For the gospel, literally the “good news” of life everlasting, was not unique to him and was brought by every Prophet, of the Most Gracious, before him. As the Qur’an testifies they were, each and every one of them, “Bashir’un wa Nadir’un” -Bringers of the Glad Tidings and Warners of a Severe Day. Rightly, they were a proud people boasting the lineage of the Prophets down from Ibrahim (as). And they lived within the precincts of Jerusalem with their book and their prophesies.
One such prophesy talked of a warrior Prophet who would be sent to defeat their enemies and bring peace. That was the prophesy of Zachariah. (*4)
And so the greater the oppression, the greater their religiosity. For they believed that the more religious they became, the more holy, that then GOD would send them that prophet to fight for them.
That was the community of believers at Qumrun for whom we have to thank the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Some others sought refuge in the Law and still others in the Scripture.
Just as some of us today seek refuge in types of Tawassuf (asceticism), whilst still others in the nitty gritty of the Fiqh or the Law. (*5)
But all of them, then, felt deeply their humiliation before Rome, and Roman man, and that paradoxically only increased them in arrogance.
And so Jesus (as) was sent to bring them back from the brink. And to educate them in what they already knew.
For when we listen to the message of Jesus (as) we see untold examples of him trying to enervate them once again with humanity, and consequently humility.
For the Jews of that day despised the Samaritans, their erstwhile neighbours. And it is for this reason that Jesus (as) gave us the parable of the goodly Samaritan. That it is not who you are that defines your standing with God, but what you do with what you have been given. (*6)
And more than anything it is this message that they needed to hear in order to prepare themselves for the coming of his successor.
Indeed, our belief is simply that, a culmination in the development of their belief.
That we are not special because of our belief, but that it is our belief that drives us towards performing good actions, and it is that that is special.
And much more than that.
For John the Baptist brought baptism as a means of purification, and nearly five times a day we anoint our heads with water (masa) in ritual ablution.
Jesus (as) as a contemporary of John (as) adopted baptism and fell on his face in worship as we do. And he called towards the culmination of all belief in a day of cosmological proportions- literally the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) on Earth.
For what Jesus (as) said most astutely was that the culmination of all belief had begun in his time and within his ministry. This shocked the Jews no end, because whilst they firmly believed in those things, it’s coming true was something that they met with trepidation and hesitation.
When approached and asked “are you the one foretold?” (The Adon of David, who would sit on the right hand of God. The one who would fulfil the prophesy of Zachariah). Jesus (as) replied, “How can the son of David be his Lord?” This was not a cryptic answer, but much more of a rhetorical question. For the priests well knew the answer even before they had asked it.
That no Jew, no son of David, could be the one foretold.
One whom our history asserts that they knew better than their own sons, because of the fullness of his description in their books. (*7)
For that honour lay elsewhere in the second line from the father of the Prophets; from Ismail the eldest son of Ibrahim, through Qusay, through Hashim who gathered Quraysh within the Holy Sanctuary; to our Messenger Muhammad (saw), the seal of the Prophets.
And that day, the culmination of belief did not happen with the birth of the Messenger (saw), nor with the first revelation, but on the very first Night of Power; Laylatul Qadr; when the Heavens were sealed and the Kitab was sent down from the utmost Heaven to the lowest of them. (*8)
On that day a new era of rational belief began, with the revelation of the Qur’an.
Over the next 23 years of Muhammed’s (saw) mission he received that revelation, piece wise, and through his heavenly counterpart, the archangel Jibreel (Gabriel). Until it’s completion with the rites of Pilgrimage that the Messenger (saw) taught us on the day of the greater Hajj, in his penultimate year: “This day we have perfected our favour upon Mankind and chosen for them Islam as their religion”, a verse of the Quran that was revealed just after.
But before that, in the late Meccan period of that revelation, came down the verse of the Kursi (seat), which is fabled to be one of the greatest verses in the Qur’an.
It is here that Allah t’ala, God most high, most likely first declared: “To HIM belong whatsoever is in the Heavens, and whatsoever within the Earth”. That to GOD belongs all, and to HIM is Sovereignty and Kingship, and to whom obedience is rightly due. (*9)
For whilst Christianity divides the Cosmos into an otherworldly Divine Perfection and contrasts it with the here and now of our Earth, filled with decay, loss, and the mundane (thoughts and actions that seek to drag us away from the beautification by religion).
Islam brought about a revolutionary unification, that you can seek and find the divine within those very same mundane preoccupations. For example the Messenger (saw) once instructed us that God loves the one who works hard with their hands- literally God loves those hands. In the Islamic World View every movement and every act can become part of worship, the vital ingredient being that of pure intention. (*10)
When we fully appreciate that then man finds his place within the cosmos, and that which belongs to him, and that which he belongs to. (*11).
A truly sublime religion of Peace.
Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not via lectures, nor speeches, nor this above.
NOTES
*1- written from memory. I have sought to find it but have failed. However on asking a learned Christian he affirmed that “Jesus often spoke about an upside down kingdom”.
*2- I paraphrase and you to source the actual literal reading of the words of the Messenger.
*3- muslim here is used in its operative sense as meaning submission to the will of God.
*4 The Prophesy
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your King comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraime
and the horse from Jerusalem,
and the bow of war will be broken.
Then He will proclaim peace to the nations;
His dominion will extend from sea to sea,
and from the Euphrates
to the ends of the earth.”
See also this former blog
https://shafeesthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/02/coming-comforter-physical-proof-of.html?m=1
*5 Both of which are just different types religiosity, embellishing the religion and making it more than it is, whilst at the same time fuelling each of our own senses of specialness.
*6 Remember here that Jesus (as) himself said that his mission was not to Samaritans but to the Children of Israel.
*7 As Is written in our Seerah books. Since numerous Jews emigrated and took up residence in Yathrib in anticipation of the Messenger being forced to emigrate there. This happened after he was forced to flee from Mecca. There in the newly named Medina they recognised him and whilst a few of their number believed and became Muslim, the majority of them rejected him just as they had Jesus (as).
*8 I leave you to reference the different verses of the Quran that point to this eventuality as a matter of contemplation.
*9 And it is here also that His greatest name and attribute is mentioned.
*10 for further detail see this older blog ..
https://shafeesthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/09/heaven-and-earth_28.html?m=1
For a Muslim holiness is not to remain aloof from this World in an otherworldly appreciation, but the Sunnah (way) of our Messenger (saw) is to work and seek our livelihood on Earth and it is in this travail that we find our blessings.
For the Messenger (saw) said “God loves those hands” on seeing a man hard at work.
To seek the pleasure of God is simply to dedicate to God what you do, it is the Basmalla, the correct intention and a purity of purpose. So much so that to even give presents to your family is considered worship.
*11 Read S. Hashr the last few verses, and feel the completion of recognising your place within the scheme of things.
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