Mary and Jesus in Islam

Miracles of Jesus

Al-Suddi has said that when Jesus was at his class, he used to tell his fellows what their parents were doing. He would tell one of them, “Go home and see that your family has eaten such-and-such food,” or “they have left such-and-such for you,” so he would go home and ask his parents to let him have it. The family would in turn ask him how he came to know about it, and he would say that Jesus had told him. For this reason, the parents prohibited their children from having anything to do with Jesus, telling them that he was a sorcerer.

They once gathered them all together at a house, and Jesus came and wanted to see them. When he asked who were confined inside the house, it was maliciously said to him, “Pigs.” He said, “So shall they be,” whereupon the door of the house was opened and indeed pigs came out of the house, and the news of the incident became widespread.

The Children of Israel felt fed up with Jesus. They wanted to get rid of him. When his mother sensed the danger, she conveyed him on a donkey and went out to Egypt[^1].

When Jesus and his mother, peace be upon both of them, came out wandering about in the land, they left the Children of Israel behind and came to a villager who hosted them and was very kind to them. The

[^1] The discreet reader realizes that reference to Egypt does not mean today's Egypt. We are talking not about now but about two thousand years ago. At that time, Egypt was a “superpower” that had extended its domination to a large part of its contemporary world. This statement means: “Mary conveyed Jesus on a donkey and went out to the lands under Egypt's control.” Mary was avoiding the brutality of the Romans and those who worked for them. Some parts of Palestine (Greater Syria) at that time fell under Egypt's control.

(81)

king during that time was a stubborn oppressor, so their host one day came back home looking very depressed. He entered his house while Mary was in his wife's company. Mary asked his wife why her husband looked so depressed, whereupon she said to her, “Our king compels every man to take care of feeding him and his soldiers and serve them wine; anyone who refused would be penalized. Today is our turn to host him, and we are not able to handle such a burden.”

Mary asked her to tell her husband not to worry, since he was kind to her and to her son, and that she would ask her son to invoke Allah on his behalf, and that his invocation would alone be sufficient. Then Mary told Jesus of it, whereupon he said that if he were to do so, there would be some mischief [due to wine drinking]. “It does not matter,” Mary said, “for he has surely been very kind to us.” Then Jesus told his host to have his pots and containers filled with water, then to inform him once they were all full.

The man did so, whereupon Jesus invoked his Lord and the water in the pots turned into meat and gravy, while the water in the containers turned into wine[^1]. People had never tasted anything like it before. When the king came, he and his men ate, and when he drank of that wine, he asked his host where he had obtained it from. When the man told the king where he had obtained it from, the king said to him, “The wine I am served at my palace is brought to me from that land, and it surely does not taste like this one.”

The host had to change his story, but the king pressured him to tell him the truth. Finally, the man gave up and said, “The truth is that there is, at my house, a child who is granted by Allah the answer to any of his pleas, and he is the one who invoked Him to turn the water into wine.”

It so happened that that king had a son whom he very much wished to succeed him as monarch, but that son had died only a few days ago. He loved him more than anyone else. The king said, “A man who invokes Allah to turn water into wine and Allah answers his plea is surely capable of bringing my son back to life.” Jesus was brought to

[^1] This incident can be found in the Bible. Some Christians find no harm in wine drinking, basing their argument on Jesus turning water into wine, but little do they consider the fact that Jesus never drank that particular wine at that particular time nor at any other time and we, Muslims, challenge them to prove otherwise. Prophets of God are not wine drinkers; sinners are.

(82)

him, and he discussed the matter with him. Jesus said to him, “Do not do that, for if he is brought back to life, a great deal of evil shall take place.” The king said, “I am not concerned about that after seeing him again.” Jesus asked him, “If I bring him back to life, are you all going to leave me and my mother to go wherever we want?” The king said, “Yes.” Jesus, therefore, invoked Allah Who did, indeed, bring that son back to life. When the king's subjects saw him, they rushed to grab their weapons and said, “This king has plundered our wealth and now wants to appoint his son as his successor over us so that he, too, will do what his father has been doing...” They fought among themselves. Jesus and his mother left them and continued their journey.

Another of his miracles is that he created out of clay birds, as Allah Almighty tells us in the Holy Qur'an, 3:49: “... I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I determine for you out of mud like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird with Allah's permission,” and in 5:110: “... and when you determined out of mud a thing like the form of a bird by My permission, then you breathed into it and it became a bird by My permission.”

Among his other miracles was his curing the leprous and those born blind, as Allah Almighty has said, “... and you healed the [born] blind and the leprous by My permission” (Qur'an, 5:110). The reason why these two ailments were particularly mentioned is due to the fact that nobody among the physicians of the time could find any cure for them. Jesus lived during a time when medicine was considered the most prominent branch of knowledge, so he was able to demonstrate to them miracles in it which nobody else could.

Still another of his miracles was his bringing the dead back to life by the Permission of Allah Who says, “... and when you brought forth the dead [back to life] by My permission” (Qur'an, 5:110). Among the dead whom he brought back to life was Lazarus (as he is called in Latin, a word which means “one helped by God,” or Eleazar in Hebrew), a friend of his. He, his sisters Martha and Mary were friends of Jesus. His sister Mary sent Jesus a message saying that her brother had died three days ago. Some people suggested to her to escort them to his grave. She did, and it was inside a closed vault. Jesus supplicated to his Lord saying, “Lord! Creator of the seven heavens and the seven earths! You have sent me to the Children of Israel to

(83)

invite them to Your creed, and I have told them that I can bring the dead back to life with Your permission; therefore, do bring Eleazar back to life, O Lord!” Lazarus came back to life and got out of his grave on his own. He lived and even fathered a number of children. References to this incident exist in three of modern day's versions of the Gospels[^1]: Matthew, John, and Luke.

The son of an old woman was another. This story says that while touring the land in the company of his disciples, Jesus passed by a city and said, “This city has a treasure; who among you would like to go and take it out?” They said, “O Ruhullah (spirit of Allah)! No stranger enters this town without being murdered by its people.” Jesus said, “Stay here, all of you, till I come back.” He went and entered it. He came to the door of a house and said, “Assalamo `Alaikum, O residents of the house! This is a stranger asking you to feed him!” An old woman said to him, “Are you not satisfied with the fact that I do not go to the governor and tell him about you, yet you have the courage to ask for food?!

” While Jesus was thus standing at the door, her young son joined them. Jesus said to him, “Please do host me tonight!” The young man repeated what his old mother had said. Jesus then said to him, “But if you do host me, I will enable you to marry the king's daughter.” The young man said, “You must be either a mad man or Jesus son of Mary!” Jesus said, “I am Jesus,” whereupon he agreed to host him. He offered to let him stay there for the night.

The next morning, he said to his host, “Go to the king's palace and tell him that you had come to ask for his daughter's hand. He will order to have you

[^1] These Gospels have continuously been undergoing changes, editings, distortions, additions, deletions, linguistic variations, mis-translations, etc. due to errors in translation, sectarian biases and prejudices and other factors. The only Gospel accepted by Muslims as accurate is that of St. Barnabas, a Cypriot companion of St. Paul (originally Saul), which was not canonized by the Council of Nicaea of 325 A.D. That Council was called for by the Byzantine emperor Constantine I (288 - 337 A.D.), or Constantine the Great, who built the Turkish city Constantinople in 330 A.D. to dedicate it to Jesus' mother, Virgin Mary. Constantine's objective behind holding the Nicaea Conference was to settle the disputes among various Christian sects as to what constituted Christianity, but the said Conference created more problems than it solved. It was also boycotted by a number of Christian sects who did not endorse its decisions.

(84)

beaten and kicked out.” The youth stood before the king and told him that he wished to ask him for his daughter's hand. The king ordered him to be beaten; he was beaten and kicked out.

The youth came back and told Jesus what had happened, whereupon Jesus said to him, “Tomorrow, go back and ask for his daughter's hand; what will happen to you will be different from what has happened to you today.” The youth did as he was told, and he was given a beating worse than the one he had received the day before. He told Jesus about what had happened to him, and Jesus said to him, “Go one more time back to him, for he will tell you that he will marry her to you on his own terms, and that his terms will be a gold and silver mansion with everything in it made of gold, silver and chrysolite.

Tell him that you will do that. If he sends someone with you, you will find your quest, and do not say anything about it to him.” The youth entered the king's palace for the third time and again approached the king regarding his marriage to his daughter. The king asked him, “Do you accept to pay her dowry if I decide it?” He asked him what the dowry was, and the king told him what Jesus had already told him to expect. He said, “Yes, I do; so send someone to see it.”

The king sent a number of men with him, and he did, indeed, show them what he had promised to, and people were quite impressed. The king married him to his daughter, and the youth found it hard to believe that he finally married into the royal family. He said to Jesus , “O Ruhullah! How can you do all of this while you yourself look in such a (shabby) condition?!” Jesus said, “I have preferred what will last to what will perish.” The youth said to him,

“I, too, am willing to abandon what perishes, and I desire to accompany you.” He actually renounced this vanishing world and became a follower of Jesus who took him by the hand and introduced him to his disciples. “This,” said Jesus, “is the treasure I had told you about!” The son of that old woman remained in the company of Jesus till he died. Jesus passed by and saw his corpse lying in state on a bed, so he invoked Allah and the dead man came back to life and sat on the edge of the bed. He was carried by other men from the bed and given clothes to wear. He put the carrier on his shoulders then went back home. He remained with his family and fathered a number of children.

(85)

Another miracle of Jesus: He brought Sam son of Noah back to life. Jesus was once describing the ark of Noah to his disciples when the latter asked him, “Is it possible that you bring to life one of those who were aboard it so that he may describe it for us?” Jesus stood up and went to a hill, took a handful of its soil and said, “This is the grave of Sam son of Noah. If you wish, I can bring him back to life for you.” They welcomed the idea, so he invoked Allah by His Greatest Name, struck the hill with his staff then said, “Come back to life by the Will of Allah,” whereupon Sam came out of his grave with half of his hair looking gray.

Immediately Sam asked, “Has the Day of Judgment come?” Jesus said, “No, but I have called upon you in Allah's Greatest Name.” During the time of Noah, old age never changed the color of people's hair; only during the time of Abraham did all of that start to change. Sam lived five hundred years maintaining his youthful look. He told them about the story of the ark. After that Jesus ordered him to die, and Sam responded with, “On one condition! That Allah spares me the agony of death!” Jesus invoked Allah and included Sam's wish in his invocation, and Allah responded favorably to his plea.

Another of the miracles of Jesus was his walking on water. Jesus once went out on one of his trips accompanied by a short and faithful follower of his. When Jesus reached the sea[^1], he said, “Bismillah, in health, and in conviction,” then he started walking on the water. The man was quite amazed and said to himself, “This is Jesus, the spirit of Allah, walking on the water's surface!” Having inaudibly said so, he fell into the water. Fearing drowning, he sought help from Jesus who took hold of him and pulled him out.

Jesus said to him, “O Shortie![^2] What did you say to yourself?!” He told him about it, whereupon Jesus said, “You placed yourself in a position in which Allah did not place you; therefore, Allah despised you for having said what you said; so, do regret and repent.” The man regretted and repented, so he went [^1] Most likely, this is the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberias (in Arabic Bahr Tabariyyah) in northeast Palestine. During the lifetime of Jesus Christ, nine cities were flourishing on its shores. Some of the disciples of Christ, the fishermen, were from that area.

[^2] Jesus Christ had a most beautiful and attractive conduct and a brilliant sense of humour. This quotation testifies to this fact.

(86)

back to the status with which Allah had blessed him. Thus did Jesus provide us with a lesson in piety and admonish us not to envy one another.

Another tale says that Jesus passed once by a man who used to sit quite often by a grave. He saw him doing so quite often; therefore, he decided to find out why. Jesus came to him and said, “O servant of Allah! I see that you spend a lot of time sitting by this grave.” The man said, “O Ruhullah! This grave contains my wife's corpse, a woman of beauty and affinity, and I have a trust with her.” He asked him, “Do you like that I pray Allah and He brings her back to life for you?” The man warmly welcomed the suggestion. Jesus made his ablution and offered two prostrations, then he invoked Allah Almighty to bring the person inside that grave back to life. A coal-black man came out of the grave looking like a burnt stump of a tree.

He asked him who he was, so he answered him by saying, “O Ruhullah! I am a man being tormented for the past forty years, and at this hour, it was said to me to respond to your call, so I did,” adding, “O messenger of Allah! I have seen so much torment that if Allah ever returned me to this world, I would grant Him my covenant that I shall never disobey Him in anything; so, please do pray Allah on my behalf.” Jesus felt sorry for him, and he invoked Allah Almighty on his behalf, then he told him to go away, and he did.

The man who used to frequently sit by the grave then said, “O messenger of Allah! I have made a mistake about identifying this grave! Her grave is over there!” Jesus invoked Allah again, and a very beautiful young woman came out of the grave. Jesus asked him, “Do you know her?” “Do I know her?!” the man retorted adding, “Of course I do! She is my wife.” Jesus invoked Allah to reunite her with her husband, and the latter took her by the hand till they came to a tree under which he slept, putting his head on her lap. The son of the king happened to pass by, and he looked at her and she looked at him, and they instantly admired each other.

He beckoned to her, so she moved her husband's head away from her lap and followed the prince. Later, her husband woke up. He looked for her and could not find her, so he went out looking for her till he was able to get hold of her. He held her and said that she was his wife, while the prince kept saying that she was his bondmaid. As they argued thus, Jesus happened to pass by. The husband said to the prince that that man was

(87)

Jesus. Having heard the husband tell his story, Jesus asked the woman, “What do you have to say?” She said, “I am the bondmaid of this man, and I do not know the other.” Jesus said to her, “Give us back what we have given you.” She said, “I have done so,” falling dead. Jesus retorted, “Have you seen anything more strange than this?! A man whom Allah caused to die as a disbeliever is brought back to life to believe, and a woman whom Allah caused to die as a believer, then He brought life back to her, chose to disbelieve!”