Jonah in the Bible and Quraan

Both the Quraan and the Bible have stories on Jonah or Yunus in Arabic. The Quraan has it in Chapter 10 Jonah and the Bible in "The Book of Jonah". Some people in the West are quick to point out that the Quraan plagarised the Bible. This is not so because only the title is similar but the contents and the emphasis differ substantialy .

The Biblical Jonah is historical in nature focusing on events presented in narrative manner.Tthe story started with Jonah fleeing to the sea in a ship and after that cast away and he found himself in the belly of a big fish. Finally Jonah was brought ashore by this same fish. The story hardly mentioned the message God asked Jonah to deliver to the community at Nineveh.

The Quraanic Jonah. The story is not focused on events during Jonah's prophetic life but rather on what he said to his people as instructed by God. Jonah's adventure at sea, was but an example of the trial and tabulations prophets of old had to face, All of them were given the lie by the great majority of their people. Noah and Moses faced the same problem as Jonah

No Divinity,No Son

The Quran Chapter 10 Jonah, Verse 66 "OH, VERILY, onto God belongs whoever is in the heaven and whoever is on Earth: hence what is it that they follow - those who invoke, besides God, beings to whom they ascribe a share of His divinity.....

In Other Word.

God owns every living form in the heaven and the Earth. It is then impossible for any of those created beings to have a share of God's divinity. No human or spirit or angel is divine.

Verse 68 of the same Chapter says "They assert God has taken into Himself a son. Limitless is He in His glory. Self sufficient is He. He, onto Him belongs all that in heaven and earth. No evidence whatever have you for this assertion"

In Other Word

A human person, no matter how good he is, he is still imperfect in the eyes of God. A created being can never be equal to the Creator Only God is perfect.. For God to have a progeny (a human attribute) in literal or metaphorical sense, would amount to putting Him in the same category as human, This is an insult to God. Gods glory is limitless. He does not need any help from the creatures He created. God is self sufficient. To say that God has a son is a blasphemy because it is an insult against the Spirit..

Unwelcomed Guests

Foreign Head of States, unless they are European, visiting United States, are not well treated.. When the president of Iran flew into NY to address the UN General Assembly, he was not allowed to travel 20 miles from the UN Building. Poor Ahmedinijab. He told Larry King he would like to go to California
I wonder whether Tony Blair or Olmert had been treated the same way. Dr.Mahathir, the one time Prime Minister of Malaysia told us how the American made him remove his shoes at an American airport. He was traveling on diplomatic passport mind you to a country that Malaysia has diplomatic relation.

On the other hand when an American head of state visited an Asian country every care was taken to ensure his comfort and safety. George Bush visited Bankok and Indonesia. Roads were closed and thousand of policemen were stationed in the area he stayed because so many people wanted to kill him. Al Gore also visited Malaysia. We gave him one whole block of the Mandarin Hotel for his comfort and safety. Anti aircraft guns were placed on the roof so that nobody would bomb the hotel. An Asian head of state visiting USA would never get this kind of treatment from their host

Iran 2009

I watched the McCain/Obama Debate and I concluded that there would not be any policy change towards Iran. The country would still be viewed as a terrorist state that is hell bent on producing nuclear weapon. America feels treatened by Iranian bomb which has not been produced yet and the Muslim world too feels treatened by the thousand of American bombs that have already been produced.

It is obvious that both the presidential candidates have been bought over by the Jews who paid for their campaign expenses. Both gave their pledge to defend Israel from possible Iranian strike. Why is there so much hatred and distrust towards Iran? I think its because America has been goaded by Israel into taking this stand. Its Israel that want to destroy Iran. They have already asked George Bush for the green light to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

Had it not been for the bloody Jews, America would be on good term with Iran. The Quran is right when it says the Jews would spread corruption on Earth. They are the scum of the planet

Right to Invade U.S.A.

Going by what America is doing to other countries, like invading their home lands and destroying their cities, we too have the right to do the same to America. America will no doubt find this doctrine unacceptable. We too find American doctrine of unliteraism unacceptable. Are the American going by the Jewish claim that they are the Chosen People who have been bestowed special privilages by God? As such they think they can do anything they like on this planet.

If America can build nuclear plants why can't other countries? Why can't Iran? And why is it alright for Israel? These double standards. Malaysia is contemplating of building one. So America please stay out of this

Those thousands of nuclear warheads in America if they are not meant for Muslims, then for who else? America has strafed some villages in Pakistan . Now if Pakistan were to do the same to a township in Vermont, America would declare war on Pakistan right away. There would be demontrations from coast to coast expressing their indignant over the affair.

American Wars

During the last 50 years America launched 3 major wars. You will see what kind of monster America is
The First War
Victim: Vietnam
Who started it USA
Excuse for War: America allowed itself to be shot at in Vietnam waters
Reason for War: To stop the spread of Communism
Result of War: America lost
Comment: We never asked America to protect us from communism. Its none of America's
business if we go communist.
Victim killed: 3 million

The Second War
Victim: Afghanistan
Who started it: USA
Reason for War: To capture the supposedly 9/11 perpetrator. To use the country as a buffer
against China
Result: America lost
Comment: Use legal means to get Osama bin Laden out for trial

The Third War:
Victim: Iraq
Who started it USA
Excuse for War: Get rid of WMD later changed to bringing democracy to the Iraq
Real Reason: To control Iraqi Oil. To please Israel
Result of War: America Lost
Victim killed: one million
Comment: It is a stick up at the gas station that resulted in a gun fight

Blasphemy in Islam and Christinity

The Bible says "Blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven". I assume the Spirit refers to is God. The Bible, however never specifies what constitute Blasphemy. So I looked up the word in the dictionary. It says profanity and contempt towards God. Again this is not clear enough. What kind of utterance constitute profanity and what kind of act constitute contempt. I gave up but I concluded the two words means disrespect towards God like somebody in the West who said God is dead. That is disrespect alright.

Islam also believes blasphemy against God will not be forgiven. In this ,Islam is rather straight forward.
Its blasphemy if a person says there is another god besides the One he is worshiping. It also includes ascribing divinity to person or object. It also includes giving God a human attributes like having a wife for example. Punishment is severe. One will never be accepted by God any more. No amount of pleading and repentance would be of any use.

Both Islam and Christianity believe that blasphemy cannot be forgiven but they differ on what
constitute blasphemy and the punishment for it

Utopia

Once the world came very close to professing one common monothestic faith under the banner of Islam. However there was a secretarian split during Islam's long history, that gave rise to splinter religions like Judaism and Christianity.

It is silly of me to speculate a world with one common religion but I cannot help thinking that things could have been different. Israel would co-exist with its Arab neighbors and America would not give its blind support to Israel in spite of all the mischief Israel is doing much to the annoyance of the Arabs.
There would be no 9/11, no War on Terror and no Islamiphobia. We can conclude that the troubles in the world today is secretarian based.

There is no way these two run-away religions would ever come back to the fold. God says in the Quran that He had placed a veil over the hearts of the unbelievers. So be it.

Don't legislate our lives

Some years ago some bright sparks at the university said that Malay words should be pronounced differently - the Baku Way - that emphasizes the vowel sound of the final syllable of each word.The government some how agreed to this weird suggestion and instructed students in all schools to test run the new pronunciation. It went on for a couple of years and then the project discontinued - a natural death. Didn't the learned professor know that language cannot be legislated?

Next the government tried to legislate friendship to bring about better race relation. They organized
'Kongsi Raya" where the different races celebrate their respective festival together. Huge buffet was prepared, at government expenses of course. People came for the free grub. While eating, they grouped themselves along racial lines. There was hardly any inter-race inter-action. After dinner every body went home. And that was it.

The same can be said of National Service, where school leavers of all races are brought together to a jungle camp. They get to meet each other, for the first time mind you and stay together for three weeks or so and after that they all go home. Is there any improvement on race relation?

I think the government-organized gathering of inter-race get together is artificial. People don't fall in love under this artificially created simulation. Let's do race relation the natural way. Put the kids back in the same school!

Internal Security Act

The detention of Raja Petra Kamarudin under the Internal Security Act is uncalled for. The government is apparently unhappy with what RPK wrote in his blog in which he linked a certain politician with the murder of a Mongolian woman. The second thing the government alledged he wrote was his criticism
of Islam.We don't know what he said exactly, but according to the government, it was something bad. If that was the case, why didn't they tell us. I don't think RPK said anything bad about Islam. He is a Muslim himself. He probably commented about the morning call of prayer which exceeds a certain decibel. Many people want to speak out on this but they don't have the courage.

Applying ISA on RPK is unfair. It is like killing a fly with M-16. Malaysia has enough laws to deal with sedition in an ordinary court. If the government wants to push RPK into oblivion, they are wrong because the reverse will happen. RPK will get pushed into the lime light instead with all the publicity he gets.

