February 2013

Editors:

Shahid Aziz

Mustaq Ali

Contents: Page Call of the Messiah 1

The Promised Messiah 3

The Creator in Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Dr Mir Faizal 4

70 or 72? by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi 7

Jesus Was a Muslim by Prof. Robert F. Shedinger 8

حیم حمن الر بسم ہللا الر

Call of the Messiah (Continued from the previous issue)

Relation between prayer and its acceptance

Between prayer and its acceptance there is a

relation which has come down from ever since

man came to be created. When the will of the

Most High God

feels inclined to do

a thing, His prac-

tice is that a sin-

cere and loyal slave

of His engages him-

self in prayer with

utmost restless-

ness and disquie-

tude of the mind,

and employs all his

power and atten-

tion to accomplish

the fulfillment of

this affair. Then the

supplications of

that man who has lost himself in devotion to

the Most High God stimulate and draw from

heaven Divine favour and grace, and He creates

new conditions such as will bring about and

accomplish that object. Although this prayer is

executed apparently through human hands, yet

the reality of the matter is that the man is so

much lost in God, and at the time of prayer

crawls into Divine presence with such a step of

annihilation that the hand at that time is not his

hand, but it is in reality the hand of God. This is

what we call the prayer by which the Most High

God is recognized and known and a clue is ob-

tained to the existence of that Supreme Being

Who is hidden and concealed behind thou-

sands of veils. For the people who pray, the high

heaven comes nearer to the earth, and new

causes, their prayer having been answered, are

brought into being for the resolution of their

difficulties and the knowledge of them is

vouchsafed beforehand; and the least of it is

that belief in the acceptance of prayer is fixed in

the mind from the Unseen like an iron nail. The

truth is that if there had been no prayer, no hu-

man being, in the matter of God-realization,

could have been able to

get to the stage of cer-

tainty. It is through prayer

that Divine revelation is

conferred upon us and we

can hold communion with

the Most High God. When

a man, in the process of

offering prayer with all

sincerity of the heart, love

and loyalty, gets into the

stage of complete annihi-

lation, then the Living

God, Who is hidden from

the human eye, manifests

Himself upon him. Prayer

February

2013

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A Lahori-Ahmadi’s faith is greater than any obstacle!

Tiananmen Square, 1989

2

February 2013

is needed not only for

the purpose that we

may be able to achieve

our worldly objects, but

no human being can

find the True and Great

God, from Whom many

human hearts have

fallen far apart, without

the manifestation of

those signs which come

into display and appear

after prayer. The igno-

rant person thinks that

prayer is an absurd and

foolish thing, but he

knows not that it is only

through prayer that the

Supreme Being mani-

fests Himself upon

seekers after Him, and

puts into their minds

His revelation “I am the

All-Powerful”. Everyone

who thirsts for God-

realization should re-

member that, in this life, for a seeker after spiri-

tual light, prayer is the only means which in-

duces belief in the existence of God and dispels

all doubts and misgivings; for a man who has

achieved his object without prayer knows not

how and where from he has got them; and one

who strains every nerve on plan and device, and

remains indifferent to prayer cannot feel that it

is, of a truth, God's hand which has deposited

those objects in his pocket. And this is the rea-

son that a man who, by means of prayer, re-

ceives through Divine revelation the glad tidings

of success, advances forward in the knowledge

and love of God when the foretold thing actually

comes to pass, and looks upon the acceptance of

prayer as a great sign in his favour, and likewise

having been filled with belief from time to time,

he abstains from and shuns sensual passions

and sins of all kinds to such an extent that only

the soul, as it were, is left of him. But the man

who sees not through prayer the gracious and

benevolent signs of the Most High God remains

deprived of the great wealth of

God-realization, in spite of the

riches and property and other

means of opulence that he may

have acquired during his life-

time, nor do his successes pro-

duce any good effect upon his

mind, and he on the other hand,

increases in vanity and conceit

as his wealth and prosperity

multiply; and even if he may

have some faith in the Most High

God, that faith is so lifeless and

defunct that it cannot deter him

from sensual passions, neither

bestow upon him real and true

purity.

