Jesus did not die on the cross

by Shah Zia  Zia Shah MD

Here, I present to you the case of resuscitation of Jesus, may peace be on him, after he was put on the cross, from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s perspective.

Jesus did not die on the cross. He was put on the cross, but survived. He was in coma when taken off the cross and was later able to escape as is evidenced from the empty tomb. My two billion Christian brethren and sisters need to find a new religion. May I suggest Islam, as Ahmadiyya Muslim Community understands it. It was an every day case of resuscitation and not the ever otherwise mentioned or witnessed case of resurrection!

In this information age, all the evidence to refute the dogma of Pauline Christianity as opposed to one preached by Jesus, may peace be on him, is hiding in plain sight. Only if one cares to look and find!

Talking about the diversity of the early Christian observations and beliefs, Prof. Bart Ehrman writes, “Some of these groups believed that Christ’s death brought about the salvation of the world; others maintained that Christ’s death had nothing to do with the salvation of this world; yet other groups insisted that Christ had never actually died.” [1]

Watch a BBC Documentary on Jesus in Kashmir

This forty minute documentary by BBC, examines what happened to Jesus Christ after he was put on the cross, based on Bible, historical and medical evidence:

YouTube Video The evidence presented indeed establishes the Quranic claim, “Allah made the son of Mary and his mother a Sign, and gave them refuge on an elevated land of green valleys and springs of running water.” (Al Quran 23:51)

To read a two page review of this documentary in Muslim Sunrise go to:

http://www.muslimsunrise.com/dmddocuments/2010_summer.pdf#page=23

Empty Tomb at Resthaven Memorial Park, Lubbock, Texas

Timothy James McVeigh was convicted of crimes against h

umanity. He was sentenced to electric chair. A few days after his supposed execution, he was seen roaming the streets of Oklahoma. Did he resurrect or escape his punishment? This metaphor is not to be blunt but to prepare the Christian readers, so they areable to understand the evidence that follows.

Jesus in Indiais an English version of Masih Hindustan mein, an Urdu treatise written by the holy Founder of the AhmadiyyaMuslim Community, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835 – 1908). The Urdu treatise was published in 1899.

The main thesis expounded in the treatise is Jesus’ escape from an ignominious death on the Cross and his subsequent journey to India in quest of the lost tribes of Israel whom he had to gather into his fold as mentioned in the New Testament.

Abundant evidence has been furnished from Christian as well as Muslim Scriptures, old medical books and books of history, including ancient Buddhist records, to illustrate the theme.

Starting upon his journey from Jerusalem and passing from thence through Nasibus and Iran, Jesus is shown to have reached Afghanistan, where he met the Jews who had settled there after their deliverance from the bondage of Nebuchadnezzar.

From Afghanistan Jesus went to Kashmir, where some Israelite tribes had also settled. He made this place his home and here he died. His tomb has been traced and found in Khanyar Street, Srinagar. You can read the whole text online:

http://www.alislam.org/library/books/jesus-in-india/index.html

Now let me introduce another author, a follower ofHadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and a book by him thatexpands on this topic of resuscitation of Jesus Christ. Encylopaedia Britannica states about Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan:

“Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan was a Pakistani politician, diplomat, and international jurist, known particularly for his representation of Pakistan at the United Nations (UN).

The son of the leading attorney of his native city, Zafrulla Khan studied at Government College in Lahore and received his LL.B. from King’s College, London University, in 1914. He practiced law in Sialkot and Lahore, became a member of the Punjab Legislative Council in 1926, and was a delegate in 1930, 1931, and 1932 to the Round Table Conferences on Indian reforms in London. In 1931–32 he was president of the All-India Muslim League (later the Muslim League), and he sat on the British viceroy’s executive council as its Muslim member from 1935 to 1941. He led the Indian delegation to the League of Nations in 1939, and from 1941 to 1947 he served as a judge of the Federal Court of India.

Prior to the partition of India in 1947, Zafrulla Khan presented the Muslim League’s view of the future boundaries of Pakistan to Sir Cyril Radcliffe, the man designated to decide the boundaries between India and Pakistan. Upon the independence of Pakistan, Zafrulla Khan became the new country’s minister of foreign affairs and served concurrently as leader of Pakistan’s delegation to the UN (1947–54). From 1954 to 1961 he served as a member of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. He again represented Pakistan at the UN in 1961–64 and served as president of the UN General Assembly in 1962–63. Returning to the International Court of Justice in 1964, he served as the court’s president from 1970 to 1973.

He was knighted in 1935. He is the author of Islam: Its Meaning for Modern Man (1962) and wrote a translation of the Qur’an (1970).”

SirZafrulla Khan and President John F Kennedy

Sir Zafrulla Khan’sbook is titled,

Deliverance from the Cross:

http://www.alislam.org/library/books/Deliverance-from-the-Cross-20080607MN.pdf

YouTube Video I belong to Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and we have a very mundane (opposed to supernatural) understanding of Jesus Christ’s life and death. He lived like a man like billions have before and since. So, if no archeological or other evidence was coming forth one should presume that Jeus died like any other man or prophet, like Moses, Aaron, Noah, Solomon, Jeremiah and John the Baptist etc. etc.

But every so often religious zeal and legend elevates man to the status of God.

Now imagine if some one was condemned to death by law and is awaiting his punishment, and then he suddenly disappers. What would FBI be doing with all those who have information about the fugitive? Imagine how far would people go to save themselves from the wrath of FBI?

Compound this with the fact that Old Testament (Torah) said that whoever dies on the Cross is a false prophet. Under these two pressures, secular and spiritual, we have a perfect making for the legend of his divinity and incarnation and him dying on the cross, as he escaped from his tomb, where he was lying in coma.

