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Consider the many unique aspects of his nature, his character, and
his life:
1. Jesus’ birth was different to that of any other human being.
He
had no earthly father. We read in the honoured Qur’an that Jesus was
born of a virgin: "0, Mary! Lo, Allah gives you glad tidings of a
Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary." Mary
replied: "How shall I have a son, since a man hath not touched
me?" The angel said, "So God createth that which He pleaseth:
when He decreeth a thing, He only saith unto it, Be, and it is." 1
Jesus was born by the power of God, as the prophet Isaiah had said
700 years before: "The Lord himself will give you a sign: the
virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call
him Immanuel." 2 The Hebrew word does not necessarily mean
"virgin," but the apostle Matthew quoted it as
"virgin." The scholars who translated Isaiah into Greek more
than a century before Christ used parthenos, the word for
"virgin." In the Qur’an, Jesus is referred to as Issa ibn
Maryam, Jesus the son of Mary. Abdullah al-Baidawi, the classical
commentator on the Qur’an, recognizes the Semitic practice of calling
a man as the son of his mother only when his father is unknown. He also
recognizes that in Islam Jesus is regarded as the Son of the Virgin
Mary, who was begotten by the creative Word of God. 3
The word "Immanuel" means "Allah with us." The
Injil tells us how Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled:
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary
was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together,
she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. … An angel
of the Lord appeared to him [Joseph] in a dream and said,
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as
your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the
prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to
a son, and they will call him Immanuel" — which means,
"God with us."
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had
commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union
with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name
Jesus. 4
We are all "children born … of natural descent, … of … a
husband’s will." 5 Jesus, however, was different. He is called al Manzul — he who descended.
How can this be?
The first words of the Holy Bible say: "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth, … and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and
there was light." 6 Three names of one God are disclosed
here: (a) Allah; (b) the Spirit of Allah; and (c) the Word of Allah. The
Injil says, of Jesus:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all
things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men. …
The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us.
7
The honoured Qur’an reports the words of the angel to Mary:
"Mary, God gives you good tidings of a word from him whose name is
Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary; high honoured shall he be in this world and
the next, near stationed to God. … Righteous he shall be." (This
name, "A word from him," Kalimat Allah, is a clear description
of Jesus.) We read further in the surah "Mary": "that is
Jesus, son of Mary, the word of truth concerning which they are in
doubt." 8
A man’s word expresses what he is and we can never know what a man
is until he speaks that word. For if the word remains hidden in his
mind, the man also remains hidden, even if we look at his outward
appearance. If the man is open, loving, and honest, he will speak his
word so that we can truly know him. The "word" is the
disclosure, the unveiling, the revelation, of a person’s character.
Allah is open, loving and honest. He is not hiding himself to deceive
us, therefore he sent Jesus in this unique position of being his Word
— to reveal himself to us, in language we could understand. That
language was "Immanuel, " "God with us."
Allah and the Spirit of Allah in the creation are one; in the same
way Allah and the Word of Allah are one. There is but one true God. The
Scriptures do not teach the blasphemy of "three gods."
The character of Jesus was a perfect demonstration of the
active love of Allah.
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