Ali Ataie – Jesus in Islam Addressing Misconceptions About God’s Messenger
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AI: Transcript ©
This is Ali Atayi, lecturer of comparative theologies
at Setuna College.
We have reached in our Ramadan series entitled
the courageous 5, the great iconoclastic
prophets. We have reached our master, Isa alaihi
salam, the prophet Jesus Christ, peace be upon
him. Isa ibn Mariam alaihi masalaam, Jesus the
son of Mary, peace be upon both of
them.
Jesus, peace be upon him, is unique amongst
these 5 in the sense that he was
actually deified by many of his followers.
And today,
the belief that Isa
is God, is Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
is far and away the dominant theology
amongst the Christian community.
The verse that I'm going to use to
set the stage as it were for this
session is at the end of Surah Al
Maida, ayah number 116,
which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
first of all, the particle iph according to
Imamatuntawi
is a particle of futurity.
However, the the verb that comes directly after
is past tense. It's perfect tense.
However, the meaning is future. So, this is
called a prophetic past tense. So, this happens
from time to time in the Quran. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says for example,
And usually this is translated, the believers will
prevail or will win. But here the verb
is past perfect or Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
says speaking directly to the prophet Muhammad
In a'utaina
is past tense but usually translated,
we will give you kawthar. What is kawthar?
One of the meanings is nahrunfiljannah,
a river in Jannah. But the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam does not have access to this
river while he's living in Mecca. So what
is the import of this prophetic past? We
also find it in the Hebrew Bible, in
Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6. It says,
Indeed a son or a child will be
given to us. But this verb in the
Hebrew, yulad is perfect
passive, but it's translated in the future.
What is the rhetorical import of the prophetic
past? Is that it represents
a guarantee
a guarantee from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that
this conversation will take place
between Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and their isa
alaihis salam. When will it take place?
According to Imam al Suyuti,
on the day of judgment in front of
the whole of humanity Allah
will say
God will say, oh Jesus, the son of
Mary, and interestingly, ibn Maryam, this guttural alif
is retained in the orthography,
to emphasize as it were that Isa alaihis
salam is not the literal son of God,
he is the son of Maryam. And Maryam
alaihis salam is great in her own right.
In fact, Imam ibn Hazm and Imam Al
Khortubi, both of them insist that Maryam alaihis
salam was actually
a prophet.
So what is the question that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala is going to pose to Isa
alaihis salam in front of the whole of
humanity?
He says,
This hamza at the beginning of this statement
is istifhamiyyah.
In other words, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
asking a question here. And he says,
very interesting
in its syntax, in its construction here. The
verb, kulta,
the morphology of this verb suggests
second person masculine singular.
Right? Did you say? Well, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala here, he says, anta also. This seems
somewhat redundant,
But the rhetorical import of that is to
stress the Jew actually say. The Jew say
to humanity.
What did he say?
What is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asking?
Did you ever say to the people? And
form 8, it's reflexive.
Did you ever say take me
for yourselves and my mother as deities
other than Allah
Imam,
Abdullah ibn Alawih al Hadad as well as
Imam al Suyuti, both of them say here
that when this question is posed to Isa,
he begins to tremble. He be he begins
to shake and quake from the force of
the question.
Now interestingly here, western polemicists,
they look at this eye of the Quran,
and they say look the Quran has it
wrong. The Quran has a a strange conception,
an erroneous conception of the trinity. That the
Quran conceives it as being somewhat of a
holy family, the father, son and the holy
mother. But this is not a necessary conclusion.
I don't see this verse as denouncing the
trinity, at least not in this verse.
I see this verse as denouncing what's known
as Christolatry,
the deification
of Christ alaihis salam, and Mariolatry,
the deification of Maryam alaihis salam. And we're
gonna talk about how Christ was deified. But
how was Maryam alaihis salam deified? A quick
example, the 3rd ecumenical council and 431 of
the common era, the Council of Ephesus.
It was voted upon by the proto orthodox
bishops
that Maryam
is Theatakas,
which some have translated
as the mother of God, but a more
accurate translation is the bearer or carrier of
God. So to suggest that an entity has
the power or capacity
to carry or bear God, to handle God,
is to impute upon that entity a divine
quality.
So I don't see this verse as denouncing
the trinity,
nor intermediacy
through Maryam,
nor even the explicit worship of Mary, but
rather assigning Mary divine attributes,
deifying Maryam
Now listen to the response of
He says glory be to you. And and
linguistically here this is called
an absolute
an infinitive absolute for an apocopated
verb. So it's very direct, It's very exclamatory.
Glory be to you. Now I'm reminded of
Matthew
chapter 7 verses 21 to 23. And the
parallel of this is found in Luke chapter
13, which means it originated from the q
source document, which scholars of Western Academy believed
to be the best and most accurate
source of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and
Luke. This is what Jesus is reported to
have said in Matthew 7 21 to 23.
He says, not everyone who says to me,
kurie kurie in the Greek,
master master
shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only
the one
But only the one who does the will
of the father. Now let's take a quick
excursion here to talk about the term father
in the New Testament. Imam Al Ghazali
as well as Ahmed ibn Alawi, they both
say that when you read the term father
in the Injeel, in the New Testament,
think Rab. Ab means rub.
What Who is your Rab? The Rab is
the one who takes care of you in
stages,
as our parents take care of us in
stages.
So there's a there's a relationship here,
between the rub and ab.
Interestingly enough, if you look at these 5
great prophets, at least 4 of them did
not have their biological fathers in their lives.
If you look for example at,
Adam alice at
Ibrahim alaihis salam. Ibrahim alaihis salam, his father
was not Azza, that was his uncle and
it's permissible to call your uncle Ab.
Like he says in Surah Maryam, he says
According to Ibn Hisham, the name of the
father of Ibrahim alaihis salam was Tariq or
Tarah as he's called in the book of
Genesis.
So Ibrahim alaihis salam has tarbiyah rabbaniyah.
Allah
is the one who raised him. In that
sense, Ibrahim alaihis salam is the son of
God. In that metaphorical sense, not in the
literal sense. And this is what Imam al
Ghazali is trying to impart upon us. If
you look at Musa alaihis salam, he did
not have his biological father. He was raised
in the house of Firaun, but Allah
took care of him and raised him. He
is Tarbiyar Rabaniyah.
Isa alaihis salam did not have a father
to begin with. Tarbiyar Rabaniyah.
The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, his father
died before he was born. He was raised
by Allah
in that sense that Allah was taking care
of him.
