Islam requires two things of Professor Abdul - loyalty to his country, which in his case is America since he is a U.S. citizen, and loyalty to his fellow Muslims.
Aziz said, “Whenever I talk about my religion people ask me, ‘Are you a Sunni or Shiite?’ That’s like asking a Christian if they are protestant or catholic. So, I generally try to tell them who I am.
”I was born a Sunni and remained a Sunni for almost all of my life. A few years ago, I joined a reformation movement in Islam. It was started about 100 years ago by a person who claimed to be the second coming of Christ. Muslims today believe just like the Christians and Jews that Christ will return. This gentleman said, ‘I am that Christ.’ There are people who are part of this movement all over the world and I hope that you may join me at some time.”
Aziz went on to explain that Islam is an Arabic word, which simply means submission or peace. “Submission means
According to Aziz, we know that Moses was told by God to go to the pharaoh and tell him to let his people go. A similar thing happened when Jesus was told by his critics to stop telling people about God. He followed the word of God and kept teaching and went on to be crucified. Aziz said Mohammad, Buddha, and Krishna also followed the word of God and spread their teachings against the will of those who disagreed with them.
Aziz explained, “According to the Koran, the book of Islam says the Bible is the book of God also and so are the books which were given to the Hindus. God is not the god of only the people living in the Middle East. There are the people who live in Britain, Japan, and Mexico for example. He sent prophets to all the people of the world, although there is only one God. These prophets gave different names to their different religions. Moses and his people became Jews, but God never told Moses to call it Judaism because Moses never knew the word. Same as when Christ came. He never said, ‘You are all Christians.’ It was the enemies of Christ that gave the name Christians to the disciples of Christ.”
Aziz says that God has given us only one religion. He created us and he knows how we can prosper and flourish. He gave us the rules of living and he said do this and you will flourish. If you violate these rules you will suffer. All of the prophets who came to this world preached only one religion and that was submission to the will of God and living in peace with their fellow human beings.
Aziz said, “According to the Koran, the only religion which God gave to humanity is ‘submission is Islam.’ We all began as the same religion. Whatever Jesus said, Mohammad did not say much differently, and Moses did not say anything much different from them. Muslims believe, as do Christians and Jews, that there is just one God.
”Muslims also believe that there is life after death and we are not just going to become dust. We will be raised and will be held accountable. God did not create all of us simply to obliterate us. He created us so we would never die. We will be held accountable and will be rewarded or punished. God has complete authority over our destiny. That means we should do our best and then trust in God. These are the basic beliefs of the Muslims.”
Aziz stressed that Islam, like all religions, has fundamentalists who follow certain fundamentals of their individual religions. Muslim fundamentals include the practice of praying five times a day. “We also fast, as did Jesus and Moses. Muslims are also expected to give two-and-a-half percent of their wealth to the poor. They are also expected to go on a pilgrimage at least one time during their lifetime, if they can afford to,” he added.
Aziz explained that the Prophet Mohammad was a prophet of God, just like Jesus and Moses. Muslims believe that prophets are just human beings. Mohammad wrote a book, the Koran, just like Christians have the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible. The Koran says when God gave the people the Bible it was just like when he gave the Muslims the Koran.
Aziz said, “The Bible was rewritten several times because the people had to go from place to place and some burned their libraries and had to write from their memories. For that reason, there were some errors or omissions. The Koran is simply the book which tells us what was originally written.”
Aziz believes the Koran gives us the rules as they can be applied in the current world. The Bible was the word of God as given to his disciples. The Commandments were very harsh when they were first given to Moses but then God told Jesus to teach forgiveness and turn the other cheek.
He said, “After Jesus, when forgiveness was being misused, God sent Mohammad and Mohammed said, ‘You can take revenge, but it is better to forgive.’ All the commands, which were given to Moses and Jesus, were combined into one.”
Aziz says that the type of commands you will find in the Koran are not that much different than what you will find in the Old and New Testaments. They are the combination of the Commandments so that humanity in today’s world can use the word of God.
Aziz said, “Jesus said forgive - turn the other cheek. Now we know that we don’t forgive every time or turn the other cheek because there are people who keep coming back and hitting us. You can turn the other cheek when it means some sort of reformation, but if there is no reformation given you can punish that person. The Koran is a companion of the Commandments, which are not very different from the commands that God gave us. If there is only one God and we are all his children would God tell the one people, ‘Don’t lie,’ and then tell another, ‘Go ahead and lie.’ Could he give two different commands to his children?”
Aziz believes the commandments should change because of society. However, according to the Muslims the commandments, which are now given in the Koran, are not changeable.
Because Islam means peace, Aziz brought up the question of why then are there so many terrorists in our world today?
He said, “As an apologist, weren’t the Christians, Jews and Hindus terrorists in some stage of history? Mohammad was born in 632 A.D. Look at what the Christians did in the 14th century. Islam has nothing to do with extremism or terrorism, just like Christianity, Judaism, or Hinduism. The commandments of God in no way tell us to kill an innocent human being.”
He went on to explain that the word jihad means to strive to reform yourself. According to Wikipedia the word jihad is a noun meaning “the struggle,” although today extremists have given it a negative and different meaning.
Aziz said, “Today jihad has been incorrectly referred to as ‘fighting with the soul.’ Early on in Muslim history they had to fight because they were always attacked. When Mohammad and his small number of people were in Mecca they were persecuted and fled over 300 miles away. They were followed and had to fight to keep themselves alive. That jihad is also allowed in Islam. The Koran says that fighting is allowed against those who attack you. It also says that God does not love the aggressor. However, if the enemy sues for peace, you should immediately agree to have peace with the enemy even if you are afraid the enemy will deceive you and the moment they become stronger they will attack you again. God says even then you are supposed to agree to peace. When you hear that Osama Bin Laden is engaging in jihad, there is no such thing. The Messiah I am following came 100 years ago. He said that for the last 100 years our group has been telling the Muslims do not fight against the person who does not fight with you. Jihad has nothing to do with Islam. If somebody tells you that in Islam jihad is a must, ask him or her to show you where it is written in the Koran to kill the innocent non-Muslim.
”You cannot change the idea of another person by holding a sword to his head. You can subdue a person with a sword, but the minute you leave he will say, ‘Oh that man is gone.’ You have to fight with reason and love. This is what Islam is supposed to be.”
Aziz made the point that suicide bombers who call themselves jihadist Muslims have killed thousands of Muslims and very few non-Muslims.
Aziz closed by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, please try to understand what Islam is. If you really want to understand Islam read the Bible and the Koran. In the Bible you will find that Moses got the commandment from God saying, ‘I will bring a prophet like you from amongst the brethren.’ Mohammad is a prophet who was supposed to come according to the prophecy of the Old Testament from amongst the brethren of the Jewish people. And everyone knows that the brethren of the Jewish people are the Arabs. Similarly, Mohammad came according to the prophecy of Jesus, who told his disciples that he would be part of him. Jesus told his disciples if I do not go away, He will not come. When He comes He will tell you everything. I cannot tell you everything because you cannot bear it at this time.”
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