Life of Ahmad — Page 305
as JESUS as IS DEAD 305 'Have We not made the earth sufficient for the living and the dead?' (Al-Mursal a t 77:26-27) The last portion of the verse under consideration is said to be the strongest argument in support of physical ascent. It is translated as follows: 'There is no Jew or Christian who shall not believe in Jesus as before his death. ' Do these words by themselves show that Jesus is now sitting in the sky in his physical body? But the fantastic conclusion is drawn thus. As, according to this translation, Jews and Christians have not all believed in Jesus as , therefore he must be alive. But it is forgotten that if Jesus as be supposed to be alive, even then all Jews and Christians cannot believe in Jesus as ; because many generations of them are dead. How can they then believe? So it is clear that if they have all to believe in Jesus as , it must be supposed that along with him Jews and Christians are also alive, which is obviously absurd. Now I give here the correct translation of the passage without twisting the words so as to yield farfetched meanings: 'And because of their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a grievous calumny and their saying, "We have slain the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God!"—they slew him not, nor crucified him, but he was made to appear to them like one crucified, and those who differ about him are certainly in doubt by reason of this fact; they have no