Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 59
59 to God and: nob to heaven as is asserted, and this is plainly taken in a spiritual sense. The objection of the Jews against the truth of Jesus was based on the ground that having been nailed to the cross, he died an accursed death and that, therefore, according to the Mosaic Law, he did not spiritually rise to God like the true prophets, but that he was of those who were damned. It was of great importance for the Quran to raise this objection before acknowledging Jesus as true prophet and. if the >j of Jesus spoken of in the Quran, refers to his bodily ascent to heaven and not to his spiritual rising to God, the objection of the Jews remains un- answered. . Such is not the case however. The Word of God has decided the dispute and refuted the objection brought forward by the Jews to negative the truth of Jesus' Divine Mission. In speak? ing of Jesus' m/a, it has placed him on the same level with the holy prophets of God and denied his subjection to curse. If this vital objection is not refuted in these plain words, the onus lies on our opponents to show in what part of the Holy Quran its refutation is contained. Or is it that Almighty God misjudged the whole case and instead of saying a single word in refutation of the charge took up a totally different story that Jesus had made a bodily ascent to heaven? Such are the straits to which our opponents are reduced ! They never consider that bodily ascent is not a requisite of salvation, and that what is needed is a spiritual ascension to God. Again, the word rafa 1 is preceded by the word ^ y which means to cause to die a natural death, and this circumstance enables us to see the nature of the raja" a-nd shows conclusively that it was only an ascension of the spirit which according to the Holy Quran is granted to every righteous servant of God after his death. To assign any such meaning to the word ^y as taking up into heaven with the body is a per- version of the Word of God, for nowhere in the Holy Book or in