Islam, which means submission or surrender, perceives a rebellion in man's spirit who seeks to make God in its own image and likeness and to live accordingly. So, it seeks to bring man to the realization of his dependence on Allah as stated: "The Religion before Allah is Islam (submission to His Will): (Surah 3:19) "The only possible attitude to this God was an infinite humility and total surrender (Islam), in anticipation of a terrible judgment of which the outcome was wholly unpredictable. Faith, devotion, gratitude, worship and ever trust were owing to him; but hardly ever was love expected." (Maxime Rodinson, p. 235) As a consequence, in the Koran the believer is referred to as the slave of Allah or the servant of Allah, "Tell My servants that I am indeed the Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful; (Surah 15:49)

Christians are also familiar with surrender to the will to God but it is seen in the context of the surrender of Christ, the Son of God to the will of his Father. St. Paul wrote of Christ,

"He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness; ...
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross. (Phil 2:8)

Christians surrender to God through, with and in Christ and in doing so we are no longer slaves of Allah but friends of Allah. Christ tells us --

"I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing.

I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." (Jn 15:13-15)

This spirit of friendship with God is also noted by St. Paul who tells us that those who believe in Christ do not receive a spirit of slavery but a spirit of adoption which makes them children of God. It is Christ who taught us to pray the Our Father as follows:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.

(Mt 6:9-15)

Dimensions of Sin and Forgiveness