It is said that according to Ahmadiyya theology, Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, although he lived just 33 years of his age in Jerusalem, or the areas around, he has been extensively quoted, his existence there is historically recorded. But according to Ahmadiyya theology, most of his time later on, after having been delivered from cross, was spent in Kashmir or areas thereabout. And yet we don’t have any historical evidence of his presence there, while most of his age was spent in those areas. That’s a very valid question and it has to be answered.
So, first of all, let’s examine the first part of Jesus Christ’s presence. That first part, as far as the historical evidence is concerned, is non-existent. It is only a misconception in the minds of those who believe in Jesus Christ, that the first part of his life has been historically proved. Many a Christian scholar has taken this question up and their line of argument is this, that forgetting Bible and those who believe in Jesus Christ’s existence from a religious point of view, there is absolutely no historical evidence of the presence of Jesus Christ, his birth, his life, even the crucifixion.
The Roman Empire does not record any Jesus Christ. After 34 years after he was crucified or known to have been crucified, the first reference is given by Pliny or somebody, I don’t exactly remember, but some of the historians of that time mentioned Jesus Christ through a letter of some Christian or something. So, that shows that as far as the historical evidence goes, the first part is also not proved. So, why to go after the proving of the second part from just the historical data? But in the second part, there is another phenomena which has occurred which did not occur in the first part of his life and that helped to obliterate or confuse the name of Jesus Christ and his faith to the people following.
When I explain that phenomena, then you will understand what I mean. It so happens sometimes that an entire people of a country have accepted a faith different from the one which they had inherited. And sometimes the phenomena is so all-comprising that no mention of that religion is left. Only an occasional reference is there, otherwise it completely obliterates its past. Now, I call to attention, for example, the history of Germany. It is an established fact that the German people did not accept Christianity even in part through the preaching of the church. They are the people who totally resisted all the efforts on the part of the missionaries and no German got converted. Then they were put to sword and by the force of sword, they ultimately got converted to Christianity in total. Now, if I ask you, living in Europe, what was the previous religion of the German people, can anybody tell me? What was the name of the German God they worshipped before Christianity was enforced upon them? Can a single person living in England or other places of Europe, among you present here perhaps, can answer this question? Why not? You know this is a historical fact and this is an established fact that prior to Christianity, the entire German people belonged to a single different faith. And that has been completely obliterated because the whole people got converted to a different religion so that the name of their God was Wotan. In fact, it might have been derived from Vatan, the motherland or the fatherland. And there were believers or worshippers of Wotan in the Middle Asia, the West Asia as we call it, the Central Asia. And because German people hailed from there and most of the influences they received were from Central Asia, so maybe this Wotan meant the motherland or the fatherland. But now you won’t find any mention of this religion, what were the details of that religion, only just very oblique references are given in some historical books.
So something on that line could have happened and did happen to the Christians of Kashmir. One fundamental difference which helped this was that Jesus Christ as known in the parts where he lived the early part of his life has a completely different concept and picture than what he created and left after the migration. According to St. Paul, who exerted his influence much later and he had never met Jesus Christ, only he claims that he met him in a dream or vision. He is in fact the real author of the modern Christianity. He it is who first introduced the concept of Trinity into Christianity. Before that, Christians didn’t know of any Trinity and they believed in one God and in Jesus Christ as the messenger of Allah.
So the whole figure of Christianity got distorted and whatever you hear of Jesus Christ is that distorted picture which was introduced later on into Christianity by other foreign influences. Influences foreign to the land from which he had hailed, foreign to the Jewish concept. And a divorce took place between Judaism and Christianity later on and it still continues the same course of deterioration. Continues to enlarge into so many gods and saints and things which are all completely alien to the Christianity of Jesus Christ. But when he was there in Kashmir, he could not have preached the same Christianity. He must have preached the reality. Of course he couldn’t have changed his mind after being delivered from crucifixion. So he went and preached there one God, the message of love and all that Christianity stood for in reality. That is one thing that happened in the post-crucifixion life of Jesus Christ.
Now for that we have some historical evidence and that historical evidence is first revealed by the Hindu Puranas and second it is just recently discovered by an Oxford scholar who went to investigate the old Sufi tribes, Dervish tribes of one province in Iran, Herat province. And the book I have in mind is entitled Among the Dervishes. Only a recent publication, I think about 10 years ago or so or even less perhaps. But now I am coming first to the first part. The evidence we find in the Indian chronicles which are called Puranas is about Raja Shalmahan, a king of Kashmir who was a contemporary of Jesus Christ. It is said that once that king was going on a hunting tour and he noticed somebody foreign to Kashmiris along with his companions walking in one of the valleys. He approached him and asked him, put him this question, who you are? And he replied, this foreigner, that I am a prophet prince, a prince prophet. And he further told that I was so terribly tortured by my people that I should have died but for the promise of Allah which he gave me, which he had given me earlier. And he saved me miraculously from that tortuous death.
And so I migrated to your land. He asked him what was his name and he told my name is Yusasaf. Apparently it is a name in two parts, Yus and Asaf. But it can be read together as Yusas and F, an additional F which can be added in some languages. F and V sounds are sometimes added and some people are very fond of such sounds. So Yusas and Yusasaf are very similar sounds. But even Yus is quite enough and Asaf means it is an epithet meaning something else as well. Some people have gone interpreting this word in a different way. But anyway it has come very close. And the name of the faith, he said love. Love is the name of my faith. Now that is very interesting evidence. And this evidence was not revealed for the first time by Ahmadis. It was revealed for the first time by a Christian bishop of Russia.
About 200 years ago he discovered this and made reference to this in his own book. And that book is preserved in the Pope’s library even today. He mentioned these Puranas but with one difference. He distorted the story himself and said that it is known on the evidence of Puranas that our Lord Jesus Christ travelled to Kashmir and delivered his message there. But it was before the act of crucifixion, not after the act of crucifixion. Now this is what he has said in the text. But if you go to the appendix in the end of the book, he mentions himself, this trickery. He confesses it. He says I have said that our Lord Jesus Christ had gone to Kashmir prior to his crucifixion. But that is of course my interpretation. As far as Puranas go, they clearly say that he went there after crucifixion.
As it is impossible, it cannot have happened, so I have understood that perhaps he was mistaken. It was before crucifixion that he went there. But the whole story preserved in the Puranas totally belies this. He has been consciously dishonest about it. Because the story says that they put me to such torture that I should have died. Except for the act of crucifixion, this story does not apply to anything. Nothing else of the same nature ever happened to Christ before the act of crucifixion. So that is a very strong evidence. Now how things got mixed up, this is very interesting. You know perhaps that about 500 to 600 years before Jesus Christ, Buddha had appeared in India. And he had a large following in the areas where Christ worked. And he prophesied very clearly that another Buddha is going to appear to you after about 600 years or 500 years, exactly the same time after which Jesus Christ appeared there. And the Buddhists record the coming of a second Buddha and they relate things exactly those which had happened to Jesus Christ, a virgin birth of Buddha. And all the stories are so similar that obviously the things got mixed up because at that time Buddhism was not written.
The history of Buddhism was not written. Their teachings were not written. The first time we get the written evidence is through the lot of Ashoka. What do they call, minarets type things, but they are not exactly minarets. They are poles like erections made by Ashoka. Stupas, no not stupas, stupas are different. Lot, lot I have said, but I don’t know the English word for this. In Urdu we say lot. Stupas are a completely different thing. They are a different construction for worshipping. But lot is like a minaret like Qutb Sahib’s lot. So anyway, on those lots which are situated in Pakistan near Taxila, it is written in so many words that Buddha was a messenger of God and God has also been mentioned among other things. But the point I am making is this, that before Ashoka Buddhism was not written. And the personality of Christ and the personality of original Buddha got so mixed up that it went down to the future generations as one thing. So the Christian scholars also have taken this issue up. And some other scholars said that things have got mixed up so deeply, so intricately, that to separate the two threads is almost impossible now.
