Do Muslims Worship the One True God?

by Sebastian R Fama

Do Muslims worship the one true God? Yes and no, it all depends on what exactly you mean. Islam is a heretical view of Judaism / Christianity. So, Muslims start off with the one true God. Vatican II acknowledges this fact:

The Moslems: These profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one merciful God (Lumen Gentium 16).

Unfortunately, Muslim theology portrays God in a way that is inconsistent with Divine Revelation. Thus, the no part of my answer. For instance, Muslims reject the Trinity, the Resurrection, and the Incarnation. So, while they worship the one true God, they are unaware of exactly who He is and what He expects from us.

The Church is not naïve in her assessment of Islam. As Catholic Answers pointed out: “For those areas that Islam conquers, life is hard. The brutal restrictions of Islamic law – or sharia – give little thought to human rights and freedom” (Catholic Answers Newsletter May 2003). But even that changes nothing. As Mark Shea notes:

The teaching of the Church is pretty simple with respect to Islam. It boils down to saying: “Muslims have a real but very imperfect knowledge of the one true God. Insofar as they acknowledge what the Church acknowledges about God and His relationship with man, they are right. Insofar as they are ignorant or deny what the Church says about God and his relationship with man, they are mistaken or in sin” (Monotheism 102: Muslims Worship the True God).

Think of it this way; imagine you have a neighbor that keeps to himself. Everyone wonders what he is like. One resident who has never met him, claims that he is quiet and shy. Another resident who has met him, says he is bold and outspoken. They are both talking about the same man. But one knows him and the other does not. That is pretty much the situation with Islam and God. They know He exists, but they do not know much about Him.

That they worship the one true God does not mean that Islam is a path to salvation. As noted above, they have rejected some essential doctrines. Thus, any Muslim who makes it to heaven gets there in spite of his Muslim faith, not because of it. As Vatican II declared: “Those who through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation” (Lumen Gentium 16).