How True That Word is Sharper Than Sword

Image via Wikipedia Lapu-Lapu

Some Filipinos claimed that Magellan spread Christianity in the Philippines through friendship before people had accepted Christianity. However, I am still doubtful for that claim - my reason is that if Magellan really utilized friendship to spread Christianity in the country, there will be no bloody fight occurred between him and Lapu-Lapu that led to his death! I can say it now that Magellan used also swords to propagate Christianity not like Makdum, an Arabian missionary used his persuasive powers to introduce Islam in Philippines.

Many of us Filipinos are not aware that Islam is 141 years older than Christianity in the Philippines. 

The Christian religion came to our land when, on March 16, 1521, Ferdinand Magellan landed on Homonhon Island of Samar on an expedition sent by King Philip of Spain. The primary objective of the expedition was to conquer some spicy islands and to spread Christianity. The inhabitants of Homonhon Island, who were pagans, were the first to be converted.

The expedition took Magellan and his forces to Panay and Cebu also. While the people of Panay accepted the new religion, Lapu-Lapu in Cebu opposed him. A war ensued, and Magellan was killed. Following his death, King Philip sent more expeditions, with soldiers and preachers, to spread Christianity. As a result, the Philippines became the first Christian country in Asia.

In contrast to the general welcome Christianity received in the archipelago, it found resistance in Mindanao where the inhabitants were already Muslims. Makdum/Mukdum, an Arabian missionary and scholar who arrived in Tubig Indangan, in 1380, introduced Islam in the Philippines. He introduced Islam with his persuasive powers.

The point I wanted to make is that Islam is not an interloper that came to a Christian country. It has been in the Philippines for approximately 631 years, compared to the 490 years that Christianity has been there. 

In 1990 records, the Christian population in Philippines has reached to 91.5 percent of the total population compared to 5 percent of our brother Muslim Filipinos. And the other 3.5 percent are comprising other religions.

I still remember that during my elementary, high school and college days no teachers taught me about Islam that is part of Philippine history.  

Hail in Holy Qur'an The Major Factor in Producing Lightning

Image via Wikipedia

Published on Relijournal, Feb 2, 2011 Category - Islam

Hail is defined as a form of solid precipitation which consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, that are individually called hail stones. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between five millimetres (0.20 in) and 150 millimetres (5.9 in) in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms.

I consider myself as a wide reader. I love to read anything from newspapers, tabloids, comics, books, other religious books that include Holy Bible and Holy Qur’an and many more.

Yesterday my attention was focused on a verse of the Holy Qur’an 24:43 translated in English that says “And He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky, and He strikes with it whomever He will, and turns it from whomever He wills. The vivid flash of its lightning nearly blinds the sight.”

The said verse from the Holy Qur’an was about lightning found on these links: answeringchristianity.com, forsanelhaq.com and victorynewsmagazine.com. The said phenomenon was explained by some Muslim scholars that what has been written in the Holy Qur’an are true, accepted and approved by some scientists who also testified that what Prophet Muhammad said in the Holy Qur’an was true - a divine inspiration or revelation which lead him to these statements.

Imagine in spite of the many sources for ideas to write, it’s the Holy Qur’an provided me the idea for this article. Awesome!