onlyislam

While firmly rejecting the divinity of Jesus, Muslim traditions and devotion seem to have gone far beyond the usual interpretation of the Qur’¯an in providing detailed accounts of Jesus’ birth, physical features and ministry.

Islamic traditions tell that Mary conceived Jesus at the age of thirteen (others say fifteen). She and her cousin Joseph the carpenter lived and worked in a mosque as water-carriers.

One day, Mary went to fetch water and God sent Gabriel to her and made him resemble a ‘handsome young man’.30 And he said to her, ‘O Mary, truly God hath sent me to you that I may give you a pious child.’ When Mary said, ‘I take refuge from you,’ he said to her, ‘Verily I am the apostle of thy Lord to give you a pious child.’ She said, ‘Shall there be to me a child, and no one has touched me, and I have committed no folly?’ He said, ‘That is true, but thy Lord finds a miracle easy.’ And he breathed in the opening of her dress which she had taken off; and when he departed from her, Mary put it on, and so she conceived Jesus.

Joseph and Mary escaped to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill Jesus. While there, he was sent to school but was too clever to be taught by any teacher. He and his mother lived in the house of the ruler of Egypt and he performed one of his first miracles during the wedding ceremony of the king’s son:

The King made a feast and collected all the people of Egypt and fed them for two months. And when it was finished, certain people from Syria came to see him, and he did not know of their coming until they came down upon him.

And on that day he had no drink for them. And when Jesus saw his anxiety on this account, He entered some of the chambers of the ruler in which there were rows of jars, and He passed by them one by one, touching them with His hand; and every time.

He touched one it was filled with drink until He came to the last one. And He was at that time twelve years old.

Unlike the Qur’¯an, which gives no details about Jesus’ healings and other miracles, Islamic traditions contain many colourful accounts of dazzling miracles. For example, when Jesus was describing Noah’s ark to his disciples, they are said to have responded:

‘If you had sent us some one who had seen the ark and could describe it to us, we would believe.’ So He arose and came to a little hill, and struck it with His hand and took a handful of the earth and said, ‘This is the grave of Shem, the son of Unlike the Qur’¯an, which gives no details about Jesus’ healings and other miracles, Islamic traditions contain many colourful accounts of dazzling miracles. For example, when Jesus was describing Noah’s ark to his disciples, they are said to have responded:

Jesus as a ruddy man, inclining towards white. His hair was not lank, and He never oiled it. He went barefooted; and He never owned a place, or a change of garments, or property or vesture or provisions, except His daily bread. And whenever the sun began to set, He would kneel and pray until the morning.

He was in the habit of healing the sick and the lepers, and raising the dead by the will of God. He could tell those about Him what they ate in their houses, and what they laid up against the morrow. He walked on the face of the water on the sea.

He had dishevelled hair, and His face was small. He was an ascetic in this world and greatly desirous of the world to come; diligent in serving God. And He was a wanderer in the earth till the Jews sought Him and desired to kill Him. Then God lifted Him up to heaven, and God knows best.

Many Islamic traditions speak highly of Jesus’ teaching and portray him not only as a modest self-effacing ascetic but as someone unique and special even amongst prophets. One of the most respected Muslim mystics, Al-Ghazali (died 1111) reports a tradition that when Jesus was asked ‘Are there any on earth like you?’, he answered: ‘Whoever has prayer for his speech, meditation for his silence and tears for his vision, he is like me.’32 One of the earliest and most famous sufis, al-Hallaj (died 922), while not speculating about the person of Jesus, was enthralled by the mystery of the cross. His guiding ideal was union with God through an all-absorbing love, a love which could not find expression in enjoyment but only in suffering and the cross. A line from one of his poems reads: ‘I will die in the religion of the cross. I need go no more to Mecca or Medina.’ And so he died, crucified as a heretic.

Ibn-Arabi (died 1240), another celebrated Muslim mystic, also speculated about Jesus. He is responsible for popularising the title ‘the seal of saints’ (khâtam al-anbiyâ’) for Jesus, which corresponds to Muhammad’s title ‘the seal of prophets’ (33:40).

He argued that Muhammad brought definitive legislative prophecy; Jesus will bring definitive holiness when he returns, sealing all holiness from Adam to the end of time.

Merad Ali, a French Muslim of Algerian origin, is of the view that the classical commentaries ‘do not shed light on the figure of Christ in the way he deserves’. He points out that ‘everything in the Qur’¯an points to the fact that Christ is seen as an exceptional event in the history of the world, an event pregnant with exceptional meanings’.

Merad stresses the aura of mystery surrounding the person of Jesus in the Qur’¯an; the use of terminology such as ‘Spirit’ and ‘Word’ when referring to him, terms which are used of no one else; and the uniqueness of the miracles attributed to him, in particular those of creation and healing.

He accepts that the Qur’¯an denies Christ’s divinity, but finds it significant that ‘at no time is the term bashar (human being) applied to Christ’. Merad ends on an open note, saying that the Qur’¯an aims ‘to provoke reflection rather than to furnish final answers’.

Jesus in Islam

Jesus and his mother Mary are held in high esteem in Islamic sources.1 It is even reported that when Muslims captured the Ka‘bah in 630, Muhammad ordered that all the statues there should be destroyed except for those of Mary and Jesus.

In fact, right from the beginning, Muhammad saw himself as the immediate successor of Jesus. A tradition reports him as saying, ‘I am the nearest of mankind to Jesus son of Mary – on both of whom be peace – because there has been no Prophet between him and me’.

Why Study Jesus in Islam?

Some people might wonder why it is necessary to concern ourselves with what people of other faiths, and particularly Muslims, have to say about Jesus Christ. Kwame Bediako’s response to this question is astute:

Strange as it may seem, theological affirmations are meaningful ultimately, not in terms of what adherents say, but in terms of what persons of other faiths understand those affirmations to imply for them.

In other words, our Christian affirmations are validated when their credentials and validity are tested not only in terms of the religious and spiritual universe in which Christians habitually operate, but also – indeed especially – in terms of the religious and spiritual worlds which persons of other faiths inhabit.

For it is in those ‘other worlds’ that the true meaning of Jesus Christ becomes apparent and validated. Christian history shows that as Christian faith engages with new cultures, new insights about Jesus Christ emerges.

Jesus’ Birth

Sixty-four of the 93 verses in the Qur’¯an that speak about Jesus is found in the nativity narratives in Suras 3 and 19. Kenneth Cragg observes that if the Gospels are said to be really passion narratives with extended introductions, ‘it could well be said that the Jesus cycle in the Qur’¯an is nativity narrative with attenuated sequel’.3 Maryam, or Mary the mother of Jesus, is greatly honoured in Islam.

She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur’¯an (34 times) and a whole chapter (19) is named after her. She is identified as the daughter of Imran, the sister of Aaron (3:35; 19:28),4 and is described as a chaste woman whom God chose, made pure and preferred to all the women of creation (3:42).

Before her birth, her mother pledged her unborn child to God. She was greatly distressed when she gave birth to a girl, and asked that she and her daughter be protected from Satan. Mary was put under the guardianship of Zachariah in the temple, where she was miraculously fed.5

The Qur’¯an contains two accounts of the annunciation of Jesus’ coming birth (3:33–49; 19:16–34). In Sura 3, God is said to have sent an angel to Mary, while in Sura 19, it was a spirit that was sent to give her the good news. The angel appeared to Mary and addressed her in the following words:

O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, illustrious in the world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near (unto Allah). He will speak unto mankind in his cradle and in his manhood, and he is of the righteous (3:45–46).

When Mary queried how this was going to be since no man had known her, the angel assured her that God could do anything. Some Muslim exegetes state that the angel then breathed into a slit in Mary’s cloak, which she had taken off.

When she put it on again, she conceived Jesus. However it was done, Mary conceived and withdrew to a distant place. When the time came, she gave birth under a palm tree and took the child home to her people.

She was accused of having brought shame and dishonour to her family. In response, Mary simply pointed to the infant Jesus lying his cradle, who then spoke the following words:

Lo! I am the slave of Allah. He hath given me the Scripture and hath appointed me a Prophet, And hath made me blessed wheresoever I may be, and hath enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I remain alive, And (hath made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblest. Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive! (19:30–33).

Jesus’ Mission and Miracles

According to the Qur’¯an, Jesus was no more than a prophet. His mission was primarily to the children of Israel, whereas Muhammad’s mission was universal. Jesus was a sign from God for humanity, strengthened by the Holy Spirit (5:110, 2:87). He was taught Scripture by God (3:48). The content of Jesus’ teaching, for example, the Sermon on the Mount, is barely mentioned in the Qur’¯an. All that is said is that he came to confirm the truth in the Torah and make lawful what was hitherto declared unlawful (3:50, 4:46, 3:93). He came to clarify previous revelations (43:63), enjoin the fear of the one God, and warn against ascribing partners to God (5:72). The religion Jesus established was the same as that of Noah, Abraham, Moses and subsequently

Muhammad or in other words, Islam (33:7, 42:13). The injil (gospel) given to Jesus contains guidance, light and admonition (5:46) as well as good tidings about the coming of an ‘unlettered prophet’ (7:157).

The gospel and message preached by Jesus have, however, been tampered with and corrupted by successive generations of Christians. Jesus himself prophesied the coming of a prophet named Ahmad or ‘the praised one’ (61:6).

The Gospel of Barnabas, which has been proved beyond any doubt to be a fictitious work produced in Spain in the late sixteenth and early the seventeenth century develops this theme more fully.In this so-called ‘gospel’,

Jesus predicts the coming of Muhammad by name, and Muhammad, rather then Jesus is identified as the Messiah.

Jesus and Mary are the only two people whom the Qur’¯an describes as sinless (3:36, 46). Islam rejects the concept of original sin, but nevertheless there is a tradition which states that ‘every son of Adam when newly born is touched (or probably squeezed) by Satan [and infected with sin] … it is at this contact that the child utters his first cry.’10 The only exceptions were Mary and Jesus, both of whom were granted the extraordinary privilege of being preserved from any contact with the devil at the instant of their birth. They are unique, for the Qur’¯an reports other prophets falling into temptation, sinning and asking for forgiveness – Adam (7:22–23), Abraham (26:82), Moses (28:16), Jonah (37:142) and Muhammad (3:31; 47:19).

Many traditions abound about Jesus’ omniscience and supernatural powers both as a child and an adult. He is the only one, apart from God, with the power to create life (birds) by using clay and breathing life into them (3:49).

This tradition about his modelling of birds is found in the apocryphal gospels (the Gospel of Thomas, chapter 2; the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy chapters 1, 36, 46; and the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy chapters 18 and 2). Christian apologists have always pointed out that the verb khalaqa, used of Jesus’ creating birds, is a verb that the Qur’¯an elsewhere uses exclusively to refer to God’s activity.

The substance used, clay is what God used to create the first man, Adam (6:2; 7:12; 28:38). The act of breathing into the birds is similar to the way God breathed into Adam and into Mary. The breath of Jesus, like that of God, has the power to give life