Appearance
“Can Your Lord Send Down a Table?”
إِذْ قَالَ ٱلْحَوَارِيُّونَ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ هَلْ يَسْتَطِيعُ رَبُّكَ أَن يُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا مَآئِدَةً مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ ۖ قَالَ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
“When the Disciples said, ‘O Jesus son of Mary! Can your Lord send down to us a table from the sky?’ Said he, ‘Be wary of God, should you be faithful.” (5:112)
The question
How could the disciples, who had just renewed their faith, ask Jesus whether his Lord was able to send down a table from the sky?
Views answered: al-Kisāʾī’s reading, al-Zamakhsharī, Fakhr al-Rāzī, Tafsīr al-Manār, Tafsīr al-Ṣāfī
Jawādī Āmulī’s argument
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī holds that the disciples’ faith was genuine, so a question that seems to doubt God’s power must be explained, departing from the apparent wording as little as possible. He weighs five explanations. Al-Kisāʾī’s reading, “Can you ask your Lord?”, needs words to be supplied and still doubts Jesus. That they doubted God’s power, as al-Zamakhsharī and Fakhr al-Rāzī say, contradicts the previous verse. A request for a heavenly miracle does not suit believers who had seen many signs, and taking “ability” as “obedience” is far-fetched. He accepts the explanation that the question was about God’s expediency and wisdom, as one says “the king is not able to answer every petitioner”: Jesus’ reply then criticises their wording, not their request.
Views compared
The explanations are given as al-Tasnim reports them, with the works its notes cite. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.
“Can you ask your Lord?” Read →
The reading of al-Kisāʾī
Hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka: the disciples asked whether Jesus could ask his Lord.Jawādī Āmulī
This needs words to be supplied, against the principle; and after Jesus’ miracles, asking whether he could ask God is no less incompatible with their faith.They doubted God’s power Read →
al-Zamakhsharī and Fakhr al-Rāzī
The disciples were unsure whether God could do it, and asked to remove the doubt.Jawādī Āmulī
Incorrect: the previous verse shows they were among the foremost and those brought near, and had real faith, with God as their witness.They asked for a heavenly miracle Read →
An explanation
The table was to be a miracle from the sky.Jawādī Āmulī
Not accepted: believers who had witnessed many signs did not need one to believe, and a miracle has no other purpose.“Ability” as “obedience” Read →
Tafsīr al-Manār
Istiṭāʿa means iṭāʿa: will God willingly comply?Jawādī Āmulī
A complicated explanation that cannot stand beside the others.A question about God’s wisdom Read →
An explanation cited from Tafsīr al-Ṣāfī
Can He means: does His expediency allow it? As one says, the king is not able to answer every petitioner.Jawādī Āmulī
Accepted. They asked whether sending the table accorded with divine expediency; Jesus’ Be wary of God criticised how they put it, not the request itself.Reading guide
Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.