Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, by Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE). The most read of the commentaries by ḥadīth, which explains the Qur’an by the Qur’an, then by the Prophet’s words, then by the Companions, and weighs the chains it cites.
Part 1 of 2: the commentary on The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64). The parts follow the order of the verses; this one covers 3:33-34 to 3:55-58.
On 3:33-34
God, Exalted, informs that He chose these households above all the people of the earth. He chose Adam (peace be upon him): He created him with His hand, breathed into him of His spirit, made His angels prostrate to him, taught him the names of all things, and settled him in the Garden, then sent him down from it, for the wisdom He had in that.
And He chose Noah (peace be upon him), and made him the first messenger whom He sent to the people of the earth, when people had worshipped idols and had associated in the religion of God that for which He had sent down no authority. And He took vengeance for him when his time among his people had grown long, as he called them to God night and day, in secret and openly, and that only increased them in flight; so he prayed against them, and God drowned them to the last man, and none of them was saved except whoever followed him in the religion with which God had sent him.
And He chose the family of Abraham, among whom is the master of mankind and the Seal of the Prophets absolutely, Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); and the family of ʿImrān. What is meant by this ʿImrān is the father of Mary daughter of ʿImrān, the mother of Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon them). Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār (may God have mercy on him) said: He is ʿImrān ibn Yāshim ibn Amūn ibn Mīshā ibn Ḥizqiyā ibn Aḥrīq ibn Yūtham ibn ʿAzāriyā ibn Amṣiyā ibn Yāwish ibn Ajrīhū ibn Yāzim ibn Yahfāshāṭ ibn Inshā ibn Abiyyān ibn Rukhayʿam ibn Sulaymān (Solomon) ibn Dāwūd (David)1 (peace be upon them both). So Jesus (peace be upon him) is of the progeny of Abraham, as its explanation will come in Sūrat al-Anʿām, God willing, and in Him is our trust.
On 3:35-36
This wife of ʿImrān is the mother of Mary daughter of ʿImrān (peace be upon her), and she is Ḥannah bint Fāqūdh. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: She was a woman who did not conceive. One day she saw a bird feeding its chick, and she longed for a child, so she prayed to God, Mighty and Majestic, to grant her a child, and God answered her prayer. Her husband lay with her and she conceived by him, and when she was certain of the pregnancy she vowed it to be consecrated (3:35), that is, devoted purely and set free for worship and for the service of the Holy House (Bayt al-Maqdis). So she said: My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, consecrated; so accept it from me. Indeed You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing (3:35), that is: the Hearer of my supplication, the Knower of my intention. She did not know whether what was in her womb was male or female. And when she delivered her, she said: My Lord, I have delivered a female, and God knows best what she delivered (3:36). It is read with the tāʾ vowelled with ḍammah (waḍaʿtu, “what I delivered”), as the tāʾ of the first person, so that this is part of the completion of her speech; and it is read with the tāʾ unvowelled (waḍaʿat, “what she delivered”), so that it is the speech of God, Mighty and Majestic. And the male is not like the female (3:36), that is, in strength and endurance in worship and in the service of the Farthest Mosque (al-Masjid al-Aqṣā). And I have named her Mary (3:36): in this is proof of the permissibility of naming on the day of birth, as is apparent from the context, because it is the law of those before us, and it has been related as approved; and by that the Sunnah is established from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), where he said: “A child was born to me tonight, and I have named him with the name of my father Abraham.” The two of them recorded it.2 Likewise it is established in both of them that Anas ibn Mālik took his brother, when his mother gave birth to him, to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), and he rubbed his palate with chewed dates (taḥnīk) and named him ʿAbd Allāh. And in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: that a man said: O Messenger of God, a child has been born to me, so what shall I name him? He said: “The name of your child is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.” It is also established in the Ṣaḥīḥ that when Abū Usayd came to him with his son so that he might rub his palate, he became distracted from him, and his father ordered him to be taken back to their house; and when the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) remembered, in the gathering, he named him al-Mundhir.
As for the ḥadīth of Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, from Samurah ibn Jundub, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every boy is held in pledge by his ʿaqīqah: it is slaughtered for him on his seventh day, and he is named, and his head is shaved”, Aḥmad and the authors of the Sunan related it, and al-Tirmidhī graded it sound (ṣaḥīḥ) with this wording; and it is also related as “and he is smeared with blood” (yudammā), though the former is more firmly established and better preserved. And God knows best. Likewise what al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār related in the Book of Genealogy: that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) performed the ʿaqīqah for his son Ibrāhīm on his seventh day and named him Ibrāhīm. Its chain is not established, and it contradicts what is in the Ṣaḥīḥ; and were it sound, it would be interpreted as meaning that he made his name public on that day. And God knows best.
His words, informing of the mother of Mary, that she said: And I seek refuge for her with You, and for her offspring, from Satan the accursed (3:36), that is: she sought refuge for her with God, Mighty and Majestic, from the evil of Satan, and she sought refuge for her offspring, namely her son Jesus (peace be upon him). And God answered her in that, as ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, from Ibn al-Musayyab, from Abū Hurayrah (may God be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “There is no newborn that is born but Satan touches it when it is born, so that it begins by crying out from his touching it, except Mary and her son.” Then Abū Hurayrah would say: Recite, if you wish: And I seek refuge for her with You, and for her offspring, from Satan the accursed (3:36). The two of them recorded it from the ḥadīth of ʿAbd al-Razzāq. Ibn Jarīr related it from Aḥmad ibn al-Faraj, from Baqiyyah, from al-Zubaydī, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), with similar wording. And he related it from the ḥadīth of Qays, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “There is no newborn but Satan has squeezed it, one squeeze or two, except Jesus son of Mary, and Mary.” Then the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) recited: And I seek refuge for her with You, and for her offspring, from Satan the accursed (3:36).
And from the ḥadīth of al-ʿAlāʾ, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah. Muslim related it from Abū al-Ṭāhir, from Ibn Wahb, from ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith, from Abū Yūnus, from Abū Hurayrah. Wahb also related it, from Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from ʿAjlān the client (mawlā) of al-Mishmaʿall, from Abū Hurayrah. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related it, from Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qusayṭ, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), with the substance of the ḥadīth. And thus al-Layth ibn Saʿd related it, from Jaʿfar ibn Rabīʿah, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hurmuz al-Aʿraj, who said: Abū Hurayrah said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every child of Adam, Satan pierces in his side when his mother gives birth to him, except Jesus son of Mary: he went to pierce him, and pierced the veil.”
On 3:37
Our Lord informs that He accepted her from her mother as a votive offering (nadhīrah), and that He caused her to grow in a goodly growth (3:37), that is: He made her of comely form and delightful appearance, eased for her the means of acceptance, and joined her with the righteous among His servants, learning from them goodness, knowledge and religion. For this reason He said: and Zachariah took charge of her (wa-kafalahā Zakariyyā) (3:37); and in one reading, and He gave Zachariah charge of her (wa-kaffalahā Zakariyyā), with the fāʾ doubled and Zakariyyā in the accusative as the object, that is: He made him her guardian.
Ibn Isḥāq said: That was only because she was an orphan. Others mentioned that the Children of Israel were struck by a year of drought, and Zachariah took charge of Mary because of that. There is no contradiction between the two statements. And God knows best.
God only decreed that Zachariah be her guardian for her felicity, that she might draw from him abundant beneficial knowledge and righteous action; and because he was the husband of her maternal aunt, according to what Ibn Isḥāq, Ibn Jarīr and others mentioned. And it was said: the husband of her sister, as occurs in the Ṣaḥīḥ: “and there were John and Jesus, and they are the sons of two sisters (maternal cousins)”. This may also be applied loosely to what Ibn Isḥāq mentioned. On this basis, she was in the custody of her maternal aunt. It is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ruled, concerning ʿUmārah bint Ḥamzah, that she be in the custody of her maternal aunt, the wife of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, and he said: “The maternal aunt is in the position of the mother.”
Then He, Exalted, informed of her eminence and her majesty in the place of her worship, saying: Whenever Zachariah entered upon her in the sanctuary, he found provision with her (3:37). Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Qatādah, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī, al-Suddī and al-Shaʿbī said: meaning he found with her the fruit of summer in winter and the fruit of winter in summer. And from Mujāhid: he found provision with her, that is, knowledge; or he said: scrolls containing knowledge. Ibn Abī Ḥātim related it; the first is more correct, and in it is proof of the miracles (karāmāt) of the saints (awliyāʾ). In the Sunnah there are many parallels to this. So when Zachariah saw this with her, he said: O Mary, whence is this for you? (3:37), that is, he says: from where do you have this? She said: It is from God. Indeed God provides for whom He wills without reckoning (3:37).
The ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā said: Sahl ibn Zanjalah related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lahīʿah related to us, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jābir: that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) remained for days without tasting food, until that became hard upon him. He went round the houses of his wives and found nothing with any one of them. So he came to Fāṭimah and said: “O my daughter, have you anything I might eat, for I am hungry?” She said: No, by God, may my father and mother be your ransom. When he had left her, a neighbour of hers sent her two loaves and a piece of meat. She took it from her and put it in a bowl of hers, and said: By God, I shall certainly prefer the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) with this over myself and those with me; and they were all in need of a filling meal. So she sent Ḥasan or Ḥusayn to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), and he returned to her, and she said to him: May my father and mother be your ransom, God has brought something, and I have put it aside for you. He said: “Bring it here, my daughter.” She said: So I brought him the bowl. She uncovered the bowl, and behold, it was full of bread and meat. When she looked at it she was astonished, and knew that it was a blessing from God; so she praised God and invoked blessings upon His Prophet, and set it before the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him). When he saw it he praised God and said: “From where do you have this, my daughter?” She said: O my father, It is from God. Indeed God provides for whom He wills without reckoning (3:37). So he praised God and said: “Praise be to God who has made you, my daughter, like the mistress of the women of the Children of Israel; for whenever God provided her with something and she was asked about it, she would say: It is from God. Indeed God provides for whom He wills without reckoning (3:37).” Then the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) sent for ʿAlī; then the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) ate, and ʿAlī, Fāṭimah, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn ate, and all the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the people of his household, all of them, until they were full. She said: And the bowl remained as it was, and I gave generously from what remained of it to all the neighbours, and God placed in it blessing and abundant good.
On 3:38-41
When Zachariah (peace be upon him) saw that God, Exalted, was providing Mary (peace be upon her) with the fruit of winter in summer and the fruit of summer in winter, he then yearned for a child, even though he was an aged old man whose bones had weakened and grown feeble and whose head was aflame with white hair, and even though his wife was, in addition to that, old and barren; yet despite all this he asked his Lord and called upon Him with a secret call, and said: My Lord, grant me from Yourself (3:38), that is, from Your presence, a goodly offspring (3:38), that is, a righteous child; indeed You are the Hearer of supplication (3:38).
God, Exalted, said: So the angels called to him while he was standing in prayer in the sanctuary (3:39), that is: the angels addressed him directly, with an address they made him hear, while he was standing praying in the sanctuary of his worship, the place of his seclusion, and the seat of his intimate converse and his prayer. Then He informed of what the angels announced to him: that God gives you glad tidings of John (3:39), that is, of a child who will come into being for you from your loins, whose name is John (Yaḥyā). Qatādah and others said: He was named Yaḥyā only because God, Exalted, gave him life (aḥyāhu) through faith.
His words: confirming a Word from God (3:39). Al-ʿAwfī and others related from Ibn ʿAbbās, and al-Ḥasan, Qatādah, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid, Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ, al-Suddī, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and others said concerning this verse, confirming a Word from God: that is, Jesus son of Mary. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas said: He was the first to believe in Jesus son of Mary. Qatādah said: and upon his way and his path. Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning His words confirming a Word from God: John and Jesus were the sons of two sisters, and the mother of John used to say to Mary: I feel that what is in my womb prostrates to what is in your womb. That is his confirmation of Jesus: his confirming him while in his mother’s womb; and he was the first to believe in Jesus, and the Word of God is Jesus, and he was older than Jesus (peace be upon him). And thus al-Suddī said too.
His words: and a master (sayyid) (3:39). Abū al-ʿĀliyah, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, Qatādah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and others said: the wise one. Qatādah said: a master in knowledge and worship. Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Thawrī and al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: the master is the wise, God-fearing one. Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab said: he is the jurist, the learned one. ʿAṭiyyah said: the master in his character and his religion. ʿIkrimah said: he is the one whom anger does not overcome. Ibn Zayd said: he is the noble one. Mujāhid and others said: he is the one honoured before God, Mighty and Majestic.
His words: and chaste (ḥaṣūr) (3:39). It is related from Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ and ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī that they said: He is the one who does not go in to women. And from Abū al-ʿĀliyah and al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas: he is the one to whom no child is born. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: he is the one who has no child and no seminal fluid.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father related to us: Yaḥyā ibn al-Mughīrah related to us: Jarīr informed us, from Qābūs, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the ḥaṣūr: the one who does not emit seminal fluid. Ibn Abī Ḥātim related concerning this a very strange (gharīb) ḥadīth, saying: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ghālib al-Baghdādī related to us: Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān related to me: ʿUbādah, meaning Ibn al-ʿAwwām, related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Ibn al-ʿĀṣ (he did not know whether ʿAbd Allāh or ʿAmr), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) concerning His words and a master and chaste (3:39): he said: Then he took up something from the ground and said: “His member was like this.”
Then Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Aḥmad ibn Sinān related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī, that he heard Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, saying: There is none of God’s creation who will not meet Him with a sin, except John son of Zachariah. Then Saʿīd recited: and a master and chaste (3:39); then he took something from the ground and said: The ḥaṣūr is one whose member was like this, and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān indicated with the tip of his index finger. This is mawqūf3, and it is stronger in chain than the marfūʿ; indeed there is doubt about the soundness of the marfūʿ. And God, Glorified and Exalted, knows best.
The Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ said in his book al-Shifāʾ: Know that God’s praise of John, Exalted is He, that he was chaste, is not as some of them have said, that he was impotent or had no member; rather the skilled exegetes and the critical scholars have rejected this and said: this is a deficiency and a defect, and it is unbefitting the prophets (peace be upon them). Its meaning is only that he was protected from sins, that is, he did not commit them, as though he were restrained from them. And it was said: restraining himself from desires. And it was said: he had no desire for women.
It has become clear to you from this that the inability to have marital relations is a deficiency; the merit lies only in the desire’s being present and then subdued, either by striving, as with Jesus, or by God’s, Mighty and Majestic, sufficing one, as with John (peace be upon him). Then it is truly, for one who is given the capacity for it, fulfils the obligation in it, and is not distracted by it from his Lord, a lofty degree; and that is the degree of our Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), whom the great number of them did not distract from the worship of his Lord; rather it increased him in worship, through his guarding their chastity, his maintaining them, his earning for them and his guiding them. Indeed he declared that it was not among his own worldly portions, even if it was among the worldly portions of others, saying: “Made beloved to me of your world…”4
This is his wording. The point is that He praised John as being ḥaṣūr, not in the sense that he did not go in to women; rather its meaning, as he and others have said, is that he was protected from indecencies and filthy acts. That does not preclude his marrying lawful women, going in to them and begetting children by them. Indeed the existence of progeny for him may be understood from the foregoing supplication of Zachariah, where he said: grant me from Yourself a goodly offspring (3:38), as though he said: a child who will have offspring, progeny and descendants. And God, Glorified and Exalted, knows best.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father related to us: ʿĪsā ibn Ḥammād Zughbah and Muḥammad ibn Salamah al-Murādī related to us; they both said: Ḥajjāj related to us, from Salmān ibn al-Qamarī, from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān, from al-Qaʿqāʿ, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every son of Adam will meet God with a sin he has committed, for which He will punish him, if He wills, or show him mercy, except John son of Zachariah, for he was a master and chaste and a prophet from among the righteous.” Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) reached down to a speck on the ground, took it, and said: “His member was like this speck.”
His words: and a prophet from among the righteous (3:39). This is a second glad tiding, of the prophethood of John, after the glad tiding of his birth, and it is higher than the first, like His words, Exalted, to the mother of Moses: We shall surely return him to you and make him one of the messengers (28:7). When Zachariah (peace be upon him) was certain of this glad tiding, he began to wonder at the coming into being of a child from him after old age: He said: My Lord, how shall I have a boy when old age has overtaken me and my wife is barren? He said (3:40), that is, the angel: Thus; God does what He wills (3:40), that is: such is the command of God, mighty; nothing incapacitates Him and no matter is too great for Him.
He said: My Lord, appoint for me a sign (3:41), that is, a token by which I may know of the coming into being of the child from me. He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture (3:41), that is, by signalling, unable to utter speech, even though you are sound and healthy, as in His words: three nights, though sound (19:10). Then he was commanded to abundant remembrance, thanksgiving and glorification in this state, so He said: And remember your Lord much, and glorify Him in the evening and the early morning (3:41). Another portion of the elaboration of this subject will come at the beginning of Sūrat Maryam, God willing, Exalted is He.
On 3:42-44
This is a report from God, Exalted, of what the angels addressed to Mary (peace be upon her), by God’s command to them to do so: that God had chosen her, that is, selected her for the abundance of her worship, her asceticism, her nobility and her purity from impurities and whisperings; and He chose her a second time, time after time, for her majesty above the women of the worlds.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning His words Indeed God has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42): he said: Abū Hurayrah used to relate from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): “The best women who have ridden camels are the women of Quraysh: the most tender towards a child in its infancy, and the most careful of a husband in what he possesses. And Mary daughter of ʿImrān never rode a camel.” They did not record it by this route, except Muslim, who related it from Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, both from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, with it.
Hishām ibn ʿUrwah said, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may God be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The best of its women is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadījah bint Khuwaylid.” The two of them recorded it in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of Hishām, with it, in the same words.
Al-Tirmidhī said: Abū Bakr ibn Zanjawayh related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us: Maʿmar related to us, from Qatādah, from Anas, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Sufficient for you among the women of the worlds are Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, Fāṭimah bint Muḥammad and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh.” Al-Tirmidhī alone related it, and he graded it sound (ṣaḥīḥ).
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Rāzī said, from his father, who said: Thābit al-Bunānī used to relate from Anas ibn Mālik that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The best women of the worlds are four: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh, Khadījah bint Khuwaylid and Fāṭimah the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him).” Ibn Mardawayh related it.
Ibn Mardawayh related by way of Shuʿbah, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, from his father, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except three: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh, and Khadījah bint Khuwaylid; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd5 over all other food.”
Ibn Jarīr said: al-Muthannā related to me: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to us: Shuʿbah related to us: ʿAmr ibn Murrah related to us: I heard Murrah al-Hamdānī with a ḥadīth from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh.” The Group6 recorded it, except Abū Dāwūd, by various routes from Shuʿbah, with it. The wording of al-Bukhārī is: “Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh and Mary daughter of ʿImrān; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd over all other food.”
I have exhaustively treated the routes of this ḥadīth and its wordings in the story of Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon them both) in our book al-Bidāyah wa-l-nihāyah, and to God belong praise and favour.
Then He, Exalted, informed of the angels: that they commanded her to abundant worship, humility, submission, prostration, bowing and perseverance in works, because of what God, Exalted, intended for her of the matter He had decreed and ordained, in which was a trial for her and elevation in both abodes, through what God, Exalted, manifested in her of His tremendous power, in that He created from her a child without a father. So He, Exalted, said: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate, and bow with those who bow (3:43). As for devout obedience (qunūt), it is obedience in humility, as He, Exalted, said: Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth; all are devoutly obedient to Him (2:116).
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Wahb informed us: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed me that Darrāj Abū al-Samḥ related to him, from Abū al-Haytham, from Abū Saʿīd, from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “Every word in the Qurʾān in which qunūt is mentioned means obedience.” Ibn Jarīr related it from the ḥadīth of Ibn Lahīʿah, from Darrāj, with it; and there is something objectionable (nakārah) in it.
