Answer
Asalamu Alaikum,
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question.
Dr. Shabir Ally addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Aisha Khaja: Dr. Shabir, the question we have today is from Mauritius and someone says: as a Muslim I believe the Quranic statement that Jesus was not killed or crucified.
However, I want to understand the Christian point of view further. If, as Christians believe, Jesus resurrected from the dead, then what happened to him after that?
Dr. Shabir Ally: So, the general Christian belief is based on the Gospels in the Bible. There are four Gospels. And the four Gospels give different indications about what precisely happened after what is referred to as the crucifixion event.
So, basically the Gospels say that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. And then by Friday evening, this would be the start of the Jewish Sabbath, his dead body was taken down from the cross. He was, the body was put in a tomb.
And it wasn’t like a dug grave in which you cover it with soil and ok and then you make sure the person is there secure. This was a something like a little cave and the rock was rolled against the mouth of the cave, locking it.
Aisha Khaja: So, he wasn’t actually buried?
Dr. Shabir Ally: Entombed is probably the right [way] to say [it]. But you’re right, yeah, not buried under soil. Buried within or placed within, his body was placed within a cave, small cave of sorts. A tomb that’s what we call it.
And then on the Sunday morning when some of his female disciples came to see the tomb according to one Gospel, to anoint his body according to another Gospel, they found that the stone had been rolled away. And Jesus’ body could not now be found.
One of the Gospels says that an angel spoke to the women and said that Jesus had been raised. Another Gospel says two angels spoke. One Gospel says a young man spoke to them. And one might say that the young man is probably an angel. And so that the details differ from one Gospel to another.
But in Mark’s Gospel, the earliest of the four, it is mentioned that the women are told to go and tell the disciples that they are to go and meet Jesus in Galilee, which from Jerusalem would be something like an 80 mile trek.
But the Gospel ends by saying that the women fled from the tomb and said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. And so, the Gospel ends right there. So, nothing further beyond that in that particular Gospel, the Gospel according to Mark, which is the earliest of the four that is found within the pages of the New Testament, the Christian Bible today.
But some other writer tacked on a longer ending to the Gospel according to Mark, which is what is now labeled as verses 9 to 20 in chapter 16 of that Gospel. And that is widely recognized now to be added by a later hand in which it shows that Jesus came out while having left it to him.
He now came and met with these female disciples and with his male disciples and so on for a period of time. Well those details that Jesus did meet with his disciples over a period of time.
Aisha Khaja: After he was crucified?
Dr. Shabir Ally: After he had been crucified and then entombed. Then, now the tomb is discovered empty. Those details are found in the other three Gospels and historians think that these Gospels are written after the fact, obviously. And accumulating stories that were being told about these events a long time later on.
And the stories differ from one Gospel to another. But the gist of all of these stories is that Jesus continued to appear to his disciples in various forms. Sometimes they didn’t quite recognize him. They heard his voice but it didn’t really sound like Jesus initially.
They might have recognized him not from his face, but the way he broke bread, for example. Sometimes he examined, he called them to see that he had the wounds of crucifixion, namely a nail wound probably in his wrist or palm or something like this. And then in his side as well.
And then later on that he was taken up into heaven 40 days later after the crucifixion event.
Aisha Khaja: And just really quickly draw, in a nutshell, the parallel what do Muslims believe about Jesus?
Dr. Shabir Ally: Well, Muslims believe in the Ascension, that God raised him into heaven.
I hope this helps answer your question. Please keep in touch.
Walaikum Asalam.
Please continue feeding your curiosity, and find more info in the following links:
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/understanding-islam/jesus-in-the-quran-2/
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/understanding-islam/6-facts-about-jesus-non-muslims-might-not-know/
https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/understanding-islam/jesus-mission-on-his-second-coming/