Heya Jeff...
I don't know what the apology is about, i haven't been here long enough, only my 2nd day actually.
I would like to add something here... I know how fustrating it would be not knowing why, for example: another religion believe in the same prophets as your religion, however not understand why we (in Islam) DO NOT call Jesus Peace Be Upon Him, the son of God. Out of interest, I studied the New Testement Bible and I have not read in one place where Jesus PBUH claims to be GOD/Son of God himself. I believe one of the ten commandments in the Old Testement Bible too, as in the Qur'an, states that God is not suppose to be associated with another being or anything at all (this can be seen as Idol Worshiping=BIG SIN in Islam as well as Christianity*). Jesus cannot be a mortal version of The One and Only Almighty Immortal God (in arabic Allah, in Hebrew: Illah). A dear friend of mine was unsure about his faith in Christianity, he said he couldn't justify and conclude the Father, Son and Holy Spirit bit of things. I told him that there is One God, and no other, therefore we don't compare our Prophet Jesus PBUH to God an associate Him to his Level & certainley do NOT put up statues and pictures in our mosques and bow down to them*. Jesus PBUH is a creation of God and worshiped God as most of us do today in Islam and was a chosen Prophet because of His good deeds and humbleness, as the other prophets were (ie. Moses, Idris, Imraan, Mohammed etc...P.B.U.them).
I explained a bit more about the similarities in how Christains prayed (ie. prophets, as explained in the old & new testements in the Bible) before, and that we still fall to the ground and pray to God that way in Islam today. We cover our head in prayer and give charity, fast and strive to humble our hearts if we are true believers of Islam today. We should not HATE and keep a grudge (ie. keep anger in our hearts), instead believe in forgivness. We do not believe that Jesus PBUH died on the cross, he didn't die to forgive mankinds' sins, if God wanted all our sins to be forgiven, there'd be no test for us of good and bad acts we perform on earth, therefore no purpose of heaven & hell in the hearafter (which we as well as Christains are suppose to believe in).
There are many things I found to be similar in the Christian religion (the new testement Bible that I have read) as we practice today, one I read was not to consume the flesh of swine, a woman must cover her head when praying... not in these words ofcorse, but along the lines.
If you read the Qur'an you will see a lot of the points I have roughly covered in my post. I can go on for ages but I won't...
Anyway, with my friend.. he converted to Islam (with no regrets) from his heart. He prays 5 times a day, fasts everyday in the month of Rammadaan for the past 2-3 yrs now. I talk to him now and then, and he said it's the best thing i've done in my life.. despite the fact that nearly his whole family are saying they are following Christianity ("but are they"?? he says).
I know i've introduced many topics briefly.. but if you search on the Internet in the search engines, I found there are websites that highlight similaities between the two religions.
All the Best Jeff!
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