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The entire text presented by the challenger is in Blue - The answer is in Black

Challenge: Increase your faith.

Submitters, Strengthen Your Faith. Get answers to the following Questions so that you and I may arrive at certainty. I will first put a note before each question and then ask the Question.

1)Note:" 1)[4:69] Those who obey GOD and the messenger belong with those blessed by GOD - the prophets, the saints, the martyrs, and the righteous. These are the best company

The above verse translation by rk tells us that those who obey GOD and his messenger belong with THOSE BLESSED BY GOD. As we all know GOD does NOT forget. The blessed company said by GOD are the PROPHETS, the SAINTS, the MARTYRS, and the RIGHTEOUS. The term "MESSENGERS" is not included in verse 4:69. Does this mean that the Messengers are NOT among those blessed by GOD? NO it simply means that every messenger is a prophet, therefore there is no need to put Messengers in verse 4:69. This is not my misinterpretation of this verse. GOD revealed this verse and GOD did NOT include the term "Messengers" in the blessed company of paradise. Had it been that there would be messengers who are NOT prophets then the above verse MUST contain "Messengers"

The answer to this is actually in the verse itself. The verse starts by saying that "Those who obey God and the messenger..." 

Messengership = the act of conveying a message from God. This means there is always a messenger involved when God conveys a message to us. Once the message is conveyed, EVERYONE is required to follow that message. Prophethood is not a person, it is an act and function. Messengership is not a person, it is an act and function. 

Every prophet has 3 functions - 1) recieving new scripture (prophethood), 2) conveying the information (messengership), and obeying it himself (being righteous). 

So, prophethood is about receiving new scripture, not conveying it. This is why every prophet must also be a messenger, but not every messenger is a prophet. 

You could see messengers as 'those who make the information from God known to us.' Once the information is known to us we are all required to obey that information. The categories that WILL obey the messenger are the prophets, saints, martyrs and righteous. 

Prophets, saints and martyrs are always righteous, but not all righteous people are prophets, saints and martyrs. This shows the brilliance of the verse in covering all people blessed by God, and at the same time make clear that all those blessed by God follows the actual caller, even when they themselves have been commissioned to do the calling. 

[3:193] "Our Lord, we have heard a caller calling to faith and proclaiming: `You shall believe in your Lord,' and we have believed. Our Lord, forgive us our transgressions, remit our sins, and let us die as righteous believers.

Many people fail to understand that God's prophets and God 's messengers are required, like everyone else, to believe in and follow the information that comes through them. 

So when a prophets recieves new scripture he acts as a prophet. When he conveyes it he acts as a messenger. He is then required to believing in it and follow it as a righteous person, possibly even rising to the status of being a martyr or saint. Two prophets are mentioned as saints in the Quran. 

[19:41] Mention in the scripture Abraham; he was a saint, a prophet.

[19:56] And mention in the scripture Idris. He was a saint, a prophet.

And God says that 'some' he blesses with martyrdom, not all. 

[3:140] If you suffer hardship, the enemy also suffers the same hardship. We alternate the days of victory and defeat among the people. GOD thus distinguishes the true believers, and blesses some of you with martyrdom. GOD dislikes injustice.

We know the verse in which God says that "they strictly follow His commands" in reference to the messengers. 

[21:27] They never speak on their own, and they strictly follow His commands.

We know, from the Quran, that the part "strictly follow His commands" is in relation to the act of conveying whatever they are to convey. They are simple tools used to transfer the information to our dimension. 

'Strictly follow His commands' does not mean they do everything perfectly. We have several examples of incidents in the Quran where God let's us know that in their capactiy of men, God's prophets and messengers make mistakes, misunderstand and misjudge situations, and even try to abandon their responsibilities (11:45-46, 88; 12:42; 33:37; 80:1; 21:87; 18:65-78). 

[2:177] Righteousness is not turning your faces towards the east or the west. Righteous are those who believe in GOD, the Last Day, the angels, the scripture, and the prophets; and they give the money, cheerfully, to the relatives, the orphans, the needy, the traveling alien, the beggars, and to free the slaves; and they observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and give the obligatory charity (Zakat); and they keep their word whenever they make a promise; and they steadfastly persevere in the face of persecution, hardship, and war. These are the truthful; these are the righteous.

In the above verse translation of rk righteousness is defined. In the qualities of the righteous, there is NO MENTION OF BELEIVING IN THE MESSENGERS. Had it been like rk claims (that there can be a messenger who is not a prophet) then there would have been "beleive in GOD, the Last Day, the angels, the scripture, the prophets, and the messengers" in verse 2:177. It is so clear that there cannot be a messenger who is not a prophet."

