Many people are surprised to learn how much the Qur’an says about Jesus. In Islam he is ‘Eesa ibn Maryam, Jesus the son of Mary, peace be upon him, and he is loved, honoured and believed in. A Muslim does not leave him out of his faith. Belief in him is part of belief in all the Messengers of Allah, and the Qur’an speaks about him often: his name, his mother, his miraculous birth, the miracles he performed, what really happened at the end of his time on earth, and his return before the Last Day.
This page gathers what the Qur’an says about him, in the words of the Qur’an itself and the explanations of the scholars, so that the reader can see the whole picture in one place. Allah addresses the People of the Book about him and says:
O People of the Book, do not exceed the bounds [of truth] in your religion, and do not say anything about Allah except the truth. The Messiah ‘Eesa son of Maryam was [no more than] a Messenger of Allah, and His word, which He bestowed upon Maryam, and a soul created by Him. So believe in Allah and His Messengers. Do not say: Three [trinity]; desist, for that will be better for you. Allah is indeed only one God. Glory be to Him, [far exalted is He] above having a son. To Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth, and sufficient is Allah as a disposer of affairs.
(Surah an-Nisa 4:171)
Who He Is: A Slave and Messenger of Allah
The first thing to know is what ‘Eesa, peace be upon him, is not. He is not God, and he is not the son of God. Shaykh Abdur Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di, explaining the verse above, says that the Christians exaggerated about ‘Eesa:
This is what the Christians did when they exaggerated about ‘Eesa, and raised him from the status of a Prophet and Messenger to the status of divinity which is not befitting for any but Allah.
Explaining the verse’s words, “a Messenger of Allah”, as-Sa’di says that the most the Messiah can be is a Messenger of Allah, and that this “is the highest status and brings the greatest reward”. So his true station is high, but it is the station of a slave and Messenger. Allah says:
He was but a slave whom We blessed, and We made him a sign for the Children of Israel.
(Surah az-Zukhruf 43:59)
Shaykh Rabi’ ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee makes the same point at the start of his treatise The Status of Jesus in Islam, and names him among the Messengers of strong will and determination:
All created beings are servants of God, and amongst these created beings are the noble messengers, which include those messengers of strong will and determination: Muhammad, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Noah.
‘Eesa said the same about himself. His very first words, spoken as a newborn baby in the cradle, were:
‘Eesa said: Verily I am a slave of Allah; He has given me the Book and made me a Prophet.
(Surah Maryam 19:30)
As-Sa’di explains those words:
He addressed them, referring to himself as a slave of Allah and stating that he possessed no attributes for which he might deserve to be taken as a god or as the son of God.
And his call to his people was the call of every Messenger: worship of Allah alone. He said:
Verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is a straight path.
(Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:51)
His Word, and a Spirit from Him
The Qur’an calls ‘Eesa the word of Allah and a soul, or spirit, created by Him. These names are an honour for him, and they describe how he came into being. As-Sa’di says, explaining the glad tidings the angels gave to Maryam:
Here Allah tells us that the angels gave the greatest glad tidings to Maryam (peace be upon her), which was the ‘Word of Allah’, His slave and Messenger, ‘Eesa ibn Maryam. He was called the ‘Word of Allah’, because he came into being by virtue of a word from Allah, not by the usual means.
And speaking of his creation, as-Sa’di says:
Hence he was called a spirit created by Allah.
So he is a created spirit and a created soul, brought into being by Allah’s word “Be”, like everything else Allah creates. He is not a part of Allah, and he is not Allah’s offspring.
His Miraculous Birth
‘Eesa, peace be upon him, was born of his mother Maryam without a father. The angels announced him to her before he was born:
Remember [when] the angels said: O Maryam! Allah gives you glad tidings of a word from Him: his name will be the Messiah ‘Eesa, the son of Maryam, held in honour in this world and the hereafter and one of those granted nearness [to Allah]. He will speak to the people in the cradle and in maturity. And he will be one of the righteous. She said: O my Lord! How will I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: Thus Allah creates what He wills. When He has decreed something, He merely says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is.
(Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:45-47)
Surah Maryam tells the same announcement in more detail. The angel Jibreel came to her in the form of a man, to announce to her the gift of a righteous son. When she asked how she could have a son when no man had touched her, and she had never been unchaste, he answered:
He said: Thus it will be. Your Lord says: That is easy for Me; We will make him a sign to humankind, and a mercy from Us. It is a matter already decreed.
(Surah Maryam 19:21)
Ibn Kathir, explaining Allah’s favour to ‘Eesa, writes:
(Remember My favor to you) when I created you from your mother, without male intervention, and made you a sign and clear proof of My perfect power over all things.
Being born without a father does not make him divine. Allah created Adam with neither a father nor a mother, and He puts the two side by side:
The likeness of ‘Eesa before Allah is as the likeness of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, ‘Be!’ and he was.
(Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:59)
As-Sa’di explains the point of the comparison:
The fact that ‘Eesa was created with a mother only is more indicative of the opposite of their argument, and demonstrates that no one can be a partner or associate of Allah in any way whatsoever.
Allah then closes the account of his birth with this: “Such was ‘Eesa son of Maryam, and this is the truth about him concerning which they are in doubt. It is not befitting to Allah that He should beget a son.” (Surah Maryam 19:34-35)
His Mother Maryam
Islam honours Maryam, peace be upon her. ‘Eesa is known by her name, the son of Maryam, and a whole chapter of the Qur’an carries her name. She was chaste, and she had never been unchaste, as her own words above show. When her people accused her, Allah cleared her. He counts their accusation among their sins:
[And We punished them] because of their disbelief and their uttering a terrible slander against Maryam.
(Surah an-Nisa 4:156)
Her innocence was announced by her own son. Ibn Kathir writes, explaining Allah’s words about His favour to her:
(And to your mother) when I made you testify to her chastity and you thus absolved her from the sin that the unjust, ignorant liars accused her of.
And as-Sa’di says of the baby’s speech in the cradle that it “was also a help to his mother, as it demonstrated that she was innocent of what she was accused of.” So a Muslim believes in Maryam’s purity and honour, and rejects the slander against her, just as he rejects the exaggeration that made her an object of worship.
His Miracles, by Allah’s Permission
Allah gave ‘Eesa great miracles as signs for the Children of Israel, the people he was sent to. ‘Eesa himself listed them, and in the listing one phrase comes again and again: by Allah’s leave.
And [will appoint him] a Messenger to the Children of Israel, [with this message]: I have come to you, with a sign from your Lord, in that I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah’s leave. And I heal those born blind, and the lepers, and I bring the dead back to life, by Allah’s leave; and I tell you what you eat, and what you store in your houses. Surely in that is a sign for you if you are believers;
(Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:49)
Ibn Kathir introduces these miracles with the words: “Allah mentions how He blessed His servant and Messenger, ‘Isa, son of Maryam, and the miracles and extraordinary acts He granted him.” The miracles were granted to him; they were not his by his own power. Allah also supported him with the angel Jibreel and taught him the Book:
Remember My favor to you and to your mother when I supported you with Ruh-il-Qudus Jibril so that you spoke to the people in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught you the Book, the Hikmah, the Tawrah and the Injil.
(Surah al-Ma’idah 5:110)
Ibn Kathir explains the support: “(when I supported you with Ruh-il-Qudus) the angel Jibril, and made you a Prophet, calling to Allah in the cradle and manhood.” So ‘Eesa was given the Injil, the Gospel, and he confirmed the Tawrah that came before it, calling his people to worship Allah alone.
He Was Not Crucified: Allah Raised Him
Here Islam differs from the common Christian account. The Qur’an states plainly that ‘Eesa was not killed and was not crucified. His enemies plotted against him, and Allah saved him:
And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah ‘Eesa son of Maryam, the Messenger of Allah. But they did not slay him or crucify him; rather [another man] was made to resemble him to them [and that man was crucified]. Those who differ concerning this matter are in doubt concerning it, with no [certain] knowledge, but only conjecture to follow. But they certainly did not slay him. Rather Allah took him up to Himself; and Allah is Almighty, Most Wise.
