What do Muslims believe?

An email to a muslim friend.

Hello A……

It was nice to meet you and have you as a guide on our trip to Turkey

You told a lot of good stories and gave interesting historical information about your Country.

What I particularly liked was your openness when it came to your life and your religious beliefs.

Here in Europe we are not used to people standing up confessing their faith publicly, like you did.  But I am glad you did, because it was a bit refreshing to hear you talk openly about your Muslim faith.

Your lesson about your religion, and your belief in good deeds, have been working in my mind after coming back home.

You talked a little about that you broke the alcohol prohibition in Islam, and that the punishment for this sin was hell. But you said that you did a lot of good things as well, including supporting a home for disadvantaged mothers, so you did not expect that hell was permanently,

and your belief was that all people sooner or later are reaching Heaven.

I've been reading a bit in the Quran, but I can’t find anything there that supports the idea of ​​purgatory.
The Qur'an and Hadith, says that at the Day of Judgment, Allah descends from Heaven to judge all humans. Allah will weigh the good and bad deeds of each person. This is called in Islam, the concept of "the Scale." The deeds of all people will be weighed in Allah's scales to determine their eternal destiny. But here is no doctrine about purgatory. We know that the Catholic Church has such a doctrine, in which people must go through purgatory before entering Heaven.

Therefore, I have some thoughts from my understanding of religion, I would like to present to you.

In Islam, Ishmael is regarded as a prophet (nabi) and an ancestor to Muhammad. The history of the Arabs starts with Ishmael, and we can read this story in Genesis chapters 16 to 25 in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 21 you can read about the conflict that arose between Abraham's wife Sarah, and Ishmael's mother Hagar, which led to that Ishmael and his mother was thrown out of the family.

He went from being a happy child with a family, to having no father and no inheritance. In Ishmaels mind, his baby brother was to blame; Isaac had stolen everything. He had usurped his father, his home, his birthright – his very life.

But it looks as if this hatred has persisted ever since.

It was the Arab soldiers in the Roman army of Titus, in the year 70 AD, which set fire to the Jewish Temple, without the permission of Titus.

For approximately two thousand six hundred years after Ishmael’s life and death, a direct descendant of his, Muhammad, rose to become the “prophet” of the new religion Islam. And what does the religion of Islam declare?

Among its most central doctrines are the following:

God is not a Father!

God has no Son!

Ishmael, not Isaac is the heir of the Abrahamic promises!

It seems like the generational bitterness of Ishmael is being channeled through Muhammad’s teaching. Mohammad himself was also an orphan, having lost his closest caregivers during his upbringing. So in Muhammad, Ishmael’s resentment found a perfect conduit. From a spiritual sense, we may view Islam as the broken and bitter cry of Ishmael, the fatherless, the orphan, memorialized and canonized as a religion, says a Christian writer who knows Islam well.

By the way!

It seems like religion is important for humanity. Without religion, there is no answer to our existence.  Science can say something about human biology, and human psychology, etc. but can’t say anything about the meaning of life, and why we are here on earth. If the human race is a result of blind coincidence, as the atheists say, then I find it strange that we humans are equipped with conscience and morality, who judges our actions and deeds. We do find this understanding in all religions, or perhaps we can say in all humanity, the notion or idea, that our lives will be subjected to judgment.

I believe that God exist, but I have problems with religions. I believe that there are human thoughts and human doctrines in all religions.

As human beings we all somehow manufacture a God in our image, and these images of God has led to many different interpretations and different roads that we believe will lead us to God. This applies both to Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

Some of these religious doctrines are more or less destructive and perverted, like the religious faith of the Catholic inquisitors, and the Crusaders in the Middle Ages, and the religious faith of suicide bombers, and the extreme Islamists of today.

If we look at all religious expression in the world today, then not all of these religions with their conflicting rules and doctrines can be right, or be true.

All religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam have doctrines and religious ideas that are man-made, to put it more as I see it.

I believe that God exist, but where do we find him?

And what are the testimonies and the message God has given to the people of this world?

In which of all these religions of the world do we find a message from God?

When I was young I sailed as an engineer in the merchant fleet, and for some years I sailed on the Far East. In Singapore, there were many different nationalities, and there were many religions, like Islam and Christianity, and many different versions of Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism. There you could hear the call from the minaret reminding the Muslims of prayer, and you met Christians who invited you to their church. But for me, at that time I was very interested in the religion of Buddhism. I spent some time in Buddhist Temples, and read books about Buddhism etc. But it was a disappointing experience, I found nothing divine in this religion.

Human thoughts and philosophy is something that exists in all religions. Buddhism can be both a religion and philosophy.

Buddhism in Southeast Asia is more philosophy than religion, The goal of Buddhism is Nirvana, annihilation of existence, because Buddhist just see life as suffering.

The only hope in Buddhism is therefore annihilation, none existence.

But I found something interesting in Zen Buddhism. In the writings of a Buddhist teacher from the 11th century, who really had tried the way of doing good deeds, who had been working hard on his salvation. He came to the conclusion that no matter how much human beings strive to do good, trying to deserve salvation, it is all in vain, we'll never get a good conscience and peace with God through good deeds. There is always something missing, giving us a bad conscience and guilt, we never manage to be just good all the time, and help all people in need. He came to the conclusion, that the only thing we can hope for is the grace of Buddha. But why would Buddha (God, - Allah) be merciful to us? 

In religions we find a struggle for salvation. 

I believe that this struggle for salvation comes from our human conscience, which tries through good deeds to meet the requirements of the religions, But since these requirements are so different in the different religions, we do not know if these religious requirements really is God's requirements, or what God demands of us.

Where do we find a message from God to the people of this world?

Can we find a message from God in the Scriptures that are the basis for the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam?

What do these religions teach about salvation? When it comes to salvation, I think we find a lot of man-made doctrines here.

Nevertheless, I believe in salvation.
Despite the differences between these three religions, I think we find a message of salvation, a message from God, through the prophets from Abraham to Jesus

And I am convinced that this message from God is to be found in the Bible

How did we get the Bible? Where did it come from?

Did God drop it out of Heaven, down to a prophet? Of course not. 

The Bible is a Jewish history book, a collection of writings that were written over nearly two thousand years in different contexts, to different people, across different cultures. And some how this writings all ended up together in one book.

Although this book was composed by men, its unity reveals the hand of the Almighty. 2 Peter 1:21 
The bible is unique in that it is the only book that is fully human and also eminently divine. The strongest testimony to me is the transformation the Bible has brought in the lives of human beings.

Jews and Christians

have the same Bible, reading the same message from the Prophets. The early Christians had only the Jewish Bible. Later the New Testament was added, which tells about what Jesus said and did, and Paul's letter to the Christian churches in Asia Minor and Greece. 

Although we share a common Bible there are religious differences. One of the hardest things for the Jewish people to deal with when it comes to Jesus (Yeshua) as Messiah, is the idea that he could be God in human form. The trinity just sounds like polytheistic idol-worship to Jewish ears. Monotheism was the defining difference between the faith of Abraham and all the pagan worshippers surrounding him in the Mesopotamian basin. Every Jewish person knows that their God is one.

As Christians we also believe in one God, as revealed in three persons.

In Genesis chapter 18:1-3, we read that God revealed Himself to Abraham in three persons.

and we believe that one of these persons is the Messiah. And that the Messiah is God, we believe from Jeremiah chapter 23:5-6, and from Isaiah 53, where the Messiah is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and this he could not be as a sinful human.

To me, the Bible is a message of salvation, a salvation from my sins.

Therefore, I love this Jewish book.

And this salvation is brought to the world through the Jewish people.

John chapter 4:22 - for salvation is from the Jews.

While the Bible is a Jewish history book, where you will find the law of Moses, and a prophetic message about the future of Israel, and about the Messiah, then the Qur'an is primarily a law book.

But what is the message of the prophets in the Quran?

The Quran preaches obedience and submission to God (Allah)

Allah is not a father. He is exalted above mankind, and we do not know anything about Allah's will when it comes to our destiny

The God of the Bible is completely different, a God who loves His creation. He speaks to, and is guiding mankind through the word of his prophets.

And you will find in the Bible very strong statements by the prophets, of God's love for man, as in the book of Isaiah.

Although Isaiah is not mentioned by name in the Quran, Isaiah is well known in Muslim exegesis and literature, notably for his predictions of the coming of The Messiah. 

But let us quote a little from the book of Isaiah:

Book of Isaiah 7:14: A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son

Book of Isaiah 9:3: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace

Book of Isaiah 53:5-6: But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. 
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him
 the iniquity of us all.

Now, many Muslims believe that you can’t trust the Bible. But the Qur'an is based on the Bible, this is obvious when we read the Qur'an.

The problem, however, is that the Muslim scripture is far from being consistent since Qur'an 4:171 expressly says that Jesus is a Spirit from Allah and his Word, and teaches that Mary is a virgin, both of which clearly presuppose his prehuman existence. Yet in the Qur'an Jesus is not divine.

The oldest complete Bible today is the Codex Sinaiticus, a hand-written text in Greek, written in the middle of the fourth century. 

There you find these verses from the book of Isaiah: But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5)

But there are parts of the Bible that are much older.

The Isaiah Scroll is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947. The Isaiah Scroll dating back from ca. 125 BCE, (about five hundred years before the Codex Sinaiticus) is the best preserved of all the biblical scrolls, and the only one that is almost complete, and contain all 66 chapters of the Hebrew version of the biblical Book of Isaiah. Also there it is written: 

But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5)

According to the prophet Isaiah,
Messiah took the punishment for our sins.

But religious people all over the world, are striving to save them self.

The Buddhist teacher, mentioned earlier, who really had tried the way of doing good deeds, who had been working hard on his salvation. He came to the conclusion that no matter how much human beings strive to do good, trying to deserve salvation, it is all in vain, we'll never get a good conscience and peace with God through good deeds.

The God of the Bible is a Holy God, nothing unclean may come into His presence. 

But God has given us the justice he requires of us, 

therefore, we read in (Jeremiah 23:5-6)  “The Lord is our righteousness”

Salvation is a gift from God! 

According to the prophet Isaiah, the Messiah died for our sins.

Psalm 34,23: The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust in him will be condemned.

The apostle Paul, was struggling for many years to follow the Mosaic law. But then he discovered what the prophets said, that salvation is linked to Messiah.
When he wrote his letter to the Romans, he quoted from the Law of Moses and the prophets. I will here cite Romans 8,1-3, in a kind of an Old Testament version:

"There is no condemnation for those who are in the Messiah. For the Spiritual Law of Messiah who gives life has made you free from the law of sin and death. It was impossible for us to follow the law of God, since it was powerless to make us holy because we are sinful people. But God accomplished our salvation when He sent the Messiah as a sacrifice for our sins."

Jesus (Yeshua) was a Jew, and God still loves his people (Jeremiah 31:3)

He also loves the Turkish people, and every Muslim who trust in Jesus the Messiah)  

John 3:16-17 
İncili

Tanrı bu yüzden o O'na iman edenlerin hiçbiri mahvolmasın gerektiğini Oğlu (Tanrı ile birleşik sonsuzluktan kim), verdiği dünya sevdi, ama sonsuz yaşama. Tanrı için 17 dünyayı yargılamak için dünyaya onun Oğul gönderdi, ama dünya onun aracılığıyla kurtulsun diye.

إنجيل يوح (and the Arabs)

لأَنَّهُ هَكَذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ الْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ابْنَهُ يسوع (الذي كان من الخلود مع الله)

لأَنَّهُ هَكَذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ الْعَالَمَ حَتَّى بَذَلَ ابْنَهُ الْوَحِيدَ لِكَيْ لاَ يَهْلِكَ كُلُّ مَنْ  يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ بَلْ تَكُونُ لَهُ الْحَيَاةُ الأَبَدِيَّةُ.

لأَنَّهُ لَمْ يُرْسِلِ اللَّهُ ابْنَهُ إِلَى الْعَالَمِ لِيَدِينَ الْعَالَمَ بَلْ لِيَخْلُصَ بِهِ الْعَالَمُ.

Video: An exchange of views on Islam, Christianity between a Christian preacher and a young Muslim - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFzq87TAQmg

Ravi Zacharias is an Indian-born, Canadian-American Christian apologist, a defender of traditional evangelicalism.