The Religion of Islam is the most misunderstood religion in the Western World today.  While the news is constantly making mention of the religion, few actually have knowledge of its true teachings.  Many believe it is a distinct religion based around  a God by the name of Allah and a figure by the name of Muhammad.  To them, not much is known about Muhammad.  Many believe that Muslims pray to him, or that he is even viewed as some sort of god.  Others believe that he is a sort of a Christian Jesus-like figure, a god-man that came to save the world.  These perceptions could not be any further from the truth.  Not only will you NEVER find a Muslim that believes this, but the Prophet Muhammad himself adamantly and consistently went out of his way to make it known that he was nothing more than the slave and messenger of Allah. 

     This may lead one to ask, ‘So just who exactly is Allah’?  Simply, Allah is the God of Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Jesus, and other biblical figures.  Allah is the Arabic word for ‘The God’.  Islam is actually the continuation of the religion of Abraham.  The Prophet Muhammad wasn’t sent with a new religion, he was sent to confirm the previous revelations and to call the world to submit to the one and only God.

     While most mainstream Christians believe in a Trinitarian concept of God and the Divinity of Jesus, they have difficulty finding a clear-cut verse in the Bible to back such a belief.  In fact, many Christians are oblivious to the fact that the word Trinity does not exist in the Bible.  Also, many are unaware that Jesus never once in the Bible claimed divinity.  He actually claimed the contrary on numerous occasions (John 14:28, Mark 10:18 for just a few of many examples).  Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet sent by God to preach the Gospel.  Jesus, according to the Bible, was viewed as a prophet in his time (Matt 14:5, Matt 21:11, John 7:40).  Jesus himself admitted to being a prophet (Matt 13:57). 

     Islam recognizes the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospels.  Note, this does not mean that the Bible is a revelation from God, it means some of the books in the Bible were, in their original form, revelations from God.  The Bible wasn’t composed till long after the death of Jesus, and most of the NT was written by Paul of Tarsus, who never in his life met Jesus.  The books of the Old Testament existed before the birth of Jesus.   The Bible is simply a library of books.  There were over 30 Gospels in existence before the early church fathers decided to omit the majority and keep only the four that exist today.  The reasoning behind choosing only four, as Irenaeus rationalized, is as such , “There actually are only four authentic gospels. And this is obviously true because there are four corners of the universe and there are four principal winds, and therefore there can be only four gospels that are authentic.”   The Gospels that the Qur’an affirms, revelations from God through the Prophet Jesus, are not necessarily the same Gospels that are in existence today.  Many scholars, in fact, don’t even believe that the Gospels in today’s bible were even written by those that were credited.  None of the Gospels contained signatures or identify the author in any way.  Even with what exists today, none of the Gospels support the teachings of the trinity or divinity of Jesus.  

So what is the basic message of Islam?  Simply to worship and submit to God and to God alone.  This has been the message revealed to each and every Prophet as the Qur’an attests, “We never sent any messenger before you [Muhammad] without revealing to him ‘There is no god but Me, so serve Me.’ (21:25).  To submit to God means to willingly submit to his laws.   God wills that we live in peace with each other in accordance with justice.  It is the duty of every believer in the one true God to strive in attaining justice.  This is the true meaning of ‘jihad’.  To strive against your own desires, to help the less fortunate, to aid the persecuted, To respect your parents, to take care of the orphan, to be just with those that have not fought you because of you religion, whether they be Muslim or not.  The religion of Islam is more than just religion, it is a way of life.  It is the way of life God has prescribed for us.  Before dismissing this religion, one should consider the following:  This religion has been given enormous negative press throughout the years, but It still remains the worlds fastest growIng religion, why?  Because people become curious, look into it, and find something that seems familiar, something they were born to do.  They find that this religion calls them to submit to their creator, the one and only God, Allah.*