Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:15
[But] Allah mocks them and prolongs them in their transgression [while] they wander blindly.
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 word, exalted is His praise: **اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ** ("Allah mocks them").
Abū Jaʿfar said: People have differed concerning the nature of the mockery of Allah, exalted is His majesty, which He mentioned that He exercises against the hypocrites (munāfiqūn) whose characteristics He has described. Some said: His mockery of them is like that which He — blessed is His name — has informed us that He will do to them on the Day of Resurrection, in His word, the Exalted: يَوْمَ يَقُولُ الْمُنَافِقُونَ وَالْمُنَافِقَاتُ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا انْظُرُونَا نَقْتَبِسْ مِنْ نُورِكُمْ قِيلَ ارْجِعُوا وَرَاءَكُمْ فَالْتَمِسُوا نُورًا فَضُرِبَ بَيْنَهُمْ بِسُورٍ لَهُ بَابٌ بَاطِنُهُ فِيهِ الرَّحْمَةُ وَظَاهِرُهُ مِنْ قِبَلِهِ الْعَذَابُ * يُنَادُونَهُمْ أَلَمْ نَكُنْ مَعَكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَى [Surah Al-Ḥadīd: 13, 14]
("On the Day when the hypocrite men and the hypocrite women will say to those who believe: 'Wait for us, that we may obtain something of your light.' It will be said: 'Return back behind you and seek a light.' Then a wall will be erected between them, with a gate whose inner side contains mercy, and whose outer side faces the punishment. They will call out to them: 'Were we not with you?' They will say: 'Yes indeed.'"), the entire āyah.
And like that which He has informed us that He did to the disbelievers (kuffār), with His word: وَلا يَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ خَيْرٌ لأَنْفُسِهِمْ إِنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ لِيَزْدَادُوا إِثْمًا [Surah Āl ʿImrān: 178]
("And let not those who disbelieve think that the respite We grant them is good for themselves; We grant them respite only that they may increase in sin.")
This and what resembles it is — according to those who make this statement and adhere to this explanation — the mockery of Allah, mighty and exalted, and His scoffing, His scheming, and His deception against the hypocrites and the idolaters who ascribe partners to Him.
Others said: Rather, His mockery of them is His rebuke of them and His censure of them for the sins against Allah and the disbelief in Him that they committed, as one says: "Indeed, so-and-so has been mocked since today, and he is scoffed at," meaning thereby: the rebuke of people against him and their censure of him; or His destruction of them and the ruin that He brings upon them, as ʿAbīd ibn al-Abraṣ said:
*Ask on our behalf of Ḥujr, the son of Umm Qaṭām, when* *the brown [spears], the thirsty ones, made their sport with him.*
They claim that the "brown ones" — that is, the spears (al-qanā) — do not play at all, but when these killed them and defeated them, he made that act of theirs into a sport against the one against whom they did it. They said: Likewise is the mockery of Allah, exalted is His praise, with the one who mocked Him among the people of hypocrisy and disbelief in Him: either His destruction of them and the ruin He brings upon them, or His granting them respite in order to seize them suddenly at the moment when they, in their own opinion, deem themselves safe, or His rebuke of them and the rebuke of their leaders against them. They said: And likewise is the meaning of the scheming (makr) of His, and the deception and the scoffing.
Others said concerning His word: يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَهُوَ خَادِعُهُمْ [Surah An-Nisāʾ: 142] ("They seek to deceive Allah, but it is He who deceives them"), that this is by way of the [matching] response [in the same wording], like the word of the man to the one who used to deceive him, when he gains the upper hand over him: "It is I who have deceived you," while no deception proceeded from him, but he said that when the matter came into his hand. They said: And likewise is His word: وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ [Surah Āl ʿImrān: 54] ("And they schemed, and Allah schemed, and Allah is the best of schemers"), and "Allah mocks them," by way of the [matching] response. For from Allah proceeds neither scheming nor mockery; the meaning is that the scheming and the mockery befell them.
