The Rightly-Guided Injil

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

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 3 of 5: the commentary on The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64). The parts follow the order of the verses; this one covers 3:44 to 3:50-51.

On 3:44

On the interpretation of His words: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, Majestic is His praise, “That”, He means the reports with which He informed His servants concerning the wife of ʿImrān and her daughter Mary, and Zachariah and his son John, and all the rest of what He related in the verses from His words Indeed God chose Adam and Noah (3:33). Then He, Exalted be His mention, gathered all of that together with His word “That”, and said: these tidings are “of the tidings of the unseen”, that is, of the reports of the unseen.

By “the unseen” He means that they are among the hidden reports of those people, of which neither you, O Muḥammad, nor your people had any knowledge, and which none knew save a few of the learned men (aḥbār) of the people of the two Scriptures and their monks.

Then He, Exalted be His mention, informed His Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) that He revealed that to him, as a proof of his prophethood, a confirmation of his truthfulness, and a cutting-off by it of the excuse of those who denied his message among the unbelievers of the people of the two Scriptures, who know that Muḥammad could not have attained knowledge of these tidings, hidden as they were, nor arrived at acquaintance with them, obscure as they were even among their own people, except by God’s making them known to him; since it was known to them that Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was unlettered: he did not write, so as to read books and thereby arrive at knowledge of that from books, nor did he keep company with the people of the Scriptures so as to take his knowledge from them.

As for “the unseen” (al-ghayb), it is a verbal noun from the expression “So-and-so was absent (ghāba) from such a thing; he is absent from it, ghayban and ghaybatan“.

As for His words “which We reveal to you”, their interpretation is: which We send down to you.

The root sense of “revealing” (al-īḥāʾ) is the casting of something by the one who reveals to the one to whom it is revealed. That may take place by writing, by a sign, by a gesture, by inspiration, and by a message, as He said, Majestic is His praise: And your Lord revealed to the bee (16:68), meaning: He cast that to it and so inspired it; and as He said: And when I revealed to the disciples (5:111), meaning: I cast knowledge of that to them by inspiration; and as the rajaz poet said:1

He revealed to it its fixity, and it stood fixed.

meaning: He cast that to it as a command; and as He said, Majestic is His praise: So he revealed to them that they should glorify morning and evening (19:11), meaning: he cast that to them by gesture. The root sense in it is what I have described, the casting of that to them. His casting of it to them may be by gesture, and it may be by writing. Of this is His word: And indeed the devils reveal to their friends (6:121): they cast that to them by whispering; and His word: And this Qurʾān has been revealed to me that I may warn you by it and whomever it reaches (6:19): it was cast to me through Gabriel’s (peace be upon him) coming with it to me from God, Mighty and Majestic.

As for “revelation” (al-waḥy), it is that which falls from the one who reveals to the one to whom it is revealed, and for this reason the Arabs called script and writing waḥy, because it falls upon what is written and remains fixed in it, as Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr said:

Odes from him have reached the foreigners and the horizons, / enduring as the waḥy endures in the deaf rock.

By which he means: the writing fixed in the rock. It may be said of writing in particular, when the writer writes it, waḥā without the alif; of this is the saying of Ruʾbah:

As though it were, after the winds that overwhelm it / and the persistent, long-settled rains that batter it, / the gospel of learned men, which its illuminator inscribed (waḥā).

On the interpretation of His words: and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary (3:44)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, Majestic is His praise, “and you were not with them”, He means: you were not, O Muḥammad, in their presence so as to know what We teach you of their reports which you did not witness; rather, you know that and attain acquaintance with it only through Our making it known to you.

The meaning of His words “with them” (ladayhim) is: in their presence (ʿindahum).

The meaning of His words “when they cast” is: at the time they cast their pens.

As for “their pens”, they are their arrows with which those of the Children of Israel who drew lots drew their lots over the guardianship of Mary, as we have explained previously regarding His words “and Zachariah took charge of her” (3:37).

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

Those who said this

(7052) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Hishām ibn ʿAmr related to us, from Saʿīd, from Qatādah, concerning His words “and you were not with them”: He means Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

(7053) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: “they cast their pens”: Zachariah and his companions drew lots with their pens over Mary when she was brought in to them.

(7054) Al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(7055) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, regarding His words “and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, and you were not with them when they disputed”: Mary was the daughter of their leader (imām) and their chief, so the Children of Israel contended with one another over her and cast lots over her with their arrows as to which of them should take charge of her, and Zachariah won the lot over them; he was the husband of her sister,2 “and Zachariah took charge of her” (3:37): He says, he took her into his care.

(7056) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “they cast their pens”: he said, they drew lots over Mary as to which of them should take charge of her, and Zachariah won the lot over them.

(7057) 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, regarding His words “and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary”: When Mary was placed in the sanctuary (masjid), the people of the place of prayer cast lots over her, and they were the ones who wrote down the revelation (waḥy); so they cast lots with their pens as to which of them should take charge of her. And God, Mighty and Majestic, said to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): “and you were not with them when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, and you were not with them when they disputed”.

(7058) I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say, concerning His words “when they cast their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary”: they cast lots with their pens as to which of them should take charge of Mary, and Zachariah won the lot over them.

(7059) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to us: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words “and you were not with them when they cast their pens”: he said, when they cast lots over Mary; and that was unseen by Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) until God informed him of it.

It was said “which of them should take charge of Mary” only because the casting of their pens by those who drew lots over Mary was so that they might see which of them was most entitled to her guardianship and had the best right to it. So in His words, Mighty and Majestic, “when they cast their pens”, there is an indication of something elided from the speech, namely: “so that they might see which of them should take charge of her, and that they might ascertain that and know it”.

