From: Michael Arian

Dear Mike

First may I say, I was unaware your family was under such duress.Â
I will add your wife and yourself to my prayers.Â

Have always admired the respect and candor of your contributions,
and this “letter� just seemed out of sorts. I didn’t
perceive any threat from the letter, just a wish to press a
theological creed not my on.Â
As a Christian, I belong to this group at the pleasure of it’s
members. I appreciate this privilege.

May the Lord heal you wife and continue to work in you lives.
In Christ

Mike Arian
 

From Raouf Abdullah

The trinity is the human being. The human develops in three stages
(trimesters of 3 months each). The human has a body, an intellct,
and a soul. The human has three deaths. The Creator has no
beginnig, no end and no gender. The Creator has no father, no
mother, no brothers, no sisters, and no children. The
anthropomorphic god is the product of ancient wisdom devoid of the
guidance of the prophets. Jesus in the New Testament declares that
he is not G-d. Jesus prayed, despaired, was born, and died. Jesus
shall be resurrected. Jesus is the Word of G-d - this is the
revealed word of the Bible and the Qur'an. The worship of Jesus is
no more valid than the worship of Appollo or the worship of Hercules
(two other "sons" of an anthropomorphic god).

Jews struggle with the question of whether G-d is the symbol of the
Jewish community. Christians have fought wars for over one hundred
years on the question of the mortality of Jesus. Muslims who
understand the Qur'an and Prophet Mohammed know that there is G-d
and there is everything else. If Jesus is G-d, there can be no
Christians. Christians are people devoted to be like Christ. No
one can be like G-d.

Raouf M. Abdullah

Marylou,

The spirit you express is what I call the holy spirit. May G-d
preserve and bless you.

Raouf M. Abdullah
 

From Marylou

Responding to Dr. Javed Jamil:
Your explanation below is very welcomed -- I appreciate it
immensely - it explains why Christians and Muslims sometimes have
difficulty relating to each other. Since I personally, and many
other Christians, do not believe in a literal trinity, or that Jesus
was God, I will not respond to your last sentence about God taking
form in the person of Jesus. However, I do defend the right of
other Christians to believe this. If half of Christianity wants to
believe in a literal trinity, I have no problem with it ... as long
as they are peaceful, law abiding, and do not harass me or others
for our beliefs.

My Christian tradition believes that God is everywhere present
(omnipresent), including in the very air we breathe. God is the
life force in everything that exists, including the life force in a
flower, a bug, a person, etc. Therefore, God is "closer than hands
and feet" and becomes very, very personal -- we are speaking of that
portion of omnipresent God that resides in our physical bodies,
giving spiritual life to our bodies, minds and emotions. God within
us is the spiritual dimension we seek and, according to Jesus, can
easily be found -- Seek and you shall find ... The Bible describes
experiencing God as "a resurrection from the dead."

You say: He exists outside not inside the Universe. It is good to
know your teaching, so we can see each other's frames of reference.
We teach the opposite - on the basis of Jesus' teachings, heaven and
God are within each person and can be experienced now.

Jesus taught that God was unconditional love -- our branch of
Christianity honors all peaceful paths (Jesus as God, Buddhism,
Hinduism, Islam, etc.). If God is unconditional love and,
therefore, honors all paths, why shouldn't we do likewise? One of
the great Christians writers said: "We have the right to climb into
the lap of our heavenly father any way that we can." Every one's
path is slightly different - the goal is just to get there - on the
basis of Jesus' teachings, we do not delay heaven or experiencing
God until after we die. Jesus had a personal relationship with
God. The term "father" Jesus used to described God is more
accurately rendered as "daddy" or "papa." These are very endearing
terms and clearly show an extremely personal relationship between
Jesus and God -- this is what Christians strive for. Do I
understand that Muslims believe this is not possible?

I have immensely enjoyed reviewing the 99 names of God. In fact,
before I retired, I challenged our congregation to come up with as
many names for God as they could, based on their own experience. It
challenged the members to think.... explore.... and experience .....
to open their minds and hearts to how many different ways they
experienced God. Then we reviewed the 99 names of God which they
found most interesting. You say: His creatures cannot describe Him
in the words they know. How can that be? How did Islam come up with
the 99 names?

