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General Editor
JOSEPH BOOT EICC Founder
JOSEPH BOOT
2 Editorial Ryan Eras & Steven Martins 7
Nature & Revelation: The Fractured Foundations of Islam Joe Boot
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Islam in the View of Early Christian Theologians & Reformers Tony Costa
28 The Mosque and its Role in Society Belteshazzar 38
MBB Journeying Marvin Albert
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RYAN ERAS STEVEN MARTINS RYAN ERAS is Director of Development and Administration at the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Ryan holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Toronto, where he focused on bibliographic control and the history of censorship. He has served in various educational and support roles, providing bibliographic research and critical editorial review for several academic publications. He lives in Toronto with his wife Rachel and their three children, Isabelle, Joanna and Simon.
STEVEN MARTINS is Staff Apologist and Jr. Scholar-in-Residence at the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. He holds an undergraduate degree in Human Resource Management from York University, and is working towards a Masters of Arts in Christian Apologetics at Veritas Evangelical Seminary. He blogs and writes regularly, and serves with the Ezra Institute as an itinerant speaker and debater. Steven lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife Cindy.
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ACCORDING TO STATISTICS CANADA, the Muslim population in the provinces
and territories is growing at a rate that far exceeds all other religions, including those who claim no religious affiliation at all.1 With an increase in immigration, and conversions in local mosques and street da’wah (preaching) initiatives, Muslims have exceeded the one million mark, and Islam has registered, for the third consecutive decade, a doubling of its national population.2 It’s not surprising, then, to find an attendance boom in mosques across the country.3 The Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life projects that by the year 2050 the global Muslim population will eclipse that of the Christian population, granting credibility to the statement that Islam is so far the fastest-growing religion in the twentyfirst century.4 Islam has also made international headlines, with radical terrorist groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other groups identifying themselves as adherents of true, or original Islam. In the wake of recent attacks in Paris, Brussels, Lahore, and Orlando, the West has been forced to ask questions about the true nature of Islam, prompting Muslim leaders to condemn the attacks as inhumane terrorist crimes.5 Islamic organizations have since hosted, in partnership with local mosques, various apologetic events to aver the peacefulness of Islam and its opposition to violence, such as the “In Pursuit of Peace: The Roadmap to Harmonious Societies” seminar by Dr. Jamal Badawi at the RIS Convention,6 and the “War & Peace” public lecture by Dr. Shabir Ally at the Islamic Information and Da’wah Centre International.7 THE RELIGION OF ISLAM
Islam identifies itself as one of the Abrahamic religions, alongside Judaism and Christianity. Historically, it emerged in the seventh century ad in Mecca, located in modern-day Saudi Arabia. It currently boasts more than 1.6 billion adherents worldwide, and is characterized by its five pillars of belief and practice.8 These five pillars are the Shahadah, the confession of faith, which states “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah;” the Salat, the five daily
prayers; the Sawm, the fast during the month of Ramadan; the Zakat, almsgiving to the poor and for the advance of Islam worldwide; and the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.9 Islam also centers itself on the Qur’an, the Hadith – later writings of Muhammad and his successors – and the life and actions of Muhammad himself. Muslims esteem the Qur’an as the eternal revelation of Allah given to the prophet Muhammad, which serves as the authoritative text for all matters relating to public and private life in the Islamic world; it is declared to God’s full and final revelation, completing the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament scriptures. The Qur’an itself invites specific comparisons that would in fact place the Pentateuch and the New Testament in authority above it, making a “claim of correspondence” to the earlier scriptures, by which the reader can validate the truthfulness and validity of the Qur’an as God’s revelation.10 We find this in Sura 10:94, “if thou art in doubt concerning that which We have sent down unto thee, ask those who recite the Book before thee.”11 In affirming that this was directed towards both Muslims and non-Muslims, The Study Qur’an’s commentary reads that “Those ‘who recite the Book before thee’ are the Jews and Christians, who recite the Torah and the Gospel, respectively; where the People of the Book are said to recognize the truth of the Qur’an.”12 This is supported by Islamic scholar Gordon Nickel, who writes that “explicit references to earlier scriptures seem to be uniformly positive and respectful.”13 In other words, according to the Qur’an itself, we are to discern whether it is the revelation of God or not by its coherence with the Judaeo-Christian scriptures. THE CONFLICT OF WORLDVIEWS
It is quickly apparent, however, that Islam and the Qur’an are incompatible with Christian doctrine and the text of Scripture. Islam has claimed for itself portions of the biblical text, the prophets and disciples of the biblical narrative, the person of Jesus, and has portrayed itself as a correction and completion of Judaism and Christianity. However, Muhammad reportedly had no first-hand knowledge of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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biblical text. As two brief examples, consider that the Qur’an inaccurately describes the persons of the Trinity as God the Father, Mary and Jesus (Sura 4:171; 5:116), and accuses the Jews of worshipping the priest-scribe Ezra as a god (Surah 9:30).14 The various theological contradictions between the Bible and the Qur’an are evident, such as the biblical doctrine of the Trinity15 and the Islamic doctrine of Tawhid (God’s oneness);16 the biblical Christology of Jesus as the God-man, seated on the throne as sovereign King,17 and the Qur’anic depiction of Jesus as a mere human prophet;18 the biblical doctrine of salvation by the grace of God in Christ,19 and the Qur’an’s teaching of worksbased righteousness and salvation.20 Like all forms of religious humanism, Islam emphasizes an unknowable deity concept with a God that cannot be known relationally, while elevating man to the center of its worldview where he can author his own salvation, build his own Islamic utopia on earth, and deliver himself from his own evils. THE CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
The growth of Islam in the West through conversion and immigration is not the only reason for the church to study Islam. In order to better fulfill the Great Commission, we must also be mindful of the cultural implications of increased Islamic influence on society. In Toronto, for example, there is a push for Canada’s financial sector to embrace Islamic – that is, Shari’ah-compliant – banking. This would require the Canadian government to issue Islamic bonds, or make a public statement that as a nation we are open to Shari’ah-compliant investments.21 As to what that would look like, Walid Hejazi, associate professor at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, explains that under Shari’ah law, riba, or interest, would be banned. This includes providing Shari’ah-compliant solutions to personal finances, mortgages, insurance and investment opportunities.22 This may appear harmless, or even beneficial, but it’s not the full picture of what Shari’ah law entails, and the financial district is otherwise “ignorant about the totality of Shari’ah law.”23 The church must take the growth of Islam seriEzra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
ously; it is a movement and a worldview that is as political as it is religious, with significant implications for culture and society. As heralds of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are entrusted with delivering the good news of the gospel to Muslims, to declare freedom in Christ from slavery to sin, and to present Christ, not sinful man, as the sovereign King who rules justly and righteously. IN THIS ISSUE
Rev. Dr. Joe Boot examines the origins and fundamental ground motive of Islam, and demonstrates that it falls between two opposite poles of nature and revelation. In order to manage this inconsistency, Islam requires a totalitarian worldview based on rote mimicry of the words and deeds of Muhammad. Rev. Dr. Tony Costa surveys the responses of Christian scholars and apologists throughout history to Islam, demonstrating the importance of holding steadfastly to the truth and love of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our interaction with Muslims. We are also privileged to publish two articles from scholars and missionaries involved in ministry to Muslims. At their request we have used pseudonyms to identify them due to the sensitive nature of their work. Rev. Dr. Marvin Albert records from his own experience and research as a pastor and biblical counselor the many issues surrounding Muslims’ conversion to Christianity. He discusses the powerful factors of culture, community and identity that the Muslim-background believer must deal with, and offers some practical insight for churches and Christians interested in such ministry. Belteshazzar describes the role of the mosque in society, both in Islamic and Western nations. More than a house of worship, the mosque has a critical and authoritative role in the cultural and political life of Muslims, with immediate social implications.
1 Postmedia News, “Survey shows Muslim population is fastest growing religion in CanaSUMMER 2016
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da,” National Post, last modified May 8, 2013, http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/ survey-shows-muslim-population-is-fastestgrowing-religion-in-canada#3. Statistics Canada, “Immigration and Ethnocultural diversity in Canada,” Scribd, last modified May 8, 2013, https://www.scribd. com/doc/140156652/Immigration-and-Ethnocultural-Diversity-in-Canada. Postmedia News, “Survey shows.” “The Future of World Religions: Population growth projections, 2010-2050,” Pew Research Center, last modified April 2, 2015, http://www. pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/. Willa Frej, “How 70,000 Muslim Clerics are standing up to Terrorism,” Huffington Post, last modified December 11, 2015, h t t p : / / w w w. h u ff i n g t o n p o s t . c o m / e n t r y / muslim-clerics-condemn-terrorism_ us_566adfa1e4b009377b249dea. “Program/Schedule,” Reviving the Islamic Spirit, accessed April 11, 2016, http://risconvention.com/program/. Global Muslims Forum, “Dr. Shabir Ally Feb.27, 2016 - War & Peace,” YouTube, last modified February 27, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mZzegTv2V18&feature=youtu.be. Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012), 93. Corduan, Neighboring Faiths, 118-124. Gordon Nickel, Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an (Danvers, MA: Brill, 2011), 39. Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al., eds., The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary (2015), 562. Nasr et al., The Study Quran, 562. Nickel, Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an, 39. Martin Whittingham, “Ezra as the corrupter of the Torah? Reassessing ibn Hazm’s role in the long history of an idea,” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World Vol. 1 (2013), 255;
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Camilla Adang, Muslim writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From ibn rabban to ibn hazm (Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1996), 76. See James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1998). Hamza, Rizvi, and Mayer, An Anthology of Qur’anic Commentaries, 492. See Robert Bowman Jr. and Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in his Place: The case for the deity of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI.: Kregel Publications, 2007). Martin Whittingham, “The value of tahrif ma’nawi (corrupt interpretation) as a category for analysing Muslim views of the Bible: Evidence from al-radd al-jamil and ibn khaldun,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations Vol. 22, no. 2 (April 2011), 210. Rick Richter, Comparing the Qur’an and the Bible: What they really say about Jesus, Jihad and more (Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Books, 2011), 131. James R. White, What every Christian needs to know about the Qur’an (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2013), 158. The Canadian Press, “Canada Poised to Be Hub of Islamic Finance,” CBC News, last modified December 23, 2015, http://www.cbc.ca/news/ business/islamic-finance-banking-1.3378034. The Canadian Press, “Canada Poised.” Bill Warner, Sharia Law for Non-Muslims (USA: Center for the Study of Political Islam, 2010), 2.
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NATURE & REVELATION: The Fractured Foundations of
ISLAM
ACKNOWLEDGING THE ANTITHESIS
ONE COULD BE FORGIVEN for think-
ing, at first glance, that the differences between Christianity and Islam are few and superficial. After all, doesn’t Islam teach belief in one God, in revelation, in marriage and family, in charity and justice, in heaven and hell? On examination, however, it is the similarities that are superficial, while the differences are significant.
Both faiths speak about ‘God,’ but this word (Allah in Arabic) holds a totally different content for the Christian and the Muslim mind. For the Muslim, God is an unknowable monad1 who does not reveal himself; he is only a will in an eternal and written text sent down in stages (Sura 76:23; 56:77-82; 43:2-4). As Robert Spencer notes, “For Muslims, the Qur’an is a perfect copy of the perfect, eternal book – the Mother of the book (umm al-kitab) – that has existed forever with Allah in paradise.”2 For the Christian, God is a relational being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who is revealed clearly in the person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God; and the gospels and letters of the New Testament are the historically situated works of eyewitnesses written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Both Christians and Muslims speak of charity, but unlike Christian charity directed toward all those in need, Islamic charity is solely for the benefit of fellow Muslims, not of the kafir (unbeliever). Likewise both faiths speak of law and Justice. But for Islam there is one law for the Muslim and another for the unbeliever (Sura 3:28; 4:144; 8:12), whereas in Christian society there is equality for all before the same law rooted in the Ten Commandments. This disparity is because Muhammad and Allah hate the kafir (Sura 9:29; 33:60; 83:34; 86:15), whereas the Triune God of Scripture loves the world and came to seek and save sinners (John 3:16; Rom. 5:6-8; Luke 19:10). In Islam, any hope of paradise is based on the arbitrary will of Allah, an eternal state that may or may not be attained by striving in the cause of Islam, whereas in the Christian faith, salvation is by the grace and love of God alone, by faith in Jesus Christ, who calls us to follow him as his children and love our neighbour and our enemies (Matt. 5:44).
The nuclear family (Christian marriage) is the fundamental structural unit of Western civilization, while Islamic marriage is polygamous and is destructive of the unity, harmony and safety of the family. Ordinary Muslim men are permitted four wives – Muhammad allowed himself more.
Likewise, both religions are missionary faiths that seek to win converts, but in Islam this is by almost any means, including killing, violence and persecution, in order to bring the non-believer to submission (as modelled by Muhammad himself, see Sura 9:29; 61:10); in the Christian gospel, good news is preached so that people might freely respond to it or reject it (Rom. 10:14ff), and if the preachers suffer persecution as a result they are to love their enemies and do good to those that hate them.
Both Christianity and Islam speak of prayer, but in Islam prayer is a matter of structured recitation five times a day to an unknowable god in the direction of Mecca; whereas in Christianity prayer is the interaction of a personal God with man in a covenantal relationship where neither form nor posture is imposed upon it to make it valid.
This difference is basic to the persons at the centre of the faiths. Muhammad took up the sword to convert or slay his enemies.3 Jesus Christ went to the cross, because of the great love of God, to win a lost world by making atonement for our sins (1 John 2:2). In short, at almost every point, whilst similar terms may be employed in
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JOE BOOT REV. DR. JOE BOOT is the founder of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity and the founding pastor of Westminster Chapel in Toronto. Before this, he served with Ravi Zacharias for seven years as an apologist in the UK and Canada, working for five years as Canadian director of RZIM. A theology graduate of Birmingham Christian College, England, Joe earned his M.A. in Mission Theology from the University of Manchester and his Ph.D. in Christian Intellectual Thought from Whitefield Theological Seminary, Florida. His apologetic works have been published in Europe and in North America and include Searching for Truth, Why I Still Believe and How Then Shall We Answer. His latest book, The Mission of God, is a tour de force of biblical cultural theology, expounding the mission of the church in the twenty-first century. He is Senior Fellow of the cultural and apologetics think tank, truthXchange in Southern California and Director of the Wilberforce Academy training program in the UK. Joe lives in Toronto with his wife Jenny and their three children, Naomi, Hannah and Isaac.
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both faiths, their content is radically different. If Christians are to witness to Christ faith“at almost every fully with Muslims, while also resisting point, whilst the destructive development of Islamic culture, it is critical that we understand similar terms may the foundational convictions and ground be employed in motive of Islam, and equally important both faiths, their that we are honest enough to highlight content is radically this radical antithesis.
different.”
