Today we are going to continue with our discussion on Islamic doctrine. The reason we are doing this is, as Christians, we are to defend our faith against those who make accusations and those to teach false doctrine. Islam makes outrageous claims, saying that their religion is superior to our religion and that our religion is flawed. It claims that Jesus is not the Son of God, that He was just a man, a prophet, but just a man.

There are 1.7 billion Muslims in the world following the teaching of Islam. This religion takes away the deity of Christ, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead.

Islam teaches that Allah could see that Isa (the Islamic Jesus) was in trouble so he took him into heaven to save him from being killed. He but Isa’s image on someone else who died on the cross to fool people into thinking that Isa died, but he did not die.

If you don’t have Jesus as God, His death on the cross, and His resurrection, you don’t have the Gospel. If you don’t have the Gospel, the sins of mankind have no atonement. Muhammad, who claimed that his revelations came from Allah, is still deceiving 1.7 billion people in the world today. If we don’t get the true Gospel to these people, they will all die and go to Hell. God has given us clear instructions to reach the world with the Gospel.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15)

This includes Muslims. The Bible also tells us to love our enemies. This also includes Muslims. We have an opportunity to take the Gospel to them because they are coming to our shores. We need to learn how to defend our faith, and how to reach Muslims with the truth. If we are going to reach them, we need to have some understanding of what they believe.

Yesterday we started looking at the doctrine of Tanzib. This doctrine teaches that Allah is unknowable.

A review from yesterday

God’s absolute transcendence and utter incomparability.

No correspondence at all between God and His creation.

The mind of the Creature cannot comprehend the Creator.

The Powers of Reason are void and incapable

What Allah reveals in the Qur’an is not Himself, but His rules for man.

Surah 42:11 “Nothing is like Him.”

Allah has sent revelations to his creation through certain prophets, but he doesn’t speak directly to his creation. His creation cannot speak directly to him. What Allah reveals in the Qur’an is not himself, but his rules for man.

To support this doctrine they use Surah 42:11 “Nothing is like Him.” In Arabic they say “bila Kayfa wala tashhih,” which means without inquiring how and without making comparison.

In Islam, the creature is subject to Allah. He is to obey and not to question. The meaning of the word “Islam” is to submit or be in subjection. The word “Muslim” means the submitted one, or one submitted to Allah. The duty of the Muslim is to obey, and not to question. It is kind of like they teach in the military, “Your is not to question why, but to do or die.”

An Example

In Surah 88:17-20

Do they not look at the Camels, how they are made?

And at the Sky, how it is raised high?

And at the Mountains, how they are fixed firm?

And at the Earth, how it is spread out?

Don’t ask how the animals came to be, or how the sky came into existence, or how the mountains were formed, or anything else about creation. Muslims are not even to consider things things.

The Muslim is not to ask questions, he is simply property of Allah who can do as he pleases with him. The Muslim is simply to obey. Unlike Christianity, Islam is a completely blind faith.

Fazlur Rahman said:

“to search for ends and purposes in His (Allah’s) laws is not only meaningless, but also grave disobedience to Him.”

Muslims are taught that it is not only fruitless to try to understand creation, it is disobedience to Allah.

There is a lack of Theology (Kalam) in Islamic Seminaries. As I mentioned yesterday, there was a short time when Muslims tried to use critical thinking. They tried to ask questions and seek answers to the why of things. The Mutazilites were famous for seeking to understand creation. This brought the Islamic world into what was called the “golden era.” After they were stamped out in the 9^th century, Kalam was banned from the curriculum of colleges of law and institutions of learning.

As I said yesterday, there are really two groups within Islam. These two groups exist within both the Sunni faith, and the Shia faith. There are the traditionalist and the reformers. The Mutazilites would be considered reformers. They tried to reason out their understanding of Allah. They asked, how can one know Allah if they can’t understand him? How can one worship him correctly if he cannot be understood?

Egyptian reformer Muhammad Abduh, who tried to reconcile Islam with modernity said:

“But reason quite lacks the competence to penetrate to the essence of things….if one cannot know a thing’s essence, one cannot know what it is.” (A forbidden pursuit in traditional Islam)

The traditionalists don’t allow Muslims to try and understand the essence of things. They are simply to obey.

Palestinian philosopher and Islamic studies professor Isma’il Al-Faruqi wrote:

“Islam does not equate the Qur’an with the nature or essence of God. It is the ‘Word of god, the Commandment of God, the Will of God.’ But God does not reveal Himself to anyone…….you may not have complete transcendence and self-revelation at the same time.”

Traditionalist Islam, which is Muhammad’s Islam, is the real Islam. It is not what a follower of Islam wants it to be. The traditionalists are following Muhammad’s Islam. This is why we always turn to the teachings of Muhammad. The modern reformers of Islam are trying to invent a god of their own imaginations. They are trying to invent a god that is palatable to the Western mind. They want to make him similar to our Christian God, but they want to keep him withing the parameters of Islamic doctrine, but not fully. They pick and chooses what they like in the Qur’an, and reject what they don’t like.

The reformers of today are not very honest, nor are they faithful to the Islamic faith. The earlier reformers simply tried to apply critical thinking so they could understand the essence of their god.

The traditionalists will not allow critical thinking. The Qur’an does not reveal the nature or essence of Allah. It is simply his word to man, and his commandments which are to be blindly followed.

One of the core doctrines of Islam is that Allah does not reveal himself to man because he is unknowable. The created cannot know or understand the creator.

It is all about Allah’s POWER and His WILL. Nothing to do with his Reason.

Surah 14:27 – Allah does what He wills.

Surah 85:15 – Allah is the great Doer of what He wills….the Effecter of what He intends.

It is not about Allah’s nature, it is about His WILL!

His Power and Will are seen in his WORD. Allah only had to say “be” or “not be” He has the Power and Will to create or annihilate. His Word is his Will, rather than the expression of His reason.

bila Kayfa wala tashhih – without inquiring how and without making comparison

This is why, when a tragedy happens to a Muslim, it is simply accepted as the will of Allah. If you get cancer, Allah willed it. You lost your arm in an accident, Allah willed it. When Islam commands the young men to go fight for Islam, and they perish, Allah willed it.

We exist simply for Allah to do as he wishes with us. There is no compassion in Islam, Allah just does what he wants with his creation. This is why we see them throwing homosexuals off tall buildings and mountain tops. This is why we see women treated worse that cattle. This is why anyone who disagrees with Islam, or even who has a different opinion within Islam, is killed without regret. It is Allah’s will, he commanded it, so a Muslim is to do it if he follows true Islam. Understanding these things tells us why Islam seems so barbaric to those of us in the West.