THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT VS. THE FRUITS OF ISLAM
The Holy Spirit has done miracles in my life and is still doing them. Under His guidance, I am evolving from a morally confused woman under Islamic enslavement into the kind of woman God intended me to be. Becoming a Christian totally changed the direction of where I was heading under Islam. The transformation that took place within me exceeded my expectations. Jesus has snatched me out of a slow and painful death.
The Bible tells us that when Christ ascended, He sent the Holy Spirit in His place to be present within us to guide us. Where the Spirit is, there is freedom, wisdom, insight, guidance, healing, transformation, and growth in Him. The Christian life bears “fruits of the Spirit,” just as a healthy tree bears nutritious fruit.
Jesus says, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16)—we can identify false prophets by their fruits. Fruit here is a metaphor referring to the external manifestation of a person’s faith through his or her work, words, and behavior.
Islam does not recognize that human beings are made in the image of God, nor the existence of a Holy Spirit whose guidance brings blessings to our lives, allowing us to bear good fruit. Islam has a very different understanding of life—dividing the world into Muslims and non-Muslims, with Muslims having authority from Allah over non-Muslims. Under Islam, Muslims are Allah’s vice regents on Earth, which means that they can act on Allah’s behalf, especially in regards to enforcing Allah’s laws and punishments on kafirs and other sinners.
The Bible says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. . . .” (Galatians 5:22–23). Under Islam, these positive attributes are not valued.
Instead, the Koran is all about cruelty and harsh treatment of non-Muslims, who were the majority on this Earth back when Muhammad was alive and still are today. The Koran teaches that the kafir is worth less than a Muslim and unworthy of good treatment. Far from treating non-Muslims with love, gentleness, and the other fruits of the Spirit, Muslims are authorized to kill them.
We have already looked at the hadith in which the Prophet of Islam says, “Three things are the roots of faith: to refrain from (killing) a person who utters, ‘There is no god but Allah’ and not to declare him unbeliever whatever sin he commits, and not to excommunicate him from Islam for his any action” (abu-Dawud 2532 15:56). This basically says that to be a good Muslim you should stop killing non-Muslims you are about to kill if they declare Allah is their God, and that, whatever converts do after becoming Muslim, they are immune from sin and cannot be excommunicated for any action, good or evil. So killing and mistreating people outside of Islam is OK until they say “I believe in Allah.”1
Islam is very serious about depriving non-Muslims of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. And Islam most certainly does not teach self-control to Muslims, but rather gives them not only permission but encouragement to take out their anger and resentment on the infidel kafirs.
Love
The Bible says that God loves us unconditionally and also commands us to love God with all our hearts, souls, and might. The miraculous identity of God with love is summed up in I John 4:8 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
The blessings of God’s love, and our love for Him, bear fruits in the Christian life. Love is extended to all our relationships: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).
While love is at the center of the Bible, the word “love” is hardly mentioned in the Koran, which never refers to Allah as loving to all of humanity. Allah’s love for some humans is conditional. It is limited to Muslims, to those who do good, and to those who love Allah and the prophet Muhammad. But above all, Allah loves those who fight in His cause; “Truly Allah loves those who fight in his Cause in battle array, as if they were solid cemented structure” (Koran 61:4).
Allah never commanded Muslims to love all of humanity, nor even to love one another. One of Allah’s ninety-nine names is “wadud,” meaning “friendly,” but the Koran never refers to Allah as “mahibba,” meaning “loving.”
I have translated an Arabic internet clip posted by Egyptian fans of the late president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. The clip shows Sadat speaking before the Egyptian Parliament about what he had learned from reading a German book during his incarceration, when he was a young military officer back in the mid-1940s. This is what he said: “During the incarceration I studied the German language and what intrigued me the most in studying that language were the examples that expressed the most important moral value in the life of humans. I still remember what the German book said: ‘To love and be loved is the greatest blessing in our existence.’”2
According to his fans, this is one of the “Greatest Quotes by Sadat.” This quotation by Sadat made such an impression on them because the topic of love as a blessing to humanity is alien to the Islamic mind. The only kind of love discussed in Islamic culture is romantic love, or else love between a mother and child. The larger concepts of love for all of humanity, and of God’s love for us and ours for Him, are simply lacking in Islamic culture.
