Verses 57–65
Having finished with the story of Moses, God turns now to that of Jesus. Preceding this are the Quraysh’s arguments with the Prophet about him and God’s response to them.
Commentary
وَلَمَّا ضُرِبَ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ مَثَلًا إِذَا قَوْمُكَ مِنْهُ يَصِدُّونَ ٥٧ وَقَالُوا أَآلِهَتُنَا خَيْرٌ أَمْ هُوَ ۚ مَا ضَرَبُوهُ لَكَ إِلَّا جَدَلًا ۚ بَلْ هُمْ قَوْمٌ خَصِمُونَ ٥٨
(43:57–58) When the Son of Mary was cited as an example, behold, your people raise an outcry. They say, “Are our gods better or he?” They only cite him to you for the sake of contention. Rather they are a contentious lot.
The first four or six verses of this section revolve around the arguments of a group of people about citing Jesus as an example. Pondering on these verses, bearing in mind that this is a Meccan sūrah and ignoring the narrations about them, it appears that when the Son of Mary was cited as an example… refers to the verses revealed at the beginning of Sūrah Maryam, which is the only Meccan sūrah where the story of Jesus is presented in detail. The sūrah also relates the accounts of a number of the Prophets and recounts God’s blessings upon them. It also concludes their accounts with the coda: They are the ones whom God has blessed from among the Prophets… (). In the verses under discussion here, we also read He was just a servant whom We had blessed (), which further suggests that the phrase When the Son of Mary was cited as an example… refers to the contents of Sūrah Maryam.
When God says …behold, your people raise an outcry, this means they howl and laugh. This censures the Quraysh for responding to a true example with jeers and derision. Instead of raise an outcry (yasiddūn), it can also be read yasuddūn, which means to turn away. And this is more appropriate for the following sentence.
They say, “Are our gods better or he?”—This is a rhetorical question. They mean to say that their gods are better than Jesus It is as though that when they heard his name mentioned and the nobility and blessings the Qur’an ascribes to him, they ignored the Qur’an’s description of him and took up the description of him common amongst the Christians, namely that he is a god and the son of God. Then, they used this to say, “Our gods are better than him!” And this is one of the most foolish arguments imaginable. It is as if they mean to say that whatever the Qur’an says about him is unimportant and whatever the Christians say is of no benefit because their gods are better than him.
“They only cite him to you for the sake of contention”—Meaning they only ask you are our gods better or he? to be contentious and refute the cited example, even if it happens to be true.
Rather they are a contentious lot—they are determined to quarrel with you no matter what.
إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا عَبْدٌ أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَيْهِ وَجَعَلْنَاهُ مَثَلًا لِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ ٥٩
(43:59) He was just a servant whom We had blessed and made an exemplar for the Children of Israel.
This refutes what was implied by their question are our gods better or he?, namely that he is the god of the Christians, as we shall discuss below.
Many commentators, including Zamakhsharī in his Kashshāf, relate an explanation about this verse attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās:
When the Prophet recited to the Quraysh the verse: Indeed you and what you worship besides God shall be fuel for hell, and you will come to it (), they were infuriated. Ibn al-Zabʿarī asked: “O Muḥammad! Do you mean only us and our gods, or do you mean all nations?”
He said: “This is about you, your gods and all nations!”
“Now I have you! By the Lord of the Kaʿbah! Do you not say that Jesus son of Mary is a prophet and praise him and his mother very highly? But you know well that the Christians worship the two of them. ʿUzayr is worshipped and the Angels are worshipped too. So if all of these people are going to hell, we are more than happy to join them with our gods!”
Then they rejoiced and started laughing while the Prophet remained silent. Then the verse came down: Indeed those to whom there has gone beforehand the best reward from Us will be kept away from it. () as well as this verse.
In light of this tradition, the verse could be read as meaning when Ibn al-Zabʿarī cited Jesus as an example and argued with God’s Messenger about the Christians worshipping him, then behold, your people raise an outcry by calling out and laughing with joy at his argument and the fact he silenced the Prophet Then they said: “So are our gods better or he?” Meaning: “According to you, Jesus is better than our gods. So if he is going to be fuel for the fires of hell, then the matter of our gods is trivial.” But they only cite him to you for the sake of contention and to win an argument, not in order to separate truth from falsehood.
We have already come across this tradition in our study of narrations concerning the verse Indeed you and what you worship besides God shall be fuel for hell… (). There, we saw that, because of its various inconsistencies and weaknesses, it is considered unreliable (ḍaʿīf) and given no credence, to the extent that the traditionist, Ibn Ḥajar, says that this tradition is baseless and cannot be found in any Hadith collections, whether with a chain of narrators or without one. This story of Ibn al-Zabʿarī: even if it has been narrated through Shiʿa chains in a way that is safe from dispute, it does not mention the verse When the Son of Mary was cited as an example… being revealed at that point. Moreover, it does not appear that the verses When the Son of Mary was cited as an example… or …are our gods better or he? accord well with the explanation offered therein.
It is said: When they heard the verse Indeed the case of Jesus with God is like the case of Adam: He created him from dust, then said to him, “Be,” and he was (), they said: “We are better guided than the Christians; they worship a person while we worship angels”—meaning the deities represented by their idols—“so our gods are better than their god!” In this case, the one who cited the example of Jesus son of Mary was God, and their saying …are our gods better or he? is to say that their gods are better than Jesus, not the other way round (as was mentioned in the above interpretation).
However, the problem with this reading is that the verse Indeed the case of Jesus with God is like the case of Adam… is Medinan, while the verses under discussion here (When the Son of Mary was cited…) are all Meccan and in a Meccan sūrah.
Moreover, this interpretation makes their saying are our gods better or he? about who is better between themselves and the Christians. In which case, the verse He was just a servant whom We had blessed… is left with no connection to the one before it!
It is said: When they heard the verse Indeed the case of Jesus with God is like the case of Adam…, they raised a commotion and said: “Muḥammad just wants us to worship him like the Christians worship Jesus, and our gods are better than him!” Meaning better than the Prophet.
But this reading falls to the same criticism as the one before it.
It is said: Their saying are our gods better or he? is an attempt to vindicate themselves calling the angels God’s daughters and worshipping, as if to say: That was not something we just made up, for the Christians worship the Messiah and say that he is His son, while he is but a person. On the other hand, we worship the angels and ascribe them to God, and they are better than people!
However, this does not explain the connection between the two verses: When the Son of Mary was cited as an example, behold, your people raise an outcry and He was just a servant whom We had blessed. If we accept this reading, then the latter verse has no bearing on what came before it, as we mentioned for the two other interpretations above.
It is said: Their saying are our gods better or he? means that our worshipping the gods is just like the Christians worshipping the Messiah, so which is better? Is it better to worship our gods or worship the Messiah? But whichever way he responds, whether worshipping the Messiah or worshipping their gods, he has agreed that a being other than God can be worshipped! And if he says that worshipping the Messiah is not better, then he has brought Jesus down from his proper station. So instead, he says that the Messiah is distinguished by the blessings and nobility God bestowed upon him, but this does not mean one can worship him.
However, even though there is no problem with this interpretation in of itself, but there is no indication of this level of detail in the question are our gods better or he?
Majmaʿ al-Bayān quotes a number of interpretations for this verse. The fourth of these is what the leaders of the Prophet’s Household have narrated from ʿAlī:
I came to God’s Messenger one day and found him in a gathering of the Quraysh. He looked at me then said: “O ʿAlī! Verily your similitude in this ummah is like that of Jesus son of Mary. One group of people loved him and went to extremes in loving him and perished. Another group of people hated him and went to extremes in hating him and perished. A third group remained moderate and were saved.” This was too much for the Quraysh to bear, so they laughed and said: “They compare him to the prophets and messengers!” Then the verse was revealed.
Author’s comments: This narration does not explain the significance of their words are our gods better or he? but if this story was the reason for the verse’s revelation, then their import is: “If we follow our gods and obey our leaders, this is better than taking ʿAlī as a guardian to rule over us” or “…this is better than following Muḥammad and having him put his cousin in charge of us!”
It is also possible that the sentence They say, “Are our gods better or he?” () marks the beginning of a new discussion, while the story explains the revelation of the previous verse, When the Son of Mary was cited as an example….
He was just a servant whom We had blessed and made an exemplar for the Children of Israel: The context suggests that he here refers to Jesus. His being an “exemplar” (mathal)—according to what has been said—means that he was an amazing sign of God (āyah ʿajībah ilāhiyyah) whose renown became like that of famous proverbs.
The meaning of the verse is: Jesus was no more than a servant who worshipped God openly, whom We blessed with prophethood, supported with the Holy Spirit, and caused wondrous miracles to appear by his hands. And We made him an amazing and miraculous sign to proclaim the truth to the Children of Israel.
As you can see, this refutes their question are our gods better or he? which showed that they thought their gods superior to the Messiah in divinity. The essence of this refutation is: Jesus was never a god for anyone to ponder his rank in divinity; rather, He was a servant whom God blessed. As for their gods, the Qur’an’s view of them is evident.
وَلَوْ نَشَاءُ لَجَعَلْنَا مِنْكُمْ مَلَائِكَةً فِي الْأَرْضِ يَخْلُفُونَ ٦٠
(43:60) Had We wished We would have made from you angels to be successors on the earth.
It appears that this verse is connected to those that came before, and is set forth to dispel any scepticism that a human being could attain the level of perfection that the Qur’an ascribes to Jesus. After all, he created birds from clay, revived the dead, spoke to people from his cradle, and performed other such wonders. In this sense, he was like the angels who act as intermediaries in giving life, causing death, distributing sustenance and all the other forms divine management. But, even with all that, he was still a servant and not a lord, a worshipper and not an object of worship. However, the idolaters believed that such a level of perfection belonged only to the angels and it was because of this that they worshipped them and considered them gods. In short, they thought it is impossible for any human to be endowed with powers they reserved for the angels.
God responds by saying that He has the power to cleanse and purify the human being from the contamination of sins, such that his heart becomes like that of the angels. This being would have the physical appearance of a man, but the heart of an angel. He would live on the earth, succeed one like him and be succeeded by one like him, and he would display the same abilities as the angels.
On this basis, from in from you is used in the sense of partitioning (tabʿīḍ), and successors mean they would succeed one another.
According to Majmaʿ al-Bayān, from in from you is used in the sense of substitution (badal), as in the saying: “If only we had from the water of zamzam, a cool draught from mountain slopes.” Meanwhile, successors means that they would take the place of the Children of Adam upon the earth. This would make the meaning: “If we willed, we would have destroyed you and instead made angels to live and build upon the earth and worship God.”
However, this reading of the verse does not accord with the structure of this section.
وَإِنَّهُ لَعِلْمٌ لِلسَّاعَةِ فَلَا تَمْتَرُنَّ بِهَا وَاتَّبِعُونِ ۚ هَٰذَا صِرَاطٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ ٦١
(43:61) Indeed he is knowledge of the Hour; so do not doubt it and follow Me. This is a straight path.
The pronoun “he” at the beginning of the verse refers to Jesus. And knowledge (ʿilm) here means that by which something is known (mā yuʿlam bih). The meaning, then, reads: “Indeed by Jesus is known the Hour in that he was made without a father and he raised the dead. So from Jesus you can know that the Hour is indeed possible, so never doubt the Hour or have misgivings about it.”
It is said: He is knowledge of the Hour means that He is one of the signs of the Hour because when he descends to the earth, it will be known that the Hour has drawn near.
It is said: He actually refers to the Qur’an and it is knowledge of the Hour because it is the final divine scripture to be revealed.
But it is not clear in either of these readings why God would follow by saying so do not doubt it.
…and follow Me. This is a straight path: It is said: This is God’s speech and it means: “Follow my guidance (or my religion or my Messenger).” It is also said: “It is something that God has commanded the Prophet himself to say.”
وَلَا يَصُدَّنَّكُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ ۖ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ ٦٢
(43:62) Do not let Satan bar you. Indeed he is your manifest enemy.
“To bar” (ṣadd) means to turn aside. The remainder of the verse is clear.
وَلَمَّا جَاءَ عِيسَىٰ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ قَالَ قَدْ جِئْتُكُمْ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَلِأُبَيِّنَ لَكُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي تَخْتَلِفُونَ فِيهِ ۖ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ ٦٣
(43:63) When Jesus brought the manifest proofs, he said, “I have certainly brought you wisdom and to make clear to you some of the things that you differ about. So be wary of God and obey me.”
Manifest proofs mean the miracles he performed, and wisdom refers to the divine teachings he brought in the form of true beliefs and virtuous morals.
…and to make clear to you some of the things that you differ about: Meaning things they differ about in God’s law concerning different deeds and happenings. There is nothing to say “the things they differ about” could include, in addition to legal matters, the beliefs whose truth or falsity they dispute. However, it makes more sense—given the phrase I have certainly brought you wisdom—that their disagreements should be of a legal nature about actions and matters of daily living. And God knows best.
It is said: the things that you differ about means everything you disagree in. And this is as you have seen.
It is said: to make clear to you means to make clear to you the matters of your religion rather than your worldly affairs. However, there is nothing to suggest this in the verse itself or from the broader context.
So be wary of God and obey me: He instructs people to be wary of God while instructing people to obey him to confirm that he is only claiming to be a messenger, not a god.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ رَبِّي وَرَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُوهُ ۚ هَٰذَا صِرَاطٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ ٦٤
(43:64) Indeed God is my Lord and your Lord; so worship Him. This is a straight path.”
In this, he summons people to worship God alone, and declares Him to be his Lord and theirs as well. This delivers a conclusive argument against those who claim his divinity.
فَاخْتَلَفَ الْأَحْزَابُ مِنْ بَيْنِهِمْ ۖ فَوَيْلٌ لِلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْ عَذَابِ يَوْمٍ أَلِيمٍ٦٥
(43:65) But the factions differed among themselves. So woe to the wrongdoers for the punishment of a painful day.
Among themselves means those to whom Jesus was sent.
This verse means: “The different factions in his community differed about Jesus into those who disbelieved in him, who believed in him and held extreme views about him (ghuluw) and those who believed in him but kept to the path of moderation.”
…So woe to the wrongdoers for the punishment of a painful day: This is a threat and a warning of punishment against those who go to either extreme of disbelieving in him or believing in his divinity.
This is not an impossible transformation but actually a kind of existential growth (takāmul wujūdī) that entails a being moving from its lowest potential to its highest one. And this has been explained in its proper place. ↩︎
That is, “We would have made some of you angels.” [Trans.] ↩︎
That is, “We would have made angels instead of you.” [Trans.] ↩︎
That is, “if only we had instead of the water of zamzam a cool draught from mountain slopes.” [Trans.] ↩︎
In Arabic there is no neuter pronoun like “it” in English, so masculine and feminine pronouns can refer to things as well as people. [Trans.] ↩︎
Namely, how do either of these interpretations help resolve people’s doubts about the Hour, which such a coda implies. [Trans.] ↩︎