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Apologetic Defense of the faith, the Bible, and Christianity
When Westerners think of Sharia law, their concept is usually centered on excessive punishments, such as being stoned for adultery or having hands cut off for stealing. However, Islam presents Sharia not just as a legal system but as an integral way to fulfill the will of Allah for each person and situation, since Allah’s will is to bring about compassion, generosity, and justice.
Dr. Michael Youssef, who studied Islamic movements at Emory University, claims that for almost fourteen hundred years the main goal of Islam has been to conquer the world and bring all people under the subjugation of Islam.
The traditional accounts describe Arabs before the time of Muhammad as being in a state of confusion, which Muslims refer to as “Jahiliyyah.” This term means that the Arabs were spiritually lost, and their practices were strongly opposed to Allah’s ways – they did not know the truth and were always fighting among themselves.
At the time of this publication, ISIS has been on the defeated but not decimated by the Trump administration. However, this group represents many radical groups that have gone before it and other groups that will rise up in its place. Therefore, we can use this recent manifestation of the face of radical Islam to help us understand the core motivations of similar groups — past, present, and future.
Whenever the subject of the Crusades comes up in conversation, it seems to touch a raw nerve and causes Christians in the West to feel defensive as well as apologetic.
In Surah 42:13, the Qur’an teaches that there should be no divisions within Islam:
He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus - to establish the religion and not be divided therein.
Muḥammad ibn Al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī is believed by Shia Twelver Muslims to be the Mahdī, an eschatological redeemer of Islam and ultimate savior of humankind and the final Imām of the Twelve Imams who will emerge with Isa (Jesus Christ) in order to fulfill their mission of bringing peace and justice to the world.
Today the Muslim concept of salvation is drastically different from the Christian view. Perhaps the best statement to frame the Islamic view of salvation is from Ron Rhodes: “A weak view of sin will always lead to a weak view of salvation.”[1] In other words, Islam minimizes the reality of human sin to such an extent that for the Muslim... Continue Reading →
When Westerners think of Sharia law, their concept is usually centered on excessive punishments, such as being stoned for adultery or having hands cut off for stealing. However, Islam presents Sharia not just as a legal system but as an integral way to fulfill the will of Allah for each person and situation, since Allah’s will is... Continue Reading →
In some ways, Islam is a complex, multi-layered religion that mixes politics, economics, and social dynamics within a religious structure. The structure itself is based on the Qur’an’s pronouncements from Allah, the words of the prophet Muhammad recorded in the Hadith and a complicated system of jurisprudence. On the other hand, the basic doctrines are quite simple, and initiation... Continue Reading →