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The major rival to Christianity globally is Islam. Islam is the second largest world religion, numbering roughly two billion people. Yet, despite its importance, many Christians know little about Islam.
The Life of Muhammad
Muhammad (c. 570-632), the founder of Islam, had a greater impact on world history than anyone other than Jesus Christ. In 22 short years, Muhammad transformed Arab culture and launched a movement that changed the world.
Muhammad was born in Mecca, a trade center in Arabia famed for the Ka’ba, a pagan shrine that was the center of Arab religious life. Orphaned at an early age, Muhammad was raised by his grandfather and then his uncle.
Through his family’s caravan trading, he was exposed to Judaism and likely to Christianity, but probably not to any churches or to the Bible. At about age 25, he married Khadijah, an older and wealthy widow.
While Muhammad was praying one evening in about the year 610, a heavenly being came down to him in a vision and commanded Muhammad to “Recite!”
At first, Muhammad worried that he might be possessed by an evil jinn (genie), but Khadijah convinced him the vision was from God. Encouraged by her, Muhammad eventually began receiving repeated experiences in which he felt himself prompted to “recite” the words of Allah.
Muhammad’s message developed over time into a thoroughgoing monotheism with distinctively Arabic and Meccan elements.
Early in his Meccan ministry, Muhammad recited verses permitting devotion to the “daughters of Allah” (three goddesses enshrined in the Ka’ba along with Allah), but later recited new verses to replace the earlier ones, which were rejected as having been recited by Satan (the so-called “Satanic Verses”).
Muhammad eventually came to a consistently monotheistic doctrine of Allah as the one and only God.
Most Meccans, whose city’s prestige was connected to the gods of the Ka’ba, rejected Muhammad’s message.
When they learned that the city Yathrib had invited Muhammad to preach there, they tried to kill him. Muhammad’s flight to safety, known as the Hijrah (“emigration”), is the beginning of the Muslim calendar and the most sacred event in Islam.
Yathrib welcomed Muhammad and renamed itself Madinat al-Rasul (“city of the Prophet”), or Medina. At first, Muhammad hoped to win the support of the sizable Jewish population there. He instituted a Friday worship service and required prayers to be said facing Jerusalem.
The Jews rejected Muhammad, however, so he had them expelled from the city and later massacred a Jewish community. Muhammad then reinstated his earlier practice of praying facing the Ka’ba in Mecca.
In AD 630, Muhammad led an army from Medina to Mecca and conquered the city. With the economic and religious center of Arabia under his control, Muhammad was able to unify most of the peninsula under his leadership before dying suddenly in 632.
The Claims of Muhammad
Muhammad’s claim to be the last and the greatest prophet demands a high standard of proof, yet Muhammad offered no evidence for his claims.
All we have are Muhammad’s mystical experiences, his belief that they came from God, and the words he claimed were revelations from God.
The main evidence offered by Muslims is the literary beauty of the Qu’ran, a record of Muhammad’s recitations. The Qur’an itself claims that no one other than Allah himself could produce such magnificent poetry (2:23; 10:37-38; 17:88).
This, they claim, proves Muhammad’s divine call and the Qu’ran as God’s final revelation, displacing the Bible.
While non-Muslim scholars generally agree that the poetry in the Qur’an is excellent, this does not prove its divine origin.
Unlike the Bible, it also lacks objective evidence such as fulfilled prophecies or miracles. The Qur’an is an Arabic masterpiece and one of the most influential books in history, but it is not divine revelation.
There is thus no reason to accept Muhammad’s claim to be a prophet. But this does not necessarily mean that he was a deliberate deceiver.
Muhammad was almost certainly a sincere, pious man whose impassioned preaching of an all-powerful, all-merciful God made a tremendous impact on civilization.
Further, the heart of Muhammad’s message ultimately derived from God’s revelation to the Jews in the Old Testament, even though the words which Muhammad spoke were not themselves revelations from God.
Islam and Jesus
Muslims acknowledge Jesus as the greatest of all prophets other than Muhammad but deny his deity. Muhammad rejected the Trinity as polytheism and the Incarnation because he thought it meant that God “begat” Jesus by carnal means.
Muhammad also rejected Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. To Muhammad, prophets are glorious, victorious figures; thus, God would never allow his prophet to suffer such an ignominious death.
Instead, Muhammad claimed that the Romans crucified someone else by mistake, most likely Judas Iscariot. Jesus never died at all but was taken up bodily into Paradise.
These claims are unsupported by facts or logic. Jewish leaders would certainly have known (and objected) if the Romans were crucifying the wrong man.
At least two independent accounts inform us that friends and family members of Jesus (including his mother) witnessed his death and buried his body (Luke 23:49-56; John 19:25-27, 38-42).
Small wonder that all non-Muslim historians, whether Jewish, Christian, or skeptic, agree that Jesus was crucified.
Further, if Jesus hadn’t died but was taken up bodily into heaven, would he not have explained this to his disciples before he ascended? Why, then, did Jesus’ followers proclaim that he had died?
No follower of Jesus would have made this up for the very reason Muhammad could not accept it — because death by crucifixion was universally regarded as the most shameful death possible.
Despite his reaction to Jesus’ deity and his death and resurrection, Muhammad accepted other Christian beliefs about Jesus.
Muslims accept his virgin birth, his miracles, his ascension into heaven, and even his future return to the earth. But they do not allow any of these to suggest Jesus’ deity or to his superiority to Muhammad.
Muslims argue that Jesus was a Jewish prophet sent to his people, whereas Muhammad was a prophet for the whole world. But although Jesus was a Jew, he commissioned his disciples to take the gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
By Muhammad’s time, Christianity was predominantly Gentile, and Christians could be found throughout Europe, Western and South Asia, North Africa, and Ethiopia — essentially the whole known world.
Today, Jesus is followed by more people from more ethnic groups than any other religious leader. Nearly every major world religion (including Islam) assigns him a place of honor.
They do not find it necessary to do the same with Muhammad. The evidence thus does not support the claim that Jesus was a lesser, local prophet as compared to Muhammad. If anything, the evidence shows the opposite (Revelation 5:9).
Islam and World Powers
Although Muslim apologists have sought to persuade people to convert to the Muslim faith, Islam has, from its beginning, advanced primarily through military force.
During the decades following Muhammad’s death, Muslims began systematic conquests across the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.
By 712, Muslims conquered Spain (where they became known as Moors); by 1000, Muslim power covered the entire Middle East and was rising in India and Southeast Asia.
Christian Europe responded to Islamic expansion by attempting to take control of Jerusalem and to drive the Moors from Spain.
The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, but it was retaken by the Muslims in 1187 and kept until the 20th century. The Europeans were more successful in Spain and expelled the Moors in 1492.
The growth of European empires across the world century checked the expansion of Islam. In 1858, India became part of the British Empire, and between 1880 and 1918, the British gained control of both Egypt and Palestine.
The Ottoman Empire disappeared completely after World War I, leading to the emergence of several independent states.
The British called for a Jewish homeland in Palestine in the Balfour Declaration (1917). Jewish immigrants had already begun building new settlements in Palestine, and the Jewish population grew after World War I and especially during World War II as Jews sought to escape the Holocaust.
In 1947, the United Nations partitioned Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, and in 1948, the nation of Israel began its modern existence.
The Arab Palestinians rejected this, and in 1948, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq attacked Israel. Israel won the war and enlarged its borders substantially.
Israel then took control of Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War (1967). Subsequently, Arab-Israeli peace negotiations focused on these areas. A 1994 peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians did not resolve these issues or end the violence.
The militant Palestinian resistance against Israel is a small but crucial part of the larger movement known as Muslim “fundamentalism” but perhaps better termed Muslim radicalism. This movement represents a backlash against the Westernization and secularization of Muslim countries.
Muslim Sects
Islam is known in the West as much through Islamic sects as through traditional Islam.
1. Sufis rejected the formalism and materialism of the growing medieval Muslim empires in favor of a simple lifestyle and cultivating a mystical experience of Allah.
Twentieth-century Western interest in mysticism led to the rapid growth of Sufism in Europe and the United States.
2. Sikhs sought to integrate a form of Hinduism that recognized a personal deity with the Sufi tradition.
The Sikhs are known for their martial philosophy and garb (notably the turban and the dagger), a tradition that stems from their persecution by Muslim authorities in the 1600s.
Outside of India, the largest populations of Sikhs are in the United Kingdom and the United States.
3. The Baha’i World Faith was founded by Baha’u’llah, a Persian Muslim. He claimed to be the last in a series of prophets, including Muhammad, each of whom had provided a new and more complete manifestation of God to the world.
Baha’is were persecuted by Muslim authorities, and Baha’u’llah died in a Turkish prison. His son, ’Abdu’l-Baha’, brought the religion to America, where it flourished.
4. The Nation of Islam reinterprets Islam as a religion for oppressed African Americans. Its founder, Wali Fard Muhammad, wanted a separate Black nation within the United States, but since the 1970s under Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam has promoted economic independence from whites rather than political independence.
Farrakhan’s message of self-reliance, personal responsibility, and the importance of restoring young Black men in America to their place in the home strikes some important themes, though it is often marred by antisemitic rhetoric.
Christians and the Challenge of Islam
No religion poses a greater challenge to Christianity than Islam. It is the dominant religion in many parts of the Global South, and it has considerable appeal to those who resent their treatment by white Europeans and Americans.
In both traditional and sectarian forms, Islam is growing throughout the world. How should Christians respond to this challenge?
1. Christians must acknowledge that much in Islam is good. Islam is far superior to the paganism that gripped Arabia before Muhammad. The cultural contributions of Islamic civilization to the rest of the world should also be appreciated and commended.
2. We must recognize the West’s contributions to its conflict with the Islamic world, for example, in the role of antisemitism in leading to the founding of Israel. Islam’s history of conquest is also a factor, but we must honestly admit our share of responsibility for the current conflicts.
3. Christians need to support efforts to bring peace between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East and to foster understanding and acceptance between themselves and Muslims.
4. Finally, Christians must continue efforts to evangelize Muslims with the good news of Jesus Christ even as we work toward mutual understanding and acceptance.
This requires a fair and accurate understanding of Islam as well as the ability to explain and defend Christian truth claims.
For further reading:
Unchanging Faith in a Changing World by Dr. Ken Boa
4 Ways People Question Reality and Ignore the Truth
Is Christ Really the Only Way to God?
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Kriangkrai Thitimakorn
Kenneth Boa equips people to love well (being), learn well (knowing), and live well (doing). He is a writer, teacher, speaker, and mentor and is the President of Reflections Ministries, The Museum of Created Beauty, and Trinity House Publishers.
Publications by Dr. Boa include Conformed to His Image, Handbook to Prayer, Handbook to Leadership, Faith Has Its Reasons, Rewriting Your Broken Story, Life in the Presence of God, Leverage, and Recalibrate Your Life.
Dr. Boa holds a B.S. from Case Institute of Technology, a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from New York University, and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in England.
