He attributed this claim to them and censured them for it.
He did not mention the Christians, for it was the Jews who carried out the crucifixion of the person made to resemble Jesus. No Christian witnessed the scene with them; rather, the disciples were frightened and in hiding, so none of them saw the crucifixion. Only the Jews witnessed it, and they are the ones who spread the report that they had crucified the Messiah. As for the Christians and others who later passed on the story that the Messiah had been crucified, they merely repeated what they had received from those Jews— a small band of guards in the service of the tyrants, few enough that collusion in falsehood could not be ruled out.
The Exalted One said: “Yet they neither killed him nor crucified him; but it was made to appear so to them” ⦗al-Nisāʾ 4:157⦘—thus He negated that he was killed. Then He said: “There is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death” ⦗al-Nisāʾ 4:159⦘.
Most scholars hold that this means “before the death of the Messiah.” Some have said it means “before the death of the Jew,” but that view is weak. Others have said that it means “before the death of Muhammad—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him,” and that interpretation is weaker still, for had a person believed in him before dying, such belief would have benefited him, since Allah accepts His servant’s repentance so long as his soul has not reached the throat.
If it is said that what is meant is the faith that occurs after the death-rattle, there would be no