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What is his name?Written by: by Ahmad Deedat :: (View All Articles by: Ahmad Deedat) |
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"Say : call upon Allah, or call upon Rahman: By whatever name ye call upon Him (it is well) : For to Him belong the most beautiful names......" (17:10)
Chapter 1 : BELIEF IN GOD UNIVERSAL
What is His name?
At the end of my public talk on the subject - "Muhammad (sas)
the Natural Successor to Christ (pbuh)" at question time, a Christian
Missionary posed the question : "What is His Name?" Meaning thereby as to
the name of God. I stood up to answer. But before I opened my mouth, he spoke
into the mike, provided for questioning, that he would answer his own question.
I said, "You posed the question so the obligation is on me to reply to your
question". He said, "Yes, but I will answer the question." (laughter in the
audience). He was actually begging for an opportunity to be heard. Where else on
earth would he get such a large audience, at the muslim's expense, to preach. I
said, "Carry on!" (Give him enough rope to hang himself). After some rambling,
he concluded that the name of God was "JESUS CHRIST!"
It was not the time, at the meeting; nor is it expedient here to discuss the subject fully ; "Is Jesus God?" It is enough, for the moment, to say that in the language of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (Peace be upon them) the name of God Almighty is ALLAH! Proof will be provided in Chapter 4.
Belief in God is ingrained in the nature of man. As long as man existed on earth, the knowledge of God Almighty also co-existed. As Professor Max Fuller in his Hibbert Lectures said : "Religion is not a new invention. It is, if not as old as the world, at least as old as the world we know. There never was a false God nor was there ever a false religion, unless you call a child a false man. All religion, so far as i know them, had the same purpose. All were links in a chain which connects heaven and earth, and which held, and always was held, by one and the same hand."
This is truly a very charitable attitude; truly islamic. Allah (God)
tells us in the Holy Quran : "And there never was a people without a warner
having lived among them." (35:24) "And to every nation there was (sent) a
guide." (13:7)
GOD NOT PARTIAL
If God Almighty is not partial to His creatures with regard to material
blessings like - fresh air, rain, sun-shine....., why should He be partial in
regard to His spiritual blessings (The guidance of God)? He has not been
partial! There is no nation or language group on earth who does not know God by
some name. This knowledge was given by the Creator Himself through the lips of
His chosen messengers. The names of a very few of these messengers we know, the
rest have been lost or clouded in superstition.
Though all theology (knowledge of God) originated with God, mankind played fast
and loose with those pure and holy concepts, adding frills and adornments where
no embellishments was needed - it despoiled the language. In the words of Mrs.
Ellen G. White, a "prophetess" of the 7th day Adventist Movement, in her Bible
Commentary it is said : "Learned men had in some instances changed the words,
thinking that they were making it plain, when in reality they were mystifying
that which was plain"
In the Religious Annals of the world, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures
called the Holy Bible abound with graphic examples of portraying God after man's
own pattern :
IMPERFECT DESCRIPTIONS OF GOD
Out of the encyclopaedia of 73 Books of the Roman Catholics and 66 Books of the Protestants called the "BIBLE", endless number of quotations can be culled to fill a book larger than this publication to illustrate man's various imperfect descriptions of God. The above examples will suffice, I hope.
In the realm of the spirit, no nation has had as much opportunities as the
children of Israel. And despite repeated warnings to the effect that : "Thy
God is a jealous God, He shall have no other God before Him, not even the
likeness of the things on earth, or in the heavens above, or in the waters
beneath the sea ..." (Exodus 20:3-5), they took the golden calf for
worship, and again reverted into idolatry. Nor is the bulk of Christendom any
freer from this taint. Visit St. Paul's Cathedral in London or St. Peter's
Cathedral in Rome and you will have very little to distinguish them from the
Temple of Somnath in India. It is a question of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (2
characters from english fairy tales who were identical in appearance). You do
not really have to go to England or Italy to verify my statement. Why not an
inspection in loco to an Anglican or Roman Catholic Cathedral in your own home
town?
Chapter 2 : THE CONCEPTS
In the religious terminology of the world, we will find that every "son of
man" in his own way, in his own dialect has given some beautiful attributive
name for the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth.
THE ZULU CONCEPT
In our country, South Africa, the Zulus, a very virile and militant people
- a nation akin to the Qureish of preislamic Arabia - have given a name to God
Almighty - uMVELINQANGI. This word when properly articulated in it's own
dialect, sounds identical to the arabic word Wallahu-gani, meaning -
"And Allah is rich". It also sounds like "Allegany" of the Red Indians
of North America (Remember that Allegany mountain). The origin or real meaning
of the word "Allegany", is not commonly known to the American people. But ask
any Zulu as to who or what this uMvelinqangi is and he will surely explain to
you in zulu : "HAWU UMNIMZANI! UYENA, UMOYA OINGCWELE. AKAZALI YENA, FUTHI
AKAZALWANGA; FUTHI, AKUKHO LUTHO OLU FANA NAYE." Believe me this is almost
a word for word translation of Surah Ikhlas, Chapter 112 of the Holy Quran. "Say:
He is Allah the one and only. Allah, the eternal absolute. He Beggetteth not
nor was begotten. And there is none like Him."
ALMOST ISLAMIC
Now compare the above verses with my free translation of what the Zulu actually said : "Oh Sir! He is a pure and Holy Spirit, He does not beget and He is not begotten, and further there is nothing like Him."
Every African tribe, South of the Zambesi River, that is, in Southern Africa, have given different names to the Almighty - Tixo, Modimo, uNkulunkulu, etc...., and each and every African language group will take pains to explain the same pure and holy concepts of the Zulu. It is to the glory of African nations that though they had no written languages, and hence no written records, therefore not being able to recount the names of their respective prophets, yet not a single one of the tribes ever stooped down to worshiping idols or images of either of men or animals, until the white man first introduced his religion and gave the African his anthropomorphic concept of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, and brought the African down to bowing before the statues of Jesus (pbuh), Mary, St. Joseph, St. Christopher, and so on.
