Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān, by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH / 923 CE). The earliest of the great commentaries to survive whole. Al-Ṭabarī sets out every opinion he knows on a verse with its chain of transmission, then rules between them. His reports on 4:157 are the oldest record of how the substitution at the cross was understood.
Part 2 of 2: the commentary on The birth of Jesus (19:16-37). The parts follow the order of the verses; this one covers 19:30-31 to 19:37.
On 19:30-31
On the interpretation of His words: He said: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet, (30) and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving as long as I live (31) (19:30–31)
God, Exalted be His mention, says: When Mary’s people said to her How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? (19:29), and supposed that this was mockery of them on her part, Jesus spoke, answering on his mother’s behalf: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture. And when she pointed them to Jesus they had, according to what is related of them, become angry; as in:
Mūsā related to me: ʿAmr related to us: Asbāṭ related to us, from al-Suddī, who said: When she pointed them to Jesus they grew angry, and said: Her mocking of us, when she bids us speak to this infant, is harder upon us than her fornication. They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? (19:29)
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? (19:29) Then Jesus answered them on her behalf and said to them: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet … to the end of the verse.
Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words They said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? He said to them: I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet (19:29–30) — and he recited until he reached and He has not made me arrogant, wretched (19:32) — : then they said: This is indeed a mighty matter.
I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant? He said: I am the servant of God (19:29–30): Jesus did not speak except at that moment, when they said: How shall we speak to one who is in the cradle, an infant?
As for His words He has given me the Scripture: should someone say, “Did He then give him the Scripture and revelation before he was created in his mother’s womb?”, the meaning of this is other than what he supposes. Its meaning is only: He decreed, on the day He decreed the affairs of His creation, that He would give me the Scripture; as in:
Bishr ibn Ādam related to me: al-Ḍaḥḥāk, meaning Ibn Makhlad, related to us, from Sufyān, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah: He has given me the Scripture, he said: He decreed that He would give me the Scripture, in what had gone before.
Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: Sufyān informed us, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture, he said: the decree.
Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, concerning His words I am the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture, he said: He decreed that He would give me the Scripture.
As for His words and made me a prophet: I have already explained the meaning of “prophet” (nabī), the disagreement of those who differed about it, and the correct opinion on it in our view together with its evidences, earlier in this work, in a way that dispenses with repeating it here.
Mujāhid used to say, concerning the meaning of “prophet” alone, what:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, who said: The prophet alone is the one who is spoken to and upon whom revelation comes down, but who is not sent.
As for His words and He has made me blessed: the people of interpretation differed about the meaning of this. Some of them said: its meaning is, “and He has made me greatly beneficial”.
Those who said this
Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥammād al-Ṭalḥī related to me: al-ʿAlāʾ related to us, from ʿĀʾishah the wife of Layth, from Layth, from Mujāhid: and He has made me blessed, he said: greatly beneficial.
Others said: his blessing was the enjoining of right and the forbidding of wrong.
Those who said this
Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Khunays al-Makhzūmī related to us, he said: I heard Wuhayb ibn al-Ward, client of Banū Makhzūm, say: A learned man met a learned man who was above him in knowledge, and said to him: May God have mercy on you — what of my knowledge should I make public? He said: The enjoining of right and the forbidding of wrong, for that is the religion of God with which He sent His prophets to His servants; and the jurists have agreed upon the words of God and He has made me blessed wherever I may be. It was asked: What was his blessing? He said: The enjoining of right and the forbidding of wrong wherever he was.
Others said: the meaning of this is, “He has made me a teacher of good”.
Those who said this
Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me: Sufyān related to us, concerning His words and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, he said: a teacher of good.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Jarīr related to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, His words and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, he said: a teacher of good wherever I was.
