Tafseer of The Opening · Al-Faatiha · 1:7
The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ṣirāṭ alladhīna anʿamta ʿalayhim (The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor)
His saying: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor") is a clarification of the straight path (al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm), that is to say: what the straight path is, since every way of the ways of truth is a straight path. Thus it was said to Muḥammad ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad: Guide us, O our Lord, to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor through obedience to You and worship of You — among Your angels, Your prophets, the truthful (al-ṣiddīqīn), the witness-martyrs (al-shuhadāʾ), and the righteous (al-ṣāliḥīn). And that resembles what our Lord, exalted be His praise, has said in His revelation: ولو أنهم فعلوا ما يوعظون به لكان خيرا لهم وأشد تثبيتا وإذا لأتيناهم من لدنا أجرا عظيما ولهديناهم صراطا مستقيما ومن يطع الله والرسول فأولئك مع الذين أنعم الله عليهم من النبيين والصديقين والشهداء والصالحين (4:66-69)
(And if they had done what they were exhorted to do, it would have been better for them and stronger in steadfastness, and then We would have given them from Ourselves a great reward, and We would have guided them to a straight path. And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger — these are among those upon whom Allah has bestowed favor: the prophets, the truthful, the witness-martyrs, and the righteous.) (4:66-69)
Abū Jaʿfar said: That which Muḥammad ﷺ and his community were commanded to ask of their Lord, namely guidance to the straight path, is the guidance to the way whose quality Allah, exalted be His praise, has described. And that way is the way of those whom Allah has described with that with which He described them in His revelation, and He has promised to whoever walks it and remains steadfast upon it, obedient to Allah and to His Messenger ﷺ, that He will cause him to arrive at their places of arrival — and Allah does not break His promise.
And in the spirit of what we have said about that, the narration is reported on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās and others.
158 – Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿAmmār related to us, saying: Abū Rawq related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor") — he says: the way of those upon whom You have bestowed favor through obedience to You and worship of You, among the angels, the prophets, the truthful, the witness-martyrs, and the righteous — those who obeyed You and worshiped You.
159 – Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim al-Ghifārī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā informed us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor") — he said: the prophets.
160 – Al-Qāsim related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning أنعمت عليهم ("upon whom You have bestowed favor"): he said: the believers.
161 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Wakīʿ said concerning أنعمت عليهم ("upon whom You have bestowed favor"): the Muslims.
162 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd said concerning the saying of Allah: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor"): he said: the Prophet ﷺ and those who were with him.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And in this verse lies a clear proof that the obedient attain obedience to Allah, exalted be His praise, only because Allah bestows this upon them as a favor and grants them the capacity for it (tawfīq). Do they not hear Him say: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor")? Thus He has attributed everything that proceeded from them of right guidance, obedience, and worship to the fact that it is a favor from Him to them.
And if someone were to say: Where is the completion of this statement? For you know that when someone says to another: "I have bestowed a favor upon you," this requires a statement about that with which he has favored him. Where, then, is that statement in His saying: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor"), and what is that favor with which He favored them?
To him it is said: We have already, earlier in this book of ours, given the exposition concerning the fact that the Arabs in their speech content themselves with a part in place of the whole, when the visible part points to the hidden part and is sufficient for it. His saying: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor") belongs to that; for since Allah's command, exalted be His praise, to His servants to ask Him for help and to seek guidance to the straight path preceded His saying: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor") — which is a clarification of and a substitute for the straight path — it was known that the favor with which Allah favored those whose way we were commanded to ask for is precisely that right method and that straight path, of which we have just given the explanation. Thus the visible portion thereof, together with the close proximity of the two words, was sufficient without its needing to be repeated. As Nābigha of the Banū Dhubyān said:
كأنك من جمال بني أقيش يقعقع خلف رجليه بشن
(It is as though you, of the camels of the Banū Aqīsh, were a [camel] behind whose legs a dry waterskin rattles)
He meant: "It is as though you, of the camels of the Banū Aqīsh, were a camel behind whose legs a dry waterskin rattles," and he contented himself with mentioning "the camels," which pointed to the omitted word, without explicitly mentioning that omitted word. And as al-Farazdaq ibn Ghālib said:
ترى أرباقهم متقلديها إذا صدئ الحديد على الكماة
(You see their neck-cords, those who wear them, when the iron rusts upon the heroes)
He meant: "those who wear them, they are," and he omitted "they," since the visible portion of his saying "and their neck-cords" pointed to it. The testimonies for that from the poetry and speech of the Arabs are more numerous than can be counted. And so it is also in His saying: صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor").
