Return of Masih ibn Maryam
Question:
Assalam o Alikum,
Sir i am very convinced about this approach of Quran and established sunnah and the importance of consensus from generation to generation.
I have some confusion though, Muslims of all sects have been consensus on arrival of Masih over 1400 years ago. All earliest great scholars, tafseer and corpus of ahadith is evident of this consensus.
On what basis we can reject this prediction? If we say no indication is given in Quran and that hadith can not add anything to the corpus of Islam, so does this mean that this consensus is meaning less? How? Why?
Allah hafiz
Answer:
Assalamu Alayum,
On the issue of consensus:
There is a delicate point here to appreciate:
The consensus of Muslims per se is not the criteria for understanding Islam unless the root of the consensus itself is reliable. We are aware of only two reliable roots that generated consensus of Muslims. These are:
I. The Qur’an, that is reliable because according to us, Muslims, it is the world of God
II. The Established Sunnah, that is reliable, because it was promoted and instituted by the prophet (pbuh) himself.
From the above sources the first (Qur’an) is devoid of any news about coming of Jesus (pbuh) and the latter (Established Sunnah) is irrelevant to these subjects because Sunnah is all about practices not beliefs or knowledge of future.
The consensus that you are referring to is not rooted in any divine sources. The consensus that you are referring to (which itself needs to be verified) is based on individually narrated (Ahad) hadiths and is therefore not the criteria for understanding the concepts you referred to.
**********
Allow me to illustrate this with a simple example:
A teacher gives lectures for the class and they take notes. The class then passes these notes to the next cohort of students who are taking the class by distance learning method, i.e. without direct communication with the teacher. This cohort of students too passes the notes to the next cohort.
Here we have consensus that is rooted in a reliable source, that is the lectures given by no one but the teacher himself.
Now imagine this scenario:
From a class of 100 students who saw the teacher, there are reports that 2 of them heard the teacher, in his way back home, telling them that exam will take 90 minutes. Apparently these two students have passed that news to the next cohort of (distance learning) students who then passed it to the next.
Here the consensus of the last two cohorts is in place. However this consensus is not rooted in a reliable source. Apart from this, we would expect to see such important information in the most reliable source of the class, that is, the notes from the teacher's lectures!
**********
Return of Jesus (Pbuh):
The main problem of the hadiths on return of Jesus (pbuh) is that they are suggesting something that not only has no basis in the Qur’an but is in fact out of line, if not against, clear verses of the Qur’an.
We of course do not expect the Qur’an to give us all the news of future however it is strange that when the Qur’an refers to Jesus (pbuh) it remains completely silence about his return and in fact gives information that is contrary to the idea of his return. God forbidden, it is as if the Qur’an was not aware of the fact that Jesus (pbuh) will return!
Allow me to illustrate this with two verses of the Qur’an:
A. In verse 5:117 Jesus (pbuh) is reported to be answering God in the hereafter when God asks him whether he ordered people to worship him and his mother. In response Jesus (pbuh) will say:
مَا قُلْتُ لهَمْ إِلَّا مَا أَمَرْتَنىِ بِهِ أَنِ اعْبُدُواْ اللَّهَ رَبىِّ وَ رَبَّكُمْ وَ كُنتُ عَلَيهْمْ شهَيدًا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنىِ كُنتَ أَنتَ الرَّقِيبَ عَلَيهْمْ وَ أَنتَ عَلىَ كلُِّ شىَْءٍ شهَيد
I did not tell them anything except what You commanded me to tell them. I told them that they must worship God who is everyone's Lord.
I was witness to them as long as I was among them.
So when you caused me death You Yourself was watching over them and You are witness to everything (5:117)
I intentionally translated the above in three separate sections to make my point. After the first section, Jesus (pbuh) is counting the periods of times that his followers were living. He is clearly dividing this period of time into two:
1. When he was among them before the incident of crucifixion
2. When he was not among them after the incident of crucifixion
If it was the fact that Jesus (pbuh) would return then we needed to have a third period added to the above two periods relating to the time when Jesus (pbuh) is again on the face of Earth.
B. In the sura of Ali Imran the last moments of Jesus (pbuh) on the Earth ae described. The following verse reports what God said to Jesus (pbuh) when He wanted to save him from crucifixion:
... إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَاعِيسىَ إِنىِّ مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَ رَافِعُكَ إِلىََّ وَ مُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَ جَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ إِلىَ يَوْمِ الْقِيَمَة
When God said: O Jesus I will give death to you and raise you to Myself and cleanse you from those who have rejected (your message). I shall make those who follow you superior to those who reject (your message) till the Day of Judgement … . (3:55)
Two points to consider in the above verse:
1. The word used is Mutawaffik. This word is normally interpreted by commentators as ‘ending the period’, ‘saving’. This interpretation however is only due to the presumption that Jesus (pbuh) will return and therefore he must be alive. If this presumption is not loaded to the mind of the interpreter then anyone with a basic knowledge of the classical Arabic will translate the word as “caused you death”.
2. The verse informs what will happen to the followers of Jesus (pbuh). This would have been a perfect place to also add the information that Jesus (pbuh) will return in future. As it is evident there is no indication of this in the verse.
So the question that needs to be answered about the issue of return of Jesus (pbuh) is that why not only the Qur’an is silent about it but the Book appears to be giving us information that goes against the idea.
Of course there is nothing wrong if a Muslim genuinely considers some of the hadiths about the return of Jesus (pbuh) to be authentic and does not find any of the above observations and questions of any relevance. However since this information is not given to us by the Qur’an therefore, as Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) says, we cannot say that believe in return of Jesus (pbuh) is a part of the Islamic beliefs.
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December 2013
Assalam o Alikum,
Sir i am very convinced about this approach of Quran and established sunnah and the importance of consensus from generation to generation.
I have some confusion though, Muslims of all sects have been consensus on arrival of Masih over 1400 years ago. All earliest great scholars, tafseer and corpus of ahadith is evident of this consensus.
On what basis we can reject this prediction? If we say no indication is given in Quran and that hadith can not add anything to the corpus of Islam, so does this mean that this consensus is meaning less? How? Why?
Allah hafiz
Answer:
Assalamu Alayum,
On the issue of consensus:
There is a delicate point here to appreciate:
The consensus of Muslims per se is not the criteria for understanding Islam unless the root of the consensus itself is reliable. We are aware of only two reliable roots that generated consensus of Muslims. These are:
I. The Qur’an, that is reliable because according to us, Muslims, it is the world of God
II. The Established Sunnah, that is reliable, because it was promoted and instituted by the prophet (pbuh) himself.
From the above sources the first (Qur’an) is devoid of any news about coming of Jesus (pbuh) and the latter (Established Sunnah) is irrelevant to these subjects because Sunnah is all about practices not beliefs or knowledge of future.
The consensus that you are referring to is not rooted in any divine sources. The consensus that you are referring to (which itself needs to be verified) is based on individually narrated (Ahad) hadiths and is therefore not the criteria for understanding the concepts you referred to.
**********
Allow me to illustrate this with a simple example:
A teacher gives lectures for the class and they take notes. The class then passes these notes to the next cohort of students who are taking the class by distance learning method, i.e. without direct communication with the teacher. This cohort of students too passes the notes to the next cohort.
Here we have consensus that is rooted in a reliable source, that is the lectures given by no one but the teacher himself.
Now imagine this scenario:
From a class of 100 students who saw the teacher, there are reports that 2 of them heard the teacher, in his way back home, telling them that exam will take 90 minutes. Apparently these two students have passed that news to the next cohort of (distance learning) students who then passed it to the next.
Here the consensus of the last two cohorts is in place. However this consensus is not rooted in a reliable source. Apart from this, we would expect to see such important information in the most reliable source of the class, that is, the notes from the teacher's lectures!
**********
Return of Jesus (Pbuh):
The main problem of the hadiths on return of Jesus (pbuh) is that they are suggesting something that not only has no basis in the Qur’an but is in fact out of line, if not against, clear verses of the Qur’an.
We of course do not expect the Qur’an to give us all the news of future however it is strange that when the Qur’an refers to Jesus (pbuh) it remains completely silence about his return and in fact gives information that is contrary to the idea of his return. God forbidden, it is as if the Qur’an was not aware of the fact that Jesus (pbuh) will return!
Allow me to illustrate this with two verses of the Qur’an:
A. In verse 5:117 Jesus (pbuh) is reported to be answering God in the hereafter when God asks him whether he ordered people to worship him and his mother. In response Jesus (pbuh) will say:
مَا قُلْتُ لهَمْ إِلَّا مَا أَمَرْتَنىِ بِهِ أَنِ اعْبُدُواْ اللَّهَ رَبىِّ وَ رَبَّكُمْ وَ كُنتُ عَلَيهْمْ شهَيدًا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنىِ كُنتَ أَنتَ الرَّقِيبَ عَلَيهْمْ وَ أَنتَ عَلىَ كلُِّ شىَْءٍ شهَيد
I did not tell them anything except what You commanded me to tell them. I told them that they must worship God who is everyone's Lord.
I was witness to them as long as I was among them.
So when you caused me death You Yourself was watching over them and You are witness to everything (5:117)
I intentionally translated the above in three separate sections to make my point. After the first section, Jesus (pbuh) is counting the periods of times that his followers were living. He is clearly dividing this period of time into two:
1. When he was among them before the incident of crucifixion
2. When he was not among them after the incident of crucifixion
If it was the fact that Jesus (pbuh) would return then we needed to have a third period added to the above two periods relating to the time when Jesus (pbuh) is again on the face of Earth.
B. In the sura of Ali Imran the last moments of Jesus (pbuh) on the Earth ae described. The following verse reports what God said to Jesus (pbuh) when He wanted to save him from crucifixion:
... إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَاعِيسىَ إِنىِّ مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَ رَافِعُكَ إِلىََّ وَ مُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَ جَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ إِلىَ يَوْمِ الْقِيَمَة
When God said: O Jesus I will give death to you and raise you to Myself and cleanse you from those who have rejected (your message). I shall make those who follow you superior to those who reject (your message) till the Day of Judgement … . (3:55)
Two points to consider in the above verse:
1. The word used is Mutawaffik. This word is normally interpreted by commentators as ‘ending the period’, ‘saving’. This interpretation however is only due to the presumption that Jesus (pbuh) will return and therefore he must be alive. If this presumption is not loaded to the mind of the interpreter then anyone with a basic knowledge of the classical Arabic will translate the word as “caused you death”.
2. The verse informs what will happen to the followers of Jesus (pbuh). This would have been a perfect place to also add the information that Jesus (pbuh) will return in future. As it is evident there is no indication of this in the verse.
So the question that needs to be answered about the issue of return of Jesus (pbuh) is that why not only the Qur’an is silent about it but the Book appears to be giving us information that goes against the idea.
Of course there is nothing wrong if a Muslim genuinely considers some of the hadiths about the return of Jesus (pbuh) to be authentic and does not find any of the above observations and questions of any relevance. However since this information is not given to us by the Qur’an therefore, as Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) says, we cannot say that believe in return of Jesus (pbuh) is a part of the Islamic beliefs.
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December 2013
