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Class Prep
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Jesus & the Mahdi in Muslim Tradition
Jesus stands atop a staircase of prophets, and (faceless) Muhammad looks on from his camel
on the Day of Judgment
- Jesus has some significance in the Qur'an as one of several major prophets or messengers whom Allah sent to preach the central message of Islam (of tawhid, of social justice, and of submission to judgment). He is not a focal figure as he is in Christianity, but since we spent some time examining early Christian Christologies in earlier weeks, it will be interesting now to compare how the Qur'an treats him.
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- The Khalidi essay traces the treatment of Jesus in the Qur'an. He states that "unlike any other prophet, [the Qur'anic Jesus] is embroiled in polemic" (p. 12). That is, the descriptions of him and of his speech rebut claims that Christians are making. Be able to identify three Christian claims about Jesus that the Qur'an rebuts, and identify what the Qur'an says instead. Be sure that at least one of your examples deals with the crucifixion (surah 4:153-160, compared to Mark 15:25—16:8). Khalidi also offers four "types or "groups" of references to Jesus in the Qur'an (p. 14ff). The other assigned surahs offer examples of some of these.
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- Jesus is mentioned briefly in association with the final judgment in the Qur'an (43.61), but this minor point becomes a major association in the hadith, and in that authoritative tradition gradually eclipses the portrait of Jesus in the Qur'an (Khalidi will go on to argue that the Qur'anic Jesus endures in the "Muslim gospel," his term for popular prophetic tales that focus on Jesus). Finger picks this up with a special focus on Jesus and the Mahdi in contemporary Iran, where Shi'a Islam fuses the two figures' eschatological roles in particular ways.
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- Today's reflection question asks you to consider how imagined "ends" shape real "nows"—that is, how notions of the end of time or a final judgment function in individual or group psychology. You can consider claims that the world will end, like Oakland preacher Harold Camping's (second) prediction that failed to transpire last October, or the less specific, less literal notions that humanity is moving toward some end or purpose. What do you think the end or purpose of the world is, and how does that shape your daily choices?
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- Assigned Readings
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- Primary: Surahs 3:1-9, 31-63; 4:153-160; 5:109-120; review the Gospel of Mark 15:25–16:8
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- Secondary: Excerpt from Tarif Khalidi, "Introduction: The Muslim Gospel," in The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001) read pages 6-29; Thomas N. Finger, "Waiting for the Mahdi: Jesus and the Shi’a Savior," Christian Century 125:12 (17 June 2008) 27-8 (Camino)
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- Slides from Lecture
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- Further Reading
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- Amanat, Abbas. Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi'ism, Library of Modern Religion 4. London: B. Tauris, 2009.
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- --------. "The Resurgence of Apocalyptic in Modern Islam." In Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, vol. 3, Apocalypticism in the Modern Period and the Contemporary Age (ed. Stephen J. Stein; New York: Continuum, 1998) 230-64.
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- Cook, David. Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008.
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- Filiu, Jean-Pierre. Apocalypse in Islam, trans. M. B. DeBevoise. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
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- Furnish, Timothy R. Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, Their Jihads, and Osama bin Lden. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2005.
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- García-Arenal, Mercedes. Messianism and Puritanical Reform: Mahdîs of the Muslim West, The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 29. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
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- Hassan, Riffat. "Messianism and Islam." Journal of Ecumenical Studies 22:2 (1985) 261-91.
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- Khalidi, Tarif. The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001.
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- Lawson, Todd. The Crucifixion and the Qur'an: A Study in the History of Muslim Thought. Oxford: Oneworld, 2009.
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- Nurbakhsh, Javad. Jesus in the Eyes of the Sufis. Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications (KNP), 1983.
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- Parrinder, Geoffrey. Jesus in the Qur'an. Oxford: OneWorld, 1995.
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- Sachedina, Abdulaziz A. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi'ism. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1981.
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- Tucker, William F. Mahdis and Millenarians: Shi'ite Extremists in Early Muslim Iraq. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
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- Sources
- Photographs:
- "The Day of the Last Judgment," unsigned but attributed to the artist Mohammad Modabber; undated, but likely from the late 19th century. In the Reza Abbasi Museum Collection (Iran). In Hadi Seyf, Coffee-House Painting (Tehran: Reza Abbasi Museum, 1990).
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