غير المغضوب عليهم ghayr al-maghḍūbi ʿalayhim (not those upon whom is wrath)
The exposition of the explanation of His, the Exalted's, saying: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Qurʾān reciters are unanimously agreed upon reading "ghayr" with a kasra vocalization (genitive, jarr) on its rāʾ. The genitive inflection occurs there in two ways:
The first is that "ghayr" is an adjectival qualifier and qualification of "alladhīna" ("those"), by which it comes to stand in the genitive, since "alladhīna" stood in the genitive and it is a qualification and adjectival qualifier of it. It was only permissible for "ghayr" to be a qualification of "alladhīna" — while "alladhīna" is definite (maʿrifa) and "ghayr" is indefinite (nakira) — because "alladhīna" with its relative clause is not the specifically-determined like names that are marks of recognition among people, such as Zayd and ʿAmr and the like; rather, it is like the indefinite, unknown terms, such as "the man" and "the camel" and the like. Since "alladhīna" was of such a qualification, and was not annexed to one of the known names — resembling "alladhīna" in the fact that it is definite without being specifically fixed, just as "alladhīna" is definite without being specifically fixed — for that reason it was permissible that غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") be a qualification of الذين أنعمت عليهم ("those upon whom You have bestowed favor"). As one says: "I sit only with the knowing one, not the ignorant one," by which is meant: "I sit only with whoever knows, not with whoever is ignorant."
And if الذين أنعمت عليهم ("those upon whom You have bestowed favor") had been specifically-determined, it would not have been permissible that غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") be a qualification of it. That is because it is an error in the speech of the Arabs that, when one qualifies a specifically-determined term with an indefinite term, one assigns to that indefinite qualifier the case-ending of the definite term that is being qualified with it — except with the intention of repeating that with which the qualified term is inflected. It is an error in their speech for one to say: "I passed by ʿAbd Allāh, not the knowing one," placing "ghayr" in the genitive — except with the intention of repeating the bāʾ with which "ʿAbd Allāh" is inflected, so that its meaning would be as though it were said: "I passed by ʿAbd Allāh, I passed by not-the-knowing-one." This, then, is one of the two ways of the genitive in: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath").
The other of the two ways of the genitive therein is that "alladhīna" has the meaning of the specifically-determined. And when it is so construed, then "ghayr" is placed in the genitive with the intention of repeating "al-ṣirāṭ" ("the path"), to which "alladhīna" was connected in the genitive, so that it is as though you say: "The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, the path of not those upon whom is wrath."
These two explanations concerning غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath"), although they differ by the difference in their case-analysis, are close to each other in meaning; for the reason that whoever Allah has favored and thus guided to His true religion is safeguarded from the wrath of his Lord and saved from straying in his religion. It is therefore all the same — since whoever hears His saying: اهدنا الصراط المستقيم صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم ("Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor"), upon hearing it from whoever recites it, cannot doubt that those whom Allah has favored with guidance to the path are not those with whom their Lord is wrathful, given the favor by which His beneficence toward them in their religion has grown great, and neither that they are strayers, while their Lord has nonetheless guided them to the truth — since it is impossible in their natural disposition that the good pleasure of Allah, exalted be His praise, over a person and wrath upon him coincide in one and the same state, and that guidance and straying coincide for him at one and the same moment — whether these people, in addition to Allah's description of them with that with which He has described them of His granting of capacity (tawfīq) to them, His guidance for them, and His favoring of them with that with which Allah favored them in their religion, are described as being "not those upon whom is wrath nor those who stray," or are not so described; for the visible description with which they are described has already announced concerning them that they are thus, even if their description with it is not explicitly mentioned.
This is when we construe "ghayr" as being placed in the genitive with the intention of repeating "al-ṣirāṭ" which places "alladhīna" in the genitive, and we do not make غير المغضوب عليهم ولا الضالين ("not those upon whom is wrath nor those who stray") a description of الذين أنعمت عليهم ("those upon whom You have bestowed favor"), but rather understand them as others than these — even though both groups are undoubtedly favored in their religions. When, however, we construe غير المغضوب عليهم ولا الضالين ("not those upon whom is wrath nor those who stray") as belonging to the favoring of الذين أنعمت عليهم ("those upon whom You have bestowed favor"), then the hearer has no need of argumentation, since the clearness of its meaning has rendered the proof superfluous.
