Previous article: http://jmm.org.au/articles/26671.htm

The Qu’ran states that Muslims believe that the ‘People of the Book’ worship
the same God: ‘Our God and your God is One’ (Al ‘Ankabut, 29:46). But
Muslims reject belief in the Holy Trinity. Nicholas of Cusa (chapter 2)
believed that Muslims’ rejection of the Trinity rests on a misunderstanding;
in affirming God’s triunity, Christians do not compromise God’s oneness.
Some Christians (eg. US presidential candidate Pat Robertson) believe
Muslims worship a different deity; the erudite and ecumenically minded Pope
John Paul II unambiguously affirm that Muslims and Christians worship the
same God.

In 2007, the Malaysian Home Ministry decided to enforce the 1986 law
prohibiting use of the word ‘Allah’ in non-Muslim publications. In 2009
authorities seized fifteen thousand Bibles, because they used ‘Allah’ as a
translation for ‘God’. High Court Judge Lau Bee, in 2010, overturned the
government ban, ruling that ‘Allah’ is not exclusive to Muslims. Response:
angry mobs attacked churches. Government lawyers objected: ‘It almost seemed
as if ‘Allah’ was a name for a tribal deity, not a designation for the
Creator of the Universe. They were joined by some conservative Christians
like Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor R. Albert Mohler Jr,
who disagreed with the practice of Christians praying to Allah: “Allah is
not the God who revealed himself in the Son. How then can the use of Allah
by Christians lead to anything but confusion… and worse?”‘

But ‘Allah’ is simply Arabic for ‘God’, just as ‘Theos’ is Greek for ‘God’.
It’s a descriptive term (‘Barack Obama is a proper name; ‘president’ is a
descriptive term…, for the most part we don’t translate proper names;
Obama is Obama (transliterated) in all languages.’ Further, more
importantly, Arab Christians and Arabic-speaking Jews used the name ‘Allah’
to refer to God long before Muhammed. All Arabic Christian Bible
translations of John 3:16 say ‘For Allah so loved the world…’

A different *word* for God, obviously, does not mean that *God* is different
(the ‘evening star’ and the ‘morning star’ both refer to the planet Venus).
The crucial question is not whether Christians and Muslims should or should
not use the same word for God. Rather, it is whether Christians and Muslims
refer to the same ‘object’ when they speak of ‘God’ or ‘Allah’. (Cf the old
Greek philosophers’ puzzle: when decayed planks on the ship Theseus are
replaced by new ones, did it remain the same ship through the process?).

In the John 4 story, Jesus assumed that the Samaritans and the Jews
worshipped the same God. Building on what Paul wrote in Romans 1:20, Luther
thought that all people have some knowledge of the one true God.

The Qu’ran requires Muslims to say, ‘We believe in God, and the revelation
given to us, and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the… children of
Jacob and that given to Moses and Jesus… (Al Baqarah 2:136; cf Al Nisa’
4:136). Thus, in the Muslim view, Muslims and Christians share God’s
revelation: they worship the same God. But the Qu’ran states that many
Christians have gone astray from the original revelation given to Moses and
Jesus (Al Ma’idah 5:14, 66, 68). Muslims therefore do not believe that the
Bible is a true revelation.

So is there ‘sufficient similarity’ between the God of the Muslims and
Christians? We don’t need to subscribe to *identical* descriptions of God to
be referring to the same object. For example if you believe God predestines
some to eternal damnation and I don’t, we can still be talking about the
same God.

So with Muslims, let us

1. Concentrate on what is common.
2. Keep an eye out for what is decisively different.

Australian scholar and vicar Mark Durie maintains that if you don’t have a
*complete* match between the descriptions of God in Islam and Christianity
you don’t have identity. (Note from Rowland: Mark tells me Miroslav has
misrepresented his view: watch for Mark’s review of this book).

Thus there are two approaches – the ‘commonalities’ approach and the
‘differences’ approach – and they yield very different results. This is not
the same as ‘exclusivism’ (there is something unique in our belief) versus
‘inclusivism’ (great-believers-think-alike, zeroing in on commonalities):
most religions are exclusive in some ways, but (in Volf’s view) Christians
acting in love will adopt the ‘commonalities’ approach, concentrating on
what is common, while at the same time ‘rejoicing in truth’ without ignoring
critical differences.

Are the beliefs of Muslims about God sufficiently similar to the beliefs of
Christians? And are they similar in relevant ways? These are the questions
we face in the next two chapters.