God raised him (Jesus) up to Himself. God is Almighty, All-Wise. (Surat an-Nisa', 158)
Contrary to what is written in the Bible, Jesus was neither crucified nor the victim of a Roman and Jewish conspiracy. Our Lord foiled their traps by sending a look-alike to be crucified in his place so that He could raise Jesus up to His presence.
The Biblical and Qur'anic accounts of what happened to Jesus are quite different. However, there are some similarities, such as the belief that he was raised to God's presence and that he will return before the Last Day to establish the true religion. The Qur'an and the Prophet's hadiths confirm this. We present the relevant evidence below.
Evidence 1:
"... I will place the people who follow you above those who are unbelievers until the Day of Resurrection..."
The first verse indicating Jesus' return is given below:
When God said: "Jesus, I will take you back and raise you up to Me, and purify you of those who are unbelievers. And I will place the people who follow you above those who are unbelievers until the Day of Resurrection. Then you will all return to Me, and I will judge between you regarding the things about which you differed. (Surah Al 'Imran, 55)
God mentions that a group of Jesus' true followers will dominate the unbelievers until the Day of Resurrection. Jesus did not have many followers during his tenure on Earth and, with his ascension, the religion that he had brought degenerated rapidly. Over the next two centuries, those who believed in Jesus were oppressed because they had no political power. Therefore, we cannot say that the early Christians dominated the unbelievers in the sense indicated by the verse given above.
At present, Christianity is so far removed from its original state that it no longer resembles the religion taught by Jesus. Christians have adopted the mistaken belief that Jesus is God's son (surely God is beyond all that which they falsely ascribe to Him) and incorporated the Trinity (viz., the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) into their religion centuries ago. Given this, we cannot acknowledge today's Christians as being true followers of Jesus. In the Qur'an, God states more than once that those who believe in the Trinity are, in fact, unbelievers:
Those who say that the Messiah, son of Mary, is the third of three are unbelievers. There is no god but the One God. (Surat al-Ma'ida, 73)
In this case, "And I will place the people who follow you above those who are unbelievers until the Day of Resurrection" carries a clear message: There has to be a group of Jesus' followers who will exist until the Last Day. Such a group will emerge after his second coming, and those who follow him at that time will dominate the unbelievers until the Last Day.
Evidence 2:
"He will teach him the Book and Wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel."
This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear Allah. (Surat al-Baqara, 2)
A similar (favour have ye already received) in that We have sent among you an Messenger of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, and instructing you in Scripture and Wisdom, and in new knowledge. (Surat al-Baqara, 151)
Other verses indicating Jesus' second coming is the following:
When the angels said: "Mary, your Lord gives you good news of a Word from Him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, of high esteem in this world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near [to God]. He will speak to people in the cradle, and also when fully grown, and will be one of the righteous." She asked: "My Lord! How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me?" He said: "It will be so. God creates whatever He wills. When He decides on something, He just says to it: 'Be!' and it is. He will teach him the Book and Wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel." (Surah Al 'Imran, 45-48)
The last verse reveals that God will teach Jesus the "Book," the Torah, and the Gospel. Obviously, this book in question is very important. The same expression is also used in the verse given below:
Remember when God said: "Jesus, son of Mary, remember My blessing to you and to your mother when I reinforced you with the Purest Spirit so that you could speak to people in the cradle and when you were fully grown; and when I taught you the Book and Wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel." (Surat al-Ma'ida, 110)
When we examine how "Book" is used here, we see that it refers to the Qur'an in both cases. The verses reveal that after the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel, the Qur'an is the final divine book. Another verse uses "Book" to denote the Qur'an, after mentioning the Torah and the Gospel:
God, there is no god but Him, the Living, the Self-Sustaining. He has sent down the Book to you with truth, confirming what was there before it. And He sent down the Torah and the Gospel previously. (Surah Al 'Imran,2-3)
Other verses also call the Qur'an the "Book":
When a Book comes to them from God, confirming what is with them-even though before that they were praying for victory over the unbelievers-yet when what they recognize comes to them, they reject it. God's curse is on the unbelievers. (Surat al-Baqara, 89)
For this We sent a Messenger to you from among you to recite Our Signs to you, to purify you, to teach you the Book and Wisdom, and to teach you things you did not know before. (Surat al-Baqara,151)
In this case, the Qur'an is the third book that Jesus will be taught. But this will be possible only when he returns to Earth, for he lived 600 years before the Qur'an's revelation. As we will see in great detail in the following chapters, the hadiths reveal that Jesus will rule with the Qur'an, not the Gospel, on his second coming. This corresponds with the verse's meaning.
