The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 300
CH. 23 AL-MU'MINÜN continuance; a secure dwelling; a place where water rests in a meadow. It is also a plural (or rather a coll. gen. n. ,) of which the singular is 3. The word is also applied to low and fertile grounds (Lane & Aqrab). (springs of running water) may عان or معن be taken as derived from They say, i. e. the water flowed. means, the rain constantly fell upon the ground and its thirst was satisfied. means, the plant had plentiful irrigation means, the water or the tear flowed. means, the water of the well became plentiful. means, flowing water, a spring. means, flowing water or the water which the eye sees flowing upon the surface of the earth (Aqrab). Commentary: The verse constitutes a befitting sequel to the subject dealt with in the few preceding verses, viz. that it is an invariable divine law that God's Messengers are at first rejected and persecuted but eventually they succeed and their rejecters come to grief and that in consonance with this divine law, Jesus, the last Israelite Prophet also met with severe persecution at the hands of his opponents. They got him hung on the cross. But true to His law and promise God delivered him from the accursed death by crucifixion, and to offset his seeming failure in the early stages of his mission gave him shelter along with his mother in a land full of green meadows and running springs, where his mission prospered and where he lived to a ripe old age. As Jesus' death, like his birth, has PT. 18 become a subject of great controversy, and some confusion and doubt still persist as to how and where he passed the last days of his crowded life, and as the question of the manner of his death forms a vital question with the Christian Faith, a somewhat exhaustive note on this very important, albeit baffling religious question is called for. The Quran and the Bible, reinforced by authenticated facts of history, lend powerful support to our view that Jesus did not die on the cross. The following arguments substantiate contention: 2214 and support this 1. Jesus could not have died on the cross because he was a Divine Prophet and a righteous servant of God and according to the Bible "he that is hanged is accursed of God" (Deut. 21:23). 2. On the night before Jesus was nailed to the cross he had prayed to God in great agony to "take away this cup (of death on the cross) from me" (Mark 14:36; Matt. 26:39; Luke, 22:42); and his prayer was heard (Heb. 5:7). 3. Jesus had predicted that like Jonah who had gone into the belly of the whale alive and had come out of it alive (Matt. 12:40) he would remain in an excavated sepulchre for three days and would come out of it alive. 4. He had also foretold that after having delivered his message to the Israelites in Palestine he would go to seek out the lost ten tribes of Israel and would bring them back into the Master's fold (John 10:16). Even