The True Message of Jesus Christ (pbuh)

The True Message of Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him)

Dr. Bilal Philips

Opening

All praise is due to Allah, and may Allah's peace and blessings be on the last messenger of Allah.

Introduction

The true message of Jesus – as the title implies, there is a false message out there. For us to determine what in fact is the true message, we must look at the evidences: the authentic and reliable evidences that can support any claim to be the true message of Jesus.

We need to examine what I may perceive as the false message and its evidence, as well as the evidence which I will present to support the truth. For any Christian who truly wants to know what in fact Jesus conveyed, who in fact he was, then I invite each and every one of you to put aside emotion.

Emotions blind one. We cannot see the realities when we are overcome by emotion. Emotion by its very nature is important – we are emotional beings, we love, we hate. But if emotions don't follow knowledge and they precede knowledge, then we end up loving and hating the wrong things. Often, not all times, but often enough, we end up loving and hating the wrong things.

So I invite our Christian guests – because this of course is of most importance to them – to put aside emotions today and look at the facts, to get a clear understanding of the message which Jesus brought and who in fact Jesus was.

Two Sources of Evidence

There are two basic ways that we can produce evidence. There are two basic sources: either from the historical record (what historians have gathered) or from revealed scriptures. These are the main two sources – that is, for those who believe in God. Of course, if the person doesn't believe in God, then revealed scriptures may not have any real significance to them. They will say it's only the historical record.

The Historical Record

When we go and look into the historical record for evidence, there is virtually nothing available from the time

of Jesus, may God's peace be upon him. A biblical scholar by the name of R.T. France wrote:

"No first-century inscription mentions him, and no object or building has survived which has a specific link to him."

In fact, the historical record is so absent of information concerning Jesus that there are among Western historians those who claim he never existed – that he was a fable made up.

So then where do we go to find out about Jesus?

Revealed Scriptures

For those who believe in God, the only place left is the scriptural evidence. The main two scriptures – revealed scriptures of what are recognized as world religions – that speak about Jesus are the Bible and the Quran.

These are the main two scriptures that we can look into to find evidence as to what was the message of Jesus and who was the person Jesus Christ.

Problems With Biblical Authenticity

Biblical Scholars' Conclusions

If we start with the Bible, what we find from the evidence gathered by biblical scholars – not by Muslim scholars, but by biblical scholars researching the Bible – they have come to the conclusion that much of it is of doubtful authenticity.

We find a group of scholars in the UK – theologians, university professors in theology, Christians – gathering a compilation of writings on Jesus into a text which was called "The Myth of God Incarnate", edited by Professor John Hick. In the preface, the compiler wrote:

"It is accepted that the books of the Bible were written by a variety of human beings in a variety of circumstances and cannot be accorded a verbal [divine] authority."

He wrote this after saying:

"In the 19th century, Western Christianity made two major new adjustments in response to important enlargements of human knowledge. The first was the acceptance of evolution... The second major change was that from the analysis over more than 200 years, it was concluded by their leading authorities that the Bible was not the Word of God."

This is what this means: cannot be accorded a verbal divine authority. It wasn't the Word of God. There were human beings who wrote it, in a variety of circumstances, at a variety of different points in time, by a variety of different individuals. That is the reality.

The Jesus Seminary and the Lord's Prayer

In Newsweek magazine, some years back, in an article entitled "Oh Lord, Who Wrote Thy Prayer?", a group of theologians in the US – theologians from all of the major sects of Protestantism and Catholicism – gathered together and formed a group which they called the Jesus Seminary.

They wrote a text which they referred to as the Five Gospels. In this text, they mentioned the well-known four, and what they did was they color-coded the text into different colors:

• One color represented the text which they were certain or reasonably certain that Jesus actually said
• The next level of color-coding were texts which were possibly what Jesus said
• Then what was highly unlikely that he said
• And then that which was absolutely certain he didn't say

The fifth gospel was the Gospel of Thomas, which had been discovered in 1945 in Egypt in Nag Hammadi, written in Coptic – a translation which had confirmation from documents of the first and second century.

