Verses 15–30
These verses invoke the essential meaning of faith (īmān) to draw a distinction between the believers and the sinners and wrongdoers, mentioning the distinguishing features of each category and the consequences they will face, before warning the wrongdoers of punishment in this world. Finally, they conclude the sūrah by instructing the Prophet to anticipate God’s judgement.
Commentary
إِنَّمَا يُؤْمِنُ بِآيَاتِنَا الَّذِينَ إِذَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهَا خَرُّوا سُجَّدًا وَسَبَّحُوا بِحَمْدِ رَبِّهِمْ وَهُمْ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ ١٥
(32:15) Only those believe in Our signs who, when they are reminded of them, fall down in prostration and celebrate the praise of their Lord, and they are not arrogant.
Having spoken about the disbelievers who stubbornly deny that they will encounter Him and haughtily refuse to believe and do righteous deeds in this world, God now turns to describing the faithful, who believe in the signs of their Lord and submit themselves to the truth when they are reminded.
Only those believe in our signs who… This makes belief (īmān) in the true sense of the word exclusive to those whom God describes herein, and it means that “the mark of readiness for true belief is as follows….”
…when they are reminded of them, fall down in prostration… Here, God mentions some of their qualities and some of their deeds. The quality He singles out for mention is their humility toward the position of lordship and the absence of any arrogance or disdain towards submitting themselves to God, or glorifying and praising Him. This is contained in the phrase when they are reminded of them, that is, of the signs which point to God’s exclusive lordship and divinity, and the logical corollaries of these such as the Resurrection and the prophetic call to faith and good deeds. Fall down in prostration means that they drop to the ground and prostrate to God out of humility and submission. And celebrate the praise of their Lord means that they declare Him utterly transcendent above His creation (tanzīh) while at the same time glorifying and magnifying Him. And, even though prostration, celebration and praise are acts, here they are manifestations of deeper characteristics of humbleness and obedience toward the ranks of lordship and divinity. That is why God follows them by mentioning their corollary: and they are not arrogant.
تَتَجَافَىٰ جُنُوبُهُمْ عَنِ الْمَضَاجِعِ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُمْ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنْفِقُونَ ١٦
(32:16) Their sides vacate their beds to supplicate their Lord in fear and hope, and they spend out of what We have provided them.
This verse defines them in term of their actions, just as the previous verse defined them in terms of their qualities.
Their sides vacate (tatajāfī junūbuhum) their beds: Tajāfī means “to withdraw” and junūb is the plural of janb, meaning “flank.” The word used for beds here is maḍājiʿ, which is the plural of maḍjaʿ, which can refer to any place of sleep. The image of them vacating their beds is meant to suggest that they forgo sleep.
…to supplicate their Lord in fear and hope: This sentence is a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) for the pronoun their in their sides. This means that they are occupied with supplicating to their Lord in the middle of the night when most others are asleep. But this is not merely out of fear of His wrath such that they would lose hope in His mercy, nor purely out of desire for His reward such that they would feel secure from His anger and devising; rather they supplicate to Him in both hope and fear, observing the etiquette of servanthood in their supplication based on what guidance has driven them to. As a whole, this description of them vacating their beds and supplicating includes the supererogatory night prayers.
…and they spend out of what We have provided them—this is another one of their deeds, namely spending in the Way of God.
فَلَا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ مَا أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أَعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ١٧
(32:17) No soul (nafs) knows what has been kept hidden for them of comfort (qurrat aʿyun) as a reward for what they used to do.
This follows logically from their qualities and actions above, and it describes the reward that God has promised them as a result.
The appearance of the term nafs as an indefinite noun subject to a negation signifies the generality of its meaning, while joining qurrah to aʿyun (“eyes”) rather than aʿyunihim (“their eyes”) shows that this hidden comfort is not just comfort for them but for whoever has eyes.
The verse means: “Not a single soul can know or even imagine what God has in store for them in terms of comfort to recompense them for their deeds in this world.”
أَفَمَنْ كَانَ مُؤْمِنًا كَمَنْ كَانَ فَاسِقًا ۚ لَا يَسْتَوُونَ ١٨
(32:18) Is someone who is faithful like someone who is a transgressor? They are not equal.
