al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, by Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE). The commentary of the Andalusian jurist, which takes each verse through its legal and grammatical questions as well as its narrative.
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 to 3:44.
On 3:33
His words, Exalted: Indeed God chose Adam and Noah (3:33). “Chose” (iṣṭafā) means selected; this has already been discussed in al-Baqarah, as has the derivation of the name Adam and his patronymic (kunyah). The implied sense is: indeed God chose their religion, which is the religion of Islam, the governed noun (muḍāf) having been omitted. Al-Zajjāj said: He chose them for prophethood above the people of their age. And Noah: it has been said that the name is derived from nāḥa yanūḥu (to wail), and that it is a foreign name, but one that is declined because it consists of three letters. He is the elder of the messengers and the first messenger whom God sent to the people of the earth after Adam (peace be upon him), with the prohibition of marrying daughters, sisters, paternal aunts, maternal aunts and the other kinswomen. Whoever among the historians has said that Idrīs1 came before him has erred, as will be explained in al-Aʿrāf, if God Exalted wills.
His words, Exalted: and the family of Abraham and the family of ʿImrān above the worlds (3:33). The meaning of “family” (āl) and to whom the term applies has already been treated exhaustively in al-Baqarah. In al-Bukhārī it is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: “The family of Abraham and the family of ʿImrān” are the believers from the family of Abraham, the family of ʿImrān, the family of Yāsīn and the family of Muḥammad; God Exalted says: Indeed the people with the best claim to Abraham are those who followed him, and this Prophet, and those who believe; and God is the Protector of the believers (3:68). It has been said that the family of Abraham are Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and that Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is of the family of Abraham. It has been said that the family of Abraham is Abraham himself, and likewise the family of ʿImrān, and of this kind are His words, Exalted: and a remnant of what the family of Moses and the family of Aaron left behind (2:248). In the ḥadīth: “He has indeed been given one of the pipes of the family of David.”2 The poet said:
Weep not for any dead one after a dead one whom ʿAlī and ʿAbbās and the family of Abū Bakr loved.3
Another said:
He suffers from the remembrance of the family of Laylā what the snake-bitten man suffers when the reckoned days come round.4
He meant: from the remembrance of Laylā herself. It has been said that the family of ʿImrān is the family of Abraham, as He said: descendants, one of another (3:34). It has been said that what is meant is Jesus, because his mother was the daughter of ʿImrān. And it has been said that it is ʿImrān himself, as we have mentioned. Muqātil said: he is ʿImrān the father of Moses and Aaron, who is ʿImrān ibn Yaṣhar ibn Fāhāth ibn Lāwā ibn Yaʿqūb. Al-Kalbī said: he is ʿImrān the father of Mary, who was of the descendants of Solomon (peace be upon him). Al-Suhaylī recorded: ʿImrān ibn Mātān, and his wife was Ḥannah (with a nūn). These were singled out for mention from among the prophets because the prophets and messengers, every last one of them, are of their lineage. The name ʿImrān is not fully declined because it ends in an added alif and nūn. The meaning of His words above the worlds is: above the people of their own age, according to the commentators. Al-Tirmidhī al-Ḥakīm Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī said: above all created beings without exception. It has been said that above the worlds means above all created beings altogether until the Day of the Trumpet, because these were messengers and prophets and so the elect of creation; as for Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), his rank went beyond mere election, because he is a beloved one and a mercy. God Exalted said: And We did not send you except as a mercy to the worlds (21:107). The messengers were created for mercy, whereas Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was created as a mercy in himself; for this reason he became a security for creation, for when God sent him, creation became safe from the punishment until the blowing of the Trumpet. The other prophets did not occupy this station, and therefore he (peace be upon him) said: “I am a mercy bestowed as a gift,” informing that he in himself is a mercy to creation from God. His word “bestowed as a gift” (muhdāh) means a gift from God to creation.
It is said that He chose Adam by five things: the first, that He created him with His hand in the finest form by His power; the second, that He taught him all the names; the third, that He commanded the angels to prostrate to him; the fourth, that He settled him in the Garden; and the fifth, that He made him the father of mankind. He chose Noah by five things: the first, that He made him the father of mankind, because all the people were drowned and his descendants became the ones who remained; the second, that He prolonged his life, and it is said, “Blessed is he whose life is long and whose work is good”; the third, that He answered his prayer against the unbelievers and for the believers; the fourth, that He carried him in the Ark; and the fifth, that he was the first to abrogate sacred laws, for before that the marrying of maternal and paternal aunts had not been forbidden. He chose Abraham by five things: the first, that He made him the father of the prophets, for it is related that a thousand prophets issued from his loins from his time until the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); the second, that He took him as an intimate friend (khalīl); the third, that He delivered him from the fire; the fourth, that He made him a leader (imām) for mankind; and the fifth, that He tried him with the words and granted him success until he fulfilled them. Then He said: and the family of ʿImrān. If ʿImrān is the father of Moses and Aaron, then He chose the two of them above the worlds in that He sent down manna and quails upon their people, and that was granted to none of the prophets in the world. And if he is the father of Mary, then He chose Mary for him with the birth of Jesus without a father, and that was granted to no one in the world. And God knows best.
On 3:34
His words, Exalted: descendants, one of another; and God is Hearing, Knowing (3:34). The meaning of “descendants” (dhurriyyah) and its derivation have already been discussed in al-Baqarah. It is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl); al-Akhfash said: that is, in the state of some of them being from others, meaning descendants some of whom are of the offspring of others. The Kufans: it is accusative by severance (qaṭʿ). Al-Zajjāj: it is a substitute (badal), that is, He chose descendants one of another. The meaning of “one of another” is: in mutual support in religion, as He said: The hypocrite men and the hypocrite women are one of another (9:67), meaning in misguidance; so said al-Ḥasan and Qatādah. It has been said: in being chosen, elected and given prophethood. And it has been said that what is meant by it is procreation, and this is the weakest of these views.
On 3:35-36
This passage contains eight questions (masāʾil).
- The first: His words, Exalted: When the wife of ʿImrān said (3:35). Abū ʿUbaydah said: “when” (idh) is redundant. Muḥammad ibn Yazīd said: the implied sense is “remember when”. Al-Zajjāj said: the meaning is “and He chose the family of ʿImrān when the wife of ʿImrān said”. She is Ḥannah (with undotted ḥāʾ and nūn), daughter of Fāqūd ibn Qunbul, the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus (peace be upon him). It is not an Arabic name, and Ḥannah is not known in Arabic as a woman’s name. In Arabic there is Abū Ḥannah al-Badrī, who is also called Abū Ḥabbah (with a bāʾ with a single dot), which is more correct; his name was ʿĀmir. There is also Dayr Ḥannah (the Monastery of Ḥannah) in Syria, and another monastery which is likewise so called.5 Abū Nuwās said:
O Monastery of Ḥannah among the little hermit-cells of al-Ukayrāḥ, who is it that sobers up after you? For I am not the sober one.6
Ḥabbah is common among the Arabs; among them are Abū Ḥabbah al-Anṣārī, and Abū al-Sanābil ibn Baʿkak, who is mentioned in the ḥadīth of Subayʿah,7 Ḥabbah. Khannah with dotted khāʾ is not known except for the daughter of Yaḥyā ibn Aktham the judge, who was the mother of Muḥammad ibn Naṣr; and Jannah (with jīm) is not known except for Abū Jannah, the maternal uncle of the poet Dhū al-Rummah. All of this is from the book of Ibn Mākūlā.8
- The second: His words, Exalted: My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, consecrated (3:35). The meaning of the vow (nadhr) has already been discussed, and that it binds the servant only by his binding himself to it. It is said that when she became pregnant she said: “If God delivers me and I give birth to what is in my womb, I shall make it consecrated.” The meaning of to You is: to Your worship. Consecrated (muḥarraran) is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). It has been said that it is an adjective qualifying an omitted object, that is: “I have vowed to You what is in my womb as a consecrated boy.” But the first is preferable from the standpoint of exegesis, of the context of the speech and of grammatical analysis. As for the grammatical analysis, putting the adjective in the place of the noun it qualifies is not permissible in some positions, while it is permissible figuratively in others. As for the exegesis, it has been said that the reason for the wife of ʿImrān saying this was that she was an old woman who did not bear children, and they were a household that held a high place with God; she was beneath a tree and caught sight of a bird feeding its chick, and her soul was stirred by this, so she prayed to her Lord to grant her a child, and she vowed that if she gave birth she would make her child consecrated, that is, freed and devoted purely to God Exalted, a servant of the church, confined to it and set apart for the worship of God Exalted. This was permissible in their law, and it was incumbent upon their children to obey them. So when she gave birth to Mary she said: My Lord, I have given birth to a female (3:36), meaning that a female is not fit for the service of the church; it was said, because of the menstruation and impurity that befall her; and it was said, because she is not fit to mix with men. She had been hoping for a male, and that is why she consecrated it.
- The third: Ibn al-ʿArabī said: “There is no disagreement that a vow could not attach to the unborn child of the wife of ʿImrān, since she was a free woman; and had his wife been a slave-woman, there is no disagreement that a vow by a person concerning his own child is not valid, whatever his condition may be: if the one making the vow is a slave, no pronouncement has been established in his favour on the matter, and if he is free, his child cannot validly be his property; and the same holds for a woman. So what sense can the vow have here? Its meaning is only (and God knows best) that a person desires his child for the companionship, support and consolation he gives; this woman sought a child for companionship with it and to find rest in it, and when God Exalted bestowed it upon her, she vowed that her own share of companionship with it was relinquished and that it was dedicated to the service of God Exalted. This is the vow of the free-born among the righteous. By it she meant: consecrated from my side, freed from the bondage of this world and its occupations.” A man of the Sufis once said to his mother: “Mother, leave me to God, that I may devote myself to His worship and learn knowledge.” She said: “Yes.” He went away until he had gained insight, then returned to her and knocked at the door. She said: “Who is it?” He said to her: “Your son so-and-so.” She said: “We have left you to God, and we shall not take you back.”
- The fourth: His words, Exalted: consecrated (muḥarraran) is taken from freedom (ḥurriyyah), which is the opposite of bondage; from this comes taḥrīr al-kitāb, the “freeing” of a written text, which is clearing it of confusion and corruption. Khuṣayf related from ʿIkrimah and Mujāhid that the consecrated one is he who is purely for God, Mighty and Majestic, with nothing of the affairs of this world mixed in. This is well known in the language, that everything pure is called ḥurr, and muḥarrar has the same meaning. Dhū al-Rummah said:
And the earring hangs from the free (smooth) part behind her ear; the cord of her neck is long and far from it, so it swings to and fro.9
And ṭīn ḥurr is pure clay with no sand in it; and “so-and-so spent a free night (laylah ḥurrah)” is said when her husband did not attain to her on the first night, whereas if he had his way with her it is a “grey night” (laylah shaybāʾ).
- The fifth: His words, Exalted: So when she gave birth to her she said: My Lord, I have given birth to a female (3:36). Ibn ʿAbbās said: she only said this because none but males were accepted in fulfilment of a vow, yet God accepted Mary. A female is a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl), or, if you wish, a substitute (badal). It was said that she reared her until she grew up and only then sent her; this was related by Ashhab from Mālik. And it was said that she wrapped her in her swaddling cloth and sent her to the temple, so fulfilling her vow and relinquishing her. Perhaps the veiling of women among them was not as it was in the early days of Islam; for in al-Bukhārī and Muslim it is related that a black woman used to sweep the mosque in the time of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), and she died, to the end of the ḥadīth.
- The sixth: His words, Exalted: and God knows best what she gave birth to (3:36). According to the reading of those who read waḍaʿtu, with a ḍammah on the tāʾ, it is part of her own speech, and the discourse is continuous. This is the reading of Abū Bakr10 and Ibn ʿĀmir, and it carries the sense of submission to God, humility, and declaring Him exalted above anything being hidden from Him. She did not say it by way of informing, because God’s knowledge of all things is already established in the soul of the believer; she said it only by way of magnifying God Exalted and declaring Him transcendent. According to the reading of the majority, it is the speech of God, Mighty and Majestic, brought forward, its proper place being later, after and I seek refuge for her in You, and for her offspring, from the accursed Satan (3:36), “and God knows best what she gave birth to”; so said al-Mahdawī. Makkī said: it is information from God Exalted to us by way of confirmation, so He said: and God knows best what the mother of Mary gave birth to, whether she said it or did not say it. This is strengthened by the fact that had it been the speech of the mother of Mary, the proper form of the speech would have been “and You know best what I have given birth to”, because she addressed Him at the beginning of her speech with her words My Lord, I have given birth to a female. It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās bi-mā waḍaʿti, with a kasrah on the tāʾ, that is, this was said to her.
- The seventh: His words, Exalted: and the male is not like the female (3:36). Some of the Shāfiʿīs have used this as evidence that a woman who willingly complies with her husband in intercourse during the daytime of Ramaḍān is not equal to him in the obligation of expiation upon her. Ibn al-ʿArabī said: this is heedlessness on their part, for this is a report about the law of those before us, and they do not hold that to be binding; and this righteous woman intended by her words only what the evidence of her situation and the conclusion of her speech testify to, namely that she had vowed the service of the temple in respect of her child, and when she saw that it was a female, who was not fit for it and who was something to be concealed (ʿawrah), she excused herself to her Lord for the child having come to her contrary to what she had intended for it. The name Maryam is not fully declined because it is feminine and definite, and it is also foreign; so said al-Naḥḥās. And God Exalted knows best.
- The eighth: His words, Exalted: and I have named her Mary (3:36), meaning “the servant of the Lord” in their language.
And I seek refuge for her in You, meaning Mary.
And for her offspring, meaning Jesus. This shows that “offspring” (dhurriyyah) may apply to a single child in particular. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim it is related from Abū Hurayrah that he said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “There is no newborn that is born but that Satan pricks it, so that it begins its life crying from the prick of Satan, except the son of Mary and his mother.” Then Abū Hurayrah said: recite if you wish: and I seek refuge for her in You, and for her offspring, from the accursed Satan (3:36). Our scholars said: this ḥadīth conveys that God Exalted answered the prayer of the mother of Mary, for Satan pricks all the children of Adam, even the prophets and the saints, except Mary and her son. Qatādah said: every newborn is stabbed by Satan in its side when it is born, except Jesus and his mother; a veil was placed between them, so the stab struck the veil and nothing of it reached them. Our scholars said: were it not so, the special distinction of the two of them would be void. It does not follow from this that Satan’s prick necessarily entails the misguidance and seduction of the one touched, for that is a corrupt supposition: how often has Satan assailed the prophets and the saints with all kinds of corruption and seduction, and yet God protected them from what Satan sought, as He Exalted said: Indeed, over My servants you have no authority (15:42). This is so even though every single one of the children of Adam has had a companion (qarīn) from among the devils assigned to him, as the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said; so Mary and her son, though protected from his prick, were not protected from his clinging to them and keeping them company. And God knows best.
On 3:37-38
His words, Exalted: So her Lord accepted her with a good acceptance (3:37). The meaning is: He led her along the path of the blessed; this is from Ibn ʿAbbās. Some said: the meaning of acceptance (taqabbul) is taking charge of her upbringing and attending to her affairs. Al-Ḥasan said: the meaning of acceptance is that He never once punished her for a single hour of night or day.
And He made her grow with a good growth: meaning He fashioned her constitution evenly, without excess or deficiency, so that she grew in a day what another child grows in a whole year. “Acceptance” (qabūl) and “growth” (nabāt) are verbal nouns formed on a pattern other than that of their verbs, the regular forms being taqabbulan and inbātan. The poet said:
Ingratitude, after you turned death away from me, and after your gift of the hundred grazing camels?
