Review of Religions

Special contributors:

Amatul-Hadi Ahmad

Farina Qureshi

Proof-reader:

Shaukia Mir

Design and layout:

Tanveer Khokhar

Publisher:

Al Shirkatul Islamiyyah

Distribution:

Muhammad Hanif

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Fareed Ahmad.

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Mahmood Hanif

Mansoora Hyder-Muneeb

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Sarah Waseem

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Tanveer Khokhar

Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the opinions of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

All correspondence should

be forwarded directly to:

The Editor

Review of Religions

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ISSN No: 0034-6721

Editorial

Could God ignore the prayers of His prophet? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Pure Heart

The role of the heart in bringing man closer to God.

Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

(as)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Jesus’ Survival from the Cross

What the Bible tells us about this intriguing episode.:

By Muzaffar Clarke – UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph? -

A Critical Examination of the Theory:

Could the image on the famous cloth be a photograph? A photographer investigates.

By Barrie M. Schwortz – USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Israelite Origin of People of

Afghanistan and the Kashmiri People –

Linking the scattered tribes of Israelites with their Jewish roots.

By Aziz A. Chaudhary – USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Historical evidence of Jesus’ migration to India..

By Abubakr Ben Ishmael Salahuddin – USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Letter to the Editor?

The Catholic Church in America.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Contents

April 2002, Vol.97, No.4

Chief Editor and Manager

Chairman of the Management Board

Naseer Ahmad Qamar

Front cover photo: (© Barrie M. Schwortz)

This month’s issue focuses on

Christianity. Easter – despite its

modern trimmings with Easter

bunnies and chocolate eggs – is

supposed to be a time for

Christians to reflect upon the

biblical account of what they

believe to be Jesus’

(as)

last days

on earth before he was crucified

and then brought back to life

prior to his ascension to heaven.

Despite the historical evidence of

early Christians holding different

beliefs, for modern Christianity

at least the crucifixion and

resurrection of Jesus

( a s )

is the

bedrock of their whole faith as

the bible declares ‘And if Christ

be not risen then is our preaching

vain.’(Corinthians 15:14).

In Islam, whilst Jesus

(as)

is not

considered to be the literal Son

of God but rather a noble and

respected prophet of God, the

events surrounding Jesus

(as)

being

put on the Cross remain a

sobering episode of his life.

Setting aside the timing of Easter

itself (over which there is some

debate) what is common to

Christians and Muslims is that this

was a time during which a

beloved of God suffered immense

torture simply on account of his

belief in God and for his

delivering God’s message to the

Israelites.

The scene in the Garden of

Gethsemane where Jesus

( a s )

throws himself in prayer before

the Almighty in total submission

and humility is one of raw, heart-

rending emotion. The tears that

flow from him as he prayed for

the ‘cup of death’ to be taken

from him are not a sign of his

weakness but a sign of his utter

conviction, and total faith in

God. Jesus

(as)

remained steadfast

during this testing time and even

his closest disciples could not

match his endurance and they

seemed to have fallen, tired and

exhausted, not being able to

muster enough strength to keep

watch and pray alongside Jesus.

The ‘lost sheep of the house of

Israel’ – the very people whose

souls he had come to save – were

after his life. Their faith had

been obliterated by personal and

political gain and they were not

going to let a simple man from

Nazareth deprive them of the

power that their god gave them.

H o w e v e r, Jesus

( a s )

, like all

prophets had preached and

insisted all along that God lived

Review of Religions – April 2002

ditorial

and that He answered the prayers

of His servants. We read in the

Bible that ‘every one that asketh

receiveth’ (Luke 11:10), the

question, therefore, that hangs

perilously over the events

surrounding crucifixion, is how

was it possible for God to ignore

the cries of His prophet at his

hour of need? For if the cup of

death did not elude him despite

all his prayers then surely,

despite all his noble words and

deeds, he would have failed in his

divine mission and it would have

been his preaching that would

have been in vain?

If however he had survived and

not died on the cross then this

would have been sure sign of God

and of Jesus’

( a s )

truth as His

prophet. It is for this purpose

that the articles selected for this

issue are those that provide an

insight into just some of the

mountain of evidence that exists

supporting the survival of Jesus

(as)

from the cross. However, this is

not a new concept, but one that

has its modern roots in the 19th

century.

The first treatise that presented

this whole theory as well as its

impact on world religion,

rationally and meticulously, was

written over 100 years ago in

1899 – curiously enough by a

person claiming to be the second

advent of Jesus

(as)

as prophesied

in various religious scriptures.

That person Hadhrat Mirza

Ghulam Ahmad

(as)

lived in Qadian,

a tiny unknown hamlet in India

yet his research is remarkable –

and truly astounding if one

considers the difficulties he faced

when conducting and compiling

his research. The validity of this

research is testified by the fact

that his book Jesus in India even

today remains unchallenged in its

evidence and has served as a

springboard for much research in

this area throughout the 20th

century and beyond.

Fareed Ahmad

Editorial

Review of Religions – April 2002

[ Tr a n s l a t o r’s note: All references to the verses

of the Holy Qur’an are given in Arabic as they

occur in the text. The English translation,

presented in italics, is taken from the

translation of the Holy Qur’an by Hadhrat

Maulvi Sher Ali Sahib

( r a )

. Where the Pr o m i s e d

M e s s i a h

( a s )

has himself stated a certain inter-

pretation of the Arabic verse, this is

incorporated in the main body of the text].

Compiled and translated by Amatul

Hadi Ahmad

God has placed within a human

being three types of controlling

factors: the mind, the heart and

the tongue. The mind uses

reasoning and intelligence and

its job is to be occupied at all

times in formulating ideas and

forming ever new thoughts,

explanations and arguments.

The mind has been assigned the

duty of assessing the results and

conclusions of various formu-

lations. The heart, on the other

hand, is the ‘king’ of the whole

being. It does not use argument

and proof because it has a link

with the King of Kings [i.e. God

Almighty] and that is why it is

sometimes informed with a clear

Review of Religions – April 2002

The Pure Heart

Presented below is a compilation, in translation, of excerpts taken from

Malfoozat relating to the topic of the purity of heart. Malfoozat is the title

of the ten volumes that contain the collection of discourses, speeches and

addresses of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, the Promised

Messiah and Mahdi (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

The founder of the Ahmadiyya

Muslim Community was

Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

In 1891, he claimed, on the basis

of Divine revelation, that he was

the Promised Messiah and Mahdi

whose advent had been foretold

by the Holy Prophet of Islam

(peace be upon him) and by the

scriptures of other faiths.

His claim constitutes the basis of

the beliefs of the Ahmadiyya

Muslim Community.

and evident revelation and

sometimes with a secret or

hidden revelation. Another way

of stating this is to say that the

mind is a ‘Vi z i r’, a ‘Minister’ .

Ministers are statesmen and in

this capacity the mind is

occupied with formulating ideas

and schemes as well as the

means and consequences. The

heart has no business with all

t h a t .

Within the heart God has placed

the power of instinct just as an

ant manages to reach exactly

the place where there is

something sweet. The ant does

not have any proof of the fact

that there is something sweet at

a certain place. It reaches there

because God has provided it

with the instinct that guides it.

In this sense the heart shares a

similarity with the ant because

it too has an instinctive sense

within it that guides it and that

does not depend upon proofs,

arguments, conclusions and

results. However, it is quite

another matter that the mind is

able to and does provide such

proofs for the ‘heart’.

One meaning of the heart is

apparent and physical. The

other meaning of the heart is

spiritual. The literal meaning of

the term Qalb [Arabic for heart]

is that which moves around or

returns. As the heart is the

source of circulation of blood in

the body, it is referred to as

Qalb. In the spiritual sense its

meaning is that the progress

that a human being wishes to

achieve is also based around the

‘heart’. Just as the circulation

of blood, crucial for sustaining

human life, originates from the

heart, so the spiritual progress

is dependent upon the spiritual

heart.

Some ignorant people including

some philosophers of today who

place the mind at the centre of

all the best activity, do not

know that the mind is only the

seat of cognitive powers of

reasoning and argument. The

power of thought and memory is

in the mind but there is an

aspect of the heart that makes

it the ultimate sovereign. The

activity of the mind has a

contrived element about it that

is not present in the case of the

‘heart’. That is why the heart

bears a resemblance to Rabb-

ul-Arsh, that is, the Lord of the

Heavenly Throne. The ‘heart’ is

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

able to recognise [spiritual

truths] without proofs and

arguments, purely through its

instinctive powers. That is why

it is stated in a Hadith of the

Holy Prophet

(sa)

: Istafil qalba,

that is, ask your heart for a

verdict – it does not state ‘ask

your mind for a verdict’.

It is to the ‘heart’ that the

‘cord’ of God is linked and no

one should consider this a far

fetched idea. It is, indeed,

difficult and abstruse but those

who purify themselves know

that the heart does possess such

noble qualities. If the heart did

not possess such qualities, then

the very existence of the human

being would have been

considered useless. The Sufis

and those who carry out

spiritual exercises know this

well that the heart has been

seen giving out light in the form

of pillars of light that reach

towards the skies in a straight

line. This experience is certain

and well witnessed. I cannot

here state specific examples

but those who have to

undertake such exercises or

those who have decided to

journey through the different

stages of Salook, that is mystic

initiation, they have found this

to be true according to their

experiences. It is as if there is a

fine thread connecting Arsh and

Qalb, linking the Divine Throne

and the spiritual heart. [At this

stage] the Qalb finds pleasure in

the commands it receives (from

its Lord God) – it is not

dependent upon external proofs

and evidence. It becomes

Mulhim, that is, one who is a

recipient of Divine Revelation,

and internally converses with

God and forms verdicts.

However, it is true that as long

as the heart remains only a

heart, it becomes a proof of the

condition illustrated in the

following verse of the Holy

Qura’n:

If we had but listened or

possessed sense

(Ch.67: v.11)

that is, there is a time when a

human being does not possess

the powers of heart and mind.

Then there comes a time when

the mind develops its powers

and faculties and then a time

comes when the Qalb becomes

engulfed by light – a light bursts

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

forth and it is illuminated.

When the time comes for the

’heart’ to come to the fore, the

human being attains spiritual

maturity and the heart rules

over the mind. At that stage,

the powers of the mind do not

have supremacy over the heart.

It should be noted that the

different states of the mind are

not specific to the believers

alone. Hindus and others all use

the mind alike. Those who are

involved in worldly affairs and

in trade and business all use the

powers of the mind and their

mental faculties develop to the

full. Every day new ideas and

inventions are made to further

their affairs. In Europe and the

new world you can see how well

people have used their mental

capacities and how frequently

and how many new inventions

they make.

However, when the work of the

Qalb is carried out, it is then

that a person becomes God’s. It

is at that time that all inner

powers of rule and control

become under the power and

rule of the ‘heart’ which attains

a firm control, power and

strength. It is at such a stage

that a human being becomes a

complete human being. This is

the time when he becomes a

living proof of the [following

verse of the Holy Qura’n where

God states]:

I have breathed into him of

My Spirit. (Ch.15: v.30)

It is a time when even the

angels prostrate before him. At

that time he becomes a new

human being. His soul is filled

with pleasure and joy. It should

be remembered that this

pleasure does not resemble the

carnal pleasure of an adulterer,

nor does it resemble the

enjoyment that is gained by

listening to beautiful singing.

No, it does not resemble any

such thing and one should not

be deceived by this. The

pleasure of the soul is attained

when a person’s being begins to

melt and flow like water at the

thought of and fear of God. It is

at such a stage that he becomes

the ‘Kalima’ , that is, ‘the

word’ and the essence of this

[the following] verse begins to

work within him:

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

Verily His command, when He

intends a thing, is only that

He says to it ‘Be’ and it is.

(Ch.36: v.83)

People have been greatly

mistaken about the use of the

term K a l i m a - t u l l a h , meaning

the ‘Word of God’ in relation to

Jesus and have tended to

consider it to be due to some

special quality possessed by

Jesus whereas this is not so.

This term, in fact, applies to

any human being when he

emerges purified from the

darkness that surrounds his soul

and from all the impurities and

imperfections that engulf him.

When such a high state of purity

is achieved, a person becomes

Kalima-tullah, that is, the

‘Word of God’.

You should remember that a

human being is the ‘Word of

God’ because there is within

him a soul that is referred to in

the Holy Qur’an as Amr-e-Rabbi,

that is, that which comes into

being at the Command of God

[and is under the Command of

God]. However, due to their

foolishness and ignorance,

people do not generally appre-

ciate the significance of the

soul and as a result they

imprison their soul and shackle

it with all kinds of ‘chains’

[that are ‘created’ by their

worldly pursuits]. This has the

consequence of turning the light

and clarity of the soul into a

dangerous darkness, taking

away its ability to ‘see’ and thus

turning the soul into something

that is so opaque that it

becomes undetectable.

However, when a person repents

and turns to God, thus removing

the cloak of a dark impure life,

the light within the heart begins

to shine and he begins to move

towards the real ‘fountainhead’

until the highest point of

righteousness is reached. At this

stage all the impurities are

removed and what remains is

only Kalima-tullah. This is a

very fine and subtle point of

deep spiritual insight and one

that may not be easily

understood by everyone.

[Malfoozat, Vol.1, pp.404–408].

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

You will know that during

Bai’at, the Oath of Initiation

[into Ahmadiyyat] I include this

promise from the initiate: ‘I

shall give precedence to faith

over worldly matters’. This is so

that I may see what steps are

taken by those who have taken

the Oath of Initiation in

fulfillment of this promise. It is

the case that if a person

acquires even a small piece of

new land, he leaves behind his

home and goes and establishes

himself on the newly acquired

land and it is necessary that he

should go and live there in order

to inhabit that piece of land.

(Even the likes of Muhammad

Hussain [who was an outspoken

opponent] had to go and stay at

the Bar). Hence, when I give you

a new ‘land’ and a land that can

give eternal fruits if it is kept

clean and cultivated with effort

and hard work, why do people

not come and make their homes

here? If a person takes this

‘land’ with such carelessness

that after ‘Bai’at’ even a few

days visit [to Qadian to be with

the Promised Messiah

(as)

] is so

difficult and burdensome to

him, then what hope can there

be of a ‘ripened crop’ from this

‘land’.

God has referred to the heart,

Qalb, also as land, or earth, [as

for example, in the following

verse of the Holy Qur’an, it is

stated]:

Know that Allah is now

quickening the earth after

its death.

(Ch.57: v.18)

How much effort has to be

made and care taken of land

[before it can give crops and

fruit]. A person buys a bullock

to till the land. He then

carefully sows seed in it after

which he has to ensure that it is

kept well watered. In short, a

great deal of effort goes into

the cultivation of the land and

unless he makes his own

personal effort and supervision,

nothing comes of it. It is related

that a person saw written on a

stone that farming is nothing

but hard work so when he

started farming, he left

everything to his servants.

H o w e v e r, when he came to

check his gains, he found that

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

not only there was no gain, he

had to pay out to clear his debt.

At this stage he began to suspect

that something was wrong. A

wise person advised him that

what was written on the stone

was true but it was his own

foolishness that brought such a

bad result. He further advised

the farmer that he should

himself take charge of the land,

only then would he reap any

benefit from it. The nature of

the heart is exactly like this [in

terms of reaping rewards].

He who looks down disre-

spectfully upon the land [newly

placed in his care through his

initiation into Ahmaiyyat] does

not receive any blessing or

favour from God. Re m e m b e r

that I have been appointed for

the reform of humanity and as

such whosoever comes to me,

becomes the beneficiary of such

favours. However, I state this

clearly that he who comes and

takes the Oath of Initiation in a

callous manner, repeating only

the words, and then disappears

so that we do not even know

who he is and where he has

gone, for such a one there is

nothing – he came empty

handed and he left empty

handed. [Malfoozat, Volume 2,

pp.70–71].

