Explanation of the Disciples’ Request

The context of this verse concerns those same people whose faith God requested through the revelation of action, and they too believed in accordance with God’s request and made God (or the presence of the Messiah) witness to their complete Islam (islām) and submission (inqiyād): “And when I inspired the Disciples, [saying], ‘Have faith in Me and My messenger,’ they said, ‘We have faith. Bear witness that we are muslims.”(228) The mention of the explicit name “the Disciples” (al-ḥawāriyyūn) instead of a pronoun in “When the Disciples said” (idh qāla l-ḥawāriyyūn) is also because if it had said “When they said” (idh qālū), it would have been possible for the plural pronoun to refer to others, especially if the possibility of the separate revelation of the current verse from the previous verse was proposed.

In any case, the faith of the Disciples (ḥawāriyyūn) was genuine. From the verse under discussion it also emerges that the Messiah, in response to their request, endorsed their faith and incidentally advised them to piety: “Be wary of God, should you be faithful” (ittaqū llāha in kuntum muʾminīn) so that they would observe proper religious etiquette in their request.

On this basis, the question that this verse attributes to the Disciples (ḥawāriyyūn) must be justified: “When the Disciples said, ‘O Jesus son of Mary! Can your Lord send down to us a table from the sky?’”, because the Disciples (ḥawāriyyūn) were among the students of Jesus and drew from the lights of his knowledge and gnosis (maʿārif), and by acting upon them and treading the path of Jesus, they became his special companions (aṣḥāb khāṣṣ) and intimates (muqarrabān). Their faith too, based on three contextual indicators (qarīna) in the previous verse, was not initial faith, but rather strengthening of faith and renewal of covenant was requested from them. For this reason, requesting a miracle with such an expression from them would have been unlikely, because someone who is at the lowest level of faith in God understands that God has power over all things and incapacity (ʿajz) has no place in Him. How could the Disciples (ḥawāriyyūn), who possessed higher faith and were among the intimates of Jesus, request something from God with such an expression? On this basis, the Disciples’ question must be justified and interpreted.

Before explaining the justification for the aforementioned question, it is necessary to pay attention to three points:

1. Speech whose beginning and end appear to be contradictory and which is issued by a wise person must certainly be explained in such a way that its meaning befits the level of his wisdom: to establish coherence, sometimes it is necessary to invervene with regards to the speaker and questioner, and sometimes intervention is permissible in the addressee and the one being questioned, and sometimes intervention occurs in the matter that was questioned - that is, the object of inquiry - and sometimes it is also necessary to intervene and consider more than one aspect so that it achieves its necessary and appropriate coherence.

2. In every such justification, acting contrary to the apparent meaning (ẓāhir) of the speech is at issue. Preserving the principle of relying on the apparent meaning of the text (aṣālat al-ẓuhūr) and other verbal principles whose authority is embedded in the rational principles of common usage requires that our interpretation diverges from the apparent meaning as little as possible. However, some important matters and preserving lofty and profound meanings will sometimes require us to depart from the apparent meaning of the word to a greater extent than this.

3. Regarding the content of the verse under discussion, the following principles must be preserved:

a. God’s eternal power (qudra azalī) is not subject to limitation, because He has power over all things and His power is equal in relation to all things in the world, even though performing those things may not be the same for other than God.

b. God’s power always operates according to wisdom (ḥikma) and no means can change the course of God’s seeking what is beneficial: “means do not alter His wisdom” (lā tubaddil ḥikmatahu l-wasāʾil).(229)

c. The messenger of God, especially one who is among those of firm resolve (ūlū l-ʿazm), such as the Messiah, has mastery over all the principles governing the monotheistic worldview and, like the angels, will act: “They do not venture to speak ahead of Him, and they act by His command.”(230)

In any case, for the Disciples’ question: “Can your Lord send down to us a table from the sky?” (hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka an yunazzila ʿalaynā māʾidatan min al-samāʾ), many justifications have been presented:

1. Al-Kisāʾī, one of the seven reciters (qurrāʾ sabʿa), has recited the present tense verb in the second person (hal tastaṭīʿu rabbaka) and made “Lord” (rabb) accusative based on its being the object,(231) and its interpretation is as follows: “O Jesus, can you ask your Lord?”

