Friday, February 27, 2009

Allah belongs to the Muslims,Christians,Jew or the Sikhs?

Well I read that when RPK went to China more than 15 years ago he visited the oldest mosque in China., he related this story in MT. It was at Kwangchow (Canton) and was built 100 years after Prophet Muhammad’s time. That’s right, the Chinese were Muslims 700 or 800 years before the Malays and when the Malays were still Hindus, Buddhists, tree worshippers, and so on. But only the Malays are true Muslims while the Chinese are mualaps.
I met the Imam of the Kwangchow mosque and he spoke to me in Arabic. I replied, “Mafi kalam Arabi.” He was surprised because I just did my prayers in the mosque, which he assumed I would have performed in Arabic.

“You don’t speak Arabic?”
“No,” I replied.
“You can read the Quran?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“You can read the Quran but you can’t speak Arabic? How do you do that?”
“I recite only, not read.”
“So you can’t understand what you recite?”
“No,” I replied.
“What kind of Muslim are you? You recite the Quran but can’t understand what you are reciting.”
“Well, I am the same as 99% other Muslims in Malaysia. We all don’t speak Arabic and can’t understand what we are reciting.”
The Imam shook his head and went off to pray for God to have mercy on me -- and the 99% other Malay Muslims in Malaysia.

What’s all this brouhaha about the word Allah in the Malay language translation of the Bible? First, take a look at this:

[Genesis 1:1 - English Bible - King James Version]
"In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth . . . "
[Genesis 1:1 - Arabic transliteration]
"Fee al-badi' khalaqa Allahu as-Samaawaat wa al-Ard . . . "
[Genesis 1:1 - Arabic Bible]
[John 3:16 - English Bible - King James Version]
"For God so loved the world, that . . . "
[John 3:16 - Arabic transliteration]
"Li-annhu haakadha ahabba Allahu al-'Aalama hataa badhala . . . "
[John 3:16 - Arabic Bible]
[Luke 1:30 - English Bible - King James Version]
" . . . Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God."
[Luke 1:30 - Arabic transliteration]
" . . . Laa takhaafee, yaa Maryam, li-annaki qad wajadti ni'amat(an) i'nda Allahi."
[Luke 1:30 - Arabic Bible]
[Luke 3:38 - English Bible - New King James Version]
"the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God."
[Luke 3:38 - Arabic transliteration]
"bini Anoosha, bini Sheeti, bini Aaadama, abni Allahi."

The word Allah is already in the Bible. It is exactly the same word that the Jews, in Hebrew, use for God (eloh), the word that Jesus Christ used in Aramaic when he prayed to God. In Hebrew, Huwa el Elah or HUWA 'L LAH means HE IS ALLAH in the verse QUL HUWAL LAH HU AHAD.

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” said Jesus on the cross. In Aramaic this is: "Eli, Eli, l'mana Sabachtani?"

The words El, Elah and Elohim are not three distinctly different words. They all represent the single Arabic word, Allah, which is also the same in Hebrew.
No, Islam does not have monopoly over the use of the word Allah. The Christians and Jews too use this same word. In fact, the biggest ‘selling point’ for Islam is that the Quran recognises all the Prophets of the Jews and Christians and that we all pray to the same ONE God, Allah. If the God of the Jews, Christians and Muslims is the same one God, would not then the name of this God also be the same? How can the name of the Muslim God be different from that of the Jews and Christians if we all pray to the same one God?

Some Malays, PKR and PAS Malays included, are very narrow-minded and ignorant. And this is because they recite the Quran like parrots without understanding what they are reciting -- mainly because they do not speak the language of the Quran. And, for sure, they do not read any of the Holy Books of the other religions because they are of the opinion that it is forbidden (haram) to do so. It is said that even Prophet Muhammad sought advice from his wife’s, Khatijah’s cousin, Warakah, a learned Christian scholar of his time, though some scholars refute this (but they do admit that Warakah was a Christian who attended Prophet Muhammad’s and Khatijah’s wedding).
And Prophet Muhammad never prohibited the Jews and Christians from using the word Allah. But then Malays think they are better Muslims and more learned than the Arabs even though Malays recite the Quran without understanding what they are reciting -- unlike the Chinese Muslims in China. And what are 16 million Malay Muslims compared to the more than 100 million in China, the mualaps, as the Malays would call them, who have been Muslims since 1,300 years ago when Malays were still praying to trees and whatnot.

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