Section 25: Gethsemane, the arrest and Peter’s denial

On 3:54

On the interpretation of His words: And they schemed, and God schemed; and God is the best of schemers (3:54)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He, Majestic is His praise, means: and those of the Children of Israel who disbelieved schemed; they are the ones of whom God mentioned that Jesus perceived unbelief from them.

Their scheming, with which God described them, was their conspiring with one another to assassinate Jesus and kill him. That is because Jesus (God’s blessings be upon him), after his people had driven him and his mother out from among them, returned to them, according to what:

(7131) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: Then Jesus journeyed with them – meaning the disciples who had been catching fish, and who believed in him and followed him when he called them – until he came to the Children of Israel by night and cried out among them. That is His saying: So a party of the Children of Israel believed, and a party disbelieved – the verse (61:14).

As for God’s scheming against them, it was – according to what al-Suddī mentioned – His casting the likeness of Jesus upon one of his followers, so that those scheming against Jesus killed him, thinking him to be Jesus, while God, Mighty and Majestic, had raised Jesus before that, as:

(7132) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: Then the Children of Israel besieged Jesus and nineteen men of the disciples in a house. Jesus said to his companions: “Who will take on my form and be killed, and Paradise shall be his?” One of them took it on, and Jesus was taken up to heaven. That is His saying: And they schemed, and God schemed; and God is the best of schemers. When the disciples came out, they saw them to be nineteen, and they told them that Jesus had been taken up to heaven. They began counting the group and found them one man short of the number, while they saw the form of Jesus among them, so they were in doubt about him. Even so, they killed the man, believing him to be Jesus, and crucified him. That is the saying of God, Mighty and Majestic: and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them (4:157).

It is also possible that the meaning of “God’s scheming against them” is His leading them on by degrees (istidrāj) so that the decree might reach its appointed term, as we have explained concerning the saying of God: God mocks them (2:15).

On 4:155

On the interpretation of His words: So for their breaking of their covenant, and their disbelief in the signs of God, and their killing of the prophets without right, and their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped” — rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief, so they do not believe except a few (4:155)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He means, Majestic is His praise: So for the breaking by these people of the People of the Book, whose description I have given, of their covenant, meaning: their pledges by which they pledged to God that they would act according to what is in the Torah; and their disbelief in the signs of God, He says: and their denial of the signs of God, meaning: the tokens of God and His proofs by which He established the argument against them for the truthfulness of His prophets and His messengers and the reality of what they brought them from Him; and their killing of the prophets without right, He says: and for their killing of the prophets after the proof of their prophethood had been established against them, without right, meaning: without their deserving that for any grave sin they had committed or any offence for which they had incurred death; and their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped”, meaning: and for their saying “our hearts are wrapped” (ghulf), that is, they say: upon them is a covering and wrappings against what you call us to, so we do not understand what you say, nor comprehend it.

We have already explained the meaning of ghulf, and mentioned the transmitted reports concerning it, earlier.

Rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief, He says, Majestic is His praise: they lied in their saying “our hearts are wrapped”; they are not wrapped, nor are there coverings upon them, but God, Majestic is His praise, has placed a seal (ṭābaʿ) upon them because of their disbelief in God.

We have already explained the nature of the “sealing of the heart” earlier, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it.

So they do not believe except a few, He says: so these people whose description God has given do not believe — because of His sealing of their hearts, so as to affirm the truth of God and His messengers and what they brought them from God — except with a little faith, meaning: a little affirmation. It became “a little” only because they did not affirm the truth of what God commanded them, but affirmed some of the prophets and some of the Books and denied others. So their affirmation of what they affirmed was little, because although they affirmed it from one aspect, they deny it from another aspect, namely from the aspect of their denial of those of the prophets whom they denied and of the Books of God which they brought; for the messengers of God confirm one another, and every prophet commanded his community accordingly. Likewise the Books of God confirm one another and verify one another. So whoever denies some of them denies all of them, by virtue of his rejecting what is affirmed by the Book whose soundness he acknowledges. For that reason their faith in what they believed of this became little.

Those versed in interpretation said much the same as we have said on this.

Those who said this

(10774) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words So for their breaking of their covenant: he says: so for their breaking of their covenant We cursed them; and their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped”, that is: we do not understand; rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief, and He cursed them when they did that.

There was disagreement about the meaning of His words So for their breaking, the verse: whether it is connected to the speech that precedes it, or separate from it.

• Some of them said: it is separate from what precedes it, and its meaning is: so for their breaking of their covenant, their disbelief in the signs of God, their killing of the prophets without right, and their saying “our hearts are wrapped”, God set a seal upon them for their disbelief and cursed them.

Those who said this

(10775) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: so they do not believe except a few: when the people abandoned the command of God, killed His messengers, disbelieved in His signs, and broke the covenant that had been taken from them, God set a seal upon them for their disbelief and cursed them.

• Others said: rather, it is connected to what precedes it. They said: the meaning of the speech is: so the thunderbolt seized them for their wrongdoing (4:153) — so for their breaking of their covenant, their disbelief in the signs of God, their killing of the prophets without right, and for such and such, the thunderbolt seized them. They said: so the speech follows on, part upon part, and its meaning refers back to its beginning; and the explanation of “their wrongdoing”, on account of which the thunderbolt seized them, is what He, Exalted be His mention, explained it to be: their breaking of the covenant, their killing of the prophets, and all else that He set out of their conduct in which they wronged themselves.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct view on this is that His words So for their breaking of their covenant, and what follows them, are separate in meaning from the meaning of what precedes them, and that the meaning of the speech is: so for their breaking of their covenant, their disbelief in the signs of God, and for such and such, We cursed them and were angry with them. The mention of “We cursed them” was left out because His words rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief indicate that meaning; for whoever has had his heart sealed has been cursed and is the object of wrath.

We have said that this is the more correct view only because those whom the thunderbolt seized lived in the time of Moses, whereas those who killed the prophets, and those who accused Mary with the tremendous calumny, and said “we killed the Messiah”, lived long ages after Moses. Those who accused Mary with the tremendous calumny did not live in the time of Moses, nor did those of his people who were struck by the thunderbolt.

That being so, it is known that those whom the thunderbolt seized were not seized by it as a punishment for accusing Mary with the tremendous calumny, nor for their saying We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (4:157). And that being so, it is clear that the people who said this are other than those who were punished by the thunderbolt. And that being so, the separateness of the meaning of His words So for their breaking of their covenant from the meaning of His words so the thunderbolt seized them for their wrongdoing is clear.

On 4:156

On the interpretation of His words: and for their disbelief, and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny (4:156)

Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means, Majestic is His praise: and for the disbelief of these people whose description He has given, and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, meaning: for their slander against her and their accusing her of fornication; that is the “tremendous calumny” (buhtān), because they accused her of that while she was innocent of what they accused her of, without any proof or evidence; so they calumniated her with a false utterance.

Those versed in interpretation said much the same as we have said on this.

Those who said this

(10776) Al-Muthannā related to me: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Ibn ʿAbbās: and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, meaning: that they accused her of fornication.

(10777) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning His words and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny: when they charged her with fornication.

(10778) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd related to us, from Juwaybir, concerning His words and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, who said: they said: “She has fornicated.”

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

On 3:54

His words, Exalted: And they plotted (3:54), meaning the disbelievers of the Children of Israel, from whom Jesus perceived disbelief, and they were set upon killing Jesus (peace be upon him). That was because Jesus (peace be upon him), after his people had driven him and his mother out, returned to them with the disciples and proclaimed the summons loudly among them, so they resolved to kill him and conspired together to assassinate him; that was their plot. God, Exalted, said: and God plotted, and God is the best of plotters. Plotting (makr) on the part of created beings is malice, deceit and trickery; and plotting on the part of God is His drawing the servant on by degrees and seizing him suddenly from where he does not know, as He said: We shall draw them on by degrees from where they do not know (7:182). Al-Zajjāj said: the plotting of God, Mighty and Majestic, is His requiting them for their plotting; He named the requital by the name of what began it, because it corresponds to it, as in His words, Exalted: God mocks them (2:15) and and He is deceiving them (4:142). The plotting of God, Exalted, specifically concerning them in this verse is His casting the likeness upon their companion who wished to kill Jesus (peace be upon him), so that he was killed.

Al-Kalbī said, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both): Jesus met a band of the Jews, and when they saw him they said: “The sorcerer son of the sorceress has come, the fornicator son of the fornicatress,” and they slandered him and his mother. When Jesus (peace be upon him) heard that, he prayed against them and cursed them, and God transformed them into swine. When Yahūdhā, the head of the Jews and their leader, saw that, he was alarmed at it and feared his prayer, so the word of the Jews united on killing Jesus (peace be upon him), and they rose up against him to kill him. God sent Gabriel to him, and he brought him into a small chamber in whose roof was a skylight, and God raised him to heaven through that skylight. Yahūdhā the head of the Jews ordered a man of his companions called Ṭaṭyānūs to enter the chamber and kill him. When he entered he did not see Jesus, and he was slow in coming out to them, so they thought he was fighting him inside it. Then God cast upon him the likeness of Jesus (peace be upon him), and when he came out they thought he was Jesus (peace be upon him), so they killed him and crucified him. Wahb said: They came upon Jesus by night, during part of the night, and set up a piece of wood to crucify him, but the earth grew dark, and God sent the angels, who came between them and him. Jesus gathered the disciples that night and gave them his counsel, then said: “One of you will surely deny me before the cock crows, and will sell me for a few dirhams.” They went out and dispersed, while the Jews were seeking him. One of the disciples came to the Jews and said to them: “What will you give me if I lead you to the Messiah?” They offered him thirty dirhams, and he took them and led them to him. When he entered the house God cast upon him the likeness of Jesus, and Jesus was raised up, and the one who had led them to him was seized. He said: “I am the one who led you to him!” But they paid no heed to his words, and killed him and crucified him, thinking that he was Jesus. When the likeness of Jesus had been crucified, Mary the mother of Jesus came, with a woman for whom Jesus had prayed so that God had cured her of madness, both weeping beside the crucified one. Jesus (peace be upon him) came to them and said to them: “Why are you weeping? God, Exalted, has raised me up, and nothing but good has befallen me; this is a thing that was made to appear so to them.” After seven days, God, Mighty and Majestic, said to Jesus (peace be upon him): “Descend to Mary of Magdala—the name of a place on her mountain—for no one has wept for you as she has wept, nor grieved as she has grieved. Then let the disciples gather to you, and send them out through the earth as callers to God, Mighty and Majestic.” So God sent him down to her, and the mountain blazed with light when he descended. She gathered the disciples for him and he sent them out through the earth as callers; then God, Mighty and Majestic, raised him up to Himself. That is the night on which the Christians burn incense. When the disciples arose in the morning, each one of them spoke in the language of the people to whom Jesus had sent him. That is His words, Exalted: And they plotted, and God plotted, and God is the best of plotters.

