Are the Koran and Islam similar to the Bible and Christianity?
Are they inspired writings?
Answer:
To answer your question, lets look at how Islam came to be. Quoting from the World Book Encyclopedia :
"Islam is the name given to the religion preached by the Prophet, Mohammed [also spelled Muhammad] in the A.D. 600s. Mohammed was an Arab who was born in Mecca about A.D. 570. He believed he had been sent to warn and guide his people and to call them to worship God (Allah). Mohammed preached that there is only one God and that he, Mohammed, was Gods messenger. Mohammed began preaching in Mecca about A.D. 610. He made slow progress at first. Most of the rich and powerful citizens scorned him and his preaching. His preaching angered and frightened the Meccans, and some of them even plotted to kill him.
"In 622, Mohammed fled to the city of Medina, where a group of people received and helped him. In 630, Mohammed and his followers returned to Mecca and occupied the city. They destroyed all the idols in the heathen temple, the Kaaba, and turned the area surrounding the Kaaba into a mosque (Moslem [Muslim] house of worship). The Meccans then accepted Islam and acknowledged Mohammed as a prophet. Mecca and Medina became the sacred cities of Islam.
"The companions of Mohammed preserved his revelations by memorizing them or writing them down during his lifetime. Moslem scholars believe Mohammed approved these teachings. Later, the materials were combined to form the holy book of the Moslems. It is called the Koran. Moslems consider the Koran the words of God Himself, spoken to Mohammed by an angel. Parts of the Koran resemble the Bible, the Apocrypha, and the Talmud. The Koran also has stories from the New Testament about Jesus Christ, whom it calls the Word of God.
"The Koran teaches the absolute unity and power of God, the creator of the whole universe. It also teaches that God is just and merciful, and wishes man to repent and purify himself while on earth so that he can attain Paradise after death. Therefore God sends prophets with sacred books to teach man his duty to God and his fellow man. The Moslems believe Mohammed was the last of the prophets. Jesus and the Old Testament prophets were his predecessors."
This just scratches the surface of the information that is available about Islam, but through reading the information above, you can see both similarities to and differences from what the Bible teaches.
Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet, but that He was only a human being and not the Son of God who has existed with God since the beginning (John 1:1-3 [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[2] The same was in the beginning with God.
[3] All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
See All..., 14). They do not recognize Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind, whose shed blood cleanses us before God and permits us to enter into a relationship with our Father in heaven. Islam also teaches that, since the Bible and the Koran disagree on many points, the Bible became corrupted and was superceded by the Koran.
Various religions possess bits and pieces of truth, as do both Islam and Judaism. But neither understands the role of Jesus Christ in our lives. The book of 1 John discusses the absolute necessity of Jesus Christs involvement in our worship of God.
Notice 1 John 2:21-23 [21] I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
[22] Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
[23] Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
See All...: "I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also."
If we accept the authority of the Bible as the Word of God, then by reading this passage we come to the conclusion that Islam, because it denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, cannot be of God. There are many other beliefs of Islam that contradict the Bible that you can find in your own studies. We encourage you to read the entire book of 1 John as well as our booklet titled Is the Bible True?
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