Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:171
The example of those who disbelieve is like that of one who shouts at what hears nothing but calls and cries cattle or sheep - deaf, dumb and blind, so they do not understand.
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.
Discussion of the interpretation of His, the Exalted's, words: وَمَثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي يَنْعِقُ بِمَا لا يَسْمَعُ إِلا دُعَاءً وَنِدَاءً ("And the likeness of those who disbelieve is as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing but a shout and a call") (2:171).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The exegetes differed concerning the meaning of this.
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Some of them said: The meaning of this is: the likeness of the disbeliever — in his scant understanding of what Allah lays before him in His Book, and in his poor acceptance of that to which he is called, namely the profession of the oneness of Allah (tawḥīd), and that of which he is admonished — is as the likeness of the head of cattle that hears the sound when it is called out to, but does not understand what is said to it.
* Mention of who said that:
2450 — Hannād ibn al-Sarī related to us, saying: Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His words: "And the likeness of those who disbelieve is as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing but a shout and a call" — he said: it is the likeness of the camel or the likeness of the donkey: you call it and it hears the sound, but it does not understand what you say.
2451 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zurayʿ related to me, saying: Yūsuf ibn Khālid al-Samtī related to us, saying: Nāfiʿ ibn Mālik related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: "as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing" — he said: it is like the likeness of the sheep and the like. (8)
2452 — 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: "And the likeness of those who disbelieve is as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing but a shout and a call" — it is like the likeness of the camel, the donkey, and the sheep: if you say to one of them "Eat!", it does not know what you say, except that it hears your voice. So too is the disbeliever: if you command him to do good, or forbid him from evil, or admonish him, he does not understand what you say, except that he hears your voice.
2453 — Al-Qāsim related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: it is like the likeness of the beast of burden that is called and it hears, but does not understand what is said to it. So too is the disbeliever: he hears the sound, but does not understand.
2454 — Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Khuṣayf, on the authority of Mujāhid: "as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing" — he said: the likeness of the disbeliever is as the likeness of the head of cattle that hears the sound, but does not understand.
2455 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "as the likeness of one who calls out" — it is a likeness that Allah sets forth for the disbeliever: he hears what is said to him but does not understand, like the likeness of the head of cattle that hears the calling out but does not understand.
2456 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, [concerning] His words: "And the likeness of those who disbelieve is as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing but a shout and a call" — he says: the likeness of the disbeliever is as the likeness of the camel and the sheep: it hears the sound but does not understand and does not know what is meant by it.
2457 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: "as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing but a shout and a call" — he said: it is a likeness that Allah sets forth for the disbeliever. He says: the likeness of this disbeliever is as the likeness of this head of cattle that hears the sound but does not know what is said to it. So too the disbeliever derives no benefit from what is said to him.
2458 — 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, he said: it is the likeness of the disbeliever: he hears the sound but does not understand what is said to him.
2459 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: I asked ʿAṭāʾ and then said to him: it is said: it — namely the head of cattle — does not understand, except that it hears the call of the caller when he calls out to it; so likewise they do not understand, while they do hear. He said: it is so. He said: And Mujāhid said: "one who calls out" is the herdsman, "that hear nothing" concerns the cattle.
2460 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "as the likeness of one who calls out" is the herdsman, "that hear nothing" concerns the cattle.
2461 — Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing but a shout and a call" — it does not understand what is said to it, except that it is called and then comes, or it is called out to and then goes away. As for "one who calls out": that is the herdsman who tends the flock; just as the herdsman calls out to [cattle] that do not perceive what is said to them, except that they are called or called out to. So too Muḥammad, may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him, calls [people] who hear nothing but the murmur of the words. Allah says: صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ ("Deaf, dumb, blind") (sūrat al-Baqara: 18).
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning according to those who proclaim this view — in their interpretation as they interpreted it, according to what I have transmitted from them — is: the likeness of the admonition of those who disbelieve and of their admonisher is as the likeness of the calling out of the caller to his flock and his calling them thereto. Thus "the likeness" was ascribed to those who disbelieve, while the mention of "the admonition and the admonisher" was omitted, because the wording indicates it. As one says: "When you meet so-and-so, honor him as you honor the ruler" — by which is meant: as you honor the ruler. And as the poet said:
I shall not, as long as I live, give greeting to Zayd with the greeting of the emir. (9)
By which is meant: as one greets the emir.
It is also possible that the meaning — according to this interpretation which these gave — is: the likeness of those who disbelieve in their scant understanding of Allah and of His Messenger is as the likeness of the head of cattle called out to, which understands nothing of command and prohibition but the sound. For if it were said to it "Graze!" or "Go to the water!", it would not know what is said to it, except the sound that it hears from the one saying it. So too is the disbeliever: his likeness in his scant understanding of that which is commanded and forbidden to him — through his poor consideration of it and his scant reflection and contemplation upon it — is as the likeness of this [animal] called out to, with respect to that which it is commanded and forbidden. Thus the meaning belongs to the one called out to, while the wording proceeds from the caller, as al-Nābigha of [the tribe of] Banū Dhubyān said:
I have feared [so much], that my fear does not become greater than that of an ibex on a high mountain, which has entrenched itself there. (10)
The meaning is: so that the fear of the ibex does not become greater than my fear. And as another said: (11)
What you say was an obligation, as fornication (zinā) was an obligation of the stoning (rajm). (12)
The meaning is: as the stoning was an obligation of the fornication; thus he made the fornication an obligation of the stoning, on account of the clarity of the meaning of the wording to the one who hears it. And as another said:
Indeed, Sirāj is noble, his renown is great; the eye delights in him when you behold him. (13)
The meaning is: he is beheld by the eye with pleasure; thus he made it "the eye delights in him." (14) Examples of this from the language of the Arabs are too numerous to count — cases in which the Arabs direct the statement about that which they report toward that which accompanies it, on account of the clarity of that meaning to the one who hears it. So you say: "Offer the watering-trough to the she-camel", while in reality you offer the she-camel to the watering-trough, and what resembles that in their language. (15)
* * *
And others said: The meaning of this is: the likeness of those who disbelieve in their invoking of their gods and their idols, which neither hear nor understand, is as the likeness of one who calls out to [something] that hears nothing but a shout and a call — and that is the echo, of which he hears [only] the sound, without the caller perceiving anything from it.
The interpretation of the wording according to those who proclaim this is therefore: the likeness of those who disbelieve and their gods — in their invoking of them, while they do not understand and do not comprehend — is as the likeness of the caller [calling at something] from which the caller perceives nothing but a shout and a call, that is to say: the caller perceives from it nothing but his own call.
* Mention of who said that:
2462 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His words: "And the likeness of those who disbelieve is as the likeness of one who calls out to [something] that hears nothing but a shout and a call" — he said: it is the man who calls out amid the mountains, whereupon a sound answers him that echoes back to him; that is called "the echo" (al-ṣadā). So the likeness of the gods of these [people] for them is as the likeness of that which answers him with this sound: it does not benefit him, he perceives nothing but a shout and a call. He said: and the Arabs call that the echo.
* * *
This āya may, according to this interpretation, also be understood in another way than that, namely that its meaning is: the likeness of those who disbelieve in their invoking of their gods that do not understand their invocation is as the likeness of one who calls out to his flock in a place where his flock does not hear his voice, so that it derives no benefit at all from his calling out, except that he wears himself out with calling and invoking. So too the disbeliever, in his invoking of his gods, merely wears himself out with his invoking of them and his calling them thereto, and it benefits him nothing.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The most fitting interpretation of the āya, in my view, is the first interpretation, which Ibn ʿAbbās and those who agreed with him proclaimed, namely that the meaning of the āya is: the likeness of the admonition of the disbeliever and his admonisher is as the likeness of one who calls out to his flock and his calling them thereto; for it hears his calling out but does not understand his words, as we have explained earlier.
As for the permissibility of omitting "admonition" — with the likeness serving as a sufficient substitute for it — concerning that we have already given an exposition at His words: مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي اسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًا ("Their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindled a fire") (sūrat al-Baqara: 17), and at other similar āyāt, with what therein is sufficient to make repetition superfluous. (16)
* * *
We have chosen this interpretation only because this āya was revealed concerning the Jews, and them did Allah, exalted is His mention, intend by it. The Jews were not adherents of idols that they worshipped, nor adherents of false gods that they venerated and from whom they hoped for benefit or the warding off of harm. And since that is so, there is no ground for the interpretation of those who interpreted this in the meaning of: the likeness of those who disbelieve in their calling upon the gods and their invoking of them.
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If someone were to say: and what is your evidence that by this āya the Jews are intended?
Then it is said: our evidence for that is the āyāt that precede it and that follow it, for they are intended by it. So it is more correct and more fitting that what lies between those [āyāt] is a report about them, than that it should be a report about others, until clear proofs demonstrate that the report turns away from them to others. This, alongside what we have mentioned of the reports of those of whom we mentioned that they [judged] that it [the āya] was revealed concerning them, and the narration that we have transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the āya which precedes this āya was revealed concerning them. (17) And in agreement with what we have said, namely that by this āya the Jews are intended, ʿAṭāʾ used to say:
2463 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: ʿAṭāʾ said to me concerning this āya: it is the Jews, concerning whom Allah revealed: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَا أَنْـزَلَ اللَّهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَشْتَرُونَ بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلا ("Indeed, those who conceal what Allah has sent down of the Book and exchange it for a paltry price") up to His words: فَمَا أَصْبَرَهُمْ عَلَى النَّارِ ("How persevering they are against the Fire!") (sūrat al-Baqara: 174-175).
