Jesus · Isa

Jesus in Islam

Jesus is Isa in Arabic, written عِيسَى. The two names belong to the same person, and the two traditions tell his story differently enough to be worth reading side by side.

English: Jesus
Arabic: عِيسَى
Read as: Isa
Status: Prophet in Islam
Where the English comes from: Hebrew Yeshua, the Lord is salvation, reaching English through Greek Iesous and Latin Iesus.
What the Arabic carries: Isa, the Quranic form, the Messiah son of Mary.
Full name page: Isa on AsrNaam

Is Jesus the same as Isa? Yes. Jesus is the English form and Isa the Arabic form of one name. The Quran names him more than two dozen times as Isa ibn Maryam and affirms the virgin birth and the miracles, while holding him to be a prophet rather than a son of God.

Isa in the Quran

Jesus is Isa in the Quran, and he is never far from it. He is named more than two dozen times, almost always as Isa ibn Maryam, Jesus son of Mary, a form that keeps his mother in his name. The Quran calls him al-Masih, the Messiah, and a word from God, and it affirms the virgin birth, the miracles, the raising of the dead by God's permission, and his return.

It also draws a line the Gospels do not. Islam holds Isa to be a prophet and a servant of God, not a son of God and not God, and Surah Al-Ikhlas is read as the plainest statement of that. Muslims and Christians can therefore talk about the same man at length before they reach the sentence they do not share, which is a more interesting starting point than either tradition usually admits.

As a given name, Isa is used across the Muslim world, more commonly in Turkey, the Balkans and West Africa than in the Arab Gulf. Christian Arabs generally use Yasu, a separate transliteration reserved for the Jesus of the Gospels, which is why an Arabic speaker can tell from the spelling alone which tradition is being spoken from.

Using the name

The full entry for Isa carries the Arabic spelling, the Urdu, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading, along with every romanisation the name is written in.

Open the full Isa page →

Questions about Jesus and Isa

Is Jesus the same name as Isa?

Jesus is the English form and Isa is the Arabic form of the same name. They refer to the same figure.

Is Isa the same person as Jesus?

Yes. Isa is the Arabic and Quranic name for the same historical figure Christians call Jesus of Nazareth. The disagreement between the traditions is about who he is, not about whether they are speaking of the same man.

Why do Arab Christians say Yasu and not Isa?

Yasu is closer to the Aramaic Yeshua and is the form used in Arabic Bibles. Isa is the Quranic form. Both refer to the same person, and the choice of word usually signals which scripture the speaker is reading from.

Can a Muslim family use the name Isa?

Yes. Isa is used as a given name across the Muslim world. AsrNaam carries its full page with the Arabic spelling, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading.

Other names the two traditions share

Every one of these is one figure under two names.

Moses and Musa Mary and Maryam Abraham and Ibrahim Joseph and Yusuf David and Dawud Solomon and Sulayman Noah and Nuh John and Yahya Jacob and Yaqub Jonah and Yunus Job and Ayyub Aaron and Harun Isaac and Ishaq Ishmael and Ismail

Or start from the full list of Biblical names in Islam.