Explanation of a Qur
Explanation of a Qur’anic Verse (4:159)
Researcher:
Muhammad Mubashar Ahmad
Supervisor: Abdullah Rahim
Islam Students - Research Association (ISRA)
www.theisra.org
Disclaimer: The views expressed and the conclusions drawn in this
research report do not necessarily reflect the views of the supervisor. Every
effort has been made to ensure dissemination of correct information only;
however, supervisor does not accept any responsibility for possible errors and
omissions, if any. The supervisor has only advised the researcher on how to
progress in his/her own line of thinking.
1.
Introduction
In the following paragraphs we will attempt to understand the meaning of the
verse 159 chapter 4 of the Holy Quran. A simple translation of the verse is as
follows;
“There is not one of the People of the Scripture but will believe in him (or it)
before his death- and on the Day of Resurrection he (or it) will be a witness
against them”
The verse under consideration can be divided into two parts. There prevails much
more confusion about understanding of the first part as compared to the
understanding of the second part although both equally influence the
understanding of the verse.
In the quest to understand the meaning of this verse there are four
main questions that need to be answered before describing any meaning of the
verse, namely:
1.
The phrase “people of the Book” refers to whom?
2.
The phrase “believe in” refers to what?
3.
The phrase “death of” refers to whom?
4.
The phrase “witness” refers to whom or what?
The answers of these questions not only have a substantial effect on the
exegesis but the simple translation as well and hence represent a variety of
meanings and ideas.
We start our
search for the answers of these questions from
a brief review of available literature on the meaning of the verse under
consideration. In our quest, we go through some of the early tafaseer of Quran
and some of the contemporary as well, without any sectarian discrimination. The
selection of tafaseer is mainly influenced by the online availability issue but
whatever was available has not been included. The selection of tafaseer has been
made keeping two factors in view; to encompass as many differing opinions as
possible in this scarce space and the respect/acceptance they (both tafaseer and
their authors) command in the Muslim community. We also try to figure out the
basis of the explanations presented in these tafaseer.
In section 3 we discuss difficulties faced in the understanding of the verse and
also present our view on the issue. Finally some conclusions are presented in
the last section and future work in this regard is also suggested.
2.
An Overview and Analysis of Exegeses
First let us see what has been said about this verse by our scholars of the past
and the present. In the light of excerpts from selected tafaseer, we would
attempt to find out the answers of the same questions raised in the previous
section, and also analyze the way these scholars have answered these questions.
Ibn Abbas, as attributed to him,
in “Tanwīr al-Miqbās min Tafsīr
Ibn 'Abbās1”, describes the meaning
of the verse as;
“(There is not one of the People of the Scripture) the Jews and Christians (but
will believe in him) in Jesus, that he was not a sorcerer, Allah, His son or His
partner (before his death) after the soul of Jesus expires, that is after he
comes down again and then dies after every single Jew in their time, (and on the
Day of Resurrection he) Jesus (will be a witness against them) through delivery
of the message.”
Here the phrase
“people of the Book” refers to “all Jews and Christians” without any
discrimination of time and age.
Subsequently, it attributes both, “believe in” and “death of”, phrases to
“Jesus”.
Also Jesus has
been described as “witness”. It is quite evident that this exegete is based on
the belief in second coming of Jesus for which no arguments are provided.
Imam IbnJarir al-n “TafsirIbnJarir al-Tabari2” (Vol.6:p.18-21) says:
"Commentators differ on the meaning of this verse, some saying that it means
“'believe in `Isa before `Isa's death'." He then cites reports to that effect
from Ibn `Abbas, al-Hasan, Qatada, Abu Malik, and others. He further describes:
"Others said that it means “believe in `Isa before the death of the Jew or
Christian." He then cites reports to that effect from Ibn `Abbas, Ubay, Mujahid
(Tafsir 1:180-181), `Ikrima, al-Dahhak, al-Hasan, Muhammad ibn
Sirin, and others. He also reports another view: "Others said that it means
“believe in Muhammad - blessings and peace upon him - before the death of the
Jew or Christian." He cites a report to that effect from `Ikrima. Then Imam al-Tabari
states that the likeliest view to be correct is: “there is none of the People of
the Scripture but he will certainly believe in `Isa before `Isa's death”.
Imam Ibn
Kathir, in his TafsīrIbnKathir3 also supports Imam IbnJarir al-Tabari.
