Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 138
138 Christianity – A Journey from Facts to Fiction ance for the sake of noble ideals and his bold upright rejection of all despotic attempts to make him change his principles that have been the real backbone of Christianity. It is still as beautiful and as loveable today as it was ever before. It has influenced so power- fully the Christian minds and hearts that they remain bonded to Jesus as and would much rather shut their eyes to logical discrepan- cies than to break away from him. His real greatness lies in the fact that he transcended and con- quered the forces of darkness that had conspired to vanquish him despite being a frail human being and no more than a human being. That victory of Jesus as is something to be shared with pride by the children of Adam as. As we see it from the Muslim vantage point, he is one of the most noble progeny of Adam as. He taught humanity by his example of perseverance in the face of extreme suffering and pain. Not to surrender but to remain steadfast in the teeth of extreme trial was the noblest achievement of Jesus as. It was his life of suffering and pain that redeemed humanity and made him conquer death. If he had accepted death voluntarily, it would have been tantamount to an attempt to escape his state of suffering. How can one conceive this to be an act of bravery? Even the act of those who commit suicide, under extreme pres- sure, is taken to be a mere act of cowardice. To share suffering in life is far better than to escape suffering through death. Hence the concept of the supreme sacrifice of Jesus as by accepting death for the sake of humanity is hollow sentimentality with no substance in it. The greatness of Jesus as , we again insist, lay in his supreme sacri- fice during his lifetime. All his life, he defied the temptations to