Jesus in Islamic teachings.
In Islam, Isa refers to Jesus.
In Islam, Jesus (Arabic: عِيسَىٰ ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ, romanized: ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, lit. 'Jesus, son of Mary'), referred to by the Arabic rendering of his name Isa, is believed to be the penultimate prophet and messenger of God (Allāh) and the Messiah. He was the last of the messengers sent to the Israelites (Banī Isra'īl), and carried a revelation called the Injīl (Evangel or Gospel). In the Quran, Jesus is described as the Messiah (Arabic: المسيح, romanized: al-Masīḥ), born of a virgin, performing miracles, accompanied by his disciples, and rejected by the Jewish establishment; in contrast to the traditional Christian narrative, however, he is stated neither to have been crucified, nor executed, nor to have been resurrected. Rather, it is stated that it appeared to the Jews as if they had executed him and that they therefore say they killed Jesus, who had in truth ascended into Heaven. The Quran places Jesus among the greatest prophets and mentions him with various titles. The prophethood of Jesus is preceded by that of Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā (John the Baptist) and succeeded by Muhammad, the latter coming of whom Jesus is reported in the Quran to have foretold under the name Ahmad.
Prophet
ʿĪsā
عِيسَىٰ
Jesus
Alayhi as-Salam
Isa feeding his disciples with food from heaven.
Born
c. 4 BCE
Herodian Kingdom or Judea, Roman Empire
Disappeared
c. 33 CE
Gethsemane, Jerusalem, Judea, Roman Empire
Known for
Being the Messiah, prophet
Predecessor
Yahya (John the Baptist)
Successor
Muhammad
Opponent
Al-Masih ad-Dajjal ( False MESSIAH)
Parent
Maryam bint Imran (mother)
Relatives
Zakariyyā (adoptive maternal grandfather)
Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā (maternal cousin)
Most Christians view Jesus as God incarnate, the Son of God in human flesh, but the Quran denies the divinity of Jesus and his status as Son of God in several verses, and also says that Jesus did not claim to be personally God nor the Son of God. Islam teaches that Jesus' original message was altered (taḥrīf) after his being raised alive. The monotheism (tawḥīd) of Jesus is emphasized in the Quran. Like all prophets in Islam, Jesus is also called a Muslim (lit. submitter [to God]), as he preached that his followers should adopt the 'straight path' (Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm). Jesus is attributed with a vast number of miracles in Islamic tradition.
In their views of Islamic eschatology, most accounts state that Jesus will return in the Second Coming to kill the Al-Masih ad-Dajjal ('The False Messiah'), after which the ancient tribe of Gog and Magog (Yaʾjūj Maʾjūj) will disperse. After God eliminates them, Jesus will assume rulership of the world, establish peace and justice, and die a natural death, being buried alongside Muhammad in the fourth reserved tomb of the Green Dome in Medina.
The place where Jesus is believed to return, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, is highly esteemed by Muslims as the fourth holiest site of Islam. Jesus is widely venerated in Sufism, with numerous ascetic and mystic literature written and recited about him where he is often portrayed as the paragon of asceticism, divine love, and inner purity.
Quran
Jesus is referred to in the Quran throughout 15 surahs. The Quran emphasizes Jesus as a prophet, unique in creation, born out of a virgin, and messenger from God. He is usually referred to as Īsā ibn Maryam (Jesus son of Mary), al-Masih ibn Maryam (The Christ son of Mary), al-Masīḥ – and a few times in 23:50 and 43:57 as Ibn Maryam (Son of Mary). Jesus is described as God's word (kalima), which appears to be the equivalent of the Greek logos, imparted to Mary and to be his spirit. Yet, the Quran rejects the identification of Jesus and God (Surah 5:73, 116) in order to protect God's absolute unity (tawhid). Jesus is understood to have preached salvation through submission to God's will and worshipping God alone. Quran 5:116 states that Jesus will ultimately deny claiming divinity. Thus, he is considered to have been a Muslim by the religious definition of the term (i.e., one who submits to God's will).
