Re: Islam - a Christian Perspective
- From: arah <arah1958@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 17 May 2009 01:35:41 -0700 (PDT)
Sorry, Islam was not founded by Muhammad (peace be upon him) but by
Almighty Creator.
Muslim believe that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus are all
prophets of Islam.
Even Jesus preached the same teaching as Muhammad, Abraham and Moses
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing
that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the
commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one,"
answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is
this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment
greater than these." (NIV, Mark 12:28-31).
"Love your neighbor as yourself" was part of the Old Testament law
(Leviticus 19:18). But the Jewish teachers had often interpreted
"neighbor" to include only people of their own nationality and
religion. In Luke, the man who asked Jesus about the greatest of the
commandments wanted justification for that interpretation, so he asked
Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" In response, Jesus told the famous
Parable of the Good Samaritan. A Jewish man had been beaten by robbers
and left half dead beside the road. Two different religious leaders
passed by but did nothing to help. Finally, a Samaritan man came by
and took pity on the injured man. He gave him water, patched up his
wounds, put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he
could rest and recover:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
"Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What
is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered:
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your
neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied.
"Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he
asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" In reply Jesus said: "A man was
going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of
robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away,
leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same
road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too,
a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the
other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was;
and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged
his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own
donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took
out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,'
he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra
expense you may have.' "Which of these three do you think was a
neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in
the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go
and do likewise." (NIV, Luke 10:25-37 )
This is the same with the main teaching of Muhammad (peace be upon
him)
112:1 (Asad) SAY: "He is the One God:
112:2 (Asad) "God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All Being. [1]
112:3 (Asad) "He begets not, and neither is He begotten;
112:4 (Asad) "and there is nothing that could be compared with Him.
[2]
Did Jesus ever mentioned anything about Trinity in the Gospel or
called those who follow him as Christian?
Cheers
On May 17, 9:07 am, mort_ty...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
By Frederic W. Baue
Origins of Islam
In a way, one is forced to admit that Islam has the advantage over
Christianity in certain aspects. From time to time, scholars embark on
a quest for the historical Jesus — that is, they exclude a priori the
evidence of the Bible and try to establish a "real" Jesus from other,
nonbiblical, non-devotional sources. Of course they never find him.
Christ, like the Holy Grail, can be found only by the pure of heart.
That is, by penitent sinners. But the scholars keep trying.
With Muhammad, the founder of Islam, this problem does not exist. His
life abounds in the kind of eyewitness detail that historians love: He
was short of stature but walked fast everywhere he went. His hair and
beard were reddish. He liked women and fast horses and camels. His
hobby was cobbling shoes, and the first thing he did when he came home
was use a toothpick. He died in the year 632 in Medina, Arabia, and
everyone knows the location of his grave. No one ever goes on a search
for the historical Muhammad.
It is in this richly historic context that Islam arises from a
historic Muhammad. He was born in Mecca, Arabia, in A.D. 570 and was
orphaned at a young age. Taken in by relatives, he lived a rather
knockabout existence until a wealthy widow recognized his potential
and gave him a position as a merchant in her company. Muhammad was
successful in business for fifteen years and eventually married his
benefactress. Given to religious contemplation, Muhammad at forty
began to seek the solitude of the caves around Mecca. There, in 610,
on the "night of power," he supposedly saw the angel Gabriel and was
given the first of his prophetic revelations.
This gives Islam a second advantage over Christianity. All the
revelation was given to one man in one lifetime. There it all is in
the Qur'an, neat as can be. Islamic revelation is not spread out over
the centuries in a sprawling, multi-authored library like we have in
the Bible. Hence Islam never has to worry about anything like the
modern, liberal, historical-critical method of scholarship that has
done so much to undermine the authority of the Bible in the West.
