"Then God will say, 'O Jesus son of Mary! Remember My Blessing upon thee, and upon thy mother, when I strengthened thee with the Holy Spirit, that thou mightest speak to people in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught thee the Book, Wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel; and how thou wouldst create out of clay the shape of a bird, by My Leave, and thou wouldnst breathe into it, and it would become a bird, by My Leave; and thou wouldst heal the blind and the leper, by My Leave; and thou wouldst bring forth the death, by My Leave . . ."
Quran 5:110
This is a portion of a lengthy verse from surah 5, usually rendered as "The Table" or "The Table Spread." I will have a lot more to say about this surah later because it is a very important one, especially in regards to the relationship between Islam and Christianity. When Christian friends or acquaintances ask me for portions of the Quran to read I'll, naturally enough, direct them surah 18, usually rendered as "Mariam" (and this will be the inspiration for many posts later), but I'll also cull out sections from this surah. If you know nothing about Islam and are handed the passage above it would doubtless come as a tremendous surprise. Your natural response might be, "Wait, what is Jesus doing in the Quran?" If you're a Muslim or are even simply familiar with Islam you wouldn't be surprised at all because you'd know that Jesus is so key to so much of the faith. Again, I'll have more to say about this later, but for now I simply wanted to introduce the subject matter (it's a subject worthy of books, not simply blog posts). The reason why I introduce folks to this particular passage is because a) it shows that Jesus is in the Quran, and thus in Islam, b) it affirms the foundational Islamic belief that Jesus is a prophet but not the son of God nor divine, which is clearly shown by the recurring disclaimer "by My Leave," (that is, these miracles took place because God can do whatever God wants, and you shouldn't associate the miracles with Jesus possessing a divine nature), and c) it mentions a miracle with which Christians aren't familiar. A couple times in the Quran the miracle of Jesus breathing life into clay birds is mentioned in passing, but never discussed in any great detail. I will revisit this again later when I talk about Mustafa Aykol's fascinating book The Islamic Jesus, and the fact that this miracle is actually discussed in certain early Christian sects (but more on that later). Now, if you're a devout Christian you might also feel a little insulted, as in, who do these Muslims think they are stealing Jesus? Of course, Jews might also ask Christians a similar question. Muslims believe that they aren't borrowing anyone since we are merely the continuation of the same tradition. Obviously, much more on all of this later.
Quran 5:110
This is a portion of a lengthy verse from surah 5, usually rendered as "The Table" or "The Table Spread." I will have a lot more to say about this surah later because it is a very important one, especially in regards to the relationship between Islam and Christianity. When Christian friends or acquaintances ask me for portions of the Quran to read I'll, naturally enough, direct them surah 18, usually rendered as "Mariam" (and this will be the inspiration for many posts later), but I'll also cull out sections from this surah. If you know nothing about Islam and are handed the passage above it would doubtless come as a tremendous surprise. Your natural response might be, "Wait, what is Jesus doing in the Quran?" If you're a Muslim or are even simply familiar with Islam you wouldn't be surprised at all because you'd know that Jesus is so key to so much of the faith. Again, I'll have more to say about this later, but for now I simply wanted to introduce the subject matter (it's a subject worthy of books, not simply blog posts). The reason why I introduce folks to this particular passage is because a) it shows that Jesus is in the Quran, and thus in Islam, b) it affirms the foundational Islamic belief that Jesus is a prophet but not the son of God nor divine, which is clearly shown by the recurring disclaimer "by My Leave," (that is, these miracles took place because God can do whatever God wants, and you shouldn't associate the miracles with Jesus possessing a divine nature), and c) it mentions a miracle with which Christians aren't familiar. A couple times in the Quran the miracle of Jesus breathing life into clay birds is mentioned in passing, but never discussed in any great detail. I will revisit this again later when I talk about Mustafa Aykol's fascinating book The Islamic Jesus, and the fact that this miracle is actually discussed in certain early Christian sects (but more on that later). Now, if you're a devout Christian you might also feel a little insulted, as in, who do these Muslims think they are stealing Jesus? Of course, Jews might also ask Christians a similar question. Muslims believe that they aren't borrowing anyone since we are merely the continuation of the same tradition. Obviously, much more on all of this later.
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