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.
The complete commentary on She who guarded her chastity (21:91), covering 21:91.
On 21:91
Thus does He, Exalted, join the story of Mary and her son Jesus (peace be upon him) to the story of Zachariah and his son John (peace be upon them both): He first mentions the story of Zachariah and then follows it with the story of Mary, because the former paves the way for the latter. For the former is the bringing into being of a child from an aged old man far advanced in years and from an elderly barren woman who had not borne children in the days of her youth; then He mentions the story of Mary, which is more wondrous still, for it is the bringing into being of a child from a female without a male. So it occurs in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān and in Sūrat Maryam, and here too He mentioned the story of Zachariah and then followed it with the story of Mary. So His words: And she who guarded her chastity (21:91) mean Mary (peace be upon her), as He said in Sūrat al-Taḥrīm: And Mary daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into it of Our spirit (66:12).
And His words: and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds (21:91), that is: a proof that God has power over all things and that He creates whatever He wills, and that His command, when He wills a thing, is only that He says to it “Be”, and it is (36:82). This is like His words: and that We may make him a sign for mankind (19:21).
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father related to us: ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad related to us, from Shabīb—meaning Ibn Bishr—from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: for the worlds (21:91), he said: “the worlds” are the jinn and mankind.
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.
She who guarded her chastity (21:91): all commentaries · The classical commentaries