We live in a highly pluralistic context here in the UK, with many of our major cities incredibly multicultural. Where I grew up in South London, we were surrounded by every religion imaginable: you could choose from Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Atheism, Islamism, Judaism, Jainism, Secularism—you could even support the local football team, Crystal Palace; we called that masochism.
Those religious changes are accelerating rapidly and are especially apparent when it comes to Islam. With the number of Muslims in the UK projected to rise to 13 million in 30 years time, according to numbers from the Pew Research Centre, it’s vital that Christians think missionally, evangelistically, and apologetically about Islam.
We don’t always do this well. On the one hand, the reaction of many Christians when they think about Islam is one of fear. Fear of extremism, fear in the face of another religion that is evangelistically active and confident, fear of how different Muslims often seem. But then on the other hand, I get equally worried by some parts of the church that think the way to deal with Islam is to ignore it, to turn our back on and say nothing to our Muslim neighbours about Jesus.
The good news is that God is at work among Muslims in amazing ways. For example, I have a good friend who grew up in a strict Muslim family and was a committed, devout Muslim. One day at university, he was studying at home when there came a knock on his door. He opened it, to see two Christians doing door-to-door evangelism. My friend loved arguing with Christians and he thought this was great—“You guys deliver!” He invited them in, tore them to pieces, and sent them on their way.
The next week, they were back. And the next and the next. My friend said he was hugely impressed that all of his arguing and being difficult didn’t deter them, but they kept coming, they worked to answer his questions, and they kept pointing him to Christ. Their persistence was the beginning of a journey of some years that led to him becoming a Christian.
So, how can we reach more Muslims: whether bold, confident ones like my friend, or the quieter ones, who are our fellow students or colleagues, our neighbours, and so on. Let me offer you five suggestions that will help get you started.
1. Love
The first step is to love our Muslim neighbours. For some of us this may be hard, because of the fear thing—or, almost as bad, the apathy thing. But God can change hearts, so we can pray that God gives us a love for the Muslims in our midst.
Then we need to take the time to get to know them. I have a friend who had a new colleague join his company. The new colleague was a Muslim, so my friend invited his new colleague out for lunch and then said, “Forgive me for asking, but you’re a Muslim, right?” “Yes,” his new colleague replied. “I’ve never really talked to a Muslim before,” my friend Nick said. “Tell me, what do you guys believe?” Nick then asked lots of follow-up questions and then, after 20 minutes, was able to say: “This has been fascinating. I’m a Christian, so some of the things you believe I believe too. But there are also many differences.” “Such as what?” his colleague asked—which of course gave Nick an amazing opportunity to talk about Jesus!
So love our Muslim neighbours, pray that God brings them across our path, then boldly and winsomely seize every opportunity.
2. Be clear about the differences
When engaging with Muslims, it is crucial that early on we are clear about the differences between Christianity and Islam. Whilst it can be tempting to ‘play it safe’ and focus on things in common, often that will just cause confusion. And remember, commonalities are often so vague as to be useless. (For example, a chicken has legs and a table has legs!)
If we just focus on what Muslims and Christians have in common, this can cause huge distortions because we fail to appreciate that people use words in very different ways. Just because a Muslim says “I believe in God” does not mean they mean by ‘God’ the same thing that you do.
Scholarship increasingly recognises, by the way, that Islam is not a sister religion to Christianity and Judaism; rather Muhammad took Arabian religious ideas, borrowed Christian and Jewish terminology, and messily bolted the two together.
And finally on this, it’s worth noting that Muslims who come to Christ tend to come not because they thought “Oh, look, this is just like what we believe”; rather they saw something very different and wanted it. Read Nabeel Qureshi’s powerful testimony, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, to see an example of this.
Exploring the differences
A really helpful framework for exploring differences (in this case between Christianity and Islam, but also between worldviews more generally) is this set of four questions; they’re fascinating to ask friends:
Do you believe in a God and if so, what is God like?
What are human beings?
What’s gone wrong?
What’s the solution?
