Jesus, Allah and Worship of the One True God

As the adage goes, “when I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck a quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.” A simple saying, but an accurate one. It is necessary to look at an object’s qualities and traits before determining its identity. If a bird cannot fly, runs 65 kilometers an hour and weighs 120 kilograms, it’s an ostrich, even if someone decides to call it a duck. An ostrich by any other name is still an ostrich.

The above analogy applies to many aspects of our Christian lives. We may profess to be Christians, but if we do not live according to the Word of God, our words are hollow. To be a Christian is not to simply state a belief in Christ, but to follow the words of Jesus, who is the Word made flesh. We must walk the path of faith not as mere wayfarers, but as pilgrims, our faith manifested in the lives that we live. Our actions and deeds must evidence our faith. Our witness must be so strong that it compels others to conclude we are Christians.

However, as we selectively disregard Christ’s teachings and live according to our own prerogatives, our lives may cease to bear the marks of Christianity. Rather than attempting to overcome our fallen nature and ensure that our lives reflect God’s design, we may attempt to recreate God in our own image. If we persist in individually caricaturing the Divine, emphasizing that which we like and minimizing that which we do not, at a certain point we risk presenting an image of God so distorted that what we portray is not the Lord of all, but rather our own personal god.

It is at this juncture, where an individual clearly deviates from scripture in their characterization of the faith, that we must heed Jesus’ admonishment to “Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matt 7:1 - RSV) We are in no position to fully comprehend the context from which one approaches their faith. We are oblivious to how deeply their convictions are held, their ability to understand the scriptures, their influences, etc. Final judgment is reserved to God alone, and his mercy is unfathomable, as St. Faustina tells us in her Diary (1698):

“I often attend upon the dying and through entreaties obtain for them trust in God’s mercy, and I implore God for an abundance of divine grace, which is always victorious. God’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way. Outwardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is not so. The soul, illumined by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that, in an instant, it receives from God forgiveness of sin and punishment, while outwardly it shows no sign either of repentance or of contrition, because souls [at that stage] no longer react to external things.

Oh, how beyond comprehension is God’s mercy! Although a person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God.”

Not privy to the intimate workings of the Lord within a person’s heart, we are unable to judge the soul of another. It is for this reason and in this context which Christ warns us not to judge. Yet it is fallacious to contend that Jesus wishes us to refrain from seeking the truth and pronouncing it openly. It is our duty to “[a]lways be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls [us] to account for the hope that is in [us]” as Christians. We must do so with “gentleness and reverence”, but not fear to speak (1 Peter 3:15). Christ has given us our gifts and talents precisely so that we may equip ourselves to speak the truth in love. Not to admonish for its own sake, but to uphold right doctrine and defend the deposit of faith which God has entrusted to His Church. While our words may oppose the beliefs of others, we must speak the truth in the hopes of reuniting all people within the mystical body of Christ:

“And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.” Ephesians 4:11-16 RSV

Yet, rather than unity, there is currently great division even among the Abrahamic traditions. As books can and have been written on this subject, it is necessary to restrict the discussion. Focusing on Islam, for example, striking doctrinal differences are evident in the qualities and traits ascribed to God. While both assert that the God of Abraham is the One, true God, the Quran rejects the Trinity, the Sonship of Christ and Jesus’ divinity:

The Quran denies the Trinity:

Certainly they disbelieve those who say: Surely Allah is the third (person) of the three; and there is no god but the one God, and if they desist not from what they say, a painful chastisement shall befall those among them who disbelieve (Sura 5:73).

O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not ‘Three’ - Cease! (it is) better for you! - Allah is only One Allah. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that He should have a son (Sura 4:171).

The Quaran denies the Father and the Son:

The Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them (Sura 9:29-30).

It does not befit GOD that He begets a son, be He glorified (Sura 19:35).

The Quran denies the Deity of Christ:

The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was no more than God’s apostle (Sura 4).

They do blaspheme who say: Allah is Christ the son of Mary (Sura 5:72).

And when Allah saith: O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he saith: Be glorified! It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right (Sura 5:116).

In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary (Sura 5:17).

Despite these beliefs expressed within the Quran, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, while affirming the Trinity, the Sonship of Christ and Jesus’ divinity, simultaneously expresses the view that we worship the same God:

841 […] “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

Logically, this is a rather puzzling statement. If you asked a Christian and a Muslim if they believed in one God, who is the God of Israel, both would reply in the affirmative. However, if you asked both if Jesus is God, the Christian would reply that Jesus is God whereas the Muslim would deny Jesus’ divinity, stating that “in blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary”. For the Christian and the Muslim, the qualities and traits of God differ, even God’s very essence differs, and to such an extent that one must wonder whether the Catechism’s statement of ordinary, rather than extraordinary, magisterium is correct.

