Comments on Crucifixion or Crucifiction and lost Messages of God
The Muslim belief is drawn from the Qur'an which says that Isa (AS) was neither killed nor crucified but that it appeared as if he had embraced one of those fates; and surely he was not killed; instead Allah took him up to heaven intact; and that before his actual death all the people of the Scriptures - meaning Jews and Christians who came before Muslims - will believe in him as Allah's messenger. (4:157-159) So, any belief contrary to this which has been put down in the Qur'an is unacceptable. Do the Jewish people who believe in the Torah believe in Jesus as Allah's messenger (4:171) today? No. So, the clear message that one can draw from the Qur'an is that Jesus has not died yet.
Now as to the question of can the messages of Allah which were relayed to His Messengers be contaminated and/or lost? In either case, the answer is Yes. It is for the people to follow or not to follow the message of Allah SWT. That freedom is with people to choose. They are also the ones who can decide to preserve or not preserve what they heard or wrote down. However, as is often the case, human beings continue to be derailed by devil for it knows better about their state, their weaknesses, than they themselves. And that is why it did not take too long for Satan to mislead people within few years of Jesus's ascension to heaven. Not only were they confused about his very identity, but also about his message and about his last days on earth. The proof is within the so-called NT (new testament) accounts - from the so-called synoptic gospel accounts, and the Gnostic gospel of John. These so-called God-inspired writers could not even agree on his genealogy. They did not agree on many things about him. The interested readers may like to read Mowlana Rahmatullah Kiranwi's "Izharul Haaq" for a list of such textual contradictions within the gospel accounts.
It is no accident that within few years of Jesus's ascension, we come across many groups of Christians with competing claims and gospels. We are told that before the Nicene convention in 325 CE there were dozens of gospels, written in various languages, with various messages, letting people believe different things. For this a reading of writings of Christian fathers in the first three centuries is enough. Most of these gospel accounts were later rejected by the early fathers of Christianity to agree on 4, which have formed the Christian Canon. By this time the overall dominance of the Pauline Christianity was almost complete within the Roman territories. The dissenters lived in territories away from direct Roman rule, e.g., to the territories in the south in Arabia Felix and Syria. We are in possession today of some of those original manuscripts written by dissenting groups that are at variance with canonical ones.
The problem with Jesus's message being contaminated or original message having lost is not unique though in human history. Many old scriptures or messages sent by Allah are lost. People could not or did not preserve such messages completely. The Jewish Bible mentions about loss of some 30 Books. What happened to those Books? How is it that the extant copies of the most original manuscripts of Christian gospels are not in the very language of Jesus? Why did they fail to preserve any in his own language? Who can deny that when a message is translated often times the words or expressions chosen are reflections of how it was interpreted by the scribe or translator? Even someone's name can be unwisely translated without retaining the very words thus creating much confusion amongst people in later times. Thus, a statement in Arabic like: Habib Siddiqui said that he was a Muslim can be translated into English - "Beloved Saint said that he ...." To a person who is reading this statement would have no definitive clue that the phrase "Beloved Saint" had come from the words "Habib Siddiqui", if the original text was not preserved.
It is there that the Qur'an remains the unique Message of Allah, in a different league from any other previous scriptures. The language in which it came still retains it as such without adding or deleting anything. Even if all the books were to disappear today by earthquake or some other disaster, the entire Qur'an is in the memory of many Muslims who can produce it the way it was preserved all these 14 centuries.
When Muhammad (S) came there were hardly a handful of people who had preserved the gist of the message of Jesus, let alone the uncorrupted text of his message. It was time that Allah decided to send his last messenger - Muhammad Ahmad Mustafa (S) - the best of mankind for guidance of not only Arabs, but everyone - with the Last Message - the complete message - Al Qur'an, in which is guidance for all. Whoever lives by this message is saved.
Now as to the question of can the messages of Allah which were relayed to His Messengers be contaminated and/or lost? In either case, the answer is Yes. It is for the people to follow or not to follow the message of Allah SWT. That freedom is with people to choose. They are also the ones who can decide to preserve or not preserve what they heard or wrote down. However, as is often the case, human beings continue to be derailed by devil for it knows better about their state, their weaknesses, than they themselves. And that is why it did not take too long for Satan to mislead people within few years of Jesus's ascension to heaven. Not only were they confused about his very identity, but also about his message and about his last days on earth. The proof is within the so-called NT (new testament) accounts - from the so-called synoptic gospel accounts, and the Gnostic gospel of John. These so-called God-inspired writers could not even agree on his genealogy. They did not agree on many things about him. The interested readers may like to read Mowlana Rahmatullah Kiranwi's "Izharul Haaq" for a list of such textual contradictions within the gospel accounts.
It is no accident that within few years of Jesus's ascension, we come across many groups of Christians with competing claims and gospels. We are told that before the Nicene convention in 325 CE there were dozens of gospels, written in various languages, with various messages, letting people believe different things. For this a reading of writings of Christian fathers in the first three centuries is enough. Most of these gospel accounts were later rejected by the early fathers of Christianity to agree on 4, which have formed the Christian Canon. By this time the overall dominance of the Pauline Christianity was almost complete within the Roman territories. The dissenters lived in territories away from direct Roman rule, e.g., to the territories in the south in Arabia Felix and Syria. We are in possession today of some of those original manuscripts written by dissenting groups that are at variance with canonical ones.
The problem with Jesus's message being contaminated or original message having lost is not unique though in human history. Many old scriptures or messages sent by Allah are lost. People could not or did not preserve such messages completely. The Jewish Bible mentions about loss of some 30 Books. What happened to those Books? How is it that the extant copies of the most original manuscripts of Christian gospels are not in the very language of Jesus? Why did they fail to preserve any in his own language? Who can deny that when a message is translated often times the words or expressions chosen are reflections of how it was interpreted by the scribe or translator? Even someone's name can be unwisely translated without retaining the very words thus creating much confusion amongst people in later times. Thus, a statement in Arabic like: Habib Siddiqui said that he was a Muslim can be translated into English - "Beloved Saint said that he ...." To a person who is reading this statement would have no definitive clue that the phrase "Beloved Saint" had come from the words "Habib Siddiqui", if the original text was not preserved.
It is there that the Qur'an remains the unique Message of Allah, in a different league from any other previous scriptures. The language in which it came still retains it as such without adding or deleting anything. Even if all the books were to disappear today by earthquake or some other disaster, the entire Qur'an is in the memory of many Muslims who can produce it the way it was preserved all these 14 centuries.
When Muhammad (S) came there were hardly a handful of people who had preserved the gist of the message of Jesus, let alone the uncorrupted text of his message. It was time that Allah decided to send his last messenger - Muhammad Ahmad Mustafa (S) - the best of mankind for guidance of not only Arabs, but everyone - with the Last Message - the complete message - Al Qur'an, in which is guidance for all. Whoever lives by this message is saved.
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