We Christians see Muhammad's greatest achievement in the fact that he unified warring Arab tribes in monotheism, made their territories into a single Daral-Islam (Islamic territory), and persuaded them to join the rest of the world as Daral-Harb in the future. fight to make (a combat area) an Islamic area.
Why the complete unity has not been realized to this day is another question...
Here we should briefly mention that the Muslim world is divided into three large groups:
- For Muslims, approx. 83% are Sunni . (They make up almost 100% of all immigrants to Europe.) They have four main groups:
- The Hanifis and Shafi'is consider the role of reason and logic important in applying the precepts of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
- The Malikites and especially the Hanbalites reject all reasoning and jurisprudence. - The Wahhabis and Salafis, who live mainly in Saudi Arabia and represent the most radical side of Islam, emerged from the Hanbalites.
- For followers of Islam, approx. 15% are Shiites . The difference between the Sunnis and the Shiites can be summarized in 3 points: 1. The Shiites accept the Sunnah only partially. 2. Only Muhammad's cousin Ali and the descendants of Ali and Fatima (Muhammad's daughter) were accepted as the legitimate leaders of Islam, who are otherwise called imams and are considered to be the custodians of the secret knowledge received from Muhammad. 3. These imams and the mullahs who replaced them can still receive revelation from Allah today. - The Shiites have three main groups: - the Zaydis, the Ismailis and the Imamites. The first branch knows 5, the second 7, the third 12 imams (Muhammad's successors). - According to the belief of the Imamites, the last (twelfth) Imam has mysteriously disappeared, but will return at the end of time to establish the rule of truth on earth.
- The third group of believers who consider themselves Muslims are the schismatics . They do not follow Muhammad's instructions in everything, and they also mix elements of other religions with Islam. Such groups are, for example: Kharijites, Ibadites, Yazidis, Druze, Ahmadis, etc.
Thanks be to God, there are no armed conflicts between Christians today. (The last time this happened was in Northern Ireland.) Among Muslims, this kind of thing can still happen at any time. The extremist Islamic State (ISIS) was largely defeated by Muslims. We all remember the conflicts between Iraq and Iran and between Iraq and Kuwait. Fighting is still raging in Syria today. Saudi Arabia also has tense relations with Turkey, Iran, and Yemen. Acquaintances in Berlin tell us that Turkish and Arab students who chant the Koran together (without understanding it) do not speak to each other. They despise each other at least as much as we Kafirs...
the respect for the messengers found in the Qur'an who preceded Muhammad are also called prophets Most of them are also in the Bible:
Adam - Henoch - Noah - Abraham - Lot - Ishmael - Isaac - Jacob - Joseph - Moses - Aaron - David - Solomon - Elijah - Job - Jonah - Zechariah - John (the Baptist) and of course Jesus (Isa). We also meet the name of King Saul (Talút), as well as Hagar (Abraham's concubine and Ishmael's mother) and Mary, the sister of Moses and Aaron. - We cannot identify several names (Húd - Sálih - Su'ayb - Du-l-Kifl - Al-Hird). (I note in parenthesis that Christian Bible experts do not consider Job and Jonah as historical figures, but as heroes of short story-like teaching narratives. The situation is similar with Adam, Henok and Noah.)
The name of Moses occurs most often (64 times), followed by Abraham (53 times), who "was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a Hanif" (i.e. a true Muslim, cf. K 3.67). He is followed by Noah (with 32 mentions), then Jesus, whose name can be read 29 times. – Let us mention about Adam that he built the Kaaba shrine in Mecca, which was later restored by Abraham. Both of Abraham's sons are among the delegates, the first is Ishmael, whom Muslims honor as their forefather, and the second is Isaac.
We must also mention the mother of Jesus, Mary (Maryam), whose name appears surprisingly many times, 72 times in the Kora. In addition to honoring the Prophet's mother in her, they also believe that she conceived Jesus as a virgin, and that she is one of the exceptional women whom Muhammad also considered perfect. These women are in chronological order: Asia, the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh, who saved the child Moses (K66,11) - Mary, the mother of Jesus - Hadija, Muhammad's first wife - and finally Aisa, a prominent member of his harem.
Jesus , we must say that Muslims not only consider him a significant prophet, but also accept his virginal conception and his (alive) ascension to heaven: "Allah said: 'O Jesus! Raptured, I will call you and raise you to Myself and cleanse you from those who disbelieved. And I will place those who followed you above the unbelievers until the Day of Resurrection'" (cf. K 3,55). - They also believe that Jesus will return on the day of judgment and will testify for the righteous and against the sinners.
At the same time, Muslims do not believe in the divinity of Jesus (as we have already discussed), nor even in his death on the cross. It is worth reading K 4,157-158. in his verses: "They (the Jews) said: 'We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.' But he was not actually killed or crucified. A likeness was given to them... But it is certain that he (Jesus - peace be upon him!) was not killed. On the contrary, Allah raised him to Himself. Allah is Mighty and Wise.” (Supposedly, the term "the dog's tree" comes from the Turks who invaded Hungary, who called the Christian cross "the dog's tree".)
It is also worth mentioning that Muhammad is above all the prophets who also prophesied about his coming. According to the Muslims, the Lord's words to Moses: "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers like you; I will put my words on his lips, and he will tell you all that I leave him" (Deuteronomy 18:18) - they do not refer to Jesus Christ, but to Muhammad. - In fact, Jesus' words about the Paraclete (lawyer, helper, comforter) (cf. Jn 14:16, 26; 16:7) were also fulfilled with the coming of Muhammad... According to AK 61:6, Isa (Mary's son) announces the good news that after a Messenger arrives, whose name is Ahmad. According to Muslims, Ahmad is another name for the Prophet Muhammad…
