233 Highlights to the Holy-Quran-English.pdf https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v7oavIHreCzhF2W02G6roo5rsstGbfmW/view?usp=d... R.22. 154. The People of the Book ask thee to cause a Book to descend on them from heaven. They asked Moses a greater thing than this: they said, 'Show us Allah openly.' Then a destructive punishment overtook them because of their transgression. Then they took the calf.for worship after clear Signs had come to them, but We pardoned ,:,even that. And We gave Moses manifest authority. (,:, 154. And We gave Moses clear overwhelming argument. Chapter 4 - r' •Y' ,:, 158. Note: The emphasis is upon their failure to murder Jesus by any means. The reader is reminded that the very beginning of the verse refers to the Jewish boast that they had succeeded in murdering Jesus. t . i.e. killed him by crucifixion.) 155. And We raised high above them the Mount while making a covenant with them, and We said to them, 'Enter the gate submissively,' and We said to them, 'Transgress not in the matter of the Sabbath.' And We took from them a firm covenant. 156. Then, because of their breaking of their covenant, and their denial of the Signs of Allah, and their seeking to kill the Prophets unjustly, and their saying: 'Our hearts are wrapped in covers,'-nay, but Allah has sealed them because of their disbelief, so they believe not but little- 157. And because of their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a grievous calumny, ,:, 158. And their saying, 'We did kill the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah;' whereas they slew him not, nor crucified! him, but he was made to appear to them like one crucified; and those who differ therein are certainly in a state of doubt about it; they have no definite knowledge thereof, but only follow a conjecture; and they did not convert this conjecture into a certainty; ,:, 159. On the contrary, Allah exalted him to Himself. And Allah is Mighty, Wise. This Jewish claim is firmly rejected by the Holy Qur'an. Thal is why by the end of the verse, the conclusive declaration is that whatever may have happened they certainly failed to kill him. This implies that it is not the act of crucifixion which is denied. What is denied is death by crucifixion. Wa/iikin shuhhiha /ahum ( ~ 0 ~ ,): the word shuhhiha (0) in the text must be carefully studied. The context of the preceding text would not permit'the implied reference to any other than Jesus or alternatively it could refer to the incident in general. In conformity with the rules of grammar the implied pronoun in the word shubbiha (0) can refer to none other than Jesus Christ himself. This means that it was he who was obscured and made to appear to them similar to someone else. Hence as Jesus was hung upon the cross he hung in the likeness of someone else. Evidently the denial is not that of crucifixion or apparent death thereupon but the denial is death by crucifixion. There certainly was great confusion as lo what actually had happened. So the verse continues to build the scenario of the confusion and doubt. All else is nothing but conjecture. Thal is the final conclusion. If the word shubbiha refers to the incident as such, this would point to the divergent claims of the two disputing parties as to what had happened. Neither of the parties were certain of the validity of their claims. For instance the Christian belief of Jesus' death by crucifixion and later resurrection was not based on any tangible grounds but was merely conjectural. Likewise the Jewish claim of Jesus' death upon the cross was no less conjectural. Hence their appeal to Pilate for the possession of Jesus' body. In fact they clearly expressed their doubts regarding the entire episode of his so-called death and warned Pilate that in the likelihood of his survival he might reappear in public claiming that he had risen from the dead. (Matthew 27:63-64) Tt is to this that the last part of the verse under study refers, when it says wa innalladh,na (&.i}, i,,). Certainly those who differ about it (or about him as lo what actually befell him) were themselves in doubt. ,:, 159. Note: Bal rafa'ahulliihu ilaihi (~),i,', Ll; j.;): the majority of orthodox Muslims infer from this part of the verse that the connotation of Bal refers to the act of crucifixion i.e., instead ofletting him die upon the cross, God rescued him by raising him bodily to somewhere in the heavens. As such he should be living somewhere in space in the same corporal form that he possessed prior to the attempt of his crucifixion. This interpretation raises many difficult questions, mainly: (a) If Jesus was not crucified at all, is the entire history of crucifixion emphatically denied and the whole episode just a fiction or delusion suffered by the Jews, the Christians and the Romans alike'' (b) Where in the verse is the claim that Jesus was raised bodily lo heavens? All that is mentioned simply is that Allah exalted him to Himself.