to a group of people who were lost in sin. You see, Christ didn't die on the cross just for people who come from Christian backgrounds or from secular backgrounds. No, he died on the cross for people from Islamic backgrounds. So today as we look at the topic of Islam, I want for us to look at it from this perspective as an opportunity to witness to lost and dying people. This is how we are to look at Islam. Well, the session is witnessing to Muslims. But in order for us to witness to Muslims, we need to know a little bit about what they believe. So this first session today will be primarily focused on an introduction to Islam. What is it that Muslims believe? So that's what we're going to be looking at this afternoon. And on Thursday, then we will unpack how we are to engage them, how we are to witness to them. So let us begin by just getting an overview of Islam. Well, statistics show this about Islam. Islam is considered the fastest growing religion in the world. 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. There are only 2 billion Christians in the world. That is about one out of four people in the world ascribe to Islam. Now what is interesting about Islam is that typically people from Christian backgrounds when we look at Islam we think that it is a group where everyone agree on certain doctrines. No, that's not the way it is. And there are two main divisions within Islam, and that is the Sunnis and the Shia. And the majority are Sunnis. But even within Sunni and Shia, there is still breakdowns and divisions. And as we look at Islam in Africa per se, There are many people who claim to be Muslims and if you ask them are you a Shia or a Sunni they wouldn't know. They don't have that vocabulary in their mind. So they may identify themselves with another division or another sect within Islam as well. Now let's just take a picture of the globe and so we have a bit of a perspective as to where Islam dominates. Countries in which the religion of Islam is in domination. Well, as you can see, all of North Africa is dominated by Islam, and the Middle East as well. The area with the dark green, those are the areas that are dominated by the sect of Islam called Shia. Most people, when they think about Islam, They think that all Muslims are Arabs. And that's not the case. As you can see, it's only 20%. And let us just look at countries in the world where Islam dominates, and as you can see, Indonesia, Pakistan, and India has the largest population of Muslims in the world. Where we would think would have the largest population of Muslims, like Iran, And Turkey, it's actually very low. And even Saudi Arabia is not even on the list. So that gives us just a little bit of a perspective as to the population of Islam in Islam-dominated countries. Now, you will find Islam in most African countries, not just Northern Africa, but also in Sub-Saharan Africa, going all the way to South Africa, you will find people who follow the religion of Islam. Let's orient ourselves with some basic terminology, some basic terms regarding Islam. Well, the word Islam simply means submission. And a Muslim is one who surrenders. A Muslim is one who submits to Allah. And how does he submit to Allah? Well, he submits to the Quran, which we're going to look at. The Quran is the sacred book of the Muslims. And all Muslims are part of the Ummah, and that is the community of Muslims across the world. For Christians we say the universal church. We are all a part of the church and for Muslims every Muslim is a part of the Ummah. Now bear in mind various sects of Muslims will call others heretics and say you're not a part of the Ummah. The Quran we're going to look at shortly. It is the sacred book of the Muslims and it was claimed that God revealed it to the Prophet Muhammad. Let's just look at certain facts about the Quran. I have a copy of my Quran here with me. I've had this for about 12 or 13 years now and been reading through it from time to time. Well, in this book, Typically, it's not this large. If you have simply an English version of the Quran, it is actually smaller than the New Testament. This particular Quran contains the English translation and the Arabic writing. Well, the Quran contains a hundred and fourteen surahs. In our Bibles, we call them chapters. There are no chapters, they are called surahs. And what we would call verses are called ayah. Now, what is interesting about this book, the Quran, it is written in Arabic, and if you read this in any other language other than Arabic, you are not reading the Quran. That's what Muslims think. The Quran is only in Arabic. It is the heavenly language. Any other language, you are merely reading a translation, but not the Quran. Why is that so? Because God wrote this book in heaven in Arabic. He wrote it in heaven and he delivered it to the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. We'll look about, we'll talk about this a little bit further. All right. Also what we will notice when we read the Quran is that it is not chronologically ordered. You see, if you pick up a copy of the Bible, you begin with the beginning, Genesis, and you work your way through to the end, Revelations. That is not the way the Quran is organized. There is almost no sense of context within the Quran. It's just a revelation came and it went in. In fact, the way the Quran is structured