Translation
When God will gather all the Messengers and ask: “How was the response (from your community to your messages)?” they will reply: “We have no knowledge (beyond our time), whereas You are the Knower of all that is hidden or unseen.” God will (turn to Jesus and) say: “O Jesus, Son of Mary, do you remember My favor to you and to your mother—how I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit; how you spoke to people from childhood to grown age; how I taught you revelations, wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel; how you shaped out of clay the form of a bird and breathed into it so that it became a bird by My permission; how you would heal the blind and the leper by My grace; how you raised those who were dead (spiritually or near death physically) by My grace; and how I protected you from the Children of Israel when you came to them with a clear message. Yet those who persist in denial say: ‘This (Jesus and his message) is nothing but a manifest enchantment (deception)!’”
Remember when I[God] inspired the disciples of Jesus: Believe in Me and My Messenger, to which they all replied: “We believe and do take our testimony that we submit to God [as muslims].” (Also remember) when his disciples said: “O Jesus, Son of Mary, is your Sustainer able to send us a repast from Heaven?” Jesus replied: “Be mindful of God if you claim to have faith.” They said: “We desire to partake in it so that our soul might find comfort (in our belief), that we come to know that you speak the truth and that we can be a witness to all of these.” So Jesus, Son of Mary, prayed: “O God, our Sustainer, send down from Heaven a repast to us—a source of ever-recurring comfort, to the first of us and to the last of us, and a symbol (of grace) from you. Provide for us; You are the Best of those who provide.”
God replied: “Surely I am sending (as I always do) such repast as you asked for, but if afterward any of you continue to deny the truth, then I will inflict punishment like the one that has not visited anyone on the earth before.” God said: “O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you tell people: ‘Take me and my mother as two gods beside God’?” He will reply: “O God, Your Glory is limitless; how can I say something that I have no right (truth) to say? If I had said such a thing, You would have known. I do know what I had in my mind, but I do not know what is in Your mind. You are the Knower of all that is hidden and unseen. I said to them nothing other than what you commanded me to say: ‘Serve God, who is my Sustainer and your Sustainer.’ I (Jesus) was a witness among them as long as I was with them, but after my death, You were their Keeper, and You are a Witness to all things. So, if you chastise them, then surely they are your servants, and if you forgive them, then you are ever Almighty and Wise.” 324
God will say (on Judgment Day): “On this day truth will benefit those who were truthful—theirs is the garden (of peace and plenty) in which the river flows, and they will reside there forever; God is well pleased with them, and they are well pleased with Him. God’s dominion extends all over the heavens, the earth, and all that are in between. His will encompasses everything.” 325
Interpretation
324 The story of Jesus and his mother is related in simple clarity in regard to their relationship with God and the favor that God bestowed on Jesus, his mother, his disciples, and his followers. The extraordinary favors that God endowed Jesus with so that he could do things that ordinary mortals could not do has led many to ascribe divinity to him, though he was never party to such claims and always maintained his servitude to God, as did his mother. This part of the Qur’an lays the foundation through telling the real truth about Jesus and his followers.
325 The Day of Judgment is the time when truth will reveal itself in its full Glory and those who accepted such truths about God and human purpose in their lives will be rewarded by being allowed to reside in Paradise—a garden of peace and plenty. This is a result of their earning the pleasure of God and being pleased with God as well in their lives and in the Hereafter.
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REFLECTION
The Qur’an is consistent in the way Messengers are introduced and how they comply with God’s commands and convey messages as they were empowered to do. Starting with Adam (who was created without parents) and moving on to Abraham, Moses, Jesus (born without a father), and then to Mohammad—all were mortals but endowed by God with the command and wisdom of revelations. The purity of this relationship has to be maintained to be true to the message and our relationship with God. The nature of Jesus is a major point of disagreement among Christians and Muslims and Jews. Muslims and Jews are more affirmative about Jesus being a mortal and a prophet. Muslims accept the birth of Jesus as possible by God but reject any notion that he is God’s son, whereas Jews have rejected the birth of Jesus as a pure event and have attacked the honor of Mary for having a son without being married.
ACTION
Despite such differences, we should focus on our common belief in One God—the God of Moses, Jesus, and Mohamad—and strive to work together to serve humanity for our collective betterment, since such belief in God and our demonstrated good deeds will be two things that will save the day, the Day of Judgment, and fulfill our purpose in life on this planet.