Jesus in Islam

[azurnoir]

"So you're telling me you believe in Jesus, as well as Muhammad?" I remember the perplexed look on my Christian friend's face a few years ago. I had dropped a theological bombshell on him in revealing that Jesus was considered by Muslims to be a prophet of God.

"Not only do we believe in Jesus," I replied, pausing for maximum dramatic effect, "we also believe in the Virgin Birth." My friend's eyes widened with surprise, his mouth agape.

Christians, perhaps because they call themselves Christians and believe in Christianity, like to claim ownership of Christ. It thus comes as a huge surprise to many of them - my friend included - to discover that the world's second-largest faith, Islam, also stakes a claim to him.

Jesus, or Isa, as he is known in Arabic, is deemed by Islam to be a Muslim prophet rather than the Son of God, or God incarnate. He is referred to by name in as many as 25 different verses of the Quran and described as the "Word" and the "Spirit" of God. No other prophet in the Quran, not even Muhammad, is given this particular honour.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/dec/23/religion-islam

[snagglepuss]

1. Its utterly meaningless to say that Muslims believe in Jesus. Who they believe

Jesus to be is a far cry from what Christians believe and there is nothing to be gained by blurring important distinctions. The belief that Jesus was a prophet is in no way comparable to Christian belief that Jesus is God incarnate, a concept which is an anathema to Muslims. Jesus had to be reworked into something palatable with Islam.

Mohammed was simply doing a sales pitch for his idea that the Old and New Testament contained big errors but that (lo and behold) his take was total perfection so to pitch his new and improved take on the existing God of the Old and New testament he had to downgrade Jesus to a prophet. Logically he simply couln't do away with Jeus so his only option was to re-cast him.

[Better Today]

2. I've known this for a long time, but as with Mormons who now claim to

be a sect of Christianity (ever since the Olympics were held in Utah, prior to that my Mormon neighbors, all my neighbors are Mormon, insisted that they were not Christians, now apparently they are, gofigure). . . . anyway back on topic, there is clearly a level of worship toward the myth-man named Jesus in Christianity as opposed to Islam or Mormonism. Since truly Christian religious sects can easily war with each other even though their basic tenets come from the same belief, I don't think bringing this tidbit of near-miss similarity will quell any animosity between Muslims and Christians.

[UndertheOcean]

3. Meh .... 99% of the Quran is derived from Christian and Jewish cannon anyway

of course Jesus will be there somewhere.

[Igel]

4. There are a lot of "there can be only one" kinds of muddled thinking.

Most Muslims seem to buy into it to an extent that only the most die-hard Xian ecumenicalists even dream of. Then they extend it, laughably, from their own beliefs to others'.

Let's try it there way. I have a friend named David. My wife and her brother had a roommate named David. My high school girlfriend's older sister dated a guy named David. My wife's uncle is named David.

Gee, that David guy gets around.

Of course, "my" David is about 52, 5' 10", married some 15 years, a hunter and clumsy as a turtle -- and a copier salesman living in the Pac NW. My wife's David was avidly and openly gay and in his late 30s now. My high school sweetheart's "boyfriend-in-dating" would be perhaps 55 now and was easily 6' 1" in high school and basketball center. My wife's uncle is in his 70s now, 5' 9".

But they *all* the same name, David. So they must be the same person. How confusing! Unless he's able to morph.

This is insane, but good PR foisted on the weak-minded and intellectually deficient by people who are either also intellectually deficient or who understand what they're saying is insane and want to convert by stealth and deception if they can't use state or military or economic power. You take what you can get in this game.

Or, as many Muslims true to their fiqh's history say, Xians corrupted their texts to alter what Jesus really was and to deny Muhammed. At least *this* POV is more consistent--our Jesus is really their Isa, it's just that we've been lying about him for the last couple thousand years and don't really know our Isa

This is again the affirmation of a single entity--like my saying there's only one David. Except instead of ignoring the differences, it's imposing my POV and my version on everybody else, so everybody's X is really *my* X, while simultaneously accusing them of wilful (or originally wilful, now traditiona) deception in covering up the identity. So my wife misrepresents David by saying he was gay or in his 70s and I, glorious I, must rescue her from her ignorance.

This inanity reaches its pinnacle in the swill that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God. The Jews' God stipulated the Sabbath and the Old Testament, and there's no record of his taking another people in their record. The Xian God has a Son, crucified, buried, and resurrected after some 22 hours; in my version, that Son was the Jews' God made incarnate (the Nicene Creed goes for this, too, since Yhwh made all things in Genesis, and the Nicene Creed says that all things were made by Jesus, but most Xians don't accept this, I think) and spent 3 days in the grave; the Muslim's God has no son and would never allow his prophet to be crucified. But, really, they're the same David. Er, God.

Foolishness. There are a multitude of different Muhammeds-in-concept, just as there are a multitude of Jesuses-in-concept. To say otherwise is foolishness and stupidity--or demagoguery.

[rd_kent]

5. Kick