Tafseer of The Thunder · Ar-Ra'd · 13:6
They impatiently urge you to bring about evil before good, while there has already occurred before them similar punishments [to what they demand]. And indeed, your Lord is full of forgiveness for the people despite their wrongdoing, and indeed, your Lord is severe in penalty.
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.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted says: وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ — O Muḥammad — the polytheists of your people ask you to hasten the evil before the good and well-being, and they say: اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كَانَ هَذَا هُوَ الْحَقَّ مِنْ عِنْدِكَ فَأَمْطِرْ عَلَيْنَا حِجَارَةً مِنَ السَّمَاءِ أَوِ ائْتِنَا بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ [Surah Al-Anfāl 8:32] — while they know what punishments from Allah and what tremendous suffering have befallen earlier peoples who existed before them and who had obeyed their Lord and then denied His messengers: one people was transformed into apes, another into swine, one people was destroyed by the quaking (al-rajfa), another by being swallowed up into the earth — and these are the "al-mathalāt" of which Allah, the Exalted, says: وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلاتُ (and before them the exemplary punishments have already passed away).
"Al-mathalāt" are the deterrent punishments. Its singular is "mathulatun" — with an open mīm and a closed thāʾ — and its plural is "mathalāt", just as the singular of "al-ṣaduqāt" is "ṣaduqatun" and the plural is "ṣaduqāt". It has been transmitted that the tribe of Tamīm among the Arabs close both the mīm and the thāʾ in "al-muthulāt", so that the singular in their linguistic usage is "muthlatun", and the plural is "muthulāt", following the pattern of "ghurfa" and "ghurufāt". Its verb is "mathaltu bihi amthulu mathlan" — with an open mīm and a quiescent thāʾ — and when you mean that you have taken an equal retribution upon him on behalf of another, you say "amthaltuhu min ṣāḥibihi umthiluhu imthālan" — that is, when you take retribution from him.
And the exegetes said something similar to what we have said about this.
Mention of who said that:
20130 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلاتُ — the blows of Allah upon the peoples who existed before you. And His word: وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ الْحَسَنَةِ — these are the polytheists of the Arabs who hastened the evil before the good and said: اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كَانَ هَذَا هُوَ الْحَقَّ مِنْ عِنْدِكَ فَأَمْطِرْ عَلَيْنَا حِجَارَةً مِنَ السَّمَاءِ أَوِ ائْتِنَا بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ [Surah Al-Anfāl 8:32].
20131 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ الْحَسَنَةِ — he said: with the punishment before the well-being. وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلاتُ — he said: the punishments.
20132 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Shabāba related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: الْمَثُلاتُ — he said: the likenesses.
20133 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid.
20134 — And al-Muthannā related to me: he said: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — the same.
20135 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word: وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلاتُ — he said: "al-mathalāt" is what Allah inflicted as punishment upon the peoples who disobeyed Him and denied His messengers — the deterrent punishments have passed away before them, and they knew that, and what Allah had done to them was transmitted to them.
20136 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sulaym related to us, saying: I heard Al-Shaʿbī say concerning His word: وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلاتُ — he said: the apes and the swine are the "mathalāt".
And His word: وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَذُو مَغْفِرَةٍ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى ظُلْمِهِمْ (and indeed, your Lord surely possesses forgiveness for the people despite their wrongdoing) — the Exalted says: and indeed, your Lord, O Muḥammad, covers the sins of whoever among the people repents of his sins — He does not assign him disgrace for it at the standing of the Day of Resurrection, and He remits for him the punishment for it, in the immediate and the deferred. عَلَى ظُلْمِهِمْ (despite their wrongdoing) — He says: despite their doing what they did without My permission. وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَشَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ (and indeed, your Lord is severe in punishment) — for whoever dies persisting in his sins on the Day of Resurrection, if He has not hastened it for him in the worldly life, or has given him both in the worldly life and the Hereafter.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And these words, although their outward meaning is that of an announcement, are a threat from Allah and a warning to the polytheists of the people of the Prophet ﷺ — if they do not turn back and repent of their disbelief before the wrath of Allah descends upon them.
20137 — ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَذُو مَغْفِرَةٍ لِلنَّاسِ — he says: but indeed your Lord.
