Tafseer of Quraysh · Quraish · 106:4
Who has fed them, [saving them] from hunger and made them safe, [saving them] from fear.
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.
His word: الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ (Who fed them after hunger) — that is to say: Who fed the Quraysh after hunger.
As ʿAlī related to me: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ — that is to say: the Quraysh, the inhabitants of Mecca, through the supplication of Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him, where he said: وَارْزُقْهُمْ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ (and provide them with fruits).
وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ (and granted them security after fear) — The commentators of the tafsīr differed concerning the meaning of His word: وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ . Some said: its meaning is that He granted them security from that which one who did not belong to the people of the Sacred Precinct had to fear — the raids, wars, fighting, and matters which the Arabs feared from one another.
*Mention of who said that:*
ʿAlī related to me: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ : where Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him, said: رَبِّ اجْعَلْ هَذَا الْبَلَدَ آمِنًا (My Lord, make this city secure).
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ — he said: "He granted them security from every enemy within their Sacred Precinct."
Bishr related to us: Yazīd related to us: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: لإيلافِ قُرَيْشٍ * إِيلافِهِمْ — he said: "The inhabitants of Mecca were merchants who alternated these journeys — in the winter and in the summer — while they enjoyed security among the Arabs. The Arabs raided one another, but they (the Meccans) were unable to do so and could not undertake it because of the fear. So much so that when a man from among them was detained among one of the Arab tribes, and it was said: 'He is a Ḥaramī (a Meccan)', he was released, he and his possessions, out of reverence for the security which Allah had granted them."
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ : he said: "They said: 'We belong to the Sacred Precinct of Allah', and no one assailed them in the Jāhiliyya — they were secure thereby. But someone outside their midst, when he set out, would be raided."
Yūnus related to me: Ibn Wahb informed us: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ : "The Arabs raided one another and took one another's captives — but they (the Meccans) were secure from that because of the Sacred Precinct." And he recited: أَوَلَمْ نُمَكِّنْ لَهُمْ حَرَمًا آمِنًا يُجْبَى إِلَيْهِ ثَمَرَاتُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ (Have We not established for them a secure Sacred Precinct, to which the fruits of all things are brought?).
Others said: by this is meant: and He granted them security from leprosy.
*Mention of who said that:*
Al-Ḥārith related to us: al-Ḥasan related to us: Warqāʾ related to us — all: al-Ḍaḥḥāk said concerning وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ : "From their fear of leprosy."
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us: Mahrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, concerning وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ : he said: "From leprosy and other ailments."
Abū Kurayb related to us: Wakīʿ said: "I heard: 'He fed them after hunger' — he said: the hunger; وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ — the fear: that is leprosy."
ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to us: ʿĀmir ibn Ibrāhīm al-Aṣbahānī related to us: Khaṭṭāb ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī al-Mughīra related to us: my father related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning وَآمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ : he said: "The fear: that is leprosy."
The correct view in this matter is to say: Allah, exalted be His remembrance, has informed us that He آمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ — and the enemy is something of which fear is known, and leprosy is something of which fear is known. Allah did not restrict His report to: He granted them security from the enemy and not from leprosy, nor from leprosy and not from the enemy; rather He kept the report general. The correct course, then, is that one also keep it general, just as the Exalted stated it generally — and one says: He granted them security from both meanings together.
End of the tafsīr of Sūrat Quraysh.
