Remembering September 11, 2001

TWO DIFFERENT WORLD LEADERS
The Prophet Mohammad and Our Lord Jesus Christ

The prophet Mohammad was born of humble origins around A.D. 570 in Mecca into the Koreish (Quraysh) tribe, custodians of the religious sanctuary in Mecca, the Kaaba.

Mohammad was married at age 25 to a wealthy widow, Khadija. From her he had one surviving daughter, Fatima, the mother of all those descended from him. Mohammad was often seen in solitude; he was a thoughtful contemplative. In one of his contemplative times (at age 40 in 610), in a cave outside of Mecca, called Hera, Mohammad heard a voice he believed to be the voice of Gabriel commanding: “Read in the name of the Lord, who created.” Thus was the prophet called. Mohammad’s early utterances, which took the
form of rhymed prose, were the beginnings of the Qur’an. His first teachings revolved around the unity of God, his attributes, and the future life.

Mohammad’s first followers were his wife, Khadija, his cousin, Ali (who became the husband of Mohammad’s daughter Fatima), and his future successor, Abu-Bakr.

When rejection and persecution arose in pagan Mecca over the revelation of the one God, some 615 followers of Mohammad fled to Christian Abyssinia for sanctuary. Meanwhile, Mohammad and some of his other followers were put under siege in Mecca.

Between July and September of 622, Mohammad and his followers (in what was called the Hegira, hijrah) migrated to Yathrib (Medina) at the invitation of the people of that city. The reception of Mohammad as a prophet by the people of Medina was the turning point in the career of Mohammad and the history of Islam.

In 624 on the battlefield Badr, approximately 20 miles southwest of Medina, some 300 followers of Mohammad engaged and defeated an army of 1,000 Meccans. The prophet’s victory was viewed as a divine sanction of his call.

In 625, Mohammad was wounded and defeated in a second battle with the Meccans at Uhud. But two years later Mohammad successfully defended Medina against the Meccans and their confederates. His converts increased in direct proportion to his victories. The conquests of Mohammad would eventually spread all across Arabia, unfortunately at the cost of many lives.

Early in 630, Mohammad attacked Mecca at the head of 40,000 Muslims. He entered the city as a conqueror, and with his own hands he smashed the 360 idols in the Kaaba, declaring “truth hath come and falsehood hath vanished.”

On June 8, 632, Mohammad fell ill of a violent fever and died in Medina in the arms of his favored wife. Historian Philip Schaff records that the dying Mohammad “suffered great pain, cried and wailed, turning on his couch in despair….” Among his final words was a cry that God would “destroy the Jews and Christians.…” Mohammad was 62 years old.

The 114 Suras (chapters) of the Qur’an (the Book) are a record of Mohammad’s spiritual pilgrimage. The Qur’an contains Mohammad’s convictions and the foundations of the Muslim faith. Today, just over one-sixth of the world’s population follows in the steps of Mohammad, Islam’s prophet.

The following are some of Mohammad’s most serious statements as recorded in the Qur’an.

• Mohammad taught: “Fight in the cause of God those who fight you … and slay them wherever you catch them.…” Sura 2, 190-191
• Mohammad also declared: “Fighting is prescribed for you, but you dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you….” Sura 2, 216
• Mohammad continued: “Then fight in the cause of God.…” Sura 2, 243-244
• Mohammad continued: “Let those fight in the cause of God who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter.
• To him who fighteth in the cause of God—whether he is slain or gets victory—soon shall we give him a reward of great value… why should ye not fight in the cause of God….Those who believe, fight in the cause of God, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: so fight ye against the friends[supporters] of Satan….” Sura 4, 74-76
• Mohammad then made this statement: “The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle … is execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides [“the right hand and the left foot,” Qur’anic commentary], or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.” Sura 5, 36
• The Washington Post on December 16, 2001, pictured a 28-year-old man, Dol Agha, one of hundreds to have “his right hand and left foot amputated by the Taliban in Kabul Stadium,” where “he was forced to lie on his back. A soldier sat on him to hold him down. Someone pulled off his left shoe. The hooded doctor pushed up his sleeve … he remembers hearing soldiers laughing before everything went black. Agha is one of hundreds of Afghans, unjustly accused, whose limbs were amputated under the Taliban’s fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran. The mutilations were a regular show, a Friday afternoon
  bloodletting, to keep the population in line….”
• Mohammad continued: “I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger tips off them. This because they contended against God and His Apostle….”
  Sura 8, 12-13
• Consequently Mohammad enjoined: “When the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war; but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them; for God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.” Sura 9, 5
• Mohammad then promised: “Those who believe, and suffer exile and strive with might and main in God’s cause, with their goods and their persons, have the highest rank in the sight of God: They are the people who will achieve salvation….Their Lord doth give … gardens for them, wherein are delights that endure: They will dwell therein forever….” Sura 9, 20-22
• Mohammad further commanded: “Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth even if they are of the People of the Book [Mohammad’s name for Jews and Christians], until they pay with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” Sura 9, 29
• Mohammad then promised: “Those who leave their homes in the cause of God,
  and are then slain or die—on them will God bestow verily a goodly Provision: truly God is He who bestows the best Provision. Verily He will admit them to a place with which they shall be well pleased: for God is All-Knowing, Most Forbearing.”
  Sura 22, 58-59
• Mohammad decreed: “Hypocrites … shall have a curse on them: wherever they are found, they shall be seized and slain without mercy.” Sura 33, 60-61
• For Christians, perhaps Mohammad’s most serious statement is Sura 9, 30: “The Christians call Christ the Son of God. That is a saying from their mouth….God’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the truth!” Islamic radicals to this day, such as those in the Poso region of Central Salawesi, Indonesia, espouse Mohammad’s hatred for Christians. One sign near Tentena reads: “Jesus would have been better to be beheaded. Kill all the Christians!!!”

These things are what Mohammad believed and decreed and practiced. However some Muslims today may wish to explain or offset these statements of Mohammad, one thing is clear—these are the very verses that have inspired terrorists to murder innocent victims, primarily Christians and Jews, with a total sense of impunity. The architects of jihad use these very words of Mohammad to justify their cause.

Muslims declare Mohammad to be a greater prophet than Jesus and the Qur’an to be a greater revelation from God than the New Testament. We will now examine the life and the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ to see if these claims are true.

More than five and a half centuries before the birth of Mohammad, another world leader was born—One who today has the allegiance of one-third of the world’s popu-lation—over 2 billion people. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ commands more people than any other religion. One billion of Jesus’ present-day followers are deeply committed to His cause, and most would gladly lay down their lives for His message—as over 50 million have done since He ascended into heaven nearly 2,000 years ago. Twenty-five million have been
martyred in His Name in this past century alone, many at Muslim hands.

Like Mohammad, Jesus of Nazareth was born of humble birth. But He called together and led no earthly armies; He fought no earthly battles. He declared that His kingdom was not of this world. He forbade His followers to hate, declaring that only “the pure in heart … will see God,” and that “only the peacemakers … will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:8-9). He commanded: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:44-45). He taught that “if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also … and if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles….” (5:39, 41).

There is absolutely nothing that Jesus ever taught or did that would uphold hatred or violence or war.

As initially with Mohammad, Jesus of Nazareth and His followers were despised and rejected by men, but Jesus’ steadying word to His followers was simply: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love …” (John 13:35). In a self-fulfilling prophecy Jesus declared: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Seized by wicked and hateful hands, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Roman cross, but even then, with His dying breath, He prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Because of His spotless and holy life, God was pleased, on that cross, to make Jesus the sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Then, raised from the dead by the power of His Father, Jesus commissioned His small band of followers to go into all the world and bring to all the nations His message of forgiveness and reconciliation and love. And
for that purpose He filled them with His Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

Down through the centuries, so-called Christians who have taken up the sword in His name—all the way from the Inquisitors to the Crusaders to present-day warring churchmen—have blemished His cause and shamed His Name, for they have violated His basic teachings of love and forgiveness. By His own words, they are therefore not true disciples of His (Matthew 7:22-23).

On September 11, 2001, 19 Muslim men shattered the lives of over 3,000 innocent families in New York City and Washington, DC, by the greatest acts of terror ever perpetrated on American soil. They believed they were fulfilling the will of Allah, following in the footsteps of Mohammad, his prophet, and obeying the commands of the Qur’an. They inflicted a wound of unspeakable pain upon the soul of all humanity in the name of Islam.

It is important for us to acknowledge at this juncture that not every Muslim is a terrorist and that not every Muslim believes Mohammad’s statements are to be taken literally in our present century. The Middle East Media (December 2001) reports: “Many Middle Eastern people were overcome with profound grief and shock at the loss of life and property in America in September. In some countries, prayer services were held. In Morocco, a remarkable interfaith service was held in a Catholic cathedral at which a strong contingent of government ministers was present.”

On the flip side, a Muslim student from Pakistan writes: “The most painful discovery for me about the Islamic faith has been its concept of militancy. I always used to think that these fanatics were just misguided people who give Islam a bad name. To be sure, Islam does not permit killing of innocent women and children, but as I have found out, its teachings are quite different from those of Jesus, who wants you to turn the other cheek. As I know now, violence does have a strong precedent in Islam. The terrible tragedy that happened in this country seems to be the logical outcome of teachings that tell you it’s okay to reply in kind. I think that’s what happens when you try to enforce God’s will in this earthly world rather than believing that his kingdom is not of this world but of the other world” (letter published by Philip Yancey in Christianity Today).

Personal Conclusion
For myself, I personally have examined the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Prince of Peace, and I have concluded that He alone is worthy of my deepest devotion and my fullest commitment. As with more than a billion others (with yet another billion nominal Christians besides), I have received Him as my Lord and Savior, the true revelation of the one true God. I now commend Him to everyone everywhere as the One worthy of our love and allegiance, for only when His message is believed and His forgiveness is received by mankind, and mankind then walks in His footsteps of kindness and compassion—only then will wars cease and hatred end and hostility and inequity be swallowed up in love.

—Charles P. Schmitt

 

—To read other articles from Pastor Charles take a look at, That "Horrible Doctrine", “Is the Body of Christ a Melting Pot or a Tossed Salad?” , “Why are our Nations’ Flags in the Rotunda (and not in the Sanctuary)?” and A Distortion of Biblical Prosperity. Please check for them on this website.