If anyone supposes that the required case for “which of them” (ayyuhum) is the accusative, since that is its meaning, he supposes wrongly. That is because “seeing”, “ascertaining” and “knowing” together with ayy (“which”) require a question and an inquiry, and the due of ayy in an inquiry is to stand at the head of its clause, and for the governance of the verb of asking and inquiring upon it to be nullified. For the meaning of the speaker’s saying “I shall surely see which of them stood” is “I shall surely inquire of people: which of them stood?”, and likewise their saying “I shall surely know”.

We have shown previously that the meaning of “take charge of” (yakful) is “take into one’s care”, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

On the interpretation of His words: and you were not with them when they disputed (3:44)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: you were not, O Muḥammad, in the presence of Mary’s people when they disputed over her as to which of them had the best right to her and was most entitled to her.

This, coming from God, Mighty and Majestic, although it is an address to His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), is a rebuke from Him, Mighty and Majestic, to those of the people of the two Scriptures who denied him. He says: how can the people of unbelief among them doubt you, when you tell them these tidings though you did not witness them, and were not with them on the day they did these things, and are not one who read the books and so learned their story, nor one who sat with the people of those books and so heard their report?

As in:

(7060) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “and you were not with them when they disputed”, that is: you were not with them when they disputed over her. He informs him of the hidden part of the knowledge which they possessed and concealed, in confirmation of his prophethood and as a proof against them by what he brought them of what they had concealed.

On the interpretation of His words: When the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, Majestic is His praise, “When the angels said”, He means: you were not with them when they disputed, nor were you with them when the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings.

“Giving glad tidings” (al-tabshīr) is informing a person of news that gladdens him.

His words “of a Word from Him” mean: of a message from God and a report from Him. It is from the saying of the speaker, “So-and-so cast to me a word with which he gladdened me”, meaning: he told me news at which I rejoiced; as He said, Majestic is His praise: and His Word which He cast to Mary (4:171), meaning God’s glad tidings to Mary of Jesus, which He cast to her.

So the interpretation of the speech is: you were not, O Muḥammad, in the presence of those people when the angels said to Mary: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of good news from Him, namely a son of yours whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary.

Some people have said (and it is the view of Qatādah) that the “Word” of which God, Mighty and Majestic, said “of a Word from Him”, is His saying “Be”.

(7061) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related that to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “of a Word from Him”: he said, His saying “Be”.

God, Mighty and Majestic, named him “His Word” because he came about by His Word, just as it is said of a thing that God has decreed, “this is God’s decree and His ordinance”, meaning: this came about by God’s decree and His ordinance; and as He said, Majestic is His praise: and God’s command is ever carried out (4:47; 33:37), meaning by it what God commanded, namely the thing commanded which came about by the command of God, Mighty and Majestic.

Others said: rather, it is a name of Jesus by which God named him, just as He named the rest of His creatures with whatever names He willed.

It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with him) that he said: the “Word” is Jesus.

(7062) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words “When the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him”: he said, Jesus is the Word from God.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The view closest to the correct one, in my opinion, is the first: that the angels gave Mary glad tidings of Jesus on behalf of God, Mighty and Majestic, by His message and His Word which He commanded them to cast to her, namely that God would create from her a son without a husband or a male. For this reason He, Mighty and Majestic, said “whose name (ismuhu) is the Messiah”, using the masculine, and did not say “her name (ismuhā)” with the feminine, although “Word” (kalimah) is feminine; because what is intended by “Word” is not the sense of a name in the sense of “so-and-so”, but rather it carries the meaning of the glad tidings, and so its pronoun was made masculine, just as the pronoun of “offspring” (dhurriyyah), “beast” (dābbah) and of epithets is made masculine, as we have explained before in what has gone by.

So the interpretation of that is as we said just now: that its meaning is “God gives you glad tidings of good news”, and then He made clear concerning the good news that it is a son whose name is the Messiah.

One of the grammarians of Baṣrah has claimed that He used the masculine, saying “whose name is the Messiah”, though He had said “of a Word from Him” (and “the Word”, in his view, is Jesus), only because in meaning it is so; just as He said, Majestic is His praise: lest a soul should say: Alas for me, and then said Nay, My signs came to you, and you denied them (39:56-59); and just as one says Dhū al-Thudayyah (“the one with the little breast”),3 because his hand was short and close to his breasts, so that they treated it as though its name were thadyah; were it not for that, the hāʾ would not have entered into the diminutive.

One of the grammarians of Kūfah said something like the view of the one we have mentioned among the grammarians of Baṣrah, in that the hāʾ refers to “the Word”; but he differed from him as to the reason for which He used the masculine in His word “whose name” when “the Word” precedes it. He claimed that He said “whose name (ismuhu)”, though “the Word” had already been put first, and did not say “her name (ismuhā)”, because it is the practice of the Arabs to do this with descriptive terms, epithets and names which were not coined to identify the one named by them, as “so-and-so” and “so-and-so” are; such are “offspring” (dhurriyyah), “successor” (khalīfah) and “beast” (dābbah). For this reason it is permissible in his view to say dhurriyyah ṭayyibah (“goodly offspring”, with the feminine) and dhurriyyah ṭayyiban (with the masculine), while it is not permissible to say “Ṭalḥah came” or “Mughīrah stood” with feminine verbs.

