Muslims belief in Jesus, Truth or Myth?

by Rasheed,

Did you ask yourself, why Muslims do not retaliate by attacking or insulting Jesus, when their prophet Muhammad is Insulted? Please read on to find the answer,

I have heard it spoken before, read it in print, and finally received comments from a new blogging friend, Andrew. They all said: Muslims pretend to believe in Jesus whilst accuse him of being a liar!!

The comments I referred to above also:

1. Argued that Jesus is the Only Way to God

2. Claimed that ALL prophets of the Bible are Jewish, therefore Muhammad could not have been a true prophet

3. Argued that, since Jesus said he is God, Muslims can not believe him to be a prophet, and reject his divinity at the same time. Basically, Muslims, accuse Jesus of being a liar!

I promised to write a post to follow up on the discussion, so here are my additional thoughts starting from the last point:

The claim that Muslims accuse Jesus of being a liar is an obvious distortion of reality. It is often made to discourage people from learning about Islam. It falls in the same category as the claim that Allah is different from the God of Abraham and Israel.

Let me make it absolutely CLEAR: No Muslim would dare accuse Jesus of being a liar, or detract -in any way- from his standing before God. We must respect and revere Jesus at all times. This is NOT done out of courtesy to Christians. We do it because our belief in, and respect of, ALL the prophets of God is an essential part of our faith and religion.

God says in the Quran:

“Say We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which was vouchsafed unto Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.” {The Quran, 3:84}

This verse from the Quran defines an essential part of the Muslim creed.

What I, and all Muslims believe is that Jesus himself did not claim to be God, neither was he begotten by God, but rather, he was created by God without a biological father, the same as Adam was created without neither a father nor a mother.

The Muslim position is that later errors in transmission, led to the corruption of Jesus’ story and his message, not that he lied.

God told us in the Quran that Jesus was human. There is a bulk of evidence from the canonical Gospels, early Christian writings and modern day Christian scholars works, which points to the non-reliability of the claim about Jesus divinity.

God says in the Quran, describing events in the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, where Jesus will explain that he never claimed to be God, It was a fabrication of which Jesus himself is innocent:

“*5-116: And when Allah saith: O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he saith: Be glorified! It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I used to say it, then Thou knewest it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy Mind. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower of Things Hidden.”

*5-117: I spake unto them only that which Thou commandedst me: Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. I was a witness of them while I dwelt among them, and when Thou tookest me Thou wast the Watcher over them. Thou art Witness over all things.

*5-118: If Thou punish them, lo! they are Thy slaves, and if Thou forgive them, Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Mighty, the Wise.
[5:116-118]

All the prophets of the Hebrew Bible taught a central message of the One, Unique, God, The same message was repeated by Muhammad. I am in no doubt that this was also the true message of Jesus.

It just doest not make sense to me that God had suddenly changed from being The One, Unique, and Supreme God of Abraham and Israel, to become of a triune Godhead. It does not make sense to me that God had a Son that Abraham and Moses did not know about! Does it make sense to you?

On the other points raised,

The definition of prophet is someone who receives revelations from God, and is commanded by God to deliver a message to his people, therefore, I would still say that it is not true that ALL prophets in the Torah were Jewish, Lot, Abraham, Noah and Enoch were all prophets and they were not Jewish.

Every prophet sent to his people, at a certain point in history, would rightly say that he is the only way to God. But this has always been understood to be valid only for the duration of his ministry (ministry is not necessarily confined to his life).

You see, people who rejected their prophets/ messengers were also rejected and punished by God, The people of Noah, The people of Lot, Pharaoh and his entourage all perished because they rejected their messengers.

Even Korah, mentioned in Numbers:16, and his followers, who were believers in God, but rejected Moses and rebelled against him received immediate punishment and were out of favour with God. in

A final word, I do not write this blog, in the believe that it will lead someone to change his mind, or convert to Islam. All I am hoping for is, to put across the Muslim point of view, as I understand it, to people who did not hear it directly from us.
If you are enlightened, then it is by God’s grace, if not, It is His Will.