The next section deals with the crimes of the Jews, hints at the consequences of those crimes, identifies true believers from them and mentions the immense reward they will get. It starts with a statement of principle: Faith in Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala and all of His messengers comes as one package, which you cannot separate and from which you cannot pick and choose. A disbelief about any of them is a disbelief altogether. That should remove any misunderstanding someone may have about those who believe in Allaah and some messengers, but not all of them. Even disbelief in one messenger is enough to make the person an outright disbeliever (a Kaafir[1]).

 

¹⁵⁰ Verily those who disbelieve in Allaah and His messengers, those who want to distinguish between Allaah and His messengers, those who say: we believe in some and disbelieve in others, and those who seek to choose a way in between; ¹⁵¹ all of them are truly and equally disbelievers, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment. ¹⁵² While to those who believe in Allaah and His messengers and do not make a distinction between any of them, He will soon grant them their rewards; and Allaah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

 

¹⁵³ The people of the Book ask you to bring down to them a book from heaven. It is not surprising because they asked Moosa[2] something even more ignorant and offensive than that, they asked him: Show us Allaah manifestly. So the thunderbolt struck them for their wickedness. Then they chose the calf for worship after clear signs had come to them; even so We pardoned this and We gave to Moosa clear authority. ¹⁵⁴ And We lifted the Mount Toor over them to take their covenant, and We told them: Enter the door bowing humbly; and We told them: Do not violate Sabbath; and we took from them a solemn covenant. ¹⁵⁵ But they became exceedingly obdurate as shown by:

 

• Their breaking their covenant and their disbelief in the revelations of Allaah and their killing the prophets wrongfully and their saying: Our hearts are covered; -- rather Allaah has sealed them owing to their disbelief, so they shall not believe except a few.
• ¹⁵⁶ Their disbelief and their speaking against Maryam[3] a grave slander;
• ¹⁵⁷ Their saying: Surely we have killed the Messiah, ‘Eesa[4] son of Maryam, the messenger of Allaah – but they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it so appeared to them; and those who differ therein are indeed only in a doubt about it; they have no knowledge respecting it, but just a conjecture they are following; and they certainly killed him not, ¹⁵⁸ but Allaah raised him up unto Himself; and Allaah is ever Mighty, Wise.

People who become slaves to their customs, traditions and so called heritage of their forefathers usually close their minds from anything that presents a sensible alternative to their ignorant traditions and heritage. That has been the greatest hindrance in the way of people responding positively to the call of the messengers of Allaah and accepting their message. It has never been for the lack of evidence or shortage of miracles from a messenger that people do not accept the message, but it has mostly been because of their prejudices and biases in favour of their heritage, their bigotry and their close-mindedness against the very original and refreshing teachings of the messengers. Instead of feeling ashamed of this perverseness, the rejecters of the message usually feel very proud of their close-mindedness and immunity to “out of the box”, sensible views. In the same way, when Jews demanded from the Messenger of Allaah Sall Allahu `alayhi wa sallam to bring a book from heaven, it was just their way of finding an excuse to reject his call to Islam. In reality, they did not want to accept the message because of their obduracy, bigotry, bias against and resistance to the truth. They had shut their minds and used to boast that their hearts were protected from infiltration. Allaah is telling them that this is not an achievement of which they should be proud of, but they have, in fact, lost capability to reason and to understand. It is Allaah’s predetermined law that whoever closes his mind in resistance to the truth, he loses the capability to even understand it. Thus they have become victims of their own bad attitude and perverseness. This loss of capability to understand is called sealing of the hearts. Since this condition is a natural consequence according to Allaah’s laws of nature, Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala attributes it to Himself saying that He sealed their hearts.  Unfortunately, many Muslims nowadays also behave in this manner when they are given the true message of Islam that is at variance with their cultural and traditional practices.

