Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah

A B U Z A K A R I YA MAN MESSENGER MESSIAH A B U Z A K A R I YA MAN MESSENGER MESSIAH JESUS: MAN, MESSENGER, MESSIAH i ii JESUS: MAN, MESSENGER, MESSIAH Dedicated to those who seek the truth ISBN 978-1-910952-03-0 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. © Copyright 2017 1st Edition by Abu Zakariya All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any language, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express permission of the copyright owner. Published & distributed by iERA Suite 321, Crown House, North Circular Road, London, NW10 7PN T: 03000 111 365 : E: [email protected] : W: www.iera.org JESUS: MAN, MESSENGER, MESSIAH iii PR E FA C E Some of my fondest memories, growing up as a child, were religious festivals. Religious celebrations with their feasts and presents are a magical time for children, and the annual calendar in my household had more than its fair share. Whilst I was raised as a Muslim, half of my family is Christian, so not only did we have the two festivals of Eid - the main celebrations on the Islamic calendar - but we also had two Christmases as well, 25th December as celebrated by the majority of Christians around the world, along with a celebration on 7th January because of my Eastern Orthodox Grandmother. Whilst my body was well nourished, I still thirsted for an intellectual grasp of religion. Even with the little knowledge I possessed, I was struck by the similarities between both faiths. Both religions revere the one true God, and acknowledge the representatives of God, such as Abraham, Moses and Jesus, may God’s peace be upon them all, as well as the Day of Judgement. Although they are very similar, in some ways they are also very different. It is a paradox that will be explored in this book, and continues to intrigue me to this very day. My exposure to Christianity only developed beyond celebratory rituals when I started university. Many of my close friends were devout Christians, so for the first time in my life I had an intellectual exposure to the religion. I have fond memories of the many discussions we had about our respective faiths. At that particular point in my life, I possessed only a rudimentary knowledge about both faiths, so my interaction with my Christian friends was based on a zealous defence of Islam, rather than sincere discourse. After leaving university my attitude matured from a knee-jerk “You are wrong!” to a more introspective “Am I right?”. I began to properly research Islam, not because I doubted it, for I had believed it was the truth from a young age, but rather because I wanted to have a religious conviction based on sound knowledge, rather than blind following. iv