No God but One: Allah or Jesus?: A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity

by Nabeel Qureshi

Each teaches that one day there will be a resurrection and final judgment.

According to Islam, the way to paradise is sharia, a code of laws to follow that will please Allah and earn his favor. Sharia is literally translated “the way.” According to the Christian message, the gospel, the way to eternal life is Jesus. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). In Islam, sharia is the way, and in Christianity, Jesus is the way.

But in order for this love to be valuable, it must be voluntary, so God gave man the choice to love him or reject him.

He lived the life we ought to have lived so he could die the death that we deserve to die.

Remember that, according to Christian teaching, sin is not just doing something wrong. It is a rebellion against God, the Source of Life. Death is not a punishment for our actions as much as it is a consequence. God does not execute us for jaywalking; we get run over by a truck while jaywalking.

Herein lies the genius and infinitude of the love of God: He does not draw the line. He offers mercy to everyone who has ever sinned while also demanding justice for every sin ever committed. He does this by offering to bear the consequence of our sins himself. The consequence of our sins is death, and God is willing to die on behalf of all his children.

Christian obedience, devoid of threat and rooted in love, is what God truly wants.

when we respond to the gospel and live as children of God, our Father changes our hearts and makes us want to obey out of love.

If we say God must have only one person, like humans, then we are making God in our image. Who are we to limit God?

But if he had nothing to relate with before creating the universe, how could he be a relational being?

So in order for Allah to actually be gracious and merciful, he has to first create the universe. In other words, Allah is dependent upon his creation in order to be Allah.

Because of tawhid, Allah depends on mankind in order to be Allah. Because of his triune nature, Yahweh is truly independent and self-sufficient.

I started by stating the obvious: Christians worship Yahweh, the Trinity, whereas Muslims worship Allah, a monad. This is not an incidental difference; Islam makes every effort to condemn the Trinity as blasphemy (4.171). The Quran rejects the relational aspects of God, saying that he is not a father (5.18) and he is not a son (112.3). It establishes its own doctrine of God, tawhid, in diametric opposition to the Trinity, and that doctrine becomes the central doctrine of Islamic theology.

Christian martyrdom did not mean dying with sword in hand, but laying down one’s life instead of one’s faith.

There was nothing about the ground itself that was holy, but the presence of God made it holy.

When God created the universe, he used his divine reason and his speech.

Christians traditionally teach that God, rather than changing, was taking a human nature in addition to his divine nature.

This doctrine is called the hypostatic union.

Since Jesus never sinned as a man, and since he also had a divine nature, he could forgive the sins of mankind by taking the penalty of sin himself. This is one reason why Christian theology would not work if Jesus were not God.

The Quran holds in Islam the place that Jesus holds in the Christian faith. So let’s put it together: To comprehend the insult of burning a Quran, a Christian would have to imagine someone burning Jesus.

so the Old Testament was written during the time of God’s covenant with Moses, whereas the New Testament was written after God came to earth, upon the advent of the new covenant initiated by Jesus and prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31–33.

The Jews refer to the text using an acronym for these three Hebrew words: Tanakh,

The response is recorded in 2.106 of the Quran, which asserts that Allah can substitute verses in his divine scripture because “he has power over all things.”3

In other words, they teach that Allah intended certain verses to be recited but not practiced, and other verses to be practiced but not recited.

Muslims do not believe the Quran is sufficient for Islamic practice, but it requires authoritative hadith.

The Bible, on the other hand, requires no complementary texts to decipher its teachings or provide supplementary Christian practices. It is sufficient and serves as the sole authority for Christian doctrine.

ISIS argues that these women are spoils of war and that sex slavery is a practice sanctioned by the Quran.

Those who argue for more peaceful practices of Islam have to do one of three things: deny the example of Muhammad’s life altogether, like the Quran-only Muslims; proclaim Muhammad’s teachings defunct, like the 140 Muslim scholars; or disavow select portions of Muhammad’s life as recorded in history, like the average Muslim.

The historical Jesus never sanctioned violence and endorsed absolutely nothing like the Crusades, whereas the historical Muhammad engaged in jihad as the greatest deed a Muslim can perform. Violent jihad is a result of strict adherence to the life and teachings of the historical Muhammad, whereas strict adherence to the life and teachings of the historical Jesus results in pacifism and sacrificial love for one’s enemies.

The Quran’s last words and marching orders, as it were, are the most violent teachings found in its pages.

For Christians in particular, the final marching orders are the Great Commission: to spread the good news of God’s love and mercy throughout the world by multiplying disciples of Jesus.

When people who were skeptical of Jesus’ claims asked him for a sign, he said that the one sign he would show them is his resurrection. Therefore, if history testifies that Jesus claimed to be God and rose from the dead, we have good reason to accept the Christian message.