The Reference of the Five Pronouns

The verse under discussion is similar to “There is none of you but will come to it” (19:71) and “There is none among us but has a known place” (37:164), which begin with negation (nafī) and end with exception (istīthnāʾ). In this respect, there is no difference between the pronoun “his death” (mawtihi) referring to the Messiah or to one of the People of the Book, which is understood from the expression at the beginning of the verse.

To explain the meaning of this verse, attention must be paid to its five pronouns: the referent of the pronoun in “will surely believe” (la-yuʾminanna) is the People of the Book, and the referent of the pronoun “in him” (bihi) is Jesus. Only the referent of the pronoun “before his death” (qabla mawtihi) is not clear, otherwise the subject pronoun of “he will be” (yakūnu) certainly refers back to the Messiah, and the plural pronoun “against them” (ʿalayhim) undoubtedly refers back to the People of the Book.

Is the referent of the pronoun “his death” (mawtihi), due to the unity of context, Jesus the Messiah or the People of the Book? There are two possibilities: The first possibility: The pronoun “his death” (mawtihi) refers back to Jesus. This possibility does not accord with the apparent meaning of the verse under discussion, because the word “People of the Book” (ahl al-kitāb), by virtue of being indefinite in a context of negation,(61) has the appearance of universal comprehensiveness (ʿumūm istighraqi), whereas if the pronoun refers back to that personage, it becomes specific to the time of return (rajʿa);(62) that is, only those People of the Book who exist at the time of the descent of the Messiah from heaven and his joining with the Imam of the Time will believe in him, and these are a very small group and do not include the People of the Book who existed in past centuries and at the time of the revelation of the verse (fourteen centuries ago).

The point that is raised regarding the referent of the aforementioned pronoun to the Messiah is this: if the intention is that the People of the Book who exist at the time of that personage’s descent to earth will believe in him, there is no problem with that personage’s descent to earth nor with the correct faith of the People of the Book of that era in him. However, some theologians (mutakallimūn) did not consider that personage’s descent to be without problem, whereas that problem does not relate to the principle of his descent, because if the mentioned descent takes place at a time when religious obligation (taklīf) is suspended, or he descends in a manner that he is not recognized, it is without problem. But if he descends at a time when religious obligation remains and the community of that day recognizes him, it is not outside of two states: A. The Messiah is presented to the community as a prophet. B. The Messiah lacks the position of prophethood. The first assumption is invalid, because after the Most Noble Messenger no one will be a prophet, and the second assumption is also invalid, because the prophethood of no prophet is taken away from him. Fakhr al-Rāzī, after relating the aforementioned problem, criticized it as follows: the prophethood of every prophet ended with the mission (mabʿath) of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, so there is no problem in this matter that the Messiah after his descent should be a follower of the religion of Muḥammad; not that the prophethood of a prophet has been taken away from him, but rather his prophethood has ended, whether he descends or does not descend.(63)

Second possibility. If the pronoun refers back to the People of the Book, all of them will believe in Jesus before their death; that is, their spiritual eye (malakūtī) opens at the moment of dying (iḥtiḍār). This possibility is more preferable, because there is much disagreement about the Messiah from his birth to his death that has led to extremes and excesses, for this reason the Qur’an does not consider the words of any of them to be knowledgeable: “Indeed those who differ concerning him are surely in doubt about him: they do not have any knowledge of that beyond following conjectures” (4:157). This conjecture (ẓann) is removed at the time of death and all of them—with natural acceptable faith or compulsory unacceptable faith—will believe in that personage. In any case, the truth becomes clear to them before their death. Of course, the verse under discussion is not evidence for restriction (ḥaṣr) that the truthfulness of the Messiah becomes clear only at the moment of dying (ʿind al-iḥtiḍār). In the narrative discussion, a hadith supporting this meaning will come.

It might be said that the manifestation of the truthfulness of prophets is not specific to the Messiah, and that before the death of every individual, the truth becomes clear to them; however, the response is that Jesus has exclusive characteristics, because much disagreement arose concerning that personage: one group went to extremes regarding his birth and considered him an illegitimate child: “And for their uttering a monstrous calumny against Mary” (4:156), and another group took the path of excess and called him the son of God: “Christ is the son of God” (9:30), and regarding his death, some held the view that he was killed and crucified, while none of these opinions is correct. The Qur’an states in this regard that one day the truth will become clear to the People of the Book and all of them will believe in him before their death: “There is none among the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them” (4:159). According to some beliefs, the referent of the pronoun “him” is Prophet.(64) That is, at the time of people’s death, his truthfulness becomes clear to everyone; but since Messenger is not mentioned by name in the verse, this possibility would not be correct, although through the principle of application (jarī) and correspondence (taṭbīq) or narrative analysis (taḥlīl riwāʾī), that personage could also be the referent of the pronoun “him”.(65) For this reason, it can be said that after the advent of Islam, the People of the Book who became Muslim as well as the Muslim masses are, in reality, the true followers of the Messiah, because they all accept the infallibility (ʿiṣma), purity of his mother, and his glad tidings about the future prophet, namely Messenger, and they are the exemplification of this verse: “and I shall set those who follow you above the faithless until the Day of Resurrection” (3:55).

Note: Some considered the referent of “him” to be the ascension (rafʿ) derived from the verb “Rather God raised him up” (4:158), meaning that at the time of death they will believe in his ascension, because currently all the People of the Book believe in the crucifixion of that personage and none of them believe in the mentioned ascension.(66)

It is necessary to note that the reference of the pronoun to ascension (rafʿ), apart from the necessity of the artificial derivation of a noun from the verb “raised him up” and aside from the distance between the referent in the previous verse and the pronoun in the following verse, the principle of ascension is not part of the fundamentals of religion (uṣūl al-dīn) that they should believe in it.

What is a fundamental of religion is the prophethood of Jesus himself, not the ascension.