The Rightly-Guided Injil

al-Qurṭubī on The birth of Jesus (19:16-37)

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 birth of Jesus (19:16-37), covering 19:16-26 to 19:34-37.

On 19:16-26

His words, Exalted: And mention in the Book Mary (19:16), that is, her story to its end. This is the beginning of a story which is not part of the preceding one. The address is to Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him), that is: make her story known to them so that they may know the perfection of Our power.

when she withdrew (19:16), that is, she went aside and drew apart. Nabdh is casting and throwing; God, Exalted, said: but they cast it behind their backs (3:187).

from her people (19:16), that is, from those who were with her. “When” (idh) stands in apposition (badal) to “Mary”, an apposition of inclusion (badal ishtimāl), because times include whatever takes place in them. Withdrawal (intibādh) is seclusion and being alone. People differed as to why she withdrew. Al-Suddī said: she withdrew to purify herself from menstruation or post-natal bleeding. Others said: in order to worship God, and this is good. That is because Mary (peace be upon her) was dedicated to the custody of the sanctuary, to its service and to worship in it, so she went aside from the people for that purpose and entered the sanctuary beside the prayer-niche (miḥrāb), on its eastern side, to be alone for worship, and Gabriel (peace be upon him) came in to her. So His words an eastern place (19:16) mean a place on the eastern side. Al-sharq, with the rāʾ unvowelled, is the place in which the sun rises, and al-sharaq, with the rāʾ vowelled with a, is the sun. The place was specified as eastern only because they used to venerate the direction of the east, from where the lights rise, and the eastern side of everything was more excellent, in their eyes, than any other; al-Ṭabarī related this. It is related of Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: I am the most knowledgeable of people as to why the Christians took the east as their direction of prayer (qiblah): it is because of the words of God, Mighty and Majestic, when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place; so they took the birthplace of Jesus (peace be upon him) as a direction of prayer, and they said: had any part of the earth been better than the east, Mary would have given birth to Jesus (peace be upon him) there. People differed about the prophethood of Mary. It was said: she was a prophetess, by virtue of this sending and her conversing with the angel. And it was said: she was not a prophetess; rather what spoke to her was something in the likeness of a human being, and her seeing the angel was like Gabriel (peace be upon him) being seen in the form of Diḥyah al-Kalbī when he asked about faith and Islam. The first is the more evident. The discussion of this matter has already been given in full in Āl ʿImrān, and praise be to God.

His words, Exalted: then We sent to her Our Spirit (19:17). It was said: it is the spirit of Jesus (peace be upon him), because God, Exalted, created the spirits before the bodies, and He placed the spirit in the body of Jesus (peace be upon him) which He created in her womb. And it was said: it is Gabriel, and the spirit was ascribed to God, Exalted, by way of distinction and honour. The evident meaning is that it is Gabriel (peace be upon him), because of His words and he appeared to her (19:17), that is, the angel took on a form before her.

as a human being (19:17): an explanatory term, or a circumstantial accusative (ḥāl).

well-proportioned (19:17), that is, of even constitution, because she could not have borne, or looked upon, Gabriel in his own form. When she saw a man of handsome appearance, in human form, who had broken through the veil upon her, she thought that he meant her harm, so she said: I take refuge in the All-Merciful from you, if you are God-fearing (19:18), that is, one of those who fear God. Al-Bikālī said: Gabriel (peace be upon him) recoiled in alarm at the mention of the All-Merciful, Blessed and Exalted. Al-Thaʿlabī said: he was a righteous man, so she sought refuge against him out of astonishment. And it was said: taqī is of the pattern faʿīl in the sense of mafʿūl, that is: if you were one against whom refuge is sought. In al-Bukhārī, Abū Wāʾil said: Mary knew that the God-fearing man is possessed of restraint when she said if you are God-fearing. And it was said: Taqī was the name of a notorious profligate of that time; Wahb ibn Munabbih said this, and Makkī and others related it. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: it is weak and goes along with mere conjecture. Then Gabriel (peace be upon him) said to her: I am only a messenger of your Lord, to give you a pure boy (19:19).

He made the gift come from himself, since the announcement of it came from him. Warsh, from Nāfiʿ, read “li-yahaba laki” (“that He may give you”), in the sense of: God sent me that He might give you. And it was said: the meaning of “li-ahaba” with the hamzah is construed according to the sense, that is, He said: I sent him that I might give you. And “li-yahaba” without hamzah may possibly be in the sense of the form with hamzah, the hamzah having then been lightened. When Mary heard this from him she asked about the manner of it, and she said: how shall I have a boy when no man has touched me (19:20), that is, by marriage.

nor have I been unchaste (19:20), that is, a fornicatress. She mentioned this for emphasis, because her words “no man has touched me” cover both the lawful and the unlawful. And it was said: she did not consider anything beyond the power of God, Exalted, but she wished to know how this child would come about: through a husband in the future, or would God create him directly? It is related that Gabriel (peace be upon him), when he said these words to her, blew into the opening of her garment and her sleeve; Ibn Jurayj said this. Ibn ʿAbbās said: Gabriel (peace be upon him) took the sleeve of her shift with his finger and blew into it, and she conceived Jesus that very hour. Al-Ṭabarī said: the Christians claimed that Mary conceived Jesus when she was thirteen years old, that Jesus lived until he was raised up thirty-two years and some days, and that Mary remained six years after his being raised, so that her whole lifetime was fifty-odd years. His words and that We may make him (19:21) are connected to an elided verb, that is: and We create him so that We may make him a sign, a wondrous proof of Our power, and a mercy, that is, for whoever believes in him.

and it was a matter decreed (19:21): predetermined, written on the Tablet.

His words, Exalted: So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a distant place (19:22), that is, she went aside with the pregnancy to a far-off place. Ibn ʿAbbās said: to the farthest end of the valley, which is the valley of Bethlehem, between which and Aelia1 there are four miles. She went far off only to flee from her people’s reproaching her for giving birth without a husband. Ibn ʿAbbās said: no sooner had she conceived than she gave birth at once; and this is the evident meaning, because God, Exalted, mentioned the withdrawal immediately after the conception. And other things were said, as will come. His words, Exalted: then the pangs of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree (19:23). “Ajāʾahā” means “compelled her”; it is the verb jāʾa made transitive by the hamzah. One says jāʾa bihi and ajāʾahu to such-and-such a place, just as one says dhahaba bihi and adhhabahu. Shubayl read, and it is also related from ʿĀṣim, “fājaʾahā” (“came upon her suddenly”), from mufājaʾah. In the codex of Ubayy: “and when the pangs of childbirth drove her”. Zuhayr said:

And many a protected neighbour journeyed purposefully to us, driven to us by fear and by hope.

