Claim
Islam's holy Quran provides not one, but many ways to the heaven (29:69). Yes, some are straight -- like belief (3:85) and good deeds (5:10) -- while others are convoluted. It's like going to New York City. You could take the bridge, tunnel, ferry or simply fly into the Big Apple.
God's grace though, truly leads the way to salvation. "He forgives whom He pleases and punishes whom He pleases (5:19)" to me, assures that no matter which way you take, you won't hit traffic, accidents or bad weather.
To the Jewish man mentioned above, some Muslims may say: No way! How can a Jew or a Christian ever go to heaven? To them I present this from Quran: "Surely, the Believers, and the Jews, and the Christians and the Sabians -- whichever party believes in God and the Last Day and does good deeds -- shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve (2:63)."
How can the Quran charge Jews and Christians of the notion of an exclusive heaven and then turn around to claim the same?
This is not a fringe interpretation, applicable to Jews and Christians only. Prophet Muhammad (sa) paved the way to salvation -- ultimately for all humans -- in a famous narration from the book of Muslim, "A man said: By God, God will not forgive so-and-so. At this, God said: Who is he who swears by Me that I will not forgive so-and-so? Verily, I have forgiven so-and-so and have nullified your good deeds."
Reality
From WikiIslam:
Those who believe in God, Christians and Jews, shall be in Heaven (2:62)
Verse
"Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve." [Qur'an 2:62]
Meaning of Verse
This verse is often quoted by Muslims in an effort to prove Islam is tolerant and inclusive of other faiths. After all, how much more tolerant can a faith be than to allow the followers of other faiths into its vision of heaven?
However, this is in direct conflict with the following:
"And if any believe not in Allah and His Messenger, We have prepared, for those who reject Allah, a Blazing Fire!" [Qur'an 48:13]
As most Muslims will already be aware, this is not a contradiction per se, when you take abrogation into consideration. Verse 2:62 has been abrogated by verse 3:85.
"And whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers." [Qur'an 3:85]
Conclusion
Heaven in Islam is exclusive to Muslims. Christians and Jews may believe in God, but they do not believe in "His Messenger". Thus they are destined for the "Blazing Fire".
The only way a Christian or Jew can make it into heaven is by accepting Muhammad as a prophet, but then they would no longer be Christians or Jews, they would be Muslims.
In fact, Muslims will be spared hell-fire by Allah on the Day of Resurrection by making innocent Christians and Jews take their place and be thrown into hell.
"Abu Musa' reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: When it will be the Day of Resurrection Allah would deliver to every Muslim a Jew or a Christian and say: That is your rescue from Hell-Fire." [Sahih Muslim 37:6665, See also: Sahih Muslim 37:6666, Sahih Muslim 37:6667, and Sahih Muslim 37:6668]
Dr. Faheem Younus
According to his bio on Huffington Post, Dr. Faheem Younus is an Ahmadi:
Dr. Faheem Younus serves as the Adjunct Faculty for Religion and History at the Community Colleges of Baltimore County and a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland. He is a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Service Award (Gold) by Barack Obama in 2009 for his work with Muslim Youth in America, Dr. Younus served as the National Youth President of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA (MKA USA) from 2006-10. This leading Muslim Youth group has thousands of members organized in over 63 chapters all across USA. He currently serves as the National Secretary for Education for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. Being an expert on issues surrounding Muslim youth in America, Dr. Younus launched his blog www.Muslimerican.com where you can find an archive of his works .
Dr. Younus teaches a popular course, Islam: Fact and Fiction, at multiple campuses across community colleges in Maryland. Dr. Younus has represented Islam on FOX News, ABC News and NPR. His Op-Ed pieces have been published in National Media outlets and newspapers such as The Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post, AOL News, The Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Express Tribune, The Asbury Park Press, The Star Press and others. His short pieces have been published in prestigious newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Boston Globe, and The Economist.
Dr. Younus is a respected physician, currently in the practice of Infectious Diseases at a Maryland Hospital, who remains committed to the spirit of volunteerism. He was awarded a Governor’s Citation by Robert Ehrlich for his humanitarian services in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.
Ahmadiyya Islam is a peaceful religion, but Ahmadis passing themselves off in the West as "Muslims" is thoroughly dishonest.
Ahmadiyya Islam has an additional Prophet, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and additional religious texts (Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's writings). So they are as different to mainstream Islam as Islam is to Christianity. After all, Islam is simply an additional Prophet (Muhammad) and some additional religious texts (Qur'an and Sunnah). But do you ever hear Muslims claim they are Christians? And if Muslims did claim to be Christians, then they would not fool anyone.
Accordingly, Ahmadis are widely persecuted in Islamic countries because they are viewed as infidels by Muslims. In fact, they are often viewed as less Muslim than Christians and Jews.
From WikiIslam (visit the original page for references):
Ahmadiyya (sometimes referred to as Qadiani) is a religious movement founded towards the end of the 19th century. Central to the Ahmadiyya is the belief in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi.
Ghulam Ahmad was a religious figure who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as predicted in the traditions of various world religions and bring about the final triumph of Islam as per Islamic prophecy. He claimed that he was the Mujaddid (divine reformer) of the 14th Islamic century.
Orthodox followers of Islam do not consider the Ahmadis to be Muslims, due to their beliefs, as with the beliefs of the Baha'is and Qur'anists, differing vastly from those of mainstream Islam. This has lead to the widespread persecution and killing of Ahmadis around the world.
At the 1974 annual World Muslim League conference held in Mecca and attended by 140 delegations of Muslim countries and organizations from all over the world, it was unanimously agreed that the Ahmadiyya are "a subversive movement against Islam and the Muslim world, which falsely and deceitfully claims to be an Islamic sect; who under the guise of Islam and for the sake of mundane interests contrives and plans to damage the very foundations of Islam."
The sale, publication and distribution of Ahmadiyya litriture has also been banned in Bangladesh, the Muslim Council of Britain have stated that members of the Ahmadiyya faith are "outside the fold of Islam", they have been banned from practicing their religion publicly in Indonesia's East Java, West Java, and South Sulawesi provinces, and Pakistan has officially declared them to be non-Muslims.
Likewise, according to Ahmadi beliefs, only those who accept Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophethood are considered Muslims.
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad died of diarrhea in Lahore on the 26th of May, 1908. There are numerous unflattering accounts which claim he died in a public toilet.
Whilst they often claim to have up to 200 million adherents worldwide, in reality the Ahmadiyya faith has only 10 million adherents.
Ahmadiyya Islam puts particular emphasis on missionary work. Many western converts to Islam, being fooled by Ahmadi missionaries into believing Islam is pacifistic, actually begin their religious lives as Ahmadis before moving on to the less tolerant mainstream Sunni Islam. Dr. Faheem Younus' articles have a clear goal in converting Westerners, whether atheists, Jews or Christians:
I don't know how, but people say this all the time: "He cannot go to heaven because he does not believe in [insert your Prophet or God's name here]." According to a 2008 Pew survey, one in five Christians in America believe that non-Christian faiths cannot lead to salvation. That number soared to 60 percent for white evangelical Protestants who attend church once a weak.
Frankly, I would have checked out of my faith, Islam, if it took such a position. Thank God (or Allah) that it doesn't.
Conclusion
Maybe it's time that Dr. Faheem Younus "checked out" of being a Muslim....
Oh wait, what
he believes in is heretical to Muslims, has been universally
condemned by mainstream Islamic scholars, and would certainly get him
killed in some Muslim countries, so he was hardly a “Muslim” to
begin with.
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