Section 14: The bird of clay, Beelzebub and the unclean spirit

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.¹⁰

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.¹¹

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”.¹² 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:¹³

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).¹⁴

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.¹⁵

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).¹⁶ 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.¹⁷

• 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 5:110

On the interpretation of His words: When God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit (5:110)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He says, Exalted be His remembrance, to His servants: Beware of the Day when God will gather the messengers and say to them: What response did your communities give you in the world? — when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit.

So “when” (idh) is connected to What were you answered? (5:109), as though its meaning were: What response did the communities to whom Jesus was sent give to Jesus?

If someone should say: How were the messengers asked about the response of the communities to them in the time of Jesus, when in the time of Jesus there were none of the messengers but the fewest of them? — it is said: It is possible that God, Exalted be His remembrance, meant by His words and He will say: What were you answered? (5:109) the messengers who had been sent in the time of Jesus, the statement coming out in the form of the whole while those intended among them are those who lived in the time of Jesus, just as He said, Exalted be His remembrance: Those to whom the people said: The people have gathered against you (3:173), where the one intended was a single man among the people, even though the discourse came out in the form of all the people.

Abū Jaʿfar said: And the meaning of the discourse is: when God said, that is, at the time He said, O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit: He says: O Jesus, remember My bounties towards you and towards your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit and aided you by him.

The scholars of Arabic disagreed about I strengthened you (ayyadtuka), as to what verbal form it is.

• Some of them said: It is faʿʿaltuka, from al-ayd (strength), as in your saying qawwaytuka, “I made you strong”, which is faʿʿaltu from al-quwwa (power).
• Others said: Rather, it is fāʿaltuka, from al-ayd.

And it is related from Mujāhid that he read idh āyadtuka¹⁸, in the sense of afʿaltuka, from power and strength.

And His words with the Holy Spirit: He means: with Gabriel. He says: when I aided you with Gabriel.

I have already explained the meaning of that, and what the meaning of “the Holy” (al-qudus) is, earlier, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

On the interpretation of His words: You spoke to people in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught you the Book and the Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you fashioned from clay the likeness of a bird by My leave, then breathed into it and it became a bird by My leave; and you healed the blind from birth and the leper by My leave; and when you brought forth the dead by My leave; and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs, and those of them who disbelieved said: This is nothing but manifest sorcery (110) (5:110)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He says, Exalted be His remembrance, reporting His own saying to Jesus: remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, in the state of your speaking to people in the cradle and in maturity.

This is simply a report from God, Exalted be His remembrance, that He strengthened him with the Holy Spirit as a small child in the cradle and as a grown man in maturity; so “in maturity” (kahlan) is joined to His words in the cradle, because the meaning of that is “as a small child”, just as God, Exalted be His remembrance, said: he calls upon Us lying on his side, or sitting, or standing (10:12).

And His words and when I taught you the Book and the Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel: He says: and remember also My favour upon you when I taught you the Book, which is writing, and the Wisdom, which is understanding of the meanings of the Book that I sent down to you, namely the Gospel; and when you fashioned from clay the likeness of a bird: He says: like the form of a bird …¹⁹ by My leave: He means by His words you fashioned: you make and shape; from clay the likeness of a bird by My leave: He says: by My aid to you in that and by knowledge from Me of it; then breathed into it: He says: then you breathe into the likeness, and the likeness and form become a bird by My leave; and you healed the blind from birth: He says: and you cure the blind from birth (al-akmah), that is, the blind man who sees nothing at all, whose sight is effaced; and the leper by My leave.

I have already explained the meanings of these expressions earlier in this book of ours, with commentary and its supporting evidence, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

And His words and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs: He says: and remember also My favour upon you in My restraining the Children of Israel from you, when I held them back from you though they had resolved to kill you, when you came to them with the clear proofs: He says: when you came to them with the evidences and the miraculous signs of your prophethood, and of the truth of that with which I sent you to them; and those of them who disbelieved said: He says, Exalted be His remembrance: those of the Children of Israel who denied your prophethood and called you a liar said: This is nothing but manifest sorcery.

The reciters (qurrāʾ) disagreed about the reading of that.

• The reciters of Medina and some of the people of Basra read it This is nothing but manifest sorcery (in hādhā illā siḥrun mubīn), meaning: what he brought makes plain, to whoever saw it and looked at it, that it is sorcery having no reality.
• The generality of the reciters of Kufa read it This is nothing but a manifest sorcerer (in hādhā illā sāḥirun mubīn), in the sense of “this one is nothing” — meaning by it Jesus — “but a manifest sorcerer”; He says: by his deeds and the wondrous things of this kind that he brings, he makes plain about himself that he is a sorcerer and not a truthful prophet.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct opinion about that is that they are two well-known readings, both sound in meaning, in agreement and not at variance. That is because everyone who is described by the act of “sorcery” is described as being a “sorcerer”, and whoever is described as being a “sorcerer” is described by the act of “sorcery”. The act indicates its agent, the attribute indicates the one described by it, the one described indicates his attribute, and the agent indicates his act. So whichever of these a reciter reads, he hits the mark in his reading.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

On 3:47-49

She said, “My Lord” (3:47): “O my master”; she says it to Gabriel. And it was said: she says it to God, Mighty and Majestic. “How can I have a child when no man has touched me,” no man has had relations with me. She said that in wonder, since it had never been the custom that a child be born who had no father. He said, “Thus does God create what He wills. When He decrees a matter,” that is, the coming into being of a thing, “He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is,” as He wishes.

His words, Exalted: And He will teach him the Book (3:48). The people of Medina, ʿĀṣim and Yaʿqūb read with the yāʾ (yuʿallimuhu), on account of His words, Exalted: Thus does God create what He wills; and it was said: He made it refer back to His words indeed God gives you glad tidings, “and He will teach him”. The others read with the nūn (nuʿallimuhu, “We will teach him”), in the plural of majesty, as in His words, Exalted: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you. His words the Book: that is, writing and script; and wisdom: knowledge and understanding; and the Torah and the Gospel: God taught him the Torah and the Gospel.

And a messenger (3:49): that is, and We shall make him a messenger to the Children of Israel. It was said: he was a messenger in the state of childhood; and it was said: he became a messenger only after puberty. The first of the prophets of the Children of Israel was Joseph and the last of them Jesus (peace be upon them both). When he was sent he said: “Indeed I” (annī). Al-Kisāʾī said: it has fatḥa only because the message is made to fall upon it; and it was said: its meaning is “with the message that I” “have come to you with a sign,” a token, “from your Lord,” which confirms my word. He said “with a sign”, though he brought many signs, only because all of them pointed to one thing, namely his truthfulness in the message. When Jesus (peace be upon him) said that to the Children of Israel, they said: “And what is it?” He said: “That I” (annī). Nāfiʿ read with kasra on the alif (innī), as a fresh beginning; and the rest read with fatḥa, with the sense “in that I” “create,” that is, form and fashion, “for you from clay the likeness of a bird.” Abū Jaʿfar read ka-hayʾat al-ṭāʾir here and in al-Māʾida. Hayʾa is the prepared form, from their saying “I prepared (hayyaʾtu) the thing” when you have shaped it and set it right. “Then I breathe into it,” that is, into the bird, “and it becomes a bird (ṭayran) by God’s leave.” The reading of the majority is with the collective, because he created many birds; the people of Medina and Yaʿqūb read “and it becomes a bird (ṭāʾiran)” in the singular here, and in Sūrat al-Māʾida they took it as one kind of bird, because he created nothing other than the bat. He singled out the bat only because it is the most complete of birds in creation, for it has breasts and teeth and it menstruates. Wahb said: it would fly as long as the people were looking at it, and when it passed out of their sight it fell down dead, so that the act of the creature might be distinguished from the act of the Creator, and so that it might be known that perfection belongs to God, Mighty and Majestic. “And I heal the one born blind (akmah) and the leper,” that is, I cure them and make them whole. They differed over the akmah. Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatāda said: he is the one who was born blind. Al-Ḥasan and al-Suddī said: he is the blind man. ʿIkrima said: he is the weak-sighted. Mujāhid said: he is the one who sees by day and does not see by night. And the leper: the one who has white blotches on the skin. He singled out these two only because they are two incurable diseases, and the prevailing art in the time of Jesus (peace be upon him) was medicine, so he showed them the miracle from that same kind. Wahb said: sometimes there gathered before Jesus (peace be upon him) in a single day fifty thousand of the sick; whoever of them was able to reach him reached him, and whoever was not able, Jesus (peace be upon him) walked to him. He used to treat them by prayer, on condition of faith.

His words, Exalted: “And I give life to the dead by God’s leave.” Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: He brought four persons to life: ʿĀzar²⁰, the son of the old woman, the daughter of the tithe-collector, and Shem son of Noah. As for ʿĀzar, he was a friend of his. His sister sent to Jesus (peace be upon him): “Your brother ʿĀzar is dying”, and between him and him was a journey of three days. He and his companions came to him and found that he had been dead for three days. He said to his sister: “Take us to his grave.” So she went with them to his grave, and he prayed to God, Exalted, and ʿĀzar rose up with his bodily fluids dripping, and came out of his grave; and he lived on and had children born to him.

As for the son of the old woman: he was carried past Jesus (peace be upon him) dead, on a bier being borne along. Jesus prayed to God and he sat up on his bier, climbed down from the necks of the men, put on his clothes, carried the bier on his neck and returned to his family; and he lived on and had children born to him.

As for the daughter of the tithe-collector: her father was a man who collected the tithes, and a daughter of his had died the day before. He prayed to God, Mighty and Majestic, by His greatest name, and God, Exalted, brought her to life, and she lived on for a time after that and had children born to her. As for Shem son of Noah (peace be upon him): Jesus (peace be upon him) came to his grave and prayed by the greatest name of God, and he came out of his grave with half of his head turned white from fear that the Hour had come, for they did not turn grey in that age. He said: “Has the Resurrection come?” He said: “No, but I called you by the greatest name of God.” Then he said to him: “Die.” He said: “On condition that God protect me from the agonies of death.” So he prayed to God, and He did so.

His words, Exalted: “And I inform you,” and I tell you, “of what you eat,” of that which I have not witnessed, “and what you store up,” what you put away, “in your houses,” until you eat it. And it was said: he used to tell a man what he had eaten the night before, what he would eat that day, and what he had stored up for supper.

Al-Suddī said: Jesus (peace be upon him), while in the school, used to tell the boys what their fathers were doing, and he would say to a boy: “Go, for your family have eaten such-and-such, and have put away such-and-such for you.” So the child would go to his family and cry before them until they gave him that thing, and they would say: “Who told you of this?” He would say: “Jesus.” So they kept their children away from him and said: “Do not play with this sorcerer,” and they gathered them in a house. Jesus (peace be upon him) came looking for them, and they said: “They are not here.” He said: “Then what is in this house?” They said: “Swine.” Jesus said: “So shall they be.” They opened the door upon them, and behold, they were swine. That spread among the Children of Israel, and the Children of Israel plotted against him; and when his mother feared for him, she carried him on a donkey of hers and went out, fleeing from them, to the people of Egypt. Qatāda said: This concerned only the Table (al-māʾida): it was a table that came down to them wherever they were, like the manna and the quails, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful with it nor to hide anything away for the morrow; but they were unfaithful and hid things away, so Jesus began to tell them what they had eaten from the Table and what they had stored up from it, and God transformed them into swine.

His words, Exalted: “Indeed in that,” which I have mentioned, “is a sign for you, if you are believers.”

On 5:110-111

His words, Exalted: When God said, “O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you” (5:110). Al-Ḥasan said: remembering the favour is giving thanks for it. By His words My favour He meant “My favours”; al-Ḥasan said: its wording is singular and its meaning plural, as in His words, Exalted: And if you were to count the favour of God, you could not number it (14:34; 16:18). “And upon your mother,” Mary. Then He enumerated the favours and said: “When I strengthened you,” fortified you, “with the Holy Spirit,” meaning Gabriel (peace be upon him); “you spoke to people,” meaning “and you spoke to people”, “in the cradle,” as an infant, “and in maturity,” as a prophet. Ibn ʿAbbās said: He sent him when he was thirty years old, and he remained in his mission thirty months, then God raised him up to Himself. “And when I taught you the Book,” meaning script, “and wisdom,” meaning knowledge and understanding, “and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you created,” made and formed, “from clay the likeness of a bird,” like the form of a bird, “by My leave, then you breathed into it and it became a bird,” alive and flying, “by My leave; and you healed,” and made whole, “the one born blind and the leper by My leave; and when you brought forth the dead,” from their graves, alive, “by My leave; and when I restrained,” held back and turned away, “the Children of Israel,” meaning the Jews, “from you,” when they resolved to kill you, “when you came to them with the clear proofs,” meaning the evidences and miracles, which are those we have mentioned.

“And those who disbelieved among them said, ‘This is nothing but plain sorcery‘,” meaning the clear proofs he brought them. Ḥamza and al-Kisāʾī read “a plain sorcerer” (sāḥir) here and in Sūrat Hūd and al-Ṣaff, so that it refers to Jesus (peace be upon him), and in Hūd it refers to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

And when I inspired the disciples (5:111): I put it into their hearts and cast it into their breasts. Abū ʿUbayda said: meaning “I commanded”, and ilā (“to”) is a connective particle. The disciples are the select companions of Jesus (peace be upon him). “Believe in Me and in My messenger,” Jesus. They said, when I granted them success, “We believe, and bear witness that we are Muslims.”

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

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-ʿĀzir²¹, 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”²²; 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 5:110

His words, Exalted: When God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you (5:110). This belongs to the description of the Day of Resurrection, as though He said: Remember the Day when God will gather the messengers, and when God says to Jesus such-and-such; al-Mahdawī said this. Jesus may be in the position of the nominative, on the basis that son of Mary is a second vocative; and it may be in the position of the accusative, because it is a vocative in the accusative, as the poet said:

O Ḥakam son of al-Mundhir son of al-Jārūd,

and the nominative is not permissible in the second element when it is in a construct state, except according to al-Ṭuwāl²³. As for His words, Exalted, remember My favour upon you: God, Exalted, reminded Jesus of His favour upon him and upon his mother, although he was mindful of them, for two reasons. The first: so that he might recite to the nations the honour with which He had singled them both out and the loftiness of station by which He had distinguished them. The second: so that He might thereby confirm His argument and refute whoever denies Him. Then He began to enumerate His favours and said: when I strengthened you (ayyadtuka), meaning I fortified you; it is derived from ayd, which is strength, and this has already been discussed. Concerning with the Holy Spirit there are two views. The first: that it is the pure spirit by which God singled him out, as has gone before concerning His words and a spirit from Him (4:171). The second: that it is Gabriel (peace be upon him), and this is the more correct, as has already been said in al-Baqarah.

you spoke to people, meaning: and you spoke to people in the cradle as an infant and in maturity as a prophet. What relates to this has already been discussed in Āl ʿImrān, so there is no point in repeating it. I restrained means I warded off and turned away the Children of Israel from you when they resolved to kill you. when you came to them with the clear proofs, that is, the evidences and the miracles, which are those mentioned in the verse.

and those who disbelieved said, meaning those who did not believe in you and denied your prophethood.

This is nothing, that is, the miracles,

but plain sorcery. Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī read la-sāḥirun (but a plain sorcerer), that is: this man is nothing but a sorcerer powerful in sorcery.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

On 3:48-51

He, Exalted, says, informing of the completion of the angels’ glad tiding to Mary concerning her son Jesus (peace be upon him), that God will teach him the Book and the Wisdom (3:48). The apparent meaning is that what is meant by the Book here is writing. As for the Wisdom, discussion of its interpretation has preceded in Sūrat al-Baqarah.

and the Torah and the Gospel (3:48). The Torah is the Book which God sent down to Moses son of ʿImrān, and the Gospel is that which God sent down to Jesus (peace be upon them both); and Jesus (peace be upon him) used to have both this and that by heart.

His words: and a messenger to the Children of Israel (3:49), that is: and He will make him a messenger to the Children of Israel, saying to them: I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: that I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by the permission of God (3:49). And so he used to do: he would fashion from clay the shape of a bird, then breathe into it, and it would fly before their eyes by the permission of God, Mighty and Majestic, who made this a miracle indicating that God had sent him.

And I heal the one born blind (al-akmah) (3:49). It was said: he is the one who sees by day and does not see by night. And it was said: the reverse. And it was said: he is the one of weak sight (al-aʿshā). And it was said: the bleary-eyed (al-aʿmash). And it was said: he is the one who is born blind; and this is the most fitting, because it is more far-reaching as a miracle and stronger as a challenge. and the leper (3:49) is well known.

And I give life to the dead by the permission of God (3:49). Many scholars said: God sent every one of the prophets with a miracle suited to the people of his age. What prevailed in the time of Moses (peace be upon him) was sorcery and the veneration of sorcerers, so God sent him with a miracle that dazzled the eyes and bewildered every sorcerer; and when they were certain that it was from the Tremendous, the Compeller, they submitted to Islam and became among the pious. As for Jesus (peace be upon him), he was sent in the age of physicians and the masters of natural science, so he brought them signs to which no one has any means, unless he be supported by the One who laid down the Law. For whence has a physician the power to give life to inanimate matter, or to cure the one born blind and the leper, or to raise up one who is held in his grave until the Day of Mutual Calling? Likewise Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): God sent him in the age of the eloquent and the rhetoricians and the masterly poets, and he brought them a Book from God, Mighty and Majestic, such that if mankind and the jinn gathered together to produce its like, or ten sūrahs like it, or a single sūrah like it, they could never do so, even if they were helpers one to another; and that is only because the speech of the Lord never resembles the speech of creatures.

His words: And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses (3:49), that is: I tell you what one of you has just eaten, and what he has stored in his house for the morrow. Indeed in that (3:49), that is, in all of that, is a sign for you (3:49), that is, of my truthfulness in what I have brought you, if you are believers (3:49).

And confirming what was before me of the Torah (3:50), that is, affirming it for them and establishing it. and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you (3:50): in this is proof that Jesus (peace be upon him) abrogated (nasakha) part of the law of the Torah, and this is the correct one of the two views. Some scholars said: he did not abrogate any of it; he only made lawful for them some of what they had disputed over and erred in, and uncovered for them what had been concealed in that, as He said in the other verse: and to make clear to you some of that in which you differ (43:63). And God knows best.

Then he said: And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord (3:50), that is, with a proof and an indication of my truthfulness in what I say to you. So fear God and obey me. Indeed God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him (3:50-51), that is: I and you are equal in servitude to Him and in submission and humble resort to Him. This is a straight path (3:51).

On 5:110-111

God Exalted mentions the favours He bestowed upon His servant and messenger Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him), in the miracles and extraordinary wonders He brought about at his hands. So He Exalted said: When God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you (5:110), that is: in My creating you from a mother without a male, and My making you a sign and a decisive proof of the perfection of My power over all things; and upon your mother, in that I made you a proof for her of her innocence of the indecency which the wrongdoing, ignorant people attributed to her; when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, who is Gabriel (peace be upon him), and I made you a prophet calling to God in your childhood and in your maturity. So I made you speak in the cradle as an infant, and you bore witness to your mother’s innocence of every fault, acknowledged to Me your servanthood, and told of My having sent you as a messenger and of your call to My worship. That is why He Exalted said: you speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, that is: you call people to God in your childhood and in your maturity. “You speak” carries within it the sense of “you call”, because his speaking to people in his maturity is not a wondrous matter.

And His words: and when I taught you the Book and the Wisdom, that is: writing and understanding; and the Torah, which is that which was sent down to Moses son of ʿImrān, the one to whom God spoke (al-Kalīm). The word “Torah” sometimes occurs in ḥadīth with a meaning more general than that.

And His words: and when you fashioned from clay the likeness of a bird by My leave, that is: you form it and shape it in the shape of a bird by My leave to you in that, and it becomes a bird by My leave; that is: you breathe into that form which you have shaped, by My leave to you in that, and it becomes a bird possessed of a spirit by God’s leave and His creation.

And His words: and you healed the one born blind and the leper by My leave: the discussion of that has already been given in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān in a manner that dispenses with repeating it.

And His words: and when you brought forth the dead by My leave, that is: you call them and they rise from their graves by God’s leave, His power, His will and His wish.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: my father related to us: Mālik ibn Ismāʿīl related to us: Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah, meaning Ibn Muṣarrif, related to us, from Abū Bishr, from Abū al-Hudhayl, who said: When Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) wished to bring the dead to life, he would pray two units of prayer (rakʿahs), reciting in the first Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion (Sūrat al-Mulk, 67:1) and in the second Alif Lām Mīm. The sending down of the Book (Sūrat al-Sajdah, 32:1-2). When he had finished them both 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 Self-Sufficient²⁴. And when hardship befell him he would call upon Him with seven others: O Living, O Self-Subsisting, O God, O Most Merciful, O Possessor of Majesty and Honour, O Light of the heavens and the earth and what is between them and Lord of the Mighty Throne, O Lord.

This is a very strange report.

And His words: and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when you came to them with clear proofs, and those of them who disbelieved said: this is nothing but plain sorcery, that is: and remember My favour upon you in My restraining them from you when you came to them with the proofs and decisive arguments for your prophethood and your messengership from God to them, and they denied you and accused you of being a sorcerer, and strove to kill you and crucify you; then I delivered you from them, raised you up to Myself, purified you from their defilement and sufficed you against their evil. This indicates that this bestowal of favour was from God to him after his being raised to the lowest heaven, or else that this bestowal of favour takes place on the Day of Resurrection and is expressed in the past tense to indicate that it will inevitably occur. This is among the secrets of the unseen which God disclosed to His Messenger Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

And His words: and when I inspired the disciples: believe in Me and in My messenger (5:111): this too is among the favours bestowed upon him (peace be upon him), in that He made for him companions and helpers. Then it was said: what is meant by this inspiration (waḥy) is the inspiration of instilling (ilhām), as He said: And We inspired the mother of Moses: suckle him, to the end of the verse (28:7), and this is the inspiration of instilling, without dispute; and as He Exalted said: And your Lord inspired the bee: take for yourself dwellings in the mountains and in the trees and in what they build. Then eat of all fruits and follow the ways of your Lord made smooth, to the end of the verse (16:68-69). Thus some of the early authorities (salaf) said about this verse: and when I inspired the disciples: believe in Me and in My messenger. They said: We believe, that is, in God and in the Messenger of God, and bear witness that we are Muslims, that is: they were instilled with that, and they complied with what they had been instilled.

Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said: God, Mighty and Majestic, instilled that in them. Al-Suddī said: He cast that into their hearts.

It is also possible that what is meant is: and when I inspired them through your mediation, so that you called them to faith in God and in His Messenger, and they responded to you, submitted and followed you, and said: We believe, and bear witness that we are Muslims.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

On 3:33-64

3:33. This verse was revealed when the Jews said: We are upon the religion of Adam, Muslims. So God sent down Indeed God chose Adam: He elected Adam for Islam; and Noah: for Islam; and the family of Abraham: the children of Abraham, for Islam; and the family of ʿImrān: Moses and Aaron, for Islam; above the worlds: the people of their age. And it is said that ʿImrān was not the father of Moses and Aaron.

3:34. Offspring, one from another: some of them upon the religion of others, and some of them born of others; and God is All-Hearing: of the saying of the Jews, “We are the sons of God and His beloved ones, upon His religion”; All-Knowing: of their punishment, and of who is upon His religion.

3:35. And remember, O Muḥammad, when the wife of ʿImrān said: Ḥannah, the mother of Mary; My Lord, I have vowed to You: I have made over to You; what is in my womb, consecrated: as a servant for the sanctuary of Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis); so accept it from me; indeed You are the All-Hearing: of supplication; the All-Knowing: of the answer, and of what is in my womb.

3:36. Then when she delivered her: gave birth to her, and behold, she was a girl; she said: My Lord, I have delivered her, a female: I have given birth to her, a girl; and God knows best what she delivered: what she gave birth to; and the male is not: in service and in the matter of nakedness (ʿawra); like the female: like the girl; and I have named her Mary, and I seek refuge for her with You: I place her under Your protection and guard her by You; and her offspring: if she should have offspring; from Satan the accursed: the damned.

3:37. So her Lord accepted her with a gracious acceptance: that is, He dealt graciously with her, so that He accepted her in place of a boy; and made her grow in a goodly growth: He nourished her in worship, through the years and the months and the days and the hours, with a goodly nourishment; and Zachariah took charge of her: he took her to himself to raise her; whenever Zachariah entered upon her in the sanctuary: meaning her chamber in which she used to worship; he found with her provision: the fruit of winter in summer, such as sugar-cane, and the fruit of summer in winter, such as grapes; he said: O Mary, whence comes this to you?: from where do you have this, out of its season?; She said: It is from God: Gabriel brought it to me; indeed God provides for whom He wills: He gives to whom He wills, in its season and out of its season; without reckoning: without measure and without stint.

3:38. There: at that; Zachariah prayed: and hoped; to his Lord; he said: My Lord, grant me: give me; from Yourself: from Your presence; a goodly offspring: a righteous child; indeed You are the Hearer of prayer: the Answerer of prayer.

3:39. Then the angels called him: meaning Gabriel; while he stood praying in the sanctuary: in the place of worship; that God gives you glad tidings of John: of a son to be named John; confirming a Word from God: Jesus son of Mary, that he comes to be by a word from God, created without a father; and a master: forbearing in the face of ignorance; and chaste: he had no desire for women; and a prophet from among the righteous: from among the messengers.

3:40. He said: My Lord: Zachariah said to Gabriel: O my master; how shall I have a boy: from where shall I have a child; when old age has reached me: when old age has overtaken me; and my wife is barren: sterile, she does not bear; He said: Gabriel; Thus: as I have told you; God does what He wills: as He wills.

3:41. He said: Zachariah; My Lord: that is, O my Lord; appoint for me a sign: a mark of my wife’s pregnancy; He said: Your sign: your mark of your wife’s pregnancy; is that you shall not speak to people: you will not be able to speak to people; for three days: without being dumb; except by gesture: except by a movement of the lips, the eyebrows, the eyes and the hands; and it is said, except by writing on the ground; and remember your Lord: with the tongue and the heart; much: in every state; and glorify Him in the evening and the early morning: pray in the morning and in the evening as you used to pray.

3:42. And when the angels said: meaning Gabriel; O Mary, indeed God has chosen you: it is said, He elected you for Islam and worship; and purified you: from unbelief, polytheism and impurities; and it is said, He saved you from being killed; and chosen you: elected you; above the women of the worlds: the women of your age, by the birth of Jesus.

3:43. O Mary, be devout to your Lord: obey your Lord, in gratitude for that; and it is said, prolong the standing in prayer, in gratitude to your Lord; and prostrate and bow: its meaning is, bow and prostrate, by bowing and prostrating; with those who bow: with the people of prayer.

3:44. That: this which I have related of the account of Mary and Zachariah; is of the tidings of the unseen: of the reports of what is hidden from you, O Muḥammad; which We reveal to you: He says, We send Gabriel to you with it; and you were not with them: meaning with the rabbis; when they cast their pens: into the running water; as to which of them should take charge: should take; of Mary: to raise her; and you were not with them: in their presence; when they disputed: argued with proofs over the raising of Mary.

3:45. When the angels said: meaning Gabriel; O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him: of a son who will come to be by a word from God, created; whose name is the Messiah: he is called the Messiah because he travels (yasīḥ) through the lands; and it is said, the Messiah means the king; Jesus son of Mary, eminent in this world: he has rank and station in this world among people; and the Hereafter: and in the Hereafter, with God, he has rank and station; and of those brought near: to God, in the Garden of Eden.

3:46. And he will speak to people in the cradle: in the lap, at forty days old: “I am the servant of God and His Messiah”; and in maturity: after thirty years, with prophethood; and of the righteous: of the messengers.

3:47. She said: My Lord: Mary said to Gabriel: O my master; how shall I have a child: from where shall I have a boy, a child; when no man has touched me: neither lawfully nor unlawfully; He said: Gabriel; Thus: as I have told you; God creates what He wills: as He wills; when He decrees a matter: when He wills to create a child from you without a father; He only says to it, Be, and it is: a child without a father.

3:48. And He will teach him the Book: the books of the prophets; and it is said, writing; and the Wisdom: the lawful and the unlawful; and it is said, the wisdom of the prophets before him; and the Torah: in his mother’s womb; and the Gospel: after his coming forth from his mother’s womb.

3:49. And a messenger: after thirty years; to the Children of Israel: and when he came to them he said: I have come to you with a sign: with a mark; from your Lord: of my prophethood. They said: And what is the mark? He said: I create: I fashion; for you from clay the likeness of a bird: the semblance of a bird; then I breathe into it: like the breathing of a sleeper; and it becomes a bird: it turns into a bird that flies between heaven and earth; by God’s leave: by God’s command. So he fashioned for them a bat, and they said: This is sorcery; have you anything else? He said: Yes. And I heal: I make sound; the blind from birth: he who has never ceased to be blind; and the leper: likewise; and I give life to the dead by God’s leave: by the greatest name of God, “O Living, O Self-Subsisting”. When he had done that, they said: This is sorcery; have you anything else? He said: Yes. And I inform you: I tell you; of what you eat: morning and evening; and what you store up: what you put away from the morning meal for the evening meal, and from the evening meal for the morning meal; in your houses. Indeed in that: in what I have told you; is a sign: a mark; for you: of my prophethood; if you are believers: assenting.

3:50. And confirming: and I have come to you in agreement, in the profession of God’s oneness, in religion; what was before me of the Torah: what was before me of the Torah and the rest of the scriptures; and to make lawful for you: to grant you licence and make clear to you; some of that which: the making lawful of some of that which; was forbidden to you: such as the flesh of camels, the fat of cattle and sheep, the Sabbath, and other things. And I have come to you with a sign: with a mark; from your Lord; so fear God: so be in awe of God in what He has commanded you, and turn to Him in repentance; and obey me: and follow my command and my religion.

3:51. Indeed God is my Lord: He is my Lord; and your Lord, so worship Him: so declare Him One; this: the profession of His oneness; is a straight path: an upright religion with which He is pleased, and it is Islam.

3:52. Then when he perceived: knew; Jesus, from them, unbelief: and saw from them killing, when they wanted to kill him; and it is said, “he perceived” means he heard from them the repetition of unbelief; he said: Jesus; Who are my helpers: who are my supporters; towards God: with God, against His enemies; the disciples said: his chosen ones, the fullers (al-qaṣṣārūn), and they were twelve men; We are the helpers of God: your supporters, with God, against His enemies; we believe in God, and bear witness: know, you, O Jesus; that we are Muslims: acknowledging God with worship and the profession of His oneness.

3:53. Our Lord: O our Lord; we believe in what You have sent down: of the Book, meaning the Gospel; and we follow the Messenger: the religion of the Messenger, Jesus; so write us down among the witnesses: so make us among the foremost, the first ones, who bore witness before us; and it is said, so make us of the community of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

3:54. And they schemed: they intended, meaning the Jews, the killing of Jesus; and God schemed: God intended the killing of their companion Qaṭyānūs²⁵; and God is the best of schemers: the strongest of those who intend; and it is said, the most excellent of those who contrive.

3:55. When God said: O Jesus, I am going to take you and raise you: this is an advancing and a postponing in the order of words; He says: I am going to raise you; to Myself, and purify you: deliver you; from those who disbelieve: in you; and make those who follow you: who follow your religion; above those who disbelieve: in proof and in victory; until the Day of Resurrection: then I am going to take you, seizing you in death after the descent; and it is said, taking your heart away from love of this world; then to Me is your return: after death; and I shall judge between you: I shall decide between you; in that wherein you: in religion; used to differ: used to dispute.

3:56. As for those who disbelieve: in God and His Messenger Muḥammad, and in Jesus; I shall punish them with a severe punishment in this world: by the sword and the poll-tax (jizya); and the Hereafter: by the Fire; and they shall have no helpers: none to ward off from them the punishment of God in this world and the Hereafter.

3:57. And as for those who believe: in God, the Book, and the Messenger Muḥammad, and in Jesus; and do righteous deeds: between themselves and their Lord, sincerely; He will pay them in full: He will give them in abundance; their rewards: their recompense in the Garden on the Day of Resurrection; and God does not love the wrongdoers: the polytheists, for their wrongdoing and their polytheism.

3:58. That: which I have related, O Muḥammad, of the account of Jesus; We recite to you: We send down Gabriel to you with it; of the signs: He says, of the verses of the Qur’an, with command and prohibition; and the wise Reminder: the one made firm with the lawful and the unlawful; and it is said, in agreement with the Torah and the Gospel; and it is said, the Preserved Tablet.

3:59. Then He made clear the creation of Jesus without a father, because of the words of the delegation of the Banū Najrān: “Bring us a proof from the Qur’an for your claim that Jesus is not the son of God.” So God said: Indeed the likeness of Jesus: the likeness of the creation of Jesus; with God: without a father; is as the likeness of Adam; He created him from dust: without father or mother; then He said to him: to Jesus; Be, and he was: a child without a father.

3:60. The truth: it is the true report; from your Lord: that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner; so do not be of the doubters: of those who doubt what I have made clear to you of the creation of Jesus without a father.

3:61. Then He mentioned the dispute of the delegation of the Banū Najrān with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), after it had been made clear to them that his likeness with God is as the likeness of Adam; they said: It is not as you say, that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner. So God said: Then whoever argues with you concerning him: whoever disputes with you concerning him, concerning Jesus; after what has come to you of knowledge: of the clear exposition that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner; say: Come, let us call our sons: let us bring out our sons; and your sons: bring out, you, your sons; and our women: let us bring out our women; and your women: bring out, you, your women; and ourselves: let us come out ourselves; and yourselves: come out, you, yourselves; then let us pray earnestly: let us humbly implore and strive in supplication; and invoke: and lay; the curse of God: in what is between us; upon the liars: against God concerning Jesus.

3:62. Indeed this: which I have related, O Muḥammad, of the account of Jesus and of the delegation of the Banū Najrān; is the true narrative: the true report, that Jesus was not God, nor His son, nor His partner; and there is no god but God: without child and without partner; and indeed God is the Mighty: in vengeance against him who does not believe in Him; the Wise: God commanded that none other than He be worshipped; and it is said, the Judge (al-ḥakam): He decreed against them the mutual cursing (mulāʿana), but they turned away from it and did not go out to the mutual cursing with the Prophet (upon him be blessings and peace), because they knew that they were liars and that Muḥammad was a truthful prophet, sent, whose description and attributes are in their scripture.

3:63. So God said: Then if they turn away: from your call to the mutual cursing with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); then indeed God is All-Knowing of the corrupters: of the Christians of the Banū Najrān.

3:64. Then He called them to the profession of God’s oneness and said: Say: O People of the Book, come to a word: “There is no god but God”; equitable: just; between us and you, that we worship none but God: that we declare none One but God; and associate nothing with Him: of created beings; and that none of us take others as lords: that none of us obey any of the chiefs in disobedience to God; besides God. But they refused that too, so God said: Then if they turn away: turn aside and withdraw from the profession of God’s oneness; then say: Bear witness: know, you; that we are Muslims: acknowledging Him with worship and the profession of His oneness.

On 5:110-120

5:110. When God said: God has said; O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour: keep in mind My grace; upon you: with prophethood; and upon your mother: with Islam and worship; when I strengthened you: aided you; with the Holy Spirit: with Gabriel, the purified; he instructed you and aided you in speaking to people; you speak to people in the cradle: in the lap and on the bed: “I am the servant of God and His Messiah”; and in maturity: and He aided you after thirty years: “I am the Messenger of God to you”; and when I taught you the Book: the books of the prophets; and it is said, script with the pen; and the Wisdom: the wisdom of the wise; and it is said, the lawful and the unlawful; and the Torah: and I taught you the Torah in your mother’s womb; and the Gospel: after your coming forth; and when you create: fashion; from clay the likeness of a bird: the semblance of a bird, and it is the bat; by My leave: by My command; then you breathe into it: like the breathing of a sleeper; and it becomes a bird: it turns into a bird that flies between heaven and earth; by My leave: by My command and My will; and you heal: make sound; the blind from birth: he who is born blind; and the leper by My leave: by My command, My will and My power; and when you bring forth: give life to; the dead by My leave: by My will and My giving of life; and when I restrained: held back; the Children of Israel from you: when they intended to kill you; when you came to them: at the time you came to them; with clear proofs: with command and prohibition and the wonders which you showed them; and those who disbelieved among them said: among the Children of Israel; This is nothing: this which Jesus shows us is nothing; but manifest sorcery: evident. And if you read it “a manifest sorcerer” (sāḥir mubīn), they meant Jesus by it.

5:111. And when I inspired the disciples: I inspired the disciples, the fullers (al-qaṣṣārūn), and they were twelve men; to believe in Me and in My Messenger: Jesus; they said: We believe: in You and in Your Messenger Jesus; and bear witness: you, O Jesus; and they bore witness one for another; that we are Muslims: sincere in worship and in the profession of God’s oneness.