The majority read “al-makhāḍ” with a on the mīm, and Ibn Kathīr, in what is related from him, with i; it is the labour pains, the severity of childbirth and its pangs. One says makhiḍat al-marʾatu tamkhaḍu makhāḍan and mikhāḍan; and nāqatun mākhiḍ means a she-camel whose time of giving birth has drawn near. to the trunk of the palm tree: it is as though she sought something to lean upon and cling to, as a woman in labour clings because of the severity of the pains of childbirth. The trunk (jidhʿ) is the stem of the dried palm in the desert which has neither fronds nor branch upon it, and for this reason He did not say “to the palm tree”.

She said: would that I had died before this (19:23). Mary (peace be upon her) wished for death for reasons of religion, on two counts. The first: she feared that evil would be thought of her in her religion and that she would be reproached, and that this would be a trial to her. The second: lest a people should fall, on her account, into slander and the imputation of fornication, and that is destructive. Within this limit the wishing for death is permissible, and this matter has already been explained in the sūrah of Joseph (peace be upon him), and praise be to God. I say: I have heard that Mary (peace be upon her) heard the call of one who said: “Come forth, O you who shall be worshipped apart from God!” and she grieved at that and said: would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, consigned to oblivion (19:23). Nisy in the speech of the Arabs is the paltry thing whose nature it is to be forgotten and whose loss causes no pain, like a tent-peg or a rope for the traveller, and the like.

It is related of the Arabs that when they wanted to depart from a camping place they would say: “Look to your ansāʾ“; ansāʾ is the plural of nisy, which is the paltry thing that is overlooked and so forgotten. From this is the saying of al-Kumayt (may God, Exalted, be pleased with him):

Do you make us a bridge for Kalb of Quḍāʿah, when I am no forgotten trifle among Maʿadd, nor an interloper?

Al-Farrāʾ said: nisy is what a woman casts away of the rags of her monthly indisposition, so Mary’s words “nasyan mansiyyan” mean a discarded menstrual cloth. It was also read “nasyan” with a on the nūn, and the two are dialectal variants like ḥijr and ḥajar, witr and watr. Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī read with hamzah, “nisʾan“, with i on the nūn. Nawf al-Bikālī read “nasʾan” with a on the nūn, from nasaʾa Allāhu fī ajalihi, that is, He deferred his term. Abū al-Fatḥ and al-Dānī related this from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb. Bakr ibn Ḥabīb read “nassan” with the sīn doubled and a on the nūn, without hamzah. Al-Ṭabarī related among her stories that when she conceived Jesus (peace be upon him) her sister also conceived John, and her sister came to visit her and said: “Mary, have you perceived that I am with child?” And she said to her: “And I find that what is in my womb bows down to what is in your womb.” That is because it is related that she felt her unborn child bowing with its head towards the side of Mary’s womb. Al-Suddī said: that is His word: confirming a word from God, and a chief, and chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous (3:39). It is also mentioned among her stories that she went out in flight with a man of the Children of Israel called Joseph the carpenter, who used to serve with her in the sanctuary, and the narrator went on at length about this. Al-Kalbī said: Joseph was told, it having been given out to him that she had conceived by fornication: “Now the king will kill her”, so he fled with her; and on the road he was minded to kill her, but Gabriel (peace be upon him) came to him and said to him: “He is from the Holy Spirit.” Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: all of this is weak. This story requires that she conceived and continued pregnant in the customary way of women, and the reports concur that she gave birth to him after eight months; ʿIkrimah said this, and for this reason it is said that no eight-months’ child lives, in order to preserve the special distinction of Jesus. And it was said: she bore him after nine; and it was said: after six. And what we have mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās is the soundest and most evident. And God knows best.

His words, Exalted: Then he called to her from beneath her (19:24). It was read with a on the mīm and with i.2 Ibn ʿAbbās said: what is meant by “man” is Gabriel, and Jesus did not speak until she brought him to her people; ʿAlqamah, al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Qatādah said this too. In this there was for her a sign and a token that this was one of those matters that break the ordinary course of things, in which God, Exalted, has a mighty purpose. His words do not grieve (19:24) are the explanation of the call, and “an” is explicative, in the sense of “that is”; the meaning is: so do not grieve over your giving birth.

Your Lord has placed beneath you a sarī (19:24), meaning Jesus. The sarī among men is the one great in qualities, the chief. Al-Ḥasan said: by God, he was a sarī among men. One says sariya fulānun ʿalā fulānin, meaning he showed himself generous towards him; and so-and-so is a sarī from a people who are sarāh. The majority said: he pointed her to the stream which was near the trunk of the palm tree. Ibn ʿAbbās said: it was a river whose water had ceased to flow, and God, Exalted, made it flow for Mary. The river is called sarī because the water runs (yasrī) in it. The poet said:

A one-handled bucket, from which you see the drawer of water bent askew; when it gulps in the stream, it gurgles.3

And Labīd said:

So the two of them waded into the midst of the stream and cleft a brimming pool whose rushes grew close together.4

And it was said: it was Jesus who called to her, and that was a miracle and a sign and a comfort to her heart; but the first is the more evident. Ibn ʿAbbās read: “then an angel called to her from beneath her”. They said: Gabriel (peace be upon him) was on a spot of ground lower than the spot on which she was.

