So we are, this is the second session, session number two. Last week we looked at the challenge of Islam and the opportunity that we have as a church to reach Muslims for the Gospel. So we're going to be diving in now into Islam and into a lot of very fundamental things. But first of all, if you look at the very top of your notes, foundations of Islam part one. So this is part one, next week will be part two, okay? And the very first thing that we have there, if you want to turn in your Bibles actually, and that's why I am very old school and I love to have my physical Bible book. Even though I wrote it down right there, I want us to turn, if we can, to 1 Corinthians chapter eight. 1 Corinthians chapter eight, verse one. And I tell you, when you study, as we are going to study Islam, we're going to look at the history of Islam. And you begin to look at a lot of very sad things and very evil things. And we're just going to look at so much obviously information. We're not in the scriptures because you're studying Islam. But at the same time, you begin to see this contrast. And the Lord just reminded me of this verse and that's why I want to start with the Bible. It says here in 1 Corinthians eight, verse one. Now concerning things offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And I want us to just stop and think. Because you know what? We can have a lot of knowledge. We can come to church, we can come to Bible study, you can go to seminars, conferences, so many things. And we can gather all this knowledge. But you may get into a conversation with a Muslim and you have so much knowledge. You may win the argument, but you may have heard you might lose the soul. What we want to do is we want to win the soul. And that's okay if I lose the argument. What matters is that I am pleasing to God. And that the way I reach a Muslim or anybody for that matter is with the love of Christ. And that's why this is very important. And we need to go into the studying of Islam with this in my knowledge puffs up. The love edifies. What I want to do is I want to be first filled with the love of Christ and just saturate me. And then with that love, I may add to it knowledge. So now I'm able to know who I'm reaching and how I'm going to communicate to them. And yet I have the love of Christ. Okay, so we're just going to start there.  So this is something that the Lord put on my heart when I did this course a couple of years ago. This is something that I want to give to you. Okay, and this is something I felt that this might be helpful because Islam is like no other religion or cult in the world. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, whatever. Because the reason I say that is Islam revolves around the language of Arabic.  And once again, you will be able to communicate with the Muslims in that way. So I wrote here at the top, all words are phonetic in spelling for the purpose of easy pronunciation. The Arabic script of each word is not included in this syllabus. Okay, so let's go into this and then I'll explain. So first of all, I gave you some greetings. So the very first greeting here is hello. Okay, this is throughout the Muslim world for hello, which literally means, you see it there in English, means peace be upon you. Okay, the Jews greet by saying shalom. Okay, maybe you've heard that. We all probably know that shalom. Well, that's the word for peace. Okay, and when you know, when you start to learn Arabic or vice versa, you start to learn Hebrew, you begin to find a lot of similarities because Arabic was a Semitic language. Okay, and has the very the same roots as Hebrew. Okay, so you're going to begin to see a lot of similarities. So this word or this greeting is mostly used by Muslims for the most part. So it is assalamu alaikum, assalamu alaikum.  This is my recommendation.  And that way you have it permanently, the actual pronunciation. But I did this right here assalamu alaikum. Okay, and I did that so that you can read it the way we would as an English speaker. Okay, the response to assalamu alaikum. So obviously, salam is peace, like in Hebrew, shalom, shalom, salam. Assalamu alaikum is upon you. So the response, if somebody says to you assalamu alaikum, you say an upon you peace. Wa alaikum salam. Okay, wa alaikum salam. All right, so we can try that.  Very good. Wow, you guys are ready to go talk to Muslims. Okay, greeting number two. Here's a second greeting, which also means hello, mostly used by non-Muslims or nominal Muslims. Okay, those that really are not practicing. Ehlen. Okay, the first one you can just simply say ehlen, short, or the whole phrase which is ehlen wa sahlen. I like saying that, it's really kind of, it rhymes. Ehlen wa sahlen. Ehlen wa sahlen. Okay, it has some lot of different meanings. I really don't know the exact meanings, but it's something to do with family and love or warmth or affection or something like that. Ehlen wa sahlen. Or you can say ehlen. The greeting, the response, I'm sorry, to hello is ehlen biq. Ehlen biq. That's why you see there I put b-e-e-k, because we would normally read double e-e. Okay, biq. And that means to you. Ehlen is like saying hello to you, biq. Okay, ehlen biq. Now, thank you. Maybe you guys have heard this. Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped one. There's a third greeting, which is hello. Marhaban. Marhaban. Okay. And that also means welcome. So if somebody were coming to your home, you would say marhaban. Marhaban. Okay. Means welcome. Thank you. Shukran. You have to learn this one. Okay. If you just learn this one and you go to a Middle Eastern market and you purchase some things and then you tell them shukran. Wow, you will see them light up. You will see them light up. And then you can share the gospel. Shukran. Shukran. Now, the word for God, which we all know. Now remember, we're dealing with Arabic. We're talking about Arabic. The word for God is Allah. Okay. The word for the Lord is Arab. Okay. If you are a Spanish speaker, you can roll your R. Arab. Arab. Okay. Arab. Now, people, this is an issue and people ask this question. And I'm going to really briefly just tell you this right now. There is no other word for God. Now, once again, that's why I put Lord is Rabb and God is Allah.  Okay. A lot of people are surprised. They don't know this. But that is the only word for God. Okay. So Allah is the word for God. Our Heavenly Father, Abana, which is our Father, literally, Abana. Samawi, which means heavenly. Okay. Abana, Samawi. Abana, Samawi. Jesus in the Quran. Now, properly pronounced, this is very difficult. Normally for English speakers, we don't have... There's two different K's, if you will. There's Q and there's Q. Okay? Q, Qaa. Q, Qaa. Okay. So when you say normally Quraan, you would say the Quran. Quran. Okay. But that's okay. So Jesus in the Quran is called Aissa. Aissa. Yeah. The first A is actually a special sound once again in Arabic. It's ah! So you say Aissa, but it's very quick. It looks- not that you're interested, but it looks like this. This is ah--i-sa. Then Jesus in the Bible is Jesuah, so you can just say Jesuah. So when a Muslim may talk to you, they may say, Aisa this, Aisa that, so you will be familiar. You'll know what he's talking about. Because many times when you're talking with Muslims, they won't tell you the name in English. They're talking to you in English, but then they say, you know, but you believe in Aisa, but we believe also in Aisa. And someone that doesn't know this, they'll say, what, what are you talking about? So that's why it's good for you to know Aisa. But for the Christian, when we have the Bible, Jesus' name is Jesuah. And you can see the connection to Hebrew, Yeshua, right? That is actually the proper name of Jesus, is Jesuah in Arabic. Christ el-mes-si, el-mes-si, that last H is once again an Arabic thing. It's from the back of your throat. El-mes-si, like you're fogging up a mirror. El-mes-si, once again, similarity, the Messiah, right, Messiah. Son of God, Ibn Allah, Ibn Allah, Ibn Al-Sun. The Holy Spirit, al-ruh al-Qudus, al-ruh al-Qudus. The Holy Spirit, the Holy. In Arabic, you always have the noun, then the adjective. The Bible, el-kitab, el-muqaddas, el-kitab, el-muqaddas. The book, literally the book, el-kitab, el-muqaddas, the Holy. The Holy Book. Right, we would say the Holy Book. The Bible. Prophet, nebi, nebi, verse, aya, aya, a messenger or apostle. It's actually the same word. There is no difference in Arabic, rasul, rasul, angel, meleq, meleq, demon, jinn. Now this is actually also referred to another kind of, there's a type of spirit which can take on some different forms. I was reading about it and it's very weird, okay. They have jinn, which is where we get our word, jini, remember, knowing about a jini. Well that comes from the Middle East, which comes from here, okay. It comes from ancient times and it comes from this, but it's a type of demonic being. Jinn, Satan is shaitan or also called iblis.  Human being, insan, insan, day of judgment or the day of resurrection, it's the same thing for them. Yom el qiyema, yom is day, el qiyema of resurrection. If God wills, they say this a lot, we would say if God wills to everything, book of James tells us, don't say you're going to go here and there but say if God wills I will do this and that, okay. They say it all the time.  