Original Sin, Redemption, & Divinity of Christ

By: Mushfiqur Rahman

Original Sin, Redemption, & Divinity of Christ

Original Sin
There is no "original sin" in Islam. First of all, it is true that Adam and Eve committed sin by disobeying God. But they were both forgiven by God. Secondly, one man's action cannot be the burden of another man. Every individual is responsible only for his or her actions. Thus, every child is born pure and sinless. The world he sets foot in is also seen as a positive ground for him to cultivate. Not only is he born without sin, but also he is born actually with a set of positive things to help him in his cultivation of the world: 1) God places love and mercy in the hearts of his parents who would nurture him and take care of him until he is grown up 2) He is given by God a array of fine tools that he can utilize in fulfilling his role on earth: knowledge, wisdom, intellect, conscience, logical deduction, etc. The world, further, is not seen as something evil; rather it is seen as a positive field that is ready for him to cultivate. Thus, in Islam, every child is born with a positive start who sets foot in a positive world. This is, of course, a major doctrinal difference between Islam and Christianity. That can be explained in light of the historical development of the Christian doctrines and the Church during the first few centuries after Jesus (pbuh). For example, the theory of the original sin was developed by St. Paul, and not by Jesus.

Divine Redemption
Just like a child is not responsible for the actions of another person, so his sins cannot be also redeemed by another person. Just as sins cannot be transferred, so cannot be the credits. Every individual is an independent person who is responsible for his or her actions alone. There is no salvation, for there is no original burden. One's success in the Hereafter lies in his living a righteous life in this world. Faith is important, but faith without deeds will not earn him any good. My purpose here is to only explain what Islam is and not discuss the doctrinal development of Christianity. But it would be relevant here to mention that the theory of divine redemption (that Christ died for our sins) like the theory of original sin was also developed by St. Paul. Both of these theories go together. Because there was an original sin, now there was a need for redemption. The later, then, called for the divinity of Christ. With this, I will now answer some of your questions.

Question 1: Is Allah the Same as the Christian God?
As I have mentioned in my previous email, Allah is the same universal God who created the universe and Who is worshipped by all Jews, Christians, Muslims, and other faith communities. I have also mentioned some of His attributes in my email. Where you come across any specific difference, whether in attribute or in understanding, then I can specifically discuss that topic if you write to me about it. The rest of the issues come from assumptions that are simply not correct. In saying so, I am blaming those who may have conveyed such ideas to you. That is why I mentioned previously that one should undertake an objective study without any preconceived notions. Anyway, to answer your questions, Muhammad (p) did not claim that "Allah" is a greater god than the god believed by Jews and Christian. He is the same God. Neither did he choose one of the 360 gods to come up with the "greatest" god. This assumption is the basis of most of your questions; therefore, it suffices here to say that the assumption is incorrect. Why Jews and Christians do not accept Muhammad can be explained by the same reason as why Jews do not accept Jesus. Jesus (p) did not bring any new message but spoke of the same eternal message of God to the humanity: believing in God, living a righteous life, Day of Judgment, accountability of actions, and so on. This message was the same as preached by the previous prophets, but its spirit was lost. Thus Jesus came as a renewer of the message of God. He was, of course, rejected by the Jews. Identical case is with Muhammad (p). He came as a reformer like Jesus (p) with the same message but was rejected by the Jews and the Christians.

Question 2: Did Prophet Muhammad Receive Inspiration From the Same Source?
The answer to your question is "Yes". All prophetic inspirations come from the same source - God Almighty. And all prophets speak the truth. The "test" of a prophet can be made by an objective study of the message he preaches and his life as a prophet. The message should be consistent with the message preached by all other prophets. It should be clarified here that the job of a prophet is not to mere make prophecies about future events. Rather, it is to re-energize the message of God to the humanity and provide them guidance so that they can live a righteous life according to the will of God. That is why "messenger" would be a more appropriate word than "prophet".

