The Qur'ran: A Second look-- Jesus Within?
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Is it true that Jesus is found in the Qur'ran? Where? Is it accurate? If proven, does this upgrades the status of the Qur'ran?
Is there some truth in all religious books? Whatever is found in the Qur'ran about Jesus, is it reliable? Above all, can the Qur'ran be used to lead a Muslim to Christ? CM
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YouTube has a couple videos => Imam converts after reading about JESUS IN THE Quran and => Prophet Jesus in the Quran by Imam Suhaib Webb - Window to Islam ... Christian Post has => What Does the 'Bible' and 'Jesus' Mean to Muslims? Converted Imam ...
Surah 3 includes "[55] (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 until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me ye will (all) return, and I shall judge between you as to that wherein ye used to differ. [56] As for those who disbelieve I shall chastise them with a heavy chastisement in the world and the Hereafter; and they will have no helpers. [57] And as for those who believe and do good works, He will pay them their wages in full. Allah loveth not wrong-doers."
Muhammad M. Pickthall, ed., The Quran (Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library, n.d.).
Keep Smiling
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Thanks for the reference. CM
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The Qur'an is certainly not inspired writing, and a lot of information it contains about Jesus is just copy&paste from sources like the infancy gospel of Thomas.
However, that doesn't mean that the Qur'an contains no truth about Jesus at all. The Qur'an affirms that Jesus was sinless, is the Word of God, was born of a virgin and other details.
The two major differences are (1) the divinity of Jesus and (2) the crucifixion of Jesus. Or so it seems, as all Muslims school interpret the Qur'an like that. The following observations I credit to Sam Shamoun. It would be impossible to find the exact quotes in the massive amount of material the he provides online. I hope that I'm able to reproduce them correctly. It's probably in one of his YouTube videos.
(1) The divinity of Jesus is rejected because Muslims interpret the word "beget/begotten" in a strictly sexual sense.
Surah 112:3 "He begetteth not, nor is He begotten"
Surah 25:2 "No son has He begotten, nor has He a partner in His dominion"The mainstream Muslim interpretation is that verses like these (there are more) refer to (and condemn) Christian beliefs that Jesus would be the outcome of some sexual intercourse between God and Mary.
What Muslims usually don't realize though is that this idea is to Christians about as heretical or absurd as to themselves. Jesus as the only begotten Son does not refer to some begetting in a sexual sense. And to everyone's surprise, the Qur'an even confirms that.
Surah 19:20-21 "She said: “How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?” He said: “So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, ‘that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us’: It is a matter (so) decreed.”"
So when Muslims tell us that they find the thought of God sexually begetting Jesus repulsive, point them to Surah 19. It holds the key to understanding that both Muslims and Christians believe in a non-sexual begetting of Jesus.
(2) The rejection of the crucifixion of Jesus is grounded in the following verse.
Surah 4:157 "That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Apostle of Allah”—but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them"
The mainstream interpretation of this verse is that Jesus was not crucified to death, but that either someone else was crucified in his place (Judas or Simon of Cyrene are the best candidates for his replacement), or that the Jews though they killed him, but in reality Jesus swooned, and was later revived in the grave.
Now the following verse about the battle of Badr uses the same grammatical construction in Arabic:
Surah 8:17 "It is not ye who slew them; it was Allah: when thou threwest (a handful of dust), it was not thy act, but Allah’s"
Surely this doesn't mean that the enemies of the Muslims were replaced by someone else, or that they swooned on the battlefield and were later revived. They sure were killed, but according to the Qur'an, not because the Muslims killed them, but because God permitted them to be killed.
So the same interpretation of verse 4:157 is not only possible, but even probable. It only seemed to the Jews that they killed Jesus, because it was God who permitted the crucifixion to happen, and not because Jesus survived. ("THEY killed him not. But he was killed nonetheless, because God/Allah permitted it.")
So if a Muslim insists that Jesus was not killed, pull up Surah 8:17, and show them the parallel sentence structure.
SOURCE:
Ali, A. Y. (2004). The meaning of the Holy Qur’an.
Shamounian YouTube channel -
Thanks, Jan, for your post above, on Jesus found in the Qur'an. In light of such, one is compelled to ask, what constitutes a "Holy Book"? Who defines it? What must be its content or characteristics? In short, is there a general or universal standard or guidelines for a book to be classified as "Holy"?
CM
