A Comparison between the Life and Personality of the Shiite Imams and the Life and Personality of Jesus Christ in Islamic Traditions

There are a lot of hadiths regarding the life and teachings of Jesus in the Shiite hadith collections. A large number of those hadiths deals with a comparison between the life and personality of the Shiite Imams and those of Jesus Christ. This comparison is sometimes a general one, just like a comparison of the Prophet Muhammad’s successors and those of Jesus, and sometimes is a specific one, like comparison between Imam Hussein’s personality and that of Jesus. These hadiths show, on the one hand, the pious look of the Shiite Imams to Jesus and his teachings and, on the other hand, asserts that Jesus believes – from the eternity – in the Welaya (authority) of the Shiite Imams. This similarity is such that the reader feels, on the one hand, that Jesus was just like a Shiite Imam and, on the other hand, that each of the Shiite Imams was an independent Messiah. Investigation of those hadiths assists us in a better understanding of Jesus’ life and personality as well as the Shiite Imams’ life and personality, and prepares the ground for a close relationship between Islam and Christianity. It also recalls the fact that the Prophets and the divine saints were spiritual brothers with no conflict with one another; thus, the believers must interact with them in a brotherly manner.