return for ten days. These are people’s garments, in various colours, and I have marked each one with a thread indicating the colour in which it is to be dyed. You must have finished them by the time I return.” Then he left.
Jesus prepared a single vat of dye, all of one colour, put all the garments into it, and said, “Be, by Allah’s permission, as I wish you to be.” When the fuller returned and found all the garments in the vat, he asked, “What have you done?” Jesus replied, “I have finished them.” He asked, “Where are they?” Jesus said, “In the vat.” He asked, “All of them?” Jesus replied, “Yes.” He said, “You have ruined those garments!” Jesus said, “Get up and look.” Then Jesus brought out a red garment, a yellow garment, and a green garment, continuing until he had brought them all out in the colours that had been intended for them. The fuller was amazed and realized that this was from Allah. So he said to the people, “Come and see!” He and his companions believed in Jesus, and they were the disciples.
Al-Dahhak said: They were called disciples because of the purity of their hearts (1). Ibn al-Mubarak said: They were given this name because of the traces and light of worship evident upon them. The original meaning of hawar in Arabic is intense whiteness. Thus, one says, “a man with intensely white eyes” and “a woman with intensely white eyes.”
Al-Kalbi and Ikrimah said: The disciples were the chosen ones; they were Jesus’ chosen ones, peace be upon him, and they were twelve men. Rawh ibn al-Qasim said: “I asked Qatadah about the disciples, and he said, ‘They are those fit for the caliphate.’” Another report from him states: “The disciples are the ministers.” Al-Hasan said: “The disciples are the helpers, and a disciple is a helper.” In Arabic usage, a disciple is specifically the man whose help one seeks ⦗59a⦘ in matters that befall him.
Abd al-Wahid ibn Ahmad al-Mulayhi informed us; Ahmad ibn Abdullah al-Nuaymi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yusuf informed us; Muhammad ibn Ismail informed us; al-Humaydi informed us; Sufyan informed us; Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir informed us, who said: “I heard Jabir ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, say: On the Day of the Trench, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, called for volunteers, and al-Zubayr volunteered. Then he again called for volunteers, and al-Zubayr volunteered. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘Every prophet has a devoted helper, and my devoted helper is al-Zubayr.’” (2)
Sufyan said, “A devoted helper is a supporter.” Mamar said: Qatadah said, “All the devoted helpers were from Quraysh: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Hamzah, Jafar, Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, Uthman ibn Mazun, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Sad ibn Abi Waqqas, Talhah ibn Ubayd Allah, and al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, may Allah be pleased with them all.”
His words, Exalted is He: “The disciples said, ‘We are Allah’s helpers’”—that is, the supporters of Allah’s religion and His Messenger. “We believe in Allah; and bear witness, O Jesus, that we are Muslims.”