Is Allah the God of the Bible?
It is “politically correct” today to proclaim that Islam is a religion of peace and that Muslims answer to the same God as Christians. It is also politically correct to say that “Allah” is the same God as Jehovah in Judaism or Elohim (the Hebrew word for “God”) and the same as the “Father” of Jesus in the New Testament.
But “Allah” and “Jehovah” are not the same being. Muslims do not worship the same God Who is the Father of Jesus. Note a quote from the Quran:
And they say, “The Most Merciful has taken [for Himself] a son.” You have done an atrocious thing. The heavens almost rupture therefrom and the earth splits open and the mountains collapse in devastation that they attribute to the Most Merciful a son. And it is not appropriate for the Most Merciful that He should take a son” (Surah 19:88-92).
How do we know that Allah is not Jehovah? The Quran does not portray Allah as having the “Tri-une” nature. We have seen that Allah could not have a son. Allah is not pictured in any way in the Quran as being the Redeemer Who died for His creation, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.
Consider the way in which the Quran defines Allah: “Say, ‘He is Allah, [who is] One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.’” (Surah, 112). The Quran is divided into sections called “Surahs,” and these Surahs, like the psalms, have no connection one with the other and they do not have any historical context through which we can interpret them. This Surah (112) is fundamental to the Islamic faith.
More than 100 passages in the Quran emphasize the absolute monotheistic nature of Allah. In other words, there is no “Spirit” or “Son” in Islam. Much of a Muslim’s prayer life is simply repeating the first Surah from the Quran over and over again. But even in prayer, a Muslim is not making requests to a personal Father, who loves. Prayer is an act of obedience, not supplication.
Tradition holds there are 99 names for Allah—81 in the Quran and 18 in the Hadith, but there is no name that speaks of intimacy. Even though “mercy” is used frequently in the Quran, it is “mercy” with a different definition than the Bible’s. It is conceived in the sense that Allah did not kill the submissive one (“Muslim”) nor did he leave him in danger. Allah is not an omnibenevolent Father, loving, intimate, and involved in the lives of His followers as the God of the Bible.
Since Islam does not have a Savior, no Jesus Christ, then all the consequences for sins and the payment of guilt falls on the Muslim. The faithful Muslim goes to his “God” in fear.
For anyone who desires to look into the Muslim faith, instead of repeating what is politically correct, it is obvious that Allah and Jehovah God are not the same being.
Copyright © 2017. Originally published in Droplets of Living Water, September 17, 2016; copyright © by Paul Holland.