Our God is One and the Same

Continued from page 3

Word by openly defying the very commands that He has given in the Quran. The Quran states that God has no partners with Him (6:163), that the Quran is complete and fully detailed (6:38,114-115), that the word of God as revealed by all His prophets and messengers (2:136) is all anyone needs for salvation. But if one subscribes to the belief that the Quran is not complete or is beyond the scope of their understanding, and turns to what Muhammad did or did not do outside the scope of the Quran for guidance, then that person is looking for guidance from a source other than God (6:114-115). God consistently commanded the believers to obey the message His prophets and messengers

were given during their lifetime within the scope of the revealed Word and to make no distinction between His messengers (2:285).

The Quran was written in Muhammad’s own handwriting, contrary to the belief prevalent among Muslims today that he was illiterate. Muhammad’s contemporaries accused him of copying the Quran from other sources (25:5) as a result of his contacts with Christians and Jews. Additionally, numbers as separate symbols were not in use during his lifetime, so letters of the alphabet were used to represent numbers, just as Roman numerals were used. Since the prophet was a successful merchant prior to being called by God to serve Him, he necessarily had to know how to read and write in order to make a living.
As a Christian or Jew reading this, one may say the foregoing information is

irrelevant. There are many people of both faiths who do not consider Islam or Muhammad’s prophethood to be from God. However, there is too much evidence to the contrary within the Quran that disputes such claims. For anyone who is willing to be open-minded, we have much in common and much to share. For anyone who is a traditional Muslim reading this, consider this issue carefully before jumping to conclusions. We all claim belief in One God, but we differ over our approach to God. Why do we insist on arguing over our customs, our prophets and messengers, when we all claim that God is the One who created us and God is the One who will eventually judge us all and that only by worshiping God alone we can be saved?

Anna E. Jordan

[to be continued in the next issue, God willing]

How to Reach Us? In order to make it easier for you to reach us, we are planning to have telephone coverage at the ICS office for 5 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Most likely hours to get hold of us will be 10 am to 3 pm Tucson time. As you know, our telephone number is (520) 323-7636. The same line is also used for faxes. Alternatively, you can visit us at the Web site, or send us e-mail if you have access to such. The relevant information is given at the top of this page. Let us know if you have any comments or suggestions.