al-Ṭabarī on The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64), part 2

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.

Part 2 of 5: the commentary on The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64). The parts follow the order of the verses; this one covers 3:39 to 3:43.

On 3:39

On the interpretation of His words: Then the angels called out to him (3:39)

Abū Jaʿfar¹ said: The reciters differed over the reading (qirāʾa) of this.

The generality of the reciters of Medina, and some of the people of Kūfa and Baṣra, read it fa-nādat-hu al-malāʾikah (“then the angels called out to him”) in the feminine, with the tāʾ, intending by it the plural “the angels”. The Arabs do likewise with a group of masculine beings when their verbs precede them: they put their verbs in the feminine, and especially so with nouns whose forms carry the mark of the feminine, as in their saying jāʾat al-Ṭalaḥāt (“the Ṭalḥas came”).

A group of the people of Kūfa read it with the yāʾ,² in the sense of “then Gabriel called out to him”, so they made it masculine according to the interpretation, just as we mentioned a moment ago that they make the verb of a masculine noun feminine on account of its form; so likewise they also make the verb of a feminine noun masculine on account of its form. They relied in that, as I see it, upon a reading which is said to be the reading of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, which is what:

(6945) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq ibn al-Ḥajjāj related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥammād related to us, that the reading of Ibn Masʿūd was: Then Gabriel called out to him while he was standing in prayer in the sanctuary.

A group of the people of interpretation likewise interpreted His words “then the angels called out to him” in this way.

Those who said this

(6946) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: “then the angels called out to him”, and that is Gabriel; or: the angels said, and that is Gabriel, “that God gives you glad tidings of John”.

Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone says: How is it permissible, on this interpretation, to say “then the angels called out to him”, when “the angels” is a plural, not a singular? It is said: That is permissible in the speech of the Arabs, in that one reports about a single person in the manner of the plural, as is said in speech: “So-and-so went out on the mules of the post”, when he rode only one mule; and “he rode the ships”, when he rode only one ship. And as is said: “From whom did you hear this report?” and the answer is given: “From the people”, when he heard it only from one man. It has been said that of this kind are His words those to whom the people said: the people have gathered against you (3:173), whereas the speaker was, according to what has been mentioned, a single man; and His words and when harm touches the people (30:33), where “the people” has the meaning of a single one. That is permissible among them in cases where no particular individual is intended.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct position in my view concerning the reading of this is that they are two well-known readings, I mean the tāʾ and the yāʾ, so with whichever of the two the reciter reads, he is correct. That is because there is no difference in the meaning of this arising from the difference of the two readings, and both of them are eloquent among the Arabs. For if by “the angels” Gabriel is meant, as has been related from ʿAbd Allāh, then the feminine in its verb is eloquent in the speech of the Arabs on account of its form, if the verb precedes it, and the masculine is permissible in it on account of its meaning.

And if by it the plural “the angels” is meant, then the feminine is permissible in its verb, when the verb comes before it, on account of its form. That is because the Arabs, when they place the verb before the many of a group, put it in the feminine, saying qālat al-nisāʾ (“the women said”); and the masculine is permissible in its verb, built upon the singular, when its verb precedes it, so one says qāla al-rijāl (“the men said”).

As for the correct position concerning its interpretation, it is to say: God, Majestic is His praise, has reported that the angels called out to him. The apparent sense of that is that it was a group of angels, not a single one, whereas Gabriel is a single one.

It is not permissible to take the interpretation of the Qurʾān on anything other than the most apparent and most prevalent usage of speech on the tongues of the Arabs, rather than the less common, so long as a way to that is found. And no need has compelled us to turn this to the sense of a single one, such that one would need to seek a way out for it through what is obscure in speech and meanings.

What we have said concerning the interpretation of this was said by a group of the people of knowledge, among them Qatādah, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, ʿIkrimah, Mujāhid and a group besides them. We have mentioned what they said about this in what has gone before.

On the interpretation of His words: while he was standing in prayer in the sanctuary: that God gives you glad tidings of John (3:39)

Abū Jaʿfar said: The interpretation of His words “while he was standing” is: then the angels called out to him in the state of his standing in prayer. So His words “while he was standing” are a report about the time of the angels’ calling out to Zachariah.

His word “praying” (yuṣallī) is in the position of the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) of “standing”, while it is itself in the indicative mood, with the yāʾ.

As for “the sanctuary” (al-miḥrāb), we have already explained its meaning, and that it is the front part of the place of worship.

The reciters differed over the reading of His words “that God gives you glad tidings”.

The generality of the reciters read it anna Allāha with fatḥah on the alif of anna, because “the calling” governs it, with the meaning: then the angels called out to him with that.

Some of the reciters of Kūfa read it inna Allāha yubashshiruka with kasrah on the alif, with the meaning: the angels said: “Indeed God gives you glad tidings”, because calling out is speech. They mentioned that in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh it is: Then the angels called out to him while he was standing in prayer in the sanctuary: O Zachariah, indeed God gives you glad tidings. They said: And once the calling is void of governing His words “O Zachariah”, it is void also of governing inna.

The correct reading in this in our view is “anna Allāha yubashshiruka” with fatḥah on anna, because the calling governs it, with the meaning: then the angels called out to him with that.

The reason adduced by those who read inna with kasrah, namely that ʿAbd Allāh used to read it so, and so they read it so, is no reason at all for them. That is because if ʿAbd Allāh did read it so, he read it, by their own claim, only when the calling of Zachariah had been interposed between inna and His words “then they called out to him”; and when that is interposed between the two, the Arabs then may either make the calling govern anna or annul its governance over it. As for the annulment, it is because it has ceased to govern the one called before it, so they made what follows it go the same way as it in the cessation of its governance. As for making it govern, it is because calling out is a transitive act (fiʿl wāqiʿ) like all other transitive verbs.

As for our reading, the calling of Zachariah with “O Zachariah” is not interposed between anna and His words “then they called out to him”. And when that is not between the two, the eloquent speech of the Arabs, when they put in the accusative by the word nādaytu (“I called”) the name of the one called, and make it fall upon him, is that they make it fall likewise upon anna after it. Even if annulling its governance were permissible, His word “called out to him” (nādat-hu) has fallen upon the pronoun standing for Zachariah, so likewise the correct position is that it should fall upon anna and govern it.

Besides which, that is the widespread reading in the recitation of the cities of Islam, and the anomalous reading is not raised as an objection against the reading of the community, which comes with the force of a proof.

As for His word “gives you glad tidings” (yubashshiruka), the reciters differed over its reading.

The generality of the reciters of Medina and Baṣra read it anna Allāha yubashshiruka with doubling of the shīn and ḍammah on the yāʾ, in the sense of God’s giving Zachariah the glad tidings of the child, from the people’s saying bashsharat fulānan al-bushurāʾ bi-kadhā wa-kadhā (“the bearers of good news gave so-and-so glad tidings of such-and-such”), that is: the good news of the bearers of good news came to him concerning that.

A group of the reciters of Kūfa and others read it anna Allāha yabshuruka with fatḥah on the yāʾ and ḍammah on the shīn without doubling, in the sense: that God gladdens you with a child whom He grants you, from the words of the poet:

I gladdened my household (basharu ʿiyālī) when I saw a letter that came to you from al-Ḥajjāj,³ its writing being read aloud.

It has been said that basharta is the dialect of the people of Tihāmah, of Kinānah and others of Quraysh, and that they say basharta fulānan bi-kadhā, fa-anā abshuruhu bashran (“I gladdened so-and-so with such-and-such, so I gladden him with gladdening”) and hal anta bāshirun bi-kadhā? (“are you one who brings gladness with such-and-such?”). The following verse is cited for them in this regard:⁴

And when you see those who hasten eagerly towards lofty deeds, their palms dust-covered in a barren plain,

then help them, and rejoice in that whereby they rejoice (wa-bshar bi-mā bashirū bihi); and when they alight in hardship, alight with them.

When they come to the imperative, the correct form in their speech is without the alif, so one says ibshar fulānan bi-kadhā (“gladden so-and-so with such-and-such”), and they hardly ever say bashshirhu bi-kadhā or abshirhu.

It has been related from Ḥumayd ibn Qays that he used to read “yubshiruka“, with ḍammah on the yāʾ and kasrah on the shīn without doubling. And:

(6947) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥammād related to us, from Muʿādh al-Kūfī, who said: Whoever reads “yubashshiruhum” with doubling, it is from bishārah (the bringing of glad tidings); and whoever reads “yabshuruhum” without doubling, with fatḥah on the yāʾ, it is from surūr (gladness): He gladdens them.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The reading which is the reading in our view in this is ḍammah on the yāʾ and doubling of the shīn, in the sense of the giving of glad tidings (tabshīr). For that is the current language and the widespread speech known among the people, besides which all the reciters of the cities are agreed in reading so of what do you give glad tidings? (15:54) with doubling. And the correct position in all the other parallels to it in the Qurʾān is that they should be like it in the doubling and the ḍammah on the yāʾ.

As for what has been related from Muʿādh al-Kūfī of the distinction between the meaning of the undoubled and the doubled form in this, we have not found the people of knowledge of the speech of the Arabs to know it from any sound source, so there is no meaning in what has been related of that from him. Jarīr ibn ʿAṭiyyah has said:

O Bishr,⁵ radiant joy (al-tabshīr) was rightly due to your face; why were you not angered on our behalf, when you are the commander?

So it is known that by his word al-tabshīr he meant beauty, freshness and gladness, and he said al-tabshīr and did not say al-bishr; thus this makes plain that the meaning of the undoubled and the doubled form in this is one and the same.

(6948) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “indeed God gives you glad tidings of John”: he said: the angels gave him the glad tidings of that.

As for His word “of John” (bi-Yaḥyā), it is a name whose original form is the pattern yafʿal, from the speaker’s saying ḥayiya fulānun fa-huwa yaḥyā (“so-and-so lived, so he lives”), which is when he lives. So “Yaḥyā” is of the pattern yafʿal from their saying ḥayiya.

It has been said that God, Majestic is His praise, named him this because his name is interpreted: He gave him life through faith.

Those who said this

(6949) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “that God gives you glad tidings of John”: he says: a servant whom God gave life through faith.

(6950) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from Qatādah, concerning His words “indeed God gives you glad tidings of John”: he said: He was named John (Yaḥyā) only because God gave him life (aḥyāhu) through faith.

On the interpretation of His words: confirming a Word from God (3:39)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by that, Majestic is His praise: that God gives you glad tidings, O Zachariah, of John as a son to you, “confirming a Word from God”, meaning: Jesus son of Mary.

His word “confirming” is in the accusative by way of severance (qaṭʿ)⁶ from “John”, because “confirming” is a descriptive of him, and it is indefinite whereas “John” is not indefinite.

Something close to what we have said about this was said by the people of interpretation.

Those who said this

(6951) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Aswad al-Ṭufāwī related to me: Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿah related to us: al-Naḍr ibn ʿArabī related to us, from Mujāhid, who said: The wife of Zachariah said to Mary: “I find that what is in my womb moves towards what is in your womb!” He said: So the wife of Zachariah gave birth to John, and Mary to Jesus, and for this reason He said “confirming a Word from God”: he said: John confirming Jesus.

(6952) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from al-Raqāshī, concerning the words of God “gives you glad tidings of John, confirming a Word from God”: he said: confirming Jesus son of Mary.

(6953) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(6954) Ibn Bashshār related to us: Sulaymān related to us: Abū Hilāl related to us: Qatādah related to us, concerning His words “confirming a Word from God”: he said: confirming Jesus.

(6955) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “confirming a Word from God”: he says: confirming Jesus son of Mary, and upon his way and his path.

(6956) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “confirming a Word from God”: meaning Jesus son of Mary.

(6957) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from Qatādah: “confirming a Word from God”: he says: confirming Jesus son of Mary; he says: upon his way and his path.

(6958) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ: “confirming a Word from God”: he said: He was the first man to confirm Jesus, who is a Word from God and a Spirit.

(6959) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: “confirming a Word from God”: he confirms Jesus.

(6960) I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words “indeed God gives you glad tidings of John, confirming a Word from God”: John was the first to confirm Jesus and to bear witness that he was a Word from God. John was the son of Jesus’s maternal aunt, and he was older than Jesus.

(6961) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words “confirming a Word from God”: he said: Jesus son of Mary is the Word from God; his name is the Messiah.

(6962) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj informed me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning His words “confirming a Word from God”: he said: Jesus and John were the sons of two sisters, and the mother of John used to say to Mary: “I find that what is in my womb bows down to what is in your womb!” That was his confirmation of Jesus: his bowing down in his mother’s womb. He was the first to confirm Jesus and the word of Jesus, and John was older than Jesus.

(6963) 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: “that God gives you glad tidings of John, confirming a Word from God”: he said: the Word which he confirmed is Jesus.

(6964) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: The mother of John met the mother of Jesus, the one being pregnant with John and the other pregnant with Jesus, and the wife of Zachariah said: “O Mary, I sense that I am pregnant!” Mary said: “I sense that I too am pregnant!” The wife of Zachariah said: “Then I find that what is in my womb bows down to what is in your womb!” And that is His word “confirming a Word from God”.

(6965) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan, concerning the words of God “that God gives you glad tidings of John, confirming a Word from God”: he said: confirming Jesus son of Mary.

Abū Jaʿfar said: One of the people of knowledge of the languages of the Arabs from the people of Baṣra⁷ has claimed that the meaning of His words “confirming a Word from God” is “a Book from God”, from the saying of the Arabs anshadanī fulānun kalimata kadhā (“so-and-so recited to me the word of such-and-such”), by which is meant “the poem of such-and-such”; this out of his ignorance of the interpretation of “the Word”, and out of audacity in expounding the Qurʾān by his own opinion.

On the interpretation of His words: and a master (3:39)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by His words, Majestic is His praise, “and a master” (sayyid): and one noble in knowledge and worship.

“Master” is in the accusative by conjunction with His word “confirming”.

The interpretation of the speech is: that God gives you glad tidings of John, confirming this, and a master.

Sayyid is of the pattern fayʿil, from the speaker’s saying sāda yasūdu (“he held mastery, he holds mastery”), as:

(6966) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “and a master”: yes, by God, a master indeed in worship, forbearance, knowledge and scrupulousness.

(6967) Ibn Bashshār related to us: Muslim related to us: Abū Hilāl related to us: Qatādah related to us, concerning His words “and a master”: he said: the master is, and I know of nothing other than that he said: in knowledge and worship.

(6968) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār, who said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from Qatādah, who said: the master is the forbearing one.

(6969) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Sharīk, from Sālim al-Afṭas, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: “and a master”: he said: the forbearing one.

(6970) al-Muthannā related to me: al-Ḥimmānī related to us: Sharīk related to us, from Sālim, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: “and a master”: he said: the master is the God-fearing one.

(6971) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, “and a master”: he said: the master is the one honoured before God.

(6972) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, saying: al-Raqāshī claimed that the master is the one honoured before God.

(6973) al-Muthannā related to me: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us: Hushaym informed us, from Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, “and a master”: he said: the master is the forbearing, God-fearing one.

(6974) I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words “and a master”: he said: he says: God-fearing, forbearing.

(6975) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us, from Sufyān, concerning His words “and a master”: he said: forbearing, God-fearing.

(6976) Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, from Ibn Zayd, concerning His words “and a master”: he said: the master is the noble one.

(6977) Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Sakūnī related to me: Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd related to us, from ʿAbd al-Malik, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, “and a master”: he said: the master is the learned jurist.

(6978) 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 a master”: he said: he says: forbearing, God-fearing.

(6979) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Abū Bakr, from ʿIkrimah: “and a master”: he said: the master is the one whom anger does not overcome.

On the interpretation of His words: and chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous (3:39)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by that: one who refrains from sexual intercourse with women, from the speaker’s saying ḥaṣirtu min kadhā aḥṣaru (“I was held back from such-and-such”), when he refrains from it. From this is their saying ḥaṣira fulānun fī qirāʾatihi (“so-and-so was stopped short in his recitation”), when he is held back from reciting and is unable to do it. Likewise “the besieging by the enemy” (ḥaṣr al-ʿaduww) is their confining people and preventing them from moving freely. For this reason the one who brings out nothing of his own among his drinking companions is called ḥaṣūr, as al-Akhṭal⁸ said:

And many a drinker, free-spending over the cup, has drunk in my company, neither a ḥaṣūr who holds back, nor one who runs riot (sawwār) in his wine.

It is also related as bi-saʾʾār (“one who leaves dregs”). The one who does not disclose his secret but conceals it is also called ḥaṣūr, because he prevents his secret from appearing, as Jarīr said:

The slanderers have tried hard to trip me into a slip, but they found one restrained (ḥaṣir) with your secret, O Umaym, jealously guarding it.

The root of all of that is one: prevention and confinement.

The like of what we have said about this was said by the people of interpretation.

Those who said this

(6980) Abū Kurayb related to us: Ibn Khalaf related to us: Ḥammād ibn Shuʿayb related to us, from ʿĀṣim, from Zirr, from ʿAbd Allāh,⁹ concerning His words “and a master and chaste”: he said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not go in to women.

(6981) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, that he said: Ibn al-ʿĀṣ related to me that he heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “Every son of Adam will come on the Day of Resurrection with a sin, except for John son of Zachariah.” He said: Then the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) lowered his hand to the ground and took up a small stick, then said: “That is because he had nothing of what men have except the like of this stick, and for that reason God named him ‘a master and chaste’.”

(6982) Yūnus related to me: Anas ibn ʿIyāḍ informed us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, who said: I heard Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab say: There is no one but will meet God on the Day of Resurrection bearing a sin, except John son of Zachariah; he was chaste (ḥaṣūr), having with him only the like of a thread-end.

(6983) Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd al-Qurashī related to us: ʿUmar ibn Jaʿfar related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, who said: Ibn al-ʿĀṣ, either ʿAbd Allāh or his father, said: There is no one who will meet God but that he bears a sin, except John son of Zachariah. He said: And Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab said: “and a master and chaste”: he said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not go in to women; and he had with him nothing but the like of the fringe-thread of a garment.

(6984) Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Sakūnī related to me: Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd related to us, from ʿAbd al-Malik, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, concerning His words “and chaste”: he said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who has no desire for women. Then he struck his hand to the ground, took up a date-stone and said: He had with him nothing but the like of this.

(6985) Ibn Bashshār related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: Sufyān related to us, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not go in to women.

(6986) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Jarīr related to us, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Saʿīd, the like of it.

(6987) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Ḥakkām related to us, from ʿAmr, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Saʿīd, the like of it.

(6988) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Aswad related to me: Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿah related to us: al-Naḍr ibn ʿArabī related to us, from Mujāhid: “and chaste”: he said: the one who does not go in to women.

(6989) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, who said: the ḥaṣūr: he does not approach women.

(6990) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, saying: al-Raqāshī claimed: “the ḥaṣūr” is the one who does not approach women.

(6991) al-Muthannā related to me: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us: Hushaym related to us, from Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk: “the ḥaṣūr” is the one to whom no child is born and who has no seed.

(6992) I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words “and chaste”: he said: he is the one who has no seed.

(6993) Bishr related to us: Suwayd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “and chaste”: we used to be told that the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not approach women.

(6994) Ibn Bashshār related to us: Sulaymān related to us: Abū Hilāl related to us: Qatādah related to us, concerning His words “and a master and chaste”: he said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not go in to women.

(6995) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, who said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from Qatādah, the like of it.

(6996) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, the like of it.

(6997) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Jarīr related to us, from Qābūs, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not emit seed.

(6998) Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, from Ibn Zayd: “and chaste”: he said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not go in to women.

(6999) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: “and chaste”: he said: the ḥaṣūr is the one who does not desire women.

(7000) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan: “and chaste”: he said: he does not approach women.

As for His words “and a prophet from among the righteous”, He means: a messenger from his Lord to his people, informing them on His behalf of His command and His prohibition, His lawful and His unlawful, and conveying to them from Him that with which He sent him to them.

By His words “from among the righteous” He means: from among His righteous prophets.

We have already shown in what has gone before the meaning of “prophethood” and what its root is, with the evidences for that and the proofs indicating the correct position concerning it, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it.

On 3:40

On the interpretation of His words: He said: My Lord, how shall I have a boy, when old age has reached me and my wife is barren? (3:40)

Abū Jaʿfar¹⁰ said: He means that Zachariah said, when the angels called out to him “that God gives you glad tidings of John, confirming a Word from God, and a master, and chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous”: “How shall I have a boy, when old age has reached me?”, meaning: one who has reached the age that I have reached has no child born to him; “and my wife is barren”.

“The barren” (ʿāqir) among women is she who does not bear children. From it one says “a barren woman” (imraʾah ʿāqir) and “a barren man” (rajul ʿāqir), as ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl¹¹ said:

Wretched indeed would the young man be! If I am one-eyed, childless and a coward too, then what excuse have I in any assembly?

As for “old age” (al-kibar), it is the verbal noun of kabira fa-huwa yakbaru kibaran (“he grew old, so he grows old, with old age”).

It has been said: “old age has reached me”, whereas He said in another place I have reached, from old age (19:8), because whatever has reached you, you have reached it. Its meaning is only: I have grown old; and it is like the saying of the speaker qad balaghanī al-jahd (“exhaustion has reached me”), in the sense: I am in exhaustion.