Mujāhid said: Mary (peace be upon her) used to stand until her ankles swelled. And qunūt is the lengthening of bowing in prayer, meaning in compliance with His words, Exalted: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord (3:43). Indeed al-Ḥasan said: meaning, worship your Lord. and prostrate, and bow with those who bow (3:43), that is, be one of them.
Al-Awzāʿī said: She remained fixed in her sanctuary, bowing, prostrating and standing, until the yellow fluid flowed down into her feet (may God be pleased with her).
The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir mentioned in her biographical entry, by way of Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Kudaymī, about whom there is criticism: ʿAlī ibn Baḥr ibn Barrī related to us: al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, from al-Awzāʿī, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, concerning His words O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate (3:43): he said: She prostrated until the yellow fluid flowed down into her eyes.
Ibn Abī al-Dunyā mentioned: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us: Ḍamrah related to us, from Ibn Shawdhab, who said: Mary (peace be upon her) used to perform the full ablution (ghusl) every night.
Then He, Exalted, said to His Messenger (upon him be the most excellent blessings and peace), after He had acquainted him with the plain truth of the matter: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44), that is, We narrate it to you. And you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, nor were you with them when they disputed (3:44), that is: you were not with them, O Muḥammad, so as to inform them of what took place as an eyewitness; rather God acquainted you with that, as though you were present and witnessing what happened in their affair when they drew lots over Mary as to which of them should take charge of her; and that was out of their desire for the reward.
Ibn Jarīr said: al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazzah, that he informed him from ʿIkrimah (and Abū Bakr, from ʿIkrimah), who said: Then she went out with her, meaning the mother of Mary with Mary, carrying her in her swaddling cloths, to the sons of al-Kāhin ibn Hārūn, the brother of Moses (peace be upon them both). He said: and they in those days had charge in the Holy House of what the keepers (ḥajabah) have charge of in the Kaʿbah. And she said to them: Take this votive offering, for I have consecrated her, and she is my daughter; and no menstruating woman may enter the church, and I shall not take her back to my house. They said: This is the daughter of our imām (for ʿImrān used to lead them in prayer) and the one in charge of our sacrifice. Zachariah said: Hand her over to me, for her maternal aunt is my wife. They said: We are not content with that; she is the daughter of our imām. So that is when they drew lots over her with their pens, with which they wrote the Torah, and Zachariah won the lot against them, and so he took charge of her.
ʿIkrimah has also mentioned, as have al-Suddī, Qatādah, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas and more than one other, the narrative of some of them running into that of others, that they went to the river Jordan and drew lots there, on the condition that they would cast their pens into it, and whichever one’s pen held firm in the flow of the water would be her guardian. So they cast their pens, and the water carried them away, except the pen of Zachariah, which held firm. And it is said that it went upstream, cleaving the flow of the water. And in addition to that he was their elder and their master, their scholar, their imām and their prophet, the blessings and peace of God be upon him and upon all the other prophets and messengers.
On 3:45-47
This is a glad tiding from the angels to Mary (peace be upon her) that there would come into being from her a great child, having a great standing. God, Exalted, said: When the angels said: O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him (3:45), that is, of a child whose existence will be by a Word from God, that is, by His saying to him “Be”, and he is. This is the interpretation of His words confirming a Word from God (3:39), as the majority have stated, according to what has already been explained. whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45), that is, he will be famous by this in the world; the believers will know him by that.
He was named the Messiah (al-Masīḥ), some of the predecessors (salaf) said, because of the abundance of his travelling (siyāḥah). And it was said: because he was flat-footed (masīḥ al-qadamayn), that is, with no arch to his feet. And it was said: because whenever he wiped (masaḥa) anyone afflicted with an infirmity, he was cured by the permission of God, Exalted.
His words Jesus son of Mary (3:45) are an attribution of him to his mother, since he had no father. Eminent in this world and the Hereafter, and among those brought near (3:45), that is, he has eminence and standing with God in this world, through the law that God reveals to him and the Book He sends down to him, and other things He has bestowed upon him; and in the abode of the Hereafter he will intercede with God for whomever He permits him to intercede for, and it will be accepted from him, following the example of his brothers among the messengers of firm resolve (ulū al-ʿazm), the blessings of God be upon them.
His words: And he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity (3:46), that is, he will call to the worship of God alone, without partner, in the state of his infancy, as a miracle and a sign, and in the state of his maturity, when God reveals that to him. and he will be among the righteous (3:46), that is, in his speech and his action; he has sound knowledge and righteous action.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said, from Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qusayṭ, from Muḥammad ibn Shuraḥbīl, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “No newborn has spoken in its infancy except Jesus and the companion of Jurayj.”7
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Abū al-Ṣaqr Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Qazʿah related to us: al-Ḥusayn, meaning al-Marwazī, related to us: Jarīr, meaning Ibn Ḥāzim, related to us, from Muḥammad, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “None spoke in the cradle except three: Jesus, a boy who lived in the time of Jurayj, and another boy.”
