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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.

The introduction to today's session will cover an overview of how Islamic scholarship has looked at the return of Jesus and what this ayah could mean.

إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ – when Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) said: يَا عِيسَىٰ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا. That first phrase: إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ – I've taken you, and I raised you towards Myself; some have interpreted that still as I'm going to take you and raise you towards Myself, despite it being idhafah.

So I (ustadh) am going to read some things from Imam Al Alusi (رحم الله), who offers several ways of looking at this text and how people have looked at it before. Ibn Abu Hatim (رحم الله) speaks on behalf of Qatadah (رحم الله) saying: this is actually a case of juxtaposition of the former on the previous and the previous on the former. In other words, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says: I'm taking you away and raising you, but it actually means I'm raising you and thus taking you away, so it's flipped in the meaning that's what he argues, and then they use the Hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم). Ibn e Alusi himself does not give the strength of this hadith, but I'm citing it as he cites it.

إِنَّ عِيسَى لَمْ يَمُتْ ، وَإِنَّهُ رَاجِعٌ إِلَيْكُمْ قَبْلَ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ

Isa (عليه السلام) did not die, rather he will be coming back to you before the Day of Resurrection.

That's a hadith that he cites as an evidence for this.

So another possible implication that's been talked about classically is that I fulfilled your worldly time, you've spent enough time, I'm taking full the time slot that you were given in this world, and I'm going to give you a kind of death that is without pain. Sometimes somebody dies of a heart attack or somebody dies because they got stabbed or somebody dies for whatever painful reason or disease, but the idea of a sudden death like we don't know what happened and they just died, this death is a death without cause, just somebody fell asleep and that's it, they died.

And I will not let those who are going to try to kill you, have any authority over you. So some say that this is actually alluding to the idea of when they tortured him and crucified him and all that, that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) gave him a painless death even before any of that started. So in fact that he is crucified, some argue, and the death was given sometime before any of this could take place. And that's because Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) says that I've purified you from those who disbelieve so they're implying from that, that they won't get to torture you. They think they're getting to torture you but I've already rescued you from that. So that's another way that that's been interpreted.

Another meaning is I'm actually taking you physically and I'm taking you personally from the earth, meaning like the phrase: توفَّى المال that takes something in full or to grab it or to seize it.

Another implication that has been used توفَّى, it actually means sleep because as a phrase in Arabic توفَّى can be used to put to sleep. So when He says:  إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ – I have put you to sleep, is one interpretation of it. Because these two words are synonymous with each other and one can mean the other, نوم and توفِّى can mean one or the other. Which is why even in the Qur'an, اللَّهُ يَتَوَفَّى الْأَنفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِهَا and then وَالَّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ فِي مَنَامِهَا – and those who don't die even in their sleep, so توفِّى (tawaffi) happens in sleep and توفِّى (tawaffi) happens in death. It's also been narrated by الرّبيع that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) raised Isa (عليه السلام), after having put him to sleep. So he's raised sleeping as an added mercy or comfort for him. This quote of him being raised in sleep and the statements that have been made before have also been attributed to Hassan (رضي الله عنه).

It also has been suggested that I've taken you away and raised you is figurative speech. This is close to something one of my students, who is also doing a lot of Biblical study now, has argued; he's written a paper on the subject; Sharif ud Dawah (name of the student); he also co authored the book Divine Speech with me – he does quite a bit of research on Qur'anic passages that have Biblical context, so he does kind of comparative research between those two things; and he's arguing that possibly one interpretation here is that he was in fact shaheed; that they did, in fact, kill him in the way that they killed him. But actually, the idea that مَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًا, another place, they didn't kill him at all, is suggesting, like other places in the Qur'an,

 وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَن يُقْتَلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتٌ ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ (2:154) – that those who die in the path of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) are not killed, rather they are still alive, عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ (3:169) – they're being provided with their Rabb. So it's a kind of shahadah that's being mentioned here. Or the fact that they got to destroy him or hurt him, he's above that, he's been purified from them or their company by shahadah. So the fact that he was given death is okay, then after his death, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) raised him.

Every one of the things I (ustadh) have presented to you thus far, none of these is the absolute, without argument that this is what happened. These are all theories, including the fact that he's crucified, killed in that way and his martyred and then Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) giving him life again and raising him into the sky or even just raising him without giving him life again, and then giving him life later on when he comes back. But if we do accept that account that he died, because the Christian account for the most part is that he died and three days later he was raised, that it doesn't necessarily negate that version either. So far what we're saying, Qur'an doesn't necessarily say that it did not happen. So that's one side of the argument. And in sha Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) as I conclude this, you'll see how and where all of this lands us.

