Section 16: The table from heaven, Caesarea Philippi and the vision

On 5:111

On the interpretation of His words: And when I inspired the disciples: Believe in Me and in My messenger. They said: We believe; and bear witness that we are Muslims (111) (5:111)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He says, Exalted be His remembrance: And remember also, O Jesus, when I cast to the disciples, who were Jesus’s helpers (wuzarāʾ) in his religion.

We have already explained the meaning of that, and why they were called “the disciples” (al-ḥawāriyyūn), earlier, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it.

The wordings of the people of interpretation differed in the interpretation of His words And when I inspired, though they are in agreement in their meanings.

• Some of them said, by that which:

(12992) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related it to me: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: And when I inspired the disciples: he says: I cast it into their hearts.

• Others said: The meaning of that is: I inspired them (alhamtuhum).

Abū Jaʿfar said: So the interpretation of the discourse is: And when I cast to the disciples: affirm Me and My messenger Jesus; and they said: We believe, that is: we affirm what You have commanded us to believe, O our Lord; and bear witness for us that we are Muslims: He says: and bear witness for us that we are submissive to You in lowliness, hearing and obeying Your command.

On 5:112

On the interpretation of His words: When the disciples said: O Jesus son of Mary, is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven? He said: Fear God, if you are believers (5:112)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He, Exalted be His mention, says: And remember, O Jesus, also My favour upon you, when I inspired the disciples to believe in Me and in My messenger, when they said to Jesus son of Mary: Is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven? So the second “when” (idh) is connected to “I inspired”.

The reciters differed over the reading of His words “is your Lord able” (yastaṭīʿu rabbuka).

• A group of the Companions and the Successors read it hal tastaṭīʿu with a tāʾ and rabbaka in the accusative⁹, meaning: are you able to ask your Lord? or: are you able to call upon your Lord? or: are you able, and do you see fit, to call upon Him? They said: the disciples were not in doubt that God, Exalted be His mention, was able to send that down to them; they only said to Jesus: are you yourself able to do that?

(12993) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Muḥammad ibn Bishr related to us, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, from Ibn Abī Mulaykah, who said: ʿĀʾishah said: The disciples did not doubt that God was able to send down a table to them, but they said: O Jesus, are you able to ask your Lord (hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka)?

(12994) Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Taghlibī related to me: al-Qāsim ibn Sallām related to us: Ibn Mahdī related to us, from Jābir ibn Yazīd ibn Rifāʿah, from Ḥassān ibn Mukhāriq, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: that he read it thus, hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, and said: are you able to ask your Lord. And he said: Do you not see that they were believers?

• The generality of the reciters of Medina and Iraq read it hal yastaṭīʿu with a yāʾ and rabbuka in the nominative, meaning: that your Lord should send down to us; just as a man says to his companion, “Are you able to rise up with us in such-and-such a matter?” while he knows that he is able, but means only: will you rise up with us in it? It is also possible that the intention of one who reads it thus is: will your Lord respond to you and comply with you in sending down to us?

Abū Jaʿfar said: The more correct of the two readings in my view is the reading of those who read it hal yastaṭīʿu with a yāʾ and rabbuka with “the Lord” in the nominative, meaning: will He respond to you, if you ask Him for that, and comply with you in it?

We have said that this is the more correct of the two readings only because of what we explained before, that His words “when the disciples said” are connected to “when I inspired”, and that the meaning of the speech is: And when I inspired the disciples to believe in Me and in My messenger, when the disciples said: O Jesus son of Mary, is your Lord able? If that is so, then it is clear that God, Exalted be His mention, disapproved of what they said in this and regarded it as grave, and commanded them to repent and to return to faith from that saying of theirs, and to acknowledge God’s power over all things, and to believe His messenger in the reports he gave them about their Lord. And Jesus said to them, when they said that to him, regarding what they had said as grave: “Fear God, if you are believers.” So in God’s calling them to repentance, and His summoning them to faith in Him and in His messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) when they said what they said in this, and in the prophet of God’s (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding their words as grave, there is indication sufficient, over and above anything else, of the correctness of the reading of this with the yāʾ and “the Lord” in the nominative; for there would have been no sense, in what they said to Jesus, had they said to him “are you able to ask your Lord to send down to us a table from heaven?”, for it to be regarded as grave to this degree.

If someone supposes that their saying that to him was regarded as grave on their part only because it was on their part a request for a sign, then he has supposed wrongly. For a sign is asked of the prophets only by one who disbelieves in it, so that the reality of its establishment and the soundness of its matter may be settled for him; as was the request which Quraysh made of our Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), those of the idolaters of his people who asked him, that he turn al-Ṣafā into gold for them and make rivers gush forth through the valleys of Mecca; and as was the request for the she-camel made of Ṣāliḥ by the deniers among his people; and the request made of Shuʿayb, by the unbelievers among those to whom he was sent, that he make a fragment of the sky fall down.

So if those who asked Jesus to ask his Lord to send down to them a table from heaven made their request in this manner, then those who read it with the tāʾ and “the Lord” in the accusative have placed them in a position graver than the position from which they supposed they were steering them away. Or else they asked that of Jesus while certain that he was a prophet of God sent forth and a messenger dispatched, and that God, Exalted be His mention, was able to do what they asked of that.

If they asked that while being so, and their request to him for it was only in the manner in which one of them might ask his prophet, if he were poor, to ask his Lord on his behalf to enrich him, or, if some need arose for him, to ask his Lord on his behalf to fulfil it, then that is in no way a request for a sign; rather it is the request of one who has a need, which has arisen for him, of his Lord, so he asked his prophet to ask his Lord to fulfil it for him.

But God’s report, Exalted be His mention, about the people tells of something other than that. For they said to Jesus, when he said to them “Fear God, if you are believers”: “We wish to eat of it, and that our hearts be at rest, and that we may know that you have told us the truth.” This saying of theirs has made known that they did not know that Jesus had told them the truth, nor were their hearts at rest concerning the reality of his prophethood. There is no statement clearer than this speech that the people’s hearts had been touched by sickness and doubt in their religion and in believing their messenger, and that they asked what they asked of that by way of testing.

Those of the people of interpretation said something like what we have said in this.

Those who said this

(12995) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Layth, from ʿUqayl, from Ibn ʿAbbās: that he used to relate about Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said to the Children of Israel: Would you fast for God thirty days, then ask Him, and He will give you what you ask? For the wage of the labourer is owed by the one for whom he labours! So they did so, then said: O teacher of goodness, you told us, “the wage of the labourer is owed by the one for whom he labours”, and you commanded us to fast thirty days, and we did so; and we never laboured thirty days for anyone without his feeding us food when we finished. So is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven? Jesus said: Fear God, if you are believers. They said: We wish to eat of it, and that our hearts be at rest, and that we may know that you have told us the truth, and that we may be among the witnesses to it, up to His words I punish no one of the worlds (5:112–115). He said: Then the angels came flying with a table from heaven on which were seven fish and seven loaves, until they set it down before them, and the last of the people ate of it as the first of them had eaten of it.

(12996) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: Is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven?: they said: Will your Lord comply with you, if you ask Him? So God sent down to them a table from heaven on which was every food except meat, and they ate of it.

As for “the table” (māʾidah), it is the active participle from “māda fulānun al-qawma yamīduhum maydan“, when a man feeds a people and provisions them; and from this is the saying of Ruʾbah:

We bring the heads of the pampered rivals as gifts

to the Commander of the Faithful, the one of whom gifts are sought (al-mumtād).

By his words “al-mumtād” he means the one of whom a gift is asked. So “the māʾidah” is that which feeds; the dining-tray (khiwān) is called by that name because it feeds the eater from what is upon it. And “al-māʾid” is the one who is made to reel at sea; one says “māda yamīdu maydan“.

As for His words “He said: Fear God, if you are believers”, He means: Jesus said to the disciples who had said to him “is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven?”: Be watchful of God, O people, and fear Him, lest a punishment from God descend upon you for this saying of yours; for nothing that God wills is beyond Him, and in your doubting God’s power to send down a table from heaven there is disbelief in Him; so fear God, lest He send down His vengeance upon you. “If you are believers”, he says: if you believe me in what I threaten you with of God’s punishing you for your saying, “is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven?”

On 5:113

On the interpretation of His words: They said: We wish to eat of it, and that our hearts be at rest, and that we may know that you have told us the truth, and that we may be among the witnesses to it (5:113)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by this, Exalted be His mention: the disciples said, answering Jesus for his words to them, “Fear God, if you are believers”, concerning your saying to me “is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven?”: We said that, and asked you to ask our Lord on our behalf, only so that we might eat of the table and so know with certainty His power over all things; “and that our hearts be at rest”, He says: and that our hearts be calmed and settled upon His oneness and His power over all that He wishes and wills; “and that we may know that you have told us the truth”: and that we may know that you did not lie to us in your report that you are a messenger dispatched by God and a prophet sent forth; “and that we may be to it”, He says: and that we may be, regarding the table, “among the witnesses”, He says: among those who testify that God sent it down as a proof for Himself against us of His oneness and His power over what He wishes, and for you, of your truthfulness in your prophethood.

On 5:114

On the interpretation of His words: Jesus son of Mary said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, to be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us, and a sign from You; and provide for us, for You are the best of providers (5:114)

Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a report from God, Exalted be His mention, about His prophet Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him), that he granted the people what they asked in the matter of asking his Lord for a table to come down to them from heaven.

Then the people of interpretation differed over the interpretation of His words “to be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us”.

• Some of them said: its meaning is: we shall take the day on which it came down as a festival (ʿīd) which we and those after us shall honour.

Those who said this

(12997) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning His words to be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us: he says: we shall take the day on which it came down as a festival which we and those after us shall honour.

(12998) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words to be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us: he said: they wanted it to be for their descendants after them.

(12999) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven, to be a festival for us, for the first of us: he said: those of them who were alive on that day; and the last of us: those of them who came after them.

(13000) Al-Ḥārith related to me: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us: Sufyān said: to be a festival for us: they said: we shall pray on it. It came down twice.

• Others said: its meaning is: we shall all eat of it.

Those who said this

(13001) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Layth, from ʿUqayl, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said: The last of the people ate of it, meaning of the table, when it was set down before them, as the first of them had eaten of it.

• Others said: the meaning of His words “a festival” (ʿīdan) is: a benefit (ʿāʾidah) coming back from God, Exalted be His mention, upon us, and a proof and a demonstration.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The most correct of the views is the view of those who said: “Its meaning is: to be a festival for us, on which we worship our Lord on the day on which it comes down and pray to Him on it, as people worship on their festivals”; because what is known of the speech of people in use among them for “festival” is what we have mentioned, not the view of those who said, “its meaning is: a benefit from God upon us”. And directing the meanings of God’s speech to what is known in the speech of those who were addressed by it is preferable to directing them to what is unknown among them, so long as a way to that is found.

As for His words “for the first of us and the last of us”, the more correct of its interpretations is the view of those who said: “Its interpretation is: for those of us alive today, and for those of us who come after us”, for the reason we mentioned concerning His words “to be a festival for us”, because that is the predominant sense of its meaning.

As for His words “and a sign from You”, its meaning is: and a mark and a proof from You, O Lord, for Your servants, of Your oneness and of my truthfulness, in that I am a messenger to them with that with which You have sent me; “and provide for us, for You are the best of providers”: and give us of Your giving, for You, O Lord, are the best of those who give and the most generous of those who bestow favour, because no reproach and no stinting enters into His giving.

The people of interpretation differed concerning “the table”: whether it was sent down to them or not, and what it was.

• Some of them said: It came down, and it was fish and food, and the people ate of it; but it was raised up, after it had come down, because of things they newly committed between themselves and God, Exalted be His mention.

