Fortress of Faith Radio by Tom Wallace and Shahram Hadian, and their discussions of the Islam rituals from casting the “evil eye” to the bloody ritual of Ashura (Ashoura).
Listen to the program HERE ( OR DOWLOAD THE MP3 HERE) and below are the “show notes” from this program, so their are typos, etc.
One of the goals of Fortress of Faith is to expose Islam for what it is. It is and ideology masquerading as a religion. Islam is a false religion, and Muhammad is a false prophet. We don’t say this because we want it so, we say it because it is so. This statement is based upon many hours of faithful study.
Those caught up in this religion are not going to find Heaven, they are going to find God’s wrath. I want to be clear on what I am saying. Muslims, when they die, will go to Hell, not because they are Muslims, but because they reject Jesus Christ. This is the same reason that anyone goes to Hell. They reject His being the Son of God, His death on the cross where He shed His blood for the remission of man’s sin, and His bodily resurrection from the grave for our justification. He paid the penalty for sin so we don’t have to. If you trust fully in His death, burial, and resurrection as payment for your sins, your sins will be saved, and your sins will be forgiven. Muslims will not have this because their religion tells them lies.
Today we are going to talk about some lies and the rituals of Islam. We are going to expose this religion for what it really is.
Ashura (also spelled Ashoura)
Shahram is a former Muslim with a Shi’ite background. The first ritual we are going to talk about is Ashura. I want you to visualize the horrible thing that we see that is done during Ashura. The reason we are starting here is that the season of Ashura has just passed.
Ashura commemorates the death of Husayn Ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad. The biggest difference between the Sunni and the Shi’ite Muslims is over who is the proper successor to Muhammad. Shi’ite Muslims believe it was Ali because he was a blood relative of Muhammad.
Ali was killed at the battle of Karbala, which today would be in Iraq. To celebrate this, Muslims self-flagellate themselves by cutting themselves. They would cut themselves or take something like a cat of nine tails and beat themselves on their backs and chests until blood flowes everywhere. It is a season of sacrifice and self-mutilation. It is a barbaric ritual and you can see a video of it on my Facebook page. You will have to scroll down a bit to see it. We would call this child abuse, but in Islam it is accepted practice.
Islam is a religion of death. The highest goal of any Muslim is to die as a martyr for Allah in jihad. Since it rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, it also leads to spiritual death in the Lake of fire for all eternity. This is why we seek to expose these bizarre rituals practiced by Muslims. Ashura is an act of piety because in Islam there is no guarantee of salvation.
In true Christianity, we don’t have to do acts of self-sacrifice because Jesus Christ is our complete sacrifice. I know there are some groups within Christianity which do this kind of thing, but it is not because that is what Christianity teaches us to do. The Bible does teach that we are to be spiritually crucified, but this is not an issue of flagellation, it is living as if we were dead to the things of this world.
In the past we have shown that Islam is a religion of Satan. I know this is a bold statement, but one of the things about Satan or demonic activity is self-harm. Demon possession usually leads to some kind of harm to the person who is possessed. In the Bible we see then throwing themselves in the fire, cutting themselves, etc.
They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. Lev 21:5
Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. Deu 14:1
The cutting of oneself was a pagan practice, and the Bible makes it clear we are not to do this kind of thing. Remember when Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal, how they cut themselves as they cried out to their god.
When we see this kind of practice, it ought to tell us that what we are seeing is not of God. This kind of thing is done by the enemy of God, Satan. If Islam is not of the God of Heaven, Jehovah, it must be of the god of this world, Satan.
We need to remember that Allah is the ancient Arabic moon god. He was the god of Muhammad’s tribe, which I think explains why this name was chosen for Muhammad’s new religion.
Shahram was speaking on Islam in Montana recently, and they had more than 100 protesters outside. He often asks the audience how many are ready to submit to Islam’s god, Allah. Usually no one raises their hand, but in this meeting one woman raised her hand. He asked her, jokingly, if she would like him to buy her a plane ticket to Iran so she could live under Islamic law. She gladly said that she wanted a one way ticket. It never ceases to amaze me how, not only Muslims, but also many westerners, are deceived by this false religion.
