Verses 7–15
Here, God emphasizes the command to spend in His way, especially for the sake of jihād, as illustrated by the verse, Not equal are those of you who spent and fought before the victory (). It is further supported by the view that the verse, Have faith in Allah and His Messenger, and spend… (), was revealed on the eve of the Battle of Tābūk.
Commentary
آمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَأَنْفِقُوا مِمَّا جَعَلَكُمْ مُسْتَخْلَفِينَ فِيهِ ۖ فَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ وَأَنْفَقُوا لَهُمْ أَجْرٌ كَبِيرٌ ٧
(57:7) Have faith in Allah and His Messenger, and spend out of that wherein He has made you successors. Those of you who have faith and spend (in Allah’s way)—there is a great reward for them.
Based on the context of the verse, it appears that it is addressed to those who believe in God and His Messenger and not to the disbelievers or to the believers and disbelievers together, which is the opinion of some commentators. But, if this is the case, then why does God command the believers to have faith in God and the Messenger? When God commands the faithful to have faith this means to confirm their faith through action, as when a particular moral attribute—such as generosity, chastity, or bravery—is fixed in the soul of the human being, this is shown by the fact that its effects are visible in the person’s behavior. One of the effects of belief in God and His Messenger is obedience to the commands of God and His Messenger.
From this, it becomes clear, first of all, that when God commands the believers to have faith, He is exhorting those who have achieved a particular level of faith or belief (īmān) to pursue an even higher level of it. And this variety of command suggests that whatever the recipient of the command has already attained of the thing he has been commanded to pursue is not yet fully satisfactory to the one issuing the command.
Second, that when God says, Have faith in Allah and His Messenger, and spend …, the fact that the command to spend in the way of God follows the command to have faith in God and His Messenger shows that spending in the way of God is the practical effect of having this faith. Therefore, the cause of spending in the way of God is a person’s faith in God and the Messenger. Conversely, if they do not spend in the way of God, this suggests they are lacking in faith.
… and spend out of that wherein He has made you successors (mustakhlafīn): To be made a successor (khalīfa) here could mean that God has made them His successors or vicegerents upon the earth, as per the verse, Indeed I am going to set a vicegerent (khalīfa) on the earth (). The Qurʾan refers to their wealth and worldly possessions in this way in order to expound the reality that what they have is from God and to encourage them to spend it for the sake of God. After all, if they are certain that wealth belongs to God and they are His vicegerents whom He has entrusted with its management, then they know that they should use it in the way He has permitted them. Therefore, it is easy for them to spend it and they are not grieved by this.
On the other hand, it could also mean that they are successors in the sense of inheriting it from those generations who came before them, just as each generation inherits from the one who came before it. This expression also encourages them to spend for the sake of God because, when they recall that this wealth once belonged to someone else but did not remain with them forever, they will realize that it will not be theirs forever either, as they will one day leave it behind for others to inherit. Therefore, it will be easier for them to part with this wealth and their souls will not be troubled by this.
Those of you who have faith and spend (in Allah’s way)—there is a great reward for them: Promising them a reward for spending in the way of God provides more force to the encouragement they are being given, and the meaning of faith here is faith in God and His Messenger.
وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ ۙ وَالرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ لِتُؤْمِنُوا بِرَبِّكُمْ وَقَدْ أَخَذَ مِيثَاقَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ ٨
(57:8) Why should you not have faith in Allah while the Messenger invites you to have faith in your Lord, and He has certainly made a covenant with you, should you be faithful?
Once again, the meaning of ‘faith’ here is the kind of faith that produces external effects that are visible in a person’s behavior, such as spending in the way of God. Or, to put it another way, to their faith being made visible in practice.
… while the Messenger invites you to have faith in your Lord: God is described as their Lord here to suggest the reason why they are being called to believe in God and obey His commands, as if to say: ‘While the Messenger invites you to have faith in God because He is your Lord and it is an obligation to believe in Him.’
… and He has certainly made a covenant with you, should you be faithful: This emphasizes the criticism implicit at the beginning of the verse. The pronoun ‘he’ in He has certainly made a covenant with you refers to either God or the Messenger. In either case, this covenant (mīthāq) taken from them refers to their bearing witness to God’s oneness and the veracity of His Messenger the day they believed in him, as if they accept these beliefs, then they are obliged to hear and obey God and the Messenger.
Some have said that the covenant mentioned in this verse refers, in fact, to the covenant taken from humankind in the World of Particles (ʿālam al-dharr) before they entered this world. In this case, the pronoun ‘he’ in He has certainly made can only refer to God. However, the problem with this reading of the verse is that it does not fit with the context of the argument being made to the audience, both because they are unaware of this covenant they made before this worldly life began and because this covenant was taken from all humankind, including the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and not only the faithful.
هُوَ الَّذِي يُنَزِّلُ عَلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ آيَاتٍ بَيِّنَاتٍ لِيُخْرِجَكُمْ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِكُمْ لَرَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ ٩
(57:9) It is He who sends down manifest signs to His servant that He may bring you out of darkness into light, and indeed Allah is most kind and merciful to you.
The phrase ‘manifest signs’ (āyāt bayyināt) refers to the verses (āyāt) of the Qurʾan, which make clear to them the nature of their religious obligations. The pronoun ‘he’ in that He may bring you out of darkness into light can refer to either God or to His Messenger, although both ultimately have the same significance. After all, the covenant is with God, and He took it from them either through the mediation of His Messenger or without His mediation. Equally, to believe in the Messenger of God is to believe in God, and that is why the previous verse begins by saying Why should you not have faith in Allah, mentioning Himself but not His Messenger, to show that having faith in the Messenger is tantamount to having faith in Him.
… and indeed Allah is most kind and merciful to you: The fact that the coda of this verse highlights God’s kindness and mercy indicates that the faith to which God’s Messenger calls them to is good and beneficial for them. After all, they are the ones who benefit from their faith, not God and the Messenger. Therefore, this has the effect of accentuating the encouragement to have faith in God and spend in His way.
وَمَا لَكُمْ أَلَّا تُنْفِقُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلِلَّهِ مِيرَاثُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۚ لَا يَسْتَوِي مِنْكُمْ مَنْ أَنْفَقَ مِنْ قَبْلِ الْفَتْحِ وَقَاتَلَ ۚ أُولَٰئِكَ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةً مِنَ الَّذِينَ أَنْفَقُوا مِنْ بَعْدُ وَقَاتَلُوا ۚ وَكُلًّا وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ ١٠
(57:10) Why should you not spend in the way of Allah, while to Allah belongs the heritage (mīrāth) of the heavens and the earth? Not equal are those of you who spent and fought before the victory. They are greater in rank than those who have spent and fought afterwards. Yet Allah has promised the best reward to each and Allah is well aware of what you do.
The term mīrāth (‘heritage’) denotes the wealth that is left by a deceased person for their surviving heirs. The verse describes this heritage as being of the heavens and the earth to show that it encompasses all the things that they contain that are made from them and owned by intelligent creatures, such as their homes. This is because the heavens and the earth encompass all that they contain, and all that they contain has been created from them. Intelligent creatures, such as human beings, for instance, make use of these things and specify that certain things are only to be used by themselves. This is the construct of ownership (mulk), which God guided them to use in their social lives in order to organise various aspects of their worldly existence.
However, neither do human beings endure indefinitely, nor does their ownership of things endure. Rather, the death that has been ordained amongst them takes them away, and whatever they possess is left for those who come after them. And this will continue until everyone has perished and only God remains.
Therefore, the earth and all the inherited wealth that it contains—insofar as each generation of its inhabitants inherits this wealth from the generation that came before them—is a perpetual heritage that flows between them, from one generation to the next. It is also a heritage in the sense that they will all one day pass away and only God will remain—the God who made them successors of one another upon the earth.
The heritage of the heavens and the earth belong to God in both of these senses. In the first sense, this is because He is the one who endowed them with the ownership of things, but He is the ultimate owner of all things, as per the verses: To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth … (); To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth … (); … and give them out of the wealth of Allah which He has given you ().
As for the second sense, this is evident from the verses about the End of The World, for instance, Everyone on it is ephemeral (), and others like it.
The most appropriate meaning for ‘heritage’ in the present verse would appear to be the second of the two.
In any case, the verse contains a strong rebuke of them for not spending in the way of God out of their wealth, when the true inheritor of this wealth is only God, as it will neither remain for them nor for anyone else. The repetition of God’s name instead of using a pronoun in the verse, Why should you not spend in the way of Allah, while to Allah belongs is to intensify the rebuke.
Not equal are those of you who spent and fought before the victory—to those who spent and fought afterwards. They are greater in rank than those who have spent and fought afterwards.
According to some commentators, in this passage, ‘the victory’ (al-fatḥ) refers to the conquest of Mecca or the victory at Ḥudaybiyya. The fact that the verse links fighting to spending suggests, or rather slows, that the meaning of spending in the way of God (al-infāq fī sabīl Allāh) here is spending for the sake of jihād.
This verse occurs in the context of explaining that the quicker someone spends in the way of God, the dearer this is to God, and the greater the station and rank of the one who spends with God. Were it not for this context, the verse suggests that there was a victorious battle and two groups of people: Some who had hastened to spend in the way of God before and some who had begun to spend in the way of God after it.
Yet Allah has promised the best reward to each: In other words, God has promised the best reward to them, whether they spent and fought in the way of God before the victory or spent and fought in the way of God after it, even if the first group are greater and more exalted in rank than the latter. This verse is meant to reassure the hearts of those who were late to spend and fight in the way of God that they shall receive His mercy and that they will not be deprived of reward altogether. Therefore, there is no reason for them to despair, even if they were late to spend and fight compared to others.
… and Allah is well aware of what you do: This coda relates to the entirety of the verse. Hence, it strengthens the rebuke at the beginning of the verse, confirms that not equal are those of you who spent and fought before the victory and that Allah has promised the best reward to each. It may also relate only to the last sentence of the verse, but it is a more complete and thorough reading to see that it relates to the whole of it.
مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ وَلَهُ أَجْرٌ كَرِيمٌ ١١
(57:11) Who is it that will lend Allah a good loan (qarḍ), that He may multiply (yuḍāʿif) it for him and there may be a noble reward (ajr) for him?
According to al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, ‘whatever wealth is given to a person on condition that it be returned is called a qarḍ.’ In Majmaʿ al-bayān, al-Ṭabrisī says, ‘Its original meaning is “to detach”, as the owner willingly detaches a portion of his own wealth and gives it to another with the stipulation that it must be returned. Yuḍāʿif means to increase something by the like two or severalfold.’ Al-Rāghib says, ‘The terms ajr and ujra refer to an action’s reward, whether in this world or the Hereafter… however they are only used to denote something beneficial and never something harmful, unlike “recompense” (jazāʾ), which can be both beneficial and harmful.’
Whatever God gives as a reward for the actions of His servants is a grace and a favour (tafaḍḍul) given by Him to the servant without the servant having earned it. After all, both the servant and whatever actions emanate from him are completely and irrevocably the rightful property of God, even if these acts and their moral worth are considered the property of the servant according to religion. The fact that the human being has been endowed with the power to act is an additional favour from God, as his ability to choose to act as he wishes. In addition to this, God has promised a reward to the human being for his deeds and called this a reward and a recompense. The only beneficiary of all of this is none other than the servant himself. God says: for those of them who have been virtuous and Godwary there shall be a great reward (); As for those who have faith and do righteous deeds, there will be an everlasting reward for them ().
