HEALING, SALVATION, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Bible tells us that we are made in the Image of God. Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” Not only are we made in His image, but He also lavished His love on us as His children. The Bible promises to lift us up from our fears and guilt. It gives us an unmistakable and clear road to salvation, healing, forgiveness, and mercy. Nothing even comes close to this in Islam, which provides no road to salvation from human sin and suffering.
With my conversion from Islam to Christianity, my whole outlook on life, humanity, and myself was changed. I saw divine qualities, value, beauty, and dignity in every human being. I experienced healing and reconciliation with my Creator almost overnight. It was only through Biblical values that I was able to forgive those who hurt me personally in the past. I was able to heal and turn the worst thing that happened to me into the best thing that happened to me. That could never have happened without Jesus Christ.
After I became Christian, I was able to connect the dots as to why America is the envy of the world—why the life of every American citizen has value, while in the Muslim world a human being is valued only when he gives up his life for jihad.
Instead of promising healing to Muslims, Allah threatens those who turn down his offer to join Islam with increasing their disease: “In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie” (2:10). Allah is constantly focused on cursing non-Muslims rather than healing Muslims. In that same chapter two of the Koran, Allah calls non-Muslims hypocrites, liars, misguided, living in darkness, deaf, dumb, and blind. They are mocked by Allah, and will end up as fuel in Hell fire. This is all because they refuse to believe in Muhammad. In the days of Muhammad most of Arabia converted to his new religion out of fear and not out of conviction. That is why when Muhammad died they abandoned Islam and had to be brought back to it with the sword. It is obvious that many tribes around Muhammad, both Jews and Arabs, were stricken with fear. They were afraid to tell him no, and many of the brave souls who did were beheaded as example to the terrified others. In Koran 2:14 Allah wonders why the evil unbelieving kafirs are lying to Muslims about their faith in Islam: “And when they meet those who believe, they say, ‘We believe’; but when they are alone with their evil ones, they say, ‘Indeed, we are with you; we were only mockers.’” In other words, they were just kidding about believing Muhammad’s revelations.
It was a terror-filled atmosphere. Obviously healing, salvation, and lifting up others were the last things on Muhammad’s and Allah’s minds.
Guided by the Holy Spirit vs. Manipulated by Human Terror
My pastor Jim Tolle talks about the relationships among body, soul, and spirit and about how God’s Spirit is our guide. He guides us regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. As a new Christian convert, being led by the Holy Spirit, I felt the internal guidance and gradually relied more and more on my instincts in a way that I had never experienced under Islam. When something felt wrong, I was led to a new and better way of thinking and behaving.
There is nothing equivalent to that in Islam. Islam uses human being against human being, an outside collective human pressure against the will of every individual. In any Islamic society fear of man—both of human judgment and of terrorist violence—is the driving force that controls the thoughts and behavior of individuals, to achieve submission. Islamic terror is nothing but man trying to control, manipulate, and destroy humanity in the name of Allah.
By making human beings into each other’s judges, jury, and executioners, Islam has created social disaster, chaos, and turmoil in which literal survival belongs only to the fittest. And those who are most fit to survive and thrive in Islamic society are the strong, the relentless, and the cruel.
My life under Islam was a constant state of justifying myself to the people around me. The lower a Muslim is on the social ladder, the more the self-justification is required. Nothing pleases Islamic society, which takes away all freedom, joy, and spontaneity in life.
In contrast, life among people who are guided by the Holy Spirit is a miracle from God. This is the gift that the American church community has given me, saving me from slavery to man. The Spirit of God leads human beings to look at one another in a totally different way from the adversarial attitude they take toward each other under Islam. When I became a Christian I discovered that in Jesus I am allowed to take responsibility for my thoughts and actions but under the guidance of a Spirit from God. My joy in Christ was nothing less than miraculous. This kind of freedom from the judgment of man was the most precious gift I experienced in America. The Holy Spirit guided me instead of Islamic terror.