There was an interfaith group there promoting Muslims. Think about how foolish this is, they are supporting a religion that wants to destroy every other religion in the world. I don’t understand how people can look at what Islam is and teaches, and not see it for the false religion it is.
Either Christ is the sacrificial lamb who shed His blood for us, or He is not. Either His sacrifice was necessary and sufficient, or it was not. Christ shed His blood so we would not have to shed ours. His sacrifice is sufficient, and we don’t have to add anything to it. We just have to receive it by faith.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Eph 2:8-9
As we look at these rituals, you will see that Islam resembles paganism. Islam is actually a form of Baal worship. Muhammad was a con-man who borrowed different parts of his religion from other sources, including a corrupt form of Christianity.
In Mecca, at the time of Muhammad, there were 360 deities that they worshiped. There were four temples, one in Mecca, his home town.
Listen to the program HERE ( OR DOWLOAD THE MP3 HERE) and below are the “show notes” from this program, so their are typos, etc.
Ramadan
Ramadan is an Islamic ritual that requires 30 days of fasting. It doesn’t mean they don’t eat, it means they don’t eat during the daylight hours. At night they feast. This celebrates Muhammad allegedly receiving his revelations while he was in the cave. We say allegedly because they say he received it in one night in some places, and in others they say it was given over time.
Ramadan is the most holy month of Islam. They end Ramadan with Eid Al Fitr, which is the final feast of this celebration. They are supposed to deny themselves during the day, but then they go overboard at night.
Ramadan is about sacrifice and becoming closer to their god, but we often see the most amount of violence during this month by Muslims around the world. Like other things in Islam, it all has to do with the flesh. Islam doesn’t teach any kind of spiritual relationship because they don’t believe that you can know their god, or have a personal relationship with him. Everything Muslims do is about what the flesh desires.
The religion of Islam is all about works. This is why Muslims need to come to Christ for salvation.
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The Salat
The Salat is the prayers of Muslims. Islam is a religion where you must earn favor with your god. You hope that when you die, he will be in a good mood and will allow you into Paradise. This means that everything in Islam is external, nothing is internal.
In Islam, God does not move into your heart in the form of the Holy Spirit. In Islam everything is about what you do. They are always looking to the left and to the right because there are recording angels keeping score. One angel records all the bad stuff, and another all the good stuff.
In the Qur’an there is no connection with Jerusalem. There is, however, in the Hadith, that a white horse called Buraq showed up, and in the presence of the angle Gabriel, Muhammad was taken in the middle of the night to Jerusalem in a night dream. According to the tradition, Allah wanted him to pray 50 times a day. Muhammad supposedly negotiated this down to 5 times a day.
Here is a quote on this subject:
According to Islam, the Night Journey took place ten years after Muhammad became a prophet, during the 7th century. Muhammad had been in his home city of Mecca, at his cousin’s home (the house of Ummu Hani’ binti Abu Talib). Afterwards, Prophet Muhammad went to the Masjid al-Haram. While he was resting at the Kaaba, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared to him followed by Buraq. Muhammad mounted Buraq, and in the company of Gabriel, they traveled to the “farthest mosque”. The location of this mosque was not explicitly stated but is generally accepted to mean Al-Aqsa Mosque (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem.[by whom?] At this location, he dismounted from Buraq, prayed, and mounted Buraq, who took him to the various heavens, to meet first the earlier prophets and then God (Allah). God instructed Muhammad to tell his followers that they were to offer prayers fifty times a day. At the urging of Moses (Musa), Muhammad returns to God and eventually reduces it to ten times, and then five times a day as this was the destiny of Muhammad and his people. Buraq then transported Muhammad back to Mecca.[6]
We need to remember that most Muslims in the world don’t speak Arabic. When they do their daily prayers, they must do them in Arabic so they are but memorized recitations, and they are not understood by most of them. They are completely ritualistic and works based.
We need to proclaim to Muslims that true salvation is not by works, but is in Christ Jesus. It is received by grace, through faith alone.
The Hajj
This is one of the pillars of Islam. It requires every Muslim to, one time in his life, visit the Kaaba in Mecca. It is a celebration of about one week, with other celebrations associated with it. This is a practice that Muhammad borrowed from the pagans. The pagans used to circumambulate around the Kaaba. Muhammad did make one major change, which was for the better. The pagans ran around the Kaaba naked, but Muhammad put clothes on them.
There are millions who participate in this every year. The crowds are so large that many get killed in the press.
Shahram’s spiritual mentor, Mark, had gone to Mecca as a devout Muslim for his Hajj. There is a black stone embedded in one of the corners if the Kaaba. Kaaba means a female womb, and Mark was at this black rock. Muslims believe that the black rock was connected to Abraham and his sacrifice of Ishmael in Mecca, not Mt. Moria, which is what the Bible says. Islam teaches that if a person can get to this corner, which is called the holy corner of Abraham, and touch or kiss the rock, it is the closest they can get to going to Heaven.
When Mark got to the rock, he was praying in Arabic. Pharsi, the language of Iran, is his native language, and an imam touches him on his shoulder. He said he had a message from Allah, and Mark was very excited to think that Allah would give a message to him. The imam asked if he was married, and Mark said yes. The imam asked where his wife was, and Mark said she was back in Iran expecting their second child. He told mark that his accent in Arabic was incorrect, and he had mispronounced one of his prayers, and he opened up the Hadith and said there is a punishment for his mispronunciation in your prayer. The Imam told Mark that he was to go home and divorce his wife. Mark shouted, “then Allah is not God.” He could have been killed on the spot.
There were two reasons for this. He said, if Allah is God, he would have known how long it took him to meet and court his wife, there is a whole story behind this. Secondly, Allah would have known that he was born in Iran and spoke Pharsi. He would have known his heart. Mark left the Hajj and returned home. He renounced Islam at that time.
Think about how hard Mark worked to get to the holiest corner of the Kaaba to receive this message. This would have been the highpoint of his walk in Islam. It is there that he came to the realization that it was all false.
The Hajj is more than just circumambulating the Kaaba, it is a whole journey. From Mecca, they go out and run back and forth between two hills. They then go to a well called the ZomZom well, where they try to take a drink. From there they go out into the plane of Arafat for an all-night vigil. On returning, they have to throw stones at two pillars, pretending they are throwing stones at the Devil.
This whole ritual is connected to Hagar. They believe that when Hagar was cast out by Abraham’s wife, she was taken care of by Allah. The Qur’an says that they didn’t have water, and Ishmael scratched the ground and water came gushing forth and this is the ZomZom well.
There are some issues with location and details in the Islamic story. It is true that Hagar and her son were cast out. There are issues about the mocking and why they were cast out. Sarah saw Ishmael do something to Isaac that was very shameful and abominable. Both Muslim and Jewish scholars suggest the Ishmael might have sodomized Isaac. The more I study this, the more I am inclined to believe that this was the case.
The Bible tells us that God heard Ishmael’s prayer, not Hagar’s. It also tells us that they were in Beersheba, which is in Israel. This is a 700 mile difference in locations. The Bible is clear that it was in Beersheba.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. Gen 21:14
The Bible also says the Hagar open her eyes and saw a well.
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. Gen 21:19
One thing that is obvious, both of these sources cannot be true. Either the Bible is correct, or Muhammad’s story is true, but not both of them.
The Hajj ends with al-Adah where they sacrifice animals because they believe that this is the time when Abraham was going to sacrifice Ishmael, not Isaac as the Bible says.
Listen to the program HERE ( OR DOWLOAD THE MP3 HERE) and below are the “show notes” from this program, so their are typos, etc.
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Ablutions
Ablutions have to do with how Muslims prepare themselves for prayer. Within the ablutions we find some really strange things.
Ablutions are ritual cleansings. We must be fair, the Jews also have some ritual cleansings. Remember when Jesus was admonished for not making His disciples wash their hands. Again, Muhammad is borrowing from other religions as he forms his.
