The Reasonable Objectives of the Disciples

The Disciples enumerated four reasonable objectives for requesting the heavenly table:

1. Just as the community of Moses the Interlocutor (kalīm) benefited from “manna and quails” (mann wa salwā),(239) we too want to benefit from the heavenly table: “We desire to eat from it” (nurīdu an naʾkula minhā). The intended meaning of the desire to eat (irādat al-akl) is not eating right now, because sometimes a person sits beside a dining spread, which is an instance of “he wants to eat” (yurīdu an yaʾkul), and sometimes he is busy preparing the preliminaries so that after them and the realization of that for which they are preliminary, he eats the food. In this state, if he says “I want to eat food,” the intention is that after the passage of the necessary preliminaries and prerequisites (preparing it), I will eat the food. In the verse under discussion too, the Disciples’ intention was that if our question and request is answered and the heavenly table descends, we will benefit from it.

Note: Perhaps the expression “eat from it” (naʾkula minhā) rather than “we eat” (naʾkul) or “so that we may eat it” (li-naʾkulahā) suggests seeking blessings from it (tabarruk), as some have suggested.(240)

7. So that our hearts may be at rest: “and our hearts will be at rest” (wa-taṭmaʾinna qulūbunā).

The attainment of tranquility (iṭmiʾnān) by the Disciples differs greatly from the tranquility sought by Abraham the Friend of God, but its dependence on the descent of the table is sufficient for it to be one of the objectives of requesting its descent. It is not necessary for this matter to be expressed with the particle “fa” (fāʾ), but it can also be conveyed with the conjunction “wa” (wāw), because the intention is the dependence of tranquility on the actual descent of the table, not its derivation from eating. For this reason, what is written in the exegesis al-Mīzān may be subject to reflection.

3. So that our knowledge of your truthfulness may be increased: “we shall know that you have told us the truth” (wa-naʿlama an qad ṣadaqtanā). Establishing the truthfulness of a report through the truthfulness of the reporter depends on establishing the infallibility (ʿiṣma) of the reporter, so that there is neither room for intentional deviation nor occasion for inadvertent error. Such establishment has degrees that arise through repeated experiences, and the incident of requesting the sending down of a table can also be one of these instances.(241)

4. So that we may be witnesses for others and give testimony on the Day of Resurrection: “and we shall be among the witnesses to it” (wa-nakūna ʿalayhā min al-shāhidīn).

Since the Disciples presented reasonable and convincing objectives, Jesus (a.s.) accepted their request and asked God for the descent of the heavenly table.

If the Disciples’ request had been futile, Jesus (a.s.) would never have made such a request from God, just as in the early days of Islam, some polytheists made such improper requests for miracles from the Noble Prophet under the pretext of believing, but they were not granted: “They say, ‘We will not believe you until you make a spring gush forth for us from the ground. Or until you have a garden of date palms and vines and you make streams gush through it. Or until you cause the sky to fall in fragments upon us, just as you would aver. Or until you bring God and the angels [right] in front of us. Or until you have a house of gold, or you ascend into the sky. And we will not believe your ascension until you bring down for us a book that we may read.’”(242)

Since their purpose was to play with miracles, the Prophet paid no attention to their demands, and in response to them this verse was revealed: “Nothing kept the people from believing when guidance came to them, but their saying, ‘Has God sent a human as a messenger?’ Say, ‘Had there been angels in the earth, walking around and residing [in it like humans do], We would have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as messenger.’”(243) Of course, it is possible that in some cases, in order to complete God’s conclusive proof (ḥujja), attention may be paid to some requests so that the manifestation of “so that he who perishes might perish by a manifest proof”(244) becomes clear. The account of the Prophet uprooting the tree, splitting it in two, rejoining it again, and returning it to its original place of growth, which is narrated in the Khuṭbat al-Qāṣiʿa in Nahj al-Balāgha,(245) could also be of this type; apart from the fact that the presence of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (a.s.) and his undertaking to report such a miraculous event shows that it was entirely expedient to the divine purpose.

From the Disciples’ response, it is evident that they had faith in God and Jesus and apparently had no doubt, though perhaps among them there were individuals who had doubts. However, the mention of attaining tranquility of heart (ṭumaʾnīnat al-qalb) among the objectives is evidence that they possessed a stage of faith and sought to reach the stage of tranquility of heart, just as the request of Abraham the Friend of God for the revival of the dead by his hand was for attaining tranquility of heart and increasing faith, because tranquility (ṭumaʾnīna) has degrees, and at its highest rank, a person becomes a manifestation of some of the perfect attributes of the Necessary Being, such as the power to revive the dead, which Abraham attained.

The phrase “And [so that] we may know that you have told us the truth” comes after “and our hearts may be at rest” and is surrounded by contextual evidence. Thus the Disciples did not seek the fundamental knowledge of the truthfulness of Jesus in his claim and call, but rather sought an increase in knowledge, because the Disciples, in accordance with special divine revelation, believed in God and His messenger and took God or Jesus as witness. Their division into two groups - beginner and advanced, initial and final - though possible, requires evidence of truth and veracity.

Of course, faith has different degrees, and for this reason the Qur’an says: “They have degrees”,(246) and when degree becomes rooted in the believer’s soul such that faith becomes like a constitutive differentia for him, it says: “They are degrees.”(247) In any case, to the extent of the void in faith and the absence of some degree from its degrees, possibility, doubt, wavering, and the like find their way in, many of which are neither contrary to faith nor incompatible with righteous action. Perhaps the verse “When the messengers lost hope and they thought that they had been told lies, Our help came to them, and We delivered whomever We wished, and Our punishment will not be averted from the guilty lot” (248) applies to some believers in this way. The expression “When will God’s help [come]?” (matā naṣr Allāh),(249) which is in a general form, is a supplication in relation to the Prophet, although it is possible that in relation to ordinary believers it is impatience (istibṭāʾ). The point is that some requests are neither contrary to monotheism (tawḥīd) nor incompatible with acknowledgment of the Prophet’s prophethood (nubuwwa), although they may be presented with expressions that are open to criticism and correction.