The Rightly-Guided Injil

al-Ṭabarī on God’s favours, the table and the questioning (5:110-120)

Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān, by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH / 923 CE). The earliest of the great commentaries to survive whole. Al-Ṭabarī sets out every opinion he knows on a verse with its chain of transmission, then rules between them. His reports on 4:157 are the oldest record of how the substitution at the cross was understood.

The complete commentary on God’s favours, the table and the questioning (5:110-120), covering 5:110 to 5:120.

On 5:110

On the interpretation of His words: When God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit (5:110)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He says, Exalted be His remembrance, to His servants: Beware of the Day when God will gather the messengers and say to them: What response did your communities give you in the world? — when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit.

So “when” (idh) is connected to What were you answered? (5:109), as though its meaning were: What response did the communities to whom Jesus was sent give to Jesus?

If someone should say: How were the messengers asked about the response of the communities to them in the time of Jesus, when in the time of Jesus there were none of the messengers but the fewest of them? — it is said: It is possible that God, Exalted be His remembrance, meant by His words and He will say: What were you answered? (5:109) the messengers who had been sent in the time of Jesus, the statement coming out in the form of the whole while those intended among them are those who lived in the time of Jesus, just as He said, Exalted be His remembrance: Those to whom the people said: The people have gathered against you (3:173), where the one intended was a single man among the people, even though the discourse came out in the form of all the people.

Abū Jaʿfar said: And the meaning of the discourse is: when God said, that is, at the time He said, O Jesus son of Mary, remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit: He says: O Jesus, remember My bounties towards you and towards your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit and aided you by him.

The scholars of Arabic disagreed about I strengthened you (ayyadtuka), as to what verbal form it is.

  • Some of them said: It is faʿʿaltuka, from al-ayd (strength), as in your saying qawwaytuka, “I made you strong”, which is faʿʿaltu from al-quwwa (power).
  • Others said: Rather, it is fāʿaltuka, from al-ayd.

And it is related from Mujāhid that he read idh āyadtuka1, in the sense of afʿaltuka, from power and strength.

And His words with the Holy Spirit: He means: with Gabriel. He says: when I aided you with Gabriel.

I have already explained the meaning of that, and what the meaning of “the Holy” (al-qudus) is, earlier, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

On the interpretation of His words: You spoke to people in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught you the Book and the Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you fashioned from clay the likeness of a bird by My leave, then breathed into it and it became a bird by My leave; and you healed the blind from birth and the leper by My leave; and when you brought forth the dead by My leave; and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs, and those of them who disbelieved said: This is nothing but manifest sorcery (110) (5:110)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He says, Exalted be His remembrance, reporting His own saying to Jesus: remember My favour upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, in the state of your speaking to people in the cradle and in maturity.

This is simply a report from God, Exalted be His remembrance, that He strengthened him with the Holy Spirit as a small child in the cradle and as a grown man in maturity; so “in maturity” (kahlan) is joined to His words in the cradle, because the meaning of that is “as a small child”, just as God, Exalted be His remembrance, said: he calls upon Us lying on his side, or sitting, or standing (10:12).

And His words and when I taught you the Book and the Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel: He says: and remember also My favour upon you when I taught you the Book, which is writing, and the Wisdom, which is understanding of the meanings of the Book that I sent down to you, namely the Gospel; and when you fashioned from clay the likeness of a bird: He says: like the form of a bird …2 by My leave: He means by His words you fashioned: you make and shape; from clay the likeness of a bird by My leave: He says: by My aid to you in that and by knowledge from Me of it; then breathed into it: He says: then you breathe into the likeness, and the likeness and form become a bird by My leave; and you healed the blind from birth: He says: and you cure the blind from birth (al-akmah), that is, the blind man who sees nothing at all, whose sight is effaced; and the leper by My leave.

I have already explained the meanings of these expressions earlier in this book of ours, with commentary and its supporting evidence, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it in this place.

And His words and when I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs: He says: and remember also My favour upon you in My restraining the Children of Israel from you, when I held them back from you though they had resolved to kill you, when you came to them with the clear proofs: He says: when you came to them with the evidences and the miraculous signs of your prophethood, and of the truth of that with which I sent you to them; and those of them who disbelieved said: He says, Exalted be His remembrance: those of the Children of Israel who denied your prophethood and called you a liar said: This is nothing but manifest sorcery.

The reciters (qurrāʾ) disagreed about the reading of that.

