Paying Attention to the "Other Islam"

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Good evening. The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.

I am from Burundi and also am speaking English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "Airline tickets at discounted fares for travel to worldwide destinations."

With love 8), Nestor.

Nestor of DE 9:38AM April 04, 2009

A O A.

Hello In charge,

I visited your website and deeply impressed by your work and teachings. I found that you are doing agreat work for the Islamic people in the meantime. I am a professional translator as you know that the Urdu is the language of different countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan,etc. i want that your work

Should be appreciated in these countries. I want to do work with your ministry OR organisation as a Traslator.I hopes that you will consider me for this great option.

Your Sincerely,

Zainab Naseem

Zainab Naseem of PA 8:15AM January 21, 2009

This article provides information concerning Islam that gets lost in the picture. However, I am not sure I agree with the recommendations that follow. As a non-muslim (I am a Christian), I have no notion of the "correct" Islam (If I did, I'd be a Muslim. Think about it.). To me Islam is a set of communities and movements (and traditions), each representing itself as the true Islam (and thus the true Religion). Some of these movements are more mystical, some some more philosophical, some more open minded to science, philosophy, and the arts, and some that are not. Some of these movements appear to be coping relatively well with modernity, some are struggling, and some of which are actually battling modernity (eg al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc.).

The point I am making is this, for us that are not muslims, we don't regard any of the various Islamic schools or traditions as the one true Religion or the one true Islam. The issue of the "one true Islam" is something that only a Muslim can do sincerely. Anyone else attempting it is simply playing word games with himself.

All we (non muslims) can do is take notice of the Muslims we can get along with, and take notice of the Muslims we cannot. Either way, we need to educate ourselves more about Muslims, Islam, and its history. But, lets be clear, in doing so we are not choosing true Islam vs false Islam, or even good Islam vs bad Islam. We are choosing between the Muslims we can get along with and can pursue mutual interests, and even form community in some sense, and knowing the Muslims with whom we cannot (or if we have to deal with them, understanding that we aren't working with friends).

As far as the US defending religious freedom of Sufis in Islamic countries where Sufis face hostility. That sounds like a good idea. However, lets be honest. Christians are a strong voting block and yet, the US can't seem to generate much support for religious freedom for Christians in nations where Christians are under severe persecution (eg. Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). If the US can't stick up for the human rights for Christians, what makes this author think that it will do so for Sufis?

victor of AZ 11:45PM November 18, 2008

The Ten Commandments

The ten commandments might be called: the Priorities of Activities for Healthful Living. If we were to spend each day with gladness living out our desires for well being, according to the possibilities and benefits God’s commandments provide, there would not be much time for foolishness and destruction. All things and beings are created through the Truth of God's Word. To be obedient to the rules of Truth, by which all things exist, brings us into the power and glory of reality. To be disobedient to the rules of Truth brings us into submission to a lie that says we can make our own rules as we wish. Fantasy, then, becomes a worshiping of creation instead of an honest worshiping of our Creator. When we indulge decisions to worship God's creation, to please our particular whims of belief in the various aspects of creation, we have given the power of authority of our will, transferring it from within to outside the structure of our God designed place of duty, over to imaginations of emotional fantasy. These prideful motivations bring us to use our creative gifts of power to build imaginative fantasies which seem, in the physical world, to be an actualizing of the expression of the human spirit. We praise ourselves for our works of achievement and use our status of accomplishments to devise ever increasing fantastical diversions which belie the actual meanings for our strengths and powers of Godly expression. There comes a false justification in the name of God to our ways because we believe the existence of our acts and ways assumes God's sanction. Good becomes bad and bad becomes good.

Certainly, a confusion sets in where works of charity and compassion have a benefit to others. This is where the reasons for our actions are much more important than the actions themselves. Godly principles and Godly works do not make for Godly acts. Our own satisfaction and glory becomes humanity as an affront to God in the name of God. In reality, God does not work for us. God desires to work through us for His own sake. He better knows where, when, how, who, and what needs to be done to bring His children into His righteousness in faith unto life. Our humanitarian deeds, no matter how well intended, may be misplaced in God's designs and ways for each of us if we have embarked on a crusade without His leading.

God's commandments are given as negatives instead of positives; "Thou shalt not" instead of "Thou shalt". Freedom to choose as we wish unto God, for His sake, has limitless possibilities. As we encounter the situations and events of a day, God is present with us to lead and guide our responses to others and our surroundings. If we are looking for activities to fulfill desired satisfactions in response to our wishful fascinations and compulsions, we become severely limited in comparison to the riches and depth of God's revealed splendor, in the scope of the avenues of expression available to us. The physical world around us offers a seemingly vast array of items and engagements to pique our imaginations with interests and temptations, but the acting out to partake of the various ways of interaction must be filtered through and into our physical senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. The goodness of the virtues of Godly activities does not always or necessarily appeal to the excitement of fulfilled pleasures through our immediate physical sensations. This is where we become open to an altering of our purposes for existence to serve an invading and subversive sabotage of our being.

The Ten Commandments were spoken directly to the people by Almighty God Himself. The physical embodiment of the Word of God is a man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Ten Commandments are Jesus Christ Himself. The Word, the Ten Commandments, was given after the Passover covering of the blood of protection, and the Exodus from Egypt, to God's chosen obedient people. The Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God on stone tablets which were dashed to the ground and broken by the anger of Moses, the high priest, and faithfully rewritten by his hand. According to birthright of Abraham's sons, the Law was transmitted to the people in the land of Ishmael, and the fulfillment of the law in Christ was transmitted to the people in the land of Israel. At that time, three thousand people were slain because of their unfaithfulness and mockery of God and His hand through Moses.

The Truth of the Word of God in completion was given on Pentecost after Christ's resurrection to His chosen obedient people, by the apostle Peter who had denied Him three times. Peter, who was named "the Rock" by Jesus, was His instrument of administration to the three thousand people who were brought into salvation in response to the manifestation of God, through Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. As we are part of the Body of Christ, either in His death or resurrection, the Ten Commandments are our actual existence. In fact, the entire universe actually continues to exist through God’s ongoing Word.

The good news of the Gospel of all time for everyone, no matter how vile or destructive anyone may be, is Jesus Christ picked up and paid the entire price for the penalties and wrath of God against the evil sin influence in and of everyone. Our thankfulness and praise for God's generosity and forbearance in our behalf is reason enough for our gratitude and appreciation to carry us through in faith. Our victory against any and all atrocity rests in the final and complete power of God's Truth in which no lie can overcome. The commandments reveal penalties for our casting aside the reasons for our being to use our awareness to serve experiences. The penalties for our ignorance and self will were transferred to Christ on the cross. Our identity of corruption, our use of time to actualize false realities into existence, was put to death by God through Christ's obedience to the genuine Love of God. This is why we have the power to overcome our wrongdoing, through practicing faith action, instead of accepting the falsehood that our wrongdoing finds permission via God’s grace.

The Ten Commandments:

Exodus Chapter 20: 2-17

2 I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

We are slaves to materialistic experiences that feed our pleasures. Our personal land of Egypt is the pursuit of self indulgences we allow to dominate the direction of each day. We are told, "Follow your dream! You can accomplish anything you desire. Do not let anyone or anything tell you you cannot do anything you want to do." This gives to us motivations, incentives, impulses, encouragements, and stimulations which support the giving up of our lives in service to the industrial/technological system of commerce. It is profitable for our economic system to promote the casting aside of moralistic and wholesome values to replace them with situational ethics to enjoy the experiences of pleasures. When God is left out of our intent to accomplish our wishes, we are left with the animistic nature of confusion called variety.

A surety we generally ignore is: God holds Himself to a promise: we should do only what we want to do, while His desire is that we should want to do His will. Jesus Christ exercised the fullness of God's will in our stead so that we can, through His authority, have the power to rely in the securities and freedoms of reality.

3 Thou shalt not have any other gods besides me.

A god is anyone or anything we give our attentions to in order to reject anyone or anything that opposes our focus. We choose our gods, our delectable favors of influence, as a positive sort because we need our resentment against the evil of anything we view as offensive. This gives to us the energies to bolster our belief in the gods we desire. Most of us have so many gods in our attractions and fascinations with the various offerings around us, to counteract our attempts to reject fear, disappointment, and loathing, that we become a god of mastery over all we follow and deny. We become fools for what we allow, by transferring God's rightful Authority and protections over us, into anything and everything but Him. The god of our gods, most often, is our love of money.

Giving all that we are over to God, by trusting Him to lead us in all that we do, allows us to see our attachments in a new way. We thank Him for the conveniences and joys available to us while seeing the idolatry of what we had previously accepted as our right of living as no longer an option within us. Active obedience to our invitation to share in God’s creativity changes fear of the unknown into the awe of discovery, disappointment into hopeful expectation, and loathing into compassion, respect, and loyalty.

4 Thou shalt not make for yourself an image or any form of likeness that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters beneath the earth:

This is the "lost" commandment. It is thought to be a part of the next commandment concerning bowing ourselves down to worship idols. However, this commandment specifically speaks of anything of interest enough to us where we spend our efforts, resources, and time in the making of, the manufacturing of, representations and examples. Vicariously experiencing the fruits of our labors, owning for ourselves the sense of control over the moment, brings us to believe the works of our hands make us who we are. And, they do make us who we are. We become owned by the things and activities that we consume and thereby are consumed.

Jesus Christ accepts us as we are. Then, He rejects whatever is in us that does not conform to His purity and holiness. This can be entirely at once, but usually takes a lifetime of striving and faithfulness to achieve. Our thankfulness for the transformation into His righteous glory includes our appreciation for no longer being bound to the influences which brought us into self service at His expense. When we conform ourselves to anything of His death on the Cross, we die away from the life He obtained for us. When we tell ourselves God allows this or that expression of our humanity, because Jesus Christ gives us the freedom to relish in our pleasures, we are accepting the deceptions of the denial of creation. God's wrath against any infidelity of confusion is brought forth in the letter of the Law to remove from existence our evils. There is no compromise. There is only our unwarranted and undeserved place of reconciliation to God as the gift of life through the fullness of Christ's resurrection. It is His choices to which we humbly respond. Any reaching out of our own accord, to save ourselves through Him, exploits the very nature of the Work He has accomplished for us.

However, lest it is feared the freedom of the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, becomes a tortured bondage of torment to us amid our treasured possessions... for God's sake, and the glory of His Victory, we have the unique opportunity to enjoy to the fullness the items and activities of our choosing. But, our choosing of items and activities does take on a particular weeding out of things that are an affront to decency and sense according to God's design instead of our own.

The call of God on our responsibility is not to eliminate our frivolous possessions of images and items, it is to see our devices for what they are in order to put them to proper use. Of course, if there are images and items that cannot be put to proper use, these are the things that must be discarded. Proper use does not exclude simple appreciation and enjoyment, but it does exclude items and images which, by design, are intended for drawing us away from our respect for what we know is right.

5 Thou shalt not bow thyself down to worship them nor be led to serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous GOD, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon sons, unto three generations and, unto four, of them that reject me;

6 but I show loving kindness and covenant faithfulness unto thousands of generations, of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Generational sin is the changing of, or mutation of, our physical genes by the idolatries which influence our behavior. The essence of our decisive emotional intent, as affected by the intrusion of demonic pressures and whims, changes the physical aspects of our minds and bodies. As generations have progressed through the ages, the accumulative changes in genetic structure have aligned our tainted patterns of inheritance to more easily be manipulated by forces of darkness. However, Jesus said. "What is the difference whether I say, ‘Be healed' or ‘Your sins are forgiven you.'"?

No matter who we are, there is a constant destructive presence working to keep our sights away from the life God created for us to have. Demons role-play a person's personality to convince them that the thoughts and emotions they have are self-generated. Gradually, through the events of the moments and through dreams and ironic twists of thought, a demon alters the personality of its host so subtly that the change is not noticed. Combining this with traumas from other people and the disappointments of the struggles of life, and the God-given authority to decide righteously the choices before you has been changed into a fantasy of distorted perception. Using this, a demon will invite more demons to join him. They intermingle themselves with the person, and at the same time are intermingled with the consciousness of other demons, who are all controlled by their presence within Satan's being. It is similar to a mainframe computer with many satellite computers connected through a network. The mainframe has absolute control over the satellite computers, but the satellite computers can function as separate units while being in service to the mainframe.

