Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 71
S IGN S OF T HE T RU E FAIT H 71 decision whether Hadrat ‘ I s a bodily ascended to the heavens or not, for this was not the point in dispute by the Jews. The Jews do not believe that a crucified person does not physically ascend to heaven, for such a belief would imply that one who is not crucified ascends physically to the heavens. Nor do the Jews believe that a faithless and accursed man cannot ascend in his physical body to heaven whereas a believer ascends to heaven with his physical body. Even with regard to M u s a [Moses], who was the greatest Prophet in the opinion of the Jews, they do not believe that he physically ascended to heaven. In short, the whole dispute was about spiritual exaltation. The Jews, in keeping with their doctrine, held that Hadrat ‘ I s a was accursed—God forbid—as he was not granted spiritual exaltation for having been killed on the cross, and this was the very error that God had to cor- rect. So He adjudged that ‘ I s a was not accursed; rather, he was spirit- ually exalted like other believers. Remember that the word ملعون [ mal‘ u n —‘accursed’] is the antonym of مرفوع [ marf u ‘ —‘exalted’]; where exaltation carries a spiritual conno- tation. Thus, according to those who hold Hadrat ‘ I s a to be accursed for having been crucified, the meaning of ملعون [ mal‘ u n ] is only that such a person is not spiritually exalted. Even the Christians made the error of believing that Hadrat ‘ I s a was accursed for three days, mean- ing that he was not spiritually exalted for three days. So if—according to their belief— Hadrat ‘ I s a went to Hades in the condition of being accursed without his physical body, then why was the physical body required in the condition of being exalted? The same rule ought to apply to both conditions. We hold the Christians accountable, too, for having erred with regard to the meaning of exaltation. They believe to this day that, according to the Torah, crucifixion resulted in a spiritual consequence—becoming accursed—which, in other words, means the absence of exaltation. So, according to their belief, this absence of exal- tation was a spiritual phenomenon. Therefore, the exaltation should also have been a spiritual phenomenon if there is to be any congruence between the two states.