sábado, 14 de abril de 2012

WHO IS CHRIST FOR A MUSLIM



By José Domingos Barao*

According to a Muslim whom I interviewed, Islam believes that Jesus Christ is a prophet like any other prophet. 
 
                                    


The Identity of Jesus for a Muslim

Mr. Mohamed Mwang, 35 years old, believes, like the Christians, in the virginal conception of Jesus by the Blessed Virgin Mary. And because of that, he believes that Jesus was truly human. However, he does not believe that Jesus Christ was also the Son of God since, according to him, God remains God and as such, it is impossible for him to believe that God could be “father and son”.

Mohamed told me that there are many similarities between the Koran and the Bible, though Muslims reject all the writings of Paul concerning Christ. However, I discovered that Mohamed, and indeed many other Muslims like him, have quite a different interpretation of the events of man’s salvation. For example, Mohamed claims that Jesus told his disciples not to tell the people that he was the anointed one of the Lord since this could mislead people into believing that he was the Son of God.

 He says also that at the end of time,  God, and Mohammed (the Prophet), who  claims to be the last and greatest of all the prophets, will ask Jesus why did he make the people believe that he is the Son of God. But Jesus, Mohammed says, will reply that he never claimed to be the Son of God but rather, that this was made up by his disciples.

About sin, Mohammed believes that there is no original sin and as such, God didn’t send Jesus Christ on earth in order to atone for the sins of the world. He says that if Jesus really died for our sins, there would be no more sin in the world. He adds that the sin of Adam and Eve was restricted to them only and did not affect their descendants. Everyone is born without sin but one becomes sinful as he matures due to harmful desires.

 A person’s sins are forgiven when the parties concerned implore one another and ask for forgiveness. Afterwards, a person also asks forgiveness directly from God. While Mohammed admits that Jesus Christ faced rebellion and suffered, he was not the one who was crucified. The soldiers, who wanted to kill and crucify Jesus, mistook him for Simon the Cyrene who was therefore killed.

The mission of Jesus, according to Mohammed, was meant for all times to limit itself only to the twelve tribes of Israel. That is why Jesus says in the Bible that he was only sent to the twelve tribes of Israel. Mohammed claims that later it was Mohammed (the prophet), whom God sent, after Jesus, to the whole world.

Mohammed holds that when Jesus said that God would send someone after him who would bring all things into fulfillment, he was in this way announcing not the coming of the Holy Spirit as Christians claim, but the coming of Prophet Mohammed. It is only at the end of times, Mohammed says, that Jesus Christ will appear on earth in order to restore peace and reconciliation among peoples.

*José Domingos Barao is a Brazilian who is studying theology in Nairobi, Kenya, as a seminarian for the FMS of Quebec.