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For the record, here is the text of the diatribe that Iesha sent to me. My response can be found at What About Islam? (Part 3)

THIS IS IN REPLY TO "What About Islam? By Merle Hertzler" ASALAM U ALAIKUM, 7EACE BE WITH YOU Firstly I must apologize for not being able to reply for such a long time but you must excuse me for i was busy with my exams following which i had to visit New Delhi, the Capital of India. Now coming to what Merle has written under the heading "What About Islam" I must say that it really changed my views on the writer. I had supposed him to be a fairly open minded person with ample reasoning but his writings reveal a deeper and much darker part of his psyche, a mind disturbed by prejudices and preconceived ideas. I have found Mr. Merle to be like many others walking on water with feet of clay while they think they are actually a "Mind set free" Really unfortunate! Because since reading all that i can feel the zeal of putting up a valid argument dying down within me. For the first time I doubt as to whether this man will even acknowledge the most obvious merits of Islam. I hate to say it but I doubt whether this debate will bear fruit because my firm faith in the correctness of this debate was based on my notions of Merle being a open minded person but i can see all those illusions going down the drain. I do not mean to insult anyone but i need to say that "Some people feel that they are actually thinking when they are just rearranging their prejudices!" **************************************************************************                ********************************* Now to put forth my arguments: In The Name of Allah the Most Gracious,  Most Merciful… I bear witness that there Is NO God but ALLAH and that Prophet Muhammad pbuh is his last and final Messenger. That the Best Guidance is the Guidance of Allah and the Best Help is that Which comes from him and that The BEST EXAMPLE is that of Prophet Muhammad pbuh  and that he is and will always be THE GREATEST LIBERATOR THAT HUMANITY HAS EVER SEEN; THAT HUMANITY WILL EVER SEE! 1.    Merle says "I have searched in vain for the place where chapter 16 says these bees are female. Whatever Iesha is referring to must be a very vague reference." The reference is Chapter Number 16 & verse 68& 69. which is as follows "AND THY LORD INSPIRED THE BEE SAYING: 'CHOOSE THOU HABITATIONS IN HILLS AND TREES AND IN WHICH THEY BREED. THEN EAT OF ALL FRUITS (you wish to eat) AND FOLLOW THE WAY FROM THY LORD MADE SMOOTH.'            THERE COMES FORTH FROM THEIR BELLIES A DRINK OF DIVERSE HUES; WHEREIN IS HEALING FOR MANKIND. LO! HEREIN IS INDEED A PORTEN FOR PEOPLE WHO REFLECT." Anyone who reads the English translation could say that my claim was at a stretch of vague reference since there does not appear to be any mention of the sex of the bee.  However this must be seen as a deficiency of the "English language translation" of the Originally Arabic Quran. It is very difficult to translate a Classical and rich language into a modern one. And as far as the Quran is considered, take my word for it that YOU CAN NOT TRANSLATE THE QURAN WORD TO WORD INTO ENGLISH WITHOUT ROBBING IT OF ITS DETAIL AND ELOQUENCE. It is impossible to exactly translate the Quran because we can never convey the message completely in the translation. And this particular deficiency of translations manifests itself in this very verse, because though the Arabic does refer to the sex of bees but in the English it remains camouflaged or hidden. It is always advisable for a person who wishes to analyse the Quran that he should know the Arabic alphabets and a bit of grammar and one should never take a translation for granted to be the exact CARBON COPY of the Quran, because one thing is for sure that THE QURAN CAN NOT BE TRANSLATED. Now moving on to analyse the verses we find that the English translation reads: "AND THY LORD INSPIRED THE BEE SAYING : 'CHOOSE THOU HABITATIONS IN HILLS AND…"                       BUT the Arabic clearly reads: "Wa Awhayna Rabuka Ila An Nahali ANI TAJAZI min al jibali…" Here the word TAJAZI is a verb Meaning "to choose" but is as a rule used in the feminine sense in Arabic. The Arabic language has no neural gender i.e. "it"; consequently objects or actions are either masculine or feminine. Eg: Instead of "to do" we have "he does" or "she does" and instead of "to read" we have "he reads" or "she reads". This is how the Arabic language has evolved and this is how gender is expressed in verbs in the Arabic language.  The prefix "Ya" indicates masculine gender and "Ta" indicates feminine gender in the Arabic language. E.g.: In Arabic Clothes are called LIBAS.  She wears is TALBIS and He wears is YALBIS. Now coming to the verse 68: The word TAJAZI is translated as She chose or She chooses in English (depending upon the Tense) & this Arabic verb Tajazi is an infinite verb which does not change with change in tense in Arabic sentences.  So here clearly the author of the Quran does mean to address the bees as feminine.  If the reference was masculine the word would have been YAJAZI.                                                                             In fact in other classical languages as well; of which I personally know Urdu, Hindi and my mother tongue Kashmiri; we do use a similar way of identifying feminine and masculine on basis of particular verbs.                                                                           Just because the English translation does not reveal the genders in the Arabic verbs does not mean the verbs are neutral. In fact if a person picks up a Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, Persian, Malayalam, Tamil, Dogri, Marathi, Africans, Telgu or even Kashmiri Translation he would be clearly able to see that the verse refers to Bees as Females. Therefore whatever I am referring to is quite clear and unambiguous and definitely not at a stretch of "vague reference". 2.    Merle says "If the Quran does refer to them as female, does this prove that the writer somehow had knowledge of the sex of bees?" If it Doesn't mean that… will Mr. Merle take the trouble of explaining to us what it means? Well Mr Merle "If the Quran would refer to them as male, would'nt that prove that the writer somehow did not have knowledge of the sex of bees?" The fact remains that there are just two ways for a person to refer to Bees in Arabic i.e. either as males or as females. I f we suppose that a person is guessing he has one in a two chance of being right and in this case the Quran happens to be right. You say: "Or could he be using a female pronoun for bees?" Well, that's what YOU think but "Coulds" "ifs" and "buts" won't impress a person like me. Well OK lets suppose that Merle is right and that the writer has just used a female pronoun for Bees. In order to understand this lets consider the example of a SHIP. A sailor could look at his Ship and say: "She will set sail in an hour." And this is how English has developed. If we were to try and express the same meaning in Arabic, we would use the word SAFEENA for SHIP and HIYA for SHE in the Arabic sentence. Now, Applying the Same logic to verse 68, if the Author meant to Refer to The Bee as he would refer to a ship, he would obviously use the Female PRONOUN which in Arabic happens to be HIYA.                                                  However may i pray remind you that no "FEMALE PRONOUN" is used in verse 68! The word HIYA does not occur in the verse 68 and so the possibility of arbitrarily using a female pronoun does not arise. The fact remains that the Quran refers to bees while using a FEMININE VERB and not a FEMININE PRONOUN. And such assignmets are not arbitrary. Even a person like me would not do the blunder of using a FEMININE VERB for a masculine or neutral object, where as I could use a FEMININE PRONOUN for a neutral object like a Ship. The Quran undoubtedly is quite ahead of its time because not only at the time of the Quran but also a lot later people supposed the Bees to be Masculine. In fact even in the plays of Shakespeare the Bees are described as Males! Not only that, even Scientists for a long time could'nt figure out whether the bees were male or female. ****************************************************************************************** AMAZING FACTS ABOUT BEES, BEE HIVES, METHODS OF COMMUNICATION, FOOD GATHERING AND HONEY: NOW, LET'S PONDER UPON THE VERSE: "AND THY LORD INSPIRED THE BEE SAYING: 'CHOOSE THOU HABITATIONS IN HILLS AND TREES AND IN WHICH THEY BREED. THEN EAT OF ALL FRUITS (you wish to eat) BY FOLLOWING THE WAY FROM THY LORD MADE SMOOTH.'                                                    THERE COMES FORTH FROM THEIR BELLIES A DRINK OF DIVERSE HUES; WHEREIN IS HEALING FOR MANKIND. LO! HEREIN IS INDEED A PORTEN FOR PEOPLE WHO REFLECT." We see here that the Author is quite serious when he tells us "LO! HEREIN IS INDEED A PORTEN FOR PEOPLE WHO REFLECT." So, the immediate question one would ask would be: "What's so special about these little Bees and the Honey they produce? And what's so special about their dwellings and the way which they follow?" There are a dozen or more dessert creatures that an Ancient text could refer to for the matter, the most apparent of them being "The ship of the desert" or the camel. The majesty and elegance of the camel is quite observable and no one would have objected had the Quran gone on to praise it, in fact it does mention camels in a number of verses. But, the bees take the lead when the Quran chooses to name its 16th Chapter as AN-Nahal or THE BEE. This means that for the Author of the Quran the Bee was far more important than many other creatures, even the Camel! Who could have guessed that 1400 years ago? 1. FACTS ABOUT BEE-INTELLIGENCE If we analyse, there is Much more to Bees and their Honey than what appears to us. This is what Mr. Nick Cole has to say in "Bees know Best" 14th June 1987: "…On the basis of instinct Bees possess extra ordinary intelligence- much more than its size suggests. This is confirmed by Science. Recent studies reveal that bees possess the most efficient warning mechanisms than any other creature. Eg: When the Nuclear reactor exploded at Chernobyl, Russia last spring, bees far away in Poland sensed danger of Radioactive contamination long before we did. Despite being sunny and warm, bees interrupted their flight and returned to their hives. The reason was apparent only when the news of the Russian disaster became known. For days together the bees remained within their hives and surrounded their Queen closely and kept beating their wings which reduced the penetration of contamination. Russian research in recent years has proved that BEES POSESS FAR GREATER INTELLIGENCE THAN THEIR SIZE SUGGESTS!"- Reported from Poland by Henry Ostarch, Head of the Bee keeping association.                               The Quran aptly says 1400 years ago:                                            "And Your Lord inspired the Bee… Herein are signs for men who reflect!" Certainly, the Bees must have been taught by one mighty in power!                                    2. FACTS ABOUT BEE HIVES Now, since the verse 68 talks about their INSPIRATIONAL HABITATIONS, "AND THY LORD INSPIRED THE BEE SAYING: 'CHOOSE THOU HABITATIONS IN HILLS AND TREES AND IN WHICH THEY BREED…" Let's see what's inspirational about the BEE HIVES:  Bees as a rule construct their hives in six dimensional form i.e. Hexagonal, with the opposite sides equal in such a way that no compartment is left smaller than the others and no space is left unutilized. This is quite remarkable because if their hives would be circular, triangular or square shaped, a lot of space would be wasted and cracks and fissures would appear. So, the Hives that Bees build are just PERFECT, any deviation from this traditional design would mean a complete collapse. Certainly these little creatures must have been trained by a master architect! 