New Podcast Let Us Reason - A Christian/Muslim Dialogue

Al and Jay continue their discussion on Shoemaker book; the creating of the Quran. While Wilfred Smith took the side of the religious person, the naturalistic approach takes the opposite side.  Shoemaker says that you need to not take either extreme by studying the impact on the believer and study the history.  Shoemaker points out 5 important approaches that Bruce Lincoln points out: 1.Who is the author of the text, his audience, context, and agenda? 2. Since reverence is religious, scholarly approach is more important. 3. Permit criticism but not the other( W. Smith said: Criticize Christianity but not Islam). 4. Assuming all cultures are stable, but the reality is not.  5. Be ware of the scholars informance. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al and Jay continue their discussion on Shoemaker book; the creating of the Quran. While Wilfred Smith took the side of the religious person, the naturalistic approach takes the opposite side.  Shoemaker says that you need to not take either extreme by studying the impact on the believer and study the history.  Shoemaker points out 5 important approaches that Bruce Lincoln points out: 1.Who is the author of the text, his audience, context, and agenda? 2. Since reverence is religious, scholarly approach is more important. 3. Permit criticism but not the other( W. Smith said: Criticize Christianity but not Islam). 4. Assuming all cultures are stable, but the reality is not.  5. Be ware of the scholars informance. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al Fadi and Dr, Jay Smith continue their discussion of Shoemaker book creating the Quran. Today they talk about how this censorship affected the department of defense. After world war two the west came up with a policy of not accepting any criticism of Islam .  Westerners and western academic Islamic scholars came up with a form of Islam to agree with western values. This form of Islam is not true to the historical Islam.  Shoemaker"s  solution to this problem is to do an accurate historical criticism of Islam.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al Fadi and Dr Jay continue their discussion from last time on Shoemaker book Creating the Quran. This time they reveal the names of two scholars that were responsible for censoring what can be said about the Quran and Islam:  1. Wilfred Cantrell Smith; he gave the approach of how scholars should deal with Islamic material.  He concluded that if any valid understanding of the Quran, one must approach the text as a believing Muslim would, and seek to understand it on that basis.  2. Mircea Eliade from the university of Chicago.  These two scholars concluded that any study of Islam must be based on personal experience of Muslims.  In other words Muslims have to give their stamp of approval.  The problem with this approach is that it is not a true scholarly approach.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al Fadi and Dr Jay Smith are starting a new series based on a new book by Stephen Shoemaker called Creating the Quran.  Stephen says that Mohammad is the author of the Quran , and he is going against mainstream academics.  He says that we should not study the Quran according to later tradition ,but use standard tools of historical criticism that was used on other sacred scripture writings; ie The Bible.  There is a fear that critics and scholars have in stating their finding about the Quran . Shoemaker tells the name of the man behind the censorship.  Al and jay will reveal it on the next episode.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al Fadi shares his personal good news of his son getting married and a new grandchild is born . A bad news of losing his nephew. And a challenging news of his many back surgeries.  On the ministry level, the Lord showed up in mighty way: The production of many videos: A.  David Wood on the unholy character of Mohammad.  B. Historical criticism of Islam on art prohibition c. Sam Shamoun on the deity of Christ in the Quran.  D. Dr Jay Smith on the book, the man , and the place. These are few example.  You can watch all these videos on Cira international You-Tube. The views for these videos has reached over 13 million people. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al and Jay use the book that Dr Daniel Brubaker has done on the preservation of the Quran.  They point out the different variants in the Qur'anic manuscripts that has been inserted, erased, covered and taped.  They conclude that the process of collecting the Quran was not standardized.  What is left behind after all the editing is the Hafs version of the Quran today. Al and Jay also talk about the 63 fragment of manuscripts that Muslims say it make up  97% of the Quran of the first century of Islam. Al and Jay say that 63 fragments do not comprise a complete Quran.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al Fadi and Dr Jay talk about the discovery of the 33 verses from chapters 18-20 of the Quran which when it was discovered in 2015, Muslims thought that they found the Quran from the time of Muhammad.  These folios consist of three stories that existed before Islam and the Quran that was modified to take out the references to Jesus as God and replaced with Jesus as a prophet.  Al and Jay also talk about the Quran's Kiraat (variant readings). Jay talks about Hatun Tash  who discovered the many different copies of the Quran that does not match, and that was against  what Muslims claim about the preservation of the Quran.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Al Fadi shares some of the reasons why we celebrate Christmas: 1. It is a reminder of the promise God made to Adam and Eve after the fall.  2. Because of God's love for us He gave us the greatest gift ever(Jesus)  3.  We have to accept the gift of Jesus by faith.  4. By believing in Jesus as the savior we go to heaven.  5.  By believing we have a direct communication with God.  6.  God became a man and dwelt amongst us.  7.  This is the greatest gift to mankind. God loved us while we were still sinners, and by believing in the gift and accepting it we have eternal life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Quran was written in 652 AD, in the Quraishi dialect by Zaid ibn Thabit , Mohammad's secretary, After Mohammad's death.  There were no dots or other marks in that .Muslims say that Mohammad was given the Quran in 7 different Kira'at /dialects by Gabriel. Some of the Qurans are from Syria and Iraq and they all contain different numbers of Suras.  Looking at different manuscripts Jay and Ali and others conclude that none are from the 7th century, they had many variants that does not agree with the Hafs Quran, the most used version . The Question remains ; Where is the original Quran? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.