A Brief Look at Gabriel
- philhoraia
- Feb 22, 2022
- 4 min read
In the Quran and other ahadith Gabriel is called Jibril جبريل. In the Arabic Bible he is called Jibra’il جبرائيل. Muslims will say that Jibril is an angel but the Quran nowhere identifies him. They will also say that he is the Holy Spirit.
S 19:16-21 And mention in the book Maryam, when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place. And she took from them a screen. Then we sent to her our spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a regular man. She said: I take refuge in Al-Rahman from you, if you are fearing. He said: I am only a messenger of your lord’s that I may give you a pure boy. She said: How can I have a boy when a man has not touched me and I was not a slag? He said: Thus said your lord: It is easy for me. And that we make him a sign for people and a mercy from us. And it was a decided matter.
Yahya reported:
I asked Abu Salama what was revealed first from the Qur'an. He said:" 0, the shrouded one." I said: Or" Recite." Jabir said: I am narrating to you what was narrated to us by the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He said: I stayed in Hira' for one month and when my stay was completed, I come down and went into the heart of the valley. Somebody called me aloud. I looked in front of me, behind me, on the right of my side and on my left, but I did not see any body. I was again called and I looked about but saw nothing. I was called again and raised my head, and there on the Throne in the open atmosphere he, i. e. Gabriel (peace be upon him) was sitting. I began to tremble on account of fear. I came to Khadija and said: Wrap me up. They wrapped me up and threw water on me and Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, sent down this: you who are shrouded! arise and deliver warning, your Lord magnify, your clothes cleanse."
Where might Muslims have gotten the idea that the spirit was Gabriel from?
From an article by Sam Shamoun:
Interestingly, noted Muslim author Neal Robinson referred to a particular Islamic interpretation of Q. 19:16-21 which actually supports our exegesis. He writes:
"Alternatively it might be thought (on the basis of 4:171) that the Spirit who presented himself to Mary was none other than the Messiah to whom she subsequently gave birth. At first this seems improbable because of the way in which the Spirit refers to himself as a messenger. There is, however, an apocryphal writing which furnishes a precedent for identifying the agent of the annunciation with the Word who became flesh. This is the so-called Epistula Apostolorum which purports to be a letter addressed to the worldwide Church by the 11 disciples recording a conversation which they had with Christ after the resurrection. In the course of the conversation he told them: At that time I appeared in the form of the archangel Gabriel to [the virgin] Mary and spoke with her, and her heart received [me]; she believed and laughed and I, the Word, went into her and became flesh; and I myself was servant FOR MYSELF, and in the form of the image of an angel." (Robinson, Christ In Islam and Christianity [State University of New York Press (SUNY), Albany 1991], Chapter 15. The Virginal Conception, p. 157; bold and capital emphasis ours)
And:
"Tabari assumes that the Spirit who was sent to Mary was Gabriel. He reports that this was the view of Qatada, Ibn Jurayj and Wahb. The other commentators agree that this is the correct interpretation but none the less mention THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW, namely that the Spirit was the Messiah. Ibn Kathir gives the following report traced back by a single isnad TO THE COMPANION UBAIY: The spirit of Jesus is one of the group of spirits with whom [God] took a pact in the time of Adam [cf. 33:7 and 7:172]. It is he, that is to say the spirit of Jesus, who presented himself to her in the form of a perfect human being. So she conceived the one who addressed her and he became incarnate in her [entering her through her mouth]. "DESPITE ITS PEDIGREE, Ibn Kathir dismisses this interpretation as reprehensible and supposes it to have been derived from the People of the Scripture." (Ibid. p. 161; bold and capital emphasis ours)
The following Muslim commentator also admits that this was an interpretation held by some of the Islamic scholars.
A majority of scholars hold the view that … (Spirit) refers to Sayyidna Jibra’il but some say that it refers to Sayyidna ‘Isa himself. Allah Ta‘ala had placed before Sayyidah Maryam the likeness of the son to be born to her. But the former version is more appropriate and is confirmed by the statement that follows. (Mufti Shafi Uthmani, Maariful Quran, Q. 19:16-21, Volume 6, p. 34; source; underline emphasis ours)
Despite the fact that Muslim expositors generally tend(ed) to reject this interpretation there is nothing within the context of the aforementioned texts which mitigates against this understanding (cf. this discussion). The only real reason why any Muslim would even oppose such an explanation is due to his/her a priori belief that Jesus is not Divine or preexistent, or that the Quran is a consistent scripture and would therefore never affirm Jesus’ Divinity or prehuman existence.
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