Unpacking: Islam

Belief in God

Muslims believe in one, unique, incomparable God, who has no son nor partner, and that none has the right to be worshipped but Him alone.  They believe he is the true God, and every other deity is false. They insist that no one shares His divinity, nor His attributes.  In the Quran, God describes Himself: “He is God, the One.  God, to Whom the creatures turn for their needs.  He begets not, nor was He begotten, and there is none like Him.”  (Quran, 112:1-4)

Chapter 112 of the Quran written in Arabic calligraphy.
"No one has the right to be invoked, supplicated, prayed to, or shown any act of worship, but God alone."

Muslims believe that God is not Jesus, and Jesus is not God and claim that even Jesus himself rejected this. in the Quran it says:

Indeed, they have disbelieved who have said, “God is the Messiah (Jesus), son of Mary.”  The Messiah said, “Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord.  Whoever associates partners in worship with God, then God has forbidden Paradise for him, and his home is the Fire (Hell).  For the wrongdoers,3 there will be no helpers.”  (Quran, 5:72)

Muslims deny the doctrine of the trinity. In the Quran it says:

Indeed, they disbelieve who say, “God is the third of three (in a trinity),” when there is no god but one God.  If they desist not from what they say, truly, a painful punishment will befall the disbelievers among them. Would they not rather repent to God and ask His forgiveness?  For God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.  The Messiah (Jesus), son of Mary, was no more than a messenger...  (Quran, 5:73-75)

The Arabic word Allah means God (the one and true God).  This word Allahis a name for God, which is used by Arabic speakers, both Arab Muslims and Arab Christians.

Belief in the Angels

Muslims believe in the existence of the angels and that they are honored creatures.  The angels worship God alone, obey Him, and act only by His command.  Among the angels is Gabriel, who brought down the Quran to Muhammad  .

Belief in God’s Revealed Books

Muslims believe that God revealed books to His messengers as proof for mankind and as guidance for them.  Among these books is the Quran, which God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad  . Muslims bwlieve God has guaranteed the Quran’s protection from any corruption or distortion "indeed, We have sent down the Quran, and surely We will guard it (from corruption)" (Quran, 15:9).

Belief in the Prophets and Messengers of God

Muslims believe in the prophets and messengers of God, starting with Adam, including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus (peace be upon them).  But they believe God’s final message to man, a reconfirmation of the eternal message, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad  .  Muslims believe that Muhammad  is the last prophet sent by God "Muhammad is not the father of any one of your men, but he is the Messenger of God and the last of the prophets"  (Quran, 33:40).

Belief in the Day of Judgment

Muslims believe in the Day of Judgment (the Day of Resurrection) when all people will be resurrected for God’s judgment according to their beliefs and deeds.

Belief in Al-Qadar

Muslims believe in Al-Qadar, which is Divine Predestination, but this belief in Divine Predestination does not mean that human beings do not have freewill.  Rather, Muslims believe that God has given human beings freewill.  This means that they can choose right or wrong and that they are responsible for their choices.

The belief in Divine Predestination includes belief in four things: 1) God knows everything.  He knows what has happened and what will happen.  2) God has recorded all that has happened and all that will happen.  3) Whatever God wills to happen happens, and whatever He wills not to happen does not happen.  4) God is the Creator of everything.

The Five Pillars of Islam

The most important Muslim practices are the Five Pillars of Islam. The Five Pillars of Islam are the five obligations that every Muslim must satisfy in order to live a good and responsible life according to Islam.

The Five Pillars consist of

• Shahadah: sincerely reciting the Muslim profession of faith
• Salat: performing ritual prayers in the proper way five times each day
• Zakat: paying an alms (or charity) tax to benefit the poor and the needy
• Sawm: fasting during the month of Ramadan
• Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca

Denominations

The two main branches of Islam today are the Sunni and the Shi’a, who trace their different lineages to a succession dispute among Muhammad’s first followers.  Shi’ite Muslims look to Muhammad’s son-in-law and cousin Ali as the religion’s first rightful caliph (religious head of state), while Sunni Muslims accept the authority of the first three rulers who led the community after Muhammad’s death: Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman. The two branches also differ in their jurisprudence, relying on different hadith (“sayings” of Muhammad and his companions) compiled in the tenth century ad to establish precedent in religious disputes.

Key islamic texts

Qu'ran

The Qur'an is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God and the final divine revelation. It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language. Muslims believe that the Qur'an was verbally revealed through the angel Gabriel from God to Muhammad over a period of approximately twenty-three years beginning in 610 AD. Furthermore, Muslims believe that the Quran was precisely memorized, recited and exactly written down by Muhammad's companions, the Sahaba. The Quran consists of 114 chapters, each supposedly revealed by Allah through an angel, but only written toward the end of Muhammad’s lifetime and shortly afterward (the last text was supposedly written during the caliphate of Umar).

Sunna

Sunna denotes the practice of Islamic prophet Muhammad that he taught and practically instituted as a teacher of the sharī‘ah and the best exemplar.[3] The sources of sunna are usually oral traditions found in collections of Hadith and Sīra (prophetic biography). Unlike the Qur'an, Muslims do not agree on the same set of texts or sources of Sunnah, and they emphasize different collections of hadith based on to which Islamic school or branch they belong.

Islam is the Arabic word for "submission".  “Islam” is taken from an Arabic root word which means “peace”.  Islam refers to the complete submission to Allah.  A “Muslim” is a follower of the religion and refers to a person who submits to Allah.

Islam is one of the three major monotheistic religions, along with Christianity and Judaism.  It is the world’s second largest religion behind Christianity.  There are an estimated 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.  The country with the largest number of Muslims is Indonesia.  Most Muslims are non-Arabs.

Founder:  Muhammad (570 CE - 632 CE).  Muhammad had a series of visions from Allah over a period of 22 years starting in 610 CE.  He is referred to as the “Seal of the Prophets” and the “Final Prophet”.

Date founded:  622 CE.  In 622 CE Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) as a result of threats from Meccan leaders.

Place founded:  The Arabian Peninsula (modern day Saudi Arabia).  Mecca and Medina are the cities in which significant events in the development of Islam occurred.

Number of followers worldwide:  1.5 billion (source:  www.adherents.com)

Founder:  Muhammad (570 CE - 632 CE).  Muhammad had a series of visions from Allah over a period of 22 years starting in 610 CE.  He is referred to as the “Seal of the Prophets” and the “Final Prophet”.

Date founded:  622 CE.  In 622 CE Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) as a result of threats from Meccan leaders.

Place founded:  The Arabian Peninsula (modern day Saudi Arabia).  Mecca and Medina are the cities in which significant events in the development of Islam occurred.

Number of adherents:  1.5 billion (source:  www.adherents.com)

Countries with largest number of adherents:  Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh

Abrogation – A pronouncement from Allah in the Qur’an that supersedes a previously-revealed pronouncement.  

Al-Aqsa mosque – Located in Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest site in Islam.  The Al Aqsa mosque, which includes the Dome of the Rock, is located on the Temple Mount.  It is where Muhammad was taken to heaven during his night journey.

Burqa – A garment worn by Muslim women that covers the entire body

CAIR – The Center for American Islamic Relations.   A Muslim advocacy organization in the United States.

Calendar – The Muslim calendar begins on July 16, 622 CE and corresponds to the date of the Hijrah.

Fatwah – A legal ruling based on reasoning from the Qur’an and Haddith.

Hijrah – The Hijrah was a pilgrimage of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE.  The Hijrah is sometimes referred to as “the Flight”.  The Muslim calendar begins on this date (it is considered year 1).

Imam – A prayer leader and teacher.

Jihad – Means striving or struggle.  There are several types of jihad, including jihad of the pen, jihad of the tongue, jihad of the mind, and jihad of the sword.

Kabba – A cubic structure in Mecca, around which the Hajj is celebrated.  It is believed that Abraham and his son Ishmael constructed the Kabba.  Before Islam took root, many gods were worshipped at the Kabba by pagan and polytheistic worshippers.  The Kabba is considered the first mosque.

Mecca – A city in Saudia Arabia, which is the holiest city in Islam.  Mecca is the birthplace of Muhammad, the location of the Kabba and the city in which Islam began.   

Medina – The city in Saudi Arabia to which Muhammad and his followers migrated in 622 CE.  Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) became the primary city of refuge for Muhammad’s followers.  In Medina Muhammad gained new converts to Islam and established political power. 

