Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland

DISCOVERING SCRIPTURE IN SCRIPTURE t 27
his very death. According to their understanding, what the Quran
meant to say is that Jesus will die only on his second, eschatological
coming. The classic commentator al-Tabari, for example, sums
up the sources available to him as follows: Jesus will be sent down
to earth and will kill the Antichrist. He will remain here for some
time, though its duration is a matter of dispute. Finally, however,
he will die a mortal death and will be buried by the Muslims next
to Muhammad at Medina. This version of Jesus’ past and future
clearly contradicts the New Testament accounts, but the matter is
of little concern to medieval exegetes, who thought the Christian
versions were corrupt. Early in the twentieth century, however, another
reading of these and parallel verses begins to be put forward
by some Muslims: Jesus was not crucified by the Jews but rather he
died a natural death at about the same time as the supposed crucifixion.
His ascension, God’s “raising up” of him referred to in
3:55, is perhaps to be understood metaphorically.
So the Quran on matters Christian, but what of the Christians
themselves—the community called Nasara in the Quran, the addon
to “Jesus and those who followed him,” or those concealed
under the rubric Peoples of the Book? There is, to put it simply,
both praise and blame for Christians in the Quran. Consider, for
example, the famous verse 82 from sura 5:
You will find the most vehement of mankind in hostility to the believers
to be the Jews and the idolaters. And you will find the nearest
to them [that is, to the believers] in affection those who say
“Behold, we are Christians.” That is because there are among them
priests and monks, and because they are not proud.
The celebrated commentator Zamakhshari (d. 1144), after citing
a Prophetic saying to the effect that “if a Muslim is alone with
two Jews, they will try to kill him,” glosses the second part of the
text just cited by explaining that the Christians are both humble
and men of learning, just the opposite of the Jews. “Here is a clear
example,” Zamakhshari goes on, “showing that the struggle for
knowledge is very useful, leading first to good and then to success,
even among the (Christian) priests. The same is true about concern
for the hereafter . . . possibly another characteristic of the monk,