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Second in the series
Now, I realize that many of those in the audience today probably know a lot about Islam, but as I have traveled and spoken on this subject, I've discovered that many people, interestingly enough, even former Muslims, did not have an accurate knowledge of some of the basic elements of the Islamic faith.
And so I want to talk a little bit about some of those basic elements, and then I want to move into a discussion of the fact that Islam, in its most sacred text, in the Qur 'an, denies Christian truth.
And since this is in the very text that defined the Islamic faith, especially in Al-Ikhlas, in Surah 112, since it is in the very heart of the self-definition of the Islamic faith to deny Christian truth, the question must be answered, do these texts accurately represent what Christians believe?
And if they do not, does this not force us to the conclusion that those are not divine revelations, that they have not come from God himself? That becomes the question. But to understand these things, let's begin by looking at the five pillars of Islam very briefly.
The five pillars of Islam, the things that define the Islamic faith. Of course, we know the Shahada, the statement of faith that unites Muslims. And it is an assertion, the fact that there is only one true God, Allah, and that Muhammad is his messenger.
And I truly hope that if by God's grace there are Muslim people listening to what I have to say this day, that you will hear me when I say to you that when you say there is only one true God, Christians agree that there is only one true God.
Yes, I am a Trinitarian. Yes, I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But you must understand, you must hear me when I tell you this, that we do not embrace polytheism. We do not embrace any violation of the repeated emphasis of the Old Testament prophets that there is but one creator God.
We are absolute monotheists. We do not believe that God had a wife and that he and his wife had a child. That is not the doctrine of the Trinity. It has never been the doctrine of the Trinity. I know of only one religious group that calls itself Christian that actually does believe that God marries and has children.
And they're called the Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And Christians have from the beginning identified Mormonism as a false religion. And so Christians have never had this idea that Allah takes a wife and then has a son, and that's why Jesus is the Son of God.
Never. And so when the confession of faith, that first pillar of Islam says there is only one true God, we say yes. There is only one true God. But we say he has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Not three gods, three persons sharing the one being that is God. There is a difference between being and person that must be understood. But right along with that confession of the oneness of God, the Shahada has the necessity of confessing that Muhammad is his prophet.
And, of course, the Bible tells us that we are to examine anyone who claims to be a prophet. When you go back to the days of Moses, Deuteronomy 13 and 18, we are given specific tests that we are to apply to someone who claims to be a prophet.
And one of those tests is, do they lead you after a different God? And so the question for the Christian, remembering that Muhammad comes 600 years after the time of Christ, remembering that in the scriptures Christ has revealed himself as the Son of God, and remembering that as we will see the Koran itself seems to indicate that there is a continuity between the prophets of the old, the Torah, and then the Injil, and now Muhammad.
The question is, does Muhammad pass the test of a prophet, or is he leading us after a God that we have not worshipped before? Can he pass that test? Should he not have to pass that test? Did not God give that test in the past?
I certainly believe that he did. And so this confession of faith is what unites Muslims together. But then we also have the Salat, the prayers. The five daily prayers, and in fact in many languages, you do not ask someone if they are a Muslim.
You ask them if they do the ritual prayers, because it is the doing of these prayers that is so indicative of what it means to truly be a Muslim. And anyone who has traveled in Islamic countries knows that it is a part of the very culture itself to engage in the prayers, and the culture is built around these times of prayers.
You also have, of course, the concept of fasting, and most people outside of Islamic countries know this only from the month of Ramadan, the month of Ramadan well known to people even in Western countries in regards to the Islamic fast and then the feasting in the evenings and the fasting during the day, and this kind of discipline that is a part of the expression of the Islamic faith.
And then we have the Zakat, the giving of alms, a certain percentage that is required to be given as a part of the economic system. And then finally, of course, we have the fifth pillar, which again is fairly well known in the West.
We see pictures, though we rarely know exactly what is going on, of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the Khabah in Mecca, the circumambulation around the Khabah seven times, going to Medina, and all the things that are involved in performing Hajj, something that the Muslim desires to do at least once in their life.
And we see pictures of the many thousands of people fulfilling their obligations during Hajj on television. This is something that Muslims take very, very seriously. These are the five pillars of Islam.
And for many Christians, we look at this and we go, well, where is all the doctrinal content? Where is the material that talks about what Muslims believe outside of just that very first statement that there is one true God, Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger?
Well, Islam is not like many Christian denominations in that it does not normally have this kind of creedal formulation. There are some sections of the Quran, such as Surah 112, that get close to having the nature of a creedal statement.
But Islam is much more related to the how of things, how we do things, the prayers and the activities. And, of course, Islam has this very widely developed concept of the traditions, the sunnah, how we wash and how we travel and who we marry and where we live.
And all these things are addressed in the broader Islamic traditions. So to do those things is what's important to the Muslim in demonstrating his faith.
