imageimage
 Home     The Quran     Quranic Audio     Khutbahs     Message Board     Start a Blog     About Us     Contact Us


The Monotheists Among the Christians
Dr. Safar Al-Hawali
Thursday, August 10, 2006


Register and Join our Online Community & Forums for Free.
A Great way to meet lots of muslims and learn about Islam.

Introduction

The clash between Islam and the West is getting clearer day by day and some influential forces in the West are striving to keep the blaze of this clash fueled, it seems that the ignorance of Islam by the West is a major cause that attributes in the failure to handle the issues of this clash. It is so because the West tends to look at Islam in a very traditional and generalized way. In order not to fall in the same mistake, the Muslim nations should know the details of it’s opponent, instead of considering it a single entity with a unified direction. An important way to acquire this detailed knowledge is: to relate the matters of dispute with their origin of belief and to analyze the impact of these beliefs in shaping the dispute, especially the West is beginning to experience divisions, and the coming days might reveal even more divisions.

This article shades light on a Christian sect which is hardly known to Muslims, although they are very important in terms of their faith and prestigious history. Five among Presidents of the United States belonged to this sect. Moreover, they have a strong presence in the cultural and political arena of the United States. Religiously, they represent the opposite to the extreme fundamentalist’s movement. In general, they are considered among the liberal groups who do not believe in the clashes of civilizations, and reject the crusader’s project named “War against terrorism”.

What is meant by Christian Monotheists (Unitarians):

In reality, no monotheism is accepted except which has been sent down by Allah through His messengers and was revealed in His Books. That is to believe that Allah –the Exalted- is one, and to worship Him alone with no partners. This is the absolute Monotheism. However, if this term (Monotheism or Unitarianism) is attributed to a sect or individual, then it’s meaning is subjected to the understanding of this sect or group. Here, when we refer to the Monotheists among the Christians then we mean the sect which believes in the Oneness of God, and that Jesus is His Messenger, and a full rejection of the doctrine of Trinity. They form a congregation that believes in divine revelations and worship. In this way, they distinguish from other Christian churches which believe in the doctrine of the Trinity- which was promulgated by the Council of Nicea [1]. In the present day, they distinguish from those who reject the Trinity on the basis of total denial of the Creator, or on the ground of denying divine revelation but believing in the Creator, because this later group- in reality- has no relationship with Christianity at all, although this distinction is not so obvious in the history of the modern Western intellectuals, as we shall see later.

Their Origins and Denominations:

The root of the Christian monotheist’s creed goes back to the very Christianity that was taught by Jesus –peace be upon him. His teachings was nothing but Islam as creed and the instructions of Torah as a legislation. Thus, they are basically the group among the Children of Israel who believed, as Allah said: “ And a fraction of the Children of Israel believed and a faction disbelieved.” [Quran: as-Saff 61:14], and they held firmly the faith which was declared by the disciples of Jesus as Allah said: “We are supporters for Allah, we have believed in Allah and testify that we are Muslims [submitting to Him]” [Quran: aal-Imran 3:52], some of them remained on this faith till the advent of Islam, and some contaminated this faith by introducing many innovations before and after Islam. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss these details.

Among their denominations is “Nazarene”. This term refers either to Nusrah (an Arabic term meaning: Support), and it seems closer to the Quranic verse, or the name came from the town of Nazareth where –according to them Jesus –peace be upon him- was born. This is why they say: “Jesus of Nazareth”. Hence, by this declaration they completely reject the doctrine of trinity that was introduced by Paul and his followers.

The name which they were famous for till the modern time was “Arians” referring to Arius, or Socinianism referring to Fusto Sozzini who’s life will be discussed later.

The persecution they suffered from their opponent had a bad effect in distorting their history and obliterating many of its landmarks. Thus, great confusion was raised between this group and many others which separated from the Roman Monarchy Church who labeled all these groups as “heretics”.

