The Rightly-Guided Injil

Section 24: The hour, and the promise of the Counsellor

The Gospel According to Islam · Chapter 5, Jerusalem · Section 24

The hour, and the promise of the Counsellor. 19 verses. With the Qur’an: 5:15-16; 61:6-7.

24

1Then the disciples asked Jesus, Teacher, when will the end be? 2And Jesus answering said unto them, Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not even the angels in heaven, but only the Lord.1 3For the prophets know nothing of the future which they are not taught, and they see nothing which they are not shown. 4Watch therefore: for ye know not when the day of our Lord cometh. 5For as the days of Noah were, so shall also the day of our Lord be. 6For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 7And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away so shall the coming of the day of our Lord be.2

8And it is also known only to God how much longer shall I abide with you. 9I therefore bid you that ye keep my words, and follow the Law according to what I have taught you. 10That ye worship the One True Living God in spirit and in truth, and that ye love one another. 11It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Counsellor3 will not come. 12But if I go away, God will send him, that he may teach all the nations, 13And abide with them unto the end of the age. 14I have yet many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now.

15Howbeit when the Counsellor, the Spirit of truth, is come he will guide you into all truth and teach you all things, for he shall not speak of himself but what things he shall hear that shall he speak; and he will declare things that are to come. 16He shall glorify me, because he will receive from the same Spirit, of which I have received4 17And after these sayings Jesus solemnly took the covenant of the prophets from his followers. 18Saying, God hath given you wisdom and a book. Then cometh to you the Counsellor confirming what is with you, do ye believe and render him help? Do ye agree and take this God’s covenant as binding on you?

19They said, We do. And Jesus said, Then bear witness, and God is with you among the witnesses.5

A Clear Book from God

5:15O People of the Book! Now Our Messenger (Muhammad) has come to you, revealing much of what you have hidden of the Scriptures and disregarding much. There certainly has come to you from God a light and a clear Book 5:16through which God guides those who seek His pleasure to the ways of peace, brings them out of darkness and into light by His Will, and guides them to the Straight Path.6

Jesus Prophesied the Coming of Muhammad

61:6And remember when Jesus, son of Mary, said, “O children of Israel! I am truly God’s messenger to you, confirming the Torah which came before me, and giving good news of a messenger after me whose name will be Aḥmad7.” Yet when the Prophet came to them with clear proofs, they said, “This is pure magic.” 61:7Who does more wrong than the one who fabricates lies about God when invited to submit8 to Him? For God does not guide the wrongdoing people.9

  1. Mark 13:32; Matt. 24:36; Qur’an 7:187; 33:63; 67:26; 79:42-46. Mark reads “but the Father”; the Qur’an gives the same answer in its own words, “its knowledge is with my Lord alone” (7:187), and that wording is used. The contradiction between this saying and the promise that the kingdom of God would be established within the lifetime of the first generation of Christians arises because of the failure of the Christian tradition to make a distinction between the messianic kingdom and the end of the world, a distinction Jesus himself maintained (cf. note 147). ↩
  2. Matt. 24:37-39, 42. ↩
  3. Cf. John 16:7; 14:17; 15:26. In the King James Version of the New Testament, the original Greek title “Parakletos” (often written in English as “Paraclete”) is translated as “Comforter”, that is, one who consoles the loved ones after someone’s death. This translation is, however, rightly rejected by many of the great scholars on the ground that John does not portray the Parakletos as a comforter, nor does the Holy Spirit, with which he is identified in John, take such a role in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Moreover, the statement of John 16:7 (“… it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, [the Paraclete] will not come …”) conflicts with the idea of the Paraclete as a comforter since it would be an absurdity to say that someone departs from his loved ones only in order that a consolater may come to console them.

