It is common to hear modern Muslims claim
that Jesus did not die nor was he crucified. It is also common to hear them
claim that Jesus’ likeness was transferred onto Judas Iscariot, citing S.
4:157 as proof. Accordingly, it is believed that once Judas was made to look
like Jesus the people mistakenly crucified him in the place of Christ. This
all took place with the masses thinking that they were actually crucifying
Christ.
Sadly, most people are unaware that such
views find little support from the earliest Muslim sources. In fact, early
Muslim scholarship was greatly confused and divided over the exact nature of
Jesus’ final days. Early Muslim scholarly opinion did not hold to a uniform
view regarding Jesus’ final moments, with some scholars believing that Christ
actually did die and some others claiming that God took him straight into
heaven without dying.
An example of an early Muslim scholar
holding to a different view from that commonly promoted by Muslims today is
Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (839-923). Al-Tabari, as he is commonly
called, wrote an exhaustive history beginning with the creation of the
universe titled, The History of Prophets and Kings (Ta’rikh al-Rusul
wa’l-Muluk). We will be citing al-Tabari here regarding Jesus’ birth,
life, death and ascension. We will be using the translation done by Moshe
Perlmann titled, The History of Al-Tabari, Volume IV, The Ancient Kingdoms,
State University of New York Press, Albany 1987.
“According to
al-Muthanna- Ishaq b. al-Hajjaj- Isma’il b. ‘Abd al-Karim- ‘Abd al-Samad b.
Ma’qil- Wahb: When Jesus son of Mary was told by God that he was about to
leave this world, he became afraid of death and grieved. He summoned the
apostles and prepared food for them saying, ‘Come to me tonight. I have
something to discuss with you.’ When they assembled at night, he served
them with supper. When they finished the meal, he began to wash their
hands, cleansing them with his hands, and wiping their hands with his garment.
But they considered it a grievous act and were displeased, whereupon
Jesus said, ‘Indeed, he who rejects anything I do tonight, is not of mine, and
I am not of his.’ Then he said, ‘What I have done with you tonight in serving
you the meal, washing your hands with mine-this is to make you and me equal.
You consider me the best of you, so do not be arrogant towards one another.
Sacrifice yourselves for one another, just as I sacrifice myself for
you. My request of you is that you call out to God; call fervently to
postpone my end.’ When they turned to pray and sought to be fervent,
they fell asleep and could not pray. He began to wake them, saying,
‘Praise be God, could you not watch one night to help me?’ They said, ‘By God,
we do not know what happened to us, we were keeping vigil but were unable to
keep awake tonight, and as soon as we attempted to pray, we were prevented
from doing so.’ He said, ‘The shepherd is taken away,
the flock disperses.’
He began to
use such language announcing his death. Then he
said, ‘The truth is that one of you shall deny me thrice before the
cock-crow, and one of you will shall sell me for a few coins, and he shall eat
my price.’ They walked out and dispersed. The Jews were looking for him.
They seized Simeon, one of the apostles, and said, ‘This one is a companion
of his.’ But he denied it, and said, ‘I am not his companion.’ So they left
him. Then another caught him, but he denied it again. Then he heard the cock
crow, and wept. When morning came, one of the apostles came to the
Jews, and said, ‘What will you give me if I lead you to Christ?’ And they set
for him thirty pieces of silver. He took those, and led them to him. Before
that they were not sure of Christ. But now they seized him, chained him, tied
him with cord, and began to lead him away, saying, ‘You revived the dead,
chased away the devil, and cured the possessed, will you not set yourself free
from this cord?’ They spat upon him and threw thorns upon him, until they
brought the wooden board upon which they wanted to crucify him. But God raised
him up to Himself and they crucified ‘only a likeness of that shown them.’
A week passed. Then his mother and the woman whom Jesus healed and cured
from derangement came weeping at the place of crucifixion. But Jesus came
to them and said, ‘Why are you weeping?’ They said, ‘Because of you;’
whereupon he replied, ‘God raised me up to Himself, and nothing good has
happened to me. Only a likeness was shown to them. Instruct the
apostles to meet me at place such and such. They met him at that place,
eleven of them, as the one who had betrayed him and led the Jews to him was
missing. Jesus asked the apostles about him. They said, ‘He rued what he
had done, AND STRANGLED HIMSELF TO DEATH.’ Jesus said, ‘Had he
repented, God would have forgiven him.’ He asked them about John, a
youth who was following them, and said, ‘He is with you. Go! Each of
you will speak the language of a people to warn and summon them.’
