I understand that Muslims do not believe that Jesus was actually crucified–that some other prisoner took his place–and thus, he was never resurrected since he didn’t die.
Is this spoken about in the Quran and, if so, do Muslims have other sources for this belief or is it based solely on Muhammad’s “revelations”?
This position is not universally held by Muslims and there is no set dogma on the topic.
The key passages here are 4.157 and 5.117. It is not clear that the Qur’anic denial of the crucifixion of Jesus(pbuh) is meant to be taken literally. If you provide 5.117 with its natural interpretation (i.e., that Jesus died), then 4.157-158 demands a figurative reading: you killed the body but not the spirit and truth of Jesus which has been exalted and dwells with God. Furthermore, most of the people who hold the position which you describe, also believe that Jesus was raised up by God in order to return later; this is an idea that is nowhere found in the Qur’an, even metaphorically. This makes it seem as if either a certain reading is being forced onto the Qur’an to support an idea that doesn’t belong to the Qur’an, or a mythological interpretation of the passage from the Qur’an has led to even worse myths about a returning Jesus.
A reading that affirms the historical crucifixion of Jesus finds defenders throughout Muslim history. There is definitely a minority tradition within Islam that accepts that Jesus was executed by crucifixion, more or less as recounted in the various Gospels: Al-Razi, the anonymous Ikwan al-Safa, and ibn’Sina would be the most prominent historical examples I can think of. But, even today, this position is not uncommon, and is universally held among Ismailis.
[And as I once pointed out in a thread here, a couple of years ago, it is even the implication of an accepted Sunni mainstream translator and commentator like Muhammad Asad. Asad totally treats the ascension in an allegorical way (see his note on 4.158). Nonetheless he continues to treat 157 as a literal denial of the crucifixion, despite the fact that an allegorical reading of 158 demands an allegorical reading of 4.157 as well [you say he is dead; we say he is exalted — if the exaltation is not mythological claim about Jesus being taken into heaven (and Asad is clear that it is not), then the claim about his death, which is being denied, must not be literal either). This drift in Asad is only reinforced by the fact that he gives the most obvious translation of 5.117 as well: namely, that Jesus “died”. In many ways, Asad’s tendency on this is not surprising, since he is deeply influenced by al-Razi.]
Again, there is no set Islamic dogma on the topic.
Allahu a’lam.