Muezzin – The man who calls Muslims to prayer each day.  A muezzin calls from the mosque, oftentimes from the minaret.

Nation of Islam – An African American religious organization founded in 1930 in the United States.  It mixes traditional Islamic teaching with African American nationalism.  Its adherents include Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan.

People of the Book – A reference in the Qur’an to Jews and Christians.  The “Book” refers to the Bible.

Prophets – The three most important prophets in Islam are Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.

Shari’ah – A system of law based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah. 

Taliban – A sect of Islamic fundamentalists with a strict code of ethics and laws.  Women have few rights under Taliban rule.  The Taliban ruled in Afghanistan before the most recent war in Afghanistan.

It is fruitless to try to share the Gospel with a Muslim who thinks that the Bible has been corrupted, since even if he was persuaded to reject the Qur’an, he would never accept the implications of the Bible until he was sure that it was authentic. Muslim believes every word of the Qur’an was written by God and brought to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel; it is no wonder that they see the Bible, written by over 40 men including a prime minister (Daniel), fishermen (Peter), a doctor (Luke) and prisoners (Jeremiah, Paul) over almost 2000 years as human and fallible in comparison. To compare the Bible with the Qur’an is therefore not to compare like with like. However, as we shall see, it is logically impossible for the Bible to have corrupted.

We begin with what the Qur’an says about the Bible; many verses actually confirm that it is God’s Word and has not been changed. Here are only a few for example:

Sura 5:43 ‘How come they to you for judgement when they have the Torah, wherein are contained the commandments of God?';

Sura 5:44 ‘We [God] did reveal the Torah, wherein is guidance and light…';

sura 5:46 ‘We sent Jesus…confirming that which was revealed before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and light…';

sura 5:68 ‘[Jews and Christians] have no guidance until you observe the Torah and the Injil [Gospel]';

Sura 4:136 ‘Believe in God and His messenger [Muhammad], and the Scripture which He revealed to His messenger [the Qur’an] and the Scripture which He revealed aforetime [the Bible]';

Sura 10:91 ‘If you [Muhammad] are in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto you, then question those who read the Scripture (that was) before you';

Sura 15:9 ‘We reveal the Reminder, and Lo! We truly are its Guardian [ie the Bible is guarded against corruption by God]'; sura 6:34 ‘There is none to alter the Words of Allah'; sura 10:64 ‘There is no changing of the Words of Allah.’

If the Bible was corrupted, was this before or after Muhammad received the revelation from Angel Gabriel in 610 AD ? If before, why does God tell Muhammad to refer to a corrupted Scripture for guidance, and why does he say of the Torah and Gospel ‘wherein is guidance and light’ rather than ‘wherein there used to be before they were corrupted’? If after, why does the Muslim not accept the Bible, since current translations are all based upon manuscripts that predate Muhammad by thousands of years? If it was corrupted, was this by Jews or Christians? Since even the Qu'ran affirms that neither were on speaking terms with each other

Sura 2:113 ‘The Jews say the Christians follow nothing (true) and the Christians say the Jews follow nothing (true), yet both are readers of the Scripture’,

How could they agree to change every single Bible identically? Why was there no record of this happening, and why did nobody try to stop it or hide authentic Bibles? The New Testament books were widely distributed as soon as they were written. Why didn't the Christians remove embarrassing stories like Peter’s denial of Christ (Matt 26:69-75) or Paul and Barnabas’ disputation (Acts 15:39)?

This is a strange question for someone to ask if they believe that the Bible has been tampered with. It is said that there used to be many prophecies about the coming of Muhammad in the Bible but after he came Jews and Christians deleted as many as possible. Since our translations are based on manuscripts copies many centuries before Muhammad ever lived, this cannot be true but the myth persists. What about the ‘prophecies’ which were not deleted?

