BEHOLD THE BEAST
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Islam Reviewed
10 - SO WHO IS ALLAH?Muslims use the remotest language possible to describe Allah. They try
to make him as transcendent as possible in order to discourage people
from conducting research on him. If you ask a Muslim to define Allah, he
will just beat about the bush, ascribing attributes to him that neither
belong to him nor befit him. But Allah is not as mysterious as Islam
would like the world to believe. He has been at the Ka'aba stone all
along. Certainly, Christians have not prayed enough to displace him and
we may never do so until he meets his doom in the valley of Megiddo.
Some say that the word Allah was or is derived from the Syriac
Alaha. But the name Allah was in existence long before Islam. That is
evidenced from the name Abdullah (meaning servant of Allah) - the
name of Muhammad's father. The question is this: To whom was this
name originally revealed? Certainly none of the Biblical prophets ever
referred to it. There is absolutely no trace of that name in the Bible. It is
Arabic, not Israelite.
But in the mind of Islamic scholars, anything (negative or positive)
done to further the cause of Islam is justifiable, so they can lie and claim
that the name of Allah was revealed to Adam, Abraham or even Ishmael.
Lies can be told about those patriarchs because they have been dead a
long time and aren't around to refute any false claims. And they never
leave Abraham alone.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, that Muslims now refer to as "Al-Jahiliya,"
meaning a period of ignorance, the Arabians were grossly paganistic. In
and around Ka'aba, the Arabs worshiped 360 idols. Each clan had their
own particular idols to worship. It is provable that Allah was one of the
360 idols that Muhammad's Hashimite clan worshiped.
Muhammad's grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, was the leader of Mecca
and a custodian of Ka'aba's 360 idols. The Koran confirms that he was a
pagan. The names that Muhammad's grandfather gave his children are
further proof that Muhammad was from a family of idol devotees.
Muhammad's father was named Abdullah, meaning servant of Allah.
The name of Muhammad's uncle was Abdul Manaf, meaning servant of
Manaf. His other name was Abu Talib, meaning father of Talib. This is
indisputable proof that Allah and Manaf were clannish idols worshiped
by Muhammad and his people. Islamic scholars try to hide the historic
fact that Muhammad worshiped idols before and after he claimed to be
a prophet. But they can't do away with the record of the Koran itself.
That Muhammad was later fascinated by the monotheistic creed of
Jews and Nestorian Christians is beyond question. He encountered many
of them at Mecca and on his business trips to Syria. His wife, Khadija,
was a Catholic, as was Waraqa ibn Naufal, his secret tutor.
Now, Muhammad wanted to unite the Arab race under a theocratic
setting, but there was no way he could carry along all those 360 idols, so
Muhammad decided to pick from among the idols of his clan. Naturally
he picked Allah, the idol for which his father was named. Any of the
idols would have served; an idol is an idol. It is the demon behind an
idol that deceives the mind and heart.
Those who try to single out Allah and deify him above the other
Meccan idols should remember that Muhammad could just as easily
have picked Manaf, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, or any of the others; and his choice
didn't win the support of everyone, including his uncle, Abdul Manaf.
That is clear from the fact that Abdul didn't submit to Allah and Islam
until his death. He held on to Manaf.
This elevation of one idol over the other 359 angered the other
Meccan clans. The purported persecution of Muhammad was nothing
but an inter-tribal or inter-clannish quarrel over whose idol should be or
whose should not be venerated. In the same vein, the Koran was written
in Muhammad's dialect (Quraish). To pacify the other tribes, Muhammad
told them (with concocted "revelations") that the preserved tablet in
heaven was written in Quraish. The world was then asked to swallow the
Islamic lie that all the Ka'aba idols were destroyed. It just isn't true.
About four of those idols are said to remain. The custodians of Ka'aba
should open the stone to independent inspectors should anyone dispute
this.
Just as Islam led 1.2 billion Muslims and even some ignorant
Christians to believe that Jesus is Isa or Esau, so it has tried to make the
world believe that Allah is God. But there is no link between Allah and
the Bible God, who revealed His name to be Yahweh, or the "I AM."1
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary calls the name of the true God a
"Tetragrammaton," which means that it is made up of four letters. Those
Hebrew letters are transliterated YHWH or JHVH. They are usually
pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah. Yahweh means the "I AM." That name
defines God's eternal being and divine nature: The only true, almighty,
personal, holy God, and "the Father of spirits" (Numbers 16:22, cf. John
4:24), The God who revealed Himself to His people, made a covenant
with them, became their law giver, to Whom all honor and worship is
due.