According to
Ibn Humayd- Ibn Ishaq- an impeccable authority- Wahb b. Munabbih al-Yamani:
GOD ALLOWED JESUS, THE SON OF MARY, TO DIE AT THREE O’CLOCK IN THE DAY;
then He took him unto himself.
According to
Ibn Humayd- Salamah- Ibn Ishaq: The Christians assert that God granted him
death for seven hours of the day, and then resurrected him saying, ‘Descend
upon Mary Magdalene on her mountain, for nobody wept for thee as she did, nor
did anybody grieve for thee as she did. Let her assemble for thee the
apostles, and send them forth as preachers for God, for you have not done that.’
God let him descend to her; the mountain was aglow with light as he descended,
and she gathered the apostles. Jesus sent them out and commanded to tell
men IN HIS NAME of the divine injunction. Then God raised Jesus unto
Himself, gave him wings of an angel and dressed him in radiance. No longer
did Jesus relish food or drink; he was flying along with the angels, around
the throne.
He was
(both) human and angelic, celestial and terrestrial.
The apostles then dispersed, as commanded. The night on which
he was sent down is celebrated by the Christians with frankincense.” (Al-Tabari,
pp. 120-123 bold and capital emphasis ours)
To summarize al- Tabari’s position
regarding Jesus final moments, we discover that:
A. Jesus was informed that he was about to
depart this world.
B. Upon receiving this message, Jesus
became fearful of dying. This implies that Christ was going to die. Otherwise
why would Jesus have been afraid of dying had it not been God’s intention that
Christ would die?
C. Jesus informed his disciples that he
was going to be abandoned and betrayed by his followers.
D. Jesus asked his followers to pray that
he would be spared from death. This again indicates that Christ was going to
actually die. Otherwise it makes absolutely no sense for Christ to have his
followers pray that he be spared from death. This strongly shows that God
wasn’t planning to raise Jesus up to heaven without having Christ die first.
E. As Jesus was being led to his
crucifixion he was beaten, spat upon, and had thorns thrown upon him.
F. God then raises Jesus up and only a
likeness of Christ was crucified.
Lest a person mistakenly thinks that this
means that al-Tabari doesn’t believe that Jesus actually died on the cross
before ascending alive into heaven, note what he says elsewhere:
“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 cam 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 became thus became an enemy of the Israelites, and
killed many of them. From this arose Christianity in Rome.” (Tabari,
pp. 123-124 bold and capital emphasis ours)
These citations affirm that al-Tabari
actually believed that Jesus did die on the cross. This is further proven by
the fact that Tabari cites a tradition from Wahb b. Munabbih asserting that
Jesus died at three o’clock in the afternoon and then God raised him unto
himself.
Seemingly, the confusion caused by S.
4:157 presumably prevented al-Tabari from explicitly stating his belief in
Jesus’ death on the cross, lest somehow he be accused of denying the message
of the Quran.
G. Judas hangs himself from the guilt
he felt for betraying Jesus. That it was Judas can be gleaned from what al-Tabari
says elsewhere:
“Among the apostles, and the
followers who came after them were the apostle Peter and Paul who was a
follower and not an apostle; they went to Rome. Andrew and Matthew were sent
to the country whose people are man-eaters, a land of blacks, we think;
Thomas was sent to Babylonia in the east, Philip to Qayrawan (and) Carthage,
that is, North Africa. John went to Ephesus, the city of the youths of the
cave, and James to Jerusalem, that is, Aelia. Bartholomew was sent to
Arabia, namely, the Hijaz; Simeon to the land of the Berbers in Africa.
Judas was not then an apostle, so his place was taken by Ariobus. He filled
in for Judas Iscariot AFTER THE LATTER HAD PERPETRATED HIS DEED.”
(Ibid., p. 123 bold and capital emphasis ours)
This indicates that the modern Muslim
claim regarding Judas being made to look like Jesus in order to be crucified
in Christ’s place is something that both al-Tabari and his sources were either
unaware of or simply rejected.
