Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 16
resuscitated and carried his message to the dispersed tribes of Israel. The Quran further affirms that God provided shelter and security for Jesus “on a pleasant plateau with springs of running water" (al-Mu'minun, 23:51). The Holy Prophet of Islam is reported as having said that Jesus lived to an honoured old age exceeding one hundred and twenty years. The mass of orthodox Muslims, being influenced in later centuries by the Christian tradition, adopted the utterly untenable notion that Jesus was taken up bodily into heaven before being placed upon the cross. This is a direct contradiction of the Quran. The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, revived faith in the Quranic version of the delivery of Jesus from the cross and his ultimate natural death at a ripe old age. In the nineties of the last century, he announced that after the event of the crucifixion, Jesus travelled through the countries of the diaspora, preaching to the scattered tribes of Israel and finally settled in Kashmir among the Israelis of that region and died and was buried in Srinagar, where his tomb may be visited freely. He further affirmed that now that God had disclosed this aspect of the post crucifixion life of Jesus to him, He, in His wisdom, would cause to appear progressively historical proofs in support of this verity. There are prophecies both in Christianity and in Islam concerning the second advent of Jesus in the latter days. These prophecies have been treated as lending support to the notion that Jesus was taken bodily up to heaven and would descend in his physical body to the earth in the latter days. The Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement pointed out that all prophecies concerning the second coming of a spiritually exalted personage signify the advent of 8