Re: Hazrat Isa A.S.
Peace kchughtai
Of course this creates the premise for an interesting side discussion. Distance between the person and Allah … Of course this is quite easily answered.
Firstly there is evidence to suggest that the afterlife is a spiritual experience and we tend to want to argue that the physical has no share in it, otherwise many of the descriptions hold significant physical insights, for example resurrection with our bodies, and those in hell will have their skins burnt, which is where the pain receptors are according to our physical earthly existence.
The simple answer is that the Earth is called the low world, and there are physical boundaries to cross and other physical realms which are Higher than this one … The analogy is that of Makkah compared to say Lahore … People travel from Lahore to Makkah to visit the House of Allah, and do so physically. Does it mean that they have reduced the distance between themselves and Allah (SWT) ? Perhaps, spiritually, they have become closer, but this happened via a physical act.
So there is no reason NOT to conclude that physically leaving this world results in the phrase “going up to Him” but we must at the same time recognise that such a description cannot apply to Him, but to another abode that He has given higher rank. I prefer to view suh things in a quasi spiritual and physical coexistence and believe Allah (SWT) has the power to achieve such an end. In modern speech we would call it being taken out of this existence to a realm of higher spiritual status, because there are fewer veils there, but very much a place that can be physically occupied.