clearly that borrowing took place, though in a distorted form. In short, the Christ of Arab religious storytelling works wonders small and great: he creates birds from clay, heals the man born blind and the leper, cures the blind and raises the dead, knows the unseen, tells people what they eat and what they drink and what they store up in their houses, and walks upon the water. All this he does at God's command and by His leave: "It is related that Jesus went out on one of his journeys, and with him was a short man from among his companions, who kept close company with Jesus. When Jesus came to the sea he said: In the name of God, in soundness and certainty — and he walked upon the face of the water. Then wonder entered the man, and he said: This is Jesus, the Spirit of God, walking on the water — and I too walk on the water! And, it is said, he sank into the water and cried out to Jesus for help; and Jesus took him from the water and drew him out and said to him: What did you say, O short one? So he told him what had passed through his mind. And Jesus said: You set yourself in a place other than that in which God set you, and God abhorred you for what you said; so repent to God of what you said. And the man repented, and returned to the station in which God had placed him." This account is nothing but an echo of what appears in the Gospel of Matthew, in the fourteenth chapter, when the disciples of Christ the Lord were troubled at seeing him walking on the face of the water and said it was a phantom, and cried out in their fear; and Jesus spoke to them and calmed their alarm, saying: It is I; be not afraid. And Peter wished to make certain of him and said: Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he went to come to Jesus; but when he saw the wind strong he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, saying: Lord, save me. And straightway Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him: O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
What stands out in this miracle
— and what, in my view, moved the storytellers to set it down — is the element of doubt, which, the moment it seeps into the believer's conscience, corrupts his faith. We say this after reading, from the composers of these tales, a tradition such as this concerning the noble Arabian Prophet. It is said:
"Abu Mansur al-Hashawi related to us, with his complete chain of transmission, from Mu'adh ibn Jabal, that the Messenger of God — God bless him and give him peace — said: Had you known God as He truly ought to be known, you would have known the knowledge after which there is no ignorance. And no one has ever attained that. They said: Not even you, O Messenger of God? He said: Not even I. They said: O Messenger of God, it has reached us that Jesus son of Mary walked upon the water. He said: Yes — and had he increased in fear and in certainty, he would have walked upon the air. They said: O Messenger of God, we did not think that the messengers fell short. He said: God Most High is too exalted in station for anyone to attain His station."
The truth is that the Jesus of these religious tales has in him something of everything: something of the color of the Gospel, something of the color of the Quran, and, over and above both, something of the color of the storytellers, who were infatuated with everything strange and curious, with every legend and every fable. For while you find one report of Christ the Lord, told as it is known in the Gospel, showing Christ's tenderness, his love for mankind, and his great compassion for them, suddenly you read that he mounts a raid against the children of Israel and kills a great multitude of them.
And Jesus — God clothed him in majesty and granted him what he hoped for; He purified him and raised him up to Himself; He covered him with feathers and clothed him in light, and cut off from him the appetite for food and drink; so he flies with the angels around the Throne, for he is human and angelic, earthly and heavenly.
And Jesus is the Word of God, "for
God said to him, without a father: Be — and he was; so the name of the Word fell upon him, because through it he came to be."
And the storytellers wished to add to Christ's majesty and honor, so they brought forward traditions, attributed to the Arabian Prophet, in support of their view. They said: al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ali related, with his chain of transmission, from Ibn Abbas, who said: the Messenger of God — God bless him and give him peace — said: "How should God destroy a nation at whose beginning I stand, at whose end is Jesus, and in whose midst is the Mahdi, of the people of my house?" And it is said: "Muhammad ibn al-Qasim al-Farisi reported, with his chain of transmission, from Abu Hurayra, who said: the Messenger of God — God bless him and give him peace — said: When God sends down the Messiah, Jesus, he will live among this nation as long as he lives, then die in this city of mine and be buried beside the grave of Umar. Blessed, then, are Abu Bakr and Umar, who will be raised up between two prophets."
And again:
"Abu Salih Shu'ayb informed us... the Messenger of God — God bless him and give him peace — said: The prophets are brothers of one father by different mothers; their mothers are diverse, but their religion is one. And I am the nearest of men to Jesus son of Mary — upon her be peace — for there was no prophet between me and him. And soon the son of Mary will descend among you as a just judge; he will descend upon my nation as my successor over them... He will fight the people for Islam until in his time all creeds perish save Islam, and prostration will be to God alone, Lord of the Worlds; and in his time God will destroy the messiah of error, the lying Deceiver; and security will settle upon the earth, so that lions will graze with camels, and leopards with cattle, and wolves with sheep,
and children will play with serpents, and none will do harm to another. Then