What Does Islam Teach About Jesus Christ?

(extracted from Fast Facts on Islam (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2001).)

What Does the Qur’an Say About Jesus?

Muslims maintain that they believe in the true Jesus Christ. They praise Jesus as a prophet of God, as sinless, as “the Messiah,” as “illustrious in this world and the next,” as “the Word of Allah,” and as “the Spirit of God.”^[1] Islam believes that Jesus was merely one of God’s many prophets or messengers, not God’s only Son. Muslims cite the Qur’an in confirmation of their belief in Jesus, for example, “And we gave Jesus, Son of Mary, the clear signs, and confirmed Him with the Holy Spirit.”^[2]

Islam accepts what is taught about Jesus in the Qur’an, rather than what is taught about Jesus in the Bible, because it believes the Qur’an is the pure Word of God and that the Bible is corrupted and is therefore wrong in its teachings about Jesus. The Qur’an teaches:

“They say, ‘God has taken to Him a son.’ …Say: ‘Those who forge against God falsehood shall not prosper.’”^[3]

“Warn those who say, ‘God has taken to Himself a son’; …a monstrous word it is, issuing out of their mouths; they say nothing but a lie.”^[4]

“But who does greater evil than he who forges against God a lie?”^[5]

“They are unbelievers who say, ‘God is the Messiah, Mary’s Son.’”^[6]

The Christian view of Jesus Christ as God’s Son is considered blasphemous to the Muslim.^[7] Sura 5:72,75 reads, “They do blaspheme who say: ‘God is Christ the son of Mary.’… Christ the son of Mary was no more than an apostle.”^[8]

This is so because the Qur’an emphasizes that Jesus was only a man. Sura 43:59 asserts: “Jesus was no more than a mortal whom [Allah] favored and made an example to the Israelites.”

Obviously, then, Muslims deny that Jesus Christ was God incarnate (see John 5:18; 19:7). A Muslim who believes that Jesus Christ is God has committed an unforgivable sin called shirk—the association of another god with Allah, a sin that will send the Muslim to hell forever, as the Qur’an emphasizes: “His abode is the Fire” (Sura 5:72).^[9] The Qur’an teaches, “Muhammad… is the last prophet and messenger of Allah. His mission was for the whole world and for all times.” In essence, Muslims must look only to Muhammad’s revelation for spiritual guidance, not to Jesus.

What Does the Bible Say About Jesus?

The Bible, of course, teaches that Jesus is God’s one and only Son. Jesus Himself taught this, for example, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16,18; cf. Matthew 11:27; 26:64). God the Father declared this of Jesus at His baptism: “A voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17; cf. 17:5). The apostles Paul and John also declared that Jesus is God’s Son (Romans 1:3; 1 John 5:9-12). In fact, virtually every book in the New Testament either declares or assumes that Jesus is God’s unique Son.

Biblically, Jesus Christ is far more than one of God’s messengers or prophets. Jesus Himself claimed He was God on many different occasions. He is the second Person of the Trinity, God incarnate—deity Himself (John 1:1,14; 5:18). Jesus claimed to be both the “Lord” and “God”: “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am” (John 13:13). “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father [God]” (John 14:9). “I and the Father [God] are one” (John 10:30).

The Qur’an rejects this and has Jesus denying His own deity. When Allah asks Jesus if He is God, Jesus replies, “It is not mine to say what I have no right to.”^[10] In fact, even as a baby, Jesus allegedly claimed He was only a servant of Allah. According to Sura 19:20,34, Jesus praised his birth and then said, “I am the servant of Allah.”

Endnotes

1. For example, Sura 3:45.↑
2. A.J. Arberry, The Quran Interpreted (New York: MacMillan, 1976), p. 64.↑
3. N.J. Dawood, The Quran (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972), p. 233.↑
4. Ibid., p. 316.↑
5. Ibid., p. 317.↑
6. Ibid., p. 130.↑
7. A. Yusuf Ali, The Holy Quran (Washington, D.C.: The Islamic Center, 1978), p. 33.↑
8. Maulana Muhammad Ali, The Holy Quran, Arabic Text, English translation and Commentary (Columbus, OH: Ahmadiyyah Anjuman Ish’at Islam, 1996), reads “disbelieve” for “blasphemy”; and for “God is Christ”, “Allah is Messiah” (“Allah is the third of three,” v. 73).↑
9. Tawhid is the doctrine of the singularity of Allah; shirk is its opposite, the greatest of all sins, and refers to assigning partners or companions to Allah.↑
10. Arberry, p. 147.↑