Sunday, March 1, 2015

UNDERSTANDING ISLAM



There is not a single day that passes by without hearing the words like, ISIS, Terrorists, Islam, and radicalized Muslims. The world at large is shocked and panicked with the recent up rise of Islamic militancy, barbarically displayed by groups like ISIS.  In a recent blog on “Militant Islam”, James Emery White starts his argument with these words, “This past week, a high-profile White House meeting with the title “Countering Violent Extremism” went out of its way to avoid labeling acts of brutal violence by Al Qaeda, ISIS (the so-called Islamic State), and their allies as “Muslim” terrorism or describing their ideology as “Islamic” or “Jihadist.”
The concern is wanting to stay away from any sense that the United States is at war with Islam itself, much less to lump the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims with vicious terrorist groups. But a growing number are saying that this is failing to look at the very real threat of militant Islam. They’re right.” It looks like the US and the rest of the western world is increasingly becoming “Islamophobic” In order to understand why that is the case, one must understand a few things about Islam itself.  Therefore I titled my message for this morning, “Understanding Islam”
A bit of background of how I became interested in reaching out to Muslims. While I was in India with YWAM we lived next to a Mosque where I used to wake up disturbed by the prayers of devoted Muslims, they sounded so sad, pathetic and as if they were crying out to God for help. I was burdened by that need. So I used to get up even before they got up and pray for them. I once even fasted 40 days during a Ramadan season and went to a Mosque and prayed for Muslims. I translated a 40 day prayer guide for Muslims into the local language to raise awareness among churches to pray for Muslims. I taught in discipleship training school in Bangladesh for Muslim believers and personally discipled several Muslim converts.
One of them is now actively reaching out to Muslims in Hyderabad India and wrote a book titled, “Muslims are dying, But the Church is drowsing” He sent me a copy to read as I began to read that book the LORD  rekindled my passion to reach out to Muslims once again. Today I will be sharing a few basics of Islam, its origin, its meaning, and beliefs hoping that your desire to understand Islam will grow so let’s get started! How it all began?

I. THE ORIGIN OF ISLAM: (2100 BC-1450 BC)
It was the time of the Patriarchs. The first Patriarch Abraham, upon receiving a call from God he sojourned in the land of Egypt. God had promised him that many nations would come out of him; his children will be like the stars in the sky and the sand on the land.  But there was one problem Abraham was 99 years old and his wife Sara was way past the child bearing stage.
The thought of not being able to bear children distressed Sarah more than anything else. In spite of God’s promise and assurance Sarah increasingly grew impatient. Sarah had an Egyptian maid named Hagar, she took her to Abram and said, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said” (Genesis 16:2).
According the customs of those days, Hagar became a wife to Abram. In the course of time Hagar becomes pregnant, and began to look down upon her mistress. Sarah complains to her husband and he advices her to do whatever she pleased with her slave.
Sarah began to treat Hagar harshly. So she runs away from her mistress into the wilderness there she had an encounter with an angel. “The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” (Genesis 16: 11-13) Vs 15, “So Hagar bore Abram a son and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael.” What is the meaning of “Ishmael”?  It means, “God will hear” In the Islamic world Ishmael is recognized as the ancestor of several prominent Arab tribes and being the forefather of Muhammad.  Muslims also believe that Muhammad was the descendant of Ishmael that would establish a great nation.”  Where did they get that idea from?
As the story continued. At some point Abraham pleads with God that Ishmael will live before God, to that God answered and said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.” Gen 17:19-20
According to the promise, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Now Abraham had two sons the eldest was Ishmael and the youngest was Isaac. After a while, “Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”(Genesis 21: 9-13). As a good husband, Abraham sent Hagar and his son Ishmael away. As they were wandering in the wilderness; when they ran out of water the boy Ishmael began to cry and the LORD heard his cry.  
God tells Hagar, Vs 18-21 “Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert (modern day Jordan and Saudi Arabia) and became an archer... and his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.” And the rest is History!!
 It is a fascinating story of the true origin of Islam.  What can we learn from it? Firstly no single individual has created Islam but it was birthed out of Sarah’s impatience and unbelief. Secondly, Abraham was distressed with the thought of sending his eldest son away. Thirdly unlike the much talked about siblings rivalry between brothers, we see when Abraham died both Ishmael and Isaac together bury him along with his wife Sarah (Gen 25:9). Fourthly, Ishmael lived in the East away from his brothers, fathered twelve sons out of them came twelve princes. Fifthly at a very ripe age of 137 Ishmael dies and was gathered to his people. That was not the end but just the origin and the spread of the descendants of Abraham’s eldest son Ishmael.

But not until, after the death of Christ, a man named Muhammad was born in 570 A.D whom Muslims believe was the last prophet of God with the latest message for the world. Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammad received special revelation from God. These recitations were collected and codified as the Quaran. After the death of Muhammad in 632 AD, his succors popularized the teachings of Quaran, and that was the beginning of an organized religion called Islam. What are the core beliefs of Muslims? To some extent, every Muslim in the world practices what are called the five pillars of Islam.

II. THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM:
1. The reciting of the "Shahadah," which is when you say "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his prophet." 2. To offer seventeen cycles of prayer each day, usually spread out over five periods of time. 3. To fast during the daylight hours of the ninth lunar month of Ramadan. 4. To give at least 2.5% of their income in offering. 5. To make the pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Mecca.
If one strictly follows these five beliefs there is no place for violence right? But where is this violent streak we are seeing in recent times in Islam coming from? Some Muslims add a sixth practice - The Jihad. This is an idea that is often misunderstood even by Muslims. In essence, the Jihad is a personal war you wage against yourself in terms of submission. It has to do with mental or spiritual striving.
But it can also include actual war for the sake of the Islamic faith against others, either to defend or extend the interests of Islam. Then it is called Jihad of the Sword, or a holy war. It’s based on certain passages within the Quran that urge people to fight for the cause of Allah, and to kill pagans wherever they are found. For example, in the second chapter of the Quran there is a passage that teaches that “whenever believers meet unbelievers, Muslims are encouraged to smite their neck” (Quran 2:244; 47:4; 9:5; 9:29).
According to the 47th chapter of the Quran, if you die in the course of this kind of Jihad, as a martyr, you go straight to paradise (Quran 47:4-5). In fact, Muhammad is quoted as saying: “The sword is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer.”[1]
What are they up in arms for? They are fighting for one place, Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem? It is considered as a sacred place because Muhammad selected Jerusalem as the first direction of prayer. Secondly, Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven from the stone that is now enclosed by the Dome of the Rock on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Thirdly The Mosque there is considered the third holiest Mosque in the Muslim world.
But is everyone involved in this fight? Not necessarily so, only a small percentage of radicalized Muslims. Many Muslims that I know are peace loving people. They want to live in peace, they educate their children, and they contribute to the welfare of the society just like the rest of us. I personally know several Muslims, who are doctors, educationalists, business people who neither support nor participate in this evil agenda of Jihad.

In closing, this is only a small attempt, and there is much more to know about Islam. I don’t know what your understanding of Islam has been.  If you are only forming your opinions by what is coming through the media then I am afraid your understanding is limited and often not accurate. But if you want to have a fuller understanding about Islam, please talk to me afterwards I have some resources.
A couple of take away points: Just like the Jews and Christians, Muslims too claim Abraham their father where does that put them in relationship with us? Brothers and sisters right? When God loves all Muslims, then are we to do any different? Let’s pray for the salvation of 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. Amen












[1] http://www.churchandculture.org/blog.asp?id=8981