Even romantic love between a man and a woman is not celebrated but rather discouraged and even prohibited in Islamic culture. Some Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, ban any celebration of Valentine’s Day; it is illegal to sell red roses on February 14. The Koran talks about the sexual reward of virgins to men in Paradise, but it never speaks of the sacredness of loving relationships between men and women. Hadiths brag about Muhammad’s sexual prowess as equal to that of forty men—“He [the Prophet] once said of himself that he had been given the power of forty men in sex” (Ibn Sa’d, Kitab Tabaqat Al-Kubra p. 139)—and claim that he used to have sex with all his eleven wives in one night—“‘The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number.’ I asked Anas, ‘Had the Prophet the strength for it?’ Anas replied, ‘We used to say that the Prophet was given the strength of thirty (men)’” (Bukhari 1:5:268).
God Loves Us Unconditionally vs. Allah Hates Non-Muslims
The Bible revolutionized my life when I read about the joy of loving people. Unlike the Koran, the Bible describes what love looks like: Love “suffereth long, and is kind . . . envieth not . . . vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up . . . Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not [its] own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (I Corinthians 13:4–8).
Messages like that cannot be found in the Koran, in Muhammad’s example, or in Islamic teaching. That is why Muslims are starving for messages of love.
On the other hand, the Koran has plenty of verses about those whom Allah does not love—especially the kafirs (see for example Koran 3:31–33 and 30:45).
When the word love is mentioned in the Koran, it is often conditional or even in a negative context. Neither Allah nor Muhammad tells Muslims to love people of other religions. The messages to Muslims to love one another are not unconditional, but are usually commanding loyalty to one another against the kafirs. Even the love of Muslims for their prophet Muhammad is conditional upon hating Jews. Prominent Muslim theologian Muhammad al-Maghili declared in his writings that “Love of the Prophet, requires hatred of the Jews.”3
Love Your Enemies vs. Terrorize Your Enemies
Allah’s excessive hatred of non-Muslims is the most prominent feature of the Koran. As we have seen, the majority of the Koran is devoted to the kafirs, rather than to the Muslims—according to Dr. Bill Warner, an authority on political Islam, 64 percent.4 According to the Center for the Study of Islam, the amount of energy devoted to non-Muslims in the Koran and other Muslim texts is huge: “The majority (64%) of the Koran is devoted to the Kafir, and nearly all of the Sira (81%) deals with Mohammed’s struggle with them. The Hadith (Traditions) devotes 37% of the text to Kafirs. Overall, the Trilogy, of the three, devotes 51% of its content to the Kafir.”5
Not only does the Koran say that Allah does not love the kafirs; it commands Muslims not to befriend them, in fact to kill and terrorize them. The word kill appears in the Koran 102 times; terrorize 32 time; slaughter, 39 times; slay, 46 times; and humiliate, 58 times. Not all of the passages in which those words appear are direct commandments to terrorize and kill the kafir, but many are, such as “strike terror into the hearts of non-believers” (8:12).
The Muslim Brotherhood emblem is made up of two swords above the first word (“Make ready”) of a verse from the Koran, which translates, “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know” (8:60).
The Koran is replete with verses threatening killing, cursing, torment, torture, and Hellfire to the enemies of Allah, the non-Muslims. A small sampling: “And kill them wherever you find them” (2:191, 4:89, and elsewhere). “Then take them and kill them wherever ye find them. Against such We have given you clear warrant” (4:91). “As to those who reject faith [Islam], I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help” (3:56). “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve” (8:12). “Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them” (9:14) “O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination” (9:73).
I grew up hearing Islamic imams openly preaching offensive and not defensive war against the kafirs “even if they do not fight you.” This very same kind of preaching is still going on today.6
Because Islam’s main goal is to conquer and expand, the command to “Love your enemies” is perceived as a weakness that Muslims should take advantage of, not as an expression of restraint that should be appreciated. Any accommodation, yielding, concession, or compromise is considered a weakness to be exploited by Muslims. The very concepts of love and mercy are considered weaknesses. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini said, “Show no mercy! Stamp out all those who oppose Islam.”7
Joy vs. Anger, Shame, and Misery
One of the pleasant surprises I found in the Bible—a surprise because of my Islamic background—was God’s wish for us to experience joy in Him and also in our lives. I had never remembered hearing that joy could be godly, growing up in Islam.
To confirm my memory, I checked the Koran, and it confirmed what I thought. There was no mention of “joy,” or of “delight,” or “rejoice.” I also found nothing similar in meaning to Biblical expressions such as “my heart is glad” (Psalms 16:9), “cheerful giver” (II Corinthians 9:7), or “songs of deliverance” (Psalms 32:7).
The closest thing I found in the Koran was the description of the Paradise that is promised to those lucky Muslims who die fighting Allah’s enemies on Earth as “Gardens of Pleasure.” But pleasure is not joy. The Islamic Paradise promises not spiritual joy but sexual pleasures with virgins, young beautiful light-skinned boys who serve you, and fruits and rivers of wine (forbidden on Earth). There is no joy—only sensual pleasure—in the Islamic Heaven. And as far as life on this Earth is concerned, Muslims are not even supposed to enjoy it.
