This is the question most Muslims carry silently. It sits at the centre of everything. If Issa al-Masih did not die, then many other things follow from that. But if he did die, then everything changes. The Qur'an speaks to this directly. We are going to read it carefully, word by Arabic word, and not add anything it does not say.
وَقَوۡلِهِمۡ إِنَّا قَتَلۡنَا ٱلۡمَسِيحَ عِيسَى ٱبۡنَ مَرۡيَمَ رَسُولَ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَٰكِن شُبِّهَ لَهُمۡۚ وَإِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱخۡتَلَفُواْ فِيهِ لَفِي شَكّٖ مِّنۡهُۚ مَا لَهُم بِهِۦ مِنۡ عِلۡمٍ إِلَّا ٱتِّبَاعَ ٱلظَّنِّۚ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينَۢا
“That they said in boast: We killed Christ Issa, the son of Maryam, the messenger of Allah. But they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no certain knowledge, but only conjecture to follow. For of a surety they killed him not.”
Surah An-Nisa 4:157 | quran.com/4/157
What is this verse actually saying?
Read it again. It says: they killed him not. Who is they? The Jews who were boasting. The verse is a direct response to a boast. The Jews were saying: we killed him. Allah responds: you did not kill him.
But this is not the same as saying he did not die. The verse does not say he did not die. It says the Jews did not kill him. These are two different statements. The Jews did not accomplish his death. That does not mean his death did not occur. Allah had a plan. That plan did not include the Jews succeeding in their boast.
What does the Qur'an say Allah's plan actually was?
Read what Allah says to Issa directly, in Surah Al-Imran.
إِذۡ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَىٰٓ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ
“Behold! Allah said: O Issa! Innee mutawaffeeka wa rafi'uka ilayya. I will cause thee to die and raise thee to Myself, and clear thee of the falsehoods of those who blaspheme.”
Surah Al-Imran 3:55 | quran.com/3/55
What does innee mutawaffeeka mean?
The Arabic is precise. The word mutawaffeeka comes from the root tawaffa. In every other place this word appears in the Qur'an, it refers to death, the taking back of a soul at the moment of dying.
It is not the word used when Allah takes someone to heaven while still alive. For the prophet Idris, who was taken alive to a high station, the Qur'an uses only rafa'a, to lift up. Read Surah Maryam 19:57. For Issa, the Qur'an uses both words in sequence. Mutawaffeeka first. Then rafa'a. Caused to die. Then lifted up. The sequence is deliberate. The death comes before the raising. Allah told Issa directly: I will cause you to die. And then I will raise you to Myself.
And what did Issa himself say about this on the day he was born?
وَٱلسَّلَٰمُ عَلَيَّ يَوۡمَ وُلِدتُّ وَيَوۡمَ أَمُوتُ وَيَوۡمَ أُبۡعَثُ حَيًّا
“So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life again.”
Surah Maryam 19:33 | quran.com/19/33
Issa spoke these words as a newborn in the cradle. He named three days: the day of his birth, the day of his death, and the day of his resurrection. The Arabic word for die here is mata. It is the most common and plain Arabic word for death. There is no ambiguity in this word. Issa, on the day he was born, said plainly: I will die. And I will be raised.
So what does Surah 4:157 actually mean?
The Jews boasted that they killed him. Allah says: you did not kill him. The Jews did not accomplish this. They did not succeed in their boast. But Allah had a plan. His plan was to allow Issa to die, not at the hands of those who boasted, but according to the purpose He had decreed. And then to raise him. This was always the plan.
“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and he was buried, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.”
Injil, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 | bible.com/bible/111/1CO.15.3-4
The King's Son and the Empty Boast
A king sent his only son to a distant province to deliver a message of peace. The enemies of the king seized the son, thinking they had stopped the king's plan.
They boasted: we have destroyed the king's messenger. His mission has failed.
But the king had known this would happen. He had planned for it. He had spoken to his son about it before the journey. The son had gone willingly, knowing what awaited him.
Three days after the enemies celebrated, the son stood again among the people of the province. Alive. The message of peace was delivered. And the enemies who had boasted realized that they had not stopped anything. They had, without knowing it, served the king's purpose.
The son had not been killed by them. He had laid down what was his to lay down, on his father's instruction, at the moment his father had chosen.
The boast was empty. The plan was complete.
The Qur'an does not say Issa did not die. It says the Jews did not kill him. Read the Arabic of Surah 3:55 again. Allah said to Issa: I will cause you to die. I will raise you to Myself. Issa said on the day he was born: peace be on me the day I die and the day I am raised.
What does it mean to you that this was Allah's plan from the beginning? Sit with that. Bring it to your prayer. Ask Allah what He is saying to you through these words that have been in your book all along.