Introduction 6 Position of this Study 7

Christian vs Islamic Salvation

As we have already said in the section above, salvation comes through believe on Jesus as Christ, his death by crucifixion for our sins, resurrection and ascension to Heaven. Christ is alive and will return to be with those who are true disciples and children of the One True God.

We are saved (meaning our sins are forgiven and redeemed through Christ) by the Grace of God, not by any other means. So it is because of the goodness and favour that He shows us because of His tremendous love for us, that He sent Jesus to redeem us for our sins so that we may be saved.

I could spend a great deal of time and energy showing the many scriptures that explain and prove these things, but I feel that as Christians, we should already have a level of understanding and acceptance already. Our focus in this study is to examine the falsity of Islam. So now that I have stated the basic premise of salvation, let’s look at what salvation looks like form an Islamic perspective.

“Salvation” in Islam

The basis of the faith in Islam is laid out in five simple concepts. It is well to know the “Five Pillars of Islam” if only as a way to be able to see the grave errors it contains. They are as follows:

1. 
   Shahadah: (Faith) – There is only one god (Allah) and Muhammad is his messenger.
   
2. 
   Salat: (Prayer) – 5 daily prayers.
   
3. 
   Zakat: (Charity) – Charitable giving based on accumulated wealth, which strives towards illuminating inequality.
   
4. 
   Sawm: (Fasting) – ritualistic fasting during the period of Ramadan.
   
5. 
   Hajj: (Pilgrimage) – every Muslim must make the journey to Mecca at least once in their lifetime.
   

While these are not the requirements for salvation per se, they form the basis of the requirements to be a “good Muslim” and hence are required. Much the same as the “Professing of Faith in Jesus Christ” prayer is the prerequisite for the Christian.

Salvation in Islam is a deeply confusing issue. It will change depending who you speak to and there is rarely if ever a definitive answer. Basically salvation can be broken down into four categories:

• 
  Belief
  
• 
  Works
  
• 
  Repentance
  
• 
  Predestination
  

Acceptance of all four of these categories are required for salvation. Let’s take a brief look at each:

Belief:

Islam teaches that it is only possible for believers to be saved and belief in the “Iman” is required which is what could be called the Islamic articles of faith, which is the belief in:

• 
  Allah
  
• 
  Angels
  
• 
  The Books (Quran & Hadiths)
  
• 
  Messengers
  
• 
  The Day of Judgement
  
• 
  Allah’s Predestination
  

Surah 4:136

O ye who believe! Believe in Allah and His messenger and the Scripture which He hath revealed unto His messenger, and the Scripture which He revealed aforetime. Whoso disbelieveth in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers and the Last Day, he verily hath wandered far astray.

Works:

Simply, judgement on salvation is determined by weighing a lifetime of good and bad works. So to be saved, then the good should always outweigh the bad. Just bear in mind though, that what Islam regards as “good” is not always the same as the Christian’s concept of good. The Islamic “good” is the adherence to the doctrines and principles as laid out in the Islamic faith.

Surah 3:195

And their Lord hath heard them (and He saith): Lo! I suffer not the work of any worker, male or female, to be lost. Ye proceed one from another. So those who fled and were driven forth from their homes and suffered damage for My cause, and fought and were slain, verily I shall remit their evil deeds from them and verily I shall bring them into Gardens underneath which rivers flow - A reward from Allah. And with Allah is the fairest of rewards.
……Reward for the good deeds, and:

Surah 43:74-77

Lo! the guilty are immortal in hell's torment. It is not relaxed for them, and they despair therein. We wronged them not, but they it was who did the wrong. And they cry: O master! Let thy Lord make an end of us. He saith: Lo! here ye must remain. 
….the punishment for the wrongdoer. It should be noted that the punishment of banishment to hell can be found numerous times throughout the Quran, on almost every page. Such is the predilection with fear. But fear is the main theme of Islam.
These good deeds are described in general terms as obeying Allah and His Messenger (24:47-56), and doing deeds of righteousness (2:277). They include deeds of ritual purity, specifically performing the six pillars – recitation, prayer and zakat (2:110), fasting (33:35), the pilgrimage (2:196-200) and Jihad (9:111; 22:58-59). Dying in a Jihad is probably the only work that guarantees the salvation of a believer. They also include deeds of moral purity. (10)

Repentance

According to the Quran, repentance comes from an all forgiving god.
First seek forgiveness:

Surah 3:134-133

Those who spend (of that which Allah hath given them) in ease and in adversity, those who control their wrath and are forgiving toward mankind; Allah loveth the good; (134) And those who, when they do an evil thing or wrong themselves, remember Allah and implore forgiveness for their sins - Who forgiveth sins save Allah only? - and will not knowingly repeat (the wrong) they did. (135) The reward of such will be forgiveness from their Lord, and Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide for ever - a bountiful reward for workers! 
Surah 71:10

And I have said: Seek pardon of your Lord. Lo! He was ever Forgiving.

Then repent:

Surah 39:17

And those who put away false gods lest they should worship them and turn to Allah in repentance, for them there are glad tidings……


Surah 39:54

Turn unto your Lord repentant, and surrender unto Him, before there come unto you the doom, when ye cannot be helped.

Then obey Mohammad and Allah:

Surah 3:31-32

Say, (O Muhammad, to mankind): If ye love Allah, follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (31) Say: Obey Allah and the messenger. But if they turn away, lo! Allah loveth not the disbelievers (in His guidance).
Followed by doing good deeds (works):
Surah 3:193-195

Our Lord! Lo! we have heard a crier calling unto Faith: "Believe ye in your Lord!" So we believed. Our Lord! Therefor forgive us our sins, and remit from us our evil deeds, and make us die the death of the righteous. (193) Our Lord! And give us that which Thou hast promised to us by Thy messengers. Confound us not upon the Day of Resurrection. Lo! Thou breakest not the tryst. (194) And their Lord hath heard them (and He saith): Lo! I suffer not the work of any worker, male or female, to be lost. Ye proceed one from another. So those who fled and were driven forth from their homes and suffered damage for My cause, and fought and were slain, verily I shall remit their evil deeds from them and verily I shall bring them into Gardens underneath which rivers flow - A reward from Allah. And with Allah is the fairest of rewards. 

It seems as though at least the idea of repentance has some similarity to that found within Christianity, at least at first glance. We must remember though, that as a Christian, for salvation, we need only recognise that we have sinned (or are sinners) and we acknowledge that Jesus died as an atonement for ALL our sins.

We are not required to do anything other than this. Islam however, continues to count the sins of the individual, and a continual penitence is required for the forgiveness of sins (much like within the Catholic faith). The Quran points out just how forgiving is Allah for the transgressions of Muslims, with a constant reminder of how Allah is full of mercy, forgiveness and compassion, by the inclusion of the following at the start of every Chapter (Surah) of the Quran (except number 9):
“In the name of Allah, the merciful and the compassionate…..”
Further reminders are made throughout the Quran of the forgiving nature of Allah:
Rahman (Merciful Allah) – 56 times

Rahim (Compassionate Allah) – 115 times (72 times of which in conjunction with “mercy”)

Rahima (verbal form) – 148 times

Oft Forgiving – 200 times

Pardoning – 16 times

Clemency – 11 times

He who turns towards the repentant believer – 28 times

Kind to believers – 11 times.

It seems fairly clear that asking god for forgiveness is a major aspect within Islam, as it seems that the individual is constantly reminded of how forgiving he is, and how often he should be seeking his forgiveness.

This would seem that Allah is “all forgiving”. Yet there is confusion about exactly what sins he will actually forgive, and more than, for all his forgiving mercy, his wrath is great for the guilty:

Surah 6:147

So if they give the lie to thee (Muhammad), say: Your Lord is a Lord of All-Embracing mercy, and His wrath will never be withdrawn from guilty folk. 
The confusion as to what is forgivable and what is identified by Callum Beck (10):

But what sins will Allah forgive? Some, like the preceding one, and Surah 4:116 suggest all of them. This includes homosexuality (4:16), theft (5:39), and the great sins of apostasy (3:89,127-129), shirk (2:51-54; 25:68-71), waging war against Allah (5:33-34), and missing prayers/ lust (19:59-60). Other passages suggest some sins are unforgivable (42:30,34). This includes the intentional murder of a believer (4:93), other intentional sins (4:17; 6:145), repeated sin (3:135; 4:18; 5:95), and the great ones (4:31; 42:37; 53:32) of apostasy (9:83; 18:57-58) and shirk (22:31). Believers are not even to pray for the idolaters (9:113; 63:6).

Predestination

We could spend some considerable time exploring the area of predestination. To save time I will say that the concept that all things are determined by Allah has been a fundamental concept of Islam since its beginning.

While not a doctrine that Muslims in the Western countries embrace widely, it is still deeply rooted in the thinking of Muslims around the world. The Arabic phrase “Insha’allah” is heard in every conversation in Arabic:

Surah 18:23

And say not of anything: Lo! I shall do that tomorrow, (23) Except if Allah will. And remember thy Lord when thou forgettest, and say: It may be that my Lord guideth me unto a nearer way of truth than this. 
The instruction (above) to say this phrase is ingrained in the Muslim, in that Allah knows all and will allow a certain thing to be done if he has determined that it should be done. This is the constant implication that Allah knows all beforehand.

This being so, then the knowledge of who will be saved and who will not, is already determined. The following Quranic examples show, Allah chooses who he will guide and who he will not:

Surah 2:272

The guiding of them is not thy duty (O Muhammad), but Allah guideth whom He will. And whatsoever good thing ye spend, it is for yourselves, when ye spend not save in search of Allah's Countenance; and whatsoever good thing ye spend, it will be repaid to you in full, and ye will not be wronged.
Surah 7:178

He whom Allah leadeth, he indeed is led aright, while he whom Allah sendeth astray - they indeed are losers.
And as we see next, “We” (meaning Allah) urged many jinn (evil spirits) and humans to be sent to hell, having determined they were not worthy of salvation. So it seems that with Allah, you don’t have the right to choose if you are saved or not:

Surah 7:179

Already have We urged unto hell many of the jinn and humankind, having hearts wherewith they understand not, and having eyes wherewith they see not, and having ears wherewith they hear not. These are as the cattle - nay, but they are worse! These are the neglectful.

Buying Salvation

Surah 5:12

 Allah made a covenant of old with the Children of Israel and We raised among them twelve Chieftains, and Allah said: Lo! I am with you. If ye establish worship and pay the poor-due, and believe in My messengers and support them, and lend unto Allah a kindly loan, surely I shall remit your sins, and surely I shall bring you into gardens underneath which rivers flow. Whoso among you disbelieveth after this will go astray from a plain road. (12)
There are a couple of noteworthy issues in this verse. Firstly is the built in assumption that Allah is God (Jehovah) of the Old Testament, as it says “We raised up the twelve chieftains” (referring to the twelve tribes of Israel). This gives the reader the very clear impression that Allah is the author of the Quran AND the Bible, which after completing this study, you will see to be a ridiculous notion.

Secondly and back to the topic of salvation, this verse explains how sins are forgiven (the basis of salvation) by the payment of “poor-due” (Zakat or unbelievers tax) and do good works by supporting the believers of Allah, AND lend money to them. Does this sound like buying salvation with money and good works?