A NEVER ENDING DEBATE : RELIGION-
Let me first start to give you my take regarding the above video with a reverse psychology internet joke...I would like to thank my brother for sending me the following story.
An Atheist was walking through the woods. 'What majestic trees! 'What powerful rivers ! 'What beautiful animals! He said to himself.Suddenly, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look ... . And saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards him.He ran as fast as he could along the path.
He looked over his shoulder & saw that the bear was closing on him .. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer .... And then ..... He tripped and fell. Rolling over to pick himself up, he found the bear was right on top of him . Reaching towards him with its left paw ..... And raising the right paw to strike ..At that instant the Atheist cried out, 'Oh my God!'.... Time Stopped ... The bear froze ......The forest was silent ....
A bright light shone upon the man, And a voice came out of the sky ... "You deny my existence for all these years, You teach others I don't exist And even credit creation to cosmic accident ...Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament?""Am I to count you as a believer?"The atheist looked directly into the light ...."It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now ... But perhaps you could make the bear a Christian?"
... A pause ..."Very well," said the voice ... The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed ..The bear dropped his right arm ... Brought both paws together .. Bowed his head & spoke...
"Lord, bless this food, which I am about to receive...Amen."
We have a saying in Turkish ''unless you fall down from a rooftop you can never empathise what one feels like when they fall down from a rooftop''.
In essence Abrahamic faith consists of three major religions;Judaism,Christianity and Islam in the order that was revealed by God.Being a devoted follower of Islam myself even though the gentleman in the video has nothing to say about my faith I would like to share with you my take about this gentleman's approach to God's creation.
1-According to my understanding with all due respect this gentleman who claims to be an Atheist has a satirical style in his analysis of those people who are followers of the Abrahamic Faith,so I reciprocated with an internet joke;not to offend his feelings in any manner but to show him how any human being would react under ''eminent danger'' especially when it becomes a matter of one's life being at stake.Next I will point out our differences one by one.
2-The Qur'an is full of verses about non believers of God.By the way in the Qur'an God introduces Himself as Allah,so I will use Allah as the Creator; to help you so you can understand His Message.One of those verses about the non believers of Allah is in Chapter (Surah) 2-Baqarah(The Cow) and Verses 6 and 7;
6-''Behold,as for those who are bent on denying the truth(Kafir),it is all the same whether you warn them or not;they will not believe.''7-''Allah has sealed their hearts and their hearing and over their eyes is a veil,and awesome suffering awaits them.''
By the way the Arabic word ''Kafir''means ''Infidel''and refers to anyone who would conceal the Divine Truth.So once they chose to be a non believer then Allah seals their hearts.It is exactly like in real life when we say ''You asked for it and you got it.''
I must rectify one common mistake people make regarding the word ''infidel''.According to the Qur'an Jews and Christians are ''People of the Book'' and are not ''infidels''.
In Surah Al-Imran(The House of Virgin Mary's Father-St.Joachim)-3/199-''And,behold,among the followers of earlier Revelation (The Torah and The Bible) there are indeed such as truly believe in Allah,and in that which has been bestowed from on high upon you as well as in that which has been bestowed upon them.Standing in awe of Allah,they do not barter away Allah's messages for a trifling gain.They shall have their reward with their Sustainer-for,behold,God is swift in reckoning.''
In Surah Al-Baqarah (The Cow) Verse 62 says:2/62-''Verily those who have attained to faith in this Divine Writ,as well as those who follow the Jewish faith,and the Christians,and the Sabians;all who believe in Allah and the Last Day and do righteous deeds,shall have their reward with their Sustainer;and no fear need they have,and neither shall they grieve.''
In Surah Al-Imran ( The House of Virgin Mary's Father St.Joachim-Verse 64-3/64''say:O followers of earlier Revelation(The Torah and The Bible)!Come unto that tenet which we and you all hold in common:that we shall worship none but Allah,and that we shall not ascribe divinity to aught beside Him,and we shall not take human beings for our lords beside Allah.And if they turn away,then say :Bear witness that it is we who have surrendered ourselves unto Him.''
Therefore all these verses from the Qur'an show us that whenever one of the followers of the Abrahamic Faith try to otherize another group and presumes that only his group will have the right to enter Paradise then they must be ill-informed.Correct information according to the Qur'an outlaws this presumptuous reckoning and labels it as a Sin in Surah Al-Hujurat (The Private Apartments) Verse 12:
49/12''O you who have attained to faith!Avoid most guesswork about one another ,for ,Behold,some of such guesswork is in itself a sin;and do not spy upon one another,and neither allow yourselves to speak ill of one another behind your backs.Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?Nay,you would loathe it!And be conscious of Allah.verily Allah is an acceptor of repentance ,a dispenser of grace!