Al-Suddī said: The Jews confined Jesus in a house together with ten of the disciples, and a man from among them went in to them, and God cast upon him his likeness. Qatāda said: It was mentioned to us that the prophet of God Jesus (peace be upon him) said to his companions: “Which of you will have my likeness cast upon him, for he will be killed?” A man from among the people said: “I, O prophet of God.” So that man was killed, and God protected Jesus (peace be upon him) and raised him up to Himself; God clothed him with feathers, robed him in light, cut off from him the pleasure of food and drink, and he flew with the angels, and so he is with them around the Throne; and he was human and angelic, heavenly and earthly. The people of the chronicles said: Mary conceived Jesus when she was thirteen years old, and she bore Jesus at Bethlehem in the land of Jerusalem (Ūrī Shalim), when sixty-five years had passed since Alexander’s conquest of the land of Babylon. God revealed to him at the completion of thirty years, and God raised him up from the Holy House on the Night of Power in the month of Ramaḍān, when he was thirty-three years old; so his prophethood lasted three years, and his mother Mary lived six years after he was raised up.

On 4:155-157

His words, Exalted: And We raised over them the Mount for their covenant, and We said to them, “Enter the gate prostrating,” and We said to them, “Do not transgress on the Sabbath” (4:154). The people of Medina read with the dāl doubled and the ʿayn given fatḥa (taʿaddū), Nāfiʿ in the transmission of Warsh, while the others read it with the ʿayn unvowelled (taʿdū). Its meaning is: do not transgress and do not do wrong by catching fish on it. And We took from them a solemn covenant.

His words, Exalted: So for their breaking of their covenant (4:155), that is, because of their breaking it; mā is a connective particle, as in His words, Exalted: So by mercy from God (fa-bimā raḥmatin, 3:159), and the like. And their disbelief in the signs of God, and their killing of the prophets without right, and their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped.” Rather, God has sealed them because of their disbelief, that is, set a seal upon them, so they do not believe except a few, meaning of those who denied the messengers, not of those whose hearts were sealed, because whoever God has sealed his heart never believes. By “a few” He meant ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām and his companions. And it was said: its meaning is, they do not believe, neither a little nor much.

And for their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a tremendous slander (4:156), when they accused her of fornication.

And their saying, “Indeed we killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God.” But they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him (4:157).

That is because God, Exalted, cast the likeness of Jesus (peace be upon him) upon the one who led the Jews to him. And it was said: they confined Jesus (peace be upon him) in a house and set a guard over him, and God, Exalted, cast the likeness of Jesus (peace be upon him) upon the guard, and they killed him. And other things were said, as we mentioned in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān.

His words, Blessed and Exalted: And indeed those who differed over him, over his killing, are in doubt about it, that is, about his killing. Al-Kalbī said: their differing over him is that the Jews said “we killed him”, and a party of the Christians said “we killed him”, while a party of them said “neither these nor those killed him; rather, God raised him up to heaven while we were looking at him”. And it was said: God, Exalted, had cast the likeness of the face of Jesus (peace be upon him) upon the face of Ṣaṭyāfūs¹⁰, but had not cast it upon his body, so they differed over him: some of them said “we killed Jesus, for the face is the face of Jesus (peace be upon him)”, and some of them said “we did not kill him, because his body is not the body of Jesus (peace be upon him)”; so they differed. Al-Suddī said: their differing arose from their saying: “If this is Jesus, then where is our companion? And if this is our companion, then where is Jesus?” God, Exalted, said: They have no knowledge of it, of the reality of whether he was killed or not killed, except the following of conjecture; rather, they follow conjecture regarding his killing. God, Majestic is His majesty, said: and they did not kill him for certain, that is, they did not kill Jesus for certain.

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

On 3:54

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

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

On 4:155-156

His words, Exalted: So for their breaking of their covenant (4:155). for their breaking is in the genitive by the bāʾ, and the mā in fa-bi-mā is redundant, for emphasis, as in His words: So by mercy from God (fa-bi-mā raḥmatin) (3:159), which has already been discussed. The bāʾ is connected to an elided word, the implied sense being: so for their breaking of their covenant We cursed them; this is from Qatādah and others, and it was elided because the hearer knows it. Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ḥamzah al-Kisāʾī said: it is connected to what precedes it, and the meaning is “so the thunderbolt seized them for their wrongdoing” (4:153), down to His words So for their breaking of their covenant. He said: He thus explained their wrongdoing, on account of which the thunderbolt seized them, by what follows it, namely their breaking of the covenant, their killing of the prophets and all the other things He set out in which they wronged themselves. Al-Ṭabarī and others rejected this, because those whom the thunderbolt seized were in the time of Moses, whereas those who killed the prophets and hurled the calumny against Mary came a long time after Moses; so the thunderbolt did not seize those whom it seized on account of their hurling the calumny against Mary. Al-Mahdawī and others said: this is not a necessary objection, because it is permissible that He report of them while the ones intended are their forefathers, in accordance with what has already been said in al-Baqarah. Al-Zajjāj said: the meaning is “so for their breaking of their covenant We forbade them good things that had been made lawful to them”, because this narrative extends to His words So for the wrongdoing of those who became Jews We forbade (4:160). Their breaking of the covenant was that it had been taken upon them to make plain the description of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And it has been said: the meaning is “so for their breaking of their covenant and their doing such-and-such and their doing such-and-such, God set a seal upon their hearts”. And it has been said: the meaning is “so for their breaking they do not believe except a few”, the fāʾ being intrusive. their disbelief is conjoined (to “breaking”), and likewise their killing. What is meant by the signs of God is their scriptures, which they distorted. Ghulf (wrapped) is the plural of ghilāf (a covering, a sheath), that is: our hearts are receptacles for knowledge, so we have no need of any knowledge other than what we have. And it has been said that it is the plural of aghlaf, which is that which is covered with a wrapping, that is: our hearts are in coverings, so we do not understand what you say; this is like His words: Our hearts are in coverings (41:5). This has already been discussed in al-Baqarah. Their purpose in this was to ward off the argument of the messengers. Setting a seal (ṭabʿ) is sealing (khatm), and this has already been discussed in al-Baqarah. for their disbelief, that is, as a recompense to them for their disbelief, as He said: Rather, God has cursed them for their disbelief, so little is it that they believe (2:88), that is, except a little belief, namely in some of the prophets, and that does not benefit them. Then He repeated and for their disbelief (4:156) to report that they disbelieved with one disbelief after another. And it has been said: the meaning is and for their disbelief in the Messiah, this having been elided because what follows indicates it. The governing word of for their disbelief is the same as the governing word of their breaking, because it is conjoined to it, and it is not permissible for the governing word to be set a seal. The great calumny is their accusing her with Joseph the carpenter, who was one of the righteous among them. Calumny (buhtān) is the excessive lie at which one is astounded, and it has already been discussed. And God, Glorified and Exalted, knows best.

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

On 3:52-54

He, Exalted, says: And when Jesus perceived (3:52), that is, sensed from them a resolve upon disbelief and persistence in error, he said: Who are my helpers towards God? (3:52). Mujāhid said: that is, who will follow me towards God? Sufyān al-Thawrī and others said: who are my helpers along with God? The statement of Mujāhid is closer.

The apparent meaning is that he intended: who are my helpers in calling to God? As the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say in the seasons of the pilgrimage, before he emigrated: “Who is a man who will give me shelter so that I may convey the words of my Lord? For Quraysh have prevented me from conveying the words of my Lord.” Until he found the Anṣār, who sheltered him and supported him, and he emigrated to them, and they comforted him and protected him from black and red alike. Likewise Jesus son of Mary: a group of the Children of Israel answered his call, believed in him, backed him and supported him, and followed the light that was sent down with him. For this reason He, Exalted, said, informing of them: The disciples said: We are the helpers of God; we believe in God, so bear witness that we are Muslims. Our Lord, we believe in what You have sent down, and we follow the Messenger, so write us among the witnesses (3:52-53). The disciples (al-ḥawāriyyūn): it was said that they were fullers (qaṣṣārūn); and it was said that they were so named for the whiteness of their garments; and it was said: fishermen. The correct view is that the ḥawārī is the helper, as is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs: that when the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) called upon the people on the day of the Confederates, al-Zubayr answered the call; then he called upon them, and al-Zubayr answered; then he called upon them, and al-Zubayr answered; and he said: “Every prophet has a disciple (ḥawārī), and my disciple is al-Zubayr.”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj related to us: Wakīʿ related to us: Isrāʾīl related to us, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words so write us among the witnesses (3:53): he said: with the community of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). This is a good chain.

Then He, Exalted, said, informing of the chiefs of the Children of Israel, regarding what they intended of assassinating Jesus (peace be upon him), and of intending harm and crucifixion against him, when they conspired against him and denounced him to the king of that age, who was an unbeliever. They reported to him that here was a man who was leading people astray, turning them from obedience to the king, corrupting the subjects, and separating father from son, and other such things that they hung round their own necks and falsely accused him of, and that he was the child of an adulteress, until they stirred up the king’s anger, and he sent in search of him those who would seize him, crucify him and make an example of him. When they surrounded his house and thought that they had got hold of him, God delivered him from their midst and raised him from the skylight of that house to heaven, and God cast his likeness upon a man who was with him in the house. When those people entered, they took him, in the darkness of the night, to be Jesus (peace be upon him), so they seized him, humiliated him and crucified him, and placed thorns upon his head. This was part of God’s plotting against them, for He saved His Prophet and raised him from among them, and left them wandering blindly in their error, believing that they had got hold of their quarry; and God lodged in their hearts a hardness and an obstinacy against the truth that clings to them, and bequeathed to them an abasement that will not leave them until the Day of Mutual Calling. For this reason He, Exalted, said: And they plotted, and God plotted; and God is the best of plotters (3:54).

On 4:155-159

This is among the sins which they committed, and which brought upon them their being cursed, driven away and removed far from guidance: namely, their breaking of the covenants and pledges that had been taken from them, and their disbelief in the signs of God, that is, His proofs and demonstrations and the miracles which they witnessed at the hands of the prophets (peace be upon them).

His words and their killing of the prophets without right (4:155): that was because of the abundance of their crimes and their audacity against the prophets of God, for they killed a vast multitude of the prophets (peace be upon them) without right.

And their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped” (4:155): Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿIkrimah, al-Suddī, Qatādah and more than one other said: that is, in a covering. This is like the saying of the polytheists: And they said, “Our hearts are in coverings against that to which you call us, and in our ears is a heaviness, and between us and you is a veil; so work, indeed we too are working” (41:5). It was also said that its meaning is that they claimed their hearts were ghulf for knowledge, that is, vessels of knowledge which had already contained it and acquired it. This was related by al-Kalbī, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās. The like of this has already been discussed in Sūrat al-Baqarah.