3. FACTS ABOUT FOOD GATHERING AND COMMUNICATION IN BEES Verse 68 says AND THY LORD INSPIRED THE BEE SAYING… EAT OF ALL FRUITS (you wish to eat) BY FOLLOWING THE WAY FROM THY LORD MADE SMOOTH.' It is a fact that Bees live in colonies under a Queen and they have been assigned their Jobs according to their ranks as Worker Bees, The Guards, The Food gatherers, The Nurses, The Builders and even Spies! The bees generally survive on the Food gathered in the form of nectar from flowers and plant juices. This job is generally assigned to the Gatherers who go from flower to flower to collect nectar. This is not an easy job. In fact it is quite a tedious job. The bees have to fly long distances to find nectariferous flowers and have to collect juices from thousands of flowers. This takes hours together and even whole days. This appears to be quite a difficult task considering that Bees not only need to remember the Place where nectar is available but they also need to communicate this information to other Bees. This calls for some special type of Adaptations which would enable them to communicate and would Guide them to the sources of nectar. And Researches have made us conclude that they do indeed have a remarkable in-built mechanism which Guides them and enables them to communicate. It has been found that after finding a place where nectar is in abundance the bee returns to tell the others about the place BY DANCING! These BEE DANCES Consist of movements of the Belly, the Antenae and movements in patterns which describe the number 8 or parts of the number 8.                                 In this manner the bees are not only able to communicate the direction of the nectar but also the distance from the hive!                                                                                             As far as the WAY which guides them to their source is concerned, they normally get their bearing in relation to the sun. What about cloudy days? Well, on cloudy days, their specially adapted eyes allow them to follow patterns of Plane Polarized Light.                                                                                        We also know that Bees also follow the shortest possible path which we know as the BEE LINE. Hence we can clearly see that there are a number of factors which contribute to their remarkable ability of food gathering and communication. And without these this would certainly be an impossible task. It appears as the Quran rightly says that there Must be someone who has inspired the bees with wisdom and has made them "FOLLOW THE WAY MADE SMOOTH." 4. FACTS ABOUT HONEY Verse 68 reads: "THERE COMES FORTH FROM THEIR BELLIES A DRINK OF DIVERSE HUES; WHEREIN IS HEALING FOR MANKIND." Not only at the time of Prophet Muhammad pbuh but also a lot later the miraculous benefits of honey were not known. In fact even after the Discovery of Small pox vaccine by Edward Jenner, scientists had begun to suspect that like milk, honey too could be a carrier of diseases! However their fears were absolutely baseless and today it has been well established that Honey is very Beneficial. It is important for Good health, helps to cure mild cough, helps fight the Winter Chill, helps reduce Obesity when taken with warm lime juice and helps fight a number of diseases. In fact even today Hepatitis is combated with the same old Hipocratian remedy of WATER & HONEY! Apart from this, honey is also used as a mild antiseptic. In fact before the use of chemicals wounded soldiers would be treated with honey. HONEY has dozens of Benefits and as the Qur'an says "therein is healing for mankind"! Certainly, what remarkable creatures Bees are! And we have been able to understand their intelligence only recently that to trough experimentation and modern techniques which have been recently developed and certainly these findings were not observable in the Desert 1400 years ago. How remarkable is it then that the Quran sums up these facts about these inspirational creatures, their inspirational dwellings, their way of food gathering and their remarkable honey in just one verse 1400 years ago: "AND THY LORD INSPIRED THE BEE SAYING: 'CHOOSE THOU HABITATIONS IN HILLS AND TREES AND IN WHICH THEY BREED. THEN EAT OF ALL FRUITS (you wish to eat) BY FOLLOWING THE WAY FROM THY LORD MADE SMOOTH.'                                                                        THERE COMES FORTH FROM THEIR BELLIES A DRINK OF DIVERSE HUES; WHEREIN IS HEALING FOR MANKIND. LO! HEREIN IS INDEED A PORTEN FOR PEOPLE WHO REFLECT."   AND INDEED HEREIN IS A GREAT PORTEN OF HIS MAGESTIC CREATION FOR PEOPLE WITH UNDERSTANDING! A person who still denies there to be anything amazing to verse 68, is certainly close minded!                                                                        There are at least 1OOO out of the 6OOO verses of the Quran which speak about Science i.e. Science makes up 1/6th of the Qur'an.                                                 The connection between the Qur'an and Modern Science is that while Qur'an in the First place proved to be the inspiration for people who read it with reasoning and it lead them to make astounding discoveries by calling them towards reasoning and by pointing out  to them hidden secrets behind Natural Phenomenon and the Nature around them and telling them LO! IN HERE ARE SIGHNS FOR MEN WHO REFLECT. And what Modern Science does in turn is that it helps us understand the Statements of the Qur'an and to Appreciate its Infallibility. For me SCIENCE is simply Our approach to understand nature and come closer to the TRUTH of the Marvelous and Flawless Creation of God with the Little Feeble Minds that we have. BELOW GIVEN ARE ARTICLES ON THE ESTABLISHED SCIENTIFIC CORRECTNESS OF THE QURAN AND ISLAM: SCIENTIFIC MIRACLES IN QUR'AN –( www.islamtomorrow.com)       MIRACLES ON CREATION OF UNIVERSE  MIRACLES ON CLOUDS MIRACLES ON MOUNTAINS      MIRACLES ON SEAS AND RIVERS                                                  MIRACLES ON HUMAN EMBROYNIC DEVELOPMENT    MIRACLES ON DEEP SEA INTERNAL WAVES    MIRACLES ON CEREBRUM And yes just to mention that the first time that i came across anything about the Bees in the Quran it was when i read Garry Miller's "The Quran is Amazing"(www.islam101.com)  which I have already shared with Merle. This Mr. Miller was a leading mathematician of his time. He lived to expound on the Scientific correctness of the Quran and proved that it was flawless. He was grown in an orthodox Christian household and grew up to be a leading Missionary. But as he read deeper into the Bible he accepted that there were obvious contradictions in it and gave up Christianity. At this time he came to know how Muslims considered their Book, the Quran to be FROM GOD, ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS. And as he himself says "At first i expected that like the Bible the Quran too would have Both Truth and falsehood, both good and evil mixed together but what I found was THE TRUTH".  I was amazed to read this because the words at the beginning  are quite similar to what Merle had said long ago:    "If you would have said that the Quran has elements of both evil and good that would be alright but no your claims go much deeper…" The Beginning of the quest of both these people is the same & I can only Pray that the conclusion is too. AMEN ***************************************************************************************                ******************************* 3.    Merle says "What about the obvious scientific flaws in the Quran, such as the verse that says the sun sets in a muddy spring, or that creation lasted six days? I don't see Iesha's response to those verses. No doubt she will tell us that these are just expressions, and that they do not really mean what they literally say." Mr. Merle earlier accused me of inventing lies against him But here Merle has INVENTED A VERY BIG LIE AGAINST ME! How can you say WITHOUT DOUBT that I will tell you that "these are just expressions and that they do not mean what they literally say"? You can not deny having spoken these words can you? It's just AWFUL how a person can make such a strong supposition and say "NO DOUBT She will tell us…"! Do you suppose yourself to be super human or some thing? Only a very stubborn and close minded person will use expressions like that without actually knowing having any concrete proof for such claims. And NO, I WON'T say "that these verses don't actually mean what they literally say".                                 And  There; That proves you to be a liar.                                                        Seems like Merle is "caught up in his own net".                                           When I had told about you what you did not literally say, I had deduced it from your way of writing. Well maybe my inference was wrong and I might have not clearly understood what you wanted to say and that angered you. But here you are actually presuming something without any basis. YOU BETTER NOT PRESUME AND IMAGINE WHAT I AM NOT ACTUALLY SAYING. [A]. NOW, firstly about "creation lasting six days": This refers to the Verse 59 of Chapter 25 whose English translation reads:               "He Who created the Heaven and the Earth and all that is between them in SIX DAYS…" And Could you please define a DAY.                                                   The CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONRY offers the following definitions of DAY: 1. Interval of light between two nights. 2. Time During which work is generally done; consisting of 8 hours. 3. Time for one rotation of the Earth or a period of 24 hrs as unit of time. 4. Date agreed upon. 5. Period of time Eg: In the DAYS of Queen Victoria, in the DAYS of old, in DAYS to come, Men of other DAYS etc. So, we see that even in the English language, DAY does not necessarily mean a 24 hour day. In certain context it could mean an 8-hr day or could well mean a period. "In days to come" doesn't necessarily mean 24 hr days infact the time is uncertain. So according to the dictionary even, there is no hard and fast rule to say what actually DAY means. Generally the word DAY would mean a certain period of time and its actual value would be defined by the context. This is what we can infer from the Dictionary AND I HOPE THAT MERLE DOES NOT CONSIDER HIMSELF ABOVE THE DICTIONARIES! Now lets have a closer look at Verse "He Who created the Heaven and the Earth and all that is between them in SIX DAYS…" The Arabic word used in the verse is AYAAM, which is the plural of YAWM. The word YAWM doesn't necessarily mean a 24 hr Day. YAWM simply means a PERIOD or EPOCH.                                                    So the AYAAM here are not 24hr Days but are 6 PERIODS OR 6 EPOCHS OF TIME.                           