If Jesus Christ does return to the world, he must return as a Prophet of God

*Note: this is my third article in a series of write-ups relating to the return of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) and the issue of the finality of Prophethood in Islam. My previous two relevant articles can be found on the links below.......

https://servantofahmadiyya.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-utter-folly-of-constitution-of.html

https://servantofahmadiyya.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-return-of-jesus-christ-and-finality.html *

Before I begin, I must mention here that I originally had no plans on writing such an article, for it has been a unanimously held belief by a vast majority of scholars that Prophet Jesus will return to this world in the capacity of a Prophet. However, recently in debates I´ve come across a pattern amongst our non-Ahmadi brothers, which is that they deny the Second Coming of the Christ as a Prophet. They believe that he´ll return as a non-Prophet Reformer, as a result of which the finality of the Prophethood of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) will not be compromised. My research on this has pointed towards scholars such as Dr. Zakir Naik sahib and Abdur Raheem Green sahib as being of those scholars who are in agreement with this view.

The most striking thing here is that holding such a view is in utter contradiction with Ahadith from Sahih Muslim and from Sunan Abu Dawood in which it has been declared in clear terms that the coming Christ will be a Prophet - he has been called "Prophet" four times - and that he´ll even receive Wahi (Revelation) from Allah (those Ahadith have been included in my second article, the link to which I´ve given above). So I´ve no idea how such a belief can be promoted at all given the presence of such Ahadith. However, for the sake of it, I´m compelled to adopt the alternative approach of putting aside Hadith because it seems that some of our non-Ahmadi brothers and their scholars are not ready to accept the ruling of our holy Master, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) - as unfortunate as it is.

1. Prophet Jesus can only return as a Prophet

"And will make him a Messenger to the children of Israel..... " - Qur´an 3:49.

"And remember when Jesus, son of Mary, said, 'O´ children of Israel, surely I am Allah’s Messenger unto you..... " - Qur´an 61:6.

"He said, 'I am a servant of Allah. He has given me the Book, and made me a Prophet' " - Qur´an 19:31.

The obvious fact to consider here is that the status of Prophethood has been bestowed upon him by the Almighty Allah. It wasn´t a rank or a job given to Prophet Jesus´ employer or a king so that he can be demoted from it or that he can resign from it. Once Allah bestows upon someone the status of Prophethood or even Sainthood, it is impossible and unprecedented that such a person foregoes his status regardless of where he goes and lives, or in which era he lives. In the Holy Qur´an, Prophet Jesus´ Prophethood has once been announced by the Angels and twice by the Christ himself. There´s no way that such an uncompromising announcement can be reversed, regardless of the wishes of some of our non-Ahmadi brothers. It also begs for another question: if Prophet Jesus returns as a non-Prophet Reformer, then what will be his status in the Hereafter? Will he be counted amongst Prophets or will he be counted amongst mere Reformers? Common sense drives the fact that a person´s condition in the Hereafter will be same as in which he died. A person who dies as a believer will be counted amongst believers in the Hereafter, and he who dies as a disbeliever will be counted amongst disbelievers in the Hereafter. So another very strange thing will happen: Prophet Jesus will not be amongst Prophets in the Hereafter and he´ll thus not enjoy the blessed status which he was actually born with, and this only because he died as a non-Prophet Reformer. So at most he´ll be amongst Saints and Reformers.

And there´s another complicating angle to this: Prophet Jesus was only taught the Torah and Gospel since he obviously was a Jewish Prophet. In his Second Coming though, he would have to possess the knowledge of the Qur´an since this time around he´ll descend as a leader of Muslims. Now, who will teach him the Holy Qur´an? The ulema of today? If so, then there exists a difference of opinion amongst ulema on many issues, so who´ll tell Prophet Jesus as to which of the various opinions is right? If Allah guides him even to the least extent on this, or teaches him the whole Qur´an altogether, that itself would constitute as heavenly Revelation and that will right away designate him as a Prophet! 

2. The issue of Prophet Jesus not receiving Revelations in his Second Coming

However, this whole theory is based on the assumption that Prophet Jesus will not receive any Revelations from Allah. Apart from the belief of the non-Ahmadi brothers that the Holy Prophet is the last Prophet in every sense of the word, there´s no proof to support this view (of returning as a mere Reformer) from the Qur´an or Hadith. However, again, for the sake of it, let´s just accept that Prophet Jesus indeed will not receive any Revelation from Allah in his Second Coming, but what does that prove? Nothing really, because he was, is and will always remain a Prophet.

"Whatever of mercy Allah grants to men - there is none to withhold it; and whatever He withholds, there is none who can release it after that; and He is the Mighty, the Wise" - Qur´an 35:2.