(Surah an-Nisa 4:157-158)
As-Sa’di explains what Allah did:
So Allah took His slave and Messenger ‘Eesa up to Himself, and He made someone else look like him, so they [the disbelievers] took the one who had been made to look like him, and they killed him and crucified him and thus incurred great sin because of their intention to kill the Messenger of Allah.
Allah had already promised him this protection:
And [remember] when Allah said: O ‘Eesa, I will take you back and raise you up to Me and deliver you from those who disbelieve; I will make those who follow you superior to those who disbelieve, until the Day of Resurrection. Then you will all return unto Me, and I will judge between you concerning the matters about which you differed.
(Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:55)
So ‘Eesa, peace be upon him, did not die on a cross. Allah raised him up to Himself, alive, and he is with his Lord.
He Will Descend Before the Hour
Because Allah raised ‘Eesa alive, his story on earth is not finished. The Qur’an names him as a sign of the Last Hour:
Verily he [‘Eesa] will be a sign of the Hour, so have no doubt about it, and follow me; this is a straight path.
(Surah az-Zukhruf 43:61)
As-Sa’di records two meanings for this verse, and the second is that “‘Eesa will descend at the end of time and will be one of the portents of the Hour.” Allah also says:
There is none among the People of the Book but will believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them.
(Surah an-Nisa 4:159)
As-Sa’di gives two readings of “before his death”, and explains the second of them like this:
There are numerous saheeh hadiths which speak of his descent at the end of this Ummah; he will kill the Dajjal and abolish the jizyah, and the People of the Book will believe in him along with the believers.
Among those hadiths is the one Ibn Kathir quotes in his explanation of this verse, from the Sahih of al-Bukhari, in the chapter about the Prophets, under “The Descent of ‘Isa, Son of Maryam”, from Abu Hurayrah, that the Prophet ﷺ said:
By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, the son of Maryam (‘Isa) will shortly descend among you as a just ruler, and will break the cross, kill the pig and abolish the Jizyah. Then there will be an abundance of wealth and nobody will accept charitable gifts any more. At that time, one prostration will be better for them than this life and all that is in it.
Ibn Kathir notes that Muslim also recorded this hadith. Shaykh al-Fawzan, in his explanation of the Three Fundamental Principles, counts the descent of ‘Isa among the major signs of the Hour, along with the appearance of the Dajjal, the emergence of the Beast, and the emergence of Ya’juj and Ma’juj.
Shaykh Rabi’ al-Madkhalee states the return plainly in his treatise:
The Prophet Muhammad has prophesied that Jesus will return and judge mankind with justice. He will descend by the white minaret in the east of Damascus, placing his hands upon the wings of two angels, and will fight against the Antichrist (Dajjaal).
Shaykh al-Albani devoted a whole book to the hadiths of the Dajjal and the descent, Antichrist (Maseeh Dajjaal) and Descending of Jesus. After studying the long hadith of Abu Umamah clause by clause, he concluded that the hadith, “with all its clauses except a little, is Correct… and even most of it belongs to a Matwatir type of Hadith” (a mutawatir hadith is one narrated by so many people that they could not all have agreed upon a lie). And he counted the descending of Jesus among the things definitely proved from the Prophet ﷺ:
It’s definitely proved by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; and also proven what relates to the advent of blind Dajjaal, descending of Jesus from the heaven and his (Jesus) murdering him (Dajjaal).
What He Will Say on the Last Day
On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will question ‘Eesa in front of the people who worshipped him and his mother. Ibn Kathir introduces the passage: “Allah will also speak to His servant and Messenger, ‘Isa son of Maryam, peace be upon him, saying to him on the Day of Resurrection in the presence of those who worshipped ‘Isa and his mother as gods besides Allah”. Allah will say:
And (remember) when Allah will say (on the Day of Resurrection): “O ‘Isa, son of Maryam! Did you say unto men: ‘Worship me and my mother as two gods besides Allah’” He will say: “Glory be to You! It was not for me to say what I had no right (to say)…. Never did I say to them ought except what You (Allah) did command me to say: ‘Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’”
(Surah al-Ma’idah 5:116-117)
So ‘Eesa himself will clear himself of the worship that was directed to him. He never called anyone to worship him or his mother. He called them to the same thing every Messenger called to: worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.
