous Books. It has been preserved intact, rather than collected by different scholars in different languages, and this is especially important since spiritual literature cannot meaningfully be translated into another language. For example, if any translator could translate the Quran from Arabic to English, his work would fall short by several degrees of the original.

The Old Testament and the Quran condemn the doctrine of Three Persons in God: God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The New Testament does not expressly hold or defend it, but, even if it contains hints or traces concerning the Trinity, this is no authority at all, because it was neither seen nor written by Christ himself, nor was it in the language he spoke. For at least the first two centuries after him it did not exist in its present form and content.

The idea of Trinity conflicts with 'Jesus' teaching, for Mark[ 12, 29-30 ] says "Hear O Israel! The Lord thy God is One God." In the Old Testament, God is called the Father because of His being a loving Creator and Protector, but, as Churches have abused the Name, the Quran has justly refrained from using it.

The Quran preaches the plain, simple Unity of God. "Say: He is the One God, the Eternal, the Uncaused, Cause of all being, He begets not neither is He begotten; and there is nothing that can be compared with Him" [112:1-4]. The Quran adresses in different places an appeal not merely to the Christians, who attribute divinity to Jesus and certain aspects of divinity to their saints, but also to the Jews of Arabia, who assign quasi-divine authority to Ezra and even to some of their great Talmudic scholars.

It says, "Say: 'O followers of earlier Revelations! Come unto that tenet which we and you hold in common: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall not ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, and that we shall not take human beings for our Lords beside God.'" [3: 64]

The ascribing of divinity to others besides God is levelled against both Jews and Christians to add to the statement that they "do not follow the religion of Truth which God has enjoined upon them. The Quran elucidates their intention when it says, "And the Jews say, 'Ezra is God's Son,' while the Christians say, 'The Christ is God's Son.'" That is what they say with their mouths, following in spirit assertions made in earlier times by people who denied the Truth. They have taken their Rabbis and their priests- as well as the Christ, son of Mary- for their lords besides God, although they have been commanded to worship none but the One God, save Whom there is no deity: the One Who is utterly remote, in His Limitless Glory, from anything to which they may ascribe a share in His Divinity." [9:30-1]

" God is He save Whom there is no deity; the One Who knows all that is beyond the reach of a created being's perception, as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature's senses or mind. He is the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace. God is He save Whom there is no deity; The Sovereign Supreme. The Holy, the One with Whom all salvation rests, the Giver of Faith, the One Who determines what is true and false, the Almighty, Who subdues wrong and restores right, the One to Whom all Greatness belongs. Utterly removed is God, in His limitless Glory, from anything to which men may ascribe a share in His Divinity. He is God, the Creator, the Maker, Who shapes all forms and appearances. His [alone] are the Attributes of Perfection. All that is in the heavens and on earth extol His Limitless Glory, for he alone is Almighty, Truly Wise." [59: 22-24]

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There you are, an exceprt from Hussain M Abbara's " The Straight Path ', certainly not a short read. Two volumes. Highly readable for all: discerning 'lovers', ritual Muslims [ as that Petra guy puts it. By the way where is he now? ], doubters, and dissenters.

For millions of 'ritual Muslims', myself included,extra knowledge is certainly not harmful. 'Lucifers' everywhere , at the work place, at home, during prayers , after prayers, during play and most importantly even during our death throes, for while our relatives and family 'surround' us with the 'proverbial' safety net of the 'much abused' Surah Yasin [..... a Malay phenomenon whereby we commit Yasin to memory without even knowing the meaning and leave the rest of the Quran high and dry on the shelf... ] and we are elsewhere 'fighting' our inner battles with Lucifer. Our 'amalan and 'faith' will no doubt, to some degree insyallah, be able to keep them apart, insyaallah[ how far apart Allahualam ], but only through 'knowledge' and more 'knowledge' our 'amalan' and 'faith' could be further strenghtened. Knowledge is the ultimate 'vitamin' and elixir to 'amalan' and 'faith'.Our 'amalan' and 'faith' waxes and wane like the changing tide, knowledge will energise them further. There is a 'sahih' hadith in fact, correct me if I am wrong, ,quantifying the difference between the prayer of the 'learned' from one who just follow blindly: The difference is between the Sun and the Earth! Mashaallah ! Allahualam.

[ Cross-link in Pearls & Gem : Wednesday, May 14th 2008...Trinity, Surah An Nisa { 4 : 171 } ]

[ 18th May, 2008 under 'personalities' : A day in the life of a Ritual Muslim ]

An Equestrian Journey: Asadullah Khan a.k.a CuChullaine O' Reilly

......Some days these tragic events which weigh upon our souls today will be naught but a footnote. Empires fade. Wrongs will be righted, and the Quran is still right when it says:

"But God, in His infinite mercy and love,

 Who Forgives and guides individuals and nations,

 And Turns to good even what it seem to us as evil.

 Never forsakes the struggling soul that turn to Him."

We Muslims believe that our deeds are personified, that there are witnesses for us and against us. Many of my previous deeds were dark ones born  of war and misunderstanding.

Now after my struggles, after many lands, I have ultimately come to believe that I am only three things.

I am a Muslim, a Scholar, and a Horseman.

Anything else is but dust and mirage of this fleeting image which we call life.

See you on the trail, Saddle pals.

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......An equestrian journey is not merely about covering vast amount of mileage. It is a journey that helps you see the world's pretensions, and opens you up to adventure of self conquest. It is a journey you and your horse take to reach the borders of an otherwise invisible place.

It is an antidote to the world's  obsession with speed because the three- mile per hour pace of your horse forces you to slow down your body, which in turn results in opening up your spirit. It allows you to ride on the secret trail traced deep inside your soul.

   **************************************

Asadullah Khan a.k.a CuChullaine O' Reilly,

Founder of Long Riders Guild.

[ Go to Link: "An Equestrian Journey". Read, A word from the Founder ]

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The road leads neither East nor West, but within.

Rumi.

 

Shaikh Abd'al al- Qadir al- Jilani

Three things inevitably demand the attention of every believer under all circumstances:
A commandment to be obeyed,
a prohibition to be respected,
and a divine decree to be accepted with good grace.

In even the most trivial situation, at least one of the three is bound to apply. The believer must therefore keep his mind and feelings focussed upon them, talk to himself about them, and practice the physical discipline they require of him all the time.

Shaikh Abd'al al-Qadir al-Jilani,
in Futuh al- Ghaib," Revelations of The Unseen ".
Translated from Arabic by Muhtar Holland.

....*#&* you!

I am not alone in thinking that there is gross lack of wisdom in handling of the Perak affair. Tan Sri Abu Talib of Suhakam thought so but is more polite and ask for the raayat to decide. Veteran UMNO politician, Ku Li does not mince his words:

"The unfolding events in Perak had damaged the rule of law, compromised the judiciary, police, and state civil service, and damaged the monarchy in public opinion. It is better for the Barisan Nasional to risk state elections that we may lose than to lose the entire country by been seen to be opposed to decency, the rule of law and the will of the people."

Well, Ku Li, despite all the early 'tuition' and 'schooling' that NTR seem to get, spoon fed to him from the early age of 26, if this is the way this chap is going to run the country, AI et al is not going to complain and they will make mincemeat of him.

The billion ringgit issue is when you ' sh**h#*ds' are at loggerhead with one another, the raayats are not served at all and taxpayers money is being lost!

The raayats are disgusted ,angry and screaming inwardly!!!!!
Please guys, please come back to common sense. We are sick and tired of this utter nonsense.
I would not be very wrong to say that many of us Malaysians, within UMNO and outside UMNO now would have wished that Ku Li [ or for that matter TS Musa Hitam ] is at least 10 years younger. We would not have this kind of 'shit' going on. He definitely has more ' sense', wisdom and grey mater to run the country. Running Malaysia is not easy. AI of PKR may sound brilliant but can he control the excesses of HINDRAFF or Karpal Singh? At least Guan Eng has revealed he is utterly inspired by Caliph Omar Abdul Aziz.[ When is Karpal ever going to learn, despite the fact that he is already rubbing shoulder with another Omar Abdul Aziz personified whenever he drops by in Kota Bharu for his PKR meeting?]

'Hindraff Radio' may be the loudest in town but the poor rural and urban Malays, by and large, still remain our biggest problem and UMNO has been sleeping on this for the last 50 years, choosing instead to enrich only themselves and a few fat cats. We need a new look at 'affirmative' action and it does not matter whether it come from UMNO or from PKR. [ Or even a combination of both, if truly the Nation comes down to that point, why not.???!!! Politics means you do sometime need to sleep with strange bedfellows, even one night stand, if the situation is really called for! ] The raayats are just fed up right now. We need to examine all possibilities and probabilities.

"You come with reverence before the blind and wait in the hall;

but in the presence of those who can see, you behave with disrespect."

Rumi

That is the problem within UMNO! Protracted state of denial, 50 years of affirnative actions going no where except to the selected few [ the Malays are still beggars in their own motherland ] , whistling in the dark, inundated by clowns like KT's and JT's, clinging on to power.
Prognosis: Chronic. Incurable. Most likely terminal..........

Wisdom or the lack of it...........

High Court rules Nizar as the legitimate Mentri Besar of Perak [ 11/5/2009]. I hail the High Court judge here, Justice Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim, for being the 'ultimate scholar', practising his art without fear or favour. At least this 'scholar' has not, and does not seem to have the inclination to sell his soul for a fistful of ringgits. "In a hall lined and packed with people trying to pay homage to the blind, this 'scholar' chosed to be guided by his 'intellectual' honesty. One cannot blame him if he does otherwise, judgement at the highest level ,oftentimes, can be 'clouded' by Queen's English and most of us the 'uniniated' could still be left gasping, " Ah these lawyers and judges are very clever with their words "! [ the spirit of the law, not the law, stupid! ] That chap, Pool Apakahnamadiadah rightaway comes to mind, clever use of Queen's English beyond our comprehension, then slammed the public with some bizzare judgements. We have too many of that for years.

One does not foresee 'scholars' like Datuk Abdul Aziz to finally become CJ, nor being automatically nominated for a Tan-Sriship, but in a year full of blatant cynicism and intellectual dishonesty within the public domain at the level of the Nation's Executive branch , then spreading laterally to the other branches of government, and finally when we cannot even trust the 'salt' to keep our food from getting bad [ as my Zen teacher,' cheeseburgerbuddha', politely puts it ], what have we? Datuk Abdul Aziz is certainly a glimmer of hope, a belated breath of fresh air. Or are we just being entertained transiently, pondering at a shimmering, mirage in the horizon?

The almost 'suffocated' raayats, thousands of simple people like me, at least this morning can be allowed to 'dream' about a Malaysia that was once here in the days of Tun Suffian, Tan Sri Harun Hashim et al when integrity and pride ruled higher than that ringgit sign, at all levels of administration.

Where is the wisdom we are talking about, when from whom we expect a generous fountain, just a trickle, flowed ?

I am reminded of that now famous, stiff upper lip, quotable quote from up north:

" I am not part of this. Let me finish my speech. If you want to continue to work with me in future, ask your people to sit down!"

Malaysia in 2009 need more than just admonishment like this to go forward, Tuanku. We need wisdom and a higher degree of sense of fairplay! Wisdom earlier on could have averted all these.
Daulat Tuanku.

.......Still on Rumi

                      You are all mixed up.

                    For the sake of position,

         you come with reverence before the blind

                       and wait in the hall;

         but in the presence of those who can see,

                 you behave with disrespect.

   No wonder you've become fuel for the fire of desire.

            ************************************

    The road leads neither East nor West, but within.

Rumi : Daylight

A Daybreak of Spiritual Guidance,

from Jalla-al din Rumi's Mathnawi.

Translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski

Still On Rumi : The Scholar and the Prince

Shamsul [ Cheeseburgerbuddha ] ,

As I have told you earlier, I promised that 'Indian Limo driver' who drove me home from KLIA on Sunday that I would reproduce his classic 'tirade and monologue'. But after much agonising thoughts and internal deliberation I decided I would return to the more introspective and philosophical Rumi instead. Must give NTR a chance in his first hundred days of the premiership to clean up the mess or at least show some semblance of cleaning up the monumental mess he and his illustrious colleagues have put us the raayats into.. Nothing that Muthusamy said in his monologue was complimentary at all of politicians and statesmen of previous government and Barisan and I do not want to add further to 'old' injury'. He must be an 'intellectual' driver way above his class to have touched on a whole gamut of improprieties the way he did: from judicial 'clowns'; to right royal descent from the high pedestal of respect and honour to outright ignominy even the common people cannot tolerate; KT's smug arrogance in comparision to Khalid's almost peasant-like  impropriety with the 40 cows [tell me ,did he get to eat the meat at all, Muthu asked? ]; Dr M's long list of good friends from YTL [ of the IPP fame ], Ananda right up to VK Lingam [ he sounds like me , he looks like me but but he was not me! ]; the fact that no one exactly asked the right most important question  of' motive' in the Sirul - Altantanya case [ they just met in a shopping complex and Sirul did not like Mongolian face ]; right up to Madam R's usual 20 boxes of baggage after her numerous overseas trips![ Information courtesy of MAS cabin crews according to Muthu !] This chap gave me a 'migraine' for 30 minutes ,the time it take to drive between KLIA and my house in Subang Jaya! So much because of inflation nowadays driving even the 'intellectuals' to find a second job.

