Hummel Daniel - Jesus and Muhammad: Commonalities of Two Great Religions

JESUS AND MUHAMMAD

Commonalities of Two Great Religions

Daniel Hummel

NEW JERSEY LONDON FRANKFURT CAIRO

New Jersey

Copyright 2017 by Blue Dome Press

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Published by Blue Dome Press
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Digital ISBN: 9781597849715

Acknowledgments

T his book would not have happened if I did not have the encouragement and support of my loving wife, Dini Hamid Dasuki. After 10 years of marriage and talking about this book through half of it I can finally say that it is officially finished. My beautiful son, Hamza, was also a great inspiration since I wanted him to be proud of me long after I am dead and he can still read this book. I also would like to thank the imams, priests and pastors that I have spoken with throughout the years that helped me to solidify my approach to this book. The good people of this world constantly remind me that the darkness is never permanent and that every person has that spark of goodness within them. I would also like to thank my parents for being supportive. Above all, I would like to thank God because He has been so patient with all my faults. I can only hope that I check out of this world in His good favor.

Perspective

A ny book on this subject is bound to have bias. Instead of making the reader guess which perspective the author has on this subject I figured it would be better to be candid. I am an observant Muslim who subscribes to the belief that there is One God who delivered one message to all the Prophets in different times, places and contexts. I believe Jesus is one of the Prophets and only a man.

That being said, I understand that Christians do believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Throughout history Christians have been divided over who Jesus really was up until the present day, so this book is just another perspective within that context. This book will strive for sensitivity while also providing the Muslim perspective which is rarely represented in the literature on this topic. After all Muslims are required to be respectful of all Prophets of which Jesus is considered one of the greatest Prophets in Islam.

I have a vested interest in bridging the divide between Muslims and Christians that currently exists in the world. I am a convert to Islam. My family is mostly Christian with varying levels of faithfulness. They are scattered across the sectarian rainbow from Methodist to Catholic. I was initially raised a Catholic although I spent most of my church time in our local Church of God where I learned a literal Protestant interpretation of the Bible which was actually very helpful in me choosing Islam as my religion.

In my first year of college I began taking an interest in what the Afghans were up to as I was reading stories at the time about the rise of the Taliban. There was one story in the New York Times about the efforts of the Taliban to destroy the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan Province.

It was not long after this that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred which thrust Islam into the spotlight. At some point Islam was talked about by everyone just about everywhere, mostly in a negative light. I began reading a book at this time written by Houston Smith called, The Illustrated Worlds Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions for a class on religion. I loved it especially the chapter on Islam. After more research on Islam, I was sold, and in February 2002 I converted to Islam at the Masjid al-Khair (The Good Mosque) in Youngstown, Ohio, which was the closest mosque to me in Western Pennsylvania.

The reaction from my family and friends was confusion. How could you like a religion as violent as Islam? How could you like a religion that oppresses women? How could you choose Muhammad over Jesus? I told my fitness trainer that I converted to Islam who immediately informed me that he was Jewish and would not train me anymore. As a new Muslim I did not have answers to questions about various issues people had with Islam. It also did not help that this was a post-9/11 world, but I highly doubt the reactions would have been different. At the same time demagogues of various stripes emerged to profit off of the anti-Muslim fervor including ex-Muslims who wanted to play off the international conflict as an ancient religious rivalry between Christianity and Islam and of course and because they were ex-Muslims, they were considered experts on Islam when that was most often not the case.

Fast forward 12 years later I am much more informed about Islam and the worlds religions and how they differ and how they correlate. It has only built my faith in Islam. When I told a colleague that I was writing a book comparing the messages of Jesus and Muhammad she got so upset that I would even attempt to do this. How could you compare them? I realized then that this book needed to be written so that I could rationalize this divide while at the same time provide an even-handed response to this general belief. The diatribes against the Prophet Muhammad are getting more extreme with few recognized responses and an increasing legitimacy given to these comments, which is frightening.

Terms

T here are several terms used in this book. The name of the Prophet Muhammad is usually accompanied by the phrase (peace and blessings be upon him) in Islam. This is required for Muslims. It is a bit distracting especially in a book that focuses on the Prophets in which this phrase is supposed to be used for all Prophets. In lull of using this term repeatedly it will be used in absentia in which the reader if s/he is a Muslim could use the term without it being explicitly placed in the text. There are other terms that are used in this book that are listed below in alphabetical order. They will be italicized in the text.

List of Terms

Ahl Al-Kitab

In English this means People of the Book. This is the Islamic designation for Christians and Jews.

Al-Alim

This is one of the Names of God in Islam. In English this means The All-Knowing.

Al-Amin

This is one of the nicknames of the Prophet Muhammad. In English this means The Trustworthy.

Al-Ruh

In English this means The Spirit. In Islam this is a reference to the Archangel Gabriel who delivered Gods messages to His Prophets.