Alan Shlemon: Islam

For this month's episode, I interviewed Alan Shlemon of Stand to Reason on the subject of Islam. Alan trains Christians to persuasively share their convictions on various cultural issues, as well as share the Gospel with Muslims in a gracious, yet persuasive manner, as Stand to Reason is known for.

Our conversation was broken into two main parts. In the first part, Alan gives an overview of what Islam is, what Muslims believe, and compares and contrasts Islam and Christianity. In the second part, Alan explains how he goes about engaging Muslims in a thoughtful discussion on spiritual issues, and answers their most common objection: that the Bible cannot be trusted because it has been corrupted.

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An Outline of the Discussion

Alan's Background

• Alan is ethnically Assyrian. his family is originally from Baghdad, and he still has family there. His family is, like most Assyrians, historically Christian, but being from the Middle-East his family has a lot of experience and understanding of Islam and Muslim culture.
• Alan's understanding of Islam comes mostly through research and study that he has done on his own as a staff member at Stand to Reason.

Explaining Islam

• Islam has Five Pillars (required behaviors) and Five Articles of Faith (required beliefs.)
• The Five Articles of Faith are as follows:
  • The unity of God. God/Allah is Unitarian, as opposed to Trinitarian. This is the most fundamental of the beliefs of Islam, and to reject it is to commit the most grievous of sins, which they call the sin of shirk.
  • Belief in God's Angels. Similar to Christianity's views, that there are angels. However, Islam teaches that angels do not have free will. They also believe in angel-like beings called Jinn, which are similar to the Christian understanding of demons. Jinn are mischievous beings that do have free will. Satan is a Jinn.
  • Belief in God's prophets. The belief that God has sent prophets to mankind. Examples of prophets include: Adam, Noah, Moses, David, Jesus, and Mohammad.
  • Belief in God's Books. Islam teaches that there are four holy books written by God/Allah. These include: The Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Quran.
  • Belief in the Final Judgment. At the end of time, all people will be resurrected and judged based on good deeds and bad. All of our good deeds and bad deeds will be put on a scale and if the good outweighs the bad, we will enter Heaven/Paradise. If the bad outweigh the good, we enter Hell. This eliminates the possibility of assurance of salvation, since we can't possibly know how the scales will tip. The only exception is that death in jihad (holy war) dying for the cause of Allah guarantees salvation.
• The five Pillars are as follows:
  • Reciting the Creed. The creed says “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammad is his messenger.” Saying this creed, and believing it sincerely makes one a Muslim.
  • Daily Prayer. Muslims pray five times every day.
  • The Fast of Ramadan. A month-long fast in which Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking, sex, etc. during the daylight hours, and is done to commemorate that Mohammad receive the Quran from Allah via the angel Gabriel over a 22 year period.
  • The Giving of Alms. Similar to the Judeo=Christian concept of tithing, though it is 2.5% rather than 10%, and the money goes toward serving the poor and needy.
  • Pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims are required to travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia and perform various rituals at least once in their life (more is better), though there are exceptions for those who cannot do so for physical or financial reasons.
• There are several sects of Islam, the two main ones being the Shia and the Sunni. The division arose after the death of Mohammad over who would be his successor. Sunnis believed that the successor should be elected, whereas the Shiites believed that the successor should be divinely appointed, as was Mohammad, and wished for the succession to follow the blood lines of Mohammad. Each of these two main sects sees the other as apostate.
• The succession determined the source of authority for theology.
• Muslims often name their children after successors to Mohammad, so often it's easy to determine if they are Shia or Sunni based on their name.
• Alan sees two common misconception that Christians have of Islam, which he describes as two sides of the same coin. The first is that Christians often assume that, given Islam's often violent nature, that all Muslims are violent people. This isn't the case, most Muslims are peaceful people. The second misconception, which comes about from the observation that most Muslims are peaceful is that they then think that Islam is peaceful. As Alan says, Islam is not a peaceful religion hijacked by violent Muslims, for the most part it is a violent religion that is practiced by mostly peaceful people often unaware of what their religion really teaches.
• Many people believe that the God of Christianity and the god of Islam (Allah) are the same. They have many similarities, but significant differences as well.
  • Similarities include:
    • Both claim they are the one true god.
    • Both are transcendent, which is to say that they created the universe, but are separate from it.
    • Both are omnipotent and omniscient.
  • Differences include:
    • Yahweh is Trinitarian, whereas Allah is Unitarian.
    • Yahweh is immanent, which is to say that He enters into creation; Allah is not immanent.
    • Allah is unknown and it is not man's job to know god, but only to obey him. Yahweh is both known and obeyed.
• Another way to answer the question is “do Christians and Muslims worship the same god?” Alan says no. Christians worship Jesus as God, but that is considered blasphemy by Muslims.
• Christianity teaches that we must not only worship the right God, but we must do so in the right manner, that is to say as He wishes to be worshiped.
• All false religions, be they psuedo-Christian cults or different religions entirely, teach a false view of the person and works of Jesus Christ. Islam teaches the following about Jesus:
  • He is a created being (not God the Creator).
  • He was appointed as a prophet.
  • He is not the son of God.
  • He is not the second person of the Trinity.
  • He did not die on the cross. It would be offensive for a prophet of Allah to die like a criminal.
  • He was not resurrected.
  • He could not and did not atone for our sins.
• Islam teaches things about Jesus that are surprising to many Christians. In fact, it says things that it doesn't say of Muhammad, including:
  • That his birth was announced by angels.
  • He was born to the virgin Mary.
  • He was sinless.
  • He had the power to heal and raise the dead.
  • He was called the Messiah.
  • He was taken up by God to Heaven to be in His presence at the end of his life.
  • Shiites teach that Jesus will return at the end of the age to judge humanity.

Answering Muslim objections and Sharing the Gospel with them:

• Alan describes Stand to Reason's approach to engaging with unbelievers in general by using questions to advance a conversation and make a point rather than making statements.
• Alan's straightforward approach to engaging with Muslims is to share the Gospel with them just as he would with any other non-believer.
• The most common objection Muslims give is that the Bible has been corrupted, and so they cannot accept what it teaches about Jesus.
• Alan leverages the Muslim's respect for the Quran by showing that it teaches the following:
  • God's word cannot be changed or corrupted.
  • The Bible is the word of God.
  • Therefore: The Bible is trustworthy, and it is not true that it has been corrupted.
• Answering this objection typically leads to a healthier respect for Christians by Muslims.
• Muslims love to talk about religion, and tend to be people who are very easy to share your faith with.

Scripture References

Biblical:

• John 4:24
• James 2:19

Islamic:

• Surah 2:136
• Surah 4:136
• Surah 29:46
• Surah 10:94
• Surah 5:43 & 5:47-48

Additional Resources

• The Ambassador's Guide to Islam – Alan Shlemon
• Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross – Norm Geisler & Abdul Saleeb
• Engaging Islam – George Houssney

Video via tweet by Dr. James White, January 31, 2012:

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