Jesus will be a sign for the coming of the hour? Abuse of Qur’an 43:61

And indeed, it surely is a knowledge of the Hour. So do not be in doubt about it, and follow Me. This is the Path Straight.” (Qur’an 43:61)

This text has to also be one of the most used and abused text of the whole of the Qur’an. It is used to assert the so called “2nd  coming” of Christ Jesus. The fact that this is the ‘go to’ verse when anyone is trying to assert that the Qur’an affirms the 2nd coming of Christ Jesus shows you just how weak their argument is. Such people are better off using the ahadith to argue their position. 

Note how the text is being translated at Qur’an corpus.

http://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=43&verse=61#(43:61:1)

Also, when you go to the following link. https://quran.com/43/61

Look how they translate it into English. 

This is how they translate it into English for the unsuspecting reader:

And indeed, Jesus will be [a sign for] knowledge of the Hour, so be not in doubt of it, and follow Me. This is a straight path.”

Yet when you click on the vocalization of the Arabic and how it is rendered something eye opening occurs.

Their own exact translation is “And indeed it” yet the English they wedge in there “Jesus”. 

Are you ready to see how far the rabbit hole goes?

Surprise!

So let’s take a look at some other disparate translations.  https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/43/61/default.htm

Muhammed Asad & Abdl Haleem  & Mohamed Shafi translations have the “it” as the passage referring to the Qur’an

Shabir Ahmed has ‘it’ as a reference to the Qur’an but unlike Muhammed Asad and Abdul Haleem and Mohamed Shafi he has the Qur’an talking about an “oncoming Revolution” rather than “the hour”. 

Yusuf Ali Saudi version just goes all in! 

“And (Jesus) shall be a Sign (for the coming of).”

Comment: So not only is it Jesus but he is a Sign as well!

Safi Kasas has Jesus in brackets but unlike Yusuf Ali he puts the [a sign] in brackets as well.

Abdul Hye goes all in with the second coming.. “And he (Jesus) is a KNOWN SIGN.”

Dr. Munir Munshey gets carried away with:  “In fact he, (and his fatherless birth) is a sign”

Then we have the Mustafa Khattab translation really over selling it with their translation,

“And his ˹second˺ coming is truly a sign for the Hour. So have no doubt about it, and follow me. This is the Straight Path.”

Muhsin Khan & Muhammad al-Hilah (another Saudi translation) have it as: “And he (Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary) shall be a known sign.”

Dr. Mohammad Tahir ul Qadri takes a que from his Salafi opponents and follows their lead with “And surely (when) he, (Isa[Jesus], descends from heaven), he will be a sign…”

Ali Unai just goes on a tangent “Surely he (Jesus) (brought into the world without a father, and granted such miracles as reviving the dead) is a means to knowledge of the Last Hour.”

Hamid S. Aziz is more neutral, non-committal in translation: 

And most surely it is (the above events or the Quran or he, Jesus) is a sign of the knowledge of coming of the Hour (of Resurrection and Judgment), therefore have no doubt about it and follow Me: this is the Straight Way.”

Muhammad Taqi Usmani has it as:  (‘Isa)

Syed Vickar Ahamed has it as: “And (Isa)

Farook Malik has it as:  He (Jesus)

Maududi has it as:  “Verily he [i.e, Jesus)

Rashad Khalifa has a bizarre translation: “He is to serve as a marker for knowing the end of the world, so you can no longer harbor any doubt about it.”

The Monotheist group -taking a que from their former mentor and master, Rashad Khalifa, has it as “He” and this he becomes “a lesson for the Hour”

Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar has an interesting translation: “And truly, he is with the knowledge of the Hour.”

Do people have justification to understand the verse as a reference to Jesus?

Well, if you look at the surrounding context of the verse the theme is about Jesus.

The verses before:

Jesus was not but a servant upon whom We bestowed favor, and We made him an example for the Children of Israel. And if We willed, We could have made [instead] of you angels succeeding [one another] on the earth.” (Qur’an 43:59-60)

As well as the text after..

“And when Jesus brought clear proofs, he said, “I have come to you with wisdom and to make clear to you some of that over which you differ, so fear Allah and obey me.” (Qur’an 43:63)

So this could be a reason why some have considered 43:61 to be about Jesus.

What about Arabic grammar? 

A closer look at the Arabic text. “wa-innahu”, this is the 3rd person masculine singular object pronoun. We have third person pronouns in English as well. We have object pronouns-me, you, him, her, it.

Secondly, the word “biha” is a 3rd person feminine singular personal pronoun. So this further clarifies how “wa-innahu” should be understood.

“And indeed, it surely is a knowledge of the Hour. So do not be in doubt about it, and follow Me. This is the Path Straight.” (Qur’an 43:61)

So to support their claim they would have to go against the Arabic grammar.

Not only this we still have to contend with the fact that the Qur’an has clearly stated that Jesus died. The text of the Qur’an should be in harmony with one another.  

I did find the following translation interesting: Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar has an interesting translation: “And truly, he is with the knowledge of the Hour.” You could understand this as “And truly, the knowledge of the Hour is with him.” 

If I was to offer a far fetched interpretation as the translations above have done, I could offer the following:

One could understand this as a rebuke to certain Christological claims about Christ Jesus.  The Qur’an asserts what the Bible does not, namely that Jesus knows about the day of judgement where as in the New Testament Jesus is clueless.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mark 13:32)

In the economy of the so called “Trinity” the Son is doesn’t know the hour, where as if Jesus died as a martyr (as the Qur’an proclaims) than Jesus is with Allah (swt) and he certainly does know the hour.

As regards the so called “2nd coming of Jesus” it is just not going to happen. Jesus was impailed by the Roman Imperium and he died a martyr.

I’m afraid contrary to what Christians believe and many Muslims Jesus will not be showing casing his “FINAL FORM” -ala-the following verse:

“But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them–bring them here and kill them in front of me.'” (Luke 19:27)

So even if you were to execute someone in a dark alley, a person who rejected Jesus, that wouldn’t be good enough. Jesus wants you do it right in front of him. Not going to happen, not now, not tomorrow, not ever.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s