Any of the mind-altering substances, poisons, including marijuana, change the thought processes away from the functions God designed for thinking. People seek the drug instead of seeking God. "Recreational drugs infiltrate the mind in such a way as to cause the user to contemplate the fascination with the nature of things. It causes a reactionary fantasy that seems to be real instead of a response to reality. It is toying with the distortions of a poisoning. This brings connections with the diabolical collective consciousness that lead to the breaking down of God's grace for natural living. In some individuals, because each person has a different and specific purpose for their life, a demon of anti-holiness will infiltrate the person as an angel of light - usually as an angel or Christ Himself.

Anything a person pursues to gratify their senses – to obtain a thrill of experience – is taking the place of God. So, when a demon introduces himself as a part of God in some way via the intoxication, the individual is convinced the self-indulgence came from God.

7 Thou shalt not make use of the name of the LORD thy God for falsehood, for God will not let him go unpunished who uttereth his name in vain.

Spiritual wickedness in high places is when people fall for the experience, instead of the purpose, time and time again. Results oriented religious pride always opens the door to a demonic counterfeit. It is a worshiping of creation, in the Name of the Creator, instead of the worshiping of the Creator. The worship of the Name as a symbol itself is a religious ritualistic act instead of an actual appreciation of the Holder of the Name. The worship of God's Name is the worship of God's power instead of God Himself. It is self reflective instead of dynamically responsive. In everything, it is not a matter of what you do. It is why you do what you do. The use of God's Name, He has many names in many languages throughout the world, always must center in the reason for using His Name. YHVH is the Holy Name of God, Joshua or YHVHshua is the Holy Name of Christ, Jesus is the Title of Christ and is, respectfully, the Name used by the majority of Christians - not always with reverence. Other languages will have other pronunciations and spellings. When the proper purposes for anything are held in priority, what you do will follow a different pathway.

Many times God's wrath with people, individuals, and nations, displays His furious anger over what has become of them. It is not a hatred for anyone. He pleads with His children to turn to Him because of His compassion and concern. Eternity is a very long time to have lost the clothes of righteousness to a moment's worldly pleasure. Conversely, the joy of righteous living is different, more glorious and worthwhile. Faith, and the understanding required to be faithful, starts with the meanings of names. Names tell who a soul is and the level of the power of authority bestowed upon that soul. To use a name is to exercise the dynamic essence of the office of the holder of the name. Many of us resent authority, but the chain of command of authorities is the structure of intelligent living. Authorities and titles are directly recognized by and through the name of the position of authority.

The name of Jesus is His positional title of savior. Part of the purpose of language is to utter specific sounds that have a dynamic value. The distortion of the sounds linked to meaning that make up the symbols of the words of expression is also an avenue of attack, through the centuries, of diabolic intent. However, the Holy Spirit is in Authority of creative power through the Word of Christ, so in Him, any faithful utterance is subject to the Power of the Holy spirit of Truth, to make true what is not, within the physical speaking of any corrupted language.

The taking of God's name in vain is to proclaim we are His in a hypocritical fashion. The most common reason we have for the taking of God's name in vain is peer pressure. We want to fit in socially, and we want a justified covering for the darkness we hide in our hearts. We role play our attitudes and perspectives depending on the setting and the others around us. This is because we are confused about who we are. Since we are confused about who we are, we are confused about Who God is through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ does not justify our sinfulness by justifying us. We are justified in Him according to our accepted gift of His promise - as our strength of faith from Him allows us the strength of resolve to step aside from the wrongs we have held so dearly and close to our heart. Then, we are no longer living to please others to please ourselves, we are living to please Him.

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart to hallow it:

The "great Sabbath debate" seems to never end. Sunday is the seventh day of the week. Sunday may be shown on the traditional graph of the calendar in the position of the first day of the week, but, Monday is the first day of the week.

9 Six days, shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

10 but, the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD thy God; on it thou shalt do no work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, nor thy sojourner who is within thy gates,

11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart and hallowed it.

Under the Law of Moses, we are subject to the Sabbath day in obedience to God's discipline. Within the fulfillment of the Law of Moses in Christ, the Sabbath is subject to us in the freedom to regard the day as we see fit. Respect for God's intentions for the Sabbath provides to us a sense for taking rest and recreation one day a week.

Under the Law of Moses our six day labor is for our sake while the Sabbath is for God's sake. The fruits of our labor are our own with a first portion set aside for God. Within the fulfillment of the Law of Moses in Christ, our six day labor is for God’s sake while the Sabbath is our own. The fruits of our labor are God's with a last portion set aside for ourselves.

12 Honor your father and your mother, that thy days may be prolonged upon the land the LORD your God is giving to you.

Just as God tends to us, whether we accept His care or not, our parents tended to us so that we might be successful in life - or perhaps they did not. We did not choose to be born unto them, they chose to accept the responsibility to choose us to be born unto them. In honor to our parents, no matter how we feel they have treated us, we are responsible to care for their lives honestly with respect and consideration. To be sure, if they have made mistakes where we are concerned, it does not discharge our duty and witness to them for God's sake.

13 Thou shalt not commit murder.

Murder is an attempt to find life through the death of ones own will. Because God gave the commandment to do no murder, the understanding of murder must be from His perspective. A person has to have murdered themselves before he or she can murder someone else. Murder is the taking of another's life - it is the stopping of the means of which a person has to survive. The means a man has to survive is his integrity. A man's integrity is established by the name he has made for himself and the name others have made for him. This is his reputation. Any destruction of a man's reputation, by any means, is the murder of the man. The most important foundation of a man's integrity through his reputation is his marriage with a woman and the children they have together as one unto God. A man's property, his home and belongings are the extension of his position of character before God and to others and must be respected. A man's employment, no matter his station in society, is the means by which he establishes and supports the status of the celebration of the awareness of life given to him by God. Disrespect for the man, his wife, children, work, and property through any attack against his rights to honor, is murder.

