Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part V — Page 466
B AR Ā H Ī N-E-A H M ADIY YA — PART F IV E 466 makes manifest this very verdict, because the words ّٰ الی الل رفع [‘exalta- tion to God’] signify—according to both, Jewish and Muslim beliefs— the death that comes upon a person while in state of belief so that his soul is exalted towards God. Through their belief in the killing and crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews implied that when Jesus died, his soul was not exalted towards God. So, the rebuttal to their claim of killing and crucifying Jesus could only be the one that God has given. What this verse says, in other words, is that the Jews cite the crucifixion and kill- ing to prove that the soul of Hadrat ‘ I s a, may peace be upon him , was not exalted towards God when he died, and God in rebuttal to this says that his spirit was exalted towards God when he died. To expand this verse, it would read بل رفعہ الل ّٰ إلیہ عند موتہٖ. [‘Rather, God raised him to Himself when he died’]. ّٰ رفع إلی الل [Exaltation to Allah] occurs only at the time of death, and—in fact—death which occurs in a state of faith is referred to as هللا ی رفع إل [exaltation to Allah]. So, the Jews say ّٰ مات عیسٰی كافرًا غیر مرفوع إلی الل [‘Jesus died as a disbeliever and was not exalted towards God’], while Almighty God replied: بل مات مؤمنًا مرفوعًا الی اللّٰ. [‘Nay, he died as a believer and was exalted towards God’]. The word بل [ bal —‘rather’] here is not used out of place but is in keeping with the idiom of the Arabic tongue. The Jews were mistaken in thinking that Hadrat ‘ I s a, may peace be upon him, had actually been crucified, and this error led them into another error whereby they denied that he was exalted towards God when he died. But God Almighty said that he was never killed or cruci- fied, and that when he died he was exalted towards God. Hence, there is no ambiguity in this choice of words, and the word بل [‘rather’] is not—I repeat, is not—used out of place. Since both Jews and Muslims believe that ّٰ رفع الی الل [exaltation to Allah] means rising of the spirit towards God at the time of death, there is no room for any other mean- ing in this context. And this should also be remembered that the period, or age, about which there is this statement of the Holy Quran that ‘ I s a, was neither killed nor crucified, it is about the same period, the same epoch, that