The Loving, Lovely ElizabethBehind every great man is often a greater woman. Though the Quran does not specifically use the name of this lovely mother of Yahya, also known as John the Baptizer, in three different suras, the Holy Quran speaks of her. Ali Imran He (Zakariya) said: “Oh my Lord! How shall I have a son, seeing I am very old, and my wife is barren?” “Thus” was the answer, “Doth ALLAH accomplish what He Willeth.” Al Maryam He (Zakariya) said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son, when my wife is barren and I have grown quite decrepit from old age?” He said: So Thy Lord saith, “That is easy for me.” Al Anbiya “So we listened to him: And We granted him Yahya: We cured his wife’s (barrenness) for him. These (three-Zakaryia, Elizabeth and Yahya) were quick in emulation in good works; they used to call on Us with LOVE, and reverence and humble themselves before Us. Think about the implications of how important the birth of ALLAH’s only Messiah is to the Holy Quran. Three (3) different mothers are each spoken about in different Suras in the Quran solely due to their significant relationship to the birth of a baby who grew up to be ALLAH’s Messiah. Many are quite aware that Yahya’s (John the Baptiser’s) mother who was Zakariya’s wife, Elizabeth, is mentioned in three different suras in the Quran because of the near miracle of her giving birth to Yahya at such an advanced age. Also, many Muslims are aware that two of Holy Quran’s suras especially focus on the miraculous birth of Jesus through the virgin Maryam/Mary. But few realize that so special is the birth of Jesus in the Quran that special attention is given in Sura Ali Imran of Jesus’ grandmother giving birth to Mary, Jesus’ mother, so that she in turn could give birth as a virgin, to Jesus. Not even in the Injeel is the birth of Mary’s mother giving birth to Mary even mentioned, let alone given special recognition. Since it is especially clear to each Muslim woman that the main reason that Mary/Maryam is twice described as giving birth to Jesus/Isa, and the main reason that Yahya’s wife is in three Suras talked about being enabled by ALLAH to give birth to Yahya in her old age, plus the main reason that even Mary’s mother is recognized as giving birth to Mary who later gave birth to Jesus, is because of each of these women’s relationship to the significant man who finally became the Risen Messiah, Jesus himself. Not at all detracting from the unique importance of the Prophet Muhammad, but even his birth is not given special recognition in the Holy Quran, in the way that the unique birth of (Yahya) the birth of even Mary and the unique birth of Jesus/Isa, are. Yet, amazingly, many Muslim leaders and teachers go out of their way to minimize the significance in the Quran of ALLAH’s Risen Messiah, because of whom three different mothers are emphasized in the Quran solely due to their relationship to this unique man; ALLAH’s Messiah. First, Mary is emphasized because as a virgin she was enabled by ALLAH to give birth to Jesus. Then, Mary’s own mother is mentioned in the Quran because without her involvement, Mary would not have been born, who, as a virgin gave birth to Jesus. Thirdly, the wife of Zecheriah is discussed in Ali Imran, Al Maryam and also in Al Anbiya because of the virtually miraculous birth she experienced in giving birth to Yahya when she was so old, so that he could carry out the vital task of pointing the people of that time to ALLAH’s West Bank man from Bethlehem, their Messiah. Despite all of these special recognitions of the Holy Quran’s three unique mothers, the men of Islam still would like to influence the women of Islam to believe a very ridiculous twisting of history and reality. They say about the very man who three wonderful mothers were featured in the Quran to either bring him into the world or to announce him to the world, that there is one significant err that all Muslims are required to believe about ALLAH’s unique man. That is, they insist that Muslims must believe that ALLAH Himself participated in a CIA like magic trick to have someone else look like Isa in order to be crucified instead of him (this is what shubbihalahum means to these tricky thinkers) so that the Messiah could quietly sneak away from this earth to be uninvolved in heaven until its time for him to show up again on earth over two thousand years later. No! No! No! Wise Muslim women cannot swallow such fanciful logic. The whole birth process is way too important for them to think that the physical birth process was given so much emphasis in the Quran, for the Messiah later to be suddenly, by a false explanation of one verse, be involved in a bizarre disappearing act which mysteriously completed his life on this earth for two thousand (2000) years. Nevertheless, many