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I would like to present a summary of the Muslim point of view about Christ and in return I ask for the same: Who was Muhammad according to Christians? It's not about who is right or wrong. I just want to know the general point of view.

According to Muslims:

Jesus was born to Mary as a result of virginal conception. To the reaction of people who thought that she had committed a sin, Jesus told them he was a messenger of God and his mother was chaste. He was given scriptures, the 'Injil', and also the powers to heal the blind, deaf, and dumb. He did not die from crucifixion, rather he was raised up to heaven.

What do Christians think about Mohammad and of how the Qur'an come into being?

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    Ahhh I like what you're doing (building this bridge) but I don't know how this kind of question will be accepted or even answerable here. I'm willing to bet many Christians view Mohammad in slightly different ways, and I doubt that your view of Jesus is all-encompassing in Islam.
    – LCIII
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 14:43
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    Vote to close. The Christrian Bible predates Islam, and the question unambiguously solicits personal opinion. There is no way to verify or judge correctness of any direct, specific answer.
    – wberry
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 17:13
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    To close voters: Though this question seems too broad or primarily opinion based, this is one of those cases where there is a pretty large consensus which my answer details. I will add sources to support this later today when I have time, but a few simple google searches and you will find that the sentiment is very, very common among Christians. In short, don't vote to close. The question is on-topic and within an answerable scope.
    – user3961
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 17:47
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    This question can be answered objectively. Church fathers actively wrote about/against Islam. Essentially there's a long tradition of commentary starting with St. John of Damascus (7th century AD).
    – lukebuehler
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 18:14
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    This should be of interest: What Did the Saints Say about Islam? and please see this answer as well.
    – user13992
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 18:29

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To our Muslim friends, please do not be offended:

Christianity has no official view on Mohammed or the Quran, nor could it because Mohammed and the Quran came about hundreds of years after Christianity.

Christians do have opinions though. To most Christians, Mohammad is no different than any other non-christian who started a religion. They are false prophets and their revelation was a lie from Satan, a delusion, or non-existent.

There are reasons for this. The primary one is the Muslim view on Christ, right in your question. Plenty of Christian Theologians have evaluated Mohammad as a prophet. As far as I know, he has always been found wanting. Mohammad claimed in his writings, the Quran, that Jesus didn't even die. The death and resurrection of Christ is the central point to 99.999% of the various forms of Christianity. This Muslim claim alone is enough for most Christians to reject Mohammad as a prophet. After hearing that, there is very little chance for a committed and educated Christian to take anything from the Quran seriously.

Additionally, most Christians hold the Bible in as high regard as most Muslims hold the Quran. It is the word of God and is without error. The Quran and the Bible stand in contrast on quite a few points other than Christ. They cannot both be from the same God, and since the Bible was first and is already believed to be from God, the Quran, therefore, cannot be from God. That leaves Mohammad as a false prophet.

Similarly, Jews view Christians and Jesus this way. Some teach that Jesus had some good things to say, but he was not even close to what Christians say he was and he certainly was not the Messiah. The revelations of his disciples who started his religion after his death were either lies from Satan, delusions, or non-existent.

There may be a few groups that call themselves Christian that have a favorable view of Mohammad, but I do not know of any. If they exist, they are small in number and it is likely that your average Christian would not consider them Christians.

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    Good answer, though it's too strong to call Christians that have a favorable view of Mohammad not Christian. More likely, they just don't have a thorough understand of Mohammed, or are okay with agreeing with only 90% of what he said.
    – Paul Draper
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 4:09
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    @PaulDraper What is Truth is Truth, despite who says it. So, yes, Mohammed did say agreeable things. What I was noting is that there are very few Christians (none I know of) that would call him a prophet.
    – user3961
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 4:37
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    Let us continue this discussion in chat.
    – user3961
    Commented Sep 21, 2014 at 16:31
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Mohammed never read the Bible and therefore makes many mistakes in the Koran like confusing Miriam the daughter of Amram and sister of Moses and Aaron with Mary the mother of Jesus. I'm sure you are already aware of those passages from the Koran, in Suras 3 and 19, and perhaps a few others. Here is an article that demonstrates from a Christian perspective that the Koran in fact confuses Miriam and Mary. [Please note, I'm not endorsing anything at that site other than the article on Miriam and Mary, as I know nothing about the site overall.]

Mohammed also makes another mistake in pulling Haaman from the book of Esther (which happened centuries after Moses) into the story of Moses and Pharoah, and also pulling in the tower of Babel (from centuries before Moses) into the story of Moses by making Pharaoh command Haaman to build the tower so he could climb to heaven and see Moses' God (Koran, in Sura 28:38 and Sura 40:36-37). In short, Mohammed had no sense of chronology.

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    I'm not sure "never read" is a verifiable statement. "Not well studied", "didn't have a good working knowledge of", or other variants are probably more accurate.
    – Caleb
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 10:49
  • @Caleb, Muslim tradition itself states he was illiterate, so "never read" is certainly accurate. He heard Bible stories, but he never read the Bible. (Hence the confusions on chronology.) He also didn't write the Koran down himself but recited it, and his followers wrote it down.
    – david brainerd
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 17:49
  • I realize the issues with (il)literacy involved, and I agree he was ignorant on the subject, but you're objection is a bit of a technicality: I can list quite a few book titles that if you asked me "Have you read ____?" I would say "Yes I've read that." in spite of only having listened to the audio book version. Obviously the quality of comprehension varies, but in the context of an oral culture not having "read" something does not mean the same thing as "not having a working knowledge of" it.
    – Caleb
    Commented Sep 24, 2014 at 13:25
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I doubt that any Christian thinks that Muslim and the Quran are anything other than Mohammed writing his scriptures (from the Latin: writings). If I am correct, that is probably the ONLY thing the Christians agree on. As for 99.999% of Christians agreeing on something, that is a definitional type of thing, that is: I am defining Christianity as xxx; if you do not agree with my definition then you are not Christian.

