The Psalms given to David are read alongside the Quran, with passages on refuge in God, His power, the vanity of wealth, idols, and the righteous inheriting the earth set beside matching verses. A second piece argues from the prayer Jesus taught that he was not God, and a nineteenth century hymn on God as Creator of all things shows submission in other religions.
Proclaim, "Believe in it,
or do not believe in it." Those who possess knowledge from the previous
scriptures, when it is recited to them, they fall down to their chins,
prostrating. (17:107)
We have revealed to you this scripture, and those whom
we blessed with the previous scripture will believe in it. Also, some
of your people will believe in it. Indeed, those who disregard our revelations
are the real disbelievers. (29:47)
Did they not make a covenant to uphold the scripture,
and not to say about GOD except the truth? Did they not study the scripture?…
(7:169)
We are told in many places in the Quran that we should study the previous
scriptures. We cannot have knowledge of something unless we read it and
study it. We know absolutely that the Quran is the final scripture, that
it is complete and fully detailed, and that it supercedes all previous
scripture.
What we revealed to you in this scripture is the truth,
consummating all previous scriptures. God is fully Cognizant of His servants,
Seer. (35:31)
Therefore, if any discrepancies occur between
the Bible and the Quran we know that the Quran is the truth. But we also
know that the Bible is based on the truth, that it contains God’s
word, and that it is full of beautiful passages. None more beautiful than
the Psalms.
God truly blessed David when he gave him the Psalms, and He tells us
that in the Quran.
Your Lord is the best knower of everyone in the heavens
and the earth. In accordance with this knowledge, we preferred some prophets
over others. For example, we gave David the Psalms. (17:55) (also 4:163)
Most of the Psalms are short, 5-20 verses, but a few are quite long.
All are beautiful in their praise of God. Some are very well known, such
as the 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth
me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Page 2
Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou
art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence
of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth
over.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
The traditional number of Psalms is placed at 150, but it is recognized
that over the centuries some Psalms were broken into two or more
separate ones while two or more originally independent songs were
made into a single Psalm. Therefore, it’s easy to imagine
that the original number of Psalms, given by God to David, was perhaps
a total divisible by 19.
Since we know that the Psalms come from God, it’s not surprising
that much contained therein is similar to the Quran. Even the titles
of the Psalms remind us of the basic tenets of the one true religion:
True Happiness (1), Joyful Confidence in God (4), Prayer for Guidance
and Help (25), Security under God’s Protection (91), The Greatness
and Goodness of the True God (115), and several which mention Trust
in God (3, 27, 56, 146, et. al.).
I’d like to offer a few interesting comparisons:
Psalm 7, verse 2: O Lord, my God,
in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and rescue me.
Quran 113:1-5: Say, “I
seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak. From the evils among His creations.
From the evils of darkness as it falls. From the evils of the troublemakers.
From the evils of the envious when they envy.” (also Sura
114, 7:200, 11:47, 23:97-8 and many others)
Psalm 33, verses 8-12: Let all the
earth fear the Lord; let all who dwell in the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it was made; he commanded, and it stood forth.
The Lord brings to naught the plans of nations; he foils the designs
of peoples. But the plan of the Lord stands forever; the design
of his heart, through all generations.
Quran 8:30: The disbelievers
plot and scheme to neutralize you, or kill you, or banish you. However,
they plot and scheme, but so does God. And God is the best schemer.
Quran 2:117: The Initiator of
the heavens and the earth: to have anything done, He simply says
to it, “Be,” and it is.
Psalm 49, entitled
The Vanity of Worldly Riches, verses 7-10: They
trust in their wealth; the abundance of their riches is their boast.
Yet in no way can a man redeem himself, or pay his own ransom to
God; Too high is the price to redeem one’s life; he would
never have enough to remain alive always and not see destruction.
Quran 5:36: Certainly, those
who disbelieved, if they possessed everything on earth, even twice
as much, and offered it as ransom to spare them the retribution
on the Day of Resurrection, it would not be accepted from them,
they have incurred a painful retribution. (also 3:91, 6:70, 57:15,
70:10-14)
Quran 3:77: As for those who
trade away God’s covenant, and their obligations for a cheap
price, they receive no share in the Hereafter. God will not speak
to them, nor look at them, on the Day of Resurrection, nor will
He purify them. They have incurred a painful retribution.
Quran 57:20: Know that this
worldly life is no more than play and games, and boasting among
you, and hoarding of money and children….This worldly life
is no more than a temporary illusion. (also 2:212, 11:15, 29:64
and many others)
Psalm 115, verses 4-7: Their idols
are silver and gold, the handiwork of men. They have mouths but
speak not; they have eyes but see not; they have ears but hear not;
they have noses but smell not; they have hands but feel not; they
have feet but walk not; they utter no sound from their throat.
Quran 37:91-96: He then turned
on their idols, saying, “Would you like to eat? Why do you
not speak?” He then destroyed them. They went to him in a
great rage. He said, “How can you worship what you carve?
When God has created you, and everything you make!” (the same
story in 21:52-67, including the people admitting “You know
full well that these cannot speak.”)
Quran 21:105: We have decreed
in the Psalms, as well as in other scriptures, that the earth shall
be inherited by My righteous worshipers. Indeed, it does say this
in the Psalms, such as 37:29 The just shall possess the land and
dwell in it forever.
In Psalm 136 every other line is:
for his mercy endures forever. Verses 4-9:
Who alone does great wonders,
for his mercy endures forever;
Who made the heavens in wisdom,
for his mercy endures forever;
Page 3
Who spread out the earth
upon the waters,For his mercy endures forever;
Who made the great lights,
For his mercy endures forever;
The sun to rule over the day,
For his mercy endures forever;
The moon and the stars to rule over the night,
For his mercy endures forever.
We have a similar narration in the Quran, Sura 55,
where almost every other line is: Which of
your Lord’s marvels can you deny? Verses 17-21:
Lord of the two easts and the two wests.
Which of your Lord’s marvels can you deny?
He separates the two seas where they meet.
Which of your Lord’s marvels can you deny?
A barrier is placed between them, to prevent them
from transgressing.
Which of your Lord’s marvels can you deny?
There is also one interesting Psalm that seems to be coded. Psalm
119 has 22 sections of eight verses each. Each section is headed
by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and each verse within that section
begins with that letter.
I wish there were room to quote more Psalms. They are quite beautiful.
I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to study God’s
revelations. Here are the first and the last of the Psalms.
Psalm
1: True Happiness
Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the
wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the
company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the Lord and meditates
on his law day and night.
He is like a tree planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves
never fade.
[Whatever he does, prospers.]
Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which
the wind drives away.
Therefore in judgment the wicked shall not stand,
nor shall sinners, in the assembly of the just.
For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but
the way of the wicked vanishes.
Psalm
150: Final Doxology with Full Orchestra
Alleluia.
Praise the Lord in his sanctuary,
Praise him in the firmament of his strength.
Praise him for his mighty deeds,
Praise him for his sovereign majesty.
Praise him with the blast of the trumpet,
Praise him with lyre and harp,
Praise him with timbrel and dance,
Praise him with strings and pipe.
Praise him with sounding cymbals,
Praise him with clanging cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Alleluia.
[Note: Psalm 23 was quoted from the King James Version, all other
Psalms were taken from The New American Bible]
Lydia Kelley
Page 4
IS JESUS DIVINE?
One of the most compelling pieces of evidence that Jesus was not God
is in the way that he taught the disciples to pray:
One day he was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one
of his disciples asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught
his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Our
Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and
forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong us. Subject
us not to the trial but deliver us from the evil one.’” [Luke
11:1-4] [Matthew 6:9-13]
Note that Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, our Creator, not to
himself. In fact, he did not mention himself in any way, nor did he indicate
that we should pray in his name. His instructions were very specific -
we are to pray to God alone.
This would not be the case if Jesus himself were God.
The development of Christian doctrine is well documented in the fol-lowing
book by Lisa Spray. The above excerpts were taken from this book. A must
for a reference.
Jesus: Myths and Message
ISBN 1-881893-00-6, Paperback, $7.50 including the postage
The poem on the right was written in 1848 and made into
a hymn for Christian church services in 1915. It truly reflects the concept
of an Omnipotent, Omnipresent God who created everything around us, and
it reminds us of our need to be appreciative of those gifts. It also reminds
us that “submission” can be found in all religions, in spite
of the overwhelming majority of idol worshipers.
A “CHRISTIAN” HYMN
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings;
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.
The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
About this work
Kind
Document
Author
International Community of Submitters
Publisher
International Community of Submitters / Masjid Tucson