Those who said this

(13002) Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, who said: The table came down as bread and fish.

(13003) Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣudāʾī related to me: my father related to us, from al-Fuḍayl, from ʿAṭiyyah, who said: “The table” was a fish in which was the taste of every food.

(13004) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: ʿUbayd Allāh related to us, from Fuḍayl, from Masrūq, from ʿAṭiyyah, who said: “The table” was fish in which was something of the taste of every food.

(13005) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Ādam related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: The table came down as bread and fish.

(13006) Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me: my father related to me: my paternal uncle related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: There came down to Jesus son of Mary and the disciples a dining-tray on which were bread and fish, from which they would eat wherever they alighted, whenever they wished.

(13007) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: al-Mundhir ibn al-Nuʿmān informed us that he heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven, to be a festival for us: he said: There came down to them a loaf of barley and some fish. Al-Ḥasan said: Abū Bakr¹⁰ said: I related it to ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil, and he said: I heard Wahb, when it was said to him, “And what good would that have done them?”, say: Nothing; but God poured blessing in among their folds, so that a group would eat and then go out, and others would come and eat and then go out, until all of them had eaten and left some over.

(13008) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: ʿUbayd Allāh related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Abū Yaḥyā, from Mujāhid, who said: It is food that came down to them wherever they alighted.

(13009) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning the words of God, Exalted be His mention, a table from heaven: he said: a table on which was food; they were brought it when the punishment was set before them should they disbelieve. Kinds of food came down to them.

(13010) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Abū Maʿshar, from Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh: that the table came down to Jesus son of Mary with seven loaves and seven fish upon it, of which they would eat what they wished. He said: Then some of them stole from it and said, “Perhaps it will not come down tomorrow!”, and so it was raised up.

(13011) Al-Muthannā related to us: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Dāwūd related to us, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from a man of the Banū ʿIjl, who said: I prayed beside ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, and when he finished he said: Do you know how the matter of the table of the Children of Israel was? He said: I said: No! He said: They asked Jesus son of Mary for a table on which there would be food from which they would eat and which would not run out. He said: So it was said to them: It will remain with you so long as you do not hide away, or act treacherously, or put aside; if you do so, I shall punish you with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds! He said: Their day was not out before they had hidden away and put aside and acted treacherously, and they were punished with a punishment with which no one of the worlds had been punished. And you, O company of Arabs, used to follow the tails of camels and sheep; then God sent among you a messenger from yourselves, whose standing and lineage you know, and He informed you by the tongue of your Prophet that you will prevail over the Arabs, and He forbade you to hoard gold and silver. By God, night and day will not pass away before you hoard them both, and He punishes you with a painful punishment.

(13012) Al-Ḥasan ibn Qazaʿah al-Baṣrī related to us: Sufyān ibn Ḥabīb related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, from Khilās ibn ʿAmr, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The table came down as bread and meat, and they were commanded not to act treacherously nor to store up nor to put aside for the morrow; but they acted treacherously and stored up and put aside, and so they were transformed into apes and swine.

(13013) Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bazīʿ related to me: Yūsuf ibn Khālid related to us: Nāfiʿ ibn Mālik related to us, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the table: he said: It was food that came down to them from heaven wherever they alighted.

Those who said this

(13014) Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us: Ibn Abī ʿAdī related to us, from Saʿīd, from Qatādah, from Khilās ibn ʿAmr, from ʿAmmār, who said: The table came down with fruit of the fruits of Paradise upon it, and they were commanded not to hide away nor act treacherously nor store up. He said: But the people acted treacherously and hid away and stored up, and so God turned them into apes and swine.

(13015) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, who said: It was mentioned to us that it was a table onto which fruit of the fruits of Paradise came down, and they were commanded not to hide away nor act treacherously nor store up for the morrow, as a trial with which God tried them; and whenever they did any of that, Jesus would inform them of it. But the people acted treacherously in it, and hid away and stored up for the morrow.

• Others said: On it was every food except meat.

Those who said this

(13016) Abū Kurayb related to us: Jarīr related to us, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Maysarah, who said: When the table was set down for the Children of Israel, hands would pass to and fro upon it with every kind of food.

(13017) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Ādam related to us, from Sharīk, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Maysarah and Zādhān, who both said: Hands would pass to and fro upon it with every kind of food.

(13018) Al-Ḥārith related to me: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us: Sufyān al-Thawrī related to us, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Zādhān and Maysarah, concerning is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven?: they both said: They saw hands passing to and fro upon it with everything except meat.

• Others said: God did not send down a table to the Children of Israel.

Then those who held this view differed.

• Some of them said: This is only a parable which God, Exalted be His mention, set forth for His creation, by which He forbade them to ask God’s prophet for signs.

Those who said this

(13019) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Ādam related to us, from Sharīk, from Layth, from Mujāhid, concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven: he said: A parable that was set forth; nothing came down to them.

• Others said: When it was said to the people, “whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds”, they asked to be excused from it, and so it did not come down.

Those who said this

(13020) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, who said: Al-Ḥasan used to say: When it was said to them whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, to the end of the verse, they said: We have no need of it; and so it did not come down.

(13021) Ibn al-Muthannā related to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Manṣūr ibn Zādhān, from al-Ḥasan: that he said concerning the table: It did not come down.

(13022) Al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Qāsim ibn Sallām related to us: Ḥajjāj related to us, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, who said: A table on which was food; they refused it when the punishment was set before them should they disbelieve, and so they refused that it should come down to them.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct view in our opinion on this is to say: God, Exalted be His mention, sent down the table to those who asked Jesus to make that request of his Lord.

We have said this only because of the report which we have related on this from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions and the people of interpretation after them, apart from the one who stood alone with what we have mentioned from him.

Moreover, God, Exalted be His mention, does not break His promise, nor does any breach occur in His report; and He, Exalted be His mention, said, reporting in His Book about His answer to His prophet Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him) when he asked Him what he asked of that: “I am sending it down to you”. It is not permissible that He, Exalted be His mention, should say “I am sending it down to you” and then not send it down, because that from Him, Exalted be His mention, is a report, and from Him there comes no contravening of what He reports. Were it permissible for Him to say “I am sending it down to you” and then not send it down to them, it would be permissible for Him to say “whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds”, and then for one of them to disbelieve after that and He not punish him; and then neither His promise nor His threat would have any reality or soundness. And it is not permissible that our Lord, Exalted be His mention, be described in that way.

As for the correct view regarding what was on the table, it is to say: on it was something to be eaten. It is possible that it was fish and bread, and it is possible that it was fruit of the fruits of Paradise; knowledge of it brings no benefit and ignorance of it brings no harm, so long as the one who recites the verse affirms the apparent sense of what the revelation admits.

On 5:115

On the interpretation of His words: God said: I am sending it down to you; but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds (5:115)

Abū Jaʿfar said: This is an answer from God, Exalted be His mention, to the people concerning what they asked their prophet Jesus to ask their Lord, namely His sending down a table to them. He said, Exalted be His mention: I am sending it down to you, O disciples, and feeding you from it; “but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards”, He says: whoever of you denies, after My sending it down to you and My feeding you from it, My message to him, and rejects the prophethood of My prophet Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him), and opposes obedience to Me in what I have commanded him and forbidden him, “I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds”, that is, of the worlds of his own time. And the people did so: they denied and disbelieved after it had been sent down to them, as has been mentioned to us, and they were punished, as has reached us, by being transformed into apes and swine; as in the following:

(13023) Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words I am sending it down to you, the verse: It was mentioned to us that they were turned into swine.

(13024) Ibn Bashshār related to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAdī and Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, from ʿAwf, from Abū al-Mughīrah al-Qawwās, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The most severely punished of people are three: the hypocrites, those of the people of the table who disbelieved, and the house of Pharaoh.

(13025) Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah related to us: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, from ʿAwf, who said: I heard Abū al-Mughīrah al-Qawwās say: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr said: The most severely punished of people on the Day of Resurrection are: those of the people of the table who disbelieved, the hypocrites, and the house of Pharaoh.

(13026) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning His words but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards: after the table had come to him; I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds: He says: I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds other than the people of the table.

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

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.”

On 5:112-113

When the disciples said, “O Jesus son of Mary, can your Lord…” (5:112)

Al-Kisāʾī read “can you” (hal tastaṭīʿu) with the tāʾ, and “your Lord” (rabbaka) with fatḥa on the bāʾ; this is the reading of ʿAlī, ʿĀʾisha, Ibn ʿAbbās and Mujāhid, that is: can you pray to and ask your Lord? The others read “can He” (hal yastaṭīʿu) with the yāʾ and “your Lord” (rabbuka) with ḍamma on the bāʾ. They did not say it as doubters of the power of God, Mighty and Majestic; rather its meaning is: will your Lord send it down or not? Just as a man says to his companion “can you get up and come with me?” when he knows that he can, and only means “will you do that or not?”. And it was said: yastaṭīʿu has the sense of yuṭīʿu (to comply); one says aṭāʿa and istaṭāʿa with one meaning, as in their saying ajāba and istajāba; its meaning is: will your Lord comply with you by answering your request? And in the transmitted reports: “Whoever obeys God, God complies with him.” Some took it according to the apparent sense and said: the people erred, and said it before their knowledge was firmly established, for they were human beings; so Jesus (peace be upon him) said to them, at the error, regarding their words as a grave matter, “Fear God, if you are believers”, that is, do not doubt His power.

“to send down to us a table from heaven?” The table (māʾida) is the tray on which food is set. It is the active participle from mādahu, yamīduhu, “he gave to him and fed him”, like their saying mārahu, yamīruhu (he provisioned him); and imtāda is the iftaʿala form from it. The māʾida is that which feeds food to those who eat; the food itself is also called a māʾida by extension, because it is eaten on the table. The people of Kūfa said: it was named māʾida because it sways (tamīdu) with those who eat, that is, it inclines. The people of Baṣra said: it is an active participle in the sense of the passive, that is, those who eat are drawn towards it, as in His words, Exalted, a pleasing life (ʿīshatin rāḍiya, 69:21; 101:7), that is, a life that is pleased with (marḍiyya). He said, that is Jesus (peace be upon him), answering them: “Fear God, if you are believers”, so do not doubt His power. And it was said: fear God lest you ask of Him something that the communities before you did not ask of Him; so he forbade them from demanding signs after having believed.

On 5:114

That is: we ask only because we wish to eat of it (5:113), an eating for blessing, not an eating out of need, so that we may be certain of His power; and that our hearts may be at rest and stilled, and that we may know that you have told us the truth, that you are the Messenger of God; that is, that we may increase in faith and certainty. It was also said that Jesus son of Mary had commanded them to fast for thirty days, and that when they broke their fast they would ask nothing of God but that He would give it to them; so they did this and asked for the table, and said: “and that we may know that you have told us the truth” in what you said, that if we fasted thirty days we would ask nothing of God, Exalted, but that He would give it to us. And that we may be among the witnesses to it: witnesses for God to His oneness and His power, and for you to your prophethood and your mission. And it was said: and that we may be among those who bear witness for you before the Children of Israel when we return to them.

Jesus son of Mary said at that: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven (5:114). It was said that he performed a full ablution, put on haircloth, prayed two cycles of prayer, bowed his head, lowered his gaze and wept, and then said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be for us a festival for the first of us and the last of us; that is, a return of favour (ʿāʾidah) from God upon us, a proof and a demonstration. The festival (ʿīd) is the day of rejoicing; it is so called because of the return (ʿawd) from grief to joy, and it is a name for whatever you have grown accustomed to and which returns to you. The day of Fast-breaking and the day of Sacrifice are called festival because they return every year. Al-Suddī said: Its meaning is: we shall take the day on which it was sent down as a festival for the first of us and the last of us; that is, we shall honour it, we and those who come after us. Sufyān said: We shall pray on it. His words for the first of us, that is, for the people of our own time, and the last of us, that is, for those who come after us. Ibn ʿAbbās said: The last of the people shall eat of it as the first of them ate. And a sign from You: an indication and a proof; and provide for us, and You are the best of providers.

God said, Exalted, answering Jesus (peace be upon him): I am sending it down to you (5:115), meaning the table. The people of Medina, Ibn ʿĀmir and ʿĀṣim read munazziluhā with doubling, because it came down several times, and the tafʿīl form indicates repetition, time after time; the others read it without doubling, in keeping with His words: send down to us. But whoever of you disbelieves after that, that is, after the sending down of the table, I shall punish him with a punishment, that is, a kind of punishment, with which I do not punish anyone among the worlds, meaning the people of his own age. The people then denied and disbelieved after the sending down of the table, and they were transformed into apes and swine. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar said: The people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection are the hypocrites, those who disbelieved among the people of the table, and the house of Pharaoh.

The scholars differed as to whether the table came down or not. Mujāhid and al-Ḥasan said: It did not come down, because when God, Mighty and Majestic, threatened them for disbelieving after the sending down of the table, they feared that some of them would disbelieve and so asked to be excused, saying: We do not want it; and so it did not come down. His words I am sending it down to you mean: if you ask.

The correct view, which is that of the majority, is that it did come down, because of His words, Exalted: I am sending it down to you, and there is no breach in His report, and because the reports about it from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), the Companions and the Followers are transmitted in unbroken abundance.

They differed as to its description. Khilās ibn ʿAmr related from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), that it came down as bread and meat, and they were told: It will remain with you so long as you do not act treacherously or hoard; but their day had not passed before they acted treacherously and hoarded, and they were transformed into apes and swine.

Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: Jesus (peace be upon him) said to them: Fast thirty days, then ask of God what you will and He will give it to you. So they fasted, and when they had finished they said: O Jesus, had we worked for anyone and completed his work, he would have fed us. And they asked God for the table. Then the angels came forward bearing a table on which were seven loaves and seven fish, until they set it down before them, and the last of the people ate of it as the first of them had eaten.

Kaʿb al-Aḥbār said: A table came down upside down, borne in flight by the angels between heaven and earth, and on it was every kind of food except meat.

Saʿīd ibn Jubayr related from Ibn ʿAbbās: There was sent down upon the table everything except bread and meat. Qatādah said: On it was fruit from the fruits of Paradise.

ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī said: There came down from heaven a fish in which was the taste of everything.

Al-Kalbī said: On it were bread, rice and green herbs.

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: God sent down loaves of barley and fish, and a group would eat and then go out, and others would come and eat, until all of them had eaten and there was some left over.

From al-Kalbī and Muqātil: God sent down bread and fish and five loaves, and they ate as much as God, Exalted, willed, the people being a thousand and some more. When they returned to their villages and spread the account, those who had not witnessed it laughed at them and said: Woe to you, he merely bewitched your eyes. Then whomever God wished well He kept firm in his insight, and whomever He wished to try returned to his unbelief; and they were transformed into swine, with no child or woman among them. They remained so for three days and then perished; they did not breed, nor eat, nor drink, and so it is with everyone who is transformed.

Qatādah said: It used to come down to them morning and evening wherever they were, like the manna and the quails for the Children of Israel. ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ related from Salmān al-Fārisī: When the disciples asked for the table, Jesus (peace be upon him) put on wool and wept, and said: “O God, send down to us a table from heaven,” to the end of the verse. Then a red cloth came down between two clouds, a cloud above it and a cloud beneath it, while they looked at it as it swooped down, until it fell before them. Jesus wept and said: O God, make me one of the thankful; O God, make it a mercy and do not make it a punishment. The Jews looked upon a thing the like of which they had never seen, nor had they ever found a scent sweeter than its scent. Then Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Let the best of you in works rise, uncover it, and mention the name of God, Exalted. Simon the smith¹¹, the head of the disciples, said: You are more entitled to that than we are. So Jesus (peace be upon him) rose, performed the ablution, prayed a long prayer and wept much; then he uncovered the napkin from it and said: In the name of God, the best of providers. And there was a roasted fish without scales and without bones, dripping with fat, with salt at its head and vinegar at its tail, and around it all kinds of green herbs except leeks; and there were five loaves, on one of them olives, on the second honey, on the third clarified butter, on the fourth cheese, and on the fifth dried meat. Simon said: O Spirit of God, is this of the food of this world or of the food of the Hereafter? He said: Nothing of what you see is of the food of this world or of the food of the Hereafter; rather it is something that God, Exalted, has brought about by His overmastering power. Eat of what you asked for, and He will sustain you and increase you from His bounty. They said: O Spirit of God, be the first to eat of it. Jesus (peace be upon him) said: God forbid that I should eat of it; rather, let those who asked for it eat of it. But they were afraid to eat of it. So he summoned to it the needy, the sick, those afflicted with leprosy and elephantiasis, the crippled and the afflicted, and said: Eat of the provision of God; for you is the wholesome enjoyment, and for others the trial. So they ate, and a thousand and three hundred men and women, poor, sick, chronically ill and afflicted, rose from it, every one of them satisfied; and there was the fish in the very form it had when it came down. Then the cloth of the table flew upward while they looked at it, until it disappeared. No chronically ill person, no sick person and no afflicted person ate of it but was healed, and no poor person but was made rich; and those who had not eaten of it were filled with regret. It remained for forty mornings, coming down in the forenoon, and when it came down the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the men and the women would gather, and it would remain set out, eaten

On 5:115

from, until, when the shade turned, it flew away while they watched in its shadow until it disappeared from them. It came down on alternate days, coming down one day and not coming down the next, like the she-camel of Thamūd. Then God, Exalted, revealed to Jesus (peace be upon him): Make My table and My provision for the poor to the exclusion of the rich. This weighed heavily on the rich, until they doubted and made the people doubt concerning it, and said: Do you really think the table comes down from heaven? Then God, Exalted, revealed to Jesus (peace be upon him): I made it a condition that whoever disbelieved after it came down, I would punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one among the worlds. Jesus (peace be upon him) said: If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are the Mighty, the Wise (5:118). Then three hundred and thirty men of them were transformed: they spent that night in their beds with their wives and in the morning were swine, running about in the roads and the rubbish heaps and eating excrement in the privies. When the people saw this they fled in alarm to Jesus (peace be upon him) and wept, and when the swine caught sight of Jesus (peace be upon him) they wept and began to circle around Jesus (peace be upon him), and Jesus began to call them by their names, and they would nod their heads and weep, unable to speak. They lived three days and then perished.

And when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? He said: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to say. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is in my self, and I do not know what is in Your self; You are the Knower of the unseen things. (116) I said to them nothing but what You commanded me: Worship God, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them so long as I remained among them; and when You took me up, You were the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things. (117) If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are the Mighty, the Wise. (118)

His words, Mighty and Majestic: And when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? (5:116). They differed as to when this saying takes place. Al-Suddī said: God, Exalted, said this to Jesus (peace be upon him) when He raised him to heaven, because the particle idh (“when”) is used of the past. The rest of the commentators said: God will say this to him only on the Day of Resurrection, as shown by His words before it, on the day when God gathers the messengers (5:109), and His words after it, This is the day when the truthful shall profit by their truthfulness (5:119), by both of which He meant the Day of Resurrection. Idh may come with the meaning of idhā (“when” of the future), as in His words, Mighty and Majestic, If only you could see when they are terrified (34:51), that is, when they shall be terrified on the Day of Resurrection; and the Resurrection, though it has not yet come, is as though it had already come to pass, because it is coming without any doubt.

His words: Did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? If it is asked: What is the point of this question, given God’s knowledge, Mighty and Majestic, that Jesus did not say it?

It is answered: This question is put to him in order to rebuke his people and to magnify the gravity of this statement, just as one man says to another: Did you do such

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On 5:111

His words, Exalted: And when I inspired the disciples: Believe in Me and in My messenger (5:111). The discussion of the meanings of this verse has already been given. Inspiration (waḥy) in the speech of the Arabs means prompting (ilhām), and it is of several kinds: inspiration in the sense of the sending of Gabriel to the messengers (peace be upon them); inspiration in the sense of prompting, as in this verse, that is, I prompted them and cast it into their hearts, and of this kind are His words, Exalted: And your Lord inspired the bee (16:68) and And We inspired the mother of Moses (28:7); and inspiration in the sense of making known, in waking and in dream. Abū ʿUbaydah said: awḥaytu is in the sense of “I commanded”, and ilā is a connective particle. One says waḥā and awḥā with one meaning; God, Exalted, said: because your Lord inspired it (awḥā lahā) (99:5), and al-ʿAjjāj said:

He inspired it (waḥā lahā) to settle, and it settled,

that is, He commanded it (the earth) to be still, and it was still. And it has been said: I inspired here is in the sense of “I commanded them”. And it has been said: “I made plain to them”.

and bear witness that we are Muslims (bi-annanā), in accordance with the original form; and among the Arabs are those who drop one of the two nūns. That is: bear witness, O Lord. And it has been said: O Jesus, that we have submitted to God.

On 5:112

His words, Exalted: When the disciples said: O Jesus son of Mary (5:112), with the syntactic analysis already given. Can your Lord (hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka): the reading of al-Kisāʾī, ʿAlī, Ibn ʿAbbās, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Mujāhid is hal tastaṭīʿu, with the tāʾ, and rabbaka in the accusative; al-Kisāʾī assimilated the lām of hal into the tāʾ. The rest read with the yāʾ and rabbuka in the nominative, and this reading is more problematic than the first. Al-Suddī said: the meaning is, will your Lord comply with you (yuṭīʿuka) if you ask Him to send down; so yastaṭīʿu is in the sense of yuṭīʿu, just as they said istajāba in the sense of ajāba (he answered), and likewise istaṭāʿa in the sense of aṭāʿa. And it has been said: the meaning is, is your Lord able? This question was at the beginning of their affair, before their knowledge of God, Mighty and Majestic, had become firm; and for this reason Jesus said in reply, at their error and their deeming permissible of God what is not permissible: Fear God, if you are believers, that is, do not doubt the power of God, Exalted. I say: there is room for doubt about this, because the disciples were the sincere intimates of the prophets, their confidants and their helpers, as He said: Who are my helpers towards God? The disciples said: We are the helpers of God (61:14). And he (peace be upon him) said: “Every prophet has a disciple (ḥawārī), and my disciple is al-Zubayr.” It is known that the prophets (God’s blessings and peace be upon them) came with the knowledge of God, Exalted, of what is necessarily His, what is possible and what is impossible for Him, and with the duty to convey that to their nations; so how could that be hidden from those who were their intimates and were singled out by them, such that they would be ignorant of the power of God, Exalted? Unless it be said that this came from those who were with them, just as some of the ignorant Bedouin said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Make for us a Dhāt Anwāṭ as they have a Dhāt Anwāṭ¹², and as those of the people of Moses who said it said: Make for us a god as they have gods (7:138), in accordance with the explanation that will come in al-Aʿrāf, if God, Exalted, wills. And it has been said that the people did not doubt the ability of the Maker, Glorified is He, because they were believers, knowers, possessed of knowledge; it is only like your saying to a man, “Can so-and-so come?” when you already know that he can, the meaning being: will he do that, and will he respond to me in that or not? They knew of God’s ability, Exalted, to do that and other things with a knowledge of evidence, report and reflection, and they wanted the knowledge of direct witnessing of it as well, just as Abraham (peace and blessings be upon him) said: My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead (2:260), as has gone before; Abraham already had knowledge of that by report and reflection, but he wanted the direct witnessing into which no uncertainty or doubt can enter, because knowledge by reflection and report may be subject to doubt and objections, whereas knowledge by direct witnessing is subject to none of that. For this reason the disciples said and that our hearts be at rest (5:113), just as Abraham said but so that my heart may be at rest (2:260). I say: this is a fine interpretation, and finer than it is that this was the saying of those who were with the disciples, as will be explained. Ibn al-ʿArabī included “the Able” (al-Mustaṭīʿ) among the names of God, Exalted, saying: Neither the Book nor the Sunnah has transmitted it as a name, but it has been transmitted as a verb; and he cited the saying of the disciples Can your Lord. Ibn al-Ḥaṣṣār refuted him on this in his book Sharḥ al-Sunnah, as did others. Ibn al-Ḥaṣṣār said: His words, Glorified is He, reporting of the disciples’ saying to Jesus Can your Lord, is not a doubt about His ability; it is only gentleness in asking and courtesy towards God, Exalted, since not every possible thing is one whose occurrence has been foreordained in His knowledge, nor is it so for everyone. The disciples were the elect of those who believed in Jesus; how then could ignorance of God’s power, Exalted, over every possible thing be imputed to them? As for the reading with the tāʾ, it has been said that the meaning is: can you ask your Lord? This is the view of ʿĀʾishah and Mujāhid (may God be pleased with them both). ʿĀʾishah (may God be pleased with her) said: The people knew God, Mighty and Majestic, too well to say “Can your Lord?”; she said: but rather “Can you (ask) your Lord?” It is also related of her that she said: The disciples did not doubt that God is able to send down a table, but they said “Can you (ask) your Lord?” And from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us to recite hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka. Muʿādh said: And I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) many times recite with the tāʾ, hal tasṭīʿu rabbaka. Al-Zajjāj said: the meaning is, can you call forth the compliance of your Lord in what you ask of Him? And it has been said: can you call upon your Lord, or ask Him? The meanings are close, and there must be an elided element, as He said: And ask the town (12:82); on the reading with the yāʾ no elision is needed.

He said: Fear God, that is, be wary of disobeying Him and of asking too much, for you do not know what may befall you upon demanding signs, since God, Mighty and Majestic, does only what is most beneficial for His servants.

if you are believers, that is, if you are believers in Him and in what I have brought, then there have already come to you signs enough to suffice.

On 5:113

His words, Exalted: They said: We wish to eat of it (5:113), in the subjunctive by an; and that our hearts be at rest, and that we may know that you have spoken the truth to us, and that we may be among the witnesses to it is all conjoined to it. By this they explained the reason for their request when they were forbidden it. Concerning their saying eat of it there are two views. The first: that they wished to eat of it because of a need that called for it. This was because whenever Jesus (peace be upon him) went out, five thousand or more would follow him; some of them were his companions, some of them were seeking that he supplicate for them because of a sickness or ailment they had, being chronically ill or blind, and some of them were watching and mocking. One day he went out to a place and they found themselves in a desert with no provisions, and they grew hungry and said to the disciples: Tell Jesus to pray that a table be sent down upon us from heaven. So Simon (Shamʿūn), the chief of the disciples, came to him and informed him that the people were asking that you pray for a table to be sent down upon them from heaven. Jesus said to Simon: Say to them: Fear God, if you are believers. Simon informed the people of this, and they said to him: Say to him: We wish to eat of it, to the end of the verse. The second: eat of it so that we might obtain its blessing, not because of a need that called them to it. Al-Māwardī said: this is the more likely, because had they been in need they would not have been forbidden to ask. Their saying and that our hearts be at rest admits of three views. The first: that they be at rest in the knowledge that God, Exalted, has sent you to us as a prophet. The second: that they be at rest in the knowledge that God, Exalted, has chosen us for our call. The third: that they be at rest in the knowledge that God, Exalted, has granted us what we asked. Al-Māwardī mentioned these. Al-Mahdawī said: that is, that they be at rest in the knowledge that God has accepted our fasting and our works. Al-Thaʿlabī said: that we may be certain of His power and so our hearts become calm. and that we may know that you have spoken the truth to us, that you are the Messenger of God, and that we may be among the witnesses to it, for God, to His oneness, and for you, to your messengership and prophethood. And it has been said: and that we may be among the witnesses to it for you before those who did not see it, when we return to them.

On 5:114

His words, Exalted: Jesus son of Mary said: O God, our Lord (5:114). The original form, according to Sībawayh, is yā Allāh (“O God”), and the two mīms of Allāhumma stand in place of yā. our Lord is a second vocative; Sībawayh allows nothing else, and it cannot be an adjective qualifying the first, because the first has come to resemble the interjections on account of what has been attached to it.

send down to us a table: the table (māʾidah) is the tray-table (khiwān) on which food is set. Quṭrub said: a māʾidah is not a māʾidah until there is food upon it; if there is none, it is called a khiwān. It is an active participle from māda ʿabdahu, “he fed his servant and gave to him”, so the table “gives” (tamīdu) what is upon it, that is, it bestows. From this is the verse of Ruʾbah which al-Akhfash recited:

The heads of the pampered rivals bring their gifts

to the Commander of the Faithful, the one from whom bounty is sought (al-mumtād),

that is, the one who is asked and from whom gifts are sought. So the table is that which feeds and gives food to those who eat. The food itself is also called a māʾidah by extension, because it is eaten on the table, just as they call rain “sky” (samāʾ). The people of Kufa said: it was called māʾidah because of its moving with what is upon it, from their saying māda al-shayʾ when a thing sways and moves. The poet said:

Perhaps you will weep when a dove sings,

swayed by a leaning bough of the thicket.

And another said:

And the killing of al-Kinānī after him unsettled me,

so that the open earth all but swayed beneath me.

From this is His word, Exalted: and He cast upon the earth firm mountains lest it sway with you (16:15). Abū ʿUbaydah said: māʾidah is an active participle with the sense of a passive one, like a pleasing life (69:21), meaning “a life that is pleased with”, and gushing water (86:6), meaning “water that is gushed forth”.

His words, Exalted: that it may be for us a festival: may be (takūnu) is an adjective qualifying “table”, not the apodosis of the request. Al-Aʿmash read takun, in the jussive, as the apodosis. The meaning is: the day of its descent will be a festival for the first of us, that is, for the first of our community and its last. It was said that the Table came down to them on a Sunday, in the morning and in the evening, and for that reason they made Sunday a festival. ʿĪd (festival) is the singular of aʿyād; it is pluralised with a yāʾ, although its root letter is wāw, because the yāʾ is fixed in the singular; and it is said that this is to distinguish it from aʿwād, pieces of wood. One says ʿayyadū, meaning they attended the festival; so al-Jawharī said. It was said that its root is from ʿāda yaʿūdu, “to return”, so that it is ʿiwd with a wāw, which was changed to a yāʾ because of the kasrah before it, as in mīzān, mīqāt and mīʿād; thus the day of the Fast-breaking and the day of the Sacrifice were called ʿīd because they return every year. Al-Khalīl said: the ʿīd is any day on which people gather, as though they had returned to it. Ibn al-Anbārī said: it was named ʿīd because of the return to merriment and joy; it is the day of gladness for all creatures. Do you not see that on that day prisoners are not pressed for payment nor punished, neither wild beasts nor birds are hunted, and the boys are not sent off to the schools? It was said that it was named ʿīd because every person returns to the measure of his station: do you not see the difference in their clothing, their appearance and their food, so that some of them host and others are hosted, some show mercy and others are shown mercy? And it was said that it was so named because it is a noble day, by comparison with al-ʿĪd, a noble stallion famous among the Arabs, to which they trace lineage, so that one says “ʿĪdiyyah camels”. The poet said:

ʿĪdiyyah camels, for which the dinars were pledged,

and this has already been discussed. Zayd ibn Thābit read li-ūlānā wa-ukhrānā (“for our first ones and our last ones”), in the plural. Ibn ʿAbbās said: the last of the people will eat from it just as the first of them eat from it. and a sign from You means an evidence and a proof.

and provide for us, that is, give to us.

and You are the best of providers, that is, the best of those who give and provide, for You are the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy.

On 5:115

His words, Exalted: God said: I shall send it down to you (5:115). This is a promise from God, Exalted, with which He answered the request of Jesus, just as Jesus’s request had been an answer to the disciples; and this entails that He did send it down, for His promise is true. The people then denied and disbelieved after it had come down, and they were transformed into apes and swine. Ibn ʿUmar said: the people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection will be the hypocrites, those of the people of the Table who disbelieved, and the house of Pharaoh; God, Exalted, said: but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one else among all beings.

The scholars differed about the Table, whether it came down or not. The position of the majority, and it is the truth, is that it came down, because of His words, Exalted, I shall send it down to you. Mujāhid said: it did not come down; it is only a parable which God, Exalted, struck for His creatures, forbidding them thereby to ask signs of His prophets. It was said: He promised them an answer, but when He said to them but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, to the end of the verse, they begged to be excused from it, asked God’s forgiveness and said: “We do not want this”; so said al-Ḥasan. This view and the one before it are erroneous; the correct position is that it came down.

Ibn ʿAbbās said: Jesus son of Mary said to the Children of Israel: “Fast thirty days, then ask God for whatever you wish and He will give it to you.” So they fasted thirty days and said: “O Jesus, had we worked for anyone and completed our work, he would have fed us; we have fasted and gone hungry, so pray to God to send down to us a table from heaven.” Then the angels came bearing a table on which were seven loaves and seven fish, and they set it before them, and the last of the people ate from it as the first of them had eaten.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Tirmidhī al-Ḥakīm mentioned in his Nawādir al-uṣūl: ʿUmar ibn Abī ʿUmar related to us: ʿAmmār ibn Hārūn al-Thaqafī related to us, from Zakariyyāʾ ibn Ḥakīm al-Ḥanẓalī, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, from Salmān al-Fārisī, who said: When the disciples asked Jesus son of Mary (God’s blessings and peace be upon him) for the Table, he rose, put off his woollen garments and put on garments of haircloth, that is, a shirt of black haircloth and a black wrap; then he stood, pressed foot to foot, heel to heel and big toe to big toe, placed his right hand upon his left, then bowed his head in humility before God, then let his eyes flow with weeping until the tears ran down upon his beard and began to drip upon his chest. Then he said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be for us a festival for the first of us and the last of us, and a sign from You; and provide for us, and You are the best of providers. God said: I shall send it down to you, to the end of the verse. Then there came down a round red cloth (sufrah) between two clouds, one cloud above it and one cloud beneath it, while the people looked on at it. Jesus said: “O God, make it a mercy and do not make it a trial; my God, I ask You for wonders, and You give.” It alighted before Jesus (peace be upon him), with a napkin covering it, and Jesus fell down prostrate, and the disciples with him, perceiving from it a fragrant scent the like of which they had never perceived before. Jesus said: “Whichever of you is the most devoted in worship of God, the boldest towards God and the most trusting in God, let him uncover this cloth so that we may eat from it, mention the name of God over it and praise God for it.” The disciples said: “O Spirit of God, you have the best right to that.” So Jesus (God’s blessings be upon him) rose, performed a thorough ablution, prayed a fresh prayer and made many supplications, then sat down at the cloth and uncovered it, and behold, upon it was a grilled fish without bones in it, running with fat as fat runs, with every kind of herb arranged around it except the leek, salt and vinegar at its head, and at its tail five loaves: on one of them five pomegranates, on another dates, and on another olives. Al-Thaʿlabī said: on one of them olives, on the second honey, on the third eggs, on the fourth cheese, and on the fifth dried meat.

