4, Sura al-Nissa, Medina 92 [4H]
The Quranic text and Ali’s version
Transliteration Iz qa_lalla_hu ya_ 'isa_ inni mutawaffika wa ra_fi'uka ilayya wa mutahhiruka minal lazina kafaru_ wa ja_'ilul lazinattaba'u_ka fauqal lazina kafaru_ ila_ yaumil qiya_mah(ti), summa ilayya marji'ukum fa ahkumu bainakum fima_ kuntum fihi takhtalifu_n(a).
فَبِمَا
نَقْضِهِم
مِّيثَاقَهُمْ
وَكُفْرِهِم
بَآيَاتِ
اللّهِ
وَقَتْلِهِمُ
الأَنْبِيَاء
بِغَيْرِ
حَقًّ
...
4:155. (They have incurred divine displeasure):
C659. In verses 155, 156, 157, 160 (latter half), and 161 with parenthetical clauses including those in verses 158-159, and 160 (first half), there is a catalogue of the iniquities of which the Jews were guilty, and for these iniquities we must understand some such words as:
"They are under divine displeasure."
Each clause of the indictment I have indicated by prefixing the word "that."
in that they broke their Covenant: that they rejected the Signs of Allah; that they slew the Messengers in defiance of right;
C660. Cf. 3:21, and notes 363 and 364.
... وَقَوْلِهِمْ قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌ...
that they said, "Our hearts are the wrappings (which preserve Allah's Word; we need no more);"
C661. Cf. 2:88, and n. 92, where the full meaning is explained.
Note the crescendo (heightening effect) in the argument. Their iniquities were:
1. that they broke their Covenant:
2. that they rejected Allah's guidance as conveyed in His signs;
3. that they killed Allah's Messengers and incurred a double guilt, viz., that of murder and that of a deliberate defiance of Allah's law; and
4. that they imagined themselves arrogantly self-sufficient, which means a blasphemous closing of their hearts for ever against the admission of Allah's grace.
Then begins another series of iniquities from a different point of view:
1. that they rejected Faith:
2. that they made false charges against a saintly woman like Mary, who. was chosen by Allah to be the mother of Jesus;
3. that they boasted of having killed Jesus when they were victims of their own self-hallucination:
4. that they hindered people from Allah's way: and
5. that by means of usury and fraud they oppressed their fellow-men.
... بَلْ طَبَعَ اللّهُ عَلَيْهَا بِكُفْرِهِمْ فَلاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً ﴿١٥٥﴾
nay Allah hath set the seal on their hearts for their blasphemy, and little is it they believe.
وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ
وَقَوْلِهِمْ
عَلَى
مَرْيَمَ
بُهْتَانًا
عَظِيمًا
﴿١٥٦﴾
156. That they rejected faith: that they uttered against Mary a grave false charge.
C662. The false charge against Mary was that she was unchaste.
Cf. 19:27-28.
Such a charge is bad enough to make against any woman, but to make it against Mary, the mother of Jesus, was to bring into ridicule Allah's power itself.
Islam is specially strong in guarding the reputation of women. Slanderers of women are bound to bring four witnesses in support of their accusations, and if they fail to produce four witnesses, they are to be flogged with eighty stripes and debarred from being competent witnesses: 24:4.
وَقَوْلِهِمْ
إِنَّا
قَتَلْنَا
الْمَسِيحَ
عِيسَى
ابْنَ
مَرْيَمَ
رَسُولَ
اللّهِ...
4:157. That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah;"
... وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَـكِن شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ ...
but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them,
C663. The end of the life of Jesus on earth is as much involved in mystery as his birth, and indeed the greater part of his private life, except the three main years of his ministry.
It is not profitable to discuss the many doubts and conjectures among the early Christian sects and among Muslim theologians. The Orthodox Christian Churches make it a cardinal point of their doctrine that his life was taken on the Cross, that he died and was buried, that on the third day he rose in the body with his wounds intact, and walked about and conversed, and ate with his disciples, and was afterwards taken up bodily to heaven. This is necessary for the theological doctrine of blood sacrifice and vicarious atonement for sins, which is rejected by Islam.
But some of the early Christian sects did not believe that Christ was killed on the Cross.
- The Basilidans believed that some one else was substituted for him.
- The Docetae held that Christ never had a real physical or natural body, but only an apparent or phantom body, and that his Crucifixion was only apparent, not real.
- The Marcionite Gospel (about A.D. 138) denied that Jesus was born, and merely said that he appeared in human form.
The Gospel of St. Barnabas supported the theory of substitution on the, Cross.
The Quranic teaching is that Christ was not crucified nor killed by the Jews, notwithstanding certain apparent circumstances which produced that illusion in the minds of some of his enemies: that disputations, doubts, and conjectures on such matters are vain; and that he was taken up to Allah (see next verse and note).
... وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اخْتَلَفُواْ فِيهِ لَفِي شَكٍّ مِّنْهُ...
and those who differ therein are full of doubts,
... مَا لَهُم بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلاَّ اتِّبَاعَ الظَّنِّ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًا ﴿١٥٧﴾
with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow for of a surety they killed him not.
بَل
رَّفَعَهُ
اللّهُ
إِلَيْهِ
وَكَانَ
اللّهُ
عَزِيزًا
حَكِيمًا
﴿١٥٨﴾
158. Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.
C664. There is difference of opinion as to the exact interpretation of this verse. The words are:
The Jews did not kill Jesus, but Allah raised him up (rafau) to Himself.
One school holds that Jesus did not die the usual human death, but still lives in the body in heaven, which is the generally accepted Muslim view.
Another holds that he did die but not when he was supposed to be crucified, and that his being "raised up" unto Allah means that instead of being disgraced as a malefactor, as the Jews intended, he was on the contrary honoured by Allah as His Messenger:
see also next verse.
The same word rafa'a is used in association with honour in connection with Mustafa in 94:4. (R).
وَإِن
مِّنْ
أَهْلِ
الْكِتَابِ
إِلاَّ
لَيُؤْمِنَنَّ
بِهِ
قَبْلَ
مَوْتِهِ...
159. And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death;
C665. Before his death: Interpreters are not agreed as to the exact meaning.
Those who hold that Jesus did not die refer the pronoun "his" to Jesus. They say that Jesus is still living in the body and that he will appear just before the Final Day, after the coming of the Mahdi, when the world will be purified of sin and unbelief. There will be a final death before the final Resurrection, but all will have believed before that final death.
Others think that "his" is better referred, to "none of the People of the Book", and that the emphatic form "must believe" (layu 'minanna) denotes more a question of duty than of fact. (R).
... وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا ﴿١٥٩﴾
and on the Day of Judgment He will be a witness against them.
C666. Cf. 4:41
Asad’s version
4:155 And so, [We punished them 168 ] for the breaking of their pledge, and their refusal to acknowledge God's messages, and their slaying of prophets against all right, and their boast, "Our hearts are already full of knowledge"- nay, but God has sealed their hearts in result of their denial of the truth, and [now] they believe in but few things -; 16 ' (4:156) and for their refusal to acknowledge the truth, and the awesome calumny which they utter against Mary, 170
(4: 157) and their boast, "Behold, we have slain the Christ Jesus, son of Mary, [who claimed to be] an apostle of God!" However, they did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him, but it only seemed to them [as if it had been] so; 171 and, verily, those who hold conflicting views thereon are indeed confused, having no [real] knowledge thereof, and following mere conjecture. For, of a certainty, they did not slay him: (4:158) nay, God exalted him unto Himself 172 - and God is indeed almighty, wise. (4:159) Yet there is not one of the followers of earlier revelation who does not, at the moment of his death, grasp the truth about Jesus; 173 and on the Day of Resurrection he [himself] shall bear witness to the truth against them.
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[[ Asad’s note –
168 The statement relating to their punishment - clearly implied here - is made explicit in verse.
169 See 2:88 and the corresponding notes.
170 The calumny referred to is the popular Jewish assertion that Jesus was an illegitimate child.
171 Thus, the Qur'an categorically denies the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. There exist, among Muslims, many fanciful legends telling us that at the last moment God substituted for Jesus a person closely resembling him (according to some accounts, that person was Judas), who was subsequently crucified in his place. However, none of these legends finds the slightest support in the Qur'an or in authentic Traditions, and the stories produced in this connection by the classical commentators must be summarily rejected. They represent no more than confused attempts at "harmonizing" the Qur'anic statement that Jesus was not crucified with the graphic description, in the Gospels, of his crucifixion. The story of the crucifixion as such has been succinctly explained in the Qur'anic phrase wa-lakin shubbiha lahum, which I render as "but it only appeared to them as if it had been so" - implying that in the course of time, long after the time of Jesus, a legend had somehow grown up (possibly under the then-powerful influence of Mithraistic beliefs) to the effect that he had died on the cross in order to atone for the "original sin" with which mankind is allegedly burdened; and this legend became
so firmly established among the latter-day followers of Jesus that even his enemies, the Jews, began to believe it - albeit in a derogatory sense (for crucifixion was, in those times, a heinous form of death-penalty reserved for the lowest of criminals). This, to my mind, is the only satisfactory explanation of the phrase wa-lakin shubbiha lahum, the more so as the expression shubbiha li is idiomatically synonymous with khuyyila li, "[a thing] became a fancied image to me", i.e., "in my mind" - in other words, "[it] seemed to me" (see Qamus, art. khayala, as well as Lane II, 833, and IV, 1500).
172 Cf 3:55, where God says to Jesus, "Verily, I shall cause thee to die, and shall exalt thee unto Me." The verb rata ahu (lit., "he raised him" or "elevated him") has always, whenever the act of raf ("elevating") of a human being is attributed to God, the meaning of "honouring" or "exalting". Nowhere in the Qur'an is there any warrant for the popular belief that God has "taken up" Jesus bodily, in his lifetime, into heaven. The expression "God exalted him unto Himself" in the above verse denotes the elevation of Jesus to the realm of God's special grace - a blessing in which all prophets partake, as is evident from 19:57, where the verb rata nahu ("We exalted him") is used with regard to the Prophet Idris. (See also Muhammad 'Abduh in Manar III, 316 f, and VI, 20f) The "nay" (bal) at the beginning of the sentence is meant to stress the contrast between the belief of the Jews that they had put Jesus to a shameful death on the cross and the fact of God's having "exalted him unto Himself".
173 Lit., "who does not believe in him before his death". According to this verse, all believing Jews and Christians realize at the moment of their death that Jesus was truly a prophet of God - having been neither an impostor nor "the son of God" (Zamakhshari)]]
45 This refers to all who revere Jesus (i.e., the Christians, who believe him to be "the son of God", and the Muslims, who regard him as a prophet) as well as to those who deny him altogether. Regarding God's promise to Jesus, "I shall exalt thee unto Me", see surah 4, note 172.
Sura 4, note 172 Cf 3:55, where God says to Jesus, "Verily, I shall cause thee to die, and shall exalt thee unto Me." The verb rata ahu (lit., "he raised him" or "elevated him") has always, whenever the act of raf ("elevating") of a human being is attributed to God, the meaning of "honouring" or "exalting". Nowhere in the Qur'an is there any warrant for the popular belief that God has "taken up" Jesus bodily, in his lifetime, into heaven. The expression "God exalted him unto Himself" in the above verse denotes the elevation of Jesus to the realm of God's special grace - a blessing in which all prophets partake, as is evident from 19:57, where the verb rata nahu ("We exalted him") is used with regard to the Prophet Idris. (See also Muhammad 'Abduh in Manar III, 316 f, and VI, 20f) The "nay" (bal) at the beginning of the sentence is meant to stress the contrast between the belief of the Jews that they had put Jesus to a shameful death on the cross and the fact of God's having "exalted him unto Himself". ]]