The Islamic worldview always produces a radically different culture and political system than that of Christianity because of its view of the divine and the foundations of moral order. If we care about Muslims and our society, we will care about facing Islam honestly and clearly in its varied implications. As Rebecca Bynum notes: We abandon our responsibility to our fellow human beings if we do not address Islam in all its aspects. As Ibn Warraq has noted many times, “Muslims are the first victims of Islam.” And though Islam certainly provides a strong sense of belonging which benefits social cohesion it does so at the expense of personal freedom and individuality. Islam is something one is born into and cannot leave without the most extreme intellectual, emotional and physical struggle…The right to question and leave the religion one is born into, is a fundamental freedom absolutely denied by Islam.4
For those who would want to minimize the differences between Christianity and Islam and naïvely or wilfully deny any fundamental antithesis in our understanding of God, revelation “at the most and salvation – suggesting instead that fundamental level – the starting point for engaging Islam should be by seeking and building on who God and Jesus supposed commonalities of faith rather Christ really are – than a candid acknowledgement of the biblical Christianity radically different starting points – we and Islam stand should bear in mind the clear teaching antithetical of Scripture. For the Christian, truth is to each other. ” embodied in the person of Jesus Christ as the second person of the Godhead and there is no access to God except through him (John 1:1; 14:6). By contrast the Qur’an declares that SUMMER 2016
there is nothing like Allah and to suggest someone is made in the image of Allah is blasphemy (Sura 42:11). In the Bible, Christ is the exact representation or expression of God’s nature (Heb. 1:3), whereas for Islam there is no image, no Son, nor any incarnation of the divine, and Allah is beyond being known. Islamic scholar Mark Beaumont points out: For the Qur’an commentator al-Tabari (d. 923) the naming of Jesus as God’s son undermines the unity of God. By introducing concepts of fatherhood and sonship, Christians take away from God’s true nature, since the Christian idea introduces a necessary connection between God and Jesus that reduces God’s freedom and power.5
Muhammad himself considered the sonship of Jesus false prophecy (Sura 43:81), which brings to mind the words of the apostle John, “Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well” (1 John 2:22-23). For the Christian, there is no true knowledge of God without the Son. But the Jesus (Isa) of the Qur’an is not the Son of God, is not the redeemer, and is not the embodiment of truth. He does not die at the cross to save sinners, is not resurrected from death, and came only for the purpose of foretelling the coming of Ahmad – another of the names of Muhammad, to whom he will ultimately pay homage.6 Thus at the most fundamental level – who God and Jesus Christ really are – biblical Christianity and Islam stand antithetical to each other. The cultural and social results that flow from that basic division can be seen in 1400 years of history. For there to be any meaningful beginning in understanding and addressing Islam as Christians it must be recognised first as a totalizing worldview affecting every aspect of life and culture for its followers, and second as an ideology founded by a man who was concerned to set his teachings in opposition to the Triune God of Scripture and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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THE GROUND MOTIVE OF ISLAM
Islamic ideology is obviously not monolithic. There are various divisions, groups and sects with different claims regarding leadership succession from Muhammad, eschatology, spirituality and the immediate implications of various Islamic teachings. There is however a core of essentials shared by the vast majority of Muslims today, with respect to the Qur’an, Allah and Muhammad. Space prohibits drawing out many of the subtle distinctions that have been made by Muslim philosophers and teachers in the past, but it is possible to highlight the dominant direction of Islamic thought, to point to a foundational or ground motive that actuates this influential ideology. So what is the religious root that permeates the core of Islam? I want to suggest that Islam is rooted in two fundamental ideas that are in dialectical tension with each other – Nature (fate) and Revelation (law). Both of these concepts point to a more basic and fundamental problem in Islam – its doctrine of God. First then let’s consider the Islamic idea of Allah. To understand the Islamic view of reality, of both nature (the world) and revelation, we must first consider the divinity concept of Islam because they are inescapably involved in each other. It is important to note that around the time of the birth of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, the dominant religious ideas of the Arabs were pagan. Typically paganism implies polytheistic nature religions that posit a mystical divinity concept (often indistinguishable from the totality of nature), combined with other gods or spirits (as consorts and lesser deities) and ritualistically involving both fetish and taboo (both of which are present in modern Islam). As Geisler notes, “the Arabs of pre-Islamic days, despite all their idolatry, knew of and acknowledged Allah’s existence as the supreme God.”7 Muhammad’s own father bore the name Abd-Allah (slave of God), indicating that his contemporaries identified a supreme deity called Allah. As Zwemer argues: In pre-Islamic literature, Christian or pagan, ilah is used for any god and Al-ilah (contracted to Allah)…was the name of the supreme. Among the pagan Arabs this
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term denoted the chief god of their pantheon, the Kaaba, with its three hundred and sixty idols.… As final evidence, we have the fact centuries before Muhammad the Arabian Kaaba, or temple at Mecca, was called Beit-Allah, the house of God.8
It is not easy to discern the exact nature of this supreme deity of pre-Islamic Arabia because of the variety of influences geographically. There is clearly a connection to astral religious beliefs which persists in the symbol of Islam – the crescent.9 Jacques Ryckmans has further observed: Al-Ilāt or Allāt (“the Goddess”), was known to all pantheons. She is a daughter or a consort, depending on the region, of al-Lāh or Allāh (“the God”), Lord of the Ka'bah in Mecca; he is also named in Thamūdic texts. Al-Ilāt formed a trio with the goddesses al-'Uzzā (“the Powerful”) and Manāt (or Manawat, “Destiny”). Among the Nabataeans al-'Uzzā was assimilated to Venus and Aphrodite and was the consort of Kutbā' or al-Aktab (“the Scribe”; Mercury); among the Thamudaeans, however, she was assimilated to 'Attarsamay (or 'Attarsam). Manāt was depicted as Nemesis in the Nabataean iconography. The three goddesses were called the “Daughters of Allāh” in preIslāmic Mecca, and they are mentioned in the Qur'ān (53:19–22). In South Arabia they are called the “Daughters of Il,” and al-Ilāt and al-'Uzzā are mentioned in Sabaean inscriptions.10
“I want to suggest that Islam is rooted in two fundamental ideas that are in dialectical tension with each other – Nature (fate) and Revelation (law). ”
The Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, the state religion of the pre-Islamic Iranian empire, was also present in the region, based on the teachings of Zoroaster, who taught dualistic ideas not dissimilar to the Greeks, in which an ultimate being (or unity) was also posited. Zoroastrianism thus had both dualistic and monotheistic elements and its call to honour a supreme deity is remarkably similar to Islam, as well as its emphasis on good works, heaven and hell.11 Christianity in Nestorian form had made some inroads in the SUMMER 2016
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region12 and gnostic-type sects were also present. Moreover, St. John of Damascus, one of the great theologians in Christian intellectual history who, in the early part of the eighth century, lived in the time of rapid Islamic expansion, considered Islam the last in a line of pseudo-Christian heresies. Griffith tells us, “Indeed he speaks of Muhammed as having been one who, ‘having happened upon the Old and New Testaments, likewise having probably been in conversation with an Arian monk, contrived his own heresy.’”13 Arianism was a unitarian heresy, according to which Jesus Christ is merely a creature, not the eternal son of God. It is likely that these varied religious forces had a powerful influence on the Islamic formulation of Allah. In pagan thought, then, since any supreme being is unknown and ultimately mysterious, the world is ultimately ‘governed’ by fate. Man is “the Allah to whom helpless before Fortuna,14 and must seek Muhammad was some kind of protection or control via rituals, fetishes and sacrifices to appease calling the Arabian the gods.15 Considering the eclectic reliworld to return as gious milieu of the time; the pre-Islamic alone the supreme worship of a supreme deity called Allah; deity ... was not the the ongoing significance of the Kaaba; God and Father and the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca, of our Lord Jesus it is clear that the Allah to whom MuChrist.” hammad was calling the Arabian world to return as alone the supreme deity was not Elohim – it was not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is evident from the fact that Muhammad saw himself as re-establishing something that is quite contrary to Scripture. The doctrine of Allah was deeply influenced by these dominant pagan ideas of fate, and a supreme primitive force, that surrounded Islam’s originators. In some respects Islam appears to be an attempt to synthesize a pagan doctrine of god as an unknown and supreme principle of fate (essentially a nature religion) with a more Hebraic, Christian idea of revelation from a God who speaks into history. However, as we will see, this is an impossible dialectic so that in the process, the biblical idea of God and revelation is radically perverted. In this way Islam gives us a nature and cultural religion as two poles of the same belief system.
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These are manifest in the fatalism, spiritualism, fetishism and mysticism of the Islamic ‘nature deity’ that is quasi-pantheistic on the one hand, and the law, structure and political totalitarianism manifesting the cultural religion of ‘revelation’ on the other. THE ISLAMIC DOCTRINE OF GOD
Central to the concept of Allah in Islam, then, is the doctrine of tawhid – meaning absolute oneness, or unity. Although this word does not appear in the Qur’an, the root word wahad appears many times and its main aim is to deny any form of likeness or association whatsoever to god. It is difficult to convey the importance and centrality of this idea to Islam: “Proclaim, He is Allah, the single” (Sura 112:1). That is, Allah is considered the One, the Only, the eternal, the absolute. As James White notes, “Ask any sincere follower what defines Islam, and they will answer quickly. Tawhid, the glorious monotheistic truth, the heart of Islamic faith, is to the Muslim what the Trinity is to the Christian: the touchstone, the non-negotiable, the definitional.”16 On this view, Allah is completely and radically incomparable (tanzih) to anything or anyone. Allah is distinct from all associations so that to attempt to know his nature is ‘shirk,’ the error of idolatry or polytheism. As Muhammed Abdul Rauf states, “God is the essence of existence. His Arabic name is Allah. He is The First and The Last. He is unique and nothing resembles Him in any respect. He is One and The One.”17 It is immediately striking that these descriptions are impersonal and ineffable. The result is that to say anything truly theological about Allah becomes a form of idolatry – although ironically to speak, as Rauf does, of god as the ‘essence of existence’ and the ‘First and Last’ is to say something theological about Allah. Critically, both the Qur’an and Hadith attack the doctrine of the Triune God of Christianity as polytheism and a violation of the philosophical abstraction of tawhid (Sura 2:116; 4:171; 4:155,157-158; 5:17, 72,73; 19:92; 23:91; 39:4); though the Qur’an shows no evidence of understanding the Christian formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity (Sura 5:116).18 This failure of understanding is problematic for Islam because first, the Qur’an Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
Nature & Revelation
is meant to be absolutely without error as an eternal book that came down from heaven. And second, because it is clear that the Qur’anic author of these attacks on the Trinity clearly thought he was condemning the Christian formulation of the doctrine of God. Since the Qur’an spends a considerable amount of space refuting Christian ideas about God, it is highly problematic that the assertions it rejects are not actually being made in biblical revelation and Christian theology.19 Nonetheless, what is important here is that these Qur’anic texts are a specific polemic against the Christian God and insist on the absolute Oneness of God as a unitary being. Obviously, as soon as you say anything about such a being it ceases to be an absolute, incomparable unity. This abstraction of Allah as tawhid is not unlike the Greek idea of an absolute unity or oneness found in the thought of Plotinus. Of this absolute One, nothing can really be said or it would cease to be an absolute unity. Consequently you cannot do a ‘theology’ of the One, because its nature is wholly unknown. As the former Islamic jurist and now Christian scholar, Sam Solomon, has pointed out: ‘Theology’ is not applicable within Islamic scholarship, but would be considered a term of great offence. Thus, for a Muslim, for one to infer that mankind could apprehend or understand anything about Allah’s actual nature, or to even venture to question what the Qur’an says about Allah is a legally punishable offense.20
It is something of a contradiction in terms, then, to discover that Allah is given ninety-nine names in Islam! The Muslim seeks to escape this logical conundrum by asserting that none of these names actually refer to his nature, thereby hoping to preserve tawhid. It therefore follows from the doctrine of tawhid, and the remote unknowability of the divine, that Allah never speaks directly to people but only through intermediaries – recall the Greek notion of daemons who bring messages from god. As one leading Islamic scholar argues: If someone asks Allah to pronounce His Unity (Oneness) Himself directly without Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
any channel, He would rejoin: This is below My dignity to address my creatures directly. Nor any human is permitted to talk to me without any ‘medium.’ Allah has revealed in the Holy Qur’an “And no one can dare speak to Allah…” (Sura 42:51).21
The Allah of Islam is therefore a non-relational, unknowable god, who will forever be unknowable and unknown. The intermediaries “Any doctrine don’t know Allah any more than anyone else. This is the logical outworking of a related to Allah in strict monadic conception of God as abIslam therefore can solute unity (monism). Such a ‘god’ is reonly be stated in duced to a principle that cannot be perterms of negation sonal, relational or have any meaningful – who Allah is not contact with creation. Any doctrine relat– since he is ultraed to Allah in Islam therefore can only be transcendent and stated in terms of negation – who Allah is not – since he is ultra-transcendent and relationless. ” relationless. Relationality is in no sense essential to his being, “Allah does not speak to any one directly…, nobody can establish any direct communication with Allah.”22 Since this god can be neither comprehended nor truly reveal himself (more properly ‘itself ’), three things result. First, the only conceivable contact with such an impersonal principle of being is through the spiritualist, non-rational encounter of the mystic. It is therefore no surprise to find that, by tradition, Muhammad spent weeks at a cave on Mount Hira in the ‘remembrance of Allah,’ and in the wake of this he allegedly received true dreams.23 Here he claimed private supernatural encounters. From the Islamic sources we learn that he was troubled by these experiences and was worried about being possessed by a Jinn (spirit); he even contemplated suicide because of the troubling nature of his visions and mystical encounters.24 This is an aspect of Islam as nature or mystery religion that seeks mystical encounter with an unknown god. In the tradition of the revered Imam al-Ghazali, Tahir-ul Qadri writes, “Mysticism is the only means of the internal experiences and observations.… Mysticism brings about the internal observation of the faith to the zenith of certainty.”25 Secondly, the unknown being of Allah steadily becomes indistinguishable from ‘nature’ and ‘fate’ SUMMER 2016
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itself, because everything becomes an expression of pure will. And third, an intermediary is required to ‘stand in’ for Allah to reveal and embody the will of this unknowable absolute One – the one will in the universe. How an absolute unity can have any ‘will’ (will being an aspect of personhood and relationship) is “Without essential unexplained and cannot be questioned in distinction within Islam. The Shahadah, the Islamic creed, God’s own being states: No deity but Allah and Muhammad ...there is no basis is the Messenger of Allah. In this fashion for the idea Muhammad establishes himself as the of creation sole intermediary and arbiter of true religion, and his Sunnah (example in sayings as a free act.” and deeds) become the pattern of true religion for all time. THE NATURE MOTIVE IN ISLAM
Understanding the doctrine of Allah as grounded in tawhid – god as One and Only – enables us to grasp the origin of the first aspect of the religious core of Islam – nature or fate. Although Allah is meant to be transcendent, his absolute unity inevitably leads to a form of pantheism or total immanence, which produces voluntarism26 and fatalism. MacDonald observes that “it is part of the irony of the history of Muslim theology that the very emphasis on the transcendental unity should lead thus to pantheism.”27 Pantheism is the very definition of nature religion. Ineluctably on this conception of Allah, everything is gradually incorporated into the One. Al-Ghazali was Persian and deeply influenced by the Sufi tradition, as well as Neo-Platonism via Christian theology.28 He reported from his mystic encounters that “Indeed there is nothing in existence except God and His acts, for whatever is there besides Him is His act.” In another work he argues that mystics, ”are able to see visually that there is no being in the world other than God and that the face of everything is perishable save His face (Sura 28:88)… indeed, everything other than He, considered in itself, is pure nonbeing…therefore, nothing is except God Almighty and His face.”29 This mysticism corresponds to one of Allah’s names, Al Haqq, meaning pure transcendence. Transcendence essentially denotes distinction. But since there is no distinction basic to Allah’s own being (as a pure unity), he cannot be truly transcendent SUMMER 2016
by nature. At best, Allah’s ‘transcendence’ (tanzih) can only be co-relative to the world, which means ‘god’ is an evolving being, defined by nature –the essence of paganism. Inevitably, this type of distinction proves to be less than fully real. Whether the Muslim realizes it or not, Allah is really the god of pantheism and akin to Indian philosophy in which the world is illusion (Maya). Reality is merely semblance because Allah is the One the Only. This leads to the progressive denial of real natural phenomenon, so that cause-and-effect relations steadily break down. Formally, Islam wants to reject pantheism; in fact Sunni Islam rejected philosophy in part because it embraced Aristotle’s emanationism (creation as emanation). Yet at the same time it incorporated Sufism – the most philosophicallyconsistent brand of Islam – through al-Ghazali’s teaching. Sufism is basically Gnosticism rooted in the non-rational mystic leap toward the unknowable absolute. Without essential distinction within God’s own being so that, by subject-object relation, thought, truth, will, purpose and love (morality) can find a starting point, there is no basis for the idea of creation as a free act. Nor can there be a basis for reason, revelation or rational knowledge of God. As a result, the ‘transcendence’ of absolute unity collapses into pure immanence – Allah is all; all is will; Allah is pure will and life is sheer fate. Thus Ibn Arabi came to the conclusion from his reading of the primary sources that ‘Allah is all and all is Allah,’ as set out in his treatise Al-Futuhat al Makkiya, which is widely studied today by Muslims and Islamic scholars.30 It is vitally important to see, then, that Islam proves unable to make a meaningful or coherent distinction between Allah and nature – they collapse into one. As Ibn Arabi stated, “in the last analysis, Allah himself is the spirit of the cosmos, while the cosmos is his body.”31 To be self-aware, one must have something to reflect upon, and since Allah is pure unity, before creation he is not self-aware and so the world is reduced to emanation, not a free act of creation, as Arabi observed. The nature motive in Islam, springing from this pagan concept of god, means that the distinction Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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between Allah and nature – including man – is obliterated. Abu Yazid al Bistami (d. 875) speaks of his mystical encounter with the absolute, claiming self-extinction in ecstatic encounter, and a self-identification with the divine, “Glory be to me, how great is my worth…; within this robe is naught but Allah.”32 Likewise, al-Ghazali came to the conclusion that the only sure knowledge comes from mystic encounter with the absolute. He said, “by means of this contemplation of heavenly forms and images they rise by degrees to heights which human language cannot reach.”33 The echoes of Plato’s thought forms here are striking. With an unknowable god indistinguishable from nature itself, the idea of a rational universe of cause and effect gradually retreats, secondary causality becomes incoherent, and everything becomes a direct act of Allah and therefore an aspect of Allah’s will. An Imam in Pakistan recently instructed physicists that they should not consider the idea of cause and effect in their work: Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani physicist and professor at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad said that, ‘it was not Islamic to say that combining hydrogen and oxygen makes water.’ You were supposed to say that when you bring hydrogen and oxygen together then by the will of Allah water was created.34
Nature and Allah are identified so that everything that occurs in the material world is simply an expression of Allah’s will – indeed Allah is impersonal, pure will or pure force. Human will has no derived independent existence and man cannot be made in the image of God since Allah is an unknowable pure unity. Inevitably, the good and evil deeds of man become equally ultimate, both resulting from the direct and immediate will of Allah. The end product is an entrenched fatalistic apathy in Islamic culture which is clearly expressed in the deeply religious phrase inshallah (if it be Allah’s will). As Reilly has commented, “If man lives in a world of which he can make no sense, an irrational world without causality, he can choose only to surrender to fate or to despair. Reason and freedom become irrelevant.”35 In Islam then, Nature is actually a conflation of ‘god’ Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
and the world (a world reduced to semblance), with god as an absolute and unknowable Oneness, ultimately indistinguishable from apparent phenomena and historical eventuation. THE CULTURAL MOTIVE OF ISLAM
In Islam, we have seen that a blank and non-relational divinity concept stands behind both poles of a nature/fate (inshallah) religious aspect on the one hand and the cultural religious aspect of order on the other – based in a revelation of law and social custom through Muhammad. Since a nature religion grounded in fate or pure will cannot produce a transcendent standard for social order or moral truth, this opposite pole in Islam’s ground motive is revelation, in which the paradise idea is foremost and culture, in the form of a human archetype, is absolutized. The ummah (world community of Islam) becomes the material goal of Islam to introduce some kind of coherence into its fatalistic world governed by an unknown god. In other words, since the being called ‘god’ (Allah) is unknown and unknowable and effectively co-relative to the world, since this god’s will and purpose are indistinguishable from what occurs in nature, then an objective and identifiable standard becomes necessary to concretize the faith – the cultural motive. The cultural aspect of revelation is in clear and irresolvable dialectical tension with the oth“Nature and Allah er pole – the nature aspect. This is because are identified so first, a doctrine of revelation requires a real transcendence (distinction) of God from that everything creation – only a being distinct from and that occurs in transcending time and history can speak the material into a history that is truly other, and not world is simply merely an aspect of divine emanation. Secan expression of ond, as we have seen, Islam teaches that Allah’s will...” Allah is non-relational, unknown and unknowable so the concept of revelation (a personal and relational act) is incoherent. Third, how can revelation even be identified if everything that occurs is in fact a revelation of Allah’s direct will? In an effort to overcome these problems, it is claimed that the Qur’an is itself an eternal book in Arabic (co-relative to Allah), that is revela-
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tory of Allah’s will.36 However, this introduces a whole new set of apparently irresolvable problems in connecting Islam’s nature divinity with a cultural religion of revelation. For example: since Oneist concepts of god logically lead to mystical self-realization (which did develop in Sufism as we have noted), not the biblical idea of revelation from a personal God who speaks and reveals himself, how is the idea of revelation coherent? How can Allah be the One and Only incomparable absolute unity if there is a co-eternal text in Arabic next to him in paradise that lays out his will? Surely, on Islam’s own terms, the notion of an eternal book is shirk (idolatry) and setting up something next to God? Moreover, how can a temporally-revealed book addressing the immediate circumstances arising in the “Absolutely historical life of Muhammad, be an eterfundamental to nal entity, next to an unknowable and Islam, then, is the non-relational Allah – a being that would remarkable status be logically unconcerned with creation and history? Perhaps even more probaccorded to the lematic for this dialectic is how an inman Muhammad, comparable, non-relational, unknowable for without being, emanating through a non-rational Muhammad there world, where god has no image-bearer, can be no Islam. ” could give ‘revelation’ that is recognizable and comprehensible to man. To these questions Islam can give no coherent answer. It is blasphemous for the Muslim to even ask them. The Islamic response is simply to reassert the Shahadah, “there is no god but God [tawhid] and Muhammad is the messenger of God.” Absolutely fundamental to Islam, then, is the remarkable status accorded to the man Muhammad, for without Muhammad there can be no Islam. At the root of the cultural motive in Islam is this allegedly peerless personage. We have made the crucial observation that between the divinity concept (Allah) and the man Muhammad is postulated an eternal form (another debt to Greek philosophy), co-extensive with God, called the Qur’an. However, the temporal embodiment of that eternal form is actually in Muhammad himself who, being the receptacle and vehicle of that revelation, constitutes the archetype for the cultural religion of Islam, which is the only distinctive idea that Islam introduces. SUMMER 2016
It is equally important to note that Muhammad himself cannot do anything to save the individual – he cannot deliver anyone from the unfathomable swerve and deadly jaws of fate (Allah’s will). However, for Islam, he sets forth the eternal will in a series of revelations thought to be a copy of an eternal form, which in a certain sense, since Allah is pure will, is identical with Allah. As a result, the will of Allah and the teaching and lifemodel of Muhammad are so closely identified as to practically (whilst not doctrinally) absolutize Muhammad. To illustrate consider some of the names given to Muhammad: The Highest; Most Beautiful; The Truth itself; The Mighty One; The Sign of Allah; The Light; Allah’s Grace; Language itself; The Sanctifier; The Grantor of Pardon; The Diadem – to name but a few!37 If these are not the descriptions of a man turned god or absolutized man, it is difficult to know what would be sufficient to essentially divinize an individual. This is why the term ‘Muhammadan’ is the most technically appropriate term for the Muslim, because it is really only Muhammad who is known in Islam and whose example must be followed. As Solomon points out: After labouring over the need NOT to humanize Allah or to divinize a man, the Qur’an singles out Mohammed, a mere man, to be the embodiment of the mercies of Allah…. Hence there is nothing and no part of Islam that can be understood or handled without Muhammed, be it Islamic beliefs, Islamic practices, Islamic doctrines, Islamic Shari’ah, Islamic conduct, Islamic dress codes, Islamic diet – and much more… based on what every ancient and modern Muslim scholar without exception has said and written, Allah and his “messenger” Muhammed, are inseparable, and no distinction can be made between them.38
In this way the cultural aspect of life is absolutized and the model and teaching of a mortal man is made an eternal and irrevocable standard. Muhammad becomes the only real link between the divine being and the man so that obedience to Muhammad is equated with obedience to God himself (See: Sura 4:80; 3:31,32; 3:132; 4:13; 4:14; 4:69; 4:59; 9:71; 5:92). Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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Given that Allah himself cannot be known and does not reveal himself, what can carry a ‘revelation’ from such an abstract being to the man Muhammad? We already noted that Sufi mysticism is the natural outgrowth of the nature motive in Islam. Experience of the divine is only by mystical encounter. The Sufi practice (whilst not denying the role and importance of Muhammad) emphasizes the nature deity aspect, not the cultural motive in Islam, making Sufis typically more tolerant and peaceable in practice than some other sects. However, when the cultural motive is emphasized, Islam centres on the life of Muhammad, not mysticism, emphasizing his social and cultural example. This revelation is said to be the final absolute rule of life as modelled by the last true prophet – all previous revelations must be understood in terms of him and any contradictions to these claims and teachings in Hebrew and Christian revelation must be due to their corruption.
tural form in proportion to the fanaticism engendered by the belief in it.40
Where the cultural motive of Islam is “Muhammad stressed above the nature motive, instead becomes the only of producing the primacy of mystical enreal link between counter of Sufism, Islam is pursued as the the divine being final and only authentic religion that will and the man so conquer the world by bringing everything else into forceful subjugation to Muhamthat obedience mad and his successors. Allah is all and to Muhammad Muhammad is his prophet, so Islam must is equated with crush all opposition. The sole vindication obedience to God of Muhammad’s claims must therefore be himself” the cultural victory of Islam via the imposition of Shari’ah (Allah’s will) on all the world and the subjugation or conversion of the infidel (non-Muslim). This drive was basic to Islam from its inception. In an early text written in Greek (ca. 634), the author tells of the incursion of the Arabs and a prophet who appeared among Muhammad therefore represents the embodi- them. Griffith writes: ment of an eternal form. Allah is absolute being, The text reports a question put to a pure form, pure will and, limited by such a boundlearned Jew, “What can you tell me about ary, cannot transgress from the realm of abstracthe prophet who has appeared with the tion and non-relational Oneness to the realm of Saracens?” To which he replied, “He is history. Muhammad manifests god’s pure will false, for the prophets do not come armed and thereby takes the place of the divine in history. with a sword,” and the learned man As such, the cultural aspect of life is absolutized avers that the prophet may in fact be the and the Ummah is essentially divinized in its Antichrist. Then, according to the text, imitation of Muhammad’s example. This means the questioner made further inquiries and that nothing is more important than the Muslim he “heard from those who had met him community and the cultural advance of Islam as that there was no truth to be found in the the very embodiment of god’s will. This cultural project is driven by an underlying paradise motive. Muhammad is again the key to paradise and the attainment of a kind of Elysium.39 As the heroic warrior and embodiment of divine will, Muhammad promises victory for Islam and a coming world governed by Islam. Those that strive in his cause therefore have the best chance of paradise. Bynum has written of this phenomenon: It is the deification of a cultural system…. In this view, the cultural structure essentially replaces the concept of a living God and thus human freedom, happiness and ultimately lives are sacrificed to the cul-
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so-called prophet, only the shedding of men’s blood. He says also that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible.”41
These Christian repudiations of Islam reappear constantly in later Christian texts which summarise the new religion of Islam as defined by bloodshed, the spirit of Antichrist and the hope of a carnal, sensual paradise. However, despite the objections of Jews, Christians and those of other faiths, the form of Allah’s will, manifest in Muhammad, must be replicated everywhere as an expression of the eternal will. Thus Islam can only be made ‘real’ (rather than solely mystical in experience) in terms of the concreteness of a cultural religion of ‘revelation’ that of necessity abSUMMER 2016
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solutizes a human being. As Bynum notes: Islam crystalizes the worship of man both in the concept of the ummah, or ‘community of believers’ which takes absolute precedence over the individual, and also in the worshipful veneration of one specific man, Muhammed, so much so that the tiniest details of his personal habits are imitated to this day. His likes and dislikes along with the sayings and doings of Muhammed form the entire basis for good and evil in the Islamic system. There is no other measure. In Islam, man (in abstract) is not the measure of all things; one specific man is. Islam puts man in place of God.42
Its self-vindication, indeed the only possible justification of Islam’s truthfulness, is not by “Islam ‘saves reasoned argument, for Allah is neither society from the reason nor reasonable. Nor is the validation of Islam by the grace of God and anarchy inherent working of God’s Spirit, for Allah is neiin its philosophy by ther grace nor truth. Allah is pure force, imposing ultra-strict pure will, so the only vindication of pure totalitarian social force, is force. As Reilly points out, “The regulation.’” rule of power is the natural, logical outcome of a voluntaristic theology that invests God’s shadow on earth – the caliph or ruler – with an analogous force based on God’s will.”43 It is for this reason that the striving world of Islam is perpetually at war, if not militarily, then culturally, with the kafir – an insulting term for the non-believer who allegedly conceals the truth of Islam. Pure will or force manifest for all time in the life and teaching of Muhammad does not reason or debate but imposes (see: Sura 2:216; 4:89; 9:29; 47:4; 61:10). This is why Islam, from the time and historic example of Muhammad, spread through the sword: In Mecca Mohammed was a religious preacher who converted about 10 people a year to Islam. In Medina Mohammed was a warrior and politician who converted about 10,000 people to Islam every year. Politics and Jihad were a thousand times more effective than religion to convert the Arabs to Islam.44
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In the process of this conquest, Islam stamps out plurality, freedom and liberty for a strictly unitary and totalitarian understanding of social, cultural and political life as an inevitable reflection of its conception of the divine. Once Islamic culture ceased to be able to conquer and thereby parasitically live off the cultural energy of largely Christian peoples,45 the Islamic world was left to its own resources and steadily stagnated – which is where almost all the Islamic nations are today. Those that have prospered to a degree have only done so either because of former colonial influence on their institutions or the development of their natural resources through a Western investment of technology and the purchase of oil. THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
Though superficially dressed in the garb of Abrahamic monotheism, we have seen that Islam, with its monistic concept of god, emerging from pagan roots, collapses the divine, and with it all existence, into the One, the Only – an unknown and unknowable essence of pure will that identifies god with fate (inshallah). I have called this the nature motive within Islam because absolute being is effectively truncated to pure force and creation is essentially reduced to emanation (the body of god) from an absolute, ineffable Oneness. By stressing the Oneness and arbitrary will of divine being, the value of what happens in the world is diminished, free human action is denied, and the thought of escaping into a carnal paradise becomes paramount for the Muslim. In order for Islam to be a social force, it is necessary for an opposite pole to be held in tension with nature (Allah). I have called this opposite pole the cultural motive – a principle of order based in the idea of revelation of which Muhammad is the archetype and effective mediator, making Muhammadanism a cultural religion that absolutizes a man and the cultural aspect of human experience. Islam thereby “saves society from the anarchy inherent in its philosophy by imposing ultra-strict totalitarian social regulation.”46 Consequently a veil comes down over freedom, individuality, plurality and beauty – as typified when
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a woman’s face is covered or music is banished. The imposition of Shari’ah to govern all aspects of life thus asserts a radical unity at the expense of diversity. Biblical revelation, by contrast, reveals the Triune God as the key to all thought, all truth and all reality. This God is a personal, relational and covenant-making God who speaks to his creatures and enters into familial relationship with them as a Father. In his High Priestly Prayer, Jesus made plain that God had manifested himself so that people might enter the intimacy of fellowship with the Triune God and know him as Father. In radical contrast to Islam, God is to be known intimately: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3) And since according to Scripture man is made in the image of God, it tells us of the incarnation of God the Son as man, the exact imprint of God’s own nature and thus fully representational of God. Immediately we have in Christ something comparable to the invisible and immortal God – the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, because he is God and man. Moreover, man is his image-bearer, which tells us something of who God is. Perhaps most remarkable of all, God sends his Spirit to dwell in us so that we have immediate fellowship with God. Jesus Christ reveals a God who is himself an eternal community of love (John 17:5), both one and many, unity in diversity, so that transcendence (distinction) is essential to His own being. The Scriptures reveal further that of his own free will he called creation into being, and as both sovereign Lord and creator he both transcends creation as an absolute personality, whilst being immanent within it, upholding all things by his powerful word. The distinction within God’s own being, which implies God’s distinction from the world, means that he transcends creation, whilst being immanent within it, animating it by his Spirit, without contradiction. Critically, this distinction – an inter-subjectivity that exists between the persons of the Godhead – is the basis upon which knowledge, love, freedom, will and purpose are grounded and find their starting point. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is able to communicate and reveal himself, and acEzra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
cess to the divine is not limited to a few mystics, but made available to all through the death and resurrection of Christ. Likewise, revelation in the Christian gospel is not an eternal book (form) taken from a shelf of abstraction co-relative to God, but is rather ultimately manifest in the Person of Jesus “the gospel of Jesus Christ in history. The God of Scripture Christ offers speaks, and that revelation is ultimately of relationality and himself in his Son, communicated by the work of the Holy Spirit. God has chosen sociality because to reveal himself to us also in the written of who God is, word of God, which is the account and and because of testimony of that revelation of the Son his redemptive and his redemptive work. Since God’s covpurposes within enant word is revealed in time and history creation.” to God’s servants, it was inscripturated for our instruction. This written word, which points us to Christ, is taken by God the Holy Spirit and quickened to human minds and hearts for our regeneration and transformation. It speaks to and constitutes human reason, but it does so in a manner that frees the God-given potential inherent in created rationality. As Colin Gunton has put it: The Word is the focus of rationality, enabling us to conceive the relatedness of man and nature; while within that structure the Spirit is the focus of freedom.… What becomes conceivable as a result of such a development is an understanding of particularity which guards against the pressure to homogeneity.… Both cosmologically and socially, we may say, there is need to give priority neither to the one nor to the many. Being is diversity within unity.47
This understanding of who God is, as revealed in the gospel, gives rise to a social and cultural vision that values unity within diversity, plurality and freedom under God’s order and resists tyranny and the totalitarian impulse. It sees relational love to God and neighbour as the centre of human well-being and it offers the gospel freely and without compulsion. In a manner inconceivable within Islam the gospel of Jesus Christ offers relationality and sociality because of who God is, SUMMER 2016
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and because of his redemptive purposes within creation. Gunton’s conclusion is brilliant: Personal beings are social beings, so that of both God and man it must be said they have their being in their personal relatedness: their free relation-in-otherness. This is not so of the rest of creation, which does not have the marks of love and freedom which are among the marks of the personal…. All things are what they are by being particulars constituted by many and various forms of relation.48
“We must share the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the wonder of being enfolded in the loving embrace of the triune God, with our Muslim friends”
Gunton goes on to show that this Christian reality has an important cultural implication: Relationality is thus the transcendental which allows us to learn something of what it is to say that all created people and things are marked by their coming from and returning to the God who is himself in his essential and inmost being, a being in relation.… Redemption thus means the redirection of the particular to its own end and not a re-creation. The distinctive feature of created persons is their mediating function in the achievement of perfection by the rest of creation. They are called to the forms of action, in science, ethics and art – in a word, to culture – which enable to take place the sacrifice of praise, which is the free offering of all things, perfected, to their creator. Theologically put, the created world becomes truly itself - moves toward its completion – when through Christ and the Spirit, it is presented perfect before the throne of the Father. The sacrifice of praise which is the due human response to both creation and redemption takes the form of that culture which enables both personal and non-personal worlds to realise their true being.49
The Muslim hopes to escape the arbitrary fate of the unknown, unknowable and non-communicative Allah, by means of the cultural religion of Muhammad whose life and example are the only link and contact point to this abstract world. IsSUMMER 2016
lam thus proves to be a poor copy of Christianity where Islamic culture (ummah) is a superficial parody of the kingdom of God. In the end that cultural order is focused on an absolutized man who, unable to save, only points the way to a possible escape from the miseries of fate into an egocentric, libidinous paradise. Precious people who are Muslims are prisoners of a false and self-destructive system, set up against the knowledge of God that robs them of their true humanity and of knowing the true Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ whose love and mercy is extended to them in the gospel. This same Christ has promised that not only shall the believer see him, but shall be like him, because we will see God the Son as he is, and thereby know the living God as he is (1 John 3:2). We must share the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the wonder of being enfolded in the loving embrace of the triune God, with our Muslim friends, family and neighbours. And we ourselves must be strengthened in the knowledge that Jesus promised, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:17-18).
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A leading Muslim commentator, Beidhawi, suggests that the name Allah is derived from “an [invented] root illaha = to be in perplexity, because the mind is perplexed when it tries to form the idea of the infinite.” See Geisler, Answering Islam, 14. Robert Spencer, Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry into Islam’s Obscure Origins (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2012), 126. For a study of Islamic hostility and violence toward Jews and non-Muslims, see Elias AlMaqdisi & Sam Solomon, Al-Yahud: The Eternal Islamic Enmity and the Jews (Charlottesville: ANM Publishers, 2010). Rebecca Bynum, Allah is Dead: Why Islam is not a Religion (Nashville: New English Review Press, 2001), 120. Mark Beaumont, Christology in Dialogue with Muslims: A Critical Analysis of Christian Presentations of Christ for Muslims from the Ninth and Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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Twentieth Centuries (Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2011), 8. For a typically ill-informed Islamic dismissal of the New Testament record and claims of Christ by a ‘moderate’ Islamic apologist see: Prof. Muhammed Tahir-ul-Qadri, Islam and Christianity (Lahore: Minhaj-ul-Quran, 2005) Geisler, Answering Islam, 15. Cited in Geisler, Answering Islam, 15-16. Jacques Ryckmans, “Arabian Religion,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, last modified 2016, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arabian-religion. “In Ma'īn the national god Wadd (“Love”) originated from North Arabia and probably was a moon god: the magic formula Wd'b, “Wadd is [my?] father,” written on amulets and buildings, is often accompanied by a crescent Moon with the small disk of Venus. In 'a'ramawt the national god Syn was also a sun god: the current identification with the Mesopotamian moon god Sin (Suen) raises phonetic objections, and the symbolic animal of Syn, shown on coins, was the eagle, a solar animal. In Qatabān the national god 'Amm, “paternal uncle,” may have been a moon god.” Ryckmans, “Arabian Religion.” See Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979). See Sidney H. Griffith, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), 8. Griffith, The Church in the Shadow, 42. The Greco-Roman goddess of fortune or fate. For an excellent discussion of pre-Islamic deities and the religious influences on Islam see Ryckmans, “Arabian Religion,” https://www. britannica.com/topic/Arabian-religion The author writes: “The study of these practices is instructive in view of their similarities with those of the biblical world and also with those of the world of Islām, for, while firmly repudiating the idolatry of the pre-Islāmic period, which it calls the “Age of Ignorance” (Jāhilīyah), Islām has nevertheless taken over, in a refined form, some of its practices.” James R. White, What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Qur’an (Minneapolis: Bethany, 2013), 59.
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17 Muhammad Abdul Rauf, Islam Creed and Worship (Washington, D.C: The Islamic Centre, 1974), 2-3. 18 One Islamic school of thought holds that the Trinity is composed of essentially three gods, Allah, Maryam and Isa, suggesting a kind of union between Maryam and Allah. 19 See James White, What Every Christian Needs to Know, 86, 98. 20 Sam Solomon with Atif Debs, Not The Same God: Is the Qur’anic Allah the Lord God of the Bible? (Charlottesville: ANM Publishers, 2015), 16. 21 Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, Spiritualism and Magnetism (Lahore: Minhaj-ul-Qur’an Publications, 2001), 100. 22 Tahir-ul-Qadri, Spiritualism and Magnetism, 101. 23 Tahir-ul-Qadri, Spiritualism, 27. 24 See White, What Every Christian Needs to Know, 22-25. 25 Tahir-ul-Qadri, Spiritualism, 24. 26 Voluntarism is the idea that will is the fundamental or dominant factor in the universe. 27 G. B. MacDonald, cited in Robert R. Reilly, The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2010), 111. 28 See John Frame, A History of Western Philosophy and Theology (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2015), 141. 29 Al-Ghazali, cited in Reilly, The Closing, 110. 30 See Solomon, Not the Same God, 108. 31 Solomon, Not the Same God, 108, footnote 56. 32 Cited in Reilly, The Closing, 106. 33 Cited in Reilly, The Closing, 108. 34 Cited in Robert Reilly, The Closing of the Muslim Mind, 142. 35 Reilly, The Closing, 129. 36 White, What Every Christian Needs to Know, 19. 37 The list of honorifics goes on. See Solomon, Not the Same God, 123-134. 38 Solomon, Not the Same God, 138, 146-147. 39 A conception of paradise maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects. Admission was initially reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the SUMMER 2016
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righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life. Bynum, Allah, 21. Griffith, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque, 24-25. Bynum, Allah, 34. Reilly, The Closing, 131. Bill Warner, Sharia Law for Non-Muslims (United States: Centre for Study of Political Islam, 2010), 23. The philosophical and translation movements of the classical Islamic cultural period are the most noteworthy example of the borrowed learning of the Arab civilization that followed the allegedly illiterate Muhammad out of the desert to conquer the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. The early Caliphate, prior to the crusades, was packed with Christian physicians, logicians, philosophers, mathematicians, copyists and translators who were among the conquered Christian nations and peoples. See Griffith, The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque, 106-128. Rebecca Bynum, Allah, 150. Colin E. Gunton, The One the Three and the Many: God Creation and the Culture of Modernity, The 1992 Brampton Lectures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 212. Gunton, The One, 229. Gunton, The One, 230-231.
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Islam
in the View of Early Christian Theologians and Reformers:
A BRIEF HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL SURVEY
21 PAGE NO.
TONY COSTA
THE RELIGION OF ISLAM originated
sin of “excess” in their theology, in teaching blasphemous doctrines such as the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the concept of atonement, and the “false” notion that Jesus was crucified and died on the cross (Sura 4:157158).
610,2 Islamic traditions inform us that Muhammad retreated to a cave on Mount Hira where he encountered a visitation from a spirit. This caused great fear and consternation to Muhammad, to the point that he thought that he was possessed by a jinn, an evil spirit, and contemplated suicide by casting himself off the mountain cliff. The spirit reassured Muhammad that he was in fact the angel Gabriel. This event came to be known as “the Call” or commissioning of Muhammad. In the early years, known as the Meccan years, where we also have the “Meccan” suras, or chapters of the Qur’an, Muhammad preached a message of tolerance and peace; however, he was rejected for the most part by his own countrymen, including the Jews and Christians of Arabia. In the Qur’an, Jews and Christians are referred to as ahl al-kitab (“People of the Book”).
Since Islam originated in the seventh century ad, many of the great theologians of the Church, such as Athanasius (296-373) and Augustine (ad 354-430), were not exposed to this new religion. However, there were some Christian theologians who lived under the hegemony of the Islamic Empire, and they wrote about their views on Islam. Others did not, but were aware of and conversant on the subject. How did these men view Islam? Was it similar to our day, where political correctness and postmodernism rules how we view truth and meaning? Did they believe that Christianity and Islam were compatible with each other, and that they worshipped the same God, just under different names?5 Did they recognize the same Jesus? Or were they opposed to such views?
in Saudi Arabia with the figure of Muhammad. Muslims believe that Islam is the religion of all the prophets and true worshippers of the one God, Allah.1 Muhammad was born in ad 570. In ad
In ad 622, Muhammad fled from Mecca under threat from his countrymen, and migrated to Medina. The year ad 622 thus became known as “the Hijra,” or “the Flight,” and the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In the Medinan years, the tone of Islam changed with the revelation of the “Medinan” suras. These later chapters abrogated the previous, peaceful Meccan chapters and, in addition, mandated the violent subjugation of the kafir (“unbelievers” or “infidels”), and the killing of polytheists, who would not submit to Islam. Muhammad died in ad 632 and, shortly thereafter, the Islamic Empire exploded out of the Arabian Peninsula and conquered almost a third of the known world, going as far as Spain3 and Portugal, and seizing large swaths of previously Christian lands. Islam came with a message that it was the original religion of all the prophets,4 but also the corrector of Judaism and Christianity. Islam charged Christians with the
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We will survey some of these significant figures in Christian history, from the seventh to the ninth centuries, beginning with John, Bishop of Nikiou, then considering John of Damascus, and ending with al-Kindi. We will then move forward to the sixteenth-century Reformers to examine both Martin Luther and John Calvin. We will end our survey with the eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury Christian theologians John Wesley and Charles H. Spurgeon. This survey is by no means exhaustive, but seeks to highlight the significant points raised by these men in regards to Islam.6
DR. TONY COSTA is a Fellow of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Tony has earned a B.A. and an M.A. in the study of religion, biblical studies, and philosophy from the University of Toronto. Tony received his Ph.D. in the area of theology and New Testament studies from Radboud University in the Netherlands. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. His area of expertise is biblical and systematic theology, cults, the New Age Movement, and comparative world religions with a specialization in Islam. Tony is happily married to his wife Vida, has three children, and a grandson, and resides in Toronto, Canada.
JOHN, BISHOP OF NIKIOU (WROTE AD 696)
The Coptic Christian bishop named John of Nikiou wrote in ad 696 and was the first to mention the term “Muslims.” He spoke of the Islamic SUMMER 2016
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invasion of Egypt and the repressive subjugation of the Christians there, the extreme financial taxation that was placed upon them, including giving up their children to the Muslims if they could not pay the tax,7 while other Christians apostatized.8 Muslims were described as “the enemies of God” who “accepted the detestable doctrine of the beast, that is, Mohammed” and who “fought against the Christians.”9
“John dismissed Muhammad as a false prophet who was influenced by the heresy of Arianism, the heresy which taught that Christ was not eternally God”
John described Islam both in its theological and political dimensions. Islam does not recognize the separation of mosque and state. Rather Islam is a totalitarian ideology, which encompasses every aspect of life (political, religious, military, judicial, marital, etc.). He understood that the theology of Islam is contradictory to Christianity, and that in, its political aspect, it is repressive and subjugates non-Muslims.
JOHN OF DAMASCUS (AD 676-749)
One of the first theologians to write extensively on Islam was John of Damascus in Syria.10 Damascus was the centre of the Islamic Caliphate. John was direct in his critique of Islam. He called it a religion that kept people in error, and the “forerunner of the Antichrist.” John viewed the Qur’an as a book that con“Al-Kindi ably tained ridiculous claims. He also redemonstrated corded various personal encounters and how the Qur’an engagements he had with Muslims. John misrepresents the dismissed Muhammad as a false prophChristian doctrine et who was influenced by the heresy of of the Trinity and Arianism, the heresy which taught that the Incarnation, Christ was not eternally God, but was rather a creature of God. He also recountand refuted ed how the followers of Islam loathe the the notion that cross. John demonstrated a good underChristians believe standing of Islamic theology, aspects of in three gods.” Shari’ah law such as female circumcision, and the contents of the Qur’an, such as the claim that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the sister of Aaron (Sura 19:27-30; cf. Sura 66:12), and that Jesus was not crucified or killed (Sura 4:157-158). John was also familiar with the Islamic charge that Christians are “Associators,” i.e., they associate partners with God and thus commit the unpardonable sin in Islam called SUMMER 2016
shirk (Sura 4:36,171; 5:72). Shirk is an implicit condemnation of belief in the Trinity, which doctrine is grossly misrepresented in the Qur’an. John responded that Christ, as the Word of God (the Qur’an also calls Jesus the “Word of Allah,” Sura 3:45), shares the divine nature in unity with God, and is thus truly God as the Bible teaches (John 1:1). John’s knowledge of Islam indicated a willingness to learn about Islam in order to reach out to Muslims and respond to their misrepresentations of the Christian faith. ABD AL-MASIH IBN ISHAQ AL-KINDI (WROTE AD 830)
Perhaps the most famous of all the apologists on Islam was the Arab ‘Christian,’ Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-Kindi, hereafter al-Kindi. Note, however, that al-Kindi was a Nestorian.11 The Nestorians were a group that held to a heretical view of Christ, that he existed as two persons, his human and divine natures kept distinct from one another. Just as the Church Fathers had done in the second century, Al-Kindi wrote an Apology12 of the Christian faith to his Muslim colleague, by the name of Abdallah ibn Ismaîl al-Hashimi, while al-Kindi was serving in the court of the Caliph Al-Mamûn. Al-Kindi’s name ‘Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq’ interestingly bears a Christian marker. His name literally means “servant / slave of the Messiah” and “son of Isaac.” His Muslim interlocutor’s name has strong Islamic overtones. ‘Abdallah ibn Ismaîl’ means “servant/slave of Allah” and “son of Ishmael.” Some scholars feel these may have been pen names for these debaters, but this need not detain us. Al-Kindi showed a remarkable knowledge of Islam, the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. He was an Arab, familiar with Arabic language and culture. In his Apology, al-Kindi denounced Muhammad as a false prophet, who brought a different message than Christ and the Apostles. Al-Kindi set out a vigorous critique of Islam and ably defended Christianity, including doctrines like the Trinity and the divine Sonship of Jesus. AlKindi rejected the claim that Christianity and Islam came from a common source: Abraham. He highlighted the importance of the Abrahamic covenant with Isaac, not Ishmael, as the child of promise. Al-Kindi ably demonstrated how the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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Qur’an misrepresents the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and refuted the notion that Christians believe in three gods. AlKindi was also well aware of Muhammad’s career, going from a peaceful preacher to a military leader who used violent subjugation to subdue his enemies under the banner of Islam and ordered the execution of those who mocked him. AlKindi was also alert to the treatment of women in Islam, especially the practice of polygamy. In terms of the Qur’an, al-Kindi was ahead of his time in his knowledge of the textual development and transmission of the Qur’an. He was aware of the controlled text of the Qur’an and how rival versions were destroyed under the Caliph Uthman. Al-Kindi concludes his work by inviting his Muslim opponent, whom he calls his “Friend,” to have faith in Christ and to accept the truth of the Gospel. Al-Kindi urges him, “The matter [of the Gospel] is one of infinite import, and cannot without eternal risk, be put aside.”13 Al-Kindi’s approach to Islam is a practical example of the Pauline call for Christians to be “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546) AND JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564)
Since Martin Luther and John Calvin lived in close historical proximity to each other, I will deal with them together. In order to understand Luther and Calvin’s views on Islam, it is imperative to understand the historical context of their day. One of the cataclysmic events that sent shockwaves across medieval Europe was the sacking of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) by the Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Constantinople was the centre of Eastern Christianity, and the capital of the Byzantine Empire. With the fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Turks, the threat of Islam to Christian Europe became a serious concern that could not be ignored. This threat became even more evident in 1529, with the Ottoman siege of the city of Vienna, Austria. Muslims had taken control over the Balkans and southern Hungary, and the fear in Luther’s day was that the Muslims would inevitably invade Germany. Luther was forty-six years old at this time, and Calvin was twenty. Luther wrote more on this subject than Calvin. Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
Prior to 1529, Luther spoke well of the Turks and their virtues, including their iconoclastic position on images and relics. However, his gentle tone changed dramatically after the siege “Luther spoke well of Vienna. of the Turks and
their virtues, Both Luther and Calvin refer to Muslims including their as “Turks.” They both believed that Islam was a false religion, based on blasphemies, iconoclastic particularly against Christ. Luther and position on Calvin saw Islam operating as a false reliimages and relics. gion in tandem with the Roman Catholic However, his Church. Luther went so far as to say that gentle tone changed Muhammad was the “son of the devil,” but dramatically that he was only second in wickedness to the Pope. Luther wrote a tract, On War after the siege of against the Turks,14 which was published Vienna.” in 1529, outlining the responsibility of the secular authorities to protect the citizens of Germany against the Islamic threat. Calvin’s approach to Islam was primarily theological and polemical. In his works (particularly the Institutes and Sermons on biblical books),15 he sought to expose Islam as part of the kingdom of the devil, following in a train of heresies from the beginning of the Church. Like Luther, Calvin saw the Papacy and Islam as working together in opposing the Gospel, even referring to Muhammad as the companion of the Pope. Calvin’s knowledge of Islamic beliefs was limited compared to Luther. Calvin understood that Muslims denied the deity of Christ, and the Triune “Like Luther, God, and charged them with placing an Calvin saw the idol – Muhammad – in the place of Christ. Both Luther and Calvin held Muhammad responsible for destroying the souls of men through his false teaching. Calvin went so far as to suggest that Muslims who place Muhammad in the place of Christ commit a sin deserving of the death penalty for heresy – a fairly common punishment in medieval Europe. An extremely important point to be made in the case of Luther is that he saw the rise of Islam, and its militaristic expansion into Christian lands, as a judgment from God against Christian Europe, due to a lack of repentance.
Papacy and Islam as working together in opposing the Gospel, even referring to Muhammad as the companion of the Pope.”
