Questioner: Historically, how can he prove that Jesus Christ, son of Mary, went to India? What was his teachings in India and what was his route to India?
Huzoor (rh): You see, first of all, talking of history, let’s start with the claimants first. We have come much later in time. The Christians believe that he ascended to heaven and the very top of the heaven, whichever, wherever it is. What historical proof do we have for that? That Jesus (as) ascended all the way to heaven to sit on the right side of God and which is the right side of God? Which way was he facing at that time? This side, that side? You know, right and left is only relative. One has to conceive God to be limited in body, and the right side is that, if it is not metaphorical, I mean, but they are not talking of metaphors now. They are not talking of figure of speech. They are talking of literally ascent of Jesus Christ and occupying a seat, right of God. So, where is the historical proof?
If you can believe in that, with the meagerness of just reference of some people who say then he ascended, and later on their own scholars tell us that this portion, those verses in which it was mentioned, they were all fake. In the original Bible they were not found. So, the most bigger proof, the flimsiest proof that they could present, has also been wiped out by their own hands, and they ask for proof of Jesus, historical proof of Jesus’ journey to Kashmir. Okay, if he never journeyed to Kashmir, let’s find his whereabouts first. Where did he go? You see, if you want to do some detective work, you must do it in an orderly manner. I hope all of you have read some of Sherlock Holmes. So, you should try to act Sherlock Holmes here in this case. Find out, you know, when you inquire about somebody’s disappearance, disappear he did, no doubt. Whether he disappeared into heaven, into space, or disappeared somewhere here, on this planet earth. So, we must find clues and gather the clues and then in the light of those clues it will be justified to declare a finding based on some evidence, otherwise no.
The first clue, I would suggest, should lie in his statement, his own statement himself. The person who commits suicide, he writes a suicidal note behind. The person who leaves the place, did he leave anything behind which could be helpful in tracing him to the place where he went. Now, there is just such a clue left by Jesus Christ before crucifixion. He said that he would leave his own people and go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Go in search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What a strong clue it is, isn’t it? Now, you must understand what he meant, what he could have meant.
First of all, his going to the sky, to the heaven, is ruled out by this promise. Absolutely, no question left. Because all the Christians and all the Jews unanimously believe that no lost sheep of the house of Israel ever ascended to heaven. What was he doing there, in search of this lost sheep of Israel? He should go, you know, jumping into the seventh heaven and beyond. Unbelievable. So, he must have gone in search of those. Let us find out who they were. When were they lost? Where they went, and start pursuing Jesus’ path on the same path where they have left their footprints, these lost sheep of Israel. He must be following the same. So, there is the evidence, the first important historical evidence, and the evidence presented by the New Testament itself. The historical evidence from the Bible and from what followed, is that Nebuchadnezzar, took away as prisoners all the ten tribes of Israel of the north, of the south. I think it was south or north?
Audience: Perhaps south.
Huzoor (rh): There is time in the north, it has to be south. Anyway, out of ten tribes, ten made the empire Judea, and the two remained in Palestine. They had their own separate state under the title Palestine. Leaving the Palestinians alone, all the remaining ten tribes were expatriated or taken out of their own homeland and kept for some time in Babel, that is in the northern region of Iraq, and then dispersed. Some of them went out themselves in search of whatever livelihood they could, and some escaped prison, some were tortured to death as well. So, these people are the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That happened around 6th or 7th century, 6th perhaps, before Jesus Christ. Then God showed mercy to them once again, and sent their deliverer in the form of that great king of Persia, whose name was Khoras, Emperor Khoras of Persia.
About 200 years after this incident, he invaded and conquered the Babylonians, and freed all the prisoners which were kept by them, anywhere, and then he went to Jerusalem, restored the demolished house of God, King Solomon’s Temple, and helped them in doing it. and that is why that is the only non-Israeli emperor who is remembered with such love in the Old Testament. In fact, there is a prophecy about him. Whether a prophecy or a mention afterwards, Allah knows best. But we do find the mention of Khoras, the king of Persia, in the Old Testament where it is said that God tells them, I will speak to them Myself, he will be a dear one of Mine. He will come and restore the house of God, and he will do this and he will do that, and he is a very pious man. I speak in him and from him and through him. Similar words are used in the Old Testament, and although he is not one of you, he belongs elsewhere.