Anyway, the point is this group – the Jesus Seminary – after analyzing the Lord's Prayer (what is known in Christianity as the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven..." – the standard prayer for Christians, similar to Al-Fatiha for Muslims), concluded that the only words of the Lord's Prayer which could be accurately attributed to Jesus meaning it's highly likely that this is what Jesus said – the only words turned out to be one word: "Father."

One word of the whole prayer which Christians have been saying for centuries, believing that Jesus actually taught this!

Now, the meaning of the Lord's Prayer is good. It has a good meaning, and actually from the Islamic perspective, there really isn't anything contradictory – though the issue of God being the father and human beings being his children is something which one may raise objection to, unless it is used in a metaphorical context and it's understood that that's how it was used.

Anyway, so the meaning was fine, but the reality in terms of scriptural authenticity was that it couldn't be attributed to Jesus. When you go through that text, the Gospels, and look in the four Gospels as to what could be accurately attributed to Jesus according to what they said, it would be enough to fill one column of a newspaper – meaning that the vast majority of what is found in the Gospels cannot be accurately attributed to Jesus.

Manuscript Problems

The Gospels themselves, according to Dr. J.K. Elliott of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds University in the UK, stated in an article entitled "Checking the Bible's Roots":

"More than 5,000 manuscripts contain all or part of the New Testament in its original language. It has been estimated that no two agree in all particulars."

Meaning that you have 5,000 manuscripts, and from that 5,000, it is not possible to establish a single authoritative text.

As a result, modern research shows that the well-known Bibles that are in people's hands today – the King James Version being the most popular – this version, like all of the versions that came after it, relied only on a few manuscripts. They didn't use all of the manuscripts. They relied only on those which went along with church dogma.

When a revised version of the King James was to be made, the authors – Christian scholars who got together – wrote in the introduction describing the King James Version:

"The discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for revision of the English translation."

Errors, mistakes – so many and so serious that it required a new translation. In the process, what they did is they deleted texts and they added texts. With each revision, they added more and deleted more. So the text has gone through a series of revisions.

However, as stated earlier by Elliott, all of these revisions are based only on a few manuscripts – not 5,000, but only a few. So as such, whatever they come up with will have questions on its authenticity.

Examples of Deleted Verses

The well-known verse which is used to show that Jesus canceled the law of Moses – the law which required that adulterers and adulteresses be stoned to death – when Jesus came across a woman who was to be stoned, he supposedly said:

"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

So of course, the people were about to throw the stones, they all stopped because they were all sinners. This became the logic behind not punishing in this fashion, and later it became in any fashion people who commit adultery – because who are you to judge them when you are yourself sinners?

Then the finger could be pointed at the Muslims who still uphold the principle of stoning to death the adulterer/adulteress – that they are hateful individuals, spiteful, harsh individuals, they don't follow the religion of love and compassion.

However, the fact of the matter is that this verse was among the verses deleted from the King James Version. Why? Because they said that it could not be found in any of the early manuscripts. Meaning that it

was interpolated – it was added by copyists later on to create this new religion which we now know as Christianity.

The Trinity Verse

Another verse which is pivotal in Christian theology is the verse which supposedly addressed the Trinity, where Jesus was supposed to have said:

"There are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one."

This was the evidence in the scripture in the King James Version (it's still there – 1 John 5:7). This verse is not contained in any Greek manuscript written earlier than the 15th century. When the first translation was made, it was added at that time. It cannot be found earlier than the 15th century. That verse – a pivotal verse for the Trinitarians – could not be found in any of the early manuscripts – not in some, but in any.

So with that kind of background, one has to question the reliability of the Bible as evidence to determine what the message of Jesus was and who he was.

Problems With the Old Testament

Furthermore, to add more fuel to the fire, when we look at the authors of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, what we find according to Christian sources is that they believe that the five books of Moses – first five books referred to as the Pentateuch, and this is what is referred to as the Torah – that these five books could not have been written by Moses.

For Orthodox Jews, they believe that these five books were written 974 generations before the creation of the world – that God dictated to Moses during the 40 days that he was on Mount Sinai.

From a Muslim perspective, the true Torah was in the Lawh al-Mahfuz (the Preserved Tablet), was already written in the heavens like the Quran and all of the books of Revelation, and it was the Word of God, as was the Gospel, the Quran, and all of the books of Revelation.