Allah speaking to him directly, the verb is
second masculine,
singular. Rabuka. Have you not seen or understood
the significance of your Lord as to what
he did to the companions of the elephant?
In other words, why do you think I
did that? I was taking care of you.
That was the year that you were going
to be born.
Did he not find you an orphan and
give you shelter? Did he not find you
searching and enamored and give you guidance? Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is reminding the prophet
that he raised him up in stages. This
is the meaning according to the New Testament
of
of pater, of abba, of father. It means
the rub, the one who takes care of
you. It denotes God imminent.
And we find this analogy,
this this terminology in the Old and New
Testament. In the New Testament of course, Isa
is reported to have said in the Sermon
on the Mount, in Syriac, his actual language,
he said,
our father who art in heaven, all of
us, our father who art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. If we look into Psalm
826,
it says, All of you are sons of
the most high God. In fact, in Isaiah
chapter 64, one of the prayers of the
prophet Isaiah
is. You are the Lord our father.
So this is very Hebraic type language
and it's meant to be majaz. It's meant
to be figurative language, denoting an intimate relationship
between Allah
and his servants. So let's go back to
Matthew 7 21.
Only those who do the will of the
father. He continues.
On that day, many will come to me
and say,
master master, did we not prophesize in your
name, cast out demons in your name, and
in your name perform many dunamis,
which is a Greek word,
means miracles of power, you know, healings, raising
the dead, walking on water.
Listen to the response of Isa alaihis salam
as recorded by Matthew.
He says, then I will tell them plainly,
never did I know you.
Present, active, imperative.
In
Greek, it calls for the action to be
prolonged.
Meaning, depart from me and stay away from
me.
You workers of lawlessness,
of a nomos,
you antinomians,
you rejecters of the Sharia.
You see without the Sharia, to ground them
in sound theology,
many took to deifying
Isa alaihis salam. Some have dubbed this as
Ghazalian mirror Christology.
That when the when the light of Allah
reflected off
the purified heart of Isa
Those who weren't grounded in sound theology, those
who did not follow the Sharia, they didn't
know the mitzvot of Bani Israel. When they
saw that reflection, they mistook
the illuminated reflection
for the illuminating
source and began to deify Isa alaihis salam.
It is as if they saw the,
reflection of the moon in a still lake
and jumped into the lake and hoped of
grabbing the moon only to find themselves drowning.
Yet how great is the difference between the
actual moon and its reflection in the lake?
How much more vast is the difference between
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and a human being.
There's nothing like the likes of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala whatsoever. We'll continue with this discussion
next time insha Allah ta'ala. Wassalamu alaykumu rahmatullahi
wa barakatuh.
This is our 2nd session. We're talking about
Sayna Isa alaihis salam, our master Jesus Christ,
peace be upon him, the son of Mary
peace be upon her. So, last time we
were talking about this verse at the end
of Surah Al Maida aye number 116,
which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
in the Yomul Qiyama will ask Isa alaihis
salam, Did you ever say to humanity?
Take me or my mother as gods
in addition or other than Allah
And we said that the initial response of
Isa alaihis salam is direct and explanatory.
He says, Subhanaka,
glory be to you. He continues according to
the Quran.
Is an imperfect tense verb. And usually in
Arabic the imperfect tense is negated with a
laam alif like
But the is used for strong negation.
For example, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
taking an oath by the star when it
goes down.
Your companion, meaning the Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam is not
astray or being misled.
And he never speaks from his hawai. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, everything he says is
wahi, is guided by Allah
He said sallallahu alaihi wasalam
He says, by the one who sent me
in truth, nothing comes out of this pointing
to his blessed mouth except for the truth.
So Isa alaihis salam's response here,
never will it be for me
never will it be for me to say
what I had no right to say.
This is his response, Isa alaihis salam, according
to the Quran, he continues,
If I said that, in is a conditional
particle,
then you would have known that.
You know what is in,
you know what is in myself? Well, I
do not know what is in yourself.
Verily, you are the knower of the unseen.
Interestingly, if you look at the gospel of
John chapter 12 verse 29,
which is usually the gospel that most Christians
will point to to sort of prove that
Isa
is God. However, in the gospel of John,
and we'll analyze some of these ayat in
coming sessions, these verses in the bible in
coming sessions.
John 12 29, he says according to the
Greek, he says,
He says, from myself I have said nothing.
But the father who sent me,
He has given me a commandment,
Isa alaihis salam is saying in the gospel
of John,
in the gospel of John that God is
commanding him. We read in the Quran that
Isa alaihis salam is reported to have said,
That Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he has commanded
me to prayer and charity as long as
I live. But going back to John 1229,
that he has given me a commandment.
What to say and how I should say
it. Both of these Greek verbs are in
the subjunctive. In other words, Isa alaihis salam
is receiving the ipsisama verba,
the very words of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
As a prophet, he is speaking the words
of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala but also he
speaks with the ipsissima vox, the voice of
God. He speaks with God's
authority as a prophet.
In John 16:24,
he
says, The word you hear or the teaching
you hear is not mine. He continues in
John 14:1, he says,
present active imperative.
Again, in Greek, the present active imperative calls
for the action to be prolonged. He says,
believe
Believe in the God. Definite article in Greek
means God
with a capital g. Believe in the God,
believe in God. And Allah
He continues,
And also believe in me.
Believe in God and also believe in me.
Believe in Allah
and believe in the messenger of Allah. Clearly
here, God and Isa alaihis salam are mutually
exclusive.
He continues according to the Quran,
I did not say anything to them. And
if you look at this from a standpoint
of syntactical exegesis,
you have and then you have This is
called an affirmation
after a negation.
And this is one of the strongest ways
to make a statement in Arabic. For example,
we all know how to say
Allah
There is no God except Allah
or as Allah
tells us in the Quran
We did not send you except
as a mercy to all the worlds. So,
Isa according to the Quran here is saying
to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, I did not
say anything to them except what you ordered
me to say.
I told them to worship Allah
my Lord and your Lord. Now if you
look at the high priestly prayer
of Isa alaihis salam, going back to the
gospel of John, again, this is the gospel
that oftentimes is quoted to prove for a
lot of Christians that Isa alaihis salam is
God. In John 17:3,
I call a theological anchor of the gospel
of John. This is what Isa
is reported to have said according to the
original Greek. He
says This is eternal life.
This is eternal life. This is salvation. He's
going to tell you
That they might know you.
Who is he speaking to? According to John
17:1, he's talking to
He's talking to the father, to the He's
talking to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Eternal life is to know you
in the Greek, which means
the only one who is God. The one
and only
true God.
Theon, monon and Theon, you put them together,
you get the word monotheism.
He's teaching us tawhid
that the father, the Rab, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is the only one who is truly
God.
And
and to know the one whom you sent,
Jesus Christ.
This is eternal life, to know God, the
only true God,
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the only
true God and also to know the one
sent by Allah
and that is Isa alaihis salam.
Why to know?
Comes from the word or
gnosis.
If you knew Allah and his messenger, if
you knew them well, then you would have
agape,
unconditional love for them. You would have Mahaba
as the Quran says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says
that I did not create jinn and ins
except to worship. Ibn Abbas said, Illa liabudun
can be understood as illa liya'rifun
except to know me,
to know, have ma'arifah, to have knowledge of
God, gnosis of God. And if we had
gnosis of God,
then we would necessarily
have Mahaba of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And that this is the essence
of the Abrahamic tradition, the oneness of God
and the love of God and humanity. In
Mark chapter 12 verse 28 to 31, a
Jewish lawyer comes there, Isa alaih salam, according
to Mark, the earliest of the synoptic gospels.
And he says to him,
in the greek language,
according to the greek of the gospel of
Mark. He says to him, master,
Rabani,
Rabbi,
what is the greatest of the commandments?
Listen to the response of Esai alaihis salam.
He quotes from the Torah. He says in
Hebrew,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the
Lord
is 1.
He says 1, God is 1 and
1 means 1.
Allah
is Wahid and Ahad. He is 1 and
he's 1 and only he is unique. This
is the response of Isa alaihis salam to
this Jewish lawyer. He continues, he
says, And here in Hebrew, we have a
perfect
with conjunctive vav, which the meaning is future.
And there's an element of the imperative.
And you will love, you must love the
Lord thy God with all of thy heart,
soul and strength, and love your neighbor as
yourself. This is the essence of the Abrahamic
teaching. The prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
reported to have said,
none of you will enter paradise until you
truly believe
and none of you will truly believe until
you love one another. Shall I tell you
of something that will increase your love? And
they said yes. He said, Afshus Salaam Abaynikum,
spread peace amongst yourselves. Now let's look at
one of these so called proof texts that
are often used by Trinitarian Christians
to prove that Isa alaihis salaam
is God. John 1:1,
the very first verse of the prologue of
the gospel of John. This is how it's
translated usually by Christians. In the beginning was
the word and the word was with God
and the word was God.
Why is this important to analyze from the
standpoint of syntactical exegesis?
It's because the Quran seems to have an
intertextual
relationship
with this prologue. For example, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, he refers to Isa alaihis salam is
kalimatum
minhu, a word from him. The only other
text that mentions Jesus as being a word
of God is the prologue of John's gospel.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala also says about Yahya
alayhis salam musaddikam
bi kali matimin Allah that he bears witness
concerning a word of God. And there's almost
the exact same sentiment or statement in the
prologue of John's gospel. There's an intertextual relationship
between the prologue of John and the Quran.
So how do we understand this if it
says that Jesus was God and the word
was God? Well, let's look at the original
Greek. The Greek says
It doesn't say in the beginning, there's no
definite article before beginning. It says, in a
beginning
was the word, a relative beginning, not the
absolute beginning, a relative beginning. The beginning of
creation was the word. And what is the
word? The
according to the rest of the prologue,
the light of the Messiah, the ruh, the
soul of the Messiah. In other words, one
of the first entities
that God created
was the light or the soul, the ru
of the Messiah.
And the word was with God. How do
we understand that? The light of the Messiah,
the soul of the Messiah was with God
in a state of mystical union with God.
We were all there, yom alast, when Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala asked us, alastubi rabbikum
qalu balaam I not your Lord? We said
yes. Imam Abu Qasim al Junaid, he says,
this is the goal of this life to
get back to yom alast
and mystical union, al jama'
what is called theosis in Eastern Orthodoxy
is remembering that great day in which Allah
in which we were united with Allah
a dualistic
annihilation in God, where the
wahdaniyah
and ahadiyah and fardaniyah, the oneness, the uniqueness
and the individuality of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is always upheld.
It's not a henosis.
It's not
it's not a merging of our essence with
the essence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because
nothing is ontologically equal with Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. So this is mystical union that is
dualistic and the word was with God. And
then it says, Christians usually translate this last
part, and the word was God. However, the
Greek says,
There's no definite article here before the word
God, like we had in the previous statement.
That the word was with the
God, God with a capital g. So what
does it mean? And the word was a
God? Well, according to Daniel Wallace, in his
Greek beyond the basics, he says that pre
verbal indefinite nouns
are more often attributive
than substantive in the New Testament.
So what does it mean? A god, that's
pre verbal. It means
the word was theistic, it was godly, it
was holy, it was sanctified,
it was lordly.
You see in Exodus chapter 7 verse 1,
God tells Moses, I will send you as
Elohim,
as God unto pharaoh and Aaron as your
navi.
Does it mean that Moses is God? No,
it means Moses speaks with the authority of
God. Moses is sanctified, Moses is godly,
Moses is holy.
In fact, Isa alaihis salam is quoted in
the Quran as
saying in surah al imran.
And
Imam al Suiti says there's an alif and
a noon there for extra emphasis. What does
mean? Be lordly,
be godly or as the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam said and there's some weakness
in the tradition,
Adorn yourself
with the character of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Ibn Ajeeba in his commentary on the 99
names of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he says there are three elements to all
of the names of Allah. For example, the
name malik means owner which is related etymologically
to malik which means king. He says there's
taaaluk of this name. Taaaluk means that we
have some sort of connection to this name.
How do we connect to the name Malik
that Allah is the owner? Is that we
realized that we are his servants. This is
our tahluk.
Then the second element is called tahluk.
We assimilate something of this name. How do
we assimilate
malik? Well, just as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is the owner of everything and the king
and master of everything, we need to know
how to master
our lower selves.
We become the king of our lower selves.
And then the third element is to haqquk,
to taste or experience the realities, become annihilated
in God's love and character so that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is the only object of
our love and concern. We become sanctified agents
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon the earth.
At this point, we're gonna we're gonna stop
this session. InshaAllah Ta'ala, we're gonna continue next
time,
looking at more ayat from the Quran, verses
from the bible. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala increase us in knowledge.
