Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 210
? 210 Thou wast the Watcher over them, and Thou art a Witness over all things. ’ 1 It is evident from this verse that Jesus, when he will be ques- tioned by God on the Day of Resurrection, will declare that he died a natural death at the time when there existed no idea of his ‘Divinity’ among the Christians. The popular belief that Jesus is still alive in Heaven and that he will come to earth again is in direct contradiction with this verse. For if he were to come to earth again he would be faced with the fact that millions of Christians take him as God. Thus, he would not be in a position to deny that he did not see Christians believe in his ‘Divinity’ as this verse declares he would. However, the fact that Jesus though fixed to the cross, did not die on it, but died a natural death remained hid- den from the Muslims for centuries, until the Promised Messiah appeared and uncovered the truth. In his book, Masih Hindustan Mein (Chapter 2), the Promised Messiah, comments on the verse denying the death of Jesus on the cross: “Almighty God says: The Jews neither slew Jesus, nor did they crucify him” (a) (i. e. , made him die on the cross); nay, they only suspected that Jesus had died on the cross; 1. The Holy Quran, ch. 5, vs. 116–117 2. The Muslim commentators misunderstood from the Quranic word Ma salabooho that they did not fix Jesus to the cross, therefore they denied the fact that he was placed on the cross. While the word sulb in Arabic has exactly the same meaning as the English word ‘to crucify’ i. e. , to put to death by fixing the hands and feel to a cross. ( Chambers’ Twentieth Century Dictionary ). The sentence Salabuhu means, he put him to death in a certain well-known manner. (Lane’s Arabic-English lexicon).