Continuing further, we find Al-Tabari
actually quoting from both Christians and material found in the four Gospels
regarding Jesus’ birth and genealogy, as well as material found in the New
Testament Apocryphal fables:
“The Persians
assert that sixty-five years after Alexander seized Babylonia, and fifty-one
years after Arsacid rule began, Mary the daughter of ‘Imran gave birth to
Jesus. But the Christians assert that Jesus was born to her 303 years after
Alexander conquered Babylonia, and that John the Baptist was born six
months before Jesus. They report that Mary was pregnant with Jesus when
she was thirteen years old. They also report that Jesus lived thirty-two
years and a few days before his ascension, and that Mary lived six more
years after his ascension, altogether over fifty years. They assert that
John and Jesus met in the Jordan River when Jesus was thirty years of age, and
that John was slain before the ascension of Jesus. Zechariah b. Berechiah,
the father of Yahya b. Zechariah, and ‘Imran b. Matthan, the father of Mary,
were married to two sisters. One was married to Zechariah- she was the mother
of John, the other was with ‘Imran b. Matthan, and she was the mother of Mary.
‘Imran b. Matthan died when the mother of Mary was pregnant with her. When
Mary was born, Zechariah provided for her after her mother’s death, because
her aunt, the sister of her mother, was with him. The name of Mary’s mother
was Hanna bt. Faqud b. Qabil, the name of the sister of Mary’s mother,
that is the name of John’s mother was Elizabeth bt. Faqud. Zechariah
provided for Mary, and she was engaged to Joseph b. Jacob b. Matthan b.
Eleazar b. Eliud b. Achim b. Zadok b. Azor b. Eliakim b. Abiud b. Zerrubabbel,
b. Shealtiel b. Jechonia b. Josiah b. Amon b. Manasseh, b. Hezekiah b. Ahaziah
b. Jotham b. Uzziah b. Joram b. Jehosaphat b. Asa b. Abijah b. Rehoboam b.
Solomon b. David.
According to
Ibn Humayd- Salamah- Ibn Ishaq: As far as I could learn her lineage, Mary was
a daughter of ‘Imran b. Josiah b. Amaziah b. Joash b. Ahaziah b. Joram b.
Jehosaphat b. Asa b. Abijah b. Rehoboam b. Solomon.
To Zechariah
was born John, the son of the (great) aunt of Jesus, the son of Mary. In his
youth John became a prophet and traveled. He came to Palestine, calling upon
the people. John the Baptist and Jesus met, and then parted after John
baptized Jesus. It is said that Jesus sent John the Baptist with twelve
apostles to teach the people. Among their prohibitions was marriage to a
niece.” (Tabari, pp. 102-103 bold emphasis ours)
Joseph’s genealogy as given by al-Tabari
is actually identical to that given in Matthew’s Gospel:
“A record of
the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham
was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah
and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of
Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of
King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother
had been Uriah's wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa,
Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of
Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the
father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the
father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,
and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time
of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the
father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of
Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father
of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the
father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar
the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was
born Jesus, who is called Christ.” Matthew 1:1-16
More from al-Tabari:
Some
historians mentioned that Jesus was born forty-two years after Augustus had
become emperor. Augustus continued to live on, and his reign lasted
fifty-five years, some add a few days. The Jews assaulted Christ. The
sovereign in Jerusalem at the time was Caesar, and it was on his behalf
that Herod the Great reigned in Jerusalem. Messengers of the king of
Persia came to him. Sent to Christ, they came to Herod by mistake.
They informed Herod that the king of Persia had sent them to offer Christ
the gifts they carried, gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense. They
told him that they had observed that Christ’s star had risen- they had
learned through computation. They offered him gifts at Bethlehem in
Palestine. When Herod learned about them, he plotted against Christ,
and looked for him in order to slay him. God commanded an angel to tell Joseph,
who was with Mary at the sanctuary, that Herod intended to slay the child,
and to instruct him to flee to Egypt with the child and his mother.
When Herod
died the angel told Joseph, who was in Egypt, that Herod was dead
and that his son Archelaus reigned instead- the man who sought to slay the
child was no longer alive. Joseph took the child to Nazareth in
Palestine, to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I called you out of
Egypt.’ Archelaus died, and the younger Herod became king, in whose reign
the likeness of Christ was crucified…” (Al-Tabari, pp. 124-125 bold
emphasis ours)
The footnote states:
“The reference ascribed here to
Isaiah is in Hosea 11:1.” (Ibid, f. # 322, p. 125)
Al-Tabari is clearly dependent on Matthew
2 here, clearly citing it as accurate history.