Others said: His word إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِئُونَ * اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ ("We are only mocking * Allah mocks them"), and His word يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَهُوَ خَادِعُهُمْ [Surah An-Nisāʾ: 142] ("They seek to deceive Allah, but it is He who deceives them"), and His word فَيَسْخَرُونَ مِنْهُمْ سَخِرَ اللَّهُ مِنْهُمْ [Surah At-Tawbah: 79] ("and they scoff at them — Allah scoffs at them"), نَسُوا اللَّهَ فَنَسِيَهُمْ [Surah At-Tawbah: 67] ("they forgot Allah, so He forgot them"), and what resembles it — this is an announcement from Allah that He will requite them with the requital for the mockery, and will punish them with the punishment for the deception. Thus He expressed His announcement of His requital to them and His punishment of them in the same wording as His announcement of their deed by which they merited the punishment, even though the two meanings differ. As He, exalted is His praise, said: وَجَزَاءُ سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِثْلُهَا [Surah Ash-Shūrā: 40] ("And the requital for an evil is an evil like it"). It is known that the first, on the part of the one who commits it, is an evil, since it is on his part a disobedience against Allah, blessed and exalted; and that the second is justice, because it is on the part of Allah a requital to the disobedient one for his disobedience. Both of them therefore — even though their wording coincides — differ in meaning. And likewise is His word: فَمَنِ اعْتَدَى عَلَيْكُمْ فَاعْتَدُوا عَلَيْهِ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 194] ("Whoever then transgresses against you, transgress against him"). The first transgression is wrongdoing, and the second is a requital, not wrongdoing, but rather justice, because it is a punishment for the wrongdoer for his wrongdoing, even though its wording coincides with the wording of the first.
In this meaning they have interpreted everything that occurs in the Qurʾān of comparable cases, namely that which is an announcement of the scheming of Allah, mighty and exalted, against a people, and what resembles it.
Others said: The meaning of this is that Allah, mighty and exalted, has announced concerning the hypocrites that they, when they secluded themselves with their rebellious leaders, would say: "We are with you in your religion, in denying Muḥammad, ﷺ, and what he has brought, and we only mock that which we show them — namely our word to them: 'We have held Muḥammad, peace be upon him, and what he has brought, to be true.'" They meant: We show them what, in our opinion, is false, neither truth nor guidance. They said: And that is one of the meanings of mockery. Thus Allah announced that He "mocks them," by showing them in this world, in His decrees, the opposite of what is for them with Him in the Hereafter, just as they showed to the Prophet, ﷺ, and to the believers in the religion what was in their inner selves the opposite.
The correct view in this, as regards the statement and the explanation, is according to us: that the meaning of mockery (istihzāʾ) in the language of the Arabs is: that the mocker shows to the mocked, in word and deed, something that outwardly pleases him, while inwardly, through that word and deed against him, he inflicts harm upon him. And likewise is the meaning of deception, scoffing, and scheming.
Now, since that is so — and since Allah, exalted is His praise, has assigned to the hypocrites in this world decrees on the basis of what they showed with their tongues, namely the profession of Allah and of His Messenger and of what he brought from Allah, which caused them to be included in the number of those to whom the name "Islam" applies — even though they concealed something else in their inner selves — namely the decrees that apply to the Muslims, who confirm their profession with their tongues thereof through the inner states of their hearts, the sincerity of their intentions, and their praiseworthy deeds that make good for them the correctness of their faith — this despite Allah's knowledge, mighty and exalted, of their lie, and His perceiving the corruption of their conviction, and their doubt concerning that which they claimed with their tongues to hold as true, until in the Hereafter — when they were gathered into the number of those in whose number they were in this world — they thought that they would reach the same arrival-place as them and would enter the same admission as them. And Allah, exalted is His majesty — despite showing them the decrees that He showed them, which attached them in the nearness of this world and the distance of the Hereafter, up to the moment when He distinguishes between them and His friends and separates them from them — has prepared for them, of His painful punishment and the terror of His torment (ʿadhāb), that which He has prepared for the most hostile of His enemies and the worst of His servants, until He distinguished between them and His friends, and attached them, from the levels of His Hellfire (jaḥīm), to the lowest floor. Now, it is known that He, exalted is His praise, with that deed of His against them — even though it was a requital to them for their deeds, and even though what He did with them thereof was justice, since they merited that from Him through their disobedience against Him — was, against them, through that which He showed them of the matters that He showed them: namely that He attached their decrees in this world to the decrees of His friends while they are His enemies, and that He gathered them in the Hereafter with the believers while they are among the deniers of Him — until He distinguished between them and them — mocking, and scoffing at them, and deceiving them, and scheming against them. Since the meaning of mockery, scoffing, scheming, and deception is that which we have described earlier, without this being its meaning in a state in which the mocker is a wrongdoer against his companion, or in which he is not just toward him, but rather that is its meaning in all its states, when the characteristics are present that we have mentioned earlier in the meaning of mockery and what resembles it of comparable cases.
And in the manner of what we have said concerning this, the report of Ibn ʿAbbās has been transmitted:
363 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmārah related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word "Allah mocks them," he said: He scoffs at them as a requital to them.