1. Sura 61:6 says ‘Jesus, son of Mary said, “I am indeed the Messenger of God to you, confirming the Torah that is before me and giving good tidings of a messenger who shall come after me whose name shall be Ahmad.”‘ Before you reply, ‘But nowhere in the Bible does Jesus talk about such a person!’ you will be told to look at John 14:16 ‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you…’ The Greek word for Counsellor is parakletos (literally, one who draws alongside, as in a defence barrister in a court of law). Muslims claim that John originally wrote periklytos which apparently is Greek for ‘Praised One’. Not a single manuscript of John 14:16 or 14:26 (where parakletos is used again) has periklytos however and one wonders how such a downright lie ever came to be invented. In the context of John 14, the Parakletos is to be with the disciples for ever (v16); He is the Spirit of Truth (v17) who is neither seen nor known by the world, but who lives inside belivers; and He is the Holy Spirit who reminds the Christians of all that Jesus taught them (v26). Could any of these things relate to a physical human being, Muhammad?
2. ‘The LORD came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran with tens of thousands of holy ones’ (Deut 33:2) and ‘God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran’ (Hab 3:3). Muslims claim that Moses came from Sinai, Jesus from Seir and Muhammad from Mount Paran, and the tens of thousands refers to one of his battles fought with ten thousand soldiers! Not only is the context clearly God and nobody else, but the interpretation is based upon a nineteenth-century geographer who apparently identified Paran with Mecca and Teman with Medina. That Paran is actually 1000km away from Mecca can be seen from the chronicles of the Israelites’ wanderings, eg in Deut 1:1, also see Num 13 – how could the twelve spies leave Paran (v3), go staight into Canaan and explore the whole country (v21-22), cut some grapes (v23) and bring them back to Paran fresh (v27) in a mere 40 days if they were travelling a total of 2000km?
3. ‘[The Jews] asked [John], ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.” Although Muslims reject the testimony of John 1 that Jesus was divine (v1, 2, 14, 18, 34, 49) they hold that the Prophet referred to is Muhammad. The origins of this Prophet go back to Deut 18:15 (‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brethen’) who is clearly identified to be Jesus in Acts 3:22. Of the differences between Moses andMuhammad, not the least is that Muhammad was not Jewish and yet the Prophet will be from their own brethren (this excludes descent through Ishmael, Isaac’s half-brother, Gen 16:12 versus 17:19). Moses is far more comparable to Jesus than to Muhammad: both were born in poverty and there were plots to kill them in infancy (Ex 1:15-16, 22 v. Matt 2:13); yet both were rescued (Ex 2:2-10 v. Matt 2:13). Both were prepared for a period of forty units of time (forty being a biblical unit for preparation): Ex 7:7 v. Matt 4:1); both liberated their people from slavery (Exodus v. John8:32-36); water was subject to them both (Red Sea Ex 14:21 v. Sea of Galilee Matt 8:26); both spoke to God face to face (Ex 33:11 v. Matt 17:3), both their faces shone (Ex 34:29 v. Matt 17:2); both died because of sin (Num 20:12 v. Is 53, John 1:29, 10:15).

The Trinity is almost invariably the Muslim’s greatest stumbling-block to the Gospel and diverts numerous conversations away from more productive issues. At the start it must be said that there is only being who can fully comprehend the nature of God, and that is Himself. However there are many clues in the Bible to His triune character.

The Qur’an is mistaken in its portrayal of the Trinity as Mary and Jesus being two separate gods besides Allah: ‘O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah?'(sura 5:116); ‘How can He [God] have a child, when there is for Him no wife?’ (sura 6:101); ‘They indeed have disbelieved who say: Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary’ (sura 5:17); ‘Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son’ (sura 4:171). This portryal of Christians as believing that God took Mary as His wife and she and their baby Jesus became two separate gods is as offensive to Christians as it is to Muslims, although there is evidence that heretical sects banished to Arabia were teaching this at the time of Muhammad (known as the Maryamia or Choloridians).

Unfortunately when we say ‘Jesus is the Son of God’, although we mean ‘He is the eternal uncreated Word of God, equal in every respect and fully divined’, the Muslim hears in his mind ‘God had sex with Mary and she gave birth to Jesus’. It is vital not to say that Jesus is the Son of God to a Muslim – this is not compromising the Gospel, since there are many ways of affirming His divinity without using the convenient but totally misunderstood phrase ‘Son of God’, as we shall see below.

Helpful pointers include sura 2:177 in which the Arabic ibni-sabili literally means ‘son of the road’ but is translated ‘wayfarer’ – just as Jesus is not literally a physical son of God, so a wayfarer is not literally fathered by a road. sura 85:22 is held by the majority of Muslims (Sunnis) to mean that the Qur’an is uncreated, existing with God since the very beginning. If God’s word the Qur’an is eternal and uncreated, why is it a problem that Jesus, God’s Word should be eternal and uncreated? Indeed there cannot be a time when God’s Word has never existed since it is intrinsically a part of God. Interestingly sura 4:171 says Jesus is a Word from God and His Spirit, yet elsewhere the Spirit (Arabic ruuhim minh) is identified as being the very essence of God Himself (sura 2:253 ‘We supported [Jesus] with the Holy Spirit’, 12:87, 58:22 ).

In the Qur’an Jesus has attributes that no other human being has: He was born of a virgin (sura 21:91 – who was Jesus’ father according to the Qur’an?) and was sinless (sura 19:19). As a child He made birds out of clay and breathed life into them yet the gift of life is something that only God can give (sura 3:49 – this story first appeared in the heretical Gospel of Thomas in the second century AD). He heals men who were born blind, cures the leper and raises the dead; He has knowledge of what is hidden in men’s houses (sura 3:49). He has the power to intercede (sura 3:45 – ‘one of those brought near to Allah’) yet only God can interceed (sura 39:44); He can forgive sins (sura 61:12), and He alone knows the hour of Judgement (sura 43:61)!

A Muslim will point out that in the Bible Jesus never explicitly says that He is God – and He does not. However, evidence is presented and He allows people to make up their own minds. The Bible categorically denies that there is more than one God (Deut 6:4 ‘The LORD your God is One’ – this verse is quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:29; see also Jam 2:19). Yet the Hebrew word echad for one implies a plurality, eg it is used in Gen 2:24 (‘the two shall become one flesh’). God speaks in the plural eg ‘Let Us make man in Our image’ (Gen 1:26) yet there is no ‘royal we’ in Hebrew. In Gen 1:2-3 we see all three Persons of the Trinity in action, God, Word and Spirit, and in Matt 28:19 Jesus names these three Persons.

Jesus has the power not only to heal but to forgive sins, and since we sin against God alone, who has the authority to forgive sins except God (Mark 2:7)? Who other than God can demand that our love for Him must be so exclusive that all our other relationships seem like hate in comparison (Luke 14:26)? Since God instigated the Sabbath, only God can be the Lord of the Sabbath, yet Jesus uses this title for himself (Mark 2:28). Jesus passes judgement on our eternal destiny (Matt 25:32, John 5:22) and is with us forever (Matt 28:20). He said that He was the good shepherd (John 10:11) yet God is our shepherd (Ps 23:1). He is the light of the world (John 8:12) yet God is our light and our salvation (Ps 27:1) Heapplied the holy name ‘I AM’ of God (Ex 3:14) to Himself (John 8:58) – and was stoned for blasphemy. At His trial, when asked by the High Priest if He was the Son of God (a Messianic title,but not automatically one that claimed divinity, as Jesus pointed out in John 10:34-36), Jesus replied, ‘I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the MightyOne and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ (Mark 14:62). This was a direct reference to Dan 7:13-14, in which the Son of Man is given all authority and all peoples worshipped Him. It was this unambiguous claim to divinity that was deemed sufficient grounds for sentencing Jesus to death. Although Muslims have a problem accepting that Jesus really did die (see Deadly Question 5) there can be no denying that Jesus was at the very least sentenced to die.

When a Muslim says that there can be no Trinity he is limiting God, since God is able to do all things (sura 5:17, 19). In fact in sura 27:8 we read that God appeared to Moses in a burning bush (cf. Ex 3:2). If God can lower Himself to the extent of appearing as a fire, surely He can humble Himself to appear as a man (Phil 2:7) – after all, a human is muchgreater than a fire. The question then becomes not, How could God become a man, but Why did He?

In Islam sins are mistakes which you do, and by saying sorry to God He will forgive you. In addition our good deeds take away our bad deeds (sura 11:114) – but if a man rapes a woman then builds a mosque in penitence, how can this restore honour to the woman? It is little incentive to do good. If I am convicted of driving over the speed limit, I cannot escape punishment simply because I have never had a parking ticket.

