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After Christianity, Islam is the second largest religion in the world with the gap growing smaller everyday. There are about a billion “Muslims” -- as Islamic followers are called -- in the world today. There are thirty-seven nations of the world whose population is over 80% of the Muslim faith and these countries are ruled and governed according to strict Islamic teaching and customs. Forty years ago, Islam was almost unheard of in the United States, but because of heavy immigration from Muslim states, there are now more than six million Muslims in America today. The only Christian denominations with more members than Islam in the U.S. are Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals, and Roman Catholics with only the Pentecostals having a greater growth rate (The World Almanac and the Book of Facts: Funk and Wagnalls, 1993). Despite such great numbers of Muslims around us, most American Christians know very little about Islamic teachings, nevertheless how to “win Kareem” next door. This lesson is to help prepare you to better understand and reach the Muslims with the truth of Apostolic Christianity.

Islam was founded in seventh century Arabia by a self-proclaimed prophet named Muhammad. Muhammad was born in the A.D. 570s in the city of Mecca, which is in modern day Saudi Arabia. At that time, Mecca was the home of the Ka’aba which was a cubed-shaped building famous for it’s 360 idols with each “god“ representing the deity of a local tribe. Muhammad‘s tribe worshipped particularly “the Black Stone” which was a large meteorite that supposedly represented the moon god, Allah, who was supposedly the chief of all of the other deities represented in the temple. “The Black Stone” also supposedly granted good luck to those who reverenced and kissed it. Muhammad did not begin life as overly religious but was a camel driver until the age of twenty five when a wealthy, forty-year-old woman proposed to him. For the next fifteen years, Muhammad ran the family fruit business and it was not until he was forty years old himself that he claimed to have received divine revelations.

Muhammad himself did not know how to read or write, and the divine revelations that he “received” were passed along orally until years after his death, when they were finally written down in what is known as the Koran (or Quran, or Qur’an: they are all correct as there is no formal “right or wrong” in transliterating Aramaic words into English). The Koran is the Islamic holy book or “scripture” and is supposedly the divine message of “Allah” to humanity through Muhammad. The Koran is composed of 114 chapters called “surahs” and is roughly the size of the Christian New Testament. The Surahs are grouped according to size with the longest chapters in front and the shortest to the back. Since the first revelations of Muhammad were chiefly short, the Koran is in effect reverse chronological order. When we quote the Koran, we will use standard modern day usage similar to the following: Sura 71:23, where “Sura” indicates that it is a chapter of the Koran, “71” indicates the Sura that we are quoting and “23” is the number of the verse of that particular chapter.

There are actually four different and contradicting statements in the Koran of how exactly Muhammad received his divine revelation. Today, Muslims say that the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad with the messages from Allah and they take that as a sign that Muhammad was a prophet to the Arab people.

The main message that Muhammad “received” was that there was no god but “Allah,” and that Allah was the true god who created everything. The second thing that Muhammad taught was that man is God’s slave and his first duty is to submit to God and to obey Him. That is where the term “Islam” -- which literally means “submission” in Arabic -- came from. The word “Muslim” simply means “one who submits” and this is the key idea in Islam: to submit to what Allah has said. Muhammad called upon the people of Mecca to stop worshipping all of the other gods in their local temple and to submit to what he was telling them God wanted them to do, but the people of the town did not take too kindly to this suggestion, especially when Muhammad received further “revelation” that his god would judge them according to their deeds on earth at a great and final day of judgment. In A.D. 622, when the local dissent grew violent, Muhammad fled from Mecca and traveled to the town of Medina which was about 280 miles north.

In Medina, Muhammad tried to get the local Jews and Christians to follow him as “the prophet and apostle of God.” He instructed them, interestingly enough, to pray towards Jerusalem, but when they did not accept his claims or obey him, Muhammad rejected them and told his followers to pray towards Mecca, to Allah, his tribal deity represented by the Black Stone. It was sometime after this that Muhammad began to receive more revelations all of which are detailed in the Koran. One such “revelation” is that he was to loot and steal through the robbing of caravans that were passing near the city and kill the men in order to satisfy his needs. The Koran and history report that he fought over 66 battles, killing tens of thousands of people.

In another of his revelations, Muhammad was told by “Allah” to kill and drive out all the Jews. In one instance, he had 1,000 Jewish men gathered together and beheaded. In A.D. 628, Muhammad received a revelation that Islam was to be exalted above all other religions including Christianity and Judaism, and it was to be done by whatever means possible. In A.D. 629, Muhammad raised up an army of 10,000 men with which he returned to his hometown of Mecca and conquered it by force. He removed and destroyed all of the idols from the Ka’aba except for the sacred Black Stone which represented Allah the moon god, now revealed as the only god. Muhammad then pressed Islam onto the surrounding Arabic tribes by force. He died in A.D. 632, having conquered much of the Arabian Peninsula by warfare and having established Islam as the “religion of the sword.” After his death, the leaders of Islam continued this pattern, conquering much of the Middle Eastern part of the world.

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Basically Muhammad elevated his form of seventh century Arabian culture into a religion and as a result Islam‘s teachings affect not only religious belief and worship but also the local cultural style of living and thinking of it‘s adherents. The religious side of Islam can be summarized into six basic beliefs that all Muslims must profess:

1. God -- There is one true God, named Allah.

2. Angels -- They are the servants of God, through whom He reveals His will. The greatest angel is Gabriel who appeared unto Muhammad and is also called “the Holy Spirit.” Everyone has two “recording angels:” one to record his good deeds, and the other to record his bad deeds.

3. The Prophets -- Allah has spoken through many prophets, but the final and greatest of these is Muhammad. Other prophets include Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

4. The Holy Books -- The Koran is the holiest book of Islam and is believed to be Allah’s final revelation to man. It supersedes all previous revelations including the Bible. Muslims recognize the law of Moses (our Biblical books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the Psalms, and the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) but consider them to be “badly corrupted” and “changed.”

5. The Day of Judgment -- A terrible day on which each person’s good and bad deeds will be balanced to determine his fate.

6. The Decree of God -- Muslims are fatalistic meaning that they believe that Allah ordains the fate of all. Allah will do what He wants in your life regardless of what you do or desire or ask.

There are five pillars of Islam which are required of all Muslims:

1. Affirmation (Shahada) -- “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” This is recited constantly by devout Muslims.

2. Prayer (As-Salah) -- Muslims are required to pray five times a day (at dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset, and evening), kneeling and facing toward Mecca.

3. Almsgiving (Zakah) -- A worthy Muslim but give 2.5 percent of his “goods” to the poor. That is a percentage of everything that he has, not just his income. “Goods” are defined by five categories: grains and fruits, camels, cattle and sheep and goats, gold and silver, and movable goods.

4. The Fast (Siyam) -- Faithful Muslims fast from dawn to dusk every day during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, Ramadan, which is sacred. In 2005, Ramadan will entail most of our months of October and November.

5. The Pilgrimage (Al-Hajj) -- Muslims are expected to journey to Mecca at least once in their lifetime at their own expense. While in Mecca, the Muslim walks around the Ka’aba seven times and kisses “the Black Stone.” They also perform certain special prayers and many other rituals. When a Muslim has completed his pilgrimage, he usually adds “hajj” or “hajji” to the end of his name. About 2 million Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca each year.

Some Islamic factions have in modern times added a sixth pillar:

6. The Holy War (Jihad) -- Muslims are expected to assist in the spread and defense of Islam throughout the world. Most Muslims view jihad as figurative language meaning the spread of Islam through personal evangelism, but there are some extremist groups that still view jihad as the spreading of Islam by force or terror. Modern day Islamic terrorist cells use Mohammad’s revelations, robberies, and wars to justify their violent tactics today. Either way, Islam cannot co-exist with other religions peacefully, but must try to take over and destroy all other beliefs. That is why in some Islamic-run countries, like Saudi Arabia, having a Bible is a crime punishable by death.

The cultural goals of Islam can be seen most clearly in these Islamic controlled states. Islam denies what to Americans are common every day themes such as personal rights, freedom of speech, freedom or religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of press, and the right to a fair trial. Because of this, most Islamic countries are despots: nations of overwhelmingly poor citizens that support a wealthy ruling family or dictator. Islam also demotes women to property and treats them barbarically. Approximately 75 percent of Islamic women have suffered female circumcision which is supposed to make them obedient and docile. They must dress in clothing that covers everything but the eyes and even this is often covered by a veil. In most Islamic countries, women are not allowed to own property or to drive. Muslim men can have more than one wife and the Koran limits the total number of wives to four (Sura 4:3). Despite this, Muhammad had twelve wives and two concubines when he died, including one named Ayisha whom he married when she was only seven years old and moved in with him at the age of ten!

