By Reno Omokri
The beauty of Islam is best seen when misfortune befalls them. Muslims handle unfortunate situations better than most Christians, except Orthodox Christians. You hardly see them looking for enemies, physical or spiritual, to blame their vicissitudes on. They have this mentality that nobody can do anything to them if God has not permitted it. Not cause. That is not what I am saying. Permit. Different thing.
When most of us hear the word Jihad, we think of a holy war. But that came later in the development of Islam. The real Jihad is a daily battle with yourself to discipline your faculties to accept good and bad with equanimity. If it is good, it is a taste of the good life from God. If it is bad, it is a test of life permitted by the same God.
I am a follower of Yeshua. Always have been. Not about to change paths. I was an unusual child, in that I began reading Scripture at six years of age. But let me say this. Your life as a follower of the Jewish Rabbi named Yeshua (Jesus, Nabi Isa) will be much better if you learn about the philosophies of Islam, and your earthly experience as a Muslim will be more enriching if you study the ambient ancient wisdoms of Isa ibn Maryam.
And life on Earth will be more Peaceful if we understand each other. When some of us hear the word ‘understand’, we wrongly think it means agree. No. A song is harmonious, not because the singers all sing the same. No. Rather, it is because they understood how to make their different voices coexist harmoniously. Harmony is different from uniformity.
I can understand you without agreeing with you. It is called empathy. If I know why you feel compelled to do something, I am less likely to be opposed to you, even though I may still be opposed to your action. Do you understand? I am not asking if you agree, though.
A fire gutted Christ Embassy’s building today, and some people are asking God why? I saw someone weeping. The reaction to this unfortunate incident further displays the stark contrast between Islam and Evangelical Christianity. The oldest form of Christianity (Orthodox Christianity) has more in common with Islam than with Evangelical Christianity in that both Orthodox Christianity and Islam are equanimous.
Are you aware that over five hundred Muslims just died during this year’s hajj? How many Muslims have you seen weeping and wailing and asking God, Why? To the best of my knowledge, none. It happened. It is the will of God. They are in a better place, more so as they are Mu’min, who died in the Holy Land. Life continues for the living.
Contrast that to the response to the Christ Embassy fire. This is just a building. It can be rebuilt. To the best of my knowledge, nobody died. So, why this soul-searching, life-introspective, navel-gazing questioning of God?
Didn’t Scripture say, “Time and chance happen to them all?-Ecclesiastes 9:11.
What happened to Christ Embassy today is a combination of time and chance, so stop speaking in tongues to bind some imaginary demon causing the flames.
How old is Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris? It is 860 years old. But it got burnt down in 2019.
Satan did not win. The devil did not have a good day. Stop giving power to that creature that he does not have. Read the book of Job. He needed permission from God before he could do anything to Job.
Learn from that. If good comes, thank God. If bad comes, also thank God. But to blame the devil is to express faithlessness in the ABSOLUTE power of God over His creation.
Reno Omokri ,Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022.
