Waiting for Isa/Jesus

Hope for a Prophet

A believer hopes that divine intervention will help us cope with the apocalyptic predictions discussed earlier, and to come to terms with the suffering that has afflicted untold billions throughout the long slog of history. Atheists are quick to reject a divine planner in the face of such widespread suffering, arguing no potent and benevolent deity would permit such suffering. Further, they scoff at those who hope for a deux ex machina to materialize from thin air to solve our earthly problems, relying instead on the advances of science/technology to bail us out. However, they fail to adequately appreciate the Fermi Paradox, which implies (among other things) that humanity will likely annihilate itself before we solve our major problems, since the creative and destructive powers of science coevolve.

So if there is an omnipotent and merciful God, as we monotheists claim, why is there so much natural suffering? This is the problem of theodicy. While there are many partial explanations for why suffering exists, a pro-science person will note that there is no crisp, succinct and entirely satisfying explanation for it in a monotheistic framework.

Simplicity and parsimony are often desired in scientific explanations of natural phenomena, but to comprehend and empathize with the suffering of others requires higher-order spiritual inputs. A believer tacitly accepts that such suffering is somehow part of a grand divine masterplan, one that is so vast and overwhelming, that it is difficult for us mere mortals to fully comprehend it in our cosmically-brief existence. We live in ‘middle time’ – our lifespan is measured in decades and is far longer the nano timescale of the quantum physics that underpins our reality, and it is far below the epochal scale of millions and billions of years, over which our universe evolved.1 For us monotheists, the scope of our thought and imagination is too small to solve the big problem of natural suffering.

To this end, BioMuslims make a leap of faith, and actively await the return of the Prophet Isa/Jesus ﷺ. Both Traditionalists and BioMuslims (and most Christians) believe that his second coming will occur before the world ends. This prophecy of nuzul Isa, which translates as descent of Isa/Jesus, is based on four Quranic verses, 4:159, 43:61, 19:33, and 3:46. When that miraculous event occurs, all uncertainty about our past will be clarified – including the events of the first century of Islam (and Christianity), the accurate meaning of pivotal words or phrases in the Quran (and Bible), the numerous contested claims of history, the purpose of our suffering, and the essential nature of our reality. It will be a momentous and joyous time of unknown duration. In contrast, the secular view of the world offers no help with doomsday scenarios (despite having lifted billions out of poverty and physical suffering in the past two centuries). As pro-science people, why make this evidence-free leap of faith? Because “a truly naturalistic view of the world leaves no room for secular hope”.2

Until the second coming, we live in an ahl al fatra, a time between Prophets, during which perfect knowledge of the divine is unavailable due to the uncertainties of how to interpret the Quran (or any other divine text). Until the prophet Isa/Jesus ﷺ returns to provide a crystal clear interpretation of Biblical and Quranic messages, we can only work with the nuanced ambiguity of BioIslam and our theohumanistic intentions. The term ahl al fatra is traditionally used to identify the long gaps between the appearance of Prophets in history, such as the approximately 1,300-year gap between Moses ﷺ and the next divine emissary, Jesus ﷺ, or the 600-year gap between him and Muhammad ﷺ. Traditionalist Muslims rely on a Hadith that claims 124,000 prophets were sent to humanity across time and location, out of which 313 were Messengers who delivered a new revelation, and Isa/Jesus ﷺ was the penultimate one, and Muhammad ﷺ the most recent one.3 However, if he returns in a second coming, his position will change to ‘post-ultimate’. How many more centuries will pass before the return of Isa/Jesus ﷺ? That too is a major uncertainty.

A Latent Descent

The four Quranic verses cited above only indirectly refer to the future descent, which has led some modern scholars to deny a physical descent and instead propose a metaphorical one, if any. Yet there appears to be sufficient basis in the indirect references to hope for a physical prophetic descent. The Traditionalist scholars extracted an underlying message of descent given strong support from the sahih Hadith. So in a sense they used BioIslam’s latent message approach and illuminated the ambiguity of the Quranic verses with Hadith reports. For this reason, BioMuslims are in agreement with the Traditionalists on the basic notion of descent, but differ on the details as we shall see later.

Verse 4:159 signals a future descent, by suggesting all monotheists will believe in Isa/Jesus ﷺ before he dies again. It says, “There is not one of the People of the Book who will not believe in [Jesus] before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them”. When we compare 11 English translations of the Quran, we see that they translate similarly. An alternate interpretation, which would not support a second coming, suggests that this refers to the death of the individual, not of Jesus. Some translators have suggested either of the very divergent interpretations is possible.4

Verse 43:61 also supports a future descent, with the context supplied by 43:59. Jesus was not but a servant upon whom We bestowed favor, and We made him an example for the Children of Israel.” (43:59). “And indeed, Jesus will be [a sign for] knowledge of the Hour, so be not in doubt of it, and follow Me. This is a straight path”, as per the Sahih International translation. When we compare 11 English translations of the Quran., we find that 8 out of 11 translations refer to Isa/Jesus in a similar manner – 7 use the term Jesus or second coming directly, and 1 uses it indirectly.