Some of them rejected the argument of those who argued in this matter from Dhū al-Thudayyah, and said: the hāʾ was introduced into Dhū al-Thudayyah only because what was meant by it was a piece of the breast, just as one says “we were at a piece of meat (laḥmah) and a draught of date-wine (nabīdhah)”, meaning a portion of it. This view is close to our own view which we have stated on this matter.

As for His words “whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary”, by them He, Majestic is His praise, informed His servants of the lineage of Jesus, and that he is the son of his mother Mary, and thereby denied of him what those of the Christians who deviate concerning God, Majestic is His praise, ascribed to him when they attributed his sonship to God, Mighty and Majestic, and the charge with which the slandering party among the Jews accused his mother; as in:

(7063) Ibn Ḥumayd related it to me: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “When the angels said: O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world and the Hereafter, and of those brought near”, that is: thus was his affair, not what they say about him.

As for “the Messiah” (al-Masīḥ), it is of the pattern faʿīl, transformed from mafʿūl into faʿīl; it is in fact mamsūḥ (“wiped over”), meaning: God wiped over him and so purified him from sins. For this reason Ibrāhīm said: “the Messiah” is the truthful one (al-ṣiddīq) …4

(7064) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Sufyān, from Manṣūr, from Ibrāhīm, the like of it.

(7065) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, from Sufyān, from Manṣūr, from Ibrāhīm, the like of it.

Others said: he was wiped over (musiḥa) with blessing.

(7066) Ibn al-Barqī related to us: ʿAmr ibn Abī Salamah related to us, he said: Saʿīd said: He was called “the Messiah” only because he was wiped over with blessing.

On 3:45

On the interpretation of His words: eminent in this world and the Hereafter, and of those brought near (3:45)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His word “eminent” (wajīhan) He means: possessed of standing (wajh) and lofty rank with God, and of honour and nobility. From this a man who is noble, and whom kings and people hold in esteem, is called wajīh; one says of it: “So-and-so was not wajīh, but now he has become eminent (wajuha) with eminence (wajāhah)”, and “he has indeed standing (wajh) with the ruler, jāh and wajāhah“. Jāh is a transposed form: its wāw was shifted from the beginning of the word to the position of its second radical, and so one says jāh, though it is in fact wajh; and the verb formed from jāh is jāha yajūhu. It is heard from the Arabs: “I fear that he will yajūhunī with more than this”, meaning: that he will confront me to my face with something greater than it.

As for the accusative of “eminent”, it is on account of the “cutting-off” (qaṭʿ)5 from “Jesus”, because “Jesus” is definite and “eminent” is indefinite, and it is a description of him. Had it been in the genitive, in agreement with “a Word”, that would have been permissible.

With what we have said, namely that its interpretation is “eminent in this world and the Hereafter with God”, Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar agreed, according to what has reached us.

(7067) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “eminent”, he said: eminent in this world and the Hereafter with God.

As for His words “and of those brought near”, He means that he is among those whom God will bring near on the Day of Resurrection, settling him in His vicinity and drawing him close to Himself; as in:

(7068) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, regarding His words “and of those brought near”: He says, among those brought near to God on the Day of Resurrection.

(7069) I was told on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, who said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, regarding His words “and of those brought near”: He says, among those brought near to God on the Day of Resurrection.

(7070) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, the like of it.

On 3:46

On the interpretation of His words: and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous (3:46)

Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle”, their meaning is: God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, eminent with God and speaking to people in the cradle.

So “he will speak” (yukallimu), although it is in the indicative, since it has the form of yafʿalu free from any governing particle acting upon it, is in the position of the accusative; it is analogous to the saying of the poet:

I passed the night feeding them their evening meal with a keen, cutting blade / that strikes true among their shanks, or strikes astray.

As for “the cradle” (al-mahd), by it He means the resting-place of the infant during his suckling; as in:

(7071) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: “and he will speak to people in the cradle”, he said: the resting-place of the infant during his suckling.

As for His word “and in maturity” (kahlan), it means: and grown to full manhood, beyond boyhood and short of old age; one says of it “a mature man (rajul kahl)” and “a mature woman (imraʾah kahlah)”, as the rajaz poet said:6

And never after this will I be a hirer-out of camels, / handling the mature woman and the boy.

What He, Majestic is His praise, meant by His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity” is: he will speak to people as an infant in the cradle, as a proof of his mother’s innocence of that with which the slanderers charged her and as an evidence for him of his prophethood, and as a grown adult after reaching full manhood, by the revelation of God which He reveals to him, and His command and His prohibition, and what He sends down upon him of His Book.

God, Mighty and Majestic, informed His servants of this concerning the affair of the Messiah, and that he was indeed so, even though what generally holds of people is that they speak as mature men and old men, as an argument thereby against those of the people of unbelief in God among the Christians who say falsehood about him: that he was, from the time He brought him into being, a newborn infant and then a mature man, passing through successive states and changing with the passage of times and days over him, from smallness to bigness and from one condition to another; and that, had he been as the deviants say of him, that would not have been possible for him. By this He gave the lie to what the delegation from the people of Najrān said, who disputed with the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) about him; He argued thereby against them on behalf of His Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and informed them that he was like the rest of the children of Adam, save for the honour by which God singled him out and distinguished him from them; as in:

(7072) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous”: He informs them of the states through which he would pass in his lifetime, as the children of Adam pass through their lifetimes, small and grown, except that God singled him out with speech in his cradle as a sign of his prophethood and to make known to His servants the workings of His power.

(7073) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous”: He says, he will speak to them as a small child and as a grown man.

(7074) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ: “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity”, he said: he will speak to them as a small child and as a grown man.

