• Jews Violating The Covenant,

• Their Accusing Jesus And His Mother Mary,

• The Truth Concerning The Crucifixion Of Jesus.

An-Nisa Verses 153 – 162

يَسْأَلُكَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ أَنْ تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْهِمْ كِتَابًا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فَقَدْ سَأَلُوا مُوسَىٰ أَكْبَرَ مِنْ ذَٰلِكَ فَقَالُوا أَرِنَا اللَّهَ جَهْرَةً فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الصَّاعِقَةُ بِظُلْمِهِمْ ثُمَّ اتَّخَذُوا الْعِجْلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ فَعَفَوْنَا عَنْ ذَٰلِكَ وَآتَيْنَا مُوسَىٰ سُلْطَانًا مُبِينًا

“The people of the Book ask thee (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) to get descended upon them a book from heaven; so indeed they had demanded of Moses (a) greater (thing) than that, for they said “Show us God manifestly” whereupon seized them a rumbling for their wickedness; Then they took a calf (for a god) even after what clear signs had come unto them, but (even then) We pardoned them (for) this; and We gave Moses a clear authority.” (4:153)

وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَهُمُ الطُّورَ بِمِيثَاقِهِمْ وَقُلْنَا لَهُمُ ادْخُلُوا الْبَابَ سُجَّدًا وَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ لَا تَعْدُوا فِي السَّبْتِ وَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُمْ مِيثَاقًا غَلِيظًا

“And We lifted up the Mountain over them at their covenant and said We unto them “Enter the door prostrating” and said We unto them “Exceed not (Our limits) in the Sabath1(day)” and We took from them a firm Covenant.” (4:154)

فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِمْ مِيثَاقَهُمْ وَكُفْرِهِمْ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَقَتْلِهِمُ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَقَوْلِهِمْ قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌ بَلْ طَبَعَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهَا بِكُفْرِهِمْ فَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا

“So for their breaking their covenant and their denial of the signs of God, and their slaying the apostles unjustly and their saying “Our hearts are covered;” Nay! God hath set a seal upon them for their disbelief, so they believe not but a little2.” (4:155)

وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَانًا عَظِيمًا

“And for their disbelief and for their utterance against Mary a grievous calumny.” (4:156)

وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّا قَتَلْنَا الْمَسِيحَ عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَٰكِنْ شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ لَفِي شَكٍّ مِنْهُ مَا لَهُمْ بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلَّا اتِّبَاعَ الظَّنِّ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًا

“And for their saying (in boast) “Verily we have slain the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Apostle of God;” But they slew him not, and they crucified3him not but (it4) became dubious5unto them; and indeed those who differ therein are only in doubt about it they have no knowledge about the (real) matter, pursuing (only) a conjecture; and certainly, they slew him not.” (4:157)

بَلْ رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَيْهِ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًا

“Nay! God raised6(lifted) him up unto Himself; And God is Mighty, Wise!” (4:158)

وَإِنْ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ إِلَّا لَيُؤْمِنَنَّ بِهِ قَبْلَ مَوْتِهِ وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا

“And there shall not be any one of the people of the book, but he must certainly believe in him7before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection, he (Jesus) will be a witness against them.” (4:159)

فَبِظُلْمٍ مِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ طَيِّبَاتٍ أُحِلَّتْ لَهُمْ وَبِصَدِّهِمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا

“For the iniquity from those who Judaize, we did forbid them those good things which had been made lawful for them (before), and for their obstructing many (people) from the path of God.” (4:160)

وَأَخْذِهِمُ الرِّبَا وَقَدْ نُهُوا عَنْهُ وَأَكْلِهِمْ أَمْوَالَ النَّاسِ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ مِنْهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا

“And (for) their taking interest8, though indeed forbidden were they against it, and their devouring people’s property wrongfully; and We have (got) prepared for the disbelievers from among them a painful torment.” (4:161)

لَٰكِنِ الرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ مِنْهُمْ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وَالْمُقِيمِينَ الصَّلَاةَ وَالْمُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ أُولَٰئِكَ سَنُؤْتِيهِمْ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا

“But the well-grounded in knowledge among them and the believers (who) believe in what hath been sent down unto thee9and what hath been sent down10(unto Our apostles) before thee, and the establishers11of prayer, and the givers of the poor-rate12(charity), and the believers in God and the Last Day13(of Judgment); These (it is whom) soon We will give a great recompense.” (4:162)

Commentary

Verse 156

The calumny referred to here is the Jewish accusation of Mary, of fornication. According to ‘the Jewish Life of Jesus’ the man about whom the Jews accused Mary, was a Jew named Panther.

Verse 157

But for the purposeful misinterpretation of the facts about the event, by a commentator, this Verse needs no elaborate explanation for it gives the clearest meaning to every unprejudiced reader. This Verse clearly refutes the Christian belief that Jesus was killed by Jews by crucifixion on the cross. It is declared here in this Verse in clearest words that the Jews did not kill Jesus (by God’s plan the Jews were not allowed to kill him) and the immediate next part of the Verse giving out the truth goes further to refute the belief saying ‘Wama Salanoohu’, i.e., they (the Jews) did not (even) crucify him (i.e., by God’s plan they were not allowed even to put Jesus on the cross).

A commentator, in order to somehow or other establish the death of Jesus, presents his own interpretation of the words saying, “the word does not negative Jesus being nailed to the Cross.” It is a wonder how such an arbitrary inference would ever be drawn in the face of the clear declaration of the Holy Qur’an ‘Wama Salaboohu’, i.e., they crucified him not, meaning that God’s plan did not allow the Jews even to put him on ‘Sateen’ (i.e., the Cross).

The only correct and the logical inference from this statement could be that the one who was put on the cross (i.e., crucified) to give the contention to the Jews that they have killed Jesus, son of Mary, was someone else, made to resemble Jesus. When Jesus being put on the Cross is itself denied by the Holy Qur’an where is the room for the argument to say that Jesus suffered only some wounds; but only swooned and did not die, and was handed over to one of his staunchest disciples, who gave Jesus a special kind of grave convenient for him to escape from it. All this wishful thinking advanced as arguments, can refer only to the one. who instead of Jesus, was put on the cross and made to undergo the affliction.

The fact about someone made to resemble Jesus to go on the cross to make the enemies of Jesus believe that they have killed him, is very clearly brought out by the words immediately following ‘Wama Salanoohu’. Its Verse says:

“But it was made dubious to them and verily those who differ about him are only in doubt about him. They have no knowledge about him, save that they follow their own imagination” (4:157)

In order to transfer the dubiousness and the doubt caused about the personality of Jesus to the event, the commentator interprets the reference to Jesus as to the event.

Again, about someone else resembling Jesus, the commentator wants to take advantage of the absence of the mention of the man who was made to resemble Jesus. If the commentator wants such minute details in the Holy Qur’an, what would he say for the absence of the mention of the details of the prescribed daily prayers, (i.e., ‘Salat’ or ‘Namaz’) in the Holy Qur’an, and yet every detail about the prescribed daily prayers are demanded to be faithfully, compulsorily and punctually observed. Why should he be particular about the mention in a matter of mere information and not concerned at all about the matter of the prayers which has to be carefully followed every day as his compulsory duty? There are hundreds of the other very important things that the details we draw as an inference from the Qur’anic declarations or get them from the traditions of the Holy Prophet and the Holy’ Imams of the Ahl Al-Bayt the Divinely commissioned custodians of the Word of God with whom the Holy Prophet left it.

The commentator [Muhammad Ali] bases his contention on some peculiar arguments-saying “Jesus Christ prayed the whole night before his arrest to be saved from the accursed death on the cross and he asked his disciples also to pray for him, and it is the Divine law that the prayers of a righteous man in distress and affliction are always accepted. He (Jesus) seems to have received a promise from his Master to be saved, and it was to this promise that he referred when he cried out on the cross “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The commentator quotes-Heb. 5/7.

In the first place it is a matter of surprise that the commentator seeks the support from the version of the Book edited by the Christian Church and holds it as the Word of God or a genuine or a reliable authority on Jesus. If the commentator accepts any statement of the Book, what right has he to reject the other statements in the same Scripture of the Christians, about Jesus being the only begotten Son of God and the formula of the Christian Trinity.

If the praying of Jesus, to God to save him from the accursed death on the cross, is accepted by the commentator and if as per his own statement the prayer was accepted, what kind of acceptance of the prayer was it, and what great advantage did the acceptance of the prayers give Jesus when according to his own interpretation, Jesus inspite of all his prayers, was put on the cross and was allowed to suffer the torment and affliction of being nailed before the public around him, and got deeply wounded to the extent of having swooned to be taken for dead. The accursed nature of the crucifixion was after all met by Jesus before the world around him.

See note to Verse 3:54. Here Qur’an asserts the following facts about the crucifixion of Jesus:

1. The Jewish claim to have killed Jesus.

2. The Jewish claim being a mere claim without any evidence at all.

3. The circumstances with the crucifixion as given in the note to Verse 3:54 puts the pro-and the anti-Christian claim into doubt.

4. From the records of the Jews and the Christians it is obvious that of the disputants none could rely upon any convincing evidence of an eye witness.

5. The whole story is based upon mere guessing, conjectures and the prejudice caused by the faith.

6. Against this chaos and confusion, the Qur’an takes a firm stand against all the controversial conjectures both of the Jews and the Christians concerning the matter and declare in the clearest terms that neither crucifixion nor the killing of Jesus ever at all took place and this statement is not of any conjecture but of certainty. The Qur’an does not leave any room at all for any attempt for any compromise between the Qur’anic assertion and that of the others.

Hence the doctrine of the crucifixion, the death or the resurrection of Jesus is of no value at all to the Muslims. (A.P.)

What is related about Jesus’ crying on the cross does not befit the real Jesus Christ who was the ‘Ruhullah’, i.e., the Spirit of God. It befits the man who was made to be put on the cress in the place of Jesus-and similarly befit him all the other stories of the post-crucifixion. When God never forsakes even an ordinary - virtuous man, His forsaking one of His own apostles is unimaginable and if we believe in the Biblical version of Jesus complaining about his being forsaken to be true, then a very grave and an unwarranted inference could be drawn to say that Jesus as a truthful apostle of God, holds himself as to have been forsaken by- God under which circumstances he ceases to be an apostle, for any one forsaken by God, can never be His apostle. Thus, the crying of the man on the cross can be true in the case of the one who was made to resemble Jesus.

The commentator seeks shelter under one of the meanings of the word ‘Tawaffaitani’ used in Verse 5:117. The word means taking away of a thing. The word is also used for death for death means taking away of the soul from the body. The word used in Verse 5:117 means, when Jesus was taken away into the heavens not the taking away of his soul from his material body.

The next Verse clears the position further.

Verse 158

‘Rafa Allah’ means exalted and in the context with the word ‘Ilaih’ immediately following, means raised to Himself, meaning raised into the heavens.

The disappearance of Jesus from the earth, is as mysterious as his advent (i.e., birth). Excepting the three main years of his ministry, the rest of his life also is unknown. Even the early Christians and the several schools of the Christian faith, sprung later are almost involved in the conflicting doubts and contradictory conjectures, peculiar to each one of them. The cardinal doctrine of the orthodox Christian Church demands belief in the death of Jesus on the Cross, and that he was buried, and on the third day he rose in the body with the wounds intact and walked about, talked to his disciples and ate with them and afterwards taken up bodily into the heavens. Islam refutes this imagination in the words of Verse 4:157 and this Verse saying that God did not allow Jesus to be killed nor even to be put on the cross but raised him to Himself.

The fact about the event as given in (M.S.) is that when Jesus knew of the Jewish plan to arrest and put him to death, he went and took shelter in a vacant house. One of his disciples who knew the hiding place of Jesus, was bribed with thirty pieces of silver and he took the soldiers of the Jews to the house. In the meanwhile, God had raised Jesus up into the heavens and when the traitor, (i.e., the disciple of Jesus) entered the house and searched for him, he found none therein. God made the treacherous disciple of Jesus, to resemble Jesus and when he came out of the house to report to the soldiers that Jesus was not to be found in the house, the soldiers took him by his resemblance to be Jesus himself. However much the man shouted and cried saying that he was not Jesus, the soldiers crucified him. It was the treacherous one of the disciples of Jesus that was actually crucified and not the real Jesus. All the post-crucifixion stories are the elements of the Christian belief not recognised by Islam.

From the earliest times, the translators of the Holy Qur’an have been taking the words: ‘Nay, God raised him to Himself’ in the real sense of the expression. It has been the consistent policy of the said commentator to take the plain or the ordinary or the usual meaning of the words when it serves his purpose, even though the words may constitute a figurative expression, and he avoids such a course and resorts to remote interpretable possibilities when it is needed to draw a twisted inference, though it may be against the common usage. For instance, in Verse 2:60 under note No. 96, the said commentator’s choice of a remote possible interpretation of the clear words, is cited below: He himself says that ordinarily translated it is something else, but he has adopted a different significance. It is all to deny the miracle wrought by Moses.

“Izrib be-asakal Hajr’ is ordinarily translated as meaning strike the rock with thy staff or rod, but I have adopted a different significance while another possible significance is: Strike a way into the mountains with your community.” (M.A.)

When God the Omnipotent can evolve out of a drop of a dirty liquid, emitted from the male into the womb of the female, within nine months’ limited time, a beautiful human issue, to work wonders on earth; when Almighty Lord can bring anon-existent into existence, and we believe that we will once again be raised from this very dust after our having been reduced to it, where is the difficulty in believing the Providential or the Miraculous rescue of Jesus from the clutches of his enemies, unless one does not intentionally want to think aright as he should ordinarily do.

Another more popular version about the one who was made to resemble Jesus, is that when Jesus was with seventeen of his disciples, the Jews approached him with the intention to kill him. God transformed every one of the seventeen disciples to resemble Jesus. All looked like Jesus. None could make out which one of them was the real Jesus. The Jews were perplexed and struck with wonder. At last, the captain addressed the people resembling Jesus saying if they do not come out with the truth as who is the Jesus real, they will kill them all together. Then Jesus asked his disciples as to who among them would give his life in his (Jesus’s place). One of the disciples named Sirkhasan readily offered himself as the Jesus real and he was caught and crucified. (M.S.). All the stories about the restlessness of the one crucified (in the place of Jesus) quoted by (Math. 27/46) suit only a non- apostolic personality, and none can have any objection to the belief that Sirkhasan who resembled Jesus somehow escaped death, and escaped also from the clutches of the Jews and migrated to any distant place in Kashmir or farther away.

Otherwise, it does not sound in the least reasonable that an Apostle of God like Jesus, to have dreaded death so very much, to lament so miserably and to implore for the passing away of the cup of death, and to utter infidelity by believing God to have forsaken him. Besides the one escaping the gallows with deep wounds in his hands and legs with which he had swooned to appear to be dead, to immediately be able to successfully disguise like a gardener and neither the master of the garden nor even any one of the other gardeners recognizing the unknown entrant into their ranks even till forty long days together.

After all, an Apostle of God like Jesus, to have escaped so stealthily without the Divine command just to save his own life, leaving his station of his apostolic mission is unimaginable. The only reasonable, i.e., the correct belief could be that God willed that as a punishment to the Jewish people, the Divine guidance of the Holy Apostle to terminate and the Apostle (Jesus) was miraculously taken up to put the enemies into a dilemma, the true disciples of Jesus were there to play their role faithfully thereafter.

Verse 159

Every one of the followers of the various scriptures will ultimately recognise Jesus when he descends from Heaven when the last Holy Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi would have appeared. Jesus will live for forty years following Islam and the Islamic law and offer prayers led by the Last Holy Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi he would suffer death, and the Muslims will conduct the funeral congregational prayers.

It would be an age of perfect peace and security of life and justice will have its full play in the whole world. Islam will be the only one religion followed in the whole world (M.S.) (F.A.) (U.B.)

It is a very great prophecy that the Holy Qur’an declares. The world is gradually marching towards the fulfilment of the great announcement. The prohibition, the no-caste system, the opening of the places of worship to all, without any caste distinction, the widow marriage, the anti-dowry agitation, the Unitarian belief about God, the respect to all faiths and regard to religious leaders, the proposal for one World Government and many other similar movements for the benefit and uplift of the human race as a whole-are all definite steps towards the Islamic order.

Re-appearance of Jesus shall be as the holy Imams of the Ahl Al-Bayt have declared. Whoever of the people of the Book will then be, will believe in Jesus as well as the Holy Imam, the representative of the Holy Prophet, i.e., all will embrace Islam and whatever it has asserted. About the important matters of controversy among them, the truth will be made manifest to every one of the disputants before his death and he will believe in it and the belief then earned will not be of any avail to the disputant for his salvation. This conforms to the correct belief about Jesus as much as it implies to the doubt about the ‘Risalat’ (apostleship) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and the ‘Imamat’ of Ali Ibn Abi Talib. To this fact refers Ali’s statement:

‘Ya Hara Hamad an! Man yamut yaram Min Momimn au Munafiqin Qobola’

O’ Har of Hamadan! whoever dieth seeth me present, Be he a believer sincere or a hypocrite.

The seeing of Ali stands for witnessing the truth as a whole. The personal noun referring to one who dieth or to Jesus or to both but the context supports the reference being to the believers, for Jesus will be a witness over all the people of the Book, not only those who remain till his reappearance. On the other hand, there is an authentic tradition of the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt supporting the latter, i.e., the reference being to the death of Jesus.

Taking both the versions into consideration the pronoun may be taken as the two-folded reference to both. (A.P.)

Verse 160

The Jews corrupted the scripture ‘Torah’ given to them. They opposed Jesus and plotted to kill him, and when the Holy Prophet appeared with his Islamic mission, they misled people and hindered their accepting Islam saying that ‘Muhammad’ was not the prophet promised in the ancient’ scriptures. Although they knew for certain through the prophecies in the ‘Torah’ in their own hands, that the Holy Prophet was the person who possessed all the qualities identifying him clearly as the Last of the Apostles of God, promised in the ancient scriptures.

Verse 161

This Verse speaks how much, the charging of interest is abhorred in Islam.

‘Rasikhoona fil ilm’, i.e., the Firm in knowledge. The word ‘ilm’, i.e., knowledge used in this Verse and in 3:7; 29:49; 3:18; 58:11, is an indefinite term meaning knowledge as a whole of everything, the logical inference will be those who know everything about everything. Such ones can be the apostles of God or such divines as the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt whose knowledge was not acquired but gifted by God. About Amir Al-Mu’minin Ali Ibn Abi Talib, said the Holy Prophet ‘Ana Madinatul-ilmi wa Aliyyun Babuha’ – ‘I am the City of knowledge and Ali is its Gate.’ This announcement of the Holy Prophet is universally acknowledged by one and all in Islam.

The wonder is that like the Holy Prophet, Ali, (the first Holy Imam), the Holy Lady Fatimah, (the Lady of Light), and the Imams of the House of the Holy Prophet, none of them had any schooling or any tutoring from any mortal and yet each one was the fountainhead of knowledge and was the supreme, unchallengeable authority on any branch of learning and knowledge. By the term ‘Rasikhoona fil-ilm’ the reference would naturally be in the first place to those individuals who can satisfy the meaning of the term in its fulness and then to the rest according to the degree of their respective attainment.

Refer to Verse 29:49-The Holy Qur’an is stated to be in the chests (i.e., the hearts) of those who have been given knowledge, i.e., those whose knowledge is not what they acquired by themselves but that which has been gifted to them by God.

Verse 162

The grammatical case ‘Wal Moqimeen’ is as that of ‘Ar Rasikhoon’ and ‘wal Motoona Zakaat’ and ‘wal Mo’mimoon’, i.e., the nominative case, but the wording of ‘wal Moqimeen’ is possessive and objective. For the justification of the recitation and of the similar one in 2:177 and in several places elsewhere, the commentators have given their opinions, the best and the most appropriate of them all, is that in certain circumstances by giving the form of the possessive and objective case to the verb and the nominative case vice versa, it will receive a distinction for the sake of emphasis.

The Sunni tradition related of Aysha that she said: ‘‘This is one of the mistakes committed by the scribes who copied down Qur’an under the supervision of the committee appointed by Uthman, is discarded as fabricated by some anti-Islamic hand otherwise the question arises why did not Ayesha and the other of the companions who used to object to the mistakes of the government in matters of less importance, object to it. (A.P.)

• 1. Some may argue about the importance of the ‘Sabath’ while days are God’s. The answer is the same as would be given about the importance attached to the ‘Qiblah’ while in all directions is God’s - It is only a Test.
• 2. A very few.
• 3. Refer to Verse 3:54.
• 4. The matter.
• 5. Was made as such by God.
• 6. Refer to Verse 3:54.
• 7. Jesus as asserted in Verse 4:157.
• 8. Taking interest less or more Refer to Verses 2:275; 30:39.
• 9. The Holy Prophet Muhammad- The Holy Qur’an.
• 10. Other heavenly Scriptures like: ‘Zuboor’, Psalm to David, ‘Taurat’- Pentatuech for the Law to Moses ‘Injeel’ - The Evangel to Jesus Etc.
• 11. Refer to Verse 2:177.
• 12. Ar. ‘Zakat’.
• 13. The day of the Final Resurrection and The Final Judgment.