for a year, without leaving it by night or by day, until he had learned the Gospel. Then he emerged and said, “I was called from heaven: ‘Allah has accepted your repentance.’” So they believed him and came to love him.

He then went to Jerusalem, leaving Nestor as his deputy over them. He taught him that Jesus, Mary, and God were three. Then he went to the Romans and taught them the doctrines of divinity and humanity, saying, “Jesus was neither a human being nor a body; rather, he was the son of Allah.” He taught this to a man called Jacob. Then he summoned a man called Malka and said, “The deity has always been, and will always be, Jesus.”

Once he had gained control over them, he summoned these three men one by one and said to each of them, “You are my chosen confidant. I saw Jesus in a dream, and he was pleased with me.” He also said to each of them, “Tomorrow I shall slaughter myself, so call the people to your own doctrine.” Then he entered the sanctuary himself and said, “I do this only to seek the pleasure of Jesus.” When the third day came, each one of them called the people to his own doctrine. A group of people followed each of them, and they disagreed and fought one another.

Then Allah, mighty and majestic, said:

“And the Christians say, ‘The Messiah is the son of Allah.’”

“That is merely a saying from their mouths”—that is, they utter it with their tongues without knowledge.

Scholars of Arabic semantics said: Allah, exalted is He, never mentions a statement as being joined to mouths and tongues except that it is falsehood.

“Resembling”: Asim recited it as yudāhiʾūna, with the hāʾ pronounced with kasrah and with a hamzah; the others recited it with the hāʾ pronounced with dammah and without a hamzah. Both are linguistic variants: one may say ḍāhaytuhu or ḍāhaʾtuhu, and their meaning is the same. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “They resemble.” Resemblance means similarity. Mujahid said: “They correspond,” while al-Hasan said: “They agree.”

“Resembling the saying of those who disbelieved before them”: Qatadah and al-Suddi said: The Christians resembled the earlier saying of the Jews when they said, “The Messiah is the son of Allah,” just as the Jews had said, “Ezra is the son of Allah.” Mujahid said: They resembled the saying of the earlier idolaters, who used to say that al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat were Allah’s daughters. Al-Hasan said: Their disbelief was likened to the disbelief of the former disbelieving nations, just as Allah said concerning the Arab idolaters: “Those before them said the same as they say; their hearts are alike” (al-Baqarah 188).

Al-Qutaybi said: It means that the Jews and Christians living in the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, were saying what their predecessors had said.

“May Allah destroy them!” Ibn Abbas said: “May Allah curse them.” Ibn Jurayj said: That is, “May Allah kill them.” It was also said that this is not meant as a literal invocation of combat, but as an expression of astonishment: “How are they turned away?” That is, how are they diverted from the truth after the proofs for it have been established?

“They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah, as well as the Messiah, son of Mary, though they were commanded to worship only One God. There is no god worthy of worship but Him. Exalted is He above what they associate with Him.” (31)

“They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords”: that is, their scholars and reciters. The rabbis are the scholars, and the singular of the word is hibr,