Some Basics about Islam

After Sept. 11^th, when it was learned that all of the attackers were Muslims, the President and all kinds of American leaders suddenly became ‘experts’ on Islam. They began telling the American people that the Muslims who attacked us were not really Muslims, and that Islam is a religion of peace. They said, as a matter of fact, that Islam means ‘peace.’

Not true. The root letters of Muslim, Islam, and Salaam are: S   L   M   (Muslim, Islam, Salaam)

Islam means “submission to the will of Allah” and Salaam means peace. Salaam is what is promised to those who submit their will to Allah. In other words, if you are obedient to the will of Allah, you will attain peace and you will be a Muslim. It is this definition of Islam that leads Muslims to believe, and teach, that Abraham was a Muslim, Moses was a Muslim and Jesus was a Muslim. They were all people who submitted their will to the will of Allah, or God. And this is what Allah means, God.

     Arabic Christians, when they pray, pray to Allah. If you were to look in an Arabic language Bible you would see the name Allah throughout.

     For Muslims, the way to become obedient to the will of Allah is through Jihad, or war. There are two forms of Jihad: the lesser Jihad, which is the war that Muslims are to practice when they are confronted with a non-Muslim government, or power, that is seeking to have power over them. That is the Lesser Jihad. The greater Jihad is the internal war against unrighteousness within oneself.

St. Paul talked about the inner Jihad when he wrote that he was at war with his members – with his body. His spirit wills to do good, but his flesh is at war with his spirit. So when Paul attempted to be righteous he was engaged in the greater Jihad. He was at war with the sin that was within himself. Paul discovered that this was a jihad that he could not win and he would have to rely on the righteousness of Christ, and Christ alone, if he were to be justified, as a sinner, before God. But that is Paul, and Christianity.

Muslims do not believe in Christ. Their salvation is from God, but it is up to them. They alone must fight the greater Jihad without an Intercessor. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross and that we are saved by the shedding of His blood. This is the doctrine of the atonement. We are made at-one with God through the sacrifice of Jesus, on the cross. Muslims deny that Jesus died on the cross, and they believe that someone else was made to die in his place. Many Muslims believe that Judas died on the cross in Jesus place as a way of atoning for the sin of his betrayal.

Muslims believe that death on a cross is not befitting of a Rasul, a special messenger, or prophet, of God. To them, God did the honorable thing by sparing Jesus such a horrible death and by raising him, alive, to heaven. In short, Muslims believe in the ascension of Jesus, that he was lifted into heaven, but not in the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, nor in His resurrection from the dead.

    

Okay, let’s get back to the basics. Islam means “submission to the will of Allah” but the word ‘Islam’ is also a religion -- the fastest growing religion in the world and in America. When a Muslim says that Moses, Abraham and Jesus were Muslims, you can agree with them insofar as they are speaking about Islam, not as a religion, but as submission to the will of Allah. But we cannot agree with them if they are speaking of Islam as a religion. As a religion, Islam did not exist until long after Abraham and Moses lived, and long after Jesus lived, was crucified and raised from the dead.

    

As a religion, Islam was founded by Muhammad in the part of the world we call Saudi Arabia. Though legend has it that Muhammad was illiterate, and could neither read nor write, he is the man through whom the Qu’ran, the holy book of Muslims, came into the world. According to Muslims, the Qu’ran is the word of Allah, the direct and perfect speech of Allah – and it is written in Arabic.

In the Qu’ran, we find the Allah of the Qu’ran saying to Muhammad: “Read,” or “recite.” This is the miracle of the Qu’ran, for Muslims, that a man who could neither read nor write was able to “read” the Qu’ran, the heavenly Qu’ran, and recite it to the people who surrounded him.

Although there is a great diversity of beliefs within Islam, just as there is within Christianity, there is one confession, or Shahada, that makes a Muslim a Muslim. If a person can speak the words of the Shahada with conviction, then he or she is a Muslim.

La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur-Rasool-Allah

(There are no gods but God, and Muhammad is His prophet.)