The spiritual Journey based on Abrahamic (monotheistic) religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

1. Ayman Refaat
The sin
in
Abrahamic (Monotheistic) religions

2. What is the ?
• If you owned a Ford car and took it to a shop
that only services German cars, the mechanic
might not be able to fix it. Or, it may take him
a long time of trial and error to learn how to
fix an American Car.
• It would really be better to take your Ford to a
Ford dealership.
• They made it and know its problems and the
best ways to fix them.

3. • In the same way, God created you, and
revealed holy books as instructional manuals:
Torah, the Psalms, the gospel, and Quran.
• The obedience of these instructional manuals
is the submission to God, and the disobedience
or violating of them is the sin.
• The Bible: “Everyone who sins breaks the law;
in fact, sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4

4. Why do we commit the sin?
• Imagine you have two sons: one 9 years old and
one 19 years old. Neither of these sons wants to
go to school. Which of these sons would you give
the freedom to choose?
• I think you would pick the 19 year old son
because you trust him more. You know that has
the mental capacity to learn from his experiences
and the experiences of others. The 19 year son
can best choose what is best for him.

5. Because we, humans, are the only creation has a
mind, God trust us and gave us the freedom of choice.
Bible: “have the right to
do anything,” you say—
but not everything is
beneficial. “I have the
right to do anything”—
but I will not be
mastered by anything.” 1
Corinthians 6:12
Quran: “Indeed, we
offered the Trust to the
heavens and the earth and
the mountains, and they
declined to bear it and
feared it; but man bears
it. Indeed, he was unjust
and ignorant.” 33:72

6. • We are the only creation, who has the choice to
worship God or not, follow His instructions or no.
The angels, for example, worship God with no choice.
• Bible: “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the
LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that were
on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and
my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
• Quran: “There shall be no compulsion in the religion.
The right course has become clear from the wrong. So
whoever disbelieves in evil and believes in God has
grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break
in it. And God is Hearing and Knowing.” 2:256

7. • All humans enjoy Worldly pleasures and desire a nice and
comfortable life.
• Bible: “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and
find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the
hand of God” Ecclesiastes 2:24
• Quran: “Your wealth and your children are but a trial, and the
God has with Him a great reward.” 64:15
• Quran: “Beautified for people is the love of that which they
desire - of women and sons, heaped-up sums of gold and silver,
fine branded horses, and cattle and tilled land. That is the
enjoyment of worldly life, but God has with Him the best return.
Say, "Shall I inform you of [something] better than that? For
those who fear God will be gardens in the presence of their Lord
beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally, and
purified spouses and approval from the God. And the God is
Seeing of [His] servants.” 3:14-15

8. • These desires are normal. The problem is only if you
follow them unquestioningly as they are a god.
• Bible: “Therefore did that which is good become a
cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it
was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by
effecting my death through that which is good, so
that through the commandment sin would become
utterly sinful.” Romans 7:13
• Quran: “Have you seen the one who takes as his god
his own desire? Then would you be responsible for
him?” 25:43

9. • That is the trial... the test of our life.
• Bible: “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted
up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door;
and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Genesis
4:7
• Quran: “Blessed is He
in whose hand is
dominion, and He is
over all things competent
- who created death and
life to test you [as to]
which of you is best in
deed - and He is the
Exalted in Might, the
Forgiving” 67:1-2

10. • With patience, we can pass this trial and test.
• Bible: “But if we
hope for what we
do not yet have,
we wait for it
patiently.”
Romans 8:25
• Quran: “And We will surely
test you with something of
fear and hunger and a loss
of wealth and lives and
fruits, but give good tidings
to the patient. Who, when
disaster strikes them, say,
"Indeed we belong to God,
and indeed to Him we will
return." 2:155-156

12. • Bible: “The LORD God formed man of the dust from the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7
• Quran: And [mention], when your Lord said to the
angels, "I will create a human being out of clay from an
altered black mud. And when I have proportioned him and
breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down to him in
prostration." 15:28-29
The effect of the sin on me
God created Adam out of clay and
then He breathed into him of His
spirit.

13. • So the spirit is from God, but it is “soul” since
it is in our bodies walking between two
different ways: the good and the bad.
• The Bible: “For the flesh desires what is
contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is
contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with
each other, so that you are not to do whatever
you want.” Galatians 5:17

14. • You are created pure... virgin, and every time you
commit a sin you make your soul impure, and break your
virginity. First time you committed a sin your soul
resisted until your body shook and tingled. But you
forced it to ignore or accept, until it used to sins, and the
sin became enjoyment. That is how people corrupt their
souls.
• The Bible: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your
sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come
from the Lord,” Acts 3:19
• Quran: “And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it.
And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and
its righteousness. He has succeeded who purifies it, And
he has failed who instills it [with corruption].” 91:7-10

15. • Supplication prayer: “Take from me what I have
spoiled; leave in me what You have made.” Amen.
• Quran: “We
have
certainly
created man
in the best of
stature;
Then We
return him to
the lowest of
the low”
95:4-5
• Bible: “God
created man
in His own
image, in the
image of
God He
created him:
male and
female He
created
them.”
Genesis 1:27

16. • Actually, you cannot break God’s law; because
his law is the limits, borders, and walls of your
nature empowerment. You just break yourself
against God’s law.
• Quran: “O company of jinn and mankind, if you
are able to pass beyond the regions of the
heavens and the earth, then pass. You will not
pass except by authority [from God].” 55:33

17. The effect of the sin on others
• God is the source of everything, and everything is a sign of God.
• Quran: “Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and
the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of
understanding. Who remember God while standing or sitting or
[lying] on their sides and give thought to the creation of the
heavens and the earth, [saying], "Our Lord, You did not create this
aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect us
from the punishment of the Fire.” 3:190-191
• Bible: “For by Him all things were created, both
in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities – all things have been created
through Him and for Him.” Colossians 1:16

18. • Sin is how I violate, ignore, and freely choose to replace
God’s prior relationship with an object or person with my
own self-centered blueprint.
• Bible: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole
world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in
exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26
• Qur’an: “And fear the trail, which affecteth not in
particular (only) those of you who do wrong: and know that
God is strict in punishment.” 8-25

19. How does God deal with the sinners?
• God is fair and just. He will not judge you for
your father’s sin or your son’s sin. Even when
Christians talk about Adam’s sin as the original
sin, they do not mean God will judge you for
Adam’s sin. They just mean it is our nature (as
humans, not angels) to commit a sin, due our
freedom of choice.
• Bible: “The soul who sins is the one who will
die.” Ezekiel 18
• Quran: “no bearer of burdens will bear the
burden of another.” 39:7

20. • But God is the most merciful. He will not judge
your deeds that you do by mistake, forgetting, or
by force.
• Bible: “You are a gracious and compassionate
God, slow to anger and abundant in loving
kindness and one who relents concerning
calamity.” Jonah 4:2
• Quran: “And there is no blame upon you for that
in which you have erred but [only for] what your
hearts intended. And ever is God Forgiving and
Merciful.” 33:5

21. • Even your deeds that you do intentionally while you
know it is a sin; He will forgive them, if you repent,
seek for forgiveness, and change yourself. So, never
despair of the mercy of God.
• Bible: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness. “ 1 John 1:9
• Quran: “Say, "O My servants who have transgressed
against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the
mercy of God. Indeed, God forgives all sins. Indeed, it
is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful." 39:53

22. • After all these sins you had done, you are still alive. That
means God gave you the chance to repent, seek for
forgiveness, and change yourself. Take it.
• Bible: “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is
called "Today," so that none of you may be hardened by
sin's deceitfulness.” Hebrew 3:13
• Quran: “Indeed, God will not change the condition of a
people until they change what is in themselves.” 13:11

23. • It is when you try to purify and can clean your
mind, heart, and soul from the effect of the sin, by
repentance, seeking to return back to God’s
original design.
• The Bible: “Those who live according to the flesh
set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those
who live according to the Spirit set their minds on
the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5
Spiritual Journey

24. • This journey is the goal, not
the destination; because
you will never reach it. You
will never be perfect. You
will be god.
• You should try to reach the
destination, even though
you will never reach it. But
it is better to die on this
path.

25. “Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are.”
Theodore Roosevelt

26. “A journey of a thousand miles begins
with a single step.”
The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu

27. Ithaca
By Constantin Cavafy
• When you depart for Ithaca,
wish for the road to be long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Don't fear the Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon. No such impediments
will confound the progress of your journey
if your thoughts take wing, if your spirit and your
flesh are touched by singular sentiments.
You will not encounter Laestrygones,
nor any Cyclopes, nor a furious Poseidon,
as long as you don’t carry them within you,
as long as your soul refuses to set them in your path.

28. • Hope that your journey is a long one.
Many will be the summer mornings
upon which, with boundless pleasure and joy,
you will find yourself entering new ports of call.
You will linger in Phoenician markets
so that you may acquire the finest goods:
mother of pearl, coral and amber, and ebony,
and every manner of arousing perfume ―
great quantities of arousing perfumes.
You will visit many an Egyptian city
to learn, and learn more, from those who know.

29. • Bear Ithaca always in your thoughts.
Arriving there is the goal of your journey;
but take care not to travel too hastily.
Better to linger for years on your way;
better to reach the island’s shores in old age,
enriched by all you’ve obtained along the way.
Do not expect that Ithaca will reward you with
wealth.

30. • Ithaca bestowed upon you the marvelous
journey:
if not for her you would never have set out.
But she has nothing left to impart to you.

31. • If you find Ithaca wanting, it’s not that she’s
deceived you.
That you have gained so much wisdom and
experience
will have told you everything of what such
Ithaca’s mean.