Re: Details of Qur'an verses about Jesus

Dear Dr. Rab,

I highy appreciate your critique and comment and was actually hoping for someone to comment so I could further explain my views. There was a time when I actually came to the same conclusion as you did believing that this verse is in fact referring to the process of parthenogenesis or asexual reproduction as you claim but after reading the Qur'an more carefully, I came to the conclusion that the Quran is not supporting this fact in the verses it gives about Jesus for several reasons. Firstly, I am in complete agreement with your statement "The Laws of Nature are God's Laws, which are immutable." but if you accept this claim then you run into many problems accepting the idea of virgin birth and other miraculous claims.

“Spirituality teaches us that man can develop miraculous or extra-ordinary powers. Such extra-ordinary powers can be displayed by human beings who have attained a high stage of spiritual evolution, when they can apply God's doctrine: Be, and it is. You just command, and the command is instantly implemented, just as winds flowed at Solomon's command.”

Are you trying to say then that all people themselves alone can perform miraculous feats at will through spiritual training? You run into a problem saying this, why then no visible miraculous feats performed by Muhammad during this time? Why, did the earlier prophets “supposedly” show miracles to their people while God denies this power to Muhammad and states that this would be absolutely meaningless since these types of feats would do nothing to lead to belief or develop and enrich the intellect of human beings to study the realities of the world, especially if it can only be performed by a select as you say highly spiritual people. All Nabis came with only their divine messages which people came to believe in through reason not coercion through miraculous feats, the divine message proves itself through reason throughout times there is no need to stun the intellect into belief. As a matter of fact the very word Iman denotes that an individual attains belief through reason and therefore has conviction in its truth. Supposed miraculous, feats do not appeal to any type of reason since they defy laws and therefore cannot be explained, especially by the people during those times. Even the certain miraculous feats claimed by some individuals now are not even claimed by people who as you say are highly spiritually evolved. Certain scientific laws would then become meaningless as it means almost many things are possible by simple spiritual evolution and there are no limits to the human power, people then would be able to make their own claims of divine authority at any time, because they have attained spiritual evolution on their own efforts, which would make the divine selection of Nabi obsolete. But we know that, the institution of a Nabi is an objective selection by God that cannot be reached by human efforts alone.


As for the virgin birth, the Qur'an repeatedly states that human reproduction is a natural process and states that this process never changes. Jesus is in fact said to be the likeness of Adam (symbolic for mankind) who was created through natural divine process Kun fa ya Kun of human creation. Many people try to interpret this verse as saying that Adam , who they say was the first single man had no father, but then again if you think of it this way he would have no mother either and he would not be similar to Jesus. Yes, the big bang in the Qur’an is used to describe the natural process of the creation of this universe and also the next one that is for the laws of creation of the universe, mankind has their own set of laws that never change for reproduction. Although, I am not denying that the process of parthenogenesis is possible in humans through scientific manipulation, the Qur’an is not talking about it in these verses. Even God states that he won’t have a son with out a consort.

6:101 Wonderful Originator of the heavens and earth; how can He have a son when He never chose for Himself a mate? He creates all things (and does not procreate 112:3.) and He is the Profound Knower of all things and events.

This is the law of creation that God has chosen for mankind, humans procreate by heterosexual reproduction as do other animals but only a few other life forms reproduce asexually. Just because it is highly naturally possible with other species does not mean it can be regarded such for humans who operate under different natural laws. Another, important note that many people neglect is the fact that Jesus is called Al-Masih, which denotes that his father was from the honored house of David. This alone negates anyway around virgin birth dealing with these verses. If he did not have a father he could not be called or claim to be the Messiah ordained in the scriptures. Mary herself as indicated by 19:28 was from the House of Aaron, therefore even if she were to have a child by parthenogenesis he could not call himself a Messiah at that time. Even in the four canocial gospels which are read by Christian sects who support this fact and is full of supposed miracles denies this by claim by referring to Joseph the Carpenter as the Father of Jesus in 3 genealogies, since he was the from the Honored house of David.

Mathew 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

This has caused a lot of problems for all people who still want to believe in the virgin birth. If this concept had not been invented, I’m not even sure we would even be discussing this point. The Qur’an doesn’t speak about Moses’ father at all only his mother, are we to assume that he was born of a Virgin also? How about all the other past religious figures who were claimed by their followers to be born of a virgin? Did God decide to choose certain people to be born that way in the past and by divine plan stop creating people that way, leaving us to believe the claims blindly and not be able to test it?

However, I will agree with you on one point, that is we cannot be certain that the name of Jesus’ father was Joseph, this is just the name I used since it is what we are familiar with, and I will make that change.

Now for my interpretation of the above verse I do realize there is always a possibility that I could be wrong since I am no authority and feel free to disagree, but I will go ahead and show the logic of how I arrived at my conclusion.

As a stated above the key to understanding these verses is having the correct concept of angels and also reading the context. These are a few verses that help give a better idea of the angels (authorities) that deliver messages:

6:8 :”They ask, "Why is not an angel sent down unto him (for them to see)? Well, if We did send down an angel, the matter would be judged at once. And no further time would be granted them after that."

6:9: "And even if We sent an angel,(for them to see and speak to) We would certainly have made him in the form of a man. And We (per our Law) would have kept them just as confused as they are confused now."(Since it would be a human being it would not fit their perception of what an angel should be or look like).

25:7- Yet they say, “What sort of Messenger is this who eats food and goes about in the market-places? Why is not an angel sent down to him to act as a warner together with him?”

17:95: "Say, “If angels walked about and dwelled on the earth, We would have sent an angel from the heaven as Messenger.”


22:5: "God chooses Message-bearers from among the angels as well as from among mankind. Indeed, God is All Hearing, All Seeing.

35:1: All Praise is due to God, the Originator of all Highs and their
Lows, Who appoints His Universal Forces as Message-bearers, having
the powers, two, three and four. He increases in creation what He wills.
For, Allah is the Appointer of due measure of all things, and He is Able to do all things. [Malaaekah = Angels mentioned here, are the forces that evolve the universe. This is pointed out by Faatir which means Originator-Cleaver of the new creation. Ajniha = Powers = Wings = Abilities = Strength]

These verses are important and show that one of the main reasons that the Qur’an retells some of these stories is to clarify points of misunderstanding that developed overtime by followers of earlier scriptures. It is interesting how the Qur’an chooses to place these verses in accordance with how the story of Jesus and Mary is told. In surah 3 has the story of Mary being visited by angels. But then in verse 6:8-6:9, it states that if angels are sent to ordinary people who are not prophets, then they would be sent in the form of a human. So, from this we can say that an angel can also means a person who holds an authority of God’s law or divine plan. The next key verse comes in a 17:95 when it states angels who walk and dwelled on earth, are sent an angel from the heaven as a messenger. This is significant since it shows that the angels who were human authorities received messages through the laws, signs or authorities in the sky and then would convey it to people. This in fact helps explain the verses in surah 3 dealing with Mary and the authorities in the temple since they had received a sign that it was time for them to enact the next phase of divine plan which Mary was chosen to be a part of, and they cast lots to choose who would wed Mary. Although, they do not mention the name of Jesus’ father they mention that he would be called Al-Masih, showing that they choose a prominent person from the House of David. The story continues in surah 19 when Mary withdraws from her people and is approached by angel. At this point there are important things to consider when reading these verses that make it stand out.

1. The angel is referred to as coming in a form of a man to speak as in accordance with 6:9. Angels help evolve the creation in accordance with divine plan.


2. He is also called a messenger now which is very important. Most people interpret this verse as if he is merely going there to repeat what the men said in the temple and then we get basically the same scenario again. But it seems if God sends another messenger in this case, it would not be for the same purpose since she was already told by the men in the temple about her being chosen to bear a son in accordance with the divine plan, he would deliver a different message and 35:1 shows that angels can have different functions. This one not only delivers the message but performs another duty that is according to divine plan. 42:51 states that God sends messengers to convey what he wills according to his laws.

3. As expected he does deliver a message, in addition to stating that it is decreed in God’s plan that she which he states that he is the one who is going to bestow upon her the son ordained by divine plan. This is showing that this man is going to be the father of the child as far as what happens. Since it was decreed in divine scripture, that Jesus would be a Messiah, he had to be a suitable authority from the House of David to fulfill the scripture. When she conceives him the story continues on and the man is still with her and it connects to the next verses as he tells her to make a solemn pledge.

Please think why else would God send the same message to a person twice in a short amount of time and why does the angel state that he is going to a give her a child only a man can do that. For centuries it has been thought that this was the Angel Gabriel appearing to her as a man but this interpretation has made the story disjointed and illogical since why would God send angels before to tell her a message and then send one again to state the same message, there has to be a difference in the two unless you are willing to say that Gabriel is the one that is enabling her to bear the child. As far as asking her to shake the tree and get water we do not know what else is going on after the time of the delivery of the baby. Additionally, as far as Jesus speaking to the people in the cradle you missed my point as I said that this happened many years after he was born and as seems that his father is no longer with him but I see no reason to jump to a conclusion that he never had a father. I feel that this interpretation clears up many things which were brought by the traditional interpretation, and felt was controversial and left many people forced to make inferences. The Qur’an is mainly trying to correct the misunderstandings that people had about the interpretations of the lives of the Anbiya. If Jesus was born under any unusual circumstances the Qur’an would have surely addressed this issue in addition to stating that he was human. But as I stated before there is always a possibility I could be wrong I’m no authority, just my humble research. Thank you for the critique, I truly admire the work you have done on the Qur’an and hadith.










Salaam,

Chibuzo