The Commentary of Al-Qasidah — Page 163
The commentary of al-Qa si dah 163 I said nothing to them except that which Thou didst command me ‘Worship All a h, my Lord and your Lord. ’ And I was a witness over them as long as I remained among them, but since Thou didst cause me to die, Thou hast been the Watcher over them; and Thou art Witness over all things. ( al-M a ’idah , 5:118 ) To paraphrase, this means that I do not know when they made me and my mother the subject of their worship and how it came about, in any case it did not happen in my lifetime when I was a witness and present among them. In this verse, the death of Jesus is proven in a very clear manner. It is described in this verse that Jesus as would mention to All a h two different periods of time. One, when he was present in his nation and the second, when he was absent. In the middle of these two periods, the word tawaffaitan i (when you caused me to die) reflects that it was his death that separated these two periods. So it is very clear that his absence from his nation was a result of his death. And this proves very clearly that he has died. This argument is validated by a h ad i th reported in S a hih Bukh a r i. In fact, Hadrat Im a m Bukh a r i himself used this h ad i th in his commentary to explain the above mentioned verse. The h ad i th says that the Holy Prophet sa said that on the Day of Judgment, some of my companions would be caught and taken away and I would say these are my companions!