In the Name of God the Merciful the Compassionate
Since the moment I first began to read this series that presents the Word of God in Middle Eastern Arabic language, I felt joy filling my heart, and I knew that a wind from God was blowing in the Arab world. For this I thanked God for his gracious gifts. Satan has been successful in hiding Christ from Arab Muslims, and we as Arab Christians have supported him using many means, the most important of them language. This has made the Word of God in the Holy Bible unclear. But then this translation came to remove the dust and bring the language and expressions back to their pure origin. I have experienced this phenomenon personally and it has become clearer to me in my relationships with Muslims…
God called me to bear the good news of peace to my Muslim brothers, and I responded to the call in 1999. From the time I arrived in my current location I discovered that Muslims desire to discuss the Bible, and the person of Jesus Christ. But whenever I opened the Scriptures with one of them I was surprised at the reactions I quickly encountered: “This is not in the Arabic language,” “This is stilted Arabic,” “This is incomprehensible Arabic.” But now the situation has completely changed, in that I feel a great confidence in myself and powerful joy whenever one of them asks for the Bible.
As for comments I have received about the books “The True Meaning of the Gospel of Christ” and “A Sufi Reading of the Gospel of John,” let me summarize them as follows:
- “This is our book”
- “Finally…an Arabic Injeel”
- “It answers a cry for help that I have made to God for years”
- “Is this available for the whole Bible?”
Yes, I find in this blessed project an operation that humiliates Satan and his minions who succeeded in disfiguring the message of Christ to a large extent. What I mean is that Christians, and especially eastern Christians, deluded themselves into thinking that Christ was only for them, so they began to draw apart slowly from their Muslim brethren in language and day-to-day terminology, and this spirit became evident in Arabic translations of the Bible.
This series of books represents a crushing blow to that spirit of enmity, and a cry challenging Arab Christians to set aside superficial traditions in order to present the message of Christ to their Muslim brethren in the most beautiful garb. Finally, my prayer is that God may take the hand of everyone who supported this blessed translation and pour out his power and wisdom upon them so they will be able to overcome every obstacle.
Rev. Emil Bou Rizk
15 March 2009