The Prophet Muhammad's Correct Understanding

After 33 years of prayer and study I have arrived at these three important conclusions. They reveal why the following paraphrase of An-Nisa 4:157 and 158 reflect the Wise Prophet Muhammad's correct understanding of these two profound and complex verses.

Prophet's Potential Paraphrase of An-Nisa 4:157, 158

"That they said (in boast),
'We killed Christ Jesus The Son of Mary, The Messenger of Allah.'
But they did not (permanently) kill him,
Nor (permanently) crucified him. But that was the way that it appeared to them,
And those who differ therein are full of doubts,
With no (certain) knowledge,
But only conjecture to follow,
For of a surety,
They did not (permanently) kill him

Nay Allah raised him up unto Himself; And ALLAH is exalted in Power, Wise-"

There were three strong reasons that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) felt compelled to come to his secret conclusion about the true intended meaning of these two verses when they are properly understood with the second verse revealing the meaning of the first.

Reason One:
Due to both the strong, clear teaching of the Holy Quran's Al-Ma'idah 5:48 and Yunus 10:94, in both the Prophet's mind and in his heart he was compelled to believe that the previous Scriptures confirmed the Messiah's victorious death and his triumphant resurrection. Therefore he was totally unable to force himself to understand An-Nisa 4:157 and 158 in the simplistic, mythological way that the vast majority of his brother Muslims chose to do so in order for them to deny both the death and resurrection of ALLAH's now living Messiah.

But due to the very real danger posed by the Roman Catholic's false, insistent declaration that the Virgin Mary was the “Mother of ALLAH,” the Prophet came to a reluctant conclusion. He would not allow himself to encourage his brother Muslims at that time to have a complete understanding of the true intended meaning of An-Nisa 4:157 and 158. For he realized that a total true understanding of the Messiah's death and being and raised up by ALLAH from that death at the vulnerable time for the new Muslims would lead to a very serious problem. This problem would be brought about by the very dangerous Roman Catholic theology of ALLAH having a mother.

Reason Two:
He knew that this complete knowledge of the Messiah's total defeat of the wicked Jewish plan to permanently end his life by ALLAH raising him from his unjust death would have this negative result. It would result in over exposing Muslims to the Roman Catholics' near blasphemous polytheism. They openly challenged the Oneness of ALLAH and flirted with polytheism by their repetitive shameful proclamations that the Virgin Mary was the “Mother of ALLAH.” There was absolutely no conceivable way that the responsible Prophet wanted the young, vulnerable Muslims to be influenced by those who believed the near blasphemy that ALLAH had a mother.

Reason Three:
The Prophet's own trust in ALLAH was so complete that he knew that when the Muslim community became much, much stronger as it has now become, ALLAH would provide the needed new information of the Messiah's actual death and resurrection. He would provide the way for the Muslims to come to realize that ALLAH had used His own Wisdom and Might to raise His Messiah up from the temporary death that ALLAH had allowed him to endure.

For these three reasons I am reasonably certain that the Prophet believed that the time would come when the majority of Muslims would understand the combination of An-Nisa 4:157 and 158 in a way that would reveal the concept that these verses keep the Quran's promise to confirm the teaching of the earlier Scriptures and to also agree with its own teaching in its own Scripture such as Al-Imran 3:55 that stated that the Messiah did definitely die. So this brings us to the helpful, quite probably wording of An-Nisa 4:157 and 158 by the Prophet Muhammad that resolves each of these factors. And this new understanding only requires the addition of basically one key word three times; permanently. So when the word permanently when combined with the word not, this important verse finally holds the Jews responsible for their brutal murder of ALLAH's own Messiah.

This minor variation in the wording of An-Nisa 4:157 and 158 very importantly also maintains both the Quran's authority as well as the true intended meaning of the two profound verses. And this minor adjustment both accomplishes this and also forcefully sets the boastful Jews straight for their disgraceful arrogance. They would now know that it is definitely ALLAH who is in control of His Messiah's life and temporary death. It is definitely not hostile Jews who would ever control the Messiah's destiny. And this fact remains true no matter what it “appeared to them” (shubbiiha lahum), that they had wickedly accomplished through their attempted permanent murder of ALLAH's Messiah. So this slight modification in wording to this one verse out of the hundreds of verses in the Holy Quran, now validates the Quran's sacred promise to confirm the earlier Scriptures as is insisted upon in both Al-Ma'idah 5:48 and Yunus 10:94.

Yet, this wording also significantly confirms the truth of the Holy Quran's own Al-Imran 3:53 whose words explicitly confirm the Messiah's death when read in Arabic. Furthermore, and this fact is quite significant, this new reasonable wording of this verse does not ridiculously postpone and delay the Messiah's promised resurrection (see Maryam 1933, 34) for a bizarre two thousand years. So only the Prophet's adding of the term “not permanently” to precede the words “killed” and “crucified” also totally solves another major problem. It solves the problem of the physical body of the Messiah being unexplainably somewhere in space growing much older decade by decade, century by century, while he patiently waits his return to earth so that he can finally die. Then he can finally be raised alive. In total contrast, in chapters 8, 9 and 10 of the unchanged, confirmed Scripture of Mark, the truthful Messiah sacredly promised three separate times that his being raised from death by ALLAH would occur three days after his being brutally beaten, whipped and finally executed by the Jews and Romans before being victoriously raised alive by ALLAH.