(7075) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: “and in maturity, and he will be of the righteous”, he said: the mature man (kahl) is the forbearing one (ḥalīm).

(7076) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: he spoke to them as a small child, as a grown man, and in maturity. And Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said: the mature man is the forbearing one.

(7077) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity”, he said: he spoke to them in the cradle as a babe, and he spoke to them as a grown man.

Others said: the meaning of His word “and in maturity” is that he will speak to them when he appears.

Those who said this

(7078) Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: I heard him, meaning Ibn Zayd, say concerning His words “and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity”: Jesus has already spoken to them in the cradle, and he will speak to them when he kills the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl), and on that day he will be a mature man.

“In maturity” (kahlan) is in the accusative by coordination with the position of “and he will speak to people”.

As for His words “and he will be of the righteous”, He means: of their number and of their allies, because the people of righteousness are of one another in religion and merit.

On 3:47

On the interpretation of His words: She said: My Lord, how shall I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: Thus does God create what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: Be, and it is (3:47)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: Mary said, when the angels said to her that God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him, “My Lord, how shall I have a son”: from what quarter shall I have a son? Is it through a husband whom I marry and a spouse whom I wed, or will You originate his creation in me without a husband or a male, and without any man touching me? So God said to her: “Thus does God create what He wills”, meaning: thus does God create from you a son of yours without any man touching you, and He makes him a sign for people and a lesson; for He creates what He wills and does what He intends, and He gives a child to whom He wills, without a male and through a male, and withholds that from whom He wills among women, even though she have a husband; because the creation of anything He intends to create is not difficult for Him. It is only that He commands, when He intends something whose creation He intends, and says to it: “Be, and it is”, whatever He wills, of whatever He wills, and however He wills; as in:

(7079) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “She said: My Lord, how shall I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: Thus does God create what He wills”: He does what He intends and creates what He wills, from a human or from other than a human; “When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: Be”, of whatever He wills and however He wills, “and it is”, what He intended.

On 3:48

On the interpretation of His words: And He will teach him the Book and the Wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel (3:48)

Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters differed in the reading of this.

The generality of the reciters of the Ḥijāz and Medina, and some of the reciters of Kūfah, read it wa-yuʿallimuhu (“and He will teach him”) with yāʾ, in correspondence with His words “Thus does God create what He wills” followed by “and He will teach him the Book”; so they attached the predicate in His word “and He will teach him” to the like of the predicate in His words “He creates what He wills” and His words “He only says to it: Be, and it is”.

The generality of the reciters of Kūfah and some of the Baṣrans read it wa-nuʿallimuhu (“and We will teach him”) with nūn, coordinating it with His words “which We reveal to you”, as though He said: “That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you” and “We will teach him the Book”. They said: what comes after “We reveal” belongs to its clause as far as His words “Be, and it is”, and then “and We will teach him” is coordinated with it.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct view on this in our opinion is that they are two different readings, not different in meaning, so whichever of them the reciter reads, he attains what is correct in that, because the meaning of the two readings agrees, in that it is a report from God that He will teach Jesus the Book and whatever else He mentioned that He will teach him.

This is the beginning of a report from God, Mighty and Majestic, to Mary of what He would do with the son of whom He gave her glad tidings, by way of honour, elevation of rank and excellence. He said: thus does God create from you a son, without a male or a husband, and He will teach him the Book, which is the script he writes with his hand; and the Wisdom, which is the normative practice (sunnah) which He reveals to him outside of a book; and the Torah, which is the Torah that was sent down to Moses and had been among them since the time of Moses; and the Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus, which did not exist before him, but God informed Mary before the creation of Jesus that He would reveal it to him.

He informed her of that and named it to her only because she had already learned, from what had been sent down in the Scriptures, that God would send a prophet to whom a book named the Gospel would be revealed; so God, Mighty and Majestic, informed her that that prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) whose description she had heard, the one of whom He had promised His prophets before that He would send down upon him the book called the Gospel, was the son whom He had granted her and of whom He had given her glad tidings.

A group of the people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.

Those who said this

(7080) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, he said: Ibn Jurayj said: “and We will teach him the Book”, he said: with his hand.

(7081) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “and We will teach him the Book and the Wisdom”, he said: the Wisdom is the sunnah.

(7082) Al-Muthannā related to us: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from Qatādah, concerning His words “and We will teach him the Book and the Wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel”, he said: “the Wisdom” is the sunnah; “and the Torah and the Gospel”, he said: Jesus used to recite the Torah and the Gospel.

(7083) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj: “and We will teach him the Book and the Wisdom”, he said: the Wisdom is the sunnah.

(7084) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr, who said: He informed her, meaning God informed Mary, of what He intended for him, and said: “and He will teach him the Book and the Wisdom and the Torah”, which had been among them since the time of Moses, “and the Gospel”, another book which He newly brought forth to him, of which they had no knowledge save the mention of it by the prophets before him, that it would come to be.

On 3:49

On the interpretation of His words: and a messenger to the Children of Israel: “I have come to you with a sign from your Lord” (3:49)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words, Majestic is His praise, and a messenger, He means: and We shall make him a messenger to the Children of Israel. The mention of “and We shall make him” was left out because the discourse itself points to it, as the poet said:

And you saw your husband in the fray,

girded with a sword and a lance.7

And His words “I have come to you with a sign from your Lord” mean: and We shall make him a messenger to the Children of Israel, announcing that he is My prophet, My bearer of good tidings and My warner. And my proof of my truthfulness in that is: “I have come to you with a sign from your Lord”, meaning: with a token from your Lord which verifies my word and confirms my report that I am a messenger to you from your Lord. As:

(7085) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: and a messenger to the Children of Israel: “I have come to you with a sign from your Lord”, that is: by which my prophethood is verified, that I am a messenger from Him to you.

On the interpretation of His words: “I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by God’s leave” (3:49)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: and a messenger to the Children of Israel: “I have come to you with a sign from your Lord”; then He explained what that sign is, and said: “I create for you”.

So the interpretation of the passage is: and a messenger to the Children of Israel, announcing that I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, in that I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird.

Al-ṭayr (“birds”) is the plural of ṭāʾir (“a bird”).

The reciters differed over the reading of this.

Some of the people of the Ḥijāz read it “the likeness of a bird (al-ṭāʾir), then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird (ṭāʾiran)”, in the singular.8

Others read it “the likeness of birds (al-ṭayr), then I breathe into it and it becomes birds (ṭayran)”, in the plural in both places.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The reading I find most pleasing in this is the reading of those who read “the likeness of birds, then I breathe into it and it becomes birds”, in the plural in both places together, because this was among the attributes of Jesus, that he did this by God’s leave, and because it conforms to the script of the codex (muṣḥaf). Following the script of the codex, when the meaning is sound and the reading is widely transmitted, is more pleasing to me than departing from the codex.

Jesus’s creating of what he used to create of birds took place as:

(7086) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us: Ibn Isḥāq related to us: that Jesus, God’s blessings be upon him, sat one day with some boys from the elementary school (kuttāb). He took some clay and then said: “Shall I make for you a bird out of this clay?” They said: “Can you really do that?” He said: “Yes, by my Lord’s leave.” Then he shaped it, and when he had put it into the form of a bird he breathed into it and then said: “Be a bird, by God’s leave,” and it went out flying from between his two palms. The boys went out with this news of his doing and told their teacher about it, and he spread it among the people. He grew up, and the Children of Israel plotted against him; and when his mother feared for him she carried him on a little donkey of hers and went out with him in flight.

It is mentioned that when he wished to create the bird out of clay he asked them: “Which bird is hardest in its make-up?” He was told: “The bat.” As:

(7087) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said, concerning His words “I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird”: he said: “Which bird is hardest in its make-up?” They said: “The bat; it is nothing but flesh.” He said: So he did it.

Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone asks: How is it said “then I breathe into it” (fīhi, masculine), when it has already been said “I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird”, and “likeness” (hayʾah) is feminine?

It is said: Because the meaning of the passage is: then I breathe into the bird. Had it been “then I breathe into it” (fīhā, feminine), it would have been correct and permissible, as He said in al-Māʾidah, then you breathe into it (5:110), meaning: then you breathe into the form. It has been mentioned that in one of the two readings it is “then I breathe it” (fa-anfukhuhā), without “into”.9 The Arabs do the like of this, saying: “Many a night I have spent” (bittuhā), and “I have spent in it” (bittu fīhā). The poet said:10

No collar was rent, no wailing woman stood over you,

and no steeds wept for you beside the spoils of the slain.

meaning: “nor stood over you” (qāmat ʿalayka), the preposition being dropped. And as another said:

One of the daughters of Banū ʿAyyidh Allāh — a man sweet of nature has gone off with her

until the Trumpet is blown (yunfakhu al-ṣūr).11

On the interpretation of His words: “and I heal the blind from birth and the leper” (3:49)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words “and I heal” (ubriʾu) He means: and I cure. One says of it: “God healed (abraʾa) the sick man”, when He has cured him of his illness, “and He heals him (yubriʾuhu), a healing (ibrāʾan)”; and “the sick man recovered (baraʾa), and he recovers (yabraʾu), a recovery (barʾan)”; and it is also said “the sick man recovered (bariʾa), and he recovers (yabraʾu)”: two well-known dialectal forms.

The people of interpretation differed over the meaning of al-akmah.

  • Some of them said: He is the one who cannot see by night but sees by day.

Those who said this

(7088) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning His words “and I heal the akmah“: he said: The akmah is the one who sees by day and does not see by night, so that he gropes about blindly (yatakammah).

(7089) Al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

  • Others said: He is the blind man whose mother bore him so.

Those who said this

(7090) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, who said: We used to be told that the akmah is the one who is born blind, his eyes covered over.

(7091) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from Qatādah, concerning His words “and I heal the blind from birth and the leper”: he said: We used to be told that the akmah is the one who is born blind, with his eyes closed shut.

(7092) I was told, from al-Minjāb: Bishr related to us, from ʿUmārah, from Abū Rawq, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The akmah is the one who is born blind.

  • Others said: Rather, he is the blind man.

Those who said this

(7093) Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: “and I heal the akmah“: he is the blind man.

(7094) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: The blind man.

(7095) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “and I heal the akmah“: he said: The akmah is the blind man.

(7096) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words “and I heal the akmah“: he said: The blind man.

  • Others said: He is the weak-sighted (aʿmash).

Those who said this

(7097) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar related to us, from al-Ḥakam ibn Abān, from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words “and I heal the akmah“: he said: The weak-sighted.

Abū Jaʿfar said: What is known among the Arabs as the meaning of kamah is blindness. One says of it: “his eye went blind (kamihat), and it goes blind (takmahu), a blinding (kamahan)”, and “I blinded it (akmahtuhā)”, when you have made it blind, as Suwayd ibn Abī Kāhil said:

It blinded his eyes until they turned white,

so he reproaches himself, now that he has desisted.12

And from it is the saying of Ruʾbah:

I shouted him down, and he recoiled with the recoiling of a man born blind

amid the destroying pitfalls of one bewildered and babbling.

