Status of Jesus in Islam ~A presentation by Imam Sohail

there's a lot of misconceptions ignorance hatred and we feel here at the center that the only way you can counter that hatred and ignorance is through education and this might take long but this is the only way forward if we want to leave a better future for our coming generations we want them to know each other we want them to live with each other peacefully to learn to appreciate each other and to work with each other as believes as community members as partners so for that to happen we have to work hard in our time and we might see some results in our time in the next generation so that's the whole point of this the presentation is probably about 45 minutes to an hour sometimes it takes a little longer it depends on how quickly I go through the slides we will have a Q&A session at the end so if you have not grabbed your note card and a pen is too so long if you have any questions write them down and in the end we'll take those questions also at around 4:00 p.m. we have our next career session so if you want to stay around you know and observe the Muslim prayer this is going to be the third layer of the day it is a silent prayer we observed around 4 o clock anyone has any questions before we begin the restrooms the men's restroom is to my left here and the women's restroom is in the which many of you came in the lobby outside so please feel free to move around if you have to stretch these craft materials we'll have snacks in a little bit to enjoy all right so let's begin the title of today's talk is Jesus peace be upon him the prophet of this wine so whenever we say the name of a prophet we add after in this race peace be upon him the reason we do that is because of our love for the prophets and our admiration for them and peace be upon him is actually a prayer so I am saying may God's peace be upon Jesus that's what it means when I say may God's peace be upon Abraham may God's peace be upon Moses may God's peace be upon Muhammad why are we saying this prayer is because today if I'm standing in front of you 2,000 years after Jesus left the earth and I believe in one God and I am following in the footsteps of Jesus peace be upon him then it is due to his hard work due to his labor when he was here on earth and so the same for the other prophets so this message of truths which we understand to be the belief and worship of one God only is here today because of the hard work of these individuals in history and so the least thing that I can do today for them is make a prayer for them Oh God give them a lot of peace give them a lot of tranquility give them a lot of rewards for whatever they did and this is one way Muslims connect with the prophets and express their love and admiration as well as respect for them so it's actually in the Islamic tradition a lot of times it is considered disrespectful to just say the name of the Prophet without adding this this phrase peace be upon let's begin with the presentation first of all we want to look at the Islamic belief in prophets because Jesus peace be upon him fits under this Islamic belief in Prophet so who are the prophets and what is the belief in Islam about prophets islam teaches us that allah which is the Arabic word for God so islam teaches us that the word allah which is the Arabic word for God he is the one who appoints certain human beings and these human beings act as his messengers so their job is to receive the message of God and then convey the message to the people so they are more like recipients of revelation and teachers of that revelation to the people they are not the authors of the revelation so we do not believe any prophet was the author of the book which was given to the Prophet each prophet received the book by God and then his job was to transfer the book to their nation if they add something to it or they delete something to it then that would be a big crime that would be against their job description so their job description was receive revelation and conveyed it as is and these revelations were sent to benefit humanity because god almighty the one who created us He loves us he cares about us he wants to guide us to the path that is the best in this life and the next and in order to do so he chose these individuals throughout history and sent them these revelations so that they could guide humanity to the best path for them in this life and the next the first man and woman on earth Adam and Eve is be upon both of them believed and worship one God so in the modern times there has been a theory of religious evolution just like we have the evolution of mankind how we came you know through stages and eventually became the humans we became there's also social scientists have given or advanced this theory of evolution for religion and that Curie says we started off as pagans we started off as fire worshippers we started off as star worshippers and then we became animal worshippers and then he became spirit worshippers and then he became human worshippers and then eventually we became monotheists worshippers of one God so there is this evolutionary process islam teaches us it's the other way around Islam says Adam and Eve were actually monotheists so it was not like we evolved into you know a race which eventually became monotheists but rather we started off as more of the East since Adam and Eve they thought humanity or their children there is only one God we should only worship that one God and then later on what happened is that as the community through human race through other influences philosophies thoughts man-made concepts human beings came up with new concepts innovated in religion and came up with other religions so the original religion according to Islam was always this one religion which was worship one God the monotheistic religion was considered the original religion of God and so Adam and Eve would represent that first and original religion as humanity crew new New Gods were invented and people deviated from the straight path so any religion which would go away from the worship of one God according to the swamp is a deviation from that original religion of God so if we worship animals if we worship the stars if we worship stones human being spirits ancestors insist of worship is also a part of the evolution of these religions all of those would be considered as a deviation from the original and true religion of God which was to worship only him without any partners Allah God Almighty appointed a prophet every time this deviation happened to bring those people back to the worship of one God so that's why a prophet would be needed after some time so Adam he sets the religion right he begins right and then few hundred years later a few thousand years later idol worship comes into the picture animal worship comes into the picture star worship comes into the picture and so God then appoints another prophet so we find noah peace be upon him coming after Adam why did God send another prophet if he had already sent Adam before is so that once again he could reform society bring them back to that main religion the religion of God the worship of one God and so every time this deviation would happen a new prophet would be sent either to bring people back to the straight path or to support another prophet who's already doing the big work okay so in the case of Moses peace be upon him he's doing the big job with the Pharaoh Egyptians like bringing them back to the worship of one God but Aaron is sent along with him as a supporter okay so that he could support him because Aaron had for example qualities of speech which did not have Moses used to stutter and he would speak so Aaron would be the speaker most of his conversation peace be upon both of them and so on and so forth Allah sent a total of 124 thousand