Lust for Power vs. Covenant Love
About six hundred years before Muhammad’s birth, Jesus was striding throughout Israel, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and proclaiming God’s message of salvation to all who were willing to repent and believe. Crowds gathered to hear Him. He interacted with both the rich and the poor, both the powerful and the oppressed, both women and men; His following swelled into the tens of thousands.
Yet He raised no army. He took no captives.He amassed no wealth.
Instead, He directed His followers to pray and trust God for their needs. He called them together, unifying them as the Church, and promised to forgive them and sustain them. Ultimately, Jesus lay down His life to save them. Scripture is clear: Jesus was seeking glory not for Himself, but for His Father (John 8:50). God’s covenant of love with His people was fulfilled in Christ, to the point we say: “God is Love.”
That is the history of Jesus Christ - what is the history of Muhammad? He married a widow in a wealthy family to gain prestige and after her death, married eleven women (including a nine-year-old and his daughter-in-law) and had other concubines. After his flight to Medina, he mustered a fighting force large enough to plunder Mecca’s caravans, destroy Medina’s Jews, and re-conquer his hometown, Mecca.
Forty-seven battles later, Muhammad was wealthy and powerful. He endorsed the slave trade, advising his followers to keep slave-girls if they were not satisfied with their two, three, or four wives.
Styling himself as the voice of Allah, he promised his followers victory in battle, earthly riches, and a paradise of unlimited sex in exchange for submission to Allah’s system. Love does not enter the picture!
According to Islamic scriptures and tradition, marriage is a duty appointed by Allah, designed specificaly to expand Muslim influence and limit licentious behavior. The man's duty is to engender children (especially sons) and "maintain" his women. The woman’s duty is to be clean, obedient, and available to her husband at all times. If the man is not pleased with his wife for any reason, he is permitted to divorce her. It appears that when love is present in a Muslim marriage, it is despite Muhammad’s example, not because of it. In pleasing Allah, love is superfluous.
Is the same true for pleasing God, the Father of Jesus Christ? Is love a mere extra? No. God designed marriage as a picture, a living parable, to portray the loving relationship between Christ and the Church. Jesus does not love the Church because He is trying to gain power. He is not the Head of the Church because He needs an army. He is not interested in us because of what we can give to Him or do for Him or win for Him.
This is reflected in the behavior of a Christian husband: he is not using his wife to gain power (i.e. sons) or wealth or prestige; instead, he is looking for ways to love her and strengthen her faith (Ephesians 5:25).
As you hear about the suffering of women in the Islamic world, don't immediately blame it on poverty or corrupt governments or mere human causes. Remember these women are trapped in a religion that substitutes submission for love. Remember the contrast between Christ and Muhammad. Then, instead of shaking your head, get on your knees. Obey the command of the One who is Love: pray for them - both Muslim men and women. Pray for them, because they are living and dying without the knowledge that God is Love.