Word of this reached the Jews, and they came in grief and heartache to look at it, and they saw a marvel. Simon (Shamʿūn), who was the head of the disciples, said: “O Spirit of God, is it of the food of this world or of the food of Paradise?” Jesus (God’s blessings be upon him) said: “Have you not yet parted from these questionings? How I fear for you that you will be punished!” Simon said: “By the God of the Children of Israel, I intended no evil by that.” They said: “O Spirit of God, if only there were another sign along with this sign!” Jesus (peace be upon him) said: “O fish, come to life by God’s leave!” And the fish quivered, fresh, its eyes glistening, and the disciples were terrified. Jesus said: “What is it with you? I see you ask for a thing, and then when you are given it you dislike it. How I fear for you that you will be punished!” And he said: “It has come down from heaven, and what is on it is neither food of this world nor of the food of Paradise; rather it is something God originated by His consummate power: He said to it ‘Be’, and it was.” Then Jesus said: “O fish, return as you were,” and it returned grilled as it had been. The disciples said: “O Spirit of God, be the first to eat from it.” Jesus said: “God forbid! Only those who requested it and asked for it shall eat from it.” But the disciples refused to eat from it, fearing that it might be an exemplary punishment and a trial. When Jesus saw that, he summoned to it the poor, the needy, the sick, the chronically ill, the lepers, the crippled, the blind and those suffering from dropsy, and said: “Eat of the provision of your Lord and the prayer of your prophet, and praise God for it.” And he said: “May the enjoyment be yours and the punishment upon others.” So they ate until seven thousand three hundred of them went away belching; and every sick person who ate from it was healed, and every poor person who ate from it was made rich until death.

When the people saw that, they crowded upon it, and there remained no young or old, no elder or youth, no rich or poor, but they came to eat from it, and they pressed one another. When Jesus saw that, he made it come in turns among them: it would come down one day and not come down the next, like the she-camel of Thamūd, which grazed one day and drank the next. So it came down for forty days, descending in the forenoon and remaining until the shade returned to its place. Al-Thaʿlabī said: it would remain set out and eaten from until, when the shade returned, it flew upwards; the people would eat from it, then it would go back to heaven while the people watched its shadow until it disappeared from them. When forty days were complete, God, Exalted, revealed to Jesus (peace be upon him): “O Jesus, make this Table of Mine for the poor, to the exclusion of the rich.” The rich disputed about that, showed enmity to the poor, doubted and made the people doubt. So God said: “O Jesus, I hold to My condition.” Thirty-three of them awoke as swine eating excrement, seeking it in the rubbish heaps (akbāʾ), and akbāʾ are refuse heaps, the singular being kibā; this after they had been eating fine food and sleeping on soft beds. When the people saw that, they gathered around Jesus weeping, and the swine came and knelt on their knees before Jesus and began to weep, their tears dripping. Jesus recognised them and began to say: “Are you not so-and-so?” and each would nod his head, unable to speak. They remained thus for seven days, and some say four days; then Jesus prayed God to take their souls, and in the morning no one knew where they had gone: had the earth swallowed them, or what had become of them? I say: there is criticism of this ḥadīth, and it is not sound on account of its chain of transmission.

From Ibn ʿAbbās and Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī: the food of the Table was bread and fish. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: they found in the fish the taste of every food; and al-Thaʿlabī mentioned it. ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir and Qatādah said: it was a table that came down from heaven with fruits of the fruits of Paradise upon it. Wahb ibn Munabbih said: God, Exalted, sent it down as barley cakes and fish. Al-Tirmidhī reported in the chapters on exegesis from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The Table was sent down from heaven as bread and meat, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful and not to store up for the morrow; but they were unfaithful and stored up and put aside for the morrow, and so they were transformed into apes and swine.” Abū ʿĪsā said: this ḥadīth has been related by Abū ʿĀṣim and more than one other from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from Khilās, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, as a halted report (mawqūf), and we know it as a raised report (marfūʿ) only from the ḥadīth of al-Ḥasan ibn Qazaʿah. Ḥumayd ibn Masʿadah related to us: Sufyān ibn Ḥabīb related to us, from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, the like of it, and he did not raise it; this is more sound than the ḥadīth of al-Ḥasan ibn Qazaʿah, and we know of no basis for the raised ḥadīth.

Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: everything was sent down upon the Table except bread and meat. ʿAṭāʾ said: everything came down upon it except fish and meat. Kaʿb said: the Table came down from heaven inverted, the angels flying with it between heaven and earth, with every food upon it except meat. I say: these three views contradict the ḥadīth of al-Tirmidhī, which is preferable to them, because even if it is not sound as a raised report, it is sound as a halted report from a senior Companion; and God knows best. What is certain is that it came down and that there was food upon it that was eaten; and God knows best what precisely it was.

Abū Nuʿaym mentioned from Kaʿb that it came down a second time for certain devout worshippers of the Children of Israel. Kaʿb said: three men from among the devout worshippers of the Children of Israel met together, gathering in a desert land, each man of them possessing one of the names of God, Exalted. One of them said: “Ask of me, and I shall pray to God for you for whatever you wish.” They said: “We ask you to pray to God to bring forth for us in this place a gushing spring, green meadows and fine carpets (ʿabqarī).” He said: so he prayed to God, and behold, a gushing spring, green meadows and fine carpets. Then another of them said: “Ask of me, and I shall pray to God for you for whatever you wish.” They said: “We ask you to pray to God to feed us something of the fruits of Paradise.” So he prayed to God, and there came down to them a ripening date (busrah), and they ate from it; it was not turned over without their eating from it a different kind; then it was taken up. Then another of them said: “Ask of me, and I shall pray to God for you for whatever you wish.” They said: “We ask you to pray to God to send down to us the Table which He sent down to Jesus.” He said: so he prayed, and it came down, and they satisfied their need from it; then it was taken up. And he mentioned the rest of the report.

A question

In the ḥadīth of Salmān mentioned above there is a description of the Table: that it was a cloth (sufrah), not a table with legs. The cloth was the table of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the tables of the Arabs. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Tirmidhī al-Ḥakīm reported: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us: Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us: my father related to me, from Yūnus, from Qatādah, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) never ate at a tray-table (khiwān), nor from a small dish (sukurrujah), nor was thin bread ever baked for him. He said: I said to Anas: “On what, then, did they eat?” He said: “On the cloths (sufar).” Muḥammad ibn Bashshār said: this Yūnus is Abū al-Furāt al-Iskāf. I say: this is a sound, well-established ḥadīth, on whose transmitters al-Bukhārī and Muslim agree; al-Tirmidhī reported it, saying: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us: Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us, and he mentioned it, saying of it: good and rare (ḥasan gharīb).

Al-Tirmidhī Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: the tray-table is an innovated thing which the non-Arabs made, and the Arabs were not ones to make use of it; they used to eat on cloths (sufar), the singular being sufrah, which is what is made from skins and has loops that draw together and open out. It was named sufrah from its opening out, because when its loops are loosened it opens out and discloses (asfarat) what is in it; hence it was called sufrah. A journey (safar) is called safar only because the man thereby comes out (isfār) from the houses. As for his words “nor from a small dish (sukurrujah)”, it is because these are vessels for condiments, and condiments are for a variety of dishes, and a variety of dishes was not among their characteristics; their food was rather tharīd, bread sopped in broth, with pieces of meat on it. And he used to say: “Tear the meat with your teeth, for it is more appetising and more wholesome.”

If it is said: mention of the table (māʾidah) does occur in the ḥadīths, among them the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “Had the lizard (ḍabb) been forbidden, it would not have been eaten at the table of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)”, reported by Muslim and others; and from ʿĀʾishah (may God be pleased with her), who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The angels invoke blessings upon a man so long as his table remains laid out”, reported by the trustworthy authorities. The reply is that it has been said that the māʾidah is anything that is stretched out and spread, such as the napkin and the cloth. Properly, the dāl of its root ought to be doubled, but they made one of the two dāls a yāʾ, and so it was said māʾidah. The action falls upon it, so it ought properly to have been “stretched out” (mamdūdah), in the passive, but it was given in the language the form of the active participle, just as they said “a concealing secret” (sirr kātim) when it is in fact concealed (maktūm), and “a pleasing life” (ʿīshah rāḍiyah) when it is in fact pleased with (marḍiyyah); and likewise in the language what is active was given the form of the passive, as they said “an ill-omened man” (rajul mashʾūm) when he is in fact one who brings ill omen (shāʾim), and “a veiled screen” (ḥijāb mastūr) when it is in fact one that veils (sātir). He said: so the khiwān is what is raised from the ground on its legs; the māʾidah is what is stretched out and spread; and the sufrah is what discloses what is inside it, because it is drawn together by its loops. From al-Ḥasan, who said: eating at a tray-table is the practice of kings, on a napkin the practice of the non-Arabs, and on a cloth the practice of the Arabs, and it is the Sunnah. And God knows best.

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

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-Sufficient¹³. 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.

On 5:112-115

This is the story of the Table, and after it the sūrah is named, so that it is called “Sūrat al-Māʾidah” (the Sūrah of the Table). It is among the favours God bestowed upon His servant and messenger Jesus (peace be upon him), when He answered his supplication by sending it down; so God sent it down as a sign, a dazzling miraculous proof and a decisive argument.

Some of the leading scholars have mentioned that the story of the Table is not mentioned in the Gospel, and that the Christians know of it only from the Muslims; and God knows best.

So His words, Exalted: When the disciples said, and they are the followers of Jesus (peace be upon him): O Jesus son of Mary, can your Lord (5:112). This is the reading of many, while others read hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, “can you ask your Lord”¹⁴, that is: are you able to ask your Lord to send down to us a table from heaven?

The table (māʾidah) is a tray on which there is food. Some of them mentioned that they asked for that only because of their need and poverty, so they asked that a table be sent down to them every day from which they might feed themselves and strengthen themselves for worship.

He said: Fear God, if you are believers, that is: the Messiah (peace be upon him) answered them, saying to them: Fear God, and do not ask for this, for it may be a trial for you; and rely upon God in seeking provision, if you are believers.

They said: We wish to eat from it (5:113), that is: we are in need of eating from it, and that our hearts be at rest when we witness it coming down as provision for us from heaven, and that we may know that you have told us the truth, that is: and that we may increase in faith in you and in knowledge of your messengership, and that we may be among the witnesses to it, that is: and that we may bear witness that it is a sign from God and a proof and argument for your prophethood and the truth of what you have brought.

Jesus son of Mary said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us (5:114). Al-Suddī said: that is, that we may take the day on which it came down as a festival which we and those after us hold in honour. Sufyān al-Thawrī said: meaning a day on which we pray. Qatādah said: they wanted it to be for their posterity after them. And from Salmān al-Fārisī: an admonition for us and for those after us. And it was said: sufficient for the first of us and the last of us.

and a sign from You, that is: a proof which You set up of Your power over all things and of Your answering my supplication, so that they believe me in what I convey from You; and provide for us, that is: from Yourself, a pleasant provision without toil or weariness; and You are the best of providers. God said: I shall send it down to you; but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards (5:115), that is: whoever of your community, O Jesus, denies it and stubbornly rejects it, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I shall not punish anyone among the worlds, that is: among the people of your time, like His words: and on the Day the Hour comes: admit the people of Pharaoh to the severest punishment (40:46), and like His words: Truly the hypocrites will be in the lowest depth of the Fire (4:145).

Ibn Jarīr related, by way of ʿAwf al-Aʿrābī, from Abū al-Mughīrah al-Qawwās, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection will be three: the hypocrites, those of the people of the Table who disbelieved, and the people of Pharaoh.