Some people consider that

merely by visiting some holy

person and without any effort or

inner purification, they will be

able to join the fold of the

Truthful. This is just wishful

thinking. You should study the

Holy Qur’an to see that you

cannot win the pleasure of God

unless you too endure hardship

and tribulation as did the

Prophets of God. Some of their

ordeals and suffering was so

extreme that, [in the words of

the Holy Qur’an]:

Until the Messenger and the

believers who were with

him, cried out: When will

the help of Allah arrive?

Surely Allah’s help is nigh.

(Ch.2: v.215)

It has always been the case that

the servants of God were put

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

through many an ordeal and

hardship before they were

accepted by God.

The Sufis have written about

two paths that lead to success

in this struggle. One is the path

of Salook . This is the path of

people who, by using their own

intelligence and wisdom, adopt

the path of God and His

Prophet

(sa)

. [God, addressing the

Holy Prophet

(as)

states in the

Holy Qur’an]:

S a y, ‘if you love Allah,

follow me: then will Allah

love you’.

(Ch.3: v.32)

That is, if you wish to become

the loved ones of God then you

should follow the path of the

Holy Pr o p h e t

( s a )

. He is the

Perfect Guide and he is the

Prophet who underwent such

extreme hardship and suffering

that the like of it has never

been seen anywhere in the

world. His quest was such that it

did not let him rest even for a

day. Now, the followers [of this

Prophet] will only be those who

truly and sincerely follow his

every word and every deed. The

true follower is he who follows

in every way. A person who has

scant regard [for Divine

injunctions] and a harsh atti-

tude [towards others] is not

liked by God. Such a person

will, instead, come under the

wrath of God.

The injunction to follow the

Holy Pr o p h e t

( s a )

, places an

obligation on the seeker to first

study the whole history of the

Holy Pr o p h e t

( s a )

and then to

follow in his footsteps. This is

what is mean by Salook, [that

is, Initiation]. There are in this

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

WHEN THE HUMAN SOUL IS FACED WITH PAINFUL ORDEALS AND

TRIBULATIONS

, THE EXPERIENCE AND THE CONSEQUENT HUMILITY MAKES

IT RADIANT. JUST AS IRON OR GLASS WHILE POSSESSING THE CAPACITY TO

SHINE

, SHINE ONLY AFTER THEY HAVE UNDERGONE A LENGTHY PROCESS

OF BURNISHING AND THEN THEY SHINE SO BRIGHTLY THAT IN THEM IS

REFLECTED THE FACE OF THE PERSON LOOKING IN

. STRIVING IN THE PATH

GOD ALSO WORKS AS A PROCESS OF BURNISHING.

path numerous ordeals and

hardships. It is only after

showing stead-fastness in the

face of numerous hardships that

a person becomes a Salik, that

is a ‘Devotee’.

The status of the people on the

path of Jazb is greater than

those on the path of Salook.

[The term Jazb i m p l i e s

absorption of the love of God].

Those who strive on the path of

Jazb are not left at the stage of

Salook. God deliberately puts

them through ordeals and

tribulations in order to draw

them closer to Himself through

the eternal power of

absorption, that is, Jaazba-e-

Azli. All the Prophets of God

were M a j z o o b, that is, they

were drawn to God and were

absorbed in God.

When the human soul is faced

with painful ordeals and

tribulations, the experience and

the consequent humility makes

it radiant. Just as iron or glass

while possessing the capacity to

shine, shine only after they

have undergone a lengthy

process of burnishing and then

they shine so brightly that in

them is reflected the face of

the person looking in. Striving in

the path of God also works as a

process of burnishing. The

burnishing of the ‘heart’ should

be to such a degree that the

‘face’ is reflected in the

resulting ‘mirror’ [of the

‘heart’]. What is meant by

‘reflection of the face? The

meaning of this is to become

the fulfillment of the saying,

‘Create within you morals in

accordance with the

“character” of Allah’. The heart

of the S a l i k , that is, the

Initiate, is a ‘mirror’ that is

burnished so much through

undergoing experiences of great

suffering and tribulation that

the reflection of the moral

qualities of the Holy Prophet

(sa)

are fixed upon it. This occurs at

a time when, having undergone

numerous spiritual exercises

and inner purification, there

remains no resentment or

impurity within. It is only then

that this status is attained.

Every Muslim believer needs this

kind of cleansing to some

extent. No believer will find

salvation whilst being without

the ‘mirror’ of the heart.

[Malfoozat, Vol. 1, pp.27-28].

The Pure Heart

Review of Religions – April 2002

O Jesus, I will cause thee to

die a natural death and I will

exalt thee to Myself.

(Ch.3: v.56)

But if there be no

resurrection of the dead,

then is Christ not risen; And if

Christ be not risen then is our

preaching vain, and your faith

is also vain.

(Holy Bible: Corinthians 15: 13

–14)

On 27th October 1972 the

Guardian newspaper carried the

following report: ‘An anaesthetist

told the High Court in London

that he believed Christ did not

die on the Cross. Mr James Gerald

Bourne, formerly Senior

Anaesthetist to St Thomas’

Hospital, London said that he

believed that the Re s u r r e c t i o n

was Jesus’ recovery from a faint.

Mr Bourne was asked by Mr.

James Comyn, QC, “are you

saying that is a widely held

view?” Mr Bourne told Mr Justice

Ackner he believed an increasing

number of people were no longer

accepting the “miraculous view”

“Do you feel that all right-

thinking people should take that

view?” Mr. Comyn asked. “I think

it would be an advance,” Mr.

Bourne said, “To quote a writer of

the second century AD, ‘If an

offence comes out of the truth it

is better that the offence comes

out rather than the truth be

concealed.’” Mr Bourne said he

realised that his view would be

offensive to a great number of

people. Mr. Comyn asked: “Do

you realise that it makes

nonsense of a good deal of

Christian teaching?” Mr Bourne

replied: “Yes: but not of Christian

ethics. He was not suggesting

that the Crucifixion and the

Resurrection were hoaxes. “I

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

By Muzaffar Clarke, UK

This article examines some of the evidence from a biblical perspective

regarding the events surrounding Jesus being placed on the Cross. It takes

into account the timing of the crucifixion as well as the key players

involved – both in public and behind the scenes – in the unfolding of what

could be considered as one of the greatest miracles of all time – Jesus’s

survival from the Cross.

have never believed, since a

school-boy, in the miraculous or

supernatural.” Mr. Bourne who

had been called as a witness in a

libel action concerning an

anaesthetic technique, said his

belief about the Resurrection was

“a conviction which seems to me,

and it may be wrong, to be

common sense.” He said he

believed that Jesus fainted

sometime during the three hours

on the cross. He was then taken

down and entombed. “I think the

faint simulated death – a faint

which he conquered.”’

The Resurrection of Jesus

(as)

is a

very sensitive subject for

Christians and we must always

remember that we are talking

about deeply held and treasured

beliefs.

From a very early age, I was

taught that it was sinful to

question the teachings of the

Catholic Church about anything.

As a young boy, I genuinely

wanted answers to certain

questions so that I could unde-

rstand them properly. The nuns

and priests responsible for my

Catholic education sternly

discouraged me. Being young,

this just made me more curious. I

suppose I was unlike other kids

because I really did want to

know. My mother tried her best to

make sure that I was brought up

as a good Catholic. I suppose I

must have been because a school

report describes me as ‘A staunch

Roman Catholic’. I think I was

only seven or eight at the time.

This refusal to give me more

information lead me to look at

what other Christians believed. If

my Parish Priest had found out he

would have twisted my ear, told

me off and may have reported me

to the Bishop. The Church told

you what to believe and it was up

to the Church to make sure you

did not get confused or ‘fall into

error’ as the Church put it.

Well I still was not satisfied and

one of the things that really

troubled me was the death of

Jesus

(as)

on the cross. The more I

studied the Bible the surer I

became that Jesus

(as)

came to

lead people back to God by his

own example of loving kindness

and to reconcile people to God

through repentance and spiritual

re-birth. I could not make any

sense at all of a supposedly

merciful God, who could not

forgive weak humans without

requiring the torture and murder

of His only ‘begotten son’. It

seemed an injustice that God’s

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

sense of justice required

retribution for sin through the

death of whom Christians believe

to be his most loved.

The Church teaches that Jesus

Christ (peace be upon him) died

on the cross to pay for your sins

and mine. Revelation 1:v.5 says:

‘Unto him that loved us, and

washed us from our sins in his

own blood.’ It also teaches that:

‘He who knew no sin became sin.’

(2 Corinthians 5:21) and: ‘He was

wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities:

the chastisement of our peace

was upon him; and with his

stripes we are healed.’ (Isaiah

53:5)

Well a sinner I may be, but I am

not so sinful as to expect God to

punish an innocent man for my

misdeeds. I thank Allah for

leading me out of darkness into

light and for teaching me that I

am responsible for my actions

and that He is Most Gracious,

Ever Merciful to those who repent

and turn to Him for forgiveness.

My personal Saviour is Allah and

Allah alone.

The story of the Resurrection of

J e s u s

( a s )

as told in the New

Testament has long been taken

for granted. It is part of the

cultural background of Western

man. Britain may not be a nation

of Christians but we follow

broadly Christian values and

these are reflected in our laws

and social values. The majority of

people are not church-going

Christians but they still revere

Jesus

(as)

as someone who exem-

plifies the best in human

behaviour. Many people aspire to

follow his example in doing good

deeds and acting in a decent

manner. His supposed death on

the cross is seen as the ultimate

example of sacrificing one’s life

for others. Many people, while

not describing themselves as

especially religious, have

followed his example and have

performed outstanding feats of

personal bravery and sacrifice.

The person of Jesus

(as)

forms part

of the psyche of Western nations.

A tragic and moving story, the

Resurrection offers hope and

promise. While I was researching

this topic I was amazed to

discover that so many leading

Christians have raised doubts

about the Resurrection. Many

Christians seem to have given up

the idea that Jesus

(as)

survived

death on the cross at all. George

C a r y, Anglican Archbishop of

Canterbury was at the centre of a

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

media storm over the

resurrection. An interview by a

reporter from The Mail

newspaper was published in

August 1999:

Cary was quoted as saying: ‘While

we can be absolutely sure that

Jesus lived and that he was

certainly crucified on the cross,

we cannot with the same

certainty say that we know he

was raised by God from the dead’

Opposition Member of Parliament

Ann Widdecombe said that if the

Archbishop ‘in any way leaves the

Resurrection open to doubt then

that is the ultimate betrayal.’

Archbishop Cary commented

later that he had been

misquoted. He had actually said

that there is enough historical

evidence to prove beyond a

reasonable doubt that Jesus

( a s )

lived; however there is not the

same amount of evidence that he

was resurrected.

As an Ahmadi Muslim, I do not

believe that Jesus

(as)

actually rose

from the dead after crucifixion,

rather that he revived after being

treated and cared for by

Nicodemus. I accept that he was

seen in the flesh by his disciples,

that he was very keen to show

them his physical injuries and to

eat in front of them. Hadhrat

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

(as)

provided

evidence from the Bible that

Jesus

(as)

survived crucifixion. He

also provided independent

documentary evi-dence of

J e s u s ’

( a s )

subsequent journey

eastwards from Palestine to find

and deliver his message to the

other Jews. His book Jesus in

India is of monumental impor-

tance because it removes all

doubt. This book provided me

with the key to understand what

really took place 2,000 years ago

before a bloodthirsty mob at a

rubbish dump called Golgotha

outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Palestine was one of the worst

trouble spots in the whole of the

Empire. The Jews were unlike

any other religious group because

their beliefs could not be

incorporated into the Ro m a n

pantheon. The Romans ruthlessly

crushed any opposition and this

resulted in thousands of

crucifixions. The Romans were

experts in crucifixion. This argu-

ment appears to be a strong proof

that Jesus

(as)

did die on the cross.

The Romans could make

crucifixion last for days.

Crucifixion was commonly used to

execute insurgents and rebels

and was a stark warning to those

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

who challenged the power of the

Roman Empire. We may ask the

question “If the Romans were so

efficient, how could Jesus

(as)

have

escaped?” The answer to the

question lies in an extraordinary

set of factors that came into play.

On the night of his arrest,

Jesus

(as)

went with his followers

to the garden of Gethsemane

where he threw himself before

God and prayed passionately that

God should not allow him to die a

shameless and humiliating death

in front of his enemies. Jesus’

(as)

prayer that the cup of death be

removed could not go

unaccepted. Indeed Jesus

(as)

was

not afraid of dying if God willed it

but he was fearful that he would

be seen to have died an accursed

death. He knew he would suffer

the most extreme, shameful form

of punishment devised. Galatians

3:13 reads: ‘Cursed is everyone

that hangeth on a tree.’ If he had

died on the cross he would have

died a curse and as a criminal. He

would have died in total shame

and disgrace in the eyes of the

world.

Jesus’ apostles had followed him

for three years. The apostle Peter

had boasted only days earlier:

‘Though I should die with thee,

yet will I not deny thee.’

(Matthew 26:35) There he was

that night standing in the mob.

Defeated, confused and hurt.

Jesus was dead! He was crucified

as a blasphemer! One of the

women saw Peter and said ‘And

thou also wast with Jesus of

Nazareth.’ (Mark 14:67) The Bible

says, ‘he began to curse and to

swear, saying I know not this man

of whom ye speak’ (Mark 14:71).

Mark 14: 50 says that the apostles

deserted Jesus

( a s ) .

‘And they

forsook him and fled’. But

something happened! Something

happened to that small band of

frightened and humiliated men.

Less than two months later they

were back in Jerusalem preaching

that Jesus

(as)

was alive!

During the ‘trial’ of Jesus

(as)

, if it

can be called a trial, Pilate the

Roman governor did everything

possible to avoid getting involved

in what he saw as an internal

Jewish matter.

Caiaphas, President of the

Sanhedrin, the supreme religious

tribunal wanted Jesus

( a s )

executed for blasphemy but they

could not kill Jesus

(as)

themselves

because blasphemy was not

punishable by Roman law. They

had to convince Pilate to agree to

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

the death sentence on the basis

that as Jesus said he was ‘The

Messiah’ this would make him a

popular hero and he would incite

the Jewish population against

Rome. Pilate could not ignore

this political charge. He was not

the sort of man to go along with

Jewish demands without good

reason, certainly not to be a

rubber stamp on their

independent decisions. He is

described by a contemporary as

‘naturally inflexible, a blend of

self-will and relentlessness’. The

accounts also show a provocative

man who found it hard to climb

down. The Jewish authorities

would have been only too pleased

to denounce him to Rome for not

doing his job. So Pilate was

obliged to handle the case.

Pilate was convinced that it was a

trumped-up charge and that

J e s u s

( a s )

was no revolutionary but

a religious fanatic, and not

dangerous. Like one of his

successors faced with a similar

case, Pilate was inclined to

pronounce him as a maniac and

let him go. He hoped to achieve

his freedom by invoking the

established practice of releasing a

Jewish prisoner before the

Passover festival. So Pi l a t e

offered to release Jesus

( a s )

. This

was not a very clever idea

because the custom was to

release a popular prisoner and

J e s u s

( a s )

was anything but popular

with the people to whom Pi l a t e

had made the offer. They had

their own candidate, Barabbas

and they had taken the

precaution of gathering a big

enough crowd to drown out any

support for Jesus

( a s )

. Beaten in his

attempt to discharge Jesus

( a s )

completely Pilate tried a

compromise. He had Jesus

( a s )

scourged. This was serious enough

and was a regular punishment

before crucifixion. The victim was

tied to a post and his back flayed

raw with leather throngs. The

throngs had lead balls attached.

