The Muslim Jesus: Dead or alive? - University of Notre Dame

Bulletin of SOAS, 72, 2 (2009), 237?258. ? School of Oriental and African Studies. Printed in the United Kingdom.

The Muslim Jesus: Dead or alive?

Gabriel Said Reynolds Notre Dame University reynolds@nd.edu

Abstract According to most classical Muslim commentators the Quran teaches that Jesus did not die. On the day of the crucifixion another person ? whether his disciple or his betrayer ? was miraculously transformed and assumed the appearance of Jesus. He was taken away, crucified, and killed, while Jesus was assumed body and soul into heaven. Most critical scholars accept that this is indeed the Quran's teaching, even if the Quran states explicitly only that the Jews did not kill Jesus. In the present paper I contend that the Quran rather accepts that Jesus died, and indeed alludes to his role as a witness against his murderers in the apocalypse. The paper begins with an analysis of the Quran's references to the death of Jesus, continues with a description of classical Muslim exegesis of those references, and concludes with a presentation of the Quran's conversation with Jewish and Christian tradition on the matter of Jesus' death.

In Richard Burton's account of his covert pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, he dtThehesecrrcoihboaemms bvoeifsritiMitnsugelhfta,hmBe mudreatovdon'stidobinsecalool vvaeerrdeeadw,oiuwfteasisdkee'tiphstheoac)uhtoaomff btvheierew(Phrubojypraha,entb'osyrnmtraatoedsiqctiuuoern-. tain. Still he reports that on the other side of the curtain were arranged the tombs of Muhammad, Ab Bakr, and Umar. Moreover, Burton adds with amazement, next to these tombs was a "spare place for only a single grave, reserved for Isa bin Maryam after his second coming".1 If Burton (whose travelogues tend towards the incredible) can be trusted, the Prophet's mosque itself was arranged in keeping with the prevalent Islamic teaching that Jesus escaped death on the cross, that instead God raised him body and soul to heaven, and that God will send him back to earth in the end times.

This teaching is standard in classical Muslim literature. Ibn Hishm has Muhammad himself insist on it before the delegation of Christians from Najrn.2 More recently it has become a sort of shibboleth of orthodoxy, as the rejection of this teaching is one of the accusations made against the Ahmadiyya movement.3 Meanwhile, most Western scholars of Islam agree

1 R. Burton, Pilgrimage to al-Madinah and Meccah (London: Tylston and Edwards, 1893), 1:325.

2 Ibn Ishq, Srat rasl Allh, ed. F. W?stenfeld, Das Leben Muhammeds nach Muhammad Ibn Ishq (G?ttingen: Dieterich, 1858?60), 409; English trans: Muhammad Ibn Ishq, The Life of Muhammad, trans. A. Guillaume (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955), 276.

3 See W. C. Smith, "Ahmadiyya", EI2, 1:301b.

238 G A B R I E L S A I D R E Y N O L D S

that the Quran denies the death of Jesus. Not infrequently they assume that this denial reflects the influence of Christian docetism.

Yet Islamic tradition itself is not entirely unanimous on the question of Jesus' death. Alternative traditions are not infrequently found in the classical commentaries according to which Jesus died before ascending to heaven. More recently Mahmoud Ayoub has argued on theological grounds that the Quran does not deny his death.4 In the present paper, meanwhile, I will make the same argument but on philological grounds, examining the relevant passages in the Quran, Islamic exegesis on these passages, and the Quran's subtext.

1. Quranic material

The locus classicus for the question of Jesus' death is srat al-nis' (4) 157?8. In verse 157 the Quran begins, ". . . and as for their statement, `We killed the Christ, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of God', they did not kill him or crucify him", and continues with the phrase: wa-lakin shubbiha la-hum. The passive verb shubbiha here is the crux (no pun intended) of the matter. As Todd Lawson points out it is a hapax legomenon in the Quran; indeed it is the only time the root sh.b.h. appears in the second form.5 That it appears in the passive voice here (according to the standard vocalization, at least) renders its meaning still more elusive. The entire phrase, in fact, is per se ambiguous and translators are accordingly divided. Some, following the prevalent Islamic tradition, understand this phrase to mean something like, "Rather his image was made to appear to them". Blach?re translates, "Mais que son sosie a ?t? substitu? ? leur yeux". Paret (with his ubiquitous parenthetical explanations) arrives at a similar translation, "Vielmehr erschien ihnen (ein anderer) ?hnlich (so da? sie ihn mit Jesus verwechselten und t?teten)". Meanwhile, Arberry's translation ? which is often quoted in secondary literature ? has, "Only a likeness of that was shown to them". All of these translations suggest that someone other than Jesus died in his place.

Yet other translators seem to follow a remarkably different interpretation of wa-lakin shubbiha la-hum. Thereby the phrase is applied not to Jesus, but to the event of the Crucifixion, and understood to mean, "It was made unclear to them". Pickthall, for example, translates, "But it appeared so unto them". Yusuf Ali similarly has, "But so it was made to appear unto them". The recent translations of Fakhry and Abdel Haleem are similar.6 Of course, these translations

4 See M. Ayoub, "Towards an Islamic Christology II: the death of Jesus, reality or delusion?", The Muslim World 70, 1980, 91?121. Ayoub argues that the idea that someone or something other than Jesus appeared on the Cross is inconsistent with the Quran's theological principles. He asks (p. 104), "Would it be in consonance with God's covenant, his mercy and justice to deceive humanity for so many centuries?"

5 B. T. Lawson, "The Crucifixion of Jesus in the Qur'?n and qur'?nic commentary: a historical survey", The Bulletin of the Henry Martin Institute of Islamic Studies 10, 1991, (2, 34?62; 3, 6?40), 2, 40.

6 Fakhry: "But so it was made to appear unto them" (precisely that of Ysuf Al). Abdel Haleem: "Though it was made to appear like that to them". The Qur'n, trans. M. Fakhry (Reading: Garnet, 1996); The Qur'n, trans. M. Abdel Haleem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

T H E M U S L I M J E S U S : D E A D O R A L I V E ? 239

might still be read in accordance with the traditional Islamic notion that Jesus escaped death. A translator has recourse to ambiguity.7 A commentator, on the other hand, does not.

Indeed, the short phrase wa-lakin shubbiha la-hum compels classical Muslim commentators to take a definitive position on the death of Christ. For the most part they justify their position with various (and often contradictory) haggadic narratives that describe how a substitute took the place of Jesus on the Cross. Yet those narratives appear to be a product of exegesis, and not its source.

On the other hand, the Quran itself never denies the death of Jesus but rather alludes to it in several passages. In one passage the Quran has Jesus himself declare, "Peace upon me on the day I was born, on the day I die, and on the day I will be sent forth alive" (Q 19.33). Here Jesus ? speaking miraculously as an infant ? implies that his death will be like that of any other human.8 In fact, the words of Jesus in this verse are a formula found also 18 verses earlier (Q 19.15). There it is Zechariah calling down peace on his son John on the day of his birth, death and resurrection.

Elsewhere the Quran seems to allude to that death as an event of history. Srat al-m'ida (5) 17 asks, "If God desired to take the life ( yuhlika) of Jesus the Son of Mary, and his mother, and everyone on earth, who could resist Him?" Here the Quran implies that the death of Jesus ? like all deaths ? was the act of God. Elsewhere in this same Sra the Quran notes: "Jesus, son of Mary, is only a Messenger. Messengers have passed away before him" (Q 5.75). Once again this is a formula, in this case a formula applied elsewhere to the Qpausrsaend'sawoawynbepfroorpehehti:m""M(Quh3a.m14m4a)d. is only a Messenger. Messengers have

The clearest reference to Jesus' death may be later in srat al-m'ida. In a verse that is part of a larger dialogue (vv. 116?8) between God and Jesus, Jesus remarks "I was a witness to them as long as I remained among them. You became the watcher of them when you made me die (tawaffaytan )". The verb tawaff (verbal noun: tawaff ) that appears here causes significant confusion among Muslim exegetes. Yet the Quran itself offers no cause for confusion. Tawaff appears in twenty-five passages in the Quran, and twice in relation to Jesus (here and Q 3.55). For twenty-three of those passages the Muslim commentators generally follow the standard definition of this term,

7 Yusuf Ali's footnote here only adds to the ambiguity: "The Qur'nic teaching is that Christ was not crucified nor killed by the Jews, notwithstanding certain apparent circumstances which produced that illusion in the minds of some of his enemies", The Meaning of the Holy Qur'n, trans. Abdallh Ysuf Al (Beltsville, MD: Amana, 1996), 236, n. 663.

8 Muslim commentators, however, often insist that Jesus is here referring to his death in the eschaton, when God will send him back to the world from his heavenly refuge. Parrinder retorts, "There is no futurity in the grammar of the Qur'n to suggest a postmillennial death". Geoffrey Parrinder, Jesus in the Qur'n (London: Faber and Faber, 1965), 105. Elsewhere (p. 106) Parrinder comments that in interpreting 9.33 Muslim commentators "have let themselves be dominated by 4.157". On this verse N. Robinson comments, "There is not the slightest hint, however, that his death also lies in the future. On the contrary, given only this sr, the assumption would be that it already lay in the past like John's", N. Robinson, "Jesus", EQ, 3:17b.

240 G A B R I E L S A I D R E Y N O L D S

namely God's act of separating the soul from the body, or making someone die.9 In fact, Muslims often pray the concluding words of srat al-arf (7) 126: rabban afrigh alayn sabran wa-tawaffan muslimn, "O our Lord, fill us with patience and make us die Muslims".

For the two verses where tawaff is applied to Jesus, however, Muslim exegetes generally search for a secondary meaning of the term. Thus they reconcile these two verses with the doctrine of Jesus' escape from death. Modern translators follow them with amazing fidelity. Pickthall, for example, translates tawaffaytan, "tookest me"; Yusuf Ali, "didst take me up"; Blach?re, "m'as eu rappel?"; Arberry, "didst take me to Thyself"; Paret, "Du mich abgerufen hattest"; and Fakhry, "took me to yourself". Abdel Haleem, on the other hand, translates obliquely, but accurately, "You took my soul".

In this regard it is noteworthy that the second occurrence of tawaff in relation to Jesus, srat l Imrn (3) 55, precedes a reference to God causing Jesus to ascend to Him: "God said, `O Jesus, I will make you die (mutawaff ka), raise you up to me (rfi'uka ilayya), purify you from those who disbelieved, and lift those who have followed you above the disbelievers until the Day of Resurrection, then you will all return to me" (Q 3.55a). According to this sequence, God indeed raised Jesus to heaven, but only after He first caused him to die.

With this insight we might then return to srat al-nis' (4) 157?8. In verse 157, as mentioned above, the Quran denies that the Jews killed Christ. In verse 158(a) the Quran insists that instead rafaahu Allhu ilayhi, "God raised him to Himself".10 In other words, precisely the same sequence of srat l Imrn (3) 55 is implied: God (and not the Jews!) first made Jesus die, and then made him ascend to heaven.

2. Exegetical debates

i. wa-lakin shubbiha la-hum Nevertheless, this is hardly the standard Islamic understanding of srat al-nis' (4) 157?8. The great majority of classical exegetical traditions explain instead that someone other than Jesus was transformed to look like him and then died in his place, while Jesus was taken up to heaven alive, body and soul.11 The

9

eTrhaullsy,Ib"nGoMdansezizred(dh. i7s1s1o/u1l3"1.2T)hdeefbiondesy

tiaswlefffthbuehAilnldhasasth"eqasboaudl

Allahu nafsahu", is taken by God.

litIbn

aMl-aTnuzrrt,h aLli-sAnrabal,-'1a4r1a8b/,19e9d7.),M15u:h3a5m9.mad al-Sdiq al-Ubayd (Beirut: Dr Ihy'

10 The meaning of the verb rafa'a in Q 3.55 and 4.158 is clarified in light of Q 19.57, which

reports that God raised Idrs to a high place (rafanhu). Presumably Idrs here represents

Enoch (cf. Gen. 5.24), who according to Jewish and Christian tradition was preserved from

death. The name Idrs, meanwhile, may be derived from Andrew, the cook of Alexander

the Great who according to the Alexander Romance wins immortality in the Fountain of

Youth. Regarding the ascension of Christ in the Quran, Rudolph suggests that the mention

of a high place reserved for Jesus and Mary (Q 23.50) reflects the Christian doctrines of the

Ascension and the Assumption. W. Rudolph, Die Abh?ngigkeit des Qorans von Judentum

und Christentum (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1922), 82?3.

11 Louis Massignon argues that this substitution theory, which is in no way obvious in the

Quran itself, was inherited from the doctrine of radical Shii groups who maintained that

T H E M U S L I M J E S U S : D E A D O R A L I V E ? 241

prevalence of this view might be illustrated through a survey of a select but

diverse group of classical tafsrs.12 The early commentary Tafsr Muqtil, for

example, explains that the phrase wa-lakin shubbiha la-hum refers to the fact

that the image named Judas (

y(ashrdah) o).f

Jesus Judas

was was

cast onto a man who had struck him therefore justly punished when, having

received the image of Jesus, he was killed in Jesus' place.13

According to Ab Jafar al-Tabar (d. 310/923) the mufassirn are in agreement that Jesus did not die, that instead he ascended to heaven body and soul

while someone else died in his place. Their principal disagreement is only

whether God cast the image of Jesus on a number of people, from whom the

Jews chose one to crucify, or whether God cast the image of Jesus only on

one specific person. One of them relates

TthaabtaornraepdoarytswtwhoentrJaedsiutisonwsaws htoicghetrheefrlewctitthhesefviresnt toepeninidoins-.

ciples (hawriyyn; cf. Q 3.52; 5.111, 112; 61.14), and the Jews came to the house w here they were gathered, intent on killing him, all of the disciples

received his image. The Jews then entered the room and, discovering the bewil-

dering sight, declared, "Show us which one is Jesus or we will kill all of you".

At this Jesus turned to the disciples and asked "Which one of you will win para-

dise for his soul today?" The faithful disciple who answered Jesus' summons

retained the image of his teacher, while the others immediately regained their

true appearance. This faithful disciple went out to the Jews, who took him

and crucified him, while God took Jesus into heaven.14

TheT anbaarrrattihveens

reports therein

nine are

different close to

traditions which reflect the that in the tradition above,

second except

opinion. that the

faithful disciple receives the appearance of Jesus only at the moment that he

volunteers to take Jesus' place. One such narrative shows particular midrashic

creativity. A tradition on the authority of Ibn Ishq relates that Jesus was with

their divine imms only appeared to die, "la parcelle divine qui r?sidait en eux ayant ?t?

n?cessairement soustraite ? leurs assassins". L. Massignon, "Le Christ dans les ?vangiles

selon Ghazali", Revue des ?tudes islamiques 6, 1932, 491?536, p. 525. Lawson ("The

Crucifixion of Jesus in the Qur'?n and Qur'?nic commentary", 3, 29) refutes

Massignon's theory, countering that the Shia accepted the suffering and death of their

Imms, and therefore would not be reluctant to accept the suffering and death of

Jesus. He seems to miss, however, that Massignon is referring precisely to those extreme

(ghult) Shii and death of

groups (such their Imms.

as

the

Khattbiyya)

who

rejected

(apparently)

the

suffering

12 For a more extensive description of both classical and modern Islamic exegesis on the

crucifixion see B.T. Lawson, The Crucifixion and the Qur'n: A Study in the History

of Muslim Thought (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009). Therein Lawson expands on his earlier

two-part article: "The crucifixion of Jesus in the Qur'?n and Qur'?nic commentary: a his-

torical survey". Cf. also M. Fonner, "Jesus' death by crucifixion in the Qur'an", Journal

of Ecumenical Studies 29, 1992, 432?50.

13 Muqtil b. Sulaymn, Tafsr (henceforth: Tafsr Muqtil), ed. Abdallh Muhammad 14 a(ABl-beSihruaJath:fDtaar(raCla-alT-iFraobik:arMr,,1uJ4'a0sm8s/ia1s9aa8tl8-ab;la-tHyheanlpaabfg,itnana'.wdti.o)ln, a1ol:-f4Q2thu0ir,s'oennd,iQteiod4n..1Mfo5ul7lh.oawmsmthaed30AleqBuaaly-pdarnt

division of the Qur'n, although it is bound in 15 volumes. References in the present

work are to part:page), 6:12?3, on Q 4.157. This tradition is on the authority of Wahb

b. Munabbih.

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