4. Sura an-Nisa

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَإِن مِّنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ إِلاَّ لَيُؤْمِنَنَّ بِهِ قَبْلَ مَوْتِهِ...    

4: 159. And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death;

C665. Before his death: Interpreters are not agreed as to the exact meaning.

Those who hold that Jesus did not die refer the pronoun "his" to Jesus. They say that Jesus is still living in the body and that he will appear just before the Final Day, after the coming of the Mahdi, when the world will be purified of sin and unbelief. There will be a final death before the final Resurrection, but all will have believed before that final death.

Others think that "his" is better referred, to "none of the People of the Book", and that the emphatic form "must believe" (layu 'minanna) denotes more a question of duty than of fact. (R).

... وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا ﴿١٥٩﴾  

and on the Day of Judgment He will be a witness against them.

C666. Cf. 4:41

Other versions:

Rejecters – Persecutors of Jesus

4: 159 [an-Nisa, Medina 92 ]

Asad Yet there is not one of the followers of earlier revelation who does not, at the moment of his death, grasp the truth about Jesus [note 173]; and on the Day of Resurrection he [himself] shall bear witness to the truth against them.

Yusuf Ali And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Judgment He will be a witness against them.

Pickthall There is not one of the People of the Scripture but will believe in him before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them

Ali Unal Yet there is none of the People of the Book but will, before the moment of his death, (grasp the truth about Jesus and) believe in him (though that belief will be of no benefit to them then): and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them .

Transliteration Wa im min ahlil kita_bi illa_ layu'minanna bihi qabla mautih(i), wa yaumal qiya_mati yaku_nu 'alaihim syahida_(n).

[[ Asad’s notes - 173 Lit., "who does not believe in him before his death". According to this verse, all believing Jews and Christians realize at the moment of their death that Jesus was truly

a prophet of God - having been neither an impostor nor "the son of God" (Zamakhshari). ]]