Month: May 2023

It’s a well-established fact by now that if you live in Europe, Mecca is towards South-East. In Asia, Mecca is towards South-West, or West. In Australia and the islands around it, Mecca is towards North-West; in sub-Saharan Africa, Mecca is towards North-East; and in North Africa Mecca is towards East or slightly South of East; in South America, Mecca is towards North-East. And people agree about these regardless of the type of map they use – whether they use a flat map, or a globe.

But when it comes to the continent of North-America, people do not agree anymore.

Those who use a flat map say that Mecca is towards the South-East,

and those who use a globe say that Mecca is towards the North-East.

So who is right?

Here are the arguments for both sides first:

1. Those who like to follow North-East, say that this is the shortest distance between North America and Mecca, and therefore this mus be the direction. However, there is a drawback to this argument, because this direction starts as North-East, but it eventually turns into South-East anyway.
2. On the other hand, those who like to follow South-East say that this is constantly South-East, and this would be a direction which is constantly the same relative to the stars. However, there is a drawback to this argument as well, because this is not really the shortest distance, and a direction is supposed to be the shortest distance between two points.

So, as you can see, both sides have arguments pro and against. This means that they don’t have enough arguments – they don’t have conclusive arguments. And when arguments are not enough, we need guidance (6:77, 27:63), and that is why God sends messengers (2:150-151, 49:7, 65:11). And, the guidance is in the Quran (27:77, 41:44).

The Quran never directly orders the believers to face Mecca, or Kaaba, per se (5:95, 5:97, 48:24, 3:96); it only orders us to face the Sacred Masjid (2:144, 2:149, 2:150). And there is a difference between these. The difference is that Mecca is the City (48:24), Kaaba is the cube shaped building (5:95, 5:97), and the Sacred Masjid is the ground underneath that building. So even if destroy Kaaba and Mecca, the Sacred Masjid would still be there. So, since the Sacred Masjid is the ground underneath Kaaba, if we go one meter underneath the ground, would it still be a sacred masjid? Of course. If you go two meters underneath the ground, would it still be a Sacred Masjid? Of course. If we go ten meters underneath the ground, would it still be a Sacred Masjid? Of course. If we go one mile underneath Kaaba, would it still be a Sacred Masjid? Of course. And if we go all the way to the center of the Earth, would it still be the Sacred Masjid? Of course. This means that the center of the earth is part of the Sacred Masjid. And, if we turn towards the center of the Earth, that means that we would turn towards the Sacred Masjid, and that’s what we do when we do the Contact Prayers. When we do the Contact Prayers, we bow down, and we prostrate, and at both times we are facing the center of the Earth (2:144). So, if you do the Contact Prayers, in each case you are facing the Sacred Masjid, regardless if you are turning East, or West, or North or South – it does not matter (2:177).

When you do the Contact Prayer, you are facing the Sacred Masjid.

So, it really does not matter which way you turn. All directions belong to God (2:142, 2:177, 2:115, 73:9). And this matter of turning towards the North-East or the South-East has nothing to do with righteousness (2:177, 2:142). It’s so not important, that it is not even religion – it’s geography.

Let’s emphasize the issue even more: The Contact Prayers are like money, with which you can buy heavenly food (2:277, 7:170), and whether you pay with them with the bill facing up or with the bill facing down, it really does not matter. The bill has the same value, face up, or face down. And you can even fold it, and it still has the same value. And the case of North America is like folded money. Part of it is facing down, and part of it is facing up, but it still has the same value. So, in the case of North America, part of the Qiblah is North-East, and part of the Qiblah is South-East; but it still has the same value. God will not waste your Contact Prayers, because of the direction which you are following (2:143).

So, if the Contact Prayers have the same value, regardless of the direction you turn, then why would God tell us to face the Sacred Masjid? Well, it’s simply to distinguish those who follow the messenger, from those who do not (2:143). And this is why the very definition of the word “Qiblah” in the Quran is ‘the direction with which the messenger is pleased with’ (2:144). So, it’s simply a matter of preference – whichever way the messenger like (2:144), and it has nothing to do with right and wrong (2:177).

Therefore, it’s not even theoretically possible for God’s messenger to misguide you in this issue, because this matter has nothing to do with right and wrong. It’s simply a matter of taste – whether you like what the messenger (chooses) likes (2:144). And this finally brings us to the question. What does the messenger like? Does the messenger like Qiblah to be North-East for the United States and Canada, or does the messenger Qiblah to be South-East for the United States and Canada? And here is what Clarifying Mesenger, Alban Fejza, chooses:

Instead of giving you directions, he gives us the liberty (4:28) – Liberty, by informing us that what he likes for Qiblah for the United States and Canada is the whole range of directions from North-East to South-East (2:148).

He likes them all. This means that from Alaska, Qiblah is the whole range of directions between North and South-West. The rest of the world might say, ‘Wait a minute! Why do American get a chance to choose from a range of directions, while we have to follow a more specific direction. Is it fair? Yes it is, because, the rest of the world had the privilege to build mosques before building roads, and this gave the rest of the world the opportunity to adjust the roads according to the mosques, while Americans have built roads before building mosques, and this is why they are forced to adjust the mosques according to the roads, and according to the urban planning. And of course, this additional flexibility will have to be paid for. For example, North Americans, when they travel to Hajj, they will have a longer distance, and therefore more expensive flight tickets.

So, this whole time, what people might have perceived as confusion and uncertainty about this issue (2:142), was in fact purposeful liberty, and purposeful flexibility from God (2:148).

In cases when someone else is leading the prayer for you, then you just follow them (2:43), because it’s not possible to go wrong in this issue. And when you are praying alone, for example, at work you can choose one direction, because that’s how it suits you (2:148), then you can go home, and pray in another direction, as long as it’s between North-East and South-East for USA and Canada (2:148, 2:144), and let’s say, then you go to the masjid, and pray in another direction (2:43) – it really does not matter (2:177) – you can constantly change your mind, wherever you go. And the whole range of directions between North-East and South-East are correct – all of them (2:142, 2:115, 2:177).

CONCLUSION:

• In the USA and Canada, Qiblah is EVERYTHING between North-East and South East (2:145, 2:148) because that the way the messenger likes it
• Other directions are also not wrong (2:177), but that’s simply not the way which the messenger likes (2:144).
• No wrong Qiblah (2:177, 2:148). IT’S ONLY WRONG TO ARGUE ABOUT IT (2:142).

Sumary of All Qiblah Directions:

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

For more information:

Principles of Muslim Prayer

Essentials of Islam

Reconstructing the Muslim Prayer Completely from the Quran

Join us to listen to our online Friday meetings every Friday.

The video shows the time periods for this century within which Hajj pilgrimage may be observed.

How do we know?

1. Let me explain.

We already know that Hajj was established by Abraham (2:125, 2:127, 3:97, 22:26).

Through the descendants of Abraham, Hajj was also inherited by Muhammad (16:23, 3:68, 3:95, 22:78), and it has been performed each lunar year in the month of Zul-Hijjah, generation after generation (43:28).