And I don't think that Science has a problem with that. We should remember that the duration of each period has not been specified. It could be equal to a second, a day, a year or a Million years. Its not specified and so this is certainly not an OBVIOUS FLAW in the Qur'an, rather it is a deficiency in the translation. The correct translation would be                                                  "He Who created the Heaven and the Earth and all that is between them in SIX PERIODS…" And so VERSE 59 DOES mean what it literally says but the thing is that the word Ayaam has a number of interpretations. You can see for yourself that AYAAM is used often in Arabic Literature for PERIODS OF TIME not just 24 hr days. Also refer to Surah Al Hajj "The durations of one day before your lord is equal to your 1ooo years". In Surah Al Sajdah Verse 5 it says: "He directs ordinance from the Heaven into Earth and then it ascends unto him in a day (period) which you refer as your 1ooo Years". In yet another place it says that ONE DAY is equal to so & so years of ours. This shows that even in the Qur'an the word AYAAM does not mean a 24 hr day. HENCE IT IS CLEAR THAT BECAUSE THE WORD AYAAM COULD HAVE A NUMBER OF MEANINGS; THEREFORE THE CREATION OF HEAVENS AND EARTH IN SIX AYAAM IS NOT AN OBVIOUS FLAW IN THE QUR'AN. [B]. Now, coming to THE SUN SETTING IN A MUDDY SPRING: Obviously the reference is to Verse 86 of Chapter number 18. where Mr. Merle allegesthat the Qur'an believes the sun to set in a Muddy spring. Now first let's see the correct English translation of verses 83, 84, 85,86,89,90 of ch 18. Verse. 83 They ask thee of Zulqarnain. Say: I shall recite unto thee a remembrance of him.                            Verse. 84 Lo! We made him stronger in the land and gave him unto all things a way.                             Verse. 85 And he followed a way (or road)                                                 Verse. 86 Until he reached the place where the sun was setting which APPEARED TO HIM to set in a muddy spring where appeared a nation thereabout……             Verse. 89 Then he followed a way (or road)                                                                            Verse. 90 Until he reached the place where the sun was rising; which APPEARED TO HIM rising on a nation whom we had appointed no cover there from. Lets analyse Verse 86. It says: Until he reached the place where the sun was setting; which APPEARED TO HIM to set in a muddy spring. It has to be noted that this verse originally DOES NOT USE the phrase SETTING PLACE OF THE SUN, although in many translations translators have used this phrase. Itwe analyse the first part of the sentence it clearly says "HATA IZA BALAGA MAGRIB-ASH-SHAMS". I f we were to try and understand the first half of the verse word by word: HATA IZA could be understood as TILL HE REACHED BALAGA means PLACE MAGRIB-ASH-SHAMS meaning SUN-SET [Where MAGRIB means WEST or SET and SHAMS means SUN.] It as to be noted that here the phrase MAGRIB-ASH-SHAMS has been used; which is translated as SUN-SET in English . Just like the order SUN-SET is fixed and can not be converted to SET-SUN similarly in Arabic when the words MAGRIB and SHAMS occur in the form of MAGRIB-ASH-SHAMS they loose their individual meanings and mean SUN-SET or SETTING OF THE SUN. It should be noted that as in the case of SUN-SET in English; this MAGRIB-ASH-SHAMS usually denotes a TIME and an ACTION VERB rather than a PLACE. Now with these few English words if we were to construct a sentence it would look like this                                    "Till he reached place sunset" and this is the first half of the sentence. Now to make sense out of the translation and without INVENTING our own words the translation could be rewritten as :                                                                                           "Till he reached the place AT sun-set"  where sun-set denotes a TIME of the day and so the sentence would convey that He reached his destination at the time of sun set.                                                            And I believe no one has a problem with that; even I have many a time reached my destination at sunset. Or it could mean:                                            "Till he reached the place WHERE the sun sets" where sun set would be a verb and the sentence would be denoting a direction or place and hence meaning that he reached the destination; which is the place where the sun sets. Now, if we were to even ask a child WHERE DOES THE SUN SET? The answer would be IN THE WEST. So we have to understand that the first half of the verse means to convey either of the following:       that he (Zulqarnain) reached the destination at the time of the sunset or that he reached the place where the sun sets i.e. the direction WEST. So, there is no hard and fast rule as to which of the two should be understood to be correct. Now coming to the second half of the verse it says: "WAJADAHA TAGRUBU FI AININ HAMEEATIN WA WAJADA INDAHA QAWMA." Now to understand the sentence word by word: 1. WAJADAHA means IT APPEARED TO HIM (WAJADA in Arabic means TO APPEAR and the HA suffix is masculine.) 2. TAGRUBU means TO SET or SET 3. FI means IN 4. AIN means spring 5. HAMEEAH means MUDDY 6. WA means AND 7. WAJADA means TO APPEAR or  APPEARED 8. INDAHA means THEREABOUT 9. QAWM means NATION Now it we were to construct a sentence out of these words it would look like this: "It (the sun) APPEARED TO HIM to set in spring muddy and appeared thereabout Nation." Now to rearrange the words to make out some sense in English we get: "It appeared to him to set in a muddy spring and appeared thereabout a nation." Now, this sentence NOWHERE says that the Sun sets in a muddy spring. It says that IT APPEARED TO ZULQARNAIN to be setting in a Muddy spring. And if we pay heed we see that when the Qur'an says about the Sun setting in a muddy spring it uses the word WAJADAHA which means IT APPEARED TO HIM however, when it says about the nation thereabout, it uses WAJADA which means IT APPEARED. So, while the Author of the Qur'an agrees that there DID APPEAR a nation; it says that the Sun APPEARED TO ZILQARNAIN to be setting in a muddy spring. And I believe that the phenomenon is quite noticeable. The place where I live is the Land of Lakes and Rivers and I can recollect the number of times the SUN HAS APPEARED TO ME to be setting in the majestic Dal lake. And I have even enjoyed seeing it rise from behind mountains and so must you have. Does that mean that i or We believe that the Sun sets in a Lake and rises from behind mountains? We have to understand that this is just an imagery. Just like the Sun does no actually set or rise but our literature is over flooded with beautiful depictions of SUN SETS and SUN RISE. Similarly this is a part of the Vast imagery of the Qur'an which includes natural objects like the Sun and the Moon, the Desert and the Sea etc. Now if we were to put the meanings of both the parts of the verse together, there would be no room for doubt. It clearly reads: "Until he reached the place WHERE the sun sets; which APPEARED TO HIM to set in a muddy spring…" OR ""Until he reached the place WHEN the sun was setting; which APPEARED TO HIM to set in a muddy spring…" Here the phrase "when or where the sun was setting" are in past tense because the word TAGRUBU in Arabic according to Rules would be in past tense and would hence mean "was setting". In both the cases it is clear that the Qur'an is not only referring to a place or a point where the sun Habitually sets or rises from i.e. East or West; instead it also means that Zilqarnain reached a place where the sun appeared to him to be setting in a muddy spring. In fact the fact that the Qur'an does understand the Sun DOES NOT ACTUALLY set or rise is quite evident from the Verse. 90: "Until he reached the place where the sun was rising; which APPEARED TO HIM rising on a nation whom we had appointed no cover there from." If the Qur'an believed that the Sun sets in a muddy spring then would it not say in veres 90 that Zulqarnain reached a place where It rose from the Muddy spring?                                 This is quite natural; if i believe i saw you entering a door I would expect you to come out from the same door. If the author of the Qur'an believed what you alleged he believed; then whatever was at the back of his mind would express itself. However we see that the Qur'an maintains utmost caution and is INDEED the handiwork of a MASTER CRAFTSMAN. We see that the Qur'an is quite careful while framing its sentences and Humans I believe are not so efficient so as to avoid any mistakes. However the Author of the Qur'an does not make the obvious mistakes that a human would make. Only one who is SUPER HUMAN could have been so accurate and flawless and this indicates the colossal wisdom and correctness of understanding of the author of the Qur'an and I believe this can not attributed to anyone but the CREATOR of all that Exists because only HE can know so much about his creation and only HE could have made such statements 14oo years ago!   In both the verses while referring to the sun's setting or rising it confirms that IT ONLY APPERARED TO ZULQARNAIN TO BE SETTING OR RISING. In fact in a Verse in the Chapter of "THE MERCIFUL" or AL- REHMAN it says about Plurality of Easts and Wests proving that it understands that the Sun does not rise or set at any particular fixed point. " Rabul MASHRIQAYN wa Rabul MAGRIBAYN"                                                               i.e. "The Lord of the EASTS and the Lord of the WESTS" The words used are: MASHRIQAYN which is plural of MASHRIQ (East) and MAGRIBAYN which is plural of MAGRIB (West). These and many other verses of the Qur'an prove that its author understood the fact the Sun only APPEARED to be setting or rising and that there are many Easts and many Wests i.e. that there are a number of points from where the sun appears to be rising or setting which is quite true because with the changing pattern of the seasons these points of rise and set of the sun keep on changing. Now, even if a person still wants to believe that the Qur'an is talking about a legend and that Zulqarnain is a fictional character and that this legend means that he actually traveled to a place in the Ancient sky where he could see the sun set in a muddy spring and that he met some alien nation there; THEN there remains only one way to verify whether the Qur'an is right or wrong whether Zulqarnain is a legendary figure or whether he is actually a great conqueror whom we might know by a different name and the WAY to do find out is that we look for any CLUE or EVIDENCE of his existence from the Qur'an and then try to MATCH it with the facts about any such HISTORICAL FIGURE. For that we'll have to have a look at all the sentences in the Qur'an about this man which the Qur'an refers to as Zulqarnain: Chapter no: 18 Verses 83-98 read: Verse. 83 They ask thee of Zulqarnain. Say: I shall recite unto thee a remembrance of him. Verse. 84 Lo! We made him stronger in the land and gave him unto all things a way. Verse. 85 And he followed a way (or road) Verse. 86 Until he reached the place where the sun sets (west) or when the sun was setting which APPEARED TO HIM to set in a muddy spring where appeared a nation thereabout. We said: O Zulqarnain! Either punish them or show them kindness. Verse 87. He said : As for he who does wrong, we shall punish him and then he shall be brought forth before his Lord who shall punish him with an awful punishment. Verse 88. And as for him who believes and does right, good will be his reward and we shall speak unto him a mild command. Verse. 89 Then again he followed a way (or road) Verse. 90 Until he reached the place where the sun rises (East) or when the sun was rising; which APPEARED TO HIM rising on a nation whom We had appointed no cover there from. Verse.     91. So was it. And We knew all concerning him. Verse.     92. Then again he followed a way. Verse.     93. Till when he came between the two mountains, there appeared upon their hither side a people who could narrowly understand a saying. Verse.     