Insight to Islam

Yesterday I sat and visited with one of my new neighbors named Adams. He is Muslim and I asked him if he would teach me about his faith. I’ve read books here and there, listened to audio pieces of people speaking on Islam but never sat down and had a conversation with a Muslim. I especially have wondered over the past couple of years if African Muslims differ from Middle Eastern, etc. because I see men dressed in the Islam garb but I don’t see many women’s faces veiled.

(FYI for those who don’t know, “Islam” is the name of the faith and “Muslim” is the name of the person practicing the faith. Like “Christianity” and “Christian.”)

A couple of weeks ago I went to Accra and in a random moment while riding in the mini-van I thought, I wonder how many mosques I can see from here. I looked up and counted six in the short time it took me to span the left side of the van. Seeing that sent a little jolt through my body. While there certainly are more protestant churches with Christians in them, the Christians are not necessarily a united body. So if we count each denomination as its own, Islam is surely beginning to take over. It is even more prominent in the north.

As I sat with Adams he shared with me his past and the environments he’s lived in both Christian and Muslim and he shared with me his education in the Qur’an. He reads it in Arabic and as a child spent half of the day in school learning basic subjects in English and then he spent the rest of the day in Arabic school. Interesting.

I asked him what the major differences were between Islam and Christianity and I wondered what kind of tension that would place between us there in that conversation. It wasn’t nearly as thick as I thought it would be. He mentioned the five prayer times each day. (Quick note: someone's alarm next door has been going off at dark-thirty every morning and it turns out, Adams' first prayer time is at 4:30am. This morning while half asleep I thought, "Man, I'm glad I'm not his roommate and having to wake up do that EVERY morning." Then I thought, "Wait a minute...here I am waking up to his alarm every morning at 4:30." I laughed at my silliness and went back to sleep. :End of quick note.) He then beat around the bush a little before he mentioned that they did not believe God has a Son. They believe there is only ONE God (He emphasized over and over) and Jesus was a prophet just as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Mohammed, etc. There are over one hundred major prophets and thousands of others.
I expressed to him that Christians believe in one God also, but they believe He has presented Himself in three forms, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He told me of the Five Pillars of Islam our conversation came to a close with my asking how Muslims were assured of salvation and going to heaven. He said that we must follow the commands and the scriptures. He mentioned much of the Qur’an and the Bible are the same. I’m not sure if he’s read the Bible though.

I will not even begin to try to break down the Islam faith. My time with Adams was just to listen and learn how they do things, the way they think and what they believe. I will say one thing however, it seems as though Muslims recognized God’s justness and righteousness more than most people or faiths, but at the same time the belief is that prayer and works (efforts on man’s part) are what save him in the end. Again, I can’t pretend I understand Islam or have really studied it at all but I do know that I would like to know more. If anyone knows of anything brief and easy to read or listen to that describes the Islam faith I’d be interested in checking it out. I’ve heard some of David Jeremiah and I think Ravi Zacharias has some things out but I don’t know if any are specific to Islam or not. I say “brief” because while I want to understand, I don’t have a ton of hours to devote to intensely studying.

Oh, one last thing to mention that was interesting to me. Adams said that jihad is no more. It was mandated in the beginning because people were seeking to take Mohammed’s life and in addition, in Mecca there were lots of idol and idol worshipping going on so apparently he went to fight and rid the place of idols so people would worship Allah. Then after the faith was established (I think) Allah basically said no more fighting. Every man is accountable to me and will be judged for his deeds.

Lots more thinking to do! Maybe I’ll find some Muslim in the airport next month and attempt a discussion…totally kidding!