Ten Unanswered Questions in Islam
We all have questions about faith, don’t we? What are your biggest unanswered questions about Christianity? What if you could invite someone to address your questions directly, and from a place of knowledge?
That’s what Brother Rachid did recently, for questions about Islam — broadcasting them to the Arabic-speaking world via the TV program “Let’s Be Clear.”
As Brother Rachid points out, Islam doesn’t always welcome questions. For example, a few years ago, an Islamic online newspaper, The Weekly Al Hakam, reported someone asking if it was OK to raise questions about Islam or the Qur’an. This curious person had heard the current leader of Ahmadiyya Muslims say, “There is no place for ‘why’ and ‘for what reason’ in matters of faith.”
With many serious questions actually considered “off-limits” by Islamic leaders, Brother Rachid chose to dive into a few of them in the episode “Ten Unanswered Questions About Islam.” Most of the questions he addressed cover too many intricacies of the faith for outsiders to understand. Yet we’ll cover the basics of two of them here.
Does the Quran explain everything?
“The Qur’an claims to explain everything,” Brother Rachid says. “Islamic scholars throughout history have said that there is no need for other sciences. And Muslims still believe that there is no need for the Torah and the Bible [although they are two books honored by Muslims], because the Qur'an has everything.
“Yet no one in Muslim countries has ever taken a Quranic verse and taught it in a physics class and graduated as a physicist. You already have thousands of hadiths [a collection of sayings by Muhammad]. If the Qur’an was a revelation of everything, I wouldn’t need the hadith. I wouldn’t need the commentaries to explain the verses."
Did God decree and predestine everything?
“This is a trap question in Islam," Brother Rachid warns. "If you say that, yes, God has destined everything, then it’s God’s will I should have a clear presentation on TV and on social media that presents my disbelief in Islam. [Also], any event that takes place was written by God before He created it. Being an atheist and leaving Islam is an act of God. Every man who criticizes Islam is an act of God.
“If God is all-powerful, there is no responsibility or accountability for me. God is the one who wrote the code for everything, and we’re just doing what God programmed.
“This is called fate and destiny in Islam. So why on the Day of Judgment will God judge me?”
Christians themselves wrestle with this idea of predestination versus free will! So we can understand what it would mean for Muslims to also ponder it.
Brother Rachid creates space for Arabic-speaking Muslims who are uncertain about their faith to ask important questions. Not only the top 10 unanswered questions, but anything that they seriously wrestle with as they look at the meaning of their life.
His hope is that, with each episode, his honest, knowledgeable teaching and his spiritual convictions — as someone who turned from Islam to Jesus — will hit home. And that, ultimately, many will find Jesus, who claimed to be far more than a prophet but the Son of God, with power to forgive sins and ensure eternal life.
Please join us in praying for the program “Let’s Be Clear” — that each episode will stir serious exploration into the God of the Bible and His plan for us. We invite you to sign up for our newsletter, to hear stories of Muslims who are turning to Jesus as a result of Brother Rachid’s thoughtful, direct TV programs.