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Last time we looked at the fundamental social or worldview factors that are making a clash between Islam and the West inevitable. The danger of last week's presentation is that you might think I equate Islam's view of Christianity with Western Culture, when in fact we Christians know Christianity and Western Culture are altogether different things. Nevertheless, Islam is right to see a root of Christian beliefs in Western culture—in principle, the fruit never falls very far from the tree. This week I want to open up a contrast between Islam and true Christianity and begin to explore how wee might engage Islam.
WHERE DID ISLAM COME FROM?
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A problem:
If the Qu'ran is the Word of God, how do we know it is?
How may we test that claim? |
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- The Holy Scriptures of Islam had their process of canonization from wood, stone, bark and papyrus scraps to holy book. The principle of abrogation and the contradictions within the Qu'ran (e.g. Muhammad both endorses then condemns drinking wine). The Sura are not in chronological order. But if inspired, why the changes*2
- The Hadith *3 (Not all agree)
- The Sunna Muslim clerics today*4
English evangelist David Pawson rightly suggests that religion or religious ideas come from one of the three following possibilities:
- Human Imagination: *6 Certainly Islam bares all the hallmarks of Muhammad being a man with a vivid religious imagination. He tells several stories from the New Testament Pseudepigrapha*7 and gets many facts of the OT mixed up-- e.g. Tower of Babel in Pharaoh's day.*8 He clearly incorporated much material from religion built around the Ka'aba -- e.g. The sacred stone, the title Allah and the Satanic verses.
- Divine Inspiration: The claim of the Qu'ran to be of divine origin (the angel Gabriel {Gibril = Arabic} brings a version of the divine book from heaven and reveals it to Mary etc) is self-authenticating. It is made by Muhammad, the prophet and Apostle of God, whose own claims are authenticated by the Qu'ran itself. Did Muhammad really experience something? Yes! In his visions, he foamed at the mouth and gave all the evidence of supernatural possession. But was it God? Muhammad claims no divine authentication (God himself knows -- often flows from his lips). He does no miracles. He claims to be 'unlettered' (= illiterate).
- Satanic Imitation: *10 The Qu'ran follows quite closely, in some ways, OT religion, but incorporates Arabic predilections, Mohammed's needs and Satanic deception. The Qu'ran sounds so 'right' in some ways, but feels so 'wrong' when one knows the truth--see below. Satan can hide a drop of poison in an ocean of truth. Much about Islam rings true, especially its monotheism, but much of it is misleading and damaging to humanity.
WHAT KIND OF RELIGION IS ISLAM? *1
First, we must understand the five pillars of Islam:
- Declaration (witness = shahada)
- Prayer (5 x daily)
- Almsgiving (zakat = 2.5%)
- Pilgrimage (The Hajj)
- Fasting (Ramadan) *11
This is an easy religion in many ways. Next, other key ideas:
- UTOPIAN: Islam is a utopian and totalitarian religion. Its most similar counterpart is Soviet communism in the political realm. Its beliefs that church and state are identical make it so. Sharia law encompasses the whole of life. Contrast Jesus: Matthew 22.15-22. Christianity assents that there is separation of powers between Church, State and family. Christianity is not utopian in that it separates the interests of this world from the next. While this world is evil and corrupt, the world to come represents the reign of God. Leaving Islam is treason, that is a crime against a state.
- TERRITORIAL: Islam measures its influence by territory not numbers of converts. Jesus said that 'My kingdom is not of this world--else my followers would fight for me'-- The Crusades are an aberration of church becoming entwined with state. We must see notions of limited good in play here. Islam once possessed much of Europe and believes it should possess them again.
- LEGALISITIC: Islam, despite its constant recital that Allah is --compassionate, merciful-- is a hostile, aggressive, violent and intolerant religion. Though Christianity has no Scripture re Islam, the fact that we have plenty re Israel helps. The Pauline encounter with militant Judaism in his day parallels our encounter with Islam today, since Islam is essentially a legalistic (equivalent to OT as interpreted by the Rabbis) religion. Islam is intolerant of unbelievers (infidels) but extremely forgiving of Muslims. We are left with a god (Allah) who is neither merciful nor just.
