Maryam

فَاخْتَلَفَ الاَحْزَابُ مِن بَيْنِهِمْ فَوَيْلٌ لّـِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِن مَّشْهَدِ يَوْمٍ عَظِيمٍ

أَسْمِعْ بِهِمْ وَأَبْصِرْ يَوْمَ يَأْتُونَنَا لَكِنِ الظَّالِمُونَ الْيَوْمَ فِي ضَلاَلٍ مُّبِينٍ

37. “Then the sects did differ among themselves; and woe to those who disbelieved because of presence on the great day.”
38. “How well they will hear and see on the day they come to Us! But the unjust (even) this day are in manifest straying.”

‘A party’ is a group of people working with together and who have some particular goals and position which are usually united. The Arabic word /mašhad/ means either the site of the attendance of people, or the place of bearing witness, because, on the Day of Judgment both people attend there, and a lot of witnesses from angels and prophets will testify upon the deeds of man. Some people believed in Jesus as God, like the group of Ya‘qhubiyyah; some others said that he was son of God, like the group of Nasturiyyah, while some other people believed in trinity, like Israilliyyah. But, on the Day of Resurrection, all of these groups will testify to the falsehood of their beliefs.⁴⁰

Despite all the emphasis Jesus placed upon the subject of monotheism and the worship of the One God, yet, after him, some groups among his followers differed and expressed different ideas about the Messiah. Referring to this the verse says:

The history of Christianity is also good evidence proving that after the Christ, they differed greatly about him and about the subject of monotheism. Some of them said:

“He is God who has come down on earth and has brought a group of people to life and has caused others to die, then He ascended to heaven.”

Others said:

“He is the son of God”,

while others said:

“He is one of the three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Yet others said:

“He is the third of the three. God is the object of worship, Jesus is also an object of worship, and his mother also is an object of worship.”

Finally, some his followers said that he was the servant of Allah and His Messenger. Since deviation from the principle of Monotheism is counted as the greatest deviation of the Christians, at the end of the verse they are severely warned. In the next verse, the Qur’an describes their state when they are present at the gathering-place of resurrection. It says:

But, now that they are in this life, these cruel people are in a manifest aberration busy with their transgression. The verse continues saying:

In principal, the observation of that court in Hereafter and the effects of the deeds, remove the sleep of negligence from the eyes and the ears so that the blind-hearted ones will become aware and wise. But, what a pity! This awareness will be of no avail to them.