Yes, Jews and Muslims pray to the one who revealed himself to Abraham, and since the one who revealed himself to Abraham is the one true God, they pray to the one true God, though they are ignorant that this God is a Trinity, and that Jesus is this God.
The Church’s Teaching
Pope Gregory VII, in 1076 AD, wrote a letter to the Muslim An-Nasir, king of Bujaya, capital of the Sanhaja Hammadids, in which he affirms that Muslims worship the same God as Christians:
“Your highness wrote to us this year asking us to consecrate as bishop the priest Servandus according to Christian procedures. Since your request seemed right and very good, we were eager to comply. At the same time you sent us some presents and, in deference to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and through love of us, you released some Christians who were held captive in your land, promising to release others in the future.
God, the Creator of everything, without whom we could not do or think of anything good, clearly inspired you to do this generous act. He who enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9) gave you the idea. Almighty God, who wills that all should be saved and none lost, values above all else in us our love for our fellow man after the love which we owe to him, and that we should not do to others what we do not want done to ourselves (cf. Mt. 7:1-5).
We, more than other peoples, should practice this virtue of love, that is, *you and we together, who under a different form believe in and adore the same and only God whom we praise and worship *every day as the Creator of the ages and Lord of this world. As the Apostle Paul said, ‘He is our peace, who made both one’ (cf. Eph. 2:14-16). …
God knows that we love you for the sake of his honour alone and that we wish you health and glory in this life and the next. We pray to him from the depth of our heart that after a long life he will give you the happiness of resting at Abraham’s side." (Patrologia Latina, vol. 48, col. 450., emphasis added)
The same thing is taught equivalently by the Second Vatican Council, and on several occasions asserted explicitly by Pope John Paul II:
“We know that God is the one who rewards goodness and punishes evil. The Church in Sumatra is happy that this certitude is shared by all the people of the region: with our Christian brothers and sisters who believe in the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and
also with the followers of Islam who believe in the same good and just God.” (Homily, October 13, 1989, emphasis added)
The Counter-Argument
The argument that because Muslims deny the Trinity, they do not worship the true God, falls into the fallacy of
accident.The following argument is a paraphrase of an actual argument denying that Muslims worship one and the same God as Christians worship, the one true God.
“Since a Christian cannot deny the Trinity, he cannot affirm the monotheism of Judaism or Islam, since these two faiths deny the Trinity. Therefore I say that Jews, Christians and Muslims do not all worship the same God. If they did, that would mean that Jews and Muslims worship a Trinitarian God, though being ignorant of his Triune nature. But this is patronizing to Jews and Muslims, and fails to take seriously their emphatic affirmations of the radical monotheism of God.”
The argument put into logical/syllogistic form:
A. Muslims emphatically deny the Blessed Trinity.
B. He who denies something does not worship that thing.
C. Therefore, from A and B, Muslims do not worship the Blessed Trinity.
D. The Blessed Trinity is the God worshipped by Christians.
E. Therefore, from C and D, Muslims do not worship the same God worshipped by Christians.
The Solution
There is a fallacy in this argument, called the fallacy of accident. The mistake lies in the fact that something is true in a certain respect, and it is assumed to be true in another way, or even that it is true in every possible way.
Imagine a situation where Peter puts a cup of poisoned water in front of John, who is very thirsty. The following argument exactly parallels the preceding argument about Muslims and Christians:
A. John vehemently dislikes Peter’s poison.
B. He who vehemently dislikes something does not desire to drink that thing.
C. Therefore, from A and B, John does not desire to drink Peter’s poison.
D. Peter’s poison is the contents of the cup on the table.
E. Therefore, from C and D, John does not desire to drink the contents of the cup on the table.
Now in fact, John doesn’t desire to drink the poison insofar as it is poison. But it doesn’t follow that he doesn’t desire to drink the poison in some other way, namely insofar as he supposes it to be water.
In the same way, in the arguments about Muslims, the Muslims don’t worship the Blessed Trinity as the Blessed Trinity. It doesn’t follow that they don’t worship the Blessed Trinity in some other respect, (e.g., insofar as it is the one that revealed itself to Abraham), thereby worshipping the Blessed Trinity in ignorance of the fact that it is a Trinity, just as one might desire poison in ignorance.
Joseph
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