Developing a Dialogue Between Christianity and Islam

Southern California is the most religiously diverse region in the world, with more than 600 variations of faiths in Los Angeles alone. Yet it is surprising how little followers of three major faiths--Judaism, Christianity and Islam--know about each other.

In particular is the one-sided picture of Islam, sometimes portrayed as a terrorist religion. This kind of ignorance born of stereotypes is not only frustrating but, in some parts of the world, deadly. The fratricidal wars between Serbs, who are predominantly Orthodox Christians, and ethnic Albanians, who are predominantly Muslim, come to mind. Religious differences weren’t the only sparks that ignited that conflagration. Ancient hatreds, grudges, economic differences and power politics have all been implicated. But the antipathy that fueled the conflict would have been less severe if Christians and Muslims knew more about each other’s faiths.

Because Christianity and Islam, unlike Judaism, are evangelical faiths whose followers are often on the front lines of winning converts, a dialogue is even more urgently needed. But dialogue cannot occur in an atmosphere of ignorance. It requires a working knowledge of each other.

Now comes a book, “The Muslim Jesus,” which helps dispel the ignorance among Christians about Islam. It is a collection of Islamic sayings about Jesus in the Koran and Islamic literature. The Jesus sayings, published by Harvard University Press, were collected and edited by Tarif Khalidi, a professor of Arabic and director of the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.

The book is divided into two sections, Khalidi’s introduction and commentary on the sayings, and the sayings themselves. Khalidi’s commentary is grounded in solid research, if excessively academic in tone. But there are also shafts of insight. With a little perseverance, the reader is rewarded with a better understanding of Islam, and an appreciation of how one of the most central figures in Western civilization--Jesus of Nazareth--is perceived by another tradition.

There are several hundred sayings and stories ascribed to Jesus in Islamic literature, including the Koran and Muslim works of ethics, popular devotion, anthologies of wisdom and histories of prophets and saints. Khalidi loosely refers to this collection as “the Muslim Gospel.”

Jesus is known in the Koran and in the Muslim tradition as the “Spirit of God” and the “Word of God.” But, he is not the Son of God as Christians believe. Whereas Christians emphasize Jesus’ culminating act of love and self-giving--his death on the cross and Resurrection for the sins of the world--Muslims emphasize his birth as the “son of Mary.” It was a sinless birth that took place under a palm tree, not in a manger. Jesus lives, not as the second person of the Trinity, but as a messenger of Allah.

Khalidi offers interesting tidbits, among them the fact that the Koran contains two word-for-word quotations from Hebrew and Christian Scriptures--the commandment stipulating “an eye for an eye,” and Jesus’ saying that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven.

Jesus is not the only non-Muslim biblical figure mentioned in the Koran. Others include Moses, David, Solomon, Job and John the Baptist. There are also stories and sayings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jonah, Isaiah and Ezra--all figures in Hebrew Scripture, or what Christians call the Old Testament. But none hold as much interest and attention as Jesus.

“Jesus and his followers constitute one of the most theologically charged topics in the entire Koran,” Khalidi writes.

Among the Jesus sayings in Islamic literature are these:

“Blessed is he who sees with his heart but whose heart is not in what he sees.”

“Be at ease with people and ill at ease with yourself.”

“Christ said, ‘The world is a bridge. Cross this bridge but do not build upon it.’ ”

“Jesus said, ‘The heart of a believer cannot really support the love of both this world and the next, just as a single vessel cannot really support both water and fire.’ ”

But there is no Sermon on the Mount, no parables, no teachings on the law and the spirit in Islamic literature. Instead, Jesus is followed by faithful disciples, is humble and pious toward his mother, and speaks of God’s unity, confirming the messages of earlier prophets.

“The clear bulk of references . . . remind Jesus himself or mankind in general that God is the ultimate creator and master of life and destiny of Jesus, as of all creation. Here, then, is the true Jesus ‘cleansed’ of the ‘perversions’ of his followers” who have made him a god, Khalidi writes.

Indeed, “The Muslim Jesus” explicitly denies responsibility for tritheism. In the Koran, God asks Jesus if he told his followers to worship him and his mother, Mary. Jesus answers, “Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! It would not have been possible for me to say what I had no right to say!” (Surah, or chapter, 5:116).

Whatever the affinity between Islam and Christianity, their differences are, finally, theologically irreconcilable. The Islamic view of Jesus is heresy to Christians. Christian faith claims about Jesus are an anathema to Muslims. Devout believers on both sides are unlikely to convert each other.

But it is not conversion but conversation that is at issue here. Is it possible that Islam has something to say to Christianity? Is it possible that Christianity has something to say to Islam? Are we ready to talk with our neighbor?