Islam and Worship: A Dialogue

A dialogue I saw in my mind between myself and an Orthodox friend. These are my confessions.

Orthobro:

Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? When a Muslim worships, are they worshipping the good God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Aaron:

I’m not sure. I’ll start by saying no. They are not doing the same worship as us.

And I think this is fair, because a lot of Muslims will say the same thing in reverse. If you’re not worshipping God in the way the Quran says, and Mohammed, then you’re not really worshipping God either. We could look at it from gradations, spectrums of accuracy of worship. But yes, I don’t think it’s too controversial for a Christian to say what a Muslim would say anyway: I don’t think their worship is proper worship. In a way, I think they’re trying to worship. But I don’t think it’s proper. Maybe they succeed in some ways adoring the God of creation, but not in his fullest revelation. They would not be adoring him in his fullness.

Orthobro:

So, not adoring him in his fullness. Are they worshipping the same God? Is their worship an abomination before God? Or is their worship acceptable to God?

Aaron:

It has always seemed to me that a contrite heart he would not despise, regardless of our level of knowledge.

I should say true worshippers worship in spirit and in truth. But I think there are many people who are seeking the truth who worship in spirit, and who have a contrite heart, which he will not despise. They have not yet ascended to the realm of the true, but their spirits are longing for him. And I see in their prayers the desire for God.

I believe I have met the Lord in my heart and soul, and my body through the mysteries, and my whole being through his Spirit which fills me. And I get the sense that if a son or daughter that only knows how to pray in a Muslim key let their whole heart cry out to God, I cannot see him despising them.

I don’t know the exchange rate for worship, whether one thing is weighed as more acceptable or less. I do not believe worship is like coins somehow held in the coffers of heaven that are either brought in as functional currency or not.

I know my Master, who sits enthroned above the heavens, who lives forever to intercede. And the God who, before Sodom, spoke to his friend Abraham and said, “I will go down. I myself will know.” The God who, before Moses, said, “Their prayers have come before me. The prayers of my people Israel. I have seen their suffering. I know their suffering.” This Messiah who came to us in the flesh, who sits on the throne of Israel forever.

Of course he hears the prayers of every Muslim. And I believe he is inviting them through their own tradition into a deeper understanding of himself through his divine Son. All of God invites every Muslim to know him through the Sun of Righteousness. And their revelation is incomplete, and the manifestation of their religion is varied and tarries behind the highest things which Allah in their own language, and Yahweh in an ancient tongue, and God in the language of the West, is calling them to.

This is my response.