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Ayah 54

وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ ‎

And the disbelievers planned, but Allah planned. And Allah is the best of planners.

وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ, easy translation of this would be that they conspired or they schemed and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) schemed, which sounds inappropriate, but we'll deal with that in a little bit, and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is the best of all those who can scheme.

The first issue that occurs is the word مَكَرَ, which I (ustadh) translated as schemed or conspired, is used when you are making efforts to do something corrupt secretly, obviously the word scheming, "Hey, what are you guys scheming," doesn't sound like you're doing something good. Planning is a good word, but conspiring and conspiracy is not a good word, scheming is not a good word. So why am I using a negative word?

The enemies of Isa (عليه السلام) were secretly having their plans and making whatever conspiracy to try to attack him or to frame him or to get him arrested or to get him killed. All of those things are مَكَرَ. But the problem in the ayah is that it's being attributed to Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ.

The thing is that in Qur'anic phrasing, and in classical Arabic phrasing, there's a concept, called العكاس, reflection. For example, you've heard tit for tat, if you do something, I'll respond in kind. So the idea is that if someone does something evil, the phrase in Arabic is we will respond to evil with evil. But actually, what it means is that we'll respond to evil accordingly, appropriately. And the way to phrase that in old Arabic phrasing is to use the identical verb to suggest we're going to have an equal but effective response to what they did. It doesn't actually mean the same act as being done by both parties. It actually means: إِنَّهُمْ يَكِيدُونَ كَيْدًا, وَأَكِيدُ كَيْدًا– they make a scheme, I make a scheme; like that, actually similar word. But it also means, they're making a scheme and I am responding to their scheme. A way to think about this ayah is that they schemed and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) responded to their scheming. That's the way to think about this ayah. And this kind of phrasing where the same word is used by one party and in response by the other party, this is a common occurrence of phrasing in the Qur'an, and this is how you're supposed to think of it. It's not actually they did something bad and something bad was done by Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), معاذالله, in response, no, as a matter of fact, they did their scheming to do whatever harm they could, and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) had his own scheme or plan in response to undo the effects of their evil schemes. And then he adds at the end: وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ.

There are multiple places in the Qur'an, where Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) speaks about the scheming of those who want to undermine Islam, or make efforts against deen, or want to cause corruption like in the case of prophets, kill prophets and things like that. The common thread between them is that they are doing this behind the scenes, so their face value is something else and what's going on behind the scenes,

 وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ (3:118); later on in the same Surah; whatever their chests have inside of them is much bigger. قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاءُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ (3:118) – animosity has already come out of their mouths, they've already expressed some degree of animosity, so you can tell that they don't like the believers very much. But what they haven't said and what they have inside of them is even worse and as a result of that, مَكْرُ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ (34:33), the Qur'an will say, they're scheming night and day. They're getting together holding secret meetings to make sure that the deen is undermined. In Surah Al-Anfaal, وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا – when disbelievers were making a scheme against the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) to try to kill him, that had to be an elaborate scheme because if one tribe is arrested, or found that the killer was from one particular tribe or one family, that family can become part of a civil war, so we have to make it look like that it was a collaborative effort and nobody gets to point a finger at any one family, so scheming had to be done. وَمَا كُنتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ أَجْمَعُوا أَمْرَهُمْ وَهُمْ يَمْكُرُونَ (12:102), Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says: you weren't with them when they were making their schemes, when they were getting all of their plans together. So the idea here is that we already know Isa (عليه السلام), does not have generals and strategists and intellectuals and political scientists and police officers and authorities on his side, he's got people that are day laborers, etc. And on the other side, there were politicians, thinkers, schemers, intellectuals that are holding meetings about how to destroy and how to undermine.

This is also something that a lot of times in our day and age, Muslims become very paranoid about. There are entire university departments dedicated to studying the problem of Islam growing in Europe, the problem of Islam in America, a study of the Muslim communities, I (ustadh) remember the RAND Corporation back in the day releasing its paper on the Muslim communities in America and classifying them and fragmenting them. They even held a meeting one time, I recall, I was made privy to this meeting. They call Imams and leaders of Islamic organizations from different parts of North America, national organizations, major masajid, etc. Of course, people that are from different jama'at, different groups, different schools of thought, so they're slightly different from each other. And they sat them down on this roundtable, and they said, "Please discuss what is your vision for the future of Islam in America," not five minutes went by, and everybody's fighting everybody else on the table. There's yelling and screaming going on. And the experts who invited them, the non Muslim experts were just taking notes diligently, like we're their test subjects, like those rats that go into those experiments, that's what we are, and we're playing their game, and now they're studying that oh these guys don't like those guys because of this issue, and they are in this region, and they are in …; and they're doing an entire study, how do you undermine each of these organizations because they hate each other anyway. The scheming is not something small, لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ, their scheming is sometimes so powerful, it could bring mountains down.

When this ayah was revealed: their scheming is so grand, it could bring mountains down; we wouldn't imagine at that time that mountains could be brought down by mere scheming. Now, it's not even that hard to imagine that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says their scheming is so powerful that it can bring mountains down. So, the idea that we get intimidated, we get overwhelmed by this suggested scheming of the disbelievers, the enemies of Islam that are conspiring to gather resources and gather intelligence and spy and survey and then come up with a plan to undermine or completely decimate Islam, when we start obsessing over that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) over and over again responds by saying: you have your part to do, your concern is not their schemes. Why? وَمَكَرُوا, who's responding to their schemes, وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ. Think about the the Makkan Qur'an, so much of the Qur'an was revealed in Makkah, and the Makkans were very protective of their political structure. The more Islam was spreading, the more they felt threatened that their business practices, their social practices, their cultural practices, and their political structure is being threatened, so they were constantly making schemes and holding meetings to discuss the problem of Islam. Now, what happens when somebody says, "Hey, by the way, they're holding a meeting, they're talking about you?" (You will be like) "What are they saying? What did they conclude? Who attended the meeting? How many people were there? Are they meeting again? How many times have they been meeting? What's their plan?" You get paranoid, you are like, "What are they going to do? What are they thinking about us now?

I remember the days, soon after 9/11 in the United States, Muslims were so paranoid. You know, "They're building concentration camps, just like the Japanese. Brother, you have to give a khutbah about that." I was like, "If I give a khutbah or not, they're still building it, if they're building it. My khutbah is not going to change it. They are not going to be like, "Look, the guy gave a khutbah, lower the fence a little bit. It's not going to happen." And by the way, "They're holding the secret agenda meetings and they're making a different Qur'an. And they're going to put it on Amazon." I was like, "That's not going to sell very well then. (Laughs) They could try." Who's taken the responsibility for protecting Qur'an? Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). That's already taken care of. Hidden schemes of the enemies of Islam are not something that's supposed to make you paranoid. Your job is to just understand, وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ – Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is responding. وَمَكَرُوا, they did it.

The idea even of they, the pronoun being used is to suggest a kind of ambiguity and secrecy. Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) didn't name who they are. He just said: they schemed. And in response, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) responded to their scheme, and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is the best of all that can ever make a scheme. And that last phrase: وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ, we call it جمله اسميه (Jumla Ismia). And in the جمله اسميه, there's actually a مضاف and a مضاف إليه. خَيْرُ is مضاف, الْمَاكِرِينَ is the مضاف إليه. The best of all that plan. And when you use the اسم فاعل (Ism fa'il) الْمَاكِرِينَ at the end: those who plan, this idea of using a noun or an ism is that it's timeless meaning not just this plan, not just the plan that they made against Isa (عليه السلام), and the plan that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) made to respond to the scheme against a Isa (عليه السلام), but ever again, anywhere in the world and everywhere in human history, and everywhere in human future, whenever they're going to be those who scheme, never forget that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) makes the best of all plans. And they don't even know that their little plan is part of what Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s plan. Sometimes they have these movies where the criminal is running, but the police already have him surrounded completely. The criminal's plan to run and escape was already part and parcel of the police's plan. It is kind of almost mocking the criminal's plan. This is why we have to think about history and world events differently. All of them are part of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s plan. All events, the good and the bad are part of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s plan.

