A Summary of Islam
This is a research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course DR37002, World Religions at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Kansas City, MO) on October 7, 2023.
Introduction
In the modern world, there are several religions that make up the ideological landscape. Many of these religions are experiencing shifts in the number of adherents and most of these religions are experiencing some amounts of growth, but one religious group seems to be outpacing other religious groups. According to Pew Research, Islam is growing at a rate in which the number of adherents will match Christianity by the middle of the 21st century, which means that those who are unfamiliar with Islam ought to gain some familiarity with it if for no other reason than to defend their own faith against the teachings of Islam.[1] This paper aims to give a general overview of Islam by providing a description of Islam, theological and philosophical evaluations of the religion, and a suggested missiological approach for Christians to evangelize Muslims.
Description of Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religion, which finds its roots in the Middle East, but internally claims its origin in that of Adam.[2] The core beliefs of Islam were developed by Muhammad, who claimed to be a prophet after receiving visions in A.D. 610 while meditating in a cave near Mecca.[3] The core of Islamic thinking is that man ought to abandon idolatrous worship and return to the worship of the one, true God. The primary idea is that of submission to God.[4] As a worldview, Islam is mostly cohesive, and it answers all of the typical ideas needed for it to be a worldview.
Theologically, Islam answers the question of the nature and existence of God in the Qur’an by pointing out the existence of the God of Abraham and requiring His worship (Qur’an 2:133). The Qur’an requires absolute submission to Allah (Qur’an 2:136), which is where the term Islam originates.[5] Like other Abrahamic religions concerning cosmology, Muslims believe that Allah created the heavens and the earth in six days before placing himself on the throne to reign (Qur’an 7:54). Concerning anthropology, Islam teaches that mankind is a special creation of Allah created to worship him (Qur’an 2:21) and submit to him (Qur’an 2:136). The submitting to Allah aspect implies that through idolatry, mankind has chosen to not submit to nor worship Allah. Islam typically rejects the concept of original sin but insists that mankind is in a state of distortion.[6] Submission to Allah then leads the individual into heaven, whereas rejection of Allah leads the individual to hell.[7] Ethics concerning Islam differ to most of Western ethics. The primary reason for this is the difference between the honor and shame culture of Eastern civilization and the guilt-based culture of Western civilization.[8] Because of this difference of cultural perspective, the ethics of a Muslim are based more on whether an action brings honor or shame rather than if that action is necessarily right or wrong. However, Islam does have a system of ethics revolving around whether an action does shame or honor the family unit. And finally, epistemologically, Islam finds its wisdom and knowledge through the prophet’s life and informal sayings, which are found in the hadiths in addition to the Qur’an.[9]
Islam provides a worldview that is comprehensive—it speaks to every area of life and encourages a way of living and a belief system that is distinct from other world religions. This worldview stems from the understanding that mankind is in idolatry and needs to return to true worship of the one true God. With the teachings of the Qur’an and the hadiths, a Muslim can live life while following the teachings of Muhammad.
Evaluation of Islam
From a theological perspective, Islam is convincing in that the argumentation for belief in Islam is logical. If Muhammad is genuinely a prophet in the line of the prophets mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, then what Islam has to say is worth listening to. However, there are clear issues from a Christian perspective concerning many of the claims of Islam. A cursory reading of the Qur’an reveals a significant difference between Christianity and Islam in that of how one is saved. In the teaching of Islam, it is adherence to the five pillars and the proclamation of Allah being the one God and Muhammad being his prophet that essentially saves, which is completely anti-Gospel (Eph 2:8). In addition, the rejection of Jesus as God by Islam is actually blasphemous and heretical.
From a philosophical perspective, Islam provides a mostly cohesive understanding of the world. A person can adhere to Islamic ideas and not necessarily need to integrate other worldviews into their own because of the sufficiency of Islam to speak into every area of life including the five primary areas or elements of a worldview.[10] In addition, Islam has made the transition into a religious ideology that can integrate into different societies despite originating as a Bedouin religion.[11] Because of Islam’s ability to integrate into different societies and since it does make logical sense philosophically, it makes sense that the religion has been able to gain such a tremendous following globally.
Missiological Approach to Islam
Because of Islam’s different iterations (i.e., Sunni, Shi’a, and Sufism), Christians today need a tailored approach to evangelistically reach Muslims. As with any type of evangelism, the Christian needs to first determine what exactly the individual believes before trying to evangelize. This entails asking questions concerning the person’s understanding of truth, God, Jesus, and life in general before actually trying to point the individual to Jesus. Once the person’s individual beliefs concerning Islam are determined, then the Christian can start evangelizing.
What that looks like will vary depending on the individual’s framework of Islam. If the person comes from a Sunni or Shi’a background, then there is more of an ability for the Christian to appeal towards doctrine itself by systematically breaking down the doctrine of Islam while explaining inconsistencies within the Islamic worldview. If the person is more influenced by Sufism or a different form of Folk Islam, then the Christian’s attempt to utilize doctrine or to systematically break down the doctrine of Islam will fall short. Instead, the Christian ought to take time to determine what questions the Folk Islamist is attempting to answer through his understanding of Folk Islam and then show the Folk Islamist how Jesus answers the very same questions.
Likewise, when evangelizing those who adhere to Islam, the Christian needs to clearly understand whether the adherent to Islam holds a mostly shame-based worldview or guilt-based worldview. If the Christian attempts to evangelize utilizing a guilt-based worldview, most Muslims will not understand what the Christian is attempting to say. However, if the Christian evangelizes utilizing a shame-based worldview, most Muslims will have a better understanding of what exactly the Christian means.
Conclusion
With Islam rapidly expanding throughout the world, it is vital for Christians to not just recognize Islam as a religion but understand it well enough to evangelize Muslims that the Christian might contact. This paper gave a brief overview of Islam by defining core beliefs of the religion, evaluating Islam theologically and philosophically, and then by providing a brief statement concerning a missiological approach towards Islam. Though this paper is by no means exhaustive, it does provide brief amounts of information to better equip Christians today.
[1] Pew Research Center, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050: Why Muslims Are Rising Fastest and the Unaffiliated Are Shrinking as a Share of the World’s Population,” (April 2, 2015): 70-80, https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2015/03/PF_15.04.02_ProjectionsFullReport.pdf.
[2] Irving Hexham, Understanding World Religions: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 399-401.
[3] Ibid., 403.
[4] Malise Ruthven, Islam in the World, 3rd ed. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006), 108-110.
[5] Winfried Corduan, Neighboring Faiths: An Introduction to World Religions (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 96.
[6] Brent Neely, “The Weight of Sin: Islam, Anselm and Barth,” Evangelical Review of Theology 47, no. 2 (May 2023): 161.
[7] Grant R. Shafer, “Al-Ghayb Wa Al-‘ Akhirah: Heaven, Hell, and Eternity in the Qur’an,” in Heaven, Hell and the Afterlife: Eternity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. J. Harold Ellens (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2013), 10-19.
[8] Roland Muller, Honor & Shame: Unlocking the Door (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation, 2000), 21.
[9] Corduan, 111.
[10] Thorvald B. Madsen, “Philosophy for Understanding Apologetics,” Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, October 2023.
[11] Ruthven, 59-60.
