Differences between the Issa of Muslim Scripture and the Jesus of Christianity

The Qur'an by claiming to be a miracle and the direct and exact and written speech of
God is claiming to supersede even any prophet in its pages and even Muhammad
himself. That is what is alluded to when the Muslim creed says that Muhammad is
the messenger of God. Its really about the message rather than Muhammad. This is
in conflict with how the New Testament does not go that far with its claim to divine
inspiration and how Jesus wrote nothing but yet claimed to be the way and the truth
and the life. If Jesus is the truth despite being only known by what others wrote about
him that is an attack on books like the Qur'an. So even if Jesus is on the pages of the
Qur'an, it is the Qur'an that matters not him. God notably did not even use Jesus to
deliver the Qur'an. He used Gabriel the Angel.

Jesus was defined by claiming to be the perfection of religion and giving the faith that
is once and for all given and which is the same in doctrine and morals forever. The
Qur'an 5:3 says that Islam is the perfect religion thanks to God speaking to
Muhammad, "This day, I have made your religion perfect for you."

The Dome of the Rock has this text inscribed.

"Do not exaggerate in your religion, no utter aught concerning Allah but the truth.
The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah". Its very simple,
Jesus was only an inspired man.

The book never calls Jesus a Jew. Its Messiah is not Jesus Christ.

Critical scholars say that the Qur'an has borrowed from legends and the Bible.
This is blasphemous if it is true that Allah knows what the truth is and does not take
information from human beings.

Qur'an 6:25 and 8:31 has Allah noting that when people hear the Qur'an they think
they already heard it and its a rehash of what the ancients said and believed.
So Qur'an denies that it is informed by any other scripture. They may have truth but
that does not matter for we need Qur'an to identify what is true. It is Qur'an not the
New Testament and certainly not Jesus of Nazareth.

Qur'an talks about the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians but it does not say it
agrees with the lists of books that Jews and Christians of its day have.
Sura 2:136 is clear

Say (O, Muslims): “We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us, and in
what has been revealed to Ibrāhīm, Ismā‘īl (Ishmael), IsHāq (Isaac), Ya‘qūb and his
children, and in what has been given to Mūsā and ‘Īsā (Jesus?) and what has been
given to the prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between any of them,
and to Him we submit ourselves.”

This is important for it makes it about Allah not them. They only matter for Allah
gave them revelations. And as there is no difference between them if you have what
was revealed to some of them and enough of it it does not matter if Jesus is left out.
Now, nobody claims to know exactly what was revealed to say Ishmael. The text
only affirms faith in what they were told but does not claim to know the content. The
implication is that even if you don't know it does not matter for its in the Qur'an
anyway.

Qur'an 3:49 and 5:110 claim that Issa thought to be Jesus was able to turn clay bird
statues inro real living birds. The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus gives an
account of the child Jesus and other boys as making clay animals. Jesus makes them
live and the parents then ban the other children from playing with this "sorcerer". The
gospel presents Jesus as doing silly miracles and even spiteful ones. Qur'an may be
seen as saying it is a coincidence that the gospel got this legend and there is a grain of
truth in it and that it shows Issa was not sinless and wasted his powers.

The word Jesus means saviour. The Qur'an has Issa, the name is not Jesus. Some
however claim that he is Jesus. But even if he were he would be only vaguely Jesus.
He differs so much he may as well be considered a different person. Issa cannot mean
saviour for the Qur'an is clear he could save nobody and did not die on the cross for
sins for he was never crucified. Issa does not mean saviour anyway and is more like
Esau or Isaiah.

Qur'an 33:36 says that there is no right to choose to believe anything that is not
authorised by Allah through Muhammad. This makes Muhammad the interpreter of
Issa's mission not Issa. The real authority is Muhammad.

Qur'an 2:23 says that if you doubt Muhammad is a prophet then try to invent a
revelation from God similar to what he did. The idea is that you cannot. It is clear
that nobody even before Muhammad could do that. So Muhammad is the zenith of
the prophets and no other prophet gave the word like he could. Jesus cannot validate
Muhammad. Muhammad validates Jesus assuming Issa really is Jesus. Muhammad
is denying that any other scripture in the world be it Old Testament or New or
whatever is valid. To cast out the New Testament is the same as casting out its
version of Jesus.

