16.Opposition Both Muhammad and Jesus were at first tolerated then opposed severely by those who desired the status quo. Such will it ever be when new ideas come to a community. In both cases, it was a religious community that was being invaded...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
15. Ultimate goals Muhammad was not interested in just starting a religion. He called all men everywhere to come out of idolatry to the one true god. Unfortunately the one true god of Islam is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
14. Disciples Lings (biographer of Muhammad) tells accounts of individuals who received visions and miracles individually and were told to follow Muhammad. I am told that many Muslims in our day are likewise having visions of Jesus, and being told...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
13. Miracles. Muhammad worked no miracle. That is his own testimony in the Koran. Lings shows him involved often in the miraculous, based on hadith literature. In a case as important as this, I part company with Lings and offer the official...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
12. Worship Lings points out that the angel Gabriel taught Muhammad how to worship. The rituals that one sees in Muslim mosques of our day are meant to be replicas of the religious forms taught the Arabian. Prostrate. Five times a day. And so on....[ abbreviated | read entire ]
11. The revelations There is a clear distinction between Jesus and Muhammad in the area of revelation. The Word claims that Jesus was identified publicly, and that a Voice from Heaven announced to witnesses that Jesus Christ is the very Son of...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
10. Marriage and family At first it seems we have come to a topic which again does not have content for both men. Muhammad was married. Again and again he was married. Some say there were about 15 wives. His own teachings limited him to four, but...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
9. Identified. Here the Christian church is brought sadly into the story of Muhammad. The monastic movement was begun as a reaction to the worldliness that had crept into the church and wrested from it its former glory. Monks centered on the inner...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
8. The Formative Years. Muhammad was raised in the desert. It was the custom of his people to send children to barren places such as this to learn the "beauty of speech" of the desert people and a host of other lessons. For up to eight years a...[ abbreviated | read entire ]
Annunciation and Birth. Recall that the Islamic author I am following, Martin Lings, is using the best sources available to chronicle the life of Muhammad. But we have no extant copies of these sources until over 200 years after Muhammad's death....[ abbreviated | read entire ]