One of the things that confused some missionaries was that Muslims would vigorously blow their noses in the morning. They found that it is part of the ablution. It is the blowing the Devil out of the nose. This comes from two passages from the Hadith:
Abu Huraira reported: The Apostle of Allah said. When any one of you awakes up from sleep and performs ablution, he must clean his nose three times, for the devil spends the night in the interior of his nose. (Sahih Muslim, Book 002, Number 0462)
And:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, “If anyone of you rouses from sleep and performs the ablution, he should wash his nose by putting water in it and then blowing it out thrice, because Satan has stayed in the upper part of his nose all the night.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 516)
All of this foolishness goes back to Muhammad. Muslims try to explain this away by saying that it is a spiritual thing, No, Muslims actually believe that Satan comes into their noses at night, and they must physically blow him out every morning.
Muslims actually drink camel’s urine for their health because Muhammad said it was good for them. This is not a ritual, but it is something that some Muslims do. They actually make pills from camel’s urine, believing it will cure their cancer.
Casting the Evil Eye
Many Muslims have blue talismans and jewelery with eyes on them. Its purpose is to ward off an evil eye from someone trying to cast an evil spell on them. I read in one missionary’s letter that a Christian convert is being blamed for the death of his mother and father because he became a Christian. This supposedly cast an evil spell on them.
The witchdoctor, yes there are witchdoctors in Islam, is trying to protect them from the spell cast by Christians. They won’t look him in the eye.
Not only do they wear the talisman for protection, the also say incantations. This is why Muslims often repeat Allahu Akbar. This does not mean the god is great, it means that my god is greater than yours.
Bismallah
The Bismallah is very similar to Allahu Akbar. Islamic scholars say this one sentence encapsulates the whole of the Qur’an.
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim – “In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate”.
It is ironic to think that the god who is behind all the bloodshed from Islam could be called gracious and compassionate.
The Bismallah, and other similar statements, are actually calling on the demonic spirit, called Allah. Muslims tell us that these are simply blessings, but they are, in truth, demonic blessings.
The Bismallah is a consecration of the person or thing to Allah. It is often used at the beginning of chapters in the Qur’an.
Phrases like the Bismallah and Allahu Akbar are incantations just like those used by people who practice witchcraft. The Bible has something to say about this kind of thing.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Mat 6:7
These are nothing but vain repetitions. All the Muslim prayers are just memorized repetitions. Our God wants us to pray from the heart, not just repeat vain repletions.
Prayer Beads
The prayer beads of Islam are very similar to the Rosary of Catholicism. Both Muslims and Catholics believe there is power in reciting the prayers of their prayer beads.
Muslim prayer beads consist of 33 or 99 beads. They believe that the 99 beads represent the 99 names or characteristics of Allah. One of the 99 names is Allah Makireen, which means Allah, the greatest deceiver.
But they (the Jews) were deceptive, and Allah was deceptive, for Allah is the best of deceivers (Wamakaroo wamakara Allahu waAllahu khayru al-makireena)! S. 3:54;
This refers to what Muslims believe about the crucifixion of Jesus. They believe that the Jews tried to deceive Allah, but Allah was a better deceiver than the Jews. The context of these verse teaches that Allah pulled off the greatest hoax in human history. According to Islam, Jesus was not crucified, and Allah fooled the world into thinking that he had been. Allah is the greatest deceiver because he made the world believe the greatest of all lies.
The Bible has something to say about who is the father of lies.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Joh 8:44
Doesn’t this help us understand the source of Islam. One of the names of the god of Islam is the great deceiver or the great liar.
We need to be warning those who are trapped in Islam. We should be glad that we live in a country where the Gospel came to our address. There are some 7 to 10 million Muslims in the United States today. Let’s not hate them. Let’s love them enough to take the Gospel to their address so they too can find the salvation that is only in Jesus Christ. Eight out of ten Muslims in America came here to get away from the tyranny of Islam. We don’t have apostasy laws here to keep them from converting to Christ. If we reach out to them in love, many of them will be receptive to the Gospel message.
If you would like to schedule a meeting with Tom, you can call him at 1-800-616-0082. No church is too big or too small