Divine Principle for Muslims

Tom Cromwell
May 1981

There are over 546 million Muslims in the world, making Islam the second most popular religion on earth, after Christianity.

It was not long after arriving in the Muslim country that was my assigned mission that I began to realize the giant proportions of the task our movement is faced with in trying to bring the revolutionary teaching of the Principle to the Islamic world. I am sure missionaries to other Muslim countries came to similar realizations very quickly too.

Having been brought up with a Christian background, using the Bible as the foundation for relating to the Principle, I had difficulty realizing that there are others whose Holy Book does not always coincide with the Biblical view. For example, in Judaism and Christianity, there is a well-defined concept of a messiah and of man's dependence on him for salvation. In Eastern religions, there is the concept of the perfection of man through evolutionary spiritual growth. In Islam there is neither.

In Judaism and Christianity there is a definite story of creation, fall and history of restoration, told chronologically in their holy books. In the holy book of Islam, the Koran, there is no chronological order in the accounting of providential history, and many of the stories are incomplete, contradictory and, sometimes, in radical disagreement with the biblical account.

For example, the Koran does not specify if it was Isaac or Ishmael who was to be sacrificed by Abraham; hence Muslims teach it was Ishmael, since the Arabs claim descent from him. The Koran says Jesus was not killed, but that someone with his appearance was killed in his place. In the Koran's Garden of Eden there is only one tree, instead of the two mentioned in the Bible.

Therefore, I found I had to change my frame of reference and relate the Principle to their understanding of God, thus broadening my own concept to include their teaching, as well as what I had been used to until then.

Such things one learns only after beginning to study Islam itself. Long before that, one feels the weight of a spiritual atmosphere made heavy by Old Testament-level beliefs (including the official religious sanction on having up to four wives and additional concubines), and lacking the Judeo-Christian foundation of sacrifice and suffering that we have inherited and taken for granted in the West.

The nature of the challenge we are faced with became very clear when we began to teach Muslims the Principle. We realized that all our literature is aimed at a Judeo-Christian audience. There is barely a mention of Islam and no explanation at all of its providential purpose -- a pretty tough pill to swallow for a people raised to believe that since their religion is the most recent, it is also the most advanced and complete -- in fact, the last word from God before the end of the world!

It quickly became clear to me that my first task was to study Islam so that I could appreciate the point of view of the people I was trying to teach. This proved to be a task easier decided on than done. As with all other religions, the words in the holy books are one thing, while the actual beliefs of the faithful are different and diverse.

In Islam, the problem is compounded by the fact that there are two distinct sources of religious doctrine and belief: the Koran and the books of tradition. There is only one version of the Koran, so there is little room for argument over authenticity or choice of words. There is of course plenty of room for diversity in interpretation.

There are many collections of traditions. These are supposed to be the record of the words and works of Muhammad. The problem is that from the earliest times in Islam, personal and political interests came in the way of honest reporting. It is said that the few thousand traditions that make up the most authoritative collection (Bukhari) were selected from a total of more than half a million.

As the Koran itself does not always elaborate on aspects of the faith, much the popular religion is based on the less-sure ground of tradition. I found that Muslims quite often thought what they believed was from the Koran, when in actuality it was not. Religious teaching rarely draws a clear line between the Koran and the traditions.

It struck me that we should be able to relate the basic tenets of the Principle to teachings in the Koran. By leaving the traditions aside in favor of dealing only with the Koran, one would be on a ground acceptable and common to all Muslims.

I went through the Koran several times, noting passages that speak to aspects of the Principle. The further I went, the more I found. As the Koran was revealed to Gabriel, it is limited in its revelation of Heavenly Father, for it presents a servant's viewpoint -- heavy on fear of eternal damnation and light on understanding the Father's heart. It also was quite clearly the product of its times and the circumstances of life Muhammad found himself in, since it speaks to questions of inheritance, marriage, divorce, witnesses of crimes, and so on.

I found that for nearly every subject dealt with in the Principle, there was some relevant passage in the Koran, the significant exception being in the history.

It became clear that the root cause for the emergence of Islam in the first place was the unresolved resentment of Ishmael. If Abraham had succeeded, God would have blessed Ishmael through Isaac, once they had united as Cain and Abel. As Ishmael never had the chance to restore Cain, he also never had the chance to receive the blessing of God. The Arabs, descended from Ishmael, inherited that resentment. When the Abel side (Isaac's descendents) finally failed by killing Jesus, God fulfilled His promise to Ishmael and his mother by sending Muhammad.

As with Moses, Muhammad's public mission began at age 40. He went through 12 years of persecution in Mecca before escaping to join his followers at Medina. Other elements of his life and of Islam as it developed clearly fall into the pattern of restoration.

In addition to presenting the Principle with Koranic references then, I was also able to explain the providential role of Islam.

As I was alone at the time, I found it to be a real spiritual battle to write the book. I was very happy when Rev. Kwak gave Jack Kiburz the time to edit it and prepare it for printing.

The manuscript was checked by Susan Fefferman and Maureen Gottesman, and I hope the printed book will be critiqued by others in the field, so that we will be able to improve on it in future editions.

Introduction to Principle, An Islamic Perspective is available for $5.00 at the 9th floor Literature Office, in the World Mission Center.