Tafseer of The Bee · An-Nahl · 16:97
Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.
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.
Allah, exalted is His mention, says: Whoever acts in obedience to Allah and fulfills the covenants of Allah when he enters into them — male or female of the descendants of Adam — and he is a believer: that is, he affirms the reward of Allah which He has promised to the obedient for their obedience, and His threat to the disobedient for their disobedience — فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً (We shall most surely grant him a good life).
The exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed over what Allah intended by the "good life" which He has promised to grant to these people. Some said: He means that He will, in the worldly life, for as long as they live in it, cause them to live upon lawful (ḥalāl) sustenance.
Mention of those who said that:
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Samīʿ, on the authority of Abū Mālik and Abū al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — to the same effect.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Samīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — concerning His words مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "The good sustenance in the worldly life."
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Samīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — concerning فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "The good sustenance in the worldly life."
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 مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "In the worldly life."
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of Muṭarrif, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk — concerning فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "The good, lawful sustenance."
ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Wāṣil related to me, saying: ʿAwn ibn Salām al-Qurashī related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra reported to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk — concerning His words فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "He eats what is lawful and wears what is lawful."
Others said: فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — by Our granting him contentment (qanāʿa).
Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn Khalīfa, on the authority of Abū Khuzayma Sulaymān al-Tammār, on the authority of a man whom he named, on the authority of ʿAlī — concerning فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "Contentment (al-qunūʿ)."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū ʿIṣām related to us, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd, on the authority of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī — he said: "The good life is contentment."
Others said: the good life intended is life as a believer in Allah, acting in obedience to Him.
Mention of those who said that: It was related to me through al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً: "Whoever performs a righteous deed while he is a believer — whether he be in poverty or in affluence — his life is good. And whoever turns away from the remembrance of Allah, does not believe, and performs no righteous deed, his condition of life is straitened and contains no good."
Others said: the good life is felicity (al-saʿāda).
Mention of those who said that:
Al-Muthannā and ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd related to me — both of them saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — concerning His words فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "Felicity."
Others said: rather it is life in Paradise (janna).
Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Hawdha related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan — concerning فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "Life is not good for anyone except in Paradise."
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan — concerning فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "Life is not good for anyone except in Paradise."
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda — concerning His words مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً: "Allah desires a deed only when it is accompanied by sincerity, and He stipulates faith as a condition for that deed." Allah, exalted is He, said: فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — and that is Paradise.
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 فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً — he said: "The Hereafter — He causes them to live a good life in the Hereafter."
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb reported to us, saying: Ibn Zayd said — concerning His words مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً: "The good life in the Hereafter is Paradise — that is the good life." He said: وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ. And he said: "Do you not see how Allah says: يَا لَيْتَنِي قَدَّمْتُ لِحَيَاتِي (Would that I had sent ahead something for my life!) — that is his Hereafter." And he also recited: وَإِنَّ الدَّارَ الآخِرَةَ لَهِيَ الْحَيَوَانُ (And indeed the Hereafter is the true life) — he said: "The Hereafter is an abode of life for both the people of the Fire and the people of Paradise — there is in it no death for anyone of the two groups."
Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ — concerning His words مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ: "Faith is sincerity to Allah alone — by it He made clear that He accepts no deed unless accompanied by sincerity to Him."
The most correct statement on this is the view of the one who said: its interpretation is: "We shall grant him a good life through contentment." This is so because whoever Allah makes content with the sustenance He has apportioned to him does not, in the worldly life, exhaust himself excessively, has no great toil in it, and his life is not embittered by chasing after what escaped him in it and his greed for what may not reach him. I say this is the most correct of the interpretations of this verse, because Allah, exalted is His mention, warned a people before it against their disobedience — if they are disobedient, He makes them taste evil in the worldly life and the punishment (ʿadhāb) in the Hereafter. He said, exalted is He: وَلا تَتَّخِذُوا أَيْمَانَكُمْ دَخَلا بَيْنَكُمْ فَتَزِلَّ قَدَمٌ بَعْدَ ثُبُوتِهَا وَتَذُوقُوا السُّوءَ بِمَا صَدَدْتُمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ — this for them in the worldly life; and for them in the Hereafter a tremendous punishment — this for them in the Hereafter. Then He followed that up, for whoever fulfills the covenant of Allah and obeys Him, by saying: what you have in the worldly life perishes, and what is with Allah remains. So it is with Him who, in His wisdom, makes that threat to the disobedient followed by that promise to the obedient — with good in the worldly life and forgiveness in the Hereafter. And thus did Allah, exalted is His mention, also do.
As for the statement related from Ibn ʿAbbās that it is lawful sustenance — it can bear the meaning we intended: that Allah makes him content in the worldly life with the lawful sustenance he receives, even if it be little — so that his soul does not drive him toward an abundance of it by an unlawful means. Not that He provides him with an abundance of the lawful; for we did not see most of those who act for Allah with what pleases Him in deeds being provided with abundant lawful sustenance in the worldly life, and we found constricted circumstances of life more prevalent among them than ease.
As for His words وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ: that is without doubt in the Hereafter. And thus said the exegetes.
Mention of those who said that:
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Samīʿ, on the authority of Abū Mālik, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — concerning وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ — he said: "When they arrive before Allah, He rewards them for the best of what they did."
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Samīʿ, on the authority of Abū Mālik and Abū al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — identically.
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Samīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — concerning وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ — he said: "In the Hereafter."
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Samīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — identically.
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 وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ: "He rewards them in the Hereafter for the best of what they did."
It has been said that this verse was sent down concerning a people of differing religions who boasted against one another; the people of each religion said: "We are better." Allah made clear to them who are the best of the adherents of religions.
Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ — he said: "A number of people from the idolaters, the people of the Torah, and the people of the Gospel sat together. These said: 'We are better', and those said: 'We are better.' Then Allah, exalted is He, sent down: مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِنْ ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنْثَى وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُمْ بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ."