5:112. When the disciples said: the chosen ones, meaning Simon the Chosen (Shamʿūn al-Ṣafī); O Jesus son of Mary: your people say to you; can your Lord: will your Lord do it; and if you read it with tāʾ and the accusative on the yāʾ²⁶, you say: can you ask your Lord; send down to us a table: food; from heaven? He said: Jesus, to Simon: Say to them, Fear God: be in awe of God; if you are: since you are; believers: certain in faith; for perhaps you will abandon gratitude for it and He will punish you. So Simon said that to them.

5:113. They said: We wish to eat of it and that our hearts be reassured: by what you show us of wonders; and that we may know: and be certain; that you have told us the truth: in what you say; and that we may be witnesses to it: when we return to our people.

5:114. Jesus son of Mary said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven: food from heaven; and it is said, a blessing upon the food, for they had with them some food; that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us: for the people of our time; and the last of us: for those who come after us, so that we may worship You on it; and it was a Sunday; and a sign from You: for him who believes, and a proof against him who disbelieves; and provide for us: give us what we have asked of You; and You are the best of providers: the most excellent of those who give food.

5:115. God said: to Jesus: Say to them; I shall send it down to you: what you have asked; but whoever disbelieves afterwards: after its descent and the eating; among you, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I shall punish no one among the worlds: the people of their time: I shall transform him into a swine. They said, after its descent and the eating: This is manifest sorcery, an evident lie. Jesus said: If You punish them for this saying, by which they have deserved destruction, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, relent towards them and pardon them, then You are the Mighty, in vengeance upon him who does not repent, the Wise, in forgiveness for him who repents. This is an advancing and a postponing in the order of the words.

5:116. And when God said: God will say on the Day of Resurrection; O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to people: in this world; Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? He said: Jesus will say; Glory be to You: he declared his Lord transcendent; it is not: he says, it was not fitting nor permissible; for me to say: to them; what I have no right to: what is not permissible; if I had said it: to them; You would have known it. You know what is in my soul: what command and prohibition came from me to them; and I do not know what is in Your Soul: what forsaking and granting of success came from You to them; indeed You are the Knower of the unseen things: of what is hidden from the servants.

5:117. I said nothing to them: in this world; except what You commanded me: Worship God: declare God One and obey Him; my Lord and your Lord: He is my Lord and your Lord; and I was a witness over them: to the conveying of the message; as long as I was among them: while I was among them; but when You took me: raised him from among them; You were the Watcher over them: the Guardian and Witness over them; and You are over all things: of my speech and their speech; a Witness: Knowing. Jesus said:

5:118. If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are the Mighty, the Wise: I have explained it already in what preceded.

5:119. God said: God will say; This is the Day when the truthful will profit from their truthfulness: and the believers from their faith, and those who conveyed the message from their conveying, and those who fulfilled from their fulfilment; for them are gardens: orchards; beneath which flow: beneath their trees and their couches; rivers: rivers of water, milk, wine and honey; abiding therein: dwelling in the Garden, neither dying therein nor departing from it; for ever. God is pleased with them: for their faith and their deeds; and they are pleased with Him: with the reward and the honour; that: which I have mentioned of everlasting abiding and good pleasure; is the great triumph: the abundant deliverance; they have triumphed with the Garden and been delivered from the punishment of the Fire.

5:120. To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: the treasuries of the heavens and the earth; the treasuries of the heavens are rain, and of the earth, plants and fruits and other things; and whatever is in them: of creatures and wonders; and He is over all things: of the creation of the heavens and the earth, and of reward and punishment; Powerful: so praise Him who created the heavens and the earth.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

On 3:48

And He will teach him (3:48) – read with nūn (nuʿallimuhu, “We will teach him”) and with yāʾ (yuʿallimuhu) – the Book, writing, and wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel.

On 3:49

And (3:49) We shall make him a messenger to the Children of Israel, in childhood or after reaching maturity. So Gabriel breathed into the opening of her shift and she conceived, and there befell her what is mentioned in Sūrat Maryam (19:16-34). When God sent him to the Children of Israel he said to them: I am God’s messenger to you, in that, that is, “by the fact that”, I have come to you with a sign, a token of my truthfulness, from your Lord; it is that I – in one reading with kasra (innī), as a fresh sentence – create, fashion, for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, something like its form – the kāf²⁷ being a noun standing as the object – then I breathe into it, the pronoun referring to the kāf, and it becomes a bird – in one reading ṭāʾiran – by God’s leave, by His will. So he created for them the bat, because it is the most perfectly formed of birds, and it would fly while they watched it, and when it passed out of their sight it would fall down dead. And I heal, I cure, the one born blind, who was born sightless, and the leper – these two are singled out for mention because they are two diseases that defeat the physician, and his mission fell in the age of medicine; and he would heal fifty thousand in a day by supplication, on condition of belief – and I bring the dead to life, by God’s leave: He repeated it so as to negate any illusion of divinity in him. So he brought to life ʿĀzar, a friend of his, and the old woman’s son, and the tax-collector’s daughter, and they lived on and had children born to them; and Shem son of Noah, who died on the spot. And I inform you of what you eat and what you store up, hide away, in your houses, of what I have not witnessed; he would tell a person what he had eaten and what he would eat afterwards. Truly in that which has been mentioned is a sign for you, if you are believers.

On 5:110

Remember when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother (5:110), by giving thanks for it, when I strengthened you, fortified you, with the Holy Spirit, Gabriel, so that you spoke to people – a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) of the pronoun -ka in ayyadtuka – in the cradle, that is, as an infant, and in maturity: this indicates his descent before the Hour, because he was raised up before reaching maturity, as has preceded in Āl ʿImrān (3:55). And when I taught you the Book and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you created out of clay the likeness, like the form, of a bird – the kāf being a noun with the sense of “like”, standing as the object – by My leave, then breathed into it, and it became a bird by My leave, by My will; and you healed the one born blind and the leper by My leave; and when you brought forth the dead from their graves, alive, by My leave; and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when they intended to kill you, when you came to them with the clear proofs, the miracles, and those of them who disbelieved said: Not – in here meaning mā, “not” – is this, which you have brought, anything but manifest sorcery; and in one reading “a sorcerer” (sāḥir), that is, Jesus.

Read this commentary with the other passages on its own page.

On 3:48

His words, Exalted: And He will teach him the Book and the Wisdom (3:48)

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words And He will teach him the Book (3:48), that he said: writing with the pen.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Ibn Jurayj: And He will teach him the Book (3:48) — he said: with his hand.

Ibn al-Mundhir recorded with a sound chain (isnād) from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: When Jesus had grown a little, his mother brought him to the school and handed him over to the teacher. He said: Say: In the name of God. Jesus said: In the name of God. The teacher said: Say: the Merciful. Jesus said: the Merciful, the Compassionate. The teacher said: Say: Abū Jād.²⁸ He said: That is in a book. Then Jesus said: Do you know what alif is? He said: No. He said: The bounties (ālāʾ) of God. Do you know what bāʾ is? He said: No. He said: The splendour (bahāʾ) of God. Do you know what jīm is? He said: No. He said: The majesty (jalāl) of God. Do you know what lām is? He said: No. He said: The bounties (ālāʾ) of God. And he went on explaining in this manner, so the teacher said: How can I teach one who knows more than I do? She said: Then let him sit with the boys. And he would tell the boys what they were eating and what their mothers were storing up for them in their houses.

Ibn ʿAdī and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Ibn Masʿūd, as a report traced to the Prophet (marfūʿ): “Jesus son of Mary — his mother handed him over to the school to be taught, and the teacher said to him: Write: In the name of God. Jesus said: And what is ‘In the name of God’? The teacher said to him: I do not know. Jesus said to him: The bāʾ is the splendour (bahāʾ) of God, the sīn is His sublimity (sanāʾ), the mīm is His dominion (mamlakah); Allāh is the God of gods; the Merciful (al-Raḥmān) is the Merciful of the Hereafter and this world; the Compassionate (al-Raḥīm) is the Compassionate of the Hereafter. Abū Jād: the alif is the bounties (ālāʾ) of God, the bāʾ is the splendour (bahāʾ) of God, jīm is the majesty (jalāl) of God, dāl is God the Everlasting (al-Dāʾim). Hawwaz: the hāʾ is the Abyss (al-Hāwiyah); wāw is woe (wayl) to the people of the Fire, a valley in Hell; zāy is the adornment (zayn) of the people of this world. Ḥuṭṭī: ḥāʾ is God the Forbearing (al-Ḥalīm); ṭāʾ is God the Seeker (al-Ṭālib) of every right until He restores it; yāʾ, that is, the origin of the day, and it is the returning. Kalamun: the kāf is God the Sufficient (al-Kāfī); lām is God the Self-Subsisting (al-Qāʾim); mīm is God the Sovereign (al-Mālik); nūn is the great fish (nūn) of the sea. Saʿfaṣ: ṣād is God the Truthful (al-Ṣādiq); ʿayn is God the Knowing (al-ʿĀlim); fāʾ is God — he mentioned a word — ; ṣād is God the Eternal Refuge (al-Ṣamad). Qarashat: qāf is the mountain encompassing the world, from which the sky has taken its green hue; rāʾ is the ostentation (riyāʾ) of people by means of it; sīn is the covering (sitr) of God; tāʾ: it is completed (tammat) for ever.” Ibn ʿAdī said: This ḥadīth is false (bāṭil) with this chain; none transmits it other than Ismāʿīl ibn Yaḥyā.

Isḥāq ibn Bishr and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded, by way of Juwaybir and Muqātil, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that Jesus son of Mary refrained from speech after he had spoken to them as an infant, until he reached the age that boys reach; then after that God made him speak with wisdom and clear exposition. The Jews said much that was false about him and about his mother. Jesus used to drink milk from his mother, and when he was weaned he ate food and drank drink, until he reached seven years. The Jews used to call him the son of the harlot, and that is God’s words: and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny (4:156). When he reached seven years his mother handed him over to a man to teach him as boys are taught, but he would teach him nothing without Jesus anticipating him in the knowledge of it before he taught it to him. He taught him Abū Jād, and Jesus said: What is Abū Jād? The teacher said: I do not know. Jesus said: Then how do you teach me what you do not know? The teacher said: Then teach me. Jesus said to him: Rise from your seat. He rose, and Jesus sat in his seat and said: Ask me. The teacher said: What then is Abū Jād? Jesus said: The alif is the bounties (ālāʾ) of God; bāʾ is the splendour (bahāʾ) of God; jīm is the delight (bahjah) of God and His beauty. The teacher marvelled at that. So the first to explain Abū Jād was Jesus son of Mary. He said: ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān asked the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), saying: O Messenger of God, what is the explanation of Abū Jād? The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Learn Abū Jād, for in it are all the wonders. Woe to a scholar who is ignorant of its explanation.” It was said: O Messenger of God, and what is Abū Jād? He said: “The alif is the bounties (ālāʾ) of God; the bāʾ is the delight (bahjah) of God and His majesty; the jīm is the glory (majd) of God; the dāl is the religion (dīn) of God. Hawwaz: the hāʾ is the Abyss (al-Hāwiyah), woe to whoever falls into it; the wāw is woe (wayl) to the people of the Fire; the zāy is the corner (zāwiyah), meaning the corners of Hell. Ḥuṭṭī: the ḥāʾ is the putting down (ḥuṭūṭ) of the sins of those who seek forgiveness on the Night of Power, and what Gabriel comes down with together with the angels until the rising of the dawn; the ṭāʾ is ‘blessedness (ṭūbā) is theirs, and a fair return’, and it is a tree which God planted with His hand; the yāʾ is ‘the hand (yad) of God is above His creation’. Kalamun: the kāf is the speech (kalām) of God, ‘there is no changing His words’; the lām is the calling (ilmām) of the people of Paradise upon one another with visits, greeting and peace, and the mutual blaming (talāwum) of the people of the Fire among themselves; the mīm is the kingdom (mulk) of God which does not pass away, and the permanence of God which does not perish; and nūn is Nūn. By the pen and what they inscribe (68:1). Saʿfaṣ: the ṣād is a ṣāʿ for a ṣāʿ, a measure for a measure, and requital for requital — meaning recompense for recompense — and as you judge, so shall you be judged; and God does not desire injustice for His servants. Qarashat: meaning He gathers them (qarashahum) and assembles them on the Day of Resurrection, judging between them while they are not wronged.”

A mention of a selection of the wise sayings of Jesus (peace be upon him)

Ibn al-Mubārak recorded in al-Zuhd: Ibn ʿUyaynah informed us, from Khalaf ibn Ḥawshab, who said: Jesus son of Mary said to the disciples: Just as the kings have left wisdom to you, so leave this world to them.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, who said: Jesus son of Mary used to say: No one attains the reality of faith until he does not care who it is that consumes this world.

Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded in al-Muṣannaf, and Aḥmad in al-Zuhd, from Thābit al-Bunānī, who said: It was said to Jesus: If only you would take a donkey to ride for your needs. He said: I am too honoured with God for Him to give me something with which to distract me.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: Jesus said: O company of disciples, the fear of God and the love of Paradise bequeath patience under hardship, and they distance one from the glitter of this world.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from ʿUtbah ibn Yazīd, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: O weak son of Adam, fear God wherever you are; eat your crust from what is lawful; take the mosque as a home; be weak in this world; accustom yourself to weeping, your heart to reflection and your body to patience; and do not be anxious about your provision for tomorrow, for that is a sin recorded against you.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, and al-Aṣbahānī in al-Targhīb, recorded from Muḥammad ibn Muṭarrif that Jesus said — and he mentioned the same.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded from Wuhayb al-Makkī, who said: It reached me that Jesus said: The root of every sin is love of this world; and many a desire has bequeathed to its people long sorrow.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, who said: Jesus used to say: Pass through this world and do not build it up; love of this world is the head of every sin; and the gaze sows desire in the heart.

Aḥmad, and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-īmān, recorded from Sufyān ibn Saʿīd, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) used to say: Love of this world is the root of every sin, and in wealth there is a great disease. They said: And what is its disease? He said: Its owner is not safe from pride and vainglory. They said: And if he is safe from them? He said: Keeping it in order distracts him from the remembrance of God.

Ibn al-Mubārak recorded from ʿImrān al-Kūfī, who said: Jesus son of Mary said to the disciples: Do not take from those whom you teach any wage except the like of what you have given me. And O salt of the earth, do not become corrupt; for everything, when it goes bad, is treated with salt, but when salt goes bad there is no remedy for it. And know that there are in you two traits of ignorance: laughing without anything to wonder at, and sleeping on into the morning without having kept vigil.

Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī recorded from Yazīd ibn Maysarah, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) said: By righteous hearts God makes the earth flourish, and by them the earth falls to ruin when they are otherwise.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-īmān, recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: Whenever Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) passed by a house whose people had died, he would stand before it and say: Woe to your masters who inherit you one from another! How is it that they took no warning from what you did to their brothers who went before!

Al-Bayhaqī recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: They said to Jesus (peace be upon him): O Spirit of God, shall we not build you a house? He said: Yes; build it on the seashore. They said: Then the water will come and carry it away. He said: Where then do you want to build for me — on the bridge!

Aḥmad recorded in al-Zuhd from Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: The disciples missed Jesus (peace be upon him), so they went out seeking him and found him walking on the water. One of them said: O Prophet of God, shall we walk out to you? He said: Yes. He set down one foot, then went to set down the other and sank. He said: Give me your hand, O you of little faith. If the son of Adam had the weight of a grain, or of an atom, of certainty, he would walk on water.

Aḥmad recorded from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr, who said: I heard that Jesus (peace be upon him) said: It was, and I was not; and it will be, and I shall not be in it.

Aḥmad recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: When Jesus (peace be upon him) was sent, he turned this world over on its face; and when he was raised up, people after him set it upright again.

ʿAbd Allāh his son recorded in his Zawāʾid from al-Ḥasan, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) said: I have turned this world over on its face and sat upon its back; I have no child to die and no house to fall into ruin. They said to him: Will you not take a house? He said: Build me a house in the torrent-bed. They said: It will not stand. They said: Will you not take yourself a wife? He said: What would I do with a wife who will die!

Aḥmad recorded from Khaythamah, who said: A woman passed by Jesus (peace be upon him) and said: Blessed is the breast that suckled you and the lap that carried you. Jesus said: Blessed is he who recites the Book of God and then acts according to what is in it.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: God revealed to Jesus: I have granted you love of the poor and mercy towards them; you love them and they love you; they are content with you as leader and guide, and you are content with them as companions and followers. These are two qualities: know that whoever meets Me with them meets Me with the purest of deeds and the most beloved of them to Me.

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Aḥmad recorded from Maymūn ibn Siyāh, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: O company of disciples, take the mosques as dwellings, and make your houses like the lodgings of guests; for you have no lodging in the world; you are nothing but wayfarers.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb ibn Munabbih that Jesus said: Truly I say to you: the regions of heaven are empty of the rich, and the entry of a camel through the eye of a needle is easier than the entry of a rich man into Paradise.

ʿAbd Allāh recorded in his Zawāʾid from Jaʿfar ibn Jirfās that Jesus son of Mary said: The head of sin is love of this world; wine is the key to every evil; and women are the snare of Satan.

Aḥmad recorded from Sufyān, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Wisdom has its people: if you place it with other than its people you waste it, and if you withhold it from its people you waste it. Be like the physician, who applies the remedy where it ought to be applied.

Aḥmad recorded from Muḥammad ibn Wāsiʿ that Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, I seek refuge for you with God lest you be a disgrace to the People of the Book. O Children of Israel, your words are a cure that drives away disease, while your deeds are a disease that accepts no remedy.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb, who said: Jesus said to the rabbis of the Children of Israel: Do not be towards the people like the thieving wolf, the deceitful fox and the snatching kite.

Aḥmad recorded from Makḥūl, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: O company of disciples, which of you can build a house upon the waves of the sea? They said: O Spirit of God, who could do that? He said: Then beware of this world, and do not take it as a settled abode.

Aḥmad recorded from Ziyād Abū ʿAmr, who said: It reached me that Jesus (peace be upon him) said: It does not benefit you to learn what you did not know while you have not yet acted on what you already know. Abundance of knowledge only increases pride when one does not act on it.

Aḥmad recorded from Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd al-ʿAbdī, who said: It reached me that Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Renunciation (zuhd) turns upon three days: a yesterday that has passed, by which you were admonished; a today, in which is your provision; and a tomorrow, of which you do not know what is yours in it. He said: And affairs turn upon three: a matter whose right guidance has become clear to you, so follow it; a matter whose error has become clear to you, so avoid it; and a matter that is doubtful to you, so entrust it to God, Mighty and Majestic.

Aḥmad recorded from Qatādah, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Ask me, for my heart is soft and I am small in my own eyes.

Aḥmad recorded from Bashīr al-Dimashqī, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) passed by a people and said: O God, forgive us — three times. They said: O Spirit of God, we wish to hear from you today an exhortation, and to hear from you something we have not heard in times past. So God revealed to Jesus: Say to them: whoever I forgive with a single forgiveness, by it I set right for him his world and his Hereafter.

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Aḥmad recorded from Khathīmah, who said: When Jesus (peace be upon him) invited the reciters, he would stand and wait upon them, then say: Thus do with the reciters.

Aḥmad recorded from Yazīd ibn Maysarah, who said: The Messiah (peace be upon him) said: If you wish to be the chosen friends of God and the light of the sons of Adam among His creation, then pardon whoever wrongs you, visit whoever does not visit you, do good to whoever does not do good to you, and lend to whoever will not repay you.

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Aḥmad recorded from ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr that Jesus (peace be upon him) used to wear hair-cloth, eat from the leaves of the trees, and spend the night wherever evening found him; he would not keep back a morning meal for the evening, nor an evening meal for the morning, and he would say: Each day brings its provision with it.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: O house, you will fall into ruin and your inhabitants will perish; O soul, work and you will be provided for; O body, toil and you will find rest.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: Jesus son of Mary said to the disciples: Truly I say to you — and Jesus very often used to say: Truly I say to you — the one among you most intense in love of this world is the one among you most intense in grief over misfortune.

Aḥmad recorded from ʿAṭāʾ al-Azraq, who said: It reached us that Jesus (peace be upon him) said: O company of disciples, eat barley bread and the plants of the earth and plain water, and beware of wheaten bread, for you will not render due thanks for it. And know that the sweetness of this world is the bitterness of the Hereafter, and that the bitterness of this world is the sweetness of the Hereafter.

His son recorded in his Zawāʾid from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shawdhab, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: Fineness of clothing comes from vainglory of the heart.

Aḥmad recorded from Sufyān, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) said: I do not speak to you so that you may marvel; I speak to you only so that you may act.

His son recorded from Abū Ḥassān, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: Be like the knowledgeable physician, who applies his remedy where it benefits.

His son recorded from ʿImrān ibn Sulaymān, who said: It reached me that Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, hold this world lightly and it will be light upon you; treat this world with contempt and the Hereafter will be held in honour for you; and do not honour this world, lest the Hereafter be held lightly by you; for this world is not worthy of honour, and every day it calls to temptation and loss.

Ibn al-Mubārak and Aḥmad recorded from Abū Ghālib, who said: In the testament of Jesus (peace be upon him): O company of disciples, make yourselves beloved to God by hating the people of disobedience; draw near to Him by loathing them; and seek His good pleasure through their displeasure. They said: O Prophet of God, then with whom shall we sit? He said: Sit with him whose speech increases your works, whose sight reminds you of God, and whose conduct makes you renounce this world.

Aḥmad recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: God revealed to Jesus: Admonish yourself; if it accepts the admonition, then admonish the people; otherwise, be ashamed before Me.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb, who said: Jesus said to the disciples: To the degree that you toil here, you will rest there; and to the degree that you rest here, you will toil there.

Ibn al-Mubārak and Aḥmad recorded from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, who said: Jesus said: Blessed is he who keeps his tongue under lock, whose house is roomy enough for him, and who weeps over the memory of his sin.

Ibn al-Mubārak, Ibn Abī Shaybah and Aḥmad recorded from Hilāl ibn Yisāf, who said: Jesus used to say: When one of you gives charity with his right hand, let him hide it from his left; when he fasts, let him anoint himself and wipe his lips with his oil, so that one who looks at him does not see that he is fasting; and when he prays, let him let down the curtain of his door over himself. For God apportions praise just as He apportions provision.

Aḥmad and Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded from Khālid al-Rabaʿī, who said: I was told that Jesus said to his companions: What do you think — if one of you came upon his Muslim brother while he was asleep, and the wind had uncovered part of his garment? They said: Then we would cover him up again. He said: No; rather you would uncover what remained! It was a parable he struck for people who hear of a man’s evil deed and then mention more than that.

Aḥmad recorded from Abū al-Jald, who said: Jesus said: I reflected upon creation, and lo, he who has not been created was more to be envied in my eyes than he who has been created. And he said: Do not look at the sins of people as though you were lords; rather look at your own sins as though you were slaves. People are of two kinds: the afflicted and the spared; so have mercy on the people of affliction, and praise God for well-being.

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Aḥmad recorded from Abū al-Hudhayl, who said: Jesus met John and said: Counsel me. He said: Do not become angry. He said: I cannot. He said: Do not acquire wealth. He said: As for that, perhaps.

Aḥmad and Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: Jesus and the disciples passed by the carcass of a dog, and they said: How foul it stinks! He said: How intensely white are its teeth! — admonishing them and forbidding them backbiting.

Aḥmad recorded from al-Awzāʿī, who said: Jesus used to love the servant who learns a craft by which he becomes independent of people, and he used to dislike the servant who learns knowledge and takes it as a craft.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Aḥmad and Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Work for God, and do not work for your bellies. Look at these birds: they go out in the morning and come back in the evening; they neither plough nor reap, and God, Exalted, provides for them. If you say: We have bigger bellies than the birds, then look at these wild cattle and wild asses: they go out in the morning and come back in the evening; they neither plough nor reap, and God, Exalted, provides for them. Beware of the superfluities of this world, for the superfluities of this world are an abomination with God.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb, who said: Iblīs said to Jesus: You claim that you raise the dead; if you are as you claim, then pray to God to turn this mountain into bread. Jesus said to him: Do all people live by bread? He said: Then if you are as you say, leap from this place, for the angels will receive you. He said: My Lord has commanded me not to put myself to the test, for I do not know whether He will keep me safe or not.

Aḥmad recorded from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd that Jesus son of Mary used to say: The beggar has a right, even if he comes to you on a horse collared with silver.

He recorded from one of them, who said: God revealed to Jesus: If you are not content that people should chew you with their mouths for My sake, I shall not record you with Me as a monk. What harm does it do you if people hate you while I am pleased with you, and what benefit does the love of people bring you while I am angry with you?

