Current Selection:
Understand My Muslim People
by Dr. Abraham Sarker

The group has discussed Chapters 1 -10 to date. This has covered the facts and legend of Mohammed's life and the formulation of the Muslim faith. We are now learning the fundamental beliefs of Islam and contrasting them with Christianity.

In addition to angels and Jinn, Allah communicated with a select group of humans, the prophets. He spoke directly with them to reveal himself to humankind and give instructions.

Islam includes the prophets of the Jewish faith such as Abraham, Noah, David, Moses and others into their hierarchy of beings. Islam believes that there are 124,000 prophets but only twenty-five prophets are named in the Qu'ran. Twenty-one of these are from the Jewish religion. Only four non-Jewish prophets were added by Muhammad and one of these four IS the "prophet" Muhammad. Muhammad rewrote some of the Old Testament to suit his purpose. One example of this is that Abraham was not asked to sacrifice his son Issac but his other son, Ishmael.

According to Islam, Muhammad received the final and most complete revelation from Allah. He stopped sending prophets because none were necessary after Muhammad.

Jesus is included as a prophet. The Muslims dispute that Jesus is the Son of God. They believe in the Virgin Birth but claim that does not make Jesus the Son of God any more than Adam, who has no father or mother. They believe in the "oneness" of God (there are no other gods) and that elevating Jesus to being part of God shatters this "oneness".

Prophets are human, male and infallible.

-- We are told that females could not bring prophetic word, only males.

-- No humans should be worshiped including Mohammed. They cannot conceive of God coming to earth. Thus, Jesus cannot be worshiped. Nor can Mohammed be worshiped.  

-- According to passages in the Qu'ran, prophets do not commit sin. Yet in other passages, Mohammed is told to repent of his sins. We are told in the Bible of the sins of the Jewish prophets. Yet, these passages are disputed by the Islam faith.

According to Islam, prophets do not die but are raised to heaven. Therefore, the Muslims dispute that Jesus was put to death. Instead, they assert that Judas' face was transformed to the face of Jesus and that Judas was put to death. Jesus was lifted up to heaven. But Jesus will return to earth and will accomplish very specific objectives (quote from Norman Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam: The Crescent in the Light of the Cross follows ):

1. "Kill the Antichrist
2. Kill all the pigs
3. Destroy all the synagogues and churches
4. Break the cross
5. Establish the religion of Islam
6. Live for forty years
7. Marry
8. Die and be buried beside Mohammed in the prophet mosque of Medina"

Must discussion was centered on the fact that Mohammed usurped the established religion of the Jewish people and Christianity, altered what he did not like, redirected its purpose to his own and thus created Islam. We agreed that it is perplexing that this is the fastest growing religion in the world.

Our next meeting will be Monday, January 23 at 11AM in the church library. We will be discussing Chapter 11: The Qu'ran: Final Word from Allah. We invite you to join us in learning more about this religion.

Current Selection:
Understand My Muslim People
by Dr. Abraham Sarker

The group has discussed Chapters 1 -9 to date. This has covered the facts and legend of Mohammed's life and the formulation of the Muslim faith. We are now learning the fundamental beliefs of Islam and contrasting them with Christianity.

These fundamental beliefs include the following (Chapter 9):

Allah does not communicate directly with man nor man with Allah. Allah can change his mind and things decreed "good" at one time can be changed and be "evil" another. So, one is never sure what will pass on Judgment Day.

Angels, formed from light, are sinless and genderless beings that act as God's messengers.

There are four Archangels: Gabriel, Michael, Azrail, and Israfil. Gabriel is the angel of revelation (Holy Spirit), Michael is the angel of providence and guardian of the Jewish people. Zarail is the angel of death and responsible for ending the lives of humans. And Israfil will blow the trumpet on the Day of Judgment to summon all people.

There are many other angels including the Recording angels. These are assigned to specific human beings with the task of recording an individual's good and bad deeds. On the Day of Judgment, these records will be presented to Allah for judgment.

The Jinn are creatures between Angels and man. Some are created good and some are created evil. Satan, in some passages of the Koran, is considered a Jinn and in others is considered a "fallen" angel.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, January 10 at 11AM in the church library. We will be discussing Chapters 10 & 11: The Role of Prophets and the Qu'ran. We invite you to join us in learning more about this religion.