ISSA IN THE QUR'AN IS NOT A SAVIOUR FIGURE LIKE JESUS

The Qur’an tells us barely anything about Muhammad but it still repeatedly says his life must be looked at and followed more than anybody else (33:21). Some argue that the answer is that the book is telling you to refer to the Hadith. The gospels give details of Jesus so they are definitely being ruled out as valid. I’d take that as a clue that Issa is not Jesus.  Jesus is considered saviour in more than one way, he gave his blood for our sins and gave us an example and the promise of help to be good in a bad world.   His self-giving of his life for sins is an example in itself about love.  All of that is cast out if you believe the Qur'an.

Allah says in Qur’an 5:101, “O believers! Do not ask about any matter which, if made clear to you, may disturb you. But if you inquire about what is being revealed in the Quran, it will be made clear to you. Allah has forgiven what was done in the past˺.  And Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Forbearing.” So you are told not to ask any questions but just look at the Qur’an.  This shows it is a sin to take the Bible seriously.  If you have the Qur'an you don't need to have questions.  This is a reference to its clarity and sufficiency.

Qur’an says that Allah’s words cannot change (6:115). “The Word of your Lord is perfect in truthfulness and justice; no one can change His words. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.” Because Allah knows all nobody can get ahead of him and alter the word he gives. So how do we explain him letting the Jewish and Christian scriptures be altered? The answer is that they record some things Allah gave but are not his word. They are hearsay. We cannot tell the word of man from the word of God in them. The Qur’an tells us the word of God so when they agree with it that is the only way to be sure.

The Qur’an refers to Dhul-Qarnayn Alexander the Great as a Muslim. Alexander was a pagan. One answer might be as the Qur’an says everybody lied about God’s prophets and turned them into Jews and Christians it could be that we are expected to take the same way out here.  Issa must not be turned into a Christian figure.

It is a myth that the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam claimed to have been written by God, refers to Jesus Christ. The figure in it has one or two similarities but not enough to make him the same person as the figure of the New Testament. There is no evidence that Muhammad meant us to take his Issa as Jesus. Qur'an 5:75 is clear that if you worship God that is no good if you have any other gods and it specifies the notion that God is one of three - the Trinity. If Christianity is Christ then Islam is against him.

Jesus stressed divine grace where God gives you light and guidance. The Church holds that its teaching is grace too so you know you are inspired when you check it against Church teaching.  Jesus claimed to save us from sin by giving us grace to rise above sin and reject it.

But the Qur'an rejects such ideas of grace.  Only prophets are inspired.

"And it is not for any human being that Allah should speak to him except by revelation or from behind a partition or that He sends a messenger to reveal, by His permission, what He wills. Indeed, He is Most High and Wise" Qur'an 42:51.

Qur'an 37

The Aligners

83. Of his kind was Abraham.

84. When he came to his Lord with a sound heart.

85. He said to his father and his people, “What are you worshiping?

86. Is it falsified gods, instead of God, that you want?

87. So what is your opinion about the Lord of the Worlds?”

88. Then he took a glance at the stars.

89. And said, “I am sick.”

90. But they turned their backs on him, and went away.

91. Then he turned to their gods, and said, “will you not eat?

92. What is it with you, that you do not speak?”

93. Then he turned on them, striking with his right hand.

94. And they came running towards him.

95. He said, “Do you worship what you carve?

96. When God created you, and what you manufacture?”

97. They said, “Build a pyre for him, and throw him into the furnace.”

98. They wished him ill, but We made them the losers.

99. He said, “I am going towards my Lord, and He will guide me.”

100. “My Lord, give me one of the righteous.”

101. So We gave him good news of a clement boy.

102. Then, when he was old enough to accompany him, he said, “O My son, I see in a dream that I am sacrificing you; see what you think.” He said, “O my Father, do as you are commanded; you will find me, God willing, one of the steadfast.”

103. Then, when they had submitted, and he put his forehead down.

104. We called out to him, “O Abraham!

105. You have fulfilled the vision.” Thus We reward the doers of good.

106. This was certainly an evident test.

107. And We redeemed him with a great sacrifice.

108. And We left with him for later generations.

109. Peace be upon Abraham.

110. Thus We reward the doers of good.

111. He was one of Our believing servants.

112. And We gave him good news of Isaac, a prophet, one of the righteous.

113. And We blessed him, and Isaac. But among their descendants are some who are righteous, and some who are clearly unjust to themselves.

....

156. Or do you have some clear proof?

157. Then bring your book, if you are telling the truth.

COMMENT: Abraham is praised for being willing to obey God to sacrifice a clement lad to God. A holy book is regarded as the badge of truth. The New Testament argument that the lad was Isaac is denied here. The Isaac sacrifice to be is seen in the Bible as a sign of Jesus' sacrifice. And Jesus gave no holy book. Is Isaac here the Issa who the Qur'an talks about rather than Jesus?

DOCTRINA JACOBI - THE EARLIEST MENTION EVER OF MUHAMMAD?

When the candidatus was killed by the Saracens, I was at Caesarea and I set off by boat to Sykamina. People were saying “the candidatus has been killed,” and we Jews were overjoyed. And they were saying that the prophet had appeared, coming with the Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the anointed one, the Christ who was to come. I, having arrived at Sykamina, stopped by a certain old man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him: “What can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?” He replied, groaning deeply: “He is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword. Truly they are works of anarchy being committed today and I fear that the first Christ to come, whom the Christians worship, was the one sent by God and we instead are preparing to receive the Antichrist. Indeed, Isaiah said that the Jews would retain a perverted and hardened heart until all the earth should be devastated. But you go, master Abraham, and find out about the prophet who has appeared.” So I, Abraham, inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men’s blood. He says also that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible.

COMMENT: This says that Muhammad was alive two years after history says he died. Muhammad says he has the keys to let people into Heaven. It gives the impression that Muhammad's Messiah was not the Jesus of the New Testament. He predicts the coming of a Christ or Messiah but the Qur'an says he said the Messiah had come already.  This coming Messiah is not Jesus for some Christians who heard the message took it to match what the Jesus tradition said about antichrist coming.   I'd argue that this figure as a possible antichrist could not be Jesus.  If it's a new Messiah then it is one who had to improve on Jesus perhaps.

How come Muhammad is alive? Do we have a resurrection here?

Muhammad has the keys of Heaven itself and thus there is not as much need for a Messiah as there is for him.  Clearly Jesus is nothing compared to this prophet.

People were interviewed by an Abraham who said they met this man and there was no truth to be found in him. It was concluded at the time that there was no truth in the prophet for he was armed with a sword meaning he was a warmonger rather than a man of God.  This is a weak judgemental way to dismiss a prophet.  What happened to the Christian doctrine that God is bigger than his instrument who speaks for him so the sins of the prophet do not diminish the message?  They must have been unable to show him wrong!

GOSPEL DENIED

Qur'an 112 says that Allah is so one and so different that nothing shows you even a bit what he is like. Qur'an 113 speaks of the evil Allah created. These rule out any image of Allah being a person in any sense we can understand.

Allah is unknowable so a love relationship with him is impossible. This refutes the gospel statement that Jesus made God his daddy and our daddy as well. Allah is not a Father or even an adoptive father. He is the contradiction of Jesus' daddy God Abba Father. This totally opposes a core thing of what Jesus was about. If Jesus if only a man didn't have a God-daddy, then that is as far from the Christian doctrine that Jesus is God as one can imagine.

The Muslim God is able to forgive sin easily - on a good day! - and just like that for it does not really matter much to him. In Christianity, getting forgiveness is simple but not easy and Jesus has to die for us to have it.

Muslims often repent and still say that God MIGHT pardon them. The idea is that sincere repentance and contrition cannot guarantee mercy and forgiveness. This contradicts another core gospel teaching of Jesus.

Islam holds that man is naturally good but just needs the revelation of Islam to be helped to follow Allah correctly. Why then is there so much violence commanded by Allah? Interestingly unlike Christianity, Islam does not condemn evil thoughts and intentions as sins. It is only worried about what you do not what you are like. Sin is not seen as utterly hostile to God and his plans like it is in Christianity. Jesus denied that anybody was good but God and forbade harbouring secret evil thoughts as a sin that feeds the bad side of your nature. Sin was viewed as a total catastrophe.

These teachings are contradicted by the Christian gospel which claims that God wants a relationship with us so that he became Jesus to suffer and die for our sins to give us generous forgiveness and redemption and rose to be with us forever.

There can be no middle ground here. If a religion is overlooking interior evil then it is an evil religion and a beautiful sepulcher full of dead men's bones. If a religion is watering down the terrible reality of sin then it is an evil religion.