Arabia in the seventh century was not a true nation, but a region
seething with warring tribes and factions. Likewise, it was mostly
polytheistic in religion. There was in Arabia neither political nor
spiritual unity. The Arabs are proud to trace their lineage to Abraham
through Ishmael. But unlike Abraham they did not worship the one true
God who made heaven and earth. The religion of the Arabs centered in
the city of Mecca, and in the temple there were shrines to many gods.
The holiest place was the Kaaba, a very ancient cubeshaped building
that, according to tradition, was built by Abraham and Ishmael. In the
wall of the Kaaba was set the Black Stone supposedly given to Abraham
by Gabriel. There was some native monotheism of a primitive sort,
particularly in Medina, but the Arabs for the most part worshiped many
gods.
At the same time there were other religious influences in the area.
The Jews constituted a strong presence on the Arabian peninsula and
exerted a significant influence on Arabic culture and ideas. The
Christians were a weak presence, and those who were there had been
rent by centuries of theological division. In addition, by the seventh
century the Eastern Christian Empire (the Roman Empire had come to an
end in 476) was stressed and weakened from long wars of attrition with
the rival Persian empire. The armies of both had fought to an
exhausted stalemate, resulting in a power vacuum not unlike that which
had occurred centuries earlier between Assyria and Egypt, during which
the kingdom of David had arisen. Recall too that the predominantly
Monophysite churches of the area had been persecuted by
Constantinople.
Into this milieu came Muhammad, seeking God in his cave outside Mecca.
There he claims to have had a vision of the angel Gabriel, who gave
him words of divine revelation to relate to the people. These
prophetic utterances were passed on by oral tradition — phenomenal
powers of memory were common among ancient peoples — and later
collected and written down by Muhammad's personal secretary in the
Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. The word Quran means, "recite." Rote
recitation of the holy words of the prophet is esteemed most highly
among Muslims, even more highly than preaching and theology. Recall
the dramatic scene in the film Lawrence of Arabia when Prince Faisal
and his servant and their friend are all three contentedly reciting
the Qur'an to each other late in the evening in their tent. As they
pause for a moment's reflection, Lawrence recites the next line to the
astonishment of all.
Islamic Doctrine
Esteem for Muhammad as a prophet of God is foundational to all of
Islam. Muhammad claimed — and Muslims affirm — that there were many
prophets who went before. Many are familiar to us — Abraham and Moses
from the Old Testament, Jesus from the New. Jesus was called "the Word
of God" by the Muslims, just as He was by the Gnostics. Muslims hold
that Jesus did not die on the cross to take away our sins — His
disciples managed an escape for Him somehow and certainly He never
rose from the dead. He was a good and great man and a prophet, but not
the Son of God. Nor was Muhammad the Son of God. There is no Son of
God. There is only Allah. But Muhammad was the last and greatest
prophet, who delivered the final revelation of God to mankind. All who
went before gave partial revelations, but Muhammad's was the ultimate
and last word from heaven.
Luther called this "sheer enthusiasm." By this he did not mean the
kind of excitement we feel in St. Louis when the Cardinals are
winning. Luther meant something far more serious. Enthusiasm as a
theological term is derived from the Greek words en ("in") plus theos
("God"). It conveys the idea of God being in you to such an extent
that you become inspired and get special, direct revelations from Him
apart from the divinely inspired Word of God in the Bible. In a word,
fanaticism.
Of course this enthusiasm or fanaticism was, has been, and always will
be in the Church. The devil stirs it up. So fanaticism provides
another sense in which Islam can be seen as a Christian heresy.
Montanus taught that the charismatic gifts, such as speaking in
tongues, did not expire with the apostles. He held that there was to
be ongoing revelation from God in the Church. It didn't stop with
Christ and the apostles. We are not to be limited to the written Word
of God. In fact, Montanus himself claimed to be the promised Paraclete
of John's Gospel — the Holy Comforter whom Christ would send to lead
the Church into all truth. Naturally Montanus succeeded in gathering a
large following and drawing many away from the true faith. The simple
are always impressed by dynamic preachers, whether they are preaching
the truth or not. And Montanus was not.
Whenever a man sets himself up as a prophet and claims to have
received a new word from God, one thing and only one results: more
law.
The Gospel is like Jesus.
It is humble and lowly;
it is patient and kind;
it does not raise its voice;
it is content to receive from God;
it is willing to suffer.
The Law is like Muhammad.
It is dynamic and powerful;
it is aggressive and masterful;
it is overwhelming and swift;
it is directive and positive.
And it is willing to kill.
In Luther's day a fanatic named Carlstadt was doing the same thing as
Montanus and Muhammad had done in ancient times. In our own day others
continue this heretical tradition.
But of course it is never advertised as tradition. It is always
promoted as
something new from the Lord,
something that puts you on the front lines
of the moving of God in our age.
Or so it is claimed.
In reality, it is the vanity of a man's imagination,
thinking that the ideas buzzing around in his head are divine
revelation when they are only his own thoughts or, worse yet, the
influence of an evil spirit disguising itself as an angel of light.
Luther spoke derisively of these prophets as Schwirmer, from the
German word for "swarm." You get the picture. Enthusiasm is the wind
and the fire and the earthquake. True revelation is the still, small
voice.
And so we see Muhammad, middle-aged and restless, sitting and
contemplating in a cave outside of Mecca. He claims to have seen the
angel Gabriel. He claims to have received a final revelation from God
for the world. He claims to be the last and greatest prophet, sent by
God to enlighten the human race. And what was the result? More law.
Yet this legalism is the thing about Islam that in a way gives it yet
another advantage over the Christian faith:
It is eminently doable.
It teaches salvation by works, and in so doing demands only a few
simple works that any average person can accomplish. As Roland Miller
points out,
Islam is geared to the natural capacity of humans and does not
require more than is achievable.
You pray toward Mecca five times a day.
You go to the mosque once a week.
You acknowledge Allah as the one God
and Muhammad as his prophet.
Ask any Muslim if he were to die tonight and stand before God and be
asked, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" and he will be able to
answer in all truthfulness and with the full assent of his religion,
"Because I've been a good person and have tried to obey God's Law."
The word Islam means "submission," and a Muslim is "one who submits"
to the rule of Allah in obedience to his laws.
Central to Muhammad's teaching is radical monotheism, something very
different from the prevalent polytheism of Arabia in his day. It is
known that Muhammad had contact with Jewish rabbis and Christian monks
in the area. Perhaps that is where he gained some of his ideas. In his
theology, however, there is no room for the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity. Jesus was a prophet but not the Son of God, and not the
Savior of the world. In this way Muhammad reflects the ideas of
heretical Christian theology prevalent in the seventh century and
takes them radically further into falsehood.
Muhammad's teaching, as contained in the Qur'an,
forbids usury
(which is why a sheik must deposit his money in a Swiss bank;
Arabian banks don't give or charge interest),
gambling
(unless you are visiting Monaco),
the drinking of alcohol
(at least on Islamic soil),
and the eating of pork
(in Muslim eschatology, at the end of the world Jesus will return
to kill all the pigs).
It demands a strict eye-for-an-eye justice:
Thieves must have a hand cut off;
women who commit adultery are to be
publicly beheaded.
Slavery is permitted
(much of the African slave trade was generated by Muslim slavers
working the interior of Africa; slaves who were taken east were never
heard from again).
A man may have up to four wives, as long as he can adequately
provide for them (a revelation to many an American girl who married a
Muslim only to find that he already had other wives).
One is to give honor to parents,
show kindness to slaves and wives,
give alms to the poor, and work hard.
Fasting is required during Ramadan,
the ninth month of the Muslim calendar;
one is to take no food or drink
from dawn to sunset,
after which a meal may be consumed.
