First of all, I am so encouraged by your desire to share the gospel with your Muslim neighbors. In Proverbs 11:30 we read, “He who wins souls is wise.” Every believer in Christ should be a “soul winner” and thus I praise God that you want to “win the precious souls” of your neighbors.

The most important thing to realize when witnessing to those who have “a strong and opposite view about Christ and Christianity” is that they still share something in common with us. What is that? It is a desire to have eternal life after their life on earth is over. The problem with all the religions of the world (Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and many so-called Christian religions like Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses) is that they believe they must DO SOMETHING TO EARN ETERNAL LIFE. The true Christian, on the other hand, believes that THE WORK HAS BEEN DONE to offer them the “gift of eternal life” through Jesus Christ who suffered for their sins on the cross and then cried out in victory, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Thus there are only TWO RELIGIONS; the religion that emphasizes what YOU MUST DO and the religion that recognizes what CHRIST HAS DONE. These two religions are illustrated in Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:1-5, for Cain tried to come to God on the basis of what HE WAS DOING (his “good works”) while Abel came to God on the basis of what HAD BEEN DONE BY ANOTHER (the “sacrificial lamb”). We learn in verses 4-5 that “the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering.” Both men were sinners but it was their “offering” that made the difference between the two and thus we read in Hebrews 11:4, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.” Cain and his offering represent all the religions of the world that are seeking to earn God’s favor without faith and without Christ. Abel and his offering represent the humble believer who accepts Christ as the Lamb of God who finished the work on the cross to save their soul and to give them eternal life.

The Muslims fall into the first religion and because they believe they must work for eternal life, they lack “assurance of eternal life.” Because of this lack of assurance, we can approach them with a simple question, “Do you HAVE ETERNAL LIFE?” Again, everyone who is “religious” would love to have eternal life so this subject should appeal to them. The sad truth is they don’t believe they can have eternal life and know it until AFTER they die. Let me illustrate this. One day I was passing out gospel tracts door to door and I happened to knock on the door of two Mormon missionaries (the young men you see going door to door with their literature). When they opened the door I introduced myself and then I asked them, “Do you have eternal life?” They were both quick to reply, “No one can know they have eternal life.” I then asked them to take a Bible and for one of them to slowly read for us 1st John 5:11-13. One of them picked up his Bible and read the passage: “And the testimony is this, that God HAS GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE, AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON. HE WHO HAS THE SON HAS LIFE; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE” (NASB). After he read it no one said anything for a solid minute or two and then the one who had read the passage said, “That is just your interpretation.” I looked at him and said, “You have just read God’s promise, not my interpretation.” I can’t say that I left them rejoicing in Christ as their Savior and enjoying the assurance of having eternal life, but it was obvious that they had never considered from God’s Word that one can know, BEFORE they die, that THEY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. The SEED of God’s powerful Word (see Hebrews 4:12 and 1st Peter 1:23 & 25) was planted in their heart that day and eternity will declare whether or not they believed on Christ. 

You may be thinking, “But Muslims do not accept most of the Bible as the Word of God, so what good would it do to quote Scripture to them?” The fact is they may indeed be willing to have you quote the Bible for in their religion (Islam) they believe that Allah (their “god”) inspired men to write the Bible and the Koran, so even though they reject part of the Bible they may still be open to listening to scriptures that you read (or quote) to them. As we just saw in the end of the last paragraph, the Word is POWERFUL and God uses it to convict people of their lost and sinful condition and then to give them the knowledge of possessing eternal life through faith in His Son and His finished work at Calvary. We need to have boldness to use His Word and we need to have confidence that the Holy Spirit will use His Word to “win souls to Christ.” I should add that besides quoting the passage we saw in 1st John 5, we can also quote verses then that bring out that men are LOST SINNERS and are NOT SAVED BY GOOD WORKS (I often use Romans 3:9-18, 23 and Ephesians 2:8-9).  Let me close with one of my favorite verses on this subject of witnessing to lost souls, “For I am not ashamed of THE GOSPEL, for it is THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). May the Lord bless you as you witness to these dear souls and may He bless His Word to them and make them trophies of His amazing grace!  (439.3)  (DO)