God Lifts Up and Restores vs. Allah Shames and Humiliates
I had always wondered why Muslim society was plagued with hostile relationships, tit-for-tat score-keeping, distrust, and a tendency to put down others and to shame, blame, and humiliate especially the less fortunate. Why was Islamic culture so sensitive to issues of shame and pride, face-saving and public humiliation? I lived in such a society, but it wasn’t until I left it that I could connect the dots about the judgmental nature of Arab culture. Those values moved from Arabia with Islam to became a predominant feature of all majority-Muslim countries. The daily humiliations in Arab culture flow directly from the Muslim God, who shames and humiliates both his enemies and his followers, while the God of the Bible lifts His creatures up—and tells us to do the same for each other.
After I became Christian these issues became more pressing. Biblical values encourage us to lift up, empower, and love one another and not to be judgmental. The contrast with the culture I had come from was striking.
The Bible is full of uplifting verses such as “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me” (John 12:32); “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (James 4:10); “The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down” (Psalms 145:14); “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head” (Psalm 3:3); and “Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side” (Psalms 71:21).
“Fear Not” vs. Fear as a Tool of Enforcement
“Fear not,” the God of the Bible tells His people, “for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more” (Isaiah 54:4). Allah never tells his followers not to be afraid. He wants everyone to be afraid of him. Fear is a tool of enforcement in Islam—to compel non-Muslims to submit, and to make Muslims comply with sharia. Fear of physical violence is used, but other kinds of fear as well.
A lot has been written about the violent verses in the Koran, but not much is said about the belittling, humiliating, and shaming expressions in Islam’s holy book. The Koran is replete with words such as humiliate, disgrace, ignominy, and shame.
The word “shame” is repeated fifty-four times; “disgrace” sixty-one times; “humiliation” fifty-eight times; and “losers” forty-three times. The number of times they are repeated to describe those whom Allah does not love is staggering. When I discovered these numbers at a website that allowed me to search for any word in the Koran, my suspicions regarding the link between Islam and the shame-based Arab culture I grew up in were confirmed. Below are a few of the Koran verses that contain each of these words.1
Shame in the Koran:
“Shame is pitched over them” (3:112); “Thou coverest with shame, and never will wrong-doers find any helpers!” (3:192); “His will be a shameful doom” (4:14); “Allah will cover with shame those who reject Him” (9:2); “He will cover them with shame, and say . . . are the Unbelievers covered with shame and misery” (16:27); “penalty of shame” (6:93 and 11:39).
Disgrace in the Koran:
• “surely Allah has prepared a disgraceful chastisement for the unbelievers” (4:102 and 4:151)
• “Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people” (9:14)
• “the punishment of disgrace in worldly life” (10:98, 11:66, 11:93, 22:9, 22:57, 39:40, 42:45, and 48:6)
• “he will burn [in Hell] therein disgraced and rejected” (17:18, 25:69)
• “wilt sit in disgrace and destitution” (17:22)
• “drive them . . . in disgrace, and they will be abased” (2:37)
• “disgrace in this world” (2:85)
There are also many verses regarding “chastisement, torment and punishment in disgrace” (41:16, 40:60, 33:59, 41:17, 2:90, 3:178, and 4:37).
Humiliation and Ignominy in the Koran:
• “ignominy and humiliation overshadowed them, and they earned the burden of God’s condemnation” (2:61)
• “those who have earned evil will have a reward of like evil: ignominy will cover their (faces): no defender will they have from (the wrath of) Allah” (10:27)
• “his suffering doubled on Resurrection Day: for on that [day] he shall abide in ignominy” (25:69)
• “we will surely expel them therefrom in humiliation, and they will be demeaned” (27:37)
• “Humiliation and disgrace from Allah” (6:124)
• “you are of those humiliated and disgraced” (7:13)
• “that they might humiliate themselves (and repent to Allah)” (7:94)
• “obtain anger from their Lord and humiliation in the life of this world” (7:152)
• “Thus Allah made them taste humiliation in the life of the world, and verily the doom of the Hereafter will be greater if they did but know” (39:26)
• “will surely enter Hell in humiliation!” (40:60)
• “that We might give them a taste of a Penalty of humiliation in this life; but the Penalty of a Hereafter will be more Humiliating still: and they will find no help” (41:16)
• “so the thunderbolt of humiliating punishment seized them” (41:17)
• “to the Fire, humbled from humiliation” (42:45)
• “And he whom Allah humiliates—for him there is no bestower of honor” (22:18)
Allah condemns disbelievers to “a humiliating punishment” in numerous verses of the Koran (2:90, 3:17, 4:14, 4:37, 4:102,4:151, 22:57, 31:6, 33:57, 44:30, 45:9, 58:5, 58:16). And in several others he chastises those who hinder others from the path of Allah (from converting to Islam). Allah speaks of those who beg him for deliverance as having “[h]umbled (subdued or humiliated) themselves to their Lord” (11:23). The Koran commands Muslims to keep fighting non-Muslims “until they pay the Jizya (penalty tax) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued (humiliated)” (9:29).
The Koran also repeatedly calls Jew and Christians humiliating names such as apes and pigs (5:60), enemies of Allah and of Muslims (8:59), losers (3:5), najas (unclean) (9:28), and those who have earned Allah’s wrath and went astray (1:7). Muslims believe the Koran is “the perfect book,” which makes cursing, humiliating, and name-calling of others okay too. Whatever is in the Koran—whether it is violence, commandments to beat wives, and kill kafirs, humiliating words—is the norm for Muslims. Thus hostile relations, shaming, and degradation have become the norm in Islamic society.
On a recent religious program that aired on Egyptian television, Suad Saleh, a female Islamic cleric, discussed the doctrine of intentional humiliation and disgrace in Islam. She explained, “One of the purposes of raping captured enemy women and young girls was to humiliate and disgrace them and that is permissible under Islamic law.”2 There was no uproar in Egyptian society over this statement.
Healing of Spirit, Body, and Soul vs. No Healing Is Needed
Islam has no understanding that humanity is in need of healing. One of the stark differences between the Koran and the Bible is the number of words in the Bible dedicated to healing, encouragement, comfort, hope, peace, joy, love, atonement, and salvation.
Because in Islam there is no original sin in our relationship with God, consequently there is no need for healing, atonement, or salvation. If you asked a Muslim cleric how we can heal our relationship with God, the response would probably be, “Heal it from what?” That was the answer I got when, comparing the Koran to the messages of healing, hope, guidance, and salvation on almost every page of the Bible, I asked a Muslim friend if there were any healing messages in the Koran.
The word “heal” is mentioned only six times in the Koran.3 And its implications there are totally different from what they are in the Bible. Take Koran 9:14, for example: “Fight them [non-Muslims]! Allah will torment them by your hands, humiliate them, empower you over them, and He will heal the hearts of the believers [Muslims], removing the rage from their hearts.” While the beginning of the verse is violent, and typical of Allah’s violent threats throughout the Koran, the end of it sounds like something you might read in the Bible.
But only until you know the historical context. According to Al-Bidaya wa Al-Nihaya (“The Beginning and the End”), Ibn Kathir’s authoritative history of Islam, this verse is about the Battle of Badr, when a new convert by the name of Abdullah stepped on the abused body of Amr bin Hisham and placed his severed head in the hands of Muhammad. The dead man was the chief of a tribe in staunch opposition to Muhammad’s message. Muhammad considered him a despised enemy and never called him by his real name but nicknamed him “abu Jahl” meaning “father of ignorance” in Arabic.
That was the kind of healing Muhammad felt—satisfaction and relief that his enemy was dead, and his body mutilated. This story still inspires jihadists today, who experience healing of their hearts when they kill non-Muslims, the people the Koran refers to as sinners.
There is another healing prescription for Muslims. According to several Islamic references and the sayings of Muhammad, his companions blessed themselves by drinking the Prophet’s urine, sweat, and saliva. This prescription for health was confirmed in a recent book by the top Islamic leader in Egypt, Dr. Ali Gumaa: Religion and Life—Modern Everyday Fatwas. Gumaa quotes a hadith by Muhammad: “Umm Ayman drank the urine of the Prophet, and the prophet told her: ‘This stomach will not be dragged through the fire of Hell, because it contains something of our Lord the Messenger of Allah. . . .’” This blessing can also “be done with the honorable saliva, sweat, hair, urine or blood of the Prophet.”4
Muhammad also prescribed camels’ urine for healing: “Some people of ‘Ukl’ or ‘Uraina’ tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine).” But this story, too, like the verse about the Battle of Badr, has a horrific ending: “So they went as directed and after they became healthy, they killed the shepherd of the Prophet and drove away all the camels. The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron, They were put in ‘Al-Harr’ and when they asked for water, no water was given to them” (Bukhari 1.4.234).
There are Islamic conferences today on the “wonders and secrets of healing from camel urine,” whose participants argue that Muhammad was right and that “camel urine is the miracle of our time and is a gift from Muhammad to mankind.” These are attended by Muslim scientists such as Fatin Khorshid of the King Fahd Medical Research Center, who sees the camel urine Muhammad prescribed as the ultimate solution to “all sorts of ailments” such as “cancer,” “diarrhea,” “sexual dysfunction,” “liver disease,” “skin ulcers,” and so forth.5
Jesus Came to Save Us vs. We Have to Save Allah and Muhammad
The Bible says that Jesus Christ came in the flesh to this Earth to save the lost and wipe away the sins of the whole world. While the Bible calls Christians saved, the Koran describes Christians as “the lost” and those who went “astray,” and it describes Jews as “those who earn Allah’s anger” (1:7). All non-Muslims are considered the personal enemies of Allah and Muhammad, and they should be Muslims’ enemies too. Thus the role of the devout Muslim with respect to Allah and his Prophet is the exact opposite of the Christian’s relationship to Jesus Christ and His Father: the Muslim must save Allah from his human enemies on Earth. Thus the God who is supposed to be the all-powerful creator of all things actually needs his followers to devote their lives to converting or killing his enemies on Earth.
In Islam it is not humanity that needs to be saved, but Allah and Muhammad. Under Islam, pagans are given two choices, converting to Islam or death. Christians and Jews have one more option, to pay an extra humiliating penalty tax (jizya) for remaining Christian or Jewish but only under the condition that they live as second class citizens under an Islamic government and under Islamic law.
The most sacred duty that Muslim scriptures and laws have entrusted to the Muslim public is to protect and save Allah, Muhammad, and Islam itself from being slandered or insulted by anyone. Allah, the almighty, and Muhammad, his prophet, are very sensitive to any rejection and intimidated by criticism from most of Allah’s creation, the non-Muslims who are condemned in almost every page of the Koran.
Thus the most sacred command by Allah to Muslims is to protect him and Muhammad from such rejection. The overwhelming and predominant message of the Koran is Allah’s anger at non-Muslims, his cursing of them, and his instructions to Muslims to kill, subjugate, humiliate, and convert the human enemies of Allah for Allah’s sake: “Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them” (9:14). “Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah” (4:76). “And let not those who disbelieve suppose that they can outstrip (Allah’s Purpose). Lo! They [non-Muslims] cannot escape. Make ready for them all thou canst of (armed) force and of horses tethered, that thereby ye may dismay the enemy of Allah and your enemy” (8:59–60).
In his eagerness to entice his followers to fight, Muhammad promised salvation from Hell and admission to Heaven only to those who kill and get killed. The Koran promises Muslims that any Jew or Christian they kill will take their place in Hell. According to a hadith from Sahih Muslim, Muhammad said, “when it will be the day of resurrection, Allah will deliver to every Muslim a Jew or a Christian and say that is your rescue from Hell Fire” (Sahih Muslim book 37, number 6665).
In 2015 Abdullah al-Faisal, an Islamic sheikh in the UK, told his followers that killing is the only sure way for sinning Muslims to avoid Hell: “Some people are so sinful, after living in Dar ul-Harb (the West) for many years, the only way they can go to Paradise is for them to die on the battlefield fighting for Allah. When you go to the battlefield and you kill the kuffar (non-Muslims), they shall take your place in the hellfire.”6
This means that a condemned Jew or Christian is the one who will rescue a Muslim in the afterlife, by taking his place in Hell. This might explain why Muslim jihadists are eager to kill others and get killed. It is the only way to salvation from Hell and admittance to Heaven.
The Laws of Islam were not designed to protect human beings from each other, but to protect Muslims and Allah from non-Muslim human beings who dare criticize Islam. Thus, under Islamic law, the severity of a crime depends on the degree to which it threatens Islam. The severest punishment under sharia is preserved for those who commit blasphemy against Muhammad and Allah; the punishment for that is execution even if they repent, meaning there is no forgiveness. In Pakistan blasphemers, Muslim or not, are burnt to death by other Muslims.
Many defenders of Islam blame the above Islamic teaching on ignorance or radicalism, but that teaching comes directly from the Koran: “Allah hath purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth for theirs [in return] is the Garden [paradise]: they shall fight in His cause, and shall slay and be slain. . .” (9:111). Muhammad also tells Muslims in several hadiths that the road to Paradise is through the sword: “Paradise lies under the shade of swords” (Bukhari 4.5.73).
When the lure of salvation from Hell was not enough for Muhammad’s followers to sacrifice their lives for him, Muhammad became extravagant in his promises of fleshly pleasures in the Islamic Paradise, including even pleasures not allowed to Muslims on Earth. In the Islamic Paradise wine is going to be allowed to Muslims, who will also enjoy never-ending sexual pleasures with hundreds of beautiful women as white as pearls: “In the afterlife, Allah will give those in the Garden virgins of modest gaze whom neither man nor jinn have touched” (55:56). “Surely for the God fearing awaits a place of security, gardens and vineyards and maidens with swelling breasts, like of age, and a cup overflowing” (78:31–34). The Koran also promises Muslims who die in the jihad beautiful young boys: “And round about them will (serve) boys of everlasting youth. If you see them, you would think them scattered pearls” (76:19).
Unfortunately for Muslims, Allah gives conflicting messages in the Koran regarding their salvation from Hell and their admittance to Paradise. If Muslims read their holy book carefully, they must be disturbed when Allah seems to take back his promises of Paradise, telling Muslims that they will all go to Hell: “There will be no one of you who will not enter it (Hell). This was an inevitable decree of your Lord. Afterwards he may save some of the pious, God-fearing Muslims out of the burning fire” (19:71–72). According to this verse, Allah apparently changed his mind and is now promising a guarantee of Hell to all except for some pious ones who may be taken out of the burning fire after all are placed there.
But despite this reversal of Allah’s promises, the common belief among Muslims everywhere today is still the same: to win Allah’s approval, escape Hell, and enter Paradise, Muslims must kill and be killed while fighting the enemies of their God.
I have personally lived in the twisted world created by these beliefs about salvation. I was an eight-year-old child when my father was killed in the jihad against Israel. The president of Egypt at that time, Gamal Abdel Nasser, visited our home to pay his condolences since my father was one of his top military leaders. Nasser and his entourage asked my siblings and me: “Which one of you will avenge your father’s blood by killing Jews?” At the funeral we were told that my father was now in Paradise. The Koran recitation during the funeral said, “Think not of those who are killed in the way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are alive with their Lord, and they are being provided for. They rejoice in what Allah has bestowed upon them from His bounty and rejoice for the sake of those who have not yet joined them, but are left behind (not yet martyred) that on them no fear shall come, nor shall they grieve. They rejoice in a grace and a bounty from Allah, and that Allah will not waste the reward of the believers” (3:169–71).
That very same verse was also quoted by Osama bin Laden in his “Letter to America” regarding the 9/11 attacks.
Jesus Died for Us vs. We Must Die for Allah
The Koran is replete with commandments to die for Allah and Muhammad’s sake for the purpose of expanding Islam. Those who refuse to do so are called hypocrites; in Koran 4:66 they are ordered to “Lay down your lives or go forth from your dwellings.”
That meant I was going to have no peace in my life and no reconciliation with Allah until I shed my blood or did some form of jihad.
Jesus, on the other hand, said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). With Christ my burden is lifted, I have no enemies. No vengeance, no killing or dying for the sake of God is needed. Under Christianity I am allowed to live peacefully, lovingly, and fruitfully.
The Bible says that Jesus came into the world to die for us and to pay for the sins of all of humanity. He was crucified, died, and raised from the dead. He hung on the cross for our sins and the sins of the whole world.
This miraculous blessing from God, grace that human beings did not have to do anything to receive, is especially comforting to someone like myself, who grew up with the opposite value: that it is we who must die for our creator, Allah. With Christ I have been relieved from the burden of the commandment to Muslims to die in wreaking Allah’s vengeance on this Earth.
Life Is Sacred vs. Death Is Worship
Six hundred years before Islam the Bible predicted the sharp difference between those who worship the real God and those who don’t: “For whoso findeth me findeth life. . . . all they that hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:35–36).
