Too often I hear questions posed that imbed what might be unhelpful assumptions:
As a philosopher, I immediately begin to consider whether questions such as these assume as fact what may not be fact. For example…
The gospel is God’s good news for human beings mired in sin and its consequences. Often, this good news is presented as Jesus’ sacrificial payment of the just penalty for sin. This message is thoroughly biblical, and for many, it is good news indeed. However, for many Muslims, it is an answer to a legal question they are not asking. Rather, Muslims often demonstrate a felt need for cleansing. Jesus’ provision of complete cleansing from sin and a new spiritual nature can speak directly to these felt needs for purity, which are repeatedly affirmed in the biblical record.
In answer to this question, therefore, we can never get away from the contrast between the lives of Jesus and Muhammad. One of the temptations during the 40 days in the wilderness (‘all the kingdoms of the world in their glory … I will give you, if you will only fall down and do me homage.’ (Matt 4:8-9 REB) may have been the temptation to seek political power. But if the kingdom of God, the kingly rule of God, means anything, it can’t simply be about me and my relationship with God. Jesus said to Pilate ‘My kingdom does not belong to this world’ (John 18:30). But if his followers are called to be salt and light in the world, how are the values of the kingdom to be expressed in communities and in society as a whole? If we are critical of the political agendas of some Muslims, we dare not abandon the public sphere to secularists and Muslims. Christians must have a clear vision of the kind of just and caring society we want to live in. And this must have something to do with public life and politics.
At first glance, because of its title, one might assume this slim book is about Muslims who are on the fringes of Islam. Not so. It is about ordinary, every-day Muslims, situated somewhere between “orthodox” and those who have been separated from Islam (like the Ahmadiyya). In other words, the authors are talking about the majority, or vast majority of Muslims in the world–all of whom see themselves as followers of Islam. This review will first discuss what the book is about and move on to say why it is so valuable for Christian mission among the 1.8 billion Muslims in our world. It will close with a brief summary of my contribution (Chapter 8) on what it means to reach folk Muslims for Christ in Pakistan.