is that apart from the very first surah, the very first chapter, it is structured by length. That is, the longest surahs are at the front and the shortest surahs are towards the end. That is the structure of the Quran. It is not an organized book. It is mishmash. For example, let's say you're reading the the letter of Paul to the Romans. While there is a sequence of how Paul lays his hands, there is no such thing in the Quran. The closest thing that you can sort of identify it with is the book of Proverbs. You just have one proverb and another proverb that is not connected to the previous one. That is how the Quran in most parts is written. There are certain sections where you have eight or nine ayahs that are in context. But apart from that, it's mishmash text. Now, according to Muslims, the Quran was given as guidance for the world. was given to us to guide us. For example, in Surah 43 verses 2 to 4, or Ayah 2 to 4, it says, By this book, that is the Quran, by this book make things clear. We have made it a Quran in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand and learn wisdom. And verily, it is the mother of books. in our presence high in dignity, full of wisdom. So that is the statement from the Quran to everybody, to humanity, that this is a clear book and it is the mother of books and it is given to us for guidance and for wisdom. Now, For us as Christians, we have one ultimate source of authority, and that is the Bible. Not so in Islam. You see, most people think, well, Muslims have one sacred book, and that is the Quran. Not true. There is the Quran, and there is the Hadith. The Hadith is a secondary collection of books. What is Hadith? Well, a hadith is a short story about Mohammed, what he did or said. So anything that Mohammed did or said, they have collected as much as they can in various collections of books called hadith. Why is that so? Well, that is the case because when Mohammed died, He left only the Quran. Now as I mentioned, the Quran is a very small book. It does not address a lot of issues in life. And so as the Muslim community were facing various issues, and they don't have the Prophet to tell them how to deal with this, they then said, well, let's look at the examples of the Prophet in his life. so that we'll be able to deal with the situations now. So questions, for example, as when you prepare yourself for prayer, you wash your hands for prayer, which hand should you wash first? Well, someone says, I remember the prophet used the left hand first, therefore we use the left hand. Practically everything Mohammed did is a pattern of lie. Now, as these stories of Mohammed were being collected, the communities that recognize that there are certain things that Mohammed certainly did not do at all. Somebody wanted to get away with something and said Mohammed did it because these stories were collected approximately 200 years after he passed away. So there are lots of forgeries in this. And because there are lots of forgeries in this, the Muslim scholars have sought to identify which of them genuinely belongs to Mohammed. and they then structure their hadith or their collections of hadith as sound, good, weak, of course. All right. Now there are two sound collections of hadith that every Muslim adheres to because there are many collections and the Shia and the Sunnis don't all agree on which collection to use. Moreover, the collection of Muslim and Al-Bukhari, those are conceded sound by every Muslim. Therefore, When Muslims look at how to live their life, they don't only look at what is in the Quran, but also what is in the Hadith. Because all of these stories about Muhammad are necessary for life. Why is this the case? Well, this is the case because in the Quran, it says that Muhammad is the pattern for life. Listen to what it says concerning Mohammed. It says, yea have indeed in the apostle of God and the apostle of God is a title for Mohammed. Yea have indeed the apostle of God a beautiful pattern of conduct for anyone whose hope is in God and the final day and who engages much in the praise of God. So Mohammed is our pattern of conduct. That is what the Quran says. If he is our pattern of conduct, we ought to model our lives after him. That's why you see, typically, most Muslim men dress the same way. They dress the same way Muhammad dressed centuries ago. He is the pattern for life, and so they seek to follow him. Therefore, the Hadith is raised to the level of revelation and it is the second in consideration. Now, besides the Hadith, there is also the biography of Muhammad, which is called the Seerah. The Seerah was written to tell us about the life of Muhammad. Now, In the surah, what we have is a chronological pattern of the life of Muhammad that take the surah, the hadith and the Quran, we take all of this and what we get is the sunnah. And the sunnah is the pattern of life that we ought to follow. Pattern of life that we ought to follow is The Sira is quite important in the biography of Muhammad. In fact, a modern translation of the Sira says these words. No one text of the triology, Quran, Hadith, and Sira can stand by itself. It is impossible to understand any one of these texts without the other supporting texts. The Quran, the Sira and the Hadith are a seamless whole and speak with one voice. If it is in the theology, it is Islam. So to have Islam, you don't just have the Quran, you have the Quran, the Hadith, and the seerah. That's how we get. Now we want to look at the five articles of faith for the Muslims. And the first one is belief in one God. We are Christians. We are monotheists. Muslims are also monotheists. We believe in one God. but there is a distinction with our view of God and that of Islam. Our view of God is that we call Trinitarian. I'll explain that in a moment. The Muslim view of God is Unitarian. You see, for us, there is one God, that is, there is only one being who has the nature of God, but within that one nature of God, there are three persons. Not so with Islam. In Islam, there is one nature and one person. It is Unitarian, and it is a very fixed point in Islam. To deny Unitarianism is to commit the greatest sin in Islam, and that sin is called shirk, ascribing partners with Allah. So Christians who believe in the Trinity are committing the greatest sin in Islam, and that sin is called shirk. Anytime we ascribe partners with Allah, whether it be from a Christian perspective or from a polytheist perspective, that is shirk, the greatest sin in Islam. The second Article of faith is belief in all the messengers you see Islam Do not simply stand on its own Islam needs Christianity and Judaism to stand because Islam sees itself as following in the line of Judaism and Christianity and Mohammed is the last one See, they believe in the prophets prior to Muhammad. In fact, according to the Quran, there are many prophets that God has sent. God has sent a prophet to every nation on the earth to instruct them about monotheism and the worship of Allah. Unfortunately, the nations reject the message. They reject the messengers and they reject the message of God. Therefore, in Islam, Adam is a prophet, Jonah is a prophet, Noah is a prophet, Abraham is a prophet, Isaac and Ishmael are both prophets, Moses is a prophet, Jesus is a prophet, and 25 prophets that are named in the Quran. So they certainly believe in the messengers that preceded Muhammad, but they do claim something very special about Muhammad, and it's this. Mohammed is the seal of the prophet, that means he is the last prophet, and the only prophet that was sent to the whole world. Moses was sent to the Jews, Jesus was sent to the Jews, the other prophets were sent to specific people, but Mohammed was sent to the whole world. It is interesting to see what the Quran says about the prophets. In surah 2 ayah 136 it says, we say, now in the Quran you'll see the plural, we or us referring to Allah, it's called the majestic plural. Quran reads, We say, O Muslims, we believe in Allah and that which is revealed to us and that which is revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and that which Moses and Jesus received and that which the prophets received from the Lord. We make no distinction between them and unto them we all surrender. According to the Quran, they make no distinction between all the prophets and they surrender to all the prophets. You're probably asking, they don't surrender to Jesus. We'll get to that. Just hold on, be patient. Let's look at something concerning Mohammed himself and how he views the Prophet. We've said he is the seal of the Prophet and he has established the Ummah, the community of people who truly worship God. The next article of faith is belief in the books sent down to the Prophets. You see, in Islam, it is believed that God sent a book to all the prophets. All the prophets received a book. Moses received the book, Jesus received the book, and so they believe in the books. Now, the ones that they give consideration to are the Torah, and the Gospels. That's what they give consideration to. Now, in their mind, there are not four Gospels as we have it in our Bible. There is one Gospel that was given to Jesus. So when you give a Muslim a copy of the Bible and they see four Gospels, they wonder what's going on, okay? Because there is one Gospel given to Jesus. And so they certainly have to appreciate the books that were given prior. And we're going to look at this in greater detail, but let me just mention this. To the Muslim, God gave all of these books to the prophets. Most of these books got lost or corrupted. So while we have the gospel and the Torah, The Muslims believe that the Jews corrupted the Jews. Recently, I was at Mandah Hill and there was a Muslim man passing by and I just stopped him and I said, Sir, I'm reading the Quran and I just have a few questions. Do you mind answering my questions? And he was very delighted to answer my questions. That's how you do evangelism. You say, I have a few questions. Do you mind answering my questions? And so we stopped and we spoke for a while. He made the very same statement. Every Muslim seemed to make the same statement. the Torah and the Gospels were corrupted. And he says, let me just give you an example how the Torah was corrupted. You see, God told Moses to tell the Jews that they need to pay the zakat. We'll talk about that later, but it is that you pay 2.5% and that money is given to the poor. Now, because the rich Jewish people did not want to pay the 2.5%, they paid the rabbi to pull that out of the tomb. Now, isn't that fascinating because they, first of all, there were no rabbis in the days of Moses, okay, to begin with. Rabbis came much later down. Now, what is