Muslims have a special love for Jesus

How do Muslims regard Christ? Here Imran Yahya describes how Islam is at one with Catholicism over the Virgin Birth.
CATHOLICS know what it is like when Catholic news items are handled in the national Press. There may not be outright hostility, but there is often misrepresentation and nearly always a sensational twist. Muslims in Britain have the same problem, and also suffer from the fact that many things done in the name of Islam (and reported in this sense in the newspapers) have in reality nothing whatever to do with it. Muslims expect Catholics to understand, if their constant plea is for a fuller knowledge of the facts.
It is with facts that we must begin if we want to know how Islam regards Christ. There are three religions which stem from that current of monotheism that originated with Abraham: Judaism (revealed through Moses), Christianity (revealed through Jesus), and Islam (revealed through Mohammed). Abraham himself was prior to all three.
One result of this is that, just as Christianity accepts the Jewish prophets who came before it, so Islam accepts all antecedent Jewish and Christian prophets. And just as Christians, whose loyalty to Jesus and Mary is paramount, can nevertheless have an especial love for the Psalms of David, so Muslims, who adhere to the religion of Mohammed, traditionally have a special love for Jesus and Marv. This is a fact which is insufficiently known and pondered.
But how do Muslims actually regard Jesus and Mary? For the Koran. Jesus is the Messiah, the incarnate Word of God (IV, 171), the son of Mary ever-Virgin (IV, 171), who was sent by God to confirm the Pentateuch with the Gospel, which is guidance and light (V, 46). According to the Koran, Jesus and Mary deserve the wonder of the universe (XXI, 91).
Mohammed himself said: "Every son of Adam, at birth is touched by Satan, save only the son of Mary and his Mother." In other words, Islam is totally at one with Catholicism as far as both the Virgin Birth of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception of Mary are concerned. We find ourselves here at a refreshing distance from Protestantism and modernism!
The biggest point of contention between Islam and Christianity is the Koran's apparent denial of the Crucifixion. This cannot be glossed over, but let us look at the actual words of the Koran: "1 hey (the Jews) disbelieved; they spake against Mary a tremendous calumny; they said: We slew the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary,' "They slew him not, nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them ... But God took him up unto Himself." (IV, 156-8). Nevertheless to bypass the Crucifixion cannot fail to be incomprehensible to Christians. The reason for Islam's attitude is that its own means of grace and way of salvation are based, not on the Redemption of mankind by Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary, but on the saving power of Divine Truth itself, as made accessible to the Muslim in the Koran and the Islamic liturgy.
In submission to God's Truth, the pious Muslim lives and dies. Herein is the Muslim self-abnegation, and herein is the Muslim salvation. This was understood by Pope Pius XI who, in despatching his Apostolic Delegate to Libya, said to him: "Do not think you arc going amongst infidels. Muslims attain to salvation. The ways of God are infinite." (L'Ultinta. Florence, August 1954).
Many consider this sharp divergence on a matter as important as the Crucifixion to be a providentially willed barrier between the two religions. In this way any mutually destructive mingling between two divinely revealed forms is prevented, and their respective orthodoxy safeguarded. The two religions exist separately to serve God's purpose. Pope Pius XII remarked how consoling it was that, all over the world, there were millions of people who, five times a day, prostrated themselves before God. The truth was that both religions came from God, and both religions led back to God.I These two processes, in the Muslim view, were what religion was all about, and in them lay hidden the secret and the purpose of man's earthly sojourn.
From before the time of the Crusades, many Christians have considered Islam, bordering as it does on Christendom, to be a threat and rival to the latter. And yet Islam's record towards Christianity is a good one, and its age-old tolerance of Christian and Jewish communities ("People of the Book") living in its midst is well known.
Islam's attitude to Christianity has its roots in the Koran: "You will find that the best friends of believers are those who say: 'We are Christians'. This is because there are priests and monks amongst them and because they are not proud." (V, 82).
A modern testimony regarding one part of the Muslim world comes from Fr Patrick O'Connor, a Catholic missionary: "One can safely say ... that in Africa's Muslim millions there is a great fund of sincere religious sentiment and of goodwill towards non-Muslims." (Catholic Herald, January 9, 1959). • A Muslim may be excused for asking: "What is Christianity's attitude towards Islam?" A fitting answer has been provided in advance in the concluding words of a joint Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria (Catholic Herald, October 21, 1960): "We express sentiments of fraternal love towards our Muslim fellow-citizens ... We appreciate their deep spirit of prayer and fasting ... We are united against tendencies towards materialism and secularism."
With a large and God-fearing Muslim community in our midst, may these words of truthfulness and charity be our inspiration and our guide.