Yet in Islam the human heart...

Yet in Islam the human heart, which is the seat of knowing rather than feeling, is always an isthmus, barzakh , which separates, but also potentially joins, the earthly and the divine.[^1] The fulfillment of human destiny which Muhammed announced was a return to the Garden and the resumption of the status which God originally intended for humanity. This occurs first with Islam , humans submitting to the perfect and final revelation of Allah and Allah's will which came through Muhammed.

Ultimately it is realized when Allah destroys the Earth (which is not intrinsically corrupt, but has simply served its purpose) and after the final judgement brings all of those who have been faithful back into the Garden (which was always the destiny of humankind.) While it is by Allah's grace alone that humans are continually reminded of their nature and destiny through the prophets, and are called into Islam, it is up to each individual to make the choices which will lead them ultimately back to the Garden.

(25:70). It is too much to say of course, that Christianity and Islam were determined by their cultural and human contexts. Their founders not only answered, but helped define, the question of the nature and destiny of humanity. Both claim that revelation provides not just the answer to a generic human question, but frames that question properly in the face of human ignorance or sin.

So it is important, as we look for shared experiences and categories of theological reflection which allow authentic dialogue, to realize that our Christian questions are not necessarily generic human questions. This may mean that we have no ready answer for the central concerns of our neighbors in a pluralistic society. And it may mean that we will discover in dialogue dimensions of human existence before God that our own particular tradition of Christian theological reflection has passed by.