Everyone Will Recognize Jesus
Another subject that has received a great deal of attention is how Jesus will be recognized or by what features we will know him. As a person who was created superior in terms of knowledge, intelligence, physical appearance, and character, he will have the facial expression of a Prophet. His God-fearing nature and deepest faith will shine on his face so much so that people will instantly realize that they are looking upon someone quite superior.
God revealed that Jesus is "of high esteem in this world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near" (Surah Al 'Imran, 45). Like all Prophets, he will be known to those people surrounding him as an embodiment of God's Word, as well as his respectability, distinction, and dignity. Those who meet him will recognize him instantaneously, and no doubts will cloud their hearts. And those who rejected his arrival will realize their error.
It will be possible to identify him by a Prophet's attributes, which are described in the Qur'an. Other circumstances also will cause people to recognize him. One of the most important ones will be that he will be solitary: He will have no family or relatives, and no one will have known him from before. This is because all of the people who knew him lived and died 2,000 years ago. His mother Mary, Zachariah, the disciples who spent years with him, the Jewish leadership, and everyone who heard him preach are all dead. Therefore, when he comes again no one will have witnessed his birth, childhood, youth, and adulthood, and no one will know anything about him. There will be no childhood photos of him, and no one will have any memories of him.
No doubt, this situation does away with the nuisance of "false messiahs." When Jesus returns, there will be nothing to cast any doubt on his identity. Nobody will find any cause to deny who he is, because Jesus will return just as he was before God raised him to His presence, including his garments, and will have superior qualities that no human being could imitate.
Comparable Events Mentioned in the Qur'an
... When He decreeth a matter, He saith to it: "Be," and it is. (Surat al-Baqara, 117)
The Qur'an mentions similar events, such as a person being resurrected after being dead for a long time and sleeping for hundreds of years that are comparable to Jesus' situation. Some of these are as follows:
The man resurrected after one hundred years one of these examples is that of a man who had been dead for one hundred years:
Or [consider such example as] the one who passed by a town that had fallen into ruin. He asked: "How can God restore this to life when it has died?" So God caused him to die for a hundred years, and then brought him back to life. Then He asked: "How long have you been here?" He replied: "I have been here a day or part of a day." He said: "Not so! You have been here a hundred years. Look at your food and drink-it has not gone bad-and look at your donkey, so We can make you a Sign for all mankind. Look at the bones-how We raise them up and clothe them in flesh." When it had become clear to him, he said: "Now I know that God has power over all things." (Surat al-Baqara, 259)
As we mentioned earlier, the Qur'an say that Jesus' soul was "taken back." In the above verse, on the other hand, true death (mawt) is revealed. Therefore, the Qur'an reveals that God willed the resurrection of someone who had truly died.
Basilisk: The Expert of Walking on Water
Few animals are able to walk on the surface of water. One such rarity is basilisk, which lives in Central America and is seen below. On the sides of the toes of basilisk's hind feet are flaps that enable them to splash water. These are rolled up when the animal walks on land. If the animal faces danger, it starts to run very fast on the surface of a river or a lake. Then the flaps on its hind feet are opened and thus more surface area is provided for it to run on water.
This unique design of basilisk is one of the evident signs of conscious Creation.
... Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them except with truth and for a fixed term...(Surat ar-Rum, 8)
WHY IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ACCOUNT FOR DNA BY "CHANCE"?
THE level of scientific knowledge we have arrived at today shows that the evident design and complex systems in living things make it impossible for them to have emerged by chance. For instance, thanks to the recent "Human Genome Project," the marvelous design and the enormous information content in human genes have been revealed for all to see.
In the framework of that project, scientists from many countries, from the United States to China, worked for 10 years to decipher one by one the 3 billion chemical codes in DNA. As a result, nearly all the information in human genes has been set out in its correct order.
Although this is a very exciting and important development, as Dr. Francis Collins, who leads the Human Genome Project states, so far only the first step has been taken in the decoding of the information in DNA. In order to understand why it took 10 years and the work of hundreds of scientists to uncover the codes that make up this information, we have to understand the magnitude of the information contained within DNA.
DNA reveals the existence of an infinite source of knowledge
There is enough information in the DNA of a single human cell to fill an encyclopedia of one million pages. It would be impossible to read it all in one lifetime. If one person set out to read one DNA code per second, non-stop, all day every day, it would take him 100 years. That is because the encyclopedia in question possesses nearly three billion different codes. If we wrote down all the information in DNA on paper, it would stretch from the North Pole to the Equator. That means some 1,000 large volumes-more than enough to fill a big library.
If the information in DNA were written out on a piece of paper, it would stretch from the North Pole to the Equator.
Even more important, all this information is contained in the nucleus of each and every cell, which means that as each individual consists of some 100 trillion cells, there are 100 trillion versions of the same library.
If we wish to compare this treasury of information with the level of knowledge so far reached by man, it is impossible to provide any example of the same magnitude. An unbelievable picture presents itself: 100 trillion x 1,000 books! That is more than the number of grains of sand in the world. Furthermore, if we multiply that number by the six billion people currently living on the Earth, and the billions more who have ever lived, then the number is beyond our capacity to grasp, and the amount of information stretches to infinity.
These examples are an indication of what imposing information we are living cheek by jowl with. We possess advanced computers that can store great amounts of information. However, when we compare DNA to these computers, we are amazed to see that the most modern technology-the product of the cumulative human labour and knowledge over the centuries-does not even possess the storage capacity of a single cell.
Gene Myers is one of the most prominent experts of Celera Genomics, the company that carried out the Human Genome project. His words regarding the outcome of the project are a statement of the great knowledge and design in DNA: "What really astounds me is the architecture of life…The system is extremely complex. It's like it was designed… There's a huge intelligence there." 1
Another interesting aspect is that all life on the planet has been produced according to the coded descriptions written in this same language. No bacterium, plant, or animal is formed without its DNA. It is quite evident that all of life emerges as the result of descriptions that employ the same language and stemming from the same source of knowledge.
This leads us to an obvious conclusion. All living things in the world live and multiply according to information created by one single intelligence.
This makes the theory of evolution utterly meaningless. That is because the foundation of evolution is "chance," but chance cannot create information. If one day the formula of a medicine that can cure cancer were found on a piece of paper, all of mankind would join forces to discover the scientist concerned and even give him an award. Nobody would think, "I wonder if the formula appeared when some ink was spilt onto the page." Everybody who possesses reason and clear thinking will think that that the formula was written by someone who had made a deep study of chemistry, human physiology, cancer, and pharmacology.
The evolutionist claim that the information in DNA came about by chance is completely irrational, and is equivalent to saying that the formula on the paper also came about by chance. DNA contains the detailed molecular formulae of 100,000 types of proteins and enzymes, together with the delicate order governing how these will be used during production. Alongside these, it contains the production plans for the message-carrier hormones and the inter-cellular communications protocols they are used in, and all kinds of other complex and specified information.
To claim that DNA and all the information within it came about by chance events and natural causes reflects either total ignorance of the subject or materialist dogmatism. The idea that a molecule such as DNA, with all the magnificent information and complex structure it contains, could be the product of chance is not even worth taking seriously. Unsurprisingly, evolutionists try to gloss over the subject of the source of life, as with so many other subjects, by describing it as an "unsolved secret."
1. "Human Genome Map Has Scientists Talking About the Divine" by Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2001, (emphasis added)
A Campaign the Like of Which Has Never Been Seen Before - 14.05.2008 - France/Le Monde
Le Monde, one of France’s best-known dailies with a circulation of 400,000, once again carried a report concerning Atlas of Creation. The report described the Atlas as a “campaign the like of which has never been seen before,” and went on to say:
... Adnan Oktar recently achieved renown, in 2007, in many countries in Western Europe, Canada and the USA through Atlas of Creation. Thousands of copies of this book, which is most luxurious and lavishly illustrated, bearing the name of Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar’s pen-name), were sent out to schools and universities in France.
