Endnotes
1Unless otherwise specified, numbers of this sort, appealing to the authority of Islam, are to the Qur’an.
2Eckhard Schnabel, Early Christian Mission (Downers Grove: IVP, 2004), 2:1585–86.
3The Hebrew and the Greek words for “testament” can also mean “covenant.” The Old Testament refers to the covenant God made with the people of Israel through Moses, and the New Testament to the covenant God made with humanity through Jesus Christ. The Qur’an uses the words “Torah” and “Injil” for the two parts of the Bible. This essay sometimes adopts terminology analogous to this Qur’an usage: that is, the word “gospel” may stand for the message of Jesus Christ (the “Injil”) that is found in the four Gospels and in the other writings of the New Testament. At other times this essay uses traditional Christian nomenclature. “Old Testament” and “New Testament.”
4The “People of the Book” have a special status in Islam. Unlike polytheistic people, they have the right to live alongside the Muslim community as “protected minorities” (dhimmis). They do not have to convert to Islam but they must submit to Islamic rule (9:29).
5The two figures in brackets refer to the year the named scholar died, the first according to the Islamic calendar and the second to the Christian calendar.
6Some Muslims today contend that the Bible, unlike the Qur’an, contradicts science, which proves its corruption. This view is found in M. Bucaille, The Bible, the Qur’an and Science: The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge (Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1979). A Christian response to this book is available in W. Campbell, The Qur’an and the Bible in the Light of History and Science (Marseilles: Middle-East Resources, n.d.). Classical Muslim theologians never use this science-based argument. Another argument used by contemporary Muslim apologists is that the so-called Gospel of Barnabas is the authentic Gospel given by God to Jesus. This pseudo-gospel, written probably in the thirteenth century by an Italian convert to Islam, contradicts the Qur’an on many points (e.g., Muhammad, not Jesus, is described as the Messiah).
7See Carl F. H. Henry, “Bible, Inspiration of,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (ed. Walter A. Elwell; 2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 159–63. Cf. also the two volumes edited by D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge: Scripture and Truth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983) and Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986).
8I. Faruqi, et al., Christian Mission and Islamic Da’wah (Leicester: Islamic Foundation, 1982), 48.
9See Craig L. Blomberg, “Who Was Jesus of Nazareth?”
10Most Arab linguists consider “Allah” to be the contraction of the definite article al and the Arabic word for God, ilah, such that the literal meaning of Allah is “the God.” The word ilah derives from a root carrying the ideas of adoration, protection, eternity, power, and creation. Others think Allah is God’s proper name, which has no derivation. The Arabic word for God is similar to what we have in other Semitic languages: Aramaic (Elah), Syriac (Alaha), and Hebrew (El, Eloah, Elohim).
11The Hadith, or Prophetic Tradition, represents the record of the Prophet’s life and teaching. There are nine “canonical compilations.” The two lists of God’s names are found in Tirmidhi (da’awat [invocations] 87) and Ibn Majah (du’a’ [invocation] 10). Twenty-six names are exclusive to each list. They are all reproduced in C. Moucarry, Two Prayers for Today: The Lord’s Prayer and the Fatiha (Tiruvalla: Christava Sahittya Samithi, 2007), 125–30.
12 This saying is reported in various versions. See Bukhari, isti’dhan (asking permission) 1; Muslim, birr (righteousness) 32).
13In his tractate The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (trans. D. Burrell and N. Dahar; Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1995), Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, a great Muslim theologian and mystic, explains the meaning of these names and how they apply to some degree to human beings.
14John R. W. Stott, Through the Bible Through the Year (Oxford: Candle Books / Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 18.
15John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Leicester: IVP, 1978), 146. See also the important study of Jonathan T. Pennington, Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew (NovTSup 126; Leiden: Brill, 2007).
16 Church leaders ascribed the title theotokos (“Mother of God”) to the Virgin Mary at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Nestorian Christians did not accept it.
17As quoted in A. Hamman, Le Notre Père dans l’Église ancienne. Choix de textes des Pères de l’Église (Paris: Les Éditions Franciscaines, 1995), 134.
18Gregory of Nyssa, quoted in Hamman, Le Notre Père, 77.
19On Jesus’ pre-existence, see now Simon J. Gathercole, The Preexistent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006).
20See C. Moucarry, The Prophet and the Messiah: An Arab Christian’s Perspective on Islam and Christianity (Downers Grove: IVP, 2001), 175–83.
21The Qur’anic portrait of Jesus has many features that are found, not in the Gospels in the Bible (all written during the first century) but in the apocryphal gospels written in the second and third centuries. For example, the miracle of creating birds from clay is recorded not in the canonical gospels but in the opening short story of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (2.1–5 [end of the second century]). Compare also the still later Arabic Infancy Gospel, with which Muhammad was apparently familiar.
22Bukhari, anbiya’ [prophets], 45.
23Abu Hamid al-Ghazali follows this line of argument in his famous treatise Al-Radd al-jamil li-ilahiyyat ‘Isa bi-sarihi l-injil, ed. and trans. R. Chidiac as Réfutation excellente de la divinité de Jésus-Christ d’après les évangiles (Arabic-French ed.; Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1939).
24This section represents a very brief summary of my book The Search for Forgiveness: Pardon and Punishment in Islam and Christianity (Leicester: IVP, 2004).
25Muslim, iman [faith], 37. This teaching is not entirely dissimilar to the Catholic doctrine about grave (or mortal) sins and venial sins.
26Bukhari, iman [faith], 34.
27Abu Dawud, sunna [behavior], 23.
28Temporary punishment in hell in this theology is similar to Roman Catholicism’s purgatory, and the Prophet’s intercession is comparable to Roman Catholicism’s “intercession of the saints.”
29Bukhari, anbiya’ [prophets], 50; Muslim, fitan [seditions], 23.
30Bukhari, buyu’ [sales], 50; see Isaiah 42:1–9.
31Bukhari, manaqib [virtues], 25.
32Bukhari, iman [faith], 16.
33Tirmidhi, fada’il al-jihad [virtues of jihad], 2.
34Bukhari, diyat [blood money], 6. It is worth noting that the Mosaic law also prescribes capital punishment for murder (Deuteronomy 19:21), blasphemy (Leviticus 24:15–16), and adultery (Leviticus 20:10).
35Bukhari, hudud [legal punishments], 3.
36To be fair, for centuries the Jewish communities were badly treated in Europe. Christian anti-Semitism, however, had nothing to do with the teaching of Christ (who was himself a Jew).
37Examples of such discrimination is that according to Islamic law a Muslim man can marry a Christian woman, but a Christian man cannot marry a Muslim woman (5:5); a Christian can convert to Islam, but a Muslim will come under apostasy law if he converts to Christianity (Bukhari, jihad, 149). In some countries (e.g., Malaysia), if a Muslim becomes a Christian and is not executed for apostasy, he or she cannot marry a Christian because the legal status of the convert is still Muslim and the shari’a courts will not sanction the change. Christians may not take leadership roles in Muslim societies since Muslims must be governed by fellow Muslims.
38Traditionally, this text has been understood in a restrictive sense: Jews and Christians should not be forced to convert to Islam, not that Muslims are free to convert to another religion.
39 One thinks, for instance, of the remarkable book by N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003).