When she heard the angels’ glad tiding to her of that, from God, Mighty and Majestic, she said in her intimate converse: My Lord, how shall I have a child when no man has touched me? (3:47). She says: How can this child come into being from me when I have no husband, it is not my intention to marry, and I am no unchaste woman? God forbid! So the angel said to her, from God, Mighty and Majestic, in answer to this question: Thus; God creates what He wills (3:47), that is: such is the command of God, mighty; nothing incapacitates Him. Here He stated explicitly, with His words creates, and did not say “does”, as in the story of Zachariah; rather He expressly stated here that He creates, so that no doubt might remain; and He confirmed that with His words: When He decrees a matter, He only says to it “Be”, and it is (3:47), that is: it is not delayed at all, but comes into being immediately after the command, without respite, like His words, Exalted: And Our command is but one, like the glance of an eye (54:50), that is: We command only once, with no repetition in it, and that thing comes to be swiftly, like the glance of an eye.
On 3:48-51
He, Exalted, says, informing of the completion of the angels’ glad tiding to Mary concerning her son Jesus (peace be upon him), that God will teach him the Book and the Wisdom (3:48). The apparent meaning is that what is meant by the Book here is writing. As for the Wisdom, discussion of its interpretation has preceded in Sūrat al-Baqarah.
and the Torah and the Gospel (3:48). The Torah is the Book which God sent down to Moses son of ʿImrān, and the Gospel is that which God sent down to Jesus (peace be upon them both); and Jesus (peace be upon him) used to have both this and that by heart.
His words: and a messenger to the Children of Israel (3:49), that is: and He will make him a messenger to the Children of Israel, saying to them: I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: that I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by the permission of God (3:49). And so he used to do: he would fashion from clay the shape of a bird, then breathe into it, and it would fly before their eyes by the permission of God, Mighty and Majestic, who made this a miracle indicating that God had sent him.
And I heal the one born blind (al-akmah) (3:49). It was said: he is the one who sees by day and does not see by night. And it was said: the reverse. And it was said: he is the one of weak sight (al-aʿshā). And it was said: the bleary-eyed (al-aʿmash). And it was said: he is the one who is born blind; and this is the most fitting, because it is more far-reaching as a miracle and stronger as a challenge. and the leper (3:49) is well known.
And I give life to the dead by the permission of God (3:49). Many scholars said: God sent every one of the prophets with a miracle suited to the people of his age. What prevailed in the time of Moses (peace be upon him) was sorcery and the veneration of sorcerers, so God sent him with a miracle that dazzled the eyes and bewildered every sorcerer; and when they were certain that it was from the Tremendous, the Compeller, they submitted to Islam and became among the pious. As for Jesus (peace be upon him), he was sent in the age of physicians and the masters of natural science, so he brought them signs to which no one has any means, unless he be supported by the One who laid down the Law. For whence has a physician the power to give life to inanimate matter, or to cure the one born blind and the leper, or to raise up one who is held in his grave until the Day of Mutual Calling? Likewise Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): God sent him in the age of the eloquent and the rhetoricians and the masterly poets, and he brought them a Book from God, Mighty and Majestic, such that if mankind and the jinn gathered together to produce its like, or ten sūrahs like it, or a single sūrah like it, they could never do so, even if they were helpers one to another; and that is only because the speech of the Lord never resembles the speech of creatures.
His words: And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses (3:49), that is: I tell you what one of you has just eaten, and what he has stored in his house for the morrow. Indeed in that (3:49), that is, in all of that, is a sign for you (3:49), that is, of my truthfulness in what I have brought you, if you are believers (3:49).
And confirming what was before me of the Torah (3:50), that is, affirming it for them and establishing it. and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you (3:50): in this is proof that Jesus (peace be upon him) abrogated (nasakha) part of the law of the Torah, and this is the correct one of the two views. Some scholars said: he did not abrogate any of it; he only made lawful for them some of what they had disputed over and erred in, and uncovered for them what had been concealed in that, as He said in the other verse: and to make clear to you some of that in which you differ (43:63). And God knows best.
Then he said: And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord (3:50), that is, with a proof and an indication of my truthfulness in what I say to you. So fear God and obey me. Indeed God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him (3:50-51), that is: I and you are equal in servitude to Him and in submission and humble resort to Him. This is a straight path (3:51).
On 3:52-54
He, Exalted, says: And when Jesus perceived (3:52), that is, sensed from them a resolve upon disbelief and persistence in error, he said: Who are my helpers towards God? (3:52). Mujāhid said: that is, who will follow me towards God? Sufyān al-Thawrī and others said: who are my helpers along with God? The statement of Mujāhid is closer.
