Wikipedia, the universal free Encyclopaedia, has published on the internet, excerpts from a book called the infancy gospel of Thomas. These excerpts have completely vindicated the Quran concerning two miracles of Christ also mentioned in Islam’s Holy Book. Let us discuss this very important topic of interest to Christians, Muslims and truth Seekers.
The first of the two miracles is the speech of the newly born Christ as he laid the cradle. The second miracle is also about the fashioning of clay into the shape of birds followed by his breathing into them to make them fly away like live birds. Christians throughout the ages have been sceptical about these two miracles mentioned in the Quran in addition to questioning their authenticity. This should be so since they are not mentioned in the present four canomical gospels. So from where did Muhammed obtain those two pieces of information ? Theresurfaced infant gospel of Thomas that has remained extant and long forgotten for nearly the past one thousand nine hundred years, answers those questions in addition to vindicating the Holy Quran.
The gospel is a biographical account of Christ in his infancy from birth to the age of twelve. It dates as far back as the second century of Christianity- the same time when the four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) were authored. It was written by Thomas the Israelite,while the current translation was carried out in 1697 by Mr. Henry Sykes, Prof. of oriental languages at Cambridge Quoting from Wikipedia we read:” The book was written in Greek ,but according to some it was written in Syriac ( A dead ancient Semitic language).. Pro-orthodox Christians regarded the infancy gospel of Thomas as inauthentic and heretical. Eusebius rejected it as a heretical fiction in the third book of his fourth century Church History and Pope Gelasuis I included it in his list of heretical books in the fourth century. Although non-canonical in main stream Christianity, the Infancy gospel of Thomas contains many miracles and stories of Jesus referenced in the Quran, such as Jesus giving life to clay birds ”( Wikipedia). On the other hand some prominent Christian leaders regarded it as authentic. These include Eusebius, Athanasius, Ephesus and Chrysius (Wikipedia) Christians communities of North Africa also regarded it as authentic and was very popular there.This is not surprising taken into consideration the fact that the missing twelve years of Christ, according to Luke was spent in Egypt where majority of the miracles recorded in the book might have been wrought by Christ.
From the same book we read of the following miracle by Christ: ‘He Caiaphas (High Protest) relates that Jesus ,spoke even when he was in the cradle and said to his mother, ‘Mary, I am the son of God, that word which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of the angel Gabriel to thee, and my father hath sent me for the salvation of the world”( Wikipedia) .”The above speech of Christ in the cradle is also recorded in the Quran as follows: Then she (Mary) brought him to her people carrying him… Thereupon she pointed to him (infant Christ). They said,’ How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle? Jesus said,’ I am a servant of Allah. He has given me the book, and has made me a prophet.. ” (Quran 19:28-33). The parallels between the infant gospel of Thomas and the Holy Quran are unquestionable. Both share the view that Christ in the cradle spoke in the presence of Mary.
Commenting on Christ’s speech in the cradle we read:” In both narratives (the infancy gospel and the Quran Jesus is presented as a baby in the cradle giving a highly theological discourse in the presence of Mary about his respective missions in both religions (Christianity and Islam )’ (Wikipedia). In Sahih Bukhari the Holy Prophet Muhammad has also interpreted the speech of Christ in the cradle to mean the speech of the newly born Christ in a cradle that was a sign to the Israelites.
Creation of birds.
Concerning this miracle of Jesus mentioned at the onset of the discussion we read the following reports from Wikipedia: ”One of the episodes involves Jesus making clay birds , which he then proceeds to bring to life(by breathing into them), an act also attributed to Jesus in Quran 5:110” (Wikipedia ). Kindly see the attached figure from the book with the clay birds rising from the ground into air. The picture is a remarkable representation of the following Quranicde scription. Quoting from the Quran we read:” And I will send him as a Messenger to the children of Israel with the message , ‘ I come to you with a sign from your Lord, which is, that i will fashion out for you a creation out of clay after the manner of a bird. Then I will breathe into it and it will become a bird by Allah’s permission ”(Quran 3:50). From the above verse it is crystal clear that Christ moulded clay into the shape of a bird. After that he would breathe into it and the bird would fly away like a live bird.
Some Western Scholars have attributed, without proof nor evidence, the sources of the material in the Quran to the infancy gospel of Thomas:” The pseudo graphical gospel (Infancy gospel ) was very popular in North African Coptic Christians Communities and would certainly have been familiar to the author of Surah 5.For this reason the Infancy gospel of Thomas is most reasonably the source for the material in the Quran ” (Wikipedia). In refutation we say that Muhammad appeared six hundred years after Christ had wrought the miracle of creating birds and four hundred years after the event was written down in the gospel. Since the Gospel thereafter was declared forbidden (apocryphal ) by Christian Authorities, the book was extant by the time of Muhammad’s advent in Arabia in the sixth century AD In addition Muhammad had no contact ,whatever, with Egypt during his life –time, being confined to the Hejaz , region of macca and Madina.
There is no iota of evidence, whatever, that an Arabic translation of the book, assuming it had been translated into Arabic , even reached Arabia not to think of Macca and Madina. In addition the preponderantly greater majority of Arabs including our beloved Prophet were illiterates and had the least interest in literary works. In the absence of proofs and evidences we dismiss the allegations as products from fertile imaginations. The Quran therefore obtained the material from Allah through divine revelation.
Conclusion:
The infancy Gospel Thomas has provided the long sought after evidence that the miracles of bird’s creation and speech in the cradle in the Quran were real events that occurred in the life time of Christ. All praise and Eulogy go to Allah, the most beloved and most sought after Being in the entire universe.
Khalid Kofi Ahmad
