Tafseer of Abraham · Ibrahim · 14:17
He will gulp it but will hardly [be able to] swallow it. And death will come to him from everywhere, but he is not to die. And before him is a massive punishment.
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.
And His words: "yatajarraʿuhu" ("he gulps it down with difficulty"): he sips it little by little; "wa-lā yakādu yusīghuhu" ("and he can scarcely swallow it down"): He says: and he can scarcely swallow it away because of the intensity of his loathing of it, while he [nonetheless] swallows it away because of the intensity of his thirst.
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The Arabs use "lā yakādu" ("he can scarcely") both for what has already been done and for what has not been done. As for that which has already been done, this [verse] belongs to that category, for Allah, exalted is His praise, has made that a drink for them. And as for that which has not been done, yet into which "kāda" has nonetheless entered, that is His word: حَتَّى إِذَا أَخْرَجَ يَدَهُ لَمْ يَكَدْ يَرَاهَا ("until, when he stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it") (24:40); he does not [actually] see it. (37)
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And in accordance with what we have said, namely that the meaning of His words "and he can scarcely swallow it down" is: while he [nonetheless] swallows it away — the report from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has been transmitted.
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Mention of the narration concerning that:
20631 — Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ibrāhīm Abū Isḥāq al-Ṭālqānī related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr, on the authority of Abū Umāma, on the authority of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning His words: "and he is given to drink pus-water that he gulps down with difficulty": "When he drinks it, it cuts his entrails to pieces until it comes out through his backside." Allah, mighty and exalted is He, says: وَسُقُوا مَاءً حَمِيمًا فَقَطَّعَ أَمْعَاءَهُمْ ("and they are given to drink boiling water that cuts their entrails to pieces") (47:15), and He says: وَإِنْ يَسْتَغِيثُوا يُغَاثُوا بِمَاءٍ كَالْمُهْلِ يَشْوِي الْوُجُوهَ بِئْسَ الشَّرَابُ ("and when they call for help, they are helped with water like molten metal that scorches the faces — what a wretched drink!") (18:29). (38)
20632 — Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Maʿmar related to us, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, saying: Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr, on the authority of Abū Umāma, on the authority of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning His words: "and he is given to drink pus-water" — and he mentioned the like of it, except that he said: "they are given to drink boiling water". (39)
20633 — Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-ʿAsqalānī related to me, saying: Ḥaywa ibn Shurayḥ al-Ḥimṣī related to us, saying: Baqiyya related to us, on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr related to me, on the authority of Abū Umāma, on the authority of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, exactly the same. (40)
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And His words: "and death comes to him from every side, but he does not die" — He says: and death comes to him from in front and from behind, and from his right side and his left side, and from every place of the limbs of his body, "but he does not die", for his soul does not depart from him so that he would die and find rest, nor does he live [either], since his soul remains hanging at his larynx and does not return to its place — as in:
20634 — 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 His words: "he gulps it down with difficulty and can scarcely swallow it, and death comes to him from every side, but he does not die", he said: his soul remains hanging at his larynx, and it does not go out from his mouth so that he would die, nor does it return [either] to its place in his interior, so that he would thereby find relief and life would benefit him.
20635 — al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, concerning His words: "and death comes to him from every side", he said: from beneath every hair on his body.
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And His words: "and behind him lies a harsh punishment (ʿadhāb ghalīẓ)" — He says: and behind that in which he finds himself of punishment — that is to say, before him and ahead of him (41) — lies a harsh punishment. (42)
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The footnotes [of the editor]:
(37) See the explanation of "kāda" in what has passed earlier, 2:218, 219 / 13:131.
(38) The two reports 20631 and 20632 — "Ibrāhīm Abū Isḥāq al-Ṭālqānī" is "Ibrāhīm ibn Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā al-Ṭālqānī al-Bunānī", and sometimes it was said "Ibrāhīm ibn ʿĪsā", attributed to his grandfather; he is a freedman (mawlā) of "Bunāna", trustworthy, one of the teachers of Aḥmad; he heard [narrations] from Ibn al-Mubārak and from Baqiyya. And "al-Ṭālqān", with sukūn on the lām, and it is also said with fatḥa on it, is a city in Khurāsān. He has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 1/1/273, and in Ibn Abī Ḥātim in two places 1/1/86, 119, and Tārīkh Baghdād 6:24.
