The Mohammedan System of Theology/Chapter 6

by William Henry Neale

CHAPTER VI.

 

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THE HISTORY OF JESUS IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE KORAN, WITH NOTES AND REFLECTIONS.

 

In relating the history of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it has been thought adviseable to use the words of the Koran^[1], that the grossness of the error might appear from its own statements, its agreement with spurious Apocryphal pieces be fairly ascertained, and how little of genuine Christianity enters into its composition. To avoid repetition, of various passages recording the same event, one only has been retained as sufficient for the purpose. Our selection comprises the substance of the life of Jesus, in the order of the chapters, according to Sale's translation of the Koran.

Chap. 2. Entitled the Cow.—"We formerly delivered the book of the law unto Moses, and caused Apostles to succeed him, and gave evident miracles to Jesus the Son of Mary, and strengthened^[2] him with the Holy Spirit."

Chap. 3. Entitled the Family of Imram^[3].—"Remember when the Wife of Imram said, Lord, verily I have vowed unto thee that which is in my womb, to be dedicated to thy service: accept it therefore of me; for thou art he who heareth and knoweth. And when she was delivered of it, she said, Lord, verily I have brought forth a female (for God well knew what she had brought forth) and a male is not as a female; I have called her Mary, and I commend her to thy protection, and also her issue against Satan driven with stones^[4]. Therefore the Lord accepted her with a gracious acceptance, and caused her to bear an excellent offspring. And Zacharias took care of the child; whenever Zacharias went into the chamber to her, he found provisions with her: and he said, O Mary, whence hadst thon this? She answered, This is from God: for God provideth for whom he pleaseth without measure. Then Zacharias called on his Lord, and said, Lord, give me from thee a good offspring, for thou art the hearer of prayer. And the angels^[5] called to him, while he stood praying in the chamber, saying, Verily God promiseth thee a son named John, who shall bear witness to the word which cometh from God; an honourable person, chaste, and one of the righteous Prophets. He answered, Lord, how shall I have a son, when old age hath overtaken me, and my wife is barren? The Angel said, So God doth that which he pleaseth. Zacharias answered, Lord, give me a sign. The Angel said, Thy sign shall be, that thou shalt speak unto no man for three days, otherwise than by gesture: remember thy Lord often, and praise him evening and morning.

"And when the Angels said, O Mary, verily God hath chosen thee, and hath purified thee, and hath chosen thee above all the women of the world: O Mary, be devout towards thy Lord, and worship, and bow down with those who bow down. This is a secret history: we reveal it unto thee, although thou wast not present with them when they threw in their rods to cast lots which of them should have the education of Mary; neither wast thou with them when they strove among themselves. When the Angels said, O Mary, verily God sendeth thee good tidings, that thou shalt bear the word^[6] proceeding from himself; his name shall be Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, honourable in this world and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God; and he shall speak^[7] unto men in the cradle^[8], and when he is grown up; and he shall be one of the righteous: she answered, Lord, how shall I have a son, since a man hath not touched me? The Angel said, So God createth that which he pleaseth: when he decreeth a thing, he only saith unto it, Be, and it is: God shall teach him the Scripture, and wisdom, and the law and the Gospel; and shall appoint him his Apostle to the children of Israel; and he shall say, Verily I come unto you with a sign from your Lord; for I will make before you of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird^[9]; then I will breathe thereon, and it shall become a bird, by the permission of God: and I will heal him that hath been blind from his birth; and the leper: and I will raise the dead by the permission of God: and I will prophesy unto you what ye eat, and what ye lay up in store in your houses. Verily, herein will be a sign unto you, if ye believe. And I come to confirm the law which was revealed before me, and to allow unto you as lawful, part of that which hath been forbidden you: and I come unto you with a sign from your Lord; therefore fear God and obey me. Verily, God is my Lord and your Lord: therefore serve him. This is the right way. But when Jesus perceived their unbelief, he said, Who will be my helpers towards God? The Apostles answered, We will be the helpers of God; we believe in God, and do thou bear witness that we are true Believers. O Lord, we believe in that which thou hast sent down, and we have followed thy Apostle; wnte us down therefore with those who bear witness of him. And the Jews devised a stratagem against him; but God devised a stratagem against them; and God is the best deviser of stratagems. When God said unto Jesus, Verily, I will cause thee to die^[10], and I will take thee up unto me, and I will deliver thee from the Unbelievers; and I will place those who follow thee, above the unbelievers, until the day of resurrection: then unto me shall ye return, and I will judge between you of that concerning which ye disagree. Moreover, as for the Infidels, I will punish them with a grievous punishment, in this world, and in that which is ta come; and there shall be none to help them. But they who believe, and do that which is right, he shall give them their reward; for God loveth not the wicked doers. These signs and this prudent admonition, do we rehearse unto thee. Verily the likeness of Jesus in the sight of God, is as the likeness of Adam: he created him out of the dust, and then said unto him, Be, and he was. This is the truth from thy Lord \; be not therefore one of those who doubt."

Chap. 4. Entitled Women.—"The Jews said^[11], We have slain Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary; yet they slew him not, neither crucified him, but he was represented by one in his likeness; and verily they who disagreed concerning him, were in a doubt as to this matter, and had no sure knowledge thereof, but followed only an uncertain tradition. They did not really kill him; but God took him up unto himself: and God is mighty and wise. Verily Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the Apostle of God, and his Word, which he conveyed into Mary, and a spirit proceeding from him. Believe therefore in God and his Apostles, and say not, there are three Gods; forbear this, it will be better for you: God is but one God. Far be it from him that he should have a son. Christ doth not proudly disdain to be a servant unto God^[12]."

Chapter 5. Entitled the Table.—"Remember, when the apostles said, O Jesus, son of Mary, is thy Lord able to cause a table to descend unto us from heaven? He answered, fear God, if ye be true believers. They said, we desire to eat thereof, and that our hearts may rest at ease, and that we may know that thou hast told us the truth, and that we may be witnesses thereof, Jesus, the son of Mary, said, O God our Lord, cause a table^[13] to descend unto us from heaven, that the day of its descent may become a festival day unto us, unto the first of us and unto the last of us, and a sign from thee; and do thou provide food for us, for thou art the best Provider.

"God said, Verily I will cause it to descend unto you; but whoever among you shall disbelieve hereafter, [ will surely punish him with a punishment, wherewith I will not punish any other creature. And when God shall say unto Jesus at the last day, O Jesus, son of Mary, hast thou said unto men, take me and my mother for two Gods beside God? He shall answer: Praise be unto thee: it is not for me to say that which I ought not: if I had said so, thou wouldst surely have known it. I have not spoken unto them any other than that thou didst command me, viz. Worship God, my Lord and your Lord."