So inshallah, sins, Dhunub, Dhunub, the D-H, okay, the D-H is like when we would say like our word the, Dhunub, Dhunub, Dhunub and then we have forgiveness, this is also a hard one. The D-H is a gh, ghofran, ghofran, we're going to have Arabic lesson here, I'm going to test you next week. Tell me what is forgiveness, ghofran, okay. So this is for you guys, this is for you to have and hopefully, like I wrote it phonetically, hopefully it kind of helps you. And then we're going to look at part two and part three as we go into our next studies next week because in part one, these are the vocabulary words we're going to be dealing with today, okay. Alright, so let's move along, okay. So the first thing we're going to look at is the word or the term Islam and the Muslim defined, okay. So this is taken from an Arabic source, you can see it there at the very end of the paragraph, taken from Islamic source, aleem.org, which literally means scholar.org, okay. So Islam is derived from the Arabic root, Arabic root, salama, meaning peace, purity, submission and obedience. Okay now, I have to say this, most Muslims will always say that, they will say the word Islam, it means peace. But in actuality, it means the last submission and obedience, okay. Because in Arabic you have peace, which is salam, so you have one, two, three, four letters. But Islam comes from the word to submit, which is three letters, okay. So it's an entirely different word, it means different. But they like to use peace because there is a whole being politically correct that is going on here in the West, that they're trying to give the face of Islam as being peaceful, okay. And so they're trying to share that. But traditionally, they would never say that, okay, traditionally in Islam. It literally means submission and obedience, okay. So he goes on here. In the religious sense, Islam means submission to the will of God and obedience to Islam. That's correct. Everything and every phenomenon in the world other than man is administered totally by God made laws. That is they are obedient to God and submissive to his laws. They are in the state of Islam. Now once again, remember, this is as the Muslim scholars are telling us what does Islam mean, okay. Let's keep that in mind. Man possesses the quality of intelligence and choice. Thus he is invited to submit to the goodwill of God and obey his law, which is become a Muslim. Submission to the goodwill of God together with obedience to his beneficial law, that is becoming a Muslim is the best safeguard for man's peace and harmony. So Islam is in reality what we see when you begin to study it, as we will, it is a religious political system. You cannot divide the two. It encompasses everything. It is a religion that encompasses religious, social and political matters, okay. Muslim means someone who is submitted to Allah, okay. So you have Islam and you have Muslim, okay. The M, M, Muslim, Muslim, the M makes it the person who is submitted. Islam means submission, okay.  The Muslim in relation to God is as a slave to a master. This is what we find in the Quran, who must obey unquestionably or face God's judgment. In contrast, as a Christian, we are called children of God. And God is our heavenly Father, a love relationship versus a legal one driven by fear. And this is, if you talk to Muslims who have left Islam and become Christians, this is one of the biggest things that they will say. This is one of the things that is, is a, the contrast is that in Islam, you do not have the love of God. You do not have anything like this where it speaks of God as a father and we as his children. Because that speaks of intimacy, that speaks of love, that speaks of care and you have no intimacy whatsoever in Islam. It is only a relationship of a slave and a master. And so there is no love relationship, just a legal one. Now we're going to look at a brief history of Islam. So we have several areas that we're going to look at here and this is, we're going to look at it chronologically, okay, Islam. Because it's important, once you begin to see and understand where it came from, you will understand a lot better why they are the way they are, why they believe the way they believe and why they do what they do, okay? So first, we're going to look at pre-Islamic Arabia, pre-Islamic Arabia. It all began in the city of Mecca, which was a prominent center of commerce. And it was a place well-known for poetry, okay? The dominant tribe in that area of Arabia was the Quresh tribe. That was the tribe that Muhammad was from, okay? Muhammad was there in Mecca and the only thing that really was so important about Mecca because this was in the middle of a desert. It still is, okay? In Saudi Arabia, Mecca is in the middle of a desert and you would have caravans that would come from the east to the west and would bring merchants and would be tradesmen. And so they would travel through Mecca. And one of the most important things in Mecca was a huge spring of water called the spring of Zemzem, okay? And that's one of the things that Muslims will to this day when they go to the pilgrimage that they go to this water spring and I've seen it in Morocco that they'll visit Mecca and then they'll come back bringing this water from it. And it's almost like holy water, you know? They'll pass it and give it to families in little jars and things like that. So it's from the well of Zemzem. But that was one of the things that you saw in Mecca. But the pagan Arab idolatry prevailed, okay? Mecca was a center of pagan idolatry. And so there was an annual festival where the people, the various tribes would come to Mecca and they would worship all of their idols. There were over 360 idols, okay, that they would come to worship. So every year, these people would come into Mecca and come around this black box, which you're going to see, okay? Which is the Kaaba, which is Mecca. And they would come here and this is where a lot of the revenue came into Mecca because of all these people that would travel. You know, it's similar to where the Jews would come once a year, let's say to Passover, you know, into Jerusalem. There would be a lot of selling, you know, sheep and goats and chickens and all this thing, okay? So that's what happened here.  But they're not just facing Mecca, they're facing that place, which is the Kaaba, which is a black box, okay? And we're going to look at what that is. The Kaaba's origin is said to be done by Abraham and Ishmael. They believe the Muslims, and this is what has come down through history, is that Abraham with Ishmael built this worship location, this altar, if you will, to worship Allah, okay? And so they believe that it was Abraham who did this. The Muslims will say that Abraham was the very first believer in the one true God. Now, if you turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts, we see a parallel here in Acts chapter 19, verse 35. The very same thing was happening in the city of Ephesus. Okay, if you remember the story, Paul went and wherever he went, he started a riot or a ruckus or something because he preached the gospel, but he preached Jesus Christ, and he was preaching that Jesus is Lord, and that worship must go to him, and we must commit our lives to him. And turn from these idols, turn from idolatry, repent, okay? But remember, in Ephesus was the great temple of Diana, and this is where a lot of the people made their money, making these idols and these statues, and they would sell them to people. And so now when Paul is preaching, and if people are going to come to Christ, they're going to leave all of that, and so these people are going to get angry. So look at in verse 35 of Acts chapter 19. And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, because the crowd had gotten angry with Paul, what he had said, he said, men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Zeus. Okay, now, this is exactly the same thing.  Satan does the same thing. He changes a little bit, but it's the very same thing because the cow, but what is it? It actually was a meteorite that fell down from the sky, and these pagan tribes just began to build this as a place of worship, saying this came from God and saying that Abraham built this, and now this place becomes a center for pagan worship and pagan idolatry, so it's incredible, but we see that. Okay, so during this time, the Islamic historians refer to this period as jahiliah, which means the times of ignorance. Okay, why do they call it the times of ignorance? Well, in light of Islam, because Islam came bringing obviously the truth for the Muslim. Islam brought worship back to one true God, whereas people were worshiping 360 gods. So the Islamic historians will say this is a time where people were in darkness, they were idolaters, they used to take their children, their daughters especially, and burn them in the fire. They did all these things, all these practices. Now at the same time in this pre-Islamic Arabia, there were also Christians, hermits, and monks dwelling around. Okay, you have to remember, you have to picture it that Christianity had begun to spread throughout that area of the world, okay? Through the Middle East, there were Christians and there were people, there were these that would go off and they would separate themselves, and then we're gonna begin to see that Muhammad had contact with Jews and Christians. And a lot of the doctrines and beliefs that you see in the Quran were actually because he got a little bit from here and a little bit from there, and he began to put things in the Quran and mix his own ideas, and obviously demonic impressions and demonic activity was going on too. And so in this place, you had pagan idolaters, you had Christians, you had Jews, and so that's what was going on in this time of pre-Islamic Arabia. Now, Muhammad was born in 570 A.D. in the city of Mecca, and he died in 632 A.D. in the city of Medina. So this here, as you can see behind me, this is kind of a picture of how it may have looked in the tents, and there you can see what may have, it looked like in those times there and behind them is the Kaaba, okay? That was the Kaaba, and even now there's a black drape.  