No Muslim is a Muslim who does not believe in Jesus. The Quran names him the Messiah, born of a virgin, a worker of miracles, "prominent in this life and in the Hereafter, and one of those closest to Me." (3:45), and gives a whole sura the name of his mother. This article begins with what the Quran says for Jesus, then lets Jesus speak for himself from the King James Bible without commentary, and only then reads the verses in which the Quran gives him his own voice.
What the Quran says for him
"The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was a messenger of GOD, and His word that He had sent to Mary, and a revelation from Him." (4:171). Of his birth: "My Lord, how can I have a son, when no man has touched me?" (3:47); the answer, "GOD thus creates whatever He wills." (3:47). Of his works: "I restore vision to the blind, heal the leprous, and I revive the dead by GOD's leave." (3:49). Of his scripture: "We gave him the Gospel, containing guidance and light" (5:46). And of him and his mother: "we made her and her son a portent for the whole world." (21:91).
Luke's Annunciation and the Quran's agree in substance; Mary's question is the same in both: "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" (Luke 1:34, KJV). A Christian who hears these verses hears nothing he does not already believe. That ground is wide.
Jesus in his own words
The sayings, from the KJV, in the order the project recommends, nothing added.
Asked which commandment is first, he answered as Moses had: "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord" (Mark 12:29).
Addressed as "Good Master," he replied: "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17).
Of the Father: "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28).
Of the Hour: "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark 13:32).
Of his own power: "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30).
Of his own speech: "For I speak not from myself; but the Father that sent me, he hath given me the commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak… even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak" (John 12:49–50).
And after the passion, to Mary Magdalene: "I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God" (John 20:17).
Add his prayer: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Two witnesses who knew him. Peter, at Pentecost: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you" (Acts 2:22). Paul: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5).
The same voice in the Quran
Now the Quran, where Jesus speaks in the cradle, in his ministry, and on the Day of Resurrection.
In the cradle: "I am a servant of GOD. He has given me the scripture, and has appointed me a prophet." (19:30). "He made me blessed wherever I go, and enjoined me to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat) for as long as I live." (19:31).
In his ministry: "GOD is my Lord and your Lord; you shall worship Him alone. This is the right path." (19:36). Khalifa's footnote to 19:36 reads, "This is similar to the statement attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John 20:17," and his footnote to 3:51, where the same words recur, adds that this is "precisely what Jesus is quoted to say throughout the New Testament." The Quran and the Gospel put the same sentence in the same mouth. "The Messiah himself said, 'O Children of Israel, you shall worship GOD; my Lord and your Lord.'" (5:72).
Of a messenger's speech, the Quran says what John 12:49 says: "Nor was he speaking out of a personal desire." (53:3) "It was divine inspiration." (53:4). Of the Hour, it agrees with Mark 13:32: "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord." (7:187). Of miracles, it agrees with Peter: "No messenger can produce any miracle without GOD's authorization." (40:78).
And on the Day of Resurrection: "Be You glorified. I could not utter what was not right. Had I said it, You already would have known it." (5:116). "I told them only what You commanded me to say" (5:117), namely, "You shall worship GOD, my Lord and your Lord." (5:117). His disciples answer: "We are GOD's supporters; we believe in GOD, and bear witness that we are submitters." (3:52). Submission to GOD's will, not his own, is what Jesus says in John 5:30; in Arabic the word for that is Islam.
"Son of God" in the Bible's own idiom
The phrase that divides Christian from Jew and Muslim is one the Bible uses of many. Luke's genealogy ends: "Adam, which was the son of God" (Luke 3:38). GOD says of a nation, "Israel is my son, even my firstborn" (Exodus 4:22). Of David: "Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee" (Psalm 2:7). Of the righteous: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). All KJV. In Hebrew idiom "son of God" meant a servant of GOD; Psalm 2:7, with "begotten" said of David, settles that the word did not mean what later Greek readers took it to mean.
The Quran objects to the Greek sense, not the Hebrew: "It does not befit GOD that He begets a son, be He glorified." (19:35); "How can He have a son, when He never had a mate?" (6:101). Its answer to the virgin birth as a proof of divinity is Adam: "The example of Jesus, as far as GOD is concerned, is the same as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, 'Be,' and he was." (3:59). If a fatherless birth made Jesus GOD, Adam, with neither parent, has the greater claim; no Christian says so.
"I and my Father are one"
The verse most quoted against all this is John 10:30; its context answers it. The verses before it end with the same clause, said first of Jesus and then of the Father: no one can snatch the sheep "out of my Father's hand" (John 10:29). The oneness is of purpose. When his hearers accuse him, "because that thou, being a man, makest thyself a God" (John 10:33), Jesus does not accept it; he quotes Psalm 82:6, "I have said, ye are gods: and all of you are the children of the most High," and asks why, if GOD called those to whom His word came "gods," it is blasphemy for him to say he is GOD's Son (John 10:34–36). In his last prayer he asks the same oneness for his disciples: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us" (John 17:21). If John 10:30 makes Jesus GOD, John 17:21 makes the disciples GOD too.
The one Trinity verse
The word "Trinity" is not in the Bible. The one verse that states the doctrine, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" (1 John 5:7, KJV), is absent from the Revised Standard Version, and the Scofield Reference Bible's note reads: "It is generally agreed that this verse has no manuscript authority and has been inserted." This is the finding of Christian scholars, not an accusation. The word "Trinity" does occur in the Quran, to forbid it: "You shall not say, 'Trinity.' You shall refrain from this for your own good. GOD is only one god." (4:171). "There is no god except the one god." (5:73).
Anointed, and a man who ate
"Messiah" and "Christ" both mean "anointed," a title the Hebrew Bible gives to priests, kings and even a pagan emperor: "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus" (Isaiah 45:1, KJV). The Quran keeps the title and says what it does not mean: "The Messiah, son of Mary, is no more than a messenger like the messengers before him, and his mother was a saint. Both of them used to eat the food." (5:75).
Miracles do not change this, by the Bible's own account. Elisha fed a hundred men (2 Kings 4:44), cured a leper (2 Kings 5:14) and raised the dead (2 Kings 4:34); Elijah raised the dead (1 Kings 17:22); Moses parted the sea (Exodus 14:22). Jesus himself warned, "there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders" (Matthew 24:24), and said of John, who did no miracle, that "among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11). The Quran confirms Jesus' miracles, and one the Bible does not record, the clay bird, and says of each that it was "by GOD's leave" (3:49).
And Jesus prayed as a man prays. At Gethsemane he "fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39, KJV). The posture is the prostration the Quran commands of his mother: "O Mary, you shall submit to your Lord, and prostrate and bow down with those who bow down." (3:43). The one who is worshipped does not fall on his face to pray. On what followed, the project says only what the Quran says: "In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him - they were made to think that they did." (4:157); "Instead, GOD raised him to Him; GOD is Almighty, Most Wise." (4:158); "O Jesus, I am terminating your life, raising you to Me, and ridding you of the disbelievers." (3:55). Khalifa's footnote to 4:157–158: "Jesus, the real person, the soul, was raised in the same manner as in the death of any righteous person. Subsequently, his enemies arrested, tortured, and crucified his living, but empty, body." The prayer of Gethsemane was answered.
The same rule for every messenger
The Quran applies to its own messenger what it applies to Jesus: "Muhammad was no more than a messenger like the messengers before him." (3:144). "I am no more than a human like you, being inspired that your god is one god." (18:110). No messenger is worshipped; every messenger is honoured: "We make no distinction among any of them. To Him alone we are submitters." (2:136).
Nor is salvation narrowed. The Quran's criteria are three, and name the Christian: "Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish, the Christians, and the converts; anyone who (1) believes in GOD, and (2) believes in the Last Day, and (3) leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord. They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve." (2:62). That is Matthew 19:17, "keep the commandments," said again.
What to show first
With a Christian, say first everything the Quran says for Jesus: the virgin birth, the miracles, the title Messiah, 3:45, and Sura Maryam. Then read the sayings in the listener's own KJV, in the order above, without commentary. Only then read 19:30–36 and 5:116–117, which are Jesus saying the same thing in the Quran, and 4:171 beside John 17:3. Handle "son of God" from Luke 3:38, Exodus 4:22 and Psalm 2:7 before 19:35, and John 10:30 from its context. Keep 1 John 5:7 and the RSV for last, as the listener's own scholars' finding. Say nothing about Paul's character; say only what the texts say; and never present the crucifixion in any words but the Quran's.
Where the evidence is strong, and where it is not
Strong: every saying of Jesus quoted above says what we say it says, and the reading is shared by much mainstream New Testament scholarship; Acts 2:22 and 1 Timothy 2:5; "son of God" as idiom, with Psalm 2:7 decisive; John 10:30 in its context; 1 John 5:7 as a late insertion, which no textual scholar disputes; Messiah as "anointed"; the Old Testament precedents for the miracles; Jesus prostrate at Gethsemane; the Annunciation agreeing in both books.
Moderate, and used with care: John 1:1, "the Word was God," is the evangelist's statement, not Jesus', and the popular claim that the Greek reads "hotheos / tontheos" is wrong as stated; we leave the verse aside rather than misquote the Greek. "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58) can be read with Jeremiah 1:5, but the echo of Exodus 3:14 is a real question. Revelation 1:8 is GOD's statement, but Revelation 22:13 gives the same title to Jesus. "They worshipped him" in Matthew 2:2 and John 9:38 is homage in the Greek, and John 9:38 is missing from important manuscripts; true, but secondary. Hebrews 7:3 on Melchisedec is read typologically by Christians. "Jesus sent to Israel only" is a shared datum (Matthew 15:24; 3:49), not a reproach. The 1984 survey of Anglican bishops is a press report and is left out.
Not relied on, and why: the cry from the cross, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani," is often used to show the name of GOD on Jesus' lips; the project cannot use it as Jesus' words, since on the Quran's account his soul had already been raised. Luke 24:39, "a spirit hath not flesh and bones," is used only against the idea that Jesus was a ghost or a god, never for the swoon theory, which the project rejects. The substitution legend, that another man was made to look like Jesus, is not the Quran's text. "Esau" as the Hebrew of "Jesus" is a factual error. Nothing is said of a Second Coming, because the Quran says nothing the project can quote, and Hadith is not an authority here.
The next article, A prophet like unto thee, tests the chain of prophecy, honestly graded, from the Quran's fulfilled predictions to Deuteronomy 18 and the Paraclete.
Sources
- Bible, KJV (Mark 12:29, 13:32; Matthew 5:9, 11:11, 19:17, 24:24, 26:39; John 5:30, 10:29–36, 12:49–50, 14:28, 17:3, 17:21, 20:17; Luke 1:34, 3:38; Acts 2:22; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 5:7; Exodus 4:22, 14:22; Psalms 2:7, 82:6; Isaiah 45:1; 1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34, 4:44, 5:14); RSV (omission of 1 John 5:7); Scofield Reference Bible, note on 1 John 5:7.
- Quran: The Final Testament, Authorized English Version, tr. Rashad Khalifa (all Quran quotations; footnotes to 3:51, 19:36 and 4:157–158 attributed as footnotes).
- One Message, Many Witnesses, the project's master document: Strand 3; ledger rows 3.1–3.9, 3.14–3.19, 3.21–3.23 (strong); 3.10–3.13, 3.17, 3.20, 3.24 (moderate); 1.31, 2.15 and the Esau claim named as not used; framework corrections C3, C16.
- Popular presentations consulted: Ahmed Deedat, "Christ in Islam"; Bilal Philips, "The True Message of Jesus Christ"; Zakir Naik (IRF).