He meant “after your giving” (iʿṭāʾika). But when He said He made her grow (anbatahā), it pointed to nabata (she grew), just as Imruʾ al-Qays said:
So we came to fair terms and our speech grew gentle; I broke her in, and she who had been refractory was tamed, and how tamed!
The verbal noun of dhallat is properly dhull, but he referred it back to the sense of adhlaltu (I tamed); and so it is with everything of this kind that comes before you. The meaning of taqabbala and qabila is one and the same, so the sense is: her Lord accepted her with a good acceptance. Parallel to it is the saying of Ruʾbah:
And I have coiled myself with the coiling of the ḥiḍb, the viper,
because the meaning of taṭawwaytu and inṭawaytu is one. Like it is the saying of al-Quṭāmī:
The best of an affair is that which you meet head-on, not that you should go chasing after it in pursuit,
because tatabbaʿtu and ittabaʿtu are one. And in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd: “and He sent down (anzala) the angels, a sending down (tanzīlan)” (25:25), because the meaning of nazzala and anzala is one. Al-Mufaḍḍal said: its meaning is “and He made her grow, so she grew with a good growth”. But having regard to the meaning is preferable, as we have mentioned. The basic form of qabūl is with a ḍammah, because it is a verbal noun like dukhūl and khurūj; the fatḥah occurs in a few words only, such as walūʿ and wazūʿ, these three and no others; so said Abū ʿAmr, al-Kisāʾī and the leading authorities. Al-Zajjāj permitted bi-qubūl, with a ḍammah on the qāf, according to the basic form.
His words, Exalted: and He put her in the care of Zachariah (3:37), that is, He joined her to him. Abū ʿUbaydah: he undertook responsibility for attending to her. The Kufans read kaffalahā with doubling, so that it is transitive to two objects, the implied sense being “and her Lord put her in the care of Zachariah”, that is, He imposed her guardianship upon him, decreed that for him and made it easy for him. In the codex of Ubayy it is wa-akfalahā, and the hamzah is like the doubling in making the verb transitive. Moreover, before it come so her Lord accepted her and He made her grow, where the Exalted reports of Himself what He did with her, so kaffalahā with doubling follows on from that. The rest read it without doubling, attributing the verb to Zachariah. God Exalted thus reported that it was He who took charge of her guardianship and attendance upon her, as is indicated by His words: which of them should take charge of Mary (3:44). Makkī said: and this is the preferred choice, because the doubled form comes back to the undoubled one, since when God Exalted entrusted her to Zachariah’s care, Zachariah took charge of her by God’s command, and since when Zachariah took charge of her it was by the will and power of God; on this basis the two readings merge into one another. ʿAmr ibn Mūsā related from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr and Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī wa-kafilahā, with a kasrah on the fāʾ. Al-Akhfash said: one says kafala yakfulu and kafila yakfilu, but I have not heard kafula, though it has been mentioned. Mujāhid read fa-taqabbalhā, with the lām vowelless, as a petition and request; rabbahā in the accusative, as a vocative in a construct phrase; wa-anbithā, with the tāʾ vowelless; wa-kaffilhā, with the lām vowelless; and Zakariyyāʾa, with lengthening and in the accusative.11 Ḥafṣ, Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī read Zakariyyā without lengthening or hamzah, while the rest lengthened it and gave it a hamzah. Al-Farrāʾ said: the people of the Ḥijāz both lengthen Zakariyyāʾ and shorten it, while the people of Najd drop the alif from it and decline it fully, saying Zakariyy. Al-Akhfash said: there are four dialectal forms of it: the lengthened and the shortened; Zakariyy, with doubled yāʾ and full declension; and Zakarin, with “I saw Zakariyyā“. Abū Ḥātim said: Zakariyy without full declension, because it is foreign; but this is an error, because whatever has a yāʾ like this is fully declined, like kursiyy and Yaḥyā; whereas Zakariyyāʾ, in both the lengthened and the shortened forms, is not fully declined, because it contains the feminine alif together with foreignness and definiteness.
His words, Exalted: Whenever Zachariah entered upon her in the sanctuary, he found provision with her (3:37), up to His words indeed You are the Hearer of prayer (3:38). This contains four questions.
- The first: His words, Exalted: Whenever Zachariah entered upon her in the sanctuary. The sanctuary (miḥrāb) in the language is the most honoured place in a sitting-room; a fuller explanation of it will come in the sūrah of Mary. It has come in a report that she was in an upper chamber to which Zachariah used to ascend by a ladder. Waḍḍāḥ al-Yaman said:
The mistress of a miḥrāb: when I come to her, I do not reach her until I climb a ladder,
that is, the mistress of an upper chamber. Abū Ṣāliḥ related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: the wife of ʿImrān conceived after she had grown old, and she vowed what was in her womb as consecrated. ʿImrān said to her: “Woe to you! What have you done? What if it is a female?” And they were both grieved at that. Then ʿImrān died while Ḥannah was pregnant, and she gave birth to a female, and God accepted her with a good acceptance. Only boys used to be consecrated, so the rabbis cast lots for her with the pens with which they wrote the revelation, as will be related. Zachariah took charge of her and took a place for her, and when she grew older he made a sanctuary for her to which one could ascend only by a ladder. He hired a wet-nurse for her, and he used to lock a door upon her, and no one entered upon her but Zachariah, until she grew up. When she menstruated he would take her out to his house, where she stayed with her maternal aunt, for her maternal aunt was the wife of Zachariah, according to al-Kalbī. Muqātil said: it was her sister who was the wife of Zachariah. When she became pure from her menstruation and had washed, he returned her to the sanctuary. Some said: she did not menstruate at all, and was kept pure from menstruation. Whenever Zachariah entered upon her he would find with her the fruit of winter in the height of summer and the fruit of summer in winter, so he said: “O Mary, from where do you have this?” She said: “It is from God.” It was at that point that Zachariah conceived the hope of a child, and said: “He who brings her this is able to grant me a child.” The meaning of annā is “from where” (min ayna); so said Abū ʿUbaydah. Al-Naḥḥās said: there is some looseness in this, because ayna asks about places, while annā asks about ways and directions; the meaning is: from which of the ways and from which of the directions do you have this? Al-Kumayt distinguished between the two when he said:
How, and from where, has rapture come back to you, from a quarter where there is neither youthful passion nor misgiving?
Whenever (kullamā) is in the accusative, governed by he found, that is, at every entering.
Indeed God provides for whom He wills without reckoning (3:37): it was said that this is part of Mary’s speech, and it may also be a fresh sentence. This was the occasion of Zachariah’s prayer and his asking for a child.
- The second: His words, Exalted: There Zachariah called upon his Lord (3:38). Hunālika (there) is in the position of the accusative, because it is an adverb used of both time and place, its basic use being for place. Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Salamah said: hunālika is used of time and hunāka of place, though the one may be put in the place of the other.
Grant me: give me.
From Yourself (min ladunka): from You.
A good offspring: that is, righteous progeny. “Offspring” (dhurriyyah) can be one or many, male or female, and here it is one, as is shown by His words so grant me from Yourself an heir (19:5), and He did not say “heirs”. Good (ṭayyibah) was made feminine only because the word dhurriyyah is feminine in form, like the poet’s words:
Your father is a caliph, whom another bore, and you are a caliph: that is perfection,
where he made “bore” feminine because the word khalīfah is feminine in form. It is related in the ḥadīth of Anas that he said: the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Any man who dies and leaves a good offspring, God grants him the like of the reward of their works without diminishing anything from their rewards.” The derivation of dhurriyyah has already been given in al-Baqarah.
Good: that is, righteous and blessed.
Indeed You are the Hearer of prayer: that is, the One who accepts it; and of this kind is “God hears (samiʿa) him who praises Him”.
