"Jesus in India" (Nov-1908)-book review by Dr. Shah

Intro
“Jesus in India” (in Urdu as Maseeh Hindustan Mein”) was partially written in 1899 and partly serialized in Review of Religions in 1902 and 1903, the book itself was posthumously published on 20th November 1908 per the order of the Khalifa, Maulvi Hakeem Noorudin. The first complete English translation was published in 1944, many have followed. It was an incomplete book, missing many chapters. It was mentioned in the ROR of Dec-1934, in fact, a man named Chaudhry Bashir Ahmad wrote an essay entitled, “Crucifixion Theory Refuted” wherein he quoted this book.

MGA and his team of writers totally lied about Eisa (as) living 120 or 125 years (See page 62). In this book, they didn’t even give a reference. We found it later, it is traced to Kanzul Ummul (Kanzul Ummul is a re-collection of hadith reports, not a primary source of information on Islamic tradition), we have traced this fabricated tradition to Tabari Vol.6, “Muhammad at Mecca”, pg. 61 (see full refs in the below). It should be noted that as early as 1892, MGA began to say that Esa (As) lived to age 120 and indirectly quoted the saying of Aisha (ra), which was also recorded in Kanzul Ummul (See Nishan Asmani, page 19)(MGA was quoting Tabrani [spelled as Tibrani] and Al-Hakam). See our full refutation of this Tabrani quote herein.

In “Jesus in India” (published in Nov-1908), MGA and his team claimed that Bu Ali Sina (Avicenna) had invented the ointment, “Marham-e-Esa” (See pages 69-70, online English edition). However, this book was incomplete even 8 years later in 1908 when MGA died, thus, the 1st Khalifa, Maulvi Noorudin published it an incomplete manuscript. Ironically, 100+ years later and NO Qadiani-Ahmadi has ever been able to complete it.

We all know how the Ahmadiyya Movement lied about the story of Yuz Asaf=Eisa (as) and the grave of Nasr ud Din. After MGA died, they attempted to separate the word “Yuzasif” and focused on the use of the word Asif (see page 94). Walter covered this topic in his famous book of 1918 (see pages 92-93).

MGA and his team of writers stated that Eisa (as) was a travelling prophet (See Satt Bachan, Endnote concerning page 164, pp. A-B, Ruhani Khaza’in, vol. 10, p. 301-302, see also Hidden Treasures, 1895 or 1902 edition) and (See Jesus in India, online english edition, pages 62-63), however, this refers to his life before the crucifixtion, and not after it, furthermore, these hadith are mostly from Kanzul Ummul, which isn’t an authentic source of information. In “Jesus in India” (published in Oct-1908), MGA and his team quoted Kanzul Ummul, Vol. 2, page 34 (see the full ref in the below) and page 71 of the same volume. They also quoted Vol. 6, page 51 and mis-attributed this hadith to Abdullah Ibn Umar, when in reality, it was Abdullah bin Umar bin Aas (See Jesus in India, online english edition, pages 62-63). They also quoted Lisaan ul-Arab (See Jesus in India, online english edition, page 82).

Watch Bro Haji’s video on this for a clearer explanation (towards the end). Qurtubi gives a good explanation also (see the scans in the below), he says that Eisa (as) would sometimes be in Egypt (Misr) and sometimes in Syria and sometimes by sea. Also check out 23:50 and those detailed explanations therein.

In 2023, at the 6:02:30 mark, Yahya Khan says that whether Eisa (as) went to Kashmir (“Yuz Asaf Theory” or the “Kashmir Theory”), or not is irrelevant, he only wants to talk about if Eisa (as) is dead or not. He also claimed that 4:157 of the Quran is for the Jews only. The clip is on tik tok and twitter.

In 2023, a Desi-Christian man opens up MGA’s “Jesus in India” and dismantles the lies of MGA and his team of writers. Watson Gill immediately notices that this book was supposed to be 10 chapters, however, MGA and his team of writers were never able to complete it, in fact, this book wasn’t published until after MGA died. He also mentions how Qadiani’s believe that Eisa (as) was on the cross and was taken down, and given “Marham-e-Isa” and miraculously recovered. Watson Gill even mentions how #Qadianis twist verses of the Quran and how Muslims are right to call them as Kafir. Watson Gill mentions how MGA said that in the books of the Christians “Marham-e-Isa” is mentioned, and this is a lie!

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Original Urdu edition

Masih Hindustaan Main—-original edition of “Jesus in India” from Nov-1908.
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Kanzulummal Vol. 11 page 479
The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog » Blog Archive » Did Jesus live to age 120 years?

Did Jesus live to age 120 years?

“The Holy prophet peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: “Gabriel informed me that every successive has lived to half the age of his predecessor. And verily jesus, son of mary, lived to 120 years. Therefore, I think, I may reach the age of sixty”.

Tabari Vol.6, “Muhammad at Mecca”, pg. 61

“Ibn al-Muthanna—al-Hajjaj—Hammad—‘Amr—Yahya b. Ja’dah: The messenger of God said to Fatimah, “Gabriel has reviewed the Quran with me once a year, but this year he has reviewed it with me twice, and I fancy that my time has come. You are the nearest to me of my kin. Whenever a prophet has been sent, his mission has lasted for a period of half his predecessor’s lifetime. Jesus was sent for a period of forty years, and I was sent for 20.”
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Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his team of writers fraudulently claimed that Eisa (as) was a travelling prophet, and thus, made it to India – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his team of writers fraudulently claimed that Eisa (as) was a travelling prophet, and thus, made it to India

Kanz-ul-Ummal, vol 2 page 34

Narrated by Abu Hurraira,

Allah Almighty revealed to Jesus, “Move from one place to another, lest you know my influence.” By My Might and Majesty, I will marry you to a thousand maidens, and to whomever you owe, four.

Scan

______________________________________________________________________________________________Kanz-ul-Ummal, vol 2 page 71

Jasbir reports:

Jesus, son of Mary, was a Christian, and when evening came, he ate desert vegetables and drank bitter water covered in dirt. Then Jesus said, “He has no house that will be ruined, nor a child that could die. His food is the greens of the desert. His food is desert beans, his drink is filthy water, and his pillow is dust. When morning became clear, he passed a valley and found in it a blind and paralyzed man with leprosy, cut off by leprosy. The sky is above him and the valley below him, and snow is on his right and hail is on his left. He says, Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, three times. Then Jesus, son of Mary, said to him, O servant of God, for what are you praising God, and you are blind and crippled, cut off by leprosy. The sky is above you and the valley below you, with snow on your right and hail on your left, he said, “O Jesus, thank God, for at this time I am not one of those who say that you are a god, or the son of a god, or the third of three.” (Al-Dailami and Ibn Al-Najjar on the authority of Jabir)

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______________________________________________________________________________________________The story from Kanzul Ummul

Kanzul Ummul, volume 6, page 51,
Abdullah bin Umar reports:

The Holy Prophetsa said: ‘The people most favoured in the sight of God are the Ghareeb.’ When asked, what was meant by the term Ghareeb, he replied ‘They are the people who, like Jesus, the Messiah, have to flee from their country to save their faith?’

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Scans from Lisan al Arab

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Scans from Qurtubi

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Ibn Jawzi

Ahmadi’s quote a book by Ibn Jawzi, however, they don’t give the full name of the book on purpose. This is a book by ibn Jawzi which is full of weak hadith.

Scans

_____________________________________________________________________________________________Scan from Al-dhabi

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RK-15, page 102
MGA lied about Pashtuns

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1894
Edgar J. Goodspeed also refuted Jesus in India – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog

Notovitch’s The Life of Saint Issa refused to die; it was republished in New York in 1926. This motivated Edgar J. Goodspeed, Professor at the University of Chicago, to publish a Christian response. He commented that “it is worthwhile to call attention to [The Life of Saint Issa] because its republication in New York in 1926 was hailed by the press as a new and important discovery,”[19] even though first published over thirty years earlier (1894).
Three of Goodspeed’s arguments are noteworthy.

(1) Goodspeed suggests a literary dependency of The Life of Saint Issa on Matthew, Luke, Acts, and Romans. This would not be odd except that The Life of Saint Issa was allegedly written three or four years after the death of Christ, whereas Matthew, Luke, Acts, and Romans were written two or three decades later. An example of this dependency relates to how The Life of Saint Issa attempts to fill in the silent years of Jesus between the ages of twelve and thirty: “these two ages are taken for granted by the author of this work, who unconsciously bases his scheme upon them. We know them from the Gospel of Luke alone, and the question arises: ‘Has the author of Issa obtained them from the same source?'”[20]

(2) Notovitch describes Luke as saying that Jesus “was in the desert until the day of his showing unto Israel.” This, Notovitch says, “conclusively proves that no one knew where the young man had gone, to so suddenly reappear sixteen years later.” But, says Goodspeed, “it is not of Jesus but of John that Luke says this (1:80), so that it will hardly yield the conclusive proof Notovitch seeks. At this point in Luke’s narrative, in fact, Jesus has not yet appeared.”[21]

(3) Goodspeed comments that The Life of Saint Issa does not purport to have been deciphered and translated by a competent scholar: “The lama read, the interpreter translated, Notovitch took notes. He could evidently not control either the lama or the interpreter, to make sure of what the Tibetan manuscripts contained.”[22]

Throughout the twentieth century, many individuals have responded positively to the work of Notovitch, including Janet and Richard Bock (makers of the film, “The Lost Years of Jesus“), Swami Abhedananda, Sai Baba, Paramahansa Yogananda of the Self-Realization Fellowship, and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Evidence abounds that the Issa legend is alive and well today.
Max Muller, J. Archibald Douglas, and Edgar J. Goodspeed have all presented solid refutations of the legend. These should challenge any serious Issa advocate to reevaluate his or her position. I shall offer further arguments later. But first, it is necessary to examine additional features in the New Age profile of Jesus.

19 Goodspeed, 14 emphasis added.
20 Ibid., 5.
21 Ibid., 9.
22 Ibid.,
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1983
Holger Kersten and the false idea of Jesus of India
Holger Kersten and the false idea of Jesus of India – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog

In 1983, Holger Kersten published, “Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion”.

Jesus Lived in India promotes the claim of Nicolas Notovich (1894) regarding the unknown years of Jesus between the ages of 12 and 30 in India. The consensus view amongst modern scholars is that Notovitch’s account of the travels of Jesus to India was a hoax. Kersten also promotes Ahmadiyya founder Ghulam Ahmad‘s claims regarding the years aged 33 to age 120 in India, and the burial of Jesus at the Roza Bal shrine in Srinagar. Kersten also draws on earlier material by Louis Jacolliot, Andreas Fabeer-Kaiser, and German popular novelist Siegfried Obermeier (also 1983). The book was translated into Chinese in 1987.

Like others before him Kersten follows Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in his sources. For example, a passage in the Bhavishya Purana which refers to Jesus as “Isa-Masih” (Jesus the Messiah). The passage describes the Hindu king Shalivahana travelling to mountains where he meets a man who calls himself Isa, son of a Virgin. Isa says he has ministered to the Mlecchas, explaining that he has reformed the lives of the mlecchas by recommending principles of mental purity, japa by chanting holy names, and meditation. Kersten interprets this as a record of Jesus in Kashmir. In reality the passage is an 18th-century dialogue also featuring Muhammed, and not an early source as Ahmad claimed. Most scholars consider this part of the Purana to be a 19th-century interpolation.

The book achieved great popularity in Germany and overseas, though competed with the better-known Siegfried Obermeier’s book in Germany. The Indologist Günter Grönbold included a highly critical debunking of Obermeier and Kersten’s interpretations of Buddhist sources among various expositions of Jesus in India theories in Jesus in Indien. Das Ende einer Legende (Jesus in India, the end of a Legend, 1985). Wilhelm Schneemelcher in introducing the subject of New Testament Apocrypha (1991) uses Kersten by way of illustration of the development of legendary Gospel traditions and notes how Kersten “attempted to work up Notovitch and Ahmadiyya legends with many other alleged witnesses into a complete picture.” McGetchin notes that once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence.

However, in 1922 Swami Abhedananda visited the Hemis monastery and corroborated much of Notovitch’s story. Given access to the manuscripts on Jesus Christ, Abhedananda later published an abbreviated version of Notovich’s translated account. After Abhedananda’s death in 1939, one of his disciples inquired about the documents at the monastery, but was told they disappeared.

Nevertheless, Kersten wrote his book: Jesus lebte in Indien – Sein geheimes Leben vor und nach der Kreuzigung. Ullstein-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-5483-5490-4, (1. Auflage: Droemer Knaur, München 1983, ISBN 3-426-03712-2). See also Swami Parmeshwaranand, “Christ in the Bhavisya Purana”, Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Purānas, Sarup, 2001, pp.278ff; Wendy Doniger, Purāna Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts, SUNY Press, 1993, p.105.

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1991
Pappas, Paul Constantine, “Jesus’ tomb in India : the debate on his death and Resurrection” (1991)-he accuses Ahmadiyya of academic dishonesty – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog

Ahmadis never use their own brains. They follow their mullahs indiscriminately, then they cry that we are conducting ad hominem attacks on them. This is the Ahmadiyya psyche. Nonetheless, I wanted to present this work by a “jain”, and who is otherwise neutral in terms of being a Muslims or Christian. Professor Pappas wrote a book about Ahmadiyya and Ahmadiyya research in terms of Jesus=Yuz Asaf and essentially accused Ahmadiyya leadership of academic dishonesty.

In the case of Yuz Asaf, they were over-the-top academically dishonest. In this “Kamal-ud-Din WA Itmam ul Naimat” Vol. 2, it is clearly written that Yus Asaf had a father. Even in “Ayn-ul-Hayat” it is stated that Yuz Asaf’s father was a king. Recently, some ex-Ahmadi researchers made a video about all of this. Furhermore, in Jesus in India, which was published posthumously in November of 1908, the word Yuz Asaf doesn’t even exist. Nor do the references to any source material which would connect Yuz Asaf to Esa (as). The english ROR never mentioned “Ayn-ul-Hayat”, however, it does mention Ikmal-ud-Din (see ROR of May 1904), which seems to be a shortened version of “Kamal-ud-Din WA Itmam ul Naimat”.

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2023
Yahya Khan calls “Jesus in India” as irrelevant – ahmadiyyafactcheckblog