Return of Ancient Prophets

[ذو الفقار]

Context is key.

Cite me a single Ayah of the Suhuf-e-Mutahhara which posits that Jesus of Nazareth is living a bodily life somewhere in the heavens.

[کیش]

No where does it say anything about causing Isa Bin Maryan (as) to die. All the hadiths clearly state Isa Bin Maryam (as) will descend on the shoulders of two angels. What would be your state when Jesus son of Mary (as) will descent to Earth and pray behind the imam from amongst you?

3:55
Sahih International: [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.

Pickthall: (And remember) when Allah said: O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve and am setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me ye will (all) return, and I shall judge between you as to that wherein ye used to differ.

Yusuf Ali: Behold! Allah said: "O Jesus! I will take thee and raise thee to Myself and clear thee (of the falsehoods) of those who blaspheme; I will make those who follow thee superior to those who reject faith, to the Day of Resurrection: Then shall ye all return unto me, and I will judge between you of the matters wherein ye dispute.

Shakir: And when Allah said: O Isa, I am going to terminate the period of your stay (on earth) and cause you to ascend unto Me and purify you of those who disbelieve and make those who follow you above those who disbelieve to the day of resurrection; then to Me shall be your return, so l will decide between you concerning that in which you differed.

Muhammad Sarwar: He told Jesus, "I will save you from your enemies, raise you to Myself, keep you clean from the association with the disbelievers, and give superiority to your followers over the unbelievers until the Day of Judgment. On that day you will all return to Me and I shall resolve your dispute.

Mohsin Khan: And (remember) when Allah said: "O 'Iesa (Jesus)! I will take you and raise you to Myself and clear you [of the forged statement that 'Iesa (Jesus) is Allah's son] of those who disbelieve, and I will make those who follow you (Monotheists, who worship none but Allah) superior to those who disbelieve [in the Oneness of Allah, or disbelieve in some of His Messengers, e.g. Muhammad SAW, 'Iesa (Jesus), Musa (Moses), etc., or in His Holy Books, e.g. the Taurat (Torah), the Injeel (Gospel), the Quran] till the Day of Resurrection. Then you will return to Me and I will judge between you in the matters in which you used to dispute."

Arberry: When God said, 'Jesus, I will take thee to Me and will raise thee to Me and I will purify thee of those who believe not. I will set thy followers above the unbelievers till the Resurrection Day. Then unto Me shall you return, and I will decide between you, as to what you were at variance on.

[ذو الفقار]

No where does it say anything about causing Isa Bin Maryan (as) to die. All the hadiths clearly state Isa Bin Maryam (as) will descend on the shoulders of two angels. What would be your state when Jesus son of Mary (as) will descent to Earth and pray behind the imam from amongst you?

Not a single authentic Marfoo Hadith states that Isa Bin Maryam (as) was raised alive in his body to the Heavens. The Hadith you quoted "what would be your state when Jesus son of Mary will descend to Earth and pray behind the imam from among you?", actually, the wording is: "What will be your state when the Son of Mary will descend among you and your Imam will be from among you?" (Bukhari).

In another version of this Hadith in Sahih Muslim, it says "What will be your state when the son of Mary descends among you and leads you?"

Taking these different versions with slightly different wording together, it becomes clear that the Hadith is in fact only referring to the coming of a single person, namely Jesus, but that his descent is described as the appearance of an Imam from among the Umma itself.

3:55
Sahih International: [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.

Pickthall: (And remember) when Allah said: O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve and am setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me ye will (all) return, and I shall judge between you as to that wherein ye used to differ.

Yusuf Ali: Behold! Allah said: "O Jesus! I will take thee and raise thee to Myself and clear thee (of the falsehoods) of those who blaspheme; I will make those who follow thee superior to those who reject faith, to the Day of Resurrection: Then shall ye all return unto me, and I will judge between you of the matters wherein ye dispute.

