..the remarkable similarity in the story of their lives: (87:3)

1.They were both youthful (87:4)

2.They were both known for their meekness and loving kindness (87:5)

3.They both performed healing miracles (87:6)

4.The period of their ministry was very brief in each case, and moved with dramatic swiftness to its climax (87:7)

5.Both of them boldly challenged the time-honoured conventions, laws, and rites of the religions into which they had been born (87:8)

6.They courageously condemned the unbridled graft and corruption which they saw on every side, both religious and secular (87:9)

7.The purity of their own lives shamed the people among whom they taught (87:10)

8.Their chief enemies were among the religious leaders of the land. These officials were the instigators of the outrages they were made to suffer (87:11)

9.They both had indignities heaped upon them (87:12)

10.They were both forcibly brought before the government authorities and were subjected to public interrogation (88:1)

11.Both were scourged following this interrogation (88:2)

12.They both went, first in triumph then in suffering, through the streets of the city where they were to be slain (88:3)

13.They were both paraded publicly, and heaped with humiliation, on the way to their place of martyrdom (88:4)

14.They both spoke words of hope and promise to one who was to die with them; in fact, almost the exact same words: "Thou shalt be with me in paradise." (88:5)

15.They were both martyred publicly before the hostile gaze of the onlookers who crowded the scene (88:6)

16.A darkness covered the land following their slaying, in each case beginning at noon (88:7)

17.Their bodies were both lacerated by soldiers at the time of their slaying (88:8)

18.They both remained in ignominious suspension before the eyes of an unfriendly multitude (88:9)

19.Their bodies came finally into the hands of their loving followers (88:10)

20.When their bodies, in each case, had vanished from the spot where they had been placed, the religious leaders explained away the fact (88:11)

21.Only a handful of their followers were with them at the times of their deaths (88:12)

22.In each case, one of their chief disciples denied knowing them. This same disciple, in each case, later became a hero (88:13)

23.Each of them had an outstanding woman follower who played a dramatic part in making the disciples turn their faces from the past, and look toward the future (88:14)

24.Confusion, bewilderment and despair seized their followers, in each case, following their martyrdom (89:1)

25.Through their disciples (the Peters and Pauls of each age) their Faiths were carried to all parts of the world (89:2)

26.They both replied with the same exact words to the question: Are you the promised One? (89:3)

27.Each of them addressed their disciples, charging them to carry their message to the ends of the earth. God Passes By Page p56 . (89:4)

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