The Descent of the Heavenly Table

The phrase “I will indeed send it down to you” - by virtue of the active participle - is God’s explicit promise to send down the heavenly table and to answer the prayer and request of the Messiah, and this itself is among the graces (karāmāt) and miracles (muʿjizāt) of that personage.

However, some denied the descent of the table, otherwise its anniversary would have been a festival until the Day of Resurrection.

This improper denial is not acceptable given the explicit Qur’anic promise, as some have engaged with it.(265)

What provided or provides the basis for the mistaken idea that the table did not, in fact, descend is that the descent of the table is not conditional upon accepting the divine threat and accepting an unmatched punishment in case of disbelief in it, such that it could be said that the mere mention of such a condition might cause the petitioners to withdraw their request. This idea is not valid; rather, the acceptance of the request and the promise to fulfill it is also absolute and unconditional; however, a separate threat consequent upon disbelief in that table has been mentioned.(266)

Fakhr al-Rāzī mentioned two arguments for those who deny the descent of the table; then he refuted both of them. However, the author of al-Manār has an extensive critique regarding Fakhr al-Rāzī’s refutation, which it does not benefit to mention. (267)

Note: It has been said that the apparent meaning of some expressions regarding the food of the descended table is that the food is material and physical, while the apparent meaning of some expressions is that it is spiritual. (268)

Reminders:

1. The acceptance or rejection of contemporary Christians regarding a matter will not be evidence for the validity or invalidity of the Qur’anic claim, because their multiple Gospels do not have authentic documentation, whether continuous transmission (mutawātir) or single reports (khabar wāḥid) accompanied by reliable indicators; whether canonical Gospels or rejected and non-canonical Gospels like the Gospel of Barnabas, which contains pure monotheism (tawḥīd) and includes glad tidings about the Seal of Prophethood. The point is that the lack of detailed mention of the table incident in the Gospels is not evidence for its non-descent. (269)

2. Al-Qurṭubī, in a relatively detailed narration from Salmān al-Fārisī, has related the story of the heavenly table (māʾida) with mention of numerous supernatural characteristics for that heavenly table and its contents and blessings. (270)

Regarding the aforementioned narration, it should be noted that proving all those supernatural properties with an unverified chain of transmission is difficult; although the descent of none of the blessings mentioned in that narration is problematic; that is, in terms of possibility (thubūtan) it is possible, and in terms of proof (ithbātan) it requires reliable evidence.

God, whose word is pure truth and whose promise is inviolable, says: “I will indeed send it down to you…” However, from this verse, descent in general (fī l-jumla) is understood, not in detail (bil-jumla). Therefore, proving the details of the table still requires reliable evidence.