Long time followers of my blog will know that I was in contact with thousands of Muslims last year when I helped provide aid for the Syrian refugee crisis. From there I went to Malaysia, which is a predominantly Muslim country, and I realize in hindsight that I had a fairly severe misconception about them.
Though, it would also be fair to say that many conceptions of Island are misconceptions, especially mine.
This one, however, was that there was such a barrier between them and me that I could not approach them with the gospel. Well, in Malaysia I could potentially be thrown out of the country for it, so that was a more tangible barrier, but for the entire time I was there I didn’t even consider it a possibility. This misconception was based on the assumption that our religions were so different and polarizing that I shouldn’t even attempt it.
Approximately a year later, I found myself attending a conference discussing how to minister to Muslims and how Jesus fits in with Island and the Qur’an.
Let me rephrase it to emphasize my point. The Qur’an supports Jesus & the Bible.
Supports.
For clarity, there are many details within the Qur’an that don’t exactly line up with the biblical or Jewish representation of what Heaven will look like, but by and large I saw verses in the Qur’an that were either retellings of a biblical story (such as the flood, Moses’s time in Egypt, the birth of Jesus being three examples) with different wordings or phrasings, or references to the original Hebrew texts.
Woah.
It was like reading the different accounts of Jesus in the gospel. I read over the story of the flood with Noah, and the important matters of the story were unchanged.
“Well, Kyle. Don’t Muslims say that the Bible is corrupt? What does that mean?”
Well, if the Bible is corrupt, then the stories you can cross-reference between the Bible and the Qur’an should probably be thrown out… like Noah and Moses and Abraham… which really just means that neither of the books have any sort of credibility.
“Ok. But do the Bible and the Qur’an really have that many similarities?”
Not exactly. Many of the stories in the Qur’an are actually unfinished. For example, the Qur’an has somewhere between 50% and 80% of Moses’s story. So to get the full story, you actually have to read the Bible.
And you would think that a Muslim couldn’t do that. Well, it turns out that the Qur’an actually states that the writings in the Bible are true. Here are some quotes.
Concerning the Torah: “We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of messengers,” (Sura 2:87)
Concerning the Psalms: “We have sent thee inspiration, as We sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him: we sent inspiration to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms,” (Sura 4:163)
Concerning the Gospel: “It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong),” (Sura 3:3)
Also, “And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah,” (Sura 5:46)
Give yourself a moment to let that sink in. And let me provide a counterpoint in advance, we have original texts for the bible, so anyone’s claim that the Bible is corrupt (as many Muslims think) isn’t valid.
If I had known any of this, I would have had so much more hope during these times of ministry. I would have been much more encouraged to open up the door for discussion, and to give it a shot. My faith was little, for sure, and I’m not defending my mistake, but I was really encouraged by this knowledge, and in light of the animosity that many American’s have toward the Muslim nations, I wanted to share this and close that gap a little bit. So let me posit an interesting theory for you.
Let’s say a Muslim reads the Qur’an and is discouraged because he only gets half of Moses’s story, about 80% of Abraham’s, and sees that the Qur’an tells us that the Bible is true… so they read the Bible and accept Jesus as their Lord and savior, but they don’t renounce Islam. Will he be in Heaven with us?
Food for thought.
