The Rightly-Guided Injil

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

al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, by Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE). The commentary of the Andalusian jurist, which takes each verse through its legal and grammatical questions as well as its narrative.

Part 2 of 2: the commentary on The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64). The parts follow the order of the verses; this one covers 3:45-46 to 3:64.

On 3:45-46

A proof of her prophethood, as has already been stated. “When” (idh) is connected to “they were disputing”; and it is possible that it is connected to His words “and you were not with them”.

of a word from Him (3:45): Abū al-Sammāl1 read “bi-kilmatin minhu”, and this has already been discussed.

whose name is the Messiah: He did not say “her name” because the meaning of “word” is the meaning of “child”. The Messiah (al-Masīḥ) is a title of Jesus, and its meaning is “the truthful one” (ṣiddīq), so said Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī. It is, according to what is said, an arabicised word whose original has a shīn, and it is a homonym. Ibn Fāris said: al-masīḥ is sweat; al-masīḥ is the truthful one; al-masīḥ is the smooth dirham with no stamp on it; al-masḥ is sexual intercourse, one says masaḥahā; al-amsaḥ is a smooth place; al-masḥāʾ is the flat-buttocked woman who has no rump; “on so-and-so there is a touch (masḥah) of beauty”; and al-masāʾiḥ are fine bows, the singular being masīḥah. The poet said:

She has bows curved at their flanks, pliant, with neither weakness nor brittleness in them.

There is disagreement as to what the Messiah son of Mary is derived from. It was said: because he traversed (masaḥa) the earth, that is, he went about in it and took no shelter in any dwelling. It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he did not touch (yamsaḥ) anyone with an infirmity but that he was healed, so it is as if he were named Masīḥ for that; on this it is of the form faʿīl with the sense of fāʿil. It was said: because he was anointed (mamsūḥ) with the oil of blessing, with which the prophets used to be anointed; it was sweet-smelling, and when one was anointed with it, it was known that he was a prophet. It was said: because the soles of his feet were flat (mamsūḥ al-akhmaṣayn). It was said: because beauty touched him, that is, befell him and was manifest upon him. It was said: he was named thus only because he was wiped (musiḥa) with purity from sins. Abū al-Haytham said: al-masīḥ is the opposite of al-masīkh; one says “God masaḥa him”, that is, created him with a fine, blessed creation, and “He masakha him”, that is, created him with an accursed, ugly creation. Ibn al-Aʿrābī said: al-masīḥ is the truthful one, and al-masīkh is the one-eyed, and by that the Dajjāl was named. Abū ʿUbayd said: al-Masīḥ in its origin is in Hebrew Mashīḥā with a shīn, and it was arabicised just as Mūshā was arabicised into Mūsā. As for the Dajjāl, he was named masīḥ because one of his eyes is wiped out. It has been said of the Dajjāl missīḥ, with a kasrah on the mīm and doubling of the sīn; some say it thus with the dotted khāʾ; and some say masīkh with a fatḥah on the mīm, with khāʾ and without doubling; but the first is the better known, and the majority hold it. He was named by it because he roams (yasīḥ) the earth, that is, goes round it and enters all its lands except Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem; so it is faʿīl with the sense of fāʿil: the Dajjāl traverses the earth as a trial, and the son of Mary traverses it as a gift. And on the view that he is wiped of eye, it is faʿīl with the sense of mafʿūl. The poet said:

Truly the Masīḥ shall slay the Masīḥ.

In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “There is no land but the Dajjāl will tread it, except Mecca and Medina”, the ḥadīth. In the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr there occurs: “except the Kaʿbah and Jerusalem”; Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī mentioned it. Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī added: “and the mosque of al-Ṭūr”, relating it from the ḥadīth of Junādah ibn Abī Umayyah, from one of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). In the ḥadīth of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, from Samurah ibn Jundub, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “and that he will prevail over the whole earth except the Sanctuary and Jerusalem, and that he will besiege the believers in Jerusalem”; and he mentioned the ḥadīth. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim: “While he is thus, God will send the Messiah son of Mary, and he will descend at the white minaret on the east of Damascus, between two saffron-dyed garments, placing his hands on the wings of two angels; when he lowers his head it drips, and when he raises it there fall from it beads like pearls; and it will not be possible for any unbeliever who finds the scent of his breath but that he dies, and his breath will reach as far as his sight reaches; and he will seek him until he overtakes him at the gate of Ludd2 and kills him”, the ḥadīth, in its full length. It has been said that al-Masīḥ is a name of Jesus, not derived, by which God named him; on this, “Jesus” would be an appositive (badal) to “the Messiah”, of the kind of apposition in which the one is the other. ʿĪsā is a foreign name, and for that reason it is fully declinable in neither case; and if you make it Arabic, it is not fully declinable whether definite or indefinite, because it contains an alif of the feminine; and it would be derived from ʿāsahu yaʿūsuhu, when one manages a thing and takes charge of it.

honoured, that is, noble, possessing standing and worth; it is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl), so said al-Akhfash.

and of those brought near, to God, Exalted; it is conjoined to “honoured”, that is, “and brought near”, so said al-Akhfash. The plural of wajīh is wujahāʾ and wijhāʾ.

and he shall speak to people (3:46) is conjoined to “honoured”, so said al-Akhfash also. the cradle is the child’s place of lying during his suckling. Mahhadtu al-amr: I prepared the matter and made it smooth. In the revelation: they prepare for themselves (30:44). Imtahada al-shayʾ: the thing rose up, as the camel’s hump rises.

