It Seems to Say the Same Thing

Ek het jou lief
Ana Behibak (to a male)
Ana Behibek (to a female)
Ngo oi ney
Wo ie ni (Manderin, Cantonese)
Jeg elsker dig
Ik hou van jou
Je t'aime
Ta gra agam ort
Ich liebe Dich
aNEE oHEIVET oTKHA (female to male)
aNEE oHEIV otAKH (male to female)
Ani ohev at (man to woman)
Ani ohevet atah (woman to man)
taim i' ngra leat
Kimi o ai shiteru
Ayor anosh'ni
Muje se mu habbat hai
Techihhila
I love you

Those are just a few of the many ways to say "I love you". Each way is from a different language. Some I knew (very few), and some I don't know that I can even pronounce accurately. But they all say the same thing.

What's my point?

I started reading an English translation of the Quran this morning. I got it from this website. The translator is one Dr. Rashad Khalifa, who is supposed to have done an excellent job. (But then what would they advertise, right?) I don't know. I am willing to trust he is until told otherwise.

For those of you familiar with the Quran, please forgive a fool's efforts to speak.

I didn't read far before I recognized that the messages in 1- The Key (Al-Fatiha) and 2- The Heifer (Al-Baqarah follow the same teaching as in my Bible. The Quran just says it differently.

I confess I only read to 2:39, but I found myself comforted by the familiarity of the messages. The Key acknowledges God and his greatness, majesty, and holiness.

1:1] In the name of GOD, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
[1:2] Praise be to GOD, Lord of the universe.
[1:3] Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
[1:4] Master of the Day of Judgment.
[1:5] You alone we worship; You alone we ask for help.
[1:6] Guide us in the right path:
[1:7] the path of those whom You blessed; not of those who have deserved wrath, nor of the strayers.

Does this not provide the same (or at least similar) message as Psalm 8?

O LORD, our Lord. How excellent is Your name in all the earth. Who have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength. because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? Psalm 8:1-4

Early in The Heifer we find the message of faith.

2:1] A.L.M.
[2:2] This scripture is infallible; a beacon for the righteous;
[2:3] who believe in the unseen, observe the Contact Prayers (Salat), and from our provisions to them, they give to charity.
[2:4] And they believe in what was revealed to you, and in what was revealed before you, and with regard to the Hereafter, they are absolutely certain.
[2:5] These are guided by their Lord; these are the winners.
[2:6] As for those who disbelieve, it is the same for them; whether you warn them, or not warn them, they cannot believe.
[2:7] GOD seals their minds and their hearing, and their eyes are veiled. They have incurred severe retribution.

During our family Bible time this morning we read the same message in 1 Corinthians.

For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of hte man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but th Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been frely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but with the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:11-14

The Quran is for the Muslim faith. The Psalms come from the Jewish faith. Corinthians comes from the Christian faith.

It is comforting to me to read from each of these faiths and discover the message is the same. We are siblings. Even if we don't always get along. But isn't that just like siblings?

Praise be to God. To Yahweh. To Allah.

If I have offended by trespassing where I ought not to have gone, please forgive me. But let me know, too. My intent is simply to show we belong together as a healthy family which supports all members, and not as warring factions out to kill each other.