Little-Known Quirk of Faith
By James A. Haught
Here’s an odd twist of religion: Multitudes of Muslims believe that Jesus will return to Earth soon — not to spread Christianity, but to abolish it in support of Islam.
Muslim scholar Mustafa Akyol outlines this bizarre tenet in The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims. In a New York Times commentary, he explained:
Islam has two major scriptures: The Quran, supposedly dictated to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel, and the Hadiths, sayings of Muhammad recorded by others.
The Hadiths foretell two saviors: The first is the Mahdi, a holy leader who will unite Muslims worldwide — and the second is Jesus, who will come to renounce Christianity and affirm Islam as supreme. One Hadith says: