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Jim_Baur
Guest
Is the central teaching of Islam the same as Judaism and Christianity—Love?
THANKS!
THANKS!
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Reuben_J
Guest
I think Islam does teach about love and mercy but it certainly does not believe in Christian doctrine of turning the other cheek.
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ThatOrthodoxGuy
Guest
Well for their own people not for non believers. The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.
Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.
Most of today’s Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book’s many calls to violence according to what their own moral preconceptions find justificable. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.
Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad’s own martial legacy - and that of his companions - along with the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have produced a trail of blood and tears across world history.
Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.
Most of today’s Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book’s many calls to violence according to what their own moral preconceptions find justificable. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.
Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad’s own martial legacy - and that of his companions - along with the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have produced a trail of blood and tears across world history.
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1ke
Guest
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Pythons
Guest
No, not love at all…
…Unless it’s love between Muslims of the same sect you are.
…Unless it’s love between Muslims of the same sect you are.
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perro_sarnoso
Guest
No.
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Byzantine_Wolf
Guest
As 1ke said, the name Islam and most of its beliefs are about submission, specifically submission to God in a religious context. To be fair and honest, there are elements of love in that, though not to the same degree as one finds in Christ. I’ve heard Christian pastors say that not one of the 99 names of Allah means anything relating to love, which is absolutely false, and we do a great disservice to ministry and evangelizing to Muslims if we spread or teach such falsehoods.
However, as Islam disbelieves in the Biblical teaching of what happened on Calvary that fateful day when the Son of God gave himself for his people to be redeemed from their sins, they lack the key element of Christian love: that love which the shepherd had for his flock. That single greatest love is missing.
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Immacolata
Guest
I agree when Reuben J when he says:
I believe Islam does teach love and mercy, but not as in the Christian doctrine. Islam is based upon five pillars, which come from the “hadith of Gabriel.”
Shahada; which is to believe there is one God, and that Muhammad was His prophet.
Salah, which is to do five daily prayers (at dawn, noon, some time after noon, dusk, and night, in the direction of Mecca)
Zakat, which is to give a portion of one’s money to the poor.
Sawm, which is to fast from dawn to sunset during the month of Ramadan.
The fifth is hajj, which is to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in your lifetime.
In a religious context, the word Islam means voluntary submission to God. It is joined together with imam (which means faith) and ihsan (which means excellence, such as in worship) to make the Islam religion.
Well said.
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Jim_Baur
Guest
Thanks!
I am the OP.
Do they and to what degree do they accept the Scriptures of the Hebrew people?
THANKS!
I am the OP.
Do they and to what degree do they accept the Scriptures of the Hebrew people?
THANKS!
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ThatOrthodoxGuy
Guest
They see them as corrupted and the quran to be the only Scriptures to be accepted
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Immacolata
Guest
According to this website, it says that the Qu’ran describes Christians and Jews as “People of the Book”, and considers their scriptures to be genuine, as they were given by the same God; in one verse, it says that all scriptures should be respected in the same way:
I don’t see how, from reading those verses, that faithful Muslims (who follow what the Qu’ran says) would view the Torah and the Gospel as corrupted.
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ThatOrthodoxGuy
Guest
If your premise is true then why all the hate against Jews and Christians? The Ayatollah Khomeini, who dedicated his entire life to studying Islam, said that non-Muslims rank somewhere between “feces” and the “sweat of a camel that has consumed impure food.” Small wonder. The Quran dehumanizes non-Muslims, describing them as “animals” and beasts:
Those who disbelieve from among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the worst of creatures. (98:6)
Surely the vilest of animals in Allah’s sight are those who disbelieve, then they would not believe. (8:55)
Verse 7:176 compares unbelievers to “panting dogs” with regard to their idiocy and worthlessness. Verse 7:179 says they are like “cattle” only worse.
Verse 5:60 even says that Allah transformed Jews of the past into apes and pigs. This is echoed by verses 7:166 and 2:65.
A hadith (Bukhari 54:524) says that Muhammad believed rats to be “mutated Jews” (also confirmed by Sahih Muslim 7135 and 7136).
Verses 46:29-35 even say that unbelieving men are worse than the demons who believe in Muhammad.
According to Islamic law, non-Muslims may be owned as property by Muslims, but - in keeping with Islam’s supremacist message - a fellow Muslim should never be (unless they convert to Islam after enslavement). Even Christians and Jews are not considered fully human in that the penalty for killing one of them is limited to one-third of the compensation due for unintentionally killing a Muslim.
The Quran Says that Allah does NOT Love Unbelievers
Christianity teaches that God loves all people, but hates sin. The Quran never says this. Instead it explicitly declares that Allah does not love those who do not believe in him:
He does not love the unbelievers (30:45)
Allah only loves those who obey Muhammad (at least according to Muhammad, who provided the “narration”):
Say: “Obey Allah and His Messenger”: But if they turn back, Allah loveth not those who reject Faith. (3:32)
Instead of a god that loves the sinner, even while hating the sin, the wrath of Allah is placed squarely on the individual:
Surely Allah does not love any one who is unfaithful, ungrateful. (22:38)
Verses 11:118-199 say that Allah does not bestow mercy on everyone. For this reason, he chooses not to guide some people:
And Allah’s is the direction of the way, and some (roads) go not straight. And had He willed He would have led you all aright. (16:9)
For those whom Allah does not love, there will be the most terrible of eternal torments, including eternal roasting:
Those who reject our Signs, We shall soon cast into the Fire: as often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the penalty: for Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise. (4:56)
“Allah is the enemy of the unbelievers” (2:98) and, as we shall see, he hates them so much that he even leads them into sinning and actively prevents them from believing in him, thus ensuring their fate.
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Immacolata
Guest
Ayatollah Khomeini is hardly the best example of a Muslim, I would think.
May I ask, where did you read this information? I have never read the Qu’ran, so I when I discuss it, I prefer to hear (and tell) the information from an Islamic source.
Also, in my post, I was merely saying that the Qu’ran tells Muslims to respect the Jewish and Christian scriptures, as they come from the same God, while leaving open whether the Qu’ran says differently about respecting Jewish and Christians themselves.
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ThatOrthodoxGuy
Guest
I have read the quran many many times as well as the Hadith and sunnah. All of the information is straight from the quran or the other sources Hadith and sunnah. I keep a spread sheet with all of my information from over the years. I would never never use a Islamic site. They minipulate the truth and twist it. They are aloud to lie to non believers to covert them. You need to be very careful what you believe from what they tell you. They still view our scriptures as corrupted.
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Reuben_J
Guest
This is a bit tricky for us on the outside and we may not understand the true thrust of this teaching for there are some conditions for it to be applied. Even though there are people to be considered as people of the book, not just theChristians and the Jews only but all those religions that have holy scriptures. Islam believe in all the prophets and that they brought up revelations from God but all the ancient scriptures had been lost in time. These are the people of the book and they were to accept the revelation of Muhammad which is the final and the uncorrupted one. So it’s just a continuation for the people of the book to be Muslims. But for those that refuse and reject the uncorrupted final revelation of Islam are therefore to be considered infidels, the kafurs. It is not a good thing to be kafurs. You should look up how Muslims treat the Kafurs.
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rfournier103
Guest
I have heard that the relationship between God and man in Christianity is one of Father-son. In Islam, this relationship is a master-slave relationship. Just what I’ve heard, and if I am wrong, please correct me.
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Bezant
Guest
Can you boil a religion down to one central teaching?
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ThatOrthodoxGuy
Guest
Your right.
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Immacolata
Guest
From what I’ve read, I believe you are right. Muhammad himself described the relationship between him and God as thus:
As I said in a previous post, the meaning of the word Islam is submission (to God). In Christianity, as well as Judaism (without the Trinity, however), God is known as Father, which indicates an intimate relationship. In Islam, there is nothing of this concept; Muhammad considered the relationship between him and God to resemble a master and slave, with obedience, along with submission, being the priority.
You may want to read this article; I found that site helpful with knowledge on Islam.
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AveChriste11
Guest
Hi,
From my understanding “People of the Book” is simply referring to just that, that as Christians and our predecessors the Jews we were given a revelation from God which they claim that we now reject. At one point the Qur’an says:
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“Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clear from error. Whoever rejects false worship and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that never breaks. And God hears and knows all things.” (Quran 2:256)*
And then later it goes on to say that: " If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah) never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good)." (Qur’an 3:85)
This was abrogating the previous verse which stated:* “Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans [before Prophet Muhammad] - those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness - will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.”*
In another post you stated you would not learn about Islam from Islamic websites or Muslims themselves. I find that rather odd because if I want to know about Roman Catholicism, I’m not going to ask someone who is very anti-Catholic and thinks that they aren’t Christians.
Granted there are some pretty tough verses in the Qur’an, and some tough “sayings” in the ahadith (Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad). I have read many of them being attributed to specifically those times and places, and no longer applicable. However it must be said that Islam does not have Bishops, and therefore it is hard to determine where the authority to interpret their scripture properly comes from. For then you have a situation that many Protestant Christians find themselves in when everyone reads the Bible for themselves and comes to their own conclusions.
I also agree with Immacolata that the Ayatollah Khomeini is hardly an example. Just as I realize that most televangelists are not proper examples when it comes to what it means to be a good Christian.
In Christ,
Andrew
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