Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān fī tafsīr kalām al-Mannān, by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Saʿdī (d. 1376 AH / 1956 CE). A modern commentary in plain Arabic that states the sense of each verse and the lesson drawn from it, without chains or digressions.
The complete commentary on The son of Mary as an example (43:57-65), covering 43:57 to 43:65.
On 43:57
He, Exalted, says: And when the son of Mary was cited as an example, that is, when his worship was forbidden and his worship was placed on the same footing as the worship of idols and rivals, behold, your people, those who deny you, at it, that is, on account of this example that was cited, raise a clamour (43:57), that is, they persist in their dispute with you, shout, and claim that they have prevailed and triumphed in their argument.
On 43:58
And they said: Are our gods better, or is he?, meaning Jesus, since the worship of all of them was forbidden and they were joined together in the threat against whoever worships them; and there was also revealed His words, Exalted: Indeed you and what you worship besides God are the fuel of Hell; you shall come to it (21:98). The form of their wrongful argument was that they said: it is established with us and with you, O Muḥammad, that Jesus is one of the servants of God brought near, who have the good final outcome; so why have you made him and our objects of worship equal in forbidding the worship of all of them?! Were your argument not false, it would not be self-contradictory! And why did you say: Indeed you and what you worship besides God are the fuel of Hell; you shall come to it (21:98)?! This wording, according to their claim, includes both the idols and Jesus; so is this anything but a contradiction? And the contradiction of an argument is evidence of its falsity! This is the furthest extent of what they adduce in establishing this doubt, over which they rejoiced and were glad, and began to raise a clamour and congratulate one another. Yet it is, praise be to God, among the weakest and most false of doubts; for God’s placing the prohibition of worshipping the Messiah on the same footing as the prohibition of worshipping idols is because worship is the right of God, Exalted, which none of created beings deserves, neither the angels brought near, nor the prophets sent as messengers, nor any created being besides them; so what doubt is there in making the prohibition of worshipping Jesus and the prohibition of worshipping others equal?!
On 43:59
The superiority of Jesus (peace be upon him) and his being brought near to his Lord contain nothing that indicates a difference between him and them in this respect; he is only as He, Exalted, said: He was no more than a servant upon whom We bestowed favour, of prophethood, wisdom, knowledge and action, and We made him an example for the Children of Israel (43:59), by which they recognise the power of God, Exalted, to bring him into existence without a father. As for His words, Exalted, Indeed you and what you worship besides God are the fuel of Hell; you shall come to it (21:98), the answer concerning it is from three aspects:
- The first: that in His words Indeed you and what you worship besides God, the word what (mā) is a noun used for that which lacks reason, and the Messiah and his like do not fall under it.
- The second: that the address is to the polytheists who were in Mecca and its surroundings, and they worshipped only idols and graven images, and did not worship the Messiah.
- The third: that God said after this verse: Indeed those for whom the best has gone forth from Us, they shall be kept far from it (21:101); and there is no doubt that Jesus and the other prophets and friends of God are included in this verse.
On 43:60
Then He, Exalted, said: And if We willed, We could have made from you angels in the earth, succeeding one another (43:60), that is, We could have made in your place angels who would succeed you in the earth and would be in the earth, so that We would send to them angels of their own kind. As for you, O company of human beings, you cannot bear that angels be sent to you; so it is of God’s mercy towards you that He sent to you messengers of your own kind, from whom you are able to receive.
On 43:61
And indeed he is a sign of the Hour, that is, Jesus (peace be upon him) is indeed a proof of the Hour, and that the One who is able to bring him into existence from a mother without a father is able to raise the dead from their graves; or: Jesus (peace be upon him) will indeed descend at the end of time, and his descent will be one of the signs of the Hour. So do not doubt it, that is, do not doubt the coming of the Hour, for doubting it is disbelief; and follow me, by complying with what I have commanded you and avoiding what I have forbidden you; this is a straight path (43:61), leading to God, Mighty and Majestic.
On 43:62
And let not Satan turn you away, from what God has commanded you; indeed he, that is, Satan, is to you a manifest enemy (43:62), eager to lead you astray, expending his utmost effort in that.
On 43:63
And when Jesus came with the clear proofs, which indicate the truth of his prophethood and the soundness of what he brought them, such as giving life to the dead, healing the one born blind and the leper, and other such signs, he said, to the Children of Israel: I have come to you with wisdom, prophethood and the knowledge of what ought to be done in the manner in which it ought to be done, and to make clear to you some of that over which you differ, that is, I make clear to you the correct position in it and the answer to it, so that by this the confusion is removed from you. So he (peace be upon him) came completing and perfecting the law of Moses (peace be upon him) and the rulings of the Torah, and brought some alleviations that called for submission to him and acceptance of what he brought them. So fear God and obey me (43:63), that is, worship God alone, without partner, comply with His command, avoid His prohibition, believe in me and affirm my truthfulness, and obey me (43:63).
On 43:64
Indeed God, He is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him; this is a straight path (43:64). In this is the affirmation of the oneness of lordship (tawḥīd al-rubūbiyya), in that God is the One who nurtures all His creation with blessings of every kind, outward and inward; the affirmation of the oneness of worship (tawḥīd al-ʿubūdiyya), through the command to worship God alone, without partner; the declaration by Jesus (peace be upon him) that he is one of the servants of God, not as the Christians said of him, that he is the son of God or the third of three; and the declaration that this which has been mentioned is a straight path leading to God and to His Garden.
On 43:65
When Jesus (peace be upon him) came to them with this, the factions, those who formed parties in denial, differed among themselves: each one said of Jesus (peace be upon him) a false saying and rejected what he brought, except those whom God guided among the believers, who bore witness to his messengership, affirmed the truth of all that he brought, and said: he is the servant of God and His messenger. So woe to those who do wrong, that is, how intense is the grief of the wrongdoers!, from the punishment of a painful Day (43:65); and how great is their loss on that Day!
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Taysīr al-Karīm al-Raḥmān fī tafsīr kalām al-Mannān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=saadi). 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