If someone says: How could Zachariah, who was the prophet of God, say “My Lord, how shall I have a boy, when old age has reached me and my wife is barren?”, when the angels had given him the glad tidings they gave him by the command of God to them? Did he doubt their truthfulness? That is something by which the people of faith in God may not be described, so how then the prophets and the messengers? Or was that from him a denial of the power of his Lord? That is a still greater calamity!

It is said: That was from him (peace be upon him) otherwise than you have supposed; rather, his saying what he said of that was as:

(7001) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: When he heard the call, meaning Zachariah, when he heard the angels’ call with the glad tidings of John, Satan came to him and said to him: “O Zachariah, the voice you heard is not from God; it is only from Satan, mocking you! Had it been from God, He would have revealed it to you as He reveals to you in other matters!” So he doubted on the spot, and said “How shall I have a boy”, a male? He says: from where? “when old age has reached me and my wife is barren”.

(7002) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Abū Bakr, from ʿIkrimah, who said: Then Satan came to him, wishing to spoil for him the favour of his Lord, and said: “Do you know who called you?” He said: “Yes! The angels of my Lord called me!” He said: “No, rather that was Satan! Had this been from your Lord, He would have kept it hidden to you as you kept your call hidden!” So he said: “My Lord, appoint for me a sign.”

So his saying what he said of that, and his returning to his Lord with the question with which he returned by his words “How shall I have a boy?”, was because of the whispering from Satan that had mingled with his heart, so that it made him imagine that the call he had heard was a call from other than the angels; so he said “My Lord, how shall I have a boy?”, seeking certainty in his affair, so that it might be established for him, by a sign God would show him in that, that it was glad tidings from God upon the tongues of His angels. For this reason he said: “My Lord, appoint for me a sign.”

It is also possible that his saying this was a question from him to his Lord: from what quarter would the child of whom he had been given glad tidings come? From his wife? She is barren. Or from some other woman? In that case it would be otherwise than the manner stated by ʿIkrimah and al-Suddī and those who said the like of what they said.

On the interpretation of His words: He said: Thus does God do what He wills (3:40)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means, Majestic is His praise, by His words “Thus does God”: that is, He is as He has described Himself, that it is easy for Him to create a child from an old man who has despaired of offspring and from a barren woman from whose like childbearing is not hoped for, just as He created you, O Zachariah, before the creation of the child from you, when you were nothing; because He is God, for whom the creation of anything He wishes is not difficult, and for whom the doing of anything He wills is not impossible, because His power is the power which no power resembles; as:

(7003) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: “Thus does God do what He wills”, and I created you before, when you were nothing.

On 3:41

On the interpretation of His words: He said: My Lord, appoint for me a sign (3:41)

Abū Jaʿfar¹² said: By this He means, Majestic is His praise, reporting about Zachariah: Zachariah said: My Lord, if this call by which I have been called, and the voice which I have heard, is the voice of Your angels and glad tidings from You to me, then appoint for me a sign – that is, a mark – that it is so, so that there may depart from me what Satan has whispered to me and cast into my heart, namely that it is the voice of something other than the angels, and glad tidings from someone other than You. As:

(7004) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said concerning My Lord, appoint for me a sign (3:41): He said – meaning Zachariah –: O Lord, if this voice is from You, then appoint for me a sign.

We have already shown in what has gone before the meaning of “sign” (āya), and that it is a mark (ʿalāma), in a manner that dispenses with repeating it here.

The scholars of Arabic have differed over the reason the Arabs leave this word without a hamza, when their custom is to give a hamza to every yāʾ that comes after a quiescent alif.

• Some of them said: They left it without a hamza because it was originally ayya, and the doubling was heavy for them, so they replaced it with an alif because of the open vowel before the doubled letter, just as they said aymā fulān fa-akhzāhu Allāh (“as for so-and-so, may God disgrace him”).¹³
• Others among them said: Rather, it is of the pattern fāʿila with a letter dropped (manqūṣa). They were questioned, and it was said to them: Then why is it that the Arabs form its diminutive as uyayya, and do not say uwayya? They said: That is said just as is said of “Fāṭima”, “this is Fuṭayma”. It was said to them: But they only form the diminutive of fāʿila on the pattern fuʿayla when it is a proper name in the sense of so-and-so, masculine or feminine; as for anything else, it is not their practice to form the diminutive of fāʿila on fuʿayla.¹⁴
• Others said: It is of the pattern faʿla, whose first yāʾ was turned into an alif, as was done with ḥāja (“need”) and qāma (“stature”). It was said to them: The Arabs only do that with triliteral words. And those who rejected this statement of theirs said: Had it been as they say, one would have said for nawāt (“date-stone”) nāya, and for ḥayāt (“life”) ḥāya.

On the interpretation of His words: He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture (3:41)

Abū Jaʿfar said: So God punished him – according to what has been related to us – for his asking for the sign after the angels had addressed him face to face with the glad tidings, and He made his sign, as confirmation that what he had heard from the angels of the glad tidings of John was from God, a sign in his own person. God, Exalted be His mention, thereby combined the mark which he had asked of his Lord, in a manner that made plain to him the truth of the glad tidings, that they were from God, with a purging of him from his slip and from the error of his speech and his request.

The like of what we have said about this was said by a number of the scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl).

