Answer
Salam Dear Reader,
Thank you for your question and for contacting Ask About Islam.
To begin with, we need to clearly identify the personality of Jesus from an Islamic perspective.
Prophet Or Messenger?
Muslims believe that Jesus (peace be upon him) is a mighty prophet and messenger of God.
To clarify, according to the Islamic belief, there thousands and thousands of prophets, but only a few hundred messengers.
Five of those messengers are described by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as mighty messengers consisting of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them).
In brief, not every prophet is a messenger, but the contrary is true: every messenger is a prophet.
A prophet is chosen by God to deliver a specific divine message either verbal or written.
Meanwhile, a messenger delivers God’s message through a written revelation such as the Psalms of David, the Torah of Moses, the Gospel of Jesus and the Quran of Muhammad (peace be upon them).
Finally mighty messengers are those whom God had fully supported and did not allow anyone to harm them.
This means that they completely deliver their message to their corresponding nation since some prophets and messengers were killed before completing their divine message.
It is a core Islamic belief that Jesus (peace be upon him) is a human being who was miraculously created from a mother but not a father, just like Adam who was created without a father nor a mother, and Eve who was created from Adam (peace be upon them) by God’s word “be” and it was.
Jesus is a prophet and a messenger, and not just any messenger; he is a mighty messenger, in Arabic “min ulu al-zmi-mina Rusul.”
Jesus Will Return (And Marry)
In addition, Muslims believe he was not killed, therefore not crucified, since crucifixion is a humiliating act that discredits his position.
We believe he was raised to the heavens in order to return towards the end of time as a follower of Muhammad, a Muslim praying like Muslims, to abolish all evil on earth including the killing of the false messiah (Al-Massieh Addajal).
According to Imam At-Tirmidhi, when Jesus returns, he will remain forty more years on earth, will marry and have children and when he dies, the Muslims will bury him next to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them).
It is therefore not contentious for Muslims that Jesus was married before ascending to heaven; when he came to deliver his Gospel to the Israelites.
However, there no proof so far except from the latest discovery of the fourth-century papyrus fragment.
There is an important question that comes to mind, why wasn’t Jesus’ marriage mentioned in the Christian Gospel?
Why No Mention Of Him Marrying in The Bible?
The only hypothetical explanations I can come up with are either:
a.) he really was not married or
b.) the churches which produced the Trinitarian doctrine removed such information in order to maintain the divinity of Jesus (peace be upon him).
An ideology that was rejected by many Christians who followed Arianism in the past and during our time those who follow Unitarianism; both like Islam preach that Jesus was a prophet not God.
It is worth mentioning that we might find more authentic information about Jesus in the Arians’ scriptures and the Gospel of Barnabas, which are the earliest Christian Gospels that are not accepted by the Trinitarian church since again Jesus is addressed as a prophet, a man.
Jesus Was A Living, Eating Man
Some of the information that we can extract from any Christian Gospel is that Jesus (peace be upon him) was once a shepherd, a fisherman, and a carpenter. He also drank, ate, and slept like everyone else.
In the Quran, in order to emphasis that neither Jesus nor his mother are gods, it is mentioned that they used to eat:
The Messiah, son of Mary, was no more than a Messenger, before whom many Messengers have passed away; and his mother adhered wholly to truthfulness, and they both ate food (as mortals do). See how We make Our signs clear to them; and see where they are turning away. (Quran 5: 75)
Here God is politely telling us that the person who eats must dispose of what he eats, an act which cannot be attributed to God.
Also according to the Quran, when angels visited Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) and he prepared food for them, they refused to eat since eating is not one of their attributes or an attribute of God.
In summary, for Muslims it is not a matter of argument that Jesus (peace be upon him) was married but I believe it would add more complications to the Trinitarian churches since according to them God begot Jesus as His only son.
If he then had children, would they also be partially God and partially man?
Definitely Jesus (peace be upon him) was not anti-social since it would contradict his mission; he mingled with the poor and the sick and was never in hiding nor was he afraid of unfortunate consequences since God supported him.
I hope this helps answer your questions.
(Originally published in September 2016)
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