Samuel Thorne Zimmerman English 1A ��We Ransomed Him with a Momentous Sacrifice�: An Appeal
for Peace to Islamic Warriors �So when they had both submitted their wills (to God), and
he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), we called out
to him �O Abraham!� Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!�� - thus indeed
do we reward those who do right.� For this was obviously a trial - And We
ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice.�� (The
Holy Qur'an, as-Saffat 37.103-107) Having submitted their wills to Allah and prepared to make
their sacrifice to him, Ibrahim and his son truly were Muslim, (Subject to
Allah�s Will)!� If you have received such a command and are willing to sacrifice
your life or the lives of your children for Allah the same ways as Ibrahim,
are you not Muslim too? You have also fulfilled the vision the same as Ibrahim, due
to your submission and willingness to die for Allah.� Will you examine Allah�s
will to see if there is a momentous, alternative sacrifice to make in place
of your own death?� We want to be sure the vision and the sacrifice are truly
from Allah.� Does Allah deserve anything less than our certainty? The faith that you show means that you love Allah, the same
as Ibrahim did.� Isn�t that the reason we submit to Him?� May we never insult
Allah or our faith in Him by saying that we submit our wills to Him and sacrifice
ourselves, or our children, to Allah merely because we believe He will reward
us! Even though Allah would never lower Himself to procreate
as people do, Allah loved His children even before we ever were.� He loved
us so much that he created humanity in His image (The Holy Bible, Gen.
1.26). �You may be sure that Allah will bless you and your children for your
faith, the same as Ibrahim was sure Allah would bless him and his son for
their faith even before He commanded that Ibrahim sacrifice his son�s life.� Consider
that Allah blessed Ibrahim and his sons after him, the same as a father blesses
his dear children, even though Ibrahim sacrificed an animal instead of his
son.� Allah knew Ibrahim had indeed sacrificed his son to Him in his heart,
and therefore He blessed both of them.� May Allah bless you and yours the
same way. Does a father require his children to die for him before
he blesses them?� He may test them, even as He may test you now, but even
Allah�s test upon Ibrahim had its limits.� When no doubt remained that Ibrahim
truly submitted himself to Allah�s will, the trial ended. Does a father send his children armed only with toys to face
enemies with deadly weapons?� Allah knows that for Him, you would willingly
face heavily defended enemies with nothing but a light weapon, a bomb, or
an unarmed aircraft.� However, the enemy you face is so strong that neither
you, nor any jihad that has gone before you, daunts him.� Defeating this
enemy is a work worthy of Allah Himself, who could destroy the enemy simply
by decreeing it!� Would the Almighty Creator send a child armed with only
a toy to fight His battle? Who really sends you to kill or to die?� Ibrahim lead his
household against the raiders who captured his nephew, Lūt (Gen. 14.14-16).� However,
who can follow a leader who stays behind?� We may as well beg for water from
a man who is dying of thirst!� Is that the will of Allah? If it were Allah�s will for us to defend one political nation
or to attack another, why doesn�t He bless one nation with overwhelming victory,
or curse another with overwhelming defeat?� So far, the only nations defeated
are those who would attack!� You saw the jubilation of those with the Taliban
and with Saddam Hussein when al Qaeda attacked the Do you really care so little for your compatriots that you
would bring a conquering enemy upon them?� If so, fool yourself if you can,
but don�t think for a moment that you fool Allah, who had an Apostle write:� �If
a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath
not seen?�� (1 John 4.20).� If you are that man, you do not love Allah, and
He knows it, even if you do not.� Will you submit to Him, or must an enemy
defeat you? Is an enemy already oppressing or exploiting you?� Beware,
that another enemy does not use your feelings to exploit or oppress you even
worse.� Such feelings make us vulnerable, for �Surely oppression maketh a
wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart� (Eccl. 7.7).� For a time,
it seemed profitable to some, to sacrifice one�s life because of the reward
that some nations and leaders would pay the families of the one who sacrificed
himself.� Who will provide for your family when you die?� Will the Taliban
or Saddam Hussein reward your family if you die now?� If that were Allah�s
will, He would have protected the arrangement. What manner of blasphemers do we take ourselves for, so that
we should presume to put our own words in Allah�s mouth and declare that
one nation or another, or one national leader or another, personifies Allah
