This was in response to a question from a Christian (writing in a comments forum) on how Islam could possibly deal with Jesus’ claim that he is God as manifested in the statement “I and the Father are one.”
It’s a fair question because it is a feature of every religion, every set of doctrinal beliefs, and even every ideology or political system, that the followers of that system believe it to be true and correct - why else would they adhere to the belief. So it is fair to inquire into how Islam might attempt to interpret the claims of mainstream Christianity - and, depending on the tone of the discussion, this can have a beneficial effect. In the case of belief systems, although we will find doctrinal disagreement, we may find that as we move to higher and deeper levels of scriptural interpretation, that the apparent differences may begin to dwindle. And even if they do not entirely disappear, we can at least achieve levels of understanding between faiths that denote true respect and understanding. And that’s a worthy goal.
So how might a Muslim approach Jesus’ statement “I and the Father are one”?
The Qur’an says that Adam was created with the two (metaphorical) hands of God’s power. Traditionally it is said that one hand represents the attributes (or names) of God that draw humankind near to God (e.g., mercy, love, compassion etc.). The other hand represents the attributes of distance (e.g., Majesty, Incomparability, Dominion, Kingship, etc.), those qualities representative of God’s kingly attributes which accent humankind’s distance from God and God’s power.
Jesus is sometimes said (because of his unique creation) to be representative of the hand of God that denotes the nearness of God to his creation. Whereas a Prophet like Moses who brings a law and enters into conflict with Pharaoh, necessarily primarily manifests God’s Kingly and awe-inspiring qualities (alongside his other qualities). But the essence of Jesus’ message powerfully focuses on God’s merciful proximity to humankind and the human proximity to God. Being a sign of this dual proximity, Jesus exhibits an archetype of this type of servant-hood - the individual will is identical with that which God wills - the individual has a proximity to God, and God manifests within the individual - “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
It is perhaps like the hadith which states that in respect of His true servants, He (God) is the sight with which they see, the hearing with which they hear, the foot with which they walk, and the hand with which they grasp. Such people give their being wholeheartedly over to God who takes them comprehensively into His charge - so they dwell in the Knowledge and Grace of God and He dwells in them. “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me…I speak not of myself, but the Father does the works.” (John 14:11) However, the servant remains a servant as Jesus repeatedly clarifies, carefully setting his mystical statements in context.
“Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in the One who sent me…. For what I have spoken does not come from myself; no, what I had to say, what I had to speak, was commanded by the One who sent me….” (John 12:44-49)
See also: On Jesus, What is truth?, Jesus - An Islamic Perspective, Power and Hegemony
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“Such people give their being wholeheartedly over to God who takes them comprehensively into His charge…” it can not be expressed better than this; short but precise. As you know I am always cautious when dealing with a translation of the word of God; whether it is Bible or Quran. So I am not certain if the word “Father” was rendered accurately from the original text of the bible. It would be worth investigating for future time. However, this doubt of mine regarding the word “Father” would not shadow the nice words of yours which I think it was an excellent explanation to the subject matter.
Wassalm
Katib
Salaam Yunis,
Thanks for your comment. You are quite right about the uncertainty in translation - the current versions of Jesus’ words in the Bible are often translations from Latin or Greek which in turn were translations from the original Aramaic. I preferred to leave the passage as people are used to seeing it and infer a different meaning from the context and from possibly similar concepts in Islam.
Wasalaam,
Irshaad
“I preferred to leave the passage as people are used to seeing it and infer a different meaning from the context” Yes I agree with you 100%, as far as communicting with Christians. I meant to ask you this while back but your post today revived my interst in this issue and I am just curious to see what is the original word for “father” in the Aramiac. Two months ago I have asked friend about “father” and “Son” in the original text. He told me he could only tell me about the word “Son” which is similar to the Arabic word “Ghulam” which means “servant” in the arabic language. So this really make sense when Jesus says “I am the Son of God-I am the servant of God”. So I just wanted to know if you know anything regrading the word “Father” for you seem very well versed in the Christain bible, I am not.
The Aramaic for father is Abba. The Christian prayer “Our father which is in heaven” begins with the word “Abun” translated as “Our father”. The word kingdom in the same prayer is transliterated as Malkutha (very similar to the Arabic).
However, the word Abba for Father (when referring to God) appears only 3 times in the New Testament (Jesus says it only once). If Abba was used at every mention of the word father, it should have appeared many, many more times. The question becomes what was the original Aramaic word used for those other occurrences of father (including John 10:30) and why did the original translators/scribes retain Abba in some few places but not in numerous other places? I don’t know the answer to this question but will look further into it - if there is someone who does know please comment.
Another interesting statement of Jesus is this: “Do not call anyone on earth “Father” for you have only one Father and HE is in heaven.” (Matthew 23: 9) Here, Jesus is restricting use of the term “Father” (whatever the original Aramaic is) exclusively for God. Why would he do this if he was in fact using a common daily word by which people referred to their fathers? This would be equivalent to asking people not to refer to their fathers as “dad” anymore. Unless the original Aramaic word in these other passages (translated as father) suggested something more serious than a common term for dad or father. At this point it’s a question. Katib/Yunis, you certainly raised an interesting point - if you come across any further information on the Aramaic-Arabic do let me know. Many thanks.
wasalaam,
Irshaad
I knew I am asking the right guy when it comes to the bible. You will be my source of Bible questions with your permission. I have learned a lot form your post and replies. You have also raised a lot more interesting questions than I expected. You have raised my interest in this matter.
““Do not call anyone on earth “Father” for you have only one Father and HE is in heaven.” (Matthew 23: 9)
-Very important passage; If you look at the pronoun after “for” and before “have” it is in the third person as “you” which mean Jesus is referring to his father as their father as in “for you have only one “Father” this means that Jesus’ father is also their father. But Christian say that “Father” has only one son “Jesus” but Jesus seems to consider “father” as his and theirs. Therefore “Father” must mean something other than the common father who would beget a son.
“Unless the original Aramaic word in these other passages (translated as father) suggested something more serious than a common term for dad or father.”
- Yes it makes sense, the word “father” aught to mean something more that the common usage of Father; very important.
I will look into it more and will share it you in the future in Sha’a Allah, and I hope you do too.
Many thanks
Katib
Salaam Katib,
Please do let me know whatever you find out. In the meantime I’ll take some of the points raised in this discussion and post them as a blog post here in the hope that someone who knows more about this subject will comment. We can continue our discussion there.
Wasalaam,
Irshaad
It sounds good to me. Thanks Wasalam.
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