1. In his Quranic commentary, Allama Abdul Rahman Sa‘di writes:
"God honoured Jesus by causing his disciples to spread in
the world, in his life-time and after his death (mamat)."
(Tafsir al-Manan, published in Makka)
2. In The Message of the Quran, published by the Muslim World
League of Makka in 1964, the author, Muhammad Asad, translates the
verse 3:55 of the Quran in the following English words:
"Lo! God said: O Jesus! Verily, I shall cause thee to die,
and exalt thee unto Me."
Verse 5:117 is rendered as:
"And I bore witness to what they did as long as I dwelt amongst
them; but since Thou hast caused me to die, Thou alone hast been
their keeper. For Thou art witness unto everything".
In the footnote to verse 4:157 the translator elucidates:
"Thus the Quran categorically denies the story of the crucifixion
of Jesus. There exist, among Muslims, many fanciful legends telling
us that at the last moment God substituted for Jesus a person closely
resembling him (according to some accounts, that person was Judas),
who was subsequently crucified in his place. However, none of these
legends finds the slightest support in the Quran or in authentic
Traditions, and the stories produced in this connection by the classical
commentators of the Quran must be summarily rejected."
The next footnote contains the statement:
"Nowhere in the Quran is there any warrant for the popular
belief of many Muslims that God has ‘taken up’ Jesus bodily
into heaven."
1. The famous Egyptian reformist personality Mufti Muhammad Abduh
believed that Jesus had died:
i. "In the Tafsir al-Manar, the teacher and Imam (Muhammad
Abduh), after taking the apparent meaning of the verse, has stated
that tawaffa bears its obvious significance, i.e., causing
to die. The raising (raf‘) comes after that, and it
is spiritual elevation."
(Qasas al-Anbiya by Abdul Wahab al-Najar, p. 428)
ii. "Tawaffa here means causing to die, as in the obvious
and comprehensible significance."
(Al-Manar)
2. Allama Rashid Raza, the famous disciple of Mufti Muhammad Abduh,
writes:
"Hence Jesus’ escape to India and his death in that country
is not against reason and sense."
(Quranic Commentary by Al-Sayyid Rashid Raza, part vi, pp.
42, 43)
3. Mahmud Shaltut, former Mufti of Egypt and ex-Rector of al-Azhar
University, Cairo, writes:
i. "There is no authority in the Quran or the Sunna which
can satisfy the heart upon the belief that Jesus was taken up to
heaven with his body and that he is still alive there and that he
shall descend therefrom to earth in the last days."
(Al-Fatawa, published by Al-Idara al-‘Ama lil-Saqafat
al-Islamiyya bil-Azhar, pp. 52-58)
ii. "The Quranic verses in this connection indicate that God
had promised Jesus that He would cause him to die at the appointed
time, and elevate him to Himself, and protect him from the disbelievers.
This promise has been fulfilled. His enemies could not kill him
or crucify him; instead, God caused him to die at the end of his
appointed term and elevated him to Himself."
(Ibid.)
4. Al-Ustaz Mustafa al-Maraghi:
i. Commentating on the verse, Ya ‘Isa inni mutawaffi-ka,
he notes:
"In this verse is the glad tiding of his (Jesus’) deliverance
from their (the Jewish) plot and his life reaching its appointed
term. They would not be able to harm him as they intended by their
evil plan. Tawaffa means the ordinary death, and raf‘
(elevating) is for the spirit after death. The meaning is ‘I
will cause you to die (mumitu-ka), and after death (maut)
I will establish you in an exalted position in My presence’,
as God has said of the prophet Idris: ‘He elevated him to a
high state’."
(Tafsir al-Maraghi, part iii, p. 165)
ii. In explanation of verse 3:143 of the Quran, he writes:
"It means that Muhammad is but mortal. There have been messengers
before him, so they died, and some, like Zacharia and Yahya, were
killed. It was not ordained for anyone of them to live forever.
So if he (Holy Prophet Muhammad) dies, as had Moses, Jesus, and
other prophets died …."
(Ibid., part iv, p. 87)
5. Allama Muhammad Farid Wajadi notes the views of some research
scholars as:
"Others have said that God caused Jesus to die as he causes
people in general to die. Then his spirit was raised to God, as
is shown by the words: Inni mutawaffi-ka wa rafi‘u-ka ilayya."
(Da’irat-ul-Mu‘arif, Islamic Encyclopedia, vol.
vi, p. 784)
6. The famous Lebanese scholar Ahmad Al-‘Ajuz writes:
"Jesus certainly died on earth according to God’s words
inni mutawaffi-ka which mean ‘I will cause you to die’
(mumitu-ka). Death (maut) is something that is bound
to happen, as God said through Jesus’ tongue: ‘Peace be
upon me the day I was born and the day I die’."
(Signed: Ahmad al- ‘Ajuz)
7. Al-Ustaz Abdul Karim al-Sharif writes:
"As the Quran has mentioned, God caused the Messiah to die
physically, and raised him to Himself and purified him, just as
He causes us to die, raises us to Himself, and purifies us."
(Al-Nafkhat al-Ula min al-Ta’wil)
8. Al-Ustaz Abdul Wahab al-Najjar comments on the Quranic verse Kuntu
‘alai-him shahid-an ma dumtu fi-him (5:117), as follows:
"Jesus watched over his followers and gave them good exhortations
till his death (wafat). After that, God was the Watcher over
them."
(Qasas al-Anbiya, 4th edition, 1956)
9. In his article Hal al-Quran Mu‘jiza (‘Is the
Quran a miracle?’), Dr Ahmad Zaki Abu Shadi writes:
"It is a well known teaching of Islam that God is everywhere,
and that He is the light of the heaven and the earth. So the words
‘He raised him (Jesus) to Himself’ do not have the physical
meaning that He lifted him up to heaven, as is the Christian belief.
… Raf‘ here means to rescue and to honour, as opposed
to a degraded death on the cross in the manner in which criminals
are executed. Other interpretations that some Muslim commentators
have adopted are more akin to poetry than to sound logic, and the
reliability of these commentators’ scholarship is rather limited."
(Al-Mawahib Azar, Argentina, March 1955)
10. Egypt’s famous literary figure, Al-Ustaz ‘Abbas Mahmud
al-‘Aqad, writes:
"In this connection there is a historical report which cannot
be ignored because it deserves great attention. This report relates
to the tomb to be found in the Khanyar area of the capital of Kashmir,
and known as the grave of the Prophet or the grave of Jesus. It
is recorded in the book Tarikh al-‘Azma, written about
200 years ago, that the grave is that of a Prophet called Yuz Asaf.
The people of Kashmir report from their ancestors that this prophet
came to that land two thousand years ago."
(Hayat al-Masih fil-Tarikh wa Kushuf al-‘Asr al-Hadith,
p. 213)
11. In a poem in praise of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, Allama Ibn
Rashid al-Baghdadi writes:
Mahauna bi-ka al-adyan lau ‘asha rusulu-na
la-ja’a-ka ‘Isa tabi‘-an wa Kalim
"Through you all other religions were superseded; had previous
prophets been still alive, Jesus and Moses would have been your
followers."
(Diwan Ma‘dan al-Azafat, published in Beirut, p. 28)
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