Prophethood 8 – Jesus In The Quran Mission

Salam Alaikum, ladies and gentlemen, peace be upon you all and welcome to another episode of Islam focus. I'm your host Muhammad Hassan Hosni, and today's episode is the eighth, one on the series or in the series of prophethood in Islam.

Today's topic is the mission of Jesus and the end of his mission on Earth. Our guest today is Dr. Jamal Badawi Salaam Alaikum. Welcome to our programs. As usual, maybe we should start with a short summary of the last episodes. And the last episode was the second in the

topic on Jesus in the Quran. So this one hopefully be the third and last at least for the time being.

In the second episode, that's last time we tried to clarify what the Quran means when it says that Jesus is a word from God, or spirit proceeding from him. And when we indicated that according to the Quranic usage, the Word of God refers to a command of God in that sense all human beings that not only Jesus our words of God because we are all created by the command of God. We also said that when the Quran says that Jesus is a spirit proceeding from God, we call it also verses in the Quran that shows all human beings also have this spirit proceeding from God in essence of their spirituality in allegorical sense, not in a sense of divinity. So both words then are used in a way that has nothing

to do with platonic philosophy at all, or the idea of Trinity whatsoever. And we also indicate that the term Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit when it's used in the Quran, it does not again deal with whether it's in a sense of philosophical, theological Trinity type of meaning, but rather, spirit means Holy Spirit means Archangel Gabrielle, and angels are creatures of God but not part of divinity.

We also quote indicated that the Quran is very clear, not only on the rejection of the idea of having Jesus or his mother Mary, as Gods beside that are separate gods, but that all forms of deification at Trinity was specifically

negated in the Quran, yes, and any form of exclusive sonship of Jesus to God has also been denied. We also indicated that this is not only in the Quran, but as a Muslim, I find so many verses and the New Testament which we quoted also last time I refer to indicating that the term son of Gods as used by Prophet Jesus peace be upon him, is used in a sense of closeness to God as it was used actually in the Old Testament before. And we concluded, in fact, that the whole notion of deification of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him is something that has developed much later on. In fact, after the second problem, if you have one more minute, I found two quotations that are quite interesting. And

both are come from Christian sources. I tried to keep it as objective and open minded as possible. And Dr. AB Bruce, Doctor of divinity, he's a Reverend, by the way, when published, this was published in Encyclopedia biblica. And he started something that I mentioned or refers to quickly last time. He says that, in St. Luke in the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus is called Lord's about a dozen times. And if you compare that with the earlier gospels of Saint Matthew and Mark, we find that he was simply referred to as Jesus and then to cut him word for word he says, effect, which seems to indicate the gradual evolution in the belief of his divinity. So this is something based again on

specialist analysis of the style and writing in the

New Testament. Another thing that was quite interesting is a reprint that I have here from the Christian Science Monitor on its issue.

June 7 78, and just I've got the first paragraph.

It says debate over age old Christian creed

It's on the Divinity on Jesus of Jesus had has erupted with an explosiveness that has sent curious theologians looking for explanations. The controversy was touched off in Britain last year. So that was 77 by the publication of a book called The Myth of God incarnate in it a group of prominent Anglican and Presbyterian theologians. So this our church people, called for an updating of Christianity by freeing it from definitions of early Creed's creates, which portray Jesus as God incarnate, the second person of the 3% in one godhood, the pre existence eternal, only begotten Son of the Divine father. In fact, the article goes on indicating that there was lots of protests by so

many people, almost all of whom it says, never read the book. So if the subject really is looked into with cool minds, without any prejudice, or bias one way or the other, I think we will find that you are more faithful to the teaching of Christ. When we go back to his simple decisive words, this image of Mr. nature that he was a messenger and a prophet of God.

Now that you mentioned the mission of Christ, maybe we should actually talk a little bit about what does the Quran has to say about the scope of the mission of Jesus Christ on earth? I believe it is as clear as it is in the Bible. If we really

unbiased Lina the Quran is very clear to start with,

on the fact that the mission of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him was explicitly and exclusively to the children of Israel.

