Jesus - a Prophet of Islam Paperback – 31 Dec. 2001

Very well researched and it exposes the frailtyof modern Christian Creed which does not represent Jesus's AS call to the Oneness GOD! And in fact their Creed was adopted for Political expediency above intellectual conviction!

This is such an excellent book. It gives a really detailed account of how Christianity developed to what it is today. Love it! Exactly what I needed to read to understand.

worth a read and great insight from a islamic standpoint.

Good

The revised (1996) edition gives the background to the first (1977) edition. Colonel Rahim came to London from Pakistan to research the book he had been planning for 30 years. He was put in touch with Ahmad Thomson who had fairly recently graduated in Law and converted to Islam and they collaborated. Colonel Rahim died soon after the first edition was published so the revisions are the work of Thomson.The book tells an unusual story of the life of Jesus. His flight with Mary to Egypt was facilitated by the Essenes, who also gave Jesus his teaching in the scriptures, such that Jesus was able to debate then by the age of 12. John the Baptist was one of the Essenes, but broke their rule of secrecy by preaching publicly. Jesus corrected the errors in the Hebrew scriptures which had crept in when the originals were destroyed by the Babylonians and Ezra had to rewrite them from memory. The Essenes also had four groups of zealots armed with daggers prepared to defend their way of life from the Romans. After one attack on the Romans both Jesus and Barabbas were sentenced to death, but they arrested Judas and crucified him, mistaking him for Jesus. Subsequently Barnabas, and later Aries and the North African Christians preserved the correct teachings of Jesus, but Paul corrupted the message, and it was his version which held sway in Rome.This book is aimed at Christians, though conservative Christians will immediately reject the above account as contradicting the Bible. It is also too polemical. Rather than calling the doctrine of the Trinity a “lie” it would be both more tactful and more accurate to say it is something which has long been a source of confusion and disagreement among Christians. This book has never provoked the level of reaction from Christians which has appeared in response to more popular fiction involving conspiracy theories about Jesus, though there have been a few scholarly Christian rebuttals of Rahim’s arguments.Muslims too may be surprised that the above account owes almost nothing to the many verses about Jesus (or “Isa”) in the Quran (these are quoted and described in the final chapter). The main fault in the book is that the speculations are presented as if they were facts. It is almost impossible to disprove speculations about the life of someone who lived 2000 years ago. The authors explain that the inspiration for their account comes in part from what was learnt about the Essenes in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in part from the Gospel of Barnabas, a 16th C Italian text now kept in Vienna, which the Rahim and Thomson (but hardly any scholars) believe is a correct translated copy of a long-lost document by the Barnabas mentioned in Acts of the Apostles.A distinctive feature of this book compared with other similar volumes is the sympathetic treatment of the Unitarian Christians. They champion the use of reason over a blind adherence to infallible scripture, and through members like Mary Wollstonecraft have long championed the rights of women. Maybe, albeit unwittingly, this book does point a way forward for Islam.

Unless they study comparative religion, most Christians are unaware that Jesus and Mary feature in Islam. They may also assume that Christians have always believed in the theology of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism: belief in the Trinity and salvation by the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. All of these assumptions are incorrect.The book starts with a historical account of Jesus and the early Christians. It discusses the relationship of St Paul with the disciples and the radical changes that St Paul made to the practices taught by Jesus. It then covers the theological disagreements between early Christians and how belief developed that a place in heaven came from redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus and not from living a good life in accordance with the laws of God as taught by Moses, the other prophets and Jesus. The book explains how the arguments between the early Christians were resolved through the exercise of state power by the Roman Empire at the Council of Nicaea. It also covers how the text of the New Testament was decided and two books excluded from it, The Gospel of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas.Although well worth reading, the book could be improved. In this 1996 edition, Ahmad Thomson adds to the original written 1977 text of Muhammad `Ata'ur-Rahim. However the early part of the book contains some imperfect English, presumably because `Ata'ur-Rahim was not a native English speaker. There is extensive coverage of the history of Unitarianism in the middle of the second millennium which is interesting to read but not relevant to the title of the book. There is also no need to reprint verbatim all of the verses in the Quran which mention Jesus since they are readily available elsewhere. Instead the book should concentrate on the key Islamic messages and provide the Quranic authority for them; the same applies to the chapter on Hadith which mention Jesus. Overall, it would be a much better book if the length was reduced to about 50%-75% of the current version by rigorous editing.

The theology in this is a wrong. Islam has the wrong Jesus and the writing is extremely bias. If even makes the statement Christianity is over!

This is an extremely interesting read. Here we have the Muslim understanding of Jesus (upon him peace). He is revered as a Prophet of God without assigning divinity to him because Muslims belief divinity is for God alone.It contains accounts of Jesuss' (upon him peace) childhood with some eyeopening accounts and stories of miracles. Also there are sections about how Christanity was changed from its monetheistic roots.Its well worth purchasing with the advice that the updated version with Ahmed thomsons' additions is better because some information is a little dated. Read it!