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It is likely this practice represents the survival of pre-Christian devotion.
That Islam is itself not immune to the survival of pagan practices should
be apparent to TV viewers watching Shiite Muslim men hitting themselves
on the head with knives. Mohammed did not teach people to do this, they
were doing it long before his day: "So they shouted louder and slashed
themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood
flowed." (1 Kings 18:28).
Tolerance
Muslims describe their religion as 'tolerant,' pointing as proof to the
high praise the Koran gives to past prophets, including Jesus:
"Moreover, to Moses gave we 'the Book,' and we raised up
apostles after him; and to Jesus, son of Mary, gave we clear proof of his mission,
and strengthened him by the Holy Spirit. So oft then as an apostle cometh to you
with that which your souls desire not, swell ye with pride, and treat some as
imposters, and slay others?" (Sura 2:81).
"Some of the apostles we have endowed more highly than
others: Those to whom God hath spoken, He hath raised to the loftiest grade, and to
Jesus the Son of Mary we gave manifest signs, and we strengthened him with the
Holy Spirit. And if God had pleased, they who came after them would not have
wrangled, after the clear signs had reached them. But into disputes they fell:
some of them believed, and some were infidels; yet if God had pleased, they
would not have thus wrangled: but God doth what he will." (Sura 2:254).
"And when Jesus perceived unbelief on their part, He
said, 'Who will be my helpers with God?' The apostles said, 'We will be God's
helpers! We believe in God, and bear thou witness that we are Muslims. O our Lord!
we believe in what thou has sent down, and we follow the apostle; write us up, then,
with those who bear witness to him'...Remember when God said, 'O Jesus!
verily I will cause thee to die, and will take thee up to myself and deliver thee
from those who believe not; and I will place those who follow thee above those
who believe not, until the day of resurrection. Then, to me is your return,
and wherein ye differ will I decide between you.'" (Sura 3:46-48).
"And in the footsteps of the prophets caused we Jesus,
the son of Mary, to follow, confirming the law which was before him: and we gave him
the Evangel with its guidance and light, confirmatory of the preceding Law; a
guidance and warning to those who fear God..." (Sura 5:50).
"When He shall say: O Jesus! Son of Mary! call to mind my favor upon
thee and upon thy mother, when I strengthened thee with the Holy Spirit,
that thou shouldest speak to men alike in the cradle, and when grown up;
— And when I taught thee the Scripture, and Wisdom, and the Law, and the
Evangel: and thou didst create of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird,
by my leave, and didst breathe into it, and by my leave it became a bird;
and thou didst heal the blind and the leper, by my leave; and when, by
my leave, thou didst bring forth the dead; and when I withheld the children
of Israel from thee, when thou hadst come to them with clear tokens: and
such of them as believed not said, 'This is nought but plain sorcery...Remember
when the Apostles said — 'O Jesus, Son of Mary! is thy Lord able to send
down a furnished Table to us out of Heaven!' He said — 'Fear God if ye
be believers.'" (Sura 5:109-112).
"Verily we have revealed to thee as we revealed to
Noah and the Prophets after him, and as we revealed to Abraham, and Ismael, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and Jesus, and Job, and Jonah, and Aaron, and
Solomon; and to David gave we Psalms." (Sura 4:161).
"This is our reasoning with which we furnished Abraham
against his people: We uplift to grades of wisdom whom we will; Verily thy Lord is
Wise, Knowing. And we gave him Isaac and Jacob, and guided both aright; and we had
before guided Noah; and among the descendants of Abraham, David and Solomon,
and Job and Joseph, and Moses and Aaron: Thus do we recompense the righteous: And
Zachariah, John, Jesus, and Elias; all were just persons..." (Sura 6:83-85).
"And remember that we have entered into covenant with
the Prophets, and with thee, and with Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus,
Son of Mary: and we formed with them a strict covenant..." (Sura 33:7).
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Why, they wonder, cannot Christians return the favor, and acknowledge Mohammed
as a true prophet of God?
To answer, let us perform a 'thought experiment.' Suppose I pen a fictional
work recounting Mohammed's death-bed confession. Suppose, according to
me, Mohammed at the end gasped, 'Gosh, I should have listened to Khadija's
cousin Waraqa, he was right and I was wrong. Jesus Christ really is God
incarnate!' Then he breathed his last, at peace with God and man.
He died, after all, trying to communicate, though they would not
let him:
"Ibn 'Abbas said, 'When the ailment of the Prophet became worse, he said,
"Bring for me
(writing) paper and I will write for you a statement after which you will not go astray."
But 'Umar said, "The Prophet is seriously ill, and we have got Allah's Book with us and that
is sufficient for us." But the companions of the Prophet differed about this and there was
a hue and cry. On that the Prophet said to them, "Go away (and leave me alone). It is not
right that you should quarrel in front of me."' (Hadith, Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 3, Number
114).
What could he have wanted to leave as his final admonition,
other than 'I was wrong. Jesus is the way. Follow Him?' Or so goes
my story.
Who in the Muslim world would praise me as 'tolerant'? Should any major
publishing house take on this venture, mobs would embark on arson sprees.
Muslims would angrily shout, 'Mohammed never said that! You made it up!'
Precisely the point. A character named 'Jesus' pops up in the Koran, and
helpfully explains that the Muslims are right and the Christians are wrong.
The words He is made to speak do not correspond to any recalled by the
circle of His immediate followers as recorded in the New Testament. Nor,
given the centuries separating Jesus and Mohammed, is it likely these words
reflect any authentic historic tradition otherwise unrecorded. Should the
claim be made that these words were divinely revealed, this is precisely
the question. Those who believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God
are not likely to acknowledge the inspiration of contradictory information.
In the Koran, 'Jesus' is made, like a ventriloquist's dummy, to 'take back'
what He says in the New Testament. In the New Testament Jesus says, “Most
assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58).
But the Koran says,
"Infidels now are they who say, 'Verily God is the
Messiah Ibn Maryam (son of Mary)! Say: And who could aught obtain from God, if he
chose to destroy the Messiah Ibn Maryam, and his mother, and all who are on the
earth together?" (Sura 5:19).
How can 'I AM' be 'destroyed'?
Far from finding my fictional work 'tolerant,' Muslims would likely perceive
it as an underhanded effort to co-opt and to appropriate, or rather to
misappropriate, their prophet. This is what the Koran does to Jesus.
Seal of the Prophets
The Koran
"Mohammed is not the father of any man among you, but he is the Apostle of God, and the seal of the prophets:
and God knoweth all things." (Sura 33:40)
Mohammed asserted there would be no prophet after him: "...I am Muhammad
and I am Ahmad, and I am al-Mahi (the obliterator) by whom unbelief would
be obliterated, and I am Hashir (the gatherer) at whose feet mankind will
be gathered, and I am 'Aqib (the last to come) after whom there will be
no Prophet." (Hadith, Sahih Muslim, Book 30, Chapter 31, Number 5810.)
"The Prophet said, 'Aren't you pleased to be to me as Aaron was to
Moses -- although there will be no prophet after me?'" (Muslim, quoted p.
41, an Introduction to the Hadith, John Burton).
The Bible
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons
and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young
men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour
out my Spirit in those days." (Joel 2:28-29).
"No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days,
God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters
will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream
dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit
in those days, and they will prophesy.'" (Acts 2:16-18).
There is no scriptural indication that this prophetic flood, unleashed
on the Day of Pentecost, was expected to end in seventh century Arabia.
There is no 'last prophet' known to scripture. Prophecy was common in the
early church: "Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.
And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from
Judea." (Acts 21:9-10). There is no scriptural reason to think this
gift has ceased, though some think it has.
What is Mine
The Koran
"He shall say — 'Glory be unto Thee! it is not for me to say that which I know to be not the truth; had I said
that, verily thou wouldest have known it: Thou knowest what is in me, but I know not what is in Thee; for Thou well knowest
things unseen! I spake not to them aught but that which thou didst bid me — "Worship God, my Lord and your Lord;" and I was
a witness of their actions while I stayed among them; but since thou hast taken me to Thyself, Thou hast Thyself watched them, and Thou
art witness of all things..."'" (Sura 5:116-117).
The Bible
"All things that the Father has are Mine." (John 16:15).
"O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known
You; and these have known that You sent Me." (John 17:25).
"As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down
My life for the sheep." (John 10:15).
"All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows
the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son,
and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (Matthew 11:27).
It is true that, as Muslim commentators on this passage point out, omniscience
is a divine prerogative: "Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite." (Psalm 147:5). Thus, when Jesus says,
"As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father," He is claiming to be God.
Declare the Decree
The Koran
The Koran concedes that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, that is the Christ,
God's Anointed One:
"Remember when the angel said, ‘O Mary! Verily God announceth to thee the Word from Him: His name shall be, Messiah
Jesus the son of Mary, illustrious in this world, and in the next, and one of those who have near access to God..." (Sura 3:40).
Having conceded this however, the Koran proceeds to deny to Jesus the names
and titles very clearly bestowed on the Messiah by the Old Testament:
The Bible
“Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son,
today I have begotten You.'” (Psalm 2:6-7).
Those like the Jehovah's Witnesses who accept the authority of the Bible
yet deny the deity of Jesus Christ go to great lengths to explain the Messiah's
title of "Son of God." They must evade the normal expectation
that, whatever nature of being the Father is, so also is the Son. Yet Mohammed
does not follow them in interpreting the title "Son of God" in
a weak or metaphorical sense. Rather, he flatly denies any such title belongs
to the Messiah, or to anyone else:
"The Jews say, 'Ezra (Ozair) is a son of God'; and the
Christians say, 'The Messiah is a son of God.' Such the sayings in their mouths!
They resemble the sayings of the Infidels of old! God do battle with them! How are
they misguided! They take their teachers, and their monks, and the Messiah, son of
Mary, for Lords beside God, though bidden to worship one God only. There is no God
but He! Far from His glory be what they associate with Him!" (Sura 9:30-31).
Apparently he interprets the title in a carnal way such as would be appropriate to a pagan theogony: "Sole maker of the Heavens
and of the Earth! how, when He hath no consort, should He have a son?" (Sura 6:101). Here is not a case where the Koran confirms prior
scripture as advertised, but flatly contradicts.
"Such the sayings in their mouths:"
“And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.'” (Matthew 3:17).
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