Headings
Introduction
An analysis of the Qur’anic concept of Jesus yields numerous conundrums and even possibly literal contradictions, raising questions related to the author’s understanding of the subject material, or even the possibility of multiple authorship or redactions. Just one of these is related to the question of just what is being conveyed with regards to a central Christian belief- Jesus’ Death on the Cross. For some reason the author does not seem to want to admit that Jesus died, which would be the easier path to have taken, rather preferring to adopt an obscure version of a Gnostic retelling of that incident, as we shall see, along with various other problems this gives rise to.
It’s these kinds of occurences like these that make it unlikely Islam has a divine origin- it’s easy to deny Christianity, atheists do it all the time. But they don’t sound part-Christian or Gnostic in doing so, as the Qur’an does, and repeatedly.
Outlining the Problem and Contradiction
Let us first look at the four Qur’anic verses that relate to the issue. The passage in 4:157-9 is central, since it is the most specific and directly related to the Crucifixion of Christ and the only one of its kind in the Qur’an:
“and for their saying, ‘We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God’ — yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them. Those who are at variance concerning him surely are in doubt regarding him; they have no knowledge of him, except the following of surmise; and they slew him not of a certainty — no indeed; God raised him up to Him; God is All-mighty, All-wise.” (Q 4:157,8)
“Peace be upon me, the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive!'” (19:33)
“When God said, ‘Jesus, I will cause you to die and will raise thee to Me and I will purify thee of those who believe not. I will set thy followers above the unbelievers till the Resurrection Day. Then unto Me shall you return, and I will decide between you, as to what you were at variance on.” (3:55)
“I did not say to them aught save what Thou didst enjoin me with: That serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord, and I was a witness of them so long as I was among them, but when Thou didst cause me to die, Thou wert the watcher over them, and Thou art witness of all things.” (5:117 Shakir).
4:157 is a clear statement of crucifixion as a sort of divine illusion, and the reality that Jesus was in fact “spirited away” by Allah to Heaven. However other verses seem to tell a different story. First when we consider 3:55 we find it seems to refer to the same event and yet here Jesus does die. Once again Jesus is being “raised to Allah”, but this time he has died first. Further, this “raise you to myself” phraseology is unique to these two places- wa-rafiuka ilayya (3:55), rafa’ahu l-lahu ilayhi (4:157). Together, they represent the only instance of a man being “raised to God” in the Qur’an.
If we study the words used, we find the word for “raise” (ra-fa-ayn, 29 occ.) every other time refers to raising up in status/exalt, or for example the foundations of Ka’aba/mosques (2:127/24:36), the heavens (55:7; 79:28, 88:11), and once for Allah himself raising himself over the throne (13:2)! 17:33 actually uses a different root for Jesus being raised (ba-ayn-tha, ~67occ.) which usually refers to the resurrection that all people undergo on the last day, or also in the case of the sleepers being awakened from death.
SECOND, when Jesus speaks of his life in the Qur’an, he shows no awareness of his second stint on Earth- neither in prediction in 19:33, nor restrospectively in 5:117. The latter verse has Jesus supposedly speaking to Allah retrospectively after his death where Jesus says Allah was a “watcher” over the peoeple after his death, but he does not make a separate remark about who watched over persons following his undead ascension. Why would this be missing unless it were the same event after all? Was it not pertinent to state that people were being watched over in the nearly 2000 years since 33AD? Further the author has just referred to events immediately preceding that event in 33AD claiming he had not told Christians to worship him then (5:116) “while I was among them”, and Mary his mother is also mentioned in the same breath as him. Mary is hardly going to be his mother a second time!
Summarizing the Contradiction
Thus as we have seen, Jesus both does not die in the Quran because he has been placed in Heaven from 4:157 and also dies in the Quran as seen in 19:33, 5:117 and 3:55.
