One of the tactics employed by official Palestinian discourse to falsify history and fabricate an ancient Palestinian identity is the portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth — Jewish by origin and mission — as a “Palestinian freedom fighter” who was killed by the Israelis. In this narrative, he becomes the first “Palestinian martyr” rewarded in the afterlife with eternal paradise and virgins, as promised in the Islamic narrative.
A report entitled “Jesus the Palestinian terrorist and his 72 dark-eyed virgins,” presents numerous examples confirming this strategy of ideological and political exploitation.
But how can we understand such a narrative?
First, it is important to recognise that within Islamic thought — whether popular or official — anyone who sacrifices their life for the “cause of Allah” is granted the highest honour, and is regarded as among the most privileged in paradise. According to the Qur’an:
“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed…”
(Surat al-Tawba 9:111)¹
This verse forms the foundation for the view that ‘Isa عيسى in the Islamic tradition is not a martyr because he was crucified as atonement for the sins of humanity — as Christianity holds — but because he is the prototype who is to fight disbelievers and implement Allah’s Sharia/law.
This ‘Isa عيسى’ whom Muslims claim to love is not the Jesus يسوع المسيح of the Gospels — the one who preached peace, love, and sacrifice. He is an entirely different character, reshaped within a religious narrative that serves specific Islamic agendas. Worth a look
Some widely accepted hadiths describe this -Islamic Jesus- as someone who affirms Muhammad’s prophethood. One even claims:
“Whoever testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and that ‘Isa is the servant of Allah and His Messenger… will enter Paradise.”
(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 44)²
Thus, it contradicts the oldest Christian creed (1 Corinthians 15:3–7).
In another narration, when a woman praises the mother of Jesus, he replies:
“Rather, blessed are those who read the Qur’an and follow it.”
(Musnad Ahmad, 3/275)³
In Islamic eschatology, the true role of ‘Isa is fully revealed: he returns to break the cross, kill the pig, abolish the jizya (tax for non-Muslims), and impose Islam by force — even on the “People of the Book” such as Jews and Christians⁴.
In other words, this version of Jesus becomes a symbol of religious warfare, where all notions of tolerance towards Christian beliefs — especially the belief in his crucifixion and resurrection — are eradicated.
When ‘Isa finally appears in the end-time battle, he does not act as an independent figure. He prays behind a Muslim imam⁵, then goes on to kill the “false messiah” (the Antichrist) with a spear⁶. Afterward, he dies, is washed by Muslims, and buried. This death qualifies him as a perfect martyr, similar to those who carry out suicide bombings in the name of Islam.
Naturally, this “martyr” is granted the same physical rewards: the houris — described in Islamic texts as wide-eyed and full-breasted virgins, created solely for the pleasure of men in paradise⁷.
Muhammad himself, according to a widely cited hadith, affirmed:
“The martyr is forgiven from the first drop of his blood, sees his place in Paradise, is crowned with a crown of dignity… and is married to seventy-two wives from among the wide-eyed houris.”
(Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 24, Hadith 2799)⁸
Jesus in Christianity is:
- The Son of God / God incarnate in the flesh (according to Christian belief).
- The embodiment of love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.
- He willingly died for the sins of humanity as a “sacrificial atonement.”
- He rose from the dead, triumphed over evil, and sat at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus (ʿĪsā) in Islam is:
- Simply a human prophet, not the Son of God.
- He was not crucified (according to the verse: “They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him”).
- He did not die as an atonement for anyone but was “raised up” and will descend at the end of times to break the cross, kill the pig, and rule by Muhammad’s law.
- He will finally die as a “Muslim martyr,” will be prayed over, and buried by the Islamic community!
The result:
The Christ who represents the “end of death and the beginning of life” in Christianity was transformed in Islam into a “soldier subordinate to Muhammad,” who submits to Sharia law and ends his life serving Islam.. that is, a complete symbolic reversal of his original concept!
From “Redeemer of the World” to “Mahdist Soldier Fighting Jews and Christians”.
According to Islamic (Sunni and Shia) narrations, Jesus will descend:
- To break the cross (the symbol of Christian redemption).
- To fight the Jews and the “misguided Christians.”
- To be merely a follower of the Mahdi or Muhammad, not an independent leader.
The result: The symbolism of Jesus was redirected against the religion from which he came, and he was conscripted within the Islamic “End Times” narrative, against his “original community,” so to speak.
What happened with Jesus was not an assimilation but:
- A stripping of his original identity.
- A reversal of his symbolism and role.
- A rewriting of his end to serve another ideological project.
Meaning: even Jesus — who in his original concept did not need houris or a physical paradise — was painted with “Islamic rewards” like any modern jihadist.
Given this context, it is not surprising that the Islamic ‘Isa’ is granted similar bodily pleasures. In fact, Mary — the mother of Jesus — is depicted in some Islamic narrations as one of Muhammad’s wives in paradise, absorbed into a mythological framework that sexualises even Christian sacred figures.
For example, Al-Suyuti quotes Muhammad as saying:
“In heaven, Mary the mother of ‘Isa will be one of my wives.”
(al-Suyuti, al-Hawi li’l-Fatawa, 6/395)⁹
And another narration reports:
“Allah married me in paradise to Mary the daughter of ‘Imran, and to the wife of Pharaoh, and to the sister of Moses.”
(al-Tabarani, cited in Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya, Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, 1968, p. 381; also cited in Aliah Schleifer, Mary: The Blessed Virgin of Islam, Fons Vitae, 1998, p. 64)¹⁰
Nor is this just some random, obscure hadith. Dr. Salem Abdul Galil — previously deputy minister of Egypt’s religious endowments for preaching — affirmed its canonicity in 2017 during a live televised Arabic-language program. Among other biblical women (Moses’s sister and Pharaoh’s wife), “our prophet Muhammad… will be married to Mary in paradise,” Galil enthusiastically proclaimed.
This narrative does not build bridges between religions, as some “interfaith” rhetoric might claim. Rather, it represents a calculated effort to recycle Jewish and Christian figures within a self-serving religious project — not only to appropriate them, but to weaponise them against the very followers of those faiths.
1.Qur’an, Surah al-Tawba (9:111)
2.Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 44
3.Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 14023 (3/275)
4.Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 55, Hadith 658; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 389
5.Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 293
6.Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 36, Hadith 4077
7.Qur’an, Surah al-Waqi'ah (56:22–24)
8.Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 24, Hadith 2799
9.Al-Suyuti, al-Hawi li’l-Fatawa, vol. 6, p. 395
10.Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya, p. 381; Schleifer, Mary: The Blessed Virgin of Islam, p. 64
إرسال تعليق