And after describing paradise and its blessings, He says: This is indeed your recompense, and your endeavour has been well-appreciated ().
Consider also the fact that God has promised gratitude (shukr) to the faithful and said that He will not lord these blessings over them (mann)—this is the perfection of grace and favour.
This verse, therefore, contains a powerful exhortation to the audience to spend in the way of God, for it opens with a question about those of them who spend in the way of God. It compares their spending to a loan that they are lending to God, which He must one day repay. It then makes clear that He will not merely repay like with like, but will rather repay the capital many times over. As if this was not enough, it will say that, in addition to repaying the loan, God will give them a noble reward in the Hereafter. A ‘noble reward’ (ajr karīm) means a reward that the recipient will be undoubtedly pleased with. The reward of the Hereafter is the same, so it will be the highest blessing conceivable at the time of the servant’s greatest conceivable need.
يَوْمَ تَرَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَسْعَىٰ نُورُهُمْ بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَبِأَيْمَانِهِمْ بُشْرَاكُمُ الْيَوْمَ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ ١٢
(57:12) The day you will see the faithful, men and women, with their light moving swiftly before them and on their right, ‘There is good news for you today! Gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them. That is the great success.’
The phrase, ‘The day…’ is an adverbial qualified for ‘a noble reward.’ In other words, ‘there may be a noble reward for him on the day you will see the faithful…’, and this day is, of course, the Day of Judgement. The pronoun ‘you’ in the phrase, ‘you will see the faithful’, is addressed either to the Prophet or to every listener who is worthy of being addressed.
Therefore, the meaning is: ‘Whoever grants God a good loan shall have a noble reward on the day you—O Prophet! Or whoever is fit to perceive—will see those men and women who have faith in God and His Messenger with their light moving swiftly in front of them and on their right sides.’ And the right side is the one associated with felicity and auspiciousness.
This verse is general in its meaning and encompasses the faithful of all prophetic nations, and not only the nation of the Prophet. The fact that it uses the phrase, moving swiftly, to describe the illumination of their lights shows that they are hastening to the highest levels of paradise that God have prepared for them, and all aspects of felicity and levels of nearness to God will be illuminated for them one after another until their light is completed fully, per the verses: Those who are wary of their Lord will be led to paradise in throngs (); The day We shall gather the Godwary toward the All-beneficent in droves (); … on the day when Allah will not let the Prophet down and the faithful who are with him. Their light will move swiftly before them and on their right. They will say, ‘Our Lord! Perfect our light for us … ().
Commentators have differed about the meaning of some of the vocabulary in the verse, which we have omitted here because there is no evidence for these meanings in the verse itself. However, we will turn to them in our discussion of the traditions, below.
There is good news for you today! Gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them: This is what will be spoken to the believing men and women on the Day of Resurrection by the angels at God’s command. In other words, ‘They will be told, There is good news for you today!’ And this good news is nothing other than paradise. The remainder of the verse’s meaning is clear.
That is the great success: This can either be read as the speech of God, or the speech of the angels. In the first instance, the relative pronoun, ‘that’, refers to what has already been said in the verse about the light moving swiftly before them and on their right, and the good news they will be given. If it is the speech of the angels, then it refers to the gardens of paradise and remaining in them forever.
يَوْمَ يَقُولُ الْمُنَافِقُونَ وَالْمُنَافِقَاتُ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا انْظُرُونَا نَقْتَبِسْ مِنْ نُورِكُمْ قِيلَ ارْجِعُوا وَرَاءَكُمْ فَالْتَمِسُوا نُورًا فَضُرِبَ بَيْنَهُمْ بِسُورٍ لَهُ بَابٌ بَاطِنُهُ فِيهِ الرَّحْمَةُ وَظَاهِرُهُ مِنْ قِبَلِهِ الْعَذَابُ ١٣
(57:13) The day the hypocrites, men and women, will say to the faithful, ‘Please let up on us (unẓurūnā), that we may glean (naqtabis) something from your light!’ They will be told: ‘Go back and grope for light!’ Then there will be set up between them a wall with a gate, with mercy on its interior and punishment toward its exterior.
