What are the differences between Islam and Christianity? What do Muslims believe about Jesus? Where can we agree with one another and where do we disagree? Today I speak to a Muslim from Afghanistan and we talk about the Five Pillars of Islam, the Christmas story in the Koran, and about what Muslims really think about Jesus Christ.

Thanks so much for listening to the podcast today. Our ministry is helping Afghan refugees resettle here in the United States. The Afghans need houses, transportation, education, and many other things in order to succeed in this nation. If you want to help an Afghan refugee you can do so by making a donation here. 

Transcript: 

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
What are the differences between Islam and Christianity? What do Muslims believe about Jesus? Where can we agree with one another? And where do we disagree today? I speak to a Muslim from Afghanistan and we talk about the five pillars of Islam, the Christmas story in the Quran, and about what Muslims really think about Jesus Christ. Jesus

Evangelism Podcast Host (00:28):
Said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord shall be say, Welcome to the evangelism podcast, Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:02):
Welcome to the evangelism podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. And I go to many different Muslim nations around the world and nations that have many Muslims in them. And I always love meeting Muslims. Muslim love me, and I love Muslims. And so often when we go to a different country, I will have a meal with the local imams. We will invite the, the imams from the local mosques together and have a meal together and I’ll sit down and talk with them and they will talk about what they believe as Muslims. And I will talk about what I believe as a Christian, and it’s always a wonderful time of, of, of fellowship and, and talking together. And so today on this podcast I have with me, a friend who happens to be a Muslim. His name is Tayyab, but he’s known as T. He is from the nation of Afghanistan. And if you want to hear the story of how he arrived here in America, you can listen to the previous podcast that we put out yesterday. But Tyab thank you so much for joining me today. Hello, Mr.

Tayyab (02:22):
Daniel King. It’s been and honor to be on this podcast once again.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:26):
Well thank you for, for being here and you are a Muslim, is that true?

Tayyab (02:31):
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:32):
Am Muslim by faith. You’re a Muslim by faith. And so many of the people who are listening to this podcast maybe they don’t really know that much about Muslims or about Islam. Could you just start at the very beginning and kind of tell us, like, what is Islam, what does it mean to be a Muslim? What does the word Islam mean? So

Tayyab (02:53):
As a quick overview of the Islamic faith, the word Islam means peace and Muslims are followers of prophet Mohammed who we believe is the most important individual in our faith. We believe in one, God, our God is a law and the Muslims are okay. Devout Muslim would be known for following the five pillars, pillars of Islam. The first being Profession of Faith (shahada), which is basically saying there is no God with a law and prophet Muhammad, this messenger, the second being Prayer (salat). So, which is prayer. We pray five times a day, third being Alms (zakat), which is arms as in, we give charity to different individuals, people of need at a specific amount of a person’s income and fourth, Pilgrimage (hajj), which is our pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, in the city of Mecca. We have a house that we believe is a holy place known as Kaaba and a Muslim is required.

Tayyab (03:49):
This pilgrimage throughout his entire life and fifth. And lastly is Fasting (sawm). We have the holy month of Ramadan. That’s a 30 day fast and Muslims try to be the best version of themselves. And just to remind them what is important about life. And we fast from mourn, from sunrise to sunset, and it’s just a spiritual month where we connect with one another and help try to help people around us. And it’s just being a Muslim is just an individual that to meet the principles of Islam as the five pillar of Islam mentioned, it just tries to be a good human being.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:27):
So explain to me the profession of faith it’s there is no God but Allah…

Tayyab (04:36):
Prophet Mohamed is, is his messenger.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:38):
Okay. So kind of explain that and why saying that is what makes you a Muslim? So

Tayyab (04:46):
A, it’s almost like a acceptance of faith. It’s a statement of faith where you say, which means there is no God, it is your acknowledgement of that. There is only one God, and his name is Allah and Moham. It is prophet Mohamed. That is his messenger. As in he’s the individual, the prophet that gifted us with our holy book, which is the Holyoke Quran. And so we believe that prophet Mohamed was gifted with the Holyoke Quran through a period of think 20 years, believe don’t quote me. I might be wrong <laugh> but he was our messenger and he was gifted. The, the holy words that are divine words of God at Mount HIRA through the angel Gabriel.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:33):
So how has being Muslim influenced your personal beliefs? Like what does that mean to you on a personal level?

Tayyab (05:42):
On a personal level? Faith has been a fundamental of who I am as an individual. As an Afghan have lived a very unique life per se. It’s been a very difficult life, but I’m grateful for what I have today. And by having faith and being a person of faith, I found purpose in my life purpose in helping other people purpose in following the path that God ha that God has for me finding my purpose within God. And within this life, it’s made life meaningful, made family meaningful, made each interaction meaningful. It’s given me a purpose in my life, Mr. Daniel, and I’m very grateful for faith. It’s a point where I have been able to always return to, to God, no matter what the circumstances have

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:24):
Been. And so how are you doing at being a Muslim? Would you say that you’re a good Muslim? Would, will you go to heaven when you die? That’s

Tayyab (06:34):
An interesting question. The answer for this question, it is up to God. I believe God is a very graceful, loving being, and he cares for all his creations, including me. I believe that he knows my name. He knows my fate. He knows what I do on a daily basis. He knows who I, who I am, what I stand for. He knows the purpose that he has for my life. And I believe that I am trying my best at being a good Muslim. And the actual determination of this response would be up to God himself. Not me.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:08):
Let’s talk a little bit about the differences between Islam in Christianity. I’m a Christian. I believe that that G Jesus is God. And Muslims do not believe that they believe that Jesus is a prophet. Yes, sir. And of course in the, the Muslim religion Jesus is known as the prophet Issa. Yes, sir. And, and so let’s begin by kind of talking about kind of where we agree and then we can look at where maybe we, we disagree. Okay. So I think there’s some facts that both the Quran and the Bible can, can agree on. Okay. And the first one is that Jesus was a prophet. Yes. The, the, the Bible, the holy book of Christians mm-hmm, <affirmative> says that Jesus was a prophet. Okay. And also the Quran, the holy book of the mother. Yes, sir. Says that Jesus was a prophet. So on that we can agree. Yes. Jesus was a

Tayyab (08:04):
Prophet and something I would like to point out is we believe that he was one of the most important prophets, the second most important prophet. If I am not incorrect, prophet Muhammad had mentioned it. If I wasn’t the messenger of God, it would’ve been prophet

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:18):
ESA or Jesus in, in, so Muslims because of that would have deep respect and honor for Jesus. Is

Tayyab (08:24):
That we correct? Yes. As a Muslim, this is a statement that will shock almost every single listener to this podcast, but I am Muslim and I love Jesus. I feel like most people don’t understand this, but prophet Jesus is a big, big part of the, of the Muslim faith. And we do love Jesus. We might not believe that he is God, but we believe he was one of the beautiful creations of God. And that we have deep, deep respect for prophet Jesus. And we also believe that during judgment day he will come back and that he will fight the battle during judgment day.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:57):
Another area that we can have agreement is that Jesus was born of a Virgin. Yes. Named Mary. Yes. So we find the story in the Bible and the story is also found in the Quran. Another thing we can agree on is that is Jesus performed miracles. Yes. Actually in the Quran, there’s a story of a miracle that Jesus did. That’s not even found in the Bible. But in the Bible, there are many, many stories of what Jesus did about how Jesus healed the blind, the crippled, the lame, they brought so many sick people to Jesus and Jesus touched them in instantly. Yes, they were healed. And, and so the Quran affirms that that Jesus does miracles. Yes. We also can agree that Jesus is coming again. And will judge the dead. You just mentioned that on the, on

Tayyab (09:48):
The judgment date. Yes. One thing I’d like to point out is about the miracles. We do not believe that Jesus himself does the miracles. We believe that it’s a divine in powers of God, himself. That Jesus was just a a medium through which the divine powers of God were

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:01):
Demonstrated. That’s a really interesting distinction as Christians. You know, we believe that Jesus is God. And so, because he is deity, he has the, the ability mm-hmm <affirmative> to, to do miracles. I and so we believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, that Jesus is alive today in that Jesus, the one who did miracles 2000 years ago is still alive. We believe that as well is able to do miracles today.