As an example of this confusion, you will find many who does not differentiate them from “Nestorians” or “Monophysitists”. It might be so because the Roman Catholic Church used to ridicule this group by calling them Nestorians or Monophysitists, and at the same time used to ridicule the Nestorians and Monophysitists by calling them “Monotheists”. The objective was to exclude them from Christianity in front of the public. The Roman Church got things mixed up because, the Nestorians despite their faith in trinity, they deny that Mary was mother of the God, instead they say She gave birth to the human not the divine and this is why the Roman Church denounced this group. Many researches –and some of them are European Unitarians - got mixed up when they thought that Nestorians in the East believe Jesus was only a human, and thus they are Monotheists.

On the other hand, the Monophysitists in addition to their faith in trinity they deny the dual nature of Jesus and believe only in his divine nature. Again this group was denounced by the Roman Church who found it incompatible with the Nicene creed.

From here, many researchers by mistake thought that the monotheism which the church considered as a blasphemy is the same monotheism to which this sect (Arians) adhered.

As for relating the monotheists to “Arius of Alexandria” and “Paul of Samosata” it is closer to the correct opinion, because these saints –according to Christian books- denied the deity of the Christ –especially the first among the two -. However, the “Nazarene” remains the most truthful attribute and the most distinct one in comparison to other denominations that caused much confusion.

Their Persecution:

The monotheist were put under tremendous persecution from the official churches and were cursed by the opposing Christian congregations. They were denounced as heretics and were dispersed in total dispersion. From here we can confirm that –except those who made innovations – the rest who were holding firm to monotheism are the “remaining” meant by the saying of the Prophet Muhammad –peace be upon him-: “Verily, Allah looked at the inhabitants of the Earth and hated them all –the Arabs and foreigners- except some remaining among the People of the Book” [2], and they are meant by the verse: “And among the People of the Book” [Quran: aal-Imran 3:113]. Those who were holding on some remaining truth at the time of the prophet Muhammad were more general than just the followers of the Christ (may peace be on him), because many of the Jews outside Palestine did not receive the message of the Christ (may peace be on him) or they could not comprehend his actual message, so they remained on the true teachings of Torah till the advent of Islam. [3]

When the light of Islam illuminated the horizons, most of the monotheist entered into this religion. However, some remained on their previous faith. This group can be classified into two categories:

First, those who heard about the Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him- but did not accept his message. The reverted scholar of the fourth Hijri century: Al-Hasan Ibn Aiyoub says about this group: “ When I looked into the saying of the Christians, I found a group known as Arians, who believe in the Oneness of Allah, and agree that Jesus –peace be upon him- is Allah’s slave, and does not attribute to Jesus what other Christians does, like the deity of the Christ or Son of God and alike. They adhere to the Gospel of the Christ, and follow the footsteps of his disciples and those who carried his teachings. This sect thus was close from truth. However, they diverted from truth by rejecting the prophet hood of Muhammad –peace be upon him- and denying the Quran and the tradition of our prophet.” [4]

The other category are those who –because of their remote locations- did not know about the prophet Muhammad, or they knew about him but in a very distorted form propagated by Churches who hated Islam, especially the Roman Church.

It is historically proven that monotheism was a widespread creed in Europe in the first centuries. However, those monotheist nations had various fate later. Some of them like the Irish were uprooted by the Papal Church before Islam, and others like the Spanish were in the middle of war against Romans when Islam came.

One of the prominent features in the history of religion in Europe is that: those nations far away from the influence of the Romans were closer to the inherent mankind nature, and thus were very likely to accept monotheism. On the other hand, it seems the great persecution which was applied by Romans on their subordinate nations resulted in the scarcity of monotheism creed in these nations.

In Britain, the monotheists were the first who brought Christianity in the British Isles. They had a long glorious history in Britain until they shifted their center to America as we shall see later. In Ireland, the population used to believe in monotheism and would follow Torah, they used to call themselves as “Nazarene” till the Romans invaded them in the fifth century and uprooted their creed and burnt their Bible which was known as the Celtic Gospel [5]. This gospel was free from trinity doctrine. In Spain, the war continued between the monotheists and Romans till Islam emerged. The historian –both easterns and westerns- ascribe the fast propagation of Islam in this land to the inherent monotheist mindset of the population.

