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Response to Misha'al Al-Kadhi: What is Islam?
A response to Chapter 11
What is Islam?
We are quite content to let Mr. Al-Kadhi describe his own religion.
As Christians we certainly disagree at a number of points, many of
which can be found on our web site, but the purpose of this rebuttal
is only to answer to his distortions of Christianity.
Therefore we will give here only a few comments on some of his
side remarks in his chapter 11.
Al-Kadhi complains that in older books we sometimes find Islam called
"Muhammadenism" and it's followers "Muhammadins. But he seems to not
even have carefully read these books. There are many spellings that
have been used, but those Mr. Al-Kadhi made up, I have found nowhere.
I have personally seen in some books the terms "Muhammadan" and
"Muhammadanism" (see glossary entry) but that is just an
older way of naming usually without any malicious intent. At least not
in those publications I have personally read. Certainly nothing to be
upset about. Other Muslims have a much more balanced knowledge about these terms.
Under the header "Names of God" Al-Kadhi writes "Now the
question becomes: where did the name "God" come from? Did Jesus (pbuh)
ever say "God"? Did Moses(pbuh) ever say "God"? No! The Jews and Arabs
are both Semitic tribes which descended from one father, Abraham(pbuh).
Their languages are quite similar. The Old Testament tells us that
Moses (pbuh) referred to God as "El" or "Elohiym."" But this is
ignorance. Christians in Germany or France or Indonesia do not call
Him "God", since this is only the English name, coming from the
generic term "god", like Allah comes from the generic Arabic word
"ilah". Many Christians call him "Jehovah" or "Yahweh". And "Yahweh"
is also the name under which God revealed himself to Moses at the
burning bush. Other spiritual beings and even false gods are called
"elohim" as well (like the false gods in the Qur'an are called ilah),
but the true name of God is Yahweh in the Hebrew Scriptures.
It might be profitable to pay attention to the difference in meaning
and use in regard to "Yahweh" and "Elohim", as explained in an article
about The Name of God
by Dr. Walter Kaiser, since this does raise some questions for Muslims
and the way the Qur'an speaks about God.
The Rebuttal to "What Did Jesus Really Say?"
Answering Islam Home Page