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Monday, September 20, 2010

What Book Mentions Jesus More Than 100 Times?

The Holy Quran

http://www.worldcorrespondents.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/quran.jpg

Two months ago, he was an obscure pastor leading a small
congregation in Florida. That was before Terry Jones, pastor of Dove
World Outreach Center in Gainesville, created a global firestorm by
declaring Sept. 11 “International Burn a Koran Day.” It’s a threat
Jones has since abandoned amid pleas and outrage from not only the
Muslim world but people of all faiths.

“Muslims take the value of the Quran very seriously as divine
scripture, and we are very careful to handle it and store it
properly,” explained Safaa Al-Hamdani, a member of the Anniston
Islamic Center. “It is never allowed to be kept in unsanitary places,
is never allowed to touch the ground, and we must have clean hands to
touch it.

“I cannot emphasize enough the value of this book to all Muslims.”

And yet Jones appeared oblivious as to why his threats were so
offensive. The reason? Jones knew nothing about the Quran.

“I have no experience with it whatsoever,” he told the New York Times.
“I only know what the Bible says.”

Jones’ ignorance about the teachings and beliefs of Islam is not
uncommon. More than half of respondents in a recent poll by the Pew
Forum for Religion & Public Life said they knew little or nothing
about the Muslim faith.

Had Jones or any of his followers bothered to read the Quran before
threatening to burn it, they might have been surprised by what they
found.

Moses is mentioned more than 130 times. Jesus is mentioned more than
100 times. Mary is mentioned more in the Quran than in the New
Testament, and Muhammad is only mentioned four times, explained Gordon
Newby, chair of Middle Eastern and South Asian studies at Emory
University in Atlanta.

A new exhibit, “Islamic Calligraphy and the Quran,” is on view through
Dec. 5 at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory. In conjunction with
the exhibit, Newby has lectured on the relationship of the Quran to
Jewish and Christian scriptures.

“The Quran,” he said, “is the latest book to join the monotheistic
dialogue on the nature of God and God’s word.”

The Quran is about as long as the New Testament, consisting of 114
chapters, or suras, which vary in length from three verses to 286.

“The best way for newcomers to read the Quran is not from front to
back, but back to front,” wrote Stephen Prothero, author of ITAL
Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and
Doesn’t.UNITAL “Start with the Al-Fatiha (The Opening), but then skip
to the shorter, more theological suras in the back. Then read the
narratives of the prophets (toward the middle) before concluding with
the legalistic content of the longer suras in the front.”

Muslims believe that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures were both
revealed by God but have been corrupted over time, while the Quran
exists today as it was originally delivered. Translations are viewed
as human products. Only the original Arabic versions of the Quran are
considered authoritative.

“The Quran teaches the bodily resurrection and a coming judgment,”
Prothero wrote. “It requires prayers and almsgiving and fasting and
pilgrimage. It portrays a world in which one God repeatedly reveals
his will to human beings through prophets and messages that stretch
from Moses to Jesus to Muhammad.”

The Quran takes many of the biblical stories and uses them to teach
how God wants human beings to act before the day of judgment to avoid
being cast into hell, Newby said.

“Be faithful to God, perform charity, do good works, and you’ll be
OK,” he said. “I know a lot of preachers who deliver pretty much that
same message every week from the pulpit, as well as priests, rabbis
and imams.”

A brief history of the Quran

“Islam” means surrender or submission to the will of Allah (God).

Newest among the world’s major religions and with more than 1 billion
followers, Islam is based on the simplest of creeds. Murmured in the
ear of newborns and the last whisper of the dying, that creed rings in
a single sentence: “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his
prophet.”

Followers of Islam, or Muslims (the word in Arabic means “one who
submits”), revere Muhammad as the greatest prophet who ever lived, the
last of God’s messengers. Muslims honor him and the prophets who
preceded him – Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus – as human, not divine.
Allah rules alone. Muhammad’s role was to bring an absolute and final
revelation - the Quran.

The Arabian desert was home to wandering tribes who worshipped nature
spirits and made pilgrimages to a cube-shaped shrine in Mecca that
housed scores of idols. It was into this prosperous crossroads that
Muhammad was born around the year 570.