He seems to have relied on the

popular demand for Jesus’

( a s )

blood being satisfied by this

savage treatment. To add to the

psychological effect he had his

soldiers dress Jesus

( a s )

in a royal

robe and put on his head a

‘crown’ of thorny twigs. Often the

scourging itself was fatal. But

Pilate did not intend it to be

fatal. It could have been another

attempt to thwart Jewish

demands by substituting a lesser

sentence. But he had

miscalculated.

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

The Jewish punishment for

blasphemy was death and they

would accept nothing less from

the Romans. Political pressure

was put on Pilate to sign the

death warrant, which he

reluctantly did. He was undoubt-

edly influenced by his wife who

had experienced troubling

dreams about Jesus

(as)

and had

warned him not to harm Jesus

(as)

He had received the message

from his wife while he was

actually conducting the trial.

Pilate said he could find no fault

with Jesus

(as)

. God uses the most

unlikely looking people to aid His

cause. It may be that Pilate’s

determination to free Jesus

( a s )

was his most noble action. We

know that Joseph of Arimathea

and Nicodemus, who moved in

the same social circles as Pilate

and his wife, were secret

followers of Jesus

( a s )

and that

they may have influenced her.

Events moved extremely quickly

because Jesus’

(as)

enemies want-

ed him dead before the start of

the Passover at dusk on Friday.

The Romans gave him more rough

treatment before forcing him to

carry his cross to Golgotha. There

he was crucified along with two

others. The gospels tell us that

Jesus

(as)

remained on the cross

between three and six hours.

Some commentators say that

Jesus

(as)

was in the prime of his

youth and in excellent health and

therefore it is surprising that he

could have died in such a short

time. However, it would be unjust

to overlook the fact that Jesus

(as)

had been physically punished

before the crucifixion.

He was blindfolded, vilified, spat

at, punched, beaten with reeds

and whipped. Soldiers had

rammed a crown of thorns on to

his head. He had been dragged

before six different hearings in

one night. After his ‘trial’ he was

made to carry the wooden

crosspiece through the streets to

the place of execution. There he

was stripped and large car-

penters’ nails were hammered

between his wrist bones to secure

his arms to the crosspiece. His

feet were nailed onto a wooden

block. There was also a wooden

support between his legs. This

helped to relieve the pain in his

wrists and feet and reduced some

of the pressure on his lungs when

his legs could not support him.

The pain returned when the

victim had to push himself up in

order to breathe properly. This

process was repeated over and

over again. The Romans made

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

crucifixion as long and painful as

possible.

Between three and six hours later

it was beginning to get dark.

Jesus

(as)

appeared to be dead.

The other condemned men were

still alive. The Roman execution

party had been ordered by Pilate

to speed up the crucifixions

before the start of the Passover.

They broke the legs of the two

others with blows from a

h a m m e r. This caused them to

collapse and die more quickly.

When they came to Jesus

(as)

they

thought he was already dead. A

Roman soldier jabbed him in the

side with a spear and blood and

water, probably serum, flowed

from a wound. He was taken

down from the cross and put in a

rock tomb provided by Joseph of

Arimathea. Meanwhile Joseph

had quickly gone to Pilate and

reported that Jesus

(as)

was dead.

He asked for the body of Jesus

(as)

so that he could bury him. Pilate

was surprised that Jesus

(as)

had

died so quickly. He gave Joseph

permission to take the body.

Nicodemus went with Joseph to

J e s u s

(as)

taking with them a

mixture of myrrh and aloes

weighing about a hundred

pounds. Then they took the body

of Jesus and wound it in linen

cloths with the spices, ‘as the

manner of the Jews is to bury’.

This is clearly stated in John

19:40.

If we pause for a moment it is

obvious that Nicodemus and

Joseph were bandaging Jesus’

(as)

injuries. Myrrh and aloes is a

powerful ointment for healing

wounds. This is attested to by the

Promised Messiah

(as)

in Jesus in

I n d i a . There are hundreds of

references in ancient books to

‘The Ointment of Jesus’. The

writer of the Gospel of John also

states that wrapping the body in

bandages and spices is a Jewish

burial rite. Mr Fishel Todd of the

‘Shema Israel Torah Network

International Burial Society’ was

asked if the Biblical account

actually fell in line with Jewish

burial traditions. Mr Fishel Todd

said that Jewish burial customs

had not changed in 3,500 years

and that the body was not to be

touched except to give it a ritual

bath called a Tahara (meaning

purity). The body is then put in

the ground in the quickest

simplest fashion available with

only traditional burial shrouds. Mr

Todd said that if the biblical

account was accurate then

Nicodemus carried the spices to

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

the scene with the intention

applying them to Jesus’

( a s )

wounds so he would be healed.

When the women came to the

tomb they found that the stone

had been rolled away and

J e s u s

( a s )

had gone. They

encountered two individuals who

asked them ‘Why seek ye the

living among the dead?’ (Luke:

24;5)

In order to convince the Disciples

that he had survived the

crucifixion, Jesus

(as)

asked them

to realise that spirits or ghosts or

apparitions do not have human

flesh and bones. To make his

point firmly he asked for

something to eat. They gave him

fish and a honeycomb and he ate

it in front of them while they

watched. What was the need for

a supernatural divinity or God

Himself to eat food? Apart from

his attempts to assure them that

they were not seeing an

apparition, it is most likely that

Jesus

(as)

was extremely hungry:

having gone through pure hell in

being beaten and nailed to a

cross.

Christians are bound by the

doctrine that defines Jesus

(peace be upon him) as both man

and God. They view his post-

crucifixion appearances as the

appearance of this dual being.

Non-Christians are not bound by

religious faith to believe that

Jesus (peace be upon him) was a

special supernatural being. When

we considerer the evidence

i m p a r t i a l l y, then the events

surrounding the crucifixion

become clear and simple. They

demonstrate one reality: Jesus

Christ (peace be upon him)

survived the crucifixion.

The night of his arrest Jesus

(peace be upon) prayed so hard

that his sweat was like drops of

blood. God answered his prayer:

‘In his life on earth Jesus made

his prayers and requests to God,

Who could save him from death.

Because he was humble and

devoted, God heard him.’

(Hebrews 5:7)

Jesus’s Survival from the Cross

Review of Religions – April 2002

Abstract

Since the late 1970’s, dozens

of researchers, scholars,

skeptics and ‘professional

debunkers’ have presented

their theories on how the

image on the Shroud of Turin

was formed. Some are based

on serious science while others

show a complete lack of

understanding of the Shroud

image or its properties.

In this paper, I will review the

“proto-photography” theory

proposed by Prof. Nicholas

Allen of South Africa. This

theory concludes that the raw

materials to produce photo-

graphy not only existed in

Review of Religions – April 2002

Is the Shroud of Turin a

Medieval Photograph?

A Critical Examination of the Theory

By Barrie M. Schwortz, USA

The Turin Shroud has been a focus of world-wide attention ever since it

was discovered to be a negative image. Its first photographer was Secondo

Pia and since then it has been photographed millions of times and even

been subjected to a comprehensive examination by an international team

of experts in 1978, who were eager to discover more about the cloth and

whether it could have been the shroud of Jesus as many claimed. Twenty-

four years on this debate still rages on and many theories have been put

forward to try and explain how the image was formed.

The author of this article was fortunate to have been the official

photographer of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project. An established

professional photographer in his own right, Barrie Schwortz reviews the

theory of Prof. Nicholas Allen that that the Shroud is nothing more than a

photograph that was taken around the 14th century using materials that

were readily available to people at that time. This is a fascinating

proposition, as photography did not emerge until nearly 500 years later in

the late 19th century.

medieval times, but that a

brilliant medieval ‘photo-

grapher’ actually used them to

invent photography 500 years

before the d o c u m e n t e d

creation of the first photo-

graphic negative by Joseph

Niepce in 1818.

To his credit, Allen has

actually achieved what he set

out to accomplish. He has,

without question, used

medieval raw materials to

create a faint but good quality

photographic image on linen

cloth. As I will show however,

his own results provide the

best evidence against the

validity of his theory. In the

end, any attempt at dupli-

cating the image on the Shroud

of Turin must match all of its

physical and chemical

properties, not just a select

few. It must also withstand the

scrutiny of careful, side-by-

side comparison to the

original.

In this paper I will provide just

such side-by-side comparisons

of key areas of the Shroud

image vs. Allen’s results and

present my arguments against

the validity of his theory based

on my 30 years of professional

photography experience.

I. Introduction

In the last 30 years, the Shroud

of Turin underwent the most

intense and exhaustive study

in its history. In 1969, 1973 and

particularly 1978, literally

thousands of photographs

were made of the cloth and its

image. With the advent of

personal computers and more

recently, the explosive growth

of the Internet, the Shroud has

become far more available for

study than it ever was before.

In fact, photographs of the

Shroud are now readily

available to anyone with a

modem and the willingness to

spend a few minutes

downloading them.

This has not been without

impact in the world of

Sindonology.

Since the late 1970’s, dozens of

researchers, scholars, skeptics

and ‘professional debunkers’

have presented their theories

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

on how the image on the

Shroud was formed or

described other artifacts they

believe they have discovered

hidden in the image. Some are

based on serious science and

are very credible, while others

show a complete lack of under-

standing of the image and its

properties and reveal the

absence of any real research on

the part of their proponents. To

make matters worse, many of

these theories have received

wide public attention and in

some cases, have actually been

adopted as part of the

‘mythology’ of the Shroud.

In this paper, I will review the

‘proto-photography’ theory

proposed by Prof. Nicholas

Allen and present my argu-

ments against its validity.

II. The Proto-Photography

Theory

This theory concludes that the

raw materials to produce

photography not only existed

in medieval times, but that a

medieval photographer creat-

ed a light sensitive emulsion,

coated it onto linen cloth and

‘exposed’ this medieval ‘film’

using a room sized camera

obscura and a dead body

hanging in front of its crystal

lens as the subject matter.

He goes on to claim that one

half of the Shroud image was

exposed at a time, first the

ventral and then the dorsal

half. He further concludes that

it would take about four days

to properly expose each half of

the cloth, needing at least

eight days to complete the

entire task. Re c e n t l y, he

modified his theory to include

a third exposure for the face,

made with a different lens

. To

prevent the decay of the body

during more than a week of

exposure to the bright sunlight

necessary for adequate

exposure of the ‘film,’ Allen

suggests that the camera

obscura was located in a cold

climate.

III. Comments

Allen has not been able to

provide even one example of

this medieval proto-photo-

graphy process anywhere in art

or photographic history,

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

although he has carefully and

extensively documented early

historical references to lenses

and cameras obscura

However, he has not demon-

strated that anyone in

medieval times ever combined

this knowledge with the

various sophisticated chemical

and physical requirements of

photographic science and

brought them all together to

make the process work. And if

someone had, why didn’t they

create more examples of this

unique art form that would

have certainly made them

famous? Were this truly the

case, many other examples of

this type of image would

certainly exist and photo-

graphy would be acknowl-

edged as a medieval science

rather than one developed in

the earliest stages of the

industrial revolution.

Allen also expressed to me his

more recent belief that the

Shroud is actually a composite

of three different exposures,

now concluding that the facial

image was made as a distinctly

different and third exposure

onto the cloth. He writes:

‘My own work is

confirming… that the

details of the head are

much more exacting than

those of the body and

especially the dorsal image

(which is by far the worst

image). I am surmising that

the head was made with a

separate lens. The frontal

figure (sans head) was

made with a lens closer to

the one I used originally…

and finally this lens was

used for the dorsal image

which needs no details such

as are found on the face,

fingers, etc.’

He supports this claim by

stating that he has recently

detected ‘spherical aber-

rations’ in the facial image on

the Shroud which leads him to

this conclusion

. Obviously, this

would make the process of

creating the image even more

complex for a medieval

photographer and even harder

to accomplish. To d a y, even

with the advanced state of

modern digital imaging tech-

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

niques, such a perfect

composite image could only be

accurately accomplished by a

highly trained photographic

expert. To conclude it was

produced by a medieval

photographer truly stretches

the imagination.

Both the ventral and dorsal

Shroud images do in fact

include many intricate details,

although Allen refers to the

dorsal image as ‘by far the

worst…’ I submit that the

dorsal view lacks the

equivalent detail only because

facial features and fingers are

not seen from behind.

However, one must not ignore

the scores of scourge marks

across the shoulders, back,

buttocks and legs on the dorsal

image, since they in fact are

excellent details that have

been verified by no fewer than

three expert forensic

pathologists and anatomists.

During our discussions he also

stated:

‘…(the Shroud) shows

stigmata that reflects the

religious mores of the

thirteenth and early

fourteenth century.’

I believe this conclusion is

directly challenged by the

multitude of expert forensic

pathologists who have

seriously studied the Shroud

and have unanimously

concluded that the accuracy of

the pathology illustrated on

the cloth is precise and

completely realistic.

Also, Allen makes no attempt

to explain the forensic

accuracy of the bloodstains on

the Shroud. Since research

done by the Shroud of Turin

Research Project (STURP) and

others has shown that there is

no image underneath these

bloodstains, we have been

able to conclude that they

were on the cloth before the

image was formed. In fact, it

appears that they actually

acted to inhibit the image

formation mechanism

. Pr o f .

Allen’s mechanism leaves the

critical issue of the bloodstains

totally unresolved.

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

Allen’s rationale for his theory

is obviously based on his

personal acceptance of the

carbon dating of the Shroud as

medieval and his rejection of

the image as a painting. Thus

he apparently concludes that,

since the Shroud image is

known to exhibit certain

photographic properties and it

does not appear to be a

painting, it must be a

photograph.

In fact, he stated:

‘It shows an image that

could only have been

produced photo-

g r a p h i c a l l y … ’

( e m p h a s i s

mine).

Although he has created a

photographic image on linen

cloth, I disagree that the

Shroud image could only have

been produced in this manner.

In fact, his own results provide

the best evidence against the

validity of this theory. Any

attempt at recreating an

image like that on the Shroud

of Turin must match all of the

physical and chemical

properties of the original, not

just a few.

IV. Comparison

Direction of Light

To artists, accurate

duplication of the light falling

on their subjects is the

primary basis for realism in

their results. The history of art

clearly documents the

attempts made by artists at

achieving this through the

centuries. It is this

relationship of highlights and

shadows on a subject that

provides the modeling that

allows depth, shape and form

to exist in a two dimensional

plane. Artists must first

discipline themselves to

‘see’the effects of light on

their subject, then perfect the

techniques for incorporating

these effects into their

artwork. Without doubt, this

task is much simpler for

photographers since it is the

light itself that creates the

result that is captured on the

film.

Allen’s photographs contain a

strong directionality of light.

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

This is obvious from the deep

shadows cast on his subject by

the strong overhead sunlight

he used to create his images

(Figure 1). These are clearly

seen in the eye sockets, under

the nose and chin and below

the hands and is unlike the

image on the Shroud (Figure

2), which demonstrates no

such directionality of light at

all. It is further confirmed by

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

the ‘washing out’ of detail in

certain parts of the image,

most notably the tops of the

feet, which received far

more light and cumulative

exposure than the rest of

the body (Figure 3).

When Allen and I discussed this

particular property of his

image, he suggested that he

would

‘…have to wait for the right

time of year to do this,

when the sun is very low in

the sky. The result will be a

more frontally illuminated

image (like the Shroud of

Turin).’

In effect, this adds an

additional layer of complexity

to his theory and taxes the

imagination to accept that a

medieval photographer would

have had the understanding of

all of these principles, let

alone the knowledge and skills

to incorporate them into his

work.

In addition, his suggestion that

the image on the Shroud is

‘frontally illuminated’ makes

it obvious that he has failed to

grasp certain image properties

evidenced on the cloth. I am

specifically referring to the

darker areas (on the negative

image) surrounding the

crossed hands (Figures 2 and

4 ) . If the Shroud were

frontally illuminated, this

distinctive darkening could not

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

exist, since front lighting

would not cast any shadows at

all, let alone above and below

the hands. It is obvious that

the darkening around the

hands is not a s h a d o w or the

effect caused by directionality

of light. Yet other research

completed over the last three

decades provides a very logical

explanation for their existence.

Dimensional Encoding

The experiments completed by

the STURP team and other

researchers have provided

clear evidence that there is

certain dimensional infor-

mation encoded into the

S h r o u d ’s image.

1 1 , 1 2

This is

often referred to as ‘three

dimensional’ data. Of course,

that is not technically correct

since ‘three dimensional’

implies 360 degrees of

information. What we actually

see in the Shroud image is an

accurate dimensional relief,

similar to that created by the

bas relief art technique. The

result on the Shroud is a

natural relief of a human

form.

This dimensional data was first

visualized by the STURP team

in 1976 with an instrument

known as the VP-8 Image

A n a l y z e r, a device used by

NASA for mapping image

density to vertical relief

(Figure 5). It was further

supported by the density

/relief mapping techniques

used by several Italian

researchers around the same

period of time

13,14

and verified

in recent years by the work of

an Italian professional

photographer and Shroud

imaging expert using refined

photographic edge enhance-

ment techniques

1 5 , 1 6

. O f

course, today it can also be

done using some of the latest

digital imaging software

programs (Figure 6).

The fact

that all of these techniques

yield the exact same result

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

clearly confirms the existence

of the dimensional data first

visually revealed by the VP-8.

The STURP team concluded

that there was a correlation

between the density (or

darkness) of the image on the

Shroud and the distance the

cloth was from the body at the

time the image was formed.

The researchers calculated

that the image on the Shroud

was formed at a cloth-to-body

distance of up to approx-

imately 4 centimeters, but

beyond that, imaging did not

occur. The closer the cloth was

to the body, the darker the

resulting image in that area,

with the darkest parts of the

image being formed where

there was direct contact

between the two. The image

became proportionately lighter

as the distance increased until

it reached the maximum

imaging distance.

18 19

It is this very fact that explains

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

the phenomenon of the

‘shadows’ surrounding the

hands and helps to exclude

frontal illumination as a viable

possibility for the Shroud

image. Since the crossed hands

of the man of the Shroud

caused the cloth to be raised

away from the body, the

distance between the cloth

and body in the areas

immediately surrounding the

hands was increased, thus

decreasing the image density

(Figures 2 and 4). This clearly

accounts for the less dense

areas that surround the

crossed hands in the image and

that are identified by Allen as

‘shadows.’ This image prop-

erty cannot be achieved using

light or photography.

Since the densities on a photo-

graphic negative are not

dependent on the distance

between subject and film,

there is no way that this density

information can be incor-

porated into an image

p h o t o g r a p h i c a l l y. Consequently,

when subjected to VP-8 image

analysis, Allen’s results do not

yield a proper dimensional

relief of a human form like that

on the Shroud (Figure 7).

2 0

T h i s

is reason enough to disqualify

p h o t ography as a possible

expla-nation for the image on

the Shroud and is supported by

research from a number of

independent sources. Allen’s

conclusions seem to indicate

that he does not fully

understand these rather

complex dimensional pro-

perties of the Shroud image.

Sharp edges

There is one additional facet

of Allen’s image that is

considerably different from

the image on the Shroud. The

Shroud image has no distinct

or sharp edges, yet Allen’s

body image has a very distinct

and sharp edge, much as one

would expect from a properly

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

focused photograph. This

property of the Shroud rein-

forces the distance-to-density

correlation mentioned earlier.

In essence, the distance

between the peripheral of the

body and the cloth increased

gradually until it reached the

maximum imaging distance

and caused very soft, gradated

edges that simply fade into the

background. Once again,

A l l e n ’s image provides the

necessary evidence to

disqualify photography as the

S h r o u d ’s image formation

process.

IV. Conclusions

The proto-photography theory

proposed by Prof. Nicholas

Allen was able to create an

image on linen cloth, but not

one that duplicated the image

properties of the Shroud of

Turin. When attempting to

provide a viable image for-

mation mechanism for the

Shroud, one has to account for

all of the image properties,

not just a few of them. Allen

failed to understand certain

important facets of the image

on the Shroud of Turin. Much

as it truly takes a professional

artist to properly evaluate a

painting, so too must photo-

graphy be evaluated by the

professional photographer. In

the case of the proto-

photography theory, other

professional evaluations of

A l l e n ’s theory have reached

similar conclusions.

Admittedly, Allen was able to

create a viable photographic

image using medieval raw

materials, but he did so from

the perspective of 21st

century science. Surely raw

materials must exist on our

planet today that may even-

tually lead to the development

of interstellar travel, but their

mere exis-tence is not enough

to actually provide us with the

technology

. That will have to

wait until our technological

development advances to a

much higher level than exists

today.

If we accept the argument

that the mere existence of

certain raw materials is reason

enough to believe someone

actually used them to invent a

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

technology that was still 500

years in the future, we should

start searching archaeological

sites around the world for the

remains of medieval cellular

phones, microwave ovens and

nuclear weapons! Just because

the raw materials for these

highly advanced technologies

existed, does nott mean

someone actually created

them, particularly before

human knowledge advanced

enough technologically to truly

make this possible.

Notes

1. Allen, Nicholas P.L. -

Verification of the Nature and

Causes of the Photo-negative

Images on the Shroud of Lirey-

C h a m b e r y - Turin* [1995].

h t t p : / / w w w. p e t e c h . a c . z a / s h r o

ud/nature.htm

2. Personal correspondence with

Nicholas Allen, May 10, 1999.

3. Personal correspondence with

Nicholas Allen, May 6, 1999.

4. Personal correspondence with

Nicholas Allen, May 10, 1999.

5. Personal correspondence with

Nicholas Allen, May 10, 1999.

6. Dr. Pierre Barbet, Dr. Ro b e r t

Bucklin and Dr. Frederick

Zugibe.

7. Personal correspondence with

Nicholas Allen, May 6, 1999.

8. Adler, Alan D. - The Nature of

the Body Images on the Shroud

of Tu r i n. [June 1999].

h t t p : / / w w w. s h r o u d . c o m / p d f s /

adler.pdf.

9. Personal correspondence with

Nicholas Allen, May 6, 1999.

1 0 Personal correspondence with

Nicholas Allen, May 10, 1999

11. Jackson, J.P., E.J. Jumper and

W.R. Ercoline, T h r e e

Dimensional Characteristic of

the Shroud Image, IEEE 1982

Proceedings of the International

Conference on Cybernetics and

Society, October 1982, pp. 559-

575.

12. Jackson, J.P., E.J. Jumper, and

W.R. Ercoline, ‘Correlation of

Image Intensity on the Turin

Shroud with the 3-D Structure

of a Human Body Shape,’

Applied Optics, Vol. 23, No. 14,

1984, pp. 2244-2270.

13. Tamburelli, G. - The results in

the processing of the Holy

Shroud of Turin - IEEE

Transactions on Pattern Analysis

and Machine Intelligence 3, No.

6, Nov. 1981, pp. 670-76.

14. Tamburelli, G. - N. Balossino -

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

Nouveau visage tridimensionnel

eidomatique du S.Suaire et

nouvelles correspondences

eidomatiques avec l’Evangile et

la tradition - Ty p e s c r i p t ,

Symposium Scientifique

International de Paris sur le

Linceul de Turin, 7-8 Septembre

1989, pp. 1-4.

15. Guerreschi, Aldo, ‘The Tu r i n

Shroud: From the Photo to the

Three-dimensional,’ May 2000

Imaging Conference in San

Felice Circeo, Italy.

h t t p : / / w w w. s h r o u d . c o m / p d f s /

aldo1.pdf

1 6. Guerreschi, Aldo, ‘The Tu r i n

Shroud and Ph o t o - Re l i e f

Technique,’ May 2000 Imaging

Conference in San Felice

Circeo, Italy.

h t t p : / / w w w. s h r o u d . c o m / p d f s /

aldo2.pdf

17. Image produced by Mark Bruzon

using Bryce software from an

original scan of a Barrie

Schwortz photograph.

18. Jackson, J.P., E.J. Jumper, and

W.R. Ercoline, ‘Correlation of

Image Intensity on the Turin

Shroud with the 3-D Structure

of a Human Body

Shape,’Applied Optics, Vol. 23,

No. 14, 1984, pp. 2244-2270.

19. Jackson, J.P., E.J. Jumper and

W.R. Ercoline, ‘Three

Dimensional Characteristic of

the Shroud Image,’ IEEE 1982

Proceedings of the International

Conference on Cybernetics and

Society, October 1982, pp. 559-

575.

20. VP-8 analysis of Nicholas Allen’s

photograph courtesy of Kevin

Moran

21. Ware, Mike, ‘On Pr o t o -

Photography and the Shroud of

Turin,’ The History of

Photography, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp.

261-268.

22. Concept from a presentation by

Isabel Piczek

Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph?

Review of Religions – April 2002

People of both Afghanistan and

Kashmir in northern India trace

their origins to the Israelites and

claim to be descendants of the lost

tribes of Israel.

First we will discuss the people of

Afghanistan, called Afghans.

According to their traditions, the

Afghans claim to be Beni Israel or

the children of Israel. This claim is

supported by their old historical

works some of them being

manuscripts still in their

possession.

The Afghans

The oldest manuscript available to

us is Rauza-tul-Albabfi Ta-arikh-i-

Akabir-wal Ansab – (The Garden of

the Learned in the History of Great

Men and Genealogies) – by Abu

Suleman Daud Bin Abul Fatal

Muhammad Albenaketi written in

717 AH. The author says in the

introduction that ever since the

times of Moses, the ancestors of

Afghans had to face great

hardships. They were expelled

from place to place and

exterminated. Jerusalem was

sacked more than once and their

ancestors, the Israelites, were

carried into captivity. In Chapter I,

a detailed history of Jacob is given

and in Chapter II, the genealogies

of the Afghans tribes are traced to

King Saul.

Mestoufi, the author of Maima-ul-

Ansab traces Kais - the tribal head

of Afghans, in a series of thirty-one

degrees to King Saul and fourty-

five generations to Abraham.

Review of Religions – April 2002

The Israelite Origin of People of

Afghanistan and Kashmir

By Aziz A. Chaudhary, USA

Jesus

(as)

himself had said that his mission extended to the lost sheep of the

House of Israel, meaning that he had come to preach his message to the

tribes of Israelites who had deviated from the teachings of Judaism. Yet of

the 12 tribes of Israelites only two were present in Palestine, so where

were the rest? This article provides a useful insight into those tribes that

had scattered across Persia and India and comments on their prevailing

Jewish customs and traditions. If these were the people for whom Jesus

was sent then did he reach them?

Bukhtawar Khan, in his valuable

universal history, Mirat-ul-Alam –

(The Mirror of the World), gives a

vivid account of the journeys of

Afghans from Palestine to Ghore,

Ghazni, Kabul, and other places in

Afghanistan. Similarly Hafiz Remat

Bin Shah Alam in his Khulasa-tul-

Ansab and Fareed-ud-Din Ahmad in

his Rasalah Ansab-i-Afghansiyah

gives the history of Afghans and

deals with genealogies. They both

prove that Afghans are

descendants of Israel through King

Saul. Fareed-ud-Din writes in his

book that after the invasion of

Palestine by Nebuchadenzzar, and

the deportation, some of their

ancestors left Nebuchadnezzar’s

territory under a chief and went

away to Ghaur hills in Afghanistan.

Their descendants multiplied and

the people began to call them Beni

Israel, Beni Asaf, and Beni Afghans.

Khawaja Nimatullah of Herat in his

book M a k h a z a n - i - A f g h a n s i w r i t t e n

in 1018 A.H. in the time of Ki n g

Jahangir (translated by Pr o f

Bernard Doran, London 1836)

comes to the conclusion that

Afghans are Beni Israel – the

children of Israel – and traces their

descent from King Saul. As noted

elsewhere after the events of

N e b u c h a d n e z z a r, the ancestors of

Afghans had settled in Ghaur

territory of Afghanistan. At the

time of Holy Prophet Muhammad

( s a )

Khalid Bin Walid invited them to

Islam. The Afghans chiefs under the

leadership of Qais, who was

descendant of King Saul in the 37th

degree, came to visit Pr o p h e t

M u h a m m a d

( s a )

who conferred upon

the chiefs the title of Pathan which

means ‘a ship’s rudder’. This

signified that these chiefs would

guide their nation into the currents

of Islam.

Among recent authors Sayed Jalal-

ud-Din Afghansi in his History of

Afghans and Syed Abdul Jabbar

Shah, ex-ruler of Swat (in his Mun

Ameen-i-Bani Israel, MS) discuss

genealogies of different Afghans

tribes and ultimately trace them to

King Saul. They discuss the

question with exhaustive detail

and come to irresistable conclusion

that the Afghans represent the lost

ten tribes of Israel.

Most of the Western writers and

historians who have written on this

subject, have come to the same

conclusion. One of the earliest

among them is Henry Vanisttart

who commented on Israeli descent

of Afghans and stated that the

claim of the Afghans to be Beni

Israel was more than justified.

Sir Alexander Prunes in his Travels

into Bokhara (published in 1835)

discusses the claim of Afghans to

be of Israelite descent and then

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

stated that he saw no good reason

to discredit them. He further

wrote: ‘The Afghans look like Jews

and the younger brother marries

the widow of the elder. The

Afghans entertain prejudices

against the Jewish nation, which

would at least show that they have

no desire to claim, without just

cause, a descent from them’.

In 1837, Sir Alexander Prunes was

sent as the first British envoy to

the court at Kabul. For some time

he was the guest of Amir Dost

Muhammad Khan – the King of

Afghanistan. He questioned the

king about the descent of the

Afghans from the Israelites. The

king replied, ‘His people had no

doubt of that though they

repudiated the idea of being Jews,

whom they treat with hereditary

contempt. They found their claim

not merely on tradition but on an

ancient record in their possession

named Mujmooa-e-Ansab.’

G.T.Vigne

in his book, A Personal

Narrative of a Visit to Chuzin,

Cabul in Afghanistan (1840) writes

that one Mullah Khuda Dad, a

person learned in history of his

countrymen, read out from a book,

the genealogy of his people.

According to it a person named

Afghans was a descendant of Jacob

in the ninth degree. Afghans was a

contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar,

called himself Beni Israel and had

forty sons. Sulum, the eldest son of

Afghans, migrated from his home in

Syria and settled in Gura Mishkon

near Herat. His descendants spread

over the country now called

Afghanistan. 34th descendant of

Afghans was Qais who lived in the

time of Prophet Muhammad

(sa)

Dr. Joseph Wolf

writes: ‘I was

wonderfully struck with the

resemblance which Yusuf Zayes and

the Khaibaries, two of their

(Afghans) tribes to the Jews.’

James Bryce

in his Cyclopaedia of

G e o g r a p h y, (1800) writes about

Afghans that they trace their origin

to King Saul calling themselves Beni

Israel. Quoting Sr. A. Brunes he

further writes that their tradition

is that they were transplanted by

the King of Babylon from Holy Land

to Ghore, lying to the Northwest of

Kabul and they lived as Jews till

682 A.D. when they were

converted to Islam by an Arab

chief.

J.P.Ferrier wrote his History of the

Afghans in 1858. It was translated

by Capt. W. M. Jesse. He also

believed that Afghans represented

the Ten Tribes of Israel. In support

of his views he recorded

significant fact that during his

invasion of India, Nadir Shah was

presented at Peshawar, by chiefs of

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

Yusuf-Zayee tribe with a bible

written in Hebrew and with several

other articles preserved by their

families for the performance of

religious ceremonies of their old

faith. As there were also Jews in

Nadir Shah’s camp, they readily

recognised these articles.

George Moore, published his

famous work The Lost Tribes in

1861. He gave numerous reasons to

prove that these lost ten tribes of

Israel can be traced to Afghans and

people of Kashmir in India.

He writes

‘and we find that the

very natural character of Israel

reappears in all its life and reality

in countries where people call

themselves Bani Israel and

universally claim to be the

descendants of the Lost Tribes. The

nomenclature of their tribes and

districts, both in ancient

geography, and at the present day,

confirms this universal natural

tradition. Lastly, we have the route

of the Israelites from Media to

Afghanistan and India marked by a

series of intermediate stations

bearing the names of several of the

tribes and clearly indicating the

stages of their long and arduous

journey.’ Moore goes on to say: ‘Sir

William Jones, Sir John Malcolm

and the Missionary Chamberlain,

after full investigation, were of the

opinion that the Ten Tr i b e s

migrated to India, Tibet, and

Cashemire through Afghanistan.’

H.W.Bellews

writes in his book The

Races of Afghanistan (1884) that

Afghans came from Syria and

Nebuchadnezzar took them

captives and settled them as

colonists in Persia and Media from

whence at some time later they

marched to the East and settled in

Ghaur hills where they were known

as Beni Israel.

Among the recent writers, Dr.

Alfred Edersheim

and Sir Thomas

Holditch

are of similar view that

majority of Afghans and people of

Kashmir are descendants of

Israelites.

The Kashmiris

Now we turn to people of Kashmir

called Kashmiris. Here again we

find that their traditions and

history, both ancient and modern,

establishes their descent from the

Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.The

Kashmiris claim to be Bani Israel

(children of Israelites) and call

themselves ‘Kashar’ which is a

Hebrew word meaning ‘right’.

Unfortunately no history of

Kashmir from ancient Hindu

sources is available except

K a l h a n a ’s Raiatarangini which

deals with kings and dynasties

rather than people. The first real

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

historian of Kashmir was Mulla

Nadiri who started writing his

Ta r i k h - i - K a s h m i r ( H i s t o r y o f

Kashmir) in the reign of Sultan

Sikandar (1378-1426 AD) and

completed in the reign of Sultan

Zain-ul-Abidin. The next historian

was Mulla Ahmad who wrote his

Wa q a y a - i - K a s h m i r ( E v e n t s o f

Kashmir) during the reign of Sultan

Zain-ul-Abidin. Both these

historians state categorically that

the inhabitants of Kashmir are

descendants of Israel. The book of

h i s t o r y, H a s h m a t - i - K a s h m i r

1 1

written by Abdul Qadir Bin Qazi-ul-

Quzat Wasil Ali Khan was written in

1820 and states that the

inhabitants of Kashmir are the

children of Israel and states further

that they had come from Holy

Land.

Nazir Ahmad, author of Jesus in

Heaven on Earth, estimates

that

the ancestors of present

inhabitants of Kashmir settled here

probably in 3rd century BC in the

reign of King Vasukula. His view is

based upon the book of history by

Mulla Muhammad Khalil of

Murjunpur and the H i s t o r y o f

Kashmir by H.H.Wilson.

Pundit Narain Kaul, a Kashmiri

Pundit wrote his Gu l d a s t a - i -

K a s h m i r in 1884. He described

Kashmiri Muslims and Pundits as

being of Jewish countenance and

descent. (Part I, p.73). Pundit Ram

Chand Kak who was at one time a

prime minister of Kashmir writes in

his Ancient Monuments of Kashmir

published in 1933:

Moses is a very common name

h e r e a n d s o m e a n c i e n t

m o n u m e n t s s t i l l t o b e s e e n

disclose them to be of a people

who came out of Israel. For

instance, the remains of an

edifice built in a high mountain

is called to this day the Throne

of Solomon.

(p.75)

Asul-i-Kafi is a book of Shia

t r a d i t i o n s w r i t t e n o v e r a

thousand years ago. This book

mentions that in ancient times

there was a king in Kashmir

w h o s e f o r t y c o u r t i e r s w e r e

well versed in the knowledge

of Torah.

(p.334)

To examine Western travellers,

writers and historians, we will

begin with Francis Rernier

. He

was a courtier of Emperor

Aurangzeb for many years and had

visited Kashmir. He wrote that

there were many marks of Judaism

to be found in Kashmir and on

entering this country after crossing

the Peer-Punchal Mountains, the

inhabitants in the frontier villages

struck him to resemble Jews

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

markedly. Bernier then concluded:

‘You will see then, my dear Sir,

I am not disposed to deny that

J e w s m a y h a v e t a k e n u p

r e s i d e n c e i n K a s h m i r – The

purity of their law, after a

lapse of ages, may have been

c o r r u p t e d u n t i l having long

d e g e n e r a t e d i n t o i d o l a t o r y,

they were induced, like many

other Pagans, t o a d o p t t h e

creed of Mahomed’.

Catrou, a Jesuit father wrote in his

G e n e r a l H i s t o r y o f the Moghal

Empire (1708) that ‘the Kashmiris

a r e d e s c e n d a n t s of the

Jews’,(p.l95).

S-Manouchi was a physician in the

service of Emperor Aurangzeb. He

had access to official records and

like Bernier he accompanied the

Emperor to Kashmir.

He wrote

1 5

: ‘There is an old

tradition that these Jews who were

led captives by Shalemanesser

settled in Kashmir and that the

people of that country are the

descendants of the Jews. It is

certain, though we find no remains

in Kashmir of the Jewish religion,

the people there being all either

Guntus (Hindus) or Muhammadans,

that there are several vestiges of a

race descendant from the

Israelites. The air of the face and

the looks of the present

inhabitants have something of

what is peculiar to Jews, which

distinguishes them from all other

people’.

Re v. Claudius Buchanan toured

Southern India extensively and in

his Christian Researches in Asia, he

mentioned his discovery of an

ancient manuscript of the book of

Moses in Hebrew. It was written on

a roll of leather 48 feet in length.

He was told that it was brought

from Kashmir (p.229).

H . H . Wilson, author of Tr a v e l i n

Himalyan Provinces (1841) states:

‘The physical and the ethnic

character, which so sharply marks

off the Kashmiris from all

surrounding races, has always

struck observant visitors to the

valley and they have universally

connected them with the Jews.’

G.T.Vigne in his Travels in Kashmir,

L a d a k h a n d I s k a r d o o which he

published in 1842 mentions certain

Jewish tombs near ‘I’akht-i-

Sulaiman in Sirinagar. (p.395)

We have already quoted the views

of George Moore, the author of The

Lost Tribes.

Dr. Keith Johnston in his Dictionary

of Geography (1867) writes: ‘The

natives of Kashmir are of a tall,

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

robust frame of body, with manly

features, the woman full formed

and handsome, with aquiline noses

and features resembling the Jews’

(p.250).

In a book named Kashmir and its

S h a w l s (1857) the following

passage occurs: ‘There is a

tradition of long standing, recently

revived, that some portion of the

so-called lost tribes of Israel found

their way to Kashmir on their

dispersion. If based on any correct

foundation, the fact of weaving in

its higher departments having

existed for hundreds of years in the

valley might be accounted for by

the expatriated Jews carrying with

them the arts they learned from

their Babylonish conquerors.’

(p.17)

Numerous writers have commented

on the Jewish appearance of

people of Kashmir. This list is very

long. Sir Francis Young husband was

a representative of the British

crown (the Resident) to the Court

of the Maharaja of Kashmir for

many years. He writes in his book

K a s h m i r: ‘The visitor…will often

see strikingly handsome women,

with clear cut features, long dark

eyes, well-marked eyebrows and a

general Jewish appearance. Here

may be seen fine old patriarchal

types, just as we picture to

ourselves the Israelitish heroes of

old. Some, indeed, say…that these

Kashmiris are the lost tribes of

Israel and certainly as I have

already said, there are real Biblical

types to be seen everywhere in

Kashmir and especially among the

upland villages. Here the Israelitish

Shepherd tending his necks and

herds may any day be

seen.(p.107,112)

John Noel wrote an article, ‘The

Heavenly High Snow Peaks of

Kashmir’ in Asia Magazine, New

York, Oct. 1930. In this article he

wrote: ‘Immensely strong are those

picturesque, broad-shouldered

Kashmiri peasants and yet docile

and meek in temperament. One

thing about them strikes you with

enormous force. They seem more

perfectly Jewish than the purest

Jews you have ever seen, not

because they wear a flowing cloak-

like dress that conforms to your

idea of Biblical garments, but

because their faces have the

Jewish cast of features. The

curious coincidence – or is it a

coincidence? – is that there is a

strong tradition in Kashmir of its

connection with the Jews.’

Customs and Traditions of Afghans

and Kashmiris

A study of customs and traditions

of Afghans and people of Kashmir

shows resemblance with the

Israelite or Biblical traditions, in

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

spite of the centuries that have

rolled by since the Israelite

ancestors settled in these lands.

Nazir Ahmad did such a research

and came to the conclusion that

many customs and traditions of

Afghans and Kashmiris relating to

birth, marriage, mourning, burial,

food, and general habits and

customs bear strong resemblance

to counterpart Biblical or old

Jewish customs and traditions. He

has given a comprehensive report

of his extensive research in this

regard in his book. Like Jews,

Afghans and Kashmiris reckon their

week as beginning with Saturday.

Kashmiris used to and Afghans even

now observe and celebrate ‘Eid-

Fassakh’ which corresponds with

the Jewish Passover. Like Jews,

Afghans and Kashmiris name their

subtribes after various animals.

Many of the traditions of Afghans

and Kashmiris are founded on

Biblical records. They speak of

their great past, of the glories of

Solomon, of the deluge and of their

captivity. Their folklore and fables

resound with Jewish stories. The

preponderance of Jewish names

among Afghans and Kashmiris

cannot be explained simply by

their conversion to Islam.

Certain archaelogical discoveries

point out that Afghans and

Kashmiris are descendants of Israel

of old. The domestic pottery which

archaelogists have discovered in

a n c i e n t cities of Kashmir and

Afghanistan is of one variety called

‘Celadon’. Chips and fragments of

Celadon are to be found from

Babylon to Seistan, from Seistan to

India, in Afghanistan, and in

Kashmir and not beyond.”

The Jews were once famous for

their type of pottery and it is

significant that Sirinagar Museum

in Kashmir abounds with this

pottery which has been excavated

from different places in the

Kashmir Valley.

Ancient Kashmir Temples

The ancient temples of Kashmir are

the most remarkable monuments

of India. They establish undoubted

traces of Israelite influence. Some

think that they exhibit Greek

influence but Sir V.A.Smith, the

famous historian of India, in his

Early History of India discusses this

thoroughly and proves that there is

no evidence that creek

architecture was ever introduced

in India.’” Both Sir Aurel Stein

and Vigne

rely on famous report

of Professor Bruel and agree with

him that none of Kashmir ruins

were of Buddhist or Brahmanical

origin. Many experts have

expressed the view that the

stereotyped style of temples of

Kashmir points to a different origin

than Hindu temples. Two Kashmir

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

temples need mentioning in par-

t i c u l a r. The most celebrated

Kashmir temple both in extant and

splendour is of Martand near

Mattan, about eight miles from

Islamabad (Kashmir) Dr. James

Ferguson who for many years was

in charge of the Archaeological

Department of Government of

India, testified that this temple is a

Jewish temple. He wrote that it is

one of the points of interest in the

Kashmir temples that they

reproduce, in plan at least, the

Jewish temple, more nearly than

any other known building

The second significant Kashmir

temple is known as Ta k h t - i -

Sulaiman – (The Throne of

Solomon) in Srinagar, the capital of

Kashmir. This temple is built on a

high hill approached by a long

flight of steps enclosed by two side

walls which originally bore four

Persian inscriptions and to which

we will refer later. The date

assigned to this temple is prior to

250 BC. This temple is a replica of

the tomb of Absillam, the third son

of David, near Jerusalem.

Kashmiri Language

When the monuments of Kashmir

first attracted the attention of

archaeologists not a single syllable

of the ancient inscriptions could be

read. The knowledge of the

ancient alphabet had become

extinct. Some experts were trying

to decipher it as if the inscriptions

were in a language belonging to

Sanskrit group. The researchers of

Sir George Gregson, however,

proved that the Kashmiri language

was non-Indian and did not belong

to the Sanskrit group. Prof. E. J.

Rapson says that in fact there were

two languages of Semitic origin,

which were known as the ‘Brahmi’

and ‘Khoroshthi’. After stating that

two languages were ‘brought into

India through Mesopotamia by

merchants he goes on to say that

‘Khoroshthi’ which is particularly

the alphabet of Northwestern

India, is a variety of the Aramaic

script which prevailed generally

throughout Western Asia in the

fifth century BC. As the Persian

language evolved, Syrian influence

brought about the Sulus script. The

New Persian with Arabic ad-

mixture resulted in ‘Kashar’ the

language of people of Kashmir.

Richard Temple

rightly points out

that the Kashmiri language

contains 30% of Persian words, 25%

of Arabic, and 45% of other

languages including Hebrew. The

Kashmiri language is distinct from

that spoken in any part of India.

Mufti Mubammad Sadiq asserts that

its nucleus to some extent is drawn

from Hebrew language. In his book,

Qabr-i-Masih (The Tomb of Jesus)

he has given a very lengthy and

comprehensive list of Kashmiri

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

words which, in pronounciation and

meaning are identical with Hebrew

words.

Biblical Names Of Tribes and

Places in Kashmir and

Afghanistan

It is well known in history that

emigrants carry with them their

habits, customs, and traditions.

They also have the tradition of

naming new places in their new

country with names of places in

their old country. At times they

name new places with the names of

their well-known ancestors. Again

sometimes tribes are named after

places of their origin or their

ancestors. In this way the

immigrants to a new country try to

preserve the memory of their

ancesteral home. A good example is

America where European

immigrants named so many

settlements in the New World with

names of towns in Europe. If we

proceed in tracing back the names

of tribes and places of a country to

another which is far away, we

would be justified in asserting that

the inhabitants of one of them

migrated from the other. But such

an inference would be justified if

known facts could not be explained

with some other hypothesis. In this

regard, other factors like mutual

trade, the settlements of a ruling

nation or the conquering armies

must be taken into account.

It is a most significant fact that in

Kashmir and Afghanistan,

innumerable names of places and

tribes can be traced to Biblical

names of Israelites of old. History

does not furnish us with evidence of

extensive trade with Palestine or of

Israelites coming to these countries

as conquering settlers. The

preponderance of Biblical names of

old can, therefore, be explained on

the basis of migration.

Nazir Ahmad, author of the book,

Jesus in Heaven on Earth has done

valuable research and has given

over four hundred names of places

and tribes in Kashmir and

Afghanistan and adjacent regions

which have been traced to Biblical

names of Israelites

2 4

. George

Moore, the author of The Lost

Tribes has also acknowledged this

fact. This is the most convincing

proof that Afghans and people of

Kashmir are descendants of the

Lost Tribes of Israel.

This was the reason that Jesus

(as)

undertook the long and arduous

journey to Afghanistan and later to

India and Kashmir, where he

settled, in search of those lost

tribes whom he referred to as ‘lost

sheep’ and ‘other sheep’. He did

this migration in his post

crucifixion period of his life when

he had despaired of the Jews in

Palestine.

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

One clarification is needed. When

we claim that people of

Afghanistan are descendants of the

Lost Tribes of Israelites, we do not

mean that all inhabitants of

Afghanistan today are such. We

only mean the main group known

as Afghans. So-called true Afghans

are the Pushtun tribes to whom the

term Afghans was first applied.

These Afghans are also known as

Pakhtuns and they constitute about

60-70% of population. They speak

Pushto. Historically they have held

main power and prestige in the

c o u n t r y. It is this predominant

group called Afghans that are

descendants of the Lost Tribes of

Israel. It is conceivable that other

small ethnic elements may have

been absorbed into the main body

of Afghans over the long period of

many centuries.

There are many other distinct

ethnic groups which are part of

population of Afghanistan today.

There are Tajiks which are of

Iranian origin and speak Persian.

Another group, Hazara, are

believed to be descendants of

Mongols. They speak a dialect of

Persian containing many Tu r k i s h

words. There are Turk and Turko

Mongol elements like Uzbeks,

mainly found along the northern

part of country. There are other

ethnic groups like Baluch in the

south and Kafirs in the Northwest.

Similarly when we say that people

of Kashmir are descendants of

Israelites, we mean the main and

predominant stock of Kashmiris

and not other ethnic groups which

may be part of the population of

Kashmir today.

References

1. Indian Researches, 1788. Vol

II. p.69.

2. Sir Alexander Brunes, Travels

Into Bokhara, Vol II, p 139-

141.

3. G . T. Vigne, A Personal

Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzin,

Cabul, in Afghanistan (1840)

pp.166-167.

4. Dr. Joseph Wolff, Narrative of

A Mission to Bokhara in the

Years 1843-1845, p.12.

5. James Bryce and Ke i t h

Johnson, Cyclopaedia of

Geography (1880), p.25.

6. J. P. Ferrier, History of the

Afghans. p.4.

7. George Moor, History of the

Afghans, p.4.

8. H. W. Bellews, Races of

Afghanistan (1884).

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

9. Dr. Alfred Edersheim, The Life

and Times of Jesus, The

Messiah, p.15.

10. Sir Thomas Holditch, T h e

Gates of India, p.46.

11. Abdul Qadir, Hashmat-i-

K a s h m i r, MS No. 42, Ro y a l

Asiatic Society, Bengal CF68b.

12. Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, Jesus in

Heaven on Earth. p.294.

13. Bernier, Travels in the Moghul

Empire, Journey to Kashmir,

the Paradise of the Indians,

p.430-432.

14. Ibid, p.433.

15. James Hough, The History of

Christianity in India, Vol. II,

p287-288.

16. Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, Jesus in

Heaven on Earth, pp.312-329.

17. Sir Thomas Holditch, T h e

Gates of India, p.71.

18. Sir Vincent A. Smith, The Early

History of India, p.227.

19. Sir Aurel Stein, Rajatarangini,

II, p.290.

20. G.T. Vigne, Travels to Kashmir,

Ladakh and Iskardoo I, p.393.

21. Dr James Ferguson, Indian and

Eastern Architecture, p.286.

22. Richard Temple, Sayings of Lal

Ded, p.65.

23. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, Qabr-

e-Masih, pp.72-110.

24. Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, Jesus in

Heaven on Earth, pp.302-312.

The Israelite Origin of People of Afghanistan and Kashmir

Review of Religions – April 2002

The Followers of Jesus

(as)

‘The followers of Issa, son of

Mariam [Jesus, son of Mary],

generally call themselves

Muslims, and inhabit a number of

villages scattered throughout the

western area of Afghanistan

whose centre is Herat. I have

heard of them several times, but

considered that they were

probably the people who had

been converted by the European

missionaries from eastern Persia,

or that they were a relic of the

time when Herat had been a

flourishing bishopric of the

Nestorians, before the Arabs

conquered Persia in the seventh

and eighth centuries. But, from

their own accounts, and from

what I could observe, they seem

to have come from a much older

source. There must be about a

thousand of these Christians.

Their chief is Abba Ya h i y y a

(Father John), who can recite the

succession of teachers, through

nearly sixty generations, to Issa,

son of Mariam of Nasara

[Nazareth], the Kashmiri.’

The quote clearly states that

Jesus Christ

( a s )

taught in

Afghanistan and attracted a

following of people, the

descendants of whom refer to

themselves as The Followers of

Issa. But does this place him in

Afghanistan after the event of

the crucifixion? Professor Omar

Burke continues:

Review of Religions – April 2002

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

By Abubakr Ben Ishmael Salahuddin - USA

The tomb known as 'Rozabal' in the capital of Kashmir is no ordinary

tomb. The life history of the person who lies buried there bears a strong

resemblance to Prophet Jesus. His trials and tribulations, his style of

preaching and his origin from the Holy Land all lend powerful support to

the argument that it is indeed Jesus who lies buried in Rozabal. Hadhrat

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s

(as)

book Jesus in India was written over 100 years

ago in 1899, and his works have since found resonance throughout the

last century with researchers the world over. This article is based on an

extract from ‘Saving the Savior - Did Christ Survive the Crucifixion?’ - one

of the most recent books on this subject, and it re-examines some of the

historical evidence surrounding this theory about the person who lies in

Rozabal.

‘Jesus, according to the com-

munity, was a carpenter and also

a shepherd...The “Traditions of

the Masih” (anointed one) is the

holy book of the community. They

do not believe in the New

Testament; or, rather, they say

that these Traditions are the New

Testament, and that the Gospels

which we have are partly true but

generally written by people who

did not understand the teachings

of the Master [Jesus].

‘Abba Yahiyya, a towering figure

with the face of a saint, was

certainly an erudite man, and he

knew his own scriptures, plus a

great deal of the Jewish writings,

very well indeed. He had heard of

the teachings of the “heretics” as

he called what we would call the

various sects of Christians known

to us, and he wanted no part of

them.

‘“My son,” he said, in his softly

accented Persian, ‘these people

are reading and repeating a part

of the story. They have

completely misunderstood the

message. We have the story told

to us by the Master [Jesus], and

through him we will be saved and

made whole. Some of the events

in that document which you call

the Bible are true, but a great

deal is made up or imagined or

put in for less than worthy

reasons. Isa lived for over thirty

years after the materials you

have were completed, and he

told us what was true.

‘Briefly, the doctrine is that Jesus

was the son of God because he

had attained that rank through

his goodness and sacrifices. Thus

he was equal to a divine person.

He came after John the Baptist,

who himself had reached the

highest degree of development

possible at that time. John

baptized him with water, Jesus

with spirit and fire. These were

the three stages of

understanding, which were

taught by our Christians.’

‘There was a great deal of

confusion at first, because I was

talking about sacraments and

being saved, while it took me

some time to realize that Abba

John's people saw baptism, the

Holy Ghost and the Kingdom of

God to be three stages in a

system of human illumination.

This is what they claim is the

function of the Church: the

preservation of an administration

of these three “developments”

for the worshipers’.

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

‘There is a ritual meal, like the

Last Supper, but this is carried

out once a week. Bread and wine

are eaten, but as symbolic of the

grosser and finer nutritions that

are the experiences of attain-

ment of nearness to God. "While

it is possible to consider these

people as mere heretics, or else

as followers of someone else who

impersonated Jesus, yet I was

singularly impressed by their

piety, their feeling of certainty,

their simplicity and lack of the

unpleasant forms of fervour

which one often finds in minority

cults. They were convinced, too,

that the day would come when

the world would discover the

truth about Jesus.’

The reader will note that the

followers of Jesus

(as)

claim that

Jesus

(as)

taught a message quite

similar to the Gnostic one we

studied earlier, as well as the

message contained in the

documents discovered by

Nicholas Notovitch amongst the

Buddhists. Baptism, the Holy

Ghost, and the Kingdom of God

were three stages of illumination.

This idea is contrary to the

current Christian doctrine that

places Jesus as the intermediary

between human beings and

perfect knowledge of God. Is it

simply ‘coincidental’ that three

different groups of people, living

in different parts of the

world–the Gnostics Christians,

the followers of Jesus

( a s )

i n

Afghanistan, and the Buddhists of

Tibet-shared an understanding of

the teachings of Jesus Christ that

was exactly the same, and yet

totally at variance with what is

now called ‘Christianity’?

The Bhavishya Mahapurana

There are eighteen books of the

Hindus called the Puranas. The

ninth book, the B h a v i s h y a

M a h a p u r a n a , records an

encounter of King Shalivahana

with Jesus Christ near Srinagar

long after the crucifixion. In

contrast to the Gospels, the

exact date of this book is clearly

known. It was compiled by Sutta

in the year 3191 of the Kaukikia

Era. That corresponds to the year

115 AD. (Jesus Christ

( a s )

i s

believed to have died at age 120,

so this account was compiled five

years before his death).

Alongside the oral tradition of

The Followers of Jesus

( a s )

i n

Afghanistan, this written account

is perhaps the most important of

any of the documents recording

the presence of Jesus

( a s )

l o n g

after the crucifixion, because it

was written while Jesus

( a s )

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

according to the theory, would

still have been alive.

Christian scholars state that the

only extant Gospels p o s s i b l y

dating to the first century are

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and

Thomas. But they theorize that

there may also have existed a Q

document that pre-dated these

Gospels, and served as the source

material for at least Matthew and

Luke. This Q document is not

available anywhere today.

Though scholars a s s u m e i t s

existence, we cannot know for

certain whether it actually

existed prior to the compilation

of the Gospels. So the Bhavishya

Mahapurana is an extant book

that reveals information about

Jesus Christ

( a s )

during his

lifetime. So it can be suggested

that the Bhavishya Mahapurana

stands as a more reliable

document than any of the

Gospels, as it was not derived

from a ‘Q’ document, but is an

original text. This is a very

striking account:

Sanskrit verses 16-33 [shaded in

gray] of the third khanda of the

Pratisarga parvan of the

Bhavishya Mahapurana

‘Shalivahana, who was a grandson

of Bikrama Jit, took over the

government. He vanquished the

attacking hordes of Chinese,

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

Sanskrit verses 16-33 [shaded in grey] of the third khanda of the

Pratisarga parvan of the Bhavishya Mahapurana

Parthians, Scythians and

Bactrians. He drew a border

between the Arians and the

Mleacha (non-Hindus), and

ordered the latter to withdraw to

the other side of India. One day,

Shalivahana, the chief of the

Sakyas, went into the Himalayas.

There, in the Land of the Hun

(Ladak, a part of the Ku s h a n

empire), the powerful king saw a

man sitting on a mountain, who

seemed to promise auspi-

ciousness. His skin was fair and

he wore white garments.

‘The king asked the holy man who

he was. The other replied: “I am

called a son of God, born of a

virgin, minister of the non-

believers, relentless in search of

the truth”. The king then asked

him: “What is your religion?” The

other replied, ‘O great king, I

come from a foreign country,

where there is no longer truth

and where evil knows no bounds.

In the land of the non-believers, I

appeared as the Messiah. But the

demon Ihamasi of the barbarians

(dasyu) manifested herself in a

terrible form; I was delivered

unto her in the manner of the

nonbelievers and ended in

Ihamasi's realm.

“O king, lend your ear to the

religion that I brought unto the

non-believers: after the

purification of the essence and

the impure body and after

seeking refuge in the prayers of

the Naigama, man will pray to

the Eternal. Through justice,

truth, meditation and unity of

spirit, man will find his way to Isa

in the center of light. God, as

firm as the sun, will finally unite

the spirit of all wandering beings

in Himself. Thus, O king, Ihamasi

will be destroyed; and the blissful

image if Isa, the giver of

happiness, will remain forever in

the heart; and I was called Isa-

Masih.' After the king heard these

words, he took the teacher of the

non-believers and sent him to

their pitiless land.”’

Here again we see a teaching

similar to the Gnostic, Buddhist

and Afghani versions that we

studied earlier, with Jesus

(as)

here

stating that personal acts

involving prayer, self-

purification, the practice of truth

and justice and the practice of

meditation would bring human

beings to God. In none of those

four versions has Jesus

(as)

spoken

about himself as the object of

worship or as a mediator through

which one must go in order to

reach God. And again, this idea is

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

contrary to today's Christian

teachings.

The reader will notice above that

the ‘holy man’ used the

indefinite article, ‘a’ in

describing himself as, ‘a son of

God.’ You may recall the previous

section on The Followers of

Jesus

(as)

where the head of that

community, Abba Yahya, also said

that Jesus bore the appellation,

son of God, ‘because he had

attained that rank through his

goodness and sacrifices.’

Kersten states that the name

‘Isa,’ or ‘Issa’, derives from the

Syrian, Ye s h u (Jesus), ‘being

altered to conform to Musa

(Moses).’ What is striking about

the above account is that Jesus

(as)

is mentioned by the name that he

is known by in the scripture of

Islam, the Qur’an. But the above

document was compiled hundreds

of years before the Qur’an was

written. Also, the above

document was written in

Sanskrit-the language of the

Hindus, a totally different reli-

gion. Since the name Isa appears

in an ancient Hindu document as

well as in the scripture of Islam,

apparently it was a name by

which Jesus

(as)

was known in the

East.

Although Kersten states that ‘Isa’

is derived from the Syrian, Yeshu,

the above verses seem to use the

name Isa as an attributive name,

and not as the actual personal

name of Jesus

(as)

. The reader will

note that he stated: ‘…man will

find his way to Isa in the center of

light.’ Then later he refers to

h i m s e l f as Isa-Masih-the Isa

Messiah. So, could the word Isa

actually have meant some kind of

attribute of the Divine? Had this

holy man been sent as the ‘Isa

Messiah’ to re-establish this

special Divine attribute in those

to whom he ministered? He

defines Isa as, ‘the giver of

happiness,’ and does not seem to

refer to himself by the name Isa.

In short, he is the Messiah of Isa,

or he is the Messiah for Isa. It

seems that his mission was to

teach spiritual practices that

would lead to Isa, the giver of

happiness, with the words ‘giver

of happiness’ being an attribute

of God. As he states, ‘Through

justice, truth, meditation and

unity of spirit, man will find his

way to Isa in the center of light.’

It appears that Jesus Christ

(as)

was

teaching a spiritual prescription

for finding happiness ‘in the

center of light,’ and the words

‘center of light’ must certainly

have been metaphorical for the

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

Divine-for God. The word ‘light’

refers not only to physical light.

In religious literature of various

religions, the word light refers to

guidance. So the ‘center of light’

or the center of all guidance

would be God.

The Rauzat-us-Safa

J e s u s

( a s )

was mentioned in a

Persian historical work known as

the Rauzat-us-Safa, written by

Mir Muhammad Bin Khawand in

1417 AD. The complete title of

that book is, Rauza-tus-Safa fi

Sirat-ul-Ambia wal Muluk wal

Khulafa (Gardens of Purity

concerning the biography of the

Prophets and Kings and

Caliphs). It was published later,

in the year 1852 AD, in Bombay.

In this book, he mentions a

tradition regarding a visit by

Jesus

(as)

and Mary to Nasibain.

‘Jesus (on whom be peace) was

named the ‘Messiah’ because he

was a great traveler. He wore a

woolen scarf on his head and a

woolen cloak on his body. He had

a stick in his hand; he used to

wander from country to country

and from city to city. At nightfall

he would stay where he was. He

ate jungle vegetables, drank

jungle water, and went on his

travels on foot. His companions,

in one of his travels, once bought

a horse for him; he rode the horse

one day, but as he could not make

any provision for the feeding of

the horse, he returned it.

Journeying from his country, he

arrived at Nasibain. With him

were a few of his disciples whom

he sent into the city to preach. In

the city, however, there were

current wrong and unfounded

rumors about Jesus

( a s )

and his

mother. The governor of the city,

therefore, arrested the disciples

and then summoned Jesus

( a s )

J e s u s

( a s )

miraculously healed

some persons and exhibited other

miracles. The king of the

territory of Nasibain, therefore,

with all his armies and his people,

became a follower of his. The

legend of the 'coming down of

food' contained in the Holy

Qur’an belongs to the days of his

travels.’

Ikmal-ud-Din

The author of Ikmal-ud-Din (the

original title is, Kamalud Din wa

Tmam-un Nimat fi Asbat-ul-

Ghaibat wa Kashful- Hairet), is

Al-Shaikh Al-Said-us-Sadiq Abi

Jaffar Muhammad Ibn-i-Ali Ibn-i-

Hussain Ibn-i-Musa Ibn-i-

Baibuyah al-Qummi, who died in

Khorasan in 962 AD. He was a

scholar who had travelled to

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

many countries in order to

research material for his book.

