al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr, by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE). Al-Suyūṭī’s collection of every transmitted report on each verse, drawn from the ḥadīth collections and the early commentaries, many of them otherwise lost.
The complete commentary on God’s favours, the table and the questioning (5:110-120), covering 5:110 to 5:120.
On 5:110
His words, Exalted: When God said: O Jesus son of Mary (5:110), the verse.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When the Day of Resurrection comes, the prophets and their communities will be summoned; then Jesus will be summoned, and God will remind him of His favour upon him, and he will acknowledge it. He will say: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother (5:110), the verse. Then He will say: Did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? (5:116). He will deny having said that. Then the Christians will be brought and questioned, and they will say: Yes, he commanded us to do that. Then the hair of Jesus will grow long, until every angel among the angels takes hold of a hair from the hair of his head and his body, and he will kneel in dispute with them before God for the measure of a thousand years, until he establishes the proof against them, the cross is raised up before them, and they are taken off to the Fire.”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported by way of Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, from Ibn Wahb, from his father, who said: A man of the People of the Book came to Yemen, and my father said: Go to him and hear from him. I said: Are you sending me off to a Christian man? He said: Yes, go to him and hear from him. So I went to him, and he said: When God raised up Jesus (peace be upon him), He stood him before Gabriel and Michael and said to him: Remember My favour upon you and upon your mother. I did such and such for you, and such and such; then I brought you forth from your mother’s womb, and I did such and such for you, and such and such. And there will be a community after you who will lay claim to you and lay claim to your lordship, and will testify that you have died—and how can there be a Lord who dies? By My might I have sworn: I shall surely bring them to account on the Day of Resurrection, and I shall surely set them in the station of a litigant facing his litigant, until they make good what they said—and they will never make it good. Then that man accepted Islam, and he brought reports the like of which I had never heard.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words: and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs (5:110): that is, the signs which He placed in his hands—the raising of the dead; his making from clay the likeness of a bird, then breathing into it so that it became a bird by God’s leave; the healing of sicknesses; and the telling of many unseen things, such as what they stored up in their houses—and what he restored to them of the Torah, together with the Gospel which God newly sent down to him. Then He mentioned their disbelief in all of that.
On 5:111
His words, Exalted: And when I inspired (5:111), the verse.
Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh reported from al-Suddī concerning His words: And when I inspired the disciples (5:111): he says: I cast it into their hearts.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Qatādah: And when I inspired the disciples (5:111): he said: an inspiration (waḥy) cast into their hearts, not the inspiration of prophethood. Inspiration is of two kinds: an inspiration which the angels bring, and an inspiration which is cast into the heart of the servant.
On 5:112-115
His words, Exalted: When the disciples said (5:112) — the verses.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿĀʾishah (may God be pleased with her), who said: The disciples knew God too well to say, “Is your Lord able?” They only said, “Are you able to ask your Lord — are you able to call upon Him?”
Al-Ḥākim — who declared it sound — al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ghanm, who said: I asked Muʿādh ibn Jabal about the saying of the disciples, Is your Lord able (hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka), or “Are you able to ask your Lord” (hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka)? He said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) taught me to recite it hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, with the tāʾ.
Abū ʿUbayd, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he recited it hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, with the tāʾ and with rabbaka in the accusative.
Abū ʿUbayd and Ibn Jarīr transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr that he recited it hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, and said: “Are you able to ask your Lord?”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī that ʿAlī used to recite it Is your Lord able (hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka); he said: Will your Lord respond to you?1
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd transmitted from Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb and Abū Rajāʾ that the two of them recited Is your Lord able, with the yāʾ and the nominative.
Ibn Jarīr transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words Is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven (5:112): he said: They said, “Will your Lord respond to you if you ask Him?” So God sent down to them a table from heaven, on which was every kind of food except meat, and they ate from it.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr concerning His words a table (māʾidah): he said: The māʾidah is the khiwān2; and concerning His words and that may be at rest (5:113): he said: that may be certain.
Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us (5:114): he says: We shall take the day on which it came down as a festival, which we and those after us shall hold in honour.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us: he said: They wanted it to be for their descendants after them.
Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī in Nawādir al-uṣūl, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh in al-ʿAẓamah, and Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī in his Fawāʾid known as al-Ghaylāniyyāt transmitted from Salmān al-Fārisī, who said: When the disciples asked Jesus son of Mary for the table, he disliked that intensely, and said: “Be content with what God has provided you on the earth, and do not ask for the table from heaven; for if it comes down to you it will be a sign from your Lord, and Thamūd perished only when they asked their prophet for a sign and were tried by it, until their destruction lay in it.” But they would accept nothing except that he bring it to them, and for that reason they said: We wish to eat from it, and that our hearts may be at rest, and that we may know that you have told us the truth, and that we may be among its witnesses (5:113). When Jesus saw that they would accept nothing but that he pray to God for it on their behalf, he stood up, cast off his wool and put on black hair-cloth, a tunic of hair and a cloak of hair; then he performed the ablution, bathed, entered his place of prayer and prayed as long as God willed. When he had finished his prayer he stood upright facing the qiblah, set his feet side by side until they were even, placing heel against heel and toe against toe, laid his right hand upon his left over his chest, lowered his gaze and bowed his head in humility. Then he let loose his eyes in weeping, and his tears did not cease to flow down his cheeks and drip from the ends of his beard, until the ground before his face was wet from his humility. When he saw that, he called upon God and said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us (5:114) — that it may be an admonition from You to us — and a sign from You, that is, a token from You which shall be between us and You; and provide us upon it food that we may eat, and You are the best of providers. So God sent down to them a red cloth (sufrah) between two clouds, a cloud above it and a cloud beneath it, while they watched it in the air plunging down from the sphere of heaven and descending towards them; and Jesus wept for fear of the conditions which God had laid upon them concerning it: that He would punish whoever among them disbelieved in it after it had come down with a punishment with which He had not punished anyone in all the worlds. And he was praying to God in his place, saying: “My God, make it a mercy; my God, do not make it a punishment; my God, how many a wondrous thing have I asked of You, and You have granted me; my God, make us thankful to You; my God, I seek refuge in You lest You should have sent it down in anger and as a scourge; my God, make it safety and well-being, and do not make it a trial and an exemplary punishment.” He did not cease praying until the cloth settled before Jesus, with the disciples and his companions around him, and they smelled a sweet fragrance the like of which they had never smelled before. Jesus and the disciples fell down prostrate to God in thanks to Him for what He had provided them from where they had not reckoned, and for having shown them in it a mighty sign full of wonder and admonition. The Jews came to look, and they saw a wondrous thing which left them in grief and distress, and then they went away in great rage. Jesus, the disciples and his companions came forward and sat down around the cloth, and behold, over it was a napkin covering it. Jesus said: “Which of us is boldest to lift the napkin from this cloth, most confident in himself and best in his standing with his Lord? Let him uncover this sign, that we may see it, praise our Lord, mention His name and eat of His provision which He has provided us.” The disciples said: “O Spirit of God and His Word, you are the worthiest of us for that, and the one most entitled among us to uncover it.” So Jesus arose and performed a fresh ablution, then entered his place of prayer and prayed some units of prayer (rakaʿāt) for that, then wept for a long time and prayed to God to permit him to uncover it and to place in it blessing and provision for him and for his people. Then he went and sat down at the cloth, took hold of the napkin and said: “In the name of God, the best of providers,” and uncovered the cloth; and behold, upon it was a huge roasted fish, with no scales upon it and no bones in its belly, from which fat flowed in a stream. Around it were arranged vegetables of every kind except leeks; at its head was vinegar and at its tail salt; and around the vegetables were five loaves, on one of which were olives, on another fruits, and on another five pomegranates. Simon, the head of the disciples, said to Jesus: “O Spirit of God and His Word, is this of the food of this world or of the food of Paradise?” He said: “Is it not time for you to take warning from the signs you see, and to desist from prying into questions? How I fear for you that you will be punished on account of this sign!” Simon said: “No, by the God of Israel, I intended no evil by it, O son of the Truthful One (al-Ṣiddīqah).” Jesus said: “Nothing of what you see upon it is of the food of Paradise, nor of the food of this world; it is only something God originated in the air by overwhelming, all-subduing power. He said to it, ‘Be,’ and it was, quicker than the blink of an eye. So eat of what you asked for, in the name of God, and praise your Lord for it, and He will supply you more of it and increase you; for He is Originator, All-Powerful, Appreciative.” They said: “O Spirit of God and His Word, we should love for you to show us a sign within this sign.” Jesus said: “Glory be to God! Were you not satisfied with what you have seen of this sign, that you should ask for yet another sign within it?” Then Jesus turned to the fish and said: “O fish, return, by God’s leave, alive as you were.” And God brought it to life by His power, and it quivered and returned, by God’s leave, alive and fresh, licking its lips as a lion licks its lips, its eyes rolling with a gleam in them, and its scales returned upon it. The people took fright at it and shrank back. When Jesus saw that from them, he said: “What is the matter with you? You ask for a sign, and when your Lord shows it to you, you loathe it. How I fear for you that you will be punished for what you are doing! O fish, return, by God’s leave, as you were.” And it returned, by God’s leave, roasted as it had been in its first created state. They said to Jesus: “O Spirit of God, be the one who begins eating from it, and then we after you.” He said: “God forbid that! Let him who asked for it begin eating.” When the disciples and their companions saw their prophet’s refusal to eat of it, they feared that its descent was out of displeasure and that in eating of it lay an exemplary punishment, so they kept away from it. When Jesus saw that, he called to it the poor and the chronically ill, and said: “Eat of your Lord’s provision and the invocation of your prophet, and praise God who sent it down for you; its benefit shall be yours and its punishment upon others. Open your eating with the name of God and close it with praise of God.” They did so, and one thousand three hundred people ate from it, men and women alike, each of them going away from it full and belching. Jesus and the disciples looked, and behold, what was on it was just as it had been when it came down from heaven, nothing diminished from it. Then it was raised up to heaven while they watched. Every poor person who ate from it became rich, and every chronically ill person among them who ate from it was cured, and they remained rich and healthy until they departed this world. The disciples and their companions who had refused to eat from it felt a remorse that made their eyelids run with tears, and the regret of it remained in their hearts until the day of death. He said: Thereafter, whenever the table came down, the Children of Israel came hastening to it from every place, jostling one another — rich and poor, women, young and old, healthy and sick — climbing over one another. When Jesus saw that, he made it come in turns among them, so that it came down one day and not the next. They remained in that state for forty days, it coming down to them on alternate days when the forenoon was high, and it would remain set out, being eaten from, until, when they declared themselves done, it was raised from them, by God’s leave, into the air of the sky, while they watched its shadow on the earth until it disappeared from them.
Then God revealed to Jesus: “Make My provision in the table for the orphans, the poor and the chronically ill, to the exclusion of the rich among the people.” When God did that, the rich grew doubtful of it and disparaged it, until they doubted it within themselves and made the people doubt it, and spread abroad foul and reprehensible talk about it. Satan obtained from them what he wanted, and cast his whispering into the hearts of the doubters until they said to Jesus: “Tell us about the table: is its coming down from heaven true? For many a man among us has come to doubt it.” Jesus said: “You have perished, by the God of the Messiah! You asked your prophet for the table, that he should seek it for you from your Lord; and when he did so, and God sent it down to you as mercy and provision and showed you in it signs and lessons, you called it a lie and doubted it. So receive tidings of punishment, for it is coming down upon you, unless God has mercy on you.” And God revealed to Jesus: “I am taking the deniers according to My condition: I shall punish whoever among them disbelieves in the table after it has come down with a punishment with which I punish no one in all the worlds.” So when the doubters in it came to the evening and took to their beds, in the finest of forms, with their wives, secure, then in the last part of the night God transformed them into swine, and in the morning they were rooting after filth in the rubbish-heaps.
Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he used to relate of Jesus son of Mary that he said to the Children of Israel: “Will you fast to God for thirty days, then ask Him, and He will give you what you ask? For the wage of the labourer is owed by him for whom he laboured.” They did so, then said: “O teacher of goodness, you told us that the wage of the labourer is owed by him for whom he laboured, and you commanded us to fast thirty days, and we did; and we never worked thirty days for anyone without his feeding us. So is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven” — up to His words anyone in all the worlds (5:112–115). Then the angels came flying with a table from heaven, upon it seven fish and seven loaves, until they set it down before them, and the last of the people ate from it as the first of them had eaten.
Al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The table was sent down from heaven as bread and meat, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful and not to store up for the morrow; but they were unfaithful, and stored up, and put away for the morrow, and so they were transformed into apes and swine.”
Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted, by another route, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, as a halted report (mawqūf), the like of it. Al-Tirmidhī said: And the halted version is the sounder.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: The table came down with fruit of the fruit of Paradise upon it.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The table was a fish and loaves.
Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah transmitted from ʿIkrimah that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Were it not for the Children of Israel, bread would not go stale nor meat go rotten; but they hid it away for the morrow, so the meat went rotten and the bread went stale.”
Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād transmitted from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven (5:114): he said: bread and fish.
Ibn al-Anbārī, and Abū al-Shaykh in al-ʿAẓamah, transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: The table came down, and it was food that steamed hot, and they used to eat from it sitting; then they did wrong, and it was raised a little, so they ate on their knees; then they did wrong, and it was raised a little, so they ate standing; then they did wrong, and it was raised altogether.
Ibn al-Anbārī transmitted from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: It was a table at which four thousand would sit. They said of a group of their lowly folk: “These people are soiling our clothes upon us; if only we built a platform for it to raise it up.” So they built a platform for it, and the weak could no longer reach anything. When they contravened the command of God, Mighty and Majestic, He raised it from them.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī, who said: The table was a fish in which was the taste of every food.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from ʿIkrimah that the bread which was sent down with the table was of rice.
Ibn Jarīr transmitted, by way of al-ʿAwfī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: There came down to Jesus son of Mary and the disciples a tray on which were bread and fish, from which they would eat wherever they alighted, whenever they wished.
Ibn Jarīr, and Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād, transmitted by way of ʿIkrimah from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the table: he said: It was food that came down to them from heaven wherever they alighted.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr transmitted from Mujāhid, who said: It is the food that came down to them wherever they alighted.
Ibn Jarīr transmitted from Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh that the table came down to Jesus son of Mary with seven loaves and seven fish upon it, from which they ate whatever they wished; then some of them stole from it, saying, “Perhaps it will not come down tomorrow,” and so it was raised.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Anbārī and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Qatādah, who said: It was mentioned to us that it was a table on which fruit of the fruits of Paradise came down, and they were commanded not to hide away, not to be unfaithful and not to store up for the morrow — a trial with which God tried them; and whenever they did any of that, Jesus would inform them of it. But the people were unfaithful in it, and hid away and stored up for the morrow.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: Everything was sent down upon the table except meat; and the māʾidah is the khiwān.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted from Maysarah and Zādhān, who both said: Whenever the table was set for the Children of Israel, hands went back and forth upon it among every kind of food.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Wahb ibn Munabbih that he was asked about the table which God sent down from heaven to the Children of Israel, and he said: There came down to them every day, on that table, some of the fruits of Paradise, and they ate what they wished of various kinds; four thousand would sit at it, and when they had eaten, God replaced it with the like of it, and they continued thus as long as God willed.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Mujāhid concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven: he said: It is a parable that was struck, and nothing came down to them.
Abū ʿUbayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted from Mujāhid, who said: A table with food upon it; they refused it when the punishment was presented to them should they disbelieve, so they refused to have it come down to them.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn al-Anbārī transmitted from al-Ḥasan, who said: When it was said to them but whoever of you disbelieves thereafter, I shall punish him with a punishment (5:115), they said: “We have no need of it,” and so it did not come down to them.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one in all the worlds (5:115): he said: It was mentioned to us that when they did with the table what they did, they were turned into swine.
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words but whoever of you disbelieves thereafter — after the table had come to him — I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one in all the worlds: he says: I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one other than the people of the table.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection are those of the people of the table who disbelieved, the hypocrites, and the house of Pharaoh.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd transmitted from ʿĀṣim that he recited I am going to send it down (5:115) as munazziluhā, with the doubled letter.
On 5:116-117
His words, Exalted: And when God said, “O Jesus” (5:116) — the verse.
Al-Tirmidhī — who declared it sound — al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Daylamī transmitted from Abū Hurayrah, who said: Jesus will put forward his argument, and it is God who will have put it into his mouth, in His words: And when God said, “O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?” (5:116). Abū Hurayrah said, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “So God put into his mouth: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to (5:116) — the whole verse.”
Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Maysarah, who said: When God said, And when God said, “O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?”, every joint in him trembled until he fell down.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ, who said: When He said, Did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?, every joint of his shifted from its place out of fear.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words Did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?: when will that be? He said: On the Day of Resurrection. Do you not see that He says: This is the Day when the truthful will profit from their truthfulness (5:119)?
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words And when God said, “O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?”: he said: When God raised Jesus son of Mary to Himself, the Christians said what they said, and claimed that Jesus had commanded them to do so. So He questioned him about his saying, and he said: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say — up to His words — and You are witness over all things (5:116–117).
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Firyābī, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ṭāwūs concerning this verse: he said: Jesus and his Lord disputed in argument, and God granted him success, and so he said: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to.
Abū al-Shaykh transmitted, by way of Ṭāwūs, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “Jesus’s Lord argued with him, so Jesus argued with his Lord, and God put his argument into his mouth with His words: Did you say to the people — the verse.”
Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “When the Day of Resurrection comes, the nations will be gathered, and every people will be called with their leader (imām).” He said: “And Jesus will be called, and He will say to Jesus: ‘O Jesus, did you say to the people, “Take me and my mother as two gods besides God”?‘ And he will say: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to — up to His words — the Day when the truthful will profit from their truthfulness (5:116–119).”
Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn Jurayj: And when God said, “O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?” — while the people were listening; and he answered Him with what you have seen, and acknowledged against himself his servanthood to Him, so that whoever used to say about Jesus what he used to say came to know that he had been speaking only falsehood.
Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words that you should worship God, my Lord and your Lord (5:117): he said: my Master and your Master.
Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted from Ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them (5:117) — as long as I was among them.”
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Aḥmad, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Ḥibbān, Abū al-Shaykh, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a sermon and said: “O people, you will be gathered to God barefoot, naked and uncircumcised.” Then he recited: As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it — a promise binding upon Us; truly We shall do it (21:104). Then he said: “Truly, the first of created beings to be clothed on the Day of Resurrection will be Abraham. And truly, men of my community will be brought and taken off to the left side, and I shall say: ‘O Lord, my companions, my companions!’ And it will be said: ‘You do not know what they innovated after you.’ Then I shall say as the righteous servant said: And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me, You were the Watcher over them (5:117). And it will be said: ‘As for these, they never ceased to turn back on their heels from the time you parted from them.’”
Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words You were the Watcher over them (5:117): he said: the Guardian.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words You were the Watcher: he said: the Guardian.
On 5:118
His words, Exalted: If You punish them (5:118) — the verse.
Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf, Aḥmad, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī in his Sunan transmitted from Abū Dharr, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed one night and recited a single verse until morning came, bowing with it and prostrating with it: If You punish them, they are Your servants (5:118) — the verse. When morning came I said: “O Messenger of God, you kept reciting this verse until morning came.” He said: “I asked my Lord for intercession for my community, and He granted it to me; and it will reach, God willing, whoever does not associate anything with God.”
Ibn Mājah transmitted from Abū Dharr, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stood in prayer with a single verse until morning came, repeating it: If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, truly You are the Mighty, the Wise (5:118).
Muslim, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā in Ḥusn al-ẓann, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ṭabarānī and al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) recited the words of God concerning Abraham: My Lord, they have led astray many of the people; so whoever follows me is of me (14:36) — the verse; and the words of Jesus son of Mary: If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, truly You are the Mighty, the Wise (5:118). Then he raised his hands and said: “O God, my community, my community!” and wept. So God said: “O Gabriel, go to Muḥammad and say: We shall satisfy you concerning your community, and We shall not grieve you.”
Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from Abū Dharr, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) spent a night interceding for his community, and he kept praying with this verse: If You punish them, they are Your servants — to the end of the verse; with it he prostrated and with it he bowed, with it he stood and with it he sat, until morning came.
Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from Abū Dharr, who said: I said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “May my father and mother be your ransom, O Messenger of God! You stood tonight with a single verse of the Qurʾān, when you have the whole Qurʾān with you; had one of us done this, we would have held it against him.” He said: “I prayed for my community.” He said: “And what answer were you given?” He said: “I was given an answer such that, if many of them came to know of it, they would abandon the prayer.” He said: “Shall I not give the people the good news?” He said: “Yes.” Then ʿUmar said: “O Messenger of God, if you send this out to the people, they will slacken in worship.” So he called out to him: “Come back!” and he came back; and he recited the verse that he had been reciting: If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, truly You are the Mighty, the Wise (5:118).
Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās: If You punish them, they are Your servants — he says: Your slaves, who have deserved punishment by their saying; and if You forgive them — that is, those of them whom You have left and whose lives have been prolonged until I am sent down from heaven to the earth to kill the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl), and they have withdrawn from their saying, declared You one, and acknowledged that we are servants; and if You forgive them, in that they have turned back from their saying, truly You are the Mighty, the Wise.
Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words If You punish them, they are Your servants: he says: If You punish them — You make them die in their Christianity, so that the punishment becomes their due — they are Your servants; and if You forgive them — bringing them out of Christianity and guiding them to Islam — truly You are the Mighty, the Wise. This was the saying of Jesus (peace be upon him) in this world.
On 5:119
His words, Exalted: God said (5:119) — the verse.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words This is the Day when the truthful will profit from their truthfulness (5:119): he said: He says: This is the Day when those who affirm God’s oneness will profit from their affirmation of His oneness.
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words God said, “This is the Day when the truthful will profit from their truthfulness”: he said: This is a separate section from the speech of Jesus, and this is on the Day of Resurrection.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Qatādah, who said: Two speakers will speak on the Day of Resurrection: the prophet of God, Jesus, and Iblīs, the enemy of God. As for Iblīs, he will say: Truly God promised you a true promise — up to His words — except that I called you and you answered me (14:22); and the enemy of God will speak truly on that day, though in this world he was a liar. As for Jesus, it is what God has recounted to you in His words: And when God said, “O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?” (5:116) — to the end of the verse. Then God said: This is the Day when the truthful will profit from their truthfulness; and he was truthful in the life of this world and after death.
On 5:120
His words, Exalted: To God belongs the dominion of the heavens (5:120) — the verse.
Abū ʿUbayd in his Faḍāʾil transmitted from Abū al-Zāhiriyyah that ʿUthmān wrote at the end of al-Māʾidah: “To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.”3
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=aldur-almanthoor). 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.
God’s favours, the table and the questioning (5:110-120): all commentaries · The classical commentaries