{"id":30809,"date":"2026-07-01T02:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=30809"},"modified":"2026-07-01T02:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:03:07","slug":"the-prophets-mubahala-with-the-people-of-the-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/the-prophets-mubahala-with-the-people-of-the-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prophet’s Mubahala with the People of the Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/h5>\n
***<\/h5>\n
### The Quran\u2019s Treatment of the Issue of *Mubahalah*<\/h5>\n
The Almighty says: *\u201cThen whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you \u2013 say, \u2018Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves, then let us invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars.\u2019\u201d* (Quran 3:61)<\/h5>\n
Al-Zamakhshari says in his commentary on this verse:<\/h5>\n
When the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) called them to *Mubahalah*, they said, \u201cLet us return and consider.\u201d When they conferred, they said to their leader\u2014who was their man of opinion\u2014”O Abd al-Masih, what do you see?” He said, “By Allah, you know, O company of Christians, that Muhammad is a sent Prophet, and he has brought you the decisive word regarding your master (Jesus). By Allah, no people have ever invoked imprecation (*Mubahalah*) against a prophet and lived; their elders did not survive, nor did their young ones flourish. If you do this, you will surely perish. But if you refuse except to adhere to your religion and remain as you are, then make peace with the man and return to your lands.”<\/h5>\n
They came to the Messenger of Allah, and he went out cradling al-Husayn, holding al-Hasan by the hand, with Fatima walking behind him, and Ali behind her. He was saying, “When I supplicate, you say ‘Amen’.” The Bishop of Najran said, “O company of Christians! I see faces that, if Allah willed to remove a mountain from its place by them, He would do so. Do not invoke imprecation, or you will perish, and not a single Christian will remain on the face of the earth until the Day of Resurrection.”<\/h5>\n
They said, “O Abu al-Qasim, we have decided not to invoke imprecation against you, to let you remain in your religion, and to remain in our own.” He said, “If you refuse the *Mubahalah*, then embrace Islam; you shall have what the Muslims have and bear what they bear.” They refused. He said, “Then I shall battle you.” They said, “We have no capacity for war against the Arabs, but we will make peace with you on the condition that you do not raid us, do not frighten us, and do not turn us away from our religion, in exchange for our paying you two thousand garments every year\u2014one thousand in Safar and one thousand in Rajab\u2014and thirty coats of mail of iron.” He made peace with them on that basis. He then said, “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, destruction had loomed over the people of Najran; had they invoked the curse, the valley would have ignited into fire upon them, Allah would have uprooted Najran and its people, and a year would not have passed over all the Christians until they perished.”<\/h5>\n
Then Al-Zamakhshari said:
\nHis call to *Mubahalah* was only to distinguish the liar between him and his opponent, a matter that is exclusive to him and those who dispute with him. As for bringing the sons and women, it is because that is the most emphatic proof of his confidence in his position and his certainty of his truthfulness, as he dared to expose his loved ones, the pieces of his heart, and the people dearest to him to that [curse]. He did not limit it to exposing himself; rather, his confidence in his opponent’s falsehood was such that he was certain his opponent\u2014along with his own loved ones\u2014would be completely exterminated if the *Mubahalah* were to take place. He specified the sons and women because they are the dearest of family and the closest to the heart. A man might ransom them with his own life and fight to protect them even unto death. Hence, in battles, they used to bring the womenfolk with them to prevent them [the men] from fleeing, and those who defended them with their souls were called ‘protectors of the sacred’ (*Humat al-Haqa’iq*). (2)<\/h5>\n
The miracle of the Prophet\u2014which is the descending of divine torment upon the Christians of Najran\u2014even if it did not occur because the Christians turned away from the *Mubahalah*, the fact that the Messenger went forth for it and was prepared for it, on the one hand, and the withdrawal of the Christians of Najran from engaging in this imprecation with the Messenger, on the other hand, reveals that the descending of the torment would have been inevitable had they proceeded with it. They realized the danger and felt the gravity of the situation, so they prepared for reconciliation and concession.<\/h5>\n
***<\/h5>\n
**Footnotes:**
\n1. Ali \u2018Imran: 61.
\n2. *Al-Kashshaf*: 1\/326-327 (with slight summarization). See also *Majma’ al-Bayan*: 1\/452-453.<\/h5>\n
*(Source: Mafahim al-Quran, Vol. 4)*<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*** ### The Quran\u2019s Treatment of the Issue of *Mubahalah* The Almighty says: *\u201cThen whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you \u2013 say, \u2018Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves, then let us invoke the curse of Allah …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-islamic-research--"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30811,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30809\/revisions\/30811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}