Is not Islam a heresy to Christianity?

[Contarini]

If so then is not the Catholic Church contradicting himself when it calls Islam a religion.

This is not an attack just a clarification.

Answer yes or no and explain the reason why.

I think this is a semantic question. There is some merit to the ancient belief that Islam is a Christian heresy (in the same way that Christianity and rabbinic Judaism are arguably different versions of the same religion that naturally view each other as “heresies”). However, I think the basic difference between Muslims (or Jews) and Christian heretics would be that Muslims are not baptized and do not profess faith in Jesus as the Son of God. That would put them outside the Christian faith altogether.

Edwin

 

[Genesis315]

Hillaire Belloc discusses it as a heresy here:

ewtn.com/library/homelibr/heresy4.txt

 

[inJESUS]

St. John of Damascus functioned in a Mahometan court in the early days of Mahometanism, and at the time considered it to be just another Christian heresy.

However, Mahometanism has developed since then into what Mussulmans believe today, so it is a separate religion.

I confess there is NO GOD but Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Jesus is God Incarnate risen from the dead.

from the various historical books i read about this issue, i agree 100%.

 

[Genesis315]

No-- a false religion is still properly called a religion. Although, calling a false religion a great religion is something totally different.

It’s meant in this way:

1.unusually or comparatively large in size or dimensions: A great fire destroyed nearly half the city. 2.large in number; numerous: Great hordes of tourists descend on Europe each summer.

 

[IvanKaramozov]

Some facts that bare upon the discussion might be interesting to some.

Mohammed was raised from pre-teen age mostly by an uncle whose clan was very important as it was responsible for the Al-Ka ba where the many religious idols of the tribes were congregated around the black stone.

Mohammed likely had a Ebonite christian wedding to his first wife, Khadija by her cousin Waraqa bin Neufel.

Waraqa was the pastor of a large Ebonite church in Mecca and is widely accepted he married them when Mohammed was 25/her 40. It was 15 years before Mohammed received his first vision/call so it is not unreasonable to assume Mohammed took him as a mentor and maybe converted (my conjecture) during that time in between running caravans for his wife which is how they met. Khadija was likely the same faith as her cousin and the competition between the many gods of the time was of little consequence before Mohammeds started up.

Ebonites do not accept the divinity of Jesus or the resurrection and it was Waraqa that told Mohammed it was the same angel that spoke to Moses that tossed him about and spoke to Mohammed. By this time Waraqa is reported to have been blind and died very soon after the first revelation in the cave.

Waraqa did not accept Islam before he died because he is thought of as an unbeliever today, like Mohammeds own mother. There is a story of Mohammed crying in distres because his mother died before his call and was most likely suffering in hell because of it and he could do nothing about it because of the will of allah.

With all due respect, and I mean that, that’s quite a bit of conjecture.

For centuries people have been trying to link Islam as an outgrowth of Christianity, and certianly it was influenced by and borrowed from Christianity, as Christianity was influenced by and borrowed from religions of the past.

However what is often forgotten is that Pre-Islamic Mecca already had a quite healthy monotheistic strain before Muhammed was ever born.

Now I have never seen any evidence that Khadija was a Christian, or that Muhammed was ever a Christian of any sort.

 

[LaMar]

I had a pretty hearty chuckle when I read Verisimilitude’s original message.

With all due respect, and I mean that, that’s quite a bit of conjecture.

For centuries people have been trying to link Islam as an outgrowth of Christianity, and certianly it was influenced by and borrowed from Christianity, as Christianity was influenced by and borrowed from religions of the past.

However what is often forgotten is that Pre-Islamic Mecca already had a quite healthy monotheistic strain before Muhammed was ever born.

Now I have never seen any evidence that Khadija was a Christian, or that Muhammed was ever a Christian of any sort.

Neither were. I’m sure Amy or Tom will correct this if I’m mistaken.

As I understand things: Khadija was born Jewish, and converted to Islam. Muhammad had at least one other Jewish wife who never converted, and a Christian wife who also never converted, but the legendary Christian wife who (as the story has it) didn’t give up her faith was a late arrival (Maryam the Copt) and didn’t have anything to do with the origins of Islam.

Unlike Jesus, Moses, etc., there are numerous records which actually exist about these people, written by disinterested sources, so we do know something about them. Fabrication of history works in the Christian foundation myths, not so well re: early Islam.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khadija