God Exalted said: Rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief (4:155). On the first opinion, it is as though they were excusing themselves to him on the ground that their hearts did not retain what he said, because they were in wrappings and coverings; so God Exalted said: rather, they are sealed on account of their disbelief. On the second opinion, He turned back upon them what they claimed from every angle. Discussion of the like of this has already been given in Sūrat al-Baqarah.

So they do not believe except a few (4:155): that is, their hearts became hardened in disbelief, transgression and paucity of faith.

And for their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a tremendous slander (4:156): ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: “It means that they accused her of fornication.” Likewise said al-Suddī, Juwaybir, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and more than one other. This is evident from the verse: that they accused her and her son of enormities, making her out to be a fornicatress who had conceived her child by that means; some of them added, “while she was menstruating”. So upon them be the successive curses of God until the Day of Resurrection.

And their saying, “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God” (4:157): that is, this man who claims this rank for himself, we have killed him. This on their part is by way of mockery and derision, like the saying of the polytheists: O you upon whom the Reminder has been sent down, indeed you are mad (15:6).

Part of the story of the Jews (upon them be the curses of God, His displeasure, His wrath and His punishment) is that when God sent Jesus son of Mary with the clear proofs and guidance, they envied him for what God had given him of prophethood and dazzling miracles, by which he healed the blind and the leper and raised the dead by God’s leave, and fashioned from clay the form of a bird and then breathed into it, and it became a bird whose flight was witnessed, by the leave of God, Mighty and Majestic, and other miracles besides these with which God honoured him and which He caused to run at his hands. Yet despite this they denied him and opposed him, and strove to harm him by every means in their power, until God’s prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) would no longer dwell among them in any one town, but he and his mother (peace be upon them both) travelled much from place to place. Even that did not satisfy them, until they went to the king of Damascus in that age, who was a polytheist, one of the worshippers of the stars, and the people of his religion were called the Greeks (al-Yūnān), and they reported to him that there was a man in Jerusalem who was seducing the people, leading them astray and corrupting the king’s subjects against him. The king was angered by this and wrote to his deputy in Jerusalem to take precautions against this man who had been mentioned, to crucify him, to place thorns upon his head and to put a stop to his harming of the people. When the letter arrived, the governor of Jerusalem complied with it, and he went with a party of the Jews to the house in which Jesus (peace be upon him) was, he being in a company of his companions, twelve or thirteen, or, as it was said, seventeen persons. That was on Friday after the afternoon prayer, on the eve of the Sabbath, and they besieged him there. When he sensed them, and that there was no escaping either their coming in upon him or his going out to them, he said to his companions: “Which of you will have my likeness cast upon him, and he shall be my companion in Paradise?” A young man among them volunteered for that, but it was as though he considered him too young for it, so he repeated the question a second and a third time, and each time none volunteered but that same young man. So he said: “You are he.” And God cast upon him the likeness of Jesus, until it was as if he were he himself. A skylight was opened in the roof of the house, and a slumber of sleep overtook Jesus (peace be upon him), and he was raised to heaven in that state, as God Exalted said: When God said, “O Jesus, indeed I will take you and raise you to Myself and purify you from those who disbelieve” to the end of the verse (3:55).

When he had been raised, those persons went out, and when the others saw that young man they thought that he was Jesus, so they seized him in the night and crucified him, and they placed the thorns upon his head. The Jews then made it known that they had striven to crucify him, and they boasted of that; and groups of the Christians conceded that to them, out of their ignorance and the smallness of their understanding, except for those who had been in the house with the Messiah, for they witnessed his being raised. As for the rest, they supposed, as the Jews supposed, that the one crucified was the Messiah son of Mary, so much so that they mentioned that Mary sat beneath that crucified man and wept, and it is said that he addressed her; and God knows best.

All of this is part of God’s testing of His servants, for the far-reaching wisdom He has in that. God has made the matter plain, revealed it, clarified it and made it manifest in the Mighty Qurʾān which He sent down upon His noble Messenger, who was supported with miracles, clear proofs and manifest evidences. So He said, Exalted, and He is the most truthful of speakers, the Lord of the worlds, Who is acquainted with secrets and inner thoughts, Who knows the hidden in the heavens and the earth, the Knower of what was and what will be, and of what has not been, how it would be were it to be: and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them (4:157), that is, they saw his likeness and supposed it to be him. For this reason He said: And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of conjecture, and they did not kill him for certain; rather, God raised him to Himself (4:157-158). By this He means those of the Jews who claimed to have killed him and those of the ignorant Christians who conceded it to them: all of them are in doubt about that, and in bewilderment, error and frenzy. For this reason He said: and they did not kill him for certain (4:157), that is, they did not kill him while certain that it was he; rather, they were doubting and imagining. Rather, God raised him to Himself. And God is ever Mighty and Wise (4:158), that is, inaccessible in His majesty, His majesty cannot be assailed, nor is anyone wronged who takes refuge at His door; Wise, that is, in all that He ordains and decrees of the affairs which He creates, and His is the far-reaching wisdom, the crushing proof, the mighty authority and the eternal command.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: Aḥmad ibn Sinān related to us: Abū Muʿāwiyah related to us, from al-Aʿmash, from al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When God wished to raise Jesus to heaven, he came out to his companions, and in the house were twelve men of the disciples; that is, he came out to them from a spring in the house, with his head dripping water, and he said: “Among you is one who will disbelieve in me twelve times after having believed in me.” Then he said: “Which of you will have my likeness cast upon him, so that he is killed in my place and is with me in my rank?” A young man, one of the youngest of them in age, stood up, and he said to him: “Sit down.” Then he repeated it to them, and that young man stood up, and he said: “Sit down.” Then he repeated it to them, and the young man stood up and said: “I.” He said: “You are that one.” So the likeness of Jesus was cast upon him, and Jesus was raised from a skylight in the house to heaven. He said: The search party from the Jews came, and they seized the likeness and killed him, and then crucified him; and some of them disbelieved in him twelve times after having believed in him. They split into three sects. One group said: “God was among us for as long as He willed, then He ascended to heaven”; these are the Jacobites. Another sect said: “The son of God was among us for as long as he willed, then God raised him to Himself”; these are the Nestorians. And another sect said: “The servant of God and His Messenger was among us for as long as he willed, then God raised him to Himself”; these are the Muslims. The two unbelieving sects then joined together against the Muslim one and killed it, and Islam remained obliterated until God sent Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

This is a sound chain of transmission (isnād) to Ibn ʿAbbās. Al-Nasāʾī related it from Abū Kurayb, from Abū Muʿāwiyah, with a similar text. Likewise more than one of the early generations (salaf) mentioned that he said to them: “Which of you will have my likeness cast upon him, so that he is killed in my place, and he shall be my companion in Paradise?”

Ibn Jarīr said: Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Yaʿqūb al-Qummī related to us, from Hārūn ibn ʿAntarah, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: Jesus was come upon while seventeen of the disciples were with him in a house, and they surrounded them. When they came in upon him, God, Mighty and Majestic, fashioned all of them in the form of Jesus, and they said to them: “You have bewitched us! Either Jesus comes out to us, or we shall kill you all.” Jesus said to his companions: “Which of you will sell his soul today for Paradise?” A man among them said: “I.” So he went out to them and said: “I am Jesus”, God having fashioned him in the form of Jesus, and they seized him, killed him and crucified him. Hence it was made to appear so to them, and they supposed that they had killed Jesus, and the Christians likewise supposed that it was Jesus; and God raised Jesus on that very day. This is an exceedingly strange (gharīb) account.

Ibn Jarīr said: Something like this opinion has been related from Wahb, and it is what al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me that he heard Wahb say: When God informed Jesus son of Mary that he was departing from this world, he was distressed at death and it weighed heavily upon him, so he summoned the disciples and prepared food for them, and said: “Be present with me tonight, for I have a need of you.” When they had gathered to him in the night, he gave them supper and stood serving them. When they had finished the food, he began to wash their hands and perform their ablutions for them with his own hand, and to wipe their hands with his garments. They considered that too great a thing and were averse to it, but he said: “Behold, whoever refuses me anything tonight of what I do, he is not of me and I am not of him.” So they allowed him, until, when he had finished that, he said: “As for what I have done with you tonight, in serving you at the meal and washing your hands with my own hand, let it be an example for you from me; for you see that I am the best of you, so let none of you exalt himself over another, and let each of you give himself up for the others, as I have given myself up for you. As for my need of you tonight, in which I seek your help, it is that you pray to God for me, and that you strive in supplication that my appointed term be deferred.” But when they set themselves to supplication and wished to strive in it, sleep overtook them, so that they were unable to pray. He began to wake them, saying: “Glory be to God! Will you not bear with me a single night in which you help me?” They said: “By God, we do not know what has come over us. We used to stay up conversing at night and would converse at length, yet tonight we cannot manage any conversation, and whenever we wish to pray a barrier is placed between us and it.” He said: “The shepherd is taken away and the sheep are scattered.” And he began to utter words like this, lamenting his own death. Then he said: “Truly, one of you will deny me three times before the cock crows, and one of you will sell me for a few dirhams, and will devour my price.” Then they went out and dispersed. The Jews were seeking him, and they seized Simon (Shamʿūn), one of the disciples, and said: “This is one of his companions.” But he denied it and said: “I am not his companion”, so they let him go. Then others seized him, and he denied it likewise. Then he heard the voice of a cock, and he wept, and it grieved him. When morning came, one of the disciples came to the Jews and said: “What will you give me if I lead you to the Messiah?” They assigned him thirty dirhams, and he took them and led them to him, and it had been made to appear so to them before that. So they seized him and bound him securely, and tied him with the rope, and began to lead him along, saying to him: “You used to raise the dead, rebuke Satan and heal the possessed; can you not save yourself from this rope?” And they spat upon him and cast thorns upon him, until they brought him to the piece of wood upon which they wished to crucify him. Then God raised him to Himself, and they crucified what was made to appear to them, and it remained for seven days.

Then his mother and the woman whom Jesus (peace be upon him) had been treating, and whom God had cured of madness, came weeping to where the crucified man was. Jesus came to them and said: “For what are you weeping?” They said: “For you.” He said: “God has raised me to Himself, and nothing but good has befallen me; and this one was made to appear so to them. So bid the disciples to meet me at such-and-such a place.” So eleven of them met him at that place. They missed the one who had sold him and led the Jews to him, and he asked his companions about him, and one said: “He regretted what he had done, so he hanged himself and killed himself.” He said: “Had he repented, God would have accepted his repentance.” Then he asked them about a lad who used to follow them, called John (Yaḥyā), and said: “He is with you. So go forth, for every one of you shall in the morning speak in the tongue of a people; let him warn them and call them.” An exceedingly strange account.

