Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:11
And when it is said to them, "Do not cause corruption on the earth," they say, "We are but reformers."
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 His saying, exalted is His praise: وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأَرْضِ ("And when it is said to them: 'Do not cause corruption upon the earth'").
The scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differ concerning the interpretation of this verse:
It is related from Salmān al-Fārisī that he used to say: "These have not yet come."
337 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAththām ibn ʿAlī related to us, saying: al-Aʿmash related to us, saying: I heard al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr relate, on the authority of ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of Salmān, who said: "These have not yet come — those concerning whom [it applies]: وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ('And when it is said to them: "Do not cause corruption upon the earth," they say: "We are only reformers"')."
338 — Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ḥakīm related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sharīk related to us, saying: My father related to me, saying: al-Aʿmash related to me, on the authority of Zayd ibn Wahb and others, on the authority of Salmān, that concerning this verse — وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ("And when it is said to them: 'Do not cause corruption upon the earth,' they say: 'We are only reformers'") — he said: "These have not yet come."
And others said that which the following comprises:
339 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related this to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report that he mentioned, on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — and on the authority of Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of certain men among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ("And when it is said to them: 'Do not cause corruption upon the earth,' they say: 'We are only reformers'") — they are the hypocrites (al-munāfiqūn). As for "Do not cause corruption upon the earth": the corruption is disbelief (kufr) and acting in disobedience.
340 — And it was related to me, on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: وإذا قيل لهمْ لا تفسدوا في الأرض ("And when it is said to them: 'Do not cause corruption upon the earth'"), he says: "Do not be disobedient upon the earth," قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ("they say: 'We are only reformers'"). He said: And that corruption of theirs was disobedience to Allah, exalted is His praise, for whoever is disobedient to Allah upon the earth, or calls to disobedience to Him, has indeed caused corruption upon the earth, for the reform of the earth and the heaven comes about through obedience.
The most fitting of the two interpretations of the verse is the interpretation of the one who said: The saying of Allah, blessed is His name, وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ("And when it is said to them: 'Do not cause corruption upon the earth,' they say: 'We are only reformers'"), was revealed concerning the hypocrites who existed in the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, even though by it is meant everyone who possessed the same characteristic as they among the hypocrites after them until the Day of Resurrection.
And it is possible that Salmān's saying upon reciting this verse — "These have not yet come" — was said by him after the dying out of those who possessed this characteristic in the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, as a report from him concerning who comes after them of their kind but has not yet come, and not that he meant that none who possesses this characteristic had passed away.
We only said that the most fitting of the two interpretations of the verse is that which we mentioned, because of the consensus of the authoritative proof among the scholars of interpretation, that this is the characteristic of those who were among the hypocrites in the midst of the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — in the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — and that these verses were revealed concerning them. And the interpretation upon which there is consensus is more fitting for the interpretation of the Qurʾān than a saying for which there exists no indication of its correctness, neither from a foundational principle nor from a parallel.
Causing corruption upon the earth is: acting upon it with that which Allah, exalted is His praise, has forbidden, and neglecting that whose preservation Allah has commanded. That is the totality of causing corruption, as He, exalted is His praise, said in His Book, reporting concerning the saying of His angels: قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 30] ("They said: 'Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood?'"), by which they meant: Will You place upon the earth one who is disobedient to You and contradicts Your command? Such, then, is the characteristic of the people of hypocrisy: they cause corruption upon the earth through their disobedience upon it to their Lord, and their committing upon it of that which He has forbidden them to commit, and their neglecting of His obligations, and their doubt concerning the religion of Allah — which accepts from no one any deed except with belief in it and the certain conviction of its truth — and their lying to the believers through their claim to something other than that in which they persist of doubt and distrust, and through their aiding of the people who deny Allah, His Books, and His messengers against the allies of Allah, when they find a way to that. That is the causing of corruption by the hypocrites upon the earth of Allah, while they suppose that by that conduct of theirs upon it they are reformers. Yet Allah, exalted is His praise, did not cause His punishment of them to lapse, nor did He lighten from them the painfulness of that which He has prepared of punishment for the people of His disobedience — on account of their supposing that they were reformers in that which they committed of disobedience to Allah — but He made obligatory upon them the lowest level of His Fire, and the painfulness of His punishment, and immediate disgrace through Allah's reproach over them and His rebuke against them. Thus He said, exalted: أَلا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَكِنْ لا يَشْعُرُونَ ("Unquestionably, it is they who are the corrupters, but they perceive it not"). And that, among Allah's judgment, exalted is His praise, concerning them, is the most eloquent proof of His denial, exalted is He, of the saying of those who say: None deserves the punishments of Allah except the one who obstinately opposes his Lord in that which is imposed upon him of His rights and obligations, after his knowledge and the established proof against him through his awareness of its bindingness upon him.
The explanation of His saying, exalted is His praise: قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ("They say: 'We are only reformers'") (11)
The interpretation of it is like that which Ibn ʿAbbās said, namely that which the following comprises:
341 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related this to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ ("We are only reformers"), that is to say: They said: "We desire only to bring about reconciliation between the two groups — the believers and the People of the Book."
And another differed with him concerning that.
342 — Al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأَرْضِ ("And when it is said to them: 'Do not cause corruption upon the earth'"), he said: When they committed disobedience to Allah and it was said to them: "Do not do this and that," they said: "We are only upon guidance, reformers."
Abū Jaʿfar said: And whichever of the two matters it was of them in this — I mean in their claim that they are reformers — there is no doubt that they supposed that they were reformers in that which they committed of it. It makes no difference, then, whether their claim of reform pertained to reconciling between the Jews and the Muslims, or to their religions, and to that which they committed of disobedience to Allah, and their lying to the believers in that which they displayed to them of words while inwardly harboring something other than what they displayed; for they were in all of this of their affair, in their own eyes, doers of good, while in the sight of Allah they were doers of evil and contradicting Allah's command. For Allah, exalted is His praise, had imposed upon them as an obligation enmity toward the Jews and fighting against them together with the Muslims, and had made binding upon them belief in the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and in that which he brought from Allah, just as He had made that binding upon the believers. Thus their meeting with the Jews — in the manner of alliance from them toward them, and their doubt concerning the prophethood of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and concerning that which he brought as being from Allah — was the very greatest corruption, even though that was in their eyes reform and guidance: in their religions or in that between the believers and the Jews. Thus He said, exalted is His praise, concerning them: أَلا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ ("Unquestionably, it is they who are the corrupters") and not those among the believers who forbid them from causing corruption upon the earth, وَلَكِنْ لا يَشْعُرُونَ ("but they perceive it not").