    Probably the best explanation of the title is obtained by translating it (with some modern versions) as Counselor and relating the figure with “Geber” of the Qumran scrolls. Apart from the fact that Geber is also called Counselor (note 186), there are other close parallels between Geber and John’s Paraclete.

    a. One of the primary functions of the Paraclete is to teach (John 14:26; 16:13), and the same is true of Geber whose only explicitly given function is to “instruct the upright in the knowledge of the Most High and teach the wisdom of the sons of heaven to the perfect of way” (All quotations from the Qumran scrolls are from the Community Rule IV and Hymns III in Vermes’ translation.)

    b. Both Geber and the Paraclete are associated with lasting works and total manifestation of truth. Thus, with the coming of Geber, an everlasting Covenant will be established with the perfect of way, and “there shall be no more lies and all the works of falsehood shall be put to shame.” The Paraclete also brings something lasting and complete; he abides for ever and teaches all things and guides into all truth (John 14:16, 26; 16:13). (That the Paraclete abides forever does not mean that he will be physically immortal but simply that his work will be everlasting. Geber, too, can be said to abide forever, since, in Isaiah 9:6, he is given the title Abi ad, which the Targum of Jonathan renders as “one abiding for ever.”)

    c. The writer of Hymns III, speaking probably as the teacher of righteousness who founded the Qumran sect, talks about his sufferings at the hands of his wicked enemies and suggests that he has become a child-bearing crucible from which Geber shall be brought forth painfully, meaning that his sufferings are a means for the coming of Geber. This has a parallel in the introduction of the Paraclete in John 15:26-27 and 16:7 in the context of world’s persecution of Jesus and the statement in the latter passage that the departure of Jesus via the cross, painful as it may be for the disciples, is necessary for the coming of the Paraclete.

    d. In John (14:17; 15:26; 16:13), the Paraclete is also called “the Spirit of truth.” This title is of extremely rare occurrence in our sources for the New Testament study; and almost all of these rare references are found in one of the Qumran passages about Geber (Community Rule III-IV). The title is not given to Geber in that passage, but the way it closely links him with the total and lasting manifestation of truth and complete and final victory of the spirit of truth over the spirit of falsehood would require only a small step in seeing him as the Spirit of truth in human form or, applying the title to him in a hyperbolic way (something like the way the words of Jesus are called “Spirit” in John 6:63). Additional basis to think that “the Spirit of truth” became one of the titles of Geber is provided by Isaiah 9:6. In the LXX of this passage, which also provided the Qumran tradition with another title of Geber (cf. note 186), the man-child (= Geber) is called “Angel of great counsel”; and since in the Qumran documents the Spirit of truth is referred to by corresponding descriptions or titles, such as “Angel of truth,” “Spirit of true counsel,” etc., it is quite possible that “Angel of great counsel” and “the Spirit of truth” were understood to be equivalent concepts.

    In conclusion, Geber and the Paraclete have corresponding titles and functions and are probably corresponding figures, with the Paraclete being a Christianized form of Geber. ↩
  4. John 16:12-15. For the title “the Spirit of truth,” see the last note. ↩
  5. Qur’an 3:81. ↩
  6. Qur’an 5:15-16. ↩
  7. Aḥmad is another name for Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him). ↩
  8. Submission to God means “Islam” in Arabic ↩
  9. Qur’an 61:6-7. ↩

From the Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas keeps sayings on watching, on the end and on the kingdom. Green agrees with the Qur’an, blue is beyond the measure, gold is unclear.

  • Beyond the measure Thomas 11. This heaven and the one above it will pass. The dead do not live. Those who were one became two, and the question is what they will do as two.10
  • Unclear Thomas 18. The end is where the beginning is. Blessed is the one who stands at the beginning and will not taste death.11
  • Beyond the measure Thomas 38. The disciples have long wanted to hear these words and have no one else to hear them from. A time will come when they look for Jesus and do not find him.12
  • Agrees Thomas 103. Fortunate is the one who knows where the robbers will enter and can arm himself before they do. (Compare Matthew 24:43.)13
  • Agrees Thomas 113. The disciples ask when the kingdom will come. It will not come by watching for it. It is spread over the earth and people do not see it. (Compare Luke 17:20-21.)14

Sayings that conflict with the Qur’an, and sayings that only repeat another, are listed with the reason for each on the page of sayings set aside.

From the commentaries on 61:6

What the classical commentators wrote on the verses this section rests on, each given in full and folded away until opened. The same texts, with the other passages, are on the classical commentaries.

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān (d. 310 AH / 923 CE), about 340 words

On 61:6

On the interpretation of His words, Exalted: And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, indeed I am the Messenger of God to you, confirming what is before me of the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me whose name is Aḥmad. But when he came to them with the clear proofs, they said: This is manifest sorcery. (6) (61:6)

He says, Exalted be His remembrance: And remember also, O Muḥammad, when Jesus son of Mary said to his people of the Children of Israel: O Children of Israel, indeed I am the Messenger of God to you, confirming what is before me of the Torah which was sent down upon Moses, and bringing good tidings — I give you good tidings — of a messenger to come after me whose name is Aḥmad.

Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ informed me, from Saʿīd ibn Suwayd, from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Hilāl al-Sulamī, from ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah, who said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I was, with God, written down as the Seal of the Prophets while Adam was still lying prostrate in his clay; and I shall tell you of the first of that: the prayer of my father Abraham, the good tidings of Jesus concerning me, and the vision which my mother saw — and so it is with the mothers of the prophets, they see visions — that she saw, when she gave birth to me, that there came forth from her a light by which the palaces of Syria were lit up.”

But when he came to them with the clear proofs: He says: but when Aḥmad came to them with the clear proofs — which are the indications that God gave him as proofs of his prophethood — they said: This is manifest sorcery: He says: what he has brought is nothing other than sorcery, and he is but a sorcerer.

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

al-Baghawī, Maʿālim al-tanzīl (d. 516 AH / 1122 CE), about 380 words

On 61:6

And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, I am the Messenger of God to you, confirming what is before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad (61:6). The alif in it is for intensification in praise (ḥamd), and it has two aspects. The first is that it is an intensive form of the agent: that is, all the prophets are great praisers of God, Mighty and Majestic, and he praises God more than any other. The second is that it is an intensive form of the object: that is, all the prophets are praised for the praiseworthy qualities in them, and he is the most intensely praised of them and the most comprehensive in the virtues and excellences for which one is praised.

But when he came to them with the clear proofs, they said: This is manifest sorcery.

And who does greater wrong than one who forges a lie against God while he is being called to Islam? And God does not guide the wrongdoing people. (7) They wish to extinguish the light of God with their mouths, but God will perfect His light, though the unbelievers hate it. (8)

It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, that He may make it prevail over all religion, though the polytheists hate it. (9)

O you who believe, shall I direct you to a trade that will save you (61:10). Ibn ʿĀmir read tunajjīkum with doubling, and the others without doubling. From a painful punishment. This was revealed when they said: If we knew which deeds are most beloved to God, Mighty and Majestic, we would do them. He made that the equivalent of a trade, because by it they gain the good pleasure of God, the attainment of His Paradise and salvation from the Fire. Then He set out that trade, saying:

You shall believe in God and His Messenger and strive in the cause of God with your wealth and your lives; that is better for you, if you only knew. (11) He will forgive you your sins and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow, and goodly dwellings in the gardens of Eden; that is the great triumph. (12)

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al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE), about 830 words

On 61:6

His words, Exalted: And when Jesus son of Mary said (61:6), that is: and relate to them this story also. He said O Children of Israel and did not say “O my people” as Moses said, because he had no lineage among them by which they would be his people.

Indeed I am the Messenger of God to you (61:6), that is, with the Gospel.

confirming what came before me of the Torah (61:6), because in the Torah is my description, and because I have not brought you anything that contradicts the Torah so that you should shy away from me.

and bringing good tidings of a messenger (61:6), confirming. “Bringing good tidings” (mubashshiran) is in the accusative as a circumstantial accusative, and what governs it is the sense of sending; and “to you” is the complement of “Messenger”.