Then Ibn Jarīr said: Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: The name of the king of the Children of Israel who sent to Jesus in order to kill him was a man among them called David (Dāwūd). When they had resolved upon that against him, no servant among the servants of God was ever, so far as has been mentioned to me, so appalled at death as he was appalled at it, nor so distressed by it as he was distressed, nor did any supplicate God to turn it away from him as he supplicated, so that he said, as they claim: “O God, if You are going to turn this cup away from any one of Your creatures, then turn it away from me”, and so that his skin, from the anguish of that, streamed with blood. Then he entered the place of entry in which they had resolved to come in upon him to kill him, he and his companions, they being thirteen including Jesus (peace be upon him). When he was certain that they were coming in upon him, he said to his companions among the disciples, who were twelve men: Peter (Fuṭrus), James son of Zebedee (Yaʿqūb ibn Zabdī), John (Yuḥannas) the brother of James, Andrew (Andarābīs), Philip (Fīlibs), Bartholomew (Abrathulmā), Matthew (Minnā), Thomas (Tūmās), James son of Alphaeus (Yaʿqūb ibn Ḥalfiyā), Thaddaeus (Tadāwsīs), Simon the Zealot (Qathāniyā) and Judas Iscariot (Yūdis Zakariyyā Yūṭā).

Ibn Ḥumayd said: Salamah said: Ibn Isḥāq said: There was among them, according to what has been mentioned to me, a man whose name was Sergius (Sirjis), so they were thirteen men apart from Jesus (peace be upon him). The Christians have denied him, and that is because he is the one who was made to resemble Jesus (peace be upon him) in the eyes of the Jews, in his place. He said: So I do not know what he was: whether he was one of these twelve, or was a thirteenth. They denied him when they conceded to the Jews the crucifixion of Jesus, and disbelieved in the report of him which Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) brought. If they were thirteen, then they entered the place of entry, when they entered, being fourteen with Jesus; and if they were twelve, then they entered the place of entry, when they entered, being thirteen.

Ibn Isḥāq said: A man who had been a Christian and became a Muslim related to me that when there came to Jesus from God indeed I will take you and raise you to Myself (3:55), he said: “O company of disciples, which of you would like to be my companion in Paradise, on condition that he be made to appear to the people in my form, so that they kill him in my place?” Sergius said: “I, O Spirit of God.” He said: “Then sit in my seat.” So he sat in it, and Jesus (peace be upon him) was raised. Then they came in upon him and seized him and crucified him; so he was the one whom they crucified and who was made to appear to them as him. Their number when they went in with Jesus was known, for they had seen them and counted their number. When they came in upon him to seize him, they found Jesus, as they supposed, and his companions, but they missed one man from the number; and he is the one about whom they differed. They did not know Jesus, so that they assigned to Judas Iscariot thirty dirhams on condition that he lead them to him and point him out to them. He said to them: “When you go in to him, I shall kiss him; and the one I kiss, he is the one, so seize him.” When they went in, Jesus had already been raised, and he saw Sergius in the form of Jesus, and did not doubt that he was Jesus, so he bent over him and kissed him, and they seized him and crucified him.

Then Judas Iscariot regretted what he had done, and hanged himself with a rope until he killed himself. He is accursed among the Christians, though he had been one of those counted among his companions. Some of the Christians claim that Judas Iscariot was the one who was made to appear to them as him, and that they crucified him while he was saying: “I am not your man. I am the one who led you to him.” And God knows best which of these it was.

Ibn Jarīr said, from Mujāhid: They crucified a man whom they took to resemble Jesus, and God, Mighty and Majestic, raised Jesus to heaven alive.

Ibn Jarīr preferred the view that the likeness of Jesus was cast upon all of his companions.

His words, Exalted: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159)

Ibn Jarīr said: The people of interpretation differed concerning the meaning of that.

• Some of them said: the meaning of that is: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him, meaning in Jesus, before his death, meaning before the death of Jesus. He directed that to the sense that all of them will affirm him when he descends to kill the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl), so that all the religions become one, namely the upright (ḥanīfiyyah) religion of Islam, the religion of Abraham (peace be upon him).

Those who said this

Ibn Bashshār related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Abū Ḥuṣayn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; he said: before the death of Jesus son of Mary. Al-ʿAwfī said the like of that, from Ibn ʿAbbās.

Abū Mālik said concerning His words but will surely believe in him before his death: That is at the descent of Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him); not one of the People of the Book will remain but will believe in him.

Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said, from Ibn ʿAbbās: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death, meaning the Jews in particular. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said: meaning the Negus (al-Najāshī) and his companions. Both of these were related by Ibn Abī Ḥātim.

Ibn Jarīr said: Yaʿqūb related to me: Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us: Abū Rajāʾ related to us, from al-Ḥasan: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; he said: before the death of Jesus. By God, he is now alive with God, but when he descends they will all believe in him.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father related to us: ʿAlī ibn ʿUthmān al-Lāḥiqī related to us: Juwayriyah ibn Bishr related to us, saying: I heard a man say to al-Ḥasan: “O Abū Saʿīd, the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death?” He said: “Before the death of Jesus. God raised Jesus to Himself, and He will send him forth before the Day of Resurrection in a station in which the righteous and the wicked alike will believe in him.”

Likewise said Qatādah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam and more than one other. This opinion is the truth, as we shall make clear hereafter with decisive proof, God willing; in Him is our trust and upon Him our reliance.

Ibn Jarīr said:

• Others said: the meaning of that is: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before the death of the person of the Book. He mentioned those who directed that to the sense that when one sees with his own eyes he knows the truth from falsehood, because everyone upon whom death descends, his soul does not depart until the truth becomes distinct for him from falsehood in his religion.

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah said, from Ibn ʿAbbās, on His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; he said: No Jew dies until he believes in Jesus.

Al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, on His words but will surely believe in him before his death: Every possessor of a Book believes in Jesus before his death, that is, before the death of the possessor of the Book. And Ibn ʿAbbās said: Were you to strike off his neck, his soul would not depart until he believed in Jesus.

Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Abū Numaylah Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us: Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, from Yazīd al-Naḥwī, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Jew does not die until he bears witness that Jesus is the servant of God and His Messenger, even if he is hastened to death by the sword.

Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥabīb ibn al-Shahīd related to me: ʿAttāb ibn Bashīr related to us, from Khuṣayf, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; he said: In the reading of Ubayy it is before their death¹¹: there is no Jew who ever dies until he believes in Jesus. It was said to Ibn ʿAbbās: “What if he falls from the top of a house?” He said: “He utters it as he falls.” It was said: “What if the neck of one of them is struck off?” He said: “His tongue stammers it out.”

Likewise Sufyān al-Thawrī related from Khuṣayf, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; he said: No Jew dies until he believes in Jesus (peace be upon him); if he is struck with the sword he utters it; and he said: if he falls, he utters it as he is falling.

Likewise Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī related from Shuʿbah, from Abū Hārūn al-Ghanawī, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās. All these are sound chains of transmission to Ibn ʿAbbās, and it is likewise soundly transmitted from Mujāhid, ʿIkrimah and Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Juwaybir and al-Suddī held this view, and he reported it from Ibn ʿAbbās and transmitted the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: “before their death”.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq said, from Isrāʾīl, from Furāt al-Qazzāz, from al-Ḥasan, on His words but will surely believe in him before his death; he said: Not one of them dies until he believes in Jesus before he dies.

This may possibly mean that al-Ḥasan intended what was previously cited from him, or it may be that he intended what these others intended.

Ibn Jarīr said:

• Others said: the meaning of that is: and there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) before the death of the person of the Book.

Those who said this

Ibn al-Muthannā related to me: al-Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl related to us: Ḥammād related to us, from Ḥumayd, who said: ʿIkrimah said: Neither the Christian nor the Jew dies until he believes in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death.

Then Ibn Jarīr said: The most worthy of these opinions to be correct is the first opinion, namely that not one of the People of the Book will remain after the descent of Jesus (peace be upon him) but will believe in him before his death, that is, before the death of Jesus (peace be upon him). There is no doubt that this which Ibn Jarīr (may God have mercy on him) said is the correct view, because it is what is intended by the sequence of the verses in establishing the falsity of what the Jews claimed regarding the killing of Jesus and his crucifixion, and the concession of that to them by those ignorant Christians who conceded it. God informed that the matter was not so; rather, it was made to appear so to them, and they killed the one who resembled him while not discerning that. Then He raised him to Himself, and he remains alive, and he will descend before the Day of Resurrection, as the mass-transmitted (mutawātir) ḥadīths indicate, which we shall cite shortly, God willing, and he will kill the Messiah of misguidance, break the cross, kill the swine and abolish the poll tax (jizyah), meaning he will not accept it from anyone of the people of the various religions, but will accept nothing but Islam or the sword. This noble verse thus informs that all the People of the Book will believe in him at that time, and not one of them will hold back from affirming him. For this reason He said: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death, that is, before the death of Jesus, whom the Jews and those Christians who agreed with them claimed had been killed and crucified.

And on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159): that is, to their deeds which he witnessed from them before his being raised to heaven and after his descent to the earth. As for those who interpreted this verse as meaning that every person of the Book does not die until he believes in Jesus or in Muḥammad (blessings and peace be upon them both), this is indeed what actually happens, for every person at the moment of his dying has revealed to him that of which he was ignorant, and so he believes in it; but that is not a faith which benefits him, since he has already seen the angel, as God Exalted said at the beginning of this sūrah: But repentance is not for those who do evil deeds until, when death comes to one of them, he says, “Indeed, I repent now”, nor for those who die while they are disbelievers to the end of the verse (4:18); and God Exalted said: And when they saw Our punishment, they said, “We believe in God alone, and we disbelieve in that which we used to associate with Him.” But their faith did not benefit them once they saw Our punishment, the two verses (40:84-85). This shows the weakness of what Ibn Jarīr argued in refuting this opinion, where he said: “Were this the meaning of this verse, then everyone who believed in Muḥammad or in the Messiah, among those who had disbelieved in them, would be upon their religion, and in that case his relatives of his own religion would not inherit from him, because the Truthful One has informed that he believes in him before his death.” This is not sound, for it does not follow from his believing in a state in which his faith does not benefit him that he thereby becomes a Muslim. Do you not see the saying of Ibn ʿAbbās: “Even were he to fall from a height, or be struck with a sword, or be torn by a beast of prey, he must inevitably believe in Jesus”? So faith in such states as these is of no benefit, and does not transfer its possessor out of his disbelief, for the reason we have set out; and God knows best.

Whoever considers this well and looks closely into it, it will become clear to him that this, even though it is what actually happens, does not entail that it is what is meant by this verse. Rather, what is meant by it is what we have mentioned: the affirmation of the existence of Jesus (peace be upon him), the continuance of his life in heaven, and that he will descend to the earth before the Day of Resurrection in order to give the lie to both these and those among the Jews and the Christians, whose sayings about him have diverged, opposed one another, contradicted and conflicted with one another, and are devoid of the truth. These Jews fell short and these Christians went to excess: the Jews disparaged him with the enormities of which they accused him and his mother, while the Christians extolled him to the point of claiming for him what is not in him, raising him, in opposition to the former, from the station of prophethood to the station of lordship. Exalted is God far above the saying of both these and those, and sanctified and holy is He; there is no god but He.

The ḥadīths transmitted concerning the descent of Jesus son of Mary from heaven to the earth at the end of time before the Day of Resurrection, and that he will call to the worship of God alone, Who has no partner

Al-Bukhārī (may God have mercy on him) said in the Book of the Mention of the Prophets, in his Ṣaḥīḥ which has been received with acceptance, under “The descent of Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him)”: Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm related to us: Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us: my father related to us, from Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn Shihāb, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “By Him in Whose hand is my soul, the son of Mary is surely about to descend among you as a just judge. He will break the cross, kill the swine and abolish the poll tax, and wealth will overflow until no one will accept it, until a single prostration will be better than this world and all that is in it.” Then Abū Hurayrah would say: Recite if you wish: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159).

Muslim likewise related it from al-Ḥasan al-Ḥulwānī and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, both from Yaʿqūb, with this chain. Al-Bukhārī and Muslim also recorded it from the ḥadīth of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from al-Zuhrī, with this chain. And they both recorded it by way of al-Layth, from al-Zuhrī, with this chain. Ibn Mardawayh related it by way of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥafṣah, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The son of Mary is about to be among you as a just judge. He will kill the Antichrist, kill the swine, break the cross and abolish the poll tax, and wealth will overflow, and prostration will be one, to God, the Lord of the worlds.” Abū Hurayrah said: Recite if you wish: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before the death of Jesus son of Mary. Then Abū Hurayrah would repeat it three times.

Another route from Abū Hurayrah: Imām Aḥmad said: Rawḥ related to us: Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥafṣah related to us, from al-Zuhrī, from Ḥanẓalah ibn ʿAlī al-Aslamī, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Jesus son of Mary will surely raise the cry of talbiyah at the pass of al-Rawḥāʾ¹² for the pilgrimage (ḥajj) or the lesser pilgrimage (ʿumrah), or he will surely combine them both together.”

Muslim likewise related it, alone in recording it, from the ḥadīth of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, al-Layth ibn Saʿd and Yūnus ibn Yazīd, all three from al-Zuhrī, with this chain.

Aḥmad said: Yazīd related to us: Sufyān, that is Ibn Ḥusayn, related to us, from al-Zuhrī, from Ḥanẓalah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Jesus son of Mary will descend and kill the swine, and efface the cross, and the prayer will be gathered for him, and he will give out wealth until it is no longer accepted, and he will abolish the land tax (kharāj), and he will come down to al-Rawḥāʾ and perform the pilgrimage from there, or the lesser pilgrimage, or combine them both.” He said: And Abū Hurayrah recited: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159). Ḥanẓalah claimed that Abū Hurayrah said: “he will believe in him before the death of Jesus”; so I do not know whether all this is the ḥadīth of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or something which Abū Hurayrah said.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim likewise related it from his father, from Abū Mūsā Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, from Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn, from al-Zuhrī, with this chain.

Another route: al-Bukhārī said: Ibn Bukayr related to us: al-Layth related to us, from Yūnus, from Ibn Shihāb, from Nāfiʿ the client of Abū Qatādah al-Anṣārī, that Abū Hurayrah said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “How will you be when the Messiah son of Mary descends among you, and your leader (imām) is from among you?” ʿUqayl and al-Awzāʿī followed him in it.

Imām Aḥmad related it thus from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, and from ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar, from Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, both from al-Zuhrī, with this chain. Muslim recorded it from the transmission of Yūnus, al-Awzāʿī and Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, with this chain.

Another route: Imām Aḥmad said: ʿAffān related to us: Hammām related to us: Qatādah informed us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The prophets are brothers from one father with different mothers; their mothers are various but their religion is one. I am the closest of people to Jesus son of Mary, because there was no prophet between me and him. He will descend, and when you see him, recognise him: a man of medium build, tending to redness and whiteness, wearing two garments dyed light yellow, his head as if dripping though no wetness has touched it. He will smash the cross, kill the swine, abolish the poll tax and call the people to Islam. In his time God will destroy all the religions except Islam, and in his time God will destroy the Messiah the Antichrist. Then security will settle upon the earth, so that lions will graze with camels, leopards with cattle and wolves with sheep, and children will play with snakes without their harming them. He will remain forty years, then he will die, and the Muslims will pray over him.”

Abū Dāwūd likewise related it from Hudbah ibn Khālid, from Hammām ibn Yaḥyā. Ibn Jarīr related it, and he cited no other ḥadīth than this at this verse, from Bishr ibn Muʿādh, from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, both of them from Qatādah, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ādam, who is the client of Umm Burthun, the keeper of the drinking-place, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he mentioned the like of it, and said: “and he will fight the people for the sake of Islam.”

Al-Bukhārī related from Abū al-Yamān, from Shuʿayb, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I am the closest of people to Jesus son of Mary; the prophets are children of one father with different mothers, and there is no prophet between me and him.”

Then he related from Muḥammad ibn Sinān, from Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān, from Hilāl ibn ʿAlī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿAmrah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I am the closest of people to Jesus son of Mary in this world and the Hereafter. The prophets are brothers from one father with different mothers; their mothers are various but their religion is one.” And Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān said, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Ṣafwān ibn Sulaym, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and he mentioned it.

Another ḥadīth: Muslim said in his Ṣaḥīḥ: Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb related to me: Muʿallā ibn Manṣūr related to us: Sulaymān ibn Bilāl related to us: Suhayl related to us, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The Hour will not come until the Romans (al-Rūm) encamp at al-Aʿmāq, or at Dābiq¹³. An army will go out to them from Medina, of the best people of the earth on that day. When they have drawn up in ranks, the Romans will say: ‘Leave us alone with those who took captives from among us, that we may fight them.’ The Muslims will say: ‘No, by God, we will not leave you alone with our brothers.’ So they will fight them, and a third will be routed, whose repentance God will never accept; a third will be killed, the best of martyrs with God, Mighty and Majestic; and a third will conquer, who will never be put to trial, and they will conquer Constantinople. While they are dividing the spoils, having hung their swords upon the olive trees, Satan will cry out among them: ‘The Messiah has taken your place among your families!’ So they will go out, and that is false. When they come to Syria, he will come forth. While they are preparing for battle, straightening the ranks, the prayer will be called, and Jesus son of Mary will descend and lead them. When the enemy of God sees him, he will melt as salt melts in water, and were he to leave him he would melt away until he perished; but God will kill him by his hand, and he will show them his blood upon his spear.”

Another ḥadīth: Imām Aḥmad said: Hushaym related to us, from al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab, from Jabalah ibn Suḥaym, from Muʾaththir ibn ʿAfāzah, from Ibn Masʿūd, from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “On the night on which I was taken on the night journey I met Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them), and they discussed together the matter of the Hour. They referred their matter to Abraham, and he said: ‘I have no knowledge of it.’ So they referred their matter to Moses, and he said: ‘I have no knowledge of it.’ So they referred their matter to Jesus, and he said: ‘As for the moment of its coming, no one knows it but God; but among what my Lord, Mighty and Majestic, has entrusted to me is that the Antichrist will come forth.’ He said: ‘And I shall have with me two rods, and when he sees me he will melt as lead melts.’ He said: ‘God will destroy him when he sees me, so that even the stone and the tree will say: “O Muslim, beneath me is an unbeliever, so come and kill him.”‘ He said: ‘So God will destroy them. Then the people will return to their lands and their homelands, and at that point Gog and Magog will come forth, and they, from every elevation, will swarm down. They will trample their lands, and they will not come upon anything without destroying it, nor pass by any water without drinking it.’ He said: ‘Then the people will return to me complaining of them, and I shall pray to God against them, and He will destroy them and cause them to die, until the earth stinks with the stench of their odour. Then God will send down the rain, and it will sweep away their bodies until it casts them into the sea. Among what my Lord, Mighty and Majestic, has entrusted to me is that when that has come to pass, the Hour will be like a woman at full term in her pregnancy, whose household do not know when she will surprise them with her delivery, by night or by day.’”

Ibn Mājah related it from Muḥammad ibn Bashshār, from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, from al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab, with this chain, with a similar text.

Another ḥadīth: Imām Aḥmad said: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us: Ḥammād ibn Salamah informed us, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from Abū Naḍrah, who said: We came to ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ on a Friday, in order to compare a copy of the Qurʾān (muṣḥaf) of ours with his copy. When the time of the Friday prayer came, he ordered us and we performed the major ablution; then we were brought perfume and we perfumed ourselves; then we came to the mosque and sat with a man, who spoke to us about the Antichrist. Then ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ came, and we rose for him, and then we sat, and he said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The Muslims will have three garrison towns: a town at the meeting-place of the two seas, a town at al-Ḥīrah and a town in Syria. The people will be struck with three panics, and the Antichrist will come forth among the fringes of the people, and he will be routed from the direction of the east. The first town he comes to will be the town at the meeting-place of the two seas, and its people will become three parties: a party that stays, saying, ‘We will test him and see what he is’; a party that joins the Bedouin; and a party that joins the town next to them. With the Antichrist will be seventy thousand wearing green cloaks (sījān), and most of those with him will be the Jews and women. Then he will come to the town next to it, and its people will become three parties: a party that says, ‘We will test him and see what he is’; a party that joins the Bedouin; and a party that joins the town next to them in the west of Syria. The Muslims will withdraw to the pass of Afīq¹⁴, and they will send out their grazing animals, and their animals will be seized, and that will weigh heavily upon them, and severe famine and severe hardship will afflict them, so that one of them will burn the string of his bow and eat it. While they are in that state, a caller will call out at dawn: ‘O people, relief has come to you!’ three times. They will say to one another: ‘This is surely the voice of a well-fed man.’ And Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) will descend at the time of the dawn prayer. Their commander will say to him: ‘O Spirit of God, step forward and lead the prayer.’ But he will say: ‘This community are commanders, one over another.’ So their commander will step forward and lead the prayer, and when he has finished his prayer, Jesus will take his spear and go towards the Antichrist. When the Antichrist sees him he will melt as lead melts, and he will set his spear between his breasts and kill him, and his companions will be routed. On that day there will be nothing to conceal anyone, so that even the tree will say: ‘O believer, here is an unbeliever’, and the stone will say: ‘O believer, here is an unbeliever.’” Aḥmad alone related it by this route.

Another ḥadīth: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Mājah said in his well-known Sunan: ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muḥāribī related to us, from Ismāʿīl ibn Rāfiʿ Abū Rāfiʿ, from Abū Zurʿah al-Shaybānī Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr, from Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) addressed us, and the greater part of his address was a discourse he gave us about the Antichrist, warning us against him. Among what he said was:

“There has been no tribulation on the earth, since God scattered abroad the progeny of Adam (peace be upon him), greater than the tribulation of the Antichrist. God has not sent a prophet but that he warned his community against the Antichrist. I am the last of the prophets, and you are the last of the communities, and he will without doubt come forth among you. If he comes forth while I am among you, then I am the advocate of every Muslim; and if he comes forth after me, then every man is his own advocate, and God is my deputy over every Muslim. He will come forth from a gap between Syria and Iraq, and he will wreak havoc to the right and wreak havoc to the left.