As for those who claimed that the word of Allah, exalted is His mention, "Allah mocks them," is only by way of the [matching] response, and that no mockery, nor scheming, nor deception proceeded from Allah — they deny concerning Allah, mighty and exalted, what Allah, mighty and exalted, has established for Himself and made obligatory upon Himself. It makes no difference whether someone says: "From Allah, exalted is His mention, no mockery, nor scheming, nor deception, nor scoffing proceeded against the one of whom He announced that He mocks him, scoffs at him, and schemes against him," or whether he says: "Allah did not cause to sink into the earth the one of whom He announced that He caused him to sink among the nations, and He did not drown the one of whom He announced that He drowned him from among them."
And to the one who says that, it is said: Indeed, Allah, exalted is His praise, has announced to us that He schemed against a people who preceded us and whom we have not seen, and He announced concerning others that He caused them to sink into the earth, and concerning others that He drowned them. We have held Allah, exalted is His mention, to be truthful in everything that He has announced to us concerning that, and we have made no distinction between any part of it. What then is your proof for the distinction that you make, namely your claim that He drowned and caused to sink into the earth the one of whom He announced that He drowned him and caused him to sink, but that He did not scheme against the one of whom He announced that He schemed against him?
Then we turn the argument against him in this matter: he will be unable to say anything concerning either of the two, or else the same will be imposed upon him concerning the other.
If he takes refuge in the statement: "Indeed, mockery is folly and play, and that is denied concerning Allah, mighty and exalted,"
then it is said to him: If the matter, in your opinion, is as you have described the meaning of mockery — do you then not say: "Allah mocks them," and "Allah has scoffed at them," and "Allah has schemed against them," even though, according to you, no mockery, nor scoffing proceeded from Allah?
If he says: "No," then he denies the Qurʾān and exits from the community of Islam.
And if he says: "Yes indeed," then it is said to him: Do we then say, in the same manner in which you said "Allah mocks them" and "Allah has scoffed at them" — "Allah plays with them" and "He commits folly" — while from Allah proceeds neither play nor folly?
If he says: "Yes!", then he describes Allah with that which the Muslims have unanimously established must be denied of Him, and [it is established] that he who describes Him with it is in error, and he ascribes to Him that which the proof from reason has established to be the error of him who ascribes it to Him.
And if he says: "I do not say 'Allah plays with them' nor 'He commits folly,' but I do say 'He mocks them' and 'He scoffs at them,'"
then it is said: Then you have made a distinction between the meaning of play and folly on the one hand, and mockery, scoffing, scheming, and deception on the other. And from the aspect from which it was permissible to say this, but not permissible to say that, their two meanings differ. Thus it is known that each of the two has a meaning that differs from the meaning of the other.
For the discussion of this kind of issue there is another place than this; we have refrained from lengthening the book by treating it exhaustively. And in what we have mentioned there is sufficiency for whoever is granted to understand it.
The statement concerning the explanation of His word, exalted is His praise: **وَيَمُدُّهُمْ** ("and He grants them respite / He increases them").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of explanation have differed concerning the interpretation of His word (and He yamudduhum). Some said, with what follows here:
364 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related this to me, saying: ʿAmr 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 Murrah, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of the companions of the Prophet, ﷺ: "He yamudduhum" — He grants them respite.
And others said, with what follows here:
365 — Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related this to me, saying: Suwayd ibn Naṣr related to us, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, by recitation, on the authority of Mujāhid: "He yamudduhum," he said: He increases them.
Some grammarians of Basra interpreted this as having the meaning of "He grants to them (yamuddu lahum)," and they claimed that this is comparable to the word of the Arabs: "the boy plays the dice (yalʿab al-kiʿāb)," whereby is meant: he plays with the dice. He said: That is because they do say: "I have extended for him (madadtu lahu) and I have supplied for him (amdadtu lahu)" in a meaning other than this one, namely the word of Allah, exalted is His mention: وَأَمْدَدْنَاهُمْ [Surah Aṭ-Ṭūr: 22] ("And We supplied them"), and this one here is from "madadnāhum (We granted them respite)." He said: And one says: "the sea has risen (madda al-baḥr), so it is rising (mādd)" and "the wound has begun to suppurate (amadda al-jarḥ), so it is suppurating (mumidd)." And it is transmitted from Yūnus al-Jarmī that he used to say: Of that which is of evil, one says "madadtu," and of that which is of good, one says "amdadtu." Then he said: And it is as I have explained to you: when you mean that you have left him [to his fate], then you say "madadtu lahu," and when you mean that you have given him something, then you say "amdadtu."
As for some grammarians of Kufa, who used to say: every increase that arises in something from itself, for that one says "madadtu" without alif, as you say: "the river has risen (madda al-nahr), and another river caused it to rise (maddahu nahrun ākhar)," when it joins it and becomes part of it; and every increase that arises in something from outside, for that [one says it] with alif, as your statement: "the wound has begun to suppurate (amadda al-jarḥ)," because the pus (al-middah) comes from outside the wound, and "I supplied the army with reinforcement (amdadtu al-jaysh bi-madad)."
