Let us now see some of the sayings of Moses and Jesus to confirm that they too were talking of the same path as
Musa (Moses) and other prophets after him had foretold the advent of Isa (Jesus), Ilyas and the “promised prophet” in the progeny of Ismael and the “twelve princes” succeeding him. The fact that the Ahlebayts traced their lineage to Ismael confirms that when Moses talked of the “promised prophet” and the “twelve princes” succeeding him, he was actually referring to Mohammad and the 12 succeeding vicegerents or Imams.
Not only this, Isa (Jesus) too announced the coming of the “Paraclete” (Mohammad or Ahmed) before he left this world.
And when the promised “Paraclete” would come, he will complete the mission by delivering the whole truth and shall never speak but whatsoever he shall hear from the Lord that he shall speak. (The Book of John)
Unfortunately, Isa had appointed Simon as his successor and as the rock of divinity on whom the edifice of the faith will be based, but Paul opposed him. To make people discard Simon, Paul claimed the appearance of Isa in his vision, and by accommodating the pagan cult of the Romans he corrupted the true faith and established the orthodox Christian Church. Similar corruptions occurred in the teachings of most of the Messengers at the hands of those supposedly close to them.
Verse 2:40 of the Quran talks of a covenant with which the Israelites were tied. It says:
O children of
In this verse, the Bani Israels are reminded to be faithful to their covenant with Allah. And the covenant, which is talked about, is this:
This day the Lord, your God, commands you to keep these statutes and laws: be careful to observe them with all your heart and soul. You have recognized the Lord this day as your God; you are to conform to His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, and His laws, and to obey Him. (Deut 26: 16 and 17)
As regards to the coming of Mohammad, Isa had said:
He will bring those bad men to a bad end, and hand the vineyard over to other tenants, who will let him have his share of the crop when the season comes.
It was a parable narrated to the Jews. It happened exactly as the Jews were warned. When the Jews failed to fulfill the covenant, the covenant of Allah was transferred to the descendants of Ismael.
Jesus said to them:
Have you never read in the scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected has become the main corner-stone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I tell you, the
This shows that the Jews knew that the Holy Prophet was the final messenger of Allah. They also knew that the holy Kaaba, with the “black stone” set in one of its corners, was destined to be the qiblah of the believers.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner-stone. (Psalms: 118: 22 and Matthew 2 1: 42)
And it has been confirmed that Allah would fulfill His covenant with the Bani Israel. Musa said:
For it was he whom the Lord your God chose from all your tribes to attend on the Lord and to minister in the name of the Lord, both he and his sons for all time. (Deut, 18: 5)
I will raise up for them a prophet like you (Musa), and I will put my words into his mouth. He shall convey all my commands to them, and if any one does not listen to the words which he will speak, I will require satisfaction from him. (Deut 18, 18-19)
The Christian Church is of the opinion that the aforementioned verse refers to Jesus. We are of the opinion that this claim is wrong and refers to the Prophet Mohammad, as Jesus himself talked of the coming Prophet:
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another to be your advocate, who will be with forever - the spirit of truth. Your advocate will teach you everything, and will call to mind all that I have told you. (John 14: 16 and 26)
Isa referred to the Holy Prophet as the advocate or the comforter who would succeed him and be with the people forever. Isa’s prophecy is proved true in the Holy Prophet and his descendants, the last of whom is our living Imam – the Mahdi or the Kalki avatar.
And see this saying of Jesus:
It is for your good that I am leaving you. If I do not go, your advocate will not come. When he comes, he will confute the world, and show where wrong and right and judgment lie.
There is still much that I could say to you, but the burden would be too great for you now.
However, when he comes who is the spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but will tell only what he hears; and he will make known to you the things that are coming. (John 16, 7-14)
Just as Buddha said that he knew more but was telling little, Jesus and Moses too used similar words. This confirms that they all knew that the brains were still not prepared to accept the Final Truth. Similarly, the succeeding passage confirms that not just Jesus and Moses but also all the rest of prophets, from Samuel onwards predicted about the coming of blessings on earth, through the offspring of Abraham.
