W. Robert Godfrey

It is written in 114 chapters or surahs.

It is basically poetic in its character, but it is a book of directions.

It is not a book of history.

It doesn't have a clear logical development.

It is discrete statements of revelation, not necessarily clearly related to one another.

And from a Christian perspective, though not a Muslim perspective, it seems to have contradictions within it.

From that, the basic theology of Islam emerges, the radical monotheism, but the monotheism of a God who is primarily conceived in terms of transcendence, primarily conceived in terms of power.

There seems to be little love in the conception of Allah.

He is the Great One.

He is the Majestic One.

He is the One who must be obeyed, who must be served, who must be submitted to.

And that's the basic meaning of the word Islam.

It's submission.

It's submission to the will, to the moral revelation of God.

It's pretty radically deterministic.

The pious Muslim can't be entirely assured of salvation either.

That's in the hands of Allah.

There's a kind of fatalism that pervades the religion.

It is interesting that the great cry of the Muslim is, God is great.

And that does perhaps most accurately capture their vision of God.