RPK is not a treat to Malaysia

Quran, Bible Common Message

When Mary was carrying the infant Jesus, onlookers stopped to look. It was the infant Jesus himself who having been endowed with speech, replied. In the Quran 3:46 God says " He shall speak unto men in his cradle and a grown man shall be righteous" The actual reply Jesus made is described in the Quran 19:30 "Behold I am a servant of God. He has vouchafed into me revealation and made me a prophet"

One of the things Jesus said as a grown man is found in the Quraan 19:36 "Verily God is my sustainer
so worship none but Him This alone is the straight path" The command to worship the one God has also been mentioned in the Bible. In Matthew 4:10 Jesus said "You should worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve"

Conclusion:

1. Jesus was a miracle baby who could speak from the cradle
2. Jesus was a servant of God and a prophet. No mention of being the Son of God
3. Both the Quran and the Bible command men to worship the one and only God and nobody else.
4. Jesus was given a revelation , the Gospel

Oh Malaysia

We should know the problems Malaysia is facing and try to do something about it. First of all there are an awful lot of differences among folks in this country. I am listing down some of the major ones.
1.Ethnic differences - Malays, Chinese and Indians. No group is dominant unlike USA though it has a lot more ethnic differences, but Europeans are dominant there. So fewer problems in race relation
2.Malaysians speak different languages - Malay, Chine and Tamil. Though Malay is the national language, most Chinese feel more at home speaking English
3.Malaysian practice different religions - Islam, Buddhist Hindu and Christianity
4. Malaysians go to different schools. This problem requires immediate attention
5. Malaysia do different works for a living
6. Malaysians live in different areas. Generally the Malays in the rural areas and the Chinese in the Urban areas. There are Malays in the urban areas but they live in different enclaves
7. Some are very rich and some, very poor
8. Political parties are based on racial lines

Well, that is
Malaysia. The wonder of it all, is how we manage to stay away from fighting each other all this while

The use of "Son" figeratively

When God addresses mankind, He would say "Ya Bani Adam" in Arabic which means "O Children of Adam". When God addresses the Israelites, He would say "Ya Bani Israil" or "O Children of Israel". The use of the word "Children" is also extended to members of a tribe. "Bani Tamim" was a tribe in Arabia and members of the tribe were known as "Children of Tamim". Suppose a member of the tribe visited another tribe, then the host would address him as the "Son of Tamin" or the "Daughter of Tamim" whatever the case

Sometimes a person would be called by his/her famous ancestor. In the Quran Ch.19 Verse 28 God calls out to Mary "O Sister of Aaron.." Mary was no sister of Aaron. She was one of Aaron's descendents. In the same way, her cousin Elizabeth was known as "One of the daughters of Aaron
(Luke 1:5) I am trying to unravel the mystery how Jesus came to be known as the Son of God

The use of "Son" is also found in America. I watched a Western once. In that movie John Wayne said "Listen Son and you better listen good" as he grabbed an outlaw by the collar,

Who Wrote John?

I have just finished reading "The Gospel According to John" . If indeed if it was written by John himself then, that would be most appropriate because he and Jesus were childhood friends, In fact they were second cousins. Mary, Jesus mother and Elizabeth, John's mother were cousins.

However "The Gospel According to John" does not look like John who wrote it. The title itself is a give way. Why "According to John"? and not "By John"?. Another thing is why didn't John refer to himself as "I" ? Take a look at the following verses from the Bible

John 1:15 "John witnessed..." instead of "I witnessed................."
John 1:18 "John talks about..... instead of "I talked about........"
John 1:20 "He confessed...... " instead of "I confessed......
John 1:22 "Then they said to him " instead of "Then they said to me......"

From these examples we can conclude that somebody else wrote the gospel after interviewing John. Can we trust the fellow for not adding his own words to the gospel? This happened in other places in the Bible for example in the story of Judah making love to his own daughter in law.

We can take it whatever John says in the Bible. It does not really matter whether he wrote the gospel himself or he asked somebody to do it. The only part we find it hard to accept is when John says in the Bible that Jesus is the son oGod

JOHN! Did you really say that.? God mentioned your name in the Quraan! Remember you are the 23rd. Prophet of Islam and your cousin Jesus the 24th. Remember also that your dad Zachariah
is the 22nd. Prophet of Islam

Its the Schools, Stupid!

It is good to see that Malaysians today are talking about unity after seeing the people drifting into
ethnic polarization. Unity is not like what the tourist brochures like to describe. But there was no polarization during my time when Malays, Chinese and Indians played together and learned together in the same school. How we enjoyed those days, going camping, and not pressured by the demand of getting straight As.

Our education system is supposed to be built on the foundation of "Razak Report" which spells out clearly that the objective is to achieve national unity. But our politicians messed up the original set up.
In the name of nationalism, they did away with the English medium schools and replaced them with Malay and Chinese medium schools. That was the first damage done. The second damage was when they started racial politics and talked with racial slur in order to win votes.