Those who said this

(7005) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words My Lord, appoint for me a sign. He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture (3:41): He was punished with that only because the angels had addressed him face to face with it and given him the glad tidings of John, and he asked for the sign after the angels had spoken to him. So he was seized in his tongue, and he became unable to speak except by what he could signal and indicate; and God, Exalted be His mention, said, as you hear: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture.

(7006) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words that God gives you glad tidings of John, confirming (3:39): He said: The angels addressed him face to face, and he said My Lord, appoint for me a sign. He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture – He means, except by signalling; and it was a punishment with which he was punished, since he asked for the sign even though the angels had addressed him face to face with that of which they gave him glad tidings.

(7007) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words My Lord, appoint for me a sign. He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture: He said: It was related to us – and God knows best – that he was punished because the angels had addressed him face to face and given him the glad tidings of John, and he asked for the sign afterwards, so he was seized in his tongue.

(7008) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, who said: It was related to us – and God knows best – that he was punished because the angels had addressed him face to face and given him the glad tidings of John, saying that God gives you glad tidings of John (3:39); then, after the angels had spoken to him, he asked for the sign, so his tongue was seized and he became unable to speak except by gesture – meaning, he would signal by signs.

(7009) Abū ʿUbayd al-Waṣṣābī related to me: Muḥammad ibn Ḥimyar related to us: Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr related to us, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, concerning His words He said: My Lord, appoint for me a sign. He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture: He said: His tongue swelled in his mouth until it filled it; then God released it after three days.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters chose the subjunctive (naṣb) in His words that you shall not speak to people (allā tukallima) only because the meaning of the sentence is: He said: Your sign is that you will not speak to people, in the time to come, for three days. Thus the an is the one that accompanies the future tense, not the one that accompanies nouns and puts them in the accusative. Had the meaning been: Your sign is that you are indeed not speaking to people for three days – that is, that you are in this state for three days – the proper form of the expression would have been the indicative (rafʿ), because an would then have had the sense of the heavy anna lightened. But that was not permissible, because of what I have described, namely that the sense is the other one.

As for “gesture” (ramz), the predominant meaning of it among the Arabs is signalling with the lips, though it is sometimes used of signalling with the eyebrows and the eyes, and that is not common among them. “Ramz” may also be said of hidden speech that is like whispering in a lowered voice; from this is the saying of Juʾayya ibn ʿĀʾidh:¹⁵

The speech of the champions was a murmur, and a rumbling of theirs like the roar of camels.

From it one says: “So-and-so murmured (ramaza), and he murmurs, yarmizu and yarmuzu, ramzan; and he keeps murmuring, yatarammazu tarammuzan.” And one says: “He struck him a blow and he writhed (irtamaza) from it”, that is, he convulsed in death. The poet said:

I fell from her onto the back of my neck, writhing.

The scholars of interpretation have differed over the meaning that God, Mighty and Majestic, intended in His report about Zachariah in His words Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture, and which of the meanings of “ramz” was intended by it.

• Some of them said: What is meant by it is: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by a movement of the lips, without your tongue articulating the speech.

Those who said this

(7010) Abū Kurayb related to us: Jābir ibn Nūḥ related to us, from al-Naḍr ibn ʿArabī, from Mujāhid, concerning His words except by gesture: He said: Moving the lips.

(7011) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning three days except by gesture: He said: His signalling with his lips.

(7012) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

• Others said: Rather, God meant by it signalling and indicating.

Those who said this

(7013) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Salama ibn Nubayṭ, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning except by gesture: He said: Indication.

(7014) I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words except by gesture: He said: “Ramz” is that he indicates with his hand or his head and does not speak.

(7015) 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, concerning except by gesture: He said: “Ramz” is that he was seized in his tongue, and he began to speak to people with his hand.

(7016) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salama related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, concerning except by gesture: He said: And “ramz” is indication.

(7017) Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His words My Lord, appoint for me a sign. He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture, the verse: He said: He made his sign that he should not speak to people for three days except by gesture, save that he could remember God. And “ramz” is indication: he would indicate to them.

(7018) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning except by gesture: except by signalling.

(7019) We were told on the authority of ʿAmmār: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, the like of it.

(7020) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning except by gesture: He means: indication.

(7021) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr said concerning except by gesture: except by indication.

(7022) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words He said: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture: He said: He was held back in his tongue, and he began to signal with his hand to his people: Glorify God morning and evening.

On the interpretation of His words: And remember your Lord much, and glorify Him in the evening and the early morning (3:41)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by this: God, Majestic is His praise, said to Zachariah: O Zachariah, your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture, without any dumbness, infirmity or illness; and remember your Lord much, for you will not be prevented from remembering Him, nor will anything come between you and glorifying Him and the other forms of remembering Him. And indeed:

(7023) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Abū Maʿshar, from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, who said: Had God granted anyone a dispensation to abandon remembrance, He would have granted it to Zachariah, when He said Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture; and remember your Lord much – even so.

As for His words and glorify Him in the evening, He means: magnify your Lord by worshipping Him in the evening.

The “evening” (ʿashiyy) is from the time the sun declines until it sets, as the poet said:¹⁶

Neither its shade, in the coolness of the forenoon, can you attain, nor its afternoon shadow, in the coolness of the evening, do you taste.

For the afternoon shadow (fayʾ) begins its return only when the sun declines, and it comes to an end with its setting.