So they infer that Christ must have gone to India before crucifixion and returned learning his religion from Buddha. Even Christian scholars have gone to that extent. So obviously this did not happen because Purana belies this story. And before crucifixion we have no evidence of Christ ever going to India. And Buddhism didn’t travel to the Middle East. Not a single mention of any foreign influence on Christianity is found in New Testament or Old Testament or the history of the Jews or Apocrypha. All books concerning that area, that period, are completely silent on this issue. So that shows that the only plausible explanation is the one put forward by Hazrat Masih Maudud Aslam himself. It is he who declared to the world and pointed out that Jesus Christ, when he came to India, he came according to the prophecy of Buddha and he was his Buddha.
Because religion has one continuity, it doesn’t make any difference where one hails from to speak out the voice of Allah. It is the voice of Allah which is important. So they are interconnected. Because of that, what we hear of Christianity is in the form of a Buddha who must have appeared at the time when Jesus Christ migrated to India and his teachings got mixed up. The second phase is the phase of the acceptance of Islam by the followers of Jesus Christ in those areas. Now that was so complete that in the areas where Islam spread, you will be surprised to learn that Hinduism is left and Islam is left and Buddhism disappears. While in other areas where Christ did not have any influence, there Buddhism resisted the onslaught of Islam. So that shows that Christ had left a very pure message about Islam as well.
So when those Buddhas or mixture of Buddhas and Christians received the message of Islam who were taught by Christ himself in those areas, they accepted Islam in totality. With the result that the whole people became Muslims. But where his message had not gone to Gilgit and some other parts, there Buddhists remained and they resisted the message of Islam. Now this thing now is further supported because as I told you, we don’t have such a strong positive historical evidence as we can definitely say what might have happened. But when there is positive evidence, then whatever evidence is available to you, you have a right to build your conjectures on that evidence. When it is not gainsaid by any counter evidence, then it becomes very strong, however weak it may appear. Just a minute. Let me finish this whole line. I have not yet completed. The point I am making is that if there is evidence, historical evidence, however meager, however weak it may appear, if there is nothing to counter it historically and that is the only evidence available to you, it becomes strong because of its loneliness, its being alone in the field. There is nothing to counter it.
So this is exactly the case I am building in favour of Christ having migrated to India. Whatever evidence is there is in favour of the Ahmadiyya view. Nothing to contradict it. Now I am coming to the last part which is the part just revealed by an Oxford scholar who went to Herat for studying the old sects of Dervishes or Sufis. His book which has been published by Oxford University Press is entitled Among the Dervishes. This is not his subject, the one I am speaking on. Yet suddenly discussing various sects of Dervishes, he deviates from his main subject and excuses himself. He said now I am going to tell something which does not directly relate to my subject.
But it is so interesting that I can’t hold myself without mentioning it. And he says that while finding out things about the Dervishes in these areas, I came upon a tribe which is called, the name of the tribe is? No, no, no. Musai. A tribe by the name of Musai, belonging to Moses. I found out that they claimed their religion to be Muslim Christians. So he said that jolted me out of my slumber and I was surprised. Either they should be Christians or Muslims. What do they mean by Muslim Christians? Or Christian Muslims? So he said I investigated further and met the leader of that tribe whose name was Abba Yahya. Abba is the title and Yahya was the name. Abba again is the title of the Jewish clergy. Jewish elders are called by the name of Abba.
So he met him and found out from him what was this mystery about Muslim Christians. So he told him that look here, the Christ known to you is just a myth. He is not a reality. The Christ which is a reality was saved from crucifixion and he travelled to Kashmir because the old tribes of Israel had previously migrated from the mainland to Afghanistan and Kashmir. And while on way to Kashmir he preached Christianity and we also accepted Christianity at his hand. Our tribe has that long history. And he left his testament with us which is still in the form of old rolls and he showed him according to this author. And he said that in this testament if you read it, there is not a single mention of Christ being one of the three. He only claims that he is a simple, humble messenger of Allah and nothing else. So he said he preached Christianity to us and made us believe in one God and because we were expecting another greater prophet to come. Perhaps this has not been said in so many words there but things to this effect have been mentioned in this author that it was because of the type of Christianity left by Jesus Christ that we became Muslims later on. The difference between Islam and that Christianity was so little or perhaps nothing that we had no way out but to accept Islam.
So because he was our first benefactor we could not forget him and we decided to call ourselves Christian Muslims. And he says he went to Kashmir and died there. This is why we call our Lord Jesus of Nazareth of Kashmir. At the same time, of Jesus of Nazareth because he was born there and of Kashmir because he died there. Now I again turn back to the same piece of evidence about some prophet appearing at the time of Raja Shah Al-Bahan. His name was Yusuf. His grave is still intact and is in Mahalakhanyar, Srinagar. Now this is very important that at that time prior to Islam there was not a single religion in India which buried or which taught the dead to be buried. Not a single one. They were burnt or fed to the wild animals or birds but they never buried them. And there is a regular grave of this person and his followers.
They are all buried in a tomb. And the direction of the grave is a telltale direction because every Muslim knows that in the subcontinent they bury their dead in the direction that head is facing north, feet are facing south and the face is slightly turned towards Kaaba, that’s west. And no other direction of graves is known to Muslims there. So there is no question left that it might have been a saint of later times who got mixed up with somebody else and people invented the story of a prophet coming here by the name of Yusuf. Because the graves are of course there but their direction is not north-south. Its direction is west-east. Head facing west and the feet facing east. So that positively proves the point that this story is to be trusted, to be taken more seriously than it appears at first sight. And this prophet did appear from somewhere else and he belonged to a religion who buried their dead. Now tell me, do you read any reference of any prophet at the time of Jesus Christ other than he himself having ever been tortured to death or almost tortured to death anywhere in the world? No historical reference will be found of a single incident which would apply to that situation. And he having left religion by the name of love. This is the clinching factor now. Considering all things together, there is no way out but to believe the Ahmadiyya version that Jesus Christ got liberated from cross and migrated as he himself had foretold that I would go to the lost sheep of Israel and migrated to Kashmir. When he went to his lost sheep, were there many disciples? Some of them were with him. About two as far as I remember went with him and Mary also, his mother, went with him. And this again is witnessed by the Holy Quran itself that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, also migrated along with Jesus Christ to an area which has been described by the Holy Quran very similar to Kashmir. This is another point, interesting point to which you have pointed out. The fact is that there is a verse in the Holy Quran We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign from Allah. A miraculous thing happened about them. And what was that? We saved them from a situation which was very grave. Awaina means to save somebody from a situation and give him shelter. From a very grave danger, when somebody is saved, it is said in Arabic, I saved him and gave shelter from a very serious crisis.
So Allah says, we gave them shelter, saving them from a very grave crisis and migrating them. Where was the shelter given? The Holy Quran explains. We gave them shelter in a land. First of all it was a hilly land, land like plateaus. And secondly it says that that hilly land was a very peaceful land. And thirdly it says it abounded in springs, natural fountains and springs. So one thing is obvious, that this verse applies to a situation like Jesus Christ himself had told to Raja Shah Al Bahan. Where his life and the life of his mother were in extreme danger. And he was saved from Allah along with his mother and migrated to a place which bears the description of the Holy Quran. Now that is another proof of Ahmadiyya theology being correct against those who believe that Jesus Christ was taken to heaven. If Jesus Christ was taken to heaven having been saved from crucifixion, according to this verse, Mary should have also ascended to heaven along with the son. Because wherever son went, Allah says mother went also. They were not separated at the time. And a strange thing is that after the disappearance of Jesus Christ, you find no reference of Mary having been left behind. And there is no tomb in Palestine or near about where Mary is buried. Once I pointed it out to a Christian scholar in America who was not very honest about it and he challenged me. He said no there is a tomb of Mary in Palestine, you are misinformed.
I said I am sorry to say that you are deliberately deceiving me, attempting to deceive me but you can’t. Can you tell me in that tomb, if there is supposed to be the grave of Mary, is she buried there or is it just a tomb? Then he admitted, no it’s just a tomb. A tomb in the name of Mary without the Christians claiming that Mary’s dead body is buried within there. So she disappears as well. So that shows the Holy Quran ultimately points to the direction where not only Jesus had gone but also his mother had gone.
