Az-Zukhruf: (57) And when the son of Mary was presented as an example...

(And when the son of Mary was presented as an example...) This is an exposition of the obstinacy of the Quraysh with falsehood and the refutation against them.

It has been narrated that Abdullah ibn al-Zaba’ra, before his conversion to Islam, said to the Prophet—may Allah the Exalted grant him blessings and peace—when he heard him say: "Indeed, you and what you worship other than Allah are the fuel of Hell." [He said:] "Do not the Christians worship the Messiah, and you say he was a Prophet and a righteous servant from among the servants of Allah the Exalted? If he is in the Fire, then we are satisfied that we and our deities should be with him." Consequently, the Quraysh rejoiced, laughed, and their voices rose. This is the meaning of the words of the Exalted: "Your people turn away from it in clamor."

(The meaning is: And when Ibn al-Zaba’ra presented Isa ibn Maryam as an example and disputed with you using the Christians' worship of him, then your people, because of that and for that reason, raise a clamor and noise in joy and argumentation. Since the argument had spread like proverbs in its fame, it was called a 'mathal' (example/proverb). Or, 'al-mathal' is in the sense of 'al-mithal' (a standard/measure), meaning he made him a scale and a witness to invalidate his—upon him be blessings and peace—statement: "Indeed, their deities are the fuel of Hell." He made Isa—upon him be peace—an example for himself, akin to the saying: "The Hajj is Arafah.")

Abu Ja’far, al-A’raj, al-Nakha’i, Abu Raja’, Ibn Wathab, Ibn Amir, Nafi’, and al-Kisa’i recited (yaṣuddūn) with a damma on the sad, derived from al-sudud (turning away). This has been narrated from Ali—may Allah the Exalted ennoble his countenance. Ibn Abbas—may Allah be pleased with both of them—disapproved of this recitation, though it is said that its reaching him was of a level of tawatur (mass transmission). The meaning according to this [recitation] is: "When your people, because of that, turn away from the truth through argumentation with a baseless and flimsy proof." It is also said: "The meaning is that they remain steadfast in the turning away that they were already upon." Al-Kisa’i and al-Farra’ stated that yaṣiddūn (with a kasra) and yaṣuddūn (with a damma) are two dialects with the same meaning, like ya’rishūn and ya’rushūn, and their meaning is "they clamor." It is also permitted that the meaning is "they turn away."