94.They said O Zulqarnain! Lo! Gog and Magog are sowing discontent in the land. So may we pay thee tribute on the condition that you put a barrier between them and us? Verse.     95. He said: That wherewith my Lord has honoured me is better for me (than your tribute). Do but help me wit strength of men and I will set between you and them a bank. Verse.     96. Give me pieces of Iron-Till (he said). When he had leveled up the gap, he said: Blow!---till when a fire was produced and he said: Bring me molten copper to pour thereon. Verse.     97. And it could not be surmounted nor could it be pierced. Verse.     98. He said: This (wall) is a mercy from my Lord; but when the promise of my Lord comes to pass He shall lay it low, for the promise of my Lord is true. This is what the Qur'an has to say about a man called Zulqarnain.                                                        If we look at the very first verse i.e. 83 it says: "THEY ask thee of Zulqarnain…"                                                 The question which comes to mind is who are THEY? Historians and Scholars of the Qur'an unanimously agree that a strong Hadeeth of the Muslim world asserts that the story of the "Sleepers of the Cave" (V. 10-27), that of "Moses and Khidr" (V. 60-82) and that of "Zulqarnain" (V. 83-98) in the Chapter "The Cave" were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad pbuh TO ENABLE HIM TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS POSED BY THE JEWISH DOCTORS OF MEDINA through the pagans as a test for PROPHETHOOD.                                   The Questions were three: "Ask him" said the Rabbis "of some youth who were of old, WHAT WAS THEIR FATE, for they have a strange story; and ask him of the man much traveled who reached the far east and far west; the sunset and sunrise regions of the earth; WHAT WAS HIS HISTORY; and ask him of the SPIRIT; WHAT IT IS." While the third question is answered in Chapter. 17 V. 85 onwards, the other two are answered in the Chapter 18 of THE CAVE. So, from the Qur'an and its commentary these points are clear about Zulqarnain. 1. The question of much traveled THE TWO HORNED ONE (Zulqarnain) was asked by JEWISH DOCTORS. Hence this man must have something to do with the History of the Jewish nation. And since they speak of him with respect, he should have treated them well. 2. God gave him power and gave him ways to travel wide and to conquer lands. 3. There were three important journeys he undertook: on the first occasion he traveled Westward to a place where there was water in which the sun appeared to set; on the second occasion he traveled East where he found a nation "who had been appointed no cover what so ever" This implies to their NOMADIC way of life. And on the third occasion he traveled to a place between two mountains where he found a people who could hardly understand a saying. This could mean that they spoke through sign language or some other mode of communication hence implying that they were some TRIBAL community. 4. Further we find that he deals justly with people; punishing the guilty and honouring the innocent. 5. In the third conquest he is requested by the people to save them from the Gog and Magog who seem to be some type people who were mischief mongers; indicating the great trust they had on him and since they address him as "Zulqarnain" it shows that he was quite famous and powerful. 6. In order to save the people he builds a WALL of Iron bars and Molten copper which separates the two groups of people and this WALL OF ZULQARNAIN is strong, unsurpassable and can not be pierced. Now, out of all these points the first five give information about the nature and conquests of Zulqarnain but IT IS THE SIXTH POINT WHICH WILL DETERMINE THE CORRECTNES OF THE QUR'AN. The sixth point mentions that Zulqarnain BUILD A METALLIC WALL; and IF THE QUR'AN WAS TALKING ABOUT A MAN ACTUALLY TRAVELLING TO A PLACE IN THE SKY WHERE THE SUN SETS IN A SPRING; THEN this wall should be somewhere in thy SKY, RIGHT? Or It should be Non-existent, RIGHT? BUT TO YOUR UTTER SURPRISE, THIS WALL EXISTS! Firstly about the WALL…  "Before the Quranic revelation, the Arabs had never heard of such a wall, but because the Qur'an described it, they were able to discover it. In concurrence with the advice given in the Qur'an to research information (even if it is new), when 'Umar was caliph, he chose a group of men and sent them to find the wall of Dhul-Qarnayn.. As a matter of fact, it is located in what is called Durbend a part of what was one called the Soviet Union."                                                 (FROM: The Qur'an is amazing by Garry Miller later Abdul Ahad Omar)                 COULD MR MERLE TELL US AS TO WHO TOLD Prophet Muhammad pbuh ABOUT THE WALL OF ZULQARNAIN WHICH WAS HUNDREDS OF MILES TO THE NORTH? The fact that this WALL is down here on the Earth and not at an imaginary point in the sky is PROOF that the Qur'an was NOT mistaken in verses 86 and 90 as Merle had Previously ALLEGED. A person who would like to read further about this wall can visit: AMA scholarship blog: WALL OF GOG AND MAGOG  in fact a picture of the REMAINS of the Historic Iron wall can also be seen there. According to what the Qur'an describes it to be; the IRON WALL at the DARIEL PASS in Derbend in the Caucasus region which was earlier in the USSR seems to most closely fit the description of THE WALL OF ZULQARNAIN. Today however only a tall and narrow iron structure is visible which stands at the top of a hilly region. The photo clearly shows that over the years sedimentation has occurred and covered most of the base of the wall. This is quite natural because if Zulqarnain had built the wall it has been thousands of years since then and owing to the corrosion of the metals and sedimentation most of it has been concealed. In fact recently there have been speculations that the bottom of the very hill on which THE WALL stands could have a lake beneath as is a very common phenomenon in nature. I t remains for remote sensing and archeological surveys to tell us what lies hidden beneath the WALL and RADIOACTIVE DATING could tell us precisely when it was built. The problem it seems lies with the Tourism authority of Derbend who are not encouraging such efforts. We can only wait patiently and hope that scientists unravel the mystery behind the WALL. Now, as far as the personality of ZULQARNAIN is concerned; he could be any one of the Great conquerors before Islam, i.e. Alexander, Cyrus etc.  However, in my opinion in light of historical evidence there is a greater likelihood that Cyrus the Persian king was the person mentioned as Zulqarnain in the Qur'an. However, it should always be kept in mind that Qur'an has not specifically mentioned any name, so we should also avoid saying that our opinion is final and the personality we found out to be Zulqarnain is exactly the one which Qur'an calls Zulqarnain. We should always talk about it in terms of our own understanding and knowledge, as the door for further research is always open. And I don't speak without proof, so I will share with you as to how I reached this very conclusion. The first time I read about Zulqarnain and Cyrus was in a newspaper article. I was at first shocked. Then to find out the truth I decided to search the internet. I found different views with regards to who was Zulqarnain, some thought it was Alexander while others concluded it was Cyrus while still others thought it was none of the above; each group trying desperately to convince us that they were right. So, I decided to find out for myself. I set out to collect necessary information about conqueror Cyrus. And all the CONFIRMED info. I was able to gather from different sources is given below: 1. CYRUS'S RELEVANCE TO THE JEWISH NATION:                                                                 He lived up to that reputation, freeing more than 40,000 enslaved Jews and allowing them to return to Palestine. He is mentioned 22 times in the Bible for these and similar deeds.                                                 Taken From: CYRUS BECAME THE GREATEST CONQUERER OF HIS TIMES Read whole article at http://www.farsinet.com/cyrus/cyrus_just_ruler.html God Calls King Cyrus by Name before he is born: This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things. "You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it. Isaiah 45:1-8 (written by a Christian) Also read CYRUS THE GREAT IN PERSIAN HISTORY: CYRUS THE GREAT IN PERSIAN ISTORY 2.CYRUS'S GREATEST EXPEDITIONS: Cyrus the Great, though he did not find the First Persian Empire, did conduct four expeditions which made it the sole power in the Middle East and Anatolia. His empire would last for the next 200 years until the coming of Alexander the Great. The four campaigns were: 1.    Conquering Media: With the help of Harpagus, Cyrus invaded Media then ruled by Astyages. 2.    Conquering Lydia: Cyrus conquers Sardis, the capital of the Lydian Empire (under the rule of Croesus). After the Lydian Empire fell, Croesus became an adviser to Cyrus. 3.    Conquering Assyrians: Cyrus conquered Babylon, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. He entered the city by draining the Euphrates River. 4.    Attempt of Conquering the Massegatai: Cyrus attempted to conquer Queen Tomyris of the Massegatai (a Scythian Tribe), but was tragically killed by a volley of arrows HOWEVER, since during the third Attempt to conquer Massegatai he was Murdered, so it can not be considered as one of his Great conquest, because the efforts went in vain. Hence, actually there were THREE GREAT CAMPAIGNS which Cyrus carried out. Cyrus's western expedition was the one, in which he conquered Lydia and the Lonian city-states on the western coast of Asia Minor. It is in all probability this expedition which the Qur'an mentions as the one in which he reached a place where the sun sets and it appeared to him to be setting in water  perhaps referring to an experience he might have had while standing at the shore of Mediterranean in western Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Next, Cyrus turned his attention towards the barbaric nomadic tribes of the eastern part of the Iranian plateau. It is probably this expedition which the Qur'an mentions as the one in which he conquered a people who had no cover for the rising sun, metaphorically explaining their nomadic life style and the eastern direction of the conquest. Lastly, the Qur'an talks about his third expedition where he reaches a region in between two mountains and hence depicting the hilly topography. This is probably when Cyrus went to the northeastern part of his empire (Caucasus mountain range between the Black Sea and the Caspian sea) and built barriers to protect its people against the incursion of nomadic tribes who lived on the other side of the Caucasus range, and the invaders are referred to as Gog and Magog in the Qur'an. 3. CYRUS'S BELIEFS: He became the king of this vast empire stretching from Lydia (west) to India (east) and Bactria (north) to Babylon (south). Secondly history has explicitly recorded incidents of Cyrus's extreme kindness and justice towards his subjects. In fact, these traits of his personality were so conspicuous that friend and foe equally acknowledged this fact. As regards Cyrus's religion, he was a believer in Zoroastrianism, a new religion at that time, which existed with all its purity and spirit. The prophet Zoroaster who was probably contemporary to Cyrus preached belief in one God, the hereafter and all other basic good deeds that form a part of Divine religions. This answers our first question, showing that Cyrus comes very close to the narrative of the Qur'an. 4. CYRUR'S SENSE OF JUSTICE:  Here are excerpts from CYRUS BECAME THE GREATEST CONQUERER OF HIS TIMES By  Matthew Benjamin Thursday, July 16, 1998 Investor's Business Daily; Leaders & Success Column When the conqueror Cyrus the Great rode into Babylon, the city's vanquished erupted in cheers.                  Yes, they'd have to bend to his rule. But Cyrus (580-530? B.C.) made sure that wouldn't be difficult. In contrast to other rulers of his day, he was just. In fact, his style of government was a critical factor in his becoming the greatest ruler of his time.                                             Cyrus' Persian Empire, which extended from India to the Mediterranean Sea, was the most powerful state in the world until its conquest two centuries later by Alexander the Great.   Cyrus appointed a Mede as chief adviser and then ruled the kingdom in a kind of dual monarchy, with both Medes and Persians holding high offices. The satrapy, as this system of government became known, put a native Mede in power as a semiautonomous ruler, or satrap.             "Nevertheless, the close relationship between Persians and Medes was never forgotten. Medes were honored equally with Persians; they were employed in high office and were chosen to lead Persian armies," wrote A.T. Olmstead in his "History of the Persian Empire."     He converted most into satrapies and put natives in command. He also showed great respect for conquered peoples' religious and cultural beliefs. At that time, every tribe or kingdom had its own gods and rites.                                                                   While it was customary for conquerors to deface the idols and religious statues of those they defeated, Cyrus forbade that practice. When it did occur, he quickly remedied it.                     "Large numbers of foreign captive divinities gave further opportunity for royal benevolence," Olmstead wrote. That earned him the respect and homage of the races over whom he ruled.                                                                 Cyrus always took   pains to convey that he was not a foreign king and conqueror, but a liberator and, therefore, a legitimate holder of the crown.                                                     For example, after conquering Babylon, he immediately addressed its citizens in their own language and added "King of Babylon" to the top of his long list of titles. It was an unheard of gesture of respect.           "In the eyes of his Babylonian subjects, Cyrus was never an alien king," Olmstead wrote. "The proclamation of Cyrus to the Babylonians, issued in their own language, was a model of persuasive propaganda."                                           He also left in place most of the existing government and allowed most midlevel officials to retain their positions.                                                                             Cyrus was a great learner. He observed the customs and traditions of the cultures he conquered and made sure the best elements were put to use for all of Persia's benefit.       Cyrus invented, or appropriated and improved upon, the idea of the postal system, according to the Greek historian Xenophon. Figuring out how far a horse could travel in one day, Cyrus built a series of posting stations, each one day's ride apart, across his empire. The system ensured the efficient flow of information between him and his satraps. His Tomb Reads: "O, man, whoever thou art and when so ever thou comest, for I know that thou wilt come, I am Cyrus, and I won for the Persians their empire. Do not, therefore, begrudge me this little earth which covers my body. " Also read CYRUS'S CHARTER OF HUMAN RIGHTS As far as Alexander is concerned, He DOES NOT fulfill the requirements of the description of Zulqarnain. The extent of Alexander's expeditions was towards the east and south, whereas Qur'an mentions Zulqarnain's expeditions towards west, east and a third direction. Secondly when Qur'an talks about Zulqarnain, it shows him as a person believing in one God and the hereafter. He is also depicted as a kindhearted and just ruler. Now it is known about Alexander that he was a polytheist and no incidents of his kindness and justice are explicitly recorded in history. But as far as Cyrus is concerned we find out that the extent of his expeditions was towards west, east and north that is, after becoming the king of Persia, Cyrus went on different expeditions, ultimately conquering almost eighty percent of the civilized world at that time. So, regarding the identity of Zulqarnain, if we get together the facts about History we will find out that the Information about Zulqarnain fits Cyrus LIKE A GLOVE. So, it could be quite possible that Zulqarnain is Cyrus. But, Allah knows best. For further information read WHO WAS ZULQARNAIN? NOW, FROM ALL THE INFO AS SITED ABOVE IT IS CLEAR THAT NOT ONLY WAS ZULQARNAIN A TRUE HISTORIC FIGURE BUT THE WALL WHICH THE QUR'AN REFERS TO IS STILL IN EXISTANCE. 4.    Merle says "The Greek scientist, Epicurus, had astounding insight into modern science, writing in 300 BC with astonishing accuracy about atoms and molecules, the rain cycle, causes and nature of lightning, causes of earthquakes, and the existence of other planetary systems. Many of his statements may have been lucky guesses. He also got some things very wrong. But his guesses are amazingly accurate, for he had a wealth of accumulated science on which to base his conclusions. Using the accumulated observations and reasons of the Greeks, he painted a picture of the universe that is far more specific and accurate than anything found in supposed books of divine revelation. Now, Merle here seems to be making just too many contradictory statements! First he goes on to say… "Epicurus had astounding insight into modern science …" and  "writing in 300 BC with astonishing accuracy" But suddenly our friend changes his mind and jumps to the conclusion that "Many of his statements may have been lucky guesses" and then he admits that "He also got some things very wrong" But amazingly he maintains "But his guesses are amazingly accurate"! Could u believe that? A person who is supposed to be making his point is contradicting himself time and again! Make up ur mind merle…as to whether u want to go with the opinion that EPICURUS HAD ASTOUNDING INSIGHT or whether THEY WERE LUCKY GUESSES; Whether HE GOT SOMETHINGS VERY WRONG or whether THE GUESSES WERE AMAZINGLY ACCURATE… And besides Merle says that Epicurus wrote in 300 BC so how could he have insight into MODERN science? And since Merle him self admits that "Using the accumulated observations and reasons of the Greeks, he painted a picture of the universe…" Well then that's PLAGIARIZATION! 5.    Merle asks: If the science in Iesha's book proves it is the infallible word of God, does the science in Epicurus's work prove it is God's word? Why not? Why can't a book that is reportedly written by God come close to the science content of a book written by a man many centuries earlier? If Allah was sneaking statements of science into the Quran in order to impress us, he certainly could have done a better job." First of all, its not MY BOOK that we are talking about. It's a book called the u which was written 1400 years ago in the Arabic language and it still exists in its original form and while We Muslims maintain that it is the LAST AND FINAL WORD OF GOD REVEALED TO THE LAST AND FINAL MESSENGER OF GOD, Prophet Muhammad pbuh BUT the west and the Church in particular and many ancient and modern day writers ALLEGE that it was Written by Prophet Muhammad pbuh or by a number of people. Now, coming to what Merle says, the SCIENCE in Epicurus's book can not be used to prove that it is the WORD OF GOD because as Merle himself admits "he got some things VERY WRONG" and any book claiming to be from God must not have any WRONGS. If the Qur'an or Bible or any HOLY book is proved to have even a SINGLE mistake then it can not be THE WORD OF GOD. And while the book of Epicurus, the Bible and the Veda have Mistakes, the Qur'an has not a SINGLE! And if Merle thinks it does, he should show us at least ONE! And if he does, I WILL THEN AND THERE DENOUNCE ISLAM! But if he can't, and for sure he won't; He will have to accept that ISLAM IS THE TRUTH. AND NO THE QUR'AN IS NOT POOR IN SCIENTIFIC CONTENT, IT IS INFACT AMAZINGLY RICH! And for God's sake Merle… do us a favour…stop reading those MISLEADING translations and start reading the real STUFF! You're not to Old to learn Arabic are u? And if that should not be TOO MUCH to ask for; unless u r really a close minded person! THE QUR'AN NOT ONLY COMES CLOSE TO THE SCIENTIFIC CONTENT OF EPICURUR'S BOOK, BUT ALSO SURPASSES IT! AND ALLAH HAS DONE A TRULY WONDERFUL JOB BY SENDING US THE GLORIOUSLY QUR'AN WHICH HAS BAFFELLED SCIENTISTS THE WORLD OVER. ALL OF US JUST NEED TO LEARN MORE. 6.    Merle says "Pity that. For Iesha previously invented words and said that I spoke them, even though I did not speak them. Uh…As if I've murdered merle or some thing! I never PLANNED to accuse u of speaking what u hadn't spoken. You're blowing this out of proportion! I mean do u really have so much of leisure time to waste on such petty issues? Uh…this makes me sick! Just Try and get over it! And Allah is enough for me as a witness and i don't need to waste time convincing illogical people like u. 7.    Merle says: I am sorry that she believes that those who do not speak the truth go to hell forever. One would hope that if God exists, he is more merciful, and that those who misspeak, as Iesha did, will not end up in hell forever. One of the reasons that I've chosen Islam is that it ahs THE STRONGEST AND CLEAREST CONCEPT OF GOD which only God himself could have taught. And God is much more Merciful that you think. Read for instance The Chapter of THE MERCIFUL in the Qur'an. And there is a HUGE difference is LYING and MISSPEAKING. Misspeaking could be a mere slip of the tongue while as a LIE is something DECEITFUL and UNTRUE and FAKE and that's what Allah hates. In Islam a person will never be punished for something he did unintentionally or for a slip of the tongue But when a person realizes his mistake and hides it and does not make emends ---that amounts to a LIE. And that's when a person could end up going to hell. And since I immediately made amends after realizing my mistakes I do not need to worry. And it a far graver situation when one lies about the WORD OF GOD and that is something I would never want to INTENTIONALLY do because those are enough reasons to go to hell. 8.    Merle says "What reason can Muhammad give us to believe that the Quran is written by God, other than astounding miracles? You are making a fantastic claim, that a book that appears to be poorly written and filled with evil recommendations (as well as good) was written by God. Don't you need to show us something miraculous in order to prove your claim? So far, your attempts to do that have fallen far short." Well…it seems Mr. Merle is contradicting his own statements! First he says: "What reason can Muhammad give us to believe that the Quran is written by God, other than astounding miracles?" And surprisingly just one sentence later he says: "Don't you need to show us something miraculous in order to prove your claim?" It seems Merle is confused…Take time make up your mind! You see…as is also evident from your own writing the human nature always tends to persuade man to look for MIRACULOUS proofs, as Merle has demanded, although in the First instance he wanted Prophet Muhammad pbuh to give him proof OTHER THAN astounding miracles. Prophet Muhammad pbuh was send as a Prophet by God and to give a righteous lesson to the people God Inspired him with His words and told him to go and tell the same to Mankind in order that they may be successful. And in order that there may be a proof for them to believe in the Prophethood of Muhammad pbuh HE gave him a number of MIRACLES and in the words of Prophet Muhammad pbuh himself, "I have been given a number of miracles but the only one which I claim is the Qur'an."                                             