{"id":6991,"date":"2020-06-07T00:26:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T05:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/?p=6991"},"modified":"2020-07-05T06:32:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-05T11:32:58","slug":"raphael-narbaez-jr-jehovahs-witness-minister-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/raphael-narbaez-jr-jehovahs-witness-minister-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Raphael Narbaez, Jr., Jehovah\u2019s Witness Minister, USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

(part 1 of 2)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A forty-two-year-old Latino, Raphael, is a Los Angeles-based comic and lecturer. He was born in Texas where he attended his first Jehovah\u2019s Witness meeting at age six. He gave his first Bible sermon [soon after the age of thirteen], tended his own congregation at twenty, and was headed for a position of leadership among the 904,000 Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in the United States. But he traded in his Bible for a Quran after having braved a visit to a local mosque.<\/p>\n

On November 1, 1991, he embraced Islam, bringing to the Muslim community the organizational and speaking skills he developed among Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. He speaks with the urgency of a new convert, but one who can make immigrant Muslims laugh at themselves.<\/p>\n

He told his story mimicking a cast of characters.<\/p>\n

I remember vividly being in a discussion where we were all sitting in my parents\u2019 living room and there were some other Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses there. They were talking about : \u201cIt\u2019s Armageddon! The time of the end! And Christ is coming! And you know the hailstones are going to be out here as big as cars! God is going to use all kinds of things to destroy this wicked system and remove the governments! And the Bible talks about the earth opening up! It\u2019s going to swallow whole city blocks!\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m scared to death! And then my mother turned around: \u201cSee what\u2019s going to happen to you if you don\u2019t get baptized, and if you don\u2019t do God\u2019s will? The earth is going to swallow you up, or one of these huge hailstones is going to hit you on the head [klonk], knock you out, and you will not exist ever again. I\u2019ll have to make another child.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t going to take a chance of being hit by one of those big hailstones. So I got baptized. And of course Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses don\u2019t believe in the sprinkling of the water. They submerge you completely, hold you there for a second, and then bring you back up.<\/p>\n

I did that at the age of thirteen, September 7, 1963, in Pasadena, California, at the Rose Bowl. It was a big international assembly. We had 100,000 people. We drove all the way from Lubbock, Texas.<\/p>\n

Eventually I started giving bigger talks – ten minutes in front of the congregation. A circuit servant recommended me to give the hour lectures that are done on Sunday when they invite the general public. They usually reserved those [sermons] for the elders of the congregation.<\/p>\n

[In an authoritarian voice:] \u201cSure he\u2019s young. But he can handle it. He\u2019s a good Christian boy. He has no vices, and he\u2019s obedient to his parents and seems to have pretty good Bible knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

So at the age of sixteen I started giving hour lectures in front of whole congregations. I was assigned first to a group in Sweetwater, Texas, and then, eventually, in Brownfield, Texas, I got my first congregation. At age twenty, I had become what they call a pioneer minister.<\/p>\n

Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have a very sophisticated training program, and they also have kind of a quota system. You have to devote ten to twelve hours a month to door-to-door preaching. It\u2019s like sales management. IBM has nothing on these guys.<\/p>\n

So when I became a pioneer minister, I devoted most of my full time to doing the door-to-door ministry. I had to do like 100 hours a month, and I had to have seven Bible studies. I started lecturing other congregations. I began to get a lot of responsibility, and I was accepted at a school in Brooklyn, New York, a very elite school that Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have for the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me, the top one percent. But I didn\u2019t go.
\nA few things no longer made sense to me. For example, the quota system. It seemed like every time I wanted to turn a corner and get into another position of responsibility, I had to do these secular material things to prove my godliness. It\u2019s like if you meet your quotas this month, God loves you. If you don\u2019t meet your quotas next month, God doesn\u2019t love you. That didn\u2019t make very much sense. One month God loves me and one month He doesn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

We criticized the Catholic Church because they had a man, a priest, to whom they had to confess. And we\u2019d say, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have to go to a man to confess your sins! Your sin is against God!\u201d And yet we went to a Body of Elders. You confessed your sins to them, and they put you on hold, and said [Elder as telephone operator:] \u201cHold on just a minute . . . What do you think, Lord? No? . . . Okay, I\u2019m sorry, we tried our best but you\u2019re not repentant enough. Your sin is too big, so you either lose your fellowship in the church or you\u2019re going to be on probation.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the sin is against God, shouldn\u2019t I directly go to God and beg for mercy?<\/p>\n

