Jamal Badawi: Dealing with the nature of Jesus we talked of the miracle of Jesus is speaking as an infant that is not in the New Testament but is in the Qur'an we also discussed the notion that since because Jesus did not have a physical father, does that mean he's the be gotten son of God and we discussed again that this has no such implication we made the comparison of Adam who was created from neither father nor mother we also discussed a little bit about the unique birth of Jesus the Virgin birth why it is unique and that other prophets had other unique miracles as well we also discussed the meaning of the term word of Allah or spirit proceeding from Allah or the spirit from Allah to describe Jesus in the Qur'an and we indicated can decided that neither of these things has anything to do with attributing divinity to him in, and finally we tried to comment on the mistaken notion that Qur'an only condemns the ideas that Christians consider to be heretical such as believing in Mary as a goddess herself or believing that Jesus and the father are the same person not too different persons in the triune Godhead. We indicated that these are all that these are all forms I should say any forms of the deification of Jesus has been the negated in the Qur'an. it includes everything and I would like to quote one particular verse the deals for the Trinity.

Jamal Badawi: Well in several places in the Qur'an, he is described as a messenger and prophet of Allah and you cannot say that at the same time he is God incarnate, it does not go together. For example in Sura 3:49 it says an and appoint him a couple of how It says and appoint him Jesus and apostle a messenger to the children of Israel with the message that I've come to you with the signs from your Lord.

Jamal Badawi: I would go farther than that not only does the Qur'an and say that he was pure, or Holy, what it does not say that he was divine and I think there is a big difference that he was holy he was sinless but even in some verses in the Qur'an he is called among those who are close to Allah. For example the description as a pure person appears in Sura 19:19 the description as a person who is close to Allah appears for example in Sura 3:45 I have no difficulty at all with the description but an Islamic terminology Islamic belief you're quoting the Qur'an so it must be explained in Islamic tradition we believe that the prophets were sinless all prophets and in a previous program we discussed in detail that the notion of the sinfulness of the prophets and the terrible things that they were accused of doing like rape and incest and getting drunk and committing adultery and getting a little confused about beliefs we refer to the quotations and the Bible and indicated that nowhere in Qur'an do we find any such a parallel Qur'an which consistently describes them all as in sinless people they are humans but they are the best model for humanity Jesus was sinless and so with other prophets according to the Qur'an according to Islamic belief according to the Qur'an. Even more the idea of sinlessness or the idea of being pure has been used in the Qur'an to refer to others then Jesus. more specifically not talking about the general concept of prophethood for example about profit John the Baptist is also described in Sura 19:13 it's a purity for us it's a puritty for humanity and person.

