Q.
Dr. Nagi, last episode, we talked about what In the
Gospel, the differences between the Gospel and the Torah and the New and the
Old Testaments; who are the closer people of God today. The last question that
you answered was why didn't the Lord Jesus Christ (Glory be to His Name) write
his own Bible before He ascended to heaven? Could you please summarize your
answer to this question: who said that
the Lord Jesus Christ (Glory be to His Name) did not write
his Gospel before his ascension to heaven?
A. It is clear that the Gospel was written In 4 versions; according to
St. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; there is no version written according to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Those followers to the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom I mean St.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were just tools in the hands of God Almighty; to
record what ever He dictated. These different versions are in one Gospel. Yet,
if we look closer we'll realize that the one and only author to the Gospel is
the Lord Jesus Christ (Glory be to His Name) in person. As I said before, He
did not use ink and paper to write it, this was not his call, but rather He
used his love, miracles, parables and quotes. For example, if it happened that
I saw the Lord Jesus Christ (Glory be to His Name) performing a miracle, and He
asked me to write down this miracle in a book. Should I write down the miracle,
and the writer is sought to be known, is it possible that I claim to have been
the author, since I did not initiate it; I'm not the composer, rather the
transcriber, but I'm not the source of the contents. The composer is the Lord
Jesus Christ, glory be to his name. If we say that it is the Lord Christ (Glory
be to His Name) who wrote the Gospel before He ascended, this is the truth, and
should we say that St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John the evangelists
wrote it down on His behalf; this is also true.
Q.
Dr. Nagi, do you have any proof that the four
versions are for one Gospel the source of which, and author is the Lord Jesus
Christ?
A. If we take a close look at the beginning of the four versions of
the Bible, we find that according to St. Matthew it starts, ‘The book of the
genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.’ The center of this verse is the
Lord Jesus Christ (Glory be to His Name) Son of David. In the version of St.
Luke, it starts with the story of the angel announcing to Zechariah that he was
to have a son, most pure; then the gospel moves on to tell us that the boy had
come to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ, the subject of the Gospel.
As for the version of St. Mark; the very first words are, ‘The beginning of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’, in other words, this is the Gospel of
Jesus Christ (Glory be to His Name) and not that of the apostle Mark, or any
one else. As for
Q. What do you think about translation of the Bible, be
it the Old or the New Testaments to thousands of languages? Do these
translations have the same power and genuinely of the authentic version and
transcription found today? It is proper to call such translation the Gospel according
to St. Matthew or
A.
The Holy Bible, both Testaments was revealed to God
Almighty as guidance and mercy to mankind, throughout the world, and throughout
ages and times. God Almighty is All Knowledgeable, is well aware that his book
had to be revealed through one language. He therefore did not reveal it as
verbal - phonetic revelation that had it been translated, it loses the miracle
within. He neither demanded that people recite it in the original language in
which it was revealed, or else their prayer are void, the Almighty allowed
every nation there is to translate his book, without losing its essence and
grandeur. In fact the translations of the Bible clarified it further since they
are identical to the original, so long as it leads to the exact meaning that
God Almighty had intended the day He revealed the message of wisdom. Given all
previous evidence, translations of the Holy Bible are just as powerful and
legitimate as the original version. Had
the Revelation of the Holy Scripture been intended for Man to know it by heart,
and recite it by the letter, not merely knowing its meaning in prayer, Man
should have abided by the original language in which it was revealed. If the
Holy Scripture was to lose its essence and grandeur once translated, Man
should’ve even studied the language in order to recite the Bible in daily
prayer.
Q. Dr. Nagi indeed this study
aims all adding in the different denominations and background, and even religions;
I do have an important question through, what would motivate a non-Christian to
listen to such a study?
A.
In fact, this study is very important, not only to Christians, but to
non-Christians as well, and for a number of reasons. First: This study is
presented by people who genuinely aspire to present the whole truth as God
Almighty reveals it, and who did not discriminate between one religions and the
other. For example,
Q. Do you have other reasons that would
motivate a non-Christian listen to this study?
A. I have a number of
reasons… Many non-Christians - please allow me to speak of major religions only
such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism - read neither the Bible nor the Torah,
despite the clear verse that says, ‘And We gave guidance to Moses and We
bequeathed upon the Children of Israel the Scripture; a guidance and a reminder
for people possessed of minds.’ Surah Ghafer 40:53, 54.
Also, ‘surely we have sent down the Torah (The Scripture sent to Moses) in
it is guidance and Light… And We sent following In their footsteps, Jesus the
son of Mary, confirming what was before him of the Torah, and We gave him the Injeel (The Scripture given to Jesus) In which was guidance
and Light, confirming what was before him of the Torah, and a guidance and an
admonition for the pious. So let the
people of the Injeel rule according to what God has
revealed In it, whoever does not judge according to what God has revealed,
those are the deviators.’
Q. Dr. Nagi, you
know that many beloved Moslems do not believe In the
authenticity of the Bible or the Torah; they believe it has been distorted, and
that people have added, or omitted from them.
What would then make a beloved Moslem study a distorted book?
A. It is not fair to claim that all beloved Moslems
believe in the distortion of the Holy Bible, both New
and Old Testaments, specially the New Testament. In fact, many a beloved Moslems
believe In the Holy Scripture, knowing that God Almighty revealed His message
of wisdom, by which we mean the truth: the Bible and the Torah, as is the case
with the Quoran.
They also believe that He is capable of keeping such from distortion -
as was stated by Imam El Biady. We also mentioned
that the authenticity of the Torah and the Bible is verified by Quoranic verses, as we previously quoted, ‘confirming what
was before him of the Torah and the Injeel
(Gospel)’. This means that the very hint
that either was altered means that the Almighty is incapable of preserving His
own revelation from distorting human hands. This implies,
God forbids great offense to the Almighty. My recommendation to our audience is
to give yourself a chance to study the Bible, and then make your own decision,
and judge from what you’ve learned. Would you like me to give you further
justification for the importance of attending this study to any searcher for
the truth, regardless of his religion?
Q. Please do.
A. Among the many evidences that I would like to use in answering your
question is, ‘why, for heaven’s sake, would I be willing to study or teach a
distorted book? Do I need to fool myself and abide by a revelation that has
been distorted by Man?’ Would any one believe that such a distortion would take
place without a rigorous and meticulous observation on the part of Christians,
even though they were convinced that Man is incapable and incapacitated to
distort the word of God?
Q. Dr. Nagi,
I know that you are a professor of ‘Islamic studies and Environment in the
Middle East’ In one of the universities of
A. Researching for years, my conclusions are similar to
those of great ancient Islamic Scholars, and also some modern ones. We’ve all concluded that The Glorious Quoran did not explicitly state that any distortion had
befallen the Torah or the Bible throughout the Meccan
Suras (those revealed to the Prophet of Islam where
he still had but a few followers In Mecca). On the contrary, whenever those Meccan verses were revealed, they urged people to believe
In what has been revealed to Essa (the Lord Jesus
Christ) and Moses - Confirming the authenticity of both revelations and proving
that God Almighty has kept both from human distortion. Otherwise, the Meccan
Suras wouldn’t have urged people to believe in and
judge by those revelations, and to consult with them In
any of the Suras revealed that they should doubt. In
other words the Quoran made the Holy Scripture a
reference.
Q. Thus about the Mecca Suras;
are there any other Suras that referred to the
distortion of the Torah or the Bible?
A. The Suras In
which there was reference to the distortion of the Torah are those revealed In
Al Medina, after Higra. The reference was not to a syntactic
distortion related to the original manuscript. There were many manuscripts that
it was impossible for people to gather them, hide or agree on adding to or
omitting from them. The distortion stated In the Suras
revealed In Al Medina, was referring to misinterpretation, verbal concealment
and denying some of the meanings that God Almighty had revealed. There was also
reference to people twisting their tongues and pronouncing utterances in a way
that would sound differently from what they should, and thus have a different
meaning from the original scripture.
None of the Islamic scholars ever asserted any syntactic change or
distortion in the original versions of the Bible or the Torah. This would've
caused them a big problem, since had there been be any alteration or
misrepresentation In the Scriptures of God, there should’ve been reference to
such In the Suras revealed In Mecca. On the contrary,
Meccan Suras referred to
the Holy Scripture, as we said. And
should this have happened after the Meccan Suras were revealed, then where, when, why and how did the
distortion happen? Where was God
Almighty? Why didn't He protect His word
when He had promised to safeguard it against fooling and distortion? There are so many questions that have no
answer should we believe that the Torah or the Bible, or both, were distorted,
thus about the Torah. As for the Gospel,
there is not one single verse, throughout the entire Quoran,
that accuses Christians of misrepresenting the Bible. All verses to this effect targeted the Jewish
minority then.
