Jesus and Muhammad, seen side by side by Mark A. Gabriel

Mark .A. Gabriel’s book ‘Jesus and Muhammad,’ is a very interesting, entertaining and candid opinion of a writer with clear, clever and crafty point of view. An excellent book in religious genre; far more useful and openly probing than the plethora of religious books you find in book stores and stands meant to enlighten, indoctrinate or covet followers without much efforts, logic or convincing substance to sell their alternative religion as better choice. In the book, Mark ably invites his readers to ponder on some salient issues that makes his favoured religion stand out, comparatively portraying the other as a religion moulded in the dark ages, frozen in ice and left untendered too long to have gone out-of-sort, bland, sour and therefore uninteresting, unattractive and irrelevant to modern day free, cultured, vibrant and changing jet age world. How did the writer go about doing this; what are the issues he navigated to justify his stance?

Mark presents his readers with direct biblical and Quranic quotations, inviting them to examine Jesus and Muhammad’s utterances, deeds and laid down commandments to determine whether they were just clever opportunistic men; mere mortal after immortality or divinities conveying the messages of God. It is a fact well known by all that Muhammad and Jesus’ followers, elevate them beyond mortals; proclaiming Jesus; ‘one and only son of God’ and, Muhammad; ‘Allah’s only prophet.’ Some of the questions Mark’s book raises are, were these men truly divine? Truly, God’s representatives? Convincingly, and without any shadow of doubt so? And lastly, did they remain truly faithful and consistent to their callings; exhibiting God’s forbearing nature of being peaceful, non-discriminatory, loving and kind? Even in the face of provocations, oppositions and hostilities? Mark thinks not for Muhammad and evidently true of Jesus.

According to Mark, records show that both men were born, shrouded in some supernatural dispensation. They carried on as supernatural Beings to death but went through major testing times of personal losses and trials. Both men were endorsed and helped along from take-off in their mission by relatives. So, how did he rate both men in terms of disposition to being superhuman? Mark says Muhammad’s revelations and the establishment of his status as true Prophet was revealed and endorsed by his wife, Kadija’s cousin, and an Ebonite Christian; Waraqa bin Neufal, who became Muhammad’s mentor as well as tutor. After Muhammad’s first encounter with Angel Gabriel in a Cave at Hira, the angel consequently, constantly appeared to Him to deliver God’s messages. However, when Waraqa died and the revelations from Angel Gabriel seized. He says Muhammad was pushed to the edge; ‘so sad...that he contemplated throwing himself from the top of a high mountain.’ Jesus on the other hand shows up at the Jordan riverside to be endorsed and confirmed at baptism by His cousin, John the Baptist. He is said to have headed, straight afterwards into the desert where for forty days, He fasted. Tired, hungry and weary after such abstinence, the devil, it is recorded, found it an opportune time to tempt him. To Mark, Jesus emerged from His trials stronger, firmer and truly divine. He therefore rates Jesus higher supernaturally.

He also compares them in terms of their reactions to oppositions: The appearance and messages of Jesus and Muhammad were threats to certain interests. Who were they threatening? The most threatened according to Mark, was the Jewish and Arabian states. There was no separation between the state and the religious authority at this time and any action perceived as usurpation or insurgence against the domineering religion of the day was interpreted as taking arms against the state. For instance, Al-ha’ba was the symbolic supreme religious place of worship for all the pagan worshippers of Arabia where Muhammad was born and grew. And as each nation made compulsory annual pilgrimage to Mecca the Arabian capital, they came with rich gifts that included money, food, animals, often engaged in trades, etc. Arabia at Muhammad’s time was a desert country, as it still is today and sustained wholly then, and partly till-date by the annual trips, i. e. the gains from the donations and trades that are incidental to the pilgrimages to Mecca. So, when Muhammad wanted the pagan worship stopped, preaching that all Arabia and neighbouring nations convert to Islam which translated to stopping the trips and trade without, at the time, assurance that the annual pilgrimages would continue under Islam, it was asking too much; like asking the state to commit suicide. And to show their displeasure, the state, led by the leading tribe in Mecca openly rebel against Him: Muhammad and His people were persecuted openly; harassed, beaten, spat at, stoned and pursued to the desert and then, eventually father away to Medina where Muhammad regrouped, reenergized and fought back. In the same vane all of the reactive ills that bedevilled Muhammad’s teaching and preaching were equally visited on Jesus. His pronouncements, condemnations of the peoples’ religious leaders, interpretation of the scroll-the foundation of the bible-were thought to be ludicrous, offensive to a lot of people and particularly insulting, confrontation, and disrespectful to the religious leaders of the synagogue in Nazareth and other cities of Israel. Worse still, Jesus openly and confrontationally, disrupted commerce by scattering the wares of traders at a prominent Jerusalem temple. All of these made the Jews - His people - so mad that they pursued Him until they eventually cornered Him, successfully prosecuted him, nailed him to a stake and gleefully watched Him till he gave up the ghost.

