Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan: Denial of Virgin Birth and Ascension of Jesus to Heaven

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

Blessings and salutations of peace be upon you my Master, Apostle of Allah

In modern times the poisoned fountain of misguidance and heresy was Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898). His radical departure from orthodox, traditional Sunni Islam and introduction of the heresies of modernism and naturalism to the Ummah caused many Muslims around the world to likewise deviate from the mainstream belief and practice of Islam. As a naturalist, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan denied the miraculous or “supernatural” events mentioned in the Quran, and attempting to reinterpret them so as not to contravene the so-called laws of nature. One of the Islamic doctrines that Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan denied, which to my knowledge no Muslim denied before him, was the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him. He said:

اور خود حواری بھی جانتے تھے اور یقین کرتے کہ حضرت عیسے اپنے باپ یوسف کے تخم سے پیدا ہوئے ہیں نہ کہ بغیر باپ کے

Even the Disciples knew for certain that Jesus was born from the seed of his father Joseph, not that he was birthed without a father (Tafsir ul-Quran Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan; v.2, p.24)

Under the influence of Sir Sayyid, individuals and movements subsequent to him followed him in this heresy, such as the Lahori branch of the Ahmadiyyah, Ghulam Ahmad Parwez, Inayatullah Wazirabadi of the so-called Ahli Hadith sect and more recently the pseudo-Mufti known as Abul Layth based in the UK.

Concerning the swoon hypothesis according to which Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, was nailed to the cross but did not die upon it, rather only swooned and was taken down in an unconscious state but still alive, a belief that is more prominently advocated by the Qadianis (so-called “Ahmadiyyah” sect), the first individual from the Muslim Ummah to teach this doctrine was not Mirza Ghulam Ahmad or the Qadianis but Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan:

تو صاف ظاہر ہوتا ہے کہ حضرت عیسے صلیب پر مرے نے تھے بلکہ ان پر ایسی حالت طاری ہوگئی تھی کہ لوگوں نے ان کو رمردہ سمجھا تھا۔

It becomes clearly manifest that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, rather he went into such a state [unconsciousness] that people thought he was dead (ibid, p.40)

Graver than the swoon hypothesis is Sir Sayyid’s heretical belief that the Messiah Jesus, peace be upon him, died a natural death and was not physically raised to Heaven:

تو جو ہم بیان کرتے ہیں وہی پایا جاتا ہے کہ حضرت عیسے کو یہودیوں نے نہ سنگسار کر کے قتل کیا نہ صلیب پر قتل کیا بلکہ وہ اپنی موت سے مرے اور خدا نے ان کے درجہ اور مرتبہ کو مرتفع کیا

So what we have explained is found that the Jews did not kill Jesus by stoning or crucifixion, rather he died naturally and God raised his rank and status (ibid, pp.44-45)

Not only did Sir Sayyid teach that Jesus, peace be upon him, has already died, he also distorted the Ayah in the Quran which plainly says that Allah raised him, meaning the person of Jesus, to Himself and falsely interpreted it to mean that Allah merely exalted the status and rank of Jesus, not his actual person. So the Antichrist Mirza of Qadian and his followers copied this view from Sir Sayyid who preceded them in it.