ISLAM – An Apologetic: PART 2

THE ORIGIN & FOUNDER OF ISLAM

Did you miss ISLAM – An Apologetic:PART 1?

The following contains substantial excerpts from articles written by apologist Charlie Campbell of www.alwaysbeready.com

 Islam began in A.D. 570 in a violent, pagan, and polytheistic culture in Mecca (modern-day Saudi Arabia) by Muhammad of the Quraysh tribe in Arabia. In A.D. 610, at age 40, while contemplating in a cave outside of Mecca, Muhammad claimed he was visited by the angel Gabriel (who appeared to Daniel and the Virgin Mary in the Bible). This supposedly began a series of angelic visitations and revelations that became the teachings of Muhammad and the text of the Quran, the sacred book of Islam.

Muslims believe that in A.D.620, Gabriel brought Muhammad to Jerusalem on a heavenly horse (Quran 17:1), had conversations with Jesus, Moses, and Abraham before being taken by a ladder to Heaven for a night (the Dome of the Rock was built on that very spot in Jerusalem 71 years later).

After a decade of Muhammad’s preaching in Mecca, several hundred families were convinced that he was a prophet of God. Having converted to monotheism (belief in one God, Allah), Muhammad and his followers were a minority and persecuted by polytheistic, pagan Arabs. An assassination attempt caused Muhammad and his followers to flee to the friendlier city of Medina, 250 miles north.

In AD 630, after winning a series of bloody military battles, Muhammad and his army of 10,000 men conquered Mecca. Muhammad entered the main sanctuary in Mecca, known as the Ka’abah which is now, the holiest site in the world to Muslims. They believe its foundation was laid down by the prophet Adam and later restored by the prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael). All idols were destroyed and the Ka’aba dedicated to Allah. Every day, five times a day, Muslims around the world when they face Mecca, it’s in acknowledgement of the Ka’aba.

In AD 632, at the age of 63, Muhammad died in the arms of Aisha, one of his twelve wives. The Quran limits marriage to four wives (Quran 4:3) but Mohammad believed Allah made a special allowance for him. The Quran states a young girl can’t get married “until they reach puberty” (Quran 4:6). Again, Muhammad believed an exception was made for him. Aisha was only six years old when Muhammad made her his wife (Hadith 7.62.64).

The PRACTICES Of ISLAM’s FOUNDER, MOHAMMAD

1. Marital Choices and Demographics

• The Marriage to Aisha: Muslim apologists argue that early marriages were normative in late antiquity and pre-modern tribal societies.
However, such practices were normative only in establishing political alliances.  Consummation of marriage with a minor was not considered normative, especially with a 9-year-old. Even if this was normative, a people seeking religious and moral integrity, even superiority wouldn’t mimic the ways of this sinful world.

• Muhammad married Zaynab bint Jahsh, former wife of his adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah. In pre-Islamic Arabia adoption had the same incest taboos as biological lineage.

• Muhammad had at least eleven wives and several concubines. Critics have identified this polygamy as a carnal indulgence. But men of the Bible did also – yet it’s important to note, GOD didn’t approve of it, nor was it GOD’s plan for men to have more than one wife.

2. Warfare, Conquest, and Political Actions

• In the early years after migrating (Hijra) to Medina, Muhammad led raids against Meccan commercial caravans. Islamicist saw  these as legitimate strategies and economic warfare against the Quraysh tribe that confiscated property of Muslims fleeing Mecca.

• Following the Battle of the Trench, the male members of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza were executed, and the women and children were enslaved.

• Muhammad sanctioned the assassination of specific political and poetic opponents (Asma bint Marwan wrote verses mocking him or inciting violence against Muslims).

3. Slavery and Concubinage

• Historical records show that Muhammad bought, sold, and owned slaves. Critics highlight his relationships with enslaved women or captives as concubinage.

A DIVIDE IN ISLAM: SUNNIS & SHI’ITES

Sunnis and the Shi’ites (Sufis are a minority but a growing mystical sect) are the two biggest groups in Islam. Sunnis believe successors to Muhammad, appointed from his closest followers, should be voted in. Shi’ites believe that Muhammad’s successors should only be chosen from Muhammad’s relatives.

Islam claims superiority over Christianity, because of how unified they are. There are dozens of sects in Islam, just as there are dozens of denominations in Christianity.
One of the better-known sects is the ultra-conservative and often terrorism-friendly Wahhabi sect (Osama Bin Laden). Wahhabism started in the 18th century by‘Abd al-Wahhab who advocated for a return Islamic “purity” as preached by Muhammad.

After Muhammad’s death in AD 632, six years after his death, Muslims took the Holy Land. Their armies spread the Islamic Empire into Central Asia, China, across North Africa, and to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Southern France and Spain. Charles Martel, a ruler of the Franks (of Germany), in AD 732 in Tours, France, defeated the Muslim armies, ending their invasion into Europe, which might have fallen to Islam!

Yet look at England today, and France, and to a lesser degree Germany. Italy has become resistant and increasingly intolerant of Islam; America is in danger of England’s and France’s fate if we don’t follow Italy’s example towards radical Islam that seeks domination.

The SPREAD OF ISLAM vs. CHRISTIANITY

Islam’s growth happened differently than Christianity. Christianity spread over the first three centuries through the simple preaching of the Gospel. Christians were persecuted and put to death. It was different with Islam. Muslims forced Islam upon tens of millions by military conquest (jihad). It’s historically undeniable that Islam spread by the sword.

“What about the Crusades? Christians are guilty of being violent also!”

The Crusades, launched in AD 1095 was to take back the land Muslims had seized by military conquest from the Christians. The destruction and threat to sacred places in Jerusalem and the murder, torture, enslavement, robbery, and harassment of Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land all served to provoke the Europeans to participate in the Crusades.

It’s worth pointing out that evils were committed during the Crusades; there were atrocities allowed by Popes, NOT the BIBLE. The Pope offered indulgences to soldiers who fought for Rome, immediately forgiven of any sinful acts while at war. These actions contradicted the teachings of Christ: we’re to love, not threaten to kill if they didn’t convert, our enemies. At His interrogation before Pontius Pilate:

JOHN 18:36
“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting.”

Jesus’s teachings never promoted violence. Violence in Islam happened in obedience to the teachings of Muhammad.

“But what about when God commanded Joshua to destroy the people of Canaan?”

God instructed Joshua to destroy the Canaanites for their unrepentant, evil sin. They were an exceedingly wicked people who sacrificed children to their god “Molech.” They were committing incest, adultery, polygamy, bestiality, witchcraft, and other sinful abominations (LEV. 18; DEUT. 18). They were a danger to their posterity, neighbors, and the Israelites. God determined (after waiting 400 years for them to repent!) that the Canaanites’ time was up. He sent the Israelites to stop the wickedness . . . just as He later sent the Assyrians and Babylonians to stop the wickedness of the Jews when they began doing the same things.

Israel is justified going after Hamas for the great evils of October 7, ‘23, and their refusal to return the hostages.

THE GROWTH OF ISLAM IN OUR TIME

Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world today. What started with a lone man in the seventh century has grown into a huge worldwide religion.
In 1982: 450 million Muslims in the world.
In 2025: about 2 billion Muslims; that’s more than quadrupled in forty years.

One out of every four people alive is Muslim. In America in 1990, only 30 mosques in the United States existed. Today? 3,000!  There are more practicing Muslims in the United States than Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses combined; more Muslims than all Roman Catholics. 
In 1945, England had only one mosque. Now it has thousands. Same thing in France (where Charles Martel defeated Islam), only one mosque in 1974. Now? Thousands. These numbers are likely to continue growing—unless Christians pray and reach Muslims with the Gospel.

Elsewhere in the world, like in Iran and Syria, Muslims are leaving Islam in significant numbers – Mosques in Iran today are filled only to 30% capacity and many are empty! There is an underground church in Iran numbering over 1 million!

Muslims point out the growth in huge numbers of Islam as evidence that it’s the one true religion. But there were only eight people on Noah’s Ark out of millions, perhaps billions of people who drowned. Who was in the right, then?

Much of the growth in Islam is biological rather than through proselytizing. While in the West people are encouraged to have small families, Muslims have large families. Another factor involved in the large number of Islam’s adherents is fear.

Muslims are afraid to abandon Islam which maintains itself by threat of death. In countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan and more than 20 others in the world a person can legally be put to death for leaving Islam. 

Muhammad said: “If [a Muslim] discards his religion, kill him.” The Hadith, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260. Also Volume 9, Book 84, Number 64

Those who seek to evangelize Muslims are likewise threatened with death, based on the teachings of Muhammad. People of other faiths who seek to evangelize Muslims “spreading mischief in the land” are subject to one of four punishments: “. . . execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands, and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.” (Quran 5:33). In America, under Sharia law, this would become a reality.

We need to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are in danger of risking their lives, seeking to bring the Gospel to people inside Muslim nations.

IS ISLAM A PEACEFUL RELIGION?

Muslims commonly insist that “Islam is a religion of peace” and that the 9/11 hijackers and the men who made up ISIS were not true Muslims.
“The soldiers for ISIS were not true Muslims because Islam is a peaceful religion and does not advocate the kinds of things ISIS was doing.” Former US President Barack Obama.
Does the Quran advocate peace or violence?

THE QURAN ADVOCATES BOTH

Muhammad’s teachings in Mecca was when his followers were part of a religious minority, preached peace and tolerance toward others (Quran 2:190, 29:46). After he gained numerous followers and political power, he advocated a hostile attitude toward people of other faiths.

Quran 8:39
“Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God’s religion shall reign supreme.”

Quran 9:29
“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day . . . even if they are of the People of the Book, until they pay the tax and they are in a state of subjection.” See also Quran 3:151; 9:5 and other verses similar to these.

Each Muslim decides which verses to practice.
If a Muslim, who are terrorists and belong to ISIS wants to hate people of other faiths (including Jews and Christians) and to spread Islam by violence, there is justification in the Quran to support it. There are verses in the Quran to justify their fight against Christians and Jews. But to say that Islam is a “peaceful religion” contradicts history and the Quran.

If a Muslim wants to live in peace with his neighbors and happily co-exist with others (as most Muslims do in the West), there are some verses in the Quran that support that. But I wonder, will these Muslims actively oppose their fellow Muslims if they carry out jihad on us? Or stand idly by?

ISLAMIC BELIEFS & A BIBLICAL RESPONSE

BELIEF IN ONE GOD, ALLAH

The Quran says Allah is only one God: “Allah” in Arabic means “the God.” Allah is not a Trinity by nature and He has no Son; to say otherwise is an unforgivable sin to Muslims (Quran 112:1-4, 4:48)

Muhammad demoted the LORD Jesus to a mere human prophet. The apostle Paul warned about those who preach “another Jesus… let him be anathema (cursed)” (2 COR 11:4). This different Jesus of the Quran is an example of that.

ALLAH DOES NOT LOVE SINNERS

Quran 2:276
“Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner.”

Quran 3:32
“Surely Allah does not love the unbelievers.”

If you are an ungrateful sinner, an unbeliever, the Quran says that Allah does not love you. The Bible says that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob loves the whole world, including sinners!

JOHN 3:16
“God so loved the world [that’s everybody!] that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, would not perish but have everlasting life.”

ROMANS 5:8
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Bible also teaches that believers are adopted into God’s family (EPH 1:5) and can personally address God as “Father” (MATT 6:9; ROM 8:15).

The God of the Bible offers mankind a personal relationship of great intimacy. Not so in Islam: there is no fatherly concept of God. To most Muslims, Allah is a remote judge who is not personally involved with humanity. Islam is about service, submission, and allegiance to God, not about a loving fellowship with GOD as a heavenly Father.

WHO ARE ISLAM’s PROPHETS?

Muhammad taught that Allah’s prophets included persons more than a thousand years before Muhammad was even born: prophets like Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, John the Baptist, and Jesus (Quran 6:84-86). Muhammad taught they were all prophets of Islam.

But if Muslims believe these men in the Bible were genuine prophets of God, why don’t they believe what they taught? According to the Quran (33:40), Muhammad is the last and most respected of Allah’s prophets. Having come last, the Quran teaches that Muhammad’s teachings supersede the others’—even those of Jesus.

EVIDENCE THE QURAN IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD

1. THE QURAN CONTRADICTS THE BIBLE – Many teachings in the Quran directly contradict the Bible. The Bible is unique: it’s the Book that provides hundreds of fulfilled prophecies as proof of its divine inspiration.

Again, the Quran denies the LORD Jesus’ deity and denies the doctrine of the Trinity. Those teachings are biblical.  The Quran also teaches that salvation comes by works, not by God’s grace. Notice what the Quran teaches:

Quran 23:102-3
“Then those whose balance (of good deeds) is heavy, they will attain salvation: But those whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls, in Hell will they abide.”

Quran 18:107, 110
“As to those who believe and work righteous deeds, they have, for their entertainment, the Gardens of Paradise . . . And whoever hopeth for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work.”

In Islam, salvation is granted if you believe in the Quran, in Allah and Muhammad as his prophet and work righteous deeds. To make righteous deeds a requirement for salvation puts the Quran at odds with what God has already revealed in the Bible:

ROMANS 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

EPHESIANS 2:8-9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

TITUS 3:5
“ . . . not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”

2. THE QURAN CONTRADICTS KNOWN FACTS OF SCIENCE – The Quran has serious errors regarding  science that prove it cannot be the product of an omniscient, divine mind.

Quran 18:86, it speaks of a man traveling until he finds the place where the Sun descends into the Earth. It says he traveled “till, when he reached the setting-place of the Sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring”. Other scientific errors in the Quran include:

•  A hard sky that can fall on the inhabitants of the Earth (22:65, 34:9)
•  A moon that is further away than the stars (67:3, 5, and 71:15–16)
•  Mountains that were created to hold down the earth and prevent earthquakes (31:10–11)
•  Meteors that are a form of divine retribution being hurled at devils who might try to spy on the heavenly council (37:6–10; 72:8–9)

3. THE QURAN CONTRADICTS KNOWN FACTS OF HISTORY – One of the most well-attested facts of history is that Jesus of Nazareth was put to death on a cross. It’s a fact of history confirmed by historical sources, even outside of the Bible (Flavius Josephus, Cornelius Tacitus), that even many liberal historians consider it an indisputable fact. And yet, the Quran asserts that this historical event never occurred.

“And for claiming that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of GOD. In fact, they [speaking of the Jews] never killed him, they never crucified him – they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him.” QURAN 4:157

The New Testament was written down within the first generation after the events surrounding Jesus’ life, while the eyewitnesses were still alive. It has been corroborated by a wealth of historical research, extrabiblical writings (e.g., the Jewish Talmud and first-century historian Flavius Josephus), and numerous archaeological discoveries.

The Quran was written down 600 years after Jesus’ crucifixion by men who lived more than 700 miles away. The Quran’s insistence that Jesus was never crucified is a fatal error that destroys its credibility.

4. THE QURAN HAS MANY INTERNAL INCONSISTENCIES
• The Quran teaches that Noah and all his family survived the flood in one place (Quran 21:76), but in another place, it says one of Noah’s sons drowned (Quran 11:42-43)

•  The Quran states that Pharaoh drowned while chasing the Israelites (Quran 28:40, 17:103, 43:55), but in another place, it says he survived (10:90-92).

There are more than a hundred of these kinds of internal inconsistencies in the Quran.

This will be an ongoing series!

NOW CHECK OUT this video series by ONCE LOST ministries with Kyle Peart and Flynn Huseby (PART ONE of this TTUF series had the first 4 videos of OLM series on Islam, so we'll pick up on video #5, #6 and #7 (with more to come)!

UNDERSTANDING ISLAM, Part 5: Can Islam Be Christianized? 

UNDERSTANDING ISLAM, Part 6: Is ISLAM Really A Religion of Peace?

UNDERSTANDING ISLAM, Part 7: Why Do Muslims Vote Democrat?