Nearly two billion Christians and over 1.5 billion Muslims believe in him, yet Jesus is perhaps the most misunderstood and misrepresented person in history.
This talk explores and demystifies Jesus â his life, teachings, personality and mission. It highlights commonalities but also examines differences between Christianity and Islam.
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam. ala rasulillah Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Brothers and sisters.
Today we're going to be speaking about Isa Alayhi, Salam Jesus,
upon whom bpce. Man, messenger, Messiah. Now, this presentation today has been taken from this brand new book called Jesus man, messenger Messiah, published by AI era. And it was written by Abu Zakaria, who is here today. And he's going to give us a 10 minute or 15 minute presentation after my discussion on the kind of unique highlights of this book. For those who will be watching online, you can go to ai era.org. And you can basically give us your email, and we will tell you how to get one of these books, in my view. And I spent a lot of time today reading the book, and analyzing the book and studying the book. In my view, it's the best book on the topic of Jesus from an Islamic
perspective, on the topic of deconstructing the Christian conception of Jesus in a warm, compassionate ways the best book on this topic in the English language, I haven't seen anything that's available. And we have a very big library in the office. And also other known speakers and students of knowledge have said the same thing. So I do encourage you to study because talks are 1%. We live in an age, which we like to listen to things, we go on YouTube or Facebook and we and we think that's enough. But we need to ground ourselves properly, looking at the references,
studying the references, understanding the content, so you can change who we are. Because knowledge is not data. That's information. Knowledge is data that changes you. It's information that has a transformative effect. And actually, by reading this book, I fell in love with Jesus.
I did I fell in love with East LA he Salaam the true conception of Isa alayhi salam, as you all know, Jesus, from an Islamic perspective, was a man. He was pious. He was very spiritual. If you read the many traditions you can find in Muslim Akhmad, you find some gems and some wisdom. And fundamentally he was here to call people to the worship of the Creator, and call them away from worshipping creation. And what does worship meaning a psalm brothers and sisters, it means to know God to know Allah Subhana Allah to Allah, to love Allah subhanho wa Taala, to obey a lot obey God, and to direct all your acts of worship to God to God alone. And this is very fundamental, and the
theme of worship is going to basically resonate throughout this presentation.
As a starting note, I think it's very important for us to understand the context of today's discussion. The context is how we're going to
gain some information, gain some knowledge, rather, in order to compassionately and intelligently convey our understanding of Jesus to the world, including Christians, Christian Christians, or non Christians.
And I really want you to understand if we want to convey our conception of Jesus to the world, Christians and non Christians, then we have to do it in a way that's in accordance with Islamic ethics and the Islamic values. What are the Islamic ethics and values when you want to call people to something when you want to share something, when you when you want to convey something, the Islamic ethics is that you genuinely care for human human beings. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in a Hadith, and this hadith this tradition can be found in today's al Kabir, as narrated by Al Bukhari. He said, love for humanity. The Arabic here is not a key he is not brother,
your brother, it's an S, lioness, NES, love for Linux, what you love for yourself, okay? So it's very important if we love
Islam, we love guidance, guidance will have goodness, we love the truth, the correct conception of Jesus. If we love this, then we should share it naturally. For example, when you go to university, you have a professor there. He may be a professor on physics. The reason or most of the time, the reason he's teaching physics because he loves physics.
Right. The reason we want to share this understanding of Jesus is because we love Jesus, we love Allah, we love how he will have the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the oneness of God, and we want to share it with our fellow human beings. Okay? And that's very important. So that's the first point to understand love for humanity, what you love for yourself. The other point you need to understand is, don't be under any illusion that we Muslims have a monopoly of righteousness. We don't have a monopoly on righteousness just because we believe we have the correct conception of the Divine, the correct conception of Jesus, it doesn't automatically mean that now we are outwardly
more righteous than others. Allah makes it very clear. He tells us in the Quran, that we shouldn't have wishful thinking that people have the book, know the Muslims should have wishful thinking that we are going to go to Paradise or we are the most righteous, okay? No one has a monopoly, no monopoly on righteousness. Allah makes it very clear in the third chapter of the Quran, verse 113, when Allah says, they are not the same people, the people of the book are not the same. Everybody is different Muslims are different. The people of the book are different. It's not one monolithic group. And amongst the people of Scripture, are upright, just people that worship Allah subhanho wa
Taala. This is in the Tafseer of a temporary don't think now there are like distinct camps. You have the Christians and the Muslims, the Muslims are brilliant, and, and the righteous and you have the Christians, the Gnostic, this is not a Quranic narrative, by the way, this other organization, this thinking there are distinct groups, and the group that you don't belong to is all evil. This is not Islam. Allah makes this clear in the third chapter of the Quran, they are not the same people are not the same Muslims and the people of Scripture. And this is very important for us to understand because it changes the way we approach other groups in society. And we don't think they're a
monolith. The old bad, no, this bad amongst Muslims, this bad amongst non Muslims. And there you go. It's the human is the human predicament, okay. Now, why am I mentioning this is because the concept of other realization, the concept of thinking that there is a distinct group, and that group is all evil, is actually for me the basis of extremism. It's the basis of hardening our hearts, and we're not able to adopt the ethics of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when he went to all human beings, and he had Rama, he had compassion. And he had him he had forbearance, what is forbearance? Does anyone know? forbearance is patience against hatred, patience, steadfastness against people who
attack you, okay? And what's the correct narrative on forbearance, very famous verse in the context of conveying Islam. Allah says respond to evil with that which is better. And between the people who had hatred amongst them, they will now become close, intimate bosom friends. So this is the Islamic narrative we love for humanity we will have for ourselves. We don't think these kind of binary groups and other groups other than our own our own evil, this is other realization and wrong and not Quranic. We're all human beings. And we want to share Islam in an intelligent and compassionate way.
