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THE
MESSIANIC MISSION ATTRIBUTED TO
JESUS
CHRIST TOWARD THE END OF TIME
Some of
the first converts to Islam were subjected to the severest
persecutions in Makka. They bore them patiently and never
thought of retaliation, as the Quran ordered the Prophet
Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, to call unbelievers
to the way of God with wisdom and fair preaching and advised
him to repel the evil with what was better and to respond to
the sins and faults of his enemies with forbearance and
forgiveness. Eventually the intolerance of the Makkan
polytheists compelled the Muslims to abandon their homes and
property in Makka and emigrate to Madina where they could live
according to their beliefs, and where the full social and
legal dimensions of Islam could evolve in peace. But the
hostility of the Makkans continued and in Madina itself, the
Muslims became the target of Jewish conspiracies. Also, since
the Helpers, the native believers of Madina, had to share,
although willingly, everything they had with their emigrant
brothers, all the Muslims suffered privations.
In such
strained circumstances, God Almighty permitted them, because
they had been wronged and driven from their homes unjustly, to
fight against their enemies.
The
Battle of Badr was the first major confrontation of the
Muslims with the enemy forces. Although outnumbered, the
believers won a great victory. Until then-if we do not accept
the opinions of some interpreters of the Quran that sura
Muhammad, which contains regulations about how to treat
prisoners of war, was revealed before sura al-Anfal-no
Divine commandment had been revealed about how the captives
should be treated. The Muslims did not even know whether they
were to kill the enemy on the battlefield or take them as
prisoners. After the battle the Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, consulted, as he always did where there was no
specific Divine commandment, with his Companions on this
question. Abu Bakr said:
O
God’s Messenger! They are your people. Even though
they did you and the believers great wrong, you will win
their hearts and cause their guidance if you forgive
them and please them.
However,
‘Umar gave this opinion:
O
God’s Messenger! The prisoners of war are the leading
figures of Makka. If we kill them, unbelief will no
longer be able to recover to encounter us. So, hand over
to each of the Muslims his kin among them. Hand over to
‘Ali his brother ‘Aqil to kill. Let Abu Bakr kill
his son, ‘Abd al-Rahman, and ....[so on].
God’s
Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, turned to Abu Bakr
and said:
You
are, O Abu Bakr, like the Prophet Abraham, upon him be
peace, who said: ‘He who follows me is of me, and
he who disobeys me-but You are indeed Oft-Forgiving,
Most Compassionate’ (Qur’an, 14.36). You are
also like Jesus, who said: ‘If You punish them,
they are Your servants. If You forgive them, You are the
All-Mighty, the All-Wise’ (Qur’an, 5.118).
Then
he turned to ‘Umar and said:
O
‘Umar! You are like Noah, who said: ‘O my Lord!
Leave not even a single unbeliever on earth!’ (Qur’an,
71.26). You are also like Moses, who said (of Pharaoh
and his chieftains]: ‘Our Lord, destroy their
riches and harden their hearts so that they will not
believe until they see the painful chastisement.’
(Qur’an, 10. 88).
Man
and religion
The
episode just mentioned above from the early history of Islam
illustrates an important aspect of the nature of man in
relation to the mission of Prophethood and religion in man’s
life.
Man is
a ‘tripartite’ being composed of the spirit, the carnal
self and the body. These three elements are so closely
interrelated that neglecting one results in failure to achieve
perfection. Man has accordingly been endowed with three
essential faculties, namely the spiritual intellect, reason
and will. During his life-time, man experiences a continual
inner struggle to choose between good and evil, right and
wrong. The motor of this struggle is the will, as directed by
reason. However, human reason can be swayed by carnal desires,
personal feelings, interests and such emotions as anger and
rancor, so it needs as its guide the spiritual intellect. The
spiritual intellect, including conscience, is the source of
moral values and virtues.
Historically
it is the Divinely-revealed religions that have determined
what is right and wrong on the authority of their Revealer,
namely God, and of the character of the Prophets who conveyed
first Revelation.
Because
of his worldly nature, man can be too obedient a servant of
his lusts. When such men as are captive to their lusts gain
enough power to rule over their fellows, they light fires of
oppression on the earth and reduce the poor and the weak to
slaves or servants. Human history is full of such instances.
However, as God is All-Just and never approves oppression, He
sent His Prophets in certain phases of that history in order
to guide and correct the individual and collective life of
mankind. All of the Prophets came with the same doctrine, the
fundamentals of which are believing in One God, Prophethood,
the Resurrection, Angels, Divine Scriptures and Divine Destiny
and worshipping God. All of the Prophets also conveyed the
same moral principles. In this sense, all the Divine religions
are one and the same, but the flow of history through some
epochs varying in cultural, geographical, social and economic
conditions required different Prophets to be sent to each
nation and certain differences to be made in the acts and
forms of worship and in the subdivisions of the law-until such
time as these conditions allowed that the Seal of the
Prophets, the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and
blessings, could be sent and the religion completed so that,
in its essentials, it sufficed thenceforth to solve all the
problems humankind will encounter until the end of time and be
applicable in all conditions. (There is an important point to
be added in this connection. When a Prophet passed away, his
nation over time altered some of the principles of his
religion, borrowed some polytheistic elements from pagan
practices, and went astray, thus corrupting the Divine
religion. This historical fact was another reason for the
Prophets being sent one after the other over the course of
time).