However, for Christian sources, they don't hold that belief. They believe that it was written by Moses. However, in the text itself there are verses which indicate that this could not possibly have been written by Moses.

In Deuteronomy 34:5-8, it states:

"So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force

The Message of Jesus

So if we move on to the message of Jesus, what was Jesus's message?

We have to say that fundamentally, his message was one of submission, as is recorded in Matthew 7:22:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven."

[Matthew 7:22]

Also you can find in John 5:30:

"I can do nothing of my own authority. As I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me."

[John 5:30]

So the essence of what Jesus claimed as his message, what he was conveying to people, was submission to the will of God – which indicates that that message was none other than Islam, because Islam means submission to the will of God.

Jesus Affirmed the Law

Jesus affirmed the law, the law of Moses. He didn't change it, he didn't break it. And he said, as recorded in Matthew 19:16-17:

"But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."

[Matthew 19:16-17]

And in Matthew 5:19:

"Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men to do so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven."

[Matthew 5:19]

In Matthew 5:17-18:

"Think not that I come to abolish the law and the way of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

[Matthew 5:17-18]

Paul's Contradiction

And in Romans 7:6, we find the opposite stated by Paul:

"But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."

[Romans 7:6]

This was Paul's claim. He abolished the law. He claimed a new dispensation, the New Testament. Jesus affirmed the Old Testament, meaning the message which was brought by all of the prophets of God.

Jesus Affirmed the Oneness of God

Jesus, in his various statements and his practices, reaffirmed the oneness of God. He worshipped, he prayed – this demonstrated to his companions that there was God, and there was one God. And when he was asked about the kingdoms of this world and tempted by the devil, he said:

"It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."

[Luke 4:8]

Prophecy of Muhammad

And he prophesied the coming of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. He said:

"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."

[John 16:7]

The Counselor – Christians commonly take to mean the Holy Spirit. But obviously this couldn't be that here, because they believe that the Holy Spirit was present in the world in the time of Jesus, whereas Jesus is saying that the Counselor won't come unless I leave. So obviously he's talking about one to come after him.

The Way of Jesus

And in the end, to conclude, when we look at the way of Jesus, we find that his way is the same as that taught in the Quran – the way of all of the prophets.

That way begins on a physical level with circumcision. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21). The idea that God was circumcised on the eighth day is ludicrous, but circumcision is a part of the covenant

with God.

And Jesus didn't eat pork, nor blood, nor did he drink alcohol. Even the verse where he was supposed to have turned water into wine – scholars doubt its authenticity, as it's found only in the Gospel of John. The other three Gospels don't contain it.

And he made ablution before prayers, and he prostrated in prayers. He fell down on his face in prayer, as did the prophets before him mentioned in the Old Testament.

And the women of his time wore veils (hijab) – they covered themselves.

And he greeted his companions and those around him saying "Shalom Aleichem" (Salaam Aleikum) – that's how he greeted them, and that's how the earlier prophets greeted.

And he fasted 40 days and nights – not one day or two giving up chocolates. No, he fasted a real fast.

And he was against interest (riba), as it was forbidden in the text of Moses in the Torah, in Deuteronomy.

And he did not prohibit polygamy, though people have concluded that. In Jesus's practice, what we find is that Christians practiced polygamy all the way up until the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. They understood it to be permissible, and the earlier prophets – whether it's Solomon, Moses, Abraham, and the others – were all known to be polygamous.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, we have to say without a doubt that Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, was a man sent by God as a prophet and a messenger to humankind. He brought a message which was submission to the will of God. It was the same message brought by all of the prophets of God, all the way back to Adam.

The Religion of Adam Was Islam

The religion of Adam was Islam. Some may question: how can you claim that? Well, we know definitely it was not Judaism, because that came into existence after the time of Moses. We know it was not Christianity, because Jesus himself never even used that term.

What we know is that Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree. What was required of him was submission to God – to obey God: don't eat from the tree. And that is Islam: submission to God. Whatever tree God has forbidden us is forbidden to us, and we should submit and not eat from it. That is the religion of God.

Jesus Carried the Message of Islam

And Jesus – a man, son of Mary – carried that same message, and that message is preserved in Islam today.

So for those Christians who would like to follow Jesus as he taught, as he received from God, then I invite you to come to Islam and follow the truth from God.

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

Questions and Answers Session

Question 1: You made a mention in your talk that the Trinity is not mentioned in the older versions of the Bible. What is the response of the present-day Christian scholars?

Answer: The response of Christian scholars regarding the divinity of Jesus – because when we're talking about Trinity, that is an essential aspect of it – is that Jesus himself didn't know that he was God, and that is why he didn't mention it and tell people that he was God. This was only realized after the resurrection. This is how they explain away the fact that Jesus did not address this issue nor call people to accepting him as God incarnate.

Question 2: We all know that the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is the last messenger, then what's the need for Jesus to come back if it is the Muhammad Mustafa صلى الله عليه وسلم is the last messenger and Quran has confirmed it - it is sufficient – then what is the need for Jesus to come back?

Answer: The issue of the second return, or the return of Jesus, the second coming of Jesus into the world, which is a part of Muslim belief – this is the completion of Jesus's life cycle. Allah spared him the crucifixion and lifted him up. He was not crucified on this earth. So his return is the completion of his life cycle, as all other human beings will live and die. His completion on the earth will be to come back and live out the rest of his life and die.

Also, he will be among the signs of the last day, because in the last days the Antichrist (Dajjal) will come and he will claim that he is God as people claim Jesus was God. And Jesus will be sent at that time to finish him, to destroy him, and to end all of the issues regarding himself.

So the cross will be broken – it will be known that it is false. And the pig will be slaughtered – it will not be used for eating, and so on and so forth.

And Jesus will live out his life as a ruler on the earth for 40 years, and he will rule the earth according to the Sharia, or the law in its final form, which was brought by Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. So he will not bring a new law. He will not abrogate or change anything. He will only fulfill the prophecies and be that sign of the last day.

Question 3: If I want to call a Christian to Islam and I want him to accept Islam, so is it important to compare both the religions and prove to him from the Bible and Quran that Jesus صلى الله عليه وسلم was not the son of God? Can I simply tell him that there is one God and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and he صلى الله عليه وسلم is not the son of God – he was the true messenger of God? So will I be accountable if I don't compare both the religion if he doesn't accept Islam?

Answer: To convey the message of Islam, it is sufficient to identify the central teachings: the oneness, the unique oneness of God, and that He alone deserves to be worshipped, and that Muhammad, may God's peace and blessing be upon him, was the last messenger of God to humankind, and what is required of a person to be a Muslim. That is sufficient.

The comparison is only for those who request it, who want to know. So if you're talking with a Christian and he says, "Well, what about this statement of Jesus?" – either you have knowledge and you're able to clarify it for them, or if you don't have knowledge, you say, "I have no idea about this, but this is the teaching of Islam. Research it. If it makes sense to you, accept it. If it doesn't, then continue on your way."

Your job is to convey the message. If you're able to clarify, that makes you more effective.

We find in the Quran comparisons. We do find verses where Allah makes comparisons, describes Isa (Jesus) as one who ate food along with his mother. Why? Why talk about that? This is to clarify that he couldn't possibly have been God, as it's recorded in the Gospels. Similarly, that he ate food.

So there are ideas and concepts being brought there to clarify that Jesus was in fact only a messenger of God. And Allah speaks about the changes in the scriptures. Allah speaks about the fact that Jesus predicted the صلى الله عليه وسلم coming of Muhammad

So all of this directs us – those who have the time or the ability to go and research it and be able to share this with others. As with the text of the Bible in general, the Old Testament in particular, Allah mentions there that people change the text with their own hands. This is something which was mentioned 1,400 years ago. Christian scholars only discovered that in the last couple of centuries.

They realized that the text had been changed. So that indicator found in the Quran can be used as a means of clarifying to Christians and Jews that their texts have been changed. So we use it that way, if we have sufficient knowledge, we have sufficient information to share it with others.

But the primary way or method of conveying the message to whoever is to call them to the oneness, the unique oneness of Allah.