Is there a God? Christians would say yes, and that he is relational, knowable, love, and has suffered for our redemption. The Qur’an would disagree and say, no, Allah cannot be known, is not relational, is not love, and suffering is beneath him; he is not a saviour, he is supreme will.
What are humans? Christians would say we are made in God’s image, designed to be his sons and daughters, and we can call him Father. The Qur’an would disagree: humans have an elevated status over animals, yes, but we are slaves, God is our master, and it is blasphemous to suggest anything more.
What’s gone wrong? Christians would say sin, which has fundamentally damaged our nature, our world, and our relationship with God. Islam would say sin, yes, but there’s no fundamental problem; we are simply forgetful of God’s commands.
What’s the solution? Christianity would say we need rescue, redemption; we need a saviour. Islam offers no saviour; the Qur’an never says such a thing. Rather we can earn our way back through keeping more commandments and hope, if there’s a gap between performance and prize, that Allah will be merciful—but any mercy, any forgiveness, is earnt.
Oh, and if you succeed in Islam, what do you get? Paradise: a place with rivers of wine, crystal-clear fountains of water, fruit trees, and (for the men) women to enjoy. But Allah does not dwell with his people in Paradise; the Qur’an simply does not offer that. By contrast, in Christianity, the future vision is New Heavens, New Earth, an eternity walking and talking with God again.
The differences are massive. Even though the same words are used (God, sin, heaven etc) the ideas are radically different. If we don’t factor that in when we talk to Muslims, we’ll end up in a huge mess, because all of those questions are foundational to the gospel.
3. The questions Muslims ask and how to answer them
Next step: as you talk to Muslims, as you talk about the differences in what we believe, our Muslim friends will have questions. By far the two most common are:
Can you trust the Bible? (or more directly: hasn’t the Bible been corrupted?)
Why do Christians believe in the Trinity?
Why do Muslims ask the questions they do? I’d suggest at least two reasons:
(a) They’re generated by the Qur’an (e.g. the Qur’an attacks the Trinity, therefore Muslims accept this as a given).
(b) They’re generated by necessity: for example this applies to Muslim questions about the Bible. The Qur’an does not claim the Bible has been corrupted, but rather the belief evolved later, in the early centuries of Islam. Early Muslim scholars had a problem: Muhammad claimed he was preaching the same message as the Bible, but the Bible was not available in Arabic at this point. When the Islamic conquests began and Muslims conquered former Christian territory, they then finally got to examine it. Horror of horrors! They discovered the Bible was wildly different to the Qur’an. What to do? Either they had to say Muhammad got it wrong—or they could claim the Bible had been changed.
So how do we respond to the questions of Muslims? I suggest five steps; let me outline them, then demonstrate them in action.
(i) Begin by asking good questions (think of Jesus, who asked questions all the time: he asked 307 questions in the gospels.) I often like to use questions like what do you mean by that? and why do you think that?.
(ii) Take the time to know a bit of their own scriptures and tradition; yes, it takes time, but if you’ve read a little it will be immensely helpful.
(iii) Help your friend think through the theological implications of their question or assumption.
(iv) Make sure you understand the biblical story and where your friend’s question fits into it.
(v) Point every question towards Jesus.
So, for example, take the question Muslims often ask about the reliability of scripture. Well, we might begin with questions: What do think scripture is? What do you mean by ‘corrupted’ or ‘unreliable’? And why do you think it was changed—could you give me some evidence?
Next, you might draw on their own scriptures and point out how positive the Qur’an is about the Bible:
He hath revealed unto thee (Muhammad) the Scripture with truth, confirming that which was (revealed) before it, even as He revealed the Torah and the Gospel. (Qur’an 3:3)
To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety. (Qur’an 5:48)
Next, the theological problem: ask your Muslim friend if they think the Bible is corrupted because Allah couldn’t protect it (he was too weak) or he wouldn’t protect it (he couldn’t care less that humans had no guidance).
Fourth, the wider biblical story: take the time to help your Muslim friend understand what Christians believe about the Bible—namely that the job of the scriptures is not just to reveal God’s commands, but also God’s character and God’s plan of salvation.
Finally, point to Jesus: maybe by gently suggesting that Muslims believe the final revelation is a book while Christians believe the final revelation is a person. So maybe, rather than compare the Bible and the Qur’an, we should compare the Qur’an and Jesus. As Muslim scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr puts it:
The Word of God in Islam is the Qur’an; in Christianity it is Christ … The form of the Qur’an is the Arabic language which religiously speaking is as inseparable from the Qur’an as the body of Christ is from Christ Himself.1
4. Pray!
So in terms of reaching Muslims we have thought about the importance of friendship; of being clear about the differences; of answering the questions of our friends; fourth—and penultimately—pray! Pray for Muslims to cross your path, pray for divine encounters, pray for God to help you befriend and love Muslims, pray for God to engage them. And pray for the supernatural!
I’ve been struck over the years by how many times God intervenes dramatically—often through dreams—but sometimes in other ways with Muslims. One of my favourite stories comes via a friend who runs a network of apologists in Pakistan. Dangerous work. One of his team, Asif, was travelling on a train going to Lahore. Sitting opposite him in the train compartment was a very orthodox-looking Muslim gentleman. Asif felt that God wanted him to give his Punjabi New Testament to the man. He resisted, an internal struggle raged, finally he gave in. He started a conversation, worked it around to an appropriate place, and offered the man the book as a gift. Instantly, the Muslim flew into a rage and began getting violent, insulting Christians, cursing and then, finally, tore the New Testament in two and threw it out of the window. Asif backed out of the train compartment, concluding that you can get these things wrong.
A year later, he was preaching in Lahore. At the end of the service they had a time of testimony. A man stood up and shared how, a year or so before, he’d become a Christian, listening to satellite TV broadcasts. But he had no Bible in his language. So he began to pray. He prayed and prayed and prayed. One day, he was praying as he walked alongside the railway tracks. “Lord, please give me a Bible that I can read and understand.” A train roared past and he was hit on the head by first one half, then the other of a New Testament. He produced it in the meeting, bound together by sticky tape.
God is at work. Sometimes dramatically. Sometimes quietly. But when we pray, who knows what God may do.
5. Jesus
Finally, my last piece of advice is to find ways to bring Jesus into the conversation. One way to do this is to start from Jesus in the Qur’an. Many Christians are not aware that the Qur’an has about 90 verses about Jesus. You can use this as a bridge; for example you might say to a Muslim friend:
“The Qur’an mentions Jesus in about 90 verses—what do you know about Jesus?”
A follow-up question to feed into any subsequent discussion might be: “Did you know that Jesus taught through stories? Have you read any of his stories?” And then open up the gospels and introduce your friend to some of the parables of Jesus. I often find that the Good Samaritan is a great place to start (Muslims are drawn to the themes of justice and compassion there). Then you might move on to, say, Luke 15 and the story of the father and the two sons. One son is lost by running away; one is lost through trying to please his father through keeping the law. The story opens up lots of windows into the gospel and the question of how we really please God.
6. Conclusion
God loves Muslims and he is at work amongst them and calls us to be his co-labourers in that work.
And God has revealed his love, his character, his forgiveness, his suffering so clearly and so powerfully, most especially in Jesus Christ. Jesus said: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). In the twenty-first century, multicultural UK, the nations have come here. Let’s ensure that as well as welcoming them to our land, we introduce them to our Lord.
A while ago myself and two colleagues were speaking at a university mission and we started the week with an open forum where my colleague spoke on “Why Jesus?” Over two hundred students came to the evening and the Q&A was very lively.
A week later, I heard from a man who had come to the evening and had brought a Muslim friend along. For some months, his friend had been questioning Islam and asking questions about Jesus. Something his Muslim friend heard that evening struck home, the final objections fell away, and a few days later he gave his life to Christ.
God is at work—sometimes slowly, sometimes dramatically—amongst Muslims. Let’s pray that he might work through each of us to reach the Muslims he brings across our path.
I hope you enjoyed this piece and found it helpful. Paid subscribers will find a link below to download a free copy of my book Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?
Cited in Norman L. Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam: The Crescent in the Light of the Cross (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1993) 8; cf. Seyyid Hossein Nasr, The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002) pp. 22-23.