Muhammadan Objections

130	OBJECTIONS TO SOME CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES

nor could he prick Him¹. We have seen that, according to the Qur'an, Christ did not die, and that He was taken up alive to Heaven, where He still lives². We have also noticed that to Him alone of the prophets no sin is ascribed. He did not need to have His breast cleansed, His burden removed, or to ask forgiveness of His sins. Besides all this, the Qur'an acknowledges that Jesus was born of a virgin (Surahs LXVI., At Tahrim, 12; XXI., Al Anbiya', 91; XIX., Maryam, 16-22; III., Al 'Imran, 40-42), through God's Spirit (Surah XXI., Al Anbiya', 91), and was strengthened with the Holy Spirit (Surah II., Al Baqarah, 81, 254). These things are said of no other prophet³.

117. M. Why do you make so much of Jesus' birth from a virgin? The Qur'an teaches us that, no doubt: but it also teaches us that Adam had neither father nor mother. Ought he not then to be preferred to Christ, with whom we have seen that the Qur'an compares him, doubtless for this very reason, as commentators say?

C. If that is the reason of the comparison, why do Muslims try to explain the verse (Surah III.,

¹ Vide § 80.
¹ Mr. Harding says: "I have found most effective the argument that Jesus is alive and Muhammad is dead." This is a very general experience of missionaries, and much use should be made of the admitted fact.
¹ A missionary should use the Qur'an only as a subsidiary aid, to show the greatness of Jesus even from the book on which the Muslims rely, but not to prove distinctively Christian truths. (Rev. W. A. Rice.)

AS ALLEGED TO BE TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE

131

Al 'Imran, 52) as implying that Christ was not greater than Adam? The verse may mean that (as the New Testament says) Christ is the second Adam (1 Cor. xv. 45), greater than the first because He gives spiritual life, whereas it is merely our natural life that comes from the first Adam. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. xv. 22). Adam was not born but created: Christ was born¹ without a father. The creation of Adam was in this respect similar to the creation of the world, plants, and the lower animals; whereas the Qur'an itself says that Christ's supernatural birth took place through God's purpose to give men a sign, and this is not said of any other prophet's birth. To Abraham and Zacharias there was promised, according to the Qur'an, "a wise son," "a righteous prophet." But regarding Christ's birth the language used is very different, for of Mary it is said, "Her who kept her maidenhood, and into whom We breathed of Our spirit, and made her and her son a sign to all creatures (Surah XXI., Al Anbiya' , 91). The Qur'an therefore represents Christ's birth as without a parallel.

¹ In dealing with this question, I used to lay stress on the significance of interrupting the ordinary method of human generation, after it had been once established, in the case of our Lord, and of Him only. If the human race was to commence at all, it must have been, so far as we can see, by something like the creation of Adam directly by God Himself. But this is wholly different from the unique interruption in the chain of human life once it had been started." (Bishop of Lahore.)

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