بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله وحده و الصلاة و السلام على من لا نبي بعده و على آله و أصحابه أجمعين
An analysis of the proofs used by Christian Missionaries and a clear exposition of the deception
by Waqar Akbar Cheema and Gabriel K. AbdulRahman AlRomaani
Missionaries such as Sam Shamoun, Silas and others have tried to prove from many Islamic sources that Jesus was the only one who never sinned and that even Islamic sources fail to mention even one sin against Jesus. They quote different ahadith, especially a famous one that is called the hadith of intercession in which only Jesus is said not to mention any sin (as opposed to the other prophets). We will look at the narrations in question and show the Islamic view on Jesus and sin, and finally we will show the selective citation by missionaries (which is an oft repeated technique) and show what the bible says about Jesus’ sins.
Narrated Abu Huraira: Some (cooked) meat was brought to Allah Apostle and the meat of a forearm was presented to him as he used to like it. He ate a morsel of it and said, "I will be the chief of all the people on the Day of Resurrection. Do you know the reason for it? Allah will gather all the human being of early generations as well as late generation on one plain so that the announcer will be able to make them all-hear his voice and the watcher will be able to see all of them. The sun will come so close to the people that they will suffer such distress and trouble as they will not be able to bear or stand. Then the people will say, 'Don't you see to what state you have reached? Won't you look for someone who can intercede for you with your Lord' Some people will say to some others, 'Go to Adam.' … [then] they will go to Jesus and say, 'O Jesus! You are Allah's Apostle and His Word which He sent to Mary, and a superior soul created by Him, and you talked to the people while still young in the cradle. Please intercede for us with your Lord. Don't you see in what state we are?' Jesus will say. 'My Lord has today become angry as He has never become before nor will ever become thereafter. Jesus will not mention any sin, but will say, 'Myself! Myself! Myself! Go to someone else; go to Muhammad.' So they will come to me and say, 'O Muhammad ! You are Allah's Apostle and the last of the prophets, and Allah forgave your early and late sins. (Please) intercede for us with your Lord. Don't you see in what state we are?" The Prophet added, "Then I will go beneath Allah's Throne and fall in prostration before my Lord. And then Allah will guide me to such praises and glorification to Him as He has never guided anybody else before me. Then it will be said, 'O Muhammad Raise your head. Ask, and it will be granted. Intercede It (your intercession) will be accepted.' …. "[1]
The Missionaries mention this hadith to show that every prophet had a sin or mistake but Jesus does not mention any sin or even any issue, except saying Myself!. It is very important to not here that sins as mentioned in this hadith are not sins but small errors or things that are not even to be considered errors but out of the fear and awe of the prophets to show the severity of the day of judgment even a possibility of a mistake looks like a mountain of burden. The hadith is very well known in Muslim scholarship however the missionaries fail to quote the other hadith that is related to the topic to show that Jesus believes that he has made a mistake or he is scared because people took him for worship. The hadith goes as follows:
Abu Sa’id Khudri reported that Allah’s Messenger –may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him- said : I will be the chief of the children of Adam on the Day of Resurrection - no boast about it. And, in my hand will be the standard of praise (hamd) and this is no boast. There will be no Prophet that day, including Adam, but will be under my standard, and I will be the first for whom the earth will be split open (on resurrection) - and this is no boast. People will be terrified three times. They will come to Adam and say, “You are our father. So intercede for us with your Lord.” He will say, “I committed a sin for which I was sent down to the earth. But go to Noah. So, they will come to Noah and he will say. “I had prayed against the people of the earth (to be punished) and they were destroyed. But, go to Ibrahim.” They will come too Ibrahim and he will say, “I lied three times.” Allah’s Messenger –may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him- said: None of that was a lie except that he helped Allah’s religion with it. (Ibrahim will tell them.) “But, go to Musa.” So, they will come to Musa and he will say, “I had killed a soul. But go to Jesus.” They will go to Jesus. He will say, “I was worshiped besides Allah. But go to Muhammad.“ So, they will come to me and I will go with them.[2]
Scholars of Islam use comprehensive methodologies of looking at narrations, however missionaries use whims and desire based methodologies that serve their evil intentions towards attacking Islam. It is clear from the above hadith that Jesus will be in the same boat as the other prophets believing that maybe he has done a mistake that people took him as a god besides Allah, and that he is not worthy of the help that the people are seeking from him. In the end what the missionaries have to understand and fail to realize is that both narrations are meant to establish the status of Prophet Muhammad –may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him-, and to show that he is the one who will be granted the right of intercession by Allah on the Day of Judgment. The missionaries try to use a magic card trick where the audience is distracted from the main issue and directed towards a distraction so that the magician can do his trick. Missionaries are exposing their double standard by taking that he does not mention any sin (with regards to Jesus) statement and not paying attention to Intercede It (your intercession) will be accepted (with regards to Muhammad). This type of logic is like saying the statement I have two million dollars but I owe three means that I am rich. It is this type of logic which leads missionaries to believe in the trinity.