There is no sense given anywhere in the Qur’an of Jesus, or any other man coming back from God literally for a second stint at life. Many Muslims do employ this approach, of adjoining the Gnostic Crucifixion to the Christian Second Coming, so that this time Jesus does not elude the clutches of death after all and everything’s back to normal for Islam. But without appealing to these external sources, the contradiction in the text remains. We will see how some verses, particularly 4:159 does not quite provide the get out of jail card which some might purport to use it for.
Why not simply leave Jesus where he is “with Allah”? Well, that would be unacceptable too because it would make Jesus God, because there is another verse in the Qur’an that states that every creature dies.
Examining some Muslim Responses
In considering Muslim responses to this we must first consider the text which immediately follows 4:158:
“There is not one of the People of the Book but will assuredly believe in him before his death, and on the Resurrection Day he will be a witness against them.” (Q 4:159)
Who does the pronoun in “his death” refer to? Mohsin Khan gives his customary explanatory paranthesis in his translation “…before his [‘Iesa (Jesus) or a Jew’s or a Christian’s] death (at the time of the appearance of the angel of death)…”.
This, along with 3:55 which we shall also look at, are one of the more obcure verses of the Qur’an which even Muslim commentators struggle to interpret. The difficultly lies in ust whom the pronoun in “his death” is referring to. If Jesus, it would imply Jesus will bring about the unification of the three “Abrahamic faiths” at some point (and finally a solution to the Palestine issue!).
However this is an unsatisfactory because were this the case, he would not require to “be a witness against them“, they would all be Muslims!
Further it also does not make sense for every individual in the three Abrahamic faiths to come to the same belief in Jesus during the ordinary course of their lives. There are inter-conversions between religions, but every single member of a religion can never convert to the same belief, and we are talking of billions of people here. Free will does not work that way, there is always room for disbelief. Why would only Jews and Christians be chosen for this blanket conversion, why not also atheists? For all these reasons, 4:159 cannot be referring to cannot be about Jesus’ Death.
On the other hand for the verse to refer to the death of the “people of the book” makes some sense. In this case it would imply that people are given to realize the truth before they die, like Pharoah. However also as in the case of Pharaoh, this realisation brings no merit or escape from punishment: “he will be a witness against them”and it is more akin to James 2:19- “believe and they tremble”.
Finally, interpreting the death of Jesus having occurred at a later date also does not fit into the narrative because Jesus is in Heaven, he is not really available on earth to die and all that.
Incredibly Christian-centric verses
In either case this is an incredible sequence because while asserting that every one of Christians and Jews will believe in Jesus, it makes no mention of universal belief in Muhammed, neither here nor anywhere else in the Qur’an. It truly sounds like the messiahship of Jesus is universal. Further if indeed he is to come again, then he, and not Muhammed is the final prophet and there is none other in between, and finally we have 3:55 state that Jesus’ followers will be supreme to the end, once again leaving out Muhammed’s followers from any mention in terms of superiority. Who are these people at the culmination of the ages that the Islamic Allah holds superior to all others? Is that what Muslims will call themselves? Why?
This entire pericope of all of those of Abrahamic faiths coming to belief in Christ, following him, and being superior, which spans these two verses and which can also be taken along with Jesus’ unique messiahship represents a sort of Christian ending to Islam, irrespective of the other issues we discussed.
The curiosities do not end here. In 19:33 we have Jesus say “peace be upon me”. That is never said by anyone, when John utters a parallel phrase in 19:15 rather, it is on the lips of Allah, not John! I cannot find “allaya” (on me) anywhere else in the Qur’an, and a word search does not yield any other instances of the phrases “peace be /is/was upon me”. There’s so much to say on the Christianity in the Qur’an and I have fully discussed all the verses elsewhere.
Q 5:117 The use of “tawaffa” for death
G S Reynolds does an excellent article on this, researching the use of the Arabic terms-( The Muslim Jesus: Dead or alive? Bulletin of SOAS, 72, 2 (2009), 237–258. School of Oriental and African Studies. Printed in the United Kingdom)
“In one passage the Quran has Jesus himself declare, “Peace upon me on the day I was born, on the day I die, and on the day I will be sent forth alive” (Q 19.33) (…) in 5:116–8 Jesus remarks “I was a witness to them as long as I remained among them. You became the watcher of them when you made me die (tawaffaytanī)”.
