How do we honor the “thread” that travels between
all spiritual paths and honor our own spiritual practice? Does that honoring not
deepen our own practice?
Muhammad as Spirit of Truth: A Christian Testimony Against Islamophobia
·
Islamophobia
has been on the rise in the United States ever since 9/11. The Republican
Presidential primary has both revealed this troubling trend and exacerbated it.
Trump and other politicians have been trading on fear and hatred of Muslims for
political expediency. They build on a foundation that has been laid, in large
degree, by a consistent stream of Islamophobic rhetoric from the Christian
Right. Now we have a xenophobic mood in this country that reminds people of the
rise of Nazism in Germany.
When Hitler
came to power in Germany, a vocal minority of Christian leaders—theConfessing Church movement—opposed Nazism. Among the
leaders of this movement, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the most notable. He died in
prison after participating in a failed conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. In his
prison writings, he disavowed Christian anti-Semitism and embraced the fact
that Jesus Christ was a Jew.
In doing so he broke with the historic anti-Semitism of Lutheranism and of
Christianity in general which can be traced back to the early centuries of
Christianity. For example, leaders like Archbishop of Constantinople John
Chrysostom (mid-late 4th century), who is regarded as a saint, preached with
hatred and vitriol against his Jewish neighbors, blaming them for killing
Christ. His sermons incited mob violence against Jews. This kind of
scapegoating of Jews is so entrenched in Christianity it can even be clearly
seen in the Gospels themselves. In the Gospel of John Jews are called “children
of the devil” and in the Gospel of Matthew Jewish bystanders at Jesus’ execution
say, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matt 27:25, NRSV). Since the
Shoah (Holocaust), mainstream Christians, including Protestants, Catholics, and
Orthodox Christians have fundamentally revised our views on Jews and Judaism;
we’ve acknowledged Christianity’s historic anti-Semitism and no longer blame
Jews for killing Christ or attempt to convert Jews to Christianity. Today,
Christian leaders of conscience are called to take a vocal stand against
Islamophobia. We are called to root Islamophobia out of our religion before it
leads to another genocidal catastrophe.
As is
the case with Christian anti-Semitism, Christian Islamophobia has deep roots.
In the oldest Christian writings on Islam, St. John of Damascus’ Against Heresies(8th
century CE), Muhammad is presented as a heretic inspired by the devil; Islam
itself is categorized as a Christian heresy. Tragically, this has been the
dominant Christian assessment of Muhammad and Islam up until the present day,
with influential figures such as Dante, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther all
making similarly inflammatory claims. In the 15th century, Nicholas of Cusa was
distressed by the wars between Christians and Muslims and sought to unify the
religions theologically. However, he did not succeed and instead ended up
writing a diatribe refuting the Qur’an and again framing Muhammad as a
devil-inspired heretic. The most notable counter-example to this rather dismal
tradition of Christian polemic against Islam is St. Francis of Assisi. During
the crusades of the 13th century, Francis was successful in dialoging with
Sultan Malek al-Kamil of Egypt and negotiating a truce between Christian and
Muslim fighters. The Sultan was not interested in negotiating with the Pope or
any other leader, but only with Francis, whom he admired and trusted as a
person of integrity, peace, and devotion to God. The Christian Right in the
United States has not invented Islamophobia, they are merely continuing this
hateful vein of the Christian tradition. From the beginning, Christians have
reacted to Islam in a spirit of competition and mistrust. Instead of embracing
and appreciating Islam as a sibling faith, Christians have tried to discredit
Islam. Now, in the 21st century, it is high time for Christians to acknowledge
how wrong we have been. Islam is the second-largest religion on the planet and
is an integral part of human civilization as we know it. Islam is a beautiful,
complex religion that supports human dignity, arts and sciences, spirituality,
economic, environmental and racial justice, and so much more. As Christians
today we are called to acknowledge the integrity of Islam and embrace Muslims
as brothers and sisters in faith. And the key, I believe, to making this
paradigm shift is choosing to see Muhammad differently, in light of our faith.
Just
as Bonhoeffer embraced the fact that Jesus Christ was a Jew, thus identifying
himself as a Christian with and for Jews, so too Christians today have the
opportunity to identify ourselves with and for Muslims by positively identifying
Jesus with Muhammad. The foundation of Christian Islamophobia (fear of Islam)
is a rejection of Muhammad as a spirit of error; the foundation of Christian
Islamophilia (love of Islam) is an embrace of Muhammad as a spirit of truth.
Jesus, in the Gospel of John, predicts the coming of a future prophet he calls
“the spirit of truth”:
“I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he
will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will
speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to
come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to
you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take
what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15, NRSV)
Today
as Christians we have the opportunity to embrace Muhammad, the Qur’an, and
Islam in an expression of faith in Jesus. This kind of embrace would have major
political implications and would radically alter the quality of
Christian-Muslim relations. We have the chance now to acknowledge and let go of
Christianity’s polemical reactions against Islam, and to seek a collaborative
relationship with Muslims. This crucial adaptation of Christianity—choosing to see
Muhammad as a “spirit of truth” whom Jesus said would guide us into all the
truth—will allow Christianity and Islam to work together for peace, justice,
and the healing of Earth; it will help put an end to the predisposition of
Christians to mistrust and fear Muslims.
In
the Qur’an, Jesus says, “‘O Children of Israel! Truly I am the Messenger of God
unto you, confirming that which came before me in the Torah and bearing glad
tidings of a Messenger to come after me whose name is Ahmad’” (61:6, The Study Quran). In
this verse we have a vision of Jesus that affirms both Judaism and Islam; this
is the vision of Jesus I believe that Christians are being called by God to
adopt in the 21st century. Imagine a Christianity that could embrace the full
Jewish-Christian-Muslim canon of sacred literature and engage in a free-flowing
theological and ethical dialogue with Jewish and Muslim neighbors. Imagine a
Christianity open to the transformation and healing this dialogue would bring
to the whole Abrahamic family of faith. Yes, Christianity has made major
mistakes in regards to both Judaism and Islam; our tradition is replete with
anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. But it is within our power to learn from our
history and course-correct going forward. Our tradition’s first assessment of
Muhammad has been a disaster and has fueled centuries of conflict between
Christians and Muslims. But it is not too late to recognize Muhammad as the one
Jesus promises he will send to us: “the spirit of truth who comes from the
Father, he will testify on my behalf” (John 15:26b, NRSV). “You also are to
testify,” Jesus says, “because you have been with me from the beginning” (John
15:27, NRSV). As faithful followers of Jesus, it is time for us to testify
about the integrity of Muhammad and Islam, to testify that Jews and Muslims are
our closest siblings in faith. This testimony can help set a new course for a
century and a millennium of peace between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Follow Ian Mevorach on
Twitter: www.twitter.com/IanMev
Did Jesus Predict Muhammad? A Biblical Portal Between Christianity and
Islam
·
·
Part 1:
The
time has come for Christians and Muslims to make peace between our communities.
Christians and Muslims already make up more than half of the global population,
and these numbers are expected to grow in the coming decades; according to the Pew Research Center,
by 2050, two thirds of humanity, some 5.7 billion people, will be either Christian
or Muslim.
Our
planet simply cannot afford another century of misunderstanding and violence
between these two communities. The challenges we face as a global human family
are profound: ongoing warfare and nuclear proliferation, global poverty and
economic inequality, climate change and ecological degradation. How will
humanity handle these crises and others if our two largest religious
communities are embroiled in constant conflict, if misunderstanding defines our
relationship? As contemporary theologian Hans Kung has argued for decades,
there will be no peace between our nations without peace between our religions.
Now is the time to transform the way Christians and Muslims see and relate to
each other.
In an
earlier blog on the Huffington Post about the problem of Christian
Islamophobia, I argue that Christians have the opportunity to transform the way
we see Islam and Muslims by accepting Muhammad as “Spirit of
Truth.”
