கலீபா

4. VIEWS OF THE FIRST KHALIFAS, THE GREAT IMAMS, AND THE EARLY SCHOLARS OF RELIGION

Having proved from the Holy Quran and from Sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that Jesus has died like other prophets, and having shown that this conclusion was also unanimously agreed upon by the Companions as the very first ijma‘ after the Holy Prophet’s death, we now quote the views of the eminent figures of Muslim history, from the age of the great Companions through the middle classical times right up to the present day, showing that they too held the same belief.

I. The Khalifas1. Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq, God be pleased with him, said:

Aina Musa, aina Isa, aina Yahya, aina Nuh,

Anta ya siddiq ‘as-in tub ila-l-maula al-jalil.

"Where is Moses, where is Jesus, where is Yahya, where is Noah, [i.e., they have all died], So you, O sinner Siddiq, repent to your Glorious Lord."2. Hazrat Ali, God be pleased with him, said:

Al-mautu la walid-an wa la walad-an,

hadha-s-sabilu ila an la tara ahad.

Kana-an-nabi wa lam yakhlud li-ummati-hi

lau khallad-Allahu khalq-an tablahu khalada.

"Death spares not the father, nor the son, it is the path that leaves not anyone.

He (the Holy Prophet) was a prophet, yet he did not remain with his umma forever,

Had anyone before him lived forever, he (Holy Prophet) too would have lived forever."

II. Members of the Holy Prophet’s Household1. Hazrat Aishah, God be pleased with her, relates from the Holy Prophet Muhammad:

"Jesus, son of Mary, lived to the age of 120 years."

(Hujaj al-Kirama, p. 428)All the narrators of this hadith are reliable (ibid.)

2. Hazrat Fatima, God be pleased with her, relates from the Holy Prophet:

"Jesus, son of Mary, lived to the age of 120 years."

(Kanz-ul-Ummal, vol. vi, p. 120)3. Hazrat Imam Hasan ascended the pulpit after the martyrdom of Hazrat Ali and said:

"O people! This night there has died a man whose status cannot be reached by the earlier or later generations. The Messenger of Allah used to send him to battle, so on his right would be Gabriel and on his left Michael (Mikal), and he would not return without victory. And he has left but seven hundred Dirhems with which he intended to buy a slave. He died on the night on which the soul of Jesus, son of Mary, was taken up, that is the twenty-seventh of Ramadaan."

(Tabaqat Kabir, vol. iii, p. 26)

Thus the members of the Holy Prophet’s household have not only revealed Jesus’ age at death but make it clear that it was his soul, not his body, which was taken up to heaven, and that he died on the 27th of Ramadaan.

III. Other Companions of the Holy Prophet1. Explaining the Quranic verse, "O Jesus, I will cause thee to die (mutawaffi-ka)", Ibn Abbas is recorded as saying:

"Ibn Abbas said: mutawaffi-ka means ‘I will cause thee to die (mumitu-ka) ’."

(Bukhari, Kitab al-Tafsir, on verse 5:110).2. "In the Mustadrak (a Hadith collection) it is reported from Ibn Umar that Jesus lived to the age of 120 years. It is likewise also in the Asabah." (Tafsir Kamalain).

3. The companion-poet Hasan Ibn Thabit sang:

Wa lau kanat-ad-dunya qadim-an bi-ahliha

la-kana rasulu-llahi fiha mukhalad-an.

"If any people of the world could exist forever, certainly the Messenger of Allah would have lived forever in it."