Probably the nail that hit the coffin was that I noticed that they started reading their Bible less. Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have books for everything that is put out by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. The only people on the entire planet who know how to interpret Bible Scripture correctly are that group of men, that committee in Brooklyn, who tell Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses worldwide how to dress, how to talk, what to say, what not to say, how to apply Scripture and what the future is going to be like. God told them, so they can tell us. I appreciated the books. But if the Bible is the book of knowledge, and if it\u2019s God\u2019s instructions, well, shouldn\u2019t we get our answers out of the Bible? Paul himself said to find out for yourself what is a true and acceptable word of God. Don\u2019t let men tickle your ears.<\/p>\n

I started saying, \u201cDon\u2019t worry so much about what the Watchtower says – read the Bible for yourself.\u201d Ears started to prick up.<\/p>\n

[Old Southerner\u2019s drawl:] \u201cI think we got us an apostate here, Judge. Yup. I think this old boy\u2019s one taco short of something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even my father said, \u201cYou better watch it, young man, that\u2019s the demons talking right there. That\u2019s the demons trying to get in and cause division.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cDad, it\u2019s not the demons. People don\u2019t need to read so much of these other publications. They can find their answers with prayer and in the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spiritually I no longer felt at ease. So in 1979, knowing that I could not make headway, I left, disgruntled and with a bad taste in my mouth, because all my life I had put my soul, my heart, my mind into the church. That was the problem. I didn\u2019t put it in God. I put it in a man-made organization.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t go to other religions. As a Jehovah\u2019s Witness, I had been trained, through the Scriptures, to show that they are all wrong. That idolatry is bad. The Trinity doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m like a man without a religion. I was not a man without a God. But where could I go?<\/p>\n

In 1985, I decided to come to Los Angeles and get on the Johnny Carson show and make my mark as a great comedian and actor. I have always felt like I was born for something. I didn\u2019t know whether it was going to be finding the cure to cancer or becoming an actor. I kept praying and it got frustrating after a while.<\/p>\n

So I just went to the Catholic Church close to my house, and I tried it. I remember on Ash Wednesday, I had that ash cross on my forehead. I was trying anything I could. I went for about two or three months, and I just couldn\u2019t do it anymore, man. It was:
\nStand up. Sit down.<\/p>\n

Stand up. Sit down.<\/p>\n

Okay, stick your tongue out.<\/p>\n

You got a lot of exercise. I think I lost about five pounds. But that\u2019s about it. So now I\u2019m more lost than ever.<\/p>\n

But it never passed through my mind that there is not a Creator. I have His phone number, but the line\u2019s always busy. I\u2019m doing my little movie shots. A film called Deadly Intent. A telephone commercial in Chicago. An Exxon commercial. A couple of bank commercials. In the meantime I\u2019m doing construction work on the side.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(part 2 of 2)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We\u2019re working on this mall. It\u2019s the holiday season, and they put these extra booths in the hallways. There was a gal at one, and we had to pass right in front of her. I\u2019d say, \u201cGood morning, how are you?\u201d If she said anything, it was \u201cHi.\u201d And that was it.<\/p>\n

Finally, I said, \u201cMiss, you never say anything. I just wanted to apologize if there was something I said wrong.”<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cNo, you see, I\u2019m a Muslim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Muslim, and Muslim women, we don\u2019t talk to men unless we have something specific to talk about; otherwise we don\u2019t have anything to do with men.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOhhhhh. Muslim.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cYes, we practice the religion of Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIslam – how do you spell that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI-s-l-a-m.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, I knew that Muslims were all terrorists. She doesn\u2019t even have a beard. How could she possibly be Muslim?<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did this religion get started?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there was a prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA prophet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMuhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.\u201d<\/p>\n

I started some research. But I just came from one religion. I had no intention of becoming Muslim.
\nThe holidays are over. The booth moves. She\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

I continued to pray, and asked why my prayers weren\u2019t being answered. In November of 1991, I was going to bring my uncle Rockie home from the hospital. I started to empty his drawers to pack his stuff and there was a Gideon Bible. I said, God has answered my prayers. This Gideon Bible. (Of course, they put it in every hotel room.) This is a sign from God that He\u2019s ready to teach me. So I stole the Bible.<\/p>\n

I went home and I started praying: O God, teach me to be a Christian. Don\u2019t teach me the Jehovah\u2019s Witness way. Don\u2019t teach me the Catholic way. Teach me Your way! You would not have made this Bible so hard that ordinary people sincere in prayer could not understand it.
\nI got all the way through the New Testament. I started the Old Testament. Well, eventually there\u2019s a part in the Bible about the prophets.<\/p>\n

Bing!<\/p>\n

I said, Wait a minute, that Muslim lady said they had a prophet. How come he\u2019s not in here?<\/p>\n

I started thinking, Muslims – one billion in the world. Man, one out of every five people on the street theoretically could be a Muslim. And I thought: One billion people! C\u2019mon now, Satan is good. But he\u2019s not that good.<\/p>\n

So then I said, I\u2019ll read their book, the Quran, and I\u2019ll see what kind of pack of lies this thing is. It probably has an illustration on how to dissemble an AK-47. So I went to an Arabic bookstore.<\/p>\n

They asked, \u201cWhat can I help you with?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking for a Quran.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, we have some over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

They had some very nice ones – thirty dollars, forty dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I just want to read it, I don\u2019t want to become one, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, we have this little five-dollar paperback edition.\u201d<\/p>\n

I went home, and started reading my Quran from the beginning, with Al-Fatihah. And I could not get my eyes off of it.<\/p>\n

Hey, look at this. It talks about a Noah in here. We have Noah in our Bible too. Hey, it talks about Lot and Abraham. I can\u2019t believe it. I never knew Satan\u2019s name was Iblees. Hey, how about that.<\/p>\n

When you get that picture on your TV set and it\u2019s got a little bit of static and you push that button [klop] – fine tune. That\u2019s exactly what happened with the Quran.<\/p>\n

I went through the whole thing. So I said, Okay, I\u2019ve done this, now what\u2019s the next thing you got to do? Well, you gotta go to their meeting place. I looked in the yellow pages, and I finally found it: Islamic Center of Southern California, on Vermont. I called and they said, \u201cCome on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now I really start getting nervous, `cause now I know I\u2019m going to have to confront Habib and his AK-47.<\/p>\n

I want people to understand what it\u2019s like for an American Christian coming into Islam. I\u2019m kidding about the AK-47, but I don\u2019t know if these guys have daggers under their coats, you know. So I come up to the front, and sure enough, there\u2019s this six-foot-three, 240-pound brother, beard and everything, and I\u2019m just in awe.<\/p>\n

I walked up and said, \u201cExcuse me, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Arabic accent:] \u201cGo to the back!\u201d<\/p>\n

He thought I was already a brother.<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cYessir, yessir\u201d [meekly].<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know what I was going back for, but I went back anyway. They had the tent and the rugs were out. I\u2019m standing there, kind of shy, and people are sitting down listening to the lecture. And people are saying, Go ahead, brother, sit down. And I\u2019m going, No, thanks, no, thanks, I\u2019m just visiting.<\/p>\n

So finally the lecture\u2019s over. They\u2019re all lined up for prayer and they go into sajdah. I was really taken aback.<\/p>\n

It started making sense intellectually, in my muscles, in my bones, in my heart and my soul.<\/p>\n

So prayers are over. I say, hey, who\u2019s going to recognize me? So I start to mingle like I\u2019m one of the brothers, and I\u2019m walking into the mosque and a brother says, \u201cAssalaamu alaikum.\u201d And I thought, Did he say \u201csalt and bacon\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u201cAssalaamu alaikum.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another guy who said \u201csalt and bacon\u201d to me.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know what in the world they were saying, but they all smiled.<\/p>\n

Before one of these guys noticed that I was not supposed to be there and took me to the torture chamber, or beheaded me, I wanted to see as much as I could. So eventually I went to the library, and there was a young Egyptian brother; his name was Omar. God sent him to me.
\nOmar comes up to me, and he says, \u201cExcuse me. This is your first time here?\u201d He has a real strong accent.<\/p>\n

And I said, Yeah, it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, very good. You are Muslim?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m just reading a little.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you are studying? This is your first visit to a mosque?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome, let me show you around.\u201d And he grabs me by the hand, and I\u2019m walking with another man – holding hands. I said, these Muslims are friendly.<\/p>\n

So he shows me around.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, this is our prayer hall, and you take your shoes off right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are these things?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are little cubicles. That\u2019s where you put your shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, because you\u2019re approaching the prayer area, and it\u2019s very holy. You don\u2019t go in there with your shoes on; it\u2019s kept real clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he takes me to the men\u2019s room.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd right here, this is where we do wudoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVoodoo! I didn\u2019t read anything about voodoo!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not voodoo. Wudoo!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, because I saw that stuff with the dolls and the pins, and I\u2019m just not ready for that kind of commitment yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says, \u201cNo, wudoo, that\u2019s when we clean ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, when you pray to God, you have to be clean, so we wash our hands and feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I learned all these things. He let me go, and said, \u201cCome back again.\u201d<\/p>\n

I went back and asked the librarian for a booklet on prayer, and I went home and practiced. I felt that if I was trying to do it right, God would accept it. I just continued to read and read and visit the mosque.<\/p>\n