One common question that must be answered at this point is;Why are we created with different fingerprints?Why some are born with a silver spoon in their mouths while others suffer poverty?We all know that we were created with unequal talents,so why were we created into different tribes?The answer is in Surah Al-Hujurat ( The Private Apartments) Verse 13;
49/13''O men Behold,We have created you all out of a male and a female,and have made you into nations and tribes,so that you migt come to know one another.verily,the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him.behold,Allah is all knowing,all-aware.''
So who can now tell me that religions were revealed by Allah in order to create chaos so different tribes would try to annihilate one another.Time to wake up!!!
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By the same token the atheist gentleman says:''I think God likes Atheists better because we never ask him for anything,and ...we do not bother Him all the time and say''Oh please help me Allah for this and that''...(rather satirically).Then lets take a look at Chapter 76(Surah Al- Insan) Verse 3:
76/3-''Verily,We have shown him the way(and it rests with him to prove himself) either grateful or ungrateful.''
As we chose to be grateful or ungrateful then that means we must bear the consequences;because ın Qur'an Chapter 2(Al Baqarah) Verse 256 says:
2/256''There shall be no coercion in matters of faith.''
So an atheist has no right to send the bill to Allah according to the Qur'an for choosing to be an atheist.It was his own decision and if it was the Divine Will everyone on Earth would have been a believer which is not the case so we shall face the outcome of all our deeds on the Day of Judgment.
Qor'anic study will show you that on that final day no one will be able to intercede other than the Angels who will be authorized by Allah for Divine intervention.Now let me take you to Surah An-Najm(The Unfolding)- Verse 26:
53/26-''For,however many angels there be in the heavens,their intercession can be of no least avail to anyone ,except after Allah has given leave to intercede,for whomever He wills and with whom he is well-pleased.''
That is why a Muslim Imam is not a cleric as you often read in the Media as Allah does not authorize anyone to intercede between Him and His believers on Earth;however that permission will be granted to those Angels on the Day of Jugment.So trying to present an Imam who is the leader of a Muslim congregation as if he is like a Church father who can intercede between Jesus Christ and a Christian believer and forgive their sins is a common mistake and should be rectified.
3-In order to explain my take I would like to tell you about one of my own experiences pertaining to ''eminent danger''that I lived through in 2006.
I was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean representing my Country and its longest living art ''The Art of Turkish Hand-Made Carpets''.One evening I went outside to the open deck for some fresh air as the sea was very rough.Having cruised on such ships some sixty times in my life doing the same sort of lectures I would see myself as a seasoned traveller.However I had never seen the sea and the air around the ship in such a catastrophic atmosphere ever before and never after thanks to Allah.Norwegian Jewel with its 2800 hundred passengers was like a small fishing vessel despite its stabilizers trying to stay afloat amongst the biggest waves I had ever seen.The hurricane and lightning with the thunderstorm was truly very scaring.I remember now my life was going through my mind and suddenly started seeing the faces of my family members that I had left behind.I started to pray and ask Allah for help,as that was all that I could do at that very moment.It was a long and painful night but at the break of dawn and hardly any more waves our captain cruised us calmly into the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I rushed ashore for some sightseeing and visited the beautiful Spanish Castle one more time.The castle had never looked so good to me before.Shortly I took some deep breath and thanked Allah for being alive like never before.Here is what I learned from the Qur'an in 2012 regarding the choice that we have.
To be grateful or ungrateful that was the Divine Question...Now let me take you to Surah Al-Isra (The Night Journey)17-Verses 67-69:
17/67-''Whenever at Sea a calamity takes place all of those that you beg and appeal to will disappear however when He will save you from that calamity and bring you back ashore safely;you will return to your usual self and act like you did before that incident at Sea took place;Verily Mankind is very ungrateful.
17/68-''Can you, then ever feel sure that He will not cause a tract of dry land to swallow you up, or let loose upon you a deadly stormwind,whereupon you would find none to be your protector?''
17/69-''Or can you,perchance,feel sure that He will not make you put back to sea once again,and then let loose upon you a raging tempest and cause you to drown in requital of your ingratitude ;whereupon you would then find none to uphold you against Us.''