Mention of the reports related from the early authorities on the descent of the Table upon the disciples

Abū Jaʿfar ibn Jarīr said: al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Layth, from ʿUqayl, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he used to relate of Jesus son of Mary that he said to the Children of Israel: Are you willing to fast for God thirty days, then ask Him and He will give you what you ask? For the wage of the worker is owed by the one for whom he works. So they did so, then said: O teacher of goodness, you told us that the wage of the worker is owed by the one for whom he works, and you commanded us to fast thirty days, and we did so; and we never worked thirty days for anyone without his feeding us food when we finished. So can your Lord send down to us a table from heaven? Jesus said: Fear God, if you are believers. They said: We wish to eat from it, and that our hearts be at rest, and that we may know that you have told us the truth, and that we may be among the witnesses to it. Jesus son of Mary said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us, and a sign from You; and provide for us, and You are the best of providers. God said: I shall send it down to you; but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I shall not punish anyone among the worlds (5:112-115). He said: Then the angels came flying with a table from heaven, on which were seven fish and seven loaves, until they set it down before them, and the last of the people ate from it as the first of them had eaten.

So Ibn Jarīr related it. Ibn Abī Ḥātim related it from Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, from Ibn Wahb, from al-Layth, from ʿUqayl, from Ibn Shihāb, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās used to relate, and he mentioned the like of it.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim also said: Saʿd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to us: Abū Zurʿah Wahb Allāh ibn Rāshid related to us: ʿUqayl ibn Khālid related to us that Ibn Shihāb informed him, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that they said to Jesus son of Mary: Pray to God to send down to us a table from heaven. He said: So the angels came down carrying a table, on which were seven fish and seven loaves, and the last of the people ate from it as the first of them had eaten.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: my father related to us: al-Ḥasan ibn Qazaʿah al-Bāhilī related to us: Sufyān ibn Ḥabīb related to us: Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah related to us, from Qatādah, from Khilās, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “The Table came down from heaven with bread and meat on it, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful and not to put any aside for the morrow; but they were unfaithful, stored it up and put it aside, and so they were transformed into apes and swine.”

Ibn Jarīr related it likewise from al-Ḥasan ibn Qazaʿah. Then Ibn Jarīr related it from Ibn Bashshār, from Ibn Abī ʿAdī, from Saʿīd, from Qatādah, from Khilās, from ʿAmmār, who said: The Table came down with fruit of the fruits of Paradise on it, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful, not to hide any and not to store any up. He said: But the people were unfaithful, hid some and stored some up, and so God transformed them into apes and swine.

Ibn Jarīr said: Ibn al-Muthannā related to us: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Dāwūd related to us, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from a man of the Banū ʿIjl, who said: I prayed beside ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, and when he finished he said: Do you know how the affair of the Table of the Children of Israel was? He said: I said: No. He said: They asked Jesus son of Mary for a table on which there would be food from which they could eat and which would not run out. He said: So it was said to them: It will remain with you so long as you do not hide any, or act unfaithfully, or put any aside; but if you do, I shall punish you with a punishment with which I shall not punish anyone among the worlds. He said: And their day had not passed before they hid some, put some aside and acted unfaithfully, and so they were punished with a punishment with which no one among the worlds has been punished. And you, O company of Arabs, used to follow the tails of camels and sheep; then God sent among you a messenger from among yourselves, whose lineage and descent you know, and he informed you that you will prevail over the non-Arabs, and he forbade you to hoard gold and silver. By God, night and day will not pass away before you hoard them both, and God punishes you with a painful punishment.

And he said: al-Qāsim related to us: Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Abū Maʿshar, from Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh, that the Table came down upon Jesus son of Mary with seven loaves and seven fish on it, and they ate from it as they wished. He said: Then some of them stole from it, saying: “Perhaps it will not come down tomorrow.” So it was taken up.

Al-ʿAwfī said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: There came down upon Jesus son of Mary and the disciples a tray on which were bread and fish, from which they ate wherever they alighted, whenever they wished. Khaṣīf said, from ʿIkrimah and Miqsam, from Ibn ʿAbbās: The Table was a fish and loaves. Mujāhid said: It was food that used to come down upon them wherever they alighted. Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said: The Table came down as bread and fish. ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī said: The Table was fish in which was the taste of everything.

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: He sent it down from heaven upon the Children of Israel, and every day there used to come down to them on that Table some of the fruits of Paradise, and they ate what they wished of various kinds. Four thousand would sit at it, and when they had eaten God replaced it with the like of it for others like them. They remained in that state for as long as God, Mighty and Majestic, willed.

Wahb ibn Munabbih said: He sent down to them a loaf of barley and fish, and God filled their folds with blessing, so that a group would eat and then go out, and then others would come and eat and then go out, until all of them had eaten and there was still some left over.

Al-Aʿmash said, from Muslim, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: Everything was sent down on it except meat.

Sufyān al-Thawrī said, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Zādhān and Maysarah; and Jarīr, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Maysarah, who said: When the Table was set before the Children of Israel, hands reached across it for every kind of food except meat.

And from ʿIkrimah: The bread of the Table was of rice. Ibn Abī Ḥātim related it.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAlī informed us in what he wrote to me: Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways related to us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh ʿAbd al-Quddūs ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mirdās al-ʿAbdarī, the client of the Banū ʿAbd al-Dār, related to me, from Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, from Salmān al-Khayr, that he said: When the disciples asked Jesus son of Mary for the Table, he disliked that intensely and said: Be content with what God has provided you on the earth, and do not ask for the Table from heaven; for if it comes down to you it will be a sign from your Lord, and Thamūd perished only when they asked their prophet for a sign, and were tried by it until their destruction lay in it. But they refused anything but that he should bring it to them, and that is why they said: We wish to eat from it, and that our hearts be at rest, to the end of the verse.

When Jesus saw that they would accept nothing but that he should pray to Him for it on their behalf, he rose, cast off his wool, put on black hair-cloth, a cloak of hair and a mantle of hair, then performed the ablution and the full washing, entered his place of prayer and prayed as long as God willed. When he had completed his prayer he stood upright facing the direction of prayer (qiblah), set his feet in line until they were even, pressed heel to heel and aligned the toes, placed his right hand upon his left over his chest, lowered his gaze and bowed his head in humility; then he let his eyes flow with weeping, and his tears kept streaming down his cheeks and dripping from the ends of his beard until the ground before his face was wet from his humility. When he saw that, he called upon God and said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven. So God sent down to them a red cloth between two clouds, one cloud above it and one cloud below it, while they looked at it in the air plunging down from the sphere of heaven and descending towards them, and Jesus wept in fear of the conditions God had laid upon them in it, namely that He would punish whoever of them disbelieved in it after its descent with a punishment with which He had punished no one among the worlds; and he was praying to God from his place, saying: O God, make it a mercy; my God, do not make it a punishment; my God, how many a wonder have I asked of You and You have given me; my God, make us thankful to You; my God, I seek refuge in You lest You should have sent it down in anger and as a requital; my God, make it safety and well-being, and do not make it a trial and an exemplary punishment.

He kept on praying until the cloth settled before Jesus, with the disciples and his companions around him, and they smelt a sweet fragrance the like of which they had never smelt before. Jesus and the disciples fell down prostrate to God in thanks for His having provided for them from where they had not reckoned and shown them in it a mighty sign full of wonder and admonition. The Jews came to look, and saw a wondrous thing which left them with grief and distress; then they went away in intense rage. Jesus, the disciples and his companions came forward until they sat around the cloth, and behold, there was a napkin covering it. Jesus said: Who among us is the boldest to uncover the napkin from this cloth, the most confident of himself, and the best of us in his record with his Lord? Let him uncover this sign so that we may see it, praise our Lord, make mention of His name, and eat of His provision which He has provided us. The disciples said: O Spirit of God and His Word, you are the most entitled of us to that, and the most deserving of us to uncover it. So Jesus (peace be upon him) rose, performed a fresh ablution, then entered his place of prayer and likewise prayed some units of prayer, then wept for a long time and prayed to God to permit him to uncover it and to place in it blessing and provision for him and for his people. Then he went and sat down at the cloth, took hold of the napkin and said: “In the name of God, the best of providers,” and uncovered the cloth, and behold, on it was a huge roasted fish, with no scales on it and no bones inside it, with fat flowing from it in a stream; around it were arranged herbs of every kind except leeks; at its head was vinegar and at its tail salt; and around the herbs were five loaves, on one of which were olives, on another dates, and on another five pomegranates.

Simon (Shamʿūn), the chief of the disciples, said to Jesus: O Spirit of God and His Word, is this of the food of this world or of the food of Paradise? He said: Is it not time for you to take warning from the signs you see and desist from prying into questions? How I fear for you that you will be punished on account of the sending down of this sign! Simon said: By the God of Israel, I did not intend by it a questioning, O son of the truthful woman. Jesus (peace be upon him) said: Nothing of what you see is of the food of Paradise or of the food of this world; it is only something God originated in the air by the supreme, overpowering power, saying to it: Be, and it was, quicker than the twinkling of an eye. So eat of what you asked for, in the name of God, and praise your Lord for it, and He will supply you more of it and increase you, for He is the Originator, the Powerful, the Appreciative.

They said: O Spirit of God and His Word, we would like you to show us a sign within this sign. Jesus said: Glory be to God! Were you not satisfied with what you have seen in this sign, that you should ask for another sign within it? Then Jesus (peace be upon him) turned to the fish and said: O fish, return by God’s leave to life as you were. So God brought it to life by His power, and it quivered and returned by God’s leave to being alive and fresh, licking its lips as a lion licks its lips, its eyes rolling and gleaming, and its scales came back upon it. The people were terrified of it and drew back. When Jesus saw that from them he said: What is the matter with you, that you ask for a sign, and when your Lord shows it to you, you dislike it? How I fear for you that you will be punished for what you do! O fish, return by God’s leave to what you were. And it returned by God’s leave to being roasted, as it had been in its first created state.

They said to Jesus: Be you the one, O Spirit of God, who begins eating from it, and then we after you. Jesus said: God forbid that! Let him begin eating who asked for it. When the disciples and their companions saw their prophet’s refusal of it, they feared that its descent might be a mark of wrath and that in eating of it there might be exemplary punishment, so they kept away from it. When Jesus saw that, he summoned to it the poor and the chronically ill, and said: Eat of the provision of your Lord and the prayer of your prophet, and praise God who has sent it down for you; its wholesomeness will be yours, and its punishment upon others than you. Begin your eating in the name of God, and end it with praise of God. So they did, and one thousand three hundred persons, men and women, ate from it, each one of them turning away from it full and belching. Jesus and the disciples looked, and behold, what was on it was just as it had been when it was sent down from heaven, with nothing of it diminished. Then it was raised up to heaven while they looked on, and every poor person who had eaten from it became rich, and every chronically ill person who had eaten from it was healed, and they remained rich and healthy until they departed from this world.

The disciples and their companions who had refused to eat from it repented with such regret that their eyelashes ran with tears, and the grief of it remained in their hearts until the day of their death. He said: After that, whenever the Table came down, the Children of Israel came hurrying to it from every place, jostling one another, the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the healthy and the sick, climbing over one another. When He saw that, He made it come by turns, descending one day and not descending the next. They remained in that state for forty days, with it descending to them every other day when the forenoon had risen high, and it would remain set out and eaten from until, when they rose, it was lifted away from them by God’s leave into the air of the sky, while they watched its shadow on the ground until it disappeared from them.

He said: Then God revealed to His prophet Jesus (peace be upon him): Make My provision, the Table, for the orphans, the poor and the chronically ill, to the exclusion of the rich among the people. When he did that, the rich among the people grew suspicious of it and resented that, until they doubted it within themselves and made the people doubt it, and spread abroad foul and evil talk about it. Satan gained from them what he wanted and cast his whispering into the hearts of the doubters, until they said to Jesus: Tell us about the Table and its descent from heaven, is it true? For many people among us have come to doubt it. Jesus (peace be upon him) said: You are ruined, by the God of the Messiah! You asked your prophet for the Table, that he should ask your Lord for it on your behalf, and when he did so, and He sent it down to you as a mercy and a provision and showed you in it signs and lessons, you denied it and doubted it. So receive the tidings of punishment, for it is coming down upon you unless God has mercy on you.

