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 birth of Jesus (19:16-37), covering 19:16 to 19:34-37.
On 19:16
His words, Exalted: And mention in the Book Mary (19:16) — the verse.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words when she withdrew (19:16) — that is, went apart — from her family to an eastern place: he said: towards the east, far off and set apart.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words she withdrew from her family to an eastern place: he said: a place where the sun screened her from being seen by any of them.
Al-Firyābī, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Christians took the east as their direction of prayer (qiblah) only because Mary withdrew from her family to an eastern place, and so they took his birthplace as a qiblah; and the Jews prostrated on the side of the face only because, when the mountain was raised up above them, they began to be afraid while they looked at it, fearing that it would fall upon them, and so they prostrated with a prostration that God was pleased with, and they took it as a custom.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The People of the Book had prayer towards the House and pilgrimage to it prescribed for them, and nothing turned them away from it except your Lord’s saying when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place. He said: She went out from them to an eastern place, and so they prayed towards the rising-place of the sun.
Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When Mary came of age, while she was in her house, secluded, a man came in to her without permission, and she feared that he had come in to assault her, so she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18). He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure boy (19:19). She said: How can I have a boy, when no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste? (19:20). He said: Thus said your Lord (19:21). Gabriel kept repeating that to her while she said How can I have a boy (19:20); then Gabriel caught her off guard and blew into the opening of her shift, and rose and left her, and her pregnancy proceeded. She said: “If I go out towards the west, the people pray towards the west; rather I shall go out towards the east, where no one will see me.” So she went out towards the east, and while she was walking the birth-pangs came suddenly upon her. She looked to see whether she could find something to screen herself with, and saw nothing but the trunk of the palm-tree, and said: “I shall screen myself from the people with this trunk.” Beneath the trunk there was a flowing stream, and she pressed close to the palm-tree. When she gave birth to him, everything that was worshipped besides God, in the easts of the earth and its wests, fell down prostrate on its face. Iblīs took fright and went out; he ascended, and saw nothing he found amiss; he came to the east, and saw nothing he found amiss; he entered the earth, and saw nothing he found amiss; and he began to lose patience, so he came to the west to look, and saw nothing he found amiss. While he was going round, he passed by the palm-tree, and behold, there was a woman with a boy to whom she had given birth, and behold, the angels had encircled her, her son and the palm-tree. He said: “Here the thing has happened.” He turned towards them and said: “What is this thing that has happened?” The angels spoke to him and said: “A prophet born without a male.” He said: “Well then, by God, I shall surely lead astray most of the worlds by means of him.” He led the Jews astray, so they disbelieved in him; and he led the Christians astray, so they said: he is the son of God. He said: And an angel called to her from beneath her: Your Lord has placed beneath you a stream (19:24). Iblīs said: “No female has ever conceived except with my knowledge, and none has ever given birth except upon my palm — save this boy: I did not know of him when his mother conceived him, and I did not know of him when she gave birth to him.”
Al-Ḥākim — who declared it sound — al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt, and Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of al-Suddī, from Abū Mālik, from Ibn ʿAbbās, and from Murrah ibn Masʿūd1, who both said: Mary went out to the side of the sanctuary (miḥrāb) because of a menstruation that had come upon her, and when she became pure, behold, there was a man with her, who appeared to her as a man (19:17). She took fright and said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18). She went out wearing her outer wrap (jilbāb), and he took hold of her sleeve and blew into the opening of her shift, which was slit at the front, and the breath entered her breast, and she conceived. Her sister, the wife of Zachariah, came to visit her one night, and when she opened the door to her she embraced her, and the wife of Zachariah said: “O Mary, do you know that I have found myself to be pregnant?” Mary said: “I too have found myself to be pregnant.” The wife of Zachariah said: “Then I feel what is in my belly prostrating to what is in your belly.” That is His words: confirming a word from God (3:39). The wife of Zachariah gave birth to John; and when the time came for Mary to give birth, she went out to the side of the sanctuary, and the birth-pangs drove her to the trunk of the palm-tree; she said, “Would that I had died before this” (19:23) — the verse — and he called to her (19:24) — Gabriel — from beneath her: “Do not grieve” (19:24). When she gave birth to him, Satan went and told the Children of Israel that Mary had given birth. When they wanted her to speak, she pointed to Jesus, and he spoke and said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30) — the verses. And when he was born, there remained no idol on the earth but fell down on its face.
Isḥāq ibn Bishr and Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His words And mention in the Book Mary (19:16): he says: Recount her story to the Jews, the Christians and the polytheists of the Arabs; when she withdrew — meaning, went out — from her family to an eastern place: he said: She had gone out from Jerusalem on the side facing the east; and took a screen apart from them (19:17). That was because, when God wished to begin bestowing honour upon her and to give her the glad tidings of Jesus — and she had bathed after menstruation — she went to the eastern side and placed between herself and her people a screen (19:17), meaning a mountain, so that the mountain was between her seat and Jerusalem. Then We sent to her Our Spirit (19:17) — meaning Gabriel — and he appeared to her as a man (19:17) — in the form of human beings — well-formed (19:17) — meaning upright, a young man, white of face, with tightly curling hair, at the age when his moustache was just darkening. When she looked at him standing before her, she said, “I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing” (19:18). That was because she likened him to a young man who used to see her and had grown up with her, called Joseph, of the Children of Israel, who was one of the servants of Jerusalem; and she feared that Satan had caused him to slip, and for that reason she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18) — meaning, if you fear God. Gabriel said, smiling: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure boy (19:19) — meaning, obedient to God, without a man. She said, “How can I have a boy, when no man has touched me (19:20) — meaning a husband — and I have not been unchaste?” (19:20) — that is, a harlot. Gabriel said: Thus (19:21) — meaning, so it is — said your Lord: it is easy for Me (19:21) — meaning, to create him without a man — and that We may make him a sign for the people (19:21) — meaning, a lesson for the people (and “the people” here means the believers specifically) — and a mercy from Us for whoever believes that he is the messenger of God; and it is a matter decreed (19:21) — meaning, bound to be, that he should be without a man. Then Gabriel drew near and blew into the opening of her garment, and the breath entered her inward parts, and she conceived as women conceive, in the womb and the afterbirth, and she gave birth to him as women give birth. Thirst came upon her, so God made a rivulet flow for her from the Jordan; that is His words: Your Lord has placed beneath you a stream (19:24) — and the stream (sarī) is the rivulet. And the trunk at once bore fresh ripe dates (19:25). Then Gabriel called to her from beneath her: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm-tree (19:25) — there were no fronds on its top, and it had been dry for a long age, but God revived it for her and it bore fruit; that is His words: it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25) — meaning fresh, with their bloom still upon them. So eat (19:26) — of the fresh dates — and drink (19:26) — from the rivulet — and be comforted (19:26) — by your child. She said: “But how will it be with me when they ask me, ‘Where did this come from?’” Gabriel said to her: And if you see (19:26) — meaning, when you see — any human being (19:26) who presses you hard about your affair, then say, “I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful” (19:26) — meaning a silence concerning the matter of Jesus — “so I shall not speak today to any human” (19:26) — concerning his matter, until he himself is the one who speaks for me and for himself. He said: They missed Mary from her sanctuary and asked Joseph, who said: “I have no knowledge of her, and the key of the door of her sanctuary is with Zachariah.” So they sought out Zachariah and opened the door, and she was not in it; so they suspected him, seized him and berated him. Then a man said: “I saw her in such-and-such a place.” So they went out in search of her, and heard the sound of a magpie at the top of the trunk beneath which Mary was, and they set off towards it. That is the word of God: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27). Ibn ʿAbbās said: When she saw that her people had come towards her, she carried the child towards them so as to meet them with him; that is His words: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27) — that is, fearing neither suspicion nor accusation. When they looked at her, her father tore his tunic and put dust on his head, as did her brothers and the family of Zachariah, and they said: “O Mary, you have indeed done a monstrous thing” (19:27) — meaning, an enormous thing. O sister of Aaron (19:28) — she was of the family of Aaron — your father was not a wicked man, nor was your mother unchaste (19:28) — meaning, an adulteress; so from where have you brought this, with this righteous brother, righteous father and righteous mother? Then she pointed to him (19:29), saying to them: “Speak to him, for he will inform you; for I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful (19:26), not to speak to you about his matter, for he will speak for me and will be for you a sign and a lesson.” They said (19:29): “O wonder! How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child?” (19:29) — meaning, one who is in swaddling cloths, an infant who does not speak. Then God made him speak, and he spoke for his mother, and it was a lesson for them; he said: I am the servant of God (19:30). When he had said that, John began — he being three years old — and he was the first to believe in him; he said: “I bear witness that you are the servant of God and His messenger,” in confirmation of God’s word: confirming a word from God (3:39). Then Jesus said: He has given me the Book and made me a prophet (19:30) — to you; and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31). Ibn ʿAbbās said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The blessing which God placed in Jesus was that he was a teacher and an instructor wherever he turned.” And He has enjoined on me prayer and almsgiving (19:31) — meaning, He has commanded me — and to be dutiful to my mother (19:32) — so I shall not be undutiful to her. Ibn ʿAbbās said: When he said and to be dutiful to my mother (19:32), Zachariah said: “God is most great!” and took him and clasped him to his breast, and they knew that he had been created without a man. And He has not made me an overbearing wretch (19:32) — meaning, arrogant, a shedder of blood. And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive (19:33). God says: That is Jesus son of Mary — the word of truth about which they are in doubt (19:34) — meaning, they doubt; He says this of the Jews. Then Jesus refrained from speech until he reached the age at which people reach it.
