20 For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power.
I was invited by one of my students to attend the Islamic ceremony of breaking fast after sunset during Ramadan, and I had the opportunity to attend last night. It was a very interesting experience. First of all, I was very impressed with their hospitality and welcome. Everyone was extremely friendly. I was also impressed with the level of detail of their religion. We removed our shoes at the door. We started by washing our hands, face, arms, and feet. Immediately after sunset, we ate dates and drank buttermilk. Then we men went into a large room for prayer (the women have a separate room). We stood side by side, with our feet shoulder-width apart and almost touching the next guy's. We stood with our arms crossed, then we would kneel, prostrate, kneel, prostrate, and stand up again. One person led the prayers, all in Arabic. After prayer, we went upstairs for dinner (the women ate dinner separately). It was a delicious Jordanian meal of rice and lamb, chicken, lentil soup, flatbread, and humus. After dinner, I was invited to go sit with one of the leaders so he could explain to me the basics of Islam. From my Christian perspective, the belief statements that impressed me were:
- there is only one God, God Almighty
- there is Paradise and Hell
- we all come from Adam
- Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus were all prophets of God Almighty
- Mohammad is the last and final prophet
- Jesus is only human (not God), but he will return (though I am not quite sure why)
- we don't need Jesus to forgive us, only God forgives
- we need to believe in the one, true God, and we need to be grateful to Him for all of His blessing/favor upon us
- all of our deeds, both good and bad, will be recorded, and we will be judged (and it seems like if our good outweighs our bad, then we get to go to Paradise)
- doing extra good deeds will result in more reward in Paradise
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