Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:171
O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.
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 explanation of the saying: يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لا تَغْلُوا فِي دِينِكُمْ وَلا تَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ إِلا الْحَقَّ ("O People of the Book, do not exceed the bounds in your religion, and do not say anything about Allah except the truth").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means by His saying: "O People of the Book" — O people of the Gospel among the Christians = "do not exceed the bounds in your religion," He says: do not transgress the truth in your religion so that you become excessive therein, and do not say about ʿĪsā anything other than the truth; for your saying about ʿĪsā that he is the son of Allah is, on your part, a saying about Allah that is not the truth. For Allah has not taken a child, such that ʿĪsā or any other of His creation would be a son of His = "and do not say anything about Allah except the truth."
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The origin of "al-ghuluww" (exceeding the bounds) is, in everything, the transgressing of one's own limit which is its limit. From this it is said regarding religion: "he exceeded the bounds, and he exceeds the bounds, exceeding" (ghaluww), and "the girl grew excessively in her bone-growth and flesh" — when youth hastens upon her and she surpasses her peers therein = "it becomes excessive in her, with excessiveness and costliness." To this belongs the saying of al-Ḥārith ibn Khālid al-Makhzūmī:
A slender-bellied one, whose wrapper hangs loose, in the bloom of youth, her frame has grown excessively.
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And indeed:
10853 — Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, who said: They became two groups: a group exceeded the bounds in religion, and their excess therein was the doubting of it and the aversion to it; and a group of them fell short therein and lapsed into moral corruption (fisq) against the command of their Lord.
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The explanation of the saying: إِنَّمَا الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ وَكَلِمَتُهُ أَلْقَاهَا إِلَى مَرْيَمَ وَرُوحٌ مِنْهُ ("The Masīḥ, ʿĪsā the son of Maryam, is only the messenger of Allah and His word which He conveyed to Maryam, and a spirit from Him").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His saying: "The Masīḥ, ʿĪsā the son of Maryam, is only" — the Masīḥ is not, O you who exceed the bounds in your religion among the People of the Book, the son of Allah, as you claim, but rather he is ʿĪsā the son of Maryam, and no other of the creation; he has no lineage other than that. Then Allah, whose praise is exalted, characterized him with his mark and described him with his attribute, and said: he is the messenger of Allah; Allah sent him with the truth to those of His creation to whom He sent him.
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The origin of "al-Masīḥ" is "al-mamsūḥ" (the wiped/anointed one), transformed from the form "mafʿūl" to "faʿīl." Allah named him thus because of His purifying of him from sins. It has been said: he was wiped clean of the sins and the defilements that are found in people, just as something is wiped clean of the filth found in it, so that it is purified thereof. For this reason Mujāhid and those who said the same as him said: "al-Masīḥ" means: the truthful one (al-ṣiddīq).
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Some people have claimed that the origin of this word is Hebrew or Syriac, "mashīḥā," which was then Arabized so that one said: "al-Masīḥ," just as the rest of the names of the prophets that occur in the Qurʾān have been Arabized, such as "Ismāʿīl" and "Isḥāq" and "Mūsā" and "ʿĪsā."
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Abū Jaʿfar said: That which has been adduced as a parallel for "al-Masīḥ" is not a valid comparison. That is because "Ismāʿīl" and "Isḥāq" and what resembles them are names, not descriptive characteristics, whereas "al-Masīḥ" is a descriptive characteristic. And it is not permissible for the Arabs, or other kinds of the creation, to be addressed with respect to the characteristic of something except with that by which they understand who is addressing them. And if "al-Masīḥ" did not come from the language of the Arabs, and the Arabs did not understand its meaning, they would not have been addressed with it. And we have already, in what preceded, offered sufficient exposition concerning the parallels of this, so that its repetition is superfluous.
