Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

by Nabeel Qureshi

David did not dwell on my brash response. “Are those your two criteria? Muhammad and the Quran?”

Zach wouldn’t let me off the hook. “If you really think so, then why don’t you come to the next Dream Team meeting at Mike’s house and make a case?”

David checked the calendar and determined that the next Dream Team meeting was two weeks away. Our plans were set, and we were all looking forward to it for our own reasons.

Through it all, I had no idea that I was coming to the end of an era. I had innocently accepted the world that had been built for me by my family and culture, a world in which Islam was unassailable. What lay before me was a critical dismantling of my very foundation.

THE MESSAGE OF ISLAM is intertwined with its messenger.

Allegiance to one more than implies allegiance to the other; it is often defined by it.

What makes this surprising is that the same is not the case for Allah. Muslims who question Allah are usually tolerated by other Muslims, but questioning Muhamm...

Islamic theology has accorded him the title al-Insan al-Kamil, “the man who has attained perfection.”

But far closer to the Muslim heart, Muhammad is the man that embodies Islam, a symbol for the whole of Islamic civilization. Because of hadith and tradition, Muslim religion, culture, heritage, and identity all find their core in the person of Muhammad. That is why Muslims see an attack on his character as equivalent to a personal attack on them and everything they stand for.

Muslims cannot dispassionately discuss Muhammad.

They bring immense baggage to the table, and the discussion will doubtless be colored by apparently unrelated things, such loyalty to kin or even current affairs between Israel and Palestine.

back in Mike’s living room,

The other attendees were there to learn and ready to examine critically what I had to say.

Had they known the effects that their questions would have, they probably would have been gentler. In retrospect, I’m glad they didn’t know.

After the introductions, I had the floor.

sharing the information that

Muslims often share with non-Muslims in the West as an attempt to build bridges and p...

The greatest concern in the post – 9/11 West among the average Muslim was to distance himself from a violent image of Islam, and this was parti...

I started off by emphasizing that Islam is a religion of peace and that Muhammad was the most mercif...

I explained to everyone that the word Islam actually comes from the same Arabic root word that means “peace,”

I recounted the story of Muhammad’s mercy on the day he conquered Mecca,

I also discussed the other battles Muhammad fought, emphasizing that t...

I then provided arguments

like Muhammad’s miraculous insights into science.

Yet again, this showed that Muhammad had Allah’s blessing and was a true prophet.

Another common dawah technique among Muslim apologists is to build bridges by referring to the Bible while simultaneously advancing the argument that Islam is the culmination of the Old and New Testament messages.

I pointed to two passages from the Bible, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, ...

The first was Deuteron...

Referring then to John 16:12 – 13,

This man had to be Muhammad, since no major religious figure emerged after Jesus except for Muhammad.

Islam was the final message and that Muhammad came not as one who abolished Judaism and Christianity but one who reinforced and redirected them toward the one, true God.

Muhammad’s message — the “eye for an eye” justice of Moses combined with the “turn the other cheek” mercy of Jesus — was the heart of Islam, the final message for all mankind. In the course of this last point, I made it clear that Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians.

then came the questions.

“The Quran teaches la-iqraha fi-deen.”77

‘there is no compulsion in religion,’

It would make no sense to say that Muhammad spread Islam by the sword when he preached that there is no compulsion in religion.”

Whenever I had discussed Islam in the past, people had considered that response adequate, but it turned out that Mike had read a bit about Islam while preparing for his debate with Shabir, and he was prepared to ask a follow-up question. “But Nabeel, there are other verses in the Quran, like ‘slay the infidels...

“That verse refers to a very specific circumstance, when the polytheists of Mecca had breached a contract with Muslims. It’s not a general principle. The general principle is peace.”

“How do you know that?”

“How do you know the historical context of the Quran?”

“From hadith, books that record traditions about Muhammad.”

“But how do you know those are trustworthy? Keep in mind, Nabeel, that I’m a historian. These are questions I ask of historical documents, even wh...

How do we know that the books of hadith are trustworthy? Were they written early? Were they written by eyewitnesses?”

The role reversal was difficult for me. I had never seen anyone question Islamic tradition the way we had always questioned the Bible.

“Mike, the eyewitnesses of Muhammad’s time passed the stories orally until they were written down. Those who wrote them down were well-respected men who thought critically, making sure that the chain of transmission for each story was strong. That’s why we can trust the hadith.”

Mike wasn’t satisfied.

how do we know that, Nabeel? When were they ultimately collected?”

“About two hundred to two hundred fifty years after Muhammad.”

I definitely perceived that the whole room was beginning to turn against my position.

“Nabeel, two hundred fifty years is a really long time to wait before writing stories down. Legends grow wildly in that span of time. Villains become much more villainous, heroes become much more heroic, ugly truths are forgotten, and many stories are created entirely out of whole cloth.”