My personal request is that Muslims and Christians dialogue more
about the nature of God and our own personal experiences in
particular, in an effort to bring more understanding and respect
between us. My thanks to you for taking time to explain the Muslim
view of God, and many thanks to Mike for setting up a forum where we
can dialogue in respect and peace.
Blessings, Marylou

 

Raouf Abdullah

Dear Friends,

The open letter directly speaks to the troubling practice of
showing the world any particular enthic group or image as the
manisfestation of G-d. When we show a picture of Jesus, the Son of
Mary, Peace on him, as G-d in the flesh as G-d, we are promoting
religious and social racism. Let us see G-d as above and separate
from the human family. That is how G-d presents himself in the holy
scriptures and that will allow us equal dignity before G-d.

Raouf M. Abdullah
Mike

The issue of the divine nature of Jesus, Peace on him, has been with
Christians since Jesus walked the earth. The first followers of
Jesus spoke and interacted with him as a man. They did not pray to
Jesus or ask him for mercy, blessings, or forgiveness. The debate
among Christians as to the divinity of Christ came from Paul. The
tactic of presenting Jesus as a blond, blue-eyed person is an
extreme example of the social injury and social injustice that
happens when we present G-d as a human.

Europeans would never accept an African or an Asia as G-d. Why must
we be asked to accept a European as G-d? Lets come to an agreement
that we will not raise up gods from our children.

Raouf M. Abdullah
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From Marylou

"the concept of abstract, formless, genderless god of Judaism and Islam is alien to Christians and others. How do you worship the non-entity? And Muslims are bewildered how can Christians & Hindus worship to a definable limited physical entity?"

Mike,
The thought occurred to me: Both Christians and Hindus use metaphor
to describe how we experience God -- Jesus introduced the metaphor
of Daddy, Papa or Father. Also mother, best friend, etc. appear in
the Bible along with others --- these are metaphors, not "definable
limited physical entities." And of course many Christians (not
all) feel right at home in a Hindu temple - every statute and
picture is a metaphor of how we experience God ..... not idolatry,
but metaphor!

When Paul went out to give the teachings of Jesus to the Romans and
Greeks, they had statues to their gods -- the statues were metaphors
for the qualities of their unseen gods -- they also had a statue to
an "unknown god" -- Paul gave them Jesus -- a metaphor for a loving
God to replace their "unknown god" -- it appears that in time the
metaphor took on a life of its own and ceased to be only
metaphor.

Maybe this solves the mystery? Christians are so accustomed to
thinking in terms of metaphors - the Bible is filled with metaphors
that we have to interpret. Does this help to understand where
Christians and Hindus are coming from? Metaphor explains our
experience of the invisible God.

Blessings, Marylou
 

From Raouf Abdulla
ASA,

The expression "son of G-d" is not limitd to Jesus in the Bible.
That is why the term "begotten" was later added. When we use the
term "Son of G-d" without explaining the esoteric meaning, we are
complicit in perpetrating corrupt and pagan concepts. Jesus never
claimed to be the Creator and he ever said that he is the heir
apparent half god half man. Jesus said that he was the Word of G-d,
in human form. Paul was the person who sold Jesus as a man-god to
the innocent so-called Gentiles. His motive is clear that he saw
the Gentiles as fodder because he said that they were grafted and he
referred to them as his "little children."

Those of us who insist on eradicating racism in religion, are
accused of religious bigotry. Those of us who love Jesus, the
Christ, decry the portrayal of Jesus as a man who sought to be
deified. Jesus said Our father our father hallowed be thy name.
Thy will be done. If G-d is our father, then I am the son of G-d.
Therefore, worship me.

Raouf M. Abdullah

From Dr. Javed Jamil
Assalmalaikum

The "abstract, formless and genderless God" does not mean a "non-
entity". It only means that God is not a physical entity in a manner
that is understood by humna beings. To be a physical entity in the
way we understand it, God must be a part of the universe who follows
the physical laws of the universe and is made of the matter and
energy that too follow the physical laws of the universe. The
matter, energy and laws -- all are the creations and not the part of
God; God created laws for the universe; He exists outside not inside
the Universe. He encompasses whatever is there in the heavens and
the earth, which folow His laws and receive all forms of supplies
from Him. As God is beyond the laws of the universe that he created,
His creatures cannot describe Him in the words they know. But they
can surely understand His functions within the universe. For that
too to understand fully, they need continuous exploration of the
metods they have been provided by God.

Did God assume His "gender" and "form" only after the birth of Jesus
(PBUH)?

Dr Javed Jamil

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From Mike Ghouse