Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD

I invite you to simply read the Gospel of Matthew, it should not take you more than a few hours and pick up all expressions of ‘your Father,’ ‘our Father’ or ‘my Father.’

There is a short cut in this day and age of technology, thanks to Microsoft and all the websites with Bible in English.  Create a word file of Gospel of Matthew and then let Word’s menu of ‘Find,’ search every occurrence of “father,” for you.

If you are a trusting person, you do not have to do all this and just read my research below.  I have just done, what I have prescribed above.

There are 13 mentions of “your Father’ and ‘our Father,’ before Jesus calls Him ‘my Father.’  Yet the Church Fathers called Jesus the literal son of God and denied us our sacred paternity.

I do not know about you, but, I am also a son of God the Father, not literally but figuratively.

Below is my list from a simple research that I have proposed.  The Gospel of Matthew is interesting and wonderful reading on several counts, so go ahead and enjoy the verses.

1 Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)

² So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  (Matthew 6:3-4)

^3-4 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  (Matthew 6:5-6)

⁵ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  (Matthew 6:7-8)

 ⁶ This, then, is how you should pray:

‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.’ (Matthew 6:9-10)

7-8 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  (Matthew 6:14-15)

9-10 Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  (Matthew 6:16-18)

11 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6:25-27)

12 Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.   (Matthew 6:31-33)

13 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 7:11-12)

After a long text crawling of  seven chapters of Gospel of Matthew, we finally get to, where, Jesus, may peace be on him, calls God the Father, ‘my Father.’

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  (Matthew 7:21)

Would you care to join the family of God the Father, in universal brotherhood and sisterhood of Islam and claim your sacred paternity and love of God, who according to the Islamic tradition is more loving than a mother?