I don’t know the source of the photograph above, so I can neither give credit to the photographer nor ask his or her permission to share it. I apologize for that. But the photograph has apparently generated considerable conversation, not to say controversy, and I feel that I ought to say something about it. This seems to be an opportune teaching moment.
The photograph appears to show a group of Muslim men performing one of Islam’s five daily salat prayers. (I sometimes term them “ritual prayers” or “liturgical prayers,” in order to distinguish them from spontaneous du‘a prayers, which can be offered at any time of the day, according to individual inclination, and which don’t involve the familiar formulaic gestures of prostration, etc.) And the men are evidently performing the salat in the Relief Society room of an ordinary Latter-day Saint meetinghouse, somewhere.
There have been complaints about Muslims being permitted to use a Latter-day Saint building in the first place. But that horse exited the barn door a very long time ago. I can think of numerous occasions on which Muslims have been allowed to pray within a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse; I myself have been present on more than one such occasion. And Latter-day Saints have been opening their meeting houses to congregations of other faiths since the nineteenth century. Our record in this regard is a good one, and I’m very proud of it.
Another complaint about the above photographs focuses on the covering, in the background, of a painting. It may even be a painting of Christ. And that, the complaints say, should never have been permitted. It’s said to be an expression of Muslim disrespect for Jesus.
But, and this is fundamentally important, Muslims absolutely do not disrespect Jesus. They regard him as a very great prophet, sinless, born of a virgin, who will return triumphantly at the Last Day to do (successful) battle with al-Dajjal, the Antichrist. The Qur’an speaks about him in numerous passages.
I share four of them here, in my own translations from the Arabic, because they’re perfectly suited to Christmas. The first pair concerns the Annunciation:
Behold! The angels said: “O Mary! Truly Godhas chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of all the worlds. O Mary! Worship your Lord devoutly: Prostrate yourself, and bow down [in prayer] with those who bow down.” This is some of the news of the unseen that We reveal unto you [O Muhammad]: You were not with them when they cast lots with arrows as to which of them should be entrusted with the care of Mary. Nor were you with them when they disputed [the point]. Behold! The angels said: “O Mary! Godgives you good news of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, honored in this world and the world to come and among those nearest to God. He shall speak to the people in the cradle and in maturity. And he shall be among the righteous.” She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched me?” He said: “God is like that. He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He simply says to it ‘Be,’ and it is!’ And Godwill teach him the Book and Wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel, and [appoint him] a messenger to the children of Israel. (Surat al-Imran 3:42-48).
And mention in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place. She took a veil [to veil herself] from them. Then We sent her our Spirit, and he represented himself to her as a man in all respects. She said: “I seek refuge from you with the Merciful; [do not touch me] if you are pious.” He said: “I am a messenger from your Lord, to give to you a pure boy.” She said: “How shall I have a son, since no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?” He said: “So [it will be]. Your Lord says, ‘It is easy for Me. And We will make him a sign unto humanity and a mercy from Us’: It is a matter decreed.” (Maryam 19:16-21)
And here are two passages on the birth of Christ:
So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a distant place. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm tree: She said: “Oh! Would that I had died before this! Would that I were forgotten, in oblivion!” But [a voice] cried to her from beneath [the palm-tree]: “Do not be sorrowful! Your Lord has provided a rivulet beneath you. Shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards yourself: It will drop fresh ripe dates upon you. So eat and drink and cool your eye. And if you see anybody, say, ‘I have vowed a fast to the Merciful, and I will not speak with any human being today.’” And then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said: “O Mary! truly you have brought an amazing thing! O sister of Aaron! Your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother an unchaste woman!” So she pointed to him. They said: “How can we talk to a child in the cradle?” He said: “Truly I am the servant of God: He has given me the Book and made me a prophet; and He has made me blessed wherever I am, and has enjoined upon me prayer and charity as long as I live; (He) has made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable; so peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up alive!” (Maryam 19:22-33)
And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign. We gave them both shelter on high ground, affording rest and security and furnished with springs (Al-Mu’minun 23:50).
