Maʿālim al-tanzīl, by Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥusayn ibn Masʿūd al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH / 1122 CE). A commentary of the school of ḥadīth, valued for its restraint; it keeps the early reports and little else.
Part 1 of 2: the commentary on The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64). The parts follow the order of the verses; this one covers 3:33-34 to 3:61.
On 3:33-34
And His words, Exalted: Indeed God chose Adam and Noah (3:33), to the end of the verse. Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: The Jews said, “We are of the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and we follow their religion,” so God, Exalted, sent down this verse; meaning: God chose these by Islam, while you follow other than the religion of Islam. Chose: that is, selected; it is the iftaʿala form from ṣafwa, which is the pure part of anything. Adam: the father of mankind. And Noah, and the family of Abraham, and the family of ʿImrān. It was said: by the family of Abraham and the family of ʿImrān He meant Abraham (peace be upon him) and ʿImrān themselves, as in His words, Exalted, and a remnant of what the family of Moses and the family of Aaron left behind (2:248), meaning Moses and Aaron.
Others said: the family of Abraham are Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes1, and Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was of the family of Abraham (peace be upon him). As for the family of ʿImrān, Muqātil said: he is ʿImrān ibn Yaṣhur ibn Fāhath ibn Lāwī ibn Yaʿqūb (peace be upon him), the father of Moses and Aaron. Al-Ḥasan and Wahb said: he is ʿImrān ibn Ashham ibn Amūn, of the descendants of Solomon son of David (peace be upon them both), the father of Mary and Jesus. And it was said: ʿImrān ibn Māthān. He singled these out for mention only because the prophets and the messengers are all of their lineage. Above the worlds. Descendants: its derivation is from dharaʾa, meaning “he created”; and it was said: from al-dharr (tiny particles), because it is their being drawn out from the loins of Adam like tiny particles. Both children and fathers are called dhurriyya: the sons are dhurriyya because He created them (dharaʾahum), and the fathers are dhurriyya because He created the sons from them. God, Exalted, said: And a sign for them is that We carried their descendants (36:41), that is, their fathers.
Descendants is in the accusative with the sense “and He chose descendants”. Some of them from others: that is, some of them are of the offspring of others; and it was said: some of them from others in mutual support; and it was said: some of them follow the religion of others. And God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
On 3:35
His words, Exalted: When the wife of ʿImrān said (3:35). She is Ḥanna bint Fāqūdhā, the mother of Mary; and ʿImrān is ʿImrān ibn Māthān, not ʿImrān the father of Moses (peace be upon him), for between the two of them lie one thousand and eighty years. The sons of Māthān were the heads of the Children of Israel, their learned men and their kings. And it was said: ʿImrān ibn Ashham.
His words, Exalted: My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, consecrated: that is, I have made what is in my womb consecrated, as a vow from me to You. So accept it from me; indeed You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. A vow (nadhr) is what a person makes binding upon himself. Consecrated (muḥarraran): that is, set free, devoted purely to God, given over wholly to the worship of God and to the service of the sanctuary2, with no worldly matter occupying it. Everything that is devoted purely is muḥarrar; one says “I freed (ḥarrartu) the slave” when one has emancipated him and released him from bondage.
Al-Kalbī, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and others said: When the consecrated one was consecrated, he was placed in the sanctuary to tend it, sweep it and serve it, not leaving it until he reached puberty; then he was given the choice: if he wished he stayed, and if he wished he went wherever he pleased. But if he wished to leave after having made his choice, that was not open to him. There was no prophet or learned man but had someone of his line consecrated to the Holy House, and only boys were consecrated; a girl was not fit for it because of the menstruation and impurity that befall her. So the mother of Mary consecrated what was in her womb. The story of that was that Zachariah and ʿImrān had married two sisters: Ashyāʿ bint Fāqūdhā, the mother of John, was married to Zachariah, and Ḥanna bint Fāqūdhā, the mother of Mary, was married to ʿImrān. Children had been withheld from Ḥanna until she grew old, and they were a household who held a place with God. While she was in the shade of a tree she caught sight of a bird feeding a chick, and at that her soul stirred with longing for a child, so she prayed to God to grant her a child and said: “O God, I owe it to You that if You grant me a child, I will give it in charity to the Holy House, so that it will be among its keepers and its servants.” So she conceived Mary and consecrated what was in her womb, not knowing what it was. Her husband said to her: “Woe to you, what have you done? What if what is in your womb is a female, which is not fit for that?” So they both fell into anxiety over it, and ʿImrān died while Ḥanna was pregnant with Mary.
On 3:36
Then when she gave birth to her (3:36): that is, when she bore her, behold, she was a girl. The pronoun in His words “gave birth to her” refers back to the thing vowed, not to what was born, and for that reason it is feminine. She said, that is Ḥanna, who had been hoping it would be a boy, My Lord, I have given birth to her, a female, by way of apology to God, Mighty and Majestic. And God knew best what she had given birth to, with the tāʾ unvowelled (waḍaʿat), as a statement from God, Mighty and Majestic; this is the reading of the generality. Ibn ʿĀmir, Abū Bakr and Yaʿqūb read waḍaʿtu with the tāʾ vowelled with ḍamma, making it part of the speech of the mother of Mary3. And the male is not like the female in the service of the sanctuary and of the worshippers in it, because of her nakedness that must be covered, her weakness, and the menstruation and post-natal bleeding that come upon her. And I have named her Mary; Mary in their language means “the worshipper” and “the servant”. Mary was the most beautiful of women of her time and the best of them. And I seek refuge for her: I guard her and place her under protection, with You, and for her offspring, her children, from the accursed Satan. Al-shayṭān is the one driven away and cursed, and al-rajīm is the one pelted with shooting stars.
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Malīḥī informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us: Abū al-Yamān informed us: Shuʿayb informed us, from al-Zuhrī: Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab related to me, who said: Abū Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “There is no child of Adam born but Satan touches him when he is born, so that the infant cries out screaming from the touch of Satan, except Mary and her son.” Then Abū Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) would say: “And I seek refuge for her with You, and for her offspring, from the accursed Satan.”
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Malīḥī informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us: Abū al-Yamān informed us: Shuʿayb informed us, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayra (may God be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every child of Adam, Satan pokes in his side with his finger when he is born, except Jesus son of Mary: he went to poke, but poked the veil.”
