Tafsir of An-Nisa' 4:153

[An-Nisa: 153] The People of the Scripture ask you...

It is narrated that Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf, Finhas ibn ‘Azura, and others said to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): "If you are a truthful prophet, bring us a book from heaven all at once, just as Moses brought it." They proposed this out of obstinacy. Al-Hasan said: "Had they asked him in order to discern the truth, he would have given it to them, and what he already brought them was sufficient."

"Yet they asked Moses for even greater than that." This is a response to an implied condition; it means: if you are arrogant regarding what they asked of you, know that they asked Moses for something greater. The question is attributed to them—even though it was their ancestors in the time of Moses, the seventy leaders—because they followed their path, were satisfied with their questioning, and matched them in obstinacy.

"Show us Allah openly." Meaning: show Him to us plainly.

"Because of their wrongdoing." Meaning: because of their request to see Him. Had they requested something permissible, they would not have been called wrongdoers, nor would the thunderbolt have seized them. Abraham (peace be upon him) asked to be shown how the dead are brought to life, yet he was not called a wrongdoer nor struck by a thunderbolt. Woe to the anthropomorphists (al-Mushabbiha) and their being struck by thunderbolts!

"And We gave Moses clear authority." Meaning: clear dominance and power over them when He commanded them to kill themselves until they were forgiven; they obeyed, and they knelt in their courtyards while swords fell upon them. What a clear authority!

"By their covenant." Meaning: because of their covenant, so that they might fear and not break it.

"And We said to them: 'Enter the gate bowing.'" And do not transgress the Sabbath. They had taken the covenant for this, saying "We hear and we obey," and pledging to fulfill it, yet they broke it afterward.

"So for their breaking of their covenant..." The "ma" (in fima) is an intensifier. The ba (in fima) relates either to an implied verb—as if to say, "Because of their breaking the covenant, We did to them what We did"—or it relates to "We forbade them." The phrase "Because of the wrongdoing of those who are Jews" (160) is an appositive to "Because of their breaking of their covenant." The intensification signifies that the punishment or the forbidding of good things was solely due to the breaking of the covenant, along with their disbelief and killing of the prophets.

If you ask: "Why not claim the implied verb is what is indicated by 'Nay, Allah has set a seal upon them'?" I say: This is invalid because "Nay, Allah has set a seal upon them because of their disbelief" is a refutation of their claim "Our hearts are wrapped." They meant that Allah created their hearts wrapped (in coverings), unreachable by any reminder or admonition, like the polytheists who said, "If the Most Merciful had willed, we would not have worshipped them." It was said to them: "Nay, Allah has forsaken them and withheld His grace due to their disbelief, so they became as if sealed, not that they were created wrapped and incapable of accepting the reminder."

"And their disbelief..." It is best to connect this to "Because of their breaking..." and treat "Nay, Allah has set a seal..." as a parenthetical statement. Their disbelief was repeated: they disbelieved in Moses, then Jesus, then Muhammad (peace be upon them).

"And their great slander against Mary." If you ask: "They were disbelievers in Jesus, calling him a sorcerer and a bastard, so how could they say, 'We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah'?" I say: They said it mockingly, like Pharaoh saying, "Your messenger who has been sent to you is mad." Or, Allah may have replaced their ugly mention with a noble one in the narrative to exalt Jesus above their descriptions.

It is narrated that a group of Jews insulted him and his mother, so he prayed against them, and Allah transformed them into apes and swine. The Jews conspired to kill him, so Allah informed him that He would raise him to heaven. He asked his companions: "Who among you is willing to take on my likeness, be killed, crucified, and enter Paradise?" One man volunteered. His likeness was cast upon him, and he was killed and crucified. Some say it was a hypocrite who entered Jesus' house to betray him, so Jesus was raised, and the likeness was cast upon the hypocrite.

"But it was made to appear so to them." The "likeness" is attributed to the prepositional phrase (the "to them"), meaning the act of resemblance occurred for them.

"Except following assumption." This is an interrupted exception (istithna' munqati'), as following assumption is not of the same genus as knowledge.

"And they did not kill him, certainly." Meaning: they did not kill him with certainty, or they did not kill him while being certain, despite their claim.

"And there is none from the People of the Scripture but that he will surely believe in him before his death." This is a conditional sentence serving as an adjective for an implied noun: "There is no one among the People of the Scripture but that he will believe in him before his death." Meaning: when he sees him before his soul departs, at a time when his faith will not benefit him because the time of accountability has ended.

Al-Hajjaj asked me about this verse, and I told him that when a Jew or Christian is dying, the angels strike his face and back, saying: "O enemy of Allah, Moses came to you as a prophet, and you denied him," so he believes that he was a servant and a prophet. And they say to the Christian: "Jesus came to you, and you claimed he was God or the son of God," so he believes he was a servant of Allah and His messenger, at a time when it does not benefit him. Al-Hajjaj sat up and said: "From whom did you hear this?" I said: "Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn." He said: "You have taken it from a pure source."

The benefit of this news is a warning, and to make them realize that they will inevitably believe in him upon witnessing him, so they should hasten to believe in him while it is still beneficial.

"And on the Day of Resurrection, he will be a witness against them." He will testify against the Jews that they denied him, and against the Christians that they claimed he was the son of God. It is also said that he will descend at the end of time, and there will remain no one from the People of the Scripture but that he will believe in him, until there is only one religion: Islam.