The Arab-Islamic Influences In Islam
When Mary begins to go through the pains of childbirth, she is taken by the angel Gabriel to an isolated stream with a date palm tree. There, she bears Jesus as a child untouched by sin and Mary is able to rest, shaking the palm to allow as many dates to fall as she pleases. The Arab-Islamic influences make themselves plain here in the form of the date-bearing palm, a traditional fruit in the Arab Gulf region that fails to appear in the Christian Gospels’ accounts of the birth of Jesus. It provides an example of the Arab influences on the Quran and the selective editing of the Christological narrative so as to better fit a story which aligns with the development and geography of Islam.
When taken back to Mary’s home in the Jerusalem temple, …show more content…
The Quran makes sure to emphasize the point that Jesus, like Adam, came to be because God commanded it, though he bears no divine traits or qualities which should liken him to the one and only God. He was sent to the children of God, like other prophets before him, to challenge them to follow the true Word of God. With this revelation, writes 12th century Sunni theologian Fakhr al-Razi in Tafsir, Jesus is elevated in his prophethood to the likes of Moses (Musa), becoming the first prophet since him to reveal a new law (Sharia) to the followers of God. God reveals to Jesus his holy word through the Gospels (al-Injil), which Jesus then spreads throughout the land by traveling with his apostles, who remain nameless and unnumbered. It is believed, similar to Muslims’ views on the Torah, that the true Gospel of Jesus was lost or corrupted by the early church, which necessitated the arrival of the prophet Muhammad to reveal the Word of God once more. What Christians refer to as the Gospels are viewed as a kind of Hadith, accounts written by Jesus contemporaries and followers, and do not hold any kind of importance for Muslims as a whole, though some contemporary scholars regard them as “…containing clear evidence of the essential truth of God's Oneness and the humanity of
When taken back to Mary’s home in the Jerusalem temple, …show more content…
The Quran makes sure to emphasize the point that Jesus, like Adam, came to be because God commanded it, though he bears no divine traits or qualities which should liken him to the one and only God. He was sent to the children of God, like other prophets before him, to challenge them to follow the true Word of God. With this revelation, writes 12th century Sunni theologian Fakhr al-Razi in Tafsir, Jesus is elevated in his prophethood to the likes of Moses (Musa), becoming the first prophet since him to reveal a new law (Sharia) to the followers of God. God reveals to Jesus his holy word through the Gospels (al-Injil), which Jesus then spreads throughout the land by traveling with his apostles, who remain nameless and unnumbered. It is believed, similar to Muslims’ views on the Torah, that the true Gospel of Jesus was lost or corrupted by the early church, which necessitated the arrival of the prophet Muhammad to reveal the Word of God once more. What Christians refer to as the Gospels are viewed as a kind of Hadith, accounts written by Jesus contemporaries and followers, and do not hold any kind of importance for Muslims as a whole, though some contemporary scholars regard them as “…containing clear evidence of the essential truth of God's Oneness and the humanity of