Predestination

It should be remembered that

although everything has been

foreordained, still predestina-

tion has not destroyed knowl-

edge and the sciences; and in

spite of believing in the doctrine

of predestination, just as every

one has to admit, as the result of scientific ex-

periment, that drugs have undoubtedly peculiar

properties hidden in them, and if a medicine

should be administered according to the nature

of the disease it will certainly do good to the

patient by the mercy and grace of the Host High

God; in the same way, every holy man, through

experiment and experience, has to acknowledge

that prayer has a link and relation with accep-

tance. We may or may not be able to impress

this secret reasonably upon other people’s

minds, but the experience of hundreds of thou-

sands of righteous men as well as our own per-

sonal experience has disclosed to us this hidden

reality, that our offering of prayer has a mag-

netic force which attracts and draws the mercy

and grace of the Most High God towards itself.

Of the Divine service, too, the soul and sub-

stance is the prayer which has been taught us in

the Opening Chapter of the Holy Quran. When

we say “Guide us on the right path”, we wish, by

means of this prayer, to draw and pull towards

In 1896, Roentgen made the first X-ray

photo. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as),

residing in Qadian, which did not even have

electricity, had an amazing grasp of scientific

developments round the world and referred

to the “photographing of bones” when

discussing whether photography is Islamic

or not in one of the books he wrote

in the early 1900s.

February 2013

3

us with extraordinary power to bear its brunt, and

make us rather to take delight therein, and enlarge

our mind.

It is, therefore, clear from both these ways that

Divine help and triumph come, as a matter of

truth, from heaven in answer to a humble prayer.

The Promised Messiah by Ebrahim Muhamed

(December 2012)

Scholars, Philosophers, Poets, everywhere abound Too many questions – answers rarely found

In our Pride will we ever say? That indeed we have lost the way?

Promised by the Praised One A reflection of that dazzling Sun

Appears, a Slave of Ahmad, His Holy Book to teach Enlivening groping souls his ‘breath’ does reach

Sun and Moon in Holy Nights all doubt dispel About the One Muhammad did foretell

Who, in lonely recesses of the night Pleads before Him Mankind’s pitiable plight

Heavenly pen like Grand General’s scimitar Skilfully wielded by Slave of Mustapha

Dispelling doubts and darkness all around Faith, lost in Pleiades, on Earth once more found

Antichrist, with deadly arguments, in defeat do fall Enemy bugles a scuttling retreat do call

Ignorance, Prejudice, Falsehood – demons in his way

With pledged pens, like David’s decreed stones, did slay

us the light which descends from the Most High

God and illuminates human hearts with love and

belief.