And "ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak", one of the great imams, already passed many times.
And "Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr ibn Hirm al-Saksakī", trustworthy, steadfast and reliable, already passed many times, among them: 7009, 12194, 12807, 13108.
And "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr", in the diminutive form as it stands here, and in the narration of Aḥmad in his Musnad, and in the Sunan of al-Tirmidhī. And "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr" in al-Mustadrak of al-Ḥākim, and Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ of Abū Nuʿaym. And in Ibn Kathīr, cited from the Musnad, "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Bishr", and that is a scribal error.
This report, by way of Ibn al-Mubārak on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, was transmitted by Aḥmad in his Musnad on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (al-Musnad 5:265).
And al-Tirmidhī transmitted it on the authority of Suwayd ibn Naṣr, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (in the chapter on what is transmitted concerning the description of the drink of the inhabitants of the Fire).
And Abū Nuʿaym transmitted it in the Ḥilya 8:182 by way of [several] routes: Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, and Muʿādh ibn Asad on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, and Yaḥyā al-Ḥimmānī on his authority, and Muḥammad ibn Muqātil on his authority — four routes.
And al-Ḥākim transmitted it in al-Mustadrak 2:31 by way of ʿAbdān, that is ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Jabala, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, and he said: "This is a sound (ṣaḥīḥ) narration according to the criteria of Muslim, but they [Bukhārī and Muslim] did not include it", and al-Dhahabī concurred with him.
Concerning "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr" there is discussion. Al-Tirmidhī said, after he had cited the report: "This is a strange (gharīb) narration; thus Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl [al-Bukhārī] said: 'on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr', and 'ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr' is known only in this narration. And Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr transmitted on the authority of 'ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr', the companion of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, a narration other than this one; and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr has a brother who heard from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his sister [likewise] heard from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; and ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr, from whom Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr transmitted the narration of Abū Umāma, is the brother of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr."
I [the editor] say: I have not found what Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī is said to have stated [about this] in his Tārīkh al-Kabīr.
As for Abū Nuʿaym in the Ḥilya, he said: "Ṣafwān alone transmitted it, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr, and it is said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishr, and he is al-Yaḥṣubī al-Ḥimṣī, with the kunya Abū Saʿīd; and Baqiyya ibn al-Walīd transmitted it on the authority of Ṣafwān, in a similar manner. Ṣafwān transmitted on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr al-Māzinī, who enjoyed the companionship [of the Prophet], and on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishr, and for that reason it has become unclear to some people; and this is: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr."
And the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said in al-Tahdhīb, after he had cited what al-Tirmidhī said: "And Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr, and it is also said: ʿAbd Allāh, transmitted on the authority of Abū Umāma, and from him Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr transmitted. And al-Ṭabarānī [said]: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr al-Yaḥṣubī, on the authority of Abū Umāma, and he transmitted from him this narration, and another narration from the narration of Baqiyya on the authority of Ṣafwān, and Allah knows best. And Abū Mūsā al-Madīnī mentioned in Dhayl al-ṣaḥāba: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr, the brother of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr, as al-Salmānī stated it." And what the ḥāfiẓ takes over from Ibn Abī Ḥātim is to be found in al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl 2/2/308.
But the astonishing thing is that the imam, the ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī, did not draw up a biography for ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr, neither in his Tārīkh al-Kabīr nor in [his Tārīkh] al-Ṣaghīr, despite what al-Tirmidhī takes over from him, which gives the impression that it would be in one of the two. What is in it is only: "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr al-Sulamī, and then al-Māzinī, one of the companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace" (al-Kabīr 3/1/14); then he mentioned "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr", not the Māzinī, "al-Jabrānī", and this one transmits on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr al-Māzinī, the companion, and on the authority of Abū Umāma al-Bāhilī. (Likewise provided with a biography in al-Tahdhīb.)
