Ali Ataie – The Courageous 5 Prophet Jesus, Part 1
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AI: Transcript ©
This is Ali Atawi, 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 Maryam alayhi mas salam, 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 Risa alaihi salam 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
Maidah, I number 116,
which Allah
says,
1st of all, the particle
according to Imam Atuntawi
is a particle of futurity.
However, the the verb that comes directly after
ivqala,
is past tense. It's perfect tense.
However, the meaning is future.
So this is called a prophetic past tense.
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
says, speaking directly to the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam,
in a'utayna kal kawthar.
A'ata is past tense, but usually translated,
we will give you kawthar. What is kawthar?
One of the meanings is nahrun filjannah, a
river in Jannah. But the prophet, shalallahu alaihi
wa sallam, 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,
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 the Isa
alaihi salaam. When will it take place?
According to Imam al Suyuti, fir qiyama,
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 alaihi
salam is not the literal son of god.
He is a son of Maryam,
and Maryam alayhis salam is great in her
own right.
In fact, Imam ibn Hazm and Imam al
Khortubi, both of them insist that Maryam, alayhis
salam, was actually
a prophet.
So what is the question that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala is going to pose to Isa,
alayhis salam, in front of the whole of
humanity. He says,
this hamza at the beginning of this statement
is Istif Hamiyya.
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? But Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala here, he says, also.
This seems somewhat redundant
but the rhetorical import of that is to
stress, did you actually say? Did you say
to humanity?
What did he say?
What is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala asking?
Did you ever say to the people? In
form
8, it's reflexive.
Did you ever say take me
for yourselves
and my mother as deities
other than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?
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 alaihis salam, 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 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 alayhis 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 4 31
of the common era, the Council of Ephesus.
It was voted upon by the proto orthodox
bishops
that Maryam alayhi salam is Theotakas,
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,
Maryam alayhis salaam. Now listen to the response
of Isa alayhis salaam.
He says, Glory be to you. 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
believe 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 721
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
hapoyon thilematu patras,
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 Ahmad ibn Alawi, they both
say that when you read the term father
in the Injeel, in the New Testament,
think Rab. Ab means Rab.
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 relationship
here
between the Reb 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 alai at,
at Ibrahim alaihis salam. Ibrahim alaihis salam, his
father was not Azaar, 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 alaihi salam was Tarikh or
Tarah as he's called in the book of
Genesis.
So Ibrahim alaihi salam has
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala 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
alaihi salam, he did not have his biological
father. He was raised in the house of
Firaun, but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala 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 wa sallam, his
father died before he was born. He was
raised by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in that
sense that Allah was taking care of him.
Alam tarakayfa fa alarabuka
bi ashaabilfil
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. Alam yajid kayateeman faawa wawajadaka
ghadwalan fahadah?
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 sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam 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
dharab, 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 alaihi
salam 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, kullekhem bene elion.
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 ata Adonai Avinu,
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 Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and his servants.
So let's go back to Matthew 721.
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. Apokorote
apemu. Apokorote,
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 Alaihi Salam. Some have dubbed this as
Ghazalian mirror Christology,
that when
the light of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reflected
off the purified heart of Isa alaihis salam,
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 Alaihi 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.