Out of the dozens of Africans tribes inhabiting this part of the world,
not a single one of them ever made "umfanegisos" (images) of their God.
Yet they were capable of carving out of wood, elephants and lions, and
reproducing men and women also, in clay. Besides, the Zulus also had some
knowledge of metallurgy. When I questioned an old Zulu as to the reason, why
the Africans did not make unfanegisos of their Gods, he replied, "How could
we make images of Him (God Almighty) when we know that He is not like a man,
He is not like a monkey, or an elephant or a snake : He is not like anything
we can think or imagine. He is a pure and Holy Spirit".
LIKE THE ARABS
This term, uMVELINQANGI, though well known to the Zulus, was not commonly used. Again, they were like the pagan Qureish of Pre-Islamic Arabia who knew the name Allah, but passed Him by, because they felt that He was too High, too Pure, too Holy to be approached, so they went for their substitutary and imaginary gods - their Al-Lats, Ul-Uzzas and Al-Manats and a hundred besides. The Zulus too would not call upon uMvelinqangi directly, but he was better than the arabs of the Ayyam-ul-jahiliyya (days of ignorance), because he did not go after false gods; he only invoked the spirits of his ancestors to intercede with uMvelinqangi on his behalf exactly as the Catholics do in invoking the Virgin Mary and the Saints.
The more common term used by the Zulus for their God is uNKULINKULU which
literally means - the Greatest of the Great ot the Mightiest of the Mighty
(almighty). More colloquially when taking an oath, they would exclaim "iNkosi
phe-Zulu!" meaning - the Lord Above (knows), or the God in Heaven
(knows), or Heaven knows that i'm speaking the truth. The word "Zulu" in the
language of the Zulu literally means High Heaven, and they consider themselves
to be superior to the numerous other tribes of Southern Africa, being in this
respect like the Qureish among the dwellers of the desert before islam.
CONCEPTS FROM THE EAST
The Hindi word for God Almighty is PRAMATMA. In Sanskrit, the language of Ancient India, "Atma" means the soul, and "Pram-atma" meant the Great and Holy Soul, or the Holy Spirit, which is really a beautiful description of the "Father" in Heaven. The Bible says, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth" (John 4:24). Not in form, shape or size, but in SPIRIT.
Despite his pantheistic (a doctrine in which people belief
that God is everything, and that everything is God. The Muslim puts the right
emphasis when he says - "everything is God's!" Do you realize the stupendous
difference this apostrophe 's makes to the concept of God?)
interpretation of Divinity, the name the Hindu gives the Supreme Being, in his
classical language, is OM (Aum), which means Guardian or Protector. A
very suitable attribute about which Muslim can have no misgivings.
CONCEPTS FROM THE WEST
The Anglo/Saxon and the Teuton in their own and other allied European
languages call their object of worship "GOD" or words of similar sound and
import, i.e.
The ancient Phoenicians called their God - ALLON - (not far from Allah if we
could only hear it articulated), and the Canaanites ADO. The Israelites not only
shared the word EL with the original people of Palestine, but borrowed the name
of their chief deity - ADO and turned it into ADONAI, and everywhere the
four-letter word YHWH occurred in their Holy Scriptures, they read "Adonai"
instead of "Yahuwa". You will not fail to notice the resemblance between
the Jewish Adonai and the heathen Adonis. ADONIS was a "beautiful godling loved
by Venus" in the Greek Pantheon.
THE LATIN CONCEPT
In the Latin dominated languages of Western Europe, where Latin had remained dominant in learning and diplomacy for centuries, the chief term used for God is DEUS :
- Deus in Portuguese
- Dieu in French
- Dio in Italian
- Dios in Spanish
- Dia in Scotch and Irish
- Duw in Welsh
Surprisingly in all the languages above, Deus and all the similar sounding
words mean heaven. Maulana Vidyarthi, in his monumental work - "Muhammad in
World Scriptures," devotes a hundred pages to the names of God in the
different languages. And out of the list of 155 attributive names, over 40 of
them use the name "Heaven" or the "Above", in their language of
describing God. Though the muslim chants the Asma-ul-husna (the most
beautiful names), 99 as derived from the Holy Quran with the crowning name,
Allah; "Heaven" is not one of those ninty-nine attributes. Symbolically,
heaven may be described as the abode of God, and in the words of Wordsworth in
Tintern Abbey : "Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round
ocean and the living air, and in the blue sky, and in the mind of man: A motion
and a spirit that impels all thinking things, all objects and all thoughts, and
rolls through all things."
CONCEPTS FROM BEYOND THE FAR EAST
Among all the 155 tantalising names of God in the various tongues, the one
that tickled me most was "A-T-N-A-T-U!" - and this I have adopted as a
title of my book, instead of the original title promised - "What is His
Name?" for this present publication.
WHAT IS SO FUNNY OR SO NOVEL ABOUT ATNATU?
The aborgine of South Australia calls his God "Atnatu" because some
philosopher, poet or prophet had programmed him, that the Father in Heaven is
actually free from all needs; He is independent; He needs no food nor drink.
This quality, in his primitive, un-inhibited language, he conversely named
ATNATU, which literally meant "the One without an anus - the One without any
flaw" - i.e. the One from Whom no impurity flows or emanates.
When I started sharing this novel idea with Hindu, Muslim and Christian
friends, without exception, their immediate reaction was one of mirth, they
giggled and laughed. Most of them not realising that the joke was on them. The
boot was on the other foot. Though the word "anus" is a very small word,
only four letters in English, most people have not heard it. One is forced to
use the colloquial substitute which I hesitate to reproduce here, nor will I use
the same in public meetings because of people's hypersensitivity - because in
the words of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, people "had perverted their language once
beautiful, into Jargons of empty elegance and unmeaning futility."
