Lausanne World Pulse – Contextualizing Western Workers—Gifts from the Muslim World
By Don Heckman
Practically speaking, why is the Umma community such a gift to westerners? Here is an example. Dressed in a black covering from head to foot, Suade seemed hospitable but imposing. My wife Evey went with Ashley, our 26-year-old ministry intern, to visit Suade who pronounced the blessing of God as she entered her apartment. Suade then brought her husband Chafic to our home. As we began telling the Prodigal Son story (Luke 15), Chafic took over and started to read the story himself. Then he became animated, and began commenting on the story. “He insulted his father!” “He came back defiled. His father ran to see him?” “Why did his father do that?” I lost my job of telling the story! The secret was to turn Chafic’s hunger over to God, rather than to make myself the one with all the answers. My Muslim friend showed that the Spirit of God was at work in his life. Later, Chafic invited us over to his home for a traditional Moroccan meal. Hospitality was Chafic’s honorable way of saying that God was speaking to him and that he wanted to know more about God in the context of a meal together. God spoke. Hospitality was the response!
2. The Gift of Shame and Honor
Muslims are part of a shame and honor culture vastly different from the Western guilt and consequence culture. Biblical teaching contains many themes on shame/honor as well as guilt/consequence themes: Jesus “endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2); “I honor my Father, and you dishonor Me” (John 8:49).
A Muslim who is shamed is a Muslim who feels defiled. Yet this concept of shame/honor is a gift to Western missionaries. What is often astonishing among Westerners is this: guilt in Islam must never be confessed, according to Muslim tradition, because it would result in a loss of honor which is worse than death itself. The Turks have a saying, “Even if guilt were made of silk, no one would wear it.” An Arab proverb is, “Any injury done to a man’s honor must be revenged, or else he becomes permanently dishonored.”
Muslims are part of a shame and honor culture vastly different from the Western guilt and consequence culture.
Occasionally in ministry I have felt like a plumber trying to do heart surgery because I did not have the right knowledge of understanding the principles of shame/honor. Zacchaeus climbed a tree (Luke 19) just to see Jesus. Jesus asked him to hurry down from the tree so he could eat at his house. Reverse hospitality? Yes, and more. Jesus honored this man who confessed his wrong-doing all the way home.
We normally describe grace as the unmerited favor that melts the sinner’s heart. Among Easterners and Muslims, unmerited honor opens the door and melts the undeserving heart in the presence of the word of God, Jesus Christ. We often ask to eat or drink tea in a Muslim’s home—and we ask it with urgency. They feel honored, which opens the heart and home.
3. The Gift of Understanding Holiness and Defilement
Muslims have a concept of defilement which is not unbiblical. Ezekiel 22 records that “priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” (emphasis mine; see also 1 Timothy 1:9, Hebrews 12:16) Biblical concepts of defilement are strange to a Western worker who may have relegated such teaching strictly to the Old Testament.
North African Muslims often place a car tire over their homes, or carry the hand of Fatima or other talismans for protection against the jinn, or demonic powers. Being careful to eat with the right hand and to sleep on the right side, Muslims strive for a carefully balanced world. Muslims need deliverance from anxiety about the defilement or shame that could befall them if they violate food or life codes. Freedom in Christ from defilement is another way of describing salvation. The concept of the fitra among Muslims is the quest for harmony in a world of chaos due to defilement. Fitra is the harmony of all things physical submitting to what is spiritual and conformed to the orderliness of God. Yet disorder reigns for Muslims who will only find freedom from defilement in Christ.
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Don Heckman and his wife Evey work with Muslims in North Africa and Southeastern France. Previously, he was involved with planting disciple training centers with YWAM. He also planted a bilingual French/English church, a Tamil church for Sri Lankans and two French churches. He is the author of Christ Loves My Muslim Friend. He can be reached at [email protected]. |