The Verse of Mubahala (Aal Imran 61): how Sunni and Shia scholars read it
The verse of mutual invocation in Surah Aal Imran, its context in the argument over Jesus, and how it is read in each tradition — quoted from al-Muyassar, Tafsir al-Safi and al-Mizan — with what the two agree on and where they differ.
The verse
Then whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you - say, "Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly [together] and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars [among us]."
This is the verse of mubahala — mutual invocation, each side calling down the curse on whichever of them is lying. Almost all the discussion turns on three words: ourselves and yourselves. Who is meant?
This article sets out each tradition from a commentary this site serves in full, rather than characterising anyone's position, and adjudicates nothing. The Arabic is rendered into English here by me.
The context
The verse comes in a passage about Jesus, after the comparison with the creation of Adam:
Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created Him from dust; then He said to him, "Be," and he was.
The truth is from your Lord, so do not be among the doubters.
(Aal Imran 3:59, Aal Imran 3:60)
and is followed by:
Indeed, this is the true narration. And there is no deity except Allah. And indeed, Allah is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.
The commentaries agree that the people being addressed are the Christians of Najran.
The Sunni reading
Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar, issued by the King Fahd Complex, reads the verse on its plain wording: to whoever disputes with the Messenger about Jesus after knowledge has reached him, the answer is an invitation — let us each bring our sons, our women and our own selves, and then turn to God asking that His punishment and curse fall on whichever side is lying and persisting in it.
Al-Muyassar does not go on to name who came out with the Prophet, and builds nothing on that.
The Shia reading
Al-Fayd al-Kashani, in Tafsir al-Safi, relates the account of the day — the Prophet coming out carrying Husayn, holding Hasan by the hand, Fatima walking behind him and Ali behind her, saying: when I pray, say amen. Al-Kashani notes explicitly that this report is narrated by the Sunnis as well, and takes it as evidence of the standing of those he brought with him, since the verse, on this reading, calls Ali our selves.
He then quotes the Imams identifying each word: in a report from al-Kazim, no one claimed that the Prophet brought them under the cloak at the mubahala except Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn — so our sons is Hasan and Husayn, our women is Fatima, and ourselves is Ali.
Allamah al-Tabataba'i, in al-Mizan, argues from the wording rather than from the report alone. He first states what the transmission agrees on: that the commentators are unanimous, the narration consistent and history in support, that the Prophet came to the mubahala with no one but Ali, Fatima and the two grandsons — two selves, two sons and one woman.
He then presses the plural in the liars. The verse, he argues, implies liars in the plural on one of the two sides whichever way it falls; and since lying is only possible in a claim, those who came with the Prophet must have been partners in the claim itself.
Al-Mizan also explains why sons and women were included at all: bringing the people one instinctively shields is the strongest available sign that the one issuing the challenge is certain he is in the right.
Where they agree
- The verse belongs to a dispute about Jesus, and what it proposes is a mutual invocation placing God's curse on whoever is lying.
- The mubahala never took place; the other side withdrew. Al-Safi reports this from the account itself.
- Those who came out with the Prophet were Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn. This is not a point of dispute between the two traditions: al-Mizan reports the commentators as unanimous on it, and al-Safi points out that it is narrated by Sunnis too.
- The verse is framed as establishing proof after knowledge has come, not as winning an argument.
Where they differ
- On what follows from the account. Al-Safi and al-Mizan draw from it a particular standing for those present, treating the verse's naming of them as sons, women and selves as a merit. Al-Muyassar neither names them nor builds on the naming.
- On what ourselves carries. Al-Mizan makes the plural the liars an argument that those present shared in the claim; al-Safi assigns each word by narration from the Imams. Al-Muyassar keeps the general sense of the wording.
- On method. Al-Safi argues from narration, al-Mizan from the wording and the context and then supports it with narration, al-Muyassar glosses the words.
These positions are set out as their books have them; weighing them is not the business of this page.
Sources
- Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — a panel of tafsir scholars, King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran.
- Tafsir al-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
- Tafsir al-Mizan — Sayyid Muhammad Husayn al-Tabataba'i.
All three texts in full, each attributed to its author, are on the verse's own page:
Tafsir of the Verse of Mubahala
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