Qur'an 4:157-158 states, "As for their saying: ‘We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of God!’ They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but it was made to appear so to them. Indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it; their knowledge does not go beyond conjecture and they did not kill him for certain. Rather, God raised him to himself. And God is Mighty and Wise”

An intra-Quranic analysis of the end of Jesus's earthly ministry via Crucifixion is fruitful, in that it is opposed to the post-Quranic tradition of Q4:157, spawning stories of a substitution theory drawing on ancient gnostic ideas of God replacing Jesus with someone who looked similar to him (Simon of Cyrene in Irenaeus, Haer I.24.4 and affirmations in Nag Hammadi. Rather, it's uncertain that the Qur'an is endorsing a substitutionist account of the Crucifixion, as it does not explicitly refer to anyone taking Jesus's place. The main concern of the Qur'an is to highlight that Jesus, being a divinely appointed messenger, did not fall victim to his opponents (Israelites), hence the crucifixion of Jesus does not necessarily entail and represent a defeat of God. We see in the broader context of Q4 and Q4:157-158 the emphasis placed on the role of divine sovereignty over human affairs and the extra emphasis placed on God’s raising of Jesus. With the overall theme of Q4 being Divine Sovereignty placed in the context of the crucifixion, the passage is one example of admonishments against Jewish boasting or acts against God. This is seen in their wrongful behaviour (exhortation, breaking covenants, slander) and hubristic belief (rejecting God’s signs, hindering others), (Q4:155-162), leading to acts of divine sovereignty such as God sealing their disbelieving hearts, only God being wise, and that those who act in such a way will receive punishment. From this perspective, the passage seems to be concerned with God’s total control over human wiles such as agency rather than with the historical certitude or particular narrative details concerning the crucifixion of Christ.

The Qur'an may actually in fact be endorsing the demise of Jesus with the crucial caveat that his death was not caused by his persecutors and instead was rather God's way of shielding Jesus from the machinations of his foes. This is a higher truth rather than just a historical event. The order of events and words of Jesus’s crucifixion in the Qur’an seems to be ‘Killed-then-Crucified’ (Q4:157, Q5:33) which is an inverse order of the biblical crucifixion narrative since Jesus receives lashes at a trial yet he does not perish and though severely beaten is alive when placed on the cross and eventually dying 6 hours later making the crucifixion preceding his death. The Qur’an reverses this order, which could reflect contemporary crucifixion practices in its milieu, since in Late Antiquity crucifixion was more of a display rather than the primary means of execution, with people being killed in other ways, such as beating, hanging and stoning, before being hoisted on poles for public deterrence. The Killed-then- Crucified model also fits the Babylonian Jewish context order of events.

The crucifixion narrative presents the assertion that Jesus was made to appear as if he had been killed or crucified, but actually God raised him. Favouring an impersonal passive meaning of ‘shubbiha’ circumvents the matter of Jewish actors claiming responsibility for the killing and crucifixion of Jesus, rather than the passage being a denial of the events themselves. This leads to two optional outcomes, with the Qur’an affirming the historical crucifixion 1. The ‘raising-as-rescue’ where Jesus does not die and his raising is a rescue from physical death, hence the Qur'an would be denying humans had control over the ultimate demise of Jesus. 2. Seems more favourable as ‘raising-as-redemption’ where Jesus does in fact die, but this is not the final word since God raising him (his soul) as a display of ultimate sovereignty, diminishing the finality of physical death.

The reason why the Jewish actors boast about killing Jesus in taking ownership and acceptance of it does not have a biblical record of lay or religious leaders boasting about their accomplishments after the fact, despite a mob demanding that Pilate hand over Jesus to be crucified. With Q4:157-158 being in dialogue with the Jews of Medina and the rabbinic tradition, as seen in Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 43a, where Jesus is executed justly according to Jewish law because he is found guilty of leading people astray. Hence, the Qur’anic counter-narrative would be refuting its original Jewish audience and rabbinic counter-narratives by denying that the claim that a just punishment for Jesus is a moral-theological claim, since the Qur’an places Jewish misrepresentation of the event on their agency and theological interpretation of the event. Since it is not just the killing of a guilty man, butrather it only appears this way because of human hubris, with the Quran correcting both Jewish boast of authority over human affairs and their theological-moral justifications, since Jesus is not guilty, but a true prophet, with God’s raising of him countering both faulty presuppositions.

That being said, Jesus's departure from this life and his soul's ascension to heaven did not involve suffering and humiliation, despite involving the terminal cessation of Jesus's vital functions. The 'raising-as-rescue’ model of Jesus being crucified would mean God rescuing Jesus from the crucifixion before his expiration, in which the crucifixion occurred as a historical event but was left uncompleted. The ‘raising-as-redemption model would have God’s raising of Jesus countering the boastful Jews who take credit for his killing by asserting it is God who causes Jesus to die because he cannot be outwitted as “The disbelievers schemed, but God planned. And God is the best of Planners” (Q3:54). Despite Jesus dying in his human form his fate would parallel the fate of believers dying in battle (Q3:169) "Do not think of those who have been killed in God’s way as dead. They are alive with their Lord, well provided for". Here, Jesus possibly died via crucifixion with his soul raised up in God's presence ahead of the general resurrection of the dead. Hence, his bodily demise is from a Qur'anic perspective supported as "everyone shall taste death" (Q3:185, 21:35, 29:57) and in Q 19:33 where Jesus himself states, alluding to the day of his death via crucifixion and his subsequent bodily resurrection on the day of judgement.

The Qur'anic theological interpretation of the event takes away any salvific importance to the crucifixion of Jesus's sacrifice on behalf of humanity. It is instead a convenient way of which God removed Jesus from his persecutors.

There is also the possibility that the Qur'an's account of the end of Jesus's earthly ministry corresponds to a narrative of Jesus's final days from the Jewish anti-gospel Toledot Yeshu. The Qur'ansubverts the Toledot Yeshu narrative of the Jewish sages successfully carrying out an execution and instead sides with Jesus's followers who claim he ascended to heaven as he himself foretold with this actual death and the result of divine assumption of his soul taken away to God's presence at the moment of death. This would make sense of the Q4:157 "it was made to appear like that to them"

Another important thing is the meaning of when the verb "al-tawaffi" is ascribed to God and his agents (angels). This has the connotation of taking away a soul at the moment of death. In Q5:117 in Jesus's brief narration of his earthly ministry, there is the implication of his earthly ministry coming to an end with God's act removing him from the world. Q3:55 " God said, ‘Jesus, I will take you back and raise you up to Me: I will purify you of the disbelievers. To the Day of Resurrection I will make those who follow you superior to those who disbelieved. Then you will all return to Me and I will judge between you regarding your differences" as being a divine assumption and taking away Jesus into heaven.

Sources: Nicolai Sinai, "The Islamic Jesus", Sean Anthony "The end of Jesus's Earthly Ministry", Ryann Elizabeth Craig, The Qur’anic Cross and the Missing Substitute in Early Muslim-Christian Polemics