Verse 19:33, offer additional support, with the context supplied by 19:30. “[Jesus] said, “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet.” (19:30). “And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive.” (19:33). The above translation is based on Sahih International, and most English translators render it similarly.

Verse 3:46 offers intriguing support, “He will speak to people in his infancy and in his adulthood. He will be one of the righteous”. The future tense used here, and is consistently used by all translators, suggests he is yet to speak to us in his adulthood. The above translation is from Abdul Haleem; alternate translations are similar. However the use of future tense about Jesus’ infancy is hard to comprehend since the verse was obviously revealed after his lifetime. Is this a consequence of the Translation Problem we discussed earlier? That the Quran is indirect and unclear on this should not surprise us since there are many other verses that are mystical or mysterious and whose meaning will be clarified only after the second coming Isa/Jesus ﷺ.

The overall take away from these comparison across translators is that while the verses lack absolute clarity, it would not be a stretch to interpret them as supportive of a physical descent by Isa/Jesus ﷺ.

On Common Ground

A survey by Pew Research showed that the majority of Traditional Muslims have surprisingly strong beliefs about the imminent descent of Jesus.5 BioIslam is closer in interpretation to Traditionalists, than are modern Muslim reformers on this front, since BioIslam accepts the possibility of an actual physical return of Isa/Jesus ﷺ, and even actively hopes for it as a convenient way out of our uncertainty and predicament. This contrasts eminent modernist reformers, such as Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) and Rashid Rida (d. 1935), who believed the nuzul Isa is an allegorical reference to positive changes in society.6 Some reformist intellectuals have views that are substantially compatible with BioIslam overall, yet do not believe the Quran forecasts a second coming.7

The Pew survey results are a welcome surprise, since reverence for Muhammad ﷺ as a Prophet far exceeds that for Isa/Jesus ﷺ in Traditional Islamic education, even amongst those who accept the second coming. The primary reason is because Traditionalists are preoccupied with the past, in a bid to propagate their orthodoxy, as we have examined in Historical Truth, and this prompts them to emphasize the doctrinal differences, and negate the claims of orthodox Christianity on the trinity and death of Jesus, and on Biblical inerrancy. An important reason for emphasizing the differences is the post-colonial experience – since Islamdom has fallen behind Christiandom in material terms in recent centuries, the Traditionalists have retreated into their orthodoxy, which they view as a spiritually superior location, and are reluctant to emphasize the common foundation of their past and future.

The common ground confirms the high status of Isa/Jesus ﷺ in Islam because:

  • In the main mosque in holy Medina, there is an empty space reserved for Isa/Jesus ﷺ, adjacent to the tomb of the Prophet ﷺ, awaiting his second coming.
  • In addition to being honored with ‘peace be upon him’ after his name is cited, and is elevated by a dozen honorifics or titles.
  • The Quran says it makes no distinction rank amongst his Prophets (2:136).
  • He has higher rank than all post-Prophetic paragons of Islam, including the four rightly-guided Khalifas.8
  • The mystic Rumi says, with his customary metaphorical flourish, that we all embody the spirit of Jesus. “Our body is like Mary, each of us has a Jesus inside. If a pain and yearning shows up inside us, the Jesus of our soul is born”.9

Differ on the Details

On the second coming, the key point of disagreement between BioIslam and Traditional Islam is this — the latter believes the nuzul Isa will be immediately preceded by the appearance of Imam Mahdi, and has detailed specifications on the Mahdi’s identity and activity, including an epic battle with Dajjal, the anti-Christ. Based on post-Quranic sources, the timeline implied is one of a rapid succession of events culminating in the “last hour”, which is the catacylsmic end of the world. The reason BioIslam does not buy into that detailed eschatological scenario, one that is widely accepted by the ulama, is because such detail is specified only in the Hadith – the Quran is entirely silent on it. To be fair, since such a claim does not contradict the Quran, BioIslam does not entirely rule out that possibility either.

