COVER STORY
COVER STORY
THE NATIVITY
A
S THE STORY GOES, JESUS
Christ was born to the Virgin Mary,
a devout Jew whose piety, faith and
servitude to God were unrivalled by any other
woman. She had not been touched by any man
when she received glad-tidings from Gabriel that
she would give birth to a prophet of God. When
she asked how she would be able to bear a child
while being a virgin, she was assured that it
would be done through the power of the Lord.
Certain details regarding the circumstances
surrounding Jesus’ birth are unclear and
sources vary greatly in their narratives of the
immaculate birth.
According to canonical Christian text, Jesus
was born in Bethlehem after a heavily pregnant
Mary made the journey from Nazareth with her
husband, Joseph, to register for the census.
Unable to find an inn for the night, Joseph and
Mary stayed in an innkeeper’s barn where the
birth of Jesus Christ took place. A group of local
shepherds came to pay their respects to the
newborn king after a legion of angels gave them
the good news of his birth. The three wise men
from the east made their way to the Son of God,
having been guided to the location of his birth by
a special star.
The primary scripture in Islam, the Koran,
has a slightly different view on the birth of Jesus
Christ and the life of Mary. According to the
Koran, Mary’s mother had prayed to God for
a child. While Mary was still in the womb, her
mother promised to devote her for a lifetime of
service to God. [KORAN 3:33-36] Mary grew up
under the guardianship of the prophet Zechariah
at the temple in Jerusalem. [KORAN 3:37] The
Koran declares Mary to be the best of all women.
Unlike the Bible, the Koran indicates that Mary
was unmarried during the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Koran is ambiguous about the exact city
Jesus was born in, though it is mentioned that
Mary withdrew to a secluded place during
her pregnancy. When the pregnancy pains
struck her, she held onto a dry palm tree; God
miraculously filled it with ripe dates and provided
a freshwater rivulet under her to restore her
health.
When she brought her baby to the temple in
Jerusalem, people accused Mary of adultery.
Mary remained silent; Jesus Christ replied to
them from the cradle and declared himself to be
a messenger of God. [KORAN 19:29-34] This is one
of the miracles attributed to Jesus Christ that
is not found in the orthodox Christian scripture,
however, the gnostic Syriac Infancy Gospel
mentions a similar incident.
‘He has said that Jesus spoke, and,
indeed, when He was lying in His cradle
said to Mary His mother: I am Jesus,
the Son of God, the Logos, whom
thou hast brought forth, as the Angel
Gabriel announced to thee; and my
Father has sent me for the salvation of
the world.’
His Divine Eminence Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi
confirms in His book, The Religion of God (Divine
Love), that Jesus was from Jerusalem and he did,
in fact, speak miraculously in infancy.
JESUS: SON OF GOD?
According to Christianity, Jesus is
the only begotten Son of God because
Mary was able to conceive through
the Holy Spirit. Islamic scripture
also supports the notion that Mary
conceived through the advent of a
divine ‘breath’ in her. However, while
Christians believe that Jesus’ body is
the son of God, Muslims believe that
God cannot beget anyone. Could there
be truth in both interpretations?
The belief that God has sons and
daughters predates the birth of
Jesus Christ. His Divine Eminence Ra
Riaz Gohar Shahi reveals that when
Adam the Eminent One descended
from the heavens to the Earth, those
who witnessed it declared him to
be a son of God 1 . In Hinduism also,
personalities known as Devta and
Devi were believed to be sons and
daughters of God.
God created Adam the Eminent
One in his own image. Adam the
Eminent One had progeny through
different means. Some of his offspring
came forth through Eve while others
came from his left and right thighs.
If God does not beget children
through sexual reproduction,
as the Koran asserts, it does not
negate the possibility of God having
children. Many examples of asexual
reproduction exist in nature.
According to revelations from
His Divine Eminence, as Adam was
made in God’s image, the way Adam
produced offspring from his thighs
was also based on God’s own system.
While Adam’s progeny was
physical, God is an ethereal being;
when offspring emerge from his
thighs, they take the form of entities.
In the past, when these divine spirits
would be sent to Earth, the bodies
they were sent into became known as
a ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ of God.
One such spirit was sent along
with Jesus Christ also, thus endowing
him with the title: the Son of God.
However, this is just one of the many
ranks attributed to Jesus Christ.
MESSIAH HERALD / ISSUE 08 / JAN 2018
HIS MINISTRY
J
ESUS IS THOUGHT TO HAVE LIVED
in Egypt for some time before moving to
Nazareth. From Nazareth, he travelled
throughout Israel, attracting the Israelites and
Gentiles alike towards him. By all accounts,
Jesus led a remarkable life. He was wise beyond
his years, compassionate, generous, steadfast,
authoritative and forgiving - all qualities of a
great leader. He boldly rejected the hypocrisy
of the religious clergy in Israel, questioned the
spiritless rites and rituals that had become
so central to the Jews and called for them to
remember the true teachings of Moses and
Abraham. He introduced a radically different
approach to faith and divinity - so different, in
fact, that he was accused of going against the
law of Moses.
While Moses’ law decreed the stoning of
adulterers, Jesus declared, ‘Let he who has
never sinned cast the first stone.’ [JOHN 8:7]
Where the law advised that an eye be taken for
an eye, Jesus taught his disciples to turn the
other cheek. [LUKE 6:27-31]
Along with his extraordinary teachings,
Jesus’ miracles astounded many. He raised
the dead, cast out evil spirits, healed the ailing,
cured the blind, breathed life into birds of clay
and much more. His followers were growing in
number exponentially and the religious clergy,
threatened by his outspoken criticism of their
ways, searched for a pretence upon which they
could kill him. They sought the help of the Roman
authorities in persecuting Jesus. The Romans
found no justification to kill Jesus, yet under the
pressure of the Jewish priests, they reluctantly
sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion.
His ministry lasted no more than 33 months.
1 Adam and Eve were not the first people to ever inhabit the
Earth. Find out more about our true history in HDE Gohar Shahi’s
book, The Religion of God (Divine Love).
7