As for His words and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving: He says, and He decreed that He would enjoin upon me prayer and alms-giving (zakāh), meaning the observance of the limits of prayer and its establishment according to what He made obligatory upon me. In “alms-giving” (zakāh) there are two possible meanings: one of them is the zakāh of property, that he should pay it; the other is the purification of the body from the defilement of sins, in which case its meaning would be: and He enjoined upon me the abandoning of sins and the avoidance of acts of disobedience.
As for His words as long as I live: He says, as long as I am alive and existent in this world. This makes clear that the meaning of zakāh in this place is the purification of the body from sins, because Jesus, God’s blessings and peace be upon him, is described as one who used to store up nothing for the morrow, such that zakāh of property would have become due from him — unless the zakāh that was imposed upon him was the giving in charity of everything surplus to his sustenance, in which case that would be a sound interpretation.
On 19:32-33
On the interpretation of His words: and dutiful towards my mother, and He has not made me arrogant, wretched. (32) And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive (33) (19:32–33)
God, Exalted be His mention, says, informing of what Jesus said to the people: “and He has made me blessed and dutiful (barran)”, that is, He has made me dutiful towards my mother. Al-barr is the same as al-bārr (the dutiful one); one says “he is barr towards his father” and “bārr towards him”. The reciters of the garrison towns read this word with fatḥah on the bāʾ. And from Abū Nahīk there is related what:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us, from Abū Nahīk, that he read and dutifulness (birran) towards my mother1 as part of the speech of Jesus (peace be upon him). Abū Nahīk said: He enjoined upon me prayer, alms-giving and dutifulness towards parents, just as He enjoined that upon me.
It is as if Abū Nahīk directed the interpretation of the passage so that His words and dutifulness towards my mother are part of Jesus’s report of God’s enjoining it upon him, just as His words and has enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving are part of his report of God’s enjoining that upon him. On this view the accusative of “dutifulness” must be owing to the operation of “enjoined” upon it, because prayer and alms-giving, although in the genitive in wording, are in the sense of the accusative, since they are the objects of the verb.
As for His words and He has not made me arrogant, wretched: He says, and He has not made me haughty towards God in what He commanded me and forbade me, wretched; rather He made me submissive in obedience to Him and made me humble; as in:
Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, who said: It was mentioned to us that he — meaning Jesus — used to say: Ask me, for my heart is soft, and I am small in my own eyes — on account of the humility that God had given him.
And Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: and dutiful towards my mother, and He has not made me arrogant, wretched: It was mentioned to us that a woman saw the son of Mary bringing the dead to life and healing the one born blind and the leper, among the signs over which God had given him power and in which He had permitted him; and she said: Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast from which you were suckled! And the prophet of God, the son of Mary, said in answer to her: Blessed is he who recites the Book of God and follows what is in it. And He has not made me arrogant, wretched.
Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Muḥammad ibn Kathīr related to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wāqid Abū Rajāʾ, from one of the people of knowledge, who said: You will not find one undutiful to his parents without finding him arrogant and wretched; then he recited and dutiful towards my mother, and He has not made me arrogant, wretched. He said: And you will not find one who treats his slaves badly without finding him conceited and boastful; then he recited and those whom your right hands possess; indeed God does not love whoever is conceited and boastful (4:36).
As for His words And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive: He says, and security from God is upon me against Satan and his hosts on the day I was born, lest they obtain from me what they obtain at birth from those who are born, by way of pricking them; and on the day I die, from the terror of what is to be beheld; and on the day I am raised up alive, the Day of Resurrection, lest the dread that befalls people when they witness the terrors of that Day should befall me; as in:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih: And peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised up alive, he said: He informs them, in the course of his account of himself, that he has no father, and that he will die and then be raised up alive. God, Blessed and Exalted, says: Such is Jesus son of Mary — the word of truth about which they are in doubt (19:34).
