Terry Law Ministries: Teaching on Islam for Chinese Missionaries

This is a chapter from a course I wrote on the subject of Islam. The content was converted to a script, then was filmed and a DVD created to accompany the book.

The overall cross-cultural training program consists of four courses, divided into 16 modules and totals 1,500 pages. The entire program was translated into Chinese, and then filmed in English with Chinese voiceovers. This project took five years for me to complete. I researched, compiled, wrote and edited the entire program. Today, it is used by Chinese house church leaders to train missionaries and is the only one of its kind in China.



History of Islam, Part I

Introduction

Welcome once again to our teaching on Islam. In this lesson I’d like to talk with you briefly about some of the historical events that contributed to the rise and spread of Islam beginning in the sixth century. My goal is for all of us in the end to have a deeper understanding of the changes that occurred in Islam through the years and how these shaped the Islam that is practiced today.

When we study topics such as the standard practices of Islam, the religion seems somewhat simple and straightforward. However, the deeper we get into our study, the more questions and contradictions come to the surface, making the topic much more complicated. Just as in Christianity where followers of Christ have differing interpretations of the Bible, Muslims vary in their interpretation of the Quran and even in the understanding of their own history.

What I’d like to do in this session is present to you a few of the facts surrounding the life of Muhammad, the expansion of Islam under his leadership, the selection of Muhammad’s successor and the split among his followers as a result of this decision.

Pre-Islamic Period

Muslims call the time before Muhammad the “time of ignorance” and the emergence of Islam as the “time of literacy.” They like to claim that before Islam, ignorance and emptiness abounded universally, but soon gave way to knowledge revealed through the Prophet. The idea of the pre-Islamic period as a “time of ignorance,” however, contradicts what we know of the great expanse of knowledge available for centuries prior to Muhammad’s birth.

Just as Muslims view the time before Muhammad as a time of ignorance, many also tend to disregard the possibility that other religions and cultures influenced the development Islam. Instead they adamantly believe the message of the Prophet was spoken in pure form from God’s lips to man’s ears. Nevertheless, all religions have a historical context, which must be studied and carefully considered.

Up until the time of Islam, the Arabian Peninsula was a center of much cultural and religious activity. Undoubtedly, Muhammad would have interacted with Arab tribes whose religious beliefs were very diverse. For example, Christian Arabs inhabited regions of Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen. They thrived in many Arabian cities such as Mecca where Muhammad was born. Jews were actually the largest people group living in Medina (Saudi Arabia) at the time of his birth. It is known that early in his prophethood Muhammad preached to and debated with many Jewish tribesmen over Jewish Law.

Also, in this region, pagans (people who worshipped a number of different deities) practiced rituals that were not unlike certain rites that Muslims perform today. They made pilgrimages to distant lands to worship their gods. Interestingly, many of them called on the name of “Allah,” a supreme god who had three daughters. On certain holy days, they worshipped at statues of deities, paced around sacred icons and walked for long distances between holy sites. Ironically, Muslims today perform similar rites during their annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Jewish tradition played a substantial part in Islam’s development. Some Jews who became Muslim also kept many of their Jewish customs. For example, some of these converts to Islam incorporated stories from the Old Testament into their new religion. The Islamic connection to the Jewish faith is revealed in the Quran as well as in other pieces of Islamic literature. As suggested earlier, Muhammad’s frequent debates with Jewish leaders in Medina helped shape his earlier writings. In these debates, he confronted Jewish Law and formed his own opinions about religious and moral practices.

Other evidence also shows how Judeo-Christian philosophy influenced the early Arabic culture. Assuredly, the expansion of the Roman Empire, which had adopted Christianity as its official religion, dispersed people of the Christian faith throughout the region. Muhammad was a trader so he would have traveled extensively throughout the Arabian Peninsula and encountered some of these early Christians. Christianity and Judaism had been well established in the region for centuries. Interestingly, many Muslims today don’t realize that Christianity existed for six centuries before Islam.

It is therefore my conclusion that the formation of Islam occurred over a period of many years, rather than just once during a brief encounter between the angel Gabriel and Muhammad in a cave. Islam was most assuredly influenced by the cultural and religious practices of various belief systems that had existed on the Arabian Peninsula for centuries prior to the coming of Muhammad.

The Life of Muhammad

Muhammad was born in 570 AD. Both of his parents died when he was quite young. As a boy he lived with his grandfather who also later died, leaving him to be adopted and raised through adulthood by his uncle.

As a young man in Medina, Saudi Arabia, Muhammad became a trusted and respected businessman. He worked for various people on caravans traveling all over the region, one of which was a wealthy woman named Khadija, who later asked him to marry her. They remained married until her death. Eventually, Muhammad, for political purposes, married a total of eleven women and instituted the practice of polygamy still held by many Muslims today.

During his first marriage, Muhammad enjoyed, as his grandfather did, retreating to nearby mountain caves to meditate. On one of these meditation trips, Muhammad had an experience that today is used by Muslims worldwide to authenticate the Quran and Islamic practices. In a cave at the base of Mount Hira, he fell into a trance and Muslims claim, was visited by the angel Gabriel with the final message from God to mankind – a message of one God and of coming judgment.

After receiving this message, Muhammad fearfully fled the cave and told his wife Khadija everything he had heard. He wasn’t certain if the message was really from God, or if he were possessed by an evil spirit. To receive clarity, he consulted a Gnostic monk. (Gnostics believe that everything in the earth, all matter, is evil and it is only through knowledge one can find salvation). This monk confirmed (falsely) the words Muhammad had received were an authentic message from God to which he should heed and preach to others. Khadija was the first to believe Muhammad was a prophet, and soon others such as his cousin Ali and friend Abu Bakr also believed he was a prophet.

Approximately three years after he had the experience at Mount Hira, Muhammad gained courage and began to publicly preach what he believed was God’s final, incorruptible message to the world. He preached that there is only one supreme God who will one day judge the world, so people should perform good deeds by caring for the poor and needy, etc., to avoid God’s wrath and gain entrance into paradise. It is therefore not surprising that many of Muhammad’s early disciples—approximately 150 people in total—were from among the poor and disadvantaged of society of his hometown, Mecca.

As Muhammad preached the message of one God, he encountered opposition from his own tribe, the Quraish. The Quraish were polytheists known to make pilgrimages to the Ka’aba, a place of worship containing 360 idols and the famous Black Stone. Ironically, today Muslims make pilgrimages to the Ka’aba, which they believe was originally built by Adam and later rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael as the house of God. Historically, however, the Black Stone was worshipped for centuries prior to Muhammad.

Initially Muhammad tried to make friends with the Quraish by honoring their deities and incorporating into Islam the Quraish practice of pilgrimage to the Ka’aba. The Quraish, however, still hated Muhammad for insulting their gods and for trying to elevate himself as the leader of their tribe. They plotted to kill Muhammad around the time he and a group of 150 followers fled from Mecca to Medina. This event was a turning point for Muhammad and marked the first official year (622 AD) of the Islamic calendar.

In Medina, Muhammad created the first Islamic state, lead by himself as the one who knew the will of Allah. Soon thereafter, he came to believe that preaching alone was not enough to win converts; the people of Arabia would only convert by force. So, he adopted a doctrine of war (jihad), practiced by many Muslims today.

The Islamic state grew as Muhammad led his followers into battle against the “infidels” who refused to yield to his leadership or recognize him as the final prophet of God. He and his followers raided caravans headed to market in Mecca. Through this they gained great wealth and also hurt the economy of Mecca, making it more vulnerable to invasion.