The original objective of education as outlined in the "Razak Report" has been forgotten and buried by our obsession for Straight As
Striaght As won't save us from racial turmoil but the educational objective based on "Razak Report", can save us from having to face the night mare of May 13 again

Quran Chapter 6 Verse 16

( Warning: Readers' Discretion Requested. Content might be offensive to followers of the Christian faith)

The Quaran Chapter 6 Verse 16 states that "No bearer of burden be made to bear another's burden"
This same verse is mentioned in five more places in the Quaran - 35:18, 37:7, 53:38 and 17:15

The verses above means:

1. You bear you own sin and you cannot get another person to bear it for you.

2. Sin cannot be atoned. In other word another person cannot forgive your sin not even the
prophets. Forgiving sin is the sole prerogative of God.

3. God is forgiving. Matthew 12:31 says "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven but the
blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven " The Quaran is in complete agreement with
the Bible on this. We can take it that God has forgiven the sin of Adam because Adam's sin
was not "A blasphemy against the spirit". This is confirmed in the Quaran 2:37

4. So there is no "Original Sin" and Jesus is not authorized to carry out "Atonement"- Non of the
Hebrew prophets ever given this authority.

A Chat with a Hindu

Once I attended a seminar at a university in Kuala Lumpur. I put up with a professor from India. After the seminar, back in our room, we discussed religion. I asked him why Hindus pray to images of their daities . He said those images were just objects without any divine attributes. Their main function was to help devoutees reach out to the real daities in heaven because they needed something in the form of images to help them concentrate. He was talking about "daities". I refrained from asking him why there were so many because I didn't want the discussion to get too deep in that first meeting

However, he complimented the Muslims for being able to reach out to God in prayer without the necessity of placing images in front of them as "Praying Aid". He also said in Hinduism only a person who has reached a certain level of holiness could do away with images when praying.

Hinduism is an old religion, much older than Abraham. I believe that all religions, Hinduism included, were started by God-inspired individuals but over the centuries the original teaching under went extensive changes by later adherents.

Jesus in Different Cultures

European Jesus has dark brown hair, thin sharp nose and clear skin so unlike the ancient Jews who had dark hair, nose slightly hooked and skin sun burnt, the result of travelling around on donkeys under the sun. Jesus probably had a turban or a covering on his head just like the Arabs who were ethnically and culturally the same as the Jews.

In America I was surprised to see Hispanic Jesus that did not resemble the European Jesus I was used to seeing in many places. The Hispanic Jesus looked so very Mediterranean. I wonder what Jesus in other lands looks like - in Lebanon, Ethiopia, China and Japan. There are pockets of Christian communities in those countries. The Ethiopian Jesus definitely is dark skinned. There are Christian communities in Indonesia too. I wonder whether Jesus there wears a songkok.

If I were to draw a portrait of Jesus, I would have a young man of Semitic descent with thin black beard and a hood or turban that keeps out the sun. But this image would not go well with the religious sentimentality of the Christians in Europe. They would ask "How come the person they worship does not look like them?"

Saved by the Heat

I was looking at the globe in my study when I noticed large swath of the Earth surface have been taken away by the white men from the original native owners - North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Is ownership of these lands today legal or otherwise.

In Malaysia, white men came to settle down; first the Portugese, then the Dutch and finally the Britts. If it had not been for the tropical heat, the Britts would have come here in droves and in no time time the country would be full of them. If that happened, today I would be going about barefooted in the jungle hunting with a blow pipe. Then the Britts. moved on the cooler places like Australia and New Zealand. The native abrogines in Australia were pushed to the outback but the Maoris of New Zealand got a much better deal from the Pakeha, the white man. I consider myself lucky to be saved by the tropical heat.

The Red Indians of North America were in the same predicement when the pale faces - white men - came to their land. There was no tropical heat there to save the Red Indians. Pale faces from many parts of Europe came to settle down. Iinjuns end up in the reservations

I would like to see the day when descendents of Chief White Cloud, Black Hawk or Sitting Bull run for the office of president.

Jews the Rebels

I am going to talk about the Children of Israel. Ehud Olmert, Arial Sharon, Livini are descendents of this Children of Israel or "Bani Israil" in Arabic.Shortly after the exodus from Egypt, more than 3000 years ago, the Children of Israel started to rebel against God. This rebbelion is described in many places in the Quaran such as in "Al-Isra" 17:4,6,7. The Bible too describes the rebellion in more details in Leviticus xxvi 17:14 - 39 and in Deuteronomy xxviii 15 - 68. John (Yahya) and Jesus (Isa) also talked about people who sin or break the covenant.