Therefore to ease the situation, in a round-about-way let us say that where
you have an "input", you must allow for an "output". The one who eats,
must have the call for nature - the toilet or the brush - and our primitive
friend smelt the need, which he could never attribute to his Creator. Therefore,
he called his God - ATNATU! The one without the excretory system or its tail
end.
GOD EATS NOT!
This novel concept of God by primitive man, is not really altogether novel. God Almighty conveys the same truth to mankind, as in His Last and Final Revelation - The Holy Quran - but in a language so noble, so sublime, as befiting its Author. But because of its very finesse, and refined manner of expression we have overlooked the message. We are commanded to say to all those who wish to wean us from the worship of the One True God - "Say : Shall I take for my protector any but Allah. The Origianator of the Heavens and The Earth? When it is He who feeds but has no need to be fed." (6:14)
In other words, we are made to declare that - "We will not take anyone as our Lord and Protector, other than Allah, who is The Wonderful Originator of the Universe." And if any have misgivings about his so called "man-gods" or "god-men", then bring him down to earth, for our God is the one who feeds but is NOT fed (true, both literally and figuratively). He is not in need of food. Does your man-god eat? Or doesn't he? If he does, then he MUST submit to the call of nature - OUR GOD EATS NOT! How simple the logic, yet how stupendous the argument. Alas! We need primitive man to remind us of the potency of our weapons. We have lost the art or the knack of propogation, because for a good many centuries we have stopped preaching Islam to those around us.
The Christians are knocking at our doors. Only the spiritually blind are the "ostriches" in our midst cannot see. Kuwait had just one Arab-Christian family about fifty years ago. Today there are 35 christians in that little country. The Jehovah's Witnesses , a Christian sect which originated in the USA a hundred years ago, are claiming that the 2nd largestgroup of Jehovah's Witnesses outside their country of origin, is the Muslim country of Nigeria.
In Indonesia, the largest Muslim populated country in the world, there are over 6000 full-time Christian missionaries (Muballighs), not priests, parsons or ministers attached to their respective Churches, but propogators (Crusaders) of their faith to the non-Christians - harassing "the heathen," as they call them. These Christians missionaries have more private air-strips of their own than the Indonesian Goverment has. They have mission ships that anchor off the islands, because Indonesia is a country of over 2000 islands, which have no harbour or docking facilities. They invite the native for refreshment and entertainment onboard the ship and subtly initiate them into their blasphemy. In their operation code named "over-kill", they are aiming to make Indonesia a Christian nation by the turn of the century.
Of the over 60'000 missionaries raising dust throughout the world, more
than half of them are occupied in Africa. Africa the only Muslim continent
today, is now being assailed by these mordern day Crusaders who aim at making it
a Christian continent, this, again, by the turn of the century. Our armour,
sword and shield in this battle of Faiths are in the Quran, we have been
chanting it for centuries for sawab (spiritual blessings) only; but now
we must bring them forth into the battle-field.
DID JESUS EAT FOOD?
"Christ, the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed before him. His mother was a saintly woman. They both ate earthly food. See! How clear we make for them our messages. Yet see! How they are deluded from the truth." (5:78)
The House of Islam acknowledges that Jesus Christ, the son of Mary was one of the mightiest of Messengers of God. It acknowledges that he was born miraculously, without any male intervention; that he was the Messiah; that he gave life to the dead, by God's permission; and that he healed the blind and the lepers, by God's permission; - BUT DID HE NOT EAT FOOD?
" And they gave him (Jesus) a piece of broiled fish, and of a honeycomb. And he (Jesus) took it, and did eat before them." (Luke 24:42-43)
Further, the mother of Jesus was a woman of truth, a pious and saintly woman
- BUT DID SHE NOT EAT FOOD? Can't you see the implications? Do we need an
Australoid (the aborgene of South Australia) to remind us? Indeed, we do! In
this battle of the hearts and minds of people, we need his "Atnatu". In
his simple rustic language, in his childish puerile way, he is telling the world
that God does not eat. That the one who eats can never be his God, because he
would not be ATNATU. Our primitive brother has no inhibitions. He called a spade
a spade.
THE "MOHAMMAEDANS"?
The Westerner is an adept at concocting names. When he invented the incandescent lamp, he called his light-bulbs or globes, "MAZDA LAMPS". Mazda happens to be the "god of light" of the Zoroastrians. In South Africa today, the European is making a great success with the sale of his "RAMA" Margarine. Rama happens to be the "man-god" of a substantial number of our population here. The white man calls himself, Christian, because he is a worshiper of Christ. He calls the worshipper of Buddha a Buddhist, and with the same logic he calls the Muslim a "Mohammedan" presuming that he is the worshiper of Muhammad. But the fact of the matter is, there is no such creature among the thousand million Muslims of the world. Let us assume that there were such a lunatic, a worshipper of Muhammad (pbuh) who would in his misguided zeal be called a "Mohammedan". Now if this so-called "Mohammadan", in his zeal went among the primitives of South Australia and with all fan-fare preached his "Mohammedenism", urging this poor, backward nation, and asked them to accept Muhammad as their god. You could then well imagine this child of nature asking our deluded brother, "Was Muhummed 'Atnatu'?" The answer will ofcourse be, "NO!;" even from out lunatic. What about the heroes and heroines of the world who are worshipped today by the millions of civilised men and women in our own day?
Present your candidates one by one to the native - Why don't you try with
your real or imagined "man-gods" or "goddesses" - and he will hit you for a "sixer"
(over the boundary as in Cricket) everytime with his "boomerang," with his "ATNATU!"
Is he not higher in his concept of God than the millions in Europe and America,
and in Asia and Africa?
PROGRESS IN REGRESSION!
Just picture the American who lands on the moon, and his tribe who sit at home monitoring happenings on the lunar surface and also in the world by means of their satellites, like "gods" with a finger on every pulse. Marvelous, isn't it? Remember the Bay of Bengal Tradegy? The Americans warned Pakistan about the impending tidal wave. Remember the Ramadaan War in 1973? The Americans warned Israel that the Arabs were on the move. But neither heeded the warning. These same Americans, despite all their depravity wield a power greater than all the "man-gods" put together. Yet this mighty nation and their counterparts in Europe and the world, are worshipping men and monkeys - Nay! The very devil himself! ("The Satan Cult") How is this possible? "Shaitan (satan) has made their deeds fair seeming to them. And he (the devil) is their Patron today." (16:63)
Hero and Hero-worshipping is ingrained in man. If he will not worship God, then he will worship something else. But worship he must. What can be better than a handsome man or a beautiful woman, who is one of his own kind? Anthropomorphism, a system in which man conceives of God after his own likeness is traditional. It is mordern as well as ancient. Mankind thinks of God as one like himself, in his own image. Does not the Christian Bible say, in the very first chapter on the very first Book? "And God said, Let us make man in our own image..." (Genesis 1:26)
As to the word "image", God is not talking about a physical,
human likeness, which is not far from certain family of apes. Little wonder that
Darwin claimed that the monkeys are our ancestors! No! We are made in the
spiritual image of the Beneficient. We are one with Him in attributes. The Holy
Prophet (pbuh) said, "Imbue thyself with devine attributes." As Allah is
Holy we must be holy. As He is Just, justice being his attribute, we must imbibe
justice. As He is Merciful, we must portray mercy, and so on with each of the 99
attributes of God from the Book of Allah - The Holy Quran. None can be one with
God physically, because He is not a physical Being.
THE THREE HYPOSTASES OF THE TRINITY
The Poor (spiritually, because materially they are the most
affluent people on earth) benighted Christians misunderstood the word
"image" as well as the word "us" in the preceding quotation at the very
beginning of the Bible. Christians interpret the word "us" to imply the
existance of a combination of "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" of their Holy
Trinity. They fail to realise that in Hebrew as well as in Arabic, there are two
types of plurals. There is a plural of numbers as well as that of respect and
honour. Here is a plural of honour which you might not have noticed: see the
quotation from the Quran about Jesus and his mother, observe the words -
"See! How clear WE make for them OUR messages." No muslim ever
understood by these plurals, a plurality in the Godhead, neither did any
Christian Arab or Jew. Ask any Jew who knows Hebrew as to the number of gods in
his Hebrew "US" from the first chapter of his Torah, and he will confirm without
any hesitation what I'm telling you.
THE GODS OF APARTHEID (A political philosophy of keeping the races apart in South Africa)
The deluded souls among mankind not only imagined God in their own likeness physically, but they also gave him a racial bais and racial charecteristics: "Ethiop Gods Have Ethiop Lips, Bronze Cheeks And Woolly Hair; The Grecian Gods Are Like The Greeks As Keen-Eyed, Old And Fair." - (Anonymous)
The Greeks and the Romans jettisoned their Minervas, Appolos, and Hercules' and opted for the newest of "man-gods" two thousand years ago, namely Jesus Christ. These Romans become the pioneers of their mythology couched in a fresh garb to the nations of the Western Europe who were tiring of their Thors and Wodenses and so took on the new creed with alacrity.
In turn the Europeans inflicted their tri-theology on their colonies. They
gave a man-god, more handsome than the gods of the natives. And look how they
have transformed him in pictures, sculptures and in the movies. He has blond
hair, blue eyes, handsome angular features like those of Jeffrey Hunter in the
film "King of Kings." But no! He does not look anything like the Jew with
his proverbial polly-nose. The new "god" is more English/German/Scandinavian, in
his bone structure. A white, "man-god", as against a blue (Rama
and Krishna are usually painted blue in Hindu religious paintings)
"man-god". Compare the portraittures and you will pity the subjected people for
falling "out of the frying pan into the fire."
MUSLIMS' DUTY
We muslims really have done nothing for the benighted millions of the world. We should rescue them from their shirk (A theological Arabic term implying the association of other begins with Allah. A most heinous sin in Islam), or else they will take us down with them to perdition, here as well as in the hereafter. There are many millions more worshipping man-gods today on Allah's good earth, than those worshipping the one true God - Allah subha-nahu-wa-ta aala. The miseries in the Muslim world exist because of our utter neglect in sharing the Din-ul-lah (The religion of Allah) with the nations of the world. Propogation of the Faith is the Awwal (the first) Fard (obligation) of the Muslim. Discount this Pillar of Islam at your own peril. You know that Allah's whip makes no noise. How can you play your part? Simply by memorising a single verse of the Holy Quran. The one under the topic of "Did Jesus eat food?" Write it down on a piece of cardboard, together with it's meaning, and memorize the words of Allah with the meaning - phrase by phrase - as you see it and do not let the card go out of your pocket or your handbag until you have transferred it into your God-given computer, the brain. With just this one verse, and with the aborgine's boomerang (his "ATNATU") you are set to rout every breed of anthropomorphism inflicting Allah's creatures. This is your privilege and the destiny of Islam. Allah says "...That He May Make It (Islam) Prevail Over All (False) Religion, However Hateful This May Be To Those Who Ascribe Divinity To Other Than Allah." (61:9) Do you really believe in Allah's promise? ". . . The Promise Of Allah Is True . . ." (4:122)
CHAPTER 3 : WHO IS JEHOVAH?
Astonishing as it may sound, it is an admitted fact that prior to the sixteenth century, the word "Jehovah", was unheard of. Whenever the origin of this word appeared in its true Hebrew form in Jewish Scriptures (read from right to left as in Arabic) Yot, Huh, Wav, Huh; or Y.H.W.H. These four letters were preceded by a substituted word "Adonai", to warn the reader that the following word was not to be articulated. The Jews took meticulous care in repeating the exercise in their "Book of God" six thousand, eight hundred, and twenty-three times - interpolating the words "Adonai" or "Elohim." They sincerely believed that this awesome name of God was never to be pronounced. This prohibition was no ordinary affair: it called for a penalty of death on one who dared to utter it, and this taboo has been more successful than all the "Do's" and "Don't's" of the Ten Commandments put together.
If Jehovah is the name of God Almighty, and if the 27 books of the New
Testament were inspired by Him, then it is an anomaly of the highest order, what
He (Jehovah) signally failed to have His Own Name recorded in "His Word"
(N.T.) the Christian addition to the Jewish Bible. The Christians claim that
they have in their possession over twenty-four thousand so-called "originals"
of their Holy Writ in the Greek language, and yet not a single parchment has
"Jehovah" written in it. Curiously this "name of God" (?) has been
sacrilegiously replaced by the Greek words ky'ri.os and the.os',
which mean 'Lord' and 'God'. Yet, miracle of miracies - Alleluya!
- no devil or saint has been able to eliminate the word "Allah" from the
so-called New Testament of the Christians.
NEW FANGLED DOCTRINES
A hundred years ago, all of a sudden, more than a hundred new cults and
denominations of Christiandom mushroomed in the United States of America. The
Seventh Day Adventists, the Christian Scientists, the Menonites, the
Christiadelphins, The Jehovah's Witnesses and the like. The founder of the last
named cult, a Judge Rutherford, about whom the Orthodox Christians say that he
was no "Judge". This judge was a varacious book-worm and prolific writer.
He stumbled across the word "Jehovah" which tickled him immensely, and he
made a religion out of it. Judge Rutherford, followed by Charles T. Russell
created a new "church," which in its system of organisation and
administeration in second to none in the world. There is a very much we Muslims
can learn from their enthusiasm and methodology. Read, "Thirty Years a
Watchtower Slave" by Schelin. It is not their theology I am enamoured with
but their modus operandi (the way they operate). Read, how this
incorrigible sect came very close to conquering Germany before Hitler. Read,
about their second come-back in West Germany. Think, why they are making a most
concerted effort in Nigeria. Will the system or religion that prevails in
Nigeria, be ultimately the norm of the rest of Africa? This giant is the hero of
the majority of the African people south of the Sahara. Muslims must reflect.
VIRILE SECT
The "Jehovah's Witnesses," have made the most phenominal progress of all the religious sects of the past hundred years, on a percentage basis. The Bahaies are moving at a snail's pace in comparison, actually receding in ratio with the other Christian off-shoots. These "Witnesses" are the fittest in their fight against the other Christians as well as against the Muslims. Simply because they programme themselves five times a week in their "Kingdom Halls," and what they implement during the week-ends. We Muslims are supposed to be "programmed" five times a day in our daily Salaat, but we have lost the true purpose of this Pillar of Islam. Our Salaat is for earning Sawaab (spiritual blessings) only.
They have made the name JEHOVAH famous. They knock at people's doors, asking
the question - "What is His name?" The orthodox Christian replies -
"God." They say, "God is not a name, it is an object of worship. What's
His Name?" "Father," says the orthodox as a second try. "Is your father
God?" Ofcourse not! So what is His Name? "JEHOVAH! is His Name," says
the "Witness" to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. He has become a
professor of this one word. He has made it into a religion.
THE "TETRAGRAMMATON"
Why not for a change ask him a question or two. Ask him where he got the word Jehovah from? He will surely reply - "From the Holy Bible." What does it say? Does it spell out the word J-e-h-o-v-a-h? "No," he will reply. "There is 'tetragrammaton' in the Bible from which the word Jehovah is derived." What is tetragrammaton? No one seems to have heard of this highly mystical term. In the University of Illonois in the U.S.A. I asked a gathering of students and lecturers whether any one had heard this jaw-breaker? Not one of them knew it's meaning! But every Jehovah's Witness seems to know, even the commonest of them. They have really specialised - ours is a world of specialisation. They are Professors of the one word - Jehovah.
What then is a "tetragrammaton?" The Jehovah's Witness replies, "Y H W H!"
"No!" "What I want to know from you is, what does the word tetragrammaton mean?" You will find him most reluctant in explaning. Either he does not really know, or he is feeling embanassed in replying. "Tetra," in Greek means FOUR, and "grammaton," means LETTERS. It simply means "a four letter word."
Can you read into Y H W H the word Jehovah? I cannot. "No!", says the
Jehovah's Witness, "we ought to add vowels to these four consonents to
produce the sound. Originally, both the Hebrew and Arabic were written without
the vowel signs. The native of each language was able to read if even without
those vowels. Not so the outsider, for whose benefit the vowels were invented."
THE "J" SICKNESS
Let us add the vowels as the "Witness" suggests. YHWH becomes YeHoWaH. Juggle as you like but you can never materialise Jehovah! Ask hum, from which hat he drew his "J". He will tell you that "this is the 'popular' pronunciation from the 16th century." The exact sound of the four letters YHWH is known neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles, yet he is ramming JEHOVAH down everyones throats. The European Christians have developed a fondness (sickness) for the letter "J". They add J's where there are no Jays. Look
Yael to Joel
Yehuda to Juda
Yeheshua to Joshua
Yusuf to Joseph
Yunus to Jonah
Yesus to Jesus
Yehowah to Jehovah
There is no end to the Westerner's infatuation for the letter "J". Now in the busy streets of South Africa, he charges people who carelessly cross them for "Jay-walking," but noone charges him for converting Jewish (Yehudi) names into Gentile names.
The letters YHWH occur in the Hebrew (Jewish) Scriptures 6823 times, boasts
the Jehovah's Witness, and it occurs in combination with the word "Elohim;"
156 times in the booklet called Genesis alone. This combination YHWH/ELOHIM
has been consistently translated in English Bible as "Lord God," "Lord God,"
"Lord God," adinfiniturn.
COMMON ORIGIN
What is YHWH; and what is ELOHIM? Since the Jews did not
articulate the word YHWH for centuries, and since even the Chief Rabbis would
not allow the ineffable to be heard, they have forfeited the right to claim
dogmatically how the word is to be sounded. We have to seek the aid of the Arab
to revive Hebrew, a language which had once died out. In every linguistic
difficulty recourse has to be made to Arabic, a sister langauage, which has
remained alive and viable. Racially and linguistically, the Arabs and the Jews
have common origin, going back to Father Abraham (for a closer
affinity between Arabs and Jews, read Genesis 16:12 and 25:18, and for further
elucidation see page 12 and 13 of "What the Bible say's about Muhammad?").
Note the startling resemblance between the two languages, very often the same
sounding words carry identical meaning in both.
HEBREW ARABIC ENGLISH
Elah Illah god
Ikhud Ahud one
Yaum Yaum day
Shaloam Salaam peace
Yahuwa Ya Huwa oh he
YHWH or Yehova or Yahuwa all mean the very same thing. "Ya" is a
vocative and an exclamatory particle in both Hebrew and Arabic, meaning Oh!
And "Huwa" or "Hu" means He, again in both Hebrew and
Arabic. Together they mean Oh He! So instead of YHWH ELOHIM, we now have
Oh He! ELOHIM.
CHAPTER 4 : ALLAH IN THE BIBLE
The suffix "IM" of the word "Elohim" is a plural of respect in Hebrew. (Remember that in Arabic and Hebrew there are two types of plurals. One of numbers and the other of honour as in Royal proclamations. Since the plural of honour is uncommon in the language of the European, he has confused these plurals to connote a plurality in the "godhead," hence his justification for his Doctrine of the Holy Trinity - the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.)
Hence ELOHIM = ELOH + IM. Now I want you to perform an exercise. Do you see the words : YA-HUWA ELOH-IM? Place your left hand index finger on the first two letters "YA" meaning oh! and the other index finger on the "IM" a plural of respect. What you now have remaining in Huwa Eloh or Huwa Elah. El in Hebrew means god, and Elah or Eloh also stands for the same name - god. Therefore, "Huwa el Elah" or HUWA 'L LAH, which is identical to the Quranic expression - Huwal lah hu (meaning : HE IS ALLAH) of the verse QUL HUWAL LAH HU AHUD ("Say: He is Allah the one and only.") (112:1).
The above exercise proves that El, Elah, Elohim are not three distinctly different words. They all represent the single Arabic word Allah. This is not my wishful thinking. You should see the first page of the English Bible (i.e. Genesis 1:1) edited by Rev.C.I. Scofield, D.D., with his Bible Commentary. This Doctor of Divinity is well respected among the Bible Scholars of the Christian world. He is backed in his "New and improved edition" of his translation by a galaxy of eight other D.D.'s :
Rev. Henry G.Weston, D.D., LL.D., President Crozer Theological Seminary.
Rev.W.G. Moorehead, D.D., President Xenia (U.I.) Theological Seminary.
Rev. James M. Grey, D.D., President Moody Bible Institute.
Rev.Elmore Harris, D.D., President Toronto Bible Institute.
Rev. William J. Erdman, D.D., Author "The Gospel of John", etc...
Rev. Arthur T. Pettingill, D.D., Author, Editor, Teacher.
Arno C. Gaebelein, Author "Harmoney of Prophetic Word", etc....
I have not listed the above luminaries to awe you. They have been unanimous in supporting Rev. Scofield in his "New and Improved" commentary.
Please note that in their comment No.1 they concur that - "Elohim, (somtimes El or Elah meaning God)" and alternatively spelled "Alah". All the eight D.D.'s above could not have been blind in dittoing the spelling "Alah" for God. How far were they from the Arabic word transliterated ALLAH for God - in English. I ask you dear reader? This is Allah's handiwork, but the Devil (I must give him a Capital "D", through his agents. He succeeded in firing all the D.D.'s responsible for that debacle, and had them replaced by nine others with more impressive degrees than the previous lot. You will find them in the recent reproduction of "The New Scofield Reference Bible." You will not be able to lay your hands anymore on the Bible with "Alah" in it. The Devil has seen to that.
Typer : (I don't have a scanner so i'm unable to put up the two pages
shown in this Book called "What is His Name?" You will have to consult
the ORIGINAL book if you are really Keen on seeing the extract with the word
Alah in it from the Bible. I'm typing this Book for the benifit of Mankind. May
Allah Show us all the right path. The two pages which i am unable to paste are
page 28 and 29 of the booklet "What is His name?" i.e. this booklet).
MY ONLY PLEA
I had made some public statements regarding my discovery of the word "Alah" as alternatively spelled from the usual Christian spelling "Elah". My plea to the Christians was this that spell the word as you like, with an "A" or an "E", with a single "L" or double"LL's", but for goodness sake pronounce the word correctly, as we Muslims do. Because even with its proper Anglicised spelling - A L L A H : "It is so far from its Arabic Original, when pronounced with a thin English consonant and feeble vowels, that many an Arab Muslim would find it unrecognizable." Says Rev. Kenneth Cragg, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem in his book, "The Call of the Minaret," page 36.
As much as the Englishman has the right to dictate to us as to how his language is to be sounded, surely we Muslims have as much right to demand a common courtesy when taking the name of God. We do not wish the word Allah to go into limbo like the "Yehuwa" of the Jews.
More than 6000 times the formula "YAHUWA ELAH" or ya "HUWA ALAH," or "HUWALLAH,"
(He is Allah!) occur in the Hebrew manuscripts of the Jewish Bible, commonly
called the "Old Testament," by the learned men of Christianity and
broadcasted as Rev.Scofield had done then the day for Muslims and Christians to
worship God together would not be far distant. But the Devil will not have it.
Vested interests are involved. Instead of pronouncing the word Allah
correctly, they would rather have the whole word ommited.
QUICK ABROGATION
"Now you see it - Now you don't" is an old, old gimmick in the West. Compare pages 28 and 29 (the ones i could not post) in this booklet, and see how cleverly, how deftly the new band of missionaries expunged the word "Alah" from the "Authorised King James Version" of the Scofield translation of the Bible.
As a guide to one of the largest mosques in the Southern Hemisphere, the
JUMA MASJID, Durban, my companions and I are often asked by the tourists,
"Why Allah? Is He another God?" The answer ofcourse is "No!" There is
not another god. The Muslim creed, the Kalima is : "There is no god
except Allah!" makes this explicit; every Muslim must utter this unequivocal
statement. And the second half of the Kalima is "Muhammad is the
messenger of Allah," excludes even Muhammad (pbuh) from being associated
with Allah in His Divinity. We are made to say - NOT EVEN MUHAMMAD is god, or
object of worship. It is Allah, and Allah alone who is the Only True God. "He
Is Allah, Besides Whom There Is No Other God." (59:22)
UNIQUE NAME FOR UNIQUE GOD
"We Muslims prefer the Arabic word Allah to the English word God, because this English word God is often misused or misapplied," I explain to my non-Muslim visitors to the Mosque, on their so-called "Oriental Tour" as arranged by the Durban Publicity Bureau, I continue "On your last port or call, you will be ending off at a Hindu house of Prayer, called a Temple, and there, you might rightfully point out to your children the idols and the images found, as 'the gods of the Hindus'. and if a Hindu overhears you; he will not be offended, because what you said to your child is actually what he believes. Then, again, we speak of the gods of ancient Greece; of gods and goddesses, who ate and drank, who wrangled and plotted; carried away the wives of other gods.
Further, in English, if some gentleman was to look after somebody's child as a guardian, we would say that he is a "godfather" to the child, and the woman - a "godmother" to the child. And if one tried to be a bit more funny, a bit too clever, one would say - 'what do you think of yourself, are you a tin god?' We spell god with a capital "G" (God), and we spell god with a small "g" (god) which creates in your mind grades and grades of divinities."
This Arabic word, Allah, is never used in any other sense. There is no such thing as an "Allah-father" or an "Allah-mother" or a "Tin-Allah". ALLAH is a unique word for the only God. Arabic, like every other language, also has its rules of grammar, but in Arabic you cannot make a plural form for Allah, nor can you make a faminine of Allah.
All this is very unlike the English word, God. If you want to make a plural, just add an "s" (Gods); and you can make God faminine by adding "dess" (goddess); and you can make God diminutive by adding "ling" (godling). Look at the sheer mockery the Westerner has made of the word "GOD". and how his fertile imagination has run riot and havoc in denigrating the Glory and Majesty of the Incomparable Creator, Sustainer and Cherisher of all the worlds as recorded in the Oxford Dictionary. (see the term god in the oxford dictionary)
You have a variety of choices in the list (given by the Oxford Dictionary). Take your pick like that old woman who lit one candle to St. Micheal and another to the Devil. So that whether she went to Heaven or to Hell she would have a friend.
Jupiter the god of Heaven
Pluto the god of Hell
Mars the god of War
Neptune the god of the Sea and
Zeus the god-father of them all
with his many wives and many children. His Hercules, his Appolo, his Horus, his Isis, and Oris.
Sheer mythology and rank blasphemy, but to people who believed in mythology,
mythology was no mythology; it was empirical truths. And this terminology of the
West lended itself well to paganistic theology, with their "gods" and
"goddesses". BUT ALLAH IS FREE FROM ALL CORRUPTIONS. YOU CAN DO NOTHING WITH
THIS WORD. IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE ARAB YOU CANNOT MANIPULATE IT IN ANY WAY!
PEARLS OF FAITH
Here is a passage of great sublimity, summing up in marvellously terse verses the Asna-ul-husna, the Most Beautiful names of God.
HE IS ALLAH, BESIDES WHOM THERE IS NO OTHER GODS; WHO KNOWS (ALL THINGS) BOTH SECRET AND OPEN; HE IS MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL. HE IS ALLAH, BESIDES WHOM THERE IS NO OTHER GOD; THE SOVEREIGN, THE HOLY ONE, THE SOURCE OF PEACE (AND PERFECTION), THE GUARDIAN OF FAITH, THE PRESERVER OF SAFETY, THE EXALTED IN MIGHT, THE IRRESISTIBLE, THE SUPREME: GLORY TO ALLAH: (HIGH IS HE) ABOVE THE PARTNERS THEY ASCRIBE TO HIM. HE IS ALLAH, THE CREATOR, THE EVOLVER, THE BESTOWER OF FORMS (OR COLOURS). TO HIM BELONG THE MOST BEAUTIFUL NAMES: ALL THAT IS IN THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, DOTH DECLARE HIS PRAISES AND GLORY. AND HE IS THE EXALTED IN MIGHT, THE WISE. (59:22-24)
Where is there in the religious literature of the world anything to compare
with this!
"ALLAH" IN EVERY BIBLE AND IN EVERY LANGUAGE
There is no diffuculty in our agreeing that in the languages of the world,
every nation has given a distinctive name to God. Most of these names are
attributive names, describing some aspect of God. But the proper name for God
Almighty in the Semitic languages, i.e. in the mother-tongues of Moses, Jesus
and Muhammad (peace be upon them all) is Allah! This name is still extant in the
Christian Bible in every language of the world. The Christians are boasting that
they have translated their Bible into over 1500 languages, more specially the
translation of the New Testament. In every Gospel that I have scrutnised
in various languages I find the word "Allah" preserved - English or
Afrikaanz, Zulu or Swahili. Why not check up in your own dialect to prove me
wrong. I would love to hear from you.
