Jesus only an apostle of God, The disciples of Jesus demanding Jesus to get food for them descended from heaven, Their coveting of this worldly provision.

Al-Ma’idah Verses 109 – 115

يَوْمَ يَجْمَعُ اللَّهُ الرُّسُلَ فَيَقُولُ مَاذَا أُجِبْتُمْ قَالُوا لَا عِلْمَ لَنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ عَلَّامُ الْغُيُوبِ

“(Beware!) On the Day (of Judgment) will assemble God all the apostles and then say (asking them) “What response were ye given (to your guidance, from your people)?” They shall say (in reply) “We have no knowledge, verily Thou art the All-Knowing of the unseen.” (5:109)

إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ اذْكُرْ نِعْمَتِي عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَىٰ وَالِدَتِكَ إِذْ أَيَّدْتُكَ بِرُوحِ الْقُدُسِ تُكَلِّمُ النَّاسَ فِي الْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًا وَإِذْ عَلَّمْتُكَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَالتَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ وَإِذْ تَخْلُقُ مِنَ الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ بِإِذْنِي فَتَنْفُخُ فِيهَا فَتَكُونُ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِي وَتُبْرِئُ الْأَكْمَهَ وَالْأَبْرَصَ بِإِذْنِي وَإِذْ تُخْرِجُ الْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِي وَإِذْ كَفَفْتُ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ عَنْكَ إِذْ جِئْتَهُمْ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ فَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْهُمْ إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُبِينٌ

“When God shall say: “O’ Jesus, son of Mary! Remember my favour on thee and on thy Mother, when I strengthened thee with the Holy Spirit, that thou didst speak to the people (when still a babe) in the cradle and when grown up, and when I taught thee the Book, and the Wisdom and the Torah and the Evangel, and when thou didst make of clay like the figure of a bird, by My leave and then didst breathe into it and it became a bird by My leave and didst heal the (born) blind and the lepers by My leave; and when thou didst bring forth the dead ( from their graves) by My leave; and when I did withhold the children of Israel from (hurting) thee when thou hadst come to them with clear signs (miracles) but then those who disbelieved among them said, “this is nothing but clear sorcery.”” (5:110)

وَإِذْ أَوْحَيْتُ إِلَى الْحَوَارِيِّينَ أَنْ آمِنُوا بِي وَبِرَسُولِي قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَاشْهَدْ بِأَنَّنَا مُسْلِمُونَ

“And when I, revealed1unto the disciples2, “Believe in Me and Mine Apostle (Jesus)” said they, “We believe, and bear Thou witness that we are Muslims (those who submit ourselves to God).” (5:111)

إِذْ قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُّونَ يَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ هَلْ يَسْتَطِيعُ رَبُّكَ أَنْ يُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا مَائِدَةً مِنَ السَّمَاءِ قَالَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ

“And (recollect) when said the Disciples3“O’ Jesus, son of Mary! “Is4thy Lord able that He sendeth down unto us table furnished with food from heaven?” said (Jesus) “Fear ye God! if ye be (true) believers (in Him)”” (5:112)

قَالُوا نُرِيدُ أَنْ نَأْكُلَ مِنْهَا وَتَطْمَئِنَّ قُلُوبُنَا وَنَعْلَمَ أَنْ قَدْ صَدَقْتَنَا وَنَكُونَ عَلَيْهَا مِنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ

“Said they, “We desire to eat from it and that our hearts be satisfied and that we may know that thou hast indeed spoken the truth5to us and we may be of the witnesses upon it6.”” (5:113)

قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا أَنْزِلْ عَلَيْنَا مَائِدَةً مِنَ السَّمَاءِ تَكُونُ لَنَا عِيدًا لِأَوَّلِنَا وَآخِرِنَا وَآيَةً مِنْكَ وَارْزُقْنَا وَأَنْتَ خَيْرُ الرَّازِقِينَ

“Said Jesus, son of Mary, “O’ God! Our Lord! send down unto us from heaven a table set with food that it may be for us a recurring happiness, to the first of us and the last of us, and a sign from Thee; and provide us (with our) sustenance and Thou art the Best of the Sustainers7.”” (5:114)

قَالَ اللَّهُ إِنِّي مُنَزِّلُهَا عَلَيْكُمْ فَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بَعْدُ مِنْكُمْ فَإِنِّي أُعَذِّبُهُ عَذَابًا لَا أُعَذِّبُهُ أَحَدًا مِنَ الْعَالَمِينَ

“Said God, “Verily I will send it down unto you, but whoever shall disbelieve thereafter among you, surely will I chastise him with a chastisement, which I will not chastise anyone in the worlds, with (the like of it).” (5:115)

Commentary

Verse 109

It is quite evident from this Verse that every apostle of God will be summoned to give an account of his mission and the response he had from his respective people. This Verse has to be read along with or with reference to Verses 4:41; 16:84 and 16:89.

‘What answer were you given?’ Did those to whom you were sent, receive and regard you and accept the message as they ought to have? and remained true to it or was it otherwise? A little thoughtful reflection over this, will bring home to any intelligent reader as to what the Holy Prophet would have to say about those who deserted him in the midst of the fight for the truth, at Uhud, Badr, and the other defensive battles, and those who, immediately as he left this world, took fire to burn his house in which his daughter Fatimah, the Lady of Light, was still mourning for him, and those who shed ‘Ali’s blood while he was in prayer in the Mosque, and those who poisoned his first grandson Hasan who was his second Divinely commissioned Deputy or Successor or an Imam and those who butchered Husain his second grandson, his third Divinely commissioned Successor or Imam along with his kith and kin and his faithful comrades and those who killed the other Holy Imams until the eleventh of them.

The answer which the apostles will give. “We have no knowledge, verily Thou art the Great Knower of the unseen things” does not mean that they in fact knew nothing about what happened. They knew everything by Divine knowledge they were endowed with8 but what they would answering the question, is true and it will be the most appropriate way in which they will have to submit when they have to do it, before the Alt-Knowing Almighty Lord, Who alone knew every detail of the matter more than anyone else.

The clause ‘La ‘ilma lana’ does not mean that we know’ nothing. It means that the knowledge we have is not ours, it is Thine, gifted to us by Thee and even that is limited. Thou art the Infinite Omniscient and the Knower of all the unseen aspects of everything otherwise as per Verses 4:41; 16:84; 16:89, all the apostles are witnesses over the people and the Last Prophet is the witness over the witnesses and the people’s deeds are witnessed by God, the Apostle and even by the Mu’minin. The tone of this passage is the same as that of the answer given by the angels in 2:32 (A.P.).

Verse 110

The same words are used here. All the things mentioned in these Verses have to be taken as they are given without any motivated interpretations and twisting by hair-splitting arguments. Specially after the misinterpretation of Verses by certain motivated commentaries, students of the Holy Qur’an have to be very careful against being misled away from the facts.

Regarding Jesus speaking in the cradle to the people, the passage is clear and leaves no room for any misinterpretation of 3:47, 3:48 and 19:29. (A.P.).

Verse 111

‘Auhailu’ ‘Wahi’ or inspiration. Inspiration can be through Divine guidance from one’s self as in the case of all virtuous and pious beings leading a righteous life. Inspiration can be by special revelation through the agency of the Messenger Angel Gabriel which is given only to the apostles of God. Here it means the inspiration from one’s own self, as it has been said in 16:68, God inspired the bee.

Verse 112

2. “Now the names of the twelve apostles are. these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

3.Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaus, and Labbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus

4. Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed.”

- Math. 10/2-4.

Huge crowds were assembling around Jesus. Once about five thousand people had surrounded him (John 6/10) and Jesus had no arrangement to feed such a multitude. Five loaves and two fishes were taken from a lad and the whole crowd was fed and yet twelve baskets full of the fragments were left behind to be collected. The people who were Israelites demanded a miracle of food descending for them from heaven as was done for their ancestors during the time of Moses9.

The desire for a miraculous grant of food for them from heaven, must have come for strengthening their faith as the Great Apostle of God, Abraham demanded10.

• 1. This shows that the first disciples of Jesus were under the direct guidance through divine inspiration. This corroborates with what ‘‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib says When the Holy Prophet used to retire to the Mount ‘Hira’ on the eve of his being commissioned, used to see the light of revelation and feel the good smell of the apostleship and the Holy Prophet said to me ‘O’ ‘‘Ali Thou seest what I see and heareth what I hear’ This indicates that if one of the Holy souls whose state of the excellence of the purity of mind are close to each Verses, 5:111; 5:112 and 5:113, other or one be subordinate to the other the spiritual experience of the one reflects on the other. (A.P.).
• 2. Of Jesus.
• 3. Of Jesus.
• 4. The disciples of Jesus questioning about the ability of God, does not refer to His creative will but to the Legislative one, based on the action being desirable in the interest of the creatures (A.P.).
• 5. Though they were firm believers, yet they wanted the sign to increase the amount of their certitude in the same way as had said Abraham. Refer to Verse 2:260 (A.P.).
• 6. Refer to Verse 2:260.
• 7. Rot Exod 16/15 Num: 11/7.
• 8. Refer to Verse 9:105.
• 9. Vide Exodus 16/15 and Num 11/7.
• 10. Refer to Verse 2:260.