People Of The Book

Articles

"PEOPLE OF THE BOOK" SFS Church, Seminary Hills, Nagpur. Thu 10 Jan, 2013
Respected Fathers, Brothers and Sisters! May the Almighty Shower HIS Blessings and Bounties on all of us. I welcome you all, not just a customary welcome, but a duty laid down on me in the Last and Final Testament revealed 14 centuries back on Prophet Mohammed. The Qur’an is present in its heavenly language even today. In its Chapter 6 verse 54 Almighty orders us: “And when those who believe in OUR messages come unto you, greet them and say: "Peace and Salaams be upon you. You should know that your LORD has prescribed Mercy & Compassion for HIMself - so that if any of you did a bad deed out of ignorance, and thereafter repents and reforms, The LORD is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.” So according to this command, I present my sincere Salaams to all of you, please accept my greetings as you are the People of The Book who believe in and follow The Old and New Testaments. Friends, as we are from the progeny of Adam and Eve, we have relations among us. The second common value is, as we claim that we are followers of the Doctrine of Great Prophet Abraham. The third we have that I and you claim ourselves the followers of Heavenly Revelations. And the fourth common factor among us is that we are Indians. I would like to share my views with you here keeping in mind these common factors among us. We will try to find out what the ALMIGHTY wants from us through HIS Final Testament. Actually, Almighty GOD didn’t call us as Jews, Christians or Mohammedans. He calls us people of the Book and commands us to follow the Doctrine of Abraham, the great Messenger of ALMIGHTY. HE appointed Abraham as our spiritual father. In verse 78 from Holy Qur’an Chapter 22: “…. and ALLAH ALMIGHTY made you to follow the creed of your Spiritual forefather Abraham. It is HE who has named you in bygone times as well as in this Divine Writ, Muslims, (Those who submitted themselves to Almighty GOD) ....” Unfortunately, we the people of The Book, who relate ourselves to Prophet Abraham are divided in three different names as I quoted earlier. And we have countless different warring sects among us also. Today I will take this topic also. Let us try to search how to come closer to each other for the sake of peace and tranquillity on this globe, although we may have differences. Almighty GOD says in (42/10) “And on whatever you may differ; the verdict thereon rests with ALLAH. So you proclaim: "Such is ALLAH, my Sustainer: in HIM have I placed my trust, and unto HIM do I always turn!” So why we cannot put the judgement of our differences on Almighty! HE will decide on The Day of Judgement who was right or wrong!! Let us take in our hands the common factors the world and specially our nation is facing. And put our mutual differences pending till The Final Day. Let us follow the verse 84 of chapter 17 of The Qur’an. “Declare: "let everyone act according to his mind-set. Your Sustainer is fully aware as to who has chosen the best path.” So with this dimension, I find in The Holy Qur’an a clarion call to us, the People of the Book, I mean the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims in verse 64 of Chapter 3: “Announce O Mohammed: ‘O followers of earlier revelation! Come unto that tenet which we and you hold in common: that we shall worship none but ALMIGHTY GOD, and that we shall not ascribe divine powers to any other than HIM, and that we shall not take human beings for our lords beside ALLAH.’ And if they turn away, then announce: ‘Bear witness that we have submitted ourselves to Almighty GOD.’”
Friends, let me inform you that the Qur’an is revealed in Heavenly Arabic. It has its own unique system. Its every noun has its meaning from its Root-word which compulsorily will be of 3 alphabets only. There are no nouns without any verb consisting 3 alphabets. For example word Kafir is not a name but carries a meaning of one who has the quality of KFR, disobedience of the Commandments of The Lord by his character will be called Kafir. Anytime he can correct him-self and submit his desires, likes and dislikes to his Creator will become a Muslim, (SLM) means one who submits himself with a free will to The Almighty. So on the basis of this verse, I call you O People of The Bible to come to a common agenda that we will call the humanity to worship none other than One Unseen, Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscience GOD ALMIGHTY. My dear brothers, sisters and fathers, we are the citizen of India where lot of things are worshipped as gods. Muslims and Christians have ruled the country for many centuries. Muslims have not yet explained the meaning of the word Allaho Akbar. It means “The GOD Almighty is the greatest.” Who will disagree on this point? Now it has a message that the person invoking ALLAH should feel himself mean and low, without any arrogance, boasting and hate to anyone. And let me disclose here that 90 percent of Muslims of today don’t know the meanings of this small sentence. Still they use it many a times in their prayers. How strange! Please allow me to say that through heavenly Revelations, God Almighty wants to talk with us directly. So we call everybody to go back to the Scriptures of their own religion and find the commandments of God Almighty, and follow them. Similarly find out the restrictions and keep himself away from them. Believe me dear audience that the fundamentals of every religion are more or less the same. No religion allows terrorism, corruption, rapes, frauds, dacoity, adulterous activities, relations without marriage tie, obscenity etc. etc. Every religion preaches piousness, decency, keeping high moral and human values, help the hungry poor needy human beings. In the beginning we see all the religions started with a few followers. On its tenets and high moral values of their earlier followers, large number of people accepted the clarion call of the Prophets. History narrates that Holy Jesus left twelve disciples in the end. But by these handfull people the history observed that within decades the call of Prophet Jesus was largely accepted by entire Europe, most parts of Asia Pacific, Middle East and African continent. But dear listeners, by the passing of time, there erupt vested political interests, lust of wealth and power, conquering the lands and many more. And for justifying such inhuman acts, misuse of religion started. It was not religion, but lust of worldly advantages, desire of power, wealth, money and many more. Such people corrupted the religion and misused it dangerously. And this is still prevailing in the world. One may ask that after so many revering verses in Holy Qur’an about Jesus and his mother and his call, why there are so many centuries long wars between Christians and Muslims. The answer is already given, with one more information to be included. The Holy Qur’an is in Arabic and people just recite it, but do not understand its commandments. They merely follow their own scholars and their interpretations. In between, the political heads play their role. They don’t know what The Qur’an narrates that in the Hereafter, such followers will cry out: “And they will cry out: "O our Sustainer! Behold, we paid heed unto our leaders and our great men, and it is they who have led us astray from the right path!” But friends let us jointly start the work once again. My request to you Christian fellows, as you deserve high esteem in Holy Qur’an. Let me quote from 5/82 “.... Among people you will find near in affection to the Muslims, those who call themselves Christians. That is because among them, there are persons who are devoted to learning, and among them there are priests, and they are not boastful.” And further in chapter 57 verse 27: “..... And on the footsteps of Noah and Abraham, in the course of time, WE sent OUR Messengers and WE sent Jesus s/o Blessed Mary, upon whom WE bestowed the Gospel, and WE placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who truly followed Jesus .....”
And history is evident that GOD gifted compassion and mercy is practiced even today by Christians like Mother Teresa and many others. Respected audience, The Gospel and The Qur’an are revealed from the same source, ALMIGHTY GOD, so it has its own impact and Qur’an says about Christians that when they listen the words of GOD, their eyes overflow with tears. “And when GOD fearing Christians listen to what has been bestowed from on high upon this Messenger, you will see their eyes overflow with tears, because they recognize its truth, and they call out : “O our Sustainer! We recognize, so count us among the witnesses!” Now the question arises that why there is fighting between Muslims and Christians since last thousand years! Let me disclose it here categorically that it was and is due to gross misuse of religion for political ends and game of power. It is high time for us now to lift ourselves from political standards and achieve new heights of morality and peace in the world. So the LORD will shower HIS Mercy on us in this world and hereafter. Now, if the chair and you people will permit me, I will discuss on how to tackle the problems we are facing in this land, and work jointly to achieve the success in both the worlds. To start with, I will suggest both the people to rediscover The Lord of the Universe, Creator of all beings, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent One and Only One GOD. HE is so Great that any sight cannot focus HIM. 6-103 “No vision can take HIM in focus, whereas HE encompasses all the visions. HE Alone is Unfathomable, All-aware.” In rediscovering GOD Almighty, let us see what HE describes about HIMSELF in The Holy Qur’an. 59/22-24 “HE is The GOD, besides Whom there is no other deity worth of worship. HE knows all the unseen and visible. HE Knows all secrets and opens. Most Gracious, Most Merciful. HE is The GOD, besides Whom there is no other deity worth of worship. HE is Sovereign Supreme, The Sacrosanct, The Bestower of all kinds of security, The Faith-worthy, Watchful over HIS all the Creations, Exalted in Might, The Irresistible, The Magnificent. Utterly remote is ALLAH in HIS Limitless Glory from anything to which human may ascribe a share in HIS Divinity. HE is The Almighty, The Creator, The Maker, The Artisan Who shapes all forms and appearances. HIS Alone are the attributes of perfection. All that is in the heavens and on the earth extols HIS Limitless Glory: for HE Alone is Almighty, Truly Wise.”
