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uh why did you become a
Muslim I became a Muslim because I was
searching for truth and truth for me
would mean that I was Integrity with
what I understood uh as a young child
about the age of 10 I remembering
looking at my grandmother and saying you
know God is very upset with us today all
of these songs are about Jesus and we
haven't sung anything about him yet and
she looked at me and she said yes there
a lot of things I don't understand
either so
um I was you know I was studying to be a
minister as a young child I started
preaching at the age of 10 and uh there
were questions that I had at an early
age um I wanted the truth and I knew the
truth would make me free
and one of the biggest questions were
questions concerning the Trinity which I
did not understand there were too many
scriptures that contradicted that
concept and also the canonization of the
Bible and these were questions that I
had as early as 12 years of
age and Islam answered all of those
questions for
me let's start first with uh the concept
of the Oneness of
God when we as Christians look at the
concept of the Oneness of
God we have Apostolic Christians who say
there's one God and then we have the
majority of Christians that say that
Jesus is God that you know God is God
and then he sent himself in the form of
a man in the flesh which was Jesus and
then he's his word which was the
Bible um in Islam of course we know that
there is nothing comparable to God and
there are 352 scriptures in the Bible
that contradict the notion of
trinitarian Doctrine the word Trinity
does not exist in the Bible from Genesis
to Revelation from the first book to the
last book um I did my thesis in Bible
College at the age of 15 entitled Jesus
Christ is not God needless to say I was
not asked to come back um
but this was one of the greatest
blessings to me was to find and
understand how how could the creat
Creator be compared to the creation you
know um and this of course was was one
of the greatest blessings of finding
Islam for me because it all made sense
all my life I believed
firmly that which the Old Testament
teaches Thou shalt have no other gods
before me and how could we then have
pictures of Jesus in the church if we
weren't supposed to have any graven
images if we weren't supposed to have
any Gods before us how could we pray to
him and then
the Testaments tell us that he's a
jealous God and if he's jealous and
we're singing about this other guy
called Jesus there's something wrong
with the story so
um that is the the parallel that of
certainly in in regards to the Oneness
of
God for
me the Ten
Commandments biblical perspective and
how Muslims View those Ten Commandments
do they also keep those Ten Commandments
what are they and and how do Muslims
view
them well when I think about the Ten
Commandments and I think about the path
that Muslims
follow what I find is that the Muslims
tend to follow that path in a stronger
way than the Christians that I knew um
the Christians that I know tend to focus
on what they refer to as Grace so that
it's okay if follow these Ten
Commandments but Jesus Christ came to
end the law is what they say instead of
to say that he came to fulfill the law
they say he came to end the law so you
really don't have to obey those things
in the Christianity that I came from
they're there and they're good
guidelines but it's okay if you don't
obey whereas in Islam the boundaries
that we need to establish an effective
constructive life are there and it's
very clear that these boundaries are
there you need to implement them in your
life and if you don't Implement them the
knowledge of them is useless it's like
uh where the the Hadith that talks about
the donkey one of the traditions of the
Prophet we can take the donkey and put
the books on his back but they're no
good to the donkey unless he implements
the
knowledge and so Islam teaches us the
importance of implementing that
knowledge and practicing those
Commandments and those Commandments are
certainly one and the same with that
which Islam teaches let's talk about the
different Revelations that God sent down
um and what your understanding of
previous Revelations are in relation to
what we believe to be the final
Revelation that's the
Quran when we talk about divine
revelation what comes to my mind first
is a scripture that I learned earlier in
my study as a Christian minister which
is that all scripture is given by God
and is profitable for Doctrine reprove
and correction that the man of God may
be thly
perfected well this uh
inspiration in the singular aric or
Greek is called Theo we all know that
means God pupus God breathed and from my
early years I knew that divine
revelation came straight from God that
it had to be the speech of God as we say
you know islamically the Calum of Allah
the speech of
Allah and so the speech of Allah La was
a had to be like a miracle that could
not be
contradicted and so what b bed me
tremendously was when I read what I was
being told was the speech of Allah and
it had contradictions and I knew in my
heart from a young child that when I
knew the truth and this is another truth
if you continue in my word then you are
my disciples you're my disciplined ones
and ye shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free I think it's
first John
1:9 um and I knew that when I found out
the truth that I would be free and as I
began to study the Bible the
canonization of the Bible and learned
that there were books of the Bible that
were in The mccabes Institute that I as
a Christian at that time did not have
access to that the Catholic church had
decided which books they would give us
and which books they wouldn't give us
that I begin to question the Integrity
of the King James version I'd like to
say because the inil as we call it the
Bible uh according to Islam we know that
it has no error in it that which was God
breathed that is the word of God has no
contradiction the same way with the
Torah we know that fables slipped into
those books we know that they painted
our prophets people that Allah sent to
us that God sent to us as examples they
painted them as hor mongers as drunkards
uh as terrible people God would not send
us a leader a messenger who would
practice who would not practice what
they were teaching or the teachings of
God so this troubled me tremendously in
my early days of studying the Bible and
the Torah was that as I began to look in
the
encyclopedias I was able to find the
history of the Bible and this was at the
age of 12 years old I was studying the
history of the
Bible when I came to the
Quran the final Revelation the final
addition that had never been changed for
1,400
years 1400 and a few years at that time
um it fit together like a hand in a
glove for me with the mathematical
exence uh uh exactness and a scientific
Precision there was no contradiction it
all made sense it also made sense with
that part of the Bible that I knew was
God
breathed when we talk about the synoptic
gospels we're talking about the Diaries
of men who had already deviated after
the death of Christ some of those books
were not discovered and found to 3 or
400 years after the Life of Christ so
the Quran is the final Edition and we as
Muslims absolutely know that there's no
contradiction in the Bible there's no
contradiction in the Torah there's a
contradiction in the translation of the
Torah there's a contradiction in the
translation of the Bible
just like there are some problems with
translations of the Quran but there's no
problem with the Quran it's the speech
of God and it's a
miracle let's talk about some of the
messengers of god let's start with Adam
and Eve and
creation if I think of Adam alisam or
Adam may peace and blessings of God be
upon
him I think of the first prophet of God
from an ISL isamic
standpoint from the Christian standpoint
I was taught that he was the first man
and that he was tempted by this
woman of course from the Islamic
perspective they were both tempted
equally and they equally stood before
God in judgment the same way from the
Christian Perspective the woman was bad
because she was the one that tempted us
and uh she was not
equal so when I look at Adam and howah
Eve
I love them and respect them and rever
them as prophets as people that repented
and who then obeyed God and is calling
us to do the same thing
now talks about Noah and the
flood the story of Noah from the
Christian
perspective is very similar to the
Islamic perspective Ive in that we know
that he was told by a lot to build this
Arc the Christian theologians had taught
me in Bible College that at that time it
had never rained in that part of the
earth so here's this man that has all of
this faith and this belief in God and
he's going to build this tremendous boat
where in a place that has never rained
and all of the people doubted him but we
know that he built this boat against
tremendous adversity the kind of
adversity that we many of us think we're
probably facing today
doubts but he did build that boat and we
respect Noah as a prophet of God
islamically a prophet that obeyed God
and fulfilled his command not a prophet
that was a bad guy but a prophet that
was an example to
mankind Abraham and his two
sons Abraham and his two sons when I
think of Abraham I think of my first
cousins uh because as a Muslim we know
that Abraham's sons are where the
offsprings of the Jews and the
offsprings of the Muslims come from so I
always look at Abraham as uh sort of
uh our father in many sense we look at
Adam as our father but we look at
Abraham as our father because we are The
Descendants from him and of course
Abraham was another man of God who was
obedient and who set the example and who
tried to raise his children to follow
God okay when we look at Abraham I also
think about he and uh Sarah Sarah as
people would say here in America uh when
they went to the Wilderness and there
was this Burning Bush and that Burning
Bush was a sign it was a light they were
lost and he says to his wife who was
such a woman of faith stay here I see a
light and that must mean there's people
there you know there's there's something
for us to eat maybe and this woman was
pregnant at the time and we have
struggles like this in our life today
and so we're able as Muslims to look at
Abraham and his struggles and relate
them to that which we uh are addressing
today again another example of a prophet
who was a good man who set an example
who obeyed God who did not disobey God
unlike what we see in the Bible or the
King James version I should say and the
what is referred to as the Torah
today tell me about Abraham's two sons
Ishmael and
Isaac well one of when I think of
Abraham's sons Ismael and Isaac uh we
obviously come from the descendants of
Ismael and we know that Ismael was a
God-fearing son as well as his father
that um a lot
commanded him to slay his son and when
his father told him of course he said
yes if that's what God told you to do
then do it and uh so we celebrate that
every year as Muslims we celebrate eat e
we celebrate this obedience to Allah
this obedience to God of this father and
the son so we love him and we rever
him
let's talk about the story of Jacob and
his sons particularly his son
Joseph yes in the story of Jacob and
Joseph uh if we look to the King James
version of the story we know that um
Joseph was uh sort of a favored son to
his father because he was so obedient
and his brothers were jealous of him so
they sold him into
slavery uh uh when we look at the story
from the chonic
standpoint what I see anyway is the
Miracles all along the way um I see how
the family had dreams and how uh they
were faithful and they were obedient and
so God
preserved Joseph and Joseph was tested
and Joseph withstood his test he passed
the test and he became Victorious and
was able to reunite with his family
these stories are very similar the story
of Joseph uh biblically and both
chronically are very very similar I
find let's go to Moses and the
Exodus um when I look at the story of
Moses peace and blessings be upon him uh
from the biblical standpoint versus the
chonic standpoint there again I tend to
look at the miracle of Moses more from
the quranic
standpoint um he was
challenged he was obedient God gave him
such rich rich Miracles among the people
and they were rescued and they were they
were followed um I feel that from a
corenic standpoint these stories are a
little more spiritually inclined they
are they point out the
Miracles uh that each of these Prophets
achieved or or experienced in their life
whereas in the Christian
Perspective these prophets that we've
been talked about are not revered at the
level that we rever them they are
referred to as great men of God but in
the Christian Perspective predominantly
we focus on the greatness of Jesus
Christ we don't focus on the greatness
of Abraham or the greatness of Noah or
the greatness of Moses or the greatness
of dud we focus on the greatness of
Jesus Christ and in Islam we celebrate
The Obedience of all the prophets and
their
greatness how do you see the day of
judgment terms of accountability signs
the day of
judgment when I reflect or contemplate
on the day of
judgment and I look at the difference in
how I saw that as a Christian versus how
I see it
today as a Christian we're taught that
are saved by grace that we have the seed
of the Holy Spirit and a large portion
of Christians believe that since that is
a perfect seed that it comes from God
that no matter what you do you will
always be saved and they refer to this
as eternal security Now not all
Christians believe that but a large
portion of them do so as a Christian uh
the perspective is that you can pretty
much do whatever you want to God will
forgive you he will have Grace upon you
and if you have confessed confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and
believe that God raised him from the
dead then you're going to be saved
that's Romans 10:9 and10 and that's it
the Islamic perspective of the day of
judgment is that first of all when you
become a Muslim you do your confession
of Faith or your shahada your profession
of Faith um and you declare the oness of
God it comes into your head and it's
something that you know about but as you
pray and as you oey God that moves into
your heart and then it moves into the
limbs of your body and your hands become
the hands of God your eyes become the
eyes of God your feet become the feet of
God because they are in obedience to
what God has
commanded and that is what is expected
of a Muslim he is in submission his
whole being his whole self is in
submission to God and on the day of
judgment as a Christian as a Muslim I'm
sorry on the day of judgment as a Muslim
our limbs are going to testify for or
against us our eyes are going to say
that whether we use those eyes to please
God or whether we use them to serve
ourself our ears our hands our all of
our body is going to betray us and say
you were born to serve God but you chose
to serve your lower desires yourself so
there is a tremendous difference in the
day of judgment View from a Christian
and Muslim
standpoint um let's talk about the
concept of
uh fate
Destiny
predestination whatever you call it okay
when we look at the uh concept of kader
I like to prefer to that as divine
intervention um some people say
predestination uh many Christ Christians
believe in predestination I believe that
uh it was predestined it was the cter of
Allah for us to be here today it was the
cter of Allah for me to preach and to be
a preacher to be an Imam to be uh a
speaker in Truth for God for my
Creator um islamically of course we
know uh it's part of our articles of
Faith it's part of our Declaration of
Faith it's part of understanding the
Oneness of God God that every single
thing that happens to the believer is by
Divine decree uh whether we judge it as
good or bad or indifferent every single
thing that happens to us is a blessing
from Allah it might be cancer it might
be death it could be any of those things
that we as humans sometimes tend to
judge as negative but they all come from
Allah and they all have purpose Divine
Purpose for our growth and for our devel
development as
Muslims second last
question death life after death how do
the two faiths view
it well what is propagated in terms of
death and life after death in the
Christian faith is pretty much that you
die and that's the shell that you lived
in and your soul goes to be with god um
there is some discussion there is some
talk about uh day of judgment there's
some talk about heaven and hell but
there is not nearly as much discussion
as there is from the Islamic perspective
of course in Islam we we visit Graves we
encouraged to visit Graves we're
encouraged to go to funeral prayers for
believers to remind us that this is
going to happen to
us and we are made made aware that when
the last person leaves that
grave an angel is going to come and
question our soul and ask us who our
Lord is and who our Prophet was and what
our religion was and we are going to
need to be prepared for those
questions and then we will have this
period of rest if we lived a good life
and our graves will be opened up and
they will be large and spacious filled
with light and a wonderful scent of
perfume from
Heaven whereas the Muslims teach the the
Christians teach I'm sorry that when you
die you're dead and you're of no
knowledge we as Muslims when we die we
know what people are saying around us we
know what people are doing we know if
they're crying we know what's going on
um and it's an interesting perspective
as well because we as Muslims respect
the body body of the dead so much more
than from the Christian Perspective we
as Muslims wash our own dead and we
treat them with tremendous respect
whereas in the Christian tradition uh
fingernails are clipped and uh all kinds
of things are done to the body to make
it look beautiful and then it's laid out
on display whereas islamically we return
back to the Earth with what we came with
pretty much with nothing we're wrapped
in sheeps sort of like we're wrapped in
diapers as babies um and the whole
experience uh of death
islamically is so much richer to me
because I know what I'm going to face
there and knowing what I'm going to face
there and knowing the questions allows
me to feel more prepared for that and
and I feel I'm ready for that if it
comes to me if it comes to my door I'm
ready for
that
last question you have the opportunity
to talk to your fellow Americans about
Islam briefly what would you tell
them when I have an opportunity to speak
to Americans about Islam I tell them
that Islam is a religion of Peace it is
a religion of submission to the Creator
and it is a religion of
Tolerance I quickly tell them and I want
them to know that Islam does not condone
the killing of
anyone unjustly and certainly does not
condone war in the fashion that we're
hearing about it today it it would be a
very poor religion if it didn't teach
you to defend
yourself but our religion teaches peace
and tolerance and our Prophet peace and
blessings be upon Him endeavored for 13
years to avoid war and that's what we
should be doing to today we should be
looking to build alliances with people
and to have peace with all people that's
what being a Muslim
is
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excellent
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