Jesus in Quran

The story of Maryam and Isa (peace be upon him) is told in Surah Maryam, chapter 19 verse 16 onwards. For my readers, it must be read and digested intellectually and spiritually. The first statement that Jesus ( peace be upon him) spoke when he was born was : Inni Abdullah..I am ” A WORSHIPPER OF ALLAH ( Abdullah)” says the verse 30, of same Surah. The house of Islam has accomodated Jesus and his mother in a very honourable status. The Qur’an says that his first miracle was that he spoke while in cradle and gave a witness in favor of his mother’s noble character. Quite astonishingly the Bible does not include this miracle in any of its version.

In the house of Islam the character of the person is graded by his attitude towards his parents. A Prophet of the status of Jesus ( peace be upon him) says: I am Commmanded (by Allah) to be kind towards my mother. In the house of Islam Mary ( Maryam) is declared to be among the four women who had ‘a complete faith’. She was not a scholar, she was not a ruler, nor she was a wife but the high status she reached was because she was was a devotee of Allah par excellence and a mother.

Imagine how many taunts and pressure she must have met when she brought a baby while she was still un married. Her life is an example that a woman can reach high level of spiritually in worship inspite of children. The orthodox Jewish community could not digest the very fact that this was the Meesiah they were foretold in their scriptures. ” How could a Messiah be born to an unmarried lady?” was the biggest debate of that time. “Is he the awaited Messiah or not?” There was no debate recorded in the New testament with regards to the response of the Jewish community, if Jesus was God or not, when he was born. There were no Christians at that time nor did any one celebrate Xmas in those days. The disciples of Jesus were not Christians but studied the Book Torah and Injeel. The man who supported Jesus was John the Baptist, known as Yahya in the Qur’an and he too was never baptised.

The Orthdox Bani Israel refused to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, they got Yahya and Zakariya killed, peace be upon all of them. The Qur’an and the Bible both agrees to this. They tried to kill Jesus but Allah saved him, says 157 verse of Surah Nisa’: They claim that they have killed Isa, son of Mary , the messenger of Allah ! They have killed him not nor have they crucified him, but it was their conjecture, those who dispute in doubt they have no knowledge, but Allah raised him up alive.

Jesus is the point of junction from where the three Semetic religins go in differnt directions. The Jews rejected his Messiahship, his Prophet hood and accused that he was claiming divinity, the Christian elevated Jesus higher than his status by taking him God or one in three of the Trinity. Islam maintains the original status of Jesus as a sign of Allah, that he was born miraculously and that he did speak as a baby in cradle and he cured the lepers and blinds and brought back the dead to life but with the permission of Allah. Both, Jesus and Mary ate food and they worshipped Allah. Meanwhile the Jews still await for the Messiah and the Christians wait for “that day when Jesus will be returning” and the Muslim are also foretold about his recoming.

But there is one more climax to the whole event, the arrival of Anti Christ as prophesised in the Bible and the Islamic books (Hadith). For past few decades some mischeivous elements in the ranks of Christian Missionaries accuse Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, as the Anti Christ. Infact the Islamic traditions say that Jesus will return to complete his remaining life and he will rule by the Qur’an, the Muslims will believe in him and they will support him. The Muslims will be suppporting Jesus and not anti-Christ.

Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) A statement of truth, about which they dispute. (Surah maryam, ch 19 verse 34)