And also, that we have to understand that no one has a monopoly on righteousness and that when we want to speak to people, we do it with forbearance and kindness, and Rama, that's very important for us to understand. So, moving on.
Let's now focus on the concept of Allah subhana wa tada the concept of the Creator, the concept of God in Islam. Now, essentially, the concept of God in Islam is based on three main kind of categories, three main types of concepts. The first is the oneness of a loss of God's creative power. This is known in the Islamic tradition as the oneness of Allah rubia. Okay, so, Allah is the sole sustainer and maintainer and owner and carer
and now Russia, of everything that exists, okay. No one shares this, this is solely
this solely belongs to Allah subhanho wa Taala. He is unique in this and he is the sole sustainer, owner, maintainer, and nourisher of everything that exists. The second point is that Allah has names and attributes he has defined himself but with names and attributes, we affirm these names and attributes.
But we believe they're unique to him. Okay. And we also believe he is transcendent. Lisa cubicity. He she, there is nothing like Allah subhanho wa Taala. And his names and attributes are what you call perfection in Islam. We believe in a maximally perfect theology, maximal perfection. What does this mean in the normal English language? It basically means that a lot of names and attributes have no deficiency and no flaw. Human beings, names and attributes are deficient and flawed, and maybe caring, but my care is not boundless. And there is a flaw in the way I care. And I'm deficient, I can't care for everybody, right? But Allah when he defines himself as algebra, dude, meaning the
loving coming from the Arabic would which means a loving that is giving. His love is boundless, has no deficiency, it's pure, right? And he has no floor. This is what we mean by Allah subhanho wa Taala. We affirm His names and attributes. They are unique, he is transcendent, there is nothing like unto Him. And these names and attributes have no deficiency and no flow. The other aspect of Allah is oneness of who Allah is, is the oneness of his divinity. This is also known as the oneness, the Tao heat of Alibaba, or the Tao hido. Allah here, okay, the oneness of Allah divinity. What does this really mean? It means that we direct all our acts of worship acts can include the actions of
the heart, right and the actions of the limb, we redirect all acts of worship to Allah subhanho wa Taala alone, not to nothing else, but to Allah.
And as I said before, worshiping Allah means to love Allah, to know Allah to obey Allah to direct those acts of worship, to Allah alone. And this is beautifully summarized in the 112 chapter of the Quran, when Allah says couldn't, who will law who I had to say a lot the data who's worthy of worship, because Allah according to the Arabic linguists also means Allah, Allah, the One who deserves worship, okay. So say, the one who deserves worship
is one I had, I had means not only one but uniquely one, okay, because why it means one as well, but it doesn't have the connotation of uniqueness. So I had is uniquely one. And then Allah says God, eternal, he begets not nowhere to be gotten.
He wasn't born and doesn't give birth, and there is nothing like on to him. Okay, so this is a very unique understanding of Allah subhanho wa Taala. It's understood by five year olds is understood by 15 year olds, is understood by 55 year olds. And if we reach the age of 500, it will be understood by 500 year olds, okay, because it's such an intuitive concept, very intuitive, like even when I was speaking to my father, he comes from a Christian background, when I spoke to him about these categories, his understanding of Allah, his Yeah, of course, this is good. It's part of your fitrah. As you know, fitrah is the innate disposition, the nature lies created within you, to acknowledge
Him and to and to worship him, right. So this is part of the fitrah. So this is the understanding of Allah subhanho wa Taala of God in the Islamic tradition. It's very pure, it's very innate, it's very intuitive. Now, contrast this with the conception of God in mainstream Christianity. Okay, now, I want you to contrast this now what I've just said about the oneness of Allah rubia, the fact that he is the sole creator Sustainer of the universe, his creative power, the oneness of his names and attributes, the oneness of his divinity, contrast this innate natural belief, with the conception of God and Christianity. Now, by the way, there are many differences. I'm not saying the whole of
Christianity agrees with this. No, there are differences, but we're going to be talking about the most popular, the most popular conception of God in the Christian tradition, is a conception of a Triune God, a training god, this is known as the Trinity, okay. So this means that God is One being who exists eternally as three distinct persons, let me just repeat, God is One being who exists eternally as three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and sometimes you will, you'll hear it as the Holy Ghost.
Now, the passes of the Trinity are not to be confused. So the father is not the son. The son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the father. All three persons of the Trinity are co equal, and co eternal. Okay. Now I see many confused faces. Well, this is exactly where it creates a crisis and natural confusion and we're not seeing that
to belittle them, we're not saying this to, you know, mock, with genuinely genuinely having an intellectual exercise here, okay? Now a key element in this Trinity in this trait, Moon God is the concept of the incarnation. Okay? What does this mean? It means that the second person of the Trinity the son, took human flesh in the bodily form of Jesus. So there was this co eternal, right? Co equal son.
Right, the second of the Trinity
became human flesh in the form of Jesus. That's the concept of His incarnation. So when Marian when Mary alayhis, salaam gave birth to Isa Alayhi, salaam, Jesus, God, according to the Christian tradition, entered into creation, and the virgin conception, God acquired an identity he would retain for the rest of eternity. So Jesus is said to be God, man, he has two natures, one divine and one human. So Jesus said to be both fully God, and both fully man. Okay, so let me repeat this because it, it highlights one of the
a critical philosophical problem that undermines biblical Christianity, okay, or mainstream Christianity. So let me just repeat this, there was the Son, the second of the Trinity coeternal, co equal, enters into creation, by human flesh, in the form of Jesus, when he was so called born,
as a result of Mary given birth,
he now acquired a new identity, God, man, fully God, and fully human.
Now, do you see what the problem here is?
Because in biblical Christianity, they believe God is changeless, his essence doesn't change.
The Trinity is part of his essence.
But he changed, he got a new identity, the moment he was born into Earth, right, the moment he came into Earth, in the form of human flesh, in the form of Jesus, he got apparently, according to this Trinitarian, understanding, adopted a new identity, God, man, fully God and fully man.
So it means his nature changed.
This is a philosophical problem. Because according to theology, according to Christian theology, according to biblical understanding, God can't change. But yet, the essence of God change because
the son, the second of the Trinity,
was born into human flesh in the form of Jesus and adopted a new identity.
God, man, fully God, and fully human.
That is a huge problem in
Christianity, and also, it's a philosophical problem, because if you think about it from an intellectual point of view, if the conception of God that his essence doesn't change, but then according to the Trinity, the Trinitarian perspective, the second of the Trinity actually adopted a new nature. He changed, then it creates a huge problem.
And it's no wonder Dr. James White, one of the foremost apologists for the Trinity today, he actually exposes the confusion that everybody has, well, Christians have. He says, For many Christians, the Trinity is an abstract principle, a confusing and difficult doctrine that they believe, although they are not really sure why, in the honest moments.
Now, obviously, you have many Christians, when you go on the streets, and you want to give Dawa, you want to convey a compassionate and intelligent case for Islam. When you're on the internet or you're on the phone or you have family, we have your next door neighbor that you take care of whatever the case may be, you have some rebuttals, some counter arguments, for example, and they come in the form of analogies to try and prove the Trinity from a rational point of view. They say the Trinity is like an egg, the shell, the white and the yolk, but it's still one right. Then they may say, the Trinity like three forms of water, ice, liquid, and vapor. Or they see the treaties that can man you
can exist as a father, he can exist as a son, and he can exist as a husband, right? For many of the sisters, maybe he exists as a ghost.
So these analogies are very problematic from a philosophical point of view. From an intellectual point of view. We want to use our reason Allah says to use your affiliate alone, do not use the intellect. So let's explain why the egg analogy is wrong. Then an egg analogy doesn't work.
Because the doctrine of the Trinity states that each person, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is fully God, but you never say the shell is fully egg, or the Y is fully egg, or the yolk is fully egg, nor would ever say this, right. So it's a false analogy from that point of view. Also, Take, for instance, the water analogy, it doesn't work either. because it implies that God first manifested Himself as a father, then a son, and then a Holy Spirit.
But this is wrong, because this example this analogy of water just shows that the forms are temporary. Ice doesn't always remain ice, right? Ice changes, then it becomes becomes vapor, then it goes into the liquid. But according to mainstream Christianity, the Trinity is that they are co eternal and co equal, they utterly coexist.
Water doesn't utterly coexist with regards of his ice and vapor at the same time, no ice, it turns into ice because it freezes, then when you heat up a bit, it becomes liquid, then when you heat it a bit more boiling, it becomes vapor, right that those states don't coexist, right? If I have a cup of water, you know, this cup of water is liquid. You can't say it's vapor as well, right? You can't say it's ice now. No, it would change into ice, depending on the conditions that we have. Finally, the man and I analogy also fails to encompass the doctrine of the Trinity. Why? Because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit aren't functions because I'm a son. I'm also a father, right? And I'm also a
husband. These are functions of who I am. Okay? These are functions. But the Trinity when they say there is a son, Father, Holy Spirit. It's not just a function. It's a distinct person. There's not a person Hamza who's just the Son, and a person Hamza who's just the Father, and a peasant. Who's just the husband. No, these are functions of who I am. But according to the Trinity, the son, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all distinct persons, not functions. It is no wonder. The evangelical scholar Harold Lynn Zell, and seminary Professor Charles Woodbridge wrote the following. They said, the mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of Trinity. He who has tried to
understand the mystery fully will lose his mind. But he will, he would deny the Trinity would lose his soul. So it's almost saying to us that mainstream Christianity is saying, if you want to be saved, and go to Paradise, and live a blissful eternal life, you have to believe in something the mind cannot fathom, cannot comprehend. I would even argue this is a form of injustice, right? Because God is just he's fair, he's loving. He's not going to give you some ideas, I impossible to believe, right? He's gonna say to you, right, you know, if you look at the paradise, you have to believe that one plus one is equal to five.