In fact Islam teaches Muslims to despise life on Earth and shames those who want to flee from jihad for the sake of Allah in order to live: “Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other” (Koran 4:74). “The comfort of the life of the world is but little in the Hereafter”(9:38). All the fun Allah promises to the good Muslim is after he dies.
The Koran encourages Muslims to embrace pain and suffering to achieve the worthy goal . . . of causing pain to others: “And be not weak hearted in pursuit of the enemy; if you suffer pain, then surely they (too) suffer pain as you suffer pain. . . .” (4:104).
So it should come as no surprise that there is a shortage of joy in Muslim society. Instead of seeking joy and contentment, it is more common for Muslims to seek opportunities to get offended by others. One of the most noticeable features of the Arab street is one face after another expressing anger, discontent, envy, and the victim mentality.
A lack of joy, to put it mildly, is also very noticeable in Islamic preaching. Muslim imams—loud, cursing, condoning and inciting violence—seem always to be angry. The fact is, if they follow the values of their scriptures, Muslim clerics have no choice but to teach discontent, anger, finger-pointing, shame, and the demonization of others.
Under Islamic law, laughing is actually considered offensive and is regulated. (Reliance of the Traveller r32.7 and r19.2).
Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini said, “There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam.”8
Islamic societies often prohibit singing and dancing. As a six-year-old child I remember being beaten by my father because he saw me belly dance with my siblings at home. People in the entertainment industry, such as singers, dancers, actors, and artists, are often looked upon as unacceptable and even un-Islamic.
Entertainment that brings men and women who are not blood relatives together is also forbidden in traditional Islamic society.
A culture that is geared toward ridding the world of the enemies of Allah fears embracing joy. It is more comfortable with anger and resentment. It treats the ordinary pleasures of this life as an unnecessary and even shameful distraction from its bloody mission.
As Jesus says in the Bible, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Another feature of Islamic society that I was surprised not to find in the West is shame about any public expression of happiness or joy and the downplaying, even the concealment, of good news. Of course Muslims celebrate weddings and other festivities, but the Islamic religion puts a taboo on being happy in life.
Melancholic themes of abandonment, rejection, disappointment, victimhood, and even anger fill most Arabic songs about romantic love, while other songs are about jihad, pride, and destroying the enemies of Allah. It was not until I played a song by the late Arab diva Oum Kalthoum to an American neighbor that suddenly it dawned on me how sad the song sounded.
Arabic movies often include scenes of domestic violence.
Arabic TV also carries children’s programs with violent themes, even showing children telling other children that to die as a shahid, martyr, is a beautiful thing, better than living in peace.9
Peace
The Koran puts peace in a negative light: “So do not weaken and call for peace while you are superior” (47:35). Allah is telling Muslims that to call for peace is a sign of weakness and that as long as Muslims are powerful or superior they should not pursue peace. Another translation of the same verse says: “Be not weary and fainthearted, crying for peace, when you should be uppermost.” Peace is not an option for Muslims when they are strong. This verse is sarcastic about those who want peace, describing them as weaklings, wimps, and fainthearted. In Arab culture such a description—particularly when applied to young men—is extremely shameful, making peace-seeking itself a shameful act.
Under Islamic doctrine, Muslims should never accept peace if they are winning. They can only accept it, temporarily, when they are weak or if they need a breathing space to regroup and then come back to win. Temporary peace is allowed under Islam as a period of “Hudna” or truce that should never exceed ten years. If you notice, most of the peace treaties Palestinians sign never exceed ten years. Also the recent Iran nuclear deal was limited to ten years. In any case, Muslims also allow themselves to breach their agreements with infidels as soon as they feel ready, regardless of what they signed. It is common for Arabs after signing ceasefire agreements to go ahead and strike Israel almost immediately, before the ink on the agreement dries. All of that is okay under Islamic values and law.
In the history of Islam there were some periods of relative peace and even prosperity, but that was not because of Islamic values. In fact Islam allowed periods of peace only after Muslims had conquered non-Muslim countries, seized control of their governments, and forced sharia on their citizens. The borders between Muslim and non-Muslim countries were never peaceful by choice, only when Islam was weak—and even during periods of Muslim weakness, those borders were constantly plagued by tension and bloody confrontations. Then, as soon as Islam became more powerful, the Muslims’ need to have the upper hand reasserted itself.
Even during periods of weakness, you can still see Islam’s bias against peace with non-Muslims. Some Muslims today argue that the Islamic greeting “Salamu Aleikum” which wishes peace on others, is proof that Islam values peace, but that is not true. In a hadith by Sahih Muslim (14/144), Muhammad said, “When the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) say ‘salaam’ to you (greet you by saying al-salaamu alaykum), say ‘Wa ‘alaykum’ (and unto you)’”—in other words, the Prophet told Muslims to take the word “salam,” or peace out of the greeting when addressing non-Muslims. According to this hadith, even a greeting that wishes peace is restricted to Muslims only.
It was the Jews who first used the expression “shalom aleichem,” which is Hebrew for “peace be upon you,” many centuries before Islam came on the scene. Muhammad obviously failed to fully understand or appreciate it—just as he did with most of what he borrowed and copied from Biblical customs and traditions. It is obvious from the above hadith that the Jews of Medina greeted Muslims with “shalom aleichem” in just the same way as they greeted one another. But Muhammad did not want to reciprocate the peaceful greeting. That says a lot about the tension and animosity Muhammad created between Muslims and the Jews and Christians of Arabia from the very inception of Islam.
Covenant of Peace vs. Covenant of Permanent War
In Isaiah 54:10 God assures us of His covenant of peace: “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” Peace is also a key value in the the New Testament: “Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means” (II Thessalonians 3:16). “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace” (John 16:33). “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). “Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it” (I Peter 3:11). In other words, don’t just desire peace, actively pursue it. And, in stark contrast to Muhammad’s message against peacemaking by Muslims, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
This kind of peace does not exist in the Koran and is never taught as a value in Islam. I never heard anything in Islam even close to the Bible’s endorsement of peace of the heart, mind, and soul; its urging to actively pursue peace with God, oneself, and humanity. When I became Christian, it took me a while to fully understand the concept of peace as something that God wants us all to live under.
In contrast, the Koran advocates a covenant of war. That is the doctrine of jihad. As Hasan Al Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, said, “All Muslims Must Make Jihad. Jihad is an obligation, from Allah on every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor evaded.”
As we have seen, the only kind of “peace” Islam endorses is a cease-fire in which there is—temporarily—no physical violence. In fact, Islam divides the entire world between “the House of Islam,” meaning the land where Muslims (and conquered non-Muslims) live in submission to an Islamic government that rules by sharia, and “the House of War,” meaning the part of the world where non-Muslims live under their own governments and non-Muslim laws, against which Islamic war must be directed until they submit.
“Warfare is ordained for you,” the Koran tells Muslims (2:216). Allah promises hellfire to those who are happy to stay home rather than commit their wealth and lives to the fight (Koran 9:81). He says to those who stayed behind, “So let them laugh a little and weep much” (9:82) and tells them that Muhammad will not pray over any of them when they die because when they did not go with Muhammad to fight they were defiantly disobedient to Allah (9:84). Allah’s threats to those who refuse to fight along with his Messenger, Muhammad, extend to his assurance that they will never enjoy their wealth and their children (9:85–86). As for the good Muslims who fight alongside Muhammad, “Allah will bestow a vast reward” on them (4:74). The contrast between the punishment of hellfire and the reward of physical pleasures in the Islamic paradise is relentless in the Koran.
When I was a student of Islam all I learned was a perverted view of peace: that those who seek peace with non-Muslims in Europe, America, and Israel are committing treason against Islam and Muslims. Muslim religious authorities, intellectuals, and political leaders who dare advocate peace with taboo nations do not survive. The assassination of Anwar Sadat is a prominent example.
I grew up in the Gaza Strip where as a child I leaned that “killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah.” The terror group Hamas still advocates the same thing in Gaza and the West Bank today. I often wonder what my life would have been today if I had remained in the Middle East. It is not a pleasant thought. Looking back on my childhood often makes me deeply sad because I lived in a culture that was hostile to peace: “Fighting is what pleases the prophet” is a hadith by ‘Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and Islam’s fourth “Rightly Guided” caliph.10
According to the Center for the Study of Political Islam, which I highly recommend as a source of information and statistics on Islam, when Islamic scriptures are compared with the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, the difference between the Bible and Islam is very clear—particularly when it comes to violence. This chart is a good response to those who claim that all religions are equally violent:
A comparison of political violence in the passages of the Hebrew Old Testament, Christian New Testament, and the Islamic Koran, sira, and hadith.11
It is thus not a coincidence—or something that can be explained by their ignorance—that Islamic preachers are consumed with promoting violence, hatred, and anger. Those who equate criticizing Islamic violence and terror with speaking ill of or even threatening all Muslims are using fear tactics that remind me of the culture of fear that silences truth seekers in the Muslim world.
To them I say that even up to today, the Al Azhar Islamic University in Cairo has not issued a religious ruling (fatwa) stating that the actions of ISIS are un-Islamic. Saudi sheikh Adel Al Kilbany has even said, “ISIS didn’t come [up] with anything new, this is all in the core of our books, the seeds are in Salafi Islamic thought.”12
Many brave and well-intentioned Muslim activists today are protesting the lack of peace values in Islamic education. But their task is hopeless, given the 164 verses in the Koran dealing strictly with jihad and violence against non-Muslims. How can Islamic education teach peace when every time Muslims turn a page in the Koran they find at least one verse teaching animosity, hatred, or violence?
The “Religion of Peace” Deception
The slogan “Islam is a religion of peace” was specifically created for Western consumption—I never heard that expression in all my decades living in the Middle East—and it has convinced many. I never heard that expression in the Middle East. The deception over “peaceful Islam” has reached alarming levels even when it came to translation of the Koran.
As we have seen, people who don’t speak Arabic need to be very careful about which translation of the Koran they are reading. When it comes to the word “peace,” the mistranslation is flagrant.
According to the Islamic website legacy.quran.com the word peace is mentioned in the Koran fifty times. Most of the mentions of peace are in the context of a greeting and a blessing to the prophets and to Muslims, or about reconciliation between spouses or between Muslims, for example, “And if a woman fears cruelty or desertion on her husband’s part, there is no sin on them both if they make terms between themselves; and making peace is better” (4:128).
The word peace in Arabic is “salam,” while the word “aslihu” means to reconcile, but some translations of the Koran confuse the two. For example in Koran 2:224 the English translation used by legacy.quran.com reads “If two parties among the believers [Muslims] fall into mutual fighting, make peace between them.” The Arabic word used here was “aslihu” meaning reconcile them. Note, too, that the call for reconciliation here is between Muslims—and that the recommendation for reconciliation even between Muslims is conditional, as is clear from the continuation of the verse: “then if one transgresses against the other, fight the one who has transgressed until he returns to the commands of Allah.” So even amongst Muslims the recommendation is yet again to fight those who transgress the commands of Allah.
Patience and Gentleness
Patience is considered a virtue in Islam and is often mentioned in the Koran, which praises “those who persevere in patience, and put their trust on their Allah” (16.42). On the surface, Islamic society appears to value patience. But if you carefully examine patience in Islam, you will see that it’s very different from the kind of patience or “longsuffering” that is a fruit of the Spirit in the Bible. The patience preached in the Koran is limited to the patience and tolerance of the Islamic system and its heavy-handed laws that are required of the subjects of the Muslim state.
For the inhabitants of Muslim countries, submission to Islamic sharia law and Muslim culture is not an option, it’s a necessity. Impatience with the Islamic political leadership, and especially with the Islamic laws that control every aspect of life, is considered rebellion and severely punished with the harsh penalties of sharia. That may explain why Muslims in general exhibit enormous patience and tolerance of the unjust Islamic system, with its many abuses.
But while Islamic scriptures and preaching encourage Muslims to bear the yoke of sharia law patiently, Muslims are told to be harsh with non-Muslims: “let them find harshness in you” (Koran 9:123). This harshness often means being impatient, intolerant, and unreasonably demanding when living in Western culture. Muslims are not shy about expressing their sense of entitlement rather than expressing gratitude for all the goods they enjoy in the West. Anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and pro-sharia Muslim groups in the West are rarely criticized by the Muslim public.
Muslim citizens in the West, by and large, are doing exactly what the Koran preaches, which is treating each other gently while treating the majority non-Muslim citizens of the West harshly—with criticism, imperious demands, violence, and sporadic acts of terror. And after every act of terror, instead of apologizing for or protesting against Islamic terrorism, Muslim groups immediately go into victim mode and demand that we never judge them by the actions of the terrorists, who are rarely reported by their Muslim friends and relatives.
Historically Muhammad himself was patient with his followers, especially those who fought on his side, but he was totally the opposite with non-Muslims. Usually his first resort in settling differences with those who disagreed with him was the sword. The Prophet’s immediate response to poets of Arabia who mocked or criticized him in their poetry was beheading—in one case he demanded the beheading of a female poet; she was breast-feeding her baby when she was killed on Muhammad’s orders.
Muhammad was impatient and easily offended by anyone who disagreed with him. He exhibited no tolerance for criticism or any kind of challenge. In fact the Koran and hadiths are predominantly about punishment, violence, and terror against those who rejected Muhammad and his Allah. Islamic scriptures describe in detail Muhammad’s many intemperate and violent actions, supremely unfitting to a man who called himself the final prophet of God.
