format_quote Originally Posted by
BintAbee
:sl:
I need help in explaining to a christian that one does not have to pray through Jesus (a.s) to Allah. According to her, we, as humans are sinful so we cannot pray directly to Allah, therefore we have to pray via someone who is sinless like Jesus (a.s). So basically how do you convince her that this is not the case??
Jazakallah in advance. (I will read your replies though it shows that I am offline).
:w:
Wa Alaykum Salam Wa Rahmatullah,
Well first realise I'm not a scholar or a good student of knowledge so my answer is just how I owuld deal with this question if someone asked me in the street or something.
Point One ask her why she starts from this point of thinking. I mean, why does she
assume that we cannot directly go to Our Creator and pray? I will assume that she thinks this way due to her Christian upbringing, which is something you should point out. I mean, she assumes the Christian understanding is right from the start.
I would, provide her with the Muslim understanding, i.e. that God can and does forgive our sins without having to go through other individuals, so clearly the 'reletionship' is between Almigyty God, Our Creator, and us the human beings. We speak to Him directly and He hears us, how beautiful.
Point Two ask her why then she believes in the Christian way over the Islamic way. To 'convince her' is not really your job, and different people would do it in different ways but I like speaking about the texts. For example, if she chooses the Christian understanding to be right then I would ask her why, and how she can trust works/books from sources which we know little about. We had a discussion on the importance of knowing the authors of a text and knowing whether it has been preserved and whether this has any bearing on whether a book/text could be from God. (I think it does) Anyhow check those links out of you wish, they're principle #1 & #2 in my sig.
And Allah Almighty and Most Merciful knows best. Wa Salamu Alaykum