And God revealed to Jesus: I shall take the deniers according to My condition, for I shall punish whoever of them disbelieves in the Table after its descent with a punishment with which I shall not punish anyone among the worlds. He said: When evening came upon those who doubted it, and they took to their beds in the finest of forms with their wives, feeling secure, then in the last part of the night God transformed them into swine, and in the morning they were following after filth in the rubbish heaps.

This is a very strange report. Ibn Abī Ḥātim split it up in several places in this story, and I have gathered it together for him so that its narrative may be fuller and more complete; and God, Glorified and Exalted, knows best.

All these reports indicate that the Table came down upon the Children of Israel in the days of Jesus son of Mary, as an answer from God to his supplication, and as is indicated by the apparent sense of this passage of the Mighty Qurʾān: God said: I shall send it down to you, to the end of the verse.

Some have said that it did not come down. Layth ibn Abī Sulaym related, from Mujāhid, concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven, that he said: It is a parable that was set forth, and nothing came down.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Jarīr related it. Then Ibn Jarīr said: al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Qāsim, that is, Ibn Sallām, related to us: Ḥajjāj related to us, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, who said: A table on which was food; they refused it when the punishment was presented to them should they disbelieve, so they refused that it should come down upon them.

He also said: Ibn al-Muthannā related to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from Manṣūr ibn Zādhān, from al-Ḥasan, that he said of the Table: It did not come down.

And Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, who said: al-Ḥasan used to say: When it was said to them, but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I shall not punish anyone among the worlds, they said: We have no need of it; so it did not come down.

These are sound chains of transmission (asānīd) to Mujāhid and al-Ḥasan, and that may be strengthened by the fact that the Christians do not know the report of the Table and it is not in their book; had it come down, that would have been among the things there are abundant motives to transmit, and it would have been found in their book by mass transmission (mutawātir), or at the very least by single reports (āḥād); and God knows best. But the view held by the majority is that it did come down, and that is what Ibn Jarīr chose. He said: because He Exalted informed of its descent in His words, Exalted: I shall send it down to you; but whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I shall not punish anyone among the worlds. He said: and God’s promise and His threat are true and truthful.

This view is, and God knows best, the correct one, as the reports and traditions from the early authorities and others indicate. The historians have mentioned that Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, the deputy of the Umayyads in the conquests of the lands of the Maghrib, found the Table there, studded with pearls and various kinds of jewels, and sent it to the Commander of the Faithful al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, the builder of the congregational mosque of Damascus; but he died while it was on the way, and it was carried to his brother Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, the caliph after him, and the people saw it and marvelled at it greatly because of the precious rubies and peerless jewels in it. It is said that this table belonged to Solomon son of David (peace be upon them both); and God knows best.

Imām Aḥmad said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from ʿImrān ibn al-Ḥakam, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Quraysh said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Pray to your Lord for us to make al-Ṣafā gold for us, and we shall believe in you. He said: “And will you do so?” They said: Yes. He said: So he prayed, and Gabriel came to him and said: Your Lord sends you greetings of peace and says to you: If you wish, al-Ṣafā will become gold for them, but whoever of them disbelieves after that, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I shall not punish anyone among the worlds; and if you wish, I shall open for them the door of repentance and mercy. He said: “Rather, the door of repentance and mercy.”

Then Aḥmad, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Ḥākim in his Mustadrak related it from the ḥadīth of Sufyān al-Thawrī, with it.

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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 yāʾ¹⁵, 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.

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On 5:111

And when I inspired the disciples (5:111), I commanded them through his tongue, that, that is, “to”, believe in Me and in My messenger, Jesus, they said: We believe in You and in Your messenger, and bear witness that we are submitters.

On 5:112

Remember when the disciples said: O Jesus son of Mary, can (5:112), that is, will He do it, your Lord – in one reading with the tāʾ and what follows it in the accusative (hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka), that is, “are you able to ask Him” – send down to us a table from heaven? He said, Jesus, to them: Fear God in proposing signs, if you are believers.

On 5:113

They said: We wish (5:113) to ask for it in order that we may eat of it and that there may be at rest, be tranquil, our hearts, through an increase of certainty, and that we may know, grow in knowledge, that – the lightened form (an), that is, “that you” – you have told us the truth in claiming prophethood, and that we may be witnesses to it.

On 5:114

Jesus son of Mary said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be for us (5:114), that is, the day of its descent, a festival, which we shall honour and ennoble, for the first of us – a substitute (badal) for “for us”, with the preposition repeated – and the last of us, those who come after us, and a sign from You of Your power and my prophethood; and provide for us, with it, for You are the best of providers.

On 5:115

God said (5:115), answering him: I am going to send it down – read without doubling (munziluhā) and with doubling (munazziluhā) – to you; but whoever of you disbelieves after, that is, after its descent, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I do not punish anyone of the worlds. So the angels brought it down from heaven, bearing seven loaves and seven fish, and they ate of it until they were satisfied; this was said by Ibn ʿAbbās. And in a ḥadīth: the table was sent down from heaven with bread and meat, and they were commanded not to betray the trust nor to store up for the morrow; but they betrayed it and stored up, and so they were transformed into apes and swine.

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On 5:111

His words, Exalted: And when I inspired (5:111), the verse.

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh reported from al-Suddī concerning His words: And when I inspired the disciples (5:111): he says: I cast it into their hearts.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Qatādah: And when I inspired the disciples (5:111): he said: an inspiration (waḥy) cast into their hearts, not the inspiration of prophethood. Inspiration is of two kinds: an inspiration which the angels bring, and an inspiration which is cast into the heart of the servant.

On 5:112-115

His words, Exalted: When the disciples said (5:112) — the verses.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿĀʾishah (may God be pleased with her), who said: The disciples knew God too well to say, “Is your Lord able?” They only said, “Are you able to ask your Lord — are you able to call upon Him?”

Al-Ḥākim — who declared it sound — al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ghanm, who said: I asked Muʿādh ibn Jabal about the saying of the disciples, Is your Lord able (hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka), or “Are you able to ask your Lord” (hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka)? He said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) taught me to recite it hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, with the tāʾ.

Abū ʿUbayd, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he recited it hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, with the tāʾ and with rabbaka in the accusative.

Abū ʿUbayd and Ibn Jarīr transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr that he recited it hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka, and said: “Are you able to ask your Lord?”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī that ʿAlī used to recite it Is your Lord able (hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka); he said: Will your Lord respond to you?¹⁶

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd transmitted from Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb and Abū Rajāʾ that the two of them recited Is your Lord able, with the yāʾ and the nominative.

Ibn Jarīr transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words Is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven (5:112): he said: They said, “Will your Lord respond to you if you ask Him?” So God sent down to them a table from heaven, on which was every kind of food except meat, and they ate from it.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr concerning His words a table (māʾidah): he said: The māʾidah is the khiwān¹⁷; and concerning His words and that may be at rest (5:113): he said: that may be certain.

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us (5:114): he says: We shall take the day on which it came down as a festival, which we and those after us shall hold in honour.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us: he said: They wanted it to be for their descendants after them.

Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī in Nawādir al-uṣūl, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh in al-ʿAẓamah, and Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī in his Fawāʾid known as al-Ghaylāniyyāt transmitted from Salmān al-Fārisī, who said: When the disciples asked Jesus son of Mary for the table, he disliked that intensely, and said: “Be content with what God has provided you on the earth, and do not ask for the table from heaven; for if it comes down to you it will be a sign from your Lord, and Thamūd perished only when they asked their prophet for a sign and were tried by it, until their destruction lay in it.” But they would accept nothing except that he bring it to them, and for that reason they said: We wish to eat from it, and that our hearts may be at rest, and that we may know that you have told us the truth, and that we may be among its witnesses (5:113). When Jesus saw that they would accept nothing but that he pray to God for it on their behalf, he stood up, cast off his wool and put on black hair-cloth, a tunic of hair and a cloak of hair; then he performed the ablution, bathed, entered his place of prayer and prayed as long as God willed. When he had finished his prayer he stood upright facing the qiblah, set his feet side by side until they were even, placing heel against heel and toe against toe, laid his right hand upon his left over his chest, lowered his gaze and bowed his head in humility. Then he let loose his eyes in weeping, and his tears did not cease to flow down his cheeks and drip from the ends of his beard, until the ground before his face was wet from his humility. When he saw that, he called upon God and said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us (5:114) — that it may be an admonition from You to us — and a sign from You, that is, a token from You which shall be between us and You; and provide us upon it food that we may eat, and You are the best of providers. So God sent down to them a red cloth (sufrah) between two clouds, a cloud above it and a cloud beneath it, while they watched it in the air plunging down from the sphere of heaven and descending towards them; and Jesus wept for fear of the conditions which God had laid upon them concerning it: that He would punish whoever among them disbelieved in it after it had come down with a punishment with which He had not punished anyone in all the worlds. And he was praying to God in his place, saying: “My God, make it a mercy; my God, do not make it a punishment; my God, how many a wondrous thing have I asked of You, and You have granted me; my God, make us thankful to You; my God, I seek refuge in You lest You should have sent it down in anger and as a scourge; my God, make it safety and well-being, and do not make it a trial and an exemplary punishment.” He did not cease praying until the cloth settled before Jesus, with the disciples and his companions around him, and they smelled a sweet fragrance the like of which they had never smelled before. Jesus and the disciples fell down prostrate to God in thanks to Him for what He had provided them from where they had not reckoned, and for having shown them in it a mighty sign full of wonder and admonition. The Jews came to look, and they saw a wondrous thing which left them in grief and distress, and then they went away in great rage. Jesus, the disciples and his companions came forward and sat down around the cloth, and behold, over it was a napkin covering it. Jesus said: “Which of us is boldest to lift the napkin from this cloth, most confident in himself and best in his standing with his Lord? Let him uncover this sign, that we may see it, praise our Lord, mention His name and eat of His provision which He has provided us.” The disciples said: “O Spirit of God and His Word, you are the worthiest of us for that, and the one most entitled among us to uncover it.” So Jesus arose and performed a fresh ablution, then entered his place of prayer and prayed some units of prayer (rakaʿāt) for that, then wept for a long time and prayed to God to permit him to uncover it and to place in it blessing and provision for him and for his people. Then he went and sat down at the cloth, took hold of the napkin and said: “In the name of God, the best of providers,” and uncovered the cloth; and behold, upon it was a huge roasted fish, with no scales upon it and no bones in its belly, from which fat flowed in a stream. Around it were arranged vegetables of every kind except leeks; at its head was vinegar and at its tail salt; and around the vegetables were five loaves, on one of which were olives, on another fruits, and on another five pomegranates. Simon, the head of the disciples, said to Jesus: “O Spirit of God and His Word, is this of the food of this world or of the food of Paradise?” He said: “Is it not time for you to take warning from the signs you see, and to desist from prying into questions? How I fear for you that you will be punished on account of this sign!” Simon said: “No, by the God of Israel, I intended no evil by it, O son of the Truthful One (al-Ṣiddīqah).” Jesus said: “Nothing of what you see upon it is of the food of Paradise, nor of the food of this world; it is only something God originated in the air by overwhelming, all-subduing power. He said to it, ‘Be,’ and it was, quicker than the blink of an eye. So eat of what you asked for, in the name of God, and praise your Lord for it, and He will supply you more of it and increase you; for He is Originator, All-Powerful, Appreciative.” They said: “O Spirit of God and His Word, we should love for you to show us a sign within this sign.” Jesus said: “Glory be to God! Were you not satisfied with what you have seen of this sign, that you should ask for yet another sign within it?” Then Jesus turned to the fish and said: “O fish, return, by God’s leave, alive as you were.” And God brought it to life by His power, and it quivered and returned, by God’s leave, alive and fresh, licking its lips as a lion licks its lips, its eyes rolling with a gleam in them, and its scales returned upon it. The people took fright at it and shrank back. When Jesus saw that from them, he said: “What is the matter with you? You ask for a sign, and when your Lord shows it to you, you loathe it. How I fear for you that you will be punished for what you are doing! O fish, return, by God’s leave, as you were.” And it returned, by God’s leave, roasted as it had been in its first created state. They said to Jesus: “O Spirit of God, be the one who begins eating from it, and then we after you.” He said: “God forbid that! Let him who asked for it begin eating.” When the disciples and their companions saw their prophet’s refusal to eat of it, they feared that its descent was out of displeasure and that in eating of it lay an exemplary punishment, so they kept away from it. When Jesus saw that, he called to it the poor and the chronically ill, and said: “Eat of your Lord’s provision and the invocation of your prophet, and praise God who sent it down for you; its benefit shall be yours and its punishment upon others. Open your eating with the name of God and close it with praise of God.” They did so, and one thousand three hundred people ate from it, men and women alike, each of them going away from it full and belching. Jesus and the disciples looked, and behold, what was on it was just as it had been when it came down from heaven, nothing diminished from it. Then it was raised up to heaven while they watched. Every poor person who ate from it became rich, and every chronically ill person among them who ate from it was cured, and they remained rich and healthy until they departed this world. The disciples and their companions who had refused to eat from it felt a remorse that made their eyelids run with tears, and the regret of it remained in their hearts until the day of death. He said: Thereafter, whenever the table came down, the Children of Israel came hastening to it from every place, jostling one another — rich and poor, women, young and old, healthy and sick — climbing over one another. When Jesus saw that, he made it come in turns among them, so that it came down one day and not the next. They remained in that state for forty days, it coming down to them on alternate days when the forenoon was high, and it would remain set out, being eaten from, until, when they declared themselves done, it was raised from them, by God’s leave, into the air of the sky, while they watched its shadow on the earth until it disappeared from them.

