The Christian Art of Studying Islam and Muslims

Transcription

1 The Christian Art of Studying Islam and Muslims Benjamin Lee Hegeman Lilias Trotter Center 2017

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3 3 The Christian study of Islam and Muslims Forward In the 21 st century, the study of Islam has broken out of the ivory tower of richly endowed universities and it has freed itself from the reclusive theological monopoly of influential Arabic speaking imams. Islam has hit the street and it has become the most controversial conversation in the world. More is known of Islam than ever before. This is a divine opportunity and this text is launching a study manifesto in the world of Islamic studies and research in ministry to Muslims. The most eager students of this subject are now Christians willing to engage the Muslim world with the love of Christ and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. The raison d etre of this book is to explore a new paradigm of studying and teaching Islam, thereby moving beyond both traditional and recent pedagogical methods. Islam is unique, requiring us to study its exceptionality with insights that do not compare with any other religion. This text will propose a very exclusive method of studying; one entirely tailored to Islam and Muslims.

4 4 For a Christian, our chief focus in on what Christ Jesus is doing. Our Lord is an artist in all he does. He is the Creator and we, being made in his image, are endowed with the gift of creativity. He is the God of whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely; whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise. Thanks to God s common grace to all humanity, Christian researchers will find certain beautiful virtues revealed to people everywhere, and which is called general revelation. This includes all that is splendid and as revealed to Muslims everywhere through his common providence. To find, on the one hand, admirable virtues, divine vestiges 1 and cultural jewels among Muslim cultures, and yet to expose false religious values, sinful conduct, and systemic evils, on the other hand, takes discernment, which is a necessary gift needed in studying Islam and Muslims. As Paul writes to the Ephesian believers, When anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Christians must dedicate themselves to discern what is pleasing to the Lord and also to master the vast subject of Islam in a most artistic yet courageous way that brings everything to light. Children of the light must do no less. The immeasurably complex world of Islam defies easy explanations and for this reason Christians

5 5 need the perspicacity of the Holy Spirit. With the help of the Holy Spirit, Christians are able to pray, study and render a verdict on a non-christian religion in a most creative, respectful way. Yet studying Islam is more than reading one book or taking one course. It is like mastering a foreign language well: it is a long journey. This, however, is a choice each student makes. They commit themselves to learning the best principles, the best arguments, the best research methods, and the best communication skills to order to address the second largest religion on earth. Studying Islam is more than good academics and social science; it is an art. Our text has five sections. First, a precise biblical basis is given for rendering a verdict on Islam. (chapter 1). Second, a case is made for having the courage to study a closed religion (2). Third, a correct protocol is established for the voices which merit priority: namely, Muhammad (3), then Jibril (4), the classical Ulema (5) then the local imams (6) and finally individual Muslims (7). Fourth, the promotion of alternate approaches to evaluating Islam are weighed, both for theoretical paradigms (8) and for empirical paradigms (9). The fifth and final section is dedicated to studying in preparation for ministry to Muslims (10). The book ends with a selected bibliography. Above all this text is written for those already in or preparing for the kingdom trenches ; this is for everywhere Muslims are now found. This text also

6 6 flows from over 25 years of field researching in a majority Muslim world of the Sahelian region of West Africa, and teaching Islam worldwide. Christ is calling his disciples everywhere to equip themselves to join his great work among the Muslim peoples. We face unprecedented opportunity to love, minister and edify Muslims who respond to God s love in our Lord Jesus Christ. These disciples may be Christian business leaders overseas, or those in the diplomatic corps, or in development agencies, or in refugee ministries or in missions: home or abroad. Knowing as much as we do now, it is incumbent for Christ s disciples to reply: Here am I, Lord, prepare me! 1. Study Islam Outline Introduction 1.1 God instructs us to render a verdict today on Islam (Deuteronomy 13) 1.2 God calls religious Gentiles to repentance (Acts 17) 1.3 God calls legalistic monotheists to freedom in Christ (Galatians 4) Conclusion

7 7 2. Let s study it anyway Introduction 2.1 No trespassing: Islam s resistance to outside inquiry Islam s identity as a closed religion Islam s identity as a religion of honour Sail wisely in foreign waters Understand resistance to source criticism Understand resistance to any new hermeneutics of the Qur an Christian dhimmis merit no voice Understand victim pleading Understand conspiracy pleading 2.2 Mind Blindness: superficiality caused by secular comparative religious studies All religions are essentially one; none merit a unique study Unity comes by comparing peripheral data and calling it core Nietzschean deconstructing of all religions Confusion in reducing Islam to political power motives Confusion caused by interpolation Confusion caused by collapsing Islam into a thematic grid Conclusion

8 8 3. Let Muhammad speak for himself Introduction 3.1 Alternative approaches: Islam is what Muslims today say it is Islam is what Western Islamic advocates say it is 3.2 Study Muhammad first in the Qur an and in the Sira Study the Qur an chronologically Study the Sira in parallel to the Qur an 3.3 Study Muhammad next in the hadiths, Sharia law and literature Muhammad in the Hadiths Muhammad in Sharia laws and Fiqh Muhammad in popular Islamic Literature 3.4 A Christian verdict on Muhammad s evolving identity Conclusion 4. Let s render a verdict on Jibril Introduction 4.1 The Muslim theology of Muhammad reciting the eternal Qur an 4.2 A Christian understanding of Muhammad s spirit trances 4.3 A Christian approach to Jibril s attack on the Jewish and Christian Scriptures

9 9 4.4 A Christian evaluation of Jibril s familiarity with popular apocryphal sources 4.5 A Christian response to Jibril s alliance with Arab jinn and Mecca s Traditional religion 4.6 Spiritual discernment while evaluating Jibril s claims. Conclusion 5. Let the Ulema speak for historic Islam Introduction 5.1 The prevailing voices and crises from the past Classical Islam: the true centres of gravity The crisis of abrogation The crisis of disunity from Muhammad to the present The crisis of rejected reason The crisis of a failed caliphate The crisis of lost glory and land The crisis of fallible manuscripts 5.2 The Christian verdict on contemporary narrative wars Islamic historiography The influence of Sharia law and fiqh The battle over Islam s historic narrative

10 Muslim apologetics against Christianity Classical reaction to modernity and globalisation Conclusion 6 Let the imams speak for today s Muslim communities Introduction 6.1 A Christian understanding of theological authority within Islamic communities 6.2 A Christian anthropology of Muslim communities 6.3 A Christian study of preferred contemporary Ulema voices 6.4 A Christian study of the multi-layered reality of Muslim identities 6.5 A Christian study of tolerance and intolerance among Muslims 6.6 A Christian study of Muslim migrants and refugees 6.7 A Christian study of Muslim ghettos in non- Sharia nations. 6.8 A Christian study of reverse dhimmitude Conclusion

11 11 7 Let Muslims share their preferred orientations Introduction 7.1 The unsolvable crisis of unity within Islam 7.2 Orthopraxy triumphs orthodoxy 7.3 Islam s tolerated and dangerous innovations 7.4 The reality of different Muslim mind-sets 7.5 The fluidity of definitions Conclusion 8 Let s test all theories on Islam Introduction 8.1 Classical a priori approaches Theorising Islam as a heretical form of Christianity or Judaism Theorising Islam as the religion of a premodern noble conqueror 8.2 Contemporary a priori approaches Theorising Islam as an ecumenical Abrahamic monotheism Theorising Islam as a form of pre- Western intellectualism Theorising Islam as a revolutionary movement Theorising Islam as a form of nationalism and democracy Theorising Islam as a pacifist global religion Conclusion

12 12 9 Let s test empirical studies on Muslims Introduction 9.1 Studying Muslims as peripheral cultural communities 9.2 Studying Muslims uniquely through socialscientific lenses 9.3 Studying Muslims through qualitative research Conclusion 10 Let s minister to Muslims singularly, then collectively Introduction 10.1 Study the vast internal diversity among Muslims 10.2 Study the diversity of secular approaches to Muslims 10.3 Study the vast horizon of Christian ministry approaches to Muslims Historic approaches Approaches under treaty protection Contemporary globalised approaches Discredited approaches 10.4 Study the diversity of discipleship and church planting models among Muslim Background Believers Study the recent divine movements of God among Muslims Conclusion

13 13 Selected bibliography of authors

14 14 1 Study Islam Premise: Since God mandates us to study religions that try to convert our believers, let s study Islam. It is as vital for religious leader to study rival religions, as it is for coaches to study rival sport teams, for economists to study competing markets, for prime ministers to study foreign, antagonist governments, and for generals to study opposing armies. Indeed, it is the pressing business of any religion to be well informed of all competition, especially concerning those which seek to gain converts from among her communities. To fail to do so, is a sure sign of its coming demise. In the language of shepherds and sheep, religions that seek converts from other religions are rightly called sheep stealing religions, proselytising religions, predator religions, or missionary religions. Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, among many others, are missionary religions because they eagerly invite people to abandon their former beliefs and join their faith community. As such,

15 15 when they actively evangelise or proselytise, they are perceived as predators by those who suffer loss, even if these religions do the same to others. This reality is not unique to religions. The same is patently true for what can be called evangelising ideologies, that is, secular beliefs which zealously seek to convert others to their distinct platform, such as: materialism, hedonism, secularism, liberalism, capitalism, socialism, feminism, atheism, environmentalism, multi-culturalism, and a hundred more isms. Almost every ideology engages in proselytism, and they are, in much of the world, free to do so. Christians should defend such freedom. Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and all secular ideologues should be free to offer their belief to others, to seek to persuade others, and to promote their convictions in public. In turn, each recipient community must be equally free to study rival invitations, to reject such offers and to protect themselves from those who proselytise. This is the twin business of all vibrant religions, and of all secular ideologies: promotion and protection; self-advocacy and self-defence. A free society allows for this. Christians know that they have a clear mandate to proclaim Christ to the whole world. Christ s message is truly -and unapologetically- a missionary religion. We must be equally confident that we also have a strong Scriptural mandate to study all other religions, especially other rival

16 16 missionary religions which seek converts from among our midst, as is the case of Islam. Indeed, it is paramount in the 21 st century that Christians do both: namely, to study Islam, as well as to call Muslims to repentance and invite them to freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the foundation of the Christian study of Islam: we have a clear scriptural mandate to do both. We will establish our basis in three Biblical passages and triangulate them to focus on Islam in particular. 1.1 God instructs us to render a verdict on Islam today (Deuteronomy 13) When Moses and then Joshua led the covenant people into the Promised Land they also led them in a multi-religious, pluralistic, idolatrous world of Canaan. The religions of Canaan were very missionary and predatory in nature. Nothing would be more dangerous to the Hebrew monotheistic faith than being lured by an alternate or rival faith. Knowing that, Moses gave the covenant people a very clear mandate in Deuteronomy 13 to study any religion that attempted to entice them away or convert them to another faith. No particular religion is mentioned but the description made by Moses is a clear match for all religions stemming from a prophet. Muhammad s 7 th -century A.D. message.

17 17 (I recommend that you read the whole chapter in your Bible.) Notice first of all that in verses 1 and 2 the Hebrew people were to be on high alert for any new prophet who might come with a dream or a sign from God. This could happen in any generation. 1. "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass,. Three things should strike us immediately as students of Islam. First, Muhammad certainly called himself a prophet and messenger ; second, he had trance revelations from an alleged angel for 23 years, and third, he called his Qur anic revelations his supernatural sign and wonder from God. Moses now exposes the motive of the new prophet: and if he says, 'Let us go after other Elohim,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them ' Moses knew that new prophets would come and invite the covenant people to follow an alternate, impostor God or gods. The name Elohim can be translated God or gods. For example, the opening to the Decalogue in Exodus uses the word in both ways. Note the Hebrew for God and gods. And Elohim spoke all these words, saying, I am Yahweh your Elohim who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house

18 18 of house of bondage. You shall have no other Elohim before me. (Bold Hebrew names mine) Translators must choose whether to write God or gods for Elohim. This is also a frequent discussion between Muslims and Christians. When Muslims talk to Christians they always invite them to abandon their Christian (three) gods and to only worship their Allah as the one true God. This invitation is called dawa and they do this very spontaneously. While most Christians already know that Allah means God yet they must immediately ask, is Muhammad s Allah another God whom we have not known? This is a question each student of Islam must answer. Notice as well that the new prophet insists that his Elohim be served. This was also the chief demand of Muhammad s Allah; that he be served through unconditional submission. And we know that the word Islam means submission. Moses now explains to the people why their Lord God allows this to happen to them. 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For Yahweh your Elohim is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Yahweh your Elohim and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his

19 19 voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. (Bold Hebrew names mine) Notice how God tests our love for him by how we respond to and reject the invitation of a rival prophet or a rival religion, and choose to only serve and obey Him. This rival challenge applies to Islam, and that for almost 15 centuries already. Today God is sovereignly allowing Muslims to test the Christians true love for the Triune God and that throughout the world. We show we love the Lord our God by saying no to any Muslim s invitation, to any claim Muhammad makes over us, and to any demand of submission to his God. Moses explains next how the Lord God views a rival prophet. He is a rebel enemy in the land; an evil predator who is seeking to devour his flock. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which Yahweh your Elohim commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. (Bold Hebrew names mine) In the natural realm, predators are killed without apologies. In the national realm, treason merits capital punishment. In the theocratic era of the Old Testament, false prophets were treated as dangerous rebels against the LORD God.

20 20 Indeed, this was the very charge that the Jerusalem Jews brought against Jesus before Pilate: he is a dangerous predator, a rebel, and a traitor. The Pharisees were attempting to apply Deuteronomy 13 to Jesus. As the French philosopher Blaise Pascal ( ) noted in his Pensées: Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. Now it is universally accepted that Christians do not follow either the Mosaic injunction or the Pharisee plot to kill a perceived rival prophet. In the heavenly kingdom of Christ, there is no theocracy on earth. And although Christians reign with Christ in the heavenly places, we do not do so in either the natural realm or the national realm. We therefore do not purge the evil from our midst by the sword but by our words; we do not execute but we exclude. Under Christ, our purging is non-violent. Moses informs the covenant people that there can be no harmony between the LORD God and a prophet of another religion, nor more than there can be harmony between the fox and the pigeons. There must be clear lines of separation drawn up by those who know the truth and who correctly study Islam. Moses will now explain by what means false religions invariably enter among the covenant community: namely, by family members or close friends. The greatest danger comes from personal voices who mislead God s people towards another faith.

21 21 6 "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve another Elohim,' which neither you nor your fathers have known,7 some of the Elohim of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.9 But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.11 And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you. (Bold Hebrew names mine) This is the most painful part of purging the evil from one s midst. The predator can be a Judas in our family. Was it not Cain who slew his own brother when sin began to rule over him? This should not surprise any believer. There lies a predator wolf in the old Adamic nature of each man s heart and the wolf could be any family member or you. Even at the Last Supper when Jesus said, one of you will betray me, each one of the disciples asked one after another, Is it I? They all struggled with yielding to the dark side. It should

22 22 not surprise us, therefore, that most people convert to Islam through the influence of a family member of a friend. A healthy religious community is vigilant. Now Moses comes to the core mandate: study the other religion before you render a verdict and pronounce them as predators. Moses applies this case to a whole city falling under the influence of the new prophet. 12 "If you hear in one of your cities, which Yahweh your Elohim is giving you to dwell there, 13 that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, 'Let us go and serve another/other Elohim,' which you have not known, 14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. (Bold Hebrew names and underlining mine) Notice the amount of study God requires from his covenant people: they must inquire, and search, and ask, and verify if it be true and certain. This is not a superficial survey but a deep study. Here lies the clear Scriptural mandate to study Muhammad s prophetic message and his Islam religion. Islam requires a clear verdict from every Christian. Are you informed enough to render judgement as to why

23 23 you can say no? If not, it is incumbent on you to study Islam and to render a clear verdict. Finally, Moses places a final duty on the covenant community to prevent the charge of apostasy being misused as guise or pretext to plunder another s wealth in the name of religion. 16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh your Elohim. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again. 17 None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers, 18 if you obey the voice of Yahweh your Elohim, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of Yahweh your Elohim. (Bold Hebrew names mine) No one may profit from calling another person an apostate. No one should be quickly condemned and no one may gain from the trial. No one may even live in or even use their land, ever again; it must be a wilderness forever. We see, therefore, that Islam merits a full study according to Scripture. This we do, first and foremost in order to show our love for the Lord Jesus. Having done so, we do not purge them from the land but we urge them to come to Christ, as Paul did in Athens to the Gentiles.

24 God calls all religious Gentiles to repentance (Acts 17) Certain of the Arab races belong to the same Semitic provenance as the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Midianites. Certain claim to stem from the Patriarchs or the Hebrews but they are not Israelites or Jews. Only the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can be called Israelites or Jews today. The rest are Semitic Gentiles. The Arabs are Gentiles. Even Mecca was filled with polytheism and idolatry when Muhammad began his prophetic preaching; the city was full of Arab Pagan Gentiles. Even though Muhammad forced their conversion into monotheism, they remain both Arab and Gentile: they are, to be exact, monotheistic Semitic Gentiles and such was Muhammad. In Acts 17, Paul outlined the Gospel to the Gentiles before the city s philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens. British theologian F.F. Bruce, in commentating on this passage, signals that the Acts 17 Areopagus passage has engendered more commentary than all other passages in Acts. 2 To which we must ask: Why has this become the test case for all missiology to other religions, and especially to Islam? How much of Islam is discernible in Paul s message? Secondly, F.F. Bruce says Paul s modus operandi to the philosophers was not to complement them in

25 25 any way (i.e. concerning their altar or what their Greek authors said) but to expose their ignorance and to enlighten them with the truth. It is all about approaching other religions of their ignorance of God s divine nature. Paul would tell them the truth about the God they did not personally know. Thirdly, Paul will begin with their religious fascination and what could be known of God through general revelation and then explain why they are still ignorant of his nature. 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Paul s argument then presented the philosophers with four divine variables concerning the mandate of nations, states, kingdoms and empires; all of which is designed by God to compel all Gentiles to search for Him. Acts a. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the

26 26 face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him Paul argues that God created every nation of men on earth from Adam; he determines each nation s preappointed time; he determines all national boundaries and finally, he sovereignly determines this so that all nations in time should seek him. The Gentiles vain existence has an existential purpose: seek God! Paul now bears witness to certain unique truths known from general revelation as testified through their own Gentile literature. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.' 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. Paul establishes that God should be sought, not through any Gentile religion but through knowing the truth about his divine nature, which is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Paul s Gospel to all Gentile seekers: God can only be known through special divine revelation in Jesus Christ.

27 27 Now the God known to Gentile Bedouin Arabs in Muhammad s time was truly an unknown God to them. His name was merely Allah (the-god). What was known of him was known through general revelation. The Meccans knew there was but one High God, the almighty, the creator of all, the provider over all, the judge over all, truthful, wise and he was in heaven. Muhammad grew up with this knowledge. According to the earliest biographer, Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad joined a group of Arab monotheists called the faithful ones (Hunafa) in his adult life. They sought God, but chiefly so in listening to Apocryphal, Talmudic and Pseudepigrapha lore. None of the Hunafa could read Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic, nor was the Bible translated yet into Arabic. They had not yet heard the Gospel even though they sought God. Paul now concludes that this Gentile era of seeking was a permitted time of ignorance which comes to a close once the Gospel reaches the ears of the Gentiles. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

28 28 Here we face a complex question. Did Muhammad ever hear the Gospel preached before receiving his revelations? We know that all Semitic Gentile Arabs were ignorant of God, even as Muhammad was. We know that all Arabs would also be commanded to repent and come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and to prepare for the day of Judgement after the resurrection. How it is that this message became known to Muhammad? We assume this, because this was the message he began preaching: namely that the Meccans were living in pagan ignorance (Jahiliyya), that there is but one God who now commanded all Meccan Pagan Gentiles to repent, that a day of judgement would be coming and that there would be a resurrection from the dead. Indeed, these truths would become the core doctrines of Muhammad s message but, ironically, Jibril, the spirit who channelled the Qur an into his mind, would point these doctrines not to Christ, but instead to Muhammad and his message. Yet from Paul s perspective, Muslims today would not be Jews but Gentiles: monotheistic Gentiles. They still need to hear the Gospel to the Gentiles. They are still living in times of ignorance: Islamic ignorance since they do not have Scripture. In Islam, they still do not personally know the Unknown God ; they still need to repent from Islam, and they clearly need Jesus the Righteous One in order to stand before him on the day of

29 29 judgement after the resurrection of the dead. Indeed, because we love Muslims we will preach to them Paul s Gospel to the Gentiles. Students of Islam must discern how Islamic doctrines keep Muslims in ignorance, how it keeps them from not finding God, how it prevents Muslims from repenting before the Lord Jesus, and how it fails to prepare them for the day of judgement. They must discern how Muhammad s message functions as another gospel. Having done so, they are better prepared by the Spirit to share with Muslims the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus to the Gentiles. 1.3 God calls legalistic monotheists to freedom in Christ (Galatians 4) Ibn Ishaq begins his biography of the Prophet tracing his lineage back to Ibrahim through Agar and Ismail. No other religion has made such a claim to being an alternate Abrahamic religion and then to rival and seek to eclipse the New Testament. For this reason, Islam is commonly spoken of as an Abrahamic faith. There is no way to independently verify or falsify such a claim. As Philip Hitti argues in History of the Arabs, What a people believe, even if untrue, has the same effect over their lives as if it were true. 3 Muslims believe Muhammad s tribe, the Quraysh, were descended from Ishmael. There was a precedence for that: both oriental Jews

30 30 and early Christians called certain northern Arabs both Ishmaelites and Hagarians. We therefore accept it as a working hypothesis, a theoretical possibility but also as an unverifiable postulation. Hagar, even more than Ishmael, plays a key role in both the Old and New Testament. Her narrative is held up as the only allegory used in the Bible. It is found in Galatians chapter 4 and her story emerges out of Paul s contestation with Jewish legalists in Galatia. It is as follows: 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labour! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband."

31 31 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. 5.1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Hagar is here seen as the mother of religious bondage. She is a slave and her son bears her identity: Ishmael is a son of a slave. He is ranked as having an ordinary birth by human planning. This is a symbol of religious slavery and is called a covenant : we may call it Hagar s covenant or Hagar s religion. This religious covenant is illustrated by two religious examples of spiritual bondage: Mt Sinai in Arabia and the Pharisees in Jerusalem. Hagar s religion stands for religious legalistic slavery, servitude to rules, submission to the law, and spiritual bondage. Like Ishmael, those who follow these religions are in slavery with their children; they are in religious bondage. Yes, fecund Hagar quickly bore Abraham a slave child but it was not God s plan to use him. Three things are mentioned about Hagar s slave child: he persecuted his brother Isaac, he was disqualified by God and then by Abraham, and he was disinherited

32 32 from Abraham s legacy. Paul adds that legalism still now persecutes God s work. Hagar and Ishmael stand for the monotheism of religious bondage and persecution of believers. The parallel to Islam is very palatable. Sarah is the mother of freedom, in Paul s allegory. Her child Isaac is born to a free woman. His birth was promised by God and his conception miraculous. The symbol of this divine religious freedom is also called a covenant : Sarah s covenant or Sarah s religion. This religious covenant is illustrated by the free Jerusalem that is above in heaven. Sarah s religion stands for spiritual freedom, governance by the Holy Spirit, divine sonship, and God s grace. Those in Sarah s religion are like her son Isaac: children of divine promise. As a result of God s intervention, barren Sarah eventually bore more free children than Hagar. Three things are also mentioned of Sarah s free child, Isaac: he was persecuted by slave-born Ishmael, he was uniquely qualified in God s eyes - and in Abraham s eyes as heir to the divine promises, and Isaac became the exclusive inheritor of Abraham s legacy. Paul adds that the spiritual children of Ishmael (all legalistic religious adherents) continue to persecute the spiritual offspring of Isaac. Christians have inherited Isaac s place. Sarah and Isaac stand for the monotheism of religious freedom in Christ and that persecution

33 33 comes to them from the spiritual Ishmaelites of every generation. This too has been a reality between Christianity and Islam for 1500 years. Conclusion The monotheism of Muhammad is an impressive synthesis of first, the Quraysh Gentile Hunafa faith in Mecca, second, of the bondage of religious legalism and third, of an aggressive proselytising -if not predator- mandate to invite Christians to apostatize from their faith in the Lord Jesus for submission to another gospel. To encounter this and render a verdict, requires serious study of Islam. The goal of this chapter was to establish that Christians have a very clear Scriptural mandate to study religions that seek to convert their followers. With both diplomacy and confidence, we follow Paul by offering them the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, and by offering them freedom in Christ from Hagar s religion of slavery. In Jesus Christ, we bring them home. Chapter 1 review questions: 1. The word proselytism is negative and it is used by those who are threatened by the missionary nature of another ideology or another religion. Why should Christians defend it?

34 34 2. Why is the translation of the word Elohim key to applying Deuteronomy 13 to Muhammad? 3. Why should the Ishmaelite identity be listed among Semitic Gentiles and not Old Testament Israelite or New Testament Jews? 4. Why are neither Hagar nor Ishmael esteemed as spiritual models in the Bible? 5. Do you have a biblical confidence to both share the Lord Jesus with Muslims and to defend the Christian faith from Muslim missionaries?

35 35 2 Let s study it anyway Premise: Since Muslims can only accept our study of Islam if we give it exclusive honour, let s study it anyway. Introduction For over 25-years I have had the pleasure of encountering devout Muslims who seem unsettled as to why I study Islam, particularly since I do not wish to convert or submit to it. The fact that I have read the Qur an more times than I can recall, and yet have not become a Muslim, engenders in them the same puzzlement that, admittedly, I have when a Muslim friend reads the Bible yet chooses to remain a devout Muslim. They ask me, Why then are you studying the Qur an? Whatever creative answers I may have given over the years, clearly we study it for ourselves to grasp their Qur an-inspired worldview and render a verdict, as we saw in chapter one. We do not study their faith in order to be appreciated by them or

36 36 cited by them. Yes, we will be fair to celebrate all that is good and just in the Muslim culture and among Muslim people, but the rival religion of Islam, as such, has to be placed on trial by Christian students, and we cannot guaranteed they will be honoured by out conclusions. The only non-muslims authors who are appreciated and cited by Muslims are those who wax eloquent and speak honourable things of Islam. Such writers are many, most of them post-modern or ecumenical in worldview. When I entered a major bookstore in Dubai in July, 2016, the section called Religion was exclusively dedicated to Islam where Islamic authors sung the praises of their faith, however the writings of Islam-loving ecumenical author, Karen Armstrong were also well represented, especially her work Muhammad: A Prophet for our Times -as were a few Islamic technical encyclopaedias. Islam is enshrined in an honour culture. Honour them, and they ll sell your books; analyse them, and they ll ask what our business is in doing so. Admittedly, there is one group of Evangelical scholars who are followed closely by Muslim thinkers: Christian apologists -and then only to refute them, not to cite or appreciate their insights. No matter how diplomatic our writings may be, we must accept that many Muslims are distrustful of Christians studying Islam. This should not deter us from doing so, nor of grasping both their inner worldviews and their causes behind their rejection

37 37 of any critical studies. Do it even if you are never thanked, appreciated or encouraged. The resistance to valuing the study of Islam comes largely from two convictions. First, as Muslims see it, non-muslims have no business to trespass on what Muslims consider holy -which is about everything to do with their faith. Second, Westerners have ushered in a vast academic malaise over religion by reducing all religions to the discipline of comparative religious studies. We will briefly treat both of these perspectives. 2.1 No trespassing: Islam s resistance to outside inquiry Muslims are not alone in being resistant to foreign inquiry or in being protective of the honour of Allah and his prophet. Both globalised Westerners and Christians tend to research before they penetrate an unknown field. Before the secular colonists sent troops to a desired area, they first sent academic researchers, followed often by merchants. Before the blazing of the guns, or the flowing of the gin, came the erudite doctor with his unceasing questions. Christian missionaries, in turn, either preceded the first colonial penetration or followed the troops to do their own inquiries. Without exception, the hardest places for both Westerners and Christians to research has been in Islamic

38 38 nations and communities. There are many reasons why Islam s identity as a closed religion First, we do well to recall our point of departure. Protestant Christianity is an open religion to an extreme: we welcome anyone to read our sacred texts, anyone can walk uninvited into our sacred places, anyone can ask any question even hard questions, anyone can examine our actions by the Bible, anyone can examine the ancient manuscripts and historical claims of the Bible. We have no secret societies, no hidden rituals, no dark theological secrets, and no inaccessible books. If a Protestant church becomes secretive, it is immediately treated as a cult by others. Protestantism and open are synonyms. We are children of the Light, we walk in the Light even as our Father is Light; we are the religion of the open book. Even though we will, at first, be welcomed very graciously by Muslims, the Islam into which they invite us is not an open religion. First, Mecca and Medina are forbidden to all non-muslims. Their most sacred sites are closed and they were only first breached in 1503, when a Catholic Italian traveller, Ludovico de Varthema ( ) masquerading as a Syrian Muslim, spied out Mecca. Upon discovery, Ludovico narrowly escaped hanging. 4 Then again, in 1853 Sir Richard Burton

39 39 camouflaged himself as a Muslim and did the Hajj, publishing his findings to the delight of Western readers. To this day, both cities remain forbidden to any research from outside Islam. Secondly, Islam cloaks itself in 7 th century Arabic. According to imams, the real truth of Islam can only be grasped in Arabic, and then in the ancient Hijazi dialect of Muhammad. Muslims will repeatedly insist that the study of Islam must be done in al- Fusha, the divine classical Arabic and which takes Arabists some 4 years to master. That 85% of world Muslims do not speak Arabic, and then only 6 million of the remaining 15% speak Hijazi al-fusha in Western Arabia, places the real truth of Islam in the hands of a very few, among which we include the well-trained imams. Ancient Arabic gives them a monopoly of the truth -or so they will teach others. Granted, Arabic is beautiful and even mystical but then so is Japanese, French if not all 7000 living languages of the world as well. That imams cannot offer any different arguments in Fusha Arabic then they can in, say English, is ample proof that Islam core truths are not enshrined in classical Arabic but only made to appear so. Third, ancient Islamic manuscripts were extremely hard to locate, study and purchase in the 19 th century. If it had not been for the assiduous efforts and competition of colonial Orientalists to collect the oldest manuscripts for their national museums, many might ot have been preserved, and fewer still

40 40 studied by the West. As it is, not all went to Europe; some large collections of classical Islamic texts remained in the Middle East and North Africa, among others, in the Great Mosque of Yemen, Dar al-kutub in Cairo, Egypt, the Mashhad Library in Iran, Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, and the Beit al- Qur an in Bahrain. Even then, Western academic access to these manuscripts has been very scant. Only in 2007 did the Turkish government allow one of their own scholars, Dr Tayyar Altıkulaç to research and published his work on the Topkapi Qur an called Al-Mushaf Al-Sharif. He confirmed that the manuscript was not a 7 th century Uthmanic rendition as supposed- but a later 8 th century work. Only a closed religion sequesters its oldest manuscripts. Fourth, classical Islam is opposed to open-inquiry, source criticism and critique. Muhammad did not welcome critique from Jewish rabbis nor probing questions from his own followers. 5 He was only a messenger, repeating what he had heard from Jibril. Who was he to question Allah or explain his divine nature to Muslims? What Allah willed should be accepted without question and not be subject to human reason. Classical Islam has followed Muhammad s example, With the exception of a short-lived period of openness (the ijtihad period from circa AD ) it was not to endure. The strict fatalistic Asherite theology triumphed over the open-minded Mu tazilites. Bukhari s orthodox

41 41 Hadiths became the norm for interpreting the Qur an. And the strict Hanbali and Malekite Sharia schools dominated over their more moderate rivals in the heartland of Islam. And as to questioning the absolute legitimacy of anything in the Qur an, what can that be if not a form of unbelief? An obedient but closed mind is only natural for one submitting to a mostly-closed book. Fifth, studying the history of Muhammad and early Islam is challenging since Islamic historiography is shrouded in legend and any archaeological evidence contrary to its narrative may be sequestered or removed. The scientific and historical evidence for the formation of the Qur an suggests it underwent a very long evolution before certain manuscripts were considered authentic. 6 This, however, is rejected by Qur an scholars who hold that the Qur an is uncreated and miraculously preserved from its origins. Furthermore, Daniel Gibson s work on Qur anic Geography illustrates how evidence contrary to Islamic alleged sacred history has been destroyed or removed by Wahhabi leaders. The first century of Islam s history is not only very scant in archaeological evidence but most of it has to be taken by faith. What we suspect we know is often unavailable for verification. Even the earlier biographies of Muhammad do not adequately agree: legend has overgrown much of it. Sixth, Muhammad s efforts to prevent occult practices from entering Islam were only partially

42 42 successful. He strove to filter out Meccan divination, idolatry, traditional priesthood, witchcraft, and spirit intercessions, but he permitted very dark and oblique Arab religious practices to remain: speaking to jinn, protective prayer against curses, Kaaba worship, and casting stones at Satan. In time, the Qur an began to be used for secret occult purposes leading to what can be called dark practices and which is called the hidden face of Islam. Seventh, mosques are only open to inquiring visitors who come with prior permission. Visitors sit in the back, and women only with women. There s no one to shake your hand as you go into or out of the mosque. The mosque is not an open public centre but a sacred place for the prayers and meditations of the devout. Eighth, while many Muslims appreciate the opportunity to extol the virtues of Islam to non- Muslims, they are instructed to pass all difficult questions on to the imams. There is a hierarchy to establish who has the answer, and even imams may need to consult imams of higher reputation. The hardest questions belong to a chain of authority of trained imams. Ninth, Islamic theology allows the occasional practice of dissimulation, concealment or subterfuge (called Taqiyah) when a Muslim feels threatened in a very challenging context. He may even use this

43 43 with other Muslims of different persuasions. This in turn, can be used when he is questioned about Islam; he may legitimately conceal information from non-muslims; thus honesty or dishonesty can be equally acceptable when speaking to Christians, Jews or secular ideologues. Speaking the truth is at the discretion of the devout. Tenth, Islam s highest doctrines are not captured in an expanded theological creed but in the classical and contemporary legal rulings of the Sunni scholars or the Shiite imams. The theologians and judges of each expression of Islam are the guardians of the Qur an, the Hadiths and Sharia law. Islam is not open to new hermeneutics, or laymen s interpretation, or again, do-it-yourself theology. Eleventh, open Qur an studies are rare among nonimams. Mosques do not encourage open studies of their sacred text other than to learn Arabic, memorise key passages and answer legal questions. The Qur an does not function like a Bible in Protestant circles. No one takes their Qur an with them to the mosque on Friday. Only exceptional intellectuals might attempt private devotional studies from the Qur an. Twelfth, the most widely used Qur an today is the 1924 Cairo edition, yet this text was transmitted orally from a twelve-century memorised tradition not from any Qur anic manuscript. It was dictated from the oral memory of Al-Azar huffaz scholars.

44 44 In an irony of history, Islam s most popular Qur an today is not identical to its ancient textual counterparts and yet both the texts and the oral recitation are shrouded in infallibility. A closed religion protects itself closely. Islam always has and still does. To trespass a closed religion is to invite serious reproaches from its followers Islam s identity as a religion of honour Where a culture idolises honour and demonises shame, truth becomes a mere handmaiden of convenience. Muhammad sought honour and received it. He is only second to Jesus Christ in followers. Muslims, in turn, are guaranteed honour by the God of the Qur an; they will be granted the highest honour in the world. You are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. (Surah 3:110a) Yet a few verses further, Muhammad said concerning the People of the Book : Shame is pitched over them (like a tent) wherever they are found, except when under a covenant (of protection in dhimmitude) from Allah and from men; they draw on themselves wrath from Allah, and pitched over them is (the tent of) destitution. This

45 45 because they rejected the Signs of Allah, and slew the prophets in defiance of right; this because they rebelled and transgressed beyond bounds. Islam is the straight path, the visible beacon of honour and modesty, and its followers as cited daily in their prayers, are those upon whom you [Allah] have bestowed favour in the world. Honour is their global mandate. 0 ye people of Muhammad, it is upon you an obligation to protect honor and preserve nobility and generosity, for violation of honor is a barbarous crime there be no one to perpetrate it except him who is stripped of religious faith; there be no one to commit it except him who is broke loose from shame and honor. For he is allied with the devil. The crime of violation of honor the angels of the heavens cry out from its perfidy and the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air curse its perpetrator. For the violation of honor is the sign of the wicked who leads men to atrocities in the world and to the torment of the fire in the hereafter. 7 In studying Islam, we must accept that Arabs in particular and Islamic cultures in general major in honour and shame. As they say: "Die with honour (sharaf) rather than live disgraced (dhallil)". 8 This we must factor into our research of Islamic communities. The answers that we receive from Muslim friends may well be the honourable answers, and not necessarily the truthful ones. It is clearly a violation of Islam to tread on anything shameful in their religion even in the name of academia.

46 Sailing wisely in foreign waters Christians should always remember that they are sailing as visitors in foreign waters when they undertake studies of Islam. Islam is not our spiritual zone. There are five emotions that hinder a clear, sober evaluation and journey into Islam: fear, anger, guilt, indifference and Kumbaya-romanticism. All of them have roots in the human nature, not in the leading of the Spirit. Fear is the intended result of those who promote a militant, theocratic and triumphalist interpretation of Islam. They sow fear, and so, producing anxiety about Islam or Muslims is entirely intended. The Spirit s reply to fear is divine courage. You must be courageous and wise to study Islam. If fear is left untreated it turns to anger, or worse, hatred of Muslims. This is carnal and utterly unacceptable for a Christian studying Islam. Hatred blinds us to the fact that Christ also loved and died for Muslims: which are approaching 25% of the global population. Hatred cannot be defended biblically. We are to love our enemies, pray for them and forgive them, for -as is true of those who crucified Jesus- so it is true of them: they do not know what they are doing in the name of Islam. Scripture s answer to hatred is love. The Caucasian guilt syndrome is the third emotion to hinder a clear journey into Islam. The postcolonial, neo-marxist Western world is awash with

47 47 guilt for their former aggressive, geo-political colonial aspirations or so the current literature has it. Many feel guilty for the greedy past of White imperialism. Attempts to undo the prevailing systemic evil of the colonial era grips the imagination of many Western intellects. Underlying it, is an unhealthy Western arrogance that assumes the West can fix the problems it has created in the world through its global solutions. Western intelligentsia is wearing the White Man s Burden or Messianic mantle now more than ever. Christians must avoid this current emotion, especially regarding Islam. Singing the evil of the colonial past has become a global chorus trending in Muslim literature and it assumes that only the West is truly evil and that its current wealth is due to its evil past for which they must pay eternally. A healthier reply ought to be, are Westerners as evil and guilty as Muslims or as the Chinese or as Africans? Christians believe in a level playing field when it comes to finger pointing and discussing the sins of human nature. We only credit Christ for being able to fix the past. Christians are taught to see all cultures as plagued by systemic evil; their own as much as others. Christians must only imagine reconciliation through reciprocal repentance, not guilt-driven politics. The Spirit s answer to guilt is confidence in a better way.

48 48 Indifference was the over-arching Western and Christian view of Muslims and Islam prior to the rise of militant Islam in 1979, and the global attacks in the 21 st century. Christian apathy has significantly declined nevertheless for many a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. How long people will remain teachable in Christian communities is an open question. The remarkable rise in mission agencies which are seeking to reach Muslims and of Evangelicals doing master s level and doctoral work in Islam is very encouraging. Scripture s answer to indifference is zeal to learn and gain wisdom. Kumbaya 9 romanticism stems from a Western idealised quixotic view of the glorious charming, exotic oriental Muslim culture and its past. All things oriental and Muslim are exalted without much discrimination as to its origins. In essence, the study of Muslim culture shows that all things were borrowed, not invented by them. The famous mosque domes come from Byzantine architecture. The arches and minarets from the Sassanid culture, the carpets and Islamic designs from the Persian culture, even the Arabic script was created from other Semitic alphabets. At best, Muslim patrons evolved the forms which they borrowed. Nothing architecturally or artistically came from either Mecca or Medina: all was borrowed from the sophisticated nations they conquered. Even the symbolic crescent moon and star were borrowed:

49 49 again, from the Byzantines. The Spirit s answer to romanticism is realism. A Christian student of Islam is not in home waters when reading the Qur an. In spite of the seemingly familiar language, the words mean different things in the Qur an than they do in the Bible. We are sailing into alien seas and we should be discreet, wise, observant visitors in their midst: as the Lord Jesus said, Innocent as doves and as wise as serpents Understand resistance to source criticism As we have seen above, the combination of having, first, very limited academic access to Islam s oldest manuscripts, second, Muhammad s disapproval of probing questions, third, the collapse of reasoned openness in classical Islam, and fourth, serious discrepancies between the most authoritative Qur ans, has yielded a protective wall against source criticism. For devout Muslims, the source of the Qur an may not be disputed or critiqued. During the 8 th century, classical Islam fought a nasty intellectual civil war between those who considered the Qur an uncreated and those who saw it as written in time and history - through the personal life of Muhammad. The uncreated view totally won. In classical Islam, Muhammad s thinking can have no part in the Qur an: it has but one source: Allah.

50 50 Moreover, it has been preserved miraculously. So all source criticism, from their perspective, is unwelcomed trespassing on sacred truth Understand resistance to any new hermeneutics of the Qur an Islam is not open to a new hermeneutic of the Qur an or of its fifteen-century traditions. The key to the classical hermeneutic is clearly outlined in Surah 3.7: He it is who has sent down to you the Book: In it are verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning); they are the foundation of the Book: others are allegorical. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: "We believe in the Book; the whole of it is from our Lord:" and none will grasp the Message except men of understanding. Concerning this revelation, classical Islamic scholars are agreed on six points: The Qur an is sent down by Allah as the (eternal) Book. 2. The Qur an has two types of verses: basic/fundamental verses and allegorical verses. 3. The Qur an has a hidden, allegorical meaning. 4. Only Allah knows the hidden meaning.

51 51 5. Only men of understanding grasp Allah s hidden meaning. 6. Only perverted men of doubt seek alternate hidden meanings. The sum total and fruit of the men of understanding who have grasped Allah s fundamental and his hidden, allegorical meanings are found in classical theology books. Therefore, anyone offering new interpretative insights into the Qur an treads on the dangerous path of perverted men of doubt. That certain isolated or maverick imams do, should not be seen as license for Christians to do likewise. Christian students of Islam must strongly resist introducing either a Christianised exegesis or a gnostic exegesis of the Qur an. Arab World Ministries missiologist Samuel Schlorff wrote: If the Christian Qur anic hermeneutic is valid, it must be applied to the Qur an and Bible alike. If it is valid, the Islamic hermeneutic of the Bible is also valid. Any hermeneutic which we will not allow for interpreting our Bible, cannot be our modus operandi in reading the Qur an. Students must master the classical Sunni and Shia interpretations and resist the urge to Christianise their holiest text. 11

52 Christian dhimmis merit no voice Muhammad was not original in forcing subdued, conquered cities into treaty pacts, called dhimma. He did, however, add two new conditions: first, that the People of the Book should be particularly humiliated in the treaty, and second, that this shaming should be done in the name of God. Muhammad condemned Jews and Christians to a permanent state of inferiority in every sphere of life. One of the shame factors is the loss of voice. Dhimmitude (the state of living as dhimmis) robs the subjected people of any respectable identity. According to scholars Bat Ye or and Mark Durie, the Islamic version of historical dhimmitude caused a survival mode to emerge. The pact, and eventually sharia law, successfully imprints on the dhimmi minds the superiority of Islam over Christianity and Judaism. In so doing, it deprives dhimmis of two rights. First, the right of self-defence against physical aggression and, second the right to defend oneself in an Islamic court of law. This effectively deprives dhimmis of the dignity inherent to their historical roots and leaves them prey to manipulation. Christians studying Islam should know that in the eyes of devout Muslims, they are dhimmis studying Islam. Dhimmis merit no voice in Muslim circles unless they bring honour to Islam. 12

53 Understand victim pleading Muhammad and his followers were persecuted in Mecca for demanding the abolition of all religions except Islam. Muhammad was protected from physical harm by his patron uncle but many of his followers were not. They fled as refugees to Abyssinia for a period of time. During this painful period in Muhammad s career, he developed a theology of survival under persecution. As he saw it, if your message is rejected, then you are a true prophet. In time, he was able to flee to Medina, to arm himself, and then to build the most powerful army in Arabia. Muhammad, became, rather a persecutor of Jews and critics. He had 27 critics assassinated and had his troops engage in nearly 100 raids and battles. As such, victim arguments were retired by all except amongst the persecuted Shiite minorities. Since the colonial conquest of Muslim lands, that is, the subjugation of Muslim lands by kefir infidels (read, Christians and Jews) victim pleading has returned to Muslim communities. Thanks to the Western post-colonial guilt syndrome, it has now gained enormous energy in Islamic circles. Since Muslims are never to be in a position of inferiority vis-à-vis Jews or Christians, therefore any occupation of Muslim lands is tantamount to heresy. Think no further than Israel and Palestine.

54 54 You, the Christian student of Islam must prepare yourself to read popular literature about the victim status of Muslims: imagined or otherwise. Wherever Western powers are active in the Muslim world, be prepared to hear about the downtrodden status of Muslims if not in their own land, then at least in other regions. Every global coalition war against a Muslim dictator or against militant Islam becomes further proof of the global oppression of Muslims. They can imagine nothing but a global hatred of Islam. The most celebrated author to write on this was the late assassinated Lebanese journalist, Samir Kassir. He argued in his work Being Arab (2004 or Malaise Arabe in French) that the Arabs are the most wretched people in the world today, because a deep sense of malaise permeates every corner of their world. The Arab malaise is deeply rooted in their history and is now more acute than it was in the past. But Samir Kassir shocked his Middle Eastern audience by arguing that Western modernity was not the cause of the Arab malaise, but rather that the malaise was caused by the collapse of modernity in the Middle East. He concluded that the worst aspect of the Arabs malaise was their refusal to emerge from it. It was because of this book that he was assassinated by devout Muslims. To deny Arabs (and Muslims by extension) the platform of being minority victims was insufferable. The Christian studying Islam must remain alert to this undertone

55 55 with its Western sympathisers- in all prevailing Islamic literature Understand conspiracy pleading It is the universal impression of Westerners working in the Middle East or North Africa that Muslims lead the world in conspiracy theories. They have heard their Muslim friends blame all their political woes on two primary evils: the vile global network of Jews and the virulent islamophobia of the West (a term invented in the UK in 1997). Underlying all these theories is the belief that Jews and Westerners have a hidden agenda to destroy anything Islamic. Conspiracy advocates are most gifted in seeing Islamophobia in everything. A Christian student of Islam will need to be conversant in this debate without attempting to contradict their alleged irrefutable paranoiac evidence. 2.2 Mind Blindness: superficiality caused by comparative religious studies According to Steve Prothero in his 2010 work, God is Not One, the desire to collapse all religions into one comparative category stems from three secular concerns. First, it assumes that only religious unity can stop fighting and killing in the name of God. Second, Westerners desperately want everyone to

56 56 get along in a globalised pluralistic world, and third, arguing over religion is seen as a prelude to disrespect and disrespect as a prelude to fighting. These convictions have fuelled the school of comparative religious studies in the Western academia. It is assumed by this viewpoint that all religions tend to extreme violence. There is a host of 21 st century popular texts addressing the common theme: violence in the name of God. 13 That rational atheism, agnosticism and sceptic ideologies are not listed in their works is very telling. Nonreligious ideologies (such as communism, fascism and secular colonialism) are conveniently excluded when listing historic and contemporary violent fundamentalism. In the secular mind, religion and violence are synonyms; not so materialistic atheism. This is blindness which relies on certain secular presuppositions Since all religions are essentially one; none merit a unique study Post World War II saw the emergence and synthesis of modernity and Eastern thought in Western departments of comparative religious studies. According to Steve Prothero, the new emerging premise was that all men are alike and so all religions are alike. 14 This was first championed in

57 57 the West by American scholar Huston Smith (born 1919) whose 1958 text The Religions of Man became an academic bestseller in his lifetime, reaching sales of over two million texts. His premise was that There is an essential unity in all religions. This premise, in turn, was popularised by the famous Swami Sivanda ( ) from India who said, The fundamentals of all religions are the same. In turn, this conviction was supported by the writings of Aldous Huxley, by former nun-turnedscholar, Karen Armstrong, and by the world renowned Tibetan Dalai Lama (born 1935) who wrote in his 2011 work, Beyond Religion, The essential message of all religions is the same. Christians should discern that this underlying secular premise is a high form of conceit. It says, in so many words, that those trained in the socioscientific School of Comparative Religion can see that all religions are essentially the same; unlike the unenlightened, benighted devout believers within each faith. It claims it can see the whole unity of the forest while believers cannot see the forest for the trees. Those who are so trained become the new enlightened thinkers in the globe today or so they imagine it. Moreover, no specific religion is given special quarters in secular faculties, unless its professors prescribes to the reigning mantra that all religions are one and the same. This means, for example, that Christianity can only be taught by someone who believes that all religions are one

58 58 namely, a non-christian. This form of flyover research now monopolises academia and results in blindness to the unique core identities in each religion Unity comes by comparing peripheral data and calling it core Now, if all religions are essentially the same, then secular students do not really need to study and listen to any unique claims from any religion. No religion merits any special attention over another. Thanks to social-scientific insights, scholars have categorised, classified and summarised all the commonalities of each faith. They already know the outcome before they begin their research: all religions are the same even as all people are the same. This form of systemic indifference is what plagues attempts to explain Islam to secular minds: Muslims, they say, have a religion that is essentially the same as Jews, Christians and other monotheists. To grasp Muslims, they say, just look at Christians. This has led to a deluge of comparisons between these two faiths, all of which are defective since neither core identities are understood. (See also below on confusion caused by interpolation.) The flaw in this comparative approach is that, first all the commonalities are drawn from the periphery of each faith, not the core distinct beliefs, and second, it is assumed that the commonalities

59 59 outweigh the difference in importance. Take the belief in a God or a higher being(s) for example; all religions have it. Is that a core doctrine or a peripheral observation? It is marginal. What each religion says about the higher being is radically different from one faith to the other. Again, both Islam and Christianity believe in one God. That is peripheral understanding. What classical Islam teaches of Allah s unity and what classical Christianity says of the Triune is profoundly different and irreconcilable. This is a difference that represents a core doctrine for both. As the Indian- Canadian apologist Ravi Zacharias has argued, Religions agree in the peripherals; they differ in their core doctrines. A Christian studying Islam will be wise to work with Ravi s premise, not that of the School of Comparative Religions Nietzschean deconstructing of all religions The atheistic German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche ( ) did more to shape the 20 th century view of religion than any of his peers. Nietzsche was openly hostile to the human will s bondage to religions in general and to Jesus and Christianity in particular. Nietzsche, in turn, deeply influenced French philosopher Jacques Dirrada ( ) who promoted the deconstruction of God, religion, Truth and Being. As such, religions

60 60 became viewed as social power structures that needed to be deconstructed, first, of their meaning and then of their power over people. The popular impact of this line of reasoning was a deep distrust of all religious authorities and their inherent harmful power structures. Only secularised or liberal Muslims are impacted by this Western line of suspicion, but a Christian studying Islam must become aware of the widespread jaded disbelief with which secular thinkers treat all religions, and institutionalised Christianity in particular Confusion in reducing Islam to political power motives Since God, Jibril and the spirit realm are unverifiable to materialistic researchers, they assume that the motives of Muhammad and his followers were entirely human and not divine. Islamic historians such as Bernard Lewis, Eugene Rogan, David Lamb, Robert Hoyland and Tom Holland will strongly promote the conquest and plunder motive behind the initial Islamic expansion; first, into the politically exhausted Sassanid Empire and then into the dysfunctional Byzantine Empire. Christian students of Islam will soon realise that when they read secular academics, these writers will not attribute any spiritual motive to Muhammad or Jibril s message but will collapse all motives into cultural and geo-political explanations. This

61 61 amounts to a confusing explanation of the original spiritual ethos motivating Islam. This historical treatment is identical to contemporary political scientists who reduce the motives of all militant Muslims (Islamic State, Al- Qaeda, the Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Al-Shaba, Boko Haram etc.) to geo-political power grabbing. According to them, their form of jihadism is not genuine Islam, but rather an economic political agenda, camouflaged (or hijacked) as religion. This diagnosis fails to accept the militant Muslims heart and theological identity, degrading them down to being mere profane criminals. This vilification is devoid of insight into the militants minds and must be avoided by Christians studying Islam Confusion caused by interpolation Muhammad used the same vocabulary of the religions around him, drawing especially from the Jews and Christians. Yet he -under Jibril s influence- gave each theological term a different meaning. Take for example the unique words associated with Isa and Allah. The holy spirit (Ruh al-qudus), the spirit of God, (ruh Allah), the Messiah, (al-masih), the Word of Allah (Kalimatullah,) and love (Hubb). Prior to Muhammad appropriating them, these terms already had deep biblical meanings for Christian readers and so they are initially excited to find them in the

62 62 Qur an. Christians are very tempted to interpolate a Biblical meaning into the Qur anic vocabulary. To do so engenders confusion. We must recall here that Muhammad wanted his newly adopted terms to be taken as literal as possible and not in a way that points people to either Christ or Christian doctrines. His view gave birth to a very strict, literal, classical Islamic reading of the Qur an, which is very resistant to any interpolation. Take for example the expression, fight in the way of Allah (waqatiloo fi sabeli Allahi). Can we spiritualize this phrase the way Paul does with Christian readers, when he says to Timothy, fight the good fight of faith? Is a Christian-friendly reading of the above terms or the Qur an as a whole even possible? Well, whenever other interpretations of the Qur an have been attempted, such as mystic Sufi interpretations, or Greek rational interpretations, or a Christian-reading, or an ecumenical reading, then classical Muslim theologians will denounce it vehemently if not violently- as a damnable heresy. Only people with diseases in their heart would try to do this according to Surah 3.7. To read a new meaning into the Qur an other than which Muhammad literally intended offends the imams and devout Muslims deeply. Christian students must understand Muhammad s original meaning without reading ecumenical meanings into

63 63 the text. Again, maverick imams will attempt to offer alternative hermeneutics but this is no license for Christians to join the maverick voices within Islam. Christians students will exercise care to not read their own theology into Muhammad s words. Those who do so, engender confusion and blind others to Muhammad s intended meaning Confusion caused by collapsing Islam into a systematic, thematic grid The Qur an cannot be adequately decoded through the grid of systematic theology. That is what Sharia law did over two centuries later: it systematised and codified Islam, and that into four Sunni schools of thought and a handful of Shiite variants. During the 23-years that Muhammad received his revelations, the Qur an an evolved as a doctrinal text, based as changes in Muhammad s context from To proof text classical Islam back into the Qur an will engender confusion because Muslim scholars differ as to which part of the text or Muhammad s life or Hadiths to cite. The fact that there are more than five variants of Sharia law (with a 70% overlap in agreement) is proof enough that the core doctrines do not fit into a neat thematic grid. Islam s identity lies first in the Qur an and then in the Hadiths, and not in Sharia laws or later theology. To study Islam systematically or thematically is to put the cart before the horse. Christian students need to first be

64 64 clear on the evolving nature of the Qur an, and then study the Hadiths, and only then the Sharia classifications of its teachings. Conclusion The goal of this second chapter was to establish that resistance or suspicion by Muslims of Christians studying Islam should be understood as normal. It should not deter the student from seeking to grasp both their inner worldviews and their rejection of any critical studies. Nor will secular scholars welcome a Christian dismissal of their school of comparative religious studies. The labours of Christians studying Islam as an entirely unique, incomparable religion will not lead to encouraging peer reviews in Western academia. The very nature of Islam calls for courageous investigation, frank observations, and sober conclusions. While Christians should strive to be completely truthful about Islam and entirely gracious to Muslims, they should not imagine that they can speak of Islam as if they were scientifically neutral or objective. Christians must recognize that they are studying their most powerful religious rival in the world. No religion has caused Christianity more harm, more martyrs, more loss, and more failure than Islam. The very ancient heart of the land of Oriental Christianity is nearly extinct, thanks to classical Islam. Christians must render a verdict on a religion that seeks to replace them, or

65 65 downgrade them, or blame them, or again shame them. This calls for courage and resolution. Chapter 2 review questions: 1. To call Islam a closed or secret religion will appear judgemental. Yet, in comparison to Protestant Christianity, it is quite closed and highly self-defensive. Reflect on this: why might this be so? 2. The Pharisees practiced their faith in an honour culture and this came into conflict with Christ, his Gospel and Christianity. Yet missiologists tell us to be wise agents of peace, enculturation, contextualisation and diplomacy. How do we reconcile these twin demands? 3. Of the five unbiblical emotions which Christians must remove, which one is one you encounter the most frequently? 4. Should Christians embrace the lowly status as dhimmis even as Jesus and Paul embraced the lowly status of servants? 5. Why is the recent unity of all religions thesis led to the worst intellectual poverty of religions in the Western world in the last 400 years?

66 66 6. Why does Islam merit to be treated as uniquely different from all other religions?

67 67 3 Let Muhammad Speak Premise: Since Muslims identity is in their primary sources, let Muhammad speak for himself Having taught Islam since the year 2000, in particular, using a chronological approach to the Qur an since 2005, I have had the honour of teaching on-line students in over 15 nations, many of them in direct ministry to Muslims, or living in Muslim lands. The most frequent response I receive from them, usually within the first month, is an astonishment at how clear Islam is becoming to them. One student wrote and said, regardless of the grade which I will receive, what I have learned already is invaluable. The reason is clear to me: the course took them to the source: Muhammad. This is the best point of departure for understanding, though granted, not the easiest: reading the Qur an is hard work. In the previous two chapters we established two premises: first, that we have a clear Scriptural

68 68 mandate to study Islam and second, that we do not first need permission from Muslims to do so. We study it, even if we are not invited or appreciated for doing so. We do this, first for the benefit of the church, and second to better grasp the internal Qur anic worldviews held by devout Muslims the very people we love for the Gospel s sake. Our goal in chapter three is to establish that the identity of all Muslims originates in their understanding or more precisely, in their imam s understanding- of the Muhammad portrayed in the primary sources. It is my contention that we must first read the Qur an ourselves to let Muhammad make his own case for 7 th century Islam before consulting the orthodox imams of the classical era or of today. This approach is not the modus operandi of either contemporary Muslims or today s secular scholars, who would rather launch the study of Islam with the voices of today: either today s imams or scholars or again today s social-scientists and academic experts on Islam. Their copious books await you on Amazon. Our approach is the way less travelled but one which gives us the mountain top view of Islam. Before considering the primary source approach (3.2 below) I will first explain the alternative approaches in more detail (3.1) then will conclude with the need to pass from the primary sources to the classical historical voices (3.3).

69 Alternative approaches The overwhelming majority of Muslims have never read the Qur an nor are they required to. At best they have only memorised key Arabic passages, not studied them. If a devout Muslim has never read Muhammad first hand in the Qur an, who then speaks for Islam and the prophet? Muslims turn to their nearest imam, who, in turn, looks to the primary sources and other imams. There is an established hierarchy to whom one turns. As they see it, Muhammad is who their imam today say he is. Westerners, however, prefer to interview Muslims in the street, which has led to a flood of scientific research on Muslim voices. The answers are anything but uniform and Christian students of Islam need to know that an intensive internal debate now exists around the very definition of Islam thanks to the varied answers given to Western questions Islam is what Muslims today say it is

70 70 This seemingly neutral mantra of Western academia is not impartial. It has re-launched the hottest of conflicts within the wider Islamic Ummah 15 family. The Western refrain sounds innocuous enough and invariably the Westerners ask it of Muslims all the time in all directions: Tell me what Islam means to you Or again, How do you feel about your religion? For good measure, since westerners do this everywhere in all areas of socio-research, why should this not work with Islam as well? Consider CNN s coverage of Islam below. Muslims on what Islam means today updated August 14, 2010 CNN's Muslim in 2010 hit the streets in cities around the world to ask Muslims about their faith. Here's what they told us. What does your faith mean to you? Over the next four weeks, CNN International's "Muslim in 2010" coverage will cross the planet looking at modern Islam. Does faith inspire your business?

71 71 How does faith inspire business? Is there a place for religion in the workplace? How do one's beliefs translate into the world of finance? Muslims on changing Islam European and Middle Eastern Muslims on how Islam has changed in the last decade. To ask such questions or to poll Muslims and then collect the responses reflects a widespread Western approach to religions and this venue reaps a plethora of definitions, studies, historic inquiries and more. The most famous think tank dedicated to this approach is the Pew Research Fund. The most zealous effort was launched by John Esposito s 2008 book, Who Speaks For Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. This type of polling is normal where diversity is welcome. Western scholars feel their results are highly authoritative. Indeed, they are, but to whom? Answer: to them. Polling is a flawed way to define Islam. Muhammad s 15-century old faith eludes a quick definition by how do you feel questions or by prescribed telecommunication polls. Islam is a religion obsessed with a theological pursuit of a unity where they can only accept one united

72 72 definition for an elusive Muslim community. Diversity, in Islam, is nothing short of heresy. Definitions of Muslims which westerners have invented sound sacrilegious. Speaking at Kanal-D TV s Arena program, Turkish PM Recep Erdogan commented on the term moderate Islam, often used in the West to describe AKP and said: These descriptions are very ugly; it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that s it. 16 Indeed, it is only the Westernised Muslim intellectuals who agree with their Westerners counterparts that, well, unity in Islam is, frankly, impossible. These liberals or moderates join the Westerners in condemning the classical ideal that true Islam is an essential unity. They condemn this belief as essentialism. As they see it, Islam should be a study of islams. You will read social scientists who gleefully conclude from their research that Islam is anything but monolithic. However you wonder if these same scholars realise that both their original probing question into the (factual) disunity of Islam and their conclusion behind their inquiry scream the word heresy in the ears of devout Muslims. The

73 73 overwhelming majority of global Muslims passionately agree with Erdogan and they long for this illusive unity, in spite of Western protests at their lack of inner monolithic homogeneity. Can devout Muslims accept multiple islams? No. It s unimaginable, and therefore the Western assertion let s allow each Muslim to personally define what their religion means to them has opened a viral Pandora Box issue into the Islamic community. We have stirred up a theological hornet s nest. Our alternate social-scientific approach is anything but neutral or benign Islam is what Western Islamic advocates say it is Mischievous or not, the questions are clearly out there and the most powerful questions which Westerners push on individual Muslims are now: 1 Who speaks for Islam? 1. What is Islam to you personally? 2. Who really speaks for Islam according to you? 3. Whose voice do you listen to and who truly defines the Islam within the global Ummah?

74 74 Both emic and etic researchers 17 have proposed solutions, such as: Listen to the present majority Muslim voice. Listen to the present imams and orthodox Ulema 18 voices. Listen to the classical authoritative voices. Listen to the present, most acclaimed Western academic voices. These propositions, in turn, are each weighed and ranked in importance to one s preferred outcome. With each proposed solution comes the necessary rejoinder: And just how do you determine the weight of each responder? Who decides which voice should prevail as first and foremost? By what authority do Westerners adjudicate that decision? Why should Western preferences eclipse the classical ones? The Christian student of Islam is advised not to begin with Western social-scientific research but to listen first to Muhammad himself since all Muslims claim a prior loyalty to him and his Qur anic messages. He and his message are the foundation of each Muslim s identity, regardless of how diverse they may be. Begin with Muhammad, listen then to the classical and contemporary imam voice before

75 75 ending with individual Muslims and expert scientists. 3.2 Study Muhammad first in the Qur an and in the Sira Students who commit themselves to read the Qur an face the most challenging book in the world to read. Those who accomplish the titanic task, are most vocal about its peculiar style and content. Many of them are not flattering. Take for example the English Victorian historian and literary critic, Thomas Carlyle ( ), who after reading the Qur an, wrote:... I must say, it [the Koran] is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite; endless iterations, long-windedness, entanglement; most crude, incondite; insupportable stupidity, in short! Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Koran... It is the confused ferment of a great rude human soul; rude, untutored, that cannot even read; but fervent, earnest, struggling vehemently to utter itself in words Harsh words and a blunt European testimony to the difficulty of the task, and a polar contrast to say, Karen Armstrong who can see nothing but virtue in every page of the Qur an. There is, however, an alternative to reading the

76 76 Qur an in the way Carlyle did, that is, in reading the classical arrangement of Surahs 1-114; namely, by studying it chronologically and in parallel with Muhammad s Sira (biography). Using this approach, the Qur an is re-arranged chronologically into 28 readings, corresponding to the number of days that the Qur an is read out loud during Ramadan Study the Qur an chronologically The challenge of the Qur an is that it does not flow as a book, or even like any book in the Bible or in Apocrypha texts. It is an anthology of longer to shorter Surahs, many of which are, in turn, revelations cobbled together without a clear sense of order. Many of the longer Surahs are seemingly confusing, unrelated sermons or revelations. Many Surah s have no natural flow or explanation to them. Since the revelations are purely oral, nothing in the Qur an explains how it should be read or studied. Only the shorter Surahs are poetic and more united in theme. To grasp Muhammad s worldview in the Qur an requires us to rearrange the Surahs into a probable chronological order. There are three proposed

77 77 classical chronologies in circulation from which scholars can choose: the Cairo chronology, Nöldeke s chronology and Muir s chronology. All proposed chronologies, follow the classical designation of Early Mecca, Middle Mecca, Late Mecca and Medina. Where they differ is in how they re-arrange the Surahs within these four periods. Ever since the Quranic Iraqi scholar Nessim Joseph Dawood ( ) published his very readable Penguin Classic translation of the Qur an in 1956, Anglophone readers have been able to join the academic readership. Indeed, it was Dawood s creative, chronological 1968 translation that enabled me to render my own verdict in 1998, when I read the entire Qur an in chronological order for the first time. It finally came together as a narrative. Following this approach helps decode Muhammad s message. This should be the basis of a first course: studying the Qur an chronologically, together with Muhammad s oldest biography Study the Sira in parallel to the Qur an

78 78 The most preferred Sunni Sira (biography) of Muhammad is the one composed by Persian historian Ibn Jarir al-tabari ( ), in that he is the finest historian of the Islamic world. His work is a multi-volume historical chronicle written from the creation to AD 915, and is renowned for its detail and accuracy concerning Muslim and Middle Eastern history. 20 However, it dates to the 10 th century, some 300 years after Muhammad died. The Sira which is more preferred by contemporary historians is a much earlier work by the Arab historian Ibn Ishaq ( ), which was preserved in the writings of his disciple, Ibn Hiram, (d. 833) and who, in turn, copied over much of Ishaq s work as his own. The combined work, in turn, influenced al-tabari s works. Ibn Ishaq s work is the first known biography and drew upon the extant maghazi war chronicles 21, upon Medinan scholars, upon qass-poets, and even second-to-third generation Muslims. He began his research some 90-years after Muhammad s death in AD 722. He completed it some 44-years later. By the time Ibn Ishaq began to research, there was a growing hagiolatry surrounding Muhammad, and according to the English translator of the Sira, Alfred Guillaume, 22 the popular demand for legendary embellishments were pushing writers to expand their accounts to the readers wishes. Ibn Ishaq suffers the least from such elaboration and he

79 79 brings a welcoming level of honesty about his sources, something for which his peers chided him. When the Qur an is read chronologically in parallel to Ibn Ishaq s Sira, the student benefits from, what German Semitic scholar Julian Wellhausen ( ) brought to the study of Islam: the Sitz in Leben approach; seeing Muhammad in historical live context. The evolving nature of Muhammad s message becomes clear as the text and narrative are read in parallel. Ibn Ishaq s Sira is not accepted by all imams. Certainly the Shiites reject anything except Ali bin Abu Talib s account. Sunnis as well prefer al-tabari over Ibn Ishaq and find short-comings in Ibn Ishaq. Notwithstanding, it is the closest and probably the least legendary historical account of the actual life of Muhammad. This is what we need to render a verdict on the Qur an. We do not seek the most beautiful history but the most unvarnished one: Ibn Ishaq is thus our best guide Study the evolving nature of Muhammad s doctrines To an outside reader, Jibril message through Muhammad resembles a theological metamorphism in that Muhammad s Allah changes his message

80 80 through him. Without a parallel chronological and historical study of the Qur an, the text is, as Carlyle concludes, a confused jumble. Imams know that the Qur an evolves but they only preach the final outcome of this evolution. Islam has but one message: submit to Allah! -regardless which part of Muhammad one reads. Not so for Christian readers who must study the internal changes and account for why Muhammad s message changed in so many ways. Consider the doctrines which underwent some form of change during Muhammad s 23-years of revelations: Prayers changed from two to three to four to five. The prayer Qiblah (direction) changed from Jerusalem in AD 610 to the Kaaba in 624. Fasting changed from one day in Mecca to one month in Medina. Charity went from being generous to the poor in Mecca to % giving in Medina. Alcohol went from tolerance in Mecca to abstention in Medina. The status of Jews went from being considered as fellow monotheists in Mecca to enemies of Allah in later Medina. The status of Christians went from being considered fellow monotheists to untrustworthy deceived believers in later Medina.

81 81 The status of Pagans went from being considered ignorant, greedy idolaters in Mecca to enemies to be slaughtered in Medina. Paradise changed from an exclusively male pleasure ground in Meccan revelations to also including Muslim women in the latter Medina revelations. Muhammad went from being Allah s warning preacher while in Mecca to Allah s supreme apostle and last militant prophet in Medina. Muhammad went from being known as a onewoman-man before 620 AD to openly having a harem. Jihad morphed through a progression of four forms: from defensive resistance to open war. Islam went from an unarmed, persecuted minority in Mecca to a major army of persecutors and conquerors in Medina. Allah is portrayed as a restrained, merciful divine Judge in Mecca and then as a God of war in later Medina. The Qur an stylistically went from being poetry in early Mecca to prophetic sermons in later Mecca to legal oracles in Medina. The Muslims went from being a secret society in early Mecca to a persecuted sect in latter Mecca to a new Arab super-tribe in Medina, and then finally to an army in latter Medina. Christian students of Islam need to know what changed and why. Reading the Qur an

82 82 chronologically, and accompanied by the Sira will answer these questions. 3.3 Study Muhammad next in the hadiths, Sharia law and literature Muhammad s religion was birthed into an Arabian oral society. Poetry as a means of communication was highly esteemed in Arabia and the tribal chiefs endowed the poets and storytellers (the qass) with a place of honour. The Qur an began as a work of poetry and Muhammad was immediately identified by the Meccans as an upcoming popular poet of monotheism a role he adamantly rejected. Yet Islam remained an oral religion for all of Muhammad s career and it only began a gradual conversion to text after his death. Between a hundred to two hundred years after his death, Muhammad s oral religion eventually gave birth to four texts: first and foremost the Qur an, then the legal rulings by the judges (qadis) -leading eventually to the Sharia laws, then the popular maghazi war accounts leading to the Sira, and finally the oral Sunna (tribal customs) leading to the written Hadiths. Having read the Qur an and the Sira, the most valuable question to pursue is, what did the first generations of Muslims do with Muhammad and

83 83 Islam? This should be our next stop: the Hadiths, Sharia Law and popular literature Muhammad in the Hadiths The value of the Hadiths stems from the need for them. Oral Arab tribes live by their tribal Sunna (customary sayings). Each Arab tribe has a Sunna; it was the internal law, or the living constitution, if you will, of each tribe. Once Muhammad launched a new Muslim Ummah tribe in Medina (something other Arabs would do as well if they had enough warriors) he needed his own Sunna. Muslims came to him to define the new Sunna of his new Ummah tribe. This Sunna would become the oral hadiths, and some two hundred years later they would be codified as the second most sacred text. To formulate the Sunna, the disciples relied on Muhammad s revelations, his conversations, his behaviour, and his decisions. This approach is enshrined in the Qur an: Surah 33.21: You have indeed in the messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah. (Yusuf Ali) Muhammad s death in 632 caused countless new questions: What would Muhammad have done? and What would Muhammad have said? The

84 84 caliphs and judges (qadi) had to make all of life conform to Islam but without further revelations. How? Answer: Recall anything Muhammad did or said on the subject. They turned overwhelmingly to Muhammad s Sunna. The result was a predictable rapid expansion of recalled sayings and observations immediately collected after his death. For the first 90 years ( ) following Muhammad s death, tens of thousands of Hadiths were shared, memorised and transmitted from masters to pupils. This would create both a new and yet harmonised image of who Muhammad was. To adequately grasp this later portrait of Muhammad, a Christian student of Islam will need to read a dozen or more sample hadiths from each of the 93 books, as collected by Bukhari sometime after AD 850. This study belongs to a second course which follows the reading of the Qur an, namely, the religious history of the Caliphate, a course focused on the Hadiths, Sharia laws, Islamic philosophy and fourteen centuries of historical expansions and decline of the Islamic civilisations Muhammad in Sharia laws and Fiqh The origin of the Sharia laws also stem from ancient Arab traditions. As each Arab tribe had their own Sunna (customs) they also had their own sharia, (lit. the way to the well ) and these laws were under the sovereignty of the tribal arbitrator (hakam).

85 85 Muhammad adopted and modified pre-islamic Arab/Bedouin laws for his Ummah tribe and he became its supreme hakam. So doing, the memorised Qur anic revelations and oral Hadith rulings of Muhammad became a new measure of interpreting Arab laws. After Muhammad s death, each caliph (lit. deputy) became the defender of the truth, the first qadi judge, the commander of the faithful, as well as Allah s deputy on earth. They did not attempt to add new laws except as extensions of the Qur anic revelations, and in comparison to hadith sayings. These verdicts were memorised and transmitted orally to a rising generation of Muslims. The caliphs ruled using three sources: the Qur an, the Sunna of Muhammad, and the ra y (opinion) or ijma (consensus) made during their Shura consultations. While Sharia law is not a portrait of Muhammad, it does become the portrait of the Umma tribe, in that everything in the community is now governed by Sharia laws. To fully grasp the impact of these laws on the Muslim identity, Christian students of Islam must study Sharia selections from each internal section of the (one of the four major Sunni legal schools) law school, wherein one first encounters laws of the faith, then private laws, then criminal laws and finally administrative laws.

86 Muhammad in popular Islamic Literature Muhammad s portrait will evolve again in popular literature, from various Shiite accounts, to different Sufi accounts, to philosophical accounts, and to nearly divine sectarian accounts. These can be studied in primary source documents in a history course on Islam. In certain communities, Muslim artists were even allowed to portray Muhammad in art. All communities enshrine his example as the most exemplary on earth, but imams differed widely on which part of his Qur anic career, or which Hadith sayings or which popular poetic account of him they wished to celebrate in Muhammad s life. When Europeans began to encounter Islam anew in the Age of Exploration, they were astonished at the wide variety of narratives of Muhammad in global circulation. These too bear studying before listening to contemporary voices. 3.4 A Christian verdict on Muhammad s evolving identity Islam is a religion that demands a verdict. The claims made by Islam s prophet Abdul Casim Muhammad in the Qur an have required every generation of Christians and Jews to weigh the claims as best as they heard them- and render a

87 87 verdict. Thanks to the growing literature on Islam, this can be done now better than ever. To study Islam needs wisdom, compassion and courage. Sitting as an academic jury on this material as a Christian scholar is daring yet needed. To venture into a world where open vigorous inquiry requires the backbone of a foreign journalist. It must be studied and weighed. Studying Islam is not like studying calculus, which is pure abstract logic, nor is it like researching geography, which is the factual study of natural features and living upon the earth. Studying Islam, Muslims and its multi-varied history is a journey into unknown waters where obedience, not inquiry, is the norm. For Muslims, Islam is chiefly what their imams say it is: nothing less, nothing more. They never render a verdict; you, however, must. Conclusion From the classical Orient comes the famous tale of Ali Baba and the 40-thieves. Once Ali discovered the way into the secret cave filled with stolen treasures, he had a far more complex dilemma: what to do with this discovery without alerting the 40- thieves? This is the quandary of the Christian

88 88 insights into Islam. Something mysterious and nearly-inscrutable has protected the world of Islam from intensive research for the first 12-centuries of its expansion; now, thanks to modern digital technology, Islam, the Qur an and Muhammad s message lie open before Christian readers. It s time to study it and render a verdict. The goal of this chapter was to establish that Islam s definition and the identity of all Muslims originates in their understanding of Muhammad in the primary sources. This merits our first attention, or as the Renaissance scholars cried ad fonts! ( back to the sources ). Reading the Qur an and the Sira is the hardest part of studying Islam but also the sine qua non of grasping this once - hidden faith. Chapter 3 review questions: 1. Why do Western researchers prefer Muslim polls and street conversations over interviewing important imams? 2. Why did Turkish PM Erdogan find the term moderate Islam so very ugly; offensive and an insult to his religion? 3. Why is Muhammad speaking in the Qur an a higher authority for Muslims identity than alternate explanations?

89 89 4. Cite 5 reasons why the Qur an the hardest book in the world to read? 5. What particular light does the Sira shine on the Qur an that we cannot find in any other book? 6. What does a chronological reading of the Qur an reveal to us that a thematic or systematic overview does not? 7. What unique role does the Hadiths and also the Sharia laws have for Islam?

90 90 4 Let s render a verdict on Jibril Premise: Since Muhammad claimed Jibril recited the Qur an to him, let s render a verdict on Jibril One of the earliest questions for which I must prepare myself when students begin reading the Qur an is when they ask me, Who is the we in the text? Or again, If Muhammad strictly believes in one God, why does Allah speaks in the we? While my answers may refer to the royal we or the Semitic divine we, the question remains a mystery, since a student reading the text must continually ask: Is this Allah speaking or Muhammad speaking, or Jibril speaking? this too merits a clear verdict: who is actually speaking in the mind of Muhammad? In the previous chapter we gave priority to Muhammad s voice in defining Islam. Islam must be studied by Christians even if we will never be thanked for undertaking this Scriptural task. To do so, we first examined Islam s foundation, which is

91 91 in Muhammad s primary text, the Qur an. It is important to do this before turning to current opinions of Muhammad himself. The goal of this present chapter is to establish the role and claims of Jibril who channelled Allah s message in and through Muhammad s mind. His place must also be studied and weighed in our Christian study of Islam. To do so means students commit themselves to, first, grasp the peculiar theology of Jibril s revelations (4.1 below), then Muhammad s spirit trances (4.2), then again Jibril s response to Jews and Christians (4.3), and again, the role of the Apocrypha in Jibril s messages (4.4), and finally the impact of the Arab Traditional Religion on Islam (4.5). This we will bring to a closure by accepting that Christian students must render their verdict on Jibril by relying on the Scriptures and upon the discernment of the Holy Spirit (4.6). 4.1 The Muslim theology of Muhammad reciting the eternal Qur an Muhammad told his followers that his messages were not of his own making; rather; a voice in his head

92 92 recited all of the Qur an to him. He was merely the voice and all the Qur anic ideas in his mind were of Allah s making. He called this voice Jibril, an alleged angel from Allah who recited the eternal Qur an from an eternal tablet preserved in heaven. The question Christian students must explore is how Muhammad could know that this voice was truly from God when the spirit could offer no confirming miracles or predictive divine prophecies through him? If the Qur an is the ultimate message of humanity, why is it utterly bankrupt of miracles and prophesies? Who is this voice called Jibril or Gabriel? A Christian reader must render a verdict on Jibril and his verbal messages through Muhammad. Since there are no prophesies to test or miracles to weigh, each doctrinal teaching and narrative which Jibril passes on to Muhammad must be studied -as coming from both Jibril and/or Muhammad. The majority view in the Islamic world is that the Qur an, which was downloaded in and through Muhammad s mind and mouth, was an eternal, uncreated message stemming from an eternal tablet kept in heaven (S ). Christians studying the Qur an must seek to reconcile why so much of Muhammad s personal day-to-day struggles are part and parcel of this eternal tablet in heaven. This

93 93 explanation also requires a verdict. Christians must study each personal crisis and somehow figure out how Muhammad s private life and problems and Jibril s voice in his mind turn into a singular global religion. The Anglican bishop and scholar of Islam, Kenneth Craig ( ) notes that Muhammad is held to have had no more part in it [the Qur an] consciously than any physical vehicle has in what it conveys. The voice is the Prophet's but the meaning is all God's without the intervention of human kind. 23 How does this compare to how Biblical prophets received and transmitted the word of the Lord? Does the recipient of a revelation have absolutely no mental participation in the communication of the word of the Lord? This verdict awaits the Christian readers. 4.2 A Christian understanding of Muhammad s spirit trances The opening book of Bukhari s Hadiths as well as Ibn Ishaq s Sira- gives us a startling portrait of Muhammad s Medina trances which he recounted to his wife Aisha and companion Ibn Abbas: Al-Harith bin Hisham asked Allah's Apostle "O Allah's Apostle! How is the Divine Inspiration

94 94 revealed to you?" Allah's Apostle replied, "Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell, this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all and then this state passes off after I have grasped what is inspired. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says." 'Aisha added: Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired divinely on a very cold day and noticed the sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over). (Narrated By 'Aisha. Bukhari Book 1.002) Ibn 'Abbas in the explanation of the Statement of Allah. 'Move not your tongue concerning (the Qur'an) to make haste therewith." (75.16) Said "Allah's Apostle used to bear the revelation with great trouble and used to move his lips (quickly) with the Inspiration." (Narrated by Said bin Jubair. Bukhari 1.004) Christians are struck by how hard this is to reconcile this description with how the God of Scripture spoke to his prophets. Even Daniel, who trembled and felt very weak during his visions (Dan ) did not fall into a trance but was strengthened, blessed and told to not fear. Nor did Daniel merely channel a message but heard it spoken to him. The way Gabriel appeared to Mary and Joseph is also very unlike Jibril s appearance to Muhammad. How do we accounted for this? The nearest equivalent to Muhammad is King Saul who briefly fell under the spirit of prophecy while lying naked on the ground. Such manner of trances requires a verdict.

95 A Christian approach to Jibril s attack on the Jewish and Christian Scriptures If, as Muhammad says, his message was only to repeat Jibril s message, and if Jibril s words were only repeating what Allah dictated from his tablet then Christians are left to ask why Allah and Jibril turned against Abraham, Isaac and Jacob s offspring and became so violent towards the Jewish people and faith (and something entirely lacking in the New Testament). The Medinan revelations are disturbingly anti-semitic. The only Jews accepted by Muhammad were those who abandon their people, their faith and then betray their kin to Muslims. Christian students of the Qur an must wrestle with Muhammad s growing hostility to and violence towards the Jews in Medina, and then in Arabia. Christians must ask how it is possible that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has become so violent towards his ancient people, that he would even ask Muslims to execute them in Medina. Why would Muhammad s Allah endorse the enslavement of Christians as prisoners of war? We do well to recall that no New Testament Christian was ever permitted by Jesus or the apostles to respond with violent against the Jews. Why did Muhammad s

96 96 Allah preach hatred and not compassion to the Jews? A related question is why Jibril seems so ignorant of or appears to avoid so many major doctrines in the Bible. Why did Muhammad s Allah and Jibril say virtually nothing about sacrifice, priesthood, worship songs, God s presence in the tabernacle, redeeming love, the prophetic messages, the messianic prophesies, Christ s gospel teachings, the New Covenant, and above all, Lord s teaching on non-violence? Why is Jibril so ignorant of all but the hell, fire and judgement passages in the Bible? Why, does Jibril cause Muslims to doubt the Bible when it is the only text that can establish the truth claim in the Qur an? Christians, while also classified as People of the Book, did receive a different treatment from Muhammad. Muhammad had no Christian killed during his lifetime, although he allowed them to be sold as slaves if they should ever fight Muslims. It was only after his death that Muslims began to persecute, exile or kill Christians. Muhammad condemned the core Christian doctrines but not the Christian conduct. He also highly esteemed Jesus/Isa and his mother Mary/Miriam but only insofar as Isa spoke like a Muslim. Christians studying the Qur an must ask what rapport is still possible between Christians and Muslims today and

97 97 whether any aspect of the Qur an allows for genuine common ground between the two faiths. 4.4 A Christian evaluation of Jibril s familiarity with popular apocryphal sources Jibril s messages were full of Old Testament judgement accounts and brief popular narrations of Isa. How is it, asks the Christian reader, that these accounts are far more similar to popular apocryphal and Pseudepigrapha narratives than to the Bible? Why did Jibril rely on Muhammad s memory of what he had heard from Jews, Christians and heretics during his caravan travels? Granted, Muhammad couldn t understand Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac or Greek so he never heard the Bible read, nor had it yet been translated into Arabic. Yet why did Jibril (or Muhammad s Allah) not know what the real Bible actually said? Why was Jibril ignorant of the original teachings of Jesus? How does a Christian student account for this? Muslims may say that Jibril s accounts were accurate and that the biblical ones corrupted, but that presupposes that the Bible was profoundly falsified at some post-new Testament era a claim that has absolutely no evidence to support it.

98 98 And yet Jibril used very biblical vocabulary: words that were in common circulation among the Arabs and Semitic people. These words were widespread in oral Apocryphal and Pseudepigrapha accounts. As such, Jibril/Muhammad introduced no new terms, but gave different meaning to the religious terms of popular religions in the Orient all originally borrowed from Syriac, Aramaic and Hebrew. We must ask why Jibril only stayed within the limit of these terms? A Christian student must grasp the role of Apocryphal, Talmudic, legendary and Pseudepigrapha literature as well as the role of the few Hunafa monotheists in Mecca, since this is the only source of Muhammad s monotheism. Christians will encounter alleged Bible tales told in completely different ways. The student needs to learn how God is portrayed in Muhammad s apocryphal religion and how that compares to his portrayal in Scripture.

99 A Christian response to Jibril s alliance with Arab jinn and Mecca s Traditional religion Allah s Jibril inspired Muhammad to destroy the Arabic pagan polytheistic idolatry; first in Meccan and then in all of Arabia. He succeeded in part. He destroyed idol worship and sacrifices to spirits, divination practices before their deities, and the polytheistic priesthood, but Muhammad did not banish shrine worship (chiefly now the Kaaba), communication with jinn spirits, praying for the dead, spiritual cursing, protective practices against witchcraft and curses, and belief in cosmological occult powers. Yet these latter spirit activities are all contrary to Scripture. A Christian studying Islam must grapple with how much of the Arabs traditional pagan religion was morphed into Muhammad s Arab monotheism, and whether this constitutes a authentic conversion to Abrahamic monotheism or whether Islam remains both pagan and monotheistic. Islam lives with this tension. Advocates of the classical Islam will strive to live out a pure Abrahamic faith while a myriad of peripheral imams will honour the Arab pagan roots of Mecca and syncretise them with local traditional and/or

100 100 occult practices. Using the discipline of anthropology, Christians studying Islam must grapple with the reality of both communities, knowing they live in sharp and sometimes violentconflict with each other. 4.6 Spiritual discernment while evaluating Jibril s claims A delicate spiritual question awaits Christian students launching into Islamic studies as they read the Qur an: should they to listen to Muhammad s Allah in the Qur an as they listen to the Triune God in the Bible? If he is the same God, as many Muslims and even Protestant theologians like Miroslav Volf contend, and how will the readers know? Does similar divine vocabulary and familiar Jewish stories mean the same God? Does a short list of similar divine attributes signal to the readers that they are listening to the voice of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Does God have any supplementary special revelation outside of his special revelation i.e. the Bible? Or could not Jibril camouflage himself as an angel of light by bringing to the readers another Jesus and a different gospel and a different spirit? Paul rebuked the Corinthians for this very seduction used by false prophets and false apostles:

101 101 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. (2 Cor ESV) In spite of Muhammad s familiarity with monotheistic vocabulary, the Christian reader is advised to read the Qur an as sailing in foreign waters. Christians are advised to suit up with the divine armour before tackling the arduous readings the Qur an -as channelled by Jibril through Muhammad s mind. Remember who you are in Christ as you listen to Muhammad recite his revelations to you. It is advised for teachers to always begin and end each Qur anic reading with a prepared biblical reflection. We are wise to start and end in the Bible in order to orient our Scriptureinformed worldview. Indeed, I recommend that each class should begin with a Biblical devotion and prayer, especially praying for recently reported Muslim-Christian related crises in the world, and always for God s grace to persecuted Muslim background believers.

102 102 Conclusion The goal of this chapter was to establish that the role and claims of Jibril who channelled Allah s message into and through Muhammad s mind must also be studied and weighed in the Christian study of Islam. Christians must be faithful to study the Bible as thoroughly as Islam s texts. They must be like Berean Jewish disciples of Acts 17 of whom Luke said, Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. We study Islam best by having both our feet planted firmly in Scripture. This Christians students must do by examining the Scripture daily and relying on the discernment of the Holy Spirit. In the following chapter we will explain why history matters so much to Muslims, requiring us to turn to the Ulema to have them speak for the overwhelming dominant voice of historic Islam. Chapter 4 review questions: 1. Why is is so difficult for Christian students to render a verdict of who is speaking in the Qur an?

103 Why are the trances of Muhammad challenging for Christian students? 3. Why is is so difficult to grasp the anti-semitism in Jibril s message? 4. What sources strongly influenced the religious vocabulary and Scriptural narratives of Muhammad? 5. What occult practices did Muhammad fail to abolish? 6. How much should Christian students appreciate the significant similar vocabulary and stories between the Bible and the Qur an?

104 104 5 Let the Ulema speak Premise: Since history matters deeply to Muslims, let the Ulema speak for historic Islam When Osama bin Laden finally took responsibility for the 9/11 attack on New York City, he alluded to reversing the shame of 1924, which completely baffled Western thinkers. No one in the West had been trained in high school or in university to grasp the key dates for the greater Muslim community. Everyone in Turkey grasped it immediately: it was the date Turkish general Ataturk abolished the caliphate. History matters deeply to Muslims; especially their interpretation of it. In the last chapter, we committed ourselves to rendering a verdict on the spirit who download Allah s messages in and through Muhammad s mind, because in our study of Islam and the Qur an, the Christian must seek to discern the spiritual world that influenced Muhammad s mind. The goal of our present chapter is to establish that the collective identities of Muslims stem from centuries

105 105 of theological crises which govern their view of their past and their rapprochement with modernity. This chapter will first explain the need to grasp the deep internal crisis in historic Islam (5.1) and then the need to establish a Christian response to the contemporary narrative battles over Islam (5.2). Their history matters deeply to Muslims and the Ulema (imam scholars) are the guardians of this concern; it is to them we must turn to grasp the many crises within their history. 5.1 The prevailing voices and crises from the past Before reviewing the most common theological crises in historic Islam, we do well to establish the role of these classical scholars in their internal crises. This is more than an academic interest; every crisis within Islam eventually impacts Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and other Westerners directly. Whatever the crisis is within Islam, it will, in due course, be exported to other nations, and to religious communities around the globe. We do well to study this field of history.

