Islam vs. Scripture

A Brief Overview

Islam is one of those topics that seems to cycle back into the spotlight every few years, and we’re clearly in one of those moments again.

Sean and I have been getting a steady stream of messages asking where we stand on it, what we believe about it, and whether it’s really just “another branch” of the same faith.

So, I figured it’s as good a time as any to make a post about it.

Islam is not a small topic. It is a 1,400+ year old world religion that has functioned not only as a belief system, but as a legal structure, a political system, and historically, an empire. There are many directions this conversation could go.

At the most foundational level, though, the issue is not complicated. Sean and I agree with most others that Islam contradicts Scripture at the root. It contradicts it in its origin, it contradicts it in what it says about Christ, and it contradicts it in the example of the man its followers are taught to imitate.

So let’s take a look at why I say all that.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Islam begins with Muhammad’s first encounter in the cave of Hira. In the earliest biographies and Hadith reports, he describes being suddenly confronted by a spirit who “seized” him, “pressed him hard” repeatedly, and commanded him to “recite.” The word “Qur’an” itself literally means “recitation.”

Afterward, he returned home terrified and convinced he had experienced a demon. However, his wife, Khadijah, took him to her cousin Waraqa, a Meccan scholar and Christian ascetic who identified the spirit as the angel Gabriel.

That matters, because biblically speaking, this does not read like the pattern of God’s Spirit. Scripture tells us to test the spirits. And when you compare Muhammad’s own description of that encounter with the way God reveals Himself in Scripture, what stands out is fear, compulsion, and spiritual disturbance. Muhammad himself did not initially receive this as a comforting or holy encounter. He was terrified by it. From the Christian perspective, that is a massive red flag from the very beginning.

And the content of the message only makes the problem worse. Muhammad did not present his message as merely repeating biblical revelation. The Qur’an presents itself as a revelation that corrects what Jews and Christians have believed, while at the same time contradicting central biblical claims.

From the beginning, then, this is not a continuation of the faith once delivered. It is a competing revelation that overturns prior revelation.

So from a Christian standpoint, the issue is not merely that Islam is different. The issue is that its founding revelation presents itself as a correction to God’s prior Word while denying central truths of that Word. That is the profile of false prophecy, not biblical continuity.

𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗺’𝘀 𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘂𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲.

This is where a lot of modern confusion needs to be cleared away.

Yes, the Qur’an speaks about Jesus. It says he was born of the virgin Mary and that he performed miracles. It even calls him the Messiah. But once you actually read what Islam means by those claims, the overlap starts disappearing very quickly.

The Qur’an declares the act of calling Jesus the Son of God to be “shirk,” or an unforgivable sin. It denies that God begets a Son, says Jesus is no more than a messenger, and says He was not crucified, but that it was “made to appear” that He was crucified.

And that is not some side issue. That is actually the 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 issue.

If Jesus was not crucified, then He was not buried. If he was not buried, then He was not raised from the dead. And if He was not raised from the dead, then the gospel is gone. Paul says plainly that if Christ has not been raised, our faith is in vain.

Islam does not simply offer a slightly different interpretation of Jesus. It removes the center of His divinely ordained identity altogether.

There is also a theological absence that should be noted when examining how severely Mohammed’s theology deviates from Scripture. The New Testament presents Christ not only as the Son, the crucified and risen Lord, but also as our High Priest. Islam does not center Jesus in any priestly role like that.

The Qur’an does mention Christian priests and monks, but it does not present Jesus as the High Priest who mediates for His people. For Christians, that is not a minor omission. Christ’s priesthood is one of the central ways the New Testament explains His saving work. Islam’s failure to account for that is another sign that it does not actually understand the Christ it claims to honor.

When understanding just how much Islam strips away from our precious Messiah and coming King, it’s worth asking; what kind of spirit would deliver these kinds of antichrist doctrines, if not the very demons we are warned about over and over in the Word?

So when Christians say the Islamic portrayal of Jesus is antichrist in nature, that is not name-calling. It is a sober theological judgment. A spirit that tells you Jesus is not the Son of God, was not crucified, was not raised, and does not stand as the High Priest of His people is not confirming the gospel. It is overturning it.

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝘂𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗺.

