




1. "Therein (i.e. on the earth or physical world) shall you live, and therein shall you die, and therefrom shall you be raised" (7:25). 2. "And there is for you in the earth an abode and a provision" (7:24).In these verses, God has set forth His law that all men shall live their lives, with their physical bodies, in earth. Furthermore, it is opposed to the Divine law, according to which prophets have to bear persecution here on earth, that Jesus should be raised up to heaven when he was opposed by the Jews. His supposed physical life in heaven for two thousand years without food or drink is also opposed to the Divine law expressed in the above verses.
3. "Have We not made the earth draw to itself the living and the dead" (77:25, 26).
4. "From it (i.e. the earth) We created you, and into it We shall return you, and from it raise you a second time" (20:55).
1. "We did not send before you (O Muhammad) any messengers but they surely ate food" (25:20). 2. "We did not give them (i.e. the prophets) bodies not eating food" (21:8).Of Jesus and his righteous mother, it is stated: "They both used to eat food" (5:7). So if Jesus no longer eats food - all Muslims hold that he does not eat food in heaven - he cannot, by the Divine law stated above, be alive with his physical body. The body requires food, so Jesus no longer eating food must be dead.
1. "And We granted abiding for ever (Khuld) to no mortal before you (O Muhammad). If you die, will they abide (Khalidun)" (21:34). 2. "They (i.e. the prophets) did not abide for ever (Khalidin)" (21:8).As regards the meaning of the word Khulud (translated above as abiding for ever), the famous Quranic dictionary of lmam Raghib explains:
"Khulud is that a thing be immune from decay, and that it endures in an unchanging condition. The Arabs call such a thing Khuld ... i.e., to persist in one condition, not being subject to change" (pp. 153,154).According to Arabic lexicology, therefore, Khulud signifies persistence in one and the same state, with no change or decay taking place. In the verses above, a Divine law has seen explained under which every person is affected by the passage of time. He is first a child, then an adult, then old, and finally he dies. This is corroborated by many other verses, for example:
1. "Allah is He Who created you from a state of weakness, then gave you strength after weakness, then ordained weakness and hoary hair after strength" (30:54). 2. "Of you is he who is brought back to the worst part of life (i.e. old age), so that after knowledge he knows nothing" (22:5).A general law of God has seen described here, to which no human being is an exception. From being a child, a person develops physically to attain his fullest development. After that he begins to decline and ultimately reaches his ‘second childhood’ when he loses all his former attainments.
3. "And whomsoever We cause to live long, We reduce to an abject state in creation. Do they not understand" (36:68).
1. "The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a messenger; messengers before him had indeed passed away" (5:75). 2. "And Muhammad is but a messenger - messengers have already passed away before him. If, then, he dies or is killed, will you turn back upon your heels?" (3:143).The second verse here explains the first one. Both verses are similarly worded, the first referring to Jesus, and the second to the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The Quran's verdict here is very clear for a truth-seeker. The first verse explicitly states that all prophets before Jesus had died - and all Muslims accept this. In the second verse, the same words are used to state that all prophets before the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had died. In fact, since no prophet arose between Jesus and the Holy Prophet, the second verse could only have been revealed specifically to show that Jesus had died. Classical works of Arabic grammar tell us that, owing to the prefix al (the), the word messengers (al-rusul, lit. "the messengers") in the above two verses really means all messengers (see Bahr al-Muhit, vol. 3, p. 68).
1. "Those are a people that have passed away (qad Khalat)" (2:134). 2. "... before which other nations have passed away (qad Khalat)" (13:30).In interpreting the two verses about all prophets before Jesus and the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) having passed away, the commentators have generally adopted the same meaning:
3. "... among nations that have passed away (qad Khalat) before them" (46:18).
4. "Such has been the way of Allah with those who have passed away (Khalat) before" (33:38).
"The Holy Prophet would leave the world as had done previous prophets, by natural death or murder" (Qanwa `ata Baidawi, vol. 3, p. 124).In fact, the above verse about the Holy Prophet (3:143) itself clarifies the meaning of Khala (passing away of all previous prophets) by using the words "if he dies or is killed" with regard to him. Obviously, the "passing away" of all previous prophets must also be one or other of "dying" or "being killed."
"And those whom they call on besides Allah created nothing, while they are themselves created. Dead (are they), not living. And they know not when they will be raised" (16:20-21). And as to Jesus being taken for a god, the Quran itself bears witness: "Certainly they disbelieve who say: ‘Allah, He is the Messiah, son of Mary’" (5:72).‘These verses prove conclusively that Jesus, who is taken to be ‘god’ by a large section of mankind and is called by them "Lord Jesus", must have been dead when these verses were revealed. Otherwise, this exception would have been mentioned here.
"O Jesus, I will cause you to die, and exalt you to My presence, and clear you of those who disbelieve, and make those who follow you above those who disbelieve till the day of Judgement" (3:54).Here God made with Jesus four promises:
i. "Cause you to die" (tawaffa), i.e., Jesus would not be killed by the Jews, but would die a natural death. ii. "Exalt you in My presence" (raf'a), i.e., he would not be crucified, which the Jews sought to do to prove him accused, but rather he would receive Divine nearness.The above verse proves that Jesus has died, for raf'a (exaltation to God's presence) is attained only after death when all the material veils have been removed. Every righteous person is granted raf'a to God after his death. The Holy Prophet has said: "When a believer nears death, angels come to him. So, if he is righteous, they say: `O pure soul! leave, you were in a pure body' ... So that pure soul comes out, then they take it to the heavens and its gates are opened for it" (Mishkat).
iii. "Clear you of those who disbelieve" (tathir), i.e., he would be cleared of the Jews' allegations against him, as he was by the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
iv. "Make those who follow you above those who disbelieve till the day of Judgement", i.e., his followers would ever have the upper hand over his rejecters.
"And when God will say: `O Jesus, did you say to men, "Take me and my mother for two gods besides God"?' He will reply: `Glory be to Thee! it was not for me to say what I had no right to say. If I had said it, Thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy mind. Surely Thou art the great Knower of the unseen. I said to them naught save as Thou didst command me: "Serve God, 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 wast the Watcher over them. And Thou art Witness of all things' " (5:116, 117).This extract proves the following:
i. Jesus shall deny preaching the erroneous present-day Christian doctrine of his divinity; ii. He shall confirm the teaching he actually gave to his people;
iii. So long as Jesus was among his people, his followers held the current beliefs;
iv. It was after Jesus' tawaffa (translated above as 'Thou didst cause me to die') that their beliefs became corrupted.