Picture a scene. It is the Day of Judgement. All mankind is gathered before Allah. In that vast assembly, Allah will call one prophet: Hazrat Jesus, son of Mary (as).
The question will be a heavy one. Hundreds of millions of people on earth have taken him and his mother as objects of worship. Allah will ask: was it you who taught them this?
We did not make up this scene. The Holy Quran itself describes it, and gives the answer of Jesus (as) word for word.
Jesus (as) will tremble. He will say, “Holy art Thou. I could never say that to which I had no right.” And what he says next is the heart of this whole discussion.
Two periods, one dividing line
Look carefully at the answer. Jesus (as) divides the history of his people into two parts.
The first part: “as long as I remained among them.” During this time he himself was the witness. His followers then worshipped the One God alone.
The second part begins with one event: “since Thou didst cause me to die.” What happened after that, he does not know. From then on, Allah alone was the Watcher over them.
In other words, his people went astray after his death. The line between the two periods is his death.
Now a simple question
Many people believe that Jesus (as) is still alive in heaven today, and that he will return to earth in the last days. Let us suppose that happens. He returns, looks around, and sees hundreds of millions of people worshipping him as God.
Then how could he say on the Day of Judgement, “I do not know what happened after You caused me to die”? He would have seen it with his own eyes!
A prophet cannot say something before Allah that he knows is not true. So we have to accept one of two things.
Either he will come back, and this answer of his recorded in the Quran will not be true, God forbid. Or his answer is completely true: he died before his people went astray, and he will not come back.
Nothing in the Quran can be false. So there is only one answer.
The Holy Prophet (sa) himself will say these words
The greatest witness to the meaning of this verse is the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) himself. Hazrat Ibn Abbas (ra) narrated:
Here the Holy Prophet (sa) will use exactly the same words: falamma tawaffaitani. No Muslim disagrees that, for the Holy Prophet (sa), this means death. He passed away, and his blessed resting place is in Madinah.
The same sentence, the same words, the same setting. If it means death for the Holy Prophet (sa), there is no room to give it another meaning for Jesus (as).
There is one more witness to the meaning of this word in Sahih Bukhari itself. Hazrat Ibn Abbas (ra), the Holy Prophet’s (sa) cousin and one of the greatest interpreters of the Quran, said:
Questions people ask
Even after such clear testimony, some people raise a few questions. Let us look at them one by one.
Doesn’t “tawaffa” mean putting to sleep, or taking up completely?
Some say that here “tawaffaitani” means “You took me up”. But the Quran itself shows when the meaning is sleep. Where sleep is meant, Allah has clearly added the words “during their sleep”:
In the answer of Jesus (as) there is no hint of sleep. And most importantly, the Holy Prophet (sa) will say exactly this sentence about himself. No one takes it to mean “sleep” or “lifted up bodily” in his case. And Ibn Abbas (ra) said it plainly: “mutawaffika” means “I will cause you to die”. No doubt about the meaning remains.
Didn’t this conversation happen long ago, while he was still on earth?
Another claim is that the verse uses qala (“said”), a past-tense verb, so perhaps this question and answer already took place long ago. But in the very next verse, Allah Himself tells us which day it is:
The day on which the truthful are rewarded for their truthfulness and enter Paradise is the Day of Judgement. Describing a certain future event in the past tense is a familiar style of the Quran, because it will surely happen. And the hadith of the Holy Prophet (sa) also places this question and answer on the Day of Judgement, the day when some people of his Ummah will be seized.
Even if he came back, couldn’t he still say “I don’t know”?
Some say that perhaps he will come back and still, out of humility, say he does not know. But the answer is not a word of humility; it is a testimony. He clearly separates two periods: “As long as I was among them, I was a witness” and “After You caused me to die, You were the Watcher”. Someone who came back and saw his people’s straying with his own eyes could not give such testimony before Allah. Prophets do not say untrue things before Allah.
So every question ends up in the same place: according to the testimony of the Quran, Hazrat Jesus (as) has died, and he himself will not come back.
In short
- On the Day of Judgement, Jesus (as) will say that his people went astray after his death.
- If he were to come back, he would see their straying with his own eyes and could not give this answer.
- The Holy Prophet (sa) will use exactly the same words about himself, and for him they undoubtedly mean death.
- So the testimony of the Quran is clear: Hazrat Jesus (as) has died.
Further reading
Quran verse numbers count Bismillah as the first verse; in the common count they are usually one less. Translation of the Quran: Maulawi Sher Ali.