The BUILDING BRIDGES series - Part 23
Where Do You Start With Your Muslim Friend?1
So you’ve met a Muslim. I’m excited for you! Maybe they moved in next door or they’re someone you met at work. As you choose to delve into relationship with your new found friend, you are launching into what will be one of the most challenging and rewarding relationships you’ll ever have.
The question you likely have is, where do I start?
Maybe not where you think. Most Western Believers have been trained specifically or by osmosis in Evangelical churches to launch into a pre-programmed a plan of salvation hinging on Jesus. I’m not saying you can’t do this, because some have and it has worked—but for the majority it hasn’t. When it did work it was because that Muslim was already prepared to hear about Jesus on that level. Most aren’t ready for hard-core preaching on His divinity, that He was fully God and fully man, His propitiatory death and His resurrection.
Why not start there?
Because they’re not a tabula rasa - a blank slate -upon which we get to write. They’ve been taught all kinds of half truths and out right falsehoods about Jesus. And the same about you, me and Christianity in general.
Relationship & Common Knowledge
It is good to start with what you have in common, like Christ's miracles, the Virgin Birth, etc. Then you can slowly proceed to the fact that Christ was a prophet, then to the kind of prophet He was. (Examples of Christ's miracles can be found in Table 5:110 in the Qur'an, and in Matthew 8:1-34, Matthew 12:22-45, and John 9: 1-41 in the Bible. Examples of the Virgin Birth can be found in Mary 19:16-22 in the Qur'an, and Matthew 1:18-23 and Luke 1:26-35 in the Bible.)
This plan will help your friend their misunderstandings about Jesus and faith in Him.
Or you can start with a group of people you have befriended. Talk about some things the Qur'an says that you also believe. Although this wouldn't be the kind of thing that could be pursued very far in a group setting, someone who is interested might later come to you alone with his questions. Meet him as often as he wants to. Drink coffee together. Converse with him. Extend your time with him as much as possible. This heightens the friendship. Friendship backed by prayer is the most important dimension of developing a dialogue with a Muslim.
There are a number of witnessing plans designed for Muslims. Fouad Accad has divided the content of what you can share in that kind of friendship dialogue into seven principles, which we will now begin to cover. You don't have to present these principles exactly as they are laid out here. But you'll want to be sure that your friend thoroughly understands the concepts of one principle before you proceed to the next. Freely discuss the points of each principle for , as long as he wants to, but don't bore him with more than he wants. Read the references from the Qur'an and the Bible out loud. This will allow you and your friend to get used to each other's Book, especially if you read from his and he reads from yours.
One of the foundation stones of Samuel Zwemer's ministry was that he wanted Muslims to understand there is another way. But this concept does not translate well to a Muslim, however, because a Muslim says there is only one way, God's way. If you advocate anything else, that's blasphemy. This is all the more reason why you have to go side by side with a Muslim, communicating with him through his own religious book, in his way. You use his book and his way of thinking to let him see that you are more on his side than he is. In this method of sharing, you get to choose, from the framework of your own beliefs, what you think will communicate best to him. As you do so, you must always be sensitive in the timing and manner you use to reveal it to him.
Bro. Accad shares how he has, “followed Dr. Zwemer's ministry for quite a long period. Although it's been years since his death, I still observe in Arabia, the Arabian Gulf region, Qatar, and Oman the profound results of his ministry. His spiritual legacy goes on. I am astounded at the zeal of the people I visit in those places who were touched by Dr. Zwemer through his visits there. He established many friendly relationships, and left a number of Arabic Bibles, which are still passed from fathers to sons. He prepared the fields and the hearts, sowing in them the good seed, and I personally have been able, through the years, to joyfully reap quite a harvest from that spiritual work he started.
Conclusion:
Next week we’ll start looking at the effect of considering beliefs that challenge our system of religious logic, and how to respond to them. This is introductory to the seven steps for witness with your Muslim friend. Begin praying now—if you are not already—for their heart and mind to be open and hungry for more of God! Pray for your own lifestyle and witness to be more full of the Spirit of God and His word than ever before. And pray the same for us and our Muslim friends, here, too! here
Thank you for taking your time to read, pray for and with us, and to share Jesus with Muslims!
References: 1 Taken and adapted from Building Bridges, © 1997 by Fouad Elias Accad, p. 53-54
* You can download the fully formatted pdf file of this article and find past articles on the Jumuah page of this website. Please select the "Jumuah" link on the right side of your screen.
