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The
Other Jesus
Newsweek, March 27, 2000
“Muslims recognize Jesus as a great prophet and revere
him as Isa ibn Maryam--Jesus, the son of Mary, the
only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an. At a time
when many Christians deny Jesus' birth to a virgin,
Muslims find the story in the Qur'an and affirm that
it is true. "It's a very strange situation, where
Muslims are defending the miraculous birth of Jesus
against Western deniers," says Seyyed Hossein
Nasr, professor of Islamic
studies at George Washington University. "Many
Westerners also do not believe that Jesus ascended
into heaven. Muslims do." Indeed, many Muslims
see themselves as Christ's true followers.
What Muslims believe about Jesus comes from the Qur'an--not
the New Testament, which they consider tainted by
human error. They also draw upon their own oral
traditions, called hadith, and on experts'
commentaries. In these sources, Jesus is born of Mary
under a palm tree by a direct act of God. From the
cradle, the infant Jesus announces that he is God's
prophet, though not God's son, since Allah is
"above having a son" according to the Qur'an.
Nonetheless, the Muslim Jesus enjoys unique spiritual
prerogatives that other prophets, including Muhammad,
lack. Only Jesus and his mother were born untouched by
Satan. Even Muhammad had to be purified by angels
before receiving prophethood. Again, in the Qur'an
Muhammad is not presented as a miracle worker, but
Jesus miraculously heals the blind, cures lepers and
"brings forth the dead by [Allah's] leave."
In this way Jesus manifests himself as the Messiah, or
"the anointed one." Muslims are not supposed
to pray to anyone but Allah. But in popular devotions
many ask Jesus or Mary or John the Baptist for favors.
(According to one recent estimate, visions of Jesus or
Mary have occurred some 70 times in Muslim countries
since 1985.)
There
are, of course, important commonalities among these three
religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). All
three believe in one God who has revealed his will through
sacred
Scriptures. They all look to an endtimes when God's justice
and power will triumph. And they all recognize the figure of
Abraham as a father in faith. What is often overlooked,
however, is another figure common to the three traditions:
Jesus of Nazareth
The Christ of the Gospels is certainly the best-known Jesus
in the
world. . . . But alongside this Jesus is another, the Jesus
whom
Muslims since Muhammad have regarded as a prophet and
messenger of Allah. And after centuries of silence about
Jesus, many Jews now find him a Jewish teacher and reformer
they can accept on their own terms as "one of us.
Jesus has become a familiar, even beloved, figure to
adherents of
Asian religions as well. Among many contemporary Hindus,
Jesus has come to be revered as a self-realized saint who
reached the highest level of "God-consciousness." In recent
years, Buddhists like the Dalai Lama have recognized in
Jesus a figure of great compassion much like the Buddha. "I
think as the world grows smaller, Jesus as a figure will
grow larger," says Protestant theologian John Cobb, a
veteran of interfaith dialogues.
Perhaps. Each of these traditions--Judaism, Islam, Buddhism
and
Hinduism--is rich in its own right, and each has its own
integrity.
. . . it is important to recognize that non-Christian faiths
have
their own visions of the sacred and their own views of
Jesus.”
The Other Jesus, Newsweek, March 27, 2000
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