Who invented God’s house anyway?

Muslims believe that Satan entered into an ‘agreement’ with God. And that agreement was that Satan was going to prove to God that humankind is weak and does not deserve to become the vicegerent on earth -- hence Satan was justified in defying God by not kowtowing to humankind. Muslims also believe that God accepted Satan’s challenge and told Satan to do his worst. Satan then made it his (or her) mission to lead humankind astray.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dr M: Muslims have prayed in churches-turned-mosques

(The Star) - Muslims have prayed in churches-turned-mosques, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad pointed out in response to the controversy surrounding a surau in a resort at Johor after Buddhist tourists used it to meditate.

"In Malaysia there are churches turned into mosques. In British times, the Terendak Camp in Malacca had a church for British troops. If I'm not wrong, the church was later turned into a mosque (Masjid al-Syuhada) for Malay soldiers," said Dr Mahathir in a recent blog entry on chedet.cc.

He also pointed out that when Constantinople was conquered by Sultan Mehmet II, the church Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque.

"Similarly, some churches were turned into mosques in Hungary when the country fell to the Ottoman Turks. In Cordoba and Granada, mosques were turned into churches when the area was conquered by Spanish Catholics."

However, Dr Mahathir said that if the congregation of the surau in Johor's Tanjung Sutera Resort rejected the place of worship, then it was their right to make the decision to destroy it.

The surau was demolished last Wednesday, and the Singaporean resort owner's PR status revoked.

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There is an ongoing quarrel regarding a Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur and it appears like this quarrel has united components of the ruling party and the opposition (at least as far as MIC and PKR are concerned). Or maybe MIC and PKR are fighting with each other to become the jaguh kampung for Hindu rights. That is probably more like it -- both trying to outdo each other as the champion of the Indians.

Meanwhile, it appears like the Johor surau (prayer hall) issue is still ongoing as well going by the statement of the ex-Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Actually, Dr Mahathir is right. Many churches in the UK have been turned into mosques. In Manchester, many mosques were once upon a time churches. Do you know there were cases where the church authority chose to sell the old and unused churches to the Muslims so that they can be turned into mosques because if not then these churches would be turned into clubs and bars?

Anyway, in the first place, where did this concept of the house of God come from? This is merely the creation of humankind. Somehow humankind needs to place God in a home so we create houses for God. And then we quarrel over them.

Many religions, the Abrahamic faiths in particular, are monotheist in nature. This means these religions believe that there is only one God and that this is the God for everyone. In other words, we all ‘share’ the same God, so to speak. Your God is also my God. The God who created the Jews also created the Christians, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and so on. There is no separate God for the Jews, the Christians, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and what have you.

This is the monotheist belief. Hence we should all be praying in the same house of God. The Muslims who pray to Allah should share their prayer room with the non-Muslims since this same God also created the non-Muslims. For the Muslims to say that each religion should have separate houses of God would be like the Muslims acknowledging that there is more than one God.

Granted that each religion may adopt different prayer rituals. However, while the rituals may differ, the prayers are ultimately targeted at the same One God. You can pray in any language and in any manner that you believe is the correct form. In the end, you still offer these prayers to the same God that created everyone.

The Abrahamic faith or monotheist belief is that in the beginning there was only one person called Adam. Then God created Eve as a companion of Adam. And from these first two humans came all the rest of us.

In other words, based on the Abrahamic faith belief, every human is a descendant of Adam and Eve. We are all related to one another and are, in a way, distant cousins. In short, we all share the same blood.

We may feel that many of our ‘distant cousins’ have deviated from the true path and now believe in the wrong thing (in other words have strayed from the true religion of God). But did God not say that He intentionally created humankind in many ‘colours’ so that we may know one another?

If we believe this and also believe that God does not lie then we must also believe that God purposely created us differently and with different beliefs not so that we can become divided but so that we can get to know each other better. Would not then dividing ourselves go against the very purpose of why God created us differently and would this not be a violation of God’s wishes?

Muslims believe that Satan entered into an ‘agreement’ with God. And that agreement was that Satan was going to prove to God that humankind is weak and does not deserve to become the vicegerent on earth -- hence Satan was justified in defying God by not kowtowing to humankind. Muslims also believe that God accepted Satan’s challenge and told Satan to do his worst. Satan then made it his (or her) mission to lead humankind astray.

Maybe this is Satan’s mission, to create strife and disagreement amongst humans. And if this is Satan’s mission then we must admit that Satan has succeeded. Humankind is so divided and quarrel over God, God’s word, God’s religion, God’s house, and whatnot.

We all believe that we are right and the other person is wrong. And we believe so because we believe we are following the word of God. But we are not really sure whether what we believe came from God or is the work of Satan, as what he (or she) promised God, to mislead and divide us to show God that we are merely weak fools.

When what we believe are ‘hand me down’ teachings and not the product of well thought out ideas this is what you end up with -- Satan’s ‘teachings’ camouflaged as teachings of God.

In the end, Satan has succeeded in his (or her) mission in misleading humankind into believing silly things and then thinking that this is actually what God wants us to do.

Of course, this all depends on whether you believe in the story of God and Satan and the agreement that Satan made with God. If not then you would consider all this just another myth in the many myths that humankind believes is the truth.