It contained dozens of photographs of various animal and plant species, and sought to demonstrate the invalidity of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The dispatch elicited strong reactions from teachers and scientists… The second and third volumes of this “encyclopedia” are shortly to arrive in France… Adnan Oktar states that he sold 1.5 million works world-wide in 2007.
... Dressed in a white silk suit, Adnan Oktar does not hide his delight at the popularity in Europe of creationist and religious expressions; he rejects materialism and atheism. In his view, the publication of the Atlas and the spread of his ideas lie behind Tony Blair’s conversion to Catholicism and the recent statements on religion by Nicolas Sarkozy.
MUSLIMS IN AMERICA
There are between 6 and 7 million Muslims in America today. In other words, Muslims outnumber some Christian denominations and are equal to the number of Jews. Research done in the year 2000 by prominent American universities and Islamic foundations show that the number of Muslims is increasing rapidly and that Islam is growing stronger day by day.
The above graphic representation shows the rising numbers of mosques in America.
The main theme of this research, known as the Mosque Study Project, is the establishment of mosques in America. The reason for this is that mosques occupy a very special place in any statistical compilations done with regard to the American Muslim community. Mosques in America are both houses of worship and gathering places for talking with one another and launching cultural activities to make Islam more widely known. Every mosque establishes a relationship with the press to introduce Islam to a wider audience, speaks with local politicians, visits schools and churches, engages in interfaith dialogue and carries on other such activities. Thus, research done on these mosques is one of the most useful tools for gathering accurate and enlightening information on this community's state.
According to this research, America now has about 1,209 mosques, most of which were constructed very recently. Thirty percent of these mosques were built in the 1990s, and 32% were built in the 1980s. Other statistics show that in 1994, the total number of mosques in America was 962; in 2000, there was a 25% increase in this number.
These data show a natural parallel with the growing number of Muslims. For example, according to determinations made in 1994, the number of Muslims attending mosque services was 500,000; in 2000, this figure had increased to 2 million-an approximately 300% increase. A significant part of this number is composed of people who converted to Islam. The same research shows that about 30% of those worshippers are converts. According to these data, about 20,000 Americans accept Islam every year.
The above figures are the result of research done before 9/11 and rely on data from the year 2000. In 2001, especially after 9/11, these figures have increased several fold.
Above we see pictures of mosques in various states.
This rapid growth of Islam in America is related in a news article, "Islam Is Growing in America," on the American army Internet site (www.defenselink.mil)
Muslims, those who believe in Islam, are everywhere in the United States. They may be your doctor or drive your taxi. They may serve you in restaurants or advise you in law. And they increasingly may be in the same foxhole, manning the same position or working on the same aircraft as you … In the United States, Islam is the fastest growing religion …1
1. "Islam Growing in America," American Forces Information Service, October 4, 2001.
HORSESHOE CRAB
Age: 150 million years
Period: Late Jurassic
Location: Solnhofen Limestone, Eichsatt, Germany
Horseshoe crabs belong to a subphylum of the arachnids calledChelicerata, and are more closely related to spiders and scorpions. The 150-million-year-old fossil of a horseshoe crab shown here demonstrates once again that Creation is a fact and that the process of evolution never occurred.
AHKAM AL-HAKIMEEN,(The Most Just Judge)
Is Allah not the Most Just Judge ? ( Surat at-Tin, 8)
Allah passes judgment on each matter and concludes them. All events evolve and develop upon His command and wish. Each of His judgments contains many hidden divine purposes. However, most people do not really understand His commands, for, given their limited intelligence, their ability to do so is also limited. Furthermore, Allah is infinitely wise, exalted above time and space, and the One Who created and bound humanity to these concepts. A person can never know what will happen the next day or even in an hour. When Allah gives a command, however, He has total knowledge of all of its consequences, regardless of time or place. Consequently, Allah creates everything in compliance with His plan and for a divine purpose.
