Allah states, in His Noble-Book, “Whomever wills, let him believe; and whomever wills, let him disbelieve.”.(Noble Qur’an: Chpt.18, V.29)
I’ve just found out that Umar Lee, the controversial author of “The Rise And Fall Of The Salafi Movement”, which exposed the fallacies & hypocritical elements of the Saudi/Oil-Rich Arab-States sponsored Salafi-Movement sect, has just committed Riddah/Apostacy…he has left Islam, the Path of Allah, the Path of Allah, the Path of Guidance…He has, unfortunately, allowed ash-Shaytan/the Devil to corrupt his heart & mind, and also the negative statements & actions of fellow Muslims, via horrible character, to turn his heart away from at-Tawhid/the Oneness of Allah, to ash-Shirk/Association. He has now, via a YouTube video, converted to Christianity, claiming that worshipping a man, a Prophet, a Messenger, al-Masih/the Christ, Jesus, the Son of Mary (Peace be upon him), whom never, ever called people to worship him, is the “Son of God” & the key to Salvation…He is so wrong about that, for so many reasons, and I’ll only pick one of those reasons: According to the Bible/Chritstian-Theology, Jesus was nailed to a cross, bleeding, dying, and utterly helpless. Now, if you’re looking for true-salvation, are you really gonna turn to someone whom is falsely-depicted as not even able to save himself from torture & death?!!! If I’m placing my soul on the line, looking for guidance, I think it’s probably not a good idea to wager on someone whom couldn’t even prevent others from harming him, especially if that person were to claim any type of divinity. But, fortunately, Jesus never called people to worship him, nor did he ever die on a cross, claiming to be able to deliver others from Hell, when he couldn’t even deliver himself from death.
I am truly saddened, by his poor choice, to leave Tawhid & accept Shirk. It is obvious that he has allowed the negative actions of Muslims, to cloud his better-judgement, and leave Truth, in exchange for Falsehood. And, let this be a serious-lesson for Muslims: we all must learn from this…Even though there is no valid-reason to leave Islam, we, as Muslims, can never, must never, allow ourselves to be the reasons which people use to leave Islam.
Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has said, “The Muslim is one who protects other Muslims (other people generally as well), from his statements & actions.”.(an-Nawawi) Now, the fact that this Apostate can pull-out so many examples of the open flaws of Muslims actually speak a lot of sad amounts of volumes. This actually reminds me of when I had first reverted to Islam: I had known a member of my former Church-Community, for years, whom was constantly attempting to pull me back into Christendom, and although, ignorant as I was, when I first became a Muslim, Allah, the Creator/Lord of the Universe, had still chosen to protect my mind & heart, from the evil of his lies & deception-It was very obvious that this person was inspired by ash-Shaytan, in a devious attempt to pull me away from Tawhid, and her’s the proof: I remember one day, this guy & myself were talkin’, he was it as usual, with his lame antics about how Jesus Christ (Peace be upon him) was both god & man, and all that jazz, even though, in the beginning of the Book of Matthew, where it states the lineage of Jesus, “God” isn’t mentioned, anywhere, in the bloodline of Jesus. Also, there are several individuals mentioned in the Bible itself,as being the “Son of God”, whom are not even Jesus…Let’s name some of them: There’s Adam, the Father of the Human-Race (Peace be upon him), mentioned as being the “Son of God” in the Book of Luke; then, there’s Jacob/Israel (Peace be upon him), whom is not only mentioned as the”Son of God, but also mentioned as “My first born”, in the Book of Exodus; finally there’s David & Solomon (Peace be upon both of them), mentioned separately as the “Son of God”, in the Book of Chronicles I. So…why…oh why…is this the case, if Jesus is both god & man, and/or the “only begotten son of God”?!!! #ThingsThatMakeYaGoHmmm
Then, there’s the kicker: this dude had told me that he was once, himself, a Musli, and that he had left Islam, to convert to Christianity, for all of the same exact reasons which Umar Lee had decided to. But, he added something different, which I’ve never heard, before or since: This dude said that he had made Hajj/Pilgrimage to al-Makkah, and as he was circulating al-Ka`bah, he saw Jesus…This Nigga said he saw Jesus!!! Oh, and not just saw him, he said that Jesus told him that he was the way & that he was the “Son of God” & all that…This sounds a lil’ Pauline, doesn’t it, I mean, isn’t this the exact the thing that Paul said, while enroute to Damascus, after his many, infamous, notorious, killing-sprees, of the followers of the true teachings of Jesus, which was in fact Tawhid, by virtue fo the fact that Jesus is a Muslim, via his Prophethood, Messengership, and Christhood to boot?!!!
Also, in addition to this, he had also tried to convince me that the name Allah was actually the linguistic male version of the Pagan-Arab Moon-Goddess al-Lat, even though there’s absolutely no linguistic similarities between these two respective words, at all.(Lisan-ul-`Arab/the Language of the Arab [the Lexicon of the Arabic-Language]) Then, there’s also the errononeous claims that Muslims worship al-Ka`bah/The Cube, the cubed-structure, which signifies the first Mosque ever built upon Earth, as well as the fallacy that Muslims worship al-Hajr-al-Aswad/The Black-Stone, one of the jewels of al-Jannah/The Paradise, which fell to Earth, along with our Parents, Adam & Hawwa’/Eve (Peace be upon both of them), after their fall fro grace, as a result of listening to te deception of ash-Shaytan.(Qasas-ul-Anbiya’/ Stories of the Prophets, ibn-Kathir)
Upon this convo with this man, when I was a new Muslim, still (I was roughly about 17 at the time), regardless of the ignorance upon me, fresh from Christianity, Allah had protected me from his lies, ad made my mind & heart firm upon the truth of Islam. So, in conclusion, let us, as Muslims, learn from this sad tale, of a man, who was guided, by his Creator/Lord, but yet was deceived by his own poor opinion of Muslims, with the help of ash-Shaytan, coupled with the negative actions of other Muslims, to use as excuse to leave Truth, in exchange for Falsehood.
So, what do we all, as Muslims, learn from this?
This what we are to learn: never expose your negative, to anyone; we must be at our best, at all-times & in all-places, for 2-reasons: one, to exclusively please Allah; two, to be good-examples for others, that they may follow our examples, in positivity, for Allah.(Noble Qur’an: Chpt.112, V.3) This story of Umar Lee, as well as the person whom I had mentioned, along with countless others, both famous & non-famous are a true, as well as sad testament to our failure to be the best Human beings which Allah has created. No one should ever use us as excuse to leave Islam: let them make-up any excuse that they want, but let not any of their excuses be our failure to be good Muslims, which Allah requires us to be.
Although, on the Day of Standing/Judgement-Day, people like Umar Lee will have no excuses, with Allah, for leaving Islam, out of Allah’s eternal-justice, He will respect these cases, made against Muslims whom they knew and/or came in-contact with, whom were not good-examples for them, ridiculed them, told them they weren’t good-enough Muslims, etc. In spite of the fact that his fate lies with his Lord, if he doesn’t turn back to the truth of Islam, he will still have a valid Hujjah/Indictment against other Muslims whom treated him negatively. And, to be honest, that is one of my worst fears, to be among those whom have a Hujjah against me, as a result of a person using me as an excuse as to why they either didn’t become a Muslim, or didn’t remain a Muslim.
My final-word, to my Muslim brethren, is to just, simply, enure that yo do what Allah says, concerning to calling people to that which is positive & to what Muhammad had mentioned, concerning protecting people from our negative.
Gareth Bryant/2013
