One Message, Many Witnesses

The Quran says that GOD "sent a messenger to every community" (16:36) and that "our god and your god is one and the same" (29:46). That is this series' method. It begins where each reader already stands, in the Vedas and Upanishads, the Torah and the Gospel, the Guru Granth Sahib and the Gathas, in their own communities' translations, and shows that these books already say GOD is one, has no image, sent men as His messengers, and taught one prayer, one law and one destiny. Only then does it test the chain of prophecy, and only at the end open the Final Testament and its proof: "Over it is nineteen." (74:30). Every Quran quotation is verbatim; every claim is graded; the weak ones are named as weak.

The fourteen articles

1. Our god and your god is one and the same — Why the series exists, the three-step method it follows, the manner the Quran fixes for it, and the rule that salvation is neither narrowed nor widened beyond 2:62.
2. One only, without a second — The Vedas and Upanishads, in Hindu and orientalist translations, say of GOD what Sura 112 says: one, unborn, without likeness, unseen, called by many names.
3. Hear, O Israel — The Shema of Moses, the first commandment of Jesus and the four lines of Sura 112 are one creed, and El, Elah, Alaha and Allah are one name.
4. Ik Onkar — The Sikh Mul Mantra matches Sura 112 word for word, Kabir and the Quran describe the same half-belief, and the Gathas share GOD's attributes.
5. No likeness of Him — The Yajurveda, the Torah, the Gospel and the Quran agree that GOD has no image, with Abraham and the statues, and what "avatar" can honestly mean.
6. Let Jesus speak — The Gospel's own record of what Jesus said about himself and about GOD, read beside the words the Quran gives him, and found to agree.
7. A prophet like unto thee — The chain of prophecy from the Quran's fulfilled predictions to Deuteronomy 18 and the Paraclete, every text graded and the weak ones named.
8. One story — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Mary and Jonah in the Torah, the Gospel and the Quran, with the Mesopotamian flood tablets and the Apocalypse of Abraham as further witnesses.
9. They fell on their faces — The prophets prayed prostrate, washed, barefoot, at fixed hours and towards a fixed place; the Quran decrees what Abraham was taught.
10. The same table — The Torah and the Quran forbid the same four foods, share the rite of sacrifice-and-eat, and warn against the cup and usury, with the Tirukkural beside them.
11. From the same male and female — Peter, Jesus, Mozi and the Quran agree that GOD made one family and judges it by three things only.
12. Once to die, then the judgement — The Rigveda's funeral hymn, the Gospel, the prophets, two old Jewish books and the Quran describe one death, a resurrection, scales, a garden and a fire, with no one to stand in for anyone.
13. The Bible's own testimony — and the Quran's answer — The Bible's own prefaces and footnotes record its passage through human hands; the Quran explains without gloating, invites the same scrutiny, and offers a proof that can be counted, in Khalifa's figures only.
14. Were they created from nothing? — the Quran's questions for the person with no scripture — For the atheist and the agnostic: the Quran's own questions, asked in its own order, with science as illustration and never as proof.

How to read

First, common ground: read articles 1 to 6, and begin with the article on your own scripture, so that the first voice you hear is your own book's. Second, the chain of prophecy: read article 7, and then articles 8 to 12, which show the one story, one prayer, one table, one family and one destiny the chain joins. Third, the Final Testament and its proof: read articles 13 and 14 last, because they rest on the common ground and fall if it is skipped. In every article, check each quotation yourself: "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself." (17:36).