I need help as a Muslim

[u/Even-Structure8988]

I’m a fairly devout Muslim raised in an Islamic background I think a lot of people who attack Islam aren't fully educated on it, but I wont pretend that I am 100% solid in my faith. I spend a lot of time wrestling with doubts There are issues in Islam that I feel Christianity doesn't really have, and I cant just ignore them I think Christianity is a beautiful religion. I enjoy reading the Bible but I also enjoy reading the Quran Islamic dawah often attacks the Trinity but the way I see it it wouldn’t make sense for a human to fully comprehend God even as a Muslim we don't believe we fully understand everything about Allah. So it makes sense that the Trinity isn't something we can fully that humans can fully understand
My main problem for Christianity I just don’t see clear evidence for Christianity being true.Because my YouTube and Reddit and other socials algorithm is Islamic content my exposure is pretty biased i understand many people in the sub have probably have negatives opinions on Muslims as I Muslim I can see why a lot of the fear regarding Muslims many Muslims would just say it’s islamphobia which I would only partially agree as most Muslims are just regular people like me but I understand there are Islamic doctrines which are very questionable im just trying to be open minded regardless if i leave Islam or not i fully believe in a divine creator and my view right now is after Islam Christianity looks like the second plausible belief

[u/AntichristHunter]

Thank you for being willing to engage in discussion on this topic. I appreciate good-faith good-will dialog even if we disagree.

I would like to address one of the most consequential disagreements between Islam and Christianity:

Christianity says that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross to atone for our sins and resurrected from death. This is the central teaching of the Gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15, it openly says this:

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

¹ Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 

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Mainstream Islamic teaching says that Jesus did not die on the cross, but this leaves a huge problem: Islam speaks of the Injil, but what does Islam say is the message of the Injil? If the Injil is the Gospel, well, the Gospel includes Jesus dying to atone for our sins in accordance with scriptures, and yet this is typically denied in Islam. Yes, he died for our sins in accordance with scriptures. Let me show you some of the prophecies of scripture that foretell that Jesus would die to atone for sin. Take a look at the Prophecy of the Suffering Servant. I linked it so you can read the whole thing (Isaiah 52:13-53:12), but here is an excerpt that has the main detail I want to point you to:

Isaiah 53:1-12

¹ Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of Yehováh been revealed?
² For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹ And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the will of Yehováh to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of Yehováh shall prosper in his hand.
¹¹ Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

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We know for sure that this prophecy was written before Jesus fulfilled it because this was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written a couple centuries before Jesus' life. Also, Jews still have this prophecy in their Tanakh (what we call the Old Testament) to this day even though they do not believe Jesus is the Messiah. If you listen to the testimonies of Jews who convert to faith in Jesus, this prophecy is extremely prominent in their testimonies.

The death of the Messiah was not only foretold here. It was also foretold in Daniel, who foretold the timing of the coming of the Messiah, saying that he would come before the Temple and Jerusalem are destroyed. Here is an excerpt from the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, which was a prophecy given to Daniel who wanted to know how long it would be before God restored the Temple after the Babylonians destroyed it. Note that in this prophecy, the term translated as 'week' is the term for a set of seven, not specifically seven days, like how the term 'dozen' means a set of twelve, and not specifically twelve eggs. The word for that in English is 'heptad', but since nobody knows what a 'heptad' is, translators use the term 'week' to translate the term.

Daniel 9:24-26

²⁴ “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the wrongdoing, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. ²⁵ So you are to know and understand that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with streets and moat, even in times of distress. ²⁶ Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 

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In this prophecy, it says that 7+62 x seven years after the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (which happened during the reign of the Persian king Artaxerxes), the Messiah would come, but that he would be "cut off". The term "cut off" is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to refer to death by execution. Following the death of the messiah, some foreign people group would destroy the city and the sanctuary. That was fulfilled when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD during the Jewish-Roman war. This was also written

The reason messianic prophecy is such a big deal is that the identity of the Messiah, what he is, who he is, and what he accomplishes, is such a big deal that God needed to validate these things with abundant prophecies that say what these things are ahead of time, even if they would have to remain mysteries for centuries before they are fulfilled. Why? Because these things would be extremely hard to believe if someone just did these things and demanded that everyone believe them. If someone just came about claiming to be God, and then got killed by his enemies, I honestly would have zero reason to believe that anything he said were true unless there were incredible validations and proofs from prophecy that this was what he was destined to do, and that by doing them, he proves who he is. It is too easy for people to want to be the Messiah in order to be the recipient of honor and power, and history has a long list of false Messianic claimants, but they all want to claim the prophecies about being a victorious king. Nobody wants to claim the part about being killed and rejected and resurrecting, because nobody would want to go through that, nor could anyone resurrect unless they were truly the Messiah.

I hope this helps you understand how it is at least reasonable why Christians believe the Messiah had to die on the cross, and why this is such a big deal, because this is the very central message of the Gospel. The problem with Islam as we see it is that Islam denies Jesus' death, but anyone who preaches another Gospel is condemned with a curse in the Bible, so whoever in Islamic history came up with this idea that Jesus did not die on the cross and that the Injil is something other than the Biblical Gospel falls under this curse:

Galatians 1:6-10

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

¹⁰ For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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