The fact of the matter is that he survived his ordeal on the cross. Generally it takes days and not hours for a person to die on the cross. Additionally Jesus’ legs were not broken when he was taken off the cross. Read a small booklet Christianity a journey from fact to fiction:

http://www.alislam.org/library/books/christianity_facts_to_fiction/index.html

All agnostics and Atheists, help me out here to make Jesus human, that will decrease the gulf between you and the main body of Chrstians, and we will all live in greater peace and enlightenment.

After you watch the half hour documentary

Jesus in Kashmir, mentioned aboveand then read the bookJesus in Indiamentioned above, and if you really get intrigued then also get the following checked out:

Jesus in India – King of Wisdom

This is a book and a documentary movie by Paul Davids. The film was chosen by the Sundance Channel for a national U.S. television broadcast as its Christmas documentary for 2008, with a prime time airing December 22nd and a repeat broadcast the day after Christmas and on the day of New Year’s Eve. Additionally, the International Television Division of NBC Universal offers the film for broadcasts around the world.

To read the Foreword of the book go to:

http://www.reviewofreligions.org/download/RR201001.pdf

Time to go Unitarian. President Thomas Jefferson wanted you to!

Among the Dervishes

This is a book by Omar Michael Burke that has a chapter about a small community in Heerat, Afghanistan that follow both Christian and Muslim tradition. He writes:

“There must be about a thousand of these Christians. Their chief is the Abba Yahiyya (Father John), who can recite the succession of teachers through nearly sixty generations to- Isa, son of Mary, of ‘Nazara’, the Kashmiri.”

Sunday Telegraph wrote about the book:

“Mr. Burke, an accomplished travel-writer, has had rare opportunities to spend time with Dervish communities in the Middle and Near East, which work towards ‘the perfectability of man’ … Mr. Burke’s vigorous book opens horizons that cause the mind to soar.” To read a part of the book go to:

http://knol.google.com/k/zia-shah/among-the-dervishes/1qhnnhcumbuyp/161 #

To read a review of the book:

http://muslimsunrise.com/dmddocuments/2010_summer.pdf#page=36

The Swoon Hypothesis

The Swoon Hypothesis refers to a number of theories that aim to explain the resurrection of Jesus, proposing that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, but merely fell unconscious (“swooned”), and was later revived in the tomb in the same mortal body. Although this hypothesis has not been widely held by scholars, it has had noteworthy advocates for about two hundred years.

http://knol.google.com/k/zia-shah/the-swoon-hypothesis/1qhnnhcumbuyp/167 #

Mother Mary’s grave

Here I quote from Andreas Faber-Kaiser.Andreas Faber Kaiser (1944 – 1994) is the first Western author to write a full-length book on the subject of Jesus in Kashmir. The book is entitled,

Jesus Died in Kashmir: Jesus, Moses and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.In October of 2005, Edaf Antillas published the third edition of Kasier’s, Jesus Vivio Y Murio En Cachemira (Jesus Lived and Died in Kashmir), in the Spanish language. English translation is available in some of the USA libraries. He wrote:

“Leaving Taxila, Jesus, Mary and Thomas travelled on towards Kashmir; but Mary was not to experience the so-called ‘Heaven on Earth.’

Not being able to bear the hardships of the long journey, Mary died at what is now the small town of Murree, which was named in honour of her (5) and is situated about forty miles from Taxila and thirty from Rawalpindi. The place where she is buried is known as Pindi Point, and the sepulchre itself is called Mai Mari da Asthan, meaning ‘resting place of Mother Mary.’ According to Jewish custom, the tomb is oriented east-west, as are the tombs of Jesus and Moses (discussed later). This contrasts with the customary orientation of Moslem tombs, which is north-south.

Mumtaz Ahmad Faruqui writes in his book The Crumbling of the Cross that, at the time when Mary died and was buried in Murree, the country was governed by the Hindu rajahs. Hindus, who worship many deities, are superstitious by nature, and, when they saw the new tomb at the top of the hill, began to venerate it and pray there, so that the tomb became a recognised shrine. When the Moslems took possession of the country, they realised that, though the Hindus venerated the tomb, the person buried there must have been one of the ‘people of the Book’ (Jewish or Christian), since the Hindus cremate their dead. The Moslems too began to venerate Mary’s tomb.

In 1898 the British colonial government had a defensive tower built next to the tomb, which the people of the district continued to visit. In 1916-17 the engineer of the garrison, Captain Richardson, wanted to have the tomb demolished, so as to keep people away from the area; but the people raised such an outcry that the municipal council intervened to stop the demolition, and instituted an official investigation. The result of this is given by a document (dated 30 July 1917) that is preserved in file no. 118 of the Muree Municipal Council; this recognizes, on the basis of the testimony of dozens of old-established residents, that the sanctuary of Pindi Point is the tomb of a person possessed of saintly qualities, that it is venerated both by Hindus and by Moslems, and that, in times of drought, prayers and offerings at the tomb have generally succeeded in bringing rain. This was confirmed by the official in charge of the investigation, who reported that, at the time of the severe drought of 1916-17, prayers and offerings were made at the tomb, with the result that almost immediately it began to rain and snow, persisting for three days. It was decided not to destroy the tomb; and when, some time later, Captain Richardson was fatally injured in a severe accident, there were those who said that this was a judgement upon him.

In 1950 the tomb was repaired, thanks to the efforts of Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, author of the book Jesus in Heaven on Earth. The defensive tower has since been demolished, as having no real use, and in its place a television tower has been erected.

For links and additional details see comment section and a post with same name in the Muslim Times.

REFERENCES

• Bart Ehrman. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. Harper One, 2007. Page 153.
• Andreas Faber-Kaiser. Jesus Died in Kahmir. Gordon and Cremonesi, 1977. Page 82-83.

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