The Quaran also mentions God's chatisment over the Children of Israel. Their country, Palestine, was attacked by foreign forces many times. First by the Assyrians in about 600 BC that resulted in the "Ten Lost Tribes". After this, Palestine was attacked by the Babylonians and carried off the children of Israel as slaves in Iraq. In this attack the Temple of Solomon was destroyed. After their release from captivity, they returned to Palestine only to be attacked again by the Romans.

Do the Jews of today know God's wrath on them? Do they still remember they were without a country for a long time and lived scattered through Europe only to be slaughtered by Adolf Hitler in the second world war, by the millions. Are the Jews aware they are being despised by many nations as prophesised in the Quaran and the Bible?

Will the Jews ever know that the message Moses failed to carry out would later be given to Muhammad to carry out about 1400 years later?

Iranian Nuclear

The American government, or rather their Jewish Master, is very much against Iranian Nuclear Plant. The reason they give is radiculus that do not reflect the thinking of a level headed human being. I think the American Americans do not object much to Iranian Power Plant. They are more concerned with putting food on the table, roof over their heads and gas in their cars. It's the Jewish Americans that raise all the objections because of their distrust of Islam. They do not want their kins in Israel to feel treatened by surrounding Islamic countries.

American objection to Iranian Nuclear Plant would not happen if:

1. Iran was a Christian country. American would feel that Iranians were their Christian brothers. Imagine, what would Americans feel if Germany was a Muslim country. Wouldn't there be protests all over if Muslim Germany wanted to develop a Nuclear Reactor? Christians have been keeping an unconcious grudge against Muslims since the days of the Crusade.

2. The leader of Iran was a good friend of America. In 1970's Iran had such a leader in the person of the Shah. The Shah was welcomed in America. In fact America supplied Iran with a lot of military hard ware. If the Shah had wanted a Nuclear Plant, the American would gladly give assistance.

It is difficult to make out what the objection to Iranian Power Plant is all about. It appears to me the American in the Corridor of Power are no longer able to think straight

Same Religion

The Quran 17:1 describes the Night Journey undertaken by Muhammad a year before the Hijrah, from the Inviolable House of Worship (Masjid Haram) in Mecca to the Remote House of Worship
(Solomon Temple) in Jurusalem.

The two sacred temples above show one thing; Solomon and the whole line of Hebrew prophets, including Jesus, were of the same religion as Muhammad. It is unthinkable that God would send Muhammad to the Temple of Soloman, if Solomon was of different religion..

It is also unthinkable if the Hebrew prophets and the Arabian prophets were sent by different gods.

U.S.A.2009

Sarah Palin is an innocent princess from Alaska that John McCain picked as his running mate for the run up to the White House. One may say that he needs the princess as a crowd puller on his campaign trail. This may be true but I suspect there must be something else more important.

Republican gets a strong backing from the Jewish Lobby AIPAC and I suspect that George Bush himself is a neo.con. That's how he managed to get his two terms - first through a court order and second through cheating - both bear the hall marks of AIPAC. Bush is AIPAC's favorite because the dude is dumb enough to be led by the nose. Now that Bush is leaving, the Jews need another dummy to fill his place. That dummy is Sarah Palin.

Republican will no doubt win again this time around although Barrack Obama seems the favorite. Never under estimate the power of the Jews who back Mc.Cain. So the princess will be the Vice President. That 71 year old McCain will not last long. If he does not succumb to cancer, somebody will engineer his death the way they engineered the death of Yassir Arrafat. Then Sarah Palin will be the president the way the Jews plan it.

Sarah Palin is a typical American mum who doesn't really care or understand geo-politics. I gather this from watching her interview with a certain Charlie. She tried to impress him by rattling off the names of presidents of some countries- which Charlie didn't ask!
Knowing this, AIPAC has started giving her lessons the way they tutored Gorge Bush before.. Sarah Palin came out of her class declaring undivided support for Israel. Good student!
.
The way I see it America has gone to the dogs. The economy is in a mess. Political power, gone. Its people despised through out the world. In 2001, I predicted Bush and his Jewish buddy, Sharon
would mess up the world. And they did. Republican will mess up the world again unless Barrack Obama gets to sit in that Oval Office.

Contradiction

In Deuteronomy 18:18 God said to Moses "I will raise for them a prophet like you from among your brethren and will put My words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him "
This prophecy refers to the advent of Prophet Muhammad which I discussed in my previous essay.