THE QUR'AN CAME AS A PROOF FOR MUHAMMAD; MUHAMMAD DID NOT COME AS A PROOF FOR THE QUR'AN. The reason that we should believe in the Qur'an is that it is in the original form in which it was revealed, it has no versions, it has absolutely no mistakes and it has awe-inspiring Scientific Miracles which only God Almighty could have revealed 14oo years ago. And no one has anything to loose by following the Qur'an. It teaches great things including submission and tolerance and does not contain even a hint of immorality. In short since it is the Word of God, we should be sure that what it teaches is for our eternal Peace and it is the WAY OUT from eternal torture. These are the reasons which make a Person accept and follow the Qur'an. The belief in God and Prophet Muhammad pbuh will in turn come when one has accepted the Qur'an, because this is one of the requirements laid down by our Creator in the Qur'an for the Benefit of Mankind. Just a short while and all the MIRACLES of the Qur'an and Islam will be completely brought before mankind. As Allah says in the Qur'an: "GRADUALLY THE CURTAIN SHALL BE LIFTED UNTILL EVERY REVELATION OF OURS IS PROVED TO BE THE TRUTH." 9.    Merle says "Ah, but there is not one well-documented miracle that verifies the Quran that we can see, is there? So what good is the report of thousands of miracles, if these reports may have been invented?" Merle says "Uh, if the moon had split in the ancient sky, would not thousands of people have seen it, and would it not be reported everywhere? This kind of legendary story is found all over the world. Do you really expect me to believe such ancient legends? You don't believe all of the ancient legends you read, do you? When I ask for documentation of a miracle, I expect documentation that historians would accept as valid." Does Merle mean to say that every event of history that he believes to have happened, he has been shown DOCUMENTED PROOF for it? What about the Crucifiction of a man called Jesus our so-called HISTORIANS tried tooth and nail to prove to us that THE CRUCIFIXION actually took place however recent researches suggest that it was a HOAX. I don't know hoe Merle expects such things to be REPORTED EVERYWHERE keeping in mind the fact that historians through out human history have tended to accept only what was FAVOURABLE while leaving out the other and have also many a time TWISTED THE TRUE FACTS. HISTORIANS are not the ultimate authority; they are not HOLY COWS who can't commit mistakes. In fact many events in history have more than one version. Historians kept telling us about the BEAUTY of CLEOPATRA and how she Seduced men BUT recently archeologists found coins dating to her reign on which was found her picture and she was depicted with an ugly witch's nose! Then there were historical accounts of Shakespeare's EXCELLENT works like MACKBETH and today Researchers Doubt as to whether He ever wrote those Works! And instead there are speculations that they are the property another writer who resembled Shakespeare in appearance and in his date of birth and that Shakespeare was just a Stage play director. History tends to take U-TURNS and historical accounts are not absolute. However we can not completely discredit the accounts of any one group of people so, I believe the DOCUMENTATION AND RECORDS of Arab particularly Muslim Historians about Prophet Muhammad pbuh, his life and works should not be completely discredited. In fact their accounts should be more authentic than those of Dante or Salman Rushdie because the Former have the Prestige of being the Prophet's Companions or Associates of His Companions. Its unfortunate that an educated man should say About Prophet Muhammad's Good works that "THEY COULD ALL BE LEGEND" while he refuses to accept that the West has build its Idea of Islam and Prophet Muhammad pbuh on PREJUDICES which were propagated by the Church as a tool for CHARACTER ASSASSINATION. And these PROPAGANDA are the actual LEGEND about Prophet Muhammad pbuh. If a person wants to Know about Him he should go and see the Hadith and AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS. In fact there have always been people from the West even who have dared to brave the odds and to speak the Truth about Prophet Muhammad pbuh. Take for example the German author Wolfgang Von Gothe who exceedingly appreciated and Loved the Prophet Muhammad pbuh or the man who in the list of               HISTORIES IOO MOST INFLUENTIAL LEADRERS places Prophet Muhammad pbuh NO#1! http://www.scribd.com/doc/261451/muhammad-the-greatest   Read YOU MUST KNOW THIS MAN MUHAMMAD http://www.iiu.edu.my/deed/articles/muhammad.html Read about WHY GOTHE MBRACED ISLAM http://www.islamawareness.net/Converts/goethe.html and WHAT PAMAKRISHNA RAO SAYS ABOUT Prophet Muhammad pbuh http://members.rediff.com/razaelahi/muhammad.htm  and WHAT MAKES HIM THE FAVOURITE OF PHILOSOPHERS http://www.oocities.org/msacerritos/prophet_muhammad.htm And read about Prophet Muhammad's EXEMPLARY LIFE OF LIGHT http://www.infinitelight.org/content/view/8079/20 QUOTES ON Prophet Muhammad pbuh http://hudabaharoon-islam.blogspot.com/2005/04/quotes-on-prophet-muhammad-pbuh.html 10.    Merle says "I suggest that you begin by reading Quran 9:1-13 in context. We find there a horrible way to treat people of other religions: They are forced to either accept Islam or be killed."                                               …However, as we look at the terms of that treaty as specified later, it is understandable that idolaters might not find those terms acceptable. These verses force them to make and accept a treaty that to them is not acceptable, for it forces them to change religion. No, it does not say only to slay the idolaters that have broken the treaty. It says to slay those that have not fulfilled the specific treaty requirement of verse 4. If the idolaters did not make the treaty of verse 4, Muhammad's followers are clearly being told to kill them. Nowhere do verses 4 and 5 say that the idolaters have first broken a treaty. It merely says they can escape the doom by making a treaty and keeping it." Where? Where are the terms of the treaty specified in a way that you feel that they are unacceptable to Non Muslims? AND HISTORY BEARS WITNESS TO THE FACT THAT NOT ONLY DID THE IDOLATERS MAKE A TREATY BUT INFACT MANY OF ITS TERMS WERE UNACCEPTABLE TO MUSLIMS AND HISTORY STANDS WITNESS TO THE FACT THAT THE IDOLATERS THEMSELVES BROKE THE TREATY BECAUSE THE TREATY WAS NULLIFIED DUE TO THE FACT THAT THEY DISRESPECTED THE RELIGION OF ISLAM, THEY PLOTTED TO KILL Prophet Muhammad pbuh, THEY SOWED DISCONTENT AMONG MUSLIMS, THEY INCITED THE TRIBES TO REVOLT AGAINST Prophet Muhammad pbuh BY LYING ABOUT HIM, THEY MADE FUN OF THE FACT THAT THE MUSLIMS WERE ACTUALLY ABIDING BY THE TREATY AND MADE THIS A POINT TO TAUNT THE MUSLIMS. IN FACT THEY DID NOT EVEN PAY HEED TO THOSE MUSLIMS WHO WERE THEIR BLOOD RELATIVES! WHENEVER Prophet Muhammad pbuh WOULD SEND A DELEGATION TO THEM THEY WOULD OFTEN DISGRACE THEM AND HUMILIATE THEM. WHENEVER THEY FOUND A SMALL GROUP OF MUSLIMS TRAVELLING IN THE DESERT WITH GOODS OF TRADE THEY WOULD LOOT THEM, KILL THEM AND RAPE THEIR WOMEN. The list of their misdeeds goes on. So, despite the fact that the idolaters did not publicly announce the breaking of the treaty BUT in actual practice they LEAST ABIDED BY THE TREATY. So, it seemed like a BIG JOKE to the Muslims, it seemed they were the only ones who were keeping the treaty while the supposed ALLIES were following their own whims. THIS WASN'T ACCEPTABLE. THIS CALLED FOR A WAR! So, it was as a consequence of the laxity in carrying out their duties as per the treaty on the part of the Idolaters which resulted in Prophet Muhammad pbuh declaring that God had ordered him that the Muslims were now free from the Treaty, this meant that they could go to war against the Idolaters. It has to be seen that through their misdeeds the idolaters had broken the treaty by breaking their promises. However there was a group of tribes with whom the treaty was still intact because they had not broken it in any way and regards them the Qur'an tells the Muslims to keep their treaty with them upto their term. And after that there was to be no treaty with any group. In fact there was no need for it. After the capture of Mecca the ISLAMIC COMMONWEALTH which had earlier consisted of Medina now included Mecca and therefore the whole of Arabia. This was not achieved by force rather, history is witness to the fact that all the tribes willingly came forth to be a part of this common weath and virtually the Whole of Arabia appeared to have embraced Islam. It war thus that the Great Prophet Muhammad pbuh united all the tribes, who were until then torn apart by war and racism, into ONE single Nation where the RULE OF THE LAW was to be Supreme. This did not mean that no other religions would be tolerated, in fact even today there are 40 MILLION COPTIC CHRISTIANS in Saudi Arabia. This belies many theories which suppose that Islam forces people to accept it.  If anything changed it was the fact that centuries old Superstition was abolished, the Arabs willingly smashed all the Idols which they had placed in the Ka'ba and some even converted their Synagogues an Churches into Mosques and the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina were from then onwards to become the Sanctuaries of Islam. And most important of ALL for the first time in history women were given their legitimate right. Female infanticide was made a Punishable Crime, it was a crime to ill treat ones wife and to prefer a son over a daughter. Women were given the Right to carry out independent Business and were free to make their choice for marriage and were given the right to divorce as well as to remarry. Prostitution was made a crime, rapists were awarded death penalty and those guilty of falsely accusing women were declared inelligible to be ever produced forth as Witnesses.  Slaves were set free, captives were set free and occupations such as PROSTIUTION were banned. Arabia, now free of Slavery and superstition began to make strides in all fields; The army was mighty and well equipped; they developed an efficient postal systems and administrative machinery; te public was consulted in state affairs. There sprung from the heart of Arabia Wise men, Scholars, Scientists, Artists, Architects and Great Explorers. It was a revolution, THE TRULY GLORIOUS REVOLUTION, which was to change the face of a nation. And this fact bears witness that Islam could not have spread by the sword. In fact there were people who did not embrace Islam but were not harmed, there were even people who became Apostates to Islam but they were NOT put to death, unlike the Church. In fact some later re-embraced Islam. The concept of freedom and equality was such that when Othman RA became the Caliph an old woman who was present raised her voice and said: "O Othman! If you deal with us justly well and good but if you fail to carry out the duty entrusted to you, the people shall not desist from holding your beard and dragging you into the streets!" and Othman replied: "Its my pleasure that I have such people in my Caliphate."                        