“Faith” (īmān) means for the soul to settle upon something that it knows, and the logical corollary of this is for a person to act upon what they have faith in. “Transgression” (fisq) means to do the opposite of this. The original meaning of fisq comes from fasaqat al-tamrah (“the date splits”) which describes the date coming out of its skin, in the same sense that a fāsiq (“sinner”) comes out from obedience to God.
The question in this verse is rhetorical, intended to evoke a denial. They are not equal denies that the two groups are alike to emphasise the meaning of the rhetorical question at the beginning of the verse.
أَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فَلَهُمْ جَنَّاتُ الْمَأْوَىٰ نُزُلًا بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ١٩
(32:19) As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, for them are gardens of the Abode, a hospitality for what they used to do.
An “abode” (maʾwā) is the place in which a person takes shelter in order to rest. “Hospitality” (nuzul) literally means the food and drink that is prepared in a house for a guest, but some say that it came to signify any kind of gift. The remainder of the verse is clear.
وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ فَسَقُوا فَمَأْوَاهُمُ النَّارُ ۖ كُلَّمَا أَرَادُوا أَنْ يَخْرُجُوا مِنْهَا أُعِيدُوا فِيهَا وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ ذُوقُوا عَذَابَ النَّارِ الَّذِي كُنْتُمْ بِهِ تُكَذِّبُونَ ٢٠
(32:20) As for those who have transgressed, their refuge is the Fire. Whenever they seek to leave it, they will be turned back into it, and they will be told: Taste the punishment of the Fire which you used to deny.
When God says that their “refuge” is the Fire, this is to show that they have no escape from it, which is why He follows immediately by saying: Whenever they seek to leave it, they will be turned back into it.
Taste the punishment of the Fire which you used to deny shows that those who have transgressed refers to the deniers of the Resurrection. God addresses them with these words while they are in the Fire to shame them, because they would often shame the faithful in this world for believing in the Resurrection.
وَلَنُذِيقَنَّهُمْ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ الْأَدْنَىٰ دُونَ الْعَذَابِ الْأَكْبَرِ لَعَلَّهُمْيَرْجِعُونَ٢١
(32:21) We shall surely make them taste the nearer punishment before the greater punishment, so that they may come back.
Insofar as the purpose behind the punishment is for them to return, and the return desired from them is to return to God through repentance, then the nearer punishment must refer to the punishment that befalls them in this world to frighten them and warn them in order to repent, rather than the punishment of destruction in this world or the punishment that awaits them after they die. Based on this, the greater punishment is the punishment of the Day of Resurrection.
Therefore, the verse means: “I swear that we will make them taste the punishment near at hand, such as scarcity, illness, and killing, before the greatest punishment on the Day of Resurrection so that perhaps they will return to Us and repent for their polytheism and obstinacy.”
Some say that the punishment of this world is called the nearer punishment rather than “the least punishment” (al-ʿadhāb al-aṣghar) to contrast with “the greatest punishment” (al-ʿadhāb al-akbar) because this verse occurs in the context of a warning and a threat, in which case it is not appropriate to call any punishment “the least.” By the same token, one does not call the punishment of the Hereafter “the furthest punishment” (al-ʿadhāb al-abʿad) in contrast to “the nearest punishment” (al-ʿadhāb al-adnā) because this also does not fit the context of a threat.
وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ ذُكِّرَ بِآيَاتِ رَبِّهِ ثُمَّ أَعْرَضَ عَنْهَا ۚ إِنَّا مِنَ الْمُجْرِمِينَ مُنْتَقِمُونَ ٢٢
(32:22) Who is a greater wrongdoer than him who is reminded of his Lord’s signs, whereat he disregards them? Indeed We shall take vengeance upon the guilty.
It is as if this is supposed to provide a rationale for the greatest punishment mentioned above insofar as they deny it; therefore, it explains that because they are the worst kind of wrongdoers (as they have turned away from God’s signs after being reminded of them), they are therefore guilty, and God will exact vengeance upon them.
The sentence Who is a greater wrongdoer… explains the reason for their punishment, namely that they are the worst kind of wrongdoer. Then, the sentence Indeed We shall take vengeance upon the guilty explains that the wrongdoers will be punished because they are guilty and the punishment is a kind of vengeance against them, for it is God who takes vengeance upon the guilty.
وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ فَلَا تَكُنْ فِي مِرْيَةٍ مِنْ لِقَائِهِ ۖ وَجَعَلْنَاهُ هُدًى لِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ ٢٣
(32:23) Certainly We gave Moses the Book, Do not be in doubt about his encounter, and We made it a guidance for the Children of Israel.
