It is no secret that Jesus is an important figure in Islam, although his role has been relegated to one of many Abrahamic prophets, with Mohammed being the last to herald the final dispensation of God. Yet it is almost unknown in the West that beyond the Koran, there is not only a lush, esoteric tradition concerning Jesus but also vivid Gnostic ideology. In fact, there is an argument to be made that Gnosticism influenced Islamic theology, even from its conception.
The first part of the article focuses on the apocryphal sayings of Jesus preserved for centuries by Muslim scholars. Although still a matter of debate, the influence of this mystical Jesus probably entered the Islamic empires in the Middle Ages through commerce with Byzantine Christians, as well as interaction with Nestorian and Manichean missionaries.
The Jesus of Islam differs from the one in the Koran and Orthodox Christianity. His role is more of a wisdom sage of transcendental truths and timeless virtues, instead of an apocalyptical miracle worker concerned with religious dogmatism. Like the Jesus of The Gospel of Thomas and other Thomasine literature popular with Syrian and Gnostic Christians centuries before Mohammed, this Jesus focuses on detachment from the material world, as well as the discovery of spiritual freedom through introspection and charitable living. But unlike the Christ found in most unorthodox and even orthodox denominations, he is fully human with all its potentials and limitations.
Here are some of the most prominent teachings of Jesus in Islam:
Jesus was asked, “Who taught you?”
He answered, “No one taught me. I saw that the ignorance of the fool was shameful, so I avoided it.”
He answered, “No one taught me. I saw that the ignorance of the fool was shameful, so I avoided it.”
Jesus said, “Whoever seeks the world is like one who drinks seawater. The more he drinks, the more his thirst increases, until it kills him.”
One day Jesus was walking with his apostles, and they passed by the carcass of a dog.
The apostles said, “How this dog stinks!”
But Jesus said, “How white are its teeth!”
The apostles said, “How this dog stinks!”
But Jesus said, “How white are its teeth!”
Some said to Jesus, “Give us some teaching for which God will love us.”
Jesus said, “Hate the world, and God will love you.”
Jesus said, “Hate the world, and God will love you.”
Jesus said, “The world is a bridge. Pass over it. Do not linger on it.”
Jesus said, “Store up for yourselves something which the fire will not devour.”
They said, “What is that?”
He answered, “Mercy.”
They said, “What is that?”
He answered, “Mercy.”
They saw him coming out of a prostitute’s house, then someone said to him, “Oh spirit of God, what you doing with this woman?”
He replied, “The doctor comes only to the sick.”
John the Baptist asked Jesus what was the most difficult thing to bear.
The latter replied, “The wrath of God.”
“Then,” asked John, “what serves most to bring down God’s wrath?”
“Your anger,” answered Jesus.
“And what brings on one’s own anger?” asked John.
Jesus said, “Pride, conceit, vanity, and arrogance.”
The latter replied, “The wrath of God.”
“Then,” asked John, “what serves most to bring down God’s wrath?”
“Your anger,” answered Jesus.
“And what brings on one’s own anger?” asked John.
Jesus said, “Pride, conceit, vanity, and arrogance.”
Jesus said, “Who commits wisdom to them that are not ready for it, is a fool; and who withholds it from them that are ready for it, is an evil-doer. Wisdom has rights, and rightful owners; and gives each his due.”
The Apostle asked Jesus, “Is there anyone on earth today like you?”
He answered, “Yes, whoever has prayer for his speech, and meditation for his silence, and tears for his vision, that one is like me.”
He answered, “Yes, whoever has prayer for his speech, and meditation for his silence, and tears for his vision, that one is like me.”
God revealed to Jesus, “Though you should worship with the devotion of the inhabitants of heaven and the earth, but have not love in God and hate in God, it will avail you nothing!”
From Al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences
Jesus said, “Be in the midst, yet walk on one side.”
From Baidawi’s Commentary on the Koran
Jesus said, “The world is a place of transition, full of examples, yet be pilgrims in it, and take warning from the traces of those that have gone before you.”
From Jacut’s Geographical Lexicon
There are legions of these proverbs attributed to Jesus in Muslim literature. A healthy selection can be found in such books as Andrew Phillip Smith’s The Lost Sayings of Jesus, Sean Martin’s The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics, Robert Price’s Deconstructing Jesus, and James Robson’s Christ in Islam.
Although not possessed with supernatural gifts, the Jesus of Islam is similar to the Gnostic Jesus, including the godman of The Gospel of John, in that he is presented as a foreigner to this universe, an alien being belonging to higher realms of reality. This is much different than Mohammed and other prophets who often reveled and thrived in the material dimensions. Yet the Jesus of Islam is ultimately mortal, perhaps symbolizing the reality that all humans are fundamentally strangers to the cosmos, yet who paradoxically have to accommodate and escape the world of forms.
This prayer by Jesus, from Revival of the Religious Sciences, perhaps represent the plight of both Jesus in Islam and humanity in general:
“O God, I am this morning unable to ward off what I would not, or to obtain what I would. That power is in another’s hands. I am bound by my works, and there is none so poor that is poorer than I. O God, do not let my enemy to rejoice over me, nor my friend to grieve over me; do not let me have trouble with faith; make the world not be my chief care, and do not give the power over me to him who will not pity me.”
The first part of Jesus and Gnosticism in Islam focused on the Gnostic-themed sayings of Jesus found in Muslim tradition, as well as the theories on how Gnosticism found its way into the pan-Arabic civilization of the Middle Ages. The second part deals with Islamic Gnosticism itself. In addition, it presents evidence that Mohammed might have known and been influenced by this ancient heresy when formulating the last, major Abrahamic religion.
Besides the Manichaeans and Mandeans who thrived in Muslim culture, the latter still present today, there are several other Gnostic sects that either did or did not embrace Islamic theology. To delve into each one of them would take entire books; but their Gnostic pedigree was both known and often received the same bleak fate as their Christian counterparts. As Sean Martin writes in The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics (pg. 74):
‘Charges of heresy also befell Gnostic elements within Islam. These were the Shi’ite ghulats, meaning ‘exaggerators’ or ‘extremists’, whose most notable early figure was Abdullah ibn Saba,‘a figure comparable to Simon Magus in the history of Christian Gnosticism’. Other groups followed in ibn Saba’s wake: the Assassins (or Ismailis), the Druze, the Sufis, to name but three, all of whom could be said to have Gnostic aspects.’
One of the most interesting Islamic Gnostic sects—which also still exist today in the same regions as the Mandaeans—are the Yezidi. Their origins are unclear, as Martin writes in his book, but they are perhaps an arcane Persian faith that bred with Sufism. Like with most of Gnosticism, the Yezidis believe that divinity emanates from a supernal Big Bang, man is truly a divine particle lost in the material universe, myths should be aggressively re-interpreted to suit a community’s spiritual appetite, and knowledge of the self ultimately leads to knowledge of the true God. Martin writes concerning their Creation narrative:
'In the beginning, God creates a white pearl from his own essence that contains all the elements that are to form the universe. He then –some versions say 40,000 years later – creates a Heptad of angels to rule over the world and makes Melek Tawus the chief amongst them. God then creates the seven heavens, the earth, the sun and the moon, and it is left to Melek Tawus to create human beings and all the animals. Each member of the Heptad has dominion over one of the four elements or the plant, animal and human realms; all the elements must be respected and not polluted in any way. Melek Tawus is revered by the Yezidis as the greatest of the angels and is known as the ‘Lord of this World’ and also as the ‘Peacock Angel’, and all earthly affairs are said to be under his influence.’ (pg. 77)
Because of the Peacock Angel’s label of ‘Lord of this World’, a loose reference to Saint Paul’s moniker for Satan, the Yezidis have been persecuted throughout history by both Christians and Muslims for being Devil-worshippers. This injustice has continued through modern times; and this ancient people, like the Gnostic Mandaeans, are currently on the brink of extinction.
But without a doubt, the most prominent Islamic Gnostic denomination is Sufism. Although the Sufis have branched out into many schools with varying philosophies, and their exact origins are in dispute, their core tenets lean heavily into Gnostic metaphysics. Some of the obvious parallels of Sufism and Classic Gnosticism are:
--An essential belief in salvific-knowledge of the Divine. The Classic Gnostics used the Greek word for knowledge, Gnosis. Sufis use the Arabic word for knowledge, Marifa.
--The reality that human beings have a shard of the Godhead that seeks return to a supernal home. The Classic Gnostics knew it as the Divine Spark of the indwelling Pneuma (Spirit or Image of God). The Sufis often refer to it as 'the longing’ to be coupled with The Beloved.
--These shards of the Godhead are covered in layers of false identity that need to be exfoliated. The Classic Gnostics were known to call it the Hylic self or Counterfeit Spirit. The Sufis call it the Naf. Modern Gnostics and occultists regularly call it the ego or the soul. Like the eleventh century Sufi poet, Ansari, expressed,“Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach The Beloved. There is no other secret to be learnt, and more than that is not known to me.”