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Most people believe that Islam, Christianity and Judaism are all just kissing cousins. In fact, there are many Christian preachers and movements (including the Roman Catholic Church) which teach that Allah is just another name for the biblical God whom we worship. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s look at some subjects and see how Islam and the Bible differ and contrast in their teachings:

Never believe for a moment that “Allah” is another name for the one God of Christianity. The differences are vast. A Muslim will tell you that there God is “all loving” and quote two passage from the Koran, Sura 11:90 and Sura 85:14, to prove it. Those passages do say that Allah is “all loving” but there is not another verse in the Koran that ever uses “love” with Allah. It is never said that Allah loves humanity. It is never said that Allah is love. There are no examples of Allah loving anyone or doing anything kind or loving. Allah is presented as a distant god that cannot be known personally. He sent angels to deliver his messages and to interact with Mohammad. The only personal involvment recorded by the Koran of Allah in an individual’s life is judgment if the individual does not do Allah’s will. This is why a Muslim always prays for mercy every time that he prays (five times a day)!

In contrast we find over and over again in scripture that God is love. In our text in 1 John 4:7-11, we find that not only is God love, but that He “sent His son” to die for our sins so that we could have a close relationship with Him. From 1 Timothy 3:16 and many other scriptures we find that the “Son” born of the Spirit of God and Mary was none other than God Himself come in human form to dwell among humanity.

And so the difference between Allah and the God of the Bible is enormous! The God of the Bible did not just state in one or two places that He is love, but has proved it throughout the generations. He is the God who speaks to Enoch and Noah and saves them from the judgment of their generation. Our God is a god who befriends and talks to men as He did to Abraham and David. And He is a God that loved us enough to come and die for us so that we might “boldly approach the throne of grace.” He is a judge of all the earth, but more than “judge,” He is called our heavenly Father:

“Abba” was Aramaic for “father” and was a term of endearment in Biblical times. Slaves and other people outside of the family could call the head of the house “father” but only true sons and daughters could call him, “abba.” Not only does God love humanity, but He paid the price of sin so that we could have a close relationship with Him! We can rightfully cry unto Him: “Abba! Father!” A Muslim cannot do that with his god.

Also never forget that Allah was originally a god that existed in Mecca long before Muhammad was born. He was chosen as supreme god only because he was the particular god of Muhammad’s tribe. Allah was the moon god long before he was the one Muslim god. Before Muhammad, the Meccan tribes taught that Allah the moon god had married the female sun god and had three daughters who were all a part of the many gods in the Ka’aba. Muhammad destroyed all of these “other gods” and made Allah, the moon God, supreme. The symbol of Allah was the crescent moon and this is still used today. There is a crescent moon on the flag of virtually every Muslim country. Go to a Muslim shrine or mosques which is their places of worship and somewhere on the top of the building is a crescent moon. Amazingly few Muslims really know why this common symbol is there! It’s there because Muhammad elevated the moon god to a supreme position. But the God of Christianity created the moon. He is not His creation in any way, shape, or form. The Muslims claim to be a descendant in faith from Abraham and yet they have returned to worshipping the gods that the God of the Bible called Abraham to separate from in Ur of the Chaldees. Never believe that Allah is just another name for the Christian God!

Muslims teach that Jesus was just one of many prophets of Allah that revealed the plan of God to the people of their day. They teach that Jesus Christ miraculously escaped crucifixion and Judas Iscariot was actually the one who died on Calvary. They deny the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Most Muslims believe that Jesus ascended into the heavens without ever shedding His blood and that He was a prophet to the people of Israel at that time. They also teach that He was not the “Son of God” or God in any way or form but was just a slave on whom God showed favor (Sura 43:59).