For those who can afford it and are physically able, the Hajj or
"pilgrimage" to Mecca is required. Both good and bad deeds are
recorded by angels and will be rewarded accordingly both in this life
and in eternity. As in Christianity and Pharisaic Judaism, there will
be a resurrection and last judgment. Muslim heaven is described with
material details, including beautiful gardens, luscious fruits, plenty
of wine, upholstered couches, and girls, girls, girls.
So Islam is concerned more with orthopraxy (right practice) than
orthodoxy (right belief). The energies of Muslim communities are
focused on building a better world in the here and now and helping
people cope with their practical, day-to-day problems. The sermons of
Muslim imams focus on the felt needs of ordinary people. Muslims feel
a special connection with each other in the local mosque and a real
brotherly kinship with fellow believers around the world. Amidst the
hustle and bustle of the modern world, they somehow manage to
perpetuate traditional family values. Children are highly esteemed.
Women are taught to keep their place. Men are shown how to provide
well and care for their families. No wonder Islam is growing rapidly
in the United States today, especially among black people in urban
areas:
It solves practical problems.
Problems in Islamic Theology
Even so, theological problems crop up in Islam, most of them stemming
from the first premise of Islam, that there is no God but Allah.
Foremost of these is the problem of predestination. If there is one
supreme Being who created the universe and rules over all things, then
He must be all-powerful and all-knowing. Hence He knows everything
that is going to happen, and since He knows everything that is going
to happen, everything He knows must inevitably come to pass by His
divine foreknowledge and eternal decree. Truly, Allah is great. In
fact, Allah is so great in this context that man is nothing. He has no
genuine freedom at all and is reduced to a mere puppet. Muslim
theology attempts to solve this problem by moving Allah upstairs —
that is, to consign His omnipotence to the realm of general,
universal, and natural law, so as to leave room for human freedom and
action in this world below.
[Editor's Note: Many American evangelical/fundamentalists have been
led to believe that this is the teaching of Classic Protestant/
Reformed theology — so called "Calvinism." This certainly not the
case, as any thoughtful student of Historic Theology would know.]
As soon as this is done, however, another problem emerges. God becomes
what Swiss theologian Karl Barth called totaliter aliter (totally
other). That is, He is completely of a different nature and mind than
that of human beings, and He cannot be known at all as He is in His
essential being. He is remote, detached, a God who is unapproachable,
who cannot be known, with whom one cannot have a personal
relationship.
Given the initial fanaticism of Muhammad himself, it was inevitable
that an enthusiastic sect would emerge in Islam precisely at the point
of this problem. This was Sufism, a sect devoted to ascetic practices
and long periods of meditation and spiritual exercises designed to
bring one into mystical communion with Allah during this earthly life.
Of course not every Muslim could be a sufi, in the same way that not
every Christian could be a monk.
This was the intractable problem facing Imam al-Ghazall (1058-1111),
widely considered to be the greatest Muslim theologian. A brilliant
young student and thinker, he was appointed chief expert in Islamic
law in Baghdad at age thirty-three, only to become disenchanted by the
dryness and legalism of Islamic philosophy and theology. Duress of
mind led to physical illness, whereupon al-Ghazali left his position
and began to travel, ending up meditating long hours in a corner of
the mosque in Damascus. He emerged with a kind of harmony between
orthodoxy and mysticism:
Allah is loving and wants a relationship with men; so men must use
some of the spiritual disciplines of Sufism to attain a personal
experience of Allah, then go back to traditional Islamic practice, but
now doing good works from the heart instead of mere external obedience
to the Law.
One must sigh with regret that al-Ghazali's footsteps did not lead him
down the Street Called Straight in Damascus and into the Christian
church that has been there since the time of St. Paul. There he might
have learned the true solution to his theological problem. In Christ,
your personal relationship with a loving God comes at the beginning.
And this is not by works, but rather by grace through faith. Once this
relationship is established by faith, sealed in Baptism, and nourished
by Holy Communion, good works naturally follow as a fruit of the Holy
Spirit. It is a life based on the Gospel, not upon the Law.
In this regard, the problem of predestination can be solved with
relative ease.
In the Qur'an, there is only Law and no Gospel.
In the Bible, there is both Law and Gospel.
In Islam, the central premise of one supreme universal deity ruling
over all things and all people must inevitably lead to a mechanical
view of predestination. It cannot be otherwise without taking
something away from Allah.
In Christianity, however, we see that predestination is a doctrine of
the Gospel but not of the Law. It is there for the comfort of
persecuted, afflicted, and suffering Christians, to give them the
assurance that their destiny is with Christ no matter how bad things
get in this world. God has chosen them, elected them, predestined them
for Himself from before the foundation of the world. It is God's will
that all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy
2:4). Those who are saved must give the glory to God alone; those who
are lost are entirely at fault in themselves.
And as for human action, of course we have a measure of free will in
the arena of civil affairs: what kind of car to buy, whom to vote for,
whether or not to marry. But in the matter of salvation the sinner is
bound to sin, no matter how agreeable his works may appear to the
world. Without faith it is impossible to please God. In Christ,
however, all we do by faith is pleasing to God, no matter how
imperfect. He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.
Our compulsion to righteousness is more powerful than our compulsion
to sin.
Progress of Islam
Theological problems aside — and all religions have them — Islam
caught on rapidly and spread widely, becoming the second-largest world
religion and having over a billion adherents today. Having received
the first of his revelations from Allah, Muhammad went back into his
native city and began to preach. This businessman-turned prophet met
with scorn, failure, and persecution, especially since he was
criticizing the traditional way of life and the worship of many gods
that had prevailed in Arabia since ancient times.
For twelve years he labored with limited success, gathering a small
but devoted following. During this time Muhammad was well-treated by
the Christians, especially when a persecuted group fled temporarily to
Ethiopia for refuge. Accordingly, Christians and Jews-unlike idolaters-
were given special status in Islamic realms as "people of the Book."
At least as long as they toed the line.
But eventually persecution against Muhammad and his followers got so
bad that they fled to the city of Medina, 250 miles north of Mecca.
This escape, known ever after as the Hefira, was to mark the turning
point in the fortunes of Islam. In fact, the Muslim calendar marks its
beginning from this event in AD 622 The city of Medina was
traditionally more open to monotheism among the Arabs and also had a
large Jewish population. Not a pilgrimage city like Mecca, Medina was
seriously divided politically by rival tribal factions and needed
leadership. Muhammad was welcomed with open arms, and he quickly set
about to reorganize the town according to the principles of his
revelation.
Within a short period of time he gained so many new converts that he
went from persecuted prophet to successful leader. He labored on a new
city constitution. Since the first principle of Islam was one
sovereign and supreme Allah, there was no intrinsic conflict between
religion and government — yet another advantage of Islam. In
Christianity the function of government has traditionally been seen as
the administration of temporal justice. The function of the Church is
the administration of God's grace. This is often described as the
distinction between the kingdom of God's left hand and the kingdom of
God's right hand. In His left hand, God holds the sword (government);
in His right hand, God holds the chalice (Church). This flows out of
the classic distinction between Law and Gospel in Scripture. But in
Islam there is no Gospel. God holds a sword in each hand. There is no
wall of separation between religion and state. So Muhammad set up a
theocracy with himself at the top of the administrative flow chart.
Naturally the constitution was based on Islamic principles. Refugees
and immigrants and the poor were to be provided for from a fund
created by levying 20 percent of war booty. Jews were granted official
tolerance, at least in theory. Some of the rabbis in Medina were
hostile to Muhammad and drew his disapproval. After a dispute, two
tribes were expelled from the city. As for a third tribe, when its
members undermined the defense of the city during a battle, Muhammad
had the men beheaded and the women and children sold into slavery.
Essential to the teachings of Muhammad — and key to the spread of
Islam — was the concept of jihad. Usually translated "holy war," the
term actually means "exertion" or "striving" against evil. The higher
jihad is spiritual, the striving of the individual against sin. The
lesser jihad, and the one usually associated with the term, is
military action for the spread of Islam. The prophet was himself a
warrior of exceptional skill and courage, able to motivate his troops
and succeed in battle against heavy odds. In Arabian culture such
virtues were highly esteemed. Not surprisingly, Islam promises great
reward and immediate entrance into paradise for men killed in battle
for the faith.
In 624, the Battle of Badr, near Medina, marked a turning point in the
fortunes of Islam. Muhammad's army had gone out to raid a caravan from
Mecca. The Meccans responded by sending a superior force in defense of
the caravan. The two armies met at BadrMuhammad with 300 men against a
Meccan army of 900. Amazingly — miraculously, Muslims would say —
Muhammad won the battle. It was the first of many military victories
to come. With the rapid growth of the religion, Muhammad was finally
able to return to Mecca with 10,000 followers in 630. He destroyed the
idols in the temple but himself worshiped Allah at the Black Stone of
the Kaaba, thus retaining an important link with Arab traditional
religion. Mecca submitted to Islam and became the first of the
religion's three holy cities (the others being Medina and Jerusalem).
Then, in 632, Muhammad died unexpectedly in Medina after a brief
illness. He left no chosen successor, inadvertently creating a power
vacuum that has divided Islam to this day. The largest sect of Islam
is that of the Sunni, who believe that religious leaders should come
from the descendants of Muhammad or his tribe. The second largest
group, the Shiites, believe that the chief leaders should come from
descendants of Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law. Of the first four caliphs
who succeeded Muhammad, three were assassinated. (The term assassin
actually comes from later Islam. It is derived from the word hashish
and came to describe men who would smoke dope and then go out and kill
someone for Allah.)
Nevertheless Islam continued to expand by means of military prowess,
trade, peace treaties, skill at negotiation, immigration, and
strategic marriage. The Monophysite Christians welcomed their Muslim
conquerors initially. Their taxes were lower and their policies more
tolerant. Besides, in many ways Islam, with its lower view of Christ,
was similar to their own religion. Jerusalem welcomed Uthman, the
third caliph, in 638. Finding the old temple area on Mt. Moriah
deserted, he cleared away some rubble and made himself a simple mosque-
the beginning of what was to become the present-day Dome of the Rock.
In time, Muslim conquerors took the faith and civilization from Spain
in the West to India and beyond in the East. Today, in fact, most
Muslims live in Asia, not the Middle East. The Muslims would have
conquered Europe at the beginning of what was to become the Middle
Ages, but were defeated at the Battle of Poitiers (or Tours) by
Charles Martel, "the Hammer," in 732, and so turned back to Spain.
Still, Muslim ambition centered on the Christian West, especially
after the depredations of the eight Crusades (1096-1277) that tried to
reclaim the Holy Land for Christianity by military means. The Eastern
Christian Roman Empire continued to weaken, even though the "millet"
system of government under the Ottoman Turks (so admired by Toynbee)
allowed Christian enclaves a measure of autonomy. Finally, in 1453
Constantinople fell to Muslim forces. The city had a magnificent
system of fortifications, but not enough men-at-arms to use them
effectively. The Turks entered the city, slaughtered its inhabitants,
and converted the magnificent Church of the Hagia Sophia ("holy
wisdom") into a mosque.
From there it was a straight run up the Danube and into the heart of
Europe. The Turks advanced rapidly, killing all Christian war
refugees. They surrounded Vienna and laid siege in 1529. This military
threat forced Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to deploy forces that
otherwise might have been used to stamp out the nascent Protestant
Reformation that had begun with Luther's Ninety-five Theses in 1517.
One thing after another went wrong for the Turkish invaders, and they
withdrew after a sudden snowstorm ended a miserable autumn campaign.
Looters from Vienna went out to poke around in the abandoned Turkish
tents and found some sacks of funny little brown beans. They tasted
nasty and bitter but if boiled made a pleasant and stimulating
beverage. Especially with a little cream and sugar. Thus entered
Western civilization a substance without which no subsequent military
campaign-or church function, for that matter would ever have
succeeded: coffee.
Decline and Renewal
For a time, during the period of European ascendancy in world affairs
beginning in the sixteenth century, Islamic civilization fell into
disarray. Many of the historic strongholds of Islam — Arabia, for
instance, and India— came under the dominance of foreign colonial
powers. Still, at its height the Muslim world built magnificent
civilizations and contributed many things to Western culture. For one
thing, we all use Arabic numerals. For another, Muslim philosophers
preserved and
studied many texts of the ancient Greek writers-Plato and Aristotle in
particular-that might otherwise have been lost after the collapse of
Rome. These are the writings that came to have such decisive influence
on the Renaissance and its rediscovery of classical literature. Anyone
who has visited the Alhambra in Spain knows the grandeur of Islamic
architecture. And medicine in Muslim lands was far more advanced than
in Europe during the Middle Ages.
In recent centuries, especially since the development of the Middle
Eastern oil business in the twentieth century, wealth has flowed into
the Arabian peninsula, and with it, increased political power for
Islam. Some of this has gone into improving the standard of living for
the people. Some of it has gone into enhancing Islam. The spectacle of
a resurgent Shiite Islam in Iran and the return of the Ayatollah
Khomeini in the 1970s made a deep impression on all Americans. In
Islam, religion and politics have always gone together, and "shadowy"
terrorist organizations began to appear, bombing airports and taking
hostages at the Olympic Games. In the 1990s in Iraq, dictator Saddam
Hussein started the brief Gulf War by invading Kuwait, a neighboring
Muslim state. Of course, one state in the Middle East is not Muslim,
to the antagonism of all the rest: Israel. Continual sabre-rattling
goes on, with Muslim politicians vowing to exterminate Israel, a
country that was created by British colonialism. As I write, yet
another Israeli-Palestinian peace accord has broken down. And so it
will continue.
In fairness, it must be noted that the mainstream of Islam is moderate
in tone. The terrorist groups are an anomaly, just as in America the
murdering of abortionists by Christian gunmen is not representative of
the religion as a whole.
Also, to digress briefly, Israel is a wholly secular state that
contains some religious Jews. It has no pretensions of being or ever
becoming a theocracy with the reinstitution of temple worship and
sacrifice. One can argue on humanitarian grounds that the Jews after
such a long diaspora should have a home of their own once again. But
one cannot make such a claim on the basis of Scripture. The Old
Testament prophecies that refer to the Jews returning to their
homeland and rebuilding the temple were fulfilled in the repatriation
that took place after the Babylonian captivity under the leadership of
Ezra and Nehemiah. So the tensions between Muslim and Jew in the
Middle East will continue. To complicate matters further, many
Palestinians are traditionally Christian, and have been so since the
time of the apostles, as have many Christian enclaves and
congregations in Muslim territories such as Damascus and Baghdad.
Bethlehem is predominantly Christian, and the believers there are
sadly persecuted by the Jews.
Overall, then, we have today a resurgent Islam worldwide, a religion
that began by gaining a following in Christian lands. It continues to
advance rapidly, particularly in the United States. We find in Islam a
religion that emphasizes the sovereignty of Allah, man's obedience and
submission to him, a solid doctrine of predestination, practical
preaching that addresses the problems of day-to-day living, and a
stimulating vision of bringing divine precepts into the arena of
public affairs. The same could be said of some Christian denominations
today. No wonder Islam is on the upswing. It's just close enough to
Christianity to lead many astray.
All that's missing is the Gospel.
.
- References:
- Islam - a Christian Perspective
- From: mort_tyler
- Islam - a Christian Perspective
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