Priests and monks (qissisun and ruhban)

The "priests" (qissisun) and the "monks" (ruhban) appear in a verse of Surat al-Ma'ida: Qur'an 5:82. Muhammad Rashid Rida explains them in his commentary, "al-Manar" ¹.

For Rida, a monk is one who devotes himself to worship in a monastery or a cell and deprives himself of pleasures. He notes that the word may come from fear (rahba) or from "rahiba al-ibil," meaning that the camels became thin from long travel. A priest, he says, is a religious leader in church usage, above a deacon and below a bishop, and the word originally comes from "qassa al-ibil," meaning to tend the camels well ¹.

Rida holds that priests should in principle be people of learning in their religion and its books, since they are shepherds and those who give rulings. So the mention of monks and priests together combines worshippers and scholars. He says that monasticism is an innovation in Christianity, and then explains that this does not prevent religion from bringing Christians closer to the affection of Muslims ¹.

Rida quotes from the transmitted exegesis two views on who is meant: first, that they are those who believed in Jesus in his time, such as the disciples; and second, that they are the community of the Negus. He mentions the two views as they appear in the transmitted reports, without deciding between them at this point ¹.