who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad (61:6). Nāfiʿ, Ibn Kathīr and Abū ʿAmr read min baʿdiya with fatḥah on the yāʾ, and this is the reading of al-Sulamī, Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh and Abū Bakr from ʿĀṣim; Abū Ḥātim preferred it because it is a noun, like the kāf of baʿdaka and the tāʾ of qumtu. The others read it with sukūn. It has also been read min baʿdi smuhu Aḥmad with the yāʾ dropped from the pronunciation. Aḥmad is the name of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It is a proper name transferred from an adjective, not from a verb, and that adjective is the pattern afʿal by which superlative preference is intended. So the meaning of Aḥmad is “the most praising of those who praise their Lord”. The prophets (the blessings of God be upon them) all praise God, and our Prophet Aḥmad is the most abundant of them in praise. As for Muḥammad, it too is transferred from an adjective, and it is in the sense of maḥmūd, “praised”, but it carries the sense of intensification and repetition. So al-muḥammad is the one who is praised time after time, just as al-mukarram is from being honoured time after time, and likewise al-mumaddaḥ and the like. Thus the name Muḥammad corresponds to its meaning, and God, Glorified is He, named him by it before he named himself by it. This is one of the signs of his prophethood, since his name proved true of him: he is praised in this world for the knowledge and wisdom to which he was guided and by which he benefited others, and he is praised in the Hereafter by the intercession. So the meaning of praise is repeated, as the word requires. Moreover, he was not Muḥammad until he was Aḥmad: he praised his Lord, and so He made him a prophet and ennobled him. For that reason the name Aḥmad came before the name Muḥammad, and so Jesus (peace be upon him) mentioned it and said: whose name is Aḥmad. And Moses (peace be upon him) mentioned it when his Lord said to him “That is the community of Aḥmad”, and he said: “O God, make me one of the community of Aḥmad.” So He mentioned him as Aḥmad before He mentioned him as Muḥammad, because his praise of his Lord came before the praise of people for him. When he came into existence and was sent, he was Muḥammad in actuality. And likewise in the intercession he will praise his Lord with the praises which He will open to him, so that he will be the most praising of people towards his Lord; then he will intercede and be praised for his intercession. It is related that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “My name in the Torah is Aḥyad, because I turn (uḥīd) my community away from the Fire; my name in the Psalms is al-Māḥī, for God has effaced (maḥā) by me the worshippers of idols; my name in the Gospel is Aḥmad; and my name in the Qurʾān is Muḥammad, because I am praised among the people of heaven and earth.” In the Ṣaḥīḥ: “I have five names: I am Muḥammad and Aḥmad; I am al-Māḥī, the Effacer, by whom God effaces unbelief; I am al-Ḥāshir, the Gatherer, at whose feet people will be gathered; and I am al-ʿĀqib, the Last.” This has already been discussed. But when he came to them with the clear proofs (61:6): it has been said, Jesus; and it has been said, Muḥammad (the blessings and peace of God be upon them both).

they said: this is manifest sorcery (61:6). Al-Kisāʾī and Ḥamzah read sāḥir, “a sorcerer”, as a descriptive of the man, and it is related that this is the reading of Ibn Masʿūd. The others read siḥr, “sorcery”, as a descriptive of what the Messenger brought.

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Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE), about 1,960 words

On 61:6

God, Exalted, says, informing of His servant and messenger, the one to whom He spoke, Moses son of ʿImrān (peace be upon him), that he said to his people: Why do you harm me, when you know well that I am the messenger of God to you? (61:5), that is: why do you direct harm at me when you know my truthfulness in the message I have brought you? In this there is consolation for the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) in what befell him from the unbelievers of his people and others, and a command to him to be patient. For this reason he said: “May the mercy of God be upon Moses: he was harmed with more than this, and he bore it patiently.” In it there is also a prohibition to the believers against assailing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or directing any harm at him, as He, Exalted, said: O you who believe, do not be like those who harmed Moses, and God cleared him of what they said, and he was honourable in the sight of God (33:69).

And His words: So when they deviated, God caused their hearts to deviate (61:5), that is: when they turned aside from following the truth despite their knowledge of it, God caused their hearts to deviate from guidance and lodged in them doubt, bewilderment and abandonment, as He, Exalted, said: And We shall turn about their hearts and their eyes, as they did not believe in it the first time, and We shall leave them in their transgression wandering blindly (6:110), and He said: And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers, We shall turn him to what he has turned to and roast him in Hell, and evil is it as a destination (4:115). For this reason God, Exalted, said in this verse: and God does not guide the people who are defiantly disobedient (61:5).

And His words: And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, truly I am the messenger of God to you, confirming what was before me of the Torah, and bringing glad tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad (61:6), meaning: the Torah has given glad tidings of me, and I am the fulfilment of what it foretold, and I bring glad tidings of the one who comes after me, who is the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, the Arab, the Meccan, Aḥmad. So Jesus (peace be upon him), who is the seal of the prophets of the Children of Israel, stood up among the assembly of the Children of Israel giving glad tidings of Muḥammad, who is Aḥmad, the seal of the prophets and messengers, after whom there is no message and no prophethood. How excellent is what al-Bukhārī has cited, the ḥadīth in which he said:

Abū al-Yamān related to us: Shuʿayb related to us, from al-Zuhrī, who said: Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim informed me, from his father, who said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I have names: I am Muḥammad, and I am Aḥmad, and I am al-Māḥī (the Effacer), by whom God effaces unbelief, and I am al-Ḥāshir (the Gatherer), at whose feet mankind will be gathered, and I am al-ʿĀqib (the Last).”

Muslim related it from the ḥadīth of al-Zuhrī, with this chain, in similar terms.

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said: al-Masʿūdī related to us, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Abū ʿUbaydah, from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) named for us several names of his, some of which we have retained; he said: “I am Muḥammad, and I am Aḥmad, and al-Ḥāshir (the Gatherer), and al-Muqaffī (the One who comes last in the succession), and the Prophet of mercy, and of repentance, and of the final battle (malḥamah).”

Muslim related it from the ḥadīth of al-Aʿmash, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, with this chain. And God, Exalted, has said: those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Gospel (7:157), and He, Exalted, said: And when God took the covenant of the prophets: Whatever I give you of Book and wisdom, and then there comes to you a messenger confirming what is with you, you shall surely believe in him and surely support him. He said: Do you affirm, and take upon yourselves My burden on that? They said: We affirm. He said: Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses (3:81).

Ibn ʿAbbās said: God did not send any prophet without taking from him the pledge that if Muḥammad were sent while he was alive, he would surely follow him; and He took from him that he should take the pledge from his community that if Muḥammad were sent while they were alive, they would surely follow him and support him.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: Thawr ibn Yazīd related to me, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from the Companions of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), that they said: O Messenger of God, tell us about yourself. He said: “The supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus; and my mother saw, when she conceived me, as though a light went forth from her by which the palaces of Buṣrā15 in the land of Syria were lit up.”

This is a good chain of transmission (isnād). Corroborating reports (shawāhid) for it have been related by other routes. The Imām Aḥmad said:

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, from Saʿīd ibn Suwayd al-Kalbī, from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Hilāl al-Sulamī, from al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Truly, with God I was the Seal of the Prophets while Adam was still cast in his clay. And I shall tell you of the first of that: the supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus concerning me, and the vision of my mother which she saw; and likewise do the mothers of the prophets see.”

Aḥmad also said: Abū al-Naḍr related to us: al-Faraj ibn Faḍālah related to us: Luqmān ibn ʿĀmir related to us, who said: I heard Abū Umāmah say: I said: O Prophet of God, what was the beginning of your affair? He said: “The supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus; and my mother saw that a light went forth from her by which the palaces of Syria were lit up.”

Aḥmad also said: Ḥasan ibn Mūsā related to us: I heard Khudayj, the brother of Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiyah, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) sent us to the Negus, and we were about eighty men, among them ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Jaʿfar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUrfuṭah, ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn and Abū Mūsā. They came to the Negus; and Quraysh sent ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and ʿUmārah ibn al-Walīd with a gift. When the two of them entered upon the Negus they prostrated to him, then hastened to take their places on his right and on his left, then said to him: “Some men of our cousins have settled in your land, having turned away from us and from our religion.” He said: “And where are they?” They said: “They are in your land, so send for them.” So he sent for them. Jaʿfar said: “I shall be your spokesman today.” So they followed him, and he gave the greeting of peace and did not prostrate. They said to him: “What is the matter with you, that you do not prostrate to the king?” He said: “We prostrate to none but God, Mighty and Majestic.” He said: “And what is that?” He said: “God has sent His messenger to us, and he has commanded us not to prostrate to anyone but God, Mighty and Majestic, and he has commanded us to prayer and alms.”

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ said: “But they differ from you concerning Jesus son of Mary.” He said: “What do you say about Jesus son of Mary and his mother?” They said: “We say as God, Mighty and Majestic, has said: he is the word of God and His spirit, which He cast to the virgin, the chaste one (al-batūl), whom no man had touched and to whom no child had ever come.” He said: Then he lifted a stick from the ground and said: “O company of Abyssinians, priests and monks! By God, they do not add to what we say about him so much as the measure of this. Welcome to you, and to him from whom you have come. I bear witness that he is the messenger of God, and that he is the one we find in the Gospel, and that he is the one of whom Jesus son of Mary gave glad tidings. Settle wherever you wish. By God, were it not for the kingship I am engaged in, I would go to him, so that I might be the one to carry his sandals and pour the water for his ablutions.” And he ordered that the gift of the other two be returned to them. Then ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd hurried back, so that he was present at Badr; and he maintained that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked forgiveness for him16 when news of his death reached him.

This story has been related from Jaʿfar and from Umm Salamah (may God be pleased with them both), and its proper place is the Book of the Sīrah. The point is that the prophets (peace be upon them) never ceased to describe him and tell of him in their scriptures to their communities, commanding them to follow him, support him and assist him when he was sent. What was most widely known of the matter among the people of the earth was on the tongue of Abraham the Friend (al-Khalīl), the father of the prophets after him, when he prayed for the people of Mecca that God would send among them a messenger from among themselves, and likewise on the tongue of Jesus son of Mary. For this reason they said: “Tell us about the beginning of your affair,” meaning, on the earth; and he said: “The supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus son of Mary, and the vision of my mother which she saw,” that is: the trace of that, and the foreshadowing (irhāṣ) by the mention of him, appeared among the people of Mecca (God’s blessings and peace be upon him).

And His words: But when he came to them with the clear proofs, they said: This is manifest sorcery (61:6). Ibn Jurayj and Ibn Jarīr said: But when he came to them—Aḥmad, that is, the one of whom glad tidings were given in the ancient ages, whose mention was proclaimed in the bygone generations—when his affair appeared and he came with the clear proofs, the unbelievers and the opponents said: This is manifest sorcery.

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

Tanwīr al-Miqbās, Tanwīr al-miqbās min tafsīr Ibn ʿAbbās (d. compiler d. 817 AH / 1414 CE), about 140 words

On 61:6

61:6. And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, I am the Messenger of God to you, confirming: in agreement, in the profession of God’s oneness and in some of the laws; what was before me of the Torah: what was before me of the Torah; and bringing glad tidings: and I have come to you as a bringer of glad tidings; I give you glad tidings; of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad: he is named Aḥmad, he who is not blamed, and Muḥammad, he who is praised; then when he came to them: Jesus; and it is said, Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); with clear proofs: with command and prohibition and the wonders which he showed them; they said: This is manifest sorcery: evident sorcery and falsehood.

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

al-Jalālayn, Tafsīr al-Jalālayn (d. 864 AH / 1459 CE and 911 AH / 1505 CE), about 110 words

On 61:6

And (61:6) remember when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel – he did not say “O my people”, because he had no kinship among them – I am the messenger of God to you, confirming what was before me, prior to me, of the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad. He, Exalted, said: But when he came to them, when Aḥmad came to the disbelievers, with the clear proofs, the signs and tokens, they said: This, that is, the bringing of it, is sorcery – in one reading “a sorcerer” (sāḥir), that is, the one bringing it – manifest, evident.

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al-Durr al-Manthūr, al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE), about 580 words

On 61:6

His words, Exalted: And when Jesus son of Mary said (61:6), the verse.

Ibn Mardawayh reported from al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I was the servant of God in the Mother of the Book, and the Seal of the Prophets, while Adam was still lying in his clay; and I shall tell you the interpretation of that: the supplication of my father Abraham, the glad tidings of Jesus to his people, and the vision of my mother, who saw that a light came forth from her by which the palaces of Syria were lit up.”

Ibn Mardawayh reported from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us to set out with Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib to the land of the Negus. When we came before the Negus he said: What prevents you from prostrating to me? I said: We prostrate to none but God. He said: And how is that? I said: God has sent among us His Messenger, and he is the Messenger of whom Jesus son of Mary gave glad tidings: a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad (61:6); and he has commanded us to worship God and not to associate anything with Him.