In short it can be said: the pre-Islamic era of the west-European and north-African nations was full of clashes between the Roman church and Arians which include Goths, Vandals, Celts, Berbers and others [6]. Sylvester Choler says [re-translated from Arabic] : “ it is well-known that all Berbers who settled on the bank of Danube river and on the verge of the Roman empire have entered one after other in the Arian form of Christianity … and in this way Arians began to invade the lands of Vandals, Lombard … and eventually monotheism became the national religion of these nations.” [7] In addition, monotheism was widely present in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Persia, Ethiopia and Malabar.

One of the most prominent event in the history of monotheism is the establishment of a monotheist kingdom in Romania in the 16th century AD. John Sigismund who died in 1571 was a monotheist, still today Romania has the biggest monotheist gathering after the United States amounting to 80,000. In Poland, the monotheists grew in number until the Parliament forced all of them to be Catholics in 1658 [8], except only those who managed to escape to Holland and England. There they met those escaping from Spain which fell under the Catholic Kings Fernando and Isabel. In French, the monotheists appeared in the year 1550 as “Huguenot”. They were attacked severely by the Catholics at the time of the Queen “Catherine” and her son “Henri”. Eventually, they were exterminated in 1572 except those who managed to flee into Holland and America. [9]

Branches and Similarities:

There exists many creeds between the monotheists and the Roman Catholics [10] which was influenced by the great expansion of Islam. The supremacy of Islam and it’s vivid argument enchanted the whole world. Hence, every religious sect attempted to present it’s ideology and creed in a way close or comparable with Islamic creed. Even the Roman Catholics claimed to be monotheist in their own interpretation. [11]

The effect of Islam on the European Christianity became very evident by the two famous movements in the European history: the Iconoclast’s movement and the reformation movement. Both of these movements provided some sort of blanket for the monotheist’s creed which used to flourish or diminish based on the freedom it was granted.

1. The Iconoclast Movement:

This movement appeared with the appearance of Islam which has a strong say on this matter. When the immigrants returned from Ethiopia, they narrated to the Prophet – peace be upon him- those images they saw in Ethiopian Churches (which were monophysitist in creed) , the Prophet said: “Those are the ones when a pious among them is passed away, they used to build a place of worship over it’s grave, and would construct therein those images, they are among the worst of Allah’s creatures on the Day of Judgment”. [12]

In this way, the Muslims obliterated – and destroyed – the icons, images and crosses, not only inside the churches of those lands opened by force, but also in every aspect of life. This caused the awakening of the movement among the People of the Book who used to destroy icons before Islam abiding by the second command from the Ten Commandments of Torah. [13]

This movement went into peak at the time of the Byzantine Emperor: Constantine V, who called for the Council of Constantinople (in the year 754). It is noted that the eastern Byzantine Empire is the most affected by Islam because of it’s close proximity.

2. The Reform Movement:

The reform movement in the western empire came late because of it’s geographical distance from the land of Islam and because of the thick layers of lies and distortions invented and imposed by the Catholic church on Europe, a continent then submerged in ignorance and barbarism. However, the encounter with Muslims through various channels –for example, the presence of Islamic civilization centers in the southern Europe, the Crusade Wars, trade exchange, etc – resulted in the formation of the Protestant reformation movement. This event declared the opening of the modern history of Europe and caused a trembling quake in the western church, as well as the whole European life style. However, the reform did not touch the crux of Christianity, i.e., the Trinity, rather it limited reform in attenuating the transgression of Pope and the rest of the clergy, and in destroying images and icons [14] and in bringing few modifications to some rituals. The great effect of this movement is historically evident in the formation of new churches holding the name of the leaders of this movement like, Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. The wide acceptance of this movement shows clearly the hatred Europeans kept in their heart against the Papal oppression. However, the reformers soon committed the same sin which the Roman Church used to commit before, especially the brutality exercised against opponents, even some times the Protestant’s persecution was more severe. This caused Europe to enter into a whirl of violence that never been witness in the world history. The brutality –from both sides- was so severe that historians would shiver when narrating it in their books, and they described this savageness as beyond animal culture. This brutality touched the monotheists who –at the beginning – took the collapse of the Catholic prison as an opportunity to be free from captivity, but the persecution they had to suffer from the Protestants was even harsher and beyond expectation. The western historians was astonished at this behavior and is still astounding to them.

The Monotheists and the Christian Reformation Movement:

The enemies of the monotheists –whether Catholics or Protestants- used to ridicule them by the nickname “Socinians” which refers to an Italian clergy called Sozzini (1539 – 1604) [15], his opinions appeared at the peak of the Protestant movement under the leadership of Luther and Calvin.

Calvin was competing with Luther in leading the reform, however, he was more dependent on Torah – especially in applying force- and many historians assert that he was originally a Jew, and this might made many think -by mistake- that he was a monotheist. [16] Calvin lived in the same period as Suzzini - founder of monotheism- and also Michael Servetus -the person with contradictory opinions and was considered among the monotheists- who is labeled as the founder of monotheism by some historians.

Calvin took Geneva as a center for his movement and ruled therein in a very rigid manner. Durant says [re-translation from Arabic]: “Calvin found in the creed of monotheists the beginning of the end of Christianity, he was alarmed by this heresy more than anything else, because he found it widespread in Geneva itself, and above all between the protestant refugees escaping from Italy, hence, it is an indication of Suzzoni and the alike”. The brutality of Calvin and his rigid rulings reached a stage where his followers as well as opponents condemned these actions, and the monotheists were the most who suffered his persecution. Till today the tragedy of Servetus remains a stamp of mortification in the forehead of Reformers in general and Calvin in particular. In 1553, Calvin pronounced death on Servetus by burning him alive on the stake in a slow fire for anit-trinitarianism. This was – in addition to Luther’s ridiculing Servetus as “Moroccan"- a clear evidence that the hatred against him was because of his influence by Islam more than his rejection of trinity. Durant says –after quoting some of his sayings- [17] : [re-translated from Arabic] “his conception about the Christ is very close to the conception of Muhammad”, so because of his Hispanic origin and his examination of Quran, and his interest in the Muslim creed, all these were sufficient for him to be punished severely, and this will check anyone who intends to break from the creed of Luther and Calvin.

At the beginning, Servetus was very impetuous in his revolt against the Christianity, in 1531 he wrote the book De Trinitatis Erroribus (Error of Trinity) and in it he compared the Christian God with the mythological idol “Cerberus” which was believed to have three heads [18], but later he wrote another book entitled: Christianismi Restitution (Restoration of Christianity), whether this was an apparent retreat or a confusion in creed, it never saved the man from execution. His burning was a clear warning for the followers of monotheism to flee to countries not under the hold of reformers. Thus, they moved to Poland, Holland and Romania (Transylvania) where the monotheist King John Sigismund used to protect these refugees.

The source of the Unitarian creed of this Kingdom is unknown, but it appears that it was the remainings of Arians. Their inhabitants in the middle of the remote Transylvanian Jungles protected them from the grip of Catholics. Also, it is very likely that they made contact with Muslims, as Russia and Eastern Europe witnessed a good relations with Muslims at the time of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir and his successors. [19]

In any case, the monotheism emerged in the western Europe, and especially in Holland and Britain –and from it to America- as a result of a blend of ideologies that appeared in the age of the Enlightenment, and the monotheism movement is considered as one of the feeders and a beneficiary of this revolution.

The Creeds in the Age of European Enlightenment:

The age which saw a public revolt against the Christian creed is called: the Age of Enlightenment. It includes the period between the religious wars in Europe and the start of American and French Revolutions. Thus, the 18th century can be marked as the age of Enlightenment which left a powerful effect on the global intellectual thinking –and the western thinking in particular-. And till now we could see it’s effects on Politics, Social Science, Literature and Art. However, it’s greatest impact is evident in the clash between the church and reason.

There is no doubt that the Enlightenment is considered a natural continuity of the age of awakening in Europe, which was possible thanks to Islam. The influence of Islamic civilization and culture was very clear in Italy –the place from where the modern European development started-. Islam is clearly the most prominent cause for this development. The 13th century emperor “Federick II” was much fond of the Islamic culture, and when the Church saw his interest in learning Arabic it excommunicated him and was labeled as “the greatest heretic”, but historians consider him “the greatest pioneer” as a tribute for his initiatives in civilization and humanities. [20]

In the Muslim Spain, the cultural communication continued especially with western Europe and particularly in the British Isles where the population was about to become Muslims – as historians talk about one of it’s kings who became Muslim, also the king of Norway entered into Islam. These two incidents deserve proper interest and research. When Catholics were able to regain Portugal and Spain from Muslims and set the Inquisitions, many of the free-thinkers fled to western Europe, especially Holland where the Monotheism creed was openly practiced beside the other creeds which broke off from the captivity of the Roman Church.