But unbelievers can never understand Allah's purposes, for they base their worldview on certain causes and then think that everything evolves randomly and coincidentally. Therefore, they fail to understand that Allah controls everything.
Believers, however, strive to grasp the divine purposes in Allah's judgments and comprehend that He gives the best judgments. In the Qur'an, Allah commands the following:
Follow what has been revealed to you, and be steadfast until Allah's judgment comes. He is the Best of Judges. (Surah Yunus, 109)
Nuh called out to his Lord and said: “My Lord, my son is one of my family. Your promise is surely the truth, and You are the Most Just Judge.” (Surah Hud, 45)
In this interview granted to Press TV, Mr. Oktar makes important statements on such subjects as the facts regarding Freemasonry and Zionism, satan’s negative influence on people, the signs of the End Times, the return to Earth of the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and how the Mahdi will be recognized through the light of faith.
By Virtue of Harun Yahya
Adnan Oktar's more than 250 works translated into 54 languages to date, and the articles, CDs, web sites, radio and television programs, documentary films, interactive presentations, audio tapes and conferences based on these works are leading people all over the world to faith and are causing those who already believe to bind themselves together with even greater enthusiasm.
Let us for a moment think of an aspirin; you will immediately recall the mark in the middle. This mark is designed to help those who take a half dose. Every product that we see around us, even if not as simple as the aspirin, is of a certain design, from the vehicles we use to go to work, to TV remote controls. Design, in brief, means a harmonious assembling of various parts in an orderly form designed for a common goal. Going by this definition, one has no difficulty in guessing that a car is a design. This is because there is a certain goal, which is to transport people and cargo. In realisation of this goal, various parts such as the engine, tires and body are planned and assembled in a factory.
WHAT DARWINISTS NEVER REALIZE
1-Darwinists never realize that people in the 10,000s BC used a copper hooked needle, and that a society capable of making a copper needle also needs to be able to extract the element from rock and to have the technical means to work it.
2-Darwinists never realize that the sheen of the stones surviving from the period they refer to as the Polished Stone Age, and regard as a primitive age, is not the result of polish, because polish cannot be preserved for thousands of years, and that this must have been carried out with great expertise using chisel and other masonry tools made out of steel.
3-In claiming that life emerged spontaneously from inanimate matter, Darwinists never realize that Louis Pasteur proved the thesis that life comes only from life in the 19th century, and that this scientifically demolished the idea that inanimate substances can give rise to life.
4-Darwinists never realize that the hypothalamus in the human body, no larger than a few sugar lumps, needs to calculate that the reproductive glands need to develop for human beings to emerge, to set a time for this and release the growth hormone at just that moment, and that blind chance cannot account for this piece of flesh with no eyes, ears, tongue or even a brain to be aware of time and make the requisite arrangements by calculating the passage of the years.
5-Darwinists never realize that a drop of blood dripping from a cut on ones finger contains some 250 million red blood cells, 400 white blood cells and millions of thrombocytes, that it is a great miracle that produces molecules with the properties of blood and makes them all functional together, and that it is Allah Who has flawlessly created blood right down to the finest detail.
6-Darwinists never realize that the functions in the human body take place at just the right speed and time take place with the assistance of enzymes, and that enzymes, made up of unconscious atoms, cannot learn their duties by themselves.
7-Darwinists never realize that the scent perception and scent memory system of living things is one of the infinite examples of the sublime design and perfect order seen everywhere in the universe, and that they can never account for flawless systems in terms of chance and coincidence.
8-Darwinists never realize that it is impossible for a text consisting of millions of letters to be copied by human hand without errors creeping in, but the intellect and flawless organization in the way that enzymes combine millions of letters together without making a single mistake as they copy DNA is proof of the existence of Allah.
9-Darwinists never realize that in order to be able to spin a web a spider needs to possess architectural information, the ability to calculate, and a great many details such as the speed and weight of its prey, and that it is illogical to claim that an entity with no intelligence could acquire all this by chance.
10-Darwinists never realize that a comparison of millions-of-year-old fossils with living specimens once again reveals the invalidity of the theory of evolution.