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Muhammad and Christ
MUHAMMAD AND CHRIST BT MOULVI MUHAMMAD ALI, M. A., LL. B. President, Ahmadiy x Anjuman-i-Ishaat-i-lalam Lahore, India AUTHOR OF AN English Translation of the Holy Quran AHMAD . N-I-ISHAAT-MSLAM LAHOR INDIA 1921 OF CONTENTS PAGE iNTRODUCClQft ... ... ... 1 . MIRACLES 1. General Remarks ... ... 17 2. Raising the Dead to Life ... ... 23 3. HeaHng the Sick ... ... ... 35 4. Oth r Signs ... ... ... 41 II. SlNLESSNESS ... ... ... ... 48 III. CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO BIRTH 1. Announcement of Birth ... ... 76 2. Mothers Greatness ... ... 96 3. Extraordinary occurrences at the time of Birth ... ... ... 104 IV. THE CALL ... ... ... ... 108 V. CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO DEATH 1. The alleged Ascent to Heaven ... 118 0.. T2hA Death of Christ ... ... 134 VI. THE SECOND ADVENT ... ... 147 INTRODUCTION ONE of the fundamental principles of Islam is a belief in all the prophets of the world, a belief in the fact that before the advent of the Holy Prophet, Muhammad, may peace and the blessings of God be upon him, Different prophets had been raised among different nations. Thus the great change that the advent of the mighty Prophet of Arabia brought about was, that the day of the national pro phet was over, to give place to the Great World-Prophet, to the new order which was to bring about the unity of the whole human race. A belief in all the prophets of the world being thus the basic principle of the faith of Islam, the Muslims have always been averse to institute comparisons between the various prophets of the world, because compari sons, as thef say, am odious. In fact, they were forbidden by the Prophet himself, to do so un necessarily lest in the heat of controversy on such points, things might be said which may be deroga tory to the dignity of a prophet. At the same time the Holy Qiydn declares in plain words that there 2 INTRODUCTION are varying degrees of excellence even among the prophets We have made some of these apostles to excel others ii. 253. It must, however, be borne in mind that it is one thing to say that one prophet possesses an excellence which another does not, and quite another to speak of that other in derogatory words. The prophets were all perfect men raised for the regeneration of man, but they no doubt possessed varying degrees of excellence according to the nature of the work with which they were entrusted and the capabilities of the race for whose regeneration they were raised. It is in this light, therefore, that we take up the challenge so often given by the Christians as to the comparative greatness of Muhammad or Christ, a task which, though painful, is necessary because of the wrong inferences drawn from the sacred Book of Islam. The error which Christian writers generally com mit is that they place all reliance on words, not caring for the work actually done khey look to appearances, not to reality. With th6m jr-satness consists in the terms of eulogy which may be heap ed upon a person and the incredibly wonderful stories which may be f narrated of him, not in the actual work done by him. Hence they are always INTRODUCTION 3 contending that Jesus speaks of himself thus, not so Muhammad, peace be on him, or that the founder of Christianity performed so many miracles which the founder of IsMih did not. The Holy Quran, on the other hand, adopts a different attitude to wrds this question, regarding work, not words or miracles, as the criterion of greatness. It speaks of the greatness of the Holy Prophet not in the words of eulogy in which Jesus Christ speaks of himself according to the Gospels, but by drawing attention to the great change, the mighty transfor mation, that he brought about in the world...
97 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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May 22, 2017Muslims were always averse to institute comparisons between various prophets BC they say are odious.
Prophets were all perfect men raised for regeneration of man but they no doubt possessed a varying degree of excellence according to the nature of work which they were entrusted and capabilities of the race for whose regeneration they were raised.
Jesus and his mother were two of sacred personages whose names were held in greatest abhorrence by Israelites to which nation they belonged. Mary was falsely accused of adultery and her son was denounced as offspring of illicit intercourse and as a liar.Quran had to sweep away these calumnies to establish the great principle of a righteousness of all prophets.
No one ever raised a voice against the purity of text of Quran
Nearly 4000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament are known to exist. As a result, a variety of readings is considerable.
Jesus refused to be called sinless.
If the Christian religion followed the principles laid down by earlier prophets the assertion that Jesus Christ was a greater man than any other human being ever lived, would have done some good to the cause of Christianity, but so long as the atonement of the sins of men by a Divine person remains central doctrine of that religion, nothing less than a clear proof that his superiority to other mortals lay in being Divine and above mortal can be of any use to its cause.
From among the 500 that followed him he chose 12 who were to sit on 12 thrones, who were to be entrusted with work after the Master and these 12 showed a strange weakness of character, the greatest of them Peter, denying Jesus thrice for fear of being treated harshly by the enemies and not even hesitating to curse when he thought that curse was only means of escape.
The Holy Prophet had before him a nation which never before had been guided to truth, among whom no prophet had appeared before him.
Both morally and materially Muhammad savs raised a nation from the depths of degradation to the highest plane of advancement.
In all these cases by the dead even by those in graves are meant spiritually dead those dead in sin and by life is meant life spiritual.
Mark the combination of the dead with the deaf - they are both placed in the same category.
Once a decree of death is passed the soul is withheld and under no circumstances is sent back.
We are told in the clearest possible words that no one who has passed through the door of death into a state of barzakh is allowed to go back to the previous state.
Dead shall not return to life in this world and return to life shall only take place on the great day of Resurrection.
Healing of the sick
It is the prayer and fasting that power is attained to drive devils out of men, clearly, these are devils which affect the spirit and not physique of a man.
Quran we are told attributes to Jesus two great miracles, possession of the knowledge of the unseen and power of creating life.
Blind faith needs no argument, nor is it shaken by argument. A critical reader cannot find any explanation except that Jesus made a mistake in interpreting prophecy.
Sinlessness
Next to miracles, this is the most important argument of Christian relating to the greatness of Jesus Christ. The very basis of the Christian religion is laid on the exclusive sinlessness of Jesus Christ.
The fundamental difference between Christianity and Islam is that the former teaches that every human child is born sinful, while the latter teaches that every human child is born sinless.
Sin is inherent in human nature and man, therefore, can only be saved by the redemption of the Son of God. This view is so abhorrent that it does not require to be refuted (opovrgnuti) at any great length. That man is born sinful or that sin is inherent to human nature is to take the lowest possible view of human nature. No greater insult could be offered to humanity than to say that newborn child was a sinful being. Christian doctrine is based on this that the child who dies before it is baptized shall burn in hell for the fault which can only be attributed to God Himself that He created Him sinfully.
Christ himself taught the sanctity of childhood. Muhammed as taught in clear words that every child is born sinless, true to nature.
In Islam, human nature is raised to the highest dignity by a plain declaration of its purity. In Christianity, it is brought down to the depth of degradation by declaring its inherent sinfulness against which it is really impossible for it to go. This view of human nature which is cornerstone of Christian religion must sooner or later, be abandoned by the civilized world.
Islam goes further and gives rules and regulations to keep up that inherent sinlessness.
Muslim in daily prayer is taught to aspire to sinlessness, far beyond that to the great spiritual eminence to which arose prophets and truthful ones who were the greatest benefactors of humanity.
In the Lords prayer forgiveness is sought for wrongs done, in Muslim prayer man is taught to aspire to a place where wrong is not done at all, where not only evil is shunned but the greatest good is actually done. Former asks forgiveness of sins, the latter for sinlessness, doing of good. Islam elevates the dignity of human nature.
Islam teaches the doctrine of the sinlessness of all prophets of God. Christianity inculcates abhorrent doctrine that all righteous men to whom humanity owes such a heavy debt of gratitude were sinful, that Jesus alone being more than a mortal was sinless.
Mere sinlessness is no proof of greatness. It only implies shunning of evil which is an inferior step in the progress of man to doing good, it is the measure of good which a man does that his greatness depends.
There may have been thousands of people who passed their lives without doing any harm to anybody, or living in the world they may have resisted its great temptations. For mere sinlessness, a man may not sometimes even deserve respect, at others times his conduct may be admirable, but in no case does he deserve to be called a great benefactor of humanity for merely avoiding to do any harm.
The greatest benefactor of humanity was the Prophet as (mercy for the nations).
He it is who did away with idolatry, who freed the world of the mighty demon of drink, who befriended the cause of the orphans, the poor and the weak, who established the principle of equality of men, who did away with all invidious distinctions between race and race, who breathed a new spirit of union into human race, who made knowledge take place of ignorance, who was a source of blessings to humanity in a thousand other ways.
The suggestion of a Devil is really the coming of an evil idea into man's heart, although the idea may finally be rejected, even the first reception of it by the heart is inconsistent with absolute purity of the mind.
Jesus did not possess absolute purity according to the Gospels. He indeed had spiritual strength which enabled him to overcome temptations, but if he had more of it, he would have been free from suggestions of the Devil.
Three of the Gospels contain a plain denial of sinlessness by Jesus himself.
Jesus immediately rebukes a man for calling him good, for only One, that is God is good.
His argument is that good is a word which cannot be applied to any but God. Hence it cannot be applied even to him, in other words, his merits and claims are unequal to the word good.
If Jesus was himself a Divine person, how could he refuse to be called good in the absolute sense, giving at the same time the reason that only God was good?
What does perfection of the righteous servants of God mean except that they were sincere in heart, unblamable in life, innocent and harmless, imitating God in doing good to others? Perfect signifies much more than sinless. A man who is perfect in the sight of God is not only sinless but also doer of immense good.
Jesus receives the Holy Ghost at 30 when he receives baptism at the hands of John the Baptist.
All that can be said of Jesus is that it speaks of him in kind words, but that is because religion of Islam is charitable towrads other religions, and always speaks of other prophets in terms of highest respect, the more so of those who were abused at the time of its advent. It speaks of Jesus as "spirit from Him" not because it considers his nature to be Divine, for it plainly speaks of him elsewhere as nothing more than a mortal, but because his enemies abused him as having been illegitimately born. "Spirit from God" in this case means only a pure soul, one who is not the offspring of an illegal connection. God is the great fountain-head of purity and Jesus soul is said to have come from Him. Meaning it was pure soul. There was nothing of the Devil in him as the Jews said when they called him illegitimate.
The soul of Adam was pure by nature and so is the soul of every man because it proceeds from a pure source, from God, fountain-head of purity. Evil is not inborn in the soul, in other words, there is no such thing as Original Sin. Every man that is born into this world from Adam downwards is born pure. It is only by his evil deeds that he makes the pure gift of God impure. By nature, every man is pure. By his deeds he may become impure.
As a creature of God Jesus was a word of God. Every creature of God is a word of God.
Does it not show that the Holy Quran accords a distinctive treatment to Jesus?
Istighfar does not imply sinfulness. It denotes seeking of ghafar, which signifies covering of a thing with that which is will protect it from dirt. Seeking of protection against chastisement and sins.
Covering between either a man and his sin, or a man and his punishment. They include two cases: 1. as against a fault that has been committed, protection from punishment, and 2. against a fault not committed but to which man is liable, protection from the commission of it.
Three distinct things are prayed for: 1. pardon for sins already committed, 2. protection from sin to which one is liable, 3. mercy or favor from God.
Man who trusts in his own strength in the struggle against evil one is sure to fall. Therefore, the righteous servants of God play for protection to Allah and under Divine protection are perfectly safe.
Muhammed as on his journey to Syria with his uncle expressed strong hatred for idol-worship. He was never found told a lie, nor did he ever witness in derisiveness or ignorance nor did he ever go out with children taking part in their sports. Not only there was nothing mean or low ever witnessed in him, but honesty, veracity, and other great qualities were met within him to so great extent that he earned honorable name al-Amin among his compatriots.
The word dhanb is a word which carries a wide significance. It is applicable as well to sins due to perversity as to shortcomings resulting from inattention, even to defects/imperfections of which the result may be disagreeable.
Announcement of birth
Even if Jesus we suppose to have been born without the intervention of a male parent, this abnormality gives us no ground to consider him superior to those prophets who while doing immensely greater work was born in the ordinary course of nature.
Even Marys husband, a just man, was according to the Gospel determined to "put her away privately", had it not been for the vision he saw afterwards and thus even in his case it was the vision which satisfied him and not the conception, and therefore the vision, not the conception served the purpose of a miracle in his case.
The alleged extraordinary con.ception would now shift prophethood to the sons of Ishmael, the other great line of Abrahams descendants with whom the covenant was made.
Call it what we may, being brought into the world only through a woman - not the union of a man and woman - is no evidence of excellence. If this peculiar way of advent into life does not entitle a person to superiority, Adam must be held to be the most excellent human being, because he came into life without the agency of either parent.
The inference drawn from this question and answer is that a promise was given that she would conceive without a man ever touching her.
Luke shows clearly that Mary had other offspring besides Jesus.
Every woman who is married and lives with husband, in fact, guards her chastity and is for this reason that the Holy Quran speaks of married women as muhsanat or those guarding their chastity (Ch Tahrim).
The foundation of Christian religion rests on the assumption that sin was brought into the world by a woman. Where the mother is the more celebrated of the parents, it is only natural that her name should receive a preference.
The Jews in order to denounce Mary and her son, falsely accused her of adultery, and it is to this accusation that the Holy Quran refers and it is against this that the Holy Book defends Mary. The assertion that only unmarried woman could be accused of illicit intercourse is the strangest of all.
This verse lays down in the clearest and strongest words that all the prophets have foretold the advent of great World prophet and laid an obligation upon their followers to accept him, while he on his part required a belief in all the prophets that had gone before him.
The best minds in all the nations of the world, the greatest benefactors of the whole human race, whenever and wherever they lived received the cheering news.
Turn over the pages of all the sacred Scriptures of the world, you will find only One Book, the Quran, which requires a belief in all the previous revelations. Read over the history of all the great reformers of the world, you will find only one man, prophet Muhammad as who required his followers to accept all the prophets of the world.
Two prophecies (of Moses foretelling appearance of one like him and of Jesus giving the good news of the appearance of another Comforter who should be the last Prophet of the world and whose law should be a perfect Law guiding into all truth.
When was Abraham caLLED TO PROPHETHOOD? When did Moses and Aron receive the Divine message? One point is Christ being granted a book and prophethood in infancy. Great stress is laid upon this point as proving the undoubted superiority of Jesus to prophet Muhammed who was granted prophethood when he passed youth and reached almost an old age.
Giving of a book means there are certain teachings which he inculcates.
What shows the greatness of the Prophet is that first 40 years of his life were so well spent that they stand as an everlasting testimony to his truth, a circumstance lacking in the case of all other prophets including Jesus. So deeply rooted was the welfare of humanity in Prophets heart that even before he received the great Divine call, he spent the best hours of his life in giving relief to the poor.
This was before he was raised to the dignity of Prophethood. The 40 years of his life were spent, not in worldly experience, but in giving help to the poor, the weak and distressed.
Among all the reformers of the world, Muhammed as, occupies the highest position, because not a minute of his life was spent for any object other than service of humanity, in fact, he was a prophet from his childhood though he did not receive the call until 40 years of age.
Another circumstance which singles him out among the prophets of the world the fact that his righteousness was so great and perfect before he was called to the office of prophet, that not only did he not stand in need of being baptised by someone as Jesus was, but what is much more, the whole nation was fully convinced of his great and wonderful virtues, so deeply conscious of his truthfulness and righteousness, they gave him title al Amin. The 40 years of his life afford an evidence of the perfection of righteousness.
The Alleged Ascent to Heaven
A miracle loses its value if it is not performed publicly.
The Quran not in the least supports the theory of Jesus bodily ascent to heaven. It speaks of its rafa to Allah svt, exaltation in the presence of God. Never it mentions heaven in connection with his rafa. Al-Rafi means Exalter of the believer by prospering him.
Prayer between two prostrations: "O Allah, grant me protection and have mercy on me, guide me and grant me sustenance and exalt me" There are many sayings of the Prophet as regarding humbleness in which the word rafa is used always indicating exaltation of degrees.
The exaltation is brought in as a contrast with killing on the cross.
As regards the manner in which our Prophet was saved from the hands of his enemies, the chief point that distinguishes him from Jesus is that he never fell in their hands to be treated in a humiliating manner in which Jesus was treated, who, though saved from an accursed death on the cross, fell completely into enemy's hands that he was to resemble a man who actually met a death on the cross.
Even in the numerous battles that he had to fight, though many a time he was left alone among enemies who thirsted his blood, yet never was he actually overpowered by them.
Second Advent
Quran teaches us in plain words that prophethood was brought to perfection in the person of the Prophet as, and the work attached to the office of a prophet was completed in the revelation granted to him. Therefore as no work remains to be done, no prophet was needed, be he an old or new one. A prophet could only appear if there was any work for him.
The Messiah that appears among the Muslims must be one of themselves not an outsider, no prophet but an imam or a spiritual guide. So great was the spiritual power of the Prophet that not only did he bring about an immediate transformation of so great a magnitude that the transformation wrought by the reformers of the world dwindle into insignificance before it, but he also imparted that power to his followers in the same high degree so that even prophets have not been able to do what men,like Abu Bakr and Umar have done.
Prophets were all perfect men raised for regeneration of man but they no doubt possessed a varying degree of excellence according to the nature of work which they were entrusted and capabilities of the race for whose regeneration they were raised.
Jesus and his mother were two of sacred personages whose names were held in greatest abhorrence by Israelites to which nation they belonged. Mary was falsely accused of adultery and her son was denounced as offspring of illicit intercourse and as a liar.Quran had to sweep away these calumnies to establish the great principle of a righteousness of all prophets.
No one ever raised a voice against the purity of text of Quran
Nearly 4000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament are known to exist. As a result, a variety of readings is considerable.
Jesus refused to be called sinless.
If the Christian religion followed the principles laid down by earlier prophets the assertion that Jesus Christ was a greater man than any other human being ever lived, would have done some good to the cause of Christianity, but so long as the atonement of the sins of men by a Divine person remains central doctrine of that religion, nothing less than a clear proof that his superiority to other mortals lay in being Divine and above mortal can be of any use to its cause.
From among the 500 that followed him he chose 12 who were to sit on 12 thrones, who were to be entrusted with work after the Master and these 12 showed a strange weakness of character, the greatest of them Peter, denying Jesus thrice for fear of being treated harshly by the enemies and not even hesitating to curse when he thought that curse was only means of escape.
The Holy Prophet had before him a nation which never before had been guided to truth, among whom no prophet had appeared before him.
Both morally and materially Muhammad savs raised a nation from the depths of degradation to the highest plane of advancement.
In all these cases by the dead even by those in graves are meant spiritually dead those dead in sin and by life is meant life spiritual.
Mark the combination of the dead with the deaf - they are both placed in the same category.
Once a decree of death is passed the soul is withheld and under no circumstances is sent back.
We are told in the clearest possible words that no one who has passed through the door of death into a state of barzakh is allowed to go back to the previous state.
Dead shall not return to life in this world and return to life shall only take place on the great day of Resurrection.
Healing of the sick
It is the prayer and fasting that power is attained to drive devils out of men, clearly, these are devils which affect the spirit and not physique of a man.
Quran we are told attributes to Jesus two great miracles, possession of the knowledge of the unseen and power of creating life.
Blind faith needs no argument, nor is it shaken by argument. A critical reader cannot find any explanation except that Jesus made a mistake in interpreting prophecy.
Sinlessness
Next to miracles, this is the most important argument of Christian relating to the greatness of Jesus Christ. The very basis of the Christian religion is laid on the exclusive sinlessness of Jesus Christ.
The fundamental difference between Christianity and Islam is that the former teaches that every human child is born sinful, while the latter teaches that every human child is born sinless.
Sin is inherent in human nature and man, therefore, can only be saved by the redemption of the Son of God. This view is so abhorrent that it does not require to be refuted (opovrgnuti) at any great length. That man is born sinful or that sin is inherent to human nature is to take the lowest possible view of human nature. No greater insult could be offered to humanity than to say that newborn child was a sinful being. Christian doctrine is based on this that the child who dies before it is baptized shall burn in hell for the fault which can only be attributed to God Himself that He created Him sinfully.
Christ himself taught the sanctity of childhood. Muhammed as taught in clear words that every child is born sinless, true to nature.
In Islam, human nature is raised to the highest dignity by a plain declaration of its purity. In Christianity, it is brought down to the depth of degradation by declaring its inherent sinfulness against which it is really impossible for it to go. This view of human nature which is cornerstone of Christian religion must sooner or later, be abandoned by the civilized world.
Islam goes further and gives rules and regulations to keep up that inherent sinlessness.
Muslim in daily prayer is taught to aspire to sinlessness, far beyond that to the great spiritual eminence to which arose prophets and truthful ones who were the greatest benefactors of humanity.
In the Lords prayer forgiveness is sought for wrongs done, in Muslim prayer man is taught to aspire to a place where wrong is not done at all, where not only evil is shunned but the greatest good is actually done. Former asks forgiveness of sins, the latter for sinlessness, doing of good. Islam elevates the dignity of human nature.
Islam teaches the doctrine of the sinlessness of all prophets of God. Christianity inculcates abhorrent doctrine that all righteous men to whom humanity owes such a heavy debt of gratitude were sinful, that Jesus alone being more than a mortal was sinless.
Mere sinlessness is no proof of greatness. It only implies shunning of evil which is an inferior step in the progress of man to doing good, it is the measure of good which a man does that his greatness depends.
There may have been thousands of people who passed their lives without doing any harm to anybody, or living in the world they may have resisted its great temptations. For mere sinlessness, a man may not sometimes even deserve respect, at others times his conduct may be admirable, but in no case does he deserve to be called a great benefactor of humanity for merely avoiding to do any harm.
The greatest benefactor of humanity was the Prophet as (mercy for the nations).
He it is who did away with idolatry, who freed the world of the mighty demon of drink, who befriended the cause of the orphans, the poor and the weak, who established the principle of equality of men, who did away with all invidious distinctions between race and race, who breathed a new spirit of union into human race, who made knowledge take place of ignorance, who was a source of blessings to humanity in a thousand other ways.
The suggestion of a Devil is really the coming of an evil idea into man's heart, although the idea may finally be rejected, even the first reception of it by the heart is inconsistent with absolute purity of the mind.
Jesus did not possess absolute purity according to the Gospels. He indeed had spiritual strength which enabled him to overcome temptations, but if he had more of it, he would have been free from suggestions of the Devil.
Three of the Gospels contain a plain denial of sinlessness by Jesus himself.
Jesus immediately rebukes a man for calling him good, for only One, that is God is good.
His argument is that good is a word which cannot be applied to any but God. Hence it cannot be applied even to him, in other words, his merits and claims are unequal to the word good.
If Jesus was himself a Divine person, how could he refuse to be called good in the absolute sense, giving at the same time the reason that only God was good?
What does perfection of the righteous servants of God mean except that they were sincere in heart, unblamable in life, innocent and harmless, imitating God in doing good to others? Perfect signifies much more than sinless. A man who is perfect in the sight of God is not only sinless but also doer of immense good.
Jesus receives the Holy Ghost at 30 when he receives baptism at the hands of John the Baptist.
All that can be said of Jesus is that it speaks of him in kind words, but that is because religion of Islam is charitable towrads other religions, and always speaks of other prophets in terms of highest respect, the more so of those who were abused at the time of its advent. It speaks of Jesus as "spirit from Him" not because it considers his nature to be Divine, for it plainly speaks of him elsewhere as nothing more than a mortal, but because his enemies abused him as having been illegitimately born. "Spirit from God" in this case means only a pure soul, one who is not the offspring of an illegal connection. God is the great fountain-head of purity and Jesus soul is said to have come from Him. Meaning it was pure soul. There was nothing of the Devil in him as the Jews said when they called him illegitimate.
The soul of Adam was pure by nature and so is the soul of every man because it proceeds from a pure source, from God, fountain-head of purity. Evil is not inborn in the soul, in other words, there is no such thing as Original Sin. Every man that is born into this world from Adam downwards is born pure. It is only by his evil deeds that he makes the pure gift of God impure. By nature, every man is pure. By his deeds he may become impure.
As a creature of God Jesus was a word of God. Every creature of God is a word of God.
Does it not show that the Holy Quran accords a distinctive treatment to Jesus?
Istighfar does not imply sinfulness. It denotes seeking of ghafar, which signifies covering of a thing with that which is will protect it from dirt. Seeking of protection against chastisement and sins.
Covering between either a man and his sin, or a man and his punishment. They include two cases: 1. as against a fault that has been committed, protection from punishment, and 2. against a fault not committed but to which man is liable, protection from the commission of it.
Three distinct things are prayed for: 1. pardon for sins already committed, 2. protection from sin to which one is liable, 3. mercy or favor from God.
Man who trusts in his own strength in the struggle against evil one is sure to fall. Therefore, the righteous servants of God play for protection to Allah and under Divine protection are perfectly safe.
Muhammed as on his journey to Syria with his uncle expressed strong hatred for idol-worship. He was never found told a lie, nor did he ever witness in derisiveness or ignorance nor did he ever go out with children taking part in their sports. Not only there was nothing mean or low ever witnessed in him, but honesty, veracity, and other great qualities were met within him to so great extent that he earned honorable name al-Amin among his compatriots.
The word dhanb is a word which carries a wide significance. It is applicable as well to sins due to perversity as to shortcomings resulting from inattention, even to defects/imperfections of which the result may be disagreeable.
Announcement of birth
Even if Jesus we suppose to have been born without the intervention of a male parent, this abnormality gives us no ground to consider him superior to those prophets who while doing immensely greater work was born in the ordinary course of nature.
Even Marys husband, a just man, was according to the Gospel determined to "put her away privately", had it not been for the vision he saw afterwards and thus even in his case it was the vision which satisfied him and not the conception, and therefore the vision, not the conception served the purpose of a miracle in his case.
The alleged extraordinary con.ception would now shift prophethood to the sons of Ishmael, the other great line of Abrahams descendants with whom the covenant was made.
Call it what we may, being brought into the world only through a woman - not the union of a man and woman - is no evidence of excellence. If this peculiar way of advent into life does not entitle a person to superiority, Adam must be held to be the most excellent human being, because he came into life without the agency of either parent.
The inference drawn from this question and answer is that a promise was given that she would conceive without a man ever touching her.
Luke shows clearly that Mary had other offspring besides Jesus.
Every woman who is married and lives with husband, in fact, guards her chastity and is for this reason that the Holy Quran speaks of married women as muhsanat or those guarding their chastity (Ch Tahrim).
The foundation of Christian religion rests on the assumption that sin was brought into the world by a woman. Where the mother is the more celebrated of the parents, it is only natural that her name should receive a preference.
The Jews in order to denounce Mary and her son, falsely accused her of adultery, and it is to this accusation that the Holy Quran refers and it is against this that the Holy Book defends Mary. The assertion that only unmarried woman could be accused of illicit intercourse is the strangest of all.
This verse lays down in the clearest and strongest words that all the prophets have foretold the advent of great World prophet and laid an obligation upon their followers to accept him, while he on his part required a belief in all the prophets that had gone before him.
The best minds in all the nations of the world, the greatest benefactors of the whole human race, whenever and wherever they lived received the cheering news.
Turn over the pages of all the sacred Scriptures of the world, you will find only One Book, the Quran, which requires a belief in all the previous revelations. Read over the history of all the great reformers of the world, you will find only one man, prophet Muhammad as who required his followers to accept all the prophets of the world.
Two prophecies (of Moses foretelling appearance of one like him and of Jesus giving the good news of the appearance of another Comforter who should be the last Prophet of the world and whose law should be a perfect Law guiding into all truth.
When was Abraham caLLED TO PROPHETHOOD? When did Moses and Aron receive the Divine message? One point is Christ being granted a book and prophethood in infancy. Great stress is laid upon this point as proving the undoubted superiority of Jesus to prophet Muhammed who was granted prophethood when he passed youth and reached almost an old age.
Giving of a book means there are certain teachings which he inculcates.
What shows the greatness of the Prophet is that first 40 years of his life were so well spent that they stand as an everlasting testimony to his truth, a circumstance lacking in the case of all other prophets including Jesus. So deeply rooted was the welfare of humanity in Prophets heart that even before he received the great Divine call, he spent the best hours of his life in giving relief to the poor.
This was before he was raised to the dignity of Prophethood. The 40 years of his life were spent, not in worldly experience, but in giving help to the poor, the weak and distressed.
Among all the reformers of the world, Muhammed as, occupies the highest position, because not a minute of his life was spent for any object other than service of humanity, in fact, he was a prophet from his childhood though he did not receive the call until 40 years of age.
Another circumstance which singles him out among the prophets of the world the fact that his righteousness was so great and perfect before he was called to the office of prophet, that not only did he not stand in need of being baptised by someone as Jesus was, but what is much more, the whole nation was fully convinced of his great and wonderful virtues, so deeply conscious of his truthfulness and righteousness, they gave him title al Amin. The 40 years of his life afford an evidence of the perfection of righteousness.
The Alleged Ascent to Heaven
A miracle loses its value if it is not performed publicly.
The Quran not in the least supports the theory of Jesus bodily ascent to heaven. It speaks of its rafa to Allah svt, exaltation in the presence of God. Never it mentions heaven in connection with his rafa. Al-Rafi means Exalter of the believer by prospering him.
Prayer between two prostrations: "O Allah, grant me protection and have mercy on me, guide me and grant me sustenance and exalt me" There are many sayings of the Prophet as regarding humbleness in which the word rafa is used always indicating exaltation of degrees.
The exaltation is brought in as a contrast with killing on the cross.
As regards the manner in which our Prophet was saved from the hands of his enemies, the chief point that distinguishes him from Jesus is that he never fell in their hands to be treated in a humiliating manner in which Jesus was treated, who, though saved from an accursed death on the cross, fell completely into enemy's hands that he was to resemble a man who actually met a death on the cross.
Even in the numerous battles that he had to fight, though many a time he was left alone among enemies who thirsted his blood, yet never was he actually overpowered by them.
Second Advent
Quran teaches us in plain words that prophethood was brought to perfection in the person of the Prophet as, and the work attached to the office of a prophet was completed in the revelation granted to him. Therefore as no work remains to be done, no prophet was needed, be he an old or new one. A prophet could only appear if there was any work for him.
The Messiah that appears among the Muslims must be one of themselves not an outsider, no prophet but an imam or a spiritual guide. So great was the spiritual power of the Prophet that not only did he bring about an immediate transformation of so great a magnitude that the transformation wrought by the reformers of the world dwindle into insignificance before it, but he also imparted that power to his followers in the same high degree so that even prophets have not been able to do what men,like Abu Bakr and Umar have done.
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