Christ in Islam

Christ in Islam A summary of video lecture by the Biblical scholar, Rev. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., S.T.B., PhD. and, Daniel Ali, founder of the Christian-Islamic Forum and author of “Inside Islam.” (See more on the presenters at the end of this text).
In the dialogue between Catholics and Muslims, we need to communicate with our Muslim brothers in a respectful and truthful way. We cannot evangelize them like in the past. The past relationship had indeed much animosity, even wars, between people of both religions. Since Muslims believe that the Christian Scriptures have been tampered with, we rely in this lecture on Islamic sources. Islam means submission to God to do his will and get to paradise. Muslims believe, however, that Christianity is a religion of the past and Islam is the religion of the future. In their view, the current Bible is corrupted and Christians misrepresent the real Christ in their current Scripture. Hillary Bulloc commented that Islam’s big attraction is its simplicity.
In this lecture we will look at Christ as pictured in Islamic scripture (the Qur’an) and Mohammed’s tradition (Hadith…etc).

Christ’s titles in Islam
There are 12 main titles for Christ in the Qur’an but most repeated ones are:
1. Slave (or Servant) of God: The newborn Jesus spoke and said “I am indeed a servant (or slave) of God” “He (God) has given Me a revelation and made Me a prophet” (19: 30)
2. The Word of God: The word is a command of God rather than St. John’s understanding in the first chapter of his Gospel (John 1:1). It is more like God’s word to create every creature in Genesis: “Let there be light…”
3. The Spirit of God: Christ is the Spirit of God but not in the sense of the Holy Spirit. The Angel Gabriel is also the spirit of God. Mohammed is the Paraclete or Spirit of God.
4. Sinless: Jesus is one of 2 sinless persons. His mother Mary is the second sinless person.
In Christian categories, the meanings of the above titles are very different than in the Qur’an: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Isa 42: 1-4), “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray;we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53: 3-6)
This language is foreign to the Qur’an. In no way can a prophet suffer in Islam. Messiah is a passive description in the Old Testament that describes the Anointed. In the Qur’an he is depicted as the Anointing. In Arabic he is described in a positive way as one whom anoints.

Original Sin
Muslims believe that after Adam sinned he asked God for forgiveness, and God forgave him. Therefore, humans do not share in the sin of Adam. And they do not need a redeemer from Adam’s sin. The crucifixion of Christ is attested to in non-Christian sources such as Josephus the Jewish historian of the 1st century. But the Qur’an says in 4:157-157 “They said ‘we killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah,’ but they killed Him not, nor crucified Him. Only a likeness of Him was shown to them. And those who differ on this are full of doubts, with no knowledge but only a conjecture to follow. Because of a certainty they did not kill Him. No, God raised Him up unto Himself, and Allah is exalted in power, wise”

If we look at the history of the first years of Islam, we notice that Mohammed failed in his first year in Mecca. At Medina, he became a success, a religious success and a political success. So he encouraged his disciples to wage raids and wars against his enemies. God would not allow a prophet to suffer. All the prophets according to the Qur’an were persecuted and not treated fairly, yet only Jesus was assumed to heaven alive.

Assumption Theory in Islam Jesus was taken up to heaven alive and a man who looked like him was crucified. Some Muslims say Jesus is still alive in heaven. Other Muslims say Jesus died – though not on a cross – but in a way unknown to anyone. The Qur’an in 19:33 says that when Jesus was born, he said “And peace is on Me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life” In Mohammed’s tradition, one sign of the Last Judgment is the second coming of Christ, but why:
1. Kill the anti-Christ
2. Destroy all crosses on earth
3. Kill all pigs
4. Marry
5. Live for 40 years
6. Die and then be resurrected again

Theological Problems If we assume that Jesus is still alive in heaven, Jesus is said to die after the Judgment Day. But the Judgment Day is already the day for the resurrection of the dead and the determination of eternal fate in Paradise or Hell. The problem with the Muslim who claims that Jesus is already dead is this: Jesus must come on Judgment Day, where he will be resurrected, but then, Mohammed’s tradition claims that Jesus will live forty more years, then die and be raised again. This results in one birth, two deaths, and two resurrections. Muslims also believe that Jesus is a priest. Mary is considered of the family Amran. The name of Amran’s wife was Jochebed the daughter of Levi who was born to Levi in Egypt, and she bore to Amran: Aaron, Moses (the prophet), and Miriam. The Qur’an thus makes Mary part of the priestly tribe of Levi rather than from Judah and therefore Jesus her son was also from the tribe of Levi, contrary to the Old Testament that the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah, and the family of David.

At the end of the world, Jesus has to come back to Jerusalem through the Temple Mount (Al Aqsa Mosque). Since Jewish priests are not permitted to enter a cemetery, a Muslim cemetery was made in front of the Beautiful Gate on the eastern side of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. That’s their way of stopping Jesus from coming back at the end of the world. In one way, God is absolutely almighty but in another way they are able to stop Jesus from the second coming. In Mohammed’s tradition, Jesus was taken up to heaven without dying – Assumption Not Ascension.

Al-Razi (9th century Persian Muslim) lists 6 ambiguities (The video lecture allowed only 5)
First: If we allow the likeness of one person to be cast on another, that would entail sophistry. For if I see my son (the first time) then I see him again, it becomes possible that the one I see for the second time is not my son but just an impersonation. That will eliminate the trust in the perceptible concrete things. What I see is not what it is but a mirage. Muslim theologians in the Abbasid period of the Caliph Al Maamoun, were influenced by the Greek philosophy of Plato. Anyone who believes in the only Omnipotent, admits that God is able to create, for instance, another person in the image of Zayd. Such similarity does not necessitate the above uncertainty.
Second: God the Most High ordered Gabriel, peace be upon him, to accompany (Jesus) most of the time. This is what the expositors indicated as they interpreted his saying “As I upheld Thee with the holy Spirit” Al-Razi responds: If Gabriel, peace be upon him, defended (Jesus) or if God enabled Jesus, peace be upon him, to repel his enemies, his miracle would have been achieved by force of constraint. This is not admissible.
Third: God the Most High could have saved (Jesus) from his enemies by lifting him up to heaven. What then is the use of casting his likeness on somebody else. Would not this cause an unfortunate person to suffer death for no reason? Foe Muslims, God’s omnipotence does not allow him to suffer. God cannot possibly suffer.
Fourth: If he caste his likeness on another person and then was lifted up to heaven, people would think that the ‘Shabih’ (the one who resembles Jesus) is Jesus when, in fact, he was not. That would make him then a subject of deception, and this is incompatible with God’s wisdom. Al-Razi’s response: Jesus’ disciples were present and they were aware of the circumstances which surrounded the event. Thus they would remove that ambiguity. (But the Gospel knows that Jesus died on the cross. They preferred to be killed rather than deny it. Thomas doubted and the Apostles thought he was a ghost until they ate with him).
Fifth: Multitudes of Christians in both East and West, despite their extreme love of Christ, peace be upon him, and their excessive exaltation of him, reported that they saw him slain and crucified. If we deny this, that would be a discrediting of what was verified by oral transmission.

Concept of martyrdom: In Christianity, martyrdom is a total self-giving. If you die to yourself you shall live-If you live for yourself you shall die. In Islam, it is the opposite. A Muslim told me in Jerusalem: Jesus is not the son of God- He did not die on the cross. I said to him: Who knows you better than any other person in the world? Your mother! Here is the problem: Do I believe Mary who said she saw Jesus naked and dead or Mohammed who, 6 centuries later, said that he did not? I think I found the solution! When you talk to our Muslim brothers, tell them the truth.
End of Video
George Farahat’s own comment: We have a lot in common with Muslims: We believe in the same God. Muslims venerate Jesus as a prophet and a messenger from God. They venerate his mother as a sinless creature along with her son, and they consider Mary to be the highest creature of God. Muslims also pray and fast like we do. They give from their possessions to the needy (Zakat), and those who can are obliged to go on a pilgrimage at least once to their sacred places (Mecca and the Holy Land). However it seems that their difficulty lies in the cross. The cross is the single thing that Christians are known by. It is their blessing every time they pray. St. Paul says of the cross “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal. 6:14) And also “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2: 5-11). In our faith, the cross is present in the Triune God from eternity (metaphorically speaking); The Father empties himself in love for his only begotten Son and the Son receives that self emptying love and returns it to the Father – That binding self-emptying love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. This is the centre of our faith. I dare to speculate that the death of Christ on the cross is a re-presentation in time of the eternal self-emptying cross in God. And the Eucharist the Church offers so often in thanksgiving is a re-presentation of the self-emptying love and death of Christ on the cross. The agent of the Eucharist is the same agent of the eternal self-emptying love in God: The Holy Spirit. Glory be to Him with the Father and the Son for ever. Amen. George Farahat

About the Video Presenters: The video presented is the 4th in a series on “Christianity and Islam” by Ignatius Production, 2003, and has been edited in writing to the best of our ability.
Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., S.T.B., PhD. is the Founder and President of Ignatius Productions, a Catholic media production apostolate whose mission is to teach people the scriptures, educate Catholics about their faith, and promote unity and understanding within the Mystical Body of Christ. He has taught in a number of universities, and has lectured at hundreds of conferences around the world as a well-known Biblical scholar since 1976. He has also appeared in and hosted international radio and television programs and is well known through his program on EWTN. Rev. Pacwa is fluent in 12 languages including ancient languages: Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Ugaritic.
Daniel Ali is founder of the Christian-Islamic Forum, established in 2001 to promote dialogue between Christians and Muslims. His extensive studies of Muslim and Christian scholars brought him to the Catholic faith in 1995. He wrote “Inside Islam” published by Ascension Press in 2003 and has spoken in many universities, conferences and churches around the world.