Jesus: an Islamic view   
      
   In this pamphlet, the author shows the nature of the Prophet Jesus as Islam   
   provides. He shows that the Prophet Jesus is a human prophet and does not have   
   any divine nature as Christian believe.   
      
      
      
   Did you know that it is obligatory for Muslims to believe in Jesus, or that a   
   record of Jesus' life and teachings is preserved in the Qur'an and sayings of   
   Muhammad, as well as in little-known traditions handed down by Muslim   
   communities over the    
   centuries?   
      
   Christians brought up in the West are often surprised to discover Muslims who   
   are familiar with the life and teachings of Jesus through the teachings and   
   scriptures of Islam, while they themselves are unlikely to have learned   
   anything about the Prophet    
   Muhammad at church. This is partly a matter of history: Islam incorporates the   
   Judeo-Christian tradition and embraces Jesus in the same way that Christianity   
   incorporates the Old Testament and embraces Moses (peace be upon them both).   
   All three religions    
   trace their roots to Abraham, and in fact the Qur'an and the Bible share and   
   uphold many beliefs, practices and virtues in common -- belief in God, angels   
   and the Day of Judgement, in the virtues of prayer, charity and fasting, and   
   in the importance of    
   truthfulness, patience, and love. Together, Christians and Muslims make up   
   more than half the world's population, and rather than being ideological   
   opposites as some people imagine, their faiths are in many ways the most alike   
   of the world's major    
   religions.   
      
       
      
   Early Muslims were granted protection in Christian Abyssinia   
      
   This common ground is one of the reasons the Prophet Muhammad (PBH) advised   
   the weak and poor among his early followers to seek refuge in Christian   
   Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) to escape persecution by the idolatrous Arab   
   tribes, before Islam became    
   established in Arabia. Muslim historians' account of the event succinctly   
   conveys the heart of the relationship between the two faiths. When the corrupt   
   leaders of Makkah pursued the Muslims into Africa and asked the Negus to   
   return them, the Abyssinian    
   ruler summoned the small community of Muslims, then asked them:   
      
   'What is this religion which has caused you to become separate from your   
   people, though you have not entered my religion or that of any other folk   
   around us?'   
      
   Their spokesman Ja'far, Muhammad's young cousin, replied, 'O King, we were a   
   people steeped in ignorance, worshipping idols, eating unslaughtered meat,   
   committing abominations, and the strong would devour the weak. That is how we   
   were until God sent us a    
   Messenger from out of our midst, one whose lineage was known to us, and whose   
   truthfulness, trustworthiness and integrity were renowned. He called us to God   
   - that we should testify to His Oneness, and worship Him and renounce what we   
   and our ancestors    
   had worshipped in the way of stones and idols; and he commanded us to speak   
   truly, to fulfil our promises, to respect the ties of kinship and the rights   
   of our neighbours, and to refrain from crimes and bloodshed. So we worship God   
   alone, setting nothing    
   beside Him, counting as forbidden what He has forbidden and as permissible   
   what He has allowed. For these reasons have our people turned against us, and   
   persecuted us to try to make us forsake our religion and revert from the   
   worship of God to the    
   worship of idols. That is why we have come to your country, having chosen you   
   above all others, We have been happy under your protection, and it is our   
   hope, O King, that here with you we shall not suffer wrong.'   
      
       
      
   His speech was translated by the royal interpreters, after which the Negus   
   asked if they had with them any revelation their prophet had brought them.   
   Ja'far then recited the following verses of the Qur'an, from the chapter   
   entitled 'Mary':   
      
       
      
   And make mention of Mary in the Scripture, when she withdrew from her people   
   to a place towards the east, and secluded herself from them. We sent to her   
   Our spirit (the angel Gabriel), and he appeared to her in the likeness of a   
   perfect man. She said, 'I    
   seek refuge in the Compassionate God from you; (do not come near me) if you   
   fear the Lord.' He replied, 'I am none other than a messenger from your Lord,   
   (to announce) to you the gift of a pure son.' She said, 'How can I have a son   
   when no man has    
   touched me, nor am I unchaste?' He said, 'Even so will it be; your Lord says,   
   "This is an easy thing for Me. And We shall make him a sign for humanity and a   
   mercy from Us. So it has been decreed."'(Qur'an 19: 16-21)   
      
       
      
   Ja'far's recitation and the translation of these verses brought tears to the   
   king's eyes. He responded, 'This has truly come from the same source as that   
   which Jesus brought.' He granted the Muslims his protection. But the tribesmen   
   of Makkah, furious    
   that their plans and alliances had been frustrated, decided to rouse the   
   king's ire against their monotheist cousins by playing up the differences   
   between Christianity and Islam regarding Jesus. The king assembled them   
   together once again and asked,   
      
       
      
   'What do you say about Jesus, son of Mary?'   
      
   Ja'far replied, 'We say of him what our Prophet has brought us, namely that he   
   is the servant of God and His Messenger, and His Spirit and Word which He cast   
   into Mary, the blessed virgin.'   
      
       
      
   The Negus then lifted his wooden staff and said, 'Jesus does not exceed what   
   you have said by the length of this stick.' The bishops present objected to   
   the king's judgment, but that did not deter him from granting the small Muslim   
   community full    
   protection, declaring, 'Not for mountains of gold would I harm a single one of   
   you'.   
      
   (Adapted from Muhammad: his life based on the earliest sources, by Martin   
   Lings)   
      
       
      
   That was Christianity's first encounter with Islam, and is how Islam first   
   came to flourish -- in Africa, under the protection of a benevolent Christian   
   king.   
      
       
      
   Differing Christian views on Jesus   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)