al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, by Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE). The commentary of the Andalusian jurist, which takes each verse through its legal and grammatical questions as well as its narrative.
The complete commentary on She who guarded her chastity (21:91), covering 21:91.
On 21:91
His words, Exalted: And she who guarded her chastity (21:91), that is: and mention Mary, who guarded her private parts. He mentioned her, though she is not one of the prophets, so that the mention of Jesus (peace be upon him) might be complete, and for this reason He said: and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds (21:91), and did not say “two signs”, because the meaning of the speech is: We made their condition, their affair and their story a sign for the worlds. Al-Zajjāj said: the sign in the two of them is one, because she bore him without a male. According to the position of Sībawayh the implied construction is: We made her a sign for the worlds, and We made her son a sign for the worlds, and then one was elided. According to the position of al-Farrāʾ: We made her a sign for the worlds, and her son, like His words, Majestic is His praise: and God and His Messenger are more worthy that they should please Him (9:62).1 It has been said that among her signs is that she was the first woman to be accepted as a votive offering in the house of worship; and among them, that God, Mighty and Majestic, nourished her with provision from Himself which He did not cause to pass through the hand of any of His servants; and it has been said that she never once put a breast to her mouth. guarded (aḥṣanat) means she was chaste and kept herself from indecency. It has been said that what is meant by farj is the opening of the shift, that is, no suspicion ever attached to her garment, that is, she was pure of garment; and the openings of a shift are four: the two sleeves, the upper opening and the lower. Al-Suhaylī said: so let not your imagination stray to anything other than this, for it is among the subtlest of allusions, because the Qurʾān is too pure in meaning, too weighty in wording, too subtle in allusion and too excellent in expression to intend what the imagination of the ignorant inclines towards, especially as the breathing was from the Holy Spirit by the command of the All-Holy; so annex the Holy to the All-Holy, and exalt the sanctified and purified one above lying conjecture and guesswork. so We breathed into her of Our Spirit (21:91) means: We commanded Gabriel until he breathed into the opening of her shift, and by that breath We brought the Messiah into being in her womb. This has already been treated in al-Nisāʾ2 and Maryam, so there is no point in repeating it. a sign, that is, a token and a marvel for creation, a mark of the prophethood of Jesus, and a proof of the operation of Our power in whatever We will.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=qurtubi). 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.
She who guarded her chastity (21:91): all commentaries · The classical commentaries