MUSLIM WORLD

"Religion is not interested in the transformation of human beings. Religion is show. Religion is song. Religion is dance and a false worship. Religion is ritual, but religion is not the cultivation of a human being, that that human can refl ect God in our actions, in our character, in the way we deal with our children, and our wives and our community and our world. We have failed."(The Hon. Louis Farrakhan 10-17-2004)

In this article we will review some of the histories of the people of the book(Ahl Al-Kitab).

As Muslims we are taught to believe in all the prophets of the past and their revealed word(scripture). We are further taught not to make any distinction between them.

"Say: We believe in Allah and (in) that which has been revealed to us, and (in) that which was revealed to Abraham, and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and (in) that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and (in) that which was given to the prophets from their Lord, we do not make any distinction between any of them and to Him do we submit." (HQ 2: 136)

"The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. They all believe in Allah and His angels and His Books and His messengers. We make no difference between any of His messengers." (HQ 2: 285)

The Holy Qur'an teaches us that throughout the ages the merciful ALLAH has raised prophets and messengers when humanity has went off the path of divine favor.

We are taught that every time the prophet left or died the people fell down into their former behavior, while still claiming to be followers of their prophet and his message. So, after the people went back from whence they were called Almighty God raised up another prophet to correct them, but usually the people would reject the new prophet in favor of the former prophet, while not recognizing that the new prophet only bears witness to the former and desires to take you to the next level.

It is similar to how we advance in school. When we master our lessons and graduate to the next grade we don't go back and say our last teacher was wrong and the new teacher is right or reject the next grade, because we learned much in the last grade.

Moses and the Children of Israel

"O Children of Israel, call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and that I made you excel the nations." (HQ 2: 122)

The children of Israel under the leadership of Moses, according to the Holy Qur'an, were brought out of a terrible circumstance in Egypt by Moses(Peace be upon him) and were being prepared by God to lead the nations in righteous conduct. However, they ultimately didn't fulfill their part of the covenant with God as the following words show: "And when We made a covenant with the Children of Israel: You shall serve none but Allah. And do good to (your) parents, and to the near of kin and to orphans and the needy, and speak good (words) to (all) men, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate. Then you turned back except a few of you, and you are averse." (HQ 2:83)

ALLAH kept sending prophets to warn, guide and renew the followers of Moses to the purity of his teachings. Yet, some prophets were killed, rejected or their teachings distorted by the scholars afterwards.

Finally, The Qur'an teaches(2:87) ALLAH took his favor away from the children of Israel and prepared another prophet to teach another community.

Jesus and the Christians

"And with those who say, We are Christians, We made a covenant, but they neglected a portion of that whereof they were reminded." (5:14)

Next we come to the history of the Christian community and their response to their prophet Jesus. (I am fully aware that the Christian belief is that Jesus was not a mere prophet and is God or the son of God, however I am not taking up that subject for the purpose of this article.) Jesus(Peace be upon him) came in the tradition of the prophets sent before him. He came to remind the Children of Israel of the supremacy of Almighty God, correct the errors that crept into the teachings of Moses and take them a step further in the revelation of the wisdom of God.

After the death of Jesus and his message going through Rome many changes would take place which would interpret his message quite differently that what he taught when he was among us. History teaches us that much of the doctrines that have been accepted as Christianity was formulated after the death of Jesus and was made official by vote at the Nicene Council in 325 AD.

After the emperor Constantine "accepted" Christianity he had a vision of the cross and Latin words translated which meant "With this sign we conquer". Jesus said, "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (Mark 7:6)

We see in history of the bloodshed committed by the European Christians against the people of the earth including the Native Americans and the Africans. Jesus didn't teach the people to be bigoted towards others, enslave them or kill others that are different.

I am not trying to pick on those who are Jews or Christians and proclaim the Muslims to be some holy righteous people, because as we will see in the next section the Muslims followed the way of those before them step by step as Prophet Muhammad prophesied.

As was seen in the history of Moses, ALLAH took his favor away from those who call themselves followers of Jesus and re-revealed his message 600 years later to Muhammad ibn Abdullah and in the land of Arabia to make them a nation of obedience to God and a example to others.

Muhammad and the Muslims

"And thus We have made you an exalted nation that you may be the bearers of witness to the people and (that) the Messenger may be a bearer of witness to you." (HQ 2:143)

In the year 610 at the age of 40 Muhammad(Peace be upon him) began to receive revelations which would later be compiled as a book called Al-Qur'an. He found his people in a low degraded state and over a 23 year ministry he transformed his people, united them into a nation and made them an example for the world. The Muslim world at that time was know for leading a sleeping humanity to the exploration of the sciences, medicine, mathematics and knowledge.

Soon after the death of the Prophet the Muslims would face circumstances that would divide them and lead them off the path of divine favor. For over 1400 years the Muslims have been arguing over who had the rights to "successor ship" to Prophet Muhammad. I put successor ship in quotes, because no one truly succeeds a prophet but another prophet raised by God. However, the Muslim community needed to fill a leadership void created by the death of Muhammad.

There was disagreement between who should be the leader of the Muslim Ummah(community). Some agreed with the selections of Abu Bakr, Umar ibn Khataab and Uthman ibn Affan. However, there was another group who believed that Ali ibn Abu Talib, the prophet's relative and son in law, was the fittest person for the job. I will not be debating the arguments of both sides in this brief writing. To make a long story short, there were major disagreements which led to bloodshed and war among Muslim brothers and sisters, which have lasted till this day unfortunately. Two major sects of Islam(Sunni and Shiite) were created in the aftermath of the division and bloodshed.

The Prophet Muhammad warned the Muslims against killing each other in the following words:

"Once the sword is unsheathed among my followers, it will not be sheathed until the Last Day."

The Muslim world is currently manifesting major deviation from the path of Prophet Muhammad and his Sunnah. The followers of Muhammad have joined the followers of Jesus and Moses in deviation from the path of Almighty God ALLAH and divine favor.

The Holy Qur'an reminds Muslims, Christians and Jews of the ignorance of their division from each other.

"And surely this your community is one community, and I am your Lord, so keep your duty to Me. But they became divided into sects, each party rejoicing in that which was with them. So leave them in their ignorance till a time." (HQ 23:52-54)

Thank you for reading these few words.