Every major religion including Christianity and Islam, in order to succeed, had to have some form of battle plan in disseminating the religion. That makes sense so as to keep a unifying structure to the religion and to foster its study and development.
Otherwise, everything changes and belief systems and practices would vary so much as to make the ‘eternal truths’ look like some bizarre joke which many youths in today’s world are quick to pick up on. Hence, there would be no solidification concerning, for example, what a Christian or Muslim is or what is necessary to believe to be a member of that faith in good standing or even if that faith is not just a mangled invention which some people actually propagate (atheists).
Things like the above can get fairly complicated over time so in order to keep it simple, as well as factual, let us take a look at the beginnings of the instructions on how to spread the ‘GOOD NEWS’. Good News for salvation that is!
It is essential to know these ‘battle plans’ because it will efficiently spread the ‘faith’ while limiting, but not stopping, disruptive and false practices. Unfortunately, disruptive and false practices will enter the religion due to Earth’s Entropic Design but a clear demarcation should be set forth to separate the gold from the fool’s gold, the treasure from the trash and the lambs from the swine!
For Islam:
Some companions of Mu’adh ibn Jabaal said:
When the Messenger of ALLAH (pbh) intended to send Mu’adh ibn Jabaal to the Yemen, he asked: How will you judge when the occasion of deciding a case arises?
He replied: I shall judge in accordance with ALLAH’s Book. He asked: (What will you do) if you do not find any guidance in ALLAH’s Book? He replied: (I shall act) in accordance with the Sunnah of the Messenger of ALLAH.
He asked: (What will you do) if you do not find any guidance in the Sunnah of the Messenger of ALLAH and in ALLAH’s Book?
He replied: I shall do my best to form an opinion and I shall spare no effort.
The Messenger of ALLAH (pbh) then patted him on the breast and said: Praise be to ALLAH who has helped the messenger (Mu’adh ibn Jabaal) of the Messenger of ALLAH to find something which pleases the Messenger of ALLAH. (Sunnan Abu Dawood)
The Prophet sent Mu’adh ibn Jabaal to Yemen in order to call the people to Islam and teach them the practices of the religion. In these instructions there are lessons to be learned.
Ibn Abbas reported: When the Messenger of ALLAH (pbh) sent Mu’adh to Yemen, he said to him:
Verily, you are coming to a people {who are speaking Arabic} among the people of the Book, so call them to testify there is no GOD but ALLAH and I am the Messenger of ALLAH. If they accept that, then teach them that ALLAH has obligated five prayers in each day and night. If they accept that, then teach them that ALLAH has obligated charity to be taken from the rich and given to the poor. If they accept that, beware not to take from the best of their wealth. Be on guard from the supplication of the oppressed, for there is no barrier between it and ALLAH. (Muslim)
In this tradition, the Prophet instructed Mu’adh to introduce Islam to the people GRADUALLY, in gradual steps, starting with the most important beliefs which is the testimony of faith and monotheism which is known as Tawheed. Then one moves onto the next important pillars which are prayer and charity.
Therefore we can learn that when calling people to Islam, we should call people to Islam in steps, starting with the most important beliefs and then introducing the most important practices. Beginning to apply Islam gradually will make it easier for the people to enter into Islam fully and with a willing heart!
Making the transition to Islam easier for people was an important part of the Prophet’s instructions. Abu Burda reported: The Messenger of ALLAH (pbh) sent Mu’adh to Yemen and he said:
Make things easy and do not make things difficult. Give glad tidings and do not repel people. Cooperate with each other and do not become divided. (Bukhari)
Being too hard on people has a tendency of causing division. As the Quran was revealed gradually over twenty three years, so people and society should be given the duties of Islam gradually or step by step:
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.” Isaiah (28:10)
The Prophet warned us that overburdening ourselves and others in the religion will ultimately cause us to fail. Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of ALLAH (pbh) said:
Verily, the religion is ease, and no one burdens himself in religion except that it overcomes him. So be moderate, seek closeness to ALLAH, give glad tidings, and gain strength for worship in the morning and the night. (Bukhari)
The Prophet warned Mu’adh not to wrong or oppress anyone, even if they are not Muslims, because ALLAH always responds to the supplication of the oppressed. This means that a name is just a name which does not fool the ONE GOD. So, those broadcasting with false pride about what their religion is becomes just plain foolish! GOD did not elect arrogance as a virtue!