A lot of people try to avoid talking about Muhammad himself, but that is impossible if we are trying to have an honest conversation about Islam. Because in Islam, Muhammad is not just the founder. He is the model.

His example, preserved not only in the Qur’an but especially in the Hadith and Sunnah, is foundational to Islamic law and practice. That is why the Hadith matters so much. It is not extra trivia or speculative mythology. It is part of the moral framework of the religion.

And once you actually read those sources, there are things that Christians should not brush past.

The most obvious one is Aisha.

The major Hadith collections record that Muhammad married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine. These are not fringe reports buried in obscure materials. They are in the core Sunni Hadith collections.

There are also Hadith reports describing Muhammad striking Aisha in the chest hard enough for her to feel pain. Again, these are not modern polemics inventing a problem. These are reports preserved in major Islamic collections.

So Christians do need to ask the obvious question. If this man is held up as the pattern of righteous manhood, what exactly is being normalized by that example?

That question matters because Islam is not based on the Qur’an alone. The Hadith literature has immense practical authority in shaping conduct, law, family structure, social expectations, and political life. So when people speak as if Islam can be evaluated by quoting a few softer Qur’anic lines in isolation, they are not dealing honestly with the full picture.

(It’s important to note here that even without the extra depictions of how Mohammed treated his wives in the Hadith, the Qur’an itself contains an infamous verse giving husbands the explicit right to batter their wives. This is clear fruit that should be acknowledged and examined from the Christian perspective.)

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This is only a bite-sized breakdown of the basics. I have been trying to put this post together for a while because there are so many relevant angles to it, and I had to figure out how best to condense the most important foundational topics for this platform. But there are still so many things that could be touched on.

There is the deeper theological side, more contradictions between the Qur’an and the Bible, the history of violent Islamic expansion, the role of the Hadith in shaping culture and government, slavery in parts of the Muslim world still to this day, concepts like taqiyah, and the very real question of what kind of fruit Islam produces when it is practiced at scale.

If there are other parts of this subject people want addressed, let me know. There is a lot more that could be unpacked.

And just to be clear, none of this is a defense of the American government, its foreign policy, or some call for war. That is a separate subject. Saying Islam contradicts Scripture is not the same thing as saying the U.S. government is righteous. Those are two different conversations.

This post is simply about clarity. Christians should know that Islam is not a harmless parallel faith, and it is not worshiping Christ under a different vocabulary and language. Its origin, its doctrine, and its moral example all run against the grain of biblical revelation.

It is the perfect example of the “doctrines of demons” we were clearly warned would creep into this world after Christ ascended. And educating believers on what it actually teaches is not akin to teaching hate or propaganda. It’s simply teaching discernment. And what their texts literally say.

We love Muslims. We just can’t accept or affirm their books or their prophet. It’s no different than loving Mormons while understanding the book of Mormon is not the truth and Joseph Smith was a false prophet.

And Jesus told us that many false prophets would come into the world, precisely so we can do what we’re doing here: identify them so that we aren’t deceived by them. 🙏🏻❤️

“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.”

Matthew 24:11

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘴.”

Matthew 7:15-16

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

1 John 4:1

#MorningDeepDives

Primary Islamic Texts

Qur’an (full text)

https://quran.com

Full Qur’an with translations and navigation by surah and verse

Qur’an 4:157

https://quran.com/4/157

Denial of the crucifixion of Jesus

Qur’an 112

https://quran.com/112

Denial of God having a Son

Hadith (Life of Muhammad)

Sahih al-Bukhari: First Revelation

https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3

Muhammad’s first encounter in the cave, fear and being commanded to recite

Sahih al-Bukhari: Aisha age

https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5134

Aisha age 6 at marriage, 9 at consummation

Sahih Muslim: Striking Aisha

https://sunnah.com/muslim:974b

Report describing Muhammad striking Aisha

Historical Overviews

Britannica: Qur’an

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Quran

Academic overview of the Qur’an and its claims

Britannica: Hadith

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hadith

Explanation of Hadith authority in Islamic law and practice

Britannica: Muhammad

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad

Historical overview of Muhammad’s life

Additional Primary Source Access

Sunnah.com (Hadith database)

https://sunnah.com

Full searchable database of major Hadith collections