Then God revealed to Jesus: “Make My provision in the table for the orphans, the poor and the chronically ill, to the exclusion of the rich among the people.” When God did that, the rich grew doubtful of it and disparaged it, until they doubted it within themselves and made the people doubt it, and spread abroad foul and reprehensible talk about it. Satan obtained from them what he wanted, and cast his whispering into the hearts of the doubters until they said to Jesus: “Tell us about the table: is its coming down from heaven true? For many a man among us has come to doubt it.” Jesus said: “You have perished, by the God of the Messiah! You asked your prophet for the table, that he should seek it for you from your Lord; and when he did so, and God sent it down to you as mercy and provision and showed you in it signs and lessons, you called it a lie and doubted it. So receive tidings of punishment, for it is coming down upon you, unless God has mercy on you.” And God revealed to Jesus: “I am taking the deniers according to My condition: I shall punish whoever among them disbelieves in the table after it has come down with a punishment with which I punish no one in all the worlds.” So when the doubters in it came to the evening and took to their beds, in the finest of forms, with their wives, secure, then in the last part of the night God transformed them into swine, and in the morning they were rooting after filth in the rubbish-heaps.

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he used to relate of Jesus son of Mary that he said to the Children of Israel: “Will you fast to God for thirty days, then ask Him, and He will give you what you ask? For the wage of the labourer is owed by him for whom he laboured.” They did so, then said: “O teacher of goodness, you told us that the wage of the labourer is owed by him for whom he laboured, and you commanded us to fast thirty days, and we did; and we never worked thirty days for anyone without his feeding us. So is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven” — up to His words anyone in all the worlds (5:112–115). Then the angels came flying with a table from heaven, upon it seven fish and seven loaves, until they set it down before them, and the last of the people ate from it as the first of them had eaten.

Al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The table was sent down from heaven as bread and meat, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful and not to store up for the morrow; but they were unfaithful, and stored up, and put away for the morrow, and so they were transformed into apes and swine.”

Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted, by another route, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, as a halted report (mawqūf), the like of it. Al-Tirmidhī said: And the halted version is the sounder.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh transmitted from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: The table came down with fruit of the fruit of Paradise upon it.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The table was a fish and loaves.

Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah transmitted from ʿIkrimah that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Were it not for the Children of Israel, bread would not go stale nor meat go rotten; but they hid it away for the morrow, so the meat went rotten and the bread went stale.”

Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād transmitted from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven (5:114): he said: bread and fish.

Ibn al-Anbārī, and Abū al-Shaykh in al-ʿAẓamah, transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: The table came down, and it was food that steamed hot, and they used to eat from it sitting; then they did wrong, and it was raised a little, so they ate on their knees; then they did wrong, and it was raised a little, so they ate standing; then they did wrong, and it was raised altogether.

Ibn al-Anbārī transmitted from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: It was a table at which four thousand would sit. They said of a group of their lowly folk: “These people are soiling our clothes upon us; if only we built a platform for it to raise it up.” So they built a platform for it, and the weak could no longer reach anything. When they contravened the command of God, Mighty and Majestic, He raised it from them.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī, who said: The table was a fish in which was the taste of every food.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from ʿIkrimah that the bread which was sent down with the table was of rice.

Ibn Jarīr transmitted, by way of al-ʿAwfī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: There came down to Jesus son of Mary and the disciples a tray on which were bread and fish, from which they would eat wherever they alighted, whenever they wished.

Ibn Jarīr, and Ibn al-Anbārī in Kitāb al-Aḍdād, transmitted by way of ʿIkrimah from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the table: he said: It was food that came down to them from heaven wherever they alighted.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr transmitted from Mujāhid, who said: It is the food that came down to them wherever they alighted.

Ibn Jarīr transmitted from Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh that the table came down to Jesus son of Mary with seven loaves and seven fish upon it, from which they ate whatever they wished; then some of them stole from it, saying, “Perhaps it will not come down tomorrow,” and so it was raised.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Anbārī and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from Qatādah, who said: It was mentioned to us that it was a table on which fruit of the fruits of Paradise came down, and they were commanded not to hide away, not to be unfaithful and not to store up for the morrow — a trial with which God tried them; and whenever they did any of that, Jesus would inform them of it. But the people were unfaithful in it, and hid away and stored up for the morrow.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: Everything was sent down upon the table except meat; and the māʾidah is the khiwān.

Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted from Maysarah and Zādhān, who both said: Whenever the table was set for the Children of Israel, hands went back and forth upon it among every kind of food.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Wahb ibn Munabbih that he was asked about the table which God sent down from heaven to the Children of Israel, and he said: There came down to them every day, on that table, some of the fruits of Paradise, and they ate what they wished of various kinds; four thousand would sit at it, and when they had eaten, God replaced it with the like of it, and they continued thus as long as God willed.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Mujāhid concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven: he said: It is a parable that was struck, and nothing came down to them.

Abū ʿUbayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted from Mujāhid, who said: A table with food upon it; they refused it when the punishment was presented to them should they disbelieve, so they refused to have it come down to them.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn al-Anbārī transmitted from al-Ḥasan, who said: When it was said to them but whoever of you disbelieves thereafter, I shall punish him with a punishment (5:115), they said: “We have no need of it,” and so it did not come down to them.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one in all the worlds (5:115): he said: It was mentioned to us that when they did with the table what they did, they were turned into swine.

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from al-Suddī concerning His words but whoever of you disbelieves thereafter — after the table had come to him — I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one in all the worlds: he says: I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one other than the people of the table.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Abū al-Shaykh transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection are those of the people of the table who disbelieved, the hypocrites, and the house of Pharaoh.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd transmitted from ʿĀṣim that he recited I am going to send it down (5:115) as munazziluhā, with the doubled letter.

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On 5:111

That is: and remember My favour upon you when I made easy for you followers and helpers, for I inspired the disciples, that is, I put it into them and disposed their hearts to faith in Me and in My messenger; or I revealed to them through your tongue, that is, I commanded them by the revelation that came to you from God. They responded to that and submitted and said: We believe, so bear witness that we are Muslims (5:111). So they combined outward submission (islām) and compliance through righteous deeds with inward faith, which brings its possessor out of hypocrisy and out of weakness of faith.

On 5:112

The disciples (ḥawāriyyūn) are the helpers, as Jesus son of Mary said to the disciples: Who are my helpers towards God? The disciples said: We are the helpers of God (61:14).

When the disciples said: O Jesus son of Mary, is your Lord able to send down to us a table from heaven?, that is, a table with food upon it. This on their part was not out of any doubt concerning God’s power and His ability to do that; it was rather by way of a request and courtesy from them. And since asking for signs of one’s own proposing is contrary to submission to the truth, and these words issuing from the disciples might have given that impression, Jesus (peace be upon him) admonished them and said: Fear God, if you are believers (5:112), for the faith a believer has carries him to constant God-fearing and to submitting to God’s command, and he does not ask for signs of his own proposing, of which he does not know what will come after them.

On 5:113

So the disciples informed him that their purpose was not this meaning; rather they had righteous purposes, and it was on account of their need for it. They said: We desire to eat of it, which is evidence that they were in need of it; and that our hearts be at rest in faith when we see the signs with our own eyes, so that faith becomes the very certainty of sight (ʿayn al-yaqīn), just as the Friend of God, Abraham (upon him be blessings and peace), asked his Lord to show him how He gives life to the dead: He said: Have you not believed? He said: Yes, but so that my heart may be at rest (2:260). The servant is in need of increase in knowledge, certainty and faith at every moment, and for this reason they said: and that we may know that you have told us the truth, that is, that we may know the truth of what you have brought, that it is real and true; and that we may be among the witnesses to it (5:113), so that it may be a benefit for those who come after us: we bear witness to it for you, the proof is established and additional demonstration is obtained thereby.

On 5:114

When Jesus (upon him be blessings and peace) heard that and knew their purpose, he granted their request in that matter and said: O God, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven, that it may be a festival for us, for the first of us and the last of us, and a sign from You, that is, that the time of its descent may be a festival and a season by which this mighty sign is remembered, so that it is preserved and not forgotten with the passing of time and the recurrence of the years, just as God, Exalted, made the festivals of the Muslims and their rites reminders of His signs, pointers to the ways of the messengers and their upright paths and to His favour and beneficence towards them. And provide for us, for You are the best of providers (5:114), that is, make it provision for us. So Jesus (peace be upon him) asked for its descent and that it be for these two benefits: the benefit of religion, in that it be an abiding sign, and the benefit of this world, namely that it be provision.

On 5:115

God said: I am going to send it down to you; but whoever of you disbelieves after that, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I do not punish anyone among the worlds (5:115), because he witnessed the dazzling sign and disbelieved out of obstinacy and wrongdoing, and so deserved the painful punishment and the severe chastisement.

Know that God, Exalted, promised that He would send it down and threatened them with this warning if they disbelieved, but He did not mention that He sent it down. It is possible that He did not send it down because they did not choose that, and indicating this is the fact that it is not mentioned in the Gospel that the Christians have in their hands, nor has it any existence there. And it is possible that it descended as God promised, for He does not break His promise, and that the absence of its mention in the Gospels in their hands is part of the portion of which they were reminded but which they forgot; or that it was not mentioned in the Gospel at all, but was rather handed down among them, the later generations transmitting it from the earlier, so that God was content with that in place of mentioning it in the Gospel. Indicating this meaning are His words: and that we may be among the witnesses to it (5:113). And God knows best the reality of the matter.

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