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‘Muhammad entered Mecca with an army; Jesus chose the way of the Cross.’

1:00am Sunday, 1st August 2010

The number of references to Bible characters surprises many Christian readers of the Qur’an. The Qur’an was addressed in the first place to communities among whom Bible stories circulated. Jews and Christians are often explicitly addressed in its pages. In affirming Muhammad as God’s messenger, the Qur’an also affirms his continuity with prophets of the Old Testament and with Jesus.
We have revealed Our will to you [Muhammad] as We revealed it to Noah and to the prophets who came after him; as We revealed it to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes; to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, Solomon and David, to whom We gave the Psalms (4:163).
Jesus, named ‘Isa’ in Arabic, is actually mentioned in 93 verses of the Qur’an.1 The Qur’an affirms that Jesus was born of his virgin mother, Mary, and his birth was announced to her by an angel.
In Muslim teachings, Jesus is therefore acknowledged as a very special prophet sent by God to teach the people. He performed many miracles and altogether he is reckoned as an exceptional figure. Jesus is a Word from God and he is the Messiah, although these terms are not understood in the way in which the New Testament uses them.
In a study of the impact of large communities of Muslims in Britain today, the authors point to the fact that many Muslims are astonished at the disrespect shown for Jesus in what is a supposedly Christian country. They see a Christianity that is marginalised in British society and compromised by the loss of integrity of Christian beliefs. The study found examples of Muslims speaking up for the sanctity of the name of Jesus in ‘Christian’ England.3
For Muslims, Jesus is unique among the prophets of God who appear in the Qur’an. Not only is he called Messiah, he is given such titles as ‘Word’ and ‘Spirit’. Yet he is to be esteemed as no more than a human servant of God. In the following passage from the Qur’an, Christian beliefs about Jesus are both affirmed and denied.
People of the Book [i.e. Christians], do not transgress the bounds of your religion. Speak nothing but the truth about God. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was no more than God’s apostle and His Word which He cast to Mary: a spirit from Him. So believe in God and His apostles and do not say: ‘Three.’ Forbear, and it shall be better for you. God is but one God. God forbid that He should have a son! His is all that the heavens and the earth contain. God is the all-sufficient protector. The Messiah does not disdain to be a servant of God, nor do the angels who are nearest to Him (4:171–172).
Another striking feature about the Qur’an’s references to Jesus is the way in which they are so frequently linked to Mary, his mother. Jesus is the son of Mary. The Qur’an is strong in its affirmation of Jesus’ miraculous birth but it denies his death on the cross.
In spite of the Qur’an’s many references to Jesus, it provides very limited information about what he did and said. There is no Sermon on the Mount, and there are no parables or extended narratives about Jesus’ ministry, or his trial and condemnation to death. The recipient of the Qur’an is told scarcely anything about the events of his life.
Instead, the Qur’an seems to assume that its first hearers had access to other information about Jesus that was in general circulation among the Arabs. The primary source of this additional knowledge would have been the four Gospels, although their contents were probably circulated orally in the form of stories told about Jesus. This knowledge would have been gradually lost among later generations of Muslims who were no longer familiar with content of Gospel narratives.
By removing the Gospels from view, Islam closes off a much fuller access to Jesus’ words and works. It serves then to conceal Jesus, rather than reveal him. And if the Bible is unknown, how can the Quran’s descriptions of Jesus as Messiah and word of God (Q 3:45) be understood in their original contexts?
In the Qur’an in Sura 4:156–159, it seems to be denied that Jesus was crucified. Instead it is suggested that a lookalike was killed in his place.
They [the unbelievers] denied the truth and uttered a monstrous falsehood against Mary. They declared: ‘We have put to death the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the apostle of God.’ They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but they thought they did [or, literally, ‘he was made to resemble another for them’].
Those that disagreed about him [Jesus] were in doubt concerning him; they knew nothing about him that was not sheer conjecture; they did not slay him for certain ... There is none among the People of the Book but will believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he [Jesus] will bear witness against them (4:156–159).
The close attention paid to the crucifixion narrative in the Gospels is also evident in a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Christians, some time in the year 54 or possibly 53.
For I handed to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive (1 Corinthians 15:3–6).
The death of Jesus, together with his resurrection, is central to the Christian tradition. It is at the heart of the Christian gospel. It permeates the New Testament. Christian baptism and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper make no sense without it.
Kenneth Cragg draws a comparison and a contrast between Jesus in Jerusalem and Muhammad in Mecca. Both faced an opposition to religious truth based on prestige and pride. Both were rejected as upstarts, disruptive of the status quo. However, there the similarity ends. Muhammad entered Mecca with an army; Jesus chose the way of the Cross.
Jesus did not conquer Jerusalem. He suffered outside its walls. The cross became his throne.
It is necessary to present this contrast tenderly and without reproach.Freed to draw by its own force, the Cross remains the magnet of human souls. When the contrasted patterns of Christendom are cited, let it be remembered that it is the Christ of the Cross whom we are calling others to seek and find. Faiths must surely first be understood in their architects before they are assessed in their followers.
For the Christian, the message of Christ crucified is a message of hope and salvation. It begins a revolution in our understanding of God. It is the means by which God changes lives, and it takes us to the heart of what is involved in living as people who follow Jesus.
Christianity Alongside Islam, John Wilson, Acorn 2010. acornpress.net.au