Letter to a Muslim Atheist

All the gods of the pagans are demons"
~ Psalms ~

Dear Sons and Daughters of Ishmael:

As a former Muslim you have certainly read the Koran, and quite probably learned to memorize it in childhood.

So I have some questions:

1. According to the Koran it is blasphemy to call God “Father” or “Abba”?

2. Does the prophet Mohammad recognize God as Father?

3. What about the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit present in the Koran?

A friend of mine said that he used to believe that Muslims worship the same God as is worshipped by Christians and Jews until he read the Koran. There is no Father, no Son, nor an Eternal Holy Spirit in Islam. God does not beget anything only creates, thus any mention of God as Father is heresy in Islam. This is at odds with Judaism as well which views the Hebrew race as being begotten by God as they passed thru the red sea.

4. Is God Love in Islam?

Muslims struggle to understand the Christian Trinity. What they fail to see is that love by its very essence is unthinkable without a union, association. If God were one Person, then in relation to whom would His Love be revealed? To the world? But we don’t love in general, Love is always particular – a personal involvement with somebody.

Thus, Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:31) Jesus didn’t say: “Love your neighbors as yourself.”

The point is that the "highest and boundlessness" love of God to humankind demands as high an object. The Fathers of the Christian Church provided the answer to this difficulty by creating the mystery of the Triune God.

The rationale was: since the love of God has never been inactive, without expression, the three persons of the Trinity from eternity live one with another in continuous intimacy. In the words of Saint Augustine: "The mystery of the Christian Trinity is the mystery of Godly love. You see the Trinity, if you see love."

In Islam Jesus the Christ is not a son of God and anyone who claims the title is blasphemous this would include Old Testament prophets that have used it. What I didn’t know is that in the Koran Christ is not even a Hebrew! (My friend’s interpretation) True of False?

The Koran implies that Christ was a Greek immigrant to Nazareth. If that is so, would you please indicate in which verses of the Koran is that implied. Hence the modern Muslim belief that Allah sends a prophet to every race from his own, Jesus must have been Greek.

Hilarious if truth!

It is possible, however, to draw the conclusion that the Moslem's idea of who Jesus Christ was is related to the heretical teaching of Nestorians. To them Jesus the man was "overshadowed" by the Spirit of God and thus was a prophet (a lesser prophet than Mohammad however) of the "one God.”

This is not too far off the Nestorian teaching that Jesus was born a man who was later "possessed" as it were by the Spirit of God, which leads people to believe that Islam is a heretical version of Christianity.

With Warmest Regards,

Your Friend Claudia