‘Before the Day of Judgement...

‘Before the Day of Judgement, Jesus will descend from Heaven and from all the nations no one will remain, be he Jew or non-Jew, unless he becomes a believer in Jesus before he dies and Jesus will perform his prayers behind the Mahdi .’ When Hajjaj heard these comments, he was most amazed and said: ‘Wonderful! From whom did you learn this?

From whom are you reporting these comments?’ I replied: ‘Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib related it to me.’ To this, he answered: ‘By God, you obtained this from a pure source.’” Allama Tabataba’i then reports the same event from the tafsir al-Durr al-Manthur that ibn Manzar reported from Shahr ibn Hushab who said: “Hajjaj told me: ‘O Shahr, there is a verse in the Quran that whenever I recite it, a feeling of objection rises within myself and it is the following verse: “And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death.” At the same time, the captives of war are brought to me and I usually slit their throats but I never hear anything from them before their death.’ I told Hajjaj: ‘You did not get the proper meaning of the verse; when the soul of a Christian leaves his body, the angels slap him from behind and from ahead and say: ‘O Wicked one!

When you were on earth, you used to believe that either Jesus is God, or is the son of God or is the third God while he was God’s servant, His soul and His word.’ When the Christian hears these words, he becomes a believer. However, at that time, his faith has no benefit. Likewise, when the soul of a Jew leaves his body, the angels slap and beat him from behind and ahead and say: ‘O Wicked one! You were the one who believed that you had killed Jesus!

He was the servant and the soul of God.’ Hearing this, the Jew starts believing in Jesus but at a time when his faith is no longer of benefit to him. This event occurs continuously for each one of the Christians and the Jews, until the time of Jesus’ descent.