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THE DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST
WE ARE placing this chapter next to the reforms carried out by the Promised Messiah as this reform, which was of no consequence before, had assumed vital importance when the Christian rulers and proselytizers set all out to convert the Muslim subjects to their own religion. It has already been shown in an earlier chapter how the common Muslim belief that Jesus Christ was sitting with his physical body in heaven, to be reposted to the earth to save Islam and the Muslims when they would be in dire religious distress, was being exploited to show that he was superhuman (divine) and superior to the Holy Prophet of Islam. And the Muslims had no answer to it when the Holy Qur'an was quoted to show that no human being, not even a prophet, could go to heaven with his physical body (17:93) or stay there without food or abide (21:8) as the Muslims believed. And as Jesus was to be the ultimate saviour of the Muslims too, why not accept him as such as the Christians do?
So Hazrat Mirza Sahib's life-long campaign to prove that Jesus Christ had died and that his second advent was to be 'as an Imam from among the Muslims' (Bukhari and Muslim) was to deflate and crush completely the Christian 'blitz' on Islam and the Muslims. And Hazrat Mirza Sahib's own appointment by Allah to be the Promised Messiah was opportune, as:
(a) All the circumstances in which the advent of the Promised Messiah was prophesied had come about.
(b) If the Promised Messiah had not appeared in the person of Hazrat Mirza Sahib, the doubters (surprisingly, the Muslims themselves) and the Christian critics, could have said, 'We will see when the Promised Messiah comes whether he is the original Jesus or someone else.'
(c) Hazrat Mirza Sahib fulfilled all the high qualities prophesied for the Promised Messiah. And he did successfully perform the enormous tasks prophesied for him.
(d) Since the Age prophesied for Islam going to the Christian West had dawned, as a result of Islam's victory over Christianity at the hands of the Promised Messiah (Holy Qur'an 61 :8-9), the prevalent image of Islam had to be rid of the wrong, later introduced ideas favourable to Christianity and damaging to Islam.
All this, so favourable to Islam and the Muslims, was naturally repugnant to the Christian proselytizers. What is surprising is that the Muslim Ulema, barring those who joined him, and the Muslim masses who were ignorant of the truth and had blind faith in the Ulema and Pirs (hereditary religious leaders), all turned hostile to Hazrat Mirza Sahib. Although some of the more enlightened Ulema have now accepted the death of Jesus Christ, as will be shown later, the vast majority of the Ulema and Pirs still believe Jesus Christ to be alive in heaven with his physical body, to come again to the earth to save Islam and the Muslims. Apart from its disastrous consequences, shown above, if Jesus Christ is alive and due to come himself again, then Hazrat Mirza Sahib's claim to be the Promised Messiah is untenable. That is why we had promised a detailed discussion of the fact of Jesus Christ's death.
What is not apparent to the layman's eyes was clear to those knowledgeable of the implications of the controversy. The Promised Messiah, on his death-bed, said:
'Let Jesus Christ die. Therein lies the death of Christianity.'
How correct he was! For, read what the Christians themselves think of the ascension of Jesus, alive and with his physical body, to heaven. St. Paul, founder of the present-day Christianity, said:
'If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching meaningless, and your faith meaningless. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not É and if Christ be not raised your faith is in vain' (I. Corinthians 15: 14- 17) .
In modern times, Sir Norman Anderson O.B.E., former Professor of Oriental Law and Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London, has said in 1977 in his booklet The Evidence for the Resurrection:
'If Christ be not risen then the whole of Christianity is a fraud, foisted on the world by a company of consummate liars or at best deluded simpletons' (p. 1).
So we are not wasting the reader's time in proving the death of Jesus Christ and his burial on this earth. We shall, insha-Allah, prove that Jesus had not died on the cross from the Bible itself and from Christian evidence recently come to light, and that he died in the course of time and lies buried in Kashmir from the Christian authors as well as Muslims. But before that, for us Muslims, the evidence of the Holy Qur'an and of the Holy Prophet of Islam is of greater importance. So we will take it up first.
The Holy Qur'an
To the Muslims, to whom this book is primarily addressed, Jesus Christ was a man, although a very venerable prophet of Allah (that modern Christian scholarship has also come to the conclusion that Jesus was no more than the son of man that he claimed to be, although he was spiritually a great man, we shall show in the next chapter). That all men and all prophets are destined to live and die in this world is clear from the following verses, among many, of the Holy Qur'an:
'Therein (i.e., the earth) shall you live, and therein you shall die, and therefrom shall you be raised' (7:25).
