The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 204
204. Essence of Islam-III living and self-subsisting in heaven, and affirm the death and burial upon earth of the Chief of the Prophets (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)! The Holy Qur'ān records the testimony of Jesus to the effect: مُبَشِّرًا بِرَسُولِ يَأْتِي مِنْ بَعْدِى اسْمُةٌ أَحْمَدُ 171. That is: 'I give glad tidings of a Messenger who will come after me (i. e. , after my death,) whose name will be. Aḥmad. '. Hence, if Jesus is still bodily alive, it follows that the. Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has not yet appeared on earth. [Ā'ina-e-Kamālāt-e-Islām, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, vol. 5, pp. 41-42]. . It is absolutely wrong to say that Jesus (peace be on him) has ascended bodily to heaven. There is no proof of this in the Holy Qur'ān nor in Aḥādīth, nor can reason accept it; indeed the Qur'an and the Ḥadīth and reason all three reject it. The Holy Qur'an has clearly said that Jesus (peace be on him) has died, and the Ḥadīth narrating the. Me'rāj [Spiritual Ascent] of the Holy Propheta informs us that Jesus as has joined the souls of the departed Prophets (peace be on them), and has cut asunder completely from the earth. Reason tells us that it is not the way of. Allah that a mortal body should ascend to heaven and, discarding all the characteristics of earthly life like eating and drinking etc. , should join the souls who have suffered bodily death and have arrived in the hereafter. Reason can furnish no such instance. Moreover, as the belief that Jesus (peace be on him) ascended bodily to heaven is inconsistent with the Holy Qur'ān, so is the doctrine of his bodily descent inconsistent with the Holy Qur'ān. 171. Al-Saff, 61:7 [Publisher]