# Was Muhammad Abduh the first Muslim to deny the return of Jesus?

*Qadhi's clip: the ijma claim, Abduh as first denier, and the Ahmadiyya link*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/s/16/
- Date: 2021-03-02 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #204 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:19:40–1:26:08)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1OOltqtPTw&t=4780s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/

**Topics:** The second coming of Jesus; Ahmadiyya and false messiahs; Modern reformers and movements

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** In the clip Qadhi claims ijma on the return, names Muhammad Abduh as the first to deny it and links deniers to the Ahmadiyya; Mufti Abu Layth calls the link ironic, since the Ahmadiyya is built on a messianic claim.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth calls Qadhi's remark about Imam Malik a huge claim, says this is only a teaser for a response still to come, and that Qadhi must first be heard out. The clip cites an early author who died in 355 AH [?] and Ibn Atiyya [?] (d. 541 AH), who wrote that the ummah unanimously agreed Jesus is alive in the heavens and will return, with only philosophers and unbelievers denying it, and Qadhi says he found nobody before modernity who explicitly negated the return: the first was Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905), student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and a founder of modernist Islam, who reinterpreted the return as a Christ-like spirit of goodness. Qadhi then mentions Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in India, who claimed Jesus died and was buried in Kashmir and that the second coming was of a Jesus-like figure; Mufti says Qadhi is trying to associate denial of the second coming with the Qadiani movement although, ironically, that movement is built on a messianic vision. As the clip describes this school as sceptical of miracles, of the signs of the Day of Judgement and of hadith, Mufti notes in an aside that Abduh and al-Afghani are also the source of the theory of natural evolution up to a divinely placed Adam, which he says the shaykh himself [?] holds.

## Sources and names cited

- Yasir Qadhi
- Imam Malik
- Ibn Atiyya [?]
- ijma'
- Muhammad Abduh
- Jamal al-Din al-Afghani
- Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian
- the Ahmadiyya

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:19:40–1:26:08)

[1:19:40] huge claim people huge claim so by the way all of these points we will be responding to this is not my response yet this is teaser appetizer the response is yet coming you could wait 2 000 years for a second coming you can wait for my response also coming wait man wait let's listen to what sheikh has to say first we must with all due respect hear him out first and then then we will engage

[1:20:17] budai 355 hijrah he has one of the earliest treatises on history entitled the book of the beginning and his eben altaiya died 541 hijrah in his famous tafseer he writes that the ummah has unanimously agreed about the hadith that mentioned that isa is in the skies in the heavens and alive and he shall come back towards the end of times and he says the entire ummah has unanimously agreed that isa will come back and only the philosophers and those who don't believe in any religion the melahida basically have denied this

[1:20:55] people only and the philosophers basically the atheists or hidden non-muslims and the uh philosophers have only denied this apostates let's stick pay attention people pay attention i was not able to discover anybody uh pre-modernity who explicitly negated the coming back of jesus christ okay the first person to question the return of isa was first person so nobody in

[1:21:35] history had questioned this until muhammad who died in 1905 who is of course the student of jamal dean levrani and of course one of the founders of what is called modernist islam or what is called the you know neo if you like enlightenment so nobody in islam had ever questioned this until muhammad who comes along and he questions it and then what we're going to see as well are below it is going to do is say that basically everybody today that has questioned these things is simply

[1:22:14] an extension of muhammad abdul school so this is a school this is like a sub-school okay okay okay okay let's let's see interesting interesting scientists and basically reinterpreted uh the coming of jesus he basically said the return of jesus means the spirit like compassion of jesus will come not a so you can see this is according to muhammad abdul is the person who's come up with this interpretation that jesus does not mean jesus it means like a christ-like spirit of goodness will transcend and take over the world

[1:22:52] shabbat let's let's proceed persona jesus right so he kind of had a bizarre wheel that uh it means that the spirit of jesus not the spirit meaning like you know the compassion of jesus is going to come and his well in india you had a new movement and that movement was uh a particular person by the name of mirza who began claiming that jesus had died jesus had come to kashmir and lived the rest of his life there and then died and was buried in kashmir and that the second coming of jesus was not the actual original jesus but a jesus-like figure

[1:23:31] and muhammad abdu note that how what he's trying to do just keep just make a mental note what he's trying to do is somehow make an association between the denial of the second coming and katyani's even though the irony is the whole khadiyani school is based on a messianic vision it's based on saying that a messiah will come hence he claims to be himself the messiah but no that point no sorry i thought of being academic you know academic activity

[1:24:10] let's focus focus people focus focus this is why you're all going to miss the boat when jesus comes you're going to be in the lines of the you need to pay attention pay attention learn learn is very skeptical of miracles uh very much in line with trying to to to take modern notions of liberalism and of whatever you know the notions are and to i need to learn islamic uh very skeptical of the signs of the day of judgment um skeptical of a hadith overall so there's this school that is very well

[1:24:49] known so what just in case you're not paying attention saying this same school but since muhammad abdul they also invented this questioning miracle it is also by muhammad abdul on a brief little side note muhammad abdul is the same person who shaykh sarkardi takes his um his evolution theory from [Laughter] so he has evolution theory that evolution was all natural evolution until adam and then adam was

[1:25:29] divinely placed there is from muhammad abdul and his teacher jamal dillahani nobody before them had ever said that but but sorry man i digress man so these are the first people to question miracles pay attention people pay attention type of people well known this is the criterion between those who believe in and those who don't believe in and that's basically one charge short of kufr so this denial of the second coming and these miracles is basically a problem with people who refuse to accept the unseen

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment b1OOltqtPTw/s/16. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/s/16/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.