On 3:37
His words: So her Lord accepted her with a goodly acceptance (3:37): that is, God accepted Mary from Ḥanna in place of the consecrated boy. Taqabbala has the sense of “he accepted and was pleased with”; and qabūl is the verbal noun of qabila, yaqbalu, qabūlan, on the pattern of walūʿ and wazūʿ, and none other than these three has come in this form. And it was said: the meaning of the acceptance is taking charge of her upbringing and attending to her affairs. And He made her grow with a goodly growth: its meaning is, He made her grow, and she grew with a goodly growth. And it was said: this is a verbal noun not matching the wording of the verb, and likewise His words so her Lord accepted her with a goodly acceptance; the like of it is common, as when you say “I spoke speech (takallamtu kalāman)”. Juwaybir said, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both): So her Lord accepted her with a goodly acceptance, that is, He led her along the path of the blessed; and He made her grow with a goodly growth, meaning He fashioned her frame evenly, with neither excess nor deficiency, so that she would grow in a day what a new-born grows in a year. And He made Zachariah her guardian. The people of the historical reports said: When Ḥanna gave birth to Mary she took her, wrapped her in a cloth and carried her to the sanctuary, and set her down before the learned men, the sons of Aaron, who in those days had charge of the Holy House as the doorkeepers have charge of the Kaʿba. She said to them: “Take this one who has been vowed.” The learned men vied with one another over her, because she was the daughter of their leader and the master of their sacrifice. Zachariah said to them: “I have the best right of you to her: her maternal aunt is with me.” The learned men said to him: “We will not do that; for if she were to be left to the person with the best right to her, she would be left to the mother who bore her. Rather we shall cast lots over her, and she shall be with the one whose lot comes out.” So they went off, twenty-nine men, to a flowing river—al-Suddī said: it is the river Jordan—and threw their pens into the water, on the understanding that whoever’s pen stood firm in the water and rose up, he would have the best right to her.
And it was said: on each pen was the name of one of them.
And it was said: they were engaged in writing the Torah, so they threw the pens that were in their hands into the water, and Zachariah’s pen stood upright and rose above the water, while their pens went down and sank in the river. This was said by Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and a group.
And it was said: Zachariah’s pen ran upwards to the top of the water, while their pens ran with the flow of the water.
Al-Suddī and a group said: Rather, Zachariah’s pen stood fixed and stood up above the water as though it were in clay, while their pens ran with the current of the water and the water carried them off. So Zachariah won the lot and the draw against them. Zachariah was the head of the learned men and their prophet, and that is His words, Exalted: And He made Zachariah her guardian. Ḥamza, al-Kisāʾī and ʿĀṣim read with the fāʾ doubled (kaffalahā), so that Zachariah is in the position of the accusative, that is, God entrusted her to Zachariah and joined her to him by the lot; and the others read it without doubling (kafalahā), so that Zachariah is in the position of the nominative, that is, Zachariah took her to himself and took charge of her affairs. He is Zachariah ibn Ādhan ibn Muslim ibn Ṣadūq, of the descendants of Solomon son of David (peace be upon them both).
Ḥamza, al-Kisāʾī and Ḥafṣ from ʿĀṣim read Zakariyyā shortened (without the final hamza), while the others lengthen it (Zakariyyāʾ).
When Zachariah had taken Mary to himself he built a house for her and sought a wet-nurse for her. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: He joined her to her maternal aunt, the mother of John, until, when she grew up and reached the age of womanhood, he built for her a chamber (miḥrāb) in the sanctuary, and its door was set in the middle of it, so that it could be climbed to only by a ladder, like the door of the Kaʿba, and no one but he went up to her. He used to bring her her food, her drink and her oil every day. Whenever Zachariah entered upon her in the chamber: by the miḥrāb he meant the room; the miḥrāb is the most honoured of places of sitting and the foremost of them, and so it is in the mosque; the mosque too is called a miḥrāb. Al-Mubarrid said: a miḥrāb is only something that is ascended to by a step. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas said: Whenever Zachariah went out he would lock seven doors upon her, and when he entered her room he found with her provision, that is, fruit out of its season: the fruit of summer in winter and the fruit of winter in summer. He said, “O Mary, whence (annā) is this for you?” Abū ʿUbayda said: its meaning is “from where (min ayna) is this for you?” Some objected to him and said: its meaning is “from which direction is this for you?”, because annā is for asking about the direction, while ayna is for asking about the place. She said, “It is from God”: that is, from the pickings of the Garden. Al-Ḥasan said: When Mary was born she never took a breast at all; her provision used to come to her from the Garden, and Zachariah would say to her, “Whence is this for you?” and she would say, “It is from God.” She spoke while she was a small child. Indeed God provides for whom He wills without reckoning.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: Then a time of dearth struck the Children of Israel while she was in that condition, until Zachariah grew too weak to bear the burden of her. So he went out to the Children of Israel and said: “O Children of Israel, you know, by God, that I have grown old in years and have become too weak to bear the burden of Mary daughter of ʿImrān; so which of you will take charge of her after me?” They said: “By God, we are hard pressed, and the drought has struck us as you see.” They passed her back and forth among themselves, then found no escape from bearing her, so they cast lots over her with the pens, and the lot fell on a carpenter of the Children of Israel called Joseph son of Jacob (Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb), who was Mary’s cousin, and he bore the charge of her. Mary saw in his face how heavy that burden was upon him, and said to him: “O Joseph, think well of God, for God will provide for us.” So Joseph began to receive provision on account of her place with him, and he would bring her every day from his earnings what would suffice her, and when he brought it in to her in the sanctuary God caused it to increase. Then Zachariah would enter upon her and see with her a surplus of provision beyond the measure of what Joseph brought her, and he would say: “O Mary, whence is this for you?” She said: “It is from God; indeed God provides for whom He wills without reckoning.”
The people of the historical reports said: When Zachariah saw that, he said: “Surely He who has the power to bring Mary fruit out of its season, without any means, has the power to make my wife fit and to grant me a child out of its season, in old age.” So he came to hope for a child; and that was because his household had died out, and Zachariah had grown old and had despaired of a child.
On 3:38-39
God, Exalted, said: There (3:38), that is, at that point, Zachariah called upon his Lord: he entered the chamber, shut the door and prayed secretly to his Lord. He said, “My Lord,” that is, O my Lord, “grant me,” give me, “from You,” that is, from what is with You, “a goodly offspring,” that is, a blessed, God-fearing, righteous and pleasing child. Dhurriyya can be singular or plural, masculine or feminine, and here it is singular, by the evidence of His words, Mighty and Majestic: so grant me from You an heir (19:5). He said ṭayyiba (in the feminine) only because the word dhurriyya is feminine in form. “Indeed You are the Hearer of prayer”: that is, the One who hears it; and it was said: the One who answers it, as in His words, Exalted: Indeed I have believed in your Lord, so hear me (36:25), that is, answer me.
So the angels called to him (3:39). Ḥamza and al-Kisāʾī read fa-nādāhu with a yāʾ, and the others with a tāʾ (fa-nādat-hu). Whoever read with the tāʾ did so because the word malāʾika is feminine in form and because of the plural, along with the fact that when the verb of males precedes them and they are a group, the feminine is the better in it, as in His words, Exalted: The Bedouin said (qālat al-aʿrāb, 49:14). From Ibrāhīm it is reported that he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with them both) used to make the angels masculine in the Qur’an. Abū ʿUbayda said: We think ʿAbd Allāh chose that only in opposition to the polytheists in their saying that the angels are the daughters of God, Exalted. Al-Shaʿbī related that Ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with him) said: When you differ over the tāʾ and the yāʾ, make it a yāʾ and make the Qur’an masculine.
By the angels here he meant Gabriel (peace be upon him) alone, as in His words, Exalted, in Sūrat al-Naḥl, He sends down the angels, meaning Gabriel, with the spirit, that is, with the revelation (16:2). It is permissible in Arabic to speak of one person with the wording of the plural, as in their saying “I heard this news from the people”, when one has heard it only from one person. Parallel to it are His words, Exalted: those to whom the people said (3:173), meaning Nuʿaym ibn Masʿūd, “Indeed the people,” meaning Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb. Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Salama said: When the speaker is a chief, it is permissible to speak of him in the plural because his companions are gathered with him; and Gabriel (peace be upon him) was the chief of the angels, and he was seldom sent without a company with him, so it proceeded on that basis.
His words, Exalted: while he was standing in prayer in the chamber, that is, in the sanctuary. That is because Zachariah was the great learned man who offered the sacrifice: he would open the door of the altar, and they would not enter until he gave them permission to enter. So while he was standing in prayer in the chamber—that is, in the sanctuary, praying beside the altar, while the people were waiting for him to give them permission to enter—suddenly there was a young man wearing white garments, and he was frightened by him. He called to him—and he was Gabriel (peace be upon him)—”O Zachariah, indeed God gives you glad tidings.” Ibn ʿĀmir and Ḥamza read inna Allāha with kasra on the alif, on the assumption of an implied “saying”, its implicit form being: the angels called to him and said, “Indeed God gives you glad tidings”; and the others read with fatḥa (anna), making the call fall upon it, as though He said: the angels called to him that God gives you glad tidings. Ḥamza read yabshuruka, and the whole of this class of words, without doubling throughout the Qur’an, except His words so of what do you give glad tidings (15:54), for they agreed on doubling it; al-Kisāʾī agreed with him here in the two places, and in Subḥān (Sūrat al-Isrāʾ), al-Kahf and ʿAyn Sīn Qāf (Sūrat al-Shūrā); and Ibn Kathīr and Abū ʿAmr agreed in ʿAyn Sīn Qāf; and the rest read with doubling. Whoever reads with doubling, it is from bashshara, yubashshiru, tabshīran, and that is the most eloquent of the dialects and the purest. The evidence for the doubling is His words, Exalted: so give glad tidings to My servants (39:17), and We gave him glad tidings of Isaac (37:112), they said, “We give you glad tidings in truth” (15:55), and other verses. Whoever reads without doubling, it is from bashara, yabshuru, which is the dialect of Tihāma, and Ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with him) read it so. Of John (Yaḥyā): it is a name that does not take the genitive ending, because it is definite and because of the augment at its beginning, like Yazīd and Yaʿmur; its plural is Yaḥyawna, like Mūsawna and ʿĪsawna. They differed as to why he was named Yaḥyā. Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: because God gave life (aḥyā) by him to the barrenness of his mother. Qatāda said: because God, Exalted, gave life to his heart by faith. And it was said: because God, Exalted, gave him life through obedience, so that he neither disobeyed nor intended any disobedience. Confirming, in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier, a word from God, meaning Jesus (peace be upon him). Jesus was named the word of God because God, Exalted, said to him “Be,” without a father, and he was; so the name “word” fell upon him because by it he came to be. And it was said: he was named a word because guidance is found through him as guidance is found through the speech of God, Exalted. And it was said: it is God’s glad tidings to Mary of Jesus (peace be upon him) by His speech upon the tongue of Gabriel (peace be upon him). And it was said: because God, Exalted, had informed the prophets by His speech in His books that He would create a prophet without a father, so He named him a word because he came about through that promise. John (peace be upon him) was the first to believe in Jesus (peace be upon him) and to confirm him; John (peace be upon him) was older than Jesus by six months, and the two were sons of maternal aunts (cousins); then John was killed before Jesus (peace be upon him) was raised up. Abū ʿUbayda said: a word from God, that is, a book from God and His signs; the Arabs say “recite to me the word of so-and-so”, meaning his ode.
His words, Exalted: and a master (sayyid): the pattern faʿīl from sāda, yasūdu; he is the chief who is followed and whose word is final. Al-Mufaḍḍal said: He meant a master in religion. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: the sayyid is the one of good character. Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: the sayyid is the one who obeys his Lord, Mighty and Majestic. Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab said: the sayyid is the jurist and scholar. Qatāda said: a master in knowledge, worship and scrupulousness. And it was said: the forbearing one whom nothing angers. Mujāhid said: the one honoured by God, Exalted. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: the sayyid is the God-fearing one. Sufyān al-Thawrī said: the one who does not envy. And it was said: the one who surpasses his people in all the qualities of goodness. And it was said: he is the one content with what God has apportioned to him. And it was said: the generous one. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Who is your master, O Banū Salama?” They said: “Al-Jadd ibn Qays, though we hold him to be miserly.” He said: “And what disease is worse than miserliness? Rather, your master is ʿAmr ibn al-Jamūḥ.”
His words, Exalted: and chaste (ḥaṣūr), and a prophet from among the righteous. Ḥaṣūr derives from ḥaṣr, which is confinement. The ḥaṣūr, in the view of Ibn Masʿūd (may God be pleased with him), Ibn ʿAbbās, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Qatāda (may God be pleased with them), ʿAṭāʾ and al-Ḥasan, is the one who does not go in to women and does not approach them; on this view it is the pattern faʿūl in the sense of fāʿil, meaning that he confines himself from desires. And it was said: he is the poor man who has no property, so that ḥaṣūr is in the sense of maḥṣūr, meaning one kept from women. Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab said: he had something like the fringe of a garment4, and in spite of that he married, so as to lower his gaze the more. There is another view on it: that the ḥaṣūr is the one who abstains from intercourse while having the ability for it. A group preferred this view for two reasons: the first, because the words came by way of praise, and this is nearer to deserving praise; and the second, that it is further from attributing a defect to the prophets.
