Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 113
Lecture Ludhiana 113 powerful testimony to the death of Jesus. Furthermore, the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, saw Jesus among the dead on the night of Mi‘r a j [Spiritual Ascension]. No one can deny the hadith about the Mi‘r a j. Open this hadith and see whether Jesus is mentioned as being among the dead or in some other manner. He saw Jesus in the same way as he saw the Prophets Abraham, Moses, and others, peace be upon them all. There was nothing special or distinctive between them. No one can deny the fact that Moses, Abraham, and the other Prophets, peace be upon them all, have passed away, and that the Seizer of Souls [i. e. , the Angel of Death] has conveyed them on to the next world. How, then, did someone alive in his physical body proceed into their midst? These testimonies are not few in number and are sufficient for a true Muslim. Then, in other a ha d i th , the age of Jesus is stated to be 120 or 125 years. Considering all this evidence, it was contrary to the spirit of righteousness to summarily decide that Jesus had gone to heaven alive; moreover, its precedent does not even exist. Even reason endorses this very conclusion, but it is a pity that these people paid no heed and—discarding all fear of God— hastily branded me a dajj a l [deceiver]. It is a case that demands reflection: was this a trivial matter? How sad! Then, when no excuse could be conjured up, they said that an ijm a‘ had been reached in the middle ages. I ask, ‘When?’ The original ijm a‘ was the consensus of the Companions ra. If there was a consensus reached after that, assemble all the sects together now to demonstrate it. Verily I say that this statement is completely false. No ijm a‘ was ever reached about Jesus being alive. These people have not read the relevant literature; other- wise, they would have come to know that the Sufis acknowledge death [of Jesus] and believe in his second coming figuratively. In short, just as I have praised Allah the Exalted, I also