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ISLAM - THE WORLD POWER OF THE FUTURE?
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In the 19th century Islam had virtually disappeared from view in Europe and
America. Only a few Westerners in distant colonies had been exposed to Muslims.
Some romantic tales about the Turkish wars survived. However, the rapid
technological developments in the West had by-passed the Islamic peoples, making
them appear insignificant. But not much time has passed since Europe was last in danger of being
overrun by Islam. In the year 1453 Constantinople, the Eastern bulwark of
Christianity, was captured by the Ottomans. Later in 1529 and again in 1683 the
Turks stood at the gates of Vienna. The struggle to free Belgrade lasted almost
200 years; and it was only a short time before the First World War when the last
Balkan countries were able to shake off the Islamic Turkish yoke. For 600 years
Islam and Christianity have wrestled with each other in that area. Many Christians have forgotten that Syria and North Africa were once the
heartland of the Christian world! But during the first Islamic invasions in the
years AD 632 to 732 they were overrun and fell under Arab control. Muslim armies
swept into Western Europe and stood no more than 200 kilometres south of Paris,
and near Geneva, too. If Charles Martel had not stood firm we would likely all
be Muslims today! Nietzsche, the atheist, ventured to say sarcastically, "The
greatest mistake in world history was the defeat of the Arabs at Tours and
Poitiers." The third great attack by Islam began on October 17, 1973, during the Yom
Kippur War against Israel, when the Arab kings and sheikhs suddenly quadrupled
the price of oil. Since then oil has become an expensive commodity. Its price is
one of the main reasons for the economic crises that are currently shaking the
world from east to west, to such an extent that some countries, especially in
the Third World, are almost strangled by debts. Events in the Near East are no
longer absent from the daily television news programs. Islam is building a power
potential on all five continents with its oil and financial weapons. This world
religion is closing in on Europe and the USA, and looking hungrily at the masses
in Asia and Africa. Some Christians are slowly beginning to ponder the question "What is
Islam and who is Allah?" A vast ignorance prevails in this sphere.
Humanists try to solve the problem superficially with well-meaning programmes,
dialogues and suggestions, but they are not getting to the root of the problem. Today, there are more than ten million Muslims living, working and studying
in Europe. Several million Muslims have also poured into North America. This
means a double challenge for all followers of Christ! First, the "mission
field" has entered our home countries. Secondly, we must recognise that
Islam has a set goal to make the whole world Muslim. For these reasons, it is
essential for every Christian to consider seriously the following questions:
What are the aims of Islam? Who is Allah? What relationship does Allah have to
Jesus Christ and his Church?
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A Muslim's relationship to Allah can clearly be seen in the five daily
prayers, which belong to the indispensable pillars of Islam. In the course of
this liturgy, a Muslim will prostrate himself before Allah up to 34 times a day.
Anyone who has seen a Muslim prostrating is impressed. The curve of his bent
back during prayer is the best commentary on the word "ISLAM"
which translated means surrender, submission or subjugation. These words
sound very pious and describe the total submission of a Muslim to Allah. Any observer who considers this will realise that anyone who prostrates
himself before Allah 34 times a day in worship is not a free or person. He is no
longer himself because his entire way of living and thinking is fully guided and
influenced by Allah. In fact, the Arabic words for a religious service, place of
worship and worshipper are derived from the word for slaves. According to Islam,
everyone is a slave to Allah. No one is free. No one lives for himself. Everyone
belongs to his Creator and was created to worship and to serve perpetually and
unconditionally. If it were possible to take a spaceship and fly high above the earth and
observe mankind with a powerful telescope, we could see the prayer ritual of
Islam sweeping across our globe like a mighty wave five times a day as millions
of Muslims bow to the ground in worship. At dawn, as soon as one can distinguish between a white and a black thread,
the prayer of the Muslim begins in the Philippines. The first wave of worship
surges over Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, then Iran and Turkey.
Finally it reaches Europe, at which time the second wave of worship begins at
noon for the Muslims in China. This new wave will have reached India and the 45
million Muslims in Central Asia just as a third wave will have started at 3 p.m.
for afternoon prayers in the Far East. These three waves of worship follow each
other successively, moulding and determining life under the Islamic culture. At
this time, as dawn is breaking on the east coast of America with its morning
prayer, Muslims in the Nile Valley are bowing down in the heat of their noon
prayer and in Pakistan men are gathering in their mosques for afternoon prayer.
When the final wave of the Muslim night prayer begins in the Far East two hours
after sunset, simultaneously the rays of the setting sun touch the worshippers
in the Ganges Delta, while pilgrims in Mecca bow down for afternoon prayer
before the black stone in the Ka'ba. At that moment the second prayer wave has
already reached faithful Muslims in the high Atlas Mountains in Morocco, while
the first waves breaks with the early morning dawn in the Rocky Mountains of
America. These five prayer waves unite millions of Muslims in worship of their God.
Islam is a religion of adoration and worship. Many Muslims pray
earnestly and with great reverence, disciplining themselves by repeating their
liturgical prayers 17 times a day. Very early in the morning, the muezzins call from the minarets of the
mosques, often through loudspeakers, over the roofs of the houses to all the
people: "Arise to prayer! Arise to success! Prayer is better then sleep!" Unless Christians rethink their prayer practices and discipline themselves
into regular and intensive prayer for Muslims, they should not be astonished
that Islam defies the attempts of mission societies and rises to challenge a
tired Christianity. The call from the minaret includes a significant sentence: "Arise to
success!" Everyone who serves Allah hopes to receive a reward from him.
Those who perform the prayers expect to receive earthly and heavenly blessings.
Devotion to Allah and obedience to his commands deserve many gifts including
salvation. Muslims do not thank Allah because he has already saved them through
grace. On the contrary, they feel they must pray and keep the law in order to
have the goodwill of Allah bestowed upon them. So Islam is a religion based
on self-righteousness in which everyone tries to accumulate good deeds and
so establish his own salvation by good works. Prayer in Islam is not a voluntary service, but rather a compulsion, an
obligation and a law. In Saudi Arabia once can sometimes observe policemen
during the prayer times forcing passers-by into the mosques, so that the wrath
of Allah may not descend on the country because of neglected prayer. Islam is a
religion under the law of Allah. All facets of life are specifically
controlled by a multitude of regulations. Allah is the centre of everything. There is a deep longing for purity in Islam. Before each prayer time, every
Muslim must follow a compulsory ablution - the washing of hands, arms, feet,
mouth, face and even hair. Everyone must be clean before entering Allah's
presence to pray. Anyone who does not follow the exact cleansing procedure is
considered to have nullified his prayers. Christians know that such outward
rituals do not cleanse the heart or the mind. But the five-times-daily ablutions
in Islam testify to a deep longing for purity on the part of those who pray. A sentence in the main prayer for all Muslims - from the al-Fatiha - reads, "Guide
us in the straight path, the path of those whom thou hast blessed, not of those
against whom thou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray" (Sura
al-Fatiha 1:2,3). This cry expresses the desire for guidance and a total
dependence on Allah. It would be wrong, ignorant and arrogant for Christians to
deny the faithful intent of Muslims to serve God. On the contrary, their
discipline, sincerity and consistency in praying can be an example to many of
us. Without a doubt, every true Muslim desires to serve God with all his
heart. He calls on him in his prayers. He wants to honour him; he fights for him
and submits his entire being to him. In the Old Testament we read that God hears
every honest prayer - even from a Muslim! (Genesis 21:17; 16:7-14).
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What concept do Muslims have of Allah? Who is he, whom they seek to worship? In his struggle against heathen polytheism in Mecca and its surroundings,
Muhammad waged a merciless campaign against all gods, idols and images. He
stubbornly taught: "Allah is One! All other gods are nothing!" He had
accepted this basic monotheistic faith of the Jews who were living in the
Arabian Peninsula because they had been exiled from their homeland by the
Romans. Influenced by them, Muhammad freed the Arab world from idolatry in line
with what the Old Testament prophets had demanded (Sura al-Ikhlas 112:1-5). The first half of the Islamic creed makes a sharp distinction between the
Oneness of God and the claims of religions and magical cults which teach that
other gods exist besides Allah. Millions of Muslims daily confess, "There
is no God but Allah!" This testimony is the very core of the Islamic faith.
Whoever does not assent unconditionally to this dogma is considered by Muslims a
godless idolater. Every theological assertion that does not submit to this
principle is rejected without question. Muhammad did not merely testify to the uniqueness of Allah, but also
described him with a variety of names. The Islamic theologians have systematised
all statements of the Qur'an about Allah, including his attributes and acts,
into "the 99 most beautiful names of Allah". The names do not occur in
equal frequency in the Qur'an. Several are mentioned a hundred times, others
once or twice, and some are found only implicitly as we read between the lines.
All Arabic adjectives can be understood as nouns, so that in the Qur'an every
attribute of Allah simultaneously expresses one of his names. Whoever painstakingly attempts to sort through these names of Allah
according to their significance and frequency moves closer to the realm of
Muhammad's thoughts and ideas. Allah is the Omniscient One with infinite wisdom. He hears all and
sees all. He understands all and encompasses everything. He is Omnipotent and his strength is unlimited, powerful enough to
both build up and to destroy. Therefore, he is the sublime and exalted one above everything, great
and immeasurable, magnificent and almighty. No one is equal to him. He is the living one, every existing, unending, everlasting,
eternal, the first and the last, the one and the only one, the incomparably
beautiful one. Thus he is praiseworthy and excellent, the holy one, light and
peace. He is the true reality and the foundation of everything. Allah is the one who created everything out of nothing by the strength of
his word. He brought everything into being, and to him we shall all return. He
creates life and causes death (Sura al-A`raf 7:44). He will raise the dead and
unite the universe. Therefore, he is the sovereign lord and king to whom the universe
belongs. He exalts and he abases. He is the defender and the destroyer. He is
the guide and the tempter. He saves whom he wills and condemns whom he
wishes (Suras al-A`raf 7:44, al-Anfal 8:27, al-Nahl 16:35, al-Insan 76:32). Above all this, he is called the compassionate and merciful one, and
yet he is also the avenger. He has recorded everything precisely and will be
the incorruptible and indisputable witness on the day of judgement. He is the
best of all judges and will present each man with an exact bill of reckoning. His overwhelming authority may open the door to success or hinder the
progress of an event. He has everything and everyone in his hand. He opens and
closes the doors. Nothing takes place without his will. He does not need a
mediator. Everything depends directly on him. He is also benevolent and patient, faithful and kind to the Muslims.
He is the generous giver of all gifts and abilities. From him alone comes
provision for all mankind. He who possesses everything makes people wealthy and
protects all who glorify him. He is favourable to them and will be a guardian
over all who worship him. He acknowledges those who repent, and forgives because he is the forgiving
one. He is gracious toward the Muslims and establishes a good relationship
with them. But no Muslim can be certain whether the good attributes of Allah are
directed toward him personally, or whether Allah's harsh and devastating side
will eventually strike him. Often, the names of Allah are merely ascribed to him
by believers in wishful thinking rather than as certainties. His more oppressive
and frightening attributes create fear in people and drive them to do everything
possible to keep the law. Poverty and illness are regarded as signs of Allah's
wrath for their hidden sins. By the same token, riches, success and people's
esteem in the Muslim society are taken as indications of favour from the One who
alone makes rich, and who honours his worshippers with blessings. Some Muslims
today say, "Because we have remained faithful to Allah for 1,300 years, he
has rewarded us with the oil." When we turn away from all such confusing and frustrating names of Allah and
ask an ordinary Muslim, "Tell me, who is your God? What do you think and
feel, when you hear the name of Allah?" He may possibly smile, spread out
his arms and only say "ALLAH!" This means: Allah cannot be
proved or described. One can only sense him and know about his existence. And
then perhaps he may confirm this intuitive understanding with the phrase, "Allahu
akbar!" In this statement we have the abridged form of the Islamic creed, which is
on the lips of millions many times a day. With this testimony Khomeini's
revolutionary guards ran blindly into mine fields knowing they will be torn to
shreds. From the loudspeakers of the minarets these words are repeated forty
times a day over shops, homes, schools, factories and government buildings. Yet
this phrase is not complete in itself, but is only a portion of a sentence. It
does not mean, as it is sometimes translated, "Allah is great" or "Allah
is the greatest." Its literal meaning is "Allah is greater!"