Tayyab (10:30):
We believe that he was also, he’s still alive. Yes. We do believe that as well.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:33):
Do, do you believe that Jesus can do miracles today for people

Tayyab (10:37):
That I I could not give a pause, a response on that? I, I’m not

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:41):
Sure. I was. I’ve actually had the experience of, of talking about Jesus with, with many Muslims. So one time I was in Pakistan and we had a, a big event, a big festival thousands of people we’re there. And I was talking about Jesus and all the miracles that, that Jesus did. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And so at the, the back of the crowd, there was an Imam who came from the local mosque, and he just wanted to see like, kind of what was happening Uhhuh. And so he was standing back there. And on that night, we, we prayed in the name of Jesus. And there was a, a woman who was crippled. She, she couldn’t walk for many years and suddenly she was healed and she stood up and began to run back and forth. And, and Jesus healed me, Jesus healed. And, and she came up on the, the stage and, and she told everyone in the microphone, Jesus says, I’m Muslim, but tonight I was healed.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:34):
And she says, you preached about Jesus. And, and I was healed. And so the IAM, he heard out it, or, I mean, he was standing in the back of the crowd and he was so excited about what happened. The next day was Friday. He went to the mosque and he at the mosque, he told all the Muslims that were there. He said, go to the festival. He said, and Jesus is healing people there. He says, go, and Jesus will touch you. And so many of them came and many of them were touched by Jesus. It was really amazing.

Tayyab (12:01):
I am not gonna disagree with this, but it’s just a point that I would like to, I’m very hesitant by nature to believe things like this. Yeah. Everyth think is like, I try to keep it as genuine and honest as possible is sure.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:17):
Why are you hesitant to

Tayyab (12:18):
No, no. A good way to say it is things like this can be easily performed and mm-hmm, <affirmative> people are easily deceived. Let’s just keep it at that.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:27):
And it’s easy. Are you saying that as a Muslim or from a, a scientific, modern viewpoint, that miracles are

Tayyab (12:34):
Difficult to happen? Not as a scientific viewpoint or as a Muslim, but more of a, the entire occurrence that an individual can get healed through an event and then starts preaching for a specific faith. It just sounds like a as a propaganda sorts, if that makes sense, I’m trying to be respectful about it as well, but it’s just something that human beings are very easily swayed in a direction. And they see something immediately where they cannot understand, or like in the past we could not understand magic, but we understand like the concept of sight of hand today. Sure.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:07):
If, you know, I think that would be kind of approaching it from a scientific viewpoint of demanding evidence of whether it’s

Tayyab (13:13):
True or not, not a scientific viewpoint, more of a, something can be made to look a certain way. If we want to look at a certain way mm-hmm <affirmative> and people are easy to be deceived.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:23):
Okay. Well, thank you for your honesty. The, the fifth and final thing that, that I find in both the, the Bible and the Quran is that Jesus was, was strengthened by the holy spirit. But I think it would actually be interesting to kind of show some of what the Bible says about Jesus, the prophet and what the Quran says about Jesus, the prophet. And so I would actually like to read a story I’ll read it first from the Bible mm-hmm <affirmative> and then let’s find it in the Quran. And if you would like to, to read it from the Quran. Yes. And this is the story of how Jesus was born. It’s a very important story in Christianity. In fact Christmas, which, which just celebrated yes. Is celebrating the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:24):
And so at Christmas time, this year, we had a large group of Afghans that came over. Yes. all Muslim and to celebrate the Christmas story. We first read the Christmas story in the Bible, the Christian Bible, and then we read it in the, the Muslim Quran. So the story is found in the book of Luke chapter one, verse 26. It says in the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth a town in Galilee to a Virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The Virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angels said to her, do not be afraid.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:17):
Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name. Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high the Lord. God will give him the throne of a, his father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. How can this be? Mary asked the angel, since I am a version, the angel answered the holy spirit will come upon you. And the power of the most high will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the son of God, E and Elizabeth. Your relative is going to have a child in her old age. And she, who was said to be barren is in her six month for nothing is impossible with God.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:01):
I am the Lord’s servant. Mary answered. May it be to me, as you have said, and then the angel left her. And so there’s several things in that passage that Muslims could agree with. There’s, there’s one important thing in that passage that Muslims would not agree with. Yes. Where the angel says that he will be called the son of the most high. Yes. and so Muslims don’t agree that Jesus is the son of God, but we’ll talk about that in just a second. Let, lets start with at least where there’s agreement understand. And so can you find this in the, the Quran it’s in? Sir, how do you say it, sir, sir.

