Course: World
Religions, Cults and Heresies
Section One:
Christianity and World Religions
Lesson Four
Title: Islam
Introduction:
Islam means 'Submission'.
Muslim means 'one who submits'
Allah means 'The God' in Arabic
Comparison between Islam and Biblical Christianity
Please note: Biblical Christianity is not based upon any
religious practices. It is new life in Christ.
2 Corinthians
Any other form of Christianity, i.e.
sacramental Christianity, is not Biblical Christianity.
- Submission
to Allah means outward adherence to the Islamic religion. A Muslim is one who submits by
a) …reciting
the creed 'There is one God and Muhammad is his prophet'
b) …upholding
the five pillars of Islam.
- Biblical Christianity maintains that outward
adherence to religious duties cannot save because it does not change our
nature. What we do is a consequence
of who we are. We are born sinful
and at enmity with God. A person
can only receive salvation by being born again (John 3:3) of the Spirit of
God and by becoming a new creation in Christ. Only the power of God the Holy Spirit
can change a person from the inside.
- Islam is a religion based on works where
Muslims seek to earn salvation through submission to the precepts of their
Faith.
- Biblical Christianity maintains that it is
only through the free gift of God that we can have eternal life, and not
of works (Ephesians
2:8).
- Islam has no mediator between God and
mankind.
- Biblical Christianity maintains that it is
only through the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son that we can be
reconciled to God. (1 Timothy 2:5-6)
- Muslims
and jihad (holy war). Some Muslims
associate the word Islam with 'defiance of death' or readiness to
die. It is linked closely with
'jihad'. They maintain that loyalty
to the faith (imam) of Islam is through total commitment to 'jihad'.
- Biblical
Christianity teaches ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you,
and persecute you’ (Matthew 5:44).
Teachings that influenced Muhammad to reject
Christianity.
- Nestorian
Christians. Nestorians separated
the two natures of Christ. They denied the association of Mary as the
‘Mother of God’. They would only
accept that Mary was the ‘Mother of Christ’. Nestorianism
was condemned by the First Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.
Introductory
Story: The Black Stone of
- Muslim
Tradition states the black stone was:
a) …a
meteorite that fell from heaven.
b) …originally
in the Garden of Eden.
c) …handed
down from Adam.
d) …was
originally white but has become black through the sins of the people.
- The
Bible says:
a) …it was
Lucifer and his angels who fell from heaven.
a) …Adam
and Eve were put out of the Garden of Eden because of sin.
b) …it is
a sinful nature that has been handed down through Adam. People are sinful by nature.
c) …the only
Stone who can take away sins is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stone that the builders
rejected. 'Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be
disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head
of the corner' (1 Peter 2:7)
It was the sinless Son of God who could become sin for us. Salvation is only through Jesus Christ by
becoming a new creation in Christ.
Main Points
1. Origins
of Islam
Arabs at time of Muhammad held Allah to be
supreme but not the only god. They did
not consider it important to worship him.
The Ka'aba 'House of Allah' was full of images
of gods and goddesses.
At time of Muhammed
it was the custom to make pilgrimage to Ka'aba, walk
around seven times, kiss or touch the Black Stone which was built into the
wall.
The Black Stone of Mecca was associated with
the Arab cultural heritage.
Note:
Religion always embeds itself in culture.
The Ka'aba and the Black Stone of
Hagar was cast out with Ishmael.
They would have died of thirst in the desert
but scripture states that God opened the
eyes of Hagar to see the place where there was a well of water (Genesis
Muslim tradition
states that at
- Ishmael kicked the sand
and a spring of water came up.
Pilgrims came to drink of the water and to be healed.
- The 'House of Allah' Ka'aba
(meaning cube) was destroyed by the flood.
- Abraham came to Ishmael and they rebuilt the
'House of Allah' together.
Muhammed
Muhammad (means Praised) born 570 in
Muhammad's father was Abdullah meaning
'slave of Allah'.
Muhammad's father died two months after Muhammed was born.
Muhammad's mother died when he was six
Brought
up by poor uncle, Abu Talib.
Part of Quraish
tribe who looked after the Ka'aba.
Arabs at time of Muhammed
recognised Allah as supreme but not the only God. Worship centred on Ka'aba.
Ka'aba full of images of
gods (360 gods - one for each day of the year).
Custom
to walk around the black stone 7 times.
At 25 years of age Muhammed
was employed by a wealthy widow, Khadijeh, in
They had 2 sons (both died in infancy) and 4
daughters.
They were married 25 years before Khadijeh died.
Timeline of the Life of Muhammed
Satanic verses
Muhammed
preached his revelations in
When he was reciting the Sura
(53:19-20) it is claimed that Muhammed moved away
from his position of monotheism and upheld the worship of the three daughters
of Allah.
‘Have you considered Allat and al-Uzza and Manal, the other third?’
The Meccans at the
time worshipped many gods and these included these three goddesses.
Muhammed
claimed that the angel Gabriel rebuked him for reciting this and told him he
had been under Satan's power at the time.
Muslim clerics claim this did not happen.
Salmon Rushdie wrote a book based on the
idea of the Satanic verses.
Division between Sunnites and Shiites
Cause
of the division in Islam - who should succeed Muhammad?
Muhammad was a religious and a civil ruler
over most of the people of
The majority held that the successor should
be the best man for the job.
These are held to be the four caliphs who
ruled the Muslim empire after Muhammad.
Others maintained successor must be a
descendant of Muhammad.
Muhammad had no son.
His daughter, Fatima, was the wife of Ali.
Shi'ite claim that Ali was appointed by Muhammad as his successor.
Ali supposedly appointed his son, Hasan.
These descendants are called Imams.
The Sunnite
Claim to follow the true tradition of
Muhammad.
Reject belief in the Imams.
The Shi'ites
Shi'ite means
'partisans' (of Ali).
Minority.
Believe in the Imams
Most of
the Muslims in
- The Scriptures of Islam
Koran means 'the recitation'.
Muslims claim that the message of the Koran
was given by Allah to Muhammed by the
114
revelations in the Koran. 114 Sura (chapter or division). Each Sura is one
revelation.
The message of the Koran:
·
…addresses the downtrodden and poor.
·
…promotes the equality of all men before Allah
·
…denies the need for a mediator between God and
man.
·
…holds that there is no need for a mosque to pray -
God is everywhere.
·
…makes the Islamic religion convenient to
keep. Muslims pray five times a day -
each Muslim carries a prayer rug, prays by taking off shoes, kneeling down
facing
The Koran attacks the person of the Son of God
Koran states that 'God has no Son'.
Claims Jesus was one of the prophets.
Quote: Sura 19:88-92 'They say:
"(Allah) Most Gracious has begot a son!"
Indeed ye have put
forth a thing most monstrous!
At it the skies are
ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in
utter ruin, That they should invoke a son for (Allah)
Most Gracious.
For it is not
consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a
son.'
- Teachings of Islam
The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith.
·
The Declaration of Faith – Shahada. Recitation of the creed.
·
Five daily prayers in direction of
·
Welfare contribution for poor - Zakat
·
Pilgrimage to
·
Fasting during daylight hours of the ninth lunar
month of Ramadan. The Koran was revealed
as a guide to mankind during Ramadan.
All Religious Duties
·
Prayers. 5
times a day – Sunnites. 3 times a day - Shi'ites
·
Fasting - Ramadan
·
Almsgiving
·
Jihad - advance Islam (Surah
·
Circumcision
·
Veiling of women
·
Abstaining from certain foods, and alcohol.
·
Polygamy.
Muslim man may marry up to four wives provided he can look after them
otherwise only one.
Jihad and the Koran
Surah
Surah
Strive with might and main - jihad
Islamic extremists regard this as ‘Holy war
in the name of Allah’.
Moderates regard this as the spread of Islam
by peaceable means.
However, the phenomenal spread of Islam from
632-732 was not through peaceable means but by the use of the sword.
The phenomenal spread of Christianity was
through preaching.
Later events such as the Crusades were
inspired by papal authority and unscriptural teachings relating to purgatory.
Islam is by nature ‘a religion of jihad’.
Holy
war in the name of Allah.
Biblical Christianity is by nature ‘new life
in Christ’.
In this respect it is not like a religion
because it is not built on works.
Summary:
1. Islam
follows a tradition that the black stone of
2. Islam
has no mediator between God and mankind but presents a system of works to earn
salvation. Biblical Christianity holds that
without a mediator there is no way for us to enter into the presence of
God. Jesus Christ is God and Man and has
become our mediator. There is only one mediator between God and man, the Man
Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).
3. Islam
beliefs that salvation is through outward submission to Allah. Biblical Christianity holds that outward
adherence to a system of worship cannot change the heart. It is only through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ that a person can a person receive a new nature (2 Corinthians
What should the student do?
1) Pray
for Muslims they are in contact with.
2) Show
Christ to Muslims through love.
3) Be a
friend whenever opportunity arises.
4) In
conversation talk of the need for a changed heart.
5) Give
testimony of knowing new life in Jesus Christ