Christians and Muslims have much in common, not only because we all are humans, not only because both Christianity and Islam originated in the Middle East and trace their ancestry back to Abraham, but also because Jesus Christ is a holy figure in Islam. This is rarely known to the Western public and is often overlooked by the mass media. It is thus saddening to see that some extremist and violent events of recent years and the mass media’s thirst for polarization and confrontation have portrayed an anti-Christian Islamic world against the Christian Western world. Such a polarization does not really exist in either Christianity or Islam; it is portrayed only to serve certain political and misguided doctrinal purposes. Perhaps a very useful portal of entry to understand the sacred position of Jesus Christ in Islam is Mawlânâ (“Master”) Jalâluddin Rumi (1207-1273), the renowned Persian and Sufi poet of the thirteenth century and currently one of the most popular poets in North America and other English speaking countries. As a person born and raised in Iran (Rumi’s cultural land) I have been fascinated with Rumi’s poetry for nearly three decades, and am Matters” (Masnawi Ma’nawi). privileged to share with you some facets of Jesus Christ in Rumi’s book of poetic parables to which he himself gave the title of “Rhymed Couplets on Spiritual Isâ Masih, as he is called in Arabic, literally means “Jesus the Messiah”. Muslims believe in the “virgin birth” of Jesus Christ. According to the Qur’an (15: 29; 38: 72), the Divine (Allah) breathed his spirit into Adam when he created humanity. Sufis extend this quality to the virgin birth of Jesus through Mary (Mariyam in Arabic, which is also the title of the chapter 19 in the Qur’an) so that Jesus was born without an earthly father. This is consistent with the Islamic epithet of Jesus as the Divine Spirit (Ruh Allah) among the prophets (in a similar vein, Abraham is called Khalil Allah, the Loyal Friend of God, and Moses Kalim Allah, the Interlocutor and Conversant with God). The Divine Spirit or Holy Spirit as a medium between the Divine and the world of creation is called Ruh al-Qods in the Quran. Sufis particularly praise the purity and piety of Mary, and emphasize that the same Holy Spirit does wonders with every human who is devoted to the Divine.

In a long poem in the Masnawi (Book III, lines 3702-3790), Rumi revisits the virgin birth of Jesus. After referring to the story in the Qur’an (Mary, verses 17-18) where it is said that, in order to give birth to Jesus, the Holy Spirit was sent by God and appeared to Mary as a very good-looking man, and where Mary says, “I seek refuge in God”, Rumi then continues:

Islam considers Jesus as a human blessed by the Divine spirit and sent to humanity as messenger of God

In the fire of the Divine love, behold I saw a whole universe Each particle there possessed Jesus’ Breath.

Of course, one cannot deny that Islam’s and Rumi’s attitude toward Jesus Christ was somewhat different from that of the traditional Christianity. Islam considers Jesus as a human blessed by the Divine spirit and sent to humanity as messenger of God to teach the Divine truth; Islam does not subscribe to the Christian terminology of Trinity or Jesus as the only begotten Son of the Father. (The Qur’an, 5: 116, states that Jesus never said that people should consider him or his mother as gods beside God. Elsewhere the Qur’an, 19: 30, quotes Jesus as saying that “I am a devotee and worshipper of God.”)

In many poems, Rumi narrates sayings and stories of Jesus because he wants the readers to be inspired by Jesus’ message. For example, in his references to Jesus and his donkey (which Jesus rode on entering Jerusalem, as we read in the Gospels), Rumi likens the Divine spirit within all humans to Jesus and our material desires to the donkey, thus saying that we should not place the heavy burden of this world upon our spirit (
Masnawi, Book II, lines 1850-1861). Or in a reference to Jesus’ walking on water (which is again taken from the Gospels), Rumi likens our walking on the dry land as the outward (exoteric) path of life and Jesus walking on water as the inner (esoteric) journey for humans (Masnawi, Book I, lines 570-572).

Whenever we hear or read speeches implying that Muslims are anti-Christ, we should remember Rumi’s affectionate poetry and parables about Jesus, and then we desire to hear words of similar spirit told by Christian scholars (who have left behind the Crusader’s false notions about Islam and its prophet) about the spiritual mission of the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad who called humans to the same one God, as Abraham, Moses and Jesus did before him. In this perspective, Rumi’s poetry, seven centuries later, perhaps has a new significance for our world, uniting us in love rather than dividing the world through hatred and violence.

Every prophet and saint
has a path
but it all leads to One God.
All paths are the same.
Rumi

What is praised is One
So the praise is One too.
All religions, all this singing,
One Song.
Rumi

“Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the Mystery, unique and not to be judged.”
Rumi ~ from Fihi-Ma-Fihi or Discourses of Rumi

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I practice the religion of love

my faith and my religion is love

my father is love

my mother is love 

my prophet is love

my God is love

I’m a child of love 

I’ve come to speak of nothing…

but Love!

Rumi