The apparent meaning is that he intended: who are my helpers in calling to God? As the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say in the seasons of the pilgrimage, before he emigrated: “Who is a man who will give me shelter so that I may convey the words of my Lord? For Quraysh have prevented me from conveying the words of my Lord.” Until he found the Anṣār, who sheltered him and supported him, and he emigrated to them, and they comforted him and protected him from black and red alike. Likewise Jesus son of Mary: a group of the Children of Israel answered his call, believed in him, backed him and supported him, and followed the light that was sent down with him. For this reason He, Exalted, said, informing of them: The disciples said: We are the helpers of God; we believe in God, so bear witness that we are Muslims. Our Lord, we believe in what You have sent down, and we follow the Messenger, so write us among the witnesses (3:52-53). The disciples (al-ḥawāriyyūn): it was said that they were fullers (qaṣṣārūn); and it was said that they were so named for the whiteness of their garments; and it was said: fishermen. The correct view is that the ḥawārī is the helper, as is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs: that when the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) called upon the people on the day of the Confederates, al-Zubayr answered the call; then he called upon them, and al-Zubayr answered; then he called upon them, and al-Zubayr answered; and he said: “Every prophet has a disciple (ḥawārī), and my disciple is al-Zubayr.”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj related to us: Wakīʿ related to us: Isrāʾīl related to us, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words so write us among the witnesses (3:53): he said: with the community of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). This is a good chain.
Then He, Exalted, said, informing of the chiefs of the Children of Israel, regarding what they intended of assassinating Jesus (peace be upon him), and of intending harm and crucifixion against him, when they conspired against him and denounced him to the king of that age, who was an unbeliever. They reported to him that here was a man who was leading people astray, turning them from obedience to the king, corrupting the subjects, and separating father from son, and other such things that they hung round their own necks and falsely accused him of, and that he was the child of an adulteress, until they stirred up the king’s anger, and he sent in search of him those who would seize him, crucify him and make an example of him. When they surrounded his house and thought that they had got hold of him, God delivered him from their midst and raised him from the skylight of that house to heaven, and God cast his likeness upon a man who was with him in the house. When those people entered, they took him, in the darkness of the night, to be Jesus (peace be upon him), so they seized him, humiliated him and crucified him, and placed thorns upon his head. This was part of God’s plotting against them, for He saved His Prophet and raised him from among them, and left them wandering blindly in their error, believing that they had got hold of their quarry; and God lodged in their hearts a hardness and an obstinacy against the truth that clings to them, and bequeathed to them an abasement that will not leave them until the Day of Mutual Calling. For this reason He, Exalted, said: And they plotted, and God plotted; and God is the best of plotters (3:54).
On 3:55-58
The commentators differed concerning His words: I am going to take you and raise you to Myself (3:55). Qatādah and others said: this is a case of inversion of word order (al-muqaddam wa-l-muʾakhkhar), its sense being: I am going to raise you to Myself and take you, that is, after that.
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: I am going to take you (3:55), that is: I am going to cause you to die.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: God took him for three hours of the day when God raised him to Himself.
Ibn Isḥāq said: The Christians claim that God took him for seven hours and then brought him back to life.
Isḥāq ibn Bishr said, from Idrīs, from Wahb: God caused him to die for three days, then raised him up, then raised him to Himself.
Maṭar al-Warrāq said: “taking you” from this world, and it is not the taking of death. Ibn Jarīr said likewise: his taking is his being raised.
The majority said: what is meant by the taking (wafāh) here is sleep, as He, Exalted, said: It is He who takes you by night, and He knows what you have earned by day (6:60); and He, Exalted, said: God takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that have not died, in their sleep; then He retains those on which He has decreed death and sends the others back until an appointed term. Surely in that are signs for a people who reflect (39:42). And the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say, when he rose from sleep: “Praise be to God, who has given us life after He caused us to die, and to Him is the resurrection.” And God, Exalted, said: and for their disbelief, and their uttering against Mary a tremendous slander, and their saying: We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God, up to His words, Exalted: and they did not kill him for certain. Rather, God raised him to Himself, and God is Mighty, Wise. And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:156-159). The pronoun in His words before his death refers to Jesus (peace be upon him), that is: there is none of the People of the Book but will believe in Jesus before the death of Jesus, and that will be when he descends to the earth before the Day of Resurrection, as will be explained in due course; at that time all the People of the Book will believe in him, because he will abolish the poll-tax (jizyah) and accept nothing but Islam.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: my father related to us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father: al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas related to us, from al-Ḥasan, that he said concerning His words I am going to take you (3:55): he means the taking of sleep; God raised him in his sleep. Al-Ḥasan said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the Jews: “Jesus has not died, and he is returning to you before the Day of Resurrection.”
And His words, Exalted: and purify you from those who disbelieved (3:55), that is: by My raising you to heaven; and make those who followed you above those who disbelieved until the Day of Resurrection (3:55). And so it came to pass. For when God raised the Messiah (peace be upon him) to heaven, his companions split into sects after him. Among them were those who believed in that with which God had sent him, namely that he was the servant of God, His messenger and the son of His handmaid; among them were those who went to extremes concerning him and made him the son of God; others said: he is God; and others said: he is the third of three. God has recounted their sayings in the Qur’an and refuted every party. They continued thus for nearly three hundred years; then there arose among them a king of the kings of the Greeks called Constantine, who entered the religion of Christianity—it was said, as a stratagem in order to corrupt it, for he was a philosopher; and it was said, out of ignorance on his part—save that he altered for them the religion of the Messiah and distorted it, adding to it and subtracting from it. The canons were laid down for him, and the Great Trust8—which is in truth the Contemptible Treachery—; in his time the flesh of swine was made lawful, they prayed for him towards the east, they adorned the churches with images for him, and they added ten days to their fast on account of a sin he had committed, as they claim. Thus the religion of the Messiah became the religion of Constantine, except that he built for them churches, temples, cells and monasteries numbering more than twelve thousand places of worship, and he built the city that is named after him, and the Melkite party among them followed him. In all this they were dominant over the Jews; God supported them against them because they were nearer to the truth than they, even though all of them were unbelievers—upon them be the curses of God.
