-Caveat Lector-
Developing a Dialogue Between Christianity and Islam
THE MUSLIM JESUS Collected, edited and translated by Tarif Khalidi.
Harvard University Press $22.95, 243 pages
By LARRY B. STAMMER, Times Religion Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010526/t000044089.html
Southern California is the most religiously diverse region in the
world, with more than 600 variations of faiths in Los Angeles alone. Yet
it is surprising how little followers of three major faiths--Judaism,
Christianity and Islam--know about each other.
In particular is the one-sided picture of Islam, sometimes portrayed
as a terrorist religion. This kind of ignorance born of stereotypes is not
only frustrating but, in some parts of the world, deadly. The fratricidal
wars between Serbs, who are predominantly Orthodox Christians, and ethnic
Albanians, who are predominantly Muslim, come to mind. Religious
differences weren't the only sparks that ignited that conflagration.
Ancient hatreds, grudges, economic differences and power politics have all
been implicated. But the antipathy that fueled the conflict would have
been less severe if Christians and Muslims knew more about each other's
faiths.
Because Christianity and Islam, unlike Judaism, are evangelical
faiths whose followers are often on the front lines of winning converts, a
dialogue is even more urgently needed. But dialogue cannot occur in an
atmosphere of ignorance. It requires a working knowledge of each other.
Now comes a book, "The Muslim Jesus," which helps dispel the
ignorance among Christians about Islam. It is a collection of Islamic
sayings about Jesus in the Koran and Islamic literature. The Jesus
sayings, published by Harvard University Press, were collected and edited
by Tarif Khalidi, a professor of Arabic and director of the Centre of
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and fellow of King's College,
Cambridge.
The book is divided into two sections, Khalidi's introduction and
commentary on the sayings, and the sayings themselves. Khalidi's
commentary is grounded in solid research, if excessively academic in tone.
But there are also shafts of insight. With a little perseverance, the
reader is rewarded with a better understanding of Islam, and an
appreciation of how one of the most central figures in Western
civilization--Jesus of Nazareth--is perceived by another tradition.
There are several hundred sayings and stories ascribed to Jesus in
Islamic literature, including the Koran and Muslim works of ethics,
popular devotion, anthologies of wisdom and histories of prophets and
saints. Khalidi loosely refers to this collection as "the Muslim Gospel."
Jesus is known in the Koran and in the Muslim tradition as the
"Spirit of God" and the "Word of God." But, he is not the Son of God as
Christians believe. Whereas Christians emphasize Jesus' culminating act of
love and self-giving--his death on the cross and Resurrection for the sins
of the world--Muslims emphasize his birth as the "son of Mary.." It was a
sinless birth that took place under a palm tree, not in a manger. Jesus
lives, not as the second person of the Trinity, but as a messenger of
Allah.
Khalidi offers interesting tidbits, among them the fact that the
Koran contains two word-for-word quotations from Hebrew and Christian
Scriptures--the commandment stipulating "an eye for an eye," and Jesus'
saying that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to get to heaven.
Jesus is not the only non-Muslim biblical figure mentioned in the
Koran. Others include Moses, David, Solomon, Job and John the Baptist.
There are also stories and sayings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jonah, Isaiah
and Ezra--all figures in Hebrew Scripture, or what Christians call the Old
Testament. But none hold as much interest and attention as Jesus.
"Jesus and his followers constitute one of the most theologically
charged topics in the entire Koran," Khalidi writes.
Among the Jesus sayings in Islamic literature are these:
"Blessed is he who sees with his heart but whose heart is not in what
he sees."
"Be at ease with people and ill at ease with yourself."
"Christ said, 'The world is a bridge. Cross this bridge but do not
build upon it.' "
"Jesus said, 'The heart of a believer cannot really support the love
of both this world and the next, just as a single vessel cannot really
support both water and fire.' "
But there is no Sermon on the Mount, no parables, no teachings on the
law and the spirit in Islamic literature. Instead, Jesus is followed by
faithful disciples, is humble and pious toward his mother, and speaks of
God's unity, confirming the messages of earlier prophets.
"The clear bulk of references . . . remind Jesus himself or mankind
in general that God is the ultimate creator and master of life and destiny
of Jesus, as of all creation. Here, then, is the true Jesus 'cleansed' of
the 'perversions' of his followers" who have made him a god, Khalidi
writes.
Indeed, "The Muslim Jesus" explicitly denies responsibility for
tritheism. In the Koran, God asks Jesus if he told his followers to
worship him and his mother, Mary. Jesus answers, "Limitless art Thou in
Thy glory! It would not have been possible for me to say what I had no
right to say!" (Surah, or chapter, 5:116).
Whatever the affinity between Islam and Christianity, their
differences are, finally, theologically irreconcilable. The Islamic view
of Jesus is heresy to Christians. Christian faith claims about Jesus are
an anathema to Muslims. Devout believers on both sides are unlikely to
convert each other.
But it is not conversion but conversation that is at issue here. Is
it possible that Islam has something to say to Christianity? Is it
possible that Christianity has something to say to Islam? Are we ready to
talk with our neighbor?
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