Aḥmad recorded from al-Ḥaḍramī, and Ibn Abī al-Dunyā and Ibn ʿAsākir from Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, who both said: It was said to Jesus son of Mary: By what thing do you walk on the water? He said: By faith and certainty. They said: We believe as you believe, and we are certain as you are certain. He said: Then walk. So they walked with him, and the waves came and they sank. Jesus said to them: What is the matter with you? They said: We feared the waves. He said: Did you not fear the Lord of the waves! Then he brought them out. Then he struck his hand upon the ground, grasped with it and then opened it, and lo, in one of his hands was gold and in the other clay; and he said: Which of the two is sweeter in your hearts? They said: The gold. He said: To me they are both the same.

Ibn al-Mubārak, Ibn Abī Shaybah, Aḥmad and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from al-Shaʿbī, who said: Whenever the Hour was mentioned in the presence of Jesus son of Mary, he would cry out and say: It is not fitting for the son of Mary that the Hour be mentioned in his presence and he keep silent.

Aḥmad and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Mujāhid, who said: Jesus used to wear hair-cloth and eat of the trees; he did not store up today for tomorrow, and he spent the night wherever night sheltered him; he had no child to die, and no house to fall into ruin.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from al-Ḥasan: Jesus is the head of the renunciants on the Day of Resurrection, and those who flee with their religion will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection with Jesus son of Mary. And Iblīs passed by Jesus one day while he was using a stone as a pillow and had found the pleasure of sleep, and Iblīs said to him: O Jesus, do you not claim that you want nothing of the goods of this world? Yet this stone is of the goods of this world. So Jesus got up, took the stone and threw it away, and said: This is yours, together with the world.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Kaʿb that Jesus used to eat barley, walk on his feet and not ride beasts; he did not live in houses, nor light a lamp, nor wear cotton, nor touch women; he never touched perfume, never mixed his drink with anything at all, nor cooled it; he never oiled his head, and no wash ever came near his head or his beard; he never put anything between the ground and his skin except his garment; he never concerned himself about a morning meal or about an evening meal, and he desired nothing of the desires of this world. He used to sit with the weak, the chronically ill and the poor. When food was brought near to him upon something, he would set it down on the ground; he never ate any condiment with his food; he contented himself from this world with little sustenance, and he would say: This is a great deal for one who will die and be called to account for it.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from al-Ḥasan, who said: It reached me that it was said to Jesus son of Mary: Marry. He said: And what would I do with marriage? They said: She would bear you children. He said: Children — if they live they cause trial, and if they die they cause grief.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, and al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab, recorded from Ashʿath ibn Isḥāq, who said: It was said to Jesus: If only you would take a house. He said: The worn-out remnants of those who were before us suffice us.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā and al-Bayhaqī recorded from Maysarah, who said: It was said to Jesus: Will you not build yourself a house? He said: I shall not leave behind me anything of this world by which I would be remembered.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Abū Sulaymān, who said: While Jesus was walking on a summer’s day, afflicted by the heat, the sun and thirst, he sat down in the shade of a tent. The owner of the tent came out to him and said: O servant of God, get up out of our shade. So Jesus got up and sat in the sun, and said: It is not you who made me get up; the One who made me get up is He who did not wish that I should obtain anything of this world.

Aḥmad recorded from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, who said: Jesus and John (peace be upon them both) would come to a village, and Jesus would ask after the worst of its people while John would ask after the best of its people. He said to him: Why do you lodge with the worst of people? He said: I am only a physician, treating the sick.

Aḥmad recorded from Hishām al-Dastuwāʾī, who said: It reached me that among the wisdom of Jesus son of Mary is: You work for this world, while you are provided for in it without work; and you do not work for the Hereafter, while you are not provided for in it except by work. Woe to you, evil scholars! You take the wage and waste the work! You are about to go out of this world into the darkness of the grave and its narrowness. God, Mighty and Majestic, forbids you acts of disobedience just as He commanded you fasting and prayer. How can he be among the people of knowledge whose world is dearer to him than his Hereafter, and who is more eager in desire for this world? How can he be among the people of knowledge whose journey is towards his Hereafter while he faces towards his world, and what harms him is more appetising to him than what benefits him? How can he be among the people of knowledge who is discontented and despises his station, while he knows that this is from God’s knowledge and His power? How can he be among the people of knowledge who accuses God, Exalted, in His decree, so that he is not content with anything that befalls him? How can he be among the people of knowledge who seeks speech in order to talk, and does not seek it in order to act upon it?

Aḥmad recorded from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, from his elders, that Jesus (peace be upon him) passed by the pass of Afīq²⁹ with one of his disciples, when a man confronted them and barred their way, saying: I shall not let the two of you pass until I have slapped each one of you a slap. They tried to put him off, but he would accept nothing else. So Jesus said: As for my cheek, slap it. He slapped it and let him go, and he said to the disciple: I shall not let you pass until I slap you. He resisted him; and when Jesus saw that, he gave him his other cheek, and he slapped it and let the two of them go. Then Jesus (peace be upon him) said: O God, if this is pleasing to You, then convey me to Your good pleasure; and if this is displeasing to You, then You are the most entitled to pardon.

ʿAbd Allāh his son recorded from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, who said: While Jesus (peace be upon him) was sitting with his companions a woman passed by him, and one of them looked at her. One of his companions said to him: You have committed adultery. Jesus said to him: What do you think — if you were fasting and passed by roast meat and smelt it, would you have broken your fast? He said: No.

Aḥmad recorded from ʿAṭāʾ, who said: Jesus said: I do not enter a village whose people wish to expel me from it but that they expel me — meaning: I have nothing in it. He said: And Jesus used to make himself sandals of the bark of trees, and make their thongs of palm fibre.

Aḥmad recorded from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who said: The Messiah said: Not as I want, but as You want; and not as I will, but as You will.

Aḥmad recorded from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who said: It reached me that there was no word that could be said of Jesus more beloved to him than that it be said: This poor wretch.

His son recorded from Ibn Ḥalbas, who said: Jesus said: Satan is with this world, his cunning is with wealth, his adornment is with passion, and his consummation is with the desires.

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Aḥmad recorded from Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, who said: Jesus used to say: O God, I have come to morning unable to ward off what I dislike, and not possessing the benefit of what I hope for; the matter has come to be in the hand of another than me, and I have become pledged by my works. There is no poor man poorer than I. So do not let my enemy gloat over me, nor let my friend be grieved by me; do not make my affliction be in my religion, and do not give power over me to one who will not have mercy on me.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: In the books of the disciples: When you are led along the path of affliction, know that you are being led along the path of the prophets and the righteous; and when you are led along the path of the people of ease, know that you are being led along other than their path, and are being turned aside from their way.

Aḥmad recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: Jesus said: I send you only like rams, to gather up the lambs of the Children of Israel; so do not be like ravening wolves that snatch away the people; keep to the lambs. What is it with you, that you come wearing garments of hair while your hearts are the hearts of swine? Wear the garments of kings, and soften your hearts with fear. And Jesus said: O son of Adam, do the works of righteousness until your work reaches the clouds of heaven, and do them out of love for God; whatever you have done avails nothing of that in His sight without it. And Jesus said to the disciples: Iblīs wants to make you stingy, so do not fall into his stinginess.

Aḥmad recorded from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣanʿānī, who said: It reached us that Jesus (peace be upon him) said: O company of disciples, pray to God to lighten for me this agony — meaning death. Then Jesus said: I have feared death with such a fear that my fear of death has set me face to face with death.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb ibn Munabbih that Jesus (peace be upon him) was standing at a grave with the disciples, while the owner of the grave was being lowered into it, and they spoke of the darkness of the grave, its desolation and its narrowness. Jesus said: You have already been in what is narrower than it: in the wombs of your mothers. When God loves to make room, He makes room.

Aḥmad recorded from Wahb, who said: The Messiah (peace be upon him) said: Remember God much, praise Him and hallow Him, and obey Him; for it is enough for one of you, by way of supplication, when God, Blessed and Exalted, is pleased with him, that he say: O God, forgive me my sin, set right for me my livelihood, and preserve me from what is hateful, O my God.

Aḥmad recorded from Abū al-Jald that Jesus (peace be upon him) said to the disciples: Truly I say to you: it is neither this world you want nor the Hereafter. They said: O Messenger of God, explain this to us, for we used to think that we wanted one of the two. He said: Had you wanted this world you would have obeyed the Lord of this world, in whose hand are the keys of its treasuries, and He would have given it to you; and had you wanted the Hereafter you would have obeyed the Lord of the Hereafter, who owns it, and He would have given it to you. But it is neither this you want, nor that.

Aḥmad recorded from Abū ʿUbaydah that the disciples said to Jesus: What shall we eat? He said: You shall eat barley bread and the herbs of the open country. They said: Then what shall we drink? He said: You shall drink plain water. They said: Then what shall we lay our heads upon? He said: Lay your heads upon the ground. They said: We see you commanding us nothing by way of livelihood but what is hard. He said: And by this you will be saved. You will not enter the kingdom of the heavens until one of you does this while he still has an appetite for it. They said: And how can that be? He said: Have you not seen that when a man is hungry, how beloved to him is a crust, even if it is of barley! And if he is thirsty, how beloved to him is water, even if it is plain! And when he has stood long, how beloved to him is to lay his head upon the ground.

Aḥmad recorded from ʿAṭāʾ that it reached him that Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Hope for no more than a bare sufficiency; be wakeful in the hours of heedlessness; judge with the subtlety of discernment; and do not be like a saddle-cloth cast aside while you are alive and breathing.

Ibn Abī Shaybah and Aḥmad recorded from Abū Hurayrah, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) used to say: O company of disciples, take your houses as way-stations, take the mosques as dwellings, eat of the herbs of the open country, and go out of this world in peace.

Aḥmad recorded from Ibrāhīm al-Taymī that Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Lay up your treasures in heaven, for a man’s heart is with his treasure.

Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd al-Juʿfī, who said: Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) said: My house is the mosque, my perfume is water, my condiment is hunger, my inner garment is fear, my mount is my two legs, my fireside in winter is the places where the sun rises, my lamp by night is the moon, and my companions are the chronically ill and the poor; I pass the evening with nothing, and I come to morning with nothing, and I am well. So who is richer than I?

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded from al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, who said: Jesus said: This world has been laid flat for you, and you sit upon its back; none will contend with you for it except kings and women. As for the kings, do not contend with them for this world, for they will never trouble you so long as you leave them and their world alone; and as for women, guard yourselves against them with fasting and prayer.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Sufyān al-Thawrī, who said: The Messiah said: This world is sought only in order to do good; but leaving it is better.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Shuʿayb ibn Ṣāliḥ, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: By God, this world has not settled in the heart of a servant but that his heart has become bound by it to three things: a preoccupation whose toil never ceases, a poverty whose sufficiency is never reached, and a hope whose end is never attained. This world is both seeker and sought: the seeker of the Hereafter is sought by this world until he has received his provision from it in full, and the seeker of this world is sought by the Hereafter until death comes and seizes him by the neck.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Yazīd ibn Maysarah, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: As you humble yourselves, so you will be raised; as you show mercy, so you will be shown mercy; and as you fulfil the needs of people, so God will fulfil your needs.

Aḥmad and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from al-Shaʿbī, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: Beneficence is not that you do good to one who has done good to you — that is recompense; beneficence is only that you do good to one who has done evil to you.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Ibn al-Mubārak, who said: It reached me that Jesus son of Mary passed by a people who reviled him, and he spoke good; and he passed by others who reviled him and did more, and he gave them more good. A man among the disciples said: The more they increase in evil to you, the more you increase in good to them, as though you were inciting them against yourself! Jesus said: Every person gives what he has.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded from Mālik ibn Anas, who said: A pig passed by Jesus son of Mary, and he said: Pass in peace. It was said to him: O Spirit of God, do you say this to this pig? He said: I dislike accustoming my tongue to evil.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded from Sufyān, who said: They said to Jesus son of Mary: Direct us to a deed by which we may enter Paradise. He said: Never speak. They said: We cannot do that. He said: Then speak nothing but good.

