The Descent Of Jesus Son Of Mary, As Por­trayed In The Quran

The Qur’an makes three ref­er­ences to the return of Jesus son of Mary (may peace be upon him) to the earth — i.e., his descent from the sky — in order to accom­plish var­i­ous tasks.

THE FIRST REFERENCE : is in Surah Nisaa’, vers­es 156 – 159. As for the con­text of these vers­es, Allah, the Exalt­ed, men­tions the fab­ri­ca­tions of the Jews, their slan­der of Mary, their rejec­tion of Faith, and claim that they killed Jesus son of Mary — the Mes­sen­ger of Allah. There­upon Allah, the Exalt­ed, declares the fal­si­ty of these claims and says,

“And because of their say­ing (boast­ing), ​‘We killed Mes­si­ah, Jesus son of Mary, the Mes­sen­ger of Allah,’ — but they killed him not, nor cru­ci­fied him, but it was made to appear to them so.“Sura’ an-Nisaa’ 4:157

We have learned from the pre­ced­ing sec­tions about the dis­ci­ple who resem­bled Jesus and vol­un­tar­i­ly sac­ri­ficed and ran­somed him­self, as has been specif­i­cal­ly stat­ed by the lead­ing schol­ars of Islam.

SO WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED THEN ? Allah, the Exalt­ed, raised Jesus son of Mary to the sky. His ene­mies, the Jews, failed to harm him, let alone kill and cru­ci­fy him. This is a clear and unam­bigu­ous text that car­ries no room for anoth­er inter­pre­ta­tion. It states clear­ly that Allah, the Exalt­ed, raised Jesus to Him­self — bod­i­ly and his soul — in order to save him from the Jews mur­der­ing and cru­ci­fy­ing him. Allah, the Exalt­ed, says in the Quran,

“But Allah raised him up (with his body and soul) unto Him­self ; and Allah is Ever All-Pow­er­ful, All-Wise.“Sura’ an-Nisaa’ 4:158

So, if any­one claims that only the soul was raised, it would be incor­rect, as is shown from the two fol­low­ing perspectives.

FIRSTLY, Allah made a men­tion of this raise in the con­text of refu­ta­tion of the claim of the Jews that they killed the Christ. So, if it were that only the soul was raised, then that would actu­al­ly mean an acknowl­edg­ment of the claim of the Jews that they killed the Christ — which is to remove his soul !

SECONDLY, if it were true that only his soul was raised, there would remain no dis­tinc­tion for Jesus above the rest. For all Prophets (peace be upon them), and in fact all believ­ing Mus­lims, have their souls raised to the sky upon their death. So, does there remain any­thing that dis­tin­guish­es Jesus, for which Allah makes a spe­cial marked men­tion in the Qur’an that He raised him ?

After estab­lish­ing this point, anoth­er Qur’an­ic verse fol­lows in the same con­text of the ones that pre­ced­ed. This one clear­ly bears evi­dence on anoth­er return of the Christ (peace be upon him) to the earth and that he will descend from the sky. The pur­pose of this is the cru­cial role he will play upon his return to the earth. Allah, the Exalt­ed, says :

“And there is none of the Peo­ple of the Scrip­ture (Jews and Chris­tians) but must believe in him (Jesus son of Mary as a Mes­sen­ger of Allah and a human being) before his death. And on the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion, he will be a wit­ness against them.” Sura’ an-Nisaa’ 4:159

The verse presents the mes­sage in a future tense, so it is with regards to the events to come after the rais­ing of the Christ. It informs that some of the Peo­ple of the Book will believe in the Christ. But when will that be ? It will be upon his descent, his return and com­ing onto the earth once again. Imam Tabari, the renowned schol­ar of the Qur’an­ic exe­ge­sis (may Allah cov­er him in mer­cy), explained this. He said :

The mean­ing of the verse ​‘And there is none of the peo­ple of the Scrip­ture but must believe in him’, that is : in Jesus, ​‘before his death’, that is : before the death of Jesus. It is explained as fol­lows : that all of them will affirm and acknowl­edge him when he descends to kill the Antichrist, there­after, all the reli­gion will give way to only the one, which is the pure upright reli­gion of Islam — the reli­gion of Abra­ham (may the peace be him). See Tafsir at-Tabari 4:356 – 357

THE SECOND REFERENCE in the Noble Qur’an to the imper­a­tive nature of the descent of Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, in order to com­plete the task that must be done on the earth, is found in Surah Zukhruf in the Qur’an. Allah, the Exalt­ed, says in it,

“And when the son of Mary is quot­ed as an exam­ple (i.e., Jesus wor­shipped like their idols), behold, your peo­ple cry aloud (laugh out at the exam­ple). And say : Are our gods bet­ter or is he (i.e. Jesus)? They quot­ed not the above exam­ple except for argu­ment. Nay ! But they are a quar­rel­some peo­ple. He (i.e. Jesus) was not more than a slave. We grant­ed Our Favor to him, and We made him an exam­ple for the Chil­dren of Israel (i.e. his cre­ation with­out a father). And if it were Our Will, We would have (destroyed you all, and) made angels to replace you on the earth. And he (i.e. Jesus) shall be a known sign for (the com­ing of) the Hour (i.e. Day of Res­ur­rec­tion). There­fore have no doubt con­cern­ing it. And fol­low Me (i.e. Allah)! This is the Straight Path.“Sura’ az-Zukhruf 43:57 – 61

In anoth­er recita­tion, it is recit­ed as ​“And he shall be a mark”. It means, a sym­bol, a por­tent, a sign of the Hour.See Fathu‑l Qadeer of Shawkaani, (4÷562) for ref­er­ences of those who read it so.