On 19:34
On the interpretation of His words: Such is Jesus son of Mary — the word of truth about which they are in doubt (34) (19:34)
God, Exalted be His mention, says: This one whose description I have set forth to you, and whose story I have told you, concerning the matter of the boy whom Mary bore, is Jesus son of Mary; this description is his description and this account is his account; and it is the word of truth, meaning that this account which I have narrated to you is the word of truth, and the speech I have recited to you is the word of God and His account, not the account of any other, into which illusion and doubt, addition and diminution enter. It is as though God, Exalted be His mention, were saying: So say concerning Jesus, O people, this word of which God has informed you about him — not what the Jews said, who claimed that he was not born of lawful wedlock and that he was a lying sorcerer, nor what the Christians said, that he was a son to God; for God has not taken a son, nor does that befit Him.
The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.
Those who said this
Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, His words Such is Jesus son of Mary — the word of truth, he said: God is the Truth.
Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Masʿūdī related to me: my father related to me, from his father, from his grandfather, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, who said: They used to say of this word, in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh2 — he said: about which they are in doubt — he said: the Word of God.
Were the interpretation of this directed to “Such is Jesus son of Mary, the true word (al-qawl al-ḥaqq)”, in the sense “that is the true word”, with the definite article then removed from “word” and the word placed in construct with “truth” — as it is said Indeed this is the truth of certainty (56:95), and as it is said the true promise which they were promised (46:16) — it would be a sound interpretation.
The reciters differed in the reading of this. The generality of the reciters of the Ḥijāz and Iraq read it qawlu l-ḥaqq, with the nominative on “word”, according to the meaning I have described, making it in its inflection follow “Jesus”, as an attribute (naʿt) of him. But the matter of its inflection is not, in my view, as those said who claimed that it is nominative as an attribute of “Jesus” — unless the meaning of “word” (qawl) be “the Word” (kalimah), according to what we have mentioned from Ibrāhīm concerning his interpretation of it in that way; in that case it would be correct for it to be an attribute of “Jesus”. Otherwise its nominative is, in my view, by virtue of an implied word, namely “this is the word of truth”, as the beginning of a new sentence (ibtidāʾ). That is because the account of the story of Jesus and his mother has come to its end at His words Such is Jesus son of Mary; then He began a new report, that the truth in the matter of Jesus about which the nations dispute is this word of which God has informed His servants about him, and no other. ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir read it with the accusative, and it is as though the two of them intended by that the verbal noun: “Such is Jesus son of Mary — a true saying (qawlan ḥaqqan)”, and then the definite article was introduced into it. As for what is reported of Ibn Masʿūd, that he read “Such is Jesus son of Mary, qāl al-ḥaqq“, it is in the sense of qawl al-ḥaqq, on the pattern of al-ʿāb and al-ʿayb (fault), and al-dhām and al-dhaym (blame).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct reading of this, in our view, is the nominative, because of the consensus of the authoritative reciters upon it. As for His words, Exalted be His mention, about which they are in doubt, He means: about which they contend and differ, from their saying “I disputed (māraytu) so-and-so”, when you argue and contend with him.
The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.
Those who said this
Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, His words Such is Jesus son of Mary — the word of truth about which they are in doubt: The Jews and the Christians fell into doubt about him. As for the Jews, they claimed he was a lying sorcerer; as for the Christians, they claimed he was the son of God, and the third of three, and a god. All of them lied; rather he is the servant of God and His messenger, His Word and a spirit from Him.
Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, His words about which they are in doubt, he said: They differed. One party said: he is the servant of God and His prophet — and they believed in him. Another party said: nay, he is God. Another party said: he is the son of God — Blessed and Exalted is He, far above what they say. He said: That is His words Then the factions differed among themselves (19:37), and the verse in al-Zukhruf (43:65). He said: Diqyūs, Nasṭūr and Mār Yaʿqūb3 — one of them said, when God raised Jesus up: he is God; another said: the son of God; and another said: the Word of God and His servant. Then the two slanderers said: my saying is closer to your saying, and your saying to mine, than the saying of this man; so come, let us fight them. So they fought them and set the Children of Israel upon them. Then they brought out from among themselves four men, each people bringing out its learned man, and they disputed about Jesus after he had been raised up. One of them said: he is God, who came down to earth, gave life to whom he gave life and caused to die whom he caused to die, then ascended to heaven — and these are the Nestorians. The other two said: you lie. Then one of the two said to the other: say what you hold about him. He said: he is the third of three: God is a god, he is a god, and his mother is a god — and these are the Isrāʾīliyyah, the kings of the Christians. The fourth said: you lie; he is the servant of God and His messenger, His spirit and His Word — and these are the Muslims. Every man among them had followers according to what he said, and they fought one another, and the Muslims were overcome; and that is the word of God: and kill those among the people who enjoin justice (3:21). Qatādah said: They are the ones of whom God said Then the factions differed: they differed about him and became factions.
On 19:35-36
On the interpretation of His words: It is not for God to take any son — glory be to Him! When He decrees a matter He only says to it “Be”, and it is. (35) And indeed God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him; this is a straight path (36) (19:35–36)
God, Exalted be His mention, says: Those who said “Jesus is the son of God” have disbelieved and have made a monstrous fabrication against Him; for it is not fitting for God to take a son, nor is that proper for Him, nor can it be; rather everything other than Him is His creation. This is like the saying of ʿAmr ibn Aḥmar:
On the summit of a smooth crag, soaring and lofty, / short of which no plain and no mountain is to be sought.4
And an in His words to take (an yattakhidha) is in the position of the nominative by virtue of kāna.
As for His words glory be to Him: He says, a declaration of God’s transcendence and His exoneration from having what the disbelievers attribute to Him, who say “Jesus is the son of God”. As for His words When He decrees a matter He only says to it “Be”, and it is: He, Majestic is His praise, says: God only originated the creation of Jesus by an act of origination, and brought him into being by an act of bringing-into-being, without any male who impregnated his mother; rather He said to him “Be”, and it is, because that is how He originates things and invents them: He only says, when He decrees the creation of a thing or its bringing-into-being, “Be”, and it is, existent, newly come into being; the creation of it is not burdensome for Him, because He does not create it with toil and trouble, nor bring it into being with labour and hardship.
As for His words And indeed God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him: the reciters differed in reading this. The generality of the reciters of the people of Medina and Baṣrah read it wa-anna llāha rabbī wa-rabbukum, with fatḥah on anna. The scholars of Arabic differed as to the grounds for the fatḥah of an when it is read with fatḥah. Some of the grammarians of Kūfah said: it is given fatḥah in reference back to “Jesus” and in coordination with him, in the sense: “Such is Jesus son of Mary, and such is the fact that God is my Lord and your Lord”; and if that is so, an is in the nominative, though it may be construed as being in the genitive, as He said That is because your Lord would not destroy the towns unjustly (6:131). He said: and were it given fatḥah in dependence upon His words and has enjoined upon me — “that God is…” — that would be a possible construction. Some of the Baṣrans used to say — and this is reported also of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, who was among those who read it with fatḥah — that an is given fatḥah only on the construal of “and He decreed (qaḍā) that God is my Lord and your Lord”. The generality of the Kūfan reciters read it wa-inna llāha, with kasrah on inna, in the sense of being in sequence upon His words He only says to it. And it is reported of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb that he used to read it “fa-innamā yaqūlu lahu kun fa-yakūn, inna llāha rabbī wa-rabbukum“, without the wāw.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The reading we choose in this is the kasrah, as beginning a new sentence. When it is read thus it has no syntactic position; though it may also be a coordination with the inna which accompanies His words He said: I am (innī) the servant of God; He has given me the Scripture … and indeed God is my Lord and your Lord. And were someone among those who read it with the accusative to say: it is in the accusative by coordination with “the Scripture”, in the sense “He has given me the Scripture, and He has given me that God is my Lord and your Lord”, that would be a fine construction. The meaning of the passage is: I and you, O people, are all servants of God, so worship Him alone and none other.
The people of interpretation said the like of what we have said about this.
Those who said this
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Salamah related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from one who is not suspect, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: He charged them, when he informed them about himself, his birth, his death and his resurrection: Indeed God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him; this is a straight path — that is, I and you are servants of God, so worship Him and worship none other.
As for His words this is a straight path: He says, this which I have enjoined upon you, and of which I have informed you that God commanded me, is the straight road, which whoever travels is saved, and whoever takes it is guided, because it is the religion of God which He commanded His prophets.
On 19:37
On the interpretation of His words: Then the factions differed among themselves; so woe to those who disbelieve from the witnessing of a mighty Day (37) (19:37)
God, Exalted be His mention, says: Then those who differed concerning Jesus differed, and became divided factions from among his people; as in:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to me: Warqāʾ related to us; both from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, His words Then the factions differed among themselves, he said: the People of the Book.
Al-Qāsim related to us: al-Ḥusayn related to us: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, the like of it.
Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, His words Then the factions differed among themselves: It was mentioned to us that when the son of Mary was raised up, the Children of Israel chose four of their jurists. They said to the first: What do you say about Jesus? He said: He is God; he came down to earth, created what he created and gave life to what he gave life, then ascended to heaven. Some people followed him in that, and they were the Jacobites among the Christians. The other three said: We bear witness that you are a liar. Then they said to the second: What do you say about Jesus? He said: He is the son of God. Some people followed him in that, and they were the Nestorians among the Christians. The other two said: We bear witness that you are a liar. Then they said to the third: What do you say about Jesus? He said: He is a god, and his mother is a god, and God is a god. Some people followed him in that, and they were the Isrāʾīliyyah among the Christians. The fourth said: I bear witness that you are a liar; rather he is the servant of God and His messenger; he is the Word of God and His spirit. So the people disputed, and the Muslim man said: I adjure you by God — do you not know that Jesus used to eat food, and that God, Blessed and Exalted, does not eat food? They said: By God, yes. He said: Do you know that Jesus used to sleep? They said: By God, yes. He said: So the Muslim overcame them in argument. He said: Then the people fought one another. He said: It was mentioned to us that the Jacobites prevailed that day and the Muslims were struck down, and God sent down concerning that in the Qurʾān: Indeed those who disbelieve in the signs of God and kill the prophets without right, and kill those among the people who enjoin justice — give them tidings of a painful punishment (3:21).
Al-Ḥasan related to us: Isḥāq informed us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Maʿmar informed us, from Qatādah: Then the factions differed among themselves: they differed about him and became factions.
As for His words so woe to those who disbelieve from the witnessing of a mighty Day: He says, then the valley of Hell which is called Wayl (Woe) is for those who disbelieve in God — those who claim that Jesus is a son to God, and others among the people of disbelief in Him — because of their witnessing a Day mighty in its import, namely the Day of Resurrection.
Qatādah used to say in the interpretation of this what:
Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah: God said: so woe to those who disbelieve from the witnessing of a mighty Day: they will witness then a mighty terror.
About this text
This is a complete English rendering of Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān on these verses, prepared for this website from the public-domain Arabic text (tafsir.app, src=tabari). 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.
← Part 1 · The birth of Jesus (19:16-37): all commentaries · The classical commentaries
Notes
- Abū Nahīk read birran, with kasrah on the bāʾ, “dutifulness”, the verbal noun, instead of the standard barran, “dutiful”. ↩
- ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, whose codex and reading were followed in Kūfah. ↩
- The eponyms, as the early narrators knew them, of the three Christian parties: Nestorius for the Nestorians, Jacob (Mār Yaʿqūb Baradaeus) for the Jacobites, and “Diqyūs” for the imperial church, called below “the Isrāʾīliyyah, the kings of the Christians”. ↩
- The poet describes a mountain: nothing is “sought” (lā yubtaghā), that is, nothing is fitting (lā yanbaghī), beyond it. Al-Ṭabarī cites the line because mā kāna li-llāhi likewise means “it is not fitting for God”. ↩