By Harris Abdullah
From one site’s translation of this video interview: “Sheikh Al-Tayeb explains to his host that the Messiah came to “save societies from the throes of materialism, unbridled passions and deadly selfishness, and to prepare them for a new paradigm.” What Sheikh Al-Tayeb understood as new paradigm was in fact what the Quran was pointing to and kept on stressing that the message of Prophet Muhammed S.W.T was confirming the scriptures before it. It shows that most or all Muslims do not understand this. You cannot jump into the Quran without knowing what the confirmation of the message was. The confirmed message points especially to Al Masih Isa, and the message deals precisely with the root/heart problem of mankind. It is like the picture of a tree. The Hebrew Bible is the root, the Greek Bible is the Heart of the Scriptures and the Quran is the trunk, branches and leaves. The Quran is the manifestation of your spiritual life in the Scriptures but it must be dealt with at the heart level first and foremost. Without this, it is of no surprise that most or all Muslims are stressing on externalism, on external religiosity and not on what should have been in the internal transformation. The Quran together with the Scriptures are all spiritual books and has to be understood spiritually, only if you have eyes to see. The only way to true spiritual freedom is to deal with the root/heart problems in you.
Hence, in our previous study on the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount (3), if you could understand what this ‘blessed are the humble/gentle’ means experientially – it is precisely dealing with the root problem of your heart, mainly, pride and arrogance. In fact, the Quran has kept on stressing to beware of pride where Syaitan himself fell because of that. If you had truly experienced the transformation of your heart into that of a humble person before Allah/Yahweh, you would also come to this fourth state. This fourth state could be described as hunger and thirst for righteousness. There is this process of going down deep change from the bondage of sin, such as self-centeredness and arrogance of your heart to this nature of hunger and thirst for righteousness. We can see this in the following verse in Matthew 5:6:
NAB Matthew 5:6
Μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην· ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied
But what do you hunger and thirst in life? Is it money, fame, riches, knowledge more than anything in life? A new and transformed person do not hunger and thirst for all these. The direction of their life has changed and their priorities have changed, their love and values of this life have changed. Unfortunately, those who were born into their so-called religion would not understand this.
But again, is this your experience? We need to qualify this further because we need to understand what this hunger and thirst for righteousness is? Do people in general have that desire for righteousness? Let’s look at this carefully by asking a few simple questions:
1. Does anyone desire righteousness at all?
2. Whose righteousness would this be referring to?
3. Does satisfaction come in the present or in the future?
Referring to my first question, does this apply to anyone? We were all created in the image of Allah/Yahweh, so there should be some form of desire for righteousness, particularly when we see and hear news about injustice done to men and women. People would walk in the streets to protest and demand justice/righteousness on cruelty, on abuse, on human rights issues, unethical developers /manufacturers and many more, because we all are one way or another victims and experienced the bad that was being done to us in society. If we look at the other end of a spectrum, even the gangsters or thieves have some form of righteousness among them and value certain code of conducts more than life itself. Therefore, we could see the utmost importance of having righteousness and justice, that without it the society would be in utter chaos and anarchy. But the question remains, would these people be qualified as hunger and thirst for righteousness or desire for what is right/just? Are there any differences at all? If you have understanding, there is a world of difference between the calls/cries for righteousness and justice when bad things happened to them and a person who truly has hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Furthermore, we could also ask, ‘Are there any differences between all these man-made religions found in Judaism, Christianity and Islam? Everyone defines their own form of righteousness. Of course, Judaism and Islam will require you do something to prove your belief, to prove your faith as expressed in some outward and at times awkward practice of religiosity that is deemed as righteousness. Our Christian brethren on the other hand stated in one of the doctrines that you do not have to do anything at all. From this point, we could see that even though with this kind of righteousness whether understanding it and practicing it correctly or not is very vital to life in general, otherwise there would be chaos and anarchy. Righteousness is important to uphold physical life in general, after all we were all being fed with what is right and wrong from our parents, friends, colleagues and all types of justice systems. But the real difference from what has been asked above is that – one is referring to internal righteousness and the other is external form of righteousness. Which comes first? It is obvious, isn’t it? It has to be from within; it is where all kinds of sins come forth. This is where again Jesus (Isa Al Masih) spoke remarkable reply in Matthew 15:17-20 regarding external control form of religiosity/righteousness, such as washing hand before eating as an example:
Matthew 15:1-2
1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,
2 “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
Matthew 15:17 – 20
17 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?
18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
20 “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
Here is a quote from An-Nawwas ibn Sam’aan reported that Prophet Muhammad said:
“Righteousness is good character, and sin is whatever bothers you and you do not want people to know.” (Saheeh Muslim)
He is correct on defining righteousness as good character, but a lot of people have good character as well. So, why the need to hunger and thirst for righteousness? The problem is that righteousness by religious traditions is mostly stressed on the external but not on what is in you or who you truly are. Outward shell of religious traditions would become very superficial as we see in our daily life. You are the same inside and you know your heart is filled with covetousness/greed of all kinds, pride, self-centeredness, and all these root problems are not being dealt with. And this is the most difficult of all to overcome; it is the power of sin in the heart. There are things in the heart that have a grip on you and you do not want people to know. The result is that it will blind you spiritually and you are not able to see things clearly like a veil, in which the Quran also mentioned those controlled by sin would have their hearts veiled/covered ( رَانَ عَلَى) – Surah 83:14
كَلَّا بَلْ رَانَ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِم مَّا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
No! Rather, the stain has covered their hearts of that which they were earning. (Sahih International)
So, what is the big difference? The difference is, one stresses on the external form of righteousness, religiosity or justice systems that could only control people to a certain extent but that is still a long way from dealing with the root problem. Because it is the root problem where Allah/Yahweh’s interests lie and not on external form of religiosity/righteousness that has nothing to do with Allah/Yahweh’s will, or His work of internal transformation. Again Isa Al-Masih rebuked the Jewish teachers and believers:
Matthew 15:7-9:
7 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'” (Mat 15:7-9 NAS)
The same errors and mistakes made by the Pharisees during Isa Al-Masih time has now being emulated by our Muslims and Christians brethren. If you are able to grasp this, then coming to our next question, whose righteousness are these people hungering and thirsting for in the first place? The answer is obvious; these blessed people who hunger and thirst for righteousness are hungering and thirsting none other than Allah/Yahweh Himself. It is hungering and thirsting for Allah/Yahweh and His Righteousness because Allah/Yahweh is the source of all righteousness. This is the life of all the prophets and could be seen in some examples such as in the Zabur (Psalm of David) and Prophet Jeremiah.
Psalm 42:1 For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee, O God.
Psalm 63:1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Jer 33:16 ‘In those days aJudah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the bLORD is our righteousness.’ (Note: the LORD here is referring to Allah/Yahweh)
Therefore, do you truly hunger and thirst for Allah/Yahweh and His righteousness? Do you realize that it is not hungering for man-made controlled traditions through religiosity, doctrines, justice systems and rituals.
Now let’s come to answer our third question above, there is something more remarkable and mind boggling to those who are able to accept this. When Isa Al Masih spoke about these people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, he was using an analogy of eating and drinking, basically about food or rather spiritual food. What is the insight here? We have seen that even the external form of righteousness with its limitation is essential to the control of life so that it does not fall apart. It is even more important internally, that is to your spiritual life, that righteousness is like spiritual food, it has to be internalized. Food is vital to our physical body as righteousness is to our spiritual life, it is the food that is vital to your spiritual life. Is this not to say, we are supposed to take in Allah/Yahweh into our life since Allah/Yahweh is the source of all Righteousness and Goodness in this world? Isn’t this to say, if you have Allah/Yahweh in your being/heart, you have the power to do the deeds of righteousness according to Allah/Yahweh’s will and you are able to overcome sin in your heart, are we on the right track? And if you are filled with Allah/Yahweh in your being/heart, are you not also being satisfied now?
I believe you have heard this before “Eat to live and live to eat” – food is basic to life without which you will die eventually. Without good food you will not be satisfied. Also you cannot simply eat any type of food; it might not be healthy or good for you. Therefore, when we hunger for the right type of spiritual food, we would hunger for the righteousness of Allah/Yahweh. Unfortunately, so many religious extremists went and do things in the name of Allah without knowing exactly what Allah/Yahweh’s righteousness is when the sin in their hearts are not dealt with. This is what the Scripture called zeal without knowledge, without the experiential knowledge of Allah/Yahweh.