Question 4 (from a non-Muslim): My question is about Joseph. Joseph in Christianity – well, I read some of the surah and the verses about Isa (Jesus), and there is nothing about this man who is a pillar of Christianity. I mean, Joseph was the husband of Mary (Maria), and so there is nothing about him in Quran. I maybe there is

something, but I didn't find it. And so I would like to know what Islam says about this, what you know as a Muslim scholar about him.

Answer: The issue of Joseph, referred to as Joseph the carpenter – this is not mentioned in the Quran. In fact, Mary, when she gives birth to Jesus, was not married at all.

As to what happened to Mary later on in life, whether she got married later on or whatever, God alone knows. We don't have certainty to speak on that because we don't have any authority. Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, didn't speak about it, nor does the Quran speak about it. And these are sources of evidence.

So all we can say is, God knows. Meaning that we can't say that Mary didn't later on marry somebody by the name of Joseph. She might have. And in their own historical record, he was projected back to have been her husband at the time of the birth of Jesus. That this was just a mistake.

But the point is that once you say that Joseph was married to Mary when she gave birth to Jesus, then the issue arises: maybe Joseph was the father. In fact, in the Gospels, in Matthew and Luke, when they identify the genealogy of Jesus, they refer to Jesus's father as Joseph. So you see the kind of confusion that is there in the text, and the doubts would have arisen.

To be certain that Jesus had no father, the Quran affirms that Mary gave birth to Jesus as a virgin, unmarried. So that is much greater proof of his miraculous birth than what is found in the Gospels.

Question 5: When I was working in the convent school, I was asked to leave hijab, and when I refused, they gave me a termination letter. What should Muslims do on such occasions? And when children are starting in convent schools or any English medium school, they are asked to say the hymns on Jesus so is it shirk?

Answer: Applying for a job in a convent school or working in a convent school where they have a particular dress code - what can you do? If they have a dress code and you've agreed to work with them, then you have to go according to their rules. If you want to argue with them – well, that Mary Magdalene and the other women around Jesus all wore hijab like you did – you can argue, but still, what is that gonna do?

Mother Teresa or any of the other nuns are all wearing hijab. But if they say that the rule is this, then you're obliged to follow the rule.

Of course, there should be some law which protects the rights, because this is supposed to be a secular country in which people are allowed to practice their religious freedoms. So hopefully, if there is a clause which allows for that, for you to raise a case against the school, then you do so, so that they don't do the same to others who come after you.

Similarly, children that go to Christian schools where they are required to sing hymns which may involve deification of Jesus, etc. – of course this is against the Islamic religion. We have to question those parents who have put their children in such schools because they are threatening their faith.

Of course, God may not hold the children accountable because this is the action of their parents, and their parents will be held accountable. And I can only advise that Muslims should make a greater effort to develop alternative schools where their religious principles and beliefs can be upheld for the children, so that the children will not be exposed to teachings which go against Islam and which may in the future affect their faith.

Question 6: While referring to Bible, we as a Muslim, can we refer to it as Holy Bible, and can we use this same adjective as "holy" with Quran?

Answer: That is what the book is called: the Holy Bible. If you want to use the term Holy Bible, you can use it, or if you just refer to it as the Bible, you can use it. If you want to insult Christians, you could call it the unholy Bible, but I would say as Islam teaches that you shouldn't insult others, so don't use that one.

As regards the Quran, using the Holy Quran as a terminology is not acceptable in Islam. It is actually what we call bid'ah (innovation). The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم never referred to the Quran in this fashion, nor does Allah refer to the Quran in this fashion.

Allah calls it Al-Quran Al-Azim (the magnificent Quran), Al-Quran Al-Karim (the noble Quran), and so on and so forth. It is described in many ways, but it is never referred to as the Holy Quran.

So we would have to say that this is something which people are importing from Christianity and modifying Islamic terminology accordingly, and that is not correct.

However, if somebody said to you, "What is your holy book? You are a Muslim, what is your holy book?" You say it's the Quran – that's okay. Holy meaning sacred, you say it is the Quran. But to give it the title, to call it the Holy Quran, this we don't have the authority to do, and this is incorrect.

