Muslims respect and revere Jesus (peace be upon him). They consider
him one of the greatest ofGod's messengers to mankind. The Quran
confirms his virgin birth, and a chapter of the Quran is entitled
'Maryam'(Mary). The Quran describes the birth of Jesus as follows:
(Remember) when the angels said, "O Mary, God gives you good news of a
word from Him (God), whose name is the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary,
revered in this world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near
(to God). He will speak to the people from his cradle and as a man,
and he is of the righteous." She said, "My Lord, how can I have a
child when no mortal has touched me?" He said, "So(it will be). God
creates what He wills. If He decrees a thing, He says toit only, 'Be!'
and it is." (Quran, 3:45-47)
Jesus was born miraculously by the command of God, the same command
that had brought Adam into being with neither a father nor a mother.
God has said:
The case of Jesus with Godis like the case of Adam. He created him
from dust,and then He said to him,"Be!" and he came into being.
(Quran, 3:59)
During his prophetic mission, Jesus performed many miracles. God tells
us that Jesus said:
"I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. I make for you the
shape ofa bird out of clay, I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird
by God's permission. I heal the blind from birth and the leper. And I
bring the dead to life by God's permission. And I tell you what you
eat and what you store in your houses...." (Quran, 3:49)
Muslims believe that Jesuswas not crucified. It was the plan of Jesus'
enemiesto crucify him, but God saved him and raised him up to Him. And
the likeness of Jesus was put over another man. Jesus' enemies took
this man and crucified him, thinking that he was Jesus. God has said:
...They said, "We killed theMessiah Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger
of God." They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but the
likeness of him was put on another man (and they killed that man)...
(Quran, 4:157)
Neither Muhammad nor Jesus came to change the basic doctrine of the
beliefin one God, brought by earlier prophets, but rather to confirm
and renew it.
Jesus is a Servant of God
It will be quickly obvious that they often referred tohim as a servant
of God, but never Son of God. Peter, for example, said:
"The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has
glorified his servant Jesus"(Acts 3:13).
Peter further said:
"God raised up his servant" (Acts 3:26), where the title servant
refers to Jesus.
Not only Peter, but the entire group of believers viewed Jesus as
God's servant. When they raisedtheir voices together in prayer to God,
in the course of their speaking to God they called Jesus"your holy
servant Jesus whom you anointed" (Acts 4:27). They repeatedthis title
also in verse 30. Consistently, Jesus was being called servant of God
by the original followers of Jesus.
Some people mistakenly thought that the disciples called Jesus Son of
God. Aninconsistency of translation actually helped to give this wrong
impression. In the King James Bible, the translators call Jesus "Son
of God" in Acts 3:13, 26, and "child of God" in Acts 4:27. They simply
translated the Greek wordpaida as "son" or "child". But the word paida
also means "servant", and the present context demands this translation
since the author of Acts is trying in this passage to establish that
Jesus is indeed the servant of God.
The translators knew that the Greek word paida means servant. When the
same word was used for David in chapter 4, verse 25, they translated
it"servant". Why not call Jesus also by the same title? Or, if they
feel that"son" is the correct translation, why not also call David
"Son of God"? Jesus and David are both called by the same title in
Greek. Why not call them by a same title in English also?
Other translators recognized this inconsistency and corrected it in
the moderntranslations of the Bible. Therefore the New International
Version of the Bible and many otherscall Jesus Servant of God in the
verses already quoted above. Nevertheless, the fact thatJesus was
God's servant was so well known that even the King James Bible called
him by this title in Matthew 12:18. Referring back to Isaiah 42:1,
Matthew identified Jesus as the servant of the one true God Yahweh.
In the next part, we will see how the eagerness in some people to call
Jesus"Son of God" led them to invent explanations that indirectly
insult God.
The Messiah, Jesus Son of Mary
"O People of the Scripture!Do not exaggerate in yourreligion, and do
not say anything concerning Allahexcept the truth. The Messiah, Jesus
son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He
conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His
messengers . . . " (Qur'an 4:171; see also 66:12).
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