Selected Exegesis

The Jews’ reaction to God’s glad tidings to Mary regarding Jesus (a.s.) was disbelief and a determination to harm and kill Christ. Their disbelief was practical and perceptible, and was manifest in a way that could be sensed.

When Jesus Christ (a.s.) saw the manifest disbelief of his enemies and became aware of their plot, in order to influence society and defend the foundation of his religion against those who, after preaching and guidance, would not abandon their practical disbelief and obstinacy, he devoted himself to creating an organization and developing cadres and nurturing disciples who were both pure and sincere themselves and were agents of sincerity and refinement and purification of others’ souls, as well as guides for those intellectually lost toward the truth.

Christ (a.s.) asked the disciples for support of God’s religion and said who would help him in the journey toward God and preserving His religion. Thus, Christianity, like other divine religions, begins its mission with preaching, advice, and counsel, and if these stages are not effective, it turns to struggle, holy war (jihād), and defense.

It should be noted that mentioning people or believers alongside God, in addition to expressing the importance of the matter, means that believers and people are manifestations of God’s action, His agents and messengers, and in reality, they are equivalent to divine help, not equivalent to Him.

In any case, the Disciples responded to Jesus’s (a.s.) call by stepping into the path of struggle and said that their uprising and resistance was apparently in support of him, but in reality it was aid to God’s religion. They both affirmed their belief and faith, and made a covenant with God, and pledged allegiance to Christ, and took him as a witness to renew their covenant. By making divine piety (taqwā) and obedience to the prophet their way of life, they asked God to make them among those of understanding (ulū al-ʿilm) and witnesses to His oneness.