“O servants of God, O people, stand firm! I shall describe him to you with a description with which no prophet before me has described him. He will begin by saying, ‘I am a prophet’, but there is no prophet after me. Then he will say a second time, ‘I am your Lord’, but you will not see your Lord until you die. He is one-eyed, and your Lord, Mighty and Majestic, is not one-eyed. Between his eyes is written ‘unbeliever’ (kāfir), which every believer will read, whether literate or illiterate. Part of his tribulation is that he will have with him a garden and a fire; but his fire is a garden and his garden is a fire. Whoever is tried with his fire, let him seek help from God and recite the opening verses of al-Kahf, and it will be coolness and peace for him, as the fire was for Abraham (peace be upon him). Part of his tribulation is that he will say to a Bedouin: ‘Tell me, if I raise your father and your mother for you, will you bear witness that I am your Lord?’ He will say: ‘Yes.’ Then two devils will appear to him in the form of his father and his mother, and they will say: ‘My son, follow him, for he is your Lord.’ Part of his tribulation is that he will be given power over a single soul, and he will kill it and saw it in two with a saw, until it is cast down in two halves; then he will say: ‘Look at this servant of mine, for I shall now raise him, and then he will claim that he has a Lord other than me.’ God will raise him, and the foul one will say to him: ‘Who is your Lord?’ He will say: ‘My Lord is God, and you are the enemy of God, the Antichrist. By God, I was never more clear-sighted about you than I am today.’” Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ṭanāfisī said: al-Muḥāribī related to us: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Walīd al-Waṣṣāfī related to us, from ʿAṭiyyah, from Abū Saʿīd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “That man will be the highest of my community in rank in Paradise.”

He said: Abū Saʿīd said: By God, we did not think that man to be anyone other than ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, until he passed on his way.

Al-Muḥāribī said: Then we return to the ḥadīth of Abū Rāfiʿ. He said: “Part of his tribulation is that he will command the sky to rain, and it will rain, and command the earth to bring forth vegetation, and it will bring it forth. Part of his tribulation is that he will pass by a tribe and they will disbelieve him, and not one of their grazing animals will remain but will perish. And part of his tribulation is that he will pass by a tribe and they will believe him, and he will command the sky to rain, and it will rain, and command the earth to bring forth vegetation, and it will bring it forth, so that their livestock will return in the evening of that very day fatter than they ever were and larger, with their flanks fuller and their udders more flowing with milk. There will remain nothing of the earth but that he will tread upon it and prevail over it, except Mecca and Medina, for he will not approach them by any one of their mountain passes but that the angels will meet him with drawn swords, until he comes to a halt at the Red Hillock, where the salt marsh ends. Then Medina will quake with its people three quakings, and no hypocrite, man or woman, will remain but will go out to him, and so it will cast out its dross as the bellows cast out the dross of iron, and that day will be called the Day of Deliverance.”

Umm Sharīk bint Abī al-ʿAkar said: “O Messenger of God, where will the Arabs be on that day?” He said: “They will be few, and most of them will be in Jerusalem, and their leader will be a righteous man. While their leader has stepped forward to lead them in the dawn prayer, Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) will descend upon them at dawn. That leader will draw back, retreating and walking backwards, so that Jesus may step forward to lead the people in prayer; but Jesus (peace be upon him) will place his hand between his shoulders and then say: ‘Step forward and pray, for it was called for you.’ So their leader will lead them in prayer, and when he has finished, Jesus (peace be upon him) will say: ‘Open the gate.’ It will be opened, and behind it will be the Antichrist, with him seventy thousand Jews, each of them bearing an ornamented sword and wearing a green cloak. When the Antichrist looks at him, he will melt as salt melts in water, and will set off in flight, and Jesus (peace be upon him) will say: ‘I have a blow in store for you which you shall not escape.’ He will overtake him at the eastern gate of Ludd¹⁵ and kill him, and God will rout the Jews, and nothing will remain of what God Exalted has created behind which a Jew hides but that God will make that thing speak, neither stone nor tree nor wall nor beast, except the gharqad tree, for it is one of their trees and will not speak, saying: ‘O servant of God, O Muslim, here is a Jew, so come and kill him.’”

The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “His days will be forty years: a year like half a year, a year like a month, a month like a week, and the last of his days like a spark; one of you will rise in the morning at one gate of the city and will not reach its other gate before evening falls.” It was said to him: “O Prophet of God, how shall we pray in those short days?” He said: “You will estimate the prayer in them as you estimate it in these long days, and then pray.”

The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Then Jesus son of Mary will be in my community a just judge and an equitable leader. He will smash the cross, kill the swine, abolish the poll tax and leave off the alms tax, so that no collector will be sent out after sheep or camel. Rancour and mutual hatred will be lifted, and the venom of every venomous creature will be drawn out, so that the infant will put his hand into the mouth of the snake and it will not harm him, and the little girl will chase away the lion and it will not harm her, and the wolf will be among the sheep as though it were their dog. The earth will be filled with peace as a vessel is filled with water, and the word will be one, so that none will be worshipped but God, and war will lay down its burdens, and Quraysh will be stripped of their kingship. The earth will be like a platter of silver, bringing forth its vegetation as in the days of Adam, so that a group of people will gather around a single bunch of grapes and it will satisfy them, and a group will gather around a single pomegranate and it will satisfy them. An ox will be worth such-and-such an amount of money, and a horse will be worth a few paltry dirhams.”

It was said: “O Messenger of God, what will make the horse so cheap?” He said: “It will never again be ridden for war.” It was said to him: “Then what will make the ox so dear?” He said: “The whole earth will be ploughed.”

“Before the coming forth of the Antichrist there will be three hard years, in which severe hunger will afflict the people. In the first year God will command the sky to withhold a third of its rain, and He will command the earth and it will withhold a third of its vegetation. Then in the second year He will command the sky and it will withhold two thirds of its rain, and He will command the earth and it will withhold two thirds of its vegetation. Then in the third year God will command the sky and it will withhold all its rain, so that not a drop falls, and He will command the earth to withhold all its vegetation, so that nothing green grows, and no cloven-hoofed animal will remain but will perish, except what God wills.”

It was said: “Then what will keep the people alive in that time?” He said: “Declaring God’s oneness, magnifying Him, glorifying Him and praising Him; and that will serve them in place of food.”

Ibn Mājah said: I heard Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ṭanāfisī say: I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muḥāribī say: This ḥadīth ought to be handed over to the schoolmaster, so that he may teach it to the boys in the school.

This is an exceedingly strange ḥadīth by this route, though parts of it have corroborating witnesses in other ḥadīths. Let us mention here the ḥadīth of al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān, because of its resemblance in its narrative to this ḥadīth. Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj said in his Ṣaḥīḥ:

Abū Khaythamah Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb related to us: al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir related to me: Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Ṭāʾī, the judge of Ḥimṣ, related to me: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr related to me, from his father Jubayr ibn Nufayr al-Ḥaḍramī, that he heard al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān al-Kilābī; and (by another chain) Muḥammad ibn Mihrān al-Rāzī related to us: al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir related to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Ṭāʾī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr, from his father Jubayr ibn Nufayr, from al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the Antichrist one morning, and he lowered his voice and raised it in speaking of him, until we thought him to be in the cluster of palm trees. When we went to him, he perceived that in us, and said: “What is the matter with you?” We said: “O Messenger of God, you mentioned the Antichrist this morning, and you lowered your voice and raised it in speaking of him, until we thought him to be in the cluster of palm trees.” He said: “It is other than the Antichrist that I fear most for you. If he comes forth while I am among you, I shall be his adversary on your behalf; and if he comes forth while I am not among you, then each man is his own advocate, and God is my deputy over every Muslim. He is a young man with tightly curled hair, his eye protruding; it is as though I liken him to ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn Qaṭan. Whoever of you reaches him, let him recite against him the opening verses of Sūrat al-Kahf. He will come forth from a gap between Syria and Iraq, and he will wreak havoc to the right and wreak havoc to the left. O servants of God, stand firm!” We said: “O Messenger of God, and how long will he remain on the earth?” He said: “Forty days: a day like a year, a day like a month, a day like a week, and the rest of his days like your days.”

We said: “O Messenger of God, that day which is like a year, will the prayer of a single day suffice us in it?” He said: “No; estimate for it its due measure.” We said: “O Messenger of God, and how swift will he be upon the earth?” He said: “Like rain driven on by the wind. He will come to a people and call them, and they will believe in him and respond to him, and he will command the sky and it will rain, and the earth and it will bring forth vegetation, and their grazing animals will return to them in the evening with their humps taller than ever they were, their udders fullest and their flanks most distended. Then he will come to a people and call them, and they will reject his word, and he will turn away from them, and in the morning they will be stricken with drought, with nothing of their wealth left in their hands. He will pass by a ruin and say to it: ‘Bring forth your treasures’, and its treasures will follow him like swarms of bees. Then he will summon a man in the fullness of youth and strike him with the sword, cutting him into two pieces the distance of a target’s throw; then he will call him, and he will come forward with his face beaming and laughing. While he is thus, God will send the Messiah son of Mary (peace be upon him), and he will descend at the white minaret in the east of Damascus, between two garments dyed with saffron, placing his palms upon the wings of two angels. When he lowers his head it drips, and when he raises it there fall from it beads like pearls. No unbeliever who catches the scent of his breath but will die, and his breath will reach as far as his sight reaches. He will pursue him until he overtakes him at the gate of Ludd and kills him.

“Then Jesus (peace be upon him) will come to a people whom God has protected from him, and he will wipe their faces and tell them of their ranks in Paradise. While he is thus, God, Mighty and Majestic, will reveal to Jesus: ‘I have brought forth servants of Mine against whom no one has the power to fight; so take My servants to safety at the Mount (al-Ṭūr).’

“God will send Gog and Magog, and they, from every elevation, will swarm down. The first of them will pass by the lake of Tiberias and drink what is in it, and the last of them will pass by and say: ‘There was once water in this.’ God’s prophet Jesus and his companions will be besieged, until the head of an ox will be better for one of them than a hundred dinars for one of you today. Then God’s prophet Jesus and his companions will beseech God, and God will send upon them worms in their necks, and in the morning they will be dead, perished like the death of a single soul.

“Then God’s prophet Jesus and his companions will come down to the earth, and they will not find on the earth the space of a hand’s breadth but that it is filled with their grease and their stench. Then God’s prophet Jesus and his companions will beseech God, and God will send birds with necks like those of Bactrian camels, which will carry them off and cast them wherever God wills.

