Page 84 - The Prophet Jesus (pbuh) Did Not Die

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tion, he indicated the word's meaning in other verses where
it appears. He then gave his opinion using a hadith handed

down by Ibn Abi Hatim:
Ibn Abi Hatim says that: "My father told us … from Has-
san that the meaning of the verse 'I will take you back...' is
this: Here it means that 'I shall kill you with the death of
sleep; in other words, I shall cause you to sleep.' So Allah
raised Jesus (pbuh) to the heavens while he was asleep …
As an incontrovertible truth, Allah caused Jesus (pbuh) to
die the death of sleep and then raised him to the sky, res-
cuing him from some of the Jews, who were inflicting suf-
fering upon him at the time." 27
Imam Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari, another Islamic

scholar who examined the meaning of tawaffaa, stated that it
did not mean death, and drew attention to the use of mawt
in Surat az-Zumar:42:
Had Jesus (pbuh) died [which is not the case], then the
word mawt revealed in the verse: "Allah takes the souls
[of people] at death" (Surat az-Zumar:42), would not
have been revealed… This is because if, as has been
claimed, Allah had referred to normal death [in the bio-
logical sense], then this would have been clearly stated.
Since Allah refers to the fact that the Jews did not kill
Jesus (pbuh), but that he was taken and raised to the sky,
then one must think of a meaning beyond that of ordinary
death. 28

Sheikh al-Islam Mustafa Sabri, a contemporary of al-
Kawthari, cites this verse as evidence and offers the follow-
ing interpretation: "If we were to take the word tawaffaa as