On 3:40
His words, Exalted: He said, “My Lord” (3:40), that is, “O my master”; he said it to Gabriel (peace be upon him)—this is the view of al-Kalbī and a group. And it was said: he said it to God, Mighty and Majestic. “How can there be,” whence can there be, “for me a boy,” that is, a son, “when old age has reached me.” This is an instance of inversion, that is, “when I have reached old age and grown old”, as one says “exhaustion has reached me”, meaning “I am in exhaustion”. And it was said: its meaning is, old age has come upon me, overtaken me and weakened me. Al-Kalbī said: On the day Zachariah was given the glad tidings of the child he was ninety-two years old; and it was said: ninety-nine years old. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both): He was one hundred and twenty years old, and his wife was ninety-eight years old; and that is His words, Exalted: “and my wife is barren,” that is, sterile and does not bear children. One says “a barren man” and “a barren woman” (ʿāqir); and ʿaqura, with ḍamma on the qāf, yaʿqiru, ʿuqran and ʿuqāratan. He said, “Thus does God do what He wills”. If it is asked: why did Zachariah say, after God, Exalted, had promised him, “How can there be for me a boy?” Was he doubting the promise of God and His power? It is answered: when Zachariah heard the call of the angels, Satan came to him and said: “O Zachariah, the voice you heard is not from God; it is only from Satan. Had it been from God He would have revealed it to you as He reveals to you in all other matters.” So he said that to repel the whispering. This was said by ʿIkrima and al-Suddī. There is another answer: that he did not doubt the promise of God; he only wondered about the manner of it, that is, how will that be?
On 3:41-42
His words, Exalted: He said, “My Lord, appoint for me a sign” (3:41), that is, a mark by which I may know the time of my wife’s conceiving, so that I may increase in worship out of gratitude to You. He said, “Your sign is that you shall not speak to people,” you shall refrain from speech, “for three days,” and devote yourself wholly to My worship. It is not that He held his tongue from speech; rather it is a prohibition of speech while he was sound and whole, as He said in Sūrat Maryam, verse 10: that you shall not speak to people for three nights, being sound (19:10). His words, Exalted, indicate this: and glorify in the evening and the early morning; so He commanded him to remembrance and forbade him speaking to people.
Most of the commentators said: his tongue was tied from speaking with people for three days. Qatāda said: his tongue was withheld from speech as a punishment for him for asking for the sign after the angels had addressed him face to face, so he was unable to speak for three days. His words except by gesture (ramz): that is, by signalling; and signalling may be with the tongue, with the eye and with the hand. His signalling was with the index finger. Al-Farrāʾ said: the ramz may be with the tongue without making it clear, which is the faint sound resembling a whisper. ʿAṭāʾ said: by it He meant fasting for three days, because when they fasted they did not speak except by gesture. And remember your Lord much, and glorify in the evening and the early morning. It was said: what is meant by glorification is the prayer. The evening (ʿashiyy) is the time between the declining of the sun and its setting; from this the noon and afternoon prayers are called the two prayers of the evening. The early morning (ibkār) is the time between the dawn prayer and the forenoon.
His words, Exalted: And when the angels said (3:42), meaning Gabriel, “O Mary, indeed God has chosen you,” selected you, “and purified you.” It was said: from the touch of men; and it was said: from menstruation and post-natal bleeding—al-Suddī said: Mary did not menstruate; and it was said: from sins. “And chosen you above the women of the worlds.” It was said: above the people of her own time; and it was said: above all the women of the worlds, in that she gave birth without a father, and that happened to none of the women; and it was said: by consecration in the sanctuary, for no female had been consecrated.
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Malīḥī informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us: Aḥmad ibn Rajāʾ informed us: al-Naḍr informed us, from Hishām: my father informed us, who said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar say: I heard ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him) say: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The best of its women is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, and the best of its women is Khadīja (may God be pleased with them both).” Wakīʿ and Abū Muʿāwiya related it from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, and Wakīʿ pointed to the heaven and the earth5.
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Malīḥī informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us: Ādam informed us: Shuʿba informed us, from ʿAmr ibn Murra, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many among men attained perfection, but none among women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān and Āsiya the wife of Pharaoh; and the superiority of ʿĀʾisha over women is like the superiority of tharīd6 over all other food.”
Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭāhirī informed us: my grandfather ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-Bazzār informed us: Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-ʿUdhāfirī informed us: Isḥāq al-Dayrī informed us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatāda, from Anas (may God be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Sufficient for you among the women of the worlds are Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Khadīja bint Khuwaylid, Fāṭima daughter of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and Āsiya the wife of Pharaoh.”
On 3:43
His words, Exalted: “O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord” (3:43): the angels said it to her face to face, that is, obey your Lord. Mujāhid said: prolong the standing in prayer for your Lord. Devout obedience (qunūt) is obedience; and it was said: qunūt is prolonged standing. Al-Awzāʿī said: When the angels said that to her, she stood in prayer until her feet swelled and ran with blood and pus. “And prostrate and bow”. It was said: He put prostration before bowing only because it was so in their law; and it was said: rather, bowing came before prostration in all the laws, and the wāw is not for sequence but for conjunction; a man may say “I saw Zayd and ʿAmr” even though he saw ʿAmr before Zayd. “With those who bow”, and He did not say “with the women who bow”, so that it would be more general and more comprehensive, for men and women both fall under it. And it was said: its meaning is, with those who pray in congregation.
On 3:44-46
His words, Exalted: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you (3:44). He says to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him): That, which I have mentioned of the story of Zachariah, John, Mary and Jesus, is of the tidings of the unseen, that is, of the reports of the unseen, which We reveal to you: He made the pronoun refer back to “that”, and for this reason made it masculine. And you were not, O Muḥammad, with them when they cast their pens, their lots, into the water to draw lots as to which of them should be guardian of Mary, take her into his care and bring her up; and you were not with them when they disputed over her guardianship.
His words, Exalted: When the angels said, “O Mary, indeed God gives you glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (3:45). He said “whose name” (in the masculine) only because He made the pronoun refer back to Jesus. They differed as to why he was named the Messiah (al-Masīḥ). Some of them said: it is the pattern faʿīl in the sense of the passive participle, meaning that he was wiped clean (musiḥa) of impurities and purified of sins. And it was said: because he was anointed with blessing. And it was said: because he came out of his mother’s womb anointed with oil. And it was said: Gabriel wiped him with his wing so that Satan had no way to him. And it was said: because he was flat-footed, with no hollow to his foot7. The Dajjāl (the Antichrist) was named masīḥ because one of his eyes was wiped out. Some of them said: it is the pattern faʿīl in the sense of the active participle, like ʿalīm and ʿālim. Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: he was named the Messiah because he never wiped (masaḥa) a person with an affliction but that he was healed. And it was said: he was named thus because he used to travel about (yasīḥu) the earth and did not settle in one place; on this view the mīm in it is an augment. Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī said: al-masīḥ means the truthful one (al-ṣiddīq). And al-masīḥ can also have the sense of the great liar, and by it the Dajjāl was named; the word is one of the words with opposite meanings (aḍdād). Honoured (wajīh): that is, noble and elevated, possessing standing and worth, in this world and the Hereafter, and among those brought near to God.
And he will speak to people in the cradle (3:46), as a small child, before the time for speech, as He mentioned in Sūrat Maryam, where he said: Indeed I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30). It is related from Mujāhid that he said: Mary said: “Whenever Jesus and I were alone he would speak to me and I would speak to him, and when someone kept me occupied away from him he would glorify God in my womb while I listened.” His words and in maturity (kahlan): Muqātil said: meaning when he had reached full growth, before he was raised to heaven. Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl said: and in maturity, after his descent from heaven. And it was said: He informed her that he would remain until he reached maturity; and his speaking after maturity is his informing of miraculous things. And it was said: and in maturity, as a prophet: He gave her the glad tidings of the prophethood of Jesus (peace be upon him); his speech in the cradle was a miracle and in maturity a summons. Mujāhid said: and in maturity, that is, forbearing. The Arabs praise maturity (kuhūla) because it is the middle state, in the ripening of age, the firm establishment of reason, and the soundness of judgement and experience. And among the righteous:
that is, he is among the righteous servants.
On 3:47-49
She said, “My Lord” (3:47): “O my master”; she says it to Gabriel. And it was said: she says it to God, Mighty and Majestic. “How can I have a child when no man has touched me,” no man has had relations with me. She said that in wonder, since it had never been the custom that a child be born who had no father. He said, “Thus does God create what He wills. When He decrees a matter,” that is, the coming into being of a thing, “He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is,” as He wishes.
His words, Exalted: And He will teach him the Book (3:48). The people of Medina, ʿĀṣim and Yaʿqūb read with the yāʾ (yuʿallimuhu), on account of His words, Exalted: Thus does God create what He wills; and it was said: He made it refer back to His words indeed God gives you glad tidings, “and He will teach him”. The others read with the nūn (nuʿallimuhu, “We will teach him”), in the plural of majesty, as in His words, Exalted: That is of the tidings of the unseen which We reveal to you. His words the Book: that is, writing and script; and wisdom: knowledge and understanding; and the Torah and the Gospel: God taught him the Torah and the Gospel.
And a messenger (3:49): that is, and We shall make him a messenger to the Children of Israel. It was said: he was a messenger in the state of childhood; and it was said: he became a messenger only after puberty. The first of the prophets of the Children of Israel was Joseph and the last of them Jesus (peace be upon them both). When he was sent he said: “Indeed I” (annī). Al-Kisāʾī said: it has fatḥa only because the message is made to fall upon it; and it was said: its meaning is “with the message that I” “have come to you with a sign,” a token, “from your Lord,” which confirms my word. He said “with a sign”, though he brought many signs, only because all of them pointed to one thing, namely his truthfulness in the message. When Jesus (peace be upon him) said that to the Children of Israel, they said: “And what is it?” He said: “That I” (annī). Nāfiʿ read with kasra on the alif (innī), as a fresh beginning; and the rest read with fatḥa, with the sense “in that I” “create,” that is, form and fashion, “for you from clay the likeness of a bird.” Abū Jaʿfar read ka-hayʾat al-ṭāʾir here and in al-Māʾida. Hayʾa is the prepared form, from their saying “I prepared (hayyaʾtu) the thing” when you have shaped it and set it right. “Then I breathe into it,” that is, into the bird, “and it becomes a bird (ṭayran) by God’s leave.” The reading of the majority is with the collective, because he created many birds; the people of Medina and Yaʿqūb read “and it becomes a bird (ṭāʾiran)” in the singular here, and in Sūrat al-Māʾida they took it as one kind of bird, because he created nothing other than the bat. He singled out the bat only because it is the most complete of birds in creation, for it has breasts and teeth and it menstruates. Wahb said: it would fly as long as the people were looking at it, and when it passed out of their sight it fell down dead, so that the act of the creature might be distinguished from the act of the Creator, and so that it might be known that perfection belongs to God, Mighty and Majestic. “And I heal the one born blind (akmah) and the leper,” that is, I cure them and make them whole. They differed over the akmah. Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatāda said: he is the one who was born blind. Al-Ḥasan and al-Suddī said: he is the blind man. ʿIkrima said: he is the weak-sighted. Mujāhid said: he is the one who sees by day and does not see by night. And the leper: the one who has white blotches on the skin. He singled out these two only because they are two incurable diseases, and the prevailing art in the time of Jesus (peace be upon him) was medicine, so he showed them the miracle from that same kind. Wahb said: sometimes there gathered before Jesus (peace be upon him) in a single day fifty thousand of the sick; whoever of them was able to reach him reached him, and whoever was not able, Jesus (peace be upon him) walked to him. He used to treat them by prayer, on condition of faith.
His words, Exalted: “And I give life to the dead by God’s leave.” Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: He brought four persons to life: ʿĀzar8, the son of the old woman, the daughter of the tithe-collector, and Shem son of Noah. As for ʿĀzar, he was a friend of his. His sister sent to Jesus (peace be upon him): “Your brother ʿĀzar is dying”, and between him and him was a journey of three days. He and his companions came to him and found that he had been dead for three days. He said to his sister: “Take us to his grave.” So she went with them to his grave, and he prayed to God, Exalted, and ʿĀzar rose up with his bodily fluids dripping, and came out of his grave; and he lived on and had children born to him.
As for the son of the old woman: he was carried past Jesus (peace be upon him) dead, on a bier being borne along. Jesus prayed to God and he sat up on his bier, climbed down from the necks of the men, put on his clothes, carried the bier on his neck and returned to his family; and he lived on and had children born to him.
As for the daughter of the tithe-collector: her father was a man who collected the tithes, and a daughter of his had died the day before. He prayed to God, Mighty and Majestic, by His greatest name, and God, Exalted, brought her to life, and she lived on for a time after that and had children born to her. As for Shem son of Noah (peace be upon him): Jesus (peace be upon him) came to his grave and prayed by the greatest name of God, and he came out of his grave with half of his head turned white from fear that the Hour had come, for they did not turn grey in that age. He said: “Has the Resurrection come?” He said: “No, but I called you by the greatest name of God.” Then he said to him: “Die.” He said: “On condition that God protect me from the agonies of death.” So he prayed to God, and He did so.
His words, Exalted: “And I inform you,” and I tell you, “of what you eat,” of that which I have not witnessed, “and what you store up,” what you put away, “in your houses,” until you eat it. And it was said: he used to tell a man what he had eaten the night before, what he would eat that day, and what he had stored up for supper.
Al-Suddī said: Jesus (peace be upon him), while in the school, used to tell the boys what their fathers were doing, and he would say to a boy: “Go, for your family have eaten such-and-such, and have put away such-and-such for you.” So the child would go to his family and cry before them until they gave him that thing, and they would say: “Who told you of this?” He would say: “Jesus.” So they kept their children away from him and said: “Do not play with this sorcerer,” and they gathered them in a house. Jesus (peace be upon him) came looking for them, and they said: “They are not here.” He said: “Then what is in this house?” They said: “Swine.” Jesus said: “So shall they be.” They opened the door upon them, and behold, they were swine. That spread among the Children of Israel, and the Children of Israel plotted against him; and when his mother feared for him, she carried him on a donkey of hers and went out, fleeing from them, to the people of Egypt. Qatāda said: This concerned only the Table (al-māʾida): it was a table that came down to them wherever they were, like the manna and the quails, and they were commanded not to be unfaithful with it nor to hide anything away for the morrow; but they were unfaithful and hid things away, so Jesus began to tell them what they had eaten from the Table and what they had stored up from it, and God transformed them into swine.
His words, Exalted: “Indeed in that,” which I have mentioned, “is a sign for you, if you are believers.”
On 3:50-52
And confirming (3:50), conjoined to His words “and a messenger”, what was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you, of meats and fats. Abū ʿUbayda said: by “some” He meant “all”, meaning all of what was forbidden to you; “some” may be mentioned while “all” is meant, as in the saying of Labīd:
One who abandons places when I am not pleased with them,
or else death takes hold of some of the souls;
meaning: all of the souls.
His words, Exalted: And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, meaning the signs that have been mentioned; He put it in the singular only because they are all one kind in their indication of his message. So fear God and obey me.
His words, Exalted: Then when Jesus perceived (aḥassa) from them disbelief (3:52): that is, “found”—this was said by al-Farrāʾ; Abū ʿUbayda said: “knew”; and Muqātil said: “saw” from them disbelief, and they wished to kill him, he sought help against them and said, “Who are my helpers towards God?” Al-Suddī said: The cause of that was that when God, Mighty and Majestic, sent Jesus (peace be upon him) to the Children of Israel and commanded him to summon them, the Children of Israel banished him and drove him out. So he and his mother went out wandering through the land, and he lodged in a village with a man who entertained them both as guests and treated them kindly. That city had a tyrant who transgressed all bounds. One day that man came home anxious and sorrowful and entered his house while Mary was with his wife. Mary said to her: “What is the matter with your husband? I see him dejected.” She said: “Do not ask me.” She said: “Tell me; perhaps God will relieve his distress.” She said: “We have a king who imposes on each man among us one day on which he must feed him and his troops and give them wine to drink, and if he does not do it, he punishes him. Today is our turn, and we have not the means for it.” She said: “Then tell him not to be anxious, for I will instruct my son and he will pray for him, and that will be taken care of.” So Mary spoke to Jesus (peace be upon him) about that. Jesus said: “If I do that, evil will come of it.” She said: “Do not mind that, for he has treated us kindly and honoured us.” Jesus (peace be upon him) said: “Then tell him: when the time draws near, fill your cooking-pots and your jars with water, then let me know.” He did that, and Jesus (peace be upon him) prayed to God, Exalted, and the water of the pots turned into broth and meat, and the water of the jars into wine the like of which people had never seen. When the king came he ate, and when he drank the wine he said: “Where is this wine from?” He said: “From such-and-such a land.” The king said: “But my wine is from that land, and it is not like this.” He said: “It is from another land.” When the matter became confused for the king and he pressed him hard, he said: “Then I will tell you: I have a lad who does not ask God for anything but He gives it to him, and he prayed to God and turned the water into wine.” Now the king had a son whom he wished to make his successor, but he had died some days before that, and he was the dearest of creatures to him. So he said: “A man who prayed to God until He turned water into wine will surely be answered so that he brings my son to life.” He summoned Jesus and spoke to him about that. Jesus said: “Do not do it, for if he lives, evil will come of it.” The king said: “I do not care—shall I not see him?” Jesus said: “If I bring him to life, will you let me and my mother go wherever we wish?” He said: “Yes.” So he prayed to God, and the boy lived. When the people of his kingdom saw that he had come to life, they rushed to arms and said: “This man has devoured us, and now, when his death draws near, he wishes to make his son successor over us so that he may devour us as his father devoured us.” So they fought one another, and Jesus and his mother went away. He passed by the disciples while they were fishing, and said: “What are you doing?” They said: “We are catching fish.” He said: “Will you not come along, so that we may catch men?” They said: “And who are you?” He said: “I am Jesus son of Mary, the servant of God and His messenger. Who are my helpers towards God?” So they believed in him and set off with him.
His words, Exalted: “Who are my helpers towards (ilā) God?” Al-Suddī and Ibn Jurayj said: “with God, Exalted”. The Arabs say “the small herd to the small herd makes a herd of camels”, meaning “with the small herd”; and as God, Exalted, said: and do not consume their wealth to your wealth (4:2), that is, with your wealth. Al-Ḥasan and Abū ʿUbayda said: ilā has the sense of “in” (fī), that is, “who are my supporters in God”, that is, for the sake of God and in His path. And it was said: ilā is in its proper place, its meaning being: who will join his support to the support of God for me? They differed concerning the disciples (al-ḥawāriyyūn). Mujāhid and al-Suddī said: they were fishermen who caught fish; they were called ḥawāriyyūn because of the whiteness of their garments. And it was said: they were sailors. Al-Ḥasan said: they were fullers; they were named thus because they used to whiten (yuḥawwirūna) garments, that is, bleach them. ʿAṭāʾ said: Mary handed Jesus (peace be upon him) over to various trades, and the last to whom she handed him over were the disciples, who were fullers and dyers. She handed him over to their chief so that he might learn from him. A quantity of garments had accumulated with him, and a journey came up for him, so he said to Jesus: “You have learnt this craft, and I am going out on a journey from which I will not return for ten days. Here are people’s garments of different colours, and I have marked each one of them with a thread of the colour in which it is to be dyed, so you must have finished them by the time I arrive.” And he departed. Jesus boiled up a single vat in a single colour, put in all the garments, and said: “Be, by God’s leave, as I wish you to be.” The disciple arrived while all the garments were in the vat, and said: “What have you done?” He said: “I have finished them.” He said: “Where are they?” He said: “In the vat.” He said: “All of them?” He said: “Yes.” He said: “You have ruined those garments!” He said: “Get up and look.” Then Jesus took out a red garment, a yellow garment and a green garment, until he had taken them out in the colours that he had wanted. The disciple began to marvel, and knew that this was from God, and said to the people: “Come and look!” So he and his companions believed in him, and they are the disciples. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: they were called ḥawāriyyūn because of the purity of their hearts. Ibn al-Mubārak said: they were named thus because of the mark of worship and its light that was upon them. The root of ḥawar among the Arabs is intense whiteness; one says “a man aḥwar” and “a woman ḥawrāʾ“, meaning with intensely white eyes. Al-Kalbī and ʿIkrima said: the ḥawāriyyūn are the chosen ones, and they were the chosen ones of Jesus (peace be upon him); they were twelve men. Rawḥ ibn al-Qāsim said: I asked Qatāda about the disciples, and he said: they are those who are fit for succession. From him too it is reported that he said: the disciples are the ministers. Al-Ḥasan said: the disciples are the helpers; and the ḥawārī is the helper. In the speech of the Arabs specifically, the ḥawārī is the man whom one calls upon for help in whatever befalls one.
