Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:46
He will speak to the people in the cradle and in maturity and will be of the righteous."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The statement concerning the interpretation of His word: وَيُكَلِّمُ النَّاسَ فِي الْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلا وَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ (And he will speak to the people in the cradle and as a grown man, and he is one of the righteous — 3:46)
Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His word: "and he will speak to the people in the cradle," its meaning is: Verily, Allah announces to you the glad tidings of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah ʿĪsā the son of Maryam, of high standing with Allah, and speaking to the people in the cradle.
The word "speaks" (yukallimu), though it stands in the nominative — because it has the form "yafʿalu," free of any governing factors within it — is nevertheless in the position of an accusative. It is comparable to the word of the poet:
I spent the night setting before her, as her supper, a sharp cutting sword, striking true upon her legs, and at times missing.
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As for "the cradle" (al-mahd), by it He means: the resting place of the child during its nursing, as in:
7071 - Al-Qāsim narrated to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn narrated to us, he said: Ḥajjāj narrated to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning "and he will speak to the people in the cradle," he said: the resting place of the child during its nursing.
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As for His word "and as a grown man" (kahlan), it means: having matured beyond youth and below old age. Of this one says: "a grown man (kahl) = and a grown woman (kahla)," as the rajaz-poet said:
And I shall not return thereafter as a hired coachman, plying the grown woman and the young girl.
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He, exalted be His praise, meant by His word "and he will speak to the people in the cradle and as a grown man": and he will speak to the people as an infant in the cradle — as a token of his mother's innocence regarding that of which the slanderers accused her, and as a proof for him of his prophethood — and as a great, grown man after his maturing, through the revelation of Allah which He reveals to him, and His command and His prohibition, and that of His Book which is sent down upon him.
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Allah, mighty and exalted, informed His servants of this concerning the affair of the Messiah, and that it was so — even though the general case in the affair of mankind is that they speak as grown men and old men — as an argument thereby against the Christians among those who disbelieve in Allah, who utter falsehood concerning him, and that he [from the moment He brought him into being] was a born infant, then a grown man, moving onward through the events, and changing with the passing of the ages and the days over him, from small to great, and from state to state. And that, were it as the deniers of God say concerning him, that would not have been possible for him. Thus He declared false thereby what the delegation of the people of Najrān, who disputed with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concerning him, claimed, and He adduced it as an argument against them for His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, and He made known to them that he was like the rest of the sons of Adam, except for that with which Allah distinguished him of honor whereby He set him apart from them, as in:
7072 - Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, he said: Salama narrated to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: "and he will speak to the people in the cradle and as a grown man and he is one of the righteous": He informs them of his states through which he moves onward in his life-course, as the sons of Adam move onward through their life-courses, small and great, except that Allah distinguished him with speaking in his cradle as a sign of his prophethood, and as a notification to the servants of the places of His power.
7073 - Bishr narrated to us, he said: Yazīd narrated to us, he said: Saʿīd narrated to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and he will speak to the people in the cradle and as a grown man and he is one of the righteous," he says: he will speak to them as a small one and as a great one.
7074 - Al-Muthannā narrated to me, he said: Isḥāq narrated to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar narrated to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "and he will speak to the people in the cradle and as a grown man," he said: he will speak to them as a small one and as a great one.
7075 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, he said: ʿĪsā narrated to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and as a grown man and he is one of the righteous," he said: the grown man (al-kahl) is the forbearing one (al-ḥalīm).
7076 - Al-Qāsim narrated to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn narrated to us, he said: Ḥajjāj narrated to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: he spoke to them as a small one and as a great one and as a grown man = and Ibn Jurayj said: and Mujāhid said: the grown man is the forbearing one.
7077 - Muḥammad ibn Sinān narrated to me, he said: Abū Bakr al-Ḥanafī narrated to us, on the authority of ʿAbbād, on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning His word: "and he will speak to the people in the cradle and as a grown man," he said: he spoke to them in the cradle as a small boy, and he spoke to them as a great one.
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And others said: the meaning of His word "and as a grown man" is that he will speak to them when he appears.
Mention of who said that:
7078 - Yūnus narrated to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: I heard him — namely Ibn Zayd — saying concerning His word: "and he will speak to the people in the cradle and as a grown man," he said: ʿĪsā has already spoken to them in the cradle, and he will speak to them when he kills the Dajjāl (the Antichrist), and he is on that day a grown man.