Appendix
The Meaning of Tawaffa In the Quran
According to the Quran Jesus actually died
before ascending into heaven:
“Lo ! God
said: ‘O Jesus! Verily I shall cause thee to die (mutawaffeeka),
and shall exalt thee unto me, and cleanse thee of those who are bent on
denying the truth; and I shall place those who follow thee above those who are
bent on denying the truth, unto the day of resurrection. In the end unto Me
you all must return, and I shall judge between you with regard to all on which
you were wont to differ.” S. 3:55 Muhammed Asad
“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 (tawafaytani), Thou wert the watcher over
them, and Thou art witness of all things.” S. 5:117 M.H.Shakir
The words mutawaffeeka and
tawafaytani stem from the verb tawaffa. This verb always means
death when God or angels are the subjects. This therefore implies that the
Quran clearly teaches that Christ did die before being raised to God. Lest one
think that this is simply a Christian assertion, we present here the following
comments from two Muslims sources regarding the precise meaning of the verb.
The first is taken from Learner’s Moiz Amjad’s response to the claim
made by Muslim Apologist Jamal Badawi that the verb tawaffa means to
complete ones term or debt:
“The implication of the word under consideration, as explained
by Dr. Jamal Badawi and the other referred Muslim scholars is
supported neither by the Qur’an, nor by any authentic source of the Arabic
language.
The word ‘mutawaffik’ is the active participle (ism
al-faa`il) for the noun ‘tawaffa’. Aqrab al-Mawaarid, one of
the most authentic Arabic dictionaries has explained ‘tawaffa’ to
imply:
·
‘To complete’, ‘to fulfill’ ‘to discharge
completely’, ‘to realize completely’, ‘to finish’ etc., when the object of
the verb are words like ‘promise’, ‘right’, ‘obligation’, ‘liability’, ‘loan’,
‘debt’ ‘number’ or ‘time period’ etc. Thus:
1.
‘tawaffait al-muddah’
(the object of the verb being ‘the time period’), it means, ‘I completed the
term’; or
2.
‘tawaffa
haqqahu’ (the object of the verb being ‘right’), it means, ‘he realized
his right completely’; or
3.
‘tawaffa `adad
al-qaum’ (the object of the verb being ‘number’) it means that ‘he counted
the number of people completely’.
·
‘To cause death’, ‘to take away the soul’ etc.,
when the agent of the verb is God [or any other agent or cause of death, or
death itself] and the object is a living thing (like man). Thus:
4.
‘tawaffa
Allaho Zayedan’ (the active agent of the verb being ‘Allah’ and the object
being a person) means, ‘God caused Zayed to die’[1][1].
5.
‘tawaffahu al-Ta`oon’
(the active agent being ‘plague’ – i.e. an agent or cause of death – and the
object being a person) means, ‘The plague killed him’.
6.
‘tawaffathu
al-maut’ (the active agent being ‘death’ and the object being a person)
means, ‘death overtook him’[2][2].
7.
‘tawaffathu
al-Malaaikah’ (the active agent being ‘angels’ – i.e. an agent of death –
and the object being a person) means ‘The angels gave him death’[3][3].
·
‘To die’, when the verb
occurs in its passive form, with the passive participle being a living being
(like man). Thus, ‘tuwuffia Zayedun’ means ‘Zayed died’[4][4].
It should be quite clear from the above
explanation that the meaning of the word ‘mutawaffik’ as described by
Dr. Jamal Badawi and other Muslim scholars, who ascribe to the same
opinion, is not very accurate.” (source-
http://www.understanding-islam.com/rpr/pr-026.htm-
bold emphasis ours)
The
following comments are taken from Muslim Kashif Ahmed Shehzada’s article:
“The expression in arabic <MUTE VA FEEKA> comes from the root word <VAFFA>
which carries the meaning of 'Completing something or some task to
such an extent that nothing else is left out'. In the same manner <Vafaat>
means 'Death', as in Death the life term of a person is
fully completed. Following are some references from Standard Arabic
dictionaries which tell us about the meaning of the word <VAFFAT>.