Ibn Abī Shaybah transmitted from Abū Ḥātim, and Abū Nuʿaym from Mujāhid, who said: Mary said: “When I was alone, Jesus would talk to me and speak with me while he was in my womb; and when I was with people, he would glorify God and magnify Him in my womb while I listened.”
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Firyābī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning Mary: he said: As soon as she conceived, she gave birth.
Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted from al-Ḥasan, who said: It has reached me that Mary was pregnant for seven, or for nine, hours, and gave birth to him the same day.
Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted by way of ʿIkrimah from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Mary gave birth at eight months; and for that reason no child is born at eight months but dies, so that Mary should not be reviled on account of Jesus.
Al-Ḥākim transmitted from Zayd al-ʿAmmī, who said: Jesus was born on the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd transmitted from Nawf, who said: Mary (peace be upon her) was a virgin maiden, and Zachariah was the husband of her sister; he took charge of her, and she was with him, and he would come in to her and greet her, and she would offer him the fruit of winter in summer and the fruit of summer in winter. Zachariah came in to her once, and she offered him some of what she used to offer; he said, “O Mary, from where do you have this?” She said, “It is from God; truly God provides for whom He wills without reckoning.” There Zachariah called upon his Lord — up to His words — “Your sign is that you shall not speak to the people for three days except by gesture” (3:37–41). He said: Your tongue shall be sealed, so you shall not speak to the people for three nights, being sound (19:10) — in health. So he went out to his people from the sanctuary and signalled to them (19:11) — he wrote it for them — to glorify morning and evening (19:11). He said: While she was sitting in her dwelling, behold, a man was standing before her, having broken through the veils. When she saw him, she said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18). When she mentioned the All-Merciful, Gabriel (peace be upon him) took fright, and said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure boy (19:19) — up to His words — and it is a matter decreed (19:21). Then Gabriel blew into the opening of her garment, and she conceived; until, when she grew heavy, she felt the pain that women feel, and she was in the house of prophethood, so she was ashamed and fled out of shame before her people, and made towards the east. Her people set out in search of her, and began asking: “Have you seen a girl of such-and-such a description?” but no one could tell them anything. And the birth-pangs took her to the trunk of the palm-tree (19:23), and she leaned her back against the palm-tree; she said: Would that I had died before this, and been a thing forgotten, utterly forgotten! (19:23) — he said: a menstrual cloth cast away after another.2 Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24) — he said: Gabriel, from the far end of the valley — “Do not grieve; your Lord has placed beneath you a stream” (19:24) — he said: a rivulet — “and shake towards you the trunk of the palm-tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates” (19:25). When Gabriel said that to her, her back grew strong and her soul was comforted, and she cut his navel-cord, wrapped him in a cloth and carried him. Her people, while they were searching for her, met a cowherd, and said: “O herdsman, have you seen a girl of such-and-such a description?” He said: “No; but last night I saw from my cattle something I had never seen from them before.” He said: “I saw them spend the night prostrating towards this valley.” So they went to where he had described to them, and when Mary saw them, she sat down and began suckling Jesus. They came and stood over her; they said: “O Mary, you have indeed done a monstrous thing” (19:27) — he said: an enormous thing. Then she pointed to him (19:29) — “speak to him” — and they were astonished at her; they said: How can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29) — and the cradle was her lap. When they said that, Jesus left her breast, leaned upon his left side, and then spoke: He said, “I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book and made me a prophet; and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined on me prayer and almsgiving as long as I live; and to be dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me an overbearing wretch; and peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive” (19:30–33). He said: And the people differed about him.
On 19:17
His words, Exalted: and took a screen apart from them (19:17).
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb: “Why have the Christians come to favour curtains over their altars?” He said: “The Christians favoured curtains over their altars and their places of worship only because of the word of God: and took a screen apart from them (19:17).”
His words, Exalted: Then We sent to her Our Spirit (19:17).
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Abū Ṣāliḥ concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit: he said: God sent an angel to her, and he blew into the opening of her garment, and it entered into the womb.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from Qatādah concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit: he said: Gabriel.
Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr and Ibn al-Mundhir transmitted from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr concerning His words Then We sent to her Our Spirit — the verse: he said: Gabriel blew into her shift, and it reached wherever God willed.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār: that Gabriel came to her in the form of a man and drew aside the screen; when she saw him she sought refuge from him, and he blew into the hem of her shift, and it reached its mark. That was talked of in the city, and Zachariah was shunned and abandoned, whereas before that he used to be consulted for rulings and people would come to him — so much so that he would greet a man and the man would not speak to him.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḥākim — who declared it sound — al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt, and Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb concerning His words and he appeared to her as a well-formed man (19:17): he said: The spirit of Jesus appeared to her in the form of a man; so she conceived him (19:22) — he said: she conceived the one who had addressed her; he entered into her mouth.
On 19:18-23
His words, Exalted: She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you (19:18), and the following verses.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Wāʾil, concerning His words She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that he said: Mary knew that the God-fearing man is one who possesses restraint.
Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words She said: I seek refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that he said: She feared only that he wanted her for himself. He said: I am only a messenger of your Lord, that I may grant you a boy (19:19): they claimed that he breathed into the opening of her shift and into her sleeve.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿĀṣim that he read li-ahaba laki (“that I may grant you”) with the hamzah written with alif, and that in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh3 it is li-yahaba laki (“that He may grant you”) with the yāʾ.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim, reported from Qatādah, concerning His words a pure boy (19:19), that he said: righteous.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words nor have I been unchaste (19:20), that he said: a fornicatress.
Ibn Jarīr reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words a distant place (19:22), that he said: far away.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words a distant place (19:22), that he said: remote. And concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23), he said: compelled her.
Al-Ṭastī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq4 said to him: Tell me about His words, Mighty and Majestic, and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23). He said: compelled her. He said: And do the Arabs know that? He said: Yes; have you not heard Ḥassān ibn Thābit saying:
When we made a true charge, we drove you to the foot of the mountain.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23), that he said: forced her.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23), that he said: brought her.
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree (19:23), that he said: it was a dry trunk.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported by way of Hilāl ibn Khabbāb, from Abū ʿUbayd Allāh: and the pangs of childbirth drove her (19:23); he said: to the trunk of a dry palm, which had been brought so that a house might be built with it, called Bayt Laḥm5; she shook it, and behold, it was a palm tree.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Qudāmah, who said: A palm tree was made to grow for Mary, to which she clung as a woman clings to another woman at childbirth.
Ibn Jarīr and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: I had not been created, and had not been anything.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: a cast-off menstrual discharge.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: a menstrual discharge.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Nawf al-Bikālī and al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that they both said: a cast-off menstrual discharge.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: She says: I am not known, and no one knows who I am.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words and had been a thing forgotten, out of mind (19:23), that he said: it is the miscarried foetus.
On 19:24
His words, Exalted: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), to the end of the verse.
Abū ʿUbayd, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿAlqamah that he read: fa-khāṭabahā man taḥtahā (“then he who was beneath her addressed her”).
Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that he said: Gabriel; and Jesus did not speak until she brought him to her people.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿIkrimah, who said: The one who called to her was Gabriel.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk and ʿAmr ibn Maymūn the like of it.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Barāʾ: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24); he said: an angel.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that he said: Gabriel, from the lower part of the valley.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that he said: Jesus.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24); he said: it is Jesus.
Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The one who addressed her was the one she had carried in her womb; he entered through her mouth.
Abū ʿUbayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh that he read fa-nādāhā man taḥtahā (“then he who was beneath her called to her”).
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24), that is, the angel, from beneath the palm tree.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan, who said: Whoever reads min taḥtihā (“from beneath her”), for him it is Gabriel; and whoever reads man taḥtahā (“he who was beneath her”), for him it is Jesus.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, who said: ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd read fa-nādāhā man taḥtahā with the accusative. He said: And ʿĀṣim said: Whoever reads it with the accusative, for him it is Jesus, and whoever reads it with the genitive, for him it is Gabriel.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: a prophet, namely Jesus.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, who said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Jaʿfar asked me: What do your companions say about His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24)? He said: I said to him: I heard Qatādah say: the rivulet. He said: Then inform Qatādah from me: the Qurʾan came down in our language; it is the noble man (al-rajul al-sarī).
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24): He means himself; and what noble one is nobler than he! It was said: What of those who say that the sarī is the stream? He said: It is not so; were it so, it would have been at her side, and the river would not have been beneath her.
Al-Ṭabarānī, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn al-Najjār reported from Ibn ʿUmar: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “The sarī of which God said to Mary, Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), is a river which God brought forth for her that she might drink from it.”
Al-Ṭabarānī in al-Ṣaghīr and Ibn Mardawayh reported from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: “The river.”
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Firyābī, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Ḥākim, who declared it sound, and Ibn Mardawayh reported from al-Barāʾ, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: It is the rivulet, which is the small river.
Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: the river of Jesus.
Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from ʿUthmān ibn Miḥṣan, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about His words a sarī (19:24). He said: the rivulet; have you not heard the saying of the poet:
A sluice from which you see the bucket-man bent awry, when it gurgles and roars in the sarī.
Ibn al-Anbārī in al-Waqf and al-Ṭastī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq said to him: Tell me about His words, Mighty and Majestic, beneath you a sarī (19:24). He said: The sarī is the small river, which is the rivulet. He said: And do the Arabs know that? He said: Yes; have you not heard the saying of the poet:
Easy of nature, glorious, a giver of gifts, like the sarī which the rivers feed.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words a sarī (19:24), that he said: the rivulet.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn and Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī the like of it.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Qatādah that al-Ḥasan recited this verse while at his side was Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥimyarī: Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24). He said: He was indeed noble (sarī), and he was indeed generous. Ḥumayd said: O Abū Saʿīd, it is the rivulet. He said to him: That is why we delight in your company, but the governors have got the better of us where you are concerned.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿIkrimah, who said: The sarī is water.
Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words a sarī (19:24), that he said: a river, in Syriac.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words a sarī (19:24), that he said: a river, in Nabataean.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn, from al-Ḥasan, concerning His words Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), that he said: By God, he was noble (sarī), meaning Jesus (peace be upon him). Khālid ibn Ṣafwān said to him: O Abū Saʿīd, the Arabs call the rivulet the sarī. He said: You have spoken truly.
On 19:25
His words, Exalted: And shake towards you (19:25), to the end of the verse.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd, concerning His words And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree (19:25), that he said: move it.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn al-Anbārī in al-Maṣāḥif reported from Mujāhid: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree (19:25); he said: it was an ʿajwah palm6.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr reported from al-Barāʾ that he read yassāqaṭ ʿalayki (“it will drop upon you”) with the yāʾ.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Ḥasan that he read yassāqaṭ ʿalayki with the yāʾ, meaning the trunk.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Masrūq that he read tasāqaṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban janiyyan (“it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates”) with the tāʾ.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿĀṣim that he read tassāqaṭ with the doubled consonant, with the tāʾ.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd reported from Ṭalḥah al-Iyāmī that he read tassāqaṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban with the doubled consonant.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Nahīk that he read tusqiṭ ʿalayki ruṭaban (“it will let fall upon you fresh ripe dates”).
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words fresh ripe dates (19:25), that he said: fresh.
Al-Khaṭīb in Tālī al-Talkhīṣ reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25), that he said: with their bloom upon them.
Ibn al-Anbārī and al-Khaṭīb reported from Abū Jabāb the like of it.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Rawq, who said: Mary came to a trunk that had no crown, and God made a crown grow for it, and made grow upon it fresh ripe dates, and pointed unripe dates, and bananas; and when she shook the palm tree there fell upon her some of everything that was on it.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd reported from Abū Qudāmah that a palm tree was made to grow for Mary, to which she clung as a woman clings at childbirth.
Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Sunnī and Abū Nuʿaym, both in al-Ṭibb al-Nabawī, al-ʿUqaylī, Ibn ʿAdī, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from ʿAlī, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Honour your paternal aunt the palm tree, for it was created from the clay from which Adam (peace be upon him) was created, and there is no tree that is pollinated except it.” And the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Feed your women who have given birth fresh ripe dates, and if there are no fresh ripe dates then dried dates; for there is no tree more honoured with God than the tree beneath which Mary daughter of ʿImrān came down.”
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said: We asked the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): From what was the palm tree created? He said: “The palm tree, the pomegranate and the vine were created from what remained of the clay of Adam (peace be upon him).”
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Salamah ibn Qays, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Feed your women dates during their confinement after childbirth, for whoever has dates as her food during her confinement, her child comes forth a forbearing child; for that was the food of Mary when she gave birth to Jesus, and had God known of a food better for her than dates He would have fed it to her.”
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Shaqīq, who said: Had God known of anything better for women in confinement than fresh ripe dates, He would have commanded Mary to take it.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, who said: There is nothing better for women in confinement than fresh ripe dates or dried dates. And he said: God said: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates (19:25).
Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym, who said: In my view there is no remedy for women in confinement like fresh ripe dates, nor for the sick like honey.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from al-Shaʿbī, who said: Caesar wrote to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb: My envoys have come to me from your side and have claimed that in your land there is a tree which seems fit for no good thing: it puts forth something like the ears of donkeys, then splits open upon something like white pearls, then becomes like green emerald, then becomes like red ruby, then ripens and matures and becomes like the finest fālūdhaj7 ever eaten, then dries and becomes a sustenance for the one who stays at home and provision for the traveller. If my envoys have not told me the truth, then I can only think this tree one of the trees of Paradise. ʿUmar wrote back to him: Your envoys have told you the truth. This tree is with us: it is the tree which God made grow over Mary when she gave birth to Jesus.
On 19:26
His words, Exalted: And if you see any human being (19:26), to the end of the verse.
Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast (19:26), that he said: a silence.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from al-Shaʿbī the like of it.
Al-Firyābī, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn al-Anbārī in al-Maṣāḥif and Ibn Mardawayh reported from Anas ibn Mālik that he used to read: innī nadhartu li-l-Raḥmāni ṣawman ṣamtan (“I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, a silence”).
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn al-Anbārī reported from Ibn ʿAbbās that he read it I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast (19:26), “a silence”. And he said: It was nothing other than that she conceived and gave birth.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Zayd, concerning His words I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast (19:26), that he said: Among the Children of Israel there were those who, when they strove in devotion, fasted from speech as they fasted from food, except from the remembrance of God.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ḥārithah ibn Muḍarrib, who said: I was with Ibn Masʿūd when two men came; one of them gave the greeting of peace and the other did not, and then they sat down. The people said: What is the matter with your companion, that he did not give the greeting? He said: He has vowed a fast, that he will not speak to any human being today. ʿAbd Allāh said: Wretched is what you have said. That was only that woman, and she said that so that it might be an excuse for her when she was questioned, for they used to deny that there could be a child without a husband except through fornication. Speak, and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, for that is better for you.
Ibn al-Anbārī reported from al-Shaʿbī, who said: In the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb it is innī nadhartu li-l-Raḥmāni ṣawman ṣamtan (“I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, a silence”).
On 19:27
His words, Exalted: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27), to the end of the verse.
Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27), that he said: after forty days, after she had recovered from her confinement.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words You have certainly done a monstrous thing (19:27), that he said: a grave thing.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd reported from Qatādah, concerning His words You have certainly done a monstrous thing (19:27), that he said: a grave thing.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who said: In the time of the Children of Israel there was in Jerusalem, near the spring of Siloam (ʿAyn Sulwān), a spring; and when a woman committed an offence they would bring her to it and she would drink from it, and if she was innocent it did her no harm, and otherwise she died. When Mary conceived they brought her to it, and they mounted her on a mule, which stumbled with her, so she prayed to God that its womb be made barren, and from that day it was barren. When she came to the spring she drank from it and only increased in goodness. Then she prayed to God that no believing woman be exposed to disgrace by it, and the spring sank away.
On 19:28
His words, Exalted: O sister of Aaron (19:28).
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Aḥmad, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ṭabarānī, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī in al-Dalāʾil reported from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me to the people of Najrān, and they said: Have you considered what you recite, O sister of Aaron (19:28), when Moses was before Jesus by such and such a time? He said: So I returned and mentioned that to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), and he said: “Why did you not tell them that they used to name themselves after the prophets and the righteous who were before them?”
Al-Khaṭīb and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: He was a righteous man among the Children of Israel; his funeral was attended by forty thousand men named Aaron besides him.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Qatādah, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28): He was a righteous man among the Children of Israel named Aaron, and they likened her to him, saying: O you who resemble Aaron in righteousness.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: She was from a household known for righteousness and not known for corruption; and among people there are those who are known for righteousness and beget children in it, and others who are known for corruption and beget children in it. Aaron was a righteous man, beloved in his clan; he is not Aaron the brother of Moses, but another Aaron. It was mentioned to us that on the day he died his funeral was followed by forty thousand of the Children of Israel, every one of them named Aaron.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Sufyān, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: We heard that it is a name that coincided with a name.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn Sīrīn, who said: I was informed that Kaʿb said: His words O sister of Aaron (19:28) do not refer to Aaron the brother of Moses. ʿĀʾishah said to him: You have lied. He said: O Mother of the Believers, if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said it, then he knows best and is better; otherwise, I find between the two of them six hundred years. And she fell silent.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: She was ascribed to Aaron son of ʿImrān because she was of his tribe, as you would say: O brother of the Anṣār.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Suddī, who said: She was of the tribe of Aaron, so it was said to her O sister of Aaron (19:28); she was called by the name of his tribe, as a man says to a man: O brother of the Banū Layth, O brother of the Banū So-and-so.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words O sister of Aaron (19:28), that he said: Aaron was from an evil people, fornicators, so they ascribed her to them.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, who said: In the reading of Ubayy it is qālū yā dhā al-mahd (“they said: O you of the cradle”).
On 19:29
His words, Exalted: So she pointed to him (19:29), to the end of the verse.
Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn Jurayj, concerning His words So she pointed to him (19:29): that is, “speak to him”.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words So she pointed to him (19:29), that he said: she bade them speak to him. And concerning His words in the cradle (19:29), he said: in the lap.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, who said: When Mary gave birth she brought him to her people, and they picked up stones for her to stone her; so she pointed to him, and he spoke, and they let her be.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from ʿIkrimah, who said: The cradle (mahd) is the murbāh. Ibrāhīm said: The marbāh is the swinging cradle.
Ibn Abī Shaybah and Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Hilāl ibn Yisāf, who said: None spoke in the cradle except three: the child of Jurayj8, Jesus, and the child of the Abyssinian woman.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: Four spoke in the cradle: Jesus, the witness in the story of Joseph, the child of Jurayj, and the son of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s daughter.
On 19:30-33
His words, Exalted: He said: I am the servant of God (19:30), and the following verses.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words He said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30), to the end of the verse, that he said: He decreed, among what He decreed, that I should be thus.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Anas, who said: Jesus had studied the Gospel and mastered it in his mother’s womb; and that is His saying I am the servant of God; He has given me the Book (19:30).
Al-Ismāʿīlī in his Muʿjam, Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah, Ibn Lāl in Makārim al-Akhlāq, Ibn Mardawayh and Ibn al-Najjār in his Tārīkh reported from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The saying of Jesus, and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31): he said, He has made me one who brings benefit to people wherever I turn.”
Ibn ʿAdī and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Ibn Masʿūd, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31); he said: “A teacher and an instructor.”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad in the additions (Zawāʾid) to al-Zuhd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words and He has made me blessed wherever I may be (19:31), that he said: a teacher of good.
Ibn al-Mundhir reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: For the one who teaches people good, every creature asks forgiveness, even the fish in the sea.
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd reported from Mujāhid: and He has made me blessed (19:31); he said: a guide, rightly guided.
Al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab and Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Mujāhid: and He has made me blessed (19:31); he said: one who brings benefit to people.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Nawf: and dutiful to my mother (19:32), that is: I have no father.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words and He has not made me a tyrant, wretched (19:32): he says, disobedient.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Sufyān, who said: The wretched tyrant is the one who kills in anger.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab, who said: You will scarcely find a man undutiful to his parents without finding him a tyrant. Then he recited this verse: and dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a tyrant, wretched (19:32).
Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from al-Shaʿbī, who said: The moments of loneliness of the son of Adam are three: the day he is born, the day he dies, and the day he is raised up; and they are what Jesus mentioned in His words And peace be upon me (19:33), to the end of the verse.
Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn ʿAsākir reported by way of Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Jesus did not speak except with the verses with which he spoke, until he reached the age at which children speak.
Ibn ʿAsākir reported from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Abū Hurayrah that God loosed the tongue of Jesus once more in his childhood, and he spoke three times before he reached the age at which children speak. He spoke and praised God again with a praise the like of which no ears had heard, when He made him speak as an infant, and said: “O God, You are the Near in Your loftiness, and the Exalted in Your nearness, raised high above everything of Your creation. You are He whose sight penetrates Your creation, while all sights are bewildered short of looking upon You. You are He before whom all sights are veiled; through You the heights tower in light, and through You the lofty edifice shines forth in the far distances. You are He who has dispelled the pitch-blackness of darkness with Your light; You are He through the radiance of whose light the densest glooms have been illumined, and through whose greatness the pillars of the Throne glitter with light; and none has attained by his attribute to Your attribute. Blessed are You, O God, Creator of creation by Your might, Determiner of affairs by Your wisdom, Originator of creation by Your greatness.” Then God withheld his tongue until he came of age.
On 19:34-37
His words, Exalted: That is Jesus son of Mary (19:34), and the following verses.
Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words That is Jesus son of Mary, the word of truth (19:34), that he said: God is the Truth, Mighty and Majestic.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Qatādah, concerning His words about which they are in doubt (19:34), that he said: The Children of Israel gathered and brought forth from among themselves four men; from every people their learned man was brought forth, and they disputed about Jesus when he was raised up. One of them said: He is God; He descended to the earth, and gave life to whom He gave life and caused to die whom He caused to die, then ascended to heaven. These are the Jacobites. The other three said: You have lied. Then two of them said to the third: Speak. He said: He is the son of God. These are the Nestorians. The two said: You have lied. Then one of the two said to the other: Speak concerning him. He said: He is the third of three: God is a god, Jesus is a god, and his mother is a god. These are the Israelites9, and they are the kings of the Christians. The fourth said: You have lied. He is the servant of God and His Messenger, and His spirit and His word. These are the Muslims. Each man of them had followers who held to what he said, and they fought one another, and the Muslims were overcome. That is God’s saying: and kill those who enjoin justice among the people (3:21). Qatādah said: And they are those of whom God said Then the factions differed among themselves (19:37). He said: They differed about him and became factions. The people disputed, and the Muslim said: I adjure you by God, do you know that Jesus used to eat food, and that God does not eat food? They said: By God, yes. He said: And do you know that Jesus used to sleep, and that God does not sleep? They said: By God, yes. So the Muslims defeated them in argument, and the people fought one another. It was mentioned to us that the Jacobites prevailed that day and the Muslims were struck down, and God sent down the Qurʾan concerning that: So woe to those who disbelieve from the witnessing of a tremendous Day (19:37).
ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported from Mujāhid, concerning His words Then the factions differed among themselves (19:37), that he said: they are the People of the Book.
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 birth of Jesus (19:16-37): all commentaries · The classical commentaries
Notes
- So the text; al-Suddī’s customary chain runs from Murrah al-Hamdānī, from Ibn Masʿūd. ↩
- The gloss takes nasyan mansiyyan, “a thing forgotten”, in the sense of the rag discarded after menstruation. ↩
- ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, the Companion whose codex preserved a number of readings differing from the ʿUthmānic text. ↩
- The Khārijite leader Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq, whose questions to Ibn ʿAbbās on rare Qurʾanic words, answered with citations of Arabic poetry, form a well-known collection. ↩
- Bethlehem. ↩
- The ʿajwah is a prized variety of date palm of Medina. ↩
- A sweet confection of starch, honey and water. ↩
- Jurayj was a devout Israelite monk falsely accused of fathering a child; the infant spoke to clear him, as related in a well-known ḥadīth. ↩
- So the text; the group is usually named the Malkites (Malkāniyyah), the “royal” church, as the following words show. ↩