'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).
'And we granted abiding forever (khuld) to no mortal before you (O Muhammad). If you die, will they abide?' (21:34).
'They (the prophets) did not abide forever' (21:8).
The Arabic word which we have translated as 'abiding forever' is thulud, which means 'to be immune from decay and to endure in an unchanging condition,' or, 'to persist in one condition' not being subject to change, (Raghib, pp. 153-154).
Physical Life Depends On Food
To continue with the Holy Qur'an:
'We did not send before you (Muhammad) any messengers but they surely ate food' (25:20).
'We did not give them (i.e., the prophets) bodies not eating food' (21:8).
'They (Jesus and Mary) both used to eat food' (5:7).
So that Jesus could not live in heaven, for nearly two thousand years by now, without physical food, which the Muslims, including the Ulema, who believe him to be physically alive, admit he is doing without. They also believe that he abides unchanged, which is disproved not only by the verses already quoted under the previous heading, but also by the following verses:
'And whomsoever We cause to live long, We reduce to an abject state in creation. Do they not understand?' (36:68).
'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).
Et cetera.
All Prophets Died
'The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a messenger; and messengers before him had indeed passed away' (5:75).
'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 explains the first one, both being similarly worded, that 'passing away' (qad khalat) means dying, as indeed it does even otherwise. The Holy Qur'an uses the expression 'pass away' in the sense of dying very frequently (e.g., 2:134, 13:30, 46:18, 33:38).
There is an interesting anecdote about the second verse. It was revealed after the Battle of Uhud, during which a false report spread that the Holy Prophet had been killed by the enemy. Some Muslims gave up the fighting because of this false report. They are reprimanded in this verse. But it was put to good use by Hazrat Abu Bakr when the Holy Prophet did actually pass away. The Muslims just couldn't believe that he had left them. And as the hypocrites of Madina used to spread false reports about his death to dishearten the Muslims, Hazrat Umar drew out his sword (and stood in the Holy Prophet's Mosque outside his humble living quarters) announcing that he would cut off the head of anybody who said that the Prophet was dead. At this stage, Hazrat Abu Bakr arrived. He went into the hut of his daughter Hazrat Ayesha, where the Holy Prophet had been lying ill. Having ascertained that he had indeed passed away, Hazrat Abu Bakr came out, ascended the pulpit, and addressed the Muslims who had assembled in large numbers by then. He recited the verse:
'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).
And Hazrat Abu Bakr went on to announce:
'He who used to worship Muhammad, let him know that he is indeed dead. But he who worships Allah, then let him know that Allah is Ever-Living, Ever-Subsisting; He never dies.'
All the Companions of the Holy Prophet who were present hanged their heads in submission to the Divine verse quoted by Hazrat Abu Bakr, and to the telling words he had added, and cried in sorrow and grief at their great loss.
This was the first occasion of Ijma, (consensus) of the Companions of the Holy Prophet, which carries weight next only to the Holy Qur'an and the Holy Prophet himself. Had any of the Companions believed that Jesus Christ, a prophet, was then alive, they had the courage to get up and point out. But not one of them did. If this clear verse of the Holy Qur'an and the consensus do not carry conviction to any Muslim, what else can?
All False Gods are Dead
In almost all religions the main prophet was raised to godhead. Christianity is the worst offender, not only because the godhead of Jesus is one of its main planks, but also because of the largest number of its followers, and the missionary zeal with which its missionaries are spreading the wrong notion. We have so far discussed the death of Jesus as a human being and as a prophet. Let us now consider what the Holy Qur'an says about false gods being dead (they could not be the stone idols, in which case there is no question of their dying):
'And those whom they call on besides Allah created nothing, while they were themselves created. Dead are they, not living. And they know not when they will be raised' (16:20-21).
Jesus is more called on (besides Allah) than any other being falsely taken for a god. According to the above verse he is very much dead.
Finality of Prophethood
Much is heard these days about the finality of prophethood in the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) as declared in verse 33:40 of the Holy Qur'an, already quoted and discussed. We whole-heartedly believe in it. But what about those who believe that Jesus Christ is alive and will come again himself to save Islam and the Muslims in their hour of religious peril? That would not only violate violently the finality of prophethood in our Holy Prophet, but prove Jesus to be more successful than our Holy Prophet, whose prophethood would not be able to save us -Allah forgive us for saying so.
A curious theory is now propounded in reply to our telling argument above. They say that Jesus would be demoted from prophethood when he comes back! There is no authority for this in the Holy Qur'an, the Hadith or any previous religious book in the history of Islam. Who has ever heard of the demotion of a prophet? And what an insult to him! And what is so special and irreplaceable about Jesus Christ that he alone of all the prophets (including our Holy Prophet) should be kept alive and in reserve to save Islam and the Muslims when they are in dire peril? According to the Christian reports themselves, he was the least successful of all prophets for he could make only twelve converts (the Disciples), one of whom betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver, another of whom repudiated him and cursed him thrice to save himself (and this was Peter, the chief Disciple), while the rest fled in fear when Jesus was crucified, his alleged death by crucifixion being in itself a proof of his failure. On the other hand, our Holy Prophet has been declared even by the Encyclopaedia Britannica (article 'Koran') to be the most successful of all reformers. Hazrat Mirza Sahib was justified in wailing in a Persian couplet:
'They (the Ulema) consider Jesus Christ to be alive till Doomsday (by which he is to reappear)'
'But they do not give this excellence to the Holy Prophet buried in Madina.'
Specific Mention of Jesus' Death
Apart from the general Divine laws mentioned above about the inevitable death in this very world of all men and all prophets, the death of Jesus has been specifically mentioned in the Holy Qur'an. When he apprehended the Jewish resolve to make him die on the cross, so that he might become the accursed of God as laid down in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 21:23), and he cried the whole night praying to be saved from such an accursed death, his prayer was accepted, as we will show later by quoting the Bible. The same acceptance is mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, which denies the Jewish charge that they had killed him or crucified him to death (4:157) and mentions the Divine assurance given to him that he would die a natural death:
'When Allah said, O Jesus, I shall cause thee to die and exalt thee in My presence É' (3:54).
Here, exaltation in Allah's presence is the counter-assurance that, far from becoming the accursed of God, he will be exalted in His presence.
When Hazrat Mirza Sahib quoted the above verse among many others to prove the death of Jesus, the Maulvis gave a curious interpretation of the word tawaffa (translated by us as 'causing to die a natural death'), that it meant 'taking as a whole,' and then the verse in question meant, according to them, that he was picked up by Allah whole (body and soul) and raised to His presence. Hazrat Mirza Sahib quashed the above fallacious interpretation by saying:
(a) That the word tawaffa, when used for Allah's dealing with a mortal's end, means nothing but taking away the soul and causing him to die, but never taking away the body too. And he challenged his opponents to prove the contrary from the language of the Holy Qur'an, the Hadith, or even from the prose or poetry of ancient or modern Arabic, promising a reward of Rs. 1000, which was in those days a very large sum, 'even though I may have to sell a portion of my property' to find the sum (book Izala-e-Auham).
But nobody came forward to accept the challenge.
(b) That the Holy Qur'an uses the word in other places to mean nothing but taking away the soul and causing to die a natural death (e.g., 4:97, 8:50, 10:46, 13:40, 32:11, 40:77, 12:101).
(c) That Arabic lexicons use the word in the same sense (e.g., Taj al-'Urus, Al-Qamus, Asas al-Balaghah, etc.).
(d) That Bukhari quotes Hazrat Ibn Abbas, the leading commentator of the Holy Qur'an of early times, that the verse in question means 'causing to die.'
Hazrat Imam Malik also believed that Jesus was dead (Majma' al-Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 1, p. 286). Imam Ibn Hazm too believed in the death of Jesus (Jalalain ma'a Kamalain, p. 109). And so on.
In modern times, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan pronounced that Jesus Christ was not alive but dead.
Curiously enough, even the Christian translators of the above verse translated it to mean that he died a natural death. This was against their own faith. But they could not go against the dictates of the Arabic language. They have translated the verse in question as follows:
George Sale: 'O Jesus, verily I will cause thee to die.'
Rodwell: 'O Jesus, verily I will cause thee to die.'
Palmer: 'O Jesus, I will make thee die.'
And although the Ulema continued to oppose the only interpretation possible, which Hazrat Mirza Sahib put on it, better sense is now beginning to prevail. Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, in his commentary on the Holy Qur'an called Tafhim-ul-Qur'an, has half-heartedly conceded under the verse in question (4:57) that it does not make it clear that Jesus Christ rose to heaven with his earthly body.
Another Muslim commentator on the Holy Qur'an, Muhammad Asad, in The Message of the Qur'an, in his footnote 17 under the verse 4:57, rejects the theory of the bodily ascension of Jesus.
In the world-famous Al-Azhar University of Cairo (Egypt), the Senior Professor Shaikh Mahmud Shaltut, who later became the Rector of the University, gave the following fatwa (ruling) on a reference made on the question of the death of Jesus Christ to the Senate of the University. After a learned and comprehensive discussion, the learned authority concluded:
'To sum up, there is nothing in the Holy Qur'an, nor in the sacred traditions of the Holy Prophet, which endorses the belief, to the satisfaction of one's heart, that Jesus was taken up to heaven with his physical body and is alive there even now, and would descend therefrom in the latter days' (Al-Risalah of Cairo, Vol. 10, No. 462, p. 515).
In a recent issue of The Muslim World League Journal (October 1981), monthly organ of the Rabita al-Islami (published from Makka, Saudi Arabia), near the close of an article entitled 'Jesus in the Scriptures as Seen by Muslims,' the author, Shaikh Zakariya Idrees Oseni of Nigeria, writes:
'Whatever be the case, the Islamic belief is that Jesus died a natural death after God had saved him from crucifixion. The stories of his ascension after he had been saved from crucifixion, which we find in some Arabic books, are obviously taken from Christian sources and should not be taken very seriously by Muslims with discerning minds.'
Could there be a clearer vindication of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Sahib?
Jesus Died Before Christians Went Astray
Jesus, statement before Allah that his people made him a god after his death is thus recorded in the Holy Qur'an:
'And Allah said, O Jesus, did you say to men, Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah? He replied, Glory be to Thee! It was not for me to say what I had no right to say É I said to them naught save as Thou didst command me: Serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord: and I was a witness of them so long as I was amongst 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).
Could there be clearer testimony of the Holy Qur'an than this, that Jesus had died before the Christians deified him?
Jesus' Escape to Kashmir and Death
And now for the Holy Qur'an's coup de grace to the false notion that Jesus died on, or ascended to heaven from, the cross. That he was taken down from the cross, looking as if dead, but had not actually died, is clear from the Holy Qur'an (2:73), and from the Bible, and recent Christian evidence to be mentioned later. The Bible actually describes how he was revived and how he met his disciples secretly and ultimately left them to go away. Where? The Holy Qur'an tells us where:
'And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (of how We help the believers), and We gave them refuge on a plateau having fruits and springs' (23:50).
Nobody knew what and where that place was until it was revealed to Hazrat Mirza Sahib that it was Kashmir where he lies buried, in its capital city Srinagar, in the mohalla (ward) called Shan Yar, under the name of Yuz Asaf. The revelation was timely, to drive the last nail in the coffin of Jesus Christ. Hazrat Mirza Sahib sent a delegation to Kashmir to collect evidence about this startling revelation. He himself had never been to Kashmir. After the delegation returned and reported, he wrote a book Maseeh Hindustan Mein ('The Messiah in India'). That was the first book on the subject. Then Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, Bar-at-Law, wrote a masterly book on the subject called Jesus in Heaven on Earth (the Valley of Kashmir was described by the Mughal conqueror Babar as 'Paradise on earth,' and since then the title has stuck). Not even one iota of the evidence produced by the learned author has been contradicted by any Christian author. On the other hand, a book Jesus Died in Kashmir has been written by Mr. A. Faber-Kaiser, who, after a visit to Kashmir and ascertaining all the evidence on the subject, confirmed that the revelations made by Hazrat Mirza Sahib were true. There have also been articles in German magazines from a journalist who visited Kashmir and found corroborative evidence that Jesus lived and died in Kashmir.
As is well known to the students of the Bible, Jesus always spoke of having come to search for the 'lost sheep of Israel.' These were the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, who had migrated eastwards from Palestine, and with whom all contact was lost in the ancient days of lack of communications. Recent independent research has shown that they settled in the region now comprising Afghanistan, the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, and in Kashmir. And so, after being rejected by the two tribes of Israel settled in Palestine, it was but natural for Jesus to complete his prophetic mission to go in search of the lost tribes of Israel whom he found in the region mentioned above, and to whom he preached with much greater success. Anybody who knows Kashmir would agree that it is 'the plateau with fruits and springs' as described in the Holy Qur'an (23:50).
Evidence of The Hadith
Although the Hadith speaks of the second coming of Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus), it makes it equally clear that 'he will be an Imam from amongst yourselves (the Muslims),' as already stated earlier. We will now quote some of the Hadith to show that the original Jesus Christ died long ago:
'Had Moses and Jesus been alive,' said the Holy Prophet Muhammad, 'they would have had to follow (obey) me' (Al-Yawaqit wal-Jawahir, p. 240; Fath al-Bayan, Vol. 2, p. 2).
'Had Jesus been alive, he would have had to follow me (Sharh Fiqh Akbar, Egyptian edition, p. 99).
'Gabriel told me that Jesus lived for a hundred and twenty years' (Huyaj al-Kiramah, p. 428; Kanz al-Ummal, Vol. 6, p. 160) .
Discussing their faith about the divinity of Jesus, the Holy Prophet told the Christian delegation from Najran:
'Do you not know that our Lord lives for ever, while Jesus died?, (Asbab an-Nuzul, by Imam Ali Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahid of Neshapur, published in Egypt, p. 53).
In his last illness, during which he died, the Holy Prophet entered the mosque from his adjoining hut, leaning heavily on two men, and addressed the gathering as follows:
'O people! I hear that you fear the death of your Prophet. Did any prophet before me live on that I should be expected to live on amongst you É?' (Al-Nawar min al-Muwahibil-Dinnya, Egyptian edition, p. 317).
In the Mi'raj (Ascension), the Holy Prophet saw all the dead prophets, including Jesus in the third heaven along with Yahya (John the Baptist) (Kanz al-Ummal, Vol. 6, p. 120).
The Holy Prophet further described Jesus Christ thus:
'I saw Jesus, Moses and Abraham. Jesus had a reddish complexion, curly hair and a wide chest' (Bukhari, Kitab al-Anbiya, Chapter 4).
On another occasion, the Holy Prophet saw a long dream in which he saw the Dajjal (Anti-Christ), and also saw 'a man of wheatish complexion with straight hair. I asked who it was. They said, This is Messiah, son of Mary' (Bukhari, Kitab al-Fitn, Chapter 27). So the Messiah seen with the Dajjal was undoubtedly the Promised Messiah. The two Messiahs looked to be, and were, different persons, although because of the close spiritual affinity they were referred to by the same name. That way, the Holy Prophet compared his most important companions to Abraham, Moses and Haroon (Aaron) because of their close spiritual affinity with them. But that did not make them the same persons.
Evidence of The Bible
This has been well summarized by Maulana Muhammad Ali under verse 4:157 of the Holy Qur'an, which says:
'And for their (the Jews,) saying, We have killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, and they killed him not, nor did they cause his death on the cross, but he was made to appear to them as such.'
Footnote No. 645 says:
'The following points may be noted:
(1) Jesus remained on the cross for a few hours only (Mark 15:25, John 19:14) but death by crucifixion was always tardy.
(2) The two men crucified with Jesus were still alive when taken down from the cross; the presumption is that Jesus too was alive.
(3) The breaking of the legs was resorted to in the case of the two criminals (to finish them off) but was dispensed with in the case of Jesus (John 19:32-33).
(4) The side of Jesus being pierced, blood rushed out and this was a certain sign of life.
(5) Even Pilate did not believe that Jesus actually died in so short a time (Mark 15:44).
(6) Jesus was not buried like the two criminals, but was given into the charge of a wealthy disciple of his who lavished care on him and put him in a spacious tomb hewn on the side of a rock (Mark 15:46).
(7) When the tomb was seen on the third day, the stone was found to have been removed from its mouth, which would not have been the case if there had been a supernatural rising (as later believed by the Christians).
(8) Mary (Magdalene) when she saw him (Jesus) took him for the gardener (John 20:15) which shows that Jesus had disguised himself as such.
(9) Such disguise would not have been needed if Jesus had risen from the dead (as believed by the Christians).
(10) It was in the same body of flesh that the disciples saw him, and the wounds were still there deep enough for a man to thrust his hand in (John 20:25-28).
(11) He still felt hunger and ate as his disciples ate (Luke 24:39-43).
(12) Jesus undertook a journey to Galilee with two of his disciples walking side by side with him (Matthew 5:10) which shows that he was fleeing for refuge; a journey to Galilee was not necessary to rise to heaven (as believed by the Christians).
(13) In all post-crucifixion appearances, Jesus is found hiding himself as if he feared being discovered.
(14) Jesus Christ prayed the whole night before his arrest to be saved from the accursed death on the cross, and he also asked his disciples to pray for him; the prayers of a righteous man in distress and affliction are always accepted. He seems to have even received a promise from God to be saved, and it was to this promise that he referred when he cried out on the cross: 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' Heb. 5:7 makes the matter still more clear, for there it is plainly stated that the prayer of Jesus was accepted; 'When he had offered up prayers and supplications unto Him Who was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.'
To the above excellent summarization of the evidence of the Bible may be added two more points:
(15) After being taken to the so-called tomb (which the author saw during his visit to Jerusalem in 1966, and is actually quite a reasonably-sized underground room, with a hole on top for entrance which was closed with a removable rock as stated in the Bible), Jesus was treated for his wounds with healing powders and ointment, and his wounds were given a dressing (John 20:39; Luke 24:56). This is not the way to dispose of a dead body. Rev. Professor J. R. Dummelow in his Commentary on the Holy Bible writes on page 908:
'The myrrh and aloe were reduced to powder, and inserted between the bandages which were wound fold upon fold É The neck and face of the body were doubtless left bare'- obviously to let Jesus breathe.
Dean Farrar in his Life of Christ writes on page 429:
'They rolled the fine linen round the wounded limbs.'
Both these Christian authors believed that Jesus was being treated for his wounds-done only to a man still alive. David Friedrich Strauss, a German theologian of high standing, writes in his book A New Life of Jesus (Vol. 1, p. 410):
'Crucifixion, they maintain, even if the feet as well as the hands are supposed to have been nailed, occasions but very little loss of blood É So if Jesus, supposed indeed to be dead, had been taken down from the cross after about six hours, there is every probability of his supposed death having been only a death-like swoon from which, after the descent from the cross, Jesus recovered again in the cool cavern, covered as he was with healing ointments and strongly-scented spices.'
Dean Farrar in his Life of Christ (p. 421) also thinks that Jesus might only have been 'in a syncope,' which is partial or complete unconsciousness. Two other Christian writers, Das Heiligthum and Die Wahrheit, in their book Supernatural Religion, write:
'Thus the apparent death (of Jesus) was that profound faintness which might well fall upon an organism after some hours of physical and mental agony on the Cross, following the continuous strain and fatigue of the previous night.'
(16) The latest and the most startling piece of Christian evidence that Jesus did not 'give up the ghost' on the cross, as stated in the Bible, is the revelation that the 'Holy Shroud of Turin' is the winding-sheet in which the body of Jesus was wrapped after he was taken down from the cross. It was found in the sepulchre (John 20:5) after Jesus had left it in a gardener's garb. After passing through many reverent hands, it is now enshrined in Turin (Italy). The Pope has confirmed its authenticity. It bears the impressions of Jesus' body, and the marks of his blood and the ointment which was applied to his wounds. In 1931, a team of German scientists got this windingsheet from the Italian Government and instituted an intensive research on it for eight years. The result of their report which they submitted to Pope Pius IX somehow found its way to the Scandinavian paper Stockholm Tidingen, which published it on April 2, 1957. In that report the German scientists said in clear and unambiguous terms that Jesus, heart had not stopped functioning when he lay in that shroud, i.e., he was alive.
That the Vatican suppressed the report is understandable, for if Jesus was taken down from the cross and was revived, then the bottom falls out of the Pauline, now Christian, creed. But Dr. Kurt Berna of Germany made a hue and cry about the evidence provided by this shroud and wrote a book in German, Jesus Did Not Die on the Cross. Since then the discovery has been the subject of further curiosity and examination. The last report which the author saw was in the Daily Telegraph (London) dated November 20, 1979. According to this, an international scientific team investigated the authenticity of the shroud. The team's leader D'Muhala, who is president of a nuclear technology firm in America, said:
'We all thought that we would find it is a forgery and would be packing our bags in a half-hour. Instead all of us who were there are convinced that the burden of proof is now on the skeptic.'
