Islamic view of Jesus' death

SHOOT: The topic for this idea came from reading about Simon of Cyrene. The first African Saint in the gospels. Simon is an interesting character in that he is accused, by some, for taking the fall - that he did not only carry the cross by was crucified by mistake in Jesus' place. It is interesting to see the amount of consensus Muslim scholars have on this point, and it would appear, Jewish scholars as well. It is only the Christians who take the view that the literal expressions in the bible ought to be taken literally. Find out more by clicking on the links below, or go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_of_Cyrene

clipped from en.wikipedia.org The issue of Jesus' death is important to Muslims as they believe that Jesus will return at the end of time. Muslims believe Jesus was not crucified but was raised bodily to heaven by God, which is in opposition to the consensus among Western Scholars that he did die[1]. That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them [or it appeared so unto them], and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not: Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise. Most Muslims believe Jesus was raised to heaven alive by God. However, a small minority of Islamic scholars argue that he was indeed rescued but died before his ascension.[2]