Overview (Verse 112)

Favours Granted to Jesus’s Followers
 
In addition to the favours bestowed on Jesus and his mother, the sūrah relates some of the favours God granted to his followers, and the miracles with which God supported him, as seen by his disciples.
 
The disciples said: “Jesus, son of Mary! Can your Lord send down to us a repast from heaven?” He answered: “Fear God, if you are truly believers.” Said they: “We desire to eat of it, so that our hearts are reassured and that we know that you have spoken the truth to us, and that we may be witness of it.” “God, our Lord,” said Jesus, son of Mary, “send down upon us a repast from heaven: it shall be an ever- recurring feast for us — for the first and the last of us — and a sign from You. And provide us our sustenance, for You are the best provider” God replied: ‘I am sending it down to you. But whoever of you disbelieves after this, I shall inflict on him suffering the like of which I have not inflicted on anyone in the world.” (Verses 112-115)
 
This dialogue reveals to us something about Jesus’s people, and the elite among them, i.e. his disciples. What we find is that they differed greatly from our own Prophet’s Companions. Those were the disciples inspired by God to believe in Him and His Messenger, Jesus, son of Mary. They did so and called on Jesus to witness the fact of their faith. Yet even after all the miracles they saw Jesus performing, they still requested another miracle so as to reassure themselves about his truthfulness and to bear witness about it to those who would succeed them.
 
Muĥammad’s Companions, on the other hand, never asked him for a single miracle after they had accepted the faith and submitted themselves to God. Their hearts were full of faith, once they had experienced the happiness and joy of it. They believed God’s Messenger and asked him for no more proof of the truth of his message. They testified to his truthfulness with no miracle shown to them other than the Qur’ān.
 
Such is the wide gulf between Jesus’s disciples and Muĥammad’s Companions (peace be upon them both). Theirs are two widely different levels; yet both have submitted to God, and both are accepted by Him, if He so pleases. But their levels remain wide apart.
 
The story of the Repast, as told in the Qur’ān, is not mentioned in Christian Scriptures. It is not reported in the Gospels written long after Jesus. Thus, they cannot be taken as a reliable statement of the truth revealed by God Almighty. These Gospels are only reports by saints of the story of Jesus. They are not the text of the Gospel, or the Injīl that God revealed to Jesus.
 
However, these books include a different report on the Repast. In 15: 32 of Matthew, the following report is given: “Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children.” Similar reports are given in other Gospels.
 
Some scholars of the generation following the Prophet’s Companions, i.e. Tābi`īn, like Mujāhid and al-Ĥasan, believe that the Repast was not sent down. They say that when the disciples were afraid at hearing God’s statement, “I am sending it down to you. But whoever of you disbelieves after this, I shall inflict on him suffering the like of which I have not inflicted on anyone in the world.” (Verse 115), they no longer asked for it to be granted.
 
In his commentary on the Qur’ān, Ibn Kathīr quotes several statements by scholars. He quotes Mujāhid as saying: “This was merely a parable given by God, but nothing was sent down.” Another quotation by Mujāhid says: “They were offered a table full of food, but they refused it when they were told that they would be severely punished should they disbelieve. They did not want to have anything to do with it.” Al-Ĥasan also expresses the view that it was not sent down. He is reported to have said: “When the disciples were told, ‘Whoever of you disbelieves after this, I shall inflict on him suffering the like of which I have not inflicted on anyone in the world,’ they said, ‘We have no need for it.’ Thus, it was not sent down.”
 
The majority of early scholars, however, agree that it was sent down, because God said: “I am sending it down to you.” God’s promise always comes true. We, therefore, take only what the Qur’ān has stated concerning the Repast.
 
Thus, God reminds Jesus, son of Mary, of His favours when he stands in front of his people on the Day of Judgement, with all creatures looking on: “The disciples said: Jesus, son of Mary! Can your Lord send down to us a repast from heaven?’“ (Verse 112) The disciples, the closest to Jesus of all his followers, were aware that he was a human being, born to Mary. They address him according to his status, which they knew very well. They knew that he was neither a son of God nor a deity, but a servant of God. They also knew that it was his Lord who accomplished all those miraculous events through him. He himself could not do any of them by his own initiative. Hence, when they requested a further miracle, they did not ask him to accomplish it himself, because they were aware that he could not do so. Their question was: “Jesus, son of Mary! Can your Lord send down to us a repast from heaven?” (Verse 112)
 
Interpretations vary as to the nature of their question. How is it that they would use such a form of question when they had already declared their belief in God and asked Jesus to witness their submission to Him? One interpretation of their question is that it did not seek to know God’s ability, but rather whether He would give them the repast. Another view considers the question to mean, “would your Lord respond to you if you were to request Him to send down a repast?” Other interpretations are also given.