IS Jesus a Muslim ?
  by Lt. Col. (retired) M. A. Rahim
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What Jesus (pbuh) is to a Muslim is not clearly understood by many. A Muslim who does not believe in Jesus as a prophet of God cannot remain a Muslim: while a Christian who considers Jesus to be a myth and does not believe in the historical Jesus still remains a Christian. The Qur'an asks the believers :

  Say we believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which is revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received and that which other prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them and unto Allah we surrendered (Holy Qur'an 2: 196)

So before the advent of Muhammad (pbuh) anyone who believed in One God and Jesus as a true prophet of God was a Muslim. This is Islam. The same is true about the Muslim’s belief in Moses and Abraham. If we refer to Bible we find Jesus also following the same belief. For Jesus who was born in a Jewish family never denied the truth as brought earlier by Moses and other prophets. It has to be remembered that Jesus was a historical figure. He lived during the well known epoch of Roman history. If we study his life from this point of view we find ourselves bound by the events of history and we have to look to him against the historical background. Historical data cannot be manipulated at will to suit the whims or wishes of different writers. This obvious fact is challenged by Paul. He believed in the Jesus of his vision and he is not interested in the Jesus of history. In spite of the fact that the available material about the life of Jesus is very scanty there is still sufficient evidence to show that as long as Jesus remained on this earth he remained a practising Jew :

1. He was circumcised
2. He upheld the payment of the Temple tax
3. He always prayed in the temple of Solomon
4. He believed in One God
5. He observed all the Jewish festivals
6. Never once he claimed to be the son of God or the second God.
7. The concept of the Holy Ghost to be the part of a Trinity was completely unknown to him and was never advocated by him.

The question of original Christianity can be safely approached by considering the general principles which must have been operative and which Jesus accepted and did not deny or oppose, viz

1. The followers of Jesus did not have the New Testament in its present form Even in the accepted New Testament it is admitted that Jesus had declared that he definitely had no intention of making any changes in the Jewish scriptures. It will be therefore right to conclude that the original disciples of Jesus clearly preserved the essential demarcation between the man howsoever elevated he may be-and God. Prophets like Moses and Abraham are shown due respect but the absolute gulf which divides the humans from Divine is never overlooked.
2. There is documentary evidence to support the fact that the original Christians had developed  good relations with the Pharisees and that among them some were accepted as priests  of the Temple. This would not have been possible if the followers of Jesus were known to be so outrageously heretical as to ascribe divinity of Jesus.
3. The followers of Jesus regarded him as a Messiah. This was a status of great honour no doubt, but it could never be confused with the status of ‘second God’.
4. Luke was Paul’s physician and very near to him. His third “Gospel” and the “Acts of Apostles” do not mention the divinity of Jesus.
5. In the early Greek manuscript the word “son” is not used but Jesus is called ‘eved’ which means slave. The Arabic equivalent of ‘eved’ is ‘abd’ : and adjective used for all prophets

It is clear that the early Christians were monotheistic both by instinct and by teaching. They lived in the very center of monotheistic faith and it was logically impossible  for them to regard Jesus in a way which would annihilate the absolute gulf which existed in their mind between man and God.

Consequently Jesus, remained essentially distinct from deity. The role which they had attributed to him was of Messiah. It had a connotation which adhered to orthodox Judaism  and conformed to the Jewish nationalistic aspirations. This is obvious from Acts 1:6 when the disciples ask Jesus :” Lord , wilt thou at this restore again the kingdom of Israel ?”

The original followers of Jesus gave him highest veneration and honour short of calling him a God. The conception of Jesus’ divinity grew much later and was neither claimed by Jesus nor known to his early followers.

Jesus started his missionary activity in about 30A.D. It did not last more than three years and ended in 33 A.D. A few years after the disappearance of Jesus, Paul made his appearance on the Christian scene. He started life as the leader of pro-Roman Jewish  group hostile to Jesus, whose followers Paul persecuted with utmost severity. Then with dramatic suddenness he announced his conversion to the faith of Jesus. He had never met Jesus and he did not consider it necessary to try to study the teachings of Jesus. Paul announced  that his conversion was the result of a vision he had of Jesus and it was so real to him that he refused to learn from the apostles who alone could give an eye witness account of the true Jesus.

This was resented to and opposed by the true followers of Jesus. In this way we find that within twenty year after Jesus two conflicting religions grew preaching tow different Gospels condemning and cursing each other.

 Paul’s conversion to the ‘new religion’ did not affect his Roman citizenship and culturally and emotionally he remained Roman in his outlook. What he preached was separated in time and space from the teachings of Jesus which were literally followed by his disciples. His influence was generally confined to Greece and the Islands around it. The followers of Jesus spread throughout Western Asia, North Africa, East Spain, South-East France and had a church even in Rome. The original followers of Jesus were on very firm ground as the Jesus of history carried more conviction than the Jesus of fiction.

Paul died in 62 A.D. The followers of Jesus spreadheaded yet another revolution against the Romans in 66 A.D. The war went on for four years. In 70 A.D Jerusalem was destroyed and all the books were burnt. According to one source the number of Jews killed was 1,356,460. In 71, Titus who was the conquerer of Jerusalem organised a huge procession in Rome in which all the looted relics of the Temple were carried in triumph.

In 75 A.D. a new version of the gospel (of Mark) was produced in which the life of  Jesus was given a newer twist. Jesus was shown as harmless pro-Roman who sided with invaders. The Roman magistrate appears as a weak-kneed official who crucified Jesus in spite of the fact that he was convinced of his innocence. This magistrate was a nominee of Sejanus the leader of the anti-Semitic party in Rome. Such a story was produced to assure the Romans that Jesus though crucified as the ‘King of Jews’ was in reality a loyal Roman subject. Perhaps the Romans were not convinced  but from the administrative point of view it was useful. On the other hand the Roman knew who was behind the restlessness among the Jews against their rule. Emperor Claudius issued an edict in which it is said that ‘since the Jews constantly made disturbance at the instigation of Chrestus he expelled them from Rome.

After the fall of Jerusalem the center of Christianity was shifted to Alexandria and the church there refused  to accept Jesus as a pro-Roman and antinational hero. The fire of revolt continued to smoulder the once again in 132 A.D. there was a very widespread  revolt against the Romans. The Romans were victorious and the massacre of Jews was yet again very savage. The rampage extended beyond Jerusalem to far flung villages and what remained of the Jewish  scriptures was destroyed. After this tragedy the Jews who rejected Jesus just withered away and ceased to be either a political or a religious force for almost the next 2,000 years. The Jews who had accepted Jesus faced brutal persecution but remained undaunted.

For the next two hundred years  the Christians had only the Jewish scriptures in their hand. The stories of the life of Jesus were current but they were not canonised. The local priest was at liberty t accept or reject any version according to his choice. During this period there were between 300 to 4,000 gospels current in the Christian world. In 325 it was decided to accept the four gospels that now form part of the New Testament. This was however decided by the majority of votes against the vehement opposition by the original Christians. The pro-Romans were successful in enlisting the support of the Roman emperor. The other gospels were burnt. To possess a gospel not approved by the church was made a penal offence. It was that :

1.      The Roman Sunday became the Christian Sabbath

2.      The traditional birthday of Roman Sun God i.e., 25^th December became the birthday of Jesus.

3.      The cross of light which was the emblem of the Sun God was accepted as the emblem of Christianity

With Jesus having been made into ‘Second God’ the next step was to bring in the ‘Holy Ghost’ and complete the trinity, though without any authority from the Bible. The movements to bring Christianity nearer to Rome started by the new version of Mark in 75 A.D was thus completed in 325 A.D when Christianity was completely Romanised .

 (ICRA) 

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