Jesus’ Travels Post Crucifixion

  

All the Messengers of Allah, especially the law-bearing prophets were made in some way or another to leave their initial place of residence for another place through the will of Allah. Sometimes, places within their own homelands or they switched altogether countries where their missions went on to be successful.

Today I would like to put before you the heart-touching story and the lesson which Jesus – Hazrat Isa (as) has given us in his emigration from Jerusalem to Kashmir in India. [Inset: Jesus in western art, symbolic- not historically accurate, representation]. 

In his post-crucifixion period, Jesus was helped by his well-wishers and disciples in secret. His disciples on record may have been official twelve men, out of which one (i.e. Judas) became a hypocrite and “sold” him to his enemies, but he may have had many secret disciples not recorded in history who became sincere help when he had to flee Jerusalem. From a study of his life, and the research of various authors including the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Jesus (as) may have stayed in Palestine, as well as Afghanistan and Northern India before he finally met his lost sheep, i.e. the Lost Tribes of Israel.

Return of the Taliban

 

The fall of the US-propelled government in Afghanistan along with the swift and dramatic capture of power by the Taliban in Kabul, is nothing short of a geopolitical earthquake in international affairs in our times. For one, it marks a defining moment in the unravelling history of American excesses abroad in the name of “war on terror” and attempts to impose their perception of democracy on other nations and peoples.  Likewise, for the region and the world, the larger question is this: can the Taliban- now, the de facto government in Kabul- live down its dreadful legacy, turn a new page in political pragmatism, and usher in a period of peace, security and development for the people of Afghanistan? 

A Legacy of Excesses on All Sides

Afghanistan’s modern destiny is marred by much internal political strife and blood-letting, especially in the last four decades. Illegal interventions and invasions by foreign powers- [the Soviet Union (1979-1989), and the United States (2001-2021) followed by counter-mobilization by militant groups armed and aided by interested foreign governments, and the consequent internecine warfare destabilized the land for long years. The emergence of Taliban in the Afghan refugee camps of Pakistan, and its militant extremism- blurring the line between political resistance and support for indiscriminate and unrestrained violence in the name of ideology/religion against hostile foreign powers as well as defenceless civilians cannot be divorced from this complex political and regional backdrop- including the lucrative profits from mass cultivation of, and trade in, opium and other narcotic substances across borders with colluding elements in Pakistan. 

Domestically, when the Taliban was in power in the land during 1996-2001, its policies were starkly marked by denial of educational opportunities to girl children; curtailment of women’s rights; cruel and degrading treatment of minorities; institutionalization of vengeance in the form of medieval punishments on opponents and enemies of the regime- all in service of a narrow-minded, extremist and simplistic understanding of the Islamic Shari’ah, bringing disrepute to the very Faith they claimed to serve- with hardly any country in the world recognizing the Mullah Muhammad Omar regime in Kabul in those years.