It appears that the intellectual and philosophical tradition of Islam was certainly much more developed than I had anticipated. I was struck by the similarity of the argument of contingency in this context with the argument from contingency that Aquinas uses in the Summa Theologiae as an argument for the existence of God. I would not be shocked at all if someone were to demonstrate a link between Aquinas Islamic thinkers. Likewise, it appears that the Islamic evaluation of human nature and humans’ relationship to God is so similar to that of Christianity that it might appear that the only difference between the Islamic worldview and understanding of God might only differ from that of Christianity in its teachings on the Incarnation (and by extension, the Trinity). Indeed, one could conceivably imagine that Christianity in its earliest context might have looked very much like the Islam that was described by Rahman before the Christological and Trinitarian controversies came into the scene.
If this were indicative of the prevalent Christian view of Muslims, particularly in the first few years after the hijra, perhaps a philosophical and even theological common ground could be established regarding the nature of the oneness of God, the arguments associated with the existence of God, and the remarkably similar emphasis on faith-seeking-understanding and the rejection of a purely rationalistic approach to religion.
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Paul Elhallal 
Thanks for this, Paul. I’m intrigued by your suggestion of common ground, especially as I have been thinking through this a lot as I reflect on Kenneth Cragg’s book (that I presented on). While I agree that there is overlap, the Incarnation seems to me more than simply an addendum to Christian belief. It radically alters the relationship between God and humanity such that I’m not so sure how similar the Christian and Islamic pictures of humanity’s relationship to God can be. Cragg takes the position that there are emphases in Islamic reverence that Christians would do well to remember, but the articulation of the human/divine relationship is rather different. And while this may be solidified during the Christological debates, this conception, I think, begins much earlier in Christianity’s history.
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Thanks, Tyler, for your comment. I think you’re correct in noting the enormous shift that the Incarnation causes in altering the relationship between God and humanity. As you note, it would certainly be wrong to equate the Christian and Muslims beliefs about relationship with God given that the Incarnation is not simply an addendum to Christian belief. The point I was attempting to make was that the emphasis on divine instruction regarding how people are to live, accompanied by purity laws and similar things, might have made the earliest Christianity resemble the Islam that developed much later. So the similarity that can be found between Islam and Christianity on this point is that both believe that God created the world, is omnipotent, omniscient, merciful, and gracious, and is owed honor and obedience by humans. The general thrust of this idea is the same in both faiths, whereas the relationship itself between God and humans is markedly different, as you noted.
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Thanks for your post Paul – and thanks to both for this conversation! I agree Paul that reading Rahman can lead one to conclude that there is much more in common between Christian and Islamic ideas about God and the God-man relationship than we might have assumed from a focus on theological differences. We should remember that much of what Rahman says about divine mercy redounds to God’s providential concern to give humanity signs so that humans will be saved and not condemned. This is fundamentally the same in both faiths.
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