There is a vast difference between Christianity and Islam. Both are considered religions, but Christianity has a crucial distinction that separates it from Islam. That difference is relationship.
Grace is God’s blessing on people and is the basis of the relationship between God and Christian believers, both men and women. The Bible, in John 3:16, declares that because God loves us, He took our punishment upon Himself. All we must do to be forgiven of our sins and have a relationship with Him is to accept God’s gift of salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9; II Corinthians 5:21).
In the performance-based religion of Islam, on the final Day of Judgment, if a Muslim’s good works outweigh his bad works and if Allah so wills, he may be forgiven of all his sins and then enter into Paradise.
In translations from the Islamic Hadith, Mohammed said, “I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers are women.” The vast majority of Muslim women do not live in Western nations and have never heard the truths of forgiveness in Christianity. Since Islam is a performance-based religion, the Muslim woman will cling to whatever she thinks pleases Allah.
Muslims believe that two recording angels sit, one on each shoulder, and record every good and bad deed a person commits. It is based on the good deeds outweighing the bad that one gains entrance into Paradise. For a woman, however, there are no guarantees. Even if she has excelled in pleasing her husband, Allah can arbitrarily change his mind and deny her eternal life in Paradise. As a Muslim, they are hopeful that Allah is loving and compassionate, but the question is to whom and why?
The Qur’an clearly teaches that Allah does not love sinners:
“God loves not transgressors” (Sura 2:190).
“God bears no love for the impious or sinful” (Sura 2:276).
“God loves not the evil-doers” (Sura 3:57, 140).
“God loves not arrogant and boastful men” (Sura 4:36).
Nowhere in the Qur’an is Allah ever said to love anyone who does not love him first. But the Bible reveals to Christians the assurance of God’s love. We know that: “In this is love, that we loved God, but that He first loves us” (I John 4:10). A Christian knows that no human can be more loving than God.
Is it any wonder that a Muslim woman lives in fear? It is a totally foreign thought that God loves her unconditionally or that she can be redeemed by what God has done for her and not by her good deeds. She lives with the constant fear that even if she manages to do more good deeds than bad, Allah might still change his mind, and she will never reach Paradise.
PRAYER POINTS
- Think about how it would be to never know that you are loved and accepted by God or have any assurance that heaven will be your home. Thank God for His love and the wonderful assurance of hope He gives us as His children.
- Ask God to help the body of Christ to recognize the plight of the Muslim woman, see their life through His eyes, and pray they will experience the revelation of Christ’s love for them.
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