When Reza Aslan’s bestseller Zealot came out in 2013, there was criticism that he hadn’t addressed his Muslim faith while writing the origin story of Christianity. In fact, Ross Douthat of The New York Times wrote that “if Aslan had actually written in defense of the Islamic view of Jesus, that would have been something provocative and new.”
Mustafa Akyol’s The Islamic Jesus is that book.
The Islamic Jesus reveals startling new truths about Islam in the context of the first Muslims and the early origins of Christianity. Muslims and the first Christians―the Jewish followers of Jesus―saw Jesus as not divine but rather as a prophet and human Messiah and that salvation comes from faith and good works, not merely as faith, as Christians would later emphasize. What Akyol seeks to reveal are how these core beliefs of Jewish Christianity, which got lost in history as a heresy, emerged in a new religion born in 7th Arabia: Islam.
Akyol exposes this extraordinary historical connection between Judaism, Jewish Christianity and Islam―a major mystery unexplored by academia. From Jesus’ Jewish followers to the Nazarenes and Ebionites to the Qu’ran’s stories of Mary and Jesus, The Islamic Jesus will reveal links between religions that seem so contrary today. It will also call on Muslims to discover their own Jesus, at a time when they are troubled by their own Pharisees and Zealots.
Categories: Bible, God, History, Islam, Judaism, Recommended Reading
Blogging Theology 
I haven’t read the book yet, but it looks highly interesting. I think these are the types of books that Muslim’s NEED to be writing (and reading) today. We need more Scholarly works, which engage with the Judeo-Christian source texts in a way that emphasizes Islam’s legitimate connection with the Abrahamic faith.
It would be of great benefit to see Muslim scholars building upon the work done by recent Biblical Scholarship and NT Historical Criticism, and applying their own critique, analysis, and interpretation of the same scriptural sources and texts, both Canonized and apocryphal, with an aim to connect these back to the understandings, teachings, viewpoints and belief as expounded upon in the Qur’an and orthodox Islamic tradition.
I think that in this day and age, it is an excellent scholarly endeavor, which will help Muslims to improve their own understanding in regard to Islam’s position in relation to the two sister faiths in the Abrahamic tradition, while improving the ability of Muslims everywhere to speak in a more informed way that will allow them to engage in polemical discourse, apologetics, and Dawah on a higher level.
Inshallah, it may also help non-Muslims to understand how strongly rooted Islam is in the early origins of both Jewish and Christian tradition. This, in turn, may allow many to understand how Islam has preserved much of the early beliefs and teachings without impurities through the progressive revelation of the Qur’an, and to see Islam as a valid alternative faith choice for themselves.
I pray that Allah (swt) guide to Islam those who sincerely seek the truth.
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O dear. When Jesus said beware of false christs, false prophets, and false teachers surely he had in mind the most obvious fake prophet of all time.
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https://bloggingtheology.net/2016/09/23/muhammad-in-comprehensive-christian-perspective-the-prophet-per-se/
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Hans Kung must have been smoking some dynamite weed. But is that the best you do? Muhammad is a fake prophet and the best you can do is link a dodgy papist theologian
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Kung offers a detailed historical and theological analysis of early Jewish Christianity and concludes, plausibly, that Islam is in direct continuity with many aspects of the non-Pauline Church.
Ironically Muhammad has a stronger claim to be following the historical Jesus than Paul.
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calm down
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LOL what’s your or “Achilies” credibility
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Lets cut to the chase Paul. Every day i read of the prophecies and miracles of Jesus and Saul/Paul of Tarsus. If Muhummad is a real prophet tell me of the miracles he did and of his prophesies?
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There are so many where does one start?
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Up to you.
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https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=4kGTDl8-zxY
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A you tube link. O dear.
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Yes oh dear. It has many amazing prophesies by Muhammad that have one true. Amazing.
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O my goodness. “Civilisation will come to an end”. That seals it then. After watching this im still more convinced in Nostradamas’ credentials.
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Yeshua
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