It seems that for someone who is attracted to Islam there is a need to defer conversion.
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Pharisee:
As far as I see it, although Islam has very commendable teachings and the obvert discipline of its followers to follow or submit to the Will of God, there are certain things which one aspiring to become a devout muslim should be able to ascertain first.
As a Pharisee, I love my clan, my tribe; and of course, my family. However what stops me from being converted to Islam despite the similar strong family ties is the lack of Love in Islam.
This is because I’m very much aware how the God of Jews love His people that even if they have committed great sins offending Him, all that they need is to repent and atone for their sins and once they have done this, difficult and/or severe as it may seem, the Love of God prevails and once again, they are forgiven and become God’s children again.
Even Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish Rabbi himself know about this love and therefore he had striking parables like “The Prodigal Son” and “The Lost Sheep” and/or the “Good Shepherd” which speaks of this love. In fact, quite admirably, he died on the cross for this kind of love.
But quite to the contrary in Islam, we find Mohammed’s troops subjugating tribes for religious conversion even at the point of death. This cruelty or lack of love for us is quite strange especially we know that the spoils of war, even humans are considered commodities which may be kept, dispatched or sold and if not useful are simply executed or extinguished. Not that the Lord is lacking in just decisions sternly made since He would also order His elect to annihilate the whole tribe or even their domesticated animals so that the impurity will be blighted out of the earth. But there was a provision for love such as when the prostitute Rahab was rescued for having helped the Jews.
Saducee:
It’s sad to see that the Jews of the Old Testament belief didn’t see Jesus as the Messiah. The fullness therefore which He brought with His New Covenant was missed by the people of God because He was not recognized as the Messiah. And yet the fullness of Love continued even in his teachings, even just as a rabbi, as rabbis are expected to teach even now. But this fullness, evident in the old and new testaments, of the Jews and Christians is not shared by the Quran. One can see that in the Acts of the Apostles, the diaspora was prepared by the Holy Spirit for the Gospel to reach the ends of the world. The good news was of peace, of hope and love; not of a subjugation that would mean death if you do not convert. The gospel never used the idea of forcible surrender to the will of God but as a natural consequence of grace coming from God as St. Paul defined in his letter to the Corinthians.
And therefore, as a pleasure-loving philosopher, I find the spread of Islam by the use of force or by threat and intimidation, the act of a rapist forcing a defenseless one to his perverted definition of love. This is probably the reason why even if devout muslims speak of peace and of mercy, exhemists resort to merciless violence such that those who adhere to much to forcible conversion are living a life of apostasy to the very teaching of Islam. Islam was not to be rapacious, opportunistic or violent but the very nature of its application became one and therefore an apostasy for what it ought to be. Thus, when the decapitation of those who do not want to convert manifested the departure from the love evident in the abrahamic sacrifice. Suddenly, there’s a taste of lust, power, hatred and avarice!
However, since I am Hellenic in my philosophy, and because I enjoy bacchanalian parties, I would like to convert if the seventy or so virgins are waiting for me in Janna. Then I might as well be an extremist ready to explode in a crowd of infidels! Perhaps that taste of lust, power and avarice is actually waiting in heaven like sloth would because I would have many servants. But hatred… Is this another mythical Olympus?!
Herodian:
The departure from the evident love mentioned but you the Sadducee is what we Herodians find as a deprivation of historicity. As I mentioned in an earlier dialogue Herodians are builders and we prefer to be in history as a point of focus such as the amazing but historical fact of the port of Caesarea Philippi which can rival the Colossus of Rhodes. And there’s the palace in Masada and the great temple to which Jesus and His disciples gravitated. There that’s history. In the same way that Pilate is archaeologically-proven but the depraved story of Quran replacing an actual death with magical replacement for us is unthinkable. We are modernists, we stick to facts. Maybe the Muslims can convince the mythical views of some Sadducees but not us. We know for a fact that Jesus renamed as Isah by Mohammed, died on the cross as presented to another Herod, Herod the Great’s son, and sentenced by Pilate. It is the myths we don’t like, like the myth of his resurrection. And then Mohammed even tells the story that Mohammed flew riding on Buraq along with Jesus to pray in the Masjed in Jerusalem. He even leads the prayer before going up to Heaven from the rock on Temple Mount. Here, apparently, Mohammed is resorting to fantasy and using Jesus’ distorted historicity to add credence to his myth.
Zealot:
Yes, when the Caliph finally invaded Jerusalem after the Romans fatally destroyed the temple, no masjid was in place. The caliph had to build on Mohammed’s boast and have one built and chose the promontory to complete the Prophet’s story. How big lies give birth to more lies so that the mother of lies is protected. It is obvious that Al-Makir (The Best Deceiver) is the one who concocted all these or shall we give the credit to Mohammed?
Is Mohammed ‘s zeal to win over Jewish and Christian converts, he made use of biblical stories which therefore generated the false crucifixion. His versions were quite entertaining exposing his marginalized education as a traveling salesman but his sharp inventiveness to make the stories he heard more palatable to customers and later prospective converts. For instance, there was the story of Moses’ clothes which moved by themselves, to expose the prophet’s body. Don’t be surprised therefore that Mohammed ‘s version of the Trinity is God, Mary and Jesus! What the Herodian saw therefore as a deprived view of history was overcompensated by a keen and imaginative fantasy!
But we rather say that Jesus Christ is not just a Jewish rabbi but in fact the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament and this would account for the Covenant of Love’s continuation in the New Testament. There are already many books written on the fulfillment of these prophecies such that Jesus did not abrogate the Old Testament but fulfilled it through His death and Resurrection. The Pharisee and the Sadducee’s observation of the flow of Love is therefore reiterated and its sudden interruption in another so called holy book, the Quran is emphasized give credence to some of the arguments raised by the Herodian and the Zealot. The song of Oliver therefore, (“Where is Love”) had already been answered by the bible. We, however disagree with the selective historicity of the Herodian as the Catholic creed has borne out Jesus Christ’s traditional historicity through the millennia. His Resurrection therefore as God is as historic as his death as a Man modernist have to accept that or they are just being as selective as Mohammed in choosing their stories.
“Where is Love?” Oliver sang in the Broadway hit and this also became Mohammed ‘s hidden theme when he was discovered one night trying to make a tryst with his first love, “the one that got away”; the cousin married off to a poet who lived far away so as she can avoid him for his person so frightened him. And so to avoid, her being implicated the Night Journey into Jerusalem and the ascent into Heaven so that he will not be embarrassed being there in the most unlikely hour, near her home.
So there you have it two stories of love, estrangement and heaven. Which version do you like?
I, Icarus Leido prefer Jesus’ version. His love showed purity but His estrangement with the Jews caused His death but His resurrection gives me hope for my own resurrection and entrance into Heaven.
I, Platito Mythos like Jesus’ version. Mohammed’s love is cluttered by so many women and his denial of crucifixion seem also to deny His sacrifice on the cross which redeemed mankind including Mohammed. I know for a fact that His resurrection is being taken as a mere myth. I might as well tell these modernists that the devil can reduce their resurrection and heaven as mere myths.
And I Tariq Sulayman believe in Jesus Christ. I want a true version not just a fantasy. The Quran is anemic about Love, it was a patchwork of what Mohammed heard. The Quran began violently, Mohammed was repeatedly beaten by the “angel” so that he can become literate. Mohammed’s life is full of lust not love, his estrangement with his cousin was due to some horrible events in his childhood. Allah made Mohammed die by poisoning and Allah has not yet resurrected him. Is this sloth on the part of al Mu’ Akhir, the Delayer/Postponer?