fascinating, which I didn't get to, I got to something else, is that They were so concerned about 2.5% that they paid the rabbis to pull it out, but Moses says give 10%. Why didn't they pull that out? Well, that is standard Muslim teaching that the gospels were the gospel and the Torah. The next article of faith is belief in the existence of angels. In these articles of faith, these are things that all Muslims should believe. All Muslims should believe in God from a Unitarian perspective, believe in the messengers, believe in the books that was revealed prior to Mohammed, and believe in the existence of angels. but their view of angels is a bit different from the Christian view of angels. You see, from the Christian perspective is that God created the angels and when Satan sinned, he took a portion of the angels with him and they became demons. Well, from the Islamic perspective, angels cannot sin. It's impossible for angels to sin. Satan was not an angel, he was a jinn. Jinn is not a type of being like angels, we can't see them unless unless they take on physical form. Satan was a jinn and the evil spirits that are around us are all jinns. The angels are all good and they always submit to Allah and they do Allah's will. Muslims must believe in the existence of angels. Lastly, Muslims, sorry not lastly, lastly for certain Muslims, but there is one more article of faith that is true for the Sunnis and not true for the Shia. We'll get to that in a moment. But lastly for the Shia and certainly true for all Muslims is belief in the day of judgment and life after death. That is one thing that Muslims are terrified of. You see, there's no assurance of faith in Islam. There's no assurance of salvation in Islam. Everybody who comes into the world comes into the world, and after they are born, they have two angels on their shoulders. One is recording the good deeds, and the other is recording the bad deeds. And at the end of your life, if you have more bad deeds than good deeds, you go into eternal torment. So do you see why Muslims are so terrified of the day of judgment? How do you know that your good deeds exceed your bad deeds? You can't do that. You don't see the angels record in them and say, now I can pay you a hundred quach, can you erase some of my bad deeds? And you can't do that. So those of you who, what you could bribe the angels, it's not possible. So Muslims are terrified of the day of judgment, and that was a cardinal teaching of Muhammad. The sixth article of faith, which is not true for the Shia, but it's true for the majority of Muslims, is divine decree and predestination. Now, let me just read to you what one Muslim scholar writes about this. His name is Kenneth Craig. He wrote, the Islamic view of the providence, sorry, the Islamic view of providence is as follows. God not only created men and women, but he also created their actions. Everything that you do God created it, everything. God created their actions. God is the only originator, the immediate cause of all events. All that comes into existence, a summer flower, a murderous deed, a newborn child is from him. He created them all. Every action, every thought is created by God. Now the Shiite says, that can't be right. human beings have free will. So the Shia subscribe to a doctrine of free will, but the Sunnis, this is not the doctrine of predestination in Calvinism. This is much further than that. God created every action. So that sums up or gives us an overview of the articles of faith These are the things that Muslims ought to believe. Now we want to look at the practices of Islam and these are called the five pillars within Islam. And the first one is the declaration of belief. It is called the Shahada. And that is, in order for you to become a Muslim, you must say these words with sincerity. There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah. If you say these words in sincerity, in the presence of witnesses, you become a Muslim. So you become a Muslim. Say these words, there is no God but Allah. Mohammed is the prophet of Allah. In one of Mohammed's battles, there was a man and Mohammed had him in the point where he could kill him. And Mohammed says, you either confess faith or die. And he said, there is no other God but Allah. Mohammed is the prophet of Allah. He become a Muslim instantly and Muhammad saved his life. The next pillar is prayer which is called Salat. And Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day. And when they pray, they're supposed to face the Qabla in Mecca. That's why Muslims face the east when they pray. They're supposed to face this direction and pray five times a day. If they can, meet in the mosque for the daily prayers, then they are encouraged to do so. However, on a Friday, all Muslims are supposed to attend the mosque for their Friday prayer. And after the Friday prayer, there is a sermon from the Imam. Okay, so the Muslim mosque, it is not like our churches. You see, if you go to a church, You sit, okay? When the pastor says, let us pray, bow your head. There are no chairs in the mosque for prayer. Everyone takes off their shoe upon entrance and walks into the mosque and they do the prostration. They get on their knees, they put their head to the ground. This is a sign of reverence to God. Now this whole idea of the prostration They got this from the Bible. Isn't that how we see some people in the Old Testament pray? In fact, that's the way Jesus prayed when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prostrated himself before God. Much of what we see in Islam is not original to Islam. It is taken from the Bible or from the traditions around Mohammed. what the Arabs did prior to the fall of the Prophet Muhammad. Now, interestingly, within their prayers, these five daily prayers, these are simply recitations of the Quran. They simply repeat passages from the Quran as their prayer. Okay, so these are not your heart pouring out to God. Yes, you can do that, but the structured prayers are simply repetitions from the Quran. The next pillar of faith is fasting, and that is on the month of Ramadan, for a whole month, Muslims fast during daylight hours. So as long as there is sunlight, You don't eat. And you eat after the sun sets. It is said that more food is consumed in a Muslim community during the month of Ramadan than any other month in the year. And they must get really hungry. I remember working with a Muslim young lady. I worked with a number of them. And this young lady, she said to me, Mr. Paul, during the month of Ramadan, do you mind if I stay downstairs rather than go upstairs where the cafeteria is? Because the smell of the food is difficult for me. So I said, yes, you can stay down here. Just make sure you don't disturb the other employees while you're down here. So she stayed and she played and she read the book and so on. We need to take these things into consideration as we're dealing with Muslims. We ought to show love and kindness to them. Certainly, if you were fasting all day and you were sitting in the kitchen all the smell of the food coming up your nose, the chicken and the wings and all of these delicious things that you eat, it would be quite trying, wouldn't it? So I allowed her to have that break. Well, lastly, I mentioned the zakat, that is every Muslim is to give 2.5% of their annual income. It is given to the mosque, and the mosque gives it to people in need. You see, when Mohammed was called, or supposedly called, one of his great concerns was the plight of the poor people in Mecca, and how they were abused and ill-treated. And so Mohammed made it a pillar of faith to give to the poor. So we need to appreciate some of the things that Mohammed did for the poor. And lastly is the pilgrimage to Mecca. It is called the Hajj. Every able Muslim should seek to make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in his lifetime, or he can send someone in for him as a substitute. So if you're able and you are Muslim, you take the plane ride and you go to Mecca and millions, millions, because there's only one month of the year that you can do this. And so millions of millions of people go to Mecca and do that pilgrimage around the Kaaba. According to Muslim belief, Abraham and his son Ishmael built the Kaaba in Mecca. Unfortunately, the Arabs throw away the monotheistic teaching of Abraham and brought in all kinds of idols into the Kaaba. Muhammad cleared the Kaaba of all of these idols and now makes it a place that true believers in Allah should visit once in their lifetime. Now let's talk a little bit about Muhammad himself. Because Muhammad is so central to Islam, we must know certain things about Muhammad. because of the significance of this man. Well, Muhammad was born in AD 570, and just prior to his birth, his father passed away. And when he was six years old, his mother passed away, leaving him as an orphan. And he was raised by a man who was his uncle, who took care of him. and taught him the caravan trade. And so Mohammed would travel from Mecca all the way to Syria and learn the caravan trade. And Mohammed was a very capable man, such that he did very well in the caravan trade. And a lady took interest in Mohammed. He was so brilliant. It was so good at what he did that this lady gave Mohammed a job to work for him and married him. She was a wealthy woman 15 years older than Mohammed and she married a young charming man when he was 25 years old. And Mohammed lived with his wife Khadija And all through the time that he lived with Khadijah, he remained very loyal and very faithful to his wife, Khadijah. Then when Mohammed was 40 years old, during the month of Ramadan, Ramadan was a month that the Arabs recognize as a special month, Mohammed went to a cave to meditate. Mohammed had some deep religious feelings all through his life and he was very much disturbed by the immorality in Mecca. So Mohammed would often pull himself away from Mecca and isolate himself and spend time in meditation. Well, while Mohammed was in that cave, According to Islamic teaching, the angel Gabriel came to him and says to him, recite. Mohammed responds, I am not a reciter. The angel overwhelmed him and says, recite. Mohammed says, I am not a reciter. The angel overwhelmed him and said, recite. And this is called the night of power, when the angel met Muhammad. And it is at this point that the angel gave Muhammad the very first revelation in the Quran. See the Quran wasn't revealed all at one time, it was revealed over a period of 20 years. And the very first revelation that he received is in Surah 96 verses 1 to 3. It says, Proclaim in the name of your Lord who created man from a clot of blood. Proclaim The Lord is the most generous who teaches by the pen, teaches men what he knew not. This is the first revelation that Mohammed received. Well, after Mohammed received that revelation, how do you think that Mohammed dealt with it? Well, Mohammed was terrible. so terrified that he thought he was demon possessed, and he wanted to kill himself. But his wife, she comforted him. She loved him. And she said, I have a cousin that you should speak to. And the cousin sent word to Mohammed saying, what you have experienced is the same as the prophets of old. They all experienced a similar thing when God called them. Please bear with me for one moment. Moses, did he experience that? Elijah did he experience that? Abraham did he? Can you tell me which prophet experienced this type of thing such that he wanted to kill himself? None! But Mohammed believed it. Khadijah believed it. And so Mohammed started preaching about monotheism in heaven. Now Mecca was a great religious city of that day. People would travel from far to come to Mecca because that was the home of 365 gods in the Kabbalah. And so when Mohammed started preaching about Judgment Day and about monotheism, how do you think the people in Mecca responded? They ridiculed and his followers they persecuted them. Now because of Mohammed's tribe he was from the poorish tribe which was sort of prestigious in Mecca and because of his financial power and his wife Khadija they wouldn't touch him personally but they so persecuted his few followers that he sent a group of his followers all the way from Mecca to Ethiopia. At this time it was called Abassin and there the king of Ethiopia received them and cared for them. He was a priest. Shortly after that Khadijah died and Mohammed uncle died and so the persecution came really strong upon Mohammed, so strong that Mohammed had to leave Mecca. And Mohammed left Mecca and went to Medina. Now, this leaving Mecca and going to Medina is something extremely important in Muslim theology. In fact, it is so important to Muslim theology, it is called the emigration, and it is the first day of the Islamic calendar. For us, The first day is the birth of Jesus. Sorry, the calendar is based on the birth of Jesus. The first year in the Islamic calendar is based on when Muhammad fled Mecca and went over to Medina. Now when he arrived in Medina, he's received a much better response. You see, because in Medina there were large numbers of Jews, certainly they're gonna be favorable to monotheism, and so they had shared about this monotheistic religion in Medina, so even the non-Jewish people in Medina had some appreciation for monotheism. Moreover, there was tribal conflicts going on in Medina, and the leaders of the city fought that Mohammed could help arbitrate. And he did a really good job at it. He did a really good job in settling the constant conflicts between the various tribes in Medina. And so his influence continued to grow. So his influence grew tremendously. And as his influence grew, then the people who came up from Mecca with him were facing some difficulties. Now you left your home, you left your job, and you moved into a new city. If there is not enough work in that city, what are you going to do to care for yourselves? Well, what became common for his followers was raiding the caravans. As the caravans were making their way across, they would ambush the caravans and take away all the goods. Mohammed did it too. Before we speak about Mohammed and his raiding of the caravan, I may just mention how influential he was. His popularity grew, he came into Medina with hundreds, and now he has thousands of followers. Well, Khadijah is dead, and the prophet has received revelation from God that a man can have up to four wives. And so Mohammed start marrying the wives, but he's not limited to four. You see, there are special privileges for the prophets, you know. So Mohammed had over 12 wives in Medina. I mentioned about his raid, the caravan raid. Well, Mohammed got wind of a significant caravan that was making its way through. And that caravan belonged to a very influential person in Mecca. And so Mohammed came with 300 men to attack that caravan. Well, that owner from Mecca heard that Mohammed was coming, and so he gathered a troop of 900 men from Mecca to attack Mohammed. So Mohammed was greatly outnumbered, three to one. Nevertheless, Mohammed won. This battle became the mother of all battles. For Muslims, this is significant. It then confirms that Muhammad is a prophet of God, because how else could he overwhelm an army of 900 men with only 300? And so for Muslims, this is very, very significant. Well, after he did that, his popularity just exploded. People just came into Islam in droves, thousands. In fact, so much so that Mohammed decided, I can now return to Mecca because that's where Islam needs to have its base of So Mohammed returned with an army to Mecca of 10,000 men. Meccans, they couldn't overpower him at this point. And so the leaders of the city, they became Muslims right away. And so Mohammed took control of Mecca in the year 86. only two years after. It was a sudden death. I just want for us to just look at briefly a comparison between our Lord Jesus Christ and Mohammed. As you can see here, Jesus never fought. Mohammed fought many battles. Jesus killed no one. Mohammed killed many. Jesus had the power to take or to give life. He could give life. Muhammad could only take life. Jesus fulfilled many biblical prophecies. Muhammad fulfilled none. Actually the only prophecy you could say that he fulfilled was the prophecy of a false prophet that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24. Because Jesus says many false prophets will come after me. Muhammad is one Jesus never sinned. In fact, the Quran confirms the fact that Jesus never sinned. And yet still Mohammed was a sinner. In the Quran it says Mohammed was a sinner. Jesus never owned any slaves. Mohammed owned many. Jesus was virgin born. Mohammed was not. But the most significant thing is Jesus died and he rose from the grave. All the other prophets died. They remain dead. But not the Lord Jesus, because he is the Son of God. He died and he rose from the grave. And that is our victory. In fact, so significant is the resurrection that Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, that if the resurrection is not true, we are all in a mess. Resurrection is the cardinal point of Christian theology. Well, I want to mention something about the Meccan and the Medinan surahs. You see when Muhammad for the first 10 years of his prophetic ministry lived in Mecca, he was in the minority. He was being persecuted and so he was very peaceful. But when he went to Medina and his popularity increased, he changed his tone completely. And so what you will see in the Quran is that there is a difference in tone between the Meccan surahs and the Medinan surahs. In the Meccan surahs it's very peaceful so you see things like there is no compulsion in religion. Another surah says, Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians and Sabians, whoever believes in Allah on the last day and do righteous good deeds shall have their reward with the Lord. On them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. Very peaceful. Christians, we do good things. You will be with the Lord. But in Medina, we see a difference in the tone of the surahs. The first one I want to mention is in 9.36. It says, Fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together. And the Jew says, Ezra is the son of Allah and the Christian says, the Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieve of Allah. Allah himself, I tap against them. How perverse are they. Listen to this next one. It says, O Prophet, strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell. That's the end. Another one says, fight against such of those who have been given the scriptures as they believe not in Allah, nor the last day. and forbidden, not that which Allah has forbidden by his message. One of the things that annoyed Muhammad was that the Christians eat pork. And Muhammad says you shouldn't eat pork. In fact your scripture says that you shouldn't eat pork. In the Old Testament it does say you shouldn't eat pork. Now we understand that Jesus when he came he says all foods are clean. But Muhammad didn't understand Christian theology very well. And so he says you are doing what Allah has forbidden. says, and they forbid not that which Allah has forbidden by his messenger and they follow not the religion of truth until they paid the tribute readily being brought. What is this whole idea of tribute? Well, What Mohammed was teaching and what he did and his followers did is that when they arrived at a Christian community, they gave them two options. You pay taxes for your protection. If you pay the taxes, we will protect you. If you don't pay the taxes, we kill you. Those are the two options that the Christians had. Let's look at women in Islam. Muhammad gave permission for Muslim men to beat their wives if they disobey. Many of you want to marry. Listen to what it says here in the Quran. Men are in charge of women because Allah have made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their poverty for the support of women. So good women are obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah have guarded. And as for those whom ye fear rebellion, okay, so if the wife rebels against the husband, there is a three-step approach. First, you admonish them. You tell them what you do is wrong. Second, you banish them two beds apart. Now that's easy to do if you have four wives. I'm not going to sleep with you until you correct yourself. I have three others to sleep with. But if they still rebel, you scourge them. And then if they obey you, then It's interesting in Islamic theology and in the Quran I've given you the surahs here you can look it up yourself. A man can have four wives and if they go into battle and they conquer a nation the slaves of that nation He can also sleep with them. He's permitted to sleep with the women that they conquer. And it also gives permission to marry pubescent girls. What is this? Men can marry a young girl even before pubescent. That is happening today in Muslim countries. It's rampant. 30 year old men marrying 9 and 10 year old girls. Very rampant. I mentioned this earlier and I need to come back to it because it is so crucial. You see, Islam is just like other Christian cults. In fact, some Bible scholars call Islam a Christian cult. And what is it that is true of most cults? Your Bible has been corrupted. The Jehovah Witness, they have their own version of the Bible. The Mormon Church, they said, you need the Book of Mormon because your Bible has been corrupted. Islam says you need the Quran because your Bible has been forgotten. These words represent predominantly the words of all Muslims. I'll just read it to you, it's from one Muslim scholar. But long before the revelation of the Quran to Muhammad, some of those books and revelations have been lost or corrupt, others forgotten, neglected or concealed. Thus, it is even to the Muslims as the standard criterion by which all other books are to be judged. Listen to this very carefully. So whatever agrees with the Quran is accepted as divine truth and whatever differs from the Quran is rejected. So anything you say, look the Quran says this, the Bible says this, this don't go together. Yours is wrong, the Quran is right. End of discussion. Anything that disagrees with the Quran is rejected. Here's something that you're gonna find rather interesting. That has to do with the crucifixion of Christ because the Quran Now, the fact of the crucifixion is a fixed and established fact in history. It is undeniable. If you look at the gospels, more time is devoted to the end of Jesus's life in every gospel than anything else in the life of Jesus. it gives details about crucifixion. Not only that, non-Christian sources confirm the crucifixion of Christ. Therefore, the crucifixion is an established historical fact not only from the Bible but from outside sources and yet still it is rejected by Islam. The Quran says these words concerning Jesus and the crucifixion in surah 4 ayah 157 And because of their sin, we slew the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, Allah's messenger. They slew him not, nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them. And lo, those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof. They have no knowledge, therefore save the suit of injury. They slew him not. Typically what Muslims do is that they bring what is called the swoon theory. It wasn't Jesus that was on the cross. It was someone that looked like Jesus that was on the cross. Allah took him to heaven. So they deny completely the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. We wanna talk about one more thing that Islam denies that is cardinal to Christian theology, and that is Jesus being the son of God. The Quran says, the Jews called Uzair the son of God, and the Christians call Christ the Son of God. That is a saying from their mouth. In this, they but intimate what the unbelievers of old used to say. God's curse be on them, how they are deluded away from the truth. Muslims take this very seriously. The way they understand the idea of Jesus being the son of God is something that you and I will never agree about. We will never say Jesus is the son of God because he had physical interactions with Mary and give birth to Jesus. We never say that. But that's how Mohammed understood it. So for him it was a perverse thing to say Jesus is the son of God. And for us we would agree and say that is perverse. We would never believe that God who is holy and mighty and transcendent would go into marriage. As a man goes into his wife and brings forth a child? No. We don't do that. That's how Mohammed understood it. So he rejects the idea that Jesus is the son of God. Here's another passage in the Quran. They say God has begotten a son. Glory to him. No. To him belongs all that is in the heavens and on the earth. Everything renders worship to him. True! If you have this concept that it's Son of God as we have children, no, we reject that. That is not the Christian notion of Son of God. What does the term Son of God mean in Christian theology? It expresses an intimate and unique relationship between two persons, God the Father and God the Son. That is what Son of God means in Christian theology. And there are many passages that brings up this whole idea of this unique relationship that God the Father has with God the Son. Let me just read for us John 17, five, it says, And now father glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. Do you see this? This is a unique relationship. There has no one who have had a relationship with the father before the world begun. In fact, there was no one in existence before the world begun and therefore Jesus has a unique relationship with the Father. He has a close, unique relationship with the Father. And not only that, it says, glorify me. You see, Jesus is ascribing for glory. That makes Jesus unique and special. And that is the I there. that the Bible is conveying to us when it says Jesus is the son of God. The same thing is in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 13 and the other scriptures are here that you can take a look at. But we're coming to an end and this was only to whet your appetite to say to you here's the basics of what Islam teach but we shouldn't leave it there should we? No. We can't be content in just knowing what they teach. We need to come back on Thursday for the next seminar, which is, how do we witness today? That's what we want to do on Thursday. Let me close it. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you that you are raising an army of people. who are passionate about truth, who love the Lord Jesus, who love non-believers, who cares for the Muslim souls who are perishing, and who desires to reach them. May you, O God, stir our hearts even further to be engaged in what you are doing to reach people who are lost me.