Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I QURʾĀNIC COMMENTARY AND COMMENTATORS
- PART II QURʾĀNIC COMMENDATION OF CHRISTIANS
- 3 Nazarenes of faith and action
- 4 Followers of the Qurʾānic Jesus
- 5 Steadfast and submissive
- 6 The promised bounty of piety
- 7 The praiseworthy amity of Christians
- 8 Christians as pre-Qurʾānic Muslims
- 9 Compassion, mercy, and monasticism
- Conclusion
- Works cited
- Index of Qurʾānic verses
- Index of names and subjects
9 - Compassion, mercy, and monasticism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I QURʾĀNIC COMMENTARY AND COMMENTATORS
- PART II QURʾĀNIC COMMENDATION OF CHRISTIANS
- 3 Nazarenes of faith and action
- 4 Followers of the Qurʾānic Jesus
- 5 Steadfast and submissive
- 6 The promised bounty of piety
- 7 The praiseworthy amity of Christians
- 8 Christians as pre-Qurʾānic Muslims
- 9 Compassion, mercy, and monasticism
- Conclusion
- Works cited
- Index of Qurʾānic verses
- Index of names and subjects
Summary
The concluding verse of this study presents a particularly rich range of exegetical issues for consideration. Identification with the Christians is assured here, as it was in 3:55, by specific reference to the name ʿĪsā. Mention of the injīl further reinforces that association. A yet more precise focus is achieved with the verse's reference to that form of Christian behavior known as monasticism (rahbānīyah). Monasticism, in turn, raises a complex of questions for cross-traditional consideration, both legal and historical. As grammatical conundrums affect the hermeneutical perspective of some of the commentators, the following is but one possible rendering of sūrat al-ḅadīd (57):27:
Then We caused Our messengers to follow in their footsteps. We sent Jesus, son of Mary, to follow and We gave him the Gospel. We placed in the hearts of those who followed him compassion and mercy and monasticism which they invented; We did not prescribe it for them except as the seeking of God's acceptance. But they did not observe it correctly. So We gave to those of them who believed their reward but many of them are sinners.
EXEGETICAL GLOSSING
Al-Ṭabarī's commentary on this verse begins periphrastically and includes but slight elaboration of the individual phrases. He adds precision to the general identification of the verse by glossing We placed in the hearts of those who followed him as “those who follow Jesus according to his path (minhāj) and his law (sharīʿah).”
As did al-Ṭabarī, al-Ṭūsī makes explicit the contextual sequence within which this verse must be understood.
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- Qur'anic ChristiansAn Analysis of Classical and Modern Exegesis, pp. 260 - 284Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991