Lecture Sialkot — Page 22
22 L ECTURE S IALKOT Jesus as will never return to the world, and yet they want to bring him back to the world. In spite of all this, they call themselves Muslims. They claim that Jesus as was physically raised to heaven, but cannot explain as to why he was raised. The Jews had only disputed his spiritual ascension because they believed that his spirit was not raised to heaven like the spirits of the faithful are, for he had suffered death by crucifixion, and one who dies on the cross is accursed and his spirit is not exalted to heaven, i. e. , towards God. The Holy Quran had to give its verdict on this very dispute, since it claims to point out the errors of the Jews and Christians and to arbitrate on their disputes. The Jews contended that Jesus, the Messiah as , was not amongst the faithful, had not attained salvation, and his soul had not been exalted to God. Thus, the question that needed to be settled by the Holy Quran was whether or not Jesus the Messiah as was a believer and a true Prophet of God, and whether or not his spirit was exalted to God Almighty like the spirits of true believers. If the verse 17 means that God Almighty raised Jesus as physically to the second heaven, how then was the dispute settled? It would appear that God did not even understand the dispute and gave a verdict that was 17 On the contrary, Allah exalted him to Himself. —Al-Nis a ’, 4:159 [Publishers]