'VAFFAT'
= "Death", "Decease" (An advanced Learners Arabic-English Dictionary by
H.Anthony Salmone pp1222)
'VAFFAT'
= "Death", "Demise", "Decease" (Al Mawrid Arabic-English Dictionary pp
1240)
'TUVAFA'
= "To take the life of anyone" (A Dictionary & Glossary of the Koran by
J.Penrice pp 161)
'TUUFFA'
= "To die", "Expire", "Pass away", "Give up the ghost", "Breath ones last",
"Part ones life" (Al Mawrid Arabic-English Dictionary pp 391)
In English to Arabic dictionaries ie reverse the meaning of 'vaffat' is again
confirmed;
"DEATH" = 'vaffat' (Al Manar English-Arabic Dictionary pp 157)
"DEATH" = 'vaffat'(Al Asri English-Arabic Dictionary pp 193)
"DEMISE" = 'vaffat' (Al Asri English-Arabic Dictionary pp 199)
"DEMISE" = 'vaffat' (Al Mawrid English-Arabic Dictionary pp 259)
"DEATH" = 'vaffat' (Al Mawrid Eng Arabic Dictionary pp 251)
And much more.
However apart from General Arabic works of Reference, this word has also
been used in the sense which conveys the meaning of death or demise
or completion of one's life term in the Qur'an itself. The
following verses are very clear in ascertaining the meaning of "Vaffa", "Mutavafa"
etc in the Qur'an itself. Please check all of these and above in Arabic to
confirm them yourself. They are from M.H.Shakir's translation where otherwise
stated.
IN THE QURAN 'TAVAFFA' HAS BEEN USED FOR 'DEATH' IN MANY
VERSES:
"Our Lord! surely we have heard a preacher calling to the
faith, saying: Believe in your Lord, so we did believe; Our Lord! forgive us
therefore our faults, and cover our evil deeds and MAKE US DIE <TUWAFFANA>
with the righteous." (3:193)
"And you do not take revenge on us except because we have
believed in the communications of our Lord when they came to us! Our Lord:
Pour out upon us patience and CAUSE US TO DIE <TUWAFFANA> in submission."
(7:126)
"My Lord! Thou hast given me of the kingdom and taught me of
the interpretation of sayings: Originator of the heavens and the earth! Thou
art my guardian in this world and the hereafter; MAKE ME DIE A MUSLIM <TUWAFFANI
MUSLIM AN> and join me with the good." (12:101)
"But how will it be when the angels CAUSE THEM TO DIE <TAWAFAT'HUM>
smiting their backs." (47:27)
"And (as for) those of you WHO DIE <YUTAWAFFAUNA> and leave
wives behind,"(2:234)
"And as for those who are guilty of an indecency from among
your women, call to witnesses against them four (witnesses) from among you;
then if they bear witness confine them to the houses until DEATH TAKES THEM
AWAY <YATAWAFFAHUNNE> or Allah opens some way for them." (4:15)
"And Allah has created you, then He CAUSES YOU TO DIE <YATAWAFFA'KUM>
, and of you is he who is brought back to the worst part of life, so that
after having knowledge he does not know anything; surely Allah is Knowing,
Powerful." (16:70)
"O people! if you are in doubt about the raising, then surely
We created you from dust, then from a small seed, then from a clot, then from
a lump of flesh, complete in make and incomplete, that We may make clear to
you; and We cause what We please to stay in the wombs till an appointed time,
then We bring you forth as babies, then that you may attain your maturity; and
of you is he who is CAUSED TO DIE <YUTAWAFFA> , and of you is he who is
brought back to the worst part of life.." (22:5)
"Say: The angel of death who is given charge of you shall CAUSE
YOU TO DIE <YATAWAFAAKUM>, then to your Lord you shall be brought back."
(32:11)
The above verses are very distinct and clear in informing us the meaning of
'Yutavafa'…” (source-
http://www.mostmerciful.com/second-coming.htm-
bold emphasis ours)
In light
of the preceding factors, the claim that Jesus did not die but ascended into
heaven only to return again and then die is purely a Muslim myth. For a
Christian analysis regarding the Islamic view of Jesus’ crucifixion and death
please read the following article:
http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/crucifixion.htm
Further articles by Sam
Shamoun
