Page 136 - Demo

1321.Islam before Muhammad (pbuh)was notthe Kingdom of God upon earth , but only God’s true religionThose who believe that the true religion of Allah was revealed only toAbraham(pbuh) and preserved by the people of Israel alone, must be very ignorant students of the Old Testament literature, and must have a very erroneous notion of the nature of that religion. Abraham (pbuh) himself offered tithes to the King and Imam [1] of Jerusalem and was blessed by him (Gen. xiv. 18).The father-in-law of Moses (pbuh) was also an Imam and a Prophet of Allah; Job, Balaam, Ad, Hud (pbuh) , Loqmân, and many other prophets were not Jews. The various tribes and nations like the Ishmaelites, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and others which descended from the sons of Abraham (pbuh) and Lot, knew God the Almighty though they too, like the Israelites, fell into idolatry and ignorance. But the light of Islam was never entirely extinguished or substituted by idolatry. Idols or images, which were considered as “sacred” and as household gods by the Jews, as well as their kindred nationalities, and usually called “Trap him” (Gen. xxxi.) in the Hebrew, were, in my humble opinion of the same nature and character as the images and idols which the Orthodox and Catholic Christians keep and worship in their houses and temples. In those olden times of ignorance the idols were of the kind of “identity card” or of the nature of apassport. Is it not remarkable to find that Rachel (Rahīl), thewife of Jacob and the daughter of Laban, should steal the “traphim” of her father? (Gen. xxxi.). Yet Laban as well as her husband were Muslims, and on the same day raised thestone “Mispha” and dedicated it to God![1] In Hebrew these old Imams are called “Kōhen,” and rendered by Christians as “Priest.” A Jewish priest can never be identified with a Christian Sacrament Arian priest. (the author).