A Shi'ite Encyclopedia (chapter 9)

Subject: Jews/christians/muslims (part 2: Hiding the Truth)

* The likeness of those who are entrusted with the Law of Moses, yet apply it not, is as the likeness of the ass carrying books* Wretched is the likeness of folk who deny the revelations of Allah* And Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk (Quran 62:5)

In part one, I proved that there are similarities among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The above verse is apparently about Jews. Just around and among yourselves (Muslims). Don't you see those who close their eyes and ears and hearts and do not look at their book of Allah, and the evidences from their own book?

They prefer to deny the orders of Allah, and insist in their ignorance.

And do not mix up the truth with the falsehood, nor hide the truth while you know (it) (Quran 2:42)

O followers of the Book! Why do you confound the truth with the falsehood and hide the truth while you know? (Quran 3:71)

And when Allah made a covenant with those who weregiven the Book: You shall certainly make it known to men andyou shall not hide it; but they cast it behind their backs and tooka small price for it; so evil is that which they buy* (Quran 3:187)

Those whom We have given the Book recognize him as they recognize their sons, and a party of them most surely conceal the truth while they know (it)* (Quran 2:146)

Surely those who conceal any part of the Book thatAllah has revealed and take for it a small price, they eat nothing but fire into their bellies, and Allah will not speak to them on the day of resurrection, nor will He purify them, and they shall have a painful chastisement* (Quran 2:174)

I have shown in the first part of this series that whatever has happened on Jews/Christians should happen similarly on muslims. Although the sequence of events may not be the same (sooner or later that the event in previous nations), they would happen, not exactly but very closely.

(Of course there is another choice that the prophet of Allah has lied. Obviously, a muslim does not accept such choice at all. Better to think and learn from previous nations.)

One of behaviours of Jews/Christians is that they knew the truth and they hided it. They knew the prophet of Islam very clearly and better than their own sons, and they denied him. They knew that Allah is one and everything was revealed by islam was true and they did not inform their people of it. They kept their people in darkness in order to get a good ride on them.

Unfortunately, this story is completely happened in islamic environment. Scholars who knew the truth tried to hide it from their people. When you say that such and such exists, people open their mouth as if a new law is fallen. The true islam is unfortunately hiden from the eyes of usuall people who have little access to the source of traditions.

Others who hear the truth and confess to it, are afraid of revealing it.

It is good to warn ourselves that the promises of Allah is not a game. When he implemens his plan, he will do as severe as he can, and Allah is the hard punishing God.

"Subject: Jews/Christians/Muslims (Part 3: Religious text books)

Another similarity among Jews/Christians/Muslims is about some of theological deviations. When you open the old testement, the first thing you read is: And the God created humans in his image.

When you go further, you read a wrestling between this God and Jacob. And other stuff.

You can locate in new testement that God, word and Jesus are one plus Jesus is the son of God and so on. In Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim and shiat sources (which were famous as "Israeelyyat" afterwards), you can easily locate several similarities. Although there is no wrestling between God and Jacob, there is a wrestling between Mouses and the angel of death. The first sentence of the old testement was accurately transfered to the book of Hadith. What went wrong?

In this article, I am trying to clarify one reason for such behaviour in religious text books. It is one of the narrators. In my mind, there are too many similarities between two people of two religions, Christianity and Islam, Paul and Abu Huraira.

Abu Huraira Paul 1)- Abu Huraira was a Jew and | 1)- Paul was a Jew and became became muslim. | christian.

| 2)- Abu Hurair saw the prophet | 2)- Paul saw Jesus in his vision, only three years out of 23 | or in his dream (I do not care) years of the prophethood of| It is very short time compared to Mohammad (SAAWS). | the prophethood of Jesus (I guess, | three years or so).

| 4)- Abu Huraira was supported | 4)- Paul was supported by the present by the present Government | government of his time. of his time. | |

5)- Abu Huraira narrated quite | 5)- Paul narrated quite a few sentences a few traditions which were| which were taken from the old roman very similar to Jewish text| theology, and Jewish theology of books. | that time.

| 6)- Abu Huraira narrated a | 6)- Paul narrated a miracle narrated miracle about himself which| only by himslef which was related was related to the prophet.| to Jesus.

| 7)- All of Abu Huraira speeches| 7)- Paul narrated quite a few sentences were related by the prophet| from the mouth of Jesus.

About 40% of the theological differences among different branches of Islam, from Sunni and Shiat to Sufism have come from the narrations of Abu Huraira. (Shiat brothers should note that I am not talking about practical differences right after the death of the prophet.) Such estimation is my personal data as a person who has read both shiat and sunni sources and others (such as Ahmadyya, and so and so).

Source for above claims??? Read the articles which were sent to SRI about one month ago.

Subject: Re: What Muslims lack

Well, I would like to have a chit-chat with a respectful man, a very thoughtful muslim named as: Basaalat Ali. I would like to call him Ali in my articles.

