159 Preface وَإِن مِن أَهلِ الكِتابِ إِلّا لَيُؤمِنَنَّ بِهِ قَبلَ مَوتِهِ ۖ وَيَومَ القِيامَةِ يَكونُ عَلَيهِم شَهيدًاYusuf AliAnd there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death;1 and on the Day of Judgment he will be a witness2 against them;-Before his death. Interpreters are not agreed as to the exact meaning. Those who hold that Jesus did not die (see last note) refer the pronoun “his” to Jesus. They say that Jesus is still living in the body and that he will appear just before the Final Day, after the coming of the Mahdi, when the world will be purified of sin and unbelief. There will be a final death before the final Resurrection, but all will have believed before that final death. Others think that “his” is better referred to “none of the People of the Book”, and that the emphatic form “must believe” (layu'minanna) denotes more a question of duty than of fact. (R).Cf. 4:41.