Tayyab (16:41):
So it ISS number three, number three and is number 42. Okay. And before begin resign the holy Quran, we say, I, it is something we say before reciting the whole, what, what does that mean? I’m beginning in the name of aah, basically, which that what it means behold, the Christians, the angel said, oh, Mary aah has chosen you and purified. You chosen you above the women of all nations. Oh, Mary worship, your Lord divide, prostate yourself and bow down in prayer with those who bow down. This is part of the TIS of the things unseen, which we reveal unto you own messenger by inspiration. You are not with them when they cast lots of arrows as to which of them should be charged with the care of Mary or were you with them when they disputed the point behold, the angels set, oh, Mary Allah gives you glad TIS of a word from him.

Tayyab (17:44):
His name will be Christ. Jesus. The son of Mary held in honor in this world and the hereafter and of the company of those nearest to a law. He shall speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. And he shall be of the company of the righteous. She said, oh my Lord, how shall I have a son with no, when no man has touched me. He said, even so a law creates what he wills when he has decreed a plan. He but says to it B and it is, and a law will teach him the book on book and wisdom, the law and the gospel. Something before we move on is a key thing point out is during translation specific words can be interpreted in a specific way or can be added and equal removed depending on the translation of the language. I would say the best version to read the Holyoke Quran is in Arabic itself because,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:46):
And so do you read the Quran in Arabic? I do. Yes. But and, and do you understand Arabic, like, do you speak Arabic? Arabic

Tayyab (18:53):
Is a language that I’m not proficient in personally myself. The holy Quran is lit written in classical Arabic, which is one of the forms of Arabic, very complicated version of Arabic. Most people even Arabs today cannot speak that language. But what I’m mentioning is no matter how much we try to get the best translation of a holy scripture the other language falls short, and we have humans that are able to change or manipulate the language as they will to make it seem a certain way. So it’s best to just read the language in the language that it was, it was presented and try to understand it from the different interpretations from different individuals.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:31):
Yeah. The old Testament was written in Hebrew and the new Testament was written in Greek. And so I actually studied both Greek and Hebrew to be able to read the scriptures in the, the original languages. And I, I heard that that Muslims believe that the, the Arabic of the Quran is the most beautiful sound that has ever yes. Been said, is that true?

Tayyab (19:57):
I would say it is one of the, be most beautiful languages, if not the most beautiful language in the world. Classical Arabic, it gives peace to my heart when I listen to it, something that for example, this is a call to prayer. The haz is when they, the mosques, when they call you to prayer during five times a day, it is a very beautiful song of sorts. It’s a melody calling you to come pray in the house of God.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:21):
Can you sing it?

Tayyab (20:22):
I will not sing it for you now.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:24):
<Laugh>, I’ve heard it many times in different nations and they always get on a loud speaker and, and sing it sometimes very loud early in the morning. It wakes everyone up.

Tayyab (20:35):
If I sing it, I think most people will just

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:38):
See, this is not so beautiful.

Tayyab (20:41):
<Laugh>, they’ll go deaf on the podcast. You’ll be like, what is this?

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:44):
<Laugh>. Yeah. Okay. So let’s, let’s talk about some things that Christianity and Islam do not agree on. So understand the first thing that, that Christians believe really the fundamental thing that we believe in our faith is that that Jesus is God. What do you, as a Muslim think when you hear someone say that this is

Tayyab (21:06):
God. I mean, number one, as Muslims, we’re taught to respect every other religion and not to make fun of it or do things that would be Blas for the other faith. So we, first of all, we respect it and respected individuals. Thank

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:21):
You for your respect. And, and in turn, I respect you and, and your

Tayyab (21:25):
Faith. And like we mentioned earlier as a Muslim, I love Jesus. He was the second most important prophet in our faith. So when you mention that Jesus is a son of God is a point of disagreement. We believe that Jesus was a prophet of God and that he was a very unique creation birth of a Virgin Mary, but he is not the son of God. We believe there’s one, God, he has no re relatives. You guys know sons or daughters. And we view humans as creations of God. Not, not, not sons of God.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:55):
So when you hear the term, son of God, what do you think of? I, I, I heard I, I spoke to one Muslim and, and he told me that this was actually very offensive to him cuz when he heard son of God, what he was thinking was that God literally came down and had sex with the, the Virgin. Mary is, is that what is people think when they hear the son of God? No, because that’s not really what Christians mean when they say son of God, they’re not thinking that

Tayyab (22:26):
I understand I, that individual that you spoke to was just uninformed. Let’s put it out that way and does not represent the rest of the Muslim community and their view on this topic. But as in the topic of having a son of God is just, you guys still believe Christians believe that the Christ that Jesus was God, and then there’s a Trinity, right? There’s Jesus there’s as far. Yeah.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:48):
We haven’t gotten to the Trinity yet. That’s gonna be number four. Okay. But yeah, we believe that, that you have God, the father, God, the son, God, the holy spirit. Three in one there’s still one God. Yes sir. Yes sir. You know, in, in the, the Hebrew religion, the Jews, they believe that that God is one. And so Christians also believe God is one. But within that, we, we believe that there are three unique individuals in that called

Tayyab (23:15):
The Trinity. So when you mention the son of God, it just is something that I disagree with because it’s a part of a Trinity. And that is what it goes back to. That is a concept I disagree with.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:27):
Okay. Another foundational belief of Christian entity is that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. The Bible says that all have sinned. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> that the price for sin is death. Okay. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. And so the Bible says that for God. So love the world that he gave. His only son mm-hmm <affirmative> that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but would have everlasting life. So we believe that that Jesus died on the cross. He was a perfect sacrifice. He never sin. He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, but he didn’t stay dead. After three days, Jesus rose from the dead. And today Jesus is alive and everyone who calls on Jesus can be saved. And so when, when you hear someone say that, that Jesus died on the cross, do you agree with that? Or, or you disagree? We disagree with that as well. And so what was your perspective of, of what happened? We

Tayyab (24:20):
Believe that Jesus was rescued by God. Okay. And that he was not crucified on the cross. We

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:26):
Do believe so. It looked like he was crucified, but he didn’t really die.

Tayyab (24:28):
He was not crucified on the cross. Okay. Yes. We believe that he was rescued by God and that he will come back. He’s alive today. He’s in heaven right now. And he’ll come back on. So did

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:37):
Jesus die or not die? He never died. He never died. He just went to heaven. God took him.

Tayyab (24:42):
God. Yes, exactly. God rescued Jesus from

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:45):
He’s alive in heaven. Yes sir.

Tayyab (24:47):
Yes, sir. We believe that Jesus is alive in heaven and during judgment day he will come back and that it, it is a big, big part of our Islamic faith where like, as again, it is a huge honor and it shows how much love that we have for this prophet because God shows him as the individual to, to rescue and then bring back on judgment day to fight for Muslims. Again, we love Jesus. He is a big, big, big part of our faith.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:14):
So another thing that we would disagree on is that that Christians believe that that Jesus should be worshiped since he’s God. We worship him. We pray in the name of Jesus. We pray to Jesus because we believe he’s deity. He’s part of, of the Godhead. What do, what do Muslims believe? Should Jesus be worshiped or not?

Tayyab (25:35):
No, we do not believe that Jesus should be worshiped again. We, we view him as a human being. He was a human being. He was a prophet of God, but in, in his truest essence, we believe he was human. And that’s why prophet Mohammed is a very, very prominent part of prophet of Islam as well during his time when he introduced Islam to the rest of the world. And he did miracles again through the divine powers of God, it wasn’t miracles that he was channeling within himself when he died at the age of 60, roughly around that it proved to humans and to Muslims throughout the world, that it wasn’t prophet Mohamed doing this amazing powers. He wasn’t God. He was a merely human being, a messenger of God. The one only God. And he was a messenger and everyone before him was human and they were just prophets of God, specific individuals that chosen individuals or prophets of God, they’re human by nature.

