Paradoxes torment the ruthlessly logical. But they lie at the heart of religious faith, indeed perhaps of any insight into reality. They appear to be absurd, yet they point to a truth that cannot be expressed straightforwardly.
The scriptures of both Islam and Christianity are full of paradoxes. Some readers of paradoxes simply emphasise only one part of the paradox and neglect the other. Critics of Islam and of Christianity feast on one-sided interpretation of this sort. Other readers smooth over the apparent contradictions or are so dulled by familiarity that they do not even notice them.
But the best way to interpret paradoxes is to allow both sides to fascinate and challenge us. They can then lead us to new ways of thinking and feeling, and to a new appreciation of the greatness and the mystery of God.
I would like here to point to five paradoxes that are shared by Christian and Muslim scripture. The first is that Christians and Muslims regard themselves as both the servants and the friends of God.
The Christian scriptures say that Christ came to serve and not to be served, that his followers are to consider themselves merely as servants and that they are to be servants of one another. But Christ also had a very loving and intimate relationship with God, whom he addressed as 'Abba (Father)!'. By telling them that they were no longer his servants but his friends, Christ wanted his disciples to share in this loving relationship with God.
Similarly, the Qur'an calls believers the servants of God who surrender to God in obedient submission since God is almighty and has full knowledge of the secrets of the heart. But it also says God relates with people in a compassionate way: 'God is most compassionate and most merciful towards people.' The believing servant is invited to enter into a relationship with God through which the Almighty is closer to them than their jugular vein.
The second paradox is that Christians and Muslims regard their own faith as the true way yet also affirm the truth of other paths.
It is clear that, for Christians, Christ is the Way to God. Yet Jesus is also presented as saying, 'many will come from the east and the west to take their places with Abraham'. The Catholic Church acknowledges that those outside the community of the Church can attain