To quote from the Quran in chapter three, verse 49, quoting Jesus, and it says, and appoint him a messenger to the children of Israel, that God appointed Jesus as a messenger to the children of Israel. So it's very specific. Also, in chapter 61, verse six in the Quran, we read,

all children of Israel, that Jesus says to them, I am the messenger of God sent to you.

Also, in chapter five, verse 49, after talking about various Israelite prophets, it says, and in their footsteps in the footsteps of both Israelite prophets, we sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the law that has come before him. So in that sense, the Quran is very obvious. And as indicates also, even the New Testament that says to attest to this fact, then shows what the New Testament does, okay, there are so many places, but perhaps I can refer to at least two very explicit quotations of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him, to indicate that this is exactly consistent with what the Quran says. And in Matthew and the Gospel of Matthew, for example, Chapter 15, verse

24,

you know, this famous story of this Canaanite woman who wanted him to help her cure her daughter. And he said to her, I am not sent, but to are unto the lost sheep of the house of Islam, it was very explicit, he refused that, as you know, even say, it's not appropriate to throw the food of the children to the, to the ducks. Even though of course, later on, he responded because of her face. But his statement is very obvious and very clear. In Matthew chapter 10, when he was giving instruction to the 12 disciples, and specifically in verses five and six, and Matthew, it says, these two Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, Go not into the way of Gentiles, go not into

the way of Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter units. But God has to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, again, repeating the same principle that he was sent. Basically, as an Israelite prophet. This is also implied in Matthew, chapter 19, verse 28, very similar confirmation. Indeed, one can say safely, that there is no evidence whatsoever, at least in the three synoptic gospels. That's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Any clear and decisive statements got it on the tongue of Jesus, in which he says that my message is universal and I was sent for all human beings. In fact, I'd like to make two comments here to avoid any misunderstanding or misinterpretation of this

quotations that the, the way, the conclusiveness of the expressions of the Own Words of Jesus, as quoted in the gospels, definitely overshadows any claim that was developed much later on, like we find, for example, in Paul's letters to the Corinthians or Romans,

to claim that he ordained them towards the end or after resurrection to go

and preach to all mankind or to all people. Definitely this very clear and obvious statements are much more critical than things that has developed later on when the whole notion of deification of Jesus started to, again, some momentum. The other observation also that when we say that both the Koran and the gospel, the Gospels, in fact, support that his mission was to the children. So it doesn't mean at all that any of his teaching cannot be valid for other than the Israelites. In fact, the teaching of old prophets, like we said before, are relevant, especially in the modern side. The question of knowledge of God is relevant to all times and places, ethics, ethics, or ethics, but of

course, as far as the mission or the scope, because even though it was added for all times, for all people, still God's plan was to send later on after Jesus, one final and universal message and that was a prophet Mohammed, about 600 years roughly after Jesus.

Peace be upon him. Okay, Dr. Goodman, could you tell us something about what the Quran has to say about the essence now, not the scope, but the essence of the mission of Jesus Christ, you're referring to the the nature of his teachings, basically, what is it? What was it all about? As vizury? For example, the whole notion of coming to atone or like our sense of humanity? Yeah, well, like, like all other prophets, whether Israelite prophets or others that you find mentioned in the Quran, his message very conclusively was to invite people to know God's to worship Him and to obey, to obey Him.

In fact, I could quote one verse in the Quran, which combines this essence of his message, alongside with some peculiar things that was part of his message, particularly to the Israelites. And this appears in chapter three and verse 50, in the Quran, and it says, I have come to you, Jesus saying, to attest or confirm the law, which was before me. So when if his job then according to this part of the verse, is to confirm whatever remained intact unchanged of the law or the Torah. And then it continues, and to make lawful to you part of what was before forbidden to you. And as you know, in the Judaic law, certain restrictions were imposed on people which were just by way of punishment, so

it can relieve them from some of the forbidden things, things that were forbidden only by What punishment, not because they are bad, and then it's continuous, I have come to you with

