Will Jesus (as) return, or has he already come?

Jesus (as) has died and will not return in his own body. The promise of his second coming is fulfilled in another person who comes in his spirit and character, and he appears within Islam.

In the history of religions it has often been promised that a great figure from the past would return. Yet none of them ever came back in person. Whenever such promises were fulfilled, it was always through another person who came in the spirit and character of the one foretold.

Jesus (as) explained this principle himself. The Jews expected the prophet Elijah to return bodily from heaven before the Messiah. When Jesus (as) was asked where Elijah was, he pointed to John the Baptist and said that he was Elijah. John had a different name, a different father and lived at a different time. Still, Jesus (as) was right, because Elijah had come again spiritually in him.

Muslims understand the second coming of Jesus (as) in the same way. As the verses above show, he himself died a natural death. Yet his prophecy that he would return is true. It is fulfilled in a person who carries his spirit and qualities. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) foretold that this Promised One would come from among the Muslims.

According to this teaching, the Promised One has already come, in the person of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Promised Messiah. Anyone who wants to examine this can act like a traveller who asks the way and hears different answers. He does not give up, but checks the signposts for himself.