Islam Unveiled

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The Mystery Of Pbuh Unveiled

Before we go on, we must deal with the term pbuh. This ptic word is accepted by Muslims as an abbreviation for “peace be upon him.” It is respectfully spoken as well as written after repeating the name of Muhammad. Although it is supposed to be the rendering of an Arabic phrase, it is actually not a true translation--only half of it is. The Arabic phrase is Salla-llahu’ alayhi wassalam. It occurs in the Qur'anic text and literally read, “Lo Allah and His angels pray upon the prophet. Oh yea who believe, pray on him and salute him with peace.”

One is utterly confounded when the literal and real translation is understood. Why do our Muslim friends hide the true meaning of pbuh? It is because the Arabic statement is embarrassing since it contradicts Muslim doctrine?

How is Allah supposed to pray to Muhammad and greet Him or anyone else for that matter? Does Allah pray? And if He does, to whom does He pray? Is this passage not contrary to Muslim theology, which teaches that Allah is prayed to but He never prays to anyone else? Or does Allah really pray to other human beings or only to Muhammad, Allah’s own prophet? The confusion of this popular Islamic expression leaves one perplexed and hanging in the air.


The Early Advances Of Islam

Muslims sometimes cite the rapid spread of Islam as a proof of its divine origin, but other explanations may be given, some of which will be mentioned.



Suited for the Arabs

The predominant characteristics of the ancient Arab were an almost inconceivable vain-glory and self-conceit. He was never weary of contemplating and boasting of his own perfection. Mohammed was precisely the Prophet to win such a race. The Arab gloried in his language; Mohammed declared that it was a Divine language-- the decrees of God had been written in it from all eternity. The Arab gloried in the traditional practices and customs of the desert-- murder, predatory war, slavery, polygamy, concubinage. Mohammed impressed upon all these assuages the seal of a Divine sanction. The Arab gloried in the holiness of Mecca. Mohammed affirmed it to be the single portal whereby men could enter into Paradise. In a word, he took the Arab people just as he found them, and declared all that they did to be very good and sacred from change. The fancied revelation gratified the vanity of the Arabs, but it pronounced on them a sentence of perpetual barbarism. Such as they were when the Prophet lived, such are the Arabs now. Their condition is proof that Islam is incapable of elevating a people to a higher level.

It has been well said that “the Allah of Mohammed spares the sins the Arab love.: As an Arab, this writer will object strongly to such general characterization. Yet much truth is found in the above stated evaluation of my people.



Incentives of Plunder and Conquest

The Muslims’ early raids were not aimed exclusively at conquest or conversion. Rather, they were simply part of the Bedouin skirmishing traditions and were carried out primarily for economic motivations-- the booty and tribute that amounted to 50 percent of one's wealth were healthy incentives for impoverished desert warriors-- thus the spread of Islam was more economic phenomenon than a religious one. Barely a century after Muhammad’s revelation claims began, Muslim soldiers and traders stood from Spain in the west, across North Africa and the Middle East, to the borders of China.

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The Desert, the Camel, and the Horse Advantage

The Arab Bedouins were the masters of the desert. They trapped their enemies in sandstorms and dry riverbeds. Although they fought few battles, their victories were decisive. The Battle of Yarmuk, A.D. 631, led by Khalid, was fought in a sandstorm, giving the Muslims the advantage, because they were more familiar than the Byzantines with desert warfare.

For mobility, the Bedouins used the swift, sure-footed Arabian horse, whose flaring nostrils can take in large quantities of air. The one-humped camel, which can drink twenty-five gallons of water in ten minutes and survive for days on a diet of thorny bushes and dried grass, was used for endurance. The camel has a double row of eyelashes and is able to close its nostrils for long periods of time as protection from sandstorms. Additionally, its soft, two toed feet serve the same purpose as balloon tires on a dune buggy, and it can run faster than any other animal on the desert sands. The camel and the Arabian horse gave the Arabs a definite advantage in warfare.



