[The Account of the Table Spread]
Allah, the Exalted, said:
“[Remember] when the disciples said, ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, can your Lord send down to us a table spread with food from heaven?’ He answered, ‘Fear Allah, if you are truly believers.’ They said, ‘We wish to eat from it, so that our hearts may be reassured, that we may know you have spoken the truth to us, and that we may be among its witnesses.’ Jesus son of Mary said, ‘O Allah, our Lord, send down to us a table spread from heaven that shall be a festival for the first of us and the last of us and a sign from You; and provide for us, for You are the best of providers.’ Allah said, ‘I am indeed sending it down to you; but whoever among you disbelieves thereafter, I will punish him with a torment such as I shall inflict on no one else in all the worlds.’” (al-Māʾidah 5:112-115)
We have already set forth in the Tafsīr (1) the narrations concerning the descent of the Table—reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, Salmān al-Fārisī, ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, and other early authorities. In sum, they relate that Jesus (peace be upon him) commanded the disciples to fast for thirty days. When they had completed the fast, they asked him to pray that a table be sent down from heaven so they could eat from it, their hearts might find assurance that Allah had accepted their fast and answered their request, and that it might be a festival on which they would break their fast—sufficient for the first and the last of them, the rich and the poor alike.
Jesus admonished them, fearing they might fail to show gratitude or fulfil its conditions, but they persisted until he petitioned his Lord, mighty and majestic. He went to his place of prayer, put on a coarse garment of hair, set his feet together, bowed his head, his eyes filling with tears, and earnestly supplicated Allah to grant their request.
Allah then sent the table down from heaven while the people watched it descend between two clouds, drawing nearer little by little. Each time it approached, Jesus prayed that it be made a mercy, not a punishment, a source of blessing and peace. It continued until it settled before Jesus (peace be upon him), covered with a cloth. He rose and uncovered it, saying, “In the name of Allah, the Best of Providers.” On it were seven fish and seven loaves, together with herbs and vinegar—some reports add pomegranates and other fruits—and it exuded an exceedingly pleasant fragrance. Allah said to it, “Be!” and it was.
He then ordered them to eat. They replied, “We will not eat until you eat.” He said, “You were the ones who first asked for it.” Still they declined to begin, so he invited the poor, the destitute, the sick, and the chronically infirm (2)—about one thousand three hundred people. They ate from it, and everyone afflicted with a deformity, ailment, or persistent illness was cured. When the others witnessed their restored health, they regretted having refrained from eating.
It is further related that the table would descend once each day; the people would eat from it—the last just as the first—until, it is said, nearly seven thousand souls partook of it. Thereafter it came down every other day, as it had before