In the face of such oppositions; rejections, harassment, including plots and counter plots to kill them, Marks states that Muhammad, the once cooperative, tolerant, never-driven-to-violent ‘soft lamb’ of Mecca who went about preaching the ‘goodness’ and after-life bliss that goes with worshipping one God-Allah, turned a bitter, scheming, ‘roaring lion’ after He was driven out and He relocated to Medina; Where He preached fire and brimstone as punishment for anyone caught or seen to be plotting against Him, the Islamic religion or not to be worshipping Allah. He was said to have declared, soon after finding his feet in Medina, the “verse of the sword” giving him and all Muslims permission to start the fight of God’s holy wars and other further radical pronouncements on all aspects of life and living including, ‘the spoils of wars,’ which includes (a) how to divide the women and goods captured during Jihad (b) to lie in wait, fight and kill all who rejects Islam, etc all of which, helps Mark paint Islam the colouration of war-mongering, unfriendly and dark religious practice. And compared to Jesus, Mark cleverly, adoringly and craftily presented Jesus as divinely; dressing Him gracefully as possessing such fine qualities as though Jesus had such outstanding and incomparable strength, power and might, yet, He remained meek, forgiving to all and sundry, no matter the provocation or haranguing, forever preaching peace, love and forgiveness, yet He never wavered, remaining resolute and uncompromising in His dealings with the devil.

Mark also compares the two on their relationship with the female gender. The biblical gist about God’s creation of man (male and females) and their relationship from the beginning established the fact that God was just and fair, bequeathing to Adam and Eve, first man and woman; the first and only followers, equal regards, considerations, love, kindness, benevolence; allowing them to live in bliss and comfort of God’s abundance in the garden of Eden. When they went blithering and recalcitrant, God, in equal measures, cursed and kicked them out of the garden to go fend for themselves. Then came Jesus and Muhammad believed to be representative; ‘messenger’ and ‘son of God,’ by billions of following souls. Surely, it would and should be taken for granted that they also would be as benevolent and reactive to disobedience of their commands by their followers, as God? Or, in laying down religious instructions to life and living, would do so without bias or favouritism, like God? But, following the history of the male gender, such expectations ought to be laughable and history has proven it so. From its origin religion was and has been an all male gender dominated affairs-they crafted the worship ritual instructions, have led, ran and managed it in ruthless secrecy. So, why would anyone expect such an all male enclave to see visions, make pronouncements, promulgations, laws and instructions on life, living and worship that would benefit any other gender other than theirs? But Jesus and Muhammad were supernatural and divine, above gender, more like God. Yet, their selection of an all males twelve wise ones defeats such parallel qualification, closer more to nature of male gender than God? The selection surely could not have been based on gender contributions, sacrifices, birth, or intelligence to the propagation of ‘the worship of one true God’s,’ doctrine. Women have made as much sacrifices; bore the burden of God’s curse in equal measures. And I would venture to say, if they had selected or elected women to the esteem position of their inner decision-making circle and wise advisers, the many ‘holy’ mayhem and relationships frost resulting from macho rivalries and bickering that turns to wars, banditry and untold punishing and sufferings, then and now, could or may have been tempered by the female gender contributions.

Yet still, Mark saw all these differently: apportioning monstrosity only to Muhammad; for all the instruction documented about the place and role of women in the Quran. He writes that Muhammad regarded women with the worst derogatory remarks; that though remaining faithful to Khadija for twenty-five years, as soon as she died, married twelve more, with many more concubines on the side and equating women to pigs and dogs, unlike the saintly Jesus, who respected and practically cuddled them; elevating them to the lofty position of ‘help hands’ as members of His missionary entourage.

And, as to their final words to their followers, Mark, shows very telling differences on how truly divine and peace loving they were. First he sees Muhammad as war monger and advocate when He decrees that Muslim:

‘Kill the Mushrikun wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush. But if they repent and perform As-Salat (prayers) and give Zakat (charity tax), then leave their way free.’ SURAH 9:5

He compares and contrasts this with Jesus whom he sees as in complete opposite:

‘If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town...when you are persecuted in one place flee to another.’ Matthew 10:14, 15, 23.

The preceding show that as much emphasis remained placed on religious relevance in our lives today as many years ago when Jesus and Muhammad were with us flesh and blood. The messages they left much more as couched, compiled and continually being interpreted in different ways by their followers remaining as confounding, confusing, delightful, clear and unclear depending on what side of the divide one chooses to pitch tent. Also as profound, are the little black books these messages are bound in; the Quran and Bible remain the highest placed secretive and reverential referential books on earth-continually been and being guarded and preserved with lives and blood-flaws and all.