But if you go on YouTube, once again, any one of these things, you go on the internet and you can see anything you can see them doing, you can see them walking around it and what they do, okay? But that was the Kaaba in Mecca. Now, Muhammad's early life, so he was born in 570 A.D. His parents were Abdullah and Amina. His father died before Muhammad's birth, and his mother died six years later. So I mean, you can imagine, here was Muhammad, he lost his dad, and at the age of six, his mother dies. He was raised by his grandfather, Abd al-Mutalib, and at eight years old, he was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. What was his uncle? Well, his uncle was a merchant and a shepherd, okay? There was a lot of trade going on in those days, and he was also a shepherd that had flocks of sheep, and so we're gonna see that, that what Muhammad used to do was go off in the distance and just go on by himself. He would meditate, go up in a cave, and that's where we're gonna see where the revelation took place. Now, Khadija, at one point, came in contact with Muhammad. Khadija became his very first employer. She hired him, she had a very important business, and she hired Muhammad to be his employee. And before you know it, they got married, and so Khadija, who was, she was about 20 years older than him, married Muhammad. And Muhammad ran this business from 591 to 594 A.D. Supposedly, Muhammad was illiterate. This is what every Muslim will say. They'll say, this is one of the miracles of the Quran, that how Muhammad got us the Quran, and yet he was illiterate, he was illiterate. And that word in Arabic is ummi, that's why I have written there, ummi. He married in 595 A.D. His age was 25 years old when he married his first wife. Khadija was 40, okay, so you can imagine. She was 40, he was 25. They had eight kids together, but four of his boys died. And so he was left, the others were girls. He had four girls, four of the boys all died. Isn't that amazing? What's interesting is that you see, in this time of his life, he was happy with only Khadija for 26 years. In other words, what I'm saying is he stayed with one wife for 26 years. And something that I was reading was that Khadija's cousin was a man who was a Christian. And that Christian man is the one who actually did their marriage, their wedding. And so what a lot of scholars believe is that there was a lot of Christian influence. And Khadija was most likely a lady who was reading the scriptures, as well as her cousin. And so they were people that introduced Muhammad to Christianity. And because of that influence of Christianity, he stayed with one wife for 26 years. Because one of the things that Muhammad is famous for is that he has many wives, okay? In Islam, a Muslim can have up to four, but Muhammad had 11. So he had special rights, he had special privileges.  But the very interesting thing I found was that he stayed with Khadija for 26 years until after 26 years, that's when he began to multiply his wives. But you see that influence of Christianity in the beginning of his life, very interesting. And then after 621 AD, he began to take other wives. So there he was, he was married to Khadija 26 years. And the very first revelation began in 610 AD. In 610 AD, in a cave called Hira, where supposedly the angel Gabriel came to him. Okay, now I'm gonna read to you an excerpt from the tradition of what was said about this story when the revelation came. Because this is very important for us to know because Muhammad, once again, he went off by himself and he was accustomed to secluding himself. He was accustomed to meditating. He was accustomed to just secluding. And during this time is when supposedly the angel Gabriel came to him. But what you're gonna see and what I have seen and what I have known now for many years is that this was not an angel. This was not the angel Gabriel. This was beyond a shadow of a doubt, demonic. Okay, now listen. So this is from the hadith. Okay, the hadith is the traditions, the words, the life of Muhammad as written by those that were with him and that knew him best. So every year, the apostle of Allah, okay, so sometimes they'll call him an apostle. Sometimes they'll call him messenger. Every year, the apostle of Allah spent a month praying at Hira, this was the cave. And when he returned to Mecca, he walked around the Kaaba seven or more times as it pleased Allah before entering his own house. In the month of Ramadan, okay, Ramadan is the Muslim's sacred or holy month where they fast, okay, for the whole month. But now, this was before Islam. This is before he introduced Islam. The pagans were already doing this ritual of fasting for a month. But in the month of Ramadan, the apostle of Allah went to Hira as usual and his family accompanied him. In the night, the angel Gabriel came with the command of Allah. The apostle of Allah later said, I quote, this is what Muhammad said, he came while I was asleep with a cloth of brocade where on there was writing and he said, read. Okay, this was the very first words of the angel to Muhammad. If you know this, this is very good because every Muslim, they'll repeat it to you. The very first of the angel, the words were read. That was the first thing that the angel said to him, read. But he couldn't read, supposedly he was illiterate. I replied, I cannot read. He pressed the cloth on me so tightly that I thought I was dying. He released his hold of me and said, read. I replied again, I cannot read. Sorry, that reminded me though of my phone. Go ahead. He said again, I cannot read. Again, he pressed the cloth on me till I thought I was dying. He lost his hold of me and said, read. Read in the name of the Lord. This is, by the way, this is in the Quran, chapter, or Surah 96, verses one through five. I awoke from my sleep and felt as if words had been graven on my heart. After words, I went out and when I was at the center of the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, Muhammad, thou art the prophet of Allah and I am Gabriel. I raised my head to look at the sky and low, I beheld Gabriel in the shape of a man with extended wings, standing in the firmament, with his feel touching the ground. And he said again, O Muhammad, thou art the apostle of Allah and I am Gabriel. Then I turned my face away from him to other parts of the sky, but in whatever direction I looked, I saw him in the same form. Very crazy, okay? And there's a lot, it goes on, there's a lot of things that happened to him, okay? But this is the account of what happened to Muhammad. So he returned from that cave, he received this revelation, the angel Gabriel told him, read, and he returned and came straight to Khadijah, his wife. Okay, this was the very first person he told. Thinking either there was demon possession or he was hallucinating. So just imagine with me, think about the stories of the Bible, think about when God speaks to Daniel, think about when God speaks to Jeremiah, think about when God speaks to Abraham. Is there ever a prophet that says I am demon possessed? I think that this could be the demon or a devil, never. But Muhammad, his very first impression was that he was demon possessed. And there are many accounts that said he would fall on the floor, he would shake, he would froth at the mouth, he would become pale, he would become sweaty, all sorts of things, all sorts of things.  Well, you know, you think about it, of course. Allah assured him he wasn't in Surah 68 verse two, he says, thou are not by the grace of thy Lord mad or possessed. Okay? Allah, according to Muhammad, is telling him you are not mad or possessed. Meaning people were saying he was mad or possessed because that's why they were rejecting him. People around saw and knew that this man is possessed. And they called him many different names. Some said he was a magician, some said he was a soothsayer. Different things, they were accusing him. So there was a period of three years, after this point, the very first revelation, there was a period of three years of silence. Muhammad heard nothing from the angel Gabriel or anybody. And he began to doubt his calling. He even considered suicide on a mountain.  Upon Muhammad, Islam rises and falls. This is the man. This was the revelation. Okay, many times in my conversations with a Muslim, there have been a few times, not always I get to talk about this, but I will just talk about this one beginning event, the very beginning. And I will say to them, have you ever found in the Bible ever where a prophet was strangled because in the hadith, in the Arabic, it actually uses the word choke. The angel choked him tightly and said, read three times as we just read the account, read, read, read. And actually the word is qara, which is where you get Quran. Qaraan is to read or recite. So that's why Muslims will recite because they've memorized the Quran. So they have been trained and taught to memorize or recite the Quran. So Muhammad himself and others thought he was a soothsayer speaking in rhyme style in a trance. They definitely, people doubted him. Finally, he felt a presence again and tried to hide, but calling, his calling was confirmed by Khadijah and her cousin. Now, this is very interesting because when you begin to know Islam and if you ask a Muslim, is the witness of a woman equal to the witness of a man by law, in a court of law? No, it isn't. One man's testimony is equal to two women. Okay? One woman is not enough. It is not reliable. So if you follow that and you say, okay, well, if this is what Islam brought and if this is what Sharia law teaches because look at what I wrote here in parentheses. However, the Hadith, which is the teachings of Muhammad in traditions, teaches that women are intellectually inferior to men. This is what the Hadith teaches. Okay? If that's the case, do you realize, my Muslim friend, that your entire religion is based upon the testimony of the woman? You are saying that you cannot trust a woman's testimony, but yet you are saying that Hadijah told Muhammad, yes, you are a prophet.  Very, it's very interesting, very interesting. Now, this is very interesting because as we look at the scripture, we find a warning in the Bible. We find a warning in the scripture. Turn with me to second Corinthians. We see what happened to Muhammad. We see him there going off in the cave and we see how supposedly an angel appears to him. Well, the Bible told us hundreds of years before Muhammad that there would be something that could happen and that we as Christians need to beware and be careful. Second Corinthians chapter 11, beginning with verse three, look at what Paul says, But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he, notice what he says, if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit, okay? What Muhammad said was actually a spirit, a demon spirit, a gene is what spoke to him. That's what he told his wife. He said, it was a gene that came to me. And Paul says that, he addresses it. He says, if you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. See, Paul was afraid and he was warning the church and he was saying beware because I am afraid that you will veer and you will deviate from the path of Christ and you will fall or listen if somebody else brings another gospel. Then jump over down to verse 13. Now Paul here was talking about his ministry and he was answering them concerning the false teachers and false apostles that were coming into the church. And look at what he says in verse 13. For such are false apostles. Interesting that Muhammad is called an apostle. Deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ and no wonder, look at what he says, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light, an angel of light. That is exactly what he did.  What did he see? He saw Moroni, saw an angel appear to him. Where was he? By himself secluded. Same thing here. The angel came, said, I'm giving to you the Koran. You are chosen, you are called by God. These things are not reliable. The Bible has been corrupted but I'm giving you the Koran. Go and that's the same thing. And the Bible warned us. So if a Christian reads this, they know, no, I'm not gonna accept anything. If it doesn't line up with scripture, I throw it out. And that's what they did. And a lot of Christians obviously did reject. Turn with me to Galatians, if you will, please. Galatians one, this is extremely important. Galatians one versus eight through nine. Paul says this, but even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, let him be accursed, okay?  That's how serious it is to turn from the gospel and to preach another gospel. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then what you have received, let him be accursed. And so according to scripture, and I have told Muslims this, I cannot receive Islam because the Bible already told me.   It's not just Islam. Anything that comes that is contrary to the word of God, I am to reject it because I am called to honor God and this is life, this is his word, this is his truth. And so we stay with the word of God. And so that's that. So I just giving you guys some photos just to give you an eye and idea of what life looked like in the Middle East there, the tribes and the men, how they may have dressed. So here we have the Meccan period as we move on. So now Muhammad has received his revelation that he is an apostle, he's a messenger for Allah. His first converts were Khadijah, his wife, and his adopted sons Zaid and Ali, and his best friend Abu Bakr. The following grew over the next 12 years. So over the next 12 years after he received his revelation, we see him growing and growing. But what happened was because what he was given to bring people to worship one God, what he was wanting to do because the Quran came, what it says, is to bring people from being polytheists, worshiping many gods to worship one God. And even in this, isn't that so amazing how the enemy deceives?   So he was telling people, no, worship one God. Here is what you need to do, worship one God, turn from these idols and worship one God. Well, obviously because he was doing that in a pagan place, Muhammad was actually persecuted. His persecution increased from the pagan idolaters, even from his own tribe, the Quresh tribe. He was a threat to the social order, the traditions and the economy. I mean, just think about it. There in Mecca, all of their revenue was because of the idolatry in Mecca. In 619 AD, Khadijah, his very first love and his protector, as well as his uncle Abu Talib died. So in that one year, there was a huge hit to his life. There was a massive hit to his life as he lost his wife and his very uncle, the one who raised them as a young boy. And so in that time, we have the hijra. The hijra is the word which means the pilgrimage or the fleeing from Mecca to Medina. Okay, I'm gonna just go through some pictures here, but I have a map I'm gonna put up there. So being opposed heavily in 622 AD, Muhammad journeyed from Mecca to Medina. Medina's old name, by the way, is called Yathrib. So if you were to look on a map and see the name Yathrib, that's the ancient name for Medina, which is now. And the word Medina, I know there are even a lot of Hispanics that have that last name Medina, comes from Arabic, okay? Medina means city, that's what it means, city. So Medina is 200 miles northwest of Mecca. He went to spread Islam and establish his new base of operations. This marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar is based on a lunar cycle referred to as AH, which is after hijra, versus our Gregorian calendar. So it's a different calendar that they follow. Here are some pictures of some of the traditional how they may have dressed, the Arabian women. They would have covered, many of them would veil their faces. So he fled and went to Medina. Muhammad's years in Medina, over the next 10 years Islam spread by conquest to neighboring lands, conquering Jewish and Christian communities, as well as pagan tribes. Because of the Jewish influence, he prayed towards Jerusalem. Okay, now this is very interesting. When he went to Medina, Medina was entirely different. Mecca was overrun by pagans, polytheists. But when he fled and went to Medina, Medina did not have a lot of these pagans as much as Mecca did. There were a lot of Jews and a lot of Christians there. And so there he was influenced. In fact, there was such a huge population of Jews that Muhammad began to pray towards Jerusalem. Okay, we know that Muslims pray towards Mecca. Well, in the beginning he didn't. He prayed towards Jerusalem, just like the Jews did. And he honored the day of atonement. So as they would have the day of atonement, the Jews, they would fast and pray. He did the same thing that they did. But here in Medina, he received revelation to change prayer towards the Kaaba in Mecca. In the meantime, during this time, Meccan people were gathering army to wipe out the Muslim followers. So as they knew that Muhammad was gathering a following, they were also planning to wipe out Muhammad and his army. In January, 630 AD, Muhammad advanced to outside of Mecca. He laid siege there for a month and finally, with 10,000 men, he conquered and subjugated the Meccans. He went in, he destroyed all of the idols of the Kaaba, all those 360 idols that were there. And even the ones that were in people's homes, the private ones. So you can see what happened. Muhammad starts out poor. He starts out with just a few followers. He gets persecuted. He flees. He grows in strength. He grows militarily. He grows with a greater following. He grows politically. And now he comes back to take over. And just this alone, when you understand this idea right here, how Islam began, this is what Islam is doing in the world. And this is where you will see, and we're gonna talk about Jihad in the next session, where when they are weak and when they are a minority, they will be at peace, okay? But when they become a majority, then they'll start to flex their muscle and want to impose Sharia law and want to impose Islam, okay? So what was the succession to Muhammad? So according to Sunni Islam, Abu Bakr, you had different leaders that led the Islamic faith. Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, known as the four rightly guided caliphs, okay? There's gonna be a lot of information here. You may not necessarily need it, but I'm giving it to you. Then you have the other sect of Islam, which is the Shiite Islam. They believe in 12 Imams, so 12 different leaders down through the centuries. The first of which is Ali, who was Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law. So those 12 Imams up to the last one being the Mehdi, okay? The Mehdi, that's his name. Who they believed did not die, but was taken up or hidden by God, and who will return to set up his kingdom at the end of time. This is what the Shiites believe. This is not necessarily what the Sunnis believe. The majority of the world are Sunni Muslims too. So then we began to see the offensive wars of Islam as they began to move and begin to multiply. Within two centuries, it expanded from Spain and Morocco in the West all the way to the edge of India in the East. Amazing, okay? They started in Saudi Arabia and they began to conquer Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and they stopped because there's an ocean. And then you can see and read other books, but they tried to press into Europe, okay? And that's why if you go to Spain, you'll find Andalusian. You'll see a lot of Arabic influence in Spain and into France, but the military there stopped him and by the grace of God, they pushed him back down, okay? But that's why now for you look at Africa, all of North Africa, where I lived in Morocco, all the way Middle East, all the way clear to India, and down all the way to Indonesia is Muslim, okay? So the expansion of Islam for the past 1300 years, Islam has continued to spread. Through both military conquest, proselytism, which they call an Arabic dawah. Proselytism is to convert somebody, okay? We would say evangelism, okay? That's proselytism. Most of all, through birth rate and immigration, okay? For a Muslim, when they count, and if they say, for example, you know, one fifth of the world is Muslim, you know, if I am a Muslim family and I have 10 children, I'm gonna say, well, we are 10 and me and my wife, so we're 12 Muslims in this house, okay? They will call them Muslims, because they believe in Islam, actually they believe we are all Muslims. They believe you are born a Muslim, but what has happened is your parents have influenced you, so I am a Christian, my parents have actually taken me off the right path, and so I need to be brought back to Islam, but they believe, according to Islam, as every human being is born a Muslim. Okay, but this is really how you see expansion by birth rate and immigration, that is for the most part. Now let's look at the sects of Islam. The first major sect is the Sunnis, the Sunnis. They are 80 to 85% of the Islamic world, so most of the material in this class will apply to the Sunni Muslim, because they are the dominant sect. Sunnis recognize the first four caliphs as legitimate successors to Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali. They dispute over who should be, or the dispute over who should be the legitimate successor has resulted in fundamental political and religious differences between Sunnis and Shiites. So the Sunnis believe that one should lead, and the Shiites believe that no, Ali is the one who will lead the religion, okay, and then that brought a split. The word caliph in Arabic, you know what you've heard of the caliphate, like we talk about, you know, the ISIS wants to set up an Islamic caliphate. We call it ISIS Islamic State. The Arabic word is Khalif, which means a successor of Muhammad as temporal and spiritual head of Islam. Sunni caliphs ruled from seventh century to 1258. Later the Ottomans revived the caliphate in 1775, but was abolished in 1924. The next major sect of Islam is the Shiites. They make up 15% of all Muslims. They are predominantly in Iran and part of Iraq and Lebanon. Shiites recognize only Ali as the legitimate successor to Muhammad, since Ali was the son-in-law of Muhammad. They reject the first three caliphs as illegitimate and they regard the imam. The imam is the religious leader. Like our pastor, they have an imam. They regard the imam as infallible and as God's messenger to mankind today. Shiites do not accept all hadith accounts that Sunnis do. Now here's a quote from the book Unveiling Islam. Most Muslims supported the mainstream line of caliphs and came to be known as Sunnis. They followed the sunnah, okay? That's where sunni comes from, the word sunnah, which means custom. So they followed the custom of Muhammad as it is practiced and interpreted by Islamic community. The dissenters, okay? Those that broke off of Sunni Islam, the dissenters became known as shia, which means a faction of Ali, okay? So that's what you have there, okay? It's really similar when you think about our history. Protestants, well, because we protested, okay? Protested against the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, okay? Then you have a sect called the Sufis. This is really a very minor sect, but I put it in here for us.  