This study is not an attack on the Muslim people, but we in America have every right to openly and honestly examine any religious teaching, especially one that is growing so fast in America and the world! As of 2006 there are 1.5 billion believers in Islam which makes it the 2nd largest next to Christianity in followers!
These are valid question in light of what we witness around the world...
> Why is there so much violence in Islam?
> Why do radical Muslims hate America and Israel so much?
> Is the Muslim’s Allah and the Christian’s God the same?
> Will Europe become a Muslim country in our lifetime?
> Is Iran a threat to the world?
Proverbs 27:12 “A wise man foresees evil and takes the necessary steps to deliver himself while fools will go naively on and are destroyed.”
I ask, do we take these words seriously spoken by Ayatollah Khomeini...
“We are at war against infidels. Take this message with you, ‘I ask all Islamic nations, all Muslims, all Islamic armies, and all heads of Islamic states to join the Holy War. There are many enemies to be killed or destroyed. Jihad must triumph...Muslims have no alternative...”
DO WE TAKE THE QURAN SERIOUSLY?
Surah 9:5 “But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them…”
Surah 9:123 “Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell among you.”
DO WE TAKE THEIR SCHOOLS SERIOUSLY?
Mark Gabriel a former Muslim and former graduate and professor at Al-Azhar University in Cairo Egypt – the oldest and most prestigious Islamic schools in the world. He was in the grip of radical Islam in Egypt and he writes in his book, “Islam and Terrorism”...
“One day the professor gave us students an opportunity to ask questions.I stood and asked him something I had wondered about for a long time: “Why is it that you teach us all the time about Jihad? What about the other verses in the Quran that talk about peace, love and forgiveness.”
Immediately his face turned red. Yelling at me he took the chance to reinforce his position in front of 500 students as he said…“My brother, there is a whole chapter called “Spoils of War”. There is no such chapter called “Peace”. Jihad and killing are the head of Islam. If you take them out, you cut off the head of Islam.”
I hear moderate Muslims say, “But the Militant Muslims are not true Muslims” and then the Militant Muslims say, “But Moderate Muslims are not true Muslims.”
And when it comes time for the Moderate Muslims to condemn and the bomb belted barbarians - there’s silence! They are either afraid and bullied or the line “Islam is a peaceful religion” is a bunch of boloney!!
My Question...Why is it that Christians have to speak out louder than the Moderate Muslim? Why is it that we have to do the digging to understand the real life of Mohammad?
1. The Muslim Messenger.
KEY: Over the last 1400 years after Mohammed, much of the history of Islam has been greatly controlled by Muslims and it’s only been in the last 150 years that much of the life of Mohammed has been dissected for more than an just an Arab audience.
Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Dr. Norman Geisler in “Answering Islam... writes, “The unexamined faith is not worth living.”
The man known as Muhammad was born 570 A.D. in Mecca. He lived a pretty typical life through his childhood and young adult life. Like typical young adults he got married; and as he progressing in years he progressed in his devotion and prayer to God.
Around 610 A.D., at forty years of age and after a two-year retreat of prayer and devotion it is said that he received his prophetic calling from God.
According to Islamic tradition, one night the angel Gabriel took Mohammad from Mecca to Jerusalem. And it was here he was brought through what the Quran describes as the “Seven Heavens”. It is in the seventh heaven where Mohammad says that he visited with God and all the previous prophets.
According to Dr. Norman Geisler, and Islamic tradition, Abraham was found in the Seventh Heaven; Moses was found in the Sixth Heaven, Other great prophets were found in the 5th, 4th and 3rd Heavens… And Jesus was found in the 2nd Heaven.
After traveling through these heavens, finally Muhammad was brought to the place were he received a specific procedure for the Islamic worship and daily prayer. It is at this time that he proclaimed himself a prophet of God.
Moreover, Muhammad defines himself as the “last prophet” after Jesus. And that he was brought to the world to bring all mankind to Islam. He considered himself the “Seal of the Prophets” that came before him.
In the Hadith, (an inspired collection of Muhammad’s teaching recorded by others, including his wives) Muhammad says, “…I have been on a month’s long journey; I have been given permission to intercede; I have been sent to all mankind, and the prophets have been sealed with me.”
Muslims insist that he was beyond “major sin” and a perfect moral example for mankind. And for that reason the Angel Gabriel spoke the words of the Quran to Muhammad.
Let me begin and set the stage. From reliable accounts and early Muslim tradition, he was experiencing regular vision and trances while he was a pagan young man.
On one such account Muhammad claimed that a heavenly being had split open his chest and stomach, stirred his insides around and then sewed him up. Muhammad later recounts this in the Quran in Surah 94:1 “Did we not open thy breast for thee?”
Early tradition states that as he would get a revelation from Allah he would fall down to the ground and his body would shake violently and his eye would roll back. Then he would rise and proclaim what he had just received!
In a highly regarded religious encyclopedia, “McClintock and Strong” they state… “Muhammad, as we gather from the oldest and most trustworthy narratives, was an epileptic and as such, was considered to be possessed of evil spirits.”
“At first, he believed the saying, but gradually he came to the conclusion, confirmed by his friends, that demons had no power over so pure and pious a man as he was, and he conceived the idea that he was not controlled by such spirits.”
By the way this sounds very similar to Joseph Smith’s early encounters with God as God gave him visions and revelations. He said, “I was seized upon by some great power which entirely overcame me, and shook me to my deepest parts. An astonishing influence came over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak...”
And so the Muslim’s faith was born!
2 Interesting Facts About Muhammad’s Life:
• He was completely illiterate.
He could not read or write a complete sentence! He dictated what Gabriel told him and his followers wrote it down. Yet as most Muslims believe that this is a poetic and literary masterpiece!
Surah 7:157 says he was an “unlettered prophet”.
• He was given special permission by Allah to have 13 wives. He told his followers that they could only have 4 wives!
His last wife was six-years-old when she was betrothed to him, and the marriage was consummated when she was nine.
There’s much more I researched on this subject but for the sake of time, I challenge everyone to do there own research…May I say, just as Muslims are free to interrupt them as divine visitations, non-Muslims are free to interpret otherwise!
2. The Muslim Message.
We need to deal with and clarify 4 major issues…
a. For Muslims the Quran is God’s Word. There are major differences between the ways their scripture presents events that are recorded in the Bible.
What the Quran Says:
• God created in 8 days (Surah 41:9-12). The Quran
even contradicts itself on this point and says in Surah 10:3 that it was done in six days.
• One of Noah’s sons was left behind (Surah 11:32-48)
• Abraham’s father was Azar (Surah 6:74)
• Abraham was going to sacrifice Ishmael (Surah 37:100-112)
• Abraham only had 2 sons (Surah 37:100-112)
• A person named Aziz bought Joseph (Surah 12:21)
• Zechariah was only unable to talk for 3 nights (Surah 19:10)
• Jesus was born under a palm tree (Surah 19:22-25)
What the Bible Says:
• God created in 6 days
• All of Noah’s sons got onto the ark
• Abraham’s father’s name was Terah
• Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac
• Abraham had 8 sons
• Potiphar bought Joseph
• Zechariah was not able to speak until John the Baptist was born (several months).
• Jesus was born in a stable
b. The Bible says Jesus was crucified, Muslims believe He only ascended to heaven.
Surah 4.157 “That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Apostle of God” - but they killed him not, nor crucified him...”
Luke 23:33 “When they came to the place called “The Skull,” they crucified Jesus there, and the two criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.” (TEV)
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
c. Islam doesn’t have a savior; it’s a religion of works. It’s based on rituals rather than a relationship with God.
How successful a Muslim is at doing what the Quran says determines their eternal fate. You better hope in the end that your 51% on the good side!
Surah 4:57 “And as for those who believe and do good deeds, we will make them enter gardens...”
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” (NIV)
1 John 5:11-13 “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
d. Muhammad said that Deuteronomy 18:15 was the Biblical prophesy of his coming.
Deuteronomy 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” (NIV)
Moses told us that this prophet would come from his land. Muhammad was born in Arabia, not Israel!
But if you really want the truth…
Jeremiah 23:5 - He would be a descendent of David.
Malachi - He would be preceded by "a voice crying in the wilderness"
Zechariah 9:9 - He would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey.
Psalm 78:2 - He would speak in parables.
Psalm 22:16 - His hands and feet would be pierced.
Psalm 41:9 - Someone he ate with would betray him.
Isaiah 35:5 - He would heal the blind, deaf & the lame.
Isaiah 42:1-4 - He would work quietly, without fanfare.
Isaiah 49:7 - His people would reject him.
Isaiah 53:6 - His back would be beaten.
Isaiah 53:6 - They would spit on him and disfigure him.
Isaiah 53:9,12 - He would die among criminals.
In all, over 60 Old Testament prophecies came to pass in the life of a single man - Jesus Christ.
It’s a fact that the Quran cannot come close to this kind of contextual accuracy and transparency!
Josh McDowell says of Christ, “Modern day mathematicians have calculated that the chances of just eight prophecies occurring in a single individual life hundreds of years before he was born, is 160 trillion to one.”