On the other hand, Muslims teach that Mohammed was greater than Jesus Christ in every way and that he was the final revelation of God, the ultimate prophet, revealing to us how to please Allah. Of course, the Bible certainly contradicts these views teaching that Jesus Christ was not just a "slave used by God" but was God Himself come to earth:

The scriptural proofs that Jesus really died on the cross and was resurrected three days later are too numerous to list here. But the best way to combat the Muslim claim of Muhammad being greater and more powerful than Jesus is through the Koran's own teaching. The Koran teaches that Jesus was sinless (Sura 3:46) but that Muhammad sinned and needed forgiveness (Sura 40:55; 42:5; 47:19; 48:2). The Koran teaches that Jesus is very near to God (Sura 3:45) and yet Muhammad had to receive revelations from angelic messengers and never talked with Allah, himself. The Koran says that Jesus did miracles (Sura 3:49; 5:110) but that Muhammad did not (Sura 13:8; 6:37; 6:109; 17:59; 17:90-93). In the Koran, Jesus was called "Messiah" and even born of a virgin (Sura 3:45-57) and yet the young camel-driver-turned-robber Muhammad is supposed to be greater than Jesus? Even if you take only the Koran's view of the two, it is clearly Jesus that is the greater prophet and messenger!

The Bible records that God made a covenant with Abraham to make a "mighty nation" of his offspring and to bless them. Abraham had no sons and thought that it would be the offspring of his servants that God would bless, but God said "no, you and Sarai will have a son" even though they both were far past the child bearing years. When a few years went by and no child came, Abraham and his wife grew impatient and Sarai decided to give her Egyptian servant to Abraham as a "bondservant" to have children for him. The child of Abraham and this "bondservant" Hagar was named Ishmael. Abraham treated him like the heir for a while, but God was not pleased and in time caused Sarai to have the promised child, Isaac. There came a decision where Abraham had to choose between his will of letting Ishmael, the son of Hagar, stay as an heir and sending him on his way and do things God's way. God was clear: "Ishmael will not be the promised heir" and God would not bless Abraham any further until he had pushed Ishmael out of the camp and out of his life. God would bless only the promised son, Isaac. It would be through the lineage of Isaac that the Jewish people and the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come. The descendants of Ishmael would be the many other Arabic tribes.

The Koran follows the story of Abraham very closely until the decision that had to be made between Isaac and Ishmael and then chooses to follow Ishmael's life and lineage. Muhammad -- who claimed to be greater than Jesus Christ -- claimed to be descended from Ishmael's lineage and he probably was. The scriptural problem that we have with his claim is that a descendant of Ishmael would be a greater prophet and savior than the Messiah that descended from Isaac. Paul clearly stated the Early Apostolic church's position on the matter in our other text:

The Muslim believes that they are saved by following the basic beliefs and pillars of Islam and that in the final judgment, their good deeds will be weighed against their bad deeds and if the good tips the scale to the right side, they will inherit an eternal life with Allah that will include many wives and endless gluttony and pleasure.

The God of the Bible has instituted a plan of salvation that is quite different to the pillars of Islam: obedience to the Gospel of Christ. That Gospel is the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). We find that when Jesus Christ comes back, He will punish with everlasting fire those who have not obeyed the Gospel (1 Thessalonians 7-8). You must not only believe the Gospel but obey the Gospel. We obey His death by dying to our sins at Repentance (Acts 2:38; 1 Corinthians 15:31). We obey His burial by being buried with Him in water baptism (Colossians 2:11-12; Romans 6:4). We obey His resurrection by being resurrected a new creature in Christ Jesus through the infilling of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5; Romans 8:11). We then allow His Word and Spirit to shape us and mold us and trust in His blood to have washed away our sins and His Spirit to finish the work! We do not spend our lives doing good works hoping to outweigh our bad deeds (Ephesians 2:8-10) but rather it is by His grace and mercy and blood that we are saved! We need not go to Mecca for salvation -- a trip to Calvary will suffice!

This is probably the most effective battle ground for a Christian trying to convert a Muslim believer to truth. Muslims believe in parts of our Bible but believe they have been badly corrupted. On the other hand, they believe the Koran is the pure, inerrant word of Allah as delivered to Muhammad. Most Muslims will refuse to listen to the Bible at all. With that in mind, consider the following facts:

Islamic history indicates that Muhammad could not read or write and that the revelations revealed to him were passed orally for many years before actually being written down. Have you ever played the game of "gossip" where one person whispers something in another person's ear and then they repeat it to someone else and by the time the message gets to the end, it's completely different? Yet the Muslims trust this "oral tradition" and believe that the Koran is better quoted than read.

