Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. There is so much misunderstanding between Christians and Muslims regarding the methods of salvation. On one side, we have the Christians who disdain the Contact Prayers so much to the point where the Quran says that when they hear the call for the Contact Prayer, they mock and ridicule it. On the other hand, we have the Muslims who are generally totally unaware of the good news in the Gospel, to the point that they think that if someone is not among the Muslims they will definitely go to Hell. And to resolve this mismatch in the understanding, it would help if we just understood the methods of salvation which are all given in the Quran, but in the Bible, Jesus gives them as a summary, all in one list. And this list is known in Christianity as the Beatitudes. Basically, in this list, Jesus identifies the groups of people who will go to Heaven, and he gives them the good news, which is where the whole book got its name from – the Gospel. The word Gospel means “good news”, and it specifically gets its name from this part which Jesus preaches, where Jesus gives the good news to specific groups of people that they will go to Heaven. Until then, the Jews thought, that only the Jews will go to Heaven, but this sermon gave a comprehensive view of all the groups that will go to heaven. So, now let’s read this part of the Gospel, which is from Mathew, chapter 5, from the begging until verse 12:
“And seeing the multitudes, he (Jesus) went up into the mountain: and when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (so, the first category to be saved is the poor).
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. (this includes the extremely lonely people, people who lost someone very close or something like that)
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (when we fast, we voluntarily become part of this group)
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (the word pure here in the original language was “Zakat”, not in Greek).
Blessed are the submitters: for they shall be called sons of God. (Now, in the original language this was “Muslims”, but the Greeks translated it as “peacemakers” because they did not know what “Muslim” means before Muhammad),
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so they persecuted the prophets who existed before you.
Now, the categories of people who will be saved are the poor, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the thirsty, the merciful, the pure in heart, the submitters, and the persecuted, or the ridiculed. There is no way for anyone to go to Heaven unless he or she is in one of these categories. And this supersedes religion. This supersedes everything other people might tell you about how to go to Heaven. If you are not in one of these categories, you will not go to Heaven. As you can see, all those categories involve struggle in life, which are mostly involuntary struggles, except for submission which is a voluntary struggle. So, would you rather be poor, a mourner, meek, hungry, thirsty, or a submitter? You have to be in one of these groups to go to Heaven, or a little bit of all of these, or a combination of these, but you can not go to Heaven if you are not in one of these. And this is what the Christians misunderstand. They say that they are believers, and they have accepted Jesus, but then most of them, you don’t find them in any of these groups. So, it’s not possible for them to go to Heaven, unless they belong in one of those groups. If you truly accept the word of God, God will definitely put you in one of these groups. If he chose you to go to Heaven, he will offer you submission first which includes the Contact Prayer, and if you refuse it, then he will send you to Heaven, either through poverty, or mourning, or hunger, or thirst, or struggles like that.
And the arrogant Christians like to say “I don’t do the Contact Prayers, and I’m still rich, and in good health, and not hungry, and not thirsty.” Well that’s because they will go to Hell. Had they truly accepted the word of God, God would put them in one of those groups, and the easiest group to be in is to be a submitter, then and only then, being rich and going to Heaven do not exclude on another. All the other groups are harder, and more miserable to make it to heaven.
So, yes, the Christians are right that God saves us through his word, and not through the Contact Prayers, but if we accept his word, if we believe in his word, if we believe in what he says, he 100% will put us in one of these groups. He will let us either be poor, or hungry, or thirsty, or a submitter. So, one would rather be a submitter, than hungry, which is why we should do the Contact Prayers. It is the result of accepting God’s word, and not the method of salvation itself, but it’s not possible to go to Heaven, and also do well in this world, unless you observe the Contact Prayer. It’s just not possible. This is why in the video titled “Demographics of Heaven and Hell” you can find the statement that rich Christians can never make it to Heaven. They don’t do the contact prayers, and therefore, if they are rich, they will go to Hell, and if they are terribly poor, that means that they have truly accepted God’s word, and are destined for Heaven. And this is why, it’s called “the Gospel”, because it gives good news to the poor, the struggling, and the submitters. Submitters are those who do the Contact Prayers as we do, and give the Obligatory Charity as we do. This is the definition of a submitter. Outside of that, there are other roads to salivation, but they all involve terrible suffering, which is why the Quran calls submission the best path, the best religion, because it is the path to Heaven with the least suffering.
Now, Jesus gave the good news to all people who will make it to Heaven, those who take the path of suffering, and those who take the path of submission, but who would choose the difficult path of suffering, when the easy path of submission is offered to them? So, this is why we invite people to submission, to help them go to Heaven through the easier path, with less suffering. This is the gospel, the good news. But, let’s give herein even better news to some of us – double good news: Voluntarily, if anyone of us wants, we can choose both paths. The path of suffering and the path submission, two in one. This is what Jesus chose, this is what Mohammad chose, this is what Moses chose, this is what Abraham chose, and this is what some of us will choose. Submitters and strivers, both at the same time. You don’t have to choose both. One is enough, but those who choose both paths are blessed twice, and they are among those whom the Quran calls “the elite of the elite”. For this group, there are extra rewards in Heaven.
Now, what does it mean to choose both paths? It means doing the Contact Prayer and the Obligatory Charity, of course, which is the easy path of submission, and then the difficult path of struggling involves additional striving in the cause of God, preaching, standing for justice, extra charity, helping one another, promoting the message – it’s a big part of it – being courageous at the critical points, and these critical points pass by us quite rarely and if you miss them because you lack courage at that moment, then you just miss it. You missed a great reward. The opportunity might come only once, and if you are not ready, it’s gone. And a lot of us might be eager to strive in the cause of God. You might even be disappointed that so few opportunities come across us to strive in the cause of God. But, if it is an opportunity which matters, it will always come at a moment when bravery is required, a moment which feels dangerous. That’s when it matters.
And, if you choose to go to Heaven through striving without submission, you are free to go and do it with other groups – go and do it with the Christians or the Jews, because we don’t want problems in our group. Striving without submission brings problems. The Quranists, for example, will forever have group problems. They want to strive without submission. If you choose, on the other hand, submission without striving, then you are welcome in our group, but you won’t receive any special invitations for great opportunities. If you choose to do both, submission and striving, then you are welcome in our group and you will also receive special invitations whenever opportunities to strive present themselves.