I earnestly request the religious heads that they should be concerned about the followers of their faith and make an assessment of their society. We Indians have a great heritage of our social, cultural and moral values coming from different Revelations. But we have to pass this to our upcoming generation. I also feel that we are not concerning the current social evils prevailing in our land. I also feel that we are rather ignorant of the danger this country is facing. Around us we find multiple, rather countless gods worshipped. People have their own whims. We can say it polytheisms. Here we feel our responsibility to introduce them the One and Only Almighty GOD. It should not be merely as a faith, but as a discovery of modern science. Friends, our modern science discovered the Great Bang by which the universe came into existence. Science just discovered the GOD particle. We know much about the space now. We should introduce Almighty GOD in the light of modern science. My other worry is the bankruptcy of our society, its moral, its values, its polity and all the social fields. Morality provided by different religions is forgotten. Now the newly invented gods are greediness, money, power, lawlessness and many more. Today we are witnessing large scale corruption, obscenity, rapes, riots and many more. Our social set-up is in total anarchy. Our women-folk is careless about their dignity and dress. Misuse of freedom and defying all moral limitations laid down by scriptures is converting us into a primitive and uncivilised society. Gone are the days when modesty was the ornament of our women. Once again the male chauvinism is misusing the ladies in the name of freedom. They want to earn more and more by showing our sisters in the least possible costumes. They made our daughters market commodity. Now our ladies are no more sisters or daughters of the nation. They are only for molesting. Rape is the fruit of our own tree of disobeying scriptural commandments. It is high time for us, for People of the Book to enlighten this land by scriptural divine guidance otherwise we should prepare ourselves to face the ire of The LORD of the Universe and more Delhi like incidents. Friends, there is no need to desperate. This is not a new problem. History narrates that all the Messengers of ALMIGHTY faced the same world we are facing today. Prophet Abraham, Prophet Moses, Prophet Jesus and Prophet Mohammed, all of them treated the humanity by 3 remedies only. Its results came tremendously. The tireless efforts of the Prophets, world experienced on a large scale, goodly positive change in the prevailing societies. Let me name the three remedies here. 1. The feeling of the presence of ALMIGHTY every time, day and night, in public or privacy. 2. Sense of accountability in the Hereafter for all the crimes, big or small, happened in the light or dark, in public or in private. 3. Human moral code to follow for the sake of betterment of the world and Salvation in the hereafter.
I used a word ‘Human Moral Code’. My study of The Torah, The Gospel and The Qur'an, narrates that the moral code is the same. In our land Gita and Vedas are claimed as revelations. I and my friends found in them the same moral code. The Nation is facing Delhi incident. We The People of Book can play a positive role and provide suggestions given in the Scriptures. We know that the root cause of all the crimes. It is just the three points as described earlier. One is to let know the masses who is the real Creator and Owner of this globe. Who allowed us to dwell on this earth? Can anyone cheat Him, hide from Him, can bribe Him? Can anyone put pressure on Him? Can anybody help us against Him? The introduction and Might of ALMIGHTY should be spread in general. Second vital factor is to put in practice the sense of accountability in front of The Lord after passing the life on this world. Everyone has to depart from this world one day. No one can escape from death as Scripture narrates the Words of ALMIGHTY. (56/60) “WE have ordained death for all of you, O human. No one will get ahead to prevent US.” (82/19) “It will be the Day of Final Judgement when no one shall be of the least avail to another one. Almighty GOD will hold all the command on that Dooms-Day.” (99/7-8) “And on the Dooms-Day whoever has done an atom’s weight of good, will see it present in his records, and whoever has done an atom’s weight of evil, will see it present in his records.” No doubt these are the spiritual remedies. On social front, once again in the Divine Light of Scriptures, we have to suggest the nation some vital things to be introduced. Our joint efforts will surely pay the fruits, I hope Insha-ALLAH. First and foremost is to condemn peacefully all such heinous crimes to safe guard ourselves from the wrath of ALMIGHTY. Secondly, not to be mere silent spectator of any unethical activity in our society and in our family. No doubt this should also be peacefully. Our disliking for the tempting clothes used by our young generation should be evident. The gatherings and social activities of our off springs should be taken care by us. We have taken their care when they were infants, but our duty is not over. We have to discourage lewd films, magazines carrying vulgar ads, erotic TV shows etc. This should be done very tactfully. And we have to enlighten the society by the sense of accountability in front of our Master. One more thing we can take in our hands. We should form public opinion for not buying the merchandise carrying indecent poses of our girls. A peaceful public movement will compel the ad agencies and the manufacturers to mend their ways. But all such programs should be apolitical. Our only goal should be to get pleasant acceptance of our Lord, cleansing of our society and for our own salvation in the Hereafter. This will be a great social service for humanity. You the Church people have cadre. You take the lead. I with my family and friends will be in support of such peaceful activities. We know that all religious activities are now reduced into few rituals, show offs, processions, demonstrations and sky rock slogans. Our law and order machinery is fully corrupt. So is the case with our politicians. No one came out for guiding the mob positively in Delhi for three four days. All the political figures are involved now in issuing ridiculous statements. Our public will also forget the incident sooner or later. Here I recollect a great narration from Prophet Jesus. When a lady brought in front of him, involved in a case of adultery, Jesus said that she should be stoned. But only by the religious heads who never did such a shameful act. And if the religious head ever involved in such acts, the stone will come back to him. No one out of scores of religious heads was there to stone her. Now in conclusion, let me pray to our Creator for all of us on national level, in the Heavenly wordings of the Scripture: (2/286) “…O our LORD, pardon us, forgive us, efface our sins, bestow Your Mercy upon us succour us against people who deny the truth of accountability.” (3/193) “O our LORD forgive us our offences, remove our evil deeds from us, and let us die the death of the truly virtuous people.” Thanks for listening me patiently God Bless we All.