And it is possible to place "ghayr" in غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") in the accusative (naṣb) — although I am averse to reading it thus, because of its deviation from the reading of the Qurʾān reciters. And indeed, that of the readings which deviates from what the community has transmitted by a visible, widespread transmission is an interpretation that contradicts the truth and deviates from the way of Allah and the way of His Messenger ﷺ and the way of the Muslims — even though it has, if the reading with it were permissible, an outlet toward correctness.
The explanation of the manner of its correctness when you place it in the accusative is: that it is construed as a description of the hāʾ and the mīm in "ʿalayhim" ("upon them"), which refer back to "alladhīna" — for although this stands in the genitive with "ʿalā," it is in the position of the accusative through His saying "anʿamta" ("You have bestowed favor"). Thus the explanation of the wording, when you place "ghayr" that belongs to "al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim" in the accusative, would be: "The path of those whom You have guided as a favor from You to them, not being those upon whom is wrath," that is to say: not being those upon whom is wrath nor being strayers. The accusative therein would then be like the accusative in "ghayr" in your saying: "I passed by ʿAbd Allāh, not the generous one nor the rightly-guided one," where you detach "not the generous one" from "ʿAbd Allāh," since "ʿAbd Allāh" is specifically-determined and "not the generous one" is an unknown indefinite.
And some of the grammarians of Basra used to claim that the reading of whoever places "ghayr" in غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") in the accusative rests upon the manner of the exception (istithnāʾ) of غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") from the meanings of the description of الذين أنعمت عليهم ("those upon whom You have bestowed favor"), as though he held the view that the meaning of those who read it in the accusative is: "Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, except those upon whom is wrath, whom You have not favored in their religions and have not guided to the truth, and then do not make us one of them." As Nābigha of the Banū Dhubyān said:
وقفت فيها أصيلالا أسائلها أعيت جوابا وما بالربع من أحد إلا أواري لأيا ما أبينها والنؤي كالحوض بالمظلومة الجلد
(I stood there in the late afternoon, questioning it; it was unable to answer, and in the encampment was no one, except hearth-stones that I could only with difficulty discern, and the drainage trench like a watering trough in the firmly stamped ground)
And it is known that the "hearth-stones" in no way belong to the number of "anyone." So too, according to him, غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") is excepted from الذين أنعمت عليهم ("those upon whom You have bestowed favor"), even though they in no way belong to their meanings as regards religion.
As for the grammarians of Kūfa, they rejected this explanation and considered it erroneous, and they claimed that if it were as the claimant from the people of Basra said, it would be an error to say: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray"), because "lā" ("not, nor") is a negation and a negative, and one conjoins to a negative only with a negative. And they said: We have found in nothing of the speech of the Arabs an exception to which is conjoined with a negative; rather, we have found them conjoining to the exception with an exception, and to the negative with a negative. Thus they say in the exception: "The people rose, except your brother and except your father," and in the negative: "Your brother did not rise, nor your father." But "The people rose, except your father nor your brother" — that we have not found in the speech of the Arabs. They said: Since that, then, is absent from the speech of the Arabs, and the Qurʾān has been sent down in the most eloquent language of the Arabs, we knew — since His saying ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray") is conjoined to His saying غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") — that "ghayr" has the meaning of negation and not the meaning of exception, and that the explanation of whoever construes it as exception is an error.
These, then, are the modes of explanation of غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath"), with the difference in the modes of its case-analysis. We have only inserted what we have inserted of the exposition of the modes of its case-analysis — even though our aim in this book is the laying bare of the explanation of the verses of the Qurʾān — because of what there is in the difference of the modes of its case-analysis of difference in the modes of its explanation; thus necessity compelled us to the laying bare of the modes of its case-analysis, so that for whoever seeks its explanation the modes of its explanation might be laid bare according to the difference of those who differ over its explanation and its reading.
The correct view concerning its explanation and its reading is, according to us, the first view, namely the reading of غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") with the genitive of the rāʾ of "ghayr," with the explanation that it is a description of الذين أنعمت عليهم ("those upon whom You have bestowed favor") and a qualification of it — for the reason of what we have already given of exposition, if you wish, and if you wish, then with the explanation of repeating "ṣirāṭ" ("path"). All of that is correct and good.
And if someone were to say to us: Who, then, are these "those upon whom is wrath," whom Allah, exalted be His praise, has commanded us to ask Him not to make us one of them? Then it is said: They are those whom Allah, exalted be His praise, has described in His revelation, where He said: قل هل أنبئكم بشر من ذلك مثوبة عند الله من لعنه الله وغضب عليه وجعل منهم القردة والخنازير وعبد الطاغوت أولئك شر مكانا وأضل عن سواء السبيل (5:60)
(Say: Shall I inform you of who is worse than that in recompense with Allah? Whoever Allah has cursed and upon whom He is wrathful, and of whom He has made some apes and swine, and who have worshiped the false deity (al-ṭāghūt) — these are in a worse position and are further strayed from the right path.) (5:60)
Thus He, exalted be His remembrance, has made known to us, through His beneficence, what He has caused to befall them of His chastisement on account of their disobedience toward Him; then He has made known to us, as a beneficence from Him to us, the way to salvation — so that there not befall us the like of what has befallen them of the exemplary punishments (al-muthulāt) — and out of mercy from Him toward us.
And if it is said: What is the proof that they are those whom Allah has described and whose account He has mentioned in His revelation as you have described? Then it is said:
163 – Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd al-Ramlī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar al-Raqqī related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Those upon whom is wrath: they are the Jews."
* – Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, who said: I heard ʿAbbād ibn Ḥubaysh narrate on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me: "Verily, those upon whom is wrath: they are the Jews."
* – ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan related to me, saying: Muslim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād ibn Salama, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of Murrī ibn Qaṭarī, on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, who said: I asked the Prophet ﷺ about the saying of Allah, Mighty and Exalted: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath"). He said: "They are the Jews."
164 – Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada al-Shāmī related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: al-Jurayrī related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq: that a man came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was besieging the valley of al-Qurā, and said: Who are these whom you are besieging, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "These are those upon whom is wrath: the Jews."
* – Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq: that a man came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — and he mentioned something similar.
165 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Budayl al-ʿUqaylī, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq informed me, that someone who had heard the Prophet ﷺ informed him, while he was in the valley of al-Qurā and seated upon his horse, and a man of the Banū al-Qayn asked him and said: O Messenger of Allah, who are these? He said: "Those upon whom is wrath," and he pointed toward the Jews.
* – Al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Khālid al-Wāsiṭī related to us, on the authority of Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq: that a man asked the Prophet ﷺ — and he mentioned something similar.
166 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿAmmār related to us, saying: Abū Rawq related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") — thereby are meant the Jews, upon whom Allah is wrathful.
167 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn al-Hamdānī related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ṭalḥa related to us, saying: Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report that he mentioned on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, and on the authority of Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of some people of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") — they are the Jews.
168 – Ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") — he said: they are the Jews.
169 – Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim al-Ghifārī related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") — he said: the Jews.
170 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") — he said: the Jews.
171 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: غير المغضوب عليهم ("not those upon whom is wrath") — the Jews.
172 – Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd related to me, on the authority of his father, who said: المغضوب عليهم ("those upon whom is wrath") — the Jews.
Abū Jaʿfar said: There has been difference of opinion concerning the nature of the wrath of Allah, exalted be His remembrance. Some said: The wrath of Allah upon that one of His creatures with whom He is wrathful is the causing of His chastisement to befall the one with whom He is wrathful — whether in his earthly life or in his hereafter — as He, exalted be His remembrance, has described Himself thereby in His Book, where He said: فلما آسفونا انتقمنا منهم فأغرقناهم أجمعين (43:55)
(And when they angered Us, We took vengeance upon them and drowned them all together.) (43:55)
And as He said: قل هل أنبئكم بشر من ذلك مثوبة عند الله من لعنه الله وغضب عليه وجعل منهم القردة والخنازير ("Say: Shall I inform you of who is worse than that in recompense with Allah? Whoever Allah has cursed and upon whom He is wrathful, and of whom He has made some apes and swine.")
And some said: The wrath of Allah upon that one of His servants with whom He is wrathful is a blameworthy reproof from Him of them and of their deeds, and a rebuke from Him of them by means of the word.
And some said: His wrath is an understood meaning, like that which is known of the meanings of wrath. However, even though it is thus as regards its affirmation (ithbāt), its meaning from Him differs from the meaning of that which is the wrath of human beings, which disquiets them, sets them in motion, burdens them, and wounds them; for Allah, exalted be His praise, His essence is not inhabited by deficiencies, but rather it is for Him an attribute (ṣifa) just as knowledge is for Him an attribute, and power is for Him an attribute — in accordance with what is understood from the side of affirmation — even though its meanings differ from the meanings of the knowledges of the servants, which are the apprehensions of the hearts and their powers, which exist with the existence of the deeds and fall away with the falling away thereof.
ولا الضالين wa-lā al-ḍāllīn (nor those who stray)
The exposition of the explanation of His, the Exalted's, saying: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray")
Abū Jaʿfar said: Some of the people of Basra used to claim that "lā" with "al-ḍāllīn" is inserted as a completion of the wording, while the meaning is that it is set aside (superfluous). And he adduces in support of his statement the verse of al-ʿAjjāj:
في بئر لا حور سرى وما شعر
(In a well — no return (perdition) — he journeyed by night, and he did not perceive it)
And he explains it in the meaning: "in a well of perdition he journeyed by night," that is to say: in a well of destruction, and that "lā" has the meaning of setting-aside and filling-out. And he argues that also with the saying of Abū al-Najm:
فما ألوم البيض أن لا تسخرا لما رأين الشمط القفندرا
(I do not blame the [fair] women that they did not mock, when they saw the gray-haired, ugly man)
by which he means: "I do not blame the women that they mock." And with the saying of al-Aḥwaṣ:
ويلحينني في اللهو أن لا أحبه وللهو داع دائب غير غافل
(And they reproach me concerning amusement, that I would not love it — while amusement has an unceasing, non-heedless caller)
by which he means: "And they reproach me concerning amusement, that I love it." And with His, the Exalted's, saying: ما منعك ألا تسجد (7:12) ("What prevented you from not prostrating") (7:12), by which He means: "that you should prostrate."
And from the speaker of this statement it is reported that he explained "ghayr" that belongs to "al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim" as having the meaning of "siwā" ("except, other than"), so that the meaning of the wording according to him was: "Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, who are other than those upon whom is wrath and the strayers."
And some of the grammarians of Kūfa disapproved of that of his statement, and claimed that if "ghayr" that belongs to "al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim" had the meaning of "siwā," it would be an error to conjoin to it with "lā," since one conjoins to "lā" only upon a negation that preceded it — just as it would be an error for one to say: "With me is, except (siwā) your brother, nor (lā) your father"; for "siwā" does not belong to the particles of denial and negation. And he says: Since that is an error in the speech of the Arabs, and the Qurʾān is in the most eloquent of the languages of the languages of the Arabs, it was known that what the speaker claimed — that "ghayr" with "al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim" has the meaning of "siwā al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim" ("other than those upon whom is wrath") — is an error, since the wording returned to it with "lā." And he claimed that "ghayr" there has only the meaning of negation, since it is correct in the speech of the Arabs and current and visible in their speech to direct "ghayr" toward the meaning of denial, and it is used among them: "Your brother is not (ghayr) beneficent nor (lā) generous," by which is meant: "Your brother is not beneficent, nor generous." And he disapproves that "lā" with the meaning of omission (ḥadhf) come at the beginning of the wording, without a negation preceding it. And he says: If it were permissible that it come at the beginning with the meaning of omission, before any indication that points to that from a preceding negation, then the saying of one who says: "I wished that I had not honored your brother," would be correct, in the meaning: "I wished that I had honored your brother." And he used to say: In the testimony of the people who have knowledge of the language of the Arabs concerning the declaring-erroneous of whoever says that, lies a clear indication that "lā" comes at the beginning with the meaning of omission, without a negation preceding it.
And he used to explain "lā" that occurs in the verse of al-ʿAjjāj — which the Basran, as we mentioned, adduced as testimony — with his statement that it is a valid negation, and that the meaning of the verse is: "He journeyed by night in a well that brings him back no good, and in which there becomes visible for him no trace of result (of work), while he does not perceive that and does not know it" — according to their expression: "The grinding-woman ground, but produced nothing," that is to say: there became visible for her no trace of result.
And he says concerning the remaining other verses — I mean such as the verse of Abū al-Najm: "I do not blame the [fair] women that they did not mock" — that it was only permissible that "lā" have the meaning of omission because the negation preceded it at the beginning of the wording, so that the latter wording joins with the first. As the poet said:
ما كان يرضى رسول الله فعلهم والطيبان أبو بكر ولا عمر
(The Messenger of Allah was not pleased with their deed, nor the two excellent ones: Abū Bakr nor ʿUmar)
Thus that was permissible, since the negation preceded at the beginning of the wording.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this latter statement is closer to the correct view than the first, since it does not occur in the speech of the Arabs that the wording begin without a preceding negation with "lā" whose meaning is omission, nor is it permissible to conjoin with it upon "siwā," nor upon the particle of exception. "Ghayr" in the speech of the Arabs has only three meanings: the one is exception, the other is negation, and the third is "siwā" ("other than"). When, then, it is established that it is an error for "lā" to have the meaning of setting-aside at the beginning, and it is invalid that it be a conjunction upon "ghayr" that belongs to "al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim" — if it had the meaning of "illā" which is exception — and it was also not permissible that it be a conjunction upon it if it had the meaning of "siwā," while "lā" is indeed present as a conjunction through the wāw that conjoins it to what precedes it, then it is established and certain that there is no way to direct "ghayr" that belongs to "al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim" in a valid manner, except toward the meaning of negation and denial, and that there is for His saying "wa-lā al-ḍāllīn" no way except the conjunction upon "ghayr al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim."