Little is known about his childhood, except that he was known a hard-
worker, earning the nickname of al-Amin, “the trustworthy.”

Because of this reputation, the 25-year-old Muhammad married a rich
widow named Khadijah, who was 15 years his senior. The marriage gave
him four daughters, and time to ponder questions that burdened his
soul.

Over the years, Muhammad’s tribe had become wealthy, as Mecca grew
into a thriving mercantile city. They were obsessed with attaining
greater wealth, rather than protecting the poorer and weaker members
of the tribe.

Muhammad also worried that a spiritual crisis was gripping the region.
While Christianity and Judaism were familiar religions, the nomads
worshiped numerous pagan gods and had no prophets or scriptures of
their own.

“Indeed, the Jews and Christians whom they met often taunted the Arabs
for being left out of the divine plan,” wrote Karen Armstrong in
ITALIslam: A Short History.UNITAL

“It seemed to many of the more thoughtful people in Arabia that the
Arabs were a lost people, exiled forever from the civilized world and
ignored by God himself.”

That changed in 610, when Muhammad stepped into a cave on Mount Hira,
three miles from Mecca. While in the midst of prayer and a ritual
fast, Muhammad felt overpowered by the angel Gabriel, who gripped him
tightly, forcing the first fragments of the Quran to pour from his
mouth.

Inspired by his own vision and his wife’s steadfast support, Muhammad
eagerly awaited further visitations. He often went to Hira. He
meditated. He prayed. He waited. More than two years passed before
Muhammad again heard a heavenly voice and saw Gabriel seated upon a
throne.

From that moment forward, he never faltered as the revelations were
delivered verse by verse – surah by surah - over 21 years. Such
experiences were painful for Muhammad, who often told confidants,
“Never once did I receive a revelation without feeling that my soul
had been torn away from me.”

The ‘maniac poet’

Initially, converts were few, but, with growing confidence, Muhammad
attracted larger audiences drawn by the promise of an afterlife.

In paganism, death was the end of existence, thus attaining wealth was
the ultimate goal in life. But the Quran taught that the rich must
share with the poor, and promised a glorious afterlife for the
righteous and hellfire for the sinful. This threatened the powerful
upper-class leaders, who turned against the “driveller, star-gazer and
maniac-poet.” They stoned and beat converts.

In September of 622, Muhammad obeyed a vision telling him to leave
Mecca for Yathrib, an oasis city some 250 miles north. This migration
marks the beginning of the Muslim era. Islam grew in political power
as Yathrib became Madinat al-Nabi, “the city of the Prophet,” or
simply, Medina.

In January 630, Muhammad marched on Mecca with a force of 10,000 and
was met with little resistance. On camelback, Muhammad made seven
trips around the Kaaba, which housed the various pagan gods, ordered
all its idols destroyed and rededicated the shrine to “Allah, the
Beneficent, the Merciful.”

Victory at Mecca set a model of leniency followed by later Islamic
conquerers that allowed pagans to embrace Islam. Christians and Jews
could maintain their own faiths – if they paid a tax – having received
valid revelations of their own.

“The Quran insists strongly that ‘there shall be no coercion in
matters of faith,’” Armstrong wrote, “and commands Muslims to respect
the beliefs of Jews and Christians, whom the Quran calls ahl al-kigab,
a phrase usually translated ‘People of the Book,’ but which is more
accurately rendered ‘people of an earlier revelation.’”

Not long after conquering Mecca, Muhammad’s ministry came to an end.
From a hill near Mecca, he faced a throng of pilgrims and preached his
final revelation. “This day (God has) perfected your religion for you
… and has chosen for you … Islam.”

One morning in 632, Muhammad died peacefully in the arms of his wife.
When Abu Bakr, one of Muhammad’s closest companions, learned of the
prophet’s death, he called followers together.

“O men,” he said, “if anyone worships Muhammad, let him know now that
Muhammad is dead. But if anyone worships God, let him know that God is
alive and immortal forever.”

