Robert Powell the bloke who played “Jesus” in the movie,”Jesus of Nazareth” (1977) told people to stop worshiping him as if he is the real Jesus.
It is common to see many believers in the divinity of Christ displaying Powell’s photos in places of worship, schools, offices, cars، etc.
Some use these images for prayer, while others claim that they bring them good luck.
What many of them don’t realize that the person in the picture is not, and could not be Jesus Christ.
Robert said:
“I am here to straighten a fact that has been exasperating me for a while, now seeing numerous people insinuating some handsome white men to be Jesus. Who knows whether he was black or white? It’s not about colour, it’s about; almost unforgivable intentional identity mistake”.
This is the greatest evidence that a person must have faith, whether the faith in the true God or in any false deity.
Both Robert and Christ are false gods.
Christ is a human being created by the Creator without a father as a great prophet sent by Him, just as Adam was created without a father or a mother, and Robert is a human (normal person).
Does a person accept that someone changes his data in his personal identity?
In this case he becomes another person in the first place.
A little boy of a British family once asked me?
Why does God force us to worship Him when He does not need our worship? Why does He scare us with fire?
I said to him:
Doesn’t your father force you to go to school?
Doesn’t your mother warn you not to arrange your room?
Doesn’t your teacher scare you from failing, and threatens you with punishment?
Our lives dwell between dos and donts.
Doesn’t your father avoid stopping or parking in unauthorized locations in fear of paying for a fine.
For example, when we get a pet, we want its obedience for its own good and protection, so we train it and expect obedience. We expect the template from the pet, although we didn’t create it, we just bought it.
So, what about your Creator? Is He not worthy of your obedience, worship, and submission?
In most aspects of life, we already submit to God: we don’t choose our parents; our genes; Don’t control our breathing. Don’t pump our own hearts; etc. Our Creator wants us to willingly submit to other aspects where He gave us free choice, i.e. H. in mind and heart، to arrive in safety.
We live in his land and eat his sustenance. These blessings must be met with the recognition of the bounty of the Donor. Otherwise, ingratitude and lack of recognition is underestimation of the Donor.
It is essential for a person to have faith in a deity, whether the belief in the true God or in any false deity. He may call this deity god or name it anything else.
His god may be a tree, a star in the sky, a woman, his boss at work, a scientific theory, or even identity in himself, but it is necessary to believe in something that follows it and sanctifies it, along with returning to it in his way of life and may die for it.
This is what we call worship. Worshiping the true God frees a person from slavery to others.
His request that we worship him is not because he needs worship, he is completely independent and has no needs, but is for our own good. as our Creator, he knows what’s best for us.
The child said:
Why do we have to devote some time for worship, isn’t our time part of our rights?
I said to him:
Who gave you this right in the first place? Is it not the Creator Himself?
When you wish to release your instincts, you tend to be a slave to them (instincts). Yet, God wants you to become a master over them.
He wants you to be a reasonable, wise person who manages his instincts. At the same time, you are not supposed to restrict them. It is better to direct them towards upgrading your soul and elevating yourself.
When a father obliges his children to devote some time to study in order to have an honorable intellectual rank in the future, everyone respects him and does not accuse him of cruelty.
- The “agnostic” says: I believe in the existence of a power and energy in the sky that created this universe.
- When an “atheist” feels intense fear, he turns to the power in heavens.
- In “Buddhist” traditions, he turns to the power of heavens when he hears the frightening sound of thunder.
- The “Hindus” believes that the power in heavens is the one and the only God, to whom they resort when the earthly causes are interrupted.
- The “primal negro” turns to the power of heaven in danger.
Using the term ” Power” in singular form by all of them indicates the implicit recognition of one God.
“There are no atheists in foxholes” is an aphorism used to suggest that times of extreme stress or fear can prompt belief in a higher power. It was spread around the time of World War II.
In the sense that everyone acknowledges the existence of his Creator in times of crisis. Man turns to what he really believes, and stops deceiving himself because he has faced a real danger.
In 2005, and in a clip in an American morning television program about “Hurricane Katrina” , the host said:
“There are no atheists in the foxhols”
The American Atheists organisation then requested a retraction of the phrase.
This is an evidence that some people are deceiving themselves.
What is the greatest secret of this Power in the sky, which represents the source of existence, to which everyone resorts in adversity, while the Muslim resorts to it in good and bad times.
If everyone resorted to it as the Muslim does in good and bad times, mankind would get united.
The Perfect “the Creator” is one, He is not multiple. Why should He be multiple? What does God lack to find it in another god besides Him?
In an interview I had with a Hindu doctor who defended the concept of Pantheism, (a doctrine which regards the universe as a manifestation of God), I told him:
Since God is in everything, then what is the meaning of performing rituals in order to reach “nirvana” and “moksha” ?
These terms which mean to achieve a complete unity with God.
How do you reach something that is in you while you are in it?
Why are you keen to get rid of sins, as long as disobedience is within the unity of existence?
How can God Himself be the sin, the murder, and the adultery through His existence in everything according to your belief?
How can a thing be a cause for the appearance of itself if it has not yet appeared in the first place?
What is the difference between the belief in the “universal soul,” which is a metaphysical faith, and the belief in a “creator” , which is metaphysical faith as well?
However, the first is illogical and insulting to man, while the second is in accordance with reason, logic and science, and raises man’s status.
The “universal soul” means that there is no creator or creatures.
So, who created “universal soul” and who created the world?
Also, if aliens have created the world, who created the aliens?
If there were other worlds that helped create the world, who created the other worlds?
Therefore, the purpose of existence should be to know the source of existence, which is the “Creator” , not to unite with the source of existence. This union is an illusory salvation for something that does not exist.
So, when a non-Muslim criticizes a Muslim for his belief in the unseen, we find on the other hand, those who adopt very similar ideas by communicating with other worlds after their union with the absolute، by practicing static meditation، according to their claim.
Man-made religions’ followers do not believe in angels, but they do believe in (good and evil spirits) and this is unseen.
Islam means:
- The faith in one God “the Creator”, Who has no child or any partner, Who does not incarnate in any of His creature’s image or body nor in any idol. And to have direct connection with this God by worshiping Him directly without any intermediary (priests, saints, prophets or idols, etc.).
- Muslims have to recognize and believe in all God’s prophets from Adam to Muhammad including Jesus Christ, peace be upon them all.
- Muslims as well have to believe in the day of Judgment when will meet the Creator for Judgment then the reward or punishment.
Notes:
Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Middle East use the word “Allah” to refer to God, which refers to The Only True God.
The reference of God to Himself as WE or US in many verses of the Qur’an denotes Grandeur and Power in Arabic. In the English language this is known as the royal WE, where a plural pronoun is used to refer to a single person holding a high office, such as a monarch. For the avoidance of doubt, the Qur’an has consistently reminded us of the SINGULAR pronoun in reference to God, when called upon by His servants.
From the book:
A Universal Religion
Faten Sabri