Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

138 Jesus, Prophet of Islam

This account of the nature of the revelation which Jesus received is
not contradicted by any historical record which states otherwise.
There is no record of Jesus being presented with inscribed tablets
as happened with Moses, for example, or of his receiving a series
of revelations like Muhammad, blessings and peace be on all of
them, with certain disciples being appointed to record these rev­
elations as they occurred -but not any of Jesus' s own words - in
order to ensure that the revelation was preserved exactly as it was
revealed.
There can be no doubt, however, that Jesus was an illuminated
being whose words contained a clarity and directness which re­
flected all the qualities of light -and which must have entered peo­
ple's hearts and remained in them just as light does when it enters
aroom.
And when these words came to be recorded in writing, then
surely at least sorne of these words - together with the accounts of
the situations in which they were uttered - must have survived
intact, even if the darkness in other people tried to cloud sorne of
them up or shut them out by changing or removing them.
In spite of all the imperfections which exist in the present con­
tents not only of the Old and the New Testaments, but also of The
Gospel of Barnabas and other similar works, there can be no doubt
that at least sorne of their contents must accurately record at least
sorne of the words and actions of Jesus, peace be on him - although
it will never be possible to actually differentiate between what is
reliable and what is not with complete accuracy or certainty.
It does remain a great pity, therefore, that there is no complete
original authentic text of the Gospel ofJesus, which has been veri­
fied beyond any reasonable doubt, in existence today.
It therefore follows that what David Sox says of the four offi­
cially accepted Gospels applies equally to the Gospel of Barnabas:

The differences, even the contradictions, between the

Gospel accounts do not detract from the spiritual truths

that they contain; if anything, they give us a better un­

derstanding of the world in which they were written. 11

Nevertheless, there is still the necessity - wherever fundamental

contradictions between the various accounts do exist - of having

to decide which account is the most accurate and the nearest to the

truth of the matter:

http://www.islamicbulletin.com