4) 'Jesus died at the age of 120' argument destroyed!

Qadianis say that Jesus (PBUH) died at the age of 120. They refer to a certain narration. In the following lines we unveil the truth about the narration and the fragility of Qadiani belief. They say:

Aishah (God be pleased with her) said that, in his illness in which he died, the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: `Every year Gabriel used to repeat the Quran with me once, but this year he has done it twice. He has informed me that there is no prophet but he lives half as long as the one who preceded him. And he has told me that Jesus lived a hundred and twenty years, and I see that I am about to leave this world at sixty’ ” (Hajaj at-Kiramah, p. 428; Kanz al-Ummal, vol. 6, p. 160, from Hazrat Fatima; and Mawahib al-Ladinya, vol. 1, p. 42)

The Truth:

Actually the narration comes from Mu’jam Tabarani Kabeer. Its a part a longer narration. Its last part relevant to our discussion here goes as:

وَأَخْبَرَنِي أَنَّهُ أَخْبَرَهُ أَنَّهُ لَمْ يَكُنْ نَبِيٌّ إِلا عَاشَ نِصْفَ عُمَرَ الَّذِي كَانَ قَبْلَهُ، وَأَنَّهُ أَخْبَرَنِي أَنَّ عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ عَاشَ عِشْرِينَ وَمِئةَ سَنَةٍ وَلا أُرَانِي ذَاهِبًا عَلَى رَأْسِ السِّتِّينَ

“And I have been told that there is no Prophet after other Prophet but he lives a life half then the one who lived earlier. And I have been told that Jesus, the son of Mary lived for a hundred and twenty years and I do not see myself but approaching sixties”

(Mu’jam Tabarani Kabeer Hadith 18464, Tarikh Damishq 47/481-482 quoted in Kanz Al-Ummal 11/479 H.32262 & 13/676 H.37732)

Issues with this narration:

1) According to rules of narration (riwayah): Hafiz Haithmi has called it Daeef (i.e. unauthentic). After quoting this narration he writes:

رواه الطبراني باسناد ضعيف ، وروى البزار بعضه أيضا وفى رجاله ضعف

“Tabarani narrated it with a weak chain and Bazzar also narrated some part of it and in its chain (also) is weakness.” 

(Majma’ Al-Zawai’d Wa Manba Al-Fawai’d 4/67, Chapter on the illness and death of the Prophet)

2) In the light of rationality (diraya): According to the principle of diraya (i.e. rationality) as well, this narration is not acceptable. The narration gives the notion as if every Prophet lives half the age of the Prophet immediately before him. This cannot be true and thus can never be uttered by the Noble and Truthful Prophet (PBUH). If Jesus (PBUH) lived for 120 years then John the Baptist (Yahya A.S.) should have lived for 240 years but he lived less then the period Jesus (PBUH) remained on Earth. Moreover following this cycle we have to believe that Adam (PBUH) perhaps lived millions of years which cannot be true.

3) Moreover there is a lot of confusion regarding the wording of the of the narration which is even otherwise weak. In Ibn Asaakir’s Tarikh Damishq (47/482) and Ibn Saa’d’s Tabaqaat Al-Kubra (2/195) there are narrations that tend to convey as if Jesus (PBUH) lived for 150 years. Indeed these narrations are also of dubious narration like the one about 120 years.

Ibn Asaakir after quoting both these narrations says:

كذا في هاتين الروايتين والصحيح أن عيسى لم يبلغ هذا العمر

“It’s like that in these two narrations [about 120 and 150 years] and the truth is that Jesus (PBUH) did not reach this age.”
(Tarikh Damishq 47/482)

To turn the tables, let me ask why do the Qadianis not take the narration in full and apply it to other issues? Does it not say, “And I have been told that there is no Prophet after other Prophet but he lives a life half then the one who lived earlier”? While it does, how could Mirza Qadiani be a Prophet for according to this narration if there ever was to be any Prophet after the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he would live only 31 or 32 years, half of the Prophet’ (PBUH) age i.e. 63 years while Mirza lived far more. Verily this proves the fragility of Qadiani arguments.

Another attempted twisting:

Lately I did learn about another Qadiani gimmick about this narration. Some of them say the narration does not say a prophet will live only half the life of the prophet immediately before him but it means he’ll liveatleast half of that.

But even this doesn’t help them firstly, because the narration is unauthentic considering its chain and secondly, even as per this suggested twist it goes against historical facts as we know that Hazrat Zakariya (AS) is known to have been above 90 when Yahya (AS) was born and he died at the age of well above 100 while Yahya (AS) who was the next prophet after him lived at the most 42 years. This way his age doesn’t make up to even half of the Zakariya’s (AS) age. So the narration is clearly weak considering the rules ofriwayah (narration) and dirayah (rationality).