Allah the Exalted says:
“And [for] their saying, ‘Indeed, we killed the Messiah, ʿĪsā the son of Maryam, the Messenger of Allah.’ But they neither killed him nor crucified him, but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over him are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. Rather, Allah raised him to the heaven And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise. And there is none from the People of the Book but that he will surely believe in him before his death. And on the Day of Resurrection, he will be a witness against them.”
— [Sūrat al-Nisāʾ, 157–159]
Commentary of the Early Scholars
Imām Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī said in his tafsīr: Ibn Bashshār narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Sufyān, from Abū Ḥuṣayn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him):
“And there is none from the People of the Book but that he will surely believe in him before his death” —
He said: “Before the death of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam.”
This chain of transmission is authentic. The same was narrated by al-ʿAwfī from Ibn ʿAbbās as well.
Abū Mālik also said regarding the verse:
“That refers to the time when ʿĪsā ibn Maryam descends. None of the People of the Book will remain except that he will believe in him.”
Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī commented:
“It means before the death of ʿĪsā. By Allah, he is alive now, but when he descends, they will all believe in him.”
This was also recorded by Ibn Jarīr.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrated that a man once asked al-Ḥasan about the same verse. He replied:
“Before the death of ʿĪsā. Allah raised him to the heaven and will send him down before the Day of Judgement to a station wherein both the righteous and the wicked will believe in him.”
This explanation was also affirmed by Qatādah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam, and others. It is also firmly established in the Ṣaḥīḥayn (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) from the narration of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), both in a mawqūf (suspended) and marfūʿ (attributed to the Prophet ﷺ) form — and Allah knows best.
His Life in the Heavens and His Future Return
The central purpose of these verses is to affirm that ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) is alive in the heavens. It is not as the ignorant among the People of the Book claim—that he was crucified—but rather, Allah raised him to the heaven. He will descend again to earth before the Day of Resurrection, as supported by multiple mutawātir (mass-transmitted) aḥādīth. These are found in the chapters concerning the Dajjāl and will also appear later in this work. And in Allah we place our reliance.
It was also narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās and others that the pronoun in the verse, “before his death”, refers to the People of the Book, meaning that each one of them will come to believe in ʿĪsā before their death. While this interpretation does not contradict the first, the stronger view in both meaning and chain of narration is the former: that it refers to the death of ʿĪsā, peace be upon him.
This has been detailed and confirmed in our tafsīr work, with sufficient explanation and evidence — and all praise and gratitude belong to Allah.
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