A Muslim View of Christianity: Essays on Dialogue (Faith Meets Faith) by Omar Irfan A. & Ayoub Mahmoud

Author:Omar, Irfan A. & Ayoub, Mahmoud [Omar, Irfan A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbis Books
Published: 2013-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

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Previously published in Christian-Muslim Encounters , ed. Yvonne Y. Haddad and Wadi Z. Haddad (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995), 65-81. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Notes

1 . This is a colloquy between Christ and God, and which, according to Qur'an commentators and traditionists, is yet to take place on the Day of Judgment. See Michel Haik, al-Masih fi al-Islam , 2d ed. (Beirut: Catholic Press, 1961), 278.

2 . Striving for a unity of faith and purpose between the Muslims and the people of the Book is an oft-repeated injunction in the Qur'an. See, for example, Q. 3:64; 29:46; 16:125.

3 . I am grateful for the help of my friend and colleague Gerald Sloyan, who gave me a literal translation of this verse.

4 . I have followed the punctuation of the King James Version.

5 . This interpretation is reported by commentators on the authority of the well-known early traditionist/jurist of Basra Qatada ibn Di‘ama al-Sadusi (Muhammad bin Jarir al-Tabari, Jami’ al-bayan ‘an ta’wil ay al-Qur'an , 30 vols. [Beirut Dar al-Fikr, 1398/1978], 28:110).

6 . ‘Imad al-Din Abi al-Fida’ Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'azim , 2nd ed., 7 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1389/1970), 7:65.

7 . Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Ansari al-Qurtubi, al-Jami‘ li-ahkam al-Qur'an , ed. Ahmad ‘Abd al-‘Alim al-Burduni, 2nd ed., 20 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Katib al-Arabi, 1387/1967), 18:203-4.

8 . Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn al-Hasan bin ‘Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi, al-Tibyan fi tafsir al-Qur'an , ed. Ahmad Qasir al-‘Amili, 10 vols. (Beirut: al-A‘lami, n.d.), 10:54-55; and Abu ‘Ali al-Fadl ibn al-Hasan al-Tabarsi, Majma‘ al-bayan fi tafsir al-Qur'an , 30 vols. (Beirut: Dar Maktabat al-Hayat, 1380/1961), 28:129.

9 . See Muhammad Husayn al-Tabataba'i, al-Mizan fi tafsir al-Qur'an , 2nd ed., 20 vols. (Beirut: al-A'lami, 1394/1974), 19:345; and Sayyid Qutb, Fi zilal al-Qur'an , 7th ed., 8 vols. (Beirut: Dar Ihya’ al-Turath al-‘Arabi, 1391/1971), 8:174-75.

10 . The phrases in Q. 19:21, “it is a thing easy for me…. It is a matter already decided” and in the Gospel of Luke 1:35, “The spirit of the Lord shall come upon you and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you,” suggest God's direct involvement in and control of the conception, birth, and life of Jesus.

11 . See Q. 15:29 and Q. 38:72 where God declares (addressing the angels concerning Adam, his earthly creature) in exactly the same words: “When I shall have shaped him and breathed into him of my spirit, then fall prostrate before him.”

12 . Theodore Abu Qurrah (d. ca. 825) was a noted Jacobite theologian and bishop of Harran. The work under consideration is vol. 3 of the series al-Turath al-‘Arabi al- Masihi (Christian Arab heritage). The work is a pietistic theological argument for the existence and nature of God and the truth of the Christian faith edited by Fr. Ignatius Dik (Vatican City: Institute of Islamic and Arabic Studies, 1982).

13 . Ibid., 221-22.

14 . For a discussion of Muslim views of Jesus’ ascension to heaven, see the article “Towards an Islamic Christology II: The Death of Jesus, Reality or Delusion?,” chap.

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