What Does Islam Teach About Salvation?

(extracted from Fast Facts on Islam, Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2001)

Salvation Requires Submission to Islam

Because the Qur’an teaches that “the true religion with God is Islam,”^[1] salvation is achieved only through submission to the teachings of Allah. Salvation in Islam requires that one must be a member of the Islamic faith. “Whoso desires another religion than Islam, it shall not be accepted of him; in the next world he shall be among the losers.”^[2] Thus, “those who disbelieve, and die disbelieving—upon them shall rest the curse of God and the angels, and of men altogether, there indwelling forever; the chastisement shall not be lightened for them; no respite shall be given them.”^[3]

Below are three basic points that illustrate what the religion of Islam teaches about salvation.

Forgiveness

Islam teaches that forgiveness is conditioned upon good works and Allah’s choice of mercy.

Muslims believe that by striving to please God and by doing good works, they will hopefully gain entrance to heaven through personal merit. The Qur’an clearly teaches that salvation is achieved on the basis of meritorious good works and personal righteousness. Consider the following:

“…every soul shall be paid in full what it has earned….”^[4]

“…God loves those who cleanse themselves.”^[5]

“Gardens of Eden, underneath which rivers flow, there indwelling forever; that is the recompense of the self-purified.”^[6]

Weighed on the Scales

Islam teaches that on the Day of Judgment one’s good and evil deeds will be weighed on a scale. Good works are heavy and evil deeds are light. The Qur’an asserts:

“[In the Day of Judgment] they whose balances shall be heavy with good works, shall be happy; but they whose balances shall be light, are those who shall lose their souls, and shall remain in hell forever.”^[7]

The Muslim assumes that his chances for heaven are good if he 1) accepts only the Muslim God Allah and his prophet Muhammad, 2) does good works and all that is required of him by Allah (for example, the Pillars of Religion), and 3) if he also is predestined to heaven by Allah’s favor. No Muslim can have an assurance of salvation, because he has no ultimate guarantee of either the weight of his good works or the final favor of Allah.

The Bible emphasizes that salvation does not come by good works or anything else we can do to please God on our own efforts: “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:28). “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The Bible’s View of Forgiveness

The Muslim concept of forgiveness stands in contrast to that of biblical Christianity, where forgiveness involves a free gift of God’s grace and mercy as a past action, based on the death of Christ on the cross for sin. This means that, once a person receives Christ as his or her Savior, all sins are forgiven (Colossians 2:14) and that person is guaranteed a place in heaven:

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned” (John 5:24).

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:3-5).

The Bible teaches of Jesus, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24), and “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2). Indeed, “God presented him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement” and “[God] did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). Thus, “He forgave us all our sins” (Colossians 2:13).

No Atonement, No Assurance

In Islam, there is no atonement for sin—no propitiatory basis for forgiveness of sins. Allah simply forgives whom he chooses to forgive. The following statements in the Qur’an, as well as many others, indicate the conditional nature of Islamic forgiveness:

“God will not forgive those who serve other gods besides him; but he will forgive whom he will for other sins. He that serves other gods besides God is guilty of a heinous sin.”^[8]

“Some shall be damned and others shall be blessed…. The damned shall be cast into the Fire unless your Lord ordain otherwise: your Lord shall accomplish what He will. As for the blessed, they shall abide in Paradise as long as the heavens and the earth endure, unless your Lord ordain otherwise.”^[9]

To the contrary, the Bible teaches that we can have the assurance of having received eternal life. The apostle John emphasized, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

Fatalism

Muslim salvation is fatalistic, especially in regard to the indeterminacy of Allah’s predestination.

The Qur’an teaches, “All things have we created after a fixed decree….” Further, “God leads astray whomsoever He will; and He guides whomsoever He will….”^[10] Abdiyah Akbar Abdul-Haqq observes:

“There are several [Muslim] traditions also about the predestination of all things, including all good and bad actions and guided and misguided people…. Even if a person desires to choose God’s guidance, he cannot do so without the prior choice of God in favor of his free choice. This is sheer determinism.”^[11]

Dr. J. Christy Wilson comments,

“The fifth article of [Muslim] faith is predestination,…the fact that everything that happens, either good or bad, is foreordained by the unchangeable decrees of Allah. It will be seen at once that this makes Allah the author of evil, a doctrine that most Muslim theologians hold.”^[12]

The Qur’an teaches, for example, “And if a good thing visits them, they say, ‘This is from God’; but if an evil thing visits them, they say, ‘This is from thee.’ Say: ‘Everything is from God.’”^[13] And,

“The man whom Allah guides is rightly guided, but he who is led astray by Allah shall surely be lost. As for those that deny Our