By contrast, the Old Testament Bible was "written down" as the Holy Ghost moved upon it's writers. And it was painstakingly preserved by scribes who followed the strictest copying procedures. There are many copies of the Old Testament today that are much older than the Koran and the time of Muhammad including the Septuagint, the Syrian Peshitta, and the Targums. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered forty year ago, we found copies of most of the Old Testament that predated the time of Christ and they revealed to us that not only is our modern day Bible still true, but that it is has been very much accurately preserved. Of copies of the New Testament, we have 9.000 manuscripts that preexisted before the time of Mohammad as well as over 36,000 quotations in the writings of the Early Church Fathers who wrote their books hundreds of years before Mohammad's time. Archeological findings support the accuracy of the Bible, but the Muslim simply must take Islam's word that the Koran is accurate to the time of Mohammad.

The single most distinction between the Christian Bible and the Koran is accuracy and contradictions. The Koran has hundreds of times that Mohammad contradicted his earlier revelations with a new revelation. The term for this is "abrogation" which is a legal term for when a new law destroys or annuls a former decree by an act of power." We have already mentioned how that the Koran gives four contradicting accounts of how exactly Mohammad received his revelations and that Mohammad broke his own oral law by having more than four wives. He first commanded the people of Medina to pray to Jerusalem, and then changed his mind and made Mecca the object city of Muslim prayer. There are many other examples of this. For example, in Sura 4:31 we find that Allah says that marriage to one's daughter-in-law is severely prohibited. When Mohammad desired the wife of his adopted son, Zaid, we find that he conveniently received a new revelation from Allah that his son must divorce his wife so that Mohammad could marry her (Sura 33:36-40).

This "wishy-washy" changing of Allah's mind at will is decreed and taught by the Koran. Listen to the following quotes from the Koran:

Sura 2:100/106 "And for whatever verse we abrogate or cast into oblivion, we bring one better or like it."

Sura 13:39 "Every term has a Book. God blots out, and He establishes whatsoever He will;"

Sura 16:101 "And when we exchange a verse in the place of another verse -- and God knows very well what He is sending down -- they say 'the art a mere forger!' Nay, but the most of them have no knowledge. Say: 'The Holy Spirit sent it down from the Lord in truth, and to confirm those who believe, and to be a guidance and good tidings to those who surrender."

The Islamic teachings of abrogation brings up some valid and important distinctions between Islam and Christianity and some considerations and questions that the Muslim cannot ignore. If God is All-knowing, then what need is there for substitution in His Word? The God of the Bible is all-knowing and never once had to substitute something in place of an earlier revelation. His revelation was progressive leading us to Christ. Jesus said that he did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17) and that heaven and earth would pass away before even the smallest jot or tittle would pass away (Matthew 5:18). The Christian God does not change (Malachi 3:6) and so we find that every past revelation corresponds perfectly to be fulfilled in greater revelations so that the Bible does not once contradict itself. We find that what God hated in Moses' day, He still hates today. We find that although we are no longer under the law of Moses, that the law was "a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" (Galatians 3:24) and that the Law helps us to understand Calvary and our relationship with God, not confuse it!

Here are some of the many logical problems of abrogation that the Muslim must face:

1. The Koran cannot be trusted because it contains "divinely inspired" contradictions. If Allah has a history of abrogating His previous revelations, then how you can you know that he will not abrogate again and change his opinion of what you have to do?

2. If God can abrogate his own speech and is not held to his earlier words, then how can we trust him with our soul? How do you know that after following whatever Islam currently teaches, that when you stand before Allah, he will not have changed his mind?

3. If God can abrogate his speech, how can you teach and be sure that Mohammad was the "last and greatest prophet?" It could be that Allah suddenly decides to send a greater revelation and a new prophet to be the last and abrogates those teachings.

4. How can Allah be "all knowing" and yet not see the inconsistencies that would arise to warrant abrogation? If God has to change his mind and correct himself later and change his word, is he really all-knowing or all-powerful?

5. If God is inconsistent, then how can man be consistent? If our object of faith is not constant, then how can we be sure and steadfast in anything?

But the Scriptures say:

In short, Jesus was not the way to Mohammad, but to God Almighty. He was the "Word become flesh." We can know that the true one, God is true to His Word through the revelation of Jesus! History, Archeology, Logic, Scripture, Text study, and experience all testify that the God of Christianity is greater than the elevated moon god, Allah. Let us serve that God who loved us enough to die for us with everything within us!