Reasons Why Muslims Deny the Resurrection +

Here is the resurrection account according to John:

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”
--John 20:27-28

Paul claims there were many eye-witnesses to the resurrection alive at the time:

Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
--1 Cor 15:6

And here is how the Quran dismisses the resurrection, along with all of Christianity:

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, 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.” 
--Qur’an, 4:157-158 (Yusuf Ali)


I would expect that for the Quran to dismiss the much earlier testimony of the New Testament (with credibility), it would supply a coherent alternative hypothesis.

Let me assure you that the Quran does nothing to help Muslims refute the resurrection of Jesus.

In this debate with Ahmed Deedat, Josh McDowell documents many of the "official" theories proposed by Muslims:

His debate with Ahmed Deedat, I count Josh McDowell as listing eleven hypothesis that have been proposed by Muslims.  The transcript of the debate is below, and I added the hypothesis count in square brackets.

http://youtu.be/cgUnalaJoTs?t=45m38s

Josh McDowell (August, 1981):
In preparation for this, I didn't realize that I would be dealing with so many different theories on the crucifixion from the Islamic viewpoint.
[1] I found out, first of all, that the majority of the Muslims throughout the world hold to the substitutionary theory, that in Surah number 4, in the Qur'an, a substitute, another person, was placed in Christ's position on the cross that Jesus was removed and taken to heaven.

In other words, it was someone else. But then, I found such a diverse opinion among Muslims.
[2] Some Muslim writers say that it was a disciple of Jesus who was placed on the cross in His stead. [3] Another Muslim writer, Tabari, quoting Ibn Ishaq, said it was a man by the name of Sargus, or Sergius, who was placed on the cross.
[4] Another Muslim writer by the name of Baidawi, said it was a Jew named Titanus who was placed on the cross.
[6] Another, Ath-Tha-'labi, says it was a Jew named Fal Tayanus, who was placed on the cross.
[7] And still another Muslim writer, Wahb ibn Munabbah, said it was a Rabbi of the Jews, Ashyu, who was placed on the cross.

[8] Then, others feeling that it might be a little unfair to put an innocent man there, say, well, it must be Judas Iscariot who was placed on the cross. Now, Mr. Deedat might be able to correct me, but I do not believe there is any evidence whatsoever in the Qur'an for that. There are in some of the sects. earlier than Islam, references to that. But I always wondered, why did God have to have a substitute? Why couldn't He have simply taken Jesus then?

[9] Others will say - and this is not what the majority of Muslims believe - that Jesus died a natural death some years after the crucifixion and the alleged resurrection. In other words, "Hazrat Isa," Jesus is dead!
[10] This is a more recent development in Islam. And I'm always wary of recent developments. It was started mainly by a man by the name of Venturini, who said Jesus really didn't die on the cross -- He just swooned or passed out, then was put into a tomb and resuscitated. This is also the theme of the Ahmadiyas, a radical sect of Islam. One of their main doctrines, established by their founder and allegedly their prophet, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, it is a part of the doctrine of Qadianism.

[11]Some will say to be crucified means to die. Therefore, Jesus wasn't crucified because He did not die on the cross. I'm not quite sure how they got that definition. What I need to do is this: present the facts to you, as I have been able to document them in my books, and then let you, as fair minded, intelligent people, make up your minds. The background for the points I'm going to make is that when I was in the University, I wanted to write a book against Christianity. I wanted to refute it intellectually. The last thing I wanted to do was become a Christian. But after two years of research and spending a lot of money and time, I discovered facts - not only facts that God has stated in His Holy Word, the Bible, but facts that are documented in sources in history. Men and women, these are some of the facts that I found as I tried to refute Christianity and I couldn't.


This shows that Muslims are full of conjecture on this topic and have no certain knowledge.