 I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful, the Merciful. In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Merciful. I pray to Allah for our master and our prophet, Muhammad and his people, the righteous. My dear brothers and sisters, Muslims today living in the West have to make strong efforts to increase interfaith dialogue with people of different faiths and religions. We see that Allah SWT instructs the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may Salat and Salam be upon him and his people. Say, O people of the book, come to a word that is in between us and between you. O people of the book, after Allah SWT directs towards the Holy Prophet by stating, say, O Prophet, O people of the book, let us come toward a common word between one another. Let us engage in dialogue with one another, speaking on our commonalities. Let's we see that interfaith dialogue is something that is founded within the whole Quran. It is something that is founded during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, may Salat and Salam be upon him and his people, as it also occurred during the lifetime of the Imam of the Ahlul Bayt. We need to also carry upon this tradition in terms of living harmony, living a life of harmony with people of different faiths and different backgrounds and different traditions. We see that for instance, the Muslims, the Jewish community, the Christian community, they all share many different similarities. The fact that we all revere and honor Prophet Ibrahim, alaihi salam, that oftentimes we see that in Western circles that these three faiths are known as the Abrahamic religions because they all trace their roots back to Prophet Ibrahim, alaihi salam, who sacrificed a great deal for Allah SWT, who submitted toward him and we all oftentimes narrate different anecdotes about his life. Yes, absolutely. We see that there are certain differences in terms of theology in terms of jurisprudence between the three major religions. Yet at the same time, we also see that there are a lot of similarities in the fact that we all believe in Allah SWT, the fact that we all believe and hold close to us a large majority of the same themes and values which we honor amongst our own communities. We see that for instance, Judaism is a religion that is very strict in terms of the jurisprudence. It's presented and outlook in terms of these laws that Allah SWT has offered toward them are means to get closer to Allah. Similarly, the Islamic Sharia, very similar in the fact that we state that Allah SWT presents these laws toward us in order to channel our individual and communal progression closer toward him. In the religion of Christianity, for instance, we see that there is a great emphasis on the aspect of love of Allah SWT, on the aspect of doing good, on the aspect of charitable efforts. Yet we find that within the religion of Islam, we see a fusion between the two. There is a balance between law and jurisprudence and at the same time, etiquette and love and worship and spirituality of Allah SWT. And we see that when the Holy Prophet, Muhammad SWT presents his religion toward the people of Mecca and toward the people of Medina within the Arabian Peninsula, he comes and he presents that particular vision toward them. In the early years in Mecca, he spoke about actions of belief. He spoke about theology, spoke about the belief in one God, spoke about aspects of charity and of love and of obedience and of submission. But when the Holy Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Muslims, the early Muslims migrate toward the Holy city of Medina, he begins by increasing the laws and regulations and rules upon the community so that it would become a society that is founded in terms of finding a balance in terms of pushing and progressing closer to Allah SWT. And when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam preaches by means of this, we see that in the midst of his preachings, in the midst of the verses of the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Ahlul Bayt, there are a large number of anecdotes of the previous prophets of Allah SWT, the prophets of Bani Israel, Jesus Alaihi As-Salam, in the idea that he was trying to bring the Jewish community and the Christian community closer toward understanding the religion of Islam and demonstrating toward them that he is the final prophet and he continues the legacy of Noah and of Abraham and of Moses and of Jesus and all of the hundred thousand Samad prophets that preceded his Holiness, Rasulallah Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And specifically today, we have an extremely important responsibility for instance to project the vision of Isa Alaihi As-Salam toward all non-Muslims, demonstrate that the religion of Islam reveres and honors Prophet Jesus Isa Alaihi As-Salam and reveres him and honors him not only but also honors his mother Mary Alaihi As-Salam as we know the chapter 19 in the Holy Quran is dedicated to her name and toward her family. We see that Allah SWT mentioned several different anecdotes about Christians and the Christian community within the Holy Quran. Today we see that Christian denominations are upwards of 30,000 and they're founded in every part of the world and many Muslims who live in the West or probably all Muslims who live in the West, they have either worked with them, spoken to them, gone to school with them, made friends with them, been and engaged in dialogue with the Christian community. We have to make sure that we understand the perspective of the religion of Islam when it comes to Jesus Alaihi As-Salam and the idea that we can project our narrative toward them and see what common grounds we can find in terms of furthering and increasing our dialogue and furthering and