The Cross and The Crescent (IIPH)

Jesus and Muhammad lived in different times and in different contexts. An absolute comparison of the careers of these two men is not a satisfactory method in understanding the similarities and differences between their teachings. This book approaches this topic from a different perspective. The time that Muhammad preached in Mecca is compared to the time Jesus spent preaching throughout Palestine. This improves the similarities in contexts between them and makes a comparison more valid. The number of similarities outweighs the number of differences when looking at the four books of the Gospel and the chapters of the Qur’an revealed in Mecca. On issues related to prayer, the Oneness of God, charity, the Hereafter and forgiveness the teachings in these two books are practically the same. A number of core theological issues surfaced in the Book of John do clash with Qur anic teachings about the person of Jesus. These differences and the possible reasons for them are explored in this book. The conclusion of this book is that Muslims and Christians have more shared values and even theological similarities than differences. It is recommended that Muslims and Christians should spend more time understanding these commonalities.”

This book is a highly relevant piece of research for our turbulently chaotic world today. The heavy baggage of mutual distrust and detestation from the days of ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Spain through to the Crusades and Colonialism has left behind a fuzzy and muddled image of Islam and Muslims in the eyes of others; Muslims too, have been seeing the West as the primary cause of all their woes and vilification.

This book is a compilation of the numerous narratives about the lives, experiences and previous beliefs as well as Islamic impressions and reasons of different lucky women, belonging to all walks of life, as to why they reverted to Islam. Darussalam has already published one book from the same compiler on the same focus that was very much appreciated by the readers. We hope this study will help those non-Muslims women whose concepts are not clear about Islam, and those people who are working in Da’wah field.

1996 expanded and revised edition. This book examines Jesus as a prophet teaching the Unity of God, and the historical collapse of Christianity as it abandoned his teaching. The author sketches the dramatic picture of the original followers of Jesus who affirmed Unity. What emerges is that “Christianity” is the fiction that replaced their truth. A work that covers the Gospel of Barnabas, the Gospel of Hermes, the Shephard, early and later Unitarian Christians, Jesus in the Gospels and in the Qur’an and Hadith. The author clearly shows the idea of Jesus as part of a Trinity was a Greek Pagan idea adopted by early Christian mission-aries to gain converts among the Greek, and did not become a widely accepted Christian doctrine until after the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

Lena Winfrey Seder grew up with a loving Christian family in the Virginia countryside. As a shy young woman, she sought to expand her horizons and fly, like a butterfly. At first, her focus was on worldly success and fame, but when she found herself unable to obtain satisfactory answers to her doubts about her religious traditions, she began a spiritual quest for the truth. She emerged from her cocoon with Islam at her side, to guide her in her life and travels. In this autobiographical account, the author uses a series of flashbacks to weave back and forth among important events and places in her life, before and after she embraced Islam. She explains what attracted her to Islam and describes the effects of her choice on key relationships in her life. Her narration is laced with personal anecdotes and heart-felt advice about being patient in the face of adversity. Her experiences are woven together to create more than just a simple narrative; this is a unique account of the Metamorphosis of a Muslim.

God is One. Human nature is one. Human destiny is one. And God�s message to humanity vis-a-vis that destiny is one. However, the rebellious element in man�s nature has led him to disobey God on the one hand, and on the other, he has pushed on to distort the very message of God. But the message is never fully lost. It would be ludicrous and indeed heretical to think that the situation could have gone out of God’s control.

With every distortion, therefore, He has renewed the message to salvage humanity from self-ruin. More interesting than that is the fact

that He has inserted in every message a Pointer to the Final Guide and the message he would be entrusted with; a Pointer which shows the true

seeker where the uncorrupted message could be found – the message that no one would be able to distort any more. While the main body of the message has been corrupted, the Pointer contained within has not been destroyed. Muhammad in the Hindu Scriptures brings out the truth of this phenomenon.

In addition to the Vedas and the Puranas, the book has unearthed this Pointer in the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and other Hindu scriptures. Each of these scriptures uses its own unique Pointer relevant to its own theological scheme and the religious mentality of its own people. Separately and jointly these Pointers lit up the road to Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him) exclusively, without any iota of doubt.

By all accounts the Final Guru has been sent and the Last Testament is in our laps. Additionally, the existence of these Pointers in the earlier

scriptures is yet another dimension of God’s mechanism to guide mankind to the infallible Truth. Upon reading the book, the theist, the atheist and the agnostic will find a lot to think about.