al-Nisāʾ 4:153-159

Yasʾaluka ahlu'l-kitābi an tunazzila ʿalayhim kitāban mina's-samāʾ … · Fa-bimā naqḍihim mīthāqahum wa kufrihim bi-āyāti'llāhi wa qatlihimu'l-anbiyāʾa bi-ghayri ḥaqqin wa qawlihim qulūbunā ghulf … · Wa bi-kufrihim wa qawlihim ʿalā Maryama buhtānan ʿaẓīmā · Wa qawlihim innā qatalna'l-Masīḥa ʿĪsa'bna Maryama rasūla'llāh, wa mā qatalūhu wa mā ṣalabūhu wa lākin shubbiha lahum … wa mā qatalūhu yaqīnā · Bal rafaʿahu'llāhu ilayh

"The People of the Book ask you to bring down upon them a book from heaven… For their breaking of their pledge, their denial of God's signs, their killing of the prophets without right, and their saying 'our hearts are wrapped up'… And for their denial and their speaking a great slander against Mary (Maryam)… And for their saying, 'we killed the Messiah, Jesus (ʿĪsā) son of Mary, the messenger of God'. But they did not kill him and did not crucify him; it was made to appear so to them… They did not kill him with certainty. Rather, God raised him to Himself."

Per the method (Method) this block is read thus: what is at issue are acts, not a community itself. And this is not an interpretation but the verse's own word order.

The hundred and fifty-fifth verse is a list of causes, and every item comes with the particle bi-. The table gives the wording of the verse:

All six of the six items are tied to an act or to an utterance. This is a countable fact.

And the verses themselves narrow in two places:

No general ruling is made in this commentary about any religious, ethnic or national group. What is at issue are attributes; whoever bears the attribute is included in it. And the two rows above are the textual ground of that rule.

The root غ-ل-ف: to put a thing into a covering. Ghilāf — a sheath, a covering.

The word occurs at al-Baqara 2/88 as well (wa qālū qulūbunā ghulf), and there too the same utterance is related. Two sūras relate the same utterance.

And the verse's answer must be recorded: bal ṭabaʿa'llāhu ʿalayhā bi-kufrihim — "no, God has set a seal upon them for their denial".

I record this as an observation about word order: in the sentence bi-kufrihim stands as a ground. The seal, that is, is named not as something that comes first but as following upon an act.

And the same pattern was treated at al-Munāfiqūn 63/3 (āmanū thumma kafarū fa-ṭubiʿa ʿalā qulūbihim), where the importance of the sequence was recorded under the heading "the seal". I rely on that treatment.

The word occurs in this sūra for the third time.

Three occurrences: a countable fact. And the analysis of the word was given in the discussion of the hundred and twelfth verse (resting on al-Nūr 24/11-20). I rely on that.

And one link must be recorded: Sūrat al-Nūr is likewise a discussion of slander, and there too what was said about a woman is the subject. Al-Nisāʾ 4/156 names the same act in another context.

First a note on method: no speculation is entered into about this verse in this section, and no preference is imposed.

And the reason is the verse's own sentence. The verse does not recount how the event happened; it says that there is no knowledge about the event:

All four of the four items concern knowledge. This is a countable fact.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the table above: the verse's own stress is not to supply an alternative account but to state that the claim does not rest on knowledge. To go into detail would run against the verse's own qualification.

Nevertheless there is disagreement in the classical commentaries over the expression shubbiha lahum, and it must not be concealed. I put it in a table; I impose no preference, I give no details and no names, and none of it is binding.

All three readings are transmitted. I prefer none of them, and nothing definite is said in this commentary about the manner.

بَل رَّفَعَهُ ٱللَّهُ إِلَيْهِ — the root ر-ف-ع: to raise. There is disagreement in the classical literature over the manner of this expression as well; its details are not entered into in this commentary and no preference is imposed.

In the hundred and fifty-ninth verse there are two pronouns, and disagreement is transmitted in the classical commentaries over what each of them refers to.

The readings are transmitted; I impose no preference and draw no conclusion from them.