Islam
6/11/06
Islam
General Information:
1.2 billion people on the globe are Muslim.
Islam is the third largest religion in U.S. behind Christianity and Judaism. There are more Muslims than Methodists in the USA these days. It is the second largest religion in Europe. It is projected that Islam, not Christianity, will be the world's fastest growing religion of the 21st century.
History:
(We have looked at Buddhism and Hinduism. Today we look at a faith that has some common roots with Christianity.) Islam belongs to the family of great monotheistic faiths. It is one of the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jews and Christians trace their genealogy to Abraham through Sara and her son Isaac. Muslims represent the other branch of the family, which descends from Abraham’s son Ishmael and Sara’s handmaid, Hagar.
Genesis 16:10-12 says, “Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” The angel of the Lord said to her further,
“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”
Technically, this is the history of the Arab people. The Muslims have written themselves into the history of Abraham. But, only 20% of the world’s Muslims are Arab. Arab history connects to Ishmael and Abraham. Islamic history is not necessarily connected with Abraham.
In Jerusalem under the Dome of the Rock, you are shown the rock where, our Arab guide told us, that Abraham offered up Ishmael. “You mean Isaac.” No, Ishmael. Arab history reads differently than Jewish history. So the battle between the Jews and the Arabs begins. (The temple mount is under Arab control. The Al Aqsa Mosque, the pinnacle of the temple is where Muhammad ascended on a horse.)
•Muhammad’s history- Muhammad was born in AD 570 near Mecca. The religion of Arabia at the time was a mixture of polytheism and animism. There were lots of idols and shrines around.
In 610, at age 40, while meditating in a cave overlooking the plain of Arafat outside Mecca, (picture) Muhammed fell into a trance. Sweating and trembling, the angel Gabriel spoke to him. The message Muhammad began to proclaim consisted of two main points.
1.) there is only one God to whose will people must submit. “Islam” means submission and a “Muslim” is one who submits to God (Allah).
2.) There will be a day of judgment when all people will be judged in terms of whether or not they have obeyed God.
Mohammed first sought to appease the Christians and Jews around him by claiming tolerance towards them. When they and the Arab tribes did not accept Mohammed as a prophet, he fled to Medina from Mecca. There he raised an army of 10,000 men and began to claim revelations to kill those who would not bow down to his Allah and accept him as the Prophet of Allah. The Moslem clerics like to read the 'pre-Medina' Koran passages, and avoid the latter 'post-Mecca' passages that Moslems around the world tend to teach in the Mosques each Friday.
Five major elements in the culture and worldview of Islam:
(Every culture has its way of describing the way things are in the universe. These five elements convey the way things are in Islamic perspective.)
•Basic realities
God - There is only one God and there is no room for any lesser gods or goddesses.
Polytheism and animism was rejected.
Nature - There is a strong belief in creation. This is very close to Judaism and Christianity.
Time – Much as we do, Islam sees time from a linear or historical viewpoint and thinks of history as working toward an end
Humanity – Islam sees human beings as created by God and responsible to Him.
•Loyalties and values
-“No gods but God”.
Tough question #1 – Is Allah the same as elohim. Do we have the same God as the Muslims?
“In terms of historical origin, the answer is clearly yes. In terms of theological description, the answer has to be no. What is the Christian God if not the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit? What is the Muslim God if not the revealer of the Qur’an? These two descriptions are mutually exclusive.” ( Corduan, Islam, p.13)
“Muhammad had great respect for Jesus, seeing him as a prophet. The Qur’an even teaches his virgin birth (3:45-47), his many miracles (3:49) and his ascension (4:158). However, two points are nonnegotiable in Islam. First, Jesus Christ is not God (5:117). Any notion of the Trinity or of Christ’s being the Son of God is rejected vehemently. Second, Christ did not die on the cross (4:157). Muslims consider it unthinkable that God would allow one of his messengers to die a death of shame and torture.” (Winfried Corduan, “Islam” pdf file )
(VIDEO: Imam Fisal Hammouda from Napierville, IL – on “Who is Jesus?”)
KC Star interview May 6, 2006
“I am a Trinitarian. The view of Jesus in Christianity is different than the view of Jesus in Islam?” Yes.
“ So, by converting to Islam, I would be giving up some of that, would I not?”
You will give up some of that, probably, like believing in Jesus as Son of God. But we Muslims say that Jesus himself did not claim to be Son of God. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate he is Son of God. We believe all Jesus preached was that he was a messenger of God.
-Muhammad is the model for humanity to follow. They do not worship Muhammad.
-The Qur’an is the final revelation of the will of God. It is the earthly version of a heavenly book.
-Every human being will appear before God on the Day of Judgment. Muslims must work and struggle (jihad) for the extension of the rule of God in the world.
•Symbols and language
(Expression of values and realities find their way into symbols and language)
-No music is allowed in Islamic worship. There is chanting of the Qur’an, but not singing.
-Arabic calligraphy –(amazing pictures) Except among the Shiites, there is to be no representation of humans or animals in art.
-Importance of Arabic- The qur’an was revealed in Arabic. It maintains its authoritative status only in Arabic. Prescribed prayers are to be said in Arabic.
•Institutions-
(Like every culture, Islam has institutions for the organization of society.)
Islam insists that there can be no distinction between sacred and secular. Since every part of life comes within the sphere of Islam, every human institution: the family, the mosque, the state, etc., must be regarded as coming under the authority and rule of God.
Question #2 - Are democracy and Islam incompatible?
Islam is not thought of as merely a religious faith. It encompasses all of life, including government. You have true Islam only when you have a fully Islamic society.
There are 52 Moslem nations. Not one is a democracy. Not one has freedom of
religion. The killing of Christians throughout the Muslim world today
(Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, etc.) and what happened at the WTC,
is based upon the teachings of the Koran. Some, a vast minority, feel quite justified by the Qur’an in using violence to move Islam forward against the will of nations and individuals.
•Customs and products
The Five Pillars of Islam
There is one thing that binds all Muslims together. It is the five pillars of Islam. These are the essential observances and practices. These simple practices reinforce the ongoing sense of God’s existence in everyday life.
- 1) Shahada: Testifying to God's One-ness:
- A Muslim is one who makes the declaration "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet." This is a transforming confession when a person says it and means it. Muslim life builds on this declaration.
- 2) Salat: Prayer.
- General Features of Islamic Prayer
- Five prayer times each day:
early morning ,noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, evening
- Raq'ah: Posture in prayer is very formal. Bowing and prostration represents submission to God
- Du'a, spontaneous private prayer exists, but it is less important than communal worship.
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- Ablutions, symbolic purification by washing hands, feet, etc. with water (or sand). Qiblah/, direction for prayer towards Mecca. Designated by Mihrab*, niche in the wall. /
- Elements of Public prayer:
- Masjid (Mosque): Minaret/ (Tower for Muadhdhin* to announce services). /
- Imam leads prayers. Worshippers stand behind in straight lines.
- Imam or other scholar delivers a sermon (khutba ) from the pulpit (minbar).
- Women are not required to attend prayers. When they do, they usually stand behind the men men.
- Friday, Yawm al-Jum'ah (Day of Assembly), main day of public prayer.
Question #3 – How do we overcome the barriers and gain an honest hearing for the gospel of Jesus?
There are barriers that prevent Muslims from wanting to place their faith in Jesus. Get behind the eyes of a Muslim for a moment.
- They remember the Crusades (which happened only yesterday to them),
-colonial dominance over almost the entire Muslim world in the 18th and 19th centuries, ---economic exploitation in the 20th century,
-The West’s support of Palestinians being ousted from land they had lived on for 13 centuries.
-The decadent, immoral culture of the “Christian” west that is corrupting the godly Muslim nations. Modernity is an issue for Islam. It is seen, with all of its technological advances, as the corruption of the Christian west.
-the belief of almost all Muslims that Christians worship 3 gods (God, Mary, Jesus—found in the Koran itself),
-the belief that they corrupted the message that God gave to the prophet Isa (Jesus), i.e., the Injil (Gospel).
And then the cultural barriers:
-Christians don’t bow when they worship God,
-they don’t remove their shoes or wash to show honor to God,
-they eat pork,
-their women brazenly walk around with their arms and legs showing like immoral women,
-they don’t do any of the things that show they are truly seeking God, such as fast, pray in public, etc.
It is going to take a lot of love. 99.9% of the Muslims that you meet are not going to be terrorists or aggressive Islamic nationalists. They are going to be people who love their family, want to live a life of peace and honor God.
- 3) Zakat: Giving charity.
- Originally a free-will donation (what is no called Sadaqah), now largely compulsory. General rate: 2 1/2% of income annually. * Given only to needy Muslims, or for religious purposes, etc.
- 4) Sawm: Fast
- In memory of the revelation of the Qur'an.
- During month of Ramadan, daylight hours.
- 5) Hajj: Pilgrimage.
- Every Muslim man and woman (if physically and economically able) should try to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life-time.
- Symbolic reenactments of past events:
- Tawaf: Circling Ka'ba counterclockwise seven times, emphasizing its centrality.
- Touching black stone of Ka'bah
- Throwing 49 stones at stone "Satan"s (recalling the resistance to Satan's attempts to prevent Abraham from sacrificing Ishmael).
6) Jihad:
Unofficially the sixth pillar of Islam. It means “to struggle”.
Ill. Easter – two PhD’s from KU. Thank you for the hope of the resurrection. Islam is a system of works. Muhammad didn’t die for anyone. He didn’t raise from the dead.
It is going to take a lot of patient love.
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