The Official Biography
Early Life
Born in Egypt in 1935, Rashad Khalifa grew up and studied in Egypt, and later emigrated to the United States, where he earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Khalifa became a naturalized U.S. citizen and settled in Tucson, Arizona.
The Discovery of the Mathematical Miracle of the Quran
Being dissatisfied with how the English translations of the Quran of that time did not manage to properly transmit the monotheistic essence of the Arabic Quran, Rashad Khalifa decided to translate the Quran from Arabic to English mainly for local consumption and his family. After translating the first Sura, he faced the challenge of translating the first verse of the second Sura. This verse only contains three mysterious letters “Alef, Laam, Meem”. Since the revelation of the Quran, for 14 centuries, the scholars did not know the meaning of these mysterious letters, they left them untranslated in English. Rashad had decided not to go further with the translation unless he understands what those mysterious letters mean first.
So he refocused his efforts into decoding the meaning of these mysterious letters, which are called Quranic Initials. He decided to put the whole Quran in the computer to see if there are any patterns which these Quranic Initials follow. Gradually, a mathematical pattern emerged, based on number 19. Eventually, the evidence piled so much that he realized that he had discovered a superhuman mathematical miracle of the Quran, which he published in 1974. He gained popularity in the Muslim World, where his discovery was published in several magazines, and a couple of books of popular Muslim preachers.
Quran alone doctrine
Realizing that from all the religious books which the Muslims use, only the Quran had this superhuman mathematical composition, this led Rashad Khalifa to conclude that the only religious book we can be sure to have been preserved, and guaranteed by God to be protected is the Quran, and therefore all the other religious books, including the Hadith books, which are commonly used in the Muslim World, are not fully reliable. In addition, given that the Quran itself says that the Quran is complete in truth and justice, and fully detailed in religious matters, this makes the Hadith books religiously unnecessary. This led Rashad to embrace the “Quran alone” doctrine, declaring that only the Quran should be used as an authoritative book for religious conclusions.
Messengership
Having adopted a Quran alone stance, Rashad Khalifa soon realized that the Quran (when read alone without reliance on outside sources like Hadith) does not actually claim that God will keep the End of the World completely hidden from humans. The Quran only says that the End of the World will be kept hidden from the disbelievers, but regarding the believers, it says that it will be kept “almost hidden”, not fully hidden, and even then, it is talking about keeping it mostly hidden from the believers before Muhammad, and during the time of Muhammad, but the Quran never says that it will be hidden from the believers after Muhammad. This realization motivated him to investigate when the End of the World will come, and soon enough, God let him discover in the Quran when the End of the World will come. This discovery happened in 1980, and he published it in his book, “The Computer Speaks”. This discovery automatically meant that Rashad Khalifa must be God’s messenger based on verse 27 of Sura 72 of the Quran which says that God reveals specific events from the future only to a messenger which he chooses. So, since the year 1980, the moment when he discovered the End of the World, Rashad Khalifa became aware that he was chosen by God to be the Messenger of the Covenant which is mentioned in Sura 3, verse 81. However, he did not inform the people about it until eight years later, in 1988. One of the reasons why he was reluctant to inform the public about this is because he was aware that the Muslim World believed that Muhammad was the last messenger based on their misunderstanding of verse 40 in Sura 33 which says that Muhammad was the final prophet. However, as Rashad was fully aware, the words “messenger (rasul)” and “prophet (nabi)” are two different words in the Arabic Quran and Rashad Khalifa never claimed to be a prophet like Muhammad was, or like Abraham was, or like Moses was, or like Jesus was. Rashad Khalifa only claimed to be a messenger, without being a prophet, which is what Peter, John, and James were, according to the Bible. It’s worth noting that after Jesus left this world, the disciples of Jesus, like Peter, John, and James became messengers, as the Bible calls them later after Jesus.
So there is a difference between someone like Jesus who was both a messenger and a prophet, and those who were only messengers like Peter, John and James. Similarly, there is a difference between Muhammad who was both a messenger and a prophet, and Rashad Khalifa who was only a messenger. And the difference between prophets and messengers is also confirmed in the Quran by the fact that the Quran says that prophets are given scriptures (books) from God, while messengers only confirm existing scriptures, existing books, which have been revealed through prophets. And in agreement with this, Rashad Khalifa’s role was to confirm the existing Quran, and prove mathematically to the enlightened modern scientific world that the Quran is indeed a book from God, as proven by it’s discovered superhuman mathematical composition.
Central Doctrine
The central doctrine of what Rashad Khalifa preached is to worship God alone, and to reject all idol worship, even if those idols might be Muhammad, or Jesus, or Mary, or the Saints. This agrees with what the Quran says that every messenger should preach. In Sura 21, verse 25, we are told that God and the heavenly society never sent any messenger except with the inspiration, “There is no god except God; you shall worship God alone”.
Martyrdom
Rashad Khalifa’s preaching enraged many Muhammedan religious leaders who were subconsciously afraid that his increasing fame would take away from the fame of their favorite prophet, prophet Muhammad. On the contrary, Rashad Khalifa agreed with everything that prophet Muhammad preached – the Quran. Nevertheless, the hatred towards Rashad Khalifa drove a Mohammedan named Glen Francis to travel all the way to Tucson, Arizona to plan Rashad’s assassination. He pretended to join the Congregation where Rashad preached, so that he can analyze the layout of the building for potential sneaky ways to commit his premeditated crime. He was using a fake name to make it more difficult to find him after the assassination. On the dawn of January 31, 1990, Glen Francis stabbed Rashad Khalifa 29 times, and by God’s leave, Rashad Khalifa joined thousands of other martyrs who were martyred for their beliefs striving in the cause of God throughout history. They are alive at their Lord, even though we can not see it from down here on earth.
Aftermath
After Rashad, those who believed him organized through the next messenger, Alban Fejza. They call themselves “the submitters” which simply means the “Muslims” in Arabic, and they follow the only religion accepted by God in the Quran called “submission”. The submitters are destined to prevail over all other religious groups, in this world and the next one, as predicted in the Quran.
To learn more about the submitters or to join them in worshiping God alone, and be part of the ultimate victory, click here.
For more information:
List of Articles About the Messenger of the Covenant
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