CHRIST IN MOHAMMEDAN LITERATURE.— i. In the Koran.* — The earliest mention of Jesus Christ in the Koran is in ch. 19, the Stiratti Maryam, which was delivered in Mecca. It refers to His birth —
' Make mention in the Book, of Mary, when she went apart from her family eastward, and took a veil to shroud herself from them, and we sent our spirit to her, and he took before her the form of a perfect man. She said : " I fly for refuge from thee to the God of Mercy : if thou fearest Him." He said : " I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a holy son." She said : " How shall I have a son, when man hath never touched me? and I am not unchaste?" He said : " So shall it be. Thy Lord hath said, Easy is this with me, and we will make him a sign to mankind and a mercy from me ; for it is a thing decreed." And she conceived him and retired with him to a far-off place. And the throes came upon her by the trunk of a palm. She said : " Oh, vvould that I had died ere this, and been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite." And one cried to her from below her, "Grieve not thou." Then came she with the babe to her people, bearing him. They said : " O Mary, now hast thou done a strange thing, O sister of Aaron ; Thy father was not a man of wickedness, nor unchaste thy mother." And she made a sign to them, pointing towards the babe. They said : " How shall we speak with him who is in the cradle, an infant?" It said : " Verily, I am the servant of God ; He hath given me the Book, and He hath made me a Prophet "' (vv. 16-24. 28-32).
The child is represented as miraculously speaking in defence of His mother. He claimed to be the servant of God to whom a revelation — the Book — was made. It is said that this refers to the Injil, or Gospel, revealed to Him whilst yet in His mother's womb. The idea of speaking in the cradle is taken from the apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy. The idea oi the palm tree is taken from a story in the History of the Nativity of Mary, when she rests under it on the way to Egypt.
In SuratiCz Zukhruf (ch. 43), also a Meccan Sura, we read —
• And when the son of Mary was set forth as an instance of Divine power, lo ! thy people cried out for joy thereat. And they said: " Are our gods or is he the better?" . . . Jesus is no more than a servant whom we favoured and proposed as an instance of Divine power to the children of Israel. And he shall be a sign of the last hour ' (v v. 57-61).
The idolaters of Mecca put the question recorded in the second of the above verses to Moliammed, when he condemned their gods. The Christians worship as a God, Jesus whom you praise : do you, therefore, condemn Him as you do our gods ? We are quite willing to let our gods be treated as you
* The form in which the name ' Jesus ' appears in the Koran is 'Isa ('tJ'"j;), which appears to represent 'Esau' rather than ' leshua.' A similar variety is said to be found in Mandaic documents (Brandt, hie Manddische Religion, 1889, p. 141) ; but this, like their Yahyd for ' John,' may be due to Moslem influence. It seems unlikely, though not wholly impossible, that Mohammed may have confused the personalities of Esau and Christ ; it is more probable that the Koranic form is due either to intentional alteration or to mishearing. Friinkel (WZKM iv. 336) suggested that the initial j; instead of the final was due to mishearing on Mohammed's part, whereas the other alterations were due to his desire to make the word rhyme with Musd (Moses) ; and this accounts for the facts (cf. Sycz, Bib- lische Eigennamen im Koran, 1903, p. 62). It is, however, equally likely that the alteration was due to Mohammed's informant, who may have been moved by some superstitious consideration.
treat Him. This seems to be their line of argu- ment, and it led to the emphatic declaration that whatever the Christians might think of Him, in the opinion of Mohammed He was ' no more than a servant.'
All the other references to Jesus Christ occur in Medina Suras. We give the principal ones in tlieir historical order.
In Suratti'l Baqarah (ch. 2) we read —
' And to Jesus, son of Marj', gave we clear proofs of his Mis- sion, and strengthened him with the Holj' Spirit ' * (v.si).
' To Jesus, the son of Mary, we gave manifest signs, and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit' (v.254).
In the Suratu AH Imran (ch. 3) there are several references —
' Remember when the Angel said : " O Mary, Verily, God announceth to thee the Word from Him. His name shall be Messiah, the son of Mary, illustrious in this world and in the next, and one of those who have near access to God. And he shall speak to men alike when in the cradle and when grown up, and he shall be one of the just." She said : "How, O Lord I shall I have a son, when man hath not touched me?" He said : " Thus will God create what He will. When He decreeth a thing. He only saith Be, and it is." And He will teach him the Book and the Wisdom and the Law and the Evangel, and he shall be an apostle to the people of Israel ' (vv.40-43).