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Is Jesus the Son of God?
(Azmat-e-Kalmat Ullah)
Allah is Spirit. Allah is Light. He is without flesh. He is holy, and has no bodily needs or desires. Allah has no son or daughter after His flesh! Even to think like this is sinful!
How can then Allah have a son in the person of Jesus Christ?
This article can help you to resolve the matter.
Isa Al-Masih (Jesus the Christ) will come into this world again.
He will kill Al-Dajjal (the Anti-Christ) and will establish God's rule.
Written by:
Evangelist Aftab Anwar
aftab62pk@yahoo.com
Glory of the Word of Allah
(Azmat-e-Kalmat Ullah)
The Son of Marry said, "God is Spirit". Once expounding the word "Spirit", he said, a spirit does not have flesh and bones (John: 4:24, Luke:24:39). It means that spirit is a being who does not have any flesh or bones. Allah who is the creator of spirits, all the spiritual and material worlds and everything that the worlds contain, He is above the whole creature. He is the Creator and not the creature. He is free of limits of time, place and confines of flesh and material. The Creator of these limits is limitless. [The word for God in Hebrew is "Aloah". And in Aramaic this word is "Elah". The same word in Arabic is "Allah". The three words have the same meaning, viz., Abraham's God is greater and there is none like Him. From everlasting to everlasting He alone is God. Neither He was born of any, nor anybody was born of Him. - Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), Bible Works, International]. [The same way the word Jesus is used for Jesus the Christ. This word in Hebrew is "Joshua", in Greek it is "Iesous" which in English is Jesus, and in Urdu "Yasoo". The Greek "Iesous" in Arabic is Isa]. Yousuf Ali in his English translation of the Holy Quran (Alim On Line), translates the word "Isa Al-Masih" as Jesus the Christ, which in Urdu is "Yasoo Al-Masih". Please see Surah 3:45 (Al-i-Imran) in the Holy Quran].
Just imagine, how the son of Marry amicably resolved the most difficult riddle of the universe that "God is Spirit". You can judge weight of the difficulty just by asking this question to yourself "What is God"? Ponder on it for a while. God is Spirit!
Humans would have written countless volumes defining what is God. But no definition could have satisfied the human spirit, mind and being as the simple and concise statement of Kalmatullah (the Word of God) that "God is Spirit"! As greater is the Being and Person of Allah so deeper is the statement of Jesus Christ. God is an eternal and limitless Spirit who has His Person. For understanding an infinite Being, a limitless being and person is essential. But we don't have such being or person. We will continue to get the knowledge of the Person of God forever, and yet there would always remain what we have not know about the Being and Person of God. How beautiful it is that we would have known much about the Person of God yet it would be lesser. To know much would be lesser and there would always remain more to be known!
Since Allah has no flesh, He has no needs of the flesh. Allah has no seed of the flesh in his Person. Allah is nobody's father after the flesh, nor does He have any son or daughter after the flesh. Neither Allah was not born of anybody, nor was anybody born from Him after the flesh (Nauzbillah - God forbid!). Allah is Spirit, He is not Flesh. God creates and never bears anybody. Neither He has any offspring after the flesh, nor there be any (Nauzbillah!). When we talk about Allah, the most gracious, everything is spiritual and that of light. Because Allah is Spirit, and Allah is Light and there is no darkness in Him (1-John 1:5). Allah is Light, and Kalmatullah, Ruhullah, Christ Jesus is the Light of this world. Jesus Christ said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12). Not only Jesus Christ is the light of the world, but also he is the light of the lives of men (John 1:4).
