Using questions can help engage our Muslim friends in gospel conversations during Ramadan. “How are you finding Ramadan?” “Alhamdulillah! All is good thank you! It is the blessed month - where Allah promises us many blessings and rewards!” is the standard response I get. But I have learnt to take it further using questions. “So what are the rewards? How do you know? I know that different Muslims begin and end their celebration of Ramadan on different days because of different moon sightings. Do they get rewarded too, or are they penalised?”
“Uh, I don’t know. It is what we have been told”, say my Muslim friends. I then go on to talk about my faith, how simple it is. “I can’t earn my way into God’s favour, but my appreciation for who God is, and what he has done for me motivates me to do good, and be good. It is like the difference between paddling upstream battling against the flow of the river - and paddling downstream working with the flow of the currents of the river. The difference between duty and delight! “I delight to do your will o my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”- Psalm 40:8.
Last Ramadan a Bengali Muslim family invited me to their house for Iftaar. They first made a point of laying prayer mats down in front of me and doing their prayer so I could see it. Afterwards as we sat and enjoyed the food, I asked, “Do you know what you have just prayed?” They each said. “No, we don’t understand Arabic - but we can recite it!” I commended them for their dedication, and then asked “But do you not talk to God as to a friend?” I then explained how I talk to God in English, and shared the many experiences of God answering my prayers when I spoke to him as to a friend - with personal connection. I did mention he is God Almighty, not God ‘Old matey!’ so I did clarify my awe and reverence of God too. But I emphasised my heart-to-heart personal communication with the Lord of the Worlds.
The youngest son said, “WOW! That is not our experience! We need that!” The mother overheard this, and came out of the kitchen and asked me to pray for the family. Questions are ‘Can Openers’! They can open hearts for deeper spiritual conversations. Questions should never be made to sound like interrogations, but rather a genuine interest in how your Muslim friend understands and expresses his or her faith. Our questions come out of a context of love and compassion, wrapped in the Lord Jesus himself. Give it a try!
See also: My Muslim Friends in Ramadan