Shakir: And when Allah said: O Isa, I am going to terminate the period of your stay (on earth) and cause you to ascend unto Me and purify you of those who disbelieve and make those who follow you above those who disbelieve to the day of resurrection; then to Me shall be your return, so l will decide between you concerning that in which you differed.

Muhammad Sarwar: He told Jesus, "I will save you from your enemies, raise you to Myself, keep you clean from the association with the disbelievers, and give superiority to your followers over the unbelievers until the Day of Judgment. On that day you will all return to Me and I shall resolve your dispute.

Mohsin Khan: And (remember) when Allah said: "O 'Iesa (Jesus)! I will take you and raise you to Myself and clear you [of the forged statement that 'Iesa (Jesus) is Allah's son] of those who disbelieve, and I will make those who follow you (Monotheists, who worship none but Allah) superior to those who disbelieve [in the Oneness of Allah, or disbelieve in some of His Messengers, e.g. Muhammad SAW, 'Iesa (Jesus), Musa (Moses), etc., or in His Holy Books, e.g. the Taurat (Torah), the Injeel (Gospel), the Quran] till the Day of Resurrection. Then you will return to Me and I will judge between you in the matters in which you used to dispute."

Arberry: When God said, 'Jesus, I will take thee to Me and will raise thee to Me and I will purify thee of those who believe not. I will set thy followers above the unbelievers till the Resurrection Day. Then unto Me shall you return, and I will decide between you, as to what you were at variance on.

The first thing you should note is just how disparate all these translations you have quoted of the same Verse are. Some say “I will take you”, another “I am going to terminate the period of your stay on Earth”, and yet another “I will save you from your enemies”. Why do all these translaters vary so much on the simple phrase Innee Mutawaffeekaa? The simple answer is that they have a preconceived idea that Jesus did not die, and therefore are not willing to translate the phrase in the meaning it has according to the ordinary use of the Arabic language – because that meaning is clearly “I shall cause you to die”. Ibn Abbas (R.A) himself stated that Mutawaffeekaa means Mumeetuka.

The meaning of Tawaffaa as ‘death’, especially when God is the Subject (فاعل) and man is the object (مفعول) with Tawaffaa being the verb (فعل), has many examples throughout the Holy Quran. In all those instances these translaters translate it to mean death, but when it comes to Jesus in Sura 3:55 and 5:117, they translate Tawaffaa differently thus proving how inconsistent and biased they are.

For example, take Sura 16: 70:
وَاللَّـهُ خَلَقَكُمْ ثُمَّ يَتَوَفَّاكُمْ
Sahih International: And Allah created you; then He will take you in death
Picktall: And Allah createth you, then causeth you to die
Yusuf Ali: It is Allah who creates you and takes your souls at death
Shakir: And Allah has created you, then He causes you to die
Sarwar: God has created you and He causes you to die.
Mohsin Khan: And Allah has created you and then He will cause you to die
Arberry: God created you; then He will gather you to Him

I have quoted above all the same translations you quoted for 3:55. In all of them, with the single exception of Arberry, they have translated Yatawaffaakum as “will cause you to die”. So why the inconsistency?

[کیش]

I don't want to label anyone. But your posts smells of Ahmadiyya.

4:157-158

Yusuf Ali: That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise;

you're differing therein and full of doubts with no knowledge.

If you don't want to believe in the certainty of Isa bin Maryam (as) physically being in heaven and awaiting the orders to descend to safeguard your Mirza Ahmad i don't care that is your fitna. But don't lie to us and say you are not a Qadiani.

[ذو الفقار]

I don't want to label anyone. But your posts smells of Ahmadiyya.

Are the Ahmadiyya the only ones who believe Jesus wasn't raised alive into Heaven in his earthly body? In fact, the Muslim rejection of this doctrine imported from Christianity predates the Ahmadiyya. Many great scholars of the Sunni tradition have rejected it too.

4:157-158

Yusuf Ali: That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise;

you're differing therein and full of doubts with no knowledge.

