Answering Islam - A Christian-Muslim dialog

A Muslim Scholar Happily Admits
That There Is No Salvation Apart From Muhammad!

Sam Shamoun

In the following articles and rebuttals,

Islam’s Divine Savior Revealed Pt. 1, Pt. 2
Examining More of Abdullah Kunde’s Inconsistencies Pt. 3b, Pt. 3c, Pt. 3d

I set out to prove that Muhammad is actually Islam’s real savior since the Islamic sources are clear that no one can be saved without Muhammad. I provided references to prove that Muhammad is the one who actually saves people out of hell by his intercession. I even used the logic of one deceptive Muhammadan named Paul Bilal Williams to establish that Muhammad is another deity besides Allah:

A Dawagandist Turns Muhammad Into A God!

Now a Muslim could make the argument that this is simply a Christian spin on what the Islamic sources truly teach. A Muslim may level the accusation that I am simply reading my Christian theology into these Islamic statements and drawing erroneous conclusions based on my Christian presuppositions. I may even be accused of distorting the implications of these Islamic claims in order to present Islam in the worst possible light.

In light of this, it is truly refreshing for me to see that there are Muslim scholars who basically confirm what I have been saying all along. On this page, Shaykh Gibril F. Haddad answers a question from a Muslim concerning whether it is possible to be saved without Muhammad’s intercession:

Question:

As’salamu alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barkatuhu,

Is it possible to get salvation without the intercession of Sayedna Muhammad? I have to explain it to a friend who thinks that his sins are of such a nature that any intercession by Prophet will make Prophet ashamed of him in front of Allah. Thus he prays: “O Allah forgive me AND DO NOT LET YOUR BELOVED PROPHET BECOME ASHAMED OF HAVING SUCH A FOLLOWER”. Is this right?

Answer:

wa `alaykum salam,

HIS DU`A IS CORRECT AND IS THE SOUL OF INTERCESSION. As for your question, the answer is that without the second half of shahada ONE’S RELIGION IS INCOMPLETE THEREFORE NO, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FUR US TO GET SALVATION WITHOUT THE INTERCESSION OF SAYYIDNA MUHAMMAD. However, in the hadith qudsi of the succession of intercessions the very last intercession will be that of Allah Most High with Himself, on behalf of whoever is still left in hell fire among those whom He desires to bring into Paradise. (Salvation without Prophet’s Intercession, Posted on November 8, 2011 by Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad; capital emphasis ours)

Haddad sees what anyone who reads the Islamic sources readily sees, namely, Islam emphatically teaches that there is absolutely no salvation apart from Muhammad. The Quran and ahadith basically proclaim that Muhammad is a necessary object of saving faith since one cannot be saved without embracing Islam:

Surely the (true) religion with Allah is Islam, and those to whom the Book had been given did not show opposition but after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves; and whoever disbelieves in the communications of Allah then surely Allah is quick in reckoning. S. 3:19 Shakir

And whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers. S. 3:85

And the only way for a person to enter into the fold of Islam is by testifying that Allah is the only god and that Muhammad is his messenger:

Narrated Abu Ma'bad:
(the slave of Ibn Abbas) Allah's Apostle said to Muadh when he sent him to Yemen, "You will go to the people of the Scripture. So, when you reach there, invite them to testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and that Muhammad is His Apostle. And if they obey you in that, tell them that Allah has enjoined on them five prayers in each day and night. And if they obey you in that tell them that Allah has made it obligatory on them to pay the Zakat which will be taken from the rich among them and given to the poor among them. If they obey you in that, then avoid taking the best of their possessions, and be afraid of the curse of an oppressed person because there is no screen between his invocation and Allah." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 2, Book 24, Number 573)

In fact, the Quran explicitly teaches that to become a true Muslim a person must wholeheartedly believe in and totally submit to Muhammad:

But no, by your Lord! They will not believe until they make you a judge in their disputes, then do not find within their hearts any dissent to your verdict and submit in full submission. S. 4:65 Ali Quli Qar’ai

[TRUE] BELIEVERS are ONLY they who have attained to faith in God AND HIS APOSTLE, and who, whenever they are [engaged] with him upon a matter of concern to the whole community, do not depart [from whatever has been decided upon] unless they have sought [and obtained] his leave. S. 24:62 Muhammad Asad

S/he is also required to love Muhammad just as they love Allah, and must therefore love him more than anyone and any thing:

Say: "If your fathers and your sons and your brothers and your spouses and your clan, and the worldly goods which you have acquired, and the commerce whereof you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you take pleasure - [if all these] are dearer to you than God AND HIS APOSTLE and the struggle in His cause, then wait until God makes manifest His wil1; and [know that] God does not grace iniquitous folk with His guidance.” S. 9:24 Asad

It is obvious that Muhammad is meant to supplant the Lord Jesus, who is the only true Savior sent from God:

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

“And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” Luke 2:10-11

“They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.’” John 4:42

“On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’” Acts 4:5-12

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Timothy 1:15

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.1 Timothy 2:5-6

“And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” Hebrews 5:9

“but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” Hebrews 7:24-28

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” 1 John 4:14

This simply provides further attestation that Jesus is God Incarnate according to the inspired Scriptures, since the Holy Bible is emphatically clear that Yahweh alone is able to save people from their sins:

“‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me… I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.’” Isaiah 43:10-11, 25

Be that as it may, let us now contrast this candid admission by a Muslim whom many deem to be a scholar, with the assertions of Paul Williams, a neophyte whose blog posts and writings demonstrate that he really doesn’t have any in-depth knowledge of either the Holy Bible or Islam:

IN ISLAM GOD IS THE ONLY SAVIOUR. WE DO NOT NEED AN INTERMEDIARY (unlike the NT which claims that we need a human mediator between God and man: 1 Tim 2:5). Jesus himself taught that we can come to God directly without priests or go- betweens, for example in Luke 15. We can come directly to God our Creator. This is the message of Jesus and Muhammad. Sadly this message became obscured by some later Christians who deified the Messenger in derogation of his message. The apotheosis of saintly men has often happened in history: Ali the Prophet’s son-in-law was seen by some misguided people as the incarnation of God during his life time. The Buddha is now worshipped and prayed to, though he never claimed to be divine. (Paul Williams, The Road to Mecca: My Story (part 2), August 13, 2010 at 6:47 pm; capital emphasis ours)

{Sidenote: Williams is simply being deceptive here when he states that 1 Timothy 2:5 teaches that God requires a human mediator to go between him and mankind, since the testimony of the entire New Testament is that Jesus is more than a mere human being. Williams has obviously confused the teaching of the Holy Bible with what is taught in his own religious sources.}

As we had noted in our rebuttal to him, Williams’ rather naïve comments inevitably end up turning Muhammad into a divine being. After all, if Muhammad’s intercession is necessary for salvation, and if God is the only savior, which therefore nullifies any need for an intermediary, especially a human one, then Muslims like Williams must accept the fact that this basically establishes that Muhammad is a deity. This would also mean that Islam actually posits two gods, or depicts the one god as a multi-personal being made up of at least two divine entities, namely Allah and Muhammad.

There is simply no logical way to get around this dilemma, just as the following outline conclusively shows:

A. There is no intermediary in Islam since God is the only savior.

B. Muhammad is an intermediary whose intercession is absolutely necessary for salvation.

C. This means that Muhammad must be G/god.

D. Yet Muhammad is personally distinct from the Islamic deity, which means that Muslims basically have two gods.

E. However, Muslims insists that there is only one god, namely Allah.

F. If this is so then this means that Muhammad is included within the being and identity of Allah, which therefore means that the Islamic deity is actually a multi-personal entity consisting of at least two distinct persons or beings.

Williams’ statements basically help to establish the fact that Islam is an idolatrous religion for making salvation dependent upon trusting in, and submitting to, an imperfect, fallible sinner:

May God pardon thee [O Prophet]! Why didst thou grant them permission [to stay at home] ere it had become obvious to thee as to who was speaking the truth, and [ere] thou camest to know [who were] the liars? S. 9:43 Asad

Say: I am only a mortal like you. My Lord inspireth in me that your God is only One God. And whoever hopeth for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work, and make none sharer of the worship due unto his Lord. S. 18:110 Pickthall

Yet, verily, thou art bound to die, [O Muhammad,] and, verily, they, too, are bound to die: (39:31) and then, behold, on the Day of Resurrection you all shall place your dispute before your Sustainer. S. 39:30-31 Asad

Say (O Muhammad):"I am not a new thing among the Messengers (of Allah) (i.e. I am not the first Messenger) nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I only follow that which is revealed to me, and I am but a plain warner." S. 46:9 Hilali-Khan

Know, then, [O man,] that there is no deity save God, and [while there is yet time,] ask forgiveness for thy sins and for [the sins of] all other believing men and women: for God knows all your comings and goings as well as your abiding [at rest]. S. 47:19 Asad

His comments also lead to the conclusion that Muslims are nothing more than idolaters masquerading as monotheists.

Muslims can therefore personally thank Williams for posting comments which end up creating major problems for both himself and his fellow taqiyyists.