TBH I'm torn between Islam and Christianity. christians say islam is bad and vice versa. In Islam, they say jesus never died on the cross and that he was taken up to the sky (to god i think) and that the bible was played with over time and changed and that god wasn't born nor anything was born from him and he never married. At the same time Islam has it's flaws, they say their prophet is a p***phile and there are no woman's rights in islam and etc... I just don't know anymore...
The crucifixion from the Islamic pov is based on verse 4:157.
It states that Jesus didn't die but only appeared to die.
I believe it's because the death of the body is only the appearance of death, it isn't death by itself.
In Islam we believe when we pass away from this world, our soul is either BOUND to the earth according to the extent of our carnal attachments...or it is free like a bird in paradise experiencing bliss.
The one that is bound to the earth is the one who is DEAD. The one who's free is living not dead.
In Islam, martyrs are alive. So if you were to even extend this to Jesus ..Islamically he would be a martyr who didn't die.
The other thing is that Islam is diverse on many matters of theology, that's why there are so many sects. However topics related to Christianity were historically skewed because Muslims didn't read the Bible since it wasn't in their language and they had no need to because Muslims and Christians were seperated by geography. Plus if any material existed centuries ago it never got around.
Things changed in modern times due to Muslim migration in the west and the growth of printed material and then video tapes...and then the internet.
Therefore the Muslim viewpoint on this topic that happened to come from Ahmad deedat and then zakir Naik by extention became so widespread that people now think that is the only view in Islam.
I read the same verse and have a diff interpretation, one that comes with a better understanding of the Bible than those guys..
Zakir Naik I dont even respect. He misquotes every scripture he brings up. Ahmad deedat was around before the internet and used to study the books in printed form making it harder to cross reference.
One experience I had was I began reading the prophecies in Daniel and as a result was learning about the Maccabean revolt. That led me to find the book of Maccabees..and then I realised that book wasn't even in the standard proteststant Bible. It was in the Catholic Bible. I realised there are some extra books in the Catholic version and a amongst them is one called Wisdom.
All these Christians preaching their version of truth but i have never seen a Christian on these forums talk about the book of Wisdom. If you read it, read the first 3 chapters and you'll find my viewpoint confirmed.
Then you can look for clues to confirm that view in the NT itself. Eg Acts 2 Peter said "for death(the grave) had no hold on him" hence he couldn't die.
Another area many people don't know about is the etheric plane/body also called the pranic plane. It is connected with the 2nd chakra in Hinduism which represents fertility, sexuality, birth, growth etc. It's symbol in Hinduism is WATER. Prana is breath...the life force.
In Islam, when prophet Mohammad ascended the 7 heavens.. on the second heaven (the etheric plane) you know who he met? Jesus and John the Baptist.
Both prophets are connected with the baptism, with fertility through the story of their birth. John the Baptists followers are/were Mandeans who believe heavily in the life force. Their religion is centered around it.
Jesus called himself the fountain of life...the living water etc.
Water is the symbol of the etheric plane. Fire is the symbol of the astral/desire plane, air with the mental plane.
The corresponding prophets in the Ascension story are Joseph in the astral (3rd) and Enoch/Idris with the mental (4th).
That's not to mean this is a heirarchy...these prophets were only symbolic of metaphysical truth. So if you read the story of Joseph the astral force was predominant in his life. Eg his brothers were jealous of him. He was taken to Egypt where they were heavily into astrology, astral projection and worship of astral entities. He experienced lust when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him.
So connecting Jesus to the etheric plane means that he could not die hence the resurrection and why he could resurrect the death or breath life into a clay pigeon. It's also why he has the power to kill the antichrist with the BREATH of his mouth.
However...
Jesus likened the crucifixion to the staff of Moses holding the image of the dead serpent. So the serpent was killed. The serpent represents our carnal nature eg the same serpent that in Islam is said to bite us in the grave and represents the extent of our earthly/carnal attachments.
From this pov, the cross symbol represents LIFE not death...since the serpent IS death..and the serpent in dead/defeated.
So as a Muslim I could appreciate the power in the cross as a symbol too. If only the ave Muslim understood these themes and didn't just go off trying to do dawah to random people.
Where Islam truely differs is that we do not accept the trinitarian doctrine.
There is metaphysical truth behind the idea of the trinity...but it is a mystical truth that is not meant to be shared with ave laymen who don't perceive the mystical truth.
Eg the Logos/Word of God is the universal conciousness and is a concept that's originated from india, through Persian and Greek philosophy. It was already a belief common amongst philosophers independant of Christianity.
Read up on Plotinus..who influenced at augustine who influenced the Roman church who made it into their central theological believe.
It's all based on the Macrocosm/universal conciousness and the Microcosm/holy spirit
Eg the ocean and the drops as expressions of God.
That truth is in Islam in the words Bismillah IrRahman IrRaheem
Ie Rahma=Mercy. God IS Mercy..and the bestower of mercy.
On the Macrocosm level God's qualities are expressed/known..
Eg "The Invisible Father is known through the Son"
And as microcosms of the Logos(also called the Image of God eg we are made in the Image) were supposed to become universal beings hence "Love God with all your heart and Love your neighbour".
In Islam this level of faith is called Ihsan.
The problem is that the universal conciousness eg the Word/image is not God in the logical sense...it is the expression of God's Essence.
The Hindus experienced God on that level and so they became panthiest since they recognised that the universal conciousness is ALL things.
The Muslim Sufis experienced it and called it wajdat Al wujud /unity of being and described it as merging with God.
It's only the Essence, the macrocosmic expression and the microcosmic expression.
God is the original power that seperated the One into the many...and brings them back. In hinduism God is called Ishvara ..the Supreme controller.
The worship of God is really about the return to the univesal concioussness.
From my pov..the universal conciousness is kind of like a prism that refracts the power of the Essence...eg that power appears as attributes/qualities of God.
Just like in hinduskm you have Brahman and Vishnu.
In Christianity....it says
The Word was With God (logical truth) and the Word IS God (mystical truth).
It says the Word holds all things together eg all things come from it and are part of it.
If you take it literally that the Word is God in the absolute sense then by extention you must become a panthiest like Hindus. The ave Christian barely understands this..
What seperated Islam esp Sufi Islam from hinduism is the the understanding that the universal conciousness is also powerless on its own and only the Essence that gives it the power of God.
That makes sense since it says in the NT
The Son can do nothing on His own..it is the Father doing it
(The Son in this context is the Word/image I'm talking about).
The other thing is...in Hinduism Vishnu/the universal conciousness has many incarnations...amongst them Rama and Krishna who were impressive figures.
in the Hellenistic era, the concept of the universal conciousness called the Logos was developed by Greeks and then it was merged into Jewish thought by Philo who connected it with the term "image of God". The concept of the incarnation was also developed..so in the region many philosophic people were waiting for this incarnation to appear in earth.
Paul talked about how the wise didn't receive him but the unwise did eg the Jews.
I suppose the messianic archetype by that point was the most perfect candidate for the incarnation.
Now in Islam and in Christianity Jesus is called the Word of God (the logos).
The Word was only symbolically called The Son by Philo in the Judaic type context.
The Son was never a literal term in its original usage anyway. So when Jesus became the incarnation of the Word and hence the Son of God...this was not meant to be taken literally.
Christians take it absolutely literally so much so that they think "Islam denies the son" whereas Islam clearly calls Jesus the Word of Allah but at the same time it rejects literalism from Christianity. Since the mind of the ave joe over the last 2000 tended to think of the Son and God in the anthromorphic sense.
The Qur'an just says "say not God is three". It's about the literalism behind it since it is a mystical truth and not one that's meant to be shared as a thoelogical belief.
The original trinity was meant to be Unitarian eg to unite God on 3 different ontological points as the Transcendent Essence, Immanent in the Macrocosm and the in the microcosm. Eg God is Immanent in All things aswell as within us.
So yeh in my view Christianity was/is an authentic belief system that's made into something else entirely..by Christian theology. And Islam is also deeply misunderstood and misinterpreted both by Muslims and Christians.
If you don't have a religion, you can still believe in and connect with God who is Immanent in you and everywhere around you eg in the people in your life too.
That experience is your own and no one else...no religion can give you. A religion can't make you connect with God..it has to come from you.
In Islam realising our individual higher self eg the spirit/conciousness as opposed to the body/personality..is also to recognise our dualism with God and this is called Islam/submission to the Will of God.
Realising the illusion of the individual self and merging it with the universal self eg seeing that conciousness is all things is called Ihsan and is the highest level of faith.
This is only for special individuals. In theory I understand it but to do it is a whole diff story.
For me...Christianity is the best example of ihsan as it is taught by Jesus and also in the epistles. I think being Christian is about becoming a universal being and not individual. It's done by letting go of all attachments and becoming a reflection of Jesus.
I doubt there is even one authentic Christian in this world. Personally I call most Christians, Faux Christians. They aren't the real deal. Early Christianity was a different level and the closest I've seen to it is early Islam in various (but few) Sahaba and then the Sufi way of life in the middle ages. Even that doesn't exist anymore.
The world is a diff place now...were deep into materialism and so used to seeing shit that it's not possible to really see God in All.
In other words were blind..