Let us come to our final points, how do we connect all these into the Quran. The Quran speaks of righteousness in such a condensed form, so remarkable that unless you have the understanding of exposition of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Bible before it, you will definitely stray away from the truth. Here is the standard surah that many Muslim scholars would like to use:
Al-Baqara 2:177
“It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the West, but righteous is the one who believes in Allah, and the Last Day, and the angels and the Book and the prophets, and gives away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask and to set slaves free and keeps up prayer and pays the poor-rate; and the performers of their promise when they make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in the time of conflict. These are they who are truthful; and these are they who keep their duty.”
لَّيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَـكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْمَلآئِكَةِ وَالْكِتَابِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ وَآتَى الْمَالَ عَلَى حُبِّهِ ذَوِي الْقُرْبَى وَالْيَتَامَى وَالْمَسَاكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ وَالسَّآئِلِينَ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلاةَ وَآتَى الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَاهَدُواْ وَالصَّابِرِينَ فِي الْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَحِينَ الْبَأْسِ أُولَـئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَأُولَـئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ
First of all, again you see that it is not stressing on external religiosity, of which direction your prayers or worship ought to be. There is so much riches in the context here but suffice to say that the key word here is the word ‘Believe’. There is no such superficial definition of the word ‘Believe’ in the Quran. Here the word ‘hunger and thirst’ takes the simple form of ‘Believe’. Let’s try to look at the way it has been arranged – hunger and thirst first and foremost for Allah/Yahweh. And then what do these words mean “the Last Day and the angels”, they are about the hungering and thirsting for the Kingdom of Allah/Yahweh which is Righteousness and to have the fruit of righteousness to be manifested in our life as one living under the Kingship of Allah, this can only be realised if you have the resurrected life (spiritually) or new life now. It is living under the Kingdom of Allah/Yahweh that is governed by His Righteousness now. From here we could see in the light of present realities, do the so- called Muslim/Jewish/Christian governments live and practice the Righteousness of Allah/Yahweh? I think it is not difficult to see that most Muslim countries fall under the bottom half of the corruption index in the world (Note: the lower a country ranks, the greater the perceived level of public sector corruption). How much righteousness is there in the leaders, ministers and officials of these countries? They make noise when Muslims in other countries were being mistreated by non-Muslims when every day these leaders are mistreating their own people through their own corrupt practice of unrighteousness. Such a disgrace trying to live as though ‘I am holier than thou’. It just shows the root/heart problems of the ministers/servants are not dealt with. Believe in the last day here doesn’t mean to wait for the last day, it means that we are to live that reality of the Kingdom/Government of Allah/Yahweh in our lives now and the Kingdom of Allah/Yahweh’s reality of the last days includes the awareness of spiritual beings such as angels. This experience is common among the prophets of old and the later followers of Isa Al Masih.
Joel 2:27-28
27 “Thus you will aknow that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the LORD your God And there is bno other; And My people will never be cput to shame.
28 1a“And it will come about after this That I will bpour out My Spirit on all 2cmankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.
2Ki 6:15-17
15 Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! 1What shall we do?”
16 So he 1answered, a“Do not fear, for bthose who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 Then Elisha prayed and said, a“O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of bhorses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Heb 12:21-22
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, a“I am full of fear and trembling.”
22 But ayou have come to Mount Zion and to bthe city of cthe living God, dthe heavenly Jerusalem, and to emyriads of 1angels,
Acts 2:17 And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams;
Rom 14:17 for the kingdom of God ais not eating and drinking, but righteousness and bpeace and bjoy in the Holy Spirit.
Let’s continue the order, after that we come to believe in the Book and Prophets. This means the scriptures as a whole, the Hebrew bible, the Greek Bible and the Quran, all these are given to us by Allah/Yahweh through the prophets. Do you hunger and thirst for the Word of Allah/Yahweh every day? Since it is regarded as food to your spirit, it is vital to eat every day, is it not? Therefore, it is referring to all His Books. These are all one book from the only One Allah/Yahweh and hence can be called the Book and the Prophets. Since there are so many prophets, where do we start? There is only one prophet revealed in the Quran whom Allah/Yahweh has given and taught all the Books, it is found in Surah 4:46-48. This person is none other than Isa Al Masih himself.
