The House of Islam

Muhammad was a forty year old merchant from Mecca and he was spending the night in a cave near Mt. Hira where he used to spend nights in prayer and meditation. This one night he was suddenly awoken by a heavenly voice telling him he was the Messenger of God. He was terrified but the voice was confirmed by a vision of a mysterious figure presenting himself as the angel Gabriel. The angel physically grabbed hold of Muhammad and made him recite revelations about God. This was the first of many recitations that later became known as the Qur’an which means “The Recitation.”

Muhammad quickly gained many followers and Islam was born. It is important to note that Islam is one of the three great monotheistic religions that say there is One true God. And it is surely not accidental that Muhammad had his vision in a region where, to be sure there were many pagan Bedoin tribes and Arabic peoples, but there were also many Jews and Christian Arabs as well. And at first, Muhammad stressed the compatibility of his revelations concerning Allah with the Jews and Christians of Mecca and the surrounding region.

Many of us have a limited and sometimes distorted view of Islam, a view that is formed primarily by the lens of radical Islamic terrorists and their violence and vitriol reported on the news. I am not denying they exist or the seriousness of the threat they pose to all good people in our country and around the world. But they do not define Islam. We should ask ourselves if we can think of examples of people who call themselves Christians who we nevertheless would be embarrassed and outraged by if they claimed to represent us? How about that minister in Florida who was burning books? Do you want him speaking for you? Or how about that wacky church whose members go to funerals of soldiers killed in action and hold up signs saying it was God’s judgment on them? Are you happy they call themselves Christian?

I want, in our brief time, to look at the very basic beliefs of Islam. I want to look at what we have in common and how we are different. There are things in Islam that I think you can recommend and there are no doubt things with which you will strongly disagree. But understanding these things can only help us and help our world.

To help us find common ground it might be good to look at what Muslims call the Five Pillars of Islam. They are:

1. Faith or belief in the Oneness of God and the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad.

2. Establishment of the daily prayers.

3. Concern for and almsgiving to the needy

4. Self-purification through fasting; and
5. The pilgrimage to Mecca for those who are able.

In the first pillar we can find the common ground of belief in the One God. Muslims exalt the power and greatness of God. Psalm 29 fits well with their belief. A Muslim’s purpose in life is “to serve and obey God, and this is achieved through the teachings and practices of the Last Prophet, Muhammad.”

Islam stresses the vital importance of prayer and fasting. This is another area of common ground. In fact, many Christians would do well to dedicate have as much energy to these spiritual practices that many Muslims do.

Muslims believe that Mary was Chosen, that Angels spoke to her, that Christ performed miracles, and in one sense, is the way to eternal life. Muslims look to Abraham in a similar way that we do. They claim the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures as theirs as well. These are not insignificant matters in which to find common ground.

“For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through he righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there no violation.”

Muslims stress obedience to God’s will. “Islam” literally means submission. Muslims resonate with Jesus teaching in Matthew 5.17:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. . .” and then in verse 20: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Muslims see most Christians and “Christian” nations like the United States as people of lax morals, people who ignore God’s laws. A concern for a moral society is certainly something we share with Muslims. But here lies a great difference as well. Muslims don’t believe in Original Sin, a basic Christian doctrine. Muslims believe that every person has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other and must decide which one to listen to every moment of every day.

This brings us to what Islam says about Jesus Christ. As I briefly mentioned, Muslims declare Jesus as the way to eternal life. But in the context of their other beliefs and their practice, it’s difficult to see how that statement is really true for a Muslim. Let me explain. Muslims don’t believe that Jesus died on a cross. That was a fabrication of some of the disciples. God wouldn’t let that happen according to Islamic thinking. Jesus also was not the divine Son of God. According to Islam, Jesus never claimed that for himself. That is something that Christians “did to him.” Combine this with the fact that Islam doesn’t believe in Original sin and the sin nature, and Jesus doesn’t die for people on the Cross because there is no need of, nor indeed purpose for, salvation this way.

For a Muslim salvation is a matter of personal effort, supported by their community of faith, to lead a righteous life of prayer, fasting, and obedience to God as taught by God’s last and greatest prophet, Muhammad.

Muslims would agree with the first part of this scripture, Romans 6.23, “For the wages of sin is death. . .” but they really don’t make sense of the second part, “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Rather, maybe I should say the way they make sense that Jesus means eternal life is that his teaching is part of a continuum of Allah’s teaching through the many prophets that culminate in Allah’s Recitation to Muhammad. Eternal life will happen for all peoples who eventually bow their to knees to Allah and declare His greatness and the greatness of his prophet Muhammad.

In his farewell address in March of the year 632, Muhammad declared, “I was ordered to fight all men until they say ‘There is no god but Allah.’”

This was the beginning of jihad, holy war, that increased and carried on after the death of the prophet. Islam is concerned with converting both individuals souls and whole societies, and the concern is often much greater for the latter than the former. That is why the religion is often referred to as Dar al-Islam, the House of Islam. For Muslims identify much more with the umma, the homeland of Islam, than the individual countries in which they live. It must be said that initially Muhammad often spread the influence of Islam by the point of a sword. It must also be said that Christianity has sometimes been spread that way. Certainly, many if not most Muslims today understand jihad as an internal, spiritual struggle between the angel and devil on your shoulder, good and evil. Muslims who take this view are much closer to what Jesus says about the Kingdom to Pilate:

“My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Matthew 18.36


There is a struggle for the soul and mantle of true Islam in the world today. In a November 2001 address, Osama bin Laden said this:

“I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.”

This is word for word from the Prophet. Our hope for dialogue and peace today lies with those Muslims who cringe over that statement as much as we do.