Tafseer of Jonas · Yunus · 10:58
Say, "In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy - in that let them rejoice; it is better than what they accumulate."
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 Allah the Exalted: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ (Say: In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy — in that let them rejoice. That is better than what they amass.) (verse 58)
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah the Exalted says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: (Say) — O Muḥammad — to these liars who deny you and what has been sent down to you from your Lord: (In the bounty of Allah) — O people — with which He has been generous toward you, and that is Islām, which He has expounded to you and to which He has called you; (and in His mercy) — with which He has shown you grace, and which He has sent down to you, so that He might teach you what you did not know from His Book, and might thereby show you the marks of your religion — and that is the Qurʾān; (in that let them rejoice; that is better than what they amass) — that is to say: the Islām to which He has called them and the Qurʾān which He has sent down upon them are better than the rubble of this world, its possessions and its treasures, that they amass.
* * *
Concerning the sense of what we have said about this, a group of the exegetes have spoken.
*Mention of those who said that:*
17668 — ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-Azdī related to me, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥajjāj, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, concerning the words: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا — he said: "By the bounty of Allah the Qurʾān is meant, and by (His mercy) that He has made you among its people."
17669 — Yaḥyā ibn Ṭalḥa al-Yarbūʿī related to me, saying: Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Yasāf, concerning: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا — he said: "By the Islām with which He has guided you, and by the Qurʾān with which He has instructed you."
17670 — Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Yasāf, concerning: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "By Islām and the Qurʾān; فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ — of gold and silver."
17671 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Yasāf, concerning the words: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "'The bounty of Allah' is Islām, and 'His mercy' is the Qurʾān."
17672 — ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, saying: Zayd related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Yasāf, concerning the words: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "Islām and the Qurʾān."
17673 — Al-Muthnā related to me, saying: Abū Nuʿaym and Qabīṣa related to us — the two of them said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Yasāf — to the same effect.
17674 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl — to the same effect.
17675 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا — he said: "His bounty is Islām, and His mercy is the Qurʾān."
17676 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "His bounty is Islām, and His mercy is the Qurʾān."
17677 — Al-Muthnā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibel related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "The Qurʾān."
17678 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning: وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "The Qurʾān."
17679 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj — he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said, concerning His words: هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ — he said: "Possessions and other things."
17680 — ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to me, saying: Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "His bounty is Islām, and His mercy is the Qurʾān."
17681 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl, concerning: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا — he said: "By the Book of Allah and by Islām; هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ."
* * *
Others, however, said: 'The bounty' is the Qurʾān, and 'the mercy' is Islām.
*Mention of those who said that:*
17682 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ — he said: "(By the bounty of Allah) the Qurʾān is meant, and (His mercy) by that He has made them the people of the Qurʾān."
17683 — Al-Muthnā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hishām ibn Saʿd related to us, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam — he said: "'The bounty of Allah' is the Qurʾān, and 'His mercy' is Islām."
17684 — Al-Muthnā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His words: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ — he said: "(By the bounty of Allah) the Qurʾān is meant, and (His mercy) is Islām."
17685 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His words: قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا — he said: "My father used to say: His bounty is the Qurʾān, and His mercy is Islām."
* * *
The Qurʾān reciters differed concerning the reading of the words: فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا.
The majority of the Qurʾān reciters in the great cities read this: فَلْيَفْرَحُوا with the yāʾ, and هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ likewise with the yāʾ — in accordance with the explanation we have indicated, namely that this is a statement about the polytheists (mushrikīn). It means: in the Islām and the Qurʾān to which He has called them let these polytheists (mushrikīn) rejoice, and not in the wealth that they amass; for Islām and the Qurʾān are better than the wealth that they amass. And likewise:
17686 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Hārūn, on the authority of Abū l-Tayyāḥ: فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ — that is to say: the unbelievers (kuffār).
* * *
It has been transmitted from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb in this matter the following:
17687 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Aslam al-Munqarī, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abzā, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb — that he used to read: فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْتَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ, with the tāʾ.
17688 — Al-Muthnā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of al-Ajlaḥ, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abzā, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb — to the same effect.
* * *
Likewise al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī used to say — except that, so far as has been reported of him, he read the words هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ with the yāʾ — whereby the first part is in the form of direct address and the second is a statement about an absent party.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar al-Qāriʾ used, so far as has been reported of him, to read this in the manner of the reading of Ubayy — with the tāʾ in both cases.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar says: The correct reading in this matter is that which the reciters of the great cities maintain, namely the reading of both words with the yāʾ: فَلْيَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ — for two reasons:
The first: the unanimous usage of it by the standard-setting Qurʾān reciters.
The second: its linguistic correctness. The Arabs scarcely use the lām with the tāʾ to give a command to a person who is directly addressed; they give a command to an addressed person simply by saying: "do this" and "do not do that."
Moreover, I know of no linguist who does not disapprove of giving a command to an addressed person by means of the lām; all of them regard this as a usage that one avoids — except al-Farrāʾ, who claimed that the lām in the imperative is [the basic form for which it was created], whether one addresses directly or not, with the proviso that the Arabs omit the lām in the imperative form by which one is directly addressed — because of the great use of the imperative form in their speech in particular — just as they omit the tāʾ from the verb. He said: You know indeed that the jussive and the accusative fall only upon the verb whose beginning is a yāʾ, tāʾ, nūn, or alif; and when the tāʾ was omitted, the lām disappeared with it, and the alif was introduced into the expression "ʾiḍrib" (strike!) and "ʾifraḥ" (rejoice!), because the fāʾ is a quiescent consonant, so that it was not fitting to begin the expression with a quiescent letter; they therefore inserted a light alif with which the word begins, as in ادَّارَكُوا (they overtook one another) [Surah al-Aʿrāf (7:38)] and اثَّاقَلْتُمْ (you clung heavily) [Surah al-Tawba (9:38)].
But what al-Farrāʾ advances as an argument tells against him rather than for him. For if the Arabs have omitted the lām with the directly addressed person and have dropped it, then it is not permissible for one who speaks in their language to introduce into it that which is no part of it, so long as he speaks in their language. Whoever does that departs from their language. And the Book of Allah which He has sent down upon Muḥammad ﷺ came down in that language; no one may therefore recite it otherwise than in the most eloquent of its modes of speech, even if some of this is known among certain Arab tribes or groups — but how then with something that is not known among any Arab people or tribe? It is merely a claim that can be established neither by sound reasoning nor by any valid proof.