One of the most interesting places in the Qur'an to understand this is Surah al Isra. In this Surah, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) describes the destruction of Jerusalem. Historically, Jerusalem was destroyed a couple of times. He says: بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَّنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَالَ الدِّيَارِ ۚ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَّفْعُولًا, very strange ayah, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says that we overran you with slaves that served us, عِبَادًا لَّنَا. So this is an interesting phrasing because normally you say: عبادنا – our slaves, but the ayah says: عِبَادًا لَّنَا. There's a kind of tab'eed (distancing). It's like that they're not exactly our slaves as in they worship us, but they don't even know that they're serving our scheme. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the people that attacked Jerusalem, the ones who ransacked, they were disbelievers, pagans, idol worshipers and destroyed the masjid. They destroyed Masjid Al Aqsa, they killed Muslims. And Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says that they don't even know that they were part of a scheme that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) had hatched, and they were servants of ours without even knowing that they're servants of ours.

How many times in history has that happened that those that came and ransacked the Muslims and attacked and conquered and pillaged, ended up taking shahadah themselves and becoming the next wave of the ummah and Islam. So here: وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ – and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is the best of all that makes schemes and has always been there to respond to any of the conspiracies that take place against the believers, seen and unseen. The idea of مَكَرَ also is: someone who is complete in every way, every dimension of it has been thought. They think of a woman who's well refined, all of her characteristics are refined, and she, very thought out in her opinions, they call her mumkoora. So she's a sharp lady. The idea is that their plans are not like hodgepodge. They're very well thought out plans, and yet they are part of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s plan.

Ayah 55

إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَىٰ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ ۖ ثُمَّ إِلَيَّ مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَأَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ فِيمَا كُنتُمْ فِيهِ تَخْتَلِفُونَ

[Mention] when Allah said, "O Jesus, indeed I will take you and raise you to Myself and purify you from those who disbelieve and make those who follow you [in submission to Allah alone] superior to those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then to Me is your return, and I will judge between you concerning that in which you used to differ.

Now, this ayah is a source of great debate especially more recently, there's skepticism about the return of Isa (عليه السلام) whether he's coming back or not, can we rely on the ahaadith that describe his coming back. Some people have an issue with it because they believe that if Isa (عليه السلام) is coming back, how is Rasoolullah (صلى الله عليه و سلم), the final messenger and these kinds of issues. I'm convinced from a number of angles that there is certainly a return of Isa (عليه السلام); there seems to be overwhelming evidence that there is such a thing as the return of Jesus in authentic Islamic literature. The ahaadith are pretty solid. Actually, even if you don't look at the ahaadith at all, if let's just say the body of hadith is not there for a moment, and we're just looking at the Qur'an, the Qur'an does not speak about the return of Jesus explicitly, but it certainly talks about it implicitly, and very strong implicit evidence.

I have discussed some of this evidence in a previous lecture, about ayah 50 or 49, somewhere over there. We've talked about how Qur'an hints at the return of Jesus. This is one of those ayaat (i.e. ayah 55) that had been used by some to describe that he's not coming back and that he actually died. Before I (ustadh) get to the ayah, I do want to share with you that within those who believe that he is coming back, there are two views. One view is that when Isa (عليه السلام) was about to be crucified before he could even be crucified, the angels burst in, raised him up into the sky, physically alive, and he's still alive. And then he's going to be brought back. He's basically, his age is suspended and he's going to be brought back at the age that he left. So he's in Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s company now and then eventually he will be brought back down. Another view is that in fact, he was given death at the time, and after death, he was raised and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) will bring him back to life and bring him down. Meaning he's going to have a resurrection of sorts. Now this idea of the dead coming back to life is not something alien in the Qur'an. For example, the deceased in the story of Musa (عليه السلام) and the cow; somebody who was dead was brought back to life. You've got the prophet at the end of Surah al Baqarah who said: أَنَّىٰ يُحْيِي هَٰذِهِ اللَّهُ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا – how will Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) bring this to life after its death. فَأَمَاتَهُ اللَّهُ مِائَةَ عَامٍ – Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) gave him death for a hundred years, ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُ – then He raised him again. So the idea of someone being given death, and then being given life again in this world is not something alien. You can't say that well, in Islam, the only time we have death and being brought back to life is in the afterlife. That's not the case. As a matter of fact, even the Israelites: فَأَخَذَتْكُمُ الصَّاعِقَةُ وَأَنتُمْ تَنظُرُونَ, ‎ ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَاكُم مِّن بَعْدِ مَوْتِكُم, like the loud explosion seized you, the Israelites were told, and then we resurrected all of you after you had died, while you were still staring. So this idea of resurrection happening even in the world is something mentioned on numerous occasions, particularly in Israelite history, you find references to this idea of being given death and being brought back to life.