The Book (al-kitāb) here refers to the Torah.
Commentators have differed about whom the pronoun his belongs to in his encounter (liqāʾihi) and to what this word refers. Some say that the pronoun belongs to Moses and acts as an object (mafʿūl) for encounter, rendering the meaning: “Do not be in doubt about your encounter with Moses”—this addresses the Prophet regarding his meeting with Moses during the Night Journey (al-miʿrāj), which is recounted in narrations.
If this sūrah was revealed after the Night Journey, then it is a reminder of this event, and if it was revealed beforehand, then it is a promise from God to the Prophet that he will see him.
Others have said the pronoun belongs to Moses and that the sentence means: “Do not be in doubt about your meeting Moses on the Day of Resurrection.”
Others have said the pronoun belongs to the Book and that the sentence means: “So do not be in doubt about Moses’ encounter with the Book.”
Still others have said it means: “Do not be in doubt about your encounter with the Book” or “…about the Book’s encounter with you.”
Another reading has the pronoun refer to the distress Moses suffered from his people, in which case the meaning becomes: Do not doubt that you will suffer persecution, just as Moses suffered it from his people.
However, it should be obvious to the reader that these readings are fundamentally unsound as they do not explain how this verse is relevant to the ones that came before it.
It is possible—and God knows best—that the pronoun belongs to God Himself and his encounter refers to the Resurrection insofar as that is the day when everyone will be present before their Lord without any barrier between them and Him, as we have already discussed. The Resurrection was already described as an “encounter” (liqāʾ) some verses ago: Rather they disbelieve in the encounter with their Lord (). Then a similar meaning is expressed by the verse: Were you to see when the guilty hang their heads before their Lord ().
It is also possible that his encounter refers to the fact that the Prophet’s attention is completely absorbed by God when the Qur’an is being revealed to him, as indicated in some narrations, in which case this harks back to the opening of the sūrah: The sending down of the Book, there is no doubt in it, from the Lord of all the worlds (). The coda of the verse appears to support this reading more than the former—and God knows best.
…and We made it a guidance (hudan) for the Children of Israel—meaning “a guide” (hādī), where the verbal noun carries the meaning of an active participle (ism fāʿil) or the hyperbolic meaning of the verb.
وَجَعَلْنَا مِنْهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَهْدُونَ بِأَمْرِنَا لَمَّا صَبَرُوا ۖ وَكَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يُوقِنُونَ ٢٤
(32:24) And amongst them We appointed imams to guide by Our command, when they had been patient and had conviction in Our signs.
Meaning: “We appointed imāms amongst the Children of Israel to guide people by Our command, and We only appointed them as imams to guide people when they were steadfast in their religion and, before that, had certainty about Our signs.”
We have already discussed the meaning of imamate and of the imam guiding by God’s command in our commentary on the verses: I will make you an Imām of mankind (), We made them imāms, guiding by Our command (), and others that are relevant to the discussion.
These two verses cover the mercy that is extended to mankind in the Torah; it is a guidance in itself that leads whoever follows it to the truth, and it has nurtured and educated those people whom God selected to be imams who would themselves guide others by its command. Therefore, the Torah was a source of blessings both when it was acted upon and after it was acted upon.
إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ يَفْصِلُ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فِيمَا كَانُوا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ ٢٥
(32:25) Indeed your Lord will separate between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that about which they used to differ.
This refers to their differences in religion, which only came about as a result of the enmity between them, as God mentions elsewhere: Certainly We gave the Children of Israel the Book… But they did not differ except after knowledge had come to them, out of spite among themselves. Indeed your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that about which they used to differ ().
So the meaning of separate between them is to judge in a way that separates truth from falsehood, and the people of truth from the people of falsehood. The remainder of the meaning is clear.
أَوَلَمْ يَهْدِ لَهُمْ كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِنَ الْقُرُونِ يَمْشُونَ فِي مَسَاكِنِهِمْ ۚإِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ ۖ أَفَلَا يَسْمَعُونَ ٢٦
(32:26) And does it not dawn upon them (a wa lam yahdi lahum) how many generations We have destroyed before them, amid whose dwellings they walk? There are indeed signs in that. Will they not then listen?
