What is the Main Message about Jesus in the Qur'an?

There are some extremely positive statements about Jesus in the Qur'an, but also some

Mary with Jesus Christ and John the Baptist mosaic in the Hagia Sophia Mosque Museum in Istanbul's Eminönü district

warnings. Tafsir authors are constantly caught between these two different approaches to the life and ministry of Jesus. Many interpreters therefore feel obliged to immediately relativise every positive statement with a warning from the pool of negative statements about Jesus. This gives the impression that the Qur'an predominantly gives a warning about Jesus and that its main intention is to correct the Christian understanding of the person of Jesus.

When reading these tafsir works, I realised that this approach repeatedly brings commentators into conflict with Quranic statements and I cannot shake off the impression that facts about Jesus that are 'necessary for salvation' for the reader are being concealed (see list 'Contradictions between Quran and Tefsir'). I therefore began to ask myself: What is the intention of the Qur'an in connection with the portrait of Jesus? Is the Qur'an's message about Jesus predominantly positive or mainly a warning against the Christian understanding? To answer this question, I searched for a central statement about Jesus in the Qur'an and found one in Al-i Imran 3:59:

In the year 631, Hz. Muhammad met with Arab Christians from Najran. Their topic of conversation was Jesus Christ. A summary of this exchange about Christ can be found in the first verses of the Al-i Imran Sura.1 After the treatment of various aspects of Jesus' life and ministry (see Al-i Imran 3:33-57), the end of the topic is indicated: 'This we read to you of the verses and the wise admonition' (Al-i Imran 3:58). But first, the significance of Jesus' life is emphasised and summarised once again in a final verse - the 'creed', so to speak, of the Qur'an concerning Jesus:

''The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was.' (Al-i Imran 3:59).

The importance of the statement in this verse is emphasised by the words to Muhammad that immediately follow - ''The Truth (comes) from Allah alone; so be not of those who doubt.' (Al-i Imran 3:60) and the following 'prayer curse': The next verse (v.61) is known as the "Mubahala" verse. It describes the mutual supplication and prayer to Allah for a sign that irrevocably determines who is right, followed by an imprecation of the liar:

'If any one disputes in this matter with thee, now after (full) knowledge Hath come to thee, say: "Come! let us gather together, - our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves: Then let us earnestly pray, and invoke the curse of Allah on those who lie!"' (Al-i İmran 3:61).

In other words, the content of the 59th verse is so crucially important that Muhammad does not shy away from putting the truth of the statement to the test by exposing his own family. The 59th verse and what precedes it (vv.33ff.) must therefore contain absolutely fundamental truth(s) that should be accepted and believed unquestioningly by Christians and Muslims like no other statement in the Qur'an. It will be our task to determine the exact contents of this truth and accordingly decide as to whether this central teaching of the Quran is predominantly positive about Jesus, or whether it predominantly warns Christians against their false beliefs regarding Jesus.

Islamic understanding of the comparison of Jesus with Adam

In the context of Al-i Imran 3:59, Islamic commentators assume that:

(1) in this verse, the creation of Adam is compared to the birth of Jesus. When Mary asks how she could become pregnant with a child without having been touched by a man, the angel answers her: '... Allah createth what He willeth: When He hath decreed a plan, He but saith to it, 'Be,' and it is!' (Al-i Imran 3:47). It is believed that it is God' words '"be", and it is!' at Jesus' conception which justifie this comparison. According to Al-i Imran 3:59 Adam himself was created by God with these very words: God created Adam''from dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was.'. It is therefore assumed that the focus of the comparison of these two prophets refers to their respective original creation, which was realised with the same command of God 'be!'. Moreover, in both cases God blows His own spirit into matter - in the case of Adam, God blew His spirit into earth moulded into a human being (Sad 38:71), in the case of Jesus, God blew His spirit into Mary (Enbiya 21:91).

 (2) It is further assumed that because of the similarity of the creation of the two men, their natures must also be the same: Just as Adam was only a man despite the breathing of God's spirit - neither Jews nor Christians come to a different conclusion - Jesus is also no more than a man - in the case of Jesus, however, Christians do claim divine nature due to his extraordinary conception. If there is a difference between the two prophets, Muslim commentators conclude, it is that Adam's birth is even more miraculous than that of Jesus, because Adam had neither a mother nor a father, whereas Jesus at least had a mother.

 (3) Finally, it is concluded that Muhammad corrected the wrong understanding of the Christians with this verse: Based on descriptions in the tefsir and hadith literature2 it is assumed, that Muhammad and the Christians counterparts contradicted each other on this point: the Christian delegation, it is argued, claimed sonship with God on the basis of Mary's extraordinary conception of Jesus and derived divinity for Jesus from this. It is believed that Muhammad corrected this ʼfalseʼ claim and used the example of Adam to argue in favour of Jesus' humanity, just as we find elsewhere: ʻSuch (was) Jesus, ...It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, "Be", and it is. [And (Jesus said):] Verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: Him therefore serve ye: this is a Way that is straight.' (Meryem 19:34-36).

(4) According to this interpretation, the prayer curse is Muhammad's call to his Christian discussion partners to distance themselves from the wrong belife in Jesus' divinity. Muhammad and his family stand for the non-divinity of Jesus, the Christians and their families on the other hand represent his divinity. Through the prayer curse, God is to judge between these two positions. Before that, God warns Muhammad not to succumb to the same temptation as the Christians, namely to deify Jesus because of his birth (Al-i İmran 3:60).

To summarise, we observe that in the history of the interpretation of this verse, the extraordinary truth about Jesus was grasped as a warning to and correction of Christians: Jesus was neither begotten of God nor is he equal to God! He was created by God just like Adam, with the small difference that Adam had neither father nor mother, whereas Jesus was only conceived without a father, but was certainly conceived and born of a mother. Jesus' birth is certainly extraordinary, but not so extraordinary that it fundamentally sets him apart from the other prophets. After all, Prophet Adam was created a shade more special. This verse therefore places Jesus quite naturally in the long line of prophets before and after him. The average reader continues to assume that the content of the verse is primarily intended for Christians or, at best, for people who are in danger of seeing more in Jesus than an 'ordinary' prophet. With this verse, the Qur'an corrects their false, exaggerated ideas of Jesus.

 For orthodox Muslims, on the other hand, who already know Jesus as 'just one of the prophets among many', there is no significant challenge in the verse according to this view. Rather, Al-i Imran 3:59 confirms Muslims in their correct belief: the one-god faith and Jesus' role as one of many prophets who, like all other prophets, proclaimed the one universal revelation of God.

If this interpretation captures what the verse is trying to say, and if this verse really is one of the main statements of the Qur'an about Jesus, then one must conclude that the centre of the Qur'an's teaching about Jesus is to expose the uniqueness (including divinity) of Jesus proclaimed by the Christians as a lie. The main message of the Qur'an about Jesus would then be negative and corrective in its basic tone, because it reacts to the Christian view of Jesus, just as many commentaries read this into every mention of Jesus in the Qur'an.

The question that arises for me as a follower of Jesus is whether this interpretation of Al-i Imran 3:59 does justice to the statement there about Jesus, or whether there are other possible interpretations that could lead to other conclusions ....

---

1 At least verses 33-63 come from this interreligious exchange (s. Sekiye Sönmez, 'Necrân'da Hıristiyanlık ve Hz. Muhammed'in Necrân Hıristiyan Din Adamlarıyla Münasebetleri', p.22, note 115 in https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/510838 (16/03/2023)): 'Kaynaklarda Âl-i İmrân Suresinin kaç âyetinin Necrân Hıristiyanlarıyla ilgili olduğu hakkında farklı bilgiler bulunmaktadır. Bu çerçevede bazı kaynaklar, Surenin başından itibaren 83 âyetinin Necrân heyeti hakkında nazil olduğunu belirtmekte (İbn Kesîr, Tefsîru’l- Kur’ani’l-Azîm, I, s.343); bazıları da bu surenin farklı zamanlarda dört bölüm olarak nazil olduğunu, sadece 33-63. âyetlerin Necrân Hıristiyanlarınin Medine'ye ziyareti sırasında nazil olduğunu ifade etmekte (Ebû'l A'lâ Mevdûdî, Tefhimu'l Kur'an (Kur'an'ın Anlamı ve Tefsiri), İnsan Yayınları, İstanbul 1986, I, s.203); bir kısım kaynaklar da ise surenin başından mübâhele âyetinin sonuna kadar Hıristiyanlar hakkında nazil olduğunu belirtmektedir (H.Tahsin Emiroğlu, Esbâb-ı Nüzûl (Kur'an Âyetlerinin İniş Sebepleri ve Tefsirleri), Kuzucular Ofset, Konya 1965, c.II, p.1).'

2 E.g. Sireti İbni Hişam Cilt 2, pp. 307-309 Internet: https://archive.org/details/SiretibniHiiamCilt2/page/n307/mode/2up?q=M%C3%BCbahele (29/01/2023).