Muslim

Final Week of this series. Have you been enjoying it so far?

This week we’re talking about Islam. Islam is one of the biggest world religions, there are over 1.6 Billion followers of it. Those who follow it are called muslims.

Finally, after the seventh century, it becomes impossible to understand the internal course of Christian history without bringing Islam fully into the equation.

Mark Noll

Some famous Muslim’s you might know are:

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Dr. Oz

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Muhammed Ali

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Hassan Minhaj

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DJ Khalid

Let’s talk about the History

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Muhammad was born to a powerful tribe in Mecca around 570 AD.

When he was roughly 40 years old, he began hearing voices and having visions. Seeking clarity, he would go meditate on a mountain. He thought he was going crazy, but his wife would comfort him with the idea that it was from God.

An angel appeared to him and gave him some revelations. These early revelations became the basis of Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an. These revelations were strange for the people of his time, because he lived in a very polytheistic world, and his visions were very monotheistic. Polytheism is the belief that there are multiple gods. Monotheism is the belief that there is one god.

Muhammad and the people who believed these new revelations about God began to be persecuted and were ostracized from Mecca. They were pushed out until they became big enough to violently take back Mecca.

Islam has grown exponentially. However, like any religion, there are different factions. In Islam, the major sects are Sunni and the Shiites. The Sunni makes up 90% of all Muslims in the world, and the Shiites are only 10% and are mainly found in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi-Arabia.

Today, Muslims are all around the world. A Muslim’s hope is for Shari’ah, the complete rule of Islamic Law in the world. They are trying to accomplish this by seeking more converts. They do this by attacking other religious systems, typically through spreading the message of Islam (kind of like evangelism). However, a minority do this violently, as we have seen in the news in the past.

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All Muslims, for the most part, believe in the Five Pillars of Islam. These acts constitute the foundational works of a Muslim. To be a Muslim is to perform these particular deeds.

1. Shahadah

The Confession.

This confession, or phrase, is recited and repeated. “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.”

With a single recitation of this simple profession of the Islamic creed, a person can convert to Islam.

2. Salat

A Ritual Prayer.

Five times a day Muslims face Mecca in prayer, no matter where they are in the world. The prayer typically consists of a profession of the words Allahu Akbar (“Allah is most great”), followed by bows and recitations of the Qu’ran.

3. Sawn

which is fasting.

Each Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, all Muslim adults are expected to abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. This is a time for reflection and discipline ended by a three-day “Feast of the Breaking of the Fast,” a holiday in many countries.

5. Zakat

The Giving of Alms.

This was originally a way to deal with economic issues. This is a tithe of all your wealth and possessions. In some countries, it is imposed by the government, while in other countries, it is more voluntary in nature. The tithe goes to everything from helping the poor to helping those fighting for a religious cause.

5. Hajj

This is the pilgrimage to Mecca.

This is a trip every devout Muslim is called to do. Each year, millions of Muslims head to Mecca to visit holy sites and do spiritual activities. Some even go to Medina to visit the tomb of Muhammad.

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Some believe that Jihad is the sixth pillar. The word “jihad” to many Americans means “Holy War.”

This word reminds Americans of 9/11 and the planes that were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City. However, “jihad” is the Arabic word for struggle or striving. For many Muslims, that can mean three things: the militant use of the term, the inner struggle of the individual Muslim to submit to Allah, and/or the communal struggle of living in an Islamic society.

I have a handout for you guys about ALL the differences, but since we only have 30 minutes we only have time to cover the essentials. So feel free to put this in your binder or take it home with you, if you want one for each of those things let me know and I can get you a second one.

Muslims don’t believe in original sin. Original sin is the idea that because Adam ate the fruit in the Garden of Eden, we all inherit at birth a sin nature. For Christians, this is where our understanding of how and why God saving us begins.

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A wrong understanding of sin always results in a wrong understanding of salvation.

What I mean by this is, when you start to mess around with the idea of how sinful we are, how we become sinful, or believe sin is not a big deal, it snowballs and changes how salvation works.

Galatians is an amazing book to begin with when you analyze the claims of Islam. We read this verse last week when we talked about Mormons, and it is a great start to talk about what essentially started Islam, which was Muhammad’s visions in Mecca:

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Galatians 1:8–9 ESV

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Galatians goes on to really refute many of Islam’s core beliefs. In Galatians, it explicitly rejects the exaltation of Ishmael over Isaac as the promised son (Galatians 4:21-31). It also gives explicit testimony to the Fatherhood of God (Galatians 1:1, 16; 4:6), the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:1, 4; 3:1), the covenant keeping nature of God (Galatians 3:15-29), and how we are all are fundamentally in rebellion against God without Jesus (Galatians 5:16-24).

All of these are clearly rejected in Islam. Even more helpful is Galatians’ emphasis on justification by faith apart from works. For Christians, salvation is a free gift from God. We don’t earn our way to heaven by what we do. It is 100% through what Jesus did for us when we believe. With Islam and other work-based religions, they teach that we have to earn our status for salvation. We have to become good enough.

And this is the fundamental issue with all other religions. Buddhists believe in a disciplined life. Mormons believe in baptism and good works. Muslims believe in prayers, professions, and pilgrimages. All these religions are founded on man’s attempt to please God through our works.

However, we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that

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2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

A true Muslim doesn’t know if Allah will ever show them mercy to allow them to enter paradise after death. Muslims hope that their good works outweigh their bad works. Even then, Allah still might not show them mercy.

If you want to engage your Muslim friends, you must do a couple things. The first is to know what you believe. Studying their religion will help, but that is not as important as knowing the gospel of Jesus Christ and understanding His Scriptures. The way the U.S. government knows how to spot a counterfeit bill is not by understanding the fakes but by studying the real thing. The counterfeits are easy to spot when you really know the real thing. Read your Bible. Remind yourself of the gospel. Know what you believe.

Secondly, love them, and do not stereotype them. If you are just trying to prove other people wrong, you are not doing it out of love but out of pride.

One of my best friends is a Muslim and we have some of the most awesome deep conversations about religion on a regular basis because he’s so devout but the more we talk about our faiths, the more it became apparent to me that he does the good things that he does out of fear.

We do them, I hope, out of a grateful heart and from a position of love for the one who died for us. Because Jesus died for us, we can have assurance that we are saved. They don’t have assurance in this.

He was hoping that Allah would be merciful to him, but I know that my God is merciful to me.

At one point I had him going to church with me pretty consistently but it wasn’t lasting change, and unfortunately I moved out of state before there was any result of salvation, I still pray for him every day and we still talk a lot but as soon as I left he dropped out of all of the things he was doing with me. and he still doesn’t have a guarantee that Allah will be merciful to him, he continues to do all the right things out of fear.

One of the hardest things a Muslim could ever do is to leave their faith though. It takes absolute confidence in God to make the change because their family will literally disown them if they convert. A muslim leaving their faith is leaving EVERYTHING behind. The same fear that controls them inside of their faith system also prevents them from leaving it.

Islam is one of the largest religions in the world, and the odds of your interacting with someone who either is or grew up Muslim is not completely unusual. Loving them towards Jesus will be an effective tool in a world that wants to simply spread hate.

As we finish this series, I hope you have picked up on a theme. It is helpful to know what other people believe, but what is really important is to truly know what you believe and why you believe it. God will place people in your life to give you an opportunity to share the gospel with them. No one in your life is there by mistake. I hope that you’ll start to really dive in and discover what you believe and why you believe it, so that when people who believe something differently come in your life, you are not swayed.

Let's pray.