Text Box:  Summary of Speech of the Khalifatullah Hazrat Munir A. Azim (atba) 09 October 2011 (in Rivière Cocos ~ Rodrigues) (09.30-11.30) After greeting everybody with the Salutation of Peace in Islam, the Messenger of Allah (atba) read the Tashahhud, Taouz, and then said: Ladies and Gentlemen, peace and blessing of Allah be upon you. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) is the natural successor to Jesus Christ (as) where God says in the Holy Quran: “…and giving the good news of a Messenger who will come after me, his name being Ahmad.” (As-Saff 61: 7) Successions are of many kinds like the birthright of the first-born as in Jewish law, or the ascending of the eldest son or daughter to the kingly throne, or by election, to select a candidate by the vote of the majority. Or theologically, an appointment by divine decree of God’s chosen messengers. Like the call of Abraham, Moses, Jesus or Muhammad (pbut) who were appointed or anointed in consecration to their office, Muhammad’s (pbuh) succession to Jesus Christ (pbuh) is multi-faceted: 1. Chronologically, in history as a sequence of event in time; 2. By being chosen by God; 3. In the fulfilment of the prophecies of his predecessors; 4. By bringing the guidance of God to perfection – “for he will guide you into all truth” (said Jesus Christ). The prophet Moses preceded Jesus Christ (as) by some 1300 years and Muhammad (pbuh) succeeded to that high office vacated by Jesus some six centuries later. It was the 12 of Rabi First, in the year of the Elephant or the 29th of August 570 of the Christian era that Muhammad (pbuh) the praiseworthy, on whom all praise is due, was born in the sacred city of Mecca in Pagan Arabia. His people the Quraish remembered the year of his birth as the “Era of the Elephant” because just two months before the birth of the child Abraha Al-Ashram, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen had attacked the sacred sanctuary at Mecca at the head of his troops, riding a huge African elephant. A terrifying sight never to be erased from their memory and a still more shocking end to the invasion, the miraculous destruction of Abraha and his army as recorded in Surah Al-Fil or the Elephant. “Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? Did He not make their plan into misguidance? And He sent against them birds in flocks, striking them with stones of hard clay, and He made them like eaten straw.” (105: 2-6) God Almighty chooses His own messengers; He uses his own standard although we may not always understand the wisdom of it. Paul cries the anomaly: “for the Jews require a sign (miracles to convince) and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” (1 Corinthians 1: 22). But worldly wise as Paul was, he found that his wisdom was “a stumbling-block” to the Jews and “foolishness” to the Greeks. God chose Moses (as) a man who was a fugitive from justice and a stutterer. The Holy Bible calls him a man with “uncircumcised lips”. (Exodus 6: 12) Despite his difficulties when commissioned to confront Pharaoh, the greatest tyrant of the age, Moses (as) cries out to the God of Mercy: Moses said: “O my Lord! “My Lord, expand for me my breast, And ease for me my task, And untie the knot from my tongue, That they may understand my speech. And appoint for me a minister from my family - Aaron, my brother. Increase through him my strength, and let him share my task, that we may exalt You much, And remember You much. Indeed, You are of us ever Seeing.” (Allah) said, “You have been granted your request, O Moses.” (20: 26-37) Then comes Jesus (as) who was chosen by God. According to Christian teachings, he was a carpenter and the son of a carpenter, with a dubious genealogy as recorded in the Gospels: “And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed the son of Joseph…).” (Luke 3: 23) Acknowledged today by a thousand million Muslims that Jesus Christ (as) was born miraculously – without any male intervention, the followers of Christ created two separate genealogies for a man who had no genealogy. Between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke they give this mighty messenger of God sixty-six fathers and grandfathers. And of these two separate lists, only one name is common to these two hosts and that is of Joseph the carpenter, who does not fit in anywhere because, as Luke records above, he was only the “supposed” father of Jesus. In a “shock survey of Anglican bishops” in June 1984 it was revealed that 31 of their 39 Bishops thought that “Christ miracles, the virgin birth and the resurrection might not have happened exactly as described in the Bible.” Jesus Christ (as) though spiritually rich in wisdom, light and truth, philosophised light-heartedly about the beggars of the world, when he said: “there came unto him (Jesus) a woman having an alabaster box of every precious ointment, and poured it on his head…” But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying: “To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” … He (Jesus) said unto them: “… For ye have the poor always with you, but (poor) me ye have not always.” (Matthew 26: 7-11). But when destitution stared him in the face, when poverty, penury and need touched his own dear self, he cried pathetically: (And Jesus saith unto him): “The forces have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the son of man (referring to himself) hath not where to lay his head.” (Matthew 8: 20, also repeated in Luke 9-58) And yet God chose him (Jesus (as)): Unique and inscrutable as Thy ways O Lord! Muhammad (pbuh) the chosen one as mention in the Holy Quran: “It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom - although they were before in clear error” (62: 3) Amazing as it may seem, I am not amazed anymore! For this is His way – He chose an Ummi (non-literate) prophet for an Ummi (illiterate) nation. God chooses His Messengers and God chooses His people. In the realm of the spirit no nation was as favoured as the Jews and yet Moses (as) is made to bewail against his own people: “We have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.” (Deuteronomy 9: 24) Ladies and Gentlemen I end my speech here, so that you can understand that Jesus is not God and not son of God; he came to accomplish the message of Moses (pbuh) and the Jews have rejected his message and God close the door of prophethood in the Israelite people and sent the Holy Prophet (pbuh) in another people (their brethrens, through Ishmael (as)) and his message is universal to all people, to all religions and for you also. Insha-Allah.