Birth
Islam's account of Jesus begins with a prologue narrated several times in the Quran which first describes the birth of his mother, Mary, and her service in the Jerusalem temple while under the care of the prophet Zechariah, who would become the father of Yahya (John the Baptist). The Quran's birth narrative of Jesus begins at Quran 19:16-34 and 3:45-53. This birth narrative has been recounted with certain variations and detailed additions by Islamic historians over the centuries. In the matter of the virgin birth of Jesus, while Islamic theology affirms Mary as a pure vessel, it does not follow the concept of Immaculate Conception as related to Mary's birth in some Christian traditions.
Annunciation
Islamic exegesis affirms the virginal birth of Jesus – similarly to the Gospel account and occurring in Bethlehem. The narrative of the virgin birth opens with an announcement to Mary by the angel Gabriel while Mary is being raised in the Temple after having been pledged to God by her mother. Gabriel states she is honored over all women of all nations and has brought her glad tidings of a pure son.
Gabriel declares the son is to be named Jesus, the Messiah, proclaiming he will be called a great prophet. Mary, asking how she could conceive and have a child when no man had touched her, was answered by the angel that God can decree what he wills, and that it shall come to pass.
The narrative from the Quran continues with Mary, overcome by the pains of childbirth, being provided with a stream of water under her feet from which she could drink, and with a palm tree which she could shake so ripe dates would fall and be enjoyed. After giving birth, Mary carries the baby Jesus back to the temple and is asked by the temple elders about the child. Having been commanded by Gabriel to a vow of silence, she points to the infant Jesus and the infant proclaims:
˹Jesus˺ declared, “I am truly a servant of Allah. He has destined me to be given the Scripture and to be a prophet.
He has made me a blessing wherever I go, and bid me to establish prayer and give alms-tax as long as I live,
and to be kind to my mother. He has not made me arrogant or defiant.
Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I will be raised back to life!”
— Surah Maryam 19:30-33
Jesus speaking from the cradle is one of six miracles attributed to him in the Quran, an account which is also found in the Syriac Infancy Gospel, a sixth-century work. According to various hadiths, Jesus and Mary did not cry at birth.
Birth narratives
Maryam (left) the palm tree under which the nativity occurred according to the Quran with baby Isa (right).
The Islamic faith echoed some strands within the Christian tradition that Mary (or Maryam) was a literal virgin when Jesus was conceived. The most detailed account of the annunciation and birth of Jesus is provided in Surah 3 (Al Imran) and 19 (Maryam) of the Quran, where the story is narrated that God (Allah) sent an angel to announce that Maryam could shortly expect to bear a son, despite being a virgin.
The Qurʾanic birth narrative closely resembles ones found in Christian apocryphal texts, which modern scholars consider the Qurʾanic account to be dependent on. The primary two accounts the Quʾran is thought to recount in some way are found in the Latin Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew which features a Maryam date-palm (and spring) miracle in Egypt and the Gospel of James[a] which features a remote/cave birth narrative. Of additional importance are also the pictorial mosaics found in the Church of the Seat of Mary, which was converted into a mosque and served as the primary architectural inspiration for the Dome of the Rock. These mosaics already display the narrative conflation between the remote birth and the date-palm episode later found in the Quʾran. They thereby likely attest the Palestinian oral tradition recounted by the author of the Quʾran.
Despite common objections that the canonical Biblical accounts share little resemblance to the Qurʾanic account, some academics have argued that Surah 19 is particularly close to that in the canonical Christian Gospel of Luke. The Annunciation to Mary is mentioned twice in the Quran, and in both instances Mary/Maryam is told that she was chosen by God to deliver a son. In the first instance, the bearer of the news (who is believed by most Muslims to be the archangel Gabriel), delivered the news in (3:42-47) as he takes the form of a man (19:16-22). The details of the conception according to 66:12 and 21:89, Mary conceives Jesus by being blown into her womb through the spirit (i.e. archangel Gabriel), Mary asks how she can bear a son in view of her chastity, she is told that God creates what he wills and that these things are easy for God.
