Muslim reflection on the Cross is dominated by the notion of a substitute being crucified in
Jesus' place - something never mentioned in the Qur'an. Reliant on repetition of
decontextualized lexicographical readings it does scant justice to the spiritual depth and
hermeneutical finesse of the Qur'an. Failing to note the ironic trope of the text it
conceptualizes the supremacy of God in merely this-worldly terms reducing divine mystery to
the mythical and the banal. Far from explaining Qur'an 4:157 Substitutionism obscures and
distorts it.
