Quote:To avoid making this post unwieldy I will postpone a discussion of the hadeeth until we determine what the Quran says and does not say, and what it means and does not mean, and whether or not God (Allah) can send his Son to earth.[/b]
Peace....
Don, there will be no agreement on that last point, because muslims don't believe, and Islam does not teach, that Jesus was the son of God. Qur'an teaches and muslims believe, he was just a human, a prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah, but human nontheless. The Qur'an teaches that Jesus was not the only begotten son of God, but that Allah begets not. The Qur'an also teaches that Christ was not crucified but only made to appear so. Remember what Christ himself taught:
Matthew 12:40 - For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
And also:
John 2:19 - Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
John 2:20 - Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
John 2:21 - But he spake of the temple of his body.
John 2:22 - When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
Paul in his letter to the believers at Corinth had this to say:
1st Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
1st Corinthians 15:13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
1st Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
1st Corinthians 15:15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
1st Corinthians 15:16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1st Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1st Corinthians 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1st Corinthians 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
If Jesus Christ was never crucified as the Qur'an teaches, then Christ was not raised. These are two very different messages from two very different sources. How can you believe they come from the same God? Muslims claim they believe in Jesus, but it is not the Jesus of the Bible, it is the Jesus mentioned in the Qur'an, which according to both accounts, are two very different men. So there won't be an agreement on that point.
And Faris, thanks for the correction on the name.. I won't forget ;)
Shamms