"If everyone always told the truth about themselves there would never be any conflict." The problem: the previous statement is loaded with the terms: "everyone", "always", "never", and "any". Fear produced emotional intensity causes us to resent ourselves in a way that expresses exaggeration of our pains and concerns. Unable to contain the internal stresses and pressures, we strike out at others to unload our miseries. This overloads our victim who spills back into us and others. So, we have produced a scapegoat to accuse, as a confirmation of the weaknesses we then view as not our own. This gives to us a false sense of strength which increases our inner turmoil. We are born into a life that has its natural frustrations and difficulties in its design. Properly, these stresses have an avenue of resolution provided by our Creator.

The sharing of sexual intimacy between a married man and a woman is designed by God to appreciate the joys of procreation and togetherness. It is murder (and suicide) of a man and a woman to disrespect marriage and the holy bond it represents to relish in the pleasures of intimate union outside the permanent commitment of marriage.

In homosexuality, a man is exploiting his own suicide combined with the murder of another man. The sensual pleasures of the fantasy/emotion/physical sensations drive into the heart acts of shared self deprecation - a sense of ironical permanence of death in the soul. Murder is a striking out against the evil in oneself by transferring our inabilities to cope with the pressures of life to others. Others may be responsible for aggravations and powerfully angering situations or others may just be in the way of our own will of confused motivations. Furthermore, others may represent a solution to offset some sort of overdriven obsession which has found its way into our distortions and desires to offset our wrong with a greater wrong. To murder another is an attempt to release a pent-up anguish over our own internal death. Usually, the personal emotional trauma inside was driven into the murderer by the abuse of others directly, or indirectly by the callous disregard for our responsibilities under the hand of God. Defense of self and family, or any threatened sanctity of peace and security against an assailant is killing for the sake of protection but it is not murder.

Consider the play process of many video games: The joy of mystery solving (mazes and puzzles) has as its goal to ultimately kill any creature in the way of progress through the levels of the game. When any target is eliminated the player is paid off with money and points. The more difficult the prey, the more the payoff. At the conclusion of each level, the skills learned to master the level are put to the test to kill the boss of the level. In order to beat the complete game, there is a "boss of the game" to eliminate. When a video game is concluded by winning the final level, the player has become the boss over the scenario, through the mastery of the entire game. He or she has the internal satisfaction of conquest combined with the numbing effect of having just committed psychological suicide because the game teaches that the boss must die. The compulsions to purchase another game to play are driven by the motivations to escape ones own demise - to live again through the exploitation and destruction of other characters not oneself.

Murder is to take away a person's purpose in life. Since every one of us was born into the world at the hands of others, we have a God given purpose in life we are drawn to seek. To remove the purpose of life from a child not born, through abortion, is murder. Thank God murder is not the unforgivable sin. But, it is not for us to decide what act (no matter how vile or disgusting), or avoidance of responsibility, is the unforgivable sin. Everyone, without exception, has a heart and everyone, without exception, is being torn this way or that through the torments of evil misunderstanding not human. We should humbly take note of the results of our indignation over darkness and mayhem finding its way through the works of our fellow human beings.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Adultery is the betrayal of matrimonial trust. Adultery and fornication are inseparable: Adultery is the casting aside of ones place of commitment to a spouse whether past, present, or future. Fornication is a giving of ones personal attentions to another than ones spouse whether past, present, or future. There are two aspects of adultery/fornication, spiritual and physical, that can be both intertwined or respectively separate. The spiritual aspect is the revealing and sharing, with another not ones spouse, personal and private cares and concerns. The physical aspect is the revealing and sharing, with another not ones spouse, personal and private physical intimacy. Another form of adultery/fornication is found in the secret self gratification in response to fantasy. Infidelity springs from desires to realize, through service from others, imaginary wishes to support and verify our personal comforts and securities. When conflict arises, due to our disappointment over how we believe things ought to be, we are compelled to be vengeful - to strike out and to punish the source of our frustrations. In railing against the failing of another, we internalize the nature of our difficulties and become the situation we hate. So, to relieve the pressures of contrary loathing, we spitefully flip the matter to what seems like a positive, by involving our attentions in unsavory pleasurable compensations.

We complicate our problems, instead of solving them, because we identify others by the evil we believe is manifesting itself through them. This causes us to identify ourselves with the problems and, therefore, the evil is manifested through our own perspective to be free from the evil. The adversary laughs us to scorn as he has taunted us into blaming and accusing each other into ecstasy for his own works. We help each other by recognizing the difference between who we are in Christ unto God and the evils that have invaded our sanctity. This is where we learn to practice seeing our troubles for what they are as we reverently share in the giving up of the emotional turmoils to God.

The conception of a child is brought about through the will of the people involved. God provides to us the joy of deciding to have children as we wish. The idea that there is a “meant to be” justification for bringing a human being into the world, through an act of disobedience, is pure egotistical guilt manipulation. When one is unable to take responsibility for their own sins, it is most common to thrust the blame and obligation involved onto God.

In marriage between man and woman there is a God designed glory to be exclusively shared. The Bible declares in several places that the two are united as one. In this, the wife is unto the husband as the church is unto Christ. But, the Bible goes further and says the man's body is not his own, but his wife's - and the wife's body is not her own, but her husband's. The commitment of responsibility here is tremendous and greatly rewarding. A man must take care of his body for his wife's sake and a woman must take care of her body for her husband's sake. Just as they must take care of their bodies together for God's sake to be a witness to each other and a witness to the communities. As we err and make mistakes, whether ignorantly or intentional, our understanding love and commitment to God through faith in Christ, gives to us the opportunity to be steadfast and loyal in our witness to our spouse - according to our position of authority.

God says the two are one in marriage. He expects there to be open honesty with no hidden things or motives. This way there will be no barriers of blocks that cause spite. When a married man and woman keep their personal matters between each other, others don’t become a party to the marriage. The strength of hope and faith is to be trusting enough to put ourselves completely open before each other with respect to our created roles. The Grace of God in this faith-action of living, in the responsibility of marriage, brings about trust and integrity.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

Imagination, role playing our dreams of various scenarios within our minds to overcome the stark realities of inadequacy, and the emotional confusions of fear, doubt, and disappointment, cause us to cry out for help to overcome the emptiness we have inside our hearts. We are embarrassed about our inability to comprehend the strength of peace of honesty. Our fear produced anguish is based in our attempts to cover our hidden motives. Because we believe our inner turmoil is based in the pain of uncertainty, we cannot experience, sensibly, a respect for what belongs to others.