prophets in human history in different times and locations so according to Islam a total number of 124,000 prophets have come from the time of Adam to the time of Muhammad peace be upon all of these great prophets this number actually comes from one of the narrations by Prophet Muhammad peace be upon he's the one who mentioned this number so we believe that God has sent a prophet in every nation in every time in every age in every culture to all kinds of people do we know the names and stories of all the prophets no we don't know the names of all the prophets and what they did and what happened with them we only know the names of a few but this does not mean there weren't others so we find for example in ancient Egyptian history people like Akhenaten talked about one God he might have been a prophet of God we find in Native American history the tribes in America people who talked about one God they might have been prophets of God so we don't know for sure but we know definitely that God did send a prophet to all the different nations and all the different you know groups out there so that they could be guided to the straight man why did he do that because it would be unfair to just select one group of people in one nation for guidance and forget about the rest because he created all of us and he loves all of us equally so he sent these different prophets to the different nations and these prophets were not foreigners to those nations these prophets were born and raised in those nations people knew them they were the best people in their the most honest the most upright the most trustworthy and then when God sent a message to them saying that now you're a prophet you have to deliver this message to the people the people would know this person it's not like somebody from outside coming in and suddenly claiming to be a prophet this is somebody you know for forty years thirty years they have grown up amongst you you know you know their character you can vouch for them and so they would have credibility that's what I'm trying to say these prophets had credibility with their people okay even then they were rejected many of them were rejected despite this credibility amongst their people imagine what would have happen if they were foreigners who came from outside and said I am a prophet I'm a messenger of God it would have been even even worse Adam peace be upon him is considered the first prophet and Muhammad peace be upon him is considered the final problem so Adam the first one and Muhammad the last one is be one and between them a hundred and twenty four thousand in different times in different ages different you know languages and so on so when people say for example a slam starts with Muhammad peace be upon him many Muslims would disagree say no Islam doesn't start with Muhammad Islam ends with Muhammad because he's the last one in that line of prophethood starts with Adam the first man on earth because Adam had the same religion as Muhammad did that's what the Islamic claim is that all these prophets had the same religion no matter where they were what languages they spoke what cultures they were part of they had the same religion which was to surrender and submit to God in peace and that's what we call Islam Islam in Arabic means to surrender and submit to God so that you may get peace in your life if you are doing these things and you are a muslim in arabic you are considered a muslim no matter what age you're from no matter what culture you're from no matter what race you're from if you are a Muslim at heart because you're following the same religion as the great prophets all the prophets from Adam to Muhammad peace be upon them came with the same message one god that's the central core message of all the beliefs and the religions that came from these crops the other things according to time and culture might be different for example Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him he told the Muslims to pray five times a day prophet Moses peace be upon him told his nation to break three times a day so those details might be different the laws might be different according to time and age but the central core message was always believe in one god and follow me you want to be guided believe in one God and follow what I tell you to do so Moses would say the same thing Jesus would say the same thing Abraham would say the same thing and if you dip those two things if you did those two things you're successful so in the time of Abraham the only way to God is believe in him worship Him and follow whatever have tells you to do in the time of Moses worship one God follow what Moses tells you to do after Muhammad peace be upon him came worship one God and do what Muhammad peace be upon him tells you do so with each prophet something was added to this religion of God the Torah is the same as I said the core message was always the same but the laws were added slowly as humanity evolved as cultures evolve as people civilizations came about more and more laws were added so in the time of Adam Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him he said in the time of Adam Islam was to worship and believe in one God and do anything if you don't feel ashamed that is the basic law in the time of Adam this is the very start of Islam if you don't feel ashamed it's okay to do it and then slowly more and more laws were added in the time of Moses a lot of laws were added in the Torah then Jesus peace be upon him came and he added the missing pieces to the Torah and then Mohammed peace people came and he finalized good so there is this evolutionary process but the evolution is with the law or not the faith the faith had always been the same Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in his famous statement he said we the prophets are brothers from different mothers meaning we are one and the same don't differentiate between us don't separate me from Moses and Jesus and Abraham and Noah and Adam and all the other great problems we are brothers meaning we have the same message it's just that we are born in different families were born to different mothers but in fact we are religiously spiritually we are brothers now we go on to the best woman of all times there is an entire chapter in the Quran which is named after the mother of Jesus peace be upon him married peace be upon her that talks about her righteousness it's the only chapter in the Quran there are 114 chapters the only chapter which is dedicated to a woman this woman has to be very very important because this entire chapter is named after so there's a chapter called Mary in the Quran it's chapter number 19 if you ever want to look up chapter 19 in the Quran is named Mary and this entire chapter builds up the case for Mary being a great woman a woman of great character righteousness purity dedication to God sacrifices in the way of God you know anything that you can attribute to any religious person and its peak is attributed to Mary peace be upon her so this is one of the verses in the Quran where it says Mary the daughter of Imran which in the Bible is Joshi who guarded her chastity we blew there in from our spirit she believed in the words of her Lord and his scriptures and was amongst the devoutly obedient so very who I words of praise appeared about Mary peace be upon her in the Quran and for those people who say Muhammad peace be upon him made up the Quran himself there is a question that you need to understand if Muhammad had made up the Quran himself remember he is coming from the Arab and a Grace and the Arabs and the Jews did not have the best relationship it didn't have the best history together if he had to choose a woman to praise it would have been his wife his mother you know his daughters but it is not he who has any say in the Quran is not the author of the Quran