More recently Suleiman Ali Mourad began to venture beyond identifying these well-established pre-Islamic Christian intertexts and looking at broader mythological traditions of antiquity. He thereby identified divine birth narratives as general sources and particularly the birth of the Greek god, Apollo, as a prototype for the Quranic account.
The 8th-century Muslim historian Ibn Ishaq (704–767), wrote the account entitled Kitab al-Mubtada ('In the Beginning'), reporting that Zechariah is Mary's guardian briefly, and after being incapable of maintaining her, he entrusts her to a carpenter named George. Secluded in a church, she is joined by a young man named Joseph, and they help one another fetching water and other tasks. The account of the birth of Jesus follows the Quran's narrative, adding that the birth occurred in Bethlehem beside a palm tree with a manger.
The 10th-century Persian scholar al-Tabari (839–923) mentions envoys arriving from the king of Persia with gifts (similar to the Magi from the east) for the Messiah; the command to a man called Joseph (not specifically Mary's husband) to take her and the child to Egypt and later return to Nazareth.
The Fatimid Ismaili jurist Qadi al-Nu'man also contributed to the narrative, explaining that the virgin birth of Jesus is meant to be interpreted symbolically. In his interpretation, Mary was the follower (lāḥiq), of the Imam Joachim ('Imran). However, when Joachim realized that she was not suited for the Imamah, he passed it to Zechariah, who then passed it to John the Baptist. Meanwhile, Mary received spiritual inspiration (mādda) from God, revealing that he would invite a man (to the faith) who would become an exalted Speaker (nāṭiq) of a revealed religion (sharīʿa). According to al-Nu'man, the verses "She said: Lord! How can I have a child when no man has touched me?" (3:47) and "neither have I been unchaste" (19:20) are symbolic of Mary's saying, "How can I conduct the invitation (daʿwa) when the Imam of the Time has not given me permission to do so?" and "Nor shall I be unfaithful by acting against his command", respectively. To this, a celestial hierarch replies "Such is God. He creates [i.e., causes to pass] what he wills" (Quran 3:47).
Childhood
The Quran does not include the tradition of the Flight into Egypt, though sūrah 23:50 could conceivably allude to it: "And we made the son of Maryam and his mother a sign; and we made them abide in an elevated place, full of quiet and watered with springs." However, narratives similar to the narrative found in the Gospels and non-canonical sources circulated in later Islamic tradition, with some details and elaborations added over the centuries by Islamic writers and historians. Some narratives have Jesus and family staying in Egypt up to 12 years. Many moral stories and miraculous events of Jesus' youth are mentioned in Qisas al-anbiya ('Stories of the Prophets'), books composed over the centuries about pre-Islamic prophets and heroes.
Al-Masudi wrote that Jesus as a boy studied the Jewish religion reading from the Psalms and found "traced in characters of light":
You are my son and my beloved; I have chosen you for myself
with Jesus then claiming:
Today the word of God is fulfilled in the son of man.
In Egypt
Several narratives show some disparity and similarity in Islamic writings about Jesus' early childhood, specifically his time in Egypt with regard to duration and events. Most of the narratives are found in non-canonical Christian sources like, for example, the pre-Islamic Gospel of Thomas. One such disparity is from al-Athir in his The Perfection of History which contains a birth narrative stating Jesus was born in Egypt instead of Bethlehem.
Some other narratives of Jesus' childhood are popular Middle Eastern lore as highlighted by professor of interfaith studies Mahmoud M. Ayoub. Many miracles are attributed to a young Jesus while in Egypt.
Adulthood
Mission
It is generally agreed that Jesus spoke Galilean Aramaic, a dialect of the common language of Judea in the first century and the region at-large.
The first and earliest view of Jesus formulated in Islamic thought is that of a prophet – a human being chosen by God to present both a judgment upon humanity and challenge to turn to the one true God. From this basis, reflected upon all previous prophets through the lens of Muslim identity, Jesus is considered no more than repeating a message of the ages. The miracles of Jesus and the Quranic titles attributed to him demonstrate the power of God rather than the divinity of Jesus – the same power behind the message of all prophets. Some Islamic traditions believe Jesus' mission was only to the children of Israel and his status as a prophet being confirmed by numerous miracles.
A second early high image of Jesus is an end-time figure. This concept arises mostly from the Hadith. Muslim tradition constructs a narrative similarly found in Christian theology, seeing Jesus arriving at the end of time and descending upon earth to fight the Antichrist. This narrative is understood to champion the cause of Islam, with some traditions narrating Jesus pointing to the primacy of Muhammad. Most traditions state Jesus will then die a natural death.
A third and distinctive image is of Jesus representing an ascetic figure – a prophet of the heart. Although the Quran refers to the 'gospel' of Jesus, those specific teachings of his are not mentioned in the Quran or later religious texts. They are largely absent. The Sufi tradition is where Jesus became revered, acknowledged as a spiritual teacher with a distinctive voice from other prophets, including Muhammad. Sufism tends to explore the dimensions of union with God through many approaches, including asceticism, poetry, philosophy, speculative suggestion, and mystical methods. Although Sufism to the Western mind may seem to share similar origins or elements of Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and Buddhism, the ideology is distinctly Islamic since they adhere to the words of the Quran and pursue imitation of Muhammad as the perfect man.
Preaching
The Islamic concepts of Jesus' preaching is believed to have originated in Kufa, Iraq, under the Rashidun Caliphate where the earliest writers of Muslim tradition and scholarship was formulated. The concepts of Jesus and his preaching ministry developed in Kufa was adopted from the early ascetic Christians of Egypt who opposed official church bishopric appointments from Rome.
The earliest stories, numbering about 85, are found in two major collections of ascetic literature entitled Kitab al-Zuhd wa'l Raqa'iq ('The Book of the Asceticism and Tender Mercies') by Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak (d. 797), and Kitab al-Zuhd ('The Book of Asceticism') by Ibn Hanbal (d. 855). These sayings fall into four basic groups:
1. eschatological sayings;
2. quasi-Gospel sayings;
3. ascetic sayings and stories;
4. sayings echoing intra-Muslim polemics.
The first group of sayings expands Jesus' archetype as portrayed in the Quran. The second group of stories, although containing a Gospel core, are expanded with a "distinctly Islamic stamp". The third group, being the largest of the four, portrays Jesus as a patron saint of Muslim asceticism. The last group builds upon the Islamic archetype and Muslim-centric definition of Jesus and his attributes, furthering esoteric ideas regarding terms such as "Spirit of God" and "Word of God" describing Jesus Christ, attributes given to the Islamic view of Jesus Christ as a holy angelic messenger divinely sent from heaven by God to his fleshly incarnation, like an Angel of the Lord in some other Messianic Christian traditions.
Miracles
The Quran attributes at least six miracles to Jesus, with many more being added over the centuries by writers and historians. Miracles were attributed to Jesus as signs of his prophethood and his authority, according to educator and professor Musa Al-Husayni (d. 1990), an author most known for Mudhakkirat Dajaja ('Memoirs of a Hen') (Cairo: Dar al-Maarif, 1943; 2nd ed. 1967). In Christ in the Quran and Modern Arabic Literature (1960), Al-Husayni said it is noteworthy Muhammad attributes no miracles to himself.
These six miracles in the Quran are without detail unlike the Gospel and their non-canonical Gnostic sources, which include details and mention other attributed miracles. Over the centuries, these six miracle narratives have been elaborated through Hadith and poetry, with religious writings including some of the other miracles mentioned in the Gospel, non-canonical sources, and from lore.
Speaking from the cradle
Speaking from the cradle is mentioned in three places in the Quran: 3:46, 5:109-110 and 19:29-30. Part of the narrative has the infant Jesus defending his mother Mary from the accusation of having given birth without a known husband. Early Islam was unclear about Joseph and his role. Jesus speaks as the angel Gabriel had mentioned at the annunciation: Jesus proclaims he is a servant of God, has been given a book, is a prophet, is blessed wherever he will go, blesses the day he was born, the day he will die, and the day he is raised alive.
Although this particular narrative is not found in the Bible, the theme of speaking from the cradle is found in the non-canonical pre-Islamic Syriac Infancy Gospel. The Syriac Infancy Gospel has Jesus declaring himself the Son of God, the Word, and affirming what the angel Gabriel had previously announced to Mary as detailed in the Gospel.
Creating birds from clay
The miracle story of creating birds from clay and breathing life into them when a child is mentioned in 3:43-49, 5:109-110. Although this miracle is also not mentioned in the canonical Gospels, the same narrative is found in at least two pre-Islamic sources: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Jewish Toledot Yeshu, with few variant details between the Quran and these two sources.
Healing the blind and the lepers
Similar to the New Testament, the Quran mentions Jesus healing the blind and the lepers in 3:49. Muslim scholar and judge Al-Baydawi (d. 1286) wrote how it was recorded that many thousands of people came to Jesus to be healed and that Jesus healed these diseases through prayer only. Medieval scholar Al-Tha'labi wrote about how these two particular diseases were beyond medical help, and Jesus' miracles were meant to be witnessed by others as clear signs of his message.
Raising the dead
Jesus is believed to have raised people from the dead, as mentioned in al-Imran 3:49. Although no detail is given as to who was raised or the circumstance, at least three people are mentioned in detail in the Christian Gospel (a daughter of Jairus, a widow's son at Nain, and Lazarus).
Prescience
Jesus was able to predict, or had foreknowledge, of what was hidden or unknown to others. One example is Jesus would answer correctly any and every question anyone asked him. Another example is Jesus knew what people had just eaten, as well as what they had stored in their homes.
Table of food from Heaven
In the fifth chapter of the Quran, Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:112-115, a narration mentions the disciples of Jesus requesting a table laden with food, and for it to be a special day of commemoration for them in the future. This may be a possible reference to the Eucharist according to professor of Islamic and Arabic studies W. Montgomery Watt (d. 2006). According to professor of comparative religions Geoffrey Parrinder (d. 2005), it is unclear if this story parallels the Gospel's Last Supper or the feeding the multitude, but may be tied to the Arabic word ʿīd (Muslim festival):
5:112 ˹Remember˺ when the disciples asked, “O Jesus, son of Mary! Would your Lord be willing to send down to us a table spread with food from heaven?” Jesus answered, “Fear Allah if you are ˹truly˺ believers.”
5:113 They said, “We ˹only˺ wish to eat from it to reassure our hearts, to verify you are indeed truthful to us, and to become its witnesses.”
5:114 Jesus, son of Mary, prayed, “O Allah, our Lord! Send us from heaven a table spread with food as a feast for us—the first and last of us—and as a sign from You. Provide for us! You are indeed the Best Provider.”
5:115 Allah answered, “I am sending it down to you. But whoever among you denies afterwards will be subjected to a torment I have never inflicted on anyone of My creation.”
— Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:112-115
In a record by the Sunni exegete Tabari, before the last supper, the threat of death made him anxious. Therefore, Jesus invited his disciples for the last supper. After the meal, he washed their hands and performed their ablutions to wipe their hands on his clothing. Afterwards Jesus replied to them: "As for that I have done to you tonight, in that I served you the meal and washed your hands in person, let it be an example for you. Since you indeed consider me to be better than you, do not be haughty in relation to each other but rather expand yourselves for each other as I have expanded myself for you." After instructing the disciples in his teachings, Jesus foretells that one of them would deny him and another betray him. However, in accordance with Islamic views on Jesus' death, just a corpse in semblance of Jesus was crucified and Jesus himself was raised to God.
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