Sin dishonours the King of Kings and since we are God’s slaves (sura 19:30) we must respect Him and accept punishment for dishonouring Him. It does not matter whether we have committed many or few sins – a small stone is just as likely to sink in the sea as a big one because they both share a stoney nature. In the operating theatre it does not matter whether the scalpel has been contaminated by one germ or millions, it is no longer sterile. The penalty for sin is death (Ezk 18:4, Rom 6:23) and God cannot lie (Num 23:19, Rom 3:4). Everything on earth must perish, and flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (I Cor 15:50); only God lasts for ever (sura 55:26-27). Atonement is therefore necessary because we are not good enough to earn a place in Heaven by our own merits.

God has decreed that the life of an animal is in its blood (Lev 17:10) and the institution of animal sacrifices is a visual aid to understand atonement – without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb 9:22). The question remains, how can the blood of a perishable lamb redeem a human, who is also perishable (Heb 9:9, 10:1,10:3) – perishable cannot inherit the imperishable. The only blood which truly has power to take away sins is imperishable blood, and if God appeared in human flesh He would have imperishable blood, which alone is sufficient to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

There are two important clues in the Qur’an to this. In sura 5:27 we learn that Abel’s sacrifice (of blood, Gen 4:4) was accepted by God whereas Cain’s sacrifice (vegetables, Gen 4:3) was not sufficient. Secondly in 37:107 we read that Abraham’s son was ‘ransomed by a momentous sacrifice’, referring to the substitution by God of a ram instead of the boy in Gen 22:13-14. Why was it necessary for God to provide a substitute to save the boy’s life? More importantly, why was the ram described as momentous (Arabic al-Azzim – this is one of the ninety-nine Names of God in the Qur’an). How could a ram be greater than a human being, unless it was a representation of an altogether greater sacrifice to come, that of Jesus Christ? (Note: the Qur’an maintains that it was Ishmael, not Isaac who was to be sacrificed. When discussing this story with a Muslim do not get sidetracked onto the issue of which of Abraham’s sons was involved since this is a red herring. It is far more important to ask why the sacrifice was needed, and why a ram is described by a word that is a title of God Himself.)

In denying the Crucifixion Islam denies the very reason that Christ came to earth! This belief depends entirely on one infamous verse, sura 4:157: [The Jews said] ”We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger’ – they slew him not, nor crucified, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain’. However, it begs several crucial questions, not least is how Muhammad could claim that a historical event did not happen six centuries after it was recorded by many eyewitnesses.

That Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead is beyond question from the Gospels (‘When they had crucified Him’ (Matt 27:35); ‘With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last’ (Mark 15:37); ‘When they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs’ (John 19:33); ‘The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you were looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here….He has risen from the dead’ (Matt 28:5- 7)) The last passage is especially important for Muslims, who pay particular attention to things that angels say to humans.

Extra-biblical evidence for the reality of the Crucifixion includes the pagan writers Tacitus (‘Christus suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius’) and Lucian the Greek (‘Christians worship the crucified sage’), the Christian apologist Justin Martyr referred to the ‘Acts of Pontius Pilate’ (now lost, but must have chronicled the death of Jesus to have been referred to) and Jewish writers Josephus (‘Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die….’) and Babylonian Talmud (‘He was crucified on the eve of the Passover’). Early Christians used the Lord’s Supper and the Cross as symbols of their Master’s sacrifice (I Cor 11:23) and were never in doubt about the reality of the Crucifixion.

Conventionally Muslims have maintained that a substitute man was crucified but this opens a can of worms. Usually it was said to be Judas Iscariot (impossible since he committed suicide, Matt 27:5; Acts 1:18) or Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21, impossible since he came from Libya and would have looked very different from Jesus). Why was it even necessary to involve an innocent substitute? Why did the crucified man not cry out that a mistake had been made? Why did Mary recognise him as her Son (John 19:26)? Why would God deceive the disciples, who, the Qur’an tells us were inspired by God and believed in Jesus (sura 5:111), into thinking that Jesus had died and risen again, since this made them realise that Jesus truly was divine (‘declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans 1:4-5)). If Jesus was not God, this deception would have caused the disciples to worship another god, which is the greatest sin (shirk) known to Islam. How could God deceive godly men into committing the most ghastly sin imaginable – He is not a deceiver! A further problem is that if the man only appeared like Jesus, perhaps the Qur’an was not even given to Muhammad but to a man who looked like him. Finally, if the substitution theory was correct, if I committed adultery I could escape judgement by claiming that I was actually sleeping with my wife, but she merely looked like another man’s wife, and appeal to the Qur’an for a divine precedent.

The important thing about these criticisms and others is that they have been made by Muslims – particularly the medieval scholar Al-Razi, who wrote the ‘definitive’ commentarty to the Qur’an and is perhaps to Islam what Luther or Aquinas are to Christianity. Since even senior Muslims have problems with sura 4:157, what can we say? The Qur’an talks about Jesus’ death in other places as a historical event, e.g. sura 3:55 ‘Allah said, ‘O Jesus! I am taking thee and causing thee to ascend unto Me’ and sura 5:117 ‘I [Jesus] was a witness of them while I dwelt among them, and when Thou tookest me Thou wast watcher over me’. The Arabic word for ‘take’ (ta-waffa) in these verses means ‘death’ in every other place in the Qur’an where it occurs, e.g. referring to the death of Muhammad in sura 10:46 (‘…or whether We cause thee to die…’). In sura 19:15 God says to John the Baptist ‘Peace on him the day he was born and the day he dies, and the day he shall be raised alive’ and in sura 19:33 Jesus says, ‘Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised to life’. Since we know that John the Baptist has died (Mk 6:14-29), surely Jesus must have done so to speak in this way.

Sura 3:169 says ‘Think not of those who are slain in the way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are living’, meaning that the intended effect of those who killed people in God’s way was not achieved, as martyrs were remembered more as a result of their death than for their life. Sura 8:17 says that ‘it was not you Muslims who slew them, but Allah did it’ referring to a battle the Muslims fought and reminding them that God was sovereignly in control of the victory. Finally even the Qur’an admits that it is not impossible for Christ to have have died – ‘Who can do anything against Allah, if He had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary?’ (sura 5:17). The most consistent explanation of sura 4:157 in the light of all these other verses is that the Jews were unable to boast that they had killed Jesus because God was supremely in control in allowing His Son to die on a cross!

In fact the depravity is largely due to large numbers of people rejecting Christ, but many Muslims think that all Westerners are Christians, just as we are tempted to say that all Arabs are Muslims when there are many who are only culturally Muslim.

But why stop at Western society? One could argue (sensitively) that there are as many problems in Islamic societies as there are in Christian societies, except that these are often overlooked or hidden. For example of the countries at war or undergoing civil unrest almost all of them are Muslim. Corruption in Islamic countries is rife. The position of women is far more restricted than in Britain. Under Islamic law if a woman is raped she must bring four witnesses to testify to the crime in order to bring a case. If she claims she was raped but cannot produce four eyewitnesses not only is the case thrown out, but she could be flogged or even stoned to death for having effectively admitted in public to committing adultery. When statistics of violent crimes in the West are compared with those in Muslim countries and found to be much higher, is it because they do not occur in Muslim countries or that they do but people cannot produce the necessary witnesses? One could argue that polygamy was never part of God’s sovereign plan and it is impossible to fully take care of more than one wife (Gen 1:27; 2:24; Deut 17:17; I Cor 7:2; I Tim 3:2). Yet the Qur’an allows up to four wives (sura 4:3) and not only did Muhammad have at least nine wives, he used to sleep with all of them in one night (Bukhari vol 7, Hadith 142). Christians are commanded to love our wives as Christ loved the Church and gave His life for her (Eph 5:25,33) whereas the Qur’an commands men to beat their wives if they do not submit to them (sura 4:34 – Arabic word literally means scourge or beat hard). One of Muhammad’s wives, Aisha was only seven when he married her, and another, Zainab was originally the wife of his adopted son but was forced to marry Muhammad when he fell in love with her.

Many examples that could be given but these can have the effect of building barriers rather than bridges. It is more productive to show the teaching of Jesus, to live it out in front of your Muslim friend and to ask him what would happen to society if everybody followed His priorities. When answering any of these questions try to avoid being distracted on issues of minor importance and keep looking towards the Cross, upon which oursalvation depends. A genuine Muslim enquirer will have many questions but most of these are red herrings and prevent him from hearing about the good news of salvation through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.