a sign from your Lord. So here God or be God, conscious, more appropriate transition, be God conscious and obey me. So in addition to the specific

parts of his mission that's directed to the Israelites, he emphasized that you should feel God and obey me, and then actually continues that God is my Lord and God not. One peculiar thing also about Prophet Jesus peace be upon him, appears in chapter 61, verse six,

that he actually gives tithing and mentioned to his people specifically, that there was a prophet to come after him, to complete the whole revelation of truth and testify of him. This is what was misinterpreted in Muslim point of view, to me in the Holy Spirit. And actually, he was referring to Prophet Mohammed. And actually, the verse in the Quran refers specifically to one of the names of Prophet Mohammed. But again, this is a topic perhaps that you can address in a separate way. One more thing, if I make in Matthew, chapter 1229, we find something quite interesting. And you hear it and as if you're reading the Quran, because they are both almost identical in the meaning that are

the terminology they use. It's called Jesus and Matt and mark.

Sorry, it's Mark, Mark, chapter 12, verse 29. And Jesus answered him, the first commandment is, Hear, O Israel,

the Lord, our God, is one Lord, answering the Jewish what is the most important commandment, the Lord our God is one God, you read the Quran in fine.

That is what Jesus was quoted as saying

about the miracles of Jesus, the origin of the Koran, touch upon that subject altogether? Well, of course, the discussion of the virgin birth is definitely one of the outstanding medical so that we can discover that so I suppose about the miracles that are referred to usually in the Christian tradition, right, like Americans that were similar somehow to what was given to other prophets to support his mission. Yes. And in chapter three, verse 14, in particular, it says, and when he came as a messenger to the children of Israel, that's referring to Jesus, he said, I have come to you with a clear sign from your

In your very presence, I make the likeness of a verse out of clay and breathe into it. And it becomes by God's or by a last comment at birth.

I heal the born blind, and the lepers,

and I bring to live the dead by God's command. Notice this ending always.

I inform you of what you eat and what you stood up in your houses. Surely, there is a great sign for you in all this, if you have a mind to believe. So in that sense, question of healing, bringing people

dead, and knowing even when people are starting in their homes, but in each of these different always says, are called Jesus I think by the name of God, that it's not something that I know it because I'm divine, but God has given me this knowledge or this power, if you wait. How about the gospel? Does the Quran mention anything about his about Jesus being given a gospel or a book or divine book in translation in the Quran, we find that there is always mentioned about holy books or scriptures given to the prophets. And that could be like I said, a different topic because this is one of the articles of faith of the Muslim is to believe in God His profits and, and his books. And

in the Quran, we find specific books mentioned like the ZBrush normally interpret as the Psalms as a scripture, the source of all beliefs of Prophet Abraham that that shows he was given the revelation, that Torah

is mentioned also in the Quran. And the Quran mentioned about Jesus, more specifically, the gospel, the original Arabic that appears in the Quran is an Injeel, which some translate as good news. But when the Quran talks about the ngl, it is curious to note that is not only mentioned once that you can say, well, it might have a dubious interpretation, it is mentioned 12 times in six different chapters in the Quran that God gave Jesus or supported him with Injeel.

Now, when the Quran talks about Jesus, or gospel as a book given to Jesus,

it talks about it in the context of other holy books, which leaves you with the distinct impression that the Quran does not appeal to some good news in a broad, loose sense, but rather to a specific holy book that was given to Prophet Jesus. I know this might sound quite fascinating because most of our Christian Brothers believe, for example, that the Gospels simply means the biographies written about Jesus by the former writers, but not necessarily something that explicitly was revealed to Jesus the same way it was revealed to Mohammed or to Moses. But indeed, I have run through some differences that talk about a very well known problem in biblical studies called the Synoptic

problem of synoptic gospels whereby they compare the contents of the various four Gospels and try to see whether what sources they have probably drawn from, and they want reference, they use the term cue that there was a gospel chord cue from which some of the writers, at least of the Synoptic Gospels have used as a source of information. And which means that there was probably a separate according to the biblical studies from Christian side, I'm not talking about Muslim findings, there was probably a different gospel from which earlier gospels even copied, which for the Muslim possibly could be the original gospel given to Jesus, let's not forget that there is a whole issue

also about the canonized gospels, the history of the church, so is that there have been a large number of Gospels and it was only in the fourth century that the church canonized the four Gospels and disregard. Exactly the others were burned. So it is quite possible, both from Christian as well as Muslim sources that Jesus did have a separate, independent holy book that was lost, unfortunately, to history.

