Islam in Christ's Eyes
“Islam in Christ’s Eyes” A study of the origins of Islam and the Christian response by Wissam Youssif Lesson Seven- “The Six Pillars of Faith in Islam” Spring Quarter - 2018
I. Introduction
A. Last week we examined “The Pillars of Islam.”
A.1. Those are the five things you must do to become a Muslim.
A.2. In fact, they the acts of faith that make a Muslim a Muslim.
B. Let’s have a quiz: What are the five pillars of Islam?
II. The Five Pillars of Islam
A. First, there is the “Shahada” which means “confession.”
A.1. This is what is recited when you convert to Islam.
A.2. First, you say, “I confess that there is no god but Allah.”
A.3. Second you confess that Muhammad is God’s last and
God’s greatest prophet.
A.4. The Shahada is the sum of what it means to become a
Muslim when you complete the confession in front of other
Muslim witnesses.
B. The second pillar of Islam is the “Salat.” B.1. This is daily ritual of five prayers.
B.2. Five times daily a faithful Muslim will pray towards
Mecca.
B.3. Before you pray, you must be ritually clean by undergoing
the “Wudhoo” which is a washing process.
B.4. Sometimes, if there is no water, a Muslim will simply
pretend to wash to be ceremonially clean.
B.5. Then, a Muslim will face toward Mecca and pray.
B.6. He does so through a series of standings, kneelings,
prostratings and sittings.
B.7. It is repeated twice in the morning, four times at midday,
four times in the afternoon, three times at sunset and four
times in the evening.
B.8. With these moves, a Muslim recites Sura 1 in every cycle-
in addition to at least three verses from any another Sura
from the Quran.
C. The third pillar of Islam is “Sawm.”
C.1. This is ritual fasting and was ordained in the Quran. C.2. It says “O you who believe, the fasts have been enjoined
upon you as they were enjoined upon those before you . . .
For days few in number. However, should any of you be
sick or on a journey then (he should fast) a number of other
days (equal to the missed ones) . . . The month of Ramadan
is the one in which the Quran was revealed . . . So those of
you who witness the month must fast in it . . . and eat and
drink until the white thread of the dawn becomes distinct
from the black thread; then complete the fast up to the
night. Sura 2:183-187
C.3. What that means is that when a Muslim can distinguish a
white thread from a black thread at the first light of dawn,
the fast begins for the day and each day of Ramadan.
C.4. A Muslim must neither eat, drink or have marital sex from
sunrise to sunset, every day, for the whole month of
Ramadan.
D. The fourth pillar of Islam is “Zakat” which is almsgiving.
D.1. Islam places a strong emphasis on benevolence and
almsgiving to attain righteousness. D.2. The Quran says, “And be steadfast in Salat ( prayer) and
give Zakat (almsgiving). Whatever good you send forth for
yourselves, you will find it with Allah.” Sura 2:110.
D.3. This much like what the Bible teaches in Galatians 6:7, “A
man reaps what he sows.”
D.4. How much do Muslims give?
D.4.a. The most common form of almsgiving is an annual of
2.5% of all liquid assets and income producing
property.
D.4.b. They do not give on fixed assets like property.
D.5. Muslims often pay their alms to the local mosque because
that is how Islam is funded.
E. The fifth and final pillar of Islam is “Hajj.”
E.1. This is the pilgrimage to Mecca.
E.2. Each year approximately 2 million Muslims make the trip
which is a major logistical challenge for the Saudi
government to house, feed, water and transport the
enormous influx of people in the city. E.3. It is estimated that only 10% of all Muslims ever participate
in this fifth and final pillar of Islam.
E.4. Sura 3:97 says “ . . .it is obligatory on the people to perform
Hajj of the House - on everyone who has the ability to
manage (his) way to it.”
E.5. Many Muslims who make the trip see this as a matter of
prestige because many cannot afford to make the journey.
E.6. The Pilgrimage includes rites such as ritual cleansing,
wearing special cloths, walking around the Ka’ba, running
between two specific hills, standing in vigil, animal
sacrifices, stoning the devil and sometimes kissing the
Black Stone.
E.7. While there, Muslims repeat the prayer continually, “Here I
am, my God, here I am.” This is called the “Talbiya.”
E.8. What are the only reasons a Muslim is excused from Hajj?
E.9. If he is sick or disabled or if he does not have the financial
means.
E.10. Poverty is how must of them are excused from going on
Hajj. F. These are the five Pillars of Islam that make a Muslim a Muslim.
F.1. Confession of the One God Allah and His prophet,
Muhammad - Shahada
F.2. Daily Prayers - Salat
F.3. Fasting during Ramadan - Sawm
F.4. Almsgiving - Zakat
F.5. Pilgrimage to Mecca - Hajj
G. Those are the five things a good Muslim must do.
H. Questions or comments about “The Five Pillars of Islam”?
I. Today will examine the six things a Muslim must believe.
J. These are . . .
III. The Six Pillars of Faith
A. First, a Muslim must believe in the one God who is Allah.
A.1. This is similar to the Shahada confession but it this deals
with the belief rather than the confession of the fact.
A.2. Could you be a Muslim and a Christian simultaneously?
A.3. No. What is the fundamental belief of “Christianity?”
A.4. The primary belief of our faith is that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. A.5. How do we know this?
A.5.a. Jesus said this just before leaving earth to return to
Heaven in Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is
baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe
will be condemned.”
A.5.b. And we read in (John 3:16 NKJV) “For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.”
A.6. It is heresy to believe that statement in Islam. Why?
A.7. The Quran says “Allah . . .neither begot anyone, nor was
He begotten.” Sura 112.2-3
A.8. In Islam, there is only one God who does not have a Son
nor does He appear as the Holy Spirit.
A.9. Allah has no associates or family.
A.10. The greatest sin in Islam is “association” which is called
“shirk” in the Quran.
A.11. It goes all the way back to Muhammad’s days in Mecca. A.12. Before the rise of Islam, what did the people in that city
believe about the supernatural world and deities?
A.13. They were polytheistic and worshiped many gods.
A.14. There were 360 idols in the Ka’ba when Muhammad took
control of the city of Mecca.
A.15. Therefore he decreed that anyone guilty of this sin would
receive the death penalty and would go to Hell forever.
A.16. This is the sin of “shirk.”
A.17. To charge someone with being a “shirk” in Islam is the
most serious accusation one can make.
A.18. Anyone who rejects the idea that God has no associates is
an atheist and is called a “kafir” in Islam.
A.19. Muslim extremists, consider you to be a “kafir” simply
because you are not a Muslim who accepts that there is
only one God who has no associates.
A.20. However, some moderate Muslims believe the Quran has
an exception for Jews and Christians and they do not
consider us to be “kafirs” because the three religions are all
part of the same faith tree. A.21. The first pillar of faith in Islam is to believe in the one God
who is Allah and you submit to his will.
B. Second, a Muslim must believe in the Angels of Allah.
B.1. The Six Pillars of Faith are based on Sura 4:136 which
says, “O you who believe, do believe in Allah and His
Messenger and in the Book He has revealed to His
messenger and in the Books he has revealed earlier.
Whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His
Books and His Messengers and the Last Day has indeed
gone astray.”
B.2. Most of the angels mentioned in the Quran are also
referenced in the Bible.
B.3. The way angels are portrayed in the Quran is similar to the
way they are portrayed in the Bible as well.
B.3.a. They are humanoid and have an impressive
appearance.
B.3.b. They praise Allah, carry his messages, and support
his throne in Heaven. B.3.c. Angels played a key role in the life of Muhammad
when Gabriel gave prophetic utterances to the
prophet that eventually became the Quran.
B.3.d. And in Islam, Satan is depicted as a fallen angel who
was expelled from the presence of Allah when he
refused God’s command to bow down and worship
Adam, the first man.
B.3.e. That is different from what the Bible teaches.
B.3.f. What happened in the book of the Revelation when
John bowed down to worship an angel?
B.3.g. Revelation 22:8-9, 8 “I, John, am the one who heard
and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen
them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel
who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to
me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and
with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep
the words of this book. Worship God!”
B.3.h. Men do not worship angels and angels to not worship
men. B.3.i. Who alone is worthy of worship? God
B.4. Angels are mentioned 80 times in the Quran.
B.5. What are the only two angels in the Bible that are named?
B.5.a. They are Gabriel and Michael.
B.5.b. Both are also mentioned in the Quran but there are
another angel named as well.
B.5.c. Izra’il and he is the angel of death mentioned in Sura
32:11 and he is an archangel.
B.5.d. He is also gigantic with 4,000 wings and 70,000 feet.
B.5.e. Izra’il has a scroll with the names of all people which
are coded for Heaven or Hell.
B.5.f. His primary function is to separate the body from the
soul within 40 days of the person’s death.
B.5.g. Other angels are mentioned in Islamic traditions but
are not mentioned in the Quran.
B.6. Muslims also believe that each person has two angels on
their shoulders: one on the right shoulder to record their
good deeds and one on the left to record their sins. B.7. At the end of every prayer, a Muslim greets the right, then
the left, with the Arabic greeting, “Al-Salam-u Alaykum.”
B.8. Also, Islam teaches that when a righteous person dies, that
person will be met by two nice angels in the grave, with a
preview of Paradise.
B.9. However, an unrighteous person is met by two unpleasant
angels that torture the sinners when they die.
B.10. The person may try to turn away but the death angel
confronts them wherever they turn.
B.11. The two angels who have recorded the person’s good and
bad deeds show them to the person who has died to show
them their fate is just.
C. Third, a Muslim must believe the Scriptures.
C.1. What are the “Scriptures” according to Islam?
C.2. These include the writings of Islam which are the Quran,
Hadith and Sira.
C.3. The Islamic sacred writings also include what Muhammad
thought was the Bible. C.4. His memory was often mistaken when teaching from the
Bible and usually misquoted it in the Quran.
C.5. Why? Muhammad couldn’t read the Bible because he was
illiterate
C.6. Therefore, every reference to it he mentioned in the Quran
came from his memory.
C.7. Yet, Islam recognizes Genesis through Deuteronomy, the
Psalms of David and the Gospels as being sacred.
C.8. How do Muslims deal with those parts of the Bible that
contradict the Quran and other Islamic writing?
C.8.a. They say those texts were corrupted by the Jews and
the Christians to deceive the true believers of Islam.
C.8.b. Therefore, Muhammad’s writings cleared up the
contradictions and gave God’s true word to his
followers.
C.8.c. If Muslims believe the first five books of the Bible,
the Psalms and the Gospels are sacred, why don’t
they study them? And they don’t. C.8.d. Their answer is, “Since Muhammad came after them
and Allah gave the prophet the perfect word, there is
no need to go back to those old erroneous texts since
Islam has God’s perfect revelation, the Quran.”
C.9. Hadith is the collection of stories and sayings from
Muhammad’s life and is also considered sacred in Islam.
C.10. Sira is Muhammad’s biography and is also considered
sacred.
C.11. What the Gospels are to Christians, the Sira is to Islam.
C.12. What are the “Gospels?” Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
and they tell us the life story and teachings of Jesus.
C.13. The Sira is a similar account of Muhammad.
C.14. We will talk more about the Sira and Hadith in the future
when we examine them and the Quran more closely.
D. Fourth, a Muslim must believe the Messengers or the prophets.
D.1. The Islamic tradition talks about many messengers.
D.2. In fact, they believe there have been 124,000 prophets in
the Bible and others were prophets after it was written. D.3. The Quran mentions the names of 24 prophets, most of
which are named in the Bible.
D.4. Some of those names are Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus.
D.5. Who is mentioned more in the Quran: Moses or
Muhammad - Moses is mentioned more frequently.
D.6. Muslims believe that Jesus was only a prophet and not the
Son of God.
D.7. They also do not believe that Jesus was crucified and
certainly was not resurrected from the dead.
D.8. In Islam, the supreme messenger is Muhammad and his
words supercede the words of all other prophets.
D.9. This was due the fact that Muhammad revealed the perfect
and complete form of the Word of God, the Quran and God
would send no further prophets and messengers.
D.10. Muhammad was the “Seal of the Prophets” because he was
the last and greatest of God’s prophets.
D.11. This is a fundamental belief of Islam and there can be no
compromise in this doctrine.
E. Fifth, a Muslim must believe in the Last Day. E.1. Islam teaches that at the Judgement Day all must face an
angry but just God.
E.2. After your judgement, there is Paradise or Hell.
E.3. Since Islam is a works based faith, there is no certain
process that insures admittance to Paradise to avoid Hell.
E.4. That would bother me. Would it you? Why?
E.5. Moreover, Islam believes in Purgatory or in limbo.
E.6. A bad Muslim may go to Hell for a short time for
punishment but none go there permanently.
E.7. What happens at the Muslim Judgment Day?
E.7.a. The most common idea taught by Muslim scholars is
that a scale will be used to weigh each person’s good
deeds on one side and bad deeds on the other side.
E.7.b. If good deeds outweigh bad deeds, the person goes to
Paradise (after being purged from sins in Hell.)
E.8. If bad deeds outweigh good deeds, then it is Hell (unless
you were a Muslim, in which case you will eventually be
released from Hell, which totally defies the very purpose of
the scale in the first place.) E.9. Islamic tradition says that upon death, there is an
examination of the person in the grave by two angels that
may lead to a limited period of punishment in the grave
before entering Paradise.
E.10. The Quran does not give a detailed description of Hell but
was developed later in Muslim traditions.
E.11. It is pictured as a place of fire.
E.12. Heaven, however, is pictured as a beautiful well watered
garden in which the saved live in a serene existence.
F. The Sixth Pillar of Faith a Muslim must believe is
“Predestination.”
F.1. Question: Is God in control of all things? Yes and no
F.1.a. God’s ultimate will controls all things.
F.1.b. However, God allows each human being to have free
will in their own lives.
F.1.c. It all started in the Garden of Eden where the Lord
allowed Adam and Eve to have the free will to eat or
not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil. F.1.d. Did God know the first human pair would choose to
eat the fruit? Yes
F.1.e. Did that make God responsible? No
F.1.f. To be human means that you have the power to
choose good or evil.
F.1.g. If God did allow us to choose good or evil, then we
would not be human or responsible for sin.
F.1.h. When we choose evil, God is not responsible even
though He knows what you were going to choose.
F.1.i. Did God know that Nicolas Cruz was going to kill 17
students in a Florida High School and wound many
others? Yes
F.1.j. Was God responsible since He knew? No because
Nicolas Cruz had free will to choose evil.
F.2. In Islam, God is responsible for all that happens as well.
F.3. There is common phrase that is used by Muslims where
they say “insha’allah” which means “God willing.”
F.4. This doctrine is called “predestination”. F.5. It is the belief that God determines the details of your life
before you are born-but you still have to choose your faith
(as long as it is Islam.)
F.6. That is predestination among Muslims.
F.7. “Insha’allah” which means “God willing.”
G. What are the Six Pillars of Faith a Muslim must believe?
G.1. Allah is the only God
G.2. His Angels
G.3. His Scriptures
G.4. His Messengers, the 124,000 prophets and Muhammad is
preeminent
G.5. The Last Day of Judgement-Heaven or Hell
G.6. Predestination
H. What are you impressions of “The Six Pillars of Faith?”
I. Those six fundamentals of the Islamic faith are simple and easy
to understand.
I.1. They are to Muslims was the Catechism is to Catholics.
I.2. It forms the core of their doctrine and what they must
believe. J. Any questions or comments about Islam’s “Six Pillars of Faith?”
K. Next, let’s examine . . .
IV. The Islamic Worship Day
A. As Christians, our day of worship each week is Sunday. Why?
A.1. Christ rose from the dead on Sunday. John 20:1
A.2. The church was established on Pentecost which was always
on Sunday. Acts 2:1
A.3. Paul came together with the church in Troas on the first day
of the week in Acts 20:6-7 to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
A.4. And he told the church in Corinth to give their money to
the church on Sunday in 1 Corinthians 16:2.
A.5. The first day of the week is our worship day.
B. What is the day of worship for Jews? The Sabbath which is
always on Saturday, the last day of the week.
B.1. Do you know why? It is one of the Ten Commandments.
B.2. When Israel was rescued by God out of Egypt, the Lord
gave Moses the fourth commandment in (Exo 20:8 N.V.)
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
B.3. Saturday has always been the day of worship for Judaism. C. What is the day of worship for Muslims? Friday.
C.1. Friday is the Muslim Sabbath.
C.2. They gather in the largest mosque of the town and the iman
will ascend a couple of steps to the pulpit called a “minbar”
to deliver the sermon from a text in the Quran to teach
Islamic morals or doctrines.
C.3. The sermon is also used to mobilize the congregation for or
against the local government.
C.4. Terrorists are sometimes inspired to take action against
their enemies by learning from their Imans during their
Friday sermons.
C.5. After the sermon, then the congregation engages in the
Friday noon prayer called “jum’a.”
C.6. Men and women do not worship together.
C.7. Women have their own space away from the men.
C.8. All Muslim offices, shops and workplaces close down
during the Friday service but reopen for the remainder of
the day when the service concludes. C.9. Did Muhammad and the Muslims always worship on
Friday? No
C.10. Muhammad changed the worship day from Saturday to
Friday after he got angry at the Jews of Medina for pointing
out all the errors he was teaching from the Bible.
D. Questions or comments about the Islamic day of worship?
V. Conclusion
A. These are the fundamentals of faith for the fastest growing
religion in the world.
B. Islam is a legalistic faith that is practiced by 1.8 billion people on
planet earth.
B.1. They believe there are five things you must do called “The
Pillars of Faith.”
B.2. There are six things you must believe called “The Six
Pillars of Faith” to be a good Muslim.
C. I ask you once more, “Why are you here?”
D. My prayer is that the course will help you obey these words of
Jesus who said in (Mat 28:19-20 N.V.) {19} “Therefore go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, {20} and teaching
them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.”
E. My prayer is that we are all here to share the greatest message
with all the world and that includes the people in the fastest
growing religion in the world.
F. Everyone needs Jesus and that includes the Muslims and that
includes me.
G. Questions or comments about “The Six Pillars of Faith” or “The
Islamic Worship Day”?
H. Next week we will begin examining the Islamic sacred writings
in depth and those include the Quran, Sira and Hadith.
I. Prayer