Tafsir for verses: 5:116, 5:117
وَإِذۡ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَى ٱبۡنَ مَرۡيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلۡتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِي وَأُمِّيَ إِلَٰهَيۡنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِۖ قَالَ سُبۡحَٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِيٓ أَنۡ أَقُولَ مَا لَيۡسَ لِي بِحَقٍّۚ إِن كُنتُ قُلۡتُهُۥ فَقَدۡ عَلِمۡتَهُۥۚ تَعۡلَمُ مَا فِي نَفۡسِي وَلَآ أَعۡلَمُ مَا فِي نَفۡسِكَۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّٰمُ ٱلۡغُيُوبِ ١١٦ ﴿116﴾ مَا قُلۡتُ لَهُمۡ إِلَّا مَآ أَمَرۡتَنِي بِهِۦٓ أَنِ ٱعۡبُدُواْ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّي وَرَبَّكُمۡۚ وَكُنتُ عَلَيۡهِمۡ شَهِيدٗا مَّا دُمۡتُ فِيهِمۡۖ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيۡتَنِي كُنتَ أَنتَ ٱلرَّقِيبَ عَلَيۡهِمۡۚ وَأَنتَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيۡءٖ شَهِيدٌ ١١٧ ﴿117﴾
116And when Allah said, “O ‘Īsā, son of Maryam, did you say to the people: ‘Take me and my mother as gods beside Allah?” He said, “Pure are You, it does not behoove me to say what is not right for me. Had I said it, You would have known it. You know what is in my heart, and I do not know what is in Your’s. You alone have full knowledge of all that is unseen. 117I have not said to them anything but what You have ordered me to say, that is, ‘Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord’ and I was a witness over them as long as I was with them. But when You recalled me, You were the One watching over them. You are a witness over everything.
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Commentary

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying - glorified and exalted is He -: ﴿And when Allah said, 'O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people,

Then he said: "If I said it, then You certainly knew it."; So Allah granted Jesus - blessings and peace be upon him - this conclusive argument; and his saying: "You know what is in my soul"; is by Allah's encompassing knowledge of it; and he specified the soul in the mention because it is the place of concealment and holding onto information; and the meaning is that Allah knows what is in the soul of Jesus and knows all of his affairs; including what may not be in his soul; and his saying: "And I do not know what is in your soul"; means: and I do not know what you possess of information; and what you have encompassed; and the mention of the soul here is a verbal counterpart in the Arabic language; necessitated by brevity; and this looks from a hidden aspect to his saying: "And they plotted, and Allah plotted" [Al-Imran: 54]; "Allah mocks them" [Al-Baqarah: 15]; so naming the punishment by the name of the sin only leads to the request for the verbal counterpart; as it is from eloquent speech; and brilliant expression; then he acknowledged - blessings and peace be upon him - to Allah, the Exalted, that He is the Knower of the unseen; and the meaning is: "And I have no knowledge of the unseen; so how can divinity belong to me?"; then he informed about what he did in the world; and he said in his conveying; that he did not exceed the command of Allah in that He commanded them to worship Him; and he acknowledged His Lordship; and "that"; in his saying: "that you worship Allah"; is explanatory; there is no place for it in the grammatical structure; and it is valid that it be a substitute for "what"; and it is valid that it be in the position of a preposition; on the assumption of: "by that you worship Allah"; and it is valid that it be a substitute for the pronoun in "by Him".

Then he informed - blessings and peace be upon him - that he was a witness as long as he was among them in the world; so "what"; is a circumstantial particle.

And his saying: "So when You took me"; means: You took me to Yourself by raising me; and placing me in the heavens; and "the watcher": is the preserving guardian.

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