According to a well-known hadith (a term for authoritative Islamic traditions about Muhammad), Muhammad saw Jesus as the closest of all the prophets to himself, both in this life and hereafter. Jesus is also honored in Islam with several titles given to no other prophet—including Muhammad himself. He is called “Messiah,” “Word of (or from) God,” and “Spirit of God.” While high appellations for Jesus are commonplace in Christianity, some are surprised by how uniquely Jesus is esteemed in the world’s second-largest faith.
Was Jesus a Unique Prophet in Islam?
Jesus—called Isa—is mentioned ninety-three times by various titles in the Qur’an. But his prominence alone does not set him apart, since other biblical figures such as Moses, Noah, Adam, Abraham, and John (The Baptist) are also mentioned often.
Other aspects of Jesus’s character in Islam are unique to him, however. One of these is his virginal conception and birth. Another is Jesus’s role in what is called “The Hour”—the climax of human history in which the enemies of God will be defeated and an era of justice and peace will be inaugurated. The central antagonist in The Hour is called The Dajjal, which is short for “Anti-Christ” or “Anti-Messiah” in Islam. Jesus will personally return to earth from Paradise, slay The Dajjal, and thereby ensure the failure of history’s final war against Islam.
Did Jesus Appear in The Qur’an?
Get the latest articles delivered to your inbox
Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterThe Qur’an does not tell many stories, but it alludes to accounts that can sometimes be found in other literature. In this sense the Qur’an often depends on its readers’ knowledge of the Bible—both Old and New Testaments—when it refers to biblical prophets. It speaks of Jesus, for example, as a teacher of Scripture, a healer, one who raises the dead, a prophet, and the Messiah without providing narrative examples. It would be impossible to form even a rough vision of the Islamic Jesus from material in the Qur’an alone.
But this is not necessarily a problem for Muslims theologically, even though it raises historical questions. Once Muhammad becomes the “Seal of the Prophets”—the final prophet God will send to humanity—there is no fundamental need to uncover the distinctive teachings of prophets who came before him, since all bore the same essential message.
Miracle Baby, Defender of His Mother
Jesus’s mother Mary (called Maryam) is arguably the most honored woman in Islamic tradition. She is the only woman referenced by name in the Qur’an, whose nineteenth chapter is entitled after her.
In one of the few narrations about Jesus in the Qur’an, the baby Jesus speaks up in defense of Mary’s chastity against her skeptics. While the infant’s theological claims contrast from what he says in the Qur’an, the occasion for his premature locution is the same in a second-century work called The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, where he also answers Mary’s accusers from the cradle. The New Testament records no miracles performed by Jesus until after his baptism.
But according to Islam, in harmony with traditions also preserved by Gnostic Christianity, Jesus’s miracles began in the cradle. At least one other miracle from his childhood, in which he makes clay birds come to life, is also mentioned in the Qur’an. This story is likewise told in The Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
Why Did God Give Jesus a Gospel?
Muslims understand the “Gospel” of Jesus—called the Injil—as a message revealed to him by God. This understanding of the term is quite different from the Christian view. For Christians, the Gospel is the “good news” that Jesus died and rose again for humanity’s salvation; for Muslims it is a message that Jesus proclaimed during his lifetime.
Jesus’s Gospel is often referenced as a book in Islam. This “book” is frequently conflated with the New Testament in popular understanding, which can cause considerable confusion in inter-religious conversations. Muslims see the New Testament as a corrupted and untrustworthy source for understanding Jesus, at least in theological terms. While the New Testament (especially the Four Gospels) is sometimes referenced for purposes of interfaith dialogue or corroboration of Muslim teaching, it does not represent “The Gospel” that God revealed to Jesus from an Islamic point of view. The Injil, thus, should be understood as either virtually or entirely lost.
Did Jesus Never Die?
The Qur’an claims (Surah An-Nisa 4:157–8) that God thwarted the plans of those who intended to crucify Jesus and instead rescued him from this fate. Jesus, like Elijah and Enoch in the Hebrew Bible, was simply ushered into God’s presence without passing through death.
Many Muslims believe that someone else was crucified in Jesus’s place. By divine intervention, the person was made to appear like Jesus. This popular view, alluded to in a few hadith, echoes traditions discovered in so-called “Gnostic Christian” writings. Specifically, in The Gospel of Judas and The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, one of Jesus’s disciples voluntarily takes his place on the cross. The Gospel of Barnabas explains how this was done in fascinating, creative detail, but this work should be considered separately since it was written long after the rise of Islam and, thus, could not have informed early Islam’s view of the crucifixion.
What Does Jesus Look Like?
The Bible provides no description of Jesus’s physical features, except to mention that his beard was torn out by Roman soldiers as part of the tortures he endured before he was killed. In several hadith, however, his appearance is outlined in some detail. Muhammad sees Jesus during his miraculous, one-night trip to Jerusalem and then up to heaven known as the Isra and Mi’raj. Jesus is also described in hadith traditions about The Hour.
He is said to be of reddish or brown complexion, of a slight build, and with wavy hair that appears to be wet. In descriptions of The Hour he is set over against The Dajjal, who is identified as being blind in one eye (which looks like a bloated grape), short, and broad-shouldered. He will have with the word kafir—meaning “unbeliever”—written on his forehead.
When Will the Messiah Return?
Muslims anticipate the return of Jesus to earth, when he will kill The Dajjal and defeat once-and-for-all the enemies of Islam. While the New Testament also famously predicts the return of Christ, its descriptions of this event appear in literature of the genre scholars call “Apocalyptic.” This type of literature is highly imaginative. For example, the figure in the New Testament’s final book, entitled simply “Revelation” (apocalypsis in Greek), who is often called “The Antichrist” is actually not named overtly as such in Revelation itself, and is pictured as a four-headed beast.
While Jesus is imagined as battling the forces of this “Beast” in Revelation, he does this with a sword that is said to be coming out of his mouth, suggesting the imagery is not intended to anticipate coming events in a literal sense. While similarly other-worldly imagery appears in the Hadith’s descriptions of The Hour, they are generally understood as predicting actual, physical events.
How Similar Is the Islamic Jesus to the Christian Jesus?
Muslim scholars routinely refer to The Four Gospels in the New Testament in their reconstructions of Jesus as a prophet of Islam. However, when The Gospels diverge from Muslim tradition, especially in matters relating to Jesus’s theological significance, the Islamic version is preferred. But even in terms of the historical events of Jesus’s life, Muslims and Christians see Jesus differently. For Christians, the crucifixion is the pivotal moment of Jesus’s ministry.
The meanings of the resurrection and crucifixion are intertwined and inextricable from the meaning of Jesus’s life as a whole. For Muslims, however, believing that God rescued Jesus from a horrific and humiliating death is part and parcel to confessing true Islamic faith. Furthermore, the idea that the resurrected Christ could die again cannot fit within a Christian understanding of his significance. But according to several hadith, Jesus will marry and have children after he defeats The Dajjal, and will be buried alongside Muhammad in Medina.
