Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān, by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH / 923 CE). The earliest of the great commentaries to survive whole. Al-Ṭabarī sets out every opinion he knows on a verse with its chain of transmission, then rules between them. His reports on 4:157 are the oldest record of how the substitution at the cross was understood.
The complete commentary on The refuge on high ground (23:50), covering 23:50.
On 23:50
On the interpretation of His words: And We did give Moses the Scripture, that they might be guided. (49) And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign, and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water (50) (23:49–50)
God, Exalted be His mention, says: And We gave Moses the Torah, that his people of the Children of Israel might be guided by it and act according to what is in it. And We made the son of Mary and his mother: He says, and We made the son of Mary and his mother a proof for Us against those who lived among them, and of Our power to bring bodies into being without an origin, just as We brought the creation of Jesus into being without a father; as in:
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words And We made the son of Mary and his mother, he said: she bore him without any father of his; and for that reason “sign” is made singular, although He has mentioned Mary and her son.
As for His words and We gave them refuge upon a height: He says, and We gathered them in and brought them to a height. One says “so-and-so took refuge (awā) in such-and-such a place, and he takes refuge (yaʾwī) in it”, when he betakes himself to it; and on the pattern of afʿaltuhu, “he gives him refuge (yuʾwīhi)”.
As for His words upon a height (rabwah): He means, to a place of the earth raised above what surrounds it; and for that reason it is said of a man who holds an elevated station among his people, with might, honour and numbers: “he is upon a height (rabwah) among his people”. In it there are two dialectal forms: ḍammah on the rāʾ and kasrah, when the noun is intended; and when the single act is intended, from the verbal noun, one says rabā rabwatan.
The people of interpretation differed about the place which God described with this description, and in which He gave refuge to Mary and her son. Some of them said: it is al-Ramlah in Palestine.
Those who said this
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me: Ṣafwān ibn ʿĪsā related to us: Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ related to us: a cousin of Abū Hurayrah, called Abū ʿAbd Allāh, related to me, he said: Abū Hurayrah said to us: Keep to this Ramlah of Palestine, for it is the height of which God said and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water.
ʿIṣām ibn Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāḥ related to me: my father related to us: ʿAbbād Abū ʿUtbah al-Khawwāṣ related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr al-Shaybānī related to us, from Ibn Waʿlah, from Kurayb, who said: I do not know what —
Murrah al-Bahzī related to us, that he heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) — and he mentioned that the height is al-Ramlah.
Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, from Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh the cousin of Abū Hurayrah, who said: I heard Abū Hurayrah say concerning the words of God upon a height, having a settled place and running water, he said: it is al-Ramlah of Palestine.
Ibn Bashshār related to us: Ṣafwān related to us: Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ related to us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh the cousin of Abū Hurayrah related to me, he said: Abū Hurayrah said to us: Keep to this Ramlah which is in Palestine, for it is the height of which God said and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water.
Others said: it is Damascus.
Those who said this
Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd al-Qurashī related to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, that he said concerning this verse, and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water, he said: they claimed that it is Damascus.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, who said: it has reached me, from Ibn al-Musayyab, that he said: Damascus.
Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, the like of it.
Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Sahmī related to me: Ibn Bukayr related to us: al-Layth ibn Saʿd related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lahīʿah related to me, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning His words and We gave them refuge upon a height, having a settled place and running water, he said: to a height among the heights (rubā) of Egypt. He said: and the heights are found only in Egypt; when the water is released, the villages stand upon the heights; were it not for the heights, those villages would be drowned.
Others said: it is Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis).
Those who said this
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah, who said: it is Jerusalem.
He said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah, who said: Kaʿb used to say: Jerusalem is nearer to heaven by eighteen miles.
Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Kaʿb, the like of it.
The most fitting of these opinions in the interpretation of this is that it is an elevated place, possessed of level ground and of visible water; and such is not the description of al-Ramlah, for al-Ramlah has no running water, whereas God, Exalted be His mention, described this height as having a settled place and running water.
A group of the people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.
Those who said this
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, His words and We gave them refuge upon a height, he said: the height is the level place.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, His words upon a height, he said: level.
Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.
As for His words having a settled place and running water: God, Exalted be His mention, says: among the qualities of the height in which We gave refuge to Mary and her son Jesus is that it is a spread-out land and open ground, and possessed of visible — not subterranean — flowing water.
The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.
Those who said this
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās: and running water, he said: maʿīn is flowing water, and it is the river of which God said Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24).
Muḥammad ibn ʿUmārah al-Asadī related to me: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us: Isrāʾīl informed us, from Abū Yaḥyā, from Mujāhid, concerning His words having a settled place and running water, he said: maʿīn is water.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUmārah al-Asadī related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: running water (maʿīn), he said: water.
Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.
Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me: Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt related to us: Sharīk related to us, from Sālim, from Saʿīd, concerning His words having a settled place and running water, he said: the level place; and maʿīn is visible water.
I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words and running water: it is visible water.
Others said: by “a settled place” He meant fruits.
Those who said this
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatādah: having a settled place and running water: it has fruits, and it is Jerusalem.
Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, the like of it.
Abū Jaʿfar said: This opinion which Qatādah stated concerning the meaning of having a settled place — unless he meant by his statement that it was described as “having a settled place” only on account of the fruits that are in it, and that on their account its inhabitants settle in it — has no basis that we know of. As for maʿīn, it is a passive participle (mafʿūl) from “I saw it with the eye (ʿintuhu), I see it (aʿīnuhu)”, so it is maʿīn, “seen”; and it may also be of the pattern faʿīl from maʿana yamʿanu, so it is maʿīn, from al-māʿūn. From this is the saying of ʿAbīd ibn al-Abraṣ:
A gushing spring, or a running stream flowing far, / or a hill-crag with mountain-clefts before it.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=tabari). 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 refuge on high ground (23:50): all commentaries · The classical commentaries