So that is what happened, and after that the new Jerusalem came into being and all the people started returning, but not all. All that were left there. In the previous 200 years, a majority among them had already migrated to the eastern land, and this is a historic fact. No one can deny it. There is full consensus of all the historical scholars, this is exactly what happened, and they also went in the direction of Afghanistan and beyond to Kashmir. Right? If Jesus was true and we believe him to be a true Prophet of Allah, why should he have forgotten his own promise, his covenant with his own people, that he will go in search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Now, looking back at the same, from the logical point of view, it should have happened, logical plus religious, because if a Prophet is sent to a people as whole, comprising 12 tribes, if he delivers his message only to the two and disappears, then he has not fulfilled the purpose of his mission. So that is what was implied. It is a very wise, very profound promise made by Jesus Christ, telling the people that the purpose of my coming in Advent will not be realized until I deliver the message to all the 12 tribes of Israel. So having done with you and having failed to create impression upon you, after you have mistreated me, then I will migrate from here, like all other Prophets. That was the message. In search of the lost sheep.
This is what we believe. He went in search of the lost sheep of Israel. Wherever they went, he should have gone and now come to the historians and anthropologists. What do they say about the origin of Afghans and the origin of Kashmiris, etc.? Most of them which are found there today, the Muslim Kashmiris in particular, not the Dogras. The Dogras are the old race of the Kashmiris which occupied the area for so many years in history, so many thousands of years maybe, who are of Indian origin. Whether they come from other parts of the world, of India, or they remained there in occupation for some time, we don’t know much. But we know that there are two distinct races occupying the valley of Kashmir. The majority of those who occupy the valley are of Israeli descent. Because their features are still like Israelites. The habits of their life, their clothing, the way they dress themselves, everything is so reminiscent of the old Israelites that one scholar has written that if you want to see the old Israel come to life, go to the Lake Dal in the morning and see the Kashmiri women attired in exactly the same style as we read in the history that Israelite women used to and they were bearing their habits. The whole scene around the Lake Dal would remind you as if you had travelled back in time and reached the time when Moses ruled the Israelites.
This is strange evidence from the mouth of a Christian, not from the mouth of a Muslim or an Ahmadi Muslim for that matter. So this is the second line of argument and the third, again a historical evidence, is that Raja Shalwahan was a contemporary of Jesus Christ who was not a Christian or a Muslim, of course, because he lived 600 some years before Islam came into being. His annals are recorded in Hindu books of history and they are called Puranas. In one of the Puranas, it is still written that at that time, I mean in the same age as Jesus Christ lived, it doesn’t say that but I’ll come to that later.
On this note, there are no two opinions. Raja Shalwahan was a contemporary of Jesus Christ. So what he saw, from that you can automatically infer this. He was once out on a hunting expedition in his own valley, Kashmir, when he suddenly perceived a few people who were foreigners, differently attired, and one of them, their leader in the midst of them, presented a very holy visage. He was a very dignified person walking in the midst. So the Raja was naturally intrigued and he went to him and inquired from him, who you are, and I should say inquired from him as to who he was, and what was his name, and what was his religion, and so on and so forth. So in answer to the question, I don’t remember the exact order, but I am going to tell you exactly what is written there. Exactly not in the words but to the effect I mean.