or Iblis?� Is it any wonder that Allah curses such haughty people with defeat? Is it Allah�s will that no more people submit to His will?� He
gave the Torah to Perhaps by killing a man who would kill you to save his
own life, you will save your life until the next enemy kills you.� However,
by doing so, you take a life that belongs to Allah who, in the Torah, told
the prophet Nuh that the blood of every man belongs to Him, and from every
hand that sheds man�s blood, He will require it back.� (Gen. 9.5)� Did Allah
give that man�s blood to you, or do you take it? Whether it is you or your enemy, what need has Allah for
a dead man?� A man�s violent death is an affront to Allah who gave life to
all people.� (al-Baqarah 2.28)� How would
you feel if you gave a precious gift, and your faithful servant forcibly
took it away from the person you gave it to, saying he serves you by taking
it away?� Wouldn�t it seem as if you had never intended to give the gift? Allah desires the faithful worship of all who might submit
to Him.� He directs us to convey His message to both those with the Torah
and Injil, and those without them:� �And say to the People of the Book and to those who are unlearned:
�Do ye (also) submit yourselves?�� If they do, they are in right guidance,
but if they turn back, Thy duty is to convey the Message; and in God's sight
are (all) His servants.�� Allah sees them, and he will judge.� In addition,
to those who have only the Torah, deny Allah, and slay the prophets and the
just, the duty remains, �announce to them a grievous penalty.� They are those
whose works will bear no fruit in this world and in the Hereafter nor will
they have anyone to help.�� (al-Imran 3.20-22) As he had in the days of Nuh, Allah saw a world full of
faithless people surrounding the few who submit to Him.� Therefore, he sent
�Isa Masih to train faithful ones to teach others (Luke 10.1-22).� When �Isa
finished training them, he instructed them at the very last to �go
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the
Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep everything
that I commanded you� (The Bible in Living English, Matt. 28.19, 20).� That
would include teaching new disciples the same instruction to teach others
to observe all that he commanded them, so that the message would perpetuate
itself to all people. Christendom corrupted this command into misguided jihads
against the faithful, and abandoned its true purpose.� If only more worshippers
that are faithful were available to teach others and set living examples
of faith for them, more people could learn from them to worship Allah faithfully. There are more!� Are you not faithful?� Considering your
willingness to die for Allah, your submission to Allah honors the example
of faith set for you by Ibrahim.� Unfortunately, your sacrificial death will
cut short the time in which you can teach and set an example, the same as
death would have cut short the time for Ibrahim� s family if he had slaughtered
his son. As with Ibrahim and his son, Allah provides to you an alternative,
a momentous sacrifice, in place of sacrificing your life by dying.� Consider
the one sacrifice that could possibly be greater than dying for Allah:� Sacrificing
your life by living for Allah.� You can only die for as long as it takes
to die, and then you are dead.� Living for Allah lasts for a lifetime � if
you are strong enough to maintain your faith that long.� Which is more of
a challenge, sacrificing your life, or sacrificing your death?� Which displays
the stronger faith in Allah in the face of temptation?� Could anyone who
lacks the faith to die for Allah even consider the prospect of living his
entire life for Allah?� Who is better equipped for this challenge than you? Should Ibrahim have rejected the momentous ransom, and insisted
upon shedding his son�s blood?� Should we reject it?� Who will set an example
for those we could teach, if we reject making the momentous sacrifice of
living for Allah? �You surely will not discard knowledge that you studied
diligently to learn.� You continue to study and learn until you die.� If
you know the Qur�an well, you may know that it is �confirming what went before it�: God! �There is no god but He, - the Living, the Self-Subsisting,
Eternal.� It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book,
confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the
Gospel (of Jesus) Before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the
criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).� (al-Imran 3.2-4; also see: al-Baqarah
2.97, al-An`am 6.92, and Yunus 10.37) Allah first sent the Torah, and then the Injil to fulfill
it, and then the Qur�an to confirm them both when Judaism and Christendom
abandoned them.� While many believe that the Torah and Injil are corrupt,
that belief denies the Qur�an, which states that its purpose is to confirm