Allah's thoughts are not that of a man, nor are His ways human ways. Allah says through the Prophet Isaiah, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa 55:8-90). One day the Angel Gabriel came to the righteous and virgin Marry greeting her with a good-news. "And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be, seeing I know not a man? - (Luke 1:30-34). Also see it in Surah 19:21-22: "Relate in the Book (the story of) Mary when she withdrew from her family to a place in the East. She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them: then We sent to her Our angel and he appeared before her as a man in all respects. She said: "I seek refuge from thee to (Allah) Most Gracious: (come not near) if thou dost fear Allah." He said: "Nay I am only a messenger from thy Lord (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son." She said: "How shall I have a son seeing that no man has touched me and I am not unchaste?" He said: "So (it will be): thy Lord saith `That is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us': it is a matter (so) decreed." So she conceived him and she retired with him to a remote place. - (Yousuf Ali's Translation). St. Mary's this question that how shall this be, saying I know not a man, was quite natural. Marry had been betrothed to Yousuf but they had not got married yet. How could a son be born in this state. And that the son born to be would be called the Son of God was quite beyond the natural human understanding of Marry. This good tiding bewildered Marry. Answering to the question of Marry, the Angel Gabriel said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. -(Luke 1:35). Allah is Spirit. He has the power to create from nothingness, and bring back the created things to nothingness. He says, "be" and it comes to existence. Allah made the earth and heavens with the power of his Word. Allah is Spirit and he has His Eternal Word in himself. By the power of whom he has created the whole universe. When the Spirit of God descended on Marry, then by the power of God Kalamullah (The Word of Allah) got human body. This Word had existed in the person of Allah eternally.
Allah is Creator. He creates. Allah has no flesh, nor any seed to procreate. He does not procreate he creates. His being is pure and holy. Rahmatullah (mercy of Allah) Jesus Christ's body is Allah's creation and not Allah's seed. Allah is nobody's husband. He has no wife. He is nobody's father and he has no son after the flesh (Nauzbillah). St. Marry is Allah's handmaid and not Allah's wife. Even to think like this is sinful (Nauzbillah). St. Marry stands with relation to Allah like believers. She is before Allah like us, His servants and handmaids.
Rahmatul Nas, Christ Jesus (Isa Al-Masih) was not born of clay like Adam. Allah created Adam and Eve from clay of the earth. Allah breathed into this body of clay the breath of life. Al-Maih Isa was not even born like us since we were born through procreation from our fathers and mothers. Neither Jesus of Nazreth was born like angels. For the angels were created spirits and they don't have bodies of flesh. Jesus Christ's birth was unique and supernatural. He was not of the earth like Adam. He was not procreated like us. Neither was he a spirit like angels. Then how was Jesus Christ born? Jesus was born of the Spirit of God himself. The Holy Quran reads in Surah 21:91, "And (remember) her who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our Spirit and We made her and her son a Sign for all peoples. - (Yousuf Ali's translation). Being born without human father, Jesus Christ's example was like Adam. For Adam and Eve had no human fathers. But in many other traits Jesus was never like Adam. Adam never raised a dead, nor he breathed a clay figure of bird into life. Adam is not Kalmatullah, Ruhullah, or Al-Masih, nor any book or good-news was revealed to Adam. Adam was not raised to heaven alive, nor he will descend from heaven. It is written in the Holy Quran about Adam "thus did Adam disobey His Lord and allow himself to be seduced" (Surah 20:121). And again the Holy Quran says, "We had already beforehand taken the covenant of Adam but he forgot: and We found on his part no firm resolve (Surah 20:115). Adam could owing to his disobedience to the Will of Allah bring only "enmity one to another" for his race. For the Holy Quran says, "Get ye down both of you all together from the Garden with enmity one to another; but if as is sure there comes to you guidance from Me whosoever follows My guidance will not lose his way nor fall into misery. (Surah 20:123). But for Al-Masih Isa, the Holy Quran says, "He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; "And He hath made me Blessed wheresoever I be and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live; "(He) hath made me kind to my mother and not overbearing or miserable; "So Peace is on me the day I was born the day that I die and the Day that I shall be raised up to life (again)"! (Surah 19:30-33). Al-Masih Isa never disobeyed Allah like Adam and Eve. Jesus did not forget his covenant with Allah and was not infirm in his resolve before Allah like Adam. Jesus brought peace on earth and not "enmity one to another" like Adam for mankind. Contrary to Adam, Jesus Christ was a sign and mercy from Allah, as the angel Gabriel announced in the Holy Quran, "He said: So (it will be): thy Lord saith `That is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us': it is a matter (so) decreed." (Surah 19:21). Jesus Christ is a Sign unto men, a Mercy from Allah, and Blessed wheresoever he be.
The Angel Gabriel also told to St. Marry that "the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). We have already established that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God after the flesh. Jesus Christ is not procreation. We have also decided that St. Mary is Allah's handmaid and stands before Him like a believer, as you and me. Then how can Jesus Christ be the Son of God?
You know well that every thing has at least two personalities. And everything can be seen through multifarious angles. The same way every word has more or less two personalities, one word has many meanings. A word can be used in many senses. These two basic personalities are external and inner. Which we can term as 'face value' and 'inner value'. As you know everything around us has its 'face value' and 'inner value'. One is its external shape (surat) and the other is inner property. The outer is shell and inner is kernel. The shape is carnal but its property (mahiyat) is spiritual. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb 11:3). The lexicon meaning of the word 'son' is 'one who comes forth from its source'. The one who comes forth is called 'the son' and the source from which it comes forth is called 'the father'. In the idiomatic meaning the word son means 'an heir'. Whereas, in the spiritual sense the word son means 'a believer, the one who obeys God'. The word son in the human carnal sense means 'procreation', the one who has been born of his father and mother through breeding. One the other hand, lexicon meaning of father is 'the source'. In the idiomatic sense it means Originator, Creator, Author of lives, Sustainer, Provider, Protector of believers, and Judge. But in the human carnal sense the father is one who has been the cause of one's birth. The word 'son' has been used for Jesus Christ in the lexicon, idiomatical and spiritual sense and it has not been used in the human carnal sense at all. Good news of the angel Gabriel is very clear. The angel made it very clear that in what sense the 'holy child' will be called the Son of God. The reason for his being called the 'Son' is: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). In this good tidings of the angel the words, holy, Spirit of God, and Power of God, prevail. Because the human body of Al-Masih Isa was created by the power of the Spirit of God for that reason the 'holy one' was called the Son of God. But after the flesh Jesus Christ was called the son of man, and the son of David. He was called the son of David since his mother and father both were descendants of the King David.
Allah Almighty speaks with us in the human language so that we can understand it. This is called the anthropomorphic language. A language which has human descriptions, metaphors, idioms, similes and proverbs. But God himself is above and beyond these human things. It is written in the Holy Quran that: (Allah) said: "O Iblis! what prevents thee from prostrating thyself to one whom I have created with My hands? Art thou haughty? Or art thou one of the high (and mighty) ones?" (Surah 38:75). And it is written in the Holy Bible that: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time (1 Pet 5:6)". In both of the references in Quran and the Bible the phrase "hand of God" has been used. God does not have human limbs like us. In these verses God is speaking to man in the anthropomorphic language. God is speaking in idiomatic, symbolical, metaphorical and proverbial language. God says in the Holy Bible: "I am God, and not man (Hosea 11:9)". Our God not only wants us that we understand Him but also by using the spiritual and inner meanings of the human relations and metaphors, He means that His created human relations are holy and sacred. So that, we may decline carnality and seek spirituality. Allah wants us not to take things on their face value seeing only the exterior but not the interior. He means us to see things also on their inner and spiritual values so that our eyes are opened.
