Note from Rowland Croucher, December 2011: Here is a compelling story of one person’s journey from Islam to Christianity. He writes: ‘After I told my father I was a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord, he immediately disowned me.  I never saw him again, until three days before his death in 1999…’ [seventeen years later] . Not all Muslims or Christians will agree at all points with Ergun Mehmet Caner’s thesis here. I am seeking some comments from both Islamic and Christian Scholars: watch for them (to be posted at the end of this article).

~~

Ergun Mehmet Caner, ‘Why I Am No Longer a Muslim’, chapter 14 in Norman Geisler & Paul K, Hoffman, Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe, (Michigan: Baker Books, 2006, chapter 14).

~~ Muslims are the first victims of Islam…. To liberate the Muslim from his religion is the best service that one can render him.     Ernest Renan [1]

One Victim’s Victory

When Ernest Renan described Muslims as the first victims of Islam, he was not speaking as a Christian or someone otherwise biased against Islam.  He was, in fact, an equal opportunity critic of religion and culture.  And not all his assessments of Islam were negative.  As a historical scholar and author, Renan often drew portraits of Arabic society as peaceful and virtually idyllic.  By contrast, his criticisms of Christianity, such as Life of Jesus, [2] presented scathing rebukes of Christian historiography and legend.

Neither is Renan a contemporary commentator on the post-9/11 conflict between East and West, for he lived more than a century ago.  In the mid-1800s, he travelled the Middle East and was inspired to write about Islam and its enigmatic prophet, Muhammad.  As a disinterested observer, Renan’s works demonstrate that the issues we face concerning Islam and its strategy of conversion by the sword are not new.  They reflect a thirteen-hundred-year battle for souls, minds, and land.

The lives of Muslims have always been sated with intricate and exacting rules, impossible standards, and endless rituals.  Lashed to theocracy, wholly dependent upon the approval of their imams (pastors) and mullahs (clergy), and allied in a struggle to subject the world to Islamic rule, they bear an awful burden, daily endeavouring to prove their worthiness to Allah.  And yet, remarkably, Muslims periodically betray their quiet desperation with overt acts of genuine piety.  On occasion, they are lovingly tracked down by the hound of heaven.  Cornered by his grace, they encounter the one true God, the one who pleads to us, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28 KJV).

Renan was right.  Islam victimises its followers.  I know because I used to be one.  This chapter is an examination of the factors that led to my personal victory over Islam, my transformation from devout Sunni Muslim to born again Christian.  Each convert’s tale and journey is different.  Some Muslims tell of dreams in which Christ appears at their bedside.  [3] Others tell of being influenced by Christian missionaries or by persecuted believers.  In my case, Christ drew me to himself through intellectual inquiry, by means of one tenacious high school friend.

A Move to America:  Land of Wealth, Freedom, and Danger

I was raised as a Sunni Muslim, the son of a devout Turk, and I am an immigrant.

For the longest time these words were difficult for me to confess.  As a Muslim moving to America, the cultural shift cannot be overstated.  All our lives we talked about moving to “Oz”, where we could make more in a week than our parents made in a month.  In America, we presumed, money flows in the streets and everyone is free to live as they wish.

Though financial security and moral freedom are foreign to most of the world’s Muslims, they linger as dreams – for good or for ill – in the hearts of all men.  Still, to Muslims, these dreams are tainted by their seeming connection to all “Christian” cultures, which in turn are inextricably associated with all manner of sin and decadence.  In short, while many Muslims consider America the great Satan, most who immigrate see it as a thrilling but dangerous land.

Recognising the attendant risks, my father, Acar Mehmet Caner, came to America not to fulfil dreams but to build mosques.  He was an architect, and along with his three sons, our mother, and our grandmother, he moved to this country because Islam was spreading into the West at an unprecedented rate.  He was more than just a casual or cultural Muslim. He was devout, as were his father and mother, and their parents before them.  We were committed Muslims many generations back.

Two types of Muslims move to America.  A few come hoping to escape their Islamic background and restrictive lifestyle.  They take on the culture of America readily – the dress, the speech, and the exuberant way of life. [4]

We were not in that category.  We were among the majority:  those who come to America to change it.  We were proud of our Islamic heritage.  We prayed five times a day as the Qur’an demanded, and ate by the dietary restrictions of Halal (allowable) and haram (forbidden).  We understood that while America was intriguing, it was also a land of great temptation where many Muslims lose their way.  Out father was determined not to let this happen to his family.

There was no mosque in the community where we first settled, Columbus, Ohio.  So the local Muslims began meeting at the Ohio State University campus.  The group became known as the Islamic Study Centre and was led by an imam (pastor) who was also teaching at the university.  The Muslims of Columbus were united in their vision and determined to see America become an Islamic nation.

It was 1979, and the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had recently declared that Muslims would not relent until America was an Islamic nation.  We shared his vision and longed for that day.  We believed the Islamic eschatology that Allah would judge mankind once the world was subjugated to Sharia (Islamic) law. [5]

A common misconception about Muslims moving to America is that they come seeking freedom and democracy, or to share in the glory of the world’s only true superpower.  For most Muslim immigrants, nothing could be further from the truth.  We did not see the U.S. as a superpower or a land blessed by God.  On the contrary, like the rest of the world’s one billion-plus Muslims, we saw it as the definitive “Christian” nation, a characterisation that was far from flattering.  Living in America would require major adjustments.

Life in the Scales:  The Weight of Continuous Judgment

How does a Muslim live in a country filled with Christians, blasphemers who worship a man as God?  The Qur’an makes if difficult, to say the least.

Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your guides.  They are guides of one another.  Whosoever of you takes them for a guide shall become one of their number.  Allah does not guide the wongdoers.                                                                                    Surah 5:51

Some Muslims ignore this edict.  But those who remain devout must live with the constant cultural tension of rejecting those around them.  As a dedicated Sunni, I purposefully had no friends who were Jews; I had no friends who were Christians.  I was a stranger in a strange land.  Still, I was curious about this nation which, as I understood it, was founded upon Christian law.  I knew a little about the Christian faith (or so I thought), and was fascinated by the disparity I saw between what Christians were supposed to be and what they actually were.

Most of my classmates were either nominal Christians or complete non-believers.  It seemed that questions of divine judgment, eternity, death, and salvation were of no interest to them.  Even at our relatively young age, this was exasperating to me.  As a Muslim, virtually every aspect of life was detailed and dictated.  Looming in the background of our day-to-day existence was the spectre of death and judgment, of being weighed by God and, perhaps, found wanting.  In Islam, the Day of Judgment involves scales to weigh those fit for paradise:

On that Day, the weighing is true.  He whose scales are heavy – those are the prosperers, but he whose scales are light – those have lost their souls because they were harmful towards Our verses. Surah 7: 8-9, Al ‘A’raf On the Day of Resurrection We shall set up just scales, so that no soul shall in the least be wronged, even though it be the weight of a grain of mustard seed We will bring it – We Suffice as reckoners. Surah 21:47, Al-‘Ambiya’ Those whose scales are heavy shall prosper, but those whose scales are light shall forfeit their souls and live in Gehenna (Hell) for ever.  The fire lashes their faces and therein are shrivelled lips. Surah 23: 102-103, Al’-Mu’minun

In the hands of Allah, I saw not scars of sacrificial love but scales of judgment.  Understandably, the eternal questions, issues of faith, ethics, and belief, were all terribly significant to me.  As these questions were raised in my classroom, or even in the mosque, I desperately wanted thoughtful answers.  I hungered to know the truth deeply so that I was not just blindly following.  I wanted to understand what I believed with confidence.  Thankfully, there was another young man in my class who was also engaged in the larger questions of life.  He was a Christian, named Jerry Tackett.

It was this one stubborn boy who was ultimately used by God to bring me to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, Saviour, and God.  Though initially I was distant and defensive, Jerry did not know retreat.  He stood his ground for years, continually engaging me in profound intellectual battles.  But he did not enter the fray to win an argument; he was concerned with winning my soul.  And like a judo master, he used the force of my aggressive search for truth to flip my world upside down.

A Curious Muslim Is a Curiosity:  Questioning the Unquestioned.

One of the most appealing aspects of Christianity for me, in stark contrast to Islam, was the invitation to ask difficult questions.  For example, I was curious why the Lord would invite Isaiah to “come now, and let us reason together,” (Isa. 1:18, NASB), and amazed that the Bible included stories of men like Job and Jonah, who honestly questioned the Lord. [6]  God did not strike them dead for their insolence.  Indeed, he seemed to invite men to seek him with their mind, as well as their heart.  The pursuit of truth and wisdom, not blind faith, were welcomed by the God of the Bible.  I was heartened when I read Proverbs 15:14, “The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on folly,” and 22:17, “Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge.”

Unlike the Christian apologetic community that encourages investigation, Islam suppresses doubt and questions.  That is not to say that Islam is without scholarship, but it is substantially limited in scope and content.

As my brothers and I began to study the Qur’an more closely we often raised probing queries in our madrassah (training).  We were routinely and immediately told that our questions were of Shaitan (Satan) and we should “believe without hesitation.”  For a system that prides itself on the purity and supremacy of its logic, this struck me as strangely inconsistent, even incoherent.