However after the demise of Moses, Deuteronomy 34:10 states that "Since then, there has not arisen a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face " This verse is a contradiction to
Deuteronomy 18:18 because nine more prophets came after Moses - Aaron, Illyas, Eliza, David, Solomon, Zachariah, John, Jesus and Muhammad. Out of these nine, the prophet that is "like Moses"
is Muhammad (see my previous essay on this)

Words of God are never contradictory. If it happens, it is caused by the hands of man

The Jews in the Quran

In the Quran, the Jews are referred to as Bani Israel, a term which evokes a feeling of sadness whenever I hear somebody reading the Quran calling out "Ya Bani Israel". Its like a father calling out his long lost son to return home. Bani Israel used to be God's favorite at one time. They were the first people to accept monotheism. God honored them by giving Moses, their leader, the first revealation- The Torah. God told Bani Israel to take good care of the Holy Book failing which He would cease giving further guidance. Bani Israel however started doing mischief right from the start after escaping from Egypt in 1258 BC. When Moses was out on Mt.Sinai, they took to worshiping the golden calf.
God, however forgave them for this.

After the demise of Moses, Bani Israel became arrogant. They considered themselves "The chosen People" with special previlages. Heaven is exclusively created for them. Non Jews were excluded. They amended the Torah to their liking. Corruption set in one after another. More prophets were sent down to get Bani Israel on the right footing but they killed some of the prophets. Then Jesus came to revive whatever remained of the Torah. They rejected him and instead called him an illegitimate child.

Finally God sent Muhammad with the same mission as Jesus but Bani Israel refused to accept him because Muhammad was an Arab. Only somebody from Bani Israel was qualified for prophethood

Fasting

There is a little angel and a little devil in each of us. During fasting month we should make an effort to subdue the little devil and make a conscientious effort to keep up with what the little angel is telling us

Fasting is ordained to all the prophets. The Bible (Matthew) says " A fasting man should wash his face so that others do not know he is fasting. Fasting should be seen by God only" Moses too fast for ten days to cleanse himself prior to receiving the Torah"Jesus too fasted for forty days when he was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil"

Today I think younger Christians do not observe fasting. Once I worked in a restaurant in United States. The manager asked me why I was not eating. I told him I was fasting and he laughed "You are just like my grand mother" he said. So I take it older Christians do fast.

A not so holly story

The following story is taken from the Bible Genesis 38

38:15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot because she had covered her face

38:16 Then he turned to her by the way and said "Please let me come into you" for he did not
know she was his daughter in law. So she said "What will you give that you may come into
me?"

38:17 And he said "I will send a young goat from the flock" So she said" Will you give a a pledge?"

38:18 Then he said "What pledge shall I give you?" So she said"Your signet and your staff that is
in your hand" Then he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him

Commentary

1. These are definitely not words of God. They are the words of copyists who tried to spice up
the Bible with tales of whore. This part of the Bible should be expunged
2. The story reflects the mentality, morality and values of Jews long ago
3. What message does the story contain
4. Why didn't the woman recognize her father in law?

Little Angels and Little Devils

Every one of us has Good Impulse and Evil Impulse or to put it in another way every one has one Little Angel and Little Devil that reside in his soul. God put them there to test mankind how they manage their lives. Men are Creatures of Choice which means that they are free to choose between Good and Evil. The first man put to test was Adam. Satan invoked Adam's Evil Impulse and he succumbed to the temptation that resulted in his fall from grace. It was a part of God's plan because the fall from grace made Adam aware of the presence of evil, of right and wrong. Adam became a better person. Before the fall, he was going around naked and lived by instinct like animals.

Christians believe that it is the sin of Adam that has been passed down his descendants from one generation to the next. Muslims on the other hand believe that, its the Good Impulse and the Evil Impulse of Adam that has been passed down the generations. As a result of these differing beliefs the way to salvation is also different. The Christians say salvation is by submitting one self to Jesus but the Muslims say salvation is by submitting one self to God, to the Father as the Christian say it. In fact the word Islam means submission to God

Now who works on the Good Impulse and on the Evil Impulse? God Himself takes care of the Good Impulse and Satan, the Evil Impulse. This is what one has to do in order to get the benefit of God's guidance through the Good Impulse. One has to establish and maintain a line of communication with God. Call it hot line if you like.The important thing is to be on line. This is possible through regular daily prayers and also through zikir or remembrance of God and extolling His glory

The status of Satan is controversial. I mean is he a good guy or a bad guy. I don't know the answer but he definitely has a role to play in God's great plan. God banished Satan. Satan asked for a respite. God said OK. Satan has until Judgment to repent. I have not found similar story in the Bible.
But if Western literature is a reflection of Christian belief, then I would like to quote John Milton
the writer of the epic Paradise Lost in which he mentioned Satan asking for respite.

God by virtue of being God knows what Satan would say to human kind on Judgment Day. Satan would say "I only invoked your Evil Impulse. You responded. Blame not me. Blame yourself"

Was Jesus a Christian?

(This not an anti-Christian site. I am sorry if anybody gets upset with what I write)

If Jesus Christ were to come back to Earth tomorrow, he would not respond when a reporter addresses him as Mr.Christ. This is because his given name at birth was Isa and not Jesus Christ. You may say that his name has been Hellenized (Greek) or Latinized, and so the change in name does not matter very much. OK fine. Suppose the Pope asks Isa / Jesus to give s short talk on Christianity, to a crowd at Vatican, he would be at a loss because there was no religion of such name during his life time.

The next important question is Isa / Jesus a Christian? I think No because his mission was not to form a new religion but to revive the Torah given to Moses. Incidently Muhammad's mission was also the same and that is to revive the Torah and the Gospel because parts of the contents of these holy books bear evidence of human hand

The sad thing is that two billion Christians worship Isa / Jesus who was not even a Christian himself

Jesus or Mohammad?

Deuteronomy xxxiii: 15 and 18, prophesized the advent of a prophet after Moses. The Muslims mantain that the prophet prophesized was Mohammad while the Christians mantain that it was Jesus. Lets see who fits the description in the prophesy. The following verses from the Old Testament form the basis of comparison.

Deuteronomy xxxiii:15 The Lord your God will raise up unto thee, a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, him you shall hear

Deuteronomy xxxiii:18 I will raise a prophet like you among their brethren and will put My words in his mouth

Basis for Comparison	Moses	Jesus	Muhammad
1. Natural birth-have parents	Yes	No	Yes
2. Natural death-buried in graves	Yes	No	Yes
3. Married	Yes	No	Yes
4. Have children	Yes	No	Yes
5. Political leaders	Yes	No	Yes
6. From the seeds of Abraham	Yes	No	Yes
7. Involved in Exodus	Yes	No	Yes
8. Long prophethood	Yes	No	Yes
9. Put words in his mouth by God	Not sure	Not sure	Yes the Quran is 100% God's words

If we base our argument on Christian belief Jesus is further disqualified for the following reason

Basis for Comparison	Moses	Jesus	Muhammad
Human being	Yes	No-he was son of God	Yes

When reading this, please put your religious pride aside because we are not debating the issue with human beings on Earth but with God himself. Pray to Him that He shows you the truth.

Conspiracy

The other day I had a talk with a doctor about the on going Anuar sodomy case. He said it was difficult to prove unless one finds Anuar's semen in the anus of the victim. Even if there was some trace of semen there, it would have been flushed out by now. The governmenmt or the police, whatever, are desperate to get hold of Anuar's DNA. The day Anuar was released from police custody, several people entered the cell looking for Anuar's hair, or dead skin tissue that could have fallen to the floor from which they can obtain DNA. I don't know what they found. They never reported that part of the story to the newspaper. Ten years ago when Anuar had his first sadomy trial they brought a matteress into the court room with telling stains.on it. According to DNA report some of the stains belonged to Anuar and the others belong to a woman I won't mention name. A tall tales indeed!

The government wants Anuar to shut his big mouth up.. One way of doing it is by convicting him with a trumped up sodomy charge. If convicted, he would spend the next 20 years in prison

Cross Cultrure Marriages

I have seen American men who got married to Malaysian Muslim women they met on university campuses overseas. The parents of the Americans did not make an issue over it when their sons converted to Islam in order to marry Muslims. I get the impression that changing one's religion is like changing one's political affliation like a Democrat crossing over to Republican.Nothing unusual in the land of the free that worships freedom with a religious fervor.

I can only conclude that American do not have a firm grip on Christianity unlike Muslims who would hold on to their faith no matter what the circumstances are. There is a saying that you may own the world but it ain't worth a dime if you lose your soul.. I think Americans let go their faith easily because the Bible hardly mentioned God's retribution for breaking the covenant. On the other hand, the Quran keeps reminding us over and over the punishment for wrong doing and the reward for being righteusness.

Many years ago there was a case of a Muslim woman in Malaysia who wanted to convert to Christianity. It was a disaster for her parents and family. Newspeper talked about it for weeks. A Muslim is not free to change his/her religion. The West regard this as an infringement of human rights

Unresolved Questions

There is only one universe - no argument about that. There is only one God that created it - probably no argument about this too. So there should be one common religion for mankind but why are there different religions today? Did God make religions different or was it man the culprit. I am inclined to think of the later.In my effort to prove that God plans one common religion, I am putting down verses from the Holy Books that show there is only one God. (one religion)

Matthew iv:10 You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve

Luke 14:8 You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve

John xx: 17 I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God

Quran 5:72 Jesus said "Oh children of Israel. Worship God alone who is my sustainer and your sustainer"

Of Jackets and Ties

I hate putting on ties. It's an imported culture that should be done away with. Tie has outlived its usefulness. At one time in the West it was used to hold the shirt collar so that it appeared neat. Todays shirt collars are already neat.