Moses,
Jesus And Muhammad, upon
them be peace
Islam,
as the last, universal form of the Divine religion, orders its
followers to believe in all of the Prophets. Being a Muslim
also means being a follower of Jesus and Moses and of all the
other Prophets at the same time.
The Qur’an
declares:
The
Messenger (Muhammad) believes in what has been revealed
to him by his Lord, and so do the believers. They all
believe in God and His angels, His Scriptures and His
Messengers: ‘We make no distinction between any of His
Messengers’-and they say: ‘We hear and obey. Grant
us Your forgiveness, our Lord; to You is the journeying
(2.285).
Since,
due to their historical conditions, the messages of all the
previous Prophets were restricted to a certain people and
period, certain principles had prominence in those messages.
Also, God bestowed some special favors on each Prophet and
community according to the dictates of the time. For example,
Adam, upon him be peace, was favored with knowledge of the ‘names’,
that is, the keys to all branches of knowledge. Noah, upon him
be peace, was endowed with steadfastness and perseverance.
Abraham, upon him be peace, was honored with intimate
friendship with God and being the father of numerous Prophets.
Moses, upon him be peace, was given the capability of
administration and exalted through being the direct addressee
of God, and Jesus, upon him be peace, was distinguished with
patience, tolerance and compassion. All the Prophets have,
however, some share in the praiseworthy qualities mentioned,
but each of them surpasses, on account of his mission, the
others in one or more than one of those qualities.
When
the Prophet Moses was raised as a Prophet, the Israelites were
leading a wretched existence under the rule of the Pharaohs in
Egypt. Because of the despotic role and oppression of the
Pharaohs, slavery was ingrained in the souls of the Israelites
and had become a part of their character. In order to reform
them, to equip them with such lofty feelings and values as
freedom and independence, and to re-build their character and
free them from subservience to the Pharaohs, the Prophet
Moses, upon him be peace, came with a message containing stern
and rigid rules and measures. This is why the Book given to
Moses was called the Torah, meaning Law. Again, as a
requirement of his mission, the Prophet Moses, upon him be
peace, was a reformer and educator of somewhat unyielding and
stern character. Therefore, it was quite natural for him to
pray in reference to Pharaoh and his chieftains: ‘Our Lord,
destroy their riches and harden their hearts so that they will
not believe until they see the painful chastisement.’
In the
time when Jesus came, the Israelites had abandoned themselves
to worldly pleasures and led a materialistic life. The Qur’an
(9.34) states that not only the common people but also, and
more so, the rabbis and scribes consumed the goods of others
in vanity and barred people from God’s way. They exploited
religion for worldly advantage:
You
see many of them vying in sin and enmity and how they
consume the unlawful; evil is the thing they have been
doing. Why do the masters and rabbis not forbid them to
utter sin, and consume the unlawful? Evil is the thing
they have been doing
(Qur’an, 5.62-3).
A
similar sentiment is to be found in the Gospels, attributed to
Jesus:
You
snakes-how can you say good things when you are evil.
For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good
person brings good things out of his treasure of good
things; a bad person brings bad things out of his
treasure of bad things (Matthew, 12.34-5).
Take
care: be on your guard against the yeast of the
Pharisees and Sadducees. The teachers of the law and the
Pharisees are the authorized interpreters of Moses’
Law. So you must obey and follow everything they tell
you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions,
because they don’t practice what they preach. They tie
onto people’s backs loads that are heavy and hard to
carry, yet they aren’t willing even to lift a finger
to help them carry those loads. They do everything so
that people will see them. . . They love the best places
at feasts and the reserved seats in the synagogues; they
love to be greeted with respect in the market-places and
to have people call them ‘Teacher’. . . How terrible
for you, teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. You
hypocrites. . . You give to God one tenth of the
seasoning herbs, such as mint, dill and cumin, but you
neglect to obey the really important teachings of the
Law, such as justice and mercy and honesty. These you
should practice, without neglecting the others (Matthew:
Chapters 23, 13, and 12).
When
Jesus, upon him be peace, was sent to the Israelites, the
spirit of the Religion had been dwindled away and the Religion
itself reduced to a device for its exponents to rob the common
people. So, before proceeding to put the Law into effect,
Jesus concentrated on faith, justice, mercy humility, peace,
love, repentance for one’s sins and begging God’s
forgiveness, helping others, purity of heart and intention and
sincerity:
Happy
are those who know they are spiritually poor: The
Kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
Happy
are those who mourn: God will comfort them.
Happy
are those who are humble: They will receive what God
promised.
Happy
are those whose greatest desire is to do what God
requires: God will satisfy them fully.
Happy
are those who are merciful to others: God will be
merciful to them.
Happy
are the poor in heart: They will see God. (Matthew:
5.3-10).
As for
the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, he has
all the qualities mentioned above, except being the father of
Prophets, and in addition, he has, because of the universality
of his mission, the distinction of being like Moses, upon him
be peace, in that he is a warner and established a Law and
fought with his enemies, and like Jesus, upon him be peace, in
that he is a bringer of good news who preached mercy,
forgiveness, helping others, altruism, humility, sincerity,
purity of intention and moral values of the highest degree. We
should remember that the Quran declares that God sent the
Prophet Muhammad as a mercy for the whole of creation. Again,
Islam presents God, before all other Attributes and Names, as
the All-Merciful and the All-Compassionate. This means God
mainly manifests Himself as the All-Merciful and
All-Com-passionate and His wrath and punishment are only
accidental. That is, it is man himself who attracts God’s
wrath because of his sins and wrongdoing. But God is the
All-Forgiving and He forgives most of the sins of His
servants:
Whatever
misfortune befalls you, is for what your own hands have
earned and for many (of them) He grants forgiveness.
(Qur’an, 42.30)
The
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, had the
mission of both Moses and Jesus. It is evident from the
historical episode we mentioned at the beginning of this
article that among the leading Companions, while Abu Bakr
represented the ‘mission of Jesus’, ‘Umar (may God be
pleased with them both) stood for the ‘mission of Moses’.
Since Islam must prevail to the end of time, it requires its
followers to act, according to circumstances, sometimes as
Moses and sometimes as Jesus, upon them be peace.
The
Messianic mission of Jesus Christ toward the end of time
We see
in the reliable books of Hadith many sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, that the Prophet
Jesus will come back to the world before the end of time and
practice the law of Islam. Although those Traditions have so
far been interpreted in different ways, it cannot be wrong to
interpret them as meaning that, before the end of time, Islam
must manifest itself mostly in that dimension of it
represented by Jesus. That is, the main aspects of the
Messengership of Jesus must be given prominence in preaching
Islam. These aspects are:
Jesus
always traveled. He never stayed in one place, he preached his
message on the move. Therefore, in order to preach Islam, the
‘missionaries’ of Islam must travel or emigrate from place
to place. They must be ‘the repentant, the worshippers, the
travelers (in devotion to the cause of Islam and to convey
it), the bowers, the prostraters, the commanders of good and
the forbidders of evil, and the observers of God’s limits.’
For them there is good news (Quran, 9.112).
Second,
mercy, love, and forgiveness had the first place in Jesus’
mission. He was a bringer of good news. Therefore, those who
have dedicated themselves to the cause of Islam must give
prominence to mercy, love, and forgiveness and, never
forgetting that the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and
blessings, was sent as a mercy for all the worlds, for the
whole of existence, they must convey good news to every place
and call people to the way of God with wisdom and fair
exhortation. They must never be repelling. The world today
needs peace more than at any time in history, and most of the
problems of the modern world arise from excessive worldliness,
scientific materialism and the ruthless exploitation of
nature. Everyone talks so much today of the danger of war and
the pollution of air and water that peace and ecology are the
most fashionable words on people’s tongues. But the same
people wish to remove those problems through further conquest
and domination of nature. The problem lies in rebelling
against Heaven and in the destruction of the equilibrium
between man and nature as a result of the modern materialistic
conception of, and corrupt attitude toward, man and nature.
Most people are reluctant to perceive that peace within human
societies and with nature is possible through peace with the
spiritual order. To be at peace with the earth one must be at
peace with the spiritual dimension of one’s existence and
this is possible by being at peace with Heaven.
In the
Quran, Jesus introduces himself as follows:
I
am indeed a servant of God. . . He has commanded me to
pray and to give alms as long as l live. And He has made
me dutiful to my mother and has not made me oppressive,
wicked.
(79.31-2)
This
means, from the viewpoint of Jesus’ promised mission toward
the end of time, children will not be dutiful to their
parents. Therefore, the ‘missionaries’ of Islam in our age
must, besides performing their prayers accurately and helping
the poor and needy, be very careful about showing due respect
to their parents and elders. The Quran enjoins: Your Lord has
decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you show
kindness to your parents. If either or both of them attain old
age with you, (show no sign of impatience, and) do not even
say ‘uff’ to them; nor rebuke them, but speak kind
words to them (17.23).
One of
Jesus’ miracles was healing diseases and reviving the dead
by leave of God, that is, respect for life was very important
in his message. The Quran attaches the same degree of
importance to life and regards one who kills a man wrongly as
if he had killed all mankind, while, on the other hand, one
who saves a life is as if he had saved the life of all
mankind. So, those who have dedicated themselves to the cause
of Islam must attach the utmost importance to life and
therefore try to prevent wars, find cures for illnesses and
know that reviving a person spiritually is more important than
healing diseases. The Quran declares:
O
you who believe! Respond to God and the Messenger, when
the Messenger calls you to that which will give you life.
(8.24)
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