His words, Exalted: And shake towards you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates. So eat and drink and be comforted (19:25-26). In this there are four questions:

  • The first: His words, Exalted, and shake. He commanded her to shake the dry trunk so that she might see another sign in the quickening of the dead trunk. The bāʾ in His words “bi-jidhʿ” is redundant, for emphasis, as one says khudh bi-l-zimām (“take hold of the rein”) and aʿṭi bi-yadika (“give with your hand”). God, Exalted, said: let him stretch out a rope to the heaven (22:15), that is, let him stretch out a rope. And it was said: the meaning is, shake towards you fresh dates upon the trunk of the palm tree. “Tusāqaṭ” means tatasāqaṭ, the tāʾ being assimilated into the sīn. Ḥamzah read “tasāqaṭ” lightened, dropping the letter which the others assimilated. ʿĀṣim, in the transmission of Ḥafṣ, read “tusāqiṭ” with u on the tāʾ, lightened, and i on the qāf. It was also read “tatasāqaṭ” with both tāʾs pronounced, and “yassāqaṭ” with yāʾ and assimilation of the tāʾ, and “tusqiṭ” and “yusqiṭ” and “tasquṭ” and “yasquṭ“, with the tāʾ for the palm tree and with the yāʾ for the trunk; these are nine readings which al-Zamakhsharī (the mercy of God, Exalted, be upon him) mentioned. “Ruṭaban” is in the accusative governed by the shaking, that is: when you shake the trunk you shake down, by shaking it, fresh ripe dates. In sum, the accusative of “ruṭaban” differs according to the meanings of the readings: sometimes the verb is ascribed to the trunk, sometimes to the shaking, and sometimes to the palm tree. “Janiyyan” means that they have become good and fit for gathering; it is from janaytu al-thamarata (“I gathered the fruit”). It is related from Ibn Masʿūd, and it is not sound, that he read “it will drop upon you fresh ripe dates, barnī“.5 Mujāhid said of fresh ripe dates: they were ʿajwah.6 ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl said: I asked Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ about His words fresh ripe dates, and he said: “which have not withered”. He said: and its explanation is: they have not dried, nor become hard, nor gone far from the hands of the one gathering them; and this is the correct view. Al-Farrāʾ said: janī and majnī are one and the same, holding that the two are on a par with qatīl and maqtūl, jarīḥ and majrūḥ. Others besides al-Farrāʾ said: janī is what is cut from a single palm tree and taken from the place where it grew; and they recited:

And the goodness of fruits in fertile meadows, and branches of trees whose gathered fruit is near at hand.

By al-janā he means what is gathered from them, that is, cut and taken. Ibn ʿAbbās said: it was a rotten trunk, and when she shook it she looked up to the top of the trunk and there were the fronds sprouting; then she looked at the spadix, which had come out from among the fronds; then it turned green and became green dates, then it reddened and became ripening dates, then fresh ripe dates, all that in the twinkling of an eye; and the fresh dates began to fall before her, none of them being bruised.

  • The second: some people drew from this verse the proof that provision, though it is decreed, God, Exalted, has nonetheless entrusted the son of Adam to some effort for it, because He commanded Mary to shake the palm tree so that she might see a sign, whereas the sign could have come about without her shaking.
  • The third: the command imposing the obligation of earning in the matter of provision is the way (sunnah) of God, Exalted, with His servants, and that does not impair reliance upon God (tawakkul), contrary to what the ignorant among those who affect asceticism say; this matter and the dispute about it have already been given. Before this her provision used to come to her without earning, as He said: Whenever Zachariah entered the prayer-niche to her he found provision with her (3:37), the verse. But when she gave birth she was commanded to shake the trunk. Our scholars said: when her heart was free, God freed her limbs from toil; but when she gave birth to Jesus and her heart became attached to his love, and her inmost self was occupied with talk of him and his affair, He entrusted her to her own earning and returned her to the custom of attachment to secondary causes that prevails among His servants. Al-Ṭabarī related from Ibn Zayd that Jesus (peace be upon him) said to her: “Do not grieve”, and she said to him: “How should I not grieve, when you are with me, I being neither a married woman nor a slave-girl! What excuse have I before the people?! Would that I had died before this and been a thing forgotten, consigned to oblivion.” And Jesus said to her: “I will suffice you for the speaking.”
  • The fourth: al-Rabīʿ ibn Khaytham said: in my view there is nothing better for the woman in childbed than fresh ripe dates, on account of this verse; had God known anything more excellent than fresh ripe dates for the woman in childbed, He would have fed it to Mary. For this reason they said: dates have been the custom for women in childbed from that time, and likewise the rubbing of the newborn’s palate with dates (taḥnīk). And it was said: when a woman’s delivery is difficult there is nothing better for her than fresh ripe dates, nor for the sick anything better than honey; al-Zamakhsharī mentioned this. Ibn Wahb said: Mālik said: God, Exalted, said fresh ripe dates; the janī among dates is what has ripened without naqsh and without spoiling. Naqsh is to prick the unripe date from below so that it softens; this is disapproved. Mālik means that this is the hastening of a thing before its time, so no one ought to do it, and if someone does it, that does not make its sale permissible, nor is it a judgement that it has ripened. This statement has already been given in al-Anʿām, and praise be to God. From Ṭalḥah ibn Sulaymān: “jiniyyan” with i on the jīm, by vowel assimilation. That is: We have put for you in the stream and the fresh dates two benefits, the first of them eating and drinking, and the second solace of the breast, since they are both miracles; and this is the meaning of His words, Exalted, so eat and drink and be comforted, that is, eat of the gathered dates and drink of the stream, and be comforted, literally “be cool of eye”, at the sight of the child who is a prophet. It was read with a on the qāf, and this is the reading of the majority; al-Ṭabarī related the reading “wa-qirrī” with i on the qāf, which is the dialect of Najd. One says qarra ʿaynan yaqurru and yaqirru, with u and with i on the qāf, and aqarra Allāhu ʿaynahu fa-qarrat (“God cooled his eye and it was cooled”). It is taken from qurr and qurrah, both of which mean coldness; the tear of joy is cold and the tear of grief is hot. One party considered this weak and said: all tears are hot; so the meaning of “God cooled his eye” is that God stilled his eye by looking upon the one he loves, so that it settles and is at rest; and “so-and-so is the coolness of my eye” means my soul is at rest in his nearness. Al-Shaybānī said: and be comforted means “sleep”; He urged her to eat, drink and sleep. Abū ʿAmr said: “God cooled his eye” means He made his eye sleep and took away his sleeplessness. “ʿAynan” is in the accusative as a specification (tamyīz), as in your saying ṭib nafsan (“be of good cheer”). The action in reality belongs to the eye, but it was transferred to the possessor of the eye, and that which was in reality the agent is put in the accusative by way of explanation. Like it are ṭibtu nafsan, tafaqqaʾtu shaḥman (“I burst with fat”) and taṣabbabtu ʿaraqan (“I streamed with sweat”), and the like of this is frequent.