Prayer, a magnetic force

Some people say in haste that they forbid not the

offering of prayer, but the meaning of prayer is

merely worship and adoration whereon recom-

pense or reward is determined. It is regrettable

indeed that these people think not that every wor-

ship in which spiritual realization is not created by

God, and every merit or reward for which, in some

time to come, hope is cherished merely on imagi-

nation, are all vain and void of foundation. Real

worship and real merit are those whose rays of

light and blessings are experienced and felt in this

world also. The signs of the acceptance of our wor-

ship are that, just during the time of prayer, we

should see with our mind’s eye that a lenitive light

has descended from the Most High God and de-

stroyed the poisonous matter in our mind; and

that it has fallen upon us like a flame, and filled us

immediately with the pure state of the expansion

of the mind, belief, love and delight; and if it should

not come to pass, then worship and prayer are no

better than a mere custom or ceremony. Every

prayer, even though it be for the resolution of our

mundane affairs and difficulties, bounds back and

returns to our state of faith and knowledge of the

Most High God; that is to say, it bestows upon us, in

the first instance, advancement and progress in the

matter of faith and knowledge of God, and confer-

ring upon us pure satisfaction and solace, real de-

light and expansion of the mind, proceeds to cast

its effect upon our worldly vanities and detestable

things, and removes our sorrow and grief in what-

soever way it deems proper. It is thus obviously

clear from all this discussion that prayer can be

called a prayer only when it has an attractive force

as a matter of fact, and draws down from heaven a

light which may dispel all our bewilderment and

disquietude, and open and expand our mind, and

give us peace and contentment. The All-Wise God,

forsooth, after prayers, sends down His succour

and success in two ways: either (1) He may take

away and remove the calamity under which we are

about to be crushed to death, or (2) He may endow

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February 2013

The Holy Book now everywhere on every tongue Praises of the Lord from East to West now sung Light and Learning distant horizons do grace Fruits of wisdom weeds of ignorance replace

Sweet, saintly revelations – crystal-clear! The Messiah, Thank you Lord, is here!

The Concept of the Creator

in Islam, Judaism

and Christianity

by Dr Mir Faizal

Introduction

In this article I shall treat Islam and Judaism to-

gether as they have the same views and use the

same language to express those views, on most

of what I have to say. I have seen a lot of debate

between Christians and Muslims/Jews. Even

though there are differences between them,

what I will like to point out

is that there is no differ-

ence in the metaphysical

conception of one Creator,

but a difference in the lan-

guage used to express this

conception. Hence, the pur-

pose of my letter is to

translate Christian theology

in Muslim/Jewish language

and Muslim/Jews’ objec-

tions into Christian lan-

guage and hopefully both

Muslims/Jews and Chris-

tians will see that there is no difference between

them in metaphysics.

Key

Before I do that, here is a small key for

transla tion.

Concept Sunni Muslims / Jews Christians

Creator of the God God the creation of heaven Father and earth

The revelation of Word of God The Son the Creator as of God uncreated Word of God

A Spirit proceeding Holy Spirit Spirit of from the Creator God

Everything from No term exists God the same essence as the Creator

The reality of Spiritual essence of Spiritual Word of the Quran/Torah essence of Creator Christ

The creation of Text of Quran/Torah Flesh of the Creator Christ carrying his Word

Now let me explain what it means. Sunni

Muslims, Jews and Christians believe that there

is one Creator of heavens and earth who creates

and speaks. His word is not his creation and pre-

dates it as it is from His essence. However, His

Word, even though being from his essence, is

different from him. Whereas Christians call the

Creator as God the Father, Muslims and Jews call

Him as God. Muslims and Jews call the Word of

the Creator as the Word of God and Christians

also call it the Son of God. Christians call the

group of Creator, His Word and His Spirit as the

God. Sunni Muslims/Jews do not have a word for

it but accept these con-

cepts. Again, the flesh of

Christ in Christianity is ac-

cepted as the creation of

God, and only His spiritual

essence is believed to be

the uncreated Word of God.

Thus, all confusion occurs

because of the different use

of the word God. For Mus-

lims/Jews God means the

God the Father. They have

no word for the group of

God the Father, His Word

and His Spirit, which Christians call God. How-

ever, these concepts do exist in their theology.

Now because of the different use of language,

misconceptions are created. Here are the com-

mon misconceptions.

Misunderstanding 1: Modalism

Here is the first confusion that occurs. When

Christians say Christ is God, what Muslims/Jews

understand is that they are saying Christ is God

the Father. This is because they use the word

God to mean God the Father. This is not what

February 2013

5

modern Christians’ theology says at all. In fact,

to say that God the Father is the same person as

Christ is called modalism. This is rejected by

Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox theology. In

fact, all Christians are trying to say that Christ is

of the same essence as God the Father because

he is his uncreated Word. This is misunderstood

by Muslims/Jews to mean Christ is God the

Fa ther due to the different use of the word ‘God’.

So, when Muslims/Jews want to talk to

Chris tians they must translate their question

from “Is Christ God?” to “Is Christ God the

Fa ther?” and they will get a ‘no’ from all Chris-

tians. Similarly, when Christians want to express

their theology to Muslims/Jews they should

translate their statement “Christ is God” to

“Spiritual essence of Christ is the uncreated

Word of God”, and they will find that Muslims/

Jews will not find this objectionable. So, it is

clear, due to a different use of the word ‘God’, a

lot of confusion takes place.

Misunderstanding 2: Adoptionism

Another naive misunderstanding is stated as

follows: “Muslims/Jews believe that God has no

son and Christians believe God has a son.” This

occurs due to a misunderstanding of Christian

theology as well as Muslim/Jewish theology.

According to Christianity, Christ is not a made

Son of the God and everyone else a made Son of

the God, the word ‘Son of God’ being a general

term, and what is special about Christ is that he

is not created Son of God but his uncreated Son.

What it actually means is that whereas every-

thing is the creation of the Father, Christ is the

uncreated Word of the Father. The body of Christ

is fully human and it is only his spiritual essence

that is the Word of the Father. To say that body

of Christ became of the same essence of God at a

certain point is called adoptionism and is again

rejected by modern Christian theology.

Misunderstanding 3: Tritheism

Another misconception is that in Christianity,

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy

Spirit exist separately. This is again wrong, be-

cause according to modern Christianity, even

though the Word and Spirit of God have existed

before time, they come from the Father, Who is

the prime source behind the existence. What is

being said is that they exist before time as time

is a creation of the Father. So, His Word or Spirit

predates His creation. However, all of them come

from the Father before His creation. Most Sunni

Muslims have the same belief regarding the

Word of God.

Source of confusion

The source of confusion is that Muslims/Jews

and Christians use different words to describe

same concepts. So what Muslims/Jews call God,

Christians call God the Father. What Christians

call God, Sunni Muslims/Jews have no word for

it, even though they accept the concepts. An-

other source of confusion is confused Christians

who do not understand their own theology and

thus badly explain it to Muslims/Jews, and this

cases a lot of confusion. This is because Christi-

anity is a very complex theology and many naive

Christians are too eager to preach before they

properly learn the theology themselves.

Muslim objections

What Quran objects most strongly to is

Mo dalism, i.e., ‘Christ is God (the Father)’, and

Tritheism. It also objects to Adoptionism. How-

ever, Quran does not object to the metaphysics

of Christ being the Word of God. It may be ar-

gued that Quran also objects to the language

used to express Christian theology. But it ac-

cepts Christ being the Word of God without en-

tering into the debate of created or uncreated.

Thus, even though it is right to say that Chris-

6

February 2013

tians use different language to Muslims, yet it is

wrong to say that they have different

metaphys ics. In fact, in Quran, chapter 4, verse

171 states:

“O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in

your religion, and do not say anything about God

except the truth. Jesus the son of Mary was only

an apostle of God, and His Word which He

be stowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from

Him.”

To make this verse sound more familiar to

Christians, if I use the key for translation and

translate ‘God’ to ‘God the Father’ then this

verse becomes:

“O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in

your religion, and do not say any thing about the

Father except the truth. Jesus the son of Mary was

only an apostle of the Father, and the Word of the

Father which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit

proceeding from the Fa ther.”

This is exactly what Christians believe, i.e.,

Christ is the Word of the Father conceived by the

Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father. So, all

Quran is doing is using different words to

ex press the same theology. It may be noted that

even though there is no rejection of the idea that

Christ is the Word of God, Quran does object to

some terms used to express this theology, which

form the next part of the verse and few other

verses. But what is

important to realise is

that these differences

are linguistic and not

theologi cal.

Jewish objections

The criticism from

Judaism is a little

more direct as Jews

reject Jesus com-

pletely. In fact, one of

the principles of mod-

ern Jewish faith is to

wait for the Messiah

and so believe that

the Messiah has not yet come. So, most tradi-

tional Jewish thinkers do not even consider pre-

sent day mainstream Christianity as a monotheist

faith. However, this is again because they misunder-

stand Christian theology to imply that Christ is God

the Father. However, it must be clear by now that

this is due to the different use of the word ‘God’ by

Jews and Christians. Thus, even though this central

difference between Jews and Christians about Jesus

being the Messiah will probably remain, it is impor-

tant to realise that they both have the same concept

of the Creator.

