Re: The Qur’an on the resurrection of Jesus

Also published in Daily Trust

I am privileged today to host our erudite brother, Malam Ibraheem A. Waziri of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to explain and clarify the misconceptions raised by Rev Father (Prof) Omonokhua Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. Enjoy,

“Rev Father (Prof) Omonokhua has a very interesting article about Qur’an and the resurrection of Christ as published in Sunday Trust, of 14 April, 2013. Full of quotations from Qur’an and interpretations from different Muslim scholars through history, he tried to justify the Christian belief that Jesus actually died and got resurrected for the atonement of the sin of humankind.

The death and resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith as Saint Paul said:  “If Christ be not risen from the dead, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:14) On the part of Muslims the sacred scripture called to question the events that led to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Ahmed Deedat, a onetime South African/Indian Muslim scholar, in booklet, Crucifiction or Crucifixion gave a detailed alternative interpretations of events, issues and utterances in the Holy Bible that confirm theclaim that, “...they killed him (Jesus) not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no [certain] knowledge, but only conjecture to follow...” (Qur’an 4: 157-158)

It is important here to note that Rev. Omonokhua did not come up with anything new in the Muslim interpretations of the many verses in the Qur’an he relied on to reach his conclusion. It is only that he might have misunderstood certain claims. The fact that there are Muslims who believe that Jesus actually died does not mean they believe he was resurrected after death.  Some say he died only after he ascended to heaven as some claim the verses that referred to him as dead to be only sharing the story of the future when he will hold a discussion with God on the account of his brief sojourn on earth. Even if he is not dead now, he will die someday since it is ordained in the scriptures that every soul shall taste death. In short, while the death of Jesus Christ can be implied by some stretched interpretation from the Qur’an, his resurrection cannot, and the exercise of Rev Omonokhua did not prove that it can in anyway.

Yet in the spirit of dialogue and in the context of present Nigeria, I will advocate the need for a careful revision of history, events and interpretations of the scriptures towards what will increase peaceful and harmonious coexistence.  Richard Bulliet, an American Expert on Oriental Studies did the first kind of this exercise in the wake of the thesis about the Clash of Civilisations between the West and Islam by Bernard Lewis and late Samuel Huntington.

In 2004, he wrote the highly logical treatise, The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilisation, where he argued that in terms of precepts, traditions and social culture, Muslims have much more in common with Christians than even with Jews. He believed the phrase Judeo-Christian Civilisation to be more of a misnomer when there is most appropriate one that summarises the history of the West and its civilisation in the tag, Islamo-Christian.

This is very true as throughout the Torah, the Gospels and the Qur’an there’s an explicit declaration that it is the righteous that shall inherit the earth (Qur’an, al-Anbiyah, 21:105, Psalm, 25:12-14, Psalm, 37:11, Psalm, 37:29, Matthew, 5:5). In another verse of the Qur’an righteousness is shown to be composed of three segments: the faith, the social values and the rituals. All the scriptures also assert that it is only God that can judge people in regards to their faiths in the hereafter. The second part about social values is: “... to spend(ing) wealth, out of love for Him for relatives, for orphans, for the needy, for the traveller, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves;..” (Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:177)

It is a popular dictum in the Muslim social space that, ‘nations succeed not in their faith only but in their justice’. Justice in keeping with the Abrahamic values in the social space. This is why God guarantees the leadership of the material world to only those who in His words follow Jesus:  “...And I will place the people who follow you (Jesus) above those who are unbelievers until the Day of Resurrection.” (Surah Al ‘Imran, 3:55)

This has held true to this day, for those who have been leading the world have always been those who believe in and implement Jesus’ Abrahamic Justice. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the year 636 AC, the Muslims then took over the leadership from Christians because they delivered most by the standard of Abrahamic Justice. Centuries later, Christians took over from Muslims for the same reasons. They established hospitals wherever their mission reached as they abolished slavery and tried to bridge the gap between social classes.

Nigeria as a nation has a greater promise if the adherents of the two faiths will be led on the basis of their shared heritage and universal values by contextualising them in a single Nigerian African culture. As far back as the 14th century there were Christians, at least, in the area that constitutes the present Northern Nigeria. In fact the symbol, the mark, the identity of Northern Nigeria today is the Northern Knot which is an ancient form of a North African Christian cross. The records of history do not reflect many skirmishes even when the area decided to become Muslim with the subsequent contacts with the Arabs.

The  reason is faith can change easily where values remain the same and Nigerian reality needs more to establish the commonality of Muslim and Christian values than to change Christians to Muslims or vice versa”.