Question 7: You said that statements attributed to Jesus can only fill a column of a page, and Torah was also written centuries after Moses, peace be upon him. So we use a lot of prophecies from the Bible itself, from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, to prove the prophethood of Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. So how can we use these prophecies which are written centuries after Jesus and Moses to authenticate the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم? What is the authenticity of these prophecies?

Answer: The issue of using these texts as evidences, as I explained before: on one hand, if what is mentioned is affirmed in the Quran, then we can say with some authority that this is correct.

We do believe that in what is called the Torah today, in spite of its rewriting, etc., interpolations, changes, etc., all of this, along with the Gospels, that there is a portion of truth in it. We're not saying that it's all false.

But how do we know what portion of truth is in it? It obviously is the portion which is affirmed by the Quran. So we use the Quran as the quality control for determining what is acceptable and authentic from both of these texts.

Question 8 (from a non-Muslim from Hindu background): So actually, the basic idea is God is just, God is merciful – how He balances, does He have to suffer? The whole New Testament tries to show that the suffering of the cross is a basis of grace. So my question is, why would God risk the eternal well-being of many on a historical event and its theological interpretation?

Answer: Well, that question needs to be asked to a Christian scholar or priest, you know, because we agree with you that the suffering which is supposed to have been undergone by Jesus – that this in no way could be a means for salvation for the rest of the world and their sins.

One person, his repentance or his suffering punishment cannot alleviate others. Each person is responsible for his or her sin, and they have to answer to God. And what happens in their own life, that is a result of what they have done, what they have intended, etc.

So we are in agreement with you that each person is responsible for his own sin. God did not send His son into this world to die for the sins of the people of this world. We don't believe in that concept.

Nor do we believe that God becomes a man, because this is the critical point also: that God is God and man is man. God is the creator, and the creator does not become his creation. If the creator becomes his creation, then he is in need of a creator.

So this is the concept: the pure concept of God is that He and only He is the creator, without beginning and end. To become a man is to be created, is to come into existence when you were not in existence. And to die, to be born and to die – these are the attributes of human beings.

So from the Islamic perspective, we have no God-men, no avatars. God does not become his creation. So I think that's an important point that you need to take out of this type of gathering, what we have been saying with regards to the true understanding of who God is and who we are.

Questioner follow-up: So actually if you take Rig Veda, from Arya Veda perspective, there is no avatars, there is no idol worship. The question is, if Rig Veda is preserved and Quran is preserved, we have to compare these two. There is no avatar from Rig Veda and you can't have any idol worship. It rejects all popular notions of Hinduism. So how you know Rig Veda has not been tampered? It is actually between Rig Veda and Quran.

Answer: I am sure that if you go to the historical record for the Rig Veda, when was it first written down – there are debates about it. So this is telling you that the writing of the Rig Veda is uncertain when it was written, how many times was it written, who wrote it exactly, who conveyed it.

So you still have, if we look at neutral historians analyzing the origins of the Rig Veda, I am sure they will admit that it in no way can be compared with the Quran in terms of authenticity and certainty of origin.

Questioner: Sir, I agree on this point. So from Quran, I can get lot of clarification about Jesus. But from Quran, I am not able to get so much clarification about Vedas.

Answer: Well, if it were important for you to get clarification about the Vedas, then it would have been in the Quran. The Vedas, like earlier books which were sent many thousands, tens of thousands of years before – God speaks about them in general in the Quran, that prophets and messengers were sent to all nations on the earth, and they brought the same message.

Now what has happened is that in time, that message became distorted. And I'm sure from your own research you can see the difference between what is in the early books of Hinduism and what is in the practice of the people today and what people are teaching today. Much change has taken place.

So the point is that because the final message came with Muhammad, may God's peace and blessing be upon him, it was no longer necessary to go to the earlier books. Prior to the coming of the Quran, then people had to go to whatever was available to get whatever understanding they could.

But with the coming of the Quran, the essential message which God gave to all of the prophets – those who wrote and their writings ended up in the Veda or in other books, etc. – all that was written, the truth of it all is found in the Quran.

So it is enough for you to accept the one true God and to serve Him only and to worship Him alone and to follow the teachings as authentically preserved in Islam and be on the path to paradise.