History Supports Ahmadiyyat Part 3: Timeline of Scholars with Ahmadi Views on Death of Jesus(pbuh)

We have already discussed how Sahaba believed that Hadrat Isa(as) has passed away. So we be using scholars post Sahaba era.

Imam Malik (711-795):

One of great al-a’immah al-arba‘ah, al-Imām Abū ʻAbd Allāh Mālik ibn Anas al-Aṣbaḥī (d. 179 AH), commonly known as al-Imām Mālik, who founded the Mālikī school of Islamic law (madhhab), was of the opinion that Jesus (‘alayhi ṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salām) had died a natural death. Listed below now are four conclusive and significant references on that note:

1. al-Imām Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd al-Jadd al-Qurtubī (d. 520 AH) states in al-Bayān at-taḥṣīl wa-t-tawjīh wa-t-taʻlīl fī masā’il al-mustakhrajah, his commentary on al-‘Utbī's al-Mustakhrajah[1]:

”ويحتمل أن يكون معنى قوله: {بل رفعه الله إليه} أي رفع روحه إليه بعد أن مات ويحييه في آخر الزمان فينزله إلى الأرض على ما جاءت به الآثار، فيكون قول مالك على هذا ’ومات وهو ابن ثلاث وثلاثين سنة‘ على الحقيقة لا على المجاز.“
“And it is likely that the meaning of ‘On the contrary, Allāh exalted him to Himself’[2] is the exaltation of his soul to Him after he had died and He will revive him in the latter days. Thus, He will cause him to descend to the earth according to what the traditions (āthār) came along with. The statement of Mālik on this ‘and he died when he was 33 years old’ is literal and not a metaphor.”[3]

[1] A book of Mālikī Fiqh, known as al-‘Utbiyyah or al-Mustakhrajah, by Abū ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Umawī as-Sufyānī al-‘Utbī al-Qurṭubī (d. 255 AH), only available in commentaries today, e.g. by al-Imām Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd al-Jadd al-Qurṭubī in his al-Bayān at-taḥṣīl wa-t-tawjīh wa-t-taʻlīl fī masā’il al-mustakhrajah

[2] Sūrat an-Nisāʼ 4:159

[3] al-Qurtubī, I. R. (1988). al-Bayān at-taḥṣīl wa-t-tawjīh wa-t-taʻlīl fī masā’il al-mustakhrajah. Bayrūt, Lubnān: Dār al-Gharb al-Islamī, p. 449.

2. al-Qāḍī Abū Muḥammad ʻAbd al-Ḥaqq ibn Ghālib ibn ʻAṭīyah al-Andalusī al-Muḥāribī (d. 542) writes in his Qurʼān exegesis (tafsīr) al-Muḥarrir al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-Kitāb al-ʻazīz:

”وقال مالك في جامع العتبية: مات عيسى وهو ابن ثلاث وثلاثين سنة.“
“And Mālik said in Jami‘ al-‘utbiyyah [1]: Jesus died when he was 33 years old.”[4]

[4] al-Andalusī, I. ʻA. (2002). Tafsīr Ibn ʻAṭīyah, al-Muḥarrir al-wajīz fī tafsīr al-Kitāb al-ʻazīz. Bayrūt: Dār Ibn Ḥazm, p. 308.

3. al-Imām Abī ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Khalīfah al-Washtānī al-Ubbī al-Mālikī (d. 827 AH), writes in his Kitāb Ikmāl ikmāl al-mu‘allim, which is a commentary (sharḥ) of the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī an-Nīsābūrī (d. 261 AH):

”وفي العتبية قال مالك: مات عيسى ابن ثلاث وثلاثين سنة. قال ابن رشد: يعني موته: خروجه من عالم الأرض إلى عالم السماء. قال: ويحتمل أنه مات حقيقة، ويحيا في آخر الزمان، إذ لا بدّ من نزوله لتواتر الأحاديث بذلك.“
“And it is in al-‘Utbiyyah[1] that Mālik said: Jesus died when he was 33 years old. Ibn Rushd [al-Jadd] said: By this he meant his death: His emergence from the earthly world to the heavenly world. He said: And it is likely that he died a proper death and that he will be revived in the latter days, for there is no doubt about his descension (nuzūl), because of the successiveness (tawātur) of the traditions (ahādīth) on it.”[5]

4. ash-Shaykh Muḥammad Ṭāhir ibn ‘Alī aṣ-Ṣiddīqī al-Fattanī al-Hindī al-Kujrātī (d. 986 AH) writes in his work Majmaʻ biḥār al-anwār fī gharāʼib al-tanzīl wa-laṭāʼif al-akhbār, which is a dictionary of the terms (ghāraʼib) of the Qurʼān and the Aḥādīth:

”وقال مالك: مات وهو ابن ثلاث وثلاثين سنة. ولعله أراد رفعه إلى السماء، أو حقيقته ويحيى آخر الزمان لتواتر خبر النزول.“
“And Mālik said: He died when he was 33 years old. And He may have intended to raise him to the sky or [He may have caused] his proper [death] and he will be revived in the latter days, because of the successiveness (tawātur) of the traditions (khabar) on the descension (nuzūl).”[6]

[6] Fattanī, M. T. (1897). Majmaʻ biḥār al-anwār fī gharāʼib at-tanzīl wa-laṭāʼif al-akhbār. Lakʹhnaw: Nawal Kishawr, p. 286.

All of my Information regarding Imam Malik has been taken from:https://iftiswelt.blogspot.com/2014/01/al-imam-malik-death-of-jesus-as.html

Al-Tabarani (873-918):

Jesus lived for 120 years (Al-Tabarani page 814)

Ibn Hazm (944 - 1064):

“Jesus, peace be upon him, was neither killed nor crucified, but God caused him to die and then raised him. The Almighty has said: ‘They did not kill him or crucify him’; and ‘I will cause thee to die and exalt thee’; and ‘I (Jesus) was a witness of them so long as I was among them, but when Thou didst cause me to die Thou wert the Watcher over them’ and ‘Allah takes souls (yatawaffa) at the time of death’. Thus there are two kinds of wafat: sleep and death. Jesus in his words ‘When Thou didst cause me to die (falamma tawaffaita-ni)’ was not referring to sleep, but it is correct that by wafat he meant death.” (Mahalli fil Fiqh, Page 23)

Daata Gunj Bakhsh (1009 - 1077):

Daata Gunj Bakhsh r.h in Kashful Mahjoob said the same thing that Holy Prophet s.a most definitely saw the souls of the prophets not their bodies in reference to Sahih al-Bukhari 3887

Ibn Arabi (1165-1240)

And:

Ibn Taymiyyah (1263 - 1328) :

“God has informed, in regard to the Messiah, that he told people only to worship God, ‘my Lord and your Lord’; and he was a witness of them so long as he was among them, but after his death (wafat) only God was the Watcher over them. So if some people have misreported him, or misinterpreted his words, or deliberately altered the religion he brought, the Messiah cannot be held responsible for it, for he was only a messenger whose duty was just the delivery of the message.” (Al-Jawwab as-Sahih)

And:

Shaikh ul-Islam, Ibn Taymiya [rahimahullah], has written concerning the wafat or death of Jesus of Nazareth [alayhis-salam], putting it in the same category as the death of the great prophet Moses [alayhis-salam], whom all Muslims are agreed died and the Prophet Muhammad [sall Allahu alayhi wasallam] even knew the location of his grave. Thus it becomes apparent that Shaikh ul-Islam, Ibn Taymiya, believed in the wafat of the Messiah.

Imam Hafiz Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya (d. 751 H) writes:

And:

وأما ما يذكر عن المسيح أنه رفع إلى السماء وله ثلاث وثلاثون سنة فهذا لا يعرف له أثر متصل يجب المصير إليه
Translation: “As for what is mentioned regarding the Messiah that he ascended into Heaven at the age of thirty three years, there is no known report that is sound and connected in this regard to which one could turn to.”

Reference: Zaad-ul-Ma'ad; v.1 p.82

And:

ومن سواه لا ينال بذات روحه الصعود إلى السماء إلا بعد الموت والمفارقة ، فالأنبياء إنما استقرت أرواحهم هناك بعد مفارقة الأبدان
Translation: “No one, apart from him (the Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him) was taken into Heaven except after death and through separation (of soul from body). As for the Prophets, their souls are stationed there (in Heaven) after the separation from their bodies.”
Reference: Zaad al-Ma'ad; v.3 p.36-37

Ibn Qayyim in Zaad ul Ma'ad said t that Holy Prophet s.a most definitely saw the souls of the prophets not their bodies in reference to Sahih al-Bukhari 3887

“Had Prophet Moses (as) and Prophet Jesus (as) lived (till the times of the Holy Prophet (saw), they would certainly have been among his followers.” (Madarej Al Salekeen, Vol. II, p. 263)

Imam Hafiz Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya (d. 751 H)

Ibn Kathir (1301-1348):

Shah Waliullah Dehlvi:

Believed Mutawafeeka means death.

Wa-llāhu A‘lamu bi-ṣ-ṣawāb wa ilayhi l-marji‘u wa-l-maʼāb! (And Allāh knows best what is right and to Him is the final return and the last resort!)

Allama Syed Qutab of Egypt (1906-1966):