His words, Exalted: And if you see any human being, say: I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful (19:26). In this there are three questions:

  • The first: His words, Exalted, and if you see (fa-immā tarayinna). The original form of tarayinna is tarʾayīna; the hamzah was dropped as it is dropped from tarā, and its vowel a was transferred to the rāʾ, giving tarayīna; then the first yāʾ was changed into an alif because it was vowelled and the letter before it bore a, so two unvowelled letters met, the alif changed from yāʾ and the yāʾ of the feminine; so the alif was dropped because of the meeting of two unvowelled letters, giving tarayna; then the nūn was dropped as the mark of the jussive, because in is a conditional particle and mā is an added connective, leaving taray; then the nūn of emphasis, which is doubled, was attached to it, and the yāʾ of the feminine was given i because of the meeting of two unvowelled letters, since the doubled nūn is on a par with two nūns the first of which is unvowelled, giving tarayinna. On this pattern is the saying of Ibn Durayd:

If you see my head, its colour mimicking7

And the saying of al-Afwah:

If you see my head, brought low by8

The nūn was introduced here only by the preparatory “mā“, just as the lām of the oath also prepares for its introduction. Ṭalḥah, Abū Jaʿfar and Shaybah read “tarayna” with the yāʾ unvowelled and a on a light nūn; Abū al-Fatḥ said: it is anomalous.

  • The second: His words, Exalted, say: I have vowed. This is the apodosis of the condition, and there is an ellipsis in it, that is: and he asks you about your child, then say: I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful, that is, a silence; Ibn ʿAbbās and Anas ibn Mālik said this. In the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: “I have vowed to the All-Merciful a fast, a silence”, and it is related from Anas.

From him also: “and a silence”, with a wāw. The difference between the two wordings indicates that the word was mentioned as explanation, not as Qurʾān, and when it comes with a wāw it is possible that it is something other than the fast. What the reports from the people of ḥadīth and the transmitters of the language consistently convey is that the fast is the silence, because fasting is abstention and silence is abstention from speech. And it was said: it is the fast as commonly understood, and they were obliged to keep silent on the day of fasting except by signs; and on this the reading of Anas “and a silence”, with a wāw, is explained, namely that silence was, with them, made binding in the fast by the vow, just as when one of us vows to walk to the House, that entails entering the sacred state (iḥrām) for the pilgrimage or the lesser pilgrimage. The meaning of this verse is that God, Exalted, commanded her by the tongue of Gabriel (peace be upon him), or of her son, according to the foregoing difference of opinion, to refrain from addressing human beings and to refer them to her son in this matter, so that her embarrassment might be lifted from her and the sign become manifest, and her excuse thereby stand. The evident sense of the verse is that she was permitted to say these words which are in the verse, and this is the view of the majority. One party said: the meaning of “say” is by signs, not by speech. Al-Zamakhsharī said: in it is the lesson that silence before the fool is obligatory, and among the most abject of people is a fool who finds no one to trade folly with him.

  • The third: whoever binds himself by vow not to speak to any human being, it is possible to say that this is an act of devotion and so becomes binding by the vow, and it is possible to say that this is not permitted in our law because of the constriction and self-torment in it, like a vow to stand in the sun and the like. On this view the vow of silence belonged to that law, not to our law, as has already been said. Ibn Masʿūd commanded one who did that to utter speech, and this is the correct view, because of the ḥadīth of Abū Isrāʾīl which al-Bukhārī related from Ibn ʿAbbās.9 Ibn Zayd and al-Suddī said: the practice of fasting among them was abstention from eating and from speech. I say: and among our own practice in fasting is abstention from foul speech; he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When one of you is fasting let him not speak obscenely nor behave ignorantly, and if someone fights him or reviles him let him say: I am fasting.” And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, God has no need that he give up his food and his drink.”

On 19:27-28

His words, Exalted: Then she brought him to her people, carrying him (19:27). It is related that when Mary was reassured by the signs she had seen, and knew that God, Exalted, would make her excuse plain, she brought him, carrying him, from the distant place to which she had withdrawn. Ibn ʿAbbās said: she went out from among them when the sun rose and came to them at noon with a child she was carrying, so the conception and the birth took place within three hours of the day. Al-Kalbī said: she gave birth where her people did not perceive her, and stayed forty days for the post-natal period, then came to her people carrying him. When they saw her with the child they grieved, for they were a righteous household, and they said in disapproval: You have indeed brought a thing farī (19:27), that is, you have brought a monstrous thing, like one who brings something he has fabricated. Mujāhid said: “fariyyan” means monstrous. Saʿīd ibn Masʿadah said: that is, invented and contrived; one says faraytu and afraytu in one and the same meaning. The child of fornication is like a fabricated thing. God, Exalted, said: nor bring a slander which they have fabricated between their hands and their feet (60:12), that is, a child whom a woman intends to attach to the husband though it is not his. One says: “so-and-so yafrī al-fariyya“, that is, he does the utmost deed. Abū ʿUbaydah said: al-farī is the wonderful, the rare; al-Akhfash said this too. He said: “fariyyan” means wonderful. Fary is cutting, as though it were something that breaks through the ordinary course, or cuts short speech by its being wonderful and rare. Quṭrub said: al-farī is the new among water-skins, that is, you have brought a new, unprecedented thing in which no one has preceded you. Abū Ḥaywah read “shayʾan faryan” with the rāʾ unvowelled. Al-Suddī and Wahb ibn Munabbih said: when she brought him to her people, carrying him, the Children of Israel heard of it, and their men and women gathered; a woman stretched out her hand towards her to strike her, and God withered her side, and she was carried away in that state. Another said: “I can only think she has fornicated”, and God, Exalted, struck him dumb; so the people refrained from striking her or saying to her a word that would hurt her, and began to lower their voices to her and speak gently, and they said: O Mary, you have indeed brought a thing farī, that is, monstrous. The rajaz poet said:10

You have fed me year-old daqal dates, weevilled, worm-eaten, from Ḥajr;

you used to make a mighty thing of them.

That is, you used to magnify them.

