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The Hadiths on
Jesus Are "Tawatur"
The hadiths
relating Jesus' second coming are reliable [tawatur].
Research shows that scholars share this view.
Tawatur is defined as "a tradition which
has been handed down by a number of different
channels of transmitters or authorities, hence
supposedly ruling out the possibility of its having
been forged."1
Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani, an
Islamic scholar, explains the concept of tawatur
hadith as follows:
News
of mutawatir, are the news upon which
so many transmitters agree; to such an extent
that, according to the tradition, it is unlikely
for so many transmitters to reach to a consensus
on a lie. This being the situation, if statements
and meanings agree with one another, then this
is called mutawatir lafzi [verbal mutawatir].
If there is common meaning yet contradiction between
statements [words], then it is called mutewatir-i
manawi [mutawatir by meaning].2
In his Al-Tasrih fi ma Tawatara
fi Nuzul al-Masih, the great hadith scholar
Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri writes that the hadiths
about Jesus' second coming are all reliable, and
quotes 75 hadiths and 25 works by companions of
the Prophet and their disciples (tabi'un).
In the Sunni school of Islam,
Imam Abu Hanifa is the greatest collector of hadiths
on Jesus' second coming. In the final part of
his Al-Fiqh al-Akbar, he states that:
The
emergence of the Dajjal and of Gog and Magog is
a reality; the rising of the sun in the West is
a reality; the descent of Jesus, upon whom be
peace, from the heavens is a reality; and all
the other signs of the Day of Resurrection, as
contained in authentic traditions, are also established
realities.3
Jesus' second coming is one
of the ten great signs of the Last Day, and many
Islamic scholars have dealt with the subject in
great detail. When all of these views are considered
together, it becomes apparent that there is a
consensus on this event.
For instance, in his work Lawaqi
Al-Anwar Al-Bahiyah, Imam al-Safarini expresses
that Islamic scholars agree upon this issue:
The
entire ummah (Muslim community) has agreed
on the issue that Prophet Jesus (pbuh), the son
of Maryam, will return. There is no one from the
people who follow Muslim laws who oppose this
issue.4
In
his commentary Ruh al-Ma`ani, the great Islamic
scholar Sayyid Mahmud Alusi gives examples from
the views of other Islamic scholars and explains
that the Islamic community has reached to a consensus
regarding Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) second coming5,
that information regarding this issue is well-known
to the extent of being mutawatir by meaning, and
that it is essential to believe in Prophet Jesus'
(pbuh) return to Earth.
Imam Kawthari also stated his
views regarding Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) coming as
follows:
The
tawatur in the hadiths regarding Prophet
Jesus' (pbuh) second coming is mutawatir-i
manawi. Aside from the fact that each one
of the sahih and hasan hadiths
may indicate different meanings, they all agree
upon Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) second coming. This
is actually a fact which is impossible to deny
for a person who is well acquainted with the knowledge
of hadith... The hadiths related to the appearance
of Mahdi and Dajjal and Prophet Jesus' (pbuh)
second coming are tawatur; it is certainly
not an issue that is considered doubtful by experts
on the hadith literature. The reason why some
who deal with Ilm al-Kalam (science of
theology) agree that it is essential to have faith
in the hadiths related to the signs of Doomsday
yet have doubts about whether some of these hadiths
are mutawatir or not, is their inadequate knowledge
about hadiths.6
The great Islamic scholar Ibn
Kathir states his views after commenting on the
related verses and explaining the related hadiths:
These
are narrated from the Messenger of God (saas)
as mutawatir and in these hadiths, there
are explanations regarding how and where Prophet
Jesus (pbuh) will appear...The authentic and mutawatir
hadiths about Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) return to
Earth in his noble body is immune to any opposing
interpretations. Consequently, everyone with the
smallest speck of faith and fairness has to believe
in Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) second coming; only those
who oppose to God's Book, His Messenger and Ahl
al-Sunnah may deny Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) second
coming to Earth.7
Another explanation about the
hadiths' reaching the level of tawatur is as folows:
Muhammad
al-Shawkani said that he had collected 29 hadiths
and, when he had recorded them all, he said: "Our
hadiths have reached the level of tawatur
(reliable), as you can see. With this, we reach
the conclusion that the hadiths on the anticipated
Mahdi, the Dajjal, and Jesus' second coming are
mutawatir (genuine)."8
At-Tirmidhi,
Abu Dawud, al-Bazzaz, Ibn Majah, al-Hakim, al-Tabarani,
and al-Musuli recorded many hadiths narrated by
the Companions, such as `Ali, Ibn `Abbas, Ibn
`Umar, Talha, Abu Hurayra, Anas, Abu Sa`id al-Khudri,
Umm Habiba, Umm Salama, `Ali al-Hilali, and `Abd
Allah ibn al-Harith ibn Jaz, upon whose narrations
they based their collection on.9
For instance, Ibn Hajr Al-Haythami in the book
Al-Sawa'iq Al-Muhriqa, al-Shablanji in
his book Nur al-Absar, Ibn Sabbagh in
his book Al-Fusul Al-Muhimma, Muhammad
ibn 'Ali al-Sabban in his book Is`af ar-Raghibin
fi Sirat al-Mustafa wa Fada'il Ahl Baytihi at-Tahirin,
and Muhammad Amin Suwaidi in his book Saba'ik
az-Zahab, wrote that the hadiths about Jesus'
second coming are reliable.10
These hadiths are recorded by
the Ahl as-Sunnah scholars and hadith experts
in their own works. For instance, Abu Dawud, Ibn
Ahmad Hanbal, at-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, al-Hakim,
an-Nasa'i, al-Tabarani, al-Rawajini, Abu Nu`aym
al-Isfahani, ad-Daylami, al-Baihaqi, as-Salabi,
Hamawaini, Manawi, Ibn al-Jawzi, Muhammad ibn
`Ali al-Sabban, al-Mawardi, al-Khanji al-Shafi,
as-Samani, al-Khwarizmi, ash-Sharani, ad-Daraqutni,
Ibn Sabbagh al-Maliki, Muhibbuddin at-Tabari,
Ibn Hajr al-Haythami, Shaikh Mansur `Ali Nasif,
Muhammad ibn Talha, Jalaluddin as-Suyuti, al-Qurtubi,
al-Baghawi and many more deal with the subject
in their books.