There are numerous sahih hadith that feed into the Traditionalist narrative of what will happen during the period of the nuzul Isa. While there are divergent predictions, all reports concur that Isa/Jesus ﷺ will arrive in an era coinciding with the rise of a millennial reformer, the Imam Mahdi. The former will descend on the wings of two angels at the southeast minaret of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Together, they will battle against the Dajjal, which is Traditional Islam’s label for the ‘anti-Christ’. This eschatological drama will unfold over a period of unspecified duration. The duration of Dajjal’s activities are cryptically described as, “For forty days, one day like a year and one day like a month and one day like a week and the rest of the days would be like your days”.10

BioIslam does not buy into any of these detailed predictions11, yet here is an example of one of many hadiths on this topic from the sahih collection of Abi Dawud, in the book of Kitab al-Mahdi, The Promised Deliverer:

“The Prophet ﷺ said: Disagreement will occur at the death of a caliph and a man of the people of Medina will come flying forth to Mecca. Some of the people of Mecca will come to him, bring him out against his will and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. An expeditionary force will then be sent against him from Syria but will be swallowed up in the desert between Mecca and Medina. When the people see that, the eminent saints of Syria and the best people of Iraq will come to him and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. Then there will arise a man of Quraysh whose maternal uncles belong to Kalb and send against them an expeditionary force which will be overcome by them, and that is the expedition of Kalb. Disappointed will be the one who does not receive the booty of Kalb. He will divide the property, and will govern the people by the Sunnah of their Prophet ﷺ and establish Islam on Earth. He will remain seven years, then die, and the Muslims will pray over him.”

Various hadith extend the above scenario to discuss how the Imam Mahdi will interact with Isa/Jesus ﷺ. Again, BioIslam does not embrace these specifics, yet as as example, from a sahih Hadith in the collection by Muslim:

“A group of my Ummah will fight for the truth until near the day of judgment when Jesus, the son of Marry, will descend, and the leader of them will ask him to lead the prayer, but Jesus declines, saying: ‘No, Verily, among you Allah has made leaders for others and He has bestowed his bounty upon them’.”

The most novel take comes from the Ahmadiyya Muslims, who substantially differ from both BioMuslims and Traditionalists on this topic. They believe Jesus did not die on the cross, nor was resurrected, but migrated to Kashmir and died a natural death, and returned in a second coming at the end of the 19th century. They claim, “In 1891 in Qadian, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) received repeated revelations that Jesus (as) of Nazareth, in whose second advent both the Muslims and Christians believed, had died a natural death and that what was meant by his second advent was that a person should appear in the spirit of Jesus and that he himself was that person, the Promised Messiah (as). After writing over 80 books and tens of thousands of letters, delivering hundreds of lectures, and engaging in scores of public debates, the Promised Messiah(as) passed away on May 26, 1908. Yet his legacy as the founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, continues to prevail throughout the world today.”12

No Utopia Axiom

Muslims can pick one of three approaches to desiring a better world:

  • Past-focused: The Traditionalists pine for the Utopia that existed in the 7th century, during the time of the four rightly-guided Khalifas, and especially during the time of the second Khalifa, Umar.
  • Present-focused: The modern practitioners of political Islam, or Islamists, aim for a politically constructed Utopia in their lifetime.
  • Future-focused: BioMuslims hope for a utopia in the future, but only if ushered in by the authenticated descent of Isa/Jesus ﷺ. We acknowledge that until then it is futile to pursue utopian solutions, and instead seek a pro-science path of progress toward solving the Big Five problems.

Which one to pick? As noted in the discussion of the Dictionary Problem, it is possible to interpret the Quran in divergent ways, and the interpreter’s bias, whether it is a modern or ancient one, always plays an unconscious role even though most interpreters reflexively assert they have consciously corrected for that. In the spirit of intellectual honesty, a pre-requisite for seeking the truth, we must acknowledge the BioMuslim bias too. A reason why BioMuslims are inclined to interpret the Quran in favor of a nuzul Isa event, mindful that alternate interpretations exist, is the fifth axiom of ‘no utopia’. Human history, both Islamic and otherwise, is littered with dubious interpretations or drastic ideologies that aimed to advance a utopia. If the unending messiness of our world is a measure, they failed. Instead of chasing the next utopia, BioMuslims prefer to pursue a pro-science and theohumanistic path, with the hope that conflicting ideas will be clarified eventually when Isa/ Jesus ﷺ returns. Also, given a choice of divergent interpretations, it is more reasonable to pick the one that hold our Creator in higher esteem – that he will not abandon humanity, and will send a Prophet again to help us resolve our problems, and achieve our full potential, before the Day of Judgement finally arrives.

Beware False Claims

How will we verify the identity of the person who claims to be Isa/Jesus ﷺ? This is important since some could lay false claim. For example, over 30 men have falsely claimed to be the Mahdi. The most recent one triggered the stunning siege of the haram and Kaaba in Mecca in 1979 – he was widely accepted by many important ulama as the real Mahdi before he was discredited and killed.

Being pro-science, a BioMuslim will acknowledge Isa/Jesus ﷺ only if his appearance is accompanied by a miracle. Such a miracle should be widely observed and properly documented, in accordance with the best standards of documentation that are available to us at the time he appears. So if he descends to earth on the wings of an angel, as posited by Traditional Islam, that alone could be sufficient proof if such an act cannot be explained by the science available to us in that era. But if a person claiming to be Isa/Jesus ﷺ appears through a different mechanism (such as that described in the Book of Revelation in the Bible or any other) and performs what appears to be a miracle, we should evaluate that claim seriously too. It will come down to what constitutes a miracle? If the best scientists of that era are unable to explain the miracle in naturalistic or mechanistic terms, then it is. BioMuslims believe this is an incentive to advance our science and faculties of reason, so we can decipher any false supernatural claims.

Processing the Paranormal

However, there is one problem with the above mentioned approach of evaluating miracles. Strange as it my seem, many leading scientists have acknowledged the likelihood of alien life. Which begs the question – what if a person who appears to perform miracles is really an advanced alien life form? As crazy as it sounds, a pro-science person cannot rule out the possibility of alien life, especially given the wide prevalence of carbon in the cosmos, the fundamental element underlying organic matter, and the possibility that such life could be considerably more advanced than ours.13 An eminent biologist says, “”Nobody know whether there is life elsewhere in the universe. I think there probably is. The number of stars in the universe is something like 10 to the power of 22, and most of them probably have got planets. It would be pretty astonishing if we were unique, it would go against the lessons of history, you know, we are not the center of the universe.”14

Most claims of alien sightings are dismissed as kooky. The fastest way to undermine your credibility is to claim one. However, a report by major newspapers about a dedicated military budget to investigate such sightings, and a valid video confirming one, shows claims are being taken seriously by some.15 When the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department publishes an article in the Scientific American magazine suggesting an unidentified object might be an interstellar alien probe named Oumuamua, we can’t dismiss alien talk as just nuts.16

This begs a somewhat-insane question… what if the miracles attributed to Prophets, in the past or future, can be attributed to advanced alien life-forms? Silly as it may seem, how can a pro-science person rule out this possibility? No believer of any religion is ready to entertain this thought experiment.17 But should such extraordinary, or should we say paranormal, events occur in the future, including the second coming of Isa/Jesus ﷺ, the pro-science spirit of BioIslam will help us process that ‘strange’ event better than Traditional Islam can.

Dismiss Dicey Debates

On Trinity — We need to move past the debilitating debates between Muslims and Christians about the first coming of Isa/Jesus ﷺ. Muslims, both Traditionalists and BioMuslims, believe he came as a human, a Prophet. The interpretation of Christianity that was canonized and handed down across generations espouses the trinitarian view – that Jesus was God visiting earth in human form, and hence the son of God, and the holy spirit of God. Although some early Christian sects had beliefs about Jesus that are similar to that of Muslims, they have been written out of history. The most notable of these was the sect of ‘Jewish Christians’ or Ebionites, led by Jesus’ younger brother James the Just. That sect died out, perhaps since it was branded a heresy. One scholar believes this branch of Christianity survived in southern Arabia, escaping the forces of canonization that imposed dogma over the European Christian territory.18 This might have been the version of Christianity that is extensively referenced in the Quran; if so, it would explain why the Quranic views of Jesus’ first coming varies substantially from the canonical Christian view. While Muslims find the idea of the holy trinity too magical to believe, Christian theologians have engaging explanations for why the triune view is as rational as, or certainly no more magical than, a few cherished beliefs held by Muslims.

On Miracles — The miracles of Isa/Jesus ﷺ are confirmations of his authenticity, but the Quran and Bible differ on which miracles he performed. However, this debate is of less consequence than the previous or next one.

On Resurrection — Another major topic of debate is the resurrection — specifically whether Isa/Jesus ﷺ died on the cross before he was resurrected, a core Christian belief. The consensus of Traditionalist Muslims is based on the clear Quran’s statement “they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him”. However, the manner in which he escapes assassination is not documented and therefore debated by Islamic scholars — some scholars suggest that it only appeared that way, an optical illusion, while others believe a doting disciple stood-in for him and voluntarily accepted death by crucifixion, and yet others believe Isa/Jesus ﷺ himself was on the cross but survived the assassination attempt. In all these views, Isa/ Jesus ﷺ lives through the crucifixion and is raised alive to heaven, and his living status is viewed as a pre-requisite to his future descent, or second coming. However there is no consensus among Muslim scholars on what exactly happened on that fateful day, and the lack of consensus is itself an important takeaway.