Read more: Anniston Star - What religious book mentions Jesus more
than 100 times The Quran
@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, September 20, 2010 2:37:33 PM
Subject: MHRO ON BURNING OF QURAN A MUST read.

*ON BURNING OF THE QURAN ...*

*A MUST read.*

Who is burning the Quran?

A Christian priest?

Ask a question, if I write the name of Jesus Christ on a piece of
paper *29*times and give it to him to burn it, will he burn it?

If I write the name of Moses on a piece of paper and give it to a Jew will
he burn it?

What they intend to burn is the same.

In the Quran the name of Jesus Christ is mentioned with great Honour
*29*times and the name of Moses with dignity
*129* times, while the name of the greatest and most important of all
Prophets of Almighty God, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and all of
them) is mentioned just *4* times.

In addition, all the *24* prophets mentioned in the Quran are there in the
Bible.

Make them aware that they are burning the names of *Jesus Christ*,
*Moses*and all
* 24* prophets.

The problem is none of them have ever cared to read the Quran.

My request to them is to read the Quran’s translation in their own language
(easily available free in mosques and in Islamic Centres) and then decide
whether burning the Quran is justified or not.

I may assure them that they will highly regret in their lives when at a
later date they read it.

All the allegations of immorality on *Mother Marry*, *Jesus Christ* and
other *prophets* mentioned in different books have been very neatly refuted
in the Quran.

*Mother Mary* has been given the *highest* Honour amongst all the women of
the World.

Read it you will be enlightened.

Birth of *Moses* and his marriage has been described in the most respectful
manner.

Not a single derogatory word has been used in the Quran for any of the
prophets those mentioned in the Bible.

Why burn the Quran?

Burn those books in which baseless allegations have been put on many of the
prophets of God.

That will be fully justified.

Once you read its translation, you will be convinced that it is the best
book on earth, every word if of God, the God of *Adam, Abraham,* *Moses* and
*Jesus* (peace be upon them all).

*Not* a word has changed in *1431* years.

It is in its *original *form preserved in Turkey and in Leningrad.

It is totally a wrong concept that it was written by the prophet Muhammed.

How can a person who did not know how to read anything or write can write a
book of over 600 pages without any mistake, describing the advanced theory
of science and space?

He could not even put his signature on the letters which he sent to the
heads of states, he used to stamp them with a seal of his name.

Moreover, the Quran is in the highest literary form of Arabic language which
he did not speak; he used to speak colloquial Arabic.

How can an illiterate man write a book which describes embryological
development of a fetus, space science oceanography and in over *1400* years
no one has found any contradiction or any mistake?

Every word of the Quran is the word of God the same God of *Adam, Abraham
Moses* and *Jesus Christ*.

How can anyone even think of burning the words of your own God?

What is radical about Islam or the teachings of the Quran?

Without reading it you call it radical!

TODAY *not* a single copy of the Bible is in its *original *form.

What amount of changes is made in the Bible by men to the words of God?

Who gave them the authority to change the words of God, revise and re-revise
the Bible?

But still we do *not *call it radical.

We also have appeal to the Muslims of the whole world don’t even think of
burning a single copy of the Bible in retaliation because the Bible has the
names of our* 24* prophets whom all we respect from the core of our hearts.

Coming down to the most crucial point of *9/11:*

The allegation is again on the Muslim so they decided to burn the Quran,
stop building an Islamic Centre in Manhattan near Ground Zero.

Have a look at the documentaries made on the truth of 9/11.

These documentaries are proved without the shadow of doubt there in the
scenario of 9/11 in the year 2001, *no Muslim was involved*.

In one of the documentary it said loud and clear *that no Muslim is involved
in 9/11*.

Amazing, all the documentaries and films are made by Americans and that too
Christians.

Go through each and every documentary on U-Tube, you will be amazed, who did
it you have to decide yourself of course *not* any Muslim?

The preparation was done three months before 9/11.

What benefit they achieved by doing so?

Thousands of Americans were killed and even are being killed today.

Trillions of Dollars have burnt in smoke, millions of innocent people were
killed and other multimillions suffered.

Why don’t these preachers of peace go after them who did it?

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