106 Classical Islam: the true centres of gravity Muhammad will always hold the supreme place of honour in speaking for Islam: it is what he says it is and that is found in the Qur an. Yet upon his death, the guardianship mantel of Islam fell to his closest companions; both Ali and the other caliphs. Islam became what they enshrined it to be in and around Muhammad and the Qur an. The primary concern of the Sunni was military: reconquering the whole Arab peninsula that had apostatised, and then conquering the Oriental provinces of the two dominant empires, Sassanid and Byzantine. Their unparalleled success and lightning quick conquest gloriously confirmed their theological dreams but camouflaged their internal crises. These did not become apparent until the conquest subsided, which was some 25 years after Muhammad s death. Then theology came to the fore, igniting a civil war which has never stopped. In time, the theologians of Islam would dominate over the generals, enshrining Islamic orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the Hadiths and in Sharia laws. Muhammad s Arab religion became their monopoly as they defined Islam in every detail. The theologians also triumphed over the caliphate palace scholars and philosophers, wiping out the reason-

107 107 based academics called, the Mu tazilites, and then they would reign supremely until the 20 th century. Even the exceptional intellectual outposts of Islam in Andalusia, East Persia and India eventually fell into orthodox hands. Yet this monopoly could never resolve internal tensions within the Ummah, which have only increased in the 21 st century. These crises cannot evaporate with time in that their roots lie in the Qur an. These crises, which we will now briefly survey, must be understood by Christians studying this faith The crisis of abrogation and jihadism Muhammad (or if you will, Muhammad s Allah/Jibril) introduced a new truth in the early Medina period called abrogation (naskh). This teaching was needed to account for why new doctrines were being taught in contradiction to early Meccan revelations. Muhammad s latest revelations were beginning to cancel out (abrogate) any earlier ones if they contradicted.

108 108 We substitute one revelation for another, - and Allah knows best what He reveals (in stages), - they say, "You are but a forger": but most of them understand not. (Surah ) None of our revelations do we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but we substitute something better or similar (Surah 2.106) Allah does blot out or confirm what He pleases: with Him is the Mother of the Book. (Surah 13.39) This Muhammad continued to do routinely until his death. Imams know which parts of the Qur an are abrogated. All imams accept that there are 20 key doctrinal verses (ayaat) that have been completed cancelled. However, Imams differ significantly on how many -of the up to 500 passages- have been abrogated. The first problem the Christian must address is that Muhammad s Allah changes his message to test the obedience of his devout followers yet he also says that his word never changes. How can this be reconciled? How can an eternal word be abrogating itself? no change can there be in the words of Allah. This is indeed the supreme felicity. (Surah 10.64) there is none that can alter the words (and decrees) of Allah. (Surah 6.34)

109 109 The second problem with abrogation is that Muhammad abruptly died while engaged in total warfare with all Arabs -as well as in preparing to fight pagan, Jewish and Christian neighbouring nations. His final revelations were war revelations, which leaves the question: did these war revelations cancel (abrogate) any of the earlier ones out? As such, militant jihadism has been permanently enshrined in the Qur an and there is no way to de-activate this teaching. Christians studying Islam must grasp the tension that abrogation brings to the Qur an and discover which doctrines were abrogated. Furthermore, they must ask, who or what can possibly abrogate Muhammad s war prophesies? If the first four caliphs did not, who then may do so? By what authority may the militant interpretation of the last revelations be eclipsed? Who made these decisions in the past? Who in Islam today has the authority to win these debates? This understanding also awaits the Christian studying Islam.

110 The crisis of disunity from Muhammad to the present Before Muhammad died, he taught his followers that true Muslims always unite as a brotherhood. The believers are but a single Brotherhood: So make peace and reconciliation between your two (contending) brothers; and fear Allah, that you may receive mercy. (Surah 49.10) This was said in the context of a growing problem. Having conquered and forced the entire city of Mecca into submission to Islam, Muhammad had a city full of hypocrites. The hypocrites, men and women, (have an understanding) with each other: They enjoin evil, and forbid what is just, and are close with their hands.

111 111 They have forgotten Allah; so He hath forgotten them. Truly the hypocrites are rebellious and perverse. Allah hath promised the hypocrites men and women, and the rejecters, of faith, the fire of hell: Therein shall they dwell: sufficient is it for them: for them is the curse of Allah, and an enduring punishment, (Surah ) This final revelation immediately led to hypocrisy hunting in the Ummah Muslim tribe. And since hypocrites are promised the same fate as pagans (curses, death and then hell), it unleashed a witch hunt mentality, called takfiri in the alleged single brotherhood. First they would seek evidence to expose the hypocrite as a kefir (camouflaged unbeliever), then they would condemn him (takfiri), before they finally killed him as they would an apostate. The question to research is this: Who are the hypocrites (munafiqun) and who gets to decide who they are? Who is allowed to practice takfiri? The crisis is tangible and for fifteen centuries the single brotherhood has been gripped by unceasing hypocrisy hunting: first denouncing others as sham Muslims and then violently attacking them as hypocrites or apostates. This has engrossed the Sunni-Shia divide since the death of Muhammad. Furthermore, Christians studying Islamic history must grasp why all Muslim on Muslim wars in the past and still today invariably begin with first

112 112 calling the rival Muslims hypocrites and infidels or unbelievers (takfiri) and then seeking to eliminate them as kefir enemies. As you read the above, you may well have thought is that not what Christians did too in the past? While the immediate rejoinder should be, Is that what Jesus also taught his disciples to do as Muhammad did to his followers? we are advised to suspend this important comparative question until Muhammad s doctrine of takfiri is fully grasped. A more serious question is this: when secular or Christian authors join some Muslims in condemning other Muslims as hypocrites, how is this not making the problem worse? Should they be the ones to decide who the damnable hypocrites within Islam are, and again, what mandate do non-muslims have to join a witch hunt in another religion? These questions also await a verdict from Christian students studying Islam The crisis of rejected reason From secondary school onward, students in the West are introduced to some of the greatest scholars in Islam: Al-Kindi (AD ), Ibn Sina Avicenna ( ) and Ibn Rushd Averroes ( ). These men mastered both Islam and Greek philosophy, both math and medicine, both

113 113 revelation and reason. Al-Kindi in particular wrote during a brief period of intellectual openness and ecumenicity called ijtihad (openness). School students are taught that these philosophers works were translated from Arabic into Latin by Jewish scholars in Toledo and that they were strategic to Europe s Renaissance which was founded on a growing fascination with the West s classical Greco- Roman heritage. What is rarely explained to modern students is that all three of the above men also branded as theological heretics by the dominant Ulema scholars. Averroes died in exile and under house arrest while all his works and library were burned. Herein lies the crisis of rejected reason in orthodox Islam. Following two bloody Muslim civil wars in the 7 th century, came a further intellectual Muslim civil war in the 8 th century, first fought in the Umayyad Caliphate and then in the early Abbasid Caliphate. The war was chiefly between the champions of

114 114 Revelation Only (Read, Qur an & Hadiths only) versus the advocates of Revelation plus Reason. The burning question between the Muslim theologians on one side and Muslim philosophers on the other was this: Is Allah a deity of pure will or is Allah a God of Reason? While the intellectual war lingered on in obscure marginal communities until the death of Averroes (1198) it was virtually over already some 3 centuries earlier by the death of al-kindi (873). Theology had won; decisively, and rational philosophy was destined to be exterminated. This should fascinate Christians studying Islam. How did this happen, that reason was banished and the Muslim academia was shut down? Christians should study in particular the work of Robert Reilly, The Closing of the Muslim Mind which recounts how Islam s intellectual openness was shut down and remained in an intellectual coma for another 700 years. A second crisis which must be studied is when Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 with both a thenmodern army and a small consort of scientists. His startling albeit briefsuccess in penetrating the seemingly impenetrable Muslim Orient forced

115 115 new questions into the dormant Muslim world. Namely, orthodox theologians were forced to rouse and confront the menace of Reason again, now in the form of European scholars canvassing their formerly exclusive Oriental domain. Theologians had to respond to the pressing question asked by Muslim thinkers- of whether gaining from human (modern) reason was so very wrong? What were the Ulema to do when they saw the impact of modern technology in the form of weapons, medicine, education, transport, communication, industry, inventions, and wealth? And most damning question of all was: why cannot Islam integrate with modern European thought and gain from these benefits? From here students must grasp the attempt of certain Muslims intellectuals to answer these questions affirmatively from 1830 until 1979, how this created a new variety of Islamic thought and how this new reformed or liberal Islamic thinking has re-awaken the ancient war between Revelation and Reason, especially since the triumph of classical theology in the Iranian revolution of Indeed, the entire alleged war of terror is essentially the revenge of classical theology on various forms of Westernised thinking, -even as they are relying on Western modernity to fight their

116 116 war. This too awaits the exploration of the student of Islam The crisis of a failed caliphate Before Muhammad abruptly died, he had imagined that his God (Allah) had launched a final version of religion (Islam) to pacify (jihad) the chaos (fitna) of the ignorant world (Jahiliyyah) through a theocratic religion (din) under one successor (caliph) in one theocratic global government (caliphate). He had imagined that his God had abandoned both parties of the People of the Book (Ahul al-kitab) and had successfully restored pure Abrahamic monotheism (Tawhid) through him, the apostolic messenger (rasul). Or so he thought. The reality was otherwise. On the day Muhammad was buried his most faithful companions were already fighting over succession and within 25 years, Islam split so decisively, that it has never reunited. At the very core of this crisis is that Sunnis and Shias can never resolve the crisis over the caliph succession. It ought to have been Ali as the first and true successor, argue the Shia; something the Sunnis can never accept. This crisis remained for 14 centuries, and then it got worse: the new

117 117 secular Turkish government under Ataturk abolished, first the Ottoman sultanate in 1923 and then the Islamic caliphate in Caliph Abdulmecid II (pictured in the fez) was led into benign exile and died with no replacement. This is what Osama bin Laden called utterly shameful: the abolishment of Allah s theocratic government. Since the end of colonisation, different independent Shia and Sunni nations have yearned to become an Islamic theocracy, ideally hosting the much-longed for caliph. Various efforts to create a pan-arab or pan-islamic united nation have until now failed. In 1979 the Shiites launched a successful Imamate or Mullocracy in Iran. In 2014, the militant Islamic State (or SISI, ISIL, or DAESH) nominated their own caliph: Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi (pictured in black clothing). The Christian student of Islam must grapple with why this remains a crisis for Muslims, why al-baghdadi is not accepted by most Sunnis, and what the possible assassination of al-baghdadi would trigger in the Islamic Ummah. Nor do all Muslim leaders wish for an Allah-led theocracy; for some, an Islamic democracy should not be led my imams or mullahs but by skilled

118 118 politicians or emirs, capable of promoting their economy, making treaties with foreign powers, and offering modern benefits to their people. Such was the case of Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated PM of Pakistan. Or again, this is the role of various global associations, such as the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference. A Christian study of Islam requires students to understand the tension over this global caliphate question as it relates to individual modern nation-making, global treaties and the eschatological aspiration for a future united Muslim government The crisis of lost glory and land A conviction held by Muslim theologians is that a land once conquered for Islam may never reverts to the former religion. 24 This belief reigned unchallenged for several hundred years until the Reconquista in Spain began to push Muslims back into North Africa over a period of 500 years. This was a theological crisis for the Ummah. First Islam lost Sicily in 1061, then Spain in 1492, then from 1683 onward, 99% of Eastern Ottoman Europe. The most painful of all, was losing part of the Levant to Israel in All of this must be recaptured, according to devout Muslims, and the

119 119 Christians studying Islam must grasp the weight of this challenge for the future. Theological shame is one of the strongest driving force for reconquest and as some would have it - for re-islamising Eastern and then Western Europe. As devout Muslims see it, Christians stole these lands by force using holy war crusades and colonialisation. Even as Saladin was able to drive the Christians out of Jerusalem and the holy land, so they dream of reconquering former Muslim lands, especially Jerusalem. The Christian study of Islam must include research into the theology behind the Muslims right to return, the Muslim immigration into Christian lands, and jihad. These aspirations are about far more than economicpolitical ambitions or people fleeing warfronts; they are also very theological in nature. A second related crisis is that devout Muslims long to regain the former civilisation glory they once had in the Golden Age of the Abbasids, Fatimids, and Ottomans. As they explain it, all that is glorious about modernity in Europe originally came from them but Europeans coldly refuse to credit Islam for its present global advancements, for its current progress, for its science, and all the great achievements. These were only possible, they argue, thanks to Islamic scholarship.

120 120 The Christian studying Islamic history needs to render a verdict on this alleged grievance. How much credit, if any, is due to original Islamic scholarship, innovation and ingenuity? Should the Abbasid Caliphate be credited for say, paper making technology, since they introduced it into Baghdad in 751 before it spread eventually to Europe, when they actually stole the secrets and equipment from China? How much of Islam s glory was intellectual plunder and booty and how much was original? This verdict also awaits Christian students of Islamic history. A third and related crisis is that many Muslims live with a palatable fear of perceived hostility against them by the West. Who has more missiles, more warplanes, more destroyers, and more nuclear bombs: the Western nations or the Muslim nations? Which nation has the most advanced military in the Middle East, if not Israel? Which navy is the most powerful in the Arabian Gulf if not the American? Which nations surround the greater Muslim heartland if not Western powers or nations sympathetic to the West? Or so they perceive it. Christians tend to live in nations aligned to the West; this colours their thinking on the subject of fear. Yes, Westerners fear militant Muslims but Muslims fear both these internal militants as well as

121 121 the external militarised West. This too a Christian studying Islam must understand The crisis of fallible manuscripts In 1924, the Muslim heartland in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) sought to resolve an internal problem: which Qur an should they take to the modern printing press, since the ancient manuscripts differed? They opted to transcribe the memorised Qur an of the Al-Azar theologians in Cairo as being the most orthodox. Hence the memorised Qur an, dating back over 1400 years, finally became the standard written Qur an for the modern world. This should fascinate Christians since for them the formation of the Bible is entirely textual, not memory based. A Christian must ask: what probability is there for error in a memorised transmission dating back some 1400 years? Errors are very possible. The compilation of the Hadiths, for example, confirms that Bukhari had to reject 99% of the hadiths he collected; he culled an alleged 600,000 down to just over 7000 authentic ones this oral traditional flourished in a period of 200 years. Add to that, that the Qur an was initially memorised in ten different Arabic dialects, later reduced to seven. Even here there are extensive

122 122 small differences. A related question is, How do Muslims reconcile the variants between the oldest surviving Qur anic manuscripts, the seven accepted ancient dialect Qur ans, and now the 1924 Cairo edition? Students need to be familiar with the recent studies of the Samarkand, Sana a and Topkapi Qur anic manuscripts, as well as the Birmingham Hijazi parchment. They need to learn what can be gathered from carbon dating of the manuscripts leather pages, the new ultraviolet study of the palimpsest original under-text, and the palaeographic studies of the Arab scripts. While such studies fascinate students of the Bible, this same study is a crisis for Muslims since they claim the Qur an was perfectly memorised, and then perfectly protected from any transmission error. As they see it, the Cairo version is 100% correct and infallible. Yet, the ancient texts and the memorised texts do not agree. Moreover there are some 4000 small variants between the seven accepted dialectically different Qur ans. This too merits a verdict.

123 The Christian verdict on contemporary narrative wars Muhammad s Islam is universally presented by both Muslim apologists and contemporary university scholars embracing ten widely-accepted premises (See below). These premises are explained by Muslims, however, in two very different narratives. The glorious account of Islam sounds very different, depending on which narrative you hear. The most common interpretation, the Grand Muslim Narrative, is widely advocated by so-called moderate Muslims. A stricter and more militant interpretation of Islam is the Classical Muslim Narrative. Both narratives compete for the heart of the Ummah. Both narratives accept the same premises but with very different applications. Both narratives sharply disagree with each other. This too a Christian studying Islam must grasp in studying Islamic history Islamic historiography As mentioned earlier in this chapter, when Enlightenment historians began to probe into Islam s history, they found that it shrouded in legend and its guardians were allergic to source criticism (as was originally true of Christianity as well). Western scholars realised soon enough that

124 124 history in Islam served a different purpose than, say, the history of the Jews or the history of Christians as found in the Bible a text that shows every saints warts and all. Not so in Islam; its purpose, as seen in the oldest and most esteemed biographies of Muhammad, was to bring glory and fame to the Apostle. This is what Muhammad s first biographer, Ibn Ishaq does, especially in the opening chapters, where Muhammad s astonishing youth is explained to us. He exalts Muhamad at every turn. He attributes miracles to him which Muhammad clearly said he lacked in the Qur an. Students must be prepared to encounter a staggering amount of hagiolatry in the later historical texts of Islam (which is equally true of Roman Catholic saint worship). Indeed, this was so widespread and popular, that the earliest Christian writers on Islam mistakenly concluded that Muslims worshipped Muhammad as an idol or so it seemed to them when they heard Muslims speak of their prophet. Given the Protestant inclination to portray the most unvarnished portraits of their heroes, Christians studying Islam may well react to what seems like an idolatrous attachment to Muhammad s reputation. This is important to grasp, not only to explain our discomfort with such portrayals but also the violent

125 125 treatment certain secular scholars receive when they critique Muhammad -or portray him unflatteringly in cartoons. We do well to fight for light on Muhammad s past and the Islamic history, but we are advised that this will be contested ground. Any critique of Muhammad may well be diagnosed as a case of islamophobia by both Muslims and their academic advocates The influence of Sharia law and fiqh The Qur an enshrines Muhammad s core message, and the Hadiths interpret it, but Sharia law legislates Islam over the entire Ummah community. Sharia law is the functional police force of Islam. So doing, it first thematically summarises the faith and then it codifies the collective identity, and then the conduct of the Islamic community and each Muslim. No Muslim is to live independent of Sharia law, which is of immediate concern to Muslims immigrating to non-sharia lands. Christians need to grasp the impact Shari law is to have on any emerging Muslim community in the West, and to grasp the role each imam must play to balance submission to their preferred variant of Sharia law and their required allegiance to their hosting nation.

126 126 Sharia law is not merely designed for private religious customs as say the Amish have their legal traditions ; rather, Sharia law is a whole-life legal constitution, covering both mosque and state ; both private and public. Underpinning Sharia law is fiqh (theology). Various legal schools exist because theologians interpret their sacred texts using different protocols. Recently a Study Qur an was issued by Georgetown University, which amply footnotes various theological opinions of key qur anic verses spanning the whole Islamic ummah. Students must gain an appreciation for permitted theological variants in Islam and in Islamic law, ranging from Sufi to classical to Shiite to the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence to Omani to contemporary legal opinions The battle over Islam s historic narrative Above we mentioned that there are two competing glorious accounts of Muhammad and of Islam in circulation, both sounding very different, depending on which narrative you hear first. The most popular interpretation among Westerners is the Grand Muslim Narrative, as promoted by so-called moderate Muslims. The stricter, more militant

127 127 interpretation is the Classical Muslim Narrative, one frequently demonised in the West as un-islamic. The battle of the narratives is not only among Muslims but also secular Western secular thinkers have strongly taken sides in their conflict which is not advisable for Christians to do. Regardless of how Westerners react to either, both narratives condemn the other version (takfiri) as heretical, hypocritical and damnable. Every day Muslims kill each other over these differences. Christians studying Islam must render a verdict on this. Namely, based on reading the Qur an and Muhammad s biography, which side, which narrative, seems to speak the most accurately for Islam? Again, based on your knowledge of Muhammad, which historical narrative seems to most closely follow the prophet s example in Islamic history? Or again, Who is most like Muhammad in history and today? Finally, the students must conclude the impact of the more accurate narrative Allah, of Muhammad, and their own conclusion of the religion of Islam. These are the 10 premises shared by both narratives but explained in very different ways. They are: 1. Islam is a religion of peace. 2. Muhammad s Allah is the same God as worshipped by the Jews and Christians.

128 The Qur an is the 4 th Muslim book of God, following the Torah, Zabur and Injil. 4. The Hadiths teach how gracious and human Muhammad really was. 5. True Islam brings unity. 6. The world is a much better place because of Muhammad s revelations and Islam s contributions. 7. Christians respect Muslim best by not offending them and seeking to convert them. 8. Neither Muhammad nor Muslim leaders have ever forced Jews or Christians to convert. 9. Muhammad and Islam brought the best ever improvements to women and to race relations. 10. Islam respects all the prophets, especially Jesus. Christians studying Islam must discern how very differently each mega -narrative explains and justifies each premise and then know how to rely to them when they encounter them in their historical texts or in conversations Muslim apologetics against Christianity Until AD 850, there were few Muslims reacting against Christians or Jews, since they were the conquering dominant religion. They did their

129 129 apologetics on the battle field and they usually won the debate of the sword. By 850, the caliphate had come to its full zenith and new energy came to be focused on internal issues, among others, how to respond to the critique of Oriental Christian intellectuals. From , Muslim theologians engaged in theological fencing with their Christian counterparts. Most of it was to answer the Christians, whose primary concern was not to win Muslim converts but to stem the haemorrhaging flow of opportunistic Christians converting to Islam. In the next two hundred years, the Latin authors joined in, while Sunni theologians continued to do apologetics through text. Between 1250 and 1450, Islam stiffened in its position, having utterly shut down reasonable debate in its own circles. The time for apologetics declined until it revived in British India in the 19 th century and then again through modern communication technology at the end of the 20 th century. Christians studying Islam must appreciate the continuous points of theological debate between scholars on both sides, since they will invariably reappear in casual conversations with Muslims friends.

130 130 Devout Muslims are still deeply attracted to debates and are convinced they can win them soundly at each opportunity. History tells us which debates were won by Christians and what the outcomes of such success meant to both sides. This too must be understood, for history matters to our Muslims friends Classical reaction to modernity and globalisation Among the most vibrant international movements in the emerging 21st century are Christianity, Islam and secular globalised ideologies. The most contested nexus is between Islamisation and Globalisation in the techno-secularized cities of the Muslim world. Classical Islam is the ideological motor behind the strenuous push-back against Westernisation, as witnessed in the vigilant promotion of head scarfs, burqas, gender separation, Sharia courts, Muslim enclaves, and increasingly louder Allah U Akbar prayer calls. Christians studying Islam need to recognize the importance of theology behind the postcolonial conflicts in Muslim regions and the collateral efforts (or failures) to integrate Muslims into global communities. Globalization has already had a huge impact on Islamic societies, and often as hostile as

131 131 not. Christians need to be familiar with recent international partnerships and clashes between globalised secularism and militant interpretations of Islam, as it frequently plays out in failed states such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Somali and Libya among many others. Through further courses on globalisation and islamisation, students learn to explain various political reactions to this dysfunctional Real Politick as well as to articulate confident, Christ-centred responses to both globalised and Islamist arguments. Related to this tension is that classical Islam allows ample room for technological modernity and little room for Westernised thinking. Certain Islamic leaders see no contradiction in appropriating Westernised or globalised technology while rejecting the ideological foundation that gave birth to such modernity. They love Mercedes-Benz cars, cell-phones, YouTube, Coco Cola, sky-scrapers, glossy malls and laser medicine but they reject the ideology that birthed it. This too is the Islam of many. Conclusion History matters deeply for devout Muslims, as deeply as for Christians of the various Orthodox communities. It is incumbent for Protestant

132 132 Christians to discern the weight that sincere Muslims attribute to their glorious past, the weight their internal crises has on them, the tensions which exists between their competing narratives, and their present perceived lack of glory (except in certain luxurious emirate states) in the present global community. This chapter has presented the reasons for the importance Christian students of Islam must give to the historic identities held by Muslims -and that resulting from centuries of scholarly crises. Chapter 5 reflective questions: 1. Summarise Muhammad s doctrine of abrogation and why this teaching led to a deep crisis in Islam. 2. Why is the exposing of hypocrites a crisis within Islam? 3. What caused the Muslim pursuit of philosophy and of reason to be shut down in Islam, and what made it re-open in the era of Napoleon? 4. Why has the nomination of a caliph always been such a volatile subject for Muslims? 5. Why is the loss of Muslim land a theological crisis for Islam? 6. Why is the study of Qur anic manuscripts a predicament for the Muslim community?

133 What are the two competing Muslim narratives and on what do they disagree? 8. Why is it difficult to study Muhammad s history, in the same way as we study biblical figures? 9. Why is it critical to grasp the weight that Sharia law has over devout Muslims? 10. Why is it important for Christians to comprehend the Muslim desire to debate Christians? 11. Why is it critical for Christians to grasp the international conflict between Islam and globalisation?

134 134 6 Let s go to today s Imams Premise: Since today s imams speak for current Muslim communities, let s go the them. When the uncle of young Yasser Arafat (A northern Sudanese man, named after the Palestinian leader) converted to Christianity he was immediately jailed, since he was an officer in the Sudanese army. Yasser, along with his family, did everything to reconvert his uncle; which only made his uncle more confident in his faith. This led Yasser to explore a number of probing questions, which he took to his imam. He received no answer and was promptly told to stop his inquiry. He then visited two more reputed imams and received a similar response. There are two things already evident in this account: first, imams are considered to have the final say over theological questions within their community, and second, Christianity became too irresistible for Yasser. He eventually joined his uncle s faith, leading to his departure from home; today he is a major Christian leader. Indeed, imams are the

135 135 highest voice in each community; disobeying them is not an option because they speak for the Islam of each community. In our previous chapter we established that the Ulema scholars are the guardians of the past and that Islamic history is deeply sacred and critical for devout Muslims. This requires us to rely on historical disciplines to discern the impact of the past on Muslims today. In this present chapter we will establish that the historical identities of Muslim communities are confirmed and strengthened by their preferred spiritual leaders. Such leaders could be their imams, emirs, qadis, sheikhs, generals, mullahs-marabouts-alfas, pirs, muftis or certain ulema-scholars 25. For this we must increasingly rely on our social scientific disciplines of sociology, anthropology and political science to supply the students with a Christian understanding of today s spiritual leadership in Islam. 6.1 A Christian understanding of theological authority within Islamic communities Since the time of Muhammad, young, aspiring students of the Qur an are required to sit under imams in one or more madrassa-schools for some ten or more years. This model has undergone significant alterations in the last hundred years in

136 136 that these same students must often attend government primary schooling as well. The imam is more than the prayer leader; he is also the Qur anic school principal. For that he relies on faithful apprentices to help the students (called talibun) to first and foremost memorise if possible- all of the Qur an and certain cherished Hadiths; second, to imitate the conduct of the imam, and third, if the student is capable and endowed by financial support, to be initiated into qur anic Arabic, the Sira, the study of the Hadiths, fiqh, and Shariah laws. This is all under the tutelage of various imams accordingly to their ranking in each Muslim community. The greater the imam, the greater his school and following. In spite of Islam s claim to have no clergy, local imams have disproportionate clerical weight in each community. Ordinary devout Muslims are not required to study so arduously. They should memorise prayers, Qur anic vocabulary, Qur anic phrases and concentrate on religious orthopraxy, not on orthodox doctrines that is the task of the imam. All of which points Christian students to focus chiefly on the imam of each community and that above the voices of all other local Muslims. In conversation with Muslim friends, Christians must realise that their friends are no authority on their faith as interesting as their opinions may be. It is their family s imam who has the last word; even over parents and local politicians. In turn, each

137 137 imam submits to imams of higher ranking then himself, such as the Friday Imam in a large city, or certain Ulema theologians in respected Islamic universities or the Mufti of a particular nation. No imam speaks for himself; he speaks for his network, which may never be called a denomination, since Islam contrary to all evidence to the contrary- theologically forbids divisions. (See the crisis of unity in chapter 5.) The sociological and political power of the networks of imams is critical for understanding the authority under which Muslims live. This understanding must be grasped by Christians, particularly if they wish to reach out to Muslims who are not away from their home culture, but living still within their Islamic communities. In order to grasp a particular Qur anic worldview that shapes the identity of Muslims, Christian workers need to reach into the imam s level of understanding, which, in the 20 th -21 st century is now possible thanks to Islam s primary sources being available in many international languages. That which was a monopoly for imams, is now largely available in texts and online, thanks to printing and digital technology. Only Arabists now need to study 7 th century Arabic since there are so many excellent translations available of the Qur an, the Hadiths, the Sira,

138 138 Shariah laws, and classical Fiqh. Translations abound. There are already over 60 Persian translations of the Qur an, 30 English translations - of the 20th-century alone- and already 29 new English translations in the 21 st -century. Since the global promotion of translations by Saudi King Fahd in 2005, the global internet is now awash in new Quranic translations in 47 languages and, portions of the Qur an, in another 67 languages. Thanks to the digital world, we are now able to study what the imams once held as a trade monopoly. There has never been a better time to grasp the world of the imams and we must. 6.2 A Christian anthropology of Muslim communities Each Muslim community, as led by their local imams, is also richly endowed with its cultural heritage, its customs, its language, and its ethnic behaviour. What they profess as Islam and what they do as Muslims may be different considerably from community to community and so each social strata merits an anthropological and sociological study. Former traditional rites of passage, conflict resolution traditions, marriage and family customs, burials and spirit covenants have over time morphed into Islamic explanations by a long tradition of local imams. This must be discerned.

139 139 Anthropology brings the best of observational disciplines, classifications and theoretical analysis to the study of contemporary Muslim communities. Each community is unique, in spite of claims of belonging to the spiritual Ummah global communion. However, Christian anthropologists go beyond the secular paradigm of only offering phenomenological interpretations for their data. In Paul Hiebert s anthropological lectures 26, he notes the following on the nature and limit of anthropological observational data: All scientific knowledge is selective, and it is therefore to some extend reductionist and biased in nature. Nevertheless, because observational data are the first steps from the real world and closest to it, they are the most accurate. We can often use data even though we do not accept the author s interpretations of them. Data do not speak for themselves; they must always be interpreted. This we do in terms of our own categories, biases and preconceptions. The question of hermeneutics is one of the most important questions facing science today. If we disagree with an interpretation of data, we can 1) show that the data if false, or 2) provide an alternative (and hopefully better) interpretation. Given Islam s historical cross-pollination with local religions and tribal customs, Christian anthropologists have a wide field of

140 140 religious/spiritual research under the wider rubric of Islam. This requires study into the hidden side of Islam, often referred to as folk Islam or popular Islam, where Arab Islamic practices have syncretised over time with local power places, power people, power times, power objects, power words, and local spirits. Yes, all is Islam to those who embrace the fusion of Muhammad s faith with their past tribal customs, practices, culture and language, but anthropologists and sociologists paint a very local portrait of each community. This had led to hundreds of different Islamic tribal worldview expressions throughout Africa, Asia, and the wider Orient, yet with each community proudly calling itself Islamic. This study should be of particular interest to Christian students of Islam, especially if they are interested in doing translation work, compassion ministries or some form of discipleship. 6.3 A Christian study of preferred contemporary Ulema voices Imams vary greatly in authority and influence within their own wider faith network. Christians studying Islam need to ascertain the weight that an imam has in the Ummah before citing him as speaking for Islam in a wider sense. Most modern imams in the West, for example, only speak for a very small minority, and they carry very little

141 141 weight in the heartland of Islam. If they should articulate openly any of their more modern interpretations in the Middle East, North Africa or Pakistan, they might well get themselves assassinated. The list of assassinated open-minded imams and modern Muslim writers is already too long. The late Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto may be dearly loved and cited by Western leaders but her views led to her premature death she and hundreds of other like-minded thinkers. Again, news channels may interview a very peace-loving Muslim from the Ahmadiyya sect, not knowing they are viewed as heretics by some 97% of the other imams in the world. Even a new association of imams in, say North America, may grab a news headline by issuing a fatwa decree against, say, the Islamic State, but it must be asked what weight this new association has in the wider Muslim world. Usually very little. Again, an alleged peace-promoting association of imams may turn out to have a hidden link with militant Muslims in other nations. A Christian study of Islam requires students to discern the known weight of an imam or the known influence of an imam association before quoting them on behalf of the whole Islamic world. Christians must also tread wisely on the Sunni- Shiite-Ahmadiyya divide. For all the vastly overlapping similarities they share, and for all unity

142 142 they portray during their hajj pilgrimage, each imam really speaks only for his own particular community, not for all of Islam. No one has been chosen to speak for all Islam. Yes, Muhammad did, but no one has succeeded to take his place. Imams are powerful but not all powerful. Caliphs were powerful but they could not prevent constant internal civil wars. Now, if an ayatollah issues a statement, it weighs very heavily in the Shiite Twelver community, but not for all Shiites -and then not at all for Sunnis or Ahmadis. If a mufti issues a fatwa in the Middle East, then yes, that weighs heavily but only among certain Sunnis. It has no weight for most Sufi, or militant or tribal imams. If a Muslim mystic pir or faqir in India issues a call to the Muslim Ummah, it only weighs in the (vast) community that honours him. Christians citing imams of all expressions must learn to weigh their respective influence and add disclaimers for the limit of their authority. 6.4 A Christian study of the multi-layered reality of Muslim identities The identity of someone called a Muslim merits a further question: as in relationship to whom? Tim Green s work on Issues of Identity for Christians of a Muslim Background in Pakistan underscores the

143 143 complexity of answers. 27 To discover the answer, it may be helpful to ask what is the person s core identity?, or again, what is a person s communal identity, or again, what is a person s collective identity or label given by those considered outsiders? When I have the honour of meeting a Muslim man named Muhammad, I do well to ask, Is he a Muslim at heart? Is he part of a practicing Muslim family? Is he merely labelled a Muslim? That is for me to find out by my respectful questions. I need to be prepared for very different answers. Muhammad may be labelled Muslim by non- Muslims and that is as far as it goes. It is possible that he is not considered a devout Muslim by his own community, and being Muslim is not part of his inner core identity. For him, being Muslim is merely a collective label. Or it may be that Muhammad is labelled Muslim by his community, while his own family considers him a non-practicing Muslim, because at the level of his core identity, he is a secret follower of Jesus. Or again, Muhammad may be a devout Muslim in his core identity, a sincere Muslim in practice and proudly wear the name Muslim and Muhammad before non-muslims. Even imams may differ in their identities. While they are all labelled Muslim and they function in their community as Muslim, they may also have a

144 144 deep crisis in their core identity. This is something that Daniel Atiyaye, missionary to imams in Northern Nigeria, frequently encounters. Some, he notes, are functional atheists in their heart, not truly believing their faith but being entirely defined by it. Many among them have become Muslim Background Believers in Christ. Christians studying Islam must learn to avoid assuming that the title Muslim means Islamic devoutness in all areas of their identity. A series of discerning questions with a Muslim friend are needed, such as, If people call you a Muslim in public, are you pleased with that? Do you personally practice Islam at home and in the mosque? Does your family consider you devout? Do you and your friends practice Islam? In your heart of hearts, are you a disciple of Muhammad s Sunna? We cannot tell a book by its cover, nor a tree by its bark, nor a Muslim by his or her label. Ask questions and expect a variety of answers. 6.5 A Christian study of tolerance and intolerance among Muslims To grasp the nature of tolerance and free speech in an Islamic nation, look no further than Turkey which styles itself to be both a European and an Oriental nation. At the time of this writing, Turkish journalists have either fled the land or are serving time in prison for critiquing PM Erdogan, or his

145 145 Islamic state, or the religion of the state. 28 Whatever freedom of speech means in Turkey, it does not include critiquing God, King and Land (read, Muhammad, the PM and Turkishnationalism). By Western standards, Muslim nations rank amongst the least tolerant, least open and least free nations which invariably means, they engage in notable persecution of journalists, political critics, Christians and lamenting minorities. Imams, emirs, qadis and other Muslim clergy police the range of subjects that are tolerated in their jurisdiction. They own it. Freedom of speech is not a right; freedom is limited by Sharia law, by Muslim sensibilities, and by the theology of what is tolerated and what is a harmful innovation (bida ) which is always perceived as a prelude to a heresy. The role of the imam is complicated when he must lead his community in a Western nation that allows for freedom of speech. Since he cannot personally censor any critique of Muhammad or Islam, he invariably resorts to one of three responses; first, he may stoically tolerate the perceived mistreatment of his faith; second, he may inspire the faithful to demonstrate (sometimes violently) against alleged defamation against his prophet, or third, he may lobby politicians to pass anti Islamophobic laws or anti-defamation laws in his host nation. Christian

146 146 students must be conversant about the second and third response as they emerge in the West. Many Christians studying Islam come from a world which promotes freedom of inquiry, freedom of speech, and academic freedom to get to the truth of their subject. The realm they wish to master does not share any of these convictions unless the Muslims being studied are of a more liberal or secular persuasion. Indeed, devout imams may well be threatened by any academic inquiry. When certain of my students in northern Benin would undertake sociological interviews with village chiefs, leaders and imams in various villages, the imams immediately wanted to know why or for whom were these questions being asked. Christians must know that freedoms are highly curtailed in their field of research. This requires them to be diplomatic, respectful, wise and patient. Being children of the light, means they have a clear biblical mandate to bring all things into the light even Islam. This does not happen quickly in a world of restricted freedoms, but in time, all things will become clear to the persevering researcher. 6.6 A Christian study of Muslim migrants and refugees The role as Muslims as immigrants is of very recent historic vintage. The only large movement of

147 147 Muslims prior to 1900 was either caused by regional warfare between Muslim powers or by African slave-raiding (see reversed dhimmitude, below), a practice which ruled until abolition was enforced by the British navy. Prior to and following World War I, a significant minority of both Christian Arabs and Muslim Arabs emigrated from the Levant to industrial centres in the United States, in particular to Detroit. Following World War II, both European and North American student scholarships were awarded to aspiring students in many Muslim or newly independent nations. As a result, a small diaspora and network of Muslim intelligentsia began to emerge and integrate in very successful ways. This increased significantly through the changing of America s immigration policy in 1965, and France s flood of Algerian refugees following its costly Franco- Algerian war. 29 In turn, writes Bat Ye or in her book Eurabia, European powers increasingly opened their door to North African migrants in exchange for greater access to newly discovered oil in their nations. By the 1970s, manual labourers and unskilled factory workers in Europe were increasingly Turks, Moroccans, Algerians or Muslim minorities from the Middle East. Christians studying Islam need to be conversant in this recent history of migration, the trends among such immigrants, the impact this has had on Muslims as minority communities in the West, the impact that

148 148 this has had on anti-semitism in Europe, and the political fallout caused by certain influential imams who resist integration into the Western civilisation. Then came the failed Arab Spring, followed by the flood of war refugees into Europe from Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, North and South Sudan and Eritrea not to forget Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia and Pakistan. Christian students must rely on recent social scientific studies in order to learn to articulate the causes of the immigrant flooding into Europe, the impact on European Christian churches, the dangers and opportunities facing secular governments, and the theological convictions inspiring the devout Muslims among the migrant communities. 6.7 A Christian study of Muslim enclaves in non-sharia nations. Bernard Lewis, is his book Islam and the West, explains the questions Muslims ask their imams before or when they live under non-muslim rule. Namely, can Muslims live under non-muslim laws when Islam requires all Muslims to live only under the eternal laws of Allah? All of Muslim life must be under Sharia regulations according to one of the schools, as based upon jurists applying the Qur an and Hadith according to the Sunna, and theological consensus and necessity. It is the imams task to

149 149 explain to Muslims under which conditions they may stay and under which conditions they should exit a non-muslim land to return to a community under the laws of Allah. This conversation deeply shapes the behaviour of devout Muslims living in the West and Christians studying Islam must become conscious and conversant about this theological phenomenon facing Muslims in non- Muslim nations. 6.8 A Christian study of reverse dhimmitude When Muhammad finally encountered Christians near the end of his life, he engaged in dialogue. This brief rapprochement failed both parties and Muhammad lost patience with Christianity. He instructed his followers that after his death they were to turn from words to swords in order to subjugate both Jews and Christians. The immediate and eternal crisis he visited upon the People of the Book was that they must always live subjugated lives in religious ghettos. As we saw in chapter 2, this humiliated state of survival is called dhimmitude. Christians studying Islam need to grasp and be able to articulate the serious implications of dhimmitude. First, when Muhammad was forcing alleged fellow monotheists into permanent humiliation, he and

150 150 Islam after him- categorically rejected the possible of equality or tolerance for other religions within any nation. Secondly, Muhammad rejected any possibility for an eventual separation of church (aka, mosque) and state. Islam is chiefly and eternally a political whole-life religion. Third, once a land is conquered by Muslims, Christians must live under Sharia subjugation as legally inferior subjects. Invariably and intentionally so- Christianity, in a state of dhimmitude, will decline and/or die out, as is the case in all of North Africa except Egypt, North Sudan, all of the Arabian Peninsula and in the greater Turkish tribal communities. The worst of the decline came before and after World War I, especially in the Ottoman Empire. All of this must be understood in a Christian study of Islam, and what possible roles imams play in supporting this humiliation of other religions. A further crisis for Islam in general and for imams in particular is to have to explain to their faithful followers why reverse-dhimmitude has occurred in various communities, namely, that it is Muslims now who live as inferiors to other people. This is the worst worldwide shame Muslims have ever known and the most glaring example is the case of the Palestinians. Their solution is not to find equality with the Israelis but to reverse the order back to its Allah-ordained paradigm : Muslims (read Palestinians) above and Jews and Christians

151 151 below. How should Christians reply to Israelis forcing dhimmitude on Muslim Palestinians? This question merits study leading to a verdict. A similar historical case study of reverse dhimmitude would be to study Muslims living under the superior guns and powers of colonial Europeans, or to study the fate of Sub-Saharan Muslims in slavery to Western owners, or again, to study Andalusian Muslims living under Spanish rule following phases of the Reconquista. Islam is foreign to the theology of suffering as inferiors (unlike both Jews and Christians) but the secular West is not likely either to accept being treated as inferiors by Muslims. This tension merits the attention of Christians in that they may be the only peace makers between them. Conclusion The goal of this chapter was to establish that the identity of contemporary Muslims is confirmed and strengthened by their preferred imam or spiritual leader, requiring Christians studying Islam to rely upon anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists to guide them in discerning the prevailing worldview and authority held by imams of various persuasions. It is from the imams perspectives, that we see the contemporary Muslim world the best.

152 152 Chapter 6 reflective questions 1. What titles do different Muslims spiritual leaders have and what do they mean? 2. When asking theological question of Muslim friends, why must their answers be initially seen as partial replies? 3. What are we able to study in the 21 st century which formerly was a monopoly for global imams? 4. What is the value of anthropological research on distinct local Muslim communities? 5. Why do the local studies of Christian anthropologists differ so significantly from one Muslim community to another? 6. Why is the known weight of an imam or the known influence of an imam association important to know before quoting them on behalf of the whole Islamic world? 7. What are some critical identity questions to ask concerning Muslims? 8. What must Christians grasp concerning freedom of speech in devout Islamic communities? 9. What must Christians realise about posing questions in Muslim communities? 10. What must students understand about the causes of Muslim immigration into Europe?

153 What is the definition of dhimmitude and of reverse dhimmitude and what are current examples for these two phenomenon?

154 154 7 Let each Muslim share Premise: Since Muslims do not think alike, let each Muslim share their preferred orientation One Friday afternoon, while seated in a mosque in New York State with some of my college students studying Islam, we had the honour of having the imam, and other senior worshippers join us for an hour on the prayer mats. We had already observed them doing their Friday prayers and heard the imam s invitational sermon, and now they graciously gave us their time to answer our questions. As the conversation evolved, it amazed the students to see how greatly these Muslims differed in their opinions on a whole range of contemporary issues, even requiring me to intervene once as the peace-maker in a sharp disagreement between them. This is a true portrait of Islam: seemingly unified yet rich in different orientations.

155 155 Knowing this, students must first resist the urge to interpolate a Christian explanation to the religious differences among Muslims as mentioned in chapter 2, and second, they must become life-long students as they listen to individual Muslims defend their preferred orientation within the Ummah and differences there are! Third, students must keep in mind that knowing the individual thought life of Muslims is key to shaping a ministry approach to address their unique felt needs. The goal of this present chapter is to establish that it takes time to discern each Muslim s worldview, in that while Muslims do not think alike, divisions are not allowed amongst them or at least, they are not to be admitted before non-muslims. The burden is on the students to discern these differences as they hear or read unique Muslim voices. This requires qualitative research before quantitative analysis is attempted. We will now review the unity crisis in the Ummah, explain the alleged unity of orthopraxy before exploring the limits of innovations, the variety of mind-sets and the fluidity of such definitions for each individual Muslim.

156 The unsolvable crisis of unity within Islam We already saw in chapter 5 that real Muslims allegedly never divide since unity is commanded of all rightly-guided Muslims by Muhammad s Allah. And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favour on you; for you were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, you became brethren; and you were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make His Signs clear to you: that you may be guided. (Surah 3:103, bold mine) This is the imagined single brotherhood, which Muhammad taught in Surah , and to which all sincere Muslims must prescribe. It is also this mandatory doctrine that has led to the dreaded and deadly hypocrisy hunting in the Ummah. Given the inordinate attention given to defending this prescribed unity and to exposing alleged hypocrites (i.e. engaging in takfiri), Christian students must navigate this subject with respect and diplomacy. They must know that the problem of disunity vexes devout Muslims far more than the devout of any other faith. They must know that pious Muslims always live in dread of other Muslims. They must know that trust is in very low

157 157 supply among even the devout Muslims. An Iranian MBB and colleague working in the state university at Ankara, Turkey, once confided that throughout the entire Turkish community that it is assumed that no one can be fully trusted. Those who come to Christ find trusting other Christians who are not family members, among the hardest disciplines to embrace. When we learn to grasp the individual orientation of different Muslims, we must remember that they do not speak for Islam or Muhammad or the Ummah but only for their own private worldview. They must be heard but no individual has the weight of an imam even as no singular imam has the voice for all of Islam. Your friends may be passionate but that may not carry much weight of gravity in their community. Individual thinking has little value in the Ummah; conformity and submission does. 7.2 Orthopraxy triumphs orthodoxy The word orthopraxy in Islam means the correct way to practice the faith. The word orthodoxy means holding to the correct statements of faith. Between the two, orthopraxy is of far greater importance than orthodoxy. The five pillars of Islam are all orthopraxis: sincerely saying the brief shahada creed, reciting the Arabic prayers, giving

158 158 charity, fasting and doing the hajj. For some communities, there is a sixth pillar: doing jihad. The faith is briefly summarised in the Qur an and in the Hadiths: Whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers and the Last Day, he verily wandered far stray (Surah 4:136) Faith is affirming what Muhammad cited and then doing it. "Faith is to affirm your faith in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers and the Last Day, and to believe in the Divine Destiny whether it be good or bad." (Sahih al-bukhari and Sahih Muslim) Mosque prayers are chiefly doing prescribed Arab prayers, no one prays spontaneously. Prayers are public; the more public, the better. Fasting is not private but rather a public act. Charity is not done in secret but in public. The Hajj is not a spiritual inner journey but a physical one leading to the shrine of Mecca. The confession of the creed is public and said multiple times daily. Islam is first about being seen, and only then about reflections. This uniformity of orthopraxy gives Islam the most impressive monolithic unity in their public performances. This is most noteworthy when photos

159 159 or videos are observed of the annual hajj, when over a million pilgrims engage in the most homogenous ritual known on the planet. Herein lies the closest description of their coveted unity: in their prescribed practices. Christians studying Islam should observe these rituals noting the remarkable uniformity, without concluding, that this constitutes uniformity of thought or a singular Islamic worldview. A Muslim s core identity does not lie only in the shared practices, but may be discerned through personal conversations with the individual. 7.3 Islam s tolerated and dangerous innovations Unless approved by Sharia law or by a recent fatwadecree, classical Islam is allergic to creative innovations in their religion. The word for innovation is bida. Innovations fall into three categories: forbidden, permitted or recommended. This follows the logic of Sharia law where all Muslim actions are classed as obligatory, recommended, permitted, reprehensible or forbidden. A case of a forbidden innovation is the Sufi mosque in New York City that is led by a female imam. An example of a recommended innovation is the use of

160 160 loud-speakers on mosques to replace or assist the muezzin-prayer caller (an innovation utterly unknown to Muhammad and Islam until the 1970s, but now universally approved by Muslims everywhere). A case of permitted innovation is the delayed prayers or fastings for, say, Muslim soccer players of an international team. The world of Islam is filled with fatwa rulings on an endless list of innovations. Young people in urban centres are often at a loss to know what is permitted, or reprehensible or forbidden. They consult either their local imam or increasingly sodo a search on Internet before visiting the imam. Imams do not all agree. Some imams, for example, tolerate that Sunni and Shia pray together in their mosque; others strictly limit prayers to their unique community. Some imams welcome non-muslim visitors; others never. Some permit Muslims to become modern artists, others never. Some forbidden bida may change in status. Until the mid-1970s, it was forbidden to take photos at Mecca, or even of Muslims; that has been reversed. The status of polygamy, slavery and alcohol has also changed in certain nations; sometimes to be accepted and sometimes to be forbidden. Christians studying Islam do well to heed the insights of anthropologists as to what is taboo,

161 161 permitted and approved in each Muslim community. In more devout communities, legalism reigns, while in neighbouring cities, imams may be far more relaxed. This too students must discern, respect and be conversant. 7.4 The reality of different Muslim mindsets Islam has the appearance of unity when their public religious behaviour is observed. Indeed, it seems monolithic. They all seem to pray alike in the mosques, fast alike, do the exact same pilgrimage, practice the same form of charity, all honour Arabic, and cite the same creed and expressions. From an observational perspective Islam appears to present itself with be 99% alike uniformity. There is no religion like it.

162 162 Yet the orientations and perspectives can vary so much outside of the mosque and the hajj that Westerners are baffled by the claim that true Muslims form a single brotherhood. They are repeatedly told by their Muslim counterparts that there is only one kind of Muslim, and any attempt to say otherwise is met with hostility. A Christian studying Islam must part with Muslim three-fold explanations (see below) since they do not reflect observable, scientific reality. It is very clear, first of all, that all Muslim mind-sets (as true for Sunnis as for Shiites as for Ahmadis) that all Muslims follow one of two kinds of Muslim leaders: either their preferred spiritual leader or their preferred Muslim social leader. The former leaders are imams, sheikhs, pirs, marabouts, mullahs, mullahs, alfas, and ulema. The latter leaders are emirs, sultans, qadis, generals, tribal leaders, scholars and presidents. These two wider orientations in turn, show discernible differences among them. The mind-sets may be classified as follows:

163 163 Those following their preferred spiritual leader Militant mind-sets Political-jamaat mindsets Conservative mind-sets Mystic mind-sets Folk mind-sets reformed mind-sets Those following their preferred Muslim social leader/thinker Tribal mind-sets Cultural mind-sets Liberal mind-sets Secular mind-sets As we in the previous chapter, Imams think very differently even though their outward religious practice is 99% alike even among Sunni and Shia. Each imam has his own authority in his network, his own understanding of how to interpret the Qur an, Hadiths, the Sira and Sharia laws. They, in turn, have their following. They are not different types of Muslims but they reflect deep differences in their convictions, perspective and social actions. Those who follow their preferred Muslim social leader may follow a Muslim tribal chief, a cultural Muslim government leader, a liberal Muslim scholar or a Muslim secular thinker. Again, each of these Muslim leaders may respond very differently to their world when they leave the hajj or mosque. They may have their own interpretations and

164 164 practices of the sacred texts, of Sharia laws and of other imams. Consider these differences in the Ummah, from the majority classical Sunni worldview for example. (See chart below) Notice the inner core, first of all. In this circle we can place all imams and Muslims who practice the correct orthodoxy and public orthopraxy. Here we have Muslims with conservative or political-jamaat or even militant views. Notice, next, the second circle where the same religious orthopraxy is displayed in public but where, according to classical imams, Muslims indulge in tolerated or disagreeable deviations. Here we find Muslims with cultural views, reformed

165 165 views, mystic views, tribal views, and if you re Sunni, then also with Shiite-views. The last circle contains Muslims who are viewed by the classical imams as heterodox in practice and unorthodox in theology. Here we find secular views, liberal views, imam-invoking views, saintinvoking views, folk views and schisms from classical Islam, such as the Ahmadiyya, the Druze, the Nation of Islam, and the Baha i. Outside the third circle we see the dominant civilisation ideologies influencing those in the outer circle: secular Western globalisation, Judeo-Christian ecumenism, Middle Eastern orientalism, Eastern Asia religions and philosophies, and finally traditional occult beliefs. Christian students of Islam become conversant in these internal mind-set differences, even if they are wise to not use them in their conversations with their Muslim friends. They will use social-scientific analysis to better explain the vastly complex world of Islam to themselves and to other Christians, and again, to formulate their wisest, most diplomatic questions and responses to those Muslims with whom they have the honour of encountering. 7.5 The fluidity of definitions

166 166 The mind-sets mentioned above are all rather fluid. A Muslim is not bound by a creedal loyalty to the imam of his preferred view. Someone may opt out of a mind-set, join another community, and thereby attend another mosque under another imam. All is still within the Ummah-family. There may easily be different mind-sets within one family. The father may be conservative, the mother engaged in a folk mind-set ; their son may be secular and their daughter may be cultural, etc. Nor are they obliged to be consistent to stay within a mind-set. Their views may change and quite rapidly sogiven their exposure to other influences around them. This explanation will help students understand the so called rapid radicalisation of a cultural mind-set to a militant mind-set -something noted frequently and with alarm in many European Muslim zones. Without understanding the fluidity which a Muslim can switch from a real nice cultural guy next door to a jihadist, this sudden transformation is incomprehensible to the (often) Western hosting nation. The above chart would not be accepted by Muslims. As they are taught it and based on Surah , there are but three categories of people: believers (mu minun), unbelievers (kefir) and hypocrites (munafiqun). This threefold categorisation applies to Muslims, Jews and Christians, but not to pagans who are always ignorant pagan kefir. When fellow

167 167 Muslims meet each other, they often generously assume that the others are mu minun-believers, that is, until proven otherwise. If that be the case, then they are downgraded to munafiqun-hypocrites or worse, kefir-unbelievers. This, in turn, allows them to engage in takfiri: calling the damnable heretics. Definitions among Muslims are fluid. Christians encountering Muslims will frequently be honoured as mu minun-believers who are close to entering Islam. Christian students may initially be honoured with very gracious, welcoming statements, such as We worship the same God. We honour Jesus as a prophet. Islam is an Abrahamic faith. Or Islam recognises the Bible along with the Qur an, and Islam, like Christianity is a religion of peace. This too is fluid and may change. If Christians insist on holding to the divinity of Jesus, to the Trinity, to the crucifixion of Jesus, and resist ecumenical messages, they too may be downgraded to munafiqun-hypocrites or worse, kefirunbelievers. Those who are former Muslims and now Christians can expect no such initial welcome as fellow believers, but rather a stern campaign to reconvert them back to Islam before condemning them as kefir or apostates.

168 168 Conclusion The goal of this present chapter was to establish the importance of discerning each Muslim s worldview by what he or she says or writes, in that while Muslims do not all think alike, theological divisions are not allowed amongst them. This places the burden on Christian students to discern and be diplomatic in exploring the unique tension between Ummah unity and individual thought. In spite of impressive monolithic public rituals, the unity of the Ummah is always in crisis, and religious innovations are invariably perceived as danger to the faith. Yet a wide variety of mind-sets exists in each community. Westerners are recommended to use definitions with prudence in that individual Muslims may either change their worldview or react to any Western attempt to classify them. In the next chapter we will survey how Christendom and secular Westerners have sought to study Islam in the past and present, and why it is necessary to test and weigh any theoretical approaches. Chapter 7 review questions: 1. Why does it take time to discern the individual worldview of each Muslim?

169 Why is the study of Islamic orthopraxy so critical to Christian students? 3. What does bidah mean and why does this study belong to our understanding of differences among Muslims? 4. What are the two categories of Muslims leaders in the wider Muslim world?

170 170 8 Let s test theoretical studies on Islam Premise: Since theoretical explanations contain assumptions about Islam, let s first test the theories. Before the Arab Spring of 2010, my student Daniel joined the Middle Eastern Study program in Egypt. Daniel had already taken my Foundations of Islam course and thus had read the entire Qur an chronologically as well as all of Bukhari s Hadiths. Of all the American Christian students in the program that year, he was the only student to have done so. To his surprise and my own when I heard about it later- the other American students mocked him for it, since whatever Daniel knew directly from the Qur an or Hadiths, they gainsaid him at every point by their brief theoretical explanations of Islam, which was very inter-faith in theory. Being a ROTC officer in training, Daniel opted for a

171 171 soldier-like silence in the face of the majority opinion, which was this: Islam is what our Egyptian teacher says it is -and she was, for good measure, a mystical Muslim Sufi professor. On what prior grounds were these American students basing their confidence that they knew Islam better than Daniel by believing one Muslim teacher and by repeating popular college sayings about Islam? What already existed (a priori) in their mind for which they were gathering evidence and rejecting Daniel s insights? How effective are such theoretical a priori approaches to Islam? A priori researchers attempt to approach Islam with an existing idea or theory in the mind. The scholar seeks to gather empirical evidence (effects) to establish causes based on a proposed theory. The student/scholar attempts to confirm and to link data back to its cause. In this model, a theory or a hypothesis is proposed before observations or experiences are collected and analysed. It seeks to test existing theories which one has in mind. It is the opposite to a posteriori research which begins with observations and experiences and thereafter infer probable causes. As such, the primary focus of a priori theoretical research is to seek confirming evidence in Islam and among Muslims (and especially imams) within a designated Muslim community. Evidence is gathered to fit the proposed

172 172 theoretical paradigm. This is also the fastest way to study Islam: collect data to prove one s point. Let s look back for a moment. In the first seven chapters, we sought a clear biblical mandate to study Islam (1) and the conviction to do so even when we receive no invitation (2). We gave priority voice to Muhammad (3) and then Jibril (4), before turning to the classical Ulema voice (5), to contemporary imams (6), and then finally to individual Muslims (7). Our goal in the present chapter is to evaluate and render a verdict on both classical and contemporary theoretical studies attempting to explain Islam. Theories on explaining Islam will never vanish, and so Christian students of Islam must learn to engage and answer their assumptions when they hear or read about them. They may be highly academic (as in the academic school of Comparative Religious Studies) or as superficial as Daniel s classmates, but because they take hold of inquisitive minds, they are disproportionally influential. We ll consider first the classical theories used to explain Islam. 8.1 Classical a priori approaches Certain scholars will approach Islam with an a priori theory, and that is It is entirely understandable. Theories serve us brilliantly and

173 173 they explain the vast natural order of life. Surely, we say, Muhammad s faith and religion can fit into an existing theoretical framework. So doing, we seek evidence to confirm what we already assume. Christians began to do this in the 8 th century. When is dawned upon the Christian theologians that Islam is not going away they said, how do we explain that? They began to theorise. The two most common theories were both theological in nature: Muhammad is the end-time antichrist and/or Muhammad is a damnable heretic. Then a thousand years later, the Enlightenment luminaries began doing the same thing; using secular a prior theories to explain Muhammad and Islam. Muhammad and his faith were cast into a new light of his savage surroundings, his noble ambitions, his human aspirations and Islam was proposed as a new religion in its own rights. Since Muslim scholars reject all such theorising and since no single theory has been embraced to the satisfaction of either all Christians or all secular scholars, we do well to survey and review the dominant propositions.

174 Theorising Islam as a heretical form of Christianity or Judaism The first scholars to study Islam were Christians, in particular Oriental and Eastern Orthodox theologians. John of Damascus ( ) is both the last Greek Church Father and the first researcher on Islam. He is frequently cited in contemporary circles for his wisdom in handling the volatile subject of Islam while living in dhimmitude and serving like a Daniel in the courts of five Umayyad caliphs (al-walid I, Sulayman, Umar II 30, Yazid II & Hisham), either as an official translator, or as a chief agent for the Christian dhimmis, or again as a palace consultant. In 740, he retired at age 65 to the isolated Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba, east of Jerusalem, in order to complete his theological manuscript on heresies. His last entry was the Ishmaelite heresy of Islam. He did not treat Islam as another religion but downgraded it and condemned it as an Old Testament heretical deviation. For Johannes Damascene, as he was also known, Islam fit into his paradigm of heresies, not into a foreign religion like Zoroastrianism. He treated the similarity of vocabulary, of monotheism and of biblical narratives as evidence that Islam was no more than a heretical and thus damnabledeviation. He fit Islam into his a priori theory. This

175 175 view would prevail until Thomas Aquinas, and then during the Protestant Reformers and has even survived today in Orthodox communities. This theory can also resurface in Protestant circles when they suggest classical Islam is a Semitic monotheistic form of Pharisee legalism. Herein lies a flaw: the above explanations assume Islam is heretical. Now heretics invariably seek to gain recognition as genuine Christians in the global church; Muhammad never did so. He instructed Christians to leave their inferior Christian religion for his superior Islamic religion. Secondly, heretics use the Bible to legitimise their teachings. Muhammad never did so. Since Islam does not even recognise the authority of Christian councils, creeds or even the Bible, it seems entirely specious if not baffling to treat Islam as an in-house heretical crisis when it claims to supersede it. 31 Third, heretics are tried by councils. Muhammad never was. Not even the Qur an was ever put on heresy trial. Islam resists being treated like an Old Testament or a Christian heresy. Since this theory will resurface, Christians studying Islam must be informed and be conversant as to its value and limitations.

176 Theorising Islam as the religion of a pre-modern noble conqueror In 1788, British Enlightenment historian, Edward Gibbon published his Magnus Opus, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in which he also included three chapters (50-52) on Muhammad. Unlike Christian historians, Gibbon is far more magnanimous to him. He writes: "In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book; audaciously challenges both men and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page; and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture; whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds; and whose ignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. The harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel: he will peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds." Muhammad is no longer portrayed as a heretic but rather a noble -albeit wild- Arab poet and conqueror. Muhammad s humanity begins to take

177 177 central stage over his theology. For Gibbon, Muhammad fits into the theory of one more impressive religious conqueror - albeit a very fanatical one from the wild desert. Muhammad conquers through his religion and his religion conquers through his book: the Qur an. Such was Gibeon s theory. This enlightenment treatment would be followed by an impressive list of scholars: American scholar Reginald Bosworth Smith published The Theory of the Evolution of Religion in 1876, British Orientalist E. H. Palmer translated the Qur an into English in 1880, German Semitist Julius Wellhausen promoted the Sitz im Leben background research in 1887, and finally, the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche touched Islam in in his 1895 work, The Antichrist, The immediate problem with all the above authors is that, according to Kenneth Craig, western thinkers have, of course, proceeded instinctively upon the supposition that the Qur an was finally the product of the genius of Muhammad. 32 All secular views share the succeeding premises which were first promoted by Voltaire: first, God s existence is unverifiable, therefore irrelevant to their theoretical conclusions. Second, Jibril s existence is also unverifiable, therefore, also dismissed. Third, Muhammad existed historically and the Qur an

178 178 must be attributed to him (and not to God); and fourth, As Muhammad spoke, his followers memorised his words or wrote it down as divine revelations, and so Muhammad is the real author even though his God is given the credit. As they see it, Muhammad fits the category of a brilliant human guru, who successfully used his newly created religion to conquer rival religions, ideologies and armies of adjacent empires. This merits admiration within a human rubric and theoretical framework. The fact that Muslims take offense at this approach is not the primary grounds for questioning it. Rather, Christians must break from secular authors in using this theory since we are absolute certain that God does exist, that the spirit world does exist, that man can hear from the spirit world, and that Islam is more than Muhammad s private and human reflections. Muhammad is more than your next conquering guru. No secular writers will entertain this in their theoretical framework. Christians, therefore, consider this hypothetical framework flawed by the very a priori limitation with which it operates.

179 Contemporary a priori approaches Above, we considered the dominant classical Christian and classical secular theoretical framework. The Christian heresy hypothesis has been largely retired in contemporary circles, replaced by theory-based research on Islam as a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. The secular view that Muhammad is a remarkable, noble religious conqueror is still in circulation. Both theories are categorically rejected by classical Islam. As they see it, Muhammad s noble conquests are merely a mark of his obedience to Allah; the Qur an is a message communicated from Allah s eternal tablet to Jibril and then through Muhammad s mind to the Muslim community. The Qur an is exclusively from Allah and Muhammad had no role in fabricating it. We will now consider theories that emerged in the 20 th and 21 st century, and why Christians studying Islam need to be equally well informed in knowing how to engage these viewpoints in textbooks or among their friends. These theories span religious nationalism, ecumenical monotheism, pre-western intellectualism, revolutionary socialism and global peace ideology.

180 Theorising Islam as a form of religious nationalism According to Bernard Lewis, the very first reference to a national fatherland in the wider Muslim world did not appear until 1838 in a Turkish newspaper. The theoretical idea of an ethnic people forming their own nation and not based on a monarchy, an aristocracy or a theocracy, but on people s national aspirations was all the rage in Europe by the middle of 19 th century. New European nations were launched or nationalistic movement suppressed- base on newly emerging national convictions. These new radical ideas were largely unknown to 19 th century Muslim world until many decades later. The European soldiers fighting in the Crimean War ( ) first introduced nationalism to the Ottoman Turks who fought alongside of their French and English counterparts. Muslim leaders and intellectuals were increasingly jealous of the technological successes of Western Europe which they attributed, not to Christianity, but to Western nationalism. During this same period, Christian missionaries and Western educators began to relocate to the Orient, some of whom encouraged the intellectuals to imagine an Arab political revival. This resulted in the establishment of secret political and intellectual societies within the

181 181 crumbling theocratic Ottoman Empire. When these nationalistic movements came to fruition, especially among the Greeks, Armenians and Nestorians, they were bitterly persecuted by the Ottomans leading eventually to (among others) the horrific Armenian Genocide of over 1.5 million people. Even the Saudis sought to harness the clamour for nationalism by carving out a significant Saudi- Wahhabi Arab nation (aka, a theocratic empire) during WW I. Following a devastating and costly world war, the colonial powers yielded rather quickly to national aspirations since they lacked sufficient troops and funds to govern them. By 1923, the British enforced new national borders on the greater Middle East and these nations have detested these boundaries ever since. Immediately following this colonial repartition, the Arab world began to violently demonstrate against the continual colonial presence and to lobby for an alternative to nationalism: namely, a pan-arab confederation (officially promoted since 1931). This did not transpire but rather a second world war ( ) which amounted to military occupation of the North Africa and the Middle East. Following WWII, more nationalism emerged; starting with Lebanon s independence, and then Syrian & Jordan (in 1946), Libya (1951), Egypt, (1952), Iran, (1953), Morocco & Tunisia (1956),

182 182 Pakistan (1948), and thereafter all the others Muslim nations. Pan-Arabism, however failed them, and at best they merely formed a symbolic Pan-Arab League in 1945, which had no sovereignty over individual nations. As seen from a national perspective, the perceived Muslim longing for freedom from Western control, or internal dictators, fits into the paradigm of a shared human aspiration for national autonomy. Some form of freedom is assumed to inspire the turbulent Muslim communities. In this theory, everyone longs for freedom, liberty, selfdetermination, autonomy and independence. Islam is seen as a means to an end. Be it an caliphate empire, an emirate, an sultanate or an Islamic country, Islam is a nation and Muslims are citizens of the Ummah. Muslims long for freedom in their own nation, free from foreign dominion. Not all Muslims share such aspirations. The greatest opponents of nationalism were (and are) variant expressions of militant Islam (Islamic Brotherhood, Salafi, Wahhabi, al-qaeda, etc.). They have opposed nationalism at every turn as un-islamic. The greatest theologian to write against Muslim nationalism was Sayyid Qutb, whose writings made him into a martyr. Classical Islam does not recognise nationalism, or republicanism, or again democracy. Nation-building, independence,

183 183 liberty and autonomy are foreign to classical Islam. All secular efforts to theorise that Islamic violence stems from regional or national aspirations for freedom, power and money is flawed in failing to recognise the greater religious aspirations that these agitators and soldiers hold. After the martyrdom of the 85-year-old French priest, Father Jacques Hamel, on the 26 th of July, 2016, Pope Francis warned that a recent wave of jihadist attacks in Europe is proof that "the world is at war". However, he stressed he did not mean a war of religions, but rather a conflict over "interests, money resources". Here lies the flaw. It s not about these three reasons. The Pontiff s theory is wishful. No jihadist martyr dies with the name of his nation on his lips but rather shouting Allah U Akbar. They are dying for their Allah-centred Ummah community, not for nationalism. Nation or wealth or political interests are very secondary to the Ummah longing for a greater pan-islamic triumph and unity. Nationalism is merely a means to a greater end: i.e. the eventual political triumph of their religion. Insofar that secular academics reject genuine inspiration from religious motives, or from one s view of God, their geo-political theories will

184 184 continue to prevail but only in their own circles. Christians studying Islam need to be conversant with both secular theories and various Muslim reactions to their suggested national solutions. The nationalist explanations will hold ground in secular academia (and in the Vatican) in that the alternative (religious explanations) are utterly unacceptable to them Theorising Islam as an ecumenical Abrahamic monotheism Above we mentioned the theoretical view that Islam is a Christian heresy. This has been largely replaced in the 19 th century by treating Islam as a bona fide monotheist religion. In this theory, Islam joins Judaism and Christianity as the third global monotheistic religion and it is considered the third Abrahamic faith. New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman once quipped that, God speaks Arabic on Friday, Hebrew on Saturday and Latin on Sundays (Nov. 27, 2001) which casually overlooks the fact that Catholics rarely worship in Latin, or that 50% of the world s non-catholic Christians use every tongue in the world except Latin. In this view, Muslims are handed the ecumenical olive branch and Islam is treated as an equal