and in maturity: the mature man (kahl) is between the state of youth and the state of old age; and a woman is kahlah. Iktahalat al-rawḍah: the meadow became covered in blossom. He says: he speaks to people in the cradle as a sign, and he speaks to them in maturity with revelation and the message. Abū al-ʿAbbās said: he spoke to them in the cradle when he exonerated his mother, saying I am the servant of God (19:30), the verse; as for his speaking when a man of maturity, when God, Exalted, sends him down from heaven He will send him down in the form of a man of thirty-three years, which is the kahl, and he will say to them “I am the servant of God” just as he said in the cradle. So these are two signs and two proofs. Al-Mahdawī said: the benefit of the verse is that He informed them that Jesus (peace be upon him) would speak to them in the cradle and live until he spoke to them in maturity, since it was customary that one who spoke in the cradle did not live.

Al-Zajjāj said: “and in maturity” means “and he shall speak to people in maturity”. Al-Farrāʾ and al-Akhfash said: it is conjoined to “honoured”. It was said: the meaning is, and he shall speak to people as a small child and as a mature man. Ibn Jurayj related from Mujāhid, who said: the kahl is the forbearing one. Al-Naḥḥās said: this is not known in the language; the kahl according to the people of the language is only one who approaches forty. Some of them said: one is called a youth (ḥadath) until sixteen years, then a young man (shābb) until thirty-two, then he becomes a kahl at thirty-three; so said al-Akhfash.

and of the righteous is conjoined to “honoured”, that is, and he is of the righteous worshippers. Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah mentioned: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs related to us, from Ḥuṣayn, from Hilāl ibn Yisāf, who said: None spoke in the cradle except three: Jesus, the companion of Joseph, and the companion of Jurayj. Thus he said: “and the companion of Joseph”. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “None spoke in the cradle except three: Jesus son of Mary, the companion of Jurayj, and the companion of the tyrant; and while an infant was suckling from his mother…”, and he mentioned the ḥadīth in its full length. There has come from the ḥadīth of Ṣuhayb, in the story of the Trench (al-Ukhdūd): “that a woman was brought to be cast into the fire for her faith, and with her was a child”, and in other than the book of Muslim: “suckling, and she hung back from falling into it, and the boy said: O mother, be steadfast, for you are upon the truth.” Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: six spoke in the cradle: the witness of Joseph, the child of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s wife, Jesus, John, the companion of Jurayj, and the companion of the tyrant. He did not mention the Trench; so he left out the companion of the Trench, and with him those who spoke become seven. There is no contradiction between this and his words (peace be upon him), “None spoke in the cradle except three”, by way of restriction, for he informed of what was within his knowledge of what had been revealed to him at that time; then after this God, Exalted, taught him what He willed of that, and he informed of it. I say: as for the companion of Joseph, discussion of him will come; as for the companion of Jurayj, the companion of the tyrant and the companion of the Trench, they are in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim. The story of the Trench will come in Sūrat “al-Burūj”, God Exalted willing. As for the child of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s wife, al-Bayhaqī mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When I was taken on the night journey, I passed through a sweet fragrance and said: What is this fragrance? They said: The hairdresser of Pharaoh’s daughter and her children. Her comb fell from her hands and she said: In the name of God. Pharaoh’s daughter said: My father? She said: My Lord and your Lord and the Lord of your father. She said: Have you a Lord other than my father? She said: Yes, my Lord and your Lord and the Lord of your father is God. He said: So Pharaoh summoned her and said: Have you a Lord other than me? She said: Yes, my Lord and your Lord is God. He said: So he ordered a hollow vessel of copper, and it was heated, then he ordered that she be cast into it. She said: I have a request of you. He said: What is it? She said: That you gather my bones and the bones of my children in one place. He said: That is yours, because of the right you have over us. So he gave orders concerning them, and they were cast in one after another until it reached a suckling infant among them, who said: Plunge in, O mother, and do not hang back, for we are upon the truth. He said: And four spoke while they were small: this one, the witness of Joseph, the companion of Jurayj, and Jesus son of Mary.”

On 3:47

His words, Exalted: She said: My Lord (3:47), that is, O my master. She was addressing Gabriel (peace be upon him), because when he appeared to her in human form he said to her: I am only the messenger of your Lord, to bestow on you a pure boy. When she heard that from his words she enquired about the way the child would come, and said: How shall I have a child when no man has touched me? That is, by marriage. [In her sūrah:] nor have I been unchaste (19:20); she mentioned this for emphasis, because her words “no man has touched me” include the unlawful and the lawful. She is saying: the established custom which God has set in His creation is that a child comes only from marriage or fornication. It was said: she did not deem anything remote from the power of God, Exalted, but she wished to know how this child would come about: from a husband in the future, or would God create him from the first? It is related that Gabriel (peace be upon him), when he said to her “Thus God creates what He wills”, He said: Thus said your Lord: It is easy for Me (19:21), blew into the opening of her shift and her sleeve, so said Ibn Jurayj. Ibn ʿAbbās said: Gabriel took the cuff of her shirt with his finger and blew into it, and she conceived Jesus from that hour. Other things have been said, as will be explained in her sūrah, God Exalted willing. Some of them said: Gabriel’s breath fell into her womb, and she conceived by that. And some of them said: it is not permissible that the creation be from the breath of Gabriel, because then the child would be partly of the angels and partly of mankind; rather the cause of that is that God, Exalted, when He created Adam and took the covenant from his progeny, placed part of the fluid in the loins of fathers and part of it in the wombs of mothers, and when the two fluids come together they become a child; and God, Exalted, placed both fluids together in Mary, part in her womb and part in her loins, and Gabriel blew into it so that her desire might be stirred, because a woman does not conceive so long as her desire is not stirred; and when her desire was stirred by Gabriel’s breath, the fluid that was in her loins fell into her womb, and the two fluids mingled, and she conceived by that. That is His words, Exalted: when He decrees a matter, meaning when He wishes to create a creature, He only says to it: Be, and it is (3:47). The discussion of this has already been given in full in “al-Baqarah”.

On 3:48-49

His words, Exalted: And He will teach him the Book and Wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel (3:48). Ibn Jurayj said: the Book is writing and script. It was said: it is a book other than the Torah and the Gospel which God taught Jesus (peace be upon him).

and a messenger (3:49), that is, and We shall make him a messenger; or, he shall speak to them as a messenger. It was said: it is conjoined to His words “honoured”. Al-Akhfash said: if you wish, you may make the wāw in His words “and a messenger” redundant and “messenger” a circumstantial qualifier of the pronoun “him”, the implied sense being: and He will teach him the Book as a messenger. In the long ḥadīth of Abū Dharr: “The first of the prophets of the Children of Israel was Moses, and the last of them Jesus (peace be upon him).”

that I create for you, that is, I shape and fashion for you, from clay the likeness of a bird. Al-Aʿraj and Abū Jaʿfar read “ka-hayyah” with doubling; the rest with the hamzah.

“Bird” (al-ṭayr) is treated as both masculine and feminine.

then I breathe into it, that is, into one of them, masculine or feminine, or into the clay, and it becomes a bird (ṭāʾir). Ṭāʾir and ṭayr are like tājir and tajr. Wahb said: it would fly as long as people were looking at it, and when it was out of their sight it fell down dead, so that the act of the creature might be distinguished from the act of God, Exalted. It was said: he created nothing but the bat, because it is the most complete of birds in formation, so that it might be more telling in respect of power, for it has breasts, teeth and ears, and it menstruates and becomes pure and gives birth. It is said: they only asked for the creation of a bat because it is more wonderful than the rest of creation; among its wonders is that it is flesh and blood that flies without feathers, gives birth as animals give birth and does not lay eggs as the rest of birds lay, so that it has an udder from which milk comes; it does not see in the light of day nor in the darkness of night, but only sees at two hours: an hour after the setting of the sun and an hour after the rising of dawn, before it becomes very bright; it laughs as a human laughs, and menstruates as a woman menstruates. It is said that their asking him was by way of obstinacy: they said: Create for us a bat and put a spirit in it, if you are truthful in your claim; so he took clay and made from it a bat, then breathed into it, and lo, it was flying between heaven and earth. The fashioning of the clay and the breathing were from Jesus, and the creation was from God, just as the breathing was from Gabriel and the creation from God. His words, Exalted: and I heal the blind from birth and the leper, and I give life to the dead, by God’s leave: the blind from birth (al-akmah) is one who is born blind, according to Ibn ʿAbbās. Abū ʿUbaydah said likewise; he said: he is the one born blind, and he cited Ruʾbah:

and he turned back as the blind-born turns back.

Ibn Fāris said: al-kamah is blindness with which a person is born, and it may also come upon him later. Suwayd said:

his eyes went blind until they both turned white.

Mujāhid: he is one who sees by day and does not see by night. ʿIkrimah: he is the weak-sighted; but in the language it is blindness; one says kamiha, yakmahu, kamahan, and kammahtuhā, I, when I blind it (the eye). Leprosy (baraṣ) is well known: it is a whiteness that affects the skin; al-abraṣ is the moon, and sāmm abraṣ (the gecko) is well known, its plural being al-abāriṣ. These two were singled out for mention because they are two incurable diseases. The dominant science in the time of Jesus (peace be upon him) was medicine, so God showed them the miracle in that kind. and I give life to the dead, by God’s leave: it was said that he gave life to four persons: al-ʿĀzir3, who was a friend of his; the son of the old woman; the daughter of the tax-collector; and Shem son of Noah; and God knows best. As for al-ʿĀzir, he had died some days before; he called on God, and he rose by God’s leave with his fat dripping, and he lived and children were born to him. As for the son of the old woman, he passed by him being carried on his bier; he called on God, and he arose, put on his clothes, carried the bier on his neck and returned to his family. As for the daughter of the tax-collector, a night had passed over her; he called on God, and she lived after that and children were born to her. When they saw that, they said: You give life to one whose death is recent; perhaps they did not die, but a seizure overcame them. So give life for us to Shem son of Noah. He said to them: Show me his grave. He went out, and the people went out with him, until he reached his grave; he called on God, and he came out of his grave with his head gone white. Jesus said to him: How has your head gone white, when there was no greying in your time? He said: O Spirit of God, you called me, and I heard a voice saying: Answer the Spirit of God; and I thought that the Resurrection had come, and from the terror of that my head went white. He asked him about the agony of death, and he said: O Spirit of God, the bitterness of the death-agony has not left my throat; and it had been more than four thousand years since his death. Then he said to the people: Believe him, for he is a prophet. Some of them believed in him, and some of them denied him and said: This is sorcery. It is related from the ḥadīth of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, who said: Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah related to me, from a man, that Jesus son of Mary, when he wished to give life to the dead, would pray two rakʿahs, reciting in the first Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion (67:1) and in the second “Tanzīl al-Sajdah”4; and when he finished he would praise God and extol Him, then call upon Him by seven names: O Eternal, O Hidden, O Everlasting, O Single, O Odd, O One, O Eternal Refuge. Al-Bayhaqī mentioned it and said: its chain of transmission is not strong.

His words, Exalted: and I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses; surely in that is a sign for you, if you are believers (3:49), that is, of that which you eat and what you store. That is because when he gave life for them to the dead, they asked him for another sign and said: Tell us what we eat in our houses and what we store for the morrow. So he told them, saying: O so-and-so, you ate such and such; and you ate such and such and stored such and such. That is His words “and I inform you”, the verse. Mujāhid, al-Zuhrī and al-Sakhtiyānī read “wa-mā tadhkharūn” with the dotted dhāl, without doubling. Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and others said: he used to tell the children in the school what they had stored, until their fathers prevented them from sitting with him. Qatādah: he told them what they had eaten from the Table and what they had stored from it in secret.

On 3:50-51

His words, Exalted: And confirming what was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you; and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear God and obey me. Surely God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him; this is a straight path (3:50-51). and confirming is conjoined to His words “and a messenger”. It was said: the meaning is, and I have come to you confirming.

what was before me: what was prior to me.

and to make lawful to you: there is an ellipsis in it, that is, and to make lawful to you I have come to you.

some of what was forbidden to you, meaning of foods. It was said: Jesus (peace be upon him) made lawful to them only what had been forbidden to them because of their sins and was not in the Torah, such as eating fats and every animal with claws. It was said: he made lawful to them only things which the rabbis had forbidden them, and which were not forbidden to them in the Torah. Abū ʿUbaydah said: it is possible that “some” has the meaning of “all”, and he cited Labīd:

One who forsakes places when I am not pleased with them, / or else its appointed death binds some souls fast.

This view is an error according to the critical scholars among the people of the language, because “some” and “part” do not have the meaning of “all” in this place, since Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him) made lawful to them only some things of what Moses had forbidden them, such as eating fats and other things, and did not make lawful to them killing, theft or indecency. The proof of this is what is related from Qatādah, who said: Jesus came to them with something gentler than what Moses came with (God bless them both and our Prophet), because Moses came to them with the prohibition of camels and some fats, and Jesus came to them making some of them lawful. Al-Nakhaʿī read “baʿḍa alladhī ḥaruma ʿalaykum”, like karuma, that is, became forbidden. “Some” may be put in the sense of “all” when a contextual indication is joined to it pointing to that, as the poet5 said:

Abū Mundhir, you have destroyed; so spare some of us. / Have mercy! Some evil is lighter than some.

He means: some evil is lighter than all of it.

and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: He used the singular, though they are signs, because they are one kind in indicating his messengership.

On 3:52

His words, Exalted: So when Jesus perceived unbelief from them (3:52), that is, from the Children of Israel. “Perceived” (aḥassa) means he knew and found, so said al-Zajjāj. Abū ʿUbaydah said: the meaning of “aḥassa” is he recognised, and the root of that is finding a thing by the sense (ḥāssah). Perception (iḥsās) is knowledge of a thing; God, Exalted, said: Do you perceive any one of them? (19:98). Al-ḥass is killing; God, Exalted, said: when you were slaying them by His leave (3:152). From this is the ḥadīth concerning locusts: “when the cold kills them.”

unbelief from them, that is, unbelief in God. It was said: he heard from them the word of unbelief. Al-Farrāʾ said: they intended to kill him.

he said: Who are my helpers towards God? He sought help against them. Al-Suddī, al-Thawrī and others said: the meaning is “with God”, so “towards” (ilā) has the meaning of “with”, as in His words, Exalted: and do not consume their property along with your property (4:2), that is, with. And God knows best. Al-Ḥasan said: the meaning is, who are my helpers on the way to God, because he called them to God, Mighty and Majestic. It was said: the meaning is, who will join his help to the help of God, Mighty and Majestic. On these two views “towards” retains its ordinary sense, and this is the good view. His seeking help was so that he might be protected by it from his people and proclaim the call openly, according to al-Ḥasan and Mujāhid. This is God’s way with His prophets and His friends. Lot said: Would that I had power against you, or could take refuge in a strong support (11:80), that is, a clan and companions who would help me. The disciples said: We are the helpers of God, that is, the helpers of His prophet and His religion. The disciples (ḥawāriyyūn) are the companions of Jesus (peace be upon him), and they were twelve men, so said al-Kalbī and Abū Rawq. There is disagreement as to why they were named thus. Ibn ʿAbbās said: they were named thus for the whiteness of their garments, and they were fishermen. Ibn Abī Najīḥ and Ibn Arṭāh: they were fullers, and were named thus because they whitened garments. ʿAṭāʾ said: Mary handed Jesus over to various trades, and the last to whom she gave him was the disciples, who were fullers and dyers. The master of Jesus wished to travel, and he said to Jesus: I have many garments of different colours, and I have taught you dyeing, so dye them. So Jesus heated a single vat and put all the garments into it, and said: Be, by God’s leave, as I wish of you. The disciple came back while all the garments were in the vat, and when he saw them he said: You have ruined them. Then Jesus drew out a red garment, a yellow one and a green one, and so on, each garment in the dye that had been written upon it; the disciple marvelled and knew that this was from God, and he called the people to him and they believed in him; these are the disciples. Qatādah and al-Ḍaḥḥāk: they were named thus because they were the elect of the prophets; the two of them mean because of the purity of their hearts. It was said: they were kings; that is because the king prepared food and invited the people to it, and Jesus was at a bowl which did not diminish; the king said to him: Who are you? He said: Jesus son of Mary. He said: I shall leave this kingdom of mine and follow you. So he went off with those who followed him along with him, and these are the disciples; so said Ibn ʿAwn. The root of ḥawar in the language is whiteness: ḥawwartu al-thiyāb, I whitened the garments; al-ḥuwwārā of food is what has been whitened, that is, bleached; iḥwarra, it became white; and the whitened bowl (al-jafnah al-muḥawwarah) is the one whitened with hump-fat. Al-ḥawārī is also the helper; the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every prophet has a disciple (ḥawārī), and my disciple is al-Zubayr.” Al-ḥawāriyyāt are women, for their whiteness. The poet said:

So tell the fair women to weep for other than us, / and let none weep for us but the barking dogs.

On 3:53

His words, Exalted: Our Lord, we believe in what You have sent down (3:53), that is, they say: Our Lord, we believe.

in what You have sent down, meaning in Your Book and in the judgement of Yours that You have made manifest.

and we follow the Messenger, meaning Jesus.

so write us down among the witnesses, meaning the community of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); this is from Ibn ʿAbbās. The meaning is: record our names along with their names and make us of their number. And it has been said: the meaning is, write us down among those who have borne witness to Your prophets that they spoke the truth.

On 3:54

His words, Exalted: And they schemed (3:54), meaning the unbelievers among the Children of Israel, those from whom he perceived unbelief; that is, they schemed to kill him. This was because when Jesus (peace be upon him) had been driven out from among them by his people, he and his mother, he came back to them with the disciples and cried out among them with the call to God, whereupon they resolved to kill him and conspired to assassinate him; that was their scheming. And God’s scheming is His leading His servants on step by step (istidrāj) from where they do not know; this is from al-Farrāʾ and others. Ibn ʿAbbās said: Whenever they committed a fresh sin, We renewed for them a favour. Al-Zajjāj said: God’s scheming is His requiting them for their scheming, so the requital is named by the name of the initial act, as in His words: God mocks them (2:15) and and He is deceiving them (4:142). This has already been discussed in al-Baqarah. The root meaning of makr (scheming) in the language is contrivance and deception. Makr is also the plumpness of the shank (khadālat al-sāq); one says of a woman that she is mamkūrat al-sāqayn, plump-shanked. And makr is a kind of garment; and it is said, rather it is red ochre (maghrah); Ibn Fāris related this. And it has been said that “God schemed” means His casting the likeness of Jesus upon someone else and raising Jesus to Himself. This was because when the Jews gathered to kill Jesus he entered the house fleeing from them, and Gabriel raised him through the skylight to heaven. Their king then said to a wicked man among them called Judas: Go in to him and kill him. So he went in through the small door and did not find Jesus there, and God cast upon him the likeness of Jesus. When he came out they saw him in the likeness of Jesus, so they seized him, killed him and crucified him. Then they said: His face resembles the face of Jesus, but his body resembles the body of our companion; if this is our companion, then where is Jesus? And if this is Jesus, then where is our companion? Fighting then broke out among them and they killed one another. That is His words, Exalted: And they schemed, and God schemed (3:54). Other explanations than this have been given, as will come.

and God is the best of schemers: an active participle from makara, yamkuru, makran. Some scholars have counted it among the names of God, Exalted, and so one of them says when he supplicates with it: O best of schemers, scheme for me. And he (peace be upon him) used to say in his supplication: “O God, scheme for me and do not scheme against me.” We have discussed it in al-Kitāb al-Asnā fī sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā. And God knows best.

On 3:55

His words, Exalted: When God said: O Jesus, I am taking you (3:55). The governing word of when is “they schemed”, or else an implied verb. A group of the scholars of meanings, among them al-Ḍaḥḥāk and al-Farrāʾ, said of His words, Exalted, I am taking you and raising you to Myself, that they are by way of anticipation and postponement (taqdīm wa-taʾkhīr), because the conjunction wāw does not impose sequence. The meaning is: I am raising you to Myself and purifying you from those who disbelieve, and taking you after you come down from heaven; as in His words: And had it not been for a word that preceded from your Lord, it would have been binding, and an appointed term (20:129), the sense being: had it not been for a word that preceded from your Lord and an appointed term, it would have been binding. The poet said:

O palm-tree of Dhāt ʿIrq,

upon you be, and the mercy of God, peace,

that is, upon you be peace and the mercy of God. Al-Ḥasan and Ibn Jurayj said: the meaning of taking you (mutawaffīka) is seizing you and raising you to heaven without death, like the expression “I took in full (tawaffaytu) my money from so-and-so”, that is, I received it. Wahb ibn Munabbih said: God caused Jesus (peace be upon him) to die for three hours of the day, then raised him to heaven. There is something far-fetched in this, for it has been authentically established in the reports from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he will descend and kill the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl), as we have set out in the book al-Tadhkirah, and in this book in accordance with what has gone before and what will come. Ibn Zayd said: taking you means seizing you; “taking you” and “raising you” are one and the same, and he has not died yet. Ibn Ṭalḥah related from Ibn ʿAbbās that the meaning of taking you is causing you to die. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas: it is the taking of sleep; God, Exalted, said: And it is He who takes you by night (6:60), that is, causes you to sleep, because sleep is the brother of death, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said when he was asked: Is there sleep in Paradise? He said: “No; sleep is the brother of death, and there is no death in Paradise.” Al-Dāraquṭnī transmitted it. The correct view is that God, Exalted, raised him to heaven without death and without sleep, as al-Ḥasan and Ibn Zayd said; this is the preference of al-Ṭabarī, it is what is authentically reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk said it. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: The story was that when they wanted to kill Jesus, the disciples gathered in an upper room, twelve men, and the Messiah came in to them through the niche of the room. Iblīs informed the host of the Jews, and four thousand men of them rode out and took hold of the door of the room. The Messiah said to the disciples: Which of you will go out and be killed and be with me in Paradise? A man said: I, O Prophet of God. So he threw over him a tunic (midraʿah) of wool and a turban of wool and handed him his staff, and the likeness of Jesus was cast upon him; he went out to the Jews and they killed him and crucified him. As for the Messiah, God clothed him in feathers and dressed him in light and cut off from him the pleasure of food and drink, and he flew off with the angels. Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah mentioned: Abū Muʿāwiyah related to us: al-Aʿmash related to us, from al-Minhāl, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When God, Blessed and Exalted, wished to raise Jesus to heaven, he came out to his companions, who were twelve men, from a spring in the house, his head dripping with water, and said to them: Truly, there is among you one who will disbelieve in me twelve times after having believed in me. Then he said: Which of you will have my likeness cast upon him, and be killed in my place, and be with me in my rank? A young man, one of the youngest of them, stood up and said: I. Jesus said: Sit down. Then he repeated it to them, and the young man stood up and said: I. Jesus said: Sit down. Then he repeated it to them, and the young man stood up and said: I. He said: Yes, you are the one. So God cast upon him the likeness of Jesus (peace be upon him). He said: And God, Exalted, raised Jesus through a skylight (rawzanah) that was in the house up to heaven. He said: And the search party of the Jews came and seized the look-alike and killed him, then crucified him; and some of them disbelieved in him twelve times after having believed in him. They then split into three sects. One sect said: God was among us as long as He willed, then ascended to heaven; these are the Jacobites. Another sect said: The son of God was among us as long as God willed, then God raised him to Himself; these are the Nestorians. And another sect said: The servant of God and His messenger was among us as long as God willed, then He raised him to Himself; these are the Muslims. The two unbelieving sects joined forces against the Muslim one and killed its members, and Islam remained effaced until God sent Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and then they fought6; and God, Exalted, sent down: So a party of the Children of Israel believed and a party disbelieved, and We supported those who believed (61:14), that is, whose fathers had believed in the time of Jesus, against their enemy, by making their religion prevail over the religion of the unbelievers, and they became dominant. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “By God, the son of Mary will surely descend as a just judge; he will surely break the cross, kill the swine and abolish the poll-tax; the young she-camels will surely be left so that no one strives after them; rancour, mutual hatred and mutual envy will surely vanish; and he will surely call people to wealth and no one will accept it.” And from him also, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “By Him in whose hand is my soul, the son of Mary will surely raise the pilgrim’s cry (talbiyah) at Fajj al-Rawḥāʾ7, as a pilgrim or as one performing the lesser pilgrimage, or combining the two.” He will not descend with a new law by which he abrogates our law; rather he will descend as a renewer of what has fallen into disuse of it, and as a follower of it, as in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “How will you be when the son of Mary descends among you and your leader (imām) is from among you?” And in one transmission: “and he leads you from among you” (fa-ammakum minkum). Ibn Abī Dhiʾb said: Do you know what “he leads you from among you” means? I said: Tell me. He said: He leads you by the Book of your Lord, Blessed and Exalted, and the practice (sunnah) of your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). We have given this subject fuller exposition in the book al-Tadhkirah, and praise belongs to God. Taking you (mutawaffīka) is originally mutawaffiyuka; the ḍammah was dropped because it was found heavy. It is the predicate of inna. And raising you is conjoined to it, and likewise purifying you, and likewise and placing those who follow you. It is also permissible to read wa-jāʿilu lladhīna (with the participle governing the following noun directly), and that is the original form. And it has been said that the complete pause (waqf tāmm) is at His words and purifying you from those who disbelieve; al-Naḥḥās said: and that is a fine view. and placing those who follow you, O Muḥammad, above those who disbelieve, that is, by the argument and the establishing of proof. And it has been said: by might and victory. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Muḥammad ibn Abān said: what is meant is the disciples. And God, Exalted, knows best.

On 3:56-58

His words, Exalted: As for those who disbelieve, I shall punish them with a severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter (3:56), meaning by killing, crucifixion, captivity and the poll-tax (jizyah), and in the Hereafter by the Fire.

This We recite to you (3:58): This is in the position of the nominative as the subject of a nominal sentence, and its predicate is We recite to you. It is also permissible to take it as “the matter is this”, with an implied subject.

On 3:59-60

His words, Exalted: Truly the likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam: He created him from dust (3:59). This is a proof of the validity of analogical reasoning (qiyās). The comparison rests on the fact that Jesus was created without a father, like Adam, not on his having been created from dust. A thing may be likened to another thing even if there is a great difference between them, once they share a single attribute; for Adam was created from dust and Jesus was not created from dust, so there is a difference between them in this respect, but the resemblance between them is that He created both of them without a father. And also because the origin of the creation of both was from dust, since Adam was not created from the dust itself; rather, He made the dust into clay, then made it into dried clay, then created him from it. So likewise Jesus: He turned him from one state to another, then made him a human being without a father. This verse was sent down on account of the delegation of Najrān, when they objected to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) over his saying “Jesus is the servant of God and His word.” They said: Show us a servant who was created without a father. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to them: “Adam, who was his father? Do you marvel at Jesus having no father? Adam (peace be upon him) had neither father nor mother.” That is His words, Exalted: And they bring you no comparison, that is, concerning Jesus, but We bring you the truth, concerning Adam, and a better exposition (25:33). It is related that when he (peace be upon him) called them to Islam they said: We were Muslims before you. He said: “You lie. Three things keep you from Islam: your saying that God has taken a son, your eating of swine, and your prostrating to the cross.” They said: Who is the father of Jesus? So God, Exalted, sent down: Truly the likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam: He created him from dust, up to His words: then let us invoke the curse of God upon the liars (3:61). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) then summoned them, and they said to one another: If you do it, the valley will blaze up with fire against you. So they said: Will you not offer us anything other than this? He said: “Islam, or the poll-tax, or war.” So they agreed to the poll-tax, as will come. The sentence is complete at His word Adam. Then He said: He created him from dust, then said to him, Be, and he is, that is, and he was. The future tense stands in the place of the past when the meaning is understood. Al-Farrāʾ said: The truth is from your Lord (3:60) is in the nominative by an implied “it” (huwa). Abū ʿUbaydah: it is a fresh sentence, and its predicate is in His words from your Lord. And it has been said that it is the agent, that is, the truth has come to you. So be not of those who doubt: the address is to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and those intended are his community, because he (peace and blessings be upon him) was not in doubt about the matter of Jesus (peace be upon him).

On 3:61

There are three questions in this verse.

  • The first: His words, Exalted: And whoever disputes with you concerning him (3:61), that is, argues and contends with you, O Muḥammad, concerning him, that is, concerning Jesus, after the knowledge that has come to you that he is the servant of God and His messenger. say: Come, that is, draw near. The word taʿālaw was originally coined for one possessing majesty and elevation, then it came in usage to be employed by anyone calling another to approach; further explanation of it will come in al-Anʿām. let us call is in the position of the jussive. our sons: a proof that the sons of daughters are called sons, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came with al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, Fāṭimah walking behind him and ʿAlī behind her, and he was saying to them: “When I supplicate, say Amen.” then let us pray earnestly (nabtahil), that is, let us humble ourselves in supplication; this is from Ibn ʿAbbās. Abū ʿUbaydah and al-Kisāʾī: let us invoke curses upon one another. The root meaning of ibtihāl is exertion in supplication, with cursing or otherwise. Labīd said:

Among mature men, lords of his people,

upon whom Time looked, and then strove earnestly (ibtahal),

that is, strove to destroy them. One says bahalahu Llāh, that is, God cursed him; al-bahl is cursing. Al-bahl is also a small quantity of water. Abhaltuhu means I left him alone with his own wishes; and bahaltuhu likewise. Abū ʿUbaydah related: bahalahu Llāh, yubhiluhu, bahlatan, that is, He cursed him. Ibn ʿAbbās said: They were the people of Najrān: al-Sayyid, al-ʿĀqib and Ibn al-Ḥārith, their chiefs. and invoke the curse of God upon the liars.

  • The second: This verse is among the signs of the prophethood of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), because he called them to the mutual invocation of curses (mubāhalah) and they refused it and were content with the poll-tax, after their leader al-ʿĀqib had told them that if they engaged him in the mutual cursing, the valley would blaze up with fire against them, for Muḥammad is a prophet sent by God; “and you well know that he has brought you the decisive word on the matter of Jesus.” So they abandoned the mutual cursing and departed to their land on condition that they pay every year a thousand suits of clothing in Ṣafar and a thousand suits in Rajab, and the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) made peace with them on that basis in lieu of Islam.
  • The third: Many scholars have said that his words (peace be upon him) concerning al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn when he engaged in the mutual cursing, let us call our sons and your sons, and his words concerning al-Ḥasan, “This son of mine is a lord (sayyid)”, are specific to al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, that they be called the sons of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to the exclusion of others, because of his words (peace be upon him): “Every bond and lineage is cut off on the Day of Resurrection except my lineage and my bond.” For this reason some of the companions of al-Shāfiʿī said concerning one who makes a bequest to the child of so-and-so, when the latter has no child of his own loins but has a son’s child and a daughter’s child, that the bequest goes to the son’s child and not the daughter’s child; and this is the view of al-Shāfiʿī. Further explanation of this will come in al-Anʿām and al-Zukhruf, if God, Exalted, wills.

On 3:62-63

His words, Exalted: Truly this is the true narrative (3:62). The demonstrative in His words Truly this points to the Qur’an and the narratives it contains. They are called qaṣaṣ because the meanings follow one upon another in them; so it is from their saying “so-and-so follows (yaquṣṣu) the track of so-and-so”, that is, he follows him.

and there is no god but God: min is redundant, for emphasis, and the meaning is “and there is no god but God”. the Mighty, that is, He who is not overcome.

the Wise: the possessor of wisdom. The like of this has already been discussed, and praise belongs to God.

On 3:64

There are three questions in this verse.

  • The first: His words, Exalted: Say: O People of the Book (3:64). The address, according to al-Ḥasan, Ibn Zayd and al-Suddī, is to the people of Najrān; and according to Qatādah, Ibn Jurayj and others, to the Jews of Medina, who were addressed in this way because they had set their rabbis, in the obedience they rendered them, in the place of lords. And it has been said: it is to the Jews and the Christians together. In the letter of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to Heraclius: “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. From Muḥammad, the Messenger of God, to Heraclius, the great one of the Romans. Peace be upon whoever follows the guidance. To proceed: I call you with the summons of Islam. Submit, and you will be safe; submit, and God will give you your reward twice over. But if you turn away, then upon you is the sin of the peasants (arīsiyyīn)8. O People of the Book, come to a word common between us and you: that we worship none but God“, up to His words then say: Bear witness that we are Muslims. This is the wording of Muslim. Al-sawāʾ means justice and fair dealing; Qatādah said this. Zuhayr said:

Show me a course in which there is no injustice,

in which fair dealing (al-sawāʾ) makes us equal.

Al-Farrāʾ: In the sense of justice one also says siwan and suwan; when you give the sīn a fatḥah you lengthen the final vowel, and when you give it a kasrah or a ḍammah you shorten it, as in His words, Exalted: a place equidistant (makānan suwan) (20:58). He said: In the reading of ʿAbd Allāh it is “to a word of justice (ʿadl) between us and you”. Qaʿnab read kilmah with the lām unvowelled, transferring the vowel of the lām to the kāf, just as one says kibd (for kabid). So the meaning is: respond to what you have been called to, which is the just and upright word in which there is no deviation from the truth; and He has explained it by His words, Exalted: that we worship none but God. So the position of an is the genitive, as a substitute (badal) for a word; or the nominative, by an implied subject, the sense being “it is that we worship none but God”; or else it is explicative (mufassirah) and has no syntactic position. Along with this, both the indicative and the jussive are permissible in we worship and what is conjoined to it. The jussive is on the basis that an is explicative in the sense of “that is” (ay), as He, Mighty and Majestic, said: that: Walk on (ani mshū) (38:6), and lā is then a jussive particle; this is the doctrine of Sībawayh. On this basis it is also permissible for you to put we worship in the indicative, and what follows it is then a predicate. And the indicative is permissible with the meaning “that we do not worship” (with annahu understood), the like of which is that he did not return to them a word, nor had he power to harm or benefit them (20:89). Al-Kisāʾī and al-Farrāʾ said: and that we associate nothing with Him, and that none of us take are in the jussive, on the supposition that there is no an at the beginning of the sentence.

  • The second: His words, Exalted: and that none of us take others as lords besides God, that is, that we do not follow him in declaring anything lawful or unlawful except in what God, Exalted, has made lawful. It is the counterpart of His words, Exalted: They have taken their rabbis and their monks as lords besides God (9:31), the meaning of which is that they set them in the place of their Lord in accepting their declaring unlawful and lawful what God had not made unlawful nor made lawful. This shows the falsity of the doctrine of bare juristic preference (istiḥsān) that does not rest on a legal proof. Al-Kiyā al-Ṭabarī said: like the juristic preferences of Abū Ḥanīfah in the quantitative determinations he fixed without clear grounds. It also contains a refutation of the Rāfiḍah, who say that the word of the Imām must be accepted without his disclosing any legal ground, and that he may make lawful what God has made unlawful without setting out any ground from the revealed Law. Arbāb is the plural of rabb. And dūn here has the meaning of “other than”.
  • The third: His words, Exalted: But if they turn away, that is, turn aside from what they have been called to. then say: Bear witness that we are Muslims, that is, characterised by the religion of Islam, submissive to its rulings, acknowledging the favours and bounties that God has bestowed upon us in that regard, taking no one as a lord, neither Jesus nor Ezra nor the angels, because they are human beings like us, originated as we are originated; nor do we accept anything from the monks when they forbid us what God has not forbidden us, for then we would have taken them as lords. ʿIkrimah said: the meaning of take is “prostrate”. It has already been mentioned that prostration (to persons) continued until the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade Muʿādh when he wished to prostrate, as its explanation has gone before in al-Baqarah. Anas ibn Mālik related, saying: We said: O Messenger of God, should some of us bow to others? He said: “No.” We said: Should some of us embrace others? He said: “No, but shake hands.” Ibn Mājah transmitted it in his Sunan. Further explanation of this meaning will come in the sūrah of Yūsuf, if God wills; and in al-Wāqiʿah, touching the Qur’an or part of it without ritual purity, if God, Exalted, wills.

About this text

This is a complete English rendering of al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=qurtubi). Nothing is abridged: every opinion, every report with its chain of transmission, every verse of poetry and every grammatical note is translated. Qur’anic quotations are in bold; the translator’s own notes are confined to the numbered footnotes and identify names, terms and variant readings only. A second translator has not checked the rendering, and the Arabic is linked so that any passage can be compared. The modern editors’ apparatus is not part of the classical text and is not translated.

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Notes

  1. Qaʿnab ibn Abī Qaʿnab al-ʿAdawī, a Basran reader known for irregular readings; the printed text gives the name as Abū al-Sammān. ↩
  2. Lydda, a town in Palestine near Jerusalem. ↩
  3. Lazarus. ↩
  4. Sūrah 32, al-Sajdah. ↩
  5. Ṭarafah ibn al-ʿAbd, addressing the king ʿAmr ibn Hind, whose kunyah was Abū Mundhir, when he had ordered his killing. ↩
  6. The printed text reads “fa-qatalū” (then they killed); the sense is that the believers prevailed, as the verse that follows explains. ↩
  7. A pass on the road between Mecca and Medina. ↩
  8. Variously explained as the tillers of the soil, the common people or the subjects, whose sin would fall on the ruler who kept them from Islam. ↩