Historically,
most Christian theologians—including John of Damascus, Thomas Aquinas, Dante,
Nicholas of Cusa, and Martin Luther—have seen Muhammad not as a “Spirit of
Truth” but as a “Spirit of Error,” a false prophet or heretic. There are many
Christians today who respect the Islamic tradition and would never make such an
offensive statement about Muhammad.
However,
the majority of Christians still maintain a fundamentally Islamophobic position
on Muhammad. So I believe that the time has come for peacemaking Christians to
contradict this position directly. Changing our view of Muhammad—so that we
recognize him as a true prophet rather than discredit him as a false
prophet—would effectively inoculate Christians against Islamophobia and would
help to establish a new paradigm of cooperative Christian-Muslim relations.
In
Jesus’ farewell discourse in the Gospel of John (chapters 14 to 16), Jesus
speaks about the coming of the “Spirit of Truth” or “Advocate” (in Greek,parakletos).
For centuries Muslim interpreters have seen Muhammad as this “Advocate,” based
on Qur’an 61:6, a verse in which Jesus predicts the coming of a future prophet
named Ahmad: “O Children of Israel! Truly I am the Messenger of God unto you,
confirming that which came before me in the Torah and bearing glad tidings of a
Messenger to come after me whose name is Ahmad” (61:6, The Study Quran). Ahmad,
which is another name for Muhammad, is very close etymologically to the Greek
word, parakletos, so it is
likely that the Qur’an is claiming that Jesus’ farewell discourse in the Gospel
of John predicts Muhammad. The major objection to applying these predictions to
Muhammad or any other prophet is that Christians normally read them as part and
parcel of Jesus’ promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’s
promise of the Holy Spirit is an essential part of the Christian faith and my
interpretation of Muhammad as Spirit of Truth affirms this. John 14:16-17 and
14:26 are clearly about the promise of the Holy Spirit: in John 14:16-17, the
Advocate or Spirit of Truth is spoken of as an everlasting, invisible, abiding,
inner presence; in most manuscripts, this Advocate is even directly called “the
Holy Spirit” in John 14:26. But as Jesus’ farewell discourse proceeds these titles
become multivalent and, in John 15:26-27 and 16:7-15, they begin to refer more
to a future prophet than to the Holy Spirit. Some Muslim interpreters who
identify Muhammad with the Advocate argue that this title does not refer to the
Holy Spirit at all—and that the text of John has been corrupted so as to
obfuscate its direct link to Muhammad. But I believe that the titles Spirit of
Truth and Advocate are used in the Gospel of John, first of all, to speak about
the promise of the Holy Spirit—and I do not believe that the text has been
changed to hide anything. This interpretation of John opens us up to Muhammad
as Spirit of Truth in a way that affirms the integrity of the Christian
tradition. But before I explain the fine details of my exegesis I want to speak
briefly to the big picture of why the Gospel of John, in particular, tells us
that Jesus predicts a future prophet.
Part 2:
The
Gospel of John is the latest canonical version of the Gospel—it was written at
least a generation after the synoptic gospels and probably two generations or
more after Paul’s letters. The author of the Gospel of John, often called the
beloved disciple, claims to be the last living witness to the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. In a passage at the end of the Gospel he tells a story about an
encounter with the risen Jesus that made him and others believe that he would
live to see Jesus’ second coming.
Peter turned and saw the
disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next
to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray
you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to
him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow
me!” So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet
Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he
remain until I come, what is that to you?” This is the disciple who is
testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony
is true. (John 21:20-24, NRSV)
This
passage shows us that the author of the Gospel of John is in a different
paradigm than earlier New Testament authors insofar as he no longer expects
Jesus’ imminent second coming. Paul, for example, who wrote in the decades
immediately following Jesus’ death and resurrection, believed that Jesus would
return while most of the people he was preaching to were still alive. The
author of the Gospel of John looks for new meaning in Jesus’ promise of the
Spirit of Truth or Advocate because he realizes he will die before Jesus
returns. When his Gospel was published he was likely already dead and his
community was looking forward into a longer and more complicated future than
originally expected.
The
Gospel of John plays a similar role for the New Testament as Deuteronomy does
for the Torah. Deuteronomy is the latest text of the Torah—it reiterates the
Law of Moses as told in the four earlier books—and like the Gospel of John it
predicts a future prophet:
I will raise up for them a
prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth
of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.(Deut
18:18-19, NRSV)
Both Deuteronomy and the Gospel of John are reflections on
specific revelations—the Torah and Gospel—and both indicate that there is more
revelation to come. The Gospel of John’s language for the Spirit of Truth or
Advocate is strikingly similar to Deuteronomy’s: “he will not speak on his own,
but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that
are to come” (John 16:13, NRSV).
Like
Deuteronomy, the Gospel of John opens up an expectation for future revelation.
John’s prophecy is not so specific that it must apply to Muhammad and only
Muhammad. But insofar as the Qur’an makes the claim that Muhammad is the Spirit
of Truth or Advocate that Jesus foretold, a strong interpretive option emerges
for Christians to receive Muhammad as a prophet that Jesus predicts when he
says:
I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, he
will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will
speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to
come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to
you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take
what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-15, NRSV)
In
this passage, the description of the Advocate or Spirit of Truth is
qualitatively different than earlier mentions. Here we see the Spirit of Truth
speaking not through the disciples but to them. Earlier, in John 14:17, Jesus
says that this Spirit of Truth will abide with his followers and be in them;
throughout the Gospel of John the Holy Spirit is spoken of as an abiding, inner
presence. Again, in 14:26, Jesus says that the Advocate will “remind you of all
that I have said to you.” In these passages, Jesus is talking about the Holy
Spirit who helps his followers understand what he has said. Essentially, this
would have been the experience of the beloved disciple, the author of the
Gospel of John, who was guided by the presence of the Spirit in remembering and
interpreting Jesus’ words and deeds (which he does spiritually rather than
literally). However, in John 16:12-15, Jesus is talking about a Spirit of Truth
who will bring forth new revelations, who will say the “many things” that Jesus
does not say because his followers “cannot bear them now.”
The
clear distinction is that the Spirit of Truth in John 16 is predicted to
declare new revelations not merely remind Jesus’ disciples of what he already
said, as in John 14. The idea that he will “declare to you the things that are
to come” is especially important because it acknowledges the uncertainty about
the future that Jesus’ followers faced, given the fact that he had not returned
as soon as expected. Jesus asserts that this future prophet will glorify him by
declaring a new revelation that will come from the same source as his message:
God. This discourse is designed to open the minds of Christians to receive a
future revelation not as something that competes with or diminishes the Gospel,
but rather as something that glorifies Jesus. Unfortunately, these words in the
Gospel of John have been totally missed by Christians who reject and belittle
the Qur’an; we have for the most part completely ignored the unity of the
Gospel and the Qur’an in terms of their common revelatory source. However, if
we take Jesus’ words seriously, we have the opportunity to receive the Word of
God in the Qur’an in accordance with Jesus’ promise that the Spirit of Truth
“will take what is mine and declare it to you.” We can accept the Qur’an as a
revelation, not in opposition to the Gospel, but in unity with the Gospel and
the will of Jesus.
Part 3:
In
the First Letter of John, which was written after the Gospel of John and is
very similar to it, we find a continuation of the Gospel of John’s multivalent
way of speaking about the Spirit as applying to the Holy Spirit as well as to
prophets inspired by the Spirit. In 1 John 3:24 and 1 John 4:13, the author
speaks about the gift of the Holy Spirit and how it abides in Jesus’ followers.
But in 1 John 4:1-6, in between these mentions of the Holy Spirit, the author
speaks at length about testing the spirits. In these verses the word “Spirit”
is used to talk about prophets and how to tell whether they are true or false:
By this you know the Spirit
of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is
from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. (1 John
4:2, NRSV)
The
author contrasts “the Spirit of God” with the “Spirit of Anti-Christ,” those
who are “from God” with those who are “from the world,” and “the Spirit of
Truth” with “the Spirit of Error.” This discourse, again, is strikingly similar
to the discourse in Deuteronomy about future prophets that I quoted above.
In
Deuteronomy 18:20-22, after the promise of a future prophet in 18:18 and the
commandment to listen to that prophet in 18:19, criteria are laid out to
distinguish a true from a false prophet. Deuteronomy threatens that a prophet who
speaks for another god or who falsely speaks on God’s behalf “shall die”
(18:20). It also advises the Israelites to ignore prophets who prophecy
falsely:
If a prophet speaks in the
name of the Eternal but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a
word that the Eternal has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously;
do not be frightened by it. (18:22, NRSV)
In
the same way, but using different criteria, the author of 1 John defines true
prophets and false prophets relative to their allegiance to Jesus, God, and the
early followers of Jesus. Part of the dynamic of the early community of Jesus’
followers was that many claimed the inspiration of the Spirit and prophesied.
The author of 1 John is especially worried about Docetic versions of
Christianity that had developed denying that Jesus “came in the flesh”; in
these versions of Christianity Jesus was not an actual human being but rather
an angelic being that only appeared to be human. Such a version of
Christianity, obviously, would have been quite disconnected from the actual
teachings and values of Jesus of Nazareth and his earliest followers, who knew
him as a real human being. It is worth noting that Muhammad meets these
criteria insofar as the Qur’an affirms that Jesus is the Messiah and that he
“came in the flesh.”
In
the history of Christianity, all of the negative terms in 1 John 4:1-6 have
been used against Muhammad. He has been identified with “the Spirit of
Anti-Christ” and the “Spirit of Error.” However, the time has come for
Christians to recognize how wrong we have been in these assessments and to
correct the record by affirmatively identifying Muhammad with “the Spirit of
Truth.”
When
we look at Islam as a world religion, and see that 1.6 billion people and
growing are following in the way of Muhammad, the time has surely come to
recognize him as a prophet. If Muhammad is not a prophet, who is? It is
understandable, really, that so many Christians have been defensive and have
reacted negatively to Islam. That kind of group-ego, fear-based response is
part of human nature. However, it is absurd for us to continue to see Muhammad
as a heretical Christian or false prophet given that Islam has lasted for
nearly 1,400 years, has supported monumental cultural, spiritual, artistic, political,
moral, and intellectual achievements, and has a tremendous and vibrant global
following.
There
is no better candidate than Muhammad, no one in fact that comes even close, in
terms of fulfilling Jesus’s promise of the Spirit of Truth who would bring
forth a new revelation from God. I do not have space in this article to explore
the many Qur’anic verses directly addressed to Christians, but if we were to
receive them our religion would be transformed for the better and would come
into balance with Judaism and Islam.
Jesus
knew it would be difficult for us to accept his guidance from another source.
But he did not want our fear of the apparent otherness of the Prophet Muhammad
and the Qur’an to separate us from the Way, the Truth, and the Life; that is,
the Word of God. This is why he spoke to the disciples reassuringly about the
Spirit of Truth, saying, “he will glorify me”; and, for the same reason, he
emphasized the unity of his teaching with the revelations to come, twice
repeating the promise, “he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John
16:14-15, NRSV). Based on the promises of Jesus, Christians can encounter the
Qur’an without fear, knowing that it is a revelation which glorifies Jesus and,
in a spiritual sense, is from him.
What
we have in the Gospel of John is a biblical portal between Christianity and
Islam. If we choose to walk through it in faith we will discover that our
religions issue from the same divine source; we will discover that we are
siblings in faith, meant to bear witness to the truth side by side (John
15:26-27) and collaborate in manifesting God’s will on Earth as it is in
Heaven. I invite Christians everywhere to look carefully at our scriptures,
search our souls, consider our history, and seek the guidance of the Holy
Spirit in answering this question: “Has the time come for Christians to see
Muhammad as Spirit of Truth?”