Luther refers to Islam as “a rod of anger and a SUMMER 2016
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punishment of God upon the unbelieving world.” He describes the Muslim as “the rod of the wrath of the Lord our God and the servant of the raging devil.” Here Luther presents a compatibilist position – the sovereign God uses Islam as his rod of wrath, against apostate and unrepentant Christian nations. Luther appeared much more aware of the Islamic texts than did Calvin. He had access to some portions of the Qur’an, but, by his “Luther and own admission, not all. He compared Calvin believed the Qur’an to a collection of the Pope’s decretals.16 This comparison provides in evangelising an interesting insight into the textual Muslims, and genre of the Qur’an, as it is composed they based this mainly of didactic lessons, discourses, understanding upon and imperatives, with very little or no their view of the interest in narrative materials. Luther absolute sovereignty had hoped to translate the sections of of God.” the Qur’an he possessed into the German language to demonstrate that it is a ‘foul’ and ‘shameful’ book. Luther was aware of the Christology of the Qur’an, in that it presents a Jesus who is merely a human prophet, and not the divine Son of God17 and Saviour of the world. He was also aware of the Qur’an’s assertion that Muhammad is the final prophet (Sura 33:40 calls Muhammad the “Seal of the Prophets”), and that the Qur’an mandates warfare (jihad) against unbelievers who refuse to submit to Islam (Sura 2:190-191). Luther saw the Qur’an’s denial of Christ’s deity as an insurmountable doctrinal breach that eradicates the a core truth of Christianity. Luther was also well aware that the Qur’an taught a doctrine of works in respect to salvation. He also displayed an interesting insight into the Qur’an as a pastiche of previous beliefs of the Jews, Christians, and pagans. Comparatively, Calvin displayed little knowledge of the text of the Qur’an. He was, however, aware of the theological claims of Islam found within the Qur’an, and he attempted to refute these claims in his works with biblical proofs. Calvin’s approach was a polemical and theological one. Luther encouraged Christians to study and become acquainted with the Qur’an, in order to better equip themselves to engage Muslims. In this respect, Luther set the stage to some degree for Christian apologetics towards Islam. For SUMMER 2016
modern Christians, it is imperative that if they seek to dialogue with and/or reach Muslims for Christ, they first become familiar with the text of the Qur’an and the Islamic traditions. Neither Luther nor Calvin ever had the opportunity to converse with Muslims in an evangelistic context. They did not espouse a modernistic view, which holds that Islam and Christianity are organically connected. They clearly enunciated the vital differences between Christianity and Islam. Luther and Calvin believed in evangelising Muslims, and they based this understanding upon their view of the absolute sovereignty of God. Calvin had more to say on this particular topic. He believed that Scripture was to be used as a litmus test for all things, including Islam. Calvin thus encouraged Christians to know their Bibles as a tool of spiritual and doctrinal discernment. Calvin also held to a high view of God’s sovereignty in granting Muslims repentance unto salvation, and he believed that this would be achieved by Christian evangelism. Another important principle that Calvin helped to lay down is the fostering of love towards our Muslim neighbour, in accordance with Christ’s command to love our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48). JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791)
The English Reformer John Wesley was also familiar with Islam, but he saw it more as an ideological threat to the free world rather than a threat to Christian doctrine. Wesley wrote, Ever since the religion of Mahomet [Muhammad] appeared in the world, the espousers of it, especially those under the Turkish emperor [the Caliph], have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations, rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth; that numberless cities are razed from the foundation, and only their name remaining; that many countries, which were once as the garden of God, are now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful nations vanished from the earth.18
Like Luther and Calvin before him, Wesley referred to the Muslims as “Turks” and also by Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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the term “Mahometans,” i.e., followers of Muhammad. Wesley wrote that the Qur’an contained “the most gross and impious absurdities” and that to accept such absurdities as “divinely revealed” was a sign that human understanding was “debased to an inconceivable degree.”19 Wesley went on to note what he perceived as an absence of love for God and neighbour in Islam, including in its adherents’ willingness to attack their own “brethren”, i.e., the Persian Shi’ites, an enmity that exists to the present day. Wesley usually spoke of Muslims in the same category as pagans.20 Wesley’s approach would be considered offensive by many today, but he recognized that the gospel could not be held alongside any other worldview, including Islam. CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)
In one of his sermons on the last days, Charles Spurgeon spoke of the fact that Christians served a “glorious Master. The Christ whom we follow is not a dead prophet like Muhammad. Truly we preach Christ crucified; but we also believe in Christ risen from the dead.”21 Note that Spurgeon emphasizes the crucifixion/death and resurrection of Christ, which are the heart of the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4). When Spurgeon preached that the concept of heaven according to the Bible was repulsive to the unbelieving person, he noted by contrast: When Muhammad would charm the world into the belief that he was the prophet of God, the heaven he pictured was not at all the heaven of holiness and spirituality. His was a heaven of unbridled sensualism, where all the passions were to be enjoyed without let or hindrance for endless years. Such the heaven that sinful men would like; therefore, such the heaven that Muhammad painted for them and promised to them.22
Spurgeon acknowledged that the carnal nature of Islam, including its view of paradise, was appealing not to regenerate hearts, but to unregenerate hearts, i.e., sinners. In other words, the Gospel, the message of the cross and repentance, is repulsive to sinful humans (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18). Heaven is a place of holiness, not a sexual orgy that appeals to unregenerate lusts and desires. It is very clear Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
where Spurgeon would stand on the issue of Islam, were he alive today. CONCLUSION
“Spurgeon acknowledged that the carnal nature of Islam, including its view of paradise, was appealing not to regenerate hearts, but to unregenerate hearts”
Having surveyed the views of the theologians above on the subject of Islam, you will notice that they come from a wide chronological spectrum. Yet their views on Islam were very similar to one another. They noted the theological incompatibilities between Islam and Christianity, between the Qur’an and the Bible, between Yahweh and Allah, between Jesus and Muhammad. They understood that these were areas where there cannot be any compromise. Muslims will not compromise their faith; why then should Christians? Like the apostle Paul, these men recognized that the power of God to save is and remains the central truth of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16) and that this Gospel is rooted in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1-4), which is denied in Islam (Sura 4:157-158). Moreover, if one preaches or brings a “different Gospel” other than the biblical Gospel, whether that messenger is a human or an angelic figure, the anathema of God rests on that person (Gal. 1:6-9). The Holy Spirit long ago through the apostle Paul warned that there would be those who preach “another Jesus,” a “different gospel,” and a “different spirit” and that these preachers are “false apostles” [or “messengers],23 “deceitful workmen” who “disguise themselves as apostles [or “messengers”] of Christ” (2 Cor. 11:4, 13).
“Our response to our Muslim neighbour should have two characteristics. We are to speak the truth first and foremost, but we are to speak the truth in love.”
While we need to be aware of the crucial doctrinal differences between Islam and Christianity, we must also be aware of the political aspect of Islam, which is to subjugate and bring the whole world under Islamic hegemony and Shari’ah law (Sura 8:39; 9:5, 28-33). Our response to our Muslim neighbour should have two characteristics. We are to speak the truth first and foremost, but we are to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Truth and love are sisters and we cannot separate them. This was the approach of Christ. He spoke the truth many times at the risk of his own safety. He cared nothing for what men thought of him, but only what pleased the Father. He in fact claimed to be incarnate Truth (John 14:6). Should we not, as
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followers of the Truth, also speak the truth to our Muslim neighbours? However, we are also commanded to follow Christ’s example in loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, for in so doing we imitate our Father in heaven (Matt. 5:43-45), a title by which no Muslim can address God. What these men whom we surveyed above recognized about Islam was that the Gospel is the answer. The Gospel was and is and will always be until Christ returns, God’s means of salvation. It thus behoves the Church of Christ to love and understand our Muslim neighbours, but to also unashamedly speak the truth, for it is the truth that will set us and our Muslim neighbour free (John 8:32).
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The word ‘Allah’ is the Arabic name for the deity. Allah is a contraction of the Arabic words al-illah, “the god,” i.e. the one god. I will employ this term throughout this article, as it is the name by which Muslims refer and identify the deity. It is interesting that while Allah is the word that means “God” in Islam, this word is not really a proper name. The biblical God is called by the titles el, elohim, eloah (“God” in Hebrew), but he also has a personal name, Yahweh. This component of the personal name of God is missing in Islam. It is not surprising therefore that in Islam, the language of person in relation to God is avoided. On the official biography of Muhammad see A. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah (London, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1955). Much has been said about the tolerance of Islam and the so-called ‘Golden Age of Islam.’ Many have pointed to the so-called Andalusian “paradise” when Islam ruled Spain. Serious historians of medieval Spain, however, have argued that such a view is nothing short of a myth. On this topic see Dario FernandezMorera, The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2016). On the Islamic conquest of
Eastern Europe, see Bat Ye’or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, trans. Miriam Kochan and David Littman (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1996). 4 Muslims usually claim that they respect all the prophets equally and make no distinction among them. In response to this claim, see my article “‘To Distinguish or Not to Distinguish?’ That is the Question: A Problem with the Distinction of the Prophets in the Qur’an and Jesus,” Answering Muslims, last modified January 8, 2016, http://www.answeringmuslims. com/2016/01/to-distinguish-or-not-to-distinguish.html. 5 This question was in the news in December 2015, when a Wheaton professor, Larycia Hawkins asserted: “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book…. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.” Hawkins went on to say that her view that Christians and Muslims worship the same God is “one held for centuries by countless Christians (church fathers, saints, and regular Christian folk like me).” See http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/december/ wheaton-college-hijab-professor-same-godlarycia-hawkins.html?paging=off. But are Hawkins’ claims true? Have Church fathers and saints held this view? She provides no evidence for this claim. It should be noted that Hawkins is not a theology or biblical studies professor. Her expertise is in the area of political science. Her basis of authority seems to be Pope Francis and his claims. The Roman Catholic Church asserts that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. See Nostra Aetate: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, par. 3; Vatican II (Oct. 28, 1965), http://www.vatican.va/archive/ hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/ vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html. On the question of God in Islam and Christianity, see Sam Solomon and Atif Debs, Not the Same God: Is the Qur’anic Allah the LORD God of the Bible? (Charlottesville, VA.: ANM, 2015). 6 For a fuller study on this subject, see Hugh Goddard, A History of Christian-Muslim Relations (Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2000). Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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John of Nikiou writes: “…they [the Christians] even gave their children in exchange for the great sums which they had to pay monthly.” The idea of taking children as slaves, especially girls as sex slaves in the context of jihad and invasion, is endorsed in the Qur’an (Sura 4:3, 24). It is thus no surprise that ISIS/ISIL has done the same thing in our day. What John is recounting here are the three stages of jihad, as set forth in the Qur’an and Hadith, which are: a) invite enemies to accept Islam; b) if they accept Islam, do not harm them but treat them as fellow Muslims; c) if they do not accept Islam, kill the polytheists. If they are “People of the Book” (Jews and Christians) and they do not accept Islam, then the jizya tax is to be imposed on them to humiliate them, as a protection under the Islamic state. In imposing the jizya tax the Islamic empire secured an ongoing revenue from Jews and Christians. See Sura 9:5, 29-30. John of Nikiou, The Chronicle, CXXI, 5-10, trans. R.H. Charles (London, 1916), http:// www.tertullian.org/fathers/nikiu2_chronicle. htm, accessed April 20, 2016. John’s reference to Muhammad as “the beast” is most likely a reference to the beast mentioned in Revelation 13, an antichrist figure. References and citations are taken from John of Damascus, Fount of Knowledge, Part 2, Heresies in Epitome: How they Began and Whence they Drew their Origin, quoted in St John of Damascus, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 37 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), 153-160. Goddard, A History, 53. William Muir, The Apology of Al-Kindy, in Defense of Christianity against Islam (2nd ed.: London: SPCK, 1887). Muir, The Apology of Al-Kindy, 122. The German title is Vom Kriege wider die Türken. All references to Luther are taken from this text, http://www.lutherdansk.dk/On%20war%20against%20 Islamic%20reign%20of%20terror/On%20 war%20against%20Islamic%20reign%20of%20 terror1.htm. References to Calvin’s works are taken from Francis Nigel Lee, Calvin on Islam (El Paso: Lamp Trimmers, 2000), http://www.theology-
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tools.com/PDF/CalvinPDFLibrary/calvin%20 on%20islam.pdf. Decretal, from the Latin decretalis, is a letter containing a papal decision. Typically used to communicate a papal decision on a matter of discipline. On the meaning of ‘Son of God’ in the Bible and extra-biblical literature, see my two-part article, “The Meaning of ‘Son of God’ in the Bible and Extra-Biblical Literature: An Answer to Islam,” Answering Muslims, http://www. answeringmuslims.com/2015/12/the-meaningof-son-of-god-in-bible-and.html; http://www. answeringmuslims.com/2015/12/the-meaningof-son-of-god-in-bible-and_22.html. John Wesley, The Works of the Rev. John Wesley: The Doctrine on Original Sin, and Tracts on Various Subjects of Polemical Divinity (10 volumes; First American Edition; New York: J. & J. Harper, 1827), 9:184. Wesley, 9:183-184. It is interesting to note that Wesley was also aware of the differences between Sunni and Shia Islam in his day and the severe condemnation and denunciation of the former upon the latter. Wesley, 9:240. Charles Spurgeon, Sermon Number 1894, “The Two Appearings and the Discipline of Grace,” April 4, 1886 in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, in Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon on the Last Days (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2009), 109. Charles Spurgeon, Sermon Number 3538, “Preparation for Heaven,” November 16, 1916 in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, in Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermon on the Last Days (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2009), 210. In the Qur’an Muhammad is called a rasul, which is the Arabic word for “messenger” but also “apostle,” from the Greek word. In some English translations of the Qur’an, Muhammad is called “the Apostle.” See for example the English translations of the Qur’an by Yusuf Ali, Shakir, Palmer, Rodwell, and Sale. Muhammad is also called a nabi, a “prophet” in the Qur’an. Muslims also make the claim that Muhammad is prophesied about in the Bible. In response to this claim, see my article, “Does the Bible Predict the Coming of Muhammad?” Tony Costa Christian Apologetics, last modified 2016, http://www.freewebs.com/tonycosta/monthlycommentary.htm.
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The Mosque AND ITS ROLE IN SOCIETY
BELTESHAZZAR
BELTESHAZZAR is a former Islamic jurist who trained in Shari’ah law prior to his conversion to Christianity. He has served as an expert witness and advisor on Islamic and religious matters in Europe and North America.
Editor’s note: This material is excerpted from and based on material from The Mosque and its Role in Society, Pilcrow Press, 2006. Used with permission.
THE WORD MOSQUE – MASJID in
Arabic – is derived from the root word sajada or suju, meaning to prostrate, which is normally viewed as worship. Worship in Islam is upholding and implementing the revealed law of Allah – the Shari’ah. This implementation of the Shari’ah is not a matter of choice, but of enforcement on oneself and others, be it willingly or unwillingly.
THE MOSQUE AS THE GATHERING PLACE (JAMA’A)
A commonly used term for the mosque is the Arabic word, Jama’a, derived from a root word meaning to gather, or gathering. It is a place where Muslims gather, since a mosque’s role is that of a centre of authority for the Muslim community, which guides and instructs them in their religious as well as temporal duties and obligations and directs their relationships with their environment as per the revealed laws of Islam. DIFFERENT KINDS OF MOSQUES
All mosques are not equal in status. Variations occur, not only in theological or doctrinal differences (i.e. between Shi’a and Sunni or Sufi and Salafi), but even within the same school, mosques vary in their importance. These distinctions were introduced by Muhammad, when he stated that a prayer performed in the sacred mosque, the Ka’aba in Mecca, is equivalent to one hundred thousand performed elsewhere.1 He went on to say that a prayer performed in his mosque in Medina is equivalent to one thousand prayers elsewhere, and one performed in the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is worth five hundred performed elsewhere. The same is true of Shi’ites regarding SUMMER 2016
Qum, Isfahan, Mashad, Najafa and Karbala, the latter being the highest in merit. On this and other complicated factors, Muslims have built a hierarchy of mosques. So two mosques in Cairo, a few miles apart, will differ in their religious importance. A prayer said in Miser al Gadida is worth much less than if it was performed in the mosque of Amer ibn Al’aas. Likewise, the mosque of Sayida Zeineb, near Damascus in Syria, is of more importance than a mosque two streets away. It is not necessary for a mosque to be particularly ancient to be more important. The calculation of its importance is based on many factors, both religious and political, including the content of its preaching and teaching, as well as what and whom it houses. If the Jama’at Tablighi was to move its national and international headquarters from Pakistan, then wherever it was based, be it in London, Paris or elsewhere – that mosque would have both religious and political significance throughout the Islamic world. This is because of the pietistic fame of that mosque’s founders and its members, achieved by being a radical Islamic missionary training and sending agency, its emphasis on austere living and its ideological and theological purity of seventh-century Islam. Jama’at Tablighi has respect and honour in the Muslim community because it is a major force in the worldwide Islamic resurgence. FUNCTIONS AND ROLES OF THE MOSQUE
Every mosque is designed to modelattempts to be modelled on the first mosque built and directed by Muhammad in Medina. The functions of a mosque cannot be understood without considering the first mosque and its role and rule in the first Muslim community. Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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When Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, the majority of its inhabitants were not Muslims. It had a large Jewish population, Christians, and a large majority of pagan Arabs. Muhammad built a mosque on arrival in Medina, even before he built his own house, to demonstrate its importance. As the Shari’ah unfolded in Medina, the mosque was to become not only a building where religious teachings were taught, but much more. 1.