That would be unjust by definition. Now, what's very interesting as well, brothers and sisters, is that the early church had lots of differences. As we say, in the Islamic tradition, the left Yeah, there was lots of differences. For example, the Libyan knights, they believe Jesus was purely human, they'd even believe he was divine. There was a difference in the early period of Christianity. The urbanites believed that he wasn't divine he was human.
You also have the Monsieur knights, they believed that Jesus was purely divine and not human at all. So there was a big difference between the Arabian Nights and the monster nights. Then you have and I'm gonna try and pronounce this properly. The sub ordination is, the sub ordination is That's the one. So the sub ordination is they believe Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, but that he was created by God the Father, thus was not equal to the Father but sub ordinate. to him.
A very famous, prolific Christian writer in history, wrote over 1000 books, his name was Oregon of Alexandria. He was also a sub or dentist, meaning that Jesus was both human and divine, but he is subordinate to the Father. Okay, so he's not called equal to the Father. He is subordinate to him. You don't have to understand this much. You could read the books for yourself. But the point is, we're just trying to show that in early Christianity,
there was lots of differences.
Now, what's very interesting is always that the first three centuries of early Christianity had no fixed concept of Jesus either. They don't have a fixed idea who Jesus was. Now, mainstream Christianity will basically tell you, yeah, Jesus is the Son of God, and he's God, right.
And he's part of the Trinity but the first early the period, the
First three centuries of Christianity didn't have that fixed concept. There was lots of differences going on, for example, a lot of trinitarians a lot of Christians who believe in the Trinity, they like to quote, early church fathers, and one of the early church fathers is called to tullian. Okay. And, you know, they say, Oh, look, he believes in the Trinity, too. But this is not the case. Because when we examine their writings, for example, if you examine the writings of Tertullian, we see that he was actually a bit confused, he didn't really believe he didn't really believe in the Trinity as mainstream Christians believe in the Trinity. And this is an early church father. So look
what he had to say. He said, for the father is the entire substance, but the son is a derivation, and a portion of the whole, as he himself acknowledges, my father is greater than I. And that's why he basically says in the Psalm, his infinity is described as being a little lower than the angels. Thus, the father is distinct from the sun, being greater than the sun. So an early church father to tilian, he basically said that the Father is greater than the son, they're not co equal, which is mainstream Christianity today.
And what's interesting, the word Trinity doesn't even exist in the Bible
doesn't exist. And, you know, it's very clear that the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala, the Quran
does mention that you shouldn't even mention three, don't say thelotter, don't even say three. And Allah says those people who say God is the third of three, I define the truth, there is only one God.
And what's very interesting from a biblical point of view, 22 doesn't really make sense, especially when you study the Bible. And I'm not a huge fan of studying the Bible in detail. Because from the Islamic and academic perspective, the Bible from my point of view, and I would even argue that intellectual tradition, even academia, Christians themselves, do professors, they would argue that the Bible doesn't have what you call textual integrity from a historical point of view. We can't truly say, this is actually the Gospels, and I'm going to discuss this in a few minutes. But nevertheless, it's very interesting that Jesus actually preached how he'd, according to the Bible,
there's an interesting incident in the New Testament. Now,
it seems that Jesus is affirming the theology of the Jews, which was more closer to oneness more closer to monotheism. And he said the following
the most important one, ask Jesus, okay, because he was asked which of the commandments is the most important? And Jesus said, the most important one answer Jesus is this, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and we'll all your strength. The second is this, love thy neighbor, as yourself, there is no commandment greater than these. Well said, teacher, the man replied, You are right in saying that God is one, and there is no other but him, to love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more
important, all burn offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And from then on, and from then on, no one dare to ask him any more questions. This is in Mark 1228 to 34. Now, isn't it interesting that Jesus didn't say, oh, by the way, Jewish man, what do you mean by God? Is this Triune God, the son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit isn't the whole point of Revelation, and the whole point of a messenger and a prophet like Jesus to clarify misunderstandings, to elucidate right to bring into light to show clear guidance, because the Jewish man here, who was in this dialogue, he had the assumption of the
Jewish God, which was one no Trinity, purely one who Allah who I had, say allies uniquely one, right. Jesus, obviously knew this.
Now, if Jesus adopted the Trinitarian perspective of God, he said, ha, you've misunderstood me here. What you mean by God is actually the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but he didn't do this.
So let's now talk about Isa Alayhi, salaam, Jesus man, messenger Messiah from a Quranic point of view. Now obviously the Quran a lot of panel what are the commands Muslims to love and to respect all the prophets and we don't make any difference?
Tensions between them. Allah says in the Quran in chapter two verse 136. So you believe his say, we believe in Allah in God, and in what was sent down to us and what was sent down to Abraham, and it's my own is it Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and what was given to Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets by the Lord, we make no distinction between any of them and we devote if we devote ourselves to Him to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Now, it's very interesting that the Quran mentions Jesus, how many times 25 times Mohammed Hassan, I believe is mentioned only four times four or five times is to Allah He Salaam is mentioned 25 times he has special names, epithets, Allah, the Spirit
of God kalama law, the Word of God, Jesus is a very special place in the Islamic tradition.
