Bismika Alllahuma

Los siglos de la confrontación con el oeste cristiano siguieron por un período del misionario intenso que la actividad, que todavía continúa en ciertas regiones del mundo islámico en nuevas formas, ha creado entre algunos musulmanes contemporáneos una aversión no sólo al cristianismo pero, en el caso de algunas de las clases modernizadas, incluso al concepto islámico de Cristo y de Maria. En respuesta al ataque agresivo hecho sobre Islam por tan muchas fuentes cristianas durante los últimos, ciertos musulmanes modernizados han intentado olvidarse o empujar en el fondo de las enseñanzas claras del Islam referente a cristianismo. Ha habido reacciones aún más extremas entre los musulmanes del subcontinente indio. Consecuentemente, han creado un Christology en ciertos cuartos es decir, para decir el lo menos, quitado totalmente de las enseñanzas islámicas tradicionales en el tema.

En esta exposición corta está no con tales reacciones recientes sino con las enseñanzas islámicas tradicionales referentes a Jesús que nos referiremos. Puede ser que aparezca poco convincente a ciertos cristianos que el Islam pone tal énfasis sobre el papel de Jesús, pero entender la perspectiva total del Islam este énfasis está de significación. Por otra parte, en secularised el mundo de hoy que puede ser que esté de la comodidad espiritual para los cristianos, sitiada por una atmósfera corrosiva que las búsquedas para comer lejos los mismos tendones y huesos de la religión, realizan que millones de musulmanes en la tierra testimonian al origen divino del cristianismo y veneran a su fundador, aunque naturalmente en una diversa perspectiva.

El Islam no acepta la idea de la encarnación o de la relación filial. En su perspectiva, Jesús el hijo de Maria, ibn Maryam de Isa del `, era un profeta importante y un poste espiritual de la tradición entera de Abrahamic, pero no un Dios-hombre o el hijo del dios. ¿Sin embargo, su nacimiento milagroso de una madre virginal, quién de hecho se refiere en el Qur'? n como la mujer elegida sobretodo las otras mujeres del mundo, se menciona explícitamente. Está tan el hecho de que él era `el alcohol del dios' (ruhallah). Su función especial como el bringer de una manera espiritual más bien que una ley religiosa es también básicas a las enseñanzas islámicas. ¿El Qur'? n, sin embargo, no acepta que lo crucificaron, pero indica que le llevaron directamente al cielo. This is the one irreducible ‘fact’ separating Christianity and Islam, a fact which is in reality placed there providentially to prevent a mingling of the two religions. All the other doctrines, such as the question of the nature of Christ or the Trinity, can be understood metaphysically in such a way as to harmonise the two perspectives. The question of the death of Jesus is, however, the ‘fact’ that resists any interpretation which would be common to the Christian and Islamic views of the event. It could be said that this event was greater than any single description of it. In any case the meaning of the crucifixion and the idea of redemption it signifies are perhaps the most difficult of all aspects of Christianity for an ordinary Muslim to grasp.

The Prophet of Islam held Christians in special esteem and emphasised the function of Christ within Islam by referring to Christ’s second coming at the end of the world. Islamic eschatology, therefore, although not identical with the Christian, is related to the same central figure of Jesus. Through the eschatological role assigned to Jesus in Islam as well as the many references to him and the Virgin Mary in the Qur’?n, Jesus plays a role in the daily religious consciousness of Muslims equal to that of Abraham and following, of course, the role of the Prophet. Moreover, in Islamic esotericism he plays a major function to which the many writings of Sufis such as Ibn ‘Arabi, Rumi and Hafiz attest.

If the Qur’?nic description of Jesus is closely analysed, it will reveal Jesus as possessing three aspects, pertaining to the past, the present and the future, and corresponding respectively to his function of preserving the Torah, celebrating and perpetuating the Eucharist and announcing the coming of the Prophet of Islam. The Muslims interpret the perikletos (meaning “The Illustrious”) as parakletos (The Praised), which corresponds to one of the names of the Prophet of Islam, Ahmad (from the root h-m-d meaning “praise”). The Qur’an states:

‘And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel! Lo! I am the messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was (revealed) before me in the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose name is the Praised One (Ahmad)’ (LXI, 6)

For Muslims it is inconceivable that such a major religious manifestation as Islam should have been passed in silence by Christ, and they see in his announcement of the reign of the Paraclete a reference to the coming of Islam. His function in the future is in fact, as stated in the above Qur’?nic verse, to announce the coming of the Prophet of Islam and of course also to bring the present human cycle to its end.

In the traditional Islamic religious consciousness, Jesus joins with Moses and Abraham to represent the ternary aspect of the monotheistic tradition whose summation is to be found in the Prophet of Islam. In this perspective, Abraham represents faith, Moses law and Christ the spiritual way. The Prophet of Islam as the final Prophet, ‘the seal of prophecy’, is the synthesis of all these aspects. Also in the same way that the Prophet is the ’seal of prophecy’ Christ is considered by most Sufis as the ’seal of sanctity’ in the Abrahamic tradition. There is in fact a special type of ‘Christic wisdom’ (hikmah ‘isawiyyah) within Islam, consisting of elements of inwardness, anteriority and a kind of Divine elixir or nectar which can be seen in certain forms of Sufism. Moreover, this wisdom as well as the spiritual personality of Jesus are closely related to the Virgin, and the Qur’?n refers to the two as a single reality. It states, for instance,

‘And We (Allah) made the Son of Mary and his mother to be a (miraculous) sign’ (XXVI, 50)

Despite differences which exist, and which in fact must exist if each religion is to preserve its own spiritual genius and authenticity, the Islamic conception of Jesus provides a firm basis for an understanding of Christianity by Muslims if they only refrain from reacting to the intimidations caused by modern attacks against Islam and return to a close study of their own traditional sources. But this conception can also aid Christians to grasp better what Islam really means to those who breathe within the universe it has brought into being. Perhaps the Islamic conception of Christ can serve as a basis for a better understanding of Islam on behalf of Christianity. It could enable Christians to realise that the sun of their spiritual world which they so love is also a shining star in the firmament of another world and plays an important role in the religious and spiritual economy of another human collectivity.

This article was taken from its online version and edited accordingly.