From: mmdh@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (Mazen Mokhtar)
Subject: Re: Al-Baqarah #143
Organization: AT&T
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 15:37:57 GMT

Aziz Faris writes:
>What leads you to beleive that Jesus' version was lost?. Also what are the
>contents of that book?.

  We believe that Jesus (PBUH) was sent with a book as part of his message;
can you find the book anywhere? Unfortunately, no such book exists today,
as a matter of fact, I have not even encountered fragments or quotes
from such a book. The basic message of the book was the basic message of Islam,
that people must worship God alone, and obey Him; that they must be good and
charitable. I don't know anything about the details.

>If original sin is a fabrication, how is it that God has sent a number of
>prophets before Jesus and Muhammad such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, and many
>others, and none attempted to clear that fabrication. It sounds that there
>is a conspiracy, why such a conspiracy?.

  There is no conspiracy. The concept of original sin did not exist before
300-400 AD for it to be corrected. The only Messenger of God who corrected it
is the only Messenger who lived after the concept arose, Muhammad (PBUH). None
of the other Messengers (PBUT) taught that one person can inherit the sin
of another. In any case, the idea is fundamentally unfair, and God is Just.

>I totally agree with the Islamic concept that every one is responsible for
>himself. However, why did God let many generations be lost?.

  God did not let anyone be lost. Some people received more guidance than
others. I am thankful that I am among those who were graced with Islam.
However, God evaluates people according to their circumstances. A person who
knows about the truth and rejects it is not the same as the person who
never knew the truth and followed that which honestly appeared best.

  God tries people in different ways and on the last day, no one is wronged.

>|>   The difficulty I find is that redemption does not cover those who came
>|> before Jesus (PBUH), so it appears that righteousness was the path to
>|> paradise before Jesus (PBUH). Why the fundamental change?

>That is what I find very difficult to answer. Does Islam have an answer for
>that change?.

  Yes, Islam does. From the perspective of Islam, there was never a fundamental
change, people were always, and always will be, evaluated according to their
intentions. People are inherently able to realize that God exists and that
there are such things are right and wrong, but they are not inherently
guided to Islam. People should all strive to seek guidance, they must also
follow it when they find it. Islam is submission to the Perfect Creator of
all creation for the benefit of the created. There is nothing anyone can do
to benefit God or hurt Him. He does not need us but we need Him, yet He loves
us and He is Most Merciful and Eternally Merciful on us.

>Now if God has no son as Islam teaches, then according to Islamic law
>Christians are just as bad as pagans. Why is it that Muhammad had regards
>for them as the people of the book? One can argue that he means the book that
>was lost perhaps. However, those Christians were not following that book and
>thus were pagans. The Jews were in a similar position. It seems that there
>is contradiction that makes a person go philosophically into a circle.

  They are people of the book because their religion has origins in a true
message. It is my personal opinion that the reason we must have more regard
for them is that they have an element of truth mixed with an element of
falsehood. The element of truth might mislead a good person to accept
Judaism or Christianity, in any case, there are enough good elements of
good in these religions left over from the original message for their
teachings to be far superior to pagan beliefs. This is my personal opinion
and it is thus liable to be mistaken.


Regards,

Mazen Mokhtar
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic,talk.politics.mideast,soc.culture.jewish