Kakistocrat

Granting that Muslims worship ‘the One God,’ the late Pope claims that believers in Allah are particularly close to Christians as they too worship "one God, living and subsistent, merciful and omnipotent, the Creator of heaven and earth."

Especially given the rising storm of extremist interpretations of Islam, it is understandable that some people might get bent out of shape regarding the late Pope’s comments. However, though John Paul II sees Muslims as worshipping the same God, he highlights the difference between each of these two monotheistic approaches to God.

Conceding that some of the most beautiful names for God are found in the Koran, the Pope warns that Allah is ultimately "a God outside of the world, a God who is only majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us. Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no Cross and the Resurrection."

Jesus is mentioned, and his Mother as well (we have spoken of Mary’s place here in the Koran as well) "but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent."

And yet John Paul II is not without admiration:

It is impossible not to admire, for example, their fidelity to prayer. The image of believers in Allah who, without caring about time or place, fall to their knees and immerse themselves in prayer remains a model for all those who invoke the true God, in particular for those Christians who, having deserted their magnificent cathedrals, pray only a little or not at all."

I don’t think more Evangelical Christians in general have learned how to dialogue with Islam. John Paul talks about extremism briefly, but it comes in the form of a few concluding words, while today, and this is especially obvious in Evangelical circles, Islamic extremism seems to be the introduction, body and conclusion to any attempt to come to an understanding of Islam. Further this extermism is rarely seen as a warping of Islam, but rather is seen as its genuine expression. 

K.

Mentioned more frequently in the Koran than in the New Testament, Maryam, the mother of Jesus, is the only female mentioned by name in the Koran, and she has an entire chapter (Surah) devoted to her.

The conception of Maryam is similar to a long line of conceptions deemed miraculous by Muslims, for the parents of Maryam are barren. Though Maryam’s father is named Imran, her mother remains anonymous, though it is she who requests that her daughter Maryam be protected from the evil one. Just after giving birth to Maryam, her mother prays, "I commend her and her offspring to Your protection from the Evil one." Soon after, Maryam is dedicated to the service of God and placed under the supervision of Zechariah, a priest familiar to the New Testament audience as well.

Growing in both ‘purity and beauty,’ Mary lives a life of solitude, apart from men, in a Temple shrine. On the occasion that the New Testament audience identifies as the Annunciation, an angel appears to Mary saying "O Mary! Allah has chosen you and purified you—chosen you above the women of all nations." Mary has been told that she will bear ‘Christ Jesus,’ who will not only be ‘held in honour in this world and the Hereafter,’ but also is one of those counted as most close to Allah. The angel tells Maryam that her son will preach the words:

I have come to you, with a sign from your Lord, in that I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah’s leave: and I heal those born blind, and the lepers, and I quicken the dead, by Allah’s leave…

When the time comes to give birth, Maryam retires to a remote place, and tortured by the pains of childbirth, she sits under a palm tree and "cries in her anguish [saying] ‘Would that I had died before this! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight.’ " Like Hagar of Genesis, who was driven to a similar place in despair, comfort and sustenance is then provided by God.

Maryam returns to her village with her newborn son, and being neither married nor betrothed to be married, the villagers exclaim: "O Sister of Aaron! Your father was not a man of evil, nor your mother an unchaste woman." She responds in silence by pointing to her newborn, who to the villagers great surprise (for they claim ‘How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?’) begins to defend the dignity of his mother.

Islamic tradition reveres Mary because she completely submitted tot he will of Allah, even though it meant that her own family and community would accuse her of living unchastely. The New Testament audience is familiar with the punishment given in 1st century Palestine for such living, and this, I presume, would certainly not detract from Islamic admiration for the Mother of Jesus.

K.

I should add that the relevant passages about Mary may be found in both the third and nineteenth Surah.