4: After 100 years ...

Narrated by Jabir Bin Abdullah^ra: about a month before he passed away the Holy Prophet^saw said: ‘there is not a single soul who lives today and breaths but that he will surely be dead before the passage of a 100 years.’

This is qouted in Saheeh Muslim and Saheeh Bukhari. The background of this tradition is that the Holy Prophet^saw in answer to a question about the Yaum-ul-Qiyamah (the Judgement Day) said that only Allah knows with certainty about that day, but a qiyamah (of sort) would occur a hundred years from then. Just like the death of a person is like a qiyamah for that person, similarly there is a qiyamah for a nation, a generation or an age. The Holy Prophet, calling Allah to witness, ascertains a limit of exactly one hundred years for everyone alive on that day to perish and in that way a qiyamah would have occurred for his contemporaries. If it is assumed that Jesus was alive on the day Holy Prophet^saw made this particular observation, even so, he would have at most a hundred years to live, and no more.[1] Some scholars have also deduced Khizar's death from this hadees (if at all he were assumed to be alive at that time).[2]

Those who believe Jesus to be still alive, assert his, as well as Khizar's exclusion from the verdict of this hadees, but they fail to provide a good reason for the exclusion. It is important to note that the Holy Prophet swears in the name of God and sets this limit for everyone alive on that day and mentions no exceptions. What would be the purpose of calling Allah to witness if this was only a general observation with some very important exceptions? Also, it is not possible to make this type of prediction without knowledge obtained through divine revelation. Clearly, with this hadith there is no possibility for an earlier prophet to live beyond the hundred years limit.[3]

[1] Azalah-e-Auham pg 624, Ruhani Khazain vol. 3, pg. 437

[2] Mazahir-ul-Haq Sharah Mishkat-al-Masabih vol. 4, pg. 381, pub. Adarah Nashriyat Islam Lahore.

[3] Hamamatul Bushra pg 14, Ruhani Khazain vol. 7, pg. 192