Impressions of a watcher!
I just watched Dr. Zakir Naik's video: The Bible and the Quran in the light of Modern Science. It was a dialogue between an eminent Christian scholar and Dr.Zakir Naik held at the Niles West High School, Chicago, US in the year 2000.
(incidentally,I saw our very own Saad Chicago sitting in the audience scratching his head, his mouth hanging open, you celebrity you!)
I'll get straight to the point. Dr. Zakir won that dialogue with the audience and the opposition speaker hands down,not only giving sufficient refutations to the alleged scientific errors in the Quran, but also forcing the Christian scholar to admit that 'there are a lot of problems in the bible and I cannot give you an answer right now...but I believe in the Jesus Christ as my saviour and I have firm belief in his father, the God, Yahweh!
This was the most incredible piece of religious knowledge that has been passed onto me in quite a while. As a rule, I steer clear of debates about Christianity being a false religion or based on a bible which has flaws in it. I always assumed there were scientific inconsistencies in the Quran too...note I said inconsistencies,not errors...but Zakir Naik proved that wrong.
The man is a genius, pure and simple. True, he's quite a character as well...he blatantly attacks the established religious order of the Christians and mercilessly dissects the Bible (and probably other religious scriptures;I have just seen what he made of the Bible!); I even pitied the scholar opposite him. With every one reference-less verse from his very own Bible that the Christian scholar, William Campbell, pulled out, Zakir Naik quoted three or more verses with references from the Bible plus dozens from the Quran...all ousting William's claims out of the house of hearing and plausibility. He was confident, charming, forceful, knowledgable, resourceful and methodical. He quoted about a million verses fer each claim HE made about the Bible and the Quran, and all of them were impromptu. It was simply...miraculous!
I have had a change of heart about religious beliofs recently. All my life, I believed in the authority of Islam...then it phased out to a fondness for Islam...eventually when I discovered Sufism, the idea of belonging to just one
religion became a little restrictive for me. I didn't need to say "Hey you, Islam is right; Yo' bloody Jew! Back off with yer Torah or your Yahweh!" I could simply believe there were messages from the same God, called Yahweh, EL, Allah and myriad other names...that all the world religions sprang from the same route...GOD in his infinite infinity, in his merciful mercy...
I could in short pronounce myself -- as Karen Armstrong so eloquently put it -- a 'freelance monothiest'...with ISLAM as a backup.
But after this video, I've come to a darker part of the woods. Something glimmers, yet faith is reluctant to follow that road.
I'll tell you what I mean.
The world religions will stay there. They won't get wiped out,not now. Even though Bibilical scholar have proven that Christ never claimed divinity (Karen Armstrong: The History of God) and Zakir Naik has confirmed this from his brilliant and exaustive reading of the Bible itself, Christianity will not perish. Of course not! It's human nature. Tell it something is wrong, it wants more of that...it wants to stick to its belief and its fathers' beliefs. Certainly it won't lift an axe and smite down the idols while it's fathers are gone from the enclave. Moreover, I believe that Christianity still has its beautiful vestiges...the churches and the memories they invoke in my heart of things I've never seen...the hymns and the sound of music stirring nostalgia like rosewater...the cross and the huge mystic symbol it is of that great great prophet, Isaa'.
I still love this religion and I believe it has its own beauty.
But somehow I think Bible doens't do justice to God anymore!
Think about it. A God who gave the book to his prophet's heart...the prophet said he was the son of God but denied any Godly powers except those his Father willed in him...long past the prophet's death, the followers wrote the Bible from memory...the Bible being inconsistent with modern day science...the Bible contradicting itself...a modern day Christian scholar stubbornly insisting on the bible to be the word of God and sticking to his beliefs no matter what (which by the way was a little sad but beautiful too; the man would not give up his beliefs at any cost Yeah , I know the fundas are gonna say it'spathetic and 'dheet'but really it's quite innocent and beautiful too.)
I would rather believe in a God who was correct scientifically, logically, religiously, metaphorically and believably!
When I think of God, I want to cry. I want to weep because I know my teeny-tiny brain cannot comprehend the Beauty and the Glamour of God...his very essence is alien...and at the same time so familiar. Being with God (and I'm sure you've had that moment; every one has had one of THOSE when they're praying. All of a sudden, u begin getting goosebumps and u shiver a little,not in fear or discomfort {or because a rotten goose had the silly audacity to walk over ur grave somewhere remote} but because just for a moment uve had that GLIMMER. Fer just a second, your subconscious has gazed beyond the 'majaazi' and seen the 'Ijaazi haqeeqat' beyond all...sensed the 'Hussamad'...bin kissed by the nothingness of the Absolute (Am I making any sense?).
Having that one moment is like having a special hug...the one you've waited fer all your life...
It's times like those that actually make u understand the 'tarap', the angst, the longing of Jalaluddin Rumi, Shams Tabrezi, Mansoor-al-Hajj, Taqi Mir, Dard, Ghalib and Igbal fer their beloved ...the mysterious force of God...
U can see from my ramblings how that one video has made my head spin...with all these mental imageries and emotional vistas...
Perhaps u'd do better to watch a cupl of Zakir Naik's vidoes too...
