Passage
Romans 15
-
Doctrine
Christ-Centered Ministry
Ministry done in Christ's name and for his glory, not humanitarian service divorced from gospel proclamation; also carries real security considerations for ministers working in restricted-access contexts.
ROM.15.17-21
-
Doctrine
Christian Fellowship
Shared participation in Christ; note the uncomfortable root-resonance between al-sharikah and shirk (idolatrous partnership), even though the senses are unrelated.
ROM.15.24
-
Glossary Term
Church
الأمة (ummah) is the specific pan-Islamic term for the worldwide community of Muslims and must never be borrowed for 'church.' In everyday usage al-kanisah often denotes the physical building of a minority religious community rather than the living, gathered people of God; reinforce the latter sense explicitly.
ROM.15.26
-
Doctrine
Church as God's People
New covenant community, not merely the physical building of a marked minority-religion enclave, which is the dominant everyday sense of al-kanisah in many contexts.
ROM.15.26
-
Glossary Term
Covenant
'Ahd also covers generic pledges and treaties in everyday Arabic; retain the relational, unilaterally-initiated biblical covenant sense rather than a mutual contractual one.
ROM.15.12
-
Glossary Term
David
Shared Quranic figure (a prophet-king associated with the Zabur/Psalms), generally positively regarded, but the Quranic Dawud carries less of the covenant-king typology pointing forward to a messianic heir; supply that context explicitly.
ROM.15.12
-
Doctrine
Davidic Covenant
Dawud is a shared, positively-regarded Quranic prophet-king, but the Quranic portrayal carries none of the covenant-king typology pointing forward to a promised messianic heir; this background must be taught, not assumed.
ROM.15.12
-
Doctrine
Evangelism
Tabshir (evangelism) intersects with apostasy norms in many Muslim-majority contexts, where leaving Islam can carry serious social or legal consequence; use language of witness and proclamation with awareness of the real safety stakes for both speaker and hearer.
ROM.15.20
-
Glossary Term
Exhort
Context-sensitive: يعظ (to admonish/preach) for beseeching; يشجع (to encourage) for building up.
ROM.15.2
-
Glossary Term
Fellowship
الشركة shares its ش-ر-ك root with shirk (associating partners with God, Islam's cardinal sin) - an uncomfortable resonance even though the senses are unrelated.
ROM.15.24
-
Doctrine
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Islamic naskh (abrogation) doctrine treats later revelation as superseding earlier revelation; Romans' claim that Christ fulfills rather than abrogates the OT promise needs deliberate framing against this default.
ROM.15.8-12
-
Glossary Term
Gentiles
الكفار (unbelievers) is a loaded Islamic religious-judgment term and must never be used for the ethnic-neutral sense of 'Gentiles.' الأمم (the nations, plural) shares a root with the loaded singular الأمة (Ummah) but the plural generic sense is safe and standard.
ROM.15.7-12
-
Doctrine
Gospel
Must be taught as the NT record itself, not conceded as a corrupted successor to a lost original revelation, per mainstream Islamic tahrif doctrine.
ROM.15.19-20
-
Glossary Term
Gospel
Established term shared with Quranic usage (Injil = the revelation given to 'Isa).
ROM.15.19-20
-
Glossary Term
Holy
Shares the ق-د-س root with al-Quds (Jerusalem) and al-Quddus (one of Allah's names) - generally safe shared vocabulary.
ROM.15.16
-
Glossary Term
Holy Spirit
CRITICAL: identical phrase appears in the Quran (2:87, 2:253) but mainstream tafsir identifies it there with the angel Jibril (Gabriel), a created being - not a co-equal, co-eternal divine Person.
ROM.15.16
-
Doctrine
Inspiration of Scripture
Islamic wahy denotes verbatim divine dictation (the Quran's own claimed mode of revelation); biblical inspiration is God moving human authors to write in their own voice exactly what He intended.
ROM.15.4
-
Glossary Term
Intercession
Shafa'ah is a live, contested category in Islamic theology - mainstream Sunni hadith affirms Muhammad's 'greater intercession' for his ummah at Judgment, while some reform currents restrict all intercession to guard tawhid.
ROM.15.30-32
-
Glossary Term
Israel
In contemporary spoken Arabic 'Isra'il' is overwhelmingly associated with the modern nation-state and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not primarily with Jacob's given name or the biblical people.
ROM.15.7-12
-
Doctrine
Kingdom Mission
God's spiritual reign advancing through the gospel, not a political theocratic state; avoid resonance with khilafah (caliphate) framing found in Islamist political movements.
ROM.15.12, ROM.15.18-21
-
Glossary Term
Kingdom Of God
Al-Malik (The Sovereign) is one of Allah's 99 names, so malakut carries appropriately majestic connotations.
ROM.15.12, ROM.15.18-21
-
Glossary Term
Law
CRITICAL: established Arabic Bible tradition (Van Dyck) deliberately uses the Greek loanword الناموس for the Mosaic Law rather than الشريعة, because 'shari'a' today overwhelmingly denotes the total Islamic religious-legal-political system.
ROM.15.8-12
-
Glossary Term
Messiah
CRITICAL - inverse risk pattern from other terms: al-Masih is not an available-but-wrong word, it is the unavoidable and correct word, and it is also 'Isa al-Masih's own Quranic title (4:171) - already loaded with a specific, well-defined, competing narrative (honored prophet, virgin-born, but explicitly not divine, not crucified, not resurrected, not an atoning sacrifice).
ROM.15.8-12
-
Doctrine
Messianic Promise
CRITICAL: al-Masih is 'Isa al-Masih's own Quranic title, already loaded with a specific competing narrative - honored prophet, not divine, not crucified, not risen.
ROM.15.8-12
-
Glossary Term
Mission
الرسالة (risalah) is also the technical term for a prophet's own prophetic commission (Muhammad's risalah); prefer الإرسالية for the corporate sending/mission sense to avoid that comparison.
ROM.15.15-24
-
Doctrine
Mission to the Nations
Avoid risalah (prophetic-commission) vocabulary that invites comparison to Muhammad's own risalah; also note that open evangelism carries real legal and social risk under apostasy norms in some Arabic-speaking contexts.
ROM.15.15-24
-
Doctrine
Mutual Edification
Building one another up in faith; no significant doctrinal risk.
ROM.15.2
-
Doctrine
Prayer and Intercession
Shafa'ah (intercession) is a live, contested Islamic category (Muhammad's 'greater intercession' at Judgment).
ROM.15.30-32
-
Glossary Term
Prophecy
Shares root with nabi; low independent risk.
ROM.15.8-12
-
Glossary Term
Prophet
Correct and Quran-affirmed (Jesus is a nabi in Islam too), but risks readers stopping at 'prophet' the way Islam's khatam an-nabiyyin (seal of the prophets) doctrine treats Muhammad as superseding and finalizing all prior prophetic revelation.
ROM.15.4
-
Doctrine
Sanctification
The Spirit's ongoing work of making believers holy, not ritual purification (wudu/ghusl) achieved through washing.
ROM.15.16
-
Glossary Term
Sanctification
The Spirit's ongoing work of making believers holy, not ritual purification (wudu/ghusl) achieved through washing rites.
ROM.15.16
-
Glossary Term
Seed Of David
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment.
ROM.15.12
-
Doctrine
Separation unto God's Service
Must not be confused with Sufi zuhd (world-renunciation/asceticism) or with ritual purification rites; biblical separation is devoted engagement with the world, not withdrawal from it.
ROM.15.16
-
Doctrine
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Requires careful pastoral framing given the contemporary political weight of 'Isra'il' in Arabic-speaking contexts (see the 'israel' glossary term); Romans 9-11's redemptive-historical argument must not be flattened into or read as a statement on the present conflict.
ROM.15.7-12