Beyond Islam’s narrowness of theological inquiry, the Qur’an itself is far from intellectually satisfying.  Unlike the historical narratives, speeches, poems and sharp dialogues recorded in the Bible, the Qur’an is virtually one long monologue from Allah.  One would hope that the final revelation from God to humanity would be readily accessible to honest seekers of average intelligence.  But as anyone who has read the Qur’an can explain, the recitations delivered to Muhammad are often obtuse and mysterious, if not entirely incomprehensible.  Even Muslim scholars concede the Qur’an cannot be read without commentary aids, known as tafsir.

(The Qur’an) contains sentences which are incomplete and not fully intelligible without the aid of commentaries; foreign words, unfamiliar Arabic words, and words used with other than the normal meaning…. These and other such aberrations in the language have given scope to critics who deny the (Qur’an’s) eloquence…. To sum up, more than one hundred (Qur’anic) aberrations from the normal rules have been noted. [7]

And Western scholars universally agree the Qur’an is anything but clear, as it protests to be.  Gerd R. Puin, a world renowned scholar of Arabic, offers this typical criticism:

The Koran clams for itself that it is mubeen, or “clear”…. But if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense.  Many Muslims – and Orientalists – will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Koranic text is just incomprehensible. [8]

It is one thing to claim that your prophet walked on water, or turned water into wine.  The Gospel accounts of Jesus’s miracles may strike the reader as improbable or even impossible.  But they are at least comprehensible; we understand what the writers are saying.  It is quite another to hold that God recited unintelligible statements to his prophet, ordered him to record what he heard, and then declared these perplexing proclamations the perfect and infallible words of God.  This is the conundrum faced by Qur’anic apologists.

We are told that on Muhammad’s fortieth birthday he received his first vision from the angel Gabriel.  The angel was purportedly transmitting the exact words of Allah to Muhammad.  The successive ecstatic visions that followed were recorded for Muhammad by others, as he was known to be illiterate.  This collection of recorded recitings became the 114 chapters of the Qur’an (which means “Reciting”).  Because they are the very words of Allah, to question the Qur’an, or Muhammad’s position as the final prophet, is tantamount to blasphemy, a sin that shakes the very foundations of those who “believe without hesitation.”  Orientalist Maxime Rodinson cautioned against offering any critique of Muhammad or his mission.

In the present state of affairs and for precise sociological reasons, the geography of Muhammad is a subject that is taboo and is permitted only when written as apologetic and edifying literature. [9]

If a legitimate Muslim scholar questions any accepted tradition in Islam, violence and the threat of murder will inevitably arise.  For example, when the renowned Egyptian author Muhammad Hasanayn Haykal, a devout Muslim, offered the controversial thesis that Muhammad received some of his visions from the devil, he was promptly threated with death.  The Qur’anic passages questioned by Haykal – the now infamous “Satanic verses” – follow the text in Surah 53:19-20 (An-Najm).  Here, Allah purportedly acknowledges three goddesses of ancient Arabia, and asks, “Have you considered Al-Lat and Al-‘Uzza, and, another, the third Manat?”

An early biographer of Muhammad, Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari (A.D.838-923), recorded a hadith (the accepted sayings of Muhammad) about these pagan idols.  According to al-Tabari, Satan appeared to Muhammad and tempted him to add this problematic commentary:  “these are the exalted Gharaniq (goddesses), whose intercession is hoped for.” [10]

Secular scholars of Islam generally agree that this effusive concession to polytheism was included in the original text of the Qur’an, apparently to buy peace with the pagan Meccans, who in turn agreed to stop persecuting Muhammad and his followers.  To address this grave blunder, Allah sent Gabriel to reprimand Muhammad and correct his mistake with the words we now find in Surah 53:21-26 (An-Najm).

This startling precedent for abrogating the prophet’s purported recitation of the very words of God obviously casts doubt on the reliability of the Qur’an in general and the trustworthiness of Muhammad in particular.  Did Satan put other words in Muhammad’s mouth, or place corrupt thoughts in his mind?  In 1989, the suggestion by author Salman Rushdie [11] that this may have happened inspired Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s murder.

In every country identifying itself as an “Islamic Republic,” Sharia law demands death for questioning any orthodox doctrine of Islam or for maligning Muhammad.  For example, section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code mandates the death penalty for anyone who issues “derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet.”  As a fail-safe against all forms of blasphemous thought or disparaging speech, where theocratic law is not sufficiently broad to suppress every form of criticism, the clergy’s threats of violence will fill the gaps.

Witness the worldwide riots following the September 2005 publication of “Muhammad” cartoons in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten as a prime example. [12]

Consequently, there is no public dialogue in the Islamic world regarding questions of faith.  It is simply too dangerous.  As test pilot Chuck Yeager once said, “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots.  But there are no old bold pilots.”  The implication is that the bold don’t live long, and the same principle applies to Muslims.  There are outspoken Muslims and there are curious Muslims.  But there are no outspoken curious Muslims.  They are dispatched immediately or, like Rushdie, forced into silent exile.

The Word of God:  A Person or a Book?

Why is this?  Why is dissent in Islam utterly intolerable?  I believe this is caused not by Muslims’ extraordinary zeal for Allah but by their peculiar perspective on the Qur’an.  The Qur’an is to Islam what Jesus himself is to Christianity; in some ways even holier.  It is the central and sole miracle of Islam, the very words of God written down for us – as they were recited – in a tangible book, just as Jesus is to Christians the Word of God in human flesh (see John 1:14).  To challenge the holiness and perfection of the Qur’an is akin to challenging the deity of Christ.  Indeed, it is like challenging Christ’s deity to his face, in person.  Just as the apostle Peter flailed a sword when the Roman soldiers came to arrest Jesus, many Christians would be equally tempted to defend their Lord’s honour, even to the death.

Here is why the doctrine of the Qur’an is so problematic.  Islam stands or falls on the absolute perfection of the Qur’an, just as Christianity stands or falls on the deity of Christ.  With two thousand years of history between them and their Lord, Christians are essentially insulated from effective and ongoing challenges to Christ’s deity.  As Dr. Kreeft explains in chapter 13, all the attacks on Jesus over the past twenty centuries have been dispelled or defrayed, leaving us with few good options.  He was either (a) crazy, (b) evil, (c) an incompetent guru, (d) an inexplicable myth that thousands were willing to die for, or (e) who he claimed to be, the Son of God.  The one thing he could not possibly have been was just a good man.  He was so obviously flawless that options (a), (b), and (c) are simply not viable.  This leaves us with a choice between myth and Son of God, and that is precisely where the debate rages today.  Since Jesus isn’t walking the earth, we cannot ask him if he really claimed to be the Son of God.  Consequently, the battle is focused on the historical data.  In effect, the best historical data should settle the debate.  And as Dr. Habermas shows in chapter 9, the data support the historicity of apostolic affirmations of Christ’s deity and resurrection.

But Islam’s word “incarnate” – the Qur’an – is ever before us and subject to our intense and continual scrutiny.  We can pick it up, read it, research the accuracy of its claims and propositions, and thereby assess whether it really is perfect.  But that very process of testing the Qur’an is akin to the arrest and trial of Jesus; it is a belligerent insult to Islam’s tangible communication from God.

Interestingly, Jesus was found guilty of claiming to be God, and was executed for the crime of blasphemy.  If put on trial today, would the Qur’an be found guilty of perfection?   Muslims will dismiss the very idea of testing the Qur’an as an unspeakable insult.  But the truth is they simply cannot allow such a trial to ever take place.  They cannot allow its perfection to be questioned.

Consequently, there really is no debate in the Arab world regarding the claimed perfection of the Qur’an.  And in dealing with the non-Arab world, Islamic apologists regularly employ a convenient method for dodging all serious challenges.  Because God (through the angel Gabriel) literally spoke to Muhammad in the Arabic tongue, it is claimed that one cannot truly understand the Qur’an unless one reads it in the original Arabic.  Moreover, one cannot read and truly understand Qur’anic Arabic unless one was born and raised in an Arabic-speaking land.  In short, if you fail to see the beauty and perfection of the Qur’an it is only because you are unable to read it in your native tongue.  As a result, debate between a Muslim and a non-Arab about the content or character of the Qur’an is over before it starts.

Predictably, Islamic doctrine calls for the highest conceivable reverence for the Qur’an, a reverence that borders on superstitious idolatry.  The Qur’an itself claims that the original Qur’an is eternal and perfect, and exists as a physical book in the presence of God.

We have revealed the Koran in the Arabic tongue that you may understand its meaning.  It is a transcript of the eternal book in Our Keeping, sublime, and full of wisdom. Surah 43: 2-3

Indeed, Islamic ulema (scholars) attest to its magical powers: (The Qur’an) is the holy of holies.  It must never rest beneath other books, but always on top of them, one must never drink or smoke when it is being read aloud, and it must be listened to in silence.  It is a talisman against disease and disaster. [13] So the Qur’an is sacrosanct and cannot be publicly scrutinised.  Even the haunting voice of history is silenced by the institutional insularity of Islamic theology.  Admittedly, the Crusades [14] are a dark blot on Christian history, particularly with respect to the unspeakable treatment of European Jews.  But Christianity learned the horrible lesson of “holy war,” and reformed.  Though misguided nationalism has occasionally been perversely adorned with “Christian” slogans, for centuries not a single bona fide Christian thinker has advocated war or violence in the name of Christ.  In contrast, the lesson repeatedly learned by Islam is that violence works.  History is replete with Muslim’s murdering infidels (and other Muslims) in the name of Allah, and the religious bloodshed continues to this day.

On Freedom, Belief, and Submission

Intrinsic to Islam is the principle of theocracy, the political institutionalisation of Sharia law.  This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of Islam for Americans to grasp.  The wisdom of separating religion and government is, to us, self-evident, like our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  We understand intuitively that true religion must be freely chosen, not imposed.  But Islam is not simply a religion, a set of beliefs one adopts in an effort to know and please God.  It is an entire socio-political system, and it must be imposed if it is not willingly adopted.  In this sense, Islam is like a religious form of Marxism.  It is an all-encompassing vision of how people must live.  And in lieu of God-given rights, man is endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable duties, and among these are submitting to Allah, giving alms to the poor, and taking up arms in defense of Islam.

If the liberating message of Christ had to be reduced to single word, that word would be believe.  For Muhammad, that single word would be submit.  Belief cannot be forced, but submission can be, and it is.  The Christian invitation to believe respects our moral freedom, the defining attribute of creatures made in God’s image.  The Islamic command to submit respects the sovereignty of God alone. To bring about the submission of others, Muhammad himself called for killing infidels, fought a soldier, and was personally responsible for the deaths of many.  Sadly, this man of violence is now the model of virtue for all Muslims. What a contrast to Jesus, who took no life but gave his own.  As a young man searching for truth, I was drawn by the extraordinary life of Jesus.  His goodness was beyond compare.  And it is here we find one of Christianity’s most beautiful attributes.  It openly invites comparison:  “Look long and hard at our Lord and our faith.”  This was the invitation I received and accepted. The sheer weight and volume of criticism written for and against Christianity are a testament not only to rigorous scholarship but to the nature of the God discussed.  For me, the liberating freedom to ask questions without fear was a powerful drawing force to Christianity.  The mere existence of intellectual engagement and passionate debate served as solid evidence that Christianity was not for the weak of mind.

The Liberating Power of Love

During the second phase of my journey to salvation, I was blessed by experiencing the love of Christ through the dogged diligence of Jerry Tackett.  The fact that he virtually ignored my initial objections was quite vexing to me.  Indeed, the more vehement I was in my antagonism, the more persistent he was in inviting me to church, till I finally acceded.

Once I entered the Stelzer Road Baptist Church, I was greeted with even more kindness.  This went a long way in dispelling the misconceptions I had about Christians.  Evangelicals must remember that the only information Muslims receive about Christians comes from three sources:  (1) Qur’anic teaching about Christians, (2) sermons in the mosque, and (3) the observed lives of “Christians”, many of whom are hypocrites and pretenders.  Understandably, it was a number of years before I was willing to even enter a church.  Like other Muslims, I assumed Christianity was to blame for wars, hatred, hypocrisy, and all types of sin and evil.

The Qur’an does not paint a flattering portrait of the Christian community.  Though there are more condemning passages than space would allow, Surah 9 (Al-Tawba, “Repentance”) offers some insight into Muslim perceptions:

The Jews say Ezra is the son of Allah, [15] while the Christians say the Messiah is the son of Allah.  Such are their assertions, by which they imitate those who disbelieved before.  Allah fights them!  How perverted are they! They take their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah, and the Messiah, son of Mary, though they were ordered to worship but one God, there is no god except He.  Exalted is He above that they associate with Him! They desire to extinguish the Light of Allah with their mouths; but Allah seeks only to perfect His Light, though the unbelievers hate it. It is He who has sent forth His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to uplift it above every religion, no matter how much the idolaters hate it.

Believers, many are the rabbis and monks who in falsehood defraud people of their possessions and bar people from the Path of Allah.  Give glad tidings of a painful punishment to those who treasure gold and silver and do not spend it in the Way of Allah.  On that Day they (the treasures) will be heated in the fire of Gehenna (Hell), and their foreheads, sides, and backs will be branded with them, and told:  “These are the things which you have treasured.  Taste then that which you were treasuring!” Surah 9: 30-35

The Christianity described by Islam was hardly attractive.  But the Christ I experienced through Jerry and his church was truly compelling.  They showed me something I had never before seen:  unconditional love.  Not passive tolerance, but active love.  And the more hostile I was toward this small band of believers, the kinder they were to me.  This is perhaps the most profound and fundamental difference between Christianity and any other belief system.  These folks loved me unconditionally, just as God loves unconditionally:  “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8 NASB);  “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19)

Allah, the God of the Qur’an, does not love unconditionally.  Oh, he loves some people. He loves the righteous, the penitent, and true believers.  But in sixty-plus references to the love of Allah, the Qur’an makes one thing very clear:  Allah loves in response, not in covenant, and he does not love everyone.  Consider this small selection of passages, all of which set limits, conditions, or qualifications to his love.  (I’ve added italics for emphasis.)

Fight in the way of Allah those who fight against you, but do not aggress.  Allah does not love the aggressors…. Spend in the way of Allah and do not cast into destruction with your own hands.  Be good-doers; Allah loves the good-doers. Surah 2:190; 195 Allah loves those who turn to Him in repentance and He loves those who cleanse themselves Surah 2:222 Allah effaces usury and nurtures charity.  Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner. Surah: 2: 276 Say (Prophet Muhammad):  “If you love Allah, follow me and Allah will love you, and forgive your sins.  Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”  Say:  “Obey Allah and the Messenger.”  But if they turn away, then truly, Allah does not love the unbelievers.                                                                                                                                                                      Surah 3: 31-32 They spread evil in the land, but Allah does not love the evil doers. Surah 5: 64

This is the God I once knew.  I had to earn Allah’s love.  But the God I now know loved me before I knew him, before I repented, while I was still an evil-doer and ungrateful sinner.  In spite of the lies about Christianity I was taught to believe, Christ drew me to himself through his amazing love, the love demonstrated by his death on the cross.

If eternity in Islam is centred on scales, then in Christianity it is centred on the cross.  The scales of Islamic judgment compel every man to account for his every work, thought, and deed.  But Christianity inverts this notion.  All our evil thoughts and deeds were first taken into account by God, and then cancelled through Christ’s death on the cross (see Col. 2:14).  The accounting for our sins is now complete.  As Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30)

Jesus Christ:  Revere or Reject Him, but Don’t Merely Respect Him

Clarence Miller was wise in the truest sense of the word.  His understanding of Islam may have been limited, but his understanding of the human condition was not.  Following the sermon on that first service, Jerry brought me to Clarence as he greeted the members.  With insight, clarity, and a slow Kentucky drawl, Clarence asked me, “Boy, what do you think about Jee’-zus?” “Isa,” I replied.  “We respect Isa in Islam.” And it is true.  In over seventy references in the Qur’an, deep reverence is afforded Jesus as a prophet of Islam.  The details of Islamic Christology are quite revealing.  Muslims affirm the following eight points:

            1.      Jesus (Isa in Arabic) was virgin born.

And mention in the Book, Mary, how she withdrew from her people to an eastern place and she took a veil apart from them;  We sent to her Our Spirit (Gabriel) in the resemblance of a perfect human.  (And when she saw him) she said:  “I take refuge in the Merciful from you! If you are fearful.” Surah 19: 16-18

2.       Jesus was specially created, from dust.

The similitude of Jesus before God is as that of Adam.  He created him from dust, then said to him:  “Be!”  And he was. Surah 3: 59

3.       Jesus spoke from the cradle.

So she (Mary) pointed to him (Jesus).  But they replied:  “How can we speak with a baby in the cradle?”  He (the baby) said:  “I am the worshipper of Allah.  Allah has given me the Book and made me a Prophet.  He made me to be blessed wherever I am, and He has charged me with prayer and charity for as long as I shall live.” Surah 19: 29-34

4.       Jesus performed miracles.

“I (Jesus) have come to you with a sign from your Lord.  From clay, I will create for you the likeness of a bird.  I shall breathe into it and by the permission of Allah, it shall be a bird.  I shall heal the blind, and the leper, and raise the dead to life by the permission of Allah.” Surah 3: 49

5.       Jesus was a special prophet.

Of these Messengers, We have preferred some above others.  To some Allah spoke; and some He raised in rank.  We gave (Prophet) Jesus, the son of Mary, clear signs and strengthened him with the Spirit of Purity (Gabriel). Surah 2: 253

6.       Jesus promised that Muhammad would come.

And when Jesus, the son of Mary said:  “Children of Israel, I am sent to you by Allah to confirm the Torah that was before me, and to give news of a Messenger who will come after me whose name shall be ‘Ahmad’ (i.e., The Praised One).” Surah 61: 6

7.       Jesus ascended to heaven without death.

Rather, Allah raised him (Jesus) up to Him.  Allah is Almighty, the Wise. Surah 4: 158

8.       Jesus will testify against Christians at the last judgment.

There is not one of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him (Jesus) before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them. Surah 4: 159

 

Accordingly, I insisted, Muslims respected Jesus.  I enumerated the points above, making sure to emphasise the high esteem with which we held Jesus.  But the pastor was discerning enough to note what Islam denies about the person and work of Christ.  While holding Jesus in high regard, the Qur’an is purposefully polemical, expressly denying four essential points of Christian doctrine.    

       

            1.       The Qur’an denies Jesus is the “only begotten Son of God.”

It is not befitting to (the majesty of) God that He should beget a son.  Glory be to Him!  When He determines a matter, He only says to it, “Be” and it is. Surah 19:35

2.       The Qur’an denies the divinity of Jesus.

And behold!  God will say [i.e. on the Day of Judgment]:  “Oh Jesus, the son of Mary!  Did you say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of God?”  He will say:  “Glory to Thee!  Never could I say what I had no right (to say).  Had I said such a thing, You would indeed have known it.  You know what is in my heart, though I know not what is in Yours.  For You know in full all that is hidden.  Never did I say to them anything except what You commanded me to say:  ‘Worship God, my Lord and your Lord.’ “ Surah 5: 116-17

3.       The Qur’an denies the Trinity.

The unbelievers are those who say:  “Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary.”  But the Messiah said:  “Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.”  He who associates anything with Allah, Allah has indeed forbidden Paradise to him, and his abode shall be in the Fire.  The harmdoers shall have no helpers.  Indeed those who say:  “Allah is the third of the Trinity” became unbelievers.  There is but One God.  If they do not desist in what they say, a painful punishment will afflict those of them that disbelieve. Surah: 5: 72-73

4.       The Qur’an denies the crucifixion and resurrection.

(A)nd for their saying, “We killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.”  They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but to them, he (the person crucified) had been given the look (of Prophet Jesus).  Those who differ concerning him (Jesus) are surely in doubt regarding him, they have no knowledge of him, except the following of supposition, and (it is) a certainty they did not kill him. Surah 4: 157

 

In summary, Muslims say that Jesus was a holy prophet of Allah, but he was not the Son of God, not divine, not the Second Person of the Trinity, and he was neither crucified nor resurrected.  Never mind the historical evidence.  The absolute unity of Allah, and the impossibility of a prophet of Allah suffering the defeat and indignity of criminal execution, render these fundamental Christian doctrines anathema. Though they deny the crucifixion, Muslims have no objection to the notion of paying for one’s sins with blood.  They believe in blood atonement for sinners, but the blood shed must be the sinner’s own.

If you should be killed in the way of Allah or die, the Forgiveness and Mercy from Allah would surely be better than all you amass.  And if you die or are killed, before Allah you shall all be gathered. Surah 3: 157-58

 

I was taught that martyrs in the cause of Islam have the assurance of paradise.  But sacrificial atonement – act of true grace – is a concept completely foreign to Islam.  The will of Allah is inexorable, and he would never allow one of his prophets to be murdered.  Consequently, if Christ did in fact die on the cross, he was nothing more than a defeated sinner.  Prophets are not failures in Islam. Thus, Islam denies that Jesus was crucified.  Clarence incisively noted, “But the Qur’an teaches that someone was crucified in Jesus’s place; another person was punished for something Jesus did.  What did Jesus do?  Why was he tried and convicted?” My answer, according to Islam, was simply that the Jews accused Jesus of shirk, the supreme sin of joining others in worship with Allah. Blasphemy, claiming to be God, is the highest form of shirk, and warrants execution. “It’s pretty clear the people who were there at the time, the people who lived with him and watched him every day, they thought he was guilty of shirk,” he noted, and I had to agree. The pastor then said, “Seems to me that’s pretty good evidence he was guilty.  I mean, if they killed him – or even if they just tried to kill him – then he was probably guilty of claiming to be God.”  It all seemed to follow. “But if Jesus was guilty of shirk, would he be worthy of being called a prophet in Islam?”  Of course not, I reasoned. The logic was sound, and the conclusion compelling.  Jesus must have claimed to be God.  But if he did, I was left with only one of two options.  I could (a) reject Jesus as a fraud, not worthy of being a prophet in Islam, or (b) revere Jesus as God, meaning that Islam abandoned the truth about Jesus.  Either way, I saw that Islam’s view of him was illogical and untenable.  He was a fraud or God, but not simply an honourable prophet.

The atonement of the God-man distinguishes Christianity from all other religions.  If Jesus was a holy prophet, his death must have had purpose.  And if his death had the purpose of offering forgiveness, then he himself could offer such forgiveness only if he were God.

