Islam has interesting
images of Jesus Christ

Speaking of Religion
The Rev. Dr. Tim Griffin

Jesus said, "I have two loves — whoever loves them love me, and whoever hates them hates me: poverty and pious exertion"
The Muslim Jesus

The aphorism above may surprise us. For one thing there is no account of Jesus uttering these words in any of the four canonical gospels. Of course, this alone should not strike us as strange.
We now know that there are several non-canonical gospels that were rejected by the early church because their representation of Jesus was found to be problematic for one reason or another. Perhaps the best known of these gospels is the recently discovered Gospel of Judas Iscariot.
But, of course, there are other non-canonical renderings of Jesus’ life, acts and/or sayings.
It is more surprising, I suspect, to learn that this aphorism, which is reminiscent of attitudes expressed by Jesus in the canonical gospels, is one of a number of sayings and stories about Jesus that are found in Muslim writings and lore. In fact, there are several references to Jesus in the Quran itself, where Jesus is revered as the "Spirit of God" and "Word of God."
Thus, although Muslims do not regard Jesus as divine, they do revere him as a great prophet and spokesman for God. The reverence shown to Jesus is so great, in fact, that the Quran teaches that Jesus was taken to God before the crucifixion because God would not allow one as holy as Jesus to die in such a way. Thus, the one who died on the cross was not really Jesus.
As a Christian, I may dispute this theology, but I can only appreciate the esteem and reverence thereby shown to Jesus. And I am convinced that my appreciation is closer to the spirit of God than is my doctrinal disagreement.
There is another aspect of the aphorism above that I wish to draw attention to. The statement ascribed to Jesus, which as I noted is reminiscent of statements found in the canonical gospels — e.g., "Blessed are you who are poor" (Luke 6:20). and "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34) — uses the expression "jihad."
The translator of the passage has rendered the term in this case "pious exertion," but as many of us know, the word is customarily translated as "holy war," and at the present time the notion of "holy war" or "jihad" has taken on a sinister meaning. Thus to see such an endorsement ascribed to Jesus can mean only one of two things.
First, that Jesus is being portrayed as endorsing violence, which we should know is not correct, or second, that the idea of "jihad" has a different meaning from that of a violent confrontation. In point of fact, it is the latter. The notion of "jihad" as it was originally intended had a meaning different from its current perversion by fundamentalists.
The idea of "jihad" that is attributed to Jesus originally had the meaning of overcoming or subduing oneself. Nor is the use of military language unusual in religious circles. Consider the military imagery that Paul employs in his epistles — e.g. "Take up the whole armor of God" (Ephesians 6:13). In fact, in the Ephesian passage in question, Paul represents the Christians life as one of struggling against cosmic powers and spiritual forces.
This notion of a holy struggle or holy war was later developed by Christian spiritual writers who represented the Christian’s spiritual life as one of "spiritual combat." Again, the idea being that one is attempting to overcome oneself and the temptations with which one is beset in order to draw nearer to God.
It is not surprising, then, that certain Sufis, who are the mystics of Islam, popularized the idea of "jihad" as a way of overcoming oneself in order to commune with God. And who better to speak of communing with God than Jesus. Of course there were lines of influence between Christians in the Middle East and Muslims. It may well be that the Christian’s spiritual combat derives from the Muslims jihad.
What better time than Lent to reflect on the proper meaning — the spiritual meaning — of jihad. May we seek during this Lenten season to overcome ourselves and draw nearer to God. ••
Father Tim Griffin is priest-in-charge at the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, at 1946 Welsh Road in Bustleton.