The verb tawaffā (verbal noun: tawaffī) that appears here causes significant confusion among Muslim exegetes. Yet the Quran itself offers no cause for confusion. Tawaffā appears in twenty-five passages in the Quran, and twice in relation to Jesus (here and Q 3.55). For twenty-three of those passages the Muslim commentators generally follow the standard definition of this term, namely God’s act of separating the soul from the body, or making someone die. In fact, Muslims often pray the concluding words of sūrat al-aʿrāf (7) 126: rabbanā afrigh ʿalaynā s ˙ abran wa-tawaffanā muslimīn, “O our Lord, fill us with patience and make us die Muslims” (…)
In this regard it is noteworthy that the second occurrence of tawaffā in relation to Jesus, sūrat āl ʿImrān (3:55), precedes a reference to God causing Jesus to ascend to Him:
“God said, ‘O Jesus, I will make you die (mutawaff īka), raise you up to me (rāfi’uka ilayya), purify you from those who disbelieved, and lift those who have followed you above the disbelievers until the Day of Resurrection, then you will all return to me” (Q 3:55a).
By itself, “tawaffa” can simply mean “take back”. However in relation to God taking us back, it necessarily becomes an idiom for dying. The only other normative condition under which Allah takes Muslims back is in their sleep, because it was Muhammed’s belief that in sleep the soul returns to God and then re-enters the body on waking. This usage is seen in the exception from verse 39:42. The exception proves the rule, every other instance of God “taking us back” implies death. That’s the reason that this verse is not used in 4:157, precisely to avoid the implication of dying.
More evidence that tawaffa means “to die”
Reynolds also points out: “In one passage the Quran has Jesus himself declare, “Peace upon me on the day I was born, on the day I die, and on the day I will be sent forth alive” (Q 19.33). Here Jesus – speaking miraculously as an infant – implies that his death will be like that of any other human. In fact, the words of Jesus in this verse are a formula found also 18 verses earlier (Q 19.15). There it is Zechariah calling down peace on his son John on the day of his birth, death and resurrection.”
So when Zecheriah mentions his death using the same formula just a few verses prior it is taken to mean death. yamūtu (in 19:33 it is amūtu) the only difference is first person “”I will” and third person “he will”
“Ibn Manzūr (d. 711/1312) defines tawffāhu Allāh as “qabad Allahu nafsahu”, literally, “God seized his soul”. The body is left behind as the soul is taken by God. Ibn Manzūr, Lisān al-’arab, ed. Muhammad al-Sādiq al-ʿUbaydī (Beirut: Dār Ihyā’ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1418/1997), 15:359 (…)
Tafsīr Muqātil (my note- Muqātil ibn Sulaymān was an 8th-century story teller of the Quran. He wrote one of the earliest, if not first, commentaries of the Qur’an still available today.) accepts that tawaffā refers to God causing a human to die, but he insists that the Quran uses it for Jesus only in reference to his death in the end times, after his return to earth (…)
Alternative interpretation of “tawaffa”- (to die)
Some interpreters, Tabarī notes, are of the opinion that when the Quran applies tawaffā to Jesus it refers not to death but to sleep.30 It is this interpretation which explains the curious detail in the narratives on sūrat al-nisā’ (4) 157–8 cited above, that Jesus fell asleep before God took him into heaven. According to a second opinion, however, tawaffā – when it applies to Jesus – is synonymous instead with qabada, “to seize”; that is, with this term the Quran is not referring to Jesus falling asleep before God took him into heaven, but rather to the act of God taking Jesus into heaven, or to the moment when God took hold of Jesus before raising him to heaven. Still Tabarī also cites a third view, that tawaffā – even in the case of Jesus –can only mean “to make die”. Most traditions that reflect this view reconcile it, as Tafsīr Muqātil does, with the doctrine of Jesus’ eschatological return. Note that “sleep” in the Qur’an is nawam as in Q 2:255 where Allah “does not slumber)
Scholars that agree Jesus died
Al-Tabarī in his history notes that some scholars concede Jesus did indeed die.
