There is a book you might enjoy reading called “Green was The Earth on the Seventh Day” by Thor ??, the Kontiki Raft man, who was brought up by a very moral and atheist mother, and a not so moral but religious father. One of the theories was that God created a perfect world – and then gave man free will to manage it, and he started to stuff it up from the eighth day!

Dawkins and Darwin plagerised their theories from the early Muslims. Scientists of the 12-14th century such as Al-Kindi, Ibn-Rushd, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn-Arabi, Ibn-Khaldun. The concept of Evolution was first described by the Greeks, but it was further developed by the early Muslims. Ibn-Khaldun al described and promoted the concept of Evolution. Before the 1800′s, Evolution Theory was known in Europe as the ‘Muhammedan Creation Theory’ and was described in almost all Muslim Medicine and Science Books. It was also part of normal education in the Muslim schools and Universities.

Ibn Khaldun [1332-1406, 400 years before Darwin!] wrote in his Muqaddimah, an Introduction to History:

“One should then look at the world of Creation. It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an ingenious, gradual manner to plants and animals. The last stage of minerals is connected with the first stage of plants, such as herbs and seedless plants. The last stage of plants such as palms and vines is connected with the first stage of animals, such as snails and shellfish which have only the power to touch. The word ‘connection’ with regard to these created things means that the last stage of each group is fully prepared to become the first stage of the next group. The animal world then widens, its species become numerous, and, in a gradual process of creation, it finally leads to man, who is able to think and reflect. The higher stage of man is reached from the world of monkeys, in which both sagacity and perception are found, but which has not reached the stage of actual reflection and thinking. At this point we come to the first stage of man ( after the world of monkeys). This is as far as our (physical) observation extends.”

This is just one example out of hundreds of opinions and observations made by Muslim scholars in the early centuries of Islam. When Darwin made his own speculations based on the Muslim Theory of Evolution, it was taken up by the Materialist Movement of the West. Darwin’s grandfather and father were both Biologist and a Doctor, and thus had translated Muslim books on Biology and Medicine at home. It is no surprise Darwin got the Theory from these books. Because the Theory of Evolution is not supported by the Bible, and also because Darwin’s speculations gave a bit of room for a Creator-less creation, Darwin’s version of the Theory was taken up by the Atheists. Through this Evolution Theory was seen as equal to Atheism, and Muslims, through loss of their knowledge and their aversion of the Materialist Colonial powers of the West that had conquered them, became to reject the Theory of Evolution. And took up together with the Christian world, the concept of Instant Creation. A concept that goes directly against the language of the Quran and its Message as will be shown.

This statement is completely erroneous. Let me demonstrate:

Christians profess that in the Bible, Love and Punishment of God is presented as if it is done through emotions. The Universe is randomly controlled by God, and thus cling to miracles and that the fixed laws in nature are useless when it comes to the approach to reality as given in the Bible.

In the Quran, the Universe follows a fixed course and follows fixed laws from which God does not deviate from ever. These Laws are created in such a way that humans can use their free will. All deeds have consequences, in this Life or the Next. Animals have inborn instinct, inborn Divine Guidance (24:41), but humans do not have a dominant instinct.

This is to allow their free will. And so God has given Divine Guidance through Prophets, chosen people, to relate His Guidance, and mankind can accept or reject freely without bothering Him. The only problem is that humans by themselves cannot behave correctly towards Reality without Guidance, and so without it, they will create deeds which might have dire consequences.

God knows handling Free Will is hard, and so He protects us against many consequences.

But His Love for us is mostly seen in the reason WHY He has revealed Guidance. In Christianity for example, people are born with sin that supposedly was given by Adam. The Quran rejects this idea as nobody can carry the burden of another.

The concept of carrying the stain of sin of Adam and then freeing us through the suffering of Jesus is contradicting, and illogical. In this whole ideology there is no room at all for responsibility of a person’s own deeds. And the relationship between God and man is unfair as it is God who decided when to punish and when to free a person.

The Quran denies this ideology and calls it man-made. The Quran frees man of this self-imposed concept of ‘sin’ and says everybody gets a fair chance. He has made fixed laws which everyone can follow to attain perfection. There are no personal interests for God in our creation. And the same holds for Revelation.

Revelations were send to unite people and free them from the shackles of human will. Laws are not based on the elite’s need, or the opinion of the majority, as both of these do not coincide with reality and will not create equal chances for all humans.

The System of the Quran, creates a society were every single individual will have the same opportunity, benefit and means to develop his Self.

The Love of God in the Quran is shown through the Laws He demands to be established in the society. As love for God in the Gospel and Torah does not free anyone from the burden of the unjust in society. The love they experience is self-imposed and the ‘result’ of God’s love can only be experienced in the Hereafter in Christian theology.

In Quranic theology, the Love of God is directly experienced through the caring laws He demands to be followed by society. His system is like the womb of a mother, He is Rahman. This is the difference between the Realistic God of the Quran, and that of the Bible.

So when you want to show the Love of God in the Quran and that of the Bible, you must compare:

-The Love of God in the Bible leaves one with a feeling and a waiting of the result in the Hereafter. This Love does not help to create peace on earth or help us create a peaceful and fair society. People carry the burden of sin, while never having participated in the deed done, and then are freed by the one who put the unfair burden upon us. This is slapping you for the deed of somebody else, and then slaps himself to free you of the burden of that somebody elses’ deed. This is unfair love. It is a bit like the love people experience for their hostage-taker that develops through fear and feeling of bonding. Although Christianity creates high morals under its followers, it does not create solutions for mankind, and thus God’s Love is moved only to the Next world. People are left to themselves and must through a hard path of trial and error create better life conditions.

-In the Quran, God’s Love is expressed through the Laws He demands to be followed by us. Because these Laws create an equal and just society where everybody is allowed to be free and to be taken care of, so everybody can develop them Selves to the fullest. It creates a perfect society that prepares people for the Hereafter. There are no real class-difference and all wealth is spread out over the people so all can benefit. The Love is not felt, it is directly experienced. Nobody carries the burden of another, and all are judged according to fair and direct Laws so all people will know how they are judged. Rewards are created through actions that lead to developing of mankind. People can skip the trial and error experience and are directly guided to the best ways for society. God has not left them alone, no person in society, no human on earth, He guides them all to the right path of living directly. And so His Love is not shifted to the Hereafter, but to both worlds, here and the next. His Love is felt and experienced through the Laws that create equal circumstances for all humans on Earth, He tells them how to develop themselves and others.

The God of the Quran does not leave any path open, He explains all fields, so mankind is not left alone in any field. Justice, Politics, State, Individual, Marriage, Social, Science, Theology, Spiritual, all matters are explained, so mankind knows directly what he is up too and what is expected of him.

This is the difference……..

I do not dispute that faith is Christ is probably the EASIEST way, but I do dispute that it is the ONLY way.

I believe that you get the God that you believe in – “Judge not that you be not Judged”. If you judge harshly, you will be judged harshly.

Lyndall,
I agree that the monotheism of Islam with emphasis on a Creator is very close to Christianity (I might be accused of splitting hairs). However, this is hardly surprising as Islam used the Old Testament as a reference – the beliefs about Abraham, for instance, are not arrived at entirely independently.

Biblically, salvation is available only because of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. Belief in this is not some arbitrary “entrance exam”, but is a spiritual reality. There was a real problem to deal with, and the death and resurrection of Jesus were the only means to deal with it. This is what makes salvation available to those who truly believed in God before the time of Christ.
Exactly how God judges those before Christ, or those who have not heard of Him I could not say for sure. But I do know that the Bible says that God’s intention was to make the salvation won by Christ available through faith in Him. That is why the disciples were told to “go into all the world” to proclaim the “gospel” (good news) of Jesus.

It is not about conforming to some religious code (as almost all other religions require), but about acknowledging our need, and responding to the answer to this need.

Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in one Creator God. They also all believe that Abraham was the “patriarch” of the religion. They also all believe that The Archangel Michael is in charge of the angels waging the war against the demons of this world to protect believers.

You are relying on the texts “The only way to the Father is through the Son” and “I am the Way”.

Now what do you think that means?

God said that once he had sent His Son, Jesus would be the judge. Therefore the ONLY way will be through his judgement. What makes you think he only judges Christians? And if there are only Christians in Heaven whom did Christ meet in the Garden on the night before his capture?

Not quite! The Jews and Christians pray to a God that is most definitely male. e.g. the Lords Payer starts out with “Our Father,….”. The God of the Muslims is gender neutral, i.e. it is neither male nor female. If references to the God of the Musilms in scriptures or other religious writings uses male adjectives/pronouns etc. it is only because of the absense of appropriate gender neutral terms in Arabic.