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Christians often talk about developing a relationship with
Christ and accepting him into their lives. They assert that Jesus is much more
than a man and died on the cross to free mankind from the original sin.
Christians speak of Jesus with love and respect and it is obvious he holds a
special place in their lives and hearts. But what about Muslims; what do they
think about Jesus and what place does Jesus Christ hold in Islam?
Someone unfamiliar with Islam may
be surprised to learn that Muslims love Jesus too. A Muslim will not speak the
name of Jesus without respectfully adding the words May peace be upon him. In
Islam, Jesus is a loved and esteemed man, a Prophet and Messenger calling his
people to the worship of the One True God.
Muslims and Christians share some
very similar beliefs about Jesus. Both believe that Jesus was born of the
Virgin Mary and both believe that Jesus was the Messiah sent to the people of
Israel. Both also believe that Jesus will return to earth in the last days.
However in one major detail they are worlds apart. Muslims believe with
certainty that Jesus is not God, he is not the son
of God and he is not part of a Trinity of God.
In the Quran, God spoke directly
to Christians when He said:
O people of the Scripture! Do not
exceed the limits in your religion, nor say of God aught but the truth. The
Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, was a Messenger of God and His Word, which He
bestowed on Mary and a spirit created by Him; so believe in God and His
Messengers. Say not: Trinity! Cease; it is better for you! For God is One
God, glory is to Him, Far Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs all
that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And God is All Sufficient
as a Disposer of affairs. (Quran 4:171)
Just as Islam categorically
denies that Jesus was God, it also rejects the notion that mankind is born
tainted by any form of original sin. The Quran tells us that it is not possible
for one person to bear the sins of another and that we are all responsible,
before God, for our own actions. And no bearer of burdens shall bear
anothers burden. (Quran 35:18) However, God, in His infinite Mercy
and Wisdom has not abandoned mankind to their own devices. He has sent guidance
and laws that reveal how to worship and live according to His commands. Muslims
are required to believe in, and love all of the Prophets; to reject one is to
reject the creed of Islam. Jesus was but one in this long line of Prophets and
Messengers, calling the people to worship One God. He came specifically for the
People of Israel, who had, at that time gone astray from the straight path of
God. Jesus said:
And I have come confirming that which
was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful to you part of what was forbidden
to you, and I have come to you with a proof from your Lord. So fear God and
obey me. Truly! God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is the
Straight Path. (Quran 3:50-51)
Muslims love and admire Jesus.
However, we understand him and his role in our lives according to the Quran and
the traditions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. Three chapters of the Quran
feature the life of Jesus, his mother Mary and their family; each reveals
details not found in the Bible.
The Prophet Mohammad spoke of
Jesus many times, once describing him as his brother. I am the nearest of
all the people to the son of Mary, and all the prophets are paternal brothers,
and there has been no prophet between me and him (i.e. Jesus). (Saheeh
Al-Bukhari) Let us follow the story of Jesus through Islamic sources
and come to understand how and why his place in Islam is of such
significance.
The First Miracle
The Quran informs us that Mary,
the daughter of Imran, was an unmarried, chaste and pious young woman, devoted
to the worship of God. One day while she was in seclusion, the Angel Gabriel
informed Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus. Her response was one of
fear, shock, and dismay. God said:
And We wish to appoint him as a sign
to mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is a matter decreed. (Quran 19:21)
Mary conceived Jesus, and when
the time came for him to be born, she took herself away from her family and
travelled towards Bethlehem. At the foot of a date palm tree Mary gave birth to
her son Jesus.
When Mary had rested and
recovered from the pain and fear involved in giving birth alone, she realised
that she must return to her family. Mary was afraid and anxious as she wrapped
the child and cradled him in her arms. How could she possibly explain his birth
to her people? She heeded the words of God and made her way back to
Jerusalem.
Say: Verily! I have vowed a fast
unto the Most Gracious (God) so I shall not speak to any human being this day.
Then she brought him (the baby) to her people, carrying him. (Quran
19:26-27)
God knew that if Mary tried to
offer explanations, her people would not believe her, so, in His wisdom, he told
her not to speak. From the first moment Mary approached her people they started
to accuse her, but she wisely followed Gods instructions, and failed to
respond. This shy, chaste woman merely pointed to the child in her arms.
The men and women surrounding
Mary looked at her incredulously and demanded to know how they could possibly
speak to a babe in arms. Then, by the permission of God, Jesus, son of
Mary, performed his first miracle. He spoke:
Verily! I am a slave of God. He has
given me the Scripture and made me a Prophet; and He has made me blessed
wheresoever I be, and has enjoined on me prayer, and alms, as long as I live,
and dutiful to my mother, and made me not arrogant, unblest. And peace be upon
me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!
(Quran 19:30-34)
Muslims believe Jesus was
the slave of God and a Messenger for the people of his time. He preformed
miracles by the will and permission of God. The following words of Prophet
Muhammad clearly summarise the importance of Jesus in Islam:
Whoever bears witness that
there is no god but God Alone, with no partner or associate, and that Muhammad
is His slave and Messenger, and that Jesus is His slave and Messenger, a word
which God bestowed upon Mary and a spirit created by Him, and that Heaven is
real, and Hell is real, God will admit him through whichever of the eight gates
of Heaven he wishes. (Saheeh Bukhari and Saheeh Muslim)
We have already established that Jesus, son of Mary, or as he
is called by Muslims, Eissa ibn Maryam, preformed his first miracle while
cradled in Marys arms. By the permission of God he spoke, and his first words
were I am a slave of God, (Quran 19:30). He did not say I am God or
even I am the son of God. His first words established the foundation of his
message, and his mission; to call the people back, to the pure worship of One
God.
At the time of Jesus, the concept
of One God was not new to the Children of Israel. The Torah had proclaimed
Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One, (Deuteronomy: 4). However,
Gods revelations had been misinterpreted and abused, and hearts had become
hardened. Jesus came to denounce the leaders of the Children of Israel, who had
fallen into lives of materialism and luxury, and to uphold the law of Moses.
Jesus mission was to confirm the
Torah, to make lawful things that were previously unlawful and to proclaim and
reaffirm the belief in One Creator. Prophet Muhammad said: every Prophet
was sent to his nation exclusively but I was sent to all mankind,
(Saheeh Bukhari). Thus, Jesus was sent to the Children of
Israel.
God says in Quran that He would
teach Jesus the Torah and the Gospel, and the wisdom
And He will teach him the Book and the
Wisdom, the Torah and the Injeel. (Quran 3:48)
In order to effectively spread
his message, Jesus understood the Torah, and he was provided with his own
revelation from God the Injeel, or Gospel. God also endowed Jesus with the
ability to guide and influence his people with signs and miracles.
God supports all of His
Messengers with miracles that are observable and make sense to the people the
Messenger has been sent to guide. At the time of Jesus, the Children of Israel
were very knowledgeable in the field of medicine. Consequently, the miracles
Jesus performed (by the permission of God) were of this nature, and included
returning sight to the blind, healing lepers and raising the dead. God
said:
And you heal those born blind, and the
lepers by My leave. And behold! You bring forth the dead by My leave. (Quran
5:10)
The Child Jesus
Neither the Quran nor the Bible
refers to the boyhood of Jesus. We can imagine, however, that as a son in the
family of Imran, he was a pious child devoted to learning, and eager to
influence the children and adults around him. After mentioning Jesus speaking
in the cradle, the Quran immediately recounts the story of Jesus moulding the
figure of a bird from clay. He blew into it and by Gods leave it became a
bird.
I design for you out of clay, as it
were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Gods
Leave. (Quran 3:49)
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, one
of a set of texts written by early Christians, but not accepted into the tenet
of the Old Testament, also refers to this story. It recounts in some detail the
story of the young Jesus fashioning birds from clay and breathing life into
them. Although fascinating, this comparison serves only to illustrate why
Muslims believe the message of Jesus only, as it is recounted in the Quran and
the traditions of Prophet Muhammad.
Muslims are required to
believe in all the books revealed by God to mankind. However, the Bible,
as it exists today, is not the Gospel that was revealed to Prophet Jesus. The
words and wisdom of God, given to Jesus, have been lost, hidden, changed and
distorted. The fate of the texts of the Apocrypha, of which the Infancy Gospel
of Thomas is one, is testament to this. In 325AD, the Emperor Constantine
attempted to unify the fractured Christian Church by calling a meeting of
Bishops from all over the known world. This meeting became known as the Council
of Nicaea, and its legacy was a doctrine of Trinity that had not previously
existed, and the loss of somewhere between 270 and 4000 gospels. The council
ordered the burning of all gospels not deemed worthy to be in the new Bible, and
the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was one of them. However, copies of many Gospels
survived and, although not in the Bible, are valued for their historical
significance.
The Quran Frees Us
Muslims believe everything Jesus
said was revelation from God, but he did not write down one single word; nor did
he instruct his disciples to write it down. There is no need for a Muslim to
try to prove or disprove the books of the Christians. The Quran frees us from
the need to know if the Bible we have today contains the word of God, or the
words of Jesus. God said:
It is He Who has sent down the Book to
you with truth, confirming what came before it. (Quran 3:3)
And
And We have sent down to you the Book
in truth, confirming the Scripture that came before it and dominant over it. So
judge among them by what God has revealed. (Quran 5:48)
Anything beneficial for Muslims
to know from the Torah or the Injeel is stated clearly in the Quran. Whatever
good maybe found in the previous books is found now, in the Quran. If the words
of todays New Testament, agree with the words of the Quran, then these words
probably form the part of Jesus message that did not become distorted or lost
over time. The message of Jesus was the same message that all the Prophets of
God taught to their people. The Lord your God is One, so worship Him alone.
And God said in the Quran about the story of Jesus.
Verily! This is the true narrative
and, none has the right to be worshipped but God, the One and the Only True God,
Who has neither a wife nor a son. And indeed, God is the All-Mighty, the
All-Wise. (Quran 3:62)
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