Real differences and similarities

There are real differences between Islam/Judaism and Christianity. For example, according to Sunni Islam the Word of God is scripture of God. However, according to many Sufi Muslims the reality of the scripture is the heart of the prophet. Thus, accord-ing to them the spiritual essence of Jesus is the Word of God. However, this is also true for all other prophets of God. Hence, in Islam the idea of Jesus being the Word of God is accepted, but the idea of him being the unique and only Word of God is re-jected. Another source of difference is that even though Quran does not object to the central theol-ogy of Christianity, it does object to the language used to express this theology. However, the impor-tant thing to understand is that all these three monotheistic faiths believe in the same concept of one Creator. This Creator is called as God by Mus-lims/Jews and God the Father by Christians. What Christians call God, Sunni Muslims/Jewish do not

have a word for it. Thus, there is no dif-ference in all these monotheistic faiths with regard to the con-cept of the Creator, but the language used to describe Him.

Clarification

I have used Sunni

Is lam where other

sects differ from it, for

example, whereas

Sunni Muslims accept

Word of God being

from his essence and

thus uncreated, many Muslim sects, like the Shia

Muslims, do not hold this view.

Iguaza Waterfalls, Brazil

February 2013

7

70 or 72 Followers of Jesus in the Gospels?

by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi

(We give below an edited extract from articles Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi wrote in Paigham Sulh, replying to various allegations made against one of our books by a highly experienced and prominent Christian missionary of the Indian subcontinent, whose name was also Abdul Haq. One of the objections of the Christian critic was that a statement by Haz-rat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in a book referring to “72 emissaries of Jesus” was incorrect since the num-ber given in the Gospels is 70. He claimed that no Ahmadi could show the figure 72 anywhere. We quote below from the Maulana’s reply in Pai-gham Sulh of 26 August and 2 September 1964.)

In reply, we admit that in Luke 10:1 seventy fol-lowers are indeed mentioned. But learned peo-ple know that in Divine scriptures the numbers seventy and seventy-two stand for a large num-ber. In English this is known as ‘round figures’, and these merely mean a large number. This was not such a serious matter that you should have accused a respectable Imam of a commu-nity of exaggeration and fabrication. However, God intended that you should be utterly van-quished in your combat with His champion (i.e., Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad), and therefore He caused you to issue the challenge that the num-ber of these followers was 70 and not 72.

The mention of 72 instead of 70 from the pen of the Promised Messiah is a miracle. Hazrat Mirza sahib did not know Greek, nor was he well-versed in English. In the Urdu and English translations of the Gospels, designated as au-thentic, the number of these preachers is given as 70. And in the Greek text published by the Church of England, their number is also ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomēkonta) or seventy, but in the margin it is noted that in some Greek manu-scripts the number is ἑβδομήκοντα δύο (heb-domēkonta duo) or seventy-two.

It was God, the Knower of the unseen, Who

caused the Imam of the time to write these words, because he was taught by the Holy Spirit. The Christian missionary Abdul Haq did not know it despite studying and teaching the Gos- pels all his life, and this humble writer (Maulana) Abdul Haq would never have known it if he had not consulted that Greek text to reply to the missionary’s objection about the number 72. My faith in the Promised Messiah has in-creased. Certainly it was God Who caused Haz rat Mirza sahib to write these words, and today we can even show this self-styled Chris-

tian ‘conqueror of Qadian’ the word seventy-two, not in the margin, but in the main text it-self. The top-most Christian clergyman of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent accuses Hazrat Mirza sahib of fabrication. Nor-mally one would expect that a Christian mission-ary who has been study-

ing and teaching the Gospels for over half a cen-tury, taking part in religious debates, and is the head of their theo logical college, is bound to be knowledgeable, indeed extremely learned, in the Gospels. On the other hand there is Hazrat Mirza sahib, who had definitely studied the Gospels, but he did not have the opportunity or the re-sources available to the Christian missionary for this study. It is certainly not an ordinary thing that such a prominent Christian theologian chal-lenges the Imam of the age about a reference in the Gospels.

