LESSON 38
ARGUMENTS FOR ISLAM & REPLIES

This lesson is not meant to provide ammunition for arguments with Muslims, since arguments are not the way to achieve understanding, but to help the Christian understand why he remains a Christian and is not convinced by Muslim arguments that he should become a Muslim. We will reply to the most common arguments for Islam.

1. Islam is the last and perfect revelation, replacing previous interim revelations.
—Christian revelation is fundamentally Jesus himself, the Messenger and the Message, the divine Word of God made flesh, who hears the Father directly, without the intermediacy of an angel (e.g. Jn 12:28). This is the complete and perfect message of God (cf. Heb 1:1-4) and none other is to be expected. Prophecy continues in the New Testament and in the Church, but its function is to interpret the message of Jesus, not to bring a new revelation. Any claimant of new revelation has the burden of proving that the revelation given to the Church is incomplete.

2. The Qur'ân is a self-evident miracle, being an inimitable masterpiece of divine origin.
—The Qur'ân is inspiring as any artistic masterpiece and with its religious sentiments it can put listeners into a trance. But to be inspiring is not a necessary indication of being inspired (as some Protestants argue for inspiration of the Bible); and inimitability simply indicates the originality and uniqueness of any great work of art or artist's style. Classic Qur'ân commentators agree that the inimitability of the Qur'ân refers to its Arabic style and not to its content. As a piece of literature, the book is rambling and repetitious, like a rough draft that was never fully edited. The content, moreover, is not original or remarkable, but reflects the vocabulary, stories and religious concepts Muhammad was exposed to. The literary beauty of much of the book and some of its important religious and moral teachings can be the result of divine guidance providing for millions of Muslims who have the Qur'ân as their only spiritual nourishment. Nevertheless its teaching about God, human destiny and moral matters is quite limited and some teachings a Christian would have to reject as erroneous.

3. Muhammad is a model of perfect behaviour.
—This is a very sensitive question because of the high reverence Muslims have for Muhammad. His character is so sacred that any questioning of it arouses deep passions and is considered "politically incorrect". Sharî`a law provides the death penalty for any who insult him, but allows non-Muslims to express their disbelief in him as a prophet. Christians should be careful not to debate the character of Muhammad with Muslims, but they have the right to make their own evaluation of him.
Muhammad could have been a model for the primitive society of 7th century Arabia, but, in spite of his good points, he cannot be held up as a model for present-day society because of his violation of human rights in his treatment of poets and Jews, his ordering the assassination of his opponents, and his treatment of women. Even though the principal motive of his marriages was not sexual gratification but to seal political alliances or to demonstrate his military power after a victory, nevertheless the practice of polygamy, the use of women as political pawns, giving them half the value of a man in inheritance and as witnesses, and their role as sex objects for men in paradise (the hûris) are not only repugnant to Christian standards but also fly in the face of contemporary secular standards of women's rights.

4. Muhammad was prophesied in the Bible (e.g. the Paraclete of Jn 14-16, the Prophet of Dt 18:15)
—These interpretations are the result of Qur'ânic assertions that coming of Muhammad was predicted by Abraham (2:129) and Jesus (Q 61:6; cf. 7:157). Since no such predictions are to be found, Muslims either conclude that the Bible is corrupt or they impose distorted interpretations on the Bible that no Biblical scholar would accept (See Lesson 13).

5. Islam is complete and sufficient for all needs of religion and society.
—This is a comforting claim, but never realized in practice; much of what makes contemporary Islamic societies work is accommodation to standards and methods not Islamic in origin.

6. Islam a rational religion, without mysteries.
—But the Qur'ân frequently refers to al-ghayb: divine hidden intents or facts, to which we must submit; this also includes the hidden inner life of God, which Christians know as the Trinity.

7. The success of Islam proves it comes from God.
—This principle itself is faulty. What God wishes to succeed cannot fail, but what he permits is not necessarily good. It is true that God does provide for the spiritual needs of Muslims and uses Islamic practices to do so, but we cannot conclude that the facts of history are normative. Otherwise we could not even strive for Christian unity because it has in fact been broken for hundreds of years.

8. Islam is older than Christianity in West Africa; it is culturally and politically African, while Christianity is European.
—Christianity was in Africa (Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia) before Islam. Although later than Islam in many parts of West Africa, Africans have made Christianity their own in a more incarnational way than Islam could ever be (see Lesson 37).

QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the Islamic claim that it is the last and perfect revelation.
2. Discuss the claim that the Qur'ân is a miracle.
3. Discuss the sacred position of Muammad for Muslims and Christian criticisms.
4. Discuss the claim that the spread of Islam through so much of mankind is an indication that God approves of this religion.

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West Africa and Islam

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