A message to my Muslim brothers and sisters

Greetings and best wishes.

Some of you know family, friends or acquaintances who have been radicalized. Many of you are involved in activities to correct errors that many who are radicalized propagate. I applaud and bless your efforts on this important mission. While thinking about this challenge today I thought of an important point that you should make, should you have the opportunity, when having safe discussions with radicalized believers. And, should any radicalized believers be reading my blog, I would like to speak directly to your hearts too.

You must remember that Muslims, Jews and Christians all worship the same one true God. This is affirmed in both the Qur'an and the Jewish and Christian holy books. The God who revealed himself from the prophet Adam to Abraham, and continues through the three great believing faiths, is the same one true God.

Now, many of you who are radicalized assume a judgemental attitude toward the purity of the Jew's or Christian's faith. This is an error if you therefore also assume that even if the Jew or Christian uses different or even poorly understood concepts when praying to God that their prayers are not reaching God's ears nonetheless. For example, we know that some Christians focus totally on Jesus and tend to not contemplate the greater glory of the one true God. But that does not mean that when they pray to Jesus that their prayers are not reaching the same God to whom YOU pray. God would not ignore the prayers of an imperfect Jew or Christian any more than he would ignore the prayers of a Muslim child who is just learning how to worship from his father and who makes the mistakes of a child. Would you believe that God only hears the prayers of those who are perfect in their frequency of prayer, their mental thoughts about God's appearance, and with each word being perfectly said and intoned? Both the Qur'an and the Hadith would advise you that God hears all the prayers of the believers.

Therefore, radicalized Muslim believers must realize that even if a Jew or a Christian has too secular a view, or in your view, an incorrect emphasis on Jesus, or other aspects of their theology and belief, they are, clumsy or not, still sending their prayers to Allah, the same God as you. I think that some radicalized Muslims have fallen into an error where there is the assumption that God does not hear the prayers of believers, as if God is a target to whom the prayer arrow must be perfectly pointed in order to reach him and his attention and mercy. This is a grave error and does not match what we know about God's mercy toward believers.

Let us take the example of a Jewish official who pursues an unjust policy toward Palestinians. But let us also assume this Jewish official is a believer and has a pious prayer life. (We are not speaking of a total secularist). When that Jewish official prays he or she is still praying to the same God as the Muslim and the Christian, and that same God hears their prayers. Just because a human is unjust in their life does not mean that God does not hear their prayers. He may not grant their prayers, and it does not mean that they will not be judged in their time, but it's not like the prayer mail that the true believer sends is not received by the true God.

Likewise we all know Christians who only pray to Jesus and seem never to mention God himself. This frustrates me too. However, this does not mean that prayers that they direct to Jesus are not heard and received by God. A believer is a believer. It is a grave error to think that a pious Jew or pious Christian is not a believer.

If God only heard the prayers of those who have perfection in their faith, then he would not hear very many prayers at all.

God especially hears the prayers of believers who are unjustly called unbelievers and who are persecuted for his sake.

I hope that you will ponder this and give it serious thought. I think that it is a breakthrough in dialogue that I've come to see that some radicalized Muslim believers assume on God's behalf, incorrectly, that prayer they think is offered by imperfect believers is somehow not received by God. This is incorrect and has no foundation in either Qur'an or Hadith. All who believe in the one true God are believers, however flawed the specifics of their spiritual understanding may be. As I said, God would not ignore prayers of believers who are young and still learning, or who learned some wrong things but still believe, or have speech defects so they cannot be perfect in their diction. Those very examples are obvious, and how much greater is the actual grace and graciousness of God who hears all believers. I hope this helps and close with prayers and intentions for genuine peace and unity among all believers, who must unite in order to maintain cleanliness of heart and soul in an age that forces disbelief. The quarrel is not among believers, and it should not be such an underestimation of God as to think that he does not hear all the prayers, whether he grants them or not, of all believers. God bless.