Category: Islam

The Qur’an and the Injeel #1

A Muslim Noodle Shop (LaMian Dian) in Hangzhou, China.
In China, it is very common to see Muslim run
noodle shops throughout the country.

The Islamic creed, when spoken in faith, makes someone a Muslim.  This creed is “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.”


The Qur’an, which means recitation, is the message Muhammad received from Allah. 


The Injeel is the Arabic name given to what Christians call the New Testament. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

From looking at the Islamic creed, one would assume that Muslims reject the Injeel (The Gospels) to be the word of God, since Muhammad is the messenger of the one and only God, Allah.
This however is not the case according to what is written in the Qur’an…
Qur’an 2:136 – “Say ye: ‘We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we bow to Allah.” 
Qur’an 3:2-3 – “God!  There is no god but He, – the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal.  It is He who sent down to thee, in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus.” 
Qur’an 5:82 –“You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah ; and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, “We are Christians.” That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.”
Qur’an 5:46-47 “And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous. And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.”

Qur’an quotes taken from Sahih International from http://quran.com.

_____________________________________________________________________________

The Qur’an clearly defines the Injeel (Gospels) to be the word of Allah.  Muslims teach that Jesus was a prophet of Allah.  If you ask if a prophet speaks the word of God, they would say yes.  Clearly, this brings up a problem because the Injeel records Jesus referring to himself as God and his followers teaching others that he is God.
So how do Muslims get around this contradiction, especially since the Injeel, confirmed by Muhammad to be the revelation of Allah, came before the the Qur’an?Muslims claim that the Injeel has been corrupted, which is why Allah sent his word to Muhammad.

______________________________________________________________________________

I will post different responses a Christian can provide to Muslim claims that the Injeel has been corrupted over the next couple of weeks.

Andy Wrasman2 Comments

The Bible or the Qur’an

One Minute Apologist looks at the Bible and the Qur’an – which is the Word of God?  Obviously, neither could the Word of God, but because of contradictions, the both can’t be the Word of God.

Summary of the short video:

They both can’t be true because they contradict each other.
Historically establish that Jesus predicted his violent death and that he died a violent death, then Bible must be correct and not the Qur’an.  If he didn’t die a violent death, then the Qur’an would be correct on that point, however it would be wrong on Jesus being a prophet, because Jesus predicted he would die a violent death, but he did not.  Catch 22.

My comment on this video: I think this argument falls short. Wouldn’t the Qur’an have to contain an account of Jesus predicting his own violent death for there to be a Catch-22. Muslims already say that the Bible has been corrupted, so anything that is a contradiction between the two is erased away under the conclusion that man changed the Bible at some point in time. Of course, it’s a good start to a conversation, because after a Muslim presents the Bible’s been corrupted argument, more in-depth conversation can begin. Not bad for a one-minute video (that was two minutes long).

Andy WrasmanLeave a comment

Timeline of Muhammad’s Life using Time Toast

For the first day in class studying Islam, after I gave a brief overview of Muhammad‘s life and how Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula, I gave an assignment for students to make a timeline of Muhammad’s life that contained at least 8 major events in his life.  His birth and death could be two of those events.  They had several options for how to present the information: Xtimeline, TimeToast, Prezi, Pixton, or GoAnimate.  All the students were familiar with Prezi, but most of them had never heard of the other electronic tools.  The classes only had about 20-25 minutes to create an account on one of these sites, learn how to use it, research Muhammad’s life, create the outline, and post it to a class forum.  If they didn’t finish in time, it was their homework, so of course; most of them finished in time.  I only assigned 8 events in hopes that they would generate different outlines that can be shared and compared to learn more details, and this would also give them the opportunity to dig deeper into some of the events that interested them from my overview.

Here are a couple of the timelines that resulted from the students who chose to use Time Toast for this in-class assignment (sorry, they wouldn’t embed in Word Press):

Life of Muhammad Timeline 1

Life of Muhammad Timeline 2

As always on work generated from my World Religions class, feedback is much appreciated.  Students check in on the comments periodically.  For Apologetics, I’ll have them create their own blogs and I’ll share the best posts on Facebook to get traffic to their blog posts.

