Faith to Faith

A Christian Arab Perspective On Islam And Christianity

Chawkat Moucarry

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780851118994
• eBook ISBN: 9781789740523
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Is it possible for Christians and Muslims to engage in meaningful dialogue, in genuine and truthful debate? Do we dare to put our faith on trial? To listen to each other in the best possible way, and to give the reason for the hope that we have, with gentleness and respect, as we are commanded?
The two faiths hold much in common, tracing their roots back to a common ancestor. And yet they have always held to something of a ghetto mentality. Mutual ignorance is the price paid for trouble-free co-existence, and for some, perhaps, the price for survival. Prejudice and misunderstanding leads to confrontational debate, where one side tries to ridicule, attack and defeat the other. Political correctness and tolerance simply leads to superficial agreement.
Chawkat Moucarry believes that there is a better way. Ever since he surprised the religious Education teacher by asking if he could attend the Islamic class at high school, he has been wholeheartedly committed to genuine Christian Muslim dialogue. His prayer is that this book will help us to gain a better understanding of each other's faith, as well as our own, and above all a better understanding of the founder of that faith.

Part 1

The Scriptures

1

The Bible and the Qur’an

Christians and Muslims claim that they have received divine revelation and that this revelation is contained in Holy Scripture: the Bible or the Qur’an. Consequently one might think that the Bible occupies the same position in Christianity as the Qur’an in Islam. But it is not as simple as that! The Bible does not have the same significance for Christians as the Qur’an does for Muslims. There are certainly striking similarities between the two books, but there are also important differences.

The differences help to explain both the problems Christians face when they read the Qur’an and the problems Muslims face when they read the Bible. While some are easily discouraged and stop reading, others swiftly conclude that these differences indicate the mediocrity of one book as against the other. But both the Bible and the Qur’an deserve far more consideration than that. For centuries they have sustained the faith of millions of men and women. Although in reading them we do not necessarily have to assent in advance to what they say, we do need to try as sincerely as possible to understand their specific character and content.

We shall attempt to do this by looking at four different aspects of revelation: the nature of the revelation (what is revealed), the method of the revelation (how it came about), the transmission of the revelation (how it was passed on), and the message of the revelation (what it is all about).

The nature of revelation

Christians and Muslims believe in a Creator God who is sovereign and transcendent (radically different and separate from his creation). He created humankind and established us as his representatives on earth. He sent prophets so that we might know his word and learn his will.

In Islam God’s revelation is found first of all in his creation. Nature contains many signs, ayat, that point to the Creator (2:164; 3:190; 10:5–6):

Truly, in the alternation of the night and the day,

and in all that God has created, in the heavens and the earth,

are Signs for those who fear Him. (10:6)

The Qur’an teaches that God’s verbal revelation is written on a heavenly template, al-lawẖ al-maẖfuẕ, that represents his word (85:22). This original template, known as the ‘Mother of the Book’ (3:7; 13:39; 43:4), has been made known to humankind at various times. So God’s supreme revelation has been revealed in a Book or a Scripture, kitab.

According to the Qur’an, there are four separate collections of such revelations in book form:

1. The Torah (tawrat) –revealed through Moses (3:93; 6:154), which is ‘light and guidance for humankind’, nur wa huda (6:91).

2. The Psalms (zabur) – revealed through David (4:163; 17:55; 21:105).

2. The Gospel (injil) – revealed through Jesus, in which there is also light and guidance and which confirms the Torah (5:46).¹

3. The Qur’an – revealed through Muhammad, which is ‘guidance and mercy’, huda wa raẖma (6:157). The message of the Qur’an is said to confirm, yusaddiqu, the Torah and the Gospel (2:91; 3:3, 81; 4:47), and explain, yufassilu, these former Scriptures (6:114; 10:37; 12:111), but its authority is greater, muhaymin, than theirs (5:48). The Islamic Scripture is seen as God’s word destined for everyone (38:87; 68:52; 81:27).

The Qur’an is primarily the revelation of God’s will, something that can be understood by human minds. It guides us in what we should believe and how to live in obedience and submission to God.

It is not fitting for a man that God should speak to him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil, or by the sending of a Messenger to reveal, with God’s permission, what God wills: for He is Most High, Most Wise.

And thus have We, by Our command, sent inspiration to you: You did not know before what was Revelation, and what was Faith;

But We have made the Qur’an a Light, with which We guide such of Our servants as we will. (42:51–52)

The Islamic Scripture does not reveal who God is, lest his transcendence be negated. As one Muslim scholar has put it, ‘You may not have complete transcendence and self-revelation at the same time.’²

This is quite different from the way Christians think about their Scriptures. The Bible not only claims to reveal God’s will, his laws and commands; it claims to be God’s self-disclosure – the revelation of God himself. This is not, of course, something we can fully comprehend with our minds, for God is infinite and we are sinful. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways higher than our ways: ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth …’ (Is. 55:9). Yet God wants to reveal himself to us through his word so that we can know him and relate to him.

As well as containing God’s word spoken by his messengers, the biblical revelation contains many accounts of God’s action in human history. The words explain the actions, and the actions confirm the truth of the words. In the days of Moses the climax of God’s revelation was Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the giving of the Law. The Torah is the written account of how God revealed himself through the history of Israel. The Creator God reveals himself in the Torah as the Saviour of his people:

‘I, even I, am the LORD,

and apart from me there is no saviour.

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed –

I, and not some foreign god among you.

You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘that I am God.’

(Is. 43:11–12)

I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. (Jer. 24:7)

For Christians, God’s revelation reached its climax two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus Christ.³ Jesus is God’s supreme revelation, God’s Word made flesh (John 1:1, 10, 14). The gospel is the message of good news Jesus proclaimed in his words and actions. He is the fulfilment of God’s revelation as the Saviour who came to redeem his human creatures. The Scriptures therefore point to who God is and how he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

Like Muslims, Jews and Christians are referred to in the Qur’an as ‘the People of the Book’. This is an apt expression since each holds to the authority of their Holy Scriptures. Christians, however, see themselves as being much more than this. They define their identity primarily in relation to Jesus Christ – the eternal Word of God revealed as a man. Jesus therefore occupies a place in Christianity in a sense similar to that of the Qur’an in Islam. The role of the Bible is to make Jesus known just as Jesus has made God known. In Islam, by contrast, Muhammad is no more than God’s Prophet whose mission was to transmit the Qur’an, the supreme word of God. Muslims are by definition those who abide by Qur’anic law, following the Prophet’s example.

We shall consider these concepts in more detail throughout the book, but at this stage it is important to recognize that the Qur’an and the Bible are different because the nature of the revelation they contain is not the same.

The method of revelation

Christians and Muslims differ in regard to the method by which God revealed his word. This difference is seen largely in the extent to which human beings are understood to have been involved. Muslims are often surprised when they first look at the Bible, for its structure and literary style are not necessarily what they would have expected.

The books of the Bible

The word Bible is of Greek origin and simply means ‘book’. This book is in fact a collection of sixty-six books divided into two major sections – the Old Testament, written before Jesus Christ, and the New Testament, written in the first century after Jesus Christ.⁴

The Old Testament is the Bible of the Jewish people, their Holy Scriptures. It consists of thirty-nine books:

• The Pentateuch (‘five books’): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – often called the books of Moses. In Genesis we find the account of creation and follow the lives of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. In Exodus we read of God’s rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and giving the Law through Moses.

• The historical books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. These narrate the history of the people of Israel, from the early days when they were ruled by judges, through the years of King David and Solomon, the division into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, until the time God finally brought judgment through the Assyrian and Babylonian armies. Other historical books, Ezra and Nehemiah, describe the return of some of the Jews from exile.

• The Psalms and Wisdom literature: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job and Song of Solomon. The Psalms are a collection of individual and community songs of thanksgiving, praise and lament, some of which were written by King David.

• The prophetic books. These contain the messages God’s prophets preached, calling people back to God and looking forward to the future. The longest of these books are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel; and the shortest include Hosea, Amos and Malachi.

The Old Testament Scriptures are often called the Torah, meaning ‘instructions’, or ‘the Law’ (Luke 16:17). The word ‘Law’ is understood in its widest sense, as referring to the whole of the Scriptures and not merely those sections that have to do with law. At the time of Jesus the Bible wa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Transliteration of Arabic words
• Introduction: From mutual ignorance to genuine dialogue
• Part 1: The Scriptures
• Part 2: Key doctrines
• Part 3: Jesus Christ
• Part 4: Muhammad
• Part 5: Contemporary issues
• Conclusion: One God, one humanity, one world
• Appendix A: Muslim theologians and mystics
• Appendix B: Time-line of Christian–Muslim relations
• Bibliography
• General index
• Index of Qur’anic references
• Index of Bible references