Searching Below the Surface: A Deeper Look at Covenant and Contract (Marriage in an Islamic Context, #1)

We all want to know how the God of the Bible differs from the Islamic Allah. How does a covenant-keeping God interact in the divine-human relationship? How does a contract-demanding Allah counter biblical truth by developing a path for human-effort deliverance?
This comparative religious exploration will investigate God's covenantal ways and Allah's contractual obligations, enabling Christians to explain the difference.
Searching Below the Surface: A Deeper look at Covenant and Contract prepares the reader to present biblical truths by contrasting a difference in an Islamic context. The book unearths a needed complete picture of the difference between a covenant God called Yahweh and a deity prone to contract, Allah.
The book seeks to answer these questions:
How does Yahweh's Oneness promote covenant understanding?
How do Muslims define the Absolute Oneness of Allah?
How do the creation accounts in the Bible and Quran reflect theology?
In what ways does Islam ignore a covenant ethos?
What are the implications of covenant and contract when applied to marriage?
Since covenant marriage patterns divine oneness in how spouses relate and share sacrificially, this mode of marriage mirrors the character of the biblical God. Marriage in the Bible reflects a relationship found in the divine Godhead and how he interacts with believers.
"Nakhati Jon skillfully searches below the surface to understand the roots of the thinking of our Muslim friends and neighbors, and Christians" Patrick Cate, Ph.D.
In a covenant marriage, the husband and wife become one, which means more than physical oneness but a mystical, spiritual unity that reflects the Trinity of Oneness! Nakhati Jon
Oneness describes the Islamic idea concerning deity but undermines the ideas of Islamic marriage. Nakhati Jon
Excerpt:
On another scorching, sweltering day in Central Asia, we traveled to the capital in our rented taxi. As per custom, my wife sat in the back with our kids while I sat in the front, chatting with the driver. Dust and welcome air flew in through the open windows, and we talked loudly to drown out the wind. Then, the inevitable conversation began:
Driver: Central Asian women are beautiful, aren't they? (My back prickled in response to my wife's almost-palpable eye-roll.)
Me: My wife is beautiful.
Driver: You should get a second wife. (I felt my wife rethinking pacifism.)
Me: (Emphatically) God is one! Therefore, I will have only one wife!
Driver: Oh-this is true! (Pause) Does your wife speak the language?
Me: Fluently. And she doesn't like what you're saying.
Years later, my wife confessed she had ignored the illogic of the "One God/one wife" statement in return for its success as a conversation-stopper. But in researching, I happily discovered my shot at philosophy had been logical after all. In fact, my bit of accidental wisdom carried foundational truths about Yahweh's nature, his relationship with man, and his plan for marriage.

Nakhati Jon serves and teaches in the Middle East, Central Asia, and North America among Persians. He loves to analyze and evaluate the differences between Christianity and Islam. He is working on a collection of books Exploring Marriage in an Islamic Context. The series will discover contrasting foundational concepts from the Bible and the Quran. The series begins with "Searching Below the Surface" as the foundational whys to the critical differences between these two perspectives. These introductory issues will uncover distinct core ideas that influence marriage definitions (Defining Marriage), especially how to live out that definition (Accommodating Marriage). Later books will focus on teaching the marriage passages of Genesis and Ephesians in an Islamic setting.

These books convey the sweet aroma of Christ to those needing Christ's love in their marriages, along with those ministering among the least-reached Muslim communities. The series' goal is to help Christian believers and practitioners find ways to apply a covenant marriage in the Islamic context. The Islamic society influences not only Muslims but those touched by their community. Awareness and understanding of presuppositions in Christian covenant and Islamic contract marriages will enable practical ideas on how couples can live in covenant oneness. Nakhati Jon also earned a Master's (1992) and Doctoral degree in Educational Ministry (2021) from Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the author of "Survey of Shia Marriage in Iran" and numerous books in a Central Asian language.