Al-Kharāʾiṭī recorded from Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: Take the truth from the people of falsehood, and do not take falsehood from the people of truth. Be critics of speech, so that counterfeits do not pass current upon you.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, and al-Bayhaqī in al-Zuhd, recorded from Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: O company of disciples, be content with the meanness of this world together with the soundness of religion, just as the people of this world are content with the meanness of religion together with the soundness of this world.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) said: Eating barley with ashes, and sleeping on dunghills with the dogs, is little indeed in the quest for Paradise.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: Jesus son of Mary used to say: No servant can bear to have two lords: if he pleases one of them he angers the other, and if he angers one of them he pleases the other. Likewise no servant can bear to be a servant of this world while doing the work of the Hereafter. Do not be anxious about what you will eat or what you will drink, for God has not created a soul greater than its provision, nor a body greater than its clothing; so take heed.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from al-Maqburī that it reached him that Jesus son of Mary used to say: O son of Adam, when you do a good deed, forget about it, for it is with One who will not let it be lost; and when you do an evil deed, set it before your eyes.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl that Jesus son of Mary used to say: Whoever thinks that greed increases his provision, let him add to his height, or to his breadth, or to the number of his buildings, or let him change his colour. Indeed, God created the creation, and the creation proceeded according to what He created; then He apportioned provision, and provision proceeded according to what He apportioned. This world gives no one anything that is not his, nor does it withhold from anyone anything that is his. So hold fast to the worship of your Lord, for you were created for it.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from ʿImrān ibn Sulaymān, who said: It reached me that Jesus said to his companions: If you are my brothers and my companions, then accustom yourselves to enmity and hatred from people.

Aḥmad and al-Bayhaqī recorded from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ẓabyān, who said: The Messiah said: Whoever learns, acts and teaches — that one is called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Jesus son of Mary stood up among the Children of Israel and said: O company of disciples, do not speak wisdom to those who are not its people, lest you wrong it; and do not withhold it from its people, lest you wrong them. Affairs are three: a matter whose right guidance is clear, so follow it; a matter whose error is clear to you, so avoid it; and a matter about which you differ, so refer the knowledge of it to God, Exalted.”

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from ʿAmr ibn Qays al-Mulāʾī, who said: Jesus son of Mary said: If you withhold wisdom from its people you act in ignorance, and if you grant it to those who are not its people you act in ignorance. Be like the physician who treats: if he sees a place for the remedy he applies it, and otherwise he holds back.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in al-Zuhd, and Ibn ʿAsākir, recorded from ʿIkrimah, who said: Jesus son of Mary said to the disciples: O company of disciples, do not cast pearls before swine, for the swine does nothing with the pearl; and do not give wisdom to one who does not want it, for wisdom is better than pearls, and one who does not want it is worse than the swine.

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: Jesus said: O evil scholars, you have sat at the gates of Paradise; you neither enter it yourselves nor let the poor enter it. The worst of people with God is a scholar who seeks this world by means of his knowledge.

Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, who said: Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) said: The likeness of the soul’s whispering of sin is the likeness of smoke in a house: if it does not burn it, it makes its smell foul and changes its colour.

His words, Exalted: and the Torah and the Gospel (3:48)

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Qatādah, who said: Jesus used to recite the Torah and the Gospel.

On 3:49

His words, Exalted: that I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird (3:49)

Ibn Jarīr recorded, from Ibn Isḥāq, that Jesus sat one day with some boys from the school, and he took clay, then said: “Shall I make for you out of this clay a bird?” They said: “And can you do that?” He said: “Yes, by the permission of my Lord.” Then he shaped it, until, when he had made it into the form of a bird, he breathed into it, then said: “Be a bird, by the permission of God.” And it went out flying from between his two palms. The boys went out with this deed of his and mentioned it to their teacher, and they spread it abroad among the people.

Ibn Jarīr recorded, from Ibn Jurayj, that Jesus said: “Which of the birds is the hardest in its creation?” They said: “The bat; for it is nothing but flesh.” So he made it.

Abū al-Shaykh recorded, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Jesus created only one bird, and it was the bat.

His words, Exalted: and I heal the one born blind and the leper (3:49)

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded, by way of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The akmah is the one who is born blind.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded, by way of ʿAṭāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The akmah is the blind man whose eye is smoothed over.³⁰

Abū ʿUbayd, al-Firyābī, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn al-Anbārī in the Kitāb al-Aḍdād recorded, from Mujāhid, who said: The akmah is the one who sees by day and does not see by night.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn al-Anbārī recorded, from ʿIkrimah, who said: The akmah is the bleary-eyed (aʿmash).

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: The supplication of Jesus with which he used to pray for the sick, the chronically ill, the blind, the mad and others was: “O God, You are the God of whoever is in heaven and the God of whoever is on earth; there is no god in them besides You. You are the Compeller of whoever is in heaven and the Compeller of whoever is on earth; there is no compeller in them besides You. You are the King of whoever is in heaven and the King of whoever is on earth; there is no king in them besides You. Your power on earth is like Your power in heaven, and Your authority on earth is like Your authority in heaven. I ask You by Your noble Name, Your radiant Face and Your eternal dominion; truly You have power over all things.” Wahb said: This is for the one seized with terror and for the madman: it is recited over him and written out for him, and he is given its water to drink, God willing.

Ibn Jarīr recorded, by another route, from Wahb, who said: When Jesus reached twelve years of age, God revealed to his mother, while she was in the land of Egypt, for she had fled from her people to the land of Egypt when she gave birth to him: “Go up with him to Syria.” She did so, and she remained in Syria until he was thirty years old. His prophethood lasted three years, and then God raised him to Himself. Wahb claimed that sometimes there would 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 would come to him, walking to him. And he treated them only by supplication to God, Exalted.

His words, Exalted: and I give life to the dead by the permission of God (3:49)

Al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded, by way of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, from Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah, from a man, that Jesus son of Mary, when he wished to give life to the dead, would pray two units of prayer (rakʿahs), reciting in the first Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion (67:1), and in the second The sending down (32:2) of “al-Sajdah”. When he had finished, he would praise God and extol Him, then call upon Him by seven names: O Eternal (Qadīm), O Living (Ḥayy), O Everlasting (Dāʾim), O Single (Fard), O Odd (Witr), O One (Aḥad), O Self-Sufficient (Ṣamad). Al-Bayhaqī said: This is not strong.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded it, by way of Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif, from Abū Bishr, from Abū al-Hudhayl, with its wording, and added at its end: And when hardship befell him, he would call upon Him by seven other names: O Living, O Self-Subsisting (Qayyūm), O God, O Most Merciful (Raḥmān), O Possessor of Majesty and Honour, O Light of the heavens and the earth and what is between them and Lord of the Mighty Throne, O my Lord.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded in Kitāb Man ʿāsha baʿd al-mawt (The Book of Those Who Lived after Death), from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, who said: The Children of Israel asked Jesus, saying: “Shem son of Noah is buried near here, so pray to God to raise him up for us.” The prophet of God called out to him, but saw nothing; and he called out, but saw nothing. They said: “He was indeed buried near here.” The prophet of God called out, and he came forth, grey-haired. They said: “He died while he was a young man, so what is this whiteness?” He said: “I thought it was the Cry,³¹ and I was terrified.”

Isḥāq ibn Bishr and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded, by several routes, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Jews used to gather around Jesus and mock him, saying to him: “O Jesus, what did so-and-so eat last night, and what did he store away in his house for tomorrow?” He would tell them, and they would scoff at him. This went on at length between him and them, and Jesus had no settled abode and no known place; he was only a wanderer in the land. One day he passed by a woman sitting by a grave, weeping. He asked her, and she said: “A daughter of mine has died, and I had no child other than her.” So Jesus prayed two rakʿahs, then called out: “O so-and-so, rise by the permission of the Most Merciful, and come forth!” The grave stirred. Then he called a second time, and the grave split open. Then he called a third time, and she came out, shaking the dust from her head. She said: “O mother, what moved you to make me taste the agony of death twice? O mother, be patient and seek your reward with God, for I have no need of this world. O Spirit of God, ask my Lord to return me to the Hereafter and to make the agonies of death easy for me.” So he prayed to his Lord, and He took her to Himself, and the earth settled level over her. That reached the Jews, and they increased in anger against him. Now there was a king of theirs in a certain region, in a city called Nisibis,³² a tyrannical and insolent man, and Jesus was commanded to journey to him to call him and the people of that city to turn back to God. He went until he drew near the city, with the disciples accompanying him, and he said to his companions: “Is there not a man among you who will set out to the city and proclaim in it, saying: ‘Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger’?” A man of the disciples called Yaʿqūb stood up and said: “I will, O Spirit of God.” He said: “Then go; but you will be the first to disown me.” Another, called Tūṣār, stood up and said to him: “I will go with him.” He said: “And you, with him.” The two walked off, and Simon stood up and said: “O Spirit of God, let me be the third of them, and permit me to speak against you if I am compelled to that.” He said: “Yes.” They set off, until, when they were near the city, Simon said to the two of them: “Enter the city and deliver what you have been commanded, and I will stay in my place; if you are put to trial, I will devise a stratagem for you.” The two went on until they entered the city, where the people were talking of the affair of Jesus, saying the vilest things about him and about his mother. One of them, the first, called out: “Hear ye! Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger.” They leapt upon the two of them: “Who is it that says that Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger?” The one who had called out disowned it and said: “I said nothing.” Then the other said: “You did say it, and I say it: Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger, and His word which He cast unto Mary, and a spirit from Him; so believe in him, O company of the Children of Israel, it is better for you.” They took him off to their king, who was a tyrannical and oppressive man, and he said to him: “Woe to you, what are you saying?” He said: “I say: Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger, and His word which He cast unto Mary, and a spirit from Him.” He said: “You lie.” And they slandered Jesus and his mother with calumny. Then he said to him: “Woe to you, disown Jesus and say about him what we say.” He said: “I will not do it.” He said: “If you do not, I will cut off your hands and your feet and put out your eyes with nails.” He said: “Do with us what you are going to do.” So he did that to him and threw him on a rubbish heap in the middle of their city. Then the king was minded to cut out his tongue, when Simon came in, the people having gathered, and said to them: “What has this poor wretch said?” They said: “He claims that Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger.” Simon said: “O king, will you permit me to go near to him and question him?” He said: “Yes.” Simon said to him: “O afflicted one, what do you say?” He said: “I say: Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger.” He said: “And what is his sign? Do you know him?” He said: “He heals the one born blind and the leper and the sick.” He said: “The physicians do this; is there anything else?” He said: “Yes, he tells you what you eat and what you store away.” He said: “The soothsayers know this; is there anything other than this?” He said: “Yes, he creates out of clay the likeness of a bird.” He said: “This the sorcerers can do; he will have taken it from them.” The king began to marvel at him and at his questioning. He said: “Is there anything other than this?” He said: “Yes, he gives life to the dead.” He said: “O king, he has mentioned a mighty matter, and I do not think any creature has power over that except by the permission of God; and God would not bring that to pass at the hand of a lying sorcerer. If Jesus were not a messenger he would have no power over that, and God has not done that for anyone except for Abraham, when he asked Him: Show me how You give life to the dead (2:260). And who is like Abraham, the Friend of the Most Merciful!”

Ibn Jarīr recorded, from al-Suddī, and Ibn ʿAsākir, by way of al-Suddī, from Abū Mālik and from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When God sent Jesus and commanded him to call to Him, the Children of Israel confronted him and drove him out. So he and his mother went out wandering in the land, and they lodged in a village with a man who gave them hospitality and treated them well. That city had a tyrannical king. One day that man came home grieving, and entered his house while Mary was with his wife. She said to her: “What is the matter with your husband? I see him grieving!” She said: “We have a king who imposes on each man among us a day on which he must feed him and his soldiers and give them wine to drink, and if he does not do so he punishes him; and his turn has come today, and we have not the means.” She said: “Tell him not to worry, for I shall tell my son and he will pray for him, and he will be spared that.” Mary spoke to Jesus about that, and Jesus said: “O mother, if I do it there will be evil in it.” She said: “Do not mind that, for he has been good to us and honoured us.” Jesus said: “Tell him: fill your cooking-pots and your jars with water.” He filled them, and Jesus prayed to God, and what was in the pots turned into meat, broth and bread, and what was in the jars into wine the like of which the people had never seen. When the king came he ate of it, and when he drank the wine he asked: “Where did you get this wine?” He said: “It is from such-and-such a land.” The king said: “But my wine is brought to me from that land, and it is not like this!” He said: “It is from another land.” When he had confused the king, the king pressed him hard, and so he said: “I will tell you: I have with me a boy who never asks God for anything but He gives it to him, and he prayed to God and turned the water into wine.” The king said to him, now he had had a son whom he wished to make his successor, who had died a few days before that, and who had been the dearest of creatures to him, he said: “A man who prayed to God and He turned the water into wine will surely be answered if he prays that my son be brought back to life.” So he summoned Jesus and spoke with him, and asked him to pray to God to give life to his son. Jesus said: “Do not do it, for if he lives it will be an evil.” The king said: “I do not care; shall I not see him? I do not care what happens.” Jesus (peace be upon him) said: “If I bring him to life, will you leave me and my mother to go wherever we wish?” The king said: “Yes.” So he prayed to God, and the boy lived. When the people of his kingdom saw that he had come to life, they called one another to arms and said: “This one has devoured us, until, when his death drew near, he wants to set his son over us as his successor, to devour us as his father devoured us!” So they fought one another, and Jesus and his mother went away, and a Jew accompanied the two of them. The Jew had two loaves and Jesus had one loaf. Jesus said to him: “Will you share with me?” The Jew said: “Yes.” But when he saw that Jesus (peace be upon him) had only one loaf, he regretted it. When the two slept, the Jew set about trying to eat the loaf; he would eat a mouthful and Jesus would say to him: “What are you doing?” and he would say: “Nothing,” until he had finished the loaf. When morning came, Jesus said to him: “Bring out your food.” He brought one loaf, and Jesus said to him: “Where is the other loaf?” He said: “I had only one.” He let it pass. They set off and passed by a shepherd of sheep, and Jesus called out: “O owner of the sheep, give us a sheep from your flock to slaughter.” He said: “Yes,” and gave him a sheep, which he slaughtered and roasted. Then he said to the Jew: “Eat, and do not break a bone.” They ate, and when they were full Jesus threw the bones into the skin, then struck it with his staff and said: “Rise, by the permission of God.” The sheep stood up, bleating. He said: “O owner of the sheep, take your sheep.” The shepherd said to him: “Who are you?” He said: “I am Jesus son of Mary.” He said: “You are the sorcerer?” and fled from him. Jesus said to the Jew: “By Him who gave life to this sheep after we had eaten it, how many loaves did you have?” He swore that he had had only one loaf. Then he passed by an owner of cattle and said: “O owner of the cattle, give us a calf from these cattle of yours to slaughter.” He gave it to him, and he slaughtered it and roasted it while the owner of the cattle looked on. Jesus said to him: “Eat, and do not break a bone.” When they had finished, he threw the bones into the skin, then struck it with his staff and said: “Rise, by the permission of God.” It rose up, lowing. He said: “O owner of the cattle, take your calf.” He said: “And who are you?” He said: “I am Jesus.” He said: “You are Jesus the sorcerer?” and then fled from him. Jesus said to the Jew: “By Him who gave life to this sheep after we had eaten it, and the calf after we had eaten it, how many loaves did you have?” He swore by that that he had had only one loaf. The two went on until they stopped at a village; the Jew lodged in the upper part of it and Jesus in the lower part. The Jew took a staff like the staff of Jesus and said: “Now I will give life to the dead.” The king of that village was ill, gravely ill, so the Jew went about calling: “Who is seeking a physician?” He was told of the king and his malady, and he said: “Bring me in to him and I will cure him; and if you see that he has died, I will bring him back to life.” He was told: “The king’s malady has baffled the physicians before you.” He said: “Bring me in to him.” So he was brought in to him, and he took hold of the king’s leg and struck him with his staff until he died, and he kept striking him while he was dead, saying: “Rise, by the permission of God.”

So they seized him to crucify him. That reached Jesus, and he came to him when he had already been hoisted onto the wooden beam, and said: “What do you say: if I bring your companion back to life for you, will you leave my companion to me?” They said: “Yes.” So Jesus brought the king back to life, and he stood up and brought the Jew down. He said: “O Jesus, you are the man to whom I owe the greatest favour of all people; by God, I will never part from you.” Jesus said: “I adjure you by Him who gave life to the sheep and the calf after we had eaten them both, and gave life to this man after he had died, and brought you down from the trunk after you had been hoisted onto it to be crucified: how many loaves did you have?” He swore by all of this that he had had only one loaf. The two went on and passed by three bricks, and Jesus prayed to God and He turned them into gold. He said: “O Jew, one brick is for me, one brick is for you, and one brick is for the one who ate the loaf.” He said: “I ate the loaf.”

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded, from Layth, who said: A man accompanied Jesus son of Mary. The two set off and came to the bank of a river, and sat down to eat the midday meal; they had three loaves with them. They ate the two loaves and one loaf remained. Jesus got up to go to the river to drink, then came back and did not find the loaf. He said to the man: “Who ate the loaf?” He said: “I do not know.” He went on with him and saw a gazelle with two fawns. He called one of the two and it came to him; he slaughtered it and roasted it, and they ate. Then he said to the fawn: “Rise, by the permission of God,” and it rose. He said to the man: “I ask you, by Him who showed you this sign, who took the loaf?” He said: “I do not know.” Then they came to the sea, and Jesus took the man by the hand and walked upon the water. Then he said: “I adjure you, by Him who showed you this sign, who took the loaf?” He said: “I do not know.” Then they came to a cave, and Jesus took earth and clay and said: “Be gold, by the permission of God,” and it became gold. He divided it into three thirds and said: “A third is for you, a third is for me, and a third is for the one who took the loaf.” He said: “I took it.” He said: “Then all of it is yours.” And Jesus parted from him. Two men came upon him and wanted to take it and kill him. He said: “It is between us in thirds; so send one of you to the village to buy us food.” They sent one of them, and the one who was sent said: “Why should I share the money with these two? Rather, I will put poison in the food and kill them.” And those two said: “Why should we give this one a third of the money? Rather, when he comes back we will kill him.” When he came back to them they killed him, and the two ate the food and died. So that money remained in the cave, with those three lying dead beside it.

Aḥmad recorded in al-Zuhd, from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, who said: When Jesus son of Mary sent out his messengers to give life to the dead, he would say to them: “Say such-and-such, say such-and-such; and when you feel a shudder and a tear, then make the supplication at that moment.”

Aḥmad recorded in al-Zuhd, from Thābit, who said: Jesus (peace be upon him) set out to visit a brother of his, and a person met him and said: “Your brother has died.” So he turned back. The daughters of his brother heard that he had turned back from them, so they came to him and said: “O Messenger of God, your turning back from us is harder upon us than the death of our father.” He said: “Then go and show me his grave.” They went until they showed him his grave. He said: He called out to him, and he came forth, white-haired. He said: “Are you not so-and-so?” He said: “Yes, indeed.” He said: “Then what is this that I see upon you?” He said: “I heard your voice and thought it was the Cry.”

His words, Exalted: and I inform you (3:49), the verse.

Al-Firyābī, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded, from Mujāhid, concerning His words and I inform you of what you eat and what you store (3:49): He said: Of what food you ate last night, and what of it you hid away.

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: Jesus used to say to the boy in the school: “Your family have hidden away such-and-such for you.” That is His words: and what you store (3:49).

Ibn ʿAsākir recorded, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who said: Jesus son of Mary, while he was a boy, used to play with the children, and he would say to one of them: “Do you want me to tell you what your mother has hidden away for you?” He would say: “Yes.” He would say: “She has hidden away such-and-such for you.” The boy among them would go to his mother and say to her: “Feed me what you hid away for me.” She would say: “And what have I hidden away for you?” He would say: “Such-and-such.” She would say: “Who told you?” He would say: “Jesus son of Mary.” So they said: “By God, if you leave these children with Jesus he will surely corrupt them.” So they gathered them in a house and locked them in. Jesus went out seeking them and did not find them, until he heard their clamour in a house. He asked about them, saying: “O you people, it seems these are the children.” They said: “No, these are only apes and swine.” He said: “O God, make them apes and swine.” And they became so.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: and I inform you of what you eat (3:49): of the Table; and what you store (3:49): of it. A covenant had been taken from them concerning the Table, when it came down, that they should eat and not store away; but they stored away and acted treacherously, and so they were made into apes and swine.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd recorded, from ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd: and what you store (3:49), read with the doubled letter, by assimilation (idghām).³³

On 5:110

His words, Exalted: When God said: O Jesus son of Mary (5:110), the verse.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When the Day of Resurrection comes, the prophets and their communities will be summoned; then Jesus will be summoned, and God will remind him of His favour upon him, and he will acknowledge it. He will say: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother (5:110), the verse. Then He will say: Did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? (5:116). He will deny having said that. Then the Christians will be brought and questioned, and they will say: Yes, he commanded us to do that. Then the hair of Jesus will grow long, until every angel among the angels takes hold of a hair from the hair of his head and his body, and he will kneel in dispute with them before God for the measure of a thousand years, until he establishes the proof against them, the cross is raised up before them, and they are taken off to the Fire.”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported by way of Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, from Ibn Wahb, from his father, who said: A man of the People of the Book came to Yemen, and my father said: Go to him and hear from him. I said: Are you sending me off to a Christian man? He said: Yes, go to him and hear from him. So I went to him, and he said: When God raised up Jesus (peace be upon him), He stood him before Gabriel and Michael and said to him: Remember My favour upon you and upon your mother. I did such and such for you, and such and such; then I brought you forth from your mother’s womb, and I did such and such for you, and such and such. And there will be a community after you who will lay claim to you and lay claim to your lordship, and will testify that you have died—and how can there be a Lord who dies? By My might I have sworn: I shall surely bring them to account on the Day of Resurrection, and I shall surely set them in the station of a litigant facing his litigant, until they make good what they said—and they will never make it good. Then that man accepted Islam, and he brought reports the like of which I had never heard.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words: and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs (5:110): that is, the signs which He placed in his hands—the raising of the dead; his making from clay the likeness of a bird, then breathing into it so that it became a bird by God’s leave; the healing of sicknesses; and the telling of many unseen things, such as what they stored up in their houses—and what he restored to them of the Torah, together with the Gospel which God newly sent down to him. Then He mentioned their disbelief in all of that.

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On 3:48

And He will teach him the Book, that is, the whole class of the earlier scriptures, and judgement between people, and He will give him prophethood.

On 3:49

And He will make him a messenger to the Children of Israel and support him with clear signs and overwhelming proofs, in that he said: I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, which shows you that I am truly the messenger of God, and that is that I create for you out of clay the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by God’s leave; and I heal the one born blind, which is the one whose eyes are effaced, who has lost his sight and his eyes, and the leper, 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. Indeed in that, which has been mentioned, is a sign for you, if you are believers (3:49).

On 5:110

When God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, that is, remember it with your heart and your tongue, and discharge its due in gratitude to your Lord, since He bestowed upon you favours He bestowed upon no one else: when I supported you with the Holy Spirit, that is, when I strengthened you with the spirit and the revelation which purified you and made you grow, so that you came to have strength for carrying out God’s command and calling to His path. It was also said that what is meant by the Holy Spirit is Gabriel (peace be upon him), and that God aided him through him, through his constant attendance upon him and his steadying him in trying situations. You spoke to people in the cradle and in maturity: what is meant by speaking here is not the ordinary speaking which is mere talk; rather what is meant by it is the speech by which both the speaker and the one addressed benefit, namely the call to God. Jesus (peace be upon him) had of this what his brothers among the messengers of firm resolve had, namely speaking in the state of maturity with the message, the call to good and the forbidding of evil; and he was distinguished from them in that he spoke to people in the cradle, saying: Indeed I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book and made me a prophet, and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving as long as I live (19:30–31), to the end of the verse.

And when I taught you the Book and wisdom. The Book includes the earlier scriptures, and especially the Torah, for he was among the most knowledgeable of the prophets of the Children of Israel concerning it after Moses; and it includes the Gospel which God sent down to him. Wisdom is knowledge of the secrets of the law, its benefits and its underlying purposes, excellence in calling and teaching, and attending to what ought to be done in the manner in which it ought to be done. And when you created out of clay the form of a bird, that is, a bird fashioned in shape with no spirit in it, then breathed into it and it became a bird by My leave; and you healed the one born blind, who has neither sight nor eye, and the leper by My leave; and when you brought forth the dead by My leave. These are clear signs and dazzling miracles before which physicians and others are powerless; God supported Jesus with them and strengthened his call by them. And when I restrained the Children of Israel from you when you came to them with clear proofs, and those of them who disbelieved said, when the truth came to them supported by the clear proofs that necessitate faith in it: This is nothing but manifest sorcery (5:110). They resolved to kill Jesus and strove to do so, but God restrained their hands from him, protected him from them and kept him safe.

These, then, are favours which God graciously bestowed upon His servant and messenger Jesus son of Mary, and He called him to give thanks for them and to discharge their due; and he (upon him be blessings and peace) discharged them most completely, and was patient as his brothers among the messengers of firm resolve were patient.

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