NABI ISSA-DEAD OR ALIVE

NABI ISSA-DEAD OR ALIVE

HADHRAT NABI ISAA (Alayhis salaam) --- IS HE DEAD OR ALIVE?

No one on this eart h — be he Muslim or no n - Muslim — dispute s the fact th a t Islam in its final form was the Message delivered to mankind by Nabi Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) more than 1425 yea r s ago. There is consensus of all people that Islam is not the product of this age or of a few decades ago or of a c o u- ple of centuries ago. When it is said that Muhammad Rasulullah

(sallallahu alayhi wasallam) delivered to mankind the Islam which Allah Ta'ala had revealed to him, it is understood thereby that he handed to the world a set of beliefs and practice s – t he Aqaaid and A'maa l of Islam. He did not leave Islam as an a m- biguous concept subject to the understanding and interpretations of the multitudes of people.

It is only logical and a simpl e fact to understand that the beliefs and practices of the Sahaabah and the early Muslims of the Khairul Quroon (the Three noblest Ages of Islam) constitute I s- lam, and that only their Beliefs and Practices are authentic and valid. Any belief or practice which conflicts with th e Aqaai d and A'maal of the Sahaabah will not be part of Islam. Thus, if someone today has to claim that there are only three Fardh S a- laat instead of the five that we know of and adhere to, then the first question such a proponent will have to answer is: When d i d this belief or teaching of three Salaat develop in Islam? If he ca nnot prove that it originated with the Sahaabah, then ob v i- ously it will be expunged as kufr and branded a figment of the shaitaan's evil whispering into the heart of the one who c o n- tended the belief or act of kufr.

If a belief or practice cannot be reliably and authoritatively traced to the Sahaabah, it s h all be thrown out into the garbage can of kufr. The very first obstacle any propounder of kufr has to surmount is to prove that the doctrine he is propagating has always been the belief of the People of Islam from the inception of Islam. No man can impose his personal idea as Islamic do c- trine and claim that this is what the Qur'aan says, if his personal doctrine has not been the official belief or practice of the U m- mah from the time of the Sahaabah.

Islam is not an interpretation of the Qur'aan which modernists or deviates of this age present. Irrespective of how much the inte r- pretation may appeal to and appease the western mind and the western intellectual masters of the modernists, it will never be part of Islam if it cannot be substantiated on the basis of the Ijma' of the Ummah . Such consensus has its roots in the Beliefs and Practices of the Sahaabah. Hence, the proponent of a belief which is at variance with the Beliefs of the Ummah or in confli c t with the Ijma ' which has been transmitted down the centuries from the age of the Sahaabah is under obligation to furnish his Shar'i evidence for his theory/idea. Evidence is not personal opinion nor is evidence of the Shariah a man's interpretation of the Qur'aan. Evidence of the Shariah is what the official pos i- tion of the belief or practice was during the age of the Sahaabah and th e Khairul Quroon, and whether the belief advocated by the deviate was the belief or practice of the Ummah from the i n- ception of Islam.

It is on the basis of this criterion of authenticity that the beliefs pertaining to Hadhrat Isaa (alayhis salaam) as well as all other beliefs and alleged beliefs are to be examined. Any belief, pra c- tice or teaching which does not satisfy this criterion stands r e- jected and will be branded as kufr which expels the proponent from the fold of Islam. Explicity and emphatically stating this conception o f Ijm a and this criterion of authenticit y which is thebelief and practice of the Ummah from the time of the Sahaabah ,

the Qur'aan Shareef says:

“And among the people are those who say: “We believe in Allah and the Last Day, while (in reality) they are not Mu' m i neen (Believers). They (try to) deceive Allah and those who have Imaan. However, they deceive none but themselves whilst they lack understanding.”

(Surah Baqarah, aayats 8 and 9)

 

“And when it is said to them: “Believe in the manner in which the people (i .e.the Mu'mineen) believe, they say:

‘What shall we believe as the ignoramuses believe?'

Heed well! Verily, they are the ignor a muses, but they do not know. ” (Surah Baqarah, aayat 13)

 

It is quite evident from these verses of the Qur'aan Majeed, that Ima a n is not the personal idea or conception of any person. A man's contention of belief in Allah and the Aakhirah is of no s i g nificance and validity if it is in conflict with the Belief of

“The People” , i.e. the People of Islam who inherited their B e- liefs and Practices from the Sahaabah. The Sahaabah are in the highest category o f “The People ” whom the Qur'aan commands to follow. Elsewhere in the Qur'aan Majeed, Allah Ta'ala c o m- mands the selfsame obedience and following to “ The People ” o f Imaan. Thus He says:

 

“And, follow the Path of those who turn (and lead) towards Us.”

 

These as well as other Qur'aanic aayaat categorically command the Mu'mineen to follow the Path o f “The Peo ple ” , not the path of personal opinion. Hence, the Consensus of th e “The People ” is the criterion of authenticity for the beliefs and practices of I s-lam. Any concept which is at variance with or in conflict with the conception of Imaan of “ The People” of Imaan and Islam is ku f r which extinguishes Imaan and assigns the proponent into irtidaad (making him a renegade) for which the punishment in a truly I slamic state i s Qat l (execution).

THE MULHID’S BELIEF OF KUFR

IJMA’ (CONSENSUS OF THE UMMAH)

THE QUR’AAN

THE SUNNAH

NUZUL (DECENSION) OF NABI ISAA (AS)