Here Ibn
Jarir
has collected a number of differing opinions about the verse. He reports two
different attributions for the phrase “believe in” i.e. “Jesus” and “Muhammad”.
But he does not accept the only voice of Ikrama, referring “believe in” to
“Muhammad”. He also reports three different attributions for the phrase “death
of” i.e. “Jesus”, “Jews” and
“Christians”. It must be noted that phrase “people of the Book” has not come
under discussion but attribution of the phrase “death of” has created more
ambiguity about this phrase, it may refer to “Jews” or “Christians” as well, but
not both as is evident from “Jew or Christian”. There is no mention of the
attribution of phrase “witness”. After describing all differing opinions Imam
IbnJarir states his inclination towards “believe in Jesus before the death of
Jesus” and considers all the “people of the Book” arbitrarily. Each reported
opinion has been supported by the statements of earlier exegetes and scholars
only. It is also pertinent to note that there are contradictory reports from Ibn
Abbas for the attribution of the same phrase i.e. “death of”.
Tafsīr al-Jalālayn4 explains the verse as;
“And there is not one of the People of the Scripture but will assuredly believe
in him, in Jesus, before his death, that is, [before the death] of one belonging
to the People of the Scripture upon seeing the angels of death with his very
eyes, at which point his faith will not profit him; or [it means] before the
death of Jesus, after he descends at the approach of the Hour, as is stated in
hadīth; and on the Day of Resurrection he, Jesus, will be a witness against
them, of what they did when he was sent to them.”
Unlike IbnJarir,
Jalalayn refers the phrase “believe in” only to “Jesus”. Also contrary to
IbnJarir, Jalalaynpresentsonly two attributions, rather than three, for the
phrase “death of” i.e. it may refer to the “people of the Book” or “Jesus” as
well. The reference of phrase “death of” to the “people of the Book” is not
supported by any argument but to the “Jesus” is supported by Ahadith about the
second coming of Jesus. But like IbnAbbas it also refers the phrase “people of
the Book” to “all Jews and Christians”, without any discrimination of time and
age, and also “witness” to Jesus.
Syed Maududi explains the verse in Tafheem-ul-Quran5 as follows;
“The death mentioned here could refer either to the death of Jesus or to the
death of each and every person among 'the People of the Book'. The text lends
itself to both meanings. We have adopted the first in our translation. If we
accept the alternative meaning, the verse would mean: "there is no one among the
People of the Book who, before his death, will not believe in Jesus.' The
expression, 'People of the Book' here refers to the Jews and possibly even to
the Christians. In the light of this latter meaning, the purpose of the verse
would be to affirm that at the time when the physical death of Jesus takes
place, all the living 'People of the Book' would have come to believe in him
(i.e. in his prophethood). Alternatively, the verse would mean that the
prophethood of Jesus will become manifest to every person among the People of
the Book just before he dies so that they will believe in him, but at a time
when believing would be of no avail. Both these views have been supported by
several Companions, Successors and outstanding scholars of Qur'anic exegesis.
The truth of the matter is best known to God alone.”
The last sentence says it all. He does not support any of the stated meanings
clearly. It means Syed Maududi is not sure about any one of the meanings stated
by him. He confidently refers the phrase “believe in” to “Jesus” but after that
there is no certainty. The phrase “death of” may be referred, according to
Maududi, to “Jesus” and “people of the Book” equally. There is also confusion
about the reference of the phrase “people of the Book”. He says it includes
“Jews” and also “possibly” may include “Christians”, but only those among both
who would be living at the time of the second coming of Jesus. On the other hand
he also supports the reference of “people of the Book” to each and every person
among Jews and Christians regardless of time and age. There is no mention of the
attribution of the phrase “witness”. Again, these views are based on statements
of “Companions, Successors and outstanding scholars of Qur'anic
exegeses.
Muhammad
Hussain Tabatabai in his “Tafsīr Al-Mizan6”has dealt with the issue
in length and mostly on the basis of structure of the text and also supporting
his interpretation with other verses from the Quran. He says;
“The third
person singular pronoun in "believe in" refers to 'Isa (a.s.). As for the
pronoun in "before his death" there are various interpretations: Some people
have said: The pronoun refers to 'one' in "one of the People of the Book”… If we
say that the pronoun "before his death" refers to 'Isa (a.s.), it would support
what has been narrated in some traditions that 'Isa is alive…..Utmost that can
be said is that the one who will not be present when he will return to them
second time will believe in him at the time of his death and the one who will be
present at that time will have to believe in him.”
Here, too,
“believe in” refers to “Jesus” without any second thought and no certain answer
for the attribution of “death of”. But here no discrimination has been made
between Jews and Christiana as far as “people of the Book” is concerned. Even
author goes one step further and finds a way out to include all the “people of
the Book” from the times of Jesus to the Day of Resurrection.
The author of “Tadabbur-i-Qur'an”,
Amin AhsanIslahi, says;
“the phrase
“people of the Book” refers to both Jews and Christians of the times of
Muhammad…………the phrase “believe in” refers to the “Quran” and the phrase “death
of” refers to Muhammad”.......and the phrase “witness” refers to Muhammad.”
Here we find
some fundamental differences of opinion on the meaning of the verse. All the
phrases in question are attributed to entirely different references. The phrase
“people of the Book” refers to the “all Jews and Christians of the times of
Muhammad”, “believe in” refers to “Quran”, “death of” refers to “Muhammad” and
“witness” refers to “Muhammad”. There are two points of fundamental importance
about this explanation. One, author has not stated more than one meaning of any
phrase. Whatever has been said, no matter authentic or otherwise, is said with
confidence. Secondly, we find this tafaseer the first one which explains the
verse on the basis of structure of the text and flow of the main discourse. It
does not rely on the opinions of earlier scholars or even traditions.
In this review
last but not the least is Javed Ahmad Ghamidi's interpretation which is
something like this:
“[These are the
crimes of the People of the Book; so O Prophet if they are demanding from you
some other book besides the Qur'an which is divinely revealed disregard them]
each one from these people of the book will profess faith in this Qur'an before
his death and this Qur'an will be a witness over them in the Day of Judgment.”
Ghamidi’s view
is somewhat similar to that of Islahi’s. Like Islahi, he also refers the phrases
“believe in” and “people of the Book” to “Quran” and “all Jews and Christians of
the times of Muhammad”, respectively. But the phrases “death of” and “witness”
are referred to the “people of the Book” and “Quran”, respectively.
In short, the
attribution of “believe in” to “Jesus” has almost attained a consensus except
Ikrama who referred it to Muhammad and Islahi and Ghamidi who refer it to Quran.
On the
other hand “death of” has always been referred to either “Jesus” or “people of
the Book” except Islahi who refers it to Muhammad.
The
phrase “people of the Book” has been source of much more interpretations. Its
attribution varies from “Jews only”, “Jews only living through the times of
Jesus during his second coming”, “Jews or Christians”, “Jews and Christians of
all times”, “Jews and Christians living through the time of Jesus during his
second coming” to “Jews and Christians of the times of Muhammad”.The uncertainty
has no bounds in this regard.
A little
pondering on the above quoted exegeses and their arguments clearly reveals that
whatever has been said is based on some narrations of the former exegetes. There
have been only some sayings and traditions of Prophet as the basis to make a
choice out of available interpretations. We can see that among all those who
referred “believe in” phrase to Jesus, none of them strengthened this view point
with arguments. It seems like it has been taken for granted. On contrary, there
has always been a difference of opinion about the attribution of “death of”
phrase. Here every one has dealt with the topic in length but most of the
arguments were sayings of former scholars or some traditions of the Prophet
Muhammad. Similarly, the most difficult phrase “people of the Book” has been
interpreted in a variety of ways and that too without any explanation.
It is
pertinent to note that most of the tafaseer have dealt with the issue on basis
of belief in second coming of Jesus. If we approach the verse without this
belief then situation might be different.
The
table in appendix summarizes the various attributions of all the concerned
phrases of the verse under consideration.
3.
Discussion and
Findings
In the
following paragraphs we discuss various interpretations
and
analyze them. We will also discuss basis and implications of each
interpretation.
In the first
place, if we take the view point that “people of the Book will believe in
Jesus", we find ourselves on cross roads. In this scenario we have two living
creatures to whom we can equally attribute the next phrase “death of” i.e.
“Jesus” himself and “people of the Book.”
The
dilemma has found its basis to burgeon further.
So we
can now read the verse in either of the two ways; one “people of the Book will
believe in Jesus before the death of Jesus (when he returns again to this
world)” and second “people of the Book will believe in Jesus before their
death”. In both cases the phrase “people of the Book” (who will believe in him),
needs to be restricted only to those (whether Jews or Christians) who shall be
present at the second coming of Jesus so that they “believe in” him when he
comes again to this world and, also, he can be “witness” for their belief. On
the other hand, if we include “people of the Book” of all the times and ages,
for both above stated views, then how those “people of the Book” will “believe
in” Jesus who will die before or after his second coming. If for the sake of
argument, those particular people somehow “believe in” Jesus before their death;
even then how Jesus can be “witness” for the belief of those very people if he
(Jesus) is not present among them at the time of their “believe in”. This is
quite evident from Quran (5:117)when it quotes a conversation between Allah and
Jesus on the Day of Resurrection where Jesus says “I watched over them as long
as I remained among them.” So he (Jesus) cannot be a witness for the times when
he is not present. Therefore, we need to attribute the phrase “witness” to
someone (or something) else who (or that) remains present at all the times to be
rightly attributed as a “witness”. But the question is who (or what)?
We can also
interpret the first part of the verse in another way; “people of the Book will
believe in Muhammad", we again find ourselves on cross roads. In this scenario,
too, we have two living creatures to whom we can equally attribute the next
phrase “death of” i.e. “Muhammad” himself and “people of the Book.” So, again,
we can read the verse in either of the two ways; one, “people of the Book will
believe in Muhammad before the death of Muhammad” and second “people of the Book
will believe in Muhammad before their death”. In both cases the phrase “people
of the Book” (who will believe in him), needs to be restricted only to those
(whether Jews or Christians) who shall be present at the times of Muhammad so
that they “believe in” him and, also, he can be “witness” for their belief.
Otherwise how “people of the Book” who will live after Muhammad will “believe
in” him and, in case they “believe in” him, how he can be witness for their
belief.
Otherwise how
“people of the Book” who will live after Muhammad will “believe in” him and, in
case they “believe in” him, how he can be witness for their belief for the same
reason as stated above for the case of Jesus. To include the “people of the
Book” of all times and ages in above stated views, again we need to attribute
the phrase “witness” to someone (or something) else who (or that) remains
present at all the times to be rightly attributed as a “witness”. But the
question is who (or what)?
In short, from
the above discussion, we now have two views to deal with; one “people of the
Book (present at the second coming of Jesus to this world) will believe in him
and he will be witness for their belief”, second ““people of the Book (present
at the times of Muhammad) will believe in him and he will be witness for their
belief”. But both views suffer from some serious weaknesses. The first view is
solely based on the belief in the second coming of Jesus to this world. If it is
not the case, then what is the meaning of the verse? As regards second view, the
reference of “believe in” to Muhammad does not bear much rationality. As stated
by Muhammad Hussain Tabatabai “there was no mention of Muhammad in the preceding
verses, so that the pronoun could refer to him.”
It is
interesting to note here that in a few above paragraphs we
have
discussed all the interpretations, for the reference of all four phrases
“believe in”, “death of”, “people of the Book” and “witness”,
presented by the traditional scholars [1-6] of the past. Only two contemporary
scholars are left to deal with i.e. Islahi and Ghamidi.
Unlike
traditional scholars of the past and some contemporary as well, who base their
interpretations on belief in second coming of Jesus whether derived from
traditions of prophet and statements of earlier exegetes or Quran itself, they
both base their interpretations on the structure of the text. Therefore, what
follows in next, we will mostly discuss the structure of the text and naturally
the views of these two scholars will also come under scrutiny.
From the above
discussion it is clear that we have now reached at a point where we need to
search for the attribution of the phrase “believe in” to someone (or something)
other than Jesus and Muhammad. In this quest we go back to the text.
It starts the
discussion with the demand of some of the people for something other than this
Quran.
From verse 153,
Quran addresses the “people of the Book”. The first question is who these
“people of the Book” are? The verse answers this question; it reads like this,
“The People of
the Book now ask of you to have a Book come down on them from heaven; indeed
they asked of Moses even greater things than this, for they said: 'Make us see
Allah with our own eyes.”
The pronoun
“they” is definitely referring to the “people of the Book” and only Jews can ask
of Moses for something. So after establishing the addressees of the Quran here
we go through the text.
First, the
Quran states a demand of Jews that they wanted something other than Quran. But
rather than disregarding their thoughtless demand out rightly, Quran quotes some
of their demands and crimes, and consequent punishments, from their national
history to establish that they have been habitual in such demands and crimes.
Also during the course of this crime and punishment story, Quran comments on
some of their claims to make corrections. Avoiding the details of their demands
and crimes we directly address the issue which is related to our topic.
One of their
claims was; “we slew the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary', the Messenger of Allah.”
