Muhammad

In June 2009 Outreach to Muslims released a four-session DVD Bible study titled “Speaking the Truth in Love to Muslims.” Like the book with the same name, it is designed to help Christians better understand Islam, become acquainted with their Muslim neighbors as friends, and discover why Muslims need the gospel of Christ.

The DVD and digital Leader's Guide can be purchased for $14.99. Printed copies of the 73-page Participant's Guide are available for $4.99 or they may be viewed and downloaded at no cost by clicking here.

Introduction
For Americans and much of the world, September 11, 2001 is a day never to be forgotten. As no previous event, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, 9-11 brought home the reality that terrorism can—and, indeed, has—come to mainland America. It has also thrust into national consciousness the reality of a world religion that in the past has often been ignored and overlooked by much of the Western world. That religion is Islam.

It may surprise many to learn that Islam has a long-standing relationship with lands where Christianity flourishes. In fact, for almost fourteen centuries, the Christian-Muslim encounter has formed the center of much of world history. The “war on terrorism” may ebb and flow, but the presence of Islam remains an ongoing challenge to Christians.

At the heart of the Christian faith is the Bible, God’s revelation, which in the Old Testament prophesies the coming of the Messiah and then in the New relates how those prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. At the heart of Islam is the book known as the Qur’an. The Arabic word Qur’an means “reading” or “reciting,” a reference to the command said to have been given to Muhammad to read or recite.

Unlike the Bible, which consists of 66 books written by several dozen inspired writers over 1500 centuries—from 1400 B. C. to A.D. 100—the Qur’an is the product of one man, Muhammad, between the years 610 and 632. Moreover, while the Bible is arranged chronologically and by subject matter, the Qur’an follows no such arrangement. Rather, it is simply a collection of chapters, called suras, which are divided into verses, called ayat.