If a person truly believes in God, the Last Day, the angels, the scripture and the prophets, that person will believe everything else that is required to attain righteousness. If you take out even one of those components, a person cannot be a believer. Let us explain. 

Belief in God

Obviously people who do not believe in God are automatically excluded from this category of people. 

Belief in His angels

Then there are people who do believe in God, but do not believe in His system. That is part of what the angels represent - God's system - and all that entails. For example, God's system is that He, by choice, uses other entities to perform certain tasks to fulfill His plan - angels, prophets, messengers, etc. Not understanding or believing in His system causes some people to attribute power to God's creatures, and also causes some people to question God. Satan knows that God exists, without a doubt, but he rejects God's system, rejects His absolute authority. Thus he is not a believer, but an idol worshiper - he believes that someone or something can or should have power independent of God. 

Belief in the Last Day

Then there are people who believe in God and His angels, but do not believe in the Last Day. They do not believe that they will face God one day and be held accountable. This causes them to deviate in this life, and not take the commandments seriously. Some people completely reject the idea of a retribution or a reward at the end of this life. If a person does not believe in the Hereafter, the objective for doing good cannot be tied to God and His system, but most probably to people and their system. That is not good enough (4:124, 16:97, 17:19). 

Belief in His revelations

Then there are people who believe in God, His angels and the Last Day but do not believe in God's scriptures and thus prophets. That is not good enough. God did not send His commandments and guidance for nothing. We demonstrate our willingness to obey God and our recognition of His absolute authority by upholding His commandments. At the same time it helps us develop our souls (7:8), which is necessary for salvation, as we read in 6:158 and 10:91. 

Belief in ALL His revelations 

Then there are people who believe in God, His angels, the Last Day and His scripture, but not all of them, thus not all of God's prophets. They may believe in one or two, but not in all of them. Thus they reject some of God's revelations and make distinction between God's prophets and revelations, which is not a trait of the righteous (2:136, 2:285, 3:84, 4:150). This is equivalent to saying "I like this part of what God said but not this other part." Perhaps this is why we read believe in God's "scripture", singular in 2:177. As it all is from God, it is in fact one scripture sent down in stages to us, the Quran being the final part, the final testament.   

A righteous person will...

If a person believes in God, His angels, the Last Day, His scripture and the prophets, that person WILL believe in God's messengers, because they all confirm previous scriptures. That person will believe in God's messengers, because they are the ones that convey the listed information to us. So it is not a matter of believing in the person who conveys the information, it is about believing in the actual information conveyed. Clear?

A person who believes all of the things listed will also keep their chastity and observe Hajj if they can afford it and fast in the month of Ramadan, since it is explained in the scripture, eventhough it is not specified in this verse in particular. 

Question: Can there be a messenger (rasoul) who is not a prophet (Nabi)?

According to the Quran, yes. See explanation above. 

To read more, click here. 

The difference, as we learn from the Quran when studying it carefully, cover to cover, is that the prophethood is to receive new scripture and messengership is to confirming and preach existing  scripture. 

Prophethood is not something we can obey, it is a function someone performs, i.e. Recieve Scripture. We cannot obey something someone does, but we can obey something someone conveys from God. This is probably why, throughout the Quran we are never told to obey the prophet, but to obey the messenger. 

2)Note: Rashad Khalifa in his appendix two says"During my Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and before sunrise on Tuesday, Zul-Hijjah 3, 1391, December 21, 1971, I, Rashad Khalifa, the soul,
the real person, not the body, was taken to some place in the universe where I was introduced to all the prophets as God's Messenger of the Covenant. I was not informed of the details and true significance of this event until Ramadan 1408"

rk and the submitter say "DO NOT FOLLOW *ANY* HADHITH OTHER THAN WHAT IS IN THE QURAN. If any one beleives that the hadhith of rk which is above taken from his appendix 2 is true then you are not a submitter. In the Quran GOD did NOT put "Rashadh, messenger of Allah" therefore rk had to invent some nice stories or rather his own *hadhith* to prove his false claims of messengership."

Question: Do you truly ONLY follow the Quran?

A good and valid question, and one that all believers should ask themselves. 

As God made it a command that we must verify all and any information we attribute to God (17:36), it is of outmost importance that we DO find support for whatever we believe in and follow the Quran. 

The first very strong Quranic clue that should get your attention about the truthfulness of Rashad Khalifa in all his claims, is the fact that God chose to reveal the Quran's proof through him, a secret that had been hidden in the Quran for 1406 years. As it is a law that God only gives this kind of access to His revelations to those who are sincere (56:79), and that no one can produce a miracle except with God's authorization (14:11, 40:78), you automatically know that Rashad Khalifa was a sincere believer. 

