Verses 1–8
بِسۡمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate
This sūrah contains several different sections on teachings, laws, stories, lessons, and moral admonitions. It also recounts the Battle of Khandaq and makes reference to the Jewish tribe, the Banū al-Qurayẓah. The tone of its verses indicate that it was revealed in Medina.
Commentary
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ وَلَا تُطِعِ الْكَافِرِينَ وَالْمُنَافِقِينَ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا ١
(33:1) O Prophet! Be wary of Allah and do not obey the faithless and the hypocrites. Indeed Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.
This verse enjoins the Prophet to godwariness in preparation for the prohibition: do not obey the faithless and the hypocrites.
The tone of the prohibition, which combines the faithless and the hypocrites together and forbids the Prophet from obeying them, indicates that the faithless were asking for something that God was not pleased with and that the hypocrites were supporting their request. This is something that God in His knowledge and His wisdom had decided against and sent down revelation to this effect. However, what God is asking of His Prophet appears to be something hard that could not normally be attained without God’s help. So God cautions him against acceding to their request and enjoins him instead to follow what God has revealed to him and to rely on God alone.
This supports those narrations about the occasion of this verse’s revelation (sabab al-nuzūl) which say that, after the Battle of Uḥud, a number of leaders of the Quraysh had entered Medina with a guarantee of safe passage from the Prophet and proposed that he leave them and their gods alone and, in return, they would leave him and his god alone. Then this verse was revealed, and the Prophet did not agree to this. We will treat this in detail when we look at the narrations, below.
Based on the above, it becomes clear why God finishes the verse with the formula, Indeed Allah is all-knowing, all-wise and why He follows it with the next two verses.
وَاتَّبِعْ مَا يُوحَىٰ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا ٢
(33:2) And follow that which is revealed to you from your Lord. Indeed Allah is well aware of what you do.
Read in isolation, the meaning of this verse is general. However, insofar as it occurs in the context of a prohibition, it enjoins the Prophet to follow what has been revealed to him with regards to the request of the disbelievers and the hypocrites and to put it into practice. This is demonstrated by the latter part of the verse: Indeed Allah is well aware of what you do.
وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ وَكِيلًا ٣
(33:3) And put your trust in Allah; Allah suffices as trustee.
Like the verse before it, this verse has a general meaning when seen on its own. However, in the context of the aforementioned prohibition, it bids the Prophet to trust in God with regards to the commands of revelation. This suggests that whatever is being asked of him is difficult to accomplish by normal means, such that one’s heart cannot help but worry unless it relies upon God, for He is the one means (sabab) that no other means can overcome.
مَا جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِرَجُلٍ مِنْ قَلْبَيْنِ فِي جَوْفِهِ ۚ وَمَا جَعَلَ أَزْوَاجَكُمُ اللَّائِي تُظَاهِرُونَ مِنْهُنَّ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ ۚ وَمَا جَعَلَ أَدْعِيَاءَكُمْ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ قَوْلُكُمْ بِأَفْوَاهِكُمْ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَقُولُ الْحَقَّ وَهُوَ يَهْدِي السَّبِيلَ ٤
(33:4) Allah has not put two hearts within any man nor has He made (jaʿala) your wives whom you repudiate by ẓihār your mothers nor has he made your adopted sons (adʿiyāʾ) your sons. That is a mere utterance of your mouths. But Allah speaks the truth and He guides to the way.
This alludes to the impossibility of holding two contradictory beliefs at the same time, as this would require someone to have two hearts, two souls, and two minds. But God has only given a person one of these. Therefore, a single person cannot simultaneously assent to two mutually exclusive propositions. Within (fī jawfihi) is used here to add emphasis, as in the breasts is used in the verse …but the hearts turn blind, those that are in the breasts! ()
Some say that this sentence is meant to serve as a preliminary for what follows by providing a rationale for abolishing the practices of ẓihār divorce and adoption, as the latter places a wife in the position of her husband’s mother, while adoption here means claiming that someone else’s son is in fact your own. Hence, one woman cannot be a man’s wife and at the same time as his mother, nor can another’s son be one’s own, as these are two contradictory statuses that cannot be combined, just as God has not placed two hearts inside any man.
However, it is also plausible that this sentence is meant to serve as a rationale for the earlier injunctions: do not obey the faithless and the hypocrites () and follow that which is revealed to you from your Lord (). This is because loyalty and obedience to God and loyalty and obedience to the faithless and the hypocrites are as mutually exclusive as monotheism (tawḥīd) and polytheism (shirk). The two cannot both exist within a single heart, and God has not placed two hearts inside any man.
…nor has He made (jaʿala) your wives whom you repudiate by ẓihār your mothers: During the Age of Ignorance, a man would say to his wife: “You are to me as my mother’s back” (anti minnī ka-ẓahr ummī) or “Your back to me is as my mother’s back” (ẓahruki ʿalayya ka-ẓahr ummī). In other words, he would draw a comparison between his wife’s back (ẓahr) and his mother’s. This was called ẓihār (derived from the same root as the Arabic word for “back”) and was a form of divorce that Islam abolished.
So the upshot of the verse is that God does not make those wives of yours whom you divorce using ẓihār into mothers for you. And if that is the case, then these words have no effect. Here, the word jaʿl is being used in the sense of legislation (tashrīʿ), meaning that these words have no effect in the eyes of the law.
…nor has he made your adopted sons (adʿiyāʾ) your sons: Adʿiyāʾ is the plural of daʿī, which means a child that a person claims as his own. This practice was common amongst both the pre-Islamic Arabs and other civilizations, such as the Persians and Romans. Adopted children in these cultures enjoyed all the same legal statuses as a natural son in terms of inheritance, consanguinity, etc. And this is something that Islam also abolished.
Therefore, the meaning of this verse is that God has not made those children you claim as your own your actual children, such that the same laws apply to them as your natural children.
That is a mere utterance of your mouths. But Allah speaks the truth and He guides to the way: The demonstrative pronoun that refers either to ẓihār divorces and adoption that were just mentioned, or just to adoption. The latter is closer to the apparent meaning of the text, and this is supported by the fact that the following verse only deals with the rules for adoption.
A mere utterance of your mouths—meaning that attributing an adopted son to yourselves is merely something you say without any basis in reality, which alludes to the absence of it having any effect, as we see in the verse: These are mere words that he says ().
But Allah speaks the truth and He guides to the way—when God says He speaks the truth (al-ḥaqq), this means that whatever He says corresponds to reality and that if He promulgates a law, then that law has actual consequences and brings about a genuine benefit (maṣlaḥah).
He guides to the way means that He carries those whom He guides along the way of truth in which lies all goodness and happiness. These two statements hint that you should forsake your utterances and instead hold fast to what God says.
ادْعُوهُمْ لِآبَائِهِمْ هُوَ أَقْسَطُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ ۚ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَعْلَمُوا آبَاءَهُمْ فَإِخْوَانُكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَمَوَالِيكُمْ ۚ وَلَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ فِيمَا أَخْطَأْتُمْ بِهِ وَلَٰكِنْ مَا تَعَمَّدَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ ۚ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا ٥
(33:5) Call them by their fathers (li-ābāʾihim). That is more just (aqsaṭ) with Allah. And if you do not know their fathers, then they are your brethren in the faith and your kinsmen. There will be no sin upon you for any mistake that you may make therein, barring what your hearts may premeditate. And Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
The lām in li-ābāʾihim signifies exclusiveness. In other words: “Call them and them alone after their fathers”, meaning attribute them to their fathers.
That is more just with Allah: That refers to the infinitive form of call them (that is, “Calling them after their fathers is more just with Allah”), as in the verse: Be fair; that is nearer to Godwariness (). Aqsaṭ is the comparative form of qisṭ (“justice”).
Therefore, the meaning of this part of the verse is: “Attribute them to their fathers when you call them, for calling them after their fathers is more just in the eyes of God.”
And if you do not know their fathers, then they are your brethren in the faith and your kinsmen: Not knowing their fathers means not to know their fathers personally. This means: “If you do not know their fathers, then do not attribute them to anyone else. Instead, call them brothers and kinsmen in faith.”
There will be no sin upon you for any mistake that you may make therein, barring what your hearts may premeditate: Meaning, there is no sin for you if you make a mistake because you were inattentive (sahw) or forgetful (nisyān) and called them by someone other than their fathers. However, if you do that intentionally, this is sinful.
And Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful: This refers to situations where someone has made a mistake.
