Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:175
Those are the ones who have exchanged guidance for error and forgiveness for punishment. How patient they are in pursuit of the Fire!
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 saying, the Exalted: أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلالَةَ بِالْهُدَى وَالْعَذَابَ بِالْمَغْفِرَةِ ("Those are they who have purchased error for guidance and chastisement for forgiveness").
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His saying — "Those are they who have purchased error for guidance" — He means, exalted is His mention: they are those who have taken error and abandoned guidance, and who have taken that which makes them deserve the chastisement (ʿadhāb) of Allah on the Day of Resurrection, and who have abandoned that which would make them deserve His forgiveness and good pleasure. He contented Himself with mentioning "the chastisement" and "the forgiveness" without naming the cause that brings about deserving these two, because those who hear it understand its meaning and its intent. We have already expounded the parallels of this earlier. And likewise we have already expounded earlier the import of "they have purchased error for guidance," together with the disagreements of those who differ, and with the corroborating evidence for the position we have chosen; therefore we deemed it undesirable to repeat this.
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The statement concerning the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: فَمَا أَصْبَرَهُمْ عَلَى النَّارِ ("How steadfast they are toward the Fire!") (175).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the explanation of this. Some of them said that the meaning of this is: how audacious they are in performing the deed that brings them near to the Fire (al-nār).
* Mention of who said that:
2500 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he says: how audacious they are in performing the deed that brings them near to the Fire.
2501 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he says: how audacious they are toward it.
2502 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Bishr, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His saying: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he said: by Allah, they have no steadfastness toward it, but rather how audacious they are toward the Fire.
2503 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, saying: Misʿar related to us = and al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Bukayr related to us, saying: Misʿar related to us =, on the authority of Ḥammād, on the authority of Mujāhid, or Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, or one of his companions: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — how audacious they are.
2504 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His saying: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he says: how audacious and how persistent they are toward the Fire.
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Others said: Rather the meaning of this is: how greatly they perform the deeds of the people of the Fire.
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* Mention of who said that:
2505 — 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, concerning His saying: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he said: how greatly they perform falsehood.
2506 — 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, the like of it.
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They differed concerning the explanation of the "mā" in His saying: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire." Some of them said: it has the meaning of a question, as though He said: what then is it that makes them steadfast? What thing makes them steadfast?
* Mention of who said that:
2507 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — this is by way of a question. He says: what is it that makes them steadfast toward the Fire?
2508 — ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad related to me, saying: Ḥajjāj al-Aʿwar related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, saying: ʿAṭāʾ said to me: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he said: what makes them steadfast toward the Fire, while they have abandoned the truth and followed falsehood?
2509 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh was asked about: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he said: this is a question, and if it were from steadfastness (ṣabr), he would have said: "fa-mā aṣbaru-hum," with the u-vowel (in the nominative). He said: one says to a man: "mā aṣbaraka" — what is it that has done this to you?
2510 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he said: this is a question. He says: what is this that made them steadfast toward the Fire, until it made them audacious so that they performed this?
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Others said: it is an exclamation of wonder. That is to say: how intense is their audacity toward the Fire through their performing the deeds of the people of the Fire!
* Mention of who said that:
2511 — Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "How steadfast they are toward the Fire" — he said: how greatly they perform the deeds of the people of the Fire!
And this is the saying of al-Ḥasan and Qatāda, and we have already mentioned it earlier.
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Whoever said that it is an exclamation of wonder directed the explanation of the words: "Those are they who have purchased error for guidance and chastisement for forgiveness" — how intense is their audacity, through their performing what they have performed thereof, toward that which makes them deserve the Fire! Just as He, exalted is His mention, said: قُتِلَ الإِنْسَانُ مَا أَكْفَرَهُ ("Cursed be man, how ungrateful/disbelieving he is!") [Sūrat ʿAbasa: 17], as an exclamation of wonder at his disbelief in the One who created him and perfected his creation.
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As for those who directed the explanation of it to a question, the meaning of it is: these who have purchased error for guidance and chastisement for forgiveness — what makes them steadfast toward the Fire — while no one has steadfastness toward the Fire — until they have exchanged it for the forgiveness of Allah and taken it in its place in exchange?
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The most preferable of these statements for the explanation of the verse is the statement of whoever said: how audacious they are toward the Fire, in the meaning of: how audacious they are toward the chastisement of the Fire, and how greatly they perform the deeds of its inhabitants. That is because it has been transmitted from the Arabs: "mā aṣbara fulānan ʿalā Allah," in the meaning of: how audacious is so-and-so toward Allah! Allah causes His creatures to wonder only through making manifest the report about the people who conceal what Allah, blessed and exalted is He, has sent down concerning the affair of Muḥammad ﷺ and his prophethood, and about their purchasing — through concealing that — a paltry price of unlawfully acquired goods and bribes that were given to them — by way of wonder at their audacity toward that — despite their knowledge that this makes them deserve the wrath of Allah and His painful chastisement.
The meaning of that is in truth: how audacious they are toward the chastisement of the Fire! But one contented oneself with mentioning "the Fire" without naming "its chastisement," as one says: "mā ashbaha sakhāʾaka bi-Ḥātim" (how greatly your generosity resembles that of Ḥātim), in the meaning of: how greatly your generosity resembles the generosity of Ḥātim; and "how greatly your courage resembles that of ʿAntara."
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The footnotes:
(35) See what has already preceded in the registers of the linguistic investigations.
(36) See what has already preceded 1: 311-315.
(37) That is the statement of Abū ʿUbayda in Majāz al-Qurʾān: 64.
(38) See what has already preceded under number: 2501, 2502.
(39) See the report about that in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 103.
(40) "Qaddama," "taqaddama," "aqdama" and "istaqdama" all have one and the same meaning, when someone is audacious and recklessly plunges into it.
(41) See likewise Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 103.