“According to Ibn Humayd- Salamah- Ibn Ishaq- ‘Umar b. ‘Abdullah b. Urwah b. al-Zubayr- Ibn Sulaym al-Ansari al-Zuraqi: One of our women was under a vow to appear on al-Jamma’, a mountain in ‘Aqiq near Madinah, and I went with her. We stood on the mountain and, lo and behold, there was a huge grave with two huge stone slabs over it- one at the head, one at the feet. On them was an inscription in the ancient script (musnad) which I could not decipher. I carried the slabs with me halfway down the mountain, they proved too heavy, however, so I threw one (down) and descended with the other. I showed it to readers of Syriac (to determine) whether they knew its script; but they did not. I showed it to psalm (zabur) copyists from the Yaman and those versed in reading the musnad script; but they did not recognize it, either.
As I found nobody who recognized it, I threw it under a coffer we had, and there it lay for years. Then people from Mah in Persia came to us looking for pearls, and I said to them, ‘ Do you have a script?’ ‘Yes,’ they said. I brought out the stone for them and lo and behold, they read it. It was in their script, ‘This is the tomb of Jesus, son of Mary, God’s messenger to the people of this land.’ They were its people at that time. among them he died, so they buried him on the mountaintop.
According to Ibn Humyad- Salamah- Ibn Ishaq: The rest of the apostles were assaulted, viciously exposed to the sun, tortured, and dishonorably paraded. The Roman king, who ruled over them and who was an idol-worshiper, heard this. He was told that a man among the Israelites, subject to his rule, was assaulted and slain. The man had announced to them that he was God’s messenger. He performed miracles, revived the dead and healed the sick. He created a bird of clay, breathed into it, and it flew, by God’s permission. He told them of hidden things. The king exclaimed, ‘But why did you not mention this to me, about him and them? By God, had I known, I would not have let them have a free hand against him!’ Then he sent for the apostles and snatched them from the hands of the Israelites. He asked the apostles about the faith of Jesus and about his fate. They told him, whereupon he embraced their faith. The king released Sergius, and concealed him. He took the wooden cross which jesus had been crucified, and he honored and preserved it because jesus had touched it. The king thus became an enemy of the Israelites, and killed many of them. From this arose Christianity in Rome.” (History of Tabari, Ta’rfkh al-rusul wa’l-muluk, Vol. IV “The Ancient Kingdoms”, translated and annotated by Moshe Perlmann University of California, Los Angeles State University of New York Press, Albany1987, pp. 123-124; paragraphs 739-740)
Zamakshari follows instead those who accept that tawaffā means death, but insists that it refers to the death of Jesus in the end times.
The Arabic expression tawaffaitani (translated: take me up) is explained by Dr. Mahmud Shaltut, one of the previous presidents of Al-Azhar University: “(It) is entitled in this verse to bear the meaning of ordinary death … there is no way to interpret ‘death’ as occurring after his [Jesus] return from heaven…because the verse very clearly limits the connection of Jesus … to his own people of his own day and the connection is not with the people living at the time when he returns.” (Muslim World, xxxiv, pp. 214 ff; as quoted by Parrinder. Geoffery, Jesus in the Qur’an, pp.115-116; Sheldon Press, London, 1965.)
Commenting on Surah Al-Imran 3:55, Imam Al-Razy said, “Narrated ibn Abbas and Mohammed ibn Ishak: the meaning of ‘tawaffaitani – take you to me’ is to let you die.” (Al-Razy exegesis [Tafsir] part 2 page 457) Al-Razy also said, “Narrated Wahb: the Christ died for three hours.” (Al-Razy exegesis [Tafsir] part 2 page 457) And he continued, “Narrated ibn Ishak: he [Jesus] died for seven hours.” (Al-Razy exegesis [Tafsir] part 2 page 457)
Al-Syouty Al-Syouty explained that, when Surah 3:55 refers to Jesus’s death. it means a real one. He said in his book Al-Itqan (The Perfection) part 1, page 116: “Take you to me [mutawaffeeka] means put you to death”
Ibn Kathir wrote in his exegesis of the Qur’an (tafsir al Qur’an) that there are two different views of Surah Al-Imran 3:55 amongst Muslim scholars. One of the two interpretations is that Jesus died a physical death. He said, “Narrated Ali ibn Abi Talha, narrated Ibn Abbas: the meaning oftake you to me [mutawaffeeka] is to let you die.” He also said, “Narrated Mohammad ibn Ishak, Narrated Wahb: Allah let him die for three hours and then raised him.” Again he said, “Narrated ibn Ishak: Christians claim that Allah let him die for seven hours then he brought him to life again.” And again, “Narrated Ishak ibn Bashr, narrated Idriss, narrated Wahb: Allah let him die for three days and then he raised him up.” (Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Al Qur’an (Arabic text), Volume I, Part II, page 27-28.
Mufti Abu Layth, a popular Muslim YouTuber and hadith scholar openly discounts the belief in Jesus’ return and states that this is no more than a mimicry of Christian belief which occured as Islam spread into Christian lands. He asserts it is completely “unscientific”, men do not shuttle between heavenly and earthly lives, and certainly do not “judge the world”.
This Islamic article summarizes some of the opinions of Muslim scholars themselves: https://www.livingislam.org/fiqhi/fiqha_e80.html
Similarity with Gnostic Crucifixion
But the father without birth and without name, perceiving that they would be destroyed, sent his own first-begotten Nous (he it is who is called Christ) to bestow deliverance on those who believe in him, from the power of those who made the world. He appeared, then, on earth as a man, to the nations of these powers, and wrought miracles. Wherefore he did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them.
For since he was an incorporeal power, and the Nous (mind) of the unborn father, he transfigured himself as he pleased, and thus ascended to him who had sent him, deriding them, inasmuch as he could not be laid hold of, and was invisible to all.
Those, then, who know these things have been freed from the principalities who formed the world; so that it is not incumbent on us to confess him who was crucified, but him who came in the form of a man, and was thought to be crucified, and was called Jesus, and was sent by the father, that by this dispensation he might destroy the works of the makers of the world. If any one, therefore, he declares, confesses the crucified, that man is still a slave, and under the power of those who formed our bodies; but he who denies him has been freed from these beings, and is acquainted with the dispensation of the unborn father.
Against Heresies, Bishop Irenaeus of Smyrna Book1, Ch.24. Google it! its on NewAdvent.com
At least the Gnostics have their own theology which is supported by such a story…Mohammed makes his Allah the cause of Christianity! He copies a story from a religion with beliefs completely different to both Christianity and Islam!
Reasons for the “Second Coming” narratives
None of the events which Jesus is said by the exegetes to accomplish in the schaton – killing al-Dajjāl, leading believers in prayer, breaking Crosses, killing swine (and Christians), etc. – are mentioned in the Quran. All of this leads one to suspect that the classical mufassirūn had other reasons to emphasize the role of Jesus in the eschaton and, consequently, to deny his death. the name of the Islamic
anti-Christ, al-Dajjāl (or al-masīh al-dajjāl, “the deceiving Christ”) never
appears in the Quran. It comes instead from Syriac daggālā, an adjective used
for the anti-Christ by Ephraem and Pseudo-Methodius Second, by having Jesus so prominent in these traditions an anti-Shii effect is also achieved. At the heart of developing Shii doctrine was the role of the Twelfth Imām, al-qā’im bi-l-sayf, as the Mahdī in the end times. This does not mean that Jesus finds no role at all in Shii eschatology. As seen above the Shii exegete Qummī acknowledges his role. Yet it is telling that when Qummī comes to the reportof the universal prayer of Jesus in Jerusalem, he adds: “He will pray behind the Mahdī”. Other Shii eschatological traditions describe how he Imām/Mahdī will exact vengeance on the Sunnīs for their crimes against the Prophet’s family. In response Sunnī eschatological traditions increasingly emphasized the role of Jesus in the eschaton. Indeed, some Sunnī traditions insist that there would be no other Mahdī but Jesus himself. Thus Jesus became the Sunnī answer to the Shii Qā’im, and his preservation from death was accordingly emphasized. In other words, the doctrine that Jesus was saved from death (at the hands of the evil Jews) developed in the same way as the Shii doctrine that the Twelfth Imām was saved from death (at the hands of the evil Sunnīs). In both cases the point is eschatology. Jesus and the Imām are saved from death for the sake of their role in the end times.
