Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:18
Deaf, dumb and blind - so they will not return [to the right path].
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 discourse on the explanation of the saying of Allah: صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لا يَرْجِعُونَ (18)
صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لا يَرْجِعُونَ (Deaf, