From: "arah" 

My dear Dr. R. Knapp, Pastor Steve Winter and my fellow Christians

SAY: "CALL UPON ALLAH,
OR CALL UPON RAHMAN
BY WHATEVER NAME YE CALL UPON HIM (it is well): FOR TO HIM BELONG THE MOST
BEAUTIFUL NAMES Holy Qur'aan 17:110

BELIEF IN GOD UNIVERSAL

WHAT IS HIS NAME?

    At the end of Ahmad Deedat talk on the subject - "MUHAMMED
(p.b.u.h) the Natural Successor to CHRIST (p.b.u.h.) at question time, a
Christian Missionary posed the question: "What is His Name?"
Meaning thereby as to the name of God. Ahmad Deedat stood up to answer. But
before he opened his mouth, the Christian Missionary spoke into the mike,
provided for questioning, that he would answer his own question. I said,
"You posed the question so the obligation is on me to reply to your
question". He said, "Yes, but I will answer the question."
(Laughter in the audience). He was actually begging for an opportunity to
be heard. Where else on earth would he get such a large audience, and that
at the Muslim's expense, to preach. I said, "Carry on!" (Give him
enough rope to hang himself). After some rambling, he concluded that the
name of God was "JESUS CHRIST!"

    It was not the time, at that meeting; nor is it expedient here to
discuss the subject fully - "IS JESUS GOD?" It is enough, for the
moment, to say that in the language of Moses, Jesus and Muhummed (Peace be
upon them all) the name of God Almighty is ALLAH!

 Belief in God is ingrained in the nature of man. As long as man
existed on earth, the knowledge of God Almighty also co-existed. As
Professor Max Fuller in his Hibbert Lectures said:

"RELIGION IS NOT A NEW INVENTION. IT IS, IF NOT AS OLD AS THE WORLD,
AT LEAST AS OLD AS THE WORLD WE KNOW. THERE NEVER WAS A FALSE GOD NOR WAS
THERE EVER A FALSE RELIGION, UNLESS YOU CALL A CHILD A FALSE MAN. ALL
RELIGION, SO FAR AS I KNOW THEM, HAD THE SAME PURPOSE. ALL WERE LINKS IN A
CHAIN WHICH CONNECTS HEAVEN AND EARTH, AND WHICH HELD, AND ALWAYS WAS HELD,
BY ONE AND THE SAME HAND."

This is truly a very charitable attitude; truly Islamic. Allah subha nahu
wa ta-aala (God Almighty) tells us in the Holy Qur'aan:

AND THERE NEVER WAS A PEOPLE WITHOUT A WARNER HAVING LIVED AMONG THEM (In the past).
Sura Fatir 35:24

AND TO EVERY NATION THERE WAS (sent) A GUIDE. Sura Ra'd 13:7

GOD NOT PARTIAL

If God Almighty is not partial to His creatures with regard to material
blessings like - fresh-air, rain, sun- shine etc., why should He be partial
in regard to His spiritual blessings (The Guidance of God)? He has not been
partial! There is no nation or language group on earth who does not know
God by some name. This knowledge was given by the Creator Himself through
the lips of His chosen messengers. The names of a very few of these
messengers we know, the rest have been lost or clouded in superstition.

Though all theology (knowledge of God) originated with God, mankind played
fast and loose with those pure and holy concepts, adding frills and
adornments where no embellishments was needed - it despoiled the language.
In the words of Mrs. Ellen G. White, a "prophetess" of the 7th
Day Adventist Movement, in her Bible Commentary it is said:

"LEARNED MEN HAD IN SOME INSTANCES CHANGED THE WORDS, THINKING THAT
THEY WERE MAKING IT PLAIN, WHEN IN REALITY THEY WERE MYSTIFYING THAT WHICH
WAS PLAIN."

In the Religious Annals of the world, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures
called the Holy Bible abound with graphic examples of portraying God after
man's own pattern:

IMPERFECT DESCRIPTIONS OF GOD

LIKE A MAN
(Genesis 11:5)
"And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the
children of men built."

MOSES SEES GOD'S BACK PARTS?
(Exodus 33:23)
"And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but
my face shall not be seen."

WRESTLES WITH JACOB
(Genesis 32:28)
"And He (God) said, thy name shall be called no more lacob, but
Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and has
prevailed."

LIKE ONE DRUNK
(Psalm 78:65)
"Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man
that shouteth by reason of wine."

REGRETS MAKING MAN
(Genesis 6:6)
"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him at his heart."

SMELLS SWEET FLAVOUR
(Genesis 8:21)
"And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart..."

A CROUCHING LION
(Numbers 24:9)
"He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall
stir him up?"

DEVOURING FIRE
(Exodus 24:17)
"And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the
top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel."

RESTED AND REFRESHED
(Exodus 31:17)
" ... in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh
day he rested AND WAS REFRESHED."

Out of the encyclopaedia of 73 Books of the Roman Catholics and 66 Books of
the Protestants called the "BIBLE", endless number of quotations
can be culled to fill a book larger than this publication to illustrate
man's various imperfect descriptions of God. The above examples will
suffice, I hope.

In the realm of the spirit, no nation has had as much opportunities as the
children of Israel. And despite repeated warnings to the effect that:'THY
GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD, HE SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE HIM, NOT EVEN OF
THE LIKENESS OF THE THINGS ON EARTH, OR IN THE HEAVENS ABOVE, OR IN THE
WATERS BENEATH THE SEA ... (Exodus 20:3-5),

they took the golden calf for worship, and again and again reverted into
idolatry. Nor is the bulk of Christendom any freer from this taint. Visit
St. Paul's Cathedral in London, or St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome and you
will have very little to distinguish them from the Temple of Somnath in
India. It is a question of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.3

You do not really have to go to England or Italy to verify my statement.
Why not an inspection in loco to an Anglican or a Roman Catholic Cathedral
in your own home town!

THE CONCEPTS

In the religious terminology of the world, we will find that every
"son of man" in his own way, in his own dialect has given some
beautiful attributive name for the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth.

THE ZULU CONCEPT

In our own country, South Africa, the Zulus, a very virile and militant
people - a nation akin to the Qureish of pre- Islamic Arabia
- have given a name to God Almighty - uMVELINQANGI. This word when
properly articulated in its own dialect, sounds identical to the Arabic
word Walla-hu-gani, meaning - "And Allah is Rich" (Bounteous). It
also sounds like "Allegany" of the Red Indians of North America
(Remember their ALLEGANY mountain). The origin or real meaning of the word
"Allegany," is not commonly known to the American people. But ask
any Zulu as to who or what this uMvelinqangi is and he will surely explain
to you in Zulu:
HAWU UMNIMZANI! UYENA, UMOYA OINGCWELE. AKAZALI YENA, FUTHI AKAZALWANGA;
FUTHI, AKUKHO LUTMO OLU FANA NAYE."

Believe me, this is almost a word for word translation of Sura Ikhlas,
Chapter 112 of the Holy Qur'an.

SAY: HE IS ALLAH THE ONE AND ONLY;
ALLAH, THE ETERNAL ABSOLUTE;
HE BEGETTETH NOT, NOR IS HE BEGOTTEN: AND THERE IS NONE LIKE UNTO HIM.
Holy Qur'an 112:1-4

ALMOST ISLAMIC

Now, compare the above verses with my free translation of what the Zulu
actually said:

"Oh Sir! He is a pure and Holy Spirit, He does not beget and He is not
begotten, and further there is nothing like Him."

Every African tribe, South of the Zambesi River, that is, in Southern
Africa, have given different names to the Almighty - Tixo, Modimo,
uNkulunkulu, etc., and each and every African language group will take
pains to explain the same pure and holy concept as the Zulu. It is to the
glory of the African nations that though they had no written languages, and
hence no written records, therefore not being able to recount the names of
their respective prophets, yet not a single one of the tribes ever stooped
down to worshipping idols or images of either of men or animals, until the
White man first introduced his religion and gave the African his
anthropomorphic concept of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Ghost, and brought the African down to bowing before the statues of Jesus,
Mary, St. Joseph, St. Christopher and so on.

Out of the dozens of African tribes inhabiting this part of the world, not
a single one of them ever made "umfanegisos" (images) of their
God. Yet they were capable of carving out of wood, elephants and lions, and
reproducing men and women also, in clay. Besides, the Zulus also had some
knowledge of metallurgy. When questioned an old Zulu as to the reason, why
the Africans did not make umfanegisos of their Gods, he replied, "How
could we make images of Him (God Almighty) when we know that He is not like
a man, He is not like a monkey, or an elephant or a snake: He is not like
anything we can think of or imagine. He is a pure and Holy Spirit."

LIKE THE ARABS

This term, uMVELINQANGI, though well known to the Zulus, was not commonly
used. Again they were like the pagan Qureish of Pre-Islamic Arabia who knew
the name Allah, but passed Him by, because they felt that He was too High,
too Pure, too Holy to be approached, so they went for their substitutary
and imaginary gods - their Al- Lats, AI- Uzzas and Al-Manats and a hundred
besides. The Zulus too would not call upon uMvelinqangi directly, but he
was better than the Arab of the Ayyam-ul-jahiliyya (days of ignorance),
because he did not go after false gods; he only invoked the spirits of his
ancestors to intercede with uMvelinqangi on his behalf, exactly as the
Catholics do in invoking the Virgin Mary and the Saints.

The more common term used by the Zulus for their God is uNKULUNKULU which
literally means - the Greatest of the Great or the Mightiest of the Mighty
(Almighty). More colloquially when taking oath, they would exclaim
"iNkosi phe-Zulu" meaning - the Lord Above (knows), or the God in
Heaven (knows), or Heaven knows, that I am speaking the truth. The word
"zulu" in the language of the Zulu literally means High Heaven,
and they consider themselves to be superior to the numerous other tribes of
Southern Africa, being in this respect like the Querish among the dwellers
of the desert before Islam.

CONCEPT FROM THE EAST

The Hindi word for God Almighty is PRAMATMA. In Sanskrit, the language of
ancient India, "Atma" meant the soul, and "Pram-atma"
meant the Great and Holy Soul, or the Holy Spirit, which is really a
beautiful description of the "Father" in Heaven. The Bible says,
"God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and truth" (John 4:24). Not in form, shape or size, but in SPIRIT.
Despite his pantheistic interpretation of the Divinity, the name the Hindu
gives the Supreme Being, in his classical language, is OM (Aum), which
means Guardian or Protector. A very suitable attribute about which the
Muslim can have no misgivings.

CONCEPT FROM THE WEST

The Anglo/Saxon and the Teuton in their own and other allied European
languages call their object of worship "GOD" or words of similar
sound and import, i.e.
                                             God in English;
                                             Got in Afrikaans (the
language of the descendants of the Hollandse people in South Africa);
                                             Gott in German; and
                                             Gudd in Danish, Swedish
and Norwegian languages.

The ancient Phoenicians called their God - ALLON - (not far from Allah if
we could only hear it articulated), and the Canaanites ADO. The Israelites
not only shared the word EL with the original people of Palestine, but
borrowed the name of their chief deity - ADO and turned it into ADONAI, and
everywhere the four-letter word YHWH occured in their Holy Scriptures, they
read "Adonai" instead of "Yahuwa." You will not fail to
notice the resemblance between the Jewish Adonai and the heathen Adonis.
ADONIS was a "beautiful godling loved by Venus" in the Greek
pantheon.

THE LATIN CONCEPT

In the Latin-dominated languages of Western Europe, where Latin had
remained dominant in learning and diplomacy for centuries, the chief term
used for God is DEUS:
                                                         Deus in
Portuguese;
                                                         Dieu in
French;
                                                         Dio in
Italian;
                                                         Dies in
Spanish;
                                                         Dia in Scotch
and Irish; and
                                                         Duw in Welsh.

Surprisingly in all the languages above, Deus and all the similar sounding
words mean heaven.

Moulana Vidyarthi, in his monumental work - "Muhammad in World
Scriptures," devotes a hundred pages to the names of God in the
different languages. And out of a list of 155 attributive names, over 40 of
them use the word "Heaven" or the "Above," in their
language in describing God. Though the Muslim chants the Asma-ul-husna (the
most beautiful names), 99 as derived from the Holy Qur'an with the crowning
name, ALLAH; "Heaven" is not one of those ninety-nine attributes.
Symbolically, heaven may be described as the abode of God, and in the words
of Wordsworth in Tintern Abbey:

WHOSE DWELLING IS THE LIGHT OF SETTING SUNS, AND THE ROUND OCEAN AND THE
LIVING AIR, AND IN THE BLUE SKY, AND IN THE MIND OF MAN: A MOTION AND A
SPIRIT THAT IMPELS ALL THINKING THINGS, ALL OBJECTS OF ALL THOUGHTS, AND
ROLLS THROUGH ALL THINGS.

CONCEPT FROM BEYOND THE FAR EAST

Among all the 155 tantalising names of God in the various tongues, the one
that tickled me most was - "A-T-N-A-T-U!" - and this I have
adopted as a title of my book, instead of the original title promised
- "What is His Name!" for this present publication.

WHAT IS SO FUNNY OR SO NOVEL ABOUT ATNATU?

The aborgine of South Australia calls his God "Atnatu" because
some philosopher, poet or prophet had programmed him, that the Father in
Heaven is absolutely free from all needs; He is independant; He needs no
food nor drink. This quality, in his primitive, un-inhibited language, he
conversely named ATNATU, which literally meant "the One without an
anus - the One without any flaw" - i.e. the One from Whom no impurity
flows or emanates. When I started sharing this novel idea with Hindu,
Muslim and Christian friends, without exception, their immediate reaction
was one of mirth, they giggled and laughed. Most of them not realising that
the joke was on them. The boot was on the other foot. Though the word
"anus" is a very small word, only four letters in English, most
people have not heard it. One is forced to use the colloquial substitute
which I hesitate to reproduce here, nor will I use the same in public
meetings because of people's hypersensitivity - because in the words of
Abdullah Yusuf All, people "HAD PERVERTED THEIR LANGUAGE ONCE
BEAUTIFUL, INTO JARGONS OF EMPTY ELEGANCE AND UNMEANING FUTILITY."

Therefore to ease the situation, in a round-about-way let us say that where
you have an "input," you must allow for an "output."
The one who eats, must have the call of nature - the toilet or the bush -
and our primitive friend smelt the need, which he could never attribute to
his Creator. Therefore, he called his God - ATNATU! 'The one without the
excretory system or its tail end.

GOD EATS NOT!

This novel concept of God by primitive man, is not really altogether novel.
God Almighty conveys the same truth to mankind, as in His Last and Final
Revelation - The Holy Qur'an - but in a language so noble, so sublime, as
befitting its Author. But because of its very finesse, and refined manner
of expression we have overlooked the Message. We are commanded to say to
all those who wish to wean us from the worship of the One True God -

SAY: "SHALL I TAKE FOR MY PROTECTOR ANY BUT ALLAH THE ORIGINATOR OF
THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH? WHEN IT IS HE WHO FEEDS BUT HAS NO NEED TO BE
FED." Sura An'am 6:14

In other words, we are made to declare that - "WE WILL NOT TAKE ANYONE
AS OUR LORD AND PROTECTOR, OTHER THAN ALLAH, WHO IS THE WONDERFUL
ORIGINATOR OF THE UNIVERSE." And if any have misgivings about his so
called "man-gods" or "god-men," then bring him down to
earth, for our God is the One who feeds but is not fed. He is not, in need
of food. Does your man-god eat? Or doesn't he? If he does, then he MUST
submit to the call of nature - OUR GOD EATS NOT! How simple the logic, yet
how stupendous the argument. Alas! We need primitive man to remind us of
the potency of our weapons.

I hope this will be an eye opener for all of you to study the bible and
compare it to the Quran.

May God show us the right path

AMEN


On Mar 21, 11:47 pm, "Dr. R. Knapp"  wrote:
> On Mar 21, 5:55 pm, "arah"  wrote:
>
> > >From Racism to Islam - "Miracles Do Happen" Marc Springer
>
> > My journey to Islam was not the usual one. Most white converts I have
> > met usually come from a liberal and very open-minded back ground. My
> > upbringing was far from this. Both of my parents were in the US
>
> With all the Islamic folks killing each other in Iraq, why would
> anyone want to follow their false god?  Take you false god and false
> salvation to some Muslims newsgroup, as these false gods are death to
> anyone that would follow them.  Then that is what we do see in Iran
> and Iraq. Just pure "Islam to racism" as that is what all the killing
> is about there.  Then it is not color it is racism against the god
> they say they follow.  I just read about the bombers using two small
> children in the back of their truck so they would not be stopped, and
> then they ran and blew up the truck with the children inside.  It
> seems like your religion kills and murder is all you guys want.
>
> Jesus is the LORD and until you see that, you miracles is death and
> false.

--- BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag