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In the name of God,
the Merciful, the Compassionate.
My brothers and sisters in humanity
Welcome to TestTheMessage.com
My name is Hamza Andreas Tzortis.
I want to talk to you about
a special individual
and the reason he's special is because
we Muslims believe
that he was sent by God
to the whole of humanity,
to you and to me,
as a mercy.
This man
is Muhammad,
upon whom be peace.
You may have read about him,
you may have watched videos, or you may know nothing,
but the point
of this website
is to help articulate
the fact that we Muslims believe
he was truthful
and a messenger of God.
Now how can we assess this?
Since you've come here, it means that you're a thinking human being.
It means that you are analytical, it means that you really want to
'test the message' for yourself.
So the claim
of this man Muhammad, upon whom be peace,
was that he was a Messenger of God - how do we assess this?
How do we, as rational human beings,
that like to think that we use our minds, our brains, our intellect,
how can we, as thinking individuals,
assess this claim,
this assertion,
that he is
a messenger of God? Well first and foremost,
we have the following options.
Number one:
he was actually lying.
He wasn't speaking the truth, he just
made a claim
just like many other people make
claims, especially when it comes to religion.
Number two:
he was deluded, he was actually a madman.
Or number three:
he was both lying
and a madman, and deluded.
Or number four:
he was speaking the truth.
So let's walk,
or take a journey through these options and see how an
intellectual human being or human being
that uses their mind to come
to some form of conclusion, how
can we
assess
the claim of Muhammad, upon whom be peace?
So, let's go back to his claim:
'I am the messenger of God.'
First option: he was lying.
Well, when we look at history, we look at the mass testimony of history,
and we look at Western and Eastern scholarship,
and we just look at the narrative at the time
of Muhammad, upon whom be peace,
we would see
that it is impossible he was a liar. Why? Let me explain.
Well, think about this:
why does someone lie?
I studied Psychology at university and if you look at the psychological profile of liars,
they lie because they want some worldly gain,
riches, power, women,
money, land,
glory, whatever the case may be, they want something.
Now, if we look at the life of Muhammad, upon whom be peace, we see
that he sacrificed everything
just for the simple message
of that we should worship one God.
That was the reality of Muhammad, upon whom be peace.
He was tortured and abused.
He went to a town in Saudi Arabia, now it's called Saudi Arabia.
He went to a town in Arabia,
and he was *** by the people that he loved,
children.
This man
was doing everything and sacrificing everything, all his internal and external
resources just for this message.
So is this the psychological profile of a liar?
We also know he was very brave.
In one of the battles,
when he was defending Muslims and non-Muslims, because under
Islamic theology, when we have a state or nation,
whoever is inside we have to defend.
He was so brave that he was running towards the thousands of arrows
when the rest of the army was almost retreating.
So does a liar
sacrifice
his all her life
just for
his assertion, or
his kind of perspective of, 'I want glory', 'I want some kind of
wordly gain?' No, he can't be a liar.
And what's interesting, according to the historical narratives, even his enemies
would still call him 'The Trustworthy.'
So we see that his life,
his psychological profile,
is not in line with what we know
a liar is.
And that's quite interesting.
So let's go to the next option.
Well, this is interesting because if we even look at the teachings of the
prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, how can we claim he was a liar? For example, he taught us
there is no harming,
and no reciprocating of harm.
He also said
that if you put kindness, or gentleness, or compassion into something, it elevates it.
If you take it away, it degrades it.
The prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace,
he also spoke about
being merciful and compassionate. If you're not compassionate
to creation,
then the One in the heavens
won't show you compassion.
The prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, said
that you won't truly believe, you claim to be a believer but you won't truly believe
unless
you love
for others
the human race, human brotherhood,
you won't truly believe unless you love for others what you love for yourself.
Also the prophet Muhammad,
upon whom be peace,
he taught us to be just,
to be equitable.
He said, 'Be conscious of injustice and oppression,
for it's going to be darkness
on the Day of Judgment.'
He also talked about women.
He said to us that the best of you in faith
are those who are best
to their wives.
So we have a whole narrative, I could sit here
and continue and say, 'Look at the amazing teachings of the prophet
Muhammad, upon whom be peace.'
But that may not be enough for you.
Let's have
a little bit more evidence to show why he couldn't be deluded.
Well, the prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, he had many prophecies as well.
For example, he prophesised that the Muslims will fight the Mongols.
he said in a Prophetic tradition,
that the Day of Judgment won't come
until
we fight an army
who have furred boots
and flat faces, for example, which is
an apt description
of the Mongols at that time.
We also know
that the prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace,
he had a lot of opportunities,
to actually use certain contexts in history
in favour of his message. For example,
there was an eclipse one day,
and it coincided coincidentally
with
the death of his son.
Now, if he was deluded,
he could've thought,
'Yeah, that's so true.
God made the eclipse happen because my son,
my son died.'
But what did he say?
He said the eclipse doesn't happen for no-one's death.
So he wouldn't even use
situations that happened at
his time or during his life
to support his own 'delusion'.
So, we know he can't be deluded.
So what's the next option? Maybe he was both. Maybe he was a liar and deluded.
Well, let's think about this.
Can someone be a liar and deluded at the same time? Isn't this a paradox?
Isn't this
a contradiction? It doesn't make much sense, does it? Well, let me give you an example.
Can we have a square triangle?
Well, a square has four sides, a triangle has three, so can you have a square... it's impossible.
Similarly, can you have someone who's deluded and lying,
and yet, that's the case... no, it's impossible.
Because what is a liar? A liar is somebody
who makes an assertion
but yet knows that it's not true.
A deluded person
makes an assertion that's untrue but believes it to be true.
You can't have those things
at the same time. It's like having a square triangle.
So we come to the last option,
which if you remember, was:
he was speaking the truth.
So you may think, 'Wow, this is quite interesting,' because
just using our minds,
out intellect,
we're assessing the assertion of the prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace,
which is what?
'I am the messenger of God.'
And we know he couldn't have lied.
We know
he couldn't be deluded, we know he couldn't be both.
Therefore he must have been speaking the truth.
Now you may think, 'Yeah but this is all based upon
your history.
The Muslims,
they've already downed themselves,
maybe it's all forged.'
But that's actually not true.
Because we have plenty of
Western evidence, especially
chronicles from the Christians,
that indicate
the messengership of the prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace.
And also we have to understand
that these narratives are not myths, they have been
brought down to us via mass testimony, so to reject it would be
equivalent of rejecting
the Normandy invasion of England,
or even
World War Two.
I'd like to end on something though, just for you to understand
why Muslims love the prophet Muhammad so much, upon whom be peace.
Now you heard some of his teachings, and we believe
the prophet Muhammad,
upon whom be peace,
was sent down as a mercy to the world, to the universe. This is something the Qur'an,
which is the book of the Muslims,
actually says.
And this mercy we can see manifested throughout history, and we can see manifested in the lives
of his companions,
and we can see it manifested in his own life.
For example, when he used to talk about children,
about loving children,
and he used to say to people if you love someone tell them you love them.
He used to be just,
and merciful, who never asked for his rights, always give people their rights.
He was a man who brought tribes together.
He was a man who focused on compassion.
So this is why
when sometimes you see
maybe attacks against
the Islamic religion or the personality of the prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace,
Muslims sometimes may get angry
Or you may see a certain reaction.
And I think
the reason that happens is because if you attack Muhammad,
upon whom be peace,
you attack mercy itself.
And we live in a time of
need, in a time
that we all need mercy.
so hopefully when you go through this site you'd learn more about this personality
and we'd be able to engage with one another in a far more profound way.
Thank you very much for listening to me.
Assalamu alaykum (Peace be upon you)