Bulletin of SOAS, 72, 2 (2009), 237–258. © School of Oriental and African Studies. Printed in the United Kingdom. The Muslim Jesus: Dead or alive? Gabriel Said Reynolds Notre Dame University
[email protected] Abstract According to most classical Muslim commentators the Quran teaches that Jesus did not die. On the day of the crucifixion another person – whether his disciple or his betrayer – was miraculously transformed and assumed the appearance of Jesus. He was taken away, crucified, and killed, while Jesus was assumed body and soul into heaven. Most critical scholars accept that this is indeed the Quran’s teaching, even if the Quran states explicitly only that the Jews did not kill Jesus. In the present paper I con- tend that the Quran rather accepts that Jesus died, and indeed alludes to his role as a witness against his murderers in the apocalypse. The paper begins with an analysis of the Quran’s references to the death of Jesus, continues with a description of classical Muslim exegesis of those references, and concludes with a presentation of the Quran’s conversation with Jewish and Christian tradition on the matter of Jesus’ death. In Richard Burton’s account of his covert pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, he describes visiting the devotional area outside the chamber (hujra, by tradition ˙ the room of Muhammad’s beloved wife ʿĀ’isha) of the Prophet’s mosque. ˙ The chamber itself, Burton discovered, was kept out of view by an ornate cur- tain. Still he reports that on the other side of the curtain were arranged the tombs of Muhammad, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar.