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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Y2K" data-source="post: 11247233" data-attributes="member: 35049">Examine these events.  Both men had an unexpected encounter.  Paul was confronted by a Being that identified Himself as the Lord Jesus Christ; Muhammad was visited by a spiritual force that claimed to be Gabriel.            Paul was face to face with the God of the people he was persecuting.  He saw a light, heard a voice, and suddenly knew whom he was really persecuting.  We read that Paul then understood that he experienced a confrontation from God.  We see that he was not terrorized, he did not panic with fear, and he attempted no rash, desperate actions.  And following the event, God directed his people to minister to Paul; Paul was comforted, encouraged, and strengthened.            If anyone had a reason and justification to commit a rash action it was Paul.  He was forced to realize that he was persecuting and killing God's people.  What type of punishment would be meted out to him?  How could he be forgiven for the crimes against God he had committed?  Would there be any peace or comfort to be found anyplace for the rest of his life?            Instead of acting crazed, Paul somehow began to know the God he was confronted by.  Paul knew that this God was not going to exact revenge for the evil he had committed.  Paul experienced God's forgiveness and having been forgiven much now loved much.  Because of his intimate, spiritual experience, because he had tasted and seen that the Lord is good, he now submitted to God, and was determined to serve Him as ardently as he had persecuted Him.            Muhammad reacted quite differently.  It is undeniable that something distressing occurred.  He returns back to his wife bewildered, terrorized, "What's wrong with me?", he asks his wife.  Just as children hide under the covers when they are afraid of monsters in the dark, so Muhammad had his wife wrap him in a blanket; he did not want to see the cause of terror again.            Not satisfied with her comfort, he goes to the mountain instinctively knowing that something evil had happened to him.  The only way he knows how to deal with it is the final solution:  commit suicide.   But on top of the mountain this spirit intervenes, consoles him, strokes his ego, "O Muhammad, you are God's apostle".  Muhammad returns.            But it's not over.  The terror, depression, and doubt Muhammad experienced were too real, too persistent to shake.  Soothing words are eroded by the inward torments, doubts, and fears, "Woe is me poet or possessed...I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest."            Unlike Paul's experience, Muhammad is not comforted by anyone but this "spirit".  Muhammad is left in the lurch.  As time goes on, this spirit visits Muhammad less often, the torments and depression return, and gain strength.  He again goes to kill himself.  And, just in time, the spirit intervenes, telling him, stroking his ego again and again, he is an apostle of god.  The bouts of depression continue over the next years, the suicide attempts follow, and the spirit persists to sooth him.  Muhammad begins to believe he is a messenger of god.  A messenger of a god who's influence caused him to attempt suicide.</blockquote>

Verification: Asuwa dahayen wadi kalama keeyada?

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