(1) "moses had a father and a mother. muhummed also had a father and a mother. but jesus had only a mother, and no human father. is this true?" he said: "yes." i said: daarom is jesus nie soos moses nie, maar muhummed is soos moses!" meaning: "therefore jesus is not like moses, but muhuammed is like moses!" (by now the reader will realise that i was using the afrikaans language only for practice purposes. i shall discontinue its use in this narration).

(2) "moses and muhummed were born in the normal, natural course, i.e. the physical association of man and woman; but jesus was created by a special miracle. you will recall that we are told in the gospel of st. matthew 1:18 "... before they came together, (joseph the carpenter and mary) she was found with child by the holy ghost." and st. luke tells us that when the good news of the birth of a holy son was announced to her, mary reasoned: "... how shall this be, seeing i know not a man? and the angel answered and said unto her, the holy ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee ... " (luke 1:359. the holy qur'an confirms the miraculous birth of jesus, in nobler and sublimer terms. in answer to her logical question: ‘o my lord! how shall i have a son when no man hath touched me?' the angel says in replv: 'even so: allah createth what he willeth: when he hath decreed a plan, he but saith to it "be" and it is!"* (holy qur'an 3:475. it is not necessary for god to plant a seed in man or animal. he merely wills it and it comes into being. this is the muslim conception of the birth of jesus.
* please open the holy qur'an 3:42 and 19:16 where the birth of jesus is spoken about: read it with the commentary. and draw the attention of your christian friends to the high position which jesus and his mother occupy in islam.

(when i compared the qur'anic and the biblical versions of the birth of jesus to rev. dunkers the head of the bible society in our largest city, and when i enquired: "which version would you prefer to give your daughter, the qur'anic version or the biblical version?" the man bowed his head and answered: "the qur'anic.") in short, i said to the dominee: "is it true that jesus was born miraculously as against the natural
birth of moses and muhummed?" he replied proudly: "yes!" i said: "therefore jesus is not like moses, but muhummed is like moses. and god says to moses in the book of deuteronomy 18:18 "like unto thee" (like you, like moses) and muhummed is like moses."  
 

(3) "moses and muhummed married and begot children, but jesus remained a bachelor all his life. is this true?" the dominee said: "yes." i said: therefore jesus is not like moses, but muhummed is like moses."

(4) "moses and muhummed were accepted as prophets by their people in their very lifetime. no doubt the jews gave endless trouble to moses and they murmured in the wilderness, but as a nation, as a whole, they acknowledged that moses was a messenger of god sent to them. the arabs too made muhummed's life impossible. he suffered very badly at their hands. after 13 years of preaching in mecca, he had to emigrate from the city of his birth. but before his demise, the arab nation as a whole accepted him as the messenger of allah. but according to the bible— 'he (jesus) came unto his own, but his own received him not.' (john 1:11). and even today, after two thousand years, his people—the jews, as a whole, have rejected him. is this true?" the dominee said: "yes." i said: "therefore jesus is not like moses, but muhummed is like moses."  

(5) "moses and muhummed were prophets as well as kings. by prophet i mean a man who receives divine revelation for the guidance of man and this guidance he conveys to god's creatures as received without any addition or deletion. a king is a person who has the power of life and death over his people. it is immaterial whether the person wears a crown or not, or whether he was ever addressed as king or monarch: if the man has the prerogative of inflicting capital punishment — he is a king. moses possessed such a power. do you remember the israelite who was found picking up firewood on the sabbath day, and moses had him stoned to death? (numbers 15:365. there are other crimes also mentioned in the bible for which capital punishment was inflicted on the jews at the behest of moses. muhummed too, had the power of life and death over his
people.
there are instances in the bible of persons who were given gift of prophecy only, but they were not in a position to implement their directives. some of these holy men of god who were helpless in the face of stubborn rejection of their message were the prophets lot, jonah, daniel, ezra and john the baptist. they could only deliver the message, but could not enforce the law. the holy prophet jesus unfortunately also belonged to this category. the christian gospel clearly confirms this: when jesus was dragged before the roman governor, pontius pilate, charged for sedition, jesus made a convincing point in his defence to refute the false charge: jesus answered, 'my kingdom is not of this world': if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that i should not be delivered to the jews; but now is

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