martyred by the unbelievers of his time, he still died, and that Allah
first caused the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) to pass on and then raised him
into His Presence. This claim is incompatible with the Qur'an and the
belief of ahl al-Sunnah.
They use the term "I will take you back" from verse 55 of Surah Al
'Imran as evidence, at least in their own eyes, to support this claim.
The verse reads:
[Allah said:] "Jesus, I will take you back [mutawaffeeka] and raise
you up [wa raafi`uka] to Me and purify you of those who are
unbelievers. And I will place the people who follow you above those
who are unbelievers until the Dayof Resurrection..." (SurahAl
'Imran:55)
The words "... I will take you back... " means that the Prophet Jesus
(pbuh)was put in a state resembling sleep and raised into the Presence
of Allah. The Prophet Jesus (pbuh) did not die, but merely departed
thisdimension by Allah's choosing.
The word translated intoEnglish as " to die" is the Arabic verb
tawaffaa derived from the root waffaa . This verb does not imply
death, but rather taking the soul, orsurrender. Allah also reveals in
the Qur'an that taking a person's soul does not always imply death.
For instance, Allah uses tawaffaa in another verse to refer not to a
person's death, but to taking his or her soul while asleep:
Allah takes the souls [of people] at death [yatawaffaa] , and those
who do not die [lam tamut] during their sleep. Those on whom He has
passed the decreeof death [al-mawt] , He keeps back [from returning to
life], but the rest He sends [to their bodies] for a term appointed.
Verily in this are signs for those who reflect. (Surat az-Zumar:42)
The word here translated as "taking back" is the same as thatused in
Surah Al 'Imran:55: yatawaffaa . Since a person does not actually die
during the night, the word yatawaffaa here refers not to death, but to
taking the soul at night. If tawaffaa were being used in the sense of
death, then that would mean that all people would be biologically dead
during sleep . Thus, the Prophet Jesus (pbuh)would have died every
night of his life. Such an assertion is both irrational and illogical.
Another instance in which sleep is regarded as a kind of death, but
which does not refer to biological death, is the following hadith:
"'All praise is for Allah, Who has made us alive after He made us die
[sleep] (Al-hamdu li Allah illadhi ahyana ba'da maa amatana; wa ilayhi
al-nushoo)' Our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)
often said this after he woke up." No doubt, he used these wise words
not to refer to biological death when one is asleep, but rather to a
sleeping person's soul being"taken."
STATEMENTS ON THE SUBJECT BY AHL AL-SUNNAH SCHOLARS
Great ahl al-Sunnah commentators on the Qur'an are also agreed when
interpreting the word tawaffaa that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) didnot
die, but was raised into the Presence of Allah and will return to
Earth before the Day of Judgment. These Islamic scholars include:
Ibn Kathir, the famous Islamic scholar and commentator, used this
hadith, along with manyother proofs in his commentary on Surah Al
'Imran, to explain that tawaffaa refers to sleep :
Ibn Abi Hatim says that:"My father told us … from Hassan that the
meaning of the verse 'I will take you back...' is this: Here it means
that 'Ishall kill you with the death of sleep; in other words, I shall
cause you to sleep.' So Allah raised the Prophet Jesus (pbuh)to the
heavens while he was asleep … As an incontrovertible truth, Allah
caused the ProphetJesus (pbuh) to die the death of sleep and then
raised him to the sky, rescuing him from some of the Jews, who were
inflicting suffering upon him at the time. ( Ibn Kathir, Tafsir
al-Qur'an al-'Azim , 1:573-76.)
Imam Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari , another Islamic scholar who examined
the meaning of tawaffaa , stated that it did not mean death, and drew
attention to the use of mawt in Surat az-Zumar:42:
Had the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) died [which is not the case], then the
word mawt revealed in the verse: "Allah takes the souls [of people] at
death" (Surat az-Zumar:42), would not have been revealed… This is
because if, as has been claimed, Allah had referred to normal death[in
the biological sense], then this would have been clearly stated.
SinceAllah refers to the fact that the Jews did not kill the Prophet
Jesus (pbuh), but that he was taken and raised to the sky, then one
must think of a meaning beyond that of ordinary death… (Imam Muhammad
Zahidal-Kawthari, Nazra 'Abirafi Maza'im Man Yankur Nuzul 'Isa 'alyhi
al-Salam aabla al-Akhira (A Cursory Look at the Claims of Those Who
Deny Jesus' Descent before the Next Life) (Egypt: 1980), 34-37.)
Sheikh al-Islam Mustafa Sabri, a contemporary ofal-Kawthari, cites
this verse as evidence and offers the following interpretation: "If we
were to take the word tawaffaa as meaning 'killing,' then souls would
also have to die ." (Sheikh al-Islam Mustafa Sabri, Mawqif al-'Aql
(Beirut: 1992), 4:177-79)
In his commentary on the Qur'an, the Islamic scholar Mawlana Sayyid
Abul A'la Mawdudi makesthe following statement about mutawaffeeka ,
which appears in Surah Al 'Imran:55 (the same word is also used in
Surat al-Ma'ida:117):
The word mutawaffeeka , in the Arabic text comesfrom the word tawaffaa
,meaning "to take the surrender of" and "take the soul," although here
it is used in a figurative sense. Here, it means"relieving from duty."
(Mawlana Sayyid Abul A'la al-Mawdudi, Tafhim al-Qur'an , 1:230-31)
Abu Mansur Muhammad al-Maturidi , regarded as one of the first
Qur'anic commentators, also stated that the verse does not refer to
the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) dying in the familiar biological sense:
The thing being referredto in the verse is not passing on in the sense
of death , but in the sense of the body being taken from this world .
( Abu Mansur Muhammad al-Maturidi, Kitab Tawilatal-Qur'an (Beirut),
67)
The famous commentator and scholar al-Tabari stated that mutawaffeeka
is used in the sense of"removing from Earth" and interpreted the verse
in the following terms:
In my opinion, the soundest thing is to takethis word in the sense
of"to take into one's possession," "draw [away] from Earth." In that
case, the meaning of the verse is: "I shall take you from Earth and
into the heavens." The rest of the verse emphasizes the [believers']
victory over unbelievers in the End Times, which confirms the above
idea. ( Tafsir al-Tabari, 3:290-91. )
Further on in his commentary, al-Tabari included other interpretations
of mutawaffeeka . Islamic scholars are in general agreement that its
correct interpretation is"a kind of sleep." According to Imam
Hasanal-Basri, the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Khalil Herras stated that
the verse means: "I shall put you to sleep and raise you to My
Presence as you sleep ." In his commentary, al-Suyuti said, based on
reliable hadith, that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) did not die, and then
continued:
In that case, the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) was raised to the skies and
will return before the Day of Judgment . (Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Durr
al-Manthur , 2:225-27.)
Mehmed Vehbi, a commentator who lived during the final years of the
Ottoman Empire , interpreted the verse in the following manner:
O Jesus, I shall put you tosleep and raise you to the skies, the place
of plenty and My sanctity. I shall rescue you from theJews' wickedness
and cleanse you of the unbelievers' impure actions, rescuing you from
their wickedness by drawing you up awayfrom them . (Mehmed Vehbi
Hadimli, Hulasatu'l Beyan-i fi Tefsiri'l Kuran (Tafsir al-Qur'an)
(Istanbul: 1979), 2:613. [emphasis added by the author])
The great Islamic scholarImam Ibn Taymiyya stated that Surah Al
'Imran:55 indicates that the Prophet Jesus (pbuh)did not die, but most
likely experienced a kindof "sleep death." He thenwrote:
This verse is proof that the death of the ProphetJesus (pbuh) is not
beingreferred to … The word al-tawaffi [the infinitive form of the
word mutawafeeka used] in the verse requires the death of the soul
without that of the body, or of both, but with the existence of
another piece of evidence explaining the circumstances in this sense.
The meaning may be the death of sleep (as in Surat al-An'am:60). The
words at the end of the verse, to the effect that: "I shall separate
you purified from the unbelievers," are also along these lines. Had
the Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) body been separated from his soul, then his
body would be in the ground, as with the other prophets. (Imam Ibn
Taymiyya, Majmu' Fatawa (The Collected Fatwas), trans. by Abdurrahman
ibn Muhammad ibn Qasim al-Asimi an-Najdi, (Riyadh: 1991), 4:322-23.
[emphasis added by the author])
In his commentary, Hamdi Yazir of Elmali stated that the verse in
question means :
... In my view, a summaryof this interpretation and belief is as
follows: The soul of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh), described as a "word
from Allah" and reinforced with the"Purest Spirit", has not yet been
taken. His soul has not come to the hour of death . "The Word" has not
yet returned to Allah. He still has work to do in this world. (Elmali
Hamdi Yazir, Hak Din Kuran Dili (The True Religion, the Language of
the Qur'an),2:1112-13.)
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And Allah Knows the Best!
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Published by :->
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