Mark Gabriel has pitched his tent with the Christian faith, having tasted the Islamic potpourri of indoctrinating brew. His work is exceptional, smacked with politics, morality, satire, controversy stretched near bound of sensitivity; paedophilic and criminal insinuations. He did all these and yet still able to heap worthy praises and tributes to these two most inspirational and godly figure in the historical anal of human race. It is clear the making of the two most influential religions of the world are essentially and wholly about the lives and time-public and private-of the two characters-Muhammad and Jesus. Christianity and Islam today is all about preserving, protecting, keeping relevant, idolising, worshiping, emulating, and competitively showering awesome praises on the intelligence and spirituality of Jesus and Muhammad. Mark’s theme is conventional to books of that genre. But Mark succeeded in presenting a good, well written, delightful and readable book.

‘Jesus and Muhammad,’ is rich and outstandingly crafted. It is written in very simple, straight forward, and easy to read language. The quotations, straight from the Bible and Quran makes its originality and eloquence easy to follow in the direction Marks wants his readers. The quotations also make the manner of his thematic delivery powerful and persuasive.

As a reader, I wished for one day reading a book that would help bring about theological reconciliation and break all social forces - religious and otherwise - that has frustrated our quest for good people of the world to foster unity of human race. A book that does not deliberately embark on the wrong journey of discord: Book that helps readers view people with diverse cultural background and approach to religions as God’s gift to the world and not thorn planted for permanent conflict and discord. A book that would offer helpful and practical recommendations for community of the world to identify and address frictions tearing us father apart and gradually leading the human race to annihilation; such helpful suggestions that help remove or bridge the distances put along all road of religious divide: Divides that cause us to categorise others in distorted ways, allowing selfish interest shape beliefs. But of course, these are only a wish list.

Mark has shown that words in themselves alone are not enough and sufficient to convey messages in books except couched in manners and style that can capture the mood and conviction of the writer.

EXCERPT

As a student:

...I asked one professor , “why did Muhammad tell us first to get along with Christian, and then said kill them?” The professor replied ,”what the prophet tells you to do, take it as is. What he prohibits, you prohibit. What he allows, you allow. You are not a true Muslim if you do not submit to the words of Muhammad.”

I asked another professor, ”why was the prophet Muhammad permitted to marry thirteen women, and we are commanded not to marry more than four? The Quran says Muhammad was just  a human being. So why did he have extra rights? My professor replied, “No. If you look carefully, you will see Allah gave you more rights than prophet himself. Allah requires you not to marry more than four. But you have the ability to divorce. So you can marry four today, and divorce them tomorrow, and marry another four. So you can an unlimited number of wives.

As professor:

I love teaching and talking to students. After a while I started a new way of teaching: I allowed debate and I let students ask questions...but the radical students felt that I was accusing Islam. “Allah forgive us!” they shouted. “You are our professor. Teach us about Islam. You are confusing us.”

In our meeting the head of my department discovered the development of my thoughts. He was scared...others challenged me “why do you ask questions like that? Don’t you know you should treat this subject the way we all learn to do? You know a great deal but no matter how much we learn we will be far from truth. Have discipline. Talk about what you understand. Where you struggle, say, “Allah and his prophet know.”

...I told them what I was really thinking...we say the Quran is directly from Allah, but I doubt it. I see in it the thought of a man, not the words of a true God. The mood in the meeting changed. One man became enraged. He got up from his seat, stood in front of me, and spat in my face. ”You blasphemed,” he snarled. “I swear, your mother is a bastard.”

...at three o’clock in the morning that same night, my father heard knocking at the door of our house. When he opened the door, fifteen to twenty men rushed past him carrying Russian Kalashnikov assault weapons. They ran upstairs and all through the house waking people up and looking for me.

One of them found me asleep in my bed. My whole family was awake, weeping and terrified as men dragged me out of the front door. They shoved me in the back of a car and drove away. I was in shock, but I knew this was a result of what happened at the university the day before. I was taken to a place that looked like a prison where I was placed in a concrete cell with another prisoner.

I was in the hands of the Egyptian Secret Police. Some people may say, “well, no wonder this man left Islam. He was upset because he was tortured by Muslim.” Yes, it is true...the torture was the final push...But the fact is that I had been questioning Islam for years before I went to prison.

I came out of prison angry with Islam but convinced that there was an almighty power that kept me alive, my hunger to find this God increased...The Quran says Christian worship three gods-God the father, Jesus, the son, and Mary, the mother of Jesus...this pushed me to look to the religion of the far East-Hinduism and Buddhism...Is he the god of Hinduism? I wondered. Is he the god of Buddhism? After my study, I concluded, No...

...My body was tired. I began to have severe headaches...the doctor prescribed pain killer that I took every night. I lived this way for about a year. One day the headache was really intense, so I went to the pharmacist again for more pills. Like most of the pharmacists in Egypt, she was a Christian...”what’s going on in your life?” She knew my family was well respected and that I had graduated from Al-Azhar. I told her I was searching for God. She was surprise. “what about your god and your religion?” She said. So, I told her my story.

She pulled a book from under the counter and said quietly, “I’ll give you this book; before you take your tablets tonight, try reading something from it. Then I walk back to my home and went to my room. This was the first time in my life I had ever carried a bible; I was thirty-five years old.