Chapter 19. Entitled Mary.—"Remember in the beck of the Koran the story of Mary, when she retired from her family to a place towards the East, and took a veil to conceal herself from them; and we sent our spirit Gabriel unto her, and he appeared unto her in the shape of a perfect man. She said, I fly for refuge unto the merciful God, that he may defend me from thee: if thou fearest him, thou wilt not approach me. He answered, Verily I am the Messenger of thy Lord, and am sent to give thee a holy son. She said, How shall I have a son, seeing a man hath not touched me, and I am no harlot? Gabriel replied, so shall it be: thy Lord saith, this is easy with me, and we will perform it, that we may ordain him for a sign unto men, and a mercy from us: for it is a thing which is decreed, Wherefore she conceived him: and she retired aside with him in her womb to a distant place; and the pains of child-birth came upon her near the trunk of a palm tree^[14]. She said, Would to God I had died before this, and had become a thing forgotten and lost in oblivion! And he who was beneath her called to her, saying, Be not grieved: now hath God provided a rivulet under thee; and do thou shake the body of the palm-tree, and it shall let fall ripe dates upon thee, ready gathered. And eat and drink and calm thy mind. Moreover if thou see any man and he question thee, say, Verily I have vowed a fast unto the merciful; wherefore I will by no means speak to a man this day. So she brought the child to her people, carrying him in her arms. And they said unto her, O Mary, now hast thou done a strange thing: O sister of Aaron^[15] thy father was not a bad man, neither was thy mother a harlot. But she made signs unto the child to answer them; and they said, how shall we speak to him, who is an infant in the cradle? Whereupon the child said, Verily I am the servant of God, he hath given me the book of the Gospel, and hath appointed me a prophet. And he hath made me blessed, wheresoever I shall be; and hath commanded me to observe prayer, and to give alms so long as I shall live; and he hath made me dutiful towards my mother, and hath not made me proud or unhappy. And peace be on the day whereon I was born, and the day whereon I shall die, and the day whereon I shall be raised to life. This was Jesus the son of Mary, the Word of truth concerning whom they doubt^[16]."

Chapter 43. Entitled the Ornaments of Gold.—"Jesus is no other than a servant, whom we favoured with the gift of prophecy; and we appointed him for an example unto the children of Israel (if we pleased we could verily from yourselves produce angels, to succeed you in the earth); and he shall be a sign of the approach of the last hour; wherefore doubt not thereof and follow me: this is the right way. And let not Satan cause you to turn aside: for he is your open enemy. And when Jesus came with evident miracles, he said, Now I am come unto you with wisdom; and to explain unto you part of those things concerning which ye disagree: wherefore fear God and obey me. Verily God is my Lord and your Lord; wherefore worship him: this is the right way. And the confederated sects among them fell to variance: but woe unto those who have acted unjustly, because of the punishment of a grievous day."

Chapter 61. Entitled Battle Array.—"Remember when Jesus, the son of Mary said, O children of Israel, verily I am the apostle of God sent unto you, confirming the law which was delivered before me, and bringing good tidings of an apostle who shall come after me, and whose name shall be Ahmed. And when he produced unto them evident miracles, they said, this is manifest sorcery. But who is more unjust than he who forgeth a lie against God, when he is invited unto Islam? And God directeth not the unjust people. They seek to extinguish God's light with their mouths: but God will perfect his light, though the infidels be averse thereto. O true believers, be ye the assistants of God, as Jesus the son of Mary, said to the apostles, Who will be my assistants with respect to God? The apostles answered, We will be the assistants of God. So a part of the children of Israel believed, and a part believed not: but we strengthened those who believed, above their enemy; wherefore they became victorious over them."

