The Real Revolution  

The Bible foretells of the rise and fall of several empires including Persia and Rome.  It also foretells of other events.  As Muslims, we do not dispute that, we respect the Bible.  However, we do not see it as an inerrant Word of God from cover to cover.  This is because the Bible has been proven by Christian scholars that there have been alterations to the Bible.  As a result, we are taught to study the Bible very carefully.  We have talked about these alterations in previous shows regarding Paul and the Bible. 

Five Pillars of the Bible

Is Islam really so different from the faith practiced in the Bible?  We look at both faiths today and they certainly look quite different.  Dark skinned versus light skinned, clothing styles, facial hair, etc.  But what about the inside?  Surely, between the hardcovers, there must be some similarities.  So let’s examine the basics. 

The First Pillar
The fundamental basis in a religion would have to be regarding the Creator.  The Bible preaches belief in One God.  The first pillar of Islam is the same, believing in One God.  The One God who the possessor of all attributes, such as Gracious, Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgement, and Forgiving.  We see these qualities in the Quran and in the Bible.  In the Old Testament, the Children of Israel are warned over and over again to not go running after false gods.  This warning is very necessary because they are surrounded by pagans.  They should continue to worship the One God of their forefathers and of Abraham and Moses.  This is the same in Islam because the God of Abraham and Moses is the God of Islam.  Both of these prophets’ stories and missions are communicated in detail in the Quran.  The first commandment of God was to worship Him and Him alone.  Just the same, the first pillar of Islam not only professes in the belief of one God, but also states that there are no other gods besides Him. 

The Second Pillar

Having mentioned the Creator, now a believer should know what to do with his/her Creator.  This brings in the act of prayer.  In both the Bible and Islam, prayer is a basis of faith.  Jews pray three times a day and Muslims pray five times a day.  The Children of Israel pray towards what was the temple of Solomon.  Interesting to note, the Muslims’  also used to pray towards the temple of Solomon.  As time went on, the Muslims’ shifted their prayer to the Ka’aba in Mecca.  Finally, in regards to prayer, when one is praying in a submissive manner or a extremely thankful manner, one can see that they pray with their face on the ground.  We see that Jesus prayed in this way the night before he was put on the cross.  Abraham did the same when he was given glad tidings of a son.  Similarly, Muslims prostrate themselves before God many times throughout the day. 

The Third Pillar

We have mentioned God and worshipping God.  So what is a good way of purifying oneself to obtain a closer relationship with God?  This third pillar would then be that of fasting.  Prophets would generally go through a fast before something significant was revealed to them.  Moses fasted before he went up into the mountain and Jesus fasted for forty days before he began his ministry.  Presently, we see variations of Christianity going through periods of fasts.  The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) fasted often throughout his life.  Muslims also fast during the month of Ramadan. 

The Fourth Pillar
The fourth pillar is charity.  Charity is mentioned throughout the Old Testament (Deut. 24: 19.   Ps. 41: 1; Acts 11: 29-30) and the New Testament (Matt. 6: 1-4; Luke 11: 41; Acts 24: 17).  The same holds true throughout the Quran (Chapter 2 : Verse 272; Chapter 9 : Verse 75; Chapter 21 : Verse 74).


The Fifth Pillar
To briefly recap, we have seen that there is a belief in God, prayer to worship God, fasting to purify oneself before God, and giving charity to please God.  These things are everyday things.  What would be the penultimate experience in a believer’s life?  This leads to the fifth pillar, the pilgrimage.  Many know that Muslims perform a pilgrimage to Mecca.  Some people might think that there is no pilgrimage in the Bible.  But actually, it was considered meritorious by the Jews to visit the temple of Solomon.  That was the central unity of Jews.  This temple was eventually ransacked, destroyed, rebuilt, overrun by corruption, and ended up becoming a marketplace.  We know that Jesus went in there and overthrew tables of the moneylenders because he saw the evil that was there.  There is a parallel to this in Islam.  The Kaaba, rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael, was later corrupted and filled with idols.  It also became a center of commerce.  The Arabs were very scared of losing all their commerce when they saw Muhammad preaching word of One God.  People would no longer come and spend money and worship their idols there.  Eventually, the Kaaba was purified. 

We see great parallels on every single level.  The Five Pillars of Islam are virtually identical to that of the Judeo-Christian beliefs.  So when we talk about Islam, we are not talking about something so foreign and so different.  The Quran affirms that Islam is no different from the past monotheistic faiths in Chapter 4 verse 164: “Surely We have sent revelation to thee as we have sent revelations to Noah and the prophets after him; and We sent revelation to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and his children and to Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon and we gave David a book.” 

Moral of the story:  Allah has been the same God throughout all the prophets and so the Quran should not be something completely foreign to people who believe in the Bible.