It was the first madrassa (Islamic seminary) where Islamic doctrine was taught and whereby the companions were raised and instructed by Muhammad.
2.
It was the pulpit from which spiritual admonitions were given, along with encouragement to resist the non-Islamic influence through jihad.
3.
It was here that jihad operations were discussed, directed, and its commanders appointed, both by Muhammad and his successors after his death.
4.
It was here that jihad was proclaimed and the Muslim armies were sent to conquer the world.
5.
It was in this mosque that Muhammad’s companions were recognised and honoured for their achievements and encouraged to pursue the enemies of Islam and eliminate all opposition.
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It was from here that official Islamic delegations were sent both by Muhammad and his successors.
7.
It was where the delegations and the representatives of the tribes were received.
8.
It was here that the pledges of loyalty of the Arab tribes to Muhammad and to Islam were received.
9.
It was where the affairs of the Islamic state were conducted and, as such at the time, the headquarters of the first Islamic state.
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10. It was here that Muhammad and his successors, Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman and Ali appointed judges for the different regions and appointed the commanders of military troops; it was also from here that jihad detachments were dispatched and high-ranking state officials and tax collectors were sent out. 11. It was here that the contracts, pacts and treaties were commissioned. 12. It was here that the Islamic Shari’ah unfolded, where the binding and loosing, permitting and forbidding were declared. 13. It was here that the superiority of the Muslims and the inferiority of non-Muslims was declared. 14. It was here that the supremacy of man over a woman and inequality among people was taught. 15. It was here that death sentences were issued to those who had opposed Muhammad or had spoken of him unfavourably, and from here the ardent soldiers set off to implement these death sentences. 16. It was in this mosque that those culprits who eliminated Muhammad’s enemies were highly praised and honoured by their prophet. THE CONTEMPORARY MOSQUE AND ITS ROLE
All Muslims are under obligation and required to emulate Muhammad in word and deed. For this is a divine decree and an indispensable doctrinal pillar of Islam. Muhammad spent 13 of a total of 23 years of his mission in Mecca. During these 13 years, he never built a mosque or described any of its functions. Although prayer is mentioned in the Meccan section of the Qur’an, there was no Islamic form of prayer in Mecca as we know it today. This came in Medina. Naturally, the question arises: how and where did the early Muslim community pray during the first 13 SUMMER 2016
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years of Islam? Muslims know very little, if anything, regarding the status of a mosque during the Islamic formative period in Mecca, for this remains shrouded in secrecy. Muslim scholars have attempted to explain away the absence of a mosque in Mecca during the early Islamic period by saying that the Kaaba was the mosque but, as it was under the control of pagan Arabs, Muhammad and his companions could not pray there until it was purged and purified from all the idols in and around it. This required political power that he did not have then, neither had he the military force required to subdue the pagans. So in the view of Muslim scholars, the Meccan mosque had to come in stages, the revelations in Medina, the building of the first mosque there, obtaining political power through military strength, then conquering Mecca. The very first mosque in Medina was first and foremost a political office: it served a combined function as a socio-religious and socio-political outlet. Based on the pattern set by Muhammad in his very first mosque, a modern mosque must model itself on that of Medina. EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY
Hence, besides the normal socio-religious and socio-educational functions of a mosque, we consider the mosque in its political role. Here are some examples from history of what Islamic scholars have said regarding a mosque’s political role.
“The mosque at the time of the prophet was his propagation centre, the headquarters of the State, as it was for his successors, the rightly guided Khalifas.”
Cairo: As Muhammad sent forth his armies for jihad from the mosque in Medina, so the scholars of Al Azhar mosque, Abdallah al Sharqawi and Ahmed Aldardair, led the Egyptians against the French occupation in 1798. The Al Azhar also had a major role in the 1919 revolt against the British, so much so that the British forces were stationed outside Al Azhar mosque to prevent any of its scholars or students from taking further part in the demonstrations.2 Transjordan: In 1936, the Kasim Revolution was
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inaugurated in Al Istiqlal mosque in Palestine. It was in this mosque that all their secret organization and all its various committees were housed. West Bank and Gaza: It was the mosque that played the most major role in whipping up the first and the second Intifada. The Khatibees, the sermon preachers of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, had a central role in inciting jihad against Jews and the state of Israel.3 FINSBURY PARK MOSQUE AND OTHERS
The events and activities that took place at the Finsbury Park mosque4 and the New Jersey mosque are not new. Outwardly it may look like an indictment of the personal activities of Abu Hamza and that of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.5 But the more one examines this, the more one comes across a similar pattern in many other places. What is termed Islamic resurgence would not have been possible without the involvement of the mosque. Wherever one looks, the mosque continues to play its role as prescribed by the first mosque. POLITICAL ROLE OF THE MOSQUE, ACCORDING TO THE SHARI’AH
Regarding the mosque and its political role, a fatwa – an Islamic juristic decree – issued by Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi on October 29, 2001 states: in the life of the prophet there was no distinction between what the people call sacred and secular or religion and politics, and he had no place other than the mosque for politics and other related issues. So that we would establish this precedent for his religion and for the world. The mosque at the time of the prophet was his propagation centre, the headquarters of the State, as it was for his successors, the rightly guided Khalifas, the mosque was their base for all their activities political as well as non-political. Politics as a science is one of the best disciplines, and as a practice and career it’s the most honourable. The surprising thing is that it’s the politicians, who are totally immersed in it from the top of their heads Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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to the sole of their feet, that are enquiring if the mosque should embark and leap into political affairs. Politics in itself is neither vice, nor evil in itself, according to Islam. As Muslims it is part of our religion, for it is doctrine and worship. A system for the whole of life…and the mission of the mosques as required by correct Islam is not an isolation from the politics in this sense, but the mosque is to command the Muslims on all that would produce good in their religion and works and through the mosque the people learn the truth and goodness. The mosque must then have a role in guiding the nation and informing her about the critical issues and making her see her enemies. From ancient times the mosque has had a role in jihad for the sake of Allah, resisting the enemies of this religion from the invading occupiers. That blessed Intifada in the land of the prophets, Palestine, started from none other but the mosques and its first call came from the minarets and it was first known as the mosque revolution. The mosque’s role in the Afghan jihad and every Islamic jihad (its role) cannot be denied.6
Qaradawi’s fatwa is rooted in the Islamic Shari’ah and it is a clear directive and explicit incitement to violence under the banner of resistance. Qaradawi is stating that the minarets will continue to call for jihad. But why? THE ENTIRE EARTH IS A MOSQUE
Muhammad said that the earth was declared to him a mosque and ceremonially pure; in another report, the earth had been declared to him purged, purified and a mosque. This saying of Muhammad’s is reported by Bukhari and Muslim, both renowned Hadith scholars and revered authorities.7 In practical terms, this means Muhammad and his followers are to conquer the whole world and cleanse it, purging it from all kinds of kufr, meaning apostasy. Therefore, the mosque’s mission or function is not limited to prayer and religious services only, but extends physically and practically to how to bring the earth under Islamic doEzra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
minion. Sura 34:28: “And We have not sent thee (O Muhammad) save as a bringer of good tidings and a warner unto all mankind; but most of mankind know not.” Sura 3:20: “Say unto the people of the book have you surrendered? If they were to be Muslims then they are guided…” Islam believes in its own universality as “The Only Religion of Allah,” and that Muslims are commanded to bring the whole world under subjugation to Islam. Under the laws of subjugation in Islam, nonMuslims are given a choice either to convert to Islam or to pay a hefty tax, which is paid publicly. In paying this tax, the payee is humiliated for remaining an unbeliever. Politically he/she does not have equal rights, neither is that person regarded or treated as an equal citizen in all “This subjugation is fields of employment, housing, and posifirst and foremost tions of authority. This has been the norm a recognition of for nearly fourteen centuries in all Islamic Islam’s political countries where Christians are a minority. This subjugation is first and foremost a rechegemony over ognition of Islam’s political hegemony over all other systems all other systems and, as such, its superiorand, as such, its ity must be accepted. Then, as a symbol of Islam’s religious and political superiority, mosques are erected everywhere. In Islamic countries, other faiths are prohibited from proclaiming as well as building their places of worship: the building of churches and the like are strictly controlled and limited. In this way, the mosque remains a mark and symbol of the religious and political identity of the people.
superiority must be accepted.”
Sura 3:83: “Do they seek for other than Islam, never will it be accepted of him in this life and in the hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have been lost and condemned.” To purge the earth and bring it under subjugation, Muhammad ordered his men to engage in jihad. This is because Islam views the world as clearly divided between Islamic and non-Islamic. SUMMER 2016
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The Islamic term is Dar Al Islam, the House or Abode of Islam. The non-Islamic world is known as Dar Al Harb, the House or Abode of War. But as the whole world has been given to Muhammad as a mosque, it needs to be purged and the world of Islam and its authority must be supreme. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR THE SPREAD OF ISLAM
“In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology, a revolutionary programme (agenda) to alter the social order of the whole world.”
Islam has provided the means and legal system to manage non-Muslims in Islamic lands, to give them a form of security without threatening the Muslim community through a separate and unequal status.
But the task is different in lands where non-Muslims are in political control (Dar Al Harb). Although the ultimate goal is to transform the Dar Al Harb into Dar Al Islam, there are a host of intermediate goals to establish the Muslim community in the host country and to help it to grow. A typical intermediate goal would be to legalize some forms of Shari’ah (starting with the dress code, and continuing through Shari’ah family law on marriage / inheritance, etc.). In this section, we describe the means by which Islam can be spread and consolidated in such lands, wherein the mosque system is central in the overall process. The building blocks consist of a) call for jihad, b) migration into non-Muslim lands and c) application of the taqiyya doctrine to avoid exposing the hidden intent of Muslim communities. We say “building blocks” because the order of use of such blocks depends on the conditions on the ground. Muhammad used a deliberate combination of slow and fast tracks, depending on the relative strengths of the Muslim community. JIHAD AS THE DRIVING PRINCIPLE
Abul A’la Maududi, a leading modern Islamic scholar in the Indian sub-continent, stated in his speech delivered on Iqbal Day, April 13, 1939, and later repeated in his book Jihad in the Cause of Allah:
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If Islam were to be a palm tree like any other and the Muslims as a nation like any other nations of the world, then there is no crime if the Islamic jihad were to lose all its privileges and speciality that made jihad the pinnacle of all worship and the jewel of her crown. However, the truth is that Islam isn’t just like any other nations of the world. In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology, a revolutionary programme (agenda) to alter the social order of the whole world, and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals. ‘Muslim’ is a title of that international revolutionary party organised by Islam to carry into effect its revolutionary programme. And jihad refers to that revolutionary struggle and utmost exertion which the Islamic party brings into play to achieve this objective. Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam, regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme regardless of which nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic state…. Islam is not merely a religious creed or compound name for a few forms of worship, but a comprehensive system which envisages to annihilate all tyrannical and evil systems in the world and enforces its own programme of reform which it deems best for the well-being of mankind. It must be evident to you from this description that the objective of Islamic jihad is to eliminate the rule of an Un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of State rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single state or a few countries: the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution. Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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Islamic jihad does not seek to interfere with the faith ideology, rituals of worship or social customs of the people. However, Islamic jihad does not recognize their right to administer State affairs according to a system which in the view of Islam is evil. Furthermore, Islamic jihad also refuses their right to continue with such practices under an Islamic government which fatally affect the public interest from the viewpoint of Islam.8
In Islam, jihad takes many forms: its definition cannot be confined only to waging war with arms. Even the armed struggle needs other kinds of support. Here is a list of the various forms of jihad as recorded in the Shari’ah: Jihad bi al lisan: jihad by tongue/ preaching/ proclaiming/ debating/ dialoguing. A’ jihad bi al kalam: jihad by pen, writing/ publishing/ mass media. A’ jihad bil hijra: jihad by immigration, both abroad and from city to city. A’ jihad bi al mal: jihad through financial activities. A’ jihad bi al nafs: jihad in one’s being. A’ jihad a’ nafas: jihad through one’s being, selfsacrifice, as in suicidal missions. These are further subdivided into subcategories. We will now turn our attention to what is of immediate relevance to us in the West. HIJRA (MIGRATION FROM MECCA TO MEDINA BY MUHAMMAD AND HIS FOLLOWERS)
We will only concern ourselves here with a social jihad: that of hijra, or migration. This notion has both religious and political significance attached to it because of the hijra, the immigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. Migration is obligatory on a Muslim as preparatory to other forms of jihad for the victory of Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
Islam and Muslims in other countries. This was established when Muhammad said, “I command you with these five which Allah has charged me with: assemble, listen, obey, hijra and jihad.”9 Thus he declared hijra as preparatory, as well as pairing it with jihad. Muhammad further added migration was to continue as long as the enemy is fighting – in other words, resisting – Islam. Hijra, migration, is obligatory as long as kufr, or apostasy, abounds. Sura 2:218: “…those who believed and those who suffered immigration and fought, strove and struggled in the cause of Allah, they have the hope of the Mercy of Allah.”
“In Islam, jihad takes many forms: its definition cannot be confined only to waging war with arms.”
Sura 9:20: “…those who believed and suffered migration, and strive with might and main in Allah’s cause, with their wealth and their persons, have the highest rank in the sight of Allah: they are the people who will be winners.” So migration precedes jihad and both are inextricably linked. Collective migration, or congregating in one area, brings in the awareness of an Islamic identity: it enables Islam to be noticed in the abode of apostasy, through its demands and refusal to integrate and assimilate, and it helps to change and dismantle and finally annihilate the existing socio-political system of that society, as described by Maududi.10 This increase in numbers does not have to be from one country to another; it could be within the same country, if the numbers would strengthen a given area and the kufr there would be defeated, or at least if Islam would gain both religiously and politically from this migration. As Sheikh Qaradawi declared in his fatwa, issued on February 27 2005:
“Collective migration, or congregating in one area, brings in the awareness of an Islamic identity: it enables Islam to be noticed in the abode of apostasy.”
Despite the pessimism within the ranks of Muslims, at the end, Islam will rule and will be the lord of the whole world. One of the signs of victory will be that Rome will be conquered, Europe will be occupied, Christians will be defeated and SUMMER 2016
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Muslims will increase and as such will be a force that will control the whole European continent. 11
This is what Najmadin Erbakan, the so-called moderate Turkish ex-Prime Minister, said when he addressed a German journalist: You think we Muslim Turks come here only for employment and to gather the crumbs of your money. No, we are coming here to take control of your country and by being rooted here, and then building what we see as appropriate, and all that, with your consent and according to your laws.12
Most of the Islamic publications in England make precisely the same point. For instance, Khurram Murad defines an Islamic movement as “…an organized struggle to change the existing society into an Islamic society based on the Qur’an and the Sunna and make Islam, which is a code for entire life, supreme and dominant, especially in the socio-political spheres.”13 Murad goes on to say:
“Taqiyya means “caution, fear or disguise.” It permits the suspension, as the need arises, of almost any or all religious requirements – including allowing a total denial of faith.”
it would be equally tragic if the tall and noble claims to the objective of a world-wide revolution and the ushering in of a new year are reduced to mere fulfilment of religious and educational needs. After all, these needs have always been catered for, in varying degrees, by various people. There was no need to launch an Islamic movement for merely meeting community needs. …despite its seeming unattainability, the movement in the West should reaffirm and re-emphasise the concept of total change and supremacy of Islam in the Western society as its ultimate objective and allocate to it the highest priority.14
As a mosque is the centre of the community and almost all its functions, what is being suggested can only be implemented through that mosque’s leadership and when sanctioned by it.
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QUR’ANIC INJUNCTIONS FOR A VIABLE SURVIVAL (TAQIYYA)
Despite overtly cruel, harsh and intolerant Qur’anic views towards the ‘others,’ namely Jews and Christians, there are injunctions in the Qur’an that enable the Islamic community to disguise, play down, and when necessary, deny both the intensity and the validity of these antiSemitic and anti-Christian teachings. This particular injunction is taqiyya, which permeates almost all the activities and dealings of Muslims within non-Muslim societies, be they religiously sacred or religiously temporal, secular or civic, since as we have seen, Islam does not distinguish between sacred and secular. Taqiyya means “caution, fear or disguise.” It permits the suspension, as the need arises, of almost any or all religious requirements – including allowing a total denial of faith – when a Muslim fears injury or is under threat or compulsion of any kind in a non-Muslim society, or even in a Muslim society. The Qur’anic injunction for taqiyya is Sura 16:106: “Anyone who after accepting faith in Allah utters unbelief / kuffur except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in faith but such as open their breast to unbelief, on them is wrath from Allah.” This verse was “given” to Muhammad when one of his followers in Mecca, Ammar bin Yasir, was made to worship the Qurayshi idols and listen to the denigration of Muhammad. So according to Qur’anic expositors, this verse was revealed to put Yasir’s conscience at ease and rest, with its application to every Muslim. See also: Sura 3:28: “…let not the believers take for friends unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution that ye may guard yourselves from them.” The word ‘guard’ in the phrase ‘guard yourselves from them’ is known as taqiyya. This obligation legitimises all activities in words and deeds contrary to what one might hold within; for example, to display love outwardly but Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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inwardly to hate, or to evince loyalty outwardly but inwardly to feel enmity – all for the cause of Allah. So, for instance, Al Zamakhshari, one of the most notable Islamic scholars and Qur’anic expositors, explains that one could outwardly display loyalty and friendship while the heart inwardly would remain full of hate and enmity until either the obstructing factors are removed or the Islamic community is strong enough to launch an open attack.15 Fakharadin A’razi states that if a Muslim fears those unbelievers amongst whom he may be because of their excessive power and strength, then he needs to pledge loyalty and love outwardly on condition that he inwardly objects to what he himself is saying; in other words, he is saying the opposite of all that he inwardly believes.16 As an addition to taqiyya, Muhammad sanctioned lying by saying that Allah will not hold a Muslim accountable when he lies in these three situations: 1. In war, espionage, concealment, or in weakness 2.
