Islam is a continuation of Christianity as Christianity is an outgrowth of Judaism. These religions, known as the Abrahamic religions because they all trace their origin back to the prophet Abraham, are very close to each other. They all worship the same one God. There is sometimes confusion about this because Muslims usually call God by the name Allah. This is a contraction of Al Ilah, The God. Ilah, the Arabic for God, is a very close cognate of the Hebrew Eloh (Elohim, with the im suffix also seen in Cherubim, Sephardim, etc.). The main prophets of Islam are Muhammed, Jesus (Isa), Moses (Musa) and Abraham (Ibrahim). Muslims call Christians and Jews "people of the Book", meaning that they follow the teachings of God's prophets as set down in the Bible. On most things, Islam and Christianity agree. Islam and Judaism are even closer as to morality and the rules for daily living. So what separates them and who is right?

The obvious difference is that Christians accept Jesus after the prophets of Judaism and Muslims follow Muhammed after Jesus. But the serious differences between Christians on the one hand and Jews and Muslims on the other come not from Jesus but from Paul, who took the Christians out of the Jewish tradition in many ways. The Palestinian Jewish Christians who followed the brothers of Jesus, first James and then Jude (Judas), never accepted Paul and his teachings, but formed their own church called the Ebionite Church. The Ebionites all became Muslims later, accepting Muhammed as the successor of Jesus.

Another crucial difference between Christians and Muslims is the Christian belief that Jesus was God. Of course, many Christians do not believe this, either, such as Ebionites, Arians, Nestorians, Christadelphians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, Universalists, most Friends, most Methodists and most members of the United Church. Many individual Christians have taken this position as well, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Schweitzer and Bishop Pike. What does the Bible say? To the person who addressed him as "Good Teacher", Jesus replied "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." (Luke 18:19) Again, to Mary Magdalene at the tomb, Jesus said "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (John 20:17). Even Paul agreed that Jesus was not God, for he wrote "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (I Timothy 2:5). So the Muslim belief that Jesus was the prophet of God, but not God, agrees with Jesus and the Bible.

What is the nature of God? Of course, this is beyond human comprehension, but part of the answer is He is spirit and He is love. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) "He who does not know love does not know God; for God is love." (I John 4:8) From this it follows that while Jesus was a man of God, he was not God.

There are other important differences in Muslim and Christian beliefs and practices. A Muslim is taught to be proud, to conduct himself with dignity and honor, whereas the Christian views pride as a sin and is taught to be meek. The present emphasis in psychology on self-esteem and assertiveness has always been a part of Muslim custom. While both the Christian and the Muslim see greed as sinful, the Muslim is urged to go into commerce and accumulate wealth while the Christian is urged to shun riches and depend on God for sustenance. The Christian is urged not to defend himself but to turn the other cheek when he is struck. The Muslim is commanded to defend himself, his family and particularly his faith. This difference in views explains why Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., were not able to work together against discrimination. Muslims could not accept King's discipline of non-violence not because they believe in violence but because they refuse to humiliate themselves by submitting to evil.

Perhaps the most important difference is the Muslim belief that how he conducts himself in daily life is the most important part of his religion, that he creates his own heaven or hell here on earth, while Christians look to reward or punishment in the next life. The extreme form of this is found in Evangelical or Fundamentalist Protestant Churches, which follow Paul's teaching that people are saved through their belief in Jesus as their personal savior and not by how they live. Of course, most Christians, including Orthodox, Catholics and Mainline Protestants, agree with Muslims and do not believe this. They follow the teaching of James, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." (James 1:22) "What does it profit, my brethern, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?" (James 2:14) "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (James 2:17)

In a direct answer to Paul's letter to the Romans, James showed that Paul had incorrectly interpreted the story of Abraham and Isaac, and goes so far as to refer to Paul as "you foolish fellow." (James 2:20) "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." (James 2:24) "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead." "You believe God is one,; you do well. Even the demons believe - and shudder." (James 2:19) The belief of Muslims and most Christians is given in the first letter of John: "And by this we may be sure that we know Him, if we keep his commandments. He who says 'I know Him' but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (I John 2:3)

The question of which religion is best must be addressed on several levels. First, since Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same one God, all of them are good, and no one should deride any of them. While Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the most complete and reliable source of God's revelation, they acknowledge that the same message was given to Jesus, Moses and other prophets before Muhammed. While a comparison can be made on the content of the revelations in the different religions or on their theological positions, and the criticism can be based on the methods of different fields such as history, science, linguistics, ethics, philosophy or theology, there is a simpler approach which may have more validity for our lives. In the philosophies of Pragmatism (William James) or Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mills), that is best which works best. In this vein, the test of the quality of a religion lies in the quality of the lives of its adherents. It is much easier to compare results than it is to ascertain the validity of different revelations.

Test for yourself. Go to a church and a masjid (mosque), find several couples in their late thirties or early forties, and find out what has happened to their teenaged children. We believe you consistently will find that many more of those raised as Muslims will have stayed in school, stayed off of drugs and stayed out of jail. Find women of this age and see how many still have sober, productive, supportive husbands. Find men of this age and see who is healthy, employed and out of trouble, and who is addicted to alcohol or cocaine and wastes all his money. It is our experience that Muslim men and their families are faring much better than others, particularly in the poorer neighborhoods of American cities where drugs and crime are so destructive.

There is an article in Christianity Today (January 10, 1994) about Islam in America which is very informative. Titled "Churches Wary of Inner-city Islamic Inroads" under a heading of "African Americans" and subtitled "More Blacks see the Muslim message as an appealing Alternative to Christianity," the article is cited on the front cover as "News: Winning back Black Muslims" and in the table of contents as "Urban Churches: How ministries are reclaiming Black Muslims." While the intent of the article is to tell about Christian efforts to convert Muslims to Christianity, it provides some very interesting insights into the differences. "When it comes to righteousness-through-good-deeds, a Muslim can run rings around a Christian." This is a terrible admission for a Christian to make. If Muslims are better people, living better lives, why should they convert to Christianity? The article quotes a Christian woman, "As a Black woman, I can't tell you what it means to me to see all those young Black men dressed in suits, disciplined, committed to a cause, and totally respectful of me as a woman."

While the article deals mainly with the small, break-away group led by Louis Farrakhan, it does mention the main group of Muslim Americans, led by Wallace (Warith) Deen Mohammed, the son and heir of Elijah Mohammed. Concentrating on the Ridgewood section of Columbia, South Carolina, "They have come in here and established a daycare center, a bakery and a supermarket, ... And then they marched down the street and told all the drug pushers they didn't belong in that neighborhood anymore. The drug pushers moved out." This quote is from a minister whose church "moved into Ridgewood to counter the mosque's efforts."

We believe that the answer to societal problems like drug use, alcoholism, crime, illegitimate children, teenage pregnancy, school dropouts, unemployment, urban blight, lack of education and illiteracy is to be found in Islam. At the present rate of growth, Muslims are predicted to be a majority of urban African Americans by 2010. This growth is largely based on the recognition that Islam is the main force combatting these evils in our cities. Even if you do not accept Islam for yourself, we hope you will appreciate the contribution that Islam is making to improving social conditions. The pride and devotion of Muslims is making a difference in many places and improving the lives of many.

Click the button below for an article on Haram (that which is forbidden) and Khamr (that which intoxicates).
HARAM AND KHAMR

Click this button for a discussion of Muslims and Homosexuality.
Homosexuality and Islam

Click this button for a discussion the requirement that Muslim men wear beards.
Beards and Islam

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