[Day 15] Most Muslims believe that death by crucifixion was not a worthy death for a good prophet like Jesus. Based on the Qur’anic passage cited above, the majority of Muslims in our day say that Jesus never went to the cross. It is commonly thought that He was taken up into heaven without dying and that someone else died on the cross in His place.
[Day 01] What image springs to the mind of most Christians when they think about Muslims? The Twin towers? Osama bin Laden? Are we called to defend “Christian civilisation” or are we willing to lay down our lives in love for Muslims and share with them the Good News of Jesus? Are we interested in self preservation or self-giving for the Gospel? Joseph believes that the Christian faith is primarily costly discipleship to Jesus Christ the Crucified. What do we believe?
Spend even a short time around Muslims and you will become aware that they continually use the Arabic phrase “In sha Allah”, which means “if God wills”. While the Qur’an also lays great emphasis on the free choice and moral conduct of individuals and communities, popular Islamic thinking and practice are often very fatalistic.
Even before Islam, sulha came about as a means for settling disputes in the absence of a legal system. Musalaha (reconciliation) is reached in the step-by-step process of sulha, practised by both Muslim and Christian Arabs.
The ultimate corporate expression of Muslim community is called “Ummah”, an Arabic word meaning “people, generation, or community”. For Muslims, the reality of the Ummah is especially experienced during the Muslim pilgrimage or Hajj to Mecca. Remember that there are literally millions of Muslims around the world praying towards Mecca (Qibla).
They have a sense of being under attack through events in Israel, Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. They hate the repressive regimes in the Muslim world, which are often supported by the “Christian” West.
Sufism goes back to the founding of Islam; as Islam spread from Arabia to other parts of the world, it interacted with new cultures and philosophies. Islam encountered Christian monks in the desert, Gnostics of various sorts, Neoplatonic philosophy, and Buddhism and Hinduism from India. Some Muslims came under these influences
