134 OBJECTIONS TO SOME CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES

and supremacy (التقدم at taqaddum) over men, in this world; and in the next world the office of intercessor (الشفاعة ash shafa'ah) and loftiness of rank in Paradise1." So clear is it from the Qur'an that Christ was superior to Moses as well as to all other prophets. Here again the Qur'an harmonizes to some extent with the Bible; for in Heb. iii. 5, 6, we read: "And Moses verily was faithful in all His (i. e. God's) house as a servant; . . . but Christ as a son, over His own house." Besides all this, there is another passage in the Qur'an which goes further and ascribes Divine power to Jesus.

121. M. Impossible.

C. Is not the act of creating (الخلق al Khalq) peculiar to God, and an act of Divine power?

122. M. It is.

C. Well then, in Surah III., Al 'Imran, 43, Jesus is represented as saying, "Verily I CREATE (انى اخلق inni akhlaqu) for you from clay as it were the likeness of a bird, then I breathe into it, then it becomes a bird by God's permission." Here the Qur'an represents Him as creating a bird2 in the same way in which God created Adam, when He

1 The Rev. W. Goldsack observes that Baizawi uses similar language in his comment on Surah III., Al 'Imran, 40. Baizawi's words are: الوجاهة في الْدّنيا الْنّبّوة وفي الآخرة الْشّفاعة : "The illustriousness in this world is the office of a Prophet, and that in the next world the office of Intercessor."
1 Vide Ibhathu'l Mujtahidin, pp. 62 sqq. Of course it is possible that Muhammad used the verb khalaqa here in a loose sense, but a Muslim can hardly grant that.
AS ALLEGED TO BE TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE 135

formed him from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. ii. 7).

123. M. The Gospel does not say that Christ made a bird in this way.

C. We are not now talking of the evidence of the Gospel but of that which the Qur'an gives to Christ's superiority to the rest of the prophets. The New Testament says that all things were created in or through Christ (Col. i. 16; John i. 3).

124. M. The Qur'an says that the bird was made "by God's permission."

C. Of course: the Gospel says that all that Christ does is in accordance with the will and permission of God (John v. 19; viii. 28).

125. M. We honour Jesus more than you do, for we call Him "a spirit from God." But we do not thereby imply His Deity. All men are spirits from God.

C. All men's spirits were created by God, which is a different thing. Your last words hardly agree with your preceding ones. Nor does the Qur'an call any other man "a spirit from God," as it does Christ (Surah IV., An Nisa, 169). According to your argument this expression becomes meaningless. If you honour Jesus more than we do, why do you assert that Muhammad was superior to Him, and why have you left Christ to follow Muhammad1?

1 The proper way to honour a prophet is to hear and obey his Divinely given message. (Rev. W. A. Rice.)