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REGARDING PROPHET JESUS’ (PBUH) RULE UPON HIS RETURN

How does/will Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) know the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household)?

Someone asked:

>If Prophet Jesus has been raised up alive and is on the fourth

> heaven, how will he read the Koran and how will he know the teachings of

> Prophet Mohammad? According to your belief, the door of revelation from God

> has been closed too, so you can not say he has been knowing it through God.

There are numerous routes for him to acquire / have acquired this knowledge:

1 - BY PRIOR REVELATION

a) Allah took a covenant from every prophet that if Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) were sent during his time, he must believe in him and follow him. [Qur’an, 3:81] Hence, every prophet - including Jesus (peace be upon him) - knew about Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household).

b) In fact there are even narrations that some of the prophets, or even all of them, received knowledge of the shari`ah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household)

* Bayhaqi has extracted, in Dala’il al-Nubuwwah, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, that Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) told Allah that he found in the Torah various descriptions of an ummah, and he asked for them to be his ummah, but he was told that they are the ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) [for full text of these narrations, see the original sources, and/or Suyuti ‘s al-Hawi (2/190-191).
* Bayhaqi has extracted, in Dala’il al-Nubuwwah, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, that Prophet David (peace be upon him) was informed in the Zabur that a prophet named Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) would come after him, and that some of the obligations imposed upon his ummah were mentioned.
* Darimi has narrated, in his Musnad, from Ka`b al-Ahbar, a description of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) and his ummah from the Torah.
* Abu Nu`aym has narrated, in Dala’il al-Nubuwwah, from Ka`b al-Ahbar, a description of this ummah, including the fact that the tayammum is a purification.
* Abu Nu`aym has narrated, in Dala’il al-Nubuwwah, from Ibn Mas`ud, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) mentioned some description - of himself and his ummah - which was in the Injil.

Since the sources of these narrations are relatively hard to locate, it is worth mentioning that even before looking at their authenticity, one realizes that they clearly have some basis in the Qur’an, for their general import is borne out by the following:

* “And verily, it [the Qur’an] is in scriptures of the former peoples. Is it not a sign to them that the scholars of the Children of Israel know it?” [Qur’an, 26:196-7]

This verse is cited as evidence for Imam Abu Hanifah’s view that recitation in salah can be in non-Arabic, because the previous scriptures were not in Arabic. (Of course, the final conclusion in this fiqhi issue is a separate discussion.)

* “Verily, this is in the former scriptures; the scriptures of Abraham and Moses.” [Qur’an, 87:18-19]

Bazzar has recorded [with an isnad graded as sahih by Suyuti] from Ibn `Abbas (r.a.) that when these verses were revealed, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) said, “All this was in the scriptures of Abraham and Moses.”

c) Furthermore, it is quite possible that Jesus (peace be upon him) was specifically singled out from among the previous prophets to be taught the Qur’an and Sunnah by Allah.

“And [Allah] will teach him the Scripture and the Wisdom, and the Torah and the Injil.” [Qur’an, 3:48]

Ibn `Abbas said about this verse that al-Hikmah is fiqh, and the knowledge of Halal and Haram. [Tafseer Ruh al-Ma`ani, 3/265]

Note that the same words (al-kitaab wal-Hikmah - the Scripture and the Wisdom) are used for Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) in more than one verse [e.g. Qur’an, 2:129], in reference to the Qur’an and Sunnah. [See Mukhtasar Tafseer Ibn Katheer, 1/130; Tafseer al-Qurtubi, 2/124, Ruh al-Ma`ani 3/265, by way of illustration,for explanations of Hikmah as Sunnah (as explained by Hasan Basri and Qatadah, and by others as knowledge of regulations/judgement, all teaching of religion, and the sunnah of all the prophets, variously.]

2 - DIRECTLY FROM THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household)

a) DURING THE WORLDLY LIFE OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household)

The Imam and Hafiz al-Dhahabi says, in Tajreed al-Sahaabah, “Jesus, son of Mary (peace be upon him): a Prophet and a Sahabi, for he saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) and greeted him with salaam.”

* Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) met with Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) on the night of Isra and Mi`raj. In fact, all the prophets performed salah as followers of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) on that night, which indicates that Jesus (peace be upon him) already knew the regulations of our salah by that night if not before.
* There is nothing to rule out Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) having met with Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) on other occasions also.

Ibn `Adiyy has narrated from Anas (r.a.) that the Sahabah saw a garment and a hand (but not the body), and they questioned the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) who said, “That was Jesus, son of Mary, who greeted me.”

Ibn `Asakir has recorded a similar narration, also from Anas.

b) AFTER HIS (peace be upon him) DESCENT

Scores of narrations exist, in addition to the Qur’anic evidence, which prove that Jesus (peace be upon him) will return to this world before Judgment Day. It is established also from ahadith that prophets are alive in their graves. Hence, it is possible that Jesus (peace be upon him) could receive knowledge of Shari`ah from Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) directly from him during that time. This possibility is strengthened by the following narrations:

* Abu Ya`la has narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) said, “By [Allah] in Whose Hand is my soul! Jesus, son of Mary will surely descend. Then, if he stands at my grave and says, ‘O Muhammad!’ I shall surely respond to him.”
* Ibn `Asakir has narrated that the Messenger ofAllah (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) said, “Allah will surely send Jesus, son of Mary, down as a just judge and an equitable leader, and then he will surely travel by Fajj al-Rawha for hajj or `umrah, and he will surely stand at my grave and then he shall surely greet me, and I shall surely respond to him.”
* It is reported that when some people started criticizing Abu Hurayrah for being prolific in narrating hadith, he said, “If Jesus, son of Mary, descends before I die, I will surely relate to him from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his Household) and then he will confirm me.” [Suyuti’s al-Hawi, 2/197]

3 - BY STUDY AND IJTIHAD

The Qur’an and Sunnah will be accessible to Jesus (peace be upon him) when he descends from Heaven. Hence, he could clearly study them and, he may, by similar powers of reasoning and deduction granted by Allah to mujtahidin, deduce the Shari`ah regulations needed by him.

> And most

> importantly, who will Prophet Jesus pay the alms to? Are there more people

> with him on the fourth sky?

You are assuming he has money with him. If he does not have money, zakat is not due, just like prayer is not due if the time has not entered. This is notwithstanding the fact that the most obvious impression obtained from the verse is that the command to perform salah and give zakah are referring to the time he spends on earth, and in any case, we have seen already how he has / could acquire the needed knowledge.

And Allah knows best. 

From Suheil Laher's Islam Page