Nouslife: The Muslim prophet born in Bethlehem

23 December 2006

The Muslim prophet born in Bethlehem

This article is definitely worth a look and a bookmark [or in my case a Del.icio.us entry. It's a nice example of interreligious dialogue, or at least interillumintation. Here's a choice bit:

The Sufis were especially devoted to Jesus and called him the prophet of love. The 12th-century mystic Ibn al-Arabi called him "the seal of the saints" - deliberately pairing him with Muhammad, the "seal of the prophets". Some Sufis went so far as to alter the shahadah, the Muslim profession of faith, so that it became: "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and that Jesus [not Muhammad] is his prophet."

It's by Karen Armstrong who's about as good a non-Muslim apologist for what is good in Islam as you'll get... Of course, she may be a bit starry eyed on the prospects for mutual agreement, as one comment puts it,

This is a zero-sum game; either Xianity is right, and Jesus was god, in which case Islam is automatically wrong, or vice-versa; Jesus was merely a mortal prophet--in which case, Xianity is automatically wrong. (And let's not forget Judaism, which claims that they're both wrong, a favour that both Xianity and Islam return.)

And of course there's a good point by this commentator,

The Baha'i Faith stands to Islam much as Islam stands to Christianity (i.e. they claim Muhammad as a prophet, reinterpret him a bit, add a couple of extra prophets). How do you suppose Muslims react to this? They react in just the way that Christians react to Muslims' claim that Jesus was a prophet (and not the son of God). So it's not the case (as you suggest it is) that Christians have been less tolerant than Muslims in relation to one religion's claim to have incorporated the insights of another.... it's not complimentary, but condescending, to tell someone that central features of their religious beliefs are a confused version of your own. If you tell someone that, you should not be surprised when they don't "return the compliment"

And I really agree muchly with this comment from 'disraelian' [forgive the typos];