The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 203
The Messiah and his Second Coming 203 only a consequence of the concept that he was raised bodily to heaven. Therefore, we should first consider whether or not the primary factor can be established on the basis of the Holy Qur'an and Ḥadīth. If the basic factor is established, we will be able to accept that a person whose bodily ascent to heaven is proved could likewise descend bodily from heaven. But if the basic factor is not established on the authority of the Holy Qur'an and the. Hadith and instead contradicts them, we cannot accept the accuracy of the alleged consequence. And if there should be any Aḥādīth whose purport might be indicative of such consequential proposition, we would try to reconcile them to the basic factor. [Izāla-e-Auhām, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, vol. 3, pp. 235-236]. When the Muslims of our time affirm the death of the. Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his burial on earth, and at the same time affirm that. Jesus is still alive, they furnish the Christians with a written acknowledgement that Jesus possessed qualities different from those of the common man and also different from all the Prophets. If it were true that while the Best of Mankind (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who appeared six hundred years after Jesus, died after a brief life thirteen hundred years ago, yet Jesus has not yet died, would it not prove that Jesus possesses qualities that are superhuman? Though the Muslim divines of these times formally reject every form of association of partners with God, yet they lend their full support to those who are guilty of such association. It is an outrage that while Allah the Glorious, in His Holy Word, proclaims the death of Jesus, these divines create countless difficulties in the way of Islām by adhering to the notion that he is still alive. They acknowledge Jesus as ever-