The conjunction and (wa) at the beginning of the verse is joined to an implicit sentence with the meaning: “Is this not clear to them and does it not dawn upon them…?” And the meaning of yahdi lahum (lit. “to guide for them”) is “to become clear for them”, which is implied by the use of the preposition la- to make the verb transitive.
…how many generations We have destroyed before them: This sentence fulfils the function of the subject of the verb yahdi. And the meaning is: “Can they not see the multitude of generations we have destroyed even while they are walking amongst their houses!”
There are indeed signs in that. Will they not then listen? By “listen”, God means to pay heed to admonition, as this will lead to the acceptance of the truth and obedience to it.
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّا نَسُوقُ الْمَاءَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ الْجُرُزِ فَنُخْرِجُ بِهِ زَرْعًا تَأْكُلُ مِنْهُ أَنْعَامُهُمْ وَأَنْفُسُهُمْ ۖ أَفَلَا يُبْصِرُونَ ٢٧
(32:27) Do they not see that We drive water (nasūq al-māʾ) to the parched earth (al-arḍ al-juzur) and with it We bring forth crops (zarʿ) of which they eat, themselves and their cattle? Will they not then see?
According to Majmaʿ al-Bayān, the verb sūq means to drive something along a route and juzur means a dry land that has become barren due to the lack of rain.
Zarʿ is actually a verbal noun (with the literal meaning of “sowing”) but here is used in the sense of the passive participle mazrūʿ (lit. “that which is sown”, that is, “crops”).
This verse mentions another sign of God’s good governance of His creation and especially the living parts of it such as humans and cattle. Driving water to a barren land means driving the clouds that carry rain to it, as when rain falls from these clouds, it brings life to the earth, from which plants sprout forth, from which humans eat, as do the animals which they have domesticated to serve them.
Will they not then see? This is both an exhortation and a reprimand. God specifically connects this verse to sight and connects the previous verse to hearing because it is only possible for one to hear about the destruction of previous nations, as these are traditions passed down by word of mouth. On the other hand, it is through sight that one apprehends water being driven to barren lands, plants growing from these, and then these plants being eaten by animals and humans.
وَيَقُولُونَ مَتَىٰ هَٰذَا الْفَتْحُ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ ٢٨ قُلْ يَوْمَ الْفَتْحِ لَا يَنْفَعُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِيمَانُهُمْ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْظَرُونَ ٢٩
(32:28–29) And they say, When will this judgement (fatḥ) be, should you be truthful? Say, On the day of judgement their faith shall not avail the faithless, nor will they be granted any respite.
Al-Rāghib says:
Fatḥ means to unbar or remove an obstacle… doing fatḥ of an issue (qaḍiyyah) means to settle its affair and remove any obstacles from it. God says: Our Lord! Judge (iftaḥ) justly between us and our people, and You are the best of judges!” ()
In the prior verses, there are two issues to which fatḥ in the sense of “judgement” could apply: first, judgement between them on the day of resurrection, and the other is to make them taste the nearer punishment (al-ʿadhāb al-adnā) or to exact revenge upon them in this world. That is why some commentators have explained fatḥ to mean the day of resurrection, in which case the question when will this judgement be, should you be truthful? has the same meaning as the question repeated throughout the Qur’an: When will this promise be fulfilled, should you be truthful? (, , , , , )
Meanwhile, others have said that this fatḥ refers to the Battle of Badr, as the belief of the idolaters will avail them nothing after they are slain.
Still others have said that fatḥ refers to the conquest of Mecca. However, the answer that the Qur’an gives in response to this question does not make sense if that is the case: On the day of judgement their faith shall not avail the faithless, nor will they be granted any respite. That is, unless one were to say that their faith on that day, having stubbornly opposed and fought the Prophet for so many years, and having done their utmost to extinguish God’s light, is not genuine belief but hypocrisy (nifāq). In other words, they make a show of faith, but it does not enter their hearts such that their souls may benefit from it, as they have been forced to believe and not granted any respite.
This fatḥ could also refer to God judging between the Prophet and the Muslim ummah, and that would take place during the End Times, as we have already indicated in our explanation of the verse there is a messenger for every nation ().
In any case, these two verses respond to the idolaters’ impatience for judgement by saying that it is a judgement after which the faith of the disbelievers will be of no benefit to them, as it is a situation in which no soul will profit by believing and in which no one will be spared punishment or granted respite.
فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ وَانْتَظِرْ إِنَّهُمْ مُنْتَظِرُونَ ٣٠
(32:30) So turn away from them, and wait. They too are waiting.
This verse instructs the Prophet to disregard them and wait for God’s judgement just as they are waiting. However, they are really waiting for him to die or be killed so that his mission will be thwarted. So, the Qur’an says that the Prophet should wait for God’s judgement just as they are waiting for his death so that God may give truth victory over falsehood and the people of truth victory over the people of falsehood.
Hence, from the context it is clear that this fatḥ is referring to something that will take place in this world rather than the Hereafter.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, Ibn Mardawayh relates from Ibn ʿAbbās:
The Prophet said, “Their sides vacate their beds (). They are those who do not sleep before the time of ʿishāʾ and so God praises them”—and when he mentioned this, a man began to avoid his bed out of fear he would fall asleep. “Its time is before the young go to bed but when the elderly begin to feel sluggish.”
Author’s comments: The same has been narrated by other routes, both connected and truncated. Shaykh al-Ṭūsī relates a similar tradition in his Amālī with a chain from Imām al-Ṣādiq about this verse. It reads: “They would not sleep until darkness had settled.”
- In al-Kāfī, it is narrated via Sulaymān ibn Khālid:
Imām al-Bāqir said, “Shall I not tell you about Islam: its root, its branch and its canopy?”
I said, “Of course, may I be your ransom!”
He said, “Its root is prayer, its branch is zakāt, and its canopy is jihād.”
Then he said, “If you like, I will tell you about the gates of goodness?”
I said, “Yes! May I be your ransom!”
He said, “Fasting is paradise, charity (ṣadaqah) takes away mistakes, and a person keeping vigil in the middle of the night remembering God….” Then he recited Their sides vacate their beds ().
Author’s comments: A tradition with this meaning is narrated in al-Maḥāsin with a chain going back to ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz from Imām al-Ṣādiq, and in Majmaʿ al-Bayān, from al-Wāḥidī with a chain going back to the Prophet via Muʿādh ibn Jabal. And it has been related in al-Durr al-Manthūr from Tirmidhī, Nasāʾī, Ibn Mājah, and other authorities, all from Muʿādh, from the Prophet.
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, Ibn Jarīr relates from Mujāhid:
God’s Messenger mentioned night vigils to us. His eyes welled up with tears until they streamed over his cheeks. Then he recited the verse: Their sides vacate their beds ().
- In the same source, it is related:
When we were with God’s Messenger, he described paradise to us. Then he finished and said, “In it are things which no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor any human mind has conceived of.” Then he recited the verse: “Their sides vacate their beds…” () and the verse after it.
- In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, it is narrated:
Imām al-Ṣādiq said, “There is no good deed except that it has a reward expounded in the Qur’an, except for night prayers, for God has not expounded their reward because of their tremendousness!”
Then he recited the verse: “No soul knows what has been kept hidden for them of comfort as a reward for what they used to do” ().
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, it is related:
Imām al-Ṣādiq said, “There is no good deed a servant does except that it has a reward mentioned in the Qur’an, except for night prayers, for God has not mentioned their reward because of their tremendousness in His eyes. He says: Their sides vacate their beds to supplicate their Lord in fear and hope, and they spend out of what We have provided them. No soul knows what has been kept hidden for them of comfort as a reward for what they used to do (). God shows a particular generosity to His faithful servants every Friday [in Paradise]. Each Friday, God sends the believer an angel with two garments. When it reaches the gate of paradise, it says: ‘Seek permission for me to visit so-and-so.’ The believer is told: ‘This is the messenger of your Lord at the door.’ [Upon receiving these garments,] the believer asks his spouses, ‘What do you think is best for me to wear?’ They say, ‘By He who granted your paradise, we see nothing better on you than that which your Lord has sent for you!’ So he wraps one around his waist and wears the other as a cloak. Then there is nothing that he walks past save that it lights up for him until he reaches the tryst.
“And when [the believers] gather [on Friday], God reveals Himself to them, and when they look towards Him—meaning to His mercy—they fall down prostrating. Then He says: ‘My servants! Raise your heads! This is not a day of prostration or worship. You have been relieved of your burdens!’
“They will say, ‘O our Lord! What is better than what you have given us? You have given us paradise!’
“He will respond, ‘Whatever you have now, you shall have seventy-fold!’
“So, every Friday, the believer receives seventy times whatever he already has. This is God’s saying and with Us there is yet more (). It is Friday—its night is magnanimous and its day is radiant—so make abundant your tasbīḥ, tahlīl, and takbīr, your praise of God, and your invocations of blessings upon God’s Messenger!
“As the believer walks [back from the gathering], there is nothing he passes save that it lights up for him, until he reaches his spouses, who tell him, ‘By He who granted you paradise! We have never seen you more handsome!’
“He says, ‘I looked to the light of my Lord….’”
The narrator said to Imām al-Ṣādiq, “May I be your ransom, tell me more!”
He said, “God created paradise with his own hand; no eye saw it, nor did any creature know of it. The Lord opens it every morning and says: ‘Increase in goodness, increase in pleasant scent!’ That is God’s saying: No soul knows what has been kept hidden for them of comfort as a reward for what they used to do ().”
Author’s comments: The end of the narration is an explanation of its beginning.
- It is narrated in al-Kāfī via a chain of narration from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maymūn al-Qaddāḥ, from Imām al-Ṣādiq:
Whoever feeds a believer until he is full, none of God’s creatures know what reward lies in store for him in the Hereafter. Not even an angel brought near or a prophet sent. Only God, the Lord of the Worlds!
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, Abū al-Jārūd narrates from Imām al-Bāqir about the verse, Is someone who is faithful like someone who is a transgressor? They are not equal ():
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and al-Walīd ibn ʿUqbah had a disagreement. The sinner, al-Walīd said: “By God, I am more unrestrained in my tongue than you, sharper in my teeth than you, and superior to you in writing!”
Whereat ʿAlī said, “Be silent! You are nothing but a profligate sinner (fāsiq).”
Then God sent down the verse: Is someone who is faithful like someone who is a transgressor? They are not equal ().
Author’s comments: This is also narrated in Majmaʿ al-Bayān, from al-Wāḥidī, from Ibn ʿAbbās; and in al-Durr al-Manthūr, from Kitāb al-Aghāni, al-Wāḥidī, Ibn ʿAdī, Ibn Mardawayh, al-Khaṭīb, and Ibn ʿAsākir, and also from Ibn ʿAbbās; from Ibn Isḥāq and Ibn Jarīr from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār; from Ibn Abī Ḥātim, from al-Siddī from him; and from Ibn Abī Ḥātim, from Ibn Abī Laylā as well.
- In al-Iḥtijāj, it is narrated from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, in a tradition in which he disputes with men in the presence of Muʿāwiyah:
And as for you, O Walīd ibn ʿUqbah! By God I do not blame you for hating ʿAlī. After all, he is the one who meted out eighty lashes to you for drinking wine, and killed your father with his own hands at the Battle of Badr. But how can you revile him when God has called him a believer in ten different verses of the Qur’an and He has called you a sinner!
And this is the verse: Is someone who is faithful like someone who is a transgressor? They are not equal ().
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, Ibn Mardawayh relates from Ibn Idrīs al-Khawlānī:
I asked ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit about the verse We shall surely make them taste the nearer punishment before the greater punishment ().
He said, “I asked God’s Messenger about it and he said, ‘This means the trials, illnesses, and hardships. A punishment in this world for one who is immoderate but not in the Hereafter.’ I said, ‘O God’s Messenger, so what are these things for us?’ He said, ‘A cleansing and a purification.’”
11. In Majmaʿ al-Bayān in a narration from Imām al-Bāqir and Imām al-Ṣādiq, we read:
The nearer punishment is the Beast of the Earth and the Dajjāl.
Lit. “coolness of the eyes” (Trans.) ↩︎
As befell the people of Noah or Ṣāliḥ, for instance. (Trans.) ↩︎
This is related from Ibn Abī Shaybah, Aḥmad, Muslim, Ṭabarānī, Ibn Jarīr and al-Ḥākim who relate a tradition that Ibn Mardawayh and Muḥammad ibn Naṣr (in his Kitāb al-Ṣalāt) deem authentic, via Abū Ṣakhr, from Abū Ḥāzim, from Sahl ibn Saʿd. ↩︎
ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm narrates it from his father, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Najrān, from ʿĀṣim ibn Ḥamīd. ↩︎
These are the words of the narrator and not the Imam. (Trans.) ↩︎