What are the Contents of Islam?

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At my church these days, I have been presenting a few topics during Sunday School. Two weeks ago, I went through Mary Jo Sharp's "Evidences For the Resurrection" presentation and yesterday I did a modified presentation of David Heddle's Intelligent Design presentation. Next week I will be doing Islam. It's important because Islam is becoming more and more important in our world and muslims make bold claims. Claims that directly contradict what Christianity believes. For this reason, we must be able to answer them. Not just to win arguments and wars, but to genuinely makes sure that Muslims have an opportunity to know Jesus. We also have to make sure that people who have not made a decision between Christianity and Islam are given the facts so that they can make an informed decision. In light of this, I will spend part of this blog recording the process I will undertake to build my presentation for next Sunday.n My goal will be to give thew Sunday School students some basic knowledge on Islam that I have been collecting the past few years and give them some tools that I will hope spur them and me to do more research. I can't cover everything in 90 minutes so I will focus on just the high points.

To start with I want to give a short introduction to the Koran and Islam itself. I found a great post that does exactly this on the Hank Hanegraaf's, the Bible Answer Man, blog. The post is called "What are the contents of Islam?".

Here is a list of thing I want to make sure I include in my presentation
1. Currently, Islam is the fastest growing religion worldwide - 1 Billion adherents
2. Breaks down to 1/5 of people are Muslim
3. Muslim identifies himself by the creed “There is no deity except God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”
5. Some quick fast facts for you about Islam:

· Muhammad was born in Mecca (Saudi Arabia) in AD 570

· At age 25, he married a rich 40 year-old widow. This gave him “rank among the notables Mecca” but perhaps more importantly gave him the time he needed to devote to spiritual matters.

· Allegedly one night during the month of Ramadan (which incidentally started on August 22, 2009) he heard a voice which said, “Thou Art the messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” It was at this point that Muhammad said “he realized his calling and prophetic mission.”

· “In AD 630 Muhammad marched on Mecca with a force of 10,000 men…the inhabitants of Mecca swore allegiance to the prophet and for the first time the ‘Muslim call to prayer’ was heard…two years later Muhammad died.”

· “The Qur’an is believed to be God’s final and complete revelation to man.”

· “The Qur’an has much to say about Jesus, but the one thing that it emphasizes more than anything else is that He was only a man, a messenger of God, not the Son of God, or God in the human flesh.”

· Orthodox Muslims maintain that Jesus did not die on a cross; they maintain that God made someone look like Jesus and the look-a-like was crucified in place of Jesus.

· Most Muslims believe the Jesus “was bodily taken up into Heaven by God. Most Muslims also believe that He will ‘come again at the last day, slay anti-Christ, kill all the swine, break the cross… He will then reign as a just King for 45 years, marry and leave children, then die and be buried near Mohammad at Medina.’ ”

· “All Muslims believe that Muhammad was the greatest apostle and prophet of all.”

· All Orthodox Muslims believe in a heaven, where true believers will exist forever in a garden of beauty and joy. In this Garden the Qur’an in Sura 55:56-57 and 52:20 says there will be “In them will be (Maidens), Chaste, restraining their glances, Whom no man or Jinn before them has touched” and they will have “beautiful, Big and Lustrous eyes.”

· Salvation is based on good works, “there is no need for a Savior, and in any case God Most High alone can save.”

6. There are 5 "pillars" that guide Muslims:
a. “There is no deity except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”.
b. The second pray five times a day facing Mecca
c. Third fast.
d. Give alms.
e. The pilgrimage to Mecca, at least one time during one's lifetime..