4-Going back to The Qur'an Surah Al-Anbiya(The Prophets)-21/verse 35:
21/35-''Every human being is bound to taste death;and We test you all through the bad and the good things of life;by way of trial;and unto Us you all must return.''
In the earlier paragraph I emphasized about a certain ''eminent danger''.If the atheist gentleman experiences one day what happened to another atheist man when he was running away from that bear or if he gets stuck on a ship during such a storm than I would like to ask him if he would perhaps change his mind and understand why believers keep asking Allah for everything.Because in Surah Al-Furqan(The Standart of True or False)-25/77 Allah Says to our Prophet:
''Say unto those who believe:No weight or value would my Sustainer attach to you were it not for your prayers and faith in Him.And say unto those who deny the Truth:You have indeed given the lie to Allah's Message and in time this sin will cleave unto you''.
Shortly prayers do not bother Allah at all.In fact the prayers are an essential section that completes the whole or prayers are an integral part of the Divine Order.So when you do not ask Allah anything like this atheist gentleman does then he is worthless in Allah's Assessment.Also as we have just seen that Allah lets us choose our own ways therefore we must respect each others decisions and above all accept its consequences.
5- The Atheist gentleman continues with his mocking of the Biblical Heritage.He is displeased with the Gideon Bible that seems available whereever he travels around the world.I am not going to repeat his assessments but point out where the Qur'an differs from the Bible.The first verses of the Qur''an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad when he was forty years old.Therefore the Qur'an began to be revealed in 610A.D.So there are more than five centuries time difference between the Bible and the Qur'an.The Qur'an reveals us quite a lot of stories from the Bible and in fact some sixty percent of the Qur'an is revealing us the Biblical Heritage.From the Old Testament to the New Testament and then to the Qur'an time had passed and the Qur'an presents itself as the ''newly revised edition''of all the past Revelations.
6-Of the many differences between The Bible and The Qur'an one important difference is about Creation.As the atheist gentleman is mockingly describing Allah stealing the rib of Adam to create Eve and how the serpent deceived her first who then persuaded Adam to eat from the forbidden tree is not Qur'anic.In the Qur'an Allah speaks first with Adam and then speaks to both of them together in order to forbid them from approaching the forbidden tree.That happens to be the very test applied to Mankind.It is sad that women because of this Biblical interpretation are accused for being the party that led Mankind go astray.The Qur'an does not agree with that.We were created by Allah and were given the freedom of choice to be a believer or an atheist.That was our test.Imagine God had created the Universe but needed Adam's rib to create Eve! He is enjoying himself trying to mock religion,thats why this is a never ending debate...
One may be prejudiced against Allah and all His Revelations but in my opinion that should not give them the right to make fun of people who call themselves believers of the Abrahamic Faith.I just showed you several verses from the Qur'an where Allah shows us the true path and then He lets us choose which way to go.So once again the decision is ours and we should not complain about its consequences.
The Atheist gentleman does not seem to make any comments regarding Islamophobia.Generally people are scared of those things that is foreign to them.So to be able to close this blog I will suggest everyone to read; IKRA (The Arabic word for Read);which is the first word of the first verse that was revealed to Muhammad in 610 A:D.on the Mountain of Light overlooking Kaaba;the House of Allah;Beytullah;which also marked the beginning of the last Revelation and advised him to be the last messenger of Allah.It took him twenty-tree years to be completed and thanks to Allah when Muhammad died the Qur'an was completed.Some past revelations depending on who had written them were completed many years after their prophets had died.One thing regarding Islam that should be noted is the fact that Prophet Muhammad was still alive when The Qur'an was completed and Allah says it will stay unchanged,untouched by any future human attempt and has ordered Muslims to recite the whole Qur'an and that way we are sure it still is the Original Message of Allah.So please read those revelations and then be learned enough to pass any judgment.For a true Muslim reading the Qur'an is only the first step;then he/she has to contemplate deeply to understand The Divine Message and finally we have to live according to The Qur'an to deserve happiness forever here and after.Blessings be with you.
I was fifty-three years old when I climbed to the top of The Mountain of Light.It was shortly after midnight when I could see the House of Allah from seven kilometers away.It was shining like diamonds in the sky.I will never ever forget that moment in my life.I am ever so grateful.Sukran Cezilen.
Reporting live from Sapanca,Türkiye-December 11,2017-09.15-
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