Objections to the Concept of Descent by Javed Ahmed Ghamidi

Javed Ahmed Ghamidi considers the concept of the Descent of Jesus as subject to review because of the objections that arise when examining this concept in light of the Qur’an and assessing the related hadith based on the principles of narration and understanding. These objections are as follows:

1. The personality of Jesus (PBUH) has been discussed in the Qur’an from multiple angles. The Qur’an has commented on his message and personality at various places. The commotion of the Day of Judgment is also a special subject of the Qur’an. The event of a revered Messenger descending alive from the heavens is not of minor significance. Despite the context that demands explanation, there is not even a slight hint to this event anywhere in the plain text of the Qur’an. Can reason and knowledge be satisfied with this silence? It is not easy to accept this.
2. Verses 116-119 of Surah Al-Maidah narrate a dialogue that Allah will have with Jesus (PBUH) on the Day of Judgment. Allah will ask him about the primary cause of the Christians' misguidance, whether he instructed them to take him and his mother as gods besides Allah. In response, among other things, he will say that he only said to them what Allah had commanded, and as long as he was among them, he observed what they were doing. But when Allah took him up, he did not know how they followed or abandoned his teachings, and after his ascension, Allah was their overseer. In this context, the last sentence does not warrant Jesus’s descent to the world before the Day of Judgment. Had he returned, he ought to say that he witnessed their ignorance and warned them recently.
3. Verse 55 of Surah Aale Imran outlines the plan of action for Jesus (PBUH) until the Day of Judgment. While describing the plan for Jesus and his followers until the Day of Judgment, Allah could have stated explicitly that He would send Jesus (PBUH) to the world again before the Day of Judgement. However, the Almighty did not do so. If Jesus (PBUH) were to return, why is there silence on this issue? There is no reasonable explanation.
4. The earliest available book of hadith is Sahifah Hammam ibn Munabbih, compiled around 58 AH. It does not include the narrative of the Descent of Jesus. It contains 138 hadiths in total, all narrated by Abu Huraira (RA), an important narrator of the hadiths concerning the descent of Jesus. It is surprising that when he dictated hadith to his direct student, Hammam ibn Munabbih, he did not include the narrative of the Descent, though he has narrated it elsewhere. Moreover, this Sahifah includes some other hadith reports relating to Jesus (PBUH) and the Dajjal but not the more significant narration about the Descent of Jesus and the killing of Dajjal. It also mentions five narratives about the signs of the approaching Day of Judgment, but the prominent sign of the Descent of Jesus is not mentioned in them.
5. The Muwatta is the first formal compilation of hadith. It also does not include the narrative of the Descent of Jesus. Compiled by Imam Malik after 40 years of effort and completed in 140 AH, it was compiled in Medina - the city of the Prophet. Imam Malik lived for about 40 years after its compilation - teaching and reviewing it. If no record as extraordinary as the narration of the Descent of Jesus reached him during the lengthy period of compilation and review, and given such proximity to the original narrators, the Companions, it raises questions. If it did reach him and he chose not to accept it, that too is problematic. It is even more surprising that a dedicated chapter related to Jesus (PBUH) and Dajjal was recorded in Muwatta, titled ‘Chapter on the Description of Jesus son of Mary, and Dajjal.’ In that chapter, only one narrative is included that describes a dream of the Prophet in which he saw Jesus and Dajjal.
6. The number of Marfu hadiths (a hadith that goes back to the Prophet) about the Descent of Jesus exceeds 80, which have been narrated by roughly 30 Honored Companions. Imam Bukhari has selected only three narrations from among these, all of which are reported from the same companion, Abu Huraira (RA). Of these three narrations, two are such that they are two different chains of the same narration. Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri is the primary narrator in these hadiths. This means that he has relied on the narrations of al-Zuhri in this context. Imam Bukhari’s approach highlights his hesitation regarding all the narrations about Jesus’s descent.
7. In Muslim, No. 7460, the event of Jesus’s descent is described in detail. It is clear that Jesus will descend at the exact moment when, after conquering Constantinople, the Muslim army turns back towards Medina upon hearing the news of the appearance of the Dajjal. However, the reality is that Constantinople was conquered on May 29, 1453 corresponding to 20 Jumada al-Awwal 857 AH. Since then, it has remained in the possession of Muslims; in fact, it is Istanbul, the capital of the Islamic state of Turkey. This means that the time determined by the hadith of Muslim for the Descent of Jesus is immediately after the conquest of Constantinople. This time has already passed in June/July 1453. Constantinople has been conquered, but neither has the Dajjal appeared, nor has Jesus (PBUH) descended. Following this account, one of the two points must be deemed correct and the other assigned to be an error or an addition of the narrator: either one has to accept that the narrative regarding the Descent of Jesus is correct but the mention of the conquest of Constantinople and its victorious army is an addition or admit that the mention of the conquest of Constantinople and its victorious army is correct but the detail regarding the Descent of Jesus is an addition. Both these interconnected events cannot be accepted simultaneously because one of them has already occurred 570 years ago.