Let us now take a look of the issue in itself. If Jesus would be a prophet without sin, would that show that he is God or that he is somehow superior? The answer is NO. Christians try on many occasions to prove divinity through exclusivity or that because Jesus is the only one to be called or to have done something (such as virgin birth), he is God. In this case they try to say that Jesus is the only one without sin, therefore he is God. They fail to realize that there are all the angels (as Muslims believe) that have no sins and are created perfect to worship Allah. Looking at the Islamic texts we also see the hadith which explains not only why Jesus was never influenced by the devil to commit sins but why his mother is in the same boat:
The mother of Mary said:
"I place her and her progeny under Your shelter against Satan, the rejected."[3]
The Messenger of Allah -may Allah's peace and blessing be upon him said:
"No child is given birth to, but the devil pricks it so that it weeps due to the pricking of the devil, except Maryam (Mary) and her son."[4]
Is Maryam God? No, of course not and nor is Jesus. Maryam’s mother prayed a prayer that was granted by God and her daughter and her progeny i.e Jesus were protected from Satan. It is also very important to mention here that just because no sin is ever mentioned for Jesus (flawed logic) does not mean he never sinned and therefore he is God, as the same could be applied for Mary.
It is also very important to notice that the missionary approach is lacking any understanding of Islamic sources and logic in the light of proof. Before we Turn The Tables on the missionaries and expose them, let us briefly show the Islamic stance on prophets and sins. It is agreed upon by all scholars that prophets never commit any major sins, but they can make small mistakes as they are human. The mistakes they make serve as big lessons for humanity. It is also important to understand that “ma’soom” or infallible in Islamic terms means infallible in delivering the message from God, and being protected from God in failing to achieve the purpose they were sent for.
It is also important here to quote a hadith from Musnad Ahmad which indicates that the only one who has never committed a sin is not Esa (Jesus) but Yahya or John the Baptist. The narration goes as follows:
"There has never been one from the offspring of Adam who did not err (qad akhta') or was inclined (hamma) to it except Yahya bin Zakariyya"[5]
Compared to the narrations about Jesus and Mary which imply that they did not have sin, or that they committed no sin, this narration says specifically that none of the progeny of Adam erred except Yahya. If we were to follow missionary logic and approach we could play day and night with such narrations and try to build whatever we want but that is not the case. The reality is that the narration is not fully authenticated by most scholars. The reality is that missionaries have no logic or sincere approach in this subject and that they can establish nothing but conjecture.
The prophets were always fearful and humble even though they did not do anything that could be termed a sin. This is the sign of true and ultimate piety[6], and this is the trait of a true believer who lives his or her life in a balance of love, fear and hope, not in a state of arrogance and comfort as if they deserve paradise. To highlight this point the following narration says:
It is narrated from Abu Huraira, he said the Messenger of Allah -may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him said, "If my Lord was to judge me and Ibn Maryam (Jesus) even by the amount of the shadow between these two fingers, He would have punished us without being unjust."[7]
This narration kills any missionary attempt to claim divinity for Jesus –may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him- based on Islamic texts.
The Muslim has no problem in admitting that Jesus or Mary or John or anyone else for that reason is without sin, as this does not establish any proof for divinity for anyone with an ounce of intellect. As Allah created angels without sin, and perfect obedient creatures, He created others and selected them with special characteristics and all is by the will of Allah, not by the will of the creation, and all praise goes back to Allah not to the creation. And anyone who tries to twist Islamic texts and dupe people to believe that Muslims cannot show that Jesus sinned therefore he is God, let it be known that such people are lacking any real insight or intellect and only follow conjecture and doubts, which can never counter reason, proof and truth.
LET ME TURN THE TABLES!
When a Christian tries to use the argument that Jesus is God because Jesus was sinless we need to point out the fallacy of such an argument. Christian missionaries have been desperate to prove Jesus’ divinity, as there is categorically no unambiguous evidence of such in the Bible, and such Christian theology is ambiguous. Why is the Christian argument a fallacy and illogical argument? Can this litmus test be applied? Let us break the argument in a few points for the sake of simplicity:
There is no correlation between being sinless and being divine. Christians build the premise but it’s a false premise. We have already shown that there is no proof that Mary sinned, or John the Baptist or angels for that matter. The most one can say here is that Jesus was a sinless man.
There is no correlation between being sinless and being God. A God cannot be subjected to SIN standards; no matter what God does is never considered a sin. God ordered the killing of men, women and children[8] but that cannot be a sin. So the statement God is sinless does not even apply or make sense, as the two words could never be put together.
Now if one were to apply the true apparent meaning of the argument and that is – Jesus never committed a sin (killing, genocide, killing small children, killing animals etc.) and God never committed a sin (such as killing, genocide, killing children etc.) therefore Jesus is God, one would realize after reading a few chapters of the Bible that the first statement might be true, but the second is definitely false. God whipped out nations, killed children and infants, ordered massacres and genocides, destroyed lands and crops and much more. Is Jesus better than God?
Any objective reader who is looking for truth and applies any principle of reason can see the fallacy of the missionary attempt. It is with such futile attempts that these people fool people in poverty stricken lands such as Africa and India, converting them and leading them astray from Islam.
Indeed Allah knows the best!
[1] Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 4712
[2] Jami' Tirmidhi, Hadith 3148. Classified as Sahih by Albani
[3] Qur’an 3:36
[4] Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 3431
[5] Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 2294, narrated by Ibn Abbas. Shaikh Ahmad Shakir classified it as Sahih
[6] Today Muslims try to follow that path and when asked by Christians (who think they are going to paradise for sure) DO YOU KNOW IF YOU WILL END UP IN PARADISE? The Muslim responds NO I DON’T, ONLY ALLAH KNOWS, even though we know that anyone who says THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH will eventually enter paradise.
[7] Hilya al-Awliya 8/132. Also quoted in Kanzul 'Ummal Hadith 5905
[8] The Bible, Book of Numbers Ch. 31
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