I also hate putting on a jacket in Malaysia where day time temperature can hit 33 C.
Ties and Jackets did no originate in Malaysia. They were brought here by the colonialists. Yes, we had been colonized for 500 years. Now that the colonialists have gone, why are jacket and ties still here. I think that has something to do with social status that gives the wearer a sense of exclusiveness. They chose to be uncomfortable wearing alien clothes, as long as they get that feel good feeling

Why are the Arabs in Saudi Arabia not wearing ties? They have been putting on their white robes for thousand of years. They wear it in all situations and for all occation .Taxi drivers wear it and so are delegates at International conferences. The Iranians do away with ties altogether. These countries have never been colonized by the West.

It's time that Malaysia thought of something to replace jackets and ties. As it is Malaysia has no identity as far as dressing is concerned. Look at the Indians , Punjab and Pakistani. They have dress identity

Fact or Myth

How much of Christianity is fact and how much of it is myth. A case in point is the divinity of Jesus. Paul did refer to Jesus in the Bible as the son of God but we do not know for sure whether he meant it literally or figuratively.

Ascribing divinity to kings in the ancient world was fashionable. The pharaohs of Egypt claimed they were divine. So did some of the Roman emperors. Julius Caesar was one of them. In Japan, emperors were divine until very recently. Was Jesus given the divinity status because of the trend in ancient time.

The divinity of Jesus and his son ship of God was suspiciously similar to a Greek legend when a god descended on earth and impregnated the goddess Olympia. From this union, a baby god, Zeus, was born without an earthly father. So a child born to Mary, without an earthly father must be a baby god as well. Paul was one of the advocates of Jesus divinity.

The original gospel of Jesus written in Aramaic was taken to Greece, translated and given the title
Evagelion . It was later taken to Rome, translated again and renamed Bible. As the holy book moved westward to Europe, it picked up on the Greek and Roman beliefs

Please Tell Me

I feel sorry for the Christians. They are burdened by the sin of Adam since the time they were born. As for me I rejoice at being born a Muslim- clean like a piece of white cloth not tainted by the sin of Adam. The Quran tells us after that first act of disobedience, Adam cried his heart out begging God for forgiveness and God has forgiven him.

The God that Muslims and Christian worship is the same God. There is only one God in the whole universe. So what God tells the Muslims about Him forgiving the sin of Adam is applicable to the Christians as well. God's forgiveness of Adam has not been mentioned in the Bible - may be due to an oversight - not the over sight of God but the oversight of ancient scribes who copied and recopied the Bible from the original Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) to Greek, Latin, German etc

So my friends, please rest assured that you don't have to worry about about Adam's sin that has been passed down to you over the centuries. You have only to worry about your own sin.And I worry about mine.If you cannot accept this argument, its fine by me. Christians say that God is love, caring, compassionate forgiving and ever willing to walk into your heart if you only open the door. I believe that. Muslims also say the same thing. Now then, why wouldn't God with all these attrributes
forgive Adam, the being He created and bears His spirit. It is so unlike of God to cry for vengence and vendetta to take out revenge on the billions of innocent descendants of Adam.

Religious Extremists

Sometimes Islamic laws are taken to the extreme. That gives Islam a bad name. Take for example the keeping of beard. The prophet encourages it. But it does not matter if you don't like it. But if you do, you get a bonus for it, sort of credit points in the eyes of God. The length of the beard is specified. It must not exceed the width of your clenched fist when you hold the beard. But the Taliban in Afghanistan makes the sporting of beard mandatory. If you are clean shaven, you risk the possibility of being arrested

Once a group of visitors from Maldives (all bearded) visited our school. I took them to the library and I noticed how they avoided looking at the girls working there. After that I took them for tea in the domestic science room. There were girls inside and the visitors hesitated entering the room. It was only after some persuation that they entered. The law says do not look at a woman with lust in your mind. If you can keep away that lust, its OK.

In the PAS run state of Kelantan women are reminded not to put on revealing clothes or wear make up. The reason: women should not tempt men! I am sad that we have this kind of thing in Malaysia. Instead of penalizing women, step should be taken to educate men so that they would not think of sex every time they see a woman