As for “the early morning” (ibkār), it is a verbal noun from one’s saying “so-and-so went out early (abkara) on an errand, and he goes out early, yubkiru ibkāran“, and that is when he goes out on it between the rising of dawn and the time of forenoon; that is “ibkār”. One says of it “abkara fulān” and “bakara yabkuru bukūran“. From “ibkār” is the saying of ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿa:

Is it from the people of Nuʿm that you are setting out at morning, departing early?¹⁷

And from “bukūr” is the saying of Jarīr:

Lo, Salmā has set out early, and her early setting-out is in earnest, and after unity her commander has split the staff.¹⁸

And from this one says: “The palms bore early (bakara al-nakhl), yabkuru bukūran, and abkara yubkiru ibkāran“; and the “bākūr” of fruits is the first of them to ripen.

The like of what we have said about this was said by the scholars of interpretation.

Those who said this

(7024) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning and glorify Him in the evening and the early morning: He said: The early morning is the first part of dawn, and the evening is the declining of the sun until it sets.

(7025) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

On 3:42

On the interpretation of His words: And when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds (3:42)

Abū Jaʿfar¹⁹ said: By this He means, Majestic is His praise: And God is Hearing, Knowing, when the wife of ʿImrān said: My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, consecrated (3:34–35), and when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you.

The meaning of His words has chosen you is: He has selected you and elected you for His obedience and for the honour with which He has singled you out.

His words and purified you mean: He has purified your religion from the doubt and the defilements that are in the religions of the women of the children of Adam.

And chosen you above the women of the worlds: He means: He has selected you above the women of the worlds in your own time, by your obedience to Him, and so He has preferred you over them. As it is related from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: “The best of its women is Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid” – meaning by his words “the best of its women”, the best of the women of the people of Paradise.

(7026) al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣudāʾī related that to me: Muḥāḍir ibn al-Muwarriʿ related to us: Hishām ibn ʿUrwa related to us, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, who said: I heard ʿAlī in Iraq say: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: The best of its women is Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadīja.

(7027) Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: al-Mundhir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥizāmī related to me, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib: that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The best of the women of Paradise is Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of the women of Paradise is Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid.

(7028) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words And when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds: It was related to us that the Prophet of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: “Sufficient for you, among the women of the worlds, are Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, the wife of Pharaoh, Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭima the daughter of Muḥammad.” Qatādah said: It was related to us that the Prophet of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: “The best women who have ridden camels are the righteous women of Quraysh: the most tender of them towards a child in its infancy, and the most careful of them for a husband in what he possesses.” Qatādah said: And it was related to us that he used to say: “Had I known that Mary rode camels, I would not have preferred anyone over her.”

(7029) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds: He said: Abū Hurayra used to relate that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The best women who have ridden camels are the righteous women of Quraysh: the most tender of them towards a child, and the most careful of them for a husband in what he possesses.” Abū Hurayra said: And Mary never rode a camel.

(7030) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, concerning His words And when the angels said: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds: He said: Thābit al-Bunānī used to relate, from Anas ibn Mālik: that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The best women of the worlds are four: Mary the daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiya the daughter of Muzāḥim the wife of Pharaoh, Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭima the daughter of Muḥammad.

(7031) al-Muthannā related to me: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to us: Shuʿba related to us: ʿAmr ibn Murra related to us, saying: I heard Murra al-Hamdānī relate, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Many among men have attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Mary, Āsiya the wife of Pharaoh, Khadīja the daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭima the daughter of Muḥammad.

(7032) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū al-Aswad al-Miṣrī related to us: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, from ʿUmāra ibn Ghaziyya, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān: that Fāṭima the daughter of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī related to him: that Fāṭima the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) came in one day while I was with ʿĀʾisha, and he spoke to me privately, and I wept; then he spoke to me privately again, and I laughed. ʿĀʾisha asked me about that, and I said: You are in a hurry indeed! Am I to tell you the secret of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him)? So she left me alone. When the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) died, ʿĀʾisha asked her, and she said: Yes. He spoke to me privately and said: Gabriel used to review the Qurʾān with me once every year, and this year he has reviewed the Qurʾān with me twice; and there is no prophet but that he is given to live half the lifespan of the one who was before him, and my brother Jesus lived one hundred and twenty years, and this is my sixtieth, and I think that I shall die in this year of mine; and no woman among the women of the worlds has been afflicted with the like of what you will be afflicted with, so do not be less than any woman in patience! She said: So I wept. Then he said: You are the mistress of the women of the people of Paradise, except for Mary the Virgin (al-batūl). And he died that year.

(7033) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū al-Aswad related to us: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, from ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith, that Abū Ziyād al-Ḥimyarī related to him that he heard ʿAmmār ibn Saʿd say: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Khadīja has been preferred above the women of my community as Mary was preferred above the women of the worlds.

The like of what we have said about the meaning of His words and purified you – namely, that He has purified your religion from defilement and doubt – was said by Mujāhid.

(7034) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning the words of God God has chosen you and purified you: He said: He has made you good in faith.

(7035) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(7036) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, concerning and chosen you above the women of the worlds: He said: That is in respect of the worlds of that day.

The angels – according to what Ibn Isḥāq related – used to say this to Mary face to face.

(7037) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salama related to us: Ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: Mary was confined in the sanctuary (kanīsa), and with her in the sanctuary was a boy named Joseph, whose mother and father had made him a consecrated one, confined there; so they were in the sanctuary together. Whenever Mary’s water and Joseph’s water ran out, the two of them would take their two water-jars and set off for the open country where there was the water from which they drew their sweet water, and they would fill their two jars and then return to the sanctuary. The angels meanwhile would turn to Mary with: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds; and when Zachariah heard that, he would say: Truly the daughter of ʿImrān has some great matter in store!

On 3:43

On the interpretation of His words: O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate, and bow with those who bow (3:43)

Abū Jaʿfar²⁰ said: By His words, Majestic is His praise – reporting what His angels said to Mary – O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, He means: devote your obedience sincerely to your Lord alone.

We have already shown the meaning of “devout obedience” (qunūt), with its evidences, in what has gone before. The disagreement among the scholars of interpretation about it in this place is like their disagreement about it there. We shall mention the statements of some of them in this place also.

• Some of them said: The meaning of be devoutly obedient is: prolong your standing still.

Those who said this

(7038) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Prolong your standing still – meaning qunūt.

(7039) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(7040) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, concerning be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Mujāhid said: Prolong your standing still in prayer – meaning qunūt.

(7041) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs related to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, who said: When it was said to her O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, she stood until her ankles swelled.

(7042) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs related to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, who said: When it was said to her O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, she stood until her feet swelled.

(7043) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us: al-Thawrī informed us, from Ibn Abī Laylā, from Mujāhid, concerning be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Prolong your standing still.

(7044) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Qunūt is standing still. He says: Stand for your Lord in prayer. He says: Stand still for your Lord, that is, stand upright for Him in prayer; and prostrate, and bow with those who bow.

(7045) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from Sufyān, from Layth, from Mujāhid, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: She used to pray until her feet swelled.

(7046) Ibn al-Barqī related to me: ʿAmr related to us: al-Awzāʿī related to us, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: She used to stand until the pus flowed from her feet.

• Others said: Its meaning is: be sincere to your Lord.

Those who said this

(7047) al-Muthannā related to me: al-Ḥimmānī related to us: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, from Sharīk, from Sālim, from Saʿīd, concerning O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Be sincere to your Lord.

• Others said: Its meaning is: obey your Lord.

Those who said this

(7048) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to me: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: Obey your Lord.

(7049) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning be devoutly obedient to your Lord: Obey your Lord.

(7050) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb related to us: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, from Darrāj, from Abū al-Haytham, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: Every passage of the Qurʾān in which qunūt is mentioned, it means obedience to God.

(7051) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord: He said: He says: Worship your Lord.

Abū Jaʿfar said: We have also explained the meaning of “bowing” (rukūʿ) and “prostration” (sujūd), with the proofs that indicate its soundness, and that both mean humility before God and submission to Him through obedience and servitude.

The interpretation of the verse, then, is: O Mary, devote the worship of your Lord sincerely to His face alone, and humble yourself in obedience to Him and worship of Him together with those of His creatures who humble themselves before Him, in gratitude to Him for the honour He has bestowed upon you of being chosen, of being purified from defilements, and of being preferred above the women of the world of your age.

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.

← Part 1 · The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64): all commentaries · Part 3 → · The classical commentaries

Notes

1. Abū Jaʿfar is al-Ṭabarī’s own name of address (kunya); the phrase “Abū Jaʿfar said” marks the commentator’s own voice. ↩
2. That is, fa-nādāhu, “then he called out to him”, the reading of Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī. ↩
3. al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī, the Umayyad governor of Iraq (d. 95/714). ↩
4. The lines are by ʿAbd Qays ibn Khufāf al-Burjumī, from his counsel to his son. ↩
5. Bishr ibn Marwān, the Umayyad governor of Iraq (d. 75/694), to whom Jarīr addressed this poem. ↩
6. In the terminology of the Kūfan grammarians which al-Ṭabarī uses, qaṭʿ denotes the accusative of the circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). ↩
7. Abū ʿUbaydah Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā (d. c. 210/825), in his Majāz al-Qurʾān. ↩
8. Ghiyāth ibn Ghawth al-Akhṭal (d. c. 92/710), the Christian poet of Taghlib and panegyrist of the Umayyads. ↩
9. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd. ↩
10. Abū Jaʿfar is al-Ṭabarī’s own name of address (kunya); the phrase “Abū Jaʿfar said” marks the commentator’s own voice. ↩
11. ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl (d. c. 10/631), chief of the Banū ʿĀmir ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿah and a celebrated warrior-poet; he lost an eye at the battle of Fayf al-Rīḥ and was childless. ↩
12. Abū Jaʿfar is al-Ṭabarī himself, speaking in his own voice. ↩
13. That is, aymā for ammā with the doubled mīm: the doubling is resolved into a long vowel, as the first group claims happened in āya. ↩
14. The holders of this view are al-Kisāʾī and his followers; those who questioned them are al-Farrāʾ and his followers. ↩
15. Juʾayya ibn ʿĀʾidh al-Naṣrī, a pre-Islamic poet of the Hawāzin. ↩
16. The poet is Ḥumayd ibn Thawr al-Hilālī, describing a shade-tree (sarḥa) whose shade is jealously guarded. ↩
17. Nuʿm was a woman of the Quraysh clan of Jumaḥ whom ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿa often celebrated in his verse; this is the opening hemistich of his best-known ode. ↩
18. “Splitting the staff” is a proverbial expression for breaking away from the group; “her commander” is the one whose counsel she follows, her husband or her father. ↩
19. Abū Jaʿfar is al-Ṭabarī himself, speaking in his own voice. ↩
20. Abū Jaʿfar is al-Ṭabarī himself, speaking in his own voice. ↩