them.� Is Allah so weak that he cannot preserve the messages he gave His
prophets? Are you ready to deepen your studies, to include the Torah
and Injil?� That would certainly take time and effort.� However, isn�t making
certain of Allah�s will worth it?� When you have made certain of it, you
will be even surer to carry out His pleasure. You can still die for Allah later, if He wills it.� However,
if you shed your own blood against Allah�s will before making sure of it,
when will you submit to Allah? There are many who will offer to help you study the Torah
and Injil, but you cannot trust just anyone to help you.� After all, what
use are religions that oppress the faithful, or send or bless armies to slay
them?� When �Isa Masih trained his helpers to teach others, he told
them �freely ye have received, freely give� (Matt. 10.8). �Allah�s message
is a gift from Him, not merchandise from men.� Therefore, do not allow any
man to sell it to you.� The cost of printing the Book is one thing; paying
someone to teach you is another.� Anyone charging for that service is disobeying
the Book�s own instruction. Allah is the only one God; what use are those who say He
is Three?� (an-Nisa' 4.171)� Therefore, we don�t need those who claim to
follow �Isa, but who would make him out to be a usurper of godhood, like
those who had him slain.� (John 10.33) Yet, �Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt
thou find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers
wilt thou find those who say, �We are Christians�: because amongst these
are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they
are not arrogant� (al-Ma'idah 5.82).� Are
there any Christians left who are not arrogant, are devoted to learning,
who have renounced the world, who are faithful to �Isa�s command to teach,
and who are near to the believers in love? Jehovah�s Witnesses submit to the only God, share God�s word
freely as �Isa instructed, have cleansed themselves of Christendom�s corruption,
and refuse all armed service.� They are a meek people who are happy to help
you learn God�s purpose from the Book, which was the Qur�an�s purpose to
confirm.� They will not teach you, who already know the Qur�an and have faith,
from the Qur�an again.� Once you are mature, it is time to progress to deeper
understandings, not to regress to earlier studies: For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of
righteousness: for he is a babe.� But strong meat belongeth to them that
are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil.� (Heb. 5.13, 14) It will seem strange to you to seek out another religion
to deepen your submission to Allah, so you will want to examine them carefully
to be sure that they fit the Qur�an�s description for Christians.� As you
learn more about them, you will find that their beliefs are not so different
from your own, and that they are close to you in love. Compare them to the arrogant leaders of Christendom who call
Islam a dangerous cult.� Ask the arrogant ones, and they will tell you that
Jehovah�s Witnesses are also a dangerous cult.� If they explain why Jehovah�s
Witnesses are a dangerous cult, they will answer that Jehovah�s Witnesses
reject the Trinity doctrine and the veneration of the Cross.� In other words,
for the same reasons they call Islam a dangerous cult! Jehovah�s Witnesses may very well come to your door before
long.� Otherwise, you may find them under �Jehovah�s Witnesses� in most local
directories, or at www.watchtower.org.� Like you, their faith and love for
Allah move them to serve Him.� Therefore, they have organized to learn and
teach others as 'Isa taught, by example and by study of God�s word. Their work is peaceful and joyous in praise to Allah. �Nevertheless,
it�s tedious, and much remains to do to carry God�s message to all humanity.� Their
membership worldwide is similar to the population of Works Cited Bible in Living English,
The.� Byington, Steven T.:� Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society, Inc., 1981. Holy Bible Containing
the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures Translated out of the Original Tongues,
and With the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, The �The
Text Conformable to That of the Edition of 1611, Commonly Known as the
Authorized or King James Version:� Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., n.d. Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation
and Commentary, The� Yusuf Ali, Abdullah:� Islamia
College, Lahore, 1934. Map & Graph: Countries
by People: Population� Nationmaster� July 2002 estimate� Map & Graph: Countries
by Religion: Jehovahs Witnesses� Nationmaster� 2002� July
19, 2004� <www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/rel_jeh_wit> Saradzhyan, Simon� �Putin Says Iraq Planned
U.S. Attacks�� The Moscow Times.com News� 21 June 2004� 19 July 18,
2004� <www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/06/21/001.html> |