But for now Shamsul I would let it be . As Rumi advised that melancholic 'sultan' in your own 'sufi story',[ a 'sufi' tale by Idris Shah, in Ramblings of Cheeseburgerbuddha ], 'I will 'let it pass' . I have had a personal brush of a different kind, but a brush no doubt, with  a  very high handed, ready to please, proud 'servant' of a 'Prince' [ I doubt the Prince know about this ] recently but  in the spirit as expounded by Rumi, this ,I will also 'let it pass'. Not good for my soul to let it carry on.

I have no doubt  though that all the issues  raised by Muthusamy in his 'monologue' would  not just be 'passed' just like that. These  would be the  'carbuncles' in the present 'Princes' [ NTR , colleagues et al ] chests and conscience [ do they ever have conscience ,these people? ]  and major talking points in the coming Penanti bye- election when all and sundry will speak and amplify on the volume of 'discontent and anger' among the 'masses'. If and only if NTR decides his ego can sustain another thumping loss of course!. He may just decide to give a walkover for whatever reason and avoid a massive 'drop of water face'. [ I was not there  so theoretically I do not lose an' erection' : As if the raayat nowadays are that stupid and cannot differentiate a Malay lady from a Mongolian lass!] .I just wonder how a man like him with excess baggage going to haul the nation through thick and thin the next 3 years. Even Obama, without any baggage is beginning to find difficulty. The buck stops at their desk..........

Let us drown our sorrow instead on what Jalal al- Din Rumi wrote some 800 hundred years ago. Rumi , incidentally was originally from present day Afghanisthan  near the Persian border,[ as with most medieval Islamic scholars ], moved to Konya, somewhere in Mid Turkey, in his youth to escape Mongol invasion and carnage. He was brought up and educated by his father, Baha' al- Din, himself a noted scholar , of that time, in Sunni orthodoxy.

"Rumi : The Scholar and the Prince"

The Prophet, on whom be peace, said: The worst of scholars is he who visits princes, and the best of princes is he who visits scholars. Happy is the prince who stands at the poor man's door, and wrectched is the poor man who stands at the door of the prince.

People have taken the outward sense of these words to signify that it is not right for a scholar to visit a prince, lest he should become amongst the worst of scholars. That is not their true meaning, as they have supposed. Their meaning is rather this: that the worst of scholars is, he who accepts help from princes, and whose affair and salvation is dependent upon and stems from the fear of princes. Such a man first applies himself to the persuit of learning with the intention that princes should bestow on him present, hold him in esteem, and promote him to office. It was therefore on this account that he consented to better himself and converted from ignorance to knowledge. When he become a scholar, he was disciplined by the fear of them and was subject to their control. Willy nilly, then, he comports himself in conformity with the way which they have mapped out for him. Consequently, whether it is the prince who formally visit him or he goes to visit the prince, he is in every case the visitor and it is the prince who is visited.

When, however, the case is otherwise, when the scholar has not become qualified with learning on account of the prince but rather his learning from first to last has been for the sake of God; when his way and wont have been upon the path of rectitude because it is in his nature so to comport himself and he cannot do otherwise- just as a fish can only live in water- such a scholar is subject to the control and direction of reason. All men living in his time are held in check by the awe of him and derive succour from the reflection of his radiance, whether they are aware of the fact or no. If such a scholar goes formally to visit the prince, it is he himself who is visited and the prince is the visitor, because in every case the prince take from him and receives help from him. That scholar is independent of the prince. He is the light giving sun, whose whole function is giving and dispensing universally, converting stones into rubies and cornelians, changing mountains of earth into mines of copper and gold and iron, making earth fresh and verdant, bestowing upon the trees fruits of diverse kinds. His trade is giving: he dispenses and does not receive. The Arabs have expressed this in their proverb: " We have learned in order to give, we have not learned in order to take."

Hence it is they who are in all circumstances the visited, and the princes who are the visitors.

Humbly Yours,

Dr Nik Howk

[ Excerpt from " Discourses Of Rumi ", translated by A. J. Arberry ]