The Quran, after quoting their claim, deviates from the main discourse and
defies this claim, “in fact they had neither slain him nor crucified him but the
matter was made dubious to them - and those who differed about it
were in
a state of doubt! They have no definite knowledge of it, but merely follow
conjecture; and they surely slew him not.But Allah raised him to Himself. Allah
is All-Mighty, All-Wise.”
In verses 157
and 158 we can see that, Quran not only refutes (in fact they had neither slain
him nor crucified him) their claim but also describes what happened to them in
this regard (the matter was made dubious to them) and their actual position
(they have no definite knowledge of this matter) on this matter. After that, in
verse 158, the truth about the Jesus has been revealed.
Here comes the verse 159; “There is not one of the People of the Scripture but
will believe in him (or it) before his (Jesus or ‘one’ from “people of the
Book”) death- and on the Day of Resurrection he (or it) will be a witness
against them.” From verse 160 onwards, again story of Jews continues till verse
161.
There are two
possibilities here and we will discuss them one by one.
In the first
case, if we consider that deviation from the main discourse, story of Jews, ends
at verse 158. And while resuming (in verse 159) the main discourse, crime and
punishment story of Jews, Quran again starts the same story in the same style,
addressing “people of the Book”, as it started from the very beginning in verse
153 to discuss the non-believing attitude of Jews towards this Quran. Therefore
the phrase “believe in” of verse 159 goes back to verse 153 from where all this
discussion about “current revelation” started. So we can refer the phrase
“believe in” to “current revelation (Quran)”. After establishing to “believe in”
what as “Quran” by going back to verse 153, we have no doubt that “death of”
refers to the “people of the Book” since there is no other living creature under
consideration anymore. Next, we have the phrase “people of the Book” to ponder
upon. As it was established earlier that the main discourse was addressed to
Jews, but we can specify the address to the Jews of the times of Muhammad. There
is strong evidence from the Quran itself and that is this: only Jews of the
times of Muhammad can demand something from Muhammad. In our view, since now we
are again referring “people of the Book” to the verse 153, where it meant only
for Jews, here again we are bound to consider it for Jews only (present at the
time of revelation). It must be stated here that both Islahi and Ghamidi
also
refer the phrase “believe in” to “Quran” but they refer the phrase “people of
the Book” to “both Jews and Christians of the times of Muhammad”.
So
according to our understanding of the verse, we can interpolate the first part
of the verse 159 as follows;
“(Now these
Jews are demanding some thoughtless things rather than believing in this Quran,
and they also have been doing same in the past, but that time is not far away
when) every one of these Jews (present at the time of revelation) will believe
in (i.e. it will be clear to them whether they express it or not) this Quran
(that in fact it was from their God) before their death.”
In second case,
if we consider that deviation from the main discourse, story of Jews, ends at
verse 159. Then the phrase “believe in” of verse 159 has three nouns mentioned
just before it; facts (one is refutation “neither slain him nor crucified him”
and second is “Allah raised him to Himself” i.e. Ra’fa), Jesus and “people of
the Book”. If we could prove that Jesus is no more alive, there is no point in
believing in him so the phrase “believe in” refers to the facts and the phrase
“death of” only refers to the “people of the Book” since there is no other
living creature under consideration anymore.
After
establishing to “believe in” what as facts
and
“death of” referring to the “people of the Book”, next, we have the phrase
“people of the Book” to ponder upon. As it was established
in the
above paragraph that it refers to the Jews
of the
times of Muhammad, but since Jesus also has been discussed in this deviation, we
can also include Christians as well. But we must be cautious, again, that only
Jews and Christians of the times of Muhammad are addressed here.
This
reference is also in agreement with both Islahi and Ghamidi. So we can
interpolate the first part of the verse 159 as follows;
“(As a
consequence of this revelation i.e. Quran) all these Jews and Christians
(present at the time of revelation) will believe in (i.e. it will be clear to
them whether they express it or not) these facts (about killing and crucifixion
of Jesus as stated by Quran) before their death.”
Finally we are
left with the second part of the verse where only phrase “witness” requires a
reference to be decided. Islahi refers this phrase to “Muhammad” and supports
his view from within Quran (4:41). As we have quoted Tabatabai in the preceding
paragraphs for the reference of the phrase “believe in” to “Muhammad”, also
applies here and, therefore, this view cannot be accepted. However, Ghamidi
refers this phrase, too, to the “Quran”. But whether Quran can be witness for
something/someone or not needs further investigation. Despite some effort, we
could not find any such evidence from Quran.
From this point
we can also find a way to solve the problem of choosing one of the above
statements. As we have stated above, if the deviation from the main discourse,
story of Jews, ends at verse 159 then verse 159 is not anymore referring back to
verse 153 where it discussed Quran and hence, the phrase “witness” cannot be
refer to “Quran” since there is no mention of it just before the verse. Also as
stated above, the phrase “believe in” of verse 159 has three nouns mentioned
just before it. So we can refer the phrase “believe in” to “facts stated about
Jesus”, “death of” to the “people of the Book”, “people of the Book” to “both
Jews and Christians of the times of Muhammad” and “witness” to “Jesus”.
Now the verse
159 can be interpolated as follows;
“(As a
consequence of this revelation i.e. Quran) all these Jews and Christians
(present at the time of revelation) will believe in (i.e. it will be clear to
them whether they express it or not) these facts (about killing and crucifixion
of Jesus as stated by Quran) before their death, and he (Jesus) will be witness
for (not against) these facts (i.e. he will testify (witness for)that indeed no
one neither slain nor crucified him) on the Day of Resurrection.”
4.
Conclusions
It is evident
that the interpretation of the verse 4:159 has long been mostly based on the
belief in the second coming of Jesus. Scholars had varying sometimes even
contradicting opinions. It is also evident that most of the efforts put to
understand the meaning of the verse have been based on and/or supporting it by
traditions of the Prophet and saying of the earlier scholars. Only Islahi and
Ghamidi have based their interpretations on the structure of the text. We have
had much inspiration from their views and attempted to understand the verse
using similar methodology. According to our understanding the verse 4:159can be
interpolated in the following way;
“(As a
consequence of this revelation i.e. Quran) all these Jews and Christians
(present at the time of revelation) will believe in (i.e. it will be clear to
them whether they express it or not) these facts (about killing and crucifixion
of Jesus as stated by Quran) before their death, and he (Jesus) will be witness
for (not against) these facts (i.e. he will testify (witness for) that indeed no
one neither slain nor crucified him) on the Day of Resurrection.”
The future work
in this regard may include further strengthening of this view by adding further
technical investigation of the text, supporting the idea of Quran not being the
witness and death of Jesus with arguments. If any one of these does not
materialize we must review this view point.
5.
References
[1] “Tanwīr
al-Miqbāsmin TafsīrIbn 'Abbās” attributed variously to'AbdullāhIbn 'Abbās and Muḥammad
al-Fīrūzabādī, translated by MokraneGuezzou,Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for
Islamic Thought, Amman, Jordan, 2007.
[2]
http://www.livingislam.org/fiqhi/fiqha_e80.html
[3]
“TafsīrIbnKatir” by Immad-u-DeenIbnKathir, translated by MaulanaMulana Muhammad
JonaGarhi, vol;6A, p-11, MaktabahQudusiah
[4] “Tafsīr
al-Jalālayn” by Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maallī and Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūī, translated by
Feras
Hamza, Royal
Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Amman, Jordan, 2007.
[5]
http://www.tafheem.net/tafheem.html
[6]
http://www.shiasource.com/al-mizan/
Appendix
Possible
interpretations of the underlined expressions in verse 4:159. ‘X’ indicates the
interpretation that is preferred by the personalities in the rows.
“There is not one of the People of the Scripture but will believe in
him (or it) before his death- and on the Day of Resurrection he
(or it) will be a witness against them” (4:159)
|
|
“Believe in” |
“Death of” |
“People of
the Scripture” |
“Witness” |
|
|
Jesus
|
Muhammad
|
Quran
|
Jesus
|
Muhammad
|
People of the Book
|
Jews and Christians of all Times
|
Jews and Christians of Muhammad’s Times |
Jews and Christians of Jesus’s Second Times |
Jesus
|
Muhammad
|
Quran
|
|
Ibn Abbas |
X |
|
|
X |
|
X |
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
|
IbnJarir |
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
|
|
|
|
IbnKathir |
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ikrama |
|
X |
|
|
|
X |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jalalayn |
X |
|
|
X |
|
X |
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
|
Maududi |
X |
|
|
X |
|
X |
X |
|
X |
|
|
|
|
Tabatabai |
X |
|
|
X |
|
X |
X |
|
X |
|
|
|
|
Islahi |
|
|
X |
|
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
X |
|
|
Ghamidi |
|
|
X |
|
|
X |
|
X |
|
|
|
X |
