Jesus has been Hijacked

[Sir Fluffy]

Take no offense to the thread title. It may sound offensive but I am not sure of it.

Do Muslims like yourself feel that Jesus has been hijacked and stories have been spun about him which are untrue?

I have taken notice of how Muslims do not become as overtly offended by people mocking Jesus yet they strongly believe in him although not as the Christians do(which I find it entirely silly to make a man God so I share the sentiment with Muslims). I have been wondering why and I believe it may stem from Jesus being so heavily portrayed as "God himself" that any refutation given by a Muslim is overlooked to the point that it is no longer worth it. Jesus is mentioned more times int he Qur'an then Muhammad himself yet so much emphasis is placed on Muhammad socially by Muslims.
Christians have taken claim to Joseph(Yusuf), Jesus(Isa), Mary(Mariam), and Isaac(Ishaq) all as Biblical characters and have done so before the Muslims. The only person Christians hold no claim to is Muhammad now. This may be the reason for so much offense being taken to his name as oppose to Isa or Yusuf.

Many Christians I have known are entirely unaware that Noah(Nuh) and so many other Biblical people are mentioned in the Qur'an for example. Muhammad is solely special for being the last messenger and the only one to not have a false story attributed to.

Am I right about this in some regards?

[F_Ferdous]

Yes. Yes, you are.

[greenhill]

Peace to you, guess you have had problems with accessing the site recently...

Do Muslims like yourself feel that Jesus has been hijacked and stories have been spun about him which are untrue?

Never really thought about it that way.... being 'hijacked' but it has resulted in the message being distorted.

I have taken notice of how Muslims do not become as overtly offended by people mocking Jesus yet they strongly believe in him

It is our duty to correct misconception but not to force the belief onto people. Besides, we are not followers of Jesus, but we believe he had a message to give. We are followers of the subsequent message brought by the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.

Muhammad is solely special for being the last messenger and the only one to not have a false story attributed to.

On the last messenger, muslims accepts this, not sure about the rest, though. On the false stories, I am not aware of any... there are 'character assassination' statements but false stories? Not sure.

Peace to you.

[عابر سبيل]

The reason Muslims hold The Final Messenger (saw) in such high esteem is not for any relative or social reason, and these matters are not dictated by the amount of times any one name is mentioned in the Qur'aan, where we know Musa (as) or Moses was mentioned most of all, and by a long shot.

The reason is because this is how Islam was revealed, and that is the status the Prophet (saw) always had with Muslims. He (saw) is considered to be the best of all creation. The reason for this is found in the Qur'aan, hadith, and the way of the companions, may Allah be pleased with them. So as such we have texts that indicate this.

With regards to offense being taken, no true Muslim would like it when any Prophet of Islam is insulted, and this includes Isa (a. s) or Jesus. Among any religious and aware Muslims, they will never accept any prophet be insulted, and to insult them as a Muslim is disbelief, which is basically the worst thing a sin can cause. So it is still taken very seriously, though maybe in the west where this is so commonplace you may see some that are desensitized to it. But at the very least, they should not support, watch, listen to, or sit with anyone insulting any Prophet of Islam.

With regards to fabrications, it is true that many Prophets have what we believe to be false stories attributed to them in the old testament, but even with The Messenger of Allah (saw), there are many fabricated ahadith, and these are both stories and sayings attributed to him (saw) that are not true. They do not slander him typically speaking, but they are never the less false, fabricated, or rejected for other reasons related to the reliability of the narrator. This is why we have many books on Hadith where each hadith is graded for authenticity, because people over the years did either spin stories or mistakenly mix up ahadith to produce a result that was never actually heard from the Prophet :saw: according to what reached us from any of his companions may Allah be pleased with them.