Tayyab (26:31):
And as per Muhammad, when he died, it showed to us as in humans and Muslims and Muslims throughout the world, it was, Hey, remember that this individual was not your God. He was a human and that he passed away, but he gave the entire world the gift of Islam. And that’s what makes him special for us as human as, as Muslims. That’s why he’s the, the figure of Islam. When you think about Islam, think about prophet Mohammed, because he gifted us with the gift of the Holyoke Quran and that’s the fundamentals of what we follow as Muslims.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:05):
And then the, the final thing we already talked about a little bit is, is the Trinity. We Christians believe God, the father, God, the son, God, the holy spirit. What do Muslims think when they hear a Christian talk about the Trinity

Tayyab (27:21):
Again, in the beginning, we respect that. The fact that is a huge part of their belief. But we do, we disagree on this point because we do not believe that there is a, a father and a son and a holy spirit. We believe there’s one, God, one complete God. I understand that Trinity supports the existence of one God, but there’s, I wanna say parts to this one, God, but like Jesus is God. According to the Christian faith, and then you have father, who’s also God, and then you have the holy spirit. Who’s also God. And together they’re also God, but there’s one God. Right? But that’s right. Yeah. For the Muslim faith, there is just, it’s a simplified version of it. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, there’s one God, a lot. We do not have the father, the son or the holy spirit. There is just one God, most complete, most magnificent, most loving most, most would you

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:07):
Consider it? Bla for me to talk about there being God, the son, God, the holy spirit

Tayyab (28:14):
I would in my own opinion, again, it would, it would not be bla for me because it is your own faith and you follow your own faith and you, if you found perfect purpose in your own faith, you’ve every right to believe of what you, what you’re believing. That’s a big, big part of understanding. Religion in general is people try to find purpose in their faith. And when they do, we might disagree at certain points. But overall at a fundamental standpoint, religion was to make sure that people of have purpose in life and they’re good human beings. There’s incentive behind it. We might in my, we worship. We all worship the same. God. If you call him Jesus, if you call him father, if you call him a law, if you call him Buddha, whatever you follow in a humanistic level, we all worship the same. God. There is a higher being that gives us purpose in life.

Tayyab (29:01):
You see, we can easily divide ourselves based on different categories, faith cast, social class, but at the end of the day, Mr. Daniel King, we’re humans and we find purpose in different things based on our different situations. And if you’re a good person because of your faith, you’re a good person. Regardless if you’re, if for a Muslim, you’re a good person. If you’re a good person and for a Christian, you’re a good person. You’re a good person. I personally have to, to know you, you asked me what is your opinion on Christians? And I said, my perspective on Christians are people like yourself or your father or your sisters or your family. They represent the Christian faith for me. They represent America for me. And I, and I would say that you are an excellent ambassador of your faith for the rest of the world.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:53):
Well thank you for saying that. Thank you. I have one final question for you. You know, you talk about good deeds and, and bad deeds in Islam. If you have more good deeds than bad deeds, then you can spend eternity in heaven. Did I express that right?

Tayyab (30:18):
To a certain extent? Yes but no.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:20):
Okay. Explain the, that concept to be

Tayyab (30:23):
In Islam. The, the good deeds are promoted because you want to help the creations of God. And there’s bad deeds that aren’t discouraged. But if you have like God has made us humans, sinful by nature. And the concept of repentance is very, very critical in Islam. See, when you repent, when you repent wholeheartedly to God, God forgives all your sins, all your mistakes. It takes one moment, one pure deed, good deed out of your heart. Or just one moment of just being vulnerable to God. And God is so loving. So merciful. So caring. So forgiving that it is not, it’s not about quantity, Mr. King. It’s not. It’s about quality. See, he cares when you, when you surrender yourself to him, when you care about him, when that one moment of just being vulnerable and honest and asking for forgiveness from God, he forgives all your sins. Again, he’s very loving, very caring, very, very, it’s just an amazing, beautiful God. It’s not about quantity. As long as you’re, you try to be a person of God, you follow his faith, you follow his rules, you love his creations. You love him. And because of that, you love everything else. He, he, he has, he will. He will. I I’m. I’m sure of it that he will take us to heaven.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:49):
See Christians believe that everyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. And so all of us, no matter how many good deeds that we’ve done, we are imperfect. And since God is perfect, if you have just committed one sin, you are not qualified in to, to be in God’s presence and trying to get to heaven through our own merit or through our own ability of all the, the good deeds that we have is, is impossible. And it’s it. It’s like if you imagine a cliff and you’re going to try to jump from one side of the grand canyon to the other side, and if you are overweight and have lots of body fat and, and you eat a donut and then Huff and puff and, and run and jump, as far as you, can you jump like one foot and then you fall to the bottom and you die.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (32:49):
Well, an Olympic runner who is really fast and good at jumping and, and is the fastest farthest jumping person in the whole world. And he gets a good running start. He’s at the peak of his condition. He runs as fast. He can jumps off the edge of the cliff. He can jump like 30 feet, you know, 10 meters out from the side of the cliff mm-hmm <affirmative>, but then he falls down to the bottom and he lands in the same place as the, the overweight man, because through our own ability, we can’t do it. Like we, we need help. And, and Christians believe that that help comes from Jesus. And Jesus said, I am the way the truth in the life. No one comes to God, the father except through me, mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so we believe that that at the judgment seat, that Jesus will judge us and Muslims also believe that that the day of judgment is coming and Jesus will judge us. And so I, I guess my final question for you,