Because Muslims are told that Muhammad was the perfect man, rightly or wrongly those who follow Muhammad’s example in impatience and intolerance toward the outside world are thought of as the most devout
Strangely, Allah himself warns Muhammad in the Koran to be patient with those whose hearts he himself has sealed against Islam: “Thus doth Allah seal the hearts of those who know not” (30:59). “So have patience (O Muhammad)! Allah’s promise is the very truth, and let not those who have no certainty make thee impatient” (30:60). But this is one command that Muhammad does not seem to have taken to heart. Neither at the time of Muhammad nor in today’s Islamic culture do Muslims have any patience with outsiders, but rather demand infinite patience from them.
One Islamic site says that “Kindness”—which is the name for the same fruit of the Spirit as “gentleness” in some Bible translations—“is very highly regarded in Islam,” but it provides only one Koran verse (plus a few hadiths) that purportedly encourage kindness: “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious; for your Lord knows best who have strayed from His Path, and who are truly guided” (16:125). This is not a verse encouraging disinterested kindness; it is telling preachers of Islam to preach with beauty and wisdom for an ulterior motive—so they can gain followers. Neither “kindness” nor “gentleness” is found in the English, or in the Arabic original that sits right on top of it at the website.13
Goodness, Faithfulness, and Meekness
Islamic scriptures do not celebrate the values of goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance. When I checked the word “goodness” in the Koran on legacy.quran.com, it said there were four mentions. This was the first of the four mentions of goodness, defending the Prophet: “And among them are those who abuse the Prophet and say, ‘He is an ear.’ Say, ‘[It is] an ear of goodness for you that believes in Allah and believes the believers and [is] a mercy to those who believe among you.’ And those who abuse the Messenger of Allah—for them is a painful punishment” (9:61). This is hardly the “goodness” that the Bible is talking about.
When I checked for the word “faithfulness” there were zero mentions. So I tried “faithful” just to be sure and found two mentions. One is in a verse threatening Muhammad’s wives: “Perhaps his Lord, if he divorced you [all], would substitute for him wives better than you—submitting [to Allah], believing, devoutly obedient, repentant, worshipping . . .” (66:5). This is not the faithfulness of the Bible; it is just about Muhammad getting more devout and obedient wives.
I finally checked “gentleness”—another way of translating the Biblical fruit of the spirit “meekness”—and found two mentions of “gentle.” This was the first on the list: “you dealt with them gently. And had you been severe . . .” which at first sounded great to me—apparently Allah was asking Muhammad to deal gently with someone. But it turned out to be another contrast with the Bible, where gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit to be practiced by all Christians in a disinterested way. In this Koran verse, Muhammad is asked by Allah to be lenient (gentle) with his followers (not with non-Muslims) because of the practical effectiveness of that course of conduct: “[O Muhammad], you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you. So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter” (3:159). The Koran verse has nothing to do with telling all Muslims to be meek or gentle in character.
In fact the Koran does command Muslims to be “humble,” but only “towards believers,” and “stern towards disbelievers” (5:54). “Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you,” it commands (9:123). “Strive against the disbelievers . . . be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell” (9:73). “Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them” (5:51).
Meekness or gentleness in the Koran is restricted to what happens between Muslims. The opposite—harshness, un-forgiveness, and physical violence—is what a devout Muslim should do to non-Muslims.
Feeling sorry for or grieving with non-Muslims is against the Koran: “So do not grieve over the disbelieving people” (5:68). In fact, as we saw on 9/11, Muslims are happy to celebrate the grief of non-Muslims. Taking delight in non-Muslims’ suffering is not considered distasteful, inappropriate, or a sin in Islam; it is in perfect harmony with the Koran and hadiths.
Even a simple greeting to a non-Muslim is discouraged in Islam. In one hadith by Muslim (book 026, number 5389), “Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger as saying: Do not greet the Jews and the Christians before they greet you and when you meet any one of them on the roads force him to go to the narrowest part of it.”
Muslim preachers are all over the internet prohibiting Muslims from wishing Christians a Merry Christmas and telling them it is equal to committing blasphemy or apostasy and worse than murder.14
A Muslim shopkeeper was recently murdered in Glasgow in the UK, for wishing his customers a Happy Easter. He was declared an apostate—which under sharia law was an encouragement to kill him, and someone did just that.15 The Islamic teaching against gentleness to non-Muslims is a life-and-death matter.
The lack of the fruits of the Spirit in Islam goes a long way to explaining why life in Muslim communities in Europe is often void of expression of love, peace, joy, and a sense of humor. Instead, what is common in such communities is a quick bad temper, anger, and offense-taking.
Self-Control vs. Controlling Others
One of the most striking differences between the Bible and the Koran is the contrast between self-control (one way of translating the fruit of the Spirit “temperance”) and controlling others.
Self-control is a crucial Biblical value. With the help of God’s grace, Christians build their inner strength to monitor their actions, become more aware of what their thoughts and motivations really are, and take more responsibility for their lives. This is truly a fruit of the Spirit, and a blessing that successful societies cannot do without. Self-control is the only way people can overcome self-absorption, selfishness, and anti-social impulses.
Christians and Jews see that their role in the world requires changing themselves. Their focus is on How, with God’s help, can I make myself better and this world a better place. The Bible teaches Jews and Christians to be in control of their thinking, impulses, emotions, and behavior. For Christians, the purpose is to eventually be transformed and born again into becoming more Christ-like. The Bible is full of verses on self-control. “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls” (Proverbs 25:28). “. . . [M]ake every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (II Peter 1:5–7).
Muslims, on the other hand, see their role in the world as fixing and changing others: I can make others better for Allah’s sake. Islamic law places the enforcement of religious laws such as performing prayers and fasting in the hands of Muslims, authorizing them to punish other Muslims who do not comply.
Islam is consumed with controlling others. It produces bullies who often have unreasonable expectations of others, such as obedience, compliance, admiration, approval, and special treatment of themselves. Islam has a very strict code of conduct, in which Muslims are extremely accountable to one another. And that accountability is all about external appearances—it works to impose conformity to sharia by social pressure and violence. Allah rarely talks to Muslims about their inner selves and their consciences. He does not urge them to cultivate self-restraint and self-control in order to be at peace with the world. Instead, the Koran is a book about action, telling Muslims what they must do and not do. Muslims are focused on what they want to accomplish and whether it benefits Islam or not. And, as we have seen, the moral rules for their behavior are different depending on whom they are dealing with. Thus their sense of their need for self-control is conditional and flexible, while their need to coerce their neighbors into obedience to sharia is absolute.
And jihad is the ultimate tool for controlling others. Muslims are often told never to hesitate or be discouraged by guilt in killing Allah’s enemies, the non-Muslims: “Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you” (2:216). “Fight (kill) them (non-Muslims), and God will punish, (torment) them by your hands, cover them with shame” (9:14). The message from Allah is for Muslims to use the most violent means to compel non-Muslims to submit, without hesitation or remorse.
This kind of teaching in the Koran and hadiths explains why jihadists lack empathy, guilt, or second thoughts about the barbarities they commit against their victims. Instead of the normal human feelings of empathy, Muslim society encourages them and their families to celebrate and express pride in such acts of terrorism. There were celebrations after 9/11 in every Muslim capital around the world, often publicly but also in private.
There is a huge difference in how Muslims and Christians interact with other people. Muslims rarely second guess themselves or reflect that it may be their fault when something goes wrong in their interpersonal relationships. They seem always sure of others’ fallibility, and of their own right to correct them. Thus their first impulse is to be offended, which gives them an excuse to blame and even violently attack other people.
This happens between Muslims, whose friendships are volatile; they often get offended and sever relationships. And there is a huge amount of abuse in families in the Muslim world.
And it also happens in Muslims’ relationships with non-Muslims. When Muslims move to the West they are not shy about expressing how they are offended by Western culture, customs, music, dancing, pork, dogs, wine, women, and so forth. The first time in my life I heard the expression “I hope I did not offend you,” it was from a Christian.
The Koran itself is all about reacting to others; Allah and Muhammad were both consumed with anger toward others, especially those who refused to convert to Islam and totally submit to them without questioning. That is why the Koran is all about the kafirs. Even if they reject Islam in good faith, non-Muslims must be conquered, prevailed upon, judged, punished and terrorized—until Muslims have absolute control over them. It is not a coincidence that Muhammad often bragged about being victorious through terror; the ultimate act of controlling others.
It was truly a relief and a blessing over my life when I moved to the West and was freed from the persistent and judgmental eyes of the Muslims around me. Native-born Americans have no idea what a blessing life in this country is for immigrants from around the world who are escaping Islam. They also have no idea how dangerous it is to bring radical Muslims and jihadists into the country.
As we have seen, not one Islamic political or religious leader has apologized for 9/11. An apology from them would be appropriate because while mainstream Muslim leaders were not directly involved in what happened on 9/11, there is no doubt that Islamic culture, preaching, and education provided the fertile soil for terrorism to flourish all over the globe. It is a shame that Muslim apologists refuse to take responsibility for their role in fostering terrorism, denying any link between terrorism and Islam. As a product of the education in hate and jihad that millions of Muslims around the world receive, I can speak from experience: it took me decades to rid myself of it.