The most correct of these statements concerning His word "وَيَمُدُّهُمْ" is: that it has the meaning of "He increases them," by way of granting respite and leaving them in their insolence and their rebellion, just as our Lord described that He did with their like in His word: وَنُقَلِّبُ أَفْئِدَتَهُمْ وَأَبْصَارَهُمْ كَمَا لَمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهِ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَنَذَرُهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ [Surah Al-Anʿām: 110] ("And We turn their hearts and their eyes about, just as they did not believe in it the first time, and We leave them wandering blindly in their transgression"), that is to say: We leave them and leave them in it, and We grant them respite that they may increase in sin, sin upon their sin.
And there is no ground for the statement of the one who said: that has the meaning of "He grants to them (yamuddu lahum)," because there is no disagreement among the Arabs and the experts of their language that they consider permissible the statement of the one who says: "another river caused the river to rise (madda al-nahra nahrun ākhar)," in the meaning: it joined it, so that the water of that which was joined increased through the water of that which joined — without their applying [a figurative] interpretation to it thereby. That is because its meaning is: another river caused the river to rise. Thus it is likewise in the word of Allah: (وَيَمُدُّهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ).
The statement concerning the explanation of His word: **فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ** ("in their transgression").
Abū Jaʿfar said: "al-Ṭughyān" is of the pattern "al-fuʿlān," derived from your statement: "so-and-so transgressed (ṭaghā fulān yaṭghā ṭughyānan)," when he exceeds his limit in a matter and misbehaves. Of this is also the word of Allah: كَلا إِنَّ الإِنْسَانَ لَيَطْغَى * أَنْ رَآهُ اسْتَغْنَى [Surah Al-ʿAlaq: 6, 7] ("Nay! Indeed, man truly transgresses the limit * because he deems himself self-sufficient"), that is to say: he exceeds his limit. Of this is also the word of Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt:
*And he called upon Allah with a supplication — but this was not the hour for it —* *after his transgression, and he kept [pointing with his hand].*
Allah, exalted is His praise, means by His word (وَيَمُدُّهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ) only that He grants them respite and leaves them to misbehave in their error and their disbelief, wandering about bewildered. As:
366 — It was related to me, on the authority of al-Minjāb, saying: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word (فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ), he said: in their disbelief they wander about.
367 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr 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 Murrah, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of the companions of the Prophet, ﷺ: "in their transgression" — in their disbelief.
368 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatādah, (فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ), that is to say: in their error they wander about.
369 — It was related to me, on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "in their transgression" — in their error.
370 — And Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word "in their transgression," he said: their transgression is their disbelief and their error.
The statement concerning the explanation of His word: **يَعْمَهُونَ** (15) ("they wander about").
Abū Jaʿfar said: And "al-ʿamah" itself is: error. Of this one says: "so-and-so wandered (ʿamiha fulān yaʿmah ʿamahānan wa-ʿumūhan)," when he went astray. Of this is also the word of Ruʾbah ibn al-ʿAjjāj, in which he describes a place of going astray in the wastelands:
*And many a wide plain where the mirage shimmers, plain after plain,* *of an arid wilderness which they traverse, into a wilderness,* *where the guidance itself is blind, with the straying, the lost.*
And "al-ʿummah" is the plural of "ʿāmih," and they are those who go astray in it and are in bewilderment. The meaning of His word is then: (فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ): in their error and their disbelief, whose stain has flooded over them and whose filth has covered them, they wander about bewildered and lost, without finding a way to the exit out of it, because Allah has sealed their hearts and placed a seal upon them, and has blinded their eyes to the guidance and veiled them, so that they see no straight way nor follow any path.
And in the manner of what we have said concerning "al-ʿamah," the explanation of the exegetes has come.
371 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr 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 Murrah, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of the companions of the Prophet, ﷺ: "yaʿmahūn" — they persist in their disbelief.
372 — And al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: ʿAbdullāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, on the authority of Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "yaʿmahūn," he said: they persist.
373 — It was related to me, on the authority of al-Minjāb, saying: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "yaʿmahūn," he said: they wander about.
374 — And al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "yaʿmahūn": the one who wanders about bewildered (al-mutaladdid).
375 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn Maymūn related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Najīḥ related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: (فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ), he said: they wander about.
376 — And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfah related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
377 — Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
378 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd ibn Naṣr related to us, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, by recitation, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
379 — It was related to me, on the authority of ʿAmmār, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "yaʿmahūn," he said: they wander about.