Therefore Muhammad and Abraham must have performed their Hajj also during the month of Zul-Hijjah.

Because, Abraham and Muhammad were competitive and eager for righteous works (38:47), they did Hajj in the earliest time possible (23:61, 9:88).

Therefore, the month of Zul-Hijjah must be, the earliest time for Hajj, or the first month of Hajj.

However, the Quran informs us that Hajj can be performed within many months (2:197) (plural), and the only plural months mentioned in the Quran are the four Sacred Months (5:2, 9:36), which are mentioned in relation to Hajj.

Therefore, the four Sacred Months are the months of Hajj.

But which ones exactly are the Sacred Months?

We already concluded that the first Sacred Month is Zul-Hijjah, but what about the other three months?

Verse 28:27 resolves this issue for us, because we see there that the word Hajj also means “Lunar Year”. There is no other word in the Quran which refers to lunar years. I explain this in my video titled “Christian vs. Muslim calendar”. So, one Hajj period is synonymous with one lunar year. This means that all the Sacred Months are joined to one another, a continuous period, because if any of them was separate, we would have more than one Hajj period every lunar year, and this would have been in violation with verse 28:27. So, there is only one Hajj period every lunar year, and this means that the Sacred Months should come all together one after another, joined after Zul-Hijjah, because we already concluded that Zul-Hijjah is the first Sacred Month.

Another way to prove this is by reading the beginning Surah 9. In it God and Muhammad make a declaration (9:1) on the day of the Greater Hajj (9:3), which we know happens during the beginning of the month of Zul-Hijjah, not to fight the idol worshipers for four continuous months (9:2), which are the four Sacred Months (9:5). Here we see that the four Sacred Months are continuous and they start with the month of Zul-Hijjah.

So, the Sacred Months, or the Hajj months, are Zul-Hijjah (12^th month), Muharram (1^st month), Safar (2^nd month), and Rabi I (3^rd month).

So these dates are the beginning and the end of the Sacred Months, from the first day of Zul-Hijjah, until the last day of Rabi I.

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

For more information:

Religious Duties: Gift from God

Essentials of Islam

Limits of Organized Religion

Join us to listen to our online Friday meetings every Friday.

The tables in the video above show you the Night of Destiny dates during a specific year of our century, for your specific location. The Night of Destiny, or ‘Laylat al-Qadr’ in Arabic, is the night in which the angles and the Spirit descend (97:4), It is the night in which the Quran was revealed (97:1), and it is also one of the Ramadan nights (2:185). But which Ramadan night exactly? People have speculated about this for centuries (10:36), and now finally God has revealed this information to us – the correct information, and we can extract it from the Quran. Here it is:

In the short chapter which talks about The Night of Destiny, the fifth verse gives it away. It says:

“Peaceful it is until the advent of the dawn.” (97:5)

This is, of course, not talking about peace between, humans – because so many wars and crimes go on right through the night of destiny. This is talking about peace between angels and jinns, as we can see it from other verses in the Quran, and especially from the fourth verse in the same chapter (97:4).

And the jinns who are made of fire (38:76), when they try to cross into our dimension, they are chased by the light of the stars, the light of the sun and the light of the moon (67:5, 72:9), and this is not peace. Peace is when they are not being chased (72:1). Therefore, angels can not make peace with jinns under sunlight and under moonlight. It has to be a night (no sun), and it has to be moonless – a moonless night.

So, in this context, let’s replace the word ‘peace’ with the word ‘moonless’ and here is what we get:

“Moonless it is until the advent of the dawn.” (97:5)

And this sentence now gives us the exact times, the exact dates of the Night of Destiny: Moonless it is, until the advent of the dawn.

So the Night of Destiny is the Ramadan Night which is moonless until the advent of dawn. (97:5), and this means that the moon rises after the beginning of Astronomical Dawn, and this can happen anywhere from the 19^th night of Ramadan until the 29^th night of Ramadan.

So now that we know it, we can simply look it up in the astronomical almanacs, and we did it for you, and the results are in the tables in the video above. By the way, you can see from those tables that calculations for specific locations in the extreme north or extreme south are not available (n/a), and this is due to the polar night or the polar day or the absence of dawn, and this means that in these regions, the Night of Destiny simply merges together with the rest of the nights, and this means that when the Night of Destiny ends in our locations, it does not really end – it simply retreats towards the North Pole or the South Pole depending on which one of them is in darkness.

However, there is a particular case when it is forced to end, and this happens when it is daylight both at the North Pole and the South Pole, and this is called the Spring Equinox or the Fall Equinox. And this can only happen during the Spring Equinox and the Fall Equinox. A simplified computer simulation can show that this happens after 1025 months sometimes, and after 1640 months at other times, and both these time periods are longer than a thousand months. So, this partly explains the verse which says that the Night of Destiny is better than a thousand months (97:3), It’s because, it is longer than a thousand months.

But of course, at the specific location where you live, it happens only once a year during Ramadan, and the exact dates for your location are in the tables presented in the video above.

°Let’s take year 2095 as an example. Let’s say that you live in London at this time, and you can search “London Latitude”, and you get 51° North, and in the table for the year 2095 in the video you can see that at 51° North, the Night of Destiny starts on the 1^st of February which happens to be the 26^th Ramadan night, while in Istanbul (41° N) for example, the Night of Destiny starts on the 2^nd of February which happens to be the 27^th Ramadan night, but in other years it can be in any of the last ten nights of Ramadan (89:2).

This is why the Quran says:

“By the dawn, and the ten nights” (89:1-2), because the moon rises at dawn only in any of the last ten nights of Ramadan. And we finally know the exact night (75:19), because this generation is obsessed with calendars and planning (3:54, 13:42), and God with His mercy decided that since some people are going to plan for it anyway, then at least let them have the correct date (25:13).

Conclusion

The Night of Destiny is the Ramadan night in which the moon rises after Astronomical Dawn for the first time; it is a moonless night until the advent of dawn. (97:5). Therefore, it is predictable with astronomical precision.

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

For more information:

Ramadan Calendar

Essentials of Islam

Religious Duties: Gift from God

Join us to listen to our online Friday meetings every Friday.

The video above shows you the calendar dates in which fasting is possible and the dates in which fasting is not possible for all geographical latitudes, one after another. Fasting is not possible in certain Extreme Norther and Extreme Southern Regions, which happens only at certain times of the year in locations above 49 degrees in Latitude, because of lack of beginning of astronomical dawn or lack of sunset. Both sunset and beginning of astronomical dawn are necessary for fasting, because fasting starts at the beginning of astronomical dawn and ends at sunset. And when one of them is missing, fasting is not possible.

We find instructions about what to do in this situation in the Quran. It says:

“…those of you who witness the month of Ramadan shall fast in it, and those who are ill or IN BRIGHTNESS (safar),fast the same number of other days…” (2:185).