- INTOLERANT: *13 Islam, despite what George Bush III says, is not a tolerant religion. Muhammad's religion was born out of war and strife and bares the hallmarks of such. Muhammad was himself engaged in 66 conflicts. Of 28 wars in the world today, 24 of them are Islam-affected. Islam has at its core the concept of Jihad --struggle. (Refer Part 2 re Limited Good! )
THE CONCEPT OF GOD:
How do we respond to slam? How do we deal with Muslims? How do we let our secular neighbours know that our God is different? Jesus once told a very influential parable, and the views he espoused there probably got him crucified. Those views reflected radical ideas about God, and were rejected by the religious establishment of his day; in reaching out to Islam, we must discover them again.
Jesus saw himself as uniquely God's Son/ contrast Islam's view that God 'has no son' (inscribed on the walls of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem).
Luke 15.11-32: this story well illustrates Jesus' view of God and vindicates the early Christian's conviction that we are 'sons/children' of God (see Galatians 4.6). Contrast Islam's austere view that men only 'serve' Allah. Allah is not a parent and lacks a parent's compassion. He is not kind, nor genuinely caring. Allah is not a parent, has never lost a child and lacks a parent's love. Of 99 titles of Allah in the Qu'ran, Father is not one.
For the Muslim almost any crime is forgiven because one has confessed Allah and sworn by his prophet Muhammad. In Christ all is grace and mercy, which leads to newness of life not easy grace.
In the parable of the Lost Son, we see a God is first and foremost a father, which is a distinctive Jewish and Christian notion, brought to its full revelation by Jesus himself. He was uniquely God's Son and showed us an insight into the heart of God. God is a father! He is merciful. We must be merciful, not vengeful.
All of this leads to a discussion of a fundamental Islamic concept--Jihad, which is struggle, but often refers to HOLY WAR to re-establish the honour of Islam where it has been challenged.
JIHAD:
Jihad means struggle and fits with what we know of Limited-Good cultures. It is defence of what Islam owns, in terms of the pie. But just where does the pie begin and end?
Jihad is both religious and political war (Islam is utopian--see above!). Islam preaches three Jihads--the greatest jihad, the great jihad, the small jihad. The first two are essentially spiritual struggles to ward off sin and the temptations of Satan, but the latter is defensive war. But where does the defence begin?
(Like it or not, as a Limited Good culture, for Islam defence begins and ends with total domination.) As I shared last week, even the offer of a cup of water, let alone daily broadcasts of CNN, represent challenges to Muslim honour that must be met by Jihad. This makes Islam a dangerous and aggressive religion.
Jesus by contrast did not engage in Jihad. If he wanted, he said, he could have called down '10,000 angels to defend him', yet he does not. Jesus conquered by love. Christians, following Jesus' example, do not fight to protect their rights or their 'patch' (see Philippians 2.1-11; 3.1-20).
A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE:
Islam is a threat to the West (as we saw last week); it is engaged ultimately in a duel to the death for Abraham's blessing with two other great faiths -- Judaism and Christianity ( Part1 ). But Christians are in the world, not of the world. The Church and Western culture are not one and the same, and though we may understand slam and the West going toe to toe, it is not necessarily our fight. Christianity is a religion of mercy and peace.
Some suggestions for a response to Islam:
First we should note that because Islam owes much of its intellectual furniture to Old Testament Israel, we do have the jump on it in terms of debate and dialogue. The whole concept of a new covenant, for instance, is challenging to Islam's legalistic views. Possession of the Spirit and signs and wonders, for instance, are also major points of difference.
