JazakAllah Khayr akhee 'Abd al-Latif. I have been searching for some good literature on Usool al-Hadeeth in the English language for some time. This book by Sheikh Bilal Philips seem to be an ideal starting place.
JazakAllah Khayr akhee 'Abd al-Latif. I have been searching for some good literature on Usool al-Hadeeth in the English language for some time. This book by Sheikh Bilal Philips seem to be an ideal starting place.
Question: Why do you call Jesus “Messiah” if you don’t believe in his divinity?
Answer: The original meaning of the term was something like “chosen one”. The Jews thought (and still think) that the Messiah will be the man to come and lead them. At the time when he came, most Jews were expecting him to be a military leader who would free them from Roman control. As we both know, he was not concerned with this. Over the centuries Christians have changed the meaning of the word “Messiah”, redefining it so that it means “savior”. We use the term properly, in its original sense, the sense in which the Jews use it, and on that level we agree with you that the Messiah (or in Greek, the Christ) has already come and he was the blessed Jesus.
Jewish tradition - the Messiah will bring political and spiritual redemption of the Jewish people:
be a great judge make righteous decisions
be well-versed in Jewish law
a charismatic leader
inspire others to follow his example
be a descendant of King David
gain sovereignty over Israel
gather the Jews from the four corners of the earth
restore them to full observance of Torah law
bring peace to the whole world
Jews expect quite a bit from the messiah then just being annointed, even though that is the original meaning of the word.
Yep. I think it is safe to say that while Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all have the concept of the Messiah, that they are completely different concepts from one another. That shouldn't be surprisiing, there are many other terms that all three faiths use, but mean different things by them. If we shared the same understandings of all our terms we would probably be able to develop a synthesis of our beliefs, but I seriously doubt that is ever going to happen.