And this is a society which m brought into existence more than a THOUSAND years ago! And even today with all our might and brain power we can only aspire to build such a nation. This sense of Equality before the Law continues till the time of King Abdul Aziz of Saud dynasty. M. Asad in THE ROAD TO MECCA narrates his surprise at the GROUND REALITIES in what the world thought to be a AUTOCRACY. Unlike how we are accustomed to using titles like YOUR HIGHNESS or YOUR MAJESTY for rulers or ME LORD or YOUR HONOUR for Judges, M. Asad says that the Bedouin subjects who came to meet him did not use such a flattery tone in fact they did not even call him MALIK ABDUL AZIZ No, Not even Abdul Aziz, Not even Aziz, they actually called him AZIZI, which was his pet name! Just imagine this man was supposed to be a KING. This is a reflection of what Prophet Muhammad pbuh actually endeavoured to teach men and the society he wished to develop.                                                  Even the biggest DEMOCRACIES have never been able to achieve this distinction. The Nation which is based on Islamic Rules for Establishment of State and Society will never decay because its caretaker is God himself. Its only when the Muslims forgot their noble mission and the Great Prophet Muhammad pbuh that God took away from them this distinction and consequently today we do not have any Truly Islamic Nation. Read TERRORISM AND JIHAD THE ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE BY ZAKIR NAIK 11. Merle says "Here are people who want to worship in a way other than Islam. And the followers of Muhammad are told to inflict pain, and death on them, and to take them captive, unless they switch religion. That is a horrible act of religious conquest. Further, the idolaters are told they must pay the "poor-due". Well that is a nice expression, but in actuality such demands for payment at the end of a sword are nothing less than extortion" ……"But even if those stories happened, how does that prove there were not other instances where the early Muslims tortured others and engaged in wars of conquest? I am sorry to report, but some ancient Muslims--and some modern Muslims--did indeed torture and terrorize others. Read, for instance, about the massacre of 80 million in India". No one is asking for extortion money at the point of the Sword, the Qur'an simply says that if a Captive embraces Islam then he has to immediately be set free. But this is not the only option. At times the Prophet Muhammad pbuh set Captives free in return for their educating 10 Muslim children etc. Religious conquest, Holy war by Muslims etc are Myths that our Western writers have invented and that our parents have blindly repeated. In fact these horrendous things are associated with Christianity. It was when the CRUSADERS went out on a killing spree that these words like Holy war were invented. The word Holy War or Harbum Muqadasa is not found anywhere in the Qur'an, not even in the Hadeeth. In short it is not a part of Islam, it is alien to Islam. And of course Islam is not responsible for what Conquerers who were Muslim by chanced did, just like Christianity is not responsible foe r what Hitler did to the Jews nor is Hinduism responsible for What Narendra Modi did in Gujarat in an act of STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM in the GODRA MASSACRE in 2001. You want to tell me abt the Masscre of 80 million in India? Will you tell us what is Genocide? Will You tell us what is evil using the sword? WE Muslims are the nation against who the most genocides have been committed, we are the nation who even today face the worst type of discrimination, we don't need anyone to teach us how it feels when you are uprooted from your homes because we have experienced the Palestine tragedy, we don't need any one to teach us what it means when you are not allowed to practice your religion because we are discriminated against in France, we know what it means to have your Lands snatched by Conquerors because even after a Glorious Islamic History of 600 yrs the Crusaders raised Spain to the Ground and such was the turn of tables that a Muslim was not even free to Give the Call for prayer in Spain. And even today in East Turkistan a person can go to jail for publicly Reading the Qur'an. Here in India which boasts of being a secular nation there is nothing more than a SECULAR NOTION. Muslims can't avoid being discriminated by Taxi Drivers Fearing which they have to use a Hindu sounding name. Right here in Kashmir Mosques are desecrated and Muslim Women are raped and Muslim youth are Murdered on the Pretext of being Terrorists by the SECURITY FORCES of the Indian Army. And yet I do not have the slightest contempt or rage against Hindus or Sikhs or the Army or any other Group of people. Because ALL GENERALISATIONS ARE WRONG. Every community has black Sheep but you can't pick up these black sheep and portray them as CONTEMPORARY MUSLIMS. Living in India I know that there was a time when Muslims had RULED India for a thousand years and the same Muslims are today at the Mercy of Hindu Fanatics and there was a time when Sikhs ruled India but today they are taunted and Jeered and there was a time when …   See how tables turn over! Every Community has had its ups and downs its rise and fall and every community has its Heroes and its black sheep. You can never Judge a Religion by its followers just like you can never Judge a car by its driver. If a driver bangs up a Mercedes who will you blame- the car or the driver? Of course the Driver. Islam is not responsible for what Muslims do. If you want to Judge Islam go back to its original sources i.e. the Qur'an and Hadith. And Judge Islam by the Noble way of Prophet Muhammad pbuh as correctly recorded by his trustworthy Companions. 11.    Merle says "A competent writer would have realized that the words written here could be used to justify religious conquest" Yes, Allah in His infinite wisdom would have known that Mischief mongers would twist such verses and blow them out of proportion to make room for Terrorism, Religious Fanaticism, Intolerance, Religious Conquest etc. And that's why He followed up these Verses with those that remind us that we should not go to Extremes and should be tolerant etc. This is how Allah Strikes a balance in the Qur'an; while He teaches us that Muslims should never belittle them selves and that to bring about law and Order and Peace Jihad or a Just Struggle whether by Words, actions, uprisings- armed or unarmed under the leadership of a just Leader should be carried out BUT it also tells us that we should have Mercy and Compassion even for the Enemy and it teaches us that Humans are but one Big family. The Qur'an Has GREAT things to say about MERCY: http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_qura.htm Read ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN THE QUR'AN ENCOURAGES TERRORISM http://www.ing.org/latestnews/default.asp?num=17 MERCY OF ALLAH http://www.pakistanlink.com/religion/98/re-11-27.html The Verses teaching love and Compassion are far more in number and greater in intensity than Verses which invite Muslims to REVOLT against Oppression or Towards War and constitute just a Scratch of the Qur'an. A person who reads the Qur'an as a Book in the Way it aught to be read and in its original text will never come across 12.    Merle says "And yet Allah is continuously referred to in the third person in the Quran. Further, the book frequently uses the word "I" to indicate that somebody else is speaking other than Allah. (See also these verses, which indicate that somebody other than Allah wrote the Quran:  6:104, 6:114, 37:164-6, 51:50, 84:16 ) All of this makes it confusing to tell exactly who all is included in the word "we". We will just see the fallacy of such claims; and how Mr. Merle makes these Verses appear more CONFUSING than they actually are. AS TIME IS LIMITED AND THE ANSWER QUITE ELABORATE AND I MAY NOT HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET FOR NEXT THREE MONTHS SO INSHA ALLAH I WILL MAIL THE ANSWER TO MERLE WHO WILL KINDLY POST IT ON THE BLOG. 17. Merle says "You refer to certain stories, and yet most, if not all, of these stories of Muhammad--other than the brief mentions in the Quran--were written over 200 years after his lifetime. Those later stories could all be legend. We really have no means of confirming if any of those other stories you report actually happened".                                           Merle says "For instance, Denis Giron writes: The reality is we have no reliable sources from which we can make any decisions with regard to the role Muhammad played in the creation of the Qur'an. The Qur'an itself tells us nothing, outside of a few ambiguous mentionings of a certain muhammad, or "praised one." All information on Muhammad, who he was, his interaction with Jibreel, his prophethood, et cetera, are derived from a highly questionable source: the ahadith. These are traditions that were, for the most part, written down and compiled more than two hundred years after the events they are allegedly relating. In fact, by the admission of the Muslims themselves, the most respected ahadith are those compiled by Imam Bukhari, who died in the late ninth century (roughly 870 CE), nearly two hundred and forty years after the time that Muhammad allegedly lived. [source: Qur'an: A Work of Multiple Hands?]" AS TIME IS LIMITED AND THE ANSWER QUITE ELABORATE AND I MAY NOT HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET FOR NEXT THREE MONTHS SO INSHA ALLAH I WILL MAIL THE ANSWER TO MERLE WO WILL KINDLY POST IT ON THE BLOG. 20.Merle says "Ah, but the Quran has been shown to be wrong in many places. It says creation took only six days. It says the sun sets in a muddy spring. Of course there are rational ways to disprove the Quran" Since I've already refuted these CLAIMS Mr. Merle needs to find some other SUPPOSED flaws in the Qur'an in order to convince us. And so far his attempts have fallen short to give us any SOLID PROOF for the ALLEGED HUMAN AUTHORSHIP of the Qur'an. Merle, give me something real to chew man…  AND WOULD YOU EXPLAIN WHAT YOU MEAN BY "rational ways to disprove the Qur'an"? What you have stated are really FUNNY WAYS OF DISPROVING THE QUR'AN rather than RATIONAL ones. 21. Merle says "If a man is irrational, should he not be shown a better way? How can torturing a person for all eternity be a good solution to irrationality?" Yes, of course he should be shown a way out and that's exactly what the Qur'an does; it shows a way out, a way out of Darkness and into light. But only few people pay heed and are humble enough to even consider the Qur'an for a fair scrutiny. And those close minded people are the once who have willingly chosen NOT to take the WAY OUT. They have themselves shut all the Doors which lead to the way out. IF You are an open minded person and are NOT an audascious preverter of the truth and are on an Honest search for the Truth then you have no need to CRY "FOUL". Its only when a person knows that there are awful truths wich he does not want to accept and facts that he wants to pretend to be non existent that he just does nothing but to cry foul. Like what Merle is doing. Its only after considering the Qur'an that you can say whether or not it provides a way out. Merle could say that he does not believe in the Qur'an. But a person has to specify EXACTLY WHICH VERSES of the Qur'an he DOES NOT agree with. For Instance, The Quran says that The EARTH IS SHAPED LIKE AN OSTRICH'S EGG (........) that THE SUN AND MOON TRAVEL FOR AN APPOINTED TIME AND DO NOT OVERTAKE EACH OTHER (……..) that EVERYTHING IN SPACE FLOATS i.e. FALAQ or the HEAVENLY BODIES FLOAT (……) that ALL LIFE WAS CREATED FROM WATER(……)  that THERE ARE COMMUNITIES OTHER THAN HUMANS (…..) that WHILE ASCENDING IN SPACE THE CHEST GETS CONSTRICTED (……) that IN OLD AGE A PERSON RETURNS TO INFANCY (……) that MAN IS HELPLESS BEFORE THE FORCES OF NATURE, that THERE IS NO SUPERIORITY ON BASIS OF RACE OR COLOUR (……) that THE AAD AND THAMOUD (their ruins are found in Arabia)  WERE GREAT NATIONS BUILT WITH GREAT ARTISTIC EXPERTISE (….) that IN A DEEP SEA A MAN CAN NOT SEE HIS HAND(…….) that MOUNTAINS STABILISE THE EARTH (…)that A BARRIER SEPARATES THE SWEET AND SALTY WATER (……) that CLOUDS CAUSE RAINS(……)  et cetera AND I believe most of us will agree with ALL these facts and may more; in fact even SCIENCE has confirmed 80% of the Qur'an to be correct and the rest 20% is AMBIGUOUS. AND SO, WE SHOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS 80% however due to lack of Knowledge we tend to overlook these facts. Generally out of the 6OOO odd verses of the Qur'an 1/6th i.e. a THOUSAND are SCIENTIFIC MIRACLES and anyone who is given apt info about them will agree with me. So, we have no problem with this sixth part.                                             