God, Mighty and Majestic, reported of Jesus, God’s blessings be upon him, that he said this to the Children of Israel only as his argument against them, by these lessons and signs, for his prophethood. That is because blindness from birth and leprosy have no treatment by which one versed in medicine could cure the sufferer by remedy. So this was among his proofs of the truth of his saying that he was a messenger of God, since it is one of the miracles (muʿjizāt), together with the other signs that God gave him as evidence of his prophethood.

As for what ʿIkrimah said, that kamah is weakness of sight, and what Mujāhid said, that it is poor sight by night, there is no sense in either of them. For God does not argue against His creatures with an argument in which they would have a way of opposing Him. Had it been among that with which Jesus argued against the Children of Israel for his prophethood that he cured the weak-sighted, or the one who sees by day and does not see by night, they would have been able to oppose him by saying: “There is no proof for you in this; among us are people who treat that, and they are neither prophets nor messengers of God.”

In this there is clear evidence of the soundness of what we have said, that the akmah is the blind man who sees nothing, neither by night nor by day. And it is closer to what Qatādah said, that he is one born so, because the treatment of such a case is not claimed by any human being except one to whom God has given the like of what He gave to Jesus; and likewise the treatment of the leper.

On the interpretation of His words: “and I give life to the dead by God’s leave, and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses” (3:49)

Abū Jaʿfar said: Jesus’s giving life to the dead was by supplication to God: he would pray for them, and He would answer him. As:

(7098) Muḥammad ibn Sahl ibn ʿAskar related to me: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me: that he heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say: When Jesus reached twelve years of age, God revealed to his mother, while she was in the land of Egypt — for she had fled with him from her people to the land of Egypt when she gave birth to him — “Go up with him to Syria (al-Shām).” She did what she was commanded. She remained in Syria until he was thirty years old, and his prophethood lasted three years; then God raised him up to Himself. He said: And Wahb claimed that there would sometimes gather around Jesus, in a single assembly, fifty thousand of the sick; whoever of them was able to reach him reached him, and whoever of them was not able to do so, Jesus came to him, walking to him. And he treated them only by supplication to God.

As for His words “and I inform you of what you eat”, He means: and I tell you what you eat, of that which I have not seen with my own eyes nor witnessed with you at the time you ate it; “and what you store up”, by that He means: and what you put away and hide and do not eat.

He was teaching them that among his proofs of his prophethood too — alongside the miracles which he had informed them he would bring as proof of his prophethood and of his truthfulness in his report that God had sent him to them, namely the creating of birds from clay, the healing of the blind from birth and the leper, and the giving of life to the dead by God’s leave, which no human being is capable of except one to whom God has given it as a token for him of his truthfulness and a sign for him of the reality of his word, from among His prophets and messengers and those of His creatures whom He loves — was his informing them of the unseen, to which no human being whose way is like his way has any access.

Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone asks: What proof of his truthfulness was there for him in his saying to them “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”, when we have seen astrologers and soothsayers tell of such things frequently and hit the mark?

It is said: As for the astrologer and the soothsayer, it is known of the two of them, by those whom they inform of such things, that they announce it by extracting it through certain means that lead to knowledge of it. It was not so with Jesus, God’s blessings be upon him, nor with the rest of God’s prophets and messengers. Rather, Jesus informed of it without any extraction and without seeking knowledge of it by contrivance, but at the outset, by God’s making it known to him, with no prior basis that he copied, or built upon, or resorted to, as the astrologer resorts to his calculation and the soothsayer to his familiar spirit (raʾiyy).13 That is the distinction between the prophets’ knowledge of unseen things and their reporting of them, and the knowledge of all the others who lie against God or claim knowledge of such things. As:

(7099) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: When Jesus reached nine or ten years or thereabouts, his mother put him into the elementary school — so they claim. He was with one of the schoolmasters, who taught him as boys are taught; and the master would not set about teaching him anything of what boys are taught but Jesus anticipated him in knowing it before he taught it to him, so that he would say: “Do you not marvel at this widow’s son? I do not go to teach him anything but I find him more knowledgeable in it than I!”

(7100) Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: When Jesus grew up his mother handed him over to learn the Torah. He used to play with the boys, the boys of the village in which he was, and he would tell the boys what their fathers were doing.

(7101) Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me: Hushaym related to us: Ismāʿīl ibn Sālim informed us, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”: he said: Jesus son of Mary, when he was in the elementary school, used to tell them what they ate in their houses and what they stored up.

(7102) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Hushaym related to us: Ismāʿīl ibn Sālim informed us, who said: I heard Saʿīd ibn Jubayr say: “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”: he said: Jesus son of Mary used to say to a boy in the school: “So-and-so, your family have hidden away such-and-such food for you; will you give me some of it to eat?”

Abū Jaʿfar said: Thus did the prophets and their proofs: of the proofs they bring, they bring that which can be reached by certain contrivances, but not in the manner in which others bring it; rather, in a manner by which creatures know that it cannot be reached in that way by any contrivance except from God.

Something near to what we have said about the interpretation of His words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses” was said by the people of interpretation.

Those who said this

(7103) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning God’s words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”: he said: What you ate last night, and what you hid away of it — it is Jesus son of Mary who says it.

(7104) Al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, the like of it.

(7105) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ said — meaning concerning His words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses” — he said: The food and the things they stored up in their houses: an unseen matter which God made known to him.

(7106) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”: he said: “what you eat”: what food you ate last night, and what you hid away of it.

(7107) Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: He — meaning Jesus son of Mary — used to tell the boys, while he was with them in the school, what their fathers were doing, what they were putting aside for them, and what they were eating. He would say to a boy: “Go, for your family have put aside such-and-such for you, and they are eating such-and-such.” So the child would go off and press his family with weeping until they gave him that thing. They would say to him: “Who told you of this?” and he would say: “Jesus!” That is the word of God, Mighty and Majestic: “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”. So they kept their children away from him and said: “Do not play with this sorcerer!” They gathered them in a house, and Jesus came looking for them. They said: “They are not here.” He said: “What is in this house?” They said: “Pigs.” Jesus said: “So shall they be!” They opened the door on them, and behold, they were pigs. That is His word: by the tongue of David and of Jesus son of Mary (5:78).

(7108) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words “and what you store up in your houses”: he said: What you hide away out of fear, which a man withholds lest it should not be replaced.14

  • Others said: By His words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses” He meant only: what you eat of the Table that is sent down to you, and what you store up of it.

Those who said this

(7109) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, on His words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”: When the people asked for the Table, it was a table-board (khiwān) on to which, wherever they were, there was sent down fruit from the fruits of the Garden. The people were commanded not to act treacherously with regard to it, nor to hide anything away, nor to store up for the morrow: a trial by which God tried them. Whenever they did anything of that, Jesus son of Mary informed them of it; so he said: “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses”.

(7110) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “and I inform you of what you eat and what you store up”: he said: I inform you of what you eat of the Table and what you store up of it. He said: A pledge was taken from them concerning the Table when it was sent down, that they should eat and not store up; but they stored up and acted treacherously, and they were turned into pigs when they stored up and acted treacherously. That is His word: but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one else in all the worlds (5:115).

Ibn Yaḥyā said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar said, from Qatādah, from Khilās ibn ʿAmr, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, the same.

The root of yaddakhirūn (“you store up”) is the verbal pattern yaftaʿilūn, from the speaker’s saying “I stored the thing (dhakhartu)”, with dhāl, “and I store it (adhkharuhu)”. Then yaddakhiru was said, just as yaddakiru is said from “I remembered the thing (dhakartu)”, the intended form being yadhtakhiru. When the dhāl and the tāʾ came together — and they are close in their points of articulation — pronouncing both distinctly was heavy on the tongue, so one of them was assimilated into the other and the two were made into a doubled dāl, which they made a middle term between the dhāl and the tāʾ. Some of the Arabs give the dhāl predominance over the tāʾ, assimilating the tāʾ into the dhāl, and say “and what you store up (wa-mā tadhdhakhirūn)”, “it is stored (mudhdhakhar) for you”, and “he is one who remembers (mudhdhakir)”.

The dialectal form in which the reading goes is the first, namely the assimilation of the dhāl into the tāʾ and the replacement of the two by a doubled dāl. Reading with any other is not permissible, because of the concurrent transmission of it by the reciters, and it is the best form (al-jūdā), as Zuhayr said:

Truly the noble man is he who grants you his bounty

freely, and is wronged at times, yet bears the wrong (fa-yaẓẓalimu).

It is transmitted with ẓāʾ, intending the yaftaʿilu form from ẓulm (“wrongdoing”), and it is also transmitted with ṭāʾ (fa-yaṭṭalimu).

On the interpretation of His words: “Surely in that is a sign for you, if you are believers” (3:49)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: Surely in my creating birds out of clay by God’s leave, in my healing the blind from birth and the leper, in my giving life to the dead, and in my informing you of what you eat and what you store up in your houses — at the outset, without calculation or astrology, without soothsaying or divination — is a lesson for you and a matter for reflection, that you may reflect on it and take it as proof that I am right in my saying to you, “I am a messenger from your Lord to you”, and know by it that I am truthful in what I call you to of God’s command and prohibition; “if you are believers”, meaning: if you are affirmers of God’s proofs and signs, acknowledging His oneness, and His prophet Moses, and the Torah which he brought you.

On 3:50-51

On the interpretation of His words: “and confirming what was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you” (3:50)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: and announcing that I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, and I have come to you confirming what was before me of the Torah. For that reason “confirming” (muṣaddiqan) is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) of “I have come to you”.

What indicates that it is in the accusative on account of His words “and I have come to you”, and not by conjunction to His words “illustrious” (wajīhan) (3:45), is His words “what was before me of the Torah”. Had it been conjoined to His words “illustrious”, the wording would have been: “and confirming what was before him of the Torah, and that he might make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you.”

It was said “and confirming what was before me of the Torah” only because Jesus, God’s blessings be upon him, believed in the Torah and acknowledged it, and that it was from God. So too all the prophets: they affirm all the books of God and His messengers that came before them, even if some of the laws of their rulings differed, because God made them differ among themselves in that. Moreover, Jesus — according to what has reached us — acted by the Torah and did not depart from any of its rulings, save what God lightened for its people in the Gospel of that which in it had been made stringent for them. As:

(7111) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me: that he heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say: Jesus was upon the law of Moses (peace and blessings be upon him); he kept the Sabbath and faced Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis) in prayer. He said to the Children of Israel: “I have not called you to contravene a single letter of what is in the Torah, save to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you and to lift from you some of the burdens (āṣār).”

(7112) Bishr related to me: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: “and confirming what was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you”: what Jesus brought was gentler than what Moses brought. Forbidden to them in what Moses brought had been the flesh of camels and the fat of the entrails (thurūb), and certain kinds of birds and fish.

