Prophet Issa

The story of Issa ibn Maryam, upon him the best of prayers and peace.

Allah the Most High said in the surat Al 'Imran, whose opening was revealed, and these are 83 verses of it, in response to the Christians, upon them the curse of Allah, those who claim that Allah has a child; Allah is far above what they say, greatly exalted. And a delegation of Najran from among them had come to the Messenger of Allah, and they kept repeating their falsehood: the trinity in the hypostases, and they claimed, according to their claim, that Allah is the third of three: namely the holy essence, and Issa, and Maryam, according to the divergences of their sects. Allah therefore revealed, at the opening of this sura, a clear exposition showing that Issa is a servant among the servants of Allah: He created him and fashioned him in the womb, as He fashioned His other creatures, and that He created him without a father; be, and he was.

The Most High also explained the origin of the birth of his mother Maryam, and how her affair was, and how she conceived her son Issa; likewise He developed that in the sura Maryam, as we shall speak of all that, with the help of Allah and the good success He grants and His guidance:

"Verily, Allah chose Adam and Nuh, the family of Ibrahim and the family of Imran, above the worlds: offspring, some of them from others: Allah is the Hearing, the Knowing. When the wife of Imran said: my Lord, I vow to You what is in my womb, consecrated: accept therefore from me: You are the Hearing, the Knowing. Then, when she gave birth to her, she said: my Lord, I have given birth to her, a female: and Allah knows better what she gave birth to: the male is not like the female: and I have named her Maryam: and I place her under Your protection, her and her offspring, from the accursed devil. Her Lord accepted her with a good acceptance: and made her grow with a good growth: and entrusted her to Zakariyya.

Whenever Zakariyya entered upon her in the mihrab, he found with her a provision. He said: O Maryam, whence comes this to you? She said: it is from Allah: verily Allah provides for whom He wills, without account."

Surat Al 'Imran, 33-37

The Most High mentions that He chose Adam, the elite of his descendants, those who follow his law and hold fast to his obedience, as well as the family of Ibrahim, into which entered the sons of Ismail and the sons of Ishaq. Then He mentioned the merit of this pure and excellent house, namely the family of Imran. The Imran meant here is the father of Maryam, and he is Imran ibn Bashim ibn Amoun ibn Misha ibn Hizqiya ibn Ahziq ibn Mawthim ibn Azarya ibn Amsiya ibn Yawish ibn Ahzihu ibn Yaram ibn Yahfashat ibn Ayish ibn Aban ibn Rahbaam ibn Sulayman ibn Dawud.

Maryam bint Imran ibn Matan ibn Laya'zar ibn al-Yud ibn Ajban ibn Saduq ibn 'Aya'zur ibn al-Yaqim ibn Aybud ibn Zarba'il ibn Shaltan ibn Yuhinya ibn Birstiya ibn Amoun ibn Micha ibn Hazqil ibn Ajaz ibn Yutham ibn 'Azriya ibn Buram ibn Busafat ibn Asa ibn Abya ibn Rakhî'am ibn Sulayman ibn Dawud. There is in this a divergence from what Muhammad ibn Ishaq reported, and there is no disagreement that she is of the lineage of Dawud. Her father Imran was the one who led the prayer of Bani Israil in his time, and her mother, Hanna bint Faqoud ibn Qubayl, was among the worshippers. Zakariyya, the prophet of that time, was the husband of the sister of Maryam according to the view of the majority, or the husband of her maternal aunt. Allah knows better.

Muhammad ibn Ishaq and others reported that the mother of Maryam did not become pregnant. One day, she saw a bird feeding its chick, and she desired to have a child. So she made a vow to Allah: if she became pregnant, she would dedicate her child to the service of the Holy House, that is, she would set him apart in the service of Bayt al-Maqdis. Her menses came at once, and when she was purified, her husband united with her, and she conceived Maryam.

When she gave birth to her, she said: my Lord, I have given birth to her, a female: and Allah knows better what she gave birth to, read with the ta bearing a damma: that is: for the service of the Holy House. In that era, people used to vow their children as servants of the Holy House. And I have named her Maryam: from this was deduced the custom of naming the child on the day he is born, as is established in the Sahih from Anas, when he went with his brother to the Messenger of Allah and his brother was pinched and named Abd Allah. Every boy is held in pledge by his aqiqah: it is sacrificed for him on the seventh day, he is named and his head is shaved.

Reported by Ahmad and the authors of the Sunan, and authenticated by at-Tirmidhi; at-Tirmidhi cited a variant wording; some of them authenticated it. Allah knows better. As for: and I place her under Your protection, her and her offspring, from the accursed devil, the invocation was answered for her in this. Abd ar-Razzaq reported to us: Ma'mar reported to us: from az-Zuhri: from Ibn al-Musayyib: from Abu Hurayra who said: there is no newborn except that the devil touches him when he is born, making him cry out from the touch of the devil, except Maryam and her son.

Then Abu Hurayra said: read, if you wish: and I place her under Your protection, her and her offspring, from the accursed devil. The two reported it in the tradition of Abd ar-Razzaq. And Ibn Jurayj reported it: from Ahmad ibn al-Faraj: from Baqiyya: from az-Zubaydi: from az-Zuhri: from Abu Salama: from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet, in a similar sense.

Isma'il ibn Umar reported to us: Ibn Abi Dhi'b reported to us: from Ajlan, the freed slave of al-Musham'all: from Abu Hurayra who said: every newborn of the sons of Adam is touched by the finger of the devil, except Maryam bint Imran and her son Issa. He alone reported it in this way. And Muslim reported it: from Abu at-Tahir: from Ibn Wahb: from Umar ibn al-Harith: from Abu Yunus: from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet, in a similar sense.

Haytham reported to us: Hafs ibn Maysara reported to us: from al-'Ala': from his father: from Abu Hurayra who said: every human being, when his mother gives birth to him, is pricked by the devil in his two arms, except Maryam and her son. Do you not see the infant, when he falls, how he cries? Yes, O Messenger of Allah. That is when the devil pricks him in his two arms. This is according to the condition of Muslim, but they did not report it in this way.

And Qays reported it: from al-A'mash: from Abu Salih: from Abu Hurayra who said: there is no newborn except that the devil gave him a squeeze, one or two; except Issa ibn Maryam, because of: and I place her under Your protection, her and her offspring, from the accursed devil. Likewise Muhammad ibn Ishaq reported it: from Yazid ibn Abd Allah ibn Qusayt: from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet, with the authenticity of the hadith.

Abd al-Malik reported to us: al-Mughira ibn Abd Allah al-Hizami reported to us: from Abu az-Zinad: from al-A'raj: from Abu Hurayra who said: the devil pierces the side of every son of Adam when he is born, except Issa ibn Maryam: the devil went to pierce him, and he pierced only the veil. This hadith is according to the condition of the two Sheikhs, but they did not report it in this way.

Her Lord accepted her with a good acceptance, and made her grow with a good growth, and entrusted her to Zakariyya. Many exegetes mentioned that her mother, when she gave birth to her, wrapped her in her swaddling, then went out with her to the mosque, and handed her over to the worshippers who resided in it, and she was the daughter of their imam and the one who led their prayer, and they disputed over her. It appears that she handed her over to them only after nursing her and after the care of someone like her in her early childhood; then, when she gave her to them, they disputed over which of them would take her in charge, and Zakariyya was their prophet at that time, and he wanted to take her for himself alone, excluding them; because his wife was her sister, or her maternal aunt, according to the two views. They opposed him in that, and asked him to draw lots with them, and the destinies helped him: his lot came out victorious over them; and that is because the maternal aunt has the status of the mother.

Because of his victory over them in the lot: that is among the news of the unseen: it has been revealed to you, and you were not with them when they cast their pens to decide which of them would take Maryam in charge, and you were not with them when they disputed. That is because each of them cast his pen, known to him, then they carried it and placed it in a place, and ordered a young boy who had not reached puberty to draw one of them out, and the pen of Zakariyya appeared. They asked to draw lots a second time, by throwing their pens into the river: whoever's pen flowed against the current of the water would be the victor. They did so, and the pen of Zakariyya was the one that flowed against the current of the water, while their pens went along with the water.

Then they asked him to draw lots a third time: whoever's pen flowed with the water, while the rest of the pens saw their course reversed and floated upstream, would be the victor. They did so, and Zakariyya was the victor over them, and he took her in charge, being the most entitled to her by law and by decree, for multiple reasons. Whenever Zakariyya entered upon her in the mihrab, he found with her a provision. He said: O Maryam, whence comes this to you?

She said: it is from Allah: verily Allah provides for whom He wills, without account. The exegetes said: Zakariyya had taken for her a noble place of the mosque, which none but her entered, and she worshipped Allah in it, and performed what was incumbent upon her of the guardianship of the Temple when her turn came, and devoted herself to worship night and day, until she became a proverb cited for her worship among Bani Israil, and she became famous for the noble states and noble qualities that appeared in her. To the point that the prophet of Allah Zakariyya, whenever he entered upon her in her place of worship, found with her a strange provision out of season: he would find with her the fruit of summer in winter, and the fruit of winter in summer. Whence comes this to you?

She would say: it is from Allah, that is: a provision that Allah provided me. Verily Allah provides for whom He wills, without account. Then at that point Zakariyya longed for a child from his own loins, even though he had grown old and aged. He said: O You who provide Maryam with fruit out of season, grant me a child, even if it be out of season.

What came of his story and his affair is what we have already mentioned in his story.

"And when the angels said: O Maryam, verily Allah has chosen you, purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds. O Maryam, be devoutly obedient to your Lord, prostrate yourself, and bow with those who bow. That is among the news of the unseen: We reveal it to you, and you were not with them when they cast their pens to decide which of them would take Maryam in charge, and you were not with them when they disputed. And when the angels said: O Maryam, verily Allah gives you glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Issa ibn Maryam, honored in this world and the Hereafter, and among those brought near: and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and among the righteous.

She said: my Lord, how shall I have a child, when no man has touched me? He said: thus Allah creates what He wills: when He decrees a matter, He only says to it: be: and it is. And He will teach him the Scripture and wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel. And he will be a messenger to Bani Israil: I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: I create for you from clay the figure of a bird, then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah's permission: and I heal the born blind and the leper, and I raise the dead by Allah's permission: and I tell you what you eat and what you store in your houses.

Verily in that is a sign for you, if you are believers. And confirming what is before me of the Torah: and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you: and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: so fear Allah, and obey me: verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: so worship Him: this is a straight path."

Surat Al 'Imran, 42-51

The Most High mentions that the angels gave Maryam glad tidings of Allah's choice of her, from among all the women of the worlds of her time, in that He chose her to give birth to a son from her, without a father; who, in his early childhood, would call them to the worship of Allah alone, without partner; and likewise in his maturity, which indicates that he would reach maturity and call to Allah during it. And she was commanded to abundant worship, devotion, prostration and bowing; so as to be worthy of this honor, and to give thanks for this blessing. She used to stand in prayer until her feet swelled, and Allah had mercy on her, and on her mother and her father. O Maryam, verily Allah has chosen you, that is: He elected you and preferred you. And purified you: that is: from vile traits, and gave you beautiful qualities.

And chosen you above the women of the worlds: it may be that what is meant is the worlds of her time, as in: I chose you over the people, and His saying about Bani Israil: and We certainly chose them, knowingly, above the worlds. It is known that Ibrahim is better than Musa, and that Muhammad is better than both of them; and likewise this community is better than all the communities before it, more numerous, more knowledgeable, and of purer deeds than Bani Israil and others. And chosen you above the women of the worlds: its universality is preserved; so she would be the best of the women of the world, of those who were before her and of those who came after her; because, if she was a prophetess, according to the view of those who affirm her prophethood and that of Sara, the mother of Ishaq, and that of the mother of Musa, relying on the speech of the angels and the revelation to the mother of Musa, as Ibn Hazm and others claim; then: chosen you above the women of the worlds, since no other was preferred over her. And Allah knows better.

As for the view of the majority, as Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari and others reported from the people of the sunna and the community: prophethood is specific to men, and there is no prophetess among women; so the highest ranks of Maryam are: the Messiah ibn Maryam is only a messenger, messengers have passed before him, and his mother was a truthful woman. On this basis there is no objection to her being the best of the famous truthful women, of those who were before her and of those who will come after her. And Allah knows better. Her mention has come joined with Asiya bint Muzahim, and Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and Fatima bint Muhammad, may Allah be pleased with them.

Abd ar-Razzaq reported to us: Ma'mar informed us: from Qatada: from Anas: the Messenger of Allah said: four women suffice you among the women of the worlds: Maryam bint Imran, and Asiya the wife of Pharaoh, and Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and Fatima bint Muhammad. At-Tirmidhi reported it: from Abu Bakr ibn Zanjawayh: from Abd ar-Razzaq, and he authenticated it.

Ibn Mardawayh reported it by the route of Abd Allah ibn Abi Ja'far ar-Razi, and Ibn Asakir by the route of Tamim ibn Ziyad, both from Abu Ja'far ar-Razi: from Thabit: from Anas: the Messenger of Allah said: the best women of the worlds are four: Maryam bint Imran, and Asiya the wife of Pharaoh, and Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and Fatima bint Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah.

Abd ar-Razzaq reported to us: Ma'mar reported to us: from az-Zuhri: from Ibn al-Musayyib: Abu Hurayra used to narrate that the Prophet said: the best of the women who rode the camels are the women of Quraysh: the tenderest toward a child in his early childhood, and the most generous to a husband of limited means. Abu Hurayra said: and Maryam never rode a camel. And Muslim reported it in his Sahih.

Zayd ibn al-Hubab reported to us: Musa ibn Ali reported to me: I heard Abu Hurayra say: the Messenger of Allah said: the best of the women who rode the camels are the women of Quraysh: the tenderest toward a child in his early childhood, and the most compassionate to a husband of limited means. Abu Hurayra said: and the Messenger of Allah knew that the daughter of Imran had not ridden the camels. He alone reported it, and it is according to the condition of the Sahih. And this hadith has other routes from Abu Hurayra.

Zuhayr reported to us: Yunus ibn Muhammad reported to us: Dawud ibn Abi al-Furat reported to us: from 'Ilba ibn Ahmar: from Ikrima: from Ibn Abbas: regarding: on the earth are four traits: he said: do you know what this is? Allah and His Messenger know better: : the best women of the people of Paradise: Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and Fatima bint Muhammad, and Maryam bint Imran, and Asiya bint Muzahim, the wife of Pharaoh. And an-Nasa'i reported it by several routes, from Dawud ibn Abi al-Furat.

Ibn Asakir reported it by the route of Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Abi Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash'ath: Yahya ibn Hatim al-Askari reported to us: Bishr ibn Mihran ibn Hamdan informed us: Muhammad ibn Dinan reported to us: from Dawud ibn Abi Hind: from ach-Cha'bi: from Jabir ibn Abd Allah: the Messenger of Allah said: four of them suffice you: Fatima bint Muhammad, and Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and Asiya bint Muzahim, and Maryam bint Imran.

Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi said: Wahb ibn Baqiyya reported to us: Khalid ibn Abd Allah al-Wasiti reported to us: from Muhammad ibn Amr: from Abu Salama: : do you remember when you leaned over the Messenger of Allah and wept, then laughed? : he informed me that he would die of this illness, and I wept; then I leaned over him, and he informed me that I would be the first of his household to join him, and that I would be the mistress of the women of the people of Paradise, except Maryam bint Imran: and I laughed. And the origin of this hadith is in the Sahih, and this chain is according to the condition of Muslim; it contains that the two mentioned are the best of the four.

Likewise the hadith reported by the imam Ahmad: Uthman ibn Muhammad reported to us: Jarir reported to us: from Yazid, who is Ibn Abi Ziyad: from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Nu'm: the Messenger of Allah said: Fatima is the mistress of the women of the people of Paradise, except Maryam bint Imran. A good chain, authenticated by at-Tirmidhi, but they did not report it; and a similar sense was reported from the hadith of Ali ibn Abi Talib, but its chain has a weakness.

The point is that this indicates that Maryam and Fatima are the best of these four, and the exception may mean that Maryam is better than Fatima, or that they are equal in merit; but a hadith has come which, if authentic, establishes the first possibility. Abu al-Hasan ibn al-Farra', Abu Ghalib and Abu Abd Allah, the two sons of al-Banna, informed us: Abu Ja'far ibn al-Muslima informed us: Abu Tahir al-Mukhallis informed us: Ahmad ibn Sulayman reported to us: az-Zubayr, who is Ibn Bakkar, reported to us: Muhammad ibn al-Hasan reported to us: from Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad: from Musa ibn Uqba: from Kurayb: the Messenger of Allah said: the mistress of the women of the people of Paradise is Maryam bint Imran, then Fatima, then Khadija, then Asiya the wife of Pharaoh.

If this wording is preserved with: then, Abu Hatim ar-Razi also reported this hadith: from Dawud al-Ja'fari: from Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad, who is ad-Darawardi: from Ibrahim ibn Uqba: from Kurayb: from Ibn Abbas, raised to the Prophet, mentioning the names with a conjunction "and" and not with an ordering "then": so its chain and text differ from it. And Allah knows better.

As for the hadith reported by Ibn Mardawayh, from the hadith of Shu'ba: from Mu'awiya ibn Qurra: from his father: the Messenger of Allah said: many men have attained perfection, but only three women have attained it: Maryam bint Imran, and Asiya the wife of Pharaoh, and Khadija bint Khuwaylid; and the merit of Aicha over women is like the merit of tharid over all other food.

Likewise the hadith reported by the Group, except Abu Dawud, by several routes: from Shu'ba: from Amr ibn Murra: from Murra al-Hamdani: from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari: the Messenger of Allah said: many men have attained perfection, but only Asiya the wife of Pharaoh, and Maryam bint Imran have attained it; and the merit of Aicha over women is like the merit of tharid over all other food. It is an authentic hadith as you see: the two Sheikhs agreed to report it, and its wording requires restricting perfection among women to Maryam and Asiya, but perhaps that was meant for their era, since each of the two raised a prophet in his early childhood: Asiya raised Musa, the one who spoke with Allah, and Maryam raised her son, the servant of Allah and His messenger; so this does not negate the perfection of others in this community, such as Khadija and Fatima: Khadija served the Messenger of Allah fifteen years before the prophetic mission, and more than ten years after it, and she was for him a truthful vizier with her person and her wealth, and Allah was pleased with her.

As for Fatima, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah: she was distinguished by an additional merit over her sisters: because she was struck by the death of the Messenger of Allah, while the rest of his sisters died in the lifetime of the Prophet. As for Aicha: she was the most beloved of the wives of the Messenger of Allah to him, and he married no virgin but her, and there is not known among the other women of this community, nor even among others, anyone more knowledgeable or more intelligent than her; Allah became jealous on her behalf when the people of the lie said what they said, and He revealed her innocence from above the seven heavens. And she lived after the Messenger of Allah close to fifty years, transmitting the Quran and the sunna from him, giving religious rulings to the Muslims and reconciling those who differed; she is the most noble of the mothers of the believers, including Khadija bint Khuwaylid, mother of daughters and sons, according to the view of a group of the scholars of the earliest and later generations, but the best is to stop short between them.

And: the merit of Aicha over women is like the merit of tharid over all other food may be general with respect to the women mentioned and others, and may be general with respect to what is outside the women mentioned. And Allah knows better.

The point here is the mention of what concerns Maryam bint Imran: Allah purified her and chose her above the women of the worlds of her time, and it is possible that her preference is general over all women, as we have advanced. It has come in a hadith that she and Asiya bint Muzahim would be among the wives of the Prophet in Paradise. We mentioned in the tafsir, regarding: widows and virgins: the widow is Asiya, and among the virgins is Maryam bint Imran. And we mentioned it at the end of the sura at-Tahrim. And Allah knows better.

Abd Allah ibn Najiya reported to us: Muhammad ibn Sa'd al-Awfi reported to us: my father reported to us: my uncle al-Husayn reported to us: Yunus ibn Nufay' reported to us: from Sa'd ibn Junada, who is al-Awfi: the Messenger of Allah said: verily Allah married me in Paradise to Maryam bint Imran, and the wife of Pharaoh, and the sister of Musa.

Ibrahim ibn 'Ar'ara reported to us: Abd an-Nur ibn Abd Allah reported to us: Yunus ibn Shu'ayb reported to us: the Messenger of Allah said: do you know that Allah married me to Maryam bint Imran, and Asiya bint Muzahim, and Kalthum the sister of Musa? Ibn Ja'far al-'Uqayli reported it from the hadith of Abd an-Nur, and he said: congratulations to you, O Messenger of Allah. And it is not preserved.

Muhammad ibn al-Hasan reported to me: from Ya'la ibn al-Mughira: from Ibn Abi Dawud: the Messenger of Allah entered upon Khadija during the illness in which she died: : how much affliction I see in you, O Khadija, and Allah may place in affliction much good: do you not know that Allah has married me, with you, in Paradise, to Maryam bint Imran, and Kalthum the sister of Musa, and Asiya the wife of Pharaoh? Has Allah done that for you, O Messenger of Allah? Yes, she said: with relief and sons. Ibn Asakir reported, from the hadith of Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Ghallabi: al-Abbas ibn Bakkar reported to us: Abu Bakr al-Hudhali reported to us: from Ikrima: from Ibn Abbas: that the Messenger of Allah entered upon Khadija at the point of death: : O Khadija, when you meet your calamities, convey to them from me the greeting. O Messenger of Allah, have you married before me? No, but Allah has married me to Maryam bint Imran, and Asiya bint Muzahim, and Kalthum the sister of Musa.

Ibn Asakir reported, by the route of Suwayd ibn Sa'id: Muhammad ibn Salih ibn Umar reported to us: from ad-Dahhak and Mujahid: Jibril descended to the Messenger of Allah with what he was sent with, and he sat conversing with the Messenger of Allah, when Khadija passed by: : who is this, O Muhammad? This is a truthful woman of my community. Jibril said: I have with me, for her, a message from the Lord, that He greet her, and give her the glad tidings of a house in Paradise of qasab, far from the flame, with no toil in it and no tumult. Allah is the Peace, and from Him comes the peace: and peace upon you both, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

O Messenger of Allah, what is this house of qasab? A hollow pearl, between the house of Maryam bint Imran and the house of Asiya bint Muzahim, and they are both my wives on the Day of Resurrection. The origin of the greeting to Khadija from Allah, and the glad tidings to her of a house in Paradise of qasab with no tumult and no toil, is in the Sahih; but this narrative with these additions is very strange; and all of these hadiths have chains that merit scrutiny.

Ibn Asakir reported, from the hadith of Abu Zur'a ad-Dimashqi: Abd Allah ibn Salih reported to us: Mu'awiya reported to me: from Safwan ibn Amr: from Khalid ibn Ma'dan: from Ka'b al-Ahbar: Mu'awiya asked him about the rock: he meant the rock of Bayt al-Maqdis: : the rock is upon a palm tree, and the palm tree is upon a river of the rivers of Paradise, and beneath the palm tree are Maryam bint Imran and Asiya bint Muzahim, weaving the cords of the people of Paradise until the Hour rises. Then he reported it by the route of Isma'il ibn Ayyash: from Tha'laba ibn Muslim: from Mas'ud: from Abd ar-Rahman: from Khalid ibn Ma'dan: from Ubada ibn as-Samit, from the Prophet, similar to it. And this is objectionable in this form; rather it is fabricated.

Abu Zur'a then reported it: from Abd Allah ibn Salih: from Mu'awiya: from Mas'ud ibn Abd ar-Rahman: from Ibn 'A'idh: that Mu'awiya asked Ka'b about the rock of Bayt al-Maqdis, and he described it. That it is the speech of Ka'b al-Ahbar is more likely; and this speech of Ka'b al-Ahbar is only found among the Israelite reports, some of which is fabricated falsehood, forged by some of their heretics or their ignorants, and this is of them. And Allah knows better.

The birth of the servant and messenger Issa ibn Maryam, the pure virgin.

"Mention in the Scripture Maryam, when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place, and took between them and herself a veil. We sent to her Our spirit, which appeared to her in the form of a well-formed human being. She said: I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you fear Allah. He said: I am only the messenger of your Lord, to give you a pure boy.

She said: how shall I have a boy, when no man has touched me, and I have not been unchaste? He said: thus it will be: your Lord has said: it is easy for Me; and to make him a sign for the people, and a mercy from Us: and it was a matter decreed. So she conceived him, and withdrew with him to a remote place. The pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree.

She said: would that I had died before this, and been forgotten, entirely forgotten. Then he called her from below her: do not grieve: your Lord has placed beneath you a small stream: and shake toward yourself the trunk of the palm tree: fresh ripe dates will fall upon you: so eat, and drink, and gladden your eye: and if you see any human being, say: I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast: I shall not speak today to any human being. So she came to her people carrying him. They said: O Maryam, you have come with a grave thing.

O sister of Haroun, your father was not a man of evil, and your mother was not unchaste. Then she pointed to him. They said: how shall we speak to one who was in the cradle a child? He said: I am the servant of Allah: He has given me the Scripture, and made me a prophet: and made me blessed wherever I am: and enjoined upon me prayer and zakat as long as I live: and goodness toward my mother: and has not made me a wretched tyrant: and peace upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive.

Such is Issa ibn Maryam: the word of truth, about which they doubt. It is not for Allah to take a child: glory to Him: when He decrees a matter, He only says to it: be: and it is. And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: so worship Him: this is a straight path. Then the parties differed among themselves: so woe to those who disbelieved, from the scene of a great day."

Surat Maryam, 16-37

The Most High mentioned this story after the story of Zakariyya, which is like an introduction to it and a preparation before it, as He mentioned in the sura Al 'Imran, joining the two in a single context; and as He said in the sura al-Anbiya:

"And Zakariyya, when he called to his Lord: my Lord, do not leave me alone, and You are the best of inheritors. So We answered him, and gave him Yahya, and set right his wife for him. They used to hasten toward good deeds, and call upon Us with longing and awe, and were humble before Us. And she who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our spirit, and made her and her son a sign for the worlds."

Surat al-Anbiya, 89-91

It has already been stated that Maryam, when her mother had consecrated her, served the Holy House, and that her guardian was the husband of her sister, or of her maternal aunt, the prophet of that time, Zakariyya, and that he had reserved for her a mihrab, which is the noble place of the mosque that no one entered, besides her, without his permission; and that when she reached adulthood she strove in worship, and there was none like her in that era in the forms of worship; and that states appeared in her at which Zakariyya marveled; and that the angels addressed her with the glad tidings of Allah's choice of her, and that He would grant her a pure son, who would be a noble, pure, honored prophet, supported by miracles. She marveled therefore at the birth of a son without a father; because she had no husband, and was not among those who marry. The angels informed her therefore that Allah is able to do what He wills: be, and it is.

So she submitted to that, turned back to Allah, surrendered to the command of Allah, and knew that in this there was a great trial for her: because people would speak about her because of it, since they do not know the reality of the matter, looking only at outward appearances, without reflection or understanding. She would only leave the mosque at the time of her menses, or for a necessary need: fetching water or obtaining food. One day, she had gone out for some of her affairs and withdrew, that is, secluded herself alone, to the east of the mosque al-Aqsa, when Allah sent to her the trustworthy spirit, which appeared to her in the form of a well-formed human being. When she saw him, she said: I seek refuge in the Most Merciful from you, if you fear Allah.

Abu al-'Aliya said: she knew that the man who fears Allah is one who knows restraint. And this refutes the opinion of whoever claimed that there was among Bani Israil a dissolute man, famous for his dissoluteness, named Taqi; for this is a false statement without proof, and among the flimsiest of statements. I am only the messenger of your Lord: I am not a human being, but an angel whom Allah sent me to you, to give you a pure boy, that is, a pure child. How shall I have a boy, or how would a child come to me, when I have no husband, and I am not one of those who commit the obscene act?

The angel answered her amazement at the birth of a son from her, in this state: thus your Lord has said, that is: He promised that He will create from you a boy, while you are not married, and you will not be among those who commit fornication. And this is easy for Him, and simple with Him: He is able to do what He wills. And to make him a sign for the people, that is: and to make his creation, in this state, proof of the perfection of Our power over the kinds of creation: for the Most High created Adam without male or female, and created Hawwa from a male without a female, and created Issa from a female without a male, and created the rest of creation from male and female. And a mercy from Us, that is: by him We have mercy on the servants, in that he will call them to Allah in his early childhood and his maturity, in his childhood and his adulthood, calling them to devote worship to Allah alone without partner, and to declare Him far above taking a companion, children, associates, rivals, opposers and equals.

And it was a matter decreed: this may be the end of the speech of Jibril with her, meaning that this is a matter Allah has decreed, made binding, predestined and fixed. This is the meaning of the statement of Muhammad ibn Ishaq, which Ibn Jarir chose, and which no one else reported. And Allah knows better.

And it was a matter decreed is an allusion to the breath of Jibril into her, regarding Maryam bint Imran, she who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our spirit. More than one of the early generations mentioned that Jibril breathed into the opening of her shirt, and the breath descended to her private parts, and she conceived at once, as a woman conceives upon union with her husband.

As for whoever said that he breathed into her mouth, or that the one who spoke to her was the spirit that entered her through her mouth: this statement contradicts what is understood from the contexts of this story in its occurrences in the Quran; for this context indicates that the one sent to her was an angel among the angels, namely Jibril, and that he only breathed into her, and the angel did not face her private parts, but breathed into the opening of her garment, and the breath descended to her private parts and slipped into them: We breathed into her of Our spirit indicates that the breath entered into her, not into her mouth, as was reported from Ubayy ibn Ka'b, nor into her chest, as was reported by as-Suddi with his chain from some of the Companions. So she conceived him. She conceived her son and withdrew with him to a remote place. That is because Maryam, when she conceived, was distressed by the pregnancy, and knew that many people would speak words against her.

More than one of the early generations mentioned, among them Wahb ibn Munabbih, that when the signs of pregnancy appeared upon her, the first to perceive it was a man among the worshippers of Bani Israil, Yousouf ibn Ya'qub the carpenter, who was her maternal cousin; and he marveled greatly at that, because of what he knew of her: her piety, her purity, and her worship; and yet he saw her pregnant with no husband. One day he broached the matter to her in speech: O Maryam, can there be a sowing without seed? Yes. And who created the first sowing?

Can there be a tree without water and without rain? Yes. And who created the first tree? Can there be a child without a male?

Yes, verily Allah created Adam without male or female. So tell me your story. Allah gave me glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Issa ibn Maryam, honored in this world and the Hereafter, and among those brought near: and he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, and among the righteous. And the like of this is reported from Zakariyya: that he asked her, and she answered him in the same manner.

And Allah knows better.

As-Suddi mentioned, with his chain, from the Companions, that Maryam entered one day upon her sister: do you sense that I am pregnant? And do you also sense that I am pregnant? She embraced her: I see what is in my womb prostrating to what is in your womb, confirming a word from Allah. And the meaning of prostration here is humility and veneration, like the prostration at the meeting of the greeting of peace, as was in the law of those before us, and as Allah commanded the angels to prostrate to Adam.

Malik said: it has reached me that Issa ibn Maryam and Yahya ibn Zakariyya were maternal cousins, and their two pregnancies were together: I see what is in my womb prostrating to what is in your womb. I see that as the preference of Issa; because Allah the Most High made him raise the dead, and heal the born blind and the leper. Reported by Ibn Abi Hatim. Maryam said: when I was alone, he would speak to me and converse with me, and when I was among the people, he glorified Allah in my womb.

Then it is apparent that she carried him nine months, as women carry and give birth at the term of their pregnancy; for if it had been otherwise, it would have been mentioned. And it is reported from Ibn Abbas and Ikrima that she carried him eight months. She only conceived and gave birth: she carried him nine hours. So she conceived him and withdrew with him to a remote place: the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree.

The correct view is that every thing is followed by what suffices it, as in His saying: the morning, the earth becomes green. Then We created the drop of sperm as a clinging clot, and made the clot a lump of flesh, and made the flesh bones, and covered the bones with flesh, then We produced him as another creation: blessed be Allah, the best of creators. And it is known that between every two states are forty days, as is established in the hadith agreed upon.

Then her affair spread, and it became known among Bani Israil that she was pregnant; and no house received as many visits as the house of Zakariyya. And some heretics accused her of Yousouf, who used to worship with her in the mosque. Maryam hid from them, secluded herself from them and withdrew to a remote place. The pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of the palm tree, that is: the contractions drove her and forced her to the trunk of the palm tree; and this trunk, according to the hadith reported by an-Nasa'i with a sound chain, from Anas, raised to the Prophet, and by al-Bayhaqi with a chain he authenticated, from Shaddad ibn Aws, raised likewise: it is Bayt Lahm, upon which some of the kings of the Rum later built, as we shall mention: this immense building that is seen.

She said: would that I had died before this, and been forgotten, entirely forgotten; in this is proof of the permissibility of wishing for death at times of tribulation: because she knew that people would accuse her and not believe her; rather they would call her a liar when she came to them with a boy in her arms, even though she was among them of the devout worshippers, residents of the mosque, attached to it, in spiritual retreat within it, from the house of prophethood and piety, completely without blemish. Then he called her from below her: do not grieve. As for the one who called her, from below, from the lowest place, there are two views: one of them is that he was Jibril; this is the view of al-'Awfi from Ibn Abbas. And Issa did not speak except in the presence of the people.

Likewise said Sa'id ibn Jubayr, and Amr ibn Maymun, and ad-Dahhak, and as-Suddi, and Qatada. And Mujahid said, and al-Hasan, and Ibn Zayd, and Sa'id ibn Jubayr: it was her son Issa. And Ibn Jarir chose it. Do not grieve: your Lord has placed beneath you a small stream.

It was said: it is the river, and to this the majority inclined; and a hadith came concerning it reported by at-Tabarani, but it is weak; and Ibn Jarir chose it, and it is the sound view. And it is reported from al-Hasan, and ar-Rabi' ibn Anas, and Ibn Aslam and others, that it was her son. And shake toward yourself the trunk of the palm tree: fresh ripe dates will fall upon you. He mentioned food and drink: so eat, and drink, and gladden your eye.

Then it was said: the trunk of the palm tree was dry. It was a palm tree bearing fruit. And Allah knows better. And it is possible that it was a palm tree, but it was not bearing fruit at that time; because his birth was in winter, which is not the season of fruit; and that may be understood from the saying of the Most High: fresh ripe dates will fall upon you.

Amr ibn Maymun said: nothing is better for women in childbirth than dates and fresh ripe dates. Then this verse was recited.

Ali ibn al-Husayn reported to us: Shayban reported to us: Masrur ibn Sa'id at-Tamimi reported to us: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Amr al-Awza'i reported to us: from Urwa ibn Ruwaym: from Ali ibn Abi Talib: the Messenger of Allah said: honor your maternal aunt, the palm tree: for it was created from the clay from which Adam was created. He also said: feed your women in childbirth fresh ripe dates; and if there are no fresh ripe dates, then dates; and there is no tree more honored with Allah than the tree beneath which Maryam bint Imran descended. Likewise Abu Ya'la reported it in his Musnad: from Shayban ibn Farrukh: from Masruq ibn Sa'id: Masrur ibn Sa'id at-Tamimi. Ibn 'Adi reported this hadith from him, from al-Awza'i: and he is known for objectionable hadiths, and I have not heard of his mention except in this hadith: he reports from al-Awza'i the many objectionable reports on which it is not permitted to rely.

Thus: and if you see any human being, say: I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast: I shall not speak today to any human being; this is part of the conclusion of the speech of the one who called her from below her. So eat, and drink, and gladden your eye: and if you see any human being, that is: if you see any of the people, say to him: I have vowed to the Most Merciful a fast, that is: silence. And their fast in their law included abstention from speech and food: this was said by Qatada, and as-Suddi, and Ibn Aslam. I shall not speak today to any human being: as for our law, it is disliked for the fasting person to keep silence a whole day.

So she came to her people carrying him. They said: O Maryam, you have come with a grave thing. O sister of Haroun: your father was not a man of evil, and your mother was not unchaste. Many of the early generations, who transmit from the people of the Book, mentioned that when they noticed her absence from among them, they went in search of her, and passed by her place, with lights around her; and when they met her and found with her her child: O Maryam, you have come with a grave thing, that is, a great and repugnant matter. And what they said merits scrutiny, especially as it is speech whose beginning contradicts its end; because the evident context of the great Quran indicates that she carried him herself, and came to her people carrying him; and that after she had recovered from her confinement after forty days.

The point is that when they saw her carrying her child with her, they said: O Maryam, you have come with a grave thing; and the friya is the repugnant and great deed among deeds and sayings. O sister of Haroun: it was said they compared her to a worshipper of their era in worship whom she equaled, and his name was Haroun. They compared her to a wicked man of their time named Haroun: this was said by Sa'id ibn Jubayr. They meant by Haroun the brother of Musa, and compared her to him in worship.

Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi erred in his claim that she was the sister of Musa and Haroun by blood; for between them are long ages that the least knowledgeable person could not miss, which would turn him away from this outrageous statement; and it is as if the Torah deceived him, in which it is mentioned that Maryam, sister of Musa and Haroun, beat the tambourine on the day Allah saved Musa and his people, and drowned Pharaoh and his people; so he believed that this one was that one; and this is of the utmost falsehood, contradicting the authentic hadith along with the text of the Quran, as we established at length in the tafsir; to Allah belong the praise and the favor. The authentic hadith has come indicating that she did have a brother named Haroun; and nothing in the account of her birth and her mother's consecration of her indicates that she had no brother besides him. And Allah knows better.

Abd Allah ibn Idris reported to us: I heard my father mention it: from Simak: from Alqama ibn Wa'il: from al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba: the Messenger of Allah sent me: do you see what you recite: O sister of Haroun, and that Musa was long before Issa by such and such. So I returned and mentioned that to the Messenger of Allah, and he said: did you not tell them that they used to be named after the prophets and the righteous who came before them? Likewise Muslim, and an-Nasa'i, and at-Tirmidhi reported it, from the hadith of Abd Allah ibn Idris: a good, authentic, rare hadith, which we know only from him. Did you not tell them that they were named after their righteous men and their prophets? And Qatada and others mentioned that they often named after Haroun: he attended some of their funerals and saw a great crowd of them, those named Haroun: forty thousand. And Allah knows better.

O sister of Haroun: and the hadith indicates that she had a brother by blood named Haroun. Your father was not a man of evil, and your mother was not unchaste, that is: you are not of a house whose character and affection this is: neither your brother, nor your mother, nor your father. So they accused her of the gravest obscenity, and charged her with the greatest calamity. Ibn Jarir mentioned in his tafsir that they suspected Zakariyya of it, and wanted to kill him: he fled from them, and they caught up with him; a tree split open for him and he entered it, and Iblis seized the edge of his garment and they tore it with him, as we have already said.

Among the hypocrites is one who accused her of her maternal cousin Yousouf ibn Ya'qub the carpenter. When the situation became straitened, the field narrowed and speech was impossible, trust in the Lord of Majesty became great: address him, and speak to him: for your answer is upon him, and what you seek of speech is with him. How shall we speak to one who was in the cradle a child, that is: how do you evade us by turning the answer toward a small child who does not comprehend speech, who is still a nursing infant in his cradle, unable to distinguish the pure from its froth? This is nothing from you but mockery and ridicule of us, belittling and contempt; since you do not reply to us with articulate speech, but evade the answer toward one who was in the cradle a child.

So he said before them: I am the servant of Allah: He has given me the Scripture, and made me a prophet: and made me blessed wherever I am: and enjoined upon me prayer and zakat as long as I live. This is the first speech that Issa ibn Maryam uttered: the first thing he said was: I am the servant of Allah. He acknowledged to his Lord the Most High servitude, and that Allah is his Lord; so he declared Allah far above the statement of the wrongdoers who claim he is the son of Allah: rather he is His servant and His messenger, and the son of His maidservant. Then he exonerated his mother from what the ignorant imputed to her, when they slandered her and charged her with it.

He has given me the Scripture, and made me a prophet: for Allah does not give prophethood to one who is as they claim; may Allah curse them and disgrace them; and because of their disbelief and their statement against Maryam, an immense slander: she conceived from fornication at the time of menses; may Allah curse them. So Allah exonerated her of that, and declared that she was a truthful woman, and made her son a prophet sent, one of the five great ones of resolve. And made me blessed wherever I am: that is because wherever he was, he called to the worship of Allah alone without partner, and declared Allah far above deficiency and defect: taking a companion and a child: exalted and sanctified be He.

And enjoined upon me prayer and zakat as long as I live: this is the duty of servants: fulfilling the right of the Mighty, the Praiseworthy: by prayer, and kindness to creation through zakat; which includes purifying souls from vile traits, and purifying abundant wealth by giving to those in need, of all kinds, hospitality to guests, spending on wives, slaves, relatives, and the rest of acts of obedience and kinds of devotion. And goodness toward my mother, and has not made me a wretched tyrant, that is: and He made me good toward my mother; and that is because her right over him was affirmed, because of the singularity of her side, since he has no father besides her. Glory, then, to Him who created the creature and fashioned it, and gave every soul its guidance. I am not harsh nor rough: no word or deed contrary to the command of Allah and His obedience would come from me.

And peace upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive: these are the three stations over which the speech preceded in the story of Yahya ibn Zakariyya. Then, when the Most High mentioned his story clearly, explained his affair, clarified it and expounded it: such is Issa ibn Maryam: the word of truth, about which they doubt. It is not for Allah to take a child: glory to Him: when He decrees a matter, He only says to it: be: and it is; just as the Most High said after mentioning his story: such is, We recite it to you: of verses, and of the wise Remembrance.

And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: so worship Him: this is a straight path: then the parties differed among themselves: so woe to those who disbelieved, from the scene of a great day. It is not for Allah to take a child: glory to Him: when He decrees a matter, He only says to it: be: and it is; just as the Most High said after mentioning his story, such is Issa ibn Maryam, We recite it to you in truth.

"Verily, the likeness of Issa with Allah is as the likeness of Adam: He created him from dust: then He said to him: be: and he was. The truth is from your Lord: so do not be among the doubters. To whoever disputes with you about this, after the knowledge that has come to you, say: come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves: then let us pray earnestly and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars. Verily, this is the true narrative: and there is no deity but Allah: and verily Allah is the Mighty, the Wise.

And if they turn away: Allah knows well the corrupters."

Surat Al 'Imran, 59-62

Thus, when the delegation of Najran came, and it numbered sixty riders, whose affair went back to fourteen of them, and the affair of all went back to three, who were their nobles and their chiefs: al-'Aqib, and as-Sayyid, and Abu Haritha ibn 'Alqama; they began to dispute the matter of the Messiah. Allah therefore revealed the opening of the sura Al 'Imran concerning that, explained the matter of the Messiah, the beginning of his creation and the creation of his mother before him, and commanded His messenger to challenge them by mubahala if they did not answer him and follow him. When they saw his eyes and his ears, they shrank back, refrained from the mubahala, and turned to reconciliation and peace. Their spokesman said: O assembly of Christians, you know that Muhammad is a prophet sent, and that he has come to you with the ruling concerning your companion, and you know that no people has ever invoked a curse upon a prophet: the eldest of them remains, and the youngest is not born; and it will be extermination for you if you do it.

If then you persist in your religion and in the position you hold concerning your companion, then part with this man and return to your land. They sought that from the Messenger of Allah, and asked him to impose the jizya upon them, and to send with them a trustworthy man: so he sent with them Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah. We explained that in the tafsir of Al 'Imran, and the development of this matter will come in the prophetic biography of this book, Allah the Most High willing; in Him is trust.

The point is that Allah the Most High, when He explained the matter of the Messiah: such is Issa ibn Maryam: the word of truth, about which they doubt: meaning that he is a servant created from a woman among the servants of Allah. It is not for Allah to take a child: glory to Him: when He decrees a matter, He only says to it: be: and it is, that is: nothing renders Him incapable, burdens Him or wearies Him: rather He is the Capable, the Doer of what He wills: His command, when He wills a thing, is only to say to it: be: and it is. And: mention in the Scripture Musa: he was indeed chosen: and he was a messenger, a prophet: this is part of the end of the speech of Issa to them in the cradle: he informed them that Allah is his Lord and their Lord, his deity and their deity, and that this is the straight path. Then the parties differed among themselves: so woe to those who disbelieved, from the scene of a great day, that is: the people of that era differed, and those who came after them concerning him: he is the child of an adulteress.

And they persisted in their disbelief and their obstinacy: he is Allah. He is the son of Allah.

He is the servant of Allah and His messenger, and the son of His maidservant, and His word which He cast to Maryam, and a spirit from Him. These are the saved, the rewarded, the supported and the aided; and whoever contradicts them in anything of these descriptions is among the disbelieving, wrongdoing, astray and ignorant; and the High, the Great, the Wise, the Knowing has threatened them: so woe to those who disbelieved, from the scene of a great day.

Sadaqa ibn al-Fadl reported to us: al-Walid informed us: al-Awza'i reported to us: Umayr ibn Hani' reported to me: Junada ibn Abi Umayya reported to me: from Ubada ibn as-Samit who said: whoever testifies that there is no deity but Allah, alone without partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger, and that Issa is the servant of Allah and His messenger, and His word which He cast to Maryam and a spirit from Him, and that Paradise is true and the Fire is true: Allah will make him enter Paradise through one of its eight gates that he wishes. And Muslim reported it: from Dawud ibn Rashid: from al-Walid: from Ibn Jabir, with this wording, and by another route from al-Awza'i with this wording.

Allah the Most High is far above having a child

"And they said: the Most Merciful has taken a child. You have certainly come with something monstrous: the heavens nearly break apart from it, the earth splits, and the mountains collapse in ruin: that they attributed to the Most Merciful a child. It is not fitting for the Most Merciful to take a child: there is none in the heavens and the earth but that it comes to the Most Merciful as a servant. He has certainly enumerated them and counted them precisely: and all of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection, each one alone."

Surat Maryam, 88-95

It becomes clear that the Most High, the child does not befit Him: because He is the creator of everything and its owner, and everything is poor before Him, submissive and lowly with Him, and all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth are His servants, and He is their Lord: there is no deity but Him, and no Lord besides Him. And they made the jinn partners to Allah, while He created them, and forged for Him sons and daughters without knowledge: glory to Him, and may He be exalted far above what they describe. Creator of the heavens and the earth: how would He have a child, when He has no companion? He created everything, and He knows everything. That is Allah, your Lord: there is no deity but Him: creator of everything: so worship Him: and He is the guardian of everything. Vision does not perceive Him, while He perceives all vision: He is the Subtle, the Acquainted.

It becomes clear that He is the creator of everything: how would He have a child? And a child only comes between two proportionate beings; and Allah the Most High has no counterpart, no likeness, no equal and no companion: so He would have no child.

"Say: He is Allah, the One: Allah, the Eternally Besought: He neither begets, nor is He begotten: and there is none comparable to Him."

Surat al-Ikhlas, 1-4

It is thus established that He has no counterpart in His essence, nor in His attributes, nor in His deeds: the Eternally Besought, namely the Master who attained perfection in His knowledge, wisdom, mercy and all His attributes: He did not beget, and was not begotten from anything before Him, and He has no equal, no equivalent and no peer; He thus cut off the counterpart, the equal and the peer, and it is thereby excluded that He should have a child, since a child only comes from two equal or near beings; and Allah is exalted above that, greatly.

And He is sanctified: O people of the Book, do not exceed the bounds in your religion, and do not say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Issa ibn Maryam, is only the messenger of Allah: and His word which He cast to Maryam, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers: and do not say: three: desist: better for you: Allah is only one deity: glory to Him: that He should have a child! To Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth: and Allah suffices as a guardian.

"The Messiah would never disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor would the angels brought near: whoever disdains His worship and is arrogant, He will gather them all to Him. As for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will give them their rewards in full, and increase them from His bounty: and as for those who disdained and were arrogant, He will punish them with a painful punishment: and they will find for themselves, besides Allah, no protector and no helper."

Surat an-Nisa, 172-173

The Most High forbids the people of the Book, and whoever resembles them, excess and flattery in religion, which is exceeding the limit: the Christians, may Allah curse them, exceeded and flattered the Messiah until they crossed the limit: what was incumbent upon them was to believe that he is the servant of Allah and His messenger, and the son of His virgin, pure maidservant, who guarded her chastety: Allah therefore sent the angel Jibril to her, who breathed into her, by Allah's command, a breath from which she conceived her son Issa; and what reached her from the angel is the spirit, attributed to Allah as an attribution of honor and nobility: and it is created among the creatures of Allah the Most High, like the house of Allah, and the she-camel of Allah, and the servant of Allah.

The spirit of Allah was attributed to him in honor and nobility, and Issa was named by it: because he came to be through it, without a father; and it is also the word through which he was created, and by which he came to exist: verily, the likeness of Issa with Allah is as the likeness of Adam: He created him from dust: then He said to him: be: and he was. And: they said: Allah has taken a child: glory to Him: rather: to Him belongs what is in the heavens and the earth: all are devoutly obedient to Him. Creator of the heavens and the earth: and when He decrees a matter, He only says to it: be: and it is. And the Jews said: Uzayr is the son of Allah, and the Christians said: the Messiah is the son of Allah: that is their statement by their mouths: they imitate the statement of those who disbelieved before: may Allah destroy them: how are they deluded.

The Most High informed that the Jews and the Christians, upon them the curse of Allah, each of the two groups claimed against Allah extravagance, and claimed that He has a child: Allah is greatly exalted above what they say; and He informed that they have no basis for what they claimed, nor for what they improvised, except mere speech and the imitation of those who preceded them to this astray statement: their hearts resemble one another. As for the philosophers, may Allah curse them, they claimed that the first intellect emanates from the necessary existence, which they call the cause of causes and the first principle; and that from the first intellect emanates a second intellect, and a soul, and a sphere; then from the second likewise, until the intellects reached ten, the souls nine, and the spheres nine: according to corrupt considerations they mentioned, and bland choices they adduced; and for a full treatment of them, and of their ignorance and the weakness of their intellect, there is another place.

And likewise groups of the polytheists of the Arabs: they claimed, out of their ignorance, that the angels are the daughters of Allah, and that He became an in-law of the females of the jinn and the angels were born of the two of them: Allah is exalted above what they say. And they made the angels, who are the servants of the Most Merciful, female: they witnessed their creation: their testimony will be written, and they will be questioned.

And: they said: the Most Merciful has taken a child: glory to Him: rather: they are honored servants: they do not precede Him in speech, and they act by His command. He knows what is before them and behind them, and they do not intercede except for him whom He approves, and they tremble in fear of Him. And whoever of them says: I am a deity besides Him: We recompense him with Hell: thus do We recompense the wrongdoers. And the Most High said at the opening of the sura al-Kahf: praise belongs to Allah who sent down upon His servant the Book, and did not place in it any crookedness: firm, to warn of a severe violence from Him, and to give good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that there is for them a good reward: in which they will remain forever: and to warn those who said: Allah has taken a child. They have no knowledge of it, neither they nor their fathers: a tremendous word comes out of their mouths: they say nothing but a lie.

They said: Allah has taken a child: glory to Him: He is the Self-Sufficient: to Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth. You have no proof for this: do you say about Allah what you do not know? Say: verily, those who forge the lie against Allah will not succeed: an enjoyment in this world: then to Us is their return: then We will make them taste the severe punishment for their disbelief.

These noble Meccan verses encompass the reply to all the sects of the disbelievers: the philosophers, the polytheists of the Arabs, the Jews and the Christians, who claimed, without knowledge, that Allah has a child: glory to Him, and may He be greatly exalted above what the wrongdoing transgressors say.

The Christians, upon them the curse of Allah, being the most prominent holders of this statement, persisting until the Day of Resurrection, are mentioned much in the Quran: in order to reply to them, and to show their contradiction, the weakness of their knowledge and the abundance of their ignorance. And their statements about their disbelief multiplied: because falsehood is full of branching, divergence and contradiction, while truth neither diverges nor wavers: and if it were from other than Allah, they would find in it much divergence. It is thus indicated that truth unifies and agrees, and falsehood diverges and wavers. A group of their astray and ignorant claimed that the Messiah is Allah: Allah be greatly exalted. He is the son of Allah: Allah be noble. He is the third of three: Allah be high. Allah the Most High said at the opening of the sura al-Maïda:

"They have certainly disbelieved who say: verily Allah is the Messiah, ibn Maryam. Say: who then could prevent Allah at all, if He willed, from destroying the Messiah, ibn Maryam, his mother, and everyone on the earth? To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them: He creates what He wills: and Allah is capable of everything."

Surat al-Maïda, 17

The Most High informed of their disbelief and their ignorance, and showed that He is the Creator capable of everything, who disposes of everything, and that He is the Lord of everything, its King and its deity. They have certainly disbelieved who say: verily Allah is the Messiah, ibn Maryam. And the Messiah said: O Bani Israil, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord: verily, whoever associates with Allah, Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge will be the Fire: and the wrongdoers have no helpers. They have certainly disbelieved who say: verily Allah is the third of three: while there is no deity except one deity: and if they do not desist from what they say, a painful punishment will touch those among them who disbelieved. Will they not then repent to Allah, and seek His forgiveness? Allah is the Oft-Forgiving, the Merciful. The Messiah, ibn Maryam, is only a messenger: messengers have passed before him: and his mother was a truthful woman: they both used to eat food: see how We make clear to them the signs, then see how they are deluded.

The Most High judged them disbelievers by law and by decree, and informed that this came from them, even though the messenger to them, that is Issa ibn Maryam, had made clear to them that he is a servant nurtured, created, fashioned in the womb, calling to the worship of Allah alone without partner, and He threatened them with the Fire for the opposite of that, with failure to attain the abode of settlement, and with disgrace in the Hereafter, and with humiliation and shame: verily, whoever associates with Allah, Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge will be the Fire: and the wrongdoers have no helpers. Then He said: they have certainly disbelieved who say: verily Allah is the third of three: while there is no deity except one deity.

Ibn Jarir and others said: what is meant by that is their statement about the three hypostases: the hypostasis of the Father, the hypostasis of the Son, and the hypostasis of the word proceeding from the Father to the Son, according to their divergence in that between the royal sect, that is the Melkite, and the Jacobite and the Nestorian sects, upon them the curse of Allah: we shall explain how they differ in that, and their three councils at the time of Qustantin ibn Qastas, which was three hundred years after the Messiah, and three hundred years before the mission of Muhammad. And: while there is no deity except one deity, that is: there is no deity except Allah alone, without partner, without counterpart, without equal and without companion, without child. And if they do not desist from what they say, a painful punishment will touch those among them who disbelieved. Then He called them, by His mercy and kindness, to repentance and seeking forgiveness for these great and immense matters that merit the Fire: will they not then repent to Allah, and seek His forgiveness?

Allah is the Oft-Forgiving, the Merciful. Then He explained the state of the Messiah and his mother: that he is a servant, a messenger, and that his mother is a truthful woman, that is, she is not a wanton, as the Jews say, may Allah curse them; and in it is proof that she is not a prophetess, as a group of our scholars claimed. They both used to eat food: an allusion to their issuing from her, as the rest of people issue: and whoever is at this rank, how could he be a deity? Allah be greatly exalted above their statement and their ignorance, greatly.

What is meant by His saying: they have certainly disbelieved who say: verily Allah is the third of three, is their claim concerning Issa and his mother, that they are two deities with Allah; as the Most High showed in judging their disbelief in that by His statement at the end of this noble sura:

"And when Allah will say: O Issa ibn Maryam, did you say to the people: take me and my mother as two deities besides Allah? He will say: glory to You: it is not for me to say what I have no right to say: if I had said it, You would have known it: You know what is within me, and I do not know what is within You: verily, You are the Great Knower of the unseen. I said to them only what You commanded me: worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord: and I was a witness over them as long as I was among them: then when You took me, You were the Watcher over them: and You are a witness over everything. If You punish them, they are Your servants: and if You forgive them, verily You are the Mighty, the Wise."

Surat al-Maïda, 116-118

The Most High informs that He will question Issa ibn Maryam on the Day of Resurrection, as a way of honoring him, and of mocking and rebuking His servants, those who lied about him, fabricated, and claimed that he is the son of Allah, or that he is Allah, or that he is His partner: Allah is greatly exalted above what they say. So He will question him while knowing that it did not come from him: did you say to the people: take me and my mother as two deities besides Allah? He will say: glory to You, that is: You are too exalted to have a partner: this, no one besides You deserves it. If I had said it, You would have known it: You know what is within me, and I do not know what is within You: verily, You are the Great Knower of the unseen: and this is great politeness in the questioning and the answer.

I said to them only what You commanded me, when You sent me to them, and revealed upon me the Book that was recited to them: worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord, that is: my creator and your creator, my provider and your provider. You raised me to You when they wished to kill me and crucify me: You had mercy on me and delivered me from them, and cast my likeness upon one of them, until they took revenge on him. When that happened, You were the Watcher over them: and You are a witness over everything. Then he said, as an act of entrusting to the Lord: if You punish them, they are Your servants, that is: and they deserve that.

And if You forgive them, verily You are the Mighty, the Wise; and this entrusting and referring to the will, with the condition attached, does not require that it occur: verily, You are the Mighty, the Wise, the Oft-Forgiving, the Merciful.

We mentioned in the tafsir what the imam Ahmad reported, from Abu Dharr: that the Messenger of Allah said: if You punish them, they are Your servants: and if You forgive them, verily You are the Mighty, the Wise; and he said: I asked my Lord for intercession for my community, and He granted it to me: it will be attained, Allah willing. And: We did not create the heaven, the earth and what is between them in play: if We had wished to take amusement, We would have taken it from Our side: if We were doers. Rather: We cast the truth against the falsehood: it breaks its head: and it vanishes: and woe to you for what you describe. And to Him belongs whoever is in the heavens and on the earth: and those near Him do not disdain His worship, and do not grow weary: they glorify Him night and day, without slackening.

If Allah had wished to take a child, He would have chosen from what He creates what He wills: glory to Him: He is Allah, the One, the Subduer. He created the heavens and the earth in truth: He wraps the night over the day, and wraps the day over the night: and He subjected the sun and the moon: each running for a specified term: is He not the Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving. Say: if the Most Merciful had a child, I would be the first of the worshippers. Glory to the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of the Throne, above what they describe.

And: say: praise belongs to Allah who has not taken a child, and has no partner in the dominion, and has no ally out of weakness: and magnify Him greatly. Say: He is Allah, the One: Allah, the Eternally Besought: He neither begets, nor is He begotten: and there is none comparable to Him. And it is established in the hadith, from the Messenger of Allah, that he said: Allah the Most High says: the son of Adam insulted Me, though it is not his due: he claims that I have a child, while I am the One, the Eternally Besought, who did not beget and was not begotten, and no one is My equal. And in the Sahih likewise, from the Messenger of Allah: no one is more patient upon harm he hears than Allah: they claim He has a child, while He provides for them and heals them.

But it is established in the Sahih likewise, from the Messenger of Allah: verily Allah grants respite to the wrongdoer; and such is the seizing of your Lord when He seizes the towns while they are wrongdoing: verily, His seizing is painful, severe. And how many a town We gave respite while it was wrongdoing, then We seized it: and to Us is the return. We will let them enjoy a little: then We will force them to a harsh punishment. Say: verily, those who forge the lie against Allah will not succeed: an enjoyment in this world: then to Us is their return: then We will make them taste the severe punishment for their disbelief.

So give the disbelievers respite: let them be, for a while.

The origin of Issa ibn Maryam, and the explanation of the beginning of the revelation to him from Allah the Most High.

It has already been stated that he was born in Bayt Lahm, near Bayt al-Maqdis; and Wahb ibn Munabbih claimed that he was born in Egypt, and that Maryam traveled, she and Yousouf ibn Ya'qub the carpenter, riding a donkey. There is nothing between them and the false accusation; and this does not stand: and the hadith mentioned above is proof that his birth was in Bayt Lahm, as we said; and whatever contradicts it is false.

Wahb ibn Munabbih mentioned that when he was born, the idols fell that day in the easts of the earth and its wests, and that the devils were bewildered because of that, until Iblis the great disclosed to them the matter of Issa: they found him in the lap of his mother, with the angels surrounding him; and that a great star appeared in the sky, and the king of the Persians dreaded its appearance, and asked the soothsayers about it: they answered that it was the birth of a great one on the earth. So he sent his messengers, with gold and myrrh and frankincense, as a gift to Issa. When they arrived in Syria, its king asked them what brought them: they related it to him; he asked about the time: and it was at that time that Issa ibn Maryam was born at Bayt al-Maqdis, and his affair became famous because of his speech in the cradle. So he sent them to him with what they had, and sent with them one who would recognize him for him, in order to reach his killing once they departed from him.

When they reached Maryam with the gifts and returned, the one sent said: verily, the messengers of the king of Syria came only to kill your son. So she carried him, and went with him to Egypt, and resided there until his age reached twelve years, and miracles and marvels appeared from him in his early childhood. She mentioned among them that the landowner with whom they resided lost some property from his house; and his house was inhabited only by the poor, the weak and the needy: he did not know who took it, and it weighed heavily upon Maryam, and was grievous to the people and to the master of the house, and her affair wearied them. When Issa saw that, he turned to a blind man, and to another paralyzed, among those who frequented the place: carry this paralyzed man, and raise him up.

I cannot do that. Yes, just as you did, you and he, when you took this property from that cellar of the house. When he said that, they confirmed his word, and brought back the property: Issa became great in the eyes of the people, though he was very small.

Among that too: the son of the landowner prepared hospitality for the people because of the purity of his children. When the people gathered and he fed them, he then wished to give them a drink: he meant wine, as they used to do at that time: he found nothing in his jars. That grieved him; and when Issa saw that from him, he stood and passed by those jars, his hand passing over their openings: and he would do that on no jar except that it filled with a drink of the best of drinks. The people marveled greatly at that, magnified him, and offered to him and to his mother abundant wealth: they refused it, and departed toward Bayt al-Maqdis. And Allah knows better.

Uthman ibn as-Saji and others informed us: from Musa ibn Wardan: from Abu Nadra: from Abu Sa'id; and from Makhul: the first time Allah loosed the tongue of Issa ibn Maryam, after the speech he uttered as a child, he glorified Allah with a glorification the ears had never heard the like of: Allah, You are the Near in Your height, the Elevated in Your nearness, the High above everything of Your creation: You are the One who created seven heavens in the air by Your words, harmonious vaults: I saw them while they were smoke from Your cleft: they came obedient to Your command, and in them are Your angels glorifying Your holiness for Your sanctification: and You placed in them a light upon the blackness of darkness, and a radiance from the light of the sun by day: and You placed in them the thunder glorifying with praise: by Your might, clear away the light of Your darkness: and You placed in them lamps by which the bewildered is guided in the darknesses: blessed are You, O Allah, in what You spread out of Your heavens, and in what You flattened of Your earth: You flattened it upon the water: You made it firm upon the current of the deep wave: You humbled it as the purifying water is humbled: its rugged submitted to Your obedience, and its affair was gentled by Your command, and its waves yielded to Your might:

You made springs burst forth in it after the seas, rivers, and after the rivers the small channels, and after the channels the abundant springs of wells: then You brought out from it the rivers, the trees and the fruits: then You placed upon its back the mountains: You fixed them as stakes upon the back of the water: its stones and rocks obeyed: blessed are You, O Allah: who reaches, by his description, Your description? Or who reaches, by his attribute, Your attribute?

You spread the cloud, and untie the necks, and judge the truth: and You are the best of judges: there is no deity but You: glory to You: You commanded that we seek Your forgiveness for every sin: there is no deity but You: glory to You: You veiled the heavens from the people: there is no deity but You: glory to You: only the wise among Your servants fear You: we testify that You are not a deity we invented, nor a lord whose mention perishes, nor were there partners with You who judge with You, so that we invoke them with You, and that no one helped You in creating us, so that we doubt You: we testify that You are One, Besought: You did not beget, nor were You begotten, and there is no equal to You.

Ishaq ibn Bishr said, from Juwaybir and Muqatil, from ad-Dahhak: Issa ibn Maryam withheld from speech after he had spoken to them as a child, until he reached the age of youths; then Allah made him speak thereafter with wisdom and eloquence. The Jews said much about him and his mother: they named him the son of the fornicator; and because of their disbelief and their statement against Maryam, an immense slander. When he reached seven years, his mother placed him in the school: the teacher taught him nothing but that he outstripped him to it. He taught him: Abou Jad. What is Abou Jad? I do not know. How would you teach me what you do not know? Then teach it to me. Rise from your place. Ask me. What is Abou Jad? The alif: the favors of Allah; the ba: the splendor of Allah; the jim: the delight of Allah and His beauty. The teacher marveled at that, and was the first to explain Abou Jad.

Then he mentioned that Uthman asked the Messenger of Allah about that, and that he answered him on every word he spoke: in a long, forged hadith, beyond doubt and dispute.

Likewise Ibn 'Adi reported, from the hadith of Isma'il ibn Ayyash: from Isma'il ibn Yahya: from Ibn Mulayka: from whoever reported to him: from Ibn Mas'ud; and from Mis'ar ibn Kidam: from 'Atiyya: from Abu Sa'id, raising the hadith about Issa entering the school and the teacher teaching him the meaning of the letters of Abou Jad: a lengthy hadith in which there is no joy. Then Ibn 'Adi said: this hadith, with this chain, is false: none reports it but Isma'il.

Ibn Lahi'a reported: from Abd Allah ibn Hubayra: Abd Allah ibn Salam said: Issa ibn Maryam, as a boy, used to play with the children: I wish to inform you what your mother hid for you. Yes. Your mother hid such and such for you. Feed me what you hid for me. And what thing did I hide for you? Such and such. Who informed you? Issa ibn Maryam. By Allah, if you leave these children with the son of Maryam, he will surely corrupt them. So they gathered them in a house and locked it on them: Issa went out seeking them and did not find them; he heard their clamor in a house, and asked about them: these are only monkeys and pigs. Allah, so it was. And they became so. Ibn Asakir reported it.

Ishaq ibn Bishr said, from Juwaybir and Muqatil, from ad-Dahhak, from Ibn Abbas: and Issa saw wonders in his childhood, by an inspiration from Allah: that spread among the Jews, and Issa became famous; and Bani Israil set their minds on him. His mother feared for him: and We made the son of Maryam and his mother a sign, and sheltered them upon a height of settlement and springs.

The early generations and exegetes differed about what is meant by this height that Allah described as being of settlement and springs; and this is a strange description of form: namely that it is a height, that is, the elevated place of the earth whose top is level and firm; elevated as it is, it is spacious; and high as it is, in it is a spring of flowing water: running freely upon the face of the earth. The place meant is the one in which the Messiah was born, and it is the site of Bayt al-Maqdis; that is why he called her from below her: do not grieve: your Lord has placed beneath you a small stream: which is the small river, in the view of the majority of the early generations.

And it is reported from Ibn Abbas, with a good chain, that they are the rivers of Damascus: perhaps he intended to liken that place to the rivers of Damascus. That is in Egypt, as claimed by whoever claimed it among the people of the Book and whoever received it from them. And Allah knows better. It is ar-Ramla.

Idris told us, from his grandfather Wahb ibn Munabbih: when Issa reached thirteen years, Allah commanded him to return from the land of Egypt to Bayt Ilya. Yousouf, the maternal cousin of his mother, came to him, and carried them both on a donkey, until he brought them to Ilya, and he resided there until Allah revealed the Gospel to him, and taught him the Torah, and granted him the raising of the dead, the healing of diseases, and knowledge of the unseen, of what they store in their houses. The people spoke of his coming, and hastened to the wonders that came from him: they marveled at him: so he called them to Allah: his affair spread among them.

Explanation of the sending down of the four Books and their times.

Abd Allah ibn Salih reported to us: Mu'awiya ibn Salih reported to me: the Torah was revealed to Musa in six nights that had passed of the month of Ramadan; and the Zabour descended upon Dawud in twelve nights that had passed of the month of Ramadan, and that was four hundred eighty-two years after the Torah; and the Gospel was revealed to Issa ibn Maryam in eighteen nights that had passed of the month of Ramadan, one thousand and fifty years after the Zabour; and the Furqan was revealed to Muhammad, upon him prayer and peace, in twenty-four nights of the month of Ramadan. We mentioned in the tafsir, at the verse: the month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, the hadiths that came about that: and among them is that the Gospel was revealed to Issa ibn Maryam in eighteen nights that had passed of the month of Ramadan.

Ibn Jarir mentioned in his tafsir that it was revealed upon him when he was thirty years old, and he remained until he was raised to the heaven, when he was thirty-three years old: as its explanation will come, Allah the Most High willing.

Sa'id ibn Abi Aruba informed us: from Qatada; and Muqatil: from Qatada: from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Adam: Allah revealed to Issa ibn Maryam: O Issa, be zealous in My command, and do not be weak: hear and obey, O son of the pure virgin: you are from a female without a male, and I created you a sign for the worlds: worship Me, and place your trust in Me: take the Book with strength: explain it to the people of Syria: convey to those before you that I am the Living, the Standing, who does not pass away: believe in the unlettered Arab prophet, the owner of the camel and of the crown, which is the turban, and of the walking staff and the two sandals, and of the mace, which is the reed: broad of eye, high of cheekbone, clear of cheek, curly of head, thick of beard, joined of eyebrows, fine of nose, bright of teeth, prominent of chin, whose neck is like a silver jug: and as if gold flows between his two collarbones: he has hair running from his nape to his navel, flowing like a reed: there is no hair on his belly or chest besides it: broad of palm and foot: when he turns, he turns entirely: and when he walks, he seems to break off from rock and descend from a slope: his sweat on his face like pearls: and the scent of musk is exhaled from him: none like him was seen before him or after him: handsome of stature, sweet of scent: espousing women: of few offspring:

his offspring are only from a blessed woman whose house, in Paradise, is of qasab, with no toil in it and no tumult: you will raise him, O Issa, at the end of time, as Zakariyya raised your mother: there are from her two young martyrs: and he has with Me a station no human has: his speech is the Quran, and his religion is Islam: and I am the Peace: blessed is he who reaches his era, witnesses his days, and hears his speech.

Explanation of what the tree of Touba is.

O Lord: and what is Touba? It is a tree I planted with My hand: it is for all the gardens: its root is of divine pleasure, its water of Tasnim, its coolness the coolness of camphor, its taste the taste of ginger, its scent the scent of musk: whoever drinks of it a drink will never thirst after it. O Lord: give me to drink of it. It is forbidden to the prophets to drink of it until that prophet drinks: and it is forbidden to the communities to drink of it until the community of that prophet drinks of it. O Issa: I will raise you to Myself. O Lord: why would You raise me? I will raise you, then send you down at the end of time: to see the wonders of the community of that prophet, and to help them against fighting the accursed Dajjal. I will send you down at the time of a prayer, then you will not pray with them: because it is a community upon which mercy is bestowed, and there is no prophet after their prophet.

Hisham ibn Ammar said: from al-Walid ibn Muslim: from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Zayd: from his father: O Lord: inform me about this community upon which mercy is bestowed. It is the community of Ahmad: they have scholars and sages as if they were prophets: they are content with Me with little of giving, and I am pleased with them with little of deed: and I will admit them into Paradise: there is no deity but Allah. O Issa: they will be the most numerous inhabitants of Paradise: because the tongues of a people have never been humbled by: there is no deity but Allah, as their tongues were humbled; and the necks of a people have never been humbled by prostration as their necks were humbled by it. Ibn Asakir reported it.

And it was reported by the route of Abd ibn Badil al-'Uqayli: from Abd Allah ibn Awsaja: Allah revealed to Issa ibn Maryam: O Issa, O son of the pure virgin, weep over yourself the days of life, weeping as one who bids farewell to his family, whose world is poor, who leaves pleasures to their people, and whose desire rises toward what is with his Lord: and be in that soft of speech, spreading peace: and be awake when the eyes of the righteous sleep: beware of what is coming of the matter of the return, and of the earthquakes of severe trials, before neither family nor wealth benefits: and line your eye with the kohl of sorrow, when the idle laugh: and be in that patient, seeking reward: blessed are you if there reach you what I promised the patient: taste the flavor of what has fled from you: where is its taste? And what has not come to you: how sweet is it?

So take from the world what suffices: and let the rough and coarse suffice you: you have seen where one goes: act for an account: you will be questioned: if your eye saw what I prepared for My righteous allies, your heart would melt, and your soul would vanish.

Abu Dawud said in his book: Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Faris reported to us: Abd ar-Razzaq reported to us: Ma'mar reported to us: from az-Zuhri; and from Ibn Tawus: from his father: Issa ibn Maryam met Iblis: do you not know that nothing will befall you except what is written for you? Climb then to the top of this mountain, and throw yourself from it: you will see whether you live or not. Ibn Tawus said: then Issa said: do you not know that Allah said: My servant does not test Me: for I do what I wish? The servant does not put his Lord to trial, but Allah puts His servant to trial.

Ahmad ibn 'Abda reported to us: Sufyan informed us: from Amr: the devil came to Issa ibn Maryam: do you not claim that you are truthful? Then come here and throw yourself. Woe to you! Has He not said: O son of Adam, do not ask Me about the destruction of your soul: for I do what I will?

Abu Tuba ar-Rabi' ibn Nafi' reported to us: Husayn ibn Talha reported to us: I heard Khalid ibn Yazid say: the devil worshipped with Issa for ten years, or two years: one day he stood on the edge of a mountain: do you see, if I cast myself, will anything befall me except what is written for me? I am not the one who puts my Lord to trial: but my Lord, if He wills, will put me to trial. And he knew that he was the devil, and left him.

Surayj ibn Yunus reported to us: Ali ibn Thabit reported to us: from al-Khattab ibn al-Qasim: from Abu Uthman: Issa, when the devil said to him: are you the one who claims that everything is by decree and destiny? Yes. Cast yourself from this mountain, and say: it is decreed upon me. O accursed one: Allah tests the servants, and the servants do not test Allah.

Al-Fadl ibn Musa al-Basri reported to us: Ibrahim ibn Bashshar reported to us: Issa ibn Maryam met Iblis: O Issa ibn Maryam, are you the one whose lordship became so great that he spoke in the cradle as a child, and no one before him had spoken in it? Lordship is rather for the deity who made me speak, then will make me die, then will give me life. Are you the one whose lordship became so great that you raise the dead? Lordship is rather for Allah who gives life and death: and if You give life, it is He who gives life.

By Allah, you are a deity in the heaven, and a deity on the earth. Jibril struck him a blow with his wing, and he did not reach less than the horns of the sun; then he struck him a second blow with his wing, and he did not reach less than the preserving eye; then he struck him a third, and cast him into the seventh sea, and plunged him into it until he tasted the boiling water: no one ever met from anyone what I met from you, O son of Maryam.

Abu al-Hasan ibn Rizqawayh informed me: Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Sindi informed us: Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Qattan reported to us: Isma'il ibn Isa al-'Attar informed us: Ali ibn 'Asim informed us: Abu Salama Suwayd reported to me: from some of his companions: Issa prayed at Bayt al-Maqdis and departed; and when he was on one of the slopes, Iblis appeared to him and detained him: it does not befit you to be a servant. He said much to him, and Issa strove to rid himself of him, and could not rid himself of him: it does not befit you, O Issa, to be a servant. So Issa cried to his Lord for help: Jibril and Mika'il came: when Iblis saw them, he halted; and when they settled with him on the slope, they flanked Issa, and Jibril struck Iblis with his wing: he flung him into the belly of the valley.

Iblis returned to him, knowing that they had been commanded nothing else: I told you that it does not befit you to be a servant: your anger is not the anger of a servant: and you saw what I met from you when you grew angry; but I call you to a matter that is for you: I command the devils: obey him then: when the human sees that the devils obey him, he will worship him: I do not say that you should be a deity with no deity besides it: but Allah will be a deity in the heaven, and you will be a deity on the earth. When Issa heard that from him, he cried to his Lord for help and uttered a piercing cry: and there was Israfil descended: Jibril and Mika'il looked at him: Iblis halted; and when he settled with them, Israfil struck Iblis with his wing: he sent him flying to the eye of the sun; then he struck him a second blow: Iblis began to fall, and passed by Issa standing in his place: O Issa, I have met from you today severe exhaustion.

He flung him toward the eye of the sun: he found seven thousand angels at the preserving eye: they covered him: and whenever he emerged, they covered him in that boiling water: and by Allah he never returned to him.

Isma'il al-'Attar reported to us: Abu Hudhayfa reported to us: his devils gathered to him: our master, you have met with fatigue. This is a preserved servant: I have no way over him; and I will lead astray through him many humans, and spread among them divergent whims, and make them sects: they will make him and his mother two deities besides Allah. And Allah sent down, among that by which He supported Issa and preserved him from Iblis, a Quran mentioning His favor upon Issa: O Issa ibn Maryam, remember My favor upon you and upon your mother, when I supported you with the holy spirit, that is: when I strengthened you with the holy spirit, which is Jibril: you will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught you the Scripture: that is the Gospel, and the Torah, and wisdom; and when I restrained Bani Israil from you; and when I made the poor for you intimates, companions and helpers with whom You are pleased, companions and helpers who are pleased with you, guided and leading to Paradise.

Know then: these are two immense characters: whoever meets Me with them meets Me with the purest of creatures and the most pleasing to Me: we fasted and You did not accept our fast; we prayed and You did not accept our prayer; we gave charity and You did not accept our alms; we wept like the yearning cry of the camel and You had no mercy on our weeping. And why that? And what prevents Me: that My hand has become poor? Are not the treasuries of the heavens and the earth in My hand: I spend from them as I will?

Or does stinginess seize Me? Am I not the most generous when asked, and the most ample when giving? Or has My mercy narrowed? The merciful only show mercy by My favor.

But this people, O Issa ibn Maryam, counted themselves by the wisdom that sows in their hearts that with which they seized the world as precedence over the Hereafter: they did not know whence they came: and then they would have known that their souls are the most enemy of enemies to them. And how would I accept their fast while they fortify themselves upon it with unlawful foods? And how would I accept their prayer while their hearts incline toward those who fight Me and deem My prohibitions lawful? And how would I accept their alms while they wrench them from people, taking them unlawfully?

O Issa: I only recompense its people: and how would I have mercy on their weeping while their hands drip with the blood of the prophets? My anger has increased upon them. O Issa: I decreed the day I created the heavens and the earth that whoever worships Me, and says about you according to My word, I will make him your neighbor in the abode, and your companion in the dwellings, and your partner in the honor. And I decreed the day I created the heavens and the earth that whoever takes you and your mother as two deities besides Allah, I will place him in the lowest degree of the Fire.

And I decreed the day I created the heavens and the earth that I make firm this matter at the hands of My servant Muhammad, by whom I will seal the prophets and the messengers: his birth is in Mecca, his migration in Tayba, and his dominion in Syria: he is not harsh nor rough, nor talkative in the markets, nor adorned with obscenity, nor weak in slander: I direct him to every beautiful affair: and I grant him every noble character: I make piety his intent, and wisdom his understanding, and loyalty his nature, and justice his conduct, and truth his law, and Islam his religion: his name is Ahmad: I guide by him after straying: and I teach by him after ignorance: and I enrich by him after poverty: and I raise by him after lowness: I guide by him, and open by him between deaf ears, and veiled hearts, and divergent scattered whims: I make his community the best community brought out for mankind: they command the right and forbid the wrong: in sincerity for My name, and in confirmation of what the messengers brought: I inspire them the glorification, the affirmation of oneness and the sanctification in their mosques, their assemblies, their houses, their resting places and their dwellings: they pray to Me standing, sitting, bowing and prostrating: and they fight in My path in ranks:

their sacrifice is their blood, and their gospels are in their chests, and their sacrifice in their bellies: monks by night, lions by day: that is My favor: I give it to whom I will: and I am the possessor of the great favor.

We shall mention what confirms much of this narrative, with what we shall bring of the two suras Al 'Imran and an-Nisa, Allah the Most High willing: in Him is trust. Abu Hudhayfa, that is Ishaq ibn Bishr, reported with his chains: from Ka'b al-Ahbar, and Wahb ibn Munabbih, and Ibn Abbas, and Salman al-Farisi, whose hadiths overlap one another: when Issa ibn Maryam was sent and came to them with the clear proofs: what did such and such eat last night? And what did he store in his house? He informs them: so the believers increase in faith, and the disbelievers and hypocrites in doubt and disbelief.

And Issa, despite that, had no dwelling to shelter in: he wandered through the earth, with no resting place or known station: the first of the dead he revived was one day when he passed by a woman sitting by a grave, weeping: what is the matter with you, O woman? A daughter of mine died: I had no child besides her; and I have pledged to my Lord not to leave this place of mine until I taste what she tasted of death, or Allah revives her for me and I look upon her. What do you think: if you looked upon her, would you be content? Yes.

So he prayed two rak'a, then came and sat by the grave: O so-and-so, rise by permission of the Most Merciful, and come out. The grave stirred: then he called a second time: the grave split, by Allah's permission: then he called a third time: she came out, brushing the dust from her head: why did you delay me? When the first cry came to me, Allah sent me an angel who reconstituted my creation; then the second cry came, and my spirit returned to me; then the third cry came, and I feared it was the cry of the Resurrection: I pulled out my hair, my eyebrows and my eyelashes, from fear of the Resurrection. O my mother: what carried you to have me taste the distress of death twice?

O my mother: be patient and seek reward: I have no need of the world. O spirit of Allah and His word: ask your Lord to return me to the Hereafter, and to lighten for me the distress of death. So he called upon his Lord, and He took her to Himself, and the earth settled upon her. That reached the Jews: their anger against him increased.

We already stated, in the story of Nuh, that Bani Israil asked him to revive for them Sam the son of Nuh: he called upon Allah, and prayed for them: Allah revived him for them: he spoke to them of the ark and its affair, then he called upon Allah and became dust again.

As-Suddi reported, from Abu Salih and Abu Malik, from Ibn Abbas, in an account he mentioned, that a king of the kings of Bani Israil died and was carried upon his throne: Issa came, called upon Allah: Allah revived him for him: the people saw an immense thing and an astonishing sight.

And when Allah said: O Issa ibn Maryam, remember My favor upon you and upon your mother, when I supported you with the holy spirit: you spoke to people in the cradle and in maturity: and when I taught you the Scripture, wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel: and when you create from clay, by My permission, the figure of the bird: you breathe into it, and it becomes, by My permission, a bird: and you heal, by My permission, the born blind and the leper: and when you bring out, by My permission, the dead: and when I restrained Bani Israil from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs: those who disbelieved among them said: this is nothing but evident magic. And when I revealed to the disciples: believe in Me and in My messenger: they said: we believe: and bear witness that we are submissive.

The Most High reminds him of His favor upon him, and His kindness to him, in creating him without a father, but from a mother without a male, and making him a sign for the people, and an indication of the perfection of His power most high: then His sending him after all that. And upon your mother, in His choosing of her and selecting her for this immense favor: when I supported you with the holy spirit, which is Jibril, by casting his spirit to her mother, and his presence with him during his mission, calling people to Allah during your early childhood in your cradle, and your maturity. And when I taught you the Scripture and wisdom, that is, writing and comprehension. You will model its form from clay according to its figure, by My command.

The Most High confirms by mentioning permission for that: to remove any misgiving. You will heal the born blind: some of the early generations said: it is he who is born blind, whom none of the physicians can treat; and the leper: he for whom there is no remedy, who has been afflicted with leprosy and whose cure has become intractable. And you will bring out the dead, that is, from their graves alive, by My permission: what we already mentioned includes the indication that this occurred multiple times, sufficient of it. And when I restrained Bani Israil from you, when you came to them with the clear proofs: those who disbelieved among them said: this is nothing but evident magic: and that was when they intended to crucify him: Allah raised him to Himself, and delivered him from among them: in protection of His noble essence from harm, and in safety for him from perdition.

And when I revealed to the disciples: believe in Me and in My messenger: they said: we believe: and bear witness that we are submissive. It was said: this revelation is a revelation of inspiration: Allah guided them to it and showed them: your Lord revealed to the bees; and We revealed to the mother of Musa: nurse him: and when you fear for him, cast him into the sea: what is meant is a revelation through a messenger: we believe: and bear witness that we are submissive.

Among the favors of Allah upon His servant and His messenger Issa ibn Maryam: that He made for him helpers and supporters who aided him and called with him to the worship of Allah alone without partner: it is He who supported you with His help and with the believers, and brought their hearts together: had you spent all that is on the earth, you could not have brought their hearts together: but Allah brought them together: He is the Mighty, the Wise. And: he will teach him the Scripture and wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel, and he will be a messenger to Bani Israil: I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: I create for you from clay the figure of a bird, then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Allah's permission: and I heal the born blind and the leper, and I raise the dead by Allah's permission: and I tell you what you eat and what you store in your houses. Verily in that is a sign for you, if you are believers.

And confirming what is before me of the Torah: and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you: and I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: so fear Allah, and obey me: verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord: so worship Him: this is a straight path. When Issa sensed their disbelief, he said: who are my helpers toward Allah? The disciples said: we are the helpers of Allah: we believe in Allah: and bear witness that we are submissive. Our Lord, we believe in what You sent down, and we follow the messenger: so write us among the witnesses.

And they schemed, and Allah schemed: and Allah is the best of schemers.

The miracle of every prophet in his time accords with the people of that time: they mentioned that the miracle of Musa accorded with the people of his time: they were skillful magicians: he was thus sent with signs that dazzled the eyes, and before which necks bowed; and when the magicians were expert in the arts of magic and its outcomes, and beheld this brilliant, immense affair that could only issue from one supported by Allah, upon whose hands Allah brought forth the extraordinary in confirmation of him: they embraced Islam swiftly, without hesitation. Likewise Issa ibn Maryam was sent in the era of the naturalists and the sages: he was sent therefore with miracles they could not perform nor find their way to: how could a sage heal the born blind, whose state is worse than the blind, the leper and the blackened; and one with a chronic disease? And how could anyone of creation bring about raising the dead from his grave? This is of what everyone knows to be a miracle proving the truth of the one by whom it came, and the power of the One who sent him.

Likewise Muhammad, upon him the prayers of Allah and His peace, and upon them all, was sent in the era of the eloquent and the rhetoricians: Allah sent down upon him the great Quran, which falsehood does not come to, from before it or behind it: a revelation from a Wise, Praiseworthy One: its wording is miraculous: he challenged men and jinn to bring the like of it, or ten suras like it, or a single sura, and cut them short: they cannot, neither now nor in the future: if they do not, and they never will: and that is because it is the speech of the Creator: and Allah the Most High, nothing resembles Him, neither in His essence, nor in His attributes, nor in His deeds.

The point is that when Issa had established before them the proofs and arguments, most of them persisted in their disbelief, their error, their obstinacy and their tyranny: Allah therefore chose from among them a righteous group, who were for him helpers and aides, undertaking to follow him, support him and advise him sincerely. That was when Bani Israil plotted against him, and denounced him to some of the kings of that era: they resolved to kill him and crucify him: Allah delivered him from them, and raised him to Himself from among them, and cast his likeness upon one of his companions: they took him, killed him and crucified him, believing he was Issa: and they erred in that, and were obstinate against the truth; and many Christians conceded to them what they claimed: and both groups erred in that. And they schemed, and Allah schemed: and Allah is the best of schemers. And the Most High said:

"And when Issa ibn Maryam said: O Bani Israil, verily I am the messenger of Allah to you, confirming what is before me of the Torah: and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad. When he came to them with the clear proofs, they said: this is evident magic. And who is more unjust than one who forges a lie against Allah while he is called to Islam? And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.

They intend to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths: but Allah will perfect His light, though the disbelievers hate it. It is He who sent His messenger with guidance and the religion of truth: to make it prevail over all religion, though the polytheists hate it."

Surat as-Saff, 6-9

"O you who have believed, be helpers of Allah: as Issa ibn Maryam said to the disciples: who are my helpers toward Allah? The disciples said: we are the helpers of Allah: so a party of Bani Israil believed, and a party disbelieved: then We supported those who believed against their enemy: and they became predominant."

Surat as-Saff, 14

Issa is thus the seal of the prophets of Bani Israil: he stood among them as a preacher, and gave them the glad tidings of the seal of the prophets who would come after him: he mentioned his name, and described to them his traits, so that they would recognize him and follow him when they saw him: as an establishment of the proof against them, and as a favor from Allah to them: those who follow the messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Gospel: he commands them the right and forbids them the wrong, and makes lawful for them the good things and forbids them the wicked things, and relieves them of their burden, and the chains that were upon them: so those who believe in him, honor him, support him, and follow the light sent down with him: they are the successful.

Thawr ibn Yazid reported to me: from Khalid ibn Ma'dan: they said: O Messenger of Allah, inform us about yourself: : the invocation of my father Ibrahim, and the glad tidings of Issa: and my mother, when she carried me, saw as if a light came out of her, illuminating the palaces of Busra, in the land of Syria. It was reported from al-Irbad ibn Sariya, and from Abu Umama, from the Prophet, something similar: the invocation of my father Ibrahim: our Lord, and raise up among them a messenger, from among them. And the verse. And when prophethood among Bani Israil ended in Issa, he stood among them as a preacher, and informed them that prophethood had been cut off from them, and that it would be, after him, in the Arab unlettered prophet, the seal of the prophets without restriction: Ahmad, who is Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, of the lineage of Ismail ibn Ibrahim al-Khalil: : when he came to them with the clear proofs, they said: this is evident magic.

The return of the pronoun may be to Issa, and it may return to Muhammad. Then the Most High urged His believing servants to support Islam and its people, and to support His prophet, and to back and assist him in establishing the religion and spreading the call: O you who have believed, be helpers of Allah: as Issa ibn Maryam said to the disciples: who are my helpers toward Allah, that is: who will assist me in the call to Allah? The disciples said: we are the helpers of Allah: and that was in a village called an-Nasira: the Christians were thus named by that. So a party of Bani Israil believed, and a party disbelieved, meaning that when Issa called Bani Israil and others to Allah the Most High, some of them believed and some disbelieved.

Among those who believed in him were the people of Antioch, in their entirety, as more than one of the authors of biographies, histories and tafsir mentioned: he sent to them three messengers: one of them was Sham'un as-Safa: they believed and responded: and these are not the ones mentioned in the sura Yasin, as was established in the story of the people of the town. And others of Bani Israil disbelieved: they are the majority of the Jews: Allah therefore supported those who believed in him against those who disbelieved afterward: they became predominant over them, subduing them: when Allah said: O Issa, verily I will take you, and raise you to Myself, and purify you from those who disbelieved, and place those who follow you above those who disbelieved until the Day of Resurrection. And the verse.

Whoever was nearer to him was thus victorious over whoever was below him; and since the statement of the Muslims about him is the truth without doubt, namely that he is the servant of Allah and His messenger: they were thus predominant over the Christians who made excess about him and flattered him, and placed him above what Allah placed him; and since the Christians, in general, are nearer to the truth about him than what the Jews held, upon them the curse of Allah: the Christians thus subdued the Jews in the eras of laxity, until the era of Islam and its people. And Allah the Most High knows better.

The account of the table spread

"When the disciples said: O Issa ibn Maryam, can your Lord send down upon us a table spread from the heaven? He said: fear Allah, if you are believers. They said: we wish to eat from it, and that our hearts be assured: and that we know that you have told us the truth: and that we be among its witnesses. Issa ibn Maryam said: Allah, our Lord: send down upon us from the heaven a table spread, to be for us a festival, for the first and the last of us: and a sign from You: and provide for us: You are the best of providers.

Allah said: verily, I will send it down upon you: whoever disbelieves among you after that, I will punish him with a punishment with which I will punish no one among the worlds."

Surat al-Maïda, 112-115

We mentioned in the tafsir the athars that came about the descent of the table, from Ibn Abbas, and Salman al-Farisi, and Ammar ibn Yasir, and others of the early generations: their content is that Issa commanded the disciples to fast thirty days; and when they completed them, they asked Issa to send down from the heaven a table spread, that they might eat from it and their hearts be assured thereby, knowing that Allah had accepted their fast and answered their request: and that it be for them a festival, on which they would break their fast on the day of its breaking: and that it suffice the first and the last of them, the rich and the poor. Issa exhorted them concerning that, and feared for them lest they not give thanks, and not fulfill the conditions of the right: they insisted with him that he ask that of his Lord.

When they did not desist, he rose to his place of prayer, wearing a woolen cloth, standing firmly on his two feet, lowering his head, his eyes streaming with tears, humbling himself to Allah in supplication and asking, that they be answered for what they sought: Allah the Most High sent down the table spread from the heaven, and the people watched it descending between two clouds: it drew near little by little, and whenever it approached, Issa asked his Lord to make it a mercy, not a punishment, and to make it a blessing and a safety. It kept drawing near until it settled before Issa, covered with a napkin. Issa rose and uncovered it: in the name of Allah, the best of providers. Upon it were seven fish, and seven loaves, and vinegar, and pomegranates and fruits: and it had an immense fragrance.

He said: be: and it was: then he commanded them to eat from it: we do not eat until you eat: you are the ones who began asking for it. They refused to eat from it first: so he commanded the poor, the needy, the sick and the paralyzed, who were about one thousand three hundred: they ate from it, and everyone with an infirmity, or an affliction, or a chronic disease was healed. The people regretted not eating from it, seeing the healing of the state of those. It would descend once each day: and the people ate from it: the last of them ate as the first ate: it fed about seven thousand.

Then it came down one day after another, like the she-camel of Salih whose milk they drank one day after another. Then Allah commanded Issa to restrict it to the poor, or the needy, excluding the rich: that grieved many of the people, and their hypocrites spoke about it: so it was lifted entirely, and those who spoke about it were transformed into pigs.

Ibn Abi Hatim and Ibn Jarir reported it together: al-Hasan ibn Qaza'a al-Bahili reported to us: Sufyan ibn Habib reported to us: Sa'id ibn Abi Aruba reported to us: from Qatada: from Khilas: from Ammar ibn Yasir who said: the table spread descended from the heaven: bread and meat: and they were commanded not to betray, nor store away, nor set aside for tomorrow: they betrayed, stored away and set aside: so they were transformed into monkeys and pigs. Then Ibn Jarir reported it: from Bundar: from Ibn Abi 'Adi: from Sa'id: from Qatada: from Khilas: from Ammar, as an interrupted report; and this is more sound: and likewise he reported it by the route of Simak: from a man of Bani 'Ijl: from Ammar, as an interrupted report: and that is the correct view. And Allah knows better. And Khilas, concerning Ammar, is a discontinued chain: were this hadith authentic and raised, it would be decisive in this story; because the scholars differed about the table: did it descend or not?

The majority holds that it descended, as these athars indicate, and as is understood from the evident context of the Quran: verily, I will send it down upon you: as Ibn Jarir established. And Allah knows better. Ibn Jarir reported, with an authentic chain to Mujahid, and to al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Basri: it did not descend: they insisted on its descent: whoever disbelieves among you after that, I will punish him with a punishment with which I will punish no one among the worlds.

The Christians do not know the account of the table spread: it is not mentioned in their book, even though its account is among that which the motives urge to transmit. And Allah knows better. We treated the speech on that at length in the tafsir: let it be written from there, and whoever wants to review it, let him look there. To Allah belong the praise and the favor.

Section.

The sayings reported from Issa

A man whose name was lost reported to us: Hajjaj ibn Muhammad reported to us: Abu Hilal Muhammad ibn Sulayman reported to us: from Bakr ibn Abd Allah al-Muzani: the disciples lost their prophet Issa: he had set out toward the sea: they went out seeking him: and when they reached the sea, he was walking on the water: the wave raised him at one moment and set him down at another: and he was covered with a garment, half draped and half fastened, until he reached them. One of them, whom I think was among their best, said: may I come to you, O prophet of Allah? Yes. He placed one of his two feet on the water: alas, I am drowning, O prophet of Allah.

Show me your hand, O small of faith: if the son of Adam had certainty the size of a barley grain, he would walk on the water. Abu Sa'id ibn al-A'rabi reported it: from Ibrahim ibn Abi al-Jahm: from Sulayman ibn Harb: from Abu Hilal: from Bakr, in a similar sense. Then Ibn Abi ad-Dunya said: Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Shaqiq reported to us: Ibrahim ibn al-Ash'ath reported to us: it was said to Issa ibn Maryam: O Issa, by what do you walk on the water? By faith and certainty.

We believe as you believe, and we are certain as you are certain. Walk then. So they walked with him on the wave, and drowned. What is the matter with you?

We feared the wave. Did you not fear the Lord of the wave? He brought them out, then struck the earth with his hand: he grasped it then opened it: in one of his hands was gold, and in the other clay or pebbles: which of the two is sweeter in your hearts? The gold.

They are therefore equal to me. We already stated, in the story of Yahya ibn Zakariyya, from some of the early generations, that Issa wore woolen garments, ate from the leaves of trees, took shelter neither in a dwelling, nor with a family, nor with wealth, and stored nothing for tomorrow. He ate from the spinning of his mother: upon her the prayers of Allah and peace.

Ibn Asakir reported, from ach-Cha'bi: when the Hour was mentioned in the presence of Issa, he would cry out: it does not befit the son of Maryam that the Hour be mentioned in his presence and he keep silent. And from Abd al-Malik ibn Sa'id ibn Abjar: when Issa heard the exhortation, he would cry out the cry of the mother bereaved of her children.

Ma'mar informed us that Issa used to say: Allah, I have come to the morning unable to repel what I dislike, and unable to bring the benefit of what I hope: and the matter is in the hand of another than me: and I am bound by my deed: there is no poor man poorer than me. Allah: do not let my enemy gloat over me, and do not afflict me through my friend, and do not make my trial in my religion, and do not subject me to one who has no mercy on me. No one attains the reality of faith until he does not care about eating of the world. And Issa used to say: I reflected upon creation: and found the one not created more enviable to me than the created.

Ishaq ibn Bishr said: from Hisham ibn Hassan: from al-Hasan: verily, Issa is the chief of the ascetics on the Day of Resurrection: and those who flee by their sins will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection with Issa. And while Issa one day slept on a stone he had made his pillow, having found the sweetness of sleep, Iblis passed by him: O Issa, do you not claim that you desire nothing of the trinkets of the world? This stone is one of the trinkets of the world. Issa rose, took the stone and threw it at him: here it is for you, with the world.

Issa went out to his companions, wearing a woolen cloak, a garment and a turban, barefoot, weeping, unkempt, yellow of color from hunger, dry of lips from thirst: peace be upon you, O Bani Israil: I am the one who lowered the station of the world, by Allah's permission: without wonder and without pride: do you know where my house is? Where is your house, O spirit of Allah? My houses are the mosques, and my perfume is water, and my condiment is hunger, and my lamp is the moon by night: and my prayer in winter toward the sunrises, and my fragrance the plants of the earth: and my clothing wool: and my elegance the fear of the Lord of Might: and my companions the paralyzed and the poor: I come to the morning with nothing, and come to the evening with nothing: and I am pure of heart, rich and abundant: who then is richer than me, and more profitable? Ibn Asakir reported it.

It was reported in the biography of Muhammad ibn al-Walid ibn Aban ibn Hibban, Abu al-Hasan al-'Uqayli al-Misri: Hani' ibn al-Mutawakkil al-Iskandarani reported to us: Haywa ibn Shurayh reported to us: al-Walid ibn Abi al-Walid reported to me: from Shufayy ibn Mati': from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet: Allah the Most High revealed to Issa: O Issa, move from place to place, lest you be known and thus harmed: by My might and My majesty, I will marry you to a thousand houris, and I will give you four hundred years. And this is a strange hadith, raised: and it may be an interrupted report, from the transmission of Shufayy ibn Mati' from Ka'b al-Ahbar, or others of the Israelites. And Allah knows better.

Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak said: from Sufyan ibn Uyayna: Issa said to the disciples: just as the kings left you wisdom, so leave them the world.

Issa said: ask me: for I have a soft heart: and I am small in my own eyes. Isma'il ibn Ayyash said: from Abd Allah ibn Dinan: Issa said: eat barley bread, and drink clear water, and come out of the world safe and secure: verily the sweetness of the world is the bitterness of the Hereafter: and verily the bitterness of the world is the sweetness of the Hereafter: and the servants of Allah are not people of luxury: the worst of you is the scholar who prefers his whim to his knowledge: he wishes that all people be like him. And a similar sense was reported from Abu Hurayra.

Abu Mus'ab said: it reached him that Issa used to say: O Bani Israil: resort to clear water, wild herbs, and barley bread: and beware of wheat bread: for you will never give thanks for it.

Ibn Wahb said: from Sulayman ibn Bilal: from Yahya ibn Sa'id: Issa used to say: pass through the world, and do not inhabit it: the love of the world is the head of every wrong: and the gaze sows desire in the heart. And Wahb ibn al-Ward reported the like: and how much desire has made its people inherit a long sorrow. And from Issa: O weak son of Adam: fear Allah wherever you are, and be in the world a guest: and take the mosques as a house: and teach your eye to weep, your body patience, and your heart reflection: and do not concern yourself with tomorrow's provision: it is a wrong. And from Issa: just as it is not possible for any of you to build a house upon the waves of the sea, let him not take the world as a residence.

You have houses at the edge of floods: and how would a house whose foundations are clay remain upon the water?

Issa ibn Maryam said: the love of the world and the love of the Hereafter do not remain in the heart of a believer, just as water and fire do not remain in a vessel. Ibrahim al-Harbi said: from Dawud ibn Rashid: from Abu Abd Allah the Sufi: Issa said: the seeker of the world is like one who drinks sea water: the more he drinks, the more he thirsts: until it kills him. And it is reported from Issa that the devil is with the world, and his cunning with wealth: and his embellishment with whim, and his grip amid desires. Al-A'mash said: Issa prepared food for his companions and served them: do thus with your notables.

A woman said to Issa: blessed be the womb that carried you, and the breast that nursed you. Blessed is he who reads the Book of Allah and follows it. Blessed is he who weeps at the mention of his wrong, and guards his tongue, and whose house suffices him. Blessed is the eye that slept, without its soul being touched by disobedience, and woke to something other than sin.

And from Malik ibn Dinar: Issa and his companions passed by a carcass: how foul is its smell. And how white are its teeth: he wished to forbid them backbiting. Al-Husayn ibn Abd ar-Rahman reported to us: from Zakariyya ibn 'Adi: Issa ibn Maryam said: O assembly of the disciples, be content with the little of the world along with the safety of religion, just as the people of the world were content with the little of religion along with the safety of the world. And on this the poet says: I see men content with the least of religion, and I do not see them content with the lowly in life.

Be therefore rich through religion from the world of kings, just as the kings enriched themselves by their world against religion.

Abu Mus'ab said: Issa ibn Maryam said: do not speak much without the mention of Allah: your hearts would harden: and the hard heart is far from Allah, but you do not know: and do not look at the sins of the servants as if you were masters: and look at them as if you were servants: spared and tried: so have mercy on the people of trial, and thank Allah for good health.

I heard my father say: from Ibrahim at-Taymi: Issa said to his companions: verily I say to you: whoever seeks the Firdaws: barley bread is for him: and sleeping in the ruins with the dogs is abundant.

Issa said: verily, eating barley with ashes, and sleeping on the ruins with the dogs, is little in the seeking of the Firdaws.

Sufyan informed us: from Mansur: from Salim ibn Abi al-Ja'd: Issa said: work for Allah, and do not work for your bellies: look at these birds: they go out in the morning and return at evening: they neither plow nor reap: and Allah provides for them: we have bellies bigger than the birds. Look at these beasts and donkeys: they go out in the morning and return at evening, they neither plow nor reap: and Allah provides for them.

Safwan ibn Amr said: from Shurayh ibn Ubayd: from Yazid ibn Maysara: the disciples said to the Messiah: O Messiah of Allah, look at the mosque of Allah: how beautiful it is. Amen, amen: Allah will not leave of this mosque a stone standing except that He destroy it by the sins of its people: verily, Allah has no need of gold or silver, nor of these stones that please you: dearer to Allah than them are righteous hearts: and by them Allah keeps the earth standing: and by them Allah lays the earth to ruin when they are otherwise.

The hafiz Abu al-Qasim Ibn Asakir mentioned: Abu Mansur Ahmad ibn Muhammad as-Sufi informed us: A'isha bint al-Hasan ibn Ibrahim al-Warkaniyya informed us: Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Umar ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Haytham reported to us by dictation: al-Walid ibn Aban reported to us by dictation: Ahmad ibn Ja'far ar-Razi reported to us: Suhayl ibn Ibrahim al-Hanzali reported to us: Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Aziz reported to us: from al-Mu'tamir: from Layth: from Mujahid: from Ibn Abbas, from the Prophet: Issa passed by a ruined city: the building marveled him: O Lord: make this city answer me. Allah revealed to the city: O ruined city: answer Issa. The city called out to Issa: my beloved, what do you want of me? What became of your trees?

And your rivers? And your palaces? And where are your inhabitants? My beloved: the promise of your Lord, the truth, has come: my trees have withered, my rivers dried up, my palaces are in ruins, and my inhabitants have died.

And where is their wealth? They amassed it from the lawful and the unlawful, deposited in my belly: to Allah belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth. Issa cried out: I have marveled at three kinds of people: the seeker of the world, while death seeks him; and the builder of palaces, while the grave is his dwelling; and he who laughs with a full mouth, while the Fire is before him. Son of Adam: you will not be sated by abundance, nor will you be content with little: you amass your wealth for one who will not praise you: and you advance toward a Lord who will not excuse you: you are only the servant of your belly and your desire: you only fill your belly when you enter your grave: and you, O son of Adam, see the mass of your wealth in the scale of another.

This is a very strange hadith, and it contains a fine exhortation: we therefore wrote it for that.

Sufyan ath-Thawri said: from his father: from Ibrahim at-Taymi: Issa said: O assembly of the disciples: place your treasures in heaven: for the heart of a man is where his treasure is. Thawr ibn Yazid said: from Abd al-Aziz ibn Dhabyan: Issa ibn Maryam said: whoever learns, teaches and acts will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. It is reported that Issa said: there is no good in knowledge that does not cross with you the valley, nor make the mosque flourish with you.

Ibn Asakir reported, with a strange chain, from Ibn Abbas, raised: Issa said: O assembly of the disciples, do not speak of wisdom to those not worthy of it, or you wrong it: and do not withhold it from its worthy ones, or you wrong them: a matter whose uprightness is clear: follow it; and a matter whose error is clear: avoid it; and a matter over which you differ: refer its knowledge back to Allah. Abd ar-Razzaq said: Ma'mar informed us: from a man: from Ikrima: Issa said: do not cast pearls to the swine: for the swine does nothing with pearls: and do not give wisdom to one who does not want it: for wisdom is better than the pearl: and one who does not want it is worse than the swine. Likewise Wahb and others reported it from him. You are the salt of the earth: if you corrupt, there is no remedy for you: laughter without wonder: and paleness without vigil.

Who is the most trying of people? The slip of the scholar: for when the scholar slips, a great many learned slip by his slip. O evil scholars: you have made the world upon your heads, and the Hereafter beneath your feet: your speech is a cure, and your deed a disease: your likeness is the likeness of the oleander tree: it delights whoever sees it, and kills whoever eats it. Issa said: O evil scholars: you sat at the gates of Paradise: neither do you enter it, nor do you let the poor enter it: the worst of people with Allah is the scholar who seeks the world by his knowledge.

Yahya and Issa met: Issa shook his hand, laughing: he said to him: O son of my maternal aunt: what makes me see you laughing, as if you were safe? What makes me see you frowning, as if you had despaired? The more beloved of you two to me is the better bearer of glad tidings of his companion.

Issa, he and his companions, stopped before a grave, whose occupant was being cast into it: they began mentioning the grave and its narrowness: you were in what is narrower than it, in the wombs of your mothers: when Allah wills to widen, He widens. It has reached me that Issa, whenever he mentioned death, his skin dripped blood.

And the athars of this kind are very many: the hafiz Ibn Asakir brought from them a sound portion: we limited ourselves to this measure, and Allah the Most High is the One granted success to the right.

The raising of Issa to the heaven and the refutation of the Jews and the Christians

"And they schemed, and Allah schemed: and Allah is the best of schemers. When Allah said: O Issa, verily I will take you, and raise you to Myself, and purify you from those who disbelieved, and place those who follow you above those who disbelieved until the Day of Resurrection: then to Me is your return: and I will judge between you concerning that in which you used to differ.

And for their breaking of the covenant, and their disbelief in the signs of Allah, and their killing of the prophets without right, and their saying: our hearts are wrapped: rather, Allah sealed them for their disbelief: so they believe not except a few: and their disbelief, and their saying against Maryam an immense slander: and their saying: verily we killed the Messiah, Issa ibn Maryam, the messenger of Allah: while they did not kill him, nor crucify him: but it was made to resemble him to them: and verily those who differ about him are in doubt about him: they have no knowledge of it, except the following of conjecture: and they certainly did not kill him with certainty: rather Allah raised him to Himself: and Allah is Mighty, Wise: and there is none of the people of the Book but that he will believe in him before his death: and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them."

Surat an-Nisa, 157-159

The Most High informed that He raised him to the heaven after causing him to die in sleep, according to the sound, unequivocal view: and delivered him from those who wished to harm him among the Jews, who denounced him to some of the disbelieving kings of that era. Al-Hasan al-Basri said: his name was Dawud ibn Nura: he ordered his killing and his crucifixion: they besieged him therefore in a house in Bayt al-Maqdis, and that was on the eve of Friday, the night of Saturday: and when the time of their entry came, his likeness was cast upon some of his companions present with him, and Issa was raised from a rooftop of that house to the heaven, while the people of the house watched. The police entered: they found that young man upon whom his likeness had been cast: they took him, believing he was Issa: they crucified him, and placed the thorns upon his head in humiliation of him. And most of the Christians who did not witness the affair of Issa conceded to the Jews that he was crucified: they thereby went astray with a clear, abundant, grave and far astray.

And there is none of the people of the Book but that he will believe in him before his death, that is: after his descent to the earth at the end of time, before the rising of the Hour: for he will descend, kill the pig, break the cross, impose the jizya, and accept only Islam: as we explained by what came concerning it of hadiths, at the tafsir of this noble verse of the sura an-Nisa, and as we shall bring in detail in the book concerning the reports of the Messiah Dajjal: we shall mention what came about the descent of the Messiah, the guided one, from the Lord of Majesty: to kill the Messiah Dajjal, the lying caller to astrayness. And this is the mention of what came in the athars about the manner of his raising to the heaven.

Ahmad ibn Sinan reported to us: Abu Mu'awiya reported to us: from al-A'mash: from al-Minhal ibn Amr: from Sa'id ibn Jubayr: from Ibn Abbas: when Allah willed to raise Issa to the heaven, he came out to his companions, and in the house were twelve men of them, meaning of the disciples: he came out to them from a spring in the house: verily, among you is one who will disbelieve in me twelve times after believing in me: and whoever has my likeness cast upon him will be killed in my place, and will be with me in my rank. A young man, the youngest of them in age, stood: sit. Then he repeated it to them: the young man stood: sit. Then he repeated it to them: the young man stood: it is I.

You are that one. The likeness of Issa was cast upon him, and Issa was raised from a rooftop in the house to the heaven. The search came from the Jews: they took the likeness, killed him, then crucified him: so some of them disbelieved twelve times after believing in him: and they divided into three sects: Allah was among us as He willed, then he ascended to the heaven. These are the Jacobites.

He was among us the son of Allah as He willed, then Allah raised him to Himself: these are the Nestorians. He was among us the servant of Allah and His messenger as Allah willed, then Allah raised him to Himself: these are the Muslims. The two disbelieving ones then allied against the Muslim one: they killed her, and Islam remained effaced until Allah sent Muhammad. And that is the saying of the Most High: We supported those who believed against their enemy: and they became predominant.

And this chain is authentic up to Ibn Abbas, according to the condition of Muslim; and an-Nasa'i reported it: from Abu Kurayb: from Abu Mu'awiya in a similar sense; and Ibn Jarir reported it: from Salm ibn Junada: from Abu Mu'awiya: and likewise mentioned more than one of the early generations. Among those who mentioned it at length is Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar: he made Issa the one who asked Allah to defer his term, meaning to convey the message, and complete the call, and bring many people into the religion of Allah. And he had, among the disciples, twelve men: Butrus; and Ya'qub ibn Zabdi; and Yahna the brother of Ya'qub; and Andrawus; and Filiqqus; and Abarthalma; and Matta; and Tumas; and Ya'qub ibn Halqiya; and Taddawus; and Fata'; and Yudus Zakariyya Yawta: and this is the one who guided the Jews to Issa. Ibn Ishaq said: and there was among them another man named Sarjis: the Christians concealed him: and he is the one upon whom the likeness of the Messiah was cast: he was crucified in his place.

And some of the Christians claim that the one who was crucified in place of the Messiah, upon whom his likeness was cast, is Yudus Zakariyya Yawta. And Allah knows better.

Ad-Dahhak said: Issa left Sham'un as his successor: and the Jews killed Yudus Zakariyya Yawta, upon whom the likeness was cast. Muhammad ibn al-Jahm reported to us: I heard al-Farra' say concerning His saying: and they schemed, and Allah schemed: and Allah is the best of schemers: Issa was absent from his aunt for a time: then he came to her: the chief of the Jewish Goliath rose, and struck out against Issa: until they gathered at the door of his house: they broke the door, and the chief of the Goliath entered to take Issa: I have not seen him. He had with him a drawn sword: you are Issa. Allah cast the likeness of Issa upon him: they took him, killed him, then crucified him: they did not kill him, nor crucify him: but it was made to resemble him to them.

Ibn Jarir said: Ibn Humayd reported to us: Ya'qub al-Qummi reported to us: from Harun ibn Antara: from Wahb ibn Munabbih: Issa came, with seventeen of the disciples, into a house: they surrounded them: when they entered upon them, Allah fashioned them all in the image of Issa: you have bewitched us: show us Issa, or we will kill you all. He said: who among you buys his soul today for Paradise? It is I. He came out to them: I am Issa: and Allah had fashioned him in the image of Issa: they took him, killed him, then crucified him: from then, it was made to resemble him to them: and they thought they had killed Issa: and the Christians thought likewise that he was Issa: and Allah raised Issa on that day.

Al-Muthanna reported to us: Ishaq reported to us: Isma'il ibn Abd al-Karim reported to us: when Allah made known to Issa ibn Maryam that he would depart the world, he was distressed by death, and it grieved him: gather to me tonight: for I have a need of you. When they gathered to him in the night, he served them: and when they finished eating, he began washing their hands and purifying them with his hand, and wiping their hands with his garments: they found that very grave and disliked it: whoever returns to me anything tonight, of what I do: he is not of me, and I am not of him. As for what I did with you tonight, of serving you at the food, and washing your hands with my hand: let it be an example for you toward me: since you see that I am the best of you: let none of you exalt himself over another: and let one of you offer his soul for another, as I offered my soul for you. As for my need for which I sought your help: pray to Allah for me, and strive in supplication that He defer my term.

When they applied themselves to supplication and intended to strive, sleep overcame them until they could no longer supplicate: glory to Allah: can you not be patient with me for one night, and help me in it? By Allah, we do not know what we shall have: and by Allah, we used to stay up late talking much: and tonight we cannot manage a conversation: and we only intend supplication when something comes between us and him. The shepherd is taken away, and the flock disperses. He began to say words like this, lamenting himself: in truth, one of you will disbelieve in me before the cock crows three times: and one of you will sell me for a few dirhams: and one of you will eat my eighth.

They went out and scattered: and the Jews were searching for him: they took Sham'un, one of the disciples: this one is of his companions. I am not his companion: they left him: then others took him: he denied likewise: then he heard the voice of a cock, and wept, and it grieved him. When morning came, one of the disciples went to the Jews: what will you give me if I guide you to the Messiah? They set for him thirty dirhams: he took them, and guided them to him.

And his likeness had been made to resemble to them before that: they took him, and took his pledge: and bound him with the rope, and began leading him: you used to revive the dead, and rebuke the devil, and heal the mad: will you not save yourself from this rope? And they spat upon him: and cast the thorns upon him: until they brought him to the wood upon which they wished to crucify him: Allah raised him to Himself: they crucified what was made to resemble him to them: he remained seven hours. Then his mother, and the woman whom Issa used to treat, whom Allah healed of madness, came weeping to where the crucified was: Issa came to them: why do you weep? For you.

Verily, Allah has raised me to Himself: and nothing befell me but good: and this is a thing made to resemble them: command the disciples to meet me at such and such a place. They met him at that place, eleven: and missing was the one who sold him and guided the Jews to him: he regretted what he had done: he strangled himself and killed himself. Had he repented, Allah would have turned to him. Yahna: he is with you: depart then: every human among you will rise in the morning speaking the tongue of a people: let him warn them, and call them.

And this is a strange, wondrous chain: and it is sounder than what the Christians mentioned, may Allah curse them: that the Messiah came to Maryam while she sat weeping by his trunk: he showed her the place of the nails in his body: and told her that his spirit was raised, and that his body was crucified: and this is slander, a lie, an invention, a falsification, a change, and a false addition in the Gospel, contrary to the truth and the demand of transmission.

The hafiz Ibn Asakir reported, by the route of Yahya ibn Habib, what reached him: Maryam requested from the house of the king, after the crucified had been crucified seven days, and she thought he was her son, that his body be brought down: they granted that, and he was buried there. Will you not come with us to visit the grave of the Messiah? They set out: and when they drew near the grave: will you not cover yourself? Who would cover?

From this man who is by the grave. I see no one. Maryam hoped it was Jibril, though her covenant with him was long past: she asked the mother of Yahya, and she went toward the grave: when she drew near the grave, Jibril said to her: O Maryam, where do you wish to go? I visit the grave of the Messiah, and greet him, and renew a covenant with him.

O Maryam: this is not the Messiah: Allah has raised the Messiah, and purified him from those who disbelieved: but this young man upon whom his likeness was cast was crucified and killed in his place: and the sign of that is that his people have lost him: they do not know what became of him: they weep over him: when such and such day comes, come at such and such a time: you will meet the Messiah. She returned to her sister, and Jibril ascended: she informed her of Jibril, and of what he said to her about the appointed time. When that day came, she went: she found Issa at the place: when he saw her, he hastened to her, bent over her, kissed her head, and kept invoking for her as he used to do: O my mother: the people did not kill me: but Allah raised me to Him: and He permitted me to meet you: and death will come to you soon: so be patient, and remember Allah. Then Issa ascended: she never met him again, until she died.

And it has reached me that Maryam lived after Issa five years, and died when she was fifty-five years old: and Allah was pleased with her.

The age of Issa on the day of his raising was thirty-four years. Verily, the people of Paradise will enter it without body hair, without beard, with khol on their eyes: regarding the birth of Issa, and the beauty of Yousouf. Likewise Hammad ibn Salama said: from Ali ibn Zayd: from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib: Issa was raised when he was thirty-three years old.

As for the hadith reported by al-Hakim in the Sahih, and by Ya'qub ibn Sufyan al-Fasawi in the Sahih: from Sa'id ibn Abi Maryam: from Nafi' ibn Yazid: from Umara ibn Ghaziyya: from Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn Uthman: that his mother Fatima bint al-Husayn informed me: Fatima informed me that the Messenger of Allah informed her that there was no prophet after whom came a prophet, except that the later one lived half the life of the one before: Issa ibn Maryam lived one hundred twenty years: so I see myself going at the start of sixty. That is the wording of al-Fasawi: it is a strange hadith.

The sound view is that Issa did not reach that age: what is meant by it is the duration of his stay in his community: as Sufyan ibn Uyayna reported: from Amr ibn Dinan: from Yahya ibn Ja'da: Fatima said: the Messenger of Allah said to me: verily Issa ibn Maryam remained among Bani Israil forty years: and this chain is discontinued. Jarir and ath-Thawri said: Issa remained among his people forty years. And it is reported from the commander of the faithful Ali that Issa was raised on the twenty-second night of Ramadan: and on the like of that night Ali died, five days after his being stabbed. Ad-Dahhak reported, from Ibn Abbas, that when Issa was raised to the heaven a cloud came to him, drawing near until he sat upon it: and Maryam came to him, bade him farewell and wept: this is a sign between you and me on the Day of Resurrection.

He cast his leadership to Sham'un: and his mother kept bidding him farewell with her finger: she pointed with it toward him until he vanished from her. And she loved him with an intense love: because his love toward her was complete, from both sides of the father and the mother: for he has no father: and she never left him, traveling or resident.

I saw death as within an hour: and how then with the interval for which the gathering has its appointment.

Ishaq ibn Bishr mentioned, from Mujahid ibn Jabr: that the Jews, when they crucified that man made to resemble him, thinking him the Messiah: and most of the Christians conceded to them out of ignorance: seized his companions with killing, beating and imprisonment: their matter reached the master of the Rum, who was the king of Damascus at that time: verily, the Jews have seized the companions of a man who told them he was the messenger of Allah, who raised the dead, healed the born blind and the leper, and did wonders: they fell upon him and killed him: and they humiliated his companions and imprisoned them.

So he sent: they were brought, among them Yahya ibn Zakariyya, and Sham'un, and a group: he asked them about the matter of the Messiah: they informed him: he followed their religion, and elevated their word: the truth prevailed over the Jews, and the word of the Christians triumphed over them: he sent to the crucified: he was taken down from his trunk: and the trunk upon which this man was crucified was brought: he magnified it: from then the Christians magnified the cross: and from here entered the religion of Christianity among the Rum. And in this there is scrutiny from several angles: one of them is that Yahya ibn Zakariyya is a prophet: he would not endorse that the crucified is Issa: for he is preserved, and knows what happened according to the truth. The second: that the Rum did not enter the religion of the Messiah until after three hundred years: and that was in the time of Qustantin ibn Qastas, builder of the city attributed to him, as we shall mention.

The third: that the Jews, when they crucified that man, then cast him with his wood, made its place a dumping ground for refuse and impurity, and the carcasses of dead animals and filth: and it remained so until the time of the mentioned Qustantin: his mother Hélène, of Harran origin, of the Rum, attended to it: she removed it from there, believing it was the Messiah: and they found the wood upon which the crucified was crucified: they mentioned that no one with an affliction touched it without being healed. Allah knows better therefore whether this happened or not: and was it because that man who offered his soul was a righteous man, or was this a trial and a tribulation for the community of the Christians on that day? Until they magnified that wood, and covered it with gold and pearls: and from then they took crosses, sought blessing through their form, and kissed them: may Allah curse them.

The mother of the king, Hélène, ordered: those refuse were removed: and a church immense, adorned with all kinds of ornament, was built in their place: and it is the famous one today in the land of Bayt al-Maqdis: al-Qumama, in view of what was there: and they call it al-Qiyama, meaning that from which the body of the Messiah will rise. Then Hélène ordered that the refuse of the land, its dust and its filth be placed upon the rock which is the qibla of the Jews: it remained so until Umar ibn al-Khattab conquered Bayt al-Maqdis: he swept away the refuse from it with his garment, and purified it of filth and impurities: and he did not place the mosque behind it, but before it, where the Messenger of Allah prayed, on the night of the night journey, with the prophets: and it is al-Aqsa.

The qualities of Issa, his virtues and his merits.

The Messiah ibn Maryam is only a messenger: messengers have passed before him: and his mother was a truthful woman. It was said: the Messiah was named thus for his rubbing of the earth: namely his wandering upon it, and his fleeing with his religion from the tribulations of that era: because of the intensity of the Jews' denial of him, and their slander against him and his mother; or because his two feet were anointed. We traced their footsteps by Issa ibn Maryam, confirming what was before him of the Torah: and We gave him the Gospel: in it guidance and light. And the Most High said: and We gave Issa ibn Maryam the clear proofs: and We supported him with the holy spirit.

And the verses on that are very many. Already stated is what is established in the Sahihs: there is no newborn except that the devil pierces his side when he is born: he cries out at the touch: except Maryam and her son: the devil went to pierce him: he pierced only the veil. And the hadith of Umayr ibn Hani', from Junada, from Ubada, from the Messenger of Allah, was already mentioned: whoever testifies that there is no deity but Allah, alone without partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger, and that Issa is the servant of Allah and His messenger, and His word which He cast to Maryam and a spirit from Him, and that Paradise is true and the Fire is true: Allah will make him enter Paradise for what was of deed: reported by al-Bukhari, and this is his wording, and by Muslim.

Al-Bukhari and Muslim reported, from the hadith of ach-Cha'bi: from Abu Burda ibn Abi Musa, from his father: the Messenger of Allah said: when a man marries his maidservant, educates her well, teaches her well, then frees her and marries her, he has two rewards: and when a man believes in Issa ibn Maryam, then believes in me, he has two rewards: and the servant, when he fears his Lord and obeys his masters, has two rewards. This is the wording of al-Bukhari.

Ibrahim ibn Musa reported to us: Hisham informed us: from Ma'mar; and Mahmud reported to me: Abd ar-Razzaq reported to us: Ma'mar informed us: from az-Zuhri: Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib informed me: from Abu Hurayra: the Prophet said, on the night he was taken on the night journey: : I met Musa: : he described him: and there was a man of muddled complexion, with lank hair, as if from the men of Shanu'a. And I met Issa: and the Prophet described him: : of medium height, reddish, as if he had come out of the bath: he meant the bath of the hammam: and I saw Ibrahim, and I resemble his son more. And the hadith was already given in the story of Ibrahim and Musa. Muhammad ibn Kathir reported to us: Isra'il informed us: from Uthman ibn al-Mughira: from Mujahid: from Ibn Umar: the Prophet said: I saw Issa, and Musa, and Ibrahim: as for Issa: he is reddish, curly-haired, broad-chested: and as for Musa: he is dark, corpulent, straight-statured, as if from the men of az-Zutt. Al-Bukhari alone reported it.

Ibrahim ibn al-Mundhir reported to us: Abu Damra reported to us: Musa ibn Uqba reported to us: from Nafi': Abd Allah ibn Umar said: the Prophet mentioned one day, in the midst of the people, the Messiah Dajjal: : verily Allah is not one-eyed: but the Messiah Dajjal is blind in the right eye: his eye is like a floating grape: and Allah showed him that night, near the Kaaba, in a dream: and there was a man of the finest appearance among dark-skinned men: the locks of his hair falling between his shoulders: with lank hair: his head dripping water: placing his hands on the shoulders of two men: and he was circumambulating the House: who is this? The Messiah ibn Maryam. Then he saw behind him a man with curly, crisp hair, blind in the right eye: the most resembling of those he had seen to Ibn Qatan: placing his hand on the shoulder of a man, circumambulating the House: who is this? The Messiah Dajjal.

And Muslim reported it from the hadith of Musa ibn Uqba. Then al-Bukhari said: Ubayd Allah ibn Nafi' corroborated him: then he brought it by the route of az-Zuhri: from Salim: from Ibn Umar. And Ibn Qatan is a man of Khuzay'a: who perished in the jahiliyya. He thus showed, upon him the prayers of Allah and peace, the qualities of the two Messiahs: the Messiah of guidance and the Messiah of astrayness: so that this one is known when he descends, and the believers believe in him: and the other is known, and the unitarians beware of him.

Abd Allah ibn Muhammad reported to us: Abd ar-Razzaq reported to us: Ma'mar informed us: from Hammam ibn Munabbih: from Abu Hurayra who said: Issa ibn Maryam saw a man stealing: he said to him: did you steal? No, by the One who has no deity besides Him. I believed in Allah: and I called my eye a liar. Likewise Muslim reported it: from Muhammad ibn Rafi': from Abd ar-Razzaq.

'Affan reported to us: Hammad ibn Salama reported to us: from Humayd at-Tawil: from al-Hasan and others: from Abu Hurayra: and I know it only from the Prophet: Issa saw a man stealing: he said: O so-and-so, did you steal? No, by Allah, I did not steal. I believed in Allah: and I called my sight a liar. And this indicates a pure wisdom: as he administered the oath to that man, thinking that no one swears by the greatness of Allah falsely, concerning what he had witnessed of him openly: he accepted his excuse, and turned back on himself: I believed in Allah. You told the truth: and I called my sight a liar: because of your oath.

Muhammad ibn Yusuf reported to us: Sufyan reported to us: from al-Mughira ibn Nu'man: from Sa'id ibn Jubayr: from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah said: : as We began the first creation, We will repeat it: a promise upon Us: verily, We are doers: the first of creation to be clothed is Ibrahim: then men will be taken from my companions of the right and of the left: they are my companions. They have not ceased to turn back on their heels since I left them: and I was a witness over them as long as I was among them: then when You took me, You were the Watcher over them: and You are a witness over everything. If You punish them, they are Your servants: and if You forgive them, verily You are the Mighty, the Wise. Muslim alone reported it in this way.

Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr al-Humaydi reported to us: Sufyan reported to us: Ubayd Allah ibn Abd Allah informed me: from Ibn Abbas: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: do not exaggerate me, as the Christians exaggerated Issa ibn Maryam: for I am only a servant: the servant of Allah and His messenger.

Muslim ibn Ibrahim reported to us: Jarir ibn Hazim reported to us: from Muhammad ibn Sirin: from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet: none spoke in the cradle but three: Issa, and Jurayj: : he was praying when his mother came to him and called him: shall I answer her, or pray? Allah: cause him to die without seeing the faces of the immoral women. Jurayj was in his hermitage: a woman presented herself to him and spoke to him: he refused: she went to a shepherd and allowed him herself: she bore a boy: from whom? From Jurayj.

They came to him, broke his hermitage, brought him down and insulted him: he performed ablution and prayed: who is your father, O boy? Such a one, the shepherd. Shall I rebuild your hermitage in gold? No, only in clay.

And a woman was nursing her son among Bani Israil: a rider with a whip passed by her: Allah: make my son like him. She left her breast, and turned toward the rider: Allah: do not make me like him. As if I see the Prophet sucking his finger: : then a maidservant passed: she said: Allah: do not make my son like this one. She left her breast: Allah: make me like her.

Why that? The rider is a tyrant among tyrants: you stole, and committed adultery. And I did not.

Abu al-Yaman reported to us: Shu'ayb reported to us: from az-Zuhri: Abu Salama informed me: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: : I am the nearest of people to the son of Maryam: and the prophets are sons of different fathers: and there is no prophet between me and him. Al-Bukhari alone reported it in this way: and Ibn Hibban reported it in the Sahih: from the hadith of Abu Dawud al-Hafari: from ath-Thawri: from Abu az-Zinad: from al-A'raj: from Abu Salama: from Abu Hurayra.

Waki' reported to us: Sufyan, who is ath-Thawri, reported to us: from Abu az-Zinad: from al-A'raj: from Abu Hurayra: the Messenger of Allah said: I am the nearest of people to Issa: and the prophets are brothers, sons of different fathers: and there is no prophet between me and Issa: and this is an authentic chain according to their two conditions: and they did not report it in this way.

Ahmad reported it: from Abd ar-Razzaq: from Ma'mar: from Hammam: from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet, in a similar sense: and Ibn Hibban reported it from the hadith of Abd ar-Razzaq, in a similar sense.

Yahya reported to us: from Ibn Abi Aruba: Qatada reported to us: from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Adam: from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet: the prophets are brothers by different fathers: and their religion is one: and their mothers are various: and I am the nearest of people to Issa ibn Maryam: because there is no prophet between me and him: and he will descend: when you see him, recognize him: he is a man of medium height, tending toward redness and whiteness: of complexion as if his head dripped, even if wetness does not touch him: between the two nipples: he will break the cross: and kill the pig: and impose the jizya: and suspend the religions: until, in his time, all religions perish except Islam: and Allah will make perish, in his time, the Messiah Dajjal the liar: and security will settle on the earth: so that camels graze with lions together: and tigers with cows: and wolves with sheep: and children and youths will play with snakes: none harming another: he will remain as long as Allah wills him to remain: then he will die: the Muslims will pray over him and bury him.

Ahmad reported it thereafter: from 'Affan: from Hammam: from Qatada: from Abd ar-Rahman: from Abu Hurayra: he mentioned a similar sense: he will remain forty years: then he will die, and the Muslims will pray over him. Abu Dawud reported it: from Hudba ibn Khalid: from Hammam ibn Yahya in a similar sense. Hisham ibn Urwa reported: from Salih, the freed slave of Abu Hurayra, from him: that the Messenger of Allah said: : he will remain on the earth forty years: and the explanation of his descent at the end of time will come in the book: as we developed that also in the tafsir, at the saying of the Most High in the sura an-Nisa: and there is none of the people of the Book but that he will believe in him before his death: and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them; and His saying: and verily he is a knowledge of the Hour. And the verse.

He will descend on the white minaret of Damascus, while the morning prayer is established: advance, O spirit of Allah: and pray. No: some of you over others: emirs: as an honor Allah grants this community. Issa will say to him: the prayer was established only for you. He will then pray behind him, then ride, with the Muslims, in search of the Messiah Dajjal: he will catch him at the gate of Ludd: and kill him with his noble hand.

We mentioned that hope strengthened when this eastern minaret of Damascus was built, which is of white stones: and it was built also with the wealth of the Christians when they burned the one that was demolished and its surroundings: Issa ibn Maryam will descend upon it: kill the pig, break the cross: and accept from no one but Islam: and he will make the pilgrimage from the faq of ar-Rawha, as a pilgrim or an 'umra performer, or for both: and he will remain forty years, then die: and he will be buried, as it is said, in the prophetic chamber, beside the Messenger of Allah and his two companions. And a hadith came concerning that, mentioned by Ibn Asakir at the end of the biography of the Messiah in his book: from A'isha, raised: that he will be buried with the Messenger of Allah, and Abu Bakr, and Umar, in the prophetic chamber: but its chain does not stand.

Zayd ibn Akhzam at-Ta'i reported to us: Abu Qutayba, that is Salm ibn Qutayba, reported to us: Abu Mawdud al-Madani reported to us: Uthman ibn ad-Dahhak reported to us: from Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Abd Allah ibn Salam: from his father: from his grandfather: the description of Muhammad is written in the Torah: and Issa ibn Maryam will be buried with him. And there remains in the House the place of a grave. This is a good hadith. He said so. And the correct one is ad-Dahhak ibn Uthman al-Madani. This hadith does not stand in my view: and it is not corroborated.

Al-Bukhari reported: from Yahya ibn Hammad: from Abu Awana: from 'Asim al-Ahwal: from Abu Uthman an-Nahdi: from Salman: : the interval between Issa and Muhammad is six hundred years. Five hundred sixty years. Five hundred forty-four years. Four hundred thirty and some years. And the famous is six hundred years. Six hundred twenty years by the lunar calendar, making six hundred by the solar. And Allah knows better.

Ibn Hibban said in the Sahih: mention of the duration during which the community of Issa remained upon his guidance. Abu Ya'la reported to us: Abu Hammam reported to us: al-Walid ibn Muslim reported to us: from al-Haytham ibn Humayd: from al-Wadhin ibn 'Ata': from Nasr ibn 'Alqama: from Jubayr ibn Nufayr: from Abu ad-Darda: the Messenger of Allah said: Allah took Dawud from among his companions: they were not tried nor changed: and the companions of the Messiah remained upon his sunna and his guidance two hundred years. And this is a very strange hadith: even though Ibn Hibban authenticated it. Ibn Jarir mentioned, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, that Issa, before being raised, enjoined the disciples to call the people to the worship of Allah alone without partner: and he assigned each one of them to a group of people, in a region of the regions of Syria and the east, and the lands of the west: they mentioned that every human among them began speaking the tongue of those to whom the Messiah sent him.

Luka, and Matta, and Murqus, and Yuhanna. And between these four Gospels there is much divergence, for each copy and copy: and many additions and omissions in relation to the others: and these four: among them two who reached the Messiah and saw him: namely Matta and Yuhanna: and among them two of the companions of his companions. And Allah knows better. And the two are Murqus and Luka.

Dina, and he was hiding in a cave inside the eastern gate, near the church of the Crucified: for fear of Boulus the Jew: who was a wrongdoer, a spoliator, hateful of the Messiah: and when he brought him back. And he had shaved the head of the nephew when he believed in the Messiah: and circled him in the town: then stoned him until he died. Then when Boulus heard that the Messiah had set out toward Damascus, he prepared his sword and went out to kill him: he met him at Kawkaba: and when he faced the companions of the Messiah, an angel came to him: he struck his face with the edge of his wing: he blinded him: when he saw that, faith in the Messiah settled in his soul: he came to him: and apologized for what he had done: and believed in him: he accepted from him: and he asked him to wipe his eyes: so that Allah restore his sight: go to Dina: he is at Damascus, at the end of the elongated market of the east: he invokes for you.

He came to him: and he invoked: his sight was restored to him: and the faith of Boulus in the Messiah, namely that he is the servant of Allah and His messenger, became beautiful: and a church was built in his name: and it is the church of Boulus famous in Damascus, from the era of its conquest by the Companions, until it was destroyed in the era we shall bring: Allah the Most High willing.

Section.

The companions of the Messiah differed after his raising to the heaven: concerning him, upon statements, as Ibn Abbas and others of the imams of the early generations said: We supported those who believed against their enemy: and they became predominant. Ibn Abbas and others said: some of them said: he was among us the servant of Allah and His messenger: then he was raised to the heaven. He is Allah. He is the son of Allah.

The first is therefore the truth: and the other two statements are immense disbelief: then the parties differed among themselves: so woe to those who disbelieved, from the scene of a great day.

And they differed in the transmission of the Gospels upon four statements: between addition, omission, falsification and change: then three hundred years after the Messiah came the great calamity and the immense trial: the four patriarchs differed, and all the bishops, priests, deacons and monks concerning the Messiah, upon multiple statements that cannot be counted nor delimited: they gathered and arbitrated to the king Qustantin, builder of Constantinople: and they were the first council: the king turned therefore to the statement of the largest group that had agreed upon a statement of those opinions: they were named the Malaika: he refuted and cast out those who contradicted them: and the sect following Abd Allah ibn Adyus remained alone: he who firmly established that Issa is a servant among the servants of Allah, and a messenger among His messengers: they settled therefore in the plains and the deserts: and built hermitages, convents and cells: and were content with the ascetic life: and did not mingle with those religions and sects: and the Malaika built the immense churches: they borrowed what was of the building of the Greeks: and turned their mihrabs toward the east: whereas they were toward the north, toward the Ram.

Explanation of the building of Bayt Lahm and al-Qumama.

And the king Qustantin built Bayt Lahm on the site of the birth of the Messiah: and his mother Hélène built al-Qumama: that is, upon the grave of the crucified, to whom they concede with the Jews that he is the Messiah: while these and those disbelieved: and they laid down the laws and the rulings: among them one contrary to the ancient religion, which is the Torah: and they made lawful things that are forbidden by the text of the Torah: among them the pig: and they prayed toward the east: whereas the Messiah prayed only toward the rock of Bayt al-Maqdis: and likewise all the prophets after Musa, and Muhammad the seal of the prophets, prayed toward it for sixteen or seventeen months after his migration to Medina: then it was turned to the Kaaba which Ibrahim al-Khalil built: and they decorated the churches, which were not decorated before that: and they laid down the creed their children, women and men guard: which they call the Amana: and which in reality is the greatest disbelief and treachery.

And all the Melkites and the Nestorians are the people of Nestorius, people of the second council: and the Jacobites are the people of Ya'qub al-Barad'i, people of the third council: they believe this creed: and differ in its interpretation: and here I relate it: and the one who relates disbelief is not a disbeliever for what he discloses, according to what it contains, of the pretentiousness of words and the abundance of disbelief and corruption, leading its holder to the Fire of flames: they say therefore: we believe in one deity, governing all, creator of the heavens and the earth: of all that is seen, and all that is not seen: and in one Lord, Yashu' al-Masih son of Allah: the only one, begotten of the Father before the ages: light of light: true deity from true deity: begotten, not created: equal to the Father in essence: through whom all things came to be, for our sake, we humans: and for our salvation he descended from heaven: and became incarnate of the holy spirit: and of the virgin Maryam: and became human: and was crucified in the time of Malatis the Nabatean: and suffered and was buried: and rose on the third day, as in the books: and ascended to heaven: and sat at the right of the Father: and also: he will come in his body: to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom has no end: and the holy spirit, the life-giving Lord, proceeding from the Father:

with the Father and the Son he is worshipped: and in the glory of him who speaks in the prophets: in one relation, gathering, holy, catholic: and he acknowledges one baptism for the remission of sins: and awaits the resurrection of the dead: and the life of the eternity to come: be it so: amen.