Is Jesus's second coming actually taught in the Qur'an, or read into it from hadith?

The Quran does point to Jesus's future role near the Hour, but the clearest, detailed doctrine of his return comes from the authentic Sunnah. The reading is not invented by later Muslims; it is the Quran read in its context and then fixed by the Prophet's (PBUH) own explanation.

The strongest form of the challenge

The challenger is right to notice that the Arabic has pronouns that require interpretation. In Qur'an 4:159, "qabla mawtihi" can be read as "before his death," but whose death? Jesus's death, or the death of each Person of the Book? Grammatically, both have been discussed.

"They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them... Rather, Allah raised him to Himself... And there is none from the People of the Book except that he will surely believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them."

Quran 4:157-159

Likewise, Qur'an 43:61 says, "Indeed, he is a sign/knowledge of the Hour." The context is about Jesus, but a critic may say the pronoun could be debated, or that the verse does not explicitly say, "Jesus will descend before the Day of Judgment." So the objection is not silly: the Quranic wording is concise, and the hadith supply the detail.

What the verses suggest in context

In Qur'an 4, the flow matters. The passage denies that Jesus was killed or crucified, says Allah raised him, then says the People of the Book will believe in him "before his death." The nearest major subject is Jesus. Many early commentators therefore understood it to mean: before Jesus dies, after his return, the false claims about him will collapse.

The alternative reading - that every individual from the People of the Book believes in Jesus at the moment of his own death - has a difficulty. Such deathbed belief would not serve the verse's larger point very well, because belief when the unseen has become visible is not the saving faith being called for. It also does not explain as naturally why Jesus will be "a witness against them" on the Day of Resurrection.

Qur'an 43 is also not isolated. The surrounding verses speak about Jesus, his example, and disputes over him. Then it says:

"And indeed, he is a sign of the Hour, so do not doubt it, and follow Me. This is a straight path."

Quran 43:61

This is not "chapter 61"; it is Qur'an 43:61. Classical recitation and tafsir connect the verse to Jesus, and many explained it as referring to his descent before the Hour. By itself, the verse is brief; in context, it is quite suggestive.

Who fixes the reading?

In Islam, the Quran is not read as a detached text with every reader starting from zero. Allah sent the Prophet (PBUH) to recite, teach, and explain the Book. So when authentic hadith clarify a Quranic passage, that is not a later rival authority; it is part of the revelation's own teaching.

"By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, the son of Mary will soon descend among you as a just ruler..."

Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

Reports about Jesus's return are found through multiple authentic routes, with wording that he will descend, judge with justice, and that his coming is tied to the end times. This is why major scholars treated the belief as established, not as a speculative guess from one ambiguous pronoun.

What this proves, and what it does not

It does not prove that Qur'an 4:159, if isolated from all Sunnah and early tafsir, is incapable of another grammatical reading. A fair reader should admit that.

But it does prove that the doctrine is not being smuggled into Islam from nowhere. The Quran preserves the premises: Jesus was not killed, Allah raised him, he has a future connection to the People of the Book, and he is a sign of the Hour. The Sunnah then makes explicit what the Quran states compactly. That is how Islamic interpretation normally works: Quran, Prophetic explanation, and the understanding transmitted by the early scholars together.

So the careful answer is this: the Quran points toward Jesus's return, while the authentic hadith make it plain and binding. The belief rests on both, not on a free-standing later legend.