Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Engaging Australia’s Muslims

Episode Date: March 19, 2019

Alan recently returned from Australia after spending some time training local believers on how to graciously engage Muslims. In this episode, Alan discusses one key tactic he taught Australian Christians before taking them to the mosque. Download the mp3...

Over a thousand Muslims were filing out the doors while a group of Australian believers and I waited patiently outside one of the largest mosques in Melbourne, Australia. Now, our arrangement with the imam there was to attend their service and then afterwards to dialogue with him about our respective religious convictions. Now, after listening to the sermon and that Muslims do not trust the Bible. Though they believe that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel, and by the way, when I say Gospel, they think it's a single document that they believe once existed that was different from our gospels. Okay. So, Muslims believe that the Torah, Psalms, and gospel are true revelations of a law. But they also believe that the biblical books have been either intentionally or accidentally corrupted.

Now, not only is this the most common objection that you'll run across when you talk to a Muslim, but it's also the most serious one. And that's because Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John contain the true identity of Christ, his life, and his message of reconciliation. Those books, though, are the very documents Muslims claim are corrupted. And so when you try to tell a Muslim about Jesus, well, they just fire back with a charge of corruption. In fact, that's exactly what the imam who we were talking to

in Australia quickly claimed during our interaction at the mosque. Now, typically, Christians are caught off guard by this response. In fact, there's very little that you can say about the claims of Christ without relying on the four Gospels. Fortunately, though, I'd spent a week with these Christians teaching about Islam and training these Australian believers how to overcome this objection. And here's the key to understanding how to address this objection. Although Muslims claim that the Bible is corrupted, authoritative sources in Islam teach the opposite. They teach that the Torah, the Psalms, and the four Gospels are the uncorrupted word of God.

And so the way I try to unpack this is by saying this. The Quran teaches that, Muhammad teaches that, and Muslim scholars also confirm it. teaches that, Muhammad teaches that, and Muslim scholars also confirm it. So, the Quran teaches it, Muhammad said it, and Muslim scholars confirm it. So, let's try to unpack each one of those. The first one is this, the Quran teaches it, right? The Quran teaches that the Torah, Psalms, and Gospel are the uncorrupted Word of God. Now, why do I say that? Well, Muslims believe the Quran contains the literal words of God. And that means they must accept everything it says. And it turns out that the Quran teaches two very important concepts.

The first is this. The Quran teaches that no one can change the words of God. This is found in Surah 6, 115. And by Surah, I just mean the word, it's just a word for chapter. Okay, so chapter 6, 115, Surah 6, 34, Surah 10, 64, and indeed several other places where the Quran teaches that no one can change the words of God. But the second thing the Quran teaches is that the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel are examples of the word of God. This is found in Surah 2, 136, Surah 3, 3, Surah 29, 46, and several other places as well. And so therefore, notice what follows logically from those two points. If no one can change the words of God and the gospel, which I'd argue is

a reference to the four gospels, is an example of the word of God, then it follows that the four So, Muslims can't claim they're corrupted if their highest authority teaches the opposite. So, that's the first point, is that the Quran teaches that the Bible, or Torah, Psalms, and Gospel at least, are the uncorrupted words of God. But it's not just the Quran saying this. Muhammad also says it as well. Not only does the Quran teach that the biblical books mention the Quran of trustworthy, but the highest prophet in Islam, who would be really their most esteemed prophet, Muhammad, also affirmed the very same thing. And according to the earliest extant

biography that we have of Muhammad called The Life of Muhammad, it's written by a Muslim, by the way, Ibn Ishaq. This is on page 268. Four Jews come up to Muhammad and ask him a question. They say this, do you, Muhammad, allege, or I'm sorry, do you not allege that you follow the religion of Abraham and believe in the Torah, which we have, and testify that it is the truth from God? So when these four Jews ask Muhammad this question, Muhammad replies, certainly. But you have sinned and broken the covenant contained therein. so notice that when muhammad is asked if he believed that the torah which the jews had with them during the seventh century was the truth from god muhammad answered in the affirmative and that he even held them accountable to the torah's commands which presumes that he thought

the torah was reliable right i mean it wouldn't make sense for muhammad to respond in this way if he believed it was corrupted. And so, the third point I want to make is that Muslim scholars also confirm this point as well. The most trusted Muslim authorities confirm that the biblical books have not been changed. Let me give you a few examples or one example that's significant. Abdullah ibn Abbas was Muhammad's cousin and his most trusted companion. And his commentary is regarded by Muslims as one of the most reliable because of his close relationship with Muhammad. And writing about a Quranic passage that refers to Jews who, quote,

displace words from their right places, end quote. This is Surah 446. Ibn Abbas says, quote, they corrupt the word means that they alter or change its meaning, yet no one is able to change even a single word from any book of God. The meaning is that they interpret the word wrongly, end quote. Notice that Ibn Abbas confirms that the verse refers to a different interpretation of the biblical text, while simultaneously affirming God's words can't be changed. In fact, renowned 14th century scholar Ibn Kathir basically says the same thing. He says, none among Allah's creation can remove the words of Allah from his books. can remove the words of Allah from his books.

The Torah and Injil, which is what we refer to as the Torah and the gospel, the Torah and the Injil remain as Allah revealed them and no letter in them was removed. So again, you have now another scholar affirming that the Torah, Psalms, and gospel are the true revelation and uncorrupted revelation of God. And these are just a few examples I'm just kind of highlighting here. But the point is, is that if all of these Islamic sources, and again, there's many more,

affirm the same point, that the Torah, Psalms, and Gospel are trustworthy, then Muslims can't sustain their claim that those Christian texts are corrupted. On the contrary, we can point Muslims to what Jesus taught about himself in the four gospels because Muslims have to acknowledge what their authoritative sources in Islam say. The Quran teaches it, Muhammad said it, and Muslim scholars confirm it. And indeed, that's exactly what the Australian believers were able to do when we met with the imam at the mosque. They could point the imam to his highest authorities to clear the charge of corruption.

Now, of course, we want to remain respectful as well whenever we're engaging people of different faiths or different convictions. Because after all, our goal there was to build bridges so that the believers in that country can make a long-term difference for the kingdom with the many Muslims that have come to their shores and indeed will come to their shores in the future.