Bismika Alllahuma

Ibrahim N。 Abusharif

Bismillahi rahmani raheeem。

象所有的人，我被警告了关于血液和暴力，并且为它被支撑了。 但位关于英国下标一定滑倒了我的头脑。 我离开观看“基督激情”的一件意想不到的事是它的肯定耶稣未曾说出词“上帝”。 反而，他要求了使用是非常紧挨的名字的创作者什么I和其他穆斯林经常召唤，即，词“阿拉” (阿拉姆语词为上帝被意译作为“alaha”)。

广义上讲， “激情”，并且偷偷靠近它的争论，是非常长的奋斗的引伸为对耶稣(p)的生活和使命的叙事控制。 给讨论关于电影和它的主要字符是一份演讲在伙计之间在一个好奇连字号的两边在犹太教与基督教所共有的范围，当犹太教教士和犹太知识分子表现出他们的恐惧我们，美国公众的印象电影将启发反犹太主义和与否认那的基督徒。

这里反语是穆斯林完全保持平衡提供没人似乎谈论的看法。 什么“激情”在使变冷的成像描述了是，但一篇记叙文在数之中关于基督。 实际上， Gibson刻画了一“接受认同不少世纪基督(仅12个小时的将封为圣人的”记叙文它)，在耶稣居住之后和不享受公众舆论甚而在基督徒处所和奖学金的一个。

当问时，穆斯林将告诉您基督未派遣到模子，但是，象先知在他和先知Muhammad (p)之前在他以后，他被送居住和教。 简而言之，穆斯林说没有基督凶手，并且，因此，没有需要同任何人联系在一起那控告和没有需要造成任何人恐惧它。 什么发生在耶稣身上在他的生活的结尾是没有关于暴力，而是关于荣誉在激烈拒绝面前。 上帝培养了他的先知对他自己，因而饶恕施行在公开头脑里那么图解详述和印的Gibson的耶稣通过艺术和文化非常强有力的媒介。 This is a view that was also shared among some early Christian sects, like the Basilideans, who believed that Christ himself was never crucified.

To vilify Jesus and deny that he is one of God’s prophets and messengers is a cardinal sin in Islam, enough to disqualify one from the faith. To deify Jesus, however, is considered an affront to the primordial foundation of the religion project: the oneness of God and His sole divinity. The Muslim “middle” view here is not a self- conscious act of officiating a religious debate between Jews and Christians. Our understanding and beliefs regarding Christ are essentially identical to the beliefs we have about Noah(P) , Abraham(P) , Moses(P) and Muhammad(P) : all prophets, all humans, sent by God to teach humanity certain things that should keep us guided and clear in our very brief lives. If we are ever to be confused about something, let it not be about God and His divinity, and humankind and our humanity, especially as it pertains to our salvation quest. In Islamic theology, the human being is born pure, brought into this world in a state of grace. The concept of Original Sin is essentially homeless in our tradition. We inherit eye color and receding hairlines from our parents, not their wrongdoing. Forgiveness, pardoning, and mercy are of God’s essence, and He generously bestows them for the cool price of belief and sincerity.

In an important way, “The Passion” is an accidental expose about the religious sensitivities of our times, about a wounded spirituality that seems to require sensationalism to keep the faithful going. This is a point that men and women of religion may all agree upon and observe in their respective flocks. Mel Gibson unwittingly may have done a service in raising issues indigenous to the human spirit that the post-modern world seems to shun, issues about God, prophets, salvation, mercy, and hope. It is a vital conversation with divides and alliances, passions and perils, but a conversation that nonetheless can stand to hear the “middle” view that Islam naturally offers. Something of this view, in unavoidably brief fashion, now follows:

Muslims love and revere Jesus(P) , and believe in him as a Prophet and Messenger of God, a great teacher and guide for people. But Muslims do not believe that Jesus was God or the Son of God. Nor do Muslims believe that he was slain on the cross, as some early sects of Christians had once believed. Jesus was sent to the Children of Israel to revive faith and a spiritual connection with God. All the miracles that Jesus performed were indeed true: raising the dead, healing the blind and the leper, and more. These miracles, however, occurred through the auspices of God’s power and will, as it was with the splitting of the sea for Moses(P), Solomon(P) understanding the utterances of animals, and many other suspensions of the natural order. God is the Creator, and when He determines something, He but says to it “Be” and it is! (as the Qur’⮠states). Muslims venerate Mary, the mother of Jesus(P) . She indeed gave birth to Jesus though she was a virgin. She was a spiritual woman who was chosen among her people to the office of special contemplation and prayer. But Muslims do not hold her to be the “mother of God” and similar attributes. She too was fully human and was a beloved and important person in a remarkable series of miracles in a special time in human history. Every biology and miracle, the explainable and the inexplicable, whether it is the creation of Adam(P) from clay or the conception of any given child of two parents, goes back to God. It is all the same to Him. All of it easy. All of it His.

In Islamic parlance, Jesus(P) is known by the venerable titles of “Word” and “Spirit,” since the Qur’an tells us that God cast the “word” or “spirit” upon Mary, the Mother of Jesus:

“Indeed, the angels said: ‘O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, illustrious in this world and the Hereafter, and he shall be among those brought near [to God]. He will speak to humankind in the cradle and in manhood, and he is of the righteous.” (Qur’an 3:45)

Also, the Qur’an states:

“The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was but a Messenger of God, and His word which He conveyed to Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him.” (Qur’an 4:171)

“And indeed God gave Moses the Book [Torah], and after him We sent Messengers in succession. We gave Jesus son of Mary clear proofs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit [Angel Gabriel].” (Qur’an 2:87)

The thought life of a Muslim with regard to all the prophets is best summed by the following verse of the Qur’an:

“Say [O believers]: “We believe in God and [the Book] sent down to us, and what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes; and what was given to Moses and Jesus and what was given to [all] the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him do we surrender ourselves.” (Qur’an 2:136)

Ibrahim N. Abusharif is a Chicago-area writer and editor of Starlatch Press. He can be contacted via e-mail at starlatch@hotmail.com. Republished with permission from the author.