God Almighty is the one who sent him the Quran and it is God Almighty who says Mary is the one who needs to be praised a Jewish woman who lived hundreds of years earlier that the time of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon in another words God Almighty says so her Lord fully accepted her that is married and raised her in an exceptional manner and placed her in the care of Zechariah which in Arabic is Zechariah Prophet Zechariah peace be upon him was the caretaker the guardian of Mary she grew up in his care she got her knowledge her manners her understanding of life and religion from the high priest zechariah zechariah was the high priest of the temple in jerusalem so she got the best mentorship the quran establishes the herd her best mentorship or knowledge back to Zechariah and the angel said o Mary indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and on this day has chosen you above all the women of the world this verse is very very hard because it makes Mary the best woman to have ever existed in human history for a Muslim if you ask Muslim who the best woman ever no choice I don't have a choice I cannot say this or that God already chose that woman in the Quran that is Mary the mother of Jesus peace be upon her and peace be upon him and a lot of people don't understand Lee the link between Mary and Muslim women a lot of people don't get that link for Muslim women who is the ultimate role model has to be married now when you want to be the best you have to follow the best so if you want to be the best most righteous woman out there then marry has to be your role model she has to be your example and so a lot of times we prayer to understand for example the link between that hijab the dress code of Muslim women and Mary why do Muslim women dress the way they do because for them Mary is the ultimate role model and Mary is described as a very modest person in her dress you cover herself up she would wear loose clothing obviously in the Catholic tradition the nuns also would follow the same kind of tradition but it is sad that the media has brainwashed us to think in two different ways about the same kind of concept so when we see pictures of mother Teresa when we see the Catholic nuns what's the first thing that comes to our mind or how pure or how religious how righteous when we see the Muslim woman covered up exactly the same way what's the first thought that comes to our mind for how oppressed okay so this is how the media it conditions different responses to the same concept the concept is exactly the same purity modesty religiosity a an announcement of who I am as a woman and I want to tell the people and making a statement through my dress you know I am a pious woman I am a follower of Mary I love God and all of those concepts are the same so Mary is described as the best woman of all times now we go to Jesus peace be upon him and his birth in the Koran and when the angels said o Mary Allah gives you black tidings of a word from him the angels are announcing to Mary that God has given you black tidings of a word he's going to send you a word whose name is the Messiah Jesus peace be upon him is described as the Word of God as the Messiah Jesus the Son of Mary held in honor in this world and be Hereafter and will be among those close to Allah meaning this person this son of yours which God with less fluid will have great honor in this world and didn't he have great honor 2,000 years later we are not talking about this man 2,000 years ago so that promise of God has come true he has honored him in this world and in the hereafter his honor is we cannot even imagine you cannot even say anything about the honor that he will receive in the hereafter and will be among those close to Allah he shall speak to the people when in cradle and when in maturity and shall be of the righteous so once again very beautiful description of this promise of God which will come to Mary in the shape of Jesus peace be upon him he will speak in the cradle and in maturity so in the Quran and there are miracles recorded about Jesus peace be upon him which you will not even find in the Bible and one of those miracles is that when Mary came back with him after giving birth to him the people accused her of adultery fornication because she was not married where did you get the baby from and they started you know accusing her so while she was being accused saying she didn't defend herself she instead pointed to the baby and the people started mocking at her saying what do you want us to talk to your baby to get the answers and miraculously in the Quran God says Jesus spoke as a babe defending his mother's honor and saying I am a messenger of God and I have been sent to you to guide you so it was a miraculous beginning for Jesus for Mary you know and he proved the power and strength of God and and what this child was going to be capable of-- if this is what he's doing at this early age is just a baby imagine what is what is coming ahead so all of those miracles are mentioned in the quran about jesus peace be upon him she said so when she got the news i'm gonna get a baby she said my lord how can i have a child when no man has touched me he said so be it allah creates whatever he wills whenever he decreased the matter he only says to it be and it is meaning it's going to be a miracle it's not going to happen through the regular natural process of birth it will happen miraculously and it will happen because for god nothing is difficult whenever he wants to create whenever he wants to do something all he does is says be in the arabic the word is wouldn't be and it comes into existence so in this lab the miraculous birth of Jesus peace be upon him is not something which which we doubt for which we say you know how can that be it is even today there are Christian groups out there Christian denominations and sects who deny the miraculous birth of Jesus the immaculate conception is denied by many Christian groups but in his lab it is mandatory for every Muslim to believe in this because the God said it in the Quran how can I deny it how can i you know argue against so it is part of art believed to be deemed that Jesus was born without a father but to take this argument forward and then to conclude from it that's it since Jesus didn't have a father a human father so God must be then his father that's where Muslims would say no let's draw a line here let's not jump to that conclusion here and God actually answers that in the Quran God says Jesus was a servant of God a human being a great prophet of God but not his son and he says in the Quran the example of Jesus to God is the example of Adam how did God create Adam did Adam have a father did Adam have a mother no so Adams birth is actually even more miraculous if you think about it that Jesus is Jesus at least had a mother Adam didn't even have a mother or father so God says just like he created Adam by saying be coming to existence so Adam and Adam came into existence similarly he created Jesus peace be upon him so for us to believe in this doesn't require us to believe then that God is his father okay so this is very very important because I have been asked that question at times by you know some people that if you believe Jesus didn't have a father then why don't you believe if God is his father then God must be his father so from there from that angle we don't look at it in that way at all we look at it miracle of God which which took place with the birth of Jesus and this is the verse I was just talking about indeed the example of Jesus with Allah is like that of Adam he created Adam from dust and said to him the ewoks so God creates in different ways to show his miracles to us the vast majority of us we came through from the regular process father mother okay then Jesus peace be upon him