Muhammad’s army grew and slowly, battle after battle, acquired the lands and leadership of the entire Arabian Peninsula. One historian said this of the spread of Islam under Muhammad: “The Arabs converted to Islam not because of spiritual revival or religious persuasion, but because of their fear of Muhammad’s army. The new religion, which began by merely seeking to introduce monotheism to the Arabs, developed into a means for military conquests. Muhammad was able to take control of Arabia because of intertribal strife, the lack of foreign domination, and the cultural backwardness of the people (McDowell and Zaka, page 41).

The Debate Over Succession

When Muhammad died in 632 AD, his followers were quite shaken and unprepared to continue without his rule. Muhammad made the grave error of not appointing a successor prior to his death, which caused a great debate and eventual divide to occur among his followers who needed to select a new leader.

One group, who eventually would become known as Shiite Muslims, believed Muhammad’s successor should come directly from his family lineage. Because Muhammad had no son, his next of kin was his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. Ali eventually was appointed as the fourth caliph, spiritual and political leader, to succeed Muhammad. To this day, Shiites, a minority Islamic sect, believe Ali was the rightful heir to leadership.

The second group, who would eventually become known as Sunni Muslims, supported the idea that a close companion of Muhammad, who was intimately acquainted with him, should assume leadership of the Islamic state. This group drew the greatest degree of support and made it possible for Muhammad’s first successor or caliph, to be Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s closest friend and advisor. Today, there are far more Sunnis than Shiites worldwide.

Abu Bakr’s first order of business was to stop Muslims from abandoning their faith and thus weakening Islam. He decreed that anyone who left Islam should be killed. Unfortunately, this Islamic law still exists today. In fact, certain death awaits many Muslims, who convert to Christianity.

Although it began as a religion of peace, Islam eventually became a religion full of violence and bloodshed. In fact, after Abu Bakr died, every leader of Islam that succeeded him was assassinated. Under Abu Bakr’s successor, Umar, Islam saw its greatest expansion—until he was assassinated after ten years of rule. The next leader, Uthman immortalized himself within the pages of the Quran and demanded that his version of the holy book be the only one used.

The fourth ruler, Ali reigned from 656 to 661 AD. As mentioned earlier, Shiite Muslims favored him as Muhammad’s successor. Because of great tribal tension, Ali tried to reconcile a truce between the major groups. The truce had strong opposition and ended with his assassination. Upon Ali’s death, the two groups, Shiite and Sunni, became permanent divisions in Islam.

Ali’s sons, Hasan and Husain, succeeded him as the next two caliphs. In 680 AD Husain was defeated and killed in Karbala, Iraq by Muslim enemies. Shiites claim Husain was publicly humiliated and died as a sacrifice for Shiite Muslims and consequently honor him each year in a festival called Ashoura. During the Ashoura, Shiites walk together in a parade, flogging themselves with iron chains and slicing their foreheads with swords.

Because the concept of sacrificial death and public shame is so well known among Shiites, Christian workers have reported a stronger openness to the Gospel among Shiites than among Sunnis. Sunnis reject any form of public humiliation and therefore consider the story of the cross absolutely absurd. God, in their minds, would never allow one of His prophets to endure public humiliation and shame as Christians claim Jesus endured on the cross.

After Hasan and Husain, there were a total of six more caliphs who ruled over the Islamic community. The twelfth and final caliph disappeared in the year 877 AD. Shiites view this last caliph as a Christ-like figure who will one day return to earth as the “Mahdi” or “Guided One”. It is believed that Mahdi will return to earth to establish righteous and justice. As with the Festival of Ashoura, the Mahdi is a story that has the potential to direct a Shiite Muslim to Jesus Christ, the one who will ultimately return to permanently establish righteousness and justice on earth.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed the first half of this lesson on Islamic history. My main desire is that you have a historical understanding of how the religion began and how it spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula under Muhammad and his immediate successors. In the following lesson we will talk about the “Golden Age of Islam”. This was a very important period of time for Muslims.