Jamal Badawi: the Qur'an is quite clear on that and that is also confirmed by the sayings of prophet Mohammed let me start the second part of the sayings of the prophet. It is equated in both have support Bukhari when he indicated that every prophet before him was sent specifically to his people and he was the only one to be sent to the whole world so there's no question about that and the Qur'an consistently speaks about the prophet also even though it said of course at the beginning of his mission that you start with your family and people around you but it definitely says that his mission not the strategy with a divine plan in the message in the Qur'an we find that is for the whole world problem humanity for the worship of the one true God the culmination of missions of all the prophets before him from Adam to Jesus now the other specific reference with respect of the prophet Jesus week finding more than many cases in the Qur'an for example in Sura 3:49 it says and that is Jesus a messenger to the children of Israel specify that a messenger to the children of Israel also in Sura 61:6 it quotes Jesus as saying " children of Israel I am the messenger of God sent to you that is to you children of Israel. In Sura 5: 49 describing the succession of prophets and it says it in their footsteps that its previous prophets to said Jesus the son of Mary the law that came before that is it is confirmation that is the mission of a prophet relating specifically to the Israelites this will come to a separate program of programs the possible bridge in of the understanding of what the Qur'an says at examining what even with the New Testament says about Jesus specifically about some areas of miracles if I may at this juncture just give two or three references in New Testament that this is the way that uses about this mission example Gospel according to Matthew15:24 he says that I am set to lost sheep of the house of Israel he didn't even say that he was sent to the House of a lost sheep of Israel which would not preclude the others but I was not sent but except on to the law sheep of the house of Israel. In the same gospel in Chapter 3:6 in his instructions given to the his disciples he said it clearly the 12 went forth and he commanded them to say go not into the way of the gentiles and into any city of Samaritans enter go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and that is also implied in some sense and Matthew 18:28 so it is interesting to notice there is no explicit statements by Jews during his mission in any of the three synoptic Gospels that as Matthew Mark, or Luke to indicate any universality of its mission and not has been quoted before in what we now know as the new revised standard version of the bible it has been dropped or put between brackets that many ancient documents did not include the passages that said that he should go on to the whole world or to all nation's I think that some literally translate the nation might be a reference to a nation of Israel but not really to the whole world so I think that there seems to be corroborating evidence that's the way that Jesus' mission was practically because not happened, how come? What has been quoted before in what we know as the New Revised Standard version of the Bible has been dropped, or put between brackets, in the ancient manuscripts does not include the passages which says to go out and baptize the world or all nations, I think that some translate the nation might be a reference to the nation of Israel, not to the whole world. I think that there seems to be corroborating evidence that the way of Jesus' mission, he is not responsible for what people said, but the mission was explicitly to the house of Israel. Of course that does not say the some of his teachings, moral values which he emphasized based on the Old Testament are invalid or inappropriate for us. That the people were simply saying that his mission was a preparation for the last, and of course universal Prophet who would bring everything to completion and that would be Muhammad.

Jamal Badawi: In one way we can say that the mission of the Prophet Jesus was no different than the missions of any of the prophets in human history. Basically to invite mankind to the worship of Allah and to follow his guidance. For example, we find that the Qur'an in particular with respect to Jesus refers to confirmation, to confirm what remained intact of the Torah. Of course not to confirm everything since the words were ....corrupted,... it has to be what remained intact. The Qur'an mentions also that his mission is also was to remove some the restrictions that were made punishment of the Israelites.

And there is not anywhere in the Canonized Gospels where this verse is mentioned, you know like giving life to a bird of clay. It also says that I heal those who were born blind and the lepers and I bring to life the dead by Allah's command. I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses. Surely there is great sign for you in all that if you have a mind to believe. In other words, I do not know what could be more explicit, in a very brief passage like that, describing about a variety of miracles, healing the sick, bringing the dead to life and even things that are not in the canonized Gospels. We find several other references for that for those who wish to check, in Sura 5:110-113, it describes again those miracles and in all cases, of course, it leaves no doubt that as he himself said, that by the power of Allah, by the leave of Allah, just like all other Prophets, they did whatever they did, not because they were divine, but because Allah has blessed them with these sign to help them make the point and bring people to the path of truth.

Jamal Badawi: According to the Qur'an, yes, he was given an Injeel, which I would suspect would not be exactly equivalent to the Gospels, you might say good news but it is not the one and the same as the four Gospels. Because the four Gospels, as we all know, are biographies written, some by claimed disciples and some by people who were not even eyewitnesses of Jesus. When the Qur'an speaks about revelation it is given to Jesus in the same way that it talks about the revelation given to Moses or Muhammad. or Abraham, or David. It does not talk about something that was written many years after the end on the ministry of Jesus and his mission, so obviously it was is something different than what we find today And that term Injeel, I found according to the concordance, appears 20 times in 6 Suras and many times in the context of other holy books. Of course, where is that revelation or Injeel of Jesus is today is very difficult to say, but as we all know, there are some studies in Biblical circle concerning the synoptic Gospels and the possible sources from where these synoptic Gospels might have gotten their information, but nobody can say really for sure.

Jamal Badawi: Maybe we can mention something about that from a Qur'anic perspective and then we might turn to some comparative issues there. But according to the Qur'an, it simply says that he was not the one who was killed or crucified. Perhaps I can, since there is not much time just quote a passage in the Qur'an and perhaps mention more at a latter time. In sura 4:156-162: