just wondering, has anyone else ever heard of the above assertion?
As a young boy Mohammad met a Christian monk called Bahira and his faith developed from there. (So yes, it was very much to do with Christianity) However, it’s not just about this meeting. He was brought up an orphan and raised by the community. He was also illiterate, unlike Jesus who was educated. He would have witnessed young Jews and Christian’s practicing their faith, so despite his illiteracy will have learned a lot of Scripture off by heart.
Even though he was obviously in awe of the Christian monk and he certainly would have witnessed the monogamous marriages of Christians, yet he still married many wives. This suggests that he didn’t fully understand the nature of sin as it is defined in a Christian context. (Unless someone understands sin, they won’t know that they are sinning against God)
I think that it’s very strange that Muslims love of their prophet doesn’t cause them to cry for his lack of education as a child and his orphan status. He almost certainly suffered a great deal of trauma as a child, which will have caused him great distress throughout his young adult life. Who can deny such terrible pain has happened? This I find odd.
Mohammad revered Jesus. Thus, I believe that he probably thought that he would have rescued Jesus off the cross, or would not have let Him go there in the first place. To think that He was even executed would have been too much for him to have conceded and a shameful situation (missing the whole point of the crucifixion and its purpose for him personally). He almost certainly miss-understood the meaning of the sword in the Bible too, as he would have heard it from the monk and not out of Scriptures.
Unlike the Bible, The Koran is stripped of human witnesses. Human witness is very much a part of The Bible, external to the Scripture and yet integrated within. The stories of the living witnesses bring to it the many natures of man and also validity. We also know that the terrible cost of being a disciple is one of great sacrifice which is personalised in each and every one of the stories.
Interestingly, the Muslim faith claims to be an earlier faith than Christianity, and yet Christians are named by the term ‘Christians’ in the Koran. If it was earlier than Christianity then Christianity wouldn’t have been in their book, neither would Jesus or Mary; so it debunks the theory that their faith came before.
There are parts of the Koran that very much point to finding and following Jesus.
They also say that God could not ‘beget a Son’, even though they acknowledge that
Mary was a virgin and it was a miraculous birth. This means that Mary’s Son could only have come from God. They also say that Jesus spoke from His crib in defence of Mary, that He will form a bird from clay and breath life into it, that He will heal the sick and quicken the dead, He will also be raised to life again (remembering that many things concerning Jesus had already happened anyway by the time the Koran had been written, so they were writing in retrospect)
Think about it, we are the clay and Jesus, who is the potter, molds us into who we are through salvation, and breaths His holy Spirit into us (like a dove) So what the Koran says is effectively a muddle and misunderstanding of Scriptures.
Peace be upon him, because his soul needs peace, something Islamic learned men probably realised as they looked into these things. He probably meant well, and he perhaps never intended to start a whole new religion. He got a following of people through his spirituality, just as Jesus did, and they needed to write it all down for the sake of their children’s children.
There should not be an unhealthy tension between the Muslim faith and the Christian faith because it’s important that Muslims learn of a loving saving Jesus.
There is a web site called ‘Muslim Journey to Hope’. which is filled with testimonies of people who have converted from the Muslim faith to Christianity . If people post the link to the videos on this site onto Muslim sites and on the message boards of Muslim countries, then people with watch the videos will not be so frightened about leaving the faith. The best people to speak to Muslims are ex-Muslims. It’s not worth getting into lengthy wordy Scripture against Koranic writings. Prayers and putting them in contact with people who have the tools to help them convert are far more effective.
God bless
Exactly!
peace
Conman extraordinaire.