Another strong clue for you should have been that everything he preached is verifiable in the Quran, including the fact that he was summoned to meet the prophets. You can read about it in 3:81, 33:7 and in Sura 81, most of which reports of this event. You can also read about the prophecy of God's Messenger of the Covenant in the Bible, in Malachi 3:1-3, where we see that his mission will be to purify the religion, exactly what Rashad accomplished by God's grace. 

Regardless of your belief today, ask yourself this; When God's Messenger of the Covenant comes, what do you think he will look like? What will he say? What will he do? How will he be supported?

Will he walk in the markets and eat the food just like any other people (25:7)? Will he have a wife and children (13:38)? Will he be able to make mistakes as a man (33:37)? Will he have wings (17:95)? Will he be exceedingly wealthy(43:31, 6:35)? What?

Is it a coincidence that Rashad Khalifa was born on the 19th of November, day 323 in the year, which is 19x11? 

Do you think that it is a coincidence that Rashad Khalifa discovered the mathematical miracle of the Quran in 1974, exactly 1406 years after the revelation of the Quran. 1406 is exactly 19x74, and the number 19 is mentioned in Sura 74. 

Do you think that the root word of his name, Rashada, is mentioned in the Quran 19 times is a coincidence? 

Do you think it is a coincidence that all the verses containing the exact words spelling out his first and last name adds up to 171, 19x9?

Do you think all these circumstances was somehow schrewdly manipulated by Rashad Khalifa to match the miracle of 19, including his own birth and the date of the unveiling of the mathematical code of the Quran?

The problem with narrations (narrations = hadiths in Arabic) outside the Quran is not that they exist. The problem with Hadith, as in the Hadiths falsely attributed to prophet Muhammad, is that they contradict the Quran. 

There is nothing wrong with a truthful narration (hadith). In fact, God calls the Quran a Hadith as well. As long as whatever we narrate is in accordance with the best Hadith. 

[39:23] GOD has revealed herein the best Hadith; a book that is consistent, and points out both ways (to Heaven and Hell). The skins of those who reverence their Lord cringe therefrom, then their skins and their hearts soften up for GOD's message. Such is GOD's guidance; He bestows
it upon whoever wills (to be guided). As for those sent astray by GOD, nothing can guide them.

Reproducing God's message in any form or shape, regardless of how it is done, is fantastic as long as it stays true to God’s message in the Quran, and is verifiable in the same. We do this all the time as we speak with each other, convey our understanding of the Quran, and give sermons for example. 

3)Note: "The submitters show people verse 74:31 as some sort of evidence that the 19 theory is divine. So in the view of the submitters THE NUMBER OF *BELIEVERS* INCREASE. But it is not so. As you can see in the verse Only the FAITH of the believers increases. The other point in the verse is that people to whom the scripture has been given will have certainty. Christians, Jews and Muslims have been tangled up in this submission. Thereby they all would have certainty of what the truth is, what is expected of them, and what they all will become in the hereafter. Discussions and debates about submissiom have forced more study of the Quran and many issues are highlighted. Before I did not know why i followed the hadhith or wether I should. Now after research i have done because of submitters I know why I have to follow the hadhith and my FAITH has increased and this is what the verse implies"

Question: Did this verse help you in becoming a submitter or not? 

It seems you are in fact suggesting that the number 19 is somehow connected to increasing people's faith, not by accepting the code of 19, but in rejecting it? Does this mean that you think God is actually talking about the mathematical code in this verses? If so, what is God referring to when he sais that:

[74:35] This is one of the great miracles.

Also, what does God mean when He says; 

[74:49] Why are they so averse to this reminder?

What reminder related to 19 is that exactly? A reminder to do what? Reject the call to abide by the Quranic verses?

God does not advocate sin or vice, so there is no way God revealed a mathematical code in His scripture to test people who would Reject it. When God says DO He means DO, and when He says DON'T He means DON'T. He doesn't play games with us. Satan does. 

IF you instead claim that the only meaning of 19, as you've suggested in other parts of you challenges, is to inform us that Hell has 19 angels assigned to it, then how do you explain how this would help increase someone's faith? What would be the purpose of informing us about the number of angels guarding Hell, and how do you see that remove doubts in the hearts of Christians and Jews that the Quran is a divine scripture, as the verse says? Even if your theory is that it will bring certainty to the Jews and Christians, according to your claim, that they will go to Hell, how do you make that connection with the number of angels guarding Hell?

The whole purpose of the mathematical miracle is to confirm to the world that the Quran is the only preserved word of God available today, and to direct people to study the Quran. When people read the Quran and more importantly, apply it to their lives, they become convinced, their doubts are removed. This is what is required to be counted among the believers, and THIS is what is happening all around the world by God's grace.