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Aḥmad al-Malīḥī informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nuʿaymī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us: al-Ḥumaydī informed us: Sufyān informed us: Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir informed us, who said: I heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh (may God be pleased with them both) say: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) called upon the people on the day of the Trench, and al-Zubayr answered the call; then he called upon them again, and al-Zubayr answered the call. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every prophet has a ḥawārī, and my ḥawārī is al-Zubayr.”
Sufyān said: the ḥawārī is the helper. Maʿmar said: Qatāda said: The ḥawāriyyūn are all of Quraysh: Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ḥamza, Jaʿfar, Abū ʿUbayda ibn al-Jarrāḥ, ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, Ṭalḥa ibn ʿUbayd Allāh and al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām (may God be pleased with them all).
The disciples said, “We are the helpers of God,” the supporters of the religion of God and of His messenger; “we have believed in God, and bear witness,” O Jesus, “that we are Muslims (those who submit).”
On 3:53
“Our Lord, we have believed in what You have sent down” (3:53), of Your Book, “and we have followed the Messenger,” Jesus, “so write us among the witnesses,” those who bore witness to the truthfulness of Your prophets. ʿAṭāʾ said: with the prophets, because every prophet is a witness over his community.
Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: with Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and his community, because they bear witness for the messengers that they delivered the message.
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 3:55
When God said, “O Jesus, indeed I shall take you (mutawaffīka) and raise you to Myself” (3:55). They differed about the meaning of “taking” (tawaffī) here. Al-Ḥasan, al-Kalbī and Ibn Jurayj said: “I shall seize you and raise you to Myself in this world without death.” His words, Exalted, indicate this: then when You took me (5:117), that is, “when You seized me up to heaven while I was alive”, because his people became Christians only after he was raised to heaven, not after his death. On this basis, tawaffī has two interpretations. One of them: “I shall raise you to Myself whole (wāfiyan), without their having obtained anything from you”, from their saying “I took such-and-such in full (tawaffaytu) and received it in full (istawfaytuhu)” when you have taken it complete. The other: “I shall receive you”, from their saying “I received (tawaffaytu) such-and-such from him”, that is, I took delivery of it. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas said: what is meant by tawaffī is sleep, and every creature with an eye sleeps; Jesus had fallen asleep, and God raised him up to heaven while sleeping. Its meaning is: “I shall cause you to sleep and raise you to Myself”, as God, Exalted, said: And it is He who takes you (yatawaffākum) by night (6:60), that is, causes you to sleep.
Some of them said: what is meant by tawaffī is death. It is related from ʿAlī ibn Ṭalḥa, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both), that its meaning is: “I shall cause you to die”; His words, Exalted, indicate this: Say: the angel of death will take you (yatawaffākum) (32:11). On this basis it has two interpretations. One of them is what Wahb said: God caused Jesus to die for three hours of the day, then God raised him up to Himself. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: The Christians claim that God, Exalted, caused him to die for seven hours of the day, then brought him to life and raised him up. The other is what al-Ḍaḥḥāk and a group said: that in this verse there is a putting forward and a putting back, its meaning being: “I shall raise you to Myself and purify you from those who disbelieve, and cause you to die after sending you down from heaven.”
ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Aḥmad al-Malīḥī informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Shurayḥ informed us: Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Baghawī informed us: ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd informed us: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salama al-Mājishūn informed us, from Ibn Shihāb, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, from Abū Hurayra (may God be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said: “By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muḥammad, 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 (jizya), and wealth will overflow until no one accepts it.”
It is related from Abū Hurayra (may God be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), concerning the descent of Jesus (peace be upon him), that he said: “In his time all the religious communities will perish except Islam, and the Dajjāl will perish; he will remain on the earth forty years, then he will die, and the Muslims will pray over him.”
It was said to al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl: “Do you find the descent of Jesus in the Qur’an?” He said: “Yes: and in maturity (3:46); he did not reach maturity in this world, so its meaning is only ‘and in maturity after his descent from heaven’.”
His words, Exalted: “and purify you from those who disbelieve,” that is, bring you out from among them and deliver you from them, “and make those who follow you above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection.” Qatāda, al-Rabīʿ, al-Shaʿbī, Muqātil and al-Kalbī said: they are the people of Islam who confirmed him and followed his religion in the affirmation of God’s oneness, from the community of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); so they are above those who disbelieve, prevailing and dominant through might, strength and proof. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: meaning the disciples are above those who disbelieve. And it was said: they are the people of Rome (the Byzantines). And it was said: by them He meant the Christians, so they are above the Jews until the Day of Resurrection, for the kingdom of the Jews has passed away, while the kingdom of the Christians endures until near the coming of the Hour; on this basis “following” has the sense of claiming him and loving him, not following his religion.
“Then to Me is your return,” in the Hereafter, “and I shall judge between you concerning that over which you used to differ,” of the matter of religion and the matter of Jesus.
On 3:56-60
“As for those who disbelieve, I shall punish them with a severe punishment in this world” (3:56), by killing, captivity, the poll-tax and humiliation, “and the Hereafter,” that is, and in the Hereafter by the Fire, “and they shall have no helpers.”
“And as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, He will pay them their rewards in full” (3:57). Al-Ḥasan and Ḥafṣ read with the yāʾ (yuwaffīhim), and the rest with the nūn (nuwaffīhim), that is, “We shall pay in full the rewards of their deeds”. And God does not love the wrongdoers: that is, He does not have mercy on the disbelievers nor praise them with anything good.
His words, Exalted: That (3:58), that is, this which I have mentioned to you of the report concerning Jesus, Mary and the disciples, We recite to you, We inform you of it by Gabriel’s recitation to you, of the signs and the wise Remembrance, meaning the Qur’an, the Remembrance possessed of wisdom. Muqātil said: the wise Remembrance, that is, the firmly established, secured against falsehood. And it was said: the wise Remembrance is the Preserved Tablet, which hangs from the Throne, made of a white pearl. And it was said: of the signs, that is, the marks pointing to your prophethood, because they are reports known only to one who reads a book or to one who receives revelation, and you are unlettered and do not read.
His words, Exalted: Indeed the likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam (3:59), to the end of the verse. It was sent down concerning the delegation of Najrān. That was because they said to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): “Why do you revile our master?” He said: “And what do I say?” They said: “You say that he is the servant of God.” He said: “Indeed, he is the servant of God and His messenger and His word, which He cast to Mary, the virgin, the chaste.” They grew angry and said: “Have you ever seen a human being without a father?” So God, Exalted, sent down: Indeed the likeness of Jesus with God, in His having created him without a father, is as the likeness of Adam, because he was created without father or mother. He created him from dust, then said to him, meaning to Jesus (peace be upon him), “Be,” and he is, meaning, and he was. If it is asked: what is the meaning of His words He created him from dust, then said to him, “Be,” and he is, when there is no bringing into being after creation? It is answered: its meaning is “then He created him, then I inform you that I said to him, ‘Be,’ and he was”, without any sequence in the creation such as occurs in birth. It is like a man’s saying “I gave you a dirham today, then I gave you a dirham yesterday”, that is, “then I inform you that I gave you a dirham yesterday”. In the foregoing comparison there is evidence for the permissibility of analogy (qiyās), because analogy is the referring of a derivative case back to a root case by a kind of resemblance, and God, Exalted, referred the creation of Jesus back to Adam (peace be upon them) by a kind of resemblance.
His words, Exalted: The truth is from your Lord (3:60), that is, it is the truth; and it was said: the truth has come to you from your Lord. So do not be among the doubters, those who are in doubt. The address is to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and his community is what is meant.
On 3:61
His words, Mighty and Majestic: Then whoever disputes with you concerning him (3:61), that is, argues with you about Jesus, or about the truth, after the knowledge that has come to you, that Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger, say, “Come” (taʿālaw). Its original form is taʿālayū, the tafāʿala form from ʿuluww (height); the ḍamma on the yāʾ was felt to be heavy, so it was dropped. Al-Farrāʾ said: it has the sense of taʿāli, as though he were saying “rise up”. His words “let us call” (nadʿu) is in the jussive as the answer to the imperative, and the mark of the jussive is the dropping of the wāw. “Our sons and your sons, and our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves.” It was said: by “our sons” he meant al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn; “our women”, Fāṭima; and by “ourselves” he meant himself and ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him). The Arabs call a man’s cousin “himself”, as God, Exalted, said: and do not defame yourselves (49:11), meaning your brothers. And it was said: it is general, meaning the whole body of the people of the religion. “Then let us pray earnestly” (nabtahil). Ibn ʿAbbās (may God be pleased with them both) said: that is, let us humble ourselves in supplication. Al-Kalbī said: let us strive and go to the utmost in supplication. Al-Kisāʾī and Abū ʿUbayda said: let us invoke curses upon one another; ibtihāl is mutual cursing, and one says “upon him be the bahla of God”, that is, His curse. “And invoke the curse of God upon the liars,” from among us and from among you, in the matter of Jesus. When the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) recited this verse to the delegation of Najrān and called them to the mutual invocation of curses (mubāhala), they said: “Let us go back and consider our affair, then we will come to you tomorrow.” They withdrew by themselves and said to al-ʿĀqib, who was the man of judgement among them: “O ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, what is your view?” He said: “By God, O company of Christians, you know that Muḥammad is a prophet sent by God, and by God, no people has ever invoked curses with a prophet and then their elder lived or their young grew up. If you do that you will surely perish. So if you refuse anything but to remain upon the view you hold about your master, then take leave of the man and go back to your country.” So they came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) had gone out in the morning carrying al-Ḥusayn in his arms and holding al-Ḥasan by the hand, with Fāṭima walking behind him and ʿAlī behind her, and he was saying to them: “When I pray, say Amen.” The bishop of Najrān said: “O company of Christians, I see faces such that, were they to ask God to remove a mountain from its place, He would remove it. So do not invoke curses, lest you perish and there remain no Christian of you on the face of the earth until the Day of Resurrection.” So they said: “O Abū al-Qāsim, we have decided not to invoke curses with you, and to leave you to your religion while we remain firm in our religion.” The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “If you refuse the mutual cursing, then accept Islam, and you will have what the Muslims have and owe what they owe.” They refused. He said: “Then I declare war on you.” They said: “We have no strength for war against the Arabs; but we will make peace with you on condition that you do not make war on us, nor frighten us, nor turn us back from our religion, on condition that we pay you every year two thousand garments, a thousand in Ṣafar and a thousand in Rajab.” So the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) made peace with them on that, and said: “By Him in whose hand is my soul, the punishment had already hung down over the people of Najrān; had they invoked curses, they would have been transformed into apes and swine, the valley would have blazed with fire over them, God would have uprooted Najrān and its people, even to the birds on the trees, and the year would not have turned upon all the Christians before they perished.”
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Maʿālim al-tanzīl on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=baghawi). Nothing is abridged: every opinion, every report with its chain of transmission, every verse of poetry and every grammatical note is translated. Qur’anic quotations are in bold; the translator’s own notes are confined to the numbered footnotes and identify names, terms and variant readings only. A second translator has not checked the rendering, and the Arabic is linked so that any passage can be compared. The modern editors’ apparatus is not part of the classical text and is not translated.
The family of ʿImrān (3:33-64): all commentaries · Part 2 → · The classical commentaries
Notes
- The asbāṭ, the twelve sons of Jacob and their descendants. ↩
- Al-kanīsa: here the house of worship of the Children of Israel, the Temple in Jerusalem. ↩
- That is, “and God knows best what I have given birth to”. ↩
- That is, his member was small and he was impotent. ↩
- That is, “the best of the women of its world”, Wakīʿ indicating by his gesture that the pronoun refers to the world of each one’s age. ↩
- A dish of bread sopped in broth, prized by the Arabs. ↩
- Masīḥ al-qadam: having a foot smooth and flat, with no arch. ↩
- Lazarus. ↩