“Then God will send rain from which no house of clay or of hair will be sheltered, and it will wash the earth until it leaves it like a mirror. Then it will be said to the earth: ‘Bring forth your fruit and restore your blessing.’ On that day a company of people will eat from a single pomegranate and shelter in the shade of its rind, and God will bless the milk, so that a single milch camel will suffice a large group of people, a milch cow will suffice a tribe of people and a milch ewe will suffice a clan of people. While they are thus, God will send a pleasant wind, which will take them beneath their armpits, and God will take the soul of every believer and every Muslim, and the worst of people will remain, copulating openly in it like the copulating of asses; and upon them the Hour will come.”

Imām Aḥmad and the authors of the Sunan related it from the ḥadīth of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir, with this chain. We shall also cite it by way of Aḥmad at His words, Exalted, in Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ: Until, when Gog and Magog are let loose, and they, from every elevation, swarm down (21:96).

Another ḥadīth: Muslim also said in his Ṣaḥīḥ: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh al-ʿAnbarī related to us: my father related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from al-Nuʿmān ibn Sālim, who said: I heard Yaʿqūb ibn ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd al-Thaqafī say: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, when a man came to him and said: “What is this ḥadīth which you relate, saying that the Hour will come at such-and-such a time?” He said: “Glory be to God!” or “There is no god but God”, or some such expression. “I had resolved never to relate anything to anyone ever again. I only said: you will shortly see a tremendous matter: the House will be burned, and such-and-such will happen.” Then he said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The Antichrist will come forth in my community and will remain forty; I do not know whether forty days, or forty months, or forty years. Then God Exalted will send Jesus son of Mary, as though he were ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd, and he will seek him out and destroy him. Then the people will remain seven years with no enmity between any two. Then God will send a cold wind from the direction of Syria, and no one will remain on the face of the earth with the weight of an atom of good, or of faith, in his heart but it will take him, so that even if one of you were to enter into the heart of a mountain it would enter in upon him until it took him.” He said: I heard it from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: “Then the worst of people will remain, with the lightness of birds and the instincts of beasts of prey, knowing no good and disapproving of no evil. Satan will appear to them and say: ‘Will you not respond?’ They will say: ‘What do you command us?’ He will command them to worship idols, and in that state their provision will be flowing and their livelihood will be good. Then the Trumpet will be blown, and no one will hear it but will bend his neck to one side and raise it to the other.” He said: “The first to hear it will be a man plastering the water-trough of his camels.” He said: “He will fall down senseless, and the people will fall down senseless. Then God will send, or he said: God will send down, rain like dew, or he said: like shade (al-Nuʿmān was the one in doubt), and from it the bodies of people will grow. Then it will be blown a second time, and behold, they will be standing, looking on. Then it will be said: ‘O people, come to your Lord’, and stop them, for they are to be questioned (37:24).” He said: “Then it will be said: ‘Bring out the contingent of the Fire.’ It will be said: ‘Out of how many?’ It will be said: ‘Out of every thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.’” He said: “That is the day that will make the children grey-haired (73:17), and that is the Day when the shin will be uncovered (68:42).”

Then Muslim and al-Nasāʾī, in his Tafsīr, both related it from Muḥammad ibn Bashshār, from Ghundar, from Shuʿbah, from al-Nuʿmān ibn Sālim, with this chain.

Another ḥadīth: Imām Aḥmad said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us: Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Thaʿlabah al-Anṣārī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Anṣārī, from Mujammiʿ ibn Jāriyah, who said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The son of Mary will kill the Messiah the Antichrist at the gate of Ludd”, or “beside Ludd”.

Aḥmad also related it from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, and from the ḥadīth of al-Layth and al-Awzāʿī, all three from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Thaʿlabah, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, from his paternal uncle Mujammiʿ ibn Jāriyah, from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “The son of Mary will kill the Antichrist at the gate of Ludd.”

Al-Tirmidhī likewise related it from Qutaybah, from al-Layth, with this chain, and he said: This is a sound ḥadīth. He said: On this subject there are reports from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, Nāfiʿ ibn ʿUtbah, Abū Barzah, Ḥudhayfah ibn Usayd, Abū Hurayrah, Kaysān, ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, Jābir, Abū Umāmah, Ibn Masʿūd, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, Samurah ibn Jundub, al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān, ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf and Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (may God be pleased with them).

What he means by the transmission of these is what contains mention of the Antichrist and the killing of him by Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him). As for the ḥadīths which mention the Antichrist alone, they are exceedingly numerous, and more than can be encompassed, because of their wide diffusion and the great number of their transmitters in the sound collections, the good collections, the musnad works and elsewhere.

Another ḥadīth: Imām Aḥmad said: Sufyān related to us, from Furāt, from Abū al-Ṭufayl, from Ḥudhayfah ibn Usayd al-Ghifārī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) looked down upon us from an upper room while we were discussing the Hour, and he said: “The Hour will not come until you see ten signs: the rising of the sun from its place of setting, the smoke, the beast, the coming forth of Gog and Magog, the descent of Jesus son of Mary, the Antichrist, three sinkings of the earth, a sinking in the east, a sinking in the west and a sinking in the Arabian peninsula, and a fire that will come forth from the depths of Aden, driving, or gathering, the people, passing the night with them wherever they pass the night, and resting at midday with them wherever they rest at midday.”

Muslim and the authors of the Sunan related it thus from the ḥadīth of Furāt al-Qazzāz, with this chain. Muslim also related it from the transmission of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Rufayʿ, from Abū al-Ṭufayl, from Abū Sarīḥah Ḥudhayfah ibn Usayd al-Ghifārī, as a halted report (mawqūf); and God knows best.

These, then, are mass-transmitted ḥadīths from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), from the transmission of Abū Hurayrah, Ibn Masʿūd, ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, Abū Umāmah, al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, Mujammiʿ ibn Jāriyah, and Abū Sarīḥah Ḥudhayfah ibn Usayd (may God be pleased with them).

In them is an indication of the manner of his descent and its place: that it will be in Syria, indeed in Damascus, at the eastern minaret, and that it will be at the time when the call to commence the dawn prayer is given. In these present times, in the year seven hundred and forty-one, a white minaret was built for the Umayyad Mosque, of hewn stone, in place of the minaret which was demolished on account of the fire attributed to the doing of the Christians, upon them be the successive curses of God until the Day of Resurrection; and the greater part of its construction was paid for from their wealth. Conjectures have grown strong that this is the one upon which the Messiah Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) will descend, and he will kill the swine, break the cross and abolish the poll tax, accepting nothing but Islam, as has been set out above from the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections. This is a report from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of that, and an affirmation, a legislation and an authorisation for him to do that in that time, when their pretexts will be dispelled and their doubts removed from their own souls. For this reason all of them will enter the religion of Islam in following Jesus (peace be upon him) and at his hands. For this reason He said, Exalted: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159).

This verse is like His words, Exalted: And indeed, he is a sign of knowledge of the Hour (43:61), and it has been read ʿalam¹⁶, with the vowel on the middle letter, that is, an indication and a proof of the nearness of the Hour. That is because he will descend after the coming forth of the Messiah the Antichrist, and God will kill him at his hands, as is established in the Ṣaḥīḥ: “God has not created any disease without sending down a cure for it.” In his days God will send forth Gog and Magog, and God will destroy them through him, by the blessing of his supplication; and God Exalted has said: Until, when Gog and Magog are let loose, and they, from every elevation, swarm down, and the true promise draws near to the end of the verse (21:96-97).

The description of Jesus (peace be upon him)

There has already been cited, in the ḥadīth of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ādam, from Abū Hurayrah (may God be pleased with him): “When you see him, recognise him: a man of medium build, tending to redness and whiteness, wearing two garments dyed light yellow, his head as if dripping though no wetness has touched it.” And in the ḥadīth of al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān: “He will descend at the white minaret in the east of Damascus, between two garments dyed with saffron, placing his palms upon the wings of two angels. When he lowers his head it drips, and when he raises it there fall from it the like of beads of pearl. No unbeliever who catches the scent of his breath but will die, and his breath will reach as far as his sight reaches.”

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim related, by way of al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “On the night on which I was taken on the night journey I met Moses.” He said: And he described him: “And behold, he was a man”, I think he said, “lean, with wavy hair, as though he were one of the men of Shanūʾah.” He said: “And I met Jesus”, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described him, saying: “Of medium height, ruddy, as though he had just come out of a dīmās“, meaning a bath-house. “And I saw Abraham, and I am the one of his descendants who most resembles him”, to the end of the ḥadīth.

Al-Bukhārī related, from the ḥadīth of Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I saw Moses, Jesus and Abraham. As for Jesus, he was ruddy, with curly hair and a broad chest; and as for Moses, he was dark-skinned, large-bodied, with lank hair, as though he were one of the men of the Zuṭṭ.”¹⁷

He and Muslim have, by way of Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Nāfiʿ, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar said: One day the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the Messiah the Antichrist in the midst of the people, and said: “God is not one-eyed. Behold, the Messiah the Antichrist is blind in the right eye, his eye as though it were a floating grape. And God showed me, in a dream, near the Kaʿbah, a dark-skinned man, the finest of dark-skinned men you could see, his locks falling between his shoulders, with wavy hair, his head dripping water, placing his hands upon the shoulders of two men while he circumambulated the House. I said: ‘Who is this?’ They said: ‘The Messiah son of Mary.’ Then I saw behind him a man with tightly curled hair, blind in the right eye, the one I have seen who most resembles Ibn Qaṭan, placing his hands upon the shoulders of a man while he circumambulated the House. I said: ‘Who is this?’ They said: ‘The Messiah the Antichrist.’” ʿUbayd Allāh followed him in it, from Nāfiʿ.

Then al-Bukhārī related it from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Makkī, from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from his father, who said: No, by God, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not say of Jesus (peace be upon him) “ruddy”; rather, he said: “While I was asleep, circumambulating the Kaʿbah, behold, there was a dark-skinned man with lank hair, walking supported between two men, his head dripping water, or his head streaming with water. I said: ‘Who is this?’ They said: ‘The son of Mary.’ Then I went to turn round, and behold, there was a ruddy, large-bodied man, with curly hair, blind in his right eye, his eye as though it were a floating grape. I said: ‘Who is this?’ They said: ‘The Antichrist.’ And the person who most resembles him is Ibn Qaṭan.” Al-Zuhrī said: a man of Khuzāʿah who perished in the time of pagan ignorance (al-jāhiliyyah).

All these are the wordings of al-Bukhārī (may God have mercy on him). There has already been cited, in the ḥadīth of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ādam from Abū Hurayrah, that Jesus (peace be upon him) will remain on the earth after his descent for forty years, then he will die and the Muslims will pray over him.

In the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr in Muslim it is that he will remain seven years. It is possible, and God knows best, that what is meant by his remaining on the earth forty years is the sum of his residence in it before his being raised and after his descent, for according to the sound view he was raised at the age of thirty-three years. That has come in a ḥadīth on the description of the people of Paradise: that they will be in the form of Adam and at the age of Jesus, thirty-three years. As for what Ibn ʿAsākir reported from some of them, that he was raised at the age of one hundred and fifty years, it is anomalous, strange and far-fetched. The ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim ibn ʿAsākir mentioned, in the biographical notice of Jesus son of Mary in his History, from some of the early generations, that he will be buried with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his chamber; and God knows best.