He mentions the travels of Jesus

Christ (Yuz Asaf) to Kashmir:

‘Then Yuz Asaf, after roaming

about in many cities, reached

that country which is called

Kashmir. He travelled in it far and

wide and stayed there and spent

his (remaining) life there, until

death overtook him, and he left

the earthly body and was

elevated towards the Light. But

before his death, he sent for a

disciple of his, Ba’bad, by name,

who used to serve him and was

well versed in all matters. He

expressed his last will to him and

said: 'My time for departing from

this world has come. Carry on

your duties properly and turn not

back from truth, and say your

prayers regularly.’ He then

directed Ba'bad to prepare a

tomb over him (at the very place

he died). He then stretched his

legs towards the West and head

towards the East and died. May

God bless him.’

Yuz Asaf taught in parables in the

same manner as the Bible records

that Jesus

(as)

taught. Here is a

sample of a parable of Yuz Asaf's

which parallels the famous

sower-of-seeds parable men-

tioned by the Gospels:

‘When a sower goes to sow and

sows, some seeds fall by the

wayside, and the birds pick up

the seed. Some fall upon stray

land, and when they reach the

stony foundation they wither

away. Some fall among thorns and

grow not: but the seed that falls

on the good land, grows and

brings forth fruit. By the sower is

meant the wise, by the seed is

meant his words of wisdom. The

seeds picked up by birds mean

those people who understand

not. The seeds on the stony

ground are like the words of

wisdom that go in one ear and out

of the other. The seeds that fell

among the thorns are like unto

those who hear and understand

but act not accordingly. Other

seeds which fall on good grounds

are like those who hear the words

of wisdom and obey.’

The Bible records Jesus’

(as)

sower

parable in the following manner:

‘And he spake many things unto

them in parables, saying, Behold,

a sower went forth to sow; And

when he sowed, some seeds fell

by the way side, and the fowls

came and devoured them up:

Some fell upon stony places,

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

where they had not much earth:

and forthwith they sprung up,

because they had no deepness of

earth: And when the sun was up,

they were scorched; and because

they had no root, they withered

a w a y. And some fell among

thorns; and the thorns sprung up,

and choked them: But others fell

into good ground, and brought

forth fruit, some an hundredfold,

some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

Who hath ears to hear, let him

hear.’

In my view, the sower parable

from Ikmal-ud-Din is very

important. First, from the earlier

quote we see that Shaikh Sadiq

recorded the travels of Yuz Asaf

and his eventual arrival in

K a s h m i r. Second, he also

recorded one of the important

parables of Yuz Asaf. Since

orthodox Muslims have always

believed that Jesus Christ

( a s )

ascended to heaven, then Shaikh

Sadiq would have no reason to

even suspect that Yuz Asaf and

Jesus Christ

( a s )

were the same

person, simply because of the

fact that he was a Muslim who

believed in Jesus’

(as)

ascension.

Even if such a notion had come to

his mind, he would have

immediately dismissed it,

because to entertain such an idea

would have been a violation of his

religious beliefs.

Also, it is far from likely that

Shaikh Sadiq would have inserted

this story, deceitfully citing it as a

Kashmiri tradition. It is very

unlikely because of the fact that

the scripture of Shaikh Sadiq was

the Qur’an, not the Bible. The

parable of the sower of the seeds

does not exist in the Qur’an, so

why would Shaikh Sadiq have

taken a Biblical parable that has

no connection whatsoever to his

own religious tradition and

inserted it into his account of

Kashmiri tradition? Again, he

certainly was not trying to

destroy Christian belief by

suggesting that Jesus

(as)

was in

Kashmir long after the

Crucifixion, because to do so, as I

stated above, would have meant

the destruction of his own

religious beliefs as well, since

both orthodox Muslims and

orthodox Christians believe in the

Ascension of Jesus Christ

(as)

The Book of Balauhar and

Budasaf (Yuz Asaf)

It is believed that the name

Budasaf [Bud-Asaf] and Yuz Asaf

refer to the same person. An

entire Buddhist Book of Budasaf

exists which mentions Budasaf

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

(Yuz Asaf) in Kashmir. (For an

original-language Urdu trans-

lation of portions of the Book of

Balauhar and Budasaf, see:

www.tombofjesus.com/qisabig.htm)

It says of Budasaf:

‘And he reached Kashmir, which

was the farthest region at which

he ministered, and there his life

ended. He left the world and

bequeathed his inheritance to a

certain disciple called Ababid

who had served him. Everything

that he did was perfect. And he

admonished him and said to him,

“I have found a worthy shrine and

decorated it and brought in lamps

for the dying. I have collected the

flock with the true face, which

had been dispersed and to whom

I was sent. And now I shall draw

breath through my ascent from

the world, by the separation of

my soul from my body. Obey the

commandments that were given

to you, and do not deviate from

the path of truth but keep firmly

to it in gratitude. And may Ababid

be the leader.” He then

commanded Ababid to level off

the place for him; he stretched

his legs out and lay down. Then,

turning his head northwards and

his face eastwards, he passed

away.’

The reader will note a

discrepancy between the above

Buddhist account of the death of

Jesus Christ and that written in

Ikmal-ud-Din. Whatever might be

the explanation for why these

accounts differ with regard to

which direction Jesus faced his

head just prior to the moment of

his death, this is not to be

confused, obviously, with the

direction in which he was finally

buried in the Roza Bal. The real

sarcophagus containing the

remains of Yuz Asaf in the Roza

Bal lies underground and could at

one time be seen through a small

aperture. It is interesting that

that sarcophagus faces the

direction that is in accordance

with Jewish custom–east to west.

Even considering that the

account in Ikmal-ud-Din was

referring to the direction he lay

at the time of his death, that

account is in accordance with the

direction of the sarcophagus of

Yuz Asaf in the Roza Bal, and

must be considered a correct

one. Some orthodox Muslims

claim that Yuz Asaf is an Islamic

saint. This idea cannot be correct

because the tradition of Yuz Asaf

in Kashmir goes back long before

the Islamic period.

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

The Tarikh-i-Kashmir

In his book, Tarikh-i-Kashmir,

the historian, Mullah Nadri, made

mention of Yuz Asaf, Jesus

Christ

(as)

in Kashmir:

‘After him his son Raja Akh

(whose name was Ach), came to

the throne. He ruled for sixty

years. It is said that he founded

the village (of) Achabaal in

Kothar district. After him his son,

Gopananda, took (the reigns of)

Government and ruled the

country under the name of

Gopadatta. [During his reign]

many temples were [built] and on

top of Mount Solomon the dome

[of the temple] became cracked.

He deputed one of his ministers

named Sulaiman, who had come

from Persia to repair it. Hindus

objected that he [the Minister]

was an infidel [and belonged to]

another religion.

‘During this time Hadhrat Yuz Asaf

having come from Bait-ul

Muqaddas [the Holy Land] to this

holy valley proclaimed his

prophethood. He devoted himself,

day and night, in [prayers to] God,

and having attained the heights of

piety and virtue, he declared

himself to be a Messenger [of God]

for the people of Kashmir. He

invited people [to his religion].

Because the people of the valley

had faith in this Prophet, Raja

Gopadatta referred the objection

of Hindus to him [for decision]. It

was because of this Pr o p h e t ’s

orders that Sulaiman, whom

Hindus called Sandeman,

completed [the repairs of] the

dome. [The year was] Fifty and

f o u r. Further, on one of the stones

of the stairs he [Sulaiman]

inscribed: “In these times Yuz Asaf

proclaimed his prophethood,” and

on the other stone of the stairs he

also inscribed that he [Yuz Asaf]

was Yusu, Prophet of the Children

of Israel.

"I have seen in a book of Hindus

that this prophet was really

Hadhrat Isa [Jesus], the Spirit of

God, on whom be peace [and

salutations] and had also assumed

the name of Yuz Asaf. The real

knowledge is with God. He spent

his life in this [valley]. After his

departure [his death] he was laid

to rest in Mohalla Anzmarah. It is

also said that lights of

prophethood used to emanate

from the tomb of this Prophet.

Raja Gopadatta having ruled for

sixty years and two months,

[then] died…’

This is another very interesting

recording. It shows that Mullah

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

Nadri clearly gave an account of

Yuz Asaf in Kashmir. He stated

that Yuz Asaf came from the Holy

Land, and that he proclaimed to

be a prophet of the Children of

Israel, or the Jews. Yet, up to

that point, he had not equated

this prophet with Jesus Christ.

Then, as an objective historian,

he recorded a Hindu tradition

telling that Isa and Yuz Asaf were

the same individual. And he

recorded this Hindu tradition

even though it was at variance

with his own Islamic tradition.

It seems as though Mullah Nadri

must have been influenced by

this Hindu tradition in some

manner. Rather than state that,

‘Of course my religion, Islam,

says that Jesus ascended to

heaven,’ or just outright deny

this Hindu tradition, or even

worse, simply leave it out, he

states, ‘The real knowledge is

with God.’ I think it is very

significant that Mullah Nadri

would not forcefully deny the

tradition or even qualify it by

airing his own religious views.

O b v i o u s l y, the Hindu tradition

Mullah Nadri mentioned is the

same one that records the

meeting of King Shalivahana with

Jesus Christ - the B h a v i s h y a

Mahapurana.

Also, you will notice that Mullah

Nadri refers to Isa as the ‘Spirit of

God.’ This description of Isa as

the ‘Spirit of God’ seems to

support my own view, expressed

in the section on the Bhavishya

Mahapurana, that the name Isa

may not be a personal name but

is instead attributive in nature.

The Tarikh-i-Kashmir (author

unknown)

The author of this Ta r i k h - i -

Kashmir is unknown. Note that

the document states that ‘six

days after his crucifixion, Jesus

visited several places.’

‘In early writings, it is mentioned

that seventy years after the

demise of Alexander the Great,

Jesus Christ was born. When he

reached the age of thirty years,

God raised him to the status of an

apostle. At the age of thirty-

The 'Tarikh-i-Kahsmir'

(Courtesy, Dr Hassnain)

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

three years, he proceeded from

Palestine towards the Holy Valley

[Kashmir]. It is mentioned in

historical works that Jesus Christ

reached Syria in company of his

disciples and followers. It is

written in authentic works that

six days after his crucifixion,

Jesus visited several places and

met Zacharis and Mary and

Disciples and then left for [an]

unknown destination.’

The reference to the ‘Holy

Valley’ is speaking of Kashmir,

which has been called the Valley

of Eternal Peace, and other such

names.

The History of Religion and

Doctrines–The Glass Mirror

In his book, A Search for the

Historical Jesus, Dr. Fida

Hassnain, former Director of

Kashmir State Archives and of

Archeological Research and

Museums, mentions a Ti b e t a n

manuscript he discovered called

Grugtha Thams-chand kyi

Khuna dan Dod-Thsul Ston-pe

Legs Shad Shel-gyi Melong.

( Recall Nicholas Notovitch’s

discovery that Buddhists in Tibet

had within their possession

ancient documents which

recorded the comings and goings

of ‘San Issa,’ or ‘Yesu,’ i.e.,

Jesus) containing information

about Jesus

(as)

This Tibetan document, written by

Le-zan Chhes-kyi Nima, was

translated from an ancient

Chinese document called, T h e

History of Religion and

Doctrines-The Glass Mirror: T h e

relevant portions are reproduced

below:

‘Yesu, the teacher and founder of

the religion, who was born

miraculously, proclaimed himself

the Saviour of the world. He

commanded his disciples to

observe the ten vows [Te n

Commandments], among which

includes prohibition of

manslaughter and attainment of

eternal joy through good deeds.

He preached that evil actions

The 'Grugtha Thams-chand'

Tibetan translation of ancient

Chinesedocument, The Glass

Mirror (Courtesy, Dr Hassnain)

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

plunge one into hell, where there

is eternal torment and misery. A

sin committed in a state of

consciousness cannot be

condoned or pardoned. This is

one of the virtuous results

emerging out of the teachings of

the Buddha. His doctrines did not

spread extensively, but survived

in Asia, for a long period. The

above information is derived from

the Chinese treatises on religions

and doctrines.’

I find it interesting that the above

document states that, except in

Asia, the teachings of Ye s u

(Jesus) did not spread. When one

considers the differences in the

teachings of Yuz Asaf/Yesu when

he was in Asia, and those of

Christianity as it evolved in the

West, one begins to understand

the above quote. For, the primary

focus of Western Christianity is

the death of Jesus Christ

(as)

for

the sins of the world, but in the

East that idea does not exist.

The Tarikh-i-Kabir Kashmir

The Tarikh-i-Kabir Kashmir was

published at Suraj Prakash Press

in Amritsar, Punjab in 1902. On

page 34 of Volume I of that work,

Haji Mohiyuddin says the:

‘Syed Nasir-uddin Khanyari is

much revered for spending his

life in piety and prayers. He was

burried in the famous shrine

known as the Rozabal Tomb. His

grave is located towards the

south of the holy grave of a

prophet. As such, the shrine is

known as the Site of the Prophet.

Khawaja Azam Didmari writes

that in the past a Prince, who

absorbed himself in prayers and

piety attained the station of a

Messenger [of God] and was sent

to this land for guidance of the

people. His name was Yu z u -

Asaph. After his death, he was

burried here in Mohala Anzmar

near Khanyar.

‘Mulla Ahmad in his Asar-ul-Ikhyar

has quoted that Sultan Zain-ul-

Abidin deputed Syed Abdullah

Bahaiqi as an Ambassador to

Egypt and the Pharoah of Egypt

deputed Yuzu- Asaph who was a

progeny of Moses as his

a m b a s s a d o r. The Shias believe

that Yuzu- Asaph descended from

Hazrat Imam Jafar-i-Sadiq.

However in an Arabic manuscript,

it is related the Prince came from

Sholapit to Kashmir as a traveler

and is buried in Anzmar, Khanyar,

Srinagar. But more older infor-

mation is available that [a] sweet

smell used to come from one of

the holes of [the] sarcophagus. A

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

lady, who desecrated the tomb

became mad. Others believe that

it is [the] tomb of a great

Prophet who is no other than

Hazrat Isa--the Spirit of God.’

You will note from the above that

the document presents various

opinions regarding the identity of

the prince who occupied the Roza

Bal, the last one being that he

was Hadhrat Isa–Jesus Christ

(as)

The Wajees-ut-Tawarikh

According to the Tarikh-i-Hassan,

the Wa j e e s - u t - Ta w a r i k h w a s

compiled in 1857 by Abdul Nabi

Khanyari (Tarikh-i-Hassan, Vol. 1,

p.377). Abdul Nabi Khanyari was

known by various names: Abdul

Nabi, Naba Shah and Ghulam

Nabi. It is to be noted that Raja

Gopananda is mentioned in this

excerpt, as you will see below,

and he ruled over Kashmir during

49 to 109 AD.

‘The grave of Mir Sayyid

Naseeruddin is in Khanyar. The

place is also known as Rozabal. It

is said that at that place exists the

grave of Paighambar Yuzu Asaf. He

was a prince who had come to this

place. Due to his utmost piety and

prayers, he was raised to the

status of the Messenger (by God)

for the people of Kashmir. He

preached among the people. It is

said that Raja Gopananda ruled

over the country during that

period. The aroma of musk used to

emanate from a hole in the

western wall.’

1 3

The appellation, ‘Pa i g h a m b a r’

means, ‘Messenger of God.’ So he

is mentioned in this document as,

‘Messenger of God, Yuzu Asaph.’

Official Decree of the Gra n d

Mufti

The following decree was issued

by the High Court in Kashmir,

presided over by the Grand Mufti,

a high ranking religious leader,

and other judges. The decree

clearly affirms that Yuzu-Asaph

was sent as a prophet to the

people of Kashmir, according to

the traditions of the Kashmiri

people.