The explanation of the wording is then — since correct is what we have said with that with which we have adduced testimony —: "Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not those upon whom is wrath nor those who stray."
And if someone were to say to us: Who, then, are these "strayers," from whose way Allah has commanded us to seek our refuge with Allah so that He not let us walk their way, or so that we not stray their straying? Then it is said: They are those whom Allah has described in His revelation, where He said: يا أهل الكتاب لا تغلوا في دينكم غير الحق ولا تتبعوا أهواء قوم قد ضلوا من قبل وأضلوا كثيرا وضلوا عن سواء السبيل (5:77)
(O People of the Book, do not exaggerate in your religion beyond the truth, and do not follow the desires of a people who have already strayed before and have caused many to stray, and who have strayed from the right path.) (5:77)
And if he says: What is your proof that they are those? Then it is said:
173 – Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd al-Ramlī related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Abī Ḥātim, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said concerning ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray"): "The Christians (al-naṣārā)."
* – Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar informed us, Shuʿba informed us, on the authority of Simāk, who said: I heard ʿAbbād ibn Ḥubaysh narrate on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me: "Verily, the strayers: they are the Christians."
* – ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan related to me, saying: Muslim and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, they both said: Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād ibn Salama, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of Murrī ibn Qaṭarī, on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, who said: I asked the Prophet ﷺ about the saying of Allah ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray"). He said: "The Christians, they are the strayers."
174 – Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada al-Shāmī related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: al-Jurayrī related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq: that a man came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was besieging the valley of al-Qurā. He said: I said: Who are these? He said: "These are the strayers: the Christians."
* – Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa — that is, Ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays — on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, something similar.
* – Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Budayl al-ʿUqaylī, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq informed me, that someone who had heard the Prophet ﷺ informed him, while he was in the valley of al-Qurā and seated upon his horse, and a man of the Banū al-Qayn asked him and said: O Messenger of Allah, who are these? He said: "These are the strayers," that is to say the Christians.
* – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Khālid al-Wāsiṭī related to us, on the authority of Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq: that a man asked the Prophet ﷺ, while he was besieging the valley of al-Qurā and seated upon a horse: Who are these? He said: "The strayers," that is to say the Christians.
175 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Mujāhid: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray") — he said: the Christians.
176 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Bishr ibn ʿAmmār, saying: Abū Rawq related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray") — he said: and other than the way of the Christians, whom Allah has caused to stray on account of their fabrication against Him. He said: he says: So inspire us with Your true religion, namely: there is no god but Allah, He alone, without partner, so that You not become wrathful upon us as You were wrathful upon the Jews, and not let us stray as You have caused the Christians to stray, so that You chastise us with that with which You chastise them. He says: withhold us from that through Your gentleness, Your mercy, and Your power.
177 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: The strayers: the Christians.
178 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn al-Hamdānī related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl al-Suddī in a report that he mentioned on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, and on the authority of Muḥammad al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of some people of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "nor those who stray": they are the Christians.
179 – Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim al-Ghifārī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā informed us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "nor those who stray": the Christians.
180 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd said: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray"): the Christians.
181 – Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd related to us, on the authority of his father, who said: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray"): the Christians.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And everyone who deviates from the right way and walks a method other than the right one is, among the Arabs, a strayer, on account of his straying from the direction of the way. Therefore Allah, exalted be His remembrance, has named the Christians strayers, on account of their error with respect to the truth and the method of the way, and their taking of the religion along a way other than the straight path.
And if someone were to say: Is that not also an attribute of the Jews? Then it is said: Indeed. And if he says: Why has He distinguished the Christians with this attribute, and distinguished the Jews with that with which He has described them, namely that they are those upon whom is wrath? Then it is said: Verily, both groups are strayers upon whom is wrath; however, Allah, exalted be His praise, has marked each group of them, for His servants, with the description by which they recognize them when He mentions them to them or informs them about them; and He has not marked either of the two groups with anything other than that which is in reality an attribute of them, even though it has alongside that yet more blameworthy attributes.
