Allah says in the Quran, “˹They were condemned˺ for breaking their covenant, rejecting Allah’s signs, killing the prophets unjustly, and for saying, ‘Our hearts are unreceptive!’—it is Allah Who has sealed their hearts for their disbelief, so they do not believe except for a few—and for their denial and outrageous accusation against Mary, and for boasting, ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.’ But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so. Even those who argue for this ˹crucifixion˺ are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever—only making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him. Rather, Allah raised him up to Himself. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise” (Quran 4:155-158).
From reading these verses, one might wonder why Allah would make it look like Jesus PBUH was crucified. First of all, what we say as Muslims is that Allah, Glorified and Exalted, has Infinite Wisdom and Knowledge and He does things because He wants to and He knows what He is doing. Second of all, it is very important to note that Allah never says He is The One that made it appear that Jesus died, rather, Allah says, “it” was made to appear so. Therefore, it could have been the disciples who did it or someone else but The Quran actually doesn’t specify. Nevertheless, this action is clearly the fault of those Jews and not Allah. Do people really blame Allah for saving His Prophet from being killed by the hands of the disbelievers? The Jews tried to kill him, so Allah saved his Prophet Jesus Peace be upon him. Additionally, it is clear from history that there were very early Christian writings and Christians that believed Jesus was a Prophet and didn’t believe that he had died (Muslims would believe that these “Christians” would actually be called Muslims since they submitted to God and followed their Prophet, but I will call them Christians here for argument’s sake). For example, the Ebionites (years 30-80 C.E.), who were among the very earliest Christian people, believed that Jesus was just a Messiah and Prophet of God, and that the one true God is The Father. In fact, the earliest claim to say that Jesus wasn’t crucified is not Islam, rather, this claim came as early as early 2nd century from Basilides, who claimed that Simon of Cyrene was made to look like Jesus and Jesus was made to look like Simon. Some others thought that it was Judas who was on the cross and not Jesus, as mentioned in the Gospel of Judas. So saying that Allah helped start the religion of Christianity is a baseless claim, as many early Christians who believed in the true teachings of Jesus Christ knew who he was only a Prophet (it was not until hundreds of years later in 325 C.E. that the Council of Nicea officially voted and agreed that Jesus was co-equal to God), and those who tried to kill Jesus PBUH were already disbelievers. To add on to all of this, even if there was a Christian at that time who thought his Prophet Jesus actually did die and was unaware, this wouldn’t affect his or her salvation at all. They would still go to Paradise as long as they follow Jesus as their Prophet and followed the Gospel and Worshipped God as He wants to be worshipped. All of the claims that surround the crucifixion is what came after, such as raising Jesus to the divine level, the trinity, believing that Jesus died for everyone’s sins, etc. In fact, in the first 300 years of Christianity, there is not a single church father that believed in the trinity, not a single one, but after that they did start disputing the divinity of Jesus in the 4th century and that’s why they had to form more than one council. This argument is paramount to blaming Allah because He created the sun and the moon and the stars because the pagans worship them. Or why God created hitler knowing he will kill millions of people. God does whatever He does, and He has Infinite Wisdom, and He gives people free will so they can either choose The Right Path or choose misguidance. So to conclude, there are many Wisdoms behind the decisions of Allah that people can’t comprehend, but it is very clear that this action was the fault of those Jews who tried to kill Jesus PBUH, and Allah protected his Prophet from the disbelievers.
And Allah knows best.