mother no father Adam peace be upon him no father no mother Eve peace be upon her comes from a man but no mother so you see these are all different ways God creates to show his miraculous ability and so he doesn't have to follow one convention because the laws of nature the laws of science are applicable to you and me not to him he's the one who creates laws he can create new laws he can create new things he can create in new ways in different ways so in the Quran we see them as great miracles of God after giving birth to Jesus peace be upon him and Mary peace be upon her returns her people accuse her of adultery so God says in the Quran so she pointed to him the baby they said how can we speak to a child still in the cradle Jesus peace be upon him then spoiled indeed I am a servant of Allah he has given me the scripture and appointed me a prophet he has made me blessed wherever I may be and he has enjoined upon me prayer and charity for as long as I live beautiful and dedicated to my mother he has not made me rash and to Jesus as a baby is describing his own character how God created how good God created he's not somebody who's harsh he's merciful he's loving is not somebody who's arrogant he's humble he has humbleness he's not somebody was disrespectful to his parents to his mother he loves his mother dedicated to his mother serving his mother and a servant of God the Son of God not God himself but rather a creation of God blessed God has made me blessed as long as I live prayer and charity see that's that's the core here once again of Islamic practices career and Jared Muslim in Islam we have the five pillars of Islam and one of them is five daily prayers and one of them is mandatory charity so we're following in the same footsteps as that of the other prophets before Mohammad peace be upon miracles that dance of the eye he says I Jesus is my body I have come to you with a sign from your Lord for I mold for you a bird-like sculpture out of clay I blow into it and it becomes a living bird but a wasp permission I heal the one who was born blind the Knepper and I revive the dead all by Allah scrimmage so these are some of the miracles that are recorded in the Koran for Jesus one of them as a young boy so baby he had a miracle then when he's a young boy he performs these miracles where he makes birds how to play and then he blows on them and these birds fly off his real birds he's also able to tell the people what they're hiding in their houses as a young boy if you come to and say we were hiding 1 million dollars you know in your garden even tell you things about which no one else knows secrets he would be able to tell you secrets and then when he grows older he is able to heal the blind the lepers people with different illnesses diseases out of the permission of God and he can even bring somebody back to life after they die but the difference in the Quran is wherever the Quran mentions these miracles of Jesus or for that matter any miracle by any prophet it always says by the permission of God meaning don't start thinking jesus is performing the miracle it's God who is performing the miracle through Jesus it's God who is performing the miracle through Moses when Moses hits the sea with his staff and the sea opens up two parts is it Moses who has the power and the ability to perform these miracles no it is God Almighty so should we worship Moses no we should worship the god of Moses and that's the argument throughout the Quran don't worship people don't worship the messengers but rather worship the one they are talking about the one they worship the God of the messengers should be our God what was the message of Jesus peace be upon him according to the Koran Jesus peace be upon him said indeed Allah is my Lord and your Lord so worship Him alone this is the straight path this is the religion of Jesus according to the Quran he worshiped God and he told the people he is my Lord and He is yours so don't worship anyone other than him and if you do that then you're on the straight path you are on the right path but Jesus came to them with clear signs he said I have come to you with a revelation of wisdom and to clarify to you some religious matters in which you differ therefore fear Allah and obey me indeed Allah is my Lord and your Lord so worship Him this is the straight man so in this Jesus tells us why he was sent one of the reasons Jesus peace be one he was sent was that the Jewish community in his time by this time and followed into many disputes they had argued with each other in different matters and divided into different groups and sects so he came to clarify those things those issues that they had started differing about also from the Islamic perspective we are taught we believe that the law which was sent by Moses peace be upon him by the time of Jesus peace be upon him which is almost twelve thirteen hundred years after Moses the Jewish community had taken that law has a very mechanical thing the religion had become all about mechanics rules you do this and then you do this and the spirit behind those laws had been lost why are you doing this that was no longer question no longer asked so Jesus peace be upon him came and added that missing dimension yes laws are important but do it for God for the love of God there is a spirit behind the law - it's not just the wording of the law which is important so from that perspective the prophets would complement each other what prophet brings the law another prophet adds it to it the missing dimension of the spirit behind the law or the intention behind the body intent of the world but once again be fine in this he says fear God fear Allah meaning he's our Lord if there is anyone out there we should love should be him if there is anything out there we should fear in know what fear anyone other than you and don't love anyone other than and these two concepts are very important in Islam the love of God and the fear of God and once again what happens according to Islam is people drift to extremes either in the love of God then forget about the fear part no more fear do anything you want as long as you love God and then some people go to the other extreme just keep fearing God no love aspect no spill no Islam says you need both for a healthy relationship with God you need to understand he loves you we need to love him back but you also need to understand if you disobey you could get into trouble also yes God has created paradise but he also created the Hellfire so there's a balance between you know the two he continued saying be warned of a day when Allah will say oh Jesus the Son of Mary is big one did you say to the people take my mother and I as divine gods with Allah Jesus will say glory be to you it was not for me to say something which I have no right to say never did I say to them except that which you commanded me to say to worship Allah my Lord and so in the Quran God takes us to the future this incident has not happened yet this will happen on the day of judgement when God will gather us all for the final judgement he will bring Jesus peace be upon him in the front say oh Jesus did you ever tell your people to worship you or to worship your mother and he will deny it how could I say something which I had no right to say I only told them what you told me to say meaning I never told them to worship me I never told them to worship my mother rather you are the god worship Him alone and you know Oh baby so yes obedience goes to Jesus but not worship we have to obey Jesus we have to obey Him as we have to obeyed Abraham but we don't worship these prophets because they are not gods they are other creations of God great human beings but nothing more than what about the concept of original sin and Islam in Islam there is no concept of originals so the concept of original sin which says that we are born sinful and which is equated or goes back to the sin that was created committed by Adam when he ate from the forbidden you know tree then he committed a sin and so the concept says that that sin then transfers from one generation to another and we're all actually born with the burden of sin which goes back to Adam peace be upon him why are we talking about this because of the belief that Jesus then comes down and he takes away that same promise right when he is crucified he takes away that original same promise it is now right at the beginning there is no sin so there is no such thing as transfer of the sin and so there is no need for somebody to come and die for the sins of humanity so that whole thing falls apart because it is based on this assumption that we are born sinful and it is based on the assumption that the sin of Adam is transferred from one generation to another in Islam we don't have any concept of original sin Adam and Eve Espey wanted peace be upon that were forgiven for their sin by Allah so it does not pass down to their children the Quran says when Adam and Eve committed the same they repented to God they asked God forgive us we have wronged ourselves O God if you don't forgive us and you don't show mercy towards us we will be the ones who will be losers forever and God Almighty in the Quran he says he forgave them so end of story that's Mary snap stops Adam and Eve committed a sin they repented to God they were forgiven that's it that's one thing the other thing the Quran says no soul shall bear the burden of another soul even if we assume that Adam and Eve were not forgiven and their sin was still there when they died even then their sin does not transfer to their children because no soul takes the burden of Anna you will go to your grave and I'll go to my grave you are responsible for what you did and I'm responsible for my actions we cannot take each other's actions upon us because that according to Islam would be unfair it wouldn't be perfect justice to account someone who has nothing to do with the same this lamp teaches us that Allah created us all pure and it is only later that we fall into different sins there is a statement of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in which he said every human being every baby is born pure innocent and it is when the baby grows older and gets this ability to decide to make choices and then we make wrong choices in our life we fall into sin but as babies and that's why in Islam there is this belief that if a baby dies before reaching a child dies before reaching the age of puberty that they are sinless that they will go to paradise no matter what religion what family they belong to one on earth God considers them innocent in Islam and that's why in Islamic and we call the Muslim so there would be a child who is in a Christian family for us he's a Muslim she is a Muslim somebody in a Hindu family for us it's a Muslim because they have not reached the age where they have started making their own decisions in life so they cannot be accounted for anything that they do and so they are born pure everyone is responsible for their own sins and anyone who repents sincerely is forgiven but so Islam says you don't need a blood sacrifice for somebody to be forgiven all you need is sincere heart all you need is going back to God with repentance all you need is promising to God making an effort I won't do that again for God oh god I fell because I'm imperfect I'm human being I made errors you didn't create me perfect I'm not supposed to be perfect we're not angels they're all human beings and so God who created us like that he wouldn't account us for something which we cannot achieve meaning perfection is not achievable by human beings and so he would forgive us every time we repent sincerely and that's always been the religion of God thus Allah is not in need of sending down someone to die for the sins of humanity so that's where there's a little bit of a difference here now in the understanding of Jesus according to Islam you did not come to relieve humanity of their sins that was not the purpose of he came with a message his job was to deliver this message his message was guys let's return to the worship of one God his message was obey me I will guide you to what is good for you in this life and the next his job was not to come down and be crucified for the sins of humanity so it's a very different way of looking at Jesus peace be upon him in that sense it means what about the crucifixion of Jesus peace be upon him God says remember when Allah said oh Jesus I will keep you alive and raise you towards so according to God according to Islam God had promised Jesus that he would keep him alive meaning he will not be harmed by his enemies when his enemy started plotting against Jesus Jesus would pray to God for help like any one of us would pray when we are in danger and God promised him oh Jesus I will keep you alive and I will raise you up towards me so according to Islam he was not harmed by his enemies and when I restrained the children of Israel from killing you at the time you approached them with clear proofs so he got threats definitely according to the Koran he was threatened multiple times that he will be killed you'll be assassinated but God said that I restrained them from doing that meaning even though they wish to do that they were not able to do it their hearts were hardened because of their saying we killed the Messiah Jesus son of Mary The Messenger of Allah but they killed him not nor did they crucify him rather it only appeared to them that they did so indeed those who are in dispute about the event are full of doubts they have no certain knowledge about it for they follow nothing but conjecture they surely did not kill him rather a lot raised him up unto himself so the crucifixion story in Islam is different according to the Islamic version Jesus was never crucified in fact what happened was that when the enemies came to get him and he was hiding in one of the places with his companions or his disciples the roof of that house opened up angels descended big Jesus up took him up alive who was crucified on the cross then God says it appeared to them that they had crucified you but rather it was not human and so there are theories on who couldn't be who was crucified one Syria is it was somebody who look like Jesus somebody who look like Jesus who was put to the cross another theory is it was Judas Judas Thomas Iscariot he was the one who was crucified instead of Jesus now the regular Christian story about Judas is he hung himself right he committed suicide but there is actually proof in the non canonical Gospels because when we talk about Christianity we take our information from the Gospels which are in the Canon which will canonize accepted but then there are other Gospels which will not care and is not accepted and among them is the Gospel of Barnabas Barnabas was one of the disciples of Jesus according to that gospel Judas is the who was put to the cross not Jesus Jesus was saved so that story actually is the same as in the Quran Quran and the Gospel of Barnabas they share that version of Jesus what happened with Jesus the real Jesus is up alike taken up saved and Judas was the one who was put to the prophet there is also proof in his name there is some proof or clue in his name Judas his full name was Judas Thomas is scary the middle name promise comes from the Hebrew word Tom in Hebrew the word promises that's where Thomas comes from Tom and Tom in Hebrew means twin look-alike and so it is claimed that he was called Tom because he was a look-alike of Jesus he looked very similar in features to Jesus peace be upon him and so there are all these you know proofs but from the Quranic story or karana our God's plain in the for and one thing is very clear it was not Jesus whoever it was that's a different story but it was never not Jesus because Jesus was taken up a lie is still alive with God to this day has never experienced it so that whole issue of Jesus dying for the sins of humanity just you know in Islam it doesn't work out from all angles it doesn't work out from the angle of original sin it doesn't work out from what happened with Jesus it doesn't work out so it's a different understanding on his departure from Earth Muhammad peace be upon him taught the Muslims that Jesus peace be upon him will return and of times since Jesus never experienced death and every human being has to experience that Jesus has to come back Jesus peace be upon him has to return to life and come back to the earth and so we are told in his lab taught by the Prophet peace be upon Muhammad peace be upon him that in the end of times Jesus will return to the scene he will come back to earth and a lot of information is given of what will happen when he returns he will descend on the wings of two angels wearing yellow garments Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him he said he will be said his hands will be on the wings of two angels and he will be wearing these nice silky yellow colored garments a lot of description about he will descend in the city of Damascus so we know the location in a snap Robert Muhammad peace we want to said he will descend in Damascus in the city of Damascus now I want you to understand when the Prophet was saying these words Damascus was not a Muslim land Damascus was a Christian country Roman Empire was the part of the Roman Empire Muslims had not reached Damascus at the time he will immediately assume the leadership of the Muslim so not only did the Prophet tell us that he will come to Damascus he said he will descend on the eastern white minaret of the main mosque in Damascus and when the Prophet said that there was no more skin to mask us because it was part of the Roman Empire so this was also you know a prophecy that Damascus will be taken by the Muslims and there will be a great Grand Mosque there one day and there will be an eastern minaret which will be white in color and Jesus will descend near that back in the 90s interestingly the Damascus authorities changed the colour of the mosque from brown to white very recently the color of the Mosque in Damascus has James painted white now it wasn't white and all these history for about a thousand twelve hundred thirteen hundred years it wasn't white in color but now it's white so which tells us we're getting closer and closer to the time of Jesus and what it says in the in the description is that as soon as Jesus walks in to the mosque Muslims will be about to pray and one of the narration says the 1/3 prayer which is the prayer you will witness the third prayer for evening time around this time four o'clock five o'clock time he descends he enters the mosque and the Imam of the mosque who's leading the prayers he will see him and immediately recognize him this is Jesus and as soon as he recognizes him he says please he assumes leadership of the Muslims right to Jesus now becomes the in half of the Muslims okay so the main Imam steps back and lets jesus peace be upon him lead the prayer you know and he assumes leadership from there he will fight the Antichrist and kill him Islam also teaches us that there is someone known as the Antichrist which will appear before Jesus comes back and this Antichrist is the greatest test for humanity ever humanity has never seen a test like this ever destruction lack of faith all kinds of problems this Antichrist will cause in one of the narrations Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said this Antichrist will conquer the entire earth in 40 days give him 40 days and the entire earth Isis except for three cities the Antichrist cannot enter three cities no matter what he tries Jerusalem Mecca Medina these are the three holy cities in Islam three holiest sites in Islam is Mecca where Muslims go for pilgrimage the Hajj Medina where Prophet Muhammad is buried peace be upon him and Jerusalem where Jesus will appear this Damascus area is near that Jerusalem area so as soon as he comes in he takes the Muslims the believers and they are in the Jerusalem area now is the needle and Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him he also said to the Muslims when the Antichrist appears wait for the Son of Man and he appears you cannot do anything you cannot fight this guy you cannot kill him you cannot eliminate the only one who can kill here the only one who can get rid of this disaster is Jesus God has only given Jesus peace be one in the authority the power to get rid of this person so he says when the Antichrist appears don't try to fight him take him on run away hey wait for the Son of Man and when the Son of Mary comes he will take care of the Antichrist so there is a battle which takes place and in this battle the Antichrist is killed by Jesus peace be upon you will also clarify the events that surrounded his first departure when he comes back his original message of worshiping one God and leave the believers in righteousness and justice so the dispute who was Jesus was he prophet of God was he son of God was he crucified was he taken him alive should we worship Him should we not good all those differences that we have after it is going he will come back and clarify those for a man and according to Islam he will present the Islamic view which is that he never actually asked anyone to worship Him or to consider him to be the Son of God after establishing peace on earth he will make the pilgrimage to Mecca so according to this form Jesus will live and rule the earth for seven years after the Antichrist is killed seven years Jesus is the leader of the believers he will be the the primary person leading humanity and Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him he said those are the best seven years the earth has seen so when we think about that you know kingdom of God on earth that's those seven years the final chapter of human beings on this earth will be those seven years where Jesus peace be upon him is leading there will be peace there free justice there will be blessing in everything which people will do will be unity that we friendship love now all the good things that we we want in our lives will be established in those seven years and then the Prophet said after those seven years when he dies there is no good in living on this earth meaning everything will then go down after the death of Jesus he will then die in natural death and will be buried by Muslims so he will make pilgrimage to Mecca before his death the Hajj that would be his last event will last right that he would perform and then he will be very who die and be buried by and so he will reach his death dimension now let's go on and look quickly at the names of Jesus peace be upon him in the Quran the glorious quran mentions the story of jesus peace be upon him in 25 different laces and addresses him by these respectful titles his original name is we saw in arabic his original name is lisa in hebrew they used to say he saw in his time the people used to call him he saw with the ues few kind of respect when the romans accepted Christianity four hundred years after Jesus peace be upon him Romans they had a hobby that hobby was put JS JS behind everything every name they would put a J before it so I you became job Yusuf became Joseph everything just keep putting it and so what they stick the same thing with Jesus also they put a J before his original name and it was pronounced G saw for a very long time and then eventually it was pronounced Jesus and today that's how the Western people thought but trust me if you were here and you call him Jesus you would not know we were talking