Reviews
Christians, Muslims and Jesus
Clare Bryden
Mona Siddiqui
Yale University Press
This book has been widely welcomed as a serious
attempt by a Muslim to understand the person and work of Jesus.
Siddiqui has read widely in Muslim and Christian sources and tells
us that she has gone back to primary material. As a western-based
academic, she has a natural interest in what western Christian
theologians are saying about Jesus but there is not enough
commensurate discussion on Christians writing from within the world
of Islam. Perhaps this is to be expected.
Jesus is often mentioned in the Qur'an, of course,
where he is referred to not only as 'Son of Mary', but as prophet
(nabi) and messenger (rasul) but also as God's
word (kalima or qawl) as a spirit from him, as
his servant and as the Messiah. There has been a long debate, which
Siddiqui recounts, about the meaning of these terms in the Qur'an
and in Islamic usage but the biblical resonances are also palpable.
Adam is spoken of as having been created by the divine word but it
is only Jesus who is identified with this word. Similarly, the
Qur'anic description of him as 'a spirit from God' is consistently
understood in later Islam to mean that he is ruh Allah (or
Spirit of God). Siddiqui is content to note both the sense that
Jesus is more than just a prophet and the constant need to reduce
his significance in comparison with the Prophet of Islam.
One title that is denied him in Islam is 'the Son of
God'. There are historical reasons for this (such as Muhammad's
earlier denial that Allah could have daughters) and there is also
much about what Christians actually believe. The author records the
Gospel testimony of Jesus' sense of an intimate relationship with
his Father. Indeed, without this, it would be difficult to
understand much in Jesus' ministry. On the other hand, she is
unable to resist the temptation to quote liberal Christian
theologians who seek to reduce the force of divine sonship by
referring to it as 'metaphorical' and as not implying eternal
existence with the Father.
Siddiqui is quite correct to point out that even if
Muslims come to accept the death of Jesus by crucifixion, this
would not have any atoning significance for them. While Islam
believes in human weakness and the capability to do wrong, it also
believes in human perfectibility by following divine law, even if
that is with divine help. There is little sense that humanity needs
rescue from actual and inherited sinfulness - though for the Sufis,
the cross is a revealer of divine love and of the human obedience
necessary for responding to such love.
As far as the resurrection is concerned, Hamilton
Gibb is quoted to show that Islam repudiated the 'nature cults'
that had survived in the Christian Church. Against this, the
Islamic philosopher Allama Iqbal, remarks that the Qu'ran does not
base its teaching on the resurrection, as Christianity does, on the
actual resurrection of an historic person, but on the phenomena of
nature, true even of birds and animals.
It is, perhaps, surprising that while the Greek
background to a Christology is mentioned and criticized, the Hebrew
and Aramaic background is not. Referring to the valuable work of
Sydney Griffith it is claimed, with some truth, that western
Christians have not taken enough notice of the intellectual
tradition of the eastern Christians who lived in the Islamic world.
Two qualifiers need to be entered here: one, that there is,
nevertheless, a long list of those who have. Secondly, this is a
living tradition and what is going on in eastern Christianity today
also needs to be kept in mind. All Christians have taken from
Greek, Roman and Oriental civilisations, but also resisted their
worst features such as infanticide, abortion, gladiatorial
contests, sexual permissiveness and many others. A proper
evaluation of the contribution of eastern Christian communities
would show their immense contribution, along with Jews,
Zoroastrians and others, to the emergence of polity, to
architecture and above all to the translation and transmission of
Greek learning in the sciences, philosophy, medicine and other
areas. At the same time, as Siddiqui points out, they were engaged
in well-informed, respectful but also firm dialogue with their
Muslim interlocutors. In this matter too we have something to learn
from them. She plays down the difficulties and persecutions of the
dhimma (the discriminatory system under which non-Muslims
were supposed to live) and refers to an unworthy point made by a
British scholar that Christians were persecuted because they
regarded themselves as socially and intellectually superior. Such
thinking pays hardly any attention to the basis in Shari'a for such
systemic treatment of non-muslims.
An attempt is made to make the Qur'anic word for
Christians 'nasara' mean 'Jewish Christians' who may have
had a reduced Christology and would, therefore, have been closer to
Islam. But this distinction is untenable. The Qur'an condemns the
nasara for their Christology and the veneration of their
priests and monks.
Siddiqui's reference to Ismail Faruqi well sums up
the essential difference between Christianity and Islam: the latter
emphasising justification and salvation by works, whereas the
former lays emphasis on justification and salvation by grace
through faith. While God's love for humans and the possibility
of our love for him are mentioned in the Qur'an, Siddiqui is right
to say that the tension between Law and Love is largely absent in
Islam. Here God may be said to love the righteous (muhsin)
but not the sinner (mu'tad). How then can a sinner find
forgiveness? How are we to escape the false notion of cheap grace
and is forgiveness only a balancing of good deeds against the bad?
As a Muslim young man said to me, 'We are ready to love God even to
death but he cannot love us to death.' The Christian answer, of
course, is that he can and does but this is the Muslim dilemma;
what exactly is the cost of divine love? The Sufis made love much
more central to faith, but as with Paul, this resulted in a
rejection of legalism, an affirmation of the interior life, of
complete trust (tawakkul) in God. Will the body of Islam
follow them or the legalists? In any case, the question remains for
them, as for other Muslims, how do we know that God loves us in an
unconditional, sacrificial and ultimate way?
It is most welcome that a Muslim scholar should feel
free to offer her assessment of Jesus and of Christian origins. We
can learn much from her perspective and critique. Alas, this cannot
yet be a symmetrical relationship. As recent cases have shown,
Islamic laws against blasphemy and apostasy make even moderate
attempts at research about Islamic origins fraught with difficulty.
Let us hope that Siddiqui's foray into the world of Christian
origins will give Muslims confidence that there can be Christian
engagement with Islam that is both respectful and truthful.
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