It is said that he answered, his name was Masihu. I remember Masihu and Messiah, how close they are. He was a Prophet of God, who was persecuted and attempted to be killed, to put to death. But God, as He had promised, He saved him from that to death, and from then he left his own country and migrated to here, and in answer to the name of the religion, he said it is love. Now can you make, if you can make two and two together, you can make two and two and two together as well, it will count up to six, won’t it? These three sets of arguments or fingers pointed directly at the same person, Jesus Christ. This incident of a Prophet attempted, having been attempted to be killed, and his disappearance afterwards, at that time, did not occur anywhere in the whole world. No history of any other people reports such a thing. You see, the absence, the total absence of such an event having taken place anywhere in the whole world is a definite proof that this is the area where we should search for the man who was the Prophet, who was attempted to be killed, whose name was Masihu, whose religion was love, who migrated, and if not migrated, where he went? Where he is?
If somebody studies this evidence without prejudice, he should be left with no doubt whatsoever that it is there that Jesus has to be found. Then, other evidence is being unearthed. You know, a scholar who was sent on a mission, it was, I previously thought it was an Englishman who went on this mission, but later on when we inquired from Oxford University about the writer among the Zoroastrians, the impression received by the title of the book, etc., was wrong, and I want to rectify this now, for the sake of records. All through previous years, I have always been referring to that author to be an English scholar sent by Oxford University for research into Herat, a province of Afghanistan, the purpose of research was to find out more about the Dervishes. You see, they are becoming more and more interested in Sufism and this and that, and also in different cults, so they thought a scholar should go. I mean, that is how I have been stating. We decided ultimately to contact the scholar himself, because I wanted to send new expeditions of research, and when we went to search, there was no such man here in Oxford. So, only recently I put an Ahmadi lady who is very good at tracing people and things, books, etc., particularly. I asked her to finally see into it and find the author among the Dervishes.
So, in search of lost Jesus, we had to search for the lost author, and there he was, at last discovered. He was a German scholar. But the book was not originally published in English, it was in German language. It was translated into English and published by Oxford University Press. So, that is why this confusion was caused. Well, I had read it long ago, so it is a vague memory and by that memory, you know, I used to tell people about the contents of the book. Incidentally, his name and what he was also came up. I was wrong there, of course, but the substance which I have been speaking of is exactly true. This is exactly what is written in the book. So, somebody will say, if you have vague memory, why do you mislead people? The vague memory is only about names and small things, which can be corrected, and this is why I am correcting that. But the subject matter remains exactly the same. There is no change whatsoever.
This author went in search of the Dervishes in Islam, in Afghanistan, and it was known that that area of Herat is abounding in Dervishes and so on. So, he discovered a strange tribe, whose name was Musai, and this Musai tribe was a tribe of Dervishes, and when he investigated about their ideas and philosophies, he was told that their true name is, their religion is Christian Muslims. He was amazed, what do you mean Christian Muslims? He said, no, no, this is all right. So, he sought interview with their chief, and their chief, by the name of Abba Yahya, Abba, you know the Jewish title, Abba, of religious leaders. His name was, or title was Abba and name was Yahya. He gave him a full interview and he told him, look here, I tell you one thing, of which you have never heard before, you are wrong in believing in Trinity, you are wrong in believing that Jesus ever claimed to be a little son of God. When, after the attempt to crucify him, he escaped, with the help of God, and left Palestine, on way to Kashmir, he stayed with us. Because we are also his allies and he delivered his message to us and we accepted him, and he also left a scroll where Injil was written. Or he had it rewritten there, this detail I don’t remember. But he did possess a scroll, in which the correct Injil, which was dictated by Jesus Christ, and which was not a fake Injil, which was interpreted later on, was found in the possession, and he invited a scholar to study it, and he said that there is no mention whatsoever of either Trinity, or his being a little son of God. He was a very simple, honest Prophet of Allah, like all other prophets.
So then he inquired from him, why do you call yourself Christian Muslims? He said, simply for the reason that it was he who brought us to light from darkness, and the way he taught us, prepared us for the acceptance of the final law-bearing prophet, Hazat Muhammad Rasoolalah (saw). So, in our gratitude to him, to express our gratitude to him, we still have this subtitle added to our religious title, Muslim Christians or Christian Muslims, and then it is also written in the book, that he also informed in him, that we call Jesus Christ as Jesus of Nazareth and Kashmir. So what do you mean? Of Nazareth, of course, but why of Kashmir? He said because he was born in Nazareth and died in Kashmir. Now, this is a tribe of which the outside world had no knowledge whatsoever, until this German scholar, research scholar, discovered this tribe and published the account of what passed between him and the tribe’s members. How on earth an Ahmadi could have any influence on this, and this evidence is also historical, because these people have been preserving their history, you know, by word of mouth. History is not always written, but also he has a written proof of a New Testament with him, written in the old style.