(7113) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, from his father, from al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words “and confirming what was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you”: he said: What Jesus brought was gentler than what Moses brought. He said: Forbidden to them in what Moses brought of the Torah had been the flesh of camels and the fat of the entrails, and He made these lawful to them by the tongue of Jesus — the fats had been forbidden to them, and they were made lawful to them in what Jesus brought — and in certain kinds of fish, and in certain kinds of birds, those which have no spur (ṣīṣiyah), and in things He had forbidden them and made stringent for them; so Jesus brought them relief from that in the Gospel, and what Jesus brought was gentler than what Moses, God’s blessings be upon him, brought.

(7114) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, on His words “and to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you”: he said: The flesh of camels and the fats. When Jesus was sent he made them lawful to them; he was sent to the Jews, and they differed and split apart.

(7115) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “and confirming what was before me of the Torah”, that is: what preceded me of it; “and to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you”, that is: I tell you that it was forbidden to you and you left it, and then He made it lawful to you as a relief for you, so that you obtain its ease and go out from its liability (tibāʿah).

(7116) Muḥammad ibn Sinān related to me: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī related to us, from ʿAbbād, from al-Ḥasan: “and to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you”: he said: Certain things had been forbidden to them, and Jesus came to them to make lawful to them what had been forbidden to them, seeking by that their gratitude.

On the interpretation of His words: “and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord” (3:50)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means: and I have come to you with a proof and a lesson from your Lord, by which you know the reality of what I say to you. As:

(7117) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, from ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: “and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord”: he said: All the things that Jesus made clear to them, and what his Lord gave him.

(7118) Al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: “and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord”: all the things that Jesus made clear to them.

By His words “from your Lord” He means: from your Lord’s presence.

On the interpretation of His words: “So fear God and obey me. (50) Surely God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is a straight path.” (51) (3:50-51)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means: and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord by which you know with certainty my truthfulness in what I say; “so fear God”, O company of the Children of Israel, in what He has commanded you and forbidden you in His Book which He sent down to Moses, and fulfil His covenant which you made with Him in it; “and obey me” in what I have called you to, of believing me in that with which my Lord and your Lord has sent me to you — so worship Him, for it is with that He has sent me to you, and with the making lawful of some of what had been forbidden to you in your Book; and that is the upright road and the firm guidance in which there is no crookedness. As:

(7119) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: “So fear God and obey me. Surely God is my Lord and your Lord”: a disavowal of what they say about him — meaning what the Christians say about him — and an argument for his Lord against them; “so worship Him. This is a straight path”, that is: this which I have charged you with and brought to you.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters differed over the reading of His words “Surely God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him”.

The generality of the reciters of the garrison cities read it “Surely (inna) God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him”, with kasrah on the alif of inna, as the beginning of a new statement.

Some of them read it “that (anna) God is my Lord and your Lord”, with fatḥah on the alif of anna, with the interpretation: and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that God is my Lord and your Lord — referring anna back to “the sign” and making it stand in apposition to it.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct reading in our view is that which the reciters of the garrison cities follow, namely kasrah on the alif of inna as the beginning of a new statement, because of the consensus of the authoritative body of reciters on its soundness. What they agree upon is a binding proof, and what a lone individual holds apart from them is an opinion; and the proof is not to be contested by opinion.

This verse, even though its outward form is a report, contains the conclusive argument from God for His Messenger Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) against the delegation of the people of Najrān who disputed with him, in that God, Mighty and Majestic, reports that Jesus was innocent of what was attributed to him by those who attributed to him something other than that by which he described himself: that he is a servant of God like all His other servants among the people of the earth, except for what God, Majestic is His praise, singled him out with, of prophethood and the proofs He gave him as evidence of his truthfulness — just as He gave the other messengers besides him tokens and evidences of their truthfulness — and as an argument for his prophethood.

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.

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Notes

  1. al-ʿAjjāj. ↩
  2. That is, the husband of the sister of Mary’s mother, as the fuller versions of this report make clear. ↩
  3. The nickname of the leader of the Khārijites slain at Nahrawān, whose deformed arm ended in a lump of flesh resembling a breast. ↩
  4. There is a gap in the manuscripts at this point; what has apparently fallen out is the chain of transmission for this report from Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī. ↩
  5. Qaṭʿ is the Kūfan grammarians’ term for what the Baṣrans call the circumstantial accusative (ḥāl). ↩
  6. ʿUdhāfir al-Fuqaymī. ↩
  7. The verse is a stock grammatical example: “girded” governs “sword”, while a verb such as “bearing” must be understood for “lance”; so here “We shall make him” is understood before “a messenger”. ↩
  8. The singular forms belong to the Medinan reading tradition, associated with Nāfiʿ and Abū Jaʿfar al-Madanī. ↩
  9. Al-Farrāʾ attributes this reading to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd. ↩
  10. Yazīd ibn Rabīʿah ibn Mufarrigh al-Ḥimyarī, from his lampoon on ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād after the latter’s death at the battle of the Zāb. ↩
  11. The witness is “the Trumpet is blown”, where the verb takes its object directly rather than with “into”, as in the Qur’anic “it is blown into the Trumpet”. ↩
  12. From Suwayd’s famous ode in the Mufaḍḍaliyyāt: the poet likens himself to an unassailable rock at which his enemy keeps hurling stones until his eyes fail him. ↩
  13. A raʾiyy is a jinn companion who is said to appear to a soothsayer and feed him his false reports of unseen matters. ↩
  14. The wording of this report is uncertain in the manuscript; the sense appears to be food kept back out of anxiety about the morrow. ↩