Mission articles
Pointing a Muslim to the one true God
The year AD 622 is the beginning of the Muslim era. Since that date, the religion of Mohammed has spread around the world giving birth to many civilisations and to a culture which we find in every continent. Islam is far from being a minority religion. There are nearly a billion Muslims in the world and statistics appear to show that it is to them and not to Christians that the future belongs. Muslims attend the same universities as your children; many of them are your work colleagues.
For Christians wanting to evangelise, the Muslim world is as valid a target as any other - it is right for Muslims to know the truth about Jesus Christ too. It is a vital duty for every Christian to share his faith and to witness to all men. No barrier of race or religion limits the Holy Spirit. He draws, by grace, men and women who all share the same state of lostness and condemnation inherited from Adam.
How can I point a Muslim to the one true God? Is there a specific method I can use to reach the Muslim population? Many Christians ask these questions as if there is a magic way to reach Muslims! Others may ask: ‘Should we announce Jesus as the Son of God? Should we speak about the Trinity? Or will we be misunderstood if we begin with these truths?’ It is not just a question of the truth we proclaim, but also of the way we proclaim it. Wisdom is the way to reach Muslims, and wisdom comes from taking a Muslim’s background into account.
Islam is not only something Muslims learn at school or in the mosque; it is something they live. It is more than a religion; it is their culture, their identity. So for a Muslim to leave Islam is to betray his family and his people. Muslims are completely bound by their religion, for Islam is not a religion which gives one the freedom to think or even the possibility of doing so. When I was 15 I was studying at the same school where my father works. During an Islam lesson about the Day of Judgement, I was shocked to learn that, even if I lived as a perfect Muslim, I would still be relying on Allah’s will to go to paradise. I wasn’t happy and asked my teacher (who was a friend of my father) where was the justice in that? The teacher was, of course, unhappy (especially because such a question came from a son of an Imam), so he told my father what happened. That evening, I had to face my father’s anger, to say more prayers and to fast for a few days so that Allah could forgive my doubt. To doubt is a big sin; to leave Islam is unthinkable.
What about their attitude towards the Bible and Christians?
In Morocco we call Westerners ‘Sons of Issa’ (Jesus)! Why? Because for a Muslim, every European is a Christian. As every Moroccan is born a Muslim, so every European is born a Christian. There is widespread confusion about the West and Christianity. I grew up in a strict Muslim family and I had no idea about the true meaning of Christianity.
The Koran commands Muslims to respect Ahl al-Kitab (people of the book: Jews and Christians), but in practice I never experienced it! This was because Muslims, educated or not, base their ideas of Christians on various historical ‘facts’. For example, I had an Algerian colleague at the university laboratory where I studied in France whose first response to my faith in Jesus was: Christians were wrong to participate in the crusades! Even though he did not see himself as a good Muslim, this was his main response.
Another historical fact has to do with colonisation. Political power, in its physical form, disappeared under decolonisation. However, many feel there is still an underlying economic power that condemns former colonies to poverty. For a Muslim to become a Christian is to return to a sort of colonisation. Furthermore, Muslims have a negative view of society in the West. They view it as broken; there is no respect inside families, no respect between children and parents, no respect for elderly people, a society that spends its time drinking and indulging in sexual immorality. To be a Christian, for a Muslim, is to live in that atmosphere. Before I left Morocco, four years ago, to go to France, a friend’s father told me this: ‘Resist the temptations you will have in France and return in the same state as you are leaving’.
Hence, there is a great and profound suspicion. When a Muslim comes to the West he comes with many warnings: Be careful in your relationships with people! Be careful not to let them affect your walk with Allah! Keep a distance from them! Sons of Issa have their own religion and we have our own religion!
Therefore, in our contacts with our Muslim friends we will meet various types of barriers. We should remove those barriers with prayer, humility, sensitivity, wisdom and, of course, with the help of the Spirit of God. Do not be surprised at seeing a Muslim’s anger towards our evangelism. It is a normal reaction and it is a sign that something is working in him. I behaved in the same way when I first heard the gospel. Your Muslim friend has to see something different in you from what he expects. And that must be seen not only in theory but in the way you live. He has to see that you are really living what you believe and what you are telling him. A Muslim is a person who needs love. We, as Christians, can give him that love. The best way to win the confidence of our Muslim friend is to show him the love of Christ among us. If you love him but he sees no love between you and other Christians then you will be a hypocrite in his eyes.
Let’s then not consider our Muslim friend as our enemy but, instead, as a person bound by Satan. Not all Muslims are like the Taliban or Al Qa’eda. Many Christians presume that all Muslims know Islam and the Koran perfectly; however most of them are Muslim only by name, and don’t know their faith well.
To share the gospel with Muslims effectively requires spending a long time with them, praying for them, and letting the love of Christ which is working in us flow into them. Recently I was taking a Bible study from the book of Haggai, written when the Jews were discouraged. They thought that the temple they were rebuilding would not be as glorious as Solomon’s. God said to them in effect: ‘You do your part and build the temple and I will come and fill it with my glory. I am with you and my Spirit is present in your midst. I am shortly going to work mightily.’ (Michael Bentley, Building for God’s Glory, Evangelical Press p 57)
It is very easy to lose heart when evangelising Muslims. Spiritual advance and interest in the gospel are slow but Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9).