In the next stage, the clash created by the reform movement was never limited to just a revolt against Pope, rather it turned into a mass revolt on all Church creeds. This insurgency was often practiced under the name of “Reason” or “Free-thinking” or “Rational Religion” or “Natural Religion” or other similar banners that was quite prevailing at that time, however all these banners had one thing in common: rejection of the Christian dogma.

This caused a confusion among the researchers who found it difficult to differentiate between those who denied the religion totally –the Atheists- and those who denied the Christian creed –especially the trinity- but still believed in revelation and scriptures, and those who stood somewhere in the middle and denied the scriptures and the divine decree but believed in a form of worship and revelation. Having this mix-up in mind, we can explain the dispute over the faith of some scholars who were well-known as scientists, intellectuals and philosophers like John Locke, Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Russo, Darwin , etc. While the Unitarian Church claims these scholars as it’s followers, others deny this claim and consider them as deists [21] or agnostics or naturalists, etc.

These diverse ideologies proliferated mostly in Britain because of the limited freedom it had and also because of the mindset of Britons. The English represent what the international thinker (Ali Izet Begovic) called: “The third exit out of Islam”. So, the British rejected Catholic creed, but they did not go to the extreme of rational atheists in French, and at the same time they did not follow blindly Luther as the Germen did, rather they followed a middle path – exactly similar to the British stand in modern days, where it was not as Communist as Russia or Capitalist like America.

There –in Britain- the monotheism creed proliferated and was about to dominate among the English intellectuals of the Enlightenment age, however, a powerful rival emerged, and that was the deism –who believe in God but not the revelation. It is very likely to get confused between these two creeds and very often the followers of one side claim that the other side’s members are theirs as we saw earlier. In fact, Britain in that period was experiencing unrest and frustration even within a single intellect. The most prominent event was in 1790 when the monotheist declared their creed openly through a statement sent to the students of Oxford and Cambridge. [22]

The importance of the Church in Britain is evident in its being the biggest source of movement in America. Here, we must mention the difference between Europe and America in this regard. Europe was in a state of unrest and tension moving from an action to an even more violent reaction. This is true with many of European thinkers, however, the North used to be relatively balanced. On the other hand, America’s religious origin is very clear and hence, it can be stated that the American atheists are closer to be religious, and the religious Europeans are closer to be atheists.

And now, when we reach to America, we find ourselves in front of a detailed history and a remarkable presence of the monotheist movement.

The Monotheists in the United States:

The official sources of the United States of America report that, it is the second most religious country after Ireland. The famous thinker, Edward Said says: “America is the most active nation engaged in religion”. In fact, the religion on which the States was founded is far different than the religion which it is practicing now. This is also true for the first monotheist’s movement and their reality now.

Many of the first founders of the United States were among the huge crowd of immigrants who used to call themselves “the pilgrims”, they took the pain to make a long journey to remote lands, escaping from the brutal religious war which spread across Europe, especially since the reformation movement. There were –among the founding intellectuals and leaders –who believed in tolerance and abhorred torture and suppression, similar to the nature of the Enlightenment intellectuals in Europe or even more. In this way they established this growing state which was founded on the principle of segregation between state and religion. However, the causes and nature of this separation was not like the one existing in Europe. For example, in French, the French Revolution was against the religion and the separation of Church from the state was meant to subdue the religious and crush the authority of Church. However, in America this act was meant to maintain the sanctity of the Church and preserve it’s sacred position. In America, they gave freedom to the religious to join their desired church. Even they went to the extent that they agreed not to call the country officially as a Christian State [23]. It was so, because the leading founders were believing in the ideologies and philosophies of the Enlightenment age which we mentioned, with a variance in their personal obligation to attach to a church and attend the services. However, only one church had the privilege that being it’s member meant a full alignment with the Enlightenment, this church was the Unitarian Church. Hence, it can be stated that if this growing state had to choose an official state-religion, then it would have no choice other than monotheism. This is very evident from analyzing the creed of first leaders and intellectuals like: Benjamin Franklin and Ralph Emerson.

