al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr, by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE). Al-Suyūṭī’s collection of every transmitted report on each verse, drawn from the ḥadīth collections and the early commentaries, many of them otherwise lost.
The complete commentary on The refuge on high ground (23:50), covering 23:50.
On 23:50
His words, Exalted: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50).
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50); he said: she gave birth to him without any father that he had.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, concerning His words And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50), that he said: a lesson.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from al-Ḥasan: and We gave them both refuge (23:50); he said: Jesus and his mother.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid: and We gave them both refuge (23:50); he said: Jesus and his mother, when they took refuge in the Ghūṭah1 and its surroundings.
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: The height (rabwah) is the level ground, and the flowing spring (maʿīn) is running water; and it is the river of which God said: Your Lord has placed beneath you a rivulet (19:24).
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is the place raised above the earth, and it is the best place for vegetation to grow; of settled ground (23:50): of fertility; and a flowing spring (23:50): water that is visible.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid: on a height (23:50); he said: level; of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50); he said: running water.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning the verse, that he said: The height is the raised part of the earth, the settled ground is the level part, and the flowing spring is water that is visible.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning the verse, that he said: The height is the raised place, and it is Jerusalem; and the flowing spring is water that is visible.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Qatādah: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: We used to be told that the height is Jerusalem; of settled ground (23:50): of abundant fruit; and a flowing spring (23:50): running water.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Wahb ibn Munabbih: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is Egypt.
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: Egypt. He said: And the heights are nowhere but in Egypt; when the water is released, the heights have the villages upon them, and were it not for the heights those villages would be drowned.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Zayd ibn Aslam: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is Alexandria.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported by way of Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that Jesus son of Mary refrained from speech after he had spoken to them as an infant, until he reached the age that boys reach; then after that God made him speak with wisdom and clear exposition. When he reached seven years his mother handed him over to a man to teach him as boys are taught, and the man taught him nothing without Jesus anticipating him in knowing it before he taught it to him. He taught him abū jād2, and Jesus said: What is abū jād? The teacher said: I do not know. Jesus said: Then how do you teach me what you do not know? The teacher said: Then teach me. Jesus said to him: Then rise from your seat. He rose, and Jesus sat in his seat and said: Ask me. The teacher said: What is abū jād? Jesus said: Alif is the bounties (ālāʾ) of God; bāʾ is the splendour (bahāʾ) of God; jīm is the beauty (bahjah) of God and His loveliness (jamāl). The teacher marvelled at that, and so the first to interpret abū jād was Jesus. Jesus used to show wonders in his childhood by inspiration from God, and that spread among the Jews; and Jesus grew up, and the Children of Israel resolved to do him harm, and his mother feared for him, so God revealed to her that she should go away with him to the land of Egypt. That is His saying: And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign (23:50). Ibn ʿAbbās was asked: Why did He not say “two signs”, when they are two signs? Ibn ʿAbbās said: He said a sign only because Jesus came from his mother and was not from a father; no one shared with her in Jesus, so he became a single sign. And We gave them both refuge on a height of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50); he said: He means the land of Egypt.
Wakīʿ, al-Firyābī, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tammām al-Rāzī in Faḍāʾil al-Nubuwwah, and Ibn ʿAsākir with a sound chain, reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words on a height (23:50), that he said: We have been informed that it is Damascus.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, concerning His words and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50), that he said: It is Damascus.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Yazīd ibn Shajarah the Companion, who said: Damascus is the blessed height.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported with a weak chain from Abū Umāmah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he recited this verse: and We gave them both refuge on a height of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50), and said: “Do you know where it is?” They said: God and His Messenger know best. He said: “It is in Syria, in a land called the Ghūṭah, a city called Damascus; it is the best of the cities of Syria.”
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab: and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50); he said: It is Damascus.
Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Murrah al-Bahzī: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The height is al-Ramlah.”
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḥākim in al-Kunā and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Hurayrah, concerning His words and We gave them both refuge on a height (23:50), that he said: It is al-Ramlah in Palestine.
And Ibn Mardawayh reported it from his ḥadīth, traced back to the Prophet.
Al-Ṭabarānī, Ibn al-Sakan, Ibn Mandah and Abū Nuʿaym, all in Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥābah, and Ibn ʿAsākir, reported by several routes from al-Aqraʿ ibn Shufayy al-ʿAkkī, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came in to me during my illness, visiting me, and I said: I think nothing other than that I shall die of my illness. He said: “Not so; you will surely live on, and you will surely emigrate to the land of Syria, and you will die and be buried on the height in the land of Palestine.” And he died in the caliphate of ʿUmar and was buried in al-Ramlah.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words and We gave them both refuge on a height of settled ground and a flowing spring (23:50), that he said: It is a land of trees and rivers, meaning the land of Damascus. And in one wording he said: of fruits and abundant water; it is Damascus.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of al-Durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr bi-l-maʾthūr on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=aldur-almanthoor). 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 refuge on high ground (23:50): all commentaries · The classical commentaries