The Church of Ireland held a national in-service training day in Dublin in 2006 at which Chris Hewer spoke and later contributed the following paper to the Church of Ireland Journal, June 2006. It serves as a useful first introduction to Islam.
Muslims never understand Islam as a new religion that began with the revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE. Rather, to understand Islam, we need to go back to the starting point of all theology, that is the doctrine of God. According to Islamic understanding, God is one, indivisible, eternal, transcendent, omniscient, and omnipotent (Q. 6:59, 34:22). God is like no other being and does not share divinity with any created being or thing (Q. 112). Indeed the sin of shirk, that is to associate partners with God, in the one sin that God will never forgive (Q. 4:48)….