* * *
As for His words "yanʿiq" (calls out): that means that he makes a sound at the flock; [the verbal noun is] "al-naʿīq" and "al-nuʿāq" (the calling out). To this belongs the verse of al-Akhṭal:
So call out to your sheep, O Jarīr, for indeed, your soul has shown you in solitude nothing but error. (18)
He means: make a sound at them.
* * *
Discussion of the interpretation of His, the Exalted's, words: صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لا يَعْقِلُونَ ("Deaf, dumb, blind; therefore they do not understand") (171).
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words "Deaf, dumb, blind", exalted is His mention, He means these disbelievers, whose likeness is as the likeness of one who calls out to [cattle] that hear nothing but a shout and a call: "deaf" to the truth, so that they do not hear it; "dumb" — that is to say: speechless with respect to proclaiming the truth and what is right, and acknowledging that which Allah commanded them to acknowledge, and making clear that which Allah, exalted is His mention, commanded them to make clear to the people concerning the affair of Muḥammad, may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him; so they do not utter it, do not say it, and do not make it clear to the people; "blind" to the guidance and the path of the truth, so that they do not see it. (19) As:
2464 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, [concerning] His words: "Deaf, dumb, blind" — he says: deaf to the truth, so that they do not hear it, derive no benefit from it, and do not understand it; blind to the truth and the guidance, so that they do not see it; dumb with respect to the truth, so that they do not utter it.
2465 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Deaf, dumb, blind" — he says: with respect to the truth.
2466 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "Deaf, dumb, blind" — he says: they do not hear the guidance, do not see it, and do not understand it.
* * *
As for the nominative case (rafʿ) in His words "Deaf, dumb, blind": it accrues to it on account of the beginning [of a new sentence] and the resumption; this is indicated by His statement "therefore they do not understand", as one says in common usage: "he is deaf, he does not hear; and he is dumb, he does not speak." (20)
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The footnotes:
(8) The report 2451: this is a report with a collapsed isnād. As for "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zurayʿ", the teacher of al-Ṭabarī: I have not found his biography. Al-Ṭabarī narrates [elsewhere] from "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buzayʿ", and I cannot determine with certainty that he is the same; the name of his grandfather is corrupted. As for "Yūsuf ibn Khālid al-Samtī": he is extremely weak (ḍaʿīf jiddan). Ibn Maʿīn said of him: "a liar, a heretic (zindīq), whose narration is not recorded." With someone like him one does not occupy oneself. He has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, al-Kabīr 4/2/388, Ibn Saʿd 7/2/47, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/2/221-222. "Al-Samtī": with fatḥa on the sīn and sukūn on the mīm, an attribution to outward appearance and demeanor (al-samt wa-l-hayʾa). Ibn Saʿd said: "He was called al-Samtī — on account of his beard, his demeanor, and his bearing"!! Nāfiʿ ibn Mālik: that is al-Aṣbaḥī, Abū Suhayl, and he is the uncle of imam Mālik ibn Anas; he is a trustworthy tābiʿī (thiqa). He has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, al-Kabīr 4/2/86, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/1/453.
(9) The source of this verse has already been mentioned earlier in this volume: 281, footnote 1; and this view in the interpretation of the āya has been mentioned by al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān 1:100.
(10) His dīwān: 90. It comes again [further on] in the tafsīr 30:146 (Būlāq edition), and in Majāz al-Qurʾān: 65, Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1:99, Mushkil al-Qurʾān: 151, al-Inṣāf: 164, Amālī Ibn al-Shajarī 1:52, 324, Amālī al-Sharīf 1:202, 216, and Muʿjam mā staʿjam: 1238. It is from a poem of which a verse has already been mentioned in this volume: 213. His expression "dhī al-maṭāra" (with fatḥa on the mīm) is the name of a mountain. "ʿĀqil": that which has entrenched itself on the summit of the mountain, sought refuge there, clung fast there, and made itself impregnable. "Al-waʿil" (the ibex): the mountain goat, which entrenches itself with its hiding place against the hunter. Al-Bakrī has mentioned that he saw in [the work of] Ibn al-Aʿrābī that he, with "dhī al-muṭāra" (with ḍamma on the mīm), means his she-camel, and that she is "muṭāra" of heart, that is to say of liveliness and exuberance; and that by it he means what lies upon her of saddle and equipment. He says: it is as though I am upon the saddle of this she-camel and in a hiding place of fear and dread.
(11) Al-Nābigha al-Jaʿdī.