The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among yourselves as he raised me, you shall listen to everything he says to you, and anyone who refuses to listen to that prophet must be extirpated from
And so said all the prophets, from Samuel onwards; with one voice they all predicted these days. You are the heirs of the prophets; you are within the covenant which God made with your fathers, when he said to Abraham, “And in your offspring all the families on earth shall find blessings. (Acts 3, 22-25)
It has been clearly stated that ‘anyone who refuses to listen to that prophet must be extirpated from
And you have seen before as well that Isa that:
And when the promised “Paraclete” would come, he will complete the mission by delivering the whole truth and shall never speak but whatsoever he shall hear from the Lord that he shall speak. (The Book of John)
Isa himself never claimed to have come in the fulfillment of the prophecy about the advent of the promised prophet, nor any other prophet, after him did so, except the Holy Prophet Mohammad. In view of these undeniable facts the Christian Church had no alternative but to give currency to the belief in the Second Advent of Isa. Moses and Mohammad were the lawgivers, whereas Isa was the follower of the laws preached by Musa. Therefore, the phrase “like you” applies to Mohammad, not to Isa.
That Isa was sent as “a messenger to the children of Bani Israel”, is not said in Quran itself but he himself maintained this view and said so on various occasions. Please refer to Matthew 15: 22 to 26 wherein it is also stated that Isa had declared: “I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of
Do not take the road to gentile lands, and do not enter a Samaritan town; but go to the lost sheep of the house of
Modern Christian scholars have to acknowledge the advice of Isa, and his earliest disciples, not to treat his message as universal.
“The earlier group of disciples, it is true, did not appreciate the universality of the teaching of Jesus, nor did Jesus seek converts outside
Also, Prophet Isa has made it clear in his following statement that he was only a mortal, created by Allah, and not god as the Christian church wrongly claims. When would finally that promised prophet would finally come was not foretold:
But about the day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even the son; only the Father. (Mark 13:32)
It is unfortunate that the Christian Church disbelieved Mohammad when he was born, in spite of all the aforementioned evidences available with them. As to this, the verse 2:41 of Quran says:
And believe in what I have revealed, verifying that which is with you, and be not the first to deny it, neither take a mean price in exchange for My communications; and Me, Me alone should you fear.
The Bani Israel are exhorted, in this verse, to believe in the Quran, which verifies Tawrait and Injeel (the divine books with the Jews and Christians), particularly about the fulfillment of the prophecy, about the adve nt of the promised prophet, Mohammad , as explained above.
And see verse 2:42 from Quran:
And do not mix up the truth with the falsehood, nor hide the truth while you know (it).
It refers to the scriptures, revealed prior to the Quran, which had been profusely tampered with, restyled and disguised by the Christians. Many rabbis knew the true text of the scriptures in the time of the Holy Prophet but concealed the truth, and when a few less careful, now and then, quoted them as mentioned in verse 76 of Baqarah of this surah they were rebuked for giving secret information to the Muslims.
End of raging debate between Muslims and Christians
Let us see a narration from book “Words of the Word of God: Jesus Christ ('a) Speaks through Shi'i Narrations” edited and translated by Mahdi Muntazir Qa’im and Mohammad Legenhausen (Vol. 13, No. 3-4). You are requested to note how this reveals the endless debates going on between Muslims and Christians over matters related to religion. See:
“In the Qur'an, in a passage describing the annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus is described as a Word from God: "O Mary! Verily Allah gives you the glad tidings of a Word from Him; his name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world, and in the Hereafter of those near [to God]" (3:44)
The context in which this ayah was revealed was one of inter-religious encounter. It is said that the Christians of Najran sent a delegation to the Prophet of Islam at Makkah to question him about the teachings of Islam concerning Jesus, and God revealed the above and other ayat of Surat Al 'Imran in response. The response is not only not a denial of Christian teachings, although the divinity of Christ is clearly rejected, but also an affirmation of much believed by Christians as well, even the designation of Christ as logos: 'O People of the Book! Do not go to extremes in your creed, and do not say of Allah but the Truth. Verily, the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, is only an apostle of Allah and His Word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a Spirit from Him (Qur'an 4:171) So in addition to being called the Word of God, Jesus is also called a Spirit of God and in some of the narrations reported in the Shi'i tradition, this title is used.
Of course, the interpretation of the logos in Christian theology differs markedly from the interpretation of the kalimah by Muslim scholars. For the Christian, according to the Gospel of John, 'the Word was God and the Word became flesh.' For the Muslim, on the other hand, the Word is creature, even while it is the creative principle, for it is in God's utterance of the word 'Be'. That creation takes place. To call Christ the Word of Allah is not to deify him, but to verify his status as prophet. Because of his high status as prophet, Jesus becomes a complete manifestation of God, one who conveys the message of God, one who can speak on behalf of God, the Word of God Jesus becomes the Word of God not because of an incarnation whereby his flesh becomes divine, but because his spirit is refined to such an extent that it becomes a mirror whereby divinity comes to be known. The temple is holy not because of any inherent sanctity in the structure, but because it is the place of the worship of God.
One of the central questions of Christian theology is: "Who was Jesus Christ?" The formulation of answers to this question is called Christology. In this area of theology, Christians have debated the significance of the historical Jesus as opposed to the picture of Jesus presented in the traditions of the Christian Churches and the Biblical understanding of Jesus. The time has come for Muslims to begin work in this area, as well. Through the development of an Islamic Christology we can come to a better understanding of Islam as contrasted with Christianity, and Islam in consonance with Christianity, too. Indeed, the first steps in this direction are laid out for us in the Qur'an itself, in the verses mentioned above and others. Contemporary work toward an Islamic Christology is scarce. Christian authors have tended to stress the salvific function of Jesus which seems to have no place in Islam, and given this, the Christians ask one another whether Christ can be the savior of Muslims and others who are not Christians. Christians should be reminded that Muslims accept Jesus as savior, along with all the other prophets, for the prophetic function is to save humanity from the scourge of sin by conveying the message of guidance revealed by God. The important difference between Islam and Christianity here is not over the issue of whether Jesus saves, but how he saves. Islam denies that salvation is through redemption resulting from the crucifixion, and instead turns its attention to the instruction provided in the life of the prophets.
Muslims, on the other hand, have tended to produce polemical works showing how much of what is in the Bible is consistent with the Islamic view of Christ as prophet rather than as a person of the Trinity. Some interesting work along these lines has been initiated by Ahmad Deedat in
The Prophet, in the last year of his life, is reported to have said:
"Verily, I am leaving with you two weighty things (thaqalayn): the Book of Allah and my kindred, my household [Ahlebayt], for indeed, the two of them will never separate until they return to me by the Pond [of Kawthar on the Last Day]."
From the following narrations we not only become reacquainted with the moral teachings of Jesus and with his character, but we also discover what the dear friends of Allah, the Household of the Prophet found it important to transmit about him, and thereby we get a glimpse into their moral teachings and characters, too.
Jesus said: ''In truth I say unto you, just as one who is sick looks at food and finds no pleasure in it due to the severity of the pain, the companions of this world find no pleasure in worship and do not find the sweetness of it, for what they find is the sweetness of this world. In truth I say unto you, just as an animal which is not captured and tamed becomes hardened and its character is changed, so too when hearts are not softened by the remembrance of death and the effort of worship they become hard and coarse, and in truth I say unto you, if a skin is not torn, it may become a vessel for honey, just as hearts, if they are not torn by desires, or fouled by greed, or hardened by pleasures, may become vessels for wisdom.'' (
This book of ours is meant to put to rest all debates that the Christians and Muslims have been engaged in for all these 1400 years since Mohammad.
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