Not all Muslim individuals are bad apples, of course, but there is no doubt that the West is taking a huge risk by opening the door to the bad fruits of Islam that have been poisoning Islamic society for centuries. It should be no surprise when strife results when people believe that God is giving them his authority to hurt other human beings. And because of their value for peace, Christians and Jews are often regarded by Muslims as sitting ducks who deserve nothing better than violence.
The difference between the two cultures is astounding. Because Christians and Jews are oriented toward changing themselves, when they encounter a problem their first reaction is What can I do to fix it? When I met Jews for the first time in my life, in the United States, I was very impressed when I heard them say that one of their priorities in life was to “leave this world a better place.” This phrase reflected a sense of personal responsibility that is totally lacking in Islam.
When I was not yet a Christian, I could already see that Jews and Christians must feel very special in the eyes of their God because they believed His wisdom, love, inspiration, care, and guidance were focused on helping humanity. And He was building their character and inner strength so that they could contribute to that project. Their God was so different from Allah, who used his followers as human bombs to hurt others.
When I was a Muslim I never felt that God loved me or cared for my internal life. There was no sense that Allah was blessing his followers with goodness and compassion—much less a peaceful life. All that he cared about was sacrificing us and our families for the permanent war called “jihad for the sake of Allah.” The permanent war that took my father’s life when I was eight years old.
To me as a young Muslim woman, Allah often felt like an abusive parent rather than a God who loves humanity. Instead of blessing Muslims’ lives, Allah tests them to find out if they are ready to sacrifice their lives for him. The God of the Koran says that he tests Muslims’ devotion by seeing if they are afraid to go to war. Those who fail the test will suffer a painful doom: “O ye who believe! Allah will surely test you, in the matter of the game, which ye take with your hands and your spears, that Allah may know him who feareth Him in secret. Whoso transgresseth after this, for him there is a painful doom” (Koran 5:94).
Unfortunately millions of Muslims and thousands of their leaders worldwide are inspired rather than repulsed by this message. And they have created a whole civilization ready to “kill and be killed” for Allah.
After being exposed to the Bible and starting to doubt Islam, I thought of a few questions to ask the almighty Allah: How come you are so angry at the majority of your creation that you are willing to sacrifice your own devoted followers to satisfy your urge for vengeance? If you want Muslims to kill and get killed to prove their loyalty to you, then what is the purpose of life on Earth? As God couldn’t you have destroyed us all instead of sending a prophet with a book to order us to kill each other? Is your hatred of the kafirs stronger than your love of Muslims? Do you realize how Islam has turned this world into an ugly and hateful place? Do you know that focusing on punishing and killing others—the way you do in the Koran—is a formula for disaster, where no one is a winner?
I heard nothing back from Allah. And eventually I escaped life under Islam—with the help of a different holy book that I began to read in America, where it has shaped the entire society in accordance with the loving commandments of a very different God. I am grateful that I now worship my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
Fruits of the Bible vs. Fruits of Islam
The chief fruit of Islam is terror. And terror stands in the way of Muslims’ ability to recognize the importance of the Biblical fruits of the Spirit. Terror manifests itself in every aspect of Islamic society, keeping Muslims from recognizing hate, war, harshness, lawlessness, and control of others for the evils they are.
In Islam, no virtue is equivalent to Jihad: “A man came to Allah’s Apostle and said ‘Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).’ He replied, ‘I do not find such a deed’” (Bukhari, v1 p:391). All sin—lying, deception, terror, torture, war, and killing—is excused for the jihadist. The Koran calls the jihadist the most superior Muslim: “Allah has preferred in grades those who strive hard and fight with their wealth and lives above those who sit (at home). Unto each, Allah has promised good (Paradise), but Allah has preferred those who strive hard and fight above those who sit (at home) by a huge reward” (4:95). The best deed a Muslim can do—apart from being a Muslim in the first place—is jihad: “The prophet was asked ‘which is the best deed?’ He said ‘To believe in Allah and His Apostle.’ He was then asked, ‘Which is the next (in goodness)?’ He said, ‘to participate in jihad in Allah’s cause’” (Bukhari Vol 2, Book 26, p. 594).
Thus it makes sense that the Nation of Islam in the U.S. named its security force “Fruit of Islam.” A Nation of Islam website urges men to enroll in the FOI and describes members as “brave fighter[s] for Allah” engaged in “a unique war for the very heart and soul of a people.” Unfortunately, the jihad is not just a war for hearts and minds. It is also a very literal, physical, violent battle to conquer those of us who belong to Biblically based Western civilization—which some Western converts to Islam have joined, on the other side.