Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Muslim Orthodoxy and the Return of Jesus (Issa)

The Hadiths on Jesus Are "Tawatur"

The hadiths relating Jesus' second coming are reliable [tawatur]. Research shows that scholars share this view. Tawatur is defined as "a tradition which has been handed down by a number of different channels of transmitters or authorities, hence supposedly ruling out the possibility of its having been forged."

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In his Al-Tasrih fi ma Tawatara fi Nuzul al-Masih, the great hadith scholar Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri writes that the hadiths about Jesus' second coming are all reliable, and quotes 75 hadiths and 25 works by companions of the Prophet and their disciples (tabi'un).

In the Sunni school of Islam, Imam Abu Hanifa is the greatest collector of hadiths on Jesus' second coming. In the final part of his Al-Fiqh al-Akbar, he states that:

The emergence of the Dajjal [Antichrist] and of Gog and Magog is a reality; the rising of the sun in the West is a reality; the descent of Jesus, upon whom be peace, from the heavens is a reality; and all the other signs of the Day of Resurrection, as contained in authentic traditions, are also established realities.


Jesus' second coming is one of the ten great signs of the Last Day, and many Islamic scholars have dealt with the subject in great detail. When all of these views are considered together, it becomes apparent that there is a consensus on this event.

For instance, in his work Lawaqi Al-Anwar Al-Bahiyah, Imam al-Safarini expresses that Islamic scholars agree upon this issue:

The entire ummah (Muslim community) has agreed on the issue that Prophet Jesus (pbuh), the son of Maryam, will return. There is no one from the people who follow Muslim laws who oppose this issue.