Palestinian academic
researcher and historian Tarif Khalidi - in his book “The Muslim
Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature” - deems what he
calls “The Islamic Bible” as an important and significant factor
in the current Interfaith dialogue.
“The
material collected in this book is derived from these stories that
form the greatest on Christ. I thought to symbolize it with ‘an
Islamic Bible’ to facilitate references,” Khalidi, a current
professor in the American University in Beirut and formerly in
Cambridge University, elaborated on the material of his book, issued
in English.
“As
a complete collection, it can be regarded as a love story between
Islam and Christianity,” Khalidi said on the stories and news
collected, more than 300 of which he recounted and commented on.
The
book was issued in 330 pages and published by Dar Al-Nahar in November
2003.
The
preface to the book was translated into Arabic by Dr. Soliman Murad.
The English version was issued in 2001 by Harvard Press.
The
Palestinian scholar added that his main objective is to “highlight
the unknown aspects of Jesus character. Such an image may stir the
curiosity of those interested in grasping the idea of how a religious
culture like Islam can revere the Christ’s character and deny at the
same time his being a god.”
“The
Bible may play a significant role in an historic reconciliation and in
the constant quest for the pillars of the current dialogue between
Christianity and Islam,” he added.
Dispersed
Texts of Wisdom
The
so-called “Muslim Bible” does not occur as a complete text in any
of the Arab Islamic texts but is dispersed in several texts since the
second Hijri up to the 12th Hijri
centuries.
Such
sources are interested in different subjects such as manners,
mysticism, wisdom and the stories of prophets and messengers. Stories
about Jesus differ in size and content.
The
exact number of such news about Jesus Christ is not known; yet, they
attracted the attention of western researchers since the 18th century.
Muslim
Prophet
The
author says that his book deals with “Jesus might have been
resurrected in an environment that turned him into a Muslim prophet.
In that new environment, the Christ plays a pioneering role in
formulation and support of some Islamic concepts like piety, religious
responsibility and the relationship with the state.”
Khalidi
thinks that “although Jesus Christ in the Islamic Bible has a
different character from the Qura’nic Christ, the latter remains the
basis upon which the subsequent image of the Christ is built.”
Khalidi
adds that the book is directly interested in two subjects, namely
“Doomsday conditions” and the “Old Testament”.
Regarding
“Doomsday conditions”, the Christ has become a central character
in the Islamic story up to the end of the world. His role at that time
has occupied the imagination of the Eastern Church.
The
Christ of the “end of the world” has occupied a pioneering place
in the proper Hadith (Prophet Sayings) books. There is another Christ
that is flourishing in the books of piety.
The
second Christ plays a central role as a tutor of good manners and as a
activist in the internal Islamic argument.
Khalidi
says that such stories, amounting to 85, belong to two main books on
piety at the beginning of Islamic era.
In
general, such stories can be divided into four groups: Sayings that
focus on the end of the world, sayings derived from the bible, sayings
on piety and sayings that reflect subjects and notions that represent
the core differences among Muslims.
