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 The refuge on high ground (23:50), covering 23:50.
On 23:50
His words, Exalted: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50). The discussion of this has already been given in al-Anbiyāʾ.1
and We sheltered them on a height, a place of rest with flowing water (23:50). The height (rabwah) is an elevated place of the earth, and this has already been treated in al-Baqarah.2 What is meant by it here, according to the statement of Abū Hurayrah, is Palestine; and from him also, al-Ramlah,3 and this is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn al-Musayyab and Ibn Salām said: Damascus. Kaʿb and Qatādah said: Jerusalem. Kaʿb said: it is the nearest part of the earth to heaven, by eighteen miles. The poet said:
And I would be ashes beneath a grave upon a height, where the south wind and the north wind pass over me by turns.
Ibn Zayd said: Egypt. Sālim al-Afṭas related from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr concerning and We sheltered them on a height (23:50) that he said: rising ground.
a place of rest (23:50), that is, level ground upon which one may settle. It has been said: possessed of fruits, and on account of the fruits its inhabitants settle in it.
with flowing water (23:50): running water visible to the eyes. One says maʿīn and muʿun, just as one says raghīf and rughuf; ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān said this. Al-Zajjāj said: it is the water that runs in springs, so that the mīm on this view is an added letter, like its addition in mabīʿ; and likewise the mīm is added according to the view of those who say it is the water which is seen by the eye. It has been said that it is of the pattern faʿīl in the sense of mafʿūl. ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān said: one says maʿana l-māʾ when water flows, so it is maʿīn and maʿyūn. Ibn al-Aʿrābī said: maʿana l-māʾu yamʿanu muʿūnan when it flows and runs easily; also amʿana, and amʿantuhu; and miyāh muʿnān, “flowing waters”.
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.
The refuge on high ground (23:50): all commentaries · The classical commentaries