Anwar Al-Quran

Verses 109–113

5. Al-Maaida · The Table

Madinan120 verses

۞ يَوْمَ يَجْمَعُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلرُّسُلَ فَيَقُولُ مَاذَآ أُجِبْتُمْ ۖ قَالُوا۟ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَآ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ

5:109The day Allah will gather the apostles and say, ‘What was the response to you?’ They will say, ‘We have no knowledge. Indeed You are knower of all that is Unseen.’1

إِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ٱذْكُرْ نِعْمَتِى عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَىٰ وَٰلِدَتِكَ إِذْ أَيَّدتُّكَ بِرُوحِ ٱلْقُدُسِ تُكَلِّمُ ٱلنَّاسَ فِى ٱلْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًۭا ۖ وَإِذْ عَلَّمْتُكَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ وَٱلْإِنجِيلَ ۖ وَإِذْ تَخْلُقُ مِنَ ٱلطِّينِ كَهَيْـَٔةِ ٱلطَّيْرِ بِإِذْنِى فَتَنفُخُ فِيهَا فَتَكُونُ طَيْرًۢا بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَتُبْرِئُ ٱلْأَكْمَهَ وَٱلْأَبْرَصَ بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَإِذْ تُخْرِجُ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَإِذْ كَفَفْتُ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ عَنكَ إِذْ جِئْتَهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ فَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ إِنْ هَٰذَآ إِلَّا سِحْرٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ

5:110When Allah will say, O Jesus son of Mary, remember My blessing upon you and upon your mother, when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, so you would speak to the people in the cradle and in adulthood, and when I taught you the Book and wisdom, the Torah and the Evangel, and when you would create from clay the form of a bird, with My leave, and you would breathe into it and it would become a bird, with My leave; and you would heal the blind and the leper, with My leave, and you would raise the dead, with My leave; and when I held off [the evil of] the Children of Israel from you when you brought them manifest proofs, whereat the faithless among them said, ‘This is nothing but plain magic.’2

وَإِذْ أَوْحَيْتُ إِلَى ٱلْحَوَارِيِّۦنَ أَنْ ءَامِنُوا۟ بِى وَبِرَسُولِى قَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا وَٱشْهَدْ بِأَنَّنَا مُسْلِمُونَ

5:111And when I inspired the Disciples, [saying], ‘Have faith in Me and My apostle,’ they said, ‘We have faith. Bear witness that we are Muslims.’3

إِذْ قَالَ ٱلْحَوَارِيُّونَ يَٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ هَلْ يَسْتَطِيعُ رَبُّكَ أَن يُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا مَآئِدَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ ۖ قَالَ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

5:112When the Disciples said, ‘O Jesus son of Mary! Can your Lord send down to us a table from the sky?’ Said he, ‘Be wary of Allah, should you be faithful.’4

قَالُوا۟ نُرِيدُ أَن نَّأْكُلَ مِنْهَا وَتَطْمَئِنَّ قُلُوبُنَا وَنَعْلَمَ أَن قَدْ صَدَقْتَنَا وَنَكُونَ عَلَيْهَا مِنَ ٱلشَّٰهِدِينَ

5:113They said, ‘We desire to eat from it, and our hearts will be at rest: we shall know that you have told us the truth, and we shall be among the witnesses to it.’

Tafsir

Commentary on this passage

Verse 110

1.It is worthy considering whether Isa (a.s.) was a prophet or a messenger in childhood. He had announced about prophethood that: Allah has given me the book and made me His prophet - but a prophet is not a messenger. Some people argued about his words that he was a messenger from childhood. Though it is clear that the speech was not concerned with divine message and religious law. It was only connected with Maryam’s (a.s.) chastity and this is not called Messengership. Therefore to believe that Isa (a.s.) was a messenger since childhood and the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s.) became the Messenger at forty is a baseless imagination. It is mentioned in Injeel itself that Isa (a.s.) started preaching when he was 30 years old and it was then that he announced his Messengership. We can’t suspect the miracles or Isa (a.s.). The Quran confirms them; but the world of miracles is quite different from the world of Messengership.

Verse 112

2.The commentators have given many details about the tablecloth and mentioned about various kinds of food but al1 this is nothing but Israeliyat traditions. Therefore a brief faith is sufficient. Amirul Momineen (a.s.) has stated about Isa (a.s.) in his sermon and said: Isa (a.s.) had a stone for pillow, wore thick clothes, ate simple food. Hunger was his food, moonlight was his lamp, the east and west were his canopy and the grass was his fruit. He had no wife to make him involved in problems and no children to make him sad. He had no property that can divert his attention towards it and had no desire, which can cause disgrace. His legs were his conveyance and his hands were his attendants. Even then his community did not exempted him from allegations and called him a magician, then what can we say of others?

Footnotes

Explanations of words and phrases in these verses

  1. 1

    This denial is regarding the knowledge of Allah that people have no right to express their knowledge in it. They must only say: you know everything and we know nothing.

  2. 2

    Isa (a.s.).has referred to the permission of Allah for each of his miracles so that no one should misunderstand him to be God.

  3. 3

    Dham (direct revelation) is one of the methods of revelation which is quite appropriate here because the Hawareen were not prophets.

  4. 4

    This word shows that those who demanded for the food table to descend from heaven were not having perfect faith, although they had announced their faith and were apparently seeking the solace of their hearts by raising such a demand. Some people think that they were hving perfect belief and did not have any doubt ‘regarding Allah, They believed that Allah was capable of sending the food. They had also witness the descent of Manna and Salwa during the time of Moosa (a.s.). But they feared that after that Allah will not send any more food from the heaven.