So, all these factors should be sufficient to prove that our theory is not just based on imagination and wishful thinking. We have much more solid ground to stand upon, and the research is still continuous. We are doing more research, Inshallah. Again, the grave. The grave of a Prophet of Allah, by the name of Yusuf, is found in Mahalla, that is a section of Srinagar, Kashmir. Now, this grave is traditionally highly respected and visited by people for gaining some blessing from it, from all around Kashmir and the story which goes by it is that a great Prophet of Allah is buried here, whose name was Yusuf. Now, Yusuf, if you read it like this, Yusus or Jesus, they are one and the same thing. But, Yusuf is also mentioned in Dead Sea Scrolls and other things in Palestine. So, maybe they are two different persons, or maybe a title of Jesus Christ. But the time of Yusuf’s arrival is the same which tallies with the time of the arrival of Mashihu in Kashmir. So, it could have been either a misunderstanding somewhere, or Yusuf was only another title for Jesus Christ. But one thing is certain that that man who was buried in that grave belonged to a Jewish people, a Jew or a Christian, but he did not belong to the local people. Why? Because, the people in India never buried their dead. You know, they never built graves like the Muslim and the Christian and Jewish style.
Now, another decisive proof that it was not the grave of a Muslim, misquoted later on to be the grave of an earlier saint or Prophet, lies in the direction of the grave. It is a very interesting situation that outside, you know, brickwork and things which are made as a cover of the grave lies in the normal direction in which Muslims are buried. But there is a staircase leading down to the grave, and the grave itself is in the direction which is diametrically different from that of the Christian and Jewish style. You see, the Muslims always bury their dead with their head, no, with their face turned towards Kaaba, and they are diagonally laid in front of Kaaba. If Kaaba is here, the head would be on this side, the feet on the other, and the face would be slightly turned so that the dead person’s corpse always faces Kaaba. This is the Muslim style. This is the universal style. There is no change whether the person who is dead is Shia or Sunni or whatever name you give him. This exactly is the universal style. But the person who is buried in that grave, his head is towards Kaaba and feet in the opposite direction. That is, his head is facing west and feet facing east. From there, this is the direction.
We always say prayer in the direction of west, in Pakistan, India, etc., because Kaaba lies in general direction, not exactly west, dead west, but in the general direction of west. So his head is in the direction of the west and the feet in the other direction, opposite direction. Why? If he were a Muslim and had come to Kashmir after Islam, then his grave should have been exactly like the graves of all other pioneer Muslims who arrived into India soon after An-Hazrat s.a.w. So raise any doubt and that doubt will be dispelled by more powerful reasons.
That is just a taste of the historical evidence which you required. Far more than that is written. Read the book, Hazrat Messiah Maud’s (as) own book, Jesus in India, and you will be amazed at the historical data which he has collected and published in that book, in a very convincing manner. Right?
Are you from a Christian background?
Questioner: No, I am a Muslim, Ahmadi background.
Huzoor (rh): So what made you think of this question? Your discussion with the Christians?
Questioner: Yes, because I had an argument with a Christian who said that Jesus is still in heaven. I said, no, he is dead. But I want to get some more facts. Muhammad…
Huzoor (rh): You also sometimes ask him, where is God? Is he here or not? If he says no, he is not here, what sort of God do you have? I don’t want that God who is so far away from me. If he said, why did Jesus ascend to heaven then? If he was here, where we are, he shouldn’t have moved at all.
Questioner: Yes.
Huzoor (rh): Right?
Questioner: Yes.