This decree was issued in the

year 1774 AD, although Dr. Fida

The 'Wajees-ut-Tawarikh'

(Courtesy, Dr Hassnain)

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

Hassnain's book, The Fifth

Gospel,14 has the date as 1766

AD:

THE SEAL OF THE JUSTICE OF

ISLAM MULLA FAZIL 1194 A.H.

In this High Court of Justice, in

the Department of Learning and

Piety of the Kingdom.

P r e s e n t Rehman Khan, son of

Amir Khan, submits that: the

kings, the nobles, the ministers

and the multitude come from all

directions of the kingdom to pay

their homage and offerings in

cash and kind at the lofty and the

holy shrine of Yuz- Asaph, the

Prophet, may God bless him.

Claims That: he is the only and

absolute claimant, entitled to

receive the offerings and utilise

these, and none else has any right

whatsoever on these offerings.

Prays that: A writ of injunction

be granted to all those who

interfere and others be

restrained from interfering with

his rights.

Verdict: Now, this court, after

obtaining evidence, concludes as

under: It has been established

that during the reign of Raja

Gopadatta, who got built many

temples and got repaired,

especially, the Throne of Solomon

on the hill of Solomon, Yuz-Asaph

came to the valley. Prince by

descent, he was pious and saintly

and had given up earthly pursuits.

He spent all his time in prayers

and meditation. The people of

Kashmir, having become idolaters

after the great flood of Noah, the

God Almighty sent Yuz-Asaph as a

Prophet to the people of Kashmir.

He proclaimed oneness of God till

he passed away. Yuz-Asaph was

buried at Khanyar on the banks of

the lake, and the shrine is known

as Rozabal. In the year 871 AH

Syed Nasir-ud-Din, a descendant

of Imam Musa-Raza, was also

buried besides the grave of Yuz-

Asaph.

Orders: Since the shrine is visited

by the devotees, both high and

common, and since the applicant

Rahman Khan is the hereditary

custodian of the shrine, it is

ordered that he be entitled to

receive the offerings, made at

the shrine as before, and no one

else shall have any right to such

offerings. Given under our hand,

11th Jamadi-ud-Sani, 1184 AH.

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

Signpost outside of the Roza Bal

The following is the English

translation of the information

displayed on the signpost that

stands outside the Tomb of Jesus

Christ. The information contains

the views of Khawaja Azam

Deddmari, who compiled his

Tarikh-i-Azam in about 1729 AD.

‘Nearby is situated the stone of

the grave which, according to the

people, is the prophet's who

arrived from a far off place

during ancient times. Anointed

for Kashmir: This spot is famous

as the resting place of a

messenger: I have read in an

ancient book that a prince from a

foreign land arrived here and

engaged himself in piety and

prayers [and] became a mes-

senger of God for the Kashmiri

people. In that ancient book his

name is mentioned as Yuz Asaf.’

The Acta Thomae

In Chapter 7 we saw that the

Apostle Thomas had been

assigned to go to India to preach

the message of Jesus Christ

(as)

The Acta Thomae, though, also

records an account showing that

Jesus Christ was in Taxila at a

marriage ceremony, along with

Thomas, in the year 49 CE, a good

number of years after the

crucifixion. This account verifies

St. Irenaeus's observations (see

Chapter 2), recorded in his

Against Heresies, that Jesus was

seen alive in Asia long after the

event of the cross. The A c t a

T h o m a e is a Christian work,

though it was declared heretical

in the year 495 CE by a decree of

Gelasius.

In the following account, the

bridegroom saw whom he thought

was Thomas talking to his new

bride, but it was not Thomas.

Both Thomas and Jesus

( a s )

attended this wedding, and one

of them was often mistaken for

the other:

‘Thomas after the ceremonies

left the palace. The bridegroom

Signpost outside of the Tomb

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

(Abdagases) lifted the curtain

which separated him from his

bride. He saw Thomas, as he

supposed, conversing with her.

Then he asked in surprise: “How

Canst though be found here? Did I

not see thee go out before all?”

And the Lord answered: “I am not

Thomas, but his brother.”’

Here is another translation of this

account:

‘And the king desired the

groomsmen to depart out of the

bride-chamber; and when all

were gone out and the doors

were shut, the bridegroom lifted

up the curtain of the

bridechamber to fetch the bride

unto him. And he saw the Lord

J e s u s bearing the likeness of

Judas Thomas and speaking with

the bride; even of him that but

now had blessed them and gone

out from them, the apostle; and

he saith unto him: “Wentest thou

not out in the sight of all? How

then art thou found here?” But

the Lord said to him: ‘I am not

Judas which is also called Thomas

but I am his brother.’’

It is not difficult to understand

why the Acta Thomae w o u l d

have been declared heretical:

Any mention of the appearance of

Jesus Christ after the crucifixion

certainly ran counter to the

already-formulated Christian.

But it is fair to point out that the

words of advice later given by

Jesus

(as)

to the young newlywed

couple regarding marriage and

conjugal relations are so absurd

and outrageous that it would

seem to call into question the

above account (assuming that

what is recorded is what he

actually said).

Also, all throughout the Acta

Thomae, Thomas refers to Jesus

as the ‘Lord, God.’ Certainly if

J e s u s

( a s )

was travelling with

Thomas as a human being, he

would not refer to him as God.

But I include this account from

the Acta Thomae because despite

the standard Christology which

flows throughout the Acta

Thomae, and the absurd advice

supposedly given by Jesus

(as)

the newlyweds, it is extremely

difficult to ignore the fact that

the Acta Thomae records an

appearance of Jesus

(as)

in India.

Was the appearance mystical? It

does not at all read as if this was

the case. Is the Acta Thomae a

total and complete fraud? I

cannot answer that question. But

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

for one reason or another, the

Acta Thomae made a point to

mention that a living and walking

and talking Jesus was in India

with Thomas at a wedding

ceremony.

The Ain-ul-Hayat

The author of the Ain-ul-Hayat

was Ibn-i-Muhammad Hada

Muhammad Ismail. In Volume 2,

Chapter 2, pages 177 to 178, he

states the following regarding Yuz

Asaf:

‘He went to many cities and

preached to those cities. At last

he reached the city of Kashmir.

He invited its inhabitants to

righteousness and resided there

till death approached him, and

his holy spirit departed from his

earthly body and went to rest

with God. But before his death he

called his companion Ba’bad and

made a will…and directed him to

construct a tomb for him. He laid

himself with his head towards the

East and stretched his legs

towards the West, and went to

the place of Eternity.’

The Takhat Sulaiman (Throne of

Solomon) monument in Srinagar

The Takhat Sulaiman (Throne of

Solomon) is a large temple

situated on the top of a hillock

near the Dal Lake in Srinagar,

K a s h m i r. It was renamed

Sankarachariya by the Hindu

Maharaja in 1848. There are four

inscriptions on this monument,

two of which are still legible. The

inscriptions are recorded in

Khwaja Hassan Malik’s book,

Tarikh-i-Kashmir.

They read:

1. The mason of this pillar is

Bahishti Zargar, Year fifty and

four.

2. Khawaja Rukun son of Murjan

erected this pillar.

3. At this time Yuz Asaf

proclaimed his prophethood.

Year fifty and four.

4. He is Jesus, Prophet of the

Children of Israel.

Concerning the year 54, Hassnain

notes the following:

‘Note that since Islam did not

exist during the reign of

Gopadatta (79–109 AD),

connecting the year 54 with the

Muslim Hijra Era is absurd. During

that period, the Laukika Era was

exclusively used in Kashmir. As

this era started in 3076 BC, the

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

54th year mentioned in the

inscription would come to either

22 BC or 78 AD (since Laukika

Year 1 is 3076 BC, 3054 would be

22 BC, and 3154 would be 78 AD)

As it was not possible for Jesus

C h r i s t

( a s )

to have travelled to

Kashmir in 22 BC, I take the year

78 AD to be the correct date of

his arrival.

’

References

1. O.M. Burke, Among the

D e r v i s h e s (New York: E.P.

Dutton and Co., 1973) p.12

2. Ibid, pp. 107-109

3. Nag Sharan Singh, Bhavisya

M a h a p u r a n a m ( J a w a h a r

Nagar, Deli: Nag Publishers,

1984, originally compiled in

115 A.D.), verses 16-23 of

the third khanda of the

Ptratisarga parvan

4. Mir Muhammad Khawand

Shah Ibn-i-Muhammad,

Rauza-tus-Safa fi Sirat-ul-

Ambia wal Muluk wal

K h u l a f a, trans. ‘Gardens of

Purity concerning the

biography of the Prophets and

Kings and Caliphs’. (Bombay,

1852, originally written in

1417), Vol 1: 130-135.

5. Al-Shaikh Al-Said-us-Sadiq

Abi Jaffar Muhammad Ibn-i-

Ali Ibn-i-Hussain Ibn-i-Musa

Ibn-i-Baibuyah al-Qummi,

Ikmal-ud-Din (Kamal-ud Din

wa Tmam-un Nimat fi Asbat-

ul-Ghaibat wa Kashf-ul-

Hairet), (Iran: Syed-us-Sanad

Press, 1782), p.357

6. Ibid, p. 327

7. Bible, Matthew 13: 3-9

8. Book of Balauhar and

B u d a s a f , p. 285-286 (as

taken from Jesus Lived in

India, by Holger Kersten,

pp. 205-206)

9. Mullah Nadri, Ta r i k h - i -

Kashmir, p.69 (as taken from

Jesus in Heaven on Earth, by

Nazir Ahmad p.401)

10. Document provided by Dr.

Fida Hassnain by the Sadar

Anjuman Ahmadiyya,

Qadian, Punjab, India, then

forwarded to this author

11. Le-zan Chhes-kyi Nima,

Grugtha Thams-chand kyi

Khuna dan Dod-Thsul Ston-

pe Legs Shad Shel-gyi Melong

(as taken from , A Search for

The Historical Jesus, by Dr

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

Fida Hassnain, p.213)

12. Haji Mohiyuddin, Ta r i k h - i -

Kabir Kashmir ( A m r i t s a r,

Punjab: Suraj Prakash Press,

1902), Vol. I, p. 34

13. Abdul Nabi Khanyari,

Wajees-ut-Tawarikh, (1857),

p. 27

14. Dr. Fida Hassnain, The Fifth

G o s p e l (Srinagar: Dastgir

Publications Trust, 1988), p.

xxi

15. Ante-Nicene Christian

L i b r a r y, Edinburgh, T&T

Clark, 25 Vols. 1869, Vol.

20:46

16. Acts of Thomas ( A c t a

T h o m a e ) : h t t p : / / w e s l e y. n n c .

e d u / n o n c a n o n / a c t s / a c t t h o m

.htm

17. Ibn-iI-Muhammad Hadi

Muhammad Ismail, A i n - u l -

Hayat, Vol. 2, Chapter 2, pp.

177-178

18. Khawaja Hassan Malik,

Tarikh-I-Kashmir, f. 56.

19. Hassnain, A Search for the

Historical Jesus, pp. 202-203

The book Saving the Savior - Did

Christ Survive the

Crucifixion? is published by

Jammu Press and is available

from www.tombofjesus.com

Evidence of Jesus

(as)

in India

Review of Religions – April 2002

Power and

Responsibility

In the US, ever since former US

President Richard Nixon’s

‘ Watergate,’ lay people have

been questioning the leaders of

government and various

institutions of trust. This has

spread to medicine, where

doctors had been looked at as

almost ‘godlike’ to financial

institutions, and now the Roman

Catholic Church.

However, whilst it has become all

too common to come across

reports of political leaders

misusing their positions and

power and commiting immoral

acts, when religious clerics do so

it undermines the spiritual

foundations of society and may

ultimately repel people away

from religion. As their life is

supposed to be devoted to

bringing people closer to God,

their self-example must remain

spotless not only for the sake of

the people who follow them but

also for their own sake as well,

for they will be held accountable

by God. One shudders to think of

how they will answer for

preaching in the name of God

whilst committing the very acts

they publicly denounce.

Without doubt this has sent

shockwaves throughout the

religious world. Some have

pointed fingers at the practice of

celibacy whilst others have

denounced this as a downright

abuse of the privileged positions

such priests hold in society. The

scale and significance of this

whole sorry chapter has been

highlighted by the fact that the

Pope has himself intervened to

provide guidance on this matter

when he called a meeting with

senior American bishops. As can

be expected, the laity too is now

questioning the accountability of

the Church in these matters.

Throughout America, sex abuse

scandals in the Church have

become much more personal.

From small to large con-

gregations, announcements have

been made about alle-gations of

sexual abuse from more than 30

years ago. It has reached

nightmarish proportions, as

Review of Religions – April 2002

Letter to the Editor

priests, who had moved around

the country to various parishes,

faced allegations.

These bombshells have created

all kinds of conflicting emotions

within American Catholicism.

Primarily, it evoked compassion

for the wonderful, good, and

effective priests that congre-

gations had known and

appreciated for years. But there

were others, who were priests

preying on young children,

abusers they called ‘true

paedophiles’. It must be noted

that the bulk of the cases

involved priests preying on

adolescents.

One response has been that

throughout America, Catholic

congregations organized an

evening of prayer for accused

priests and at prayer meetings

there was much sharing of

compassion and forgiveness if the

allegations were to be found

true. There also was prayer for

the alleged victims of priest

abuse. It has been a difficult

period for Catholics. Many have

admitted carrying a heavy burden

of sadness for all involved in

allegations of sexual abuse. The

Catholics point out that this is

also a time of sorrow for our own

sins and how they impact others

and pray for forgiveness.

With around 46,000 priests in the

US, and nearly 62 million

parishioners, or lay people, some

Catholic observers of the current

controversy say it is a good thing

that the Pope met with the

American cardinals to address the

accountability aspect of this

scandal.

Many Catholics believe that a

policy of pulling an accused priest

from his work and notifying civil

authorities is impending and is

imperative. The Catholic Church

teaches compassion and for-

giveness of sin. Thus, in

conjunction with this, offending

priests, most American Catholics

believe, should be offered

therapeutic intervention and an

opportunity for repentance and

rehabilitation. But most believe

they should not be placed back

into a ministry where they would

have any contact with young

people.

A favoured proposal of most

American Catholics was the

creation of a panel of esteemed

lay people to monitor the

C h u r c h ’s performance in the

handling of the sex abuse cases.

Letter to the Editor

Review of Religions – April 2002

An outside panel to review

internal affairs, many believe, is

h e a l t h y. Although the proposal

was discussed in Rome, it was not

included in the American

Cardinals’ final communiqué.

There was no mention of the

review boards or of the lay

people. When questioned about

the omission in a late-night news

conference at the Vatican, the

Cardinals admitted that

somehow, they had inadvertently

left the lay people out.

The end result of this current

turmoil in the Roman Catholic

Church may be the demand by lay

people in the pews for more

accountability in church finances,

Catholic schools and certainly a

new era of accountability from

the bishops regarding the

sexual abuse scandals.

Whilst this is a very serious

time for Catholics the world

over it would be foolish to

believe that abuse of power

has not occurred in other

religions as well. The Catholic

Church will no doubt take this

opportunity to take a firm line

against such irreligious prac-

tices in an effort to uphold the

principle of absolute justice. A

starting point could be to

remove those found guilty,

otherwise regaining the trust

of the people would be an

impossible task, and the

implications of this would only

distance people from true

religion and all the much

needed guidance that it has to

offer.

It is evident that Catholics

bound by faith will recover

from these scandals but con-

gregations will prevail upon

bishops of the United States to

make every effort to

implement the challenge that

lies ahead, so that the present

crisis leads to a holier priest-

hood, a holier epis-copate and

a holier Church.

Hasan Hakeem,

Zion, USA

Letter to the Editor

Review of Religions – April 2002

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