Q. Why all this fuss about the distortion of
the Bible? Couldn’t beloved Moslems give
up this conviction?
A. Indeed not.
Beloved Moslems cannot possibly give up this conviction, that the Holy
Scripture is distorted, unless they ask God Almighty to reveal the truth to
their hearts. The subject is not an intellectual or a psychological conviction.
The Holy Scripture and The Glorious Quoran cannot
belong to one origin. In other words, the originator or initiator of both
cannot possibly be one person: God Almighty. It is either that both are
incorrect, or that one of them is incorrect; it cannot be that both are
correct.
Q. Why do we have to reach this end? Why
couldn’t both be correct?
A. The difference between what is reflected In The Torah
and The Bible and what is reflected In The Glorious Quoran
is not only related to reciting stories and events which have no bearing on the
eternity of Man: eternal life or eternal death, hell or heaven. The difference is indeed substantial, and no
one can possibly believe in two things that are contradictory to one another.
Had the difference been a mere disagreement on events or stories, nobody
would’ve been concerned; but now that the issue at stake is related to eternal
destiny, then the matter is indeed serious. As a matter of fact, this is vast
issue to deal with, since the radical differences are many.
Q. Could you please mention one example to
verify your answer to this previous question? Many people believe that all
religions resemble one other, and that reaching eternal life or heaven could be
accomplished through any religion.
A. Well, let us take crucifixion of The Lord Jesus Christ
(Glory be to His Name) as an example.
Christian believe that it was The Lord Jesus Christ (Glory be to His
Name) (Glory be to His Name), who was crucified on their behalf; In order to
redeem them and sanctify their sins, and to consider them among the justified.
The Holy Scripture says of Him, ‘To Him all the prophets witness that, through
His name, whoever believes In Him will receive remission of sins.’ Acts
10:43. It is also
written of Him, ‘Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other
name under heaven given among men by whom we must be saved.’ Acts4: 12, except
for the Name of The Lord Jesus Christ, there is no other name. Forever blessed is His Name. The Lord Christ
(Glory be to His Name) said about Himself: “I am the
way”, by which He means the only way to eternal heaven and eternal life, the Truth,
i.e. He is the truth to which no falsehood, nor was any deceit In His mouth’.
Isaiah 53:9. He also said about
Himself that He is life; no one had life without Him. Anyone who did not get to
know Him, did not get to know life, but will definitely end up in eternal
torture and absolute death. The Lord Christ (Glory be to His Name) Himself had
said that statement Himself, about Himself, ‘I am the way, the truth and the
life’. John 14:6. Meanwhile The Glorious
Quoran states that the Lord Christ (Glory be to His
Name) was not crucified, but ‘that it was made to appear to them’
Q. How is this example related to the issue
of distorting the Holy Scripture?
A. Simply it is related In that 600 years ago, when the
beloved Moslems discovered that the teachings of Islam are contradictory to
those of Christianity, they found it inevitable to say that the Torah and the
Bible are both distorted by human hand, thus they overruled the problem.
Q. Dr. Nagi,
regardless of who is right and who is wrong; which is the True Book revealed by
God Almighty? And, being a simple plain
person, what do I need to do In order not to find out,
after it is too late, that I’m among the losers who belong to eternal hell,
like you just said? In fact you scared me.
A. There is only one solution to this problem. You need to
lift up your heart to God Almighty, the merciful, the compassionate, and the
Master of the Day of Judgment. He knows the utter truth. Ask Him to lead you to
the right path, and to reveal His truth to your heart. Do that humbly and genuinely. God Almighty
always honors genuine approaches, and rewards them with His grace and blessing. Those will be rewarded with eternal glory He
had prepared especially for the pious, considering them among the gainers.
Q. Will you please lead us in prayer?
A. Almighty Master, lead my soul into knowing the truth. I
believe that you have not created me to be tortured in hell. Have mercy on me,
Oh most merciful of all. Forgive my sins, wipe away my transgressions, and lead
me into the right path. Guide me to the righteous way, and accept me as I come
to you in repentance. You are the most merciful of all. Amen.