- The third: this verse indicates the seeking of children, which is the practice (sunnah) of the messengers and the truthful. God Exalted said: And We sent messengers before you and appointed for them wives and offspring (13:38). In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim it is related from Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ that he said: ʿUthmān wished to devote himself to celibacy, but the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade him; had he permitted him that, we would have had ourselves castrated. Ibn Mājah recorded from ʿĀʾishah that she said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Marriage is of my practice, and whoever does not act according to my practice is not of me. Marry, for I shall outnumber the nations by you. Whoever has the means, let him marry; and whoever cannot find them, let him keep to fasting, for it is a castration (wijāʾ) for him.”12 In this is a refutation of one of the ignorant among the Sufis, who said: “He who seeks children is a fool”, not knowing that he himself is the dullard and the bungler. God Exalted said, reporting of Abraham the Intimate Friend: and grant me a tongue of truthfulness among the later generations (26:84); and He said: And those who say: Our Lord, grant us from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our eyes (25:74). Al-Bukhārī gave a chapter heading on this: “The chapter on seeking children”. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Abū Ṭalḥah when his son died: “Did you consummate tonight?” He said: “Yes.” He said: “May God bless the two of you in what remains of your night.” He said: and she conceived. In al-Bukhārī: Sufyān said: a man of the Anṣār said: “I saw nine children, all of whom had learnt the Qurʾan by heart.” He also gave the chapter heading: “The chapter on praying for many children together with blessing”, and cited the ḥadīth of Anas ibn Mālik, who said: Umm Sulaym said: “O Messenger of God, Anas is your servant; pray to God for him.” He said: “O God, increase his wealth and his children, and bless him in what You have given him.” And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “O God, forgive Abū Salamah, raise his rank among the rightly guided, and be his successor among his descendants who remain.” Al-Bukhārī and Muslim recorded it. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Marry the fertile and loving woman, for I shall outnumber the nations by you.” Abū Dāwūd recorded it. The reports to this effect are many; they urge the seeking of children and commend it, for the benefit a person hopes for from them in his life and after his death. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When one of you dies, his works are cut off except from three”, and he mentioned “or a righteous child who prays for him.” Even if there were no ḥadīth but this one, it would be sufficient.
- The fourth: once this is established, it is incumbent upon a person to beseech his Creator for the guidance of his child and his wife, for success to be granted to them both, and guidance, righteousness, chastity and care, and that they be helpers to him in his religion and his worldly life, so that his benefit from them may be great in this world and the next. Do you not see the words of Zachariah: and make him, my Lord, well-pleasing (19:6), and his words: a good offspring; and His words: grant us from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our eyes (25:74). And the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed for Anas, saying: “O God, increase his wealth and his children, and bless him in it.” Al-Bukhārī and Muslim recorded it, and that suffices you.
On 3:39
His words, Exalted: Then the angels called to him (3:39). Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī read fa-nādāhu, with an alif, in the masculine, and they pronounce it with imālah because its origin is a yāʾ and because it is the fourth letter. With the alif is also the reading of Ibn ʿAbbās and Ibn Masʿūd, and it is the choice of Abū ʿUbayd. It is related from Jarīr, from Mughīrah, from Ibrāhīm, who said: ʿAbd Allāh used to make “the angels” masculine throughout the Qurʾan. Abū ʿUbayd said: we consider that he chose this in opposition to the polytheists, because they said that the angels are the daughters of God. Al-Naḥḥās said: this is an argument from which nothing follows, because the Arabs say both qālat al-rijāl and qāla al-rijāl, and likewise with al-nisāʾ; and how could the Qurʾan be used as an argument against them in this way? If it were permissible to argue against them from the Qurʾan by this, it would be permissible for them to argue from His words, Exalted: and when the angels said (qālat) (3:42). Rather, the argument against them lies in His words, Mighty and Majestic: Did they witness their creation? (43:19), that is, they did not witness it, so how can they say that they are females? Thus it is known that this is mere conjecture and caprice. As for fa-nādāhu, it is permissible on the basis of treating the plural as masculine, and nādat-hu on the basis of treating the collective as feminine. Makkī said: the angels are among rational beings in broken plurals, yet in taking the feminine they are treated like non-rational beings; you say hiya al-rijāl (“they” in the feminine singular, “the men”), hiya al-judhūʿ (the trunks), hiya al-jimāl (the camels), and qālat al-aʿrāb (the Bedouin said, with a feminine verb). This is strengthened by His words and when the angels said (qālat); and He has used the masculine in another place, saying: and the angels stretching out their hands (6:93), and this is by consensus. And He Exalted said: and the angels enter upon them from every gate (13:23). So both the feminine and the masculine treatment of this plural are good. Al-Suddī said: it was Gabriel alone who called to him, and so it is in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd. In the revelation there is He sends down the angels with the Spirit of His command (16:2), meaning Gabriel, the Spirit being the revelation. It is permissible in Arabic to speak of a single individual with a plural expression; and in the revelation there comes those to whom the people said (3:173), meaning Nuʿaym ibn Masʿūd, as will be explained. And it has been said that all the angels called to him, and this is the more evident meaning, that is, the call came from their direction.
His words, Exalted: while he was standing praying in the sanctuary: God gives you glad tidings (3:39). While he was standing (wa-huwa qāʾimun) is subject and predicate, and praying (yuṣallī) is in the position of the nominative; or, if you wish, it is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier of the pronoun. That God (anna Allāha) means “with the news that God”. Ḥamzah and al-Kisāʾī read inna,13 that is, “they said: indeed God”, the call being taken in the sense of speech. Yubashshiruka with doubling is the reading of the people of Medina. Ḥamzah read yabshuruka without doubling, and so too Ḥumayd ibn al-Qays al-Makkī, except that he gave the shīn a kasrah, the yāʾ a ḍammah, and left the bāʾ undoubled. Al-Akhfash said: they are three dialectal forms with one meaning. The evidence for the first, which is the reading of the majority, is that whatever occurs in the Qurʾan of this root as a past tense or imperative verb has the doubled form, as in His words, Exalted: so give glad tidings to My servants (39:17), so give him glad tidings of forgiveness (36:11), so We gave her glad tidings of Isaac (11:71), they said: We give you glad tidings in truth (15:55). As for the second, which is the reading of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, it is from bashara yabshuru, and it is the dialect of Tihāmah; of this is the saying of the poet:
I gave my household glad tidings (basharta) when I saw a letter that had come to you from al-Ḥajjāj, its writing being read aloud.
Another said:
And when you see those stretching out eagerly towards bounty, their hands dust-covered, on a barren plain,
then help them, and rejoice (ibshar) in what they rejoice in (bashirū); and when they alight in a place of hardship, alight there too.
As for the third, it is from abshara yubshiru ibshāran; the poet said:
O Umm ʿAmr, rejoice (abshirī) at the glad tidings: a swift death and locusts clustered thick.14
His words, Exalted: of John (3:39). His name in the former scripture was Ḥayyā; and the name of Sarah, the wife of Abraham (peace be upon him), was Yasārah, whose interpretation in Arabic is “she does not bear children”. When she was given the glad tidings of Isaac she was called Sārah, Gabriel (peace be upon him) having named her so. She said: “O Abraham, why has a letter been taken away from my name?” Abraham put this to Gabriel (peace be upon them both), and he said: “That letter has been added to the name of a son of hers who is one of the best of the prophets; his name was Ḥayy, and he has been named Yaḥyā.” Al-Naqqāsh mentioned this. Qatādah said: he was named Yaḥyā because God Exalted gave him life (aḥyāhu) through faith and prophethood. Some said: he was so named because God Exalted gave life to the people through him by guidance. Muqātil said: his name was derived from the name of God Exalted, Ḥayy (the Living), so he was named Yaḥyā. And it has been said: because God gave life through him to the womb of his mother.
Confirming a word from God (3:39): meaning Jesus, according to most of the commentators. Jesus was called a word because he came to be by the word of God Exalted, which is “Be”, and so he came to be without a father. Abū al-Sammāl al-ʿAdawī read bi-kilmah, with a kasrah on the kāf and the lām vowelless, throughout the Qurʾan; it is an eloquent dialectal form, like kitf and fakhdh. It has been said that he was called a word because people are guided by him as they are guided by the speech of God Exalted. Abū ʿUbayd said: the meaning of a word from God is “a book from God”; he said: the Arabs say “he recited to me a kalimah“, meaning a poem, as it is related that al-Ḥuwaydirah15 was mentioned to Ḥassān, and he said: “May God curse his kalimah“, meaning his poem. Other views besides these have been stated, but the first view is the best known and the majority of the scholars hold it. John was the first to believe in Jesus (peace be upon them both) and to confirm him. John was older than Jesus by three years, or, it is said, by six months, and they were the sons of two sisters.16 When Zachariah heard his testimony he rose and went to Jesus and clasped him to himself while he was still in his swaddling clothes. Al-Ṭabarī mentioned that when Mary conceived Jesus, her sister also conceived John; her sister came to visit her and said: “O Mary, have you perceived that I am pregnant?” Mary said to her: “Have you yourself perceived that I am pregnant?” She said to her: “And indeed I feel that what is in my womb bows down to what is in your womb.” That is because it is related that she felt her unborn child fall forward with its head towards the belly of Mary. Al-Suddī said: that is the meaning of the words confirming a word from God. Confirming is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier.
And a lord (sayyidan): the lord (sayyid) is he who rules over his people and whose word is final; its original form is saywid, and one says “so-and-so is more lordly (aswad) than so-and-so”, an elative (afʿal) form from siyādah. In this is an indication that it is permissible to call a human being sayyid, just as it is permissible to call him mighty (ʿazīz) or noble (karīm). Likewise it is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said to the Banū Qurayẓah: “Rise for your lord (sayyid).” In al-Bukhārī and Muslim it is related that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said of al-Ḥasan: “Indeed this son of mine is a lord (sayyid), and perhaps God will make peace through him between two great factions of the Muslims.” And so it was: when ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him) was killed, more than forty thousand pledged allegiance to him, together with many who had held back from his father and many who had broken their pledge to him, and he remained for about seven months caliph over Iraq and the lands of Khurāsān beyond it. Then he marched against Muʿāwiyah with the people of the Ḥijāz and Iraq, and Muʿāwiyah marched against him with the people of Syria. When the two hosts came in sight of one another at a place called Maskin, in the land of the Sawād in the district of al-Anbār, al-Ḥasan was averse to fighting, knowing that neither of the two parties would prevail until most of the other had perished, and so the Muslims would perish. He therefore surrendered the authority to Muʿāwiyah upon conditions that he stipulated against him, among them that the authority should pass to him after Muʿāwiyah; and Muʿāwiyah bound himself to all of that. Thus the word of the Prophet (peace be upon him), “Indeed this son of mine is a lord”, proved true, and there is none more lordly than one whom God Exalted and His Messenger have made a lord. Qatādah said concerning His words, Exalted, and a lord: in knowledge and worship. Ibn Jubayr and al-Ḍaḥḥāk: in knowledge and piety. Mujāhid: the lord is the noble one. Ibn Zayd: he whom anger does not overcome. Al-Zajjāj said: the lord is he who surpasses his peers in every kind of good; and this is comprehensive. Al-Kisāʾī said: the sayyid among goats is the aged one; and in the ḥadīth: “A two-year-old of the sheep is better than the aged (sayyid) of the goats.” The poet said:
It is all one to him whether it be a yearling ewe that came near him so that he might slaughter it for the guest, or an aged goat.
And chaste (ḥaṣūran): its origin is from ḥaṣr, which is confinement; ḥaṣaranī al-shayʾ and aḥṣaranī mean “the thing confined me”. Ibn Mayyādah said:
Laylā’s forsaking is not that she has grown distant from you, nor that occupations have confined (aḥṣarat) you.
A ḥaṣūr she-camel is one with a narrow teat-orifice. The ḥaṣūr is one who does not go in to women, as though he held back from them, just as one says “a ḥaṣūr man” or “a ḥaṣīr man” of one who withholds his contribution and does not put out what boon-companions put out. One says: “the people drank and so-and-so was ḥaṣira towards them”, that is, he was niggardly; this is from Abū ʿAmr. Al-Akhṭal said:
Many a drinker, open-handed with the cup, has been my boon companion, neither a niggard (ḥaṣūr) nor, over the wine, a brawler.
In the revelation there is and We have made Hell for the unbelievers a ḥaṣīr (17:8), that is, a prison. The ḥaṣīr also means the king, because he is screened off. Labīd said:
And many a lordly host, thick of neck, as though they were jinn standing at the gate of the king (al-ḥaṣīr).
So John (peace be upon him) is ḥaṣūr, the faʿūl pattern in the sense of mafʿūl, one who does not go in to women, as though he were kept back from what is found in men; this is from Ibn Masʿūd and others. The faʿūl pattern in the sense of mafʿūl is frequent in the language; among its instances is ḥalūb in the sense of maḥlūbah (a milch-camel). The poet said:
Among them are forty-two milch-camels (ḥalūbah), black as the hidden wing-feathers of the jet-black raven.
Ibn Masʿūd also said, and Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn Jubayr, Qatādah, ʿAṭāʾ, Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ, al-Ḥasan, al-Suddī and Ibn Zayd: he is one who restrains himself from women and does not approach them though he has the ability. This is the most correct of the views, for two reasons. The first is that it is praise and commendation of him, and commendation is, as a rule, only for an acquired act, not for a natural disposition. The second is that faʿūl in the language is one of the forms of the active participle, as the poet said:
A great striker (ḍarūb) with the blade of the sword at the legs of their fat camels when they lack provisions; indeed you are the one who slaughters.17
So the meaning is that he confines himself from the desires. Perhaps this was his law; as for our law, it is marriage, as has been stated above. It has been said that the ḥaṣūr is the impotent man who has no member with which marital relations are possible for him and who does not emit; this is from Ibn ʿAbbās as well, and from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and al-Ḍaḥḥāk. Abū Ṣāliḥ related from Abū Hurayrah that he said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “Every son of Adam will meet God with a sin he has committed, for which He will punish him if He wills or show him mercy, except John the son of Zachariah, for he was a lord, chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous.” Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) reached down with his hand to a speck on the ground, picked it up and said: “His member was like this speck.” And it has been said that its meaning is: one who restrains himself from acts of disobedience to God, Mighty and Majestic. And a prophet from among the righteous (3:39): al-Zajjāj said: the righteous man is he who renders to God what He has made obligatory upon him, and to people their rights.
On 3:40
He said: My Lord, how shall I have a boy, when old age has already reached me and my wife is barren? He said: Thus God does what He wills (3:40). It has been said that “Lord” here is Gabriel, that is, he said to Gabriel: “My lord”, meaning “O my master”, “how shall I have a boy?”, meaning a child; this is the view of al-Kalbī. Some said: his word My Lord means God Exalted. Annā has the meaning of “how”, and it is in the position of the accusative as an adverb. There are two aspects to the meaning of this question. The first is that he asked whether he would have the child while he and his wife remained in their present condition, or whether they would be restored to the condition of those who beget. The second is that he asked whether he would be granted the child from his barren wife or from another. And it has been said that the meaning is: by what merit do I deserve this, when I and my wife are in this condition? — by way of humility. It is related that between his prayer and the time at which he was given the glad tidings there were forty years, and that on the day he was given the glad tidings he was ninety years old and his wife was near him in age. Ibn ʿAbbās and al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: on the day he was given the glad tidings he was a hundred and twenty years old and his wife was ninety-eight years old; hence his words and my wife is barren, that is, sterile, she does not bear children. One says “a barren (ʿāqir) man” and “a barren woman”, one in whom barrenness is manifest. One says ʿaqurat and ʿaqura (with a ḍammah on the qāf in both), taʿquru ʿuqran, “she became barren”, like ḥasunat taḥsunu ḥusnan; this is from Abū Zayd; and also ʿuqārah. The active participles from faʿula are on the pattern faʿīlah: one says ʿaẓumat fa-hiya ʿaẓīmah and ẓarufat fa-hiya ẓarīfah. ʿĀqir is used only because what is meant by it is “one possessed of barrenness”, by way of attribution (nasab); had it been on the basis of the verb, one would have said ʿaqurat fa-hiya ʿaqīrah, as though there were in her a ʿuqr, that is, an advanced age which prevents her from bearing children. Al-ʿāqir is also the great sand-hill that grows nothing. Al-ʿuqr is also the dower of a woman when she has been had on the basis of a mistaken belief of lawfulness (shubhah). The “egg of the ʿuqr“: they claimed it is the egg of the cock, because it lays a single egg in its lifetime, elongated in shape. ʿUqr al-nār is also the middle of the fire and the greater part of it. ʿUqr al-ḥawḍ is the back of the watering-trough, where the camels stand when they come to drink; one says ʿuqr and ʿuqur, like ʿusr and ʿusur, and the plural is aʿqār; so it is a word of several meanings (mushtarak). The kāf in His words thus (ka-dhālika) is in the position of the accusative, that is, “God does what He wills in the like of that way”. Ghulām (boy) is derived from ghulmah, which is intensity of desire for intercourse; ightalama al-faḥl ghulmatan means “the stallion was roused by the lust to cover”. Laylā al-Akhyaliyyah said:
There cured her of the incurable disease that was in her a youth (ghulām) who, when he brandished the spear-shaft, gave it drink.
The ghulām is one whose moustache has just sprouted; he is in the state of ghulūmah or ghulūmiyyah, and the plural is ghilmah and ghilmān. It is said that al-ghaylam is the young man, and also the young woman. Al-ghaylam is also the male tortoise, and al-Ghaylam is a place. Ightalama al-baḥr means the sea raged and its waves dashed against one another.
On 3:41
It contains three matters.
- His words, Exalted: He said: My Lord, appoint for me a sign (3:41). “Appoint” (jaʿala) here has the meaning of “make into” (ṣayyara), because it governs two objects, and “for me” is in the position of the second object. When he was given the glad tidings of the child, and this was not remote to him in respect of the power of God, Exalted, he asked for a sign, that is, a mark, by which he might know the soundness of this matter and that it was from God, Exalted; so God, Exalted, punished him by afflicting him with silence from speaking to people, for asking for a sign after the angels had addressed him face to face. This is what most of the commentators said. They said: and likewise, even if it was not a muteness arising from illness or the like, there is in any case some punishment in it. Ibn Zayd said: When the wife of Zachariah (peace be upon him) conceived John by him, he became unable to speak to anyone, while at the same time he could recite the Torah and remember God, Exalted; but when he wished to converse with anyone he could not manage it.
- The second: His words, Exalted: except by gesture (3:41). Gesture (ramz) in the language is signalling with the two lips, and it may be used of signalling with the eyebrows, the eyes and the hands; its root meaning is movement. It was said: he asked for that sign as an increase of reassurance. The meaning is: complete the blessing by appointing for me a sign, that sign being an additional blessing and honour; so it was said to him: Your sign is that you shall not speak to people for three days (3:41), that is, you will be prevented from speaking for three nights. The proof of this view is His words, Exalted, after the glad tidings of the angels to him: and I created you before, when you were nothing (19:9), that is, I brought you into being by My power, and likewise I shall bring the child into being for you. Al-Naḥḥās preferred this view and said: the statement of Qatādah that Zachariah was punished by the withholding of speech is a view to be shunned, because God, Mighty and Majestic, did not inform us that he sinned nor that He forbade him this; the position on it is that the meaning is: appoint for me a mark that indicates the existence of the child, since that was hidden from me. “Gesture” (ramzan) is in the accusative as a discontinuous exception (istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ), so said al-Akhfash. Al-Kisāʾī said: ramaza, yarmuzu and yarmizu. It was also read “illā ramazan” with a fatḥah on the mīm, and “rumuzan” with a ḍammah on it and a ḍammah on the rāʾ, the singular being ramzah.
- The third: In this verse is proof that a gesture takes the place of speech, and that is found in much of the Sunnah. The most emphatic of gestures is that by which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) judged in the case of the black slave-woman, when he said to her: “Where is God?” and she pointed with her head to heaven, and he said: “Set her free, for she is a believer.” Thus he allowed by gesture Islam, which is the foundation of religion, which protects blood and property, by which Paradise is merited and by which one is saved from the Fire; and he ruled that she was a believer just as one rules by the speech of one who utters that. So a gesture must be operative in all the rest of religion, and this is the view of the generality of the jurists. Ibn al-Qāsim related from Mālik that when a mute person signals divorce it is binding on him. Al-Shāfiʿī said concerning a man who falls ill and whose tongue becomes impaired that he is like the mute with regard to taking back a wife and divorce. Abū Ḥanīfah said: that is permissible when his gesture is understood, but if there is doubt about it, it is void; and this is not by analogy (qiyās) but by juristic preference (istiḥsān). Analogy in all this would be that it is void, because he does not speak and his gesture is not intelligible. Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Baṭṭāl said: what led Abū Ḥanīfah to say this is only that he did not know the Sunnah reports which have come allowing gestures in various rulings of religion; and perhaps al-Bukhārī, by his chapter heading “Chapter on Gesture in Divorce and Other Matters”, intended a refutation of him. ʿAṭāʾ said: by His words “that you shall not speak to people” He meant fasting for three days; they, when they fasted, would not speak except by gesture. But this is far-fetched. And God knows best.
- The fourth: Some of those who permit the abrogation (naskh) of the Qurʾān by the Sunnah said: Zachariah (peace be upon him) was prevented from speaking while he was capable of it, and this is abrogated by his words (peace be upon him): “There is no silence for a day until night.” Most of the scholars hold that it is not abrogated, and that Zachariah was only prevented from speaking by an affliction that came upon him and prevented him from it, that affliction being the inability to speak while in sound health; thus said the commentators. Many of the scholars held that “There is no silence for a day until night” only means silence from the remembrance of God; as for silence from idle chatter and what has no benefit in it, silence from that is good.
His words, Exalted: And remember your Lord much, and glorify Him in the evening and the early morning (3:41). He commanded him not to abandon remembrance within himself despite the tying of his tongue, according to the first view. The meaning of remembrance (dhikr) has already been given in al-Baqarah. Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī said: Had anyone been granted a dispensation to abandon remembrance, Zachariah would have been granted it, by the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, that you shall not speak to people for three days except by gesture; and remember your Lord much (3:41); and a man in battle would have been granted it, by the words of God, Mighty and Majestic: When you meet a host, stand firm and remember God much (8:45). Al-Ṭabarī mentioned it. “And glorify” means pray; the prayer was called subḥah because of the declaring of God, Exalted, free of evil which it contains. “The evening” (al-ʿashī) is the plural of ʿashiyyah; and it was said that it is a singular. It is from the time the sun declines until it sets, according to Mujāhid. In the Muwaṭṭaʾ, from al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, who said: I never found people other than praying the noon prayer in the evening (ʿashī). “And the early morning” (al-ibkār) is from the rising of dawn until the time of the forenoon.
On 3:42
His words, Exalted: God has chosen you (3:42), that is, selected you; and this has already been discussed.
and purified you, that is, from unbelief, according to Mujāhid and al-Ḥasan. Al-Zajjāj: from all impurities, such as menstruation, post-natal bleeding and others; and chose you for the birth of Jesus, above the women of the worlds, meaning the people of her own time, according to al-Ḥasan, Ibn Jurayj and others. It was said: “above the women of the worlds” altogether, until the Day of the Trumpet; this is the correct view, as we shall explain, and it is the view of al-Zajjāj and others. He repeated the choosing because the meaning of the first is the choosing for His worship, and the meaning of the second is for the birth of Jesus. Muslim related from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Many men have attained perfection, but no women attained perfection except Mary daughter of ʿImrān and Āsiyah the wife of Pharaoh; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd18 over all other food.” Our scholars (God’s mercy be upon them) said: perfection (kamāl) is reaching the utmost limit and completeness; in its past tense one says kamala with a fatḥah on the mīm and kamula with a ḍammah, and yakmulu in its imperfect with a ḍammah; and the perfection of each thing is according to its kind. Absolute perfection belongs to God, Exalted, alone. There is no doubt that the most perfect of the human species are the prophets, and after them come the friends of God (awliyāʾ) among the truthful ones (ṣiddīqūn), the martyrs and the righteous. This being established, it has been said that by the perfection mentioned in the ḥadīth is meant prophethood, and it would follow from this that Mary (peace be upon her) and Āsiyah were two prophetesses; and this has indeed been said. The correct view is that Mary was a prophetess, because God, Exalted, revealed to her through the medium of the angel just as He revealed to the rest of the prophets, in accordance with what has preceded, and its explanation will also come in “Maryam”. As for Āsiyah, nothing has come that clearly indicates her prophethood, but rather her being a truthful one (ṣiddīqah) and her excellence, as its explanation will come in “al-Taḥrīm”. It is related through sound channels that he (peace be upon him) said, in what Abū Hurayrah related from him: “The best women of the worlds are four: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah daughter of Muzāḥim the wife of Pharaoh, Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid, and Fāṭimah daughter of Muḥammad.” And from the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “The most excellent of the women of the people of Paradise are Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid, Fāṭimah daughter of Muḥammad, Mary daughter of ʿImrān, and Āsiyah daughter of Muzāḥim the wife of Pharaoh.” And by another channel from him: “The mistress of the women of the people of Paradise, after Mary, is Fāṭimah, and Khadījah.” So the apparent sense of the Qurʾān and the ḥadīths requires that Mary is more excellent than all the women of the world, from Eve to the last woman upon whom the Hour will come, for the angels conveyed to her revelation from God, Mighty and Majestic, by way of legal obligation, information and glad tidings, just as they conveyed it to the rest of the prophets; she is therefore a prophetess, and the prophet is more excellent than the friend of God, so she is more excellent than all women, the first and the last of them, absolutely. Then after her in excellence is Fāṭimah, then Khadījah, then Āsiyah. Likewise Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah related it from Kurayb, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The mistress of the women of the worlds is Mary, then Fāṭimah, then Khadījah, then Āsiyah.” This is a good (ḥasan) ḥadīth which removes the difficulty. God singled out Mary for what He gave to no other woman, in that the Holy Spirit spoke to her, appeared to her, breathed into her shift and drew near to her for the breathing; this belongs to no other woman. She believed in the words of her Lord and did not ask for a sign when she was given the glad tidings, as Zachariah (peace and blessings be upon him) asked for a sign; and for that reason God named her in His revelation a truthful one, saying: and his mother was a truthful one (5:75), and He said: and she believed in the words of her Lord and His books, and was of the devoutly obedient (66:12). So He testified for her to truthfulness, He testified for her to belief in the words of the glad tidings, and He testified for her to devout obedience (qunūt). Zachariah was given glad tidings of a boy, and he looked to his advanced age and the barrenness of his wife’s womb and said: How shall I have a boy when my wife is barren? and he asked for a sign; while Mary was given the glad tidings of a boy, and she observed that she was a virgin whom no man had touched, and it was said to her: Thus said your Lord (19:21), and she confined herself to that, believed in the words of her Lord, and did not ask for a sign from one who knew the inner reality of this matter. What woman among all the women of the worlds, of the daughters of Adam, has what she has of these merits! For that reason it is related that she outstripped the foremost, together with the messengers, to Paradise. It has come in the report from him (peace and blessings be upon him): “Were I to swear, I would be true in my oath: none shall enter Paradise before the foremost of my community except some ten-odd men, among them Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the Tribes, Moses, Jesus and Mary daughter of ʿImrān.” It would have been incumbent on whoever lays claim to the knowledge of the outward and infers inward things from outward things to know the saying of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): “I am the master of the children of Adam, and no boast,” and his saying where he says: “The banner of praise on the Day of Resurrection will be in my hand, and the keys of generosity will be in my hand; I shall be the first preacher, the first intercessor, the first bearer of glad tidings, the first and the first.” He did not attain this lordship in this world over the messengers except for some mighty matter in the inward. So too is the case of Mary: she did not attain God’s testimony in the revelation to truthfulness and to belief in the words except for a near and close rank. Whoever says she was not a prophetess says: her seeing the angel was like the way Gabriel (peace be upon him) was seen in the form of Diḥyah al-Kalbī when he asked about Islam and faith, and the Companions did not thereby become prophets. But the first view is more evident, and the majority hold it. And God knows best.
On 3:43
O Mary, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, and prostrate and bow with those who bow (3:43), that is, prolong the standing in prayer, according to Mujāhid. Qatādah: persevere in obedience. The discussion of devout obedience (qunūt) has already preceded. Al-Awzāʿī said: When the angels said that to her, she stood in prayer until her feet swelled and ran with blood and pus (peace be upon her).
and prostrate and bow: prostration is placed here before bowing because the wāw does not require sequence; the disagreement on this has already preceded in al-Baqarah, at His words, Exalted: Surely al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah are among the rites of God (2:158). So if I say “Zayd and ʿAmr stood”, it is possible that ʿAmr stood before Zayd; on this the meaning would be: and bow and prostrate. It was said: their law had prostration before bowing.
with those who bow: it was said that its meaning is, do as they do, even if you do not pray with them. It was said: what is meant by it is the congregational prayer. This has already preceded in al-Baqarah.
On 3:44
It contains four matters.
- The first: His words, Exalted: That is of the tidings of the unseen (3:44), that is, what We have mentioned of the story of Zachariah, John and Mary (peace be upon them) is of the reports of the unseen.
which We reveal to you: in this is a proof of the prophethood of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), since he gave information about the story of Zachariah and Mary when he had not read the scriptures; he told of that, and the People of the Book confirmed him in it. That is His words, Exalted, “which We reveal to you”, the pronoun being referred back to “that”, and hence it is so. Revelation (īḥāʾ) here is the sending to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Revelation (waḥy) may be inspiration, intimation and other things. Its root meaning in the language is making known in secret, and for that reason inspiration came to be called waḥy; of this is And when I revealed to the disciples (5:111) and His words: And your Lord revealed to the bee (16:68). It was said: the meaning of “I revealed to the disciples” is: I commanded them. One says waḥā and awḥā, like ramā and armā, with the same meaning. Al-ʿAjjāj said:
He commanded it to be still, and it became still,
that is, He commanded the earth to be still. In the ḥadīth: “al-waḥy, al-waḥy!”, meaning haste, and the verb from it is tawaḥḥaytu tawaḥḥiyan. Ibn Fāris said: waḥy is a sign, writing and a message, and everything you convey to another so that he knows it is waḥy, however it may be. Al-waḥy is also the swift one, and al-waḥā is the voice; and one says istawḥaynāhum, that is, we called on them for help. The poet said:
I called for her on Maymūn and on al-Azrāq.
- The second: His words, Exalted, and you were not with them, that is, you were not, O Muḥammad, with them, that is, in their presence and among them, when they cast their pens: the plural of qalam, from qalamahu, when one cuts it. It was said: their divining arrows and their shafts. It was said: their pens with which they used to write the Torah, and this is better, because God has forbidden divining arrows (azlām), saying that is iniquity (5:3); except that it is possible that they did it in a manner other than that in which the people of the Jāhiliyyah used to do it.
as to which of them should have charge of Mary, that is, should foster her. Zachariah said: I have the best right to her; her maternal aunt is with me. He had with him Ashyaʿ daughter of Fāqūdh, the sister of Ḥannah daughter of Fāqūdh, the mother of Mary. The Children of Israel said: We have the best right to her; she is the daughter of our scholar. So they cast lots for her, and each one came with his pen, and they agreed to place the pens in the running water: whoever’s pen stood still and the water did not carry it away would be her foster-guardian. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The pens were carried off, and the pen of Zachariah rose up.” It was a sign for him, because he was a prophet, and signs run at the hands of prophets. Other things than this have been said. “Which of them should have charge of Mary” is a subject and predicate in the position of the accusative governed by the implied verb which the discourse indicates, the implied sense being: they look to see which of them should have charge of Mary. The verb does not govern the word “which” (ayy) itself, because it is an interrogative.
- The third: Some of our scholars adduced this verse as proof for the establishment of casting lots (qurʿah). It is a principle in our law for everyone who wishes to be just in division, and it is a Sunnah according to the majority of the jurists between parties equal in their claim, so that justice may be done between them, their hearts be set at rest, and suspicion be lifted from whoever undertakes their division, and none of them be preferred over his fellow when what is divided is of one kind, in following of the Book and the Sunnah. Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions rejected acting by lot, rejected the ḥadīths that have come concerning it, and claimed that it has no meaning and that it resembles the divining arrows which God forbade. But Ibn al-Mundhir related from Abū Ḥanīfah that he permitted it and said: the lot does not hold up on analogy, but we abandoned analogy in that and took to the reports and the Sunnah. Abū ʿUbayd said: three of the prophets acted by lot: Jonah, Zachariah and our Prophet Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Ibn al-Mundhir said: the employment of the lot is like a consensus of the people of knowledge in what is divided between partners, so there is no sense in the statement of whoever rejects it. Al-Bukhārī gave as a chapter heading at the end of the Book of Testimonies: “Chapter on the lot in difficult matters, and the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, ‘when they cast their pens’”, and he adduced the ḥadīth of al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr: “The likeness of the one who stands firm upon the limits of God and the one who is lax in them is the likeness of a people who drew lots for places on a ship…”, the ḥadīth; it will come in “al-Anfāl”, God Exalted willing, and in Sūrat “al-Zukhruf” also, by the power of God, Glorified; and the ḥadīth of Umm al-ʿAlāʾ, and that the lot of ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn fell to them in the matter of lodging when the Anṣār drew lots for the lodging of the Emigrants, the ḥadīth; and the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah, who said: When the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) intended a journey he would draw lots among his wives, and whichever of them it was whose lot came out, he would take her with him; and he mentioned the ḥadīth. The transmission from Mālik differs on this: once he said: lots are drawn, on account of the ḥadīth; and once he said: he travels with whichever of them is most suitable for him on the journey. And the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “If people knew what is in the call to prayer and the first row, and then found no way but to draw lots for it, they would draw lots.” The ḥadīths to this effect are many. The manner of casting the lot is mentioned in the books of jurisprudence and of juristic disagreement. Abū Ḥanīfah argued by saying: the lot in the affair of Zachariah and of the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was among the things which, had they agreed upon them by mutual consent without a lot, it would have been permissible. Ibn al-ʿArabī said: “This is weak, because the benefit of the lot is only to bring out the hidden ruling when there is contention; as for what mutual consent brings out, that is another matter, and it is not sound for anyone to say that the lot operates alongside the place of mutual consent, for it never occurs together with mutual consent”; it occurs only in what people contend over and are covetous of. The manner of the lot according to al-Shāfiʿī and those who hold it is that small equal slips are cut, and on each slip is written the name of the holder of a share; then they are placed in equal pellets of clay with no disparity between them, then dried a little, then thrown into the garment of a man who was not present at that, and he covers them with his garment, then puts in his hand and draws out; and when he draws out a man’s name, that man is given the portion for which the lot was cast.
- The fourth: The verse also indicates that the maternal aunt has the best right to custody (ḥaḍānah) among all the relatives apart from the grandmother. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ruled in the case of the daughter of Ḥamzah, whose name was Amat Allāh, in favour of Jaʿfar, whose wife was her maternal aunt, and said: “The maternal aunt is in the position of the mother.” This matter has already preceded in al-Baqarah. Abū Dāwūd related from ʿAlī, who said: Zayd ibn Ḥārithah went out to Mecca and came back with the daughter of Ḥamzah. Jaʿfar said: I shall take her; I have the best right to her: she is my paternal uncle’s daughter and her maternal aunt is my wife, and the maternal aunt is a mother. ʿAlī said: I have the best right to her: she is my paternal uncle’s daughter, and the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) is my wife, so she has the best right to her. Zayd said: I have the best right to her; I went out to her, travelled and brought her back. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out, and he mentioned a ḥadīth, and said: “As for the girl, I rule that she goes to Jaʿfar, to be with her maternal aunt, for the maternal aunt is a mother.” Ibn Abī Khaythamah mentioned that Zayd ibn Ḥārithah was the executor (waṣī) of Ḥamzah; so on this the maternal aunt has a better right than the executor, and the paternal cousin, when he is the husband, does not cut off the maternal aunt’s right to custody even though he is not a maḥram19 to her.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=qurtubi). 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
- Idrīs is the prophet commonly identified with the biblical Enoch. ↩
- Said by the Prophet of the Companion Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī on account of the beauty of his recitation; “the family of David” here means David himself. ↩
- A line of elegy for the Prophet by Arākah ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī; “the family of Abū Bakr” means Abū Bakr himself, the three names standing for all the believers. ↩
- The ʿidād is the recurrence of the pain of a snakebite when a year, or a counted number of days, has passed since the bite. ↩
- Dayr Ḥannah at al-Ḥīrah in Iraq. ↩
- Al-Ukayrāḥ: small domed cells inhabited by monks, where the Christians went out for their festivals. ↩
- Subayʿah bint al-Ḥārith al-Aslamiyyah, whose husband Saʿd ibn Khawlah died while she was pregnant; when she gave birth a few nights later, Abū al-Sanābil told her she could not remarry until four months and ten days had passed, and the Prophet ruled that she was free to marry. ↩
- Ibn Mākūlā (d. c. 475/1082), author of al-Ikmāl, a work distinguishing names that are written alike. ↩
- That is, she is long-necked, so the earring hangs clear and sways. ↩
- Abū Bakr Shuʿbah ibn ʿAyyāsh, the transmitter of the reading of ʿĀṣim. ↩
- That is, Mujāhid read the whole clause as Ḥannah’s prayer: “So accept her, O her Lord, and make her grow, and entrust her to Zachariah.” ↩
- Wijāʾ is the crushing of the veins of the testicles so as to remove sexual desire, akin to gelding; the Prophet meant that fasting cuts off desire as the wijāʾ does. ↩
- Other sources give Ibn ʿĀmir and Ḥamzah as the readers of inna with kasrah, the rest reading anna with fatḥah. ↩
- Addressed to the hyena, whose by-name is Umm ʿĀmir; the poet altered it to Umm ʿAmr for the metre. The Arabs would say to the hyena: “Rejoice at clustered locusts and many slain men.” ↩
- The diminutive of al-Ḥādirah, the by-name of the pre-Islamic poet Quṭbah ibn Miḥṣan. ↩
- Literally “sons of a maternal aunt”, that is, maternal cousins. ↩
- By Abū Ṭālib ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, praising a generous man who hamstrings his fat camels for guests in hard times. ↩
- A dish of bread sopped in meat broth, esteemed by the Arabs as the best of foods. ↩
- A relative within the degrees that bar marriage. ↩