What Every Christian Must Know About Islam
With Ramadan now ended and Muslims celebrating Eid this month (in strict Islamic countries Muslims caught not praying five times a day can be killed by their peers) we felt it would be timely to review two books on Islam for this months newsletter. The first being “Who Is This Allah?” by G. J. O Moshay, 2004, which was an enjoyable read and took just three nights to finish.
Criticism has been levied however at the Nigerian author for opting to partly remain anonymous. Islam is the only religion in the world that not only murders critics of their religion but also threatens to ruin those that dare speak against their prophet. (Only the Catholic church can and does match such fanaticism). So it is understandable the writer of this book has chosen to remain behind the scenes.
Regrettably, when it comes to Islam there remains little objective and critical material available for Bible believers from those that have been saved out of Islam. Most of the material out there is sugar-coated and barely gets to the heart of this 6th-century religion.
Here are our main points of interest from Moshay’s 183-page book:
- There are over 150 sects within Islam, with over 50 translations of the Quran (p. 7; 80).
- Surah 26:192-194 says Muhammad received the Quran from the Holy Spirit, but Surah 53:2-18 and Surah 81:19-24 says it came from “one mighty in power,” and that Muhammad saw him. Elsewhere Gabriel is said to have brought the Quran to Muhammad’s heart (Surah 2:97). Later we are told in Surah 15:8 that neither Allah, Gabriel, or the Holy Spirit gave Muhammad the Quran, but multiple angels when he was alone in a cave (p. 15-16).
- Muhammad was involved with over 66 battles, in which he personally led 27. He would kill 49 of his own tribesmen (p. 30).
- On Muhammad’s personal orders a critical poet of him and some former associates were murdered (p. 30-31).
- Less than six years after Muhammad’s death his faithful followers conquered Jerusalem, brutally killing 90,000 (p. 67).
- The El-Aksa Mosque is built on Abraham’s grave in Hebron. Mount Calvary where the sinless Son of God hung and died for the sins of the world is now a Muslim cemetery. And Golgotha (the place of a skull, where tradition has it the head of Goliath was placed) is a busy Arab bus station (p. 68).
- The Quran says, “Jesus is the Spirit of God that came into Mary His mother” (Surah 21:91).
- Eight times in the Quran Allah commands all of his angels to bow down and worship Adam, a mortal man (Surah 2:34; Surah 15:29-35).
- Allah curses Satan for not worshipping Adam. (The Mormons also have an unhealthy and unbiblical love for Adam, a mere created human being!)
- Muhammad took his own daughter-in-law away from his adopted son to be one of his many wives. (Muhammad was unable to produce a male heir).
- Muslim men are allowed to have ‘temporary wives’ (prostitutes) during times of travel (p. 88).
- Muhammad had absolutely no idea where he would go when he died. Islam’s greatest ‘prophet’ knew no more about where his eternal destination would be upon death than any unsaved man or woman in your street has. The Quran teaches that all Muslims will have to spend some time in hell, albeit temporarily before being allowed to enter paradise where ‘women and wine’ are eternally provided for ‘faithful’ men (not women) of Islam (p. 93-96). (The Catholic church also teaches a temporary punishment area upon death for all ‘bad’ Catholics, that being purgatory, before finally being released, albeit with many prayers and money from remaining loved ones on earth).
- The god of Islam is very similar to the god of Calvinism in that he is offered as not only being sovereign, something all Bible-believers affirm the God of the Bible to be, but the god of Islam and Calvinism seems to ordain the very acts of sins a Muslim commits, “Verily Allah has fixed the very portion of adultery which a man will indulge in, and which he of necessity must commit” (p. 100).
- When Muhammad died his followers were so sure he would be bodily resurrected they didn’t dig a hole for him (p. 123). (They hoped he would be like the Messiah, but died he did and stay dead he did).
- If water is unavailable for a faithful Muslim to use when preparing for prayers, one must use either sand or earth to put on one’s face (p. 102-103).
- Hell is mentioned 83 times in the Quran, compared to 4 times for Heaven.
- Discrepancies appear as to how long the earth took to create (p. 114-115).
- The Quran also has discrepancies about Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection (p. 116).
- During the dark ages, a former Catholic turned convert to Islam wrote the spurious and heretical ‘gospel of Barnabas’ (p. 118).
- When Muslims accuse those of “blaspheming Muhammad” they are actually guilty of their own sin of shirk, meaning they have elevated Muhammad to the position (partner) with Allah.
- On one occasion Muhammad’s grandfather Abdul Muttalib nearly sacrificed his son Abdullah, Muhammad’s father, but not before consulting a female witch, who after spending several days in prayer with Abdul, advised him against it.
