Before we embark on the matter of sacrifice as a continuation from previous article, we wish to spend some time on the matter of sin – power and guilt of sin. The problem with many people is to think that after they professed to believe in Allah/Yahweh either through their belief in Christianity/Islam/Judaism, they readily have power to overcome sin but much to their chagrin, they soon discover that they don’t have the power to say no to temptations and finally, succumb to sin. Could your heart still be pure? Those who have their experiences know that purity of heart is the way to have communication with Allah/Yahweh as this is one vital spiritual principle from Al-Masih’s teaching, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see Allah/Yahweh”. However, unless one is happy to just become nominal believers, merely follow the rituals of religions, one will not likely be bothered by the issue of either overcoming sin or defeated by sin. Sin belongs to the old way of life and has nothing to do with Allah/Yahweh who is holy or the life that He desires for believers. It is only when we are freed from the old way of life, can we gain freedom. But why does a professed believer of Allah/Yahweh still succumb to the temptation of sin just like unbelievers? For some, they can’t even find the strength to pray or ask for forgiveness from Allah/Yahweh. Furthermore, one who had committed serious sins before he/she became a believer may be haunted/overwhelmed by guilt of past sins committed and don’t have the assurance of forgiveness, hence no purity of heart. Occasionally the guilt of sin will haunt them and remind them that they are not worthy of forgiveness, thus cripple them in their faith. This further opens the way for iblis to attack him/her.
Is this your experience? If it is, have you ever asked the question, “I thought that I am a believer but why is it I always give in to sin e.g. taking bribes, lie, steal, uncontrollable pride/arrogance, uncontrollable anger, fornications/sexual promiscuity, etc.” This is a reality and fact: long ago I met a petroleum engineer who is a Muslim, he was assigned overseas duty and he kept on telling me about his sexual escapades with some of the prostitutes which he had no problems with and back home, he is married with kids. It pains me to hear that and he shared this with full of pride of his accomplishments. So, have you had the experience of battling with sin or it has already become your lifestyle to give in to sin that you have become immune? If you have a sense of struggle, that is better than being immune. At least, you know there is something not right in your life and you have no peace. Another example is that I had personally seen believers became very irritable and fly into a rage during the month of Ramadhan whereby fasting is supposed to subdue the flesh. So what is wrong with such Muslims? Is this the plan of Allah/Yahweh for His believers to battle against the evil one every day and yet gives them no assurance of victory and some even use the excuse that it is the will of Allah/Yahweh that they could not overcome sin. Or just like the Catholics, they go to the confessional and the next day they do the same thing again. If this is the kind of Muslim or believer that I am called to be, then I am the most pitiable person of all. I have to live every day without the assurance that I will be saved in the last day. It is strange that the words of Iblis in Surah 17: 62 “I will surely destroy (لَأَحْتَنِكَنَّ) the offspring of Adam except a few” only appears once in the Quran. Considering such magnitude of importance in this statement but only appears once, it is as though Allah wants to see which of the believers who have eyes to see and ears to hear, to take heed and be among the few to be saved. In fact, the same words are used by Isa Al-Masih in the gospels but expressed in different ways as in Matthew 7:13-14 ¶ “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Luke 13:24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
No doubt a few will be saved in the last days but do you not desire to be among the few who will be saved? Consider the number of professed believers (ie. Christians /Muslims/Jews) in Allah/Yahweh in this present day which could total up to 4 billion out of the total world population of 7 billion, how can this be considered as few? Ironically, we have a country that consists of Muslims who are so eager to convert whosoever to Islam as though they are playing a number game and that goes without saying with the Christians as well. Perhaps most of these few billion carry the thought that they are among the few who are saved just because they thought they have believed in Allah and they will go to heaven. Is it because the message of the Injil and Quran is not clear enough or people choose to live in self-deception.
