Islam
Père Zakaria Boutros

Comparison between God in Islam and Christianity
 

The author      : Father Zakaria Boutros
The publisher:  www.fatherzakaria.com
 

Is God is Islam is the same God of the Christianity?
 

In Christianity

 God is Love: in 1 John 4:7, 8:" for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love"

In Islam

God has 99 names among them the arrogant, the humiliating, and the suppressive and but the loving is not among his names

As God in Christianity is love, he is inciting the people to love each other and love their enemies,

While God in Islam is inciting the people for fighting

In The Spoils of War (Surat Al-Anfal) 60:"And make ready against them all you can of power, to terrorize the enemy of Allah and your enemy"

In Christianity: he said love your enemies, While in Islam: he said terrorize the enemy

-  In Christianity God is the God of peace:

- 1Thissalonian 5:23:" May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely"

- Matthew 5:9:" Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."

- Romans 12:18:" be at peace with all men"

- While in Islam:

The Repentance chapter (Surat At-Taubah) 29:"Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah (tribute) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued"

In The Spoils of War (Surat Al-Anfal) 65:"O Prophet Urge the believers to fight"

In Sahih Al-Bokhary: Narrated Abe-Hurairah: the prophet said:" I was commanded to fight people till they testify that, no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah"
The word "to fight" was mentioned more that 100 times

Through research in the Islamic books the word" kill "or" fight" was mentioned 32213 times in the quran and the prophetical converses

While the Christ said to peter, "Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take the sword will die by the sword (Matthew 26:52)

How do you compare the God of love and peace by the God of fighting and terrorism?

Some may say God in the Old Testament was ordering the people to fight:

Who are saying that are Actually ignoring a very essential fact , the old testament was the epoch of law and not the grace as the grace was not given yet

The Holy Bible said: for the law was given through Moses, but the grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"(John 1:17)

When they resemble Islam by the Old Testament, that's an ignoring of the grace testament that came and finished the war, as without the grace, man can't live in a sublimate spiritual level

One may ask why the grace was not given in the Old Testament.

That's because man had sinned and was separated from God  and he was under the sentence of death , so how could he be given the grace and blessing and he was sentenced to death , as he was separated from God , so the sentence should be lifted first then to be given the grace and mercy

But how the sentence of death could be lifted, unless the redeemer comes to take that sentence for man, that's what was done by the Christ on the cross, as he lifted the death sentence for us and gave us the grace

Islam came after the grace, so how it pulled people back to the law, we can't go back again, as the reconciliation and forgiveness was already done, and the grace was given to mankind

The grace gives the man the power to control himself, as the grace of the Christ gives the
The fruit of the Spirit that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, chastity and self control

In the Old Testament there was enmity, and there was no grace , so there was no self control , so there were wars , as God could 't order people to have such self control as they had no grace and that was outside their abilities to gain control over themselves

In the old testament there was a nation that's the Israeli nation , so there were wars , but when the Christ came there was no nation, as the kingdom of the Christ is not an earthy kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom on the heart by love

The aim of the nation in the old testament was to preserve the people of Israel from mixing with the pagan nations , as the people was prepared for the Christ to come from them, so they were given the laws , the prophecies and the symbols that foretell about the coming of the Christ

But for the Islamic nation, what are its goals? , is there any savoir to come?
It is an empire of war and fighting
 

For that the Christianity separated the nation from the religion, and we are not accepting the Israeli nation now, as its goal had already been accomplished, as the Christ came, he came to his people but they didn't accept him

The Christianity separated the nation from the religion, the Christ said: "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Luke 20:25)

The Christ said: "My Kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36)

The nation is a political and social system, nations are changeable by time and with the change of civilization, the nation has politicians, diplomats, army forces

But the religion is fixed and unchangeable, as God is unchangeable, the human nature is unchangeable, the need for forgiveness is also unchangeable

The religion is concerned about the relationship between man with God and with the others, to live in love with God and people

While the nation is looking only for itself, how to protect its existence

There are tremendous differences between the nation and the religion

The Islamic history as a nation was nothing but a sea of blood, since the time of the prophet Muhammad there were wars, and incursions, and thousands of people died in those wars

After the death of the prophet many people renounced from Islam, they made a war against them and so many people were killed

In the Camel war attended by Ali Ibn Abe Taleb and Aeisha, about ten thousands men were killed

In the Amaoian epoch many people were killed

In the Othmanian epoch, they killed people, burned their bodies after killing them
 In the recent history, about three thousands people were killed in one hour by the Islamic terrorist, in the twin tower in the United States

In January 2005, a full family was slaughtered in New Jersey in the United States, by the Islamic terrorist and they put their heads beside them, as Al-Zarkawy is doing in Iraq

The Judaism was not a colonizing nation aiming for expansion or occupying lands, but Islam aimed at propagation by the sward and colonization through Jihad

Is there any God ordering such killing and terrorism?

In Makkah the prophet was peaceful then after moving to Al-Medina he became the man of war, he wished to settle a nation by assassinations and wars, and he succeeded in that and all the peaceful Mekkaian verses of the quran were abrogated by the madinian verses inciting for killing and fighting
 
 

The Christ was gentle and lowly in heart; he said: learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart

He said blessed are the humbles, for they shall inherit the earth, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

The God of Islam is the God of war and terrorism, while God in Christianity is the god of love and peace, so he could never be the same God