The challenge of the reverend, made after Hazrat Mirza sahib’s death, is to every Ahmadi, not only those of the present time but the mil-lions to come till the end of the world, that they shall not be able to meet his demand. As against this bold challenge, there is the promise of Allah to the Imam of the time as follows: La nabqi la-ka min al-mukhziyat dhikri, meaning, “We shall not leave behind you anything which can humili-ate you”, so that anyone trying to disgrace him will face disgrace himself.

It is perfectly true that in the Gospels pub-lished till the time of the Imam of the age, in Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English, which were called the Authorised Versions, the number of

Monument Valley, USA

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February 2013

disciples is given as 70 and not 72. However, when this Christian missionary issued what he firmly believed was an unassailable challenge, and accused Hazrat Mirza sahib of fabrication, then God, the Defender of the honour of His own Imam, manifested a miracle. A humble servant of the Imam set out to look through the Greek texts of the Gospels, and discovered the refer-ence to 72 in the marginal notes of the Greek edition of this same authorised version, saying that in some manuscripts the number is given as 72. But after this, I received a Greek edition of the Gospels published in the U.S.A., in which not in the margin but in the main text the number of these followers is stated to be 72.

This is a miracle of the Imam of the age. I received this edition only two weeks ago, ex-actly at the time of need when I had to reply to this allegation. Although the Imam of the age did

not know languages such as Greek and Sanskrit,

but the Imam of the age is after all the Imam of the

age. He is the Imam appointed by God, and it is not

possible for the theologians of the world, be they

eastern or western, to find faults with him.

(See: http://www.abdulhaq.info/english 1.)

Jesus Was a Muslim by Sheikhyermami

(July 12, 2012)

The head of the religion department at Lu-ther College in Iowa recently argued that Je-sus Christ, the central figure of Christianity, was in fact, a Muslim.

“Was Jesus a Muslim?” asks Prof. Robert F. Shedinger in the beginning of a book he pub-lished this year entitled Was Jesus a Muslim? ”I will answer with a very qualified yes.”

One could get the impression the only quali-fication to be a professor these days is a crack pipe. Or “high cheekbones”….

In a recent interview Shedinger also de-fended his controversial thesis explaining that a

Muslim undergraduate student had sent him on academic odyssey that culminated with him asking himself “Was Jesus a Muslim?”

“Even as a Christian I have to answer yes to that,” said Shedinger, who is the head of the religion department at Luther College in Iowa.

Shedinger also argued that Islam is a better fit for Jesus since it is not a religion but a “social justice movement.”

“I had to rethink what Islam is…. I came to the conclusion that it was a social justice movement and I think that’s who Jesus was in the first century so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim,” he said.

A few dollars from Sowdi Barbaria might have helped him to reach that ‘conclusion’.

The vast majority of scholars, historians, Mus-lims, and Christians date the birth of Islam to 622 AD when the Prophet Muhammad claimed to have received visions that were eventually compiled into the Koran. Jesus, on the other hand, is believed to have existed more than 600 years earlier, at around 0 BC.

A spokesman for Luther College, a small liberal arts school affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told Campus Reform on Wednesday that the administration stands fully behind Shedinger’s scholarship.

“The administration is very very comfortable with the proposal, with the book, and with what his statements about this situation are,” said Jerry Johnson, the school’s Director of Public Informa-tion. ”[T]he ground he is breaking with this book is not anything exactly earthshaking.”

Johnson added that Shedinger’s thesis had not stirred up on any controversy or opposition on campus where “the members or our religion de-partment are very respecting and have great re-spect for each other’s work.”

Campus Reform was unable to contact Prof. Shedinger in time for publication.

(Source: http://sheikyermami.com/2012/07/12/jesus-was-a-muslim-because-he-was-all-about-social-justice/ – slightly edited.)

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha‘at Islam Lahore (UK)

The first Islamic Mission in the UK, established 1913 as the Woking Muslim Mission

Dar-us-Salaam, 15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, UK, HA0 4JQ

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