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 good news of Aḥmad (61:6), covering 61:6.
On 61:6
His words, Exalted: And when Jesus son of Mary said (61:6), the verse.
Ibn Mardawayh reported from al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I was the servant of God in the Mother of the Book, and the Seal of the Prophets, while Adam was still lying in his clay; and I shall tell you the interpretation of that: the supplication of my father Abraham, the glad tidings of Jesus to his people, and the vision of my mother, who saw that a light came forth from her by which the palaces of Syria were lit up.”
Ibn Mardawayh reported from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us to set out with Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib to the land of the Negus. When we came before the Negus he said: What prevents you from prostrating to me? I said: We prostrate to none but God. He said: And how is that? I said: God has sent among us His Messenger, and he is the Messenger of whom Jesus son of Mary gave glad tidings: a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad (61:6); and he has commanded us to worship God and not to associate anything with Him.
Mālik, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Dārimī, al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī reported from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I have names: I am Muḥammad, and I am Aḥmad, and I am al-Ḥāshir (the Gatherer), at whose feet mankind will be gathered, and I am al-Māḥī (the Effacer), by whom God effaces disbelief, and I am al-ʿĀqib (the Last)”—and al-ʿĀqib is the one after whom there is no prophet.
al-Ṭayālisī and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I am Muḥammad, and Aḥmad, and al-Ḥāshir, and the Prophet of Repentance, and the Prophet of the Fierce Battle (al-malḥamah).”
Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I have been given what none of the prophets of God was given.” We said: O Messenger of God, what is it? He said: “I have been aided with terror, I have been given the keys of the earth, I have been named Aḥmad, the soil of the earth has been made a means of purification for me, and my community has been made the best of communities.”
His words, Exalted: But when he came to them with the clear proofs (61:6), the verses.
Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn Jurayj concerning His words: But when he came to them with the clear proofs (61:6): he said: Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him); and concerning His words: They wish to extinguish the light of God with their mouths (61:8): he said: with their tongues.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Masrūq that he used to recite the one in al-Māʾidah, the one in al-Ṣaff and the one in Yūnus as sāḥir (“a sorcerer”).1
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿĀṣim that he recited this is manifest sorcery (61:6) without an alif, and recited wa-llāhu mutimmun nūrahu (and God is the perfecter of His light, 61:8), putting tanwīn on mutimm and the accusative on nūrahu.
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 good news of Aḥmad (61:6): all commentaries · The classical commentaries
Notes
- That is, he read “this is a manifest sorcerer” (hādhā sāḥirun mubīn) in place of “this is manifest sorcery” (hādhā siḥrun mubīn) at 5:110, 61:6 and 10:76. ↩