As Melanie Phillips tells us in The World Turned Upside Down, "Unlike Judaism and
Christianity, which teach that divine intentions are revealed through a historical
process of interrogation and discovery, Islam holds that sacred doctrines are fixed in
time by Mohammed, with no further development possible." Issa then cannot mean
much either. Only what Mohammed thought of him does.

ISSA'S SPIRITUAL COMPASS

In May 2019, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, formerly of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith explained how the meaning of prayer for a Muslim and a Christian is too
different and we must not pretend that both can pray like each other or with each
other. One point he made is that the Christian prays like a child of God and the
Muslim prays only as King Allah’s subject. The Christian prays to line up to the will
of God and that God will help but this involves consent and liberty. The Christian
chooses to obey God and this is best seen as a free choice and not as a subjugation or
enslavement. While Christians see faith not as a list of beliefs but as a relationship
with God, a friendship, the Muslim sees faith as just a natural thing like believing that
the moon is round. Faith is not a gift of God, the gift of a relationship with God.
The Muslim approach totally contradicts the gospel Jesus who claimed to save us and
part of that saving is about giving us God as Daddy and friend in a free two way
relationship based on faith which is not of human origin but implanted in you by a
miracle of God's grace.

As a prophet of Allah, Issa would have agreed with calling the Jews who broke the
Sabbath, "Be apes and hated." See Qur'an 2:65. Issa then was not Jesus who was
accused constantly of disrespecting the Sabbath.

The Bible says that death is caused by sin and God opposes death and hates it and
never wills anybody to die. Jesus supposedly rose to put his stamp on that message.
So any other religion simply has to say God sets up death and kills people. This shows
that Islam is inherently extremist and pro-violence. Even if it never hurts anybody any
other way it hurts and degrades them with such a teaching. Jesus said such a God is
the devil and in the gospel of John calls the devil a murderer for getting humanity to
sin and sin causes death.

ISHMAEL

Abraham had a dream making him think he needed to sacrifice his son to God
according to the Qur'an. Islamic belief says the son in question was Ishmael. The
Bible says Isaac. Does it matter?

The Catholic Mass speaks of the sacrifice of Abraham referring to the sacrifice of
Isaac. This event is important for it started a covenant between God and the children
of Israel in the form of Abraham. The covenant includes Jesus and paves the way for
his covenant mission and role as Messiah assuming Jesus really was Messiah!

The Qur’an says the child that was offered to God was possibly Ishmael. There is no
name but we don’t know so far if it was Isaac or not. But we know from tradition and
the importance of Ishmael to Islam that it was Ishmael. This is important for it would
mean the covenant with Isaac is untrue and the role of Jesus based on it is a
fabrication. The Jesus of the Bible and the alleged Jesus of the Qur’an differ on a
major thing, the covenant. Jesus based himself on the Jesus role. I mean he called
himself Saviour. Jesus is a role name to him though it is his personal name. This role
is linked to the covenant with Abraham so much that to discard the link amounts to
having a non-Jesus.

So the Catholic Mass denies that the Jesus of the Qur’an is Jesus and calls the book a
liar when it says it is the dictated word of God for it is wrong about Ishmael. The
Mass is islamaphobic by todays standards.

MOTHER OF ISSA

Mary is the mother of Issa in the Qur'an.

The Qur'an never puts Jesus in the first century which is the prime reason this man is
not Jesus.

The book is clear that it blasphemy to say Allah can have a son. Some say this is
about sperm but that is a lie. It rules out Allah having even an adopted son or any
kind of son.

The Qur’an thought that new life in the womb starts off as a clot of blood. There is no
way anybody would wonder if Allah could have a real son when that is how it is done.
Seed is not even used. Allah is not like the other gods and though he is spoken of as
male this does not imply anything like the potential to sexually reproduce. If the clot
was Mary’s then the Qur’an is saying that Issa was his mother's sex-changed clone.

ISSA NOT THE SON OF GOD

The Qur'an never calls him Jesus but Issa. This figure borrows from fables about
Jesus but is not Jesus. As Qur'an claims to be timeless scripture, the orthodox Muslim
view has to be that Christians stole elements from God's truth about Issa to invent a
Jesus. Islam has no problem admitting it if the Bible evidence is that Jesus claimed to
be God. That would mean Issa is not Jesus and Jesus is damned forever in Hell for its
the ultimate and unforgiveable sin of shirk to claim to be God.

Issa refers to himself as the slave of Allah not the son (Sura 19:30 and 4:171).

Whoever is guided is only guided for [the benefit of] his soul. And whoever errs only
errs against it. And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. And never
would We punish until We sent a messenger -Sura 17:15.

That attacks the Christian doctrine that the death of Jesus on the cross somehow made
up to God for our sins and atones for sin.

The following shows that nobody can argue, "Allah is just against the notion that he
can father a child as if he were a man. It has nothing to say on the Christian doctrine
that God is Father for the son is made out of his love and begotten that way. Is a
spiritual metaphor."

The text just keeps it simple. It is on about what Christians were saying which means
it DOES mean what they meant.

And they say, “The Most Merciful has begotten a son.” You have come up with
something monstrous. At which the heavens almost rupture, and the earth splits, and
the mountains fall and crumble. Because they attribute a son to the Most Merciful. It
is not fitting for the Most Merciful to have a son. There is none in the heavens and the
earth but will come to the Most Merciful as a servant. He has enumerated them, and
counted them one by one. And each one of them will come to Him on the Day of
Resurrection alone. Those who believe and do righteous deeds, the Most Merciful will
give them love. 19:88-96.

This clearly says that any notion of son being a metaphor for somebody who is not a
mere servant but like an adopted child of God is rubbish. Jesus' sonship is denied in
every sense. Jesus will not rise until the day of resurrection and his gospel of being
made fit for Heaven merely by repentance is false for God does not love you unless
you do enough good works.

The Church Jesus claimed to be equal to God in the sense that he could forgive sins. If
he was God's son that was one way he functioned as God's son. The Qur'an is clear
that nobody forgives sin but Allah: And those who, when they commit an indecency
or wrong themselves, remember God and ask forgiveness for their sins—and who
forgives sins except God? And they do not persist in their wrongdoing while they
know.

This quote from Allah contradicts Jesus' parable of the lost sheep: He thus cuts off a
section of those who disbelieved, or subdues them, so they retreat disappointed. It is
no concern of yours whether He redeems them or punishes them. They are
wrongdoers. Sura 3:127,128.

This may seem minor but it is not and changes what Jesus was totally about or
opposes it.

Sura 42:11 has Allah declare that nothing is as his likeness or like him. This is a
challenge to Jesus's statement that he was the image of God. The Bible stresses that
Jesus is the image of the unseen God.

Sura 61:6 says that Issa is a messenger of Allah who brings a gospel of one who is to
come after whose name is Praised One. That was all Issa was good for so it is no
wonder we read that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and the seal of the
messengers and prophets. See Sura 33:40.

Sura 7:11-12 says that the angel Satan was commanded by Allah to prostrate himself
before Adam the first man and would not do it which was why he was expelled from
Allah's presence. Satan said he was better than Adam. That was his sin of pride! So
Issa being parented by Gabriel is not a compliment! And Adam in a sense deserves
near-worship more than Issa does.

Another place has in mind the notion of any person being equal to God. Remember
that Christians speak of the Father as if he were God and of how the Son is equal to
God:

Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is between them. So worship Him, and
persevere in His service. Do you know of anyone equal to Him? And the human being
says, “When I am dead, will I be brought back alive?” Does the human being not
remember that We created him before, when he was nothing? By your Lord, We will
round them up, and the devils, then We will bring them around Hell, on their knees.
Sura 19:65-67.
The human being equal to God who expects to rise again is the Bible Jesus. Allah
threatens him with Hell...

ISSA WAS MARRIED

It was narrated from Sa’d bin Hisham that he came to the Mother of the Believers,
‘Aishah. He said: “I want to ask you about celibacy; what do you think about it?” She
said: “Do not do that; have you not heard that Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, says:
‘And indeed We sent Messengers before you, and made for them wives and
offspring’? So do not be celibate” (Sunan an-Nasa’i 3216).

As the Qur'an (65:4) says, it is okay to marry a child before she menstruates and even
divorce her. We don't know what age Issa's wife was. We can assume she may have
been a child if we want to. The divorce rule is that a woman who has stopped having
periods you can wait three months before divorcing her. And "for those who have no
monthly course of blood it is the same." It is true that the historical Jesus however
forbade child brides from divorcing their husbands even though they had no right to
anyway. He said a woman who divorces her husband is forcing him to commit
adultery.

THE UNIMPORTANCE OF ISSA

There is evidence that a figure some take to be Jesus was worshipped before he was
allegedly born. This Jesus was a god and like most gods was probably an invention. I
do not think this Jesus whose name is Issa is really Jesus Christ.

Even if he were, the Islamic creed denies gives him relative unimportance.

Issa is called faultless but so is John the Baptist (19:13). Thus it is best interpreted as
saying that a prophet is very good but not completely sinless. Qur'an says Muhammad
himself needs to repent! As there is no difference in the prophets according to Allah it
follows that Issa was not faultless in the absolute sense.

The revelation given by God through dictation in the Qur'an goes, "O People of the
Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth.
The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word
which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe
in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you.
Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs
whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as
Disposer of affairs."

“Believe in Allah and his messenger, and the Scripture which he hath sent to his
messenger and the Scripture which he sent to those before him. Any who denieth
Allah, his angels, his books, his messengers, and the Day of Judgment, hath gone far,
far astray.” (Q 4:136 The Holy Qur'an, tr. Yusuf Ali). Jesus is not even mentioned
while the New Testament makes Jesus central and the way and the truth and the
salvation. In practice, the revelation means considering only the Qur'an as pure and
any other scripture as corrupted so though it may have the word of God you need the
Qur'an to sort through the fog. In reality the only authority is the Qur'an. So as Jesus
virtually is the New Testament he is being rejected in favour of the Qur'an. Jesus is
equated with unknown prophets such as Hud, Salih, Shu‘aib. The idea is that there
would be no problem if Allah wrote in the Qur'an about Hud instead of Jesus!

In Qur'an 46:8-9 Muhammad says he brings no new doctrines and is only a warner
and revealer from God. He adds that “I know not what shall be done with me or with
you.” This refers to his ultimate fate – he is not sure if he is going to Heaven or Hell.
As Muhammad is claimed by the religion and the Qur'an to be the seal of the prophets
and the one who even Issa predicted as his superior and the greatest prophet of all, it
follows that if he is not sure of salvation and there are no guarantees then there is less
for Issa.

Muhammad is Islam and Islam is Muhammad. Qur'an 3:85 is clear that anybody who
wants to join a religion other than Islam will be a loser in the afterlife and get no
Heaven. This opposes the New Testament doctrine that fellowship with Jesus leads to
Heaven for Jesus is the only way to God in Heaven and alone is the truth.

EZRA SON OF GOD?

The Qur'an says in 9:30 that the Jews consider Ezra to be the son of God and that is
blasphemy. But it was obvious and common knowledge that the Jews were harshly
monotheistic. Nobody thinks the Qur'an is actually lying. The explanation is found in
how the book sees saying anybody is God's son in any sense, adopted or honorific is
blasphemy. Even Muhammad was not seen so much as a preacher of God but as the
one getting the dictated word of God so that the Qur'an had nothing to do with him
and he was merely Allah's instrument for delivering it. The religion is about avoiding
man's word passing for God's which is why God had to use the dictation method for
giving his word. Jesus did not use that method if the gospels are to be believed. That
eliminates him as an authority or son of God in any sense.

So the Qur'an God complains that the Jews honour Ezra as the Son of Allah and the
Christians honour Messiah as the Son. It says Allah fights them for such doctrines and
they are perverse and have taken as Lords besides Allah their rabbis and monks (Sura
9). It is clear from this that the problem is is saying somebody is the voice of God.
Ezra was never seen as anything other than a man and its true the Jews saw him as a
son of Allah like other men would have been. The warning is about how prophets can
be respected in themselves as holy men when they should be seen as mere
mouthpieces for God. Messiah and Ezra are put on the same footing. There is no
evidence that any Jews ever honoured Ezra as the Son of God. The Qur'an claims to
address the big issues not what any small sect was saying. So overall the evidence is
that it was opposing the Jewish veneration of Ezra instead of just caring about how he
gave the Jews the word of God.

ABROGATION

The Qur'an asserts the right to annul or abrograte the teaching of the likes of Issa. This
denies Jesus' assertion that he is the Truth and the Word and the Logos.

Never did We send a messenger or a prophet before thee, but, when he framed a
desire, Satan threw some (vanity) into his desire: but Allah will cancel anything (vain)
that Satan throws in, and Allah will confirm (and establish) His Signs: for Allah is full
of Knowledge and Wisdom -  see Qur'an 22:52.

Qur'an 9:29 cancels anything that commands peace towards the Church or the
Christians. The verse goes, Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day
and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful
and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture -
[fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.

Thus opposition to Christianity is enjoined. You can see that as self-defence or as

SURA 6

In Sura 6, Allah says if he sent a parchment down from Heaven with the Qur'anic text
on it the unbelievers would not believe and say it was sorcery. More relevantly right
now, he says if he sent an angel to them he would have have him as a man dressed as
a man and that would do nothing.

So Allah settles for having Muhammad dictate the word of God for there is no point
in anything more dramatic.

This denies the value of a man rising from the dead like Jesus to give revelations.

LAST

The name used is Issa in the Qur'an and though Issa has similarities to Jesus he is not
Jesus. We must remember that with certain religious figures you do have a lot of
broad similarities on average. Consider the popularity of dying and rising saviour
gods in the pagan world and the association with female deities and fertility. The
Qur'an is clear that Issa did not come for his own sake or message but to proclaim the
coming of Muhammad. Ecumenical people tell lies to make religions look more alike
than they are. Muhammad alone is claimed to have been able to get the dictated
wholly reliable word of God, the Qur'an, which is why he is the only prophet that is
really necessary assuming Islam is the true faith which it claims to be. Too much is
made of the claim that Jesus is a prophet of Islam - Islam is founded on Muhammad.
Let expert Muawiya who wrote in 651 AD have the last word, "Renounce your vain
religion, in which you have been brought up since infancy. Renounce this Jesus and
convert to the great God whom I serve, the God of our father Abraham. If not how
will this Jesus whom you call Christ, who was not even able to save himself from the
Jews, be able to save you from my hands?" This appears in a threatening letter to
Constantine the Bearded. We are not the first to oppose Issa and Jesus!

No wonder Pope Calixtus prayed in 1455, "Extirpate the diabolical sect of the
reprobate and faithless Mahomet in the East. For there the light of faith is almost
completely extinguished."

WORKS CONSULTED
Conspiracies and the Cross, Timothy Paul Jones, Front Line, A Strang Company,
Florida, 2008
The House of the Messiah, Ahmed Osman, Grafton, London, 1993
The Jesus Mysteries, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, Thorsons, London, 1999
The MythMaker, St Paul and the Invention of Christianity, Hyam Maccoby,
Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1986
The Nag Hammadi Library in English, Ed James M Robinson HarperCollins New
York 1990
The Pagan Christ, Tom Harpur, Thomas Allen Publishers, Toronto, 2004
Who Was Jesus? A Conspiracy in Jerusalem, by Kamal Salabi, I.B. Taurus and Co
Ltd., London, 1992
Who Was Jesus? NT Wright, SPCK, London, 1993