When the verb naẓar (from which unẓurūnā is derived) takes a direct object, this means to grant relief to or to wait for someone; when it takes an object with the preposition ilā (‘to’), it means to look at something with one’s sight; and when it takes an object with the preposition fī (lit. ‘in’), it means to consider or ponder upon something.
Iqtibās (which is the origin of naqtabis) means to take a light from a fire.
The context of the verse indicates that, on that day, the hypocrites will be utterly covered by a canopy of darkness as they stumble towards their final abode. At the same time, the faithful are proceeding by the lights that hasten before them and on their right hand sides, which illuminate their path and guide them to their rightful stations. By contrast, the hypocritical men and women are completely swallowed by darkness and cannot find their way. Note that they are amongst the believers and counted amongst them at this stage of the Hereafter, just as they were while they were in this world, but the believing men and women hasten to paradise because of their lights while the hypocritical men and women fall behind covered in their darkness. Therefore, they ask the believing men and women to wait for them so that they can catch up and borrow their light to illuminate their own path.
They will be told: ‘Go back and grope for light!’ They will be told this either by the angels or by the highest of the faithful, such as those who are on the Heights (al-Aʿrāf).
In any case, this is only told to them by God’s leave and, therefore, is ultimately His speech to them. As for what they are told—Go back and grope for light!—some have said that this is either intended to deride or mock them, just as they mocked the faithful in this world. As for, Go back, it appears that this means, to go back to this world. In short, the meaning is: ‘Return to the material world which you have left behind having acted duplicitously therein, and seek from your deeds there a light to guide you or some faith, for you have no faith and no righteous deeds.’
Another possibility is that this is not intended as mockery, but rather to demonstrate the impossibility of this. In other words, They will be told: ‘Go back to the material world and grope for light through faith and righteous deeds.’ But they will not return to this world, nor are they able to. Therefore, the command to return to this world is like the command to prostrate that we read in the verse, The day when the catastrophe occurs, and they are summoned to prostrate themselves, they will not be able. With a humbled look, they will be overcast by abasement. Certainly they were summoned to prostrate themselves while they were yet sound ().
Some scholars have said that the command to ‘go back’ means to go back to the place where the light was initially apportioned amongst the faithful and to seek some light there. However, when they go back, they do not find anything there, so they return to the faithful only to find that a barrier has been set up between them. In this way, God deceives them just as they deceived and betrayed God in this world, The hypocrites indeed seek to deceive Allah, but it is He who outwits them ().
Then there will be set up between them a wall with a gate, with mercy on its interior and punishment toward its exterior: This is like the wall of a city that separates its interior from the world outside. The pronoun ‘them’ here refers to the faithful and the hypocrites together. In other words, a wall with a gate will be set up between the faithful and between the hypocrites that prevents members of either group from reaching members of the other.
Some have said that this wall is a reference to the Heights (al-Aʿrāf). This interpretation is not unlikely, and we have already discussed this in our commentary on the verse, and there will be a veil between them. And on the Elevations will be certain men who recognise each of them by their mark (). Others have said, however, that this wall is distinct from the Heights.
Note that the verse says that this is a wall with a gate. This resembles the condition of the hypocrites in this world insofar as they were amongst the faithful therein and had a connection with them while also, at the same time, being veiled from them by a spiritual barrier. The presence of a gate also means that they can glimpse the inhabitants of paradise and this is to increase their grief and regret.
