The Nature of Raising Jesus (a.s.)

God is free from location, therefore the raising of Jesus (a.s.) by God was neither physical nor spatial, but rather a raising in station and spirit, because “wherever you turn, there is the face of God”(545) and He has no specific place. Therefore, the raising of Jesus (a.s.), like the raising of Idris (a.s.), is in station and spiritual: “and We raised him to a station exalted.”(546)

The Qur’an presents both the promise of raising Jesus (a.s.) and its fulfillment: “and for their saying, ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of God’ - though they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but so it was made to appear to them. Indeed those who differ concerning him are surely in doubt about him: they do not have any knowledge of that beyond following conjectures, and certainly they did not kill him. Rather God raised him up toward Himself, and God is all-mighty, all-wise.”(547) The Jews thought they had killed Jesus (a.s.); however, they neither killed him nor crucified him. The matter was made unclear to them and they certainly did not kill Jesus (a.s.), rather God raised him toward Himself. Through this statement, the Qur’an denies the killing or crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah (a.s.).

In the verse under discussion, it is not clearly evident whether the raising occurred during life, or whether it means that his spirit was raised. However, in the aforementioned verse which concerns the fulfillment of this promise, these two possibilities are no longer in question, since it states that Jesus (a.s.) was neither killed nor crucified, but rather God raised him toward Himself.

In summary, there are two contextual indicators in the verse showing that God raised Jesus (a.s.) while he was alive:

1. If the intention was that God raised the spirit of the Messiah (a.s.), this would be incompatible with the word “rather” (bal) which is used for contradiction, because even if he had been crucified, God would have raised his spirit all the more.
2. While all the pronouns in the verse refer to the Messiah (a.s.), if the pronoun in “rafaʿahu” (“raised him”) were to refer to the spirit of the Messiah (a.s.), this would contradict the context of the verse.

Based on this, the Messiah (a.s.) ascended alive toward the Truth, and “rāfiʿuka ilayya” means “I will raise you alive toward Myself” and the meaning of “innī mutawaffīka” is not “I will cause you to die,” although one day all humans will taste death: “Every soul shall taste death”,(548) even the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) was not exempt from this principle: “You will indeed die, and they [too] will die indeed.”(549)

Accordingly, the narrations that consider Jesus (a.s.) to be alive(550) are not only not contrary to the Qur’an, but are in agreement with it. However, with the help of reliable evidence, we must search for a third instance of “innī mutawaffīka”, since the intention of the verse is neither death nor sleep, because putting him to sleep would have no special effect. Moreover, he experienced normal sleep and wakefulness like other people.

Moreover, it appears from the verse that God bestowed a special blessing upon the Messiah (a.s.), whereas if we were to understand tawaffī to mean the death of Jesus (a.s.) and the raising of his spirit after death, the meaning of the verse would be that God caused Jesus (a.s.) to die and raised his spirit toward Himself and saved him from the society corrupted by disbelief. This characteristic would not be a distinction for the Messiah (a.s.), since all prophets (a.s.) and indeed all people of pure faith have departed from this world in the same way.

This verse shows that just as the beginning of the birth and the duration of life of the Messiah (a.s.) were mixed with miracles, his continuation and tawaffī were also accompanied by miracles.

God explains part of the matters relating to the end of the Messiah’s (a.s.) life in this verse and another part in the verse “and they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but so it was made to appear to them.”(551)

In summary, not only do the verses of the Qur’an not indicate that the Messiah (a.s.) is dead, but to some extent his being alive can also be understood from them. Further explanation may be provided in verses 157 to 159 of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ.