Examination of Islam

As promised in my last post, I'll share with you my paper on the divine attributes of God as reflected in the doctrine of salvation on both the Islamic and Christian conception.

Here is the full version of the paper. If you'd just like the Reader's Digest version, then continue to read...

I see the Islamic conception of God (the Islamic term for God is, "Allah") as being morally deficient for two reasons.

The first reason is that Allah is not all-loving. As the creator and as the standard of all moral values, God--The Ultimate Good, must be all-loving. But this is not what Islam teaches. Allah loves those who believe and do good deeds, but he does not love unbelievers. God does not love ungrateful sinners (2:277) or those who do evil (3:57) or the aggressors (2:190) or the unbelievers (2:276)...his love is conditional. What a contrast to the God of the Bible! God is described as holding back the Last Day so that there is “more time for everyone to repent” (2^nd Peter 3:9). Throughout Jesus’ time on earth, he consistently spent time with the outcasts and the sinners, saying that he came to the sick, not to the healthy (Mark 2:17). Thus it appears that the Islamic conception of God falls short of being Perfectly Good, which has pretty dire theological consequences.

The second reason is that Allah’s justice and holiness are compromised on Islamic theology. As an illustration, suppose a man caught speeding on the highway is taken to court. The judge could say, “Yes, you were caught speeding, but I’m going to let you off the hook because you’re a pretty good guy—you give to charity, you care for your family, and you volunteer at the mosque.” Indeed the judge would be showing mercy, but his justice would be compromised because he simply turns a blind eye to the wrongdoing of the man. The same is true with the Islamic conception of God—God simply overlooks the transgressions of those whose good deeds outweigh their bad. By not exacting punishment for the transgression of those who earn salvation in heaven, God cannot be absolutely just and his holiness is compromised. But if God is not absolutely holy and wholly just, then he theologically cannot be the Ultimate being. Christianity has a solution for this war between mercy and justice by Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross.

So that's what I talk about for 7 fun-filled pages...hopefully I get a good grade on it.

In other news, today I went to one of the most popular places for tourists of Cairo--The Citadel. It was built in the late 1170s (during the Ayyubid dynasty), as a fortress and contained both the palace and barracks for soldiers. Today, there are 3 mosques there, the most famous of which is the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, which I've posted below.

And since you all have cold weather, snow, and other Christmas-type stuff and I don't (I'm jealous!), I thought I should try to make you jealous with the brilliant idea I got yesterday--buy some fresh strawberries and chocolate spread....delicious! So take that, blog-readers!

Have a happy Tuesday!