Okay, now let's look at the concept of profits with as related to Jesus. And I would like you to tell us if Jesus himself or that let me rephrase it by saying in the New Testament, in the gospels, is there any evidence as to the prophethood of Jesus, plenty of evidence, he just gave a few examples, but to summarize, he looked at himself as a servant of God, a prophet of God, a messenger of God. his contemporaries also thought of him as a prophet.

In the Gospel of Luke, for example, Chapter 13, verses 33 and 34. It says, nevertheless, I must walk today and tomorrow, and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem, or Jerusalem. Jerusalem, which kills the prophets, is talking about himself as a prophet. And more explicitly, even outside of the Synoptic Gospels, perhaps from the Biblical Studies point of view, the least trusted or the least, the authentic gospel, they

gospel of john, which is I suppose there are lots of problems, artists authorship is a whole subject. In chapter eight, verse 14, it says, but now you seek to kill me, is telling people, and then that has told you the truth which I have heard of God. So himself admitting he has heard certain truths from God, and he's conveying that to them. And that's definitely a characteristic of a prophet. As far as your other parts of the question whether his contemporaries also thought of him as a prophet, definitely, there's no question about that. Just to give one example, in the Gospel of Luke, according to Luke in chapter seven, verse 16,

talking about the visit that Jesus made to the city of nine, and it says that a great prophet is risen up among us, so people knew that this was a prophet, there are also other things that people were sought to lay hands on him, but they feared him as a prophet, when he also indicated that a prophet was not honored in his own town in his own town. So the the the gospels are replete with evidence is

that both Jesus peace be upon him as well as as well as his contemporaries knew that he was a prophet, and to theorize that he was hiding that secret is definitely something that does not have that much, especially if it has to be the cornerstone of

the highlands to make it metaphorical and naked, about

just simple and obvious. How about the end of his mission of the Jamaat, that does the Quran mentioned something about the Do we agree with the Christian version of his

crucifixion and ascension? Or how does the Quran deal with that subject on this I stick to the wording of the Quran, because this is a method that very little information is available and even

I'm sure that among early Christian sects, as George said, mentioned, for example, that there have been so many sects that disputed whether it was Jesus or Judah, this courier was put to the cross. This is disputed among early Christian sects, as well. But since you're asking about what the Quran specifically mentioned, I refer you to chapter four, verses 156 on and it says, Then, they that is the contemporaries of Jesus, they went so far in their unbelief, that they uttered a monstrous or false charge against me. They themselves bragged. And notice here, they bragged, we have slain Jesus, son of Mary, a messenger of Allah. Whereas in fact, they did not slay him. Nor did they

crucify him. The Quran is very obvious, they say they, they did not slay him, nor did they crucify him, but the matter was made dubious for them. And in other translations also should be translated as the matter was made to appear to them as such, that they must have been some kind of confusion. And they thought, impression, they got the wrong impression that it was Jesus, who was put on the cross. And then it continues, the verse that says, and those who have differed about this matter, are also in doubt concerning it. They have no knowledge of it, but for the mere conjectures, for they were not sure that they had succeeded in killing Jesus. Nay, the fact is, that Allah or God has

raised and left him to himself for God is all powerful, and all wise. So according to the specific text of the Quran,

it's conclusive that he was not the one person no matter how common it may be. Because like I said, again, the this

in an era Christianity now lots of theories also as to what happened, but I'm just saying are sticking my sister with the Quran.

It's very interesting that in the last part of the IRS you just mentioned, he said that they did not kill him, but God has caused him to rise or sort of ascend to heaven, He raised him to heaven. What could you be a little bit more specific about the meaning of raising here? Okay. Getting back to the original, the original words in the Quran, Arabic says, Rafa, hula hula, it didn't say specifically heavens. It says if you translate it literally, but God raised him unto himself. Okay? The best way to understand that without, again, going in any philosophizing is to stick to the term that that are raising, as it appears in the Quran, and I found that it appears in three meanings and three

different meanings in the Quran are three possibilities. One Of course, according to some interpreters, that God raised Jesus in body and soul. And we should not say that this is impossible. It cannot be proven scientifically, but God is definitely able to raise Jesus or lift him or take him away, before crucifixion in body and salt. So that's one possibility.

Reality is that the Quran also uses the term production,

to refer to taking away of the souls, that the body would be on Earth, but the soul would be taken away, which could possibly mean that Jesus might have lived died somewhere else. But God's referring to the raising of, of his soul. But again, we don't have any definite conclusive proof that this is the interpretation is one of the possible. In fact, there might be some indirect evidence to this point in the Quran. In one verse, it says why it's called a La Jolla, he said in the motto of our Africa, when God said, Oh, Jesus, I am with our seeker, and raising you with a word motto seeker would have two meanings. A common meaning would be causing you to die, which means natural death.

And the other meaning also could be with our seeker means completing your term, which could be completing your message, bring your mission to a halt and raise you. And other indirect evidence also is that the Quran says very clearly and conclusively. kulu nacinda cottonmouth. That is, every soul will test this and Jesus, peace be upon him being a prophet and human being. He definitely would have to test this like all other human beings. Also in the verse that I quoted before quoting Jesus, when he spoke to his mother, when that's in the first program on Jesus in the Quran, he says, What Salaam Allah Yama will lead to i O Muhammad, peace be upon me the day I was born and the day I

die. But this is one possibility. The third meaning that is used in the Quran about raising is used also allegorically to refer to raising of status. The Quran uses the term to refer to the raising of the status of mosques of knowledgeable people, just to give reference without quoting in details in chapter 2436. In chapter 19, verse 33, and chapter 1975. In chapter 58, verse 11, we find that the term lifting is used not necessarily in the physical sense, but in the lifting of status. Like it talks about prophet Idris, for example, that God raised him in a high position, but nobody ennobling. That's right.

But like I said, these are all possible interpretations. The Quran does not tell us in a conclusive sense, how he was raised, but from the practical point of view, the Muslim it doesn't make any much difference. Any difference really, whether he was crucified or not a Muslim, had it not been for the Quran, it would not make any difference. Many prophets were killed. crucifixion was the method of killing that dismission stands on its own merits,

regardless of the method, okay, Dr. Jamal, we have a minute and a half, could you give us a very brief answer to the second return of Christ? What about the second return of Christ?

Wonder? Okay, well, very briefly speaking, they there is nothing in the Quran conclusively saying, say, for example, that Jesus would have a second coming. However, there are some prophetic traditions, that is, tradition, or sayings of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in which he talks about the second coming of Jesus, but it's quite different from the meaning understood among our Christian brothers and sisters. That is, he will not be coming as somebody as a judge or as God to rule and judge, but rather he would be coming as a follower of Islam. And as we mentioned before, Islam is the face of all prophets, not only of Prophet Muhammad, and Jesus was a Muslim, according

to the Quran is the one who submitted to the Word of God in this prophetic tradition, and if I have time, I could have caught it and indicated the ingredients. But it says that he will come to declare the truth about himself that say even he will break the cross, which he would regard as something that came from other students taking symbols or mythical ideas that was before Christianity has nothing to do with his teaching.

That's Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And it's also mentioned interestingly enough, which has some similarity, that towards the end of the

day participating with the believers in fighting the false messiah or antichrist. Thank you very much Dr. tamale was most interesting. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us today. We hope you will come to join us next week where a new hosts will be hosting the show and

I am Hamid Hassan Hosni wrapping up. Thank you. God bless your Salaam Alaikum