Alayhi alayhi alayhi wa sallam, peace be upon
both of them. We've been talking about ayah
number
116 of surah al Ma'ida in which Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will ask Isa alayhi salam
point blank on the Yomul Qiyama, did you
ever say that your God or your mother
is God other than Allah
And the response of Isa alaihis salam as
we said,
never will it be for me to say
what I had no right to say. In
fact, never does Isa alaihis salam, even according
to any of the 4
canonical gospels in the New Testament, never does
he say I am God
or worship me. It simply does not exist.
Now interestingly, there's a verse in the Quran,
chapter 3
verse 79, al imran ayah number 79. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
Maqanali basharin,
It is impossible
for a human being to whom Allah
gave the revelation
and wisdom and prophecy,
then to say to the people,
be
my worshipers, worship me, be my
slaves, other than Allah
Now, Imam al Suyuti gives us the sababun
nuzul of this ayah. He says,
This was revealed from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
when the Christians of Najran came and they
said
that Isa alaihis salam ordered us to take
him as a
lord. And even some of the Muslims requested
let's make sajdah to him. This eye was
revealed.
Now in the new testament,
Isa alaihis salam, Jesus peace be upon him,
according to the new testament quite often quotes
the Torah. It is his most cogent argument.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us, musaddiqalimabayna
yadayamina Torah quoting Isa alaihis salam That Isa
alaihis salam said, I confirm the Torah which
is with me. That there's a clear common
Abrahamic
trajectory of theology that we see with Musa
alayhi salam, with Isa alayhi salam, and the
prophet sallallahu alayhi salam. For example, in Matthew
chapter 9 verse 13,
Isa alayhi wasallam quotes Hosea
66 from the old testament. He says,
I require mercy,
not sacrifice.
And
the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
It's about mercy and knowledge not sacrifice and
burnt offerings.
In Luke chapter,
4, Isa
will quote from Deuteronomy
chapter 10 verse 20,
when he's being tempted by Satan according to
the gospel of Luke, and he says to
Satan
Very interesting. Hebrew is not an inflected language.
There's no muharab like we have in Arabic,
sometimes we
say,
Right? It's inflected
whether it's a nominative or accusative or genitive,
But biblical Hebrew is no longer inflected. Maybe
ancient paleo Hebrew was according to many linguists
but biblical Hebrew isn't. So it's very clear
the word order is very important. You have
verb, you have subject and object. But here
in Deuteronomy 10:30
quoted by Jesus in Luke chapter 4,
the direct object is brought to the very
beginning of the sentence
because there is a direct object marker in
Hebrew. What's the effect of bringing the the
direct object to the beginning of a sentence?
This it's
called. It denotes emphasis
and exclusivity.
For example, in Al Fatiha,
we don't say
We worship you and we ask you for
help. We say
We bring the direct object forward which denotes
exclusivity
and emphasis.
So here, Isa alaihis salam is saying,
eth Adonai,
the Lord your God only will you fear,
oh to and him alone,
you will worship
only the lord your god.
Now, Luke translates this verse into Greek as
that you must revere the Lord your God.
Definite
article on God again.
Tantheon means the God.
Isa
is never called theos, God with a definite
article anywhere in the new testament.
And then he says,
and to him alone will you render worship.
Now,
in koine Greek, in New Testament Greek, there
are two words for worship used in the
New Testament.
The first word is
which is a compound word that comes from
the preposition pros which means toward and the
word
which means a dog.
What do dogs do when they see their
masters?
They kiss their hands.
So in the new testament says that the
disciples worshiped Jesus,
usually how Christians will translate, proskuneo,
when the disciples quote unquote worshipped Jesus, like
the King James version says that, The Greek
is which means they revered him, they respected
him, they kissed his hand. In John chapter
9, Jesus heals a blind man. He sees
him in the temple of Solomon later. And
this man thanks Jesus and the Greek says,
he made
towards him. Are we really to believe that
a Jewish man inside the temple of Solomon
is worshiping Jesus as God and committing idolatry?
No.
In fact, in the bible the same verb
is used to show respect to Jewish high
priests
and angels. They are not being worshiped as
God. The Hebrew Avad,
the verb Avad, the cognate is abada you
abudu, is translated as latreo in Greek. And
this is the verb
for worship that is only due to God.
It is never used
of Isa
in the New Testament. In fact, Christ himself
says in Luke chapter 4 verse 8,
and him alone, meaning God,
will you render worship
as God? Because he is the only God.
Allah
Now, the first words of Isa alaihi wasalam
according to the Quran are interesting. He says,
It's the great quranic I am statement, Right?
There's I am statements in the gospel of
John that Christians qualify as claims of deity
by Isa alaihis salam. I am the way,
the truth and the life. Before Abraham was,
I am. I am the good shepherd, so
on and so forth. Here we have an
I am statement in the Quran,
inni, a combination of inna harfatokid,
the emphatic particle
and ana,
the independent pronoun meaning I or I am.
Indeed, I am the servant of God.
He has given me revelation and has made
me a prophet.
And made me blessed wheresoever I am.
And has commanded me to prayer and charity
as long as I live.
Also, we have the beautiful ayah in surah
al imran, ayah number 51,
quoting Isa alaihis salam.
Allah,
not Inna Rabi Allah, Inna Allah
Right? The expression of exaltation
is accusative because it follows, indeed
Allah
is my Lord
and your Lord. Worship him, fi'il amr, present
active imperative.
Worship him. This is a straight path. This
is eternal life.
Now the end
of the gospel of, John, at the end
of the prologue,
the author says,
that no one has ever seen God.
Usually translated by,
Christians
as the only begotten son. But mano ganes
from mono ingenis means the one of a
kind. Literally what it means. The one of
a kind, the unique huias,
son. When you see it, as we said
before in previous sessions, when you see the
word father in the new testament, think
God imminent. The one who guides us in
stages.
God's imminence. Not literally God is our father.
Think Lord. When you see the word
in the new testament, don't think literal son.
Think abd, think a servant, a special and
sanctified
servant. In fact, Paul says in Romans chapter
8 verse 14, he says, for as many
as are led by the spirit of God,
for as many as are led by the
spirit of God, the penuma of God, meaning
they're guided.
These are the huioiteeu,
these are the sons of God.
Therefore we can call God, Paul says, Abba,
we can call him father.
Why? It's figurative, it's majaz, it's an honorific
title.