How can Jesus son Mary, be a sign of the Hour (Dooms­day)? It can­not be except with his descent being in the last stage and peri­od. His descent would then be a great sign and one of the major por­tents of the Hour — a sign that announces the close­ness of its occur­rence. This is how the verse has com­mon­ly been explained by the schol­ars of tafsir (exe­ge­sis of the Quran). Amongst them are Mujahid, Sud­dee, Qata­da, Hasan al-Bas­ri, Dah­haak and Ibn Zayd. It is also the say­ing of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him). They all have stat­ed this explic­it­ly, that Jesus son of Mary is one of the signs of the Hour in the sense that he will descend and rule the earth and dwell there­in for forty years, as is men­tioned in the authen­tic hadith, that will be men­tioned short­ly. And his descent will be one of the great signs of Allah and one of the supreme por­tents of the Hour.

THE THIRD REFERENCE TO IT IN THE QURAN The deduc­tion from this text is indeed remark­able. One notes that there is hard­ly ever a men­tion of the sto­ry of Jesus (in the Quran) except that it is men­tioned along with it that,

“He will speak to the peo­ple in the cra­dle and in man­hood“Sura’ Aal ​‘Imraan 3 : 46, and Sura’ al-Maa’ida 5:110

In this, Allah men­tioned two remark­able and rare events, that are also two daz­zling signs (proofs) of Allah found in the char­ac­ter of Jesus Christ.

THE FIRST MATTER is that he spoke in the cra­dle while still an infant. This does not occur except as a mir­a­cle from Allah, the Mighty, and the Mag­nif­i­cent. That is why it has nev­er occurred except with three peo­ple as has been estab­lished in the authen­tic hadith nar­rat­ed by Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him). See Saheeh Bukhari (4÷201−202). So the speak­ing of Jesus (peace be on him) in the cra­dle was indeed a sign, and there was a need, and the cir­cum­stance called for it as the moth­er of Jesus came to be held in sus­pi­cion due to the birth, ​‘how can a woman give birth with­out a hus­band?’ They even voiced this explic­it­ly, as report­ed in the Quran, ​“Your father was not a man who used to com­mit adul­tery, nor your moth­er was an unchaste woman.” Sura’ Maryam 19:28

So, a mir­a­cle was required to prove her inno­cence and to prove that the birth was anoth­er such a mir­a­cle. Thus the infant spoke in the cra­dle, an extra­or­di­nary, unac­cus­tomed event. But the verse cou­ples this mirac­u­lous event, with the men­tion of anoth­er event — of him speak­ing as a mid­dle-aged adult. But every one speaks at that age. So where is the mir­a­cle in that ? The Ara­bic word used in the verse that refers to that stage of his life, is kuhoola, which is used for a per­son past the age of forty and up to the age of fifty or six­ty years. Is it at all remark­able that one speaks at the age of six­ty or even sev­en­ty?! So where is the mir­a­cle that is allud­ed to in this sec­tion of the verse which men­tions that Jesus speaks as a mid­dle aged man ?

This shows that just as his speech in the cra­dle as an infant was a mir­a­cle, like­wise he will descend and speak to the peo­ple as a mid­dle aged man in the last stages of this world, mak­ing his descent and speech there­upon, also a mir­a­cle. Oth­er­wise, there is no mir­a­cle in a six­ty or sev­en­ty year old com­mu­ni­cat­ing by speech !

So the evi­dence from this sec­tion of the verse in the Qur’an that he will speak to the peo­ple as a mid­dle-aged adult is from the fol­low­ing two perspectives.

FIRSTLY, some of the schol­ars of Islam, amongst them is ibn Musayyab, stat­ed that Jesus son of Mary, was raised to the sky while he was at an age of thir­ty three years, in the prime of his youth (referred to in Ara­bic as shabaab, which is a stage pri­or to the one men­tioned in the Quran, kuhoola). So he had not yet reached the stage of kuhoola.

SECONDLY, here comes the aspect of amaze­ment, mar­vel and the mir­a­cle. The aspect, which bears evi­dence on the point, is that he speaks to the peo­ple as a mid­dle-aged man (in kuhoola) after hav­ing been raised, and his being raised is indeed an aston­ish­ing event. And he will descend, and his descent is also anoth­er aston­ish­ing, remark­able event. He will then speak to the peo­ple and will live after his descent for forty years. This forty added to the thir­ty years makes him some­one who would have reached the age of kuhoola, and hav­ing spo­ken at that age. He will then have spo­ken to the peo­ple as he spoke to them in the cra­dle. This is a clear and unam­bigu­ous indi­ca­tion that he (peace be upon him) will cer­tain­ly com­plete his role and his part, and will descend towards the last stages and speak to the peo­ple as a mid­dle-aged man, just as he spoke mirac­u­lous­ly as an infant. Imam Tabari relat­ed from Abdu­rah­man ibn Zayd that he said, ​“Jesus did indeed speak to them in the cra­dle, and he will speak to them when he kills the Antichrist, he will then be a kahl (mid­dle-aged per­son).” Tafsir Tabari, ³⁄₂₇₁