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(continued from last
month)
C. The
concept of a loving God is foreign to the Muslim mind.
As we have indicated,
the God of Islam, Allah, is not a God of love. In
Islam, Allah’s "love" is not based on
unconditional commitment and self-sacrifice, as is
biblical love (John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13).
Rather, what passes for love is based on conditional
performance and arbitrary decree. In Islamic theology,
much as in Buddhist philosophy, the concept of love is
primarily that of "mercy." It is far more
impersonal than personal.
Dr. J. Christy Wilson
observes that the concept of God’s love is foreign
to the Muslim because of the extreme emphasis placed
upon Allah’s sovereign power and utter
transcendence:
It should
be said, however that most Muslims will misunderstand
and question the statement of the New Testament that
"God is love." His power and sovereign
transcendence over all creation are so emphasized in
Islam that to call Him a God of love or to address Him
as "Father" would be far from Muslim
thought. 16
John
Elder, cited above, comments, "In addition to the
idea that God does not need men and therefore cannot
love, the Muslim commonly cites two main problems in
believing that God is love: the existence of sin and
pain, and man’s insignificance in the vastness of
the universe." 17
But again, the Bible
teaches the Islamic view of God is wrong when it
declares that "God is love" (1 John
4:16).
D. Muslim
salvation is fatalistic.
We have discussed the
fact that the Muslim concept of forgiveness is
conditioned upon good works. On the one hand, we find
in the Koran the "promise" of heaven for
those who do good. But on the other hand, the promise
is conditional: One must possess the true religion of
Islam, obey its precepts, and also find favor with
Allah. But at this point Islam becomes fatalistic.
The
largest indeterminacy in the Muslim concept of
salvation is Allah’s predestination. The Koran
teaches, "All things have we created after a
fixed decree…." 18 Further "God leads
astray whomsoever He will; and He guides whomsoever He
will...." 19 Abdiyah Akbar Abdul-Haqq observes:
There
are several [Muslim] traditions also about the
predestination of all things, including all good and
bad actions and guided and misguided people.... Even
if a person desires to choose God’s guidance, he
cannot do so without the prior choice of God in
favor of his free choice. This is sheer determinism.
20
Dr. Wilson
comments; "The fifth article of [Muslim] faith is
predestination... the fact that everything that
happens, either good or bad, is foreordained by the
unchangeable decrees of Allah. It will be seen at once
that this makes Allah the author of evil, a doctrine
that most Muslim theologians hold." 21
At first
glance there does appear to be one way a Muslim can
guarantee his salvation. This is found in connection
with the Muslim concept of jihad or holy war.
Achieving security of salvation requires death in
battle: "If you are slain or die in God’s
way... it is unto God you shall be mustered...."
22
Consider the following
statement endorsing jihad (It could apply to
the killing of Christian missionaries attempting to
convert Muslims to faith in Christ.):
What, do
you desire to guide him whom God has led astray? Whom
God leads astray, thou wilt not find for him a way [of
salvation]. They wish that you should disbelieve as
they disbelieve, and then you would be equal;
therefore take not to yourselves friends of them,
until they emigrate in the way of God; then, if they
turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever
you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them
as a friend or helper. 23
When you
meet the unbelievers in the battlefields strike off
their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind
your captives firmly…. Thus shall you do.... As for
those who are slain in the cause of Allah... he will
admit them to the Paradise he has made known to them.
24
Finally, the Koran
teaches:
Allah has
given those that fight with their goods and their
persons a higher rank than those who stay at home....
The unbelievers are your sworn enemies.... Seek out
your enemies relentlessly.... You shall not plead for
traitors.... Allah does not love the treacherous or
the sinful. 25
In the above material,
it first seems that the Muslim is promised heaven for
death in battle. But we discover that even this
security of salvation is conditioned on something else—in
this case, bravery:
O
believers, when you encounter the unbelievers marching
to battle, turn not your backs to them. Whoso turns
his back that day to them, unless withdrawing to fight
again or removing to join another host, he is laden
with the burden of God’s anger, and his refuge is
Gehenna—an evil homecoming! 26
So even in the
"guarantee" of heaven through death in a
holy war, the Muslim promise of salvation appears to
remain conditional. And no one can deny that millions
of Muslims, trusting in Islam to save them and take
them to heaven, have instead been sent to their
deaths. Lamentably, they have been sent to eternity
without Christ.
E. Do
Christians have salvation according to Islam?
Some have claimed that
Christians can remain Christians and still inherit
salvation, according to Islam. They also claim that
the God of Islam and the God of the Bible are the same
God. But to the contrary, the Koran teaches that only
if Christians convert to the Muslim faith and remain
good Muslims will they have the opportunity for
salvation. Because Christians reject the Koran, they
are classified as "unbelievers" and their
destiny is therefore eternal hell. For example:
God guides
not the people of the unbelievers.... They are
unbelievers who say, "God is the Messiah, Mary’s
Son."... The Messiah [Jesus] said, "Children
of Israel, serve God, [Allah] my Lord and your Lord.
Verily, whoso associates with God anything [shirk],
God shall prohibit him entrance to Paradise, and his
refuge shall be the Fire; and wrong doers shall have
no helpers." They are unbelievers who say,
"God is the Third of Three." No god is there
but One God. If they refrain not from what they say,
there shall afflict those of them that disbelieve a
painful chastisement.… 27
In the above citation,
we see that 1) Christians who believe that Jesus is
the divine Messiah are classified as unbelievers; 2)
those who believe in the trinity (that "God is
the Third of Three") are unbelievers, and 3)
Christians who believe that Christ is God (those who
"associate" God with Jesus) will be
consigned to hell. Therefore if Christians do not
repent of their evils they are subject to the
strictest judgment:
Kill those
who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find
them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for
them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall
convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory
alms, then let them go their way, for God is Gracious,
Merciful. 28
If Christians do not
repent, not only may they be killed in this life, but
they will go to hell in the next life:
Do they
not know that whosoever opposes God [Allah] and His
Messenger [Muhammad]—for him awaits the fire of
Gehenna, therein to dwell forever? 29
Verily,
God will not forgive the union of other gods with
Himself!... And He who uniteth gods with God hath
devised a great wickedness... the flame of Hell is
their sufficing punishment! Those who
disbelieve our signs we will in the end cast into the
fire: so oft as their skins shall be well burnt, we
will change them for fresh skins, that they may taste
the torment. 30
Notes:
16. J. Christy Wilson, Introducing
Islam, (New York: Friendship Press, 1965, rev.),
p. 20.
17. John Elder, The
Biblical Approach to the Muslim (Fort Washington,
PA: Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, 1978), p. 59.
18. J. M. Rodwell, The
Koran, (New York: Dutton, Everyman’s Library,
1977), p. 78.
19. A. J. Arberry, The
Koran Interpreted (New York: MacMillan,
1976), p. 174.
20. Abdiyah Akabar
Abdul-Haqq, Sharing Your Faith with a Muslim
(Minneapolis: Bethany, 1978), p. 159.
21. Wilson, Introducing,
p. 24.
22. Arberry, Interpreted,
p. 93; cf. p. 98.
23. Ibid., p. 113.
24. N. J. Dawood,
trans., Koran, pp. 212-22.
25. Ibid., pp. 367-68.
26. Arberry, Interpreted,
pp. 198-99.
27. Ibid., pp. 139-40
28. Rodwell, Koran, p.
471.
29. Arberry, Interpreted,
p. 214.
30. Rodwell, Koran, p.
417.
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