The word “brightness (safar)” is also used in other verses, where it refers to ‘bright faces’ (80:38), and in verse 74:34 where it refers to ‘brightness of the dawn’. In other words, situations when the night is bright,  when it does not get completely dark, or continuous twilight (74:34), or as the Nordics call them “white nights”.

The exact astronomical definition of this is “nights in which the sun does not go more than 18° under horizon.”

So, when Ramadan comes, and it is not possible to fast (due to safar – brightness of the dawn), then we simply can not fast. We compensate those missed days after Ramadan, at the earliest possible time of the year, when fasting becomes possible again.

By the way, all kinds of fasting are acceptable to God, even if you are just dieting, losing weight, but here I am talking about fasting like Muhammad, and Abraham, the perfect form of obligatory fasting. So, at certain times of the year in the extreme north and south, you will not be able to fast like Abraham and Muhammad. I am not saying, “Do not do it.” I am saying “It’s not possible to do it”, and God orders us to do it properly, even if it has to be outside the month of Ramadan (2:184-185, 187).

The Quran instructs us that fasting should be done from the beginning of dawn (when the sun is 18° below horizon), until sunset. (2:187).

Another rare situation, which happens only in polar circles, is when sunset is also missing. In those rare cases, you do not even need to compensate the fasting, because those are not full days. You can not have a Quranic day without sunset. I show these dates with dark red in the calendar.

The Quran informs us that fasting is obligatory only on specific days which are specifically prepared for fasting (2:184).

It says, “Prepared days (are designated for fasting)…” (2:184)

Just to drive the point home, let me inform you that the pillars of Submission or Islam or religious rituals include Contact Prayers, Obligatory Charity, Hajj, and Fasting. We do not find Ramadan as pillar of submission anywhere in the Quran. But fasting is obligatory for believers (2:183). It is obligatory during Ramadan when it is possible to fast during Ramadan, and it is obligatory outside of Ramadan when it is only possible to fast outside of Ramadan (2:185).

By the way, the previous prophets also fasted (2:183), but not necessarily during Ramadan. Ramadan only became a mandatory month of fasting when the Quran was revealed (2:185), so that the believers can organize easier (2:185) (i.e. preparing food together, easier spousal relations; I mean, it can be frustrating for a spouse not to know when the other spouse is fasting and out of reach). So, Ramadan is a timetable to help with easier coordination of fasting between people (2:185). However, it is fasting which brings you closer to God (2:183, 33:35), not Ramadan. So, as long as you fast about thirty days per year (inside or outside of Ramadan), you are fulfilling one of the main pillars of submission to God: Fasting.

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

For more information:

Ramadan Calendar

When is the Night of Destiny?

Religious Duties: Gift from God

Join us to listen to our online Friday meetings every Friday.

In the video above, you can see the most accurate and concise Ramadan calendar for the whole inhabited world. The bottom part of the video maps for you the first day of Ramadan dates and the last day of Ramadan dates, chronologically, for this century. You can pause the video at any of the years. And the top part of the video shows you how those dates are calculated – the correct method of calculation.

The correct method is emphasized because Ramadan starts with a new moon and ends with a new moon, but the Muslim Scholars do not agree about the definition of the new moon. Some say, “the new moon happens when you see it”. Others say, “it is not possible to calculate it” and others say, “it happens at Lunar Conjunction”. They support these ideas by tradition, misunderstood science, personal experience, or blind obedience, but they are unaware that we can find the exact definition of the new moon in the Quran. Here is the correct definition from the Quran, Chapter 2, Verse 189; it says:

“They ask you about the new moons. Say, “They are appointed times for people, and Hajj, and it is not right (for the new moons) to enter nights from noon, but right is to be cautious, and enter nights from their (night entrance) sunset…”

And this specific meaning of the verse can be found in the Arabic Quran. Some translators, translate the words “night”, “noon” and “sunset” in this verse out of context as if though they talk about “houses” “backdoors” and “front doors”, relying on common Arabic language. But the best Arabic Standard is the Quran, and we can use it to deduce the proper meanings of these words from other verses where they are mentioned in the Quran. We find these Arabic words in other verse of the Quran, where the word “bayatan” actually means “night” (4:81, 4:108, 7:4, 7:97, 10:50, 27:49), not necessarily “house”; and the word “dhuhr” means ‘noon’ (24:58), not necessarily “back-door”, and the word “baba” means “sky gate” (15:14), not necessarily “house gate”.

So, the correct definition of the new moon from verse 2:189 is the moon which does not come at noon, but comes at sunset, and it enters the night after sunset.

So, the first night of Ramadan is the first night where the moon sets after sunset, and the day that follows it is the first day of Ramadan. And the last day of Ramadan is the day that precedes the night in which the moon sets after sunset.

Now, this definition is calculable, precise, Quranic, unifying, and correct, and scientifically empirical because it uses the actual western horizon as a cutting line between the moon and the sun, and not imaginary lines in deep space like in the Lunar Conjunction definition which is measured from noon, not from sunset.

So, Ramadan and the other lunar months start WHEN THE MOON SETS AFTER SUNSET. This is a very simple and precise definition.

To make this definition even more precise, the video takes into account the fact that astronomers measure sunset and moonset from the tops of their discs, which is correct for sunset, but moonset needs to be measured from the bottom, from its potentially visible crescent part, and this difference in measurement is about three minutes. In other words, the whole moon needs to be above horizon at the moment when the whole sun is under horizon. So, the more accurate definition is:

RAMADAN STARTS ON THE FIRST NIGHT WHEN THE MOON SETS AT LEAST 3 MINUTES AFTER SUNSET. THE FOLLOWING DAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF RAMADAN

The video uses this definition to calculate Ramadan dates for the whole world, and they are mapped in the video, so you can find them readily available.

In cases when you are unsure between two dates from the map, just go with the later date. This is in accordance with verse 2:189 telling us to be cautions, meaning “choose the later date when you are unsure”.

By the way, during Ramadan days, believers fast from the beginning of dawn until sunset. And in case there is no sunset or no beginning of astronomical dawn at your location, you can learn how to deal with it in the other clarification titled “Fasting in the Extreme North and South”.

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

Acknowledgment:

Sunset and Moonset data extracted from the US Naval Observatory, and validated by data from HM Nautical Almanac Office. Twenty geographical data points were found for each map where

Moonset = Sunset + 3 min.

Data were modeled using polynomial regressions (R²=0.998), and then mapped onto an equirectangular projection map.

Special thanks to Arjeta Fejza for data double-checking support,

And to Vlora Fejza for technical support.

For more information:

Fasting in the Extreme North and South

When is the Night of Destiny?

Essentials of Islam

Join us to listen to our online Friday meetings every Friday.

The Quran prescribes specific times of prayers (4:103), not a specific number of prayers. Therefore, the prayers according to the Quran can be:

• 5 daily prayers, or
• 4 daily prayers (20:130, 30:17&18), or
• 3 daily prayers (50:39&40, 11:114), or
• 2 daily prayers (30:18, 30:17, 33:42, 40:55, 48:9, 24:36, 52:49, 76:25), or
• 1 daily prayer (2:238, 73:2, 73:20, 25:64, 39:9, 26:218),

– it all depends on how the sun moves across the sky, and that depends on your location latitude, and the time of year.

