How does Al-Azhar University view the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat?

There is no single view there. On one central question, the death of Jesus (as), a former head of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mahmud Shaltut, nevertheless took the same position in a legal ruling as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat.

Al-Azhar in Cairo is one of the best-known Islamic places of learning. But it does not speak with one voice. Views there differ from faculty to faculty, and some even depart from the accepted teachings of the major schools of law.

So the answer depends on whom you ask. The position of a former head of the university, Sheikh Mahmud Shaltut, is remarkable. In a legal ruling he declared that Jesus (as) died as a human being and did not ascend to heaven to be kept there for a later time. This ruling was published by Al-Azhar itself.

In doing so he took exactly the position of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat on a central question, even though he does not mention it in his ruling. Whoever has returned to his Lord does not come back to this earth. The two verses above support this view.

For outsiders this is an important pointer. The Islamic world is more varied on such questions than it often seems. Whoever wants to understand what Islam teaches should therefore look above all at the reasoning from the Holy Qur’an, and not only at which institution says something.