I recall, in my younger years, being told by an African-American convert to Islam that the Quran must be divinely revealed because Mohammed's style was unique and impossible to copy. Writing style is actually sign of human handiwork, rather than divine. - kh

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  • Welcome to the site. Thank you for sharing, but the site strives to be academic, using sources and citations to support answers. The site is not a discussion forum. Once you reach 20 rep you can chat about whatever you want. Please see Guidelines for writing effective answers and What is a well-sourced, dispassionate answer? After that, please edit this post. I hope to see you post again soon.
    – user3961
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 0:51
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    To be fair, I have not provided sources for my answer, but I do intend to soon, once given the time, and have promised so in comments elsewhere.
    – user3961
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 0:59
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While there are many Christian traditions, each with their own statements of faith, many (most?) today respect the Apostles' Creed, which is very old and can be used as a checklist to look for incompatibilities in any belief system that Christ or the apostles did not specifically address themselves. All points in the Creed are widely believed throughout Christendom.

Points in it that may be of interest concerning this question are:

EDIT: The statement from the question, that according to Muslims, Jesus "did not die from crucifixion," is clearly contradicted by the Apostles' Creed. I will not draw any other conclusions regarding possible contradictions between Christian and Islamic views on Jesus. But this one contradiction at least would cause any Christian who upholds the Apostles' Creed to question any claim that the Quran, and therefore its author, is without error.

I am not sure that any more direct answer can rise above personal opinion.

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    This is not an answer to the question asked.
    – bruised reed
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 17:16
  • I agree, but I think any direct answer would not be appropriate as it would necessarily be personal opinion.
    – wberry
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 17:17
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    your comment on the OP and flagging a vote to close is sufficient expression of that sentiment - posting this 'answer' is far less appropriate than a genuine attempt to answer the question regardless of how subjective it is.
    – bruised reed
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 17:21
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    This is actually a good answer to another question - or even a primer on the apostles creed, but, yeah - it doesn't answer the question.
    – Affable Geek
    Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 20:03
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    I feel I should explain myself a bit. The question is, what do Christians, plural, apparently as a category, think about Muhammad and the Quran. To me it seems the best we could do is cite commentary from widely respected Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant elders. Even if this were done, would even that really answer what Christians as a category think about this issue? (Luther's "On The Jews And Their Lies" is a counter-argument.) At least with the Apostles' Creed we have a widely believed contradiction of the Quranic claim that Jesus did not die. OP can draw his own conclusion.
    – wberry
    Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 8:05
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at Fred's (not fredsbend, heaven forbid that i call out some other participant in this SE site) request, i am answering briefly what one Christian's view is of Mohammad.

Mohammad's story seems to revere the notion of redemptive violence which is fundamentally not the revered value in the story of the Suffering Servant who preceded Mohammad by some 5 centuries. similarly for the Old Testament vis-a-vis Jesus saying "... but I tell you ...".

essential Christianity has a different value system than what i understand is essential Islam. but all of the Abrahamic faiths have some things in common besides some notion of monotheism (both Jews and Muslims are critical and sorta dubious of the Christian version of monotheism, a critique i sometimes identify with) is some concern for restorative justice and for the poor. there is a notion in all three of the divine preference for the poor and of forgiveness and mercy. dunno how much to attribute to Mohammad about those values, but since devout Islam seems to embrace those values, too, for the ignorant Christian (that's me), this Christian does not view Mohammad as some sorta satanic figure like Hitler. but I don't view Mohammad as on par with Jesus nor even the early Christian leaders (some of whom have writings in the canon).

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  • The question is "What do Christians think about Mohammad and how the Quran came into being?" Naturally, I would suggest that there should be some mention of Mohammad's claimed gift of Prophecy and whether the average Christian believes that or holds any religious value to the Quran. I don't think you've answered that. You've summed up the Abrahamic religions into half a paragraph then let us know indirectly that you personally are indifferent to Mohammad.
    – user3961
    Commented Sep 21, 2014 at 1:34
  • This answer would be a lot better if you could add references showing that this is a common understanding, and who teaches/believes it. As you already know, on this site, we're not looking for personal interpretation, but rather focusing on what various Christian groups teach. See How we are different than other sites? and What makes a good supported answer?
    – David Stratton
    Commented Sep 21, 2014 at 14:56
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    but @DavidStratton, it isn't about a common understanding, since there really is no common Christian understanding of Mohammad. i am clear about who believes it.
    – robert bristow-johnson
    Commented Sep 21, 2014 at 15:05
  • I agree. I tend to think the question itself should be closed as primarily opinion-based. I'd rather have the community do it but if it attracts enough opinion answers, one of us mods will eventually likely do it.
    – David Stratton
    Commented Sep 21, 2014 at 15:10
  • Wait - there are four other votes to close. I'm casting the last vote myself.
    – David Stratton
    Commented Sep 21, 2014 at 15:12

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