`Abd al-Fattah
Abu Ghudda reveals that the hadiths about Jesus
returning to Earth and killing the Dajjal have
reached the degree of being mutawatir.11
In his Nazm al-Mutanathir min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir12,
al-Kattani stated that "the descent of Jesus is
established by the Sunnah, and Ijma al-Ummah (concensus
of the Islamic community), and the hadiths on
this issue and Dajjal and the Mahdi are mutawatir.
In his commentary Al Bahru Al-Muhit,
Ibn Atiyya al Garnati states that the Islamic
community has the common belief that Prophet Jesus
(pbuh) is alive, that he will come back at the
End Times and that the hadiths about this issue
are mutawatir.
Such books show the great number
of hadiths that exist on this subject. Furthermore,
the hadiths that reveal Jesus' second coming in
the End Times as a sign of the Last Day are found
in the main hadith source books, such as those
by al-Bukhari and Muslim. Some of these are as
follows:
By Him Whose
Hand is my life, the son of Mary (Jesus) will
certainly invoke the name of God for Hajj or for
Umrah, or for both, in the valley of Rawha. (Sahih
Muslim)
"It [the
Day of Judgment] will not come until you see ten
signs," and [in this connection] he mentioned
the smoke, the Dajjal, the Beast, the rising of
the Sun from the west, the descent of Jesus son
of Mary
(Sahih Muslim)
By Him in Whose
Hands my soul is, son of Mary [Jesus] will shortly
descend amongst you people as a just ruler. (Sahih
al-Bukhari)
Jesus son of Mary
would then descend and their [Muslims'] commander
will invite him to come and lead them in prayer,
but he would say: No, some amongst you are commanders
over some [amongst you]. This is the honor from
God for this Ummah [nation]. (Sahih Muslim)
How will you be
when the some of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst
you and he will judge people by the Law of the
Qur'an? (Sahih al-Bukhari)
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1. Ruqaiyyah Waris
Maqsood, A Basic Dictionary of Islam, (New Delhi:
Goodword Books, 2000), 153. 
2. Zafar al-Amani fi Sharh Mukhtasar al-Sayyid
al-Sharif al-Jurjani fi Mustalah al-Hadith, p.
46
3. Imam Abu Hanifa, Al-Fiqh al-Akbar, http://muslim-canada.org/fiqh.htm.
4. Levamiu'l Envaril Behiyye, es-Seffarini, 2/94-95;
Nüzul-i Mesih Risalesi, Ahmet Mahmut Unlu, Ekmel
Publishing, Istanbul, 1998, 169.
5. Ruhu'l Meani, Seyyid Alusi, 7/60; Nüzul-i Mesih
Risalesi, Ahmet Mahmut Unlu, Ekmel Publishing,
Istanbul, 1998, 168.
6. Imam Kawsari, Nazratun Abira, p.44-49; Nuzul-i
Mesih Risalesi, Ahmet Mahmut Unlü, Ekmel Publishing,
Istanbul, 1998, 167-168.
7. Ibn Kathir, 1/578-582; Avnu'l Mabud, 11/457-464.
8. Sunan Ibn Majah, (Istanbul:Kahraman Yayinlari,
1983), 10:338.
9. Ibn Khaldun, Mukaddime (The Muqaddimah), (Istanbul:MEB,
1970), 2:137-39.
10. http://www.ahl-ul-bayt.org/Turkish/Books/04_adlet/002.htm
11. Said Havva, vol. 9, no. 445.
12. Al-Kattani, Nazm al-Mutanathir min al-Hadith
al-Mutawatir, p. 147.
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