Mystical is defined as spiritual meanings and reality is hidden to senses and intelligence. It's based on an individual's direct subjective experience with God. Sufis' beliefs are completely different from both Sunni and Shiite, and they are a very small minority. Then you have other minor sects in Islam. You may have heard of the nation of Islam, Wahabi, which is radical Islam. You have the Ahamadiyya movement. We have one Ahamadiyya right here. If you go down Philadelphia to Ramona and turn left, and there is a mosque right there, that's actually the Ahamadiyya Muslims. And they are considered a cult in Islam, okay? Just like we would consider the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, that's what they are. In Islam, they are a cult, okay? Because they believe that a man came to India. They actually believe that Jesus, they believe that Jesus died. The Muslims don't believe Jesus died on the cross. They believe Jesus died on the cross, but that he didn't, I'm sorry. They believe that he didn't die, but he actually, they believe in the swoon theory, like he fainted, and then he came back to life because he wasn't really dead, but he was crucified, okay? And then they have some other interesting beliefs. Then you have the Sikhs, which is an Islam and Hindu mix, okay? If you ever heard of a Sikh, that's really what they are, okay? Now we're gonna look at the articles of belief. This in Arabic is called Arkan al-Iman. So the very first article of belief in Islam is God. So I have written up here. This is very well-known to every Muslim in the world. This is the name of God in Arabic, Allah. So Allah was used in pre-Islamic Arabia as a supreme God. It might be connected to an ancient pagan God. Many scholars do not agree unanimously on this point. Okay, this is something, you know, some people have heard, okay, Allah was the moon God. Allah was a pagan God. You know, you cannot call God Allah because it was a pagan God. It's actually not agreed because even in Hebrew, a lot of people believe that the name God, it actually came from the Hebrew. Okay, just look over here where I put. Allah is a general term for God used by Muslims, Arabic Christians, and Jews. Literally, it is the, which is el, and God, ilah. Okay, do you remember when Jesus was on the cross? What did he say? He said, eloy, eloy, lama sabbaktani. Okay, in Hebrew, el is God. Then you have eloy, or eli, that is God. And you have elohim. Elohim is the plural, okay? But you have in there the root of el. And so that's where a lot of scholars believe that actually the word God was actually just brought over and kind of translated into the Arabic language and used for the word God. It literally means the God. So that's what they're calling him. They're saying the God, el, ilah. And you put it together, Allah. Next, Islam is a monotheistic religion, just as is Christianity and Judaism. Okay, once again, we're ministering to Muslims. So we need to know what they believe and how to reach them. I've heard Christians say, oh, well, they worship Muhammad. No, no, they don't worship Muhammad. They worship Allah, okay? Now, there's certain things that you can talk about with a Muslim because they have some interesting beliefs and certain things they say that seem to show that. But in their belief system, they are a monotheistic religion. They believe that God has always existed. Okay, so they believe in Allah being eternal. D, they believe that Allah is all powerful. You can see that in Surah 389. They believe in Allah is omnipresent. So they believe he's everywhere at the same time. Next, everything that happens on earth is of Allah's will. Nothing occurs that Allah has not already will to happen, including man sinning the presence of evil in the world and other things, okay? The Muslim actually believes that God causes all these things to happen, both good and evil, okay? No free will for mankind. Everything they believe is controlled by Allah. Let me read to you here. From Surah 9, verse 51. So this is from the Quran, Surah 9, verse 51. Say, nothing will afflict us, but what Allah has ordained for us. He is our patron and in Allah, let the believers put their trust. So this is just one example. They believe that everything is ordained by Allah, both the good and the evil. Next, Allah is impersonal. He does not have a relationship with His creation. A Muslim relationship with Allah, as I said before, is that of a master and a slave, rather than that of a father and a son or a father and a daughter in Christianity. Next, we have the term which is called shirk, okay? This is to attribute to others the qualities of deity reserved for Allah alone. To equate others with Allah. Christians are guilty of shirk because we equate Jesus Christ with God. Now let me read to you here. From Surah 3, verse 1. And you're gonna see what I mean. So because a Muslim is monotheists, they cannot accept this idea when a Christian comes and when we say we believe in God who is triune, they cannot accept that. Nor can they accept the fact that we say Jesus Christ is God in the flesh because for a Muslim, there is nobody other than Him alone, okay? They cannot conceive of the idea of God being triune. Now, so Surah 3, verse 151, listen to what it says. We shall certainly strike terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved because they have associated with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority. There abode is the fire and how dismal is the lodging of the wrongdoers. So in the mind of the Muslim, they are saying the Christians are associating someone with God, okay? And we're gonna look at that later on when we talk about how to communicate the gospel. Next, Muslims in Islam believe that Allah does not have a son. He needs nobody else to accomplish His will. There are many Surah references I gave you there, but look at what Surah 112 says. Say, He is Allah, the one and only Allah, the eternal, the absolute. He begets not nor is He begotten. So when we have the scripture that says Jesus is the only begotten of the Father, they reject that because they say God neither begets nor is He begotten. But what you're gonna begin to see as you understand the Muslim perspective is that they are relating the Son of God in a physical way. They are understanding everything in a physical way and that is why they are rejecting Christ because they think that you're saying Jesus in a physical form is the Son of God and God has a wife and gave birth to a son. And so they're thinking everything in the physical and that is the big stumbling block for the Muslim. Next, Allah cannot be known. He is so transcendent as to be unknowable. Excuse me. The Islamic view of God involves a form of agnosticism. Indeed, the heart of Islam is not to know God but to obey Him. Despite all the names of God in the Quran, in Orthodox Islam, we confront a God who is basically unknowable. This is from Norman Geisler and Salib, their book on understanding Islam. This is absolutely true, okay? In the heart of Islam, notice what he said, the heart of Islam is not to know God but to obey Him. See, we are taught in the Bible time and time again to know God, to draw near to God and He will draw near to you, to seek the Lord, right? And yet in Islam, you're not taught to know Him, to have an intimate relationship. It's just do what he says, obey Him. Next, concerning Allah, He is both good and evil. Notice in Surah 4, verse 78. If some good befalls them, they say, this is from Allah. But if evil, they say, this is from thee, O prophet. Say, all things are from Allah. What He's doing is correcting them. They say, good things come from Allah. But when it's a bad thing, it comes from you. He says, no, you need to tell them, all things are from Allah, the good and the evil, okay? The scripture, this would be your answer as a Christian. First John chapter one, our God cannot do evil. You know that we believe that God can do anything, but there is one thing that the Lord cannot do. He cannot sin. He cannot do evil. It's first John chapter one, verse five, first John 1.5. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declared to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. I love that because that is declaring to us the holiness of God, the purity of God and that there is only what is excellent and benevolent in God, there is no evil. There is no sin in God, there's no darkness in God and that is our God, amen. Next, Allah leads some in righteousness and leads others astray. Look at this, Surah four, verse 119. He says, I will mislead them and I will create in them false desires. So Allah can completely lead somebody into evil, lead them astray. Surah 14, verse three, then Allah sendeth whom He will astray and guideeth whom He will. So if that's the case, there's no human responsibility. You know, I can just say, well, Allah is making me do it. He's causing all this to happen. And actually that's what you have in Islam. It's complete fatalism, okay? Well, that's from Allah, that's from Allah, that's from Allah. There's no human responsibility, okay? But then what's interesting is you can really think about that philosophically. If that's the case, then why would you punish somebody for their evil? If God made him do it and Allah is leading him astray, so you shouldn't punish that person. You shouldn't chop off the hand of a thief, right? Or you shouldn't stone an adulterer. Next, Allah cannot be said to be unjust or wrong according to human standards. Listen to what this is from one of the hadiths, the traditions that Imam Al-Barkawi said. He can do what he wills concerning Allah and whatever he wills comes to pass. He is not obliged to act. Everything good or evil in this world exists by his will. He wills the faith of the believers and the piety of the religious. He willeth also the unbelief of the unbeliever and the irreligion of the wicked. All we do, we do by his will. What he willeth not does not come to pass. If one should ask why God does not will that all men should believe, we answer, we have no right to inquire about what God wills and does. He is perfectly free to will and to do what he pleases. Now we have in the scripture, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. See, God's will is that people be reached with the gospel, people be saved. But we also know that man has a will to reject and to rebel and sin against God. But it's not God that is causing that sin and that evil. It is man, his own violation and his moral rebellion against God that's doing that. And so we are responsible for that. But in Islam, no. Next, Allah is described in the Quran as the greatest deceiver. Can you imagine? He is described as the greatest deceiver. In Surah 354, and they, the disbelievers, plotted and Allah planned too. And Allah is the best of the planners. Now, this is the word, you see what happens in the Quran in your English, they put planners. He's the best of planners. But the Arabic is makirina, which means deceiver. Okay, because the root word to deceive is makar. So this word is deceiving. Okay, and this is of course, what they do with the English translation, they will not put the actual word. But this is one of the things, if you've ever heard this, you may have heard this said is that in the Quran, Allah is the greatest deceiver. And this is from Surah 354. And lastly, about Allah, he does not love unbelievers. In the Quran, Allah only loves the righteous. He only loves the righteous. It does talk about him loving, but only the righteous is not something. Surah 3, verse 32. Say, obey Allah and the messenger. But if they turn away, lo, Allah loveth not the disbelievers in his guidance. But we have, along with so many verses in the Bible, but John 3, 16 comes to mind for God so loved the world that he gave his only begun son. Our God is a God who loves all men and all women and wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now we're gonna move along to the prophets in Islam. According to Islamic tradition, there were 124,000 prophets throughout history, which came to teach and guide people to the true path. In Islam, prophets were truthful, trustworthy, and without sin. This is what's different. They believe their prophets are without sin. They are only righteous. Among the prophets is another group called messengers, of which Islam says there were 313 in total. Each of the messengers came with a particular book revealed for a certain people. The Quran specifically mentions only 25 by name. So these are the names that are mentioned in the Quran. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Job, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, John the Baptist, Jesus, and then Salih, which we don't know, Hud, Shuaib, Dhul, Kifil, and Muhammad. So those are the messengers which are mentioned in the Quran by name. The rest are not mentioned at all. So it's just a number. When they say 313, who are these? I don't know, 124,000 through history. They just, they have this number and it's passed down through tradition. This is what the Quran says in Surah 2, verse 136. Say, oh Muslims, we believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and that which Moses and Jesus received and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and unto him we have surrendered. Very interesting, mentions all these by name. See, and actually once again, a lot of Christians don't even know that Muslims actually have this, they believe in these prophets, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob and so when you begin to have a conversation and share the gospel, you will have something in common. You can bring up a story about Abraham. You can bring up a story about Jacob. You can talk about these stories because they believe in that. You see, it's very different when you're talking with a Muslim versus talking with just an atheist or some secular person that doesn't even believe in God or doesn't believe in the Bible. They already believe and this is where you have common ground. They already believe in the books. They believe in God, they believe in heaven, they believe in hell. So we're gonna, you know, you have this common ground with a Muslim. But notice what it says in that Surah, we make no distinction between any of them and yet this is a point of discussion because for us, Jesus is not simply a prophet. He is Lord of all. Now next, we're gonna look at the holy books. So let's look at the holy books in Islam. So you can see right here, this is how the Quran is written in Arabic. So this is Arabic script just to give you an idea. And if you're interested, I brought a Quran here. So if you wanna pass this around, they read, okay, we would read our book from left to right. They read from right to left, okay? So this goes that way. Oh, thank you, thank you. So I'll pass this around, you can just check it out and pass it down. Okay, so the holy books. First of all, Allah revealed from heaven four holy books. This is what every Muslim believes and this is what the Quran teaches. Allah revealed four holy books, the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel and last the Quran. Surah 5, verse 46 through 47.  And we bestowed on him the Gospel, wherein is guidance and a light. Look at what they're told. Confirming that which was revealed before it in the Torah, a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off evil. Verse 47, let, now this is a place where you can actually have a very good discussion with a Muslim. It tells them, let the people of the Gospel, that's us, let the people of the Gospel judge by what, by that which Allah hath revealed therein. Whoso judges not by that which Allah hath revealed, such are evil livers. Meaning those who live with evil. But notice what it says. It's telling the Muslims that the people of the Gospel, that's me, the Christian, I should judge the Quran, which is coming by what I have in the Bible. And we're gonna talk about this later on. And now if I do that and if I do what Allah tells me to do, He's telling me, judge what is coming, the Quran, by what is revealed in the Torah and in the Gospel. But if I do that, then I reject the Quran. And I have to reject it because what's here doesn't match with what's there. So they have a dilemma. They have a dilemma on their hands. Next, keep in mind that Muslims' understanding of these divine revelations is very different from the Christians. Okay, you cannot think of the Quran in the same way how we received our Bible. Over hundreds and hundreds of years on three different continents, by 40 different authors. Okay, in different times, in different ways, how the Bible was put together. The Quran came from Allah to the angel Gabriel and from the angel Gabriel came to one man, Muhammad. And everything in the Quran is the words of Allah. So everything for the Muslim, everything in the Quran is God speaking directly, okay? Next, an essential doctrine in Islam is the eternal, heavenly, well-guarded tablet, an eternal tablet which describes the Quran. So they believe the Quran has always existed in heaven with God forever. Next, the Quran was revealed in Arabic and is referred to as the mother of the book. In Surah 43, verses three through four, it says, we have made it a Quran in Arabic that ye may be able to understand and learn wisdom.  Now the problem is, look at the next point here, only 16 to 20% of the Muslim world speak Arabic as their mother tongue. So if Allah was so wise, and he says here in this verse, I am revealing this book in Arabic that you may be able to understand, how is it that only 16 to 20% of the Muslims can even understand the Quran? They don't understand it. They memorize it, but they don't understand what is written in it. And this is exactly what happened in Christian, in our history, when we have the dark ages in Europe. Because the dark ages were a time when the Bible was only read and known in Latin and the people did not know Latin. And so the only one who knew Latin was the priest. And he could interpret it, he could teach it, but the people did not have the Bible in their own language until the revolution and until the Bible was actually translated into the language of the people. And now the people for the very first time could read the Bible in their own language and understand the word of God and know God. But until that time, people were in darkness. They didn't know, they just came and they just listened. Whatever the priest says, that's the truth. And it's the same thing with Muslims. When they go to the mosque, they just hear what the Imam is saying and they have to believe everything because they don't know Arabic themselves, the majority. So the Quran is the final revelation from God through the angel Gabriel to Muhammad. He memorized everything over a period of 23 years. The Quran has been preserved from error. And lastly concerning the Quran, there are 114 surahs. It is organized by size, not chronological order or topic. So practically it is impossible to understand the Quran without the hadith. For example, surah 96 is the first surah. So it's like if I said, it's like if I said first Corinthians is the first book of the Bible. And the last book of the Bible is Job, okay? Surah 96 is the first surah and surah five verse three is the very last revelation from Allah to Muhammad. It's crazy, okay? It's not in chronological order. So when you read the Quran, a story will begin about Abraham and then it will 15 surahs later, it continues and then it talks about Jesus and then it'll talk about Abraham and what he did. And it's all mixed up because it's not in chronological order. It's according to size. So you have the bigger surahs in the beginning and as the Quran goes, you have the smaller surahs in the end, okay? So it's really, really difficult to understand so you can imagine. Now we're gonna look at angels, angels and demons. They believe as Muslims that angels were created by God to serve him. Archangels are mentioned in the Quran. Gabriel, he is the angel of revelation. In Arabic, his name is Jibril. You have Michael, who is the angel of providence. You have Israfil, which blows the trumpet of doom. You have Azrael, which is the angel of death. You have a one called Ridwan, which is the guardian of paradise. You have Malik, which is guardian of hell. You have Munkar and Nakir. They question the dead and you have others. So you have these archangels in the Quran. They believe that these angels, they are recording angels and they record the good and the bad deeds. So what happens, for example, if you ever watch a Muslim, and I'll probably bring a video, but when a Muslim prays at the end of their prayer, they're normally down on their knees and at the end of their prayer, they will speak and say salamu alaykum, salamu alaykum. What they're doing is they're saying hello or they're greeting one angel on their right shoulder and one on the left shoulder because they believe every person has two angels. One is writing the good deeds and the other is writing the bad deeds and that's what a Muslim believes. Okay, so those are the recording angels. Then you have the gene, the gene, a different type of spirit being. They can be good or evil. They can enter and they can possess humans. They can be male or female and they believe that they were created from fire. So this is the gene. Satan is of the gene. This is in Surah 1850. He was created from fire. He was commanded by Allah to prostrate before Adam along with all God's angels. Okay, they have an entirely different story of Adam and Eve. First of all, in Islam, Adam and Eve were created in heaven, not on earth. And God told all the angels to bow down to, not God, but to Adam.  Why should I bow down to him? That's interesting because it almost, it's like, well, yeah, he's right. He shouldn't be bowing down to Adam, but for him he was wrong and for that, God punished him. It's very twisted. He refused, so he was cast down from heaven and would give himself over to tricking and leading people away from Allah's straight path. Obviously you can look at the Bible, places like Isaiah 14, I believe, Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28 where you see the fall of Satan. Then you have in Islam what's called the divine decree. Allah controls everything. Allah leads some astray and others he guides. We looked at that earlier. In Surah 951, nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us. The term is used frequently if God wills. In the Hadith, according to Sahih Muslim, he said this, verily Allah has fixed the very portion of adultery which a man will indulge in and which he of necessity must commit. Did you catch that? He's saying God has fixed the very portion of adultery which a person is gonna commit. God is controlling even the sin. Very sad, very sad. Final judgment. The Muslims believe in a final judgment. They believe their good and their bad deeds will be weighed on a scale. I gave you several references there. In Surah 23 verses 101 through 104, and when the trumpet is blown there will be no kinship among them that day. Nor will they ask of one another. Then those who scales are heavy they are the successful meaning they will pass into paradise.   I don't know what that means. So in Islam, God never punishes or judges the bad deeds when they are outweighed by the good. But I want you to think about that with me. If on judgment day a Muslim will stand before God and if his good deeds outweigh his bad deeds he goes into paradise. The question is if God is just what happens to the bad deeds? What happens to all the bad that a person did? Just because the good outweighed the bad that means he goes to heaven. But where is the justice? And you see this as a Christian if you know what Christ did and you know what happened on the cross. See the cross took the justice of God and the mercy of God. And we see that together in a beautiful picture. Because God does not let any sin go unpunished. Every sin that you and I commit is punished. The question that every man will answer is do you want Christ to take your punishment or will you take your own punishment? That is really it. But every sin is punished by God. But for the Muslim they're saying if you do more good deeds then God will not punish you.  It still has to be punished. And so that's a question. Muslims have no assurance of salvation even after all they do. So they can do their prayers. They can go to the mosque. They can give their alms to the poor and do all these things, go to Mecca. But in the end of the day if you ask them, do you know where you will go when you die? They will say inshallah, paradise. Which means if God wills I'll go to heaven. But let me ask you a question. Would you ever say if God wills I'll go to heaven? No. Do you know guys that this is the one thing that a Christian cannot say if God wills? Think about that. In every area of life you should say God willing this will happen. God willing I'll do this. God willing I'll go there. But in one area you cannot say if God wills I'll go to heaven. Otherwise you may not be a sure of your salvation. You don't know Christ. You don't know God's word, the promise that He has given us. Jesus said in John 5, 24, most assuredly I say to you, He who hears my words and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life and has passed from death to life. You see it's a promise. So when I talk to a Muslim and I tell them do you know that I cannot say what you said?  Because God has said no, don't say God willing. I have told you I have given you a promise. So we must believe God's word. His word is true. So they say if God wills I will enter paradise. And this is amazing guys. Do you know that Muhammad himself who was the prophet of Islam had no assurance? When he died, he did not know where he was going. He did not know. He had no assurance. There is an exception though. For martyrs in Islam they are guaranteed paradise. They are guaranteed paradise. You could look that up later on if you wish in Sura 57 verse 19. And then concerning heaven and hell we see there are many contrasts between the Quranic view and the biblical view of heaven and hell. We're just, we're trying to go over these things just an overview. And then last concerning man. Allah created Adam and Eve in heaven as I said before from the dust and they were deceived by Satan to eat of the tree which was forbidden. God then cast them both from heaven to the earth to dwell there as a punishment. Sura two verses 35 through 36.  But come not near this tree or you both will be of the Zalimun which means wrongdoers. Then the shaitan, which is Satan, made them slip there from and got them out from that in which they were. We said, get you down all with enmity between yourselves.  They believe that man was created to worship Allah. This is why God created Adam and Eve to worship Allah. But as we saw here, Adam and Eve were cast down to the earth from paradise. The Muslims believe also concerning man that we are born without a sin nature. Since Islam does not see sin as a radical problem, then we can see and understand why the issue of salvation is not a radical one as it is in Christianity. You see, in Islam because you're not born with a sinful nature, so you're not separated from God. In Islam it is referred to as a mistake or as being weak, but you are not called a sinner. You are not called a person who is an enemy of God or as an enmity with God. And so there is no radical problem so the issue of salvation is not radical. This is why in Christianity alone, we see that God had to step out of heaven in eternity and come down to earth to redeem us. There was no other way. Do you realize how radical that is? That God himself had to save us from our sin. That's how radical. The Muslims believe, as I said earlier, that the prophets cannot sin. They believe they are sinless. And last, so while the Bible portrays God as absolutely holy and man as totally depraved, the Quran portrays man as simply weak and misguided. In the Muslim view, man does not need redemption. He only needs some guidance so that he might develop the inherently pure nature with which the Creator has endowed him. If he will be faithful in his prayers, almsgiving and fasting, God is likely to overlook his sins and usher him into paradise, a garden of sensual delights. And one of the things you will notice, we're done for today, but one of the things you will notice is that in Islam, everything is physical. Their heaven has to do with physical things. Their relationship with God is physical. Hell is about physical. But in Christ, everything is a spiritual relationship. There is a spiritual relationship. There is a spiritual intimacy that we have with Christ that a Muslim does not know. And this is why we wanna know what they believe and why they believe it so that now we can take the gospel, what we know and what we believe and now communicate it to them. We can communicate it to them. Well, let's take a couple, open up some time to questions. If you guys have any questions, maybe regarding this or maybe something else that has come up. Yeah. I have a question. I just wrote it right now, since Muslims believe that we don't, we're basically born without sin nature, do you think it's a waste of time to go through the Roman rule with them and how, you know, how rape comfort approaches them?  Do you think that's a waste of time or should we do approach it a different way or when you come to witness it to Muslims? I think that's a good way. They do understand that, see they understand that there is a law. They understand that God has given them a law. But when we do share, we have the authority of scripture. And we have to remember as Christians, God has given us that authority. He's given you the Holy Spirit. And so it's good to take them through, like you said, even share with them and show them that by their conscience, they are separated from God. And if God's going to judge them on judgment day, according to his law, and if you ask a Muslim, do you believe that Allah is holy? If you just ask him that, they'll say, yes, I believe it's holy. Do you believe that Allah is righteous? They'll say yes. If you say, do you believe Allah is just? They'll say yes. So then you can begin to build it. Okay, well then what happens if this happens? What happens if that happens? Because what happens is a lot of their beliefs, they believe certain things, but a lot of things that they don't study, okay? And a lot of things that they don't know. But when you begin to kind of show them and begin to lead them through and begin to make them think, because that's another thing. A Muslim is not taught to think and to reason through their faith. So I think that's a very good thing to do, yeah. Any others? Curious, you mentioned one of the groups there was deemed a cult by Muslims. Wouldn't they also view the nation of Islam as less than authentic Islam as well? What I see, I don't know a whole lot of the nation of Islam. So what would matter is that they have to hold to the Quran and they have to hold to the Hadith and the traditions of Muhammad. And so I know that with the nation of Islam, I think there's some other beliefs there that are not really in traditional Islamic beliefs. And once again, that's a more of a Western thing, you know what I'm saying, yeah. I have a question. I know the word Allah means God. It is not the same God we believe in, is it? When we talk about Allah, are we talking about the same God from what I read here? He's not. Yes, now that was something that, this is something that I'm gonna be communicating and explaining, but what we have to understand is the word and the person behind the word. So when I say the word, the word just means God. But who is that God? Yes, the God of Islam is not the God of the Bible. So we have to understand that and we have to be clear on that. The God of Islam, he has no son. The God of Islam is not Trinity. The God of Islam did not redeem man. So that God is not God. But that's where as a Christian, what I do is I say, who is God? Let's talk about who is God. And this is the God of the Bible. You say that the God of Islam gave us the Torah and the Psalms and the Gospel. But do you know what it says? And now you can begin to share with the Muslim. What does the Torah say? What does the Gospel say? Because you say that Allah gave this to us. But now when we begin to read it and study it, if there is a contradiction, now we have to say, well, there's a problem here. There's a problem. See, I like to share with a Muslim that, when I lived overseas, one of the things we had to do, if I went to the bank and I had dollars and I went to the bank and I wanted to exchange that dollars for the currency there, they take that, let's say, $100 bill and they put it through an X-ray. And they're able to see if that's real and genuine or if it's counterfeit. So I tell them, I say, this is the same thing we're taught in the Bible. The Bible, this is our standard by which we judge. So when any doctrine, Islam, or any religion of the world comes, we are to match it with this book. If it doesn't match, we are to reject it. You see? Because if I come and I say, well, how tall is that door? And you say, I think it's seven foot. And I say, no, it's six foot, five inches. Well, who's right? None of us. That's your opinion. This is mine. What do we need to do? We need to come and bring the measuring tape. So I ask them, what's the measuring tape? The measuring tape is the Word of God. And see, this came before that. Does it make any sense to measure the old by the newer or measure the newer by the older? You see, what they're doing is they're measuring our Bible by the newer revelation. When it doesn't work that way, it's the other way around. But see, they don't think that way. But when I began to challenge them, now they begin to think and go, well, wait a minute. You know, you're making some sense. I'm just curious, how do you address the accusation of the Bible not being, you know, they believe it's distorted? So what do you say to them, I'm back y'all. I'll wait till we touch on that subject. Yeah, cause that's a long one. I will touch on that. Yeah, yeah. Yes. I'm not familiar, what is the Torah and then what do they mean by the gospel? What books are the gospel that they're referring to? Okay. So for them, okay, the Torah is the books of Moses. Okay. So for them, what the Muslim believes is that Moses was given this particular book called the Torah. And it was, everything there that Allah said was in the Torah. So that's why I said it's not like what we have in the Bible where we have the books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They don't understand it like that. And see, at the same time, when they are told in the Quran, God gave you the Torah. But if you were to ask them, okay, well if you reject this, the word of God, the Bible, where is that Torah which you were told was given to you? They don't have it. They don't have it. And so it's very difficult for them to reject something when they're denying what we have all throughout the world. And they claim to say, no, Moses gave us the Torah and it was just one book called the Torah. And the gospel was just given by Jesus. And they're saying it was Jesus that took it and Jesus who wrote it down and gave it to us. Okay, so their understanding is not what we have in our, as the Bible in a revelation. So there's no written Torah in the gospel? Not for them. What they're trying to do is prove something without any evidence on their behalf. They have no evidence to say, oh, here it is. If they came and say, yes, here is the one. Here is the book, but there is nothing. So, but when you're talking to a Muslim, the Torah, the Moses, the books of Moses, the Zabur, which is the Psalms of David, and then the gospel which they call in Arabic, the Injil. And the Injil is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we can speak to them from the gospel of Jesus Christ and begin to have conversations about what we have here in the gospels throughout the gospels. So we have loads of a lot of enough information there to have a dialogue with a Muslim about the words of Jesus. So wait a minute, Jesus claimed this. Jesus taught this. What do you say about that? And so it's a great way to talk with a Muslim. The Torah is one of the five books that we know. The Torah, for us, yes, is the five books of Moses, right? For them, they don't talk about it as the five books of Moses. They just know it as the Torah, as one book. See, this is their understanding of the revelation for them. So they believe in the five books then? But they see, once again, what we say is that's those five books. But for them, it's a completely different understanding. It's just one book, the Torah. Which they don't have. Which they don't have, right. So they wouldn't read our five books to say, oh yeah, this is it. They'd be like, no, that's nothing. No, they would say that's nothing, right. But yet they're told that the books of Moses are given by God. But they don't know what those are. Yeah, so it's kind of, they have a problem. They have a problem because it doesn't exist. Yeah, a lot. Exactly. Yes. Okay, I'll answer her question. So when you share with them, do you share with them out of the Bible? They don't recognize the first four books as being four separate books as just one. Right. Then the Psalms, and then Book of Matthew, or all of the Gospels. When I share, I treat it as it is. So I won't, and once again, what I'm telling you right now, most Muslims will never even bring up the subject and say, no, but we don't believe it the way you believe it. No, we don't believe that. I will speak to them as it is the Word of God. This is what, did you know what Moses said? Did you know what it says in the Book of Genesis? This is the Book of Moses. This is the Torah. You believe in the Torah? Yes, I do. Well, this is what it says in Genesis. Let me show you. Okay, so when you speak, the Holy Spirit is with you. You know what I'm saying? And they have to deal with the words of Scripture. We have to remember the Word of God is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. So I've really, to be very honest with you, I've really never confronted someone that says, oh no, I don't, normally what they will deal with is the words of Jesus and the New Testament. That's where they attack a lot. But when it comes to the Old Testament, they have no argument. And I could show a person, not even touching the New Testament, I can show a person that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I can show a person the crucifixion of Jesus. I can show a person the Trinity, all from the Old Testament, without even going to the New Testament. But see, we need to learn that as Christians, you know? So, did you have one last question? Then we're gonna pray. The prayer that you just passed out, that's basically original from them. Like, would I be able to download one on the phone? Yes, yes, that's what I have here. And is that distorted? Cause I've heard that they say that, well, that any translation other than the original is basically distorted and we cannot be trusted or will they argue against that or what do you... They won't argue with it. They won't argue with it, unless you have a very hardcore Muslim, they'll say no, the only true Quran is has to be read in Arabic. But they have it in different languages? They have it in different languages, yes, yes. I'm sorry, what version were you talking about? Yeah, I have a version here. I don't know the name, I don't know the name of the version, but I have the icon right there, the Quran on the corner. Yeah. I was interested to see it afterwards, I can show you. But yeah, this is great because I can pull up a surah and it's in English and Arabic right there. So if they know Arabic, they can read it or I can read it to them in English, yeah. So it's good.