His words, Exalted: O sister of Aaron (19:28). People differed about the meaning of this sisterhood and about who Aaron was. It was said: he is Aaron the brother of Moses, and the meaning is: one whom we thought the like of Aaron in worship brings the like of this! It was said: on this view Mary was of the descendants of Aaron the brother of Moses, and was linked to him by sisterhood because she was of his descendants, as one says to a Tamīmī “O brother of Tamīm” and to an Arab “O brother of the Arabs”. And it was said: she had a brother on her father’s side named Aaron, because this name was common among the Children of Israel, for the blessing of the name of Aaron the brother of Moses, who was the most exemplary man among the Children of Israel; al-Kalbī said this. And it was said: this Aaron was a righteous man of that time whose funeral, on the day he died, was followed by forty thousand, all of them named Aaron. Qatādah said: there was in that time among the Children of Israel a devotee wholly given over to God, Mighty and Majestic, called Aaron, and they attributed her to brotherhood with him inasmuch as she had formerly followed his way, since she was dedicated to the service of the houses of worship; that is: O you righteous woman, you were not one fit for this. Kaʿb al-Aḥbār said in the presence of ʿĀʾishah, the Mother of the Believers (may God be pleased with her), that Mary was not the sister of Aaron the brother of Moses, and ʿĀʾishah said to him: “You have lied.” He said to her: “O Mother of the Believers, if the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said it, then he is more truthful and better informed; otherwise, I find between the two of them a span of six hundred years.” He said: and she fell silent. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: when I came to Najrān they questioned me and said: “You recite O sister of Aaron, yet Moses was before Jesus by such-and-such.” When I came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) I asked him about that, and he said: “They used to name after their prophets and the righteous who were before them.” In some of its lines of transmission, outside the Ṣaḥīḥ, it has come that the Christians said to him: “Your companion claims that Mary is the sister of Aaron, when there are six hundred years between them?!” Al-Mughīrah said: and I did not know what to say; and he mentioned the ḥadīth. The meaning is that it is a name which coincided with a name. From this is derived the permissibility of naming with the names of the prophets, and God knows best.

I say: the sound ḥadīth has shown that between Moses and Aaron and Jesus there was a long time. Al-Zamakhsharī said: between the two of them and him there were a thousand years or more, so it is not to be imagined that Mary was the sister of Moses and Aaron; and if it is sound, then it is as al-Suddī said, because she was of his lineage, and this is as you say to a man of a tribe: “O brother of so-and-so”. From this is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “The brother of Ṣudāʾ has given the call to prayer, and whoever gives the call to prayer, he gives the iqāmah.”11 And this is the first view. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: one party said: rather, there was in that time a profligate man named Aaron, and they attributed her to him by way of reproach and rebuke; al-Ṭabarī mentioned this without naming its author. I say: al-Ghaznawī mentioned it from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, that he was a sinner proverbial for profligacy, and she was attributed to him. The meaning is: neither your father nor your mother was one fit for this deed, so how have you brought it?! This is of the kind of insinuation (taʿrīḍ) which takes the place of explicit statement, and that, in our view, entails the prescribed punishment (ḥadd); the discussion of it will come in the sūrah of al-Nūr, if God, Exalted, wills. This last view is refuted by the sound ḥadīth, which is an explicit text, so no one has any say alongside it, and there is no dust upon it. And praise be to God. ʿUmar ibn Lajaʾ al-Taymī read: “mā kāna abāki imruʾu sawʾin” (“your father was not a man of evil”).12

On 19:29-33

In this there are five questions:

  • The first: His words, Exalted, Then she pointed to him. They said: how can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? (19:29). Mary (peace be upon her) adhered to what she had been commanded, namely leaving off speech, and it is not stated in this verse that she uttered “I have vowed a fast to the All-Merciful”; it is only stated that she pointed. By this the view of those who said that her being commanded “say” meant only signs is strengthened. It is related that when she pointed to the infant they said: “Her making light of us is harder on us than her fornication.” Then they said to her, by way of establishing the point: how can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child? “Kāna” here is not intended in the sense of the past, because every single person has been a child in the cradle; rather it is in the sense of “he is now”. Abū ʿUbaydah said: “kāna” here is superfluous (laghw), as the poet said:

and neighbours of ours who were noble.13

And it was said: it is in the sense of existence and coming to be, as in His words and if there be one in difficulty (2:280), which has already been given. Ibn al-Anbārī said: it is not permissible to say it is redundant when it has put “ṣabiyyan” in the accusative, nor to say that “kāna” is in the sense of “came to be”, because if it were in the sense of coming to be and occurring it would dispense with the predicate; you say “kāna al-ḥarr” (“the heat came”) and that suffices. The correct view is that “man” is in the sense of a conditional, and “kāna” in the sense of “yakun“, the implied sense being: whoever is in the cradle, a child, how shall we speak to him?! As you say: “how shall I give to one who does not accept a gift”, meaning whoever does not accept. The past tense may be used in the sense of the future in a conditional, as in His words, Exalted, Blessed is He who, if He wills, will make for you better than that: gardens beneath which rivers flow (25:10), that is, if He wills He will make. And you say: “whoever has done me a kindness, from me to him is the like of it”, that is, whoever does me a kindness, the like of it shall be from me to him. As for “the cradle” (al-mahd), it was said: it was a bed like a cradle; and it was said: “the cradle” here is the mother’s lap; and it was said: the meaning is, how shall we speak to one whose way it is to be put to sleep in the cradle because of his smallness? When Jesus (peace be upon him) heard their words he said to them from his resting place: I am the servant of God (19:30). And this is:

  • The second: it was said: Jesus (peace be upon him) was suckling, and when he heard their words he left off suckling, turned his face towards them, leaned on his left side, pointed to them with his right forefinger, and said: I am the servant of God. So the first thing he uttered was the acknowledgement of his servitude to God, Exalted, and of His lordship, as a refutation of those after him who went to extremes concerning him. The Book is the Gospel. It was said: He gave him the Book in that state, made him understand it and taught him, and gave him prophethood, as He taught Adam all the names, and he used to fast and pray. But this is exceedingly weak, as we shall explain in the question after this one. And it was said: the meaning is, He decreed for me the giving of the Book and prophethood in pre-eternity, even though the Book was not sent down at that moment; and this is the more correct.

and He has made me blessed (19:31), that is, possessed of blessings and benefits in religion and in calling to it, and a teacher of it. Al-Tustarī said: and He made me one who enjoins what is right, forbids what is wrong, guides the one who strays, aids the one wronged, and succours the distressed.

and He has enjoined upon me prayer and alms (19:31), that is, that I perform them when legal responsibility reaches me and performing them becomes possible for me, according to the latter, correct view.

as long as I live (19:31): “mā” is in the position of the accusative as an adverbial, that is, for the duration of my life. His words, Exalted: and dutiful to my mother (19:32). Ibn ʿAbbās said: when he said “and dutiful to my mother” and did not say “to my parents”, it was known that he was something from God, Exalted.

and He has not made me a tyrant (19:32), that is, one who magnifies himself and is arrogant, who kills and strikes in anger. And it was said: the tyrant is the one who never acknowledges that anyone has a right over him.

wretched (19:32), that is, failing to attain good. Ibn ʿAbbās: undutiful. And it was said: disobedient to his Lord. And it was said: He did not make me one who abandons His command, so that I should be wretched as Iblīs was wretched when he abandoned His command.