This justification requires the assumption (taqdir) of some words, and the principle is non-assumption (ʿadam taqdir).

Moreover, one who believes in God and His unlimited power certainly also believes in divine signs (āyāt ilāhī), and since the birth of Jesus (a.s.) without a father, his speaking in infancy, and other miracles that he presented by God’s permission were all divine signs and indicators of his being supported by God, the question about Jesus’s ability to request this matter from God is incompatible with faith in God and faith in the prophethood of His messenger.

6. According to al-Zamakhsharī and Fakhr al-Rāzī, the Disciples had doubt about whether God had the power to bring this about or not, and they asked to remove that doubt;(232) that is, the Disciples were people of doubt (ahl shakk).

This justification is incorrect because it is incompatible with the previous verse; the Disciples were among the foremost (sābiqūn) and those brought near (muqarrabūn) in Christianity and believed again through inspiration (ilhām). Consequently, their question to Jesus was not due to doubt in God’s power, because as mentioned earlier, based on the inspiration of action (waḥy fiʿl), not the inspiration of judgment (waḥy ḥukm), they had real faith and made God their witness.

3. The intention of the Disciples was to request a heavenly miracle. This justification is also not accepted, because for believing, the existence of divine signs and abundant past miracles and witnessing them was sufficient. Therefore, requesting a heavenly miracle is incompatible with the Disciples already being believers and witnessing many divine signs. And if they sought a miracle for other than proving truth and invalidating falsehood, this is improper, because miracles have no application other than the aforementioned purpose. Of course, it is possible that the aforementioned request was not of the type of seeking a miracle, but rather carried another intention that will become clear in the future.

4. Some of the justifications involve less complexity while others entail greater difficulty; for example, considering the word ability (istiṭāʿa) as identical to obedience (iṭāʿa) and thinking that the pattern of these two words is like the pattern of response (istijāba) and answering (ijāba), and considering it permissible to justify God’s being obedient or becoming obedient as performing work with willingness (ṭawʿ) and volition and without reluctance(233) are among the complex justifications that cannot be placed alongside other justifications.

5. The question “Can your Lord” (hal yastaṭīʿu rabbuka) may allude to the principle of divine expediency (maṣlaḥa) and wisdom,(234) such that having possibility and power is a metaphor for this expediency. Customary expressions also support this meaning; for instance, it is said “The king is not able to answer all petitioners”; meaning the king’s expediency prevents his responding to all individuals; the king himself has the ability to respond to all of them, but the expediency of governance and other considerations do not require such a thing.

Based on this justification, the Disciples’ question to Jesus (a.s.) was about the principle of divine expediency for the descent of the heavenly table, not due to any doubt regarding God’s power or anything else.

If the Disciples’ request is based on this latter consideration, Jesus (a.s.) said to the Disciples: If you have faith, act upon it: “Be wary of God, should you be faithful” (ittaqū llāha in kuntum muʾminīn). This was not a criticism of the Disciples’ request in principle, but rather of the quality of the question and the way in which they expressed it. Therefore, Jesus (a.s.) responded to it in that manner due to the correctness of the principle of the request, and criticized it due to the impropriety of the expression regarding it.

Note: The Disciples’ expression regarding Jesus (a.s.) as “Jesus son of Mary” (Yaʿīsā ibn Maryam): “When the Disciples said, ‘O Jesus son of Mary!” (idh qāla l-ḥawāriyyūna yā ʿīsā ibn maryam) - not Prophet or Messenger of God - is a symbol of the personal relationship they had with him.