What a Muslim Believes About Him
Gathering it together, a Muslim believes about ‘Eesa, peace be upon him:
- that he is the Messiah, ‘Eesa son of Maryam, a slave of Allah and His Messenger, and not God and not the son of God;
- that he is the word of Allah, which He bestowed upon Maryam, and a soul created by Him;
- that he was born of Maryam without a father, by Allah’s word “Be”, as Adam was created without father or mother;
- that Maryam his mother was chaste and pure, and innocent of the slander spoken against her;
- that Allah gave him the Injil and granted him miracles, every one of them by Allah’s permission;
- that he was not killed and not crucified, but Allah raised him up to Himself alive;
- that he will descend before the Hour, as one of its major signs, and that on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against those who lied about him.
Shaykh Rabi’ al-Madkhalee ends his treatise by gathering the matter like this:
Any fair and balanced person with sound reasoning will realize that the Qur’anic verses we mentioned above contain a tribute, honor, warm reception and high praise for Jesus. They confirm that he was a prophet and messenger and that he was one of the greatest messengers who carried the flag of Monotheism.
Belief in ‘Eesa is part of belief in all of Allah’s Messengers. After him, Allah sent the final Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ, and the two testimonies of Islam join belief in Allah with belief in His Messengers. Whoever wants to read these passages in full, with their explanations, will find them in Tafsir as-Sa’di on Surah Aal-e-Imran, Surah an-Nisa, Surah Maryam and Surah az-Zukhruf, in the Abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir on Surah an-Nisa and Surah al-Ma’idah, in Shaykh Rabi’ al-Madkhalee’s treatise The Status of Jesus in Islam, and, for the hadiths of his descent, in Shaykh al-Albani’s Antichrist (Maseeh Dajjaal) and Descending of Jesus. I hope this short page sends the reader back to those books.
Further Reading
References
- Tafsir as-Sa’di, Shaykh Abdur Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di, International Islamic Publishing House (IIPH), English Edition 1, 2018, translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab. Vol. 1 (Juz 1-3), printed pp. 415-417, 422 and 425 (Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:45-60); Vol. 2 (Juz 4-6), printed pp. 325, 328 and 337-338 (Surah an-Nisa 4:156-159 and 171); Vol. 6 (Juz 16-18), printed pp. 59, 65-66 and 68 (Surah Maryam 19:16-36); Vol. 9 (Juz 25-27), printed pp. 99-100 and 102 (Surah az-Zukhruf 43:57-65).
- Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged), the ten-volume set, on Surah an-Nisa (4:159, the hadiths of the descent of ‘Isa) and Surah al-Ma’idah (5:110 and 116-117) and their explanations.
- Explanation of the Three Fundamental Principles, Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, Authentic Statements Publishing, First Edition, Sha’ban 1440H / April 2019, ISBN 978-1-7923-0837-6 (softback), translated by Raha Batts. The Second Principle, printed p. 279 (the major signs of the Hour).
- The Status of Jesus in Islam, Shaykh Rabi’ ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee, Al-Ibaanah Book Publishing, First Edition, January 2008 / 1428H, translated by Isma’eel Alarcon. Printed pp. 10, 26 and 44.
- Antichrist (Maseeh Dajjaal) and Descending of Jesus, Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, Maktabah Darussalam UK, First Edition 2002, ISBN 1-901239-15-2, rendered by Dr Muhammad Shabbir Usmani. Printed p. 8.
Verified on 2026-10-23 against: Tafsir as-Sa’di, Vols. 1, 2, 6 and 9, Shaykh Abdur Rahman ibn Nasir as-Sa’di (IIPH, English Edition 1, 2018); the Abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir set; Explanation of the Three Fundamental Principles, Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan (Authentic Statements Publishing, First Edition 1440H / April 2019); The Status of Jesus in Islam, Shaykh Rabi’ ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee (Al-Ibaanah Book Publishing, First Edition 1428H / 2008); and Antichrist (Maseeh Dajjaal) and Descending of Jesus, Shaykh al-Albani (Maktabah Darussalam UK, First Edition 2002).