increasing our discussion. We see that number one Allah SWT as I said before mentioned the Christian community several times within the Holy Quran. We see for instance in chapter 36 of the Holy Quran which many of us recite on a weekly basis at least Surat Yasin Allah SWT speaks about a Christian community. He narrates the story of a man by the name of Habib bin Najjar. Habib bin Najjar is from where? He is from a city known as Antioch in Northern Syria known as Antakya today. We see that Habib bin Najjar, he comes toward his community and tells these individuals to follow the messengers that have come to this community in order to in order that they follow the religion of Allah SWT and the religion of the Prophet that they're living under. The question is, who are those messengers that came to the city of Antioch? Number one and number two, which prophet to these representatives, to these messengers represent? We see Allah SWT or Mufassereen of the Holy Quran they state that there were three messengers sent toward the city of Antioch. These messengers are known as Simon, John and eventually Paul, Allah SWT states Initially Allah SWT orders Isa A.S. to send toward the city of Antioch two of his successors one of those is a man by the name of Simon and the other one is a man by the name of John that they rejected them and they say we don't want to hear what you have to say in the same way that the Holy Prophet SAW would send Amir al-Mu'mineen, would send other companions toward communities to go and preach the religion of Islam he will reject it. So Allah SWT directs Isa A.S. to also send a third by the man by the name of Paul these are all among the disciples of Isa A.S. We find that Habib bin Najjar after they rejected these messengers of Isa A.S. he comes toward that community of his and says make sure that you follow the instructions of what these people are saying but we find that they rejected him and eventually they killed him in a very gruesome way we speak about one example of the community of Christians within the Holy Quran. Secondly we see that Allah SWT mentions for instance Ashab al-Kahf in Surah al-Kahf of the Holy Quran those Ashab al-Kahf those people they were migrating away from their community because of the tyrannical king during that time who did not give them the ability to practice their religion freely what religion were they they were followers of Isa A.S. and they were Muslims and the fact that they followed their prophet Prophet Jesus A.S. We see that furthermore in the Holy Quran Allah SWT mentions Ashab al-Ukhdood for instance Allah SWT as we mentioned before he narrates the story of Isa and Maryam A.S. within chapter 19 of the Holy Quran but when we want to take a look and understand the perspective or the Islamic perspective of Jesus A.S. within the Holy Quran and within the narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt we see that we could take it threefold there is a theological understanding of Isa there is for instance a spiritual understanding of Isa and thirdly there is an eschatological role of Isa A.S. Let's take a look at each and every one of these very very briefly number one we see that the theological view is very similar to that in terms of the reverence that we have for all of the prophets of Allah SWT but the station of Jesus A.S. is unique from a lot of the other prophets from the fact that he is known as the Ul Al-Azm he is amongst the greatest prophets in the religion of Islam along with Noah along with Ibrahim along with Musa and along with Rasool Allah Muhammad and we see that within our narrations the narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt there are several different anecdotes about his life for instance we see on one occasion that Isa A.S. speaking with his Hawwari and the disciples and he's telling them that I have been gifted the ability to cure the leper I have been gifted the ability for instance to cure the individual who is paralyzed but there's one group of people that I have no way that I'm able to cure them it is said that at this moment his disciples they say oh our master Isa tell us you have been able to perform all of these different types of miracles what is that group of people that you're unable to cure? Isa A.S. unable to cure the fool they say oh Rasool Allah who is the fool? at this moment Jesus he responds by stating the fool is the one who doesn't take consultation and demonstrates arrogance by only following his own opinion thus we find that we can find a large number of different ethical and moral anecdotes from the life of Isa A.S. and in the Islamic perspective theologically of course we believe that Jesus A.S. is a prophet he is a messenger of Allah SWT who comes down with the injeel he comes down with the gospels as is often translated and though he is not God nor the son of God we see that even then Allah SWT has honored him as we mentioned by the fact that he has attained certain spiritual gifts we see for instance that Allah SWT mentions the fact that Isa A.S. has had the ability to speak while he was in the cradle he said that Abdullah gave me the book and made me a prophet when Mary was pregnant with Isa A.S. and she began to feel the pangs and the pangs and the pangs of childbirth in those final moments before she gave birth to her son that Allah SWT miraculously transports her from the city of Bethlehem toward a city on the outskirts of the holy city of Kufa and according to some narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt that Isa A.S. is born in the holy city of Karbala parallels with Abiyatullah al-Qasayn A.S. we see that when he was born of course Mary was very startled and wondered exactly how she's going to go back toward her community but at that moment Isa A.S. her son who was just a child consoled her and said do not speak when they enter back into the city of Bethlehem and all of the community of the family members and the entire community they come and they see Mary, Maryam A.S. with a child they go toward her and they say how could it be that you have a child and so on and so forth and they begin to make certain claims immoral claims against her Mary, she points toward her son Isa and Allah SWT quotes the verse Qala Inni Abdullah Atani al-kitab wa ja'alani nabiya while he was just a child while he was just days old he states that I am a servant of Allah SWT Inni Abdullah Atani al-kitab he said Allah SWT has given me a book and made me into a prophet in order to demonstrate the miracle of the birth of Isa A.S. and the glory of the mother of Jesus A.S. in terms of Mary We come forth and we see that according to different narrations that Isa A.S. on the 25th of the Qada a Tuesday and we come and we see that of course we reject many of these different narrations that state that Isa A.S. had been killed but rather we see that Allah SWT saved him wa ma qataluhu wa ma salabuh wa lakin shubhah lahum as Allah SWT states in the whole of Quran Thus when we want to take a look at the theological stance of the religion of Islam about Prophet Isa he is revered he is honored known as amongst the Ulal Adam and performed miracles even from when he was a very young child Secondly, we take a look at the spiritual role of Prophet Jesus A.S. in the religion of Islam We state that all of the the infallibles by means of the 14 infallibles the Ahir el-Bait A.S. they have a human dimension but at the same time they have what is known as a spiritual dimension the human dimension being known as what? the fact that they're able to converse with one another they're able to lead us they have similarities with the human being but they also have a spiritual dimension the fact that they have this intense insight and knowledge the ability to perform el-Mulqaib for instance have the knowledge of the unseen to have this type of foresight we see that in Christian theological circles as we mentioned there are upwards of 30,000 different theological circles within Christianity not all of them believe that Jesus A.S. was able to perform some of these spiritual miracles that even the religion of Islam accepts for instance we see for instance that there are a group of Christians who state that Isa A.S. it's just a metaphor when we state that he's walking on water in the religion of Islam we state no that Isa A.S. has been honored toward the greatest of heights the greatest of spiritual heights where he has been gifted the gift of what is known as willaya willaya to tequeenia due to the permission that Allah SWT has given him he has the ability to bring the dead back to life he has the ability to cure the leper he has the ability to cure the paralyzed and the blind and the deaf and the dumb this is of course out of the permission of Allah SWT but this gift is only given to those who have reached the highest level in terms of proximity and in terms of closeness to Allah SWT and thirdly whenever we're speaking about Isa A.S. especially to non-Muslims especially in regards to our Christian brothers in humanity we come and we see that we have to demonstrate toward them especially us as followers of the Ahl al-Bayt that Isa A.S. has an eschatological role a responsibility at the end of times according to narrations of course we know that the Christians believe that he has a messianic role in terms of coming back to the world and saving it and removing it from injustice and oppression but so do the Muslims we also believe that Isa A.S. is going to come and be at the support of Imam Al-Mahdi Imam Al-Zaman the twelfth Imam the progeny of the Ahl al-Bayt A.S. and he will vent toward them the ideology of the Holy Prophet SAW and offer different avenues of support to the Imam A.S. to create a government and a society and a community of peace and tranquility and we see that according to different narrations Isa A.S. will be the avenue to bring the religion and the faiths of others with the faith of Imam Al-Zaman and have everyone united under his banner my dear brothers and sisters as we mentioned the verse of the Holy Quran in the beginning which I mentioned Allah SWT he instructs the Holy Prophet Mu'ammad SAW to engage in this type of dialogue in this type of discussion with the Ahl al-Kitab with the people of the book Hul Ya Ahl al-Kitab ta'alo ila kalimatin sawa in baynana wa baynakum that come to a common word with one another if we made certain strides within our life to present toward Christian community and the Jewish community and other faiths about the similarities we have we see the differences and the barriers will fall down and we'll be able to create bridges for discussion for dialogue and avenues perhaps to present toward them the perspective and the narrative of the Holy Quran the teachings of the Holy Prophet SAW and the teachings of the Ahl al-Bait SAW if we make these certain strides to present toward them the teachings of the Ahl al-Bait perhaps there's an avenue for them a door for them to enter into understanding the greatness and the glory of Rasulullah the greatness and the glory of Ali ibn Abi Talib SAW we have to strive make our very best efforts to increase in dialogue but at the same time increase our knowledge of those specific figures which they might hold in reverence an example of those being Jesus Isa ibn Maryam SAW we pray to Allah SAW that we will become amongst those individuals who will have the opportunity to increase such dialogue who have the opportunity to engage others of different fates Walhamdulillah Rabbal Aalameen Wa sallallahu ala Sayyidina Wa Nabiina Muhammad Wa aalahat t'aybeen Al-Tahilin