Then when God sent Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), those who believed in him believed in God, His angels, His books and His messengers in the true manner, and so they were the followers of every prophet on the face of the earth, since they had affirmed the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, the Seal of the Messengers and the master of the children of Adam, who called them to affirm the whole of the truth. So they were more entitled to every prophet than his own community, who claim to be upon his creed and his way, despite what they have distorted and altered.
Then, even if none of that were so, God had abrogated by his law the law of all the messengers, through the true religion with which He sent Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), which will not be changed or altered until the coming of the Hour, and which will remain standing, victorious and prevailing over every religion. For this reason God opened for his Companions the eastern parts of the earth and its western parts; they took possession of all the kingdoms, all the states submitted to them, they broke Chosroes and cut Caesar short, and they stripped the two of them of their treasures, which were spent in the way of God, just as their Prophet had informed them of this from their Lord, Mighty and Majestic, in His words: God has promised those of you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely make them successors in the earth, as He made those before them successors, and will surely establish for them their religion which He has approved for them, and will surely give them in exchange security after their fear, to the end of the verse (24:55). And for this reason, since they were the true believers in the Messiah, they stripped the Christians of the lands of Syria and drove them out to the land of the Romans, and they took refuge in their city, Constantinople; and Islam and its people will remain above them until the Day of Resurrection. The Truthful One, whose truth is confirmed, informed his community that the last of them will conquer Constantinople, take as spoil the wealth that is in it, and slay the Romans in an exceedingly great slaughter, the like of which people have never seen, nor will they see its equal afterwards. I have compiled a separate monograph on this. And for this reason He, Exalted, said: and make those who followed you above those who disbelieved until the Day of Resurrection. Then to Me is your return (3:55), that is, on the Day of Resurrection, and I shall judge between you concerning that wherein you used to differ. As for those who disbelieved, I shall punish them with a severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter, and they shall have no helpers (3:55-56). And thus did He, Exalted, do with those of the Jews who disbelieved in the Messiah, and those of the Christians who went to extremes concerning him and lauded him excessively: He punished them in this world with killing, captivity, the seizure of wealth and the removal of their hands from the kingdoms; and in the Abode of the Hereafter their punishment is harsher and more grievous, and they shall have no protector from God (13:34).
And as for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will pay them their rewards in full (3:57), that is: in this world and the Hereafter—in this world with help and victory, and in the Hereafter with the lofty gardens; and God does not love the wrongdoers (3:57).
Then He, Exalted, said: This We recite to you of the signs and the Wise Reminder (3:58), that is: this which We have related to you, O Muḥammad, concerning the affair of Jesus, the beginning of his birth and the manner of his affair, is of what God, Exalted, has said, revealed to you and sent down to you from the Preserved Tablet; there is no doubt in it and no uncertainty, as He, Exalted, said in Sūrat Maryam: That is Jesus son of Mary—the word of truth concerning which they are in doubt. It is not for God to take a son; glory be to Him! When He decrees a matter, He only says to it “Be”, and it is (19:34-35). And here He, Exalted, said:
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=ibn-katheer). Nothing is abridged: every opinion, every report with its chain of transmission, every verse of poetry and every grammatical note is translated. Qur’anic quotations are in bold; the translator’s own notes are confined to the numbered footnotes and identify names, terms and variant readings only. A second translator has not checked the rendering, and the Arabic is linked so that any passage can be compared. The modern editors’ apparatus is not part of the classical text and is not translated.
The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64): all commentaries · Part 2 → · The classical commentaries
Notes
- This is the line of the kings of Judah as given in the Bible: Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah (Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon and Josiah, with the names altered in Arabic transmission. ↩
- “The two of them” (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) is Ibn Kathīr’s regular way of saying that a ḥadīth is found in both Ṣaḥīḥ collections. ↩
- A report whose chain stops at a Companion rather than reaching the Prophet; the marfūʿ is the version attributed to the Prophet himself. ↩
- The full ḥadīth reads: “Made beloved to me of your world are women and perfume, and the coolness of my eye has been placed in prayer”, related by Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī from Anas. ↩
- A dish of bread sopped in meat broth, esteemed by the Arabs as the finest of foods. ↩
- Al-Jamāʿah: the six canonical collections, those of al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Mājah. ↩
- Jurayj was a devout worshipper among the Children of Israel who was falsely accused of fathering a child; the infant spoke and named its true father, clearing him. ↩
- Al-amānah al-kabīrah, the term used by Arabic-speaking Christians for the Creed formulated at the Council of Nicaea under Constantine; Ibn Kathīr plays on the word amānah (trust) against khiyānah (treachery). ↩