  • The reciters of Medina and some of the people of Basra read it This is nothing but manifest sorcery (in hādhā illā siḥrun mubīn), meaning: what he brought makes plain, to whoever saw it and looked at it, that it is sorcery having no reality.
  • The generality of the reciters of Kufa read it This is nothing but a manifest sorcerer (in hādhā illā sāḥirun mubīn), in the sense of “this one is nothing” — meaning by it Jesus — “but a manifest sorcerer”; He says: by his deeds and the wondrous things of this kind that he brings, he makes plain about himself that he is a sorcerer and not a truthful prophet.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct opinion about that is that they are two well-known readings, both sound in meaning, in agreement and not at variance. That is because everyone who is described by the act of “sorcery” is described as being a “sorcerer”, and whoever is described as being a “sorcerer” is described by the act of “sorcery”. The act indicates its agent, the attribute indicates the one described by it, the one described indicates his attribute, and the agent indicates his act. So whichever of these a reciter reads, he hits the mark in his reading.

On 5:111

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

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

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

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

  • Some of them said, by that which:

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

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

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

On 5:112

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

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

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

  • A group of the Companions and the Successors read it hal tastaṭīʿu with a tāʾ and rabbaka in the accusative3, meaning: are you able to ask your Lord? or: are you able to call upon your Lord? or: are you able, and do you see fit, to call upon Him? They said: the disciples were not in doubt that God, Exalted be His mention, was able to send that down to them; they only said to Jesus: are you yourself able to do that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Those who said this

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

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

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

We bring the heads of the pampered rivals as gifts

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

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

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

On 5:113

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

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

On 5:114

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

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

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

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

Those who said this

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

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

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

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

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

Those who said this

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Those who said this

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

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

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

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

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

(13007) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: al-Mundhir ibn al-Nuʿmān informed us that he heard Wahb ibn Munabbih say concerning His words send down to us a table from heaven, to be a festival for us: he said: There came down to them a loaf of barley and some fish. Al-Ḥasan said: Abū Bakr4 said: I related it to ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil, and he said: I heard Wahb, when it was said to him, “And what good would that have done them?”, say: Nothing; but God poured blessing in among their folds, so that a group would eat and then go out, and others would come and eat and then go out, until all of them had eaten and left some over.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Those who said this

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

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

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

Those who said this

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

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

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

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

Then those who held this view differed.

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

Those who said this

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

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

Those who said this

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On 5:115

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

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

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

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

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

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

On 5:116

On the interpretation of His words: And when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? He said: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to. If I had said it, You would have known it (5:116)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He, Exalted be His mention, says: On the day when God will gather the messengers and say: What answer were you given? (5:109), “when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?”

It was said: God said these words to Jesus when He raised him up to Himself in this world.

Those who said this

(13028) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: And when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?: he said: When God raised Jesus son of Mary up to Himself, the Christians said what they said, and claimed that Jesus had commanded them to do so; so He asked him about his words, and he said: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is in my self, and I do not know what is in Your self. Indeed You are the Knower of the unseen things, up to His words and You are witness over all things (5:116–117).

  • Others said: Rather, this is a report from God, Exalted be His mention, that He will say this to Jesus on the Day of Resurrection.

Those who said this

(13029) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj: And when God said: O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?: he said: while the people were listening; and he answered Him with what you have seen, and acknowledged servanthood for himself before Him, so that whoever used to say about Jesus what he used to say knew that he had only been speaking falsehood.

(13030) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Jarīr related to us, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Maysarah, who said: God said: O Jesus, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? And his joints trembled, and he feared that he might have said it, and he said: Glory be to You! If I had said it, You would have known it, the verse.

(13031) Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?: When will that be? He said: On the Day of Resurrection; do you not see that He says, This is the day when the truthful will profit from their truthfulness (5:119)?

On this interpretation which Ibn Jurayj gave, “and when” (wa-idh) must have the meaning of “and when” in the sense of the future (wa-idhā), as He said in another place: And if you could see when they are terrified (34:51), meaning: when they will be terrified; and as Abū al-Najm said:

Then may God reward him on our behalf, when (idh) He rewards,

with Gardens of Eden in the lofty upper chambers.

meaning: when He will reward (idhā jazā); and as al-Aswad5 said:

So now, when (idh) I jest with them, they only

say: Lo, the old man has not gone the right way!

meaning: when I jest with them (idhā hāzaltuhunna).

It is as though those who held Ibn Jurayj’s view on this directed the interpretation of the verse to: “whoever of you disbelieves afterwards, I shall punish him with a punishment with which I punish no one of the worlds” in this world, and I shall punish him also in the Hereafter, “when God says: O Jesus son of Mary, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?”

Abū Jaʿfar said: The more correct of the two views in our opinion on this is the view of those who held the view of al-Suddī, namely that God, Exalted be His mention, said that to Jesus when He raised him up to Himself, and that the report is a report about what has passed, for two reasons:

  • One of them is that “idh” accompanies, in the predominant usage of the speech of the Arabs among themselves, the past tense of the verb, even though they do sometimes bring it in in the position of a report about what will happen, when the hearers know its meaning. But that is not widespread, nor eloquent in their speech; and directing the meanings of the speech of God, Exalted is He, to what is better known and more familiar, so long as a way to that is found, is preferable to directing them to what is less known and more obscure.
  • The other is that neither Jesus nor any of the prophets was in doubt that God does not forgive a polytheist who dies in his polytheism, such that it could be imagined of Jesus that he would say in the Hereafter, answering his Lord, Exalted be His mention: If You punish those who took me and my mother as two gods besides You, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are the Mighty, the Wise.

If someone says: What was the point of God’s asking Jesus, “did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?”, when He knew that Jesus had not said that?

It is said: That admits of two aspects of interpretation. One of them: warning Jesus against saying that, and forbidding him, as a speaker says to another, “Did you do such-and-such?” concerning something of which the one addressed knows that the speaker regards the doing of what he said to him “did you do it?” as grave, by way of forbidding him to do it and threatening him over it.

The other: informing him that his people, whom he had left, had violated his covenant and changed their religion after him. He would thereby combine informing him of their state after him with warning him against saying it.

Abū Jaʿfar said: As for the interpretation of the speech, it is: Did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods, that is, two objects of worship whom you worship besides God? Jesus said: I declare You, O Lord, far above, and too exalted, for me to do that or to speak it; “it is not for me to say what I have no right to”, he says: it is not for me to say that, because I am a created servant, and my mother is Your handmaid; and how could a servant and a handmaid lay claim to lordship? “If I had said it, You would have known it”, he says: nothing is hidden from You, and You know that I did not say that nor command them to it.

On the interpretation of His words: You know what is in my self, and I do not know what is in Your self. Indeed You are the Knower of the unseen things (5:116)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He, Exalted be His mention, says, reporting about His prophet Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him): that he declares himself before Him innocent of what the unbelievers among the Christians said about him and about his mother, that he should have called them to it or commanded them to it; so he said: “Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to. If I had said it, You would have known it.” Then he said: “You know what is in my self”, he says: O Lord, what my self has concealed, which I have not uttered nor manifested with my limbs, is not hidden from You; how much less, then, what I have uttered and manifested with my limbs? He says: had I said to the people, “Take me and my mother as two gods besides God”, You would have known it, because You know the secret thoughts of souls which they have not uttered; how much more what has been uttered? “And I do not know what is in Your self”, he says: and I do not know what You have hidden from me and not acquainted me with, because I know of things only what You have made known to me; “indeed You are the Knower of the unseen things”, he says: You are the One who knows the hidden matters on which none but You is informed, and which none other than You knows.

On 5:117

On the interpretation of His words: I said to them nothing except what You commanded me: Worship God, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them so long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You were the Watcher over them, and You are witness over all things (5:117)

Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a report from God, Exalted be His mention, about the words of Jesus. He says: I said to them nothing except that speech which You commanded me to say to them, namely that I said to them, “Worship God, my Lord and your Lord”; “and I was a witness over them so long as I was among them”, he says: and I was, regarding what they did while I was in their midst, a witness over them and over their deeds and their words; “but when You took me up” (tawaffaytanī), he says: but when You took me to Yourself; “You were the Watcher over them”, he says: You were the Guardian over them, rather than I, because I witnessed of their deeds only what they did while I was in their midst.

In this is a clarification that God, Exalted be His mention, made the deeds of the people and their saying known to him only after He had taken him to Himself and taken him up, by His words, “did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?”

“And You are witness over all things”, he says: and You witness all things, because nothing is hidden from You; as for me, I witnessed only some things, namely what I saw with my own eyes while I was dwelling in the midst of the people; so I testify only to that which I saw with my own eyes, beheld and witnessed.

Something like what we have said about His words “You were the Watcher over them” was said by the people of interpretation.

Those who said this

(13032) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: You were the Watcher over them: as for “the Watcher” (al-raqīb), it is the Guardian.

(13033) Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj: You were the Watcher over them: he said: the Guardian.

