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 The son of Mary as an example (43:57-65), covering 43:57-63.
On 43:57-63
His words, Exalted: And when was cited (43:57), and the following verses.
Aḥmad, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Quraysh: “There is no one worshipped apart from God in whom there is any good.” They said: Do you not claim that Jesus was a prophet and a righteous servant among the servants of God, when the Christians have worshipped him? If you are truthful, then he is like their gods. So God sent down: And when the son of Mary was cited as an example, behold, your people cried out at it (43:57). I said: What is yaṣiddūn (“cried out”)? He said: they clamour. And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: it is the coming forth of Jesus son of Mary before the Day of Resurrection.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Qatādah, who said: When Jesus son of Mary was mentioned, Quraysh were alarmed and said: What is Muḥammad’s purpose in mentioning Jesus son of Mary? Muḥammad wants nothing but that he be treated as the Christians treated Jesus son of Mary. So God said: They cite him to you only for the sake of argument (43:58).
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Firyābī, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Mardawayh reported by several routes from Ibn ʿAbbās that he used to read it yaṣiddūn, that is, with the kasrah on the ṣād; he said: it means they clamour.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī that he read yaṣuddūn with the ḍammah on the ṣād.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibrāhīm: yaṣiddūn (43:57); he said: they turn away.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Saʿīd ibn Maʿbad, the nephew of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr al-Laythī, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said to me: What is the matter with your uncle, that he reads this verse idhā qawmuka minhu yaṣuddūn? It is not so; it is only behold, your people cried out at it (43:57): behold, they clamour; behold, they shout.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: behold, your people cried out at it (43:57); he said: they shout.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Mujāhid, al-Ḥasan and Qatādah the like of it.
Ibn Mardawayh reported from ʿAlī: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) recite yaṣiddūn with the kasrah.
Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, Aḥmad, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, al-Tirmidhī, who declared it sound, Ibn Mājah, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Ṭabarānī, al-Ḥākim, who declared it sound, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān reported from Abū Umāmah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “No people went astray after guidance they were upon except that they were given to argument.” Then he recited this: They cite him to you only for the sake of argument (43:58), to the end of the verse.
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Umāmah that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to the people while they were disputing about the Qurʾan, and he grew exceedingly angry, as though vinegar had been poured over his face, and then said: “Do not strike one part of the Book of God against another, for no people ever went astray except that they were given to argument.” Then he recited: They cite him to you only for the sake of argument (43:58), to the end of the verse. And Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Umāmah, who said: No community went astray after its prophet except that they were given to argument. Then he recited: They cite him to you only for the sake of argument (43:58).
Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr reported from Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “No people stirred up a trial (fitnah) except that they were given argument for it, and no people stirred in a trial except that they became slaughtered victims of it.”
Ibn ʿAdī and al-Kharāʾiṭī in Masāwiʾ al-Akhlāq reported from Abū Umāmah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Lying is one of the doors of hypocrisy, and the sign of hypocrisy is that a man be argumentative and contentious.”
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr reported from Qatādah, who said: When God mentioned Jesus in the Qurʾan, the polytheists of Mecca said: Muḥammad only wants us to love him as the Christians loved Jesus. He said: They cite him to you only for the sake of argument (43:58); he said: they said this only in order to argue. He is but a servant upon whom We bestowed favour (43:59); he said: God’s prophet Jesus was nothing beyond that: he was a righteous servant upon whom God bestowed favour; and We made him an example (43:59); he said: a sign; for the Children of Israel (43:59). And had We willed, We could have made of you angels upon the earth, succeeding (43:60); he said: succeeding one another in the place of the children of Adam.
Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that the polytheists came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and said to him: Tell us about what is worshipped apart from God: where are they? He said: “In the Fire.” They said: And the sun and the moon? He said: “And the sun and the moon.” They said: Then what of Jesus son of Mary? So God sent down: He is but a servant upon whom We bestowed favour, and We made him an example for the Children of Israel (43:59).
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr reported from Mujāhid: We could have made of you angels upon the earth, succeeding (43:60); he said: populating the earth in your stead.
Al-Firyābī, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, Musaddad, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḥākim, who declared it sound, and al-Ṭabarānī reported by several routes from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61), that he said: the coming forth of Jesus before the Day of Resurrection.
Al-Ḥākim, who declared it sound, and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: “The coming forth of Jesus before the Day of Resurrection.” And ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Abū Hurayrah: And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: the coming forth of Jesus; he will remain on the earth forty years, and those forty will be like four years; he will perform the pilgrimage and the lesser pilgrimage.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr reported from Mujāhid: And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: a sign of the Hour is the coming forth of Jesus son of Mary before the Day of Resurrection.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr reported from al-Ḥasan: And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: the descent of Jesus.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr reported from Qatādah: And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: The descent of Jesus is a sign (ʿalam) of the Hour; and some people say: the Qurʾan is a sign of the Hour.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Shaybān, who said: Al-Ḥasan used to say: And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: this Qurʾan.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿĀṣim that he read And indeed he is a sign (ʿilm) of the Hour (43:61) with the kasrah on the ʿayn.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, who said: I read it in the codex of Ubayy: wa-innahu la-dhikrun li-l-sāʿah (“And indeed he is a reminder of the Hour”).
Ibn Jarīr reported by several routes from Ibn ʿAbbās: And indeed he is a sign of the Hour (43:61); he said: the descent of Jesus.
Ibn Jarīr reported from Mujāhid: and that I may make clear to you some of that about which you differ (43:63); he said: some of the alteration of the Torah.
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.
The son of Mary as an example (43:57-65): all commentaries · The classical commentaries