Like most Muslims, I was initially sceptical that Christ’s death could pay for all my sins.  But Muslims are not unique in their reticence to place their faith in God’s amazing grace.  Most religions, and even many Christians, find it difficult to accept the notion that the individual plays no meaningful part in his or her own salvation.

Still, the most bewildering question about the atoning death of Christ is why.  Why would Jesus die for others?  If the atonement and his vicarious death is the how, the method by which he operated, his motivation goes far deeper.  Why would he do this?  The answer is grace, unmerited love that begins with God and ends with God.  Unlike the Allah of the Qur’an, God does not simply act lovingly.  He islove (see 1 John 4: 8).  And because he is love, he actively solved our predicament of sin, which separated us from our perfect and holy Creator.  He died for us because we are incapable of bringing about our own righteousness. In their heart of hearts, all Muslims understand that their thoughts, words, actions, prayers, and motivations do not add up to 51 percent “good,” let alone God’s standard of perfection.  And thus they live – as I once lived – with a secret angst.  But grace, Christ’s death on our behalf, is a release and a revolution – a victory – that goes beyond emotion.  It bridges the widest gulf and meets our deepest needs. It was on a Thursday night after years of Jerry Tackett’s persistence, and hours of explanation and discussion, that I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ.  For the first time in my life, I came to God with nothing in my hands to try to please him. I brought nothing but my own repentance and my faith in Christ.  Repentance itself is not a “good work” that earns God’s approval.  It is surrender – throwing oneself on the mercy of the court.  Repentance for me was the end of works, it was an admission that everything I’d ever attempted in an effort to please God had failed.  I finally saw that all my works, my best days, my righteousness, were as filthy rags. I threw myself on the mercy of the court.  And Jesus declared me righteous, he declared me justified, and he saved me forever. That night, after I told my father I was a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord, he immediately disowned me.  I never saw him again, until three days before his death in 1999.  For seventeen years I discovered a deep truth about our Lord that has sustained me throughout.  I may have lost my earthly family, but I gained a larger family, united together.  I lost my earthly father, but gained my heavenly Father and personally experienced his tender love and intimacy.

His name is the LORD – and rejoice before him.  A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families. Psalm 68:4-6

 

~~

[1] Ernest Renan, Islamisme et a Science, Lectures of 1883 (London: Spec, 1891), 223.

[2] Renan, Life of Jesus, (Paris: Laffont, 1984). The book was originally published in 1867.

[3] I have recorded many such stories in Voices Behind the Veil (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004). As one who is wary of mysticism, I have many doubts concerning dreams, but these types of testimonies are well represented in the MBB (Muslim-background believers) community.

[4] See Adeeb Khalid, The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999). Khalid illustrates the lives of many who held a less devout form of Islamic identity, and how Islam attempts to bring them into subjection, specifically in the Uzbek region.

[5] Books on the topic of Sunni  Islam’s inroads in America include, Abdullah Al Araby, The Islamization of America (New York: Booklocker, 1999), and Bruce Bawer, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within (New York: Doubleday, 2006).

[6] Jonah 4:9: ‘Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death”.’

[7] Ali Dashti, Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammed  (Costa Mesa, Calif., Mazda, 1994), 10.

[8] Toby Lester, ‘What is the Koran?’ Atlantic Monthly, January 1999.

[9] Maxine Rodinson, ‘A Critical Survey of Modern Studies on Muhammed’, in Studies in Islam,  ed. Merlin Swartz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), 24.

[10] Abu at-Tabari, Tafsir, in Ibn al’Arabi, Divine Sayings: The Mishkat al-Anwar of Ibn’Arabi, tr. Stephen Hirtenstein (Oxford: Anqa Press, 2005), 61. This controversial story was also included in the tafsirs of Muqtil and ‘Abd al-Riazzq. It is completely rejected by the Sunni and Shi’a communities.

[11] Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, (Boston: Picador, 1988).

[12] ‘J P Historie,’ http://www. jp.dk/info/historie.htm.  Accessed 12 March 2006.

[13] Alfred Guillaume, Islam (London: Harmondsworth, 1978), 74

[14] The Roman Catholic Crusades, under the aegis of a religious Commander-in-Chief (Pope Urban II in November 1095) was the subject of the author’s doctoral dissertation. For a fuller assessment of the crusades, see the book by my brother and me, Christian Jihad (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005).

[15] Obviously, the assertion that the ‘Jews say Ezra is the son of Allah (God)’ is demonstrably false, and poses a serious problem for the Islamic doctrine of Qur’anic perfection.