Quoted
from the "ISLAM REVEALED"
JESUS
CHRIST ACCORDING TO ISLAM
JESUS
ASCENDED AND WILL RETURN
Surat al-Imran (The
Family of ’Imran) 3, verse 55 says,
(And remember)
when Allah said: O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing
thee to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve and
am setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve.
There are many interpretations
of this significant verse. Al Fakhri al Razi said, "The meaning of
‘I am gathering thee’ is that Allah was specifically exalting him to a
place of honor. Furthermore," Razi declares:
The interpretation
of ‘causing thee to ascend unto me’ means that Allah was raising Him to
a place where no one could judge Him, for on earth men pass various kinds
of judgment on one another, but in Heaven there is no true omniscient Judge
except Allah.
I believe, however, that
this Quranic reference is borrowed from the words of Jesus quoted in John
20:17, ". . . I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God
and your God."
I suppose one of the
most famous verses in all the Quran, as far as Christians are concerned,
is from Surat Maryam (Mary) 19:33-34:
Peace on me the
day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!
Such was Jesus,
son of Mary, (this is) a statement of the truth concerning which they doubt.
Almost all Muslim scholars
declare that Jesus will come again and defeat the anti-Christ, then die
and be raised up. Whatever the interpretation is, one must still
understand from this passage that Jesus Christ is coming again.
A similar statement
is found in Surat Zukhruf (Ornaments of God) 43:61; "And lo! verily there
is knowledge of the Hour. . . ." Jesus himself enunciated this truth
when he declared in John 5:25, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour
is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice on the Son of
God; and those who hear will live."
Every scholar of the
Quran perceives that "the Hour" is a reference to the hour of judgment.
Jesus is also recognized as the one who knows "the Hour," and therefore
will be present at the final judgment. In other words, He will be
coming again.
In Mishkat Al Masabih,
several authorities are quoted as saying that Muhammad announced that there
will be ten signs before the "last hour." Interestingly enough, Muhammad
announced that the coming of the Anti-christ, "Dajjal, is one, and the
return of Jesus the Christ is another.
Jesus (‘Isa) is mentioned
ninety-seven times in ninety-three verses of the Quran. He is called
the Spirit of God seven different times.
Christ Jesus, according
to Islam, is one of the six prophets with special titles, listed chronologically
below:
Adam, the
Chosen of God
Noah, the
Preacher for God
Abraham,
the Friend of God
Moses, the
Speaker with God
Jesus, the
Word of God
Muhammad,
the Apostle of God.
It is obvious from
the above references that Jesus Christ emerges from the Quranic passages,
as well as the Hadith’s pages, as a very formidable, fascinating, and divine
figure indeed. In fact, the Quranic description of Jesus of Nazareth
stands second only to the Bible.
The major problem
in Muhammad’s misunderstanding of the full truth of who Jesus is could
be related to the fact that Muhammad’s information came neither from true
Christian believers, nor the New Testament Gospels. Rather, it was
acquired from Jewish fables as well as from local heretical Christian sects.
Still, one is profoundly amazed at how close a figure the Quran presents
of the true Christ of the Gospels, our Savior and Lord. He is absolutely
more than a prophet!
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