A distorted sense of fairness denies the right of others to their possessions because we experience our own awareness more fully than is possible another. Except for a vicarious attempt at concerned empathy, we thrust our imaginative perceptions of situations we believe should be onto the responsibilities of the ones around us.

When we steal, we are exercising a reaching out of our desire for understanding and companionship in the only way that will not expose our inner lack of viability and security. But, when we steal, it increases our internal lack and our outer compulsions to ‘fairness' in a way that calls for more stealing. Basically, we get something out of wronging others and we increase a self perpetuating cycle of persecuting ourselves. Combining our self persecution at the expense of others with anger, resentment, and spite, over the fact that others have actually wronged us, spins the dynamic out of control and reinforces the driving of our perceptions into ever increased fantasy and negative emotions. The intensities confirm for us a false reality of self righteous indignation we use to perpetuate our right of acquisition to what does not belong to us.

We cannot trust ourselves and we cannot trust others, so we are wary of others because we are wary of ourselves. Thus, we have internal pressures of false justification which expresses itself in compulsive actions. We cannot control our acting out impulses because we believe our self respect and our respect for others must come from within. The more materialistic pleasures we accumulate offset an increasing terror of failure we are bound to evade. So, we run, escape, evade, manipulate, and destroy to our hearts content.

The source of an honest and right way cannot be found from deep within ourselves. We have a need to reach out to a Higher Authority because the mess that has control of us will not let us go until we are completely consumed. This is why we have a God designed family structure to teach us co-dependence, priorities, degrees and positions of authority, and personal responsibilities.

There were two thieves crucified with Jesus Christ. One held to his death a mocking self assured resentment over his situation, while the other honestly accepted the emptiness of his own ways to humbly reach out to the One who provides our reasons and ways for being.

16 Thou shalt not give a witness of false testimony against another.

Gossip is the enemy of privacy. Invasion of privacy brings about negative assumptions that must continue to reinforce negative assumptions. Assuming opinions in the rating of others creates an awkward knowledge to categorize stereotypes. To accept a positive through awkward knowledge convicts the heart of the guilt of intrusion and appeals to concern for another - so the intrusion into others affairs spins the attentions back to the negative. Mockery of others, in the name of concern, serves to falsely lift up oneself above personal fears. This causes a mockery of oneself by what is believed about another and has nothing to do with who they are. Respectful mindfulness of our own family business gives the strength of courage.

Confidentiality is not an attempt to hide anything, privacy is a dignified appreciation of the bond of marriage and the children thereof. The extended family structure of esteem for the sanctity of each household, as it is integrated and interacts with the community, is solidified through the dignity of women honoring their husbands who honor their wives. The covering of the grace of sophistication rests in the containment of personal matters between husbands and wives, and is extended to their children's reliance in their parents to uphold and resolve matters of living. Others, outside the family structure, have no business outside their own family structure, to meddle in the affairs of the rights of other family's members to the peace and securities of loyalty and trust. Being honest is not what we say or do - being honest is who we say what we say to, and who we do what we do with.

17 Thou shalt not desire another man's wife, nor should you crave his house, his field, his male and female servants, his ox, his ass, or anything else which belongeth unto him.

Dissatisfaction with our lot in life is drawn from, and is in response to, our own selfish desires compared to the position we perceive others occupy. Jealousy and envy combine to make us greedy for things and ways we do not have. Many times the others we admire for their possessions have an admiration for our own state in life. When we are able to thank God for the blessings of our neighbor for our neighbor's sake, we can accept that, no matter our own circumstances, God has not forgotten our situation in all its detail. As we do what we can, where we can, with what we have, it is enough to satisfy God's expectations for our life. Many situations and people can, and will, be very difficult. But, as we have the understanding to help others where they hurt instead of condemning them for their difficulties, we will be living in the honesty and truth of responding to the moments of life according to God's will, whether we feel like He is with us or not. Right is right, no matter how we feel about it. But, it is what we do to make a difference for God's sake that makes the difference.

Jesus said: "A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another. As I have loved you, that you also love one another." This is not simply a suggestion, this commandment is as much an integrated part of our created being as our heart.

Knowing our plight of evil involvement, God supplies a sure and true avenue of rescue. He took on Himself, in our behalf, any and all depths of darkness we may find ourselves to be immersed. As we accept His loving results of restitution in life, we become part of His endeavors for the sake of those around us. It is no strain of our integrity and self esteem to extend the work of our life in lifting, even the worst of our fellow human beings, out of the mires of evil.

The three tiers of the Gospel are: God, through His direct intervention in response to faith in Him; (the people of Noah) God, through His law in response to faith in Him; (the people of Ishmael) and God, through His grace in response to faith in Him; (the people of Israel). The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For example, Islam, under the Law of mortal responsibility unto God, represents retribution for evil. Christianity, under the Law of Grace in responsibility, represents redemption from evil. The two religions represent the two edges of the Sword of the Word of God, Jesus Christ.

Israel was given a new dispensation of God's plan for mankind through the authority of Christ's Grace in Isaac. The dispensation of the Rule of Law, then, is transferred to and belongs to Ishmael - both in Abraham. Other empires and peoples represent Noah's strength of God's purpose in the cleansing of the world from evil influences. So, by adhering to the Law of Moses, which was transmitted to the people in the wilderness of Arabia, Israel is frustrating God's witness to the world through tradition by not embracing the Grace of Christ through faith - but, Israel must retain this position because Israel is existing in the balance of the paradox of the witness of the world through the Law and the witness to the entire world through the Gospel.

Mart of KS 9:10PM November 01, 2008

This is an attempt to explain the concept of God & the rationale for believing in Jesus as a Prophet from the Muslims & Sufis’s perspective. Let there be no compulsion in religion! Let the truth st&s out on its own. I only hope that it will help to bridge the gap by opening the door for more research, underst&ing, & at least respect.

Here is one description from the “Gospel of Barnabas” translated in the early twentieth century, Lonsdale & Laura Ragg: Chapter 17, p. 15: “Jesus answered: “Philip, God is a good without which there is naught good: God is a being without which there is naught that is; God is a life without which there is naught that liveth; so great that he filledth all & is everywhere. He alone hath no equal. He hath had no beginning, nor will be hever have an end, but but to everything shall he give an end. He hath no father nor mother, he hath no sons, nor brethren, nor companions. Ang because God hath no body, therefore he eateth not, sleepeth not, dieth not, walketh not, moveth not, but abideth eternally without human similitude, for that he is incorporeal, uncompounded, immaterial, of the most simple substance. He is so good that he loveth goodness only; he is so just that when he punisheth or pardoneth it cannot be gainsaid. In short, I say unto thee, Philip, that here on earth thou canst not see him nor know him perfectly; but in his kingdom thou shalt see him for ever: wherein consisteth all our happiness & glory.” Further in the Gospel he also says that God talks in parable and we should not take to the letter what God says.

Note on the Gospel of Barnabas: The Council of Nicea (325 A.D) took place because of the big controversies: Jesus as a Prophet or Son of God? Arius (divine unity of God) versus Athanasius who declared the Trinity as an orthodox Christian belief. At the time of the Nicea only 4 out of 100s Gospel were chosen & the rest were destroyed & the people who brought them were killed. Somehow, God saved 3 copies of the Gospel of Barnabas. One was found in the Vatican & translated. A copy, I heard can be found at the Library of Congress. http://www.natheal.com/Sufism.php the link is at the end of this internet page.

Online Information from Encyclopedia Britannica

Origin of Trinity: “Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus & his followers intend to contradict the schema in the Old Testament: “Hear of Israel: The Lord our God is The Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The earliest Christians, however, had to cope with the implications of the coming of Jesus Christ & of the presumed presence & power of God among them – i.e., the Holy Spirit, whose coming was connected with the celebration of the Pentecost. The Father, Son, & Holy Spirit were associated in New Testament passages as the Great Commission: “Go therefore & make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19); & in the apostolic benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ & the love of God & the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:14). Thus, the New Testament established the needs for the doctrine of the Trinity.”

“The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries & through many controversies. Initially, both the requirements of monotheism inherited from the Old Testament & the implications of the need to interpret the biblical teaching to Greco-Roman religions seemed to demand that the divine in Christ as the Word, or Logos, be interpreted as subordinate to the Supreme Being…”

The God that Muslims & Sufis believe has the same characteristics as it was taught from the beginning of time to Adam & all subsequent Prophets/Messengers which accounts for a total of 124,000 of them (Adam, Enoch, Noah, Hud, Saleh, Abraham, Ishmael, Issac, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Ezequiel, David, Salomon, Elisha, Jonah, Zechariah, John the Baptist, Jesus, & Mohammad – Peace of God be Upon All of them): The shape of our ribs corresponds to that Arabic sentence: “There is no other God, except God” The shape of our 5 fingers corresponds to the name of “Allah” = God; God has no beginning & no end & he is eternal in opposition to Satan who is not & thus need a son; God has not begotten nor is he begotten & does not resemble any of the human appearance. Satan wants us to worship him as God.

The Prophet Muhammad was invited to meet God during a special night. The Angel Gabriel showed him all the spiritual places where all important historical & prophetic events took place on earth & after praying in front of all 123,000 Prophets Angel Gabriel showed him hell & heavens thus we do have a thorough description of each (Jesus ascended to heaven but did not give us an account when he came back down). When he went to meet with God, & as the Prophet moved forward he saw a being so beautiful that he could not describe. It was during that night that God taught him the 50 daily prayers which became 5 after 4 trips as the other Prophets considered it to be too much for us.. Thus we have 4 positions in the 5 prayers, each corrresponding to the shape of an Arabic letter to write 3 names: Adam, Mohammad & Ahmad (was the name of the Prophet M in heaven) as a sign of the beginning & the end of the message God sent to earth. There is another sign in the line in our hands. Right hand: 1 + a reversed V (Arabic # 8) or 1+8 = 9. Left hand = 8 + 1 = 9. The two 9s together & we get 99 names (mentioned in the Quran). If we put the # together: Left 81 + 18 (right) we also get 99 names & when we minus it we get the age of the Prophet Muhammad when he died. It takes 9 month to bring a baby to the world or 36 weeks & the 36 verses of the Quran is the heart of the Quran which refers to Prophet Muhammad.

Jesus as a Prophet: .a) God created Adam without a father & mother thus his creation is greater than the birth of Jesus; b) God created Eve without a father or a mother, out of Prophet Adam’s ribs; c) third type of creation was the children of Adam & Eve, & d) fourth type is the birth of Jesus. When God want to do something, he said “Be” & it is. It’s a form of invitro fertilization (can’t remember the proper name). God showing us that it’s OK for married couple who don’t have kids to try this scientific method. He had sent the Angel Gabriel to blow or put the sperm into Mary’s womb.

God has sent 4 known revelations: the Pslams of David, the Thorah, the Gospel & the Quran. He does not like it when we change or delete a word. He annuls that revelation. Satan knows all the secrets of the 4 revelations thus he knows how to trick us to put us one against each other. The Quran was learned by heart and written right after the Angel Gabriel delivered it. God revealed the whole Quran in one night to the Angel Gabriel who was asked to deliver it at specific times over a period of 23 years. Wahhabists are using the Q it in the strictest sense not knowing that behind each letter there are 124,000 meanings + each verse has a story behind it. Thus it’s very difficult to translate it. Sufi Masters knows it by heart along with the secrets behind it.

124,000 Prophets, 124,000 world (this is the last one), 124,000 Saints.

This is only a temporal world, the eternal world is yet to come so let’s earn it. Let it be that those who are good try to get along with each other no matter our beliefs, cultures and colors. May the Peace of God be Upon You.

Sarah of VA 2:10PM September 03, 2008

As I read all the comments, I understand where everyone is coming from, thus the need to do more interfaith communication. I recently went to view a movie on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean where there is peace because everyone respect everyone's belief. Each citizen try to understand the values and cultural aspect of each other. It's sad that we are in the world of confusion. If we look at each other, we all look alike and yet we are different. We all have two legs, two arms, two hands, we all have a heart, liver, kidney at the same place. This shows that we all have been created by the same creator. Yes, we each have our own way to call him: God, Father, Creator, Lord of the Universe, etc. He sent us on earth to earn our title of 'human beings" which implies wisdom. However, the path of wisdom is full of puzzle. The human body comprises so many elements that we need to overcome in order to reach the true state of human being: animalistic, vegetable, angelic, then comes the human being characteristic. If this were not enough we all have 4 ennemies which are our negative egos (I versus we), Satan, our desires, and the materialistic world. There are even more information such as the 70,000 veils that prevent us to be with God. A sufi teacher once said that one of the veils is the veils of selfishness and anger is at the top, thus we need to get rid of anger. We all have a mind to think rationally over our feelings and change start by changing ourselves first to reach inner peace, then the world will be in peace. Peace is a science and it takes a true teacher to be able to bring that wisdom to people so that one can understand the value of the rituals, and how to read the truth through the signs that God has set in many places including our body. We have to understand the world of opposite. What are the other beings that have been created that exists around us that affects our lives such as angels and demons or Jinns. Jinns are being of fire and among them there are christians, muslims, and jewish. Some among the Jinns have gone to the army of Satan. To truly understand life, one needs to go beyond the world of visisble to the world of invisible and be able to balance both world outside and inside our body. Our body is holy as there are many spiritual inscriptions, many energies point where Prophets and Saints can access our body. Understand yourself to understand your God. The truth lies deep down within us but we need to understand the various codes in our body. There are many of them. Eventually, the moment of truth will come when the four angels will come and remove our soul from our body and showed us everything we have done in life, whether we did pass the test of life or not. This is followed by the questioning in the grave of who is your God, who is your Prophets, and what is your religion? We are each here to earn our place in the hereafter for those who believe in it. There are reasons why there are Christians, jews, and many other religions. Respect of what is good should be our motto. When we change ourselves to only what is good and wise, the energy that we built will travel into the environment and affect everyone around it. It will protect people against diseases, cataclysms and it affects everyone no matter our religion and beliefs. Let's pray and ask God for wisdom and truth as Satan is about lies.

As for the person who could not understand why Muslims and Sufi believe in Jesus as a Prophet, I would recommend that you read the Gospel fo Barnabas who was the earliest Gospel written before the letters of Paul and there is information in the present Bible that shows that Jesus consider that God is greater than him. Check John 5:19, 5:30, 20:17; 1:18, 5:37, 4:24, 14:28 & 8:42; Luke 8-26 to 39; 18:19; 11:2, 11:3 & 11:4, Mark 5-1 to 20, 13:32; Matthew 24-36, 27:46; 26:36-39, 26:37:00; 26:38, 26:39, etc., I also recommend that you read the "Bible, the Quran and Science" from Maurice Bucaille. I studied Christianity and some other religions and in the process of studying christianity, I found out that there were as much information supporting before the Council of Nicea that Jesus was considered to be a Prophet while other considered Him (Peace of God be Upon HIm) to be the Son of God. The Council of Nicea truly defined the future of Christianity (325 AD). Satan has sworn that he will come before us, behind us on the right side and the left side to turn us away from God. My teacher taught me that each time someone does something bad to me to read a prayer for that person. It made sense to me so that Satan does not win twice. We each have a Satan and an angel assigned to us so when we respond to someone trying to hurt us, both Satans win and laugh at us. Each time they win, they multiply allowing them to further affect the future generation, then instead of having one Satan arounds us we would have much more whispering in our left ear to our subconscious to make us fall into their trap so that God dishonores us just like the main Chief was dishonored in the sight of God. Our Father's prayer or the Fateha for the muslims or any other positive prayers can protect us against them and protect the person who did bad to us. What people don't know is that when someone tries to hurt someone, the person is actually hurting himself. I read the Quran and it says if "you save one person it is as if you have saved the whole universe, and if you kill one person it is as if you killed the whole universe". It also says that the best among you is he who is best in conduct. This to me refers to any human beings not specifically to any one religion. I told people that the ten commandments say that when one person slaps you on one face we need to turn the other cheeck is the most difficult command for anyone to follow. There is a whole science to understand and lot of practice to reach to that level.

If someone comes and kill me all my sins will be transferred to that person. The same is true from back-biting which is the equivalent of eating live the flesh of another human being.

As for the person who said that we should kick muslims for America: it's God who decides where one is going to live.

I'm a french speaking so please my apology for any mistakes. I truly believe in peace and though some sufi group are not real sufis, I have personally joined a sufi teacher and this has helped me to change and learn to turn the other cheeck which is difficult to do when the light is not strong. He is teaching to dress me with the light and as I dress myself with one light after the other one, I'm hoping to regain the full light as our Father Adam and mother Eve once had before eating the apple. After that event they felf naked because before that, they were surrounded by the light of God and did not see their nakedness thus the importance of clothing.

Greetings of Peace to you.

Sarah of VA 3:04PM September 01, 2008

Sorry, Montedoro, Sufism is no less based on Qur'an and hadith than Sunni and Shia theologies, and Sufism is not separate from Sunnism and Shiism. If you had read my interview you would have noticed the statement that some half the Muslims in the world today hold to Sufi precepts in one form or another.

There is no orthodoxy in Islam aside from the attempt of the Wahhabis to create one. Even the Shia radicals are open to debate in a way the Wahhabis are not, although I am a firm opponent of the clerical regime in Iran and of Nasrallah's dictatorial ambitions in Lebanon.

I make these points because it has long been an accepted argument, not a dogma or orthodoxy, but an argument accepted by some but rejected by others, that Jews and Christians are not unbelievers, and that the Quranic references to unbelievers refer only to the enemies of Muhammad in Makkah. "Infidel" is a Latin-based mistranslation of the term, which is better rendered as "denier," because qafir, the Arabic word, means one who conceals truth. I would extend it today to include Communists and fascists.

The Ottomans did not refer to Jews as unbelievers, but as "guests" -- musafiret -- because the Sephardic Jews had been rescued from the tender ministrations of the Christian rulers of Spain by the Turkish sultans.

Every religion has encompassed acts of violence except for a handful of pacifist sects. Acts of violence or references to violence in the sacred text no more define Islam than they do Judaism or Christianity. Every religion also makes statements that distinguish it from other religions. If religions did not do this they would not reflect the breadth of human experience, nor would they be religions; they would be social networks. Islam is not FaceBook. Islam is a faith based on a certain expression of revelation that is different in textual form from that of others. It distinguishes itself from other religions on the basis of various principles, which I consider rational. These include nonanthropomorphism about the creator and the definition of Islam as neither too convinced nor too doubting.

The reference in Qur'an 5:51 to not taking Jews and Christians as friends is open to considerable interpretation. To begin with, the Arabic term "awliya" in the verse refers more to guides or masters than to friends in the usual sense. Yet the Arabs in Spain appointed Jewish military commanders and the Ottomans appointed Jewish and Christian governors. All of Qur'an is open to interpretation and has been subject to debate from the beginning. Nothing could be more absurd than to try to formulate a fundamentalist anti-Islamic argument based on literalism in reading one of many translations.

I come from a mixed background and have very, very great love for Christians and Jews. Some of the greatest moments of spiritual transcendance I have experienced were with Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Buddhists. I commend to anybody to consider the spirituality in a white Protestant hymn like "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" or a Black spiritual like "Eyes on the Prize." Both embody feelings that could be considered Islamic; the Prophet Muhammad sallallahualeyhisalem walked the lonesome valley and his followers were threatened with prison. I remember with limitless nostalgia the moments in my teens when, in supporting the African American civil rights movement, I heard and sang the civil rights versions of those beautiful religious lyrics. I was deeply moved by the faith and courage of the Catholics in Nicaragua and Eastern Europe, both of whom I personally assisted. Indeed, counter-intuitive as it may sound, I was drawn to Islam on a road marked out by Catholics and Jews and made my life's final religious decision in a Buddhist temple.

But I am not a "shopper for God." Islam is my religion and I make no apology for that fact. We love Abraham/Ibrahim no less than do Jews of Christians. We love Moses and Jesus. We believe in One God who alone created the universe, and is alone worthy of worship. I have personally experienced the beauties of Islam transmuted through Catholic spirituality and the Jewish Kabbalah. And like other Muslims I perceive that the truth of one God, the rewards of the last day, and the punishment of evil are present, even in an attenuated form, in indigenous religions, among people who know nothing of Islam. To those who think my work can be judged without reading my books, I can only suggest that they make the effort, at least.

Here are some verses I recite from Qur'an, not daily, but frequently:

"Surely, those who believe, and the Jews and the Christians and the Sabians, whoever have faith with true hearts in Allah and in the Last Day and do good deeds, their reward is with their Lord, and there shall be no fear for them nor any grief." Qur'an 2:62

"Some there are among the People of the Book who truly believe in God, and in which has been revealed to you and what has been revealed to them. They humble themselves before God and do not sell God's revelations for a trifling price. These shall be rewarded by their Lord."

Qur'an 3:199

"Say, 'People of the Book, you will attain nothing until you observe the Torah and the Gospel and that which is revealed to you from your lord.'"

Qur'an 5:68

No word directed to the Creator in worship is lost, no matter who speaks it, where, when, or in what language or community.

Stephen Schwartz of DC 5:32PM August 27, 2008

Islam is not what it used to be,and the middle east has become too rich too soon,their economic wealth has nothing to do with their intelligence,religious convictions or lifestyle,it has to do with fascist ideas like cartels and OPEC,which are in direct opposition to free enterprise capitalism with competition....one day after the election our congress may get down to the business of employing the Sherman Anti Trust Laws to break up the oil group here and go back to American Free Enterprise with competition,...before the middle 1970's the islamics were not much of a threat to anyone today they are a world wide social problem , and getting more insane and self destructive as time goes on...

Steve S. Roisman of CA 6:29PM August 22, 2008

In general I enjoyed reading this article, since I had never heard about Sufi Islam before.

However, as a fundamentalist Christian I do have an issue with the statement about Christians elevating Jesus to the rank of God. I believe that a better analogy would be the split between Protestants and Catholics - where Protestants take issue with elevating saints and the Virgin Mary to God status and praying to them. Protestants believe this to be idolatry and wrong, as is keeping icons and images. Jesus hasn't been elevated to the rank of God, he IS God. The Trinity is a confusing concept, even for Christians but nonetheless the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one entity. According to the Bible, Jesus has always existed as the Son; he just was not on earth as a human incarnation.

There are other divisions between Protestants and Catholics that seem to have similarities in the splits in Islam. But I felt it necessary to correct what I believe to be a misunderstanding of Christian principles.

Leah of SC 2:03PM August 22, 2008

Mr. Schwartz and other respected readers and commentators,

Greetings of Peace upon you all.

I commend Mr. Schwartz for his excellent article. The article and the ensuing comments exemplify the problems here. That there is much people don't know about Islam and Tasawwuf. Unless they are from Eastern Arabian descent (Nejd), many of our Muslim commenters may not realize the active role of the Sufi's in the lives of their grand parents and great grandparents because Sufi principles were widespread all over the Islamic world about a century ago before the relatively recent propogation of Wahabi doctrine. Acceptance and tolerance was the norm for traditional (non-Wahabi) Muslim societies; just check with your local world historian.

Jews enjoyed many freedoms during Muslim Spain. During the Spanish Inquisition, when the Moors (Muslims) were forced to leave Spain, the Jews followed them to Morocco. The Ottoman Empire is well known for the rights and priveleges bestowed upon the non-Muslims in their Empire including the right to be educated as one of the Prestigious Janissaries Knights; this was so coveted that Muslim families would fake being non-Muslim to allow their children to get this education/training.

Mr. Schwartz, keep writing and keep educating. Be cool and patient with those of us who have yet much to learn. Thank you for your comments. God bless you all and forgive me if I've offended anyone.

Khalil of OH 1:28PM August 22, 2008

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