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Christ in the light of Qur'an
And relate the story of Mary as mentioned in the book, when she was withdrew from her people to an eastern place:
And screened herself off from them. Then we sent Our angel to her and he appeared to her in the form of a well-proportioned man.
She said I seek refuge with the Gracious God from thee if indeed thou dost fear Him.
The angel said, ...... (Holy Qur'an 19-16-21)
The above Qur'anic verses show that Mary was a chaste woman who gave birth to a faultless boy prophet Jesus by Divine decree. These verses refute the most vulgar charges of the Jews that Mary led an immoral life.
As far as Christianity is concerned, it believes not only in virgin birth of Jesus birth but also consider him as a son of God. Islam recognises the virgin birth but points out that this does make Jesus the son of Mary, not the 'son of God'. In fact, whenever Jesus is mentioned as a son in the Qur'an , it is always "Isa ibn Maryam" (Jesus the son of Mary).
The Christian considered the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of the virgin Mary as a fundamental basis for the claim of Jesus' unique relationship with God. The Qur'an says :
" Surely, the case of Jesus with Allah is like the case of Adam. He created him out of dust then He said to him, 'Be', and he was." (Holy Qur'an 3:59)
Therefore, all that is meant is that Jesus is no more than a mortal, and that is an error to take him for God. Jesus was conceived by a woman in the manner all women conceive; she was delivered of him as all women are delivered of children. He was fed as children are fed. Then, he ate food and drank water and answered the call of nature as all other mortals do. The experience of Mary during the time of labour is described in the Hoy Qur'an as follows :
And the pains of child-birth drove her unto the trunk of a palm tree. She said, "O, would that I had died before this and had become a thing quite forgotten! (Holy Qur'an 19:23)
This shows that Mary gave birth to Jesus under the ordinary circumstances which women experience in giving birth to children. The throes of childbirth were too severe for her to bear and hence she gave utterance to such words. The reference to the thrones of childbirth clearly shows, that an ordinary human child was coming into the world ; reference may be to the prediction in the Bible :
".... . . . . . . . in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" (Genesis 3:16)
The likeness of Adam here also indicates that the creation of Adam is more wonder-inspiring than the birth of Jesus ; for Jesus had a mother, but Adam had neither father nor mother, if any creature were to be accorded the privilege of divinity , it is Adam, for he was a "direct" handiwork of God and God breathed life into him. All other creatures, including Jesus, came into being through intermediary agents. God himself refers to Adam as His vicegerent on earth.
Muslims accepted Jesus as a prophet bringing the Injil (original New Testament) as a guide for his people which according to Islam, means Allah's revelation to Jesus :
And We sent after them in their footsteps Jesus, son of Mary, verifying what was before him of the Torah and We gave him the Gospel in which was guidance and light, and verifying what was before it of Torah and a guidance and an admonition for those who guard (against evil). (Holy Qur'an 5:46)
Jesus was a Messenger of God sent to the Jews to confirm the messages of the earlier Jewish prophets and to call his people back to obedience to the guidance given through the earlier prophets like Musa (Moses) and Yahya (John the Baptist).
And I come fulfilling that which is before me, namely, the Torah ; and to allow you some of that which was forbidden unto you, and I come to you with a Sign from your Lord ; so fear Allah and obey me (Holy Qur'an 3:50)
The Bible also confirmed that Jesus was only sent to his people the Jews.
But he answered and said. "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Mathew 15:24)
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda ; for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel (Mathew 2:6)
The Bible agrees that Jesus received his revelation from God
For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. (John 12:49)
Jesus strongly disclaim Godhood or divinity when he says:
Why callest me good? There is none good but One, that is God (Mark 10:18)
He spoke of God as :
My Father and your Father and my God and your God. (John 20:17)
This verse shows that he stood in the same relation to God as any other
man-he was a creature of God.
In his agony on the cross, Jesus cried out:
Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani ? Which is , being interpreted, 'My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? (Mark 15:34)
Can you imagine these words coming out of the mouth of God ? Here we have the cry of a helpless man to His Creator and Lord.
The fact is, Jesus claimed only to be a prophet of God. He was a man, to whom God had revealed His message for the guidance of other man ; many passages from the Bible support the view :
Jesus saith unto them, if ye are Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told, you the truth, which I have heard from God. (John 8:39-40)
And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. (John 17:3)
The doctrine of the Incarnation like the Trinity, was also developed long after Jesus. The modern scholars have, in fact, traced several stages through which Jesus was gradually defied.
Reason also refuses to accept a man, who was born of a woman, who suffered from human wants, ignorance and limitations, and grew in stature, power and wisdom, like all other human beings as God. To put human limitations upon God and to believe in His incarnation in a human body is to deny the perfection of God.
The dogma of the incarnation was brought into Christianity like many other Christian doctrines and rituals from paganism. In the pre-Christian mythologies, we often find the here being regarded as God. The Hindus of India even today worship their heroes, Rama and Krishana as incarnations of Vishnu, the second person of the Hindu Trinity.
The essentials of Islam may be summed up in the theism of one God, the unity of all genius revealed religions, the unity of humanity and virtues with full-hearted love and service of Allah, to love one's neighbour as one loves one's self and the belief in the community as an instrument to protect and promote good life its simple democratic socialism. Islam also believes that God will one say make a reckoning with each individual and prescribe appropriate reward. Hence, knowledge and love are the ultimate values to which Islam reduces all value which together constitute the good life.
The greatest service Islam rendered to humanity was the exaltation and purification of the concept of God. Islam strove to deliver humanity from a multiplicity of gods on the one hand and from incarnationism on the other and to bring man back to the Unseen God.
Vision comprehends Him not, and He comprehends (all) vision; and He is the Knower of subtleties, the Aware. (Holy Qur'an 6:103)
In Islam, God is the creator Who rather than being immanent in .His creation transcends all His creations. The highest and the purest of human beings are also His creatures and the oneness of the creatures with the Creator is achieved by complete self-surrender which is the literal meaning of Islam.
All creation is the manifestation of God :
He is the Originator of the heaven and the earth. He has made for you pairs of your own selves, and of the cattle also He has made pairs. He multiplies you therein. There is nothing whatever the unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing. the All-Seeing. (Holy Qur'an )
All similes applied to Him are imperfect. Nobody can comprehend him completely in his essence. He is the nearest to the near and beyond of the beyond. The universe embodies His Will without exhausting it.
Islam, as the religion of harmony, promulgates the doctrine of the Unity of Religion. Islam is, therefore, a universal religion. It is the religion of the identification of human and divine will to attain that perfect harmony which is the ideal urge, not only of humanity, but of the entire Creation.
Muhammad (pbuh) insisted that all religions have a tendency to become fossilised and hardened into orthodoxies claiming monopoly of truth and salvation as well as barring the door of paradise to all others who do not profess certain doctrines or follow certain rituals, customs or conventions and make their religions mere dogmas which become the living faith of the dead or the dead faith of the living.
It makes all the difference to our understanding of Christianity if we are enabled to apprehend that it did not begin as a new religion but as a movement of montheistic Jews who held Jesus to be their God -sent kind and deliverer. Here in a sentence is what it is imperative to know, the origins of Christianity. Here we have essential clue to the activities of Jesus and his first followers which helps to compensate for many material facts which are beyond recovery. Armed with this information, we can get Christianity in correct perspective and trace clearly and simply in the light of what is ascertainable how it was transformed into what it afterwards became. (The Politics of God, Hugh. J. Schonfield)
Jesus declares clearly that he had come not to destroy but fulfill older books. Thus in Mathew we read :
Think not I am come to destroy , but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Mathew 5:17-18)
From his ,it is evident that the mission of Jesus was to restore the Mosaic teachings, but the New Testament as we have been today, teaches that the Mosaic teachings was abrogated completely by Jesus. The teachings of Jesus must have been a reproduction of the teachings of Moses, except for what the Scribes and Pharisees had themselves added to it. But the New Testament seeks to correct not only what the Scribes and Pharisees had invented but also what Moses and subsequent Prophets had taught in their time. This position is contradictory. One part of the New Testament teaches one thing and another part something different. When a book contradicts itself in such a manner, the book can be presumed to be of various authors.
The books of the New Testament are said to have been dictated by the disciples of Jesus and we cannot say that the disciples were not sane. The great disciples of prophets always possess a high decree of sanity. We must, therefore, conclude that the disciples did not dictate the writings of such a book. They talked as they went about and those who heard them passed on the substance of what they heard to others. When the others sat down to record what they had heard, they added many of their own thoughts. The result was the New Testament as we know it today, a bundle of contradictions.
(ICRA)