A group of the people of knowledge used to say: The answer with which Jesus answered his Lord was from God, Exalted is He, an instruction (tawqīf) from Him to him in it.6

Those who said this

(13034) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Ibn Yamān related to us, from Sufyān, from Maʿmar, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father: Did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? He said: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to: he said: God instructed him in it.

(13035) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥafarī related to us: it was read before Sufyān, from Maʿmar, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father Ṭāwūs, who said: Jesus argued his case, and God instructed him in it: Did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?, the verse.

(13036) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Jarīr related to us, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Maysarah, who said: God, Exalted be His mention, said: O Jesus, did you say to the people: Take me and my mother as two gods besides God? He said: And his joints trembled, and he feared that he might have said it, and he said: Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is in my self, and I do not know what is in Your self. Indeed You are the Knower of the unseen things.

On 5:118

On the interpretation of His words: If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise (5:118)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He, Exalted be His mention, says: If You punish these people who uttered this saying, by causing them to die upon it, they are Your servants, submissive to You, unable to withhold themselves from what You intend for them, and unable to ward off from themselves any harm or any decree by which You reach them; and if You forgive them, by Your guiding them to repentance from it, so that You cover it over for them, You are indeed the Mighty in His vengeance upon whomever He wishes to take vengeance, none being able to ward Him off from him; the Wise in His guiding of those of His creatures whom He has guided to repentance, and in His granting success to those of them whom He has granted success in finding the path of deliverance from punishment; as in that which:

(13037) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning His words If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them: by bringing them out of Christianity and guiding them to Islam, You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise. And this is the saying of Jesus in this world.

(13038) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise, he said: By God, they were not given to reviling nor to cursing.7

On 5:119

On the interpretation of His words: God said: This is a day when the truthful shall profit from their truthfulness. For them are gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein for ever (5:119)

Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters differed in the reading of His words This is a day when the truthful shall profit. Some of the people of the Ḥijāz and Medina read it hādhā yawma yanfaʿu al-ṣādiqīn, with “day” (yawm) in the accusative.

Some of the people of the Ḥijāz and some of the people of Medina, and the generality of the reciters of the people of Iraq, read it hādhā yawmu yanfaʿu al-ṣādiqīn, with “day” in the nominative. Whoever put it in the nominative did so by making it the predicate of “this” (hādhā), and treated “day” as a noun, even though its annexation (iḍāfa) is not a pure one, because it has become like a noun that is qualified.

Some of the grammarians used to claim that the Arabs, in the inflection of time-words such as “day” and “night”, treat them as they treat what comes after them. If what comes after them is nominative, they put them in the nominative, as in their saying hādhā yawmu yarkabu al-amīr (this is the day the commander rides out), laylatu yaṣduru al-ḥājj (the night the pilgrims set forth), and yawmu akhūka munṭaliq (the day your brother departs). And if what comes after them is accusative, they put them in the accusative, as in their saying hādhā yawma kharaja al-jaysh wa-sāra al-nās (this is the day the army went out and the people marched), and laylata qutila Zayd (the night Zayd was killed), and the like of that, even though their meaning in both cases is “when” (idh and idhā).

It seems that whoever read it thus, in the nominative, directed the speech to its being among what God will say on the Day of Resurrection.

Likewise al-Suddī used to say regarding that.

(13039) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: God said: This is a day when the truthful shall profit from their truthfulness. This is a break from the speech of Jesus, and this is the Day of Resurrection.

By his saying “this is a break from the speech of Jesus” al-Suddī means that His words Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to up to His words You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise (5:116–118) are part of God’s report, Mighty and Majestic, about Jesus, that he said it in this world after He had raised him to Himself, and that what comes after that is God’s speech to His servants on the Day of Resurrection.

As for the accusative in this, it may be construed in two ways:

  • One of them is that the annexation of “day” to anything other than a noun makes it accusative, because the annexation is not pure; the annexation is pure only when it is annexed to a true noun. The counterparts of “day” in this respect are “time” (ḥīn) and “season” (zamān) and the like of them among the words for time, as al-Nābighah8 said:

At the time when I reproached grey hairs for youthful folly,

and said: Have you not yet come to your senses, when hoariness is a restrainer?

  • The other way is that what is intended by the speech is: this matter and this affair is on the day the truthful shall profit; so “the day” would then be accusative as an adverb of time and a qualifier, with the meaning: this matter is on a day when the truthful shall profit from their truthfulness.

Abū Jaʿfar said: The more correct of the two readings in this, in my view, is hādhā yawma yanfaʿu al-ṣādiqīn, with “the day” in the accusative, on the basis that it is accusative as an adverb of time and a qualifier. For the meaning of the speech is: God, Majestic and Exalted be His mention, answered Jesus when he said Glory be to You! It is not for me to say what I have no right to. If I had said it, You would have known it up to His words You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise (5:116–118), and He, Mighty and Majestic, said to him: This beneficial saying, or this beneficial truthfulness, is on the day when the truthful shall profit from their truthfulness. So “the day” is the time of the beneficial saying and truthfulness.

If someone should say: What then is the syntactic position of “this”? It is said: nominative.

If he should say: Then where is that which governs it in the nominative? It is said: it is implied. It is as if He said: God, Mighty and Majestic, said: This; this is a day when the truthful shall profit from their truthfulness; as the poet said:

Do you not see the clouds, how they run?

This, and not your horses, O Ibn Bishr!

He means: this is this, and not your horses.

Abū Jaʿfar said: So the interpretation of the speech, since the matter is as we have described for the reasons we have set out, is: God said to Jesus: This beneficial saying is on a day when those who were truthful in this world shall profit from that truthfulness of theirs, in the Hereafter, with God; for them are gardens beneath which rivers flow, He says: for those who were truthful in this world there are gardens beneath which rivers flow in the Hereafter, as a reward for them from God, Mighty and Majestic, for the truthfulness they showed, in that they were true to God in what they promised Him and fulfilled it for God, so God, Mighty and Majestic, fulfilled for them what He had promised them of His reward; abiding therein for ever, He says: remaining in the gardens which He has given them, for ever: perpetually, having therein a bliss which will not pass from them nor cease.

We have already explained previously that the meaning of “abiding” (khulūd) is perpetuity and permanence.

On the interpretation of His words: God is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Him. That is the great triumph (5:119)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He, Exalted be His mention, says: God is well pleased with these truthful ones, who were true in fulfilling for Him what they promised Him, of acting in obedience to Him and avoiding disobedience to Him; and they are well pleased with Him, He says: and they, for their part, are well pleased with God, Exalted be His mention, for His fulfilling for them what He promised them for their obedience to Him in what He commanded them and forbade them, of His abundant reward; that is the great triumph, He says: this which God has given them, of gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein, He being pleased with them and they being pleased with their Lord, is the great attainment of the thing sought, and the achieving of the need which they used to seek in this world and for which they used to labour in it; so they obtained what they sought and achieved what they hoped for.

On 5:120

On the interpretation of His words: To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is in them, and He has power over all things (5:120)

Abū Jaʿfar said: He, Exalted be His mention, says: O Christians, to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, He says: His is the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and whatever is in them, not Jesus, whom you claim to be your god, nor his mother, nor any of those who are in the heavens and those who are in the earth; for the heavens and the earth and whatever is in them are a creation of His creating, and Jesus and his mother are part of that, by their occupying place and passing from place to place; by their being in the place in which they are, through dwelling in it and moving from it, the two of them give proof that they are two servants, owned by Him to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is in them. He thereby alerts them, and all His creatures, to the point of His proof against them, that they may ponder it and take heed of it, and so understand from Him; and He has power over all things, He, Exalted be His mention, says: and God, to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is in them, is able to bring them to nought and to destroy them, and to destroy Jesus and his mother and all who are on the earth together, just as He originated their creation; that does not render Him incapable, nor does anything He wills, because His power is the power which no power resembles, and His sovereignty is the sovereignty which no sovereignty or kingdom resembles.

End of the commentary on Sūrat al-Māʾidah.

About this text

This is a complete English rendering of Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=tabari). 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.

God’s favours, the table and the questioning (5:110-120): all commentaries · The classical commentaries

Notes

  1. A variant reading (qirāʾa) with a long first vowel, treating the verb as the fourth form (afʿala) rather than the second (faʿʿala). ↩
  2. There is a gap in the manuscript at this point. ↩
  3. That is, “are you able [to ask] your Lord?”, with Jesus as the subject of the verb and “your Lord” as its object, instead of the standard reading “is your Lord able?”. ↩
  4. That is, ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Hammām al-Ṣanʿānī, whose agnomen was Abū Bakr. ↩
  5. Al-Aswad ibn Yaʿfur al-Nahshalī, the pre-Islamic poet known as the Aʿshā of the Banū Nahshal. ↩
  6. That is, God Himself taught Jesus the words of his reply; he did not compose them of his own accord. ↩
  7. That is, the prophets did not curse or revile their peoples but referred their affair to God, as Jesus does here. ↩
  8. Al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī, the pre-Islamic poet; the verse is from his ode of apology to al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir. ↩