What Does Islam Say About the Christian Creed of Vicarious Sacrifice?

Someone sent this question: “Christians believe that Jesus died for their sins and God needed that to happen because there must be a sacrifice to the sin and it just can’t be removed as that will make God unjust, also they claim that it’s the same thing with Allah in Islam based on the hadith of (Sahih Muslim 2767), as it’s mentioned that Allah will put the sin of Muslims on the disbelievers(in this case Jews and Christians) so they ask If their sin can just go away, then why does it have to go on the disbelievers? Why can’t the sin just be obliterated? Why can’t the sin just be placed aside in Hell itself away from everyone?”

ANSWER

This is the hadith you referred to: Abu Burda reported Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) as saying: There would come people amongst the Muslims on the Day of Resurrection with as heavy sins as a mountain, and Allah would forgive them and He would place in their stead the Jews and the Christians. Abu Raub said: I do not know as to who is in doubt. Abu Burda said: I narrated it to ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, whereupon he said: Was it your father who narrated it to you from Allah’s Apostle (peace be upon him)? I said: Yes.

This hadith belongs to the list of authentic hadiths. All the same, scholars have raised some points about its interpretation.

First, in Islam the Quran is always first and the hadiths are only secondary in their status. Whenever the implication of a hadith doesn’t match (ostensibly) to a clearly stated Quranic dictum, it is subjected to further investigation.

Interpretation of this Hadith

There are mainly two aspects to the interpretation of this hadith given by scholars:

One, in the light of several Quranic verses that underscore human accountability for actions and reject scapegoating, the argument that Islam ratifies the Christian creed of vicarious atonement is untenable.

Two, the hadith refers to a set of disbelievers guilty of horrible sins including those committed on believers. As mentioned in another famous hadith, one way of punishing the sinners is to mete out to them the same punishments meant for the sinners among their victims. Obviously this is quite different from the Christian idea of punishing the innocent instead of the sinners.

Allah in the Quran says what means: “Whoever chooses to follow the right path, follows it but for his own good; and whoever goes astray. goes but astray to his own hurt; and no bearer of burdens shall be made to bear another’s burden.” (Quran 17:15)

This means that any person who does good deeds, does so for his own benefit; and any who does bad deeds, does so for his own loss. And no one shall bear the burden of another.

The Christian Creed of Vicarious Atonement

This amounts to a clear rejection of the Christian creed of vicarious atonement. In other words, No one, not even Jesus can bear the sins of Christians as you have said in your question.

Besides, the foundation of all forms of ethical behavior is personal responsibility. That is to say, every human possessing reason and understanding can choose between right and wrong or good and evil; and every such human is answerable for his choice. He cannot escape Divine Judgment by foisting it on an innocent person.

And if somebody argue that God punishes an innocent person to let off sinners, then other would say that the Divine Scale of Justice is overturned.

You have written: “Christians believe that Jesus died for their sins and God needed that to happen because there must be a sacrifice to the sin and it just can’t be removed as that will make God unjust…”

This is a curious argument. This would mean that for God to remove a sin, a sacrifice should be made, no matter whether the sacrifice is made by the sinner or an innocent person who has nothing to do with the particular sin! In other words, God does not care for the innocence of the person who makes that sacrifice (even if he were His own Son as Christians say), for letting off an abject sinner! And you call this Divine Justice!

In short, the hadith you quoted does not justify the Christian creed that Jesus was nailed to the cross and was made to suffer a painful death for rescuing every atrocious sinner from the punishment they deserve.

And Allah knows best.

I hope this helps. Please keep in touch.