And some of the dolts among the Qadarites have supposed that in Allah's description, exalted be His praise, of the Christians as strayers through His saying: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray"), and in His attributing of the straying to them without attributing the causing-them-to-stray to Himself, and His refraining from describing them as being misled (by Him), as that with which He described the Jews as being those upon whom is wrath — that therein lies an indication of the correctness of what their brethren among the ignorant of the Qadarites have said — out of ignorance on his part concerning the breadth of the speech of the Arabs and the variety of its turns. And if the matter were as the dolt whose case we have described supposed, then it would be necessary that it be so with everything that is described with an attribute or to which an action is attributed, that it may not contain therein a cause for something else, and that everything in which there lies of that a cause for something else, the correct view therein is that it be attributed to its causer; and if that were necessary, then it would be necessary that the saying of one who says: "The tree moved" when the winds moved it, and "The earth quaked" when the earthquake moved it, and such sayings — the enumeration of which would make the book long — be an error.
And in Allah's saying, exalted be His praise: حتى إذا كنتم في الفلك وجرين بهم (10:22) ("until, when you are in the ships and they sail with them") (10:22), through His attributing of the sailing to the ships — even though their sailing is by the driving forward of something other than themselves — there is something that points to the incorrectness of the explanation that the one whose statement we have described gave concerning His saying: ولا الضالين ("nor those who stray"), and of his claim that in Allah's attributing, exalted be His praise, of the straying to whomever He attributed it of the Christians, there is a confirmation of what the deniers have claimed — namely that there is for Allah, exalted be His praise, in the deeds of His creatures a cause on the basis of which their deeds come about — while Allah, mighty is His remembrance, has explicitly declared in many verses of His revelation that He is the One who causes to stray and the One who guides. To that belongs His saying, exalted be His praise: أفرأيت من اتخذ إلهه هواه وأضله الله على علم وختم على سمعه وقلبه وجعل على بصره غشاوة فمن يهديه من بعد الله أفلا تذكرون (45:23)
(Have you seen him who has taken his desire as his god, and Allah has caused him to stray on the basis of knowledge, and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and placed upon his sight a covering? Who, then, can guide him after Allah? Will you not then remember?) (45:23)
Thus He, exalted be His remembrance, has made known that He is the One who causes to stray and the One who guides, and none other. But the Qurʾān has been sent down in the language of the Arabs, in accordance with what we have already given of exposition at the beginning of the book. And it belongs to the custom of the Arabs to attribute the action to the one from whom it proceeded, even though its causer is sometimes other than the one from whom it proceeded, and sometimes to its causer, even though the one from whom the action proceeded is another. How then with the action that the servant appropriates to himself as acquisition (kasb) and that Allah, exalted be His praise, brings into being as a created reality? That is rather more fitting to be attributed to its acquirer as an acquisition of his, through the capacity for it of his and the choice of it of his, and to Allah, exalted be His praise, through the bringing into being of its reality and the creating of it as ordainment.
A question that the people of the heresy of unbelief (ahl al-ilḥād), who utter slander concerning the Qurʾān, raise
If one of them were to pose us a question and say: You have stated at the beginning of this book of yours, in the description of the clear exposition (al-bayān), that the highest degree of it and the noblest rank of it is that which is most eloquent in clarifying the need of the one who expresses himself with it about himself, and clearest about the intention of its speaker, and closest to the understanding of its hearer. And you have said therein that the exposition that most lays claim to being thus is the speech of Allah, exalted be His praise, through His superiority over all other speech and through the loftiness of its degree above the highest degrees of exposition. What, then, is the wisdom — since the matter is as you have described — in the lengthening of the wording with something like Sūrat Umm al-Qurʾān (the Opening Sūra) with seven verses? While two verses of it have comprehended the meanings of all (seven), namely His saying: مالك يوم الدين إياك نعبد وإياك نستعين ("Master of the Day of Judgment, You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help"). For there is no doubt that whoever has come to know ملك يوم الدين ("Master of the Day of Judgment") has already come to know Him by His most beautiful names and His loftiest attributes; and that whoever is obedient to Allah follows, without doubt, the way of whoever Allah has favored in his religion, and deviates from the way of whoever upon whom He is wrathful and whoever strays. What, then, is there in the addition of the remaining five verses of wisdom that the two verses we have mentioned have not comprehended?
