Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:25
And Allah invites to the Home of Peace and guides whom He wills to a straight path
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.
The explanation of the words of the Exalted: وَاللَّهُ يَدْعُو إِلَى دَارِ السَّلامِ وَيَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ (And Allah calls to the Abode of Peace and guides whom He wills to a straight path) (25)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted says to His servants: O people, do not pursue the world and its adornment, for its destiny is ruin and perishing — just as the destiny of the vegetation that Allah has set as a parable for it is corruption and disappearance — but pursue the everlasting Hereafter, work for it, and seek what is with Allah by obeying Him. For Allah calls you to His Abode — that is, His gardens which He has prepared for His friends, where you will be spared from worries and sorrows, and will be safe from the perishing of the comfort and the honor that are therein, which He has prepared for whoever enters it. And He guides whom He wills from among His creation and enables him to walk the straight path — that is Islam, which He, exalted be His praise, has made the means to attain His good pleasure, and a path for whoever walks it and follows it to His gardens and His honor. (26) As in:
17604 — Mohammed ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Mohammed ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: "Allah" — al-Salām (the Peace), and His Abode is Paradise.
17605 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning the words: وَاللَّهُ يَدْعُو إِلَى دَارِ السَّلامِ — he said: "Allah" is al-Salām (the Peace), and His Abode is Paradise.
17606 — Mohammed ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Mohammed ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Abū Qilāba, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: It was said to me: "Let your eye sleep, let your heart understand, and let your ear listen." So my eye slept, my heart understood, and my ear listened. Then it was said: "A lord built a house, then prepared a feast, then sent a summoner. Whoever responded to the summoner entered the house and ate of the feast, and the lord was pleased with him. Whoever did not respond to the summoner did not enter the house, did not eat of the feast, and the lord was not pleased with him." The lord is Allah, the house is Islam, the feast is Paradise, and the summoner is Mohammed ﷺ. (27)
17607 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: وَاللَّهُ يَدْعُو إِلَى دَارِ السَّلامِ وَيَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ — It has been mentioned to us that it is written in the Torah: "O seeker of good, come! And O seeker of evil, cease!"
17608 — Al-Ḥusayn ibn Salama ibn Abī Kabsha related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: ʿAbbād ibn Rāshid related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: Khulayd al-ʿAṣarī related to me, on the authority of Abū l-Dardāʾ, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "There is no day on which the sun rises but that there are two angels at its two sides who call out — and all of Allah's creation hears them, except the two heavy ones (al-thaqalayn) (28) —: 'O people, come to your Lord! For what is little but sufficient is better than what is abundant but distracting.'" He said: And concerning that, Allah revealed His words: وَاللَّهُ يَدْعُو إِلَى دَارِ السَّلامِ وَيَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ . (29)
17609 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Layth ibn Saʿd, on the authority of Khālid ibn Yazīd, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to us one day and said: "I saw in my sleep a vision as though Jibrīl was at my head and Mīkāʾīl was at my feet, and one of them said to the other: 'Strike a parable for him!' He said: 'Listen — may your ear listen — and understand — may your heart understand. Your likeness and the likeness of your community is like the likeness of a king who took a house, built within it a chamber, and prepared within it a feast, then sent a messenger to invite the people to his meal. Among them was one who responded to the messenger, and among them was one who neglected him. Allah is the king, the house is Islam, the chamber is Paradise, and you, O Mohammed, are the messenger. Whoever responded to you entered Islam, and whoever entered Islam entered Paradise, and whoever entered Paradise ate of what is therein.'" (30)
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Footnotes:
(26) See the explanation of "guidance" (al-hidāya) and "the straight path" (al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm) in the earlier linguistic indices under (hadā), (saraṭa), (qāma).
(27) Narration 17606 — "Abū Qilāba" is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zayd al-Jurmī, one of the prominent Successors (tābiʿūn), mentioned multiple times. This report is mursal (interrupted in chain), and a comparable connected version will follow in the commentary on narration no. 17609.
(28) "Al-janba" (with an open jīm and nūn, or with an open jīm and a silent nūn): the side. The narrators of the ḥadīth narrate "janbatā" with two open vowels, while the linguists prefer a silent nūn. They base this on the verse of Abū Ṣaʿtara al-Bawlānī: "How is a droplet from the seeds of a cloud that spread / along the two sides of al-Jūdī while the night was pitch-black / purer than what is therein — and I have not tasted its taste — / but in what the eye sees I am a rider." However, what the narrators of the ḥadīth narrate is good and correct.
(29) Narration 17608 — "Al-Ḥusayn ibn Salama ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Yazīd ibn Abī Kabsha al-Azdī al-Ṭaḥḥān", a teacher of Ṭabarī, trustworthy (thiqa). From him al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Māja and others have narrated; he is included in al-Tahdhīb and in Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/54. "ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAmr" is "Abū ʿĀmir al-ʿAqadī", trustworthy, mentioned multiple times, the last time under no. 12795. "ʿAbbād ibn Rāshid al-Tamīmī" is trustworthy but not strong; al-Bukhārī narrated from him as a supplement to others; mentioned earlier under nos. 11060 and 12527. "Khulayd ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAṣarī" narrated from Abū l-Dardāʾ; Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in al-Thiqāt and said about him: "It is said that he was a freed slave of Abū l-Dardāʾ." Al-Bukhārī in al-Kabīr distinguished between "Khulayd, freed slave of Abū l-Dardāʾ" and "Khulayd ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAṣarī", and so too did Ibn Abī Ḥātim; he is included in al-Tahdhīb, al-Kabīr 2/1/181, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/383. This report has a sound chain of transmission; Aḥmad narrated it at length in his Musnad 5:197, via the route of Hammām, from Qatāda, from Khulayd al-ʿAṣarī. His addition reads: "And no sun sets but that along its two sides are two angels who call out, so that the inhabitants of the earth hear them, except the two heavy ones: 'O Allah, give the generous one a replacement, and give the withholding one ruin.'" Al-Suyūṭī mentioned it at length in al-Durr al-Manthūr 3:304 and also attributed it to Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū l-Shaykh, al-Ḥākim who graded it as ṣaḥīḥ, Ibn Mardawayh, and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān.
(30) Narration 17069 — "Khālid ibn Yazīd al-Jumaḥī al-Miṣrī" is trustworthy, mentioned multiple times, the last time under no. 13377. "Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl al-Laythī al-Miṣrī" is trustworthy, mentioned multiple times, the last time under no. 17429; his narration from Jābir is mursal, and his ḥadīth from Jābir was mentioned by al-Bukhārī as muʿallaq (suspended) by way of supplement. In al-Tirmidhī it states: "Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl did not meet Jābir." This report is therefore mursal from Jābir; al-Ḥākim connected it in al-Mustadrak 2:338 via the route of "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Layth ibn Saʿd, from Khālid ibn Yazīd, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, who said: 'I heard Abū Jaʿfar Mohammed ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn reciting from this verse: وَاللَّهُ يَدْعُو إِلَى دَارِ السَّلامِ وَيَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ , after which he said: Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to me…'" Then al-Ḥākim said: "This is a ḥadīth with a sound chain of transmission; al-Bukhārī and Muslim did not include it." Al-Dhahabī concurred with him. Al-Suyūṭī mentioned it in al-Durr al-Manthūr 3:304 and also attributed it to Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī in al-Dalāʾil, with the same wording and chain as al-Ḥākim. In the printed edition it read "akala minhā" (ate of it), which corresponds with the other sources; but I have adopted the reading of the manuscript, because it is clear and unproblematic, both in reading and in meaning.