The word 'son' before being used for Jesus Christ was used for 'believer angels' (Job 1:6) and the human believers (Gen. 6:2). And the word 'firstborn' for the person who is chosen of God, anointed to do some special job, receives more inheritance than his brothers, and is considered to be the original heir of his father's legacy and blessings (Ps. 89:27). Therefore, Jesus Christ has been called the 'firstborn' (Rom 8:29) and the 'only son' (John 1:14). And all these words have been used in the spiritual and inner sense. By using the word Father for God, and son for the believers, God means that He loves His believers like a father loves his sons. We stand before God as sons and not as slaves. God is not our Master as master is to his slaves. God is our father and we are his sons. As a father gives his property to his sons, God gives his property to his believers, makes them heirs of his heavenly things. The believers are sons of God because they will inherit what God has prepared for them. The words Father and son are also used in the proverbial sense. Jesus Christ was Son of God since God made him heir of all things. "(God) in these last days hath spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds (Heb 1:2). Since the worlds were made by the Word of God, therefore, Jesus Christ being the Word of God was called "Kalmatullah." The Word of God comes out from God, therefore, in the lexicon meaning of the word son "one who comes forth from the source" Jesus was called the Son of God, which means Jesus comes forth from the Spirit of God directly. Which the Holy Quran asserts in Surah 21:91, "And (remember) her who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our Spirit and We made her and her son a Sign for all peoples". The word son in the idiomatic, figurative and proverbial meanings also means "one who has traits like his Master (Teacher), or the one he follows or believes in". A person who is like his Master or Sustainer is called the son of the Master or the Sustainer. The Holy Quran reads in Surah 3:49, "And (appoint him) an Apostle to the Children of Israel (with this message): I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I make for you out of clay as it were the figure of a bird and breathe into it and it becomes a bird by Allah's leave; and I heal those born blind and the lepers and I quicken the dead by Allah's leave; and I declare to you what ye eat and what ye store in your houses. Surely therein is a Sign for you if ye did believe".
In the Gospel Ayatullah, Al-Masih Isa says, "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things so ever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will (John 5:19-21). Allah made a human figure of clay and then breathed into it His breath and it became a living Adam. Jesus made a figure of a bird from clay, breathed into it and it became a living bird. To give life by breathing in to a figure of clay is a special miracle of Allah. This miracle Allah gave to no prophet except Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is "Al-Masih Isa (the Mesiah Jesus), Kalmatullah(the Word of Allah), Ayatulah (the Sign of Allah), Rahmatullah(the Mercy of Allah), and Ruhullah (the Spirit of Allah). Therefore, Allah has placed his traits in Jesus Christ. Since Jesus Christ carried in his person the traits of Allah, therefore, also in the qualitative meaning (Osafi maani) Jesus is the Son of Allah. In the spiritual and inner meanings we say, Um-ul-Momneen (Mother of believers), Umhata-ul-Momneen (Mothers of believers), Farzandan-e-Toheed (Sons of the Unity of Allah). Surely, we don't take these phrases to be meaning literally (in the physical sense) (Nauzbillah - God forbid) but figuratively and in the spiritual sense. The birth of Jesus Christ is a unique miracle of God.
Ayatulnas Al-Masih Isa is Ruhullah because he infuses life in a figure of clay. Jesus Christ is Kalmatullah because he raises the dead. When Allah prepared a body for Kalmatullah he placed his Eternal Word (Kalima) in the body. This is the same Kalima by which Allah created everything in the universe. This way the Eternal Word of God came into this world in the human body, which was prepared by the power of God. And we saw his glory as the glory of the only Son of God. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the Word of God (Kalmatullah). The Kalima of Allah exists in the Person of Allah from all eternity. There was no time when Allah was without His Kalima. So it is as John said in the gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made….And the Word (Kalima) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:1-3, 14). For this reason Jesus Christ was called Kalmatullah. The word 'only begotten son' means that there is nobody like Kalmatullah, Ruhullah, Al-Masih Isa. He is unique and matchless. For this reason Jesus Christ is called Ayatulnas (Sign for the people), Rahmatullah (Mercy of God), and Almasih Isa (The Messiah Jesus). Jesus Christ is 'the only,' which means that there is no other who can be like him. There is no other Kalmatullah, Ruhullah, Ayatullah, and Al-Masih Isa. Jesus Christ is the only!
Al-Masih Isa is alive in the heaven and would come again into the world. He will destroy Al-Dajjal (The Anti-Christ). Kalmatullah will judge the earth, establish justice and raise the dead. For this reason Jesus Christ has been called "Sign of the Judgement Day". The Holy Quran reads in Surah 43:61 "And (Jesus) shall be a Sign (for the coming of) the Hour (of Judgment): therefore have no doubts about the (Hour)…" And the Holy Bible says, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son (John 5:22)". The world is looking forward for the advent of Jesus Christ. He will descend from heaven surely and establish peace on earth (Amen)!
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