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Abraham Would Reject Islam

Oct 16
7 min read
HighBeamMinistry.com

“If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, ‘Let’s follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let’s worship them,’ do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. You must follow the Lord your God and fear him. You must keep his commands and listen to him; you must worship him and remain faithful to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

 

I keep hearing that Islam is one of the three Abrahamic faiths.

 

I don’t think so.

 

The other two Abrahamic faiths are Judaism and Christianity. Judaism preceded Christianity. Judaism and Christianity preceded Islam.

 

Judaism began as a monotheistic faith (i.e., believing in only one transcendent God) when Yehovah revealed Himself to Abraham (c. 2166 B.C.). Christianity began as a messianic sect of Judaism c. A.D. 30, after God the Father revealed Himself to His people through His Son Jesus, God in human form.

 

Judaism and Christianity are both Abrahamic faiths because they claim a direct line back to Abraham and Yehovah’s covenant with him through physical descent (Jews) and/or through belief in and allegiance to Yehovah, as He revealed Himself to Jews and Gentiles who follow Jesus.

 

The Bible documents both claims.

 

Jews:

  • “‘Brothers and fathers,’ he replied, ‘listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,’” (Acts 7:2).

  • “These are the family records of Isaac son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac” (Genesis 25:19, Italics Author and following),

  • “Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you. When I called him, he was only one; I blessed him and made him many” (Isaiah 51:12), and

 

Christians:

  • “This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all” (by faith, whether physically descended or not, Romans 4:16).

 

But what about Islam? By what reasons does Islam lay claim to being an Abrahamic faith? How do people define an Abrahamic faith?

 

“Abrahamic religion refers to the three major monotheistic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—that all recognize Abraham as a significant patriarch. These religions share a belief in one God and have foundational texts that illuminate their practices and beliefs” (thebiblechristian.com).

 

So, the baseline for an Abrahamic faith recognizes Abraham as the first ancestor of those who worship one God.

 

Under that singular heading, there are core beliefs that all three share:

 

  • The existence of one God who is sovereign and personal.

  • A commitment to prayer and worship as essential aspects of faith.

  • The importance of holy texts as divine revelations.

  • The belief in prophets who convey God’s message.

  • A moral and ethical framework for living a righteous life” (Ibid.).

 

Okay, we have a framework. What’s the glue that holds these pieces together? God’s covenant with Abraham.

 

God made a one-sided covenant with Abraham because he proved his faith in his newly revealed true God through obedience. Abraham left his land (Ur of the Chaldeans, in the area of the Babylonians), his people, and his family to go where God was sending him (Canaan, the future home of Israel’s family). When God promised the elderly Abraham loads of descendants despite his wife Sarah’s post-menopausal condition, Abraham totally believed God that He could do it.

 

Somehow.

 

It’s Abraham’s trust in the One True God, Yehovah, that marks an Abrahamic faith as authentic.

 

The ancient Israelites proved their trust in God by following Yehovah out of Egypt to Sinai at Moses’ direction, where Yehovah made a covenant with them. However, because of humanity’s fallen condition, the Israelites struggled to remain faithful to God. So Yehovah promised His people an upgraded covenant called the New Covenant, which would eliminate a person’s rebellious sin nature and install a new, ready-to-obey nature, with the Holy Spirit to assist.

 

The really fun thing about the New Covenant is that it was based on trust, not just on lineage. The result? The New Covenant opened a way for Gentiles to come to God when He revealed that the only way back to a relationship with Him was through Jesus. While Abraham’s covenant was still in force with his physical descendants, the New Covenant allowed Gentiles to be grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel through faith.

 

In short, the covenant began with Abraham, continued through Isaac, and ultimately widened to invite trusting Gentiles to join God’s people.

 

Now we have a foundation for an Abrahamic faith:

 

  • Abraham as founder,

  • One True God,

  • One covenant through Isaac,

  • The remaining four beliefs above.


So, where does Islam fit? Using the above criteria that Judaism and Christianity fully share, does Islam embrace the same?

 

No.

 

The only thing that Islam shares with Judaism and Christianity is Abraham as an ancestor. Sadly, that’s where it ends.

 

Even though Abraham’s first son was Ishmael, born to his concubine Hagar, God clearly told Abraham that His covenant would continue through Isaac alone. “So Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael were acceptable to you!’ But God said, ‘No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a permanent covenant for his future offspring’” (Genesis 17:18-19). Islam claims that their “God,” Allah, made Ishmael the covenant recipient, not Isaac, thus rejecting Yehovah’s specific command.

 

This claim alone eliminates Islam as an Abrahamic faith, for an Abrahamic faith is more than physical descent. Islam outright rejects the covenant lineage Yehovah established with Abraham through Isaac.

 

Furthermore, Islam does not recognize Yehovah as Abraham’s God, even though God specifically revealed to Moses that Yehovah was His name (Exodus 6:3, 9:16). When Muhammad founded Islam, he selected a god from the Arab pantheon as the “one true god,” referred to as Allah. “Allah is derived from the Arabic phrase “al-ilah,” meaning “the one God,” and was worshipped by pre-Islamic Arabs as a chief deity among many. The term has roots in earlier Semitic languages and was associated with various pagan practices before the establishment of Islam” (ebsco.com, Wikipedia.com).

 

Islam is not an Abrahamic faith because it doesn’t worship the same God that Abraham did.

 

Apart from Abraham as an ancestor, Islam rejects Yehovah and His covenant process. What about the remaining primary beliefs linked to an Abrahamic faith?

 

“A commitment to prayer and worship as essential aspects of faith.” Prayer and worship to a pagan god disqualify Islam, because Abraham would certainly not worship a pagan god in place of Yehovah. Prayer and faith mean nothing unless they are grounded in the truth of the One True God.

 

“The importance of holy texts as divine revelations.” While Islam accepts that the Bible was given to the Jews and Christians by God, Islam declares that “Jews and Christians have corrupted God’s Word and therefore Bibles cannot be fully trusted” (gotquestions.org). Islam regards the Qur’an as its primary revelation and considers it the direct Word of God given to the Prophet Muhammad. In other words, the Qur’an trumps the Bible, even when it refers to it.

 

“The belief in prophets who convey God’s message.” God was very clear about any prophet who claimed to reveal His word. “If a prophet or someone who has dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you, and that sign or wonder he has promised you comes about, but he says, ‘Let’s follow other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let’s worship them,’ do not listen to that prophet’s words or to that dreamer. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). Yehovah was so serious about false prophets like Muhammad that He declared the death penalty for any false prophet who attempted to lead His people away from Him, which Islam certainly does.

 

“A moral and ethical framework for living a righteous life.” Islam’s ethical and moral directives contradict the Bible, which isn’t surprising since Islam rejects Abraham’s God. There is nothing compatible between the Bible and sharia law, because sharia law did not come from Yehovah. Sharia law is derived from the Qur’an, which Muhammad supposedly received from the angel Gabriel, and the Hadith, a later collection of sayings and traditions attributed to Muhammad. Islam’s writings are man-wrought at best and demonically sourced at worst.

 

Is Islam an Abrahamic faith? In lineage only.

 

As for the other aspects, Islam knows nothing of the One True God; Islam denies the Abrahamic covenant through Isaac (not Ishmael); Islam rejects God’s revealed word in favor of man-created stories and commands; Islam rejects Yehovah’s laws for its own, and most telling, Islam was begun by a false prophet whose aim was to turn Jews and Christians away from God to a pagan, Arab god.

 

And don’t get me started on Christianity’s Fruit of the Spirit vs. Islam’s forced submission to Allah.

 

Sources:

 

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Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead

 

Pastor Jay Christianson

The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts

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