Every listener should then, albeit unconsciously, complete the thought: Allah is
wiser than all philosophers, more beautiful than the most fascinating view,
stronger than all atomic and hydrogen bombs together, and greater than anything
we know. Allah is the unique, unexplorable and inexplicable one - the
remote, vast and unknown God. Everything we may think about him is
incomplete, if not wrong. Allah cannot be comprehended. He comprehends us. We
are slaves who have only the privilege to worship him in fear. Islam stands for a renunciation of the rationalism that prevails in Europe
and America. For a long time it was one of the characteristics of Islamic
theology that Allah could not be described philosophically. There was not even a
desire to comprehend him and to fathom his being (Sura al-Ra`d 13:13). Understanding this brings us to a crucial statement, expressed by the
Islamic theologian al-Ghazali. He had meditated a great deal on "the 99
excellent names of God". He wrote that these names can mean everything and
yet nothing. One name of Allah can negate another and the content of one may be
included in the next. No one can understand Allah. Devout believers therefore
can only worship this unknown, superdimensional God and live before him in fear
and reverence, observing all his laws in strict obedience.
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What are the practical consequences in the daily life of a Muslim under such
a concept? The image of a great, all-embracing Lord has conditioned the daily life of
Muslims - in the home, in education, at work and in politics. The old saying is
still true, "Show me your God and I will explain to you why you live as you
do." So Genesis 1:27 tells us, "God created man in his own image, in
the image of God he created him." This means that the concept of God in a
religion is the pattern and measure of the culture associated with it. In Islam, the father in the family is not primarily an equal partner
with his wife, who together give shape to marriage and family life. The man is
more the patriarch in the house, who holds all rights and authority in his
hands. The children legally belong to him alone. He is the one who supplies
provisions and clothes, and he grants no one an insight into his financial
situation. His wife is not necessarily a life-time companion with equal rights,
but is often just a means of satisfying his physical desires. Sometimes she is
regarded merely as a baby factory. There are exceptions, of course, where noble
and sensitive Arabs open themselves to the influence of the world-wide humanism
or where some resolute wives exert control over their husbands. Christendom has
also influenced Arab customs to some extent. But in general, it is obvious that
Islam is a man's world where women must stay in the background. This can
be seen in the mosques, coffee bars, or in public life. Khomeini in particular
used the resurgence of Islam to reduce women to medieval subjection. Sometimes a father says, "I have one child and three daughters,"
when he explains that he has one son and three daughters. The dominance of the
masculine over the feminine can be found in all aspects of life. The male is the
ruler and in a figurative sense he is even called "lord of the house". In schools, until a few years ago, the teacher gave instruction like
a patriarch, ruling over his pupils and forcing the lessons down their throats.
The material had to be gulped down and memorised, but it remained undigested and
generally misunderstood. The daily class schedule started with listening to the
recitation of the memorised lessons. There was punishment for anyone who could
not fully repeat the subject matter. In many Islamic schools comprehension, individual thinking and development
of character are not the main goals of education; rather a passive acceptance
and conformity are emphasised. This is closely associated with the concept of
thought in the Islamic religion. A Muslim is forbidden to think critically about
the Qur'an. He must accept it passively and should memorise all of it. Being
thus filled with the spirit of Islam, he instinctively walks in accordance with
Allah's law in his daily life. (How many Christians know even one of the
gospels by heart? Yet many Muslims have mastered the whole of the Qur'an or at
least great portions of it.) Forms of educational instruction and thought patterns in the Islamic world
are based upon the picture of Allah given by Muhammad. A person is not guided to
become active and responsible, but is directed to submit himself passively to
his fate. This is why Muslim emotions often flare up uncontrollably, for their
entire education amounts to a submission of will and mind and an integration
into an Allah-centred society. In politics, democracy does not appear to be the best model for the
life of a Muslim. Rather Allah, the king and lord over all is the unconscious
pattern for many sultans and dictators. The strong man who swept away corruption
with an iron hand, the mighty victor who brought renown, honour and strength to
Islam has always been hailed and admired. In Arab schools one can find children with unusual first names, such as
Bismarck, Stalin, de Gaulle and Nasser, because the parents wish and hope that
there will be a glorious future for their offspring in the spirit of such
historic personalities. It sounds almost macabre when one hears someone in the
street of an Arab village saying, "Hitler has not yet paid his school fees."
In other words, a father, whose name actually is Hitler, has not yet paid the
school fees for his son! Whether it be kings or dictators, sultans or caliph, the one who held the
reins tight with force was admired. Complaisance and compromise mean weakness
and incompetence in Islam. It is not surprising that Jamal Abdel Nasser and
Ayatollah Khomeini were the dominating figures in the Near East during the last
decades. While Nasser attempted to combine an Arab socialism with Islam in order
to meet the attack of atheistic communism, Khomeini trod a still more radical
path by attempting to establish the kingdom of Allah on earth in Shi'ite
countries. The ultimate aim of Khomeini's revolution was not merely the removal
of the shah or the elimination of Christian, capitalistic or communistic
principles from among his people, but the reinstatement of an Islamic theocracy
in which Allah prevails and dominates every area of life. This brought a "mullah
state" into existence, where, in the name of Allah and Islam, more people
were killed in a few years than during the long reign of the shah. Enemies of
the Islamic revolution are no longer even regarded as people. Khomeini himself
announced, "In Persia no people have been killed so far - only beasts!" The Islamic spirit cannot tolerate other gods beside Allah. So Islam, in the
core of its being, is missionary-minded and will find no rest until all people
have become Muslims. This mission-consciousness is based on the Islamic
confession of faith which states that "there is no God except Allah".
No real peace will reign on earth except through Islam. In the past, the world, according to the strategy of Islam, was divided into
two great areas: The House (territory) of Peace (Dar es-Salam) and the House of
War (Dar el-Harb). Peace ostensibly reigned only in countries where Islam had
become the state religion and where the Sharia, the law of Islam,
controlled life. The "House of War", however, encompassed the other
nations who had refused to acknowledge Allah. In past months, pamphlets were
distributed in a country of the Near East with the heading, "Aslim Taslam!"
which means: accept Islam and submit to Allah, then you will not be persecuted,
but can live a peaceful life! Mission work in Islam not only means to convince a
person intellectually by arguments that Islam is the best religion revealed by
Allah; it utilises pressure in all fields at its disposal - economics, politics
and even the holy war! The Qur'an commands all followers of Allah to fight for
victory in their religion. We must confess however that Christians, as Crusaders in the Near East, have
also left behind them a trail of bloodstained footprints. They have engraved on
the historical consciousness of Muslims the image of Christians as aggressive
militants. Yet all so-called "holy wars" are in direct conflict with
the teaching of Jesus. He said, "Do not resist evil! Put your sword away!
Love your enemies!" Christ never commanded his followers to fight in
religious wars; rather, he forbade them any demonstration of violence. Muhammad,
on the other hand, repeatedly fought in person alongside his fighters until they
conquered Mecca and the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. The spread of Islam is
based on the sword! The holy war in Islam is considered a direct command
of Allah and is not merely an interpretation or misinterpretation of his will by
the believers. Therefore, the potential of holy war in Islam still exists. This
should not be under- or over-estimated (Sura al-Baqara 2:245). Anyone who wants to understand Islam must change his way of thinking. Islam
is not only a religion for the mind, soul and heart of a man, but it presents an
all-encompassing culture, theocentric society where all facets of life
- child rearing, family life, economics, and politics - are focused on Allah.
There is no separation between throne and altar, between politics and religion.
In fact, mosques are often the starting point for demonstrations and political
upheaval. Friday sermons are not confined to the fostering of faith and
spiritual life, but often contain strong appeals to stir up the people for
political conflicts in the name of Allah. This is connected with the Islamic portrayal of Allah. Nothing exists
outside the sway of his omnipotence. He is absolute in everything. anyone not
surrendering voluntarily to this must be brought into subjection either by
cunning strategy, economic persuasion or revolutionary force. Islam means
subjection to Allah. It demands surrender of all areas of life to his spirit and
the Qur'an's control over all thought and conduct. Bedouin tribes once said to Muhammad, "We believe in Allah!" But
he replied, "You have not believed until you say, `We have submitted!´
" (Sura al-Hujurat 49:14). Islam is a totalitarian religion which cannot compromise with any "isms"
for any period of time. As the history of Islam unfolded, strong impulses
repeatedly flowed out of the Qur'an, which overcame ideas and concepts that
penetrated the Islamic culture from Europe, Persia and India, resulting in an
all-pervading legalistic religion. The ultimate aim was nothing less than the
establishment of Allah's kingdom on our earth.
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Islam has recovered much ground and expanded in the last ten years, making a
substantial thrust into the cultures of Christianity, Hinduism, communism and
the African cults. When we, as Christians, meet Muslims and try to understand
them, we should not forget that many of them are genuine worshippers, who serve
their God with dedication within the limitation of their religion. A Christian
should not despise their deep aspirations, but should love and respect every
Muslim who sincerely worships Allah. This, however, does not absolve us of the obligation to seek the truth about
Islam. Our respect for Muslims leads us to a pertinent comparison of the Qur'an
with the New Testament, which is for us the only standard of truth. If one
compares the 99 names of Allah in Islam with the names of God in the Bible, one
must acknowledge that the Allah of the Muslims is not in harmony with our God.
Therefore, if a Muslim says, "Your God and our God is the same,"
either he does not understand who Allah and Christ really are, or he
intentionally glosses over the deeply rooted differences.
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It is unthinkable and impossible for a Muslim to believe in the existence of
God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the New Testament sense. Whoever says that
God has a partner, companion or an equal God beside him will, from an Islamic
point of view, fall into an unforgivable sin (like the sin against the Holy
Spirit in Christianity). Consequently, the Islamic confession of faith
declares not just the uniqueness of Allah but at the same time firmly rejects
the deity of Christ and the deity of the Holy Spirit. In the Arabic language, the name Allah is a study in itself. The
word can be understood as a sentence: al-el-hu. "El" is an old Semitic
name for God meaning "the strong and mighty". The Islamic name, Allah,
corresponds to the Hebrew name Elohim, which can also be understood as a
statement: Al-el-hum. Although the Hebrew name Elohim contains the possibility
of a plural (hum), the name of Allah (hu) can only be singular. Thus, Allah in
Islam is always only one and never a unity of three, even if such a unity was
complete in itself. When Christians claim that their Trinity does not mean three
different, separated persons, but a unity in a Trinity, Muslims must repudiate
this concept. For them Allah is never a triune God, but one person alone.
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In conversations with Muslims and Jews it is important that we scrutinise
anew statements of Jesus in the New Testament concerning the name Father
for God. We find this name mentioned at least 164 times in the gospels. So we
can speak in terms of a "theological revolution" that Jesus brought
about in answer to the rigid Semitic belief in one God. Christ did not preach
about a distant, mighty, unfamiliar God whom no one can know or comprehend, nor
did he teach us to have cringing and trembling fear before him as the
unapproachable holy Judge. Instead he gently moved the veil from before the God
of the Old Testament and revealed him to us as he really is - the Father. He
did not teach us to pray to Elohim, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord almighty or to the
holy Trinity, but placed on our lips the loving name - our Father.
Christ thus shared his own privilege with us, the unworthy ones. Through him we
have become children of God, a relationship which Muhammad emphatically rejects
(Sura al-Ma'ida 5:18). Anyone who takes the time to check the context of the occasions when Christ
used the name "God" and compares it with the occasions when he used
the name "Father" will be in for a surprise. When Jesus spoke to
outsiders, demons or his enemies, he spoke of the hidden God, the great and
powerful Lord, by whom all creatures were created. But when Jesus prayed or
talked in the intimate circle of his followers, he revealed to them the
innermost secret of God - his Fatherhood. For this claim Jesus was convicted of
blasphemy when the high priest Caiaphas asked him, "I adjure you by the
living God, that you tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God"
(Matthew 26:63). Caiaphas was unable and unwilling to name God "Father"
because to the Jews it would have been slanderous talk. Therefore, he asked
Jesus if he considered himself to be the "Son of God", implying the
Fatherhood of God. Christ confirmed the validity of his confession. His first
words on the cross were, "Father, forgive them, for they do not
know what they are doing." But as the Father veiled his face in his
function as a punishing Judge the Son cried out, "My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?" Yet the crucified One held on to the reality of God's
Fatherhood in the midst of his suffering and died with the words: "Father,
into your hands I commit my spirit." The name Father, the revelation of God's innermost reality, is an
indispensable element of the Christian faith. God has bound himself to us in the
New Testament as our eternal Father. John stated, "How great is the love
the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God" (1
John 3:1). One of the reasons Islam has rejected the Holy Trinity along with the
Fatherhood of God is because of a complete misunderstanding of its true nature.
In Muhammad's day a certain Arab sect taught that the Trinity consisted of God
the Father, Jesus and Mary. Every Christian, together with Muhammad, will refute
this error. It is regrettable that the birth of Jesus by the power of the Holy
Spirit in the virgin Mary is understood not spiritually but carnally, in Islam.
For a Muslim it is blasphemy to think or say that Allah had a son through Mary.
God's spiritual Fatherhood remains incomprehensible to their minds. For them,
Allah is the exalted, distant and mysterious God. They do not know and
appreciate the nearness of God, who in his love as our Father revealed himself
in Christ. go to
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