(12) It comes again [further on] in the tafsīr 2:198, 327 (Būlāq), Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1:99, 131, Mushkil al-Qurʾān: 153, al-Inṣāf: 165, Amālī al-Sharīf 1:216, al-Ṣāḥibī: 172, Simṭ al-laʾālī: 368, and al-Lisān (entry z-n-y). Al-Ṭabarī said in 2:327: "he means: as the stoning was the obligatory [punishment] of the prescribed penalty (ḥadd) for fornication."
(13) It comes again [further on] in the tafsīr (2:198 Būlāq), Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1:99, 131, Amālī al-Sharīf 1:216, and al-Lisān (entry ḥ-l-w). One says: "There is no one in the tribe whom my eye 'tajhuru-hu'", that is to say: who fills my eye and pleases me. And in the narration concerning the description of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah's blessings and peace be upon him, ʿAlī says: "He was neither short nor tall, and he inclined more toward the tall. Whoever saw him 'jahara-hu'", that is to say: he became great in his eye.
(14) This foregoing is more than the statement of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān 1:99.
(15) This belongs to the literal text of the statement of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān: 63-64.
(16) See what has gone before 1:318-328, and look that up in the Arabic index of the preceding volumes.
(17) This is a difficult place in the words of Abū Jaʿfar, may Allah be pleased with him; he ought to have clarified it more extensively. For the beginning of his statement requires that all the āyāt that precede this āya were revealed concerning the Jews, and that is not so. Then he says again a little later: "This, alongside the narration that we have transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the āya which precedes this āya was revealed concerning them" — that is to say: concerning the Jews. And if it were as is understood from the beginning of his statement, then for his subsequent explicit mention that the āya which "precedes this āya" was revealed concerning them, according to what is transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, there would be no intelligible meaning. It appears that Abū Jaʿfar meant to say: that the preceding āyāt were revealed concerning the Jews — except for the last āyāt, from the beginning of His words "Indeed, those who disbelieve and die while they are disbelievers" up to His words "and your god is one god" (163-170); for these were revealed concerning the disbelievers of the Arabs, and Ibn ʿAbbās mentioned that the last āya (170) was likewise revealed concerning the Jews. Then the āyāt thereafter are undoubtedly about the Jews and the People of the Book, and therefore he understood the meaning of this āya such that the Jews are intended by it. It is as though he made the āyāt of (163-169) a parenthetical clause within the narrating of one single matter, namely the matter of the Jews. If that is not so, then I do not know how his words cohere. For ever since he began with the interpretation of these āyāt of 163-169 he has mentioned nothing but the idolaters (ahl al-shirk) alone, and he has set forth that by His, the Exalted's, words "O mankind, eat of what is lawful and good on the earth" are intended those who had forbidden for themselves the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, and the waṣīla [certain categories of cattle from the pagan era]. (p. 300). Then he came, at the interpretation of His, the Exalted's, words "and that you say about Allah what you do not know", back and said: that is what they used to forbid of baḥīra, sāʾiba, waṣīla, and ḥāmī (p. 303). And the Jews — just as they were not adherents of idols that they worshipped, nor of false gods that they venerated, as Abū Jaʿfar said — so too they did not forbid any baḥīra, nor any sāʾiba, nor any waṣīla, as is mentioned in the interpretation of the preceding āyāt. This is therefore a contradiction on his part, may Allah have mercy on him — unless one understands his words with the exception of the āyāt of which it was mentioned that he interpreted them such that the idolaters among the Arabs are intended by them, those who had forbidden for themselves the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, and the waṣīla. The correct judgment, in my view, is that this āya connects to the preceding āyāt, and that its matter resembles the matter of what precedes it, in the mention of the idolaters to whom Allah said: "O mankind, eat of what is lawful and good on the earth", and that the return to the matter of the People of the Book begins at the beginning of His, the Exalted's, words "Indeed, those who conceal what Allah has sent down of the Book" and the āyāt that follow upon it. See also what comes [further on]: 317, for he there returned and made the āya specific to the idolaters of the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya), by mentioning what they had forbidden for themselves of food, and that is a grave contradiction.
(18) His dīwān: 50, Naqāʾiḍ Jarīr wa-l-Akhṭal: 81, Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarāʾ: 429, Majāz al-Qurʾān: 64, and al-Lisān (entry n-ʿ-q). His verses from it have already been mentioned in 2:38-39, 492, 496, and in this volume 3:294. He had earlier mentioned the wars of his tribal group Banū Taghlib, and then said to Jarīr: you are merely a shepherd, so make a sound at your flock and leave the wars and the mention of them be; for you have no knowledge of them, nor did your forefathers. And everything that your soul presents to you concerning that is error and falsehood.
(19) See the interpretation of "deaf", "dumb", "blind" in what has gone before 1:328-331. Abū Jaʿfar here understood the meaning of the āya such that he intended by it the Jews and the People of the Book. See the preceding note p. 314, no. 1.
(20) See the grammatical (naḥw) parsing of it at the other āya in what has gone before 1:329-330.
