[343] Also some said he was taken up into heaven; and others, that his manhood only suffered, and that his godhead ascended into heaven.—S. (B.)
[344] Some, referring the relative his to the first antecedent, take the meaning to be that no Jew or Christian shall die before he believes in Jesus; for they say that when one of either of those religions is ready to breathe his last, and sees the angel of death before him, he shall then believe in that prophet as he ought, though his faith will not then be of any avail. According to a tradition of El-Hajjáj, when a Jew is expiring the angels will strike him on the back and face, and say to him, ‘O thou enemy of God, Jesus was sent as a prophet unto thee, and thou didst not believe on him;’ to which he will answer, ‘I now believe him to be the servant of God:’ and to a dying Christian they will say, ‘Jesus was sent as a prophet unto thee, and thou hast imagined him to be God, or the son of God;’ whereupon he will believe him to be the servant of God only and His apostle.—Others, taking the above-mentioned relative to refer to Jesus, suppose the intent of the passage to be that all Jews and Christians in general [the dead being raised to life in their graves] shall have a right faith in that prophet before his death, that is, when he descends from heaven and returns into the world, where he is to kill Antichrist and to establish the Moḥammadan religion and a most perfect tranquillity and security on earth [where he will remain forty years, and then die.—Others again suppose that the words ‘believe in him’ signify ‘believe in God.’]—S. (B., Z., Jelál, &c.)
[345] It is a dispute among the Moḥammadans whether Christ actually died or not before his assumption.—S. (B.)
[346] Some, however, are of opinion it [this passage] might have been revealed in answer to certain idolaters, who said that the Christians, who received the Scriptures, worshipped Jesus, supposing him to be the son of God; whereas the angels were more worthy of that honour than he.—S. (B.)
[347] As easily as We produced Jesus without a father [B.]. The intent of the words is to show how just and reasonable it is to think that the angels should bear the relation of children to men rather than to God, they being His creatures as well as men, and equally in His power.—S.
[348] For some time before the resurrection Jesus is to descend on earth according to the Moḥammadans near Damascus, or as some say near a rock [or rather a mountain-road] named [´Aḳabet] Afeek, with a lance in his hand, wherewith he is to kill Antichrist, whom he will encounter at Ludd, or Lydda, a small town not far from Joppa. They add that he will arrive at Jerusalem at the time of morning-prayer, that he shall perform his devotions after the Moḥammadan institution, and officiate instead of the Imám, who shall give place to him; that he will break down the cross, and destroy the churches of the Christians, of whom he will also make a general slaughter, excepting only such as shall profess El-Islám.—S. (B.)
[349] Either by rejecting and contemning Jesus, as the Jews do; or raising him to an equality with God, as do the Christians.—S. (B.)
[350] For the Eastern writers mention a sect of Christians which held the Trinity to be composed of those three; but it is allowed that this heresy has been long since extinct.—S.