Death Within a Century

“ In the light of this verse, we shall turn our attention to what our Holy Prophet(saw) has spoken in relation to this affair. From Mishkat al-Masabih comes the first hadith which is narrated by Abu Hurairah as follows: “Some people in my community will live for sixty to seventy years and there will be few who will exceed this age.”

“It is undeniable that the Messiah, son of Mary, has been included in this community. So how can such a disparity exist between him and others in that other people will find it difficult? To reach sixty or seventy years and his condition is such that he has lived for two thousand years and even now he has still not died? Instead, our religious leaders insist that he will return to earth and live for forty or forty-five years. The second hadith is taken from the Sahih Muslim and the narrator is Jabir, who says: “I heard the Holy Prophet (sas) say, after taking an oath, that in no part of the earth is there any creature over whom a hundred years will pass and he will still be found alive.” The meaning of this hadith is that no created being on earth will live past one hundred years and saying that he is a prisoner of the earth is that he may be excluded from the category of heavenly beings. It is, of course, an accepted fact that the Messiah, son of Mary, is not a heavenly being (by creation) but an earthly one and belongs to all that exists on earth. The hadith does not mean that if a person with an earthly body lives on earth, he will die here, but if he should go up to heaven (in his earthly body) he will not suffer death if the Holy Qur’an has categorically ruled out the eventuality of an earthly body entering Paradise. Instead, the import of the hadith is that whoever is born on earth, having been created out of earth cannot live beyond a hundred years.”  (Izala-e-Auham)