Bismika Alllahuma

I secoli di confronto con l'ovest cristiano sono seguito entro un periodo del missionario che intenso l'attività, che ancora continua in determinate regioni del mondo islamico nelle nuove forme, ha generato fra alcuni musulmani contemporanei un'avversione non solo a Christianity ma, nel caso di alcuni dei codici categoria modernizzati, anche alla concezione islamica di Christ e di Mary. In risposta all'attacco aggressivo fatto su Islam da tante fonti cristiane durante i musulmani modernizzati passati e sicuri hanno provato a dimenticare o spingere nei precedenti gli insegnamenti liberi di Islam riguardo a Christianity. Ci sono stati reazioni ancor più estreme fra i musulmani dell'indiano subcontinent. Di conseguenza, hanno generato un Christology in determinati quarti cioè per dire il minimi, completamente rimosso dagli insegnamenti islamici tradizionali sull'oggetto.

In questa esposizione corta è non con tali reazioni recenti ma con gli insegnamenti islamici tradizionali riguardo a Jesus che ci interesseremo. Potrebbe sembrare unconvincing ai cristiani sicuri che l'Islam desse una tal importanza sul ruolo di Jesus, ma capire la prospettiva totale di Islam questa enfasi è di importanza. Inoltre, in secularised il mondo dell'oggi che potrebbe essere di comodità spiritosa per i cristiani, besieged da un atmosfera corrosivo che le ricerche per mangiare via i tendini e le ossa stessi della religione, si rendono conto che milioni di musulmani su terra testimoniano il all'origine Divine di Christianity e di revere il relativo fondatore, anche se naturalmente in una prospettiva differente.

L'Islam non accetta l'idea di incarnation o del rapporto filial. Nella relativa prospettiva, Jesus il figlio di Mary, il ibn Maryam di Isa del `, era un prophet importante e un palo spiritoso della tradizione intera di Abrahamic, ma non un Dio-uomo o il figlio del dio. Tuttavia, la sua nascita miraculous da una madre vergine, che in effetti si riferisce a �n in Qur' come la donna scelta soprattutto le altre donne del mondo, è accennata esplicitamente. Così è il fatto che era `lo spirito del dio' (ruhallah). La sua funzione speciale come il bringer di un senso spiritoso piuttosto che una legge religiosa è inoltre di base agli insegnamenti islamici. Il �n di Qur', tuttavia, non accetta che crucified, ma dichiara che è stato preso direttamente a 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.