So why, if they indeed did such a thing, would a group of praying Muslims cover up a painting of Jesus?
Islam is an aniconic religion; it forbids the use of images in worship. It does not permit, and it does not produce, images of God. There may be an exception somewhere, I suppose, but I have personally never seen an image of a prophet in the worship space of a mosque. Never. And I don’t expect to see one. Muslims have a deep abhorrence of idolatry, which Islam regards pretty much as the ultimate and unforgivable sin. So you will not see portraits of Jesus, or of Muhammad, in a mosque prayer hall.
One more note about the photograph above. Some folks are apparently concerned that the Muslims shown are praying to Allah, rather than to God. But this is a merely linguistic matter, no more significant than the fact that German-speaking Latter-day Saints pray to Gott, that French-speaking Latter-day Saints pray to Dieu, and that Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints pray to Diosrather than to the English God. Allah isn’t the proper name of some exotic foreign deity; it’s simply the Arabic equivalent of the English word God — it’s closely related to the Hebrew word Elohim –and it’s the word that’s used in all Arabic translations of the Bible as well as in the Arabic versions of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
The Allah of the Our‘an — exactly like the Allah of the Bible — created the earth in six days, placed Adam and Eve in the Garden, saved Noah from the Flood, called a series of prophets including Abraham and Moses, and sent Jesus. The Muslims shown in the photograph are praying to the same God that is worshiped by Jews and Christians, and they’re using the same word for deity that is used by Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews.
I am delighted that, once again, my church is generously offering others a space in which to pray and to worship.
Interpreter Radio Show —December 1, 2024, including The Book of Mormon in Context for Christmas
In the 1 December 2024 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, the discussants were Martin Tanner, Brent Schmidt, and Hales Swift, who talked about Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson 52 and Christmas. You can listen to or download the 1 December 2024 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show at the link provided. The recordings have been edited to remove commercial breaks.
The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.
Here, for your appalled horror, are a couple of items that I’ve recently retrieved from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™:
The Daily News of Longview, Washington:“Mormon church donates 30K pounds of food to area food bank”:
I mentioned here yesterday that a member of the cast over at the Peterson Obsession Board was claiming that I tried, several years ago, to deliberately destroy the career and the family of his best friend, who was teaching at BYU at the time. I denied having ever attempted anything of the kind, and said that I have literally no idea what he’s talking about.
I wish that I didn’t have to spend time and energy contradicting such accusations. But I do. I don’t appreciate character assassination, and this charge is flatly not true. And I already contradicted precisely the same accusation from him somewhat more than a year ago, on 30 October 2023 and again, just to make sure that he was aware of my denial, on 31 October 2023:
I’ve been mildly puzzled for years now about the hostile personal fixation that some pseudonymous folks over at the Peterson Obsession Board seem to have on me. Well, I finally have a clue with regard to one of them — the one that I’ve identified here as Everybody’s WC — who claims that he hates me because of a multiyear crusade of defamation and slander and ceaseless personal attacks that I conducted against his best friend in an attempt to get that friend fired. Having seen the stress, the hurt, and the frustration that his friend and his friend’s family suffered over those years, Everybody’s WC has concluded that I am, in his words, “pure evil.”
That would be a somewhat understandable reaction, I suppose, if a bit overwrought. ButI have literally no idea what he’s talking about. I can think of no such case. Even after searching through all of the dim recesses of my mind, I can’t think of any instance in which I’ve ever sought to have anybody fired. Moreover, I can’t even imagine myself doing such a thing. What on earth does he have in mind?
I really would like to know. Seriously. So I invite him, or some surrogate for him, either to contact me privately or to post something here in the comments section so that I can understand his accusation. As it is, I haven’t the foggiest idea.
His favored response, apparently, is to go silent. He waits for a lengthy period of time, and then he repeats the accusation. So I repeat my denial: The claim is false. I have never sought to destroy anybody’s family, nor to destroy anybody’s career. It isn’t in my character or my nature to do anything remotely of the kind. Enough is enough. My accuser is either misinformed or he’s lying. It’s really that simple.
Posted from Newport Beach, California