النَّبِيُّ أَوْلَىٰ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ مِنْ أَنْفُسِهِمْ ۖ وَأَزْوَاجُهُ أُمَّهَاتُهُمْ ۗ وَأُولُو الْأَرْحَامِ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلَىٰ بِبَعْضٍ فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُهَاجِرِينَ إِلَّا أَنْ تَفْعَلُوا إِلَىٰ أَوْلِيَائِكُمْ مَعْرُوفًا ۚ كَانَ ذَٰلِكَ فِي الْكِتَابِ مَسْطُورًا ٦
(33:6) The Prophet is more entitled to the faithful than their own selves (min anfusihim), and his wives are their mothers; The blood relatives (ūlū al-arḥām) are more entitled to one another in the Book of Allah than (min) the faithful and Emigrants, barring any favour you may do your comrades. This has been written in the Book.
The anfus of the faithful are none other than the faithful. So when the Qur’an says that the Prophet is more entitled (awlā) to them than they are to their own selves, this means he is more entitled to them than they are. Entitlement (awlawiyyah) means that when there is a choice between two or more sides, preference is given to one in particular; the one that is given preference is said to be “more entitled” (awlā). In the context of the verse, this means that whatever protectiveness, loyalty, affection, generosity, or inclination a believer feels towards himself, the Prophet is more entitled to that than is the believer’s own self! So if there is a situation where the believer must choose between himself and the Prophet in some matter, he should give preference to the Prophet over himself.
This means that if the Prophet is in some danger, the believer should protect him with his own self and sacrifice himself for the Prophet. It means that the believer should hold the Prophet in higher affection and esteem than he holds himself. It means that if his self invites him to something but the Prophet invites him to the opposite, or if his self wants something but the Prophet wants the opposite, then the believer will act in accordance with the Prophet’s wishes and place them before his own.
Equally, this verse shows that the Prophet is more entitled to them (awlā) in both worldly and religious matters, as the meaning of the verse is categorical (muṭlaq): The Prophet is more entitled to the faithful than their own selves.
Based on the above, the weakness is apparent in the claim made by some that more entitled only refers to the prophetic summons (daʿwah), so that if he summons them to something but their selves invite them to something else, then they should obey the Prophet and disobey themselves. If this was the case, the verse would be identical in meaning with …obey the Messenger… (), We did not send any messenger but to be obeyed by Allah’s leave (), and other verses. However, this reading is to be discounted because of the categorical meaning of the verse, which means it extends further than this.
The same is true of the reading that says the verse means that his status in relation to them is superior to their status to one another. The latter being indicated by the verses greet yourselves with a salutation from Allah () and the faithful, men and women, are comrades of one another (). This meaning is not supported by the tenor of the verse under discussion.
…and his wives are their mothers: A legislative fiat (jaʿl tashrīʿī) to the effect that they are in the same position to them as their mothers, both with regards to the respect due to them and the prohibition on marrying them after the Prophet The latter point is made explicit in the coming verse: nor may you ever marry his wives after him ().
Of course, this does not extend the full legal status of a mother to them in matters such as entitling them a share of the faithful’s inheritance, making it permissible to look at their faces, or prohibit their daughters from marrying the faithful on the grounds of consanguinity.
The blood relatives (ūlū al-arḥām) are more entitled to one another in the Book of Allah than (min) the faithful and Emigrants: Arḥām is the plural of raḥm, which is the womb of the mother and, insofar as all familial relation must ultimately go back to a single womb, the word “womb” is used to express these relations. Hence relations are called ūlū al-arḥām (lit. “people of wombs”).
The blood relatives are more entitled to one another means in terms of inheritance. The Book of Allah refers to either the Guarded Tablet, the Qur’an, or the present sūrah.
…the faithful and the Emigrants are the ones whom they are more entitled than. The meaning here is that blood relations are more entitled to one another than the Emigrants and the faithful who used to inherit from them by virtue of religious brotherhood. This priority is in the Book of God. And perhaps the clause, than the faithful and the Emigrants can be read as, of the faithful and the Emigrants, in which case it describes the blood relatives (that is, the blood relatives of the faithful and the Emigrants are more entitled to one another).
This verse abrogates the practice of the believers inheriting from one another by virtue of emigration and brotherhood in faith that was instituted at the advent of Islam.
…barring any favor you may do your comrades. This has been written in the Book: This is an exception in which the subject of the exception is of a different species to the general category from which it is being exempted (istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ). Favor (maʿrūf) here refers to anything that is willed to them by the deceased in the form of a testament (waṣiyyah), which the divine law limits to no more than a third of a person’s inheritance.
This has been written in the Book: Meaning, the ruling of a favor in the form of a testament is written in the Guarded Tablet, the Qur’an, or the sūrah.
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ مِيثَاقَهُمْ وَمِنْكَ وَمِنْ نُوحٍ وَإِبْرَاهِيمَ وَمُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ ۖ وَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُمْ مِيثَاقًا غَلِيظًا ٧
(33:7) When We took from the Prophets their pledge, and from you and from Noah and Abraham and Moses and Jesus son of Mary, and We took from them a harsh pledge.
The pledge (mīthāq) is made the possession of their, meaning the Prophets, to show that this pledge was specific to them, as is also implied by their description as prophets. Therefore, this is a pledge that is exclusively theirs insofar as they are prophets. And this means it is not the same as the pledge that was taken from all mankind to which God refers in the verse:
When your Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their descendants and made them bear witness over themselves, Am I not your Lord? They said, Yes indeed! We bear witness, lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, Indeed we were unaware of this ().
God has also mentioned the pledge obtained from the prophets elsewhere:
When Allah took a compact concerning the prophets, Inasmuch as I have given you of the Book and wisdom, should an apostle come to you thereafter confirming what is with you, you shall believe in him and help him. He said, Do you pledge and accept My covenant on this condition? They said, We pledge ().
The verse under discussion here does not specify the details of the pledge taken from the Prophets, although it does indicate that this is something to do with their prophethood. However, we can deduce from the aforementioned verse () that this was a pledge taken on them remaining united in the message of their faith and not differing with one another about it, as God says:
Indeed this community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord. So worship Me. ()
He has made plain to you of the religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you and that which We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus to maintain the religion and do not divide yourselves ().
The Prophets are mentioned here first with a general term that includes all of them, then five of them are singled out with a conjunction, and from you and from Noah and Abraham and Moses and Jesus son of Mary. The meaning of this conjunction is to highlight them over and above the other Prophets, as if to say: “When we took the pledge from the five of you and from the other prophets too.”
They are only singled out in this way because of their great rank and elevated station, as these are the Prophets endowed with resoluteness (ūlū ʿazm), who brought new codes and scriptures. God mentions them in their historical order, beginning with Noah, then Abraham, then Moses, and finally Jesus However, He mentions the Prophet first, even though he is the last of them to come, because of his superiority and nobility above all of them.
…and We took from them a harsh pledge (mīthāq ghalīẓ)—emphasizing the strength of the pledge, similar to the verse:
And when Our edict came, We delivered Hūd and the faithful who were with him, by a mercy from Us, and We delivered them from a harsh punishment (ʿadhāb ghalīẓ). ()
لِيَسْأَلَ الصَّادِقِينَ عَنْ صِدْقِهِمْ ۚ وَأَعَدَّ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا ٨
(33:8) So that He may question the truthful concerning their truthfulness. And He has prepared for the faithless a painful punishment.
So that… signifies either rationale or purpose, and it is connected to an implicit sentence whose content is indicated by When We took…. And He has prepared… is connected to it. The meaning of this implicit sentence is: “He did that (He took the pledge from the Prophets) so that he could ask the truthful concerning their truthfulness. And He has prepared for the faithless a painful punishment.”
Note that it does not say: “And so that He could prepare for the faithless a painful punishment.” And this shows that the ultimate aim of this pledge is not to punish them, rather it is only because of their faults that they are punished.
As for questioning the truthful concerning their truthfulness, some say that the truthful (al-ṣādiqīn) are the Prophets, and asking them concerning their truthfulness means asking them on the Day of Resurrection about how their nations behaved. This reading is similar in meaning to the verse: The day Allah will gather the apostles and say, What was the response to you? ()
Some others say that this means questioning the truthful about God’s unity, justice, and His religions; concerning their truthfulness means about what they said about Him.
Still others say that it means asking those who were truthful in speech about whether they were also truthful in action.
Yet others say that it means questioning them about their motives for being truthful; did they do it for the sake of God or for some other reason?
And there are many other such readings. However, their weakness should be apparent to the reader.
Careful reflection on, so that He may question the truthful concerning their truthfulness suggests an altogether different meaning to those suggested above. There is a difference between saying: “I asked the wealthy about his wealth” or “I asked the learned about his knowledge”, and between saying: “I asked Zayd about his property or his knowledge.” In the first instance, what is immediately suggested by my words is that I want the person I am questioning to display his wealth or knowledge to me, while in the latter case I am asking whether he has any wealth or knowledge in the first place, or to describe what he has of them.
Therefore, asking the truthful about their truthfulness means asking them to display the truthfulness in their hearts on the level of words and actions, namely their good deeds in this world. With this in mind, so that He may question the truthful concerning their truthfulness serves to justify the moral responsibilities they bear on the basis of the pledge they gave by asking them to display the truthfulness hidden in themselves. Of course, this takes place in this world rather than the Hereafter, and this means that the pledge God took from the Prophets must have been at a stage of creation (“the realm of pre-existence”) that came before the existence of this world, as is indicated by the verse:
When your Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their descendants and made them bear witness over themselves, Am I not your Lord? They said, Yes indeed! We bear witness. ()
In short, these two verses are amongst those that point to the existence of a world before this one, in which the pledge (mīthāq) was taken. They describe the taking of this pledge from the Prophets and the position and deeds that resulted from them because of this in this world, insofar as anyone who is truthful to his pledge will display his truthfulness.
And in the context of the generality of these verses, the fate of the faithless is also mentioned even though they are not prophets and the pledge taken from the Prophets is what is currently under discussion. It is as if to say: We took a harsh pledge from the Prophets to be unified in their teachings, so that We may ask the truthful and seek for them to fulfil their moral duties and be guided in order to make manifest their truthfulness in belief and practice. In doing this they have earned reward, while a painful punishment awaits the faithless.
Based on this, we can understand why the verse transitions from the first-person (“We”) to the third-person (“He”): When We took… so that He may question…. This is because even though the pledge to worship Him alone without associating any partner with Him was taken through the medium of the angels (hence, “We”), it is only God who asks the truthful to display their truthfulness and prepares punishments, so that He alone might be worshipped (hence, “He”). So ponder.
Examining Narrations
- In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, about the verse O Prophet! Be wary of Allah… (), we read:
It was revealed concerning Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb, ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl, and Abī al-Aʿwar al-Sulamī. They had come to Medina and lodged with ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy after the Battle of Uḥud with a promise of safety from the Messenger of God in order to speak to him. They got up, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī Sarḥ, and Ṭuʿmah ibn Ubayraq got up with them, and together they went to the Prophet and said, “O Muḥammad! Stop repudiating our gods, Lāt, ʿUzzā and Manāt, and say instead that they intercede for those who worship them, and we will leave you and your Lord alone.”
This was a difficult matter for God’s Messenger, for ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “Permit us to kill them, O Messenger of God!”
He replied, “I have given them a promise of safety.”
Then they set off from Medina, whereat the verse was revealed Do not obey the faithless () from Mecca—Abū Sufiyān, Abū al-Aʿwar, and ʿIkrimah— and the hypocrites () from Medina—Ibn Ubayy, Ibn Saʿīd, and Ṭuʿmah.
Author’s comments: The general outline of this story has been narrated in al-Durr al-Manthūr from Jarīr, from Ibn ʿAbbās. Other occasions of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl) have been mentioned for this verse: however, these are not compatible with the tone and contents of the verse, so we have left them aside.
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, about the verse nor has he made your adopted sons your sons (), ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm narrates from his father, from Ibn Abī ʿUmayr, from Jamīl, from Imām al-Ṣādiq:
This verse was revealed because of the following situation. After God’s Messenger married Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, he went to trade at the market of ʿUkkāẓ and saw Zayd for sale. He thought him a clever and handsome boy, so he bought him. And when the Prophet began his mission, he invited him to Islam, and he accepted. He was then called “Zayd the bondsman (mawlā) of Muḥammad.” Then, when word reached Ḥārithah ibn Sharāḥīl al-Kalbī of his son Zayd, he came to Mecca. And he was a noble man. He went to Abū Ṭālib and said, “O Abā Ṭālib! My son was taken captive, and word has reached me that he came into the possession of your nephew. Ask him if he will sell him, ransom him, or free him.”
