The Children of One's Daughter

Qur'an 6:85 · Al-Anʿām

وَزَكَرِيَّا وَيَحْيَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَإِلْيَاسَ ۖ كُلٌّ مِّنَ ٱلصَّـٰلِحِينَ

(6:85) and Zechariah, John, Jesus and Ilyas—each of them among the righteous—

The question

Are the children of a man's daughter his own children and descendants — and so are al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, the sons of Fāṭimah, the children and descendants (dhurriyyah) of the Prophet?

Views answered: al-Ḥajjāj, the objection recorded by al-Ālūsī (Rūḥ al-Maʿānī), al-Manār, those who treat it as a question of Arabic usage

Al-Mizan's argument

The verse names Jesus among the descendants of Noah although his only connection is through his mother, which shows that the Qur'an counts a daughter's children as one's own children and descendants. In the narrations al-Mizan gathers the arguments drawn from this verse — by Imam al-Ṣādiq, by Yaḥyá b. Muʿammar against al-Ḥajjāj, and by Imam al-Bāqir together with the verses of Mubāhalah (3:61) and of unlawful marriages (4:23). It quotes al-Ālūsī's answer to the objection that Jesus had no father, and al-Manār's remark that Arabs do not call a daughter's children “sons”. Al-Mizan replies that this is not a question of language or poetry but of kinship, which each society defines for itself; Islam made a daughter's children one's own children, as the Qur'an shows, and people later held on to only some of what follows from it.

Reading guide

Each part opens the commentary at that point.

1. The commentary: Jesus a descendant through his mother
2. Imam al-Ṣādiq on Jesus and Mary
3. Yaḥyá b. Muʿammar and al-Ḥajjāj
4. Al-Ālūsī on the objection that Jesus had no father
5. Al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr: Imam al-Bāqir and the verse of Mubāhalah
6. Al-Manār: Arabs do not call a daughter's children “sons”
7. Not a question of language but of kinship
8. Imam al-Bāqir's proof from 4:23
9. Conclusion

Read the whole commentary on 6:85 →