because he was always addressed with the name he saw in Arabic it's the ISA because Hebrew Arabic I remain ancient Egyptian these are Semitic languages the languages of the Semitic people and they have the same kind of pronunciations the same kind of grammar same kind of sentence structure so that's why if you learned one you can easily the other two or three if you've no Arabic you can learn Hebrew easily if you know Hebrew you can learn Arabic easily because they have the same same kind of structure also he is known as the son of Mary is the only one in the known history of the world who's named after his mother people are named after their father and that's how it has been since the very beginning of time father son and so on father daughter woman he's the only one who will be addressed by the name of his mother because he didn't have a father so Mary is always mentioned whenever he is mentioned whenever we say ISA we say given Miriam Maryam is her name in Arabic Mary Jesus the Son of Man so he is given this noble title son of Mary he's also called the Messiah in English the word is Messiah in Arabic the word is messy and this is the word which is translated to Christ that's what Christ means when we say Jesus Christ we're saying Jesus the Messiah and in Hebrew also the word is mercy and mercy in Arabic and Hebrew means the loved one in you rub something you are doing muss muss means to rub and he was called the Messiah because in the Jewish religion there was a tradition whenever he would appoint a king they would take some olive oil pour it on the head of the king and then they would and that was the ceremony of becoming King meaning now you're the king olive oil Rob Donnan so you can try that at home and see how kingly you feel now yeah so so he was known the Anointed One we appointed one the rock one not by the people because the people never made him the king but by God Almighty he's appointed as the king by God so that's a great title to to Jesus feast upon so he's the Messiah or Christ or the robbed one he's also called the Word of God why is he called the Word of God because he was created with the word remember how did God create him b-but he is the word that word which became a human being by the permission of God so he he is the word of God he's also known as the Spirit of God which in Arabic means a spirit belonging to God when we say Spirit of God in Arabic doesn't mean that God's Spirit his own Spirit is Jesus what it means is the spirit belonging to God like you say the camel of such-and-such the camel of Mister a hay or the dog of mister B or the house of such and such person similarly in Arabic the structure is when you say Spirit of God buh-buh-bah which means not the Spirit of God Almighty but a spirit belonging to God the one a special spirit that's what it means a special spirit which belongs to God these were some of the names what did what did Jesus peace be upon him say about Muhammad peace be upon a lot of times we only hear about what Muhammad said about Jesus but in the Islamic belief we also know that Jesus peace be upon him also said things about Muhammad peace be upon God says in the quran i remember when jesus the son of mary said o children of israel indeed I am a Maz messenger sent to you fulfilling the Torah which was revealed before me and giving glad tidings of messenger who will come after me his name is Ahmed Ahmed was one of the names of Prophet Muhammad he's big one according to Islamic belief whenever a prophet comes the Prophet does two things number one confirms the previous problem yes he was right I am following the same messages here and also tells you about the next one to come every prophet would do that so Noah would talk about Adam and would also talk about Abraham and Abraham would talk about Noah will also talk about Ishmael and Isaac you know so and so Jesus since he's the second last prophet he's the one right before Muhammad peace be one so he did the same to the he confront Moses the big profit before him and he confirmed the coming of another prophet after him and his name will be ahmed or mohammed is people in the bible Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is mentioned a lot of Bible readers when they read the Bible they read it with a different lens the way you look at verses it's very important one of the crimes in translation it's a crime in translation is to translate names this is the crime in translating from one to another land you never ever translate the name of someone and that's the exact crime according to Islam which took place with Prophet Muhammad's name so you'll find in the Bible the Prince of Peace is to come the comforter will come after me he's a common name meanings of the names of Prophet Muhammad the different names which were given to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon and so when the average reader reads these things in the Bible they are not able to relate the two for example my name is Sohail Sohail in Arabic means the easygoing one one who's easy with meaning gentle with me now imagine you were to go back today to your family said I had a presentation today at the Islamic Center and the easygoing one was giving the presentation so what you've done with my name oh I'm lost in history now because anyone could claim to be easygoing one now no if you were to say Sohail then people know came with this book and this is exactly what happened with the name of Prophet Mohammed which was there in the earlier revelations but when the Bible was translated from first of all from Aramaic because that was the language of Jesus to Greek and then from Greek to Latin and from then Latin to English you know all these steps a lot of these words were translated in their meanings and the original names were lost in history so we believe that prophet muhammad was mentioned by jesus peace be one now what did the Prophet Muhammad say about Jesus Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him described Jesus peace be upon him as fair skin and having the most beautiful here so the companions of Prophet Muhammad would ask him how did Jesus look what was his physical feet so one thing he would say he was fierce now fair-skinned does not mean here Caucasian this is a misconcept fair-skinned in the Middle East meant somebody who was on the lighter side in the Middle Eastern colors so my color is a perfect kind of in the middle Middle Eastern you know I'm not dark brown and I'm not like brown I'm kind of brown right there right so somebody who's lighter than me would be called fair-skinned Caucasian so this is a misconception you know you find paintings of Jesus in the West and blue-eyed blonde-haired in a white man that's not how he looked also the Prophet said we had the most beautiful here one of the narrations Prophet Muhammad said if you were to look at Jesus you would think history his hair is dripping with water all the time it's so silky so smooth so beautiful as if he's just come out of a shower no matter when you look at his here it always has that beautiful so he would do really well in the shampoo commercials these days combat peace be upon him once said that Jesus peace be upon him is the closest to him in time because there was no prophet that came between the two of them and the closest to him in love so he used to say this to his companions Jesus is the closest to me in time is the closest prophet and he's the closest to me in love meaning out of all the prophets I feel more connected to Jesus in love even though the prophets loved each other all of them also today 1.5 billion or more Muslims in the world believe in Jesus peace be upon him as a prophet of God Islam is the only non Christian religion on the planet which makes it an article of faith to believe in this you cannot be a Muslim if you say Jesus was not a profitable get out of this lab excommunicated right away no you have to believe in Jesus for you to be a Muslim say peace be upon him when his name is mentioned and as I mentioned earlier this is out of respect and love and admiration for all the prophets of God Muslims love him and teach their children about his story it's one of the popular stories which has taught to children in Islamic schools you know story time whatever I remember when I was younger I used to hear stories about the prophets Noah and Abraham and Moses Jesus you know so their stories are very very well known to the Muslim children to the Muslim world Muslims believe in his miracles and the gospel which was given to him by God so today we have the Gospel according to Matthew the Gospel according to Mark Gospel according to Luke Gospel according to John Muslims believe in the Gospel according to Jesus the lost gospel we believe there was an original gospel of Jesus peace be upon it which no longer exists in the world what we have in the Bible today according to Islam is some of that gospel which made it through and a lot of it has been missed a lot of it has been lost a lot of it has been replaced by human words letters written to different churches opinions of people who came afterwards and so it's a mixture of God's Word and then human world mixed together but in Islam we believe there was a pure gospel from A to Z which had Jesus his original teachings is true teach and that gospel if we can ever find it we claim Muslims claim it would say the exact same thing as the four answers today no difference in the message because the claim is all the prophets at the same religion at the same message Muslims await his return for justice and peace to be established on earth so just as excited the Christians are waiting for his second coming I can assure you Muslims are even more excited you know and our eyes are on Damascus our eyes are on the Antichrist whenever he arrives then we are wait for the son of Mary will end and we will enjoy that rain it will be tough times yes but it will also be less times so this is the end of the presentation I hope that you were educated and learned about the Islamic understanding of Jesus if there was anything good that you learned today this the disclaimer is it was from God all good comes from God and if there was any errors in my presentation any shortcomings any confusion that I thought was wrong means because all shortcomings are human products and not divine I ask your forgiveness or any shortcomings any mistakes and I praise God Almighty for any good that might have come to this session now at the end let's open it up for questions if you had any questions please feel free where the calling can be asked let me ask brother until we're done and maybe my bike I do have one time yes right down there look the Torah actually doesn't mention like basically the stars are in a sense of God's messengers the Stars yes and in that sense that you know during the end of times basically so is it is it you know I don't know the Torah that well is it metaphorical when you say Stars meaning metaphorically no looking like the actual stars so the actual stars are prophets is that necessarily you know to work for to work for our Creator yes we also believe everything in the universe is created by God and works for is will to fulfill his command what I know personally you know I am someone like during evening and I won't worship the Stars but I like look after the legs and amazement like a mainstay to do creator for you the nature you know amazement don't nature yes and I'm going back to the whole stones you know I don't I think some people have stones I don't know they really worship that but in a sense whatever is among our presence is from our creator absolute up to that I have no problems at all I would believe the same thing everything is from the Creator and everything has a mark or a step yes God's creative ability and inference every right very so you know we believe that from the Islamic perspective there is no mention of Mary ever getting married so Joseph is actually not mentioned in the picture but we do believe that Mary was not alone because she was surrounded by people of religion like Zachariah like John the Baptist Jesus you know his uncle but there is no father father so the first question is the ranks of the prophets so as far as the belief that somebody receives revelation and their job is to convey that revelation all the prophets are equal from that perspective we see revelation convey the revelation but as far as the task at hand the difficulty level who they're dealing with what kind of nation I mean when Moses deals with Pharoah that's a you know talking about a very high difficulty level the whereas somebody you know like Aaron who's just supporting Moses his job is just to support Moses they don't take on the Pharaoh that's not your job let Moses take care of the back so from that perspective the difficulty level of the task the challenge is that each prophet went through and the firm resolve that they showed in the various difficulties based on that there is some hierarchy so 124,000 prophets among them so among the well Norma because as I said we don't know all of them but the ones we know there are five which are considered the prophets of the greatest willpower meaning they would not give up their mission or not become weak in any circumstance they are no peace before Abraham peace be upon Moses Jesus so these are the five from you know they are considered the best of the best from the perspective of the task and the difficulty level they had to go through but as far as belief in the Prophet is equal so I believe in as much as Jesus as a prophet as much as I believe in Aaron as a problem or David as a prophet and Solomon as a prophet they are all prophets meaning I cannot challenge their prophethood in any way but what I can say is one of them had to suffer more than this one so from that perspective their rank is higher two hours yeah two basic levels two basic levels the second question was regarding where any of them women no none of them were women but women are reported to have received revelation but the difference is in the case of a prophet the revelation is for the community for the you know people so the job of the properties to convey that revelation for the women who received revelation they were personal revelations like Mary in this account she receives a revelation by the angel you're going to get a son you know his name will be Jesus so it's like you know preparing her for the upcoming challenge of giving birth to a baby without a father you know in the picture so it's a personal life struggle rather than you know she doesn't have to go out to the people and call them towards a particular message or anything like that so they were none of the prophets were women and from the Islamic perspective the job of the prophethood can involve at times physical struggle you could be killed like many prophets were killed you might have to resist in other ways physical ways to establish the truth that you're mine so women were speared that's how we look at it not from the perspective of equality in or superiority this doesn't make men superior we don't use that argument in Islam since all the prophets were men so women must be inferior we never look at it like that but from the perspective of you know sparing certain tasks for women which might be too hard for them especially from the physical perspective especially in those days when these prophets had

Channel: Islamic Center East Lansing

Views: 712

Rating: 4.6923075 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, muhammad, prophet, essa, islam, christmas

Id: 6qqBhJsijyo

Length: 76min 20sec (4580 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2017