Expectation of Religious Merit through Jihad (Holy War)

All who die “fighting in the ways of the Lord” (Jihad) are richly rewarded, while those who draw back are sorely punished, according to Surat al-Fath (Victory) 48:16-17.
While attending a Foreign Missions Conference in June 1986, in North Carolina, I sat in on the special discussions on world religions. To my utter surprise, the forty-minute slide presentation with its “expert” narrator on world religions attempted to impress the group of two hundred that Islam is mistakenly called “the religion of the sword.” I stood up and challenged the speaker to explain how that was true when the Qur'an command Mohammed to fight and Mohammed conducted twenty-seven battles and planned thirty-nine others.



The Spiritual Vacuum Created by a Lukewarm Christianity

Every human soul seeks the ultimate reality, the truth. Whenever this goal eludes them, they find substitutes in philosophy, materialism, religions, cults, and various other substitutes. Even now we live in a world of substitutes. We no longer want sugar, therefore sweetener substitutes are offered. “Coca-Cola” advertises that their product is “the real thing!”

The majority of Christians of that time were neither living holy lives nor sharing their faith in order to lead Mohammed and his contemporaries to Christ Jesus, the ultimate reality. It is to our extreme sorrow and eternal shame that the Arabs ended up following Mohammed instead of Christ. In fact, I am convinced, as an Arab, that Mohammed would have been one of the most powerful disciples of Jesus had he lived in Palestine during Jesus’ earthly ministry.

However, Mohammed, instead, became a warrior, orator, and the un-crowned emperor of Arabia. he used religion as his literary theme and the sword to enforce his beliefs. The surats are titles of his poems and prose in an expressive language. Others before him had used prose and poetry effectively to win a place of honor by hanging them in the Ka’bah long before Muhammad’s emergence on the horizon of Arabia.



The Bankruptcy of Heathenism

The Arab tribes were getting very restless. Their heathen practices never could satisfy the longing in their hearts. The 360 local idols increased their hunger for the truth. The idea of an Almighty Creator captured their imagination. This made Muhammad’s teaching that much more attractive.

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Islamic Growth Today



Population Explosion in Muslim Countries

Our world’s population grew to more than five billion in July 1986. The statistics provide evidence that the greatest increases in population have been occurring in Third World countries that are non-Christian, such as Hindu, Muslim, and Socialist countries. The belief, especially among the illiterate Muslims, is that Allah’s favor upon a family is shown by its large size. Riches are also a sign of His favor; thus, Arabs accept oil as evidence of His pleasure with them.

The children who are born in a Muslim home are automatically counted as Muslims, with no choice provided for anything else. One can deduce that this comprises the major reason for the increase in the number of Muslims in the world. Indonesia, with a population of 168 million, has more Muslims than the entire Arab world, then Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India in that order.

Oil Riches Used to Propagate Islam

The new resurgence of Islam is partially due to the billions of oil dollars reaped from the terrifying hikes in oil prices since 1973. Although the picture drastically changed in 1986, still petroleum dollars are being used to build Muslim centers in every major city in the world and every sizable city (over 500,000 population) in the Untied States. Literature, the Qur'an itself, and magazines proclaiming the praises of Islam are published and distributed daily throughout the world.

Accepting Islam for Economic Reasons

Many of the poorer countries of ;the Third World, particularly those in Africa, have denounced Israel, Christian missionaries, and the West in general in order to receive Muslim funds. With the influx of financial aid rushes in the Muslim religion and proselyting of citizens.



Non-Muslims Change Names for Employment

In Egypt alone there have been between 20,000 to 50,000 people every year for 25 years who changed their Christian names to Muslim names to gain employment in the Muslim-controlled economy. Prejudice in the predominantly Muslim countries has forced thousand of people to switch their names, if not their Christian allegiance.



A Fanatical Desire to Conquer the World

At the Battle of Tours, France, in A.D. 432, the Muslims were stopped in their tracks as their armies advanced to conquer the world. But now the is intensifying, as we heard in England in the summer of 1985: “If we can take London for Islam, we can take the world.” Their effort is militant, represented by men like Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, military regimes like Colonel Gadhafi of Libya, and the tragic civil war in Lebanon.

According to the United States State Department’s Office of Counter-Terrorism, there were more than 800 international terrorist incidents in 1985, with 2,223 causalities in that bloody year. This was a 60 percent increase over the 1978 to 1983 early averages. Facts and figures indicate that the majority of these incidents were sponsored by fanatical Muslim groups.

Furthermore, it is believed that an extreme Muslim group, perhaps the Muslim Brotherhood, engineered the assassination of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1983. Mr. Sadat, along with American President Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Begin of Israel, shared the 1978 Nobel Peace prize for their roles in the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Nevertheless, something else must be recognized in connection with the Palestinian terrorists. I am a former Palestinian, but I cannot condone their atrocities carried out to force the world to take another look at their desperate lot. Even as this book is being prepared for the press, the whole world is sickened at the six-month-long riots, demonstrations, and bloodshed between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis on the West Bank. Tragically, over two hundred Palestinian Arabs have been killed so far. But since we have given the displaced Jews a homeland, why not the Palestinians? After all, did they not live there for centuries and know no other homeland except Palestine? Unless they are given the self-determination to choose the West Bank as their Palestine or the West Bank as a federation with Jordan, peace in the Middle East will continue to be elusive. The Libyan bombing by the United States in 1986 was merely a treatment for the symptom of the illness. We must still deal with the real problem--the Palestinian homeland.

On February 4, 1987, I was one of numerous speakers, greeters, and singers at the Annual National Prayer Breakfast held at the Washington Sheraton Hotel. Many dignitaries from the national and international scene sat with me on the huge platform. The attendance was nearly two thousand, Edwin Meese, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, spoke on terrorism. Reverend Stephen Olford spoke on “A Biblical View of Israel.” I was the only Palestinian Arab on the program.

Before Meese delivered his address, Ed McAteer, president of the Religious Roundtable, introduced me as a member of a new P.L.O. He announced P.L.O. stands for Palestinians Loving Others to a tumultuous round of applause. Greeting them first in Arabic, then interpreting, “I greet you in the name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior, and the man from my hometown of Nazareth,” I nearly brought the house down.

In a brief, two-minute speech, I shared my testimony, and how God’s love had changed my heart, attitude, and will, teaching me, through Christ, to forgive even those who were responsible for the deaths of my father, an uncle, and a cousin. Concluding, the Holy Spirit reminded me of an idea an Arab pastor from London was inspired to proclaim:

The Jews now have a place. But they have no peace. My Palestinian people someday will have a place. Yet that will not guarantee peace either. What we need is not just a place but a person, a person who declared, “If the son has made you free you are free indeed.” And in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Prince of peace, I want to say to you I love you and God bless you.

The response was electrifying, unbelievable, and very humbling. The audience and the speakers alike began to stand and applaud. out of thirty or more participants on the program, mine was the only speech which received a standing ovation. To God be the glory! They did not stand for me but for Jesus Christ--the One who changed me.

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Disaffection with Prejudiced Organized Religions

The prime example of this is none other than Cassius Clay of the world boxing fame. When he became the world champion and discovered persistent prejudice against his color, he turned tot he Black Muslims who welcomed him with open arms. The young boxer did not realize that prejudice--racial, sexual, national, and religious--permeated Islam. However, I have personal knowledge of a ten-hour visit between him and evangelist Billy Graham where Mohammad Ali, now his Muslim name, admitted his dissatisfaction with Islam after embracing it for twenty years.

At least 6,000 Britons have sought Islam as a result of their disaffection with organized Christianity in England in the past five years. One such person is the famous singer Cat Stevens, a pop musician.
In other words, no matter what one’s religion is, it does not provide the ultimate reality. A person needs a relationship with Christ Jesus because only He can satisfy our souls.

Immigration of Muslims into the West

The number of Muslims in the West has not increased because of conversion, but because of immigration of Muslims by the millions to the West. The recent changes in immigration laws and the leniency of the previously restricted quotas from Third World countries has brought this Muslim influx.



Marriages of Younger Muslim Men to non-Muslim Women

The thousands of Muslim students who travel to study in the numerous institutions of higher learning in Europe and the United States find the alluring and sophisticated girls here much more attractive than their docile counterparts at home. Of course, a further truth is obvious to any observing individual. Many young men would rather marry and live in the West with its freedoms and opportunities than return tot he old-fashioned traditions and modern tragedies of the war-torn Muslim world and its instability.