Verses on the Second Coming
“He (the son of Mary) shall be a known sign of the Hour; so have no doubt concerning it and follow me.” (Quran 43:61)
Kitab-ul-`Ilm (Book of Knowledge), Hâdith Number 656: The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts). (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 43)
Hudhayfah ibn Usayd al-Ghifari said, “The Messenger of Allah (saas) came to us all of a sudden as we were (busy in a discussion). He said: ‘What are you discussing?’ We said: ‘We are discussing the Last Hour.’ Thereupon he said: ‘It will not come until you see ten signs before it’ – and (in this connection) he made mention of the smoke, the Dajjal, the beast, the rising of the sun from the west, the descent of ‘Isa the son of Maryam, Yajuj and Majuj, and landslides in three places, one in the east, one in the west and one in Arabia at the end of which fire will burn forth from the Yemen, and drive people to the place of their assembly.” (Sahih Muslim)
Allah Causing Christianity?
In other words, the secretive act of Allah “making Jesus die” and then taking him up to himself, provides the possibility of the apostles seeing the Resurrected Christ. (had Allah left Jesus in the grave like Mohammed, this possibility would not have arisen). This then of course also corroborates the historical narrative of Christianity spreading because of the sightings and the witness of the Risen Jesus. This could be explained either by Jesus living on Earth after the Crucifixion, which is what Christians believe anyway, which are the post- Resurrection sightings, or that they witnessed the “ascension” that the Qur’an is referring to in 4:157, 3:55 in Matthew . Thus we have the kernel of the Crucifixion that is supposedly an unexplained illusion created by Allah. Not only that, for almost exactly 600 years, Christians believe this delusion before Allah “corrects” it through Muhammed, this is one of the most incredible mishaps in the history of allegedly divine revelation. I mean, Muslims have had the following 1400 years to ponder the question as to why God did not resolve the delusion before that time so that having discounted the Death of Christ, Christians, Arians, Gnostics, Pelagians, Montanists, what-have-you could have all found something closer to Islamic truth to believe in. Its an explanatory gap that beggars belief.
Syed Hosein observes in the Study Quran: “(IK, Ṭ, Z). Because most accounts indicate that it appeared not only to the Jews, but also to all or most Christians, that Jesus had been killed, al-Ṭabarī argues that no blame or accusations of dishonesty can be leveled at Christians who believe in Jesus’ death and crucifixion.”
Basically all it took was for Christians to be “deluded” into believing in Jesus’ death on the Cross, and then witnessing his Ascension, at which for some reason Jesus never informed them that he had not died. Its all a bit unlikely, but how does one explain the Christian story otherwise, did Christians would have to witness the delusion and the ascension and surmise that there was also a resurrection involved. This would not be made up, really in a malicious, rather just a false inference born out of ignorance. The Quran maintains the delusion and does not indicate that it was dispelled by Jesus, so it cannot accuse the Christians of lying. Therefore the Christians cannot be blamed for their belief in Jesus’ death and Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, only for their belief in Jesus deity from these verses.
References
Main article reference: G S Reynolds, The Muslim Jesus: Dead or alive? Bulletin of SOAS, 72, 2 (2009), 237–258. School of Oriental and African Studies. Printed in the United Kingdom)
The Study Qur’an- Seyyed Hossein Nasr ed., Harper Collins, 2015