Al-Ma'idah · Madani · ayah 116 of 120

Al-Ma'idah 5:116

وَإِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَـٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ سُبْحَـٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ ۚ إِن كُنتُ قُلْتُهُۥ فَقَدْ عَلِمْتَهُۥ ۚ تَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِى وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِكَ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ

“And [beware the Day] when Allāh will say, "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as deities besides Allāh?'" He will say, "Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Asked on the Last Day if he taught people to worship him, Isa begins not with a defence but with 'Glory be to You'.

A reflection

The one who knows the hidden

The sun goes down behind the hills. It has not gone anywhere. It is still burning, still shining on half the earth. It is only hidden from your eyes. That is the picture inside ghayb: not what is absent, but what is out of sight.

Isa ends his answer with a name: ʿallām al-ghuyūb, the Knower of all that is hidden. The form is intensive. Not one who knows some unseen things, but One for whom nothing is out of sight at all.

And just before it, Isa says something that should humble anyone who listens. You know what is in my self, and I do not know what is in Yours.

This is the most honoured man of his people speaking. Born without a father, speaking in the cradle, healing the blind, raising the dead by Allah's permission. Millions would later call him divine. And his own confession, on the greatest Day, is that his knowledge has a horizon. The sun sets for him too.

The ego hates that confession. We want to know our own hearts completely, and to read other people's. We judge motives we cannot see, and we speak about what Allah intends with a confidence we have not earned. Self-importance always claims a wider horizon than it has.

Does Allah need Isa's glorification before He hears his answer? He needs nothing. Isa's first word, glory be to You, is for Isa and for everyone listening. It puts the distance back where it belongs, before anything else is said.

The one who knows his horizon is safe on that Day. The one who claims to see past it is not.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.