His words, Exalted: and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159): Qatādah said: He will bear witness against them that he conveyed to them the message from God and acknowledged his servanthood to God, Mighty and Majestic. This is like His words, Exalted, at the end of Sūrat al-Māʾidah: And when God will say, “O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?” He will say, “Glory be to You! It was not for me to say that to which I had no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You Who are the Knower of the unseen. I said to them nothing except what You commanded me: to worship God, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You were the Observer over them, and You are, over all things, Witness. If You punish them, they are Your servants; but if You forgive them, indeed it is You Who are the Mighty, the Wise” (5:116-118).

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

On 3:33-64

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3:54. And they schemed: they intended, meaning the Jews, the killing of Jesus; and God schemed: God intended the killing of their companion Qaṭyānūs¹⁸; and God is the best of schemers: the strongest of those who intend; and it is said, the most excellent of those who contrive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On 4:155-159

4:155. So for their breaking: so because of their breaking; of their covenant: We did to them what We did; and their disbelief in the signs of God: and for their disbelief in Muḥammad and the Qur’an, the poll-tax (jizya) was imposed upon them; and their killing: and for their killing; of the prophets without right: without any crime, We destroyed them; and their saying: and for their saying; Our hearts are wrapped: receptacles for every knowledge, yet they do not take in your speech and your knowledge; rather, God has set a seal upon them: rather, it is not as they said, but God has sealed their hearts; for their disbelief: in Muḥammad and the Qur’an; so they do not believe: in Muḥammad and the Qur’an; except a few: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām and his companions.

4:156. And for their disbelief: in Jesus and the Gospel; and their saying: and for their saying; against Mary a tremendous calumny: and that is the false accusation; We made them swine.

4:157. And their saying: and for their saying; Indeed we killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God: God destroyed their companion Ṭaṭyānūs¹⁹; and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them: the likeness of Jesus was cast upon Ṭaṭyānūs, and they killed him in place of Jesus; and indeed those who differ concerning him: concerning his killing; are in doubt about it: about his killing; they have no: concerning his killing; knowledge of it, except the following of conjecture: and not even conjecture; and they did not kill him for certain: that is, for certain they did not kill him.

4:158. Rather, God raised him up to Himself: to heaven; and God is Mighty: in vengeance upon His enemies; Wise: in granting victory to His friends: He saved His prophet and destroyed their companion.

4:159. And there is none of: and there is not of; the People of the Book: the Jews and the Christians, anyone; but will surely believe in him: in Jesus, that he was not a sorcerer, nor God, nor His son, nor His partner; before his death: before his soul departs, after the descent of Jesus; then he dies after every Jew who is alive in their time; and on the Day of Resurrection he will be: Jesus; a witness against them: to the conveying of the message.

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On 3:54

He, Exalted, said: And they schemed (3:54), that is, the disbelievers of the Children of Israel against Jesus, when they set over him someone to kill him by stealth; and God schemed against them, in that He cast the likeness of Jesus upon the one who intended to kill him, so that they killed him, and He raised Jesus to heaven; and God is the best of schemers, the most knowing of them in it.

On 4:155

So for their breaking (4:155) – mā is redundant, and the bāʾ is causal, attached to an elided verb, that is, “We cursed them because of their breaking” – their covenant, and their disbelief in the signs of God, and their killing the prophets without right, and their saying to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Our hearts are wrapped, they do not take in your speech. Nay, God has sealed, stamped, them because of their disbelief, so they take in no admonition; so they do not believe, except a few of them, such as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām and his companions.

On 4:156

And for their disbelief (4:156), a second time, in Jesus – the bāʾ is repeated to separate it from what is conjoined to it – and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, in that they accused her of fornication.

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On 3:53-54

His words, Exalted: Our Lord, we believe (3:53), the verse.

Al-Firyābī, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh, al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Mardawayh recorded, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words so write us down among the witnesses (3:53): He said: With Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and his community; for they bore witness for him that he had conveyed the message, and they bore witness for the messengers that they had conveyed it.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir recorded, by way of al-Kalbī, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās: so write us down among the witnesses (3:53). He said: With the Companions of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Ibn Mardawayh recorded, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say when he had finished his prayer: “O God, I ask You by the right of those who ask of You, for those who ask of You have a right upon You, that whatever servant or handmaid among the people of the land and the sea whose call You have accepted and whose supplication You have answered, You make us partners in the good of what they ask of You, and that You grant well-being to us and to them, and accept from us and from them, and pardon us and them; for we believe in what You have sent down and we follow the Messenger, so write us down among the witnesses.” And he used to say: “No one of His creatures speaks these words but that God makes him a partner in the supplication of the people of their land and the people of their sea, so that it encompasses them all while he remains in his place.”

Ibn Jarīr recorded, from al-Suddī, who said: The Children of Israel besieged Jesus and nineteen men of the disciples in a house. Jesus said to his companions: “Who will take on my likeness and be killed, and Paradise shall be his?” One of them took it on, and Jesus was taken up to heaven. That is His words: And they schemed, and God schemed; and God is the best of schemers (3:54).

On 4:155-156

His words, Exalted: The People of the Book ask you (4:153), the verses.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, who said: Some people of the Jews came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: “Moses brought us the tablets from God; so bring us tablets from God, that we may believe you.” So God sent down: The People of the Book ask you to bring down to them a book from heaven (4:153), up to His words: and their uttering against Mary a monstrous calumny (4:156).

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir recorded from Ibn Jurayj concerning the verse. He said: The Jews and the Christians said to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): “We will never pledge allegiance to you on what you call us to until you bring us a book from God: from God to so-and-so, that you are the Messenger of God; and to so-and-so, that you are the Messenger of God.” So God sent down: The People of the Book ask you (4:153), the verse.

Ibn Jarīr recorded from al-Suddī concerning the verse. He said: The Jews said: “If you are truthful that you are the Messenger of God, then bring us a book written from heaven, as Moses brought it.”

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir recorded from Qatādah concerning His words: to bring down to them a book from heaven (4:153), that is, a book for them in particular; and concerning His words: openly (4:153), that is, in plain sight.

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words: and they said: Show us God openly (4:153). He said: Had they seen Him, they would simply have seen Him; what they said, openly, was: “Show us God.” He said: it is a case of what is placed first belonging later and what is placed later belonging first (muqaddam wa-muʾakhkhar)²⁰.

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr recorded from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb that he recited: so the thunderbolt (al-ṣaʿqah) seized them²¹.

Ibn al-Mundhir recorded from Ibn Jurayj concerning His words: so the thunderbolt seized them (4:153). He said: Death; God made them die before their appointed terms, as a punishment for what they said, for as long as God willed to keep them dead; then He raised them up.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir recorded from Qatādah: and We raised the Mount above them (4:154). He said: a mountain at whose foot they were; God lifted it and set it above them as though it were a canopy, and said: “You shall take My command, or I shall cast it upon you.” They said: “We take it.” So God held it back from them.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir recorded from Qatādah concerning His words: and We said to them: Enter the gate prostrating (4:154). He said: We used to be told that it was one of the gates of Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis). And We said to them: Do not transgress on the Sabbath (4:154). He said: He commanded the people not to eat fish on the Sabbath day and not to interfere with them, and whatever was besides that was made lawful to them. And concerning His words: So for their breaking (4:155), He says: for their breaking of their covenant; and their saying: Our hearts are wrapped (4:155), that is, they do not understand; rather God has set a seal upon them (4:155), He says: when the people abandoned God’s command, killed His messengers, disbelieved in His signs and broke the covenant that was upon them, God set a seal upon their hearts and cursed them when they did that.

Al-Bazzār, and al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab²²—who declared it weak—recorded from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “The seal hangs from a leg of the Throne; when what is sacred is violated, and sins are committed, and insolence is shown towards God, God sends the seal and it seals his heart, and after that he accepts nothing.”

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words: and their uttering against Mary a monstrous calumny (4:156). He said: they accused her of fornication.

Al-Bukhārī in his Tārīkh, and al-Ḥākim—who declared it sound—recorded from ʿAlī, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: “In you there is a likeness to Jesus: the Jews hated him until they slandered his mother, and the Christians loved him until they set him in a station that is not his.”

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On 3:54

As for those from whom Jesus perceived disbelief, who were the majority of the Children of Israel, they plotted against Jesus, and God plotted against them, and God is the best of plotters (3:54). They agreed upon killing him and crucifying him, but the likeness of Jesus was cast upon another for them, and so they seized the one upon whom his likeness had been cast for them.

On 4:155-158

When He had mentioned their corrupt objection, He informed that it was nothing strange in their conduct; rather there had gone before from them ugly precedents greater than the course they took with the Messenger in whom they claim to believe: their asking him to see God openly with their eyes; their taking the calf as a god to worship after they had seen with their own eyes signs that no one else had seen; their refusal to accept the rulings of their scripture, the Torah, until the Mount was raised above their heads and they were threatened that if they did not believe it would be dropped upon them, whereupon they accepted it with reluctance and with a faith resembling forced faith; their refusal to enter the gates of the town which they were commanded to enter prostrating and seeking forgiveness, so that they went against it in word and deed; the transgression of those among them who transgressed on the Sabbath, for which God punished them with that hideous punishment; the taking of the firm covenant from them, which they cast behind their backs, disbelieving in the signs of God and killing His messengers without right; their saying that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, and crucified him, when in fact they neither killed him nor crucified him, but another was made to appear to them in his likeness, so that they killed and crucified someone else; their claim that their hearts are wrapped and do not grasp or understand what you say to them; their turning people away from the path of God, so that they turned them away from the truth and called them to the error and misguidance they themselves were upon; and their taking of unlawful gain and usury despite God’s prohibition of it to them and His severity concerning it. Those who did these deeds, then, cannot be thought strange for asking the Messenger Muḥammad to bring down upon them a book from heaven.

This method is one of the best methods for disputing with an opponent who is in the wrong: when a false objection issues from him which he makes into a doubt for himself and for others in rejecting the truth, there is laid bare of his vile condition and his hideous deeds what is among the ugliest things that have issued from him, so that everyone may know that this objection is from that same base valley, and that it has precedents alongside which this one is to be placed. Likewise every objection they raise against the prophethood of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) can be met with its like, or with something stronger than it, concerning the prophethood of the one in whom they claim to believe, so that by this their evil is held in check and their falsehood is suppressed; and every argument they follow in establishing the prophethood of the one in whom they believe, it and its counterpart and what is stronger than it indicate and establish the prophethood of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Since the purpose of enumerating those of their abominations which God enumerated was this confrontation, He did not expound them at length in this place, but alluded to them and referred to the places where they occur; He has expounded them elsewhere, in the place fitting for their exposition.

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