- You're watching, "Let the Quran Speak," and we are answering your questions. If you have a question, visit
our website, Quranspeaks.com. Dr. Shabir, the question is, in what way is Jesus, or Isa,
considered to be the Messiah? What did he do or say in order
to be granted that title? I know that both Jews and
Christians imbue the Messiah with certain attributes
and accomplishments, which must come to pass. I'm not yet sure how Islam
views the role of Messiahship. - Yeah, and in fact, Muslims
themselves are not sure. - Okay.
- I'm not sure. Now, the Quran uses the
term Messiah for Jesus, especially in Surah three verse number 45, where, in a very prominent way, the annunciation is made to Mary and says that you're get
getting the glad tidings of a child to be born of you and he would be called
(speaking foreign language) The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary. So the Messiah. So what is this title? What does it mean? The Muslim commentators on the
Quran in the classical period writing in Arabic, gave
a variety of suggestions. They said, oh, Messiah, the Arabic word is
(speaking foreign language). So (speaking foreign language)
could come from the verb (speaking foreign language)
which means like to anoint or to rob with ointment maybe because, or maybe to touch. So maybe because Jesus
had the healing touch, so that's why he is called
(speaking foreign language). Or they attributed this
to a different way of, a different etymology, which would mean someone
who traveled a lot. So they thought, okay, maybe he traveled
a lot for his missions to promote the gospel. So that's why he's called Messiah. That means there were just,
there was sort of like guessing. Nobody knows exactly what. Now, if we relay this to
the biblical tradition, in the Bible, there is the idea that there's going to be a future king because the monarchy was in
its heyday in the time of David and then it fell apart in
the time of Solomon his son. And Jews longed for a time when, you know, a special king will be enrolled, peace will bring on earth and so on. And they refer to that
king as the Messiah. So at the time of Jesus,
when Jesus was on the scene, his Jewish interlocutors
were keen to know, are you the Messiah? And you know, the Jesus's
answer is a little bit ambiguous in the gospels, speak of his
Messiahship in varying ways. And the exact meaning of Messiah seems to be a little bit
puzzling in the gospels. But the basic idea seemed to be, seems to be one who will rule as per that Jewish expectation. Now, of course, Jesus had not
fulfilled that expectation at least not yet. And many Christians believe
that when He comes back, He will reign and that will, you know, be His fulfillment
of that Messiahship. So it has something to
do with that kingship. But the Quran never defines this. It seems to me that
what the Quran is doing is just simply holding out an olive branch to our Christian friends. Because for Christianity,
the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah is very important. In fact, He almost is
called Messiah as His name. In Paul's writings for example, he will just simply say Christ Jesus as if Jesus has two names, first name Christ, second name Jesus. And of course, in English
people say Jesus Christ as if Jesus is the first name,
Christ is the second name. But technically is Jesus the Christ. And the Christ is the (speaking
foreign language) in Hebrew or the Messiah if we use
an English equivalent. So the Arabic (speaking foreign language) corresponds very clearly to
(speaking foreign language) from the Hebrew, which simply means the Messiah or the Christ. Now the Christ, this English term comes from the Greek term
(speaking foreign language), which means the same as Messiah. And now in the Bible, when the term (speaking
foreign language) is used, this means an anointed thing or person. It could be a person
like one of the kings, the Persian king, in Isaiah
chapter 45, verse number one, Cyrus by name is called God's Messiah because he saved the people, he rescued the Jewish people. So he's called Messiah. That means he's an anointed person. Generally it means a person
who is specially consecrated by God for some holy office. And it could be a thing
like a rock, for example, is consecrated for God by
people like pouring oil over it. So this is an anointed rock. And anointed is a translation
of Messiah in English. So we said (speaking foreign language), that's just an anglicized
version of the, Christ is just- - So Christ means Messiah? - Yes, Christ means Messiah. - And it's used
interchangeably in the Bible. - Yes, so of course Christ
is not an English word, but it's an anglicized version you can say of (speaking foreign
language) from the Greek. - Okay. - But the English word is anointed that gives the meaning like
what does Messiah mean? Anointed. So if we take that back to Jesus, we can say that Jesus
is an anointed person, means that you know, the kings of of Israel
were anointed with oil. Their hairs were an were anointed and that mark their
inauguration into divine office like Office of King for
you know, under God. So in a similar way we can think of Jesus as being a king and He's
anointed for that role. So maybe the Quran by
holding out the olive branch has a similar idea. Okay, Jesus is in special office with God and He's (speaking foreign language). He's one who is close to God, but the Quran does not go
into defining the title. - All right, thank you
for that, Dr. Shabir. - You're welcome. Tired of seeing how Muslims
are portrayed in the media? You can help. Support Muslim Media Hub, the first of its kind
to empower young people to produce content for
film, TV, and social media. Be part of our journey
at muslimmediahub.com.
