Saturday, August 27, 2016

Book Review: No God But One by Nabeel Qureshi



Book Review:  No God But One: A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence For Islam & Christianity

Posted by Clark Bates
August 27, 2016


      For those familiar with his previous writings, Nabeel Qureshi's biography as a Muslim Zealot turned Christian apologist has made him the overnight authority on Christian/Islamic Apologetics. As he recounted in his first work Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, Nabeel spent much of his life as a devout American Muslim, fervently seeking to spread the faith of Allah and his messenger Muhammad to all who would hear him. Raised to love Islam but faced with insurmountable questions after the events of 9/11, the author sought to investigate his faith and silence the doubts that began to permeate his thoughts and worship. Through multiple interactions with Christians and Muslims, over the course of four years, Nabeel's faith in Allah and the Prophet began to erode, while his realization and acceptance of Jesus began to increase. As he recalls,


“On August 24, 2005, when I could resist no longer, I bent my knee to Jesus and proclaimed my faith in Him. Soon after my family was shattered, and the next year of my life was by far the most harrowing I have ever endured. I was now an outsider, both to my family and to all my friends in the Islamic community.”1



      Having achieved a degree in medicine from Eastern Virginia Medical School, the author focused his sights on defense of the Christian faith, earning degrees in apologetics from Biola University and religion from Duke. Currently, Nabeel is pursuing his doctorate in New Testament studies from Oxford University and is an international speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. The events that Nabeel describes in his premier writing are now parlayed into his latest work as a structured, point-by-point comparison of the Christian and Islamic faiths, with the ultimate goal of demonstrating the overwhelming reliability of Christianity and the need for Muslims worldwide to seek the truth.




      Separated into ten parts, No God but One addresses the various dissimilarities between the two faiths, followed by an epistemological analysis of each faith's claim to truth. Much of Nabeel's writing is contemporary with the debates circulating in the public sphere regarding Muslims and Christians worshiping the same God, the comparison of modern jihad with that of the Crusades, Muhammad as opposed to Jesus, the evidence for the resurrection of Christ, and the Quranic claims of divine origin and perfection. In so doing, the author provides a plethora of information for the Christian and Muslim reader, sandwiched between the harrowing account of a young Muslim girl's conversion to Christianity and its resulting consequences.



      Nabeel's method of approach creates a means by which the reader is systematically exposed to an increasingly monumental level of evidence, calling into question the very foundations of Islam. The author crafts arguments that include comparing and contrasting Sharia versus the Gospel, Jesus versus Muhammed, Trinity versus Tawhid (Allah is absolutely one), and the Quran versus the Bible. All the while interspersing his own personal life story into the content of each comparison, Nabeel provides the reader with an immersive experience that relates audience to narrator on an intimate level rather than merely offering data for consumption.



      Nabeel's earlier work, Answering Jihad, suffered slightly from a sense of hurried compilation. Admittedly, that work was produced within the period of a few months, but impressively carried a great deal of information. No God but One does not suffer from this in any way. From start to finish one gets the impression that great care and compassion has gone into each chapter. The author's desire to present his own journey to faith as the template upon which each challenge is made allows the reader to feel for those embracing the Islamic faith and long for them to see truth. As Nabeel states at the outset, “In rejecting the Source of Life, we bring death upon ourselves. This bears repeating: The result of sin is death because it is a rejection of the Source of Life.”2



      However emotionally effective this text may be, it does not remain at a superficial level. In dealing with the relation of Islamic Tawhid versus the Trinity, the author relays, both through his firsthand knowledge and investigative results, that, “the trinity the Quran is denying is actually tri-theism, three gods: Allah, Jesus, and Mary.”3 Challenging not only the logical difficulties that arise from the Islamic doctrine of Tawhid, namely the teaching that Allah can have no attributes and remain Tawhid, Nabeel turns the Islamic argument of Allah's transcendence on it's head, accusing Islam of creating a god made in the image of man: “If God created our minds, then He must be greater than their comprehension. Who are we to demand that He be simple enough for us to understand Him?”4



      The purpose of this book seems very clear, the faith of Islam cannot overcome the historical data and metaphysical claims upon which it survives. In contrast, the Christian faith is built upon metaphysical truth claims, grounded in the historical space-time event of the resurrection. In every avenue of inquisition the author finds Islam untenable and Christianity unwavering. However, his earnest desire to not abandon the faith of his birth reminds readers that this debate involves real people in desperate spiritual circumstances. Far from being a tool by which to browbeat non-Christians, Nabeel's book seeks to build empathy while simultaneously conveying truth.



      The target audience of this book is broad. It's readability makes it accessible to every layperson of either faith. At the same time, it's detailed information provides an excellent apologetic resource for the pastor, teacher or evangelist seeking to reach out to their Islamic neighbors or friends. While some Christians might find the apologetic used within to be cursory, so too might the skilled Muslim; however, for many of both worldviews a deep understanding of their faith's cardinal doctrines seems to be sincerely lacking in the West, and, as such, this book will continue to serve even them. This work may stand out as the author's crowning achievement, but it is too soon to be certain. As far as effectively conveying the reason for Christianity over Islam, Nabeel succeeds admirably. Doing so in a manner that engenders no hostility from the side of the writer is an even greater achievement, and is one that is successfully accomplished as well. As the author expresses it in his appeal to Muslim brothers and sisters, “Leaving Islam can cost you everything: family, friends, job, everything you have ever known, and maybe even life itself. Is it really worth sacrificing everything for the truth? The answer is simple: It depends on the value of truth.”5










1Nabeel Qureshi, No God but One:A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam & Christianity, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 23.

2Nabeel Qureshi, No God but One, 34.

3Ibid., 62.

4Ibid., 68.

5Ibid., 349.

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