I wanted to encourage others to check out this blog post at: "imeslebanon.wordpress.com"
Here is an excerpt from the article that stood out. I hope to post more related to this topic from my own research in the future.
"Not only are beliefs about Jesus today diverse among Muslims, but traditional beliefs concerning him do not necessarily lead to loyalty for his teaching and life. Conversely, it does not automatically follow that those who claim to be his disciples hold Biblical beliefs concerning his true identity.
Muslim polemics against Christianity based on Qur’ānic verses about Jesus must be examined within their particular historical context, and I would suggest that they have been driven more by political power struggles than by disinterested theological overtures. But while there are less than a dozen verses in the Qur’ān upon which a polemical discourse against Christians can be built, there are nearly twice as many that serve as an affirmation of Jesus’ greatness.
One might ask: Why is Jesus such a central figure in the Qur’ān? Why did Muḥammad not simply proclaim his message of monotheism, calling pagan Arabs to the worship of the One God, leaving the Judeo-Christian tradition alone? If the prophet of Islam felt the burden, like Abraham, to break away from the religion of his fathers, and to venture into new territory in response to God’s call, why did he have to do so at the expense of the preceding covenants which he claimed to continue and complete?
My studies into the extensive references to Jesus in the Qur’ān lead me to believe that they were not primarily meant to be polemical, even though in historical retrospective they appear to be so. In fact, I have become convinced that the Qur’ānic narrative about Jesus only incidentally ends up emerging ‘at the expense’ of the Christian narrative. I believe that in its primary purpose, the Jesus metanarrative in the Qur’ān was in fact designed as proof of Muḥammad’s prophethood, and only incidentally became a counter-narrative, not to the Gospels themselves, but to the Christians’ interpretation of their texts.