What we call Islam nowadays is a lot more than the final message to all people that was sent to us from Allah. We have added interpretations on top of interpretations of interpretations. I do not know what a.faris' intent is in answering the article in the manner that he did.

Very nice paragraph.

Nonetheless, I do think that "Islam" needs to change. If I were you, I would have followed what you said above and would have been precise to say:

I do think that the interepretation of "Islam" needs to change. Is Islam the Shia/Sunni debate? Anyone reading SRI would think so. I am sorry. People should be informed that the so called "debate" between shiat and sunni comes to net every other month, or more. As my records show, the first article on this was sent about one month ago. That was from a SUNNI himself. About a few days (or I think one week), SOME of SUNNI people kept firing at shiat with no shame. Then Shiat started to answer these ignorant people.

It will not come to net if you moderators be careful when approving the very first article. If any revolution should be seen in SRI, it is >from the moderators first, among you.

it has consumed some of the finest minds of dozens of generations. This part of Islam needs to change.

What I brought to SRI was thrown away hundred years ago. Shiat simply does not care about this debate. Shiat has closed and patched this debate forever. If you think that shiats are sitting in Iran finding a better solution for this debate, you are wrong. The present and main concern of shiat scholars in Iran is to locate sources and find the best way of handling muslim society, or islamic government, such as governmental issues, taxes, economy, and so on. They did not do that before, and they realize how ignoring about this fact they were before.

They are coming to solve the problems of present society through islamic sources. They have simply put such "debate" to the bookshelves. The first book on the islamic government was written about 200 years ago. Look at yourself, then.

No. The simple fact is that we have allowed all this to happen to us. It happens because of the hatred we have in our hearts.

Very nice sentence, and many more nice paragraphs.

Are we Muslims? Or are we too arrogant to learn from this? Do we have a monoploy on the faith of Islam?

The real backwardness is to live out our lives amongst our own heresies and bidaa. We have already left islam. We need to return to it.

Again, good advices. Since you are not arrogant, and learn from christians and jews faster than a muslim, I would like to bring one example for you:

I saw an interview three nights ago. It was about a group which were shaped three years ago. 75 christian scholars from all over the world gathered again, this year. The official name of this group is "Jesus Seminar Study". What they do and what they have done? They bring several different sciences such as archeology, history, phsychology, and many more. To do what?

They are reading the present NEW testament (which is referred in this article as Bible) sentence by sentence. They verify which sentence was spoken really by Jesus himself, and which one was spoken by his followers. How others twisted the exact word of Jesus.

What do you think about the outcome of their search? They announced that about 80% of the Bible is not from Jesus, himself, but rather from a few writters some of whom came after Jesus death. They announced that there is no single word truely spoken by Jesus which says that Jesus is the son of God. There is no single word which says that Jesus is God, or there are three Gods. The announced, also, that Jesus was one prophet himself.

Is this a backward?

Your answer: No.

How? Are they not reading the history, and the Bible and "wasting" their time on 2000 years ago?

Your answer: Yes.

How? Don't they understand the Bible better than thousand years ago? Are you not happy with their outcomes?

That was about christians. How about Jews? Let me give you another example. Perhaps, you would understand the meaning of backward better.

About 40 years ago, a great discovery occured around the dead sea, and the findings on that area became famous as "dead sea scrolls." One is peresently kept in Isreal musem named as "The Temple Scroll". Although, the finding was related to Jews, it talks about a theology which matches islamic theology more than the old christianity (as some are claiming).

If you read Quran, you will find some verses which are referring to some verses of the old testemant. You can not find the referred verses in the present old testemant. But these Quranic references are found in the dead sea scrolls. One of the most important part is named "The book of Enoch". Now

Is this a backward?

Your answer: No.

How come? These people are looking at the scrolls which were written (as some claim) before the birth of Jesus.

Your answer: Yes.

How come? They have broken these contents of these scrolls piece by piece, they are understanding their book better than hundred years ago. How is this a backward?

My humble suggestion:

If muslims want to solve the present problems of islamic society, they have to analyze what others have recorded hundred years ago. Muslims have to sit and find out which narration (or Hadith) is truely spoken by the prophet. (Obviously, Quran is complete, and needs no verification). But the traditions need to be differentiate.

If muslims want to solve the present problems of islamic society, they have to look at the INTERPRETATAIONs again. See what muslims have eaten during the time. Why have muslims have accepted from their scholars, (or should I say, islamic churches?). Why muslims have trusted their scholars so much, and how muslims have been deviated because of this trust.

If muslims want to help, they have to return to Islam. As you said and I agreed with, what muslims have is NOT islam. What muslims believe in is NOT islam. Islam is over there, sitting and waiting for muslims to come and understand it. What muslims have done instead was to trust some scholars, and carry their hatred in their hearts, and FIGHT. This is what most people inheritated from their fathers.