The Qur'an and the Secular Mind; A Philosophy of Islam (2008) - Shabbir Akhtar

32 Quranic Islam and the secular mind
The Quranic Jesus would have found blasphemous the views attributed to him
by the Christian churches. He preached absolute submission to the will of God:
islām in the generic, not historical, sense. While not a member of the historical
community of Muhammadan Islam, he was a muslim. God empowered him to
perform miracles, from the day of his birth (Q:3:45–6; 19:29–30). The Quran
confirms the Virgin Birth three times (Q:3:47; 19:20–1; 66:12) 29 and rebukes the
Jews for their ‘calumny against Mary’ (Q:4:156). Though born without a human
father, Jesus is still fully human. He is not divine and he is not the Son of God.
The Quran in effect accuses Christians of committing the fallacy of irrelevant
conclusion: Christians regard Jesus as the Son of God because, they argue, he was
born without a father. This conclusion is unwarranted since Adam, who was born
without either parent would, if the Christian reasoning were sound, have a greater
claim to divinity. But neither Adam nor Jesus was divine. ‘The case of Jesus in
the eyes of God is like that of Adam: He created him from earth and then said to
him, “Be!” And he is.’(Q:3:59).
The Quran calls Jesus the Messiah (Al-Masīḥ; Q:3:45; Hebrew: meshiākh,
anointed one; Greek: Christos) but is silent on the Jewish or Christian significance
of the term. 30 While most Israelites rejected Jesus, a group also honoured
him as a messenger of God (Q:61:14) and this latter group prevailed (Q:61:14).
The rejectors intended to crucify Jesus. Presumably, these would be Sadducees
and Pharisees but the Quran rarely condescends to mention historical groups or
actors even in Muhammad’s time, let alone those from an earlier epoch. The
Jews were determined to crucify Jesus – there is no mention of the Romans –
and Jesus was prepared, like other messengers carrying out their missions, to die
in this manner, for God’s sake. God intervened to rescue him from the cross.
The Jews were misled by the substitution of another person; Jesus was not successfully
crucified. ‘They neither killed him nor crucified him’ (Q:4:157). In
compiling a full catalogue of the delinquencies of the Jews, the Quran includes
their boast about killing Jesus (Q:4:154–7). Jesus was saved rather than killed
on the cross ‘but it was made to appear to them’ (wa lākin shubbiha lahum;
Q:4:157) as if he had been killed. Although many messengers had been allowed
to be martyred, as we know from the Quran’s condemnation of the Jews for
killing the prophets (qatl al-anbiyā’; Q:2:61, 87; 3:183; 4:155; see also Matthew
23:29–32), God translated Jesus by removing him (Q:4:158), possibly without
death, directly into paradise where he is among those closest to God (Q:3:45).
God exercised his divine arbitrium since he is powerful enough to do as he
wishes.
Muslim tradition, taking its cue from obscure Quranic allusions (Q:4:159;
43:57–61) and strange Prophetic sayings of varying authenticity, claims that Jesus
will return near the time of the hour (of judgement), live as a Muslim, refute
Christian interpretations of his mission by symbolically breaking crosses and prohibiting
the consumption of pork and alcohol, and finally in an apocalyptic battle,
subdue the Anti-Christ, identified with ‘the great liar’ (Al-Dajjāl). Jesus will then
die, this time after completing his mission. A burial spot is reserved for him, next
to Muhammad, in Medina.