If what I claim is Gospel Truth, then how is it that the whole Christian world
of over 1'200'000'000 people have not been aware of it. This is what effective
programming or brain-washing can do. They have been trained NOT to see the
obvious. Did not Jesus (pbuh) bewail : "Seeing, they see not, hearing, they
hear not, neither do they understand. (Mathew 13:13)
FROM THE LIPS OF JESUS
I ask my christian visitors, "Do you remember your Gospel narrative, that when Christ was supposed to have been on the cross, he cried out with a loud voice : "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachtahni? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34)"
The above is a translation from Greek manuscripts "ACCORDING TO ST. MARK". Obviously his Hebrew had a Greek accent. Because, his so-called originals were written in Greek. But listen to Matthew who is supposed to have written his Gospel originally in Hebrew, which was aimed at the Jews. St. Jerome, an early christian father of the 4th and 5th centuries after Christ, testifies as follows :
"Matthew, Who Is Also Levi, And Who From A Publican Came To Be An Apostle, First Of All The Evangelists, Composed A Gospel Of Christ In Judea In The Hebrew Language And Charecters, For The Benefit Of Those Of The Circumcission Who Has Believed."
Naturally, Matthew's accent will be more Samitic (Hebrew and Arabic) than that of Mark. Matthew records the same scene as Mark 15:34, but note the variation in the dialect : "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, saying Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mathew 27:46)
Please memorise the words - "ELI, ELI, LAMA, SABACHTHANI."
(Eli - pronounced like L and I in English). Utter the words - ELI, ELI, LAMA,
SABACHTHANI, to your Christian friends and neighbours and ask them whether these
words - "Eli, Eli," sound like "Jehovah, Jehovah!" to them? No! is
the answer if they are not deaf. Ask further, whether "Eli, Eli," sounds
like "Abba, Abba," (meaning Father, Father! in Hebrew) to them? Again the
reply will be "No!" if they are not deaf. Can't they see that the cry is
to Allah? "Eli, Eli, - Elah, Elah, Allah, Allah!" Let them hear these
words from your lips and watch their reactions. No honest person can help
agreeing with you.
ALLELUYA!
Now ask your Christian friend, if he had heard the word - "Alleluya." No Christian worth the name will fail to recognise it. Whenever the Christian goes into ecstasy, he exclaims - "Alleluya! Alleluya!", just as the muslim might exclaim the Takbir - "Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!" Ask him what is Alleluya? Take him to the book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, Chapter 19; we are informed there that John the deciple of Jesus (pbuh), saw a vision, in which he heard the angels in the heaven singing, Alleluya, Alleluya. Ask him again what is Alleluya? Is it "hip hip hurray! hip hip hurray!." Are angels in heaven singing - hip hip hurrays to God? Everytime when God creats a new galaxy do the angles exclaim - "hip hip hurray!" When He explodes a Super-Nova do the angels say, "hip hip hurray!" How absurd? Then what is Alleluya?
The last syllable "YA" is a vocative and an exclamatory particle in both Arabic and Hebrew meaning "Oh!" In other words YA = OH, (the vocative); YA = !, a note of exclamation, or an exclamatory particle, or as is more commonly known as an exclamation mark.
The Samite, both Arab and Jew, begins with the exclamatory particle or
exclamation mark. The Westerner, in his language ends with the exclamatory
particle or exclamation mark, for eg. Stop! Go!.....
Let us repeat the above Tasbih (words of praise) as an Arab or Jew :
ALLE-LU-YA will be YA-ALLE-LU because as explained above, YA is always at the
beginning in both Arabic or Hebrew.
YA ALLE LU would be YA ALLA HU: meaning "OH ALLAH!" (You are the Only Being Who Deserves Worship and Praise) "OH ALLAH!" (You are the Only Being Who Deserves Worship and Praise.)
Unbiased Christians will not fail to recognise Allah as none other than his
- El, Eli, Alle, Elah, Alah, Allah. Call upon Him by any name, for His are the
Most Beautiful Names, as long as those names are not contaminated and as long as
they do not conjure up in our minds the images of men or monkeys howsoever
glorified they might have been.
THE CONCEPT OF "GOD THE FATHER"
There are many beautiful attributes of God which are common to both the Holy
Quran and the Holy Bible. A lenthy thesis can be written on this, but a very
interesting facet I have discovered in this that among the 99 attributes of God,
given to us in the Holy Quran, the word "Father" is not one of them. If
the Holy Prophet was the author of the Holy Quran, as his adverseries allege,
then how could he have avoided the term - Father, for God, for 23 years
of his prophetic life? Abb, meaning father in Arabic (Abba in Hebrew), is
an easier word than Rabb, meaning Lord and Cherisher, yet the attribute
Rabb abounds in the last and final revelation of God. The reason for the
ommition of the word abb (father) for describing God Almighty is obvious.
MAN-KIND HAD DENIGRATED THAT BEAUTIFUL CONCEPT OF THE LOVING Father in Heaven to
being the father of "the only begotten son" (John 3:16). To being
physically like a human-being, because begetting is an animal act, belonging to
the lower animal funtions of sex.
UNIQUE TO THE QURAN AND CONCLUSION
"Say: Shall I Take For My Protector Any But Allah. The Originarator Of The Heavens And The Earth? When It Is He Who Feeds But Has No Need To Be Fed. (6:14)
No creature who is ever in need of earthly food can be "atnatu". If you can make the Worshiper of the "man-gods" to apply this touchstone to their heroes, you can retrieve million from the impending hell-fire. Learn a lesson from the Australoid, who despite his abject primitiveness still stands high above the millions of civilised men and women of both East and West and who strut the world today.
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