The there remain five parts of the Qur'an; A large chunk of which consists of Poetic expressions and Natural beauty which I believe is Quite acceptable to most of us.              Then there are stories and parables of Great people, Kings and Prophets etc and tales of Ancient Cities and their Destruction which form history. And in many instances such as the DISCOVERY OF PHAROH'S MUMMY by Dr. Maurice Bukail or THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S BOAT or THE DISCOVERY OF THE WALL OF CYRUS; The Qur'an has been PROVED CORRECT. However, as is the case with HISTORY accounts vary from one source to another and so no source can be completely discredited and so HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS CAN'T be used to Disprove the Qur'an. So till here We will generally agree with the Qur'an. Then there is a part of the Qur'an teaching Morality and Good manners which I believe most of us will appreciate. In fact the Qur'an does not have even a single Expression of Immorality or Pornography. However the Bible Unfortunately has expressions of pornography which can not be attributed to God.                                                Then comes the PROBLEM; rather the ALLEGED PROBLEMS. This is the part of the Qur'an which needs knowledge and wisdom for its correct understanding. This includes Verses like those which Merle has sited and many other verses which would confuse a layman who has very limited knowledge. And as many of us would have noted THE CULPRITS in most of the Cases are THE FAULTY TRANSLATIONS. But when a person reads such verses with wisdom and understanding then there is no room for doubt. These include verses which are CLAIMED to be SCIENTIFIC ERRORS of the Qur'an. These also include verses which we unfortunately take to be INTOLERANT, ENCOURAGING TERRORISM, EVIL etc. But these claims are far from Truth. These are just reflections of our Prejudices and preconceived notions. For instance if the Church had never woven myths around Prophet Muhammad pbuh for the Purpose of CHARACTER ASSASINATION and if Western Historians would have not spread the MYTH of MUSLIM FANATICS CONVERTING PEOPLE AT THE POINT OF THE SWORD; then I believe our minds would have had much more room to accept the truth of Islam. So, we have to get rid of these prejudices and pre-conceived ideas and then with open minds we should proceed to analyse Islam. Then, there is a part of the Qur'an which deals with BELIEFS and PRACTICES and this is an area where every society and religion has a right to have its own set of beliefs. Questioning these beliefs and practices does not yield much.  However, with regards the Qur'an, any person who has agreed with the other FIVE parts of the Qur'an i.e. Scientific Miracles, Poetic expression, Morality, Historic accounts and has also seen the truth behind the ALLEGED ERRORS in the Qur'an will certainly accept the Divine origin of the Qur'an. In fact, all the various aspects such as scientific miracles, excellent morality, brilliant parables, poetic eloquence, stunning discoveries relating to the Qur'an are INVITATIONS to people to Convince a person to ACCEPT Islam and a person who will be satisfied will AUTOMATICALLY accept the part of the Qur'an relating to Beliefs and Practices and such a person will obviously accept That THERE IS A GOD AND THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND Prophet Muhammad pbuh IS HIS MESSENGER. 22.    Merle says "Where does the Quran ever say that the sun rotates on its axis? Iesha certainly has shown us no verses that say this" Firstly it wasn't I who said that "the sun rotates on its axis", this is a claim of DR. GARRY MILLER in his article THE QURAN IS AMAZING BY GARRY MILLER. However he has just given a passing mention of this. I have referred to the book MIRACLES OF QUR'AN AND HADEETH by Abdul Ghani Allaqaband and his views are as follows … "…….." 23.    Merle says: If the writer of the Quran understood time zones and that the earth was round, why does he say that a man traveled to the point where the sun rises, and then west to the point where it sets in a muddy spring?" I have already explained this point. And since the Author of the Qur'an DOES NOT SAY that "the sun  sets in a muddy spring" and so Just like He understands time Zones and that the Earth is Round so e also understands that the sun only APPEARS to set or rise BECAUSE AFTER ALL THE AUTHOR OF THE QUR'AN IS OUR BELOVED CREATOR, ALMIGHTY GOD WHO SEND THE QUR'AN TO HIS TRUSTED SLAVE Prophet Muhammad pbuh AS A GUIDE FOR ALL PEOPLES AND ALL TIMES AND SO THAT……WE  ARE SHOWN A WAY OUT INSTEAD OF ETERNAL TORTURE. BUT THE CHOICE LIES WITH US WETHER WE WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE OR WETHER WE WANT TO FOLLOW MANKINDS WORST ENEMY WHO IS SATAN. MAY ALLAH GUIDE ALL OF US AND FREE US OF OUR PREJUDICE AND IGNORANCE. AND MAY HE SHOW US MORE AND MORE EVIDENCES FOR THE TRUTH OF ISLAM. AND MAY MUSLIMS BECOME WHAT ISLAM ACTUALLY STANDS FOR AND MAY ALL OF US DISSOLVE UR DIFFERENCES AND MAY HUMANITY ONCE AGAIN BECOME ONE COMMUNIT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WISH OF OUR LORD AND MAY THIS WORLD BE FREED OF TERRORISTS AND MAYPEACE PREVAIL…AMEEN This is the DUA I will make for Humanity when I leave for UMRAH to the Holy City of Mecca, Insha Allah. I am going away for at least three months to a place where I will have no access to internet and luxuries. Merle I could carry on… But I have done my Job; I have conveyed the Message and have tried my best to convince you. And I could hang on and share a lot more BUT sadly this is the Parting between me and you… FROM here onwards You're on your own Merle and I'm not running away from this debate but i have to go… In fact I have been so convinced of the Truth of Islam that no FORCE ON EARTH can shatter my faith because it is based on REASON AND UNDERSTANDING and not mere Belief.                          If you are destined to be guided onto the right path Allah will guide you and save you and then no one can misguide you BUT if Allah does not wish to guide you, even if all the Muslims of the world would unite  they would not be able to guide you. Once again Merle and all those read this, I beg you to search deeper into Islam an to read the Views of both the sides, I invite you to Embrace Islam because Allah says: "The only way of life acceptable t your Lord is Islam"  Id is so difficult to accept the simple Message that There is no God but Allah and that Prophet Muhammad pbuh is his Messenger? That's what Islam is… It liberates you. And once again I beg all those who are on the search for truth that Accept Islam and embrace Islam because the day of Reckoning is drawing near and that day the only refuge from the fire will be Islam!                     Yes, this is the way out, Islam is the way out, and Islam is the Alternative to eternal torture.               O BROTHERS AND SISTERS! O SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ADAM! WE WERE CREATED FROM DUST AND WILL BECOME DUST, NO ONE KNOWS HOW MUCH TIME HE HAS. MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES…ACCEPT THE WAY THAT IS STRAIGHT AND RIGHTEOUS. EMBRACE ISLAM…EMBRACE ISLAM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE! GOD SAYS IN THE QUR'AN: "ISLAM IS BOUND TO SUPERSEED ALL AND TO CONQUER ALL OTHER WAYS OF LIFE!" In order to understand the seriousness of my claims please read these articles. They changed my life and I hope they will change yours too. I. ISLAMIC ARTICLES Prophet Muhammad pbuh in HINDU SCRIPTURES http://sufi786786.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/01/the-prophet-muhammad-saw-in-hindu-scripture.htm Prophet Muhammad pbuh IN PARSI SCRIPTURES http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/parsi1.html Prophet Muhammad pbuh IN BUDHIST SCRIPTURES http://www.islamawareness.net/Buddhism/Scriptures Prophet Muhammad pbuh IN Buddhist SCRIPTURES  By Zakir Naik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrlE4R5Sy9U   Prophet Muhammad pbuh in Major Scriptures By M.N.ANDERSON http://www.oocities.org/islamicmiracles/muhammad_peace_be_upon_him.htm VIDEO: TERRORISM AND JIHAD- THE ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE Dr. Zakir Naik http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2tzpo_terrorism-and-jihad-islamic-perspec_news II. Articles for Christians: 1.    Prophet Muhammad pbuh  in the Bible http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/muhbib.htm 2.    Was Prophet Muhammad pbuh Prophesised by         Jesus & Isaiah?  http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/isiah.htm 3.    Where did the King James Bible come from? http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/kingjames.htm 4.    101 Contradictions in the Bible http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/biblecontra.html III. Articles by people who have willingly embraced Islam: 1. The Bible led me to Islam! http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/bibleled.htm                 2.On my way to Becoming a Lutheran Minister http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/onmyway.htm                    3. From the Watch tower to the Minaret. http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/watchtower.htm   4.Real-Life Stories of Christian preachers who have embraced Islam http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/former.htm IV. SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES ATLAS OF CREATION BY HARUN YAHYA: (for a free copy mail me) THE QURAN IS AMAZING BY GARRY MILLER ISLAM AND MODERN SCIENCE-by Dr. MAURICE BUKAIL             QURAN AND MODERN SCIENCE- compatible or incompatible: Zakir Naik   MIRACLES O CREATION IN DNA-HARUN YAHYA MIRACLE OF CREATION IN HORONES- HARUN YAHYA EXTRACTS FROM VIDEO THE TRUTH   COMMENTS ON QURAN BY TOP SCIENTISTS VIDEO OF SCIENTISTS COMMENTING ON QURAN MUSLIM CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE QURAN AND MODERN SCIENCE DR ZAKIR NAIK http://www.iqra.org/index/itemdesc.asp?ic=792987&eq=&Tp INJUSTICE WITH MUSLIMS IN FRANCE http://www.missionislam.com/comprel/jewsiscon.htm THE GUJARAT MARRACRE OF MUSLIMS http://www.sacw.net/Gujarat2002/Harshmandar2002.html Brother Merle Pl. mail me your postal address at leagueofpeace@gmail.com because there is a little gift I want to send you. Also others who would like to get free Islamic Media can mail me their addresses. GOOD BYE AND GOD BLESS. I'LL PRAY FOR ALL OF US TO CHOOSE THE PATH THAT'S RIGHT.