Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, by Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE). The most read of the commentaries by ḥadīth, which explains the Qur’an by the Qur’an, then by the Prophet’s words, then by the Companions, and weighs the chains it cites.
The complete commentary on The good news of Aḥmad (61:6), covering 61:6.
On 61:6
God, Exalted, says, informing of His servant and messenger, the one to whom He spoke, Moses son of ʿImrān (peace be upon him), that he said to his people: Why do you harm me, when you know well that I am the messenger of God to you? (61:5), that is: why do you direct harm at me when you know my truthfulness in the message I have brought you? In this there is consolation for the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) in what befell him from the unbelievers of his people and others, and a command to him to be patient. For this reason he said: “May the mercy of God be upon Moses: he was harmed with more than this, and he bore it patiently.” In it there is also a prohibition to the believers against assailing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or directing any harm at him, as He, Exalted, said: O you who believe, do not be like those who harmed Moses, and God cleared him of what they said, and he was honourable in the sight of God (33:69).
And His words: So when they deviated, God caused their hearts to deviate (61:5), that is: when they turned aside from following the truth despite their knowledge of it, God caused their hearts to deviate from guidance and lodged in them doubt, bewilderment and abandonment, as He, Exalted, said: And We shall turn about their hearts and their eyes, as they did not believe in it the first time, and We shall leave them in their transgression wandering blindly (6:110), and He said: And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers, We shall turn him to what he has turned to and roast him in Hell, and evil is it as a destination (4:115). For this reason God, Exalted, said in this verse: and God does not guide the people who are defiantly disobedient (61:5).
And His words: And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel, truly I am the messenger of God to you, confirming what was before me of the Torah, and bringing glad tidings of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Aḥmad (61:6), meaning: the Torah has given glad tidings of me, and I am the fulfilment of what it foretold, and I bring glad tidings of the one who comes after me, who is the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, the Arab, the Meccan, Aḥmad. So Jesus (peace be upon him), who is the seal of the prophets of the Children of Israel, stood up among the assembly of the Children of Israel giving glad tidings of Muḥammad, who is Aḥmad, the seal of the prophets and messengers, after whom there is no message and no prophethood. How excellent is what al-Bukhārī has cited, the ḥadīth in which he said:
Abū al-Yamān related to us: Shuʿayb related to us, from al-Zuhrī, who said: Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim informed me, from his father, who said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I have names: I am Muḥammad, and I am Aḥmad, and I am al-Māḥī (the Effacer), by whom God effaces unbelief, and I am al-Ḥāshir (the Gatherer), at whose feet mankind will be gathered, and I am al-ʿĀqib (the Last).”
Muslim related it from the ḥadīth of al-Zuhrī, with this chain, in similar terms.
Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said: al-Masʿūdī related to us, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Abū ʿUbaydah, from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) named for us several names of his, some of which we have retained; he said: “I am Muḥammad, and I am Aḥmad, and al-Ḥāshir (the Gatherer), and al-Muqaffī (the One who comes last in the succession), and the Prophet of mercy, and of repentance, and of the final battle (malḥamah).”
Muslim related it from the ḥadīth of al-Aʿmash, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, with this chain. And God, Exalted, has said: those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Gospel (7:157), and He, Exalted, said: And when God took the covenant of the prophets: Whatever I give you of Book and wisdom, and then there comes to you a messenger confirming what is with you, you shall surely believe in him and surely support him. He said: Do you affirm, and take upon yourselves My burden on that? They said: We affirm. He said: Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses (3:81).
Ibn ʿAbbās said: God did not send any prophet without taking from him the pledge that if Muḥammad were sent while he was alive, he would surely follow him; and He took from him that he should take the pledge from his community that if Muḥammad were sent while they were alive, they would surely follow him and support him.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: Thawr ibn Yazīd related to me, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from the Companions of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), that they said: O Messenger of God, tell us about yourself. He said: “The supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus; and my mother saw, when she conceived me, as though a light went forth from her by which the palaces of Buṣrā1 in the land of Syria were lit up.”
This is a good chain of transmission (isnād). Corroborating reports (shawāhid) for it have been related by other routes. The Imām Aḥmad said:
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, from Saʿīd ibn Suwayd al-Kalbī, from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Hilāl al-Sulamī, from al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Truly, with God I was the Seal of the Prophets while Adam was still cast in his clay. And I shall tell you of the first of that: the supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus concerning me, and the vision of my mother which she saw; and likewise do the mothers of the prophets see.”
Aḥmad also said: Abū al-Naḍr related to us: al-Faraj ibn Faḍālah related to us: Luqmān ibn ʿĀmir related to us, who said: I heard Abū Umāmah say: I said: O Prophet of God, what was the beginning of your affair? He said: “The supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus; and my mother saw that a light went forth from her by which the palaces of Syria were lit up.”
Aḥmad also said: Ḥasan ibn Mūsā related to us: I heard Khudayj, the brother of Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiyah, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) sent us to the Negus, and we were about eighty men, among them ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Jaʿfar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUrfuṭah, ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn and Abū Mūsā. They came to the Negus; and Quraysh sent ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and ʿUmārah ibn al-Walīd with a gift. When the two of them entered upon the Negus they prostrated to him, then hastened to take their places on his right and on his left, then said to him: “Some men of our cousins have settled in your land, having turned away from us and from our religion.” He said: “And where are they?” They said: “They are in your land, so send for them.” So he sent for them. Jaʿfar said: “I shall be your spokesman today.” So they followed him, and he gave the greeting of peace and did not prostrate. They said to him: “What is the matter with you, that you do not prostrate to the king?” He said: “We prostrate to none but God, Mighty and Majestic.” He said: “And what is that?” He said: “God has sent His messenger to us, and he has commanded us not to prostrate to anyone but God, Mighty and Majestic, and he has commanded us to prayer and alms.”
ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ said: “But they differ from you concerning Jesus son of Mary.” He said: “What do you say about Jesus son of Mary and his mother?” They said: “We say as God, Mighty and Majestic, has said: he is the word of God and His spirit, which He cast to the virgin, the chaste one (al-batūl), whom no man had touched and to whom no child had ever come.” He said: Then he lifted a stick from the ground and said: “O company of Abyssinians, priests and monks! By God, they do not add to what we say about him so much as the measure of this. Welcome to you, and to him from whom you have come. I bear witness that he is the messenger of God, and that he is the one we find in the Gospel, and that he is the one of whom Jesus son of Mary gave glad tidings. Settle wherever you wish. By God, were it not for the kingship I am engaged in, I would go to him, so that I might be the one to carry his sandals and pour the water for his ablutions.” And he ordered that the gift of the other two be returned to them. Then ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd hurried back, so that he was present at Badr; and he maintained that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked forgiveness for him2 when news of his death reached him.
This story has been related from Jaʿfar and from Umm Salamah (may God be pleased with them both), and its proper place is the Book of the Sīrah. The point is that the prophets (peace be upon them) never ceased to describe him and tell of him in their scriptures to their communities, commanding them to follow him, support him and assist him when he was sent. What was most widely known of the matter among the people of the earth was on the tongue of Abraham the Friend (al-Khalīl), the father of the prophets after him, when he prayed for the people of Mecca that God would send among them a messenger from among themselves, and likewise on the tongue of Jesus son of Mary. For this reason they said: “Tell us about the beginning of your affair,” meaning, on the earth; and he said: “The supplication of my father Abraham, and the glad tidings of Jesus son of Mary, and the vision of my mother which she saw,” that is: the trace of that, and the foreshadowing (irhāṣ) by the mention of him, appeared among the people of Mecca (God’s blessings and peace be upon him).
And His words: But when he came to them with the clear proofs, they said: This is manifest sorcery (61:6). Ibn Jurayj and Ibn Jarīr said: But when he came to them—Aḥmad, that is, the one of whom glad tidings were given in the ancient ages, whose mention was proclaimed in the bygone generations—when his affair appeared and he came with the clear proofs, the unbelievers and the opponents said: This is manifest sorcery.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=ibn-katheer). 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