Answering Islam Email Dialogs


Topic: Qur'an and the number 19

Received: 10 October 2004

Subject: Number 19 & Jesus

Hello, My name is .... I have read your article on Answering Islam, and I found that you have some incorrect information posted. To correct you on that and make the site more reliable I will tell you the truth.

In the artive about "The Mysterious 19 in the Quran A Critical Evaluation", you to have fauly information. As a Arabic read I can help you out. The words to the verse "In the name of God, thecompassionate, the merciful' it is actaully translated more correctly to In the name Allah, the compassionate, the merciful', in which in Arabic s translated into "Bism Allah al- Rahman al-Rahim" Bism is one word, Allah is the second, al-Raham is the third, and al-Rahim is the forth"

* Though missing from Chapter 9, exactly 19 chapters later the Basmalah occurs twice. Chapter 27 has this statement at its beginning and in verse 30. This makes the total number of times the Basmalah occurs in the Quran 114, or 19 x 6.

* Every word in the Basmalah occurs throughout the Quran a number of times which is a multiple of 19

* The very first revelation that was given to the prophet of Islam, Mohammed, came as 19 words

* The total number of letters making up the 19 words of the first revelation is 76, 19 x 4

* The last chapter revealed (Chapter 110) has 19 words, and its first verse is 19 letters

Also any improtant fact I would like to point out is, which lays the basic concept that God can't have any offsprings (Jesus) is ff Allah could beget or give birth to a son, it would entail graduality of action for Allah. In other words, He would be governed by the laws of matter and movement; and it is contradiction in term, because whatever takes place by His Will comes into being at once without delay, without graduality.

So I hope you take this letter into concederation, and I'm looking for your replay soon.

Thank you for your time. and god bless you.


Our answer:

Dear ...,

I greet you, hoping that you are well! I must frankly tell you that I did not quite catch the points you are trying to make. Maybe because we both use English as a second language it becomes more difficult to communicate in exact terms.

I am fully aware that the so-called Bismillah consists of four words in the Arabic text. But I did not catch your point. Also your statement that the Bismillah which is missing in Sura 9 is "made up" again in Sura 27 is of no consequence, for the word 'bism' is altogether found 132 times in the Qur'an, and that is not a multiple of 19.

Your other statements I cannot at present check out, but even if they were correct - what would that prove? The whole chapter on the number 19 that I compiled deals exactly with that point. I do like to recommend that you read my article open-minded and open-hearted again.

It is only natural that we cherish and protect everything that supports our conviction, and that we treat with contempt whatever contradicts this. You are not the only person to do that. Everybody is so inclined. But that does not necessarily make a conviction true. The very fact that both Dr. Khalifa and Ahmed Deedat withdrew their writings due to the pressure from their fellow Muslims speaks for itself. And who needs to use lies to prove eternal Truth?

Our conflict is really found on a different level altogether. The Qur'an explicitly and implicitly states repeatedly that the Bible is the Word of God. It also states that no man can change God's Word. And yet Muslim scholars declare the Bible to have been corrupted! Where is integrity and honesty? The Bible declares in no uncertain terms that God chose to appear as a human in Jesus in order to show us what His character is like, and then to die as a sacrifice of our sins. This implies in the biblical context, that He suffered the punishment for our sin that we, you and I, deserve. So the Gospel offers free pardon to every person, you and me included. It is available to all, but needs to be accepted personally in true repentance.

Islam vigorously rejects this offer of God for reasons I could never understand, for what happened in the life of Jesus, God had already prophesied many hundreds of years before it happened, so that every true seeker or even genuine doubter had a totally unique and reliable basis for his faith and trust in Jesus.

I like to assume that you are a genuine seeker after God. In that case there is no way to bypass the above statements. You will have to test them for their integrity - or you are a coward or hypocrite, which I cannot believe. I invite you, therefore, to enter into a serious conversation on these matters with me. We both want to live for and please God with all our hearts. We both do not want to dwell in hell for eternity for rejecting God's Way. That is basis enough to keep talking - in a serious and in an honest manner.

Warm greetings and blessings to you!
Yours sincerely,
Gerhard


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