In the new testament, the son of God
is called an idafa
of
takrim
and tashrif, the annexation of,
of,
of honor and of majesty. Like we say,
the Kaaba is baitullah. We don't mean to
say literally that God resides
in a house, no. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is transcendent of space time and materiality
but to show tashrif and takreem,
to show
honor and majesty to the Kaaba, it's called
baitullah.
Allah
says in the Quran, they say God has
begotten children.
Rather they are servants
raised to honor.
Raised to honor. So this is how we
should understand manogenes hoyas. So let's look at
that verse again. No one has at any
time seen God.
People saw Jesus therefore he cannot be God.
The simple deductive argument. But
the
the one of a kind special servant of
God,
who is in the bosom of the father,
who is on the chest of the father,
who is in the heart of the father.
What does that mean? Who is beloved of
the father, beloved of the rabb, Isa alaihis
salam is beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
ekinas
exegesato.
That one meaning Jesus,
exegetes literally
exegetes
the father, explains the father, reveals the father,
gives commentary about the rub, about Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. He's not the God. He's not
Khan Thean. He reveals and explains and explicates
the father.
Christ is the perfect reflection of God on
earth,
the perfected and sanctified agent of God who
reflects God's attributes at a human level. Just
as the moon reflects the sun, the prophets
reflect the attributes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
at a non absolute and human level.
This is what Jesus meant when he said
in John chapter 10 verse 30,
I and the father are
1. 1 on the level of obedience,
disobedience,
will, intention,
born out of love, not one on the
level of ontology.
We find this type of oneness in the
Quran between Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and our
master Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam as well. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surah Al Nisa
Ayah number 80,
Whoever obeys the messenger is obeying Allah, not
because the messenger is essentially or ontologically
Allah.
No. Because the obedience of the messenger
is equal, is 1 with the obedience of
Allah
If you obey the messenger, it is as
if you are obeying Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
In Suratul Anfal, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
wamarametaivramayta
walakinna Allaharama.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that you did
not throw when you threw, Allah threw. Are
we to believe that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
incarnated into the prophet
and threw some stones? No. What does it
mean? It means that all of the actions
of the prophet
are guided by Allah
As Imam Abu Qasim al Junaid said about
the famous hadith Qudsi, my servant does not
draw close unto me with anything more beloved
than his fara'id, than his obligations.
Walayazalu
abdiya tfarabu ilayabin Nawafil and continues to draw
near unto me with his Nawafil
hatahuhibba
until I love him, then I become the
eye by which he sees and the hand
by which he holds and the foot by
which he walks. And if you were to
ask anything from me, I shall surely give
it to him. Are we to believe that
Allah literally becomes our eye and our hand
and our foot? No. What does it mean?
It means that all of our limbs become
guided by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That we
actualize our Islam. That we become sanctified agents
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Another example from Surah Tawbah, Allah says,
Allah and his messenger, 2 subjects mentioned. It
is more befitting that you all please him,
who at the end. The pronoun is 3rd
masculine singular, not the dual even though there
are 2 subjects. So what's happening here? Is
this a grammatical error? Imam Al Khortoubhi says
no, it's singular because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
wants to
demonstrate
an intimate relationship
between himself and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
in the sense that if you please the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, then you are automatically
pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. 1 on the
level of obedience,
disobedience,
will and intention
born out of love, not one ontologically.
That is impossible. That's not the Abrahamic tradition.
So in this sense,
to use Johannine language, the language of the
gospel of John, the prophet is in the
bosom of God. He is in the heart
of God. He's in the eye of God
as Allah says in the Quran.
So be patient as to the coming of
the command of thy Lord for verily you
are in our eyes. What does that mean?
In layman's terms, it means relax, I love
you.
Relax,
I love you. That's what it means.
And the proof that Isa alaihis salam meant
this oneness
relationally
and not literally is that in his high
priestly prayer in John 17 verse 21, listen
to what he says about the disciples.
So that all might be 1 just as
you father are in me and I in
you that they also may be 1
in us.
So what does that mean? If it's a
oneness, ontological oneness,
an essential oneness, that they're the same
substance or co substantial, is Jesus praying that
the disciples also become gods?
No. He's praying for their mystical union with
God. That they're united in God in love.
That there's a there's a unity of will
and intention born out of love.
Jesus tells Mary the Magdalene
in John 20 17. He
says,
I am going to ascend to my father
and your father. Remember we said when you
hear the word father, think I'm
going to ascend unto my and your
And my God and your God. I'm going
to ascend unto my father and your father.
My God and your God. Jesus says he
has a God.
There is a God of Jesus. Who is
this God of Jesus? If Jesus has a
God, how can he be God? Are there
2 Gods? There's one God. The God is
Allah In Mark 10/18,
a scribe comes to Christ and he says
according to the Greek,
good master.
What must I do to gain eternal life?
Point blank question. How do I go to
heaven? Listen to the response of Jesus. He
says,
In Greek here, Greek is highly inflected.
Mark brings the direct object forward.
Why does he do that?
To emphasize
the direct object.
Why me are you calling good?
Conventional translations don't do justice.
They say, why are you calling me good?
No. The object is brought forward. Why me?
He's almost offended. Why me are you calling
good? No one is good but one and
that is God.
Follow the commandments, he says. The mitzvot and
you shall enter the life. So I want
to end this session
by reading the first few
of the 10 commandments that deal with theology.
This is what Jesus
is telling us to follow.
He says follow the commandments.
Let's read a couple and then we'll end
the session inshallah ta'ala. The first few commandments
deal with theology.
Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 to 5.
It says,
I am the Lord your God, the one
who brought you out from the house of
Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods
before me.
Thou shalt not make the likeness of anything,
of anything in the heavens above,
or from the earth below
or anything from the seas beneath the earth.
Lo tishtach vey la valo
valo tavdaim.
You shall not bow down to them
nor worship them.
Because I am the Lord
your God. This is the theology of Musa
alaihi salam. This is the theology that's confirmed
by Isa alaihi salam. And this is the
theology that is confirmed in the Quran by
the teachings of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala increase us in knowledge. We'll
pick this up again in the next session.
In this session, we're going to look at
theological
consistency of normative Christian theology as relates
to Isa alaihi salaam. In other words, normative
Christology
in the Christian faith. As we said in
the last session,
2 of the most iconic
and theologically foundational statements of Isa alaihis salam
are in Surat Maryam
chapter 19 verse 30.
That I am indeed the servant of Allah.
And chapter 3 verse 51.
