Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:141
That is a nation which has passed on. It will have [the consequence of] what it earned, and you will have what you have earned. And you will not be asked about 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.
The statement concerning the explanation of His words, the Exalted: تِلْكَ أُمَّةٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَلَكُمْ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَلا تُسْأَلُونَ عَمَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ (141)
(That was a community which has already passed away; to it belongs what it has earned and to you belongs what you have earned, and you will not be questioned about what they used to do.) (141)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted—may His remembrance be magnified—means by His words "That was a community" (tilka ummah): Ibrāhīm, Ismāʿīl, Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb, and the patriarchs (al-asbāṭ). As:
2140 – Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words, the Exalted: "That was a community which has already passed away," by which is meant: Ibrāhīm, Ismāʿīl, Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb, and the patriarchs (al-asbāṭ).
2141 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, something similar.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: We have already set forth previously that "al-umma" means the community, the group (al-jamāʿa).
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The meaning of the verse is then: Say, O Muḥammad—to those who dispute with you concerning Allah among the Jews and the Christians, if they conceal what testimony they possess regarding the matter of Ibrāhīm and of those whom we have mentioned together with him, and regarding the fact that they were Muslims, while they claim that they were Jews or Christians and thereby lied—: Truly, Ibrāhīm, Ismāʿīl, Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb, and the patriarchs (al-asbāṭ) were a community which has already passed away—that is to say: it has gone its way—and has returned to its Lord, and has departed with its deeds and its expectations. To it belongs with Allah what it has earned of good during the days of its life, and to it belongs what it has earned of evil; nothing benefits it except its good deeds, and nothing harms it except its bad deeds. Know that, then, O Jews and Christians, for if these—and they are the ones in whom you take pride, and by whom you claim that you hope for salvation from the punishment of your Lord, despite your bad deeds and the gravity of your sins—if with Allah nothing benefits them except the good deeds they performed, and nothing harms except their bad deeds, then it is all the more so for you, that with Allah nothing benefits you except the good deeds you have performed, and nothing harms you except your bad deeds. Guard yourselves, then, and hasten, before departing from this life, to repentance and turning back to Allah from the unbelief (kufr), the error, and the lie that you spread about Allah and about His prophets and His messengers, in which you persist. Abandon reliance upon the merits of the fathers and the forefathers, for to you belongs only what you have earned, and upon you rests only what you have earned, and you will not be questioned about the deeds that Ibrāhīm, Ismāʿīl, Isḥāq, Yaʿqūb, and the patriarchs performed. For every soul that appears before Allah on the Day of Resurrection is questioned only about what it itself has earned and sent forward, and not about what another has sent forward.
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