[Sūrah ii. 254]: “Some of the apostles we have endowed more highly than others: Those to whom God hath spoken, He hath raised to the loftiest grade, and to Jesus the Son of Mary we gave manifest signs, and we strengthened him with the Holy Spirit. And if God had pleased, they who came after them would not have wrangled, after the clear signs had reached them. But into disputes they fell: some of them believed, and some were infidels; yet if God had pleased, they would not have thus wrangled: but God doth what he will.”
[Sūrah lxi. 6]: “And remember when Jesus the son of Mary said, ‘O children of Israel! of a truth I am God’s apostle to you to confirm the law which was given before me, and to announce an apostle that shall come after me whose name shall be Aḥmad!’ But when he (Aḥmad) presented himself with clear proofs of his mission, they said, ‘This is manifest sorcery!’ ”
[Sūrah vi. 85]: “And Zachariah, John, Jesus, and Elias: all were just persons.”
[Sūrah iv. 157]: “And there shall not be one of the people of the Book but shall believe in him (Jesus) before his death, and in the day of judgment he shall be a witness against them.”
[Sūrah iii. 44]: “And I have come to attest the law which was before me; and to allow you part of that which had been forbidden you; and I come to you with a sign from your Lord: Fear God, then, and obey me; of a truth God is my Lord, and your Lord: Therefore worship Him. This is a right way.”
V.—The Crucifixion of Jesus.
[Sūrah iii. 47–50]: “And the Jews plotted, and God plotted: But of those who plot is God the best. Remember when God said, ‘O Jesus! verily I will cause thee to die, and will take thee up to myself and deliver thee from those who believe not; and I will place those who follow thee above those who believe not, until the Day of Resurrection. Then, to me is your return, and wherein ye differ will I decide between you. And as to those who believe not, I will chastise them with a terrible chastisement in this world and in the next; and none shall they have to help them.’ But as to those who believe, and do the things that are right, He will pay them their recompense. God loveth not the doers of evil.”
[Sūrah iv. 155, 156]: “And for their unbelief [are the Jews cursed]—and for their having spoken against Mary a grievous calumny,—And for their saying, ‘Verily we have slain the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, an Apostle of God.’ Yet they slew him not, and they crucified him not, but they had only his likeness. And they who differed about him were in doubt concerning him: No sure knowledge had they about him, but followed only an opinion, and they really did not slay him, but God took him up to Himself. And God is Mighty, Wise!”
[Sale, in his notes on the Qurʾān, says: “The person crucified some will have to be a spy that was sent to entrap him; others that it was one Titian, who by the direction of Judas entered in at a window of the house where Jesus was, to kill him; and others that it was Judas himself, who agreed with the rulers of the Jews to betray him for thirty pieces of silver, and led those who were sent to take him. They add, that Jesus, after his crucifixion in effigy, was sent down again to the earth to comfort his mother and disciples and acquaint them how the Jews were deceived, and was then taken up a second time into heaven. It is supposed by several that this story was an original invention of Moḥammad’s; but they are certainly mistaken: for several sectaries held the same opinion long before his time. The Basilidians, in the very beginning of Christianity, denied that Christ himself suffered, but [asserted] that Simon the Cirenean was crucified in his place. The Corinthians before them, and the Carpocratians next (to name no more of those who affirmed Jesus to have been a mere man), did believe the same thing, that it was not himself, but one of his followers, very like him, that was crucified. Photius tells us that he read a book entitled The Journeys of the Apostles, relating the acts of Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas, and Paul; and among other things contained therein this was one, that Christ was not crucified, but another in his stead, and that therefore he laughed at his crucifiers, or those who thought they had crucified him.” The “Cross of Christ” is the missing link in the Muslim’s creed; for we have in Islām the great anomaly of a religion which rejects the doctrine of a sacrifice for sin, whilst its great central feast is a Feast of Sacrifice. It is related by the Muslim historian al-Wāqidī, that Muḥammad had such repugnance to the sign of the cross that he destroyed everything brought to his house with that figure upon it.]