In the year 1785 the King’s Church in Boston converted into a Unitarian Church and it’s members decided to omit the words from prayer referring to trinity. Later, another Unitarian Church was established in Philadelphia in 1794. Afterwards, another important event took place in 1802 when the Pilgrim’s Church -which was established in 1620- converted into a Unitarian Church.

All these events were crowned by one of the greatest events in the Christian history, when the third US president Thomas Jefferson authored a new Gospel abridged from the known gospels after pruning all indications of trinity. Also, he omitted everything referring to Miracles – this shows the influence of the Enlightenment on his mindset. However, Jefferson was not attached to any of the churches, and hence, the researchers often consider him a philosopher rather than a religious person. In any case, we will relax on this condition when discussing shortly the presidents of the United States who were monotheists.

The American Unitarian Association was formed in 1825, and in the year 1865 the National Unitarian Conference was established, afterwards, the Unitarian movement continued to flourish –especially among the intellectuals- until it reached the peak when a monotheist became the president of the United States, he is William Taft. Later in 1917 he became the president of the Unitarian Church.

The last famous among the monotheist politicians is Adlai Stevenson: the presidential candidate who was a secretary in the administration of John Kennedy –the only Catholic president of US- and died in 1965 after unsuccessful attempts to become a president.

When revisiting the historical phases of the foundation of America, we must say that Muslims missed a great opportunity when this growing country was well prepared to embrace the real monotheism and enter into Islam. In other words, it would have been possible for Muslims to reserve a high position in that society, if the Ummah (Muslim Nation) and Dawa (Islamic propagation) at that time was in a better shape.

The Unitarian Movement in America Today:

The condition of the last decades could be summarized by stating that it was a period of rise of creeds and collapse of the churches. As for the creed (denying trinity or deity of the Christ) it grew in a way where it is now the creed of the majority, according to many polls. It is beyond the scope of this report to discuss in details.

As for the church, it retreated and turned on it’s back –although it’s estimate shows to have around 1000 churches with 160,000 followers- and many of it’s followers deviated dangerously. It was so, because the post-World War II generations in the States observed a period of tension in the ideological and social aspects which helped in the emergence of a wave of religious sectarian divisions and formation of extremist’s movements. This included the Unitarian Church which turned into more liberal direction and went very far by merging with the Universalist Church or the Salvation-for-all Church. This later church was formed in 1793 and it claims to be monotheist. In fact, it denies trinity but believes in the Salvation-for-all creed. Eventually and because of the rise in the wave of freedom, it ended up by validating all religions and ideologies. The merge occurred in the year 1961, and afterwards it started a strange merging program with many churches - in the name of modern liberalism - which included an amazing blend of diverse eastern and western creeds [24]. It shows clearly the great need of this nation for a true religion, and this would place a big responsibility on the shoulder of Muslims in rescuing these confused population of a society which remains – regardless of the stand of it’s government- as one of the most inclined society in the world to accept Islam and to know about it. This is even further emphasized by the fact that the group which is opponent to the liberal community – i.e., the Zionist fundamentals – are beginning to retreat, and it may collapse soon if George W. Bush fails in the second term, which is possible especially after his crusade invasion in the “war against terrorism” and all the behavioral scandals that it revealed. In addition to many political and military failures which all together exposed the ugly face of America to the world.

It is a strange distinction between the foundation of America as an enlightened monotheist nation and it’s ending up as being an evangelical, Zionist and a crusade government. Nevertheless, this wide differentiation should open the door of hope for the real monotheist nation (Muslims) to strive hard to convert this nation to Islam, so they may worship Allah alone without associating any deity besides Him, and abstain from its arrogance. In this way it will become and nation of just and peace, and that could be achieved only with Islam.

The America Monotheist Presidents:

1. The second president John Adams, who was president between (1797 – 1801). He engineered the Tripoli Treaty with the first president George Washington, where it was mentioned clearly that America is not a Christian state, and hence it had no enmity with Islam at all.

2. The third president Thomas Jefferson who was president between (1801 – 1809) and he wrote the modified Gospel in the year 1804 and was deputy president of Adams, and he was the most influential president in shaping the American mindset, even James Madison – known to be the father of American constitute- was influenced by his opinions. Madison was appointed as a secretary in his government and later became a president.

3. The Sixth president John Q. Adams, who was president between (1825 – 29), he was the son of the second president.

4. The 13th president Millard Fillmore, who was president between (1850 – 53).

5. The 27th president William H. Taft, who was president between (1909 – 13) and he was the president of the Unitarian Church in 1917 and died in 1930.

Monotheists in the World

Outside US and Romania, some monotheist minorities exist in many countries. For example, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Philippines, Germany, Nigeria, Canada, Ireland and Scandinavia.

It must be noted, however, that those who reject trinity and the deity of the Christ and are not part of the Unitarian Church are even greater in number, and they are scattered in these countries under different church names or even without attaching themselves to any churches. No doubt, they represent a fertile mine for Muslims to call. Their very presence proves that Islam is the most natural religion, and that the promise of Allah to manifest it over all religions is true. “And Allah is predominant over His affair, but most of the people do not know.” [Quran, Surah Yusuf12: 21]

Endnotes:

1. The most famous and dangerous council, the Christian bishops met there after a call from the emperor Constantine who wanted to unify the creed of his emperor by inventing a blend creed between paganism and Christianity in the year 325 AD, - around 300 years before the Hijra of the Prophet.
2. Part of a hadeeth narrated by Muslim on the authority of Iyadh ibn Hemar. No. 2865
3. They are a different kind of monotheist not part of our subject.
4. See the book “Aljawab Assaheed Liman Baddala Deen Al-Maseeh” Vol. 3, page 91
5. also spelled KELT, they had a civilization between 1200 – 200 BC, they had their own mythology and language that distinguishes them from Greeks and Romans.
6. see the Book “The Church before Islam” Sylvester Choler. Vol. 12 entirely.
7. ibid, vol. 3 p. 81, note calling them all as Berbers.
8. See the term Socinianism in Colombian Encyclopedia.
9. see details in Will Durant “The Story of Civilization” part 29 p. 190 and onwards.
10. the other two groups are Nestorians and Eutyches (Monophisitists). All of them believe in trinity with a difference in the definition of the merge between human and divine.
11. See the works of Suleiman Al-Ghezzi, among them vol. 3 page 75,
12. Narrated by Muslim, No. 528
13. In Exodus 20:3-4 “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”
14. See “The Religious Reform in the 16th Century”
15. he studied Arabic according to Durant vol. 24 p. 238, also read the opposition of churches in “The Crisis of the European Conscience” Paul Hazard
16. Like the translators of the book “The Crisis of the European Consience”
17. See Durant 24/240 – 248, also the Philosophical Encyclopedia, Dr. Abdel Rahman Badawi, under the term “Calvin”
18. in the Greek Mythology, Echidna –half woman, half snake – gave birth to Cerberus having three head, and was guard of Hades till Heracles captured it. Heracles according to their mythology is the son of the greatest god “Zeus”.
19. The Caliph “Al-Muqtadir” sent the famous expeditor “Ibn Fadlan” to the king of Bulgaria who became Muslim. Later he wrote to the Caliph asking to send someone who could teach his people the religion of Islam, this messenger reaches there in 310 H – 922 AD
20. see “The Greatest Heretic” Gay Dees
21. Deists are those two believe in God as a creator but not a god to be worshipped
22. for details see “Our Unitarian Heritage” Earl Mores Wilbur
23. it was mentioned in official documents, for example the treaty between the US and the Tripoli States written in 1218 H, however, I could not find the Arabic version, but the English version shows clearly in article XII that America is not a Christian state, and hence it has no enmity with any of the Mohammedan States.
24. Like the Theo-Sufism, the Spiritualism, deity of ancient gods in Egypt and the east, black magic, and also many modern philosophies like: the New Ages, the new evolutionism, the eternal philosophy. Also, hundreds of sects belonging to Christianity by name.

From islamscience.com

image image image
 

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Insert Smiley

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


 
image