The claim that both Jesus and Muhammad are Muslims might strike some readers—particularly those from Christian backgrounds—as provocative or even paradoxical. After all, in the Western imagination, “Muslim” refers specifically to followers of the Prophet Muhammad, while “Christian” refers to followers of Jesus Christ. Yet within Islam’s own worldview, this distinction looks very different. The Qur’an and Islamic theology present a far broader, older meaning of the term Muslim: not a member of a later religion, but anyone who consciously submits to the one true God. From that perspective, all prophets—including Jesus—were Muslims long before the birth of Muhammad. Exploring this idea opens an illuminating window into how Islam conceives religious truth, continuity, and universality.
The Meaning of “Muslim”
In Arabic, Muslim comes from the root s-l-m, meaning peace, purity, and submission. To be a Muslim is to be one who submits (aslama) to the divine will. The Qur’an repeatedly defines this submission—not ethnicity, historical period, or affiliation—as the essence of true faith. For instance, it says: “Whoever submits his whole self to God and is a doer of good—he will get his reward with his Lord” (Qur’an 2:112).
In this light, Islam does not view itself as a novel faith invented by Muhammad in the 7th century. Rather, it sees itself as the final articulation of an ancient, universal religion revealed through a series of prophets from Adam onward. The Qur’an names many of them: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad among others. Each, it says, brought the same message of monotheism and moral surrender to God. Therefore, every prophet and every genuine believer of those earlier revelations was a Muslim in spirit.
Jesus in the Islamic Vision
Jesus (ʿĪsā ibn Maryam) occupies an exalted place in Islam. He is mentioned in the Qur’an by name more than 20 times, described as a prophet, a messenger, a word from God, and a spirit from Him. Muslims revere him as one of the greatest prophets but not as divine. The Qur’an rejects the notion of Jesus as the literal Son of God or a member of a divine trinity, emphasizing instead his servitude to the Creator: “He [Jesus] said: Indeed, I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet” (Qur’an 19:30).
In several passages, the Qur’an portrays Jesus as affirming Islam’s essential creed—the oneness of God—and calling his followers to that same submission. “Indeed, God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is the straight path.” (3:51). From this standpoint, Jesus’ message was not a departure from earlier monotheism, but its renewal. He, like Abraham and Moses, invited people to surrender their lives to God.
Thus, in Islamic theology, Jesus was a Muslim not because he followed the rituals later revealed to Muhammad, but because he embodied the same principle of surrender that defines all prophets. His miracles, compassion, and spiritual purity were signs of divine favor, but his mission’s core—calling people to worship the one God—was identical to Muhammad’s.
Muhammad’s Role as the Seal of the Prophets
Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, born in Mecca in 570 CE, is seen by Muslims not as the founder of a new faith but as the Seal of the Prophets—the final messenger completing the chain of revelation. He received the Qur’an as the ultimate clarification and preservation of the divine message that earlier prophets had delivered but which, in Islamic belief, had been partially lost or altered over time.
While Jesus’ mission focused on a particular community (the “Children of Israel”), Muhammad’s was universal: to all humanity. Yet the Qur’an insists that this universality does not negate continuity. It tells Muhammad to declare: “I am not something original among the messengers… I only follow what is revealed to me” (46:9). Muhammad, then, is a Muslim in the same sense as his predecessors—one who submits fully to God’s will and invites others to do the same.
Both prophets exemplify surrender in their lives. Jesus prayed earnestly to God, accepted suffering as divine decree, and forgave his enemies. Muhammad endured persecution, exile, and hardship but responded with patience, forgiveness, and trust in God. Their lives, as Muslims see them, mirror one another’s in moral essence.
Divergent Interpretations, Shared Devotion
The key difference between Christian and Muslim perspectives lies in what each faith sees as Jesus’ ultimate identity and mission. Christianity developed a theology of incarnation and atonement: Jesus as God incarnate who dies to redeem humanity’s sins. Islam, on the other hand, regards such beliefs as human additions to Jesus’ authentic monotheism. For Muslims, salvation does not require divine sacrifice but sincere faith, good deeds, and God’s mercy.
This divergence is not merely doctrinal—it shapes each religion’s view of history. To Christians, Muhammad cannot be a prophet because his message appears to deny Christ’s divinity. To Muslims, Jesus must be a prophet precisely because his true message, once stripped of later accretions, aligns with the eternal religion of submission. From the Islamic vantage point, then, Muhammad and Jesus do not represent competing faiths but successive links in one unbroken chain of divine guidance.
The Broader Implication: Unity of Revelation
Calling both Jesus and Muhammad “Muslims” expresses a profound theological optimism about the unity of truth. It asserts that God’s guidance has never been limited to one people or time. This inclusivity is embedded in the Qur’an’s insistence that “We make no distinction between any of His messengers” (2:285).
In practice, this worldview encourages Muslims to honor all genuine prophets and respect their followers. While Islam critiques theological distortions, it affirms the sincerity of those who seek God through previous revelations. The Qur’an even refers to Christians as “people of the Book,” acknowledging their shared spiritual heritage.
Such a perspective can serve as a bridge in interfaith dialogue. Rather than seeing Islam as denying Jesus, one can understand it as reclaiming him from dogmatic excesses and restoring him to the prophetic continuum. For Muslims, honoring Jesus as a Muslim prophet is a form of reverence, not rejection.
A Shared Spiritual Legacy
The moral and spiritual lessons embodied by both prophets remain strikingly similar: compassion, humility, prayer, charity, forgiveness, and devotion to God. Jesus preached, “Blessed are the merciful,” while Muhammad taught, “The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful.” Both emphasized inner purity over ritual formalism, and both confronted social injustice and hypocrisy in their societies.
Recognizing this shared legacy does not require erasing differences, but appreciating their convergence on essential human values. From an Islamic standpoint, the world’s great prophets form a single community of faith—a fraternity of submission. To call both Jesus and Muhammad “Muslims” is to affirm that they lived for the same divine purpose.
Conclusion
In the end, whether one accepts or rejects the statement “Jesus and Muhammad are Muslims” depends on how one defines the word Muslim. If it means a follower of the historical religion of Islam as practiced today, then of course only Muhammad and his followers fit that category. But if it means one who submits fully to the will of God—the meaning the Qur’an gives—then Jesus, Muhammad, and all true prophets share that identity.
For Muslims, this is not a rhetorical claim but a theological truth affirming the oneness of God’s message throughout history. For Christians and others, it can serve as an invitation to reflect on what genuine faith and surrender mean in their own traditions. Beyond the boundaries of labels, both prophets stand as exemplars of devotion, moral courage, and trust in the Divine—a reminder that the path to God has always been one of submission, peace, and love.
No comments:
Post a Comment