Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 864 AH / 1459 CE and 911 AH / 1505 CE). The two Jalāls’ gloss, a sentence or two to a verse, which became the handbook commentary of the Muslim world.
The complete commentary on The son of Mary as an example (43:57-65), covering 43:57 to 43:65.
On 43:57
And when was struck (43:57), was set forth, the son of Mary as an example – when His words, Exalted, came down: You and what you worship besides God are the fuel of Hell (21:98), the idolaters said: We are content that our gods should be with Jesus, for he was worshipped besides God – behold, your people, that is, the idolaters, at it, at the example, cry out, laugh in delight at what they heard.
On 43:58
And they said: Are our gods better, or he (43:58), that is, Jesus? So we are content for our gods to be with him. They did not strike it, that is, the example, for you except in argument, contention by falsehood, for they knew that mā is for the non-rational and so does not include Jesus (peace be upon him). Nay, but they are a contentious people, vehement in dispute.
On 43:59
He is not (43:59), Jesus is not, but a servant on whom We bestowed favour, through prophethood, and We made him, by his coming into being without a father, an example for the Children of Israel, that is, like a proverb, on account of his strangeness, by which the power of God, Exalted, over whatever He wills is inferred.
On 43:60
And had We willed, We would have made from you (43:60), in your stead, angels in the earth to succeed, by destroying you.
On 43:61
And truly he (43:61), that is, Jesus, is a sign of the Hour, which is known by his descent, so do not doubt it, that is, be not in doubt about it – the nūn of the indicative has been elided from it for the jussive, and the wāw of the pronoun because of the meeting of two unvowelled letters – and say to them: follow me in affirming God’s oneness. This, which I command you, is a path, a way, that is straight.
On 43:62
And let him not turn you away (43:62), divert you from the religion of God, Satan; truly he is to you a manifest enemy, of evident enmity.
On 43:63
And when Jesus came with the clear proofs (43:63), with the miracles and the laws, he said: I have come to you with wisdom, with prophethood and the laws of the Gospel, and to make clear to you some of that over which you differ of the rulings of the Torah, in the matter of religion and otherwise; and he made clear to them the matter of religion. So fear God and obey me.
On 43:64
Truly God, He is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is a path (43:64), a way, that is straight.
On 43:65
But the factions differed among themselves (43:65) concerning Jesus: is he God, or the son of God, or the third of three? So woe, a word of punishment, to those who do wrong, who disbelieve by what they said concerning Jesus, from the punishment of a painful day, one that causes pain.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Tafsīr al-Jalālayn on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=jalalayn). 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 son of Mary as an example (43:57-65): all commentaries · The classical commentaries