But the indication that points almost explicitly to this report in the book of al-Bukhārī is to be found in the biography of "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Bishr ibn Jarīr al-Bajalī"; he said: "on the authority of Abū Umāma, may Allah be pleased with him, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr al-Shāmī" — and I do not know how this stands, for Ibn Abī Ḥātim drew up in al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl 2/2/308 a biography for "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr" under number 1467, and it is followed by number 1468, where he said: "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Bishr ibn Jarīr al-Bajalī (transmitted on the authority of …), from him Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq transmitted; I heard my father say that, and he said: he is unknown (majhūl)."
And so likewise did al-Dhahabī in Mīzān al-iʿtidāl 2:164, and he said: "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr, a Ḥimṣī, on the authority of Abū Umāma, and from him [transmitted] Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr alone; he is not known" — and it is said that he is "ʿAbd Allāh" the companion, and it is said that he is "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr al-Ḥabrānī" the tābiʿī, and that is more likely. Then he mentioned after him "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Bishr al-Bajalī", and he said: "in him there is unknownness; only Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq transmitted from him, no more."
It is thus almost clear that what stands in the Tārīkh al-Kabīr (3/1/374, 375) is merely a confusion between two different biographies, and that of the biography of "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr" the beginning has fallen out of the printed version of the Tārīkh al-Kabīr, and a part of it has intruded into another biography. This becomes more likely because Ibn Abī Ḥātim, who mentioned both biographies [separately], did not treat this in his book "Bayān khaṭaʾ Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī fī tārīkhihi" ("Exposition of the error of al-Bukhārī in his Tārīkh"); and had there been such a thing in the original text of al-Bukhārī's Tārīkh, it would not have escaped Ibn Abī Ḥātim. What al-Tirmidhī takes over from al-Bukhārī from the Tārīkh al-Kabīr has thus fallen out of the printed edition.
(39) The two reports 20631 and 20632 — [see the preceding note; the biographical data are identical:] "Ibrāhīm Abū Isḥāq al-Ṭālqānī" is "Ibrāhīm ibn Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā al-Ṭālqānī al-Bunānī", and sometimes it was said "Ibrāhīm ibn ʿĪsā", attributed to his grandfather; he is a freedman of "Bunāna", trustworthy, one of the teachers of Aḥmad; he heard [narrations] from Ibn al-Mubārak and from Baqiyya. And "al-Ṭālqān", with sukūn on the lām, and it is also said with fatḥa on it, is a city in Khurāsān. He has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 1/1/273, and in Ibn Abī Ḥātim in two places 1/1/86, 119, and Tārīkh Baghdād 6:24. And "ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak", one of the great imams, already passed many times. And "Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr ibn Hirm al-Saksakī", trustworthy, steadfast and reliable, already passed many times, among them: 7009, 12194, 12807, 13108. And "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr", in the diminutive form as it stands here, and in the narration of Aḥmad in his Musnad, and in the Sunan of al-Tirmidhī. And "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr" in al-Mustadrak of al-Ḥākim, and Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ of Abū Nuʿaym. And in Ibn Kathīr, cited from the Musnad, "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Bishr", and that is a scribal error. [For the full discussion of the routes of transmission and the discussion concerning "ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Busr", see the text of note (38) above, which is repeated verbatim.]
(40) The report 20633 — "Muḥammad ibn Khalaf ibn ʿAmmār al-ʿAsqalānī", a teacher of al-Ṭabarī, already passed many times, most recently under number 12523. And "Ḥaywa ibn Shurayḥ ibn Yazīd al-Ḥaḍramī al-Ḥimṣī", trustworthy, already passed many times, most recently under number 15378. And to this report reference has already been made in the preceding note, by way of Baqiyya ibn al-Walīd on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr.
(41) See the explanation of "warāʾ" in what has passed earlier: 546, 475, note 1.
(42) See the explanation of "al-ghalīẓ" in what has passed earlier, 7:341 / 14:360, 576 / 15:366.