In the video above, you can see all possible combinations of prayers for all possible times of the year, for all possible locations – finally, a complete understanding of this issue.

• So, there are always five obligatory daily prayers, near the Equator, from 21° North to 21° South, which includes Mecca.
• Then, at 22° North, there are a few December days with four available prayer times. At 23° North, there are even more days with four prayer times, and so on. In these particular days and locations, the sun does not elevate more than 45°, so the shadows are always longer than their objects, which means that the day crosses from forenoon directly into Afternoon. So, the Noon and the Afternoon become one prayer, and it does not matter if you call it Noon or Afternoon, they are simply the same in those cases. We call it ‘Afternoon’ in the video, just to use one of them, but it can also be called “Noon” in that circumstance. So where in the Quran, do we find this case of four prayers? This particular case of four prayers is mentioned in the Quran, in chapter 20, verse 130 which says, “…glorify your Lord before sunrise (1. Dawn), and before sunset (2. Afternoon), and during the night (3. Night) glorify Him, as well as at both ends of the day (4. Sunset and Dawn).” As you can see, the Noon prayer is not mentioned at all in this verse, acknowledging the case when Noon and Afternoon are the same thing, simply described as the prayer before sunset. And it’s very easy to know when this case of four prayers applies, by using the sun as a timing device. So, if there is dawn, we observe the dawn prayer, and if there is no dawn, we do not observe the Dawn Prayer. If there is noon, we do the Noon Prayer, and if there is no noon, we do not do the Noon Prayer. If there is afternoon, we do the Afternoon Prayer. If there is no afternoon, we do not do the Afternoon Prayer. If there is sunset or evening, we do the Sunset Prayer. If there is no sunset or evening, we do not do the Sunset Prayer. If there is full darkness night, we do the Night Prayer, and if there is no full darkness, we do not do the Night Prayer (4:103). As simple as that. It’s remarkable how religious disbelievers have the guts to modify these rules, because they want to fit them to their preconceived idea that there must always be 5 daily prayers. We simply do not find that in the Quran. They are inventing it. The Quran mentions the prayer times, and if they happen, you do them, and if they do not happen, you do not do them. It does not matter, if they turn out to be 5 or 4 or 3 or 2 or 1.
• At 49° latitude and all the way to 67° latitude, during certain summer days, we have another set of four prayers, namely – Dawn, Noon, Afternoon, and Sunset. In this situation, the Night prayer is missing, because the sun during these days does not reach 18° below horizon, and the days simply turn into twilight, but not into a full darkness night. And this situation with four prayer times is mentioned in chapter 30, verses 17&18, where it says, “…glorify God at the start of Morning (1. Dawn) and at the start of Evening (2. Sunset)… and praise Him in (3.) Afternoon, and (4.) Noon.” You can find these in the Arabic Quran, not necessarily in translations.
• From 59° North, all the way to the North Pole, there are certain Spring and Fall days in which only 3 prayers times apply – Dawn, Afternoon, and Sunset. And again we can find this in chapter 50, verses 39 and 40, where it says, “…glorify your Lord before sunrise (1. Dawn), and before sunset (2. Afternoon), and towards the night (3. Sunset)” Of course, no other prayer time is mentioned in this case.
• Then, from 66° to 68° North, there are summer days where only 2 prayers times apply – Noon and Afternoon, and we can find these two prayers mentioned together in chapter 30, verse 18.
• Then, from 68° North, mostly during winter days, another set of 3 prayer times applies – Dawn, Sunset and Night. These three prayers are mentioned together in chapter 11, verse 114, which says, “Observe the Contact Prayers at both ends of the day (1. Dawn & 2. Sunset), and during the night (3. Night)…” This case is also mentioned in chapter 76, verse 25 and 26.
• Then from 69° North, there are summer days with only one prayer time – the Afternoon. This is mentioned alone in chapter 2, verse 238, which says, “Consistently observe the Contact Prayers, especially the middle prayer…”. As you can see, the word “especially” here implies that other prayer times might not be consistently available in certain situations. This is one of them.
• From 82° in latitude and above, there are Spring and Fall days with only 2 prayer times available – Dawn (Morning) and Sunset (Evening). These two prayers are symmetrical to one another, and always happen together in the same circumstance. This is why the Quran always mentions them together, in many verses – 30:17, 33:42, 40:55, 48:9, 24:36, 52:49, 76:25.
• And finally, at 85° North and above, there are winter days when it is always fully dark, and therefore only the Night Prayer is due in these cases. This is why we can find the Night Prayer mentioned alone in many verses 73:2, 73:20, 25:64, 39:9, 26:218.

God has designed the Contact Prayers according to the movement of the sun, and not according to their numbers. This is to keep them equally easy, regardless of the time of the year and location. For example, two prayers at the freezing North Pole, are about as easy as five prayers in the lush tropic. Or four prayers in winter, are about as easy as five prayers in summer. Prostrating in dry land, for example, is not the same as prostrating in mud or cold snow. To avoid these harsh dark conditions, you have to carry something or build something, and carrying something is not the same as walking freely empty handed.

Even for ablution, in cold weathers, you probably need a towel. In Mecca, I did not need towels. As soon as I did ablution, I felt dry and ready to go. In Europe for example, during winter, I have to untie my boots, take off my boots, take off my socks, probably my coat as well – many times a day. In Mecca, I did not need to do any of this – sandals are too easy!

The obligatory prayers together with ablution and all these practical things which might turn up are designed so that they take exactly 2.5% of your life experience, or 2.5% of your awake time which translates into a total of 24 minutes of dedicated time to God per day, regardless of your location and season, just like Obligatory Charity which is 2.5%, regardless of your net income, and really we do not need to go further with these examples to justify the numbers of prayers in certain locations, because the times of prayers are clear in the Quran, but not their number, and if you are a believer, you will do them, no matter what; 5 Contact Prayer times available, and you do them, 4 Contact Prayer times available, and you do them, and so on. You have them all now in the tables in the video – whatever applies to your location.

Let me remind you that there is not a single combination of prayers which I mentioned here, which is also not mentioned in the Quran, and also there is not a single combination of prayers which is mentioned in the Quran, which I also did not mention here – a complete match.

By the way, while the Contact Prayers are religious practices, the TIMES of Contact Prayers are scientific observations. So, these are not religious edicts which we are bringing. These are proven astronomical observations which anyone can see. You can look up in the sky, and see for yourself. There is nothing new about this. If religious leaders don’t like this, let them find another sun, one which listens to them, but we have to use the one already available, and using the suns which God provided for us, the Times of Contact Prayers are defined according to the table below:

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

For more information:

Does Alban Contradict Rashad about Prayer Times?

Twilight (Evening & Dawn)

Reconstructing the Muslim Prayer Completely from the Quran

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The main purpose of a calendar is to calculate and keep track of time. Yet, Muslims use the Hijri Calendar, Christians use the Gregorian Calendar, and Jews use their own calendar. Which one of them is right? It turns out that the correct calendar is God’s calendar (10:5, 55:5); it’s written in the sky, and according to this correct calendar we use the sun to calculate the years, and we use the moon to calculate the months (10:5).

So, the Christians have changed the months incorrectly, and the Muslims have changed the years incorrectly, because they both wanted the months and the years to synchronize with each other. But they don’t have to synchronize. Do we also change the weeks so that they synchronize with the months? Do we make the weeks longer, or the months shorter? No.

A week is 7 days, a month is 29 or 30 days, and a year is 365 days. This means that one year has 12 months. So, the Christians have got it right when it comes to the years, the Muslims have got it right when it comes to the months, and the Jews have got it right when it comes to the weeks – their Sabbath is the seventh day (4:154).

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

For more information:

Essentials of Islam

Times of Contact Prayer

Ramadan Calendar

Join us to listen to our online Friday meetings every Friday.

The Bible Contains Unacceptable Contradictions Only Due to Human Interference in It

In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. More and more people are increasingly disillusioned with the Bible. They grow up learning that the Bible is the word of God, but when they study the Bible carefully, they discover that it contains too many unacceptable contradictions, too much unacceptable nonsense, and this shocks them and causes disillusionment.

A very good example can be found in the book market. In the bookstores, we find a book by Carl Sagan called “Contact,” and on page 30 of this book, we find a very good example of the contradictions, the unacceptable contradictions in the Bible. We see here that in the Gospel of Matthew, there are 28 generations between David and Jesus, but in the Gospel of Luke, we see that the number of generations from David to Jesus is 43. Now, how could this be the word of God? Does God know how many generations are between David and Jesus? The names in Matthew and in Luke are not even similar, and this destroys the credibility of the Bible as the word of God. How can we explain these contradictions?

Herein, you can see proof that the Bible is, in fact, the word of God, but these indefensible contradictions are there because they were injected by human beings. Any contradiction, any nonsense you see in the Bible is a result of human interference, distortions, and injections by wicked people or good-intentioned people. So, I will prove to you that the vast majority of the Bible is divine truth.

Examples of Contradictions

The biggest contradiction of all is the deification of Jesus Christ, making him a god against his will and against the teachings of the Bible, even. We read in Matthew 27:46 that on the cross toward mid-afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud tone. And the Gospel of Matthew even writes the Aramaic that Jesus supposedly uttered on the cross, which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Now, this is not God speaking, saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This also casts doubt and creates a serious contradiction concerning the doctrine that Jesus came here to die for our sins because if this were true, then his crucifixion would be a fulfillment of his purpose, and he would have said on the cross, “My God, my God, thank you for fulfilling my mission.” So, all these contradictions create this disillusionment in the minds of intelligent people.

In one of the printed Bibles, for example, we find the theme at the beginning, like this: “The man who hears my word, and has faith in him who sent me, possesses eternal life.” So, this verse is telling us that Jesus was sent to humanity by God, that Jesus is a messenger of God. And when we go to the Book of Revelation, the very first verse says the following: “This is the revelation God gave to Jesus Christ, that he might show his servants what must happen very soon.” This is the revelation God gave to Jesus Christ. So, here we have God giving a message to Jesus Christ in order to deliver it to the world. Jesus could not possibly be God. Jesus is a messenger of God. Many great Christians, of course, realize this serious contradiction, the deification of Jesus against his will, and study it carefully and research the subject thoroughly.

Great Christian Scholars Have Detected Many Contradictions

The book “The Myth of God Incarnate” is written by Dan Cupit, a university lecturer in divinity and dean of Emmanuel College at Cambridge; Michael Golder, staff tutor in theology in the Department of Extramural Studies at Birmingham University; John Hick, who is HG Wood Professor of Theology at Birmingham University; Leslie Holden, principal of Raiphan College in Kadhistan; Dennis Nineham, Warden of Kepley College at Oxford; Maurice Wiles, Regis Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church at Oxford and chairman of the Church of England’s Doctrine Commission. And the final author here is Francis Young, lecturer in New Testament Studies at Birmingham University. The essence or the summary of the book is found on the back where it says, “For many people, the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ is the essence of Christianity. Here, a group of distinguished theologians and biblical scholars ask whether the idea of the incarnation is essential to Christianity, and they question the whole development of the doctrine. Their thesis is that Jesus was, as he is described, presented in Acts 2:21, ‘a man approved by God,’ ‘for a special role within the divine purpose.’ And the later conception of him as God incarnate, the second person of the Holy Trinity living a human life, is a mythological or poetic way of expressing his significance for us. This reinterpretation of the doctrine of the incarnation has been criticized as sensational and destructive, but the authors declare a constructive purpose. They have examined evidence from the New Testament onward with care and thoroughness and have asked their questions because they are concerned with the consequences of their findings for a full and living Christian faith for today. Their work is something that no thinking Christian can ignore.”

I assure you that we do not have enough time to give examples of the contradictions and nonsense that is found throughout the Bible, unfortunately. But you heard me state earlier that the Bible is, in fact, the word of God, the infallible word of God. And here I am talking about the original, unaltered Bible in the original language. That was the word of God. The contradictions and the nonsense have been injected into the Bible by people who deliberately or with good intentions actually distorted the words of God and created doctrines that are not in the Bible. However, the Bible, as printed today, ninety percent of it is divine truth. Unfortunately, the human race has been duped into following the ten percent of contradictions and false doctrines injected by humans into the Bible. The Bible, being the word of God, must be corrected, and God sees to it that all these contradictions and nonsense are exposed.

Jesus Disowns Those Who Idolize Him Instead of God

The biggest problem that these contradictions and nonsense create is that millions of people throw the baby with the bathwater because of these contradictions and false doctrines that have been injected into the Bible, and the nonsense that intelligent people cannot accept. These things unfortunately drive millions of people away from God and from the word of God. But we must be alerted that the Bible contains the truth from God. For example, the first commandment in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, which is called the greatest commandment, is to worship God alone, the creator of the universes, the creator who created you and me and Jesus Christ and Muhammad and Mary. It is the false doctrines that created the Trinity and the deification of Jesus Christ against his will and distorted the Bible. Ironically, the distortions and the nonsense and the false doctrines constitute a minute part of the Bible. But unfortunately, millions upon millions of people follow these minute contradictions and small false doctrines, and they leave the majority of the truth. They ignore, for example, the fact that the Bible clearly states that Jesus is not God. Millions of people ignore the clear statements throughout the Bible that Jesus is not God, and they insist on the deification of Jesus against his will. And in this way, they are being enemies of Jesus Christ, as he himself says in Matthew 7:23.

God Did Something About the Human Interference in His Bible: He Sent Down to Us a Final Message to Serve as a Standard Reference and He Coded the Final Scripture Mathematically Beyond Human Ability

Of course, God did something about the contradictions, the falsehood, the nonsense that have been injected into his word, the Bible. And what God did was to send a final edition of the scripture. This final edition is mathematically composed beyond human ability, as we can explain to you. When you examine the final message from God to you, you will be sure that every letter, every word is from God. You will be absolutely positive that there is no human interference in it. And you will see which truth in the Bible is confirmed by this final segment of the scripture. And you will see that the contradictions and the false doctrines are exposed as such. You will recognize which is the truth from God and which is the falsehood from human beings, human interference into the Bible. So this is what God did to clear the confusion, to settle the controversies, and to establish the truth in His Bible.

The Functions of God’s Final Message

So let’s summarize what this final message from God to the world does. First of all, it exposes the contradictions and the nonsense that have been injected in the Bible. The second thing, it confirms the divine truths that are found in the Bible. The majority of the Bible is divine truth. The third function of this final message from God to the world is to settle the great controversies, like the deification of Jesus, the sonship, the claimed sonship of Jesus to God. The fourth function of this final segment of God’s scripture is to confirm all previous miracles, the unusual happenings that may be unbelievable, like the parting of the Red Sea, like the fact that Jesus revived the dead and created birds from clay by God’s lead. All these things are hard to believe. So this final segment of God’s scripture, being mathematically composed and containing this physical evidence that it is from God, confirms those unusual happenings that we call miracles. Since every letter, every word in this final segment of God’s scripture is mathematically composed beyond human ability, when you read a statement saying Moses parted the Red Sea, this statement becomes proven by physical evidence. When you read in this message that Jesus revived the dead, which is something unbelievable normally, when you read that, and you know that it is a miracle, miracle by definition is an unusual happening. So when you read the statement, “Jesus revived the dead,” and you know that every letter, every word is mathematically composed beyond human ability, then this gives you physical evidence that the statement, “Jesus revived the dead,” is a proven fact. Unusual as it may be, it is God’s miracle that Jesus performed.

So, these are the four functions of God’s final scripture to the world:

1. To expose the contradiction and nonsense and remove from the Bible
2. Confirm the divine truths that are contained in the Bible
3. Settle the controversies, the virgin birth of Jesus, the crucifixion of his body after his soul had departed
4. To confirm all previous miracles, the miracles of Moses and Jesus and the unusual happenings that we see in the Bible and in the Quran.

By: Rashad Khalifa, the Messenger of the Covenant

For more information:

The Mathematical Miracle of the Quran

Essentials of Islam

How to Use the Bible Today?

Join us to listen to our online Friday meetings every Friday.

For millennia, the atheists have disagreed with the Bible and the Quran about how the universe came to be. They were of the opinion that the universe always existed, and it had no beginning, while the Bible and the Quran stated that the universe did have a beginning. Then in the 1920s, Alexander Friedman, Georges Lemaitre, Edwin Hubble, and other scientists, proved both theoretically and with astronomical evidence that the universe indeed had a beginning. It was finally proven scientifically that the Quran and the Bible were right all along that the universe had a beginning. But this same scientific evidence which proved the Bible and the Quran to be correct about this issue, introduced a new disagreement: When did the universe begin and how? The Bible and the Quran clearly say that the heavens and the earth were created in six days and nights (7:54), while the scientific evidence clearly shows that they were created in about 13.8 billion years. This looked like a major unresolved disagreement, until now. In this video, for the first time in history, we will resolve this issue. We will present to you the well-established scientific conclusions which prove that the heavens and the earth were indeed created in six nights and days. And we will only use the well-established scientific facts to prove it. No unproven or questionable scientific theories will be presented in this video – only well-established scientific fasts. We will go over them one by one, and then in the end you will see how indeed those facts mean that this universe was created in six nights and days.

But to do that, we first have to define what the Quran and the Bible mean when they mention the words “night” and “day”. In the book of Genesis, in the first page of the Bible, in verse 5, we read that, “God called the light Day, and He called the darkness Night”. The same definition is given in the Quran. In verse 17:12, and many other verses (28:71, 28:72, 27:86, 40:61, 10:67), we see that the definition of “night” is “a period of darkness” and the definition of “day” is “a period of light”. Nowhere in the Quran or the Bible can we find that the day is a period of time which is always the same length – 24 hours for example. That could not possibly be the definition, neither religiously (28:71, 28:72, 70:4), because clocks did not exist when the Bible and the Quran were revealed, and neither scientifically, because time is relative, moving at different speeds in different locations, depending on the circumstances (70:4, 22:47). So, the definition of the words “night” and “day” clearly can not be “a fixed period of time”, but instead they are “a period of darkness” and “a period of light”. So, “night” means “a period of darkness”, and “day” means “a period of light”.

So, now, having this definition in mind, let’s go over the story of how the universe and the earth came to be according to science, and while we do that, we will use this table here to keep track of when it was dark and when it was light, during each period, and by the end of this video, you will see that we switched between darkness and light six times – six days and six nights.

So, let’s go over it. Here is the well-established scientific account of how this universe and the earth came to be:

It all started 13.8 billion years ago, with what the scientists call “The Big Bang” and the “Inflation” (51:47, 21:30). A sudden explosion of pure energy from a single point happened (21:30). At that initial stage, the so-called “four forces of nature” were still indistinguishable from one another (55:7), and all the physical particles (including the photons) existed as one common energy field, they occupied the same space, and did not exist separately yet.

So, photons (light) and matter were not distinguishable yet from one another. And because of this, it was dark. And even after photons became distinguishable from electrons and protons eventually, as the pressure and temperature of the universe decreased, it was still dark for a while because the photons kept being absorbed by the free electrons. Basically, all the matter was in plasma form everywhere (41:11) and light could not penetrate through plasma, so the universe was fully opaque at this stage, and you wouldn’t be able to see anything, if you were there. To you, it would still look dark.

Then, about 380,000 after the beginning, after the Big Bang, as the universe expanded enough, the temperatures dropped, slowing down the particles, and this enabled the protons to capture the electrons and thus the universe transformed into a vast space of mainly hydrogen atoms (11:7). This enabled the light to travel freely for the first time, and this made the universe turn from opaque, into transparent, and you could see light for the first time. At this point, if you looked around, you would see a bright orange-white light on every direction you looked. So, at that point, it became light.

And then as the universe expanded more and more, after about two million years, the wavelength of this light stretched so much to the point that it crossed beyond red, and become infrared, and you wouldn’t see it anymore, and at that time the whole universe would look dark to you again. So, at about 2 million years after the beginning, the universe became dark again, and this lasted for about 500 million years. The cosmologists call this, “the cosmic dark ages”.

Then at the end of that time, the so-called “gravity” had enough time to gather the atoms in large enough clusters of matter, and in the more enormous clusters, the pressure was high enough to merge the hydrogen atoms together, creating helium, and in the process, light was released, and stars came into existence for the first time. But these stars were too far away to shed any significant light in our region, so it was still technically dark (6:97). And eventually, the material of these stars exploded and recombined, recycled into different generations of stars (30:27), and eventually the sun was also created about 4.6 billion years ago.

