Yuz Asaf
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yuz Asaf is the name of two different religious figures of two distinct religious groups.
- For the Mandaean Nasaræan Sabeans of Iraq, Yuz Asaf—"Yuz the Gatherer"—was a saint and teacher (in the general gnostic sense of the term) who brought them their religion.
- Adherents of the Ahmadiyya Islamic sect of Kashmir identify Yuz Asaf with Jesus of Nazareth,[1] or more precisely, they believe that Jesus is entombed in Srinagar, and that the tomb "is mistaken for that of a prophet named Yuz Asaf"[2] (Kashmiri: युझ असफ, یوذسف).
In Mandaean Sabean tradition
According to oral tradition (preserved in Al-Tabari) of the gnostic Mandaeans, Yuz the Gatherer called his people to the religion (i.e. Mandaeism), which—so the tradition—had been the religion of the Iranian peoples before the coming of Zoroaster.[3]
In Ahmadiyya doctrine
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According to the early 20th century teachings of the Ahmadis of Kashmir Jesus of Nazareth did not die on the cross, but after his apparent death and resurrection he journeyed to Kashmir to teach the gospel, and that he then remained in India for the rest of his life.
Following his death of natural causes (so the Ahmadi tradition) "at the ripe old age of 120 years,"[4][5] the Jesus of Ahmadi doctrine was then laid to rest in Srinagar, and that the prophet Yuz Asaf said to be entombed there (at what is known as the Roza Bal) is said to be really none other than Jesus.[2]
According to the Ahmadis, the name 'Yuz Asaf' "must not be explained as a corruption of Bodhisatwa!"[2] but rather "apparently the Kashmiri version of Jesus son of Yusuf (Joseph)."[4] The Ahmadis give the Yuz Asaf enshrined in Shrinagar the epithet Shahzada Nabi, "Prophet Prince."
The theological basis of the Ahmadi belief that Jesus was only "in a swoon"[4] when he was taken down from the cross is an interpretation of a phrase in Deuteronomy 21:31: Gulam Ahmad (the founder of the sect) read the phrase kī qilelat Elohim taluy, "... for a hanged man is the curse of God," as suggesting that "Allah would never allow one of His prophets to be killed in such a degrading manner as crucifixion, and that he was cured of his wounds with a special ointment known as the 'ointment of Jesus' (marham-i ʿIsā)."[5] Further (so Gulam Ahmad), the second coming predicted in Muslim tradition is not actually that of Jesus, but that of a person similar to him (mathīl-i ʿIsā), i.e. Gulam Ahmad himself.[5]
According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, this aspect of Ahmadi belief is one of the three primary characteristics that distinguish Ahmadi teachings from general Islamic ones, and that it had provoked a fatwa against the founder of the sect, "purporting that this doctrine disagreed with the Koran and therefore had to be looked upon as a heresy."[2]
Other Ahmadi traditions include the belief that Jesus/Yuz Asaf was also briefly reunited with his apostle Thomas at the Temple of Solomon in Srinagar, and that they together then repaired and cleaned the temple and left an inscription there. The Jesus/Yuz Asaf of Ahmadi tradition married a woman called Marjam, who then bore him a number of children. Further, the Ahmadis believecf .[4] that Mary accompanied her son on the journey to Kashmir and when she died (when Jesus/Yuz Asaf was 38 years old) was buried at 'Mai Mari da Ashtan' ("Resting place of Mother Mary"[citation needed]) in the town of Murree, Pakistan.
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