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And "kahlan" (as a grown man) stands in the accusative, following upon the position of "and he will speak to the people."
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As for His word "and he is one of the righteous," by it He means: of their ranks and their close ones, because the people of righteousness belong one to another in religion and excellence.
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The footnotes:
(1) I do not know its speaker.
(2) Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 213, and the Amālī of Ibn al-Shajarī 2: 167, and al-Khizāna 2: 345, and al-Lisān (kahl). Al-Baghdādī mentioned the variant transmission of the verse, "wa-yuʿashshīhā" from "al-ʿashāʾ," which is her fodder at supper. He describes the generosity of the noble man who, upon the arrival of the guests, slaughters his camels in reception; al-ʿaḍb is the cutting sword, and al-bātir is that which splits the stroke. Aswuq is the plural of sāq (leg). Qaṣada/yaqṣidu: striking the proper mean without overstepping the limit. He says: he strikes their legs with his sword, without caring whether he hits the mark or misses, on account of his great haste and his hospitality toward his guest. See concerning this the elaboration of what Abū Jaʿfar says in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 213, 214.
(3) One says: "a boy between al-ghulūma, al-ghulūmiyya and al-ghulāmiyya," as: "al-ṭufūla and al-ṭufūliyya."
(4) He is ʿUdhāfir al-Fuqaymī.
(5) Al-Jamhara 3: 339, al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ 1: 40, the Amālī of al-Qālī 2: 215, and al-Simṭ: 836, the commentary on Adab al-Kātib of Ibn al-Sayyid: 217, 389, and of al-Jawālīqī: 295, and al-Lisān (kahl) (karā) (shaʿfar) (umm), and others. ʿUdhāfir hired out his camels to Mecca, and there hired from him a man of the Banū Ḥanīfa, of the inhabitants of Basra, a camel to ride upon it with his wife, whose name was "Shaʿfar." Then he said in the rajaz meter concerning the two of them:
Had my Lord willed, I would not have been a hired coachman, nor would I have driven the mounts onward with Shaʿfar. A woman of Basra who married a man of Basra, who feeds her the salted and the fresh, and the finest wheat roasted for her, until her navel swelled with fatness, and the fat of her belly grew abundant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And the rajaz-verses that follow belong, it seems, with this. Al-kariyy: the hired coachman, the one who hires out his mount to the travelers. And after the two verses which Abū Jaʿfar transmitted:
And the bachelor, worn out, uncouth.
Al-munaffah: the one whom the journey has exhausted and worn out, so that he weakens and collapses. And al-ummī: the inept one, the boorish, the coarse, who speaks little.
(6) In the printed edition it reads: "qadhafahā" (accused her of fornication), and see above p. 413, note 3.
(7) His word "and as a great man" is connected with his earlier word: "as an infant in the cradle." Then his subsequent word "through the revelation of Allah" is a prepositional expression connected with his earlier word: "and he will speak to the people..."
(8) In the printed edition it reads: "and what he says about Him," and Allah forbid that it should be so! The word is poorly written in the manuscript, corrupted and restored, and it is nevertheless clear to whoever understands some of the meanings of the text!
(9) In the printed edition it reads: "with the falsehood," and that is an alteration of the expression of al-Ṭabarī to which the reader of his book is accustomed. His word "the falsehood" stands in the accusative as direct object of his word "who utter..."
(10) In the printed edition it reads: "and that he in his meaning was things, born...," and in the manuscript: "and that he in his meanings was things, born...," and I could find for it no meaning with which I was satisfied. I labored for a time to know its scribal error or corruption, until I grew weary of it, and until I thought that the copyist had let something drop out whereby this text would become sound, with a preference for scribal error and corruption therein. Therefore I deemed it correct to place between brackets that which makes the text sound, and to strip the original text of this passage. This with my conviction that "maʿahu ashyāʾ" is in reality "mundhu anshaʾahu" (from the moment He brought him into being), as I have established it. The connection is: "that he was... moving onward in the events," and what lies between is a parenthetical clause which I have placed between the two dashes.
(11) The transmission 7072 - Sīrat Ibn Hishām 2: 230, and it is a supplement to the transmissions the last of which is number 7067.