Tayyab (33:45):
We do not believe that Jesus will

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:46):
Judge us or that Jesus will.

Tayyab (33:49):
What do you believe? So he will come back on the judgment day. Yes. Okay. And that he will fight a battle for, for against basically he’ll fight a battle for Muslim sets and he’ll come back in a, of fight for what is right. We do not believe that once again, he, we believe that he’s human in the prophet of God. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, he doesn’t have the right to judge us. He’s not God, in, in our beliefs only God can judge us. So,

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (34:12):
So God will judge us, but Jesus will be there at the day of

Tayyab (34:16):
Judgment. Yes, he will. Yes. And once again, we, we also believe as most that we are sinful by nature. The only weekend we can go to heaven is through the mercy and forgiveness of God. That’s why I mentioned the importance of repentance, because God has to forgive us to make, to allow us to go to heaven. We are sinful. God has made us this way, but because we are sinful, we have free will we, of the ability to, to, to when nothing else is working on, everything seems like it’s out of the world, like out of your re the entire world is out of your reach and all your goals and dreams are beyond you. Like, for example, in my, in my life where I had to go back to God, when nothing else was working out to, to get safety and to pray for myself and my family, I found purpose in God. I found hope God. And I believe personally that I, because, because I love God because I care for him. And because of that, I, I, I, I, because of his amazingness, I believe in him that I, I, I will also in the future. I’m hopeful that I might, if I’m, if I’m good enough, I’ll go to heaven.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:20):
And so what, what response do you think that God will give to you on that day of judgment?

Tayyab (35:30):
That’s a question that I wish I knew the answer to 22 years ago, but today we are still, we’re trying to find out it’s, it’s, it’s a divine question. Like we asked.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:40):
And so you leave it in the hands of

Tayyab (35:42):
ALA. Yes. And like, if we can, at, we can ask a lot of things about life, you know, questions that we not never get the answers to. Like, how does God look like? Or how do we know, okay, okay. Why isn’t God doing this? Or why is this like this? Or what is, is good and what is right. See, these are questions that we might never know the answer to, or how, like how many species are there in the universe. It’s like things that humans don’t know yet, but God knows everything. And just like this question about my life and my future, if I’m gonna heaven or hell, I’ve trusted it upon God, because I love God. And I’m, I’m sure he loves me as well.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (36:16):
Well, I believe he does love you. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast with me. I think some of your answers will really help people to understand Islam more. So, so thank you so much for your insight. I

Tayyab (36:31):
Appreciate it. Thank you for having me on this podcast. It’s been an absolute pleasure. And once again out wanna give my greatest of gratitude from Mr. Daniel and the rest of his family for making us feel at home at safe here in the us. And just make sure that you take care of one, another guys, humans. We are social beings and we need each other and we find purpose and faith. And sometimes we’re reminded of the beauty of faith through one another. Just make sure you help one another byebye. Thank

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (36:58):
You time. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast today, our ministry is helping Afghan refugees resettle here in the United States. The Afghans need houses, transportation, education, and many other things in order to succeed in this nation. If you want to help an Afghan refugee, you can do by making a donation@wwwdotkingministries.com. Thank you so much for your generosity and thank you for helping us to help these beautiful Afghan people who have come to our nation

Evangelism Podcast Host (37:33):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide event. Evangelistic outreaches, visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.

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