Posted by Leesa Hejazi on November 08, 1997 at 20:23:45:
I have read, with great interest, the exchange of dialogue regarding this posting. I believe, and from what I've seen evidenced in this and other dialogues, is that religious exclusivism is the natural stance of those who have not earnestly studied the teachings of a religion outside of their own. Christians and Muslims alike never rise to the threshold of perceiving truths beyond the boundaries of their own traditions. With that in mind, it is important to understand exactly what the word MUSLIM, hence ISLAM, means -- which is "one who submits to the will of God" and/or "submission to the will of God" respectively. Contextually, "submission" can also be understood as "commitment." Although an understanding of the Arabic language is helpful here, suffice to say that the "mu" in Muslim is a prefix for one who commits to Islam. The basic meaning of the "s-l-m" in Islam means "peace through commitment." For some Christians, it seem blasphemous to entertain the notion that Jesus was a Muslim because of their perceptions of ISLAM as a religion and not in context to the meaning of the word ISLAM itself.
However, Biblical scripture clearly indicates that Jesus was a Muslim, in the context of the meaning of the word itself, and not in reference to Islam as a religious institution. If anyone sought peace through commitment, it was Jesus. Two illustrations provide support for this assertion: Firstly, the Lord's prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples to pray, references his deference to submitting to the will of God by stating, "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven . . ."; secondly, when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he concluded by saying, "Yet not my will, by Your will be done."
If one searches the scriptures, there are repeated instances in which Jesus refers to his commitment to accept God's will for his life. Accepting this does not mean that Jesus was a Muslim in the sense that he was a follower of Islam as an organized religion. For obvious reasons, that would be a PREPOSTEROUS claim. By way of analogy, it would be equally as preposterous to claim that Jesus was a Christian. Christianity, as an organized system of beliefs, resulted long after Jesus' death. Jesus was a Jew and, by and large, he submitted himself to the organized practices of Judaism.