So again, that taking him away and raising him is figurative speech. I'm taking you all, body and soul, alive and well, not letting you die here, taking you alive as you are up into the sky. Actually also means, when He says: I'm taking you and I'm raising you is as if I am giving you an angelic kind of an ability to leave this world and not be touched by those that are trying to harm you, so a miraculous kind of saving of Jesus. So now, having said that, here's the conclusion: all of that I (ustadh) said, it doesn't matter. You could have just forwarded it to this part in the recording one day and just heard that. But the reason I (ustadh) am saying that is because Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) deliberately did not clarify. The point Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) did emphasize, the point that is implied enough is that Isa (عليه السلام) is coming back. And the fact that he's come back, he'll be given life again, whether he died at all, whether he was raised without being tortured, whether he was given shahadah and then raised, whether he was raised before they even captured him and someone who looked like him was put in his place, any of those theories can be true or false. Because even the theory that somebody was put in his place is not from Islam. And that theory could also be argued that if that's the case, then it's as if Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is allowing one person to be punished in place of another, and then also a counter argument: well, they're also getting shahadah, so that's a good thing. But then a counter argument to that counter argument that that was actually the disciple that betrayed him, so he's being punished. Let's keep going in circles.

The idea is that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) deliberately kept some things متشبهات, and this was deliberately done. So even if he was killed or not killed, that doesn't matter. The fact that he's coming back and how do we know, sort of the indications by the end of this ayah that he is coming back, وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ – and I have placed those who have truly followed you, above those who disbelieved heading towards the Day of Resurrection. إِلَىٰ here, as opposed to حتّٰى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ. حتّٰى is ظرف زمان (zarf zaman), إِلَىٰ is ظرف مكان (zarf makan). حتّٰى is for time which means until. So you expect the ayah to say: I am going to place those who have followed you, above those who disbelieved until Judgment Day. But when it says instead of until the Day of Resurrection towards the Day of Resurrection, إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ as opposed to a حتّٰى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ. The benefit of that is actually that you're right at the tail end. You know, how distance is measured in time and space, like that country is two day flight, or 10 hour flight. Or back in the day, people used to say: this is a three month journey, this city is four months away, this one is five weeks away, etc, etc. Even nowadays, it's a six hour drive. People don't say that it's this many kilometers, or this many miles, they say that it's a seven hour drive, it's a five hour drive. So even in language, distance is described in time, especially when it's a long distance. But as distance has become shorter, then a more common expression can also become actual distance إِلَىٰ. The idea of إِلَىٰ here suggesting that it has come very close, so it's not even translating until the Day of Resurrection, but actually very close to the Day of Resurrection. If the day of resurrection is still really far away, then an accurate or more descriptive term for that would be حتّٰى, butإِلَىٰ  here is a kind of possibly giving us that benefit.

In any case, وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا – now those who followed you are going to be placed above those who disbelieved. Now, again, let's explore that theory. The original followers of Jesus, who did not do shirk, who committed to the original teachings of the Torah, because he confirmed the Torah and then believed in the Injeel that was given to him because he was given both and fought against the rabbis and the corrupt elements of their society that had changed the book of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) and wanting to stick to the original teachings given to Musa (عليه السلام), those people never had political domination, they were never placed above, literally above, وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا. Some argue that well here it means in rank, meaning درجةً but the problem with that is unless you mentioned مميّز or درجةً, this one is فَوْقَ, this one is above that one is actually literally having dominance or superiority or having a position of authority.

This is why in Surah al Baqarah, وَالَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا فَوْقَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ (2:212) – people of taqwa will be above disbelievers on the Day of Resurrection. If you say that being above, just means spiritually above, that means the people of taqwa are not above now? They're already above now. Why would Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) say that they're above them on the Day of Resurrection, because physically, they're above them on the Day of Resurrection, hell is a pit down low, they're up in heaven, looking down. So they're physically above them, they're in a position of authority, they're in a position of advantage above them.

So here the idea of فَوْقَ to be taken spiritually doesn't really add up because that's not Qur'anic usage. And so to have one above the other, وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا suggests that his followers have dominance. I (ustadh) mentioned yesterday, that if this is a reference to the Christian Empire, the Roman empire that became accepted, adopted Christianity, that was Pauline Christianity, or there were other variations of Christianity that had already changed the original followings of Isa (عليه السلام). So how can that be اتَّبَعُوكَ,وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ , they don't follow that particular quality. The other interesting thing is if you accept the hadith narrations and the hint that he is coming back, then this becomes a very literal reading because those who literally follow you, not just follow your teachings but follow you like he's right there and they're following him. And يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ – until the day of standing, the day of standing was important to mention. The resurrection has many names, and one of them is standing, the idea that we're going to be standing in front of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), the idea that we're going to be answering for everything that we did, i.e. a trial, قِيَامَةِ is almost the idea, the notion of standing and trial. Anybody who's ever gone to court knows that it's nerve-wracking to have to stand there and testify and be asked all kinds of embarrassing questions and to have to answer those questions and the witnesses are watching and the judges are watching, and they're recording everything that you're saying, and there's a typist that's also taking notes and all of that. If you're from Pakistan, you know this pretty well, you'd rather have a side connection with the judge and say, "Hey, I don't want to do trial, can you just kind of cancel the trial or delay it, or how about that, that you decide that I'm innocent without the trial, how about you issue me a pardon, and we just get it over with from the side."

