We live in a time of tension. It is hard to think of Islam without thinking of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Palestine, politics, terror, violence and death. But Islam is a living - and growing - religion. At times in its history, it has spread amazingly, as has the Christian faith. Why this success? Here are some thoughts, subjective no doubt, which have helped me in my own prayers.
At its outset, Islam drew on the faith of one man, Muhammad ibn Abdullah, born around 570 in the city of Mecca. Despite five centuries of evangelization, the people of Mecca worshipped a number of deities - the moon god was their particular favourite. There was a Jewish community there, and probably Christians too, but we know next to nothing about them. The young Muhammad felt a need to learn about God, and, in his work as a trader, came into contact with Jews, Christians and others who were "following God".
Arabia was a home to people whose beliefs were not entirely orthodox, or whose faith was simple and uneducated. They told stories about God's dealings with the world - about Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Solomon, Jesus. The stories came as much from tradition as from our own Bible or our own creeds.
What Muhammad heard led him into conflict with the authorities in Mecca. He took to withdrawing to a cave to sort things out in his mind. A series of visions of "an angel" telling him "Recite this" led to the writing of the Koran (Qu`ran in Arabic means recitation). A group of followers shared his views, and in 622, they and he fled to another city, Yathrib, now known simply as The City - in Arabic, al-Medina.
Where was God in all this? From our Christian standpoint, Muhammad had got God's message wrong. We all agree there is only one God. But Christians see God in three persons, though as only one being. We all agree that God's aim is to knit us all into one community. But Christians see God as enabling this through the sacrifice of the Cross, through God's incarnation and resurrection. In Islam, Jesus' death was not real. Reconciliation is something people have to do themselves, either through individually submitting to God, or as a community.
The Arabic word Islam means submission to God (the word for peace, salaam, like the Hebrew word shalom, comes from the same root). This submission can be by an individual or by a whole community. In the same way, jihad means struggle, but this struggle may be an individual's struggle against evil or temptation, or a community's struggle to maintain its faith - a holy war, although Muhammad allowed this only in defence or (another non-Christian concept) revenge.
This communal aspect to Islam made it easier to envisage an Islamic state, and enabled its terrific growth throughout North Africa, the Near and Far East in the seventh and eighth centuries. Good government, scholarship and sophistication flourished under the caliphs who ruled in Damascus and Baghdad, during centuries when western Europe did little more than survive.
The world has moved on since then. Neither Islam nor Christianity has maintained its unity - as with Protestants and Catholics, Sunnis and Shi'ites have tended not to listen to each other either. There is an upsurge today of fundamentalism - there are parallels between the Plymouth Brethren in 19th century Britain, and the Muslim Brotherhood in 20th century Egypt. And despite periods of tolerance, there has been a general intolerance between the two faiths, and a lack of dialogue.
The fault for this intolerance lies on both sides. For Muhammad, Christians were not infidels. They were "people of the Book", whose beliefs were to be respected as long as they did not damage the peace of Islam. But they lacked full civil rights. In return, Christians waged a series of wars - and in particular the Crusades, which saw atrocities unworthy of either side, in the name of "liberating" the (Christian!) holy places, and which today rankle afresh in the minds of many Muslims.
How should we pray? We should give thanks for the millions of Muslims who pray five times a day, who seek God's guidance, who give alms as a matter of course. We can learn much from their faithfulness! And we should also pray that Christians show forth their own faith in a way that does not turn people to other, mistaken, beliefs. The Black Muslim movement is in many ways a protest against the way some Christians (might Paul have said "so-called" Christians?) have behaved, and not only Islam, but also Mormonism, scientology, spiritism, occultism have also spread because we Christians have not managed to show how Christ feeds all our needs.
But above all we should pray for understanding. Jesus not only preached, he listened, and so did Paul. In the context of the conflicts of the present decade, we need to listen. Not to be gullible, not to tolerate for one moment any evil done in the name of religion, but to love our neighbours, and respect the place where they stand. For they too are children of the one God, to whose parental love we have access in full measure.
HD