Did God raise Jesus (as) from the dead, just as Jesus (as) raised the dead?

No. God can do all things, but Jesus (as) himself compared his fate to that of Jonah, who survived and was not raised from the dead. And in the Holy Qur’an, giving life to the dead refers to the spiritual awakening of people.

Of course God can do all things. But it does not follow that everything God could do has actually happened. If someone makes an unusual claim and simply says that God is able to do it, that is no proof. The more unusual a claim is, the stronger the evidence for it must be.

In the case of Jesus (as), there is evidence from his own lips. He said that his fate would be like that of the prophet Jonah. Jonah was caught in a situation from which there seemed to be no escape, and against all odds he survived. He was not raised from the dead. It was the same with Jesus (as). He survived the cross, and God restored him to strength.

The raising of the dead by Jesus (as) must also be understood correctly. The Holy Qur’an often explains its own expressions in another place. It says that Jesus (as) gave life to the dead by God’s leave. And it calls on the believers to respond to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) when he calls them, so that he may give them life. The people he called were physically alive. What is meant, then, is spiritual life.

This shows the language in which prophets speak. They awaken people who are spiritually dead to a new life with God. Jesus (as) himself often spoke in parables, and for that reason many took him literally. Many Christian scholars today also no longer read these accounts as literal raisings of the dead.

God does nothing without purpose and wisdom. When He saves a prophet from death, there is a clear purpose in it. The idea of a bodily resurrection, on the other hand, finds no support either in the words of Jesus (as) about Jonah or in the Holy Qur’an.