Continuing with our study of the story of Jesus, let’s study the following verse:
وَإِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَـٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ سُبْحَـٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ ۚ إِن كُنتُ قُلْتُهُۥ فَقَدْ عَلِمْتَهُۥ ۚ تَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِى وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِكَ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ
5:116 God said, “Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to people, ‘Worship me and my mother as gods instead of God’?’ [Jesus] answered,” May You be exalted in Your limitless glory. It is not for me to say what I have no right to say. Had I said this, You would have known it. You know all that is within me, whereas I do not know what is in You. It is You alone who has full knowledge of unknown things.
This discussion between God and Jesus is for us to relate to in our lives; which is why it is mentioned in the Quran addressing me right now. In Jesus’ prophetic message was there any evidence that claimed his divinity, that he has some sort of divine qualities? We don’t really know exactly what Jesus may have said, but we have the message or revelation that was given to prophet Jesus in whatever form it is in now. Is there any evidence in those texts whereby Jesus declared himself as divine? Although, there may be interpretations alluding to such but they are at the end interpretations of certain individuals.
There is a universal message in here related to the way Jesus is created. Having no father does not mean that he existed by himself, there is no such claim. Even if there is a mother and father resulting in a baby being born, what is the difference? The father and mother are not the creators of the baby. No one can ever claim that I have a baby and it is my production. If something happens extraordinarily for me, because I am not accustomed to such creation, does not mean that the result is the creator of itself. We are accustomed with the order of seeing a father and mother having the result of a baby. We classify them as the norm because these things happen in this way to our accustomed experience. It does not mean that the thing is the creator of itself. For example, a person always opens his door at 7AM. Can I say that the door is opening by itself? Perhaps if I see one day that the door did not open at 7AM, I would be surprised because I was not expecting or accustomed to that. There is no evidence for the door to open by itself.
This verse has the universal message where Jesus alludes that I have no right to claim divinity, that people should worship me by making me the source of existence. “My Creator You know all that is within me whereas I don’t know what is in You my Lord. If I made this claim, You would have known it.” What is my duty now, I have to look at myself – did I make my nose, eyes, lungs, kidneys? How about the cells of my organs? What about my feelings, did the feelings create themselves? All the signs in me show me that they have been given and created by my Lord.
Jesus continues with: “You alone have full knowledge of unknown things.” – I don’t comprehend your knowledge, your capacity as the work that I see in the universe tells me that your knowledge has no limit and thus shows that you must be Absolute.
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُونُوٓا۟ أَنصَارَ ٱللَّهِ كَمَا قَالَ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ لِلْحَوَارِيِّـۧنَ مَنْ أَنصَارِىٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ ٱلْحَوَارِيُّونَ نَحْنُ أَنصَارُ ٱللَّهِ ۖ فَـَٔامَنَت طَّآئِفَةٌۭ مِّنۢ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ وَكَفَرَت طَّآئِفَةٌۭ ۖ فَأَيَّدْنَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ عَلَىٰ عَدُوِّهِمْ فَأَصْبَحُوا۟ ظَـٰهِرِينَ
61:14 O believers! Stand up for God, as Jesus, son of Mary, asked the disciples, “Who will stand up with me for God?” The disciples replied, “We will stand up for God.” Then a group of the Children of Israel believed while another disbelieved. We then supported the believers against their enemies, so they prevailed.
The phrase starts with “يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُونُوٓا۟ أَنصَارَ ٱللَّهِ “which can be translated as “O believers, help God”. The translation in the verse says stand up which is fine too. I would ask myself: What would the phrase “standing up for God or helping God” mean?
How can I help God? I am His product and He is taking care of me so how can I help Him? Jesus, the son of Mary, asked the disciples: “Who will stand up with me for God?” The disciples replied: “We will stand up for God.” We may understand this as “struggling for God”. What does it mean to help God? Starting from myself, I have to help myself to understand God. For this, I have to settle down firmly in my belief in God. Next, the idea and reality of God must be shared with others that are unaware of belief in God and His message. With my upholding of belief in God within myself and spreading the idea to others is what would entail as “helping God”. That is the most I am able to do.
Even when I help someone to understand the concept of God, I am helping myself. By sharing my understanding of God with others, I am consolidating my understanding of God which is helping me. We have to teach who God is not just as the Creator of the universe which is a start but continue with the details of all creation that exists in the universe with their beautiful, miraculous qualities declaring the qualities of their Creator. We should work on describing God with these qualities. We have to know how we are going to describe the concept of God to others. We can now understand Jesus’ disciple’s reply that: we will help your cause, Jesus, to spread the message, the concept of God to others.
The verse continues with “Then the group from the Children of Israel believed while another disbelieved. We then supported the believers against their enemies, so they prevailed.”
I am trying to get as much evidence from creation to spread the message and introduce my Lord to others. However, I don’t see much support coming from my Creator to say that I prevailed, that I am a winner against enemies? The reality is that the believers are not in a higher position though God is saying we support the believers. We can see what is going on in the world now. There are not many who would be interested in learning who God is or searching for answers to their existence. One would say: “but there are many people who are converting into Islam”. Yes, but proportionately to the world population, they are few. So how is God supporting us when He says We support the believers?
God is supporting the believers not in a material, a numerical way or by giving a special favor, but whoever upholds the concept of God has innumerable evidence to support the believer’s ideas. God is supporting us in the way that He creates the world at every moment where creation is changing; new forms, new qualities are given to everything at every moment. By seeing the evidence, one cannot argue that belief in God is false. The whole universe is evidence and support for me to confirm my belief and share with others. The Creator of the universe is always with me as well as the believers providing His support with no exception.
I should not confuse this help from God with the special cases of prophetic miracles. That is another topic which we should not bring into consideration to understand this verse. I am not seeing any prophets around me, neither do I see the prophetic miracles happening around me. We are studying the verse by relating it to my situation here and now.
ثُمَّ قَفَّيْنَا عَلَىٰٓ ءَاثَـٰرِهِم بِرُسُلِنَا وَقَفَّيْنَا بِعِيسَى ٱبْنِ مَرْيَمَ وَءَاتَيْنَـٰهُ ٱلْإِنجِيلَ وَجَعَلْنَا فِى قُلُوبِ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّبَعُوهُ رَأْفَةًۭ وَرَحْمَةًۭ وَرَهْبَانِيَّةً ٱبْتَدَعُوهَا مَا كَتَبْنَـٰهَا عَلَيْهِمْ إِلَّا ٱبْتِغَآءَ رِضْوَٰنِ ٱللَّهِ فَمَا رَعَوْهَا حَقَّ رِعَايَتِهَا ۖ فَـَٔاتَيْنَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ ۖ وَكَثِيرٌۭ مِّنْهُمْ فَـٰسِقُونَ
57:27 Then We sent Our Messengers to follow in their footsteps and followed up with Jesus, the son of Mary, and gave him the Gospel. We placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. As for monasticism, which they invented to seek God’s pleasure. We did not ordain for them, and they did not observe properly. So We gave those who believed among them their reward, but many of them are disobedient.
Every messenger comes to renew the message of the previous prophets. When a message becomes ineffective or gets lost, God refreshes the message again to be delivered to the people. What is the significance of this? Of course, according to the capacity of the people, their interest areas, God sends different prophets. When the originality of the previous message is corrupted or lost, another prophet is sent with His message. The prophets follow each other but according to the level of understanding of the people. The message is based on the same belief system but the evidence is adjusted according to the capacity of the people which is different from the message delivered to the prior people.
For example, a freshman is taking first year biology. The second-year biology is deeper than the prior year as the capacity is ready from the same principles of biology. The level of comprehensiveness and going deeper into the subject of the same principle becomes higher according to the level of people. The last one would speak to human capacity in its fullest sense. As conditions change, the rules should adjust according to the changed conditions. The challenges of today are at a different level than prior generations, we need renewed and refreshed commentaries on the Quran that should address the challenges of this age among their explanations. The Quran mentions that we send prophets upon prophets but each following the footsteps of the previous one. With each prophet the level of teaching changes to a deeper level than the previous one.
The verse says, “We gave him the Gospel”. That is how God has been revealing his messages through various prophets. In the Quran prophets are mentioned starting from Adam to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Every prophetic narration is not telling just the history of the prophet. Each prophet that is mentioned in the Quran represents human experience, i.e. one aspect of my life. Every prophetic narration is my narration as my experiences in life are related to different aspects. For example, my relationship with my parents is different from my siblings, and different for my work colleagues. In our study of prophetic Jesus’ life, we understand that prophetic miracles are to be understood as things coming in an extraordinary way is a miracle for him and his contemporaries. Jesus cured many diseases which were incredible miracles. Nowadays, all the medical studies must be experienced as Jesus’ miracles during his time. Similar to how Jesus miraculously demonstrated the treatments, in the creation of the order of this universe there is always evidence that these treatments are taking place in a miraculous way. Although they need to be developed using human research but according to the order of the universe which comes into existence in a miraculous way. The order of the universe and the things coming into existence within it all demonstrate the miraculous acts of the Creator of the universe.
The verse continues with “We placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those that followed him.” When I receive the message of the prophet, compassion and mercy fills my heart. Belief comes with and requires compassion and mercy. Someone may say how about the wars that the prophet declared? To defend oneself and faith is a compassionate action because it is a trust given to me. This is also part of mercy. I have to protect my life and body given to me as a trust. Overall, belief in God has the effect of compassion and mercy. Belief in the Creator requires to be compassionate to the universe, other creatures, to other human beings, even to your own body and feelings, including conveying the message to anyone as a result of mercy.
The verse continues by saying that monasticism is something that they may consider with good intention but that is an invention that God doesn’t give any credence to. Monasticism means going into seclusion, withdrawing from society, withdrawing from interacting with people to have a private life. Why does one have to do that? I can follow God’s guidance while interacting with society. Monasticism is with a good intention but wrongful application. The way we are created doesn’t mean I have to keep away from society, not speak to people or utilize the things, beautiful bounties that God creates for me. Why would I deprive myself from receiving God’s mercy? For example, a cow full of milk would complain if the milk is not taken. The cow produces gallons of milk much more than what the calf can drink. Whatever God creates for me, we have to accept it without going into excess. It is not appropriate to have an attitude of abstaining from the rest of creatures. As if I will only take a little bit of something from God and leave the rest with Him which puts a limitation on God’s generosity and bounty.
“So, We gave those who believed among them their reward” – Belief always includes a reward within it. When I submit my understanding that the universe needs a creator, it becomes belief. This belief always brings comfort, happiness, security in my life. May we all experience this belief insha’Allah.
“Many who do not follow the message are disobedient” – I am free to deprive myself from the benefit of belief which is when I do not submit myself to God and his message conveyed by prophets.