Ibn Abbas said: “With Muhammad and his community, for they will testify that the messengers conveyed the message.”
“They planned, and Allah planned; and Allah is the best of planners.” (54)
Regarding His saying, “They planned”: this refers to the disbelievers among the Children of Israel, from whom Jesus perceived disbelief, and who resolved to kill Jesus. After his people had driven him and his mother out, Jesus returned to them with the disciples and openly called them to the faith. They determined to kill him and conspired to assassinate him; that was their plotting. Allah, exalted is He, said: “Allah planned; and Allah is the best of planners.”
Plotting on the part of created beings is wickedness, deception, and stratagem; whereas Allah’s planning is His leading a servant on gradually and then seizing him suddenly from where he does not know, as He said: “We shall lead them on gradually from where they do not know.” (al-A‘raf 7:182) Al-Zajjaj said: “Allah’s planning is His requital of them for their plotting. Thus, He called the recompense by the name of the initiating act, because it corresponds to it,” as in His saying: “Allah mocks them” (al-Baqarah 2:15), and, “He is deceiving them” (al-Nisa’ 4:142). Allah’s planning in this verse, specifically against them, was that He cast the likeness of Jesus upon their companion who intended to kill Jesus, and so he was killed.
Al-Kalbi narrated from Abu Salih, from Ibn Abbas: Jesus came upon a group of Jews, and when they saw him, they said, “The sorcerer, son of the sorceress; the fornicator, son of the fornicatress!” They slandered him and his mother. When Jesus heard this, he supplicated against them and cursed them, so Allah transformed them into swine.
When Yahudha, the chief and leader of the Jews, saw this, he was alarmed and feared Jesus’ supplication. The Jews then united in their resolve to kill Jesus, and they rose up against him to kill him. Allah sent Gabriel to him, who brought him into a small chamber with an opening in its roof, and Allah raised him to heaven through that opening. Yahudha, the chief of the Jews, then ordered one of his companions, a man called Tatyanus, to enter the chamber and kill him. When he entered, he did not see Jesus. He remained inside for a long time, and they assumed that he was fighting Jesus within it. Then Allah cast upon him the likeness of Jesus. When he came out, they thought that he was Jesus, so they killed and crucified him.
Wahb said: They came upon Jesus during part of the night and set up a piece of wood on which to crucify him. Then the earth grew dark, and Allah sent the angels, who came between them and him. That night Jesus gathered the disciples, instructed them, and then said: “One of you will surely reject me before the rooster crows and will sell me for a few dirhams.” They went out and dispersed, while the Jews were seeking him. One of the disciples came to the Jews and said, “What will you give me if I show you the Messiah?” They offered him thirty dirhams, so he took them and directed them to him.
When he entered the house, Allah cast the likeness of Jesus upon him. Jesus was raised up, and the one who had directed them to him was seized. He said, “I am the one who directed you to him,” but they paid no attention to what he said; rather, they killed and crucified him, thinking that he was Jesus. When the likeness of Jesus was crucified, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a woman for whom Jesus had supplicated, whom Allah had cured of madness, came weeping beside the crucified man. Jesus came to them and said, “Why are you both weeping? Allah has raised me up, and nothing but good has befallen me. This is merely something made to appear so to them.”
After seven days had passed, Allah said to Jesus: “Descend to Mary Magdalene—‘Magdalene’ being the name of a place on her mountain—for no one has wept over you as she has, nor grieved for you as she has. Then let the disciples gather before you, and disperse them throughout—