The Qur'an: A Christian Perspective

I’ve been sitting on this blog for a while.  Reflecting.  Editing.  Considering…

Most importantly, I want to be respectful. 

Our beliefs shape our lives.  From the time we are born our parents, our culture, our communities, and our religion instill a belief system within us.  However, this is just a starting point.  At some time in our lives, we are expected to search for the truth.  After all, can something truly be considered MY belief, if I’ve never cared about it enough to really explore it?

In Muslim countries, this belief system is politicized.  There is no choice.  The government tells citizens what their beliefs are.  Either they practice Islam and raise their families this way or they are punished.  Their exposure to Christianity is limited and the spiritual knowledge they have is the spiritual knowledge that has been given them. 

In my search for the truth and understanding, I decided to get a copy of the Islamic holy book, The Qur’an, and read it for myself.

The prophet, Mohammed, who made the proclamations that are recorded in the Qur’an lived in the 6^th and 7^th centuries.  This book is a collection of his statements that he believes were given to him by the angel, Gabrielle, as the word of his god, Allah.  They are in no particular order but always start with “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” 

By the year 570 A.D., the year that Mohammed was born, the Old Testament of the Bible had been around for over 1,000 years.  It is believed that these books were written and had been circulating since 1,400 B.C. (according to my Bible).  Of course we know that Christ lived in the first century, so the books of the New Testament had also been written and had already been widely circulated and canonized by the 4^th century…a good 200 years before the birth of Mohammed.

When Mohammed speaks for Allah throughout this text, Allah refers to himself usually in the plural (we, our, us), however he occasionally refers to himself in the singular.  This made me consider the possibility of an Islamic belief in the Trinity (God, Son, Holy Spirit) however I quickly realized that this is not the case.  I am, frankly, unable to reconcile this plurality of Allah with the firm Muslim belief in only one god.

Honestly this book is not at all what I expected. In fact, I believe that the Qur’an is based on three contributing factors:  1) the Old Testament; 2) a rejection of Jesus as God’s son; and 3) pagan Arabic beliefs, customs, and practices.  Allah is substituted in for Yahweh (the Judeo-Christian God) as the stories of Moses, Abraham, Noah, Solomon, David, and other Old Testament characters are referenced and retold. 

Jesus is discounted as “a mortal whom We (Allah in the plural) favored and made an example to the Israelites.”  (Chapter 43:  Ornaments of Gold)  It goes on to state that “when Jesus worked his miracles, he said: ‘I have come to give you wisdom and to make plain to you some of the things about which you differ.  Fear Allah and follow me.  Allah is my Lord and your Lord:  therefore serve Him.  That is the right path.’”  Interspersed with these references to Jewish and Christian beliefs are references to pagan rituals and entities, such as genies (jinn).

However, the most common topic throughout the text is the admonition of Allah (through Gabrielle and then through Mohammed) that “wrongdoers” and unbelievers will be punished in hell while worshippers and followers of Allah will be rewarded in “paradise”.  The threat of never-ending punishment overshadows and accompanies nearly every chapter.

I wish that every practicing Muslim would (or could) read the Holy Bible—the Old and New Testaments.  I think they would be amazed at how much of the Qur’an refers back to the true Word of God.  (I know I was.)  I think they would be shocked by the details that are given in the Holy Bible that are missing in the short and scattered references that are haphazardly arranged in the Qur’an.  In fact, their own book would actually make more sense.  However, they should note that nobody named Allah was ever mentioned in these ancient texts that were written long before Mohammed came on the scene.  And, of course, the Qur’an does not share with Muslims the sacrifice that God’s son, Jesus Christ, made to atone for our sins.  


The above are my observations...not my conclusions.  However, I feel that this is not complete without the discussion of "Why" Mohammed made the claims that he did.  

There are three possible conclusions in my mind to reach about Mohammed and Allah. 

In my first scenario, it is possible that Mohammed had been raised with a specific belief system including cultural and pagan rituals along with the knowledge of the Old Testament (including the Torah) and New Testament.  In trying to reconcile the truth through his own knowledge and experiences, he developed his own “god” (Allah).  He then deemed himself Allah’s prophet because he was the only one that knew of Allah…not recognizing that this was true only because Allah was a figment of his own imagination.  The thoughts that entered his own mind were seen by him as revelations from his god.

The second scenario is that Mohammed maliciously made up the whole thing.  He was totally sane and smart enough to use his knowledge of the popular beliefs of the time (Jewish, Christian, and paganism) to (1) create his own version of a god; (2) base his claims on historical and widely known (and accepted) occurrences of divine intervention (the great flood, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.); (3) use his charisma and scare tactics to recruit followers; and (4) seek the fame and riches that would come if people believed him. 

Oh, don’t act shocked at number 4.  Religion is a multi-million dollar industry.  Just ask L. Ron Hubbard (a science fiction writer and good friend of Aleister Crowley) who developed Scientology after making it clear over a number of years that inventing a religion was a great way to get rich.

My third scenario may seem a bit “out there.”  Is it possible that Allah is a demon (or an Anti-Christ or even Satan himself) who (1) claimed falsely to be the one true God; (2) revealed himself to Mohammed through another fallen angel who falsely claimed to be Gabrielle; (3) and convinced this trusting man that he was doing God’s work when in fact he was leading people away from the one, true God?

Whatever the truth may be, it is obvious to me that Mohammed either intentionally, through self-deception, or through the trickery of Satan, used a combination of Biblical truths and cultural beliefs to hijack the souls of millions of people throughout the last 1,400 years.