3:52-53
When Jesus found Unbelief on their part He said: “Who will be My helpers to (the work of) Allah?”
Said the disciples: “We are Allah’s helpers: We believe in Allah, and do thou bear witness that we
are Muslims.
“Our Lord! we believe in what Thou hast revealed, and we follow the Messenger; then write us down
among those who bear witness.”
Following blessed predictions mentioned earlier, Sayyidna ’Isa (pbuh) was born with all
promised signs. As a messenger sent to Bani Israel, he presented his call to them supported by miracles
to prove
his prophethood. But, the Bani Isra’il were adamant and kept on rejecting him as a prophet, even
going to the limit of being physically
hostile to him.
The text now identifies the very first followers of Sayyidna ’Isa (pbuh), brings to light their real creed,
expressed first before their prophet et and then ( in verse 53), reiterated it in the form of a prayer
before their Lord.
The word, ’hawriyy (singular of ’al-hawariyy un’) appearing in verse
52 (translated as ’the disciples’), is a derivation from hawar which lexically means whiteness. In the
religious terminology, the title of ’hawriyy’ has been given to the sincere disciples or companions of
Sayyidna ’Isa (pbuh), either because of their sincerity or the purity of their heart, or because of their
white dress. Likewise, the Companions
of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) have been called, sahabiyy (plural,
sahabah).
Some commentators have given the number of the disciples as
twelve. Incidentally, the word ’hawrriyy’ is also, at times, used in the
absolute sense of ’helper’ or ’supporter’. It is in this very sense that itwas
said in a hadith: “Every prophet has a hawaryy, that is, a sincere companion;
Zubair is my hawriyy’ (Tafsir al-Qurtubi)
An Important Note:
Verse 52 states that Sayyidna Isa (pbuh) looked for helpers in the way of Allah
only when he sensed hostility from disbelievers, and not at the initial stage of
his call, As obvious, he had risen to the task all alone obeying the command of
his Lord without worrying about setting up a
’party’ in advance. When came the need, he found a group around him. A little
thought here would show that every worthy mission demands such
determination and courage.
References:
Shafi, Muhammad (2008). Maariful Quran. (Vol .2 surah 3 pg. 74-75).
3:54
And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah.
What this verse refers to is a common characteristic of the life of all Prophets. History shows that when
the Prophets despaired of a positive response from the leaders of their people and turned their attention
to poor people, they gained support and companions among them and
their message steadily spread. The elders and leaders of the community saw this as a serious threat to
their authority. To counter this threat, they resorted to conspiracies so as to eliminate the prophets and the
threat to the established system posed by their revolutionary message. Every prophet, as pointed out
above, had to go through this stage during the life of his mission. Thus, for instance, the Jewish
establishment, the leaders and scholars, tried to counter the threat to their religious authority from Prophet Jesus by resorting to various conspiracies against
him.
They accused him and his disciples of violating the traditions of their forefathers and bringing their
elders into disrepute. By this they wanted to incite the sentiments of the Jewish public against Jesus
and his disciples.
They tried to trap him by asking him about various issues in order to gather sufficient material for
declaring him guilty of apostasy and unbelief. The Pharisees and the Sadducees among
them were prominent for their eagerness in this campaign. From Jesus’s parables, they collected
some material that in their eyes was sufficient for convicting him as an apostate
guilty of unbelief. For this crime, he must therefore face the penalty of death, they concluded.
They also tried to turn the government of the day, the Romans, who occupied Palestine
at the time, against him by putting together some “seditious” material from Jesus Christ’s statements.
He was questioned about the payment of tribute to the Roman authorities to show that he incited the
Jewish people to refuse its payment to the Caesar. But he answered all such questions so deftly that the
plotters failed to get any incriminating evidence. They
also accused him of claiming to be the king of the Jews. For this, they tried to use some words and
phrases from his parabolic expressions to rouse the anger of the Romans against him.
In yet another conspiracy, they bribed Judah who was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples and a hypocrite,
to spy on him and help them to arrest and capture him by leading them to him.
All these intrigues are mentioned in detail in the Gospels, but as the Qur’ān only refers to these in
brief, we think they may well be left as brief
hints only. It is at this stage in the career of a Prophet of Allah when he leaves his own people and, after
making a declaration to his enemies, makes hijrah to another place. This hijrah may take various forms
as discussed later in this book.
References:
Islahi, Amin Ahsan. Pondering Over The Qur’an: Surah Ali Imran (pp. 132-133). Islamic BookTrust.
Kindle Edition.