All evidence collected so far indicated that the shroud was genuine, says the newspaper report, based on an interview with the scientific team's leader.
Resurrection and Ascension
If Jesus did not die on the cross, and did not burn in hell for three days (which is the biggest insult to Christ whether he was God or a prophet), and if he was revived by the application of ointments and powders, and if he walked about for forty days in his physical body carrying the wounds and scars of his crucifixion, as shown conclusively above from the evidence of the Bible itself and other Christian authors, then the theory of resurrection after death is quashed.
The same can be said of the theory of Ascension. The Christians believe it to be with his physical body, whose existence after the crucifixion they cannot deny. It is doubtful if any intelligent man in this age of science can apply his mind and thereafter accept the bodily Ascension. If it had really taken place, it would have been the biggest event in Jesus' life. And yet two of the four Gospels don't mention it at all. The other two lukewarm references (Mark 16:19 and Luke 24:51) have been found to be later interpolations by such biblical authorities as Rev. Professor J.R. Dummelow (who wrote his Commentary on the Holy Bible with the assistance of forty-two Biblical scholars) and by Peake, another scholar of renown, in his Commentary on the Bible.
No wonder that the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, published in 1957, has omitted these words, and the verse reads:
'Then he (Jesus) led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them.'
This is very correct. But the question is where did he go and what happened to him thereafter? These questions are already answered above, and even the open-hearted Christians (Faber-Kaiser: Jesus Died in Kashmir) now believe what Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Sahib wrote on the basis of Divine revelation nearly one hundred years ago, and which is now proved by historical and documentary evidence (collected in Khwaja Nazir Ahmad's Jesus in Heaven on Earth), that Jesus Christ eventually went to minister to 'the lost sheep of Israel' (the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel) and died at the ripe old age of 120 years (as stated by our Holy Prophet and quoted earlier in this chapter). The author has had the honour and privilege of visiting his tomb (known as that of Yuz Asaf, the Prophet) in Mohalla Khan Yar, Srinagar. As I approached it eagerly, with no other thought than that of seeing this historical grave, something struck my heart as I reached within a few yards of the small tomb, and I felt overawed. For the first time, I realized that I was approaching the last resting-place of one of the greatest prophets of Allah, who is revered both in Christendom and the World of Islam.
The Promised Messiah
We return to our brother Muslims. If Jesus Christ is dead, and his second advent is to be in the person of 'an Imam from among the Muslims,' (the Holy Prophet as quoted in Bukhari and Muslim), and as all the indications given by the Holy Qur'an and the Holy Prophet (already discussed) about the time and person of the Promised Messiah were fulfilled in the last 100-150 years, and as even the Muslim Ulema were expecting the Imam Mahdi (who was to be no other than the Promised Messiah) in the fourteenth century Hijra, which is now closed, and as no person other than Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Sahib claimed and proved (as already discussed) that he was indeed the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi, is it not time that they gave up opposing and ridiculing him? Is it not obligatory, on the other hand, that they join him (as required by the Holy Qur'an and the Holy Prophet, as already discussed in the earlier chapters) to carry the flag of Islam to victory throughout the world? It is a very grave question to which they must find an answer in their hearts or by resort to prayer to Allah: 'Guide us to, and on, the straight path.' Ameen.
AHMADIYYAT IN THE SERVICE OF ISLAM by N.A. Faruqui Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at Islam, Lahore, Inc. 36911 Walnut Street, Newark California 94560 USA Copyright© by Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at Islam Lahore, Inc. 1983. First published in 1983 by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at Islam Lahore, Inc. (USA) 36911 Walnut Street Newark, California 94560 USA Library of Congress catalog car number: 83-71698 ISBN 0-913321-00-1 All rights reserved. Cover Design: Details of Wall Mosaics in the Mosque of El Bordeyhy (17th century) From Dover Pictorial Archive Series Arabic Art in Color (Dover 1978). Typeset by Linguatype Limited, Slough, Berks, England.
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