Muslims believe that Prophet Jesus is nothing but a prophet of God. They don’t consider him as divine or even to have any extra human characteristics other than what Allah had given him as proof to show to the Children of Israel. Muslims keep Prophet Jesus in high esteem and believe him to be one of the best and most patient messengers of God. There are three main points to understand the Muslim point of view on Prophet Jesus and his life. These three points are the attitude of the Children of Israel toward him, the fact that there is no difference of opinion about him among Muslims, and the Muslim’s acceptance of Prophet Jesus.
Prophet Jesus came down to the Jews, who are described in their own book the Torah as thick-headed, stiff-necked people. Their history is quite interesting. They came from the descendents of Prophet Isaac, who was the second son of Prophet Abraham. Isaac had a son named Jacob who was also a prophet. Jacob had twelve sons and they became the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel was the nickname of Prophet Jacob given to him by God. Among these sons, one was named Judah and from his children came the Jews. Many prophets were sent to them; however, they never fully embraced any of them. Some they rejected, others they killed. They even changed the Torah and made lawful what Allah made unlawful and vice versa. When Prophet Jesus came to them, they hadn’t changed. They rejected him and even called his mother horrible names. Then they got tired of the message and decided to put an end to him, they made a plan to kill him. They told the Roman authorities, who were ruling Palestine at that time that he was causing trouble and talking against the Roman government. This way the Jews used the Roman governor to try to crucify him. God had other plans for Prophet Jesus, and did not let him die such a humiliating death. These were the reasons that after this, the Jews were the ones humiliated with the curse and wrath of God for not only denying the message, but trying to kill Prophet Jesus.
In the beliefs of Muslims there are no differences of the humanity, birth, and resurrection of Jesus. The Quran clearly states many times that Jesus was only a Prophet of God, and not a god himself. He was all human, and there was nothing divine about him. God made him without a father. God honored both Jesus and his mother and made them among the best of humanity and honored above all creation. Many Christians believe that Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of man, but even in their Old Testament it says that no one will bear the sins of another, so how can this be possible? We have no doubt that Jesus was raised up to God, instead of the misleading Christian point of view that he was killed on the cross. The Christians are full of differences and doubt about the birth, life, humanity, and death of Prophet Jesus. Therefore, they can never truly be at peace with their religion, because it is mostly guesses. Islam is different, because every belief of the religion is complete and exact. There are minor differences in rituals, but that has no spiritual degradation of the message of Islam. Islam was made as a religion for humanity, from God, and it contains no doubt or controversies.
The Muslim is commanded by God to believe in the Quran and everything thing in it. The belief system of all Muslims is the same. We all accept Jesus as the true messenger of God, the Messiah sent to the Jews. We believe in the miracles he performed by the permission of God to guide those who could not see the truth. We believe in the last supper and the table full of food brought down by heaven for him and his disciples to partake of. We also recognize his mission, which was to bring the spirituality to the Jews, because they were lacking in it. His mission was to strengthen the Torah and to purify its laws from corruption. Muslims believe that Jesus was not god, nor the son of god, nor possessed by the spirit of God. Jesus was only a man, and lived his life as nothing more or less than a man. He was one of the most righteous figures in history. The Christian Evangelists always attack Muslims by saying we reject noble Prophet Jesus, but they are misguided and misguiding others. Most Muslims actually revere Prophet Jesus more than most Christians do. We have tremendous respect for him and recognize him as one of us, a straight and upright Muslim. How then can we think of him as any less or belittle his role in any way? We believe the truth about Jesus, and reject all the falsehoods attributed to him.
We should mention that Islam does recognize the Christians as more than polytheists, but we should wonder why the majority of the Christians in America believe us to be polytheist. In fact, Islam is the most monotheistic religion in the world, nay, in all of history. Islam is the religion of peace, security and insurance of faith. Those who follow Islam, they will get their reward in this world and the hereafter. One thing should also be mentioned, that is that Prophet Jesus will one day descend on this Earth before the coming of the Last Day. He will then defeat the Anti-Christ, fight the Jews, and bring justice to humanity. May God bless us so we may all see that day when Islam triumphs over disbelief.
Date: 12/19/03
