Jesus in Islam?

Filan

Also seeking clarification as to what Muslims believe happened to Jesus... Was it simply a case that a different person was executed by mistake..as a general Religous Studies student once told me ?

Would appreciate verification!..
.thanks
Alan

the_new_mr

Muslims believe that someone else was indeed executed in Jesus' place (peace be upon him) but not that it was a mistake. Muslims believe that another man was made to look like him and that that man was executed. I'm not sure whether this means that man was actually made to look like him or the executers were made to see him as Jesus (peace be upon him). Guess it doesn't matter either way really.

I remember reading a hadith (but I'm not sure of its authenticity) once in Ibn Kathir's "Stories of the Prophets" that said that when Jesus (peace be upon him) was informed (I think by the Angel Gabriel) that they were coming to execute him, he asked which of his companions would take his place and a very young man stood up to volunteer. Jesus (peace be upon him) told him to sit down as he was too young. He then asked his companions once again and the young man stood up again and Jesus (peace be upon him) said "Today, you will be with me in heaven".

Some verses from the Quran:

Al-Imran:55
"Lo! God said: "O Jesus! Verily, I shall cause thee to die, and shall exalt thee unto Me, and cleanse thee of [the presence of] those who are bent on denying the truth; and I shall place those who follow thee [far] above those who are bent on denying the truth, unto the Day of Resurrection. In the end, unto Me you all must return, and I shall judge between you with regard to all on which you were wont to differ."

An-Nisa:157-158
"and their boast, "Behold, we have slain the Christ Jesus, son of Mary, [who claimed to be] an apostle of God!" However, they did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him, but it only seemed to them [as if it had been] so; and, verily, those who hold conflict*ing views thereon are indeed confused, having no [real] knowledge thereof, and following mere con*jecture. For, of a certainty, they did not slay him:; nay, God exalted him unto Himself - and God is indeed almighty, wise."

blackthorn

There is a good opportunity coming up to learn more of the Islamic view of Jesus (peace be upon him) with a documentary on ITV1 on Sunday 19th August at 11.15pm (called 'The Muslim Jesus'). I hear Shaykh Hamza Yusuf was interviewed extensively for this doco, and he is someone I would trust to give a learned account.

In the meantime, there is this PDF of excerpts from a book Hamza Yusuf is bringing out of sayings of Jesus collected from the Muslim traditions.

the_new_mr

Sounds MEGA interesting!!! I can't watch ITV where I am so I hope someone puts it up on the net for viewing. I think it wouldn't be breaking copyright law as it's the equivalent to someone taping the show and then mailing it to me.

Thanks for that link too. Interesting hadiths there. Most of them seem to be tied in with the relationship with the life of this world and the relationship with the life of the hereafter. That reminds me of a hadith of the Prophet Mohamed (peace be upon him) that said: "There is no life but the life of the hereafter" and another that says: "Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a traveler/wayfarer."

There are also many many verses in the Quran which talks about this subject. The following are only two.

Yunus:24
"The parable of the life of this world is but that of rain which We send down from the sky, and which is absorbed by the plants of the earth whereof men and animals draw nourishment, until -when the earth has assumed its artful adornment and has been embellished, and they who dwell on it believe that they have gained mastery over it -there comes down upon it Our judgment, by night or by day, and We cause it to become [like] a field mown down, as if there had been no yesterday. Thus clearly do We spell out these messages unto people who think!"

Al-'Ankabut:64
"for, [if they did, they would know that] the life of this world is nothing but a passing delight and a play - whereas, behold, the life in the hereafter is indeed the only [true] life: if they but knew this!"

But, it is very important to remember that God has not forbidden the good things of this life as an enjoyment as long as we don't forget what's really important. God does not want us to be monks. Only to realise the truth of the life of this world and never lose sight of what really matters.

Some verses:

Al-Baqara:200-202
"And when you have performed your acts of worship, [continue to] bear God in mind as you would bear your own fathers in mind-nay, with a yet keener remembrance! For there are people who [merely] pray, "O our Sustainer! Give us in this world" -and such shall not partake in the blessings of the life to come.; But there are among them such as pray, "O our Sustainer! Grant us good in this world and good in the life to come, and keep us safe from suffering through the fire":; it is these. that shall have their portion [of happiness] in return for what they have earned. And God is swift in reckoning."

An-Nisa:134
"If one desires the rewards of this world, [let him remember that] with God are the rewards of [both] this world and the life to come: and God is indeed all-hearing, all-seeing."

Yunus:62-64
Oh, verily, they who are close to God - no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve:; they who have attained to faith and have always been conscious of Him.; For them there is the glad tiding [of happiness] in the life of this world and in the life to come; [and since] nothing could ever alter [the outcome of] God's promises, this, this is the triumph supreme!

Al-Qasas:27
"Seek instead, by means of what God has granted thee, [the good of] the life to come, without forgetting, withal, thine own [rightful] share in this world; and do good [unto others] as God has done good unto thee; and seek not to spread corruption on earth: for, verily, God does not love the spreaders of corruption!”"

May God grant us the best of the life of this world and the best in the hereafter and protect us from the suffering of the Hell-fire.

blackthorn

'The Muslim Jesus' doco was last night. Overall, a good programme. Only an hour long - way too short! Would have liked to have heard more from Karen Armstrong, not sure what point she was making about heresy? They included views from Christians, and a nice segment about two friends, one Christian and one Muslim convert. I liked the clips from the Iranian film, 'St. Mary'. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf a delight as usual.

.

wes

Watched this and it was pretty good. Showed the differences between the 2 faiths and the similarities concerning Jesus.

PDN

the_new_mr wrote:

I remember reading a hadith (but I'm not sure of its authenticity) once in Ibn Kathir's "Stories of the Prophets" that said that when Jesus (peace be upon him) was informed (I think by the Angel Gabriel) that they were coming to execute him, he asked which of his companions would take his place and a very young man stood up to volunteer. Jesus (peace be upon him) told him to sit down as he was too young. He then asked his companions once again and the young man stood up again and Jesus (peace be upon him) said "Today, you will be with me in heaven".

If Jesus told the young man that he would be in heaven with him that same day, then wouldn't that mean Jesus was going to die that day as well? Or do Muslims believe that Jesus ascended into heaven without tasting death?

Osman

PDN wrote:

do Muslims believe that Jesus ascended into heaven without tasting death?

That's the one.

Muslims also believe that he will descend again one day.

the_new_mr

Show sounded good! Must set aside some time to watch it. Watched the first few minutes of it and it looks pretty well made. I guess they only made it an hour long so as not to lose people out of boredom. Anyway, I'd love to talk about it more once I've seen it.

Osman

Bittorrent lovers can download the torrent file for the documentary

Hobbes

Let me make something clear, while this program is online at certain locations it is in fact sold as well. Until you can prove it is public domain do not post links to it on boards.ie.

I won't be banning anyone at this time. But please respect boards.ie rules.

the_new_mr

I thought that if something has been shown on terrestrial TV then it's okay to view it on the net as long as the person putting it up for view is not making on money on it.

Anyway, I guess we can try to find out if it's okay to show it for free and hopefully we'll be a little more successful than we were with the message

How did you find out that it's being sold Hobbes? I looked on amazon but no luck.

Dontico

Does anyone know where one can get a copy of the "Saint Mary" film?

hivizman

the_new_mr wrote:

I thought that if something has been shown on terrestrial TV then it's okay to view it on the net as long as the person putting it up for view is not making on money on it.

Anyway, I guess we can try to find out if it's okay to show it for free and hopefully we'll be a little more successful than we were with the message

How did you find out that it's being sold Hobbes? I looked on amazon but no luck.

Just back from extended trip abroad and I'm sorry to have missed this interesting documentary. On my travels, I picked up an interesting book on this theme The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature by Tarif Khalidi - as well as extracts from the Qur'an and Hadith literature, it contains a number of stories from a wide range of sources.

It's likely that the TV documentary will be repeated on one of the otherITV channels, so I'll watch out for it.