Indeed Allah is my Lord and your Lord.
Worship him, this is the straight path.
Now I want to preface my comments by
saying Muslim hermeneutics of the bible,
can be a sensitive topic. As a Muslim
biblicist myself, I proposed in my dissertation, for
example, that our approach
to the biblical text must be on the
same level as the great
masters of religion of the past. For example,
Abu Rayhan al Biruni or Imam al Shahrastani
who's usually considered to be the wadir, the
founder of this discipline known as Al Milalwan
Nihal, nations and creeds or comparative theology.
Also Abu Hamid Al Ghazali in Israd, his,
his refutation of Christian theology. Ibn Taymiyyah in
Israd. Ibn Umar al Biqa'i in his dissertation
in his,
Deiteseran,
his gospel harmony of the 4 gospels.
Our approach must be what I call polymarenic.
It's a combination of the word,
polemic.
The the Greek word polemicos
means warlike. This is when the text of
the bible and Christianity
is attacked with faulty knowledge.
And the other side of that you have
the heretic approach from the Greek word ereni.
Now people who who engage in Christian with
Christianity from a Muslim perspective,
from an heretical approach,
they approach the text and say, well, these
are saying basically the same things in Islam
and Christianity are no different. They tend to
secret syncretize
religions, Tawhid and Trinity as,
as explicated by Abu Jafar Tawawi and Saint
Augustine are really two sides of the same
coin. And obviously, that's not being true to
the traditions. Definitely, there are 2 different religions,
2 different theologies.
But to be polymeric
means to be critical
but also reflects
rigorous
academic
sophistication.
So I speak now in the capacity of
an academic. I mean no disrespect to anyone,
but we are going to be a bit
critical,
theological
consistency.
Isa is reported to have said in the
Quran,
that I confirm the Torah which is with
me, which is before me.
Now the Nicene Creed
was called by Constantine
or the Council of Nicaea, I should say,
was called by Constantine, the first Christian emperor,
to solve or to resolve the Arian controversy
of 325
of the common era. So this is the
creedal exposition of the faith by the 318
bishops. So I'm just gonna quickly go through
the Nicene Creed.
Not all of it, but most of it,
do a loose translation,
from the original Greek just to get give
you a feel of Orthodox Christian,
Christology,
belief about Jesus.
It says, we believe in one God, the
father,
the creator of all things seen and unseen.
And we also believe in 1 Kurian, which
they translate as Lord, the son of God,
begotten from the father, uniquely
from the same essence as the father, the
same usios.
Then it says,
God from God,
light from light,
true God from true God, which is interesting
because Jesus in 17 17 3 of John,
as we stated, says that the father is
that the father is the only true god.
He goes on to say the famous statement,
begotten not made,
begotten not created,
hamausyan
tu patri,
co substantial
of the same essence
with the father,
Through whom all things were made
and in, in the heavens and the earth,
and for the sake of us, men or
human beings, and for the sake of our
salvation
came down and sarco senta
assumed flesh and anthropocenta
and became a man and suffered and was
resurrected
on the 3rd day. So that's the gist
of the Nicene Creed. So here's what we
know about Trinitarian
Christianity,
what it teaches. Number 1, God became a
man.
Right? Saint Augustine said,
deus homo, that God became a man. Augustine
said, deus
incarnatus,
God became incarnated, the incarnated God, literally
became enfleshed.
So god became a man. Number 2, god
sacrificed his son who was innocent and sinless.
In fact,
technically, since the father and son are the
same,
ontologically,
god actually committed according to this belief an
act of self immolation.
Nonetheless,
the son was killed and he was innocent.
Number 3, the son, meaning Jesus,
died to atone
for our sins. He died for our sins.
Number 4, he died by being hanged on
a tree. He was crucified.
Number 5, he is commemorated by partaking of
his blood. It's called the Eucharist. It's a
sacrament in all churches, the Catholic, the protestant
and Eastern Orthodox. The Catholics believe the doctrine
known as transubstantiation
in which they believe that at mass, the
Holy Spirit descends and transforms
the essence,
the essence of the bread and the wine
into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus
while the accidents
of the bread and the wine remain the
same.
Now, okay, the Torah says Let's look at
the Torah. And Maimonides, the great product of
Muslim Spain, the great Jewish philosopher and theologian,
said that the Torah, the first five books
of Moses represents the ipsisima
verba, the very words of God,
similar to our concept of the Quran. And
the rest of the Old Testament, the nabiim
and the ketubim,
the prophets and the writings, is the very
voice of God inspired,
to prophets
and sages and historians.
So the Torah, the first five books, the
Pentateuch for Maimonides,
has the highest level of revelation.
Numbers 23/19
says,
lo ishael,
is very clear,
God is not a man.
God is not a man. In Hosea 119,
if you go to the prophets,
he says,
Ki in Hebrew is the equivalent of
the harfatokid,
the emphatic particle in Arabic. Indeed, I am
God and not a man, meaning they're mutually
exclusive.
Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, according to
John chapter 4 verse 24,
he says,
the God is spirit. God is a spiritual
being. He transcends
space time and materiality.
There's nothing like the likes of God whatsoever.
Maimonides says in point number 3 of his
principles
of Jewish emunah,
of Jewish iman, point number 3 of 13,
he says,
he is not, goof in hebrew means jissum,
a corpus,
a soma, a body. He is not a
body meaning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And there is not to him the likeness
of anything.
So to say that God became a man
is not theologically
consistent.
Okay. Point number 2, in Exodus chapter 20
verse 13,
we read,
which usually is translated thou shalt not kill,
but there's capital punishment in the old testament.
What this really means is thou shalt not
commit murder. What is murder? The killing of
an innocent person.
If a judge orders an innocent man killed
to save another, then that is a breach
of justice
and thus murder. Allah
says in the Quran, Surat Al Maidah, ayah
number 32,
That we prescribed for the Bani Israel, the
children of Israel,
that if a person is killed,
If a person is killed for other than
justice,
like someone is murdered then there's capital punishment
or for spreading corruption upon the earth,
then it is as if he has killed
the whole of humanity.
So God ordering the death of an innocent
person
is not theologically
consistent.
In Deuteronomy 2417,
we read,
Every man shall be put to death for
his own sin. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
that no bearer of burdens
can bear the burdens of another.
In Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 20, in the
nabiem, in the Old Testament, in the tanakh,
we read the soul that sins it shall
die.
The the the iniquity of the son shall
not be upon the father. The iniquity of
the father shall not be upon the son.
The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon
him and the wickedness of the wicked
shall be upon him. But if the wicked
would turn from his wickedness
and do that which is lawful and right,
he shall surely live. He shall not die.
What does it mean to turn to God?
The word in Hebrew is teshuva,
means toba.
Tobbataba yatubu. In Arabic, in its etymology,
loghatan,
means to turn,
to reorient,
but we use it to mean
toba, to repent. So this is the way
to make right with God according to the
prophets of Bani Israel
as that we make tawba. In fact,
remember Matthew chapter 9
when Jesus quotes Hosea 66, I require mercy
and not sacrifice
and the knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings.
The soteriology
of Luke Acts, the gospel of Luke in
the book of Acts
is vastly different than the Nicene Creed. In
Luke acts, Jesus is only called saviour
in the sense that he tells you about
sin and how to deal with sin. He
doesn't vicariously atone
for sin
and this is demonstrated in the beautiful parable
of the prodigal son. The pericope known as
the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15
When a man has 2 sons, one son
stays with him. The other one, is Musrif.
He's a he's prodigal. He's a spendthrift and
he's a sinner and he leaves his father
and then he comes back years later and
he sees his father from a distance and
his father opens out his arms to him
and hugs him and welcomes him back. What
is the moral of this parable? Is it
about blood sacrifice?
No, it's about Tawbah, Teshuvah,
it's about repentance.
This is the teaching
of Isa alaihis salam according to the gospel
of Luke.
Next point, number 4, Deuteronomy chapter 2123
says, whoever is hanged on a tree is
is accursed by God. And in fact, Paul
says in the book of Galatians
that Jesus became a curse for us. Very
interesting.
However, the Quran says the opposite.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala quoting Isa
says that that he has made me blessed
wheresoever
I am. In fact, the Quran says,
They did not kill nor crucify Jesus.
And if you look at all of these
so called crucifixion
prophecies
that Trinitarian Christians will say, prophesize or foreshadow
or our typologies of the crucifixion,
none of them, not a single one of
them
say the Christ. None of them say
or Moshiach
in the Hebrew. Absolutely none of them. However,
we read in Psalm 20, Psalm 20 verse
6, David writes,
He says, I know that God will save
his messiah.
He shall hear him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.
In fact, the name Yeshu'a
in Aramaic is a passive participle,
meaning the one who is saved by God,
according to the lexicon
Strong's concordance.
And finally, Leviticus
chapter 3 verse 17 says,
every type of blood you shall not eat
an everlasting
statute,
an everlasting statute. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
He has prohibited for you
the flesh of dead animals that carry on
as it were, and blood and the flesh
of pigs.
So what we find here is we don't
find theological
consistency
with Orthodox Christian,
Christology or theology.
We find that the statements of Isa as
recorded in the new testament
are perfectly in line with the statements of
Musa alaihis salam, attributed to Musa alaihis salam
in the Torah,
which has a clear trajectory into the time,
into the teaching and theology of the prophet
Muhammad
wa salam.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to increase
us in knowledge.
This is our final session,
talking about the Holy Prophet, Isa alaihi wasalam.
I want to, in this session, look at
a verse from the Quran chapter 4, Suratul
Nisa, ayah number 171,
in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins by
saying,
Oh people of the book, now Imam Tabari
as well as Imam al Suyuti,
they take here
to mean specifically
the people of the gospel,
the Christians. Others like Imam al Baydawi,
he takes it as Jews and Christians.
The verse
continues.
That Christ Jesus, the son of Mary was
only the messenger of God. If we take
the latter opinion that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is addressing Jews and Christians,
with respect to Jesus,
do not mention, do not maintain
that he was a false prophet or born
out of wedlock.
That as is mentioned in the Talmud, which
is the oral law that was finally regulated
to writing and rabbinical exegesis upon it. This
is considered ghuluuh. This is considered an extreme
position
with respect to Isa alaihis salam. But also
the other side of that, the other extreme,
do not make him into a god or
the literal son of God. This is also
this is also a type of excessiveness.
Now the ulama of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah,
they tend to take synthetic or middle positions.
So you have 2 extremes and the opinion
of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'a is in the
middle way, what the Buddha would call
madhyamika,
the middle path, the middle way.
For example, give you an example, the issue
of the grave sinner,
The Khawarij said someone who commits a major
sin, a mortal sin
has apostated
the religion. They're no longer Muslim.
The latter
they had the diametrically opposed opinion
and said if someone doesn't follow the Sharia
then it doesn't even affect their iman, they
were antinomians,
the Sharia is optional.
So
they said a major sin does affect your
iman,
you're still a muslim however but now you
have to make
tawba.
Okay. If the former opinion of Imam Tabari
Imam Suyuti
that Ahlal Kitab here means the people of
the gospel,
Allah
is then telling us that the Christians, telling
the Christians
not to go into extremes about Isa
In the past,
Christians have maintained that Isa alaihis salam was
both human and divine,
and some said he became divine at his
birth. Others said he became divine
at his
baptism.
Others said he became divine at his resurrection.
This latter is dubbed exaltation Christology
by Bart Ehrman in his new book, How
Jesus Became God. And this seems to be
Pauline Christology.
Paul seems to say that Jesus became divine
in some way at his resurrection.
Other Christians say that he was always divine
as the pre eternal son, and that while
he was caused by God, he was caused
or generated by God.
God caused him to be before time, so
God does not have temporal,
precedence over the son. Therefore, according to these
Christians,
there is no difference ontologically
between the father and the son. Other Christians
said that Jesus is 2 persons
with 2 natures.
Some gnostics
said that. Other Christians said he's 1 person
with 1 nature.
This is called modal monarchism
or patripassianism.
Other Christians said he's one person with 2
natures and this represents Catholic or Protestant
Eastern Orthodoxy.
Others said that he's only divine.
He's not human at all, like the docetes
which comes from the Greek verb dokeo
which means to seem or to appear that
Jesus only seemed to be flesh and blood.
He was really a phantasm,
a spiritual being. This was the opinion of
the Marcionites
and many other gnostics.
With respect to proto orthodox
christianity,
the first four ecumenical
councils
reveals an interesting
evolving Christology.
In 325
CE,
the first ecumenical council, the council of Nicaea
presided over by Constantine.