The message of Islam is contrary to the Bible in regards to life and death. Islam glorifies death, and the highest reward is bestowed on those who die for the expansion of Islam which is what “to die for the sake of Allah” means. “Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward” (Koran 4:74).
A common expression in Islamic preaching, political speeches, Arabic songs, and poetry is “We [Muslims] love death as you [Jews and Christians] love life.” Another commonly expressed sentiment, repeated by Muslim groups such as Hamas, is “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah.”
The Palestinian Media Watch often reports on parents holding not a funeral but instead a wedding to express (at least in public) their joy and celebration over the death of their suicide bomber children. While in the West such bombing is recognized as terrorism, the Muslim world celebrates terrorists for dying for the sake of Allah. Muslims are proud that theirs is a culture of death; the message again and again in Islam is worship of Allah through killing and getting killed as the only guarantee to Heaven.
Islam is all about death, whether it is for the purpose of reward or punishment. Suicide bombers and other dead “martyrs” are honored and become national heroes. And those who dishonor Islam or violate Islamic law are also condemned to death.
The sword is a symbol of jihad, conquering, taking the lives of Allah’s enemies, and public beheadings that strike fear into citizens and make them submit. The flag of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad, proudly displays the sword as a symbol of jihad, killing and being killed for the sake of Allah. That is not a sign of a religion that regards life as sacred.
The last ten years of Muhammad’s life were a constant state of fighting, battles, killing, beheadings, and glorification of death for the sake of Allah. Muhammad ordered the death of thousands during his lifetime and said, “If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him” (Bukhari 52:260). Islamic solutions to those who violate Islam have often been “kill him/her/them.”
If the ultimate worship of Allah is to die for him, killing and being killed, then the devout Muslim cannot respect the sanctity of life or be peaceful. To the contrary, he must reject love, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Muslim culture is thus extremely envious of, critical of, and threatened by cultures that promote joy and value life. Islam is a melancholy religion; the Koran is replete not only with humiliation and shame, but with doom, curses, killing, subjugation, and terror. Doom and gloom on Earth and making life not worth living for Islam’s enemies have created a culture of death.
Even when they are not literally fighting wars, Muslims’ lives are poisoned by the Islamic cult of death. For me, growing up in Egypt, life under Islam was a constant state of justifying oneself, not only to Allah, but to all the people around you. Nothing is ever enough for a Muslim to please Islamic society or Allah, and true joy and happiness is out of the question.
After becoming Christian I suddenly felt that I had permission from God to find joy in life. Living in a Biblically based culture, America, after having lived under the doom and gloom of a culture of death for thirty years was nothing less than miraculous for me. Christianity made me look at my life as a precious gift from God that I must make the best of. My psychological makeup was not easy to change, but I am grateful for the Holy Spirit directing me to finally put my tormented Islamic mind at rest and to allow myself to be transformed in the peaceful holy hands of God.
At War with the Devil vs. at War with Flesh and Blood
The Islamic doctrine that the way to be guaranteed Heaven is to die for Allah’s sake refers to actual combative war, physical attacks on others, literally killing and being killed for Allah.
The Christian doctrine on “dying to self” has nothing to do with literal death.
While the Koran tells Muslims to fight other human beings and subdue them, the Bible tells us that we are fighting a spiritual battle between good and evil. Our hostility is directed at the Devil and not flesh-and-blood human beings: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Jesus told us to love our enemies and not to judge the sinner.
Islam, on the other hand, does declare war against flesh and blood, namely the kafirs who reject Allah and Muhammad. In fact Islam externalizes and personifies evil and sin in the form of the other, the kafir. Islamic scripture speaks very little about a spiritual battle against the Devil. But it is full of commands to engage in literal fighting against flesh and blood infidels: “And slay them wherever ye find them. . . . Fighting is prescribed for you. . .” (Koran 2:191, 216).
In a nutshell, Islam makes it the primary goal of Muslims to be totally preoccupied with a constant war to make sure that those Allah considers to be wicked (non-Muslims), never prosper but in fact are killed by the hands of Muslims. That is very different from the role of Christians with respect to those considered to be sinners or wicked on Earth.