For Christianity with a Projected and Partial Timeline Included:
For Christianity not all is lost as there is also this demarcation that we can get from the current New Testament. So much so that it will fit historical occurrences and bring out the scoundrels (not necessarily by name but GOD knows who they are) who devilishly tried to subvert the truth.
This is just historical ‘detective work’ as Judaism and Christianity, as well as any other belief system except Islam, will disappear from the Earth in this century, as GOD WILLS, as the remnants of mankind will be ‘fitted’ for their paradise on Earth willingly, voluntarily and joyfully according to the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament:
For this is the COVENANT that I will make with the house of Israel* {in their terminology meaning the believers} after those days, says the LORD: I will put MY laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their GOD, and they shall be MY people.
*{Most ‘Jews’ revolted against the prophet Jesus (pbh) so one should be able to see a unified context for the word believers here as those who struggled for GOD’s sake under the banner of true Monotheism}.
None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know ME, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Hebrews (8:10-12)
After all, what soul would not want to be ‘exalted from above’ and given assurances of an eventual, timeless Paradise** where eternal bliss awaits those who have bowed down to their ONE AND ONLY LORD.
** {So one lives in these times of the paradise on Earth then dies and will be resurrected upon the merits practiced and the rewards received. So, if the hadith concerning these people being like you (Muhammad’s Companions) or better than you, we have justification in interpreting the house of Israel in the above light!
Leading up to these events and to the rise of the Antichrist and the rampage of the Gog and Magog will be the ‘sick’ state of the world:
And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
“And from the time that the daily sacrifice {five daily prayers} is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days {normal life can’t start even when the Antichrist is killed due to the fact that the onslaught of the Gog and Magog is pending}.
“But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.” Daniel (12:9-13)
A type of Chronological Occurrence (about a year plus into his ministry):
Jesus is instructing the many about true belief but it is a targeted audience and not for everyone! GOD is the BEST TO PLAN and HE is separating the sheep from the swine according to HIS KNOWLEDGE not ours!!!
And the disciples came and said to him {Jesus}, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it has not been given.
For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have {the real faith in his heart}, even what he has {of what he thinks are his good deeds} will be taken away from him***.
*** {“Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works?
They are those {types} who deny the Signs of their LORD and the fact of their having to meet HIM (in the Hereafter): vain will be their works, nor shall WE, on the Day of Judgment, give them any weight {at all}.
That is their reward, HELL; because they {through selfish, intransigent arrogance} rejected faith and took MY SIGNS and MY MESSENGERS without seriousness {nor due reflection}. Quran (18:104-106)}
Therefore I {Jesus} speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn {to real faith} so that I should heal them {and move them to open their hearts to real faith}.’ Matthew (13:10-15)
After the mystery of the Non-Crucifixion and sometime after the Last Supper:
After the appearance of Jesus (pbh) to the astonished Disciples in the safe house where they were staying, the real Last Supper could begin. What happened to Jesus (pbh) in those days of ‘desperation’ had to be cleared up to strengthen their faith. Just plain talk is not evidence but referring to and refreshing the group according to Scripture is and that is what Jesus (pbh) did for their collective understanding!
Then he said to them {after those days}, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me.”
And he opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Luke (24:44-45)
How to talk about this mystery and still keep the pathway intended for the purposes known and explained by this holy prophet can only be conjectured. However, we know that the CROSS will be central to the plan as Jesus (pbh) praised the cross as a certain concept that will lead people to Paradise.
Sometime during his ministry:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew (16:24-26)
And whoever DOES NOT CARRY HIS CROSS and follow me cannot be my disciple {of me or belonging to me}. Luke (14:27)
Peter’s preaching a few decades before he was killed or about a decade or so after the arisen Christ:
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should FOLLOW in his footsteps {and do of like kind}. 1Peter (2:21)
Teaching these things to the ‘general population’ would be difficult and unlocking one’s heart is not a job any human can do for it requires the KNOWLEDGE of GOD as to who gets to process what. And that knowledge remains in the UNSEEN not given to man!
However, to instruct people in the WAY by giving them something but not going overboard will be a very difficult task to perform as human beings are at times willing to dive in head first in a pool whose depth is unknown. Therefore, a warning had to be given and hopefully heeded!
I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it {understand it with surety}, and even now you are still not able. 1Cor (3:2). 1Corinthians probably written around 53/54 CE.