So, for the first time, in our region the material was illuminated with sunlight. However, there were still clouds of material left orbiting around the sun. So, we wouldn’t be able to see the shape of the sun clearly. We would just see light coming through the clouds of material. It looked like a cloudy day, where it is daylight, but you can’t see the sun. So, during this period, it was light again.

So, it was light for the second time, and this lasted about 100 million years, during which the  proto-earth gradually became larger and larger. From the dust in that same orbit, another slightly smaller planet had also formed, and eventually under “gravity” collided with the proto-earth, adding material to the earth and throwing some of the earth’s material into orbit which formed the moon. So, at the same time when earth became the size as we know it today, making it truly earth, that is also when the moon was created (9:36).

The collision which we mentioned, heated the earth, and for about 100 million years, the earth was very volcanic and hot, and this covered the sky with smoke everywhere, keeping earth under darkness. So, during this time the earth was dark again. This is the third darkness.

Then as the earth cooled down, the vapor which was released from volcanoes cooled down and fell as water and formed one global ocean. The whole earth was covered in water (11:7), and as the smoke dissipated, the sky became translucent, and it was daylight again. This is the third period of light. And because of the translucent sky, during this period, the sun and the moon were not visible on earth yet, but the sunlight scattered through the top layers of the atmosphere, which then scattered to the lower layers, reaching the earth, creating daylight, but without seeing the sun. It looked like a lightly foggy day (41:11).

During this time, due to volcanoes, a landmass (much smaller than today) gradually emerged from the sea. And also, the first living creatures formed in the sea (24:45). But they were all basically early version of sea plants, proto-plants – and they existed only in the sea. More specifically, the cyanobacteria dominated, and they are creatures which use light to produce oxygen.

So, during this period oxygen was produced, and initially it did not change the atmosphere, because any produced oxygen would attach to iron, and would create the iron oxides – the iron ores which we know today – and then eventually once all the exposed iron of the earth was combined with oxygen, that’s when the oxygen rapidly accumulated in the atmosphere. Scientists call this “the great oxygenation event”.

Now, the new oxygen in the atmosphere reacted with the already existing methane to produce carbon dioxide and water, and because the level of methane in the atmosphere fell, it didn’t hold the heat from the sun inside, and the earth cooled by a lot, and the first ice caps in the poles formed, which then meant that more sunlight would be reflected in space, which made the earth even cooler, which increasing the ice even more, and so on, in a vicious cycle, until the earth was fully covered in ice. The geologists call it “the snowball earth”.

Now, during this stage, as we said, only sea creatures, more specifically, the ancestors of the sea plants existed. So, had you been a creature at this time, you would have been in the sea, and the top of the sea above you would be fully covered with ice and snow, and practically no light would reach you, and for you, it was full darkness – night. So, this was the fourth darkness.

During this time, the volcanoes continued to release CO2, and unlike the other times when CO2 was captured by rocks to create carbonates, this time, because the rocks were covered with ice, the CO2 accumulated in the atmosphere creating a greenhouse effect, trapping the heat within the planet, and eventually melting the ice, and light reached the sea again, making it daylight for the very little sea creatures which had survived during this time. So, it was daylight again – The fourth period of light. And now, due to the new atmospheric composition, with more CO2, more oxygen, and less impurities, for the first time, the atmosphere became transparent like today, and for the first time you would be able to see the sun, and the moon, and the stars on earth.

Then, the tectonic movements for the first time pushed significantly more land above the sea, revealing new layers of rocks, which reacted with the CO2 in the atmosphere, reducing the CO2 from the atmosphere again which cooled the earth enough to kickstart that global cooling cycle again,

and a “snowball earth” happened for the second time. This happened during what is known as the Cryogenian period (which means “cold born”). A few other glaciation events happened in this period, but the other ones did not cover the earth fully to make it night under the sea. Only one of those events, the Sturtian glaciation covered the earth fully to make it fully dark for the creatures which lived in the sea, which were still technically all ancestors of plants, or early versions of plants. So, during this period it was darkness or night again for them. So, this was the fifth period of darkness.

Then again, CO2 levels increased again due to volcanoes, and the ice melted, revealing the daylight for the ocean creatures again, and now it was daylight again. This was the fifth period of light. Then, because of a much bigger land mass on earth which had gradually emerged from the sea, new evolutionary pressures and opportunities emerged and some of those sea plants gradually adapted to less and less water in certain regions, and we had for the first time land plants.

And also, for the first time, moving creatures, the animals which moved were created in the sea. Then one or more of them evolved into land animals and the land eventually was also populated with a large number of moving animals. And since for the first time we had moving creatures, which could go after their food instead of just waiting for the food to come to them, this meant that the so-called “evolutionary process” sped up, and a large number of moving animals species evolved.

Eventually after millions of years, the ancestors of birds also came into existence, and a subgroup of them became enormous in size – scientists call them “dinosaurs”. Now, as these creatures reached their peak evolution about 66 million years ago, a meteor hit the earth, and the earth was fully covered in darkness for about a couple of years. So, then the earth was in a period of darkness again. This was the sixth period of darkness. The darkness made it impossible for plants to grow, and the animals which ate the plants, especially the large animals which needed lots of food, went extinct. The dinosaurs went extinct.

Then, the smoke dissipated from the sky, and it was daylight again. This is the sixth period of light. And towards the end of this daylight period, hominids, the human shaped species came into existence, which include the Neanderthals, the Denisovans and their African counterparts.

So, these are the periods of darkness and light, which is what nights and days literarily are – periods of darkness, and periods of light. And if we count them, we realize that there are six nights and six days. So, scientifically, from the time when this universe began until the human shaped species were created, there were six nights and six days, or six periods of darkness and six periods of light. And these are the conclusions of the scientists themselves, the conclusions of the cosmologists, geologists, and archeologists. They discovered all of these periods, and whether these were periods of darkness or light. In this video, we are just guided to realize that if we put all of their discoveries together, we get six nights and six days – six periods of darkness and six periods of light. So, yes, the heavens and the earth were created in six days, and of course, six nights which divide those six days.

So, to conclude, there is absolutely no contradiction between science and the Quran about how and when the heavens and the earth (this universe) came to be. The Quran says that this universe and everything we see in it were formed in six days, and scientific evidence confirms that.

Now, let me point something out. We heard in this video that the human-shaped creatures came towards that later part of the sixth day, and then at the end of that Adam came into existence. This does not automatically mean that Adam was a descendant or a cousin of apes. We deal with that issue in another video clarification titled, “Evolution or Creation: The Final Explanation”.  In that video, you can see that unlike the animal species which descended from one another, Adam did not descend from other creatures. He was created directly from mud about 50,000 years ago.

And until Adam was created about 50,000 years ago, the days were counted from God’s perspective, since animals (including the human-shaped animals) didn’t know how to count, but when Adam was created, God made him a representative on earth (2:30), as the Quran says, and from than on, the days could be counted from Adam’s perspective, and this means that from that time the days from the human perspective have been about 12 hours long in the regions near the equator, as we know, and they have been shorter than that or longer than that in more northern or southern regions, even up to six months long in the polar regions, depending on how long the daylight lasts in that specific location, as we know.

