Mormonism<\/a> conceive of God rather differently.\u00a0 Mormonism teaches an embodied God; at least officially (whatever ordinary, uneducated Muslims may believe, and though the Qur\u2019an can easily\u2014and, I think, should\u2014be read otherwise), Islam teaches of a God without body or location.\u00a0 (There is overwhelming evidence that many early Muslims, probably including the Prophet Muhammad himself, believed in a corporeal deity.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The line of prophets in Islam culminates with Muhammad, and the overwhelming majority of Muslims do not believe that any prophet can or will come after Muhammad.\u00a0 Mormonism has never recognized Muhammad as a prophet (though some Church leaders have been willing to describe him as inspired), but affirms the post-biblical prophethood of Joseph Smith and a line of successors.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The unforgivable sin in Islam is shirk<\/em>.\u00a0 (The Arabic word means, roughly, \u201cassociation,\u201d but can be loosely rendered as \u201cpolytheism.\u201d)\u00a0 To commit shirk<\/em> is to worship or recognize any other deity beyond or instead of the one true God.\u00a0 Muslims are uneasy with the mainstream Christian view of the Trinity, despite Trinitarian protests that the Trinity is really just one God; they will, I think, tend to find Latter-day Saint references to \u201cthe Gods\u201d (as in the Book of Abraham and elsewhere) rather disturbing.\u00a0 I see this as a potential flashpoint in our relations with Muslims.\u00a0 (However, historically, Muslims have learned to live more or less in peace with Hindus and other undeniably polytheistic groups, and even to evolve ingenious ways of considering them \u201cactually\u201d monotheists, so this can probably be managed.\u00a0 There is, obviously, as the Book of Mormon makes clear, a very powerful sense in which we too can truthfully say that we worship and believe in only one God.\u00a0 This will need to be emphasized in any theological discussions with devout Muslims, when and if they arise.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crucial difference:\u00a0 Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, even a very great one, but only as a prophet.\u00a0 He is not the Son of God, for Islam recognizes no children of God.\u00a0 Qur\u2019an 112 reads as follows:\u00a0 \u201cSay: He is God, One. \u00a0God, the Absolute.\u00a0 He does not beget nor is He begotten, and there is none like unto him.\u201d\u00a0 (It is just remotely possible that Muhammad is not responsible for this passage.\u00a0 But I know of no way to prove it, and he probably was.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
While both Mormonism and Islam speak of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, Latter-day Saints do so to insist that Jesus\u2019 father was not Joseph but God himself, with all that that entails for Jesus\u2019 capacity to save us in his role as Savior and Redeemer.\u00a0 Muslims, by contrast, insist that Jesus was the \u201cson of Mary.\u201d\u00a0 He had no father at all, but was a miraculous sign from the all-powerful God.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be continued.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Continuing with some notes on the topic: \u00a0 Differences \u00a0 Islam and Mormonism conceive of God rather differently.\u00a0 Mormonism teaches an embodied God; at least officially (whatever ordinary, uneducated Muslims may believe, and though the Qur\u2019an can easily\u2014and, I think, should\u2014be read otherwise), Islam teaches of a God without body or location.\u00a0 (There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[66,55,1414],"class_list":["post-65565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-islam","tag-mormonism","tag-mormonism-and-islam"],"yoast_head":"\n
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