Due to the power of sin and the way it works to destroy Adam’s descendants, we need a greater power to deal with sin. Sin is darkness; Allah/Yahweh who is holy requires something or perhaps someone who is free from sin like the animals offered for sin and guilt offerings are without any defects. These are to be offered as sacrifice to set the worshippers free from the guilt of sin and bondage of sin. Nothing that Allah did, does and will do is without significance. The sacrificial system as mentioned in the Torah was a divine institution and is a shadow of the things to come. To the worshippers those days it had an effect on their faith and conscience but not perfect as the effect is only temporary. Instead of animal sacrifice free from defects, Allah will prepare for us a perfect sacrifice to free mankind living under the bondage and guilt of sin once and for all. In short, a holy God requires nothing less than perfect as a mean to set us free from the power of sin. Who will become this perfect sacrifice? Allah the All Knowing in His foreknowledge has already chosen His perfect sacrifice. We will endeavor to find out from the Scriptures namely the Quran, Torah and Injil; they are all the word of Allah/Yahweh.
In our previous article about ‘The misunderstood Surah 4: 157’ That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah”;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-, we had shown from the Quran that the Jews had a history of persecuting and slaying Allah’s prophets and messengers as clearly mentioned in Surahs 2:61, 87; 3:181, 4:155. In fact in Surah 2: 87, after talking about nabi Isa being given clear signs and strengthened with the holy spirit, it followed with the slaying of the messengers and some they called impostors which already gives us an idea the kind of treatment that Isa received from the Jewish leaders at that time. Even if the Jews were not the ones who put Isa to death as stated in Surah 4: 157 in which the matter we had dealt with, it did not mean that Isa did not die at all. In ‘The misunderstood Surah 4:157 (4)’, we studied the word شُبِّهَ shubbiha translated as ‘made to appear’, we concluded that it was made like/made alike Christ was crucified and killed to them because his death was only temporary because he was raised/resurrected by Allah. Precisely his death was temporary that we can only say that he seemed/looked like to have been killed; he only experienced a likeness of death. In Surah 4: 158 Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise;– in which we had also dealt with that there is no doubt that Isa was raised or resurrected from death by Allah to Himself. By resurrecting or raising up Isa to Himself, Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise (Surah 4: 158). Here, there is no element of fraud as opposed to those who insisted that Isa was substituted by someone else at the cross. Think carefully, if Isa was bestowed the power to give life to a bird made out of clay by breathing into it, raised the dead, healed those born blind and the leper by Allah’s leave (Surah 5: 110), is it a difficult task for Allah to resurrect Isa from the dead?
Besides, Surah 5: 17 reads as follows:
In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: “Who then hath the least power against Allah if His Will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary his mother and all everyone that is on the earth? For to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things.”
In other words, it is indeed stating that Isa is not Allah/Yahweh and furthermore, not only Isa is not Allah but Allah can destroy nabi Isa if He wants to do so. It is merely stating a fact that it has been done so. It was by destroying Isa first of all and resurrecting him later; this will only demonstrate the power and wisdom of Allah as mentioned in Surah 4: 158.
Most importantly, these are the words of Isa Al-Masih in Surah 19: 33 which confirmed his death
وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَيَّ يَوْمَ وُلِدتُّ وَيَوْمَ أَمُوتُ وَيَوْمَ أُبْعَثُ حَيًّا
“So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)”!
The same was mentioned about John the Baptizer (prophet Yahya) in Surah 19:15.
وَسَلاَمٌ عَلَيْهِ يَوْمَ وُلِدَ وَيَوْمَ يَمُوتُ وَيَوْمَ يُبْعَثُ حَيًّا
So Peace on him the day he was born, the day that he dies, and the day that he will be raised up to life (again)!
John the Baptizer was indeed slain by his own people and died. Thus this parallelism is a confirmation of Isa’s death; the only difference is that his death was not in a permanent sense.
Besides, Surah 3: 55 & 56 read Lo! God said: “O Jesus! Verily, I shall cause thee to die, and shall exalt thee unto Me, and cleanse thee of [the presence of] those who are bent on denying the truth; and I shall place those who follow thee [far] above those who are bent on denying the truth, unto the Day of Resurrection. In the end, unto Me you all must return, and I shall judge between you with regard to all on which you were wont to differ. And as for those who are bent on denying the truth, I shall cause them to suffer a suffering severe in this world and in the life to come, and they shall have none to succour them; (Translation by Muhammad Asad)
The literal translation of this verse is as follows (according to openburhan.com):
When God said: “You Jesus I am, I am (Indeed I am) making you die and raising you to Me and purifying you from those who disbelieved, and making those who followed you above those who disbelieved to the Resurrection Day, then to Me (is) your return, so I judge/rule between you in what, you were in it differing. So but those who disbelieved, so I torture them, a strong (severe) torture in the present world/near and the end (other life), and (there are) nothing for them from victorious/saviors. (Note: In bracket italic is the Arabic words ‘ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ’ (Indeed I am making you die) and there seems to be duplicate of first person ‘You Jesus I am,’ which is redundant and not necessary. But most importantly it is stating a fact that Allah/Yahweh is telling in active participle to mention the story again and again that it is happening now whereby Allah/Yahweh’s will and its effect is operational up to the present day)
From the studies we had posted on the ‘Misunderstood Surah 4:157 Part 1 to 4’, we have discovered amazing revelation of what the Al-Quran wants to reveal about the death and rising of Isa Al Masih which is the main message of the Injil. Here is the affirmation of Allah/Yahweh’s own statement: “I am making you die and raising you to Me”. I would like to supplement a very important revelation and prophesy of the Al-Quran; exactly what is the significance of these words in Surah 3:55? If you have the eyes to see, ultimately it was neither the Jews nor the Romans who put Isa Al-Masih to death, it was Allah/Yahweh’s own will to put Isa Al-Masih to death, saying ‘I will make you die’. This very much points to the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 53:10 regarding the revelation of the suffering servant that Allah was pleased to crush him to the point of death; it was Allah/Yahweh’s will. The important question is not in the why but what is this for? For whose benefit would come out of this? For those who rejected to believe in Isa, the sign of Allah would be punished according to Surah 3:56. Or we could also say that Allah/Yahweh has brought forth amazing miracle and sign for mankind and those who rejected this will be punished. Why is the punishment so severe? One of the examples was what mankind had done in history, the most atrocious sin that mankind had ever done was by Hitler who slayed millions of Jews in World War II. If the world had listened to the Quranic prophecies properly, this could have been avoided. Even there are some Muslim leaders who believed the Jews deserved to die and some even denied the existence of holocaust. I find this completely unacceptable and may Allah/Yahweh have mercy on their souls. Could we understand this type of atrocity? No doubt people would not dislike a race for no reason; the Jews could have caused people to dislike them through their infamous behaviors but even though that could be the case, the Israelites were still the favored people of Allah/Yahweh as written in the Al Quran (Surah 2: 47, 122; 45: 16), preferred to all other nations. Yet, why did Allah/Yahweh allow such atrocity to be inflicted on His chosen people? It really boggles our mind, the only thing I could think of Allah/Yahweh’s heart is that, He has to sacrifice His people for their sins and the sins of the world, would that be one way of understanding it? What about the people in Sumatra when the great Tsunami in 2004 hit them? Did the Muslims deserve to die? So, in Surah 3:55, it was there clearly stated that do not think the Jews or the Romans were the ones who put Al-Masih Isa to death. No! It was the will, the only unique will of Allah/Yahweh to do so. Hence the strong words, “they killed him not” in Surah 4:157, because it was Allah who put Al-Masih Isa to death. Again, the question is not why but for what purpose and for whose benefit? Al-Masih Isa is the only perfect man alive and without sin because he is the Kalimat Allah and the Roh from Allah, and Allah/Yahweh has planned that Isa would not be sacrificed for his own sin but for the sin of mankind. The special creation of Allah/Yahweh, the most beloved, the chosen one was offered as sacrifice.
If you have understood what spiritual life ought to be, it is in Surah 3:55 that holds the key to each and everyone’s victorious and wonderful spiritual life; if you accept this sign you will be above those who do not accept, however you will be defeated and suffer severe suffering if you keep rejecting this sign. To put it more succinctly, it has to do with overcoming the power of darkness/sin in your life in which iblis is the master, who has the power over you.
The early Jews (Judaism) as well as the early believers understood that when there is sin, there will be consequences and in the absolute sense there is death. When there is sin in the world there will be discord, wars and deaths of many kinds. That’s how Allah/Yahweh created the world; when unrighteousness or sin dwells in the world, it will be like cancer cells that spread. Consequently, the whole system will collapse. Religion is good but if it is not able to treat sin in the heart of man, then that religion is useless. So, what then is religion? If it is not taught correctly, it is a tool that can be heavily used by iblis be it through rituals, through once a week psychological/emotional charge; these are in order to mask the inner spiritual problems and to deceive you that everything is all right. We have such religions exist in America, in the Middle East, in the Arab world, in Europe, in Asia, what good do we see from these? For those who hold the key to the Kingdom of God, the people of the book (the Jews, Christians and Muslims) are the most shameful. As it was also prophesied long ago, because of you My Name (Allah/Yahweh) has been blasphemed among the non-believers. And what is that key to spiritual life? To be a true believer is not something that you just say with your mouth and believe in one God, satan will be the first who does that. But a true believer has in actual fact experienced something wonderful with Allah/Yahweh. If you just say with your mouth and don’t even know Allah/Yahweh experientially, you are no different from a non-believer. Worse still is that your behavior, attitude, values are the same as non-believers. A lot of these are reflected by the many websites and bloggers unfortunately trying to refute the Hebrew Bible (The Jewish Bible/Taurat), the Greek Bible (The Christian Bible/Injil) and the Al-Quran being the Word of Allah/Yahweh. These people are trying to use man’s critical apparatus, values to judge the Scriptures and they pick and choose whatever suits them for their own agendas. Our Muslim brethren thought that prophet Muhammad S.A.W and the Quran are supposed to establish an Islamic Country yet they didn’t ask why the Quran has given no details on how to run a country? Was that the intention of Allah/Yahweh? But if we look through history carefully it looks more obvious and more likely that the idea was mooted by later caliphates’ own desires and ambitions. Islam as it is today has nowhere to refer except to rely heavily on hadiths (of which many documents and sayings were doubtful) for Syariah laws and so on. I felt very ashamed of the so-called Islamic countries’ existing political and social conditions. And some bloggers might want to say that the Christian countries (how do they define that and according to whose definition?) had gone through many changes to where they are now. Well, it looks to me more of an excuse to say that as we have so much history to learn from in order to avoid their errors or mistakes. Why are they behaving like what they are now? It is because they have not completely dealt with the power of sin in their hearts. It is like religious circumcision, it only takes away the piece of flesh, it is just a physical act. But there is a beautiful picture of spiritual circumcision which should have been done in the first place where they should take away the flesh/power of sin in their hearts. That very insightful saint of old mentioned, they only had external circumcision but what truly matters is that they didn’t circumcise their hearts (spiritually speaking).
The key, as mentioned above is found in the words of Surah 3:55, “those who follow thee…” How? Isa Al Masih is no longer on earth. So follow what? It is already stated and implied there, “I am making you die and raising you to Me”. Isa Al-Masih completely submits to Allah/Yahweh and allowed Allah/Yahweh to do that to him. What does that mean? Are not these words about the power of resurrection? So, can you experience the power of resurrection now? Instead of waiting till you die physically and yet not knowing whether you will be raised to life or severe punishment and permanent death in the hereafter, why not experience the power of resurrection now to be become a transformed person?
How does new life come about by observing natural world order and ecology? It shows that without death there is no new life. Even the whole forest needs to be burnt down in order to make way for new forest to come to life. Whether one believes in the atonement of sin does not really matter, but if you have committed many sins then it really does matter. If you have thought that your life is very righteous just like Nicodemus (if you have read the Injil) who was very religious to be the best he could yet still lacked the inner power, you somehow know that something is missing, then the power of resurrection is very important. Either way, whether you are religious or not religious, that power is very important. In the end it is not a matter of gathering knowledge but experiencing the power of resurrection in order to have the power to overcome sin in your life because the power of sin lies in the weakness of the flesh and iblis is the master who is able to wield that power in you. If you have circumcised that flesh in you spiritually then iblis has no power over you.
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Note:
- All Al-Quran verses are sourced from English Translation of Al-Quran by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (unless otherwise stated), with thanks.
- All Injil verses are sourced from New American Standard Bible with Codes (1995), with thanks.