We are somebody too; we know who we are; our religion is holding its ground; you don’t have one any longer. Over the centuries, these six miracle narratives have been elaborated through Hadith and poetry, with religious writings including some of the other miracles mentioned in the Gospel, non-canonical sources, and from lore. These six miracles in the Quran are without detail unlike the Gospel and their non-canonical Gnostic sources, which include details and mention other attributed miracles. Although this particular narrative is not found in the Bible, the theme of speaking from the cradle is found in the non-canonical pre-Islamic Syriac Infancy Gospel. The Syriac Infancy Gospel has Jesus declaring himself the Son of God, the Word, and affirming what the angel Gabriel had previously announced to Mary as detailed in the Gospel. The miracle story of creating birds from clay and breathing life into them when a child is mentioned in 3:43-49, 5:109-110. Although this miracle is also not mentioned in the canonical Gospel, the same narrative is found in at least two pre-Islamic sources: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Jewish Toledot Yeshu, with few variant details between the Quran and these two sources. Although the Quran refers to the ‘gospel’ of Jesus, those specific teachings of his are not mentioned in the Quran or later religious texts.

Many stories and narratives have been developed over the years about Jesus, containing certain inherent lessons or providing meaning due to the lack of detail in the Quran regarding Jesus. The second group of stories, although containing a Gospel core, are expanded with a “distinctly Islamic stamp”. As long as our group sizes were small, we had the psychological mechanisms to deal effectively with the members of our community. The last group builds upon the Islamic archetype and Muslim-centric definition of Jesus and his attributes, furthering esoteric ideas regarding terms such as “Spirit of God” and “Word of God” describing Jesus Christ, attributes given to the Islamic view of Jesus Christ as a holy angelic messenger divinely sent from heaven by God to his fleshly incarnation, like an Angel of the Lord in some other Messianic Christian traditions. Jesus speaks as the angel Gabriel had mentioned at the annunciation: Jesus proclaims he is a servant of God, has been given a book, is a prophet, is blessed wherever he will go, blesses the day he was born, the day he will die, and the day he is raised alive. Jesus is believed to have raised people from the dead, as mentioned in al-Imran 3:49. Although no detail is given as to who was raised or the circumstance, at least three people are mentioned in detail in the Christian Gospel (a daughter of Jairus, a widow’s son at Nain, and Lazarus).

The Islamic concepts of Jesus’ preaching is believed to have originated in Kufa, Iraq, under the Rashidun Caliphate where the earliest writers of Muslim tradition and scholarship was formulated. The concepts of Jesus and his preaching ministry developed in Kufa was adopted from the early ascetic Christians of Egypt who opposed official church bishopric appointments from Rome. A third and distinctive image is of Jesus representing an ascetic figure – a prophet of the heart. The earliest stories, numbering about 85, are found in two major collections of ascetic literature entitled Kitab al-Zuhd wa’l Raqa’iq (‘The Book of the Asceticism and Tender Mercies’) by Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak (d. 797), and Kitab al-Zuhd (‘The Book of Asceticism’) by Ibn Hanbal (d. I have great difficulty reading books, simply because I am not a book person. There have always been extremists, religious and atheist, and they’ve always caused destruction. Afterwards Jesus replied to them: “As for that I have done to you tonight, in that I served you the meal and washed your hands in person, let it be an example for you. Since you indeed consider me to be better than you, do not be haughty in relation to each other but rather expand yourselves for each other as I have expanded myself for you.” After instructing the disciples in his teachings, Jesus foretells that one of them would deny him and another betray him.

Another example is Jesus knew what people had just eaten, as well as what they had stored in their homes. According to the national census conducted in 2007, over 32 million people or 43.5% were reported to be Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, over 25 million or 33.9% were reported to be Muslim, 13.7 million, or 18.6%, were Protestant/Evangelical Christians, and just under two million or 2.6% adhered to traditional beliefs. He believes that the existence of God should be proven through a priori reasoning and that our beliefs about the nature of God should be based upon revelation and fideism. In the Bhāgavata Purana, saints and gods are born in families of Asuras, such as Mahabali and Prahlada, conveying the symbolism that motivations, beliefs and actions rather than one’s birth and family circumstances define whether one is Deva-like or Asura-like. The Quran contains verses (surahs) in Arabic that tell Muslims to worship one god, and explains how they should treat others properly. This guide covers the basics of Islam and is a great resource for new Muslims.