And are some cinema, similar similarities, but lots of deviations to which we're going to explain. So let's focus on the birth of Jesus, as you know, a lot of pan of water that says, the angel said, Mary, God gives you news of a word from him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, who be held in honor in this world, and the next, who be one of those brought near to Allah near to God. And Mary obviously reacts with surprise, because she was chased. She was a pious woman. And that's why it was going to be a miraculous birth. She said, My Lord, how can I have a son, when no man had touched me, and the angel said, this is how Allah This is how God creates what he will, when he has
ordained something, he says B and it is B and it is, and as you know, he sallallahu Sallam as a child perform miracles in the cradle, be full of wisdom and righteousness in the eyes of Allah in the eyes of God. As Allah says, In the third chapter, verses 46 to 48, He will speak to people in his infancy, and in his adulthood, he will be one of the righteous, He will teach him the Scripture and wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel. Now, when
Mary alehissalaam, became pregnant, she withdrew.
And she withdrew herself from the people, she knew that they wouldn't believe her. And because she was pious, she couldn't deal with the shame she didn't know what to do. Because people will slander her and accuse her of having committed fornication. And Allah says in chapter 19, and so it was ordained, she conceived him, she was drew to a distant place. And when she was in labor, she was in so much pain and utter despair, that Allah through His mercy gave her sustenance, as Allah says, in the same chapter, and when the pains of childbirth drove her to clean to the trunk of the palm tree, she exclaimed, I wish had been dead and forgotten long before all of this, but a voice cry to her
from below. Do not worry, your Lord has provided a stream at your feet. If you shake the trunk of the palm tree towards you, it will deliver fresh, ripe dates for you.
This reminds me of my wife, you know, delivered my first son. And we had love algebra dates, because these were the apparently the dates of Mary alehissalaam. And, you know, she's getting all this pain and trauma. It was like four hour labor. And she's so strong. She didn't eat the dates. I
was so worried. You know, this reminds me, I read a whole book, like every single one that she didn't have anything. So parlamento bless our sisters because Beth Allahu Akbar, Allah is greater you take your hat off to women off the birth of something. Yeah. You know, that's why I really believe that. I know, sometimes I don't show it. But I really believe that women have a higher status in Islam than men, because they're the, the other first teachers of the scholars, and then the first protectors of the people that protect us, right? So what higher status, you know, there's no other higher status, you know, from that point of view. So
let's continue. So she took the dates she had sustenance from her Lord. And then God informed the ally informed her that when she returns to her people, she would not speak a word to them, she's not allowed to speak a word to them. So Allah said, So eat, drink, be glad, and see to anyone. You may see. I have vowed to the Lord of mercy to abstain from conversation. I would not talk to anybody today. So after giving birth to Jesus, many Mary returned to her people, and they confirmed her fears by implying that she committed fornication should know like seeing married Look what you've done. You know what's happened. You've had a baby, you must have committed funny
So what does she do? She basically points to the chart. She went back and this wildlife saying in chapter 19, she went back to her people carrying the child and they said, Mary, you have done an evil terrible thing, sister of Aaron, your father was an evil man. Your mother was not unchaste. So she pointed at him.
At the child, he said he Salaam. They said, How can we converse with an infant, he can't talk. And this was one of the miracles of Isa Allah He said, I'm an ISA al Islam said the following beautiful words. Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me scripture, and made me a prophet. And he has blessed me wherever I am, and has commanded me to pray, to give arms as long as I live, to cherish my mother. He did not make me domineering or graceless peace was on me the day I was born, and will be on me the day I die. And the day I am raised to life again.
And we know he sadly his son did marry me many miracles in chapter three of the Quran, Isa Alayhi Salaam said, I will heal the blind and the leper and bring the dead back to life with God's permission. So this was the reality of Isa alayhis salam.
Now,
interestingly, the nature of Isa Alayhi Salaam was one of a man
that had a message, and that message wasn't unique to him. It was part of the Prophetic Mission, that every single Prophet came here to teach us about coheed, the oneness of Allah, the fact that we must direct all our acts of worship to Allah alone, that the thing we must know the most is Allah. The thing that we must love the most is Allah, the thing that we want to obey the most is Allah. And the thing that we direct all acts of worship to the most is Allah, or the only acts of worship, though that we manifest is to Allah alone. This is the essence of tawheed. And this is what all the prophets came to teach us about, which frees us from the darkness and the slavery of worshipping
other than Allah subhanho wa Taala, other than your Creator and maker. Now, I'm going to move now on the crucifixion. Now, the reason I want to do that, because now we've understood the contrast between the two different conceptions of God, the Christian conception, the Islamic conception, the understanding of Jesus, we're understanding what is the most spiritual, what is the most rational, truly, it's the Islamic conception. But I want to move now on the crucifixion, because the crucifixion
get some kind of justification from mainstream Christianity and Christian scholars, based on based on the idea of this theology of giving blood, right? Because a lot of Christian scholars go to the Old Testament and they say, Look, man, human beings, right? They have inherent sin. Because Adam alayhis, salaam, okay. And his wife, you know, they sinned, and we have to carry the burden of their sins. So man is inherently not good. By inherently is born into sin. And the only way because God is so holy, the only way to cleanse yourself from this sin is with blood. Right? Now, contrast this with the Islamic point of view, the Islamic tradition says that everyone's born in goodness, the
idea of fitrah, whoever they are, if they're born in China, if the born in Australasia, even if they were born on the moon, they have a fitrah and innate disposition, and that disposition is goodness, is based on goodness, not an evil. So a birth of a child from a theological point of view, according to Islam is good news is something positive by a birth of a child from a Christian point of view. What I mean by Christian is, the theological point of view is that he's born into sin.