Mālik, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Dārimī, al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī reported from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I have names: I am Muḥammad, and I am Aḥmad, and I am al-Ḥāshir (the Gatherer), at whose feet mankind will be gathered, and I am al-Māḥī (the Effacer), by whom God effaces disbelief, and I am al-ʿĀqib (the Last)”—and al-ʿĀqib is the one after whom there is no prophet.

al-Ṭayālisī and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I am Muḥammad, and Aḥmad, and al-Ḥāshir, and the Prophet of Repentance, and the Prophet of the Fierce Battle (al-malḥamah).”

Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I have been given what none of the prophets of God was given.” We said: O Messenger of God, what is it? He said: “I have been aided with terror, I have been given the keys of the earth, I have been named Aḥmad, the soil of the earth has been made a means of purification for me, and my community has been made the best of communities.”

His words, Exalted: But when he came to them with the clear proofs (61:6), the verses.

Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn Jurayj concerning His words: But when he came to them with the clear proofs (61:6): he said: Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); and concerning His words: They wish to extinguish the light of God with their mouths (61:8): he said: with their tongues.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Masrūq that he used to recite the one in al-Māʾidah, the one in al-Ṣaff and the one in Yūnus as sāḥir (“a sorcerer”).17

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿĀṣim that he recited this is manifest sorcery (61:6) without an alif, and recited wa-llāhu mutimmun nūrahu (and God is the perfecter of His light, 61:8), putting tanwīn on mutimm and the accusative on nūrahu.

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al-Saʿdī, Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān fī tafsīr kalām al-Mannān (d. 1376 AH / 1956 CE), about 350 words

On 61:6

He, Exalted, says, informing of the obstinacy of the earlier Children of Israel whom Jesus son of Mary called, saying to them: O Children of Israel, indeed I am the messenger of God to you, that is, God has sent me to call you to good and forbid you evil, and He has supported me with manifest proofs. Among what indicates my truthfulness is my being confirming what is before me of the Torah, that is, I have come with what Moses brought of the Torah and the heavenly laws; had I been a false claimant to prophethood, I would have come with other than what the messengers brought. And confirming what is before me of the Torah also in that it told of me and gave glad tidings of me, so I came and was sent confirming it. And bringing glad tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad: he is Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Hāshimite Prophet. So Jesus (upon him be blessings and peace) is like all the prophets: he confirms the preceding prophet and gives glad tidings of the prophet to come, unlike the liars, who contradict the prophets in the most extreme contradiction and oppose them in attributes, character, command and prohibition. Then when he came to them, Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), of whom Jesus gave glad tidings, with the clear proofs, that is, the manifest evidences indicating that he is the one, and that he is truly the messenger of God, they said, obstinately resisting the truth and denying it: This is manifest sorcery (61:6). This is among the most astonishing of wonders: the Messenger whose messengership had become clear and more manifest than the sun of the day is made out to be a sorcerer whose sorcery is manifest! Is there any abandonment by God greater than this?! And is there any fabrication more extreme than this fabrication, which denied of him what was known of his messengership and attributed to him what he was the furthest of people from?!

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Notes

  1. The heaven that passes away and the one that became two. It depends on Thomas’s own doctrine of an original unity. ↩
  2. The end is where the beginning is. It belongs to Thomas’s scheme of origin and return, and its sense is obscure. ↩
  3. A time will come when the disciples look for Jesus and do not find him. No source confirms it; compare John 7:34. ↩
  4. Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:39. Qur’an 7:187 and 31:34: the Hour comes suddenly and its knowledge is with God. ↩
  5. Luke 17:20-21. Qur’an 7:187: the Hour comes upon you suddenly. ↩
  6. Bostra, in the Ḥawrān, south of Damascus. ↩
  7. For the Negus. ↩
  8. That is, he read “this is a manifest sorcerer” (hādhā sāḥirun mubīn) in place of “this is manifest sorcery” (hādhā siḥrun mubīn) at 5:110, 61:6 and 10:76. ↩