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 Neither killed nor crucified (4:155-159), covering 4:155 to 4:159.
On 4:155
On the interpretation of His words: So for their breaking of their covenant, and their disbelief in the signs of God, and their killing of the prophets without right, and their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped” — rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief, so they do not believe except a few (4:155)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means, Majestic is His praise: So for the breaking by these people of the People of the Book, whose description I have given, of their covenant, meaning: their pledges by which they pledged to God that they would act according to what is in the Torah; and their disbelief in the signs of God, He says: and their denial of the signs of God, meaning: the tokens of God and His proofs by which He established the argument against them for the truthfulness of His prophets and His messengers and the reality of what they brought them from Him; and their killing of the prophets without right, He says: and for their killing of the prophets after the proof of their prophethood had been established against them, without right, meaning: without their deserving that for any grave sin they had committed or any offence for which they had incurred death; and their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped”, meaning: and for their saying “our hearts are wrapped” (ghulf), that is, they say: upon them is a covering and wrappings against what you call us to, so we do not understand what you say, nor comprehend it.
We have already explained the meaning of ghulf, and mentioned the transmitted reports concerning it, earlier.
Rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief, He says, Majestic is His praise: they lied in their saying “our hearts are wrapped”; they are not wrapped, nor are there coverings upon them, but God, Majestic is His praise, has placed a seal (ṭābaʿ) upon them because of their disbelief in God.
We have already explained the nature of the “sealing of the heart” earlier, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it.
So they do not believe except a few, He says: so these people whose description God has given do not believe — because of His sealing of their hearts, so as to affirm the truth of God and His messengers and what they brought them from God — except with a little faith, meaning: a little affirmation. It became “a little” only because they did not affirm the truth of what God commanded them, but affirmed some of the prophets and some of the Books and denied others. So their affirmation of what they affirmed was little, because although they affirmed it from one aspect, they deny it from another aspect, namely from the aspect of their denial of those of the prophets whom they denied and of the Books of God which they brought; for the messengers of God confirm one another, and every prophet commanded his community accordingly. Likewise the Books of God confirm one another and verify one another. So whoever denies some of them denies all of them, by virtue of his rejecting what is affirmed by the Book whose soundness he acknowledges. For that reason their faith in what they believed of this became little.
Those versed in interpretation said much the same as we have said on this.
Those who said this
(10774) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words So for their breaking of their covenant: he says: so for their breaking of their covenant We cursed them; and their saying, “Our hearts are wrapped”, that is: we do not understand; rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief, and He cursed them when they did that.
There was disagreement about the meaning of His words So for their breaking, the verse: whether it is connected to the speech that precedes it, or separate from it.
- Some of them said: it is separate from what precedes it, and its meaning is: so for their breaking of their covenant, their disbelief in the signs of God, their killing of the prophets without right, and their saying “our hearts are wrapped”, God set a seal upon them for their disbelief and cursed them.
Those who said this
(10775) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: so they do not believe except a few: when the people abandoned the command of God, killed His messengers, disbelieved in His signs, and broke the covenant that had been taken from them, God set a seal upon them for their disbelief and cursed them.
- Others said: rather, it is connected to what precedes it. They said: the meaning of the speech is: so the thunderbolt seized them for their wrongdoing (4:153) — so for their breaking of their covenant, their disbelief in the signs of God, their killing of the prophets without right, and for such and such, the thunderbolt seized them. They said: so the speech follows on, part upon part, and its meaning refers back to its beginning; and the explanation of “their wrongdoing”, on account of which the thunderbolt seized them, is what He, Exalted be His mention, explained it to be: their breaking of the covenant, their killing of the prophets, and all else that He set out of their conduct in which they wronged themselves.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct view on this is that His words So for their breaking of their covenant, and what follows them, are separate in meaning from the meaning of what precedes them, and that the meaning of the speech is: so for their breaking of their covenant, their disbelief in the signs of God, and for such and such, We cursed them and were angry with them. The mention of “We cursed them” was left out because His words rather, God has set a seal upon them for their disbelief indicate that meaning; for whoever has had his heart sealed has been cursed and is the object of wrath.
We have said that this is the more correct view only because those whom the thunderbolt seized lived in the time of Moses, whereas those who killed the prophets, and those who accused Mary with the tremendous calumny, and said “we killed the Messiah”, lived long ages after Moses. Those who accused Mary with the tremendous calumny did not live in the time of Moses, nor did those of his people who were struck by the thunderbolt.
That being so, it is known that those whom the thunderbolt seized were not seized by it as a punishment for accusing Mary with the tremendous calumny, nor for their saying We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary (4:157). And that being so, it is clear that the people who said this are other than those who were punished by the thunderbolt. And that being so, the separateness of the meaning of His words So for their breaking of their covenant from the meaning of His words so the thunderbolt seized them for their wrongdoing is clear.
On 4:156
On the interpretation of His words: and for their disbelief, and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny (4:156)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means, Majestic is His praise: and for the disbelief of these people whose description He has given, and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, meaning: for their slander against her and their accusing her of fornication; that is the “tremendous calumny” (buhtān), because they accused her of that while she was innocent of what they accused her of, without any proof or evidence; so they calumniated her with a false utterance.
Those versed in interpretation said much the same as we have said on this.
Those who said this
(10776) Al-Muthannā related to me: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Ibn ʿAbbās: and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, meaning: that they accused her of fornication.
(10777) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning His words and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny: when they charged her with fornication.
(10778) Al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd related to us, from Juwaybir, concerning His words and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, who said: they said: “She has fornicated.”
On 4:157
On the interpretation of His words: and their saying, “We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God.” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them (4:157)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this, Majestic is His praise, He means: and for their saying, “We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God.” Then God gave them the lie in their saying, and said: and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them, meaning: they did not kill Jesus, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them.
The people of interpretation differed as to the nature of the semblance (tashbīh) that was made to appear to the Jews in the matter of Jesus.
- Some of them said: When the Jews surrounded him and his companions, they surrounded them while unable to identify Jesus himself with certainty, for all of them had been transformed into the form of Jesus, so that it became confused for those who wished to kill Jesus which of them was Jesus and which was not; and one of those who had been in the house with Jesus went out to them, and they killed him, thinking him to be Jesus.
Those who said this
(10779) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Yaʿqūb al-Qummī related to us, from Hārūn ibn ʿAntarah, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: Jesus was come upon while seventeen of the disciples were with him in a house, and they surrounded them. When they came in upon them, God made all of them in the form of Jesus, and they said to them: “You have bewitched us! Either you bring out Jesus to us, or we shall kill you all!” So Jesus said to his companions: “Which of you will sell his soul today for Paradise?” A man among them said: “I!” So he went out to them and said: “I am Jesus” — and God had made him in the form of Jesus — and they seized him, killed him and crucified him. Hence it was made to appear so to them, and they thought that they had killed Jesus; and the Christians likewise thought that it was Jesus; and God raised Jesus up on that very day.
Something other than this opinion has been related from Wahb ibn Munabbih, namely what:
(10780) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil related to me that he heard Wahb say: When God informed Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) that he was to depart from this world, he was distressed at death and it weighed heavily upon him, so he called the disciples and made food for them and said: “Attend upon me tonight, for I have need of you.” When they had gathered to him in the night, he gave them supper and rose to serve them. When they had finished the food, he began to wash their hands and to perform their ablutions with his own hand, and to wipe their hands with his garments. They thought this too great a thing and disliked it, so he said: “Whoever rejects anything that I do tonight is not of me, nor am I of him!” So they let him be, until, when he had finished that, he said: “As for what I have done with you tonight, serving you at the meal and washing your hands with my own hand, let it be for you an example from me; for you consider that I am the best of you, so let none of you exalt himself over another, and let each of you give himself for the other, as I have given myself for you. As for my need in which I sought your help, it is that you pray to God for me and strive in prayer that He defer my appointed term.” When they set themselves to pray and wished to strive, sleep overcame them, so that they were unable to pray. He began to rouse them, saying: “Glory be to God! Can you not bear with me a single night in which to help me?” They said: “By God, we do not know what is the matter with us! We used to keep vigil in talk and would talk long into the night, yet tonight we cannot keep vigil at all, and whenever we wish to pray we are prevented from it!” He said: “The shepherd is taken away and the sheep are scattered!” And he began to utter words of this kind, lamenting his own death. Then he said: “Truly, one of you will deny me before the cock crows three times, and one of you will sell me for a few dirhams and will eat my price!” So they went out and dispersed; and the Jews were seeking him. They seized Simon, one of the disciples, and said: “This one is of his companions!” But he denied it and said: “I am not his companion!” So they let him go; then others seized him and he denied it in the same way. Then he heard the voice of a cock, and he wept and it grieved him. When morning came, one of the disciples went to the Jews and said: “What will you give me if I lead you to the Messiah?” They set for him thirty dirhams, and he took them and led them to him. Now it had already been made to appear so to them before that, and they seized him and bound him securely and tied him with a rope, and began to lead him along, saying to him: “You used to raise the dead, rebuke Satan, and heal the possessed; can you not save yourself from this rope?” And they spat upon him and cast thorns upon him, until they brought him to the beam on which they wished to crucify him. Then God raised him to Himself, and they crucified what had been made to appear so to them, and he remained thus for seven days.
Then his mother and the woman whom Jesus used to treat, and whom God had healed of madness, came weeping at the place of the crucified one; and Jesus came to them and said: “For what are you weeping?” They said: “For you!” He said: “God has raised me to Himself, and nothing but good has befallen me; this is a thing that was made to appear so to them. Bid the disciples to meet me at such-and-such a place.” So eleven met him at that place. He missed the one who had sold him and led the Jews to him, and he asked his companions about him, and they said: “He repented of what he had done, and hanged himself and killed himself.” He said: “Had he repented, God would have turned to him in forgiveness!” Then he asked them about a young man who used to follow them, called Yuḥannā1, and he said: “He is with you. So go forth, for every man among you shall wake speaking the tongue of a people; let him warn them and call them.”
- Others said: Rather, Jesus asked those who were with him in the house that his likeness be cast upon one of them, and a man volunteered for it; his likeness was cast upon him, that man was killed, and Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) was raised up.
Those who said this
(10781) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words “We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God.” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him up to His words and God is ever Mighty, Wise (4:157–158): Those enemies of God, the Jews, conspired to kill Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God, and claimed that they had killed him and crucified him. It was mentioned to us that the Prophet of God, Jesus son of Mary, said to his companions: “Which of you will have my likeness cast upon him, for he will be killed?” A man among his companions said: “I, O Prophet of God!” So that man was killed, and God protected His Prophet and raised him to Himself.
(10782) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them: he said: His likeness was cast upon a man among the disciples and he was killed. Jesus son of Mary had put that before them, saying: “Upon which of you shall my likeness be cast, and Paradise be his?” A man said: “Upon me.”
(10783) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: The Children of Israel besieged Jesus and nineteen men of the disciples in a house, and Jesus said to his companions: “Who will take my form and be killed, and Paradise shall be his?” A man among them took it, and Jesus was taken up to heaven. When the disciples came out, they saw them to be nineteen, and the disciples informed them that Jesus (peace be upon him) had been taken up to heaven. So they began to count the people, and found them one man short of the number, and saw the form of Jesus among them, and so they were in doubt about him. Notwithstanding, they killed the man, considering him to be Jesus, and crucified him. That is the saying of God, Blessed and Exalted: and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them up to His words and God is ever Mighty, Wise (4:157–158).
(10784) al-Muthannā related to us: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazzah: Jesus son of Mary said: “Which of you will have my likeness cast upon him and be killed in my place?” A man among his companions said: “I, O Messenger of God!” So his likeness was cast upon him and they killed him. That is His saying: and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them.
(10785) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: The name of the king of the Children of Israel who sent against Jesus to kill him was a man among them called David (Dāwūd). When they resolved upon that against him, no servant among the servants of God — so it was mentioned to me — ever found death so terrible as he found it, nor was any so distressed at it as he was, nor did any pray to God to avert it from him as he prayed, so that he even said, as they allege: “O God, if You are going to avert this cup from any one of Your creatures, then avert it from me!” — and so that his skin, from the anguish of that, poured forth blood. Then he entered the place where they had agreed to come in upon him to kill him, he and his companions, and they were thirteen including Jesus. When he was certain that they were about to come in upon him, he said to his companions among the disciples — now they were twelve men: Peter (Fuṭrus), James son of Zebedee (Yaʿqūb ibn Zabdī), John the brother of James (Yuḥannis), Andrew (Andrāyīs), Philip (Fīlibs), Bartholomew (Abrathulmā), Matthew (Mattā), Thomas (Tūmās), James son of Alphaeus (Yaʿqūb ibn Ḥalfiyā), Thaddaeus (Tadāwusīs), Qanāniyā2, and Judas Zechariah Iscariot (Yūdas Zakariyyā Yūṭā)3.
Ibn Ḥumayd said: Salamah said: Ibn Isḥāq said: And there was among them, so it was mentioned to me, a man whose name was Sergius (Sarjis), so that they were thirteen men apart from Jesus; the Christians have denied him, because he is the one who was made to appear to the Jews in the place of Jesus. He said: I do not know what he was — whether he was one of these twelve, or was a thirteenth whom they denied when they affirmed to the Jews the crucifixion of Jesus and disbelieved in the report of him that Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) brought. If they were thirteen, then when they entered that place they were fourteen with Jesus; and if they were twelve, then when they entered that place they were thirteen with Jesus.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: a man who had been a Christian and had then embraced Islam related to me: When there came to Jesus from God, I am going to take you and raise you to Myself (3:55), he said: “O company of disciples, which of you would like to be my companion in Paradise, on condition that he be made to appear to the people in my form, so that they kill him in my place?” Sergius said: “I, O Spirit of God!” He said: “Then sit in my seat.”
So he sat in it, and Jesus (the blessings of God be upon him) was raised up. They came in upon him and seized him and crucified him; so it was he whom they crucified, and through him it was made to appear so to them. Their number when they went in with Jesus had been known, for they had seen them and counted their number. When they came in upon him to seize him, they found — as they supposed — Jesus and his companions, but they missed one man of the number, and he was the one about whom they differed. They did not know Jesus, so that they had set for Judas Zechariah Iscariot thirty dirhams on condition that he lead them to him and point him out to them, and he said to them: “When you go in to him, I shall kiss him; the one I kiss, seize him.” When they came in upon him, Jesus having already been raised up, he saw Sergius in the form of Jesus and did not doubt that he was Jesus, so he bent over him and kissed him, and they seized him and crucified him. Then Judas Zechariah Iscariot repented of what he had done, and hanged himself with a rope until he had killed himself. He is accursed among the Christians, though he had been one of those counted among his companions. Some of the Christians allege that Judas Zechariah Iscariot was the one who was made to appear to them, and that they crucified him while he was saying: “I am not your man! I am the one who led you to him!” And God knows best which of these it was.
(10786) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me: Ibn Jurayj said: It has reached us that Jesus son of Mary said to his companions: “Which of you will volunteer to have my likeness cast upon him and be killed?” A man among his companions said: “I, O Prophet of God.” So his likeness was cast upon him and he was killed, and God raised His Prophet to Himself.
(10787) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning His words it was made to appear so to them: he said: They crucified a man other than Jesus, thinking him to be him.
(10788) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: but it was made to appear so to them, and he mentioned the like of it.
(10789) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, who said: They crucified a man whom they took for Jesus, thinking him to be him, and God raised Jesus to Himself alive.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The most correct of these opinions is one of the two opinions we have related from Wahb ibn Munabbih: that the likeness of Jesus was cast upon all who were in the house with Jesus when he and they were surrounded, without Jesus asking that of them, but rather so that God might thereby humiliate the Jews, deliver His Prophet (peace be upon him) thereby from the harm of the killing they intended against him, and thereby try those of His servants whom He wished to try in what they said about Jesus and in the truthfulness of the report concerning his affair; or else the opinion that ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related from him.
We have said that this is the more correct of the two opinions only because those of the disciples who were present with Jesus, had they, at the time when Jesus was raised up and his likeness was cast upon the one upon whom it was cast, witnessed him as he was being raised from among them, and recognised the one upon whom his likeness was cast, and seen him transformed into his form after the form of his own self that he had had, in their very presence — then nothing of the affair of Jesus and of the one upon whom his likeness was cast would have been hidden from them, given that they witnessed all of that; it would not have been confused or obscure to them, even if it was obscure to others among their enemies the Jews, that the one killed and crucified was other than Jesus, and that Jesus had been raised from among them alive.
And how could that have been obscure to them, when they had heard from Jesus his words, “Who will have my likeness cast upon him and be my companion in Paradise?” — if indeed he said that to them — and had heard the answer of the one among them who answered him, “I”, and had witnessed the transformation of the answerer into the form of Jesus immediately after his answer? Rather, that was — God willing — in the manner Wahb ibn Munabbih described: either the people who were with Jesus in the house from which he was raised, from among his disciples, were all transformed by God into the form of Jesus when God wished to raise him, so that they could not identify Jesus himself with certainty from any other because of the resemblance of all their forms, and the Jews killed whom they killed of them while they saw him in the form of Jesus and took him to be him, for they had known him before that; and those who were in the house with Jesus thought the same as the Jews thought, because they could not distinguish the person of Jesus from the person of another, owing to the resemblance between his person and the persons of the others who were with him in the house. So all of them — that is, the Jews and the Christians — agreed on that account that the one killed was Jesus, whereas it was not he, but it was made to appear so to them, as God, Majestic is His praise, said: and they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them.
Or else the matter was in the manner related by ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil from Wahb ibn Munabbih: that the people who were with Jesus in the house dispersed from him before the Jews came in upon him, and Jesus remained, and his likeness was cast upon one of his companions who had been with him in the house, after the people other than Jesus and other than the one upon whom his likeness was cast had dispersed; and Jesus was raised up, and the one of his companions who had been transformed into the form of Jesus was killed; and his companions and the Jews thought that the one who was killed and crucified was Jesus, because of the resemblance to him that they saw in him and because the affair of Jesus was hidden from them. For his being raised, and the transformation of the one killed into his form, took place after his companions had dispersed from him; and they had heard Jesus during the night lamenting his own death and grieving over the death that he thought was about to befall him; so they related what in their view was true, while the matter in reality, with God, was otherwise than what they related. Thus those of his disciples who related that did not deserve to be called liars, since they related what was true in their view outwardly, even though the matter in reality, with God, was otherwise than what they related.
On the interpretation of His words: Indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it; they have no knowledge of it except the following of conjecture; and they did not kill him for certain (4:157)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words Indeed, those who differ over it, Majestic is His praise, He means the Jews who surrounded Jesus and his companions when they wished to kill him. That is because they had known the number of those in the house before they entered, according to what has been mentioned; and when they came in upon them, they missed one of them, and the affair of Jesus became confused for them by their missing one of the number they had counted, and they killed whom they killed while in doubt about the affair of Jesus.
This interpretation is according to the opinion of those who said: the disciples did not part from Jesus until he was raised up and the Jews came in upon them.
As for its interpretation according to the opinion of those who said that they dispersed from him during the night, it is: Indeed, those who differ over Jesus — as to whether he was the one who remained in the house among them after those who went out had gone out from the number that had been in it, or not — are in doubt about it, meaning: about killing him, because when they entered the house they had counted a greater number than those who went out of it and those who were found in it, and so they doubted about the one they had killed: was he Jesus or not? — because they missed those whom they missed from the number they had counted; but they said, “We killed Jesus,” because of the resemblance of the one killed to Jesus in form. God, Majestic is His praise, says: they have no knowledge of it, meaning: they killed the one they killed while in doubt and disagreement about him, as to whether he was Jesus or someone else, without their having any knowledge of the one they killed, as to who he was — was he Jesus, or was he someone else? — except the following of conjecture: He means, Majestic is His praise: they had no knowledge of the one they killed, but they followed their conjecture and killed him, conjecturing that he was Jesus and that he was the one they wished to kill, whereas it was not he; and they did not kill him for certain: He says: and they did not kill it — this conjecture that they followed regarding the slain man whom they killed while thinking him to be Jesus — with certainty that he was Jesus, nor that he was someone else; rather, they were in conjecture and doubt about him.
This is like a man saying to another: “I have not killed this matter with knowledge, nor have I killed it with certainty” (mā qataltu hādhā al-amra ʿilman, wa-mā qataltuhu yaqīnan), when he speaks about it by conjecture without certainty of knowledge. So the pronoun hāʾ4 in His words and they did not kill him refers back to “conjecture”.
The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.
Those who said this
(10790) al-Muthannā related to me: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and they did not kill him for certain: he said: It means they did not kill their conjecture with certainty.
(10791) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd related to us, from Juwaybir, concerning His words and they did not kill him for certain: he said: They did not kill their conjecture with certainty.
Al-Suddī said about this what:
(10792) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī: and they did not kill him for certain: they did not kill his affair with certainty, namely that the man was Jesus; rather, God raised him to Himself (4:158).
On 4:158
On the interpretation of His words: Rather, God raised him to Himself; and God is ever Mighty, Wise (4:158)
Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His words, Majestic is His praise, Rather, God raised him to Himself, He means: rather, God raised the Messiah to Himself. He says: they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but God raised him to Himself and purified him of those who disbelieved.
We have already explained how God’s raising of him to Himself took place, in what has preceded, and we have mentioned the disagreement of those who disagreed about that, and the correct opinion on it together with the evidence testifying to its correctness, in a manner that dispenses with repeating it.
As for His words and God is ever Mighty, Wise, He means: God has never ceased to take vengeance upon His enemies, as He took vengeance upon those whom the thunderbolt seized for their wrongdoing, and as He cursed those whose story He recounted in His words So for their breaking of their covenant and their disbelief in the signs of God (4:155); Wise: He says: possessed of wisdom in His management and His disposal of His creation in His decree. He says: So beware, O you who ask Muḥammad to bring down upon you a book from heaven, lest My punishment befall you as it befell your forebears who did as you do, in their giving the lie to My messengers and their fabrications against My friends. And indeed:
(10793) Abū Kurayb related to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Abī Sārah al-Ruʾāsī related to us, from al-Aʿmash, from al-Minhāl, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and God is ever Mighty, Wise: he said: The meaning of that is: that He is so.5
On 4:159
On the interpretation of His words: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death (4:159)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation disagreed about the meaning of that.
- Some of them said: The meaning of that is: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him, meaning: in Jesus, before his death, meaning: before the death of Jesus. Whoever holds this directs it to mean that all of them will affirm him when he descends to kill the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl), so that all the religious communities become one, namely the community of Islam, the upright religion (al-ḥanīfiyya), the religion of Abraham (peace and blessings be upon him).
Those who said this
(10794) Ibn Bashshār related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Abū Ḥaṣīn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Before the death of Jesus son of Mary.
(10795) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Sufyān, from Abū Ḥaṣīn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Before the death of Jesus.
(10796) Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me: Hushaym related to us: Ḥuṣayn informed us, from Abū Mālik, concerning His words but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: That is at the descent of Jesus son of Mary; not one of the People of the Book will remain but will surely believe in him.
(10797) al-Muthannā related to me: al-Ḥajjāj ibn al-Minhāl related to us: Ḥammād ibn Salamah related to us, from Ḥumayd, from al-Ḥasan, who said: before his death: he said: Before Jesus son of Mary dies.
(10798) Yaʿqūb related to me: Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us, from Abū Rajāʾ, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Before the death of Jesus. By God, he is at this moment alive with God; but when he descends, they will all believe in him.
(10799) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he says: Before the death of Jesus.
(10800) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Before the death of Jesus.
(10801) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Before the death of Jesus; when he descends, all the religions will believe in him.
(10802) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, from al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, from al-Ḥasan, who said: Before the death of Jesus.
(10803) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Abū Usāmah related to us, from ʿAwf, from al-Ḥasan, concerning but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Jesus; and he has not died yet.
(10804) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: ʿImrān ibn ʿUyaynah related to us, from Ḥuṣayn, from Abū Mālik, who said: Not one of them will remain, at the descent of Jesus, but will believe in him.
(10805) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Sufyān, from Ḥuṣayn, from Abū Mālik, who said: Before the death of Jesus.
(10806) Yūnus related to us: Ibn Wahb informed us: Ibn Zayd said concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: When Jesus son of Mary descends and kills the Antichrist, no Jew will remain on the earth but will believe in him. He said: And that is the time when faith will not benefit them.
(10807) 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, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he means: that some people of the People of the Book will live to see the time when Jesus is sent forth, and they will believe in him, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159).
(10808) Muḥammad 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 this verse, And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death — Abū Jaʿfar said: I think he said: When Jesus comes forth, the Jews will believe in him.
- Others said: He means by that: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in Jesus before the death of the man of the Book himself. Whoever holds this directs it to mean that when he beholds death he comes to know the truth from falsehood, because no one upon whom death descends has his soul leave him until the truth in his religion has become distinct to him from falsehood.
Those who said this
(10809) al-Muthannā related to me: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us: Muʿāwiyah related to me, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: No Jew dies until he believes in Jesus.
(10810) Ibn Wakīʿ and Ibn Ḥumayd related to us; they said: Jarīr related to us, from Manṣūr, from Mujāhid, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: His soul does not leave him until he believes in Jesus, even if he drowns, or falls headlong from a wall, or dies whatever manner of death it may be.
(10811) Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning His words but will surely believe in him before his death: every possessor of a scripture will surely believe in him, that is, in Jesus, before his death, that is, the death of the possessor of the scripture.
(10812) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us: Shibl related to us, from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid: will surely believe in him: every possessor of a scripture believes in Jesus, before his death: before the death of the possessor of the scripture. Ibn ʿAbbās said: Were his neck struck off, his soul would not leave him until he believed in Jesus.
(10813) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Abū Tumaylah Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, from Yazīd al-Naḥwī, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Jew does not die until he testifies that Jesus is the servant of God and His messenger, even if he is dispatched in haste by the weapon.
(10814) Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥabīb ibn al-Shahīd related to me: ʿAttāb ibn Bashīr related to us, from Khuṣayf, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: In the reading of Ubayy it is before their death6: there is no Jew who ever dies until he believes in Jesus. It was said to Ibn ʿAbbās: What do you think if he falls from the top of a house? He said: He utters it while plunging down. It was then said: What do you think if the neck of one of them is struck off? He said: His tongue stammers it out.
(10815) al-Muthannā related to me: Abū Nuʿaym al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn related to me: Sufyān related to us, from Khuṣayf, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: No Jew dies until he believes in Jesus son of Mary. He said: And even if he is struck with the sword, he utters it. He said: And if he falls, he utters it while he is falling.
(10816) And Ibn al-Muthannā related to me: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to me: Shuʿbah related to us, from Abū Hārūn al-Ghanawī, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said concerning this verse, And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: If a Jew were to fall from the top of this house, he would not die until he believed in him — meaning: in Jesus.
(10817) Ibn al-Muthannā related to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us: Shuʿbah related to us, from a client (mawlā) of Quraysh, who said: I heard ʿIkrimah say: If a Jew were to fall from the top of the palace, he would not reach the ground until he believed in Jesus.
(10818) Ibn Bashshār related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: Sufyān related to us, from Abū Hāshim al-Rummānī, from Mujāhid, concerning will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Even if he falls from the top of the house, he does not die until he believes in him.
(10819) Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Ḥakkām related to us, from ʿAmr ibn Abī Qays, from Manṣūr, from Mujāhid, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: No man of the People of the Book dies until he believes in him, even if he drowns, or falls headlong, or dies by any means whatever.
(10820) Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me: Ibn ʿUlayyah related to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: His soul does not leave him until he believes in him.
(10821) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Sufyān, from Khuṣayf, from ʿIkrimah, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Not one of them dies until he believes in him — meaning: in Jesus — and even if he plunges from the top of a house, he believes in him while he is falling.
(10822) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar related to us, from Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said: There is no one of the Jews who departs from this world until he believes in Jesus.
(10823) Ibn Wakīʿ related to us: my father related to us, from Isrāʾīl, from Furāt al-Qazzāz, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Not one of them dies until he believes in Jesus (peace and blessings be upon him) before he dies — meaning: the Jews and the Christians.
(10824) al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Isrāʾīl informed us, from Furāt, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Not one of them dies until he believes in Jesus before he dies.
(10825) Ibn Bashshār related to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us: al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAṭiyyah related to us, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: The death of the man of the People of the Book.
(10826) Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, concerning And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: There is no Jew who dies until he believes in Jesus son of Mary.
Then a man among his companions said to him: How can that be, when a man may drown, or burn, or have a wall fall upon him, or be eaten by a wild beast? He said: His spirit does not leave his body until faith in Jesus is cast into him.
(10827) I was told, from al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us; he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death: he said: No one of the Jews dies until he testifies that Jesus is the messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him).
(10828) al-Muthannā related to me: Isḥāq related to us: Yaʿlā related to us, from Juwaybir, concerning His words will surely believe in him before his death: he said: In the reading of Ubayy it is before their death.
- Others said: The meaning of that is: And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) before the death of the man of the Book himself.
Those who said this
(10829) al-Muthannā related to me: al-Ḥajjāj ibn al-Minhāl related to us: Ḥammād related to us, from Ḥumayd, who said: ʿIkrimah said: The Christian and the Jew do not die until they believe in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) — meaning, concerning His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The opinion most deserving of soundness and correctness is the opinion of those who said: the interpretation of that is: “And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in Jesus before the death of Jesus.”
We have said that this is more deserving of correctness than the other opinions only because God, Majestic is His praise, has assigned to everyone who believes in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) the ruling of the people of faith, in the matter of inheritance, of the funeral prayer over him, and of the attachment of his young children to his ruling in religion. So if every man of the Book believed in Jesus before his death, it would necessarily follow that the man of the Book who dies in his own religious community should be inherited by none but his young children, or those of them who are of age and Muslims, if he had a young child or an adult Muslim child; and if he had neither a young child nor an adult Muslim child, his inheritance would be disposed of where the property of a Muslim who dies leaving no heir is disposed of, and his ruling would be the ruling of the Muslims with respect to the prayer over him, his washing and his burial. For whoever dies believing in Jesus has died believing in Muḥammad and in all the messengers. That is because Jesus, the blessings of God be upon him, came affirming Muḥammad and all the messengers, the blessings of God be upon them; so he who affirms Jesus and believes in him affirms Muḥammad and all the prophets and messengers of God, just as he who believes in Muḥammad believes in Jesus and in all the prophets and messengers of God. It is therefore not possible that one who denies Muḥammad should be a believer in Jesus.
If anyone supposes that the meaning of the Jew’s belief in Jesus which God mentioned in His words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death is merely his acknowledging that he is a prophet sent by God, without his affirming everything he brought from God, he has supposed wrongly.
That is because it is not possible that one who denies part of what a prophet brought of God’s revelation and what He sent down should be credited with acknowledging that prophet’s prophethood. Indeed, it is not possible that he should be credited with acknowledging the prophethood of any one of God’s prophets, because the prophets came to the communities with the affirmation of all of God’s prophets and messengers. So he who denies some of God’s prophets in what they brought their community from God is denying all of God’s prophets in that religion of God to which they called God’s servants. Since that is so, and since all the people of Islam are agreed that every man of the Book who died before acknowledging Muḥammad, the blessings of God be upon him, and what he brought from God, is judged by the ruling of the religious community to which he belonged during the days of his life, none of the rulings concerning his person, his property and his children, young and grown, being transferred by his death from what they were during his lifetime — the proof indicates that the meaning of God’s words And there is none of the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death is only: but will surely believe in Jesus before the death of Jesus; that this concerns a particular group of the People of the Book, the people of one age among them being meant, not the people of all the ages that have come after Jesus; and that this will take place at his descent, as in that which:
(10830) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to me: Yazīd related to me: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ādam, from Abū Hurayrah: that the Prophet of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The prophets are brothers by one father and different mothers (ikhwa li-ʿallāt); their mothers are various, but their religion is one. I am the closest of people to Jesus son of Mary, because there was no prophet between me and him. He is going to descend, and when you see him, recognise him: he is a man of medium build, tending towards redness and whiteness, with smooth hair; his head looks as though it drips, though no wetness has touched it; he will be clad in two garments dyed light yellow (mumaṣṣaratayn). He will break the cross, kill the swine, abolish the poll-tax (jizya), and wealth will overflow. He will fight people for Islam until God destroys in his time all the religious communities other than Islam, and God destroys in his time the Messiah of error, the lying Antichrist. Security will prevail on the earth in his time, so that lions will graze with camels, leopards with cattle, and wolves with sheep, and boys — or: children — will play with snakes, none of them harming the other. Then he will remain on the earth as long as God wills — and perhaps he said: forty years — then he will die, and the Muslims will pray over him and bury him.”
As for the one who said that He meant by His words will surely believe in him before his death, “will surely believe in Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) before the death of the man of the Book”, that is something for which no intelligible basis exists. For — besides its being unsound on the ground by which we have shown the unsoundness of the opinion of those who said “He meant by it: will surely believe in Jesus before the death of the man of the Book” — it is made still more unsound by the fact that no mention of Muḥammad (peace be upon him) has occurred in the verses preceding this, such that it would be permissible to refer the pronoun “him” in His words will surely believe in him to a mention of him. Rather, His words will surely believe in him come in the context of the mention of Jesus, his mother and the Jews. So it is not permissible to divert the discourse from what lies in its context to something else, except by an argument to which submission is obligatory, from the indication of the apparent sense of the revelation, or from a report from the Messenger by which a proof is established. As for mere claims, they are not hard for anyone to make.
Abū Jaʿfar said: So the interpretation of the verse — since the matter is as we have described — is: And there is none of the People of the Book but one who will surely believe in Jesus before the death of Jesus. “One who” (man) was omitted after “but” (illā), because the discourse indicates it, and its indication dispenses with expressing it, like the other examples of this kind which have preceded and which we have fully explained.
On the interpretation of His words: and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them (4:159)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By that He means, Majestic is His praise: and on the Day of Resurrection Jesus will be a witness against the People of the Book, meaning: one testifying against them to the denial of those among them who denied him and the affirmation of those among them who affirmed him, in what he brought them from God, and to his having conveyed the message of his Lord, as in that which:
(10831) al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me: Ibn Jurayj said: and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them: that he conveyed to them what he was sent with to them.
(10832) Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them: he says: he will be a witness against them on the Day of Resurrection that he conveyed the message of his Lord and acknowledged servanthood of himself.
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.
Neither killed nor crucified (4:155-159): all commentaries · The classical commentaries
Notes
- That is, John; al-Ṭabarī’s History reads “Yaḥyā” here. ↩
- Simon the Cananaean, that is, Simon the Zealot. ↩
- Ibn Isḥāq’s form of the name of Judas Iscariot. ↩
- The suffixed pronoun “him/it” in qatalūhu. ↩
- That is, God was, and ever remains, Mighty and Wise. ↩
- A variant reading (qirāʾa) attributed to the Companion Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, qabla mawtihim, “before their death”, with the plural pronoun referring to the People of the Book rather than to Jesus. ↩