Preface
tothe
First Edition
An eminent scholar of Christian history admits that present-day
Christianity is a 'mask' on the face of Jesus, peace be on him, but
goes on to say that a rnask wom for a long time acquires a life of its
own and it has to be accepted as such. The Muslim believes in the
Jesus of history and refuses to accept the 'mask'. This, in a nut
shell, has been the point of difference betweenIslamandtheChurch
for the last fourteen hundred years. Even before the ad vent of Is
lam, the Arians, the Paulicians, and the Goths, to mention only a
few, accepted Jesus, but rejected the 'mask', The Holy Roman Em
perors forced Christians to think alike. To achieve this impossible
goal, millions of Christians were killed. Castillo, an admirer of
Servetus, said that 'to kill a man is not to prove a doctrine.' Con
viction cannot be forced with a dagger.
It is suggested in sorne quarters that, to achieve integration in
England, the Muslims should change their two festivals to syn
chronise with Christmas and Easter. Those who say this forget that
these are pre-Christian pagan festivals. One is the ancient birthday
of the sun-god and the other is a sacred festival for the old Anglo
Saxon goddess of fertility. In this situation, one begins to wonder
who in reality is 'anti-Christ'.
In this book an attempt is made, perhaps for the first time, to
study the sacred life of Jesus, using all available sources, including
the Dead Sea Scrolls, Christian Scrlpture, modem research, Qur'an
and Hadith. Christian scholars who attempt to write the history of
Jesus never completely free themselves of the idea of his divinity.
When they fail to prove his divinity, they sometimes conclude that
he did not exist at all, or that he is 'everything to everybody'. An
objective study is impossible for anyone with this frame of mind.
This book starts with the conviction that Jesus did exist. He was a
man and a prophet of God.