The second book we are happy to recommend and which was rapidly read and reviewed for this months newsletter is the following by Suradi Ben Abraham “Personal Evangelism,” a rare 1998 paperback from Indonesia which coincidently is also 183 pages!
Mr Abraham was an Indonesian medical consultant and former Muslim turned Christian who not only had the courage to print such a book in the world’s largest Islamic country but due to his great success at leading many Muslims to Christ (he baptized many imams) a Fatwah (death threat) was served on him (like a contract killing the Catholic mafia are known to order for their enemies) so he was forced to flee to America for sanctuary and political asylum.
- Abraham begins by highlighting some of the bizarre and embarrassing teachings found in Islam ranging from Satan not only sleeping in the noses of bad Muslims overnight; how Satan urinated into a man’s ear for not praying (p. 141); women producing sperm (p.140); and Muslims being urged to drink camel’s urine for medicine (p. 139).
- Abraham also details Muhammad’s sordid sex life and how during one night he enjoyed sex with nine wives and yet he didn’t follow his own teachings for while he taught men must bathe after intercourse he only did so once (p. 150).
- Muhammad claimed in a dream to have seen Aisha (his infamous 6-year-old child bride) for which he believed it was fate to marry her. Naturally, she was disturbed by such a ‘revelation.’ Abraham also details when Muhammad was praying how innocent Aisha ‘spread out her legs’ while Muhammad ‘pinched them’ (p.166).
- This author also affirms how Muhammad suffered from epilepsy, attempted suicide several times and would even sweat profusely during the winter (p. 167).
- Muhammad had a phobia of pictures and curtains in his property and so he was unable to pray until they were removed (p. 171).
- There are 6666 verses in the Quran. The Bible has well over 30,000.
- Muhammad performed no public miracles so it was necessary to credit him with ‘the splitting of the moon’ and when he once put his fingers in a basin water dropped from his finger (p. 175).
- Aisha contradicted Muhammad several times concerning his belief in seeing God. She said he never did. All he saw according to her was Jibril (Gabriell) (p. 171).
- Women in Islam are considered to be ‘deficient’ in ‘gratitude’ and ‘intelligence.’ She is a toy and a slave. The man has all the rights while the woman has none. It’s acceptable to beat and scourge their wives with a whip which is hung up over the bed. The husband only has to say ‘I divorce you three times’ to be free from his wife whereas the wife cannot do the same.
- Muhammed was also known to cross-dress when he wore Aisha’s own clothing something condemned in Deut 22:5.
We at this ministry are happy to recommend both books to Christians and Muslims alike to get and examine. With few in the west having any firsthand experience into such a culture Messers Moshay and Abraham’s firsthand experience certainly help us in understanding historical Islam.
Our only disappointment with both authors’ was in their failure to clearly articulate imputation, that being how a sinner is forgiven of their sins and made forever right with God the moment they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Saviour, and how they are then forever kept saved by what the Lord Jesus Christ did for sinners, and not what sinners do for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Linguistic issues were possibly the reason for this, in which case, we fully understand and salute and thank both gentlemen for being courageous and bold enough to risk their lives in producing two excellent and informative books.
When it comes to trying to understand how and why Catholics and Muslims have been able to unite so successfully in recent years (known as “Chrislam”) it must be understood that both religions consider Mary to have been born without sin. Muslims believe she was born pure whereas Catholics believe she was immaculately conceived. Their shared love for her trumps and distorts their love for the Messiah.
Much of the material the authors cited in this article comes from the Hadith, not the Quran. The former is actually a commentary on the latter. Both cannot be separated and so should any Muslim try to deflect criticism away from the historical points found in this article, they are basically throwing up a smokescreen hoping the reader is ignorant enough of Islamic history to not know this. Those that refuse to follow the Hadith to the letter ‘must be given up’ (killed).
Another justified point of concern when it comes to anyone wanting to understand the difference between the Bible and the Quran would be how not only Muhammad was unable to read and write, but how he alleged an angel gave him his message and then he dictated this message to others who then wrote it down before reading it back to him. (Recent experts on Islam now suggest the Quran was actually written hundreds of years after Muhammed’s death by those that clearly didn’t even know him). The Bible, however, has ultimately only one author, the Holy Spirit. And He the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to write down everything He told them. The writers were able to check their own writings whereas Muhammad was not able to check what his followers wrote because he was illiterate. (The New Testament was not only written between 39-65 AD, excluding Revelation, which was written around 95 AD, but all of the books in the NT were written by those that knew Jesus and therefore their account is firsthand and written less than 40 years after Jesus’ resurrection and assumption back to heaven).
The following verse continues to be the best and most successful when it comes to leading Muslims to the Messiah: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).