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January 6 - January 14, 2018
When we have been forgiven so much, how can we hold our fellow man accountable for so little? In his love, our hearts are made new. We no longer begrudge, no longer desire revenge. Renewed by the restoration he has brought about in us, we desire to uplift the abused and restore the broken. He transforms our hearts, and we in turn are driven to transform the world around us.
So the gospel accurately diagnoses the problem of humanity, which is our own brokenness. Through his otherworldly, heavenly grace, he transforms us and frees us from our cycles of destruction. Through it all, he is at the center, disentangling us from pride and anxiety, helping us focus on others and not on ourselves. The gospel is not just an answer that works; it is the only answer that will work.
Both Muslims and Christians believe that God is the greatest being in the universe. But if Allah is the greatest, and in his nature he is removed and does not desire a relationship, then Islam exalts the qualities of being removed and nonrelational.
Since mankind is made in the image of the triune God, love is woven into our very nature. The Trinity gives us the most consistent, most powerful basis for being self-sacrificial and altruistic.
In 1935, Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York, presided over a court case in which an old woman had been caught stealing bread to feed her grandchildren. Although LaGuardia wanted to offer her mercy, the shopkeeper demanded justice. LaGuardia judged her guilty and imposed a fine of ten dollars, but in the same moment he took ten dollars from his own wallet and paid the fine on her behalf. Acknowledging the woman’s guilt, the judge himself paid the penalty and let her go free.
Christians can follow Jesus and die for their enemies because the gospel promises and enacts salvation, taking away all fear of death. This frees us to love everyone, friend and foe, enabling us to live according to the image in which we were made, the image of a God who is love in his very essence.
The Islamic view of the eternality of the Quran affects the place it holds in Muslims’ hearts, something that finds a Christian analogue not in the Bible but in Jesus himself.
Rather, it is the mystical value of the Quran that serves as its primary purpose. This is illustrated by devout Muslims’ average encounter with the Quran: its recitation in Arabic, even if the Muslim does not speak Arabic. In this case, it is not guidance but blessings that Muslims seek.
The Bible, on the other hand, was overflowing with the comfort of God and his love for me.
The central claims of Christianity are explicitly rejected by Islam. Islamic doctrine is antithetical to the core message of Christianity.
For Muslims, the doctrine of a divine Christ is anathema, and the Quran teaches that he who subscribes to it will make his home in the flames of hell (5:72). For the Christian, belief in the lordship of Christ is necessary for salvation (Rom. 10:9). What wider divergence could there be?
My greatest opponent in discovering the answer was my own will. I did not want to see Jesus’ claim to deity in the pages of history, so I kept retreating and altering my position to avoid what was becoming more and more obvious.
If Jesus actually claimed to be God, then the Quran was wrong about Jesus, which in turn meant that Islam was false. I could not concede this point, so I had to find a way out.
Given that Islam’s central proclamation is tawhid, this means Jesus was an abject failure. In fact, he was worse than a total failure, since he left his disciples believing the exact opposite of tawhid.
But my friend David would not allow me to operate on such an assumption without providing evidence.
What is striking, though, is how enthusiastically Muhammad embraced warfare. He said that fighting is literally the best thing in the world.
“The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17 NIV).
Aristotle had published a treatise on embryology, On the Generation of Animals.
Galen, a Greek scientist living about five hundred years after Aristotle and five hundred years before Muhammad, also wrote a treatment on embryology, On the Natural Faculties.
As a Muslim, I wanted to base my beliefs not on blind faith, not on what appealed to me, and not even on my family’s heritage. I wanted to ground my faith in reality.
It is worth all suffering to receive this truth and follow him. God is more beautiful than this life itself, and the one who loves him is ready to die when death comes, not just to glorify him but to hasten to his arms. Though we will die, we will live.
Surah 9 is the last major chapter to have been composed, and it is also the most violent chapter in the Quran. See verses 5, 29-33, and 111 as some examples.
Reza Aslan’s recent book, Zealot,
