Monday, November 07, 2011

Does Allah Commit Shirk by Inappropriate Swearing?

David Wood has a video in which he makes the point that using Muslim standards, Allah himself would be guilty of the Islamic sin of shirk:
I would like to add a brief further point. People normally swear by something greater than themselves. Thus, because there is nothing greater than God, the true God swore by himself: Hebrews 6:13-16 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, "Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee." And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. But Allah in the Koran repeatedly swears by lots of other things. May I encourage my Muslim friends to consider that perhaps this is evidence that the Allah of the Koran is not real, for if he were real he would swear only by himself. -TurretinFan

4 comments:

Natamllc said...

:)

Well, I have concluded, for whatever it is worth, David operates with a wisdom beyond his years!

Who would have thought to point that out that Allah is the worst shirker?

Maybe Dr. White has thought about those words identified by David in this video?

Maybe not?

In any event, it is more troubling now that I have watched this video that more and more Muslims are not scratching beyond the surface of the words of the faith of Mohamed and the words of the Qu'ran?

2Co 4:1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.
2Co 4:2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
2Co 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.
2Co 4:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

FAOINALEX said...

The problem is that the various nuances of the Arabic language and culture, the situation is not as the author has described. The biggest problem with criticism of Islam, and I am speaking here as a non-Muslim who has studied Islam for over a decade professionally, is that critics never take the time to adequately understand Islam on its own terms. The Middle East is a completely alien society and culture from that of the US. A student of Islam has to take the time and effort to understand the society before making conclusions about the faith. This takes time and most people are lazy. Sadly the same applies to Christianity, which is a product of a culture completely foreign to the average American as well, but because the Bible is written in English, people think they can pick it up and understand it without effort.

Islam, like every faith, has some issues and contradictions, but this is not one of them.

Francis Turretin said...

Frankly, it's inane to suggest that David Wood hasn't taken the time to adequately understand Islam on its own terms. Given that your post doesn't provide any resuscitation of the Islamic self-contradiction, I suppose it's worth just removing your distracting comment. However, I offer you this opportunity to actually defend the Koran beyond some glib appeal to generalities.

Francis Turretin said...

Oh, one other point. Describing Islam as a "faith" is one of those very things of which you complain: looking at Islam through non-Islamic lenses.