Surah At-Tawba (9) — Ayah 30

(Ayah 30) ➊ {وَ قَالَتِ الْيَهُوْدُ عُزَيْرُ اِبْنُ اللّٰهِ …:} In the previous verse, four reasons for fighting the People of the Book were mentioned; now, some of them are explained in detail. It is stated that the Jews declared ‘Uzair (peace be upon him) as the son of Allah, and the Christians declared the Messiah (peace be upon him) as the son of Allah, whereas Allah Almighty has said: «قُلْ هُوَ اللّٰهُ اَحَدٌ (1) اَللّٰهُ الصَّمَدُ (2) لَمْ يَلِدْ وَ لَمْ يُوْلَدْ (3) وَ لَمْ يَكُنْ لَّهٗ كُفُوًا اَحَدٌ» [ الإخلاص ] “Say: He is Allah, the One. Allah, the Self-Sufficient. He neither begets nor is born, and there is none comparable to Him.” Obviously, if one accepts that Allah has a son, then one must also accept that He has a wife, and husband, wife, father, and son are all of the same kind, whereas Allah Almighty is pure from all these things. In short, the reason for fighting them is that they do not believe in Allah, and their belief about Him is an utter insult to Allah Almighty and is the acceptance of multiple deities, whether it is trinity (believing in three gods), incarnation (Allah descending into a human or creature), or union (a human becoming God), all of these have been declared disbelief by the Qur’an. See Surah Al-Ma’idah (72, 73). Then, if someone declares everything to be Allah Almighty, raises the slogan of “He is in everything,” considers the concept of “unity of existence” as gnosis, what doubt can there be in his disbelief? Similarly, if now any Muslim also holds the belief that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) himself was Allah Almighty, or was a piece of His light, or that Allah Almighty descends into the saints, or that by progressing, a saint also becomes Allah Almighty and becomes the possessor of His powers, and thus he raises the slogan {’’ أَنَا الْحَقُّ ‘‘} (I am the Truth, i.e., Allah), and says {’’سُبْحَانِيْ مَا اَعْظَمَ شَانِيْ‘‘} (I am pure, how great is my glory), then even if he continues to be called a Muslim, in reality, there is no difference between him and the Jews and Christians, nor between his belief and the belief of the Hindus in their millions of gods. With this vile belief, the entire religion, all the prophets and messengers, and their commands become useless. Such a person, no matter how much he hides himself behind the veils of Sufism, gnosis, or the spiritual path, in reality, he is a denier of all the laws, messengers, books, and commands of Allah Almighty, who has donned the cloak of sanctity to mislead people.

➋ { ذٰلِكَ قَوْلُهُمْ بِاَفْوَاهِهِمْ:} That is, neither can any rational proof be presented for it nor any textual evidence; it is merely a useless utterance of the mouth, just as someone speaks nonsense and meaningless things without reason.

➌ { يُضَاهِـُٔوْنَ قَوْلَ الَّذِيْنَ كَفَرُوْا مِنْ قَبْلُ:} That is, (these people) even though they are People of the Book, began to imitate the polytheists. (Muwaddih) And, like the previous polytheist and disbelieving nations, they went astray. The author of Al-Manar states that from the history of the ancient idolaters of the East and West, it is known that the belief in the son of God, incarnation, and trinity (and multiple deities) was well-known among the Brahmins of India (and still is), and similarly, these beliefs were also famous among the Chinese, Japanese, ancient Egyptians, and ancient Iranians. The People of the Book also began to imitate these disbelievers, and now some Muslims too have started to follow in their footsteps.

➍ { قٰتَلَهُمُ اللّٰهُ:} That is, these people are deserving that such a curse be made against them; otherwise, what need does Allah Almighty have for supplication or curse? He Himself can do whatever He wills.

The exegesis of this verse has been done along with the previous verse.

The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allah [30]," and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allah." These are words from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before them. May Allah destroy them! How they are deluded!

[30]
The Defeat of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon:

After the reign of Sayyiduna Sulaiman ؑ, the Jews again suffered decline due to their disobedience to Allah, and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon launched successive attacks on Palestine, destroying and devastating it. He burned the Torah and all religious books to ashes and took a large number of Bani Israel captive with him to Babylon. Among these captives was ‘Uzair ؑ, who was still very young at the time. After some time, probably seven years later, he released these captives. During this period, these Israelites had even forgotten their own language. On his return to his homeland, ‘Uzair ؑ saw a ruined settlement that had been destroyed at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. The mention of this incident has already been discussed in detail under verse 259 of Surah Al-Baqarah. After this, he was granted prophethood at the age of forty. He had memorized the entire Torah by heart. Therefore, he rewrote the Torah from the beginning, and thus the Jews once again received their revealed book. (In the Torah, his name is mentioned as Ezra.) For this reason, the Jews held him in great reverence. Some even went to such extremes in their veneration that they began to call him the son of Allah.

The Sects That Attribute Offspring to Allah:

And the Christians declared the Messiah to be the son of Allah, the reason being his miraculous birth, the miracles granted to him by Allah, and his being raised up to the heavens. This is mentioned repeatedly in the Quran. In reality, these People of the Book, influenced by the philosophies and superstitions of previous nations, adopted such misguided beliefs. Some Christians believed that Sayyiduna ‘Isa ؑ was God or one of three gods, and some considered him the son of God. In this verse, the previous nations refer to Greek, Indian, and Egyptian civilizations, who had fabricated entire mythologies of gods and goddesses by attributing to Allah a wife, sons, daughters, and then further generations of offspring. The effects of this were also found in the land of Arabia.