If one of these two events is accepted and the other rejected, the entire narration becomes ambiguous because, if the prophecy of the Prophet (PBUH) has been transmitted correctly, then it cannot have the slightest change or alteration. His word is a decree of destiny, unfolding exactly as it has been pronounced by his blessed tongue. It should be noted that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, has given glad tidings of Paradise to the Muslims who would undertake the campaign against Constantinople.

To resolve this issue, our scholars, instead of preferring one of the two aforementioned possibilities or delaying judgment on the narration, have presented an interpretation. According to that interpretation, the conquest of Constantinople that took place in 1453 is not the one mentioned in the narration. According to them, the event of the conquest of Constantinople will happen again. At that time, Jesus (PBUH) will descend, and the events mentioned in the said narration will transpire.

Several logical objections arise regarding this interpretation. Firstly, considering the extraordinary historical context of Constantinople and how Muslims strived for centuries to conquer it, keeping in mind the prophecy and glad tidings of the Messenger of Allah, it is evident that if Constantinople is to be conquered again, the second conquest will not be as remarkable and extraordinary as the first.

Secondly, to adopt this interpretation, we would have to turn back the wheel of civilization and culture; one would have to assume that the era will return when wars will be fought with lances and swords instead of gunpowder, atomic, and chemical weapons, and the structured order of modern armies, where soldiers are salaried employees of the state, will be abandoned. The old practice will return when the spoils of war were distributed among soldiers after victory.

Thirdly, it must be assumed that Istanbul (Constantinople), the capital of Turkey, will once again fall into the hands of the Romans and regain the same extraordinary religious and political significance it held in the fifteenth century CE or before.

Fourthly, adopting this interpretation implies nullifying the status of the prophecy for the aforementioned narrative or collection of narratives. This is because a prophecy is only deemed a prophecy when it informs about a specific and timed future event. If we cannot determine the number of times the Muslims will conquer Constantinople, and which conquest will be followed by Jesus’s descent - it is not decided which conquest of Constantinople has been referred to in the prophecy - then how can this narration be characterized as a prophecy?

Lastly, if the meaning and reference to one event in the narration, i.e., the conquest of Constantinople, is ambiguous, then how can the meanings and references to the other events, i.e., the Descent of Jesus and the emergence of the Dajjal, be deemed free from ambiguity?

1. It is clear from the hadith narrations that the Descent of Jesus is one of the signs of the nearness of the Day of Judgment. Among the hadith reports that mention the signs of the approach of the Day of Judgment, some count and list these signs. Some of them mention three signs, some four, some six, and some ten signs. When all of these are combined, a total of fifteen to twenty signs emerge: the Descent of Jesus, the Dajjal, Gog and Magog, smoke, the beast of the earth, the sun rising from the West, the sinking of the earth in the East, the sinking of the earth in the West, the sinking of the land in the Arabian Peninsula, a slave girl giving birth to her mistress, a fire that will emerge from Yemen and drive people out, a wind that will lift people and throw them into the sea, death, the emergence of 30 Dajjals, Christian majority ruling Rome, the competition in constructing tall buildings, etc. Among these, the most extraordinary sign is the Descent of Jesus. Compared to the other signs, it is also the most prominent, extremely supernatural, and its meaning and application are crystal clear. Therefore, it is naturally expected that if any tradition counts the signs of the nearness of the Day of Judgment, the sign of the Descent of Jesus should certainly be included. It is against human reason and experience to omit the most prominent matter and instead mention comparatively less important things. Now the reality is that in many narrations mentioning the signs of the Day of Judgment, the Descent of Jesus is not mentioned. In a narration recorded in Sahih Muslim, No. 7584, six signs of the Day of Judgment are mentioned, but the Descent of Jesus is not included. Similarly, in a narration recorded in Sahih Bukhari, No. 7121, 11 signs of the Day of Judgment are detailed, including the sign of the Dajjal, but the sign of the Descent of Jesus is not included. The narration in Sunan al-Tirmidhi, No. 3072, mentions three signs but does not include the Descent of Jesus. The narration in Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, No. 23996, lists six signs of the Day of Judgement but does not include the Descent of Jesus. There are other such examples in the books of hadith.
2. The statements of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, cannot contain contradiction or inconsistency. Whatever he conveyed about religion is from Allah, and therefore it is free from errors like forgetfulness, contradictions, and inconsistencies. This is both a factual reality and an established principle of hadith sciences. Thus, when any such situation arises within our scholarly tradition, preference is given to hadiths more aligned with the Qur’an and the Sunnah, as well as with knowledge and reason. If this preference is not possible, then an explanation is sought considering the circumstances, time, and audience. If the ambiguity persists, such hadiths are left aside, and cannot be used as a basis for argument or evidence. Some internal and external aspects in the narratives concerning the Descent of Jesus carry contradictions and inconsistencies. One significant example of this contradiction is that, according to traditions about the Descent of Jesus, Jesus (PBUH) will eliminate all Christians and Jews from the world. Consequently, the Day of Judgment will occur when only Muslims remain in the world, with no existence of Christians. However, a tradition in Sahih Muslim, No. 2898, presents a different report, stating that the Day of Judgment will occur when there is a majority of Christians in the world.