185 185 religion, which is said to enjoy significant overlap with the two preceding faiths. This has led to both interfaith dialogues among the three, and to rich comparative studies, particularly since the Roman Catholic Vatican II Council ( ), the intermittent World Council of Churches dialogues 33 and the Evangelical Lausanne Conference of Never has Christianity enjoyed more dialogues with Muslims. Even the Roman Catholic catechism of 1997 fully accepts sincere Muslims as worthy recipients of salvation, alongside of sincere Jews and sincere Christians. 841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day." The Church's bond with non-christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the human race: All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy city. As magnanimous as Christians may think their ecumenical conviction is, that we all worship the

186 186 same God or again, that all sincere worshippers go to heaven, this theory has little traction in Islamic communities. As classical Islam would have it, Islam is not equal to the other two but superior; dialoguing as equals is merely theatrical. Islam is both the original religion of Abraham and the final religion. It is not Islam which should be treated as a heresy but rather Judaism and Christianity. Islam, as they see it, replaces both deviant heretical monotheisms with its genuine final bona fide monotheism. The prevailing Evangelical voices who promote the irenic inter-faith dialogical track are Anglican scholar Colin Chapman and Mennonite missiologist, David Shenk. In 2007, Joseph Cumming and Miroslav Volf at Yale University composed an Evangelical response to the Jordanian Royal Aal al-bayt Institute text called A Common Word between Us and You; originally addressed to the Pope and Christian leaders throughout the world, and signed by 138 Muslim leaders. This text invited Christians to agree together with Muslims on mutual principles of love for God and one s neighbour, emphasising justice and freedom of religion. Its tone was essentially a dawainvitation to join Islam. The Yale response was a diplomatic irenic dialogical answer displaying classical dhimmi respect by avoiding any Trinitarian

187 187 references. The goal of this response, as defended in subsequent interviews, was to seek an opening for promoting private concerns on the behalf of minority Christians. The Catholics did not take the bait. Since the controversial September 12, 2006 Regensburg address, Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican has retired from inter-faith dialogue in that persecution of Christians in Muslim communities has actually increased in spite of significant dialogues. The dialogical model, however, continues to be used in inter-faith and social issue seminars or again at irenic exchanges between local imams, rabbis and priests concerning common themes. The theory of the equality of religion (a view shared by the Baha i religion) is fundamentally flawed, as far as Evangelicals are concerned, because it s very root definition stems from the secular premise that all religions are alike even as all people are alike (see also Catechism 842 above). Christianity, as understood by Evangelicals and as we saw in chapter 1, makes no such inter-faith claim. Christianity grants no legitimacy to alternate religions but follows Paul s divine exhortation to the religious community of Athens: now he commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17.30). Namely, God commands all religious people in all religions everywhere, (that is Muslims,

188 188 nominal Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) to repent and bow the knee to the Lord Jesus. This is not acceptable in ecumenical inter-faith dialogues. Rather, the inter-faith dialogical response assumes all Abrahamic monotheisms are equal authentic faiths. 34 This assumption follows from theological inclusivism, practiced by those loyal to religious pluralism, and committed to seeing special revelation and truth in all religions. This liberal ecumenical conviction is contrary to the statement of faith of the World Evangelical Alliance. Interfaith dialogue, while extremely popular, lacks Scriptural justification. Christians studying Islam do well to understand the recent history, the fruit (or the lack) of such exchanges, and why such dialogues are now declining in both Muslim and Christian circles. The authors who have most successfully advocated the ecumenical monotheistic theory are Catholic scholar Louis Massignon ( ), Anglican William Temple Gairdner ( ), Anglican Kenneth Cragg ( ), Anglican Colin Chapman, Mennonite David Shenk, Serbian theologian Miroslav Volf, and Assemblies of God theologian Joseph Cummings.

189 Theorising Islam as the founder of Western enlightenment Islam s brief period of intellectual openness (called ijtihad) in Baghdad resulted in a most cosmopolitan spirit and collaboration among Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars. During the reign of five caliphs spanning 79 years (specifically , then , and then ), intellectual openness was promoted, especially by the Mu tazilite rational scholars. Under Caliph Harun ar-rashid ( ), the magnificent library and philosophical centre, House of Wisdom (Bayt al-hukma) was opened and it was even led, on occasion, by non-muslim scholars. Both Jews and Christian scholars were commissioned by certain caliphs to translate the rational Greek philosophy of, among others, Aristotle and Plato, as well as Syriac and Armenian works on medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geography, history, and physics. These newly-translated Arabic works began to flourish during the brief ijtihad period, and continued to be copied and improved upon; flowing eventually over to the Andalusian emirate, where Jewish scholars translated them from Arabic into a newly awakening Latin Europe. Moreover, new philosophical and mathematical insights were

190 190 seized upon in the scholarly centres of the Hindu Valley and transported back to Baghdad, spanning new interest and the spread of these Indian findings. During 79 years, it came, it flourished, and then it expired. This openness also found an echo in the analogous Andalusian emirate ( ), where certain emirs in Toledo and Cordova promoted academic centres. However, following the library-destroying invasion of the Berbers into Spain, Islam culture went into decline in parallel to their loss of territory to the conquering Catholics. Academia came, it flourished, it expired. Again, in the Kazakhstan centres of ancient East-Persia, the eastern oasis cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv and Gurganj became academic centres during the 13 th century, with thousands of manuscripts in their libraries. These all flourished for a brief time before going into decline. According to John Vicocur s book review of Sylvain Gouguenhiem French 2008 work on Aristote au Mont Michel, today's historical vision of the history of the West and Islam, accepts as fact that the Muslim world was at the source of the Christian Europe's reawakening from the Middle Ages. Students in the West learn a portrayal of an enlightened Islam, transmitting westward the knowledge of the ancient Greeks through Arab

191 191 translators and opening the path in Europe to mathematics, medicine, astronomy and philosophy - a gift the West regards with insufficient esteem. Contrary to this theory, Gouguenhiem argues, there was a wave of Latin translations of Aristotle already begun at the Mont Saint-Michel monastery in France 50 years before the first Arab versions of the same texts appeared in Moorish Spain around 750. At best the Arab-to-Latin translations joined a renewed interest in the classics. Moreover, it was never the Arabs themselves who translated these works but chiefly Jews. Furthermore, these academic disciplines were rapidly condemned as heretical by classical Asherite theologians. Finally, given the brief period of openness, Islamic scholars added but a little to their newly found intellectual treasures, but provided a valuable manuscript bridge back to its original source: Europe -and eventually India. They were a successful conduit between the classical worlds (Greece, Rome, & India) and the eventual modern world. This pre-western Islamic enlightenment theoretical framework, therefore is flawed and Christians studying the hypothesis of the alleged intellectual debt owed to Islam need to separate historic fiction from fact, and be sufficiently conversant in this theory to correct it. Islam did not

192 192 launch the European Renaissance; it did, however, provide the Europeans with its original Greek classical texts, which Muslims had largely downscaled to heresy. It also communicated Indian mathematical insights into Europe and that using Arab numbers, which Europe gladly adopted. A Christian study of Islam must give credit where it is due, but no more. Flattery is no friend of factual truth Theorising Islam as a revolutionary movement During the Cold War, Muslim intellectuals were invited into distinguished universities of the Warsaw Pact nations, where a communist revolutionary explanation of Islam was proposed. Islam was theorised as a proletariat uprising against Meccan bourgeois capitalists. By 1947, Soviets already had strong cells in all Arab cities. According to this theoretical framework, Muslims were to see themselves as oppressed serfs under the despotic rule of a coalition of colonists and a wealthy Muslim elite. In 1948, the soviets backed a communist insurgency in Malaysia. Sovietsupported leadership then began to emerge in the Middle East, and chiefly in Syria (since 1955), Egypt under Nasser ( ), Iraq (1958),

193 193 Yemen ( ), Kuwait (1963), Oman (1964), Indonesia ( ), Palestine (1967), Bangladesh (1971), Somalia (1976), and Afghanistan (1978). The Baath party in Iraq and in Syria was communist in ideology and Syria continues to remain loyal to Russia. In all other ways, the revolutionary framing of Islam failed. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, the Soviets lost all of their holdings except Syria. Given Marxist hostility to religions, the revolutionary ideology was adapted by Muslim leaders chiefly out of convenience for obtaining Soviet military aid and for marginalising the powers of the imams. The revolutionary theoretical framework was flawed from the start: Muhammad can no more be cast into the role as a proletarian communist agitator than Jesus be imaged as a gunyielding, grenade throwing revolutionary. How anachronistic! Theorising Islam as a pacifist global religion Peace has become the global, post-modern mantra for all ideologies and religions, and Islam scholars in the West have learned fast. The particular slogan Islam means peace is of very recent vintage; emerging only after WW II. It is not found in the

194 194 Qur an, nor in the Hadiths, nor in Sharia law nor in any classical text. Much of Western scholarship has retreated from rendering a verdict or a judgement on Islam; rather, it has retreated to the safe hypothesis: Islam is whatever Muslims say it is. If Muslims say it s a religion of peace, then it is. If they say it is an Ibrahimic monotheism, then it is. They do, therefore it is. Christian students should know that this theoretical premise follows from four variables. First, there is a lack of academic confidence in defending earlier secular theories, with scholar apologising for former literature. Second, the centuries-old Oriental studies in the West have collapsed following Edward Said s vilifying attack on its heritage. Third, globalisation needs a global religious mantra suitable as a meganarrative over all religions. And fourth, postmodernity has followed in the wake of the collapse of confidence in colonial and modern argumentation. The floor is given to Muslims to let them speak for their own religion post-modern style. Do Muslims claim it is a religion of peace, they ask? Then any Muslim who contradicts this, is not a true Muslim, and any non-muslim who contradicts this is Islamophobic. All critique of Islam is now demonised as Islamophobia.

195 195 The most serious flaw in this theory is that Islam is not defined by either individuals or even by a Muslim majority. Islam s definition lies in its primary sources and in its classical texts, as adjudicated by the imams, ayatollahs, emirs, and qadi judges. To merely subscribe to one s preferred Muslim writer s version of Islam or to a poll is to assume that the majority holds the mandate of the faith. Far from it. Islam is not for the majority to define. Secondly, the charges of Islamophobia against any critic of Islam invariably stem from a fear of retaliation in some form, and not from a correct diagnosis of any particular mental disorder of people analysing Islam. This theoretical approach is a virtual auto-censorship and self-imposed gag order as would be required of fearful dhimmis in former Muslim lands. To say to a rival faith that their religion is whatever they say it is, is to argue from weakness not from the strength of observations or logical deductions. As we saw in chapters 1 and 2, Christians can have no part in avoiding the hard truths in researching all religions, others as much as their own. Students must know how to discern such theoretical voices in conversations and how to respond to them.

196 196 Conclusion Islam fits no theory but its own theology. At first, similarities to other global movements seem to suggest Islam is one more example of an assumed a priori theory. It is not. It is unique and defies comparisons. This list of theories is not exhaustive but rather a summary of the ones that have been influential. Certain social scientists have even proposed that militant Islam is a religious form of fascism leading to the designation Islamo-fascism. Evidence is cited in the training of fascist Muslim troops in the Middle East prior to WW II, and the infamous December 1941 meeting of Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-husayni and the Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. This cross-pollination was short lived, and was conveniently replaced by Muslim leaders becoming military dictators and tyrannical autocrats, among whom the most infamous were the Iranian Shah, the Ugandan General Ida Amin, the Egyptian President Nasser, the Syrian President al-assad, the Iraqi president Saddam Hussain, the Libyan general Gadhafi and others who were toppled during the alleged Arab Spring of Still other secular ideologies continue to engage Islam: among others feminism, liberalism, and globalism. They function more as critics of Muslim

197 197 religious laws, customs and leaders than as scientists seeking to explain it. Our goal in the present chapter was to evaluate and render a verdict on the value of both classical and contemporary theoretical studies on Islam. This has been briefly done to inform us that the prevailing secular and ecumenical theories gather insightful data but fail to offer a full explanation of Islam. Chapter 8 discussion questions 1. What is the goal of all theoretical a priori research on Islam or on Muslims? 2. What is the flaw of theorising that Islam is a Christian heresy? 3. What is the flaw of the secular theory that Islam is the religion of a conquering guru? 4. What is the key flaw in the theory behind Muslim national aspiration? 5. What are some of the fundamental flaws in the Abrahamic ecumenical theory?

198 Where lies the flaw in theorising Islam as the founder of Western enlightenment? 7. What is the flaw in the theory that Islam is a revolutionary movement? 8. What is the flaw in the theoretical framing of Islam as a global religion of peace?

199 199 9 Let s text empirical studies Premise: Since observational studies of Muslims contain assumptions, let s test empirical study premises among Muslims Since 2011, a number of global missionaries and Christian leaders working among Muslims have been meeting to wrestle with significance tensions and differences in their approaches to Muslim seekers. This annual gathering is called Bridging the Divide. Two camps have emerged: those holding to various historical positions about Islam/Muslims and how to minister to Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) and those promoting various and new insider movement paradigms among Muslims and how to minister to -what is now known as- Muslim Followers of Jesus (MFJ). It was during several presentations from insider proponents that I first heard the sharp critique of what was called Essentialism. As these critics saw it, Islam s high, classical and essential unity was both imagined and flawed; Islam was as diverse as any global religion. As they saw it, it was far more fruitful to focus on Muslims in their communities,

200 200 rather than on Islam as a theological system. These advocates spoke no longer of an alleged monolithic Islam but of islams. Their evidence was claimed to entirely empirical, if not phenomenological. It pursued what rank-and-file Muslims themselves thought or said of their faith. Case study after case study demonstrated to them that each Muslim community was neither dependent, nor independent, but rather inter-dependent with classical essentialist Islam. Each community should be seen as forming its own identity, making it a unique case study of one more Islam. Phenomenology, correctly understood according to Islamic anthropologist Caleb Kim, should be used only for describing different Islamic cultural features or identifying religio-cultural characteristics of a given Muslim society For many social scientists, phenomenology is now the wiser starting point, rather than studying classical essentialist Islam. This new approach was seen to promise Christian researchers far more encouraging clues into reaching Muslims as people, while avoiding the historical pitfalls and obstacles in facing classical Islam. If we assume this (rather post-modern) hypothesis to be correct, then the study of classical ( essentialist ) Islam can be largely reclassified as the study of a former Islam of the textbooks and replaced with the fresh study of the newly discovered diversity and identities in unique

201 201 communities of islams -all of which can is appraised chiefly through social scientific research. This approach is based on a posteriori 35 or an emic 36 empirical research methodology and this conviction merits testing. In the previous chapter we weighed the value of various a priori 37 theoretical studies of Islam. In the present chapter we will weigh the far more popular empirical a posteriori studies of, not Islam, but of Muslims. 9.1 Studying Muslims as peripheral cultural communities Ideally, a posteriori researchers attempt to approach specific Muslims without having prior conclusions or theories in mind. They come to observe and collect empirical evidence from a select Muslim community or a targeted social stratum. The student/scholar attempts to be as open minded as possible prior to gathering data and ascertaining the causes. All information collected comes from actual observations and experiences; and as little as possible from prior assumptions -as is the case with a priori research which tests existing theories. Only when all the data is collected by a posteriori researchers do they make their inferences -from effect to the cause. As such, the entire study is on what Muslims and/or local imams say about themselves (an emic approach) within a designated

202 202 community or social strata, not on what some classical textbook or outside observers may claim (an etic approach). Given the successful rise of social-scientific research on Muslims, the centre of gravity has seemingly shifted away from heeding the classical core to now seeing Islam as the sum total of peripheral communities and voices. The classical voice of the centre is no longer perceived as speaking for the Ummah; rather, each community is given its own voice and essential Islam has been decentralised, if not demoted. The margins are perceived as being empowered to have their own voice, independent of what classical voices have to say. The result is a bona fide academic, postmodern portrait: each Islamic community now recounts its own narrative alongside the mega narrative of the faith fully assuming that this dual portrait is viable. Since the anguishing demise of the caliphate in , a power vacuum truly does exist in the contemporary Ummah and the Ummah has never appeared more fragmented. In spite of Caliph al- Baghdadi s attempt to restart the caliphate in April 2010, the Ummah still lacks a globally-accepted power centre, let alone a theological centre of gravity. The greatest evidence for the lack of centrality is the flourishing of peripheral jihadist movements who do not obey neither caliph nor an emir nor a government leader but only their own

203 203 sheikh. That Al-Qaeda answers to none but their own imams is evidence enough: there is no political centre to which they are in submission. This raises a delicate question. In this perceived power vacancy, where does the centre of gravity now lie in Islam? Have the margins replaced the classical voice as the most authoritative? Whose voices in the caliph-less Ummah now carry weight or are they all equal? Can the classical theologians still claim to be is the essential centre of gravity? Writes Islamic scholar, Jon Hoover:. The struggle over who speaks for Islam has become especially acute in the modem period as the pace of political, social and technological change has increased rapidly. This crisis in Muslim religious authority was brought painfully to the world's attention by the terrorist attacks of September 11, Suddenly, not only Muslims themselves were asking who speaks for Islam, but non-muslims in unprecedented numbers were also trying to ascertain what Islam was and whether it posed a threat to their security. (53) 38 The centre of gravity question is not ours to answer. Only imams can speak to this issue. Not even the rank and file of Muslims, and least of all, Christians (who are mere dhimmis) or secular authors (who are kefir) can answer this.

204 204 Moreover, reports of the collapse of the classical core are patently premature. The worldwide Islamic Ummah community -while seeming fragmentedhas actually made astonishing gains in reasserting its collective identity since The classical core is not silent but, as the guardians of the faith, they are increasingly reasserting their sovereignty over the orthopraxy of the faithful. Have the peripheries flourished? Well, so has the core in recent decades. Christians studying Islam must balance their insights of both core and peripheries. Yes, diversity reigns, but who has not witnessed the global resurgence of the hijab, the burqa, the construction of mosques, the rise of Islamic schools, the hajj, the spread of Sharia courts, the spread of halal food, the media coverage of Ramadan, and the fear of the growing Muslim population in the world? This is not the flourishing of peripheral islams but the revival of core Islam. Classical Islam is not silent and post-modern scholars have rejoiced too quickly. Yes, the peripheries speak, but the core does so much stronger Studying Muslims uniquely through social-scientific lenses Following the model of Dutch missiologist Jan Jongeneel and

205 205 comparative religious scholar, Gerrie Ter Haar, religious research can best be classified in four distinct spheres of study. These four spheres draw from four unique sources both past and present. For research on Islam and Muslims these would be: 1. the realm of Muslim behaviours and experiences 2. the realm of Islamic rites and customs 3. the realm of local and worldwide social organisation and laws 4. the realm of beliefs and convictions Now the first three spheres are what we observe and they are much vaster than the fourth, which is beliefs. For a posteriori social scientists, the first three realms of study constitute the lion share of their research. Invariably, they conclude from their research that there exists a noticeable chasm between distinct Muslim communities and the classical beliefs of Islam. This observation has led them to the conviction that Islam, as they see it, is not an essential monolithic religion but a community of islams. Secondly, Islam is global and its community is somewhere under two billion adherents. Any complete study of this faith is simply inexhaustible, and so therefore certain generalisations are not only permitted but needed. Certain realms of research are relatively uniform and generalisations are welcome. For example, the realm of rites and

206 206 customs (i.e. orthopraxy), is strikingly monolithic and historically uniform and that for over 15- centuries. What Muhammad did in practicing his five pillars most everyone is still doing even to this very day. The realms of both organisation and beliefs while not evolving- have undergone important modification in Islamic history, allowing for generalisations in certain time periods. The realm of behaviour, however, is the realm of greatest diversity, and is the hardest field for making generalisations. This last realm is where a posteriori research flourishes. Researchers must decide which of the four massive spheres rank as the most important for them. This will then, in turn, lead them to using selected social scientific filters in observing, recording and analysing their data. Since educational institutions offer students remarkably diverse disciplinary research tools, Christian students of Islam do well to discern the filters or perceptual frames through which writers on Islam or Muslims pass their vast amount of information. These filters are also called conceptual frames. Filters

207 207 Government researchers, often prefer the scholarly political-science filters to help them focus on the economic, geo-political, sociological, historic, military and globalised elements in ranking their gathered data. Both a priori and a posteriori research methods are used. For social scientific researchers, scholarly anthropological filters help them focus on cultural, behavioural, sociological, ethnographic, demographic and advocacy issues -such as the status of women, children, etc.- in ranking their information. This is intentionally a posteriori in nature. For literary researchers, linguistic, philological filters help them to focus on the genius of languages, the voice of primary oral or written sources, the aesthetic genres of expression, and the re-constructing of leitmotifs. Both a priori and a posteriori research methods are used. Outside of secular institutions, Christians will often be given the opportunity to research in Christian academia. This enables them to combine various conceptual frames for their intended area of ministry.

208 208 For missiological researchers, scholarly multidisciplinary, theological filters help them to focus on behavioural, cultural, linguistic, historical and theological information in their gathered evidence. Both a priori and a posteriori research methods are used. For ecumenical religious researchers, comparative inter-faith filters help them focus on commonalities in behaviour, rites, organisations and beliefs. This is a priori research. Finally, Muslims themselves study in both secular academia and in their own universities. Their research is also governed by their preferred filter, or conceptual frame. It is the conviction of this author that the classical worldview must be fully grasped by Christians studying Islam and that it should be done before launching research in any of the other scholarly realms. Muhammad and the Qur an are foundational to all Muslims even the illiteratesince the core identity of Muslims is always drawn from their Qur an-informed worldviews. For devout Islamic scholars, orthodox filters help them to focus on data that upholds an ideal apologetic, orthodox tradition, a Koranische Weltanschauung 39, and a devout Ulema voice. For this they look to their primary sources, and

209 209 then to Islamic consensus or ijma and and secondary sources. They select accordingly. This is the overwhelming a priori preference of Muslims holding to a classical worldview. All research is passed through scholarly filters. One is not necessarily more perceptive per se, but since Islam is a global faith, it is critical for each student to be selective. There is simply too much information to study. For a balanced treatment, Christians studying Islam should seek to identify their own preferred filter(s) and those of whom they are studying, and to grasp the bias that may be associated with that conceptual frame. (All filters have them!) If any conceptual frame is proposed as sufficient in itself, then it becomes a flawed approach. The study of the world of Islam and Muslims needs many conceptual frames, many filters:

210 210 For an introductory course to Islam, the classical orthodox filter should first be mastered. For a historical course on Islam, the political-science and historical filters become the most important. For ministry among Muslims, the anthropological filters and Christian encounter studies are essential. For translators of the Bible into a Muslim tongue, the linguistic filter of language, literature and culture is primary. This leads to much variety and very different conclusions, even among Christians. Therefore, Christians must carefully study the conclusions of other Christians and grasp the differences, because, as Paul remarked: There have to be differences among you to show which of you have God s