Surah 3:45-48
Behold! the angels said: “O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah;
| “He shall speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. And he shall be (of the company) of the righteous.” |
She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?” He said: “Even so: Allah createth what He willeth: When He hath decreed a plan, He but saith to it, ‘Be,’ and it is!
“And Allah will teach him the Book and Wisdom, the Law and the Gospel,
إِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلآئِكَةُ يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللّهَ يُبَشِّرُكِ بِكَلِمَةٍ مِّنْهُ اسْمُهُ الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَجِيهًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ
وَيُكَلِّمُ النَّاسَ فِي الْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلاً وَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
قَالَتْ رَبِّ أَنَّى يَكُونُ لِي وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ يَمْسَسْنِي بَشَرٌ قَالَ كَذَلِكِ اللّهُ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ إِذَا قَضَى أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُن فَيَكُونُ
وَيُعَلِّمُهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَالتَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنجِيلَ
Remarkably, what does the ‘Book and Wisdom’ refer to? (Ref: Surah 2:151; 3:81 – Refers to the Quran). Also the word such as “the Book” refer to the Quran as well as in Surah 18:27 –
And recite (and teach) what has been revealed to thee of the Book of thy Lord: none can change His Words, and none wilt thou find as a refuge other than Him.
وَاتْلُ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِن كِتَابِ رَبِّكَ لاَ مُبَدِّلَ لِكَلِمَاتِهِ وَلَن تَجِدَ مِن دُونِهِ مُلْتَحَدًا
Is this not amazing and wonderful? That Allah/Yahweh takes personal charge and tutelage with Isa Al Masih that all the Scriptures were being taught to Isa by Allah/Yahweh alone. From this understanding then, isn’t Isa Al Masih, the perfect person to get the Word of Allah? And it is of no wonder in Surah 4:171, Isa Al Masih is called Allah’s Word and Spirit from Allah.
Surah 4:171
O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was a messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His messengers. Say not “Trinity” : desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs.
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لاَ تَغْلُواْ فِي دِينِكُمْ وَلاَ تَقُولُواْ عَلَى اللّهِ إِلاَّ الْحَقِّ إِنَّمَا الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولُ اللّهِ وَكَلِمَتُهُ أَلْقَاهَا إِلَى مَرْيَمَ وَرُوحٌ مِّنْهُ فَآمِنُواْ بِاللّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَلاَ تَقُولُواْ ثَلاَثَةٌ انتَهُواْ خَيْرًا لَّكُمْ إِنَّمَا اللّهُ إِلَـهٌ وَاحِدٌ سُبْحَانَهُ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَات وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ وَكَفَى بِاللّهِ وَكِيلاً
There is no diluting or belittling on the title that was given him as Al Masih (The Messiah) by Allah in the Quran. If you do not understand the meaning of ‘The Messiah’ in Hebrew, it has a very important meaning and role as ‘The Anointed One’. The meaning covers everything from being the Messenger, King and Priest. Of course Isa was not an actual king when he was here on earth, but there is so much riches in the study on this which we cannot cover here today. Again, the significance is to stress that Isa as Allah’s Word that covers all the Scriptures given to him, including the Quran even before it existed.
Let’s see the significance of this in the Quran. Before the appearance of Isa Al Masih to the world, Allah/Yahweh had planned to have a prophet called John (Yahya in Arabic) to witness/confirm Word from Allah as stated in Surah 3:39 which echoes with the Injeel (Gospel/Greek Bible) and anyone who is familiar with the Injeel would know the story of John the Baptizer who witnessed and confirmed the Messiah who is Isa (Reference to Surah 3:39) in the Injeel written in Luke 1:17 that John the Baptizer will go before him – the coming of Isa Al Masih, as also stated in Mark 1:2-3.
Surah 3:39
While he was standing in prayer in the chamber, the angels called unto him: “Allah doth give thee glad tidings of Yahya, witnessing the truth of a Word from Allah, and (be besides) noble, chaste, and a prophet,- of the (goodly) company of the righteous.”
فَنَادَتْهُ الْمَلآئِكَةُ وَهُوَ قَائِمٌ يُصَلِّي فِي الْمِحْرَابِ أَنَّ اللّهَ يُبَشِّرُكَ بِيَحْيَـى مُصَدِّقًا بِكَلِمَةٍ مِّنَ اللّهِ وَسَيِّدًا وَحَصُورًا وَنَبِيًّا مِّنَ الصَّالِحِينَ
Here is a translation from Sarwar on Surah 3:39 “When he was standing during prayer in his place of worship, the angels called him saying, “God gives you the glad news of the birth of your son, John who will be a confirmation of (Jesus) the Word of God. He will become a chaste, noble leader and one of the righteous Prophets.” Is this not a correct and direct translation and interpretation of the Surah 3:39? Because the main role of John was to witness and confirm, using both words as not to dilute the meaning, the Word of Allah who is Isa Al Masih.
A lot of Muslim scholarly work has been done on this passage and most of the Muslim scholars tried to belittle the revelation in the Quran in regard to Isa Al Masih by simply saying he is ‘only’ ‘a’ word from Allah. Such method of translating the Quran is tantamount to committal of grave sin of utter disgrace and dishonor towards the One and Only Allah/Yahweh, in that they have changed the word of Allah. If they had done a proper exegesis, they would know in the original Arabic text there is no such indefinite article of ‘a’ and adding on ‘only’ trying to make as though it is nothing to be Allah’s Word and Spirit from Allah. It is unthinkable that Muslims whom people regard as Islamic scholars have the audacity to denigrate the status of Isa to only Kalimat Allah and a spirit from Him. Such attitude of contempt towards the chosen one of Allah clearly reflects that there is not much righteousness in these so-called scholars. We don’t need to be a scholar to know that in Arabic language, there is no indefinite article such as ‘a’ or ‘an’. You cannot simply use it liberally as in English.
Now if you have continue to read Luke 1:17 to Luke 3:4 and Mark 1:1, they are references to Isaiah 40:3 and to understand its revelation, it would be earth shattering. Simple questions are: 1.Who could possibly clear the wilderness and make highways? Prophet Isaiah lived more than 2700 years ago. In those days, there was no sophisticated engineering for road building like what we have today. Turning the wilderness into highways was unimaginable and required great power and miracles. 2. Who then is coming to meet the people? I leave this for you to ponder and hope you will receive the revelation.
A lot of religious people just have some concept of righteousness and most of them have wrong understanding of the Word of Allah. A person who hunger and thirst for righteousness is a person who loves the truth without prejudice, guile and malice. It is because the Word of Allah/Yahweh is the Word of Truth and Word of Righteousness. The Word of Allah must be properly expounded/broken like bread to be fed to the people and if not properly expounded, it can become poison to your spiritual life. Facts or knowledge doesn’t save you. The practice of righteousness is different from the practice of religious traditions and ceremonies. Righteousness has to be internalized and the product of righteousness is meant to flow outwardly of our lives like visible light to be seen by others ie. inward working and outward manifestation. Light comes out from the innermost being, as stated in the Injeel ‘from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water (John 7: 38). The second part of Surah 2:177 is the manifestation of what has been internalized, outwardly showing off that living waters such as love and compassion to others. Giving away in fact is not of external material things which you might have in abundance but a true expression of giving away your life to others.
If you have not experienced any of these ie. manifesting that life of Allah/Yahweh in you, then you have got problems or something is fundamentally wrong with your spiritual life. If you also lack desire to pursue the hunger and thirst for Allah/Yahweh and His Word, the Word of Truth and Righteousness, you got a fundamental problem in spiritual life as well. If so, you need to see a spiritual doctor to find out what is wrong with your spiritual appetite, so that he/she could help you on your way. May Allah/Yahweh guide you. What is amazing is that the Quran calls Isa Al Masih the Spirit from Allah and if that is true, wouldn’t that be wonderful for Isa Al Masih to speak and teach you now as the Word of Allah is in him from today till the day he comes back again?
Happy New Year.
__________________________________________________________________________________Note:
1. Al-Quran verses are sourced from English Translation of Al-Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Sahih International, with thanks.
2. All Injil and Torah verses are sourced from The New American Standard Bible (NAS 1977) with thanks.