DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST

SOME POINTS TO BE REMEMBERED

There are innumerable evidences, scriptural, historical, and

scientific, regarding death of Jesus Christ. A great and increasing
number of scholars believe that he has died and shall never come
back. This increasing number of scholars believing in the death of
Jesus Christ proves the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Promised
Messiah (a.s.) as he stated:

O mankind! hearken, this is the prophecy of God Who made the

Heavens and the Earth. He will spread this Movement in all the
countries and will give it supremacy over all through reason and
arguments. Remember, no one will descend from heaven. All our
opponents who are living at present will die and not one of them will
see Jesus, son of Mary, descend from the sky and then their children
who survive them will also pass away and none of them will see Jesus,
son of Mary, coming down from the heaven. Generations of their
posterity will also perish and they too will not see the son of Mary
descending from heaven. Then God will create restlessness in their
hearts; that the day of the glory of the Cross had passed away and the
world had taken another turn but Jesus, son of Mary, had still not
come down from the sky. Then all the wise people will discard this
belief and the third century from today will not have completed when
all those who had been waiting for Jesus, both Muslims and
Christians will despair of his coming and entertaining misgivings
shall give up their belief and there will be only one Faith in the world
and one preceptor. I came only to sow the seed. That seed has been
sown by my hands. It will now grow and blossom forth and none dare
retard its growth. (The Promised Messiah in Tazkira–tush-
Shahadatain – R.K. vol-20, p-67)

The following are some quotes from the Holy Qur’an, Hadith and
the Bible that confirm the notion that Jesus died a natural death:
PROMISE MADE

[3:56] Remember the time when Allah said, 'O Jesus, I will cause
thee to die a natural death and will raise thee to Myself, and will
clear thee of the charges of those who disbelieve, and will exalt those
who follow thee above those who disbelieve, until the Day of
Resurrection; then to Me shall be your return, and I will judge
between you concerning that wherein you differ.'

PROMISE FULFILLED

[5 118] `I said nothing to them except that which Thou didst

command me - Worship ALLAH, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a
witness over them as long as I remained among them, but since Thou
didst cause me to die, Thou, hast been the Watcher over them, and
Thou art Witness over all things;

I USED TO WATCHOVER THEM

11. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world and
I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me that they may be one, as we are.

12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those
that thou gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of
perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:11, 12 - King
James Version)

ALL PROPHETS BEFORE MUHAMMAD (s.a.) HAVE PASSED AWAY

[3:145] And Muhammad is but a messenger. Verily all Messengers

have passed away before him.
ALL PROPHETS BEFORE JESUS (a.s.) HAVE PASSED AWAY

[5:76] The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a Messenger; surely

Messengers like unto him had passed away before him.

RAISING JESUS “TOWARDS” GOD?

In the following verse it is stated that all of us, upon our death,
return “towards” Him. Does it mean that we are raised physically?

[2:157] Who, when a misfortune overtakes them, say, 'Surely, to Allah

we belong and to Him shall we return.'

In the following verse Hadhrat Ibrahim (a.s.) has been quoted as

saying that he is “going” towards his Lord. Does it imply that he
was also raised towards God?

[37:100] And he said, 'I am going to my Lord. He will, surely, guide

me.'

Allah is every where, as stated by the following verse. Where then

Jesus was raised?

[6:4] And He is Allah, the God, both in the heavens and in the earth.

[2:116] To Allah belongs the East and the West; so whithersoever you
turn, there will be the face of Allah. Surely, Allah is Bountiful, All-
Knowing.

NO HUMAN CAN ASCEND PHYSICALLY TO HEAVENS

In the following verse Allah has categorically expressed this

principle that the Holy Prophet (s.a.) cannot physically ascend to
the heavens, because he is a human being, though a prophet.
 [17:94] 'Or, thou have a house of gold or thou ascend up into heaven;
and we will not believe in thy ascension until thou send down to us a
Book that we can read.' Say, 'Holy is my Lord! I am but a mortal sent
as a Messenger.'

In the light of the above, if anyone believes that Jesus Christ

physically ascended to heavens, he has to believe that Jesus was
not a human being.

In the following verse of the Bible, Jesus has mentioned that

ascending to or descending from heavens is nothing but
metaphorical.

“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down

from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” (JOHN 3:13)

DEATH OF JESUS VERIFIED BY THE HOLY PROPHET

Ibn-e-Abbas narrated that the holy Prophet (s.a.) delivered a

sermon and said.......

"On judgment day some people of my Ummah shall be brought and

taken towards hell. I'll submit that O Allah these are from my Ummah.
I'll be told that you don't know that they have made innovations in the
law. Then I'll say the same sentence what the righteous servant of
Allah Isa said that when You caused me to die, You were Watcher
over them. I'll be told that they turned away from the religion"
(Bukhari, Kitab-ul-Tafseer, Vol-2, P-889)
THE FIRST CONSENSUS OF THE COMPANIONS (r.a.) OF THE HOLY
PROPHET (s.a.)

Based on the account of Ibn-e-Abbas (r.a.), we know that upon

hearing these words from Abu Bakr (r.a.), the gathering succumbed
to the realization of the Holy Prophet’s (s.a.) death, including
Umar (r.a.). Indeed Umar (r.a.) relates that when he heard these
words, he felt his legs give away beneath him and he fell to the
ground in grief and shock (Bukhari Kitab –ul-Maghazi, Vol-2, P-
811). If the Muslims at the time of the Holy Prophet (s.a.)
possessed the belief that Jesus was alive and had not died a natural
death, not only would have at least one of them raised this point,
but Umar (r.a.) would not have been so unequivocally convinced.
Indeed, Umar (r.a.) or another member of the congregation would
have cited Jesus as an example of how the Holy Prophet (s.a.)
could have escaped death and was merely physically raised to
heaven, but they did not. Therefore, according to the understanding
of the Muslims of the time, they must have understood the
meaning of the above verse. Otherwise, the effect those words had
on the gathering could not have been possible.

IBN-E-KATHIR ACKNOWLEDGES DEATH OF JESUS

Hafiz Ibn-e-Kathir, a famous commentator of the Holy Qur’an has

mentioned that there are certain Hadiths of the holy Prophet (s.a.)
which shows that Jesus Christ has died and is not a living person
any more.

“In some Hadiths it is mentioned that had Moses and Jesus lived
today they wouldn’t have any option but to follow me.” (Tafseer Ibn-e-
Kathir vol-1, p-449)