 

Jews have been habitual of displaying this obdurate behaviour towards many prophets and messengers in the past. Rather, their reaction has been extremely aggressive and violent. They killed many prophets as they killed Yahyaa. They treated Maryam the same way and slandered her of being unchaste. To prove her innocence, Allaah SWT caused newborn ‘Eesa to speak in defence of his mother, but when ‘Eesa started his Islamic mission and rebuked them for their wanton behaviour, they used the slander to discredit him and his mother both.

 

They rejected ‘Eesa himself in their same obdurate and violent way, despite witnessing the amazing miracles that Allaah showed through him. While knowing him to be a messenger of Allaah, they not only tried to kill him but also boasted about killing him. This showed the severest state of their hardened hearts and obduracy. What can one expect from them except rejection and opposition to the Islamic mission?

 

At the mention of ‘Eesa and the Jewish claim of killing him, Allaah SWT has taken the opportunity to strongly refute their claim that they were successful in having him killed. Although they thought that he was killed, in reality he was not. People were just confused and mixed up on this matter. Although the Christians also believe that he was killed on the cross and was then resurrected and taken to heaven, even they have no knowledge of the facts about Jesus.  Their whole story about his passion and his crucifixion is based on hearsay and conjecture, not on facts or knowledge.  If we look at Christian sources, we find that there are so many versions, narrations and contradictory reports that it is impossible to say exactly what transpired. No eyewitness accounts are available. Some people believe that the four Gospels are eyewitness accounts, but nothing can be farther from truth. None of the four Gospel writers was a disciple of Jesus and none of the disciples personally witnessed the hanging in any way because, fearful of Roman authorities, they had escaped and gone into hiding. As all four of the accounts are based on hearsay, they are very inconsistent and self-contradictory. That is why the Qur-aan says that they have no knowledge but are following only conjecture.

 

The question is if people at that time were confused and mixed up and the subsequent generations of Christians are just following some wishful thoughts, not reality, then what really did happen? The Qur-aan categorically says that he was neither killed nor crucified but Allaah raised him or lifted him up towards Himself. So what does “Allaah raised him or lifted him up towards Himself” mean? Obviously, it cannot mean ascension after resurrection because Allaah SWT is categorically denying his death before being raised.

 

A simple, straightforward and apparent meaning is that physically he was lifted up and taken to heaven. However, some people who cannot fathom a live person being raised to heaven interpret it to mean that Jesus was raised (elevated) in status.  This act of ‘raising’ cannot mean raising of a status because neither is it expressly stated nor does the context allow that meaning.  While declaring that the adversaries did not succeed in crucifying or killing Jesus, “but” cannot be followed by a mention of Jesus being raised in status. It can only relate to his physical existence.

 

Some people may assume that it just means natural death. Being lifted up or raised has never been used in the Qur-aan to imply death. This meaning is usually assumed by non-Arab Muslims because of the contemporary usage of the word “raised” to mean death. Because of the Muslims understanding that the soul of the dying person is raised to heavens, in some languages people have started figuratively using ‘raised’ to mean ‘died’. Based on that usage, which was developed long after the revelation of the Qur-aan only in oriental Muslim languages, some people think perhaps the Holy Qur-aan has also used ‘raised’ for his being dead. This is far from the truth. It cannot mean ‘raised to heaven in spirit’ as is used in our society for every dying person, regardless of how he died. This meaning, too, does not fit the context and rather makes it absurd because a statement to the effect, “they did not kill him, but his soul was taken up” does not make much sense.  Also, there is no example of such use of the word ‘raised’ either in any other place in the Holy Qur-aan or in the Arabic usage of the Prophet’s time.

 

In addition, none of these meanings (raising of his status or his natural death) can be justified in the context of the verse because immediately after saying “but Allaah lifted him up or raised him”, the Qur-aan refers to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala’s Omnipotence and His Wisdom indicating that it was an extraordinary incident involving Allaah’s power and authority, not an ordinary human death or raising of someone in status. Thus, ‘raised’ in this verse means raised physically.

 

Lifting up of or raising of Jesus has been mentioned only at one other place in the holy Qur-aan – that is in Soorah Aali-‘Imraan where the Holy Qur-aan says: “They (Jesus’ enemies) plotted and Allaah also planned, and Allaah is the best of the Planners. At that occasion, Allaah assured, ‘O Jesus!  I will you take you back wholly, raise you unto Myself, purify you from those who have rejected you, and make your followers dominate those who reject you…”.[5] This indicates that Jesus knew before the Roman legion attacked that he will not fall into the hands of the enemy, but will be raised unto Allaah.  Although the message here seems to be clear, some people are confused by the use of the word “Mutawaffeeka” – “take you back wholly and completely”. This word means to take something completely. When a person dies, angels take his soul completely. For that reason, a derivative from the same root word is used metaphorically for death of a person. Because of this use of the word, people think that here also it is used for the death of Jesus. But again, this metaphoric meaning does not fit the context properly while the real meaning of the word does. Hence, the real meaning of the word should be used instead of the metaphoric. The Qur-aan needed to use this word in its real meaning to refute the Christian concept of being raised. Because Christians believe his being raised after resurrection which can only be in spirit, the Qur-aan, by using the words ‘take you back wholly’, indicates that he was raised physically both in body and spirit as a living human being.

 

Some people think that Jesus was hanged but was taken down before his death. Some others go further and claim that, afterwards, he lived a normal life, got married and had children. About his subsequent life, some people theorize that he left for India to chase some lost sheep of Israel. There he died in Kashmir and is buried in Sarinagar. Some Japanese think that he migrated to Japan and lived and died there.

 

The Holy Qur-aan does not support these theories. Had Jesus survived crucifixion and died a natural death,  the Holy Qur-aan would have mentioned it as such. The most important point about the discussions on topics such as these is to remember that the Qur-aan always states a point clearly instead of using a confusing style. If Jesus had died naturally subsequent to being saved from death on the cross, the Qur-aan would tell it clearly without mincing words. It would not use the words that give more indication of being raised alive than of dying, especially when there were already a big population of Christians believing in Jesus being raised after resurrection.  If the purpose was to contradict the notion of Jesus being raised in any unusual form, it was much easier for the Qur-aan to say: Jesus did not die on the cross but died of natural causes in such and such circumstances, at so and so place. Instead of a report of that kind, Allaah has very clearly said that Jesus was not even crucified and has used such language that indicates some special, unusual incident of being raised to heaven without being put on the cross.

 

How did he evade arrest and how was he lifted up? How did all that happen? That is where the vagueness comes from. It is beyond our knowledge, experience or imagination. Thus being beyond our understanding, it is a matter of Mutashaabihaat.  Allaah SWT does not provide any details about Mutashaabihaat for many reasons.

 

First of all, Allaah being the Master rightfully expects of His servants to have full trust in Him and accept the facts as they are revealed by Him. As a matter of principle, He never explains how He does things. He just tells us that He commands the things to happen and they do happen. Secondly, even if Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala had chosen to explain His actions for our understanding, people would have been unable to understand most of the things most of the time because His ways and means are infinite, always beyond human imagination and mostly beyond our finite understanding. Finally, even if Allaah would have given the details of what actually transpired, it would not have any value whatsoever because people would have no way of verifying the truth of the statements. The confusions and doubts would remain as they are. Any further information would have been useless in clarifying the issue and, hence, unproductive. So the statement that the Jews were not able to crucify Jesus and that Allaah raised him is sufficient and enough for the believers to know for all intents and purposes. For reasons such as these, Allaah has not described the way He caused the confusion and saved His messenger to raise him to the heavens.

 

________________________

 

[1] Disbeliever or unbeliever

[2] Moses

[3] Mary

[4] Jesus

[5] 3:55