Another kind of an orientation point that is important to revisit is that in the beginning of this Surah, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) said that He decides what He should make clear, and what He should not make clear. So some parts of the revelation or ayaat are محكمات, some are مُتَشَابِهَاتٌ – وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَابِهَاتٌ. Now if you think of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) as the teacher - because He does say: عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ – He taught the Qur'an - when you think of a teacher, you expect that the teacher will clarify everything, and here you have Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), the divine teacher, saying: I made some things unclear purposely. This means that making something unclear also has a lesson and a purpose. The problem is if the lesson itself is unclear, then its purpose is also unclear. "I don't know why you made it unclear. I have no idea." And so it becomes a real problem for some people that something has not been made explicitly clear. And they want it to be explicitly clear and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says that that's actually one of its purposes. I want to see how many of you listen to something that I say that I made deliberately unclear, and you're still okay, آمَنَّا بِهِ كُلٌّ مِّنْ عِندِ رَبِّنَا – we believe in all of it. It's all from Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). And I'm not going to try to make what He made unclear into something explicitly clear. Is it explicitly clear that Isa (عليه السلام) died and was raised and will be resurrected? No. Is it explicitly clear that he was still alive and he was taken up? No, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) decided not to tell us, this is Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s decision. Obviously, when Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) decides not to tell you something, there's going to be what He describes Himself as hikmah. There has to be wisdom and you have to trust Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s wisdom. That's part of the orientation and studying Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)'s book; what He didn't want you to know super clearly, He didn't want you to know. And it's really interesting, because particularly the death, and the future events that transpired right after the alleged death of Jesus is some of the most controversial, most debated history in the world. Like there's more work done on the alleged death of this man or the resurrection of this man, and what exactly happened than any other figure in the world and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) decided that He's going to give you bits and pieces and keep the rest mystery, on purpose. The only one who could have solved this mystery would have been Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) Himself, but He didn't. He actually gave us just enough for us to know he was raised. But what exactly happened, He won't say.

So now what does Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) say to him? إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَىٰ – when Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) said: Isa (عليه السلام), إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ – certainly I have raised you. I (ustadh) am translating this almost in the past tense. Let me explain why for Arabic students, why am I translating this almost as a past tense. In the Arabic language, the اسم فاعل (ism fa'il) should occur as نكره (nakirah), if it is to be understood as the future; إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً (2.30) – I am going to place a khalifah on the earth, جَاعِلٌ that should be نكره. But if it occurs as a مضاف (mudaf), then actually it's already done; إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا – I've already made you imam for people. The way to understand that simply is by an easy example: هو قاتلٌ رجلا means that he is going to kill a man; he has not killed him yet. But if you make it مضاف, مضاعف إليه you will say: هو قاتلُ رجلٍ, it's already done, he has already killed him.

Look at the words إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيك – I've already taken you. It's meaning مضاف, مضاف إليه, it's already done. Now one possible implication is that it's as good as done, this is guaranteed to happen even though if it hasn't happened yet. It could also be that this word is being given to Isa (عليه السلام) after he's been raised. He's been raised, and then Allah says to him: I have now raised you, I've already taken you.

There are those who argue that the word مُتَوَفِّيكَ comes from the word تَوَفّىٰ and تَوَفّىٰ means to die. تَوَفّىٰ actually doesn't mean to die. Arabic تُوُفِّيا, the مبنى للمجهول (mabni lil majhool) can be understood as death. So even in modern Arabic تُوُفِّيا فِي سَنَةٍ كَذَا وَ كَذَا  he died in that year, is used.

But let's understand that the word comes from وفىٰ (wafaa) which means fulfillment. أَوْفَىٰ  is used in the Qur'an to fulfill promises – أَوْفَىٰ بِعَهْدِهِ (3:76). أَوْفَىٰ  means to give in full. When you fulfill a promise you gave what was owed in full. تَوَفّىٰ means to take in full. So أَوْفَىٰ is giving in full and تَوَفّىٰ is taking in full. مُتَوَفِّي is the one who takes fully. Some use this word to say that well, the phrase is used for death, so it must mean Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is saying to Isa (عليه السلام): I am giving you or I have given you death. I'm the one that has taken you away. And of course it's used in the Qur'an, when the angels take the soul away. So by context, it could mean that I've given you death just like the angels typically come and take, but I'm responsible to give you a special kind of death. Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says: اللَّهُ يَتَوَفَّى الْأَنفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِهَا – Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) takes the souls away or takes the people away at the time of their death.

The counter argument I (ustadh) want you to understand is that when two words that are similar are together then definitely there's a difference between them. You'll find the word تَوفِّي used in the Qur'an for death only when the word death is mentioned. اللَّهُ يَتَوَفَّى الْأَنفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِهَا, they're there together, so there's got to be a difference between تَوفِّي and موت . One of the most interesting places is in Surah an Nisa: حَتَّىٰ يَتَوَفَّاهُنَّ الْمَوْتُ أَوْ يَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ لَهُنَّ سَبِيلًا – Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says about women that are supposed to be under house arrest as a punishment, He says until death takes them away. Look at the phrase: until death takes them away. If تَوفِّي by itself is enough to communicate death, then why do you need the word death, موت? حتّى يَتَوفَّين – until they're taken away, no, until death takes them away. In other words, the idea of being taken away is not necessarily the equivalent of death unless death is mentioned in proximity. So in the Qur'an when those who argue تَوفِّي means death, I would argue it only means death when death is mentioned. It's not death when death is not mentioned by itself. So the meaning here is: I have taken you in full. By the way, why تَوفِّي is used for death in English, even in other languages, somebody says, "Oh, my grandpa was taken away from us last year." Or this poor child, his parents were taken away in a car accident. What does that mean? They died. So it's a figure of speech for death, which is why it can be used for death, but it doesn't necessarily mean death. It could be that somebody says that his parents were taken away last year, maybe because they were immigrants in the United States and it's the Trump administration, that could happen too; parents were taken away. It doesn't necessarily have to mean death.

Then he says: وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ – and I have raised you towards Me. Note that the translation is in the past tense. My rationale for translating it into past tense is that it's an idhafah. Not رافعٌ إياك. Not وإياك رافعٌ. But رَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ – I have raised you towards Myself. Some have interpreted this to mean Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) raises people in ranks, يَرْفَعِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجَاتٍ – Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) raises people in ranks, so it means that Isa (عليه السلام) has very high rank with Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). But in the context of it, I'm taking you away and I've raised you towards Myself, it sounds all too physical. But you have to make an extra effort to translate this metaphorically and ignore what's being very explicitly stated. I have raised you towards Myself. Even the word إلى, ورافعك درجة, if you want to talk about raising in ranks, again the qualifying word is درجات. Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) doesn't just say: يَرْفَعِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا – Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) raises them, raises them how? So to raise them by itself is just a raise, وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَكُمُ الطُّورَ – We raised the mountain. Does that mean the raise the mountain in barakah and darajaat? No, when you don't qualify it, it actually means just raise. If you want to say figuratively that I have raised you in status, raised you in honor, raised you in something then you have to mention what that in is. And the only thing is إِلَيَّ – towards Myself. And towards is clearly explicitly used for direction. And then, interestingly enough, وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا – and I have purified you from those who disbelieved. How are you going to translate that figuratively? Figuratively would mean that I have removed kufr from you. This is not what it means it actually physically means that you are now in pure company. And I have now removed evil company from you, meaning the Israelites that were trying to scheme and try to kill you that had surrounded and encircled you; I have cleansed you from that society.

وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا – and those who have followed you, I will make them above those who disbelieved.

When Jesus was "allegedly" crucified or taken either way, were the true followers of Jesus ever in a position of dominance. No, the only time the Christian people came into dominance is after they added shirk to the faith. And if they added shirk to the faith, then they can't be those who followed Jesus, وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ – those who followed you. If they follow Jesus, they would never say that he is the Son of God. So if He's saying in this ayah that I have made those who followed you above those who disbelieved. I've given them dominance. That is impossible to understand historically. Some argued that well, eventually the Roman Empire came about; but when the Roman Empire came about, they stopped following Jesus. But according to the hadith narrations, when he comes back, the people that are going to be with him are going to be following him, and they're going to be following him against those who disbelieve and this is going to go on until, this is one of the last things that happens before the Day of Resurrection; so you find: وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ. The hints in the ayaat are so strong that it takes a lot of gymnastics to think that this ayah is not saying that Jesus is coming back. It's too hard to look at it that way and not look at what's been very explicitly said about his return.