My name is Amir Saleem. I grew up in a strict Muslim country but my family was liberal. I did not consider myself a religious person. I even studied Marxist ideas because I thought they gave answers to my country’s social problems. However, I never doubted my faith.
I believed that Islam was God’s last and most perfect religion. It was based on the Qur’an, God’s final revelation, and his last prophet Muhammad. Other religions were basically the same because they had all been revealed by one God. Unfortunately they messed up the original message of their founding prophets. Islam did not do this.
Religious Views Challenged
My religious views were confronted when I went to Europe for school. I ended up going to a Christian School. After sitting in my first Bible class, I asked, “How come your Word of God says one thing and our word of God (Al-Quran) says something else?” My teacher gently asked, “How do you know the Qur’an is the word of God?”
Her response completely changed me. I grew up in a world where everyone believed the Qur’an was given by God to the Prophet Muhammad. No one ever questioned that belief. That short talk pushed me to start searching for the truth about the Christian faith.
Christian Claims
Like other Muslims, I was shocked by Christians’ claims about Isa Al-Masih. How could anyone believe a prophet from God was God Himself? Yet, something about my friends’ lives and faith impressed me. Their relationship with God and with others was different from anything I had ever seen. I often told them I did not want them to deny their faith. I just wanted to find a way that I could hold to Islam and they could hold to their faith.
Troubling Quranic Passages
Sometimes I found comfort in the Quran, but I began to have more questions than answers. The violent tone of many Quranic passages began to bother me. I compared them with the emphasis on love in the Injil.
The section of the Quran that upset me the most was about the prophet Muhammad. In Qs 33:37, God gives Muhammad permission to marry his stepson’s divorced wife. I clearly remember the first time I found this verse. I began to cry. All of my life I had been told that Muhammad was the best example to follow. Yet the Qur’an had many examples of how the “revelations” self-served the prophet himself!
Immediately I wrote a letter to my mother. She had one of the most well-known religious leaders in my country respond to me. He told me that I needed to focus on my secular studies and not worry about religion. Yet, as I studied the Bible more, many of my questions were being answered. I realized that Christ’s death on the cross was a historical fact that no honest person could deny.
Christ’s Character
Christ’s [Isa Al-Masih] character began to make a big impact on me. The most impressive fact was the many Old Testament prophecies about His coming. I was amazed to see how God had used hundreds of years of Jewish history to prepare for the Isa Al-Masih’s coming.
I was very interested in Christ, but I could not reject my heritage. Becoming a Christian was a direct betrayal of my family. I felt torn between these two faiths.
I Can’t Accept Jesus as God
I still could not accept that Jesus was God. He had never said, “I am God and you must worship me.” I believed that the claims Christians made about Jesus were based on rumors and unreliable Gospels. The statements about Jesus being God had to be invented by the church.
Meaning of Isaiah 7:14 Revealed
I woke up one morning and suddenly realized the meaning of a verse I had found in Isaiah. I had read it several weeks before, but I had never understood its meaning. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “The Lord himself will give you a miraculous sign. The virgin is going to have a baby. She will give birth to a son. And he will be called Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
Isaiah then goes on to write, “A child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. He will rule over us. And he will be called Wonderful Adviser and Mighty God. He will also be called Father Who Lives Forever and Prince Who Brings Peace. The authority of his rule will continue to grow. The peace he brings will never end. He will rule on David’s throne… It will last forever” (Isaiah 9:6).
God’s Prophecy is True!
I could not believe it! Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah [Isa Al-Masih] was not going to be just a prophet but God Himself! It was not something that had been made up by Christians! God promised that He would come in the flesh and start a kingdom that would last forever.
Trusting in Christ for Salvation
I trusted in Christ the next day. I had never felt much guilt, but I felt a great sense of relief from the burden of my sins. I had finally found the truth about God and His revelation of love to mankind in Jesus Christ [Isa Al-Masih].
New Life
Soon after I trusted in Christ, I decided to dedicate my entire life to telling the Good News of Christ among Muslims, and especially my own people. I came to the United States and received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biblical Studies.
[We invite you to visit us at https://www.isaandislam.com/way-of-salvation to learn more about God’s gift of Salvation. God loves you and waits to hear from you. Isa Al-Masih said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). For a deeper understanding of Isa we suggest you subscribe to “Isa, Islam, and Al-Fatiha” at this link.]
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1. How were Amir’s religious views challenged?
2. What did he find in the Quran that made him upset?
3. What verses in Isaiah helped Amir accept Isa as God?
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It hurts more that brother Amir Saleem was born as a Muslim but was misguided. Isa Al-Masih is the messenger of God. He is not God. Islam believes in one God, Allah.
Isa Al-Masih made the dead come back to life by the permission and will of Allah, like Musa who parted the river by the permission and will of Allah. Isa was human and a messenger. He ate and drank like us. He is still present in heaven and He will return.
The Bible has been changed. Isa Al-Masih said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Injil, John 14:6).
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Mohammed,
God and Isa share the deity (the divinity of nature). God is “I am” (Taurat, Exodus 3:14) or Yahweh in Hebrew. He is the Father God who is unseen because of His Holiness. He sent Isa Al-Masih, the Word of God (Injil, John 1:1) to earth. When Isa was on earth, like you said, he ate and drank like us because he was a human being.
Why did God send Isa to the world? God wanted to reveal Himself to humanity and save us from sin’s penalty and bondage. Through Isa’s first mission to earth, He accomplished His tasks to reveal His Father (God) to the world. He preached and taught about God with power and authority. He ended his tasks by surrendering Himself to His Father’s will to be the holy sacrifice for all mankind. Sin separated us from God. Isa surrendered His life to die in order to pay our sin debt. On the third day after He died, He was raised from the dead. He was on earth and stayed with His disciples for 40 more days. Then, He ascended into heaven. His disciples witnessed Him ascending. Two angels dressed in white robes stood beside them and asked why they were looking into the sky. The angels said:
“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
This is not just a story, but the truth. A person can receive Isa as God because He said that He was in the Father and the Father is in Him. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works” (Injil, John 14:10). We invite you to read one of our other articles about how Isa can save us from our sin at: https://www.isaandislam.com/Isa-Al-Masih/are-you-a-muslim-carrying-a-load-of-sin-there-is-help.html
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John 14:10: “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”
The above Scripture gives Jesus’ status. Any human being cannot be in God the Father, but Jesus was alone in God the Father. So that is a clear understanding about Trinity. Dear Brother Mohammad Waseem Khan, I compared the Bible and the Quran. And then, I accepted Jesus as God’s Son in human form and Holy God in spiritual form . So I now have a true relationship with the Holy Creator. With my Muslim status, I could not have a relationship with a Holy God. Because in Islam, God is different from God in Christianity.
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Aung Moe Thein,
It’s true that Christians can have a relationship with the Father God who is Holy, through Isa Al-Masih as their Savior. It is His heart that all people can also come to Him. However, sin separates human beings from God. Therefore, sin needs to be “washed away.” This can only be done through the blood of the “Holy Lamb,” Isa. All of us need to accept Him as our Sacrifice, otherwise God’s anger will be remain upon us.
None of us are able to make ourselves holy. Only through Isa who covers our sins, can we be right before God. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Injil, Apostle Matthew 26:28).
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It is like this: I created a man and a woman with original sin. Then I destroyed them because of sin. Then I impregnated a woman with myself as her child, so that I could be born. Later, I will kill myself as a sacrifice to myself to save all of you from the sin I gave you in the first place.
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Thank you for your comment. The Bible clearly taught that God doesn’t create original sin. Sin was resulted because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
Also, the Father God didn’t marry a woman as His wife. Isa was born miraculously through the Holy Spirit. Isa is God’s Word or Kalimah Allah who incarnated into flesh through the virgin woman’s womb (Qs 3:45).
Yes, Isa died on the cross so that everyone wouldn’t be perished but may have eternal life with Allah. I’d like to invite you to go to this links, to learn more about how the first human beings fell into sin and the explanation that God didn’t result biological son: : https://www.isaandislam.com/christian-beliefs/the-bible-teaches-that-mankind-fell-into-sin.html, https://www.isaandislam.com/Isa-Al-Masih/what-is-meant-by-the-term-qson-of-godq.html#comment-122
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God is the Creator of everything. He is the self-existent, all powerful, all knowing, and all present God. That means that all things are possible for him to do. He doesn’t need to marry a woman to give birth like the order of men, e.g God made human beings and he doesn’t. That means he can transform into human form anytime and anyhow he wants to. He can use anyone He wants to use to do whatever He wants the person to do for him.
It is Only God who can give birth without the ardency of a man. God is a spirit and He made marriage for men not for Himself. I don’t think any Muslim has enough sense to ask God. Who are you? Why do You do the things You do?
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Thanks for your comment that affirm the Al-Mighty God. You are right that all things are possible with God. Because God is God. We, human beings can’t fathom all things that He made. It’s in His plan and in His control. We can’t understand His way unless He revealed it to us.
Blessings.
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The trinity God is a simple analysis to humanity. The Bible says that God had created us on his own image. We are made of spirit, soul and body which means that God is made of such three. Now whatever happened to the body affects the soul and the spirit. So it is in God whatever happens to Jesus happens to God and the holy spirit. When you are sleeping your soul depart from from your body right – any evil spirits that attack you attacked your whole being as person. Remember we are all created in the image of God. What is the image of God, how does he (God looks like) as the Bible says. Does God have spirit, body and soul??
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God revealed that He has a soul. He is also a Spirit. We can know this because we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Because He has a soul and is spirit, we are able to know Him and have a fellowship with Him.
Because God is a Spirit, He’s not tied to a physical body. “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (Injil, John 4:24). Yet, He can take the form of a body when He wants to, as He did in the “birth” of Jesus.