And for their saying, "We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the Messenger of God." In fact, they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them as if they did. Indeed, those who differ about him are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it, except the following of assumptions. Certainly, they did not kill him. (Surah 4.157)
When asked about Jesus’ Crucifixion, Muslims will invariably reference
one ayah from the Koran, to support their conviction.
Islam bases an entire doctrine regarding Jesus’ crucifixion & death upon the cross,
on a single solitary Koranic ayah.
And in this
single solitary ayah, the entire doctrine teeters upon the rendering of
a single solitary word (wama) – which Islam has misinterpreted as a negative.
The correct rendering of this ayah is as thus…
وقولهم إنا قتلنا المسيح عيسى ابن مريم رسول
الله وما قتلوه وما صلبوه ولكن شبه لهم وإن
الذين اختلفوا فيه لفي شك منه ما لهم به من علم
إلا اتباع الظن وما قتلوه يقينا
Waqawlihim inna qatalna almaseeha AAeesa ibna maryama rasoola Allahi wama qataloohu wama salaboohu walakin shubbiha lahum wa-inna allatheena ikhtalafoo feehi lafee shakkin minhu ma lahum bihi min AAilmin illa ittibaAAa alththanni wama qataloohu yaqeenan
4.157 And their saying: "Truly we killed The Messiah, Jesus, Mary's son, “allah's” messenger”, and that they killed him, and that they crucified him, and certainly they alike, and truly whom they differed in Him, certainly they (are) not in doubt from Him, on account of Him, from knowledge, except to follow the belief, and that they surely killed him.
To overcome the Muslim mindset, we need to first define the Arabic word that has been misinterpreted by Islam.
Here is the classic Arabic definition for "ma"...
ما = “ma”
“ma” definition:
Conjunctive pronoun.
That; which; that which; whatsoever; what; as; as much; in such a manner as; as much as; as for as; any kind; when; how. Does not, as a rule, refer to reasonable things, but instances to the contrary sometimes occur.
It is one of those particles, which, in conditional propositions, govern the verb in the conditional mood; it is frequently a mere expletive. It is also a negative adverb, Not; in general it denies a circumstance either present, or of past, but little remote from the present; it governs the attribute in the accusative, thus it is a negative particle when placed before the perfect as in 53.2; or before a pronoun as in 68.2; or before an demonstrative noun as in 12.31. The particle, when joined to the perfect, denies the past; when joined to the imperfect, the present.
References:
An Arabic-English Lexicon, E.W. Lane, volume eight, p. 3016
A Grammar of the Arabic Language, W. Wright, Third edition, volume 2, p. 300
The Dictionary of the Holy Qur’an, 1st edition, Abdul Mannan Omar, pp. 523 - 524
A Dictionary and Glossary of the Koran, John Penrice, pp. 135 - 136
As we can see below..."ma", when joined to "wa", is simply a filler-word in this ayah...
وقولهم إنا قتلنا المسيح عيسى ابن مريم رسول
الله وما قتلوه وما صلبوه ولكن شبه لهم وإن
الذين اختلفوا فيه لفي شك منه ما لهم به من علم
إلا اتباع الظن وما قتلوه يقينا
Waqawlihim inna qatalna almaseeha AAeesa ibna maryama rasoola Allahi wa
ma qataloohu wa
ma salaboohu walakin shubbiha lahum wa-inna allatheena ikhtalafoo feehi lafee shakkin minhu ma lahum bihi min AAilmin illa ittibaAAa alththanni wa
ma qataloohu yaqeenan
4.157 And their saying: "Certainly we killed The Messiah, Jesus, Mary's son, “allah's” messenger”, and that they killed him, and that they crucified him, and certainly they alike, and truly whom they differed in Him, certainly they (are) not in doubt from Him, on account of Him, from knowledge, except to follow the belief, and that they surely killed him.
As witnessed by the plethora of positives in this ayah,
the conditional mood is only positive.
Couple this, to the very next ayah, as thus…
بل رفعه الله إليه وكان الله عزيزا حكيما
Bal rafaAAahu Allahu ilayhi wakana Allahu AAazeezan hakeeman
4.158 But “allah”, he raised Him to him, and “allah” mighty, wise.
4.157 & 4.158 tell us of its most likely Biblical source...
This One given to you by the before-determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you having taken by lawless hands, having crucified Him, you killed Him. But God raised Him up, loosing the throes of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. (Act 2.23 - 24)
As we can see, 4.157 & 4.158 are simply parroting NT material...
Thus, context is clear that in 4.157 “wama” is simply governing the verb in the conditional mood – which is
positive….
NOT negative.
Further, rendering this Islamic one-hit-wonder ayah as a negative would force other Koranic ayahs into contradiction.
As further evidence that 4.157 confirms Jesus’ death upon the cross,
all the Koranic crucifixion instances are shown here, which confirm that the Koran
always describes a crucifixion event with complete certainty of death…
• 5.33…they will be crucified till death
• 7.124…I will surely crucify you till death
• 12.41…so will be crucified till death
• 20.71…and I will surely crucify you till death
• 26.49…and I will surely crucify you till death
Death through crucifixion is
always mandated in the Koran.
Thus, there is no reason at all to believe that 4.157 would break this trend…
