A Discussion of the Narrations

1. The Meaning of Divine Plotting

From ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Faḍḍāl, from his father who said: I asked al-Riḍā (a.s.) about His saying “And they plotted, and God plotted” (3:54). He said: Indeed God does not plot, but rather He rewards them with the recompense of plotting.(526)

Note:

a. The Arabs name the punishment for an action by the name of that action itself.(527) As discussed in the exegetical section, Ṭabarsī also believes in formal correspondence (mushākala) in attributing plotting to God.(528)

B. exegete Shaykh Muḥammad Jawād Balāghī said the following after citing the aforementioned tradition: First, there is obscurity and neglect in its chain of transmission.

Second, the intended meaning of the negated plotting could be the common meaning, that is, causing inappropriate harm to others.(529)

Third, every tradition must be presented to the Qur’an, and presenting this tradition to the Qur’an, which is the recommendation of the People of the House (a.s.), leads to certainty about its non-issuance.

2. God’s Plotting Regarding the Children of Israel

From Wahb ibn Munabbih who said: … When morning came, one of the disciples came to the Jews and said: “What will you give me if I guide you to the Messiah?” So they gave him thirty dirhams. He took them and guided them to him, but they had been made to see a likeness before that, so they seized him and secured him and tied him with rope… and they crucified what appeared to them to be him, and he remained with them.(530)

Note: According to this tradition, the person who resembled Jesus (a.s.) and was killed was one of Jesus’s (a.s.) disciples who intended to have him killed for thirty dirhams, and because of this betrayal, God made it so that they killed him thinking he was Jesus the Messiah (a.s.).

Balāghī, who does not consider the exegesis attributed to Imam Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (a.s.) to be from him, states: This matter, which has found its way from the Gospel of Barnabas into the exegesis attributed to Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (a.s.) and has also been narrated by some historians like Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī and some narrators like Ibn Munabbih,(531) cannot be accepted because neither does the Gospel of Barnabas have a reliable chain of transmission, nor does the exegesis attributed to Imam Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (a.s.) have sound transmitter verification, and Ibn Munabbih is not among the reliable narrators.(532)

It should be noted that in contrast to this narration, there is another account stating that the Messiah (a.s.) said to his companions: “Who will take my form and be killed in my place and enter paradise?” One of the disciples accepted this proposal and took on the form of the Messiah (a.s.) and was killed in his place, and God raised the Messiah (a.s.) to heaven.(533)