allah exalted him ( 4:158)
in one of the threads relating some other thread, abdullah posted this verse, and some of the other members demanded an exaplanation, asto what is the ahmediyya belief relating the verse.
as the discussion needs to be on how to translate the arabic phrase “rafaullah-o-alaih”.. i will try to avoid a possible question as to what translation i am using. i will not use a prescribed translation, and rather give a word to word translation of the verse.
“wa kolihim ( they say) ina (no doubt) katalnal-maseeha eesabna maryama rasoolallah ( we killed maseeh, jesus, son of mary, the prophet of god) wa ma kataluho (and they did not kill) wa ma slabuho ( and they did not crucify) wa laakin shubbiha lahum ( and they have been shown a likeliness)”
( from verse 158)
“barrafaullah o aliah ( allah exalted him.. or as you people translate, allah took him towards himself) wa kaanallaho azeezan hakeema”
(verse 159)
We ahmedis challenge that the verse “rafaullah-o-aliah” means “allah exalted him” rather than allah took him with his physical body, alive. throughout the recorded arabic history, whatever literature ofarabic is available for us to view, nowhere in that literature has the phrase “rafa” been used as “pick up a human being physicaly”. whenever such a phrase is used, it always means, allah( being the “faa’il”, as in arabic grammer) exalted the “maf’ool” ( the arabic word for “object”).
it is an open challenge that if anyone wants to argue that “rafaullah o alaih” means “pick up phyiscally” to post hereany such example for any arabic prose or poem where the phrase “rafaullah o aliah” has been used for such an incident.
in order to give clear koranic proofs for my point i will refer to this koranic verse:
wa lau she’na la “rafanaahu beha” wa laakinnahu akhlda ilalarz
(chapter 7, the battlements, verse 177)
here the same word “rafah” has also been used… all the muslim scholars agree that here, the word rafah means, to exalt someone, then why do u hav to argue that for jesus this word changes its meaning COMPLETELY when used for jesus? what charateristic of jesus makes the same word show a different meaning for him?
another example is of a hadith which i took from “kanz-al-a’maal”.. so that noone hasdoubts on it:
iza tawaza’al abdu rafa’ahullah o ilussamaa-is-sabia
( kanz-al-a’maal, volume two, p 25)
jab koi koi shakhs allah ki khaatir tawazoh ikhtyaar kerta hai, to “rafa’ahullah o ilussamaa-is-sabia” ( allah usay saatwain aasmaan ki taraf utha laita hai)
here the same word rafahhas been used, in practically the same way “rafaullah o ilasamaa-is-sabia”.. in other words, allah have promised that if someone does the righteous deeds, allah will “pick him to the seventh sky”. now if we translate this hadit, as you people translae the verse 4:158, then not only jesus but ALL THOsE PEOPLE WHO DO THE RIGHTEOUS DEEDS are alive and living with their physical bodies on the seventh sky!
if this is not the case, then allah’s promise will not be fulfilled! which is not possible!!! however if you translate the hadith as “to exalt someone” then it fits into the stuation. all the muslim ulema say that here “rafahullah o ilussamaa-is-sabia” means “to exalt someone”.
why does this word c0ompletely change its meaning when used in the verse 4:158 for jesus?
the eaning of the above mentioned hadith, clearly states that if you believe that jesus is up in the sky alive, with hisphysical body, then you also have to believe by virtue of the above mentioned hadith that ALL PIOUS muslims are alive and on the seventh sky!
therefore it is clearly evident from koran and hadith and arabic literature that “rafaullah o aliah” doesnt not mean physically pick up towards the sky! because koran has not allowed human beings and prophets to climb the sky and pass the days of their lives in the sky!
your only way left is to produce ONE example from arabic literature, poetry or prose, where the word rafa’ is used, in the meaning " to pick up physically on the seventh sky"~