He was granted Prophethood as a special mercy from Allah and there´s therefore no one who can take away his Prophethood from him, regardless of whether he receives further Revelations or not.

3. Such a belief gives birth to some awkward questions!

Even from this angle, this beliefs gives birth to a lot of questions which will have to be answered: for example, if a Prophet does not receive any Revelations for the last two days before his death, does he cease being a Prophet before he dies? Also, if a Prophet receives Revelations from Monday to Wednesday, and then there occurs a break in the Revelations for two days, and then it continues again from Saturday to Sunday, does it mean that the said person ceased being a Prophet on Thursday and Friday, and that he lived through those two days in the capacity of only a Reformer? And here comes an even bigger question: from the moment the Holy Prophet Muhammad received his last revelation, to the moment he passed away, did he cease to remain a Prophet of Allah during this span of his life? Also, Muslims are agreed upon the fact that there exist two kinds of Prophethoods: one is the law-bearing Prophethood and the other is the one without a law. So during the last days of his, if a law-bearing Prophet is revealed no further law and is revealed no further guidelines on what is allowed and what is forbidden, does such a Prophet cease being a law-bearing Prophet and does he die then as one who wasn´t a law-bearing Prophet? Take the example of Prophet Moses (peace be upon him). From the time he received his last guideline in a Revelation as to what is allowed and what is forbidden etc., or was revealed the last law for the Jews, did Prophet Moses spend the rest of his days as a non law-bearing Prophet?

So it´s clear that this third door, this third way out to the whole debate about the return of Jesus Christ and the finality of Prophethood in Islam, is exactly as prone to criticism as the other belief - which is that he´ll indeed return as a Prophet. A lot of questions will have to be answered before this theory can be passed as legit. As it is anyway, this is not the belief held by a vast majority of Muslim scholars.

4. The prevailing belief: he´ll return as a Prophet - even the Constitution of Pakistan proves it!

There´s a hint of it in the Constitution of Pakistan itself. Let´s turn to the relevant article.....

" 'Muslim' means a person who believes in the unity and oneness of Almighty Allah, in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him), the
last of the Prophets and does not believe in, or recognize as a prophet or religious reformer, any person who claimed or claims to be a prophet, in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever, after Muhammad (peace be upon him)" - Article 90 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

Whilst coming up with a clause to declare Ahmadis as non-Muslims, the difficulty presented for the scholars was the fact that they themselves believed in the return of Prophet Jesus as a Prophet. So the wording of the clause couldn´t simply be "A Muslim is someone who.... does not believe in any kind of a Prophet to come/appear after the Holy Prophet Muhammad", because such wordings would´ve declared themselves too as non-Muslims! So words such as "Claimed or claims to be a Prophet..... after Muhammad (peace be upon him)" were instead taken refuge in. They believed that their belief was exempted from this article given that Prophet Jesus´ claim to be a Prophet was made before the Holy Prophet, and not after him, so his return won´t violate the finality of Prophethood (*note: whether his return does violate it or not has been dealt with in my first article from the ones mentioned at the very beginning of this one*). So this proves that the prevailing belief back then, and even now, is that Prophet Jesus will return as a Prophet. Besides that, a non-Ahmadi scholar openly declared this belief in a programme on Pakistan´s channel Geo News, the video clip of which is found on the link below......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=AJ4TEUNmuZg

The said scholar wasn´t interrupted or corrected by any of the rest scholars present on the scene, if indeed he was uttering such a heresy.

5. An appeal, based on principles, to those who hold this belief

Since scholars like Dr. Zakir Naik sahib, who are of this view, believe Ahmadis to be non-Muslims based on our belief in the continuation of Prophethood, then based on principles they should declare all those to be non-Muslims who believe in the return of the Christ in the capacity of a Prophet. If they don´t, and they probably won´t, it´ll be a case of clear hypocrisy and double standards, and also a clear example of the fact how these scholars bend rules and compromise on principles if they´re up against a strong party. However, on the other hand, if they do happen to declare the same for other Muslims as they do in the case of Ahmadi Muslims, then we´ll hardly have a Muslim left on the planet! Also, great Saints and scholars from the past such as Hadhrat ibn Arabi and Hadhrat Mullah Ali al-Qari also will have to be termed as non-Muslims for they too believed in the cessation of only law-bearing Prophethood.

*Note: a tremendous amount of credit must go to Twitter user @sam3398 for his inputs and general help in the writing of this article. May Allah reward the brother for all his help and efforts; Aameen.*

Warm regards,

Rawal Afzal (Twitter: @R_A_Azaad / @The_Traveller27).