From all the people on earth,

• 66% of them will go to Hell forever,
• 24% will go to Purgatory,
• And 9.09% will go to Heaven – 9% in Paradise, and only 0.09% in the Higher Paradise.

How can we know? We can know this by combining verse 59:20 with verses 8:65 & 66.

Verse, 59:20 calls the believers “winners”. Then, in verse 8:65 God informs us that the believers will win against ten times as many disbelievers, and this is in the future tense in Arabic, using the word “WILL”, and it applies to any future victory – including Heavenly victory. So, for every person in Heaven, there will be ten people in Hell and Purgatory (8:65, 6:160).

Then, the people of Purgatory will join Paradise (7:49), after 1000 years of repentance (22:47, 29:14, 7:47). Once the people of Purgatory join Paradise, the Quran in verse 8:66 informs us that the believers would have defeated twice as many disbelievers. So, the people in Heaven and Purgatory would have defeated twice as many people in Hell (8:66, 2:265, 7:46).

People in Heaven will be in two Paradises – Paradise and the Higher Paradise (55:46, 55:62). For every 99 people in Paradise, there will be only one person in the Higher Paradise (38:23-24).

People in the Higher Paradise will be saved by God (37:74).

People in Paradise will be saved by God’s grace (3:170).

People in Purgatory will be saved God’s mercy (7:49).

And that is why the Quran starts with the phrase “In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful” (1:1)

People who refuse God, His grace, and His mercy will deserve God’s wrath – Hell (1:7, 3:162).

By the way, don’t let this graph fool you into thinking that Hell is big. Hell will be as small as the Earth’s Core (69:32), while Paradise will be bigger than the seven heavens (3:133), which is infinitely bigger (39:67).

In Paradise will go:

• 9% of men (33:35, 49:13, 48:5)
• 9% of women (33:35, 49:13, 48:5)
• 9% of rich people (34:37)
• 9% of poor people (34:37)
• 9% of married people (34:37)
• 9% of unmarried people (34:37)
• 9% of people living today (56:39-40)
• 9% of people from the past (56:39-40)
• 9% of people from the future (56:39-40)
• 9% of people living in cities (9:101)
• 9% of people living in rural areas (9:101)
• 9% of whites (49:13)
• 9% of blacks (49:13)
• 9% of Asians (49:13)
• 9% of Semites (49:13)
• 9% of every ethnicity (49:13)
• 9% from any free democratic country (49:13) – the non-democratic countries today have anywhere from 8% of believers and their economy goes down, to about 10% of believers and their economy is booming.
• 9% of powerful people (4:95)
• 9% of weaker people (4:95)
• 9% from any profession which is allowed (you might think that some professions are less honest. However, competition in a free market makes the less honest professions more crowded, and more competitive and therefore equally hard to live by.
• 9% of people who went to school
• 9% of people who did not go to school
• 9% of smart people
• 9% of not so smart people
• 9% of active people (4:95)
• 9% of passive people (4:95)
• 9% of taller people (49:13)
• 9% of shorter people (49:13)
• Surprisingly, about 9% of the so called atheists (atheists are not necessarily bad; they are stupid; for example, babies are both atheists and submitters at the same time)
• About 9% of religious people
• About 9% of Muslim World
• About 9% of Christian World
• About 9% of Jewish World
• About 9% Buddhist World
• About 9% of Indian World
• About 9% of Agnostics World

This does not make religions equally right, because from the wrong religious groups, the unfortunate mistreated people go to Heaven, and from the right religious groups, the fortunate people who help others go to Heaven.

Beware, Heaven is closed for:

• Old Atheists (16:48, 26:86, 34:9)
• Rich Christians (9:111, 5:82, 5:66, Mathew 19:24)
• Political Jews (5:64, 5:84, 2:11)
• Muslims who follow blindly (6:114-116)
• Organized Buddhists (42:20)
• Devout Hindus (4:116)
• Agnostics who have opinions (30:29, 47:16, 39:9, 20:16)
• Submitters who think that they know better than a living messenger of God (2:98, 49:1, 4:150)

So, is there any religious group which is the correct group of believers? Well, today, not completely (42:14), but from the people who believe this video right now, 99% of them will go to Heaven (3:7, 49:15, 9:88), and from the people who believe this video 40 years later, about 70% of them will go to Heaven (2:246, 59:10-11).

Now, what about Hell? 66.66% of any of the mentioned demographical groups will go to Hell:

• 66% of men,
• 66% of women,
• 66% of poor people,
• 66% of rich people, and so on…

However, in the very extremes, in the Higher Paradise which includes only 0.09% of people, and also in the Lowest Pit of Hell the distribution of people from different demographical groups is not the same. The Higher Paradise – the best of the best – and the Lowest Pit of Hell – the worst of the worst will include people who have more power in this world (16:76, 9;69, 40:21, 47:13), any kind of power reflected in demographical characteristics:

• So, a higher proportion of rich people than poor people (16:76, 3:186).
• a higher proportion of men than women (33:35, 4:176, 4:98),
• a higher proportion of people from the past, less from now, even less from the future (56:13-14),
• a higher proportion of Semites, slightly less from whites, blacks and Asians (33:33, 42:7)
• a higher proportion of smart people than to not so smart people,
• a higher proportion of Submitters, than Muslims, than Jews, than Christians, than Buddhists, than Indians (42:7).
• a higher proportion of religious people than non-religious people.
• a higher proportion of active than passive people (4:95).
• a higher proportion of people who live their lives than those who experience their life through internet and TV

But, let me emphasize again that these demographical differences only apply in the extremes, among the best of the best and the worst of the worst. The rest of Heaven and the rest of Hell, and all of Purgatory, will have an equal distribution of all of these demographical groups, and even more so as people become more equal in power in the future (40:21).

If you are a believing parent, you might be concerned about your children. You might say, “O my God, my children have only a 9% chance of being believers”. Well, God is the most merciful, so he tweaks the percentages a little bit. If you had your child after becoming a believer, the chance of your child also being a believer doubles, up to 18% and if your spouse is also a believer, the chance doubles again, up to 36%, and if both you and your spouse strived actively in the cause of God, then the chances double again, up to 72% (18:80-81, 71:27, 3:34, 19:49, 11:71, 14:35, 14:40, 12:92). This still might not look enough, but the good news is that children do not have much power, and as long as they are dependent on you, they will mostly act as believers, and once you are gone, they will show their true face, which would not matter to you because you would be gone. So, children are a temporary blessing, be they believers or disbelievers. You must teach them and treat them all as believers (2:220)

To conclude:

The road to Heaven is narrow. Only 9.09% of people make it. If you are a truthful person, you have a 100% chance of making it to Heaven (5:119), and if you are an idol worshiper, you have a 0% chance of making it (4:48). Which one are you?

By: Alban Fejza, the Clarifying Messenger

For more information:

Promises of Paradise

Limits of Organized Religion

The End Times

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