Do Muslims pray to the same God as Catholics or not?

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Jen7 said:
N.A. is a pretty problematic document. Just saying.
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I agree that is it problematic. That doesn’t affect me so much as an Orthodox Christian because I can just say “Rome got this one wrong”, but for you it’s part of the Magisterium: it was produced at an ecumenical council (Vatican 2) and ratified by the Pope. But that’s a topic for another time.
Niblo said:
The Beloved assures me - in the verses I have quoted- that their reward is eternity with Him; and I see no reason to doubt His word.
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I’m not sure all Muslims would agree with that interpretation - I have read hadiths that said Christians would go to hell-fire. But your knowledge of Islam (as it’s practiced by its faithful) is of course more expansive than mine, so I will not contest this.
 
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ReaderT said:
I’m not sure all Muslims would agree with that interpretation
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Puritans would not, for sure. They claim that this verse has been abrogated, but offer no proof.

I repeat, the Beloved does not renege on His promises.

I chose to put my trust in Him.

I should point out, by the way, that according to these same puritans, nobody…but nobody…gets to Heaven but themselves!
 
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I believe Muslims do pray to the same Gd as Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, and Jews. Our understanding of the NATURE of that Gd may be different but we all believe in One Gd, we are all monotheistic religions, and so we believe in and pray to the same One Gd. Does not the Catechism of the Catholic Church say as much?
 
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Annie said:
Muslims seem more centered on the Koran while Christians are more centered on a person, Jesus Christ.
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Prominent scholars of Islam (Western…) have made the equivalence-- Qur’an in Islam = Christ in Christianity. So you should get a prize for perceptiveness!
 
He did clarify things in Jesus. But Muslims rejected His revelation. They have accepted Mohammed as a prophet.
I would hope the deficiencies of Mohammed’s teaching would be obvious (how many are enticed by mere sensual pleasures promised in his “Heaven”?). But, in addition to his deficient teaching, it was mixed with much truth that converted the pagans. They thus claim to worship the God of Abraham, and there is a history of classical monotheistic thought. So, this could be better than their false pagan beliefs.

Jesus gave the “duty” of evangelization to His Church!
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
we are all monotheistic religions
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Not all Jews agree. See 15:30 - 16:15 where the rabbi says that Christianity developed a polytheistic and idolatrous conception of G-d.


Also see:
http://www.mesora.org/polytheism.htm
“Jesus caused the majority of the world to err to serve a god other than the Lord.”
" Christianity or any other form of polytheism is an absolute violation of the Noachide command against idolatry, defined as a “corrupted view of the ‘One’ Creator”."
 
Of course not all Jews agree. Since when do all Jews agree about anything, including rabbis? And I do not and cannot speak for all Jews. However, I do know that attitudes toward Christianity regarding its being a monotheistic religion have changed for the better within the Jewish community, and I believe the reverse is also the case.
 
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Not sure I deserve a prize—I have read bits and pieces about Islam and ME history off and on for many years, so i probably read it somewhere—but thank you! I can always use a prize!
 
From a Christian perspective, when Islam first came on the scene it was considered a Christian heresy. I know St. John of Damascus deemed Islam to essentially be the Arian heresy. It is more than obvious from looking at a lot of Muslim practices that they had contact with Christians and their practices at the time.

I find that the answer of whether or not we all pray to the same God changes (among Muslims) depending on the conversion tactics being used with particular groups of people. If someone is attempting to convert the New Age all paths lead to God people, then everyone worships the same God. If someone is attempting to show a dedicated Christian that the Trinity is a wrong belief- then we suddenly become polytheists and certainly don’t worship the same God.

Anyway, I’m not an expert on Islam, but I have read the Quran (I once found a website that listed three English translations side by side and took advantage of it) and I’ve read quite a few hadiths. There is one problem I’ve seen (more educated folks than me discovered it) regarding God as presented in the Quran.

Muslims say that Jesus is the Word of God and Spirit. It says this in the Quran regarding Jesus.

Kalima tullah- "The Word of Allah (God)
Ruhun min Allah - “A spirit from Allah (God).”

If so, and to all evidence the Quran does seem to claim this about Jesus, and since they believe that Jesus isn’t God, then they have a serious problem. If Christ isn’t God, then they believe that God is without Word or Spirit.

In light of this, I personally say that Muslims don’t worship the same God as Christians. Muhammad took the things he saw Christians doing and made up his own religion without having anywhere near a complete understanding of the implications of certain things. Another example: Even Muslims believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. Muhammad certainly wasn’t. They have no concept of why that is an important thing and the implication of it.

We do not consider modalist Pentecostals to be Christian as they also deny the Trinity. We do not consider the LDS faith Christian as they have a different concept of God. We don’t consider the JWs Christian as they consider St. Michael to be Jesus. These groups fall very short and deny Orthodox Christian teachings on the Godhead. These things matter.
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
we all believe in One Gd, we are all monotheistic religions, and so we believe in and pray to the same One Gd
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I don’t think that logically follows. There are satanic cults that worship one deity too - satan. Are they secretly praying to my Jesus but not knowing it? That’d be hard to believe.
CoffeeFanatic said:
We do not consider modalist Pentecostals to be Christian as they also deny the Trinity. We do not consider the LDS faith Christian as they have a different concept of God. We don’t consider the JWs Christian as they consider St. Michael to be Jesus. These groups fall very short and deny Orthodox Christian teachings on the Godhead. These things matter.
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Preach!!!
 
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Rozellelily said:
I don’t understand is if there is one true God then why do different religions exist?
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Human free will, and possibly angelic or demonic free will.

Not all the Jews believed, or believe, that Jesus is the Messiah.

Islam started because Muhammad believed that he encountered an angel. Whether he really did or not is an interesting question, but he decided not to believe the Gospel and start his own religion instead. For a later version of this kind of thing, see Mormonism.
 
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ReaderT said:
I agree that is it problematic. That doesn’t affect me so much as an Orthodox Christian because I can just say “Rome got this one wrong”, but for you it’s part of the Magisterium: it was produced at an ecumenical council (Vatican 2) and ratified by the Pope. But that’s a topic for another time.
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When Vat II was closed, the Pope explicitly stated that Vat II was NOT binding. So I get to say “Rome got this one wrong,” too. 😉
 
meltzerboy2 said:
I do know that attitudes toward Christianity regarding its being a monotheistic religion have changed for the better within the Jewish community, and I believe the reverse is also the case.
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As time has gone by, I’ve tended to the idea that, rather like statues and idolatry, “it depends.”

In other words, in its most ‘thought out’ form, it’s monotheistic and non-idolatrous, but it’s something that, in practice, Christians have to be alert about and educate believers to be wary about.
 
CoffeeFanatic said:
From a Christian perspective, when Islam first came on the scene it was considered a Christian heresy. I know St. John of Damascus deemed Islam to essentially be the Arian heresy. It is more than obvious from looking at a lot of Muslim practices that they had contact with Christians and their practices at the time.

I find that the answer of whether or not we all pray to the same God changes (among Muslims) depending on the conversion tactics being used with particular groups of people. If someone is attempting to convert the New Age all paths lead to God people, then everyone worships the same God. If someone is attempting to show a dedicated Christian that the Trinity is a wrong belief- then we suddenly become polytheists and certainly don’t worship the same God.

Anyway, I’m not an expert on Islam, but I have read the Quran (I once found a website that listed three English translations side by side and took advantage of it) and I’ve read quite a few hadiths. There is one problem I’ve seen (more educated folks than me discovered it) regarding God as presented in the Quran.

Muslims say that Jesus is the Word of God and Spirit. It says this in the Quran regarding Jesus.

Kalima tullah- "The Word of Allah (God)
Ruhun min Allah - “A spirit from Allah (God).”

If so, and to all evidence the Quran does seem to claim this about Jesus, and since they believe that Jesus isn’t God, then they have a serious problem. If Christ isn’t God, then they believe that God is without Word or Spirit.

In light of this, I personally say that Muslims don’t worship the same God as Christians. Muhammad took the things he saw Christians doing and made up his own religion without having anywhere near a complete understanding of the implications of certain things. Another example: Even Muslims believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. Muhammad certainly wasn’t. They have no concept of why that is an important thing and the implication of it.

We do not consider modalist Pentecostals to be Christian as they also deny the Trinity. We do not consider the LDS faith Christian as they have a different concept of God. We don’t consider the JWs Christian as they consider St. Michael to be Jesus. These groups fall very short and deny Orthodox Christian teachings on the Godhead. These things matter.
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These other groups may not have a correct understanding of either Christianity or God, but that is still a big step away from saying they worship a different God altogether. For that matter mainstream Protestantism does the same, we do not say they worshio a different God.

I mean there are people in and outside the US who have radically, even diametrically opposed, understandings abut who Donald Trump is, but we can see they are talking about the same person and not a different one.
 
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ReaderT said:
I don’t think that logically follows. There are satanic cults that worship one deity too - satan. Are they secretly praying to my Jesus but not knowing it? That’d be hard to believe.
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The difference between one God and one deity is very big. Satanic cults that worship Satan, say, are worshipping a spiritual being that is one of many demons.
But classical monotheists worship the One True God to whom we can reason. But Islam, say, has false revelation concerning the One True God.

I think it’s one of those things that are true in one sense and false in another. Diplomacy, one could perhaps say.
 
Having an incorrect understanding of God can actually mean that someone is worshipping a different God from Christians. Muslims don’t believe that Christ is God. They literally deny the divinity of Christ. Since they aren’t worshipping Christ, they don’t worship the God that Christians worship.
 
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