Yet Hilarie Belloc, a great and orthodox thinker, appears to support the teaching of the Catechism. Although he wrote well before the Catechism, he notes that Mohammedanism arose not as a new religion, but as a heresy within Christianity:

“Mohammedanism was a heresy: that is the essential point to grasp before going any further. It began as a heresy, not as a new religion. It was not a pagan contrast with the Church; it was not an alien enemy. It was a perversion of Christian doctrine. Its vitality and endurance soon gave it the appearance of a new religion, but those who were contemporary with its rise saw it for what it was – not a denial, but an adaptation and a misuse, of the Christian thing. It differed from most (not from all) heresies in this, that it did not arise within the bounds of the Christian Church. The chief heresiarch, Mohammed himself, was not, like most heresiarchs, a man of Catholic birth and doctrine to begin with. He sprang from pagans. But that which he taught was in the main Catholic doctrine, oversimplified. It was the great Catholic world – on the frontiers of which he lived, whose influence was all around him and whose territories he had known by travel – which inspired his convictions […]

He took over very few of those old pagan ideas which might have been native to him from his descent. On the contrary, he preached and insisted upon a whole group of ideas which were peculiar to the Catholic Church and distinguished it from the paganism which it had conquered in the Greek and Roman civilization. Thus the very foundation of his teaching was that prime Catholic doctrine, the unity and omnipotence of God. The attributes of God he also took over in the main from Catholic doctrine: the personal nature, the all-goodness, the timelessness, the providence of God, His creative power as the origin of all things, and His sustenance of all things by His power alone. The world of good spirits and angels and of evil spirits in rebellion against God was a part of the teaching, with a chief evil spirit, such as Christendom had recognized. Mohammed preached with insistence that prime Catholic doctrine, on the human side – the immortality of the soul and its responsibility for actions in this life, coupled with the consequent doctrine of punishment and reward after death.

[…]

But the central point where this new heresy struck home with a mortal blow against Catholic tradition was a full denial of the Incarnation.

Mohammed did not merely take the first steps toward that denial, as the Arians and their followers had done; he advanced a clear affirmation, full and complete, against the whole doctrine of an incarnate God. He taught that Our Lord was the greatest of all the prophets, but still only a prophet: a man like other men. He eliminated the Trinity altogether.

With that denial of the Incarnation went the whole sacramental structure. He refused to know anything of the Eucharist, with its Real Presence; he stopped the sacrifice of the Mass, and therefore the institution of a special priesthood. In other words, he, like so many other lesser heresiarchs, founded his heresy on simplification.

Catholic doctrine was true (he seemed to say), but it had become encumbered with false accretions; it had become complicated by needless man-made additions, including the idea that its founder was Divine, and the growth of a parasitical caste of priests who battened on a late, imagined, system of Sacraments which they alone could administer. All those corrupt accretions must be swept away.

[…] Simplicity was the note of the whole affair; and since all heresies draw their strength from some true doctrine, Mohammedanism drew its strength from the true Catholic doctrines which it retained: the equality of all men before God – “All true believers are brothers.” It zealously preached and throve on the paramount claims of justice, social and economic.”

Does Belloc’s exegesis lend enough support to the Catechism’s view that Islam and Christianity worship the same God so as to overcome the obvious problems posed by the denial of the incarnation and issues related to the Trinity which arise as a result?

Personally, I feel that Islam and Christianity differ to such a degree at the doctrinal level that I do not see how the two could describe the same God. Even if you disagree with this end conclusion, there should be little doubt that the Christian must view Islam as doctrinally flawed. The teaching of Islam on the Trinity is incorrect - The Father is God, Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Trinity is God. We know this because, while we have had a personal relationship with the Father, we have also had a personal relationship with the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is absolutely incumbent upon Christians to learn those ways in which Christian and Muslim beliefs differ, learn why they differ, and be able to defend our faith and beliefs.

Despite the above, I believe that on the personal level it may be impossible to know whether an individual Muslim worships the One God. For most people, our faith his not an intellectual exercise. It is an emotive response to the stirring of the heart. We can never be sure the degree to which any person has either turned their heart toward God, nor away from Jesus. Even for those who have been taught about Jesus, it is impossible to determine the depths to which their current religious beliefs have been instilled and to assess their capacity to be fully open to conflicting teachings. Further, surely the Muslims worship Someone, and with admirable reverence at that. Is it not possible that they may worship the God of the Trinity without awareness or an acknowledgement of the Mystery – much as a man might fall in love with a woman only to learn over time the many aspects of her beauty that he could never have discovered before they grew in intimacy? It is perhaps for this reason that the Catechism states that Muslims individually worship the One True God but does not make any assertions with regard to Islam and its teachings.

All this strengthens rather than reduces the obligation of Christians to evangelize and teach the Word. Iinspired by the Holy Spirit, we must draw others to the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. We must introduce others to Jesus, through our love and compassion. However, we must do so with love, gentleness and reverence. As St. Francis said to the Sultan of Babylon: “If you wish to be converted to Christ along with your people, I will most gladly stay with you for love of Him.”

SOURCES:

St. Faustina Kowalska, “Divine Mercy in my Soul: The Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska”

<http://www.faustina.org/pages/diary.htm>.

Passages from the Quran - Dr Joseph Mizzi, “Do Catholics and Muslims Worship the Same God?”
<www.justforcatholics.org/islam.htm>.

Hilaire Belloc, “The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed”
<http://www.trosch.org/bks/mohammed.html>.

Brother David Kazmarek, TOR, “St. Francis of Assisi and the Muslims”

<http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/archive/stfrancis/stf_st_francis_and_the_muslims.htm>.