مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلَّا مَآ أَمَرْتَنِى بِهِۦٓ أَنِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّى وَرَبَّكُمْ ۚ وَكُنتُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنِى كُنتَ أَنتَ ٱلرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنتَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ شَهِيدٌ
5:73; 19:37.
3:56; 19:16.
Important Words:
توفیتنی (Thou didst cause me to die). See 2:235 & 3:56.
Commentary:
For the corroboration of the first sentence of this verse, i.e. the teaching of Jesus about the worship of God alone, see Matt. 4:10 & Luke 4: 8.
The latter portion of the verse conclusively proves two things: (1) that Jesus is dead and not alive, as supposed by most of present-day Muslims: (2) that he is not to return to this earth a second time in his own person. The inference is beyond any shadow of doubt. From the verse it is clear that no interval intervened between Jesus’ life on this earth and his death. As long as he was alive, he kept a careful watch over his follow-ers and saw to it that they did not deviate from the right path, but he did not know what occurred to them after his death. This shows: (1) that it was by death and not by his supposed ascension to heaven that Jesus became separated from his people, and (2) that it was only after his death that his people deified him. Now, as his followers have already gone astray, it definitely follows that Jesus is dead, for, as the verse points out, it was after his death that he began to be worshipped as God.
Similarly, the fact that this verse speaks of Jesus as expressing ignorance of his followers having taken him and his mother for gods after he had left them, proves that he is not to come back to this earth. For, if he were to come back to this earth and see with his own eyes the corruption of his followers, he could not express ignorance of his deification by his people. In that case, the answer of Jesus pleading his ignorance would amount to a veritable lie. Thus, the verse definitely and clearly proves that Jesus is dead and that he will never come back to this world. For a detailed discussion of the question of the death of Jesus and his non-ascension to heaven with his physical body, see 3:56 & 4:159.
3:57.
5:73; 19:37.
Jesus taught the worship of one God alone (Matt. 4:10 & Luke, 4: 8).
As long as Jesus was alive, he kept a careful watch over his followers and saw to it that they did not deviate from the right path, but he did not know how they behaved and what false doctrines they held after his death. Now, as his followers have gone astray, it conclusively follows that Jesus is dead, for, as the verse points out, it was after his death that he was to be worshipped as God. Similarly, the fact that this verse speaks of Jesus as expressing ignorance that his followers took him and his mother for two gods after he had left them, proves that he is not to come back to this world. For, if he were to come back and see with his own eyes that his followers had become corrupt and had deified him he could not plead ignorance of his deification by them. If he would do so, his answer pleading his ignorance would amount to a veritable lie. The verse thus positively proves that Jesus is dead and that he will never come back to this world. Moreover, according to a well-known saying of his, the Holy Prop
See {424}.