Andy WrasmanLeave a comment

Islam and the Five Pillars

Christianity speaks of a foundation for our beliefs – Jesus Christ!  
Islam has pillars.  
Pillars, of course, hold up the roof of a building.  The pillars of Islam are then viewed as holding up the Islamic faith.  Following these pillars are essential to all Muslims.  Salvation comes through observing these pillars, yet, there is no guarantee to any Muslim that he or she has followed these well enough, as well as having other good works in their lives, enough to warrant salvation from Allah!
The Five Pillars of Islam
  1. Creed – The creed of Islam is “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.”  When this single sentence is spoken in faith it makes a person a Muslim.
  2. Prayer – Muslims must pray five times a day facing Mecca.
  3. Charity to the Poor – Muslims must give a percentage of their income to the poor.  Generally, this is 2.5%.
  4. Fasting during Ramadan – Muslims must fast from food and water every day of the ninth month of the Muslim calendar.  This fast is known as Ramadan.   When the sun goes down, they can eat and drink.
  5. Pilgrimage to Mecca – This pilgrimage is called Hajj.  Muslims must travel to Mecca once in their lifetime if they have the financial means to do so.  Once in Mecca, there is is a series of numerous acts that must be performed, but the central task involves worship in the Kabbah.

So… how can a Christian present the Christian faith to a Muslim using these five pillars? 

First, ask questions, even if you already know the answers.  Show that you want to learn from them.  Ask,  “What are the five pillars to you?”

For the Creed, which for them is “There is no God but Allah, and Muhhammad is his messenger,” you can share that Christianity also has creeds.  The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.  You could also share that you too believe in only one God.  They’ll likely argue that… and say that you believe in three gods.  But you can then share the Christian faith to them more.

For the daily prayers, you can ask questions about what are the prayers you say?  Why do you have to say them in Arabic?  You can can share that Christians pray too, and that God hears our prayers at all times, not just at certain moments, because he is all powerful and knows all things and wants to listen to what his children have to say.

Charity – you can share that it’s good that they give to the poor.  You can share that Christians give too.

Fasting – you can share that Christians fast too, but that it’s optional for us, and that we can do it anytime we want, and that the purpose for the fasting for us is lead us to pray and to remind us to pray.

Hajj – you can share that to Christians this entire life is a pilgrimage!  This is not our home.  Our home is in heaven with God and we are just strangers passing through this world to our eternal home with God.

They may even ask you more questions about these similarities.  If you have a Bible you can share verses from the Bible with them.  Many Muslims have not read the Bible, yet they believe that the prophets of the Bible, and even Jesus, were prophets for Allah, so their words should be authoritative (although they believe the Bible has been corrupted).

Andy Wrasman3 Comments

“I’m Ready to Die for Mohammed.”

Today on Sept. 11th, 2012, Muslims in Egypt scaled the US embassy walls in Cairo, captured the American flag, tore it to bits, and burned it outside the embassy walls.  Apparently, they are made because America is making a film that insults the prophet Mohammed.  The name of the film isn’t given, nor is the American film company.  I wonder if these Muslims actually think that the American government is making the movie?

Check out the guy’s sign on the far right of the above image.  It says on the bottom, “Ready to Die for Mohammed!”  Why would he be ready to die for Mohammed?  Shouldn’t he be ready to die for Allah?

According to a Yahoo News article, “Washington has a big mission in Egypt, partly because of a huge aid program that followed Egypt’s signing of a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. The United States gives $1.3 billion to Egypt’s military each year and offers the nation other aid.”

As America remembers Sept. 11th, 2001 in our way, the Muslims overseas remember it in their way!!!

For more information, check out the following article:

http://news.yahoo.com/egyptians-angry-film-scale-u-embassy-walls-163506344.html

Andy Wrasman1 Comment