… with mercy on its interior and punishment toward its exterior: The fact that there is mercy on the interior of the wall, while its exterior faces towards punishment suggests that this wall surrounds the faithful—they are within it, while the hypocrites are outside of it. That the walls interior, where the faithful are situated, contains mercy, while its exterior, where the hypocrites are found, faces punishment corresponds to their respective attitudes to faith in this world. This wall, like faith, is a blessing to those who were sincere, and they will be overjoyed by it and benefit from it, but it is a source of punishment for the hypocrites, who will be troubled and pained by its existence.
يُنَادُونَهُمْ أَلَمْ نَكُنْ مَعَكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِنَّكُمْ فَتَنْتُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَتَرَبَّصْتُمْ وَارْتَبْتُمْ وَغَرَّتْكُمُ الْأَمَانِيُّ حَتَّىٰ جَاءَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ وَغَرَّكُمْ بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ ١٤
(57:14) They will call out to them, ‘Did we not used to be with you?’ They will say, ‘Yes! But you cast yourselves into temptation, and you awaited and were doubtful, and false hopes deceived you until the edict of Allah arrived, and the Deceiver deceived you concerning Allah.’
This verse begins with a fresh statement, as if in response to an implicit question: ‘What will the hypocritical men and women do after this wall is placed between them and they see the punishment outside of it?’ The answer is, They will call out…
In other words, the hypocritical men and women will call out to the faithful men and women and say, did we not used to be with you?, meaning that, through their outward show of faith, they were with the faithful men and women while they were in this world.
The remainder of the verse is the response of the faithful men and women to the hypocrites. They—the faithful men and women—will say, ‘Yes!—you were with us in the material world!—But you cast yourselves into temptation—you were tried and perished—and you awaited—a turn of fate against the religion and its followers—and were doubtful—and were sceptical of your religion—and false hopes deceived you—such as the hope that the light of the religion would be extinguished and its people forsaken—until the edict of Allah arrived—meaning death—and the Deceiver (al-gharūr)—meaning Satan—deceived you concerning Allah.’
As should be evident to the reader, this verse shows that the hypocritical men and women will seek implore the faithful men and women to help them escape the darkness in which they find themselves, pleading that they used to be together in this world. Then, it shows, that the faithful men and women will respond by acknowledging that they were together, but that the hearts of the hypocrites did not match their outward state. Instead of sincerely believing, they cast themselves into temptation, anticipating that the religion of truth would be defeated, doubting it, being deceived by false hopes, and being deceived by Satan about God. These unpleasant attributes are all diseases that afflicted the hearts of the hypocrites. This shows that their hearts were sick in this world, and nothing will benefit anyone on the Day of Resurrection save a healthy heart. God says elsewhere, the day when neither wealth nor children will avail, except him who comes to Allah with a sound heart ().
فَالْيَوْمَ لَا يُؤْخَذُ مِنْكُمْ فِدْيَةٌ وَلَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا ۚ مَأْوَاكُمُ النَّارُ ۖ هِيَ مَوْلَاكُمْ ۖ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ ١٥
(57:15) ‘So today no ransom shall be taken from you, nor from the faithless. The Fire will be your abode: it is your refuge and an evil destination.’
This is also part of what the faithful men and women will say to the hypocritical men and women, to whom they add the faithless, who are the ones who openly announced their disbelief. They say that they will all be held hostage to their deeds in this world, as we read in the verse, Every soul is hostage to what it has earned (). No ransom will be accepted from them to save themselves from punishment. A ransom is anything that delivers someone from being held captive, whether a payment in return for their freedom or someone who comes to save them and free them. Both of these possibilities are excluded by the statement, The Fire will be your abode: it is your refuge and an evil destination.
When God says the Fire will be your abode: it is your refuge (mawlā) and an evil destination, this negates the possibility of anyone coming to help them or save them from Hell, they will not end up anywhere but in the Fire. Note that the verse describes the Fire as their mawlā, which literally means an ally, and the sentence, it is your refuge is phrased in a way that signifies exclusivity. The tone of this sentence as a whole is that of mockery and rebuke.