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As for "al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl" (the Antichrist), that likewise means: the one whose eye is wiped out, transformed from "mafʿūl" to "faʿīl." The meaning of "al-Masīḥ" in the case of ʿĪsā ﷺ is thus: the one whose body is wiped clean of the defilements and the sins = and the meaning of "al-Masīḥ" in the case of the Dajjāl is: the one whose right or left eye is wiped out, in accordance with what has been transmitted about that from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
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As for His saying: "and His word which He conveyed to Maryam," by "the word" He means the message which Allah commanded His angels to bring to Maryam, as glad tidings from Allah for her, which Allah, whose praise is exalted, mentioned in His saying: إِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلائِكَةُ يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُبَشِّرُكِ بِكَلِمَةٍ مِنْهُ [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 45] ("When the angels said: O Maryam, verily, Allah gives you glad tidings of a word from Him"), that is to say: of a message from Him and glad tidings from His side.
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Qatāda said concerning that the following:
10854 — al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and His word which He conveyed to Maryam," he said: it is His saying: "Be," and it was.
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And we have already, in what preceded, expounded the disagreement of the differing parties among the people of Islam concerning that, in a manner that makes repetition in this place superfluous.
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And His saying: "He conveyed it to Maryam," means: He made it known to her and communicated it to her, as one says: "I conveyed to you a good word," in the sense of: I informed you about it and addressed you about it.
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As for His saying: "and a spirit from Him," the scholars have disagreed concerning its interpretation.
Some of them said: the meaning of His saying "and a spirit from Him" is: and a blowing from Him, because it came about from the blowing of Jibrīl, peace be upon him, into the garment of Maryam, by the command of Allah to that effect; and it was ascribed to its being "a spirit from Allah" because it occurred by His command. He said: and the blowing was called "spirit" (rūḥ) only because it is a wind that comes forth from the soul (rūḥ). And they adduced as proof for that, from their speech, the saying of Dhū al-Rumma, in the description of a fire which he described:
And when it appeared, I enveloped it, while it was an infant, with a dark-grey rag, neither a cubit long nor a span. And I said to him: lift it up toward you, and bring it to life with your breath (rūḥ), and give it its nourishment in measure. And shield it with dry fine twigs, and call the east wind to its aid, and make of your hands a screen for it. [And when it grew up and consumed the decayed remnants, it left nothing of the withered branches which they gathered, nor anything green.] And when it ran amid the coarse firewood with a running like the flash of the lightning, we rendered thanks to its Creator.
And they said: he means by his saying "bring it to life with your rūḥ," that is: bring it to life with your blowing.
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And some of them said: He means by His saying "and a spirit from Him" that he became a human being by Allah's bringing him to life with His saying "Be." They said: the meaning of His saying "and a spirit from Him" is only: and a life from Him, in the sense of Allah's bringing him to life by His bringing him into existence.
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And others said: the meaning of His saying "and a spirit from Him" is: and a mercy from Him, as the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, said in another place: وَأَيَّدَهُمْ بِرُوحٍ مِنْهُ [Sūrat al-Mujādala: 22] ("and He strengthened them with a spirit from Him"). They said: and its meaning in this place is: and a mercy from Him. They said: Allah made ʿĪsā a mercy from Him for whoever followed him, believed in him, and held him to be truthful, because he guided them to the way of the straight path.
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And others said: the meaning of that is: and a spirit from Allah which He created and formed, and then sent to Maryam, whereupon it entered into her mouth, and Allah the Exalted made her the spirit of ʿĪsā, peace be upon him.
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*Mention of who said that:
10855 — al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar informed me, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, concerning His saying: وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنْ بَنِي آدَمَ مِنْ ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ [Sūrat al-Aʿrāf: 172] ("And when your Lord took from the children of Ādam, from their loins, their progeny"), he said: He took them and made them spirits, then He formed them, then He made them speak; and the spirit of ʿĪsā was among those spirits from which the covenant and the pact were taken. He sent that spirit to Maryam, whereupon it entered into her mouth, and she received the one who addressed her, namely the spirit of ʿĪsā, peace be upon him.
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And others said: the meaning of "the spirit" here is Jibrīl, peace be upon him. They said: and the meaning of the sentence is: and His word which He conveyed to Maryam, and He conveyed to her likewise a spirit from Allah. They said: "the spirit" is thus coupled to that which is present in His saying "He conveyed it" of the mention of Allah, in the sense: that the conveying of the word to Maryam occurred from Allah, and then from Jibrīl, peace be upon him.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: and all these sayings have an aspect and a purport that is not far from the correct.
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The explanation of the saying: فَآمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَلا تَقُولُوا ثَلاثَةٌ انْتَهُوا خَيْرًا لَكُمْ ("So believe in Allah and His messengers, and do not say 'three'; cease — that is better for you").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means by His saying "So believe in Allah and His messengers": so hold to be true, O People of the Book, the oneness of Allah and His sovereignty, and that He has no child, and hold His messengers to be true in what they have brought you from Allah, and in what I have informed you that Allah is One, without partner, without consort, without child = "and do not say 'three'," that is to say: do not say: the lords are three.
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"The three" (al-thalātha) stands in the nominative because of an omitted word to which the wording outwardly points, namely "they" (hum). The meaning of the sentence is: and do not say: they are three. And that is permissible only because "the saying" is a quotation, and the Arabs do that in the case of a quotation. To this belongs the saying of Allah: سَيَقُولُونَ ثَلاثَةٌ رَابِعُهُمْ كَلْبُهُمْ [Sūrat al-Kahf: 22] ("They will say: three, their fourth is their dog"). And likewise, for everything that occurs in the nominative after "the saying" without there being a nominative-causing agent present with it, there is an omitted noun therein that places that noun in the nominative.
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Then He said to them, whose praise is exalted, threatening them on account of their tremendous saying which they made about Allah: "cease," O you who say: Allah is the third of three, from what you say of falsehood and the ascribing of partners to Allah (shirk); for ceasing from that is better for you than saying it, because of the punishment that awaits you with Allah — the immediate (ʿājil) one for you on account of that saying of yours, if you persist in it and do not return repentant to the truth to which I have commanded you to return = and the deferred (ājil) one in your return.
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The explanation of the saying: إِنَّمَا اللَّهُ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ سُبْحَانَهُ أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ وَكِيلا (171) ("Allah is only one God; exalted is He above that He should have a child; to Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth; and Allah suffices as Guardian") (4:171).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by His saying "Allah is only one God": Allah is not, O you who say: Allah is the third of three, as you say, for whoever has a child is not a god. And likewise: whoever has a consort cannot possibly be a god who is worshipped. But Allah, to whom divinity and worship belong, is one God who is worshipped, without child, without father, without consort, and without partner.
Then He declared Himself free, whose praise is exalted, exalted Himself, and raised Himself above what His enemies, who are disbelieving in Him, said about Him, and said: "exalted is He above that He should have a child," He says: exalted is Allah, and tremendous and mighty and majestic, and free from having a child or a consort.
Then He informed, whose praise is exalted, His servants: that ʿĪsā and his mother and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth are His slaves (ʿabīd) and His slave-women (imāʾ) and His creation, and that He is their sustainer and their Creator, and that they are needy of and dependent upon Him = as an argument from Him thereby against whoever claimed that the Masīḥ is His son; for if he were His son, as they said, he would not be needy of Him, nor would he be a slave owned by Him (ʿabd mamlūk). So He said: "to Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth," that is to say: to Allah belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth, of all things, as property and as creation; and He sustains them, feeds them, and governs them. How then can the Masīḥ be a son of Allah, while he is on the earth or in the heavens, and does not escape being located in one of these places?
And His saying: "and Allah suffices as Guardian," He says: and for what is in the heavens and what is on the earth, Allah suffices as provider, governor, and sustainer, so that besides Him there is no need for another.