The idea is that in the corruption that creeped into many denominations of Christianity that is exactly what Jesus is supposed to do. Isa (عليه السلام) is supposed to get you off trial. So you don't have to show up in court. Because if you believe in him, he already paid the price of your sins with his blood, so that you don't have to stand trial in front of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). Because if you stand in front of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), he's going to ask you about everything you did, you don't have to have any of that standing because Jesus is there. Yet, he's leading his followers all the way to the standing. Quite literally, he's taking his followers getting them ready to stand in front of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) and to be able to answer Him, Subhan Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). So even in that phrasing, there's kind of an undoing and also a refreshing of the original message of Isa (عليه السلام). He is not a replacement of what was given to all previous prophets. It's not a new creed, or a new theory. On this note, I (ustadh) don't recommend that Muslims engage in debate with Christians over this stuff. There are some cases where that's okay, but generally speaking, if you're in the university, or your co-workers are Christian, and it's Christmas season, you are like, "It's dawah time." (And you give them dawah) "By the way, he is not the son of God. And you were wrong about that, and it's like shirk, and your Christmas tree is shirk etc." Well, hold on before you go there, the thing is that you have to appreciate something about the Christian people; Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) described these people as people of soft hearts. So the thing is that we have to first and foremost, appreciate, take advantage of the things that are: سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ (3:64) – let's talk about the things that are the same between us and yourselves. Our love and our loyalty and our acknowledgement and our appreciation of Isa (عليه السلام), and what he did, is pretty high in Islam. He's a major figure, he is أُولُو الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الرُّسُلِ (46:35), talking about Isa (عليه السلام) in the best of ways as the Qur'an describes it, as Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) Himself describes it, is actually a really beautiful way to let Christians know that someone they love and admire is loved and admired by us Muslims. And you don't have to bring up that he's not the son of God and all of that, you don't invite someone by telling them they're wrong. You don't do that, you invite someone and you find common ground. Something you can both appreciate. I haven't done a Jesus talk ever before a Christian audience. But I have done Abraham (عليه السلام) talk before a Jewish audience. And I was talking about Ibrahim (عليه السلام) from Surah al Baqarah, and there were several rabbis in the audience and one of the rabbis, who's actually a PhD in Hebrew studies and also studied at yeshiva institutes that they have, so he's basically got 30 years of scholarship under his belt, and he is sitting in the first row, and I'm only talking about Ibrahim (عليه السلام) from the Qur'an. That's all I'm talking about. This man sitting there, has a long beard, and his whole beard is soaked in tears. He's just in tears. I'm not saying a word about what the Jews did and how they change the teachings of Ibrahim (عليه السلام), because we could talk about that too. But if you're going to speak to people, speak about common ground.

This revelation was given to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) when a group of Christians came from Najran hearing that a man claiming to be a prophet. wanted to know what this Prophecy is about. "How are you claiming to be a Prophet, we already follow Jesus? But let's see what he's saying." So they came to visit the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) and he had them stay in the masjid, so there was no hotel, the hotel was masjid, these are priests and they prayed to Jesus in the masjid. They read their Bible, they prayed to Jesus, they did what they did in the masjid, at the invitation of Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم). Today, in many parts of the Muslim world, if you're wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and you go into a masjid, you can get beat up, because you're not dressed in the proper gear. And you have people that are going into the Prophet's masjid that are worshipping Jesus. And by the way, when someone says that God has a son, who gets angry? Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) gets extremely angry. He says: He gets so angry that every time someone says, "Ar Rahman has a son," the skies are about to tear open from those words, and the earth is about to crack open from those words. That offends Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) so much. But if it offends Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) so much, it should offend the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم). Isn't it? But instead, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) is saying, "No, come pray here." We're learning the anger of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) has its place, but the slave of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) cannot be angry because Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is angry. These are two different things. The slave has to be merciful, because the slave has no right to be angry.

Let me help you understand that. I have several kids, and all seven don't get in trouble at the same time. One of them gets in trouble. What do the other ones like to do when one of them is in trouble? Watch the show. You are like, "You go, let me talk to him." And even when they go, (gestures that they are keenly observing / peeking from behind). Imagine I (ustadh) am upset with one of my kids, "Again, you lied about not finishing your homework. Seriously, you're going to do that again." And one of the other kids walks in and says, "Yeah, this is the third time you did that." (You are like) "Excuse me, why are you angry?" (The kid is speaking) "Well, you know, you're my father, I love you. What makes you angry makes me angry." When a child becomes angry like that they're being arrogant. They need tarbiyyah. (You will say) "That anger is not your right that anger is only my right, you're not the parent, you don't have the right."

But I'm not talking about a child and a parent. I am talking about the anger of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) and the anger of the slave. The slave is inviting, the slave is saying, "You do what You do. And the anger of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), that's for Allah (سبحانه و تعالى). What do we do with the Qur'an? When Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) is angry, we use that for license for us to be angry. We have to be careful about where we have right and where we don't have right. Of course, what Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) does not like we don't like, what Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) detest, we detest. But judgment over people and anger directed at people is different from anger at ideas. Ibrahim (عليه السلام) is angry at shirk, of course. Isa (عليه السلام) is angry at kufr, of course. But that anger cannot be transferred over to people. That's a completely different notion. So may Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) give us that clarity and not take the book of Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) that is supposed to be a means of our humility and turn it into a means of our arrogance.