History Theology

  Ancient Forged Writing Arfad A. Razak   Pseudepigrapha or commonly known as “forged writing” is a common phenomenon in the ancient near east. By definition, a pseudepigrapha is a “spurious or pseudonymous writings.” [1] And any book that has been written by someone attributing it to another person is, by definition, a forgery. In the ancient near East, this is a common phenomenon, and over the years, multiple works have been written that shed some light into our understanding of how ancient forgeries work. What was the intend of the person behind this act? And has he or she gained by engaging in such dishonorable activities. It should be noted that many scholars since the past two centuries have noticed the presence of multiple forged writings in the New Testament. For example, the late Catholic scholar Raymond Brown lists down 6 writings attributed to the apostle Paul as forgeries. These epistles were written by someone claiming to be Paul. [2] However, there are ot...

  Lessons From Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim Arfad A. Razak   Muslim believes without any doubt that the Qur’an is the final revelation from God (also Allah in Arabic). Any Muslim who doubts even to the slightest letter must rekindle their faith through further research and exploration. In this brief article, we will draw lessons from the first verse of the first chapter of the Qur’an, in that this Ayat actually provide substantial evidence to the Muslim as to why the Qur’an is the final revelation from God. The very first chapter of the Qur’an, in fact, the very first verse sets the precedence for the entire Qur’an. When a person flips past the cover page, they are greeted with the verse “In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the entirely Merciful,” or in some other translation “In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the ever Gracious.” No other scripture in the world greets its readers in this manner. In fact, “Al-Fateha” basically means “the Opening.” We can look at t...

Population of the Abrahamic Religions 2010 to 2050 Arfad A. Razak This short article aims to provide an overview of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim population around the world. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam made up the three Abrahamic religions with a following that equates to half of the world's population today. Majority amongst these groups are Christians (31.5%) and Muslims (23.2%) with only around 16 million professing the Jewish (0.2%) faith. The rest of the world’s population are Hindus (15%), Buddhist (7.1%), Taoist, Jains, Zoroastrians, atheists, and others (PEW, The Global Religious Landscape) . Also, according to PEW and the World Population Review, there are over 2 billion Christians (PEW, Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population) and Muslims each  (World Population Review) , and Islam is the fastest growing religion today, with a projection of 2.2 billion by 2030, 2.5 billion by 2040, and 2.8 billion by 205...