LMT Network Digest - April 2023
April 12, 2023
If you look through the wrong end of a telescope, rather than enlarging your view, the telescope actually shrinks and distorts what you see. If the viewer didn’t know better, it would be possible to believe that what was being seen from the wrong end of the telescope is the correct view. But viewing from the other end, a whole new understanding opens up and is enlarged. What has been hidden becomes clear.
The juxtaposition of the Muslim observance of the month of Ramadan, with the Christian celebration of Easter, provides a contrast of perspectives not unlike the two perspectives possible from the two ends of a telescope.
The month of Ramadan is a period of fasting, prayer, reflection and community interaction. It occurs during the ninth month of the lunar year, the month in which Muslims believe the Quran was revealed to Muhammad. Since the Gregorian calendar, rather than a lunar one, is in common use around the world the dates for Ramadan change each year—this year from March 23 to April 20; next year it will start about 13 days earlier, on March 10, 2024.
The observance of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam that devout Muslims attempt to observe throughout their lives, as an expression of devotion and submission to Allah. The five pillars are:
- Shahada – (profession of faith)
“There is no god but Allah” and “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” are the two halves of the Shahada, which is uttered five times every day during prayer. It is the first thing said to a newborn and the last to a dying person. Uttering this statement with the intent to convert is all that is required to become a Muslim.
Five times daily—dawn, noon, afternoon, evening, and night—Muslims are called to pray. After washing hands, face and feet, they repeat the ritual of prayer, which includes prostrating themselves towards Mecca, affirming that Allah is merciful and compassionate, asking for guidance, and reciting the first chapter of the Quran.
Muslims are instructed to give 2.5% of their income to support their local mosque or to care for the poor and needy. They believe this act of giving purifies the rest of the giver’s wealth.
The month of fasting, Ramadan, is marked by the prohibition from dawn to dusk of food, drink, sexual intercourse, and smoking. Muslims strive for spiritual renewal by seeking God’s forgiveness, acknowledging their dependence on him, thanking him, and increasing their generosity to the needy. During Ramadan, Muslims exert greater effort to follow Islamic teachings, refraining from anger, envy, greed, lust, gossip, etc.
A pilgrimage to Mecca during the 12th month of the lunar calendar is prescribed once in their lifetime for all adult Muslims who are healthy enough and can afford it. Pilgrims wear a simple white cloth and complete a series of rituals, including walking seven times around the Kaaba, touching the Black Stone, travelling seven times between two mountains, and symbolically stoning the Devil. Those who participate in the Hajj hope to be enlightened.
While these activities bear some similarity to Christian practices such as praying, tithing, fasting, professing faith, etc. the perspective from which they are observed is strikingly opposite to that of a Christian worldview. The word ‘Islam’ means submission; Muslims are submitting to these practices in an attempt to earn favor with God. Their hope is that by being faithfully observant to these religious duties they will increase the potential of reaching paradise when they stand before Allah on the day of judgement. Their efforts on earth are done as a means of earning potential eternal rewards.
By contrast the Christian celebration of Easter is a season of remembrance and celebration. Some begin the observance forty days before Easter on Ash Wednesday, a day of prayer and repentance that marks the start of Lent. (Lent is a forty-day period of preparation, modelled after Jesus’ forty days of temptation in the wilderness. It is a time for prayer, fasting, repentance, preparation.) But the purpose of the season of remembrance is to celebrate what has already been completed in Jesus’ finished work on the cross—his death, burial and resurrection from the dead. We remember with sorrow what he suffered for our sake, taking the penalty of our sin—a load too heavy for us to carry—and we receive the gift of a restored relationship with God through his sacrificial work. We celebrate with hope and confidence that we are already made right with God, and we live lives of sacrifice and service as a demonstration of our gratitude and alignment with God’s Kingdom priorities. We know that we cannot earn a right relationship with God—we have been gifted one through Jesus’ blood shed for us.
If you were an astronomer observing someone looking at the stars through the wrong end of a telescope, could you resist telling them the right way to truly see the fullness of God’s beautiful celestial canopy?
If you are a lover of Jesus Christ, forgiven and cleansed from your sins, and made right with God, can you resist telling your Muslim friends and neighbours of the fullness of all that God has already accomplished for them, and the freedom and hope they can enjoy in walking with Jesus?
My prayer is that we all have opportunity to help Muslims see Jesus Christ through a clear lens.
Lorna Johnston,
LMT National Chairman