If God's name was really Allah, why didn't He give that name to the
prophet Moses or to any of the other Old Testament prophets? Why
didn't Jesus ever hint that God might have a name different than the one
already revealed to the prophets? The Supreme Being is eternal isn't He?
If God is without beginning or end, isn't His name also eternal and
unchanging? Of course, but if the Koran is correct, then nobody knew
God's name before Muhammad, and God didn't know what He was
talking about when He told Moses that His name was "I AM that I AM."
It was at the burning bush that God revealed Himself to Moses as
the "I AM" (Exodus 3:14). "I AM" portrays His eternal existence, with no
beginning and no end. He is the only eternal God, there is no other.
There is no room for any usurper idol, no matter what he calls himself.
The name Allah does not belong to the true God, but to an Arabian idol.
But there is more. When Jesus called Himself "I AM" in John 8:58,
He said in effect that He is the same "I AM" who spoke to Moses at the
burning bush. The Jews understood exactly what Jesus meant, and tried
to stone Him for it (John 8:59). They knew that Jesus was declaring
Himself to be the final, perfect and practical revelation of true God. The
prophet Isaiah knew it, too, when he called Jesus "Emanuel," meaning
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1 The etymological root of Yahweh is actually an unused Hebrew verb, havah (the
verb to be). JHVH, the "I AM," appears in English Bibles as GOD or LORD, depending
on the translation. The Jews today do not speak or write the word havah, say "I
AM," or write the name of G-d in any form, because they consider the name of G-d
too holy to utter or write. They leave out a letter in G-d, as you see here, or address
Him as Ha Shem, which simply means "The Name."
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"God with us." This is not polytheism, God the Father and Jesus His Son
are one Being, one essence. Jesus said:
John 10:30 "I and My Father are One."
This is the only true and eternal God. All others are idols or imagined
gods.1
I can hear some of you screaming, "Ha! That isn't so; Allah is just
another name for God. Arabs worship the same God we do, under a
different name."
That view is held by many misinformed people, but it is wrong.
Granted, Allah is the Arabic term for their god, but is Allah the name of
the sovereign and almighty God who created the universe? Aside from
Muhammad (whose prophethood the Islamic scholars have yet to prove)
there is no record anywhere on earth of God having spoken through
Arabs. In fact, the Bible says just the opposite. The last book of the Bible
was written at the end of the 1st century. One of its final statements is:
Rev 22:18 . . . If any man shall add unto these things, God shall
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.
Isn't that what Muhammad did? Didn't he claim to be a prophet long
after God commanded that no one should add to His already revealed
Word? So what does this prove, that an entire race can be wrong in their
conception of deity? Well, the Bible says, "Let God be true, but every
man a liar," (Romans 3:4). This means that anything written that is
counter to God's Word is a lie. Since the supreme Being has told us that
His name is Yahweh, the "I AM," whoever claims His name is something
else has been influenced by the devil (John 8:44).
You would think Christians would distance themselves from anyone
who believes that God didn't know His own name, but such is not the
case. The Christians of Hausa stock worship and praise Allah. So long as
Christians bow to Allah, victory over Islam will not happen. Little wonder
that mission efforts among Muslims have had little effect. One who
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1 Another verse in the Bible perfectly describes the oneness of Jesus the Son with
God the Father, Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and
the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace."
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names the name of Christ and bows down to any false god, by whatever
name, is just asking for the enemy to brand the number 666 on his
forehead. Didn't Scripture forewarn us of this danger? Yes indeed:
And he opened his mouth (the dragon inspired beast) in
blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his
tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. And all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written
in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world. (Revelation 13:6, 8)
It is really blasphemy to slander the concept of the fatherhood of
God and deity of Jesus Christ His Son. Those who do so, don't really
know God. The above quote is very clear: everyone whose name is not
written in Jesus' book of life is worshiping Satan (the dragon). The list
of those in the dragon's clutches is endless. It includes Muslims,
hypocritical Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Hari Krishna, Rosicrucians,
Satanists, drug addicts, homosexuals, rapists, pornographers, those who
dabble into the occult and anyone else who turns away from Jesus, the
Son of God.
Many Christians unwittingly worship the dragon in one way or the
other. Some even sing choruses with Allah's name. If you call yourself a
Christian and continue to revere Allah, then something is desperately
wrong with your understanding of Christianity. The true God is a jealous
God who will not tolerate the worship of any but Him. The Old Testa-
ment nation of Israel was destroyed because they worshiped other gods,
and God has not changed. Maybe you are really sealed with Allah's seal
- with a "666" on your forehead, or maybe your name is not in the
Lamb's book of life - a Christless Christian - worshiping the dragon.
(Rev. 13:8).
Some yet argue that the Allah the Christians worship is different
from the Allah of the Muslims. They say that Christians and Muslims
differ in their understanding of the character of Allah. But who has a
greater claim to Allah than the Muslims, and how many Allah's are
there? Many who call themselves Christians are a kind of Rachel in
Christian disguise.1 In the same way, many so-called Christians who
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1 Rachel, due to her lack of a personal knowledge of the "I AM," stole her father's
idol, Gen. 31:19.
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don't have a correct understanding of the God of the Bible go a-whoring
after the Islamic god of Allah. They use every argument under heaven to
justify their spiritual bankruptcy, but to no avail. Arguments that do not
agree with God's Word, no matter how logical they may seem, will only
lead to strong delusion.
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they
might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie. (2Thess. 2:10-11)
The translators of the Hausa Bible have aggravated the problem.
They substituted the name Allah for Yahweh, thereby bringing many
Christians under the influence of the dragon. Some are of the opinion
that before the name "Allah" was used in the Hausa Bible, scholars must
have done extensive research to support their position. But no kind of
research excuses an inaccurate Bible translation. God knew what His
name was when He inspired the Bible, and He gave nobody the authority
to change it. Truth is not discovered through human research, no matter
how scholarly, but by divine enlightenment through the exact Word of
God. Rest assured that any Bible translator who confused Allah with
Yahweh was not inspired by God to do so.
The Origin of Islam among the Hausas
How did the Hausa come about the name "Allah" in the first place?
Well, Sunni Islam came to the Hausa people in the fourteenth century
through the influence of Sudanic and Arab merchants. However, the
purity of that Islam was questioned by a Fulani speaking scholar and
religious leader, Uthman Dan Fodio, who in 1802 declared Jihad against
the traditional Hausa rulers, replacing the indigenous Hausa aristocracy
with a Fulani feudalism. 1
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1 Islamic purity was merely a pretext. The underlying aim of the Jihadists was to
foist Fulani imperial hegemony on the people of Africa south of the Sahara. The
usual tactic of Islam is to use their religion for political gain. That is clearly seen
in the overthrow of the Hausa kingship. The Sokoto caliphate, with its emirate
system entrenched in almost all parts of Northern Nigeria was able to enslave a
whole race. The Islam entrenched at the end of Uthman Dan Fodio's revolution was
no different from the Islam it supposedly purged. Neither is the present Islam as
practiced by the descendants of Uthman Dan Fodio different from the Islam of the
time of the Hausa kings. Islam is the only system where the enslaved do not aspire
for freedom because the masters tell their victims that it is the will of Allah. This
is why there will never be democracy in the Arab world. And the West will always
look the other way. That Uthman Dan Fodio's hidden agenda was colonialism is
unquestionable - he gave out flags to lieutenants who moved into various parts of
Nigeria for settlement. They then fueled inter-tribal feuds in those areas. The
Fulanis pretended to play the role of peace makers, or like the case of Ilorin, they
waged war with the natives to break off from the yoke of the Alafin in Oyo empire.
Subsequently, they killed off these tribal heads and seized power in the confusion.
They even attacked the Borno empire, which was not only an Islamic state but had
refined scholars like El-Kanemi as their leaders.
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Hausa men of today not only worship Allah but think, eat, drink and
talk Allah so much so that the pre-Islamic name for the supreme being
has been all but lost. Many people including some Christians are ready
to argue at length that Hausas have had no other name for God but
Allah. Some even argue that Allah is an Hausa word. They are pitifully
wrong. Before Islam was introduced to the Hausas in the 14th century,
the Hausa name for the supreme being was "Ubangiji." That is a truth
that many Hausa men can still confirm.
So why was Allah substituted for Ubangiji? No one really knows. But
it is Arabic, and Arabic is the language of Islam.1 All Muslims are taught
to revere Arabic above their native tongues and Arabic is learned and
memorized by all. Arabic is so revered by some Muslims that they even
drink a concoction called "Ruwa Alo" (made by washing verses of the
Koran written on a slate - a superstition that is believed to be medicinal).
The simple confession of Islamic faith, "Lahi la illa llah Muhammadu
rasul la llah"2 may have knocked the Hausas' pre-Islamic name for God
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1 It should be rightly termed racism. Aside from Arabic, other languages considered
holy in Nigeria are those of the early Jihadists, their collaborators or victims;
Fulfulde, Hausa, Kanuri. Anyone who wants to fit into the system must speak these
languages. Through this radical Islamic racism many tribal languages have been
obliterated, such as Holma and Zunu. These were prominent languages in
Adamawa region, but they are no longer spoken. The Fulanis who brought Islam
to them told them their languages were an abomination and paganistic, but that
the Fulfulde and Hausa languages were holy.
To join the Kanuri/Borno political system and enjoy the privileges of the state,
quite a number of tribes are disowning their languages. By the time they identify
with Fulani, Kanuri or Hausa, they are enmeshed in Islam. People groups like the
Galgamas, Kotokos, and others prefer to be known as Kanuris, not because they
want to be, but because they feel insecure, and unaccepted as themselves.
2 "Lahi la illa llah Muhammadu rasul la llah" literally means: No god but the
god and Muhammad is messenger of the god.
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out of their language. That confession has no room for Ubangiji. Perhaps
the name "Ubangiji" was dropped to avoid any appearance of "polythe-
ism."
The Koran has always been used as a vehicle for exporting Arab
imperialism; conquered countries becoming vassal states of the caliphate.
Arab methods may have softened some over time, but their goals remain
the same: world conquest for Islam with an Arabian flavor. Egypt is a
case in point. Egypt today is more Arabian than Egyptian. In His book,
Black Gold and Holy War, PP. 8-9, Ishak Ibrahim, an Egyptian national,
paints a rather bleak picture of how the Arabs invaded his country and
then permeated Egypt with their culture:
"These latter invaders (the Arabs) not only occupied Egypt like
the previous powers but through their cultural imperialism
permeated every area of Egyptian life, becoming within a few
years an integral part of it. The change they wrought was
permanent. Egypt's original heritage was never to be seen again
except dimly in the lives of a small minority of Coptic Christians
who refused total submission to the Arab enslavers. The high
cost of refusal often meant their own death. Through manipula-
tion, blackmail and outright obliteration of resistance, Islam
became the religion of the majority in Egypt. Few people were
asked to pay the high taxes (Jizya) the Arabs imposed, so their
only alternative (if they wanted to live) was to accept Islam, to
become "part of the faithful." Those too poor to pay taxes, yet
unwilling to convert to Islam, were martyred."
That is the Islamic method, with the ordinary man-on-the-street
forced into a satanic - convert or die - religious web. The ordinary
Muslim desperately needs our love and prayers. He needs to be freed
from the satanic bondage to which he was unwillingly enslaved. We
must repent of wishing him ill. I know what I am talking about, because
I've been there. I used to be a Muslim.
Many Christians in Nigeria, especially those in the north, are not
interested in reaching Muslims. Clergy and laity alike are of the opinion
that Muslims should die and go to Hell for killing Christians and burning
their churches. I believe such Christians are more wicked than the
Muslims they condemn.
Truly speaking, Muslims are not wicked. What people see as
wickedness is religious fervor. They try as hard as they can to live by
what they believe. Muslims are not only ready to kill for Islam but to die
for it - a lesson, indeed, to those who say they believe in Jesus but are
not ready to make any sacrifice for Him.
The aversion towards Muslim people is everywhere. An American
missionologist, conducting a survey in Egypt, found that Coptic Chris-
tians (after 1,300 years of severe persecution from Islam) were against
the salvation of Muslims. The Coptics believe it would be grossly unfair
for Muslims to be saved and make it to heaven after enjoying everything
they have on earth at the expense of others.
We need to take to heart the example of Nelson Mandela of South
Africa. After being incarcerated for almost three decades by the support-
ers of Apartheid, he pardoned all those who jailed him, blaming nobody
but the system. Likewise we need to love Muslims but hate the demonic
Islamic system by which they are bound. We are not instructed to fight
human beings but the devil, not with physical weapons, but with the
weapons of God's Word and prayer (Ephesians 6:12). Love that does not
reach out to help those that are hurting is not God's kind of love. (See
Matthew 5:44).
I am convinced that if Jesus was physically present now, He would
not be going to the churches, but to mosques, to bring Muslims into the
kingdom. His parable in Luke 15:3-7 sets the example. Jesus didn't come
to save the righteous, but to bring sinners to repentance. Open the Bible,
read it, and fall upon your knees. We need to ask God to forgive us for
our hardened hearts and our negligence.