Jesus Buried Next to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ 

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

Believing Muslims eagerly await the second coming of the Messiah Jesus, peace be upon him, and know that as a mortal man he too shall pass away. According to the Hadith, the Messiah Jesus shall be buried next to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in Medina.

Hence, the eminent companion, Abdullah bin Salam, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

مَكْتُوبٌ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ صِفَةُ مُحَمَّدٍ وَعِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ يُدْفَنُ مَعَهُ

“The description of Muhammad is written in the Torah, and Jesus son of Mary will be buried with him.”

Commenting on this, the narrator Abu Mawdud, Abd al-Aziz bin Abi Sulayman al-Hudhali, says:

وَقَدْ بَقِيَ فِي الْبَيْتِ مَوْضِعُ قَبْرٍ

“And there remains in the house space for a grave” (Jami al-Tirmidhi, #3617)

Darus Salam, in collaboration with Zubair Ali Zai, graded this narration hasan (sound):

So presently, the blessed garden in which the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is buried, which was the chamber of his wife Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, contains three occupied graves and just enough space for a fourth grave which is where the Messiah shall be buried.

According to a weak Hadith, the Prophet, peace be upon him, is reported to have said:

يَنْزِلُ عِيسَى بن مَرْيَمَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ فَيَتَزَوَّجُ وَيُولَدُ لَهُ وَيَمْكُثُ خَمْسًا وَأَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً ثُمَّ يَمُوتُ فَيُدْفَنُ مَعِي فِي قَبْرِي فأقوم أَنا وَعِيسَى بن مَرْيَمَ فِي قَبْرٍ وَاحِدٍ بَيْنَ أَبَى بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ

“Jesus, son of Mary, will descend to Earth, marry, have children, and live for forty-five years. Then he will die and be buried with me in my grave. So I and Jesus son of Mary will rise from a single grave between Abu Bakr and Umar.” (Mishkat al-Masabih; Kitab al-Fitan, #5508)

Qadianis, who deny the physical and literal second coming of the Messiah Jesus, object to this Hadith, saying that it necessitates the exhuming of the Prophet Muhammad’s grave in order to bury Jesus with him. Such an exhumation would obviously be sacrilegious. 

They argue that the wording of the Hadith “buried with me in my grave” can only mean that Jesus will be buried in the personal grave of the Prophet Muhammad and not buried in a grave next to his grave.

However, such an interpretation of the Hadith is wrong. The term grave does not encompass merely the area in which the body is buried but would also include the area in its immediate vicinity.

Hence, Allah says:

وَلَا تُصَلِّ عَلٰۤی اَحَدٍ مِّنۡہُمۡ مَّاتَ اَبَدًا وَّلَا تَقُمۡ عَلٰی قَبۡرِہٖ

And pray not over any of them who dies, ever, nor stand upon his grave

(Surah 9, Ayah 84)

This blessed Ayah was revealed concerning the chief of the hypocrites, Ibn Ubayy. The implication is that while it is forbidden to stand upon the grave of an unbeliever or a hypocrite in order to pray for his or her forgiveness, the inverse is that it desirable to do so in the case of a Believer.

However, the literal translation of the Ayah is “nor stand on his grave”. Yet, the Prophet peace be upon him would not have stood directly upon the grave under which the corpse was buried, but here to “stand on his grave” would mean to stand next to the grave. It is in fact forbidden in the Shari’ah to stand or sit directly upon any grave.