Scholars say Death of Jesus "reasonable and valid"

[Zalim]

Death of Jesus in Quran “reasonable and valid”
Saudi religious scholar says Muslims are entitled to believe in it
(The Light & Islamic Review : Vol.70; No. 3; May-Jun 1993; p.9-10)

In the Saudi Arabian newspaper Arab News (Saudi Arabia’s first English language daily), of the 18th September 1992, one of the questions on the religious page (Islam in Perspective, p. 9), asked by a reader from Jeddah, is as follows:

“May I put to you a question that you have answered before: ‘Had the death of Jesus Christ preceded the miracle of his ascension?’ After reading your question in which you said that Jesus Christ did not die, I happened to read a book entitled Deep into the Quran by Dr. Kamal Umar, an eminent Pakistani author. He comes decidedly in favour of the view that Jesus Christ died a natural death. I am sending you a photocopy of the relevant pages, requesting you to clear the controversy.”

The answers on the page are given by Adil Salahi, who replies to readers’ questions in other newspapers and magazines as well. His answer to this question is given below in full.

"I have certainly answered that question by saying that Jesus Christ did not die, but Allah raised him to Himself. In this, I have only given the view of the majority of scholars, including contemporary ones. I have quoted the Quranic verse which says in reference to what the Jews used to assert: “And their statement. ‘We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah’. They certainly have neither killed him nor crucified him, although it was made to appear so to them.” This verse concludes with a categorical statement: “For certain they have not killed him, but Allah has raised him to Himself. Allah is Almighty, Wise.”

"There are a number of hadiths which speak of the return of Jesus Christ to this world when he will resume his mission of preaching when the message of the Oneness of Allah. That will definitely be the Divine message in its final form, i.e. Islam, as preached by Prophet Muhammad (peace be on them both). Those Hadiths and the Quranic statements which speak of the raising of the Prophet Jesus provide a full justification for the view of the majority of scholars that Jesus Christ did not die but was raised by Allah and that he will make a second appearance at a time which will be appointed by Allah Himself and known to Him alone. However, there are references to Jesus Christ in the Quran which use a term that is most frequently used to indicate death although not necessarily so.

Linguistically speaking, the word means the completion of a term. When it refers to life, it means the completion of one’s life and its termination by death. It is used in this sense in other verses of the Quran. Dr. Kamal Umar quotes these verses in his book and translates them as referring to the death of Jesus. Thus, he gives the translation of Verse 55 of Surah 3 as follows: “When Allah said: Isa! (this is the Arabic name of Jesus) certainly I would cause you to die and would raise you to Myself and will protect you from those people who rejected you.” In this respect, Dr. Umar is not alone. A number of scholars, some of them prominent indeed, have expressed this view and argued that this expression which occurs in three different verses in the Quran, means actually that Jesus Christ died a natural death. They point out that Allah has protected him from his enemies, by foiling their attempts to kill or crucify him. There is no argument among Muslim scholars that Jesus Christ was neither killed nor crucified. But, as you see, some scholars argue that he died a natural death.

"When these scholars refer to the “Ascension” of Jesus, or, use the Quranic expression, his being raised to Allah, they interpret this as having an abstract sense. According to them, it means that his position with Allah has been enhanced and he has been given a very high status. This is indeed the case, because Jesus Christ is one of the five messengers of Allah who have shown the greatest resolve in their service of Allah’s cause. The other four are: Noah, Abraham, Moses and Muhammad (peace be on them all).

"When these scholars speak about the Hadiths which tell of the second coming of Jesus Christ and what he will be doing, such as breaking the cross, killing the pig and preaching the message of Oneness of Allah, they cast strong doubts about their authenticity. Their argument is not without validity. Where does this leave us? The answer is that there are two views: The first, which is held by a majority of scholars, is that Jesus Christ did not die but was raised by Allah and that he will make a second coming at a time determined by Allah, when he will be preaching the message of Islam. The other view is that Jesus Christ died a natural death after Allah had saved him from his enemies. Both groups of scholars agree that Jesus Christ was neither killed nor crucified. Needless to say, those who subscribe to the second view do not speak of a second coming of Jesus Christ.

“What we need to know is that the raising of Jesus Christ alive to Heaven is not an article of Islamic faith. This means that if a person denies it he is not an unbeliever. A person is not considered to be an unbeliever for preferring a reasonable and valid interpretation of a Quranic verse. Had the Quranic verse been of the sort that cannot admit more than one interpretation, then denying its meaning could easily land the person who makes such a denial in the class of unbelievers. This means that a person may adopt the view he prefers, but when he does so, he should arrive at the conclusion he prefers after carefully studying the matter and considering the evidence in support of their view. Dr. Umar has made a choice to which he is certainly entitled. I chose the view and I am equally entitled to it.”

Not much comment is needed on the answer given above. I would point out that the following words are rather striking : *** the Hadiths which tell of the second coming of Jesus Christ and what he will be doing, such as breaking the cross, killing the pig and preaching the message of Oneness of Allah . . . ".*** the first two tasks seem out of place with the third! To have any connection with the third, the tasks of “breaking the cross and killing the pig” cannot possibly be taken literally, and it is certain that Mr. Salahi, if asked further, would interpret these in a figurative sense.

Do you still think he substituted and will come back?

I leave this debate up to you.

[This message has been edited by Zalim (edited July 06, 2000).]

[Lucifer]

MR ZALIM,
I think you are quite reasonable man ,, but what havee ya shown here, a proof of death of jesus by arabic people. Aah .. you think that arab knows more arabic than our MOLVIS AND MULAS AND ULMAS , no way . Although it arabic is not the PRIMARY language of our ulma , but they know more arabic then ARABS themselves.
I once took few classes of arabic ... in this the first thing they told me is that
in english there are more rules and less exceptions but in case of arabic there are more exceptions and less rules... SO it makes it a bit harder tto learn ... and so and so.. BUt our genious ulma who acan harldy pass the intermediaate (most of them never pass matriculation) are too intellgent to learnt that langauge. They are gr8 and they are genious.. thats why they still want to figth till eternity .. even if other nation are at peace with ya .. but the slaughter must go on.....
RUST IN PEACE

[Shaheen]

.

[This message has been edited by Shaheen (edited July 08, 2000).]

[Shaheen]

Question: If Jesus (peace be upon him) is alive, shall he descend at the end of the time and judge among the people while following the religion of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? What is the evidence for that? And how can one refute those people who claim that he will not descend nor judge among the people?

Answer: Yes, the Prophet of Allah Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) will descend at the end of time and judge among the people with justice, following the Law of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He will break the crosses and kill the swine. HE shall put an end to the payment of the jizya. He will only accept Islam from the people. The People of the Book, the Jews and Christians, will all believe in him before his death, after he descends at the end of time. Allah has stated, "There is none of the People of the book but must believe in him (as only a Messenger of Allah) before his death. And on the Day of Resurrection, he (Jesus) will be a witness against them." [an-Nisa, 4:159]

Allah has stated that all of the People of the Book, Jews and Christians, will believe in Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) before his death - that is, before the death of Jesus. That will be when he descends at the end of time as a judge and just caller to Islam, as shall be noted in the hadith describing his descent.

This is the meaning of the words [in the verse quoted above]. The context of the verse is demonstrating the stance that the Jews took toward Jesus (peace be upon him) and what they conspired to do against him. It also shows the way of Allah in saving Jesus and refuting the works of his enemies. The pronouns in the phrase, "believe in him before his death" must both refer to Jesus to be consistent with the context and so that the antecedents will be the same. It is confirmed in numerous authentic hadith, that have come through numerous chains and have reached the level of mutawatir [narration that has been reported through so many chains and from so many people that there is no way to doubt its authenticity], that Allah raised Jesus to the heavens. They also state that he will descend at the end of time as a just ruler and will kill the False Messiah [Anti-Christ].

Ibn Taimiya said, after quoting the numerous chains reporting Jesus' being raised to heaven and his descent at the end of time, "These hadith are mutawatir from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). They have been narrated from Abu Huraira, Ibn Masud,Uthman ibn Abu al-as, Abu Umama, al-Nawas ibn Samaan, Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As and Hudahifah ibn Usaid (may Allah be pleased with all of them). These hadith contain indications concerning how and where he will descend."

One of those hadith is the following: Abu Huraira reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "By the One in whose hand is my soul, soon the son of Mary will descend upon you as a just judge. He will break the crosses, kill the swine and will put an end to the jizya. And wealth will spread to the extent that on one will accept it." Then Abu Huraira said, "Recite if you wish, "There is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him (as only a Messenger of Allah) before his death. And on the Day of Resurrection, he (Jesus) will be a witness against them."" [an-Nisa 4:159] [Al-Bukhari & Muslim]

In another narration from Abu Huraira, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "How will you be when the son of Mary descends among you and your leader will be from among yourselves?" [Al-Bukhari & Muslim] It is also confirmed in the Sahih from Jabir ibn Abdullah that he heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) say, "A group of people from my Nation will continue to fight in defense of the truth and remain triumphant until the day of Judgment." He also said, "Jesus, son of Mary (peace be upon him), will descend upon them and their leader will say (to him), 'Come and lead us in prayer.' He will say, 'No, Allah has honored this Nation by putting some as leaders over others.'" [Saheeh Muslim]

This hadith demonstrate that he will descend at the end of time and that he will judge according to the Law of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). They also show, without doubt, that there will be a leader for this nation at that time. Furthermore, there is no contradiction between his descending and the fact that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the seal of the prophets. This is so because Jesus will not be descending with a new law. To Allah belongs the decree, first and last. He does what He wills and rules as He wills. There is none to come after His Rule. He is the All-Mighty, All-Wise.