Response to a message of 2002-01-03

I also sent a follow-up message about the quality of his site ... his reply is even more laughable than his original post.

Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 23:59:01 -0500
To: truth@thestormshelter.net (Brian)
From: "Dennette A. Harrod, Jr" <Dennette@WiZ-WORX.com>
Subject: Re: Entry to Guestbook

At 22:05 2002-01-03, you wrote:
> Every knee will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  It is time
> for you to leave your pagan religion, and stop worshipping a moon god
> idol.  Allah was the name of a moon god idol.  Islam was created by the
> Roman Catholic Church, and the Crusades were led by Catholics...not true
> Christians.  The person who interpreted Muhammad's "visions" was Roman
> Catholic.  Islam is a dead religion which traps its followers in misery.

Ordinarily I would not dignify your ignorant ravings with a response,
but I happen to have some time on my hands, so here goes ...

"Lah" is Arabic for "a thing worthy of worship", or "a god" with a small
"G". "Al" is the participle "the", so "Al-lah" is "The God", with a
capital "G". You call Him "Yaweh" or "Jehovah", I call him "Allah" ...
bottom line, he created Adam and Eve, and he sent Abraham, Moses, and
Jesus (Peace and Blessings Upon Them) as Messengers.

The crescent moon is used to mark the Islamic calendar because most of
the people in the 7th Century CE were illiterate, and it was something
that everyone could witness and agree upon for determining the dates.

"He has made subject to you the Night and the Day; the Sun and the Moon;
and the Stars are in subjection by His Command: verily in this are Signs
for men who are wise." Sura 16 (The Bee), Ayat 12.

As for "interpretation", your Christian Bible is an English translation
of a Latin translation of a Greek transcription of an Aramaic oral
tradition. We do not speak the same English as Shakespeare, and he did
not speak the same English as Chaucer ... the English language has
changed so much in the last thousand years that few people can read "The
Canterbury Tales" in their original manuscript form.

The Word of the Almighty contains no ambiguities, but His Word can be
taken out of context and become ambiguous. In English, does the sentence
"He shot some bucks" mean that he killed some deer while hunting, or
that he lost some money while gambling? Context is everything!

> Dare to learn the shocking truth at:
> http://www.thestormshelter.net/islaminfo.html

I looked at that page, and found a whole lot of flaming rhetoric and
precious few off-page links to substantiate any of it ... lots of things
were underlined, but none of them were anchors. Let's take the first
one, "The Koran says in Sura 5:33" ... see
http://www.islamonline.org/surah/english/viewSurah.asp?hSurahID=63 to
put that particular verse into context of the Surah (Chapter) ... go to
the bottom of the page and select Ayah 33 for three different English
translations of the verse.

> No weapon formed against me shall prosper, and every tongue that rises
> against me shall fall; for my righteousness is of the Lord. Isaiah 54:17

One of the miracles of the Qu'ran is that it has not changed, nor has
the language in which it was written 1300 years ago.

I have been to the British Museum in London and seen copies made in the
7th Century CE ... they use the same alphabet and have the same words as
a copy printed last year in Lahore, Pakistan ... if you can read one,
you can read the other. In any country in the world, you can obtain a
copy of the Qu'ran that has both Arabic *AND* the local language
translations printed on facing pages ... French, German, English,
Japanese, Urdu, whatever ... all will contain the same text in Arabic,
and people who speak different languages can compare the translations
and agree that they all say the same thing.

This is because the spoken Arabic language has not changed in 1300
years. Granted, my ability to recite written Arabic is better than my
ability to translate it (at the moment), so I have *THREE* different
English translations that I can use for comparison when I study Qu'ran,
so I am not misguided by a single (possibly incorrect) version.

For example, consider Surah 112 (Al-Ikhlas, or "Unity"). See
http://waterholes.com/~dennette/1995/islam/ikhlaas.htm for the original
Arabic and an English transliteration (pronunciation guide). Here are
three English translations from
http://www.islamonline.org/surah/english/index.asp

Yusuf Ali's Translation ...
    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.

Pickthal's Translation ...
    Say: He is Allah, the One!
    Allah, the eternally Besought of all!
    He begetteth not nor was begotten.
    And there is none comparable unto Him.

Shakir's Translation ...
    Say: He, Allah, is One.
    Allah is He on Whom all depend.
    He begets not, nor is He begotten.
    And none is like Him.

This Surah is fairly simple and direct, but imagine a child who speaks
English as second language attempting to translate these two sentences:

· The police arrested the demonstrators because they feared violence.
· The police arrested the demonstrators because they advocated violence.

In one, the pronoun "they" refers to the police, while in the other,
"they" refers to the demonstrators. Only our cultural experience and
maturity as adults allows us to resolve the ambiguity (who feared
violence, and who advocated it) ... someone who grew up in a
totalitarian police-state might not give the same answers as you and me,
so the intended meaning of one (or both!) might get reversed.

Just imagine what has slipped through the cracks in the Christian Bible
over the centuries ... "The word was 'celebrate', not 'celibate'!"

BTW, did you know that Cinderella's "glass" slipper was actually a "fur"
slipper? It was mis-translated into English!!

> I rebuke the demons in control of your life in the name of Jesus Christ
> the Lord!  May God send the Holy Spirit to convict the hearts of you and
> your people. Amen.

Yeah, well, I ask Him to forgive your ignorance and open your heart to
knowledge and tolerance.

I was raised Roman Catholic, and even received the Boy Scout Religious
Medal ("Ad Altare Dei") from the hand of the Archbishop of Washington,
DC at the age of 12. My decision to embrace Islam in my 30s was based on
months of research and reflection which ultimately boiled down to,
"Which Holy Book is more credible?"

The Qu'ran contains the story of Adam and Eve and the Forbidden Fruit,
but with a different ending ... they said they were sorry, and were
answered, "This was your final lesson, so you will know that there is
nothing that you can do that I do not already know before hand you will
do it. Now go take dominion over the Earth, which is the purpose for
which I created you." No punishment for disobedience, and no Original
Sin.

The Qu'ran contains the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of his
first-born, but again with a different spin ... no Original Sin, so
nothing about a Covenant and a Redeemer. (This is what separates Islam
from Judaism ... what happened after He aborted the sacrifice.)

And then there's the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin ... that's in
the Qu'ran, too, but I'm sure *YOU* have never read that chapter of it.
Go to Surah 3
(http://www.islamonline.org/surah/english/viewSurah.asp?hSurahID=1) and
start with Ayah 42.

I've wasted enough time on this except to add to your prayer (on that
ludicrous page of yours) to grant President Bush some wisdom ... so
he'll stop making Really Dumb mistakes like calling the events of
2001-09-11 an "act of war", which he kept repeating until someone
explained to him that such a declaration meant that none of the
insurance companies had to pay any of the victims or their survivors!!

Keep the faith.  -=DAH=-

        DAHarrod, WebMaster@366th.org 366th Infantry Regiment Veterans
        Association

* Mr. Dennette (Abu Hurairah) Harrod, Jr. - www.366th.org
* "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission."
*      -- Eleanor Roosevelt