Thursday, October 8, 2020

Mustafa Akyol (Muslim) on the Problems of the Popular "Substitution Theory" Interpretation of Surah 4:157 in the Qur'an

 

 

Yet this “substitution” theory, which is still almost the standard view among Muslims today, raises lots of questions. Fakhraddin al-Razi, the medieval scholar, addressed some of them frankly in his major exegesis of the Qur’an. “God was no doubt capable of delivering Jesus from the hands of his enemies by simply taking up him to heaven,” he first reminded, “What then,” he asked, “is the purpose of casting his likeness on another man, except to condemn an innocent man to death to no purpose?” He also made the following observation, which is in fact a good reminder for all religious believers that their arguments against the rival tradition can turn back on themselves:

 

All Christians in the world, with all their great love for Jesus and their extremist beliefs concerning him, have reported that they witnessed him being crucified and killed. If we were to deny this, we would cast doubt on the principle of tawatur [universally accepted transmission]. Casting doubt on this principle would also necessitate casting doubt on the prophethood of Muhammad and Jesus, and even in their very existence, as well as the existence of all other prophets, and that would be untenable. (Mustafa Akyol, The Islamic Jesus: How the King of Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2017], 153)

 


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