They voted the bishops, 318
bishops voted
and they decided that Jesus is
that the son is co substantial with the
father. Not
not similar to the father,
not not different essentially than the father but
of the same substance
as the father. This was in 325
of the Common Era. In 381,
at the Council of Constantinople,
the Holy Spirit was also declared officially to
be co substantial with the Father and the
Son. The Council of Ephesus, we mentioned in
the first session about Isa alaihissalam,
Mary was declared Theotokos,
the carrier or bearer of God. And the
council of Chalcedon
in 4 51 of the common era, Jesus
was declared to have 2 natures. He's 100%
God and 100%
man.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala continues,
as we said,
that Christ Jesus the son of Mary was
only the messenger of God.
And his word, and we said in previous
sessions that this could mean either that he
is his special personal creation
or his unique
pre eternal
impersonal
decree that eventually manifested in space time as
Christ.
That he cast upon Mary, and
a spirit from him, and here according to
the mufasareen of the Quran, the exegetes, the
meaning of this is that the teachings of
Christ are very ruhani.
They're very spiritual. They're very mystical in nature.
He was an ascetic
in a hadith recorded by Imam Ahmad.
The disciples came to Isa
and they said to him how is it
that you can walk on water?
Isa
said, bil yaqeen with yaqeen, with certitude. And
they said, we have certitude.
And he said, bring to me 3 objects.
Bring mud, stones and gold.
Mud, stones
and gold. So they brought these objects and
Isa alaihis salam said, what do you say
about them? They said stones are better than
mud and gold is the best. He said
I don't see a difference between any of
them. Know the secret of this and you
can walk on water. You can transcend
the elements.
Islamic Christology
sees itself as a restoration
of the message and status of Christ.
It is a restored theology
of the Evionim,
the original Christians,
the Ebionites,
the Nutsrim,
the Nazarenes that were marginalized
into oblivion
when Constantine declared
as the official version of Christianity.
Our version, our Christology of Christ is that
he was only human. Some have called this
semitic adoptionism,
dynamic monarchism, but he was the messenger of
God. He was a slave of God par
excellence.
He was the true Messiah
and he was a forerunner
of Ahmad, also known as Muhammad
The ayah concludes
so believe in Allah and in his messenger
and don't say 3,
don't say trinity.
Desist,
it will be better for you.
For your God, for indeed Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala
is only 1 God
Glory be to him that he should have
a son.
For him,
this lamb here is the lamb tamlik,
the lamb of ownership
that he owns,
that he possesses.
Everything in the heavens and in the earth.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is sufficient as
a protector.
Now, as I said earlier, and we'll end
with this inshallah ta'ala.
As I said earlier, nowhere in the New
Testament that Isa alaihis salam ever say I
am God or worship me. A lot of
Trinitarian Christians point to the I am statements,
the prologue of John's gospel. We dealt with
John 1:1. We looked at John 10:30.
Also, John 8:58
is also claimed to be a divine claim
of esalay salam
by mainstream christian exegetes because Isa according to
this
passage, he says in the Greek prinabraham
genestaiegoemi.
Before Abraham was,
I am. And the claim here is
that if you look at Exodus chapter 3
verse 14, when Moses is at the burning
bush and he's speaking to God and he
says, when I go into the Israelites, they're
gonna ask me your name, what shall I
tell them?
And God tells him, say to them, Ehyeh
Asher Ehyeh, I am what I am.
I am what I am. Interestingly,
Imam Ja'far as Sadiq, he noticed in the
quranic version of the story, we also have
this duplication of I am when Musa alaihis
salam is at the burning bush
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells him
but before that when Allah identifies himself he
says Inni
an Allah,
I am I am Allah.
Why? According to Imam Jafar as Sadiq and
Abul Qasim al Junaid,
the meaning of that is Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is telling Musa alaihis salam that he
is the only non contingent being, the only
necessary being,
the only one that can truly say I
am and mean it in its
right, well everything else is is is contingent
and derived from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So the Christian claim here is, Jesus is
saying before Abraham was, I am. God told
Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3,
I am what I am. Jesus is claiming
to be God. Interestingly,
in 250
before the common era,
the Hebrew Bible was translated
into Greek, a very famous translation
called the Septuagint
or the LXX
meaning 70. And when the gospel authors, when
they quote from the old testament, they're not
translating
directly from Hebrew, they're pulling from the Septuagint.
And this is what the verse sounds like,
Exodus 314
in the Septuagint.
God tells Moses,
I am ho un. Ho is a relative
pronoun.
Un present active participle,
meaning I am the one who is.
I am he who is, the one who
never dies, the one who is eternal.
In the Greek and John, Jesus simply says
ego emmi.
He doesn't say ho an. He doesn't say
the divine part. He simply says I am.
I am what?
Well, if we go back to John chapter
4, we have the first I am statement,
and this first I am statement is going
to guide our meaning.
Right? Tafsir by the book, tafsir of John,
by John. It'll guide the rest of the
I am statements in meaning throughout the gospel
of John.
So Jesus is at the well, the woman
at the well says to him, I know
the messiah is coming who shall tell us
all things.
Jesus responds in
verse 26,
I am he, the one who is speaking
to you. I am what, God? No, I
am the Messiah.
When Jesus makes his I am statements all
throughout John, they are claims of being the
Christ, the Messiah, not claims of being God.
But why say it like this before Abraham
was, I am the Messiah. Why say it
like that? Well, Jesus could be defending his
legitimacy
as the messiah by appealing to his,
pneumatic
temporal
precedence
over Abraham. In other words, the creation of
his soul predates that of Abraham and this
is how
we looked at the prologue, John 1:1.
So Isa is using, if this verse is
authentic, he's using a very cogent, very strong
argument defending his legitimacy
as the Messiah. That I was in the
knowledge and will of God even before Abraham
was created.
But it's not a divine claim. Is it
usual for prophets to speak like this? Well,
the prophet
was asked, when did you become a prophet?
He said, when Adam was
When Adam was between
the spirit and the body, I am the
seal of the prophets.
Meaning that his ruh was already created
because the ruh of a person is that
person, essentially.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam essentially could
say prin Adam Ganestai
ego emmi. Before Adam was, I am. But
this is not a divine claim. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala increase us in knowledge. I'm
going to end this final session by quoting
the motto of Zaytunah College like I've done
at the end of every other session.
We're gonna recite it in the plural,
Oh our Lord, increase us in knowledge. May
Allah bless all of you. May Allah
bless
your Ramadan and accept
all of our fasting and our prayers and
our reading of the Quran and seeking knowledge
for his sake alone.