With his wife, or a wife with her husband
3.
When reconciling or maintaining peace
Muhammad went on to say, “War is deception.” This deception can be practiced at a personal level as well as at a community level, through leaders and institutions. Taqiyya is practiced by all Muslims, Sunni and Shi’ites alike, and all other Islamic sects, but because it’s more vocalised by the Shi’ites in their teachings than the others, some think that it is exclusively a Shi’ite doctrine. It has been reported that Ali, the fourth Khalifa, said “it is the mark of belief to prefer justice if it injures you, and injustice if it is of use to you.” Taqiyya can be practiced if it is necessary, even when under oath. Sura 2:225: “Allah will not call you to account for thoughtlessness in your oaths, but for the intention of your hearts…” Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
The wiles used in connection with taqiyya continues to do incalculable damage and injury to all of its victims. For instance, in Pakistan, numerous Muslims, backed by mosques, have under oath accused Christians, Hindus and others of blaspheming Muhammad. Others, having burned or torn pages of the Qur’an, then presented it as evidence of blasphemy, as though committed by those non-Muslims, namely Christians, either for personal gain or jihad against that community. Many of these victims have spent years in horrible conditions behind bars, while families became outcasts, losing their jobs and live“The role that lihoods. Almost all had to go into hiding and move from where they originally lived. mosques play In the 2005/06 crisis of the Danish cartoons some Muslims themselves added more cartoons to those that they were rioting about, which showed Muhammad in a worse light. They then showed these to fellow Muslims in order to whip up frenzy and violence against Europeans. Many were killed in a number of Islamic countries, and many others lost their livelihood as their businesses were burnt down by Muslims. How can a Muslim do that? There is a fatwa endorsing the insult of Muhammad if done in the state of taqiyya. Taqiyya permits Muslims to bow before an idol in a state of taqiyya and the desertion of regular and legislated prayers is permitted if under taqiyya.17
in the West is much more critical than in the Arab and Islamic world.”
THE ROLE OF MOSQUES IN THE WEST
The role that mosques play in the West is much more critical than in the Arab and Islamic world. In the Islamic world, a mosque is in the House of Islam where, generally, Islam is regarded as the religion of the state, the Shari’ah is the main source of all legislation, and almost all political posts that matter can only be held by Muslims. Here the others, the non-Muslims, are regarded as dhimmis, unequal with Muslims, and they have fewer rights than Muslims. However, in the West they are in the House of War, and thus on a war footing as their religion does not rule over all, but is regarded as a personal and private matter. Muslim scholars have tried to soften the impact of this doctrine by stating that if Muslims are SUMMER 2016
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given their rights and not persecuted it would be called Dar a’ Sulh – the House of Reconciliation. However, due to the clash of ideology, Islam being a totalitarian system within a free (largely democratic) society, the Western system is increasingly viewed as anti-Islamic and “Islam doesn’t hold thus a House of War. to the concept of
freedom of religion, but believes in the superiority of Islam above all others both religiously and politically.”
Being on war footing requires the suspension of all normal Islamic rules and regulations. It also legitimises special jurisprudence promulgated for such circumstances.
At the same time, the mosques and the Muslim communities suffer from their own internal divisions: identity problems, sociopolitical freedoms viewed from an Islamic perspective, fragmentation as a result of internal divisions, and finally the responsibility of raising sound Muslims in a non-Muslim environment, as well as consolidating the new converts from the host society. IDENTITY
In the West, Muslims face quite an upheaval, especially in dealing with socio-religious issues, such as asserting the rights of Muslims in the school curriculum and dress code, and fearing the socio-religious impact of the host society on their children and their culture. The concept of egalitarianism is also a problem for Muslims in Western society, particularly concerning the equality of all peoples before the law, since Islam does not regard all people as equal; nor does it grant equality before the Shari’ah courts between a Muslim male and Muslim female, or between a Muslim and a non-Muslim. Above all, Islam doesn’t hold to the concept of freedom of religion, but believes in the superiority of Islam above all others both religiously and politically, which has serious legal implications on a day-to-day basis. Since freedom of religion is a core commitment in free societies, Islam is left with a serious identity crisis on all those fronts. FRAGMENTATION
Fragmentation exists along ethnic lines as well SUMMER 2016
as between religious denominations. Religious denominational fragmentation is due to having Muslims from all sorts of Islamic schools of thought and factions – Sunnis, Shi’a, Ahmadiays, Qadiyanis, Whabis, Salafis, Qur’anioon, Sufis, and further divisions within these. Ethnic fragmentation is similar to this, with the host community and the environment generally. Here the problem is of consolidation of their own, as well as winning converts and influencing decision-makers to be more positively disposed towards the Islamic agenda. Making Islam palatable to the host community is another serious challenge to Muslims. ISLAM RISES ABOVE ALL
Almost all Muslim scholars agree on this principle that “Islam rises above all” and elaborate on it in detail. Recently Dr. Abid ibn Muhammad Sufyani of the University of Umm al Qura in Mecca has written extensively on the above statement.18 Quoting virtually every notable scholar of Islam, he explains how this is a basic principle of Islamic Shari’ah, which permeates all aspects of Islamic jurisprudence. His extensive and comprehensive research is exceedingly valuable for those who wish to understand this complex issue. However, here it will suffice to give some of his conclusions, particularly those which affect mosques and their buildings. He cites Islamic directives regarding other religious buildings, especially churches: why they should not be allowed to be built, and those that need repairing and renovations must not be allowed to make such repairs, for these are centres of kufr (apostasy) that spread corruption on earth, as well as being at enmity with Allah and his Apostle. Especially in the land of the unbelievers when surrounded by unbelief, a mosque must be the highest tallest, broadest, widest, and in whatever other manner its superiority can be demonstrated. CONCLUSION
Mosques are clearly much more than religious outlets. The concept of the House of Peace and Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
The Mosque
House of War, the self-imposed separation which is almost segregation and refusal to assimilate and integrate, makes it divisive and discriminatory. This is not a sectarian view of the mosque, its role and function in society; it is held across the board by all schools and branches of Islam. Finally, there is nothing at all within any Islamic movement that can be apolitical for it is defined and defines itself as a wholly encompassing system: as a socio-political, socio-religious, socioeconomical, socio-legislative, judiciary, militaristic system.
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Hadith 1406, Vol. 1, Book 5, Sunnah, last modified 2016, http://sunnah.com/urn/1287540. Nasser Rabbat, “Al-Azhar Mosque: An Architectural Chronicle of Cairo’s History”, in Gulru Necipogulu, Muqarnas- An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World 13, (Boston: Brill, 1996), 45–67. “Palestinians and Israelis in a Clash at Holy Site,” The New York Times, last modified September 28, 2000. BBC News, “Abu Hamza could face extradition,” British Broadcast Corporation, November 15 2007. Joseph P. Fried, “The Terror Conspiracy: The Overview; Sheik and 9 Followers Guilty of a Conspiracy of Terrorism,” New York Times, last modified October 2 1995, http://www.nytimes. com/1995/10/02/nyregion/terror-conspiracyoverview-sheik-9-followers-guilty-conspiracyterrorism.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1. Yousif Abdullah al-Qaradawi, “Fatwa on the role of the Mosque,” Web Archive, last modified July 13 2006, http://web.archive.org/ web/20060721050124/http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1122528600828 &pagename=IslamOnline-Arabic-Ask_Scholar/ FatwaA/FatwaAAskTheScholar. Hadith #31901, Kanz al Umal. Abul A’la Maududi, Jihad in Islam (Beirut: The Holy Koran Publishing House, n.d.). Tafseer al Qur’an, ibn Kathir; Dar al A’hiya a’turath al Arabi, Volume 1, 103. Masnad al Ansar, Imam Ahmed: Dar al A’hiya a’turath al
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Arabi, Volume 6, 471. Sunnan a’Tirmizi, “There is nothing Dar al Kittab, 1994, Volume 8, 135. at all within 10 Ibid. any Islamic 11 http://www.islamonline.net/Fatwa/arabic/FatwDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=2042 movement that 12 h t t p : / / e l a p h . c o m / E l a p h W r i t can be apolitical er/2004/11/23948.htm. for it is defined 13 Khurram Murad, Islamic Movement in and defines the West: Reflections on some Issues itself as a wholly (Leicester, UK: Islamic Foundation, encompassing 1981). 14 Murad, Islamic Movement in the West. system.” 15 Al Zamakshari, Tafsir al- Kashshaf (Cairo, 1953, vol. 2, 16). 16 Fakharadin A’razi, al-Tafsir al-kabir, 32 vols, (Cairo: al-Matba’ah al Bahiyyah al-Misriyyah, 1938). 17 “Leading imam during Cartoon Crisis regrets involvement,” CPH Post, last updated July 30, 2013, http://cphpost.dk/news/ national/leading-imam-during-cartoon-crisisregrets-involvement.html. 18 See Abid ibn Muhammad Sufyani, Hukm alzina fi al-qanun wa-alaqatuhu bi-mabadi huquq al-insan fi al-Gharb: Dirasah naqdiyah (Mawqif al-shariah al-Islamiyah min al-hurriyat) (Saudi Arabia: Tawzi Muassasat al-Mutaman, 1998).
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MARVIN ALBERT REV. DR. MARVIN ALBERT was born in the Middle East, where he lived until the age of 18, studying Islam in Islamic schools since childhood. After completing higher education and training in the West, he returned to minister to his people. Dr. Albert is an ordained minister and holds a doctorate in Biblical Counseling. He works among Muslims and Muslim Background Believers in the area of mentoring and counseling and currently serves in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, as well as North America.
Once a Muslim becomes a believer in Jesus, he belongs to a third culture. Culturally he is neither a Muslim nor a Christian. Muslim-background believers (hereafter MBBs), with all the differences among them, belong to a culture unto themselves. They are affected to varying degrees by the Qur’an, Hadith, and folk Islam. Islamic culture is deeply ingrained in their psyche. A MBB has the challenge of Islam and its influence in his life to fight against. The Muslim in him keeps raising its head like a viper to bite him. How should the church of Christ respond to the needs of Muslim-background believers, in order to effectively minister to them? This article considers the social, familial, and spiritual challenges that many Muslims face following their conversion, and discusses the significance of the Islamic concept of Ummah. There is little published material written by MBBs themselves. Most what follows is based on personal interviews with MBBs, and their responses to a questionnaire developed by the author for training and counseling purposes. Their names have been changed for security reasons. CHALLENGES FACED BY MBBS
“How should the church of Christ respond to the needs of Muslimbackground believers, in order to effectively minister to them?”
There are common challenges faced by the majority of MBBs. The intensity and frequency of these challenges vary from one person and location to another, from mockery to murder. It is almost impossible to meet a MBB who has not suffered persecution, and all live under the very real possibility of experiencing persecution and permanent loss of both material possessions and relationships.
MBBs struggle as their belief system changes and they realize there has to be change from within. Much of the struggle comes from society and SUMMER 2016
people close to them. Persecution and the external struggle can strengthen the MBB from within or it can hinder his growth. A MBB who has lost his job, for example, is at risk of becoming discouraged or depressed. This is a spiritual problem before it is an economic problem. The core beliefs of the MBB, concerning God as the provider who will supply all his needs, are of ultimate importance. As we consider helping the persecuted, it is important to take into account lessons that are meant to be learned during this time of persecution. SOCIAL ISSUES: APOSTASY
In Islam, an apostate is any individual born to a Muslim father or who converted to Islam as an adult who later rejects the teaching of Islam. Bassam Madany writes about apostasy laws, Unless an apostate repents, he or she is to be punished with death. This harsh attitude towards Muslims who convert to other religions is based on the belief that Muhammad was Allah’s last messenger.… To go back on Islam and renounce the Shahadah...is tantamount to committing the unpardonable sin (Surat Aal ‘Imran 3:85). Whoever falls away from faith in Islam commits…an unforgivable sin. He takes himself away from Allah, his owner — which is theft — and weakens the Islamic state, an action branded as revolt or insurrection. He who falls away from Islam must, according to the Shari’ah, be prosecuted, taken into custody by force, and called on to repent. If necessary, his return is to be “helped along” with torture. He who does not embrace Islam again has, according to the Shari’ah, forfeited his life and is to be put to death by the state.1
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SOCIAL ISSUES: FAMILY
Immediate family members are the ones most deeply affected by the conversion of the MBB. The family feels shamed and dishonoured by the MBB’s rejection. To reject Islam is to reject one’s own family and everything it stands for. It is therefore the family’s responsibility to bring back the infidel to the fold by pressuring him to recant. The family uses different techniques to apply pressure on the infidel. The most basic is verbal abuse and ostracism, accusing the MBB of ingratitude, selfishness or cowardice.2 Some family members refuse to sit at the same table for a meal because they see the MBB as impure and defiled. Relatives confiscate and destroy Christian literature, especially the Bible, in an effort to disconnect the infidel from his new faith. If these social and familial pressures fail, then it is not uncommon for the father or another close relative to inform a religious leader or the police about the unrepentant infidel. It is common for MBBs to be disowned or disinherited, reported to police, or assaulted by family members. Many female converts have been raped, and forced into a Muslim marriage. The suffering of female MBBs tends to be greater than that of males, because the culture is based on shame and reputation; because Islam considers women inferior to men, women will bring more shame to the family if they have a relationship outside of marriage, or behave in socially unacceptable ways, including changing their religion. They are likely to suffer much more than men. The only way for the family to restore its honour is by killing the individual who brought them dishonour. Honour killing of women suspected of sexual relationships outside of marriage is rooted in this phenomenon. In honour killing, one person commits the actual crime, but it is usually the leading individuals in the family who make the decision. The society as a whole expects the killing of those who are guilty or under suspicion of guilt. Some families resign themselves to the fact that there is an infidel in the family. However the pressure is always on the MBB not to display his Christianity, to make him go to mosque, fast, and Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
otherwise observe Islamic practices, such as the fasting month of Ramadan. A family that has a member who converted to Christianity and does not do something about it is dishonoured and risks being ostracized from society. FINANCIAL EXCLUSION
A convert who makes his faith known to his employer or colleagues risks losing his job. The police, who grant security clearance, might deny it to the MBB, without which MBBs cannot obtain work or keep their jobs. Because of pressure from governments and society, some employers have no choice but to let the MBB go. Students who convert from Islam face the immediate prospect of poverty once the family stops giving them an allowance and kicks them out of the house.
“As we consider helping the persecuted, it is important to take into account lessons that are meant to be learned during this time of persecution.”
MARRIAGE
According to Shari’ah Muslim men may marry Christian women, but the opposite is against the law. A woman follows her husband, not the other way around. The children belong to the father. As a general rule, in the case of divorce, a Muslim father who is married to a non-Muslim mother gains custody of the children. According to a fatwa (Islamic decree) by Dr. Abu El Fadl, A Muslim man or woman may not marry a mushrik [Christian]… women needed to be given express permission as well, but since they were not given any such permission then they must be barred from marrying a kitabi.3
A large number of marriages are arranged. Some MBB women aspire to marry believers from Christian backgrounds, but a MBB woman is considered a Muslim because of her father’s religion, and so cannot legally marry a Christian. For men, the main obstacle is that Christian parents do not want their daughters to marry MBBs since their grandchildren would be considered Muslims under the law.
“The only way for the family to restore its honour is by killing the individual who brought them dishonour.”
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home under the influence of the Qur’an, Hadith and Islamic culture. The Islamic understanding of relationships between men and wom“Islamic societies en and the role of women is unbiblical and damaging to biblically-based healthy and governments relationships. One must account for the throughout the Islamic view of women and what women MENA region do ought to think of themselves and their not have a notion of role as wives and mothers. Culturallyfreedom of religion transcendent biblical principles on maras it is understood riage and family must be taught to both husband and wife; by God’s grace many in the West.” Christian couples are becoming involved in this type of ministry. MBB CHILDREN
In MENA nations, children of MBBs are born Muslims by law, and the law does not change when the parents convert to Christianity; all Muslim children must study Islam. MBB parents face a great dilemma. In Sunday school the child is taught John 3:16 and during the week he is taught that Christ was not the Son of God and was not crucified for our sins. How can a parent explain this dissonance to a four or five-year-old? A MBB wept as he helped his seven-year-old son memorize verses from the Qur’an, seeing no alternative.4 Children are also taught history from an Islamic point of view – these courses are necessary to graduate in most MENA countries. These courses teach that the duty of Muslims is to liberate Jerusalem from the Jews and the Crusaders; terrorism is taught as a noble and holy jihad. The list is long. How can a child be taught to believe something at home and among Christians but say something else in front of “MENA region Muslims and his teachers? MBB parents police are concerned are divided when it comes to schooling about the stability children. Some want them to stay in Muslim schools and feel they can influof the country, and ence their children at home. Others do deviation from the not want their children to be influenced norm of Islam is a by Islam.5 This difference of opinion ofsocial threat.” ten occurs between husbands and wives, inevitably creating conflict at home.6 One parent wants to live as a Christian even at the cultural level while the other wants to be a Christian by faith but outwardly live as a Muslim SUMMER 2016
by being fully integrated culturally. Children and parents are often equally confused. Parents are willing to bear hardship themselves, but do not want to see their children suffer. Consider Jesus’ words in Luke 14:26: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” These words have a deeper meaning to MBB parents than to most others; it is something they experience daily. The issue of family is further complicated by the cultural importance of relatives and extended family. When children are left with grandparents and other family members, they are bombarded with Islamic teaching. Children once again are confused by the conflicting teaching of different authorities. According to Shari’ah, infidels are unfit to raise Muslim children, and so MBB parents stand to lose custody of their own children if family members go to Shari’ah courts to contest custody. To date there has not been any serious study that offers practical solutions to the struggles of MBB children, and the MBB community is divided on this issue. SOCIAL ISSUES: SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT
Islamic societies and governments throughout the MENA region do not have a notion of freedom of religion as it is understood in the West. Many Christian minorities in the MENA region are free to worship in legally-recognized houses of worship, but Islam does not admit the freedom to change one’s religion. MBBs will continue to suffer persecution under these governments as long as such apostasy laws exist. Some of these societies allow those who are born into a religion other than Islam the freedom to worship in their own houses and churches. Countries like Saudi Arabia do not allow any form of worship besides the mosque. Sometimes the Saudi government will turn a blind eye when Westerners worship in their own homes in compounds where Westerners live, but even this limited freedom does not extend to natives, or to Muslim expatriates who convert to Christianity. Churches in countries such as Libya are for expatriates; locals are Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
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not allowed to enter them. Most churches in the MENA region invite persecution when they allow locals onto the premises. In countries like Jordan, where the law does not permit Muslims to convert to other religions, the government is somewhat tolerant in its day-today prosecution of such apostasy laws. Most of the persecution MBBs face comes from the society itself, from family and religious leaders harassing and pressuring MBBs. MENA region police and secret police are not known for respecting human rights. Abuses by police services vary from one country to another. In some countries the police are more committed to the president or the king than to Islam. Their concern is not so much to protect Islam, but to protect their ruler. They are concerned about the stability of the country, and deviation from the norm of Islam is a social threat. Shame-based imprisonment is a common occurrence – an affliction in any case, but often made worse by the added abuse of guards and fellow inmates. It is easier for police to sacrifice the human rights of the individual than face the weakening of national stability. CONSEQUENCES: FEAR
Having freedom in Christ and being liberated from the bondage of Islam does not automatically or immediately remove fear. At least in the short term following the MBB’s conversion, fear and anxiety typically intensify. There is fear of rejection and persecution by family, society and police. It is also common for Islamic agents to fake a conversion in order to infiltrate MENA churches, making church leaders hesitant regarding true conversions, and in turn creating fear in the MBB of not being accepted by the Christian community. Edward Welch has addressed the phenomenon of fear from the perspective of a biblical counsellor: “Fear is natural to us. We don’t have to learn it. We experience fear and anxiety even before there is any logical reason for them.”7 The MBB’s fear is not unjustified, but fear can be exaggerated and irrational. The instability and uncertainty surrounding MBBs heightens fear. Fear can become a crippling Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
force that causes many MBBs to remain secret believers and hinder the majority of Christians from evangelizing Muslims. They fear people and circumstances instead of fearing God (John 12:43; Ps. 27:1-3; 46:1-3; 91:5-6). According to Jay E. Adams, “The fear of God is the one fear that removes all others.”8 Constructive fear, the fear of the Lord, can keep us from physical, emotional and spiritual harm. By the fear “Our responsibility of the Lord one keeps away from evil (Prov. in difficult 16:6). “It is essential that [the counselor] circumstances, as explain from the Scriptures that above and ever, is to love and beyond the misery fear produces, it is truly a sin against God.”9 obey God. Such As with all Christians, MBBs need to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all circumstances – God is our ultimate environment, sustaining all things at every moment. God tells us certain things and equips us to obey Him (2 Tim. 2:21; 3:1617). Our responsibility in difficult circumstances, as ever, is to love and obey God. Such circumstances are an opportunity to exercise faith and increase our trust in Him.
circumstances are an opportunity to exercise faith and increase our trust in Him. ”
GUILT AND SHAME-BASED CULTURES
Critical to an understanding of MBBs is an awareness that MENA cultures are shame-based cultures, as opposed to Western guilt-based cultures. Most in the West understand shame in a different way than do Muslims or MBBs. Those who understand the term “shame” in a Western sense can underestimate the danger a MBB faces because of the shame he brings to his family. Shaming a person or a family is quite literally a matter of life and death, and could result in either murder or suicide. One cannot understand the concept or practice of honour killing without understanding the concept of shame. For many Arabic and Islamic cultures, shame is closely connected with reputation, and in these cultures perception often trumps reality. The most important thing to the family is that others perceive them as a family with good reputation and honour. More effort is exerted in appearing honourable than being honourable. Honour is held in high esteem and so it must be protected – or at least presented – at all costs. Ideals of reSUMMER 2016
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sponsibility, ethical and moral standards are, at least publicly, held high. In a society with strong tribal roots, the tribe (or extended family) is not only the place of belonging; it is the defender, the social care system and the effective security system – emotionally, economically and physically. Muslims are intensely loyal to and protective of “People marvel when their families. “A man’s security, health, a Muslim comes to prosperity, and religious standing all traChrist. It is natural ditionally depended on his relatives.”10 to want others to Any threat to this solidarity is dealt with hear the story of harshly. No one is allowed to threaten the God’s work in the reputation or the family’s economic, social, or religious well-being. “Honor and life of this new shame, for an Arab family/ tribe is seen believer.” as a key survival factor. Dishonor brings physical danger to the family.”11 It is a tribal approach to life, based on the preservation of the whole. Each individual is expected to protect family honor. “Honorable behavior is that which is conducive to group cohesion and group survival, that which strengthens the group and serves its interests; while shameful behavior is that which tends to disrupt, endanger, impair, or weaken the social aggregate.”12 In MENA societies, people are identified by their relationship to other family members. In other words, “honour” is a value based on a family function. It is a social attribute derived from a family role. When a Muslim comes to faith in Christ, he has upset the unit of the family and threatens the integrity of the Ummah (more on this later). The family experiences a profound sense of humiliation and shame at this. They genuinely believe the MBB has intended to publicly humiliate them. His rejection of Islam is a rejection of the family, the society, the Ummah, and everything they stand for; it is tantamount to treason. The family cannot bear to live with the humiliation brought upon them by their rebellious relative. Many people from guilt-based cultures do not understand that to be publicly humiliated in shame-based cultures is equivalent to a life of disgrace and dishonour. It is a death sentence.
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Many MBBs are bullied and shamed by family and society, manipulated to recant and come back to the fold. The feeling of guilt and shame will usually be pushed until the prodigal returns. A single MBB woman might be forced to marry one of her relatives. In this type of situation, “marriage serves as a fail-safe protective device to secure collective family honor.”13 Instead of being killed, she is forced to marry a cousin of hers, and to submit to and obey her husband. Her conversion will not go public, but kept secret by the family and now suppressed by her husband. Therefore the family is no longer shamed. Haitham14 felt ashamed of himself for shaming his family. He did not give up his faith in Christ, but was overwhelmed with sadness for hurting his divorced mother. When visiting her, she harassed him to go to the mosque and to fast so others would see him practicing Islam. She knew Haitham would not forsake Christianity but she wanted him to outwardly act as a Muslim. By observing Islamic rituals, Haitham would restore her honour. FAME, MONEY, RELOCATION
In their zeal, Christian workers who have laboured hard and long among Muslims commit some harmful practices. A common error of churches and individuals is the attempt to foster the MBB and to overprotect him in a way which inhibits his Christian growth. There are no shortcuts to spiritual and emotional maturity. To bypass basic biblical teaching on discipleship will destroy the MBB instead of helping him. Islamic beliefs are irreconcilably opposed to those of Christianity. Islam defies Christian doctrine and attempts to invalidate basic Christian principles such as the divinity of Christ, the crucifixion, the Trinity, the work of redemption, and the forgiveness of sin. Evangelization is strictly forbidden in MENA countries. It is only in the last two decades, as remote media has been used to reach Muslims, that a noticeable number of Muslims have turned to Christ. Consequently, people marvel when a Muslim comes to Christ. It is natural to want others to hear the story of God’s work in the life of this new believer.
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Often this results in a regrettable series of events: MBB is given opportunities to share his testimony, and gets excited to speak in front of many people. The more chances he has to share, the more exaggerated the testimony gets. In the absence of discipleship, pride sets in instead of humility and the flesh is fed. It becomes difficult to disciple a young believer when he reaches a certain level of fame.
greater opportunity to work and make money. He is also able to interact with members of the opposite sex with comparatively very few restrictions. A common temptation among relocated MBBs is to think that their needs and “Relocation should wants can now be met with less reliance on never be the God. Removed from the culture of shame first option. If they feel free to practice whatever the flesh most MBBs are desires with no immediate accountability.
MBBs often lose their source of income – their job, their inheritance, or both – once their faith in Christ becomes known to those close to them. As Christians it is sometimes our responsibility to meet these needs. The error and danger here often lies in being overly generous. There is a tendency to give a MBB more than his needs require and to raise his economic status to a higher level than before. It seems workers want to reward Muslims, or at least compensate them, because they came to Christ. Christians have been accused of buying Muslims, and MBBs are accused of converting for the money; and in fact there are those who pretend faith in Christ to get money. Churches and individuals working with MBBs must be wise (Matt. 10:16).
While the need for security is legitimate and natural, all Christians who want to live a godly life – MBBs or otherwise – must face some kind of persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). In many cases, the process of learning includes struggle and pain; this process is part of God’s plan for growth and maturity. Relocation is not the answer to persecution in every case, and should never be the first option. If most MBBs are relocated to the West, then the church will never be established among Muslims in the MENA region. Theology of persecution, pain and suffering should be taught to MBBs and those working among them.
Persecution might warrant the need for relocation. Some MBBs actively desire to be relocated in order to avoid or minimize the risk of persecution. A large number of MBBs who have been relocated have become lukewarm or have given up the faith. Anyone migrating from their home country is bound to experience culture shock, though it is generally worse for a MBB who has been persecuted. A person who emigrates under less dangerous circumstances can usually return home if he desires, but this is rarely an option for a relocated, persecuted MBB. This creates a certain level of stress and emotional struggle. Usually MBBs who are relocated have experienced trauma that has not been dealt with; many are relocated without proper care. This care includes introducing them to Christians and churches who have experience ministering to the persecuted. If he is relocated to the West, the MBB finds opportunities never before imagined. He can experience new things with fewer restrictions. He has Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
relocated to the West, then the church will never be established among Muslims in the MENA region”
UMMAH
Spiritually and emotionally, perhaps the greatest need felt by the MBB is a sense of belonging. In Islam, this need is addressed by the doctrine and phenomenon of Ummah. This is central to both the internal and external identity questions confronting the MBB, and so it is necessary to understand this idea and the importance “Western ideas it holds for the Muslim. The word ‘Umof privacy or mah’ comes from the Arabic word Umm, individualism which means both ‘mother’ and ‘community,’ however Ummah is typically maniare somewhat fest in geopolitical terms. It is commonly meaningless in the used to refer to the Arabic Nationhood (Al context of Islamic Ummah Al Arabya) and also Islamic UmUmmah, and mah (Al Ummah Al Islameya). In Islam, would be viewed the Ummah “in the Qur’an…refers to all as subversive and of the Islamic world unified. The Qur’an detrimental.” says: ‘You [Muslims] are the best nation 15 It brought out for Mankind’ [3:110].” refers to the community of Muslims around the globe and is not restricted to Arab Muslims. All members are expected to conform to all aspects of the Ummah and cannot deviate from the core SUMMER 2016
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values. There must be conformity of belief and practice. Members of the Ummah in the MENA region tend to have strong loyalties to the family and to the tribe. Western ideas of privacy or individualism are somewhat meaningless in the context of Islamic Ummah, and would be viewed as subversive and detrimental to the well-being of the Ummah. A MBB loses his Ummah when he comes to Christ. The question of identity is among the most significant and urgent, and many “When practicing churches fail to realise that a MBB exChristian pects the church to play the role of the Ummah. There are no quick solutions to hospitality, table these challenges. MBBs need new comfellowship and munities. They need social, physical and church community emotional contacts.
are practices that the MBB can readily appreciate.”
The MBB was raised to be loyal to his family, tribe, and to the Ummah. It gave him a sense of belonging to something divine and larger than himself; it is a sacred value. When a Muslim converts, members of the Ummah, especially his family and tribe, view him as a traitor. In their understanding, he is rejecting the greatest religion, god, culture and values. He is rejecting his family and tribe. Becoming a Christian is total rebellion to Allah, his Prophet, and the Qur’an. Members of the Ummah have certain duties to Allah and the community; the MBB is forsaking his duty. The MBB brings shame and dishonour to his family by defiling them and the Ummah, therefore he must be persecuted so honour can be restored. BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING OF UMMAH
Many principles of the Ummah have biblical parallels, and it is necessary to understand these in order to holistically minister to MBBs. “To a certain degree, Believers in Christ find their identity in Christ, and are members of the body of all Christians Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). They are to show are third culture hospitality to one another and to strangpeople, working to ers (Rom. 12:13; 1 Pet. 4:9; Heb. 13:2). transform godless A MBB expects to receive hospitality culture into a Godfrom the new Christian Ummah. There honouring one.” is a common Arabic expression of fellowship and hospitality that says, “There is bread and salt between us.” When practicing SUMMER 2016
Christian hospitality, table fellowship and church community are practices that the MBB can readily appreciate. Hospitality also gives MBBs the opportunity to see how a Christian couple should treat each other and how children are to be raised. Another important aspect of the Ummah is that of safety and security. Members of the Ummah will protect each other. The church as a whole and the Christian home need to be a safe and secure place for MBBs. As Christians show hospitality, they need to create a safe environment for MBBs so they can share, heal, and be discipled. Hospitality demonstrates acceptance. Christians are often fearful and suspicious when it comes to MBB’s professions of faith.16 As a result many MBBs prefer to be with their own kind instead of being integrated with the local church. Hospitality demonstrates Christian love, and creates the right environment for counseling. CONCLUSION
To a certain degree, all Christians are third culture people, working to transform godless culture into a God-honouring one. MBBs carry with them values and worldviews based on Islam, the Qur’an, the Hadith, and the teachings of Muhammad, as well as folk Islam. These core values such as shame and honour, and the value of the Ummah, are deeply engraved on the MBB’s heart and contribute to his identity. When God told Abram to leave (Lech Lecha) his country and his father’s house (Gen. 12:1), this leaving was more than physical. Abram was asked to forsake everything that he trusted and which gave him his identity. Abram’s journey encompasses all of life. As he journeyed towards God he came to know God personally and became a friend of God; Abram became Abraham. The MBB is on a journey from the bondage of Islam towards freedom in Christ. He is to look at every aspect of the journey as an opportunity to know God more and to establish his identity in God.
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Bassam Madany, “The Law of Apostasy in Islam Must Change,” Answering Islam, last modified April 15 2016, http://www.answering-islam.org/authors/madany/apostasy_law. html. Hieder (a MBB from a MENA country), interview by Marvin Albert, August 2012. Abou El Fadi, “On Christian Men Marrying Muslim Women,” Scholar of the House, last modified April 23 2015, http://www.scholarofthehouse.org/oninma.html. Hieder interview, August 2012. Abdullah and Magda (MBB couple from North Africa), interview by Marvin Albert, August 2012. Ibid. Edward T. Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest (Greensboro NC: New Growth Press, 2007), 19. Jay E. Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973), 414. Lou Priolo, “Helping People with Crippling Fear,” Journal of Modern Ministry, vol. 5 issue 1, Winter 2008, 52. Stanley Kurtz, “Protecting the Honor of theFamily, Protecting the Honor of Islam,” National Review, last modified February 16 2007, http:// www.nationalreview.com/article/220002/marriage-and-terror-war-part-ii-.stanley-kurtz. Jason Pappas, “Arab Honor and Shame,” Liberty and Culture, last modified February 17, 2007, http://libertyandculture.blogspot. de/2007/02/arab-honor-and-shame.html. Raphael Patai, The Arab Mind (Tucson: Recovery Resources Press, 2007, http://www.scribd. com/doc/85551552/The-Arab-Mind-by-Raphael-Patai. Pappas, “Arab Honor and Shame.” Haitham (MBB), interview by Marvin Albert, August 2012. “Ummah,” Webster’s Online Dictionary, last modified 2008, http://www.websters-onlinedictionary.org/definitions/Ummah. Amy (MBB) interview by Marvin Albert, August 2012
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