Question 3: Prophecies about the Coming of Jesus
Stating first that my purpose is not to hurt one's religious belief, I would like to say, as a student of history, and purely from historical perspective, that the Old Testament books are not considered 100% authentic historical documents. It is an established fact that these books were written over a period of 800 years by different authors at different times. They were compiled from oral traditions that were passed from generations to generations. Textual changes depending on the understanding of the scribes were common. Commentaries made by different scribes would later be considered by future generations to be part of the text. At occasions books or parts of books would be lost, requiring re-creations as in the case of the Torah which was lost when Jerusalem was burned down in the 6th century BC. Thus from the point of view of neutral history, God's message in the OT books has been mixed with the cultural elements of the Israelite traditions. This can be verified by studying the history of the Old Testament. Thus, a Muslim considers that the OT books do contain God's message but it also contains cultural traditions that are not God's message. Muslims neither reject the OT books completely, nor accept them with the understanding that they contain God's words 100%. Now let us come back to the question of the prophecies mentioned in the OT. If there is any prophecy about the coming of Jesus, well and good. Muslims certainly believe in Jesus as a prophet of God. But if one considers himself fair-minded and takes on an objective analysis of the OT prophecies and gives Jesus and Muhammad equal rights under objective study without discounting one or the other under a pre-conceived mind, one will find that there are also prophecies in OT that point to Muhammad. If you are sincerely interested in this topic, then you can borrow a book from me the title of which is "Muhammad in the Bible" (it was written by a Christian scholar named Rev. David Keldani who accepted Islam). Having said this, I would like to ask you: do you think these "600 prophecies" you mentioned exclusively point to Jesus and not to any other historical person? If your answer is yes and if you think that you have come to that conclusion after making an objective study of these prophecies without discounting one person or another or giving preference to one person or another, then perhaps we can freely and openly discuss your analysis. There is one thing that I can guarantee you about myself: you will find me, God willing, an unbiased person.

Divinity Of Christ
You have mentioned that the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John clearly points to the divinity of Christ. This may be the belief, but I am sorry that this is not based on facts. If divinity of Jesus is the central theme of Christianity, they the gospels should clearly establish that fact. Jesus should clearly and repeatedly say in the gospels that he is divine, that he is one of the 3 gods, that people should worship him as god. But that is not to be found in the gospels, contrary to what an ordinary Christian would believe. You will not find the word "Trinity" anywhere in the 4 gospels, although it is a fundamental theme of Christianity. If it is of any interest to you, then perhaps you can undertake a study of the early Christianity and see how the Christian doctrines and the early church was developed. If the fairness of the Muslims' claims are questioned, then one can read books written by Christian historians themselves. If you like to engage with me in discussion about the early history of Christianity, then I would be happy to. Here, I would simply mention that the divinity of Christ was established by the church not prior to the 4th century. It was only then the current four gospels were accepted as canonical and all the other gospels available were destroyed. That council is called the "Council of Nicea" which was held in 325 AD. It was called for by the emperor Constantine to settle disputes that was sweeping the Christian world about whether Jesus was god or whether he was man. Obviously, many of the gospels that were destroyed portrayed Jesus to be man. The divinity of Jesus and the concept of the Trinity not only sets Christianity apart from Islam but from the teachings of the Old Testament as well where all prophets preached pure monotheism. I am sure you will find my statement difficult to accept, but there is a substantial difference between the Christianity that Jesus (p) preached and the Christianity that is known today. This is not just what Muslims claim, but this is what western scholars of history tell us as well. These are all later developments that have been attributed to Jesus, corrupting, unfortunately his pure message. And there is one person who can be credited for this more than any other: St. Paul. Indeed, according to some, St. Paul should be considered the real founder of Christianity, not Jesus:

"Paul's influence on Christian theology has been incalculable. His ideas include the following: Jesus was not merely an inspired human prophet, but was actually divine. Christ died for our sins, and his suffering can redeem us. Man cannot achieve salvation by attempting to conform to biblical injunctions, but only by accepting Christ; conversely, if one accepts Christ, his sins will be forgiven. Paul also enunciated the doctrine of original sin. .. Indeed, the influence of Paul's ideal has been so great that some scholars have claimed that he, rather than Jesus, should be regarded as the principal founder of the Christian religion." - Michael H. Hart, "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History", New York, 1978.

Any person who sincerely and objectively undertakes the study of the development of Christianity will not only find that the actual message of Jesus has been lost by doctrines developed by others but will also find, if his study of Islam has also been objective, that Islam actually has restored the true image of Jesus, which is: he was a human being and a messenger of God who he preached God's unity and invited people to obey God.
This email brings about some of the doctrinal differences between Islam and Christianity. In doing so, it was not my intent to hurt one's religious feelings nor was it my desire to emphasis on dissimilarities. They only came up as I had to address some of your questions. But I would like to emphasis here that I have not tried to propagate my faith here but tried to remain objective by relying on neutral history in discussing some of the doctrinal issues.