  • The third: Mālik ibn Anas (may God, Exalted, have mercy on him) said of this verse: how severe it is against the partisans of free will (ahl al-qadar)! Jesus (peace be upon him) told of what had been decreed of his affair, and of what would be until he died. It is related in the stories of this verse, from Ibn Zayd and others, that when they heard the words of Jesus they submitted and said: “This is indeed a mighty matter.” It is related that Jesus (peace be upon him) spoke in his infancy only with this verse, then returned to the state of infants until he walked in the ordinary way of human beings, until he reached the age of boys; so his speaking was to manifest the innocence of his mother, not that he was one of those who possess understanding in that state, and it is like God’s, Exalted, making the limbs speak on the Day of Resurrection. It is not transmitted that his speech continued, nor that he prayed when he was a day or a month old; and had his speech, his glorification, his preaching and his prayer continued in his childhood from the time of birth, the like of that would be something that could not be concealed. All of this indicates the unsoundness of the first view and declares plainly the ignorance of the one who holds it. It also indicates that he spoke in the cradle, contrary to the Jews and the Christians, and the proof of that is the consensus of the sects that she was not subjected to the prescribed punishment, whereas her innocence of fornication was established only by his speaking in the cradle. This verse also shows that prayer, alms and dutifulness to parents were obligatory upon the earlier communities and the bygone generations of the past, so it is among those things whose ruling stands and has not been abrogated in the law of his command. Jesus (peace be upon him) was of the utmost humility: he ate from the trees, wore hair-cloth, sat upon the dust, and sheltered wherever night overtook him, having no dwelling (peace and blessings be upon him).
  • The fourth: signing is on a par with speech and conveys what speech conveys. How not, when God, Exalted, has reported of Mary and said then she pointed to him, and the people understood from her her intention and purpose, and said how can we speak. This has already been given in full in Āl ʿImrān.
  • The fifth: the Kūfans said: the accusation of fornication (qadhf) by a mute is not valid, nor is his oath of imprecation (liʿān). The like is related from al-Shaʿbī, and al-Awzāʿī, Aḥmad and Isḥāq held it. In their view the accusation is valid only with the explicit word for fornication, not with its sense, and this is necessarily impossible for the mute, so he is not an accuser; nor can fornication be distinguished by signs from lawful intercourse and intercourse under a semblance of right. They said: and liʿān in our view consists of testimonies, and the testimony of the mute is not accepted, by consensus. Ibn al-Qaṣṣār said: their statement that the accusation is valid only by explicit utterance is shown false by all the other languages apart from Arabic, and so too the signs of the mute. What they mentioned of consensus regarding the testimony of the mute is an error; Mālik has stated explicitly that his testimony is accepted when his signs are understood, and that they take the place of the utterance in testimony; but where there is the ability to utter, it is not effected from him except by utterance. Ibn al-Mundhir said: those who disagree hold the mute liable in divorce, sales and all the other rulings, so the accusation ought to be like that. Al-Muhallab said: signing may be, in many chapters of jurisprudence, stronger than speech, as in his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “I and the Hour have been sent like these two”; we know the closeness between them by the measure of the excess of the middle finger over the forefinger. And in the agreement of all minds that eye-witnessing is stronger than report there is proof that signing may in some places be stronger than speech.

And peace be upon me (19:33), that is, safety upon me from God, Exalted. Al-Zajjāj said: “peace” was mentioned before this without the definite article, so it was fitting in the second instance to mention the article. His words the day I was born, meaning in this world; and it was said: from the prodding of Satan, as has already been given in Āl ʿImrān.

and the day I die, meaning in the grave, and the day I am raised alive (19:33), meaning in the hereafter. For he has three states: in this world alive, in the grave dead, and in the hereafter raised up; so he was given peace in all his states, and this is the sense of al-Kalbī’s statement. Then his speech in the cradle ceased until he reached the age of boys. Qatādah said: it was mentioned to us that a woman saw Jesus (peace be upon him) raising the dead and healing the blind and the leper, among his other signs, and she said: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that suckled you!” And Jesus (peace be upon him) said to her: “Blessed is he who recites the Book of God, Exalted, follows what is in it, and acts upon it.”

On 19:34-37

His words, Exalted: That is Jesus son of Mary (19:34), that is: the one whom We have described is Jesus son of Mary, so believe this concerning him, not as the Jews say, that he was not born of a lawful union and that he was the son of Joseph the carpenter, and not as the Christians said, that he is God or the son of God.

the word of truth (19:34). Al-Kisāʾī said: “the word of truth” is a descriptive of Jesus, that is: that is Jesus son of Mary, the word of truth. He was named “the word of truth” just as he was named “the word of God”, and the Truth (al-Ḥaqq) is God, Mighty and Majestic. Abū Ḥātim said: the meaning is “he is the word of truth”. It has been said that the implied construction is: this speech is the word of truth. Ibn ʿAbbās said: “He means: this speech of Jesus son of Mary (peace and blessings be upon him) is the word of truth, not falsehood”; and “word” is annexed to “truth” as He said: the promise of truth which they were promised (46:16), that is, the promise and the truth; and as He said: and the abode of the Hereafter is surely better (6:32), that is, “and surely the abode, the Hereafter”. ʿĀṣim and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir read qawla l-ḥaqqi in the accusative as a circumstantial accusative (ḥāl), that is, “I say a true saying”; and the governing element is the sense of pointing contained in That. Al-Zajjāj said: it is a verbal noun, that is, “I say the word of truth”, because what precedes it points to it. It has been said that it is an accusative of praise. And it has been said that it is an accusative of incitement (ighrāʾ). ʿAbd Allāh14 read qāla l-ḥaqqa. Al-Ḥasan read qūla l-ḥaqqi with a ḍammah on the qāf, and likewise in al-Anʿām qawluhu l-ḥaqqu.15 Al-qawl, al-qāl and al-qūl all have one meaning, like al-rahb, al-rahab and al-ruhb.

concerning whom (19:34) is a descriptive of Jesus.

they are in doubt (19:34), that is, they are uncertain; that is: that is Jesus son of Mary concerning whom they are in doubt, the word of truth. It has been said that they are in doubt means they differ. ʿAbd al-Razzāq mentioned: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah, concerning His words, Exalted, That is Jesus son of Mary, the word of truth concerning whom they are in doubt (19:34), who said: The Children of Israel gathered and brought forth from among themselves four men, each party bringing forth its learned man, and they disputed about Jesus when he was raised up. One of them said: “He is God; He came down to the earth and gave life to whom He gave life and caused to die whom He caused to die, then He ascended to heaven”; these are the Jacobites. The other three said: “You lie.” Then two of them said to the third: “Speak concerning him.” He said: “He is the son of God”; these are the Nestorians. The two said: “You lie.” Then one of the two said to the other: “Speak concerning him.” He said: “He is the third of three: God is a god, and he is a god, and his mother is a god”; these are the Isrāʾīliyyah, the kings of the Christians.16 The fourth said: “You lie; rather he is the servant of God and His messenger and His spirit and His word”; these are the Muslims. Each man among them had followers who held what he said, and they fought one another, and the Muslims were overcome. That is the meaning of the words of God, Exalted: and they kill those among the people who enjoin justice (3:21). Qatādah said: and they are those of whom God, Exalted, said: Then the factions differed among themselves (19:37); they differed concerning him and became factions. This is the meaning of His words concerning whom you are in doubt with the tāʾ dotted above,17 which is the reading of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī and others. Ibn ʿAbbās said: Her cousin18 travelled with Mary, and her son with her, to Egypt, and they remained there twelve years until the king whom they feared died. Al-Māwardī mentioned this.

I say: it occurs in the History of Egypt, in what I have seen, and it has come in the Gospel in circulation, that when the Lord Messiah was born in Bethlehem, Herod was king at that time, and that God, Exalted, revealed to Joseph the carpenter in a dream and said to him: “Arise, take the child and his mother and go to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is resolved to seek out Jesus in order to destroy him.” So he rose from his sleep, obeyed the command of his Lord, took the Lord Messiah and Mary his mother, and came to Egypt. On his way to Egypt he alighted at the Well of the Balsam (Biʾr al-Balasān) which lies on the outskirts of Cairo,19 and she washed his garments at that well. The balsam tree springs up and grows nowhere except in that land, and from it is extracted the oil which is mixed into the oil with which the Christians baptise; for that reason a single flask of it had great value in the days of the Egyptians, and it holds a very lofty place in the esteem of the kings of the Christians, such as the king of Constantinople, the king of Sicily, the king of Abyssinia, the king of Nubia, the king of the Franks and other kings, when the kings of Egypt send it to them as a gift, and it is dearer to them than any other gift of value. On that journey the Lord Messiah reached the city of al-Ushmūnayn20 and Qusqām,21 known now as al-Muḥarraqah, and for that reason the Christians venerate it to this day and come to it at the feast of Easter from every place, because it is the furthest point which he reached in the land of Egypt, and from it he returned to Syria. And God knows best.

His words, Exalted: It is not for God (19:35), that is, it does not befit Him and is not permissible for Him, to take any son (19:35). “Any” (min) is a connective particle in the speech, that is, “to take a son”. And “to” (an) with its verb is in the position of the nominative as the subject of kāna, that is: it was not for God to take a son; that is, taking a son was never one of His attributes. Then He, Exalted, declared Himself free of what they said and said: Glory be to Him (19:35), far above having a son.

When He decrees a matter, He only says to it “Be”, and it is (19:35). This has been treated exhaustively in al-Baqarah.22

Indeed God is my Lord and your Lord (19:36). The people of Medina, Ibn Kathīr and Abū ʿAmr read anna with fatḥah, and the people of Kufa read wa-inna with kasrah on the hamzah, taking it as the beginning of a new sentence. This is supported by the reading of Ubayy, “Be, and it is. Indeed God” without the wāw, in coordination with He said: Indeed I am the servant of God (19:30). Concerning the reading with fatḥah there are several views. The position of al-Khalīl and Sībawayh is that the meaning is “and because God is my Lord and your Lord”, and likewise and that the places of prostration are for God (72:18); so anna is in the position of the accusative according to them both. Al-Farrāʾ allowed that it be in the position of the genitive by the suppression of the lām, and he also allowed that it be in the position of the genitive with the sense “and He has enjoined upon me prayer and alms as long as I live, and that God is my Lord and your Lord”. Al-Kisāʾī allowed that it be in the position of the nominative with the sense “and the matter is that God is my Lord and your Lord”. There is a fifth view concerning it: Abū ʿUbayd related that Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ held it, namely that the meaning is “and He decreed that God is my Lord and your Lord”, so that it is coordinated with His word a matter in His words When He decrees a matter, and the meaning is: when He decrees a matter, and He decrees that God is my Lord. One may not begin recitation with anna according to this construal, nor according to the third construal; but beginning with it is permissible according to the remaining construals.

So worship Him. This is a straight path (19:36), that is, an upright religion in which there is no crookedness.

His words, Exalted: Then the factions differed among themselves (19:37). “Among” (min) is redundant, that is, “the factions differed between themselves”. Qatādah said: that is, “what was between them”; so the sects of the People of the Book differed over the matter of Jesus (peace be upon him). The Jews with slander and the charge of sorcery; as for the Christians, the Nestorians among them said he is the son of God, the Melkites (al-Malkāniyyah) said he is the third of three, and the Jacobites said he is God. So the Christians went to excess and exaggerated, and the Jews fell short and belittled. This has already been treated in al-Nisāʾ.23 Ibn ʿAbbās said: what is meant by “the factions” are those idolaters who banded together against the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and called him a liar.

So woe to those who disbelieve from the witnessing of a tremendous day (19:37), that is, from witnessing the Day of Resurrection. “Witnessing” (mashhad) is here in the sense of the verbal noun, and shuhūd means presence. It is also possible that the presence is theirs, and that it is annexed to the adverb of time because it occurs within it, as one says “woe to so-and-so from the fighting of such-and-such a day”, that is, from his presence on that day. It has been said that mashhad means the place which all creatures will witness, like maḥshar for the place to which creation is gathered. And it has been said: so woe to those who disbelieve from their presence at the great assembly in which they gathered for consultation and agreed upon disbelief in God and upon their saying that God is the third of three.

His words, Exalted: How clearly they will hear and see on the day they come to Us (19:38). Abū l-ʿAbbās24 said: the Arabs use this form in the position of wonder, so they say “asmiʿ bi-Zayd” and “abṣir bi-Zayd“, that is, “how well he hears and sees!” He said: so its meaning is that He caused His Prophet to wonder at them. Al-Kalbī said: on the Day of Resurrection there will be no one who hears better or sees better than they, when God, Blessed and Exalted, says to Jesus: Did you say to the people, “Take me and my mother as two gods besides God”? (5:116). It has been said that “hear” is in the sense of obedience, that is, “how obedient they will be to God on that day!” But the wrongdoers today (19:38) means in this world,

are in manifest error (19:38). And what error is more manifest than that a man should believe, of a person like himself, whom wombs carried, who ate and drank, who relieved himself and stood in need, that he is a god? Whoever is of this description is deaf and blind, but he will see and hear in the Hereafter when he beholds the punishment, though that will not avail him. Qatādah and others said this in meaning.

His words, Exalted: And warn them of the Day of Regret, when the matter will be decided (19:39). It is related from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd that he said: there is no one who enters the Fire but that he has a house in the Garden, and he regrets it. It has been said that the regret falls when a man is given his book in his left hand. when the matter will be decided, that is, when the reckoning has been concluded, and the people of the Garden have been admitted to the Garden and the people of the Fire to the Fire. In the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, from the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may God be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When the people of the Garden have entered the Garden and the people of the Fire the Fire, death will be brought on the Day of Resurrection as though it were a ram of mingled black and white, and it will be made to stand between the Garden and the Fire, and it will be said: O people of the Garden, do you recognise this? They will crane their necks and look and say: Yes, this is death. He said: Then it will be said: O people of the Fire, do you recognise this? They will crane their necks and look and say: Yes, this is death. He said: Then the command will be given concerning it and it will be slaughtered; then it will be said: O people of the Garden, everlastingness, and no death; and O people of the Fire, everlastingness, and no death.” Then the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) recited And warn them of the Day of Regret, when the matter will be decided, while they are in heedlessness and do not believe (19:39). Al-Bukhārī transmitted it in its meaning from Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn Mājah from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah, and al-Tirmidhī from Abū Saʿīd, tracing it to the Prophet, and he said of it: a good, sound ḥadīth (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ). We have mentioned this in the book al-Tadhkirah, and we made clear there that the unbelievers abide forever, on the strength of these ḥadīths and verses, in refutation of those who say that the attribute of wrath comes to an end, and that Iblīs and the unbelievers who followed him, such as Pharaoh, Hāmān, Qārūn and their like, will enter the Garden.

His words, Exalted: Indeed it is We who shall inherit the earth and whoever is upon it (19:40), that is, We cause its inhabitants to die and inherit it.

and to Us they shall be returned (19:40), on the Day of Resurrection, and We shall recompense each according to his deeds. This has already been treated in al-Ḥijr25 and elsewhere.

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 birth of Jesus (19:16-37): all commentaries · The classical commentaries

Notes

  1. Īliyāʾ, Aelia, the old name of Jerusalem. ↩
  2. That is, man taḥtahā, “he who was beneath her”, and min taḥtihā, “from beneath her”. ↩
  3. Salm: a bucket with a single handle, like a water-carrier’s; al-dālī: the one who draws water with the bucket; harhara: the sound of running water. ↩
  4. From his Muʿallaqah; the two are the wild ass and his mate, parting the plants that grow upon the water. ↩
  5. Barnī: a kind of round yellow date, reckoned the finest of dates. ↩
  6. A prized variety of date. ↩
  7. The line continues: “the flight of dawn beneath the skirts of night.” ↩
  8. The line continues: “a swaggering time of reversal and despair.” ↩
  9. Abū Isrāʾīl had vowed to stand and not sit, not to take shade, not to speak, and to fast; the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Order him to speak, to take shade and to sit, and to complete his fast.” ↩
  10. Zurārah ibn Ṣaʿb, answering al-ʿĀmiriyyah, who had mocked him on a journey to fetch provisions from al-Yamāmah; Ḥajr was the chief town of al-Yamāmah, and daqal is the poorest kind of date. ↩
  11. Ziyād ibn al-Ḥārith al-Ṣudāʾī, whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had ordered to give the call to the dawn prayer; when Bilāl wished to give the iqāmah, the Prophet said this. ↩
  12. With “your father” in the accusative as the predicate of kāna and the indefinite “a man of evil” as its noun. ↩
  13. The second hemistich of a line by al-Farazdaq; the first runs: “And how, when you see the dwellings of a people”. ↩
  14. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd; his reading is qāla l-ḥaqqa, “he spoke the truth”. ↩
  15. Qurʾān 6:73, “His word is the truth”. ↩
  16. That is, the Melkites, the party of the Byzantine emperor; the name is given below as the Malkāniyyah. ↩
  17. That is, tamtarūn, “you are in doubt”, in the second person, instead of yamtarūn, “they are in doubt”. ↩
  18. That is, Joseph the carpenter. ↩
  19. At al-Maṭariyyah, the site of the “Tree of the Virgin”, traditionally associated with the Holy Family’s stay in Egypt. ↩
  20. Hermopolis Magna in Upper Egypt, near present-day Mallawī. ↩
  21. Near al-Qūṣiyyah in the district of Manfalūṭ; the Coptic monastery there, Dayr al-Muḥarraq, is held to mark the furthest point of the Holy Family’s journey. ↩
  22. At Qurʾān 2:117. ↩
  23. At Qurʾān 4:157 and 4:171. ↩
  24. Abū l-ʿAbbās Thaʿlab, the Kufan grammarian. ↩
  25. At Qurʾān 15:23. ↩