Question
My question is about the Prophet Jesus. Doesn’t the fact that he was born without a father and indeed from Allah’s Holy Spirit make him special? May Allah forgive me but when Christians argue that he is the son of God, they rely on this fact! We also know that Allah Almighty sent Gabriel to Mary and she had Jesus. Should we Muslims regard this as just being one of Jesus’s miracles? Or does it really make him more special than other Prophets who were born normally and were then made Prophets at some point in their lives?
Answer
The Holy Qur’an has referred to the fact that Jesus Christ was created in an unusual way. It also gives reason of abandoning the usual course of reproduction. The Holy Qur’an says:
وَإِنَّهُ لَعِلْمٌ لِّلسَّاعَةِ فَلَا تَمْتَرُنَّ بِهَا وَاتَّبِعُونِ هَذَا صِرَاطٌ مُّسْتَقِيمٌ وَلَا يَصُدَّنَّكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ
[Say Oh Muhammad] And lo! verily he [Jesus Christ] is the sign of the Hereafter. So doubt not concerning it, but follow me. This is the right path. And let not Satan turn you aside. Lo! he is an open enemy for you. [43:60]
People would say how it would be possible for God to give life to completely decayed bodies. The Almighty presents creation of Jesus in an unusual way as a sign of the Hereafter. This inevitably proves that He can do what ever he wants. He can create anything applying any method. The Holy Qur’an also takes the question does this unusual birth of Jesus Christ grants him any superhuman characteristic or divinity. As the Christians believed in divinity of Jesus and would present his unusual birth as a manifest proof for their belief, the Almighty asked them to consider the fact that Adam was also created in an unusual way.
إِنِّ مَثَلَ عِيْسى عِندَ اللهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَم- خَلَقَه مِن تُرابٍ ثُمَّ قَال لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُوْن
With God the Almighty, Jesus’ (matter) is like that of Adam. He created him from dust and then said, be, and there he was. [3:59]
The Almighty says that creation of the Prophet Jesus is identical with that of Prophet Adam. Then if Adam does not possess any divinity owing to the same merit why should Jesus do? It is a known fact that if Jesus was created without father Adam was created without father and mother. He is the first candidate of divinity if given on the said merit. Therefore, this should not be a valid cause of assigning any of the Prophets any trait of divinity at any level.
Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi
Date: 2015-01-27