But the ‘teachers’ were warned from the teachings of Jesus (pbh) not to press ahead too quickly or to open a ‘Pandora’s Box’ of mysteries so to speak:
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces {destroy the harmony you are setting out to teach}. Matthew (7:6)
And the teachers of doctrine or the WAY knew it well as this example is written up sometime in the 80s CE range from sources dating around 50 plus CE:
For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also from among yourselves {traitors to the WAY} men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Acts (20:31)
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after {what they believe to be} wisdom;
But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a Stumbling Block and to the Greeks Foolishness. 1Corinthians (1:22-23). 1Corinthians probably written around 53/54 CE.
But when the damage was done and could not be repaired, it was time to dig in. The following warning occurred a few years before 90 CE:
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists {already} have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. 1John (2:18-19)
The above offenders were individuals who learned a little bit of the ‘mysteries’ by their constant questioning but ended up mixing the leaven with the lump, which they were told not to do, when they applied ‘foreign ideas and legends’ to the mix.
We learn from the Quran an important premise and a warning:
The Quran teaches us that knowledge is good under the right application; knowledge can also be forged and act as a deterrent for Salvation:
O you who believe! Ask not questions about things which, if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. But if you ask about things when the Quran is being revealed, they will be made plain to you; ALLAH will forgive those: for ALLAH is Oft-forgiving, Most Forbearing.
Some people before you did ask such {superfluous} questions and on that account LOST THEIR FAITH {while they invented falsehoods against the truth}!
When it is said to them: “Come to what ALLAH has revealed; come to the Messenger”: They say: “Enough for us are the ways we found our fathers {our predecessors} following.” WHAT! Even though their fathers {predecessors} were void of {true} knowledge and guidance? Quran (5:101-102; 104)
The Quran is NOT stifling knowledge!!! Because the ‘spirit’ of man is higher than the flesh, the knowledge sought that bests fills the soul with future success is the knowledge that leads one to Paradise as exemplified by Prophet Muhammad (pbh).
As the Christ-soul or that one who became that Messiah was blessed by being chosen to unlock the door for the arrival of GOD’s CHOSEN MESSENGER TO CARRY THE RELIGION OF TRUTH, so we are called to obey this WAY as our honorable pledge by which we will be abundantly blessed as HIS (GOD’s) faithful slaves!
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad {that the process of finality could begin by which I will fulfill HIS WILL and receive my rightful inheritance}. John (8:56)
And begin it he did for as reported earlier in some of my other writings Jesus (pbh) declared:
“I am the true vine, and my FATHER is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit {that is not productive} HE takes away; and every branch that bears fruit HE prunes {purifies}, that it may bear more fruit {so that I may become complete {made perfect without sin} and be that one who has prepared the way for ‘that Prophet’ to come}” John (15:1-2)
As he (Jesus) showed and fulfilled as that SIGN to mankind: For precept must be {built} upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Isaiah (28:10). Therefore, Jesus (pbh) did PRACTICE WHAT HE PREACHED!
As to Paul and his instructions:
Paul visited Jerusalem about 3 years after his so-called conversion whereby he had the opportunity to engage in fruitful dialog concerning the ways and means of approaching the philosophy of preaching. Hence, the declaration of the word ‘WE’ in his statement:
But WE preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a Stumbling Block and to the Greeks Foolishness. 1Corinthians (1:23). 1Corinthians probably written around 53/54 CE.
Some of the warnings given by Jesus (pbh):
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls {of wisdom} before swine, lest they trample them under their feet {treat as their own special domain in which to twist and rend the truth into blatant falsehood}, and turn and tear you to pieces {destroy the harmony of truth}. Matthew (7:6)
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Matthew (7:15)
Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Matthew (24:11)
As a partial recap ending with a statement by Paul (Romans 16:17) probably written shortly after 62 CE or roughly four years before his execution.
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, CONTRARY TO THE DOCTRINE WHICH YOU LEARNED {which we preach from the wisdom of the Christ}, and avoid them {these devils in human flesh}. Romans (16:17)
It is difficult to resurrect the past but not impossible. Most ‘blind followers’ of any practice can be turned and twisted by clever people for their own purposes. Therefore, it is wise to be cautious and demanding of documented proof rather than dazzling speeches!
To thine own self be true! Protect thine self!!!