To him it is said: Verily, Allah, exalted be His remembrance, has gathered for our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and for his community, with that which He has sent down to him of His Book, meanings that He has not gathered in a Book that He has sent down to a prophet before him, nor for any community of the communities before them. That is because every Book that He, exalted be His remembrance, has sent down upon a prophet of His prophets before him was sent down only with some of the meanings that His Book, which He has sent down to our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, contains in its entirety: such as the Torah, which is exhortations and exposition in parts; and the Psalms (al-Zabūr), which are praise and glorification; and the Gospel (al-Injīl), which is exhortations and reminder — there is in none of them a miraculous sign that testifies for the one to whom it is sent down with confirmation. But the Book that has been sent down upon our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ contains the meanings of all of that, and adds to it much of the meanings of which the remaining Books, other than his, are devoid, and we have already mentioned these in what preceded of this book.
And among the noblest of those meanings with which our Book is privileged above all the Books before him are: its wondrous ordering, its marvelous arrangement, and its unique composition, the like of whose smallest sūra the orators were unable to match, the form of a part of which the eloquent stood powerless to describe, in whose composition the poets fell into confusion, and at which the apprehensions of the intelligent fell silent, falling short of bringing anything equal to it before him. They then found for him nothing but submission and the acknowledgment that it is from the One, the Subduer — alongside what it contains thereby of meanings that are exhortation, deterrence, command, prohibition, narratives, dispute, parables, and such meanings, which have not been gathered in a Book that has been sent down from heaven to earth.
Whatever there may be in it, then, of lengthening, after the manner of what is in Umm al-Qurʾān — that is for what I have described before: that Allah, exalted be His remembrance, willed to gather — through its wondrous arrangement and its marvelous ordering, which deviates from the meters of poems, the rhymed prose of the soothsayers, the orations of the orators, and the epistles of the eloquent, and which all human beings cannot match in description and which all servants cannot match in the ordering of its like — the indication of the prophethood of our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ; and through what is in it of praise, glorification, and laudation of Him, an alerting of the servants to His greatness, His sovereignty, His power, and the immensity of His kingdom, so that they remember Him for His blessings and praise Him for His favors, and thereby earn for themselves the more with Him and acquire the abundant reward with Him; and through what is in it of description of whoever He has favored with His knowledge and graciously endowed with the capacity for His obedience, a making-known to His servants that all that they possess of favor in their religion and their worldly life is from Him, so that they direct their longing to Him and seek their needs with Him, and not with anything other than Him of the gods and equals; and through what is in it of mention of what He has caused to befall whoever disobeyed Him of His exemplary punishments, and what He has caused to befall whoever contradicted His command of His chastisements, a deterring of His servants from the committing of His disobediences and the exposing of themselves to that which they cannot withstand of His displeasure, so that He not let them walk, in the exemplary punishments and acts of vengeance, the way of whoever undertook that, namely destruction.
That, then, is the manner of the lengthening of the exposition in Sūrat Umm al-Qurʾān and in that which is like it of the remaining sūras of the Furqān (the Qurʾān), and that is the perfect wisdom and the complete proof.
182 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, saying: al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yaʿqūb related to me, on the authority of Abū al-Sāʾib, the freedman of Zuhra, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "When the servant says: 'All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds,' Allah says: 'My servant has praised Me.' And when he says: 'The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,' He says: 'My servant has praised Me.' And when he says: 'Master of the Day of Judgment,' He says: 'My servant has glorified Me; this is for Me.' And when he says: 'You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help' — to the end of the sūra — He says: 'That, then, is for him.'"
* – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAbda related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of Abū al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: When the servant says: "All praise is due to Allah" — and he mentioned something similar, and he did not (explicitly) trace it back to the Prophet (marfūʿ).
* – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, saying: al-Walīd ibn Kathīr related to us, saying: al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the freedman of al-Ḥuraqa, related to me, on the authority of Abū al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the same.
183 – Ṣāliḥ ibn Mismār al-Marwazī related to me, saying: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb related to us, saying: ʿAnbasa ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Muṭarrif ibn Ṭarīf, on the authority of Saʿd ibn Isḥāq ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿUjra, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Allah, Mighty and Exalted, has said: I have divided the prayer (al-ṣalāh) between Me and My servant into two halves, and for him is what he asks. When the servant says: 'All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds,' Allah says: 'My servant has praised Me.' And when he says: 'The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,' He says: 'My servant has praised Me.' And when he says: 'Master of the Day of Judgment,' He says: 'My servant has glorified Me.' He said: 'This is for Me, and for him is what remains.'"
End of the tafsīr of the sūra.
