Intro
17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898), commonly known as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (also Sayyid Ahmad Khan). He seems to have been a member of the growing Ahl-e-hadith movement in Northern India. However, by the 1860’s, he was a hybrid version of a Quranist. You can also listen to Mufti Mubasher Shah explaining this Tafsir herein. Syed Ahmad Khan started publishing his rationalist ideas in 1880 through the first volume of his Qurʾānic exegesis (S.S. A. Khan, 1880). In it, argued against the notion of supernatural angels that act as mediums between God and humans (Khan 1880: 29–30, 33–34, 53–57). Instead, he said that God communicates with all human beings (and animals) at the time of their conception when he decides their nature (he probably would have used the word DNA instead of nature, had DNA been discovered by 1880).
The Tafseer (commentary) was originally published, probably in parts, in the 1880’s. It does not cover the entire Quraan; it only goes up to Chapter 17, Soorah Banee Israa-eel. Sir Sayyad died
before he was able to complete the work. Chiragh Ali was a student or colleague of Sir Syed and was publishing similar material from Aligarh. Read a thorough review on this Tafsir herein, they claim that an english version is available at the Khuda Baksh Library.
The order of publishing is as follows:
Vol. I Aligarh, 1880.
Vol. II Aligarh, 1882, Agra, 1903.
Vol. III Aligarh, 1885.
Vol. IV Aligarh, 1888.
Vol. V Aligarh, 1892.
Vol. VI Aligarh, 1895.
Vol. VII Agra, 1904.
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Upal quoted “Tafseer-ul-Quraan ma` Usool-e-Tafseer” by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1880) in 2021, in his book, “The Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements”
“This proves that that the prophetic capability that God produced in prophets (anbia) is named Gabriel” (Khan 1880: Tafsīr-ul-Qurʾān wa howa alhuda wal furqan. Vol. 1. Lahore: Rifahe-
Aam Steam Press).
“”The angels that Qurʾān mentions cannot physically exist but the manifestations of God’s infinite powers and those capabilities that God created his creation with are called angel (malak) and angels (malaika). One of them is Satan or Iblis. The rise of the mountains, water’s flow, power of the trees to grow, electricity’s powers of attraction and repulsion etc., all capabilities that are present in the creation are the very angels mentioned in the Qurʾān.”” (Khan 1880: Tafsīr-ul-Qurʾān wa howa alhuda wal furqan. Vol. 1. Lahore: Rifahe-
Aam Steam Press).
“””Jesus was taken down from the cross after three or four hours and it is completely possible to believe that he was still alive. At night, he was taken out of the shroud and he secretly stayed under the protection of his disciples. The disciples saw him and met him. And he died later at some unknown location. Undoubtedly, because of the Jewish enmity, he was secretly buried at an unknown location that is unknown to this day. And they popularized the idea that he has been lifted to the heavens”””. Khan 1880: Tafsīr-ul-Qurʾān wa howa alhuda wal furqan. Vol. 1. Lahore: Rifahe-Aam Steam Press).
“””All creation whether it be humans or animals or plants, God has put a nature into everything. Things happen according to that nature without any teacher’s teachings. This blessing of nature has been labeled by some ʿulamāʾ of Islam as ilhamat (revelations). But the High Lord has called it wahi … This wahi was not delivered to the honeybee by Gabriel or another angel of God but God himself put it into it …According to the ranks of their nature there will be people who will be born from among them whom Shāh Waliullah Sahib has labeled as perfects, hakims, khalifas, aided by the Holy Spirit (ruh-ul-qudus) guides, imams, munazir (warners), nabī (prophets). Today’s faithless people call them reformers … A guide who has a perfect nature of guidance is a prophet (nabī) (Khan 1885: 16–17, Vol. III Aligarh, 1885).
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Scans from Sir Syed’s Tafsir
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Nuzhat Haneef
Now I provide my English translation of Sir Sayyad’s Urdu translation of Quraan 3:56 and some excerpts from his commentary on this verse, shown in the original Urdu text in the page images above.
[Quraan 3:56, numbered by Sir Sayyad as verse 48] When God said: O `Eesaa [Jesus], indeed I am going to kill you [‘mayn tujh koe maarnay waalaa hoon’] and am going to raise you to Myself and am going to purify you, from those people who became disbelievers, and am going to make those who followed you superior to those who became disbelievers, till the Day of Resurrection. Then you have to come to Me again. Then I will made a decision/judgment in the matter in which you differed. [SIR-SAYYAD, Part 2, p. 403] …
[Commentary on 3:56:] …
A person does not die due to being put on a cross because only the palms of his hands, and sometimes the palms and feet, got wounded. The reason for death used to be that [the person] was kept hanging on the cross for four or five days and [due to] the holes in his hands and feet and by suffering the impact of hunger and thirst and the heat and glare of the sun, [he] used to die in several days. … [SIR-SAYYAD, Part 2, p. 424] …
Upon the end of the day of the Fasah festival [the Pesach or Passover festival96], the Jewish Sabbath was about to begin and, according to the Jewish religion, it was necessary that the corpse of the killed or crucified person be buried prior to the end of the day, that is, prior to the start of the Sabbath. But a person cannot die so soon on the cross. Therefore, the Jews requested that Hadrat Maseeh’s legs be broken so that he would die immediately but Hadrat `Eesaa’s legs were not broken and people thought that he died within that much time [i.e., within the short time]. …
When people erroneously thought that Hadrat `Eesaa has actually died, then Yoosuf [Joseph of
Arimathea] requested the governor [Pilate] to have him buried; he [Pilate] was very astonished that he [Jesus] had died so quickly. The report of [Jesus] having died so quickly not only caused astonishment to the governor but the Christians too used to consider it impossible and, therefore, in the 3rd Christian century [i.e., 3rd century AD] the Christian scholars [of that period] eventually declared Hadrat `Eesaa’s swift death on the cross to be a miracle. [SIR-SAYYAD, Part 2, p. 425] ……
Upon taking a historical view of this whole incident [of Jesus’ crucifixion] it clearly becomes
obvious that Hadrat `Eesaa had not died on the cross; rather, he went into a condition such that people thought him to be dead. … Hadrat `Eesaa was taken down from the cross after three or four hours and one can be sure in every respect that he was alive. At night he was taken out of the grave and he stayed hidden in the protection of his disciples. The disciples saw him and met him and then, at some [later] time, [he] died a natural death. Without a doubt, due to fear of the enmity of the Jews, he must have been buried, in extreme secrecy, at some unknown location, which is unknown up till now and it became publicized [i.e., the word spread] that he had gone to the heavens [or the sky]. [SIR-SAYYAD, Part 2, pp. 426-427]
As you can see, Sir Sayyad presents the theory, later adopted by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, that Jesus did not die on the cross but rather was taken down alive and died a natural death later on. He also provides the same explanation that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad later provided for why Jesus was able to survive, viz., that he was taken down from the cross within a few hours.
Now that you have read a part of Sir Sayyad’s explanation of the crucifixion incident which was published in the early 1880’s97, I present below a few excerpts from Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s book Maseeh Hindustaan Mayn (whose preface is dated 1899 but which was published in 1908) which he wrote after declaring in 1891 that God had told him that Jesus was dead. Instead of translating myself from Urdu, I have used the Ahmadiyya Movement’s translation available in the book Jesus in India but I have provided the corresponding Urdu reference as well. In this quotation, see if you can notice the similarities between Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s writing and Sir Sayyad’s explanation of how Jesus could have come down alive from the cross (see Jesus in India).
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Sir Syed Ahmad Khan scans and data from 5:117
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Links and Related Essay’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Ahmad_Khan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Ahmad_Khan
file:///C:/Users/xobas/Desktop/T%207541.pdf
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/jspui/handle/10603/55315
Nooruddin urged Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to make the claim of being “like the messiah” (1882-1884 era)
MGA explains how he misunderstood his prophethood in 1880 and was confused for 20+ years
Sir Syed was the first Muslim in India to ever say that all hadith on the Mahdi were weak…MGA copied
Sir Syed was the first Muslim in India to ever say that all hadith on the Mahdi were weak…MGA copied
https://www.alislam.org/library/book/heavenly-sign/
Nooruddin urged Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to make the claim of being “like the messiah” (1882-1884 era)
Friedman errs on Ishaat us Sunnah volume numbers and the corresponding year
Sir Syed was the first Muslim in India to ever say that all hadith on the Mahdi were weak…MGA copied
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Tags
#sirsyed #sirsyedahmadkhan #ahmadiyya #ahmadiyyafactcheckblog #messiahhascome #ahmadiyyat
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