The Many Missions of Jesus, Nabi Isa (as).

The many missions of Jesus

(Nabi Isa (as))!

There can be no doubt that Jesus (as) was born into the great religious traditions of the Children of Israel. Furthermore he was a master of the Torah, its Prophesies and Law.
However, his followers attribute to him the "Gospel", literally "The Good News". And when this is compared to that which he (as) knew so well, the Torah, it appears relatively unsophisticated in its message.
The Anomaly.
Muslims in general explain this anomaly by attributing to the Gospel, a call for the Jews to return back to the basics of their religion. A call to return back from the mechanisation that Judaism had become, and back to the spirit of the first revelations.

Christians answer this anomaly by paradoxically taking on board the Torah as the "Old Testament", whilst at the same time believing that they are not required to be bound to the law, that even Jesus (as) followed.

Back to Life?
To the Jews of today it is still the LAW that is paramount. And so the idea that Jesus (as) might have been sent to breathe life into the religion of the Children of Israel gains credence.

This is especially so when you read his parables, that tend to seek to open people’s eyes. However to emphasize the spirit of the LAW, whilst at the same time seeking to simplify or brush over it, would not be credible. Not for the Jews, today or at that time. And neither for us who know so well the importance of law.

To change our belief from one of GOD the LAW-giver to GOD the Father, Cherisher and Provider, is a simplification indeed.

Is not GOD the Lawgiver, precisely so, because HE is the ONE that cares for us? Is HE not GOD the Father?

Do not laws save us from that which is much worse, anarchy and rebellion?

However the opposite cannot necessarily be said to hold. And this is the case with the followers of the Gospel, the LAW is not Holy!

For the Christians belief in God is confined to God the Creator and Father, in Islamic terminology God the Sustainer (Ar-Rab) (the One who Provides), and its law is confined to the 10 Commandments and the admonishment to ’Love Thy Neighbour’.

The Qur’anic Version.
But the Muslim knows by his book that Jesus (as) was a man sent to qualify and abrogate the Torah.

That he (as) came to make "somethings lawful and others unlawful". Only a Messenger of God, one who receives a scripture (normally a physical book), can do this. Hence the Injil, which was sent to Jesus (as), must have both qualified and even abrogated the law contained in the Torah.

And because of this its message could not have been anything less sophisticated than that of the Torah, in both its belief system and law!

The Gospel and The Injeel.
However, Jesus (as)’s followers follow the GOSPEL attributed to him (as). And so we can only but conclude that the two cannot be the same!

For, if we were to belief that the GOSPEL and the INJEEL are one and the same then we would be forced to say that Jesus (as) was sent to bring life back into the religion of the Children of Israel, by both simplifying their beliefs, from God the Lawgiver to God the Father, and a concurrently simplifying their law, from a sophisticated legal system to a practically absent one. And this cannot be the case.

This realisation should of itself complicate our understanding of Jesus (as) and his given mission amongst us.

The First Mission.
Part of that mission that we know of is that Jesus (as) was a Messenger of Allah t’ala sent to the Children of Israel. However, history has it that the Jewish Priesthood and Rabbis were at odds with the Messiah, Jesus (as), to the extent that they tried to kill him. There can be no doubt that with respect to that mission Jesus (as) failed.

Or did he?

For we, Muslims, accord with the Christians with respect to his miraculous virgin birth. And this is verified in the Qur’an, whilst we disagree with what they attribute to his saying of himself.

Allah t’ala in the Qur’an in response to this blasphemy, likens Nabi Isa (Jesus as) to Adam (as). For Jesus (as) had no father, and Adam was made from dust (having neither father nor mother).

So obviously if Allah t’ala is able to create Adam without father nor mother, why do we attribute divinity to the one whom Allah t’ala made without a father?

Adam and Jesus (as).
But the similarity between the two, Jesus and Adam (as), goes still further.

For in the Qur’an we are told the full story of the making of Adam (as) and the subsequent fall of Iblis.

Iblis is known to the Christians as Lucifer, a fallen Angel.

However, we learn in the Qur’an that Iblis was not an Angel but instead he is the father of Djinn and made of smokeless fire. Whereas, the Angels are created of pure light, to serve Allah t’ala alone.

The Beginning of History.
GOD created Adam and asked the Angels to bow before him.

We know that Iblis was in the high company of those Angels, and that must have been because of his reputed piety.

However when GOD commanded them, Iblis who was amongst them became of those who are haughty and said "I am better than he, for YOU created me out of smokeless fire and him out of sounding clay!". Iblis refused to bow, and became of those who choose to disobey and rebel against GOD Most High. And from that day Iblis became Mans’ mortal and eternal enemy.

It is said that GOD knew of Iblis’s hidden pride and so HE asked the Angels to bow, to make clear to Iblis his pride. For GOD is not unjust, HE will not condemn a person until it is proved true against them. And did not GOD say to the Angels when they asked "I know and you do not know!"

Likewise, Jesus (as) was for the Children of Israel a trial and a test. They failed to believe in him, and sought to kill him. For Jesus (as) knew that the Kingdom of GOD was open to all, and the one to come after would not be from the Children of Israel. And because of this Jesus (as) sought to make his people receptive to that coming, but they would not head his call.

For their pride got in the way of obedience to GOD’s way, just as it did 600 years later.

And just as pride did at the beginning of History.

Because of that their covenant was not renewed and they became of ’those who anger Allah’ (Al-Fatihah).

Allah t’ala made Adam as a trial for Iblis because He knew of Iblis’s innermost pride, and likewise maybe Allah t’ala sent Jesus (as) as a trial for the Children of Israel because He knew of their arrogance and wanted to make it clear to them.

With Adam (as) Allah t’ala fulfilled the dual accomplishment of putting a representative (Khilafah) on Earth and removing Iblis from heaven.

Given the dual fact that both the Children of Israel rejected the Messiah Jesus (as) and that Jesus (as) was spared from their hands, maybe Jesus (as) wasn’t solely sent to try to renew God’s covenant with them. Like Adam (as), maybe Jesus (as) was sent with another mission other than being a Messenger of Allah t’ala to the Children of Israel.

The Gospel of Jesus (a.s).
The Injil was a sophisticated revelation sent to Jesus (as) for the Children of Israel, however the Gospel that is followed by his followers is something other than that.

The central message of the Gospel is to make known the existence of the true benevolent One God (the Father), and to proclaim the Good News (literally Gospel) of the existence of an everlasting life after death.

And all that Christianity requires of its followers is nothing more than an affirmation of these facts, and a belief in Jesus (as).

Christians believe that Jesus (as) preached to Jew and non-Jew equally, to sinful and sin-free equally. He (as) was all to aware of the imminence of the Kingdom of GOD and all to aware that that Kingdom would be open to all, irrespective of whether they were Jewish or not.

It is this fact that may explain why his ’gospel’ concentrated on the characteristics of Allah t’ala the Sustainer and Cherisher of the Worlds and all living things. Because it is that belief that is the easier to grasp without asking too much of the believer.

Jesus (as) and Muhammad (saw).
And maybe it is with this belief that he was sent to prepare the World for the coming of Ahmad the Comforter (Muhammad (saw)), the one to whom GOD will give the rights of intercession on the Day of Decision.

If this is true then he would be the first Prophet to come with a truly Global Message for the whole of Mankind: to believe in Allah t’ala as the One True God and to follow Muhammad (saw).

Jesus (as) was a Messenger of Allah t’ala sent to the Children of Israel and simultaneously he was also Prophet of Allah t’ala sent to the whole of Mankind.

Jesus (as) was Muhammad’s (saw) precursor, he (as) started what Muhammad (saw) fulfilled. For with Muhammad (saw) all that Jesus waited for came to fruition.

The understanding of the many missions of Jesus (as) has one great implication for us today and that is that Muslims are closer than they think to the followers of Jesus (as).

Even though Jesus (as) was a Jew and was born in the Holy Land some 600 years before Muhammad (saw), his mission was and is intricately interwoven with that of Muhammad’s (saw).

Their lives and their missions are so interwoven that during the last days Jesus (as) will come as a Muslim, affirming all that Muhammad (saw) said.
We know this, however do we know it deep enough.

The dilemma of the life of Jesus (as); who he was, what he said and his last days on this Earth; continue to be relevant issues to this day. Muslims should be at the forefront of this debate, affirming his uniqueness and talking about his mission.

The Last Similarity.
In this essay I have touched on the similarities between Adam and Jesus (as). There remains still one similarity left untouched. When GOD announced to the Angels that HE was going to create another to dwell on this earth, He mentioned Adam (as) and his children as being Khilafah over the earth.

Khilafah the word means successor, and Khilafah the concept means "representative, vicegerent".

Adam (as) inaugurated the meaning of Khilafah the word, and Jesus (as) was the start of the inauguration of Khilafah the concept.

And both were fulfilled by the revelation that came to Muhammad (as). May Allah t’ala reward them all innumerably.



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