Christians, the Qur’an, & Gospel-centered Hospitality

Is it really necessary for Christians to use the Qur’an in their witness toward Muslims? 

While it is important to have knowledge of the Qur’an, it is not nearly as important as having a lifestyle of faith in a God who is present and active in the world today. Jesus’s final parting words to his disciples gives Evangelicals instructions on how to respond to Muslims, to teach observance “to all that I have commanded.”[1] He mandated that they teach obedience to the lessons that he taught. Submission to his instruction was to characterize their lifestyle and therein the hospitality of God.

Three out of ten Muslims in America do not know a Christian; in the whole world, nine out of ten Muslims do not know a Christian.[2] These statistics are challenging when one considers how a Christian’s presence and power should lead to Muslims entering the Kingdom of God. Fuller Theological Seminary conducted a survey of Muslim converts who describe what influenced them to become followers of Jesus. The results are listed by rank of relative importance:

Respondents ranked the lifestyle of Christians as the most important influence in their decision to follow Christ. . . . The next most important influence was the power of God in answered prayers and healing. . . .Next in attraction for Muslims is the spiritual truth in the Bible. The Qur'an attests that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel (commonly understood as the New Testament) are from God. . . . Respondents were also attracted by the Bible's teaching about the love of God. . . . Particularly attractive to Muslims is the love expressed through the life and teachings of Jesus. [3]

The results show that the knowledge a Christian had of the Qur’an did not influence their decision to follow Jesus, rather it was a lifestyle reflective of God’s power and love.

The Qur’an is a great resource to understand how Muslims understand Jesus and Christians. Muhammad held such a high regard for Christians who studied their Bible, he implored his followers to inquire of these devout Christians regarding any theological questions they could not comprehend.[4] Encouragement within Islam such as this should inspire any Christian to approach a relationship with a Muslim free from fear and full of hope in the “good works” that Christ has already prepared before hand, in his pursuit of reconciling Muslims unto himself.[5] Christians and Muslims both stand in awe of God’s grace, compassion and mercy within God’s redemptive history from Creation, the Fall, periods from the Patriarchs, Law, Prophets and the Kingdom of God. Muslims’ shared reverence for God’s scriptures allows common ground for Christians to easily connect in conversation.

            Specialist knowledge of the Qur’an is not therefore, a necessary prerequisite to show hospitality to Muslims over one’s dinner table. Jesus commanded his followers to invite the marginalized to their own homes.[6] Within America, one out of two Americans marginalize Muslims with negative perceptions regarding their community.[7] In addition, seven out of ten of the most religiously active groups in America, the Evangelical, have negative feelings toward Muslims.[8] Not only must the Qur’an be used to understand Muslims for the purpose of friendship, but equally to counter claims that promote the sins of fear and prejudice within the Evangelical church. At a recent leadership forum for world Evangelicals, John Azumeh shared that it is ordinary Christians who need to present the gospel to Muslims, not only the specialist.[9] This can only be done when Evangelicals repent of fear and embrace the call for hospitality to Muslims.

            Therefore, it is necessary to seek intentional friendships with Muslims to combat negative perceptions. Evelyn Reisacher writes, “The best way is to have many conversations with Muslims and not limit these conversations to controversial doctrines but rather share the gospel in ordinary conversations in the midst of ordinary joys and sorrows.”[10] Lesslie Newbigin adds, "For our grandparents, who were ignorant of the spiritual riches of the great world religions, the idea that these were all to be displaced by a triumphant Christianity was excusable. It is not excusable today."[11] Success in witness is not defined as convincing someone to change his or her religious affiliation. Successful witness is a life transformed by the teachings of Jesus. The Bible should be read as though one’s Muslim friend is looking over their shoulders eagerly awaiting the truth therein. Jesus commanded his disciples to readily teach others to obey what he had commanded. Evidence shows that the lifestyle of one who follows Jesus carries with it an attraction that can assist the needy where they need it most, regardless of what creed they adhere to. For neighbors who grew up Muslim, trying to understand the Qur’an and the relative truths it has to share is one way of living a Gospel-oriented hospitality that demonstrates faithfulness to Jesus teachings.

Bibliography

Crowson, Natalie. Perfect strangers: Christians living among Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims.

Issue. 11/2007. retrieved on July 23, 2012. http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/research.php/856,

The Holy Bible. English Standard Version. (Good News Publishers.) Kindle Edition.

The Holy Qur'an (Classics of World Literature). Trans. Yusuf Ali, Abdullah. (Wordsworth

Editions Ltd). Kindle Edition.

Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans

            Publishing Co. 1989.

Limpka, Michael. “Muslims and Islam: Key Findings in the U.S. and around the World.”

            Retrieved 12/01/2016.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/22/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/

Reisacher, Evelyne A.. Joyful Witness in the Muslim World (Mission in Global Community):

Sharing the Gospel in Everyday Encounters. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Kindle Location 4418).

Smith, Gregory A. and David Masci. “Exit polls and the evangelical vote: A closer look.”

Retrieved, March 13, 2017. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/14/exit-polls-and-the-evangelical-vote-a-closer-look/

Woodberry, J. Dudley, Russell G. Shubin, and G. Marks. “Why Muslims Follow Jesus.”

Christianity Today. October 2007. Retrieved on July 23, 2012 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/october/42.80.html

---

[1] Matthew 28:19-20

            [2] Natalie Crowson, Perfect strangers: Christians living among Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims, Issue. 11/2007. http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/research.php/856 Retrieved on July 23, 2012

            [3] J. Dudley Woodberry, Russell G. Shubin, and G. Marks, “Why Muslims Follow Jesus” Christianity Today, 10/2007, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/october/42.80.html. Retrieved on July 23, 2012.

[4] Qur’an 10:94

[5] Eph. 2:10

[6] Luke 14:13-14

[7] Michael Limpka, “Muslims and Islam: Key Findings in the U.S. and around the World,” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/22/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world. Retrieved 12/01/2016

            [8] ibid, Limpka; Gregory A. Smith and David Masci, “Exit polls and the evangelical vote: A closer look,” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/14/exit-polls-and-the-evangelical-vote-a-closer-look/ Retrieved, March 13, 2017

[9] Reisacher, Evelyne A., Joyful Witness in the Muslim World (Mission in Global Community): Sharing the Gospel in Everyday Encounters, (Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition), Kindle Location 4509-4513

            [10] ibid. Kindle Location 4418.

            [11] Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.), 1989 p. 155

Islamic Pietism in Cairo

Saba Mahmood wrote a fascinating illustration of Islamic Piety in the Middle East. What is unique about this story is that the conversation sounds an awful lot similar to conversations I have had with others struggling with their practices of devotion and worship towards God within the Christian tradition. 

I post this in hopes to address that Pietism is a movement that adds the Christian in their worship towards God, but manifest within Islam there is a parallel movement that is going on seeking similar ends. I would hope to delve a bit more deeply to see if there is any historical connectedness of the two faith's interactions. In theory, I imagine there must be similar sources that stem from contemplative worship practices of Syrian Christians pre-dating Islam. Equally is there any connected between the contemplative practices that Eastern Christians would have practice and the influence upon the Christian Pietism movement of the 17th century.

"The complicated relationship between the performance of [obligatory prayer] and one's daily activities was revealed to me in a conversation with three women, all of whom regularly attended lessons in different mosques of their choice in Cairo. They were part of a small number of women whom I had come to regard as experienced in the cultivation of piety. My measure for coming to such a judgment was none other than the one used by the mosque participants: They not only carried out their religious duties diligently, but also attested to their faith by continuously doing good deeds and practicing virtues. As the following exchange makes clear, the women pursued the process of honing and nurturing the desire to pray through the performance of seemingly unrelated deeds during the day until that desire became a part of their conditions of being.

"The setting for this conversation was a mosque in downtown Cairo. Because all three of the women work as clerks in the local state bureaucracy in the same building, it was convenient for them to meet in the neighboring mosque in the late afternoons after work on a weekly basis. Their discussions sometimes attracted other women, who had come to the mosque to pray. In this instance, a young woman in her early twenties had been sitting and listening intently, when she suddenly interrupted the discussion to ask a question about one of the five basic prayers required of Muslims, a prayer known as al-fajr. This prayer is performed right after dawn breaks and before sunrise. Many Muslims I know consider it the most demanding and difficult of prayers because it is hard to leave the comfort of sleep to wash and pray and also because the period within which it must be performed is very short. This young woman expressed the difficulty she encountered in performing the task of getting up for the morning prayer and asked the group what she should do about it. Mona, a member of the group who is in her mid-thirties, turned to the young woman with a concerned expression on her face and asked, 'Do you mean to say that you are unable to get up for the morning prayer habitually and consistently?' The girl nodded in agreement. Bearing the same concerned expression on her face, Mona said, 'You mean to say that you forbid yourself the reward of the morning prayer? This surely is an indication of ghafla on your part?' The young woman looked somewhat perturbed and guilty but persisted and asked, 'What does ghafla mean?' Mona replied that it refers to what you do in the day: If your mind is mostly occupied with things that are not related to God, then you are in a state of ghafla (carelessness, negligence). According to Mona, such a condition of negligence results in inability to say the morning prayer.

"Looking puzzled, the young woman asked, 'What do you mean what I do in the day? What does my saying of the prayer have to do with what I do in the day?'

"Mona answered:
'It means what your day-to-day deeds are. For example, what do you look at in the day? Do you look at things that are prohibited to us by God, such as immodest images of women and men? What do you say to people in the day? Do you insult people when you get angry and use abusive language? How do you feel when you see someone doing an act of disobedience? Do you get sad? Does it hurt you when you see someone committing a sin or does it not affect you? These are the things that have an effect on your heart, and they hinder or impede your ability to get up and say the morning prayer. [The constant] guarding against disobedience and sins wakes you up for the morning prayer. [Obligatory prayer] is not just what you say with your mouth and what you do with your limbs. It is a state of your heart. So when you do things in a day for God and avoid other things because of Him, it means you're thinking about Him, and therefore it becomes easy for you to strive for Him against yourself and your desires. If you correct these issues, you will be able to rise up for the morning prayer as well.'

"Perhaps responding to the young woman's look of concentration, Mona asked her, 'What is it that annoys you the most in your life?' The young woman answered that her sister fought with her a lot, and this bothered her and made her angry most days. 

"Mona replied:
'You, for example, can think of God when your sister fights with you and not fight back with her because He commands us to control our anger and be patient. For if you do get angry, you know that you will just gather more sins, but if you are quiet then you are beginning to organize your affairs on account of God and not in accord with your temperament. And then you will realize that your sister will lose the ability to make you angry, and you will become more desirous of God. You will begin to notice that if you say the morning prayer, it will also make your daily affairs easier, and if you don't pray it will make them hard.'

"Mona looked at the young woman who had been listening attentively and asked: 'Do you get angry and upset when you don't say your morning prayer?' The young woman answered yes. 

"Mona continued:
'But you don't get upset enough that you don't miss the next morning prayer. Performing the morning prayer should be like the things that you can't live without: for when you don't eat, or you don't clean your house, you get the feeling that you must do this. It is this feeling that I am talking about: there is something inside you that makes you want to pray and gets you up early in the morning to pray. And you're angry with yourself when you don't do this or fail to do this.'

"The young woman looked on and listened, not saying much. At this point, we moved back to our previous discussion, and the young woman stayed with us until the end.

"The answer that Mona provided to this young woman is not a customary answer, such as invoking the fear of God's retribution for habitually failing to perform one's daily prayers. Mona's response reflects the sophistication and elaboration of someone who has spent considerable time and effort in familiarizing herself with an Islamic interpretive tradition of moral discipline. I would like to draw attention here to the economy of discipline at work in Mona's advice to the young woman, particularly the ways in which ordinary tasks in daily life are made to attach to the performance of consummate worship. Notably, when Mona links the ability to pray to the vigilance with which one conducts the practical chores of daily living, all mundane activities — like getting angry with one's sister, the things one hears and looks at, the way one speaks — become a place for securing and honing particular moral capacities. As is evident from the preceding discussion, the issue of punctuality clearly entails more than the simple use of an alarm clock: it encompasses an entire attitude one cultivates in order to create the desire to pray. Of significance is the fact that Mona does not assume that the desire to pray is natural, but that it must be created through a set of disciplinary acts. These include the effort to avoid seeing, hearing, and speaking about things that make faith weaker and instead engaging in those acts that strengthen the desire for, and the ability to enact, obedience to God's will. The repeated practice of orienting all acts toward securing God's pleasure is a cumulative process the net result of which, on one level, is the ability to pray regularly and, on another level, the creation of a pious self."

– Saba Mahmood, Rehearsed Spontaneity and the Conventionality of Ritual: Disciplines of Salat (American Ethnologist 28(4))

Ayatollah Kahmenei's Words To The West

"Recent events in France has convinced me to directly talk to you." 

In a recent article, the Ayatollah, wrote some peaceful sounding words you may not have expected to come from someone with his reputation. He states, 

"I don’t insist that you accept my reading or any other reading of Islam. What I want to say is: Don’t allow this dynamic and effective reality in today’s world to be introduced to you through resentments and prejudices. Don’t allow them to hypocritically introduce their own recruited terrorists as representatives of Islam.
Receive knowledge of Islam from its primary and original sources. Gain information about Islam through the Qur’an and the life of its great Prophet. I would like to ask you whether you have directly read the Qur’an of the Muslims. Have you studied the teachings of the Prophet of Islam and his humane, ethical doctrines? Have you ever received the message of Islam from any sources other than the media?"

I thought I would use this opportunity to share with you a bit from what I have learned that the Qur'an states about The Bible, that doesn't get a lot of press in your average Christian Apologetics course.

Muhammad commanded his followers to know the Bible and to follow what it says:.

The Messenger believeth in what hath been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the men of faith. Each one (of them) believeth in Allah, His angels, His books, and His apostles. “We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of His apostles.” And they say: “We hear, and we obey: (We seek) Thy forgiveness, our Lord, and to Thee is the end of all journeys. (Sura 2:285, Yusif Ali, emphasis added)

Say: “We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them, and to Allah do we bow our will (in Islam) [i.e. in Submission]. (Sura 3:84, Yusif Ali, emphasis added)

Say: “O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord.” It is the revelation that cometh to thee from thy Lord, that increaseth in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. But sorrow thou not over (these) people without Faith. Those who believe (in the Qur’an), those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Sabians and the Christians,- [Essentially. . .] any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness,-on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. (Sura 5:68-69, Yusif Ali, emphasis added) 

Muhammad greatly respected Christians who studied the Bible and obeyed it, referring to these as “friends.” (Sura 5:82) The Qur’an reads:

Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion that stand (For the right): They rehearse the Signs of Allah all night long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration. They believe in Allah and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) in (all) good works: They are in the ranks of the righteous. (Sura 3:113-114, Yusif Ali)

What is true religion? The following sounds quite a bit like the Sermon on the Mount and James word on True Religion:

"It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the Prophets; and giveth his wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free; and observeth proper worship and payeth the poor due. And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress. Such are they who are sincere. Such are the God fearing.” (Sura 2:177 Pikthall, emphasis added)

Now there is something you don't hear every day. Go out and embrace a Muslim in friendship today and defy the animosity that Radical Islam wants to foster. 

Jesus, Muslims and the Qur’ān: in search for KERYGMATIC peace building by Martin Accad

I wanted to encourage others to check out this blog post at: "imeslebanon.wordpress.com"

Here is an excerpt from the article that stood out. I hope to post more related to this topic from my own research in the future. 

"Not only are beliefs about Jesus today diverse among Muslims, but traditional beliefs concerning him do not necessarily lead to loyalty for his teaching and life. Conversely, it does not automatically follow that those who claim to be his disciples hold Biblical beliefs concerning his true identity.

Muslim polemics against Christianity based on Qur’ānic verses about Jesus must be examined within their particular historical context, and I would suggest that they have been driven more by political power struggles than by disinterested theological overtures. But while there are less than a dozen verses in the Qur’ān upon which a polemical discourse against Christians can be built, there are nearly twice as many that serve as an affirmation of Jesus’ greatness.

One might ask: Why is Jesus such a central figure in the Qur’ān? Why did Muḥammad not simply proclaim his message of monotheism, calling pagan Arabs to the worship of the One God, leaving the Judeo-Christian tradition alone? If the prophet of Islam felt the burden, like Abraham, to break away from the religion of his fathers, and to venture into new territory in response to God’s call, why did he have to do so at the expense of the preceding covenants which he claimed to continue and complete?

My studies into the extensive references to Jesus in the Qur’ān lead me to believe that they were not primarily meant to be polemical, even though in historical retrospective they appear to be so. In fact, I have become convinced that the Qur’ānic narrative about Jesus only incidentally ends up emerging ‘at the expense’ of the Christian narrative. I believe that in its primary purpose, the Jesus metanarrative in the Qur’ān was in fact designed as proof of Muḥammad’s prophethood, and only incidentally became a counter-narrative, not to the Gospels themselves, but to the Christians’ interpretation of their texts.

Christian, Islam & the Fear of the Unknown

History displays a variety of responses from Christians against Muslims, ranging “from friendly to hostile, from condescending to fearful, from calls for crusade to plans for alliance” (Tolan 2000:xix). For centuries these attitudes impeded Western understandings of Islam. 

A George-Barna poll recently noted that American Christians are more likely than average Americans to hold hostile attitudes toward their enemies and approve of violence, even torture (Boyd 2011: podcast). Western orientations about Muslims is not a recent phenomenon sparked by radical terrorism, but rather a historically consistent narrative surrounding Islam’s beginnings. Phillip Jenkins writes:

. . . the long-term prognosis for interfaith relations is not good. This does not mean that either religion is of itself violent or intolerant, but both have potent traditions of seeking to implement their views through political action: the two sisters are simply too much alike to live side by side. (Jenkins 2002:168-9)

As global civilization continues to develop, understanding between Christians & Muslims is essential.  Dr. Sidney Griffith writes, “It is important to take cognizance of the seldom acknowledged fact that after the consolidation of the Islamic conquest and the consequent withdrawal of “Roman”/“Byzantine” forces from the Fertile Crescent in the first half of the seventh century, perhaps 50 percent of the world’s confessing Christians from the mid-seventh to the end of the eleventh centuries found themselves living under Muslim rule.” (Griffith 2010:11). 

The Western world's knowledge of Islam is essentially null during its first four centuries. Peter the Venerable visited Spain in 1142 with the intention to undergo “more precise studies of the sources of Islam” (Kung 2007:9). The following year, Robert of Ketton completed the first English translation of the Qur’an. Despite this translation, its publication did not occur for another four centuries.

Had European Christians read the Qur’an they may have been surprised at how much in 

common the two faiths shared with one another. The Qur’an repeats a collection of various Christian traditions held sacred throughout the world in the seventh century. Is it possible that the Qur’an’s editors sought to unify a fractured Arab-Christian & Arab-Jewish community under the newly formalized Arabic empire of the seventh-century?

There are over 90 occurrences of Jesus within the Qur’an. Is it likely that Western Christian interactions with Muslims through the Crusades fostered an exegesis of the Qur’an which began to take an increasingly negative stance on Christianity? The Qur’an could be appropriately exegeted to confirm both Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. However, it is almost universally believed within Islam that Jesus did not die on the cross. Could this influence have originated in Crusade’s adoption of the Cross as symbol for military conquest? 

While Thomas Aquinas was familiar with Islam’s philosophies and confident in his ability to defend Christianity against them, he was interested in neither the Qur’an nor dialoguing with Muslims. (Kung 2007:9)  Tensions between Muslims and Christians during the period of the fifteenth through nineteenth century became more political than theological. Notably the Spanish Inquisition put to death or expel many Muslims, Jews and Protestants as a means to secure a more Catholic Spanish national state (McKay 2004:466). Wars in Europe over competing Christian kingdoms led to further alliances with the Ottoman Empire (McKay 2004:631-2). According to McKay, “Ottoman pressure proved an important factor in the official recognition of Lutheran Protestants at the Peace of Augsburg in 1555” (McKay 2004:632). 

Early American Colonists became familiar with Islam through reports of Muslim Barbary (Northwestern African/Spanish) pirates kidnapping sailors to use as slaves and convert them to Islam. The threat of losing parishioners to Islam inspired many American pastors to write polemics against Islam declaring the superiority of Christianity in order to motivate faithfulness. Thomas Kidd notes that Cotton Mather wrote several works on the Barbary Captivity writing:

As was Mather’s wont, he penned A Pastoral Letter as if he meant the captives themselves to read it, but the letter was actually meant for readers in New England itself. In it, he promoted Christianity as a superior religion to Islam, and warned the captives to stand faithfully against the ‘Mahometan Tempters.’ Mather demonstrated some knowledge of the Qur’an by citing an English translation to prove that if Muslims read their holy book correctly, they would see that it pointed to Christ as the true Messiah. He cautioned prisoners to realize that their captivity in Africa was temporary, but captivity to sin was much worse and only gave a foretaste of the eternal torment to come in hell. (Kidd 2009:5) 

The decline of Barbary pirate activities in the eighteenth century did not reduce pastoral rhetoric against Islam within the West.  Enlightenment philosophy stirred up unbelief and doubts regarding the truthfulness of Christianity and Islam provided a common enemy for Christians to rally against as a distraction. The True Nature of Imposture Displayed in the Life of Mahomet by Humphrey Prideaux became one of the most popular books in the period to inform American colonial Protestant Christians about Islam (Kidd 2009:7-8). Kidd states: 

Prideaux lamented how many Deists had charged Christianity with imposture, and he meant to hold up Islam as an actual fraught against which Christianity’s legitimacy would become more apparent. . . .Prideaux’s treatment of Muhammad was likely the most influential in eighteenth-century Anglo-America. (Kidd 2009:8-9)

Until we come to grips with our emotions and identify fear as an unhealthy response to threats of the unknown, we are entitled to repeat histories mistakes. Our response and fear of the unknown is what allowed for the terror that exist today. Only education and embrace will deter the terror of tomorrow. Through education we can rid ourselves of false narratives intended to breed fear, hatred and dehumanization. There are Muslims that see Christianity as the closest of all the world’s faiths as friends (Sura 5:82). Equally there existed Christians throughout history who valued the cultural achievements within Islam. May we seek to understand and embrace their example. 

Boyd, Greg (Speaker)

2011 Christmas beyond the pattern (Sermon Podcast 12/04/2011) St. Paul, MN: Woodland Hills Church

Griffith, Sidney H. 
          2010 The Church in the shadow of the mosque. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Jenkins, Phillip

2002 The next Christendom: the coming of global  Christianity. New York, NY: Oxford University  Press.

Kidd, Thomas S. 

2009 American Christians and Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

Kung, Hans

2007 Islam: past, present and future. Trans. John  Bowden. Oxford, England: Oneworld Publications

McKay, John., John Buckler, Bennett D. Hill, Patricia Buckley Ebrey 

2004 West and South Asia: The Islamic world powers, CA 1450-1800. A History of world societies 6th ed.  (pp. 627-657). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

Tolan, John Victor

2000 Medieval Christian perceptions of Islam. New York, NY: Routledge.

Muslims Across The World Speak Out!!!

Around 5 years ago a collection of Islamic Jurist and Imam's got together to write a letter to the Christian Church. You may want to sit down when you read it...

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

A Common Word between Us and You

(Summary and Abridgement)

Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.

The basis for this peace and understanding already exists. It is part of the very foundational principles of both faiths: love of the One God, and love of the neighbour. These principles are found over and over again in the sacred texts of Islam and Christianity. The Unity of God, the necessity of love for Him, and the necessity of love of the neighbour is thus the common ground between Islam and Christianity. The following are only a few examples:

Of God’s Unity, God says in the Holy Qur’an: Say: He is God, the One! / God, the Self-Sufficient Besought of all! (Al-Ikhlas, 112:1-2). Of the necessity of love for God, God says in the Holy Qur’an: So invoke the Name of thy Lord and devote thyself to Him with a complete devotion (Al-Muzzammil, 73:8). Of the necessity of love for the neighbour, the Prophet Muhammad ( صلى الله عليه وسلم )said: “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbour what you love for yourself.”

Continue Reading

Find more: 

http://www.acommonword.com/

Christianity v. Islam

"...the critical political factors around the world are not decided by attitudes toward class or dialectical materialism, but rather by rival concepts of God."

Christianity vs. Islam

A worldview is hard to transform among any culture. Age-old perceptions of beliefs pass down to each generation. Phillip Jenkins writes:

At the turn of the third millennium, religious loyalties are at the root of many of the world’s ongoing civil wars and political violence, and in most cases, the critical division is the age-old battle between Christianity and Islam. However, much this would have surprised political analysts a generation or two ago, the critical political factors around the world are not decided by attitudes toward class or dialectical materialism, but rather by rival concepts of God. (Jenkins 2002:163)

The Law of Retaliation rules Christian-Muslim relations. If current trends continue, by 2050, twenty of the world’s largest nations will be predominately Christian or Muslim, which could lead to serious interfaith conflicts if the ethos held toward the other faith does not change (Jenkins 2002:166).

Western prejudice toward Islam shape their perception of history. Islam’s advance into Spain and Byzantium confirmed, for the  West, Islam’s greedy intentions to crush Christianity out in Europe. The capture of Jerusalem by Islamist prompted the Crusades. “Barbaric” Muslim pirates kidnapped European colonists forcing them to convert to Islam or serve as slaves. These examples of historical narratives reinforce Western stereotypes promoting continued retaliatory relations between Christianity and Islam. 

The Islamic worldview cannot separate Western political actions from their religious convictions. Therefore, false perceptions regarding Christianity exist within Islam. Increased secularism and syncretism within the “Christian West” support Islamic repudiation of Christianity. The Law of Retaliation will remain unchallenged as long as false-perceptions persist.

 Toward An Embracing of Retaliatory Love

Just as the transformative Worldview of the Kingdom guided the widowed women to respond to the Aucas the way they did, this Love and Ethic is also the promise of hope for Christian-Muslim relations. Through the imitation of Retaliatory Love the Christian goes out of their way to seek to understand and serve those who oppose them, thereby bringing judgment upon the predominant worldview influencing their enemies and thus defeat the Law of Retaliation. The objective of a worldview shaped by the Kingdom of God is reconciliation made possible through Retaliatory Love. The life and ministry of Jesus clearly demonstrate both Retaliatory Love and the Worldview of the Kingdom, the fruits of which are to define the character of His People.

Jenkins, Phillip

2002 The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.