--That part of the process of Gnosis or Marifa not only entails self-knowledge but discerning between the spiritual realms and the material world (and its seductions). Divine presence can be sensed everywhere, but in the end it is but the radiance of the Godhead or the Beloved calling for its children.
--A stressing of asceticism, humility, and concern for the socially downtrodden in order to ignite one’s Divine Spark. The Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba stated that Sufism is, "A science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits.”
--Widely used terminology not found in other traditions regarding humanity’s plight in the cosmos, often with diverging meanings depending on the mythopoeia. These include ‘forgetfulness’, ‘soberness’, ‘drunkenness’,‘remembrance of one’s godly nature’ and several others.
Furthermore, it is interesting that although the term Sufism is linked to wool because of the plain white robes these mystics wear, the Persian scholar Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī wrote that the word is actually linked to the Greek word sophia, meaning ‘wisdom’.
The Sufi master, Shurawardi, in his book, The Philosophy of Illumination, goes into great detail regarding heavy Gnostic and also Neoplatonic elements in on Sufism. But the evidence is found all throughout Sufi literature. A perfect example is this quote by the thirteenth-century master Abd’ al-Khâliq Ghijduwâni:
“Your journey is towards your homeland. Remember you are travelling from the world of appearances to the world of Reality.”
Perhaps the most powerful Gnostic Islamic writing is the eighth century Shi-ite text, Mother of Books (Umm al-kitab). Its cosmology could have easily come out of the Sethian or Valentinian theological womb. In this scripture, Mohammed and family members such as Fatima, Ali, and Hasan are presented as Aeons above Creation in a place called the Divine Realm of Five. The Demiurge figure is called Azazi’il, oddly similar to the Jewish fallen angel, Azazel. In addition, the ultimate God is just as unknown and impersonal as in Gnosticism, portrayed as a king behind a curtain. The Mother of Books claims that only through divine knowledge and prayer the ultimate God can become known, exemplified in this passage: The one who knows arises and testifies to the Holy Spirit as to himself.
Perhaps the most interesting speculation is whether Mohammed himself knew of the Gnostic heresy. As mentioned, the first part of article reveals that Gnostic theories were more than likely available in the Middle East regions during the seventh century. Here are some indications on why Gnosticism might have made its way into Islam from the very beginning, including the Koran:
--The Koran states that Jesus did not die at the cross. He was saved at the last moment and a phantom left behind. This account is only found in the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, The Acts of John, and the teachings of Basilides, a second century Gnostic sage. Some Muslim scholars even wrote that it was Judas who took the place of Christ at Calvary.
--The Koran also contains a passage about Jesus turning clay doves into living animals. This is the exact narration found in The Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Although it’s not a Gnostic work per se, it certainly was deemed heretical by Orthodox Christianity, along with all Gnostic scriptures.
--Mohammed himself stated that Christianity destroyed the true gospels of Jesus and used instead corrupted ones. This seems to indicate he knew of outlawed Christian works, the Gnostic writings being the most infamous ones.
--The Satanic Verses that Mohammed edited out of the Koran because he believed they had been dictated by Satan (or Iblis in Islam) instead of the angel Gabriel, speak about intermediary and emanating female divine entities. Probably more of a Pagan influence, but it certainly could be a Gnostic one since salvific feminine and divine principles are common in Gnostic mythology.
--There are striking similarities between the Prophet Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, and Mohammed. Both saw themselves as the last messengers of the Godhead’s dispensation, as well as the greatest of all Abrahamic apostles. Both were claimed by their followers to be The Paraclete or 'comforter', found in The Gospel of John. Both received their revelation from heavenly beings— Mani from his own divine twin or Daemon, while Mohammed from the angel Gabriel. Lastly, both stressed that their followers eschew mind-altering substances, although Mani essentially eschewed all material attachments while Mohammed often seemed to bask in them.
Ultimately, these are all suppositions. Any tangible historical evidence is likely forever lost. Orthodox Islam was as savage in their censorship, persecution and re-writing of history as Orthodox Christianity when it came to anything resembling Gnosticism. Furthermore, no religion of antiquity or the Middle Ages existed in a vacuum, regularly cross-pollinating or claiming older traditions for themselves after altering them.
But the Gnostic influence cannot be denied in the Muslim religion, from the legends of the Islamic Jesus to the visionary mysticism of the Sufis, and so much in between. This reality does not taint Mohammed and his dogma, but adds breathless dimensions that have led and can lead multitudes astray into the very heart of the Gnostic Pleroma or the Sufi Beloved.