Thursday, January 31, 2008

Nasheed

Ive been posting a lot of stories about terrorism and Islam, that it is easy to get angry and defensive and forget Christ's call to love. I think the only way to make a difference in the world is Christ's love. What does that love look like?
The Bible says, that true love is that someone would lay down their life for a friend. This is also love that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.
True love is sacrificial. True love overlooks faults and see the created individual. So even while I will be posting stories showing a lot of the atrocities being committed today, we need to remember that God's love calls us to the entire world. With that being said, I think we can also find good in people. The bible says we are created in the image of God. Now because of sin, we have corrupted that image, but something of that image remains in us all. Somethings I admire muslims for is their discipline. They are disciplined to pray 5 times daily. Now their discipline comes out of a desire to escape judgement while our discipline should come from a love of God. As Christians we are commanded to be praying continuously or without ceasing. But sometimes it seems like it would take a Miracle to find Christians who pray just 5 times a day. Another thing that I admire about Islam, is their reverence to Allah's name and glory. Any defamation to that name is taken as a direct insult. As Christians, we are commanded to Not take the Lord's name in vain. But sometimes it seems common place to do that. Another thing I also admire is a form of music they have called Nasheed. It is traditionally all acapella but sometimes percussion is allowed. Here is a link to some more contemporary Nasheed.
It is actually really beautiful music. I think it would be cool to see if Christians in the middle east use a similar type of music.
Anyways, I think that God's love can reach past boundaries. The only hope for Muslims is Christ's salvation. And the only way that Muslims will hear it, is by someone loving them enough to sacrifice. A love that understands the violent and evil tendencies of Islam, but looks past that to the person.

4 comments:

John said...

Muslims believe that the world population's only salvation is conversion to Islam. Christians believe that the world's population can only have salvation through Jesus Christ.

In the past, Christianity has fought wars and committed atrocities when threatened with what they saw as persecution.

Now, Islamic extremists fight wars and commit atrocities when threatened with what they perceive as persecution.

Who's to say the tables won't turn again?

There are no easy answers to these questions, and painting a world religion with such a broad brush only widens the divide of understanding and acceptance of one and other's personal beliefs, especially when most of what people in the US know about Islam comes from what they see on the news, not through personal experience.

In the 40's and 50's, it was easy for people to think that all blacks were ignorant and militant because of what was said about them coming from the south. Most of the people who had little to no experience with blacks just accepted whatever they heard about them as truth. We should be wise to learn from this.

TheHero said...

thanks John for the comments. I appreciate your heart in the matter. I have been researching a lot lately on Islam. I just finished reading the Koran and am in the process of reading what is called the Hadith. It is a very complicated process. However with that said, I firmly believe that Islam is a religion from Satan. That may sound arrogant or like a bigot but I believe it is the truth. One of the most important beliefs in Islam is to deny the deity of Jesus. They deny his death and his resurrection. I believe that Islam has the spirit of an antichrist. I also believe that Islam also teaches the use of violence. I think it is extremely ignorant to ignore the history of Islam and how it led to the Crusades. I am not proud of all the things that have been done in the name of Jesus but those were done against the teachings of Jesus.

With that said, not all Muslims are violent people. Some love peace, but the Bible says in the end times many people will come saying "peace, peace" but there will be no peace. Christ is the only answer.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Hero. Jesus is key to the issue. While I respect all religions (in other words I would not interrupt their worship or demean their beliefs in an offensive manner) and I respect the rights of individuals to follow any religion, God cannot be reached through religion. God reaches us and offers man a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
Jesus declared Himself to be THE Way, THE Truth, THE Life. He said no one can come to God the Father except through Him. Jesus substantiated all of His claims to Diety by His teaching, His powerful works, His Holiness, His unparalled love, and above all, His Resurrection from death.
While many of the earths "great religions" teach valuable lessons, teach high standards of morality, and may have elements of truth - Jesus IS TRUTH.
To deny the Diety and the atonement of Christ is to deny God's only stated plan of Salvation. Therefore any religon that teaches salvation through any other means is empty and helpless. It is simply a false religion.
Do we therefore hate adherents to such religions? Should we mount Crusades to eradicate them from the earth? Should we demean those who are enslaved to them?
No.
We have been commissioned to share Truth in love. To be instruments of Grace to change the world - one person at a time.

amalina said...

I just cannot accept a man to become a God. Like what Jesus Christ did. It is just impossible. A man is a God??? and as far as I concern, bible have been through a lot of alteration. That's the reason why you can find a few version of Bible. How can words of God being altered? Islam is not an extreme religion. I'm proud to be a Muslim and I have a lot of non-Muslim fiends and we are just okay. okay, Jesus has submit his life to one God. For your information, Islam means submission to one god. Is Jesus a Muslim?