al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, by Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH / 1273 CE). The commentary of the Andalusian jurist, which takes each verse through its legal and grammatical questions as well as its narrative.
The complete commentary on The son of Mary as an example (43:57-65), covering 43:57 to 43:65.
On 43:57
When He, Exalted, said: And ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before you: did We appoint, besides the All-Merciful, gods to be worshipped? (43:45), the idolaters seized upon the matter of Jesus and said: “Muḥammad wants nothing but that we take him as a god, just as the Christians took Jesus son of Mary as a god.” Qatādah said this. Something similar is related from Mujāhid, who said: Quraysh said, “Muḥammad wants us to worship him as the people of Jesus worshipped Jesus”, so God sent down this verse. Ibn ʿAbbās said: what is meant by it is the disputation of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zibaʿrā with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) concerning the matter of Jesus, and that the one who struck this comparison was ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zibaʿrā al-Sahmī in the state of his unbelief, when Quraysh said to him that Muḥammad was reciting Indeed you and what you worship besides God are the fuel of Hell (21:98) to the end of the verse. He said: “Had I been present with him I would have refuted him.” They said: “And what would you have said to him?” He said: “I would have said to him: this Messiah, the Christians worship him, and the Jews worship ʿUzayr; are these two among the fuel of Hell?” Quraysh marvelled at his words and considered that he had defeated him in argument, and that is the meaning of His word they clamour (yaṣiddūn). So God, Exalted, sent down: Indeed those for whom the best has already gone forth from Us, they shall be kept far from it (21:101). Had Ibn al-Zibaʿrā reflected on the verse he would not have objected to it, because He said “and what you worship” and did not say “and whom you worship”; He meant only the idols and the like among things which do not possess reason, and did not mean the Messiah or the angels even though they were worshipped. This has already been treated at the end of Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ. Ibn ʿAbbās related that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Quraysh: “O company of Quraysh, there is no good in anyone who is worshipped besides God.” They said: “Do you not claim that Jesus was a servant and a prophet, and a righteous servant? If he was as you claim, then he was worshipped besides God!” So God, Exalted, sent down And when the son of Mary was put forward as an example, behold, your people clamoured at it (43:57), that is, they raised a din like the din of camels when burdens are loaded upon them. Nāfiʿ, Ibn ʿĀmir and al-Kisāʾī read yaṣuddūn with ḍammah on the ṣād, and its meaning is “they turn away”; al-Nakhaʿī said this. The others read it with kasrah. Al-Kisāʾī said: they are two dialectal forms, like yaʿrishūn and yaʿrushūn, and yanimmūn and yanummūn, and its meaning is “they clamour”. Al-Jawharī said: ṣadda yaṣuddu ṣadīdan, that is, he clamoured. It has been said that with ḍammah it is from ṣudūd, which is turning away, and with kasrah from clamour; Quṭrub said this. Abū ʿUbayd said: had it been from turning away from the truth, it would have been “behold, your people turn away from it” (ʿanhu yaṣuddūn). Al-Farrāʾ said: the two are the same, minhu and ʿanhu. Ibn al-Musayyab said: yaṣuddūn means they clamour. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: they cry out. Ibn ʿAbbās said: they laugh. Abū ʿUbaydah said: whoever reads with ḍammah, its meaning is “they turn aside”, so the meaning is: on account of inclination they turn aside; and yaṣiddūn is not made transitive with min. Whoever reads with kasrah, its meaning is “they clamour”, so min is connected with yaṣiddūn, and the meaning is: they clamour at it.
On 43:58
His words, Exalted: And they said: are our gods better, or is he? (43:58), that is, are our gods better, or Jesus? Al-Suddī said this. He said: they disputed with him and said: “If everyone who is worshipped besides God is in the Fire, then we are content that our gods should be together with Jesus and the angels and ʿUzayr”; so God, Exalted, sent down Indeed those for whom the best has already gone forth from Us, they shall be kept far from it (21:101) to the end of the verse. Qatādah said: by or is he they meant Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). In the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it is “are our gods better, or this one?”, and that strengthens the statement of Qatādah; so it is an interrogative of affirmation that their gods are better. The Kufans and Yaʿqūb read a-ālihatunā with both hamzahs fully pronounced, while the others softened it; this has already been discussed. They did not put it forward to you except for argument (43:58). “For argument” (jadalan) is a circumstantial accusative, that is, “disputatiously”; meaning, they did not put this example forward to you except out of a desire for disputation, because they knew that what was meant by the fuel of Hell was the inanimate things they had taken as gods. Rather, they are a contentious people (43:58), who dispute by falsehood. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Tirmidhī, from Abū Umāmah, who said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “No people went astray after guidance which they were upon except that they were given to argument”; then the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) recited this verse: They did not put it forward to you except for argument; rather, they are a contentious people (43:58).
On 43:59-60
His words, Exalted: He is only a servant upon whom We bestowed favour (43:59), that is, Jesus is nothing but a servant upon whom God bestowed the favour of prophethood, and We made him an example for the Children of Israel (43:59), that is, a sign and a lesson by which the power of God, Exalted, is inferred, for Jesus came into being without a father, and then there was granted to him, in the raising of the dead and the healing of the one born blind and the leper and of all diseases, what was granted to no one else in his time, notwithstanding that the Children of Israel were at that time the best of creation and the most beloved of it to God, Mighty and Majestic, and mankind were beneath them, there being no one in the sight of God, Mighty and Majestic, like them. It has been said that what is meant by the servant upon whom favour was bestowed is Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), but the first is more evident. And had We willed, We could have made from you (43:60), that is, in place of you, angels who would be successors in your stead; al-Suddī said this. Something similar is related from Mujāhid, who said: angels who would inhabit the earth in place of you. Al-Azharī said: min may be used for substitution, by the evidence of this verse. I say: this meaning has already been treated in Barāʾah1 and elsewhere. It has been said: had We willed, We could have made angels out of human beings, even though it is not the usual course of things, for substances are one genus and the difference lies in the attributes. The meaning is: had We willed, We could have settled the angels upon the earth, and there is no nobility in Our settling them in heaven such that they should be worshipped or that it should be said of them that they are the daughters of God. The meaning of succeeding (43:60) is that they succeed one another; Ibn ʿAbbās said this.
On 43:61-62
His words, Exalted: And indeed he is knowledge of the Hour, so have no doubt about it (43:61). Al-Ḥasan, Qatādah and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: He means the Qurʾān, because it indicates the nearness of the coming of the Hour, or because by it the Hour and its terrors and its conditions are known. Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, al-Suddī and Qatādah also said: it is the coming forth of Jesus (peace be upon him), and that is one of the signs of the Hour, because God will send him down from heaven shortly before the rising of the Hour, just as the coming forth of the Antichrist (al-Dajjāl) is one of the signs of the Hour. Ibn ʿAbbās, Abū Hurayrah, Qatādah, Mālik ibn Dīnār and al-Ḍaḥḥāk read wa-innahu la-ʿalamun li-l-sāʿah with fatḥah on the ʿayn and the lām, that is, “a token”. It has been related from ʿIkrimah wa-innahu la-l-ʿilmu with two lāms, and that is contrary to the codices. From ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: On the night the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) was taken on the night journey, he met Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them), and they discussed the Hour among themselves. They began with Abraham and asked him about it, but he had no knowledge of it; then they asked Moses, and he had no knowledge of it; so the talk was referred to Jesus son of Mary, and he said: “I have been given a covenant concerning what falls short of its onset; as for its onset, none knows it but God, Mighty and Majestic.” Then he mentioned the coming forth of the Antichrist, and said: “Then I shall descend and kill him.” And he mentioned the ḥadīth; Ibn Mājah transmitted it in his Sunan. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim: “And while he is thus”, meaning the false messiah, the Antichrist, “God will send the Messiah son of Mary, and he will descend at the white minaret on the east side of Damascus, between two garments dyed with saffron, placing his two palms upon the wings of two angels. When he lowers his head drops fall, and when he raises it there roll down from it beads like pearls. No unbeliever who smells the scent of his breath will be permitted to live but will die, and his breath reaches as far as his sight reaches. Then he will seek him out until he overtakes him at the gate of Ludd2 and kill him”, to the end of the ḥadīth. Al-Thaʿlabī, al-Zamakhsharī and others mentioned from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him) will descend from heaven upon a pass of the Holy Land called Afīq,3 between two garments of pale yellow, the hair of his head anointed, and in his hand a lance with which he will kill the Antichrist. He will come to Jerusalem while the people are at the afternoon prayer and the imam is leading them; the imam will step back, but Jesus will put him forward and pray behind him according to the law of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Then he will kill the swine, break the cross, lay waste the synagogues and churches, and kill the Christians except those who believe in him.” Khālid related from al-Ḥasan, who said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The prophets are brothers of one father by different mothers: their mothers are various, but their religion is one. I am the closest of people to Jesus son of Mary, for there is no prophet between me and him. He will be the first to descend; he will break the cross, kill the swine and fight the people for Islam.” Al-Māwardī said: Ibn ʿĪsā related from a group that they said: when Jesus descends, legal obligation (taklīf) will be lifted, so that he will not be a messenger to that age commanding them and forbidding them on behalf of God, Exalted. This is a rejected view, for three reasons: among them the ḥadīth; and because the continuance of this world requires legal obligation in it; and because he descends as one commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong. Nor is it to be denied that the command of God, Exalted, to him should be confined to supporting Islam, commanding it and calling to it. I say: it is established in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim and in Ibn Mājah from Abū Hurayrah, who said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Jesus son of Mary will surely descend as a just judge; he will surely break the cross, surely kill the swine, surely abolish the poll-tax (jizyah); the young she-camels will surely be left and no one will go about on them; rancour, mutual hatred and mutual envy will surely vanish; and he will surely call people to wealth, and no one will accept it.” And from him, who said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “How will you be when the son of Mary descends among you and your imam is from among you?” In another version: “and he leads you as one of you.” Ibn Abī Dhiʾb said: “Do you know what ‘he leads you as one of you’ means?” I said: “Tell me.” He said: “He leads you by the Book of your Lord and the practice (sunnah) of your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).” Our scholars (the mercy of God be upon them) said: this is an explicit text that he descends as a renewer of the religion of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), of that part of it which has been effaced, not with a new law; and legal obligation remains, as we have made clear here and in the book al-Tadhkirah. It has been said: And indeed he is knowledge of the Hour means that the raising of the dead by Jesus is a proof of the Hour and of the resurrection of the dead; Ibn Isḥāq said this. I say: it is also possible that the meaning of indeed he is “indeed Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him)” is knowledge of the Hour, by the evidence of his words (peace be upon him): “I and the Hour were sent like these two”, and he joined the index finger and the middle finger; al-Bukhārī and Muslim transmitted it. Al-Ḥasan said: the first of its portents is Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him). so have no doubt about it: do not be uncertain about it, meaning about the Hour; Yaḥyā ibn Sallām said this. Al-Suddī said: do not deny it, and do not dispute about it, for it will assuredly come to pass. and follow me (43:61), that is, in the affirmation of God’s oneness and in what I convey to you from God. This is a straight path (43:61), that is, an upright road to God, that is, to His Garden. Yaʿqūb retained the yāʾ in His words wa-ttabiʿūnī in both states,4 and likewise in wa-aṭīʿūnī; Abū ʿAmr, and Ismāʿīl from Nāfiʿ, retained it in continuous recitation but not in pause, and the others dropped it in both states. And let not Satan turn you away (43:62), that is, do not be deceived by his whisperings and by the specious arguments of the disputing unbelievers, for the laws of the prophets have not differed in the affirmation of God’s oneness, nor in what they reported of the knowledge of the Hour and other things, with what that includes of Garden or Fire. Indeed he is a manifest enemy to you (43:62). This has already been treated in al-Baqarah and elsewhere.
On 43:63-64
His words, Exalted: And when Jesus came with the clear proofs (43:63). Ibn ʿAbbās said: He means the raising of the dead, the healing of diseases, the creating of the bird, the table and other things, and the telling of many hidden matters. Qatādah said: the clear proofs here are the Gospel. he said: I have come to you with wisdom (43:63), that is, prophethood; al-Suddī said this. Ibn ʿAbbās said: knowledge of what leads to the good and restrains from the ugly. It has been said: the Gospel; al-Qushayrī and al-Māwardī mentioned this. and to make clear to you some of that about which you differ (43:63). Mujāhid said: of the alteration of the Torah. Al-Zajjāj said: the meaning is, “to make clear to you in the Gospel some of that about which you differ concerning the alteration of the Torah”. Mujāhid said: and he made clear to them, outside the Gospel, what they needed. It has been said: he made clear to them some of that about which they differed of the rulings of the Torah, to the extent that they asked him. It is possible that they differed about other things concerning which they did not ask him. It has been said that the Children of Israel differed after the death of Moses about matters of their religion and matters of their worldly life, and he made clear to them the matters of their religion. The position of Abū ʿUbaydah is that “some” (baʿḍ) is in the sense of “all”, and of this is His word, Exalted: some of that which he threatens you with will befall you (40:28). Al-Akhfash cited the words of Labīd:
One who abandons places when I am not content with them, unless the death of some souls lays hold of them.
And death does not lay hold of some souls to the exclusion of others.5 Fate is called ʿalūq and ʿallāqah. Al-Mufaḍḍal al-Bakrī said:
And a woman asking after Thaʿlabah ibn Sayr,6 when the clinging one, death, had already laid hold of Thaʿlabah.
Muqātil said: it is like His words and to make lawful to you some of that which was forbidden to you (3:50), meaning what was made lawful in the Gospel of what had been forbidden in the Torah, such as the flesh of camels, the fat of every animal, and fishing on the Sabbath. So fear God (43:63), that is, beware of associating partners with Him and worship none but God alone. And if this was the saying of Jesus, how can it be permissible that he be a god or the son of a god? and obey me (43:63), in what I call you to of the affirmation of God’s oneness and other things. Indeed God, He is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is a straight path (43:64), that is, the worship of God is a straight path, and whatever is other than it is crooked and does not lead the one who travels it to the truth.
On 43:65
His words, Exalted: Then the factions differed among themselves (43:65). Qatādah said: He means “what was between them”. Concerning them there are two views:
- The first: that they are the People of the Book among the Jews and the Christians, who contradicted one another; Mujāhid and al-Suddī said this.
- The second: the sects of the Christians, the Nestorians, the Melkites and the Jacobites, who differed about Jesus. The Nestorians said: he is the son of God. The Jacobites said: he is God. And the Melkites said: the third of three, one of whom is God. Al-Kalbī and Muqātil said this, and this has already been treated in Sūrat Maryam.7
So woe to those who did wrong (43:65), that is, who disbelieved and associated partners with God, as in Sūrat Maryam. from the punishment of a painful day (43:65), that is, a day whose punishment is painful; and like it is “a sleeping night”, that is, a night in which one sleeps. Are they waiting (43:66): He means the factions; they are waiting for nothing except the Hour (43:66), meaning the Resurrection, that it should come upon them suddenly (43:66), that is, unexpectedly, while they do not perceive (43:66), that is, do not notice. This has already been treated in more than one place. It has been said that the meaning is: the idolaters of the Arabs are waiting for nothing except the Hour; and on this view “the factions” are those idolaters who banded together against the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and called him a liar, and this connects with His words, Exalted: They did not put it forward to you except for argument (43:58).
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=qurtubi). 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
Notes
- Sūrat al-Tawbah, at Qurʾān 9:38. ↩
- Lydda, in Palestine, near Jerusalem. ↩
- A pass on the road from the Golan to Tiberias. ↩
- That is, both when pausing on the word and when continuing. ↩
- That is, Labīd’s “some souls” must mean all souls, since death seizes every soul; hence baʿḍ can mean “all”. ↩
- That is, Thaʿlabah ibn Sayyār, shortened for the metre. ↩
- At Qurʾān 19:37. ↩