It is also possible to read mawlā in the meaning of the outcome of an affair (mā yalī al-amr), for they would invoke deities other than God for their needs, whether food, drink, clothing, shelter, or marriage, and whatever is other than God is, in reality, Hellfire. Therefore, their mawlā today is Hell, because it will provide all of those things for them: They will eat Zaqqūm, drink boiling water, dress in flaming robes, dwell in Hellfire, and have the devils as companions. There are many other verses in the Qurʾan that describes the Fire as their abode (maʾwā), which literally means ‘a place of repose.’
Examining Narrations
- In al-Durr al-manthūr, al-Suyūṭī quotes Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Mardawayh, Abū Naʿīm in the Dalāʾil, all of whom narrate from Zayd b. Aslam, from ʿAṭāʾ b. Yasār, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: ‘We went forth with the Messenger of God in the year of the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyya until we reached ʿUsfān. There, the Messenger of God said: ‘They may be a people who will make you consider your deeds insignificant in comparison with theirs.’ We asked, ‘Who are these people, O Messenger of God? Are they from the Quraysh?’ He said, ‘No, rather they are the people of Yemen, who have the most receptive of minds and the softest of hearts.’ We said, ‘Are they better than us, O Messenger of God?’ He said, ‘If one of them had a mountain of gold and spent it all in the way of God, they would not reach the measure of one of you, and not even half of it. Lo, this surely a grace that distinguishes us from the rest of humankind. God says, Not equal are those of you who spent and fought before the victory ().’
Author’s comments: Similar traditions have come down via other chains of narration that also contain the verse. However, the problem with these reports is that the apparent context of the verses suggest that they were revealed after the victory, and this victory refers to either the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyya or the conquest of Mecca. Therefore, the verses themselves do not accord with the idea that they were revealed before this victory. And the above tradition claims that the verses were revealed before the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyya.
- In the same source, ʿAbd b. Ḥamīd and Ibn Mundhir narrate from ʿIkrama, ‘When the verse was revealed, Not equal are those of you who spent and fought before the victory, Abū al-Daḥdāḥ said: ‘By God, I will spend today so much that I will reach the level of those who came before me and which none who come after me will be able to surpass!’ He said, ‘O God, of everything that Abū al-Daḥdāḥ owns, half of it should go to you!’ So he divided all of his property in half, until he reached the sole of his shoe and said, ‘even this!’
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, about the verse, The day you will see the faithful, men and women, with their light moving swiftly before them and on their right (), we read: ‘The light will be apportioned between humankind on the Day of Resurrection according to the strength of their faith. A share will be given to the hypocrite and it will be between the toes of his left foot. He will look to his light and then tell the faithful: ‘Wait there a moment so that I can borrow some of your light!’ The faithful will tell the hypocrites, ‘Go back and seek light from there!’ Then there will be a wall with a gate raised between them, and the hypocrites will call out to the faithful from behind the wall, ‘Did we not used to be with you?’ They will say, ‘Yes! But you cast yourselves into temptation—through your sins—and you awaited and were doubtful—you doubted and awaited a turn of fate against the faithful.’
‘So today no ransom shall be taken from you’—He said, ‘By God, this does not refer to the Jews and the Christians, it only refers to the People of the Qibla!’
‘The Fire will be your abode: it is your refuge’—He said, ‘It is more entitled to you (awlā bikum).’
Author’s comments: By ‘the People of the Qibla’, he means the hypocrites from amongst them.
- In al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī transmits via his chain of narrators from Abān b. Taghlib: ‘I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh (al-Ṣādiq) say, “Avoid far-fetched hopes, for they will deprive you of any happiness you have and diminish God’s blessings in your sight, instead, you will be pursued by grief in whatever you deluded yourselves with.’
This is the literal translation of ʿālam al-dharr. A better translation is ‘The World of Pre-existence’ (Pub.) ↩︎