‘Who do they say that I am?’ are the first words of the Emir-Stein Center’s video on Isā, the Islamic version of Jesus. However, we see only misrepresentation and deflection from Sister Marianne Farina in this distasteful video about what Islam thinks regarding Jesus. We will hear throughout the video how venerated Jesus is in the Muslim community. This is far from the truth; his memory is tarnished, his earthly mission desecrated, and meaning hijacked.
Farina begins by examining Jesus’ titles in Islam: ‘Spirit from God, The Messiah, Someone blessed by God, Word of God and Prophet-Messenger of God’. The title ‘Messiah’ (which can be seen in Surah 3:45 among others) causes some theological issues for Islam. The title is used seven times in the Qur’an, and while it is not defined, is not used for anyone else. Surah 10:94 commands Muslims; ‘So, if you were in doubt concerning what we have sent down to you, so ask those who are reading the book before you; indeed, the truth came to you from your lord, so do not be of the doubters’. Thus we can look at what the Christians in the Gospel, as it existed at that time, understood regarding the meaning of Messiah. This can be seen quite clearly. Christians see Isaiah 9:6-7 as explicating the reason why Jesus is the Messiah, as it prophecies that a son will be born who is the mighty God. This contradicts the Qur’an’s Surah 112:3, ‘He neither begets nor is born’. Thus the Christian understanding of the Messiah, contradicts Islamic teaching, and Muslims are directed in the Qur’an to consult Christians about matters that are in doubt in Islamic revelation.
Marianne Farina then says that Muslims believe ‘Jesus is a prophet who was given a special message, the Gospel, Injil’. This also causes a problem for Islam. The Gospel, the truth of which is affirmed in Surah 3:3-4, disproves Islam and Muhammad by declaring that Jesus is the Son of God, which the Qur’an repeatedly denies. To make sense of this, Muslims have to argue that both the Gospel and the Torah the have been corrupted, despite no verse in the Qur’an saying this about either one, and no historical evidence of corruption. Moreover, this corruption theory means ‘The Prophet’ Isā’s entire supposed mission was a failure.
Marianne Farina then suggests that the Gospel foretold the coming of Muhammad. For a Christian to say this or even acknowledge the possibility that this argument is legitimate is mind-boggling. The idea originally comes from Surah 7:157, where Allah states: ‘Those who follow the messenger, the Gentile prophet whom they will find described for them in the Torah and the Gospel.’ This proves that the authors of this passage did not believe that the Bible was corrupted; that idea came later to try to paper over the contradiction between this statement and the Qur’an’s rejection of Christian theology. For Muslims who obey the Qur’an and consult the Gospel will discover that Jesus was not a Prophet and indeed claimed to be Lord and was crucified.
This passage also makes it incumbent upon Muslims to find Muhammad in the Bible. There have accordingly been some ridiculous attempts to find Muhammad in both Old and New Testaments, such as Deuteronomy 18:18, Song of Solomon 5:16 and John 14:6, but all fail miserably. If Sister Farina genuinely believes that Islam is also true, she should explain where she claims that Muhammad is found in the Bible. She may have meant to say that this is the Islamic belief, but the way she stated it appeared otherwise. This was surprising even given the long list of Christians in Emir-Stein Center videos who refer to the prophet of Islam as ‘The Prophet Muhammad’.
Farina goes on to say that Jesus’ teachings and ethics can be found in the Hadith, but these passages pale into insignificance next to the huge number of disgusting, immoral and, by Christian standards, Satanic, teachings of Muhammad recorded in the Hadith as well. More importantly, the passages to which Farina refers are irrelevant in comparison to Allah’s direct, perfect, unchangeable, eternal, perfectly preserved word in the Qur’an.
Sister Farina acknowledges that Islam does not believe that Jesus is God, or in the Christian concept of original sin, or therefore that Jesus is a Saviour or one who redeems humanity. Here she strikes gold without realising. Without these concepts of Jesus as he was or even claimed to be, how much of Jesus is there really in the Islamic sources at all? In the holy books of Christianity, Jesus is Lord in the flesh, come to earth to atone for mankind’s sin. So why, when he is stripped of this and presented as a mortal man, and a failure as well, does Farina still claim that Islam respects Jesus?
On the crucifixion, Farina details how Islam does not believe that Jesus was crucified, but was assumed into Paradise by Allah. Interestingly, this view does not quite match the classic Islamic view, if we are to assume that Marianne Farina places this ascension before the crucifixion. This would completely invalidate the ‘Sign of Jonah’ argument from Ahmed Deedat and Zakir Naik, but we’ll ignore this. One of Islam’s favourite non-Muslim sources when arguing against Christians, Dr. Bart Ehrman, among a unanimous field of scholars and historians, describes the crucifixion as ‘a historical certainty’.
Aside from some irrelevant quotes from famous Muslims of history, Farina’s last major statement in this video is that ‘while it is true that the Islamic tradition about Jesus differs from Catholic teaching, it is also true that we share some common beliefs and affections’. Her examples are that both religions believe in the virgin birth, both have profound respect for the mystery of God’s word among us, and both share a love for Jesus and a willingness to learn from his life and teachings.
The second and third claims are highly tendentious. They are both deceitful in the framing of the phrases ‘God’s word’ and ‘a willingness to learn from his life and teachings’. If God’s word and Jesus’ life and teachings are completely different in Islam and Christianity, how are these points of agreement? This fallacy of equivocation between Christianity’s Jesus and the historical Jesus and Islam’s Isā is usually used by Muslim speakers to attract Christians to Islam; it is shocking we see a Catholic nun employ this dangerous trick. The word of the God of Christianity and the word of the God of Islam are completely opposed to each other. I could argue that Muslims don’t even love ‘Isā’, but they certainly do not love the God in the flesh, the Jesus of Christianity.