A Discussion of the Narrations

The Wisdom Behind Mentioning the Ordinary Actions and Human Qualities of the Prophets

Some heretics (zanādiqa) came to the Commander of the Faithful Ali and said to him: “If it were not for what is in the Qur’an of contradiction and inconsistency, I would enter your religion… and I find that it has publicized the lapses of its prophets by saying…” So the Commander of the Faithful said: “…As for the lapses(107) (hafawāt) of the prophets and what God has clarified in His book and the occurrence of euphemism from the names of those who committed greater crimes than anything that the prophets did—those whom the book testified to their oppression—this is among the clearest proofs of God’s brilliant wisdom, His overwhelming power, and His manifest glory, because He knew that the proofs of the prophets would grow great in the hearts of their communities and that some of them would take some of them as gods, like what happened with the Christians regarding the son of Mary. So He mentioned them as evidence of their falling short of the perfection that He alone possesses. Have you not heard His statement in describing Jesus where He said about him and his mother: “They both used to eat food”, meaning that whoever eats food has a physical weight (thaqal),(108) and whoever has a physical weight is far from what the Christians claimed about the son of Mary.”(109)

Note: God Almighty in the Qur’an, when mentioning the limitations of the prophets (human qualities and occasional threats), mentions them by name; but it refers to the deficiencies of others more through euphemism (kināya). The secret of this method, according to this narrative, is that people are not at risk regarding non-prophets; but regarding prophets, because of the miracles (muʿjizāt) and extraordinary acts (karāmāt) they possess, there is this danger that people might believe in their lordship (rubūbiyya) and divinity (ulūhiyya), because the masses are sensory-oriented (ḥiss-garāy) and if these deficiencies are not explicitly recounted for them, they fall into the danger of exaggeration (ghuluww) and excess (ifrāṭ).

On this basis, regarding Jesus it says: “The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger… and his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food.”(110) The phrase “They both used to eat food” (yaʾkulāni l-ṭaʿām) refers to the negation of the lordship and divinity of Jesus and his mother, the blessed Mary, because a being that needs food to absorb energy and also needs to expel its waste is deficient and cannot be lord (rabb) and god (ilāh). The explicit mention of the name of the Messiah and his mother in this matter (eating food) is to prevent the illusion of their lordship so that no one would think they have lordship and divinity, just as the explicit mention of the creation of prophets from father and mother or from mother is also to express their need and deficiency. The repetition of the verse “I am only a human being like you”(111) in the speech of the Prophet also refers to this same point.

In summary, the mention of ordinary actions of the prophets or mentioning their names is so that ignorant friends do not exaggerate regarding them, just as the mention of the eating of food by the Messiah and his mother is a reminder of the necessities of eating food; such as hunger and the need to satisfy hunger before eating and the expulsion of excess matter that is not absorbed by the body—which has been termed “weight” (thaqal)—after eating.

Fakhr Rāzī mentioned several aspects in criticizing this latter implication; such as “not every food requires weight (thaqal) and excretion, because the people of Paradise eat food without excretion.”(112) There is no room for criticizing the honorable Fakhr Rāzī, because the axis of the argument in “They both used to eat food” (kānā yaʾkulāni l-ṭaʿām) is the reminder of eating food in this world, not specifically the hereafter, nor generally including both this world and the hereafter. Moreover, the principle of the argument does not need to raise the issue of weight (thaqal).