[5.116]
And when Allah will say, "O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you tell
mankind to take you and your mother as two gods besides
Allah?" He will say, "Glory be to You! I could not say what I had
no right to say. If I had said it, You would indeed have known it. You
know what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in Your mind.
You are indeed the Knower of the things that
are unseen."
[5.117] "I told them nothing except what
You commanded me with - that they should worship Allah,
my Lord and their Lord. And I was a witness over them so
long as I was among them, but when You caused me to die, You were
the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things ."
(emphasis added)
The above is a conversation between Allah and Jesus that
is to take place on the Judgement Day. Take particular note of the
underlined part of Jesus'response to Allah. This part does clearly show
that Jesus was unaware that he and his mother were deified by his
so-called followers after his departure from this world. If Jesus were
to come back again to this world, how could he be unaware of this
deification!?
Moreover, the Arabic term used for what is translated as
'You caused me to die' in the above quote, is tawaffaitani.
The Arabic term is derived from the tri-letter root word wafi.
This root word has the basic meaning of 'to complete' or 'to fulfill'
and a derived meaning is 'to die after completing one's life-term in
this world'. Another derived meaning, used in the Qur'aan, is for one's
soul to be taken up after death by angels (Verse 6.61). In Verse 5.117
too, the word is used in the same meaning of Allah
causing Jesus' soul to go up unto Him after his (Jesus') physical
death here. There is therefore no warrant in the Qur'aan for the
word to have the meaning of Jesus having been bodily lifted up to
Heaven from this earth.
Other Verses that need to be pondered over in this context
are:
[4.157]
And their saying, "We killed the Messiah Jesus, son of
Mary, Messenger of Allah." And they killed him not; nor did they
crucify him, but it appeared so to them. And indeed, those who
differ therein are only in a state of doubt about it. They have no
knowledge thereon, but follow only conjecture. And they killed him not
for sure.
[4.158] Allah, on the contrary, raised him to Himself. And
Allah is Almighty, Wise.
The Arabic term used in Verse 4.158, for what is translated above
as 'raised him', is rafa'a hu. The use of this term here is
taken by some commentators of the Qur'aan as the evidence for Jesus
having been bodily lifted up to the Heavens. But Verse 3.55 tells
us categorically that Jesus was made to die and raised up to Allah. It
was Jesus' soul that was raised up, like any other human soul, at his
natural death (not by crucifixion).
There is, therefore, nothing in the Verses quoted above - nor is
there anything in any other Verse of the Qur'aan - to support the myth
of the
2nd coming of Jesus, son of Mary, peace be upon
him.
Mohammad Shafi