Abū Ṭālib spoke to God’s Messenger, who told him, “He is free, so let him go wherever he wishes.” Ḥāritha took Zayd’s hand and told him, “My son, come back to your noble lineage.”
Zayd replied, “I will not leave God’s Messenger.”
His father said, “You would leave your noble lineage to be a slave of the Quraysh?”
He said, “I shall never leave God’s Messenger so long as I live.”
Then his father became angry and said, “O assembly of Quraysh! Bear witness that I have disowned him. He is not my son.”
So God’s Messenger said, “I bear witness that Zayd is my son. I shall inherit from him and he shall inherit from me.” So Zayd came to be called “the son of Muḥammad” (ibn Muḥammad), and the Prophet loved him very dearly.
When God’s Messenger emigrated to Medina, he married Zayd to Zaynab bint Jaḥsh. One day he did not see Zayd, so he went to his home to ask after him. And there he saw Zaynab sitting in her room combing her hair. The Prophet stood at the door and looked at her, and she was very beautiful. He said, “Glory to God, the Lord of Light, and Blessed is God the Best of Creators.” Then he returned to his home but Zaynab now occupied a strange place in his heart.
Zaynab came home and told Zayd what had happened. Zayd said, “Would you like me to divorce you so that the Prophet can marry you?”
She said, “I fear you will divorce me and the Prophet will not marry me.”
So Zayd went to the Prophet and said, “May my parents be your ransom, O Messenger of God. Zaynab told me such-and-such. Would you like me to divorce her so that you can marry her?”
The Prophet told him, “I will not do so, hold fast to your wife and be mindful of God.” Then God related this conversation, saying: [The Prophet said,] Hold fast to your wife, and be mindful of Allah. You concealed inside yourself what Allah would bring to light, and you feared people—although Allah has more right to be feared. And when Zayd had no further want of her, We wedded her to you… And Allah’s command is always carried out (). So God married them from above His throne.
The hypocrites said, “The wives of our sons are forbidden to us while he marries the wife of his son, Zayd!” So God revealed: …nor has he made your adopted sons your sons… and He guides to the way ().
Author’s comments: This has been narrated with variations in al-Durr al-Manthūr by Ibn Mardawayh, from Ibn ʿAbbās.
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, and Ibn Mardawayh relate from Jābir that the Prophet would say:
I am more entitled to every believer than he is to himself. So whenever any man dies and leaves behind a debt, it comes to me. And whenever anyone dies and leaves behind wealth, it is for his inheritors.
Author’s comments: There are other narrations with the same meaning from both Shiʿi and Sunni sources.
- In the same work, Ibn Abī Shaybah, Aḥmad, and al-Nasāʾī relate from Buraydah:
I fought alongside ʿAlī in Yemen and experienced some brusqueness from him. So when I went to God’s Messenger, I mentioned ʿAlī’s faults. Then I saw the face of God’s Messenger change and he told me, “O Burayda! Am I not more entitled to the faithful than themselves?”
I said, “Of course, O Messenger of God!”
Then he said, “Whomsoever I am the master (mawlā) of, ʿAlī is his master.”
- In al-Iḥtijāj, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib narrates a lengthy tradition in which he says:
I heard God’s Messenger say, “I am more entitled to the faithful than they are to themselves. And whoever I am more entitled to than himself, you are more entitled to than himself.” ʿAlī was sitting in front of him in his home.
Author’s comments: This is narrated in al-Kāfī from Jaʿfar, from the Prophet And there are countless narrations to this effect from both Shiʿi and Sunni sources.
- And in al-Kāfī, it is narrated via chain from Ḥanān:
I said to Imām al-Ṣādiq, “What belongs to the bondsmen (mawālī)?”
He said, “They have no share in inheritance, save what God has said: barring any favour you may do your comrades” ().
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, Ibn Mardawayh relates from Ibn ʿAbbās:
The Prophet was asked, “When was your pledge (mīthāq) taken?”
He replied, “When Adam was between the spirit and the body.”
Author’s comments: This report is narrated word-for-word via various chains from the Prophet, and it means that the pledge was taken in a world before this one.