I propose the following points of challenge, debate and engagement:
- Revelation: Islam receives word through an Angel and a so-called prophet (this model is Mosaic, see Galatians 3.19), but the New Testament is christological. The NT claim is a 'better' form of revelation has come: from a Son! This is the whole point of Hebrews 1.1-2.4, especially 1.1-5. The Son's Word is better than that of prophets (like Muhammad) and angels (like Gabriel).
- The sonship of Jesus and his resurrection. As with many defense of Christian truth, much hangs or falls on the resurrection. Can it be proved historically? If so, then we have in Jesus the unique action of God in history. Muhammad's bones are still in Arabia. Further, the burden of proof lies with Islam to show Jesus never died. Why would the early church lie about this point, when the Islamic tale is near enough and in some ways more fantastic. Further, Islam believes in resurrection yet has no story of anyone who has yet been raised. New Testament teaching about resurrection is always predicated on Christ as first fruits.
- Jesus did miracles, which authenticate his mission. The question is whether he ever saw himself as uniquely God's Son. Even Christian scholars debate what Jesus thought of himself, but the story of his baptism by the Baptist John is buried in the earliest strata of the gospel record. Mark attests it and he wrote up Peter's eyewitness account; in that story the voice from heaven attests that Jesus is God's son.
- The character of God. Muslims like all others long for mercy, love and genuine acceptance and the freedom this brings from fear, doubt, worry and terror. The fact that God is a Father may be a surprise but of genuine comfort to a Muslim.
- Why not try friendship and compassion? These are overarching Christian virtues. Revenge will only ever call for more revenge. Our God is always honoured, whenever we show true mercy.
*1 The concepts I relay here are draw from a talk I heard by English evangelist David Pawson, and are not my own.
*2 The story of the Qu’ran is that the angel Gabriel brought the holy book to earth when he announced to Mary her virgin birth of Jesus. He then kept the book for approximately 630 years or so and then chose to reveal it to Muhammad in his cave retreat in Arabia. The Qu'ran is thus a correction of previously corrupted (by Jews and Christians) revelation and is the climax of the same. But if this is so, then why so many contradictions? If the book has existed in tact in heaven, did God somewhere change his mind? Never asked or answered by Islam.
*3 Traditions of what Muhammad had 'meant', gathered from his early followers
*4 Recollections of what Muhammad said or did 'his example'
*5 There are competing interpretations.
*6 Islam believes in 25 prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (the Word of God) and Muhammad.
*7 Stories about Jesus from the 'late' early-church period that are mostly fictional: e.g. Jesus turning clay into birds and making them fly etc.
*8 The basic charge of Islam that Israel perverted its own Scriptures does not fit here: why deliberately get this fact wrong when it is almost irrelevant? Rather, 'Muhammad has erred' is the best explanation.
*9 We might also add Muhammads prescriptions re orphans, marriage to a near relative's wife etc. These reflect many of his own interests --e.g. marrying the wife of a near relative, which he himself did against Arabic customary law.
*10 Muhammad's revelations are surely satanically inspired; Satan himself can appear as an angel of light and his queer revelatory 'fits' are concerning.
*11 We are currently in Ramadan, as I write ( November 2002).
* 12 The worldview story of Christianity is birthed out of Jewish apocalyptic and this exerts a heavy intellectual force upon Christianity, even today. Judaism and Islam tend to be 'this worldly' religions.
*13 In my view the West, with its long history of religious tolerance, post the 30 years and 100 years wars, and post the Reformation and the emigration of the Anabaptists and Puritans etc, is ill equipped to handle a conflict with a monolithic, monotheistic religion like Islam.
*14 It is noteworthy that Marxism, another evident Satanic lie used to harm much of humanity, also had struggle at its heart. Hence, these religions are politically utopian.
*15 Of course, one would need to be aware of Islamic thoughts re manuscript evidence, eclectic texts verses the pure edition of the Qu'ran etc, etc. Islam denies Jesus is God's son.
*16 Again, Islam denies Christ died or was raised
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