;g5r^v OF pmc^ 
 
 ^"^^OGitAl Sl!A^^ 
 
 BP 134. J37 Z9 1912 
 Zwemer, Samuel M. 
 The Moslem Christ 
 
THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
MAY 10 1913 
 
 ^Smm 
 
 st^ 
 
 ## 
 
 THE 
 MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 An Essay on the Life, 
 Character, and Teachings of 
 Jesus Christ according to the 
 Koran and Orthodox Tradition 
 
 BY 
 
 / 
 
 SAMUEL M. ZWEMER 
 
 D.D., F.R.G.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the MOSLEM DOCTRINE OF GOD " "ARABIA 
 
 THE CRADLE OF ISLAM" "ISLAM, A CHALLENGE 
 
 TO FAITH" ETC. 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK 
 
TO 
 
 Sames Canttne 
 
 PIONEER MISSIONARY, YOKE-FELLOW AND FRIEND 
 FOR TWENTY YEARS IN ARABIA 
 
" Who, tliinkest thou, might that have been, con- 
 ceived without an earthly father, and to whom at His 
 birth Satan could find no way of approach ? 
 
 "Who could that have been, named in the Koran 'The 
 Word of God and a Spirit from Him ' ; called also in the 
 Sunnat ' The Spirit of God ' ? For what Being, one 
 would ask, could be greater than the Spirit of God ? 
 
 " Who could that have been who, we are told, spoke to 
 those around Him while yet in the cradle ? Who, that 
 could, as Beidhawi explains, give life to the dead and 
 to the hearts of men {i.e. to their bodies and to their 
 spirits) ; who other than the Almighty and the Holy 
 Ghost ? " — From the Minar ul Haqq (An Apology for the 
 Christian Faith), p. 159. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ISLAM is the only ODe of the great non- 
 GhristiaD religions which gives a place to 
 Christ in its book, and yet it is also the only one of 
 the non-Christian religions which denies His deity, 
 His atonement, and His supreme place as Lord of 
 all in its sacred literature. In none of the other 
 sacred books of the East is Christ mentioned ; 
 the Koran alone gives Him a place, but does it 
 by displacing Him. With regret it must be ad- 
 mitted that there is hardly an important fact 
 concerning the life, person, and work of our 
 Saviour which is not ignored, perverted, or denied 
 by Islam. 
 
 Yet Moslems acknowledge Jesus Christ as a 
 true prophet, and no less than three of the chap- 
 ters of the Koran, namely, that of Amrans 
 Family (Surah III), that of The Table (Surah V), 
 and that of Mary (Surah XIX), are so named 
 because of references to Jesus Christ and His 
 work. The very fact that Jesus Christ has a 
 
 7 
 
8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 place in the literature of Islam, and is acknow- 
 ledged by all Moslems as one of their prophets, 
 in itself challenges comparison between Him and 
 Mohammed, and affords an opportunity for the 
 Christian missionary to ask every sincere Moslem, 
 " What think ye of the Christ ? " This is still 
 the question that decides the destiny of men 
 and of nations. To help our Moslem brethren 
 answer this question, however, we must know 
 what Moslems believe in regard to Christ, and 
 lead them up to higher truth by admitting 
 all of the truth which they possess. Not our 
 ignorance, but our accurate knowledge of the 
 Moslem Christ, will enable us to show forth the 
 glory and the beauty of the Christ revealed in 
 the New Testament to those who ignorantly 
 honour Him as a mere prophet. 
 
 Moreover, at a time when the study of other 
 religions is so common, it must be of interest to 
 all Christians to know what .two_ hundred million 
 Moslems think of their Lord and Saviour, and to 
 compare His portrait taken from the Koran and 
 later Moslem literature with that given in the 
 Gospels. 
 
 This volume, as in the case of my earlier essay 
 on The Moslem Doctrine of God, is based entirely 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 on the Koran, the commentators, and orthodox 
 tradition. The Koran text quoted is from 
 Palmer's translation {Sacred Books of the 
 East, vols. vi. and ix. Oxford, 1880), together 
 with references to the three standard commen- 
 taries of Beidhawi, Zamakhshari, and Jellalain. 
 For Moslem tradition in regard to Jesus Christ, 
 the references will be found in the Bibliography, 
 but I have specially used a standard work on the 
 subject, and, in fact, the only popular work I 
 know which gives a connected account of the 
 life of Jesus Christ according to Moslem sources, 
 namely, Kitab Kusus al Anbiali (also called 
 Al 'Ara'is), by Abu Ishak Ahmad bin Mohammed 
 bin Ibrahim Eth-Thalabi, a doctor of theology of 
 the Shafi school, who died 427 a.h. (a.d. 1036). 
 Eth-Thalabi, the author of the work men- 
 tioned, is thus described in Ibn Khallikan's 
 Dictionary of Biography (vol. i. p. 22) : " He 
 was the first of his age in the science of 
 interpretation, and wrote the great commentary 
 which is superior to many others. He also wrote 
 the book called Kusus-al-Anbiah and other 
 books. It is related that Abu Kasim el Kashiri 
 said, 'I saw the Lord Most Mighty in a dream, 
 and He was talking with me, and I was talking 
 
10 INTRODUCTION 
 
 with Him. And the Lord said, " The man of good 
 character has approached " ; and I looked and, 
 behold, Eth-Thalabi was approaching.' " His 
 work is found in MS. in several of the libraries 
 of Europe, and was printed at Cairo, 1293, 1306, 
 1308, 1310, 1325 a.h., and at Bombay, 1306 a.h. 
 I have used the latest Cairo edition. 
 
 I have also compared the account of Jesus 
 Christ given in Bihle de V Islam by E. Lam- 
 airesse, a French translation of Mirkhond's 
 Rauzat-as-Safa (Paris, 1894) and the Arabic 
 text found in Akhhar ad Duwal wa AtJiar al 
 Awwal by the historian Abu '1 'Abbas al Qara- 
 mani, who was born in a.d. 1532 and died 1611. 
 Neither adds much to the fuller biography of 
 Eth-Thalabi. Except for C. F. Gerock's Versuch 
 einer Darstellung der Christologie des Koran 
 (Gotha, 1839), and a more recent French work, 
 Jesus -Christ d'apres Mahomet par Edouard 
 Sayous (Paris, 1880), both limited to the Koran 
 and not giving the traditional accounts, I do not 
 know of any treatise on the subject in the 
 languages of the West ; nor have I been able to 
 trace anywhere in Moslem literature a monograph 
 on Jesus Christ as the last of the prophets be- 
 fore Mohammed's advent. 
 
INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 The question may well be raised concerning 
 the sources of Mohammed's information. How 
 and from whom did he learn of Jesus Christ? 
 Whatever may have been the condition of 
 Christianity in Arabia, there is no doubt that 
 he came in contact with it all through his life.^ 
 One of the chief stories he must have heard 
 from his boyhood days was that of the Christian 
 invasion from the south and the defeat of 
 Abraha's troops. Later in life he went to 
 Syria, met the monks, and also passed through 
 the territory of the Christian tribes in north 
 Arabia. After he professed to be a prophet, 
 his favourite concubine was Miriam, a Coptic 
 Christian, the mother of his darling son Ibrahim. 
 In addition to all this, Moslems themselves 
 admit that there were Christians and Jews who 
 assisted Mohammed and instructed him. A 
 recent study by P. L. Cheikho, entitled Quelques 
 Legendes Islamiques Apocryphes (Beirut, 1910), 
 enumerates some of the sources to which 
 Mohammed was indebted for his knowledge of 
 Christianity. First in order, he states, were 
 his contemporaries Waraka bin Naufel, Zobeir 
 bin 'Amru, Zaid, and Kaab. The author also 
 
 ^ Wright's Early Christianity in Arabia (London, 1855). 
 
12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 speaks of a book called Kitab bin Munabali, 
 of which a dozen pages were recently found in 
 a collection of papyri. According to Sprenger, 
 the man who his countrymen said assisted 
 Mohammed in writing the Koran, was a 
 foreigner ; for Mohammed himself said (Surah 
 16 : 105), "It is only some mortal who teaches 
 him. The tongue of him they lean towards 
 is barbarous, and this is plain Arabic." Sprenger 
 says^ that the man referred to was "Addas, 
 a monk of Nineveh, who was settled at Mecca." 
 The commentators inform us further that 
 Mohammed used to listen to Jaber and Yassar, 
 two sword manufacturers at Mecca, when they 
 read the Scriptures ; and Ibn Ishak says that 
 he had intercourse with Ar-Rahman, a Christian 
 of Yamama.^ Koelle goes even further than 
 Sprenger in indicating the sources of Mo- 
 hammed's information. He says: "Not want 
 of opportunity, but want of sympathy and 
 compatibility kept him aloof from the religion 
 of Christ. His first wife introduced him to 
 her Christian cousin ; one of his later wives 
 had embraced Christianity in Abyssinia, and 
 
 1 Si^renger's Life of Mohammed (Allahabad, 1851), p. 99. 
 
 2 Cf. W. St. Clair Tisdall, The Original Sources of the Qitran, 
 (London, 1905), pp. 136-179. 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 the most favoured of his concubines was a 
 Christian damsel from the Copts of Egypt. He 
 was acquainted with ascetic monks, and had 
 dealings with learned bishops of the Orthodox 
 Church. In those days the reading of the Holy 
 Scriptures in the public services was already 
 authoritatively enjoined and universally prac- 
 tised ; if he wished thoroughly to acquaint 
 himself with them, he could easily have done 
 so. But, having no adequate conception of the 
 nature of sin and man's fallen estate, he also 
 lacked the faculty of truly appreciating the 
 remedy for it which was offered in the Gospel." ^ 
 A recent critical study on Mohammed's sources 
 for his knowledge of Christianity and the 
 Christ,^ confirms the conclusions reached by 
 Sprenger and others. The author makes 
 Harnack his starting-point, who shows in his 
 History of Dogma that there was a close 
 and striking resemblance between the teaching 
 of Jewish-Christian gnosticism and that of 
 Mohammed. He questions, however, whether 
 Mohammed came in direct contact with any one 
 
 ^ S. W. Koelle, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, p. 471. 
 
 ^ V. Neuschj " Miihammeds Quellen fiir seine Kenntnis des 
 Christentuins," in Zeitschrift fur Missionskunde und Religions- 
 vnssenschaft, 1910, Heft 4, p. 113. 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of these sects. History tells us that Judaism 
 found an early entrance into Arabia, and we 
 know that there were various sects of Christianity 
 represented, but we know of the preponderance 
 of none. As we have to do with a non -literary 
 people, we cannot assume much dogmatic 
 knowledge. Neusch believes that none of 
 Mohammed's teachers were prominent enough 
 or definite enough in their knowledge of 
 Christianity to warrant us in declaring that 
 he was dependent on them alone for his sources. 
 If Mohammed could read, it was probably late 
 in life that he learned the art, too late to affect 
 his views which had already been announced. 
 His conclusion is that although Harnack's 
 opinion is in general correct, we must not, as 
 is so often done, simply declare that Mohammed 
 was dependent on the Jewish-Christian sects 
 of his day. We must remember that much of 
 the present dogma of Islam is much later than 
 the days of the prophet. As regards Moslem 
 traditions which give us fuller information than 
 the Koran itself, Goldziher has shown that 
 these were largely contributed by Christian 
 renegades.^ 
 
 1 Muhammedanische Studien, vol. ii. p. 268. 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 There are, of course, many references to Jesus 
 in later Moslem literature, and the present-day- 
 philosophical disintegration of Islam not only 
 as regards its dogma, but its ethical teaching, 
 has compelled Moslems anew to consider the 
 fact of the Christ. These reform movements 
 and re-adjustments of Moslem teaching to 
 modern conditions, as voiced by the progressive 
 press and the new Islam on the one hand, or 
 the sects that sprang from Islam, the Babis, the 
 Beha'is, and the followers of the late Mirza 
 Quadian, on the other, have, however, scarcely 
 touched the fringe of public opinion among the 
 masses. This book tells of Jesus Christ as 
 known (if known at all) by the vast majority 
 of Moslems, whether learned or illiterate. 
 
 . SAMUEL M. ZWEMER. 
 
 Bahrein, Arabia, \ 
 ( March 1912. • 
 
 Note. — The Ciific inscription on the cover-design is from an 
 old manuscript, and reads : "In the name of God the Merciful 
 and Compassionate." May Moslems soon learn of His mercy 
 as revealed in the Christ. 
 
" Le musulman proclame qn'il y a un livre plus recent 
 que I'Evangile et superieur a lui, le Goran ; il proclame 
 que six siecles apres Jesus-Christ est venu un prophete 
 inferieur ii quelques egards, notamment parsa naissance, 
 mais moralement et religieusement superieur, Mahomet. 
 C'est celui-la le Maitre, et Jesus, n'est qu'-ww maitre. 
 Aussi regardons nous I'lslamisme comma una des trois 
 grandes religions monotheistes, h part des deux autres 
 mais non pas independante, car sans elles jamais elle 
 n'aurait existe." — Edouakd Sayous {Jdsus - Christ 
 d'apres Mahom4t). 
 
 16 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAOB 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 I. His Names and Their Significance ... 23 
 Importance of names in the Orient— The name 'Isa — Its 
 use in the Koran — El Messih — The Word of God — 
 Spirit from God — The title of Prophet — Qualifications 
 of a prophet — The apostles and their special titles — The 
 derivation of the word "Isa — of Messih — The homeless- 
 ness of Jesus — Why is He called the Word of God ? — 
 Two other epithets. 
 
 II. The Koran Account of His Life, Death, and 
 
 Translation 41 
 
 Three difficulties at the outset because of the character 
 of the Koran, its contradictions and its lack of chrono- 
 logical order — The Annunciation of Jesus — His birth — 
 His miracles — His mission and message — His death, 
 which is both affirmed and denied — His character as an 
 apostle and prophet, including denial of His deity — 
 The meagreness of the Koran account supplemented by 
 tradition — Its authority among Moslems — Sources of 
 Moslem tradition on the Christ — Their reliability. 
 
 III. Jesus Christ according to Tradition, from His 
 
 Birth to His Public Ministry .... 59 
 A translation of Eth-Thalabi's account, which is based 
 on early tradition — The birth of Jesus — Gabriel as the 
 messenger — Mary the sister of Aaron — Jesus speaks from 
 the cradle — The departure of Mary and Jesus to Egypt — 
 
 2 6 
 
18 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Jesus amazes His teacher at school — On the form and 
 figure of Jesus — Concerning the signs and wonders 
 wrought by His hand in His youth — The blind man and 
 the lame man — The marriage of the ruler's son — Jesus 
 and His playmates — He provides food miraculously — 
 He raises a boy from the dead — Dyes garments various 
 colours from one vat — Concerning the return of Mary 
 and Jesus after the death of Herod — His precocity — His 
 prayer for the sick. 
 
 IV. Jesus Christ according to Tradition, from His 
 
 Public Ministry to His Second Coming . . 79 
 The story of Jesus' disciples — Their names and their 
 call — The special characteristics of Jesus and His 
 miracles — How He created birds from clay — His miracles 
 of healing — The raising of Lazarus — Of the widow's son 
 — The daughter of the toll-gatherer — The raising of Shem, 
 Noah's son — Of Ezra — His knowledge of secrets — His 
 walking on the water — Other traditions concerning 
 Jesus Christ — The story of the loaf — The sending down 
 of the table — Different versions of this story — How 
 Jesus was taken to heaven— The attempt to kill Jesus — 
 The crucifixion of another in His stead — The Last 
 Supper — The disciples asleep in the garden — The binding 
 of Jesus — The death of Jesus, but not on the cross — The 
 story of Mary Magdalene— The disciples are scattered 
 to preach the Gospel — The ascension of Jesus — His 
 return — His grave at Medina — A later account of the 
 trial of Jesus. 
 
 V. The Person and Character of Jesus Christ . 113 
 Where the Koran falls short in its Christology — This 
 negative as well as affirmative — Christ's deity and 
 sonship denied — He is a mere man — The pre-exist- 
 ence of Mohammed affirmed ; that of Jesus denied — 
 "Why Islam denies the Atonement — Modern antagonism 
 in Egypt to Christian doc trine— Some puzzling questions 
 put by Moslems— Seyy id Ameer 'Ali on the divinity of 
 
CONTENTS 19 
 
 FAOa 
 
 Christ— What Moslems admit and ])elieve as regards the 
 dignity and purity of Jesus — His titles of honour — His 
 sinlessness — A remarkable tradition — Christ as the 
 healer and worker of miracles— He is a living prophet 
 and can intercede — Jesus Christ announced the coming 
 of Mohammed— Other alleged prophecies in regard to 
 Islam. 
 
 VI. His Teaching 135 
 
 Meagreness of our sources — No direct quotations from 
 the New Testament — Four references to its teaching — 
 To whom did Jesus Christ come as a teacher — The 
 Gospel according to Moslems — Its corruption hy the 
 apostles, especially Paul — The story of Habib the 
 carpenter — Later tradition on the teaching of Jesus — 
 Certain of His sayings — Jesus Christ according to the 
 poets — The parable of the Publican and the Pharisee — 
 The gentleness of Jesus — Words of Jesus which are attri- 
 buted to Mohammed— The Lord's Prayer— Conclusion. 
 
 VII. Jesus Christ supplanted by Mohammed . . 155 
 Jesus Christ eclipsed— Mohammed in the foreground ; 
 Jesus Christ in the background— This distinguishes 
 Islam from all other religions — In what sense is 
 Mohammed the Moslem Christ— His two hundred and 
 one titles of honour— Prayer for Mohammed— The later 
 biographies of Mohammed a caricature of the Christ — 
 Testimony of Rene Basset and Dr. Koelle — Mohammed's 
 journey to heaven — How Mohammed resembled Jesus in 
 his birth, his life, his miracles, his death — Isaiah's 
 prophecy of Mohammed — Mohammed the supplanter — 
 Christmas, or the birthday of Mohammed ; Friday or 
 Sunday — The name Messiah as applied to Mohammed 
 in current literature, in the Gospel of Barnabas — Islam 
 anti-Christian — Islam in no sense a preparation for 
 Christianity — Christ the centre of our religion — What 
 Moslems think of Him. 
 
20 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP, PAGE 
 
 VIII. How TO Preach Christ to Moslems who know 
 
 Jesus 177 
 
 "Why we should do it — The Moslem world needs Jesus 
 Christ — Testimony of Dr. James S. Dennis — Difficulties 
 do not remove responsibility — Islam itself a witness to 
 their need of the Christ — The fact of the Christ a point 
 of vital contact with Moslems — We must become 
 Moslems to the Moslem — The nearest way to the Moslem 
 heart — The message of the Cross — What think ye of the 
 Christ — The strength of Islam overestimated — Back 
 to Mohammed and away from tradition — The revival 
 of Islam — What Christianity will gain by preaching to 
 Moslems — A stronger grip on the fundamentals — A 
 theology based on experience — A conviction that XJni- 
 tarianism is not Christianity — The Nicene Creed. 
 
 Bibliography 195 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 (1) The Prophet's Mosque at Medina . . . Frontis2nece 
 
 (2) Plan of the Prophet's Mosque at Medina . Facing p. 108 
 
 (3) Letter from Chinese Moslem ....,, 116 
 
 (4) Page from Moslem Book of Devotion . . ,, 156 
 
 (5) List of Names in Arabic applied to God and to 
 
 Mohammed ,, 160 
 
I 
 
 HIS NAMES AND THEIK SIGNIFICANCE 
 
' ' The Christ of History brings the cardinal problem 
 of religion down from the clouds of speculation to the 
 world of hard and prosaic and determinable facts, and 
 that is a dangerous place for either things or persons to 
 stand who are not what they seem. Criticism must 
 handle and speak of all who stand there, the more 
 strenuously if they make extraordinary claims on the 
 faith and reverence of all men and times ; and the now 
 white, now lurid lights it creates enable those piercing 
 and pitiless eyes that love to see the distant past un- 
 bury its dread secrets and make confession of its for- 
 gotten crimes, to search the period or person on which 
 they fall. That Jesus Christ has so long stood amid 
 those burning lights and before these curious eyes tells 
 an eloquent tale of the quality of His person and the 
 reality of His character. The love of earth has looked 
 at Him till it has grown Divine, the thought of man has 
 studied Him till it has become reverent. The coldest 
 criticism is touched with reverence when it stands before 
 the supreme Person of history, finding Him to be also 
 the supreme Good of man." — A. M. Fairbaihn {^The 
 City of God). 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 
 
 AMONG all Orientals, but especially among the 
 Semites, a deep significance is attached to 
 names. This is evident not only from the Bible, 
 but from the practice among the Arabs of to-day. 
 Names, surnames, nicknames, and appellatives are 
 bestowed upon men and places with the intent of 
 expressing the very character of the person or thing 
 named. In considering, therefore, the teaching of 
 the Koran and Moslem tradition concerning our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, we begin first of all by mentioning 
 the names that are applied to Him in Mohammed's 
 Book, and that are therefore those most commonly 
 used among Moslems. In fact, it would be quite 
 inadmissible for an orthodox Moslem to use any 
 other terms in relation to Jesus Christ than those 
 used in the Koran. We give the names in the 
 order of their importance and the frequency of their 
 usage. 
 
 'ISA (Jesus). This name, the most commonly used 
 among Moslems, generally with the prefix Nehi 
 (prophet) and often with the addition " Son of 
 
 23 
 
24 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Mary," is used twenty-five times in the Koran, as 
 follows : — 
 
 „. Surah 2:81. We gave Moses the Book and we 
 \Xiollowed him up with other apostles, and we gave 
 Jesus the son of Mary manifest signs and aided him 
 with the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Surah 2:130. Say ye, "We believe in God, and 
 /^what has been revealed to us, and what has been re- 
 vealed to Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
 and the Tribes, and what was brought to Moses and 
 Jesusr 
 , Surah 2 : 254. And we have given Jesus the son of 
 i Mary manifest signs and strengthened him by the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 Surah 3:40. When the angel said, "0 Mary! 
 verily God gives thee the glad tidings of a Word 
 from him; his name shall be Messiah Jesus the son 
 of Mary, regarded in this world and the next and of 
 those whose place is nigh to God." 
 
 Surah 3 : 45. And when Jesus perceived their un- 
 '^-'"'belief, he said, " Who are my helpers for God ? " 
 
 Surah 3:48. When God said, "0 Jesusl I will 
 make thee die and take thee up again to me, and 
 will clear thee of those who misbelieve, and will 
 make those who follow thee above those who mis- 
 believe, at the day of judgment, then to me is your 
 return." 
 
 Surah 3 : 52. Verily the likeness of Jesus with God 
 i& as the likeness of Adam. 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 25 
 
 Surah 3 : 78. Say, " We believe in God, and what 
 
 has been revealed to thee, and what was revealed to 
 
 (.^^Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 
 the tribes, and what was given to Moses and Jesus 
 
 and the prophets from their Lord." 
 
 Surah 4 : 156. Their saying, "Verily, we have killed 
 the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle of 
 God," . . . but they did not kill him. 
 
 Surah 4:161. Verily, we have inspired thee as we 
 L^nspired Abraham, and Ishmael, and Jacob, and the 
 tribes, and Jesus. 
 
 Surah 4 : 169. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, 
 \y^ but the apostle of God and His Word, which He 
 cast into Mary and a spirit from Him. 
 
 Surah 5 : 50. And we followed up the footsteps of 
 «. these (prophets) with Jesus the son of Mary, confirming 
 that which was before him and the law. 
 
 Surah 5 : 82. Those of the children of Israel who 
 disbelieved were cursed by the tongue of David and 
 Jesus the son of Mary. 
 
 Surah 5 : 109. When God said, " Jesus, son of 
 ^Mary ! remember my favours towards thee and towards 
 V thy mother." 
 
 Surah 5:112. When the apostles said, " Jesus, 
 son of Mary ! is thy Lord able to send down to us a 
 table from heaven ? " 
 
 Surah 5 : 114. Said Jesus, the son of Mary, " God, 
 our Lord ! send down to us a table from heaven to be 
 to us as a festival. . . ." 
 
26 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Surah 5:116. And when God said, "0 Jesus, son 
 of Mary ! is it thou who didst say to men, take me 
 and my mother for two gods, beside God ? " 
 
 Surah 6 : 85. And Zachariah and John and Jesus 
 "' and Elias, all righteous ones. 
 
 Surah 19 : 35. That is, Jesus the son of Mary, — by 
 the word of truth whereon ye do dispute. 
 
 Surah 33 : 7. And when we took of the prophets 
 l^^their compact, from thee and from Noah, and Abraham, 
 and Moses, and Jesics the son of Mary . . . that He 
 might ask the truth-tellers of their truth. 
 
 Surah 42 : 11. He has enjoined upon you for religion 
 
 what He prescribed to Noah, and what we inspired 
 
 ^thee with, and what we inspired Abraham and Moses 
 
 and Jesus. 
 
 .Surah 43: 63. And when Jesus came with manifest 
 
 t^^ signs he said, " I am come to you with wisdom, and I 
 
 will explain to you something of that whereon ye 
 
 did dispute, then fear God, obey me. . . ." 
 
 Surah 57 : 27. And we followed them up with Jesus 
 ' the son of Mary ; and we gave him the gospel. 
 
 Surah 61 : 6. And when Jesus the son of Mary 
 ) ^Siid, " children of Israel ! verily, I am the apostle 
 of God." 
 
 Surah 6 : 14. ye who believe ! be ye the helpers 
 I - of God ! as Jesus, son of Mary, said to the apostles, 
 " Who are my helpers for God ? " 
 
 It is interesting to note that among these twenty-five 
 places in the Koran where 'Isa is used, in sixteen of 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 27 
 
 them He is called the son of Mary, and in five 
 passages His name is coupled with Moses (Musa), 
 the great prophet of the old Dispensation. Isidor 
 Loewenthal, who was a Semitic scholar and a mis- 
 sionary on the Afghan frontier, thought that the 
 coupling of the name of Jesus with that of Moses 
 in the Koran might be the reason for the form of 
 the name, to correspond with other rhymes of that 
 character; e.g., Harut and Marut, Habil and Kabil, 
 etc.^ Of the etymology and significance of this name, 
 however, we will speak later. 
 
 El Messih. — This name, The Messiah, sometimes 
 joined to that of Jesus and sometimes used by itself, 
 occurs in the Koran eight times in the following 
 passages : — 
 
 Surah 3 : 40. See above. 
 
 Surah 4 : 156. See above. 
 
 Surah 4 : 169. See above. 
 
 Surah 4 : 170. The Messiah doth surely not disdain 
 to be a servant of God, nor do the angels who are nigh 
 to Him; and whosoever disdains His service and is 
 too proud. He will gather them altogether to Himself. 
 
 Surah 5 : 19. They misbelieve who say, " Verily 
 God is the Messiah the son of Mary ; " say, " Who has 
 any hold on God, if he wish-ed to destroy the Messiah 
 the son of Mary, and his mother, and those who are 
 on the earth altogether ? " ^ 
 
 ' Loewenthal, Isidor. The Name 'Isa : An Investigation. Calcutta, 
 1861. Reprirted in The Moslem Woi'ld (London), vol. i. No, 3. 
 
28 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Surah 5 : 76. They misbelieve who say, " Verily, God 
 is the Messiah the son of Mary;" but the Messiah 
 said, " children of Israel ! worship God, my Lord 
 and your Lord." 
 
 Surah 5 : 79. The Messiah the son of Mary is only 
 a prophet : prophets before him have passed away ; 
 and his mother was a confessor ; they both used to 
 eat food. 
 
 Surah 9 : 30. The Jews say Ezra is the son of 
 God, and the Christians say that the Messiah is the 
 son of God ; that is what they say with their mouths, 
 imitating the sayings of those who misbelieved before. 
 God fight them ! how they lie ! ^ 
 
 In one of the passages above quoted (Surah 4 : 170) 
 there seems to be a reference to the title of the Messiah 
 in Isaiah as the servant of Jehovah. Mohammed may 
 have learned of this name from the Jews, although 
 Surah 9 : 30 (see above) seems to indicate very clearly 
 that the title of the Messiah was coupled in the 
 mouth of Christians with the words the Son of God, 
 It is probable, therefore, that both names were learned 
 
 ^ Palmer's comment on this curious passage is as follows: "The 
 Moslem tradition is that Ezra, after being dead a hundred years, was 
 raised to life, and dictated from memory the whole of the Jewish 
 Scriptures which had been lost during the captivity, and that the 
 Jews said he could not have done this unless he had been the 
 son of God. There is no Jewish tradition whatever in support of 
 this accusation of Mohammed's, which probably was entirely due 
 to his own invention or to misinformation. Baidhawi, the well- 
 known commentator, says that it must have been true, because the 
 Jews themselves, to whom the passage was read, did not deny it." 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 29 
 
 from the lips of Christians rather than from those of 
 the Jews, and we are confirmed in this belief by the 
 use of the third name in the Koran, namely, the Word 
 of God. 
 
 Kalimet Allah (The Word of God). — This is used 
 in the Koran twice in direct reference to Christ. In 
 other passages it occurs, but not as one of the names 
 of the Messiah. In the following cases the reference 
 is clear : — 
 
 Surah 3 : 40. See above. 
 
 Surah 4 : 169. See above. 
 
 In these two passages Jesus Christ is clearly 
 referred to as the Word of God and as a Word from 
 God; and modern Arabic usage clearly distinguishes 
 between the Word of God in the sense of Holy Writ, 
 which is always referred to as Kaldm Allah, and the 
 Word of God as His Messenger, which is Kalimet 
 Allah. There are, however, only these two passages 
 in which this New Testament title is given to our 
 Saviour. 
 
 The title given to Moses is Kalim Allah, and the 
 common explanation is that Moses was the mouth- 
 piece of God in the sense that God spake to him, and 
 made him His special confidant; but Jesus is the 
 Kalimet Allah, or Word of God, because He communi- 
 cates God's word, God's will to men. 
 
 RuH Allah (Spirit of God, or more correctly. 
 Spirit from God). — This title is used in the Koran 
 once concerning Jesus Christ (Surah 4 : 169, quoted 
 
30 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 above), but the commentators are not agreed as to its 
 real significance, and whether it is a name that can be 
 applied to Jesus Christ, or whether the passage simply 
 signifies that Jesus, with all other mortals, was par- 
 taker of the creative Spirit of God. 
 
 In addition to these four names which are specially 
 applied to Jesus Christ in the Koran, He is also 
 know by the common titles of NoM (prophet) and 
 Basul (apostle). 
 
 Surah 19 : 30 (Where Jesus speaks from the cradle, 
 using these words), Verily, I am the servant of God, 
 He has brought me the Book, and He has made me a 
 prophet, and He has made me blessed wherever I be. 
 
 Surah 57 : 27. See above. 
 
 Surah 4:169. See above. 
 
 The number of prophets and apostles sent by God, 
 according to Moslem teaching, amounts to 124,000. 
 Others say 240,000, and others 100,000. These state- 
 ments show that the words, prophet and apostle, in 
 Moslem usage have not the same dignity, which 
 we infer from their usage in the Old and New 
 Testaments. Three hundred and thirteen are said to 
 have been apostles who came with a special mission. 
 A prophet, according to Moslem teaching, is a man 
 inspired by God, but not sent with a special dis- 
 pensation or book ; while an apostle is one who comes 
 either with a special dispensation or to whom a 
 special book has been revealed. All apostles are 
 prophets, but not all prophets are apostles. Jesus 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 31 
 
 was both. According to the commentators this is 
 the definition of a prophet: "A prophet must be a 
 male ^ person, free, not a slave, of the sons of Adam ; 
 of sound mind and without bodily defect or disease, 
 to whom has been revealed a revelation which he 
 himself accepts; nor must he come with a message 
 before he is of age." ^ 
 
 The qualifications of a prophet are four : — 
 
 1. Faitlif Illness, — That is, during his work as a 
 prophet he is kept from the commission of any out- 
 ward sinful act. The sinlessness of all the prophets 
 has become a favourite dogma of Islam, in spite of 
 the Koran testimony regarding the sins of many of 
 the prophets, including Mohammed himself. 
 
 2. Truthfulness. — They speak the truth in accord- 
 ance with the real state of the case, or at all events, 
 in accordance with what they believe to be the truth. 
 
 3. Sagacity, or intelligence, enabling them to silence 
 objectors or opponents. This quality the apostles 
 are said to possess in much higher degree than the 
 prophets. 
 
 4. The Delivery of their Message. — In other words, 
 they must on no account conceal what God has 
 revealed to them. 
 
 Because Jesus Christ was an apostle and a prophet 
 
 ^ Maryam, Eve, and Sarah are admitted by some Moslems among 
 the list of prophets, but it is contrary to the teaching of the leading 
 commentators. Cf. El Jowhara, "No female ever was a proi)het " 
 (Klein, Religion of Islam, p. 74). 
 
 - El Jowhara, quoted in Klein, The Edition of Islam, p. 72. 
 
32 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 He also had the power of working miracles, as we shall 
 see in a later chapter. 
 
 In order to understand the title prophet and apostle 
 ascribed to Jesus, we must remember that the highest 
 in rank among the prophets and apostles is said to be 
 Mohammed. He is considered not only the greatest 
 prophet and apostle, but the most excellent of all 
 created things. After him come Abraham, Moses, 
 and Jesus. These four are distinguished by the 
 title, ' Ulu-el-^ Azim, possessors of constancy or endowed 
 with a purpose. This name was taken from Surah 
 46 : 34. " Then do thou be patient as the apostles 
 endowed with a purpose were patient, and hastened 
 not on their punishment." Six of the company of the 
 prophets are classed apart by Moslems and said to 
 have brought in new dispensations and a new law, 
 and they therefore have each of them a special title. 
 
 Adam : Safi Allah (Chosen of God) ; Noah : Nehi 
 Allah (prophet of God) ; Abraham : Khalil Allah (the 
 friend of God) ; Moses : Kalim Allah (the mouthpiece 
 of God) ; Jesus, Buh Allah (Spirit of God) ; Mohammed, 
 Basul Allah (the apostle of God). It is clear from the 
 above and at the very outset of our investigation that 
 Jesus Christ does not occupy the supreme place, but 
 at the best ranks only with Abraham, Moses, and 
 Mohammed. 
 
 We turn now to consider what significance is 
 attached to the proper names given by Moslems to our 
 Lord, both as regards their form and their etymology. 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 33 
 
 The question why Mohammed used the word * Isa 
 instead of Yesu'a, is more easily asked than answered. 
 It is a stumbling-block to every Moslem convert who 
 reads the Arabic Scriptures. Kamil Abd ul Messiah, 
 writing to Dr. Jessup from Aden after his conversion 
 to Christianity, says : " Will you kindly send me a 
 reply to this question : Why is Jesus styled 'Isa in the 
 Moslem books, and did this name exist among the 
 Arabs before Mohammed's time during the days of 
 Ignorance ? " ^ 
 
 Dr. Jessup in his reply called attention to some of 
 the explanations given. The first among them is that 
 there is no particular significance in the form of the 
 word, and that Mohammed invented it as a rhyming 
 couplet to the name of Moses (Musa), in the same 
 way as he changed the name of Goliath to Jalut, and 
 that of Saul to Talut, apparently as a matter of 
 rhythm, in the second chapter of the Koran (verses 
 248-253); and the names of the sons of Adam to 
 Habil and Kabil in Moslem usage for Cain and Abel ; 
 or as he used the fanciful names, Harut and Marut, for 
 the names of angels who taught men sorcery (Surah 
 2 : 96). The difficulty with this theory is, as we have 
 seen, that only in five cases is the name 'Isa joined to 
 that of Musa in the Koran text. In every other case 
 there is no apparent reason for this particular form of 
 the word because of the rhythm. 
 
 A second explanation given by some Arabic lexico- 
 
 ^ Jessup, Rev. H. H., Kamil, p. 122. Philadelphia, 1898. 
 3 
 
34 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 graphers is that the word has been deliberately formed 
 by inverting the order of the letters in the Hebrew 
 word Yesu'a. This explanation seems forced ; nor can 
 it be satisfactorily explained by the laws of etymology, 
 for in reversing the letters not only are the vowels 
 altered, but one of the weak consonants must be 
 changed in Yesto'a to make 'Isa. Beidhawi in his 
 Commentary asserts that 'Isa is the Arabic form of 
 the Hebrew Yesu'a, and goes on to say that it comes 
 from a root Al-'Ayos, which signilies white mingled 
 with red.^ 
 
 A fourth explanation is offered by Dr. Otto Pautz.^ 
 " The Koran expression 'Isa corresponds with the 
 Hebrew Esau, the name of the brother of Jacob 
 (Israel). Because his descendants all .through their 
 history stood hostile over against the Israelities, who 
 were the people of the promise, the later Jews cari- 
 catured the name of Jesus by making it Esau. 
 Mohammed took this form of Esau from the Jews at 
 Medina, without being conscious of the sinister import 
 connected with the name in their minds." We would 
 like further proofs of this ingenious theory before ac- 
 cepting it, although it appears most plausible in view 
 
 ^ Beidhawi, vol. i. p. 96. He also gives a curious, but unchaste, 
 derivation for the name of Jesus' mother, Mary : '' Hooa hil AraUya 
 onin el nisa Tea el zir min er rijal, etc.'' On the derivation of 'ha, cf. 
 Fairozabadi's Kamoos, vol. i. p. 125, and Katr ul Muhit (Beirut), 
 vol. ii. p. 1478. And on Zir^ vol. i. p. 874. 
 
 '•^ Pautz, Otto. Muhammed's Lchre von der Offcnlarung, p. 191. 
 Leipzig, 1898. 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 35 
 
 of all that Mohammed borrowed and adapted from 
 Judaism.^ 
 
 In regard to the name El Messili, although this 
 term is evidently taken from the Hebrew and has the 
 Hebrew significance of the anointed, the Moslems 
 explain it difterently. Bringing everything back to 
 Arabic roots, they connect it with the word SaJi (to 
 wander, to go on pilgrimage), and say it is the intensive 
 form of that root, and that Jesus was the leader of 
 wanderers, " Imam al sa'yihin." The homelessness of 
 Jesus has alwa3^s strongly impressed itself on the 
 Mohammedan imagination. C. H. A. Field relates : ^ 
 Once on entering a Pathan village, I was met by a 
 youth who asked, " Is this verse in the Injil : * The 
 Son of Mary had nowhere to lay His head ' ? " In the 
 Kusus-al-anhiya (Stories of the Prophets) this takes 
 the following grotesque shape : — 
 
 One day Jesus saw a fox roaming tlirougli the wilderness. 
 He said to liim, " O fox ! whither art thou going ? " The fox 
 answered, " I hav^e come out for exercise ; now I am returning 
 to my own home." Jesus said, " Every one has Luilt himself 
 a house ; l3ut for Me there is no resting-place." Some people 
 who heard it said, " We are sorry for Thee, and will build Thee 
 a house." He replied, " I have no money." They answered, 
 " We will pay all the expenses." Then He said, "Very well, I 
 will clioose the site." He led them down to the edge of the sea 
 and, pointing where the waves were dashing highest, said, "Build 
 Me a house there." The people said, " That is the sea, O 
 
 ^ Geiger, Abraham, Judaisvi and Islam. Madras, 1898 ; JVas hat 
 Mohammed aus dcm Judenthume aufyeno'tnmen ? Bonn, 1833. 
 - Church Missionary Eevieic, July 1910. 
 
36 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Prophet! how can we build there?" "Yea, and is not the 
 world a sea," He answered, " on which no one can raise a build- 
 ing that abides ? " 
 
 A similar echo of Christ's words is found in the famous 
 inscription over a bridge at Fatehpur Sikri : " Jesus 
 (upon whom be peace) said, 'The world is a bridge; 
 pass over it, but do not build upon it.' " ^ 
 
 Although this explanation of the word which 
 Moslems have generally adopted is ingenious, it is 
 evidently an attempt to escape from the ordinary 
 significance of the root. Even in his Arabic dictionary 
 Fairozabadi gives the name Messih under the Arabic 
 root Masaha, to anoint, but states that this name 
 was given to Jesus Christ because He was often on 
 journeys, and did not spend His days in one place. 
 Concerning other derivations he says there are no less 
 than fifty explanations enumerated by him in his 
 book Masharik Al Anwarr' 
 
 The Moslem interpretation of the name of Jesus, 
 Kalimet Allah, has already been given. In Surah 
 19 : 35, He is called Kaul ul Hah, the Word of Truth. 
 An argument can easily be based on these expressions 
 for the eternal nature of Jesus Christ and His supreme 
 office, but it is doubtful whether most Moslems would 
 admit its force. Dr. W. St. Clair Tisdall rightly 
 says : ^ " The term Kalimah (Xoyog, word, speech) denotes 
 
 1 Church Missionary Ileview, July 1910. 
 
 2 Fairozabadi, Kamoos, vol. i. p. 156 ; of. Beidhawi on Surah 
 3:40. 
 
 ^ Revised Mixanu'l Haqq, p. 185. London, 1910. 
 
HIS NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 37 
 
 the expression of what is in the mind of the speaker, 
 who in this case is God Most High. If Christ were 
 a Word of God, it would be clear that He was only 
 one expression of God's will ; but since God Himself 
 calls Him " the Word of God," it is clear that He must 
 be the one and only perfect expression of God's will, 
 and the only perfect manifestation of God. It was 
 through Him that the prophets spoke when He sent 
 them His Holy Spirit. Since then the title Kalimatu 
 lldh shows that Christ only can reveal God to men. 
 It is clear that He Himself must know God and His 
 Will perfectly." 
 
 In closing this account of the names of Jesus Christ 
 in the Koran and their significance, there are two 
 more expressions to which we must call attention. 
 
 The first of these occurs in Surah 21 : 91, where 
 Mary is referred to, and the statement is made, "We 
 made her and her Son a sign unto the worlds." The 
 use of the singular instead of the plural in this con- 
 nection brings to mind the name of our Saviour in 
 Isaiah's prophecy, Wonderful. Beidhawi's comment 
 on this text is an evident attempt to minimise the 
 significance of the expression. He says : " We made 
 her and her Son a sign unto the worlds ; that is, the 
 story of their life or their condition, for whosoever 
 thinks of their condition is convinced of the perfection 
 of power in God Most High, Who is the Creator." 
 
 The other occurs in Surah 3 : 40 : When the angel 
 said, " Mary ! verily, God gives thee the glad tidings 
 
38 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 of a Word from Him ; His name shall be The Messiah, 
 Jesus the son of Mary, Illustrious i7i this world and 
 the nexty and of those whose place is nigh unto God." 
 If Moslems were willing to admit all that these 
 words imply, it would not be difficult to prove that in 
 this passage of the Koran the person and character of 
 Jesus Christ are superior to those of all other prophets 
 and apostles. The commentator Beidhawi, comment- 
 ing on this passage, uses these remarkable words : 
 "His illustriousness in this world is the gift of 
 prophecy, and in the world to come, the power of 
 intercession ; and ' whose place is nigh to God ' signifies 
 His high position in Paradise, or the fact that He, was 
 raised up to heaven and enjoys the companionship of 
 the angels." ^ 
 
 1 Beidhawi on Surah 3 : 40. 
 
II 
 
 THE KORAN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE, 
 DEATH, AND TRANSLATION 
 
"The contents and the arrangement of the Koran 
 speak forcibly for its authenticity. All the fragments 
 that could possibly be obtained have with artless sim- 
 plicity been joined together. The patchwork bears no 
 marks of a designing genius or a moulding hand. It 
 testifies to the faith and reverence of the compilers, and 
 proves that they dared no more than simply collect the 
 sacred fragments and place them in juxtafiSition. 
 Hence the interminable repetitions ; the palling reitera- 
 tion of the same ideas, truths, and doctrines ; hence, 
 scriptural stories and Arab legends, told over and over 
 again with little verbal variation ; hence the pervading 
 want of connection, and the startling chasms between 
 adjacent passages." — Muir's Life of Mahomet , p. 557. 
 
 40 
 
II 
 
 THE KORAN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE, 
 DEATH, AND TRANSLATION 
 
 IN attempting to give an account of the life of Jesus 
 Christ in the very words of the Koran, there are 
 three difficulties that meet us at the outset. 
 
 The first relates to the general piecemeal character 
 of the Koran as a book. It has no chronological order 
 nor logical sequence. Its verses were revealed at 
 different times and in different places, and throw 
 together in confusion, laws and legends, facts and 
 fancies, prayers and imprecations. Very few Bible 
 characters are mentioned in the earliest group of the 
 Surahs, and although there are distinctively Christian 
 features in some of the early revelations, Jesus Himself 
 is not mentioned.^ 
 
 A more serious difficulty is that the Koran state- 
 ments about the Lord Jesus Christ are not free from 
 contradiction, any more than some of its other teaching. 
 Some passages speak of Him as a mere man and a 
 '^^ prophet ; others, as we have seen, give him such titles 
 as are giv^n to no other human being. Especially in 
 
 I'Cf. ^SHiith^Jiri*;^ TJie'-Bibkjiaui Islam, pp. 86-87 ; Rodwell's 
 Koran t J3,_ 4. ~~--^ 
 
42 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 relation to His death, the statements are contradictory, 
 and cannot be reconciled without violence to the text. 
 
 A third difficulty relates to the chronological order 
 of the Surahs. If it were our purpose to show the 
 development of Mohammed's ideas in regard to Jesus 
 Christ, it would be important to begin with the earliest 
 mention of Jesus Christ in the Koran, and follow out 
 this teaching to the final Surahs. But there is no 
 agreement as regards the chronological order of the 
 various chapters in the Koran.^ Moslems themselves 
 
 ^ I had occasion recently to investigate the chronological place of 
 one of the Surahs, and the more authorities consulted the less cer- 
 tainty appeared. In Hughes' Dictionary of Islam three distinct lists 
 are given — that of Jalal ed Din, of Rod well, and of Muir. Noldeke's 
 History of the Koran afforded a fourth list. All of them are authori- 
 ties on the subject, each professing to have arrived at his results by 
 internal evidence and criticism of the accepted text, with the help of 
 authoritative tradition. After reading of their painstaking efforts, 
 and persuaded by the logical reasons for many of Noldeke's deductions 
 in his elaborate treatment of the subject, I was curious to know in 
 how far there was agreement between the authorities mentioned. 
 The following was the result : — 
 
 By actual count there were sixty-five among a hundred and fourteen 
 possible instances where two agreed. There were only five instances 
 where three agreed on the order of certain chapters. There were forty- 
 five instances where all disagreed, and there was not a single instance 
 where all ivere agreed as to the place of a Surah in chronological order. 
 The greatest agreement was between Niildeke and Rodwell, but even 
 they differed on the chronological place of fifty-two of the hundred 
 and fourteen chapters. Where Muir followed the Arabic com- 
 mentator, Niildeke rejected his order altogether, and where the latter 
 approached the traditional order, Rodwell and Muir agreed to disagree 
 with both. There was the widest divergence in nearly every case. 
 The first Surah according to Muir is the 103rd, while Noldeke makes 
 it the 97th. The Surah of The Fen is considered by Jalal ed Diu the 
 second in order, and by the others the seventeenth, fifty-second, and 
 eighteenth respectively. 
 
HIS LIFE AND DEATH 43 
 
 acknowledge that the present order of the Surahs is 
 not at all chronological, and yet they admit the im- 
 portance of ascertaining the time when and the place 
 where each Surah was revealed. 
 
 As our purpose is not to trace the growth of this 
 idea in the mind of Mohammed, but to collect all the 
 passages on which the common opinion in regard to 
 Jesus Christ, among Moslems, rests, vro need not 
 trouble about the chronology of the Surahs, but, group- 
 ing them as far as possible in the order of the Gospel 
 history, give herewith a life of Jesus Christ in the 
 words of the Koran only. 
 
 His Annunciation 1 
 
 Surah 3:37-43. And when Surah 19:16-21. And men- 
 
 the angels said, " O Mary I tion, in the Book, Mary ; when 
 
 verily, God has chosen thee she retired from her famih' 
 
 and has purified thee, and has into an eastern place ; and she 
 
 chosen thee above the women took a veil (to screen herself) 
 
 ^ The following index of the leading passages in the Koran that 
 relate to Jesus Christ, as they occur in Beidhawi's Commentary 
 (Cairo edition, 2 vols.), will prove useful to those who have found 
 difficulty in locating them, as Beidhawi's Commentary does not 
 number the verses : — 
 
 The Annunciation : Surah 3 : 37-43, vol. i. p. 206, 207 ; Birth : 
 Sijrah 19 : 22-24, vol. ii. p. 34 ; Surah 23 : 52, vol. ii. pp. 121, 122 ; 
 Miracles: Surah 3 : 43-46, vol. i., pp. 207,208; Surah 5: 112-115, 
 vol. i. pp. 365-367; Mission: Surah 2:81, vol. i. p. 96; Surah 2: 
 254, vol. i. p. 173 ; Surah 3 : 44, vol. i. p. 207 ; Surah 4 : 157, vol. 
 i. p. 316 ; Surah 4 : 50-51, vol. i. p. 340 ; Surali 6 : 85, vol. i. p. 
 389 ; Surah 17 : 26, 27, vol. i. p. 695 ; Surah 61 : 6, vol. ii. p. 517 ; 
 Crucifixion : Surah 3 : 47-50, vol. i. p. 209 ; Surah 4 : 155, 156, vol. 
 i. p. 315 ; Divinity and Sonship denied : Surah 3 : 51, 52, vol. i. 
 p. 210 ; Surah 3 : 72, 73, vol. i. pp. 215, 216 ; Surah 5 : 19, vol. i. 
 
44 
 
 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 of the world. Mary ! be 
 devout unto thy Lord, and 
 adore and bow down with those 
 who bow. That is (one) of the 
 declarations of the unseen 
 world which we reveal to thee, 
 though thou wert not by them 
 when they threw their lots 
 which of them should take 
 care of Mary, nor were ye by 
 them when they did dispute." 
 When the angel said, " O Mary ! 
 verily, God gives thee the glad 
 tidings of a Word from Him ; 
 his name shall be the Messiah 
 Jesus the son of Mary, regarded 
 in this world and the next and 
 of those whose place is nigh to 
 God. And he shall speak to 
 people in his cradle, and when 
 grown up, and shall be among 
 the righteous."' She said, 
 " Lord ! how can I have a son 
 when man hath not yet touched 
 me?" He said, "Thus God 
 creates what He pleaseth. 
 When He decrees a matter He 
 only says * Be,' and it is ; and 
 He will teach him the Book, and 
 wisdom, and the law, and the 
 gospel, and he shall be a pro- 
 phet to the children of Israel." 
 
 from them ; and we sent unto 
 her our spirit ; and he took 
 for her the semblance of a well- 
 made man. Said she, " Verily, 
 I take refuge in the Merciful 
 One from thee, if thou art 
 pious." Said he, " I am only a 
 messenger of thy Lord to bestow 
 on thee a pure boy." Saidishe, 
 " How can I have a boy when 
 no man has touched me, and 
 when I am no harlot ? " He 
 said, " Thus says thy Lord, It 
 is easy for Me ! and we will 
 make him a sign unto man, 
 and a mercy from us ; for it is 
 a decided matter." ^ 
 
 p. 330 ; Surah 9 : 36, vol. i. p. 498 ; Surah 19 : 35, 36, vol. ii. p. 
 36 ; Surah 43 : 57-65, vol. i. pp. 411, 412 ; The Trinity : Surah 4 : 
 169, vol. i. pp. 318, 319 ; Surah 5 : 76-79, vol. i. pp. 351-352 ; 
 Surah 5:116, 117, pp. 367, 368. 
 
 ^ Jelal-ud-Din comments on these passages as follows: " Inflavi- 
 mus earn de spiritu nostro, cum inflavit in ai)erturam tunicae ejus 
 
HIS LIFE AND DEATH 
 
 45 
 
 His Birth 
 
 Surah 19 : 22-34. So she con- 
 ceived him, and she retired 
 with him into a remote place. 
 And the labour pains came 
 upon her at the trunk of a palm 
 tree, and she said, "0 that I 
 had died before this, and been 
 forgotten out of mind ! " and 
 he called to her from beneath 
 her, " Grieve not, for thy Lord 
 has placed a stream beneath thy 
 feet ; and shake towards thee 
 the trunk of the palm tree, and 
 it will drop upon thee fresh 
 dates fit to gather ; so eat and 
 drink and cheer thine eye ; and 
 if thou shouldst see any mortal 
 say, 'Verily, I have vowed to 
 the Merciful One a fast, and I 
 will not speak to-day with a 
 human being.' " 
 
 Then she brought it to her 
 people, carrying it ; said they, 
 " O Mary ! thou hast done an 
 extraordinary thing ! sister 
 of Aaron ! thy father was not 
 a bad man, nor was thy mother 
 a harlot ! " 
 
 Surah 23 : 52. And we made 
 the son of Mary and his mother 
 a sign ; and we lodged them 
 both in a high place, furnished 
 with security and a spring. 
 
 (Mariae) ad collum, efficiente Deo, ut flatus ejus perveniret ad vulvam 
 ejus et ex eo conciperet Jesum." Beidhawi (vol. ii. p. 33) agrees with 
 this, and states that Gabriel took the form of a beautiful youDg man 
 **ut excitaret Mariae cupidinem et ita," etc. It is the opinion of 
 Gerock that Mohammed's idea of the conception of Jesus Christ by the 
 Virgin Mary was wholly sensual, and that Gabriel was his natural 
 father. Cf. Christologie des Koran, pp. 36-40. His argument is 
 based on the Koran text itself. 
 
46 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 And she pointed to him, and 
 they said, "How are we to 
 speak with one who is in the 
 
 cradle a child?" He said, '■ 
 
 " Veril}^ I am a servant of God ; 
 He has brought me the Book, 
 and He has made me a prophet, 
 and He has made me blessed 
 wherever I be ; and He has 
 required of me prayer and 
 almsgiving as hmg as I live, 
 and piety towards my mother, 
 and has not made me a miser- 
 able tyrant ; and peace upon 
 me the day I was born, and the 
 day I die, and the day I shall 
 be raised up alive." 
 
 His Miracles 
 
 Surah 3 : 43-45. And He will teach him the Book, and wis- 
 dom, and the law, and the gospel, and he shall be a prophet to 
 the people of Israel (saying) that I have come to you with a 
 sign from God, namely, that I will create for you out of clay as 
 though it were the form of a bird, and I will blow thereon, and 
 it shall become a bird by God's permission ; and I will heal the 
 blind from birth, and lepers ; and I will bring the dead to life 
 by God's permission ; and I will tell you what you eat and what 
 you store up in your houses. Verily, in that is a sign for you if 
 ye be believers. And I will confirm what is before ycni of the 
 law, and will surely make lawful for you some of that which 
 was prohibited from you. I have come to you with a sign from 
 your Lord, so fear God and follow me, for God is my Lord, and 
 your Lord, so worship Him : this is the right path. 
 
 And when Jesus perceived their unbelief. He said, " Who are 
 my helpers for God % " Said the apostles, " We are God's helpers," 
 We believe in God, so bear witness that we are resigned. Lord, 
 we have believed in what Thou hast revealed, and we have 
 
HIS LIFE AND DEATH 47 
 
 followed the apostle, so write us down with those which bear 
 witness." ^ 
 
 Surah 5 : 112-115. When the apostles said, "0 Jesus, son of 
 Mary ! is thy Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven ? " 
 He said, " Fear God, if ye be believers " ; and they said, " We 
 desire to eat therefrom that our hearts may be at rest, and that 
 we may know that what thou hast told us is the truth, and that 
 we may be thereby amongst the witnesses." Said Jesus, the son 
 of Mary, " O God, our Lord ! send down to us a table from 
 heaven to be to us as a festival — to the first of us and to the 
 last, and a sign from Thee, — and grant us provision, for Thou 
 art the best of providers." 
 
 God said, "Verily, I am about to send it down to you; but 
 whoso disbelieves amongst you after that, verily I will torment 
 him with the torment which I have not tormented any one with 
 in all tlie worlds." ^ 
 
 His Mission and Message 
 
 Surah 57 : 26-27. And we Surah 2 : 254. These apostles 
 
 sent Noah and Abraham ; and have we preferred one of them 
 
 placed in their seed prophecy above another. Of them is 
 
 and the Book ; and some of one of whom God spake ; and 
 
 them are guided, though many we have raised some of them 
 
 of them are workers of abomi- degrees ; and we have given 
 
 nation ! Jesus the son of Mary manifest 
 
 Then we followed uj) their signs, and strengthened him 
 
 footsteps with our apostles ; by the Holy Spirit. And, did 
 
 and we followed them up with God please, those who come 
 
 Jesus the son of Mary ; and we after them would not have 
 
 gave him the gospel ; and we fought after there came to 
 
 ^ These verses are the only reference in the Koran to the miracles of 
 Jesus Christ. How meagre compared with any of the Gospels ! And 
 yet later tradition has built up on these verses or added to tliem a 
 whole mass of legendary wonders, many of them puerile in the extreme. 
 
 ^ The reference is undoubtedly to the institution of the Lord's 
 Supper. Tlie later explanations, as we shall see, are wide of the mark. 
 Cf. 1 Cor. xi. 27 and 29-34. 
 
48 
 
 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 placed in the hearts of those 
 that followed him kindness and 
 compassion. But monkery, 
 they invented it; we only 
 prescribed to them the craving 
 after the goodwill of God, and 
 they observed it not with due 
 observance. But we gave to 
 those who believe amongst 
 them their hire ; though many 
 amongst them were workers of 
 abomination ! 
 
 them manifest signs. But they 
 did disagree, and of them are 
 some who believe, and of them 
 some who misbelieve, but, did 
 God please, they would not 
 have fought, for God does what 
 He will. 
 
 Surah 5 : 50-51. And we 
 
 followed up the footsteps of 
 these (prophets) with Jesus the 
 son of Mary, confirming that 
 which was before him and the 
 law, and we brought him the 
 gospel, wherein is'i guidance 
 and light, verifying what was 
 before it of the law, and a 
 guidance and an admonition 
 unto those who fear. 
 
 Then let the people of the 
 gospel judge by that which is 
 revealed therein, for whoso 
 will not judge by what God 
 has revealed, these be the evil- 
 doers. 
 
 Surah 2 : 81. We gave Moses 5''^ 
 the Book and we followed him 
 up with other apostles, and we 
 gave Jesus the son of Mary 
 manifest signs and aided him 
 with the Holy Spirit. Do ye 
 then, every time an apostle 
 comes to you with what your 
 souls love not, proudly scorn 
 him, and charge a part with 
 lying and slay a part ? 
 
 Surah 6 : 85. And Zachariah 
 and John and Jesus and Elias, 
 all righteous ones. 
 
 Surah 61 : 6. And when 
 Jesus the son of Mary said, " O 
 children of Israel ! verily, I 
 am the apostle of God to you, 
 verifying the law that was 
 before me, and giving you glad 
 tidings of an apostle who shall 
 
 Surah 4 : 157. And there 
 shall not be one of the people 
 of the Book but shall believe 
 in him before his death ; and 
 on the day of judgment he 
 shall be a witness against them. 
 
HIS LIFE AND DEATH 
 
 49 
 
 come after me, whose name 
 shall be Ahmed." 
 
 Surah 3 : 44. " I have come 
 to you with a sign from your 
 Lord, so fear God and follow 
 me, for God is my Lord, and 
 your Lord, so worship Him — 
 this is the right path." 
 
 His Death 
 
 [The assertion of His death and the denial of His 
 crucifixion are here placed in parallel columns to show 
 a discrepancy in statement which has been the despair 
 even of Moslem commentators.] 
 
 Surah 3:47-50. But they 
 (the Jews) were crafty, and 
 God was crafty, for God is the 
 best of crafty ones ! 
 
 When God said, *' O Jesus ! 
 I will make thee die and take 
 thee up again to me, and will 
 clear thee of those who mis- 
 believe, and will make those 
 who follow thee above those 
 who misbelieve, at the day of 
 judgment, then to me is your 
 return. I will decide between 
 you concerning that wherein 
 ye disagree. And as for those 
 who misbelieve, I will punish 
 them with grievous punish- 
 ment in this world and the 
 next, and they shall have none 
 to help them." But as for 
 those who believe and do what 
 is right, He will pay them 
 
 4 
 
 Surah 4 : 155-156. And for 
 their misbelief, and for their 
 saying about Mary a mighty 
 calumny, and for their saying, 
 "Verily, we have killed the 
 Messiah, Jesus the son of 
 Mary, the apostle of God." . . • 
 But they did not kill him, and 
 they did not crucify him, but a 
 similitude was made for them. 
 And verily, those who differ 
 about him are in doubt con- 
 cerning him ; they have no 
 knowledge concerning him, 
 but only follow an opinion. 
 They did not kill him, for 
 sure ! nay, God raised him up 
 unto Himself. 
 
50 
 
 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 their reward, for God loves not 
 the unjust.^ 
 
 Surah 19 : 34. " And peace 
 upon me the day I was born, 
 and the day I die, and the day 
 I shall be raised up alive." ^ 
 
 His Character as an Apostle and Prophet 
 (Denial of His Deity) 
 
 Surah 4 : 169. O ye people 
 of the Book ! do not exceed in 
 your religion, nor say against 
 God aught save the truth. 
 The Messiah, Jesus the son of 
 Mary, is but the apostle of God 
 and His Word, which He cast 
 into Mary, and a spirit from 
 Him ; believe then in God and 
 His apostles, and say not 
 " Three." Have done ! it were 
 better for you. God is only 
 one God, celebrated be His 
 praise that He should beget a 
 Son ! His is what is in the 
 heavens and what Ms in the 
 earth ; and God sufficeth for a 
 guardian. 
 
 Surah 5 : 116-117. And when 
 God said, "0 Jesus, son of 
 
 Surah 5 : 76-79. They mis- 
 believe who say, " Verily, God 
 is the Messiah the son of 
 Mary ; " but the Messiah said, 
 " children of Israel ! worship 
 God, my Lord and your Lord ; " 
 verily, he who associates aught 
 with God, God hath forbidden 
 him Paradise, and his resort is 
 the Fire, and the unjust shall 
 have none to help him. 
 
 They misbelieve who say, 
 "Verily, God is the third of 
 three ; " for there is no God 
 but one, and if they do not 
 desist from what they say, 
 there shall touch those who 
 misbelieve amongst them 
 grievous woe. 
 
 Will they not turn again 
 towards God and ask pardon 
 
 ^ Beidhawi says on this passage (vol. i. p. 209), after various 
 attempts to escape the ordinary meaning of the words: **Itis said 
 God caused him to die for seven hours and then raised him to heaven." 
 
 2 Beidhawi makes no comment on this clear declaration of the death 
 of Christ. Moslems say it refers to his death after his second coming. 
 
HIS LIFE AND DEATH 
 
 51 
 
 Mary ! is it thou who didst 
 say to men, take me and my 
 mother for two gods, beside 
 God ? " He said, " I celebrate 
 Thy praise ! what ails me that 
 I should say what I have no 
 right to? If I had said it, 
 Thou wouldst have known it ; 
 Thou knowest what is in my 
 soul, but I do not know what 
 is in Thy soul ; verily, Thou 
 are one who knoweth the 
 unseen. I never told them 
 save what Thou didst bid me, 
 — ' Worship God, my Lord and 
 your Lord,' and I was a witness 
 against them as long as I was 
 amongst them ; but when Thou 
 didst take me away to Thyself 
 Thou wert the watcher over 
 them, for Thou art witness 
 over all." 
 
 of Him? for God is forgiving 
 and merciful. 
 
 The Messiah the son of Mary 
 is only a prophet : prophets 
 before him have passed away ; 
 and his mother was a confessor; 
 they both used to eat food. — 
 See how we explain to them 
 the signs, yet see how they 
 turn aside I 
 
 His Character as an Apostle and Prophet ^ 
 
 Surah 19 : 35-36. That is, 
 Jesus the son of Mary, — by 
 the word of truth whereon ye 
 do dispute ! 
 
 God could not take to Him- 
 self any son ! celebrated be 
 His praise ! when He decrees 
 a matter He only says to it, 
 " Be," and it is ; and verily, 
 God is my Lord and your 
 Lord, so worship Him ; this is 
 the right way. And the 
 
 Surah 3: 51-52. That is 
 what we recite to thee of the 
 signs and of the wise reminder. 
 Verily, the likeness of Jesus 
 with God is as the likeness of 
 Adam. He created him from 
 earth, then He said to him, 
 " Be," and he was. 
 
 ^ For a summary of the teaching of these passages see Chapter V. 
 
52 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 parties have disagreed amongst 
 themselves. 
 
 Surah 9 : 30. The Jews say Surah 5 : 19. They mis- 
 Ezra is the son of God ; and believe who say, " Verily, God 
 the Christians say that the is the Messiah the son of 
 Messiah is the son of God ; Mary ; " say, " Who has any 
 that is what they say with hold on God, if he wished to 
 their mouths, imitating the destroy the Messiah the son of 
 sayings of those who mis- Mary, and his mother, and 
 believed before. — God fight those who are on earth 
 them ! how they lie ! altogether ? " 
 
 Surah 47 : 57-64. And when the son of Mary was set forth as 
 a parable, behold thy people turned away from him and said, 
 " Are our gods better, or is he ? " They did not set it forth to 
 thee save for wrangling. Nay, but they are a contentious 
 people. 
 
 He is but a servant whom we have been gracious to, and we 
 have made him an example for the children of Israel. And if 
 we please we can make of you angels in the earth to succeed you. 
 And, verily, he is a sign of the Hour. Doubt not then concern- 
 ing it, but follow this right way ; and let not the devil turn you 
 away ; verily, he is to you an open foe ! 
 
 And when Jesus came with manifest signs, he said, " I am come 
 to you with wisdom, and I will explain to you something of that 
 whereon ye did dispute, then fear God, obey me ; verily, God, 
 He is my Lord and your Lord, serve Him then ; this is the 
 right way." 
 
 Surah 3 : 72-73. And, verily, amongst them is a sect who 
 twist their tongues concerning the Book, that ye may reckon it 
 to be from the Book, but it is not from the Book. They say, 
 " It is from God," but it is not from God, and they tell a lie 
 against God, the while they know. 
 
 It is not right for a man that God should give him a Book and 
 judgment and prophecy, and that then he should say to men. 
 
HIS LIFE AND DEATH 5S 
 
 " Be ye servants of mine rather than of God ; " but be ye rather 
 masters of teaching the Book and of what ye learn. 
 
 The texts above given are the total contents of the 
 Koran as far as they relate to the life of Jesus Christ, 
 and have formed the basis for the traditional account 
 of His life, among Moslems. A study of the Koran 
 commentaries on the texts given will show how 
 later tradition has taken the outlines of Mohammed's 
 revelation and made the picture more real, more full, 
 but also more fantastic. Whatever was unintelligible 
 or contradictory in the words of Mohammed's revelation 
 could only be interpreted and made clear by means of 
 tradition, and this applied not only to the legislative 
 portions of the Koran, but also in its historical 
 material. Tradition in Islam, we must remember, 
 occupies a totally different position to what we under- 
 stand by tradition in the Christian Church.^ Orthodox 
 tradition consists of the record of what Mohammed 
 did or enjoined, or that which he allowed, as well as the 
 authoritative sayings and doings of the companions of the 
 prophet. There is not a single Moslem sect that looks 
 to the Koran as the only rule of faith and practice, or 
 as the only reliable source of historical information 
 on the earlier prophets. Therefore we must necessarily 
 go to tradition for the fuller portrait of Jesus Christ. 
 According to Goldziher, tradition is the normative 
 principle in Islam. "Before the end of the first 
 
 ^ Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, art, "Tradition." 
 
54 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 century," he says, " they had already laid down the 
 canon: The Sunna (tradition) is the judge over the 
 Koran, and not the Koran the judge of the Sunna" ^ 
 and he goes on to show that the authority of tradition 
 increased century after century. 
 
 There is no doubt that much of the traditional 
 account of the life of Jesus Christ came from the lips 
 of Mohammed but was not recorded in the Koran. 
 Other portions of it were accredited to him, although 
 they were the invention or contribution of Christian 
 renegades who became Moslems.^ Students of Islam 
 are in disagreement regarding the reliability of 
 tradition in general and the authenticity of many 
 traditions in particular. While Dozy expresses as- 
 tonishment that so much of Moslem tradition is 
 authentic and reliable,^ Goldziher, on the other hand, 
 thinks the greater part was manufactured by those 
 who came after Mohammed, for private ends in Church 
 and State.* Moulavi Cheragh Ali says, " The name of 
 Mohammed was abused to support all manner of lies 
 and absurdities, or to satisfy the passion, caprice, or 
 arbitrary will of the despots, leaving out of con- 
 sideration the creation of any standards of test. 
 I am seldom inclined to quote traditions, having 
 little or no belief in their genuineness, as they 
 
 ^ Goldziher, Mohammedanische Studien, vol. ii. p. 19. 
 
 ^Jbid., vol. ii. pp. 382-399. 
 
 ^ Essai sur VHistoire de Vlslamisme, p. 12. 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 5, Goldziher. 
 
HIS LIFE AND DEATH 55 
 
 generally are unauthenticated, unsupported, and one- 
 sided." ^ 
 
 When one reads the standard commentaries on the 
 above passages of the Koran, or the net result of their 
 investigations based on tradition, as given in our follow- 
 ing two chapters, it seems impossible to determine in 
 how far we have a portrait of Christ as given by 
 Mohammed himself, or a portrait of Christ by those 
 who followed him. Muir's conclusion is unbiassed, 
 and may well lead us from this chapter into the next. 
 
 "That the Collectors of Tradition rendered an important 
 service to Islam, and even to history, cannot be doubted. The 
 vast flood of tradition, poured forth from every quarter of the 
 Moslem empire, and daily gathering volume from innumerable 
 tributaries, was composed of the most heterogeneous elements ; 
 without the labours of the traditionists it must soon have formed 
 a chaotic sea, in which truth and error, fact and fable, would 
 have mingled together in undistinguishable confusion. It is a 
 legitimate inference from the foregoing sketch, that Tradition, 
 in the second century, embraced a large element of truth. That 
 even respectably derived traditions often contained much that 
 was exaggerated and fabulous, is an equally fair conclusion. 
 
 1 Quoted from Political and Social Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 
 etc. (Bombay, 1883), pp. 19 and 147, in Hughes' Dictionary of Islam. 
 The most voluminous authority quoted in Moslem Tradition is Abu 
 Huraira, known by this surname, " the Father of the little Cat," on 
 account of his fondness for cats. He joined the followers of Mohammed 
 in A.H. 629, and lived with him. More traditions are attributed to 
 him than to any other source. He was renowned for his infallible 
 memory, and yet Moslems themselves raise suspicion in regard to his 
 trustworthiness. Sprenger calls him ' ' the extreme of pious humbug," 
 but we must take into account the fact that most of the sayings which 
 tradition attributes to him were foisted on him probably at a much 
 later di^tQ.— Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 94, art. '* Abu Huraira." 
 
56 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 It is proved by the testimony of the Collectors themselves that 
 thousands and tens of thousands were current in their times, 
 which possessed not even a shadow of authority. The mass may 
 be likened to the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, formed by 
 the unnatural -union of gold, or silver, of the baser metals, and 
 of clay ; and here the more valuable parts were fast commingling 
 hopelessly with the bad." ^ 
 
 ^ Muir, The Life of Mahomet^ vol. i. p. xlii. 
 
Ill 
 
 JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO 
 TRADITION 
 
 67 
 
Low lies the Syrian town behind the mountain 
 "Where Mary, meek and spotless, knelt that morn, 
 
 And saw the splendid Angel by the fountain, 
 And heard his voice, ''Lord Isa shall be born!" 
 
 Arnold's Pearls of the Faith. 
 
 The Christ of post-Koranic tradition is far more life- 
 like than the Christ of the Koran. The latter is a mere 
 lay-figure, bedecked with honorific titles indeed, such 
 as the " Spirit of God and a word proceeding from Him," 
 and working miracles, but displaying no character. In 
 the post- Koranic writers, on the other hand, we have 
 His sinlessness, His return to judgment, His humility, 
 His unworldliness, His sufferings, His doctrine of the 
 New Birth, topics upon which the Koran is entirely 
 silent.— C. H. A. Field in the G. M. S. Review. 
 
Ill 
 
 JESUS CHRIST ACCOKDING TO 
 TRADITION 
 
 FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY 
 
 THE account of the life of Jesus Christ given in 
 this and the next chapter is a connected sum- 
 mary of all that is given by leading commentators and 
 orthodox tradition on the Koran passages of Chapter II. 
 as collected by Imam Abu Ishak Ahmed bin Mohammed 
 bin Ibrahim Eth-ThalabL^ My reasons for using the 
 account of Eth-Thalabi have already been given in the 
 Introduction. There are other accounts, but they are 
 largely parallel, and Eth-Thalabi, who was himself a 
 commentator on the Koran of some reputation, based 
 his work on traditions which are universally acknow- 
 ledged as authoritative by most Moslems. The trans- 
 lation given is as far as possible literal, although some 
 few passages are omitted because characterised by the 
 crude indecency which so often occurs in Moslem 
 
 ^ The work of Thalabi was made the thesis for his doctoral degree 
 by Lidzbarski. He investigated the sources of all the legends found 
 iu it, and gives special references. His work is entitled De Propheticis 
 . . . legendis Ardbicis. Leipzig, Drugulin, 1893. 
 
 59 
 
60 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 literature. I have also omitted the long preliminary 
 account found in Kusus-al-Anhiah on Zechariah and the 
 family of Amran, as not strictly germane to our topic. 
 
 Although no footnotes are given, the authority for 
 every statement and story can easily be found in 
 Beidhawi, Zamakhshari, etc., under the appropriate 
 Koran passages. 
 
 On the Birth of Jesus {upon whom he peace) and on 
 Marys Conception of Jesus {on both of them he peace)} 
 
 Said God Most High, and it is recorded in the Book 
 " that Mary when she separated from her people, went 
 to an eastward place." In explanation of this the 
 learned say that when three days had passed since 
 Mary conceived Jesus, — and she was at that time a 
 girl of fifteen years old, and some say thirteen years 
 old, — she dwelt in a mosque ; and there was with her 
 in the mosque her cousin, named Joseph the carpenter, 
 and he was a sweet-tempered man, who earned his 
 living by his trade. And Joseph and Mary were also 
 servants of the mosque as water-carriers, and when 
 Mary had emptied her water-jar and Joseph his, each 
 of them took the jar and went to a cave where the 
 water-spring was, to draw water. And then they 
 returned to the Mosque. 
 
 And when the day came on which Gabriel (upon 
 whom be peace) encountered her, it was the longest 
 
 ^ A translation of the life of Jesus Christ from Kusus-al-Anhiah, by 
 Imam Abu Ishak Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Ibrahim Eth-Thalabi. 
 The account of the birth and life of Jesus Christ is found in this work 
 on pp. 241-255, Cairo edition, 1325 a.h. 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 61 
 
 day of the year and the hottest. She, wheu her 
 water-jar was emptied, said, "Will you not go with 
 me, Joseph, and we will draw water ? " He said, 
 " I still have abundance of water sufficient until 
 to-morrow ; " but she said, " But as for me, by God, I 
 have no water." So she took her jar and went away 
 alone until she entered the cave. And she found there 
 with her Gabriel (upon whom be peace), and God had 
 made him resemble a beautiful young man. And he 
 said to her, " O Mary, truly God hath sent me to you 
 that I may give you a pious child." Said she, " I take 
 refuge with the merciful One from you if you are an 
 honest person," that is, a true believer, obedient to God. 
 
 'Ali bin Abi Talib ^ says (may God be gracious to his 
 countenance) she knew that the pious person was 
 merciful and modest, and she considered him a man of 
 the sons of Adam.^ 
 
 Akrima says that Gabriel appeared to her in the 
 form of a beautiful young man of fine countenance, with 
 curly hair and an erect form. And the learned say 
 that God sent Gabriel in the form of a human being 
 that Mary might have confidence in him and be able 
 to hear his words, for if he had come down in his angel 
 
 1 The reference to those wlio are authority for the various and 
 sometimes contradictory traditions are introduced in Moslem 
 literature by these words : " Ali bin Abi Talib said, Abu Huraira said, 
 Katada said, etc." We have not thought it worth while to give a 
 biographical note in every case. Those interested can consult Ihn 
 Khallikan. 
 
 2 Cf. footnote on page 44. 
 
62 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 form, she would have been terrified and have fled from 
 him and not been able to hear his message. 
 
 And when Mary said, " I take refuge from you," he 
 said unto her, " Verily I am the apostle of thy Lord to 
 give you a pious child." Said she, " Shall there be to 
 me a child, and no one has touched me, and I have 
 committed no folly ? " Said he, " That is true, but thy 
 Lord finds a miracle easy ; " and when he said that, 
 she submitted to the decree of God. And he breathed 
 in the opening of her chemise ; and she had taken it 
 off ; and when he departed from her, Mary put it on, 
 and so she conceived Jesus, on whom be peace. Then 
 she filled her water-jar and went back to the mosque. 
 
 Here follows an indecent explanation at considerable 
 length. Its character may be indicated in a footnote 
 from another source.^ 
 
 Then she went to an eastward place, because it was 
 in the winter, the shortest day of the year. Hasan 
 says in relation to this tradition that therefore the 
 
 ^ As-Suhaili states that in "She guarded her/ar/," God intended 
 hy farj the opening of her shirt ; that is to say, there was no suspicion 
 attached to her dress, she being clean in her clothes. The openings 
 (faruj) of a shirt are four, namely, the two sleeves and the upper and 
 under parts. Do not let your thoughts take you to any other than 
 this meaning, this being an excellent metaphor, for the Kur'an is too 
 pure in meaning, too laconic in words, too delicate in suggestions, and 
 too beautiful in expressions, to intend that to which the imagination 
 of the ignorant may lead, especially as the breathing (into her) of the 
 spirit of sanctity was by the order of the Holy One, so that sanctity 
 joined with the Holy One, and the sanctified one (Mary) thus became 
 free from any false thought and suspicion (about her). — Ad-Damiri's 
 Ray at Al-Hayawan^ p. 521. 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 63 
 
 Christians worship toward the east, because Mary- 
 went to an Eastward place when she met Gabriel. 
 And there was with her at the time, they say, a 
 relative of her's, called Joseph the carpenter, and they 
 were employed in the mosque which was near Mount 
 Zion; and this mosque at that time was one of the 
 largest of their places of worship, and Mary and Joseph 
 did service there which was of great reward, namely, 
 keeping it in order and purifying it. And there were 
 not known at that time people who were more diligent 
 or more worshipful than these two. 
 
 And the first one who doubted her because she had 
 conceived a son was her relative and friend, Joseph 
 the carpenter. And when he marvelled and was sur- 
 prised, and did not know what to do in regard to her, he 
 spoke to her concerning the matter.^ Said El Kelbi : 
 
 * We condense here again and quote from the French translation of 
 Mirkhond's Bauzat-us-Safa, by Lamairesse : — 
 
 " Le charpentier Yusuf (Joseph), son cousin du cote maternel, 
 s'aper9ut le premier de la grossesse de Mariana. II venait habituelle- 
 ment adorer dans le Ville Sainte et a I'occasion causait avec Marie. 
 Fort afflige, il lui dit un jour : * J'ai sur ta piete et sur ta devotion 
 un soup^on dont je desire te faire part.' 'Soit,' repondit Marie. 
 Yusuf reprit : * A-t-on jamais obtenu recolte sans semence ? A-t-on 
 jamais eu une semence qui ne provint pas d'une moisson 1 ' Mariam 
 replique : *Si tu admets que Dieu a cree une moisson, elle est venue 
 sans semence ; si tu crois qu'il a cree une semence, celle-ci n'est pas 
 parvenue d'une moisson ; si tu admets que Dieu a cree en meme temps 
 la moisson et la semence, aucune des deux ne provient de I'autre.' 
 Yusuf demanda ensuite : ' A-t-il jamais existe un enfant sans pere ? ' 
 'Oui,' repondit Marie, * et meme sans une mere. Adam et five 
 n'eurent ni pere ni mere.' Yusuf ne contesta pas, mais il ajouta : 
 * Mes questions etaient purement philosophiques, maintenant, 
 pardonne ma hardiesse et apprends-moi comment tu es devenue 
 
64 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Joseph the carpenter afterwards took Mary and Jesus 
 to a cave, and caused them to enter, and she lived there 
 for forty days. Then after she had brought forth her 
 child, she left the cave and walked on the road ; and 
 Jesus spake to her and said, " my mother, all hail to 
 thee ! because I am the servant of God and His 
 Messiah." And when she came to her people, and the 
 young child was with her, they wept and were sorrow- 
 ful, because they were pious folk, saying, "0 Mary! 
 you have done great wickedness and abomination, 
 sister of Aaron." Katada said that Aaron was a pious 
 man, of the upright of the children of Israel, and this 
 was not Aaron the brother of Moses. And it is related 
 that he followed the funeral on a certain day when 
 40,000 of the children of Israel died, all of whom were 
 named Aaron ! But Wahab said that Aaron was one of 
 the most corrupt of the children of Israel and taught 
 them corrupt practices, and that is why they compared 
 Mary to Aaron, saying, " Your father Amran was not 
 wicked, and your mother was not a transgressor nor 
 impure; whence, then, is there come to you this 
 child ? " 
 
 Then Mary told them to talk to Jesus, and they grew 
 angry and said, "How can we speak to him who is 
 in the cradle, a little child ? " Wahab says that then 
 Zachariah came to her, when she showed herself to 
 
 grosse.' Marie repondit : 'Allah m'a fait savoir qu'il enverrait au 
 monde son Verbe, procedant de lui-meme, le Messie Isa, fils de 
 Miriam.'"— pp. 290-291. 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 65 
 
 the Jews, and said to Jesus, " Speak up, and give us 
 your argument if you are so commanded." And at 
 that instant Jesus (upon Him be peace), and He was 
 only forty days old, said, " Verily, I am the servant of 
 God to whom He has given a wonderful Book." And 
 by saying this He confessed that He worshipped 
 God and proved that Christians are liars, and 
 established His argument against them. Amru bin 
 Maimun said that when Mary came to her people with 
 Jesus, they took up stones and tried to stone her, but 
 when Jesus spake, they left her alone. It is also said 
 that after this Jesus did not speak again until He was 
 of the ordinary age of children who begin to talk. And 
 God knows best. 
 
 On the Departure of Mary to Egypt.— Said God Most 
 High in the Koran : We have made the son of Mary 
 and His mother a sign, and given them refuge for a 
 time and a resting-place appointed. They say that 
 the birth of Jesus took place forty-two years after the 
 beginning of the reign of Augustus, and fifty-one years 
 had passed of the Kingdom of the Ashkanin, the kings 
 of the tribes. And the kingdom at that time was in the 
 hands of the kings of these tribes, and the sovereignty of 
 Syria and its provinces was to Caesar, the king of Eome. 
 And the ruler of the provinces on behalf of Csesar was 
 Herod. And when Herod the king heard the news of 
 Christ, he desired to kill Him, and it was because they 
 had looked at a star, and they knew by their reckonings 
 to what this referred, from a book which they had. 
 5 
 
66 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Then God sent an angel to Joseph the carpenter, and 
 told him what Herod desired to do, and commanded 
 him to flee with the young child and His mother into 
 Egypt ; and God revealed also to Mary that she should 
 go to Egypt : " For if Herod gets hold of your son, he 
 will kill him, but when Herod dies, return then to 
 your country." Then Joseph put Mary and his son 
 upon a donkey which he had, until they came to 
 Egypt, and this was the place which God spoke of 
 in His Book. 'Abdullah bin Salaam said that the 
 place where they took refuge was Damascus ; Abu 
 Huraira says it was Eamleh ; and Kitada says it 
 was Jerusalem. Kaab says it was that part of the 
 world which is nearest heaven, and Abu Zaid says 
 it was Egypt; Dhahak said it was the plain of 
 Damascus, etc. etc. 
 
 Mary remained in Egypt twelve years, spinning 
 cotton and gleaning after the reapers. And she was 
 gleaning after the reapers, and when she gleaned, 
 she carried Jesus on one of her shoulders and her 
 gleaning basket on the other till He was twelve years 
 old. And it is related that Mohammed the son of 
 Ali el Bakir said : When Jesus was born and He was a 
 day old, it was as though He was a month old ; and 
 when He was nine months old, His mother took Him 
 by the hand and led Him to the school and placed 
 Him between the hands of the teacher; and the 
 teacher said to Him, " Say, Bismillah er-rahman er 
 rahiin" Then Jesus said it. The teacher said, " Say 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 67 
 
 Ahjad." 1 Then Jesus (upon whom be peace) lifted up 
 His head and said to him, " Do you know what Abjad 
 means ? " Then the teacher lifted up his rod to strike 
 Him, and Jesus said, " teacher ! do not strike me if 
 you know ; if you do not know, ask me, so that I can 
 explain it to you." When the teacher said, " Explain 
 it to me." And Jesus said, ^'Alif means that there is 
 no God but God ; the ha stands for the glory of God ; 
 the jim for the majesty of God ; and the dal for the 
 religion of God. Hawwaz : Ha stands for hell, and the 
 loaw stands for woe to the people of the fire, and the 
 za stands for their groanings in hell. Hatta signifies 
 that their sins can never be forgiven. Kalman signifies 
 the Word of God Uncreated and Unchangeable. 
 Safas signifies measure for measure and part for part. 
 Karshat signifies that God will collect them at the 
 time of the resurrection." Then the teacher said to 
 His mother, " Woman, take thy child, for He knows 
 everything and does not need a teacher." 
 
 According to another tradition it is related that 
 the prophet of God said: Verily, Jesus, when His 
 mother sent Him to be taught, and the teacher said to 
 Him, " Say Bismillah," replied, " What is Bismillah ? " 
 and the teacher said, " I do not know." Jesus said, 
 " The ha is the Glory of God, and the sin is the sub- 
 
 ^ Abjad, the first word in a mnemonic series containing the Arabic 
 alphabet, following the ancient or numerical order, and used as 
 numerals by the Arabs until superseded by later notation. Each 
 word in the series is here interpreted fancifully with a play on the 
 Arabic root. 
 
68 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 limity of God, and the mim is the kingdom of God 
 Most High and Exalted," etc. etc. 
 
 On the Form and Figure of Jesus {upon Him he 
 peace). — Said Kaab: Jesus, the son of Mary, was a 
 ruddy man, inclining towards white. His hair was 
 not lank, and He never oiled it. He went bare-footed ; 
 and He never owned a place, or a change of garments, 
 or property or vesture or provisions, except His daily 
 bread. And whenever the sun began to set, He would 
 kneel and pray until the morning. He was in the 
 habit of healing the sick and the lepers, and raising 
 the dead by the will of God. He could tell those 
 about Him what they ate in their houses, and what 
 they laid up against the morrow. He walked on the 
 face of the water on the sea. He had dishevelled 
 hair, and His face was small. He was an ascetic in 
 this world and greatly desirous of the world to come ; 
 diligent in serving God. And He was a wanderer in 
 the earth till the Jews sought Him and desired to 
 kill Him. Then God lifted Him up to heaven, and 
 God knows best. 
 
 Concerning the signs and wonders which were mani- 
 fested hy the hand of Jesus in His youth until He 
 became a prophet. — Wahab said that the first miracle of 
 Jesus which people saw was as follows: His mother 
 was living in the house of the ruler in Egypt where 
 Joseph the carpenter left her, and this was the house 
 where the poor congregated. Money was stolen from 
 the treasury of the ruler, and the poor did not care. 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 69 
 
 And Mary was grieved by this occurrence. Now 
 when Jesus saw the sorrow of His mother at what had 
 happened to their host, He said, " my mother ! do 
 you wish that I should show him where his property 
 is ? " And she said, " Yes, my son." He said to her, 
 " Say to him that he gather together all the poor in his 
 courtyard." So Mary told the ruler to gather the poor 
 together ; and when they were collected Jesus pointed 
 out two men. One of them was blind and the other 
 was lame. He put the lame man upon the back of 
 the blind man and said to him, " Get up ! " and the 
 blind man said, " I am too weak to do it." Then Jesus 
 said to him, " How were you able to do it yesterday ? " 
 And when they heard that, they struck the blind man 
 till he got up. And when he got up, the lame man 
 showed him the way to the treasure house. And 
 Jesus said to the ruler, " Thus they played the trick 
 upon the owner of the property yesterday; because 
 the blind man helped with his strength and the lame 
 man with his eyes." Then the blind man and the lame 
 man said, " He speaks the truth, by God " ; and they 
 returned his property to the ruler, and he received it 
 and put it in the treasury ; and said, " Mary ! take 
 half of it." And she said, " I am not poor enough for 
 that." Then said the ruler, "Give it to your son"; 
 and she said, " He is greater in dignity than I am." 
 
 Not long after the ruler desired to have the marriage 
 of his son take place, so he made a feast and collected 
 all the people of Egypt and fed them for two months. 
 
70 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 And when it was finished, certain people from Syria 
 came to see him, and he did not know of their coming 
 until they came down upon him. And on that day 
 he had no drink for them. And when Jesus saw his 
 anxiety on this account, He entered some of the 
 chambers of the ruler in which there were rows of jars, 
 and He passed by them one by one, touching them 
 with His hand ; and every time He touched one it was 
 filled with drink until He came to the last one. And 
 He was at that time twelve years old. 
 
 Es Sadi said concerning another miracle of Jesus 
 (upon Him be peace) : When He was in school with 
 His playmates, He told them what their fathers were 
 eating. He would say, for example, to one of the 
 boys, " Go home, for your people are doing thus and 
 thus ; and they are eating so and so ; or, they have 
 prepared for you this and this." Then the boy would 
 run home to his people and cry until they gave him 
 what they had been eating. Then they said to him, 
 " Who told you of it ? " and he said, " Jesus." So they 
 kept their boys away from Him, and said, " Do not play 
 with this sorcerer." And when they were gathered 
 together in a house, Jesus came seeking them. And 
 they said, " They are not here ; " and He said, " What 
 is there in this house ? " They said, " Swine ; " said 
 He, " Let it be so." And when they opened the door 
 the boys had turned into swine. And when this was 
 noised abroad the children of Israel understood that 
 He was a prophet. And when His mother was afraid 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 71 
 
 for His life, she put Him upon a donkey and carried 
 Him up to Egypt. 
 
 Another miracle : said Es Sadi, When Jesus and 
 His mother went out on their wanderings throughout 
 the earth, they came to the land of Israel and 
 alighted in a village at the house of a man who enter- 
 tained them as his guests and was kind to them. 
 The king at that time was a mighty man and an 
 oppressor. So one day their host came in greatly 
 worried and sorrowful, and he entered his house, and 
 Mary was then sitting with his wife. So she said to 
 her, " What is the matter with your husband, for I see 
 him sad of countenance ? " and she said, " Do not ask 
 me." And Mary said, " Tell me, for perhaps by my 
 hand his sorrow will be lightened." And she said, " We 
 have a king who puts a burden upon every man of us 
 in his turn, because he compels us to feed and to give 
 wine to him and his soldiers on a certain day ; and if 
 he does not do it, he punishes him. To-day it is our 
 turn, and we have no sufficiency." Said Mary, " Say to 
 him, ' Do not be anxious at all, for he has been kind to 
 us, and I will command my son that He make supplica- 
 tion for him, and it will suffice him.' " Then Mary told 
 Jesus. And Jesus said, " If I do it, evil will befall." 
 Mary said, " We do not care, because he w^as kind to us 
 and honoured us." Said Jesus, " Then say to him that 
 he bring together and fill up all his vessels and pots 
 with water, and then come and tell me." So he did so, 
 and called Jesus. Then the water in the vessels was 
 
72 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 changed into meat and gravy, and the water in the pots 
 was changed into wine such as men had never tasted 
 before. So when the king came, be ate and drank 
 and asked, " Whence is this wine ? " And they said to 
 him, " From such and such a country." Said the king, 
 " My wine comes from the same country, but it is not as 
 good as this." Then they mentioned another country, 
 and when this again was a mistake and the king be- 
 came suspicious, he said, " Tell me the truth " ; and he 
 said, " I will tell you. There is with me a young man 
 who never asks God for anything but He gives it to 
 Him. He asked God Most High, and He made the 
 water, wine." 
 
 Now this king had a son whom he desired to be 
 his successor ; and he had died some days previous, 
 and the king loved him more than anyone else. So 
 he said, " If there is a man who can ask God to make 
 water into wine, let him make intercession so that 
 my son may live again." So they called Jesus and 
 spoke to Him concerning this. And Jesus said to 
 him, "Do not do it, because if he lives again, evil 
 will befall you." The king said, " I do not care, if 
 only I can see him." And Jesus said to him, "If I 
 make him live for you, will you allow me and my 
 mother to go where we please ? " And he said, " Yes." 
 So Jesus called upon God, and the young man came 
 to life. And when the people of the kingdom saw 
 that his son was alive, they got together their 
 weapons and said, " This one has devoured us, and 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 73 
 
 now when his death is near, he desires to have his 
 son rule over us, who will also devour us as his 
 father did." So they killed them, but Jesus and 
 his mother went away. 
 
 Said Wahab: While Jesus was playing with his 
 playmates, one of them jumped upon another and 
 kicked him with his feet till he died. So they threw 
 him between the arms of Jesus, and He was covered 
 with blood; and when the people came upon them, 
 they took notice of it and carried Him to the Kadi 
 of Egypt, and said to him, " This boy has killed the 
 other." So the Kadi asked Him, and Jesus said, " I 
 do not know who killed him, and I am not his 
 companion." They desired to fall upon Jesus (upon 
 Him be peace), and He said to them, " Bring me the 
 boy who was killed"; and they said, "What do you 
 wish to do with him ? " He said, " I wish to ask him 
 who killed him." Said they, " How can he speak to 
 you when he is dead ? " They took Jesus and brought 
 Him to the place where the boy was killed; and 
 when Jesus offered a prayer, God raised him from 
 the dead, and Jesus said to him, " Who killed you ? " 
 The boy said, " So and so." Then the children of Israel 
 said, " Who is this ? " and he said, " This is Jesus, the 
 son of Mary." And they said, "Who is that with 
 Him?" and he said, "The judge of the children of 
 Israel." Immediately he died again. Then Jesus 
 went back with His mother, and a great multitude 
 followed Him. And His mother said, " Shall I defend 
 
74 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 you from them ? And he said, " God will keep us, 
 and He is the Most Merciful." 
 
 Another miracle. Said 'Atta: When Mary took 
 Jesus, after He left school, to various workmen to 
 learn His trade, the last to whom she gave Him 
 were dyers. And she put Him with the chief dyer 
 to learn the trade. So he brought together different 
 coloured garments. Then he said to Jesus, " Now you 
 have learned this part of your trade, and I am going 
 out on a journey. I will not return for ten days. 
 These garments are a different colour, and you have 
 learned how each is to be dyed. When I come back, 
 I hope the work will be finished." So Jesus (upon 
 whom be peace) prepared one kind of dye, and put 
 all the garments in it, and said to them, "By the 
 permission of God Most High, be ye as I order. 
 And when the dyer came back and found all the 
 garments in one vessel, he said to Jesus, " What have 
 you done ? " He said, " I have finished the work." 
 The dyer replied, ''Where?" He said, "In this 
 vessel." Said the dyer, " All of them ? " Jesus said, 
 "Yes." "How is it possible for them all to be in 
 one vessel ? You have spoiled the garments." Said 
 Jesus, " Pdse and see." So he arose ; and Jesus pulled 
 out a yellow garment, a green garment, a red garment, 
 etc., according to the desire of the dyer. And he was 
 astonished, and knew it was from God most great 
 and glorious ; and he said to the people, " Come and 
 see what Jesus has done." So he and his friends 
 
HIS BIRTH AND LIFE 75 
 
 believed in Him, and these his friends became the 
 apostles. And God knows best.^ 
 
 Concerning the return of Mary and Jesus {upon them 
 he peace) to their own country after the death of Herod. — 
 Wahab said that when Herod the king died twelve 
 years after the birth of Jesus (upon Him be peace), 
 God Most High revealed to Mary the news of the 
 death of Herod and commanded her to return with 
 her cousin Joseph the carpenter to Syria. So Jesus 
 and His mother (upon them be peace) returned and 
 dwelt in the mountains of Galilee, in the village of 
 Nazareth. From this the Nasara (Christians) get 
 their name. And Jesus used to learn in one hour 
 the knowledge of a day, and in a day the knowledge 
 of a month, and in a month the knowledge of a 
 year. And when He had completed his thirtieth 
 year, God revealed to Him that He must manifest 
 Himself before men and call them to God; and 
 speak parables to them, and heal their sick and 
 palsied and their blind ; and should tame and subdue 
 
 1 Another miracle of the boyhood days of Jesus is given as follows : 
 "While Jesus, the son of Mary, and John, the son of Zacharias, 
 were once going together, they saw a wild she-goat (or ewe) in labour, 
 upon which Jesus said to John, * Say these words, "Hanna (Hannah) 
 gave birth to John, and Mary gave birth to Jesus ; the earth calls 
 thee, young one, come forth, O young one ! " ' Hammad b. Zaid 
 states that if these words are uttered near any woman in labour in a 
 tribe, she will not be long in delivering by the order of God. John 
 (Yahya) was the first one to believe in Jesus ; they were the sons of 
 (each other's) maternal aunts, and the former was older than the 
 latter by six months ; John was killed before the translation of Jesus 
 to heaven." — Ad-Damiri's Hayat-Al-Hayawan, p. 111. 
 
76 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 those possessed of devils, and they died for fear of 
 Him. So He did what was commanded Him; and 
 men loved Him, and turned to Him and were pleased 
 with Him; and the number of those that followed 
 Him increased, and His reputation became great, and 
 perchance there collected around Him of the sick 
 and palsied in one hour, fifty thousand. And every 
 one who could get to Him, went to Him, and who- 
 soever was not able, Jesus went to them. And He 
 healed them by prayer on condition of faith. And 
 the prayer by which He healed the sick and raised 
 the dead is as follows : God ! Thou art the God who 
 art in heaven and the God who art on earth. There 
 is no God in them save Thee; and Thou art the 
 Strong One in the heavens and the Strong One upon 
 earth, and there is no Strong One save Thee. And 
 Thou art the King of all who are in heaven and 
 the King of those who are on earth, and there is 
 no king in them save Thee. Thou art the Euler in 
 heaven and the Ruler upon earth, and there is no 
 Ruler in them save Thee. Thy power on earth is as 
 Thy power in heaven, and Thy authority in heaven 
 is as Thy authority on earth. I ask Thee by Thy 
 names most gracious, for Thou art all-powerful.^ 
 
 ^ All of the above is translated from the Arabic text of Eth-Thalabi. 
 
IV 
 
 JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO 
 TRADITION 
 
 n 
 
"Traditions can never be considered as at all reliable 
 unless they are traceable to some common origin, have 
 descended to us by independent witnesses, and corre- 
 spond with the statements of the Koran itself— always of 
 course deducting such texts as (which is not infrequently 
 the case) have themselves given rise to the tradition. It 
 soon becomes obvious to the reader of Muslim traditions 
 and commentators that both miracles and historical 
 events have been invented for the sake of expounding a 
 dark and perplexing text ; and that even the earlier tradi- 
 tions are largely tinged with the mythical element. " — 
 J. M. RoDWELL, Introduction to Koran Translation, 
 p. 7. 
 
 "The Cross of Christ is the missing link in the Mus- 
 lim's creed ; for we have in Islam the great anomaly of a 
 religion which rejects the doctrine of a sacrifice for sin, 
 whilst its great central feast is a Feast of Sacrifice." — 
 T. H. Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, p. 233. 
 
 78 
 
IV 
 
 JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO 
 TRADITION 
 
 HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY TO HIS SECOND COMING 
 
 BEFORE we pass on to the continuation of Eth-Tha- 
 labi's account, it is important to remember that 
 the death of Jesus Christ is both affirmed and denied in 
 the Koran. In order to unify its teaching, the only 
 escape possible was to affirm that although He died for 
 a few hours or days, He was not crucified. In addition 
 to this, Moslems add that when He comes the second 
 time He will die again, emphasizing, as it were, the 
 frailty of His human nature, which, even after His 
 return from glory, is subject to death ; and so contra- 
 dicting all the teaching of the New Testament that 
 " He died for sin once," and " death hath no more 
 dominion over Him." We take up Thalabi once more : 
 The Story of Jesus Disciples.-— Seiid God Most High 
 (in the Koran), When Jesus called them back from 
 infidelity. He said, " Who are my helpers for God ? " 
 Then the disciples said, " We are your helpers for God. 
 
 79 
 
80 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 We have believed in God, and we bear witness that we 
 are Moslems." And said God Most Glorious and 
 Praiseworthy, When it was revealed to the disciples, 
 that is, they were inspired to know, that they should 
 believe in Him and in His apostle, they said, *'We 
 have believed and we witness that we are Moslems. 
 Know that the disciples were the chosen of Jesus, the 
 son of Mary, and His favourites; those in whom He 
 was pleased, and His helpers and viziers. They were 
 twelve in number, and their names were : Simon, the 
 yellow one (pale), who was called Peter, and Andrew 
 his brother ; James, the son of Zebedee, and Yahya his 
 brother; Philip and Bartholomew and Thomas and 
 Matthew, the toll-gatherer; James the son of Haifa, 
 and Liya (Levi) who was called Thaddeus, and Simon 
 the Canaanite, and Jude Iscariot (upon them be peace)." 
 And the learned men are disagreed as to why they had 
 these names.^ Said Ibn 'Abbas : They were fishermen 
 who plied their trade, and Jesus passed by them and 
 said to them, " What are you doing ? " and they said, 
 " We are catching fish." And He said, " Will you not 
 walk with me, so that we may catch men ? " And 
 they said to Him, "How is that?" And He said, 
 " We will call the people to God." They said, " Who 
 
 ^ The apostles are not called rusul as Mohammed is called rasill 
 (apostle), but Eawari (Surah 3 : 4, 5 ; 4 : 111, 112 ; 61 : 14). The word 
 is derived from the iEthiopic hora = to go, hawarxja, an apostle. 
 According to Beidhawi it comes from hawira^ to be white, and was 
 given to the disciples of Jesus because of their purity of life and sincer- 
 ity. Others say because they wore white garments or dyed them white. 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 81 
 
 art Thou?" And He said, ''I am Jesus, the son of 
 Mary, and servant of God, and His apostle." And they 
 said, " Will any of the prophets be above Thee ? " And 
 He said, " Yes, the Arabian prophet." So they followed 
 Him, and believed in Him, and departed with Him. 
 
 Said Sa'di : They were sailors. Ibn Artat said : They 
 were dyers, and they were called by their name, 
 Hawari, because they dyed garments and made them 
 white. 
 
 It hath been told us by Ibn Fatuh in his tradition 
 received from Mass'ab, that the disciples were twelve 
 men who followed Jesus ; and when they were hungry 
 they said, " Spirit of God ! we are hungry." Then He 
 would strike with His hand upon the ground, whether 
 it was a plain or a mountain, and there would come 
 forth to every man of them two loaves, and they would 
 eat them. And when they were thirsty they would 
 say, " Spirit of God ! we are thirsty." And He would 
 strike the earth, whether it was a plain or a mountain, 
 and water would gush forth, and they would drink. 
 Then they said, " Spirit of God ! who is happier than 
 we : when we wish, Thou dost feed us, and when we 
 are desirous. Thou dost give us drink, and we believe in 
 Thee and have followed Thee." Said Jesus, " The best 
 of you is he who works with his hands and eats what 
 he has earned." So it is related that they began to 
 make clothes for their living. 
 
 Said Ibn 'Aun : One of the kings of the earth made 
 a feast and invited the people, and Jesus was one of the 
 6 
 
82 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 guests. And the repast did not grow less. Then the king 
 said to Him, " Who art Thou ? " and He said, " I am 
 Jesus, the son of Mary." Said the king, " I will leave 
 my kingdom and follow Thee." So he departed with 
 those that followed Him, and they were the disciples. 
 And some say this was the dyer and his friends, whose 
 story we have already related. Said Dhahak: They 
 were called Hawariyun (disciples) because of the purity 
 of their hearts. And said 'Abdullah ibn Mubarak: 
 They were so called because they were luminous with 
 light. On them was the sign of worship, its brightness 
 and its purity. And the old meaning of Hut among 
 the Arabs is intensity of whiteness. And Hassan said : 
 The disciples were the helpers ; and Katada said : They 
 are the ones who became the caliphs after Christ. 
 [Here the author quotes Mohammed as saying that 
 every apostle had his disciples, and then goes into a 
 discussion as to who were the disciples {HawariyHn) 
 of Mohammed.] 
 
 An account of the special characteristics of Jesus {upon 
 Him he peace), and the miracles which came from His 
 hand after His call until He was lifted up {God's blessing 
 be upon Him). — Among His special characteristics was 
 this, that God strengthened Him by the Holy Spirit. 
 Said the Book of God : And We strengthened Him by 
 the Holy Spirit. A similar expression is used in the 
 Surah of the Table when God said, O Jesus, son of 
 Mary, remember My mercy upon Thee and upon Thy 
 mother when We strengthened thee with the Holy 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 83 
 
 Spirit. And the learned are disagreed in regard to the 
 significance of these words. Eabi'a said : It is the Spirit 
 which was breathed upon Him, which is related to God 
 Himself in the same sense as we use the words House 
 of God and Camel of God in the Koran. And the Holy- 
 One He is God Most High, as is indicated by the 
 expression " Spirit from Him " and the expression " We 
 breathed in Him of our Spirit." Others say that the 
 significance of Holy is purity, the Pure Spirit. And 
 Jesus (upon Him be peace) was called a Spirit because 
 He had no male parent. He was not born after the 
 manner of other men [the expressions here used are 
 unfit for translation], but He was created by the com- 
 mand of God. Kaab and Sadi, however, say that the 
 Holy Spirit is Gabriel, and that Jesus was strengthened 
 by Gabriel's presence because he was His companion 
 and His helper, going with Him wherever He went 
 until He took Him up to heaven. And Seyyid, the son 
 of Jabir, and Obeid, the son of Amir, state, The Holy 
 Spirit is the name of God Most High, and by it Jesus 
 raised the dead and showed men these wonders. 
 
 And among his characteristics was that God taught 
 Him the Gospel and the Torah, and He read them from 
 memory, as God said in His book, " When we taught 
 you the book," namely, by memory. It is said that 
 memory consists of ten parts, and that Jesus possessed 
 nine of them, as well as wisdom and a knowledge of the 
 Torah and the Gospel. 
 
 And among His characteristics was that He created 
 
84 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 birds from clay, as God Most High said, Truly I have 
 come to you with a sign from your Lord. I will create 
 for you from clay the appearance of birds; I will 
 breathe upon them and they will fly, by permission of 
 God. And in accordance with this word of the Koran 
 Jesus fashioned clay into the form of birds, and then 
 He breathed upon them and they were birds, by per- 
 mission of God. And He only created bats. And He 
 selected this variety because the bat is the most perfect 
 of birds in its powers, because it suckles its young, and 
 gives birth to them, and has teeth, and is a mammal, 
 and flies. Wahab said the birds would fly while men 
 looked at them, and when they disappeared from sight 
 they fell down, to distinguish the work of a mere man 
 from the work of God Most High ; and that it might 
 be known that the only one who is perfect is God Most 
 High. 
 
 And among His characteristics was that He cured 
 the blind from birth and lepers, as God said in His 
 book. And Thou shalt heal the blind and lepers, by 
 My permission. And these two special diseases were 
 selected because physicians could not cure them; and 
 as medicine was the most celebrated science in the 
 days of Jesus, He showed them a miracle after this 
 sort. And it is related that Jesus (upon Him be 
 peace) passed by a village in which there were blind 
 people, and He said, Who are these? They told 
 Him, These are people who sought for justice, and 
 they put out their eyes with their own hands. And 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETUKN 85 
 
 Jesus said to them, " What made you do it ? " and they 
 said, " We feared the punishment of the judge, so we 
 did it ourselves, as you see." And He said to them, 
 " Ye are the learned, and the judges, and the advocates 
 and the noble are the ignorant. Now wipe your 
 eyes with your hands and say ' Bismillah '" ; and they 
 did so, and immediately all of them had their sight. 
 
 And among His characteristics was raising of the 
 dead by the permission of God. As God said, And 
 when Thou dost come, the dead come forth by My 
 permission. And among the dead whom He raised was 
 Lazarus, His friend. His sister sent to Jesus, saying, 
 Your brother Lazarus is dying; so He came to him. 
 And He was three days' journey away from him, and 
 when He and His friends came, they found that he 
 had already died three days ago. And He said to his 
 sister, Depart with us to his grave; and it was in 
 a rock built up like a tomb. Then Jesus said, 
 God ! Lord of the seven heavens and the three 
 earths, verily, Thou hast sent me to the children 
 of Israel to call them to Thy religion, and Thou 
 hast told them that I can raise the dead by Thy 
 permission, so raise up Lazarus. Then Lazarus arose 
 and came out from his grave, and remained alive 
 and had children. 
 
 And among those whom He raised from the dead 
 was the son of an old woman, and this is the story. 
 Jesus passed in His wanderings with the disciples 
 by a city, and He said, " Verily in this city there is 
 
86 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 treasure. Who will go and get it out for us ? " And 
 they said, "0 Spirit of God, no stranger can enter 
 this city, for they will kill him." And said Jesus, 
 " Stay where you are until I return." And He went 
 till He came to the city and stood at the gate and 
 said, " Peace be to you, people of this place ; I am 
 a stranger: give me to eat." And an old woman 
 said to him, "Don't you wish me to go with you to 
 the governor so that you may say to him, 'Give me 
 to eat ' ? " And while Jesus was standing at the door, 
 behold, a young man, the son of the old woman, 
 approached. Jesus said to him, " Make me thy guest 
 this night;" and the young man replied as did his 
 mother, the old woman. And Jesus said to him, "I 
 tell you that if you will do it, I will marry you to 
 the daughter of the king. The young man said to 
 Him, "Either you are crazy, or you are Jesus the 
 son of Mary." And He said, "I am Jesus." So he 
 gave Him lodging, and He spent the night with 
 him; and when He arose in the morning, He said 
 to him, "Take your breakfast and go to the king, 
 and say to him, ' I have come to be engaged to your 
 daughter.' Then he will command them to strike 
 you and cast you out. So the young man went to 
 the king, and said to him, " I have come that I may 
 be engaged to your daughter." So he commanded 
 him to be beaten, and they did so, and cast him 
 out. Then the young man came back to Jesus and 
 told Him the news. And Jesus said, " On the morrow 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 87 
 
 go to him again with the same request, and he 
 will give you the same punishment, but less." So 
 the young man did as he was told, and they struck 
 him with fewer blows than the first time, and he 
 came back to Jesus and told Him. Then Jesus 
 said, " Go to him to-morrow, and he will say to you, 
 ' I will marry you to my daughter upon one condition, 
 and my condition is a castle of gold and silver, and 
 all that is in it of gold and silver and precious 
 stones.' Then say to him, * I will do it.' And if he 
 sends some one with you, go outside with him, for 
 you will find it, and nothing will happen to you." 
 Then he went in to the king and became engaged 
 to his daughter ; and the king said, " Will you give 
 her the dowry according to niy desire ? " And he said, 
 " What is your desire ? " And he commanded in ac- 
 cordance with what Jesus had told him. So he said, 
 " Yes, I am willing. Send with me some one who 
 will give it to you." So he sent a man with him, 
 and he gave him what the king wished, and the 
 people all marvelled at that. And so the king gave 
 him his daughter. And tlie young man marvelled 
 and said, " Spirit of God, you are able to do things 
 like this, and still you are poor ? " And Jesus said 
 to him, " I have preferred that which remains to that 
 which fades away." Said the young man, " I also prefer 
 it, and I will be your companion." So he forsook 
 the world and followed Jesus. Then Jesus took him 
 by the hand and brought him to his companions. 
 
88 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 and said to them, "This is the treasure concerning 
 whom I told you." And the son of the old woman 
 remained with Him till he died. And when they 
 passed by with him on the bier, Jesus cried to 
 God; and the young man sat up and took up the 
 bier from the necks of the men that carried it, 
 dressed himself, and carried it on his back and 
 went back to his people, and remained alive; and 
 to him also children were born. 
 
 And among the miracles of raising the dead was 
 the daughter of the toll - gatherer. They said to 
 Jesus, " Will you raise her, for she died yesterday ? " 
 And He called upon God Most High, and she 
 lived. 
 
 Among those He raised was Shem, the son of 
 Noah. Said the disciples unto Him, when He was 
 describing Noah's ark, " If you had sent us some one 
 who had seen the ark and could describe it to us, 
 we would believe." So He arose and came to a little 
 hill, and struck it with His hand and took a handful 
 of the earth and said, "This is the grave of Shem, 
 the son of Noah. If you wish, I will raise him for 
 you." They said, " Yes ; " and He called upon God by 
 His greatest name, and struck the hill with His 
 staff and said, " Come to life by permission of God." 
 Then Shem, the son of Noah, came forth from his 
 grave, white haired. And he said, " Is this the 
 resurrection day ? " Said Jesus, " No, but I have called 
 you out in the name of God Most High." Shem had 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 89 
 
 lived five hundred years and he was still young. So 
 he told them the news of the ark. Then Jesus said 
 to him, " Die ; " and he said, " Only on one condition, 
 that God protects me from the agonies of death." 
 Jesus granted his request by permission of God; and 
 all this is mentioned in the story of Noah the prophet 
 (upon whom be peace). 
 
 And among those whom He raised from the dead 
 was Ezra (upon whom be peace). They said to Jesus, 
 Raise him from the dead, or we will burn you with 
 fire. So they collected a great lot of wood of the 
 vine; and in those days it was the custom to bury 
 people in coffins made of stone. When they found 
 the grave of Ezra with his name written on the 
 outside, they tried their best to open it and were 
 not able, so they could not get him out from the 
 grave. They went back to Jesus and told Him, and 
 He handed them a vessel with some water and said. 
 Sprinkle this upon his grave ; and they did so. Then 
 the coffin was easily opened, and they came with 
 him to Jesus. And behold, he was wrapped in a 
 shroud, and the earth does not consume the bodies 
 of the prophets. Therefore when they took off his 
 garment. He began to sprinkle the water upon his 
 body and his head. Then He said, " Come to life, O 
 Ezra, by permission of God Most High ; " and behold, 
 he sat up in the sight of their eyes. And they 
 said to Ezra, " Will you not witness to this man, 
 namely, Jesus ? " And he said, " I witness that He is 
 
90 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 the servant of God and His apostle. And they said 
 to Jesus, " Ask your Lord to allow him to stay with 
 us, that he may be alive among us." And Jesus said, 
 "Take him back to his grave;" and he died. And 
 some believed in Jesus, the son of Mary, and some 
 were rebellious.^ 
 
 ^ To complete this series of miracles we add one more story popular 
 in Arabia : Historians and authors of stories of the deeds (of the 
 ancients), relate that a man among the Beni-Israil in the time of 
 Jesus, whose name was Ishak, had a wife (cousin) who was one of the 
 handsomest women of her time. He was devotedly attached to her, 
 and she happened to die. He therefore stayed near her grave, and for 
 a long time never flagged in visiting it. One day Jesus happened to 
 pass by him while he was by her grave crying. So Jesus asked him, 
 " What makes you cry, O Ishak?" He replied, "0 Spirit of God, 
 I had a cousin who was also my wife, and I used to love her very much ; 
 she is now dead, and this is her grave. I have no patience, and her 
 separation has killed me." Jesus asked him, " Do you wish me to 
 revive her for you, by the permission of God ? " And he replied, " Yes, 
 O Spirit of God." Jesus then stood over the grave and said, "Rise 
 up, dweller in this grave, by the permission of God," whereupon 
 the grave clave open, and there stepped forth out of it a black slave 
 with fire coming forth from his nostrils, his eyes, and other openings 
 in his face, and saying, "There is no deity but God, and Jesus is His 
 Spirit, His Word, His Servant, and His Apostle." Ishak said, "0 
 Spirit and Word of God, this is not the grave in which my wife is, 
 but it is this one," pointing to another grave. Jesus then said to the 
 black slave, "Return to the state in which you were," upon which he 
 fell down dead, and he buried him in his grave. He then stood over 
 the other grave and said, "Rise up, dweller in this grave, by the 
 permission of God," and thereupon the woman rose up, scattering off 
 the dust from her face. Jesus asked him, " Is this your wife?" and 
 he replied, "Yes, Spirit of God." Jesus then said, "Take her 
 then by the hand and go away." He therefore took her and went 
 away, but having been overcome by sleep he said to her, "The want 
 of sleep over your grave has killed me; I wish therefore to rest." 
 She replied, "Do so." So he placed his head on her lap and slept. 
 While he was asleep, the king's son happened to pass by her ; he was 
 beautiful and handsome, had a large frame (of body) and was mounted 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 91 
 
 Among His characteristics is knowledge of secret 
 things, for He used to tell them what they ate, and 
 what they treasured up in their houses. Said El 
 Kalbi: When Jesus healed the blind and the lepers 
 and raised the dead, they said, " This is a sorcerer, but 
 let Him tell us what we eat and what we drink in 
 secret, and we will believe." So He told them what 
 
 on a beautiful courser. When she saw him, love for him entered her 
 mind, and she stood up hurriedly for him ; and when he saw her, love 
 for her also entered his mind ; so she came to him and said to him, 
 "Take me." He therefore caused her to mount behind him on his 
 courser and went away. When her husband woke up from his sleep, 
 he looked about for her, but not finding her, he went in search of her, 
 following the footsteps of the courser. He at last overtook them and 
 said to the [king's son, "Give me my wife and cousin." But she 
 denied it, saying, " I am the slave-woman of the king's son ;" and he 
 said, "No, you are my wife and my cousin." She then said, " I do 
 not know you, I am only the king's son's slave-woman." The king's 
 son then said to him, "Do you want to spoil my slave-woman?" 
 upon which Ishak said, "Verily, by God, she is my wife, and Jesus 
 the son of Mary has revived her for me by the permission of God, 
 after she had died." While they were thus quarrelling, Jesus 
 happened to pass that way, so Ishak said to him, "0 Spirit of God, 
 is not this my wife whom you have revived for me by the permission 
 of God ? " and he replied, " Yes ; " but she said, " Spirit of God, he 
 lies ; I am the slave- woman of the king's son." The king's son also 
 said, "This is my slave-woman." Jesus therefore asked her, "Are 
 you not the one whom I have revived by the permission of God?" 
 and she replied, " No, by God, Spirit of God," upon which he said 
 to her, "Return to us what we have given you," and she fell down 
 dead. Jesus then said, "Whoever wants to see a man whom God 
 caused to die an unbeliever, then revived him and caused him to die 
 a second time, a Muslim, let him look at the black slave, and whoever 
 wants to see a woman whom God caused to die a believer, then 
 revived her and caused her to die a second time an unbeliever, let him 
 look at this one." Ishak the Jew then swore to God that he would 
 never marry again, and went away crying into the deserts. — Ad- 
 Damibi's Hayat-Al-Hayawan, pp. 497-498. 
 
92 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 they would eat the following day, or what they had 
 eaten in the past. 
 
 Another characteristic was His walking upon the 
 water. It is related that He went out once on His 
 wanderings, and there was with Him a man of short 
 stature ; and he was a close companion of Jesus. And 
 when they approached the sea. He said, " In the name of 
 God, good health and certainty." So He walked upon 
 the face of the waters. Then the man of short stature 
 said, " In the name of God, in health and certainty;" and 
 he walked upon the face of the waters. Then astonish- 
 ment seized him, and he said, " This is Jesus, the Spirit 
 of God, walking on the water, and I am walking on 
 the water." No sooner had he said so than he began to 
 sink, and he cried aloud to Jesus to pull him out. 
 And He said, " What was it that you said, man of 
 short stature ? " So he told Him ; and Jesus said to 
 him, " You have put yourself in the wrong place and 
 God is angry at what you said; so repent to God." 
 And the man repented, and regained his position with 
 Jesus. [Here the author draws a comparison between 
 Mohammed and Christ, and quotes Mohammed as 
 saying that if Jesus had possessed more faith and trust. 
 He would have walked not only on the water, but on 
 the air.] 
 
 Other Traditions concerning Jesus Christ. — Wahab 
 said : Jesus (on whom be peace) went out one day on 
 His wanderings, and a Jew accompanied Him, who had 
 two loaves of bread, and Jesus had only one loaf. 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 93 
 
 Said Jesus unto him, " Share me your food ; and the 
 Jew said, " Yes ; " but when he saw that Jesus had 
 only one loaf, he was sorry. And when Jesus went 
 up to pray. His companion went aside and ate one of 
 his loaves. When Jesus had finished His prayer, He 
 asked him, " Where is the other loaf ? " and he replied, 
 " I had only one." So they both ate one loaf, and then 
 they departed. [The story goes on to relate how Jesus 
 performed miracle after miracle (mostly of an inane 
 character), which convinced the Jew of His divine 
 mission ; and how the Jew continued to deny having 
 eaten the loaf, until finally the Jew was punished 
 for his greed, and Christ went on His way.] 
 
 Concerning the sending down of the Table. — Said God 
 Most High, in the Koran, When the disciples said, " 
 Jesus, son of Mary, is thy Lord able to cause a table 
 to come down from heaven ? " He said, " Trust in God 
 if you are believers." The learned are at disagreement 
 concerning how the table came down, and its character, 
 and what was upon it. Katada says in a tradition 
 which he got from Jaber, who got it from Omar, who 
 got it from Yasar, who received it from the Apostle of 
 God (upon him be prayers and peace) : The table came 
 down, and upon it was bread and meat, and this was 
 because they asked Jesus for food to eat, which would 
 not prove insufficient. He said, " I wdll do it, and it 
 will abide with you as long as you do not hide it or 
 conceal it; but if you do that, it will punish you." 
 And the first day had not passed by when they began 
 
94 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 to deceive and hide of it ; and some of the traditions 
 relate that they stole of it, for they said, It will not 
 come down always. So the table was taken up, and 
 those who deceived were turned into apes and swine. 
 And Ibn 'Abbas said that Jesus said, " Children of 
 Israel, fast ye for thirty days, and then ask God 
 whatsoever you wish, and He will give it to you." So 
 they fasted thirty days, and when they were ended 
 they said, " Jesus, whenever we work for anybody 
 and we finish his job, he feeds us. Behold we fasted 
 to God, and we are hungry ; now ask God that He 
 make a table come down to us from heaven." Then 
 Jesus put on sackcloth and sprinkled Himself with 
 ashes and called upon God Most High, and said, " 
 God, our Lord, cause to come down to us a table from 
 heaven." Then the angels brought the table, upon 
 which were seven loaves and seven fishes, and they 
 placed it between their hands and they ate of it from 
 the first to the last. 'Atta the son of Ibn Saib relates 
 that when the table came down to the children of 
 Israel it contained all manner of food except meat. 
 'Attiah al 'Ufi said that a big fish came down from 
 heaven in which was the taste of all kinds of food. 
 Katada said that when the table came down from 
 heaven it had on it the fruits of paradise, and it came 
 down every morning and every night wherever they 
 happened to be, like the manna and the quails to the 
 children of Israel in the wilderness. Wahab said : God 
 made a barley loaf to come down and two fishes, and 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 95 
 
 this was sufficient for all of them. Some would come 
 and eat and depart satisfied, and others would follow 
 them and eat, until they had all eaten and there was 
 food remaining. Kaab said: Verily the table came 
 down from heaven, upside down, and the angels flew 
 with it between heaven and earth, and all kinds of 
 meat and food were on it. Makatal and Kalbi said 
 that God heard Jesus (upon Him be peace), and said, 
 " Verily, I will make a table come down to you as you 
 have desired, and whosoever eats of this food and does 
 not believe in Me, I will make him an example and a 
 curse to those that follow after." They said, " We are 
 agreed." So He called Simon, and he was the best of 
 the apostles, and He said to him, " Have you any food ? " 
 Simon said, " I have two small fishes and six loaves." 
 And He said, " Give them to me." So Jesus cut them up 
 into tiny pieces, and said, " Sit down upon the grass ; " 
 and they sat down in companies of ten. Then Jesus 
 arose and called upon God Most High, and He 
 answered Him and sent the blessing upon it, and the 
 bread became loaves, and the fish became whole fish. 
 Then Jesus got up and walked about, and threw before 
 each company handfuls. Then He said, "Eat, in the 
 name of God." And the food increased until they all 
 had a great sufficiency ; and there was food remaining, 
 and the number of people was five thousand and over. 
 Then the people said, "We have borne witness that 
 Thou art the servant of God and His apostle." 
 
 Then at another time they asked Him, and God sent 
 
96 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 down five loaves and two fishes, and He did with them 
 as He did at the first. And when the people went 
 back to their villages and spread this report, some of 
 those who had not observed it laughed and said, " Woe 
 be unto you ; verily. He hath bewitched your eyes." 
 So those to whom God wished good, retained their 
 sight; and those to whom He wished punishment, 
 returned unto their unbelief and were changed into 
 monkeys and swine. 
 
 'Atta bin Abi Eabah relates that no one followed 
 Jesus who was His equal ; and He never scolded an 
 orphan; and He never laughed immoderately; and 
 He never even drove a fly from off His face ; and He 
 never broke a promise once given ; ^ and He never 
 was frivolous. And when the disciples asked that He 
 should make a table come down. He said, " God, send 
 down upon us a table from heaven, and furnish us with 
 food upon it that we may eat, for Thou art the best of 
 providers." Then a large, red, covered dish came down 
 between two clouds, a cloud above it and a cloud 
 below it ; and they were looking at it. And it came 
 down slowly until it came in their presence. Then 
 Jesus wept and said, " God, make me of the thankful 
 ones ; and make it a mercy to us, and do not make 
 it an example and a punishment." And when they 
 looked upon it, they saw a sight which no one had 
 seen before, and they never smelled a meal better than 
 
 * The text here is very obscure ; this is the best rendering I could 
 find. 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 97 
 
 this meal. Then Jesus said to them, " Let the best of 
 you in good works uncover the dish and say grace and 
 eat from it." Then said Simon, the pale one, the chief 
 of the apostles, " You are the one to do it rather than 
 we." Then Jesus got up and performed the ablution, 
 and prayed a long prayer and wept very much. Then 
 He took off the cloth cover and said, " In the Name of 
 God, the best of Providers." And behold, it was a fish, 
 broiled, without scales and without bones ; overflowing 
 with oil ; and at its head was a pot of salt, and at its 
 tail some vinegar, and around it all sorts of vegetables 
 except leeks. And there were also five loaves of bread : 
 upon one of them there were olives, and upon another 
 was honey; upon another, butter; upon the fourth, 
 cheese ; and upon the fifth, salted meat. And Simon 
 said, " Spirit of God, is this food from this world or 
 from the other world ? " Jesus said, " What ye see is not 
 the food of this world nor of the other world, but God 
 has created it by His mighty power ; eat, in accordance 
 with your request, as much as ye like, and there will 
 be enough for you." Then they said, " Spirit of God, 
 show us another miracle beside this." And Jesus said, 
 "O fish, live, by permission of God." Then the fish 
 shook itself, and its scales returned upon it, and its 
 bones, and they were terrified. Said Jesus, " Why ask a 
 thing which, when I give, you do not like ? But I do 
 not wish to frighten you ; O fish, go back as you were, 
 by permission of God." And the fish returned to its 
 broiled state as it was. Then they said, " Spirit of 
 7 
 
98 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 God, you be the first to eat from it, and then we will 
 eat." Jesus said, " God forbid that I should eat, but 
 those who have asked for it shall eat it." And they 
 were afraid to eat from it, so Jesus invited the poor, 
 and the sick, and the lepers, and the maimed, and the 
 halt, and said to them, "Eat that which God has 
 provided for you, and may you have good health and 
 the others punishment." And those that ate of it were 
 thirteen hundred men and women, of the poor and 
 needy, and the sick and the lepers, and all of them 
 were filled. And Jesus looked upon the fish, and 
 behold, it was as it was before when it came down 
 from heaven. Then the table flew back while they 
 were looking, until it disappeared from them. And 
 none of those that were sick on that day ate from it 
 but they got well, and the weak became strong ; and 
 no poor man but became rich, and remained so until 
 his death. So the disciples and those who did not eat 
 repented. And it came to pass that when it came 
 down, the rich and the poor, the small and the great, 
 men and women, crowded together round it; and it 
 came down for forty mornings ; but when the shadows 
 lengthened, it went up again while they beheld, and 
 disappeared from their sight. And it came down 
 irregularly : one day it would come and another day 
 not, like the camel of Thamud. And God revealed to 
 Jesus, " Surely I have prepared my table and my food 
 for the poor, not for the rich." And this did not please 
 the rich, so that they doubted and made men to doubt, 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 99 
 
 and they said, " Do you really think a table came down 
 from heaven ? " Then Jesus said to them, " Ye have 
 perished, and deserve the punishment of God." And 
 God Most High revealed to Jesus, " Truly I have laid 
 two conditions upon those that belie my miracle, if 
 they continue to disbelieve after it comes down to 
 them, and I will punish them with a severe punishment. 
 Then Jesus said, " If you punish them, they are your 
 servants ; and if you forgive them, you are the mighty 
 and wise." So God changed three hundred and thirty 
 of them in one night; men who were with their 
 families in bed ; and when they arose in the morning 
 they were swine, wandering about in the streets and 
 among the sewers and eating filth. And when the 
 people saw this, they were terrified at Jesus, the son 
 of Mary, and they wept, and the friends of those who 
 were changed into swine also wept. And when the 
 swine saw Jesus, they wept, and they went round 
 about Him; and Jesus called them by their names, 
 one after the other, and they wept and wagged their 
 heads and were not able to speak. And they lived 
 three days and then died. 
 
 And among His characteristics was His being taken 
 up into heaven. When God said, " Jesus, verily, I 
 will cause you to die, and will raise you to myself and 
 will purify you above those who disbelieve" (the 
 Koran). And their saying, "Verily we have killed 
 the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle of 
 God ; but they did not kill Him, and they did not 
 
100 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 crucify Him, but," etc., until the Koran verse says, 
 "But God raised Him to Himself, and God is Most 
 Mighty and Wise." Concerning these Koran verses, 
 Kalbi says that Jesus (upon whom be peace) met a 
 mob of Jews; and when they saw Him, they said, 
 " There comes the sorcerer, the son of the sorceress ; " 
 and they thrust out Him and His mother. And when 
 Jesus saw that, He called to God and said, " God, 
 Thou art my Lord, and I am of Thy Spirit, and by 
 Thy word am I created ; and I did not come to them 
 on my own account. God, curse them that curse 
 me and curse my mother." And God answered His 
 prayer, and changed those who cursed Him and His 
 mother into swine. And when the chief of the Jews 
 saw that, he was terrified and affrighted, and the 
 Jews agreed that Jesus should be killed. So they 
 collected together on a certain day, and began to 
 ask Him questions, but He said to them, " company 
 of Jews, verily God hates you." Then they hated 
 Him because of that saying, with a strong hatred, 
 and gathered together to murder Him. Then God 
 Most High sent Gabriel (upon whom be peace), who 
 caused Him to enter into a hovel and concealed Him 
 on the roof. Then God Most High lifted Him from 
 its parapet. Then the chief of the Jews commanded 
 one of his men who was called Phelatanus, that he 
 should enter the hovel and kill Him. And when 
 Phelatanus entered he did not see Him, and he 
 remained behind a long time, so they thought that 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 101 
 
 he was killing Him. Then God made him appear 
 like Jesus, and when he came out they thought he 
 was Jesus and they killed him and crucified him. 
 
 Wahab relates that Jesus, when God Most High 
 made Him know that He was about to leave the 
 world, was terrified at death and in great doubts, so 
 He called together the disciples and made them a 
 meal ; and He said to them, Stay with me this night, 
 for I have need of you. And when they came to Him 
 that night, He gave them a supper and stood up to 
 serve them ; and when they had finished the meal. 
 He washed their hands, and gave them commandments 
 and wiped their hands with His garment. And this 
 seemed strange to them, and they despised Him. Then 
 He said to them, " Unless you return the thing which 
 I have done, I have no part in you and you have no 
 part in me." And He repeated this, and when He had 
 finished He said to them, " What I have done to you 
 this night by serving you with food and washing your 
 hands with my hand, has not been except that ye 
 might be equals on my account ; for ye see that I am 
 best among you. Do not therefore be proud the one 
 above the other, but let every one humble himself for 
 the other, and give up his own will for the others, as 
 I have given up my will for you. But in regard to 
 the need which I said I felt for you, my request is 
 that you call upon God for me and persevere in your 
 prayer that He may put off my time of death." And 
 when they arranged themselves for prayer and desired 
 
102 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 to persevere, God sent upon them sleep, so that they 
 were not able to pray. Then Jesus began to awaken 
 them and to say, " God be praised ! can you not be 
 patient for a single night and help me in it ? " And 
 they said, " By God, we do not know what is the matter 
 with us. We were anxious to keep awake the night, 
 but we were unable to keep awake ; and whenever we 
 wished to pray, some one prevented it." Then Jesus 
 said, " The shepherd is going away and the sheep will 
 stay behind." And He continued to speak words of 
 this sort concerning Himself. Then He said, " Verily, 
 one of you will disbelieve in me before the cock 
 crows three times ; and one of you will sell me for 
 a few dirhems, and then he will devour his hire." 
 Then they went out and scattered, and the Jews 
 were seeking Him ; and they took Simon, one of the 
 disciples, and said, "This is one of His companions." 
 Then he became anxious and said, " I am not of His 
 companions," and they left him. Then another took 
 hold of him in the same way; then he heard the 
 voice of the cock and wept, for it made him sorrowful. 
 When it was morning one of the disciples came to 
 those Jews and said to them, "What will you give me 
 if I indicate to you where He is ? " And they agreed 
 with him for thirty dirhems; and he took them and 
 showed them where Jesus was. So they took Him 
 and bound Him with ropes and led Him out; and 
 while they were leading Him, they kept saying, " Thou 
 art He that didst raise the dead, and cure the blind 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 103 
 
 and the lepers, now why cannot you loosen yourself 
 from these ropes?" And they spat upon Him and 
 put thorns upon Him ; and they erected the wood to 
 crucify Him upon it. And when they came to crucify 
 Him upon the tree, the earth was darkened, and God 
 sent angels, and they descended between them and 
 between Jesus; and God cast the likeness of Jesus 
 upon him who had betrayed Him, and his name was 
 Judas. And they crucified him in His stead, and they 
 thought that they crucified Jesus. Then God made 
 Jesus to die for three hours, and then raised Him up 
 to heaven ; and this is the meaning of the Koran verse, 
 " Verily, I will cause Thee to die, and raise Thee unto 
 me, and purify Thee above those who disbelieve." 
 
 And when he who resembled Jesus was crucified, 
 Mary his mother came, and another woman whom 
 Jesus had cured of possession ; and they wept at the 
 feet of the one who was crucified. Then Jesus came 
 to them and said, " For whom are ye weeping ? " And 
 they said, "For Thee." Then He said, "Truly God 
 Most High hath lifted me up and no evil has befallen 
 me. Verily, this person only resembled me to them." 
 
 And Makatal said : Verily, the Jews appointed a 
 man to keep guard over Jesus, and to go wherever 
 He went; and when Jesus went up a mountain, an 
 angel came and lifted Him up to heaven. Then 
 God made the man who watched Him resemble Jesus, 
 and the Jews thought that it was Jesus ; so they took 
 him. And he kept on saying, " I am not Jesus ; I am 
 
104 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 So and So, the son of So and So ; " but they would not 
 believe him, and they killed and crucified him. Katada 
 said : It has been related that the Prophet of God, Jesus, 
 said to His companions, " Which of you is willing to 
 take my form, and he will be killed." Then a man 
 of the crowd said, " I, Prophet of God." So he was 
 killed, and God prevented them from killing Jesus 
 and lifted Him up to Himself. And it is said that 
 the man who resembled Jesus and was crucified in 
 His place was an Israelite called Ashua (this is the 
 common form of Joshua, or Jesus), the son of Kandir. 
 And God knows best. 
 
 An account of the Descent of Jesus from Heaven seven 
 days after His Ascension. — Said Wahab and others of 
 those who are learned in books : When God lifted up 
 Jesus, He tarried in heaven seven days. Then God said 
 to Him, " Your enemies, the Jews, are trying to prevent 
 your covenant with your companions, so go down to 
 them and give them commandment ; and go to Mary 
 Magdalene, for no one is weeping for you as much as 
 she is, and no one is sorrowful for you as much as she 
 is. So go down to her, and tell her that she will be 
 the first to meet you ; and instruct her to gather 
 together your disciples, so that you may send them 
 throughout the earth, calling men to the worship of 
 God." 
 
 Now the story of Mary Magdalene is that she 
 belonged to the children of Israel from a little village 
 of Antioch, called Magdala; and she was a pious 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 105 
 
 woman, but she had a flow of blood and was not 
 purified from it. So the learned of Israel tried to 
 cure her, but she was not cured; she only concealed 
 her sickness from them. And when she heard of the 
 coming of Jesus (upon Him be peace), and how God 
 cured people at His hand, she approached Him, hoping 
 for a cure. When she saw Jesus and the dignity with 
 which God had clothed Him, she was ashamed, and 
 came up from behind and touched His back. Then 
 Jesus said, " Some one hath touched me for a cure ; 
 and God hath granted her her desire and purified her 
 with my purity." 
 
 So when God commanded Jesus to come down to 
 her seven days after His ascension, He came down 
 upon her, and a mountain burned with light when He 
 came down. So the disciples gathered together, and 
 He sent them out into the world to call men to God. 
 Then God took Him up, and clothed Him with feathers 
 and covered Him with light ; and deprived Him of all 
 desire for food and drink. And He flies with the 
 angels around the throne. So He is human and 
 angelic, and earthly and heavenly. 
 
 And the disciples scattered as He had commanded 
 them, [and that night on which He came down is a 
 night of glory with the Christians. Now they say that 
 Peter turned his face to Rome; and Andrew and 
 Matthew to the country of the cannibals ; and Thomas 
 and Levi to the land of the East ; and Philip and Jude 
 to Kairwan and Africa; and John to Ephesus, a 
 
106 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 village of the companions of the cave ; and James and 
 his brother to Jerusalem, which is the Holy Land; 
 and Bartholomew to Arabia, that is Hejaz ; and Simon 
 to the land of Barbar. And every one of the disciples 
 when he came to the people to whom he was sent, 
 spoke in their language. 
 
 Here ends the account of Eth-Thalabi. It needs no 
 comment. Other accounts of the death, resurrection, 
 and return of Jesus Christ, however, add new legends 
 about Jesus and put new touches to the Moslem 
 caricature of the Christ. Karmani relates that Jesus 
 commended His mother at the time of His death to 
 the care of two men, namely, Simon and John ; and 
 He said to them, " Take care of her, and do not leave 
 her at all." Then God lifted Him up and clothed Him 
 with feathers, etc. Mary lived after Jesus was taken 
 up into heaven six years, and her age was fifty-three 
 years. Then she died and was buried in the Church 
 of the Incarnation in Jerusalem. But it is also related 
 by Abu-'l-Leeth, the Samarkandi, that Mary died 
 before Jesus was taken up into heaven, and that Jesus 
 attended her funeral Himself. 
 
 Abu Huraira says that the apostle of God (upon 
 Him be peace) said: All the prophets are brethren. 
 Although their mothers are different, their religion is 
 one, and I am the nearest of all men to Jesus, because 
 there was no prophet between Him and me. And the 
 days will come when He will come down upon you and 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 107 
 
 judge with a righteous judgment, for He will come 
 down to my people ; and when you see Him you will 
 know Him, for He is a man neither tall nor short, 
 between red and white, with dishevelled hair as if it 
 rained from His head. And He will break the Cross, 
 and kill the swine, and take away the poll-tax ; 
 property will be plentiful, and He will grant peace, and 
 fight for the religion of Islam until God shall destroy 
 in His day the people of every other faith except 
 Islam, and worship shall be God's alone. And in His 
 day God will destroy the anti- Christ, who will be slain 
 by His hand and those of His servants ; and there will 
 be safety in the land, so that the lion will herd with 
 camels and the leopard with kine, and the wolves 
 with the sheep; and little children shall play with 
 serpents, and they will not harm them. Then Jesus 
 will tarry in the earth forty years, will marry a wife 
 from the daughters of Ghassan and will have children. 
 Then He will die in Medina, and be buried next to the 
 grave of Omar bin Khitab (may God be pleased with 
 him), and blessed be Abu Bakr and Omar, who will be 
 raised in the resurrection between two prophets. 
 
 In Burton's Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca, he 
 refers to this tradition in these words, and gives a 
 sketch of the Hujrah. 
 
 " It is popularly asserted that in the Hujrah there is now spare 
 place for only a single grave, reserved for Isa bin Maryam after 
 his second coming. The historians of Al-Islam are full of tales 
 proving that though many of their earlier saints, as Osman the 
 
108 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Caliph and Hasan the Imam, were desirous of being buried 
 there ; and that although Ayishah, to whom the room belonged, 
 willingly acceded to their wishes, son of man has not yet been 
 able to occupy it." 
 
 "The Hujrah, or tomb in which Mohammed died and was 
 buried, was originally the apartment of 'Ayesha, the Prophet's 
 favourite wife. At present it consists of an irregular square of 
 fifty-five feet, separated from the mosque of the Prophet by a 
 passage about twenty-six feet wide. Inside the Hujrah there 
 are three tombs, supposedly those of Mohammed, Abu Bakr, 
 and Omar, surrounded by a stone wall, or some say by strong 
 planking. "Whatever the material may be, it is covered by a 
 curtain, and the outer railing is separated by a darker passage 
 from the inner, and is of iron work painted green and gold. 
 Above the Hujrah is a green dome surmounted by a large gilt 
 crescent. There is much confusion among Moslems in regard 
 to the whole arrangement of this grave chamber. Fatimah, 
 the Prophet's daughter, is supposed to be buried in a separate 
 part of the building. Mohammed is said to be stretched full 
 length on his right side, with the right palm supporting the 
 right cheek and his face toward Mecca. Close behind him Abu 
 Bakr is placed, whose face fronts Mohammed's shoulder ; then 
 Omar, who occuj^ies the same position with respect to his pre- 
 decessor. The space left for the grave of Jesus when He returns 
 to earth, occupies the same relation described above, to the 
 grave of Omar, as can be seen on Burton's sketch. 
 
 " There are reasons for doubting whether the prophet is really 
 buried in the mosque raised to his honour. No less than twelve 
 arguments can be given against the supj)Osition.i The garden 
 annexed to the tomb is called ar Raudha. The Hujrah has four 
 gates, all kept locked except the fourth one, which admits only 
 the officers in charge of the treasure, the eunuchs who sweep the 
 floor, light the lamps, and carry away the presents thrown into 
 the enclosure by Moslem devotees. It is commonly asserted 
 that many early Moslem saints and warriors desired to be 
 
 ^ See Zwemer, Arabia the Cradle of Islam, pp. 47, 48. 
 
PLAN OF THE HARAM 
 
 oil 
 
 THE PROPHET'S MOSQUE AT AL-MADINAH. 
 
 Sf(p' 
 
 or 
 O O 
 Hypoit]/tt 
 O O O 
 
 of lh» 
 O O O 
 
 Baft 
 O O O 
 Rahmah 
 O O O 
 
 O O O 
 
 O O O 
 
 O O O 
 
 O O o 
 
 Stept 
 
 Tht 
 Lady Fatirua 
 Gardtn 
 
 Uo nr 
 
 ©PrcphfC, ^*'W/ 
 
 Hypcrthrai Court 
 
 Upright ptanking, 
 behind wltxch prayerl 
 are recited 
 F arsh el Hajar, the fiaf^^ed passa^f 
 
 RiumU 
 
 o o 
 
 o o 
 
 HypoilyU 
 
 O O O 
 
 o/ the 
 
 o o o 
 
 Dab cl r^isi 
 
 o o o 
 
 (<i/ i*'om«nj 
 O O 
 
 THE PLACE WHERE JESUS WILL BE BURIED. 
 
 (From Burton's "Pilgrimage to Madinah and Mecca.") 
 
DEATH, ASCENSION, AND RETURN 109 
 
 buried in the remaining space next to the grave of Omar, but 
 that by Mohammed's own wish it was reserved for 'Isa on his 
 second coming and death. When Medina was taken by the 
 Wahabis in 1804, their chief stripped the tombs of all valuables 
 and proclaimed that all the prayers and exclamations addressed 
 to it were idolatrous. At present, however, many superstitious 
 practices are indulged in, and Medina is almost as much a 
 centre of pilgrimage as Mecca. 
 
 "All Moslem pilgrims, therefore, know of the place where 
 Jesus the Messiah is to be buried." ^ 
 
 We are indebted to C. H. A. Field for the following 
 account of the trial of our Lord before the Sanhedrin 
 and Pilate. It occurs in the Dabistan of Mohsin Fani 
 (a.d. 1647), and resembles the Gospel narrative more 
 than the earlier traditions. 
 
 " When Jesus appeared, the high priest said, ' We charge Thee 
 upon Thy oath by the living God, say art Thou the Son of God ? ' 
 The blessed and Holy Lord Jesus replied to him, * I am what 
 thou hast said. Verily, We say unto you, you shall see the Son 
 of Man seated at the right hand of God, and He shall descend in 
 the clouds of Heaven.' They said, ' Thou utterest a blasphemy, 
 because, according to the creed of the Jews, God never descends 
 in the clouds of Heaven.' 
 
 " Isaiah the prophet has announced the birth of Jesus in words 
 the translation of which is as follows : * A branch from the root 
 of I'shai shall spring up, and from this branch shall come forth 
 a flower in which the Spirit of God shall dwell ; verily, a virgin 
 shall be pregnant and shall bring forth a Son.' I'shai is the 
 name of the father of David. 
 
 " When they had apprehended Jesus, they spat upon His 
 blessed face and smote Him. Isaiah had predicted it. * I shall 
 
 1 This tradition is given as reliable by Ibn ;Khaldoon {3TuTcadimet 
 Ibn Khaldoon, Beirut edition, pp. 226, 227). This author gives the 
 other traditions regarding Christ's return in the same form as above. 
 
110 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 give up My body to the smiters, and My cheek to the diggers of 
 wounds. I shall not turn My face from those who will use 
 bad words and throw spittle upon Me.' When Pilatus, a judge 
 of the Jews, scourged the Lord Jesus in such a manner that His 
 body from head to foot became but one wound, so was it as Isaiah 
 had predicted. ' He was wounded for our transgressions ; I 
 struck Him for his people.' When Pilatus saw that the Jews 
 insisted upon the death and crucifixion of Jesus, he said, * I take 
 no part in the blood of this Man ; I wash my hands clean of His 
 blood.' The Jews answered, ' His blood be on us and on our 
 children.' On that account the Jews are oppressed and curbed 
 down in retribution of their iniquities. When they had placed 
 the cross upon the shoulder of Jesus and led Him to die, a 
 woman wiped with the border of her garment the face, full of 
 blood, of the Lord Jesus. Verily, she obtained three images of 
 it and carried them home ; the one of these images exists still in 
 Spain, the other is in the town of Milan in Italy, and the third 
 in the city of Rome." 
 
 Later accounts like these, however, are evidently 
 largely based on the Gospel story or Christian tradi- 
 tions, and are neither generally known nor access- 
 ible to the masses. It is not correct to quote them 
 as belonging to the common stock of ideas on Jesus 
 Christ. The masses are wholly dependent on what 
 the Mullahs teach, and these do not read historians 
 nor poets, but orthodox tradition and the Koran. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF 
 JESUS CHRIST 
 
 111 
 
"Jesus Christ is a name that represents the most 
 wonderful story and the profoundest problem on the 
 field of history — the one because the other. There is 
 no romance so marvellous as the most prosaic version 
 of His history. The Son of a despised and hated people, 
 meanly born, humbly bred, without letters, without 
 opportunity, unbefriended, never save for one brief and 
 fatal moment the idol of the crowd, resisted by the 
 religious and the learned, persecuted unto death by the 
 priests, destined to a life as short as it was obscure, 
 issuing from His obscurity only to meet a death of un- 
 pitied infamy. He yet, by means of His very sufferings 
 and His cross, enters upon a throne such as no monarch 
 ever filled and a dominion such as no Caesar ever exercised. 
 He leads captive the civilised peoples ; they accept His 
 words as law, though they confess it a law higher than 
 human nature likes to obey ; they build Him churches, 
 they worship Him, they praise Him in songs, interpret 
 Him in philosophies and theologies ; they deeply love, 
 they madly hate, for His sake." — A. M. Fairbairn, 
 Christ in Modern Theology. 
 
 112 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF 
 JESUS CHRIST 
 
 THE chapters that preceded have clearly shown that 
 Christ has a place in Islam as one of the greater 
 Prophets, and that the Koran gives precious glimpses 
 of the Messiah's greatness, but yet falls short of un- 
 veiling his glorious perfection and Divine majesty. 
 Mohammed leads his followers to the portal, but he 
 fails to open the door. A perusal of the Koran and 
 of the traditions on the part of any sincere Moslem 
 who tries to interpret Jesus Christ, may indeed kindle 
 the flame of curiosity, but will ever leave his heart- 
 longing unsatisfied. Yet no Moslem who reads his 
 book can escape forming some opinion of Jesus Christ, 
 the son of Mary, and therefore of giving a verdict on 
 His person and character. 
 
 This chapter is intended to show what the conclusion 
 is in the mind of the average Moslem from the accounts 
 already given in regard to the person and character of 
 Jesus Christ. It sums up all the data found in 
 Chapters I-IV, in the completed idea of the man 
 8 
 
114 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Jesus Christ as He stands before the Moslem mind 
 and heart. The chapters that precede are largely- 
 historical: in this we attempt dogmatic treatment. 
 And yet it is impossible to approach the subject and 
 use Christian terminology, because Islam eliminates 
 all the Cliristian ideas back of this terminology, by 
 its denials and contradictions. 
 
 The doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ is central, 
 determinative, and supreme in Christian theology.^ In 
 dealing with the person of Jesus Christ the Church 
 throughout the centuries has taught that He was very 
 God and very Man, and to His person there have 
 always been ascribed, according to the teaching of the 
 Bible, the threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King. 
 His eternal existence as the Son of God, His wonderful 
 humiliation as the Son of man, and His exaltation in 
 glory, are the commonplaces of theology and the 
 comfort of all believers. 
 
 Yet no Moslem can study the person and character 
 of Jesus Christ according to these categories. For him 
 they do not exist. In considering the person of Jesus 
 Christ from a Moslem standpoint, we must first, 
 therefore, take up the subject negatively. 
 
 I. The Moslem idea of Christ, as of God, consists 
 not only in what is asserted of Him, but also, and 
 more emphatically, in what is denied. As James 
 Freeman Clarke remarks : " The error in every theory 
 
 ^ Fairbaim, A. M., The Place of Christ in Modern Theology. 
 London, 1894, passim. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 115 
 
 is usually found in its denials, that is, its limitations. 
 What it sees is substantial and real ; what it does not 
 see is a mark only of its limited vision." ^ The Koran 
 denies the Deity and the eternal Sonship of Jesus 
 Christ. He is a creature like Adam. " Verily, Jesus 
 is as Adam in the sight of God. He created him of 
 dust; He then said to him, Be, and he was" (Surah 
 3 : 52). Those who assert that Jesus Christ is more 
 than human are infidels. "The Christians say that 
 the Messiah is the Son of God. God fight them ! how 
 they lie!" (Surah 9: 30). Not only is Jesus Christ 
 a mere creature, but He is not essential to God nor to 
 God's plans in the world. " Who can obtain anything 
 from God if He chose to destroy the Messiah, the son 
 of Mary, and His mother and all who are on the earth 
 together ? " (Surah 5:19). To Moslems a considera- 
 tion of the person of Jesus Christ begins by the 
 assertion that He was only a man among men.^ 
 " Jesus is no more than a servant whom we favoured, 
 and proposed as an instance of divine power to the 
 children of Israel, and, if we pleased, we could from 
 yourself bring forth angels to succeed you on earth " 
 (Surah 43 : 59). 
 
 Nothing so arouses the hostility of the Moslem mind 
 as the statement that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 
 The Mohammedan ideas and misconceptions of the 
 
 ^ Quoted in The Moslem Doctrine of God, p. 77. 
 
 2 Cf. the refutation, in most bitter terms, of the doctrine of the 
 Trinity in Carletti's translation of Idhar-ul-Hak^ vol. i. pp. 388- 
 417. 
 
116 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Trinity are more fully treated elsewhere/ but two 
 passages from the Koran will make clear how import- 
 ant this denial of the Trinity is as regards their 
 doctrine of the person of Jesus. "They say the 
 Merciful has taken to Himself a son — ye have brought 
 a monstrous thing ! The heavens well-nigh burst 
 asunder thereat, and the earth is riven and the 
 mountains fall down broken, that they attribute 
 to the Merciful a son ! But it becomes not the 
 Merciful to take to Himself a son" (Surah 19: 
 91-93). " Praise belongs to God, who has not taken 
 to Himself a son and has not had a partner in His 
 kingdom, nor had a patron against such abasement" 
 (Surah 17: 112). 
 
 Whatever the Koran and tradition may state, as we 
 have already seen and shall see afterwards, concerning 
 Jesus Christ, His dignity, His sinlessness, or His power 
 to work miracles, Moslems do not distinguish His 
 person in any way as to His nature from the other 
 prophets who came before Him. The pre-existence of 
 Christ is everywhere denied, while Moslem tradition 
 is full of stories about the Light of Mohammed, 
 created before all things and existing before all 
 worlds.2 It seems incredible that Islam, while im- 
 puting to Mohammed that which he never asserted of 
 
 ^ The Moslem Doctrine of God, chapter vi. 
 
 2 See liisan al Ayoon, by Burhan ud Diu al Halibi, and the evidence 
 collected by Koelle, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, pp. 246-252. 
 
Facsimile of Letter from a Mullah in Chefoo, 
 China (1911), 
 in which he objects to the doctrine of Christ's 
 deity, urges that Mohammed is superior to Christ in 
 every respect, and that the fact of the Virgin birth 
 does not necessarily prove the superiority of Jesus, 
 because "Adam had neither father nor mother, and 
 was in this respect superior to Jesus, while it is well 
 known that even scorpions propagate miraculously." 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 117 
 
 himself, namely, pre-existence, should deny this in 
 connection with Jesus Christ.^ 
 
 The bitter attacks of Islam on Christianity in the 
 Moslem press of Egypt and of India nearly always 
 find their centre in the Deity and the atoning work of 
 Jesus Christ. To Christians Jesus Christ is God and 
 man ; He is Prophet, Priest, and King. To Moslems 
 He is only human, and while they admit that He 
 is a Prophet, His kingship and His priesthood are 
 neither understood nor admitted. Islam is a religion 
 without a priesthood, without a clear idea of the 
 Atonement, and therefore this central thought in the 
 work of Jesus Christ is absent from the Moslem 
 mind. 
 
 Dr. Sayous calls attention to the absence of this 
 idea from Mohammed's own mind in this striking 
 way:— 
 
 " En un mot, Mahomet n'a pas vu le p^che, et il n'a 
 pas besoin de redemption. II a mtoe rendu ses dis- 
 ciples de tons les si^cles presque incurablement rebelles 
 k cette id^e. C'est pour cela que le monde de Tlslam 
 est sans comparaison celui dans lequel la foi chr^tienne 
 a recrute le moins de proselytes. La doctrine du pech^ 
 et de la grace est comme un mur, k la rencontre duquel 
 le musulman curieux de christianisme se detourne en 
 levant les ^paules et revient sur ses pas." ^ 
 
 ^ Carle tti's Idhar-ul-Hak, "Refutation de la Trinite par les paroles 
 de Jesus Christ, vol. i. pp. 396-417. 
 
 - Sayous, Edouard, J^sus Christ cCapres Mahomet, p. 64. 
 
118 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 We are not surprised, therefore, that the Cross is still 
 a stumbling-block to most of Mohammed's followers, 
 as it was to Mohammed himself. 
 
 Eecent Moslem literature of every sect and every 
 school of thought is as positive in its rejection of tliese 
 distinctively Christian doctrines as is the Koran and 
 orthodox tradition. A missionary in Egypt writes 
 that the bitter antagonism of learned Moslems to the 
 Deity and the Cross of Christ is again coming to the 
 front. As a rule, Moslems refrain from reviling the 
 Christ. He is reverenced among them as a Prophet, 
 "but," says Mr. J. Gordon Logan, "a recent writer, 
 who signed himself ' A Moslem,' set aside the teaching 
 of the Koran, and proceeded to prove from what he 
 called 'history' the true character of Christ and His 
 mother, using the most blasphemous language and 
 casting the vilest accusations on the Son of God." ^ 
 Another Moslem distributed broadcast throughout 
 Cairo a poem of which the following is a free transla- 
 tion.2 It was headed, " A Wonderful Question for the 
 People of the Cross." 
 
 " You who worship Jesus, I have a question for you, and can 
 
 you answer it ? 
 If Jesus was Almighty God, with power to strike terror into all 
 
 men, 
 
 ^ J. Gordon Logan, Leaflet, Islam defies your King! Egypt 
 General Mission. 
 
 ^'*E1 Khalasat el Burhanieh ti Sahet Dianet el Islamieh," by 
 Mahmood bin Seyyid 'Ali (Cairo, 1319), contains it in full, with com- 
 ments. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 119 
 
 Why do you believe that the Jews could make him endure the 
 
 agony of the Cross ? 
 And why do j^ou believe that God died, and was buried in the dust, 
 And sought from his creatures a draught of water, that he 
 
 might quench his fiery thirst ? 
 And that they gave him instead myrrh and vinegar, a nauseous 
 
 mixture. 
 So that he threw it on the ground because he could not take it ? 
 And that he died a miserable death in an agony of thirst ? 
 And that they put on his head a crown of thorns, 
 So frightful that it could turn raven locks to whiteness ? 
 And that the blood flowed down his cheeks, and stained his 
 
 face like henna 1 
 And that he rode on a donkey's colt to save himself from the 
 
 toil of the journey ? 
 You say too that Perez, son of Tamar, was his ancestor ; 
 One who was born of incest, and the Lord will not receive a 
 
 bastard into His assembly. 
 And after that will you count him God, and not be in grievous 
 
 error ? 
 Nay, he is only one of the creatures of God, as he said of himself 
 
 plainly in the Book. 
 And if he was God as you suppose, why did he pray to be 
 
 delivered from the torment 1 
 And who restored his Spirit when it left his body ? 
 And who kept the world in its state until he came back from 
 
 the dead ? 
 Was there a second Lord watching its affairs ? 
 Or did he suffer it to go to destruction ? 
 And was he crucified for some evil he had done ? 
 Or why did he merit the punishment ? 
 And did the Jews do well when they crucified him, in order 
 
 that you might be saved 1 
 Or did they do evil that you might be delivered ? 
 An extraordinary thing ! 
 
 And if you say that they did well, I ask you, why 
 Do you count them enemies ? 
 
120 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 And if you say they did wrong, as they crucified God, 
 
 And this is fearful sin, 
 
 I say, why was it wrong, if without it you could not be saved 
 from the judgment ? 
 
 And was he himself pleased with the crucifixion, or angry? 
 Tell me truly. 
 
 And if you say he was pleased with it in order that he might 
 atone for the fault of the repentant, 
 
 I say that Adam sinned and repented by the grace of God, and 
 God forgave him (i.e. without atonement). 
 
 You therefore lie about your Lord : for the matter is plain as the 
 Book put it ; 
 
 For he fled from his cross, and wept much for himself, 
 
 And prayed to the God of heaven : 
 
 And said, ' I beseech thee, save me from this trial,' 
 
 And cried, *Eli, Eli, why do you leave me this day to the 
 torment ? ' 
 
 ' And if it is possible, my Creator, to save me, 
 
 Save me, best of Fathers.' 
 
 And this is a proof that he was only a servant of the Lord with- 
 out doubt. 
 
 And this is a proof that you lie about him, 
 
 And say what is false. 
 
 And if you say that the cross was forced on him in spite of 
 himself : 
 
 Then this Almighty God is not Almighty, for he hung on the 
 Cross, cursed on every side as it is written. 
 
 Do not blame me for thus putting the matter. 
 
 Answer my questions. 
 
 And do not fail, because silence in this is a disgrace to you. 
 
 I have given you advice, and desire only that it may profit 
 you. 
 
 For myself, I will die a firm believer in the religion of Moham- 
 med, the noblest of men. 
 
 As I do not wish to see the horrors of the day of Judgment." ^ 
 
 ^ Quoted in Islam defies your King ! 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 121 
 
 Not on a par with this sort of popular antagonism 
 to the doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ as held 
 by Christians, and yet equally decisive are the state- 
 ments of Seyyid Ameer Ali of Calcutta, the latest and 
 most able apologist for Islam : " So far as the divinity 
 of Christ is concerned, one can almost see the legend 
 growing. But assuming that Jesus made use of the 
 expressions attributed to him, do they prove that he 
 claimed to be 'the only-begotten of the Father?' 
 With all his dreams and aspirations, his mind was 
 absolutely exempt from those pretensions which have 
 been fixed on him by his over-zealous followers. That 
 Jesus ever maintained he was the Son of God, in the 
 sense in which it has been construed by Christian 
 divines and apologists, we totally deny."^ 
 
 Here we should notice a boastful assertion common 
 among Mohammedans when arguing with Christians, 
 that they honour the Lord Jesus Christ more than 
 Christians do. After their deliberate and systematic 
 lowering of His dignity and depreciation of all His 
 claims and work as given in the Gospel, such state- 
 ments seem strange, but most workers among Moham- 
 medans have been surprised and shocked to see how 
 great is the misconception and ignorance implied in 
 such an assertion. In the Life of Bishop French we 
 read : " Another was only come to dispute and entangle 
 us in our talk, a learned Mullah, full of captious 
 quibbles and subtle disputations. He said he was 
 
 1 Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam, pp. 121-122. 
 
122 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 sure he loved Christ more than I did, for he did not 
 believe such bad things as I did, that He was crucified, 
 dead and buried, for he believed, and all Mohammedans 
 believed, He never died at all." ^ 
 
 II. So far we have considered the Moslem idea of 
 the person and character of our Saviour negatively. 
 We pass on to consider what Moslems admit and 
 believe as regards the dignity of person and the 
 purity of character found in Jesus Christ. One cannot 
 help feeling that the Moslem who has carefully studied 
 the Koran will come to the conclusion, independently 
 of all the commentators, that Christ is superior to 
 Mohammed ; and it is a joy to all missionaries to know 
 that occasionally one finds persons who come to this 
 conclusion, and in consequence turn to the Gospels, 
 led to them by the Koran. The Eev. T. Bomford of 
 Peshawar tells of such an instance : a man from Mecca 
 writing to the Bible Society Depot in Lahore, and 
 asking for a New Testament to learn more of the 
 .Christ mentioned in the Koran ; Dr. Pennell of 
 Bannu mentioned other cases of a similar nature. 
 There is no better way of preaching Christ to Moslems 
 than by beginning with the testimony of the Koran 
 to Jesus.2 
 
 First of all, Moslems admit the dignity of Christ 
 as prophet and apostle, with names given to Him which 
 
 ^ Life of Bishop French, vol. ii. p. 119. 
 
 2 Cf. Christ in Islam : The Testimony of tlie Quran to Christ, by 
 Rev. Wm. Goldsack. Christian Literature Society, Madras. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 123 
 
 are applied to no other prophet and to no other apostle^ 
 as we have seen in Chapter I. Every sincere Moslem 
 admits the force of this argument for the unique 
 character and personality of Jesus Christ, although 
 a man among men. 
 
 Nevertheless, the average Moslem does not see the 
 force of this argument until his attention is called to it 
 specially, because, even although these titles are applied 
 to Jesus Christ, he himself is ranked with the other 
 apostles and prophets in such a way as to give Him 
 no special dignity of position. Moslems are fond of 
 quoting the text, "We make no distinction between 
 them " {i.e. between the prophets) — Surah 2 : 130, 2 : 
 285, and 3 : 78 : " Say, We believe in God and what 
 He has sent down to us, and what has come down to 
 Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob ; and what 
 came down to Moses and to Jesus and the prophets 
 from their Lord. We make no distinction between 
 any of them." And it is remarkable that the name of 
 Jesus is mixed up with the other prophets in the only 
 complete list given in the Koran (Surah 6 : 84) : 
 " Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, 
 Aaron, Zechariah, John, Jesus, Elias, Ishmael, Elisha, 
 Jonah, Lot." To the average Moslem the Koran and 
 tradition yield no chronological conception of the 
 order of prophetic history, and one would not infer 
 from the Koran necessarily that Jesus was the last 
 of the prophets before Mohammed or the greatest. 
 
 In the second place, Mohammedans teach the sinless- 
 
124 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 ness of Jesus Christ. And although this sinlessness, 
 according to present teaching, does not put Jesus 
 Christ in a class by Himself, as all the prophets are 
 sinless in the Moslem sense of that word, yet the 
 Koran, while mentioning the sins of Adam, David, 
 Solomon, and other prophets, leaves no doubt as 
 regards the purity of the character of Jesus. Moham- 
 med himself, of course, is also considered by all 
 Moslems as the paragon of excellence and purity, and 
 as one who has never sinned. In regard to Jesus 
 Christ, however, the statements of orthodox tradition 
 are very remarkable. The prophet said, we are told, 
 "There is no one of the sons of Adam except Mary 
 and her son but is touched by the devil at the time of 
 his birth, and the child makes a loud noise from the 
 touch." ^ Here we have the doctrine of the Immaculate 
 Conception not only of the Virgin Mary but of Jesus. 
 
 We are also told, " When Mary was standing under 
 the palm tree, the angels defended her, and when 
 Satan tried to get at her from above, they flocked 
 above her. Then he tried to get at her from beneath, 
 and behold, the feet of the angels protected her. And 
 when he tried to get in between them, they prevented 
 him. So Satan went back and said, There is nothing 
 ever born which was defended against me so success- 
 fully as this birth." 2 
 
 One of the commentators, Er-Razi, says that Jesus 
 was given the title Messiah "because He was kept 
 
 ^ Mishkatf Bk. I. chap. iii. ^ Qarmaniy vol. i. p. 70. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 125 
 
 clear from the taint of sin." There is a remarkable 
 tradition related by Anas, which seems by implication 
 to prove that while Mohammed admitted his own 
 sinfulness, he could not charge Jesus with sin. It 
 reads as follows : — 
 
 "In the Day of Resurrection MusHms will not be able to 
 move, and they will be greatly distressed, and will say, ' Would 
 to God that we had asked Him to create some one to intercede 
 for us, that we might be taken from this place, and be delivered 
 from tribulation and sorrow.' Then these men will go to Adam 
 and will say, 'Thou art the father of all men, God created 
 thee with His hand, and made thee a dweller in Paradise, and 
 ordered His angels to prostrate themselves before thee, and 
 taught thee the names of all things. Ask grace for us, we 
 pray thee ! ' And Adam will say, ' I am not of that degree 
 of eminence you suppose, for I committed a sin in eating of 
 the grain which was forbidden. Go to Noah, the Prophet, 
 he was the first who was sent by God to the unbelievers on 
 the face of the earth.' Then they will go to Noah and ask 
 for intercession, and he will say, 'I am not of that degree 
 which ye suppose.' And he will remember the sin which 
 he committed in asking for the deliverance of his son (Hud), 
 not knowing whether it was a right request or not ; and he 
 will say, ' Go to Abraham, who is the Friend of God.' Then 
 they will go to Abraham, and he will say, ' I am not of that 
 degree which ye suppose.' And he will remember the three 
 occasions on which he told lies in the world ; and he will say, 
 ' Go to Moses, who is the servant to whom God gave His law, 
 and whom He allowed to converse with Him.' And they will 
 go to Moses, and Moses will say, ' I am not of that degree 
 which ye suppose.' And he will remember the sin which he 
 committed in slaying a man, and he will say, 'Go to Jesus, 
 He is the servant of God, the Apostle of God, the Spirit of God, 
 and the Word of God.' Then they will go to Jesus, and He 
 will say, ' Go to Muhammad who is a servant, whose sins 
 
126 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 God has forgiven both first and last.' Then the Muslims 
 will come to me, and I will then ask permission to go into 
 God's presence and intercede for them." ^ 
 
 There is also this curious version of the temptation 
 of Jesus which may indicate His victory over the 
 devil, but is not very conclusive: Ta'us of Yemen, 
 one of the early followers of Mohammed, used to say, 
 "There is nothing which a man says but is counted 
 against him, even his moaning in illness." He said, 
 " Jesus having met Iblis, the latter said to him, ' Do 
 you not know that nothing will betide you but what 
 is destined for you ? ' Jesus replied, ' Yes.' Iblis 
 then said, 'Ascend to the summit of this mountain 
 and throw yourself down : see whether you will live 
 or not.' Jesus replied, 'Do you not know that God 
 has said, " My servant cannot test me, for I do what 
 I please ? " Verily, a servant does not try his Lord, 
 but God tries His servant.' " Ta'us said, " Iblis there- 
 fore became his enemy." ^ 
 
 In the third place, Jesus Christ is the great Miracle- 
 Worker, especially as the healer of the sick. It is 
 the common opinion among Moslems that the science 
 of medicine had reached a high degree of perfection 
 in the days of Jesus Christ, and that God glorified 
 His apostle by making it possible for Him to heal 
 the sick through miraculous power. We have seen 
 in the story of the miracles of Jesus how this con- 
 
 1 Mishkat, Book XXIII. Chapter 12. 
 
 2 Ad-Damiri's Hayat Al-Hayawan, p. 227. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 127 
 
 ception is elaborated. Jesus Christ as the Great 
 Physician is a familiar picture to Moslems. 
 
 The following beautiful account of Jesus healing 
 the sick occurs in the Masnavi/ and may well compare 
 with our evening hymn, 
 
 "At evening, ere the sun was set, 
 
 The sick, Lord, around Thee lay " : — 
 
 "The house of 'Isa was the banquet of men of heart, 
 
 Ho ! afflicted one, quit not this door ! 
 
 From all sides the people ever thronged, 
 
 Many blind and lame, and halt and afflicted, 
 
 To the door of the house of 'Isa at dawn. 
 
 That with his breath he might heal their ailments. 
 
 As soon as he had finished his orisons. 
 
 That holy one would come forth at the third hour ; 
 
 He viewed those impotent folk, troop by troop. 
 
 Sitting at his door in hope and expectation ; 
 
 He spoke to them, saying, ' stricken ones ! 
 
 The desires of all of you have been granted by God ; 
 
 Arise, walk without pain or affliction. 
 
 Acknowledge the mercy and beneficence of God ! ' 
 
 Then all, as camels whose feet are shackled, 
 
 When you loose their feet in the road. 
 
 Straightway rush in joy and delight to the halting-place. 
 
 So did they run upon their feet at his command." 
 
 Lastly, Christ is alive and in heaven, where He 
 is able to intercede for His people. Zamakhshari in 
 his Commentary on the Koran text, "illustrious in 
 this world and the next " (Surah 3 : 46) says, " This 
 signifies the office of prophet and supremacy over 
 
 ^ Masnavi-i-Manavi ofJalal-ud-Din, Whinfield's translation, p. 116, 
 
128 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 men in this world, and in the next world the office 
 of Intercessor and loftiness of rank in Paradise." 
 Moslems disagree as to where Jesus Christ now is. 
 The Sunni divines agree that He saw no corruption, 
 but they differ as to the exact state of celestial bliss 
 in which He now resides in His human body. Some 
 say He is in the second heaven; some say He is in 
 the third ; some say the fourth.^ A learned doctor 
 of the Shiah Sect assured me that the Shiah belief is 
 that He is in the highest, or the seventh heaven. 
 
 Gathering up these ideas of the character of Jesus 
 and His person, and yet remembering what they deny 
 in regard to our Saviour, it is evident that to Moslems 
 the Founder of the Christian religion, although 
 miraculously born, with power to work miracles, and 
 the last and greatest of all the prophets until 
 Mohammed, who also had the special honour of being 
 taken up into heaven, is nevertheless a mere man, 
 sent of God, and one of the objects of His mission 
 (and this is always the climax of Moslem teaching) 
 was that Jesus came to announce the coming of 
 Mohammed. This idea has taken a permanent and 
 prominent place in all later Moslem teaching con- 
 cerning the person of Jesus, and is often the first 
 argument on Moslem lips. Every Moslem, even boys 
 who are well read in their religion, can glibly quote 
 Surah 61:6: "And remember when Jesus the son 
 of Mary said, ' O children of Israel ! of a truth I am 
 ^ Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, p. 235. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 129 
 
 God's Apostle to you to confirm the law which was 
 given before me, and to announce an apostle that 
 shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmed'" 
 By this token from the lips of Mohammed himself, 
 and alleged to be a revelation from God, the prophet 
 of Arabia not only succeeds but supplants the Prophet 
 of Nazareth. 
 
 Moslems have always been eager to find further 
 proof of the coming of Mohammed in the Old and 
 New Testament Scriptures in addition to their mis- 
 interpretation of John 16: 7: The Paraclete} They 
 therefore not only quote the words of the Koran, but 
 refer to Deuteronomy 33 : 2, Isaiah 21 : 6 ; the parable 
 in Matthew 20, John 4: 21, and 1 John 4 : 1-3. 
 
 The passage in Deuteronomy states that Jehovah 
 came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them ; He 
 shined forth from Mount Paran. Sinai is a Jewish 
 mountain; Seir, they say, is a mountain in Galilee 
 where Christ died, but Paran is a mountain near 
 Mecca, and signifies the Mohammedan religion. 
 
 As for Isaiah's prophecy, in which he sees a troop 
 coming of horsemen and of men riding asses, and of 
 those who ride camels, to which the prophet should 
 hearken diligently, their interpretation is that the 
 horses refer to Moses' dispensation, the asses to that 
 on which Christ rode, and the camels to Mohammed. 
 
 The parable in the twentieth chapter of Matthew's 
 Gospel of the labourers in the vineyard is cleverly 
 
 1 See following chapter. 
 9 
 
130 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 applied to the threefold dispensation: the morning, 
 Judaism; the noonday labourers, the apostles of 
 Christ; and those to whom he came in the evening, 
 the Moslems. This interpretation is based on a most 
 interesting statement attributed to Mohammed in 
 the traditions. 
 
 "Your likeness, Moslems, in comparison to the 
 Jews and Christians, is like that of a man who hired 
 labourers. He said, ' Who will work for me a whole 
 day for a shekel ? ' These are the Jews, for they have 
 laboured a long time for a small wage. Then said the 
 man, 'Who will work from noon until night for a 
 shekel?' These are the Christians. Then he said, 
 'Who will work from afternoon prayer time until 
 sunset?' Such labourers are ye, and remember that 
 for you there is a double wage, because ye have 
 acknowledged the prophet of Truth, and in him all 
 the other prophets." The tradition goes on to show 
 how the Jews and Christians complained, in the terms 
 of the parable, and how God said, " I will give those 
 whom I love what I will." ^ 
 
 According to John 4:21, the true worshippers of 
 God are those that " neither on this mountain nor in 
 Jerusalem " worship Him ; namely, the Mohammedans. 
 
 The most daring use of Scripture, however, as a 
 prophecy of the coming of Mohammed, is the Moslem 
 interpretation of the last passage mentioned. " Here- 
 by know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that 
 
 1 Mishkat, vol. ii. p. 814. Captain Mathew's translation. 
 
THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF JESUS 131 
 
 confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is 
 of God." Mohammed is the true Spirit of God because 
 he taught that Jesus Christ was come in the flesh; 
 namely, He came as man and man only, not as God.^ 
 
 After this fashion the Koran and its interpreters 
 unite to obscure the glory of the person and character 
 of Jesus Christ, by obtruding ever and anon Mo- 
 hammed as the last of the prophets and the one to 
 whom even Jesus Christ bears witness. And what 
 Moslems have done as regards the person of Jesus 
 Christ, they have not hesitated to do in regard to 
 His teaching, as we shall see in the next chapter. 
 
 1 For other passages of Scripture used by Moslems to establish 
 the fact that Jesus and His apostles foretold the coming of Mo- 
 hammed, see Carletti's translation of Iclhar-ul-HaTc, vol. ii. pp. 
 190-250. He quotes the following passages with comment :— 
 Deut. 18 : 17-22. Isa. 42 : 9-17. 
 
 „ 32:21. „ 65:1-6. 
 
 33:2. Matt. 13 : 31, 32. 
 
 Gen. 17:20. „ 20:1-16. 
 
 „ 49:10. „ 22:33-45. 
 
 Dan. 2 : 31-45. Jude 14 : 15. 
 
 Ps. 45:1-18. Rev. 2:26-29. 
 
 ,,149:1-9. 
 Cf. Tisdall's Mohammedan Objections to Cliristianity , Rice's 
 Crusaders of the Twentieth Centunj, and Gerock's Christologie des 
 Koran, pp. 110-112. 
 
VI 
 
 HIS TEACHING 
 
"There seems to be no satisfactory proof that an 
 Arabic version of the New Testament existed in 
 Mohammed's time. Even in the " Orthodox " Church, 
 the Gospel was neglected in favour of legends of saints 
 which appealed more to the popular taste for the mar- 
 vellous. . . . We shall see that the agreement in detail 
 between what the Koran relates on these subjects and 
 what may be found in apocryphal and heretical litera- 
 ture is very remarkable. Here again Mohammed seems 
 to have had a wonderful talent for rejecting the true 
 and accepting the false, just as in the case of the Jewish 
 traditions." — W. St. Clair Tlsdall, The Sources of 
 the Quran, pp. 140-143. 
 
 ' ' On pourrait faire un volume avec ce que les auteurs 
 musulmans rapportent des paroles ou des actions de 
 •Jesus Christ. Les examples que nous venous de donner 
 suflfisent pour demontrer que le ' injil ' musulman est 
 encore a chercher. Ne serait-ce point I'evangile dont 
 Ibn Salam a fait la traduction, com me il I'assure dans le 
 Fihrist. 
 
 "Mais cet evangile n'existe plus; peut-etre quelque 
 chercheur pourra-t-il un jour le retrouver ! " — P. L. 
 Cheikho, Quclques Lcgendcs Jslamiques Aiwcryphcs. 
 
 134 
 
VI 
 HIS TEACHING 
 
 THE New Testament, and especially the Gospels, 
 give as full an account of the teaching of Jesus 
 as of His life and ministry. This is not the case in 
 the Koran and in Moslem tradition. Both are de- 
 cidedly meagre on the subject, and Moslems in general 
 are unable to give details regarding the message of 
 Him " who spake as never man spake." 
 
 Although, as we have seen, there are many references 
 to Jesus Christ in the Koran, it is remarkable that 
 there is not a single direct quotation from the New 
 Testament in the whole book, and only one from 
 the Old Testament (Surah 21 : 105).i There are pas- 
 sages in the Koran, however, which indicate that 
 Mohammed either directly or indirectly borrowed 
 Scripture thought if not language. Among them are 
 the following : — 
 
 In Surah 29 : 60 we read, " How many a beast can- 
 not carry its own provision. God provides for it and 
 for you. He both hears and knows." We may com- 
 
 * " The eartli my righteous servants shall inherit."— Of. Ps. 37 : 29. 
 
 135 
 
136 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 pare this with the teaching of Jesus Christ on God's 
 care for the birds (Matthew 6 : 26). 
 
 In Surah 18 : 24 the reference is clearer : " Never 
 say of anything, 'Verily, I am going to do that to- 
 morrow,' except (ye say) 'if God please.'" Compare 
 Jas. 4 : 13-15 : " Ye ought to say, ' If the Lord will, 
 we shall both live and do this or that.' " 
 
 In Surah 42 : 19 there is a reference to the law of 
 sowing and reaping like that in Gal. 6:7. " He who 
 wishes for the tilth of the next world, we will increase 
 for him the tilth ; and he who desires the tilth of this 
 world, we will give him thereof, but in the next world 
 he shall have no portion." 
 
 The passage that approaches nearest to a quotation, 
 however, is found in Surah 7 : 39 : " Verily, those who 
 say our signs are lies and are too big with pride for 
 them, for these the doors of heaven shall not be 
 opened, and they shall not enter into paradise until 
 a camel shall pass into a needle's eye " (Matt. 19 : 
 24). 
 
 Passing by these references to the New Testament, 
 for which no credit is given in the Koran, and which 
 are not, therefore, considered by Moslems as a part of 
 the teaching of Jesus, we consider first Mohammed's 
 conception of the message tliat Christ came to bring 
 to the Jews. It is not evident from the Koran that 
 the mission of Jesus Christ was universal. On the 
 contrary, He is sent to the Jews only, and is not an 
 apostle to the whole world, although His disciples 
 
HIS TEACHING 137 
 
 afterward carry His message into other lands. Jesus 
 Christ was God's messenger to the Jews who had fallen 
 into error and unbelief. The miracles were intended 
 to persuade them of the truth of His message, and to 
 lead them to accept His revelation received from God, 
 namely, the Injil or Gospel. The Koran does not 
 indicate into what particular errors the Jews had 
 fallen and in what respect they had left the true 
 religion of Abraham (Islam), that is, the belief in one 
 God. In one passage it is asserted that the Jews gave 
 divine honours to Ezra (Surah 9 : 30), but whether this 
 took place after the mission of Jesus Christ or before, 
 is left uncertain. 
 
 Al Qaramani, in his History of Ancient Times and 
 Peoples^ relates that " When Jesus was eight years old. 
 He was circumcised and named Yasu'a. When He 
 was thirty years old revelation came to Him, and He 
 entered the Holy House where the children of Israel 
 were buying and selling; then He began to strike 
 them and to say, Ye sons of the children of vipers and 
 snakes 1 have you taken the house of God for a bazaar ? 
 Then God made the Gospel to come down to Him and 
 Gabriel ten times " (vol. i. p. 70). 
 
 As the Injil, or Gospel, is considered not only by the 
 Koran, but by all Moslems, as the special message of 
 Jesus, it is important to know what the Koran teaches 
 in regard to its character and authority. The word 
 injil is undoubtedly a corruption of the Greek 
 gvavyg/./ov (evangel). It occurs twelve times in the 
 
138 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Koran,^ and there doubtless refers to the revelations 
 made by God to Jesus, that is, to His verbal messages, 
 afterwards put into writing. In later Mohammedan 
 usage it is applied to the whole New Testament. All 
 of the passages that mention the Injil occur in the 
 later Surahs. - 
 
 Concerning the original divine character and autho- 
 rity of this book, or message or teaching of Jesus, the 
 Koran expresses no doubt. It confirms all God's 
 teaching that preceded it ; it is a guidance to men ; it 
 is the basis of firm belief and of salvation. Surah 
 5 : 72 : "Ye rest on naught until ye stand fast by the 
 law and the gospel." It is "a word of truth." Its 
 effect is to produce the spirit of adoration (Surah 
 48 : 29), and to prompt to deeds of kindness and com- 
 passion (Surah 57 : 27). 
 
 But since Mohammed makes an appeal to the Gospel 
 for the support of his own mission in what he con- 
 siders a genuine saying of Christ's, well known to the 
 Christians of his day, he gave the reason for the later 
 charge of Moslems against Christians, that they have 
 either lost or changed the original gospel. This appeal 
 of Mohammed to Jesus Christ's words occurs in Surah 
 Gl:6: "And when Jesus the son of Mary said, *0 
 
 1 Surali 7 : 156 ; Surah 3:2; Surah 3 : 43 ; Surah 3 : 58 ; Surah 
 57 : 27 ; Surah 48 : 29 ; Surah 9 : 112 ; Surah 5 : 50, 51 ; Surah 5 : 70 ; 
 Surah 5 : 72 ; Surah 5 : 110, and perhaps Surah 19 : 31. In this last 
 passage, the infant Jesus says, " Verily, I am the servant of God. 
 He hath given me The Book, and He hath made me a prophet." 
 
 - Cf. Rodwell and Noldeke. 
 
HIS TEACHING 139 
 
 children of Israel ! verily, I am the apostle of God to 
 you, verifying the law that was before me, and giving 
 you glad tidings of an apostle who shall come after me, 
 whose name shall be Ahmed.' " ^ 
 
 Jesus, they say, foretold the coming of Mohammed ; 
 He pointed to him that was to come. The commenta- 
 tors and later tradition assert, therefore, that the 
 teaching of Jesus, originally pure monotheism, was 
 corrupted by the apostles that followed Him. In 
 commenting on the words of the Koran, " The Chris- 
 tians say that the Messiah is the son of God ; that is 
 what they say with their mouths, imitating the sayings 
 of those who misbelieved before — God fight them ! how 
 they lie ! " El-Kalbi states : " The Christians followed 
 the religion of Islam for eighty-one years after the 
 translation of Jesus, praying with their faces directed 
 to the Kihlah and fasting during the month of 
 Ramadan, until a war occurred between them and the 
 Jews. There was a brave and bold man among the 
 Jews called Paul, who killed a large number of the 
 followers of Jesus. He said one day to the Jews, ' If 
 the truth is with Jesus, we have misbelieved Him and 
 we shall go to Hell-fire, and we shall be over-reached, 
 if they enter Paradise and we enter Hell -fire ; but I 
 
 ^ Ahmed is the equivalent of Mohammed, and Moslem commentators 
 have ingeniously found an allusion to this promise in the words of 
 Jesus concerning the Paraclete (John 14 : 16, 15 : 26, and John 17 : 7). 
 They assert that the word irapaKXrjTos has been substituted in the 
 Greek for irepiKXvros, which would mean the same as Ahmed. The 
 whole context makes clear the futility of this contention. 
 
140 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 shall scheme a dodge and mislead them, so that they 
 would enter Hell-fire.' Now, he had a horse called the 
 Eagle, on the back of which he used to fight ; he 
 hocked it, showed repentance, and threw dust on his 
 head, upon which the Christians asked him, ' Who are 
 you ? ' He replied, * Paul, your enemy. A voice from 
 heaven declared to mes " Your repentance will not be 
 accepted until you become a Christian," and here, I 
 have now repented.' — [This doubtless refers to the 
 history of Paul's conversion, Acts ix.]. — They therefore 
 took him into the church, and he entered a room in it 
 and remained in it for a year, not going out either by 
 day or by night until he learnt the New Testament. 
 He then came out and said, ' A voice from heaven has 
 declared to me, " God has accepted your repentance." ' 
 They therefore believed him and loved him. He then 
 went to Jerusalem and appointed over them as his 
 successor Nestorius, whom he taught that Jesus, Mary, 
 and God were three. He then went to Greece (ar-Eum) 
 and taught them there the doctrine of the divinity and 
 the humanity. He told them that Jesus was neither 
 a human being nor a jinn, but that he was the son of 
 God, and he taught a man named Jacob this doctrine. 
 He then called a man named Malkan, and told him 
 that God always was and always will be Jesus. 
 When he had got a proper hold over them, he called 
 them three, one by one, and said to each of them, 
 ' You are exclusively mine, and I have seen Jesus in 
 a dream, and he was pleased with me.' He also said 
 
HIS TEACHING 141 
 
 to each one of them, * I shall to-morrow kill myself ; 
 then invite people to follow your persuasion.' He 
 then entered the arena and killed himself, saying, ' I 
 am doing this to please Jesus.' When the third day 
 came, each one of them invited the people to accept 
 his creed, and a party followed each of them ; so that 
 the Christians became separated into three distinct 
 bodies, — the Nestorians, the Jacobites, and the Mala- 
 kites. They differed from, and fought with, one another. 
 Hence God said, 'And the Christians say that the 
 Messiah is the son of God ; that is what they say with 
 their mouths, imitating the sayings of those who mis- 
 believed before. — God fight them ! how they lie ! ' " ^ 
 
 Another account of how the apostles corrupted the 
 original message of Jesus is given in the Biographical 
 Dictionary of Hajji Khalifah, entitled Kashf-uz-Zunun. 
 The statements made are such a curious mixture of 
 fact and fiction that we quote them at length : — 
 
 " In the book entitled the TuhfatuH-Adih fi Raddi 'ala Ahli's- 
 Saliby or ' A Refutation of the Servants of the Cross ' (written by 
 'Abdu'llah, a pervert from Christianity to Islam, a.h. 823), it 
 is said that these four companions are they who corrupted the 
 religion of Jesus, and have added to it. And that they were not 
 of the Hawariyun, or apostles mentioned in the Koran. Matta 
 did not see Jesus until the year he was taken up to heaven ; 
 and after the ascension of Jesus he wrote in the city of Alex- 
 andria, with his own hand, his Injil, in which he gives an 
 account of the birth and life of Jesus, mentioning several 
 circumstances which are not mentioned by the others. Luka 
 
 ^ Ad-Damiri, Hayat-Al-Hayaivan, vol. ii. pp. 537-538. 
 
142 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 also did not see Jesus, but he was converted to Christianity by 
 one Bulis (Paul), who was an Israelite, who himself had not seen 
 Jesus, but was converted by Ananiya (Ananias). Marqus also 
 did not see Jesus at all, but was converted to Christianity, after 
 the Ascension of Jesus, by the apostle Bitrus^ and received the 
 Injil from that apostle in the city of Rome. And his gospel in 
 many respects contradicts the statements of the other three. 
 Yuhanna was the son of the sister of Maryam, the mother of 
 Jesus, and the Christians assert that Jesus was present at the 
 marriage of Yuhanna, when Jesus changed the water into wine. 
 It was the first miracle performed by Jesus." 
 
 "When Yuhanna saw the miracle, he was converted to 
 Christianity, and left his wife and followed Jesus. He was the 
 writer of the fourth Injil. It was written in Greek, in the 
 city of Ephesus. These are the four persons who altered and 
 changed the true Injil, for there was only one Injil revealed to 
 Jesus, in which there was no contradiction or discrepancy. 
 These people have invented lies concerning God and His 
 prophet Jesus, upon whom be peace, as is a well-known fact, 
 although the Christians (Nasara) deny it." ^ 
 
 It is evident from these traditions which find an 
 echo in the common belief of Moslems everywhere, 
 that the gospel story now in the hands of Christians 
 is not for them a true account of the teachings of Jesus. 
 Although the Koran in general terms commends both 
 the Old and the New Testament,^ in a whole series of 
 passages which assert that the Torah, the Zaboor, and 
 the Injil are the very word of God, yet neither the 
 Koran nor tradition give any adequate indication of 
 
 ^ Quoted in Hughes' Dictionary of Islam, p. 212. 
 
 2 All the references of the Koran to the sacred scriptures of the 
 Jews and Christians have been collected by Sir William Muir in his 
 book, The Coran. S.P.C.K. London, 1878. 
 
HIS TEACHING 143 
 
 the contents and message of these books of God as 
 they relate to sin and salvation. 
 
 The curious story of Habib the carpenter, which is 
 given in Surah 36 : 12-30 of the Koran, tells of the 
 preaching of the apostles at Antioch and the conver- 
 sion of the carpenter, but leaves out any reference 
 to the character of the message which the apostles 
 carried to that city where the disciples were first 
 called Christians. El Beidhawi, the commentator,^ 
 says that the people of Antioch were idolaters, and 
 that Jesus sent two of His disciples, John and Jude, 
 to preach to them. When they arrived, they met 
 Habib the carpenter, who said, " What signs can you 
 show that you are sent from God ? " They replied, 
 " We can heal the sick, and give sight to the blind, 
 and cure leprosy." When Habib brought his sick son 
 to them, they laid hands upon him, and he was healed. 
 Habib then believed on Jesus, and published the 
 Gospel to the people of the city. When the news 
 reached the governor, he sent for the disciples, and 
 asked them, " Is your God different from our God ? " 
 and they said, " Yes, He it is who made both thee and 
 thy gods." Then the governor put them in prison. 
 While they were in prison Jesus sent Simon Peter, 
 who made friends with the servant of the governor 
 secretly, gained access to his presence, performed a 
 miracle by raising his child who had been dead seven 
 days. This child, when raised from the dead, said he 
 1 El Beidhawi on Surah 36 : 12-30 ; cf. also Zamakhshari. 
 
144 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 had seen Jesus Christ in heaven, who was . interceding 
 for the three disciples in prison. Then the governor 
 believed and many others, but the unbelievers raised a 
 disturbance ; and when Habib the carpenter preached 
 to them, he was stoned, and having died, entered 
 Paradise. Habib's tomb is still to be seen at Antioch, 
 and is visited as a shrine by Moslems. 
 
 When we turn to later traditions and to later 
 Moslem literature, it is refreshing to find something 
 more real on the teaching of Jesus, although it is not 
 always attributed to Him. In Bokhari we read, " The 
 prophet said, * At the resurrection God shall say, " O ye 
 sons of men ! I was sick and ye visited Me not." They 
 shall say, " Thou art the Lord of the worlds ; how 
 should we visit Thee ? " He will say, '' A certain 
 servant of mine was sick, and if ye had visited him, 
 ye would have found Me with him." ' " This is remark- 
 able teaching, for it brings out a sense of nearness 
 between God and man which is generally ignored by 
 Moslems. 
 
 In regard to the teaching attributed to Jesus Christ 
 and alleged to be found in the original Gospel, or Injil, 
 P. L. Cheikho gives the following extracts, taken, he 
 says, from many sources: "Jesus Christ said in the 
 Gospel, ' Hope if ye are afraid, and be afraid if ye 
 hope.' 'Your life consists of a certain number of 
 breaths, and some one is watching over it. Do not 
 forget death, therefore, because death will not forget 
 you.' 'Good health is a secret king.' 'Anxiety is 
 
HIS TEACHING 145 
 
 part of the weakness of old age.' ' The son of Adam 
 craves for that which is forbidden.' ' A bribe blinds 
 the eyes of the learned, and what think ye then of the 
 ignorant ? ' ' Weep with those that weep, and laugh 
 with those that laugh.' " 
 
 Another story told in the book of the Israelites, 
 attributed to Wahab bin Munabah, is that Jesus one 
 day passed a skull lying by the wayside and com- 
 manded it to speak. It obeyed, and recounted a 
 fantastic story to those who were present, saying, " I 
 am Bilwam, the son of So and So, King of Yemen. I 
 lived a thousand years, and married so many women, 
 and slaughtered so many enemies, and conquered so 
 many cities. Let those who see me remember, and 
 may the world not deceive them as it has deceived me, 
 for all the time that has passed is like the dream of 
 one who sleepeth." Then Jesus wept.^ 
 
 There is one striking instance of a quotation from 
 the epistles, — a favourite with many thoughtful 
 Moslems, which is, however, attributed to Mohammed 
 on the authority of Abu Huraira : *' The Most High 
 said, * I have prepared for my righteous servants what 
 eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it occurred 
 to the heart of a human being.' " These words are 
 evidently quoted from 1 Cor. 2 : 4. Yet it is doubtful 
 whether Mohammed ever used them, as much of the 
 later traditions are pure invention.^ 
 
 ^ Quclques Legcndes Islamiqucs ApocrypheSj pp. 43, 44. 
 ^ Mishkat-ul-Masabih, p. 487. 
 lO 
 
146 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 Other instances are given by a recent writer on the 
 subject : 
 
 "In the ^ Awarifu-l-Mawo,rif of Shahab-ud-Din 
 Suhrawardi the doctrine of the New Birth is definitely 
 attributed to Christ. ' The death of nature and of will, 
 which they call " the second birth," even as Jesus has 
 written.' 
 
 " Ghazzali in the Ihya-ul-ulum thus refers to St. 
 Matthew 11: 17: 'Some one said, "I saw written in 
 the Gospel, We have sung to you, but ye have not 
 been moved with emotion ; we have piped unto you, 
 but ye have not danced."' He also quotes St. 
 Matthew 6 : 25, 'Jesus said. Consider the fowls, 
 etc' 
 
 "The historian Tabari mentions the institution of 
 the Last Supper, Christ's washing His disciples' hands, 
 requesting them to watch with Him, predicting Peter's 
 denial, and quotes the text, ' The shepherd shall be 
 smitten, and the sheep shall be scattered.' " ^ 
 
 Centuries after Mohammed, the poets of Syria and 
 Persia interpreted the teaching of Jesus as they 
 gathered it either from Moslem tradition or from 
 Christian neighbours. In the Bostan of Sa'di the 
 parable of the Publican and the Pharisee takes the 
 following curious shape : — 
 
 In Jesus' time there hved a youth so black and dissolute, 
 That Satan from him shrank appalled in every attribute ; 
 
 1 *♦ Christ in Mohammedan Tradition," C. H. A. Field, C.M.S. 
 Intelligencer, January 1911. 
 
HIS TEACHING 147 
 
 He ill a sea of pleasures foul uninterrupted swam 
 And gluttonised on dainty vices, sipping many a dram. 
 Whoever met him on the highway turned as from a pest, 
 Or, pointing lifted finger at him, cracked some horrid jest. 
 I have been told that Jesus once was passing by the cave 
 Where dwelt a monk who asked Him in, — 
 When suddenly that slave of sin appeared across the way, 
 Far off he paused, fell down and sobbingly began to pray ; 
 And like a storm of rain the tears pour gushing from his eyes. 
 " Alas, and woe is me for thirty squandered years," he cries ; 
 The pride-puffed monk self-righteous lifts his eyebrows with 
 
 a sneer 
 And haughtily exclaims, " Vile wretch ! in vain hast thou 
 
 come here. 
 Art thou not plunged in sin, and tossed in lust's devouring sea ? 
 What will thy filthy rags avail with Jesus and with me? 
 God ! the granting of a single wish is all I pray. 
 Grant me to stand far distant from this man at Judgment 
 
 Day." 
 From Heaven's throne a revelation instantaneous broke, 
 And God's own thunder-words through the mouth of Jesus 
 
 spoke : 
 " The two whom praying there I see, shall equally be heard ; 
 They pray diverse, — I give to each according to his word. 
 That poor one thirty years has rolled in sin's most slimy 
 
 deeps. 
 But now with stricken heart and streaming eyes for pardon 
 
 weeps. 
 Upon the threshold of My grace he throws him in desj)air, 
 And faintly hoping pity pours his supplications there. 
 Therefore forgiven and freed from all the guilt in which he 
 
 lies 
 My mercy chooses him a citizen of paradise ; 
 This monk desires that he may not that sinner stand beside, 
 Therefore he goes to hell and so his wish is gratified." ^ 
 
 1 Quoted by C. H. A. Field. 
 
148 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 And the poet Nizami gives this curious illustration 
 of the compassion and gentleness of Jesus : — 
 
 One evening Jesus lingered in the market-place 
 
 Teaching the people parables of truth and grace, 
 
 When in the square remote a crowd was seen to rise 
 
 And stop with loathing gestures and abhorring cries. 
 
 The Master and His meek disciples went to see 
 
 What cause for this commotion and disgust could be, 
 
 And found a poor dead dog beside the gutter laid : 
 
 Revolting sight ! at which each face its hate betrayed. 
 
 One held his nose, one shut his eyes, one turned away. 
 
 And all among themselves began aloud to say, 
 
 " Detested creature ! he pollutes the earth and air ! " 
 
 " His eyes are blear ! " " His ears are foul ! " " His ribs 
 
 are bare ! " 
 " In his torn hide there's not a decent shoe-string left ! " 
 " No doubt the execrable cur was hung for theft ! " 
 Then Jesus spake and dropped on him this saving wreath: 
 " Even pearls are dark before the whiteness of his teeth ! " ^ 
 
 It is easy to understand how close contact with 
 Christians and Christian teaching gave rise to this kind 
 of poetry, but it is not so easy to understand or to 
 explain how after Mohammed's death distinctively 
 Christian teaching, nay, the very words of Christ, His 
 parables and His deepest lessons, are by tradition- 
 mongers put into the mouth of Mohammed, as if he 
 were the originator of them ! 
 
 When we remember, however, that the biographies 
 of Mohammed by Moslem authors, beginning with the 
 earliest, but especially the later biographies, attribute 
 1 Quoted by C. H. A. Field. 
 
HIS TEACHING 149 
 
 to their prophet an equality with, or even a super- 
 iority to the Prophet of Nazareth, so that Mohammed 
 himself becomes a parody of Jesus Christ, it is not 
 strange that they imputed Christ's teaching also to 
 him. Koelle devotes the second portion of his critical 
 treatise, Mohammed and Mohammedanism ^ to a 
 comparison between Mohammed and Jesus Christ, in 
 which he shows by literal translation from Moslem 
 biographical works how almost every detail of the life 
 of Christ was duplicated by the glowing imagination 
 and devout admiration of Moslems, who did not scruple 
 to invent stories as long as they glorified the prophet.^ 
 In a special study on the Hadith (traditions) and the 
 New Testament, Ignaz Goldziher points out several 
 instances where the very words of Christ are attributed 
 to Mohammed.^ Among those, said Mohammed, whom 
 God will cover with His shadow in the day when there 
 is no shadow, is " the man who does alms and keeps it 
 secret, so that his left hand does not know what his 
 right hand doeth." ^ Abdullah bin Mas'ud said : " I saw the 
 Prophet of God, when the people struck him and abused 
 him, that he brushed the blood off his face and said, ' 
 God ! forgive my people, for they know not what they 
 do.' " The commentators ignorantly add that Moham- 
 med here quoted a saying of Noah the prophet ! The 
 companions of the Prophet are quoted as saying, 
 
 ^ Koelle, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, pp. 242-446. 
 '^ Go\diZ\\\QV, Muhammedanische Studien, vol. 11, pp. 381-404. 
 ^ Al Muwatta, vol. iv. p. 171. 
 
150 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 " Be harmless as doves " ; and the greater number of 
 the inhabitants of paradise, Mohammed is reported to 
 have said, are " the poor in spirit." 
 
 The most remarkable example which Goldziher 
 gives, is the use of the Lord's Prayer, which in the 
 Hadith is also attributed to Mohammed. Abu al 
 Darda'i is reported to have said that the prophet 
 said, " When any one is in suffering, or his brother 
 suffers, then let him pray this prayer : ' Our Lord 
 God who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy 
 kingdom is in heaven and on earth, and even as Thy 
 mercy is in heaven, so may Thy mercy also be upon 
 earth. Forgive us our debts and our sins, for Thou 
 art the Lord of the good. Send down mercy from 
 Thy mercy and healing from Thy healing for those 
 suffering, that they may begin to heal. ' " ^ 
 
 Groldziher gives other instances, and shows conclus- 
 ively that even as in the case of Mohammed's life, so 
 in the case of Mohammed's teaching, any fragments 
 of the life and teaching of Christ which could add to 
 the glory of the prophet, were without scruple incor- 
 porated in later tradition. It is no wonder that if such 
 a Mohammed, transformed at least in measure into the 
 character if not into the image of Christ, is enthroned 
 in the hearts of Mohammedans, they should be hard to 
 
 ^ One of the younger contemporaries of Mohammed, wlio was a late 
 convert to Islam, but afterwards became one of the greatest Koran 
 scholars. Under Othman he was the public prayer-reader in Damascus, 
 where he died a.h. 652. — Hoittsma, Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 82. 
 
 - Ahu Daood^ vol. i. p. 101. 
 
HIS TEACHING 151 
 
 win.^ As Koelle remarks, " What a mass of rubbish 
 has to be swept away from the path of the pious Moslem 
 before his vision can become unimpeded and free 
 enough to perceive the all-surpassing spiritual majesty 
 of Him who could say, He who hath seen Me hath 
 seen the Father." ^ 
 
 Except for the opinion that Jesus Christ is a true 
 prophet and one of the greatest of the prophets before 
 the time of Mohammed, the masses of the people in the 
 Moslem world have no conception of the message which 
 Jesus Christ came to bring, nor of the character of His 
 teaching as distinguished from that of Moses and the 
 Old Testament prophets. And we must add to this that if 
 the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are the 
 cardinal truths of the Gospel, these truths are not only 
 obscured, but contradicted by the Koran and tradition, 
 so that in the teaching of Jesus Christ, as understood 
 by Mohammedans, we must leave out everything that 
 relates to the Incarnation, the Atonement, and salvation 
 from sin by faith in His name. Nowhere in the Koran 
 or in tradition is there any trace of the great Christian 
 doctrine of justification by faith. As in regard to the 
 person of Christ, so in regard to His teaching, Islam 
 is anti-Christian. 
 
 ^ The great truths of Christianity centre in the person of its Founder. 
 In a different way Islam is bound up with the personality, even in the 
 minutest details, of its prophet ; '*inall matters small and great he is their 
 perfect example," says Rev. W. A. Rice. No Moslem is apt, therefore, 
 to have a higher opinion of our Saviour than Mohammed himself had. 
 
 - Koelle, Moh((,mmed and Mohammedanism, preface, p. vii. 
 
VII 
 
 JESUS CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY 
 MOHAMMED 
 
 153 
 
"As there is only one God, so there can be only one 
 gospel. If God has really done something in Christ on 
 which the salvation of the world depends, and if He has 
 made it known, then it is a Christian duty to be intoler- 
 ant of everything Avhich ignores, denies, or explains it 
 away. The man who perverts it is the worst enemy of 
 God and men ; and it is not bad temper or narrow- 
 nnndedness in St. Paul which explains this vehement 
 language (Galatians 1:9); it is the jealousy of God which 
 has kindled in a soul redeemed by the death of Christ a 
 corresponding jealousy for the Saviour." — James Denney 
 in The Death of Christ, p. 110. 
 
 X54 
 
VII 
 
 JESUS CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY 
 MOHAMMED 
 
 AS in a total eclipse of the sun the glory and the 
 beauty of the heavenly orb are hidden, and only 
 the corona appears on the edge, so in the life and 
 thought of Mohammedans their own prophet has 
 almost eclipsed Jesus Christ. The general idea of His 
 life, as we have gathered it from many Moslem sources, 
 is, after all, vague, shadowy, and not at all clearly out- 
 lined in the mind of Moslems. An Arab from Hassa 
 expressed this truth a few days ago when he said to 
 me : " Until my wife became a Christian I knew 
 nothing of Jesus whatever, only His name, and that He 
 was a Prophet ! " Whatever place Jesus Christ may 
 occupy in the Koran — and the portrait there given is 
 a sad caricature ; whatever favourable critics may say 
 about Christ's honourable place among the Moslem 
 prophets, it is nevertheless true that the large bulk of 
 Mohammedans know extremely little, and think still 
 less, of Jesus Christ. He has no place in their hearts 
 
 155 
 
156 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 nor in their lives. All the prophets have not only been 
 succeeded, but supplanted by Mohammed; he is at 
 once the sealer and concealer of all former revelations. 
 Mohammed is always in the foreground, and Jesus 
 Christ, in spite of His lofty titles and the honour 
 given Him in the Koran, is in the background. 
 There is not a single biography of Jesus Christ stand- 
 ing by Himself, alone and unique, as a great prophet 
 of God, to be found in the literature of Islam. 
 Christ is grouped with the other prophets; with 
 Lot, Alexander the Great, Ishmael, Moses, Abraham, 
 Adam. 
 
 We cannot forget this fact when we try to form a 
 conception of the Moslem Christ. It is because of this 
 that Islam presents difficulties offered by no other 
 religion in the work of missions. " It cannot be treated 
 like any other religion," says Eev. W. H. T. Gairdner ; 
 " it baffles more than any other, for it is more difficult 
 to concede to it what is gladly conceded to other 
 religions that appeared before Christ, that they in some 
 part prepared and prepare the way for Him. How 
 can that which denies the whole essential and particular 
 content of the message be said to prepare for Him, or 
 to be a half-way house to His kingdom ? For that is 
 what Islam does. Other religions know nothing of 
 Christianity ; one and all they came before it, and 
 speak of it neither good nor evil. But the whole 
 theory of Islam is that it, the latest sent of all religions, 
 does not so much abrogate Christianity with its Book, 
 
Translation of Page fkom the Book entitled 
 "Dala'il el Kheieat." 
 
 " God ! pray for the Moon of Perfection. God ! 
 pray for the Light that shines in the darkness. 
 God! pray for the Key to the door of peace. 
 God ! pray for the Intercessor of all humanity ' 
 Thou Mercy of God ! (Mohammed) I am afraid 
 and terrified. Thou Grace of God ! I am bankrupt ; 
 help Thou me. I have no good work in which I can 
 put my trust, save Thy great love and my faith in Thee. 
 Be Thou my safety from the evil of this life, and in the 
 hour of death, and deliver my body from the fire." 
 
Facsimile Page from the Book entitled 
 "Dala'il el Kheikat," 
 
 in which Mohammed is considered the sole intercessor and the channel 
 of communication between the believer and God. 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 157 
 
 as specifically and categorically deny both as wilful 
 corruption and lies." ^ 
 
 The sin and the guilt of the Mohammedan world is 
 that they give Christ's glory to another, and that for 
 all practical purposes Mohammed himself is the Moslem 
 Christ. The life and character of Mohammed as por- 
 trayed for us by his earliest biographers, who were all 
 his faithful followers and admirers, leaves no doubt 
 that he was thoroughly human and liable to error. 
 Later tradition has changed all this, and made him sin- 
 less and almost divine. The two hundred and one 
 titles of honour given to Mohammed proclaim his 
 apotheosis. These names and titles are current in all 
 popular books of devotion among Moslems, from 
 Morocco to China ; are separately printed and learned 
 by heart in Moslem schools. The list which follows 
 contains at least two score of names that Christians 
 would apply only to Christ, and many of them are by 
 Mohammedans themselves applied to God as well as 
 to their prophet, namely — 
 
 Mohammed, Ahmed, Hamid, Mahmood, the Unique, 
 
 The Only, The Forgiver, the Eaiser of the Dead, The 
 
 Avenger, " Ta Ha," " Ya Seen," 2 The Pure, The Purified, 
 
 The Good, The Lord, The Apostle, The Prophet,^ The 
 
 Apostle of Mercy, The Manager, The Gatherer, The 
 
 Follower, The Leader, The Apostle of War, The Apostle 
 
 1 W. H. T. Gairdner, The Reproach of Islam, p. 141. 
 ^ Titles of two chapters in the Koran. 
 
 ^ On Mohammed as the foreteller of future events, see Carletti, 
 Idhar-iU-ffak, vol. ii. pp. 145-154. 
 
158 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 of Rest, The Perfect, The Crown, The Wrapped One, 
 The Covered One, Servant of God, Beloved of God, 
 Chosen of God, Companion of God, Mouthpiece of God, 
 Seal of Prophets, Seal of Apostles, The QuicJcener, The 
 Deliverer, The Reminder, The Victorious, The Victor, 
 Prophet of Mercy, Prophet of Repentance, The Watcher, 
 The Well-known, The Famous, The Witness, The 
 Martyr, The Witnessed, Bringer of Good Tidings, The 
 Preacher, The One under Vows, The Warner, The Light, 
 The Lamp, The Candle, The Guidance, The Guide, The 
 Mahdi, The Enlightener, The Summoner, The Called 
 One, The Ansiverer of Prayer, The Interceder, The 
 Hidden, The Pardoner, The Saint, The Truth, The Strong, 
 The Faithful, The Entrusted One, The Gracious, The 
 Honoured, The Valiant, The Mighty, The Evident, The 
 Mediator, The Bestower, The Able, The Honourable, 
 The Exalted, The Possessor of Might, The Possessor of 
 Grace, The Obedient, The Subjector, The Benevolent, 
 The Merciful, The Good Tidings, The Assister, The 
 Provider, The Benefactor, The Mercy of God, The Gift 
 of God, The Strong Refuge, The Way of God, The 
 Straight Way, The Memorial of God, The Sword of 
 God, The Portion of God, The Shining Star, The Exalted, 
 The Corrector of Evil, The Bearer of Faults, The 
 Illiterate, The Chosen One, The Rewarded, The Mighty 
 One, Abu Kasim, Abu Tahir, Abu Tayyib, Abu Ibrahim, 
 The Intercessor, The Interceder, The Pious, The Peace 
 Maker, The Guarder, The Truthful, The Upright, Verity, 
 Lord of Apostles, Leader of the Pious, Leader of Pure 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 159 
 
 Women, Friend of the Merciful, Righteousness, The 
 Justifier, The Illustrious, The Adviser, The Man of 
 Counsel, The Undertaker, The Entrusted, The Surety, 
 The Compassionate, The Founder of the Law, The Holy 
 One, Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Truth, The Spirit of 
 Kectitude, The All-Sufficient, The Sufficer, The Perfect 
 One, The One who Attained, The Healer, The Giver, 
 The Gift, The Fore-runner, The Rear Guard, The Rightly 
 Guided, The Right Guidance, The Beginner, ThQ Precious, 
 The Honoured, The Honour-laden, The Opener, The Key, 
 The Key of Mercy, The Key of Paradise, The Source of 
 Faith, The Source of Truth, The Guide to Plenty, The 
 Selected One, The Purifier of Good Works, The Pardoner 
 of Sins, The Lord of Intercession, The Highly Exalted, 
 The Most Noble, The Essence of Power, The Essence of 
 Glory, The Essence of Honour, The One who Helps, The 
 One who has a Sword, The One who has Praise, The One 
 who has a Covering, The Argument, The Sultan, The 
 Possessor of the Cloak, The Possessor of High Degree, 
 The Possessor of the Crown, The Possessor of the 
 Helmet, The Possessor of the Banner, One who ascended 
 to Heaven, The Possessor of the Sceptre, The Possessor 
 of the Seal, The Possessor of Boraak,i The Possessor 
 of the Sign, The Possessor of the Proof, The Possessor 
 of the Argument, The Eloquent, The Pure of Heart, 
 The Gracious One, The Pitiful, The Ear of Goodness, 
 The Perfection of Islam, Lord of Two Worlds, The Eye 
 
 ^ The famous animal on which Mohammed made his night journey 
 to heaven. 
 
160 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 of Kindness, The Eye of Brilliancy, The Helper of God, 
 The Helper of Men, The Pleader for the Nations, The 
 Knowledge of Truth, The Discloser of Secrets, The 
 Elevator of the Lowly, The Glory of the Arabs, The 
 One who has Victory. 
 
 Some of these titles, as we have indicated by printing 
 them in italics, are similar to those given to God 
 Himself. Mohammed is also called the Light of God, 
 the Peace of the World, the Glory of the Ages, the First 
 of all Creatures, and other names of yet greater import. 
 One tradition goes so far as to say, " No man in what- 
 soever condition he is can resemble God so much as 
 thou dost. But if there could be an image to represent 
 God as He is, it could be no other than thyself." ^ 
 
 No Moslem prays to Mohammed, but every Moslem 
 prays for him in endless repetition daily. In spite of 
 statements in the- Koran to the contrary, most Moslems 
 believe that he will be the only intercessor on the day 
 of judgment. The books of devotion used everywhere 
 are proof of this statement. God favoured him above 
 all creatures ; he dwells in the highest heaven, and is 
 several degrees above Jesus in honour and station. 
 Mohammed holds the keys of heaven and hell: no 
 Moslem, however bad his character, will perish finally ; 
 no unbeliever, however good his life, can be saved except 
 through Mohammed. Islam denies the need of Christ 
 as Mediator, only to substitute Mohammed as a 
 mediator, without an incarnation, without an atonement, 
 ^ Quoted in W. A. Rice, Crusaders of the Twentieth Century, p. 15. 
 
! \ 
 
 .3 J^ 
 
 \- 
 
 L 
 
 
 •I 
 
 i 
 ■?3' 
 
 
 vi 
 
 ,-1- 
 
 
 ■I' 
 
 1 J 
 
 1 
 
 •^ J. ^ 
 
 ^y 
 
 I 
 
 Sit I ^i ^'B ^i^i'i I ^ ^ ^ |i^ n- ^ 1 ^ 5 M 
 
 ^m 
 
 m'k^i 
 
 ■i^'^mi 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 161 
 
 and without demand for a change of character. One 
 has only to question the Moslem masses, or to read 
 tradition in proof of these statements.^ 
 
 Every detail of the life of Jesus Christ has 
 been imitated and parodied by Mohammed's later 
 biographers and admirers. "En se developpant, la 
 theologie musulmane," says Rene Basset, "plus au 
 courant du christianisme, tendit a en rapprocher de 
 plus en plus le fondateur de I'islam et k attribuer k 
 celui-ci les miracles qui devaient le rendre au moins 
 r^gal de Jesus. Cette deviation de I'idee reelle qu'on 
 avait du Prophete, commen^a de bonne heure et ne fit 
 que s'accroitre avec le temps. De la, les prodiges 
 caiques sur ceux que rapportaient les Evangiles et qui 
 sont en opposition complete avec les sentiments reels 
 de Mohammed." ^ In the commentary on the poem in 
 praise of Mohammed (from the introduction to which 
 these words are taken) the author shows scriptural 
 parallels in this Coronation hymn of Islam to every 
 exaggerated word of praise there attributed to the 
 Arabian prophet. Dr. Koelle has shown in great 
 detail ^ how Moslem authors attribute to their prophet 
 an equality with, and even a superiority to, the Prophet 
 of Nazareth, by ascribing to him all the glory which 
 centres around the Christ in the New Testament. 
 Pre-existence is ascribed to Mohammed, and his 
 
 ^ Cf. Islam : A Challenge to Faith, pp. 48, 49. 
 - Rene Basset, La Bordah du Cheikh el Bousiri, Poeme en I'lionueur 
 de Mohammed traduit et commented. Paris, 1894, p. xi. 
 ^ Koelle, Mohammed and Mohammedanism , pp. 242-372. 
 II 
 
162 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 genealogy is traced through Abraham to Adam, as 
 in the case of Jesus Christ. An angel announced 
 Mohammed's conception and birth and the name which 
 he was to bear. Mohammed, like Jesus, was lost in 
 his childhood and found again, and at the age of 
 twelve he took a special journey. After the commence- 
 ment of his public ministry Mohammed, like Jesus, 
 passed through a remarkable ordeal of Satanic tempta- 
 tion. He, like Jesus Christ, chose twelve apostles. 
 His enemies were those of his own household, and he 
 was recognised by spirits from the unseen world more 
 readily than by those to whom he was sent. The 
 demons knew Jesus ; the jinn accepted Islam at the 
 hands of Mohammed. The Transfiguration of Jesus 
 Christ is surpassed by the story of Mohammed's ascent 
 into heaven, where he had personal communion with 
 all the previous prophets, and leaving Jesus far below 
 in the second heaven, himself mounted to the seventh, 
 where, according to Moslem tradition, he ate and 
 drank with God.^ 
 
 1 The following account of this journey is given in MisTcat-ul-Misahih : 
 "Whilst I was sleeping upon my side, he (Gabriel) came to me, 
 and cut me open from my breast to below my navel, and took out 
 my heart, and washed the cavity with Zam-zam water, and then 
 filled my heart with Faith and Science. After this a white animal 
 was brought for me to ride upon. Its size was between that of a 
 mule and an ass, and it stretched as far as the eye could see. The 
 name of the animal was Buraq. Then I mounted the animal, 
 and ascended until we arrived at the lowest heaven, and Gabriel 
 demanded that the door should be opened. And it was asked, ' Who 
 is it?' and he said, 'I am Gabriel.' And they then said, 'Who is 
 with you?' and he answered, 'It is Muhammad.' They said, 'Has 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 163 
 
 Koelle quotes traditions to show that, as Jesus 
 Christ to us, so to Moslems, Mohammed is above all 
 other men in worth and dignity. He was the greatest 
 and best of all God's messengers; his body the 
 true temple in which the Divine Presence dwelt. 
 Mohammed bore the divine seal of prophecy, and im- 
 parted divine benefits by laying on his hands. As a 
 parody of the mystery of the Lord's Supper, Mohammed 
 
 Muhammad been called to the office of a prophet ? ' He said, ' Yes.' 
 They said, 'Welcome, Muhammad; his coming is well.' Then the 
 door was opened ; and when I arrived in the first heaven, behold, I 
 saw Adam. And Gabriel said to me, ' This is your father Adam, 
 salute him.' Then I saluted Adam, and he answered it, and said, 
 ' You are welcome, good son, and good Prophet ! ' After that 
 Gabriel took me above, and we reached the second heaven ; and he 
 asked the door to be opened, and it was .said, ' Who is it ? ' He said, 
 'I am Gabriel.' It was said, 'Who is with you?' He said, 
 * Muhammad. ' It was said, ' Was he called ? ' He said, * Yes. ' It was 
 said, ' Welcome, Muhammad ; his coming is well.' Then the door was 
 opened ; and when I arrived in the second region, behold, I saw 
 John and Jesus (sisters' sons). And Gabriel said, ' This is John, and 
 this is Jesus ; salute both of them.' Then I saluted them, and they 
 returned it. After that they said, 'Welcome, good brother and 
 Prophet.' . . . Then I entered the seventh heaven, and behold, I saw 
 Abraham. And Gabriel said, ' This is Abraham, your father, salute 
 him ' ; which I did, and he returned it, and said, ' Welcome, good 
 son and good Prophet.' After that I was taken up to the tree called 
 Sidratu' 1-Muntaha ; and behold, its fruits were like water-pots, and 
 its leaves like elephant's ears. And Gabriel said, * This is Sidratu' 
 l-Muntaha.' And I saw four rivers there ; two of them hidden, and 
 two manifest. I said to Gabriel, 'What are these?' He said, 
 ' These two concealed rivers are in Paradise ; and the two manifest 
 are the Nile and the Euphrates.' After that I was shown the Baitu' 
 1-M'amur. After that, a vessel full of wine, another fall of milk, 
 and another of honey were brought to me, and I took the milk and 
 drank it. And Gabriel said, ' Milk is religion ; you and your 
 people will be of it." Cf. the commentators on Surah 7 : 1. 
 
164 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 is said to have sanctioned the drinking of his own 
 blood. When Malik bin Sinan sucked his wounds, 
 swallowing the blood, the prophet exclaimed, "Any 
 one whose blood touches mine, him the fire of hell shall 
 not destroy." 
 
 The miracles of Jesus Christ, even the fantastic 
 miracles given by Moslem tradition, shrink into in- 
 significance compared with the miracles ascribed to 
 Mohammed by tradition. Feeding a hungry multitude 
 with a handful of dates, opening the eyes of the blind, 
 healing the sick, turning barren lands into fruitful 
 fields, and raising the dead, — all these and many other 
 things are attributed to Mohammed.^ 
 
 In his death as well as in his life Mohammed is 
 made to resemble Jesus Christ. His death was fore- 
 told; it was not unavoidable, but freely accepted by 
 him ; he died a martyr's death, and his sufferings were 
 meritorious, taking away sin and helping those who 
 believe in him to enter paradise. "It is recorded 
 on the testimony of Ali that three days after his 
 Excellency's funeral there came an Arab, who threw 
 himself down upon the prince's grave, and took a 
 handful of earth from it, casting it on his own head, 
 and then called out, ' Apostle of God, thou hast 
 spoken it, from thee we have heard it, thou hast 
 received it from God, and we have received it from 
 
 1 Cf. Carletti, Idhar-ul-Hak, vol. ii. pp. 154-190 : he gives forty 
 miracles. Also, Two Hundred and Fifty -two Authentic Miracles of 
 Mohammed, by Maulvi Mohammad Inayat Ahmad. Translated and 
 published by the Mohammedan Tract and Book Depot. Lahore, 1894. 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 165 
 
 thee, and it is derived from those who came down to 
 thee, that noble verse, " And if they have darkened 
 their souls, let them come unto thee ! " I have brought 
 darkness on my soul : but I am come to thee as a 
 confounded, bewildered sinner, that thou mayest ask 
 pardon for me of the Most High.' Then there came 
 forth a voice from that Excellency's tomb, saying 
 three times, ' Thou hast been pardoned, thou hast been 
 pardoned.' " ^ 
 
 Not only are all these superhuman characteristics 
 and divine glories ascribed to Mohammed in tradition, 
 but he is the Prophet to whom all former prophets 
 bore witness, and concerning whose coming they 
 testified.2 "Wahab bin Minbeh said that the Most 
 High sent the following revelation to the prophet 
 Isaiah: ' I will send a prophet who is to be unlettered, 
 and by his name I will open the ears of the deaf, and 
 the minds of the listless ; and I will clothe him with 
 gravity, and I will make goodness his outward mark, 
 and godliness and temperance his inward mind: and 
 wisdom his understanding ; and truth and purity his 
 nature, and propriety his disposition; and equity his 
 practice ; and truth his law ; and right guidance his 
 leader; and Islam his people; and his name Ahmed. 
 And through him I will show to his people the right 
 way out of error, and the way of knowledge after 
 ignorance; and by his name I will make the few 
 
 1 Koelle, MoJiammed and Mohammedanism, p. 373. 
 - Cf. Sayous, Jtsus Christ, etc., pp. 82-85. 
 
166 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 many and the divided united ; and will bring amongst 
 the separated hearts and the antagonistic nations 
 harmony and intimacy ; and his people shall be superior 
 to every other ; and they shall pay respect to the light 
 of the sun, i.e. they shall look to the sun to know the 
 right time for prayer.' " ^ On the same authority, God 
 gave the following revelation to Jesus : " Declare 
 Mohammed to be true, and believe in him ; and tell 
 also thy people that those of them who reach his time 
 should believe in him. thou son of the Virgin, i.e. 
 thou Jesus, know thou, that if it had not been for 
 Mohammed, I should not have created Adam and 
 Paradise and Hell ; and the truth is, that when I made 
 the Throne, it shook and would not stand firm till I 
 wrote upon it, * There is no God but Allah, and 
 Mohammed is the Apostle of Allah,' whereupon it 
 steadied itself and became quiet." ^ 
 
 Jesus Christ is supplanted by Mohammed not only 
 in Moslem tradition and in the hearts of the common 
 people who are ignorant and illiterate. He is sup- 
 planted in the hearts of all Moslems by Mohammed. 
 They are jealous for his glory and resist any attempt 
 to magnify the glory of Jesus Christ at the expense 
 of Mohammed. When, e.g., a Christmas vacation was 
 granted in certain government schools of Egypt, the 
 Moslem paper El 'Alain entered a vigorous protest, 
 
 ^ Koelle, Mohammed and Moha7)imcdanisin, p. 430. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 431. There are numerous traditions of this character 
 in all the later biographies of Mohammed. See, for example, Insan- 
 ul-Ayim, Dakaik-id-Aklihar, or Kasus-id-Anhiya. 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 167 
 
 calliug it a dangerous innovation, and stating that 
 Egypt was a Moslem country, and that Moslems as 
 such had nothing to do with the birthday of Jesus. 
 " Keep your feast day ; we will have nothing to do 
 with it." 1 
 
 " You will be interested to know," writes a missionary 
 from Turkey under the new regime, " that the birthday 
 of Mohammed is now kept, beginning with last year, 
 and all the schools are closed for the day. It is 
 reckoned the most important holiday in the year, and 
 we must give our Moslem boys the day off. In 
 Smyrna, where all Government and Custom depart- 
 ments observed Sunday instead of Friday as a holiday, 
 because this city is so largely Christian, we hear the 
 custom will now be reversed, and Friday established 
 as the weekly holiday." ^ 
 
 The new Islam does not hesitate to apply the very 
 name of The Messiah to Mohammed, as the old Islam 
 does His office as Mediator.^ In a series of articles 
 
 1 El Alam. Cairo, 26tli December 1910. 
 
 " The Moslem press in Egypt is also resisting every attempt on 
 the part of the Copts to secure Sunday as a day of rest from 
 Government service. El Mueyyed (18th March 1911) in a leading 
 article of ten columns quoted largely from the New Testament to prove 
 that if any day ought to be observed it was Saturday, and that the 
 Copts had no right to claim Sunday, because Jesus and His apostles 
 did not observe the day. 
 
 ^ Sayous, Jesics- Christ cVapres Mahomet, chap, vi : " Les passages 
 de I'ancient Testament sont derob6s a la gloire de Jesus-Christ pour 
 enrichir celle du prophete pillard et d'ailleurs I'idee meme d'une 
 prophetic Messianique est un emprunt evident a la theologie 
 chretienne." 
 
168 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 on Islam and Socialism in a leading review of India, 
 Mushir Hosain Kidwai speaks thus of Mohammed: — 
 
 " The time was ripe because the moral, social, 
 religious, and political state of the whole peninsula 
 had reached the depth of degradation. Human 
 sacrifice to idols, the burying alive of infants, mis- 
 appropriation of property and exploitation of the 
 money of helpless orphans, forced marriages of girls 
 and minors, cruel treatment of slaves, unrestricted 
 polygamy and concubinage, wild despotism, vengeful 
 blood-feuds, individualistic egotism, class and birth 
 arrogance, and other vices, demanded from a merciful 
 Providence the commission of a real Messiah, to clear 
 the putrid atmosphere of Arabian society, and to save 
 humanity, which was then in a state most susceptible 
 to infection, from a dangerous calamity. 
 
 "Fortunately for the progress of the world, the 
 Messiah did come. He came and miraculously meta- 
 morphosed the whole Arabian society by masterly 
 introducing the principles of true Socialism in almost 
 every phase of human life. He came and brightened 
 the gloomy aspect of the whole world by inspiring 
 humanity through a universal faith, with the loftiest 
 conceptions of Divinity and purest ethics of duty. 
 If Arabia owes its glory to Socialism, the world owes 
 it to Islam. And Socialism and Islam both were 
 perfected by the Messiah, who cured not a leper or 
 two, but the whole leprous society ; who gave a new 
 and vigorous life not to a few dead persons, but to 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 169 
 
 a whole nation ; who performed not only supernatural 
 miracles of but superstitious value in our sceptical 
 age, but material and everlasting wonders, whose signs 
 are manifest to this day; who ruled not only over 
 the shifting sands that form a mirage of temporary 
 territorial domains, but also over an ever-increasing 
 number of living human hearts, which sing even 
 now the same song that he set, binding them together 
 in one chord — the Chord of God — the truest and best 
 socialism." ^ 
 
 In the Gospel of Barnahas, a spurious document 
 dating about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
 and not referred to by Moslems until after Sale 
 had called attention to it in his translation of the 
 Koran, Mohammed is also called the Messiah. The 
 Gospel of Barnahas was evidently written by a Christian 
 renegade in the Middle Ages, and has for its special 
 object the advancement of Islam, the author desiring 
 to foist upon the world a forgery wliich would 
 strengthen the claims of Mohammed and prove that 
 Jesus Christ had foretold his coming. Every reader 
 of the Koran knows that Jesus Christ is spoken of 
 consistently in that book as tlie Messiah, yet, strange 
 to say, this Gospel of Barnahas again and again gives 
 Mohammed that title, while Jesus is made his fore- 
 runner, as John the Baptist was to Christ in the 
 canonical Gospels. Thus in Chapter LXXXIII, where 
 Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan women, he says, 
 
 1 The Hindustan Review, March-April 1911, p. 300 (Allahabad.) 
 
170 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 " I am indeed sent to the house of Israel as a prophet 
 of salvation, but after me shall come the Messiah, sent 
 of God to all the world; for whom God hath made 
 the world." ^ In Chapter XLIII Jesus says, " If the 
 messenger of God whom ye call Messiah were son of 
 David, how should David call him Lord? Believe 
 me, for verily I say unto you that the promise was 
 made in Ishmael, not in Isaac." And again in the 
 following chapter: "I therefore say unto you that 
 the messenger of God is a splendour that shall give 
 gladness to nearly all that God hath made, for he 
 is adorned with the spirit of understanding and of 
 counsel, the spirit of wisdom and might, the spirit of 
 fear and love, the spirit of prudence and temperance ; 
 he is adorned with the spirit of charity and mercy, 
 the spirit of justice and piety, the spirit of gentleness 
 and patience, which he hath received from God three 
 times more than he hath given to all his creatures. 
 blessed time, when he shall come to the world! 
 Believe me that I have seen him and have done him 
 reverence, even as every prophet hath seen him ; 
 seeing that of his spirit God giveth to them prophecy. 
 And when I saw him my soul was filled with consola- 
 tion, saying : ' Mohammed ! God be with thee, and 
 may He make me worthy to untie thy shoe-latchet, for 
 obtaining this I shall be a great prophet and holy 
 one of God.' And having said this, Jesus rendered 
 his thanks to God."^ 
 
 1 The Gospel of Barnabas, \). 191. ^ /ji^^.^ p. 105. 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 171 
 
 Now although this Gospel of Barnabas is evidently 
 a late forgery, it is more and more being used by 
 Moslems as an argument against Christianity; this 
 shows how, with the centuries, Mohammed has gradu- 
 ally taken the place of Jesus Christ in Moslem 
 literature, and how even His supreme title of the 
 Christ, or the Messiah has, both in the Middle Ages 
 and in current periodical literature, been given to the 
 prophet of Arabia.1 Whether the title of Messiah is 
 given him or not, Mohammed is for all practical 
 purposes the Moslem Christ. 
 
 Islam is indeed the only anti- Christian religion. 
 This world faith joins issue with everything that is 
 vital in the Christian religion, because it joins issue 
 in its attitude toward the Christ. By this it must 
 stand or fall. In this respect all schools of Moslem 
 thought are practically the same. They differ in 
 ritual and tradition; in interpretations, broad or 
 narrow; in going back to the old Koran or in 
 advocating the new Islam; but whether Shiahs or 
 Sunnis, Wahabis or followers of Seyyid Ameer Ali, 
 their position as regards the Christ is practically 
 the same.^ 
 
 1 Cf. Recent Moslem literature in Egypt, especially Ahmed Ali El 
 Malyee's Jmvab 'an Su'al hadh Ahl-cl-Utah, 
 
 2 The Shiah sect also believe that Mahommed has superseded Jesus 
 Christ, and is superior to Him in station and dignity but they add 
 that Ali also is in every respect not only the equal_ of Jesus Chnst 
 but superior to him. See, for example, the book entitled Mnnakih al 
 Abtal, hy Mohammed bin Ali bin Shar Ashub (Bombay), in which we 
 are told (vol. i. p. Ul) that even as Jesus Christ's miraculous birth, 
 
172 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 " Islam," says Kev. G. Simon of Sumatra, " is not a 
 preparation for Christianity ; it is easier to build on 
 a strange soil than first of all to tear down old build- 
 ings which are so firmly set together that they offer 
 an unsurmountable obstacle to demolition." ^ The 
 resolution passed by the Lucknow Conference, 1911, 
 expressed this sentiment even more forcibly : — 
 
 " This Conference is persuaded that, in order to 
 stem the tide of Moslem advance, it is important to 
 strengthen the work among animistic tribes, pagan 
 communities, and depressed classes affected by this 
 advance; for we are clearly of opinion that adoption 
 of the faith of Islam by the pagan people is in no sense 
 whatever a stepping-stone towards, or a preparation 
 for, Christianity, but exactly the reverse." 
 
 Christianity gladly admits the strength of theism as 
 a basis of unity between Islam and Christianity. We 
 
 so was that of Ali, only in more noble degree ; even as He spoke 
 before His birth to His mother, so did Ali ; even as He mastered 
 learning in His childhood, so did Ali ; even as Jesus Christ prophesied 
 of the coming of Mohammed, so also He prophesied concerning Ali ; 
 even as He raised the dead, so did Ali ; even as He opened the eyes 
 of the blind and cured the lepers, so did Ali ; even as men disagree in 
 regard to the character of Jesus, so have they disagreed in regard to 
 the character of Ali ; so those who believe in Him give him the 
 highest station. 
 
 Cf. the extravagant statements regarding the intercession of Husain 
 in the Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain, Col. Sir Lewis Polly 
 (London, 1879), vol. ii. pp. 343-347, where Mohammed says: "Good 
 tidings, O Husain ! act thou according to thy will. Behold the 
 fulfilment of God's promise. Permission has proceeded from the 
 Judge, the gracious Creator, that I should give to thy hand this key 
 of intercession," etc. etc. 
 
 ^ Edinburgh Conference Report, vol. iv. p. 147. 
 
CHRIST SUPPLANTED BY MOHAMMED 173 
 
 assert as strongly as do all Moslems that there is only 
 one God, hut hecausc there is only one God there can he 
 only one Gospel and one Christ. The words quoted 
 from Dr. James Denney at the head of this chapter 
 are significant in this connection. " It pleased the 
 Father " that in Jesus Christ " all fulness should 
 dwell " ; not in Mohammed. " In Him dwelleth all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily " ; not in Mohammed. 
 " In ffim are hid all treasures of wisdom and know- 
 ledge " ; not in Mohammed. " He is the Way, the 
 Truth, and the Life"; not Mohammed. This is the 
 issue which cannot be avoided. 
 
 The only Christianity that has a missionary message 
 for the Moslem world is this vital Christianity. It is 
 the only Christianity that can meet the deepest need 
 of our Moslem brethren. Our love for them is only 
 increased by our intolerance of their rejection of the 
 Christ ; we cannot bear it, it pains us ; and the day is 
 coming when many will confess Him in the words of 
 a Moslem convert to a Bible-woman who was visiting 
 her : " / see now that the very centre of your religion is 
 Christ, and I want to love and serve Hinfi!' 
 
 The main question even as regards the new Islam 
 is not how much nearer they have come to Christian 
 ethics and Christian civilisation in their attempts to 
 reform the old system, but it is the old question, 
 " What think ye of the Christ ?" 
 
VIII 
 
 HOW TO PREACH CHRIST TO MOSLEMS 
 WHO KNOW JESUS 
 
 m 
 
" Without doubt, it is no light thing to ask a man to 
 reconsider his religious position, and see where in the 
 light of historical fact and human reason he stands ; and 
 it is just this demand that we make on our Muhammadan 
 brethren. We do not come to them to try to jn'ove that 
 their theological dogmas are wrong, and that ours are 
 better ; that their religious practices are tainted with 
 the formalism against which Jesus threatened His most 
 grievous woes. We come not to destroy, but simply to 
 ask the educated Muhammadan to tell us what ground 
 he has for passing by a religious faith which Muhammad 
 himself declared to be the truth. For we maintain that 
 what we hold, and try in spite of all the failings inherent 
 in poor human nature to practice, is simply Christianity 
 as Jesus taught it — in fact, the true Islam, which 
 Muhammad and the Qur'an both witnessed to as being 
 the Religion of God."— Rev. W. R. W. Gaedner, 
 Christianity and Muhammadanism. 
 
 176 
 
VIII 
 
 HOW TO PKEACH CHRIST TO MOSLEMS 
 WHO KNOW JESUS 
 
 KNOWLEDGE of the Moslem Christ as portrayed 
 in the previous chapters must awaken in every 
 Christian heart a desire to lead our Moslem brethren 
 from their partial, eccentric, and distorted view of our 
 Saviour to Him in whom dwelleth all fulness and Who 
 is the whole truth ; to guide them from the twilight 
 shadows of tradition to a full-orbed vision of the Sun 
 of Kighteousness. There is no stronger argument or 
 plea for missions to Moslems than their conception 
 of our Christ, and the fact that Mohammed has usurped 
 the place of our Saviour in so many hearts. We may 
 well voice our petitions for missions to Moslems in the 
 words of Christ Himself, " Father, the hour has come ; 
 glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." 
 A passion for the glory of God, which is among the 
 highest missionary motives, will inspire us to preach 
 the Christ in all His fulness to those who are now 
 following Mohammed. We think of the words of 
 Isaiah, " Jehovah, that is My name ; and My glory 
 
 12 
 
178 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 will I not give to another, nor My praise to graven 
 images." 
 
 In considering the practical outcome of our study of 
 the Moslem Christ, it is first of all evident that the 
 one message for the Moslem world and for each 
 individual Moslem, is Jesus Christ. Their knowledge 
 of Him is so inadequate, so distorted, so insufficient, 
 and so utterly obscured by the glory of their own 
 prophet, that we can only use this knowledge as a 
 stepping-stone to higher things. "The duty seems 
 plain," says Dr. James S. Dennis : " ' Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' The 
 gospel of Christ, not of Mohammed — to every creature, 
 because all need the gospel. If there were a possibility 
 of a human substitute for the gospel, we might consider 
 it an open question whether salvation is of Mohammed ; 
 but Christ has taught us one way of salvation for all 
 men, and that way is through Him — through the 
 merits of His sacrifice, and not through works or 
 worthiness in man. I would not be understood as 
 implying here that every Moslem is necessarily lost. 
 If he despises and rejects Christ, and puts his sole 
 trust in Mohammed, or even trusts in divine mercy 
 because that mercy is his due as a Moslem, I should 
 not feel that there was a substantial basis of hope for 
 him. He is looking to a human saviour, or he is simply 
 claiming the divine mercy as a subsidy to the Moslem 
 religion. . . . The Christian is not saved because he is 
 a Christian. The Moslem, of course, cannot be saved 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 179 
 
 because he is a Moslem. All who may be saved out- 
 side of formal and visible connection with Christianity, 
 will be saved because of a real and invisible connection 
 with Christ. They will have obtained consciously, or 
 unconsciously, by the aid of God's Spirit that attitude 
 of humility and trust toward God which will make it 
 consistent with His character and in harmony with 
 His wisdom and goodness to impart to their souls the 
 free gift of pardon through Christ's merits, and apply 
 to them in the gladness of His love the benefits of 
 Christ's death. It is in any case salvation by gift, 
 received from God's mercy, and based upon Christ's 
 atonement, and not by works or by reason of human 
 merit. We claim, therefore, that the Mohammedan, 
 as such, needs the knowledge of Christ, and can only 
 be saved through Christ. He needs to be taught 
 Christianity and brought into the light of Bible truth. 
 He needs to recognise the dangerous errors of his 
 religion and turn to Christianity as the true light from 
 heaven. He needs to take a radically different and 
 essentially new attitude towards Christ. He needs 
 spiritual regeneration and moral reformation. In one 
 word, he needs the Gospel. He needs all its lessons, 
 and all its help, and all its inspiration. Here we rest 
 the question of duty. If any class of men need the 
 gospel, to them it should be given, and it is our mission 
 in the world as Christians to do this." ^ 
 
 ^Dennis, "Islam and Christian Missions" in The Missionary 
 Review of the World, August 1889. 
 
180 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 We have quoted these words at length because even 
 to-day there are those who doubt the expediency or 
 even the possibility of missions to Moslems. While 
 the difficulties in the way of missionary work in some 
 Moslem lands may, for political and other reasons, 
 seem most formidable, and while the access to the 
 individual Moslem heart is also beset with baffling 
 obstacles, this does not turn away our responsibility 
 or our privilege. The Church of Christ should make 
 use of all its opportunities to deliver the gospel message 
 to Moslems in full expectation that the power of the 
 Holy Spirit, whose special work it is to reveal the 
 Christ, will in God's own time lead to the triumph 
 of Christianity in Moslem lands and Moslem hearts. 
 It has been remarked with truth that Islam comes 
 into conflict with the doctrinal teachings of Christianity 
 just at those points where reason has the best vantage- 
 ground in opposition to faith. The great problems of 
 the Incarnation, the deity of Christ, and the Trinity 
 are stumbling-blocks not only to the Moslem, but they 
 are the very problems over which Christianity herself 
 has pondered with amazement and awe, and with 
 reference to which there have been divisions in the 
 Church itself; but these unfathomable mysteries are 
 the very heart of our religion. Without them Chris- 
 tianity is not differentiated from other faiths and 
 philosophies. 
 
 The very fact that Islam, beginning without a 
 mediator and with a prophet who was thoroughly 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 181 
 
 human, should in the course of centuries have ascribed 
 to him the offices and the character of a mediator and 
 a Messiah, can be used as an argument to prove that 
 they need the Christ. In this also imitation is the 
 sincerest flattery, and when we preach Christ to 
 Moslems who know of Jesus, we are presenting to 
 them the one thing lacking in their faith and the 
 one unfulfilled desire in their lives. If the Cross of 
 Christ is the missing link in their creed, then the 
 preaching of the Cross, although it may seem to them 
 foolishness, will yet prove among Moslems the wisdom 
 of God and the power of God. " Just because Islam 
 is the antithesis to the thesis of Christianity, a syn- 
 thesis is possible, not by a compromise between 
 Islam and Christianity, but by bringing to clear 
 expression the many common features which still 
 remain, and by showing how these common features 
 are found in a truer form in Christianity than in 
 Islam." 1 
 
 Of all the common features on which we can seize 
 as a point of vital contact with Moslems there is none 
 superior to the fact of the Christ. Islam, as we have 
 seen, admits His coming, His supernatural birth, His 
 high office as the Bringer of a special revelation from 
 God, His sinlessness. His compassion, and His power 
 to work miracles. His very names afford so many 
 points of departure to lead from the Koran and 
 tradition to the Gospels. The contradictory accounts 
 I Edinburgh Conference Report, vol. iv. p. 141. 
 
182 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 of His death, by tlieir very contradictions and subter- 
 fuges, point to the Cross of Christ and His death for 
 sinners as the only solution. Jesus Christ is our 
 peace ; the day He was born, the day He died, and 
 the day He was raised again (Surah 19 : 34), and these 
 three great days to which the Koran calls attention 
 in the life of Jesus Christ are the three great holy 
 days in the calendar of the Church — Christmas, Good 
 Friday, and Easter. By admitting the truths which 
 we hold in common with Moslems, by bidding them 
 look away from their broken lights and flickering 
 shadows to the " true Light which enlighteneth every 
 man that cometh into the world," we can best of all 
 help Moslems. 
 
 Just as the "Moslem conception of God is base, 
 unholy, and to the Christian utterly repugnant," ^ yet 
 Mohammedan theism is a foundation on which we can 
 build a fuller knowledge of the Godhead, of His holiness, 
 justice, and love ; so Moslems who know Jesus as a 
 mere j)ropliet will for this very reason welcome a 
 larger knowledge of His character, and be led from 
 the Koran caricature to the Gospel portrait. Our 
 preaching should be constructive, and in this way it 
 will most surely be destructive. We can break down 
 false ideas of God and of Christ in Moslem theology 
 most surely and most speedily by full proclamation 
 of those very truths which Islam lacks. Without 
 denying the fact that Islam is in its spirit anti- 
 
 ^ Edinhurgh Conference Report^ vol. iv. p. 141. 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 183 
 
 Christian, that it contains much that is positively 
 harmful in ethics, and that it is wholly deficient in 
 those doctrines which are the very heart of Chris- 
 tianity, we nevertheless admit that the acceptance 
 of the Old Testament prophets, the peculiar honours 
 paid to our Lord, and the testimony to the sacred 
 scriptures found in the Koran, are important prepara- 
 tory elements in spite of many qualifications and 
 denials. We must become Moslems to the Moslem 
 if we would gain them for Christ. We must do this 
 in the Pauline sense, without compromise, but with 
 self-sacrificing sympathy and unselfish love. The 
 Christian missionary should first of all thoroughly 
 know the religion of the people among whom he 
 labours ; ignorance of the Koran, the traditions, the 
 life of Mohammed, the Moslem conception of Christ, 
 social beliefs and prejudices of Mohammedans, which 
 are the result of their religion, — ignorance of these is 
 the chief difficulty in work for Moslems. 
 
 The nearest way to the Moslem heart can often be ^ 
 found better by subjective than by objective study. 
 The barrier may be in the heart of the missionary 
 as well as in the heart of the Moslem. He should 
 cultivate sympathy to the highest degree and an 
 appreciation of all the great fundamental truths 
 which we hold in common with Moslem. He should 
 show the superiority of Christianity both in doctrine 
 and life by admitting the excellences of doctrine and 
 life in Mohammedanism, but showing immediately 
 
184 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 how Christianity far surpasses them. Many Moslems 
 are at heart dissatisfied with Mohammed as an ideal 
 of character. In spite of later tradition, the bold 
 outline of his life and character as shown in the 
 Koran stands out and perplexes them. The incon- 
 sistencies of his conduct are not taken away by the 
 whitewash of tradition. His relations to women 
 especially present a moral difficulty to many Moham- 
 medans who are beginning to think in higher terms 
 of ethics. Therefore, while the missionary should be 
 careful not to offend needlessly, he should boldly 
 challenge a comparison between the life of Mohammed 
 and the life of Jesus Christ, even as known to Moslems 
 from their own books. Compromise in this regard will 
 not win the respect of Moslems. They glorify their 
 prophet, why should we not glorify ours ? A loving 
 and yet bold presentation of the distinctive truths of 
 our religion and of the surpassing grandeur and beauty 
 of the character of Jesus Christ will never alienate a 
 Moslem heart. 
 J The heart of the Gospel and that which possesses 
 the greatest power of appeal to Mohammedans, as to 
 every sinner, is the union between God's mercy and 
 God's justice manifested in the Cross of Christ. When 
 properly presented, this doctrine is not only absolutely 
 novel but compelling to any Mohammedan who feels a 
 sense of sin. In order to awaken a sense of sin, which is 
 essential in all missionary effort, the ethical standards of 
 the Sermon on the Mount and the spotless purity of the 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 185 
 
 life of Christ must be presented. It is not always 
 wise at first to compare Mohammed and Christ. If 
 we present the Christ as He is in the Gospel, the con- 
 trast is so evident that the comparison is made by the 
 Mohammedan himself. We should ask every sincere 
 Moslem inquirer to study the Gospel story and try for 
 himself to reach a true estimate of Jesus Christ, of 
 whom Mohammed spoke in such high terms of honour 
 as a Prophet and an Apostle of God; to take the 
 historical foundations of the Christian religion and 
 examine them as critically as he pleases, and to see 
 for himself what Jesus claimed to be, and how His 
 claims were understood by His disciples and by the 
 early Church. We should ask Moslems to study the 
 Gospel in any way they like, but with only one object 
 in view, "namely, that they may come face to face 
 with Jesus Himself; that they may learn to know 
 Him, and see how He claimed to hold a supreme 
 position in the matter of the attitude of all men 
 toward God, a position which none other has ever 
 claimed."^ In other words, we should press home the 
 question Jesus Himself put to His disciples and to the 
 world, " What think ye of the Christ ? " 
 
 Are we not sometimes in danger of over-esti- 
 mating the inward strength of Islam ? The fact is 
 that it is seamed through and through with lines 
 of cleavage and of disintegration, which have grown 
 wider and deeper with the centuries. Even the masses 
 
 ^ Gardner, Christianity and Mohammedanism Compared, p. 62. 
 
186 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 are beginning to compare and to think. An outward 
 show of fanatic devotion to the dogma of Islam is 
 not always a proof of real faith in Mohammed and 
 his teaching. When Saul redoubled his energies in 
 persecution, his heart was already under conviction 
 from the preaching of Stephen. Unsatisfied 'doubt is 
 to-day more common than blind ' devotion among 
 educated Moslems, and one has only to read recent 
 Moslem literature to see what frantic .attempts are 
 made to save the ship of Islam by throwing overboard 
 that which was once considered good cargo. In this 
 connection the following words by a missionary 
 in Burma who answers the question, "How should 
 we preach to the Heathen ? " have their lesson also 
 as regards Islam : " We may well believe that heathen 
 religions, so far from having arisen as some have 
 vainly imagined out of the soil of lofty aspiration 
 after a God unknown, are devices more or less 
 elaborate for shutting the thought of God as He is 
 out of the minds and hearts of men. If these various 
 systems were the result of sincere attempts to find 
 out God, then the farther the system is developed, 
 the more complete in all its parts, the more open 
 to the truth ought its devout adherents to be. But 
 precisely the contrary is true. The more elaborate 
 and complete the system, the less ready are its 
 followers to yield themselves to Christ. The Gospel 
 meets its greatest triumphs not among those who 
 have the most finished, but among those who have 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 187 
 
 the crudest systems of religion. Elaborateness, com- 
 pleteness, finish, here seem to be elaborateness, com- 
 pleteness, finish of escape from the consciousness 
 of God." 1 
 
 We must compel Moslems to go back to Mohammed 
 with us ; to dig beneath the rubbish of tradition and 
 in the original foundations of Islam to see what 
 Mohammed taught in regard to Jesus Christ, and 
 what he himself was, on the testimony of his own 
 book. The Moslem world is plastic and restless as 
 it never was before. There are critical tendencies 
 and influences at work which before were dormant. 
 Islam, as well as the other Oriental faiths is recog- 
 nising its own inadequacy and attempting to adapt 
 itself to new conditions. In the words of Dr. Mott, 
 " Islam is linking itself with the atheism and theism 
 of Western lands, and is securing much protection ; 
 and also added prestige by the support which it 
 receives at the hands of officials from the West who 
 have broken with Christianity. These men carry over 
 to the Moslem camp all the armoury of the theistic 
 and atheistic schools." ^ 
 
 This revival of Islam is accompanied also by a rising 
 spiritual tide, shown in a spirit- of .inquiry and an 
 unprecedented • demand for the Scriptures, and the 
 weakening hold of Moslem faith and ethics on the 
 
 1 Rev. E. N. Harris in The Missionary Review of the World, 
 April 1902, pp. 266-268. 
 
 2 Decisive Hour of Christian Missions, p. 57. 
 
188 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 educated classes, although not yet evident in numerous 
 conversions. The investigations of the Cairo Con- 
 ference and the reports of the Lucknow Conference 
 have proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the 
 hour is ripe for evangelising the Moslem world. 
 
 Finally, we may well ask what Christianity itself 
 will gain by preaching Christ to Moslems. What will 
 be the reflex-influence of a campaign for the evangelisa- 
 tion of the Moslem w^orld ? What are the moraLissues 
 involved. in the coming conflict between Christian and 
 Islamic theism ? That such a conflict is inevitable 
 the preceding chapters have abundantly proved, for, 
 in the words of Dr. Kobert E. Speer,^ "Missions do 
 not rest upon a maudlin erasure of all lines of distinct 
 opinion of truth, and the purchase - of good . feeling 
 by the surrender -of principle to sentimental sloven- 
 liness. They involve the fierce* clash of truth and error." 
 
 First of all, the Church will gain a stronger grip 
 ion the great fundamentals of the Christian faith. The 
 doctrines of the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the 
 Trinity will become more and more the subject of 
 special study as we meet Moslems face to face in 
 the battle for the truth. In reading the Gospel with 
 and to Moslems, it will become evident more and 
 more to every Christian that the death of Christ, 
 which is denied in Islam, occupies the supreme place 
 in the Gospels and in the Epistles as the very heart 
 of God's revelation to man. The same is true in 
 
 ^ Cf. Speer, Missionary Principles and Practice, pp. 109-129. 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 189 
 
 regard to the nature and evidences of the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ, and our faith in the character of the 
 Godhead as compared with the barren monotheism 
 of Islam. ^ 
 
 In the second place, the Christian Church will be 
 forced to work out her theology experientially when 
 in contact and conflict with unitarian, deistic Islam. 
 j In this respect the Mohammedan problem may possibly 
 be as life from the dead to the Oriental Churches 
 when they face its real - and spiritual - issues, and • 
 become conscious of the duty of evangelism. The 
 doctrine of the Incarnation and of the Holy Spirit 
 are not pieces of polished armoury to be kept on 
 exhibition in proof of our orthodoxy, but are vital, 
 to the very life of the Christian. The orthodox 
 Eastern Church will be impotent over against Islam 
 as long as it is merely orthodox in its creed. The 
 doctrine of the Trinity must be vitalised to become 
 effective over against Moslem unitarianism. Rev. 
 W. H. T. Gairdner has pointed out some of these 
 " important moral issues involved in this conflict 
 between trinitarian and Islamic monotheism."^ He 
 says, " Islam forces us to find the Trinity in our 
 hearts, and it forces us to find the Trinity in the 
 heart of God." After considering the solitary, in- 
 scrutable, and characterless Sultan of heaven whom 
 the Moslems call Allah, he asks this question : " Are 
 
 ^ See his paper on this subject at the Pan -Anglican Conference ; 
 reprinted in Blessed he Egypt. Cairo, 1909. 
 
190 THE MOSLEM CHRIST 
 
 not Moslem deism and Christian trinitarian theism 
 between them forcing the Church to consider this 
 problem yet once again, and in relation to the mystery 
 of the Atonement to read a richer meaning into the 
 great verse, ' God was in Christ reconciling the world 
 to Himself.' " 
 
 Even as a study of the Moslem doctrine of God 
 again and again forces from our hearts an overflow 
 of thanksgiving and praise for the knowledge of the 
 only true God as He is revealed in the Scriptures, 
 so a study of the Moslem Christ and of Mohammedan 
 substitutes for the only Mediator between God and 
 men will lead us more than ever to a deeper knowledge 
 and a stronger, more passionate devotion to Him 
 "in Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily," and Who, because of His sacrifice and death 
 for sinners, is worthy to receive ''' power and riches and 
 wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing." 
 
 In the third place, it will be clearly seen that 
 Unitarianism is not Christianity, when we study the 
 Moslem doctrine of God and the Moslem doctrine 
 of Christ. Modern Unitarianism, like Islam, begins • 
 by trying to do full justice to the humanity of Jesus, 
 but the logical outcome of this position has been well 
 pointed out by Dr. Duncan B. MacDonald in a remark- 
 able address on " One phase of the doctrine of the 
 Unity of God." He refers especially to the Unity 
 of God according to Moslem Theology. 
 
 " The new Unitarianism seeks to carry over the p 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 191 
 
 emotional content of Christianity, after abandoning ' 
 the metaphysical realities which make that emotion 
 abidingly possible. The incarnate Word is a metaphor, 
 mythologised and misinterpreted, but it is still to 
 declare to us the Father and to be the Light of the 
 world. The Holy Ghost is a figurative expression, 
 but it is still to be the abiding Comforter and the 
 Lord and Giver of life. We are to be strict monists, 
 and yet we are to be branches of the Vine, nourished 
 by the mystical Vision. . . ." 
 
 " But if we are to be Unitarians as to the person of 
 God, is all this possible? That is, if God is to be 
 conceived as an internal as well as an external unity, 
 how will that conception, in the ultimate working out, 
 affect our feeling towards Him, affect our doctrine 
 of Him ? Our historical Unitarianism, as I have said, 
 never faced that problem ; or, rather, it thought that 
 it could take the Christian conception of God, cut 
 away from that conception the elements to which it 
 objected and retain the rest. But you cannot take 
 a man, if I may be allowed the parallel, cut away 
 from him the organs of which you disapprove, and 
 think that he will still remain a good-going and 
 working man. The excision of a very small organ 
 may upset the whole organism. And it is an organism 
 with which we are dealing, and not a mechanical 
 combination." Later in his paper, when speaking of 
 the Moslem doctrine of God as current in early 
 Moslem literature, he exclaims : — 
 
192 THE MOSLEIM CHRIST 
 
 " And when the thunder of the hoofs of these warriors for the 
 greater glory of God has echoed past, what is left ? What was 
 left for the Muslims ? What is left for us ? As I see it, only 
 two possibilities. Either such a conception as the Christian 
 Trinity, which breaks the awful inpassibility of the logically 
 unified absolute, which renders possible sympathy, affection, 
 love, trust ; which makes God knowable — that is how the Sori 
 reveals the Father to us ; which makes us the Sons of God, 
 partakers of the divine nature, and not simply the creatures 
 of His hand ; which finds within the Christian Church the 
 Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Lord and Giver of Life ; and 
 which yet preserves God — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — as a 
 conscious, knowing, feeling, willing individual. Either that or 
 Pantheism, in which the many vanish in the one, and the one 
 vanishes in the many. . . . 
 
 " All attempts to simplify the metaphysical basis of our faith 
 have, under the test of time and life, failed. Deists and theists 
 have come and gone. Ethics and natural theology have claimed 
 their own and more, have had, for a time, their claims 
 allowed and then have vanished. In many ways the Christian 
 Church has moved ; the guidance of the Spirit has not failed 
 it. Its faith has seen many hypotheses, has been enfolded in 
 many garments. But to the seeker in the great space that lies 
 between materialism and Pantheism the presentation that still 
 expresses most adequately the mystery behind our lives is that 
 in the Christian Trinity, and the words that come the nearest 
 are those of the Nicene Creed." ^ 
 
 Let a Moslem once feel the burden of his sins, and 
 turn away from Mohammed and the Moslem Christ 
 to the Living Saviour, the Son of God revealed in the 
 Gospel, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of 
 the world, and all his intellectual difficulties vanish like 
 
 * Annual Address, Hartford Seminary, September 1909. See 
 Hartford Seminary Record. 
 
HOW TO PREACH CHRIST 193 
 
 the morning mist before the rising sun. Moslem 
 converts are no longer Unitarians. They confess with 
 heart and mouth, with the whole Church Catholic : 
 
 '* 5 Mitbz in one ffioti tfte Jatjet ^Imigljtg, JEaker of 
 Ijeaben anti eartlj, anli of all tfjings bmblz antJ inbi'giftBe. 
 
 ** ^nti in one Hotti Jesus €\}xiQi, tte onXgr^begotten Son 
 of ffiotr, Ijecfotten of tfje father before all tootltjs, ffiotj 
 of ffioti, ILisbt of Higljt, iierg ffiob of berg CKoti, begotten, 
 not matie, beintj of one substance tniti^ tlje iFat!)er; bg 
 TO^om all things toere ntatte ; TOfto, for us men anti for 
 our salbation, came tioixin from Ijeaben, nntj toas incarnate 
 bg ttje f^olg ffiljast of tlje Uirgin i^arg, antJ inas matic 
 man; anti ijjas crucifieti also for us untier Pontius Pilate; 
 l^e sufferetJ anlf iuas burieti; ant tlje tl)irti tiag f^e rose 
 again, accortiing to t{)e Scriptures; antu ascentietJ into 
 f)eaben, antJ sittet!) on tl)e rigl^t \)mti of tfje Jatfjer; antJ 
 f^E sball come again init!) glorg to jutige botlj tlje quick 
 antr tje ticatj ; TOi^ose kingtiom sljall jjabe no enti. 
 
 ** ^nti in tl}e f^olg OSfjost, tje 3Lortr antr (Kiber of Hife ; 
 tobo proceetretb from tlje jFatber anti tl)e Son, baljo tuit]^ tje 
 iFatb^r anti tbe Son together is inorsjippetr anti glorifietJ, 
 ij3b«3 spake bg tl)e prophets* ♦ . ." 
 
 13 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT OR USED 
 IN ITS PREPARATION 
 
 Ad-Damiri . 
 
 Ahmed Ali El 
 Malijee, 
 
 Ameer Ali, Seyyid 
 Basset, Rene . . 
 
 Beidhawi 
 
 Birks, Herbert 
 
 Burhan ud Din Al 
 Halibi. 
 
 Burton, Sir Richard 
 
 Carletti, P. V. . . 
 
 Caussin, De Perceval 
 
 Hayat - al - Hayawan. Translation by 
 
 A. S. G. Jayaker. 2 vols. London, 
 
 1906. 
 JawaV an Su^al Badh AM El Kitah. 
 
 Cairo, 1908. (A poetical attack on 
 
 Christ and Christianity.) 
 The Spirit of Islam. Calcutta, 1902. 
 "La Bordah du Cheikh el Bousiri." 
 
 Poeme en I'honneur de Mohammed. 
 
 Traduite et commentee. Paris, 1894. 
 Commentary on the Koran. Cairo, a.h. 
 
 1303. 
 Life of Thomas Valpy French. 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1895. 
 Insan ul Ayoon (A biography of 
 
 Mohammed in three volumes quarto). 
 
 Cairo, a.h. 1308. 
 Pilgrimage to el Madinah and Meccah. 
 
 2 vols. London, 1893. 
 Idh-Har-Ul-Haqq ou manifestatioji de la 
 
 Verite, de el Hage Rahmat- Ullah Efendi 
 
 de Delhi. Traduit de I'arabe. 2 vols. 
 
 Paris, 1880. 
 Essai sur Vhistoire des Arahes avant 
 
 VIslamisme. 3 vols. Paris, 1847. 
 
 195 
 
196 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Chattopadhyaya, 
 Nishikanta. 
 
 Cheiklio, P. L. . . . 
 
 Denney, Jainus. . , 
 Edinburgh Conference 
 
 Report. 
 Eth-Thalabi . . . 
 Fairbairn, A. M. . . 
 Fairbairn, A. M. . . 
 
 Fluegel, G 
 
 Geiger, Abraham . . 
 
 Gerock, C. F. . . . 
 
 Goldzilier, Igiiaz . . 
 
 Gospel of Barnabas, 
 The. 
 
 Houtsma, M. Th., 
 Arnold, T. W., 
 Seligsohn, M., and 
 Schaade, A. 
 
 Hughes, Thomas P. . 
 
 Ibn, Khaldoon . , . 
 
 Jallalain 
 
 Jessup, H. H. . . . 
 
 Klein, F. A. . . 
 Koelle, S. W. . 
 
 Christ in the Koran. Cairo and London. 
 (Reprint of an article by a Hindu that 
 appeared in the Hindustan Review 
 (Allahabad).) 
 
 Quelques Legendes Islamiques Apocryphes. 
 Beirut, 1910. 
 
 The Death of Christ. London, 1903. 
 
 Vol. iv. The Missionary Message. Edin- 
 burgh, 1910. 
 
 Kusus al Anbiah. Cairo, a.h. 1325. 
 
 Christ in Modern Theology. London, 1894. 
 
 Tlie City of God. London, 1897. 
 
 Concordance to the Koran. Leipzig, 1898. 
 
 Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume 
 aufgenommen? Bonn, 1833. 
 
 Christologie des Koran. Hamburg and 
 Gotha, 1839. 
 
 Muhammedanische Studien. 2 vols. Halle, 
 1889. 
 
 Edited and Translated from the Italian 
 MS. in the Imperial Library at Vienna 
 by Lonsdale and Laura Ragg. Ox- 
 ford, 1907. 
 
 Editors, The Encyclopedia of Islam : 
 A Dictionary of the Geography, 
 Ethnography, and Biography of the 
 Mohammedan Peoples. London, 1910. 
 
 Dictionary of Islam. London, 1885. 
 
 Muhadimet (An introduction to his 
 general history). Beirut edition. 
 
 Commentary on the Koran. Cairo, a.h. 
 1303. 
 
 Kamil Abdul Messiah. Philadelj)hia, 
 1898. 
 
 The Religion of Islam. London, 1906, 
 
 Mohammed and Mohammedanism 
 
 Critically Considered. London, 1889. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 197 
 
 Manneval, M. . . . La Christologie du Goran. Toulouse, 
 
 1867. (A thesis based on the earlier 
 
 work of Gerock.) 
 Mirkhond .... Bible de VIslam. Paris, 1894. 
 Mishkat-Ul-Misabih . (Delhi Edition.) See Introduction. 
 Muir, Sir William . The Beacon of Truth ; or, The Testimony of 
 
 the Koran to the Truth of the Christian 
 
 Religion. London, 1894. 
 Muir, Sir William . The Goran. London, 1878. 
 Muir, Sir William . I'he Life of Mohammed. 4 vols. London, 
 
 1857. 
 
 Noldeke, T Geschichte des Qurans. Gottingen, 1860. 
 
 Palmer, E. H. . . . The Quran (Sacred Books of the East). 
 
 2 vols. Oxford, 1880. 
 Pautz, Otto . . . . Mohammed^ s Lehre von der Offenharung. 
 
 Leipzig, 1898. 
 Pelly, Sir Lewis . . The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain. 
 
 2 vols. London, 1879. " 
 
 Pfander, Carl Gottlieb MizanuH Haqq. (The Balance of Truth.) 
 
 Revised by W. St. Clair Tisdall. 
 
 London, 1910. 
 Rice, W. A Grusaders of the Tioentieth Century. 
 
 London, 1910. 
 Sayous, Edouard . . Jesus-Christ d'apres Mahomet; ou, Les 
 
 Notioiis et les Doctrines Musulmanes sur 
 
 Christianisme. Paris, 1880. 
 Shah, Ahmad . . . Concordance to the Koran. (Miftah ul 
 
 Quran). Benares, 1906. 
 Smith, H. P. . . . The Bible and Islam. London, 1898. 
 Sprenger, Alois . . Life of Mohammed. Allahabad, 1851. 
 Tisdall, W. St. Clair . Mohammedan Objections to Christianity. 
 
 London, 1904. 
 Tisdall, W. St. Clair . The Original Sources of the Quran. 
 
 London, 1905. 
 Toland, John . . . Nazarenus ; oi', Jewish , Gentile, and Maho- 
 metan Christianity. London, 1718. 
 (Based on the Gospel of Barnabas.) 
 
198 
 
 Wherry, E. M. . 
 Wright, Thomas 
 Zamakhshari . 
 Zwemer, S. M. . 
 Zwemer, S. M. . 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 . Commentary on the Quran. 4 vols. 
 London, 1884. 
 
 . Early Christianity in Arabia. London, 
 1855. 
 
 . Commentary on the Koran. Cairo, a.h. 
 1307. 
 
 . Islam : A Challenge to Faith. New- 
 York, 1907. 
 
 . The Moslem Doctrine of God. New- 
 York and Edinburgh. 
 
 Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh 
 
vioceton Theoloqical Semma y-Speer Libr.ir 
 
 1 1012 01008 2362 
 
 ^ 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 -^^„., mm^ 
 
 ^0g 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ji 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 PRINTED IN USA