Being raised up to Allah means the soul is raised up at the time of death, not the body. The same word Rafa is applied to the spiritual exaltation of Prophet Idris too:

وَرَفَعْنَاهُ مَكَانًا عَلِيًّا

And We raised him (Idris) to a high place (Jannah)
(Sura 19: 57)

A Hadith of the Prophet also explains that the raising up to Heaven is to the soul at the time of death, not the body:

It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (ﷺ) said:
“Angels come to the dying person, and if the man was righteous, they say: ‘Come out, O good soul that was in a good body, come out praiseworthy and receive glad tidings of mercy and fragrance and a Lord Who is not angry.’ And this is repeated until it comes out, then it is taken up to heaven, and it is opened for it, and it is asked: ‘Who is this?’ They say: ‘So-and-so.’ It is said: ‘Welcome to the good soul that was in a good body. Enter praiseworthy and receive the glad tidings of mercy and fragrance and a Lord Who is not angry.’ And this is repeated until it is brought to the heaven above which is Allah
(Sunan Ibn Maja)

If you don't want to believe in the certainty of Isa bin Maryam (as) physically being in heaven and awaiting the orders to descend

The Verse you quoted to prove Isa bin Maryam (as) was physically raised up to Heaven doesn't even mention the word 'Heaven', it says Allah raised him to Himself. So it logically means you must believe that Allah is physically in Heaven, and that a physical body can be raised up to God Who must necessarily be physical too. This is my Ilzami jawab.

[ذو الفقار]

If we look at the New Testament, we see that the Jews at that time had the notion that their contemporary prophets could be identified with the ancient prophets.

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16: 13–14)

Khwaja Ghulam Farid of Chachchran mentions the view of Ibn Arabi that the two Prophets mentioned in the Qur’an, namely, Idris and Elias, were in fact one and the same. Ghulam Farid has cited this as an example of Buruz. In other words, that the Prophet Elias, who historically came much after Prophet Idris, was his Mabruz Fih or Mazhar (‘manifestation’) through whom the latter, being Bariz, was made Zahir (‘manifested’). You can read the original reference with scanned page on my blog here:

رَبَّ جِبْرِيلَ وَمِيكَائِيلَ وَإِسْرَافِيلَ أَعِذْنِي مِنْ حَرِّ النَّارِ وَعَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ: Khwaja Ghulam Farid: Concept of Buruz

[ذو الفقار]

Now coming to the Qur’an al-Karim, I would like to draw the readers’ attention to Allah’s statement that He has sent a Messenger to two different people:

هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا مِن قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ

He is the One [Allah] Who sent in the Ummiyyeen [illiterate Arabs] a Messenger [Muhammad] among them, to recite upon them His [Allah’s] Signs, to purify them, and to teach them the Book and the Wisdom. And they were, before this, manifestly astray.

وَآخَرِينَ مِنْهُمْ لَمَّا يَلْحَقُوا بِهِمْ ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

And [also] among the Aakhareen [others] who have not [yet] met them [Ummiyyin]. And He [Allah] is the Mighty, the Wise.

(Sura 62: 2–3)

The second Verse I have quoted is a continuation of what is being stated in the first, namely, that Allah has sent a Messenger among the Ummiyyeen, and He has sent the same Messenger among the Akhareen.

This is why the second Verse begins with the letter ‘Waw’, and it is an example of al-Waw Aatifa, a prefixed conjunction (a particle which connects two words, phrases, or clauses together).

Hence, the sending of the Messenger is being connected to what is mentioned after the prefixed conjunction, namely, the Akhareen. Allah says that among them this same Messenger [Muhammad] peace be upon him is to be sent.
Furthermore it is stated that the Akhareen are others whom the Ummiyyeen [illiterate Arabs among whom the Prophet was raised] haven’t met. The reason these two groups have not met each other is because they are separated by time.

The exegetes understand ‘Akhareen’ (others) to be a reference to the Ajam (non-Arabs). Now it is obvious that the Prophet (peace be upon him), who passed away some 15 centuries ago, never appeared among such ‘Akhareen’, yet the grammatical structure of this Verse is such that one has to understand that two sendings of the same Messenger are being described, one among the Ummiyyeen and another among the Akhareen.

A clue to solving this apparent paradox of how the same Messenger can be raised up among two different groups of people who have never met each other, due to the separation in time, can be found in the Prophet’s explanation of this Verse in an authentic Hadith:

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، رضى الله عنه قَالَ كُنَّا جُلُوسًا عِنْدَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَأُنْزِلَتْ عَلَيْهِ سُورَةُ الْجُمُعَةِ {وَآخَرِينَ مِنْهُمْ لَمَّا يَلْحَقُوا بِهِمْ} قَالَ قُلْتُ مَنْ هُمْ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ فَلَمْ يُرَاجِعْهُ حَتَّى سَأَلَ ثَلاَثًا، وَفِينَا سَلْمَانُ الْفَارِسِيُّ، وَضَعَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَدَهُ عَلَى سَلْمَانَ ثُمَّ قَالَ " لَوْ كَانَ الإِيمَانُ عِنْدَ الثُّرَيَّا لَنَالَهُ رِجَالٌ ـ أَوْ رَجُلٌ ـ مِنْ هَؤُلاَءِ

Narrated Abu Huraira: While we were sitting with the Prophet (ﷺ) Surat Al-Jumu'a was revealed to him, and when the Verse, "And He (Allah) has sent him (Muhammad) also to other (Muslims).....' (62.3) was recited by the Prophet, I said, "Who are they, O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)?" The Prophet (ﷺ) did not reply till I repeated my question thrice. At that time, Salman Al-Farisi was with us. So Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) put his hand on Salman, saying, "If Faith were at (the place of) Ath-Thuraiya (Pleiades), even then (some men or a man from these people (i.e. Salman's folk) would attain it." (Bukhari Sharif)

Some versions of this Hadith mention that men (plural) will reach it (faith) but others mention a single man. The point is, however, that the Prophet (peace be upon him) by mentioning a single man, was not referring to the Akhareen necessarily, but referring to the sending of Him to be raised among the Akhareen. Although only a single Messenger is mentioned as being raised up among two different groups, the Prophet (peace be upon him) has apparently described his ‘second raising’ among the Akhareen as being fulfilled in the appearance of a man from the people of Salman al-Farisi (R.A), who shall appear at a time when the Earth has empty of Faith and Faith has gone up to be suspended in the Stars.

[salman47]

What will you say next?
Jesus died in Kashmir? He was buried in Kashmir?

[ذو الفقار]

What will you say next?
Jesus died in Kashmir? He was buried in Kashmir?

Then I'd really be a Qadiani right?
Interestingly, the first people to believe that tomb in Srinagar is the tomb of Jesus were Sunni Muslims local to the area.

But I actually doubt that is his tomb.

I'm more inclined to believe his tomb is in Talpiot, Israel, especially after seeing "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" documentary of Simcha Jacobovici.

But like most of the ancient Prophets, we can't be exactly sure where their graves are, nor is it that important. All that is important is to know that Jesus is deceased, wherever his grave is God knows best.

[maneatinglizard]

'I am the Krishna whose advent the Aryans are waiting for in these days. l do not make this claim on my own, but God Almighty has conveyed to me repeatedly that l am Krishna, king of Aryas, who will appear in the latter days.' - Punjabi prophet of Dhul-Fiqar who is the one that claimed that `Isa (alayhi salam) had died so that he could usurp his title of Messiah

[ذو الفقار]

'I am the Krishna whose advent the Aryans are waiting for in these days. l do not make this claim on my own, but God Almighty has conveyed to me repeatedly that l am Krishna, king of Aryas, who will appear in the latter days.' - Punjabi prophet of Dhul-Fiqar who is the one that claimed that `Isa (alayhi salam) had died so that he could usurp his title of Messiah

My Prophet is Muhammad al-Mustafa (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam)