Christmas and the difference between the Christian and Muslim belief in Jesus and Mary peace be upon them

 

What do Muslims say about Jesus?

Today is the day many Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus peace be upon him.

Although we are taught in school that this was a mistake and it is not the actual day if his birth, it has become so widely recognised as the actual day that it is still celebrated as such.

Jesus is a great Prophet of Islam, and there are five Prophets said to be greatest because they went through the most difficulties and achieved the most.

These five Prophets peace be upon them are Nuh, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and of course Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.

Muslims hold Jesus to be a Prophet like other prophets and was a human being and a man.

Some Christians believe Jesus to be the literal son of God or even God himself.

The Quran refutes this saying that how could he have a son when he has not taken a wife?

Muslims are forbidden from calling a Prophet of anyone the son of God as it is considered blaspheme and as if making partners to God.

In the beginning it seems that Christians did not say that Jesus peace be upon him was the son of God with a literal meaning in the beginning.

The son of God was a term used to refer to someone who was close to God.  

In fact, the Israelites would call themselves God’s children.

Christians also call God the father when praying.

Therefore, the term was not meant to be taken literally but it has over time.

Muslims believe in the miracles of Jesus peace be upon him, and it is mentioned in the Quran that he brought the dead to life and cured the leper or a blind person by the will of God.

Even the famous table spread is mentioned in the Quran and how it was sent down from the heavens at the request of some of the disciples.

The story of the birth of Jesus peace be upon him is also mentioned in the Quran.

This story, when read to the Christian king of Ethiopia, gave Muslims the right to live in protection in his country when they were being persecuted.

The story is not found all in one place in the Quran but is mentioned in several places.

It begins with the birth of his mother Mary who herself was a blessed birth and she is held by Muslims to be the best woman in creation, known for her worship, purity and chastity.

She has a whole chapter of the Quran dedicated to her.

The story begins when the mother of Mary, Hana, was beginning to despair of having a child.

We are not told her age but we are told she had reached an age when he had begun to despair and began to pray to Allah to give a child and then she would put this child in the service of the temple.

She was the wife of Imran, a righteous man and their family were known as good religious people, and upright.

They had descendants who were prophets.

So God accepted the prayer of Hana and made her pregnant and she vowed to dedicate the baby to work in the temple.

When she gave birth however, she was surprised that she gave birth to a girl and so she must have been expecting a boy.

Girls would not be put to work in the temple, that was something that was for boys.

Yet she had vowed to put her there and did so.

Therefore, Mary was a different child from the beginning, especially as a girl.

She was looked after by her Uncle Zachariah, who was also a prophet.

Zachariah made for her a room in the temple deep inside, which  no one could get to but him.

Whenever he entered the room however, to bring her sustenance he found her with the fruits of the winter in the summer and the fruits of the summer in the winter.

Surprised, he asked her from where she got this.

She replied that it is from God and He provides for whom he wills without account.

So Mary was already being provided for and already she has some mysterious circumstances that should have made people understand and accept what was to come.

Mary developed a reputation for her righteousness and her worship.

It is said that most of the time she would be in her room worshipping God.

She would pray until her legs ached.

She was known for her worship, her purity and her chastity.

When she was fourteen years old an angel came to her in the form of a man.

She was afraid at first and took refuge in God.

The angel told her he cane from God to give her glad tidings of a son.

She asked how she would have a son when no man had touched her, nor had she been unchaste.

The reply was that this was something from God.

She accepted and the angel is said to have blown into her garment and she became pregnant straight away.

However, of course she did not show that she was pregnant in the beginning.

When she began to show her pregnancy however, the normal thing was that people would begin to notice and ask about that.

Joseph was a man who worked alongside her and they would go to the well together to collect water.

He tried to find a polite way to enquire about the pregnancy.

He asked her, “Oh Mary, is it possible that a tree could grow without a person planting a seed?” 

She gave him an intelligent and religious answer that “yes, it is possible, if God created it and willed it to be that way.”

He understood and accepted her answer.  

After all, she was known for her righteous and piety and many miracles had already been seen from her.  No man had ever entered her room except her uncle.

Therefore, of course her uncle Zachariah was also confused when he saw evidence of her pregnancy.

However, he did not doubt her.

When he enquired if her she replied similarly that Allah provides for who he wills without account.

This inspired Zachariah to pray for a son himself.

His wife had been barren from the beginning and had not born children.  He was now an old man with wife hair.

He began to pray to God to grant him a child after being inspired by Mary who was pregnant directly from God.

He said how his hair was now white and his wife was barren but he wished for a son to inherit him.

Soon after his wife, previously barren, became pregnant with Yahyah.

This story should give hope to people who are in despair of any issue and in particularly people who are hoping to have a child.

We have been so preoccupied by claims of scientists and think that peoples age, or some other issue is what makes them able to bear children or not.

Yet the Quran demonstrates that in reality, it is Allah who gives people that ability or not.

If you ask Allah he can provide for you whatever life stage you happen to be in.

Zachariah was also not too proud to learn from this young girl Mary, who influenced him, even though he was a prophet.

This was a good quality to have and is the attribute of Muslims.

So the wife of Zachariah and Mary were pregnant at the same time.

However, as more people began to notice Mary’s pregnancy the more that they began to talk.

We are told in the Quran that she then withdrew from her people to a place in the east.

Near the time of giving birth she prayed to God and said she had wished she died before this. 

This was a difficult test for a young girl about to be accused and slandered with things she would not have dreamed of and having her reputation ruined.

Yet she persevered.

She was told to shake the date palm tree and find her sustenance.

Because of this, it is claimed that eating dates may help pregnant women and ease their pregnancy.

After giving birth she was ordered by Allah to fast, which at that time meant she was not to speak or answer anyone.

Thus was also a difficult test, since when someone is being addressed and falsely accused, they naturally want to answer and clear their name.

However, this is not always the best way to deal with such situations.

There is a wisdom in not responding to accusations.

In fact, we find the Queen and the Queen mother or all the Royal family operate with the motto if “never complain, never explain.”

The body language guy explains how beneficial this is to a persons mental health and how explaining does not always work. 

In this situation however, Allah had a plan to demonstrate that this was normal situation and this was not a normal baby.

He then allowed the baby to speak and answer instead of his mother.

When people were accusing Mary and asking her how she could do such a thing and calling her the sister of Aron, since she was perhaps similar to him and saying that her mother was not unchaste nor was her father a bad man.

They implied that since she was from a good family, how could she do such a thing.  It was not expected of her to do what they assumed.

Then she pointed to the baby, which annoyed them further since they thought she was mocking them.

They asked how shall we talk to a baby in a cradle?

So Jesus answered them telling them to leave his mother alone and told them that he was the messiah and that he would talk to the people in the cradle as well as in older age and that he was blessed.

We are not told whether these people believed in him straight away then or even after.

Yet a hadith tells us that Mary was taken to bath in a river that women who committed fornication were ordered to bath in.  It dried up.

Mary remained unmarried and chaste the rest of her life.

So if the best woman in creation and the most pure was accused of indecency snd fornication then what about other women?

For this reason the Quran has some very strong verses protecting women’s honour in this respect.  A person who does not bring four honest witnesses to prove a woman’s crime will be lashed publicly and never have their testimony accepted after that.

In regards to Jesus peace be upon him, when grew up he became a Prophet for the people of In Israel and dud not bring a new law but confirmed the Torah and law already in place.

He was know for asceticism, and apparently did not live in a particularly place but would travel throughout the earth and ate of the plants of the earth.

As the Christians believe, he was accused and sentenced by his enemies but whereas Christians say he was killed on the cross we are told in the Quran that this was something only apparent.

People assumed that Jesus peace be upon him was killed on the cross, when in reality Allah would not accept to allow criminal people to kill a righteous prophet who he had sent to people.

Therefore, when Jesus peace be upon him, knew that people were after him, he asked his disciples which of them would take his place and be with him in heaven.

The youngest stepped forward and volunteered.

Allah then made his appearance to appear like Jesus peace be upon him and he was taken and  executed on the cross in place of Jesus peace be upon him.

Meanwhile, Jesus peace be upon him, was taken up into the heavens both body and soul.

He did not die and was not killed.

At the time he was 33 years old and had not married or begun a family yet.

Since he did not die and was the only person to go to paradise with his body without dying, we are told that he will return one day.

That time is what Christians call the Armageddon or what Christians call the anti Christ will appear. 

Muslims believe he will descend from the heavens and kill the anti Christ and restore peace on earth.

He will not bring a new law but follow Islamic law and implement that.

He will then marry, have a family and die a normal death.

Therefore, Jesus peace be upon him, is an important Prophet and person to Muslims.

If someone does not believe in him they will not be considered Muslim.

Both Jesus and his mother teach people that Allah is the real cause of life and death and that if He wills he can create a human being without a man and he is able to cause a baby to speak and bring the dead back to life and cure the sick if he wills.

For people, this means that through prayer and asking Allah for our needs we can find ourselves with spouses and children, cures for illnesses and solutions to other problems if we turn to Him and ask Him.