I had the chance to sit down Monday and talk with Ivan Imes outside the Student Union. Most people know him as "Jesus Talk," because of the T-shirt he usually wears.
Imes sits patiently outside the Union with a chair in front of him displaying a sign on the back that reads "Request for Prayers." He waits for anyone to sit in the chair, and he often gives them advice or says a prayer for them.
He claims God's words are put in his mouth.
"I don't know where it comes from sometimes," said Imes.
I wanted to interview him to see what his story was. I could see that he was hesitant to talk to me and do the interview. Not only was I obviously a Muslim, but I was an opinion columnist, too.
I don't blame him for being hesitant. Being Muslim, I know many reporters are biased when interviewing us and want to spin our words around or take them out of context.
He was a nice man and very respectful. Sure, we disagreed on a lot of things - if not everything. He knew when talking to me I was not representative of all Muslims, and I knew he didn't represent all Christians.
I'm sure many people who walked by while we were talking were curious as to what exactly we were talking about or if we were debating.
One issue we kept going back to was this concept of following a doctrine or religion even if doesn't make sense.
In fact, Imes told me in the interview what he believes doesn't make sense, but it is just a matter of waiting until the Holy Spirit gets inside of you. He told me that this is "the hardest part about talking to non-Christians" because it was something he couldn't explain to them.
Muslims claim everything in Islam makes sense; everything is logical.
The concept of God is something vital and central to most religions. I - and even many Christians - find it very hard to understand the trinity.
Muslims have to believe in Jesus, but we have to believe in him as a prophet. We have to respect him while not differentiating between any of the prophets.
Muslims believe Jesus came down with the exact same message as Moses, Abraham, Noah, Muhammad and all the other prophets - to worship God alone and to do good deeds.
This concept is very simple yet non-ambiguous at all.
As Allah relates in the Quran the story Jesus in a chapter called Maryam, "He (Jesus) said: 'Verily! I am a slave of Allah, He has given me the Scripture and made me a Prophet.'"
Many people are confused about the Islamic conception of Jesus. Some people don't know we believe in him. Some even think we don't like him.
The truth of the matter is that we believe we cannot attribute anything to God that he himself didn't attribute to himself.
This means Muslims don't believe that God had a son, daughter or partners. Just like Adam was created without a mother and a father, we believe in the same manner Adam was created, God created Jesus without a father.
We also believe God is perfect and free of needs or defects. So Muslims believe it is not befitting for a God to be a man who eats, sleeps, dies, uses the bathroom and so on.
In the same chapter of the Quran it says, "Such is Jesus, son of Maryam. (it is) a statement of truth, about which they doubt (or dispute). It befits not (the Majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glorified and Exalted be He above all that they associate with Him. When He decrees a thing, He only says to it, 'Be!' and it is. Jesus said: 'And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him (Alone). That is the Straight Path.'"
We, like Christians, believe Jesus will come back before the end of time. But unlike Christians, we don't believe Jesus was ever crucified.
We believe the semblance of Jesus was miraculously placed upon another man and that man was the one crucified.
The Quran relates, "And because of their saying (in boast), 'We killed Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah,' but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but the resemblance of Jesus was put over another man (and they killed that man), and those who differ therein are full of doubts. They have no (certain) knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely; they killed him not; But Allah raised him (Jesus) up (with his body and soul) unto Himself (and he is in the heavens). And Allah is Ever All-Powerful, All-Wise."
I'm grateful that I got to talk to Imes. I'm not trying to impose my beliefs on anyone, and Imes said that wasn't his goal either. I guess that's one thing we have in common.
But I do think it's important to enlighten people - to make them more aware of the people around them and their beliefs so that it can open the pathway to dialog, even if you don't agree.
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Contact Shirien Elmasraya at selmasraya@lsureveille.com
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