The Physical Appearance (Hilya) of Jesus

Our Prophet (saas) has said: Know him by these signs when you see him: 1. His medium to tall stature 2. His reddish-white coloring 3. His two garments dyed with saffron. 4. He will be so clean that although he is not wet it will be as if his head is dripping water. (Death – Doomsday – The Hereafter and the Portents of the End Times, 499) Abu Huraira (ra) said: The Prophet (saas) said: "On the night of Isra' [his miraculous journey from Makkah to Jerusalem] I met Moses (as)-he was a full-figured, tall and slim man with straight hair, and looked like a man from the Shanu'ah tribe. I also met Jesus-he was of medium height and of a red complexion, as if he had just come out of the bath. (Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari, 2/1053) Again according to Abdullah Ibn Omar’s (ra) account, Nabi (sav) said: In my dreams, I found myself last night at the Ka'bah. I saw in my dream a man of brown color the best one can see among those who are brown colored, and his long hair fell between his shoulders. His hair was lank, water dribbled from his head, and he was placing his hands on the shoulders of two men while circumambulating the Ka'bah. I asked: "Who is this?" They replied, "This is Jesus, son of Mary." (Sahih al-Bukhari, 9/177) Jesus (as) Will Be Buried Next to Our Prophet's (saas) Tomb Ibn Asaqir Abdullah ibn Salam narrates: "The qualities of the Prophet (saas) are described in the Torah, and it is written there that Jesus (as) will be buried with him.” In the Buhari History, according to Ibni Asaqir Ondan’s (Abdullah ibn Salam) account, Jesus (as) will be buried alongside the Messenger of Allah (saas) and two of his Companions (Abu Bakr and Omar), and the number of graves there will rise to four. An account narrated by Ibn Jawdhi from Abdullah ibn Omar says: "Jesus (as) will descend to Earth, he will marry and have children and live for forty five years; then he will die and be buried in the same grave as me, and then Jesus (as) and I will rise from one grave inbetween Abu Bakr and Omar.” (Portents of Doomsday, 246/247) Jesus(as) will marry and have a child after he returns. After he dies, the Muslims will perform his funeral prayer and bury him at the Rawdha al-Mutahhara. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, 65) Jesus (as), son of Mary, will come down to the world… He will marry, . . . live for 45 years and then die. (Mishkat al-Masabih, 3:47) After the Prophet Jesus(as) has descended to Earth and remained there for 40 years, he will die. Muslims will perform his funeral prayer and bury him. (This hadith was narrated from Abu Dawud al Thayalisi’s Musnad.) The Prophet Jesus (as) will die after living on Earth for 40 years. Muslims will perform his funeral prayer and bury him. (Death-Doomsday-The Hereafter and the Portents of Doomsday, 498-499)

The Prophet Jesus (as) will complete his duty and die after remaining on Earth for some 40-45 years. Muslims will perform his funeral prayer and bury him alongside our Prophet (saas).

Jesus (as) in the Risale-i Nur Collection

Jesus (as) Will Be Sent Back to Earth:

The hadith about the Hazrat Mahdi (as) and Sufyan express that two currents of disbelief will gain strength during the End Times.

The First Current is: Under the veil of duplicity, a fearsome individual named the Sufyan will deny the messengership of Prophet Muhammad (saas), and coming to lead the dissemblers, will try to destroy the Islamic Shari‘a. To oppose him, a luminous individual called Muhammad Mahdi of the Family of the Prophet (saas) will come to lead the people of sainthood and perfection, who are bound to the luminous chain of the Family of the Prophet (saas), and he will kill the current of hypocrites, which will be the collective personality of the Sufyan, and scatter it.

(Letters, 53)

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Hazrat Mahdi (as), revealed in the hadith as coming before the Prophet Jesus (as), will seek to repair the spiritual damage caused by the Sufyan in the Islamic world and will strive to rejuvenate Islam and spread it across the world.

Hazrat Mahdi (as) will completely silence all philosophies and theories built on opposing the existence of Allah and in particular will close all institutions and bases of strife and corruption originating from the Sufyan. With his title of caliph, Hazrat Mahdi (as) will assume leadership of the Islamic world, will expound the Holy Qur’an and the fundamentals of the faith in the light of the conditions of the day, and will strengthen believers’ faith.

The second current is this: a tyrannical movement originating from naturalism and materialist philosophy will increasingly gain strength and will spread by way of materialism in the End Times and become sufficiently powerful to engage in denial. As a wild man who does not recognize the Sultan and does not accept he has officers and soldiers in his army gives a kind of rule to everyone, every soldier, so he gives all the soldiers in the movement that denies Allah a kind of lordship in their earthly desires dominated by the law of Namrud. And the greatest of them, who becomes their leader, the dajjal who works marvels by way of spiritualism and hypnotism, will go even further and declare his divinity based on a tyrannical rule. For a human being, who can be laid low by a fly and is unable even to replicate a fly’s wing, to declare his own greatness is obviously mindless stupidity.

At that point (when Messiah dajjal appears) when the current appears to be very strong, the religion of true Christianity, which comprises the collective personality of Jesus (as), will emerge. That is, it will descend from the skies of Divine Mercy. Present Christianity will be purified in the face of that reality; it will cast off superstition and distortion, and unite with the truths of Islam. Christianity will in effect be transformed into a sort of Islam. Following the Qur’an, the collective personality of Christianity will be in the rank of follower, and Islam, in that of leader. True religion will become a mighty force as a result of its joining it. Although defeated before the atheistic current while separate, Christianity and Islam will have the capability to defeat and rout it as a result of their union. Then the person of Jesus (as), who is present with his human body in the world of the heavens, will come to lead the current of true religion. These are being conveyed relying on the promise of One Powerful Over All. (Letters 53, 54)

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At a time when the dajjal is very powerful, Christianity will be purged of all the heresies and false beliefs in it (such as the trinity, the cross, eating pork etc.) and will return to the form in which it first appeared. Since the divine faiths are continuations of one another and sent to correct one another when one is corrupted and to set out new laws, Christianity will become a form of Islam after being cleansed of its heretical beliefs, and consequently Christians will abide by the Holy Qur’an. The same situation will hold true for Judaism. As a result of their unification, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, believers who were defeated when they existed in their separate forms, will gain strength and become powerful enough to eliminate the atheistic current. Meanwhile, Prophet Jesus (as), sent by Allah in his physcial form to the Earth, and Hazrat Mahdi (as) will assume the leadership of believers. And Allah will of course keep His promise.

These are the elements set out in tawatur hadith. To think or maintain of the Prophet Jesus (as) whose coming in the End Times is anticipated, as a “collective personality or community” rather than a single individual or to claim that “he has already come, done his duty and died,” is a denial of this subject which has become totally tawatur, and may incur spiritual responsibilities and wreak grave harm on Muslims. In another of his works, Bediuzzaman reuveals that the return to Earth of the Prophet Jesus (as) is absolutely certain.

Yes, in the words of the hadith, the descent of the Prophet Jesus (as) from the heavens being certain; in its is an individual with a heavenly appearance; as with other marvels, this is an indication of the miraculous nature of this marvel.
(Kastamonu Addendum, 50)

Jesus (as) Will Slay the Dajjal:

There is a definite, sound narration which says: “Jesus (as) will kill the great dajjal.” The knowledge is with Allah, there are two aspects to this:

The First Aspect: It could only be a wondrous person with the power of miracles who could kill and change the way of the awesome dajjal, who will preserve himself through wonders, bestowed on him by Allah in order to lead him astray, such as magic, hypnotic powers, and spiritualism, and will spellbind everyone. And that person will be Jesus (as), who is the prophet of the majority of mankind, and whom most people follow.

The Second Aspect is this: It will be the truly pious followers of Jesus (as) who will kill the gigantic collective personality of materialism and irreligion which the dajjal will form—for the dajjal will be killed by Jesus’ (as) sword—and destroy his ideas and disbelief, which are atheistic. Those truly pious Christians will blend the essence of true Christianity with the essence of Islam and rout the dajjal with their combined strength, in effect killing him. The narration: “Jesus (as) will come and will perform the obligatory prayers behind Hazrat Mahdi (as) and follow him,” alludes to this union, and to the sovereignty of the Qur’an and its being followed. (The Rays, 493)

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The dajjal, who survives by impressing everyone with astonishing marvels such as magic and hypnotism, and his system, will be destroyed by Jesus (as) supported by miracles when the time for him to act is right.

When the Prophet Jesus (as) returns to Earth he will bring no new faith, but will adhere to Islam. But since he is a prophet, he will be given a revelation and will work miracles.

The followers of Christianity, which will unite with Islam under the administration of the Prophet Jesus (as) will neutralize and destroy the atheistic current of the dajjal and the idea of denial of Allah with the strength provided by this unification.

A community worthy of the name of “Muslim Christians,” a devout Christian community seeking to unite the faith of the Prophet Jesus (as) with the true faith, Islam, will slay and disperse the committee of the dajjal, which overturns civilization and human spirituality in the human sphere with its denial of divinity, under the leadership of the Prophet Jesus (as) and will save humanity from the denial of Allah. (Letters 413)