(170) O people! Now that the Messenger has come to you bearing the Truth from your Lord, believe in him; it will be good for you. ▶
96 God’s purpose in raising the Prophets was to establish His argument against mankind. God did not want criminals to have any basis on which to plead that their actions were done in ignorance and that no arrangement had been made to guide man to the Truth.
204
Al-Nisa’ 4: 171
If you reject, know well that to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.97
(171) People of the Book! Do not exceed the limits in your religion,98 and do not attribute to Allah anything except the Truth. The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, was only a Messenger of Allah, and His command that He conveyed unto Mary,99 and a spirit from Him100 ▶
97 Mankind are being informed that their Lord is not at all unaware of the wickedness in which they indulge, nor does He lack the capacity to deal severely with those who violated His commands.
98 The expression “People of the Book” refers here to the Christians and the word ghuluw denotes the tendency to exceed the limits of propriety in supporting one doctrine or another. While the fault of the Jews was that they had exceeded the limits of propriety in rejecting and opposing Jesus, the mistake of the Christians was that they had gone beyond the proper limits in their love for and devotion to Jesus and held him to be son of God, nay God Himself.
99 What is meant by sending the “command” to Mary is that God ordered Mary’s womb to become impregnated without coming into contact with the human seed. In the beginning the Christians were told that this was the secret of the fatherless birth of Jesus. Later on, under the misleading influence of Greek philosophy, they equated this with the Logos, which was subsequently interpreted as the Divine attribute of speech. The next step in this connection was the development of the notion that this Divine attribute entered into the womb of Mary and assumed the physical form of Jesus. Thus there developed among the Christians the false doctrine of the Godhead of Jesus, and the false notion that out of His attributes, God had caused His attribute of Speech to appear in the form of Jesus.
100 Here Jesus himself is called “a spirit from God”. The same idea is also expressed elsewhere in the Qur’an: “And We supported him with the spirit of holiness” (Surah al-Baqarah 2: 87). The import of both verses is that God endowed
205
Al-Nisa’ 4: 171
(which led to Mary’s con- ception). So believe in Allah and in His Messengers and do not say: “(Allah is a) trinity.”101 Give up this assertion; it would be better for you. Allah is indeed just One God. Far be it from His glory that He should have a son.102 ▶
Jesus with a pure, impeccable soul. He was, therefore, an embodiment of truth, veracity, righteousness, and excellence. This is what the Christians had been told about Christ. But they exceeded the proper limits of veneration for Jesus, the “spirit from God” became the “spirit of God”, and the “spirit of holiness” was interpreted to mean God’s own Spirit which became incarnate in Jesus. Thus, along with God and Jesus, there also developed the third person of God – the Holy Ghost.
101 It is urged that the Trinitarian doctrine, whatever its forms, should be abandoned. The fact is that Christians subscribe simultaneously to the unity and the trinity of God. The statements of Jesus on this question in the Gospels, however, are so categorical that no Christian can easily justify anything but the clear, straightforward doctrine that God is One and that there is no god but He. The Christians, therefore, find it impossible to deny that monotheism is the very core of true religion. But the original confusion that in Jesus the Word of God became flesh, that the Spirit of God was incarnate in him, led them to believe in the Godhead of Jesus and of the Holy Ghost along with that of God (the Father). This gratuitous assumption gave rise to an insoluble riddle: how to combine monotheism with the notion of trinity.
102 This is the refutation of the fourth extravagance in which the Christians have indulged. Even if the reports embodied in the New Testament are considered authentic, the most that can be inferred from them, (particularly those embodied in the first three Gospels), is that Jesus likened the relationship between God and His servants to that between a father and his children, and that he used to employ the term “father” as a metaphor for God. But in this respect Jesus was not unique. From very ancient times the Israelites had employed the term “father” for God. The Old Testament is full of examples of this usage. Jesus obviously employed this expression in conformity with the literary usage of his people. Moreover, he characterized God not merely as his own father but as the father of all human beings. Nevertheless, the Christians exceeded all reasonable limits when they declared Jesus to be the only begotten son of God.
206
Al-Nisa’ 4: 172–5
To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth. Allah is sufficient for a Guardian.
(172) Neither did the Messiah disdain to be a servant of Allah nor do the angels who are near- stationed to Him; and whoever disdains to serve Him, and waxes arrogant, Allah will certainly muster them all to Himself. (173) He will grant those who have believed and done good deeds their rewards in full, and will give them more out of His bounty. He will bestow upon those who have been disdainful and arrogant a painful chastisement; and they will find for themselves neither any guardian nor helper apart from Allah.
(174) O people! A proof has come to you from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light. (175) Allah will surely admit those who believe in Him and hold fast to Him to His mercy and bounty, and will guide them on to a Straight Way to Himself.
207
Al-Nisa’ 4: 176
(176) People ask you to pronounce a ruling concerning inheritance from those who have left behind no lineal heirs (kalalah).103 Say: “Allah pro- nounces for you the ruling: should a man die childless but have a sister,104 she shall have one half of what he has left behind; and should the sister die childless, (but have a brother), he shall inherit her.105 And if the heirs are two sisters, they shall have two-thirds of what he has left behind.106 And if the heirs are sisters and brothers, ▶
103 There is disagreement about the meaning of the word kalalah. According to some scholars, it means one who dies leaving neither issue nor father nor grandfather. According to others, it refers to those who die without issue. But the majority of jurists accept the opinion of Abu Bakr who held the former meaning to be correct. The Qur’an also seems to support this, for here the sister of the kalalah has been apportioned half of the inheritance although had his father been alive, the sister would not have inherited from him at all.
104 The apportioned shares of inheritance mentioned here are those of brothers and sisters, whether related through both parents or through a common father only. Abu Bakr gave this interpretation in one of his