And this is why they refer to different aspects of the Bible. For example, in Romans 623, it says, For the wages of sin, to pay sin, right to remove sin, is death. Also in Hebrews 922, it says, in fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Again, in Romans 512, it says, Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned. Now, the solution according to New Testament is as follows that Jesus died on the cross to undo Adams original sin and therefore everybody's sin, as you see in Romans five
17 it says For if, by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more with those who receive God's abundant provision of grace, and have the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. But the same very important that we need to understand your all we said about our last names and attributes in the beginning, what are they? We have a maximum perfect theology. There are not there's no deficiency and no flaw, the concept of blood atonement, the concept of requiring blood, okay, in order to gain forgiveness, this concept itself is number one, against the mercy of forgiveness of Allah, the fact that he's alright man. That's
that's what they're trying to say.
If they claim that in order for us to be forgiven, right, because we're carrying the burden of not our own sins, but also the sins of Adam, the only way to be cleansed of that sin is through blood. This isn't a direct contradiction to the concept of mercy from a maximally perfect theological point of view, the fact that God is supposed to have perfect names and attributes were no deficiency on floor, why would you want blood? Right? Further, this goes against his names and attributes of him being the just because Is it fair that mean you are carrying the sins of somebody else?
Is that fairness? Is that fairness by by the very definition of what it means to be Justin fair, so the concept of blood atonement in Christian theology is number one unjust. And number two, is antithetical to mercy.
So this is repeat this. So in mainstream Christianity, they basically say, Adam sinned, we're carrying his sin. That's unjust, because why are you carrying the sin of somebody else? In order to cleanse yourself from your sins and carrying somebody else's sins, you need blood? So that is unjust and not very merciful?
Allah says in the Quran, no, so laden bears the load of another chapter five, verse 18. If you look at the Tafseer of Eben kefir, he says that no human being is going to carry the burden of someone else's sin, someone else's mistakes, this is unjust. And we know that as parents, you know, when kids sometimes learning to walk, and they bump into the chair, what do you do you go, no tea chair, don't we? Right? You don't go to the kitchen and go into the fridge and say, no tea fridge, right? It just doesn't work. It doesn't make sense in the in the concept of justice, right? imaginary to a court of law. And the judge says, thumbs up, you're in prison for 30 years, why haven't done
anything I know. But some guy down your road, he killed three people. So you're in prison for 30 years, but I didn't do it. Right, I'm carrying the burden of someone else. And that's inherently unjust. Forget, from a spiritual point of view, from a philosophical point of view, it's unjust by the very definition. So for us to get the blame of someone else's sin is unjust, and Allah is not unjust. So just by the very concept of who God is, we reject this blood atonement, and we reject the carrying sin of somebody else. Also, if one says that you have to basically have blood, right, in order to basically remove our sins.
This is not very merciful, right? You think God is the Most Merciful? God is forgiving and loving, even according to Christianity, but yet he wants blood.
And what he did he sacrificed his son who's supposed to be God sacrificed himself in some kind of paradoxical way and and tortured himself, which is cool. sounds quite weird, right? Does that make sense? What does the law say? And you know, and sometimes other traditions think that they have a monopoly on spirituality. How's your relationship with God? It's very good. Thank you very much. I don't need blood, right? What does the law say in the Quran, say, if you love God, then follow me referring to Mohammed follow Mohammed Hassan, and Allah will love you and forgive your sins. Because the personal finance is a rock miser, mercy to the world's. All we have to do as Muslims is stand
and pray and just raise your hand say, yo, Rob, forgive me and be sincere, Allah will forgive you even if you made it people. Last the forgiveness of Allah subhanho wa Taala. This is our rub. This is our Lord.
Our Lord is not a lot of blood. Our Lord is a lot of love.
A lot of Rama, excessive Rama. Allah Buddha means excessively loving that special love that he has, and His reima His loving mercy encompasses all things.
All you have to do is turn
Back to Allah subhanho wa Taala you've been drinking all your life you've been hitting all your life, you've been stealing all your life. The minute you do Toba, you do repentance say, I'm, I feel bad, I feel remorse. But I know your mercy is greater than my mistakes. And you ask Allah for forgiveness, Allah forgives you. This is mercy. This is forgiveness, not wanting to sacrifice and torture somebody else.
In the case of biblical Christianity, torturing God Himself.
This is antithetical to mercy and forgiveness. Now, I want to read something that's not actually raising the book.
Which is a bit interesting.
You know, in the Bible, it says that God loves human beings that he sacrificed his own son, right?
to basically free us from sin. And once asked a Christian, well, that's very interesting. isn't me being a Muslim also sinful?
Yeah. But didn't God sacrifice your son for my sin as well being a Muslim? So I don't have to be a Christian
at all, but you have to accept the gift of the sacrifice? Well, that's very interesting, because there's no intrinsic value of the sacrifice, then what is valuable is me just accepting it, which changes the whole theological paradigm. Do you see? That's something interesting to think about? So last few points. So we spoke about, we've alluded to the crucifixion in terms of blood atonement, atonement. But let's now really think about is the crucifixion an indisputable fact, this is very important for us to understand. Now, from a historical point of view, the only kind of narratives we have are the eyewitness testimonies of the Gospels, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and john. Now,
this is not divine revelation. This is not something that is 100%.
In terms of it's not 100%.
Kind of word should I use.
It hasn't convinced the mind, right? It's just based on eyewitness testimony, by own fun, eyewitness testimony to be valid, especially in the context of writing things down, you have to have at least three things, know who they are their identities, know the content of the writings, and the date of their writings, by I'm telling you, when you study the Gospels, you don't know their full identities, I believe we don't even have the second names.
We don't even know the contents of the writings, which I'm going to discuss in a little while. Even though the date of their writings. Some of the most earliest manuscripts are like around 200 or 150 years after the so called
crucifixion of Jesus. So we don't have the dates. We don't even have the identities, we don't have the external biographies of these people that are even robust enough for us to really say, yes, these people were these people, right? So from a rational point of view, you can never accept these testimonies, and not for testimony so great, like someone being crucified who's supposed to be the Son of God, right? We don't have the identities, the content of the right the content of the writings, or even the date of the writings. Let's focus now just on the content of the writings. And one would argue, well, we have the Gospels, bro, Hamza, we have the Gospels, you know, the writings
are there, you but I will show that that is what they wrote. Because if you study the history of the Bible, is a lot of confusion from an academic point of view. A few points for me, too.
For me to plant in your heart and mind, you'd have to research this yourself further because of time. The first point is this, that the different churches of Christianity disagree with the Bible is the Greek church, the Syriac church, the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church, the Coptic church, the Anglican Church. They don't have an agreement on what the Bible is, for example, the Protestants have six legs, less books, I believe in the Catholics have six extra books, or whatever the case may be there is kind of differing amongst them. Also, the church fathers never saw the Gospels as authoritative. These include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Papyrus of hierapolis.
Now, a note to the 14 New Testament criticism, Bruce Metzger, who's also a Christian, he comments on Clement of Rome, one of the church fathers, he said, he knows several of the Paul's epistles and values them highly for their content. The same can be said of the Epistle of Hebrew of the Hebrews, which he is well acquainted. Although these writings obviously possess for Clement, considerable significant he never refers to them as
authoritative scripture. Bruce Metzger Professor Bruce Metzger also says when he's commenting on Ignatius, another church father, he certainly knew a collection of Paul's epistles, including one Corinthians effizienz. Romans galentines
Philippians, I'm probably pronouncing is really wrong, because I'm digging a Greek way. Yeah, Colossians and Thessalonians. Right. It is probable that he knew the Gospels, according to Matthew and john, and perhaps also Luke, there is no evidence that he regarded any of these gospels or pistols. As scripture, fundamentally, and Bruce Metzger, Professor Bruce Metzger makes a beautiful point. He says, the criterion for canonicity meaning the criteria for saying these books are the Bible was what there's only one main criteria who could guess what it was.
The main criteria for what was going to become the Bible was that these books had to agree with the current at that time church teachings. Do you see the big circular argument there? Isn't the whole point of canonizing a book to give you the teachings for the church. But what the church did is that their criteria was that these books are going to be the Bible, our guidance, if they already agree with us, and that's a huge problem.
So
what's very interesting, the Catholic Encyclopedia also says there is no clear cut canon anyway. It says the idea of a complete and clear cut canon of the New Testament, existing from the beginning, that is from the Apostolic times has no foundation in history. The canon of the New Testament, like that of the old is the result of a development of a process, at once stimulated by disputes with doubters, both within and without the church and
regarded by certain and * by certain, obscurities, and natural hesitations, and which did not reach its final term into the dogmatic definition of the Tridentine Council. Also, you have many scribal errors, if you look and search for yourself, the kind of facsimiles or the pictures of the scribal errors of the development of the Bible, because you have to copy the Bible, right? There was no printing press. There are some margins in the footnotes, the scribes are debating each other. And one scribe says, You fool,
leave the original reading. I know it sounds really funny, but you haven't. It's there. Also, there are many parts omitted that are now not considered even part of the Bible. Because it for example, Mark 1619 to 20. It's not considered a later addition, it was added, it wasn't part of the original.
So from this point of view, how can you even start to believe in the crucifixion, because the only evidence we have from an historical perspective, rule historical evidence is the Bible. But does the Bible satisfy intellectually? The mind concerning believing it as reports of eyewitness testimonies? I don't think so.
I don't think so at all. So, what's very interesting is that even many early groups of Christianity in the first and second centuries, they even denied the crucifixion of Jesus. Isn't that interesting? For example, we had the bezieht does a dalliance, right? There was a first century scholar called by the dealies. Right? I probably pronounced that wrong as well, and his followers who are called the Bezier, aliens, they believe that Jesus was saved from the crucifixion. And another person Simon of serene, was crucified in his place, which is what you may argue, some scholars interpret the verse of the Quran, when it was made to appear, it was like Jesus, right?
Some, like even a bass rajala and many other allameh they say there was a replacement. Okay, so that's an interesting view.
Also, you have the Philadelphians. They basically also seem to have rejected the crucifixion, because Ignatius, one of the Church Fathers writes a letter to them, to basically tell them to come back to what he considered orthodoxy, right. You also had the trillions. Again, they seem to have believed that the death of Jesus was only in appearance and Ignatius again, writes them another letter. So in the early period, there was a lot of difference in differences from that point of view. I want to make a very important point. The reason we believe that Jesus wasn't crucified, he was made to appear that way, okay. And Jesus is alive is because the Quran says so that's valid
evidence for a Muslim Why? Because we have evidence why the Quran is from Allah. Another book written by a beloved double Zachary's could eternal
Challenge, a journey through the miraculous Qur'an if you go to one reason.org, you could put in your email and download it for free. We even have prints available. The second edition is out now. And that book articulates good reasons why the Quran is from Allah, it's preserved. It has miraculous features concerning its structure, its linguistic miracle, its information, etc, etc. So since we could show the Quran is from Allah, the what it says about Jesus is going to be true anyway.
So what's the summary the summary is brother brothers and sisters that East Allah He Salaam was ascetic, he was pious. He was a man of a lion man of God. He wasn't good. And he called people to the worship of God, to the worship of the Creator, not to the worship of creation.
And the Quran makes this apparent. In chapter 19, verse 30, to 35.
Jesus said, I am the servant of Allah of God, he has granted me the scripture made me a prophet made me blessed wherever I may be, he commanded me to pray, to give charity as long as I live to chase my mother, he did not make me domineering or graceless. Peace was mean the day I was born, and will be on the day I die. And the day I'm raised to life again,
such was Jesus, son of Mary. This is a statement of truth about which they're in doubt, it would not benefit God to have a son. He's far above that. When he decreased something, he says only be, and it is. And essentially, he said, I'm Jesus. His main point was to heed the oneness of God, the oneness of the Creator, the oneness of the creator's divinity, as the Quran says, in 43 7064, that Jesus said, Indeed, God, Allah is my Lord, and your Lord, so worship Him. That is a straight path. Brothers and sisters, just to completely end, I really want you to understand that most Christians don't even know this, okay? I want you to introduce the book to you, that has far more beautiful
content and lots of references. I want you to give you the idea that we have a very strong intellectual tradition concerning the conception of Jesus, that spiritual, intuitive, natural, profound, and in line with the basic understanding of the Creator.
And I want you to understand that most Christians, they're deep spiritual human beings. Okay. I had an interfaith, I think, a few years ago in Leicester, and I had a very loving time, I felt a lot of love, okay. And this is how we should be to our brothers and sisters in humanity as well. And the reason they believe in Jesus in this way, because that's all they know. That's all they know.
And they believe they have a relationship and they feel this natural filtering, you know, the innate disposition, connection with something and they want to manifest the instinct of worship. And all they have is this, the kind of mainstream Christian understanding of Jesus, what we need to do is show them they could keep this love for Jesus. They could keep the love, and then we'll Sakhalin come welcome. That love you must have, but now understand Jesus for who He really was. And understand God in the way that God wants to be understood concerning his unique meekness and oneness. You don't even have to go for the stuff I did today. Okay, it's just just in case you have
one of the Christian missionaries on your doorstep. Yeah.
And it's a really fascinating book by generally speaking for the alarm for the masses, just be a loving human being, respect them, even if they say, Oh, I had a dream of Jesus. And it's so spiritual. And that's why don't negate them. You know, when you negate someone's spiritual experience is equivalent of negating them. Say, I agree, you may have had an experience, but let me show you how you could interpret that experience. Do you see, give them the reference point, show them that the real way of looking at their experiences in their life is through the lenses of oneness. tawheed. So our advice to the brothers and sisters that when you talk to Christians, be
loving as you should be, be caring as you should be, be fair as you should be, have a clock the other half forbearance if you get harmed, don't respond with evil respond with goodness, right? That's a key attribute of the prophets very famous story of the Jewish man who came to the process and I'm the person who owed him some money. Jewish man dragged him by the neck left a mark, one of the Sahaba one of the companions wanted to sort him out. The Prophet stopped him. And what did he say? You know, we expect you something better from you, that you teach him to ask for his money nicely and you teach me to give on time forbearance even
Though he was attacked, and this Jewish man became a Muslim, why? Because he wanted that sign he there was one remaining sign that he didn't see in the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and that sign was a final forbearance of Allah says respond to evil with that which is good. Let me end with a funny story. There was a brother who adopted the Sunnah, the prophetic way of tolerance, tolerating anyone's belief, atheist, Christian, whoever we are respect, right, being fair
all of these values that everyone agrees with generally speaking, you know give people the you know, you don't you don't there's no compulsion in religion give people the liberties. Now,
he was having a stall outside stretch outside Stratford shopping center, man have some now you know, not some other clothes suddenly here, which which counts the most right?
And some lady
came up to him and spam his face.
He responded to you without which is better. What do you do? He kept on smiling. As if nothing happened, smiling, I had picked up some tissue wiped her wiped his face. Then you got another Titian gave it to her because she had some of her dribble on her face. And she took it as she walked off. After a few weeks or months, she came back to the same store. She became a Muslim, respond to evil that which is better. And the enmity between two people it's as if the now will become like bosom intimate friends. And you know what happened after a few more months or years. They got married.
So sisters, the advice here is if you want a good husband spit on him first.