'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿So when 'Isa felt from them disbelief, he said, 'Who are my supporters for [the cause of] Allah?' The disciples said, 'We are supporters of Allah. We have believed in Allah and testify that we are Muslims.﴾ ﴿Our Lord, we have believed in that which You have revealed and we have followed the Messenger, so register us among the witnesses.﴾ ﴿And they planned, and Allah planned. And Allah is the best of planners.﴾ Before this verse is omitted, by which the coherence of the verses is completed, its meaning is: 'Then 'Isa came, peace be upon him, as Allah had promised him, and he said all that he had mentioned to the Children of Israel.' ﴿So when he felt﴾ and the meaning of 'felt' is: he knew through the senses what he heard from their words in denying him, and he saw from the signs of the situation and the intensity of enmity and avoidance; it is said: 'I felt something and I sensed it.' Its origin is: 'I sensed,' so one of the two s's was changed to a y. And 'disbelief' is the denial of him, and it has been narrated that he saw from them the intention to kill him, so at that time he sought help, and the pronoun in 'from them' refers to the Children of Israel. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿He said, 'Who are my supporters for [the cause of] Allah?'﴾ is an expression of the state of 'Isa in his seeking someone to uphold the religion and believe in the law and protect it, just as Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, would present himself to the tribes and expose himself to the clans during the seasons. And all these actions and what is in them of sayings are expressed by ﴿He said, 'Who are my supporters for [the cause of] Allah?'﴾. And there is no doubt that these words were among his sayings to the people. And the supporters are the plural of 'supporter,' like 'witness' and 'witnesses' and others. And it is said: the plural of 'helper,' like 'companion' and 'companions.' And His saying: 'for [the cause of] Allah' has two meanings. One of them is: 'Who will support me in the way to Allah?' So 'for' indicates a clear purpose, and the second meaning is that the estimation is: 'Who will add his support to the support of Allah for me?' So it is like His saying: ﴿And do not consume one another's wealth unjustly﴾ [An-Nisa: 29]. So if you contemplate it, you will find in it the meaning of purpose because it includes the addition of something to something. And Ibn Jurayj and Al-Suddi have expressed it as meaning 'with.' And yes, 'with' suffices in these meanings in place of 'for,' but it is not permissible to say that 'for' means 'with,' until some of the jurists erred in interpreting His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And your hands to the elbows﴾ [Al-Ma'idah: 6]. So he said: 'for' means 'with,' and this is a mistake. Rather, 'for' in this verse is a mere purpose, and it should be considered whether what comes after 'for' is included in what was before it in another way.

'The Hawariyyun' are a people whom 'Isa, peace be upon him, passed by and called them to support him and follow his religion. They responded to him and acted upon that in the best manner, and they were patient for the sake of Allah. It has been narrated that he passed by them while they were fishing. People disagreed on why they were called the Hawariyyun. Sa'id ibn Jubayr said: They were named that due to the whiteness of their garments and their purity. Abu Arta'ah said: They were named that because they were tailors who whitened the garments, meaning they bleached them. Qatadah said: The Hawariyyun are the chosen ones of the prophets, those who are fit for leadership. Al-Dahhak said something similar, and this is a description of the state of the people and not an explanation of the term; and on this basis, the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, likened his cousin to them in his saying: 'And the Hawari of Al-Zubayr.' The earlier statements are the explanation of the term, as they are from al-hawwar, which means whiteness. I whitened the garment: I made it white, and from it comes the term Hawari. The Arabs may also call women who reside in cities: al-Hawariyyat, due to the predominance of whiteness among them, and from this is the saying of Abu Jildah Al-Yashkuri: (p-235) 'So tell the Hawariyyat to weep for others, and let no one weep for us except the barking dogs.' And Makkī mentioned that Maryam pushed 'Isa, peace be upon him, in his childhood into various tasks, and the last thing she pushed him to was to the Hawariyyun, who are those who shorten the garments and then dye them. He showed them signs and dyed for them various colors from one water. The majority of people read: 'The Hawariyyun' with a strengthened yā, and one of them is 'Hawariyyun,' and it is not a yā of lineage but rather like the yā of 'kursī.' Ibrahim Al-Nakha'i and Abu Bakr Al-Thaqafi read: 'The Hawariyyun' with a lightened yā throughout the Qur'an. Abu Al-Fath said: The Arabs dislike the lightened yā with a kasrah before it and refrain from it. Whenever it appears in phrases like 'al-'ādiyun' and 'al-qādiun' and 'al-sā'iun,' it is elevated to avoid the heaviness of the dammah, so the yā is made silent and its vowel is transferred, then it is omitted due to its silence and the silence of the wāw after it, so it becomes 'al-'ādun' and similar. Therefore, it should have been said: 'The Hawarun,' but the nature of the reading, despite its weakness, is that the yā was lightened due to the heaviness of its weakening, and it carried the dammah indicating that the strengthening is intended, as the strengthening is compatible with the dammah. This is as Abu Al-Hasan went in the lightening of 'yastahzi'un' until he made the hamzah a yā completely, and he carried it with the dammah as a reminder of the state of the intended hamzah in it. And the saying of the Hawariyyun: 'And bear witness' may be addressed to 'Isa, peace be upon him, meaning: bear witness for us before Allah, and it may be addressed to Allah, the Exalted, as when you say: I bear witness to Allah regarding such and such, when you are determined and serious in your commitment. From this is the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, during the Farewell Pilgrimage: 'O Allah, bear witness.' Al-Tabari said: In this verse is a rebuke to the Christians of Najran, meaning: this is the statement of the believing ancestors regarding 'Isa, not what you claim, O you who assert his divinity.

And His saying: ﴿Our Lord, we have believed in what You have revealed﴾ means they want the Gospel and the verses of Jesus. And "the Messenger" is Jesus, blessings and peace be upon him. And their saying: ﴿So write us down among the witnesses﴾ is an expression of their desire to be among those who witnessed the truth from the believers of the nations. And since humans record what they need to know and verify in a second state by writing, they expressed God's action towards them in that way. Ibn Abbas said: Their saying "among the witnesses" means: make us from the nation of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, so that we may be among those who bear witness against the people.

Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, informed about the disbelieving Children of Israel regarding Jesus, saying: "And they plotted" meaning their cunning in taking Jesus to kill him according to their claim. It is narrated that they devised a plan against him, and they set up watchmen until he and the disciples entered a house, and they took them therein. This is the plot of the Children of Israel, and Allah, glorified and exalted is He, punished them by casting the likeness of Jesus upon one of the disciples and raising Jesus, and He caused the Children of Israel to suffer humiliation and disgrace in this world and the Hereafter. This punishment is what Allah called a plot in His saying: ﴿And Allah plotted﴾, and this is a way in which the punishment can be named after the sin even if it does not correspond to its meaning; and based on this, the majority of the interpreters explained the verse. And Jesus said to the disciples: Who will be patient so that my likeness may be cast upon him and he will be killed, and for him is Paradise? One of them said: I will, and that was the case. And some narrated that the Children of Israel sent a Jewish spy to Jesus until he accompanied him and guided them to him and entered the house with him. When they were surrounded, Allah cast the likeness of Jesus upon that Jewish man, so he was taken and crucified. This is the meaning of His saying: ﴿And they plotted and Allah plotted﴾ and this is also naming a punishment after the sin. And plotting in the language means striving against a person without him being aware of it, rather the plotter conceals what he shows.

And His saying: ﴿And Allah is the best of plotters﴾ means that He is the doer of truth in that, and the plotter from among humans is mostly a doer of falsehood, because in falsehood one needs to resort to cunning. And Allah, glorified and exalted is He, is more severe in punishment and more decisive in will, so He is better in countless ways; there is no deity except Him. And the mention of the limitation of Jesus, blessings and peace be upon him, and the number of his companions with him and the matter of the likeness and other matters of his will come in its place, if Allah, glorified and exalted is He, wills.