Prophet Jesus

In Islam, Jesus (Arabic: عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ, romanized: ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, lit. ‘Jesus, son of Mary‘) is believed to be the penultimate prophet and messenger of God and the Messiah sent to guide the Children of Israel (Banī Isra’īl) with a book called the Injīl (Evangel or Gospel).

In the Quran, Jesus is described as the Messiah (al-Masīḥ), born of a virgin, performing miracles, accompanied by his disciples, and rejected by the Jewish religious establishment; in contrast to the traditional Christian narrative, however, he is stated to have not been crucified, died on the cross, nor resurrected, rather, he is depicted as having been miraculously saved by God and ascending into heaven. The Quran places Jesus among the greatest prophets and mentions him with various titles. The prophethood of Jesus is preceded by that of Yahya (John) and succeeded by Muhammad, the latter of whom Jesus is reported in the Quran to have prophesied by using the name Ahmad.

Christians view Jesus Christ as God incarnate, the Son of God in human flesh, but the Quran denies the divinity of Jesus and his status as Son of God in several verses, and also insinuates that Jesus Christ did not claim to be personally God nor the Son of God. Islam teaches that Jesus’ original message was altered (taḥrīf) after his being raised alive. The monotheism (tawḥīd) of Jesus is emphasized in the Quran. Like all prophets in Islam, Jesus is also called a Muslim (lit. submitter [to God]), as he preached that his followers should adopt the ‘straight path‘ (Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm). Jesus is attributed with a vast number of miracles in Islamic tradition.

In their views of Islamic eschatology, mainstream Muslims believe Jesus will return in the Second Coming to kill the Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (‘The False Messiah’), after which with the ancient tribe Gog and Magog (Yaʾjūj Maʾjūj) would disperse. After God gets rid of them, Jesus would rule the world, establish peace and justice, die a natural death and then be buried alongside Muhammad at the fourth reserved tomb of the Green Dome in Medina.

The place where Jesus is believed to return, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, is highly esteemed by Muslims as the fourth holiest site of Islam. Jesus Christ is widely venerated in Sufism, with numerous ascetic and mystic literature written and recited about the most important historical Jewish Christian-Islamic prophet-messenger to these Abrahamic faiths.