I had a commitment to go on a tour of the Midwest on a comedy circuit. Well, I took a prayer rug with me. I knew that I was supposed to pray at certain times, but there are certain places where you are not supposed to pray, one of which is in the bathroom. I went into a men\u2019s room on a tourist stop and I laid out my carpet and I started doing my prayers.<\/p>\n

I came back, and when Ramadan was over, I started getting calls from different parts of the country to go and lecture as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness minister who embraced Islam. People find me a novelty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Source: Raphael Narbaez, Jr., Jehovah\u2019s Witness Minister, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(part 1 of 2) A forty-two-year-old Latino, Raphael, is a Los Angeles-based comic and lecturer. He was born in Texas where he attended his first Jehovah\u2019s Witness meeting at age six. He gave his first Bible sermon [soon after the age of thirteen], tended his own congregation at twenty, and was headed for a position … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-became-muslim"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"gform-image-choice-sm":false,"gform-image-choice-md":false,"gform-image-choice-lg":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Site Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/author\/admin2\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"(part 1 of 2) A forty-two-year-old Latino, Raphael, is a Los Angeles-based comic and lecturer. He was born in Texas where he attended his first Jehovah\u2019s Witness meeting at age six. He gave his first Bible sermon [soon after the age of thirteen], tended his own congregation at twenty, and was headed for a position…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcT0IL-1OL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7156,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/who-are-the-jehovahs-witnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":6991,"position":0},"title":"Who are the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses?","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/11\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"(part 1 of 3): Christians or cult members? In 2011 it was estimated that there were more than 7.6 million Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in over 109 thousand congregations, in more than 200 countries.[1] As the name suggests, it is an evangelical religion. Members, of both genders and of all ages, actively\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doctrine and Sects"","block_context":{"text":"Doctrine and Sects","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/doctrine-and-sects\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6915,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/martin-guevarra-abella-ex-catholic-philippines\/","url_meta":{"origin":6991,"position":1},"title":"Martin Guevarra Abella, Ex-Catholic, Philippines","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/07\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I am Martin Guevarra Abella. I was born in Manila, Philippines in1966 to Catholic parents. I was baptized a Catholic when I was two weeks old! My family rarely missed Sunday mass and we never failed to observe different Christian, or shall I say \u201cCatholic\u201d activities like Christmas, All Saint\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Why I became a Muslim"","block_context":{"text":"Why I became a Muslim","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/became-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7159,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/mormonism\/","url_meta":{"origin":6991,"position":2},"title":"Mormonism","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/11\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"(part 1 of 2): Who are the Mormons? Mormonism - the doctrines and practices of the Mormon Church based on the Book of Mormon.[1] Mormons are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The name Latter-day comes from the belief that after the death of the early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doctrine and Sects"","block_context":{"text":"Doctrine and Sects","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/doctrine-and-sects\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7003,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/jermaine-jackson-usa\/","url_meta":{"origin":6991,"position":3},"title":"Jermaine Jackson, USA","author":"Site Admin","date":"06\/07\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"(part 1 of 2) When and How did you start your journey towards Islam? It was way back in 1989 when I, along with my sister, conducted a tour to some of the countries of the Middle East. During our stay in Bahrain, we were accorded a warm welcome. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Why I became a Muslim"","block_context":{"text":"Why I became a Muslim","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/became-muslim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5776,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/bible-prophecies-of-muhammad-part-1-of-4-witnesses-of-scholars\/","url_meta":{"origin":6991,"position":4},"title":"Bible Prophecies of Muhammad (part 1 of 4): Witnesses of Scholars","author":"Site Admin","date":"12\/21\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bible is the sacred scripture of Judaism and Christianity.\u00a0 The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament, with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions of the Old Testament being slightly larger because of their acceptance of certain books not accepted as scripture by Protestants.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Introducing Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Introducing Islam","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/introducing-islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bible-Prophecies-of-Muhammad-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bible-Prophecies-of-Muhammad-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bible-Prophecies-of-Muhammad-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bible-Prophecies-of-Muhammad-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18842,"url":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/is-the-punishment-for-adultery-in-islam-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":6991,"position":5},"title":"Is the Punishment for Adultery in Islam Death?","author":"Ask A Muslim","date":"07\/31\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"There are two different types of unlawful sexual intercourse in Islam: fornication and adultery. Fornication is the unlawful sexual intercourse of someone who is not married and was never married before. The punishment for fornication is getting flogged 100 lashes. Adultery is unlawful sexual intercourse of someone who is married\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misconceptions"","block_context":{"text":"Misconceptions","link":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/category\/misconceptions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6991"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11424,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6991\/revisions\/11424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ask-a-muslim.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}