I just watched Dr. Zakir Naik's video: The Bible and the Quran in the light of Modern Science. It was a dialogue between an eminent Christian scholar and Dr.Zakir Naik held at the Niles West High School, Chicago, US in the year 2000.
(incidentally,I saw our very own Saad Chicago sitting in the audience scratching his head, his mouth hanging open, you celebrity you!)
I'll get straight to the point. Dr. Zakir won that dialogue with the audience and the opposition speaker hands down,not only giving sufficient refutations to the alleged scientific errors in the Quran, but also forcing the Christian scholar to admit that 'there are a lot of problems in the bible and I cannot give you an answer right now...but I believe in the Jesus Christ as my saviour and I have firm belief in his father, the God, Yahweh!
This was the most incredible piece of religious knowledge that has been passed onto me in quite a while. As a rule, I steer clear of debates about Christianity being a false religion or based on a bible which has flaws in it. I always assumed there were scientific inconsistencies in the Quran too...note I said inconsistencies,not errors...but Zakir Naik proved that wrong.
The man is a genius, pure and simple. True, he's quite a character as well...he blatantly attacks the established religious order of the Christians and mercilessly dissects the Bible (and probably other religious scriptures;I have just seen what he made of the Bible!); I even pitied the scholar opposite him. With every one reference-less verse from his very own Bible that the Christian scholar, William Campbell, pulled out, Zakir Naik quoted three or more verses with references from the Bible plus dozens from the Quran...all ousting William's claims out of the house of hearing and plausibility. He was confident, charming, forceful, knowledgable, resourceful and methodical. He quoted about a million verses fer each claim HE made about the Bible and the Quran, and all of them were impromptu. It was simply...miraculous!
I have had a change of heart about religious beliofs recently. All my life, I believed in the authority of Islam...then it phased out to a fondness for Islam...eventually when I discovered Sufism, the idea of belonging to just one
religion became a little restrictive for me. I didn't need to say "Hey you, Islam is right; Yo' bloody Jew! Back off with yer Torah or your Yahweh!" I could simply believe there were messages from the same God, called Yahweh, EL, Allah and myriad other names...that all the world religions sprang from the same route...GOD in his infinite infinity, in his merciful mercy...
I could in short pronounce myself -- as Karen Armstrong so eloquently put it -- a 'freelance monothiest'...with ISLAM as a backup.
But after this video, I've come to a darker part of the woods. Something glimmers, yet faith is reluctant to follow that road.
I'll tell you what I mean.
The world religions will stay there. They won't get wiped out,not now. Even though Bibilical scholar have proven that Christ never claimed divinity (Karen Armstrong: The History of God) and Zakir Naik has confirmed this from his brilliant and exaustive reading of the Bible itself, Christianity will not perish. Of course not! It's human nature. Tell it something is wrong, it wants more of that...it wants to stick to its belief and its fathers' beliefs. Certainly it won't lift an axe and smite down the idols while it's fathers are gone from the enclave. Moreover, I believe that Christianity still has its beautiful vestiges...the churches and the memories they invoke in my heart of things I've never seen...the hymns and the sound of music stirring nostalgia like rosewater...the cross and the huge mystic symbol it is of that great great prophet, Isaa'.
I still love this religion and I believe it has its own beauty.
But somehow I think Bible doens't do justice to God anymore!
Think about it. A God who gave the book to his prophet's heart...the prophet said he was the son of God but denied any Godly powers except those his Father willed in him...long past the prophet's death, the followers wrote the Bible from memory...the Bible being inconsistent with modern day science...the Bible contradicting itself...a modern day Christian scholar stubbornly insisting on the bible to be the word of God and sticking to his beliefs no matter what (which by the way was a little sad but beautiful too; the man would not give up his beliefs at any cost Yeah , I know the fundas are gonna say it'spathetic and 'dheet'but really it's quite innocent and beautiful too.)
I would rather believe in a God who was correct scientifically, logically, religiously, metaphorically and believably!
When I think of God, I want to cry. I want to weep because I know my teeny-tiny brain cannot comprehend the Beauty and the Glamour of God...his very essence is alien...and at the same time so familiar. Being with God (and I'm sure you've had that moment; every one has had one of THOSE when they're praying. All of a sudden, u begin getting goosebumps and u shiver a little,not in fear or discomfort {or because a rotten goose had the silly audacity to walk over ur grave somewhere remote} but because just for a moment uve had that GLIMMER. Fer just a second, your subconscious has gazed beyond the 'majaazi' and seen the 'Ijaazi haqeeqat' beyond all...sensed the 'Hussamad'...bin kissed by the nothingness of the Absolute (Am I making any sense?).
Having that one moment is like having a special hug...the one you've waited fer all your life...
It's times like those that actually make u understand the 'tarap', the angst, the longing of Jalaluddin Rumi, Shams Tabrezi, Mansoor-al-Hajj, Taqi Mir, Dard, Ghalib and Igbal fer their beloved ...the mysterious force of God...
U can see from my ramblings how that one video has made my head spin...with all these mental imageries and emotional vistas...
Perhaps u'd do better to watch a cupl of Zakir Naik's vidoes too...
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