One way to reconcile the gap between Christians and Muslims on this topic is to say the Christians refer to the death of Isa/Jesus’ body while Muslims refer to the non-death of Isa/Jesus’ soul. However, this too is misleading since there it is debatable whether there is an explicit body-soul dualism in the Quran and early Islam, or whether the concept entered the Islamic world later as Muslims came into contact with other civilizations. One popular conservative and Traditionalist Imam embraces this dualism in his tafsir, “The Qur’an explicitly states that the Jews did not succeed in putting Jesus to death and that Allah raised him to Himself, but it is silent about the nature and details of the matter and does neither say explicitly whether Allah raised him body and soul together from the earth to some place in heaven, nor that he died like other mortals and only his soul was raised to heaven. Therefore, on the basis of the Qur’an neither aspect can be definitely denied or affirmed.”19 This is a refreshing embrace of uncertainty, a rare concession in the Traditionalist worldview.

Moving on — Tremendous intellectual firepower has been expended (wasted?) on resolving these debates in the past millennium. However, these debates, as many other debates both inside and outside the domain of Islam and Christianity, will never be resolved in our lifetimes since neither Muslims nor Christians have a cleanly documented account of what exactly transpired in the first century of their respective faiths. Even if you concur with the Traditionalist Muslim claim that early Islam is far better preserved than Christianity, given the strong oral tradition that developed around memorizing the entire Quran, it is evident that there are large uncertainties related to the interpretation of the Quran, and even more regarding the post-Quranic books. Much was swept aside by the forces of canonization in both faith traditions. Therefore debates on these topics are based on dicey interpretations of what might have occurred and best left open to a future arbiter.

One thing that most Muslims and most Christians agree on is that there will be a second coming of Isa/Jesus ﷺ, at which time all historical debates will be clarified, and the earth will be cleaned of corruption. The question is how to conduct our human affairs until then. BioMuslims believe that our pro-science tilt will advance our faculties and help us accurately assess any future claim of a miraculous second coming. Meanwhile, we can continue to improve the human condition by addressing the pressing Big Five problems.

Footnotes

  1. Richard Dawkins makes this point in The God Delusion. Although he is a raging atheist, he has many brilliant observations within his expertise of evolutionary biology, and can be viewed as a valuable contributor to the essential project of the dynamic reinterpretation of faith in the light of modern science.
  2. John Gray, Straw Dogs, xii.
  3. Zeki Saritoprak, Islamic Jesus, 11.
  4. The tafsir of Maududi, a staunch Traditionalist, says in a footnote, “This has been interpreted in two ways and both are likely. (Here by the people of the Book are meant the Jews and may also be the Christians). According to the first interpretation, as adopted in the Translation, it means: ‘All the people of the Book, alive at the time of the natural death of Christ, will have believed in him, that is, in his Prophethood.’ The second interpretation of ‘There shall be none among the people of the Book but will believe in him before his death’ is that all the people of the Book before their death do realize and believe that Christ is really a Messenger of God, though that belief will be of no avail at the time. Both these interpretations have been put forward by several Companions and their followers and renowned commentators, but its real meaning is only known to Allah.”
  5. Mustafa Akyol, The Islamic Jesus, 185.
  6. Akyol, op. cit., 192-194.
  7. Louay Fatoohi, The Mystery Of The Historical Jesus.
  8. Saritoprak, op. cit., 4.
  9. Omid Safi, Radical Love, 129.
  10. Sahih Muslim, The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour, 54:2937
  11. Shk Dr. Yasir Qadhi, the most prominent of the Traditionalist Imams in the West, has a good Youtube lecture, The Mahdi Between Fact and Fiction, Jan. 2019.
  12. “The Promised Messiah”, on alislam.org
  13. Numerous scientists have strongly acknowledged the likelihood of alien life. “It seems very hard to believe that our paltry little planet is the only one that’s inhabited”, says a famous cosmologist, in Carl Sagan on Extraterrestrials” at minute 2:40 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9WHs49nlHk
  14. Richard Dawkins, My Vision of Life, on Youtube starting at minute 29:00, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgNLrEYqAwk
  15. New York Times, 12/16/17, Washington Post 5/28/19
  16. Scientific American, 11/20/18
  17. The Hindu scriptures refer to aerial chariots, or Vimana. Were these objects metaphorical or phantasmajorical or alien constructs?
  18. Akyol, op. cit.
  19. Maududi, tafsir of Sura an-Nisa