of Life a complete
way do you know what Islam says it says
that life the
greatest greetings and peace this is Dr
Lawrence Brown coming to you with yet
another episode we have been discussing
the evidences for the prophethood of
Muhammad s Al wasam in this episode
going to discuss the fifth section of
this discussion you'll forgive me if I
have to deal with this a little bit
superficially we originally designed
this talk for two sections but has come
out to five already I continue this
point however I just want to conclude by
saying that as polygamy is permitted in
the Holy Quran it is limited to four and
there are limits placed upon the
relationship and the rights of women we
have to remember that the Old Testament
permitted polygamy it was only outlawed
amongst ashkanazi Jews in the year 1,000
it was only outlawed in Israel in
1950 so the fact of the matter is that
the Old Testament recognized and
permitted polygamy without limit in the
same way the New Testament did not
specifically condone polygamy but but on
the other hand it did not forbid it
having said that the Revelation that
Muhammad Sall alai wasam conveyed for
the first time in
history um required women to be
respected and gave them their rights
they had to be married with necessary
formality and 1300 years before the
developed West gave women their rights
to inheritance their rights to property
their rights to wealth
their rights to religion Islam gave
these rights to women in the 600s when
Muhammad Sall alai wasam revealed the
revelation of the Holy Quran another
point that should be made is that even
until this time the church debates about
whether or not women have souls and yet
Islam recognized that women had Souls
equal to men and this recognition was
1400 years years ago to this day it
remains behind closed doors because it
is a politically sensitive issue but the
church still debates over whether or not
women have souls so I will conclude this
uh category of the evidence with Thomas
carlile's quotation as thus quote
Muhammad himself after all that can be
said about him was not a sensual man we
shall ER why widely if we consider this
man as a common voluptuary intent mainly
on base enjoyments nay on enjoyments of
any kind his household was of the
frugalist his common diet barley bread
and water sometimes for months there was
not a fire once lighted on his heart
they record with just Pride that he
would mend his own clothes patch his own
cloak a poor hard toiling ill provided
man careless of what vulgar men toil for
vulgar in Old English meaning common
careless of what vulgar or common men
toil for not a bad man I should say
something better in him than hunger of
any sort for these wild Arab men
fighting and jostling three and 20 years
at his hand in close contact with him
always would not have reverenced him so
they were wild men bursting ever and
Anon into quarrel into all kinds of
fierce
sincerity without right worth and
manhood no man could have commanded him
and yet command him Muhammad sallallah
alai wasam did and he did so through his
character and through conveying a
revelation that he did not compromise
for the base enjoyments of this life the
next category in this discussion is
maintenance of message meaning that we
expect to find in the example of a
prophet the maintenance of the core
message of what it means to be a person
of God again we are discussing the
evidences for the prophethood of
Muhammad sallallah alai wasam and I
submit that one of the evidences is that
he maintained the me of Truth in
Revelation to understand this we have to
that the core message of
Revelation truly never
changed Islamic monotheism teaches that
God is one we find if we step back we
find in the Old Testament we find the
first commandment is to recognize the
unity of God we find in the New
Testament that Jesus Christ is asked
three places about the greatest
commandment any states no oh Israel the
Lord thy God the Lord is one the Trinity
is not based on the teachings of Jesus
Christ the Trinity was a derived
Doctrine derived from extra biblical
sources and attributed to the
foundational teachings of Paul and
Pauline
theologians the teaching of the Prophet
Jesus was the teaching of Ted of the
Oneness of God we find in three places
in the Bible he spoke of the Oneness of
God and never spoke of the Trinity
charges which you can find again
explained in far greater detail either
in earlier sessions of these talks or in
my book
moted so the essential Creed in other
words never changed the laws taught by
Moses and
Jesus were transmitted with little
variation
little
variation that's a concerning phrase
isn't it little variation means that
there were some changes and indeed there
were in the time of Moses and Jesus
alcohol may have been permitted and in
the Islamic religion it was forbidden
and there were other changes as well few
and albeit small but significant changes
such as the abolition of the Sabbath
however we have to consider whether this
makes sense sense in the scheme of
Revelation because in fact we find the
example of
abrogation the example in which God
changed his laws according to time and
Circumstance for example God initially
permitted the Sons and Daughters of Adam
to marry it was a necessity the human
race sprung from their
ancestry but this of course was later
recognized as incest and and when the
human race had developed to a stage at
which it did not need to be incestuous
in order to propagate the race it was
forbidden we find that at one time a man
could marry two sisters but later this
was forbidden we find in one of the
fastest reversals of Revelation that
Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his
son but then relieved of the duty so
abreg
is not something that occurred just in
the Holy Quran or just in the New
Testament or just in the Old Testament
in fact according to the Human Condition
Allah adjusted the laws as needed in the
case of alcohol the Islamic
understanding is that mankind was not
ready in its earlier stages to accept
the prohibition on alcohol that this
would have been too difficult upon them
that they would not have been able to
maintain the Commandment it was not
until later that the Commandment could
be given because the people could
actually live by that commandment hence
that commandment was delayed until the
Islamic
Revelation similarly in the other
examples that I mentioned you can
understand the sense for having delayed
those prohibitions until the stages of
Revelation at which they were
appropriate now it is odd to hear
objections from the Christian quarter in
this
regard why well because Jesus Christ is
recorded in Matthew as having stated
that he did not come to destroy the
prophets or the law but to fulfill and
he went on to say that not one jot not
one till shall change from the law until
all be fulfilled he went on to clarify
till Heaven and Earth shall pass etc etc
the Christian claim is that the law is
canceled
by the concept of justification by faith
so we have Christians claiming that they
cannot accept the fact that Islamic law
abrogates some of their laws but on the
other hand the Christians abrogated the
entire Mosaic law with their concept of
justification by faith and we'll take a
break right now and come back to that
thought in just a few minutes please
stay with
us welcome back this is Dr Lawrence
Brown continuing this episode where we
are discussing the evidences for the
prophethood of Muhammad sallallah alai
wasallam I left off discussing the fact
that Christians may claim that they have
a problem understanding how the laws of
the Holy Quran abgate some of their laws
for example alcohol is permitted in the
New Testament alcohol is forbidden in
the Holy Quran and I was just saying
this is a very bizarre claim to come
from their perspective because the
Christian religion has taken the Old
Testament law and canel it on the
premise of justification by faith saying
that you can be forgiven of all things
if you just believe in the atoning
sacrifice of Jesus Christ whereas Jesus
Christ taught Old Testament law he was
known for this as Rabbi Jesus he was an
orthodox Jew that was the code he lived
by that was the law he professed in
multiple passages in the New Testament
the fact is that Jews have abrogated not
part of Old Testament law but all of it
and yet they have a problem with the
Holy Quran abrogating the law regarding
alcohol it's a very disingenuous claim
at the same time Christians effectively
argue that not just the law changed but
the essence of God himself that God
transformed from the wrathful god of the
Old Testament to the merciful god of the
New Testament so the claim is basically
you claim that alcohol is forbidden well
that's just ridiculous okay we have
changed the essence and nature of God
and we have canel all previous laws but
we can't believe that just this one law
has been abrogated that is a pretty
insincere thing to say so we can easily
understand that there may have been a
few changes in the laws the restrictions
of the Sabbath might have been lifted
the permissibility of alcohol might have
been anull but for the most part we find
that the laws of the Old Testament are
intact through the course of the
teachings of Moses the teachings of
Jesus Christ and the teachings and
Revelation that was transmitted by
Muhammad sallallah alaihi wasallam in
the same way we find that the Creed has
not changed as the Old Testament
declared in the first commandment that
know your God is one God Jesus Christ
taught the same message three places in
the New Testament that your God is one
God and the Holy Quran declares Divine
Unity not only declares Divine Unity but
condemns the Trinity so we find
preservation of the message of the
prophets okay not of the doctrines and
it's important to understand the
difference because different churches
have corrupted the doctrines of
Christianity to pattern their doctrines
after the teachings not of Jesus Christ
but the teachings of Paul and we have
discussed this in previous episodes It
is Well outlined in my writings on my
website in my books which I will mention
shortly but all of these statements are
backed by evidence and fact so what do
we find in that case we find that the
prophet Muhammad sallallah alai wasam
did not cancel or change the Creed of
the Jews or the Christians but rather
maintained it now what is important
about this is that he did not compromise
the
Creed according to the teachings of
Jesus Christ to satisfy those who had
already compromised it what do I mean by
that what I mean by that is although he
maintained the true teachings of
previous prophets teaching that God is
one as Moses and Jesus taught this was
not what most most Christians at the
time believ most Christians at the time
believed in the Trinity remember this
was
640 650 660 CE whereas the Trinity had
been canonized in
325 so many Christians if not most were
believing in the Trinity they were
professing mysteries of faith and
Muhammad sallallah alai wasam
transmitted a revelation
which supported the true teachings of
Jesus Christ not the Corruptions of the
doctrines that have been derived by the
trinitarian church now that is
significant why that is significant
because a false prophet would have been
seeking to build up a congregation and
how do you build up a congregation you
give them what they want you give them
more of what they already have they are
believing that God is one but three in
one you tell them the same thing they
are believing that Christ will return
you tell them that you are Christ return
all of these things you give them what
they want you don't give them what you
want what is the example of Muhammad s.
wasam he gave them what God wanted he
gave them what had been revealed to
Moses he gave them what had been
revealed to Jesus and he gave them a
revelation that
supported the Creed that had been
revealed to those previous prophets yes
there were some abrogations in the law
but they were few and far between and
the bottom line is that a charlatan
would have built up his congregation not
by giving a revelation that is contrary
to what people believed not by
correcting people but by giving them
what they want what do we expect from
the example of a true prophet
we expect a true Prophet to correct
deficiencies correct matters in which
people have gone astray and guide them
back to the religion of Allah's design
and that is the example we find in the
person of Muhammad peace be upon him
so let us remember the story in Matthew
22:14 that concludes with the teaching
for many are coling
but few are
chosen we find that many are exposed to
these truths but few embrace them in one
case I would like to quote from how the
Muslims represented their faith to the
king of abisinia a Christian King who
inquired after their
beliefs they stated as follows quote Oh
king of
abisinia we used to be a people of
ignorance worshiping Idols eating dead
animals performing
indecencies casting off Family Bonds
doing evil to our neighbors and the
strong Among Us would eat the weak thus
remained our common trait until God sent
us a messenger we knew his ancestry his
truthfulness his trustworthiness and his
Chastity he called us to Allah that we
might worship him alone alone and
forsake all that which we have been
worshiping other than him of these
stones and Idols he commanded us to be
truthful in speech to keep our trusts to
strengthen our family ties to be good to
our neighbors to avoid the prohibitions
and blood and to avoid all
indecencies lying theft of the orphans
money and the slander of chased women
he further commanded us to worship Allah
alone not associating anything in
worship with him he commanded us to pray
pay charity and
fast so we believed in him accepted his
message and followed him in that which
he received from Allah worshiping Allah
alone not associating any partners with
him refraining from all proh bitions and
accepting all that which was made
permissible for us well the Christian
king of
abisinia upon hearing the statement
declared
what did he declare G we never heard
that message before no he declared that
this was the message of the Prophet
Jesus Christ recognizing that Muhammad's
Revelation and example sallallah alai
wasam
maintained the true message of Allah the
true message of God the Christian king
of abisinia sheltered the Muslims and
the tradition relates that he himself
embraced Islam to conclude I am going to
quote not from a Muslim Source but from
alons De Li Martin one of the most
famous historians of all time he stated
as follows in speaking of Muhammad peace
be upon him his life his meditations his
heroic revilings against the
superstitions of his country and his
boldness in defying the furies of
idolatry his firmness in enduring them
for 15 years at Mecca his acceptance of
the role of public scorn and almost of
being a victim of his fellow countrymen
all these and finally his flight his
preaching his Wars against odds his
faith in his success and his superhuman
Security in
Misfortune his forbearance in Victory
his ambition which was entirely devoted
to one idea and in no manner striving
for an Empire his endless prayers his
Mystic conversations with God his death
and his Triumph
after death all these attest not to an
imposture but to a firm conviction which
gave him the power to restore to restore
Dogma this Dogma was twofold the unity
of God and the immateriality of God the
former telling us what God is the latter
telling what God is not the one
overturning overthrowing f false gods
with the sword the other starting an
idea with the words philosopher orator
Apostle legislator Warrior conqueror of
ideas restorer of rational dogmas of a
cult without images the founder of 20
terrestrial Empires and of one spiritual
Empire that is
Muhammad as regards all standards by
which human greatness may be measured we
may well ask is there any man greater
than he this is Dr Lawrence Brown
concluding this episode inshallah we
will continue next time until then I bid
you
peace do know