FdD Notebook No. 8 - 3/19/25
Jesus in the Qur'an - Dutch Headwind Cycling Championship
Bonjour dear readers,
Last week we celebrated Madeleine's sixth birthday, and the thing she wanted to do was to go to a ropes course (it was the first time for all the kids except her; she got to go for the birthday of one of her friends). All the kids had a great time, and I’ll admit that I was jealous keeping my feet on the ground. But perhaps the greatest pleasure was for us parents to watch the kids getting more and more confidence as they discovered what their bodies were capable of.
Perhaps it's an interesting reflection that human beings are not the master of any environment on earth. Monkeys and squirrels are more capable in trees, horses and big cats on land, mountain goats among the peaks and cliffs, and all marine animals in the water. On the other hand, man has a remarkable ability to adapt to all these environments to get around in them to some degree (the air too, with a little technology). It seems to me that this is fitting for the one to whom it was given to reign over the whole earth and all its inhabitants (Gen 1.28).
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:3-9
PS : Happy birthday to my Mom 🎉
Islam
The Qur’an and Jesus
The Qur'an reveals very little about Muhammad, but the prophets of the past figure prominently. The stories of Noah, Moses, Abraham and others are told repeatedly. And one of the most important of these past prophets is Jesus son of Mary, as the Qur'an likes to call him.
Like all the other prophets, Jesus was sent to call his people back to the worship of the one true God, and like Moses, he received a written revelation to transmit: the Gospel.
5:46 And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous.
The Qur'an relates many details about Jesus that are in harmony with the New Testament accounts. Jesus was born of a virgin, he is the Messiah, he had disciples, and he performed many miracles. At the same time, there are a number of curious additions that seem to depend on pseudepigraphic gospels or other later legends. The account of his conception and birth in Surah 19 shows the mixture of biblical and non-biblical elements:
19:16-33 And mention, [O Muḥammad], in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east. And she took, in seclusion from them, a screen. Then We sent to her Our Angel [i.e., Gabriel], and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man. She said, "Indeed, I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, [so leave me], if you should be fearing of Allāh." He said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy [i.e., son]." She said, "How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?" He said, "Thus [it will be]; your Lord says, 'It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter [already] decreed.'" […] Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. O sister [i.e., descendant] of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste." So she pointed to him. They said, "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?" [Jesus] said, "Indeed, I am the servant of Allāh. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakāh as long as I remain alive And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive."
The conclusion of this story introduces the first major difference between the Jesus of the Qur'an and the Jesus of the Bible: the Jesus of the Qur'an is not the Son of God:
19:34-36 That is Jesus, the son of Mary - the word of truth about which they are in dispute. It is not [befitting] for Allāh to take a son; exalted is He!1 When He decrees an affair, He only says to it, "Be," and it is. [Jesus said], "And indeed, Allāh is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is a straight path."
This refutation of the deity of Jesus and the doctrine of the Trinity comes back multiple times in the Qur’an:
4:171 O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allāh except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allāh and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allāh and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allāh is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allāh as Disposer of affairs.
5:116-117 And [beware the Day] when Allāh will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allāh?'" He will say, "Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen. I said not to them except what You commanded me - to worship Allāh, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You were the Observer over them, and You are, over all things, Witness.
The second major difference between the Bible and the Qur’an on the subject of Jesus is that the Qur’an also denies his death on the cross:
4:157 And for their (the Jews) saying, “We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of God” — though they did not slay him; nor did they crucify him, but it appeared so unto them. Those who differ concerning him are in doubt thereof. They have no knowledge of it, but follow only conjecture; they slew him not for certain.
Christian Response
As for the crucifixion, it's ironic that the Qur'an states that those who believe in the crucifixion “have no knowledge of it” and that they only “follow only conjecture.” In reality, the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth is accepted as a fact of history by an overwhelming majority of Christians, Jews, atheists - in short, almost anyone who isn't a Muslim. But because of this one ambiguous verse, it's the Muslims who come up with a whole variety of conjectures to explain what happened when Jesus “appeared” to be crucified. Some claim that God made another man look like Jesus, and it was this man who was crucified. Depending on the interpretation, it was Judas or one of the other disciples, perhaps a volunteer who sacrificed himself for Jesus. Other Muslims prefer the swoon theory, according to which Jesus was indeed crucified, but survived his crucifixion.
The Qur'an does not clarify, but confuses for Muslims something that is clear to Christians. This confusion seems to have its source in the author of the Qur'an's ignorance of the Gospel message. This verse which denies the crucifixion actually targets certain (imaginary) Jews who boast of having killed the Messiah. For the author of the Qur'an, it is unimaginable that non-believers would succeed in defeating God's messenger, and so it is not possible that these Jews could have crucified a prophet such as Jesus. Apparently he simply didn't understand that, in the Gospel, Jesus' crucifixion is his victory over sin, and his resurrection his victory over death. The Qur'an has no conception whatever of Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by the sacrifice of his own life. The result is that the author of the Qur'an criticizes something which he does not understand.
This same essential problem appears in the Qur'an's criticism of the Trinity. What is criticized in the Qur'an is not at all a correct representation of the Trinity of the Bible. The Bible teaches that there is only one God, and that this God exists in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s necessary distinguish between the essence of God, which is unique, and the divine persons, of which there are three. Christians do not believe in three gods, nor that God the Son was procreated by the Father, but these crude ideas are the ones refuted by the Qur'an.
So when God asks Jesus, “Did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides Allāh?’” (5:116) the issue is three gods, not a triune God. And when Christians are exhorted, “Do not say ‘Three’” (4:171), the Qur'an's correction is “Allāh is but one God.” But Christians don't deny that God is one God, we affirm it!
Worse still, when the Qur'an argues “How could He have a son when He does not have a companion?” (6:101), it's clear that the author didn't understand biblical teaching at all. But if the author of the Qur'an didn't know what the Bible says and what Christians believe, even those beliefs are wrong, it's not possible for that author to be God. The Qur'an's errors about Christian beliefs disqualify it from being a revelation from God.
Reading
I'm continuing to read through the Qur'an for Ramadan. If you want to see what it's like, try Sura 12, Yusuf. This is one of the more coherent chapters, and it tells a story that is familiar to Christians, that of Joseph (son of Jacob).
I recently finished Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen, which continually struck me with a kind of simplistic overconfidence. He says we should dispense with conceptions and simply see reality, apparently not realizing that we have to interpret what we see in order to make sense of the impressions of color and form that our eyes give us. And this interpretation takes place, quite naturally, through a worldview that is already in place. Hagel proposes a Buddhist worldview, and he has every right to do so, but his mistake is to talk as if his worldview wasn’t one.
Now I'm reading The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton and Buddhism and Monotheism by Peter Harvey.
Dutch Headwind Cycling Championship
Anybody want to try it?!
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No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
John 1:18