Al-Bidayah wa an-Nihayah - Ibn Kathir - (2/249)

Al-Bidayah wa an-NihayahIbn Kathir

Another wording of the report states: “Why did you not tell them that the people used to name their children after their righteous forebears and their prophets?”

Qatādah and others relate that the Israelites often named their sons Aaron. It is even said that at one of their funerals no fewer than forty thousand men bearing the name Aaron were in attendance. Allah knows best.

The point is that they addressed her saying, “O sister of Aaron.” The ḥadīth indicates that she did in fact have a blood brother called Aaron who was widely known for piety, righteousness, and goodness. Hence their words: “Your father was not an evil man, nor was your mother unchaste” (Maryam 19:28)—meaning: you do not come from a household whose character or habit is such, neither your brother, your mother, nor your father. Yet they still charged her with the gravest immorality and accused her of a dreadful calamity. Ibn Jarīr records in his History that they even pinned the blame on Zachariah and sought to kill him. He fled; a tree split open for him and he entered it, but Iblīs seized the edge of his cloak, and they sawed him in two within the tree, as mentioned earlier. Some hypocrites instead accused her of wrongdoing with her cousin, Joseph son of Jacob the carpenter.

When the situation grew tight, all avenues were blocked, and speech proved impossible, reliance upon the Majestic increased, and nothing remained but pure sincerity and trust. She therefore “pointed to him,” meaning: address him and speak with him, for the answer you seek lies with him. Thereupon the arrogant among them said, “How can we speak to one who is but an infant in the cradle?”—how, they protested, can you refer us to a tiny child who cannot grasp speech, still nursing in his cradle and unable to distinguish thin milk from its cream? They regarded her gesture as sheer mockery and scorn: you will not utter a single word to us, yet you direct us to one who is in the cradle!

At that very moment he declared:

“I am indeed a servant of Allah. He has given me the Book and made me a prophet; He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and almsgiving so long as I live. He has made me dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me arrogant or wretched. Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die, and the day I am raised alive.” (Maryam 19:30-33)

These were the first words spoken by Jesus son of Mary. The first thing he said was, “I am indeed a servant of Allah,” openly acknowledging his servitude to his Lord and affirming that Allah is his Lord, thus exalting Allah above the false claim of the wrong-doers that he is the son of God. Rather, he is His servant, His messenger, and the son of His bond-woman. He also vindicated his mother from the slander cast upon her by the ignorant, saying, “He has given me the Book and made me a prophet,” for Allah does not bestow prophethood on one such as they alleged—may Allah curse and disgrace them. As He, Exalted is He, says: “and for their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a mighty slander” (al-Nisāʾ 4:156). A faction of the Jews of that time claimed—Allah curse them—that she conceived him through fornication during menstruation, but Allah cleared her of that charge, declared her truthful, and made her son a commissioned prophet, one of the Messengers of firm resolve.

(1) Ibn Kathir has abridged the report here; he transmits it in full in his Tafsir (vol. 3, p. 119), quoting al-Tabari’s Tafsir (vol. 16, p. 58), where it is stated that those who joined the funeral procession of Harun, the righteous man known as Aaron, numbered 40,000. (2) (Vol. 1, p. 600). (3) In MSS b and T it reads as above, which matches the wording of the verse and is more likely to be original here; in MS a it reads qāl (he said). (4) In MSS a, b, and T: tahilina; in MS b: ala al-jawab.

وفي رواية: "ألا أخبرتهم أنهم كانوا يتسمون بأسماء صالحيهم وأنبيائهم" . وذكر قتادة وغيره أنهم كانوا يكثرون من التسمية بهارون، حتى قيل: إنه حضر بعض جنائزهم بشرٌ كثير منهم ممن يُسمى بهارون، أربعون ألفًا (١) . فاللّه أعلم. والمقصود أنهم قالوا: ﴿يَاأُخْتَ هَارُونَ﴾ ودلّ الحديث على أنها قد كان لها أخ نَسَبي اسمه هارون، وكان مشهورًا بالدين والصلاح والخير، ولهذا قالوا: ﴿مَا كَانَ أَبُوكِ امْرَأَ سَوْءٍ وَمَا كَانَتْ أُمُّكِ بَغِيًّا﴾ أي لستِ من بيتٍ هذا شيمتهم ولا سجيتهم، لا أخوك ولا أمك ولا أبوك، فاتهموها بالفاحشة العظمى، ورمَوها بالداهية الدهياء. فذكر ابن جرير في تاريخه (٢) أنهم اتهموا بها زكريا وأرادوا قتله ففر منهم، فلحقوه وقد انشقت له الشجرة فدخلها وأمسك إبليس بطرف ردائه، فنشروه فيها كما قدمنا. ومن المنافقين من اتهمها بابن خالها يوسف بن يعقوب النجار. فلما ضاق الحال وانحصر المجال وامتنع المقال، عظم التوكل على ذي الجلال، ولم يبق إلا الإخلاص والاتِّكال ﴿فَأَشَارَتْ إِلَيْهِ﴾ أي: خاطبوه وكلِّموه، فإنَّ جوابَكم عليه وما تبغون من الكلام لديه. فعندها ﴿قَالُوا﴾ (٣) مَن كان منهم جبارًا شقيًا: ﴿كَيْفَ نُكَلِّمُ مَنْ كَانَ فِي الْمَهْدِ صَبِيًّا﴾ أي: كيف تحيليننا (٤) في الجواب على صبي صغير لا يعقل الخطاب، وهو مع ذلك رضيع في مهده ولا يميز بين محض المخض وزبده، وما هذا منك إلا على سبيل التهكم بنا والاستهزاء والتنقُّص لنا والازدراء، إذًا لا تردّين علينا قولًا نطقيًا، بل تحيلين في الجواب على من كان في المهد صبيًا، فعندها ﴿قَالَ إِنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ آتَانِيَ الْكِتَابَ وَجَعَلَنِي نَبِيًّا (٣٠) وَجَعَلَنِي مُبَارَكًا أَيْنَ مَا كُنْتُ وَأَوْصَانِي بِالصَّلَاةِ وَالزَّكَاةِ مَا دُمْتُ حَيًّا (٣١) وَبَرًّا بِوَالِدَتِي وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْنِي جَبَّارًا شَقِيًّا (٣٢) وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيَّ يَوْمَ وُلِدْتُ وَيَوْمَ أَمُوتُ وَيَوْمَ أُبْعَثُ حَيًّا﴾. وهذا أولُ كلامٍ تفوه به عيسى بن مريم، فَكان أوّل ما تكلّم به أن ﴿قَالَ إِنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ﴾ اعترف لربه (سبحانه وتعالى) بالعبودية، وأن اللّه ربّه، فنزه جناب اللّه عن قول الظالمين في زعمهم أنه ابن اللّه، بل هو عبدُه ورسولُه وابنُ أَمَته، ثم برَّأَ أُمه مما نسبها إليه الجاهلون وقذفوها به ورمَوْها بسببه بقوله: ﴿آتَانِيَ الْكِتَابَ وَجَعَلَنِي نَبِيًّا﴾ فإن اللّه تعالى لا يعطي النبوةَ من هو كما زعموا - لعنهم اللّه وقبَّحَهم - كما قال تعالى: ﴿وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَى مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَانًا عَظِيمًا﴾ [النساء: ١٥٦] وذلك أن طائفة من اليهود في ذلك الزمان قالوا: إنها حملت به من زِنى في زمن الحيض - لعنهم اللّه - فبرَّأها اللّه من ذلك، وأخبر عنها أنها صِدّيقة، واتخذ ولدها نبيًا مرسلًا أحدَ أولي العزم

(١) اختصر ابن كثير الخبر هنا، وقد نقله كاملًا في تفسيره (٣/ ١١٩) عن تفسير الطبري (١٦/ ٥٨)، وفيه أن من خرج في جنازة هارون الرجل الصالح ممن يسمون هارون يبلغ عددهم (٤٠) ألفًا. (٢) (١/ ٦٠٠). (٣) كذا في ب وط. وهو لفظ الآية وأشبه أن يُثْبَت هاهنا. وفي أ: قال. (٤) في أ وب وط: تحيلينا. وفي ب: على الجواب.