Haqiqatul-Wahi (The Philosophy of Divine Revelation) — Page 53
CHAPTER III 53 resemblance does a living one have with the dead? Are the Christian gentlemen able to tell us that Ishaq was actually slaughtered and was then brought back to life? And if it is not so, what resemblance does the incident of Yasu' have with the incident of Ishaq? Again, Yasu' the Messiah says in the Gospels, 'If ye have faith even as much as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, move from here to there; and it shall move. " But it seems that the entire prayer of Yasu' to spare his own life went to waste. Now behold! What conclusion would be drawn about the faith of Yasu' according to the Gospels? It is not true at all that Yasū' prayed that he may well die on the cross, but that it should be without distress. Was the prayer in the garden [of Gethsemane] meant only to spare him the distress? If this were the case, why did he raise the cry Eli Eli lama sabachtani² when he was put on the cross? Does this utterance indicate that his distress had been removed at that moment? How far can a fabrication go? The prayer of Yasu' clearly has these words: 'Let this cup pass from me. ' So God made that cup pass and created such circumstances as were suffi- cient to save his life; for example, the fact that he was not kept on the cross for up to six or seven days as was the norm, but was taken down within a short time, and that whereas the bones of others [crucified] were always broken, his bones were not broken. It is inconceivable that someone could die from such little torture. The belief of our opponents that Ḥadrat ‘Īsā, peace be upon him, was saved from the cross and ascended physically to Heaven raises a serious objection against the Holy Quran, because the Holy Quran consistently refutes all Christian assertions that are used to prove the divinity of Haḍrat ‘Īsā. For instance, the Holy Quran denied any spe- cial significance of the fatherless birth of Ḥaḍrat ‘Īsā (which was used as an argument for his divinity) by declaring: 1. See Matthew 17:20 [Publisher] 2. 'My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?' (Matthew, 27:46) [Publisher]