The foregoing extracts form what may be termed the essence of the Christianity of the Koran. The history of the world does not supply a similar instance of misrepresentation and outrage upon fact and history. For Mohammed dealt largely in spurious and apocryphal books of the Gnostics and the ancient heretics, such as the Gospel of Christ's Infancy, the Gospel of Mary, or as it is otherwise called, The Prot-evangelion, and others, embodying the worst errors of heretical sects and substituting them for the genuine doctrines of Christianity. Here we perceive the busy and inveterate malice of Satan, co-operating with second causes to expel Messiah from his mediatorial kingdom, and advance his own usurped authority, expending his fury against the truth in rage and madness, till the victorious seed of the woman crush him under his feet. The beautiful and astonishing chain of prophecy relating to Christ is wholly unnoticed, as also the consistency and connection between his and preceding dispensations. The principal incidents of his birth, the appearance oi a star in the East, the homage of the wise men, as well as the angelic appearance to the shepherds, are entirely suppressed: this also is the case respecting his circumcision and presentation in the temple at Jerusalem, together with the testimony of Simeon and Anna, the perturbation of Herod, the massacre of the Innocents, the flight and return from Egypt on the death of the tyrant, the early presage of his wisdom manifested in the temple, his baptism, conflict with and triumph over Satan in the wilderness, his public ministry, miracles, and prophecies, transfiguration on Mount Tabor, frequent attestations by a voice from heaven, his last Supper and address to his disciples, agony in the garden of Gethsemane, apprehension, condemnation and crucifixion, his burial and resurrection on the third day; told in a strain of most touching yet artless eloquence; the condescending manner in which he solved the doubts of his disciples by affording palpable proofs of his resurrection, his appearing and conversing with them forty days, the promise of the Holy Ghost to the disciples and the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, furnishing the disciples with gifts and graces for the propagation of the Gospel throughout the world, and the immediate conversion that followed their plain and faithful testimony to the resurrection of their crucified Master. These interesting topics recorded by the Evangelists and transmitted to us, are passed over, as unworthy notice and regard. Yet these suppressions confer the negative merit of consistency on the Koran, because if viewed in connection with the more open asseverations, they form parts of a fixed design to degrade the Messiah and exalt Mohammed in his stead, and it shewed discretion to avoid alluding to these extraordinary incidents, rather than by agitating the subject to risk inquiry and unfavourable conclusions. For it may be remarked, that the separate parts of Christ's life, excite high expectation, each event rising in interest and importance over the other, and forming collectively a series of wonders, till the scene terminates in his exaltation to heaven; and therefore suppression was prudential, because the facts could not well be mixed up with the matter of the Koran, and irresistibly prove that Jesus was the Messiah to whom alone men were to look for salvation. To particularize only in a few instances; the appearance of a star in the heavens, and the massacre of the innocents by Herod, arc judiciously discarded as likely to beget the question, who this could he, so signally announced beyond all precedent. The same may be said respecting the wonders of his baptism, his conflict with and triumph over Satan in the wilderness, his miracles and transfiguration; these form an assemblage of facts which could not be accounted for otherwise than by allowing his vast superiority over all other prophets. The positive dental of Christ's death and the substitution of another in his place obviated many difficulties; for that event with its attendant prodigies, could not well be explained on the principles of the Koran, or reconciled with the statements there given respecting his person and character.

A sensible and serious man, especially if conversant with the writings of the prophets, cannot but be struck with the following coincidences. First, in the particular fulfilment of prophecies and types, in the time of his death, as predicted by Daniel^[17], and the parallel circumstances of the paschal lamb, of which a bone was not to be broken^[18], and also in the manner of his death by piercing his hands and feet^[19]. The words used by him^[20]. The crucifying him between two malefactors^[21]. The dividing his garments and casting lots for his vesture^[22]. The thirst of our Saviour on the cross, and giving him vinegar and gall to drink^[23]. The earthquake that rent the rocks and opened the graves; the dead bodies of the saints that arose; the severing of the vail of the temple in twain from the top to the bottom; all which constitute a body of evidence irresistibly in favour of the Messiahship of Jesus. Nature spoke by the mouth of the centurion when he said, "Truly this was the Son of God." In rejecting the facts, he removed a few obstructions out of his way, but paved the downfall of his system by identifying it with apocryphal pieces which, though they subserved particular purposes at the time, have now by consent of the learned, on fullest evidence, been consigned to almost total oblivion, as possessing no authority, and carrying no weight whatever in questions of this nature.

It is grievous to reflect on the ignorance of the countries under the Mohammedan dominion in matters of history and the Scriptures^[24]. What Professor Lee observes of the Persians is applicable to all who profess Islam: the best means in their power consist in the fragments found in the Koran or the traditions. "Nor is there much probability of their improving in this respect, until they shall possess a good translation of the whole Bible, with some such works as Prideaux's Connection of the Old and New Testament, the Connections of sacred and profane History by Shuckford, and some good commentary on the text of Scripture^[25]." Such ignorance is the rather to be deplored, because subjects which might be decided by appeal to accredited sources and conduce to the happiest results, are met by a style of metaphysical reasoning and mysticism, which instead of simplifying inquiry and elucidating truth, immerge it in greater perplexity by mere subtleties, difficult to be understood, and which, after all, are of no consequence to the main question.

1. The chapters of the Koran in which allusion is made to Jesus are, chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 19. 23. 33. 43. 57. 61.
2. The Musulman Commentators do not understand this in the Christian sense of the words, but say the spirit was the angel Gabriel, who sanctified Jesus and attended upon him.
3. The Mohammedans believe there were two persons named Imram, one the father of Moses, and the other the father of the Virgin Mary, called by the Christians Joachim.
4. A superstitions notion prevails among the Musulmans, that when Satan tempted Abraham to disobey God by not offering his son, that the patriarch pelted him with stones, in commemoration of which, at the pilgrimage to Mecca, they cast stones, with various ceremonies, in the valley of Mina,

   The story of the wife of Joachim, viz. her devoting Mary to the service of the temple, seems to be taken from the Prot-evangelion of James, or the Gospel of the birth of Mary, two Apocryphal books now lost.—See Jones on the Canonical authority of the New Testament.

5. Though the word here used is plural, yet the Mohammedans here, and in the following passages, understand only the Angel Gabriel.
6. That is, Jesus, who, as Al-Beidâwi says, is so called, because he was conceived by the word or command of God, without a father.
7. The spurious Gospel of the Infancy, relates a circumstance of this nature, from which the account seems borrowed. Vide Sale in loco. See also Jones on the Canonical authority of the New Testament.
8. See Koran, chap, 5.
9. The story of Christ's making a bird out of clay, when a child, is also in the same Gospel of Christ's Infancy, and the Gospel of the Infancy in Greek, under the name of Thomas, published by Cotelerius. See Jones as before.
10. This is at variance with the subsequent account of Jesus' translation to Heaven, and one of those palpable and gross contradictions with which the Koran abounds.
11. The early Sectaries held very erroneous notions respecting Christ's sufferings and death: this account is found in the apocryphal or spurious Gospel of St. Barnabas. Sale notices, that the Basilidians, in the beginning of Christianity, denied that Christ suffered, and that Simon the Cyrenian was crucified in his place. The Cerinthians and Corpoerations held the same belief. See Jones's interesting account of the Gospel of Basilides, and that of St. Barnabas.
12. Innumerable passages assert that Christ is neither God, nor the Son of God, and denounce damnation and misery to those who believe otherwise. See besides, chapters 4. 6. 10. 14. 16. 17, 18. 27. 31. 37. 41.
13. Some think this story originated from an imperfect notion of the Lord's last Supper, and the Institution of the Eucharist.
14. Sale observes a strong resemblance in the account of the delivery of the Virgin Mary and that of Latona, not only in the circumstance of their laying held of the palm tree, (though some say Latona embraced an olive tree, others an olive or a palm, or else two laurels,) but also in the infant's speaking, which Apollo is fabled to have done in the womb.
15. The Moslems obviate the apparent difficulty of making Mary and Aaron contemporaries, by saying, she had a brother named Aaron, of the same father, but of a different mother; others consider it as a mere figurative mode of address; Mary, from her relationship to Elizabeth, being of the Levitical race.
16. The 36th chapter, entitled Y. S. records a singular his- tory of Jesus sending some of his disciples to Antioch, with a power to work miracles for their conversion: a great many of the people embraced the true faith, and demolished the idols, while these who believed not were destroyed by the cry of the Angel Gabriel.
17. Chap. ix. 25.
18. Exod. xii. 46.
19. Ps. xxii. 16; Matt. xxvii. 35.
20. Ps. xxii. 8.; Matt. xxvii. 43.
21. Isaiah liii. 12.; Mark xv. 28,; Luke xxii. 37.
22. Psa. xxii. 18.; Matt. xxvii. 35.
23. Psa. lxix. 21, &c.
24. See Koran, chap. 17, note.
25. Persian Controversies.