wise women will be overwhelmingly convinced that instead of a secret disappearing act, he accomplished a wonderful, victorious, triumphant resurrection despite a cruel, unjust execution. Indeed, a reasonable, enlightened, non rigid interpretation of Women/An Nisa 4/157 plus 158 leaves no other alternative but to celebrate the Risen Messiah’s wonderful victory over the Israeli leader’s vicious, unjust plans to end his life forever. No! In the true sense of what killed or crucified truly means, those Jews were only swimming in conjecture who thought they killed him forever. They did not truly kill or crucify him because ALLAH raised him up alive to Himself. ALLAH is ever Mighty, Wise! Yes, many Muslim mothers intuitively, instinctively and intellectually know that ALLAH’s Messiah first died and then he victoriously rose from the dead. Especially after viewing and considering these facts from various suras in the Quran regarding these three mothers, they realize a new reality about what the Quran truly teaches. They will now know in both their hearts and in their heads that ALLAH’s Messiah did indeed defeat death by ALLAH raising him from death to be alive in His presence. To think otherwise is to conclude that ALLAH wasted a lot of these three women’s lives in order to produce a Messiah who ended his life on earth by doing an anti-climatic disappearing act. But they will also fully realize that many Muslim men are so stuck in man made misconceptions and traditions about him not defeating both death and Israeli leaders, that these recalcitrant men do not wish to be free. They simply do not wish to be confused by truth or be influenced by what is best for either their children’s future or for the future of Islam. These confused men do not realize the future blessings they are denying their own children who will be tomorrow’s adults. These children will miss multiple blessings as they go through the remainder of their lives being forced to miss the spiritual and practical benefits that come with truly knowing their Risen Messian. Yet, these same men who so blatantly reject the glorious triumph of ALLAH’s Risen Messiah, truly yearn in their hearts for the glorious triumph of Islam in this world. But these men’s eyes refuse to see and their minds refuse to comprehend that the eminence that Islam is destined to accomplish in this world is inextricably linked to union with the one of whom the Quran emphatically states: He is “eminent in this world and in the next.” Yes, for Islam to be eminent in this world, it will not be due to the politicalization of Islam, nor the radicalization of Islam, nor the liberalization of Islam nor the modernization of Islam nor the Christianization of Islam. But Islam will become “eminent” in this world when Islam makes eminent in Islam the unique Risen Messiah who the Quran emphatically proclaims to be “eminent” in this world and in the next. What an amazing contradiction exists that otherwise alert and wise Ulama are failing to comprehend. Whereas the Quran proclaims ALLAH’s Risen Messiah to be eminent in two worlds – the present world and the world beyond - the eternal world – the Islamic scholars make every attempt to do the opposite of making the Risen Bethlehem man eminent in Islam. In fact, they minimize and marginalize him at every opportunity that they can make an excuse for. Perhaps they feel obligated to minimize the Messiah in order to prevent him from potentially overshadowing the Prophet Muhammad. But the two Prophets had totally different callings from ALLAH and each of them fulfilled their respective callings faithfully. And it must be remembered that the many, many verses in the Quran that reveal the importance of the Messiah came through the Prophet Muhammad who certainly was in no way opposed to the Messiah receiving the honor of being eminent/wajih, in this world and in the Hereafter and also in Islam. The crucial bottom line is this. Muslim leaders and all Muslims must realize that it is a very big deal to ALLAH that after His anointed was unjustly executed, that He totally defeated and humiliated his executors and exposed them as impotent, by raising His anointed from death to life. So therefore, it is an extremely significant rebellion against ALLAH that certain Islamic leaders demand that one billion, five hundred million Muslims interpret one verse in An Nisa of the Quran in a wrong, rigid, simplistic way. This wrong demand results in all Muslims being forced to join a united rebellion against ALLAH by totally rejecting the Messiah’s glorious triumph over his executers that He enabled His own now Risen Messiah to accomplish. So this united rebellion is actually extremely serious and must stop. Another reality these men fail to realize is this. The present amoral Neoconservative Bush Administration has militantly but subtly and deceptively attacked virtually everything vital that ALLAH’s Risen man stands for. Thus, these apparently godless men have created a huge vacuum in a world where the U.S. formerly had been associated with upholding the Risen Messiah’s value. But now the twin idols which have replaced service to ALLAH’s Christ are the two interdependent idols of Consumerism and Militarism (The Militarism is to guarantee that the out of control Consumerism can continue unabated because the oil supply driving the world economy is being protected by the U.S. military). Look oh Women of Islam at the new Fortress Idol that the supposedly compassionate Christian U.S. is erecting in the heart of Baghdad, the city that we supposedly came to liberate from Saddam Hussein. The front page headline in the April 15, 06, Seattle Post Intelligencer stated: “A
Mini U.S.A. in the Heart of The
Embassy compound that supposedly the now free people of I
emphasize all of this about our fortresses in order to
illustrate that whatever association the government of the Oh Women of Islam, please consider this reality. Every male Muslim that now dominates the way that female Muslims are allowed to think, was given his life in this world by a precious female Muslim like yourself. And this very principle of life in this world essentially coming through nurturing women is quite probably a big part of the reason that the Holy Quran gave such promince in its various suras to the prominent roles of each of those three women; Maryam, Elizabeth and Maryam’s dear mother. Each of these women were vitally in the Holy Quran linked to the coming into our world of the now Risen, Eminent Man from West Bank Bethlehem. So if there were a united message that I think those three mothers (the mother of Maryam, the mother of Yahya and the Virgin Mother herself) would give to the women of Islam today it would be similar to this: “Oh Women of Islam, do not be afraid of these partially confused men who dictate what all Muslims are supposed to believe about ALLAH’s Risen Messiah. Keep in mind that all long journeys begin with one step. “So please find those one, two, three or four male Muslims and speak gently but firmly to each one words similar to what the wife of the Roman Governor Pilate said to him about the illegal execution which he was about to approve of which would temporarily take the life of the innocent Messiah. As she bravely told her husband to back off, you should courageously look into the eyes of a few of your male relatives and firmly say to them: “Have nothing to do with the distortion about the one who Maryam as a virgin gave birth to. You are not telling the truth when you say he did not temporarily die and then triumphantly rise from death to be with ALLAH.” “So please, Oh Women of Islam, realize that the Holy Quran shows you that the three of us each did our part to bring new life to the world through the dear, now Risen Messiah. So now each of you must also do your individual parts in bringing new life to this wounded world through the still living, wise, compassionate, healing Messiah. So you must bring new spiritual life to Islam by helping partially confused men to get some important facts straight about ALLAH’s Risen Messiah having died but risen.” This new spiritual birth of truth regarding the Messiah’s death and resurrection may sound to you women of Islam as if it is relatively insignificant compared to the three mothers in the Quran giving physical birth. However, that is just not the way it is. According to the underlying message conveyed by the Scriptures preceding the Quran, the death and resurrection of ALLAH’s only Messiah are the two greatest watershed events in the history of man. So your being a part of exposing and proclaiming the truth about these two very significant events is extremely important. That is, history before those events looked forward to their coming. Then, after the resurrection, all subsequent history looks back on that particular event. Therefore, since the death and resurrection of the Messiah are such an integral part of the ALMIGHTY’s plan and His Will for man, the total denial that those two exceptionally important events occurred shows a virtual contempt for the purposes of GOD/ALLAH. And opposing His plans is a terrible crime to be involved in. Oh, women of Islam, please help these partially blind men to see that no ultimate good can ever come out of Islam walking day after day on such dangerous ground. Oh
women of Islam. Please don’t believe that Tom Griffith is blowing hot air when
he speaks of the significance of the U.S. Bush Administration betraying
ALLAH’s Risen Man by especially their shameful behavior in Iraq. Over a
year ago, because of how upset I became with the U.S.
crime in Iraq, I had several
hundred post cards printed that referred to Paul Wolfowitz, George W. Bush and
Dick Cheney as worshipping an Idol of Blood named “U.S. Democracy for
the I
was awakening from sleep early in the morning when I unexpectedly heard myself
say out loud the two words, “publicly mock.” Hearing myself
unintentionally speak out loud these significant two words both
surprised me and woke me up. Then I turned to look on my disorganized night
stand next to my bed for the one card that I knew was there which contained the
two words. But before I could even get in position to see the card, the two
words “publicly mock” came virtually radiating toward my eyes from the
card on the night stand without me actually seeing the card itself. Seeing
those two words from the card, coming toward my eyes, though it lasted for only
three or four seconds, was a shocking but reinforcing experience. My two
different beyond the normal events of first involuntarily saying the two
uncomplimentary words out loud and then seeing them virtually float through the
air to my eyes, gave my slightly doubting mind overwhelming assurance.
I became absolutely certain that ALLAH was urging me on to do whatever I could
to expose George W. Bush for being anti
Christ by publicly mocking ALLAH’s Risen Messiah by his cavalier
attitude toward the American military shedding innocent Arab Muslim
and Christian blood in Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. Four or five weeks after I had had this unique experience, I received a visit from two friendly gentlemen, one from the U.S. Secret Service and one from the U.S. Diplomatic Service. They came together uninvited but did have the courtesy to call me on their cell phone from outside our apartment before they knocked on our door. I invited them into our kitchen while my wife, daughter and two grand daughters were in our living room, so we could have a friendly, private talk. They had received one complaint from Morocco about a card I had sent several months before, that had revealed my strong feelings about the inhumane way my government was treating Iraqi prisoners. Part of the conversation went something like this: “Mr.
Griffith, why are you sending these post cards to police stations in the “Well the police are not my target. But the people in the mosques are the ones who I wish to get my message to. So I address the cards, main police station, City, and then Country of the different Middle Eastern cities. But I write ‘Dear Imam and other believers,’ on the card. This is because I trust the sincere Muslim police in the police stations to sincerely attempt to pass my card on to a local mosque.” “But why are you sending these cards?” “Because I sincerely that ALLAH wants one billion, five hundred million Muslims to believe in ALLAH’s Risen Messiah in a slightly different way then they do now? But I am also concerned that millions of these Muslims are getting a totally wrong idea about what the Messiah is like because of the association that my gun slinging, blood shedding President claims to have with him. So I simply want them to know that I am convinced that the Jesus that President Bush claims to serve and worship, is not the true Jesus. That whether my President thinks so are not, there is absolutely no similarity between Jesus and John Wayne.” “So, do I have a constitutional right to send out post cards to inform Mid East Muslims that the Jesus my President claims to worship is not the true Jesus?” “Yes, Mr. Griffith, sending these post cards is certainly your constitutional right.” I then explained to them about my sort of vision about “publicly mock” that reinforced my conviction about President Bush mocking Christ. They again politely told me that I do have such a constitutional right and that I could use my own Web Site to do this. I then asked their permission to pray for them, their families and our government. They seemed sincere in giving me permission to do so. I kept the sincere prayer relatively short. They left me on good terms only saying that they might want the one man’s supervisor from San Francisco to visit with me sometime. I said that he would always be welcome to visit our home although I preferred not to travel to San Francisco. But one question did remain in my mind after this respectful encounter. I wondered that if I had been a non citizen Arab Muslim, would I still have been treated with such understanding and respect? Wow, what a woman! Her name, Elizabeth, was possibly not mentioned in the Quran because the Quran’s focus was on the virgin mother of the Messiah and not on the mother of his announcer. But think about this former “barren” woman. She was virtually the foundational key person in order for the teaching and healing by ALLAH’s Messiah to ever occur. If Elizabeth had not given birth to the announcer of the Messiah, so many fewer would have been influenced by his teaching and healing. Yes, Yahya’s birth was absolutely necessary to prepare the way for the Messiah and lovely Elizabeth was ALLAH’s chosen mother to prepare Yahya. Think about the planning for a large wedding. The announcements must be circulated so that guests will arrive at the wedding. So Yahya, the baptizer was ALLAH’s anointed announcer for His Messiah’s coming. But before any announcements could be made the announcer had to be born. But before he could be born he had to have a father who would need to have a wholesome sexual union with the chosen woman who would be the announcer’s mother. Now think about the old man who was married to the woman who was to be the announcer’s mother, the aged Priest Zechariah. From the sounds of his conversation with the Angel, he was much more comfortable with being a Priest than he was with being a lover. The vivid word in the Quran that he spontaneously chose to describe himself to the angle was “d e c r e p i t.” hardly the appropriate quality for a man who was being counted on by ALLAH to produce a baby to be an important announcer. But Zecheriah not only saw himself as “decrepit” but he viewed himself as “quite decrepit.” And without trying to be clever or base, this was before the x-Republican candidate for U.S. President, Bob Dole, was announcing to the world the arousing qualities of Viagra. But what about the condition of Elizabeth? She was only described as “barren.” In other words, quite probably a sincere desire for intimacy with her husband was there, but the ability to become pregnant or to stay pregnant had deserted her for her entire married life. But
now, from what she had heard from her “quite decrepit” husband that he had
heard from the Angel, they had an assignment to accomplish together. But even
though the Angel had given Zachariah a sign that Remarkably, there is a minor coincidence linking the almost impotent former U.S. Republican Presidential candidate, Bob Dole, with the “quite decrepit”, Zachariya. Both men have lovely wives named “Elizabeth.” However, my mentioning this does not imply that Zachariya would have voted Republican. Elizabeth’s Wonderful Love For Mary/Maryam In over two thousand years of looking backward, it is easy to overlook all the severe challenges facing the mind of Maryam between the time of her pregnancy as a virgin and the time of her delivering her baby. Due to the fact that Mary is the only person in the history of the human race to become pregnant without the conception involving male sperm, each neighbor or relative had the right to come to a very judgmental conclusion about who had caused her pregnancy. The only logical explanation for her pregnancy was that her betrothed, Joseph/Yusef, had caused her to be pregnant before they were married or that she had been sleeping with someone else. Either of those possibilities could have easily gotten her stoned to death in the strict society of that day. So of course Mary had to worry about the possibility of being stoned, or at the very least, being rejected by her neighbors or relatives or being an outcast for the rest of her life due to her pregnancy out of marriage. So as a young woman probably in her late teens, before her pregnancy began to show, to whom could she turn for comfort and counsel? Mary/Maryam knew exactly whom she could trust. Her older relative, the loving, lovely Elizabeth who Mary had heard that she, herself, had become pregnant in her old age, was ALLAH’s certain provision. So the young, pregnant, single Mary traveled to the hill country to the home of Zachariah and Elizabeth as fast as she could. When she arrived, not for one second was she disappointed in the support she expected from Elizabeth. Since Elizabeth was about six months along in her own pregnancy, she was rejoicing greatly in the soon coming of the baby whom she and her husband had waited for so long. Somehow, (before the days of telephones but during the days that gossip traveled fast) Elizabeth had heard about Mary’s pregnancy. And not for one second did any condemnation pass the lips of Elizabeth toward her teenage relative. ALLAH had filled her to overflowing with love so that there was no room left in her for condemnation. So it was all loving praise for Mary that came from Elizabeth’s lips for Mary’s willingness to believe that what the Angel had told her about her child, would indeed occur and be fully accomplished. Therefore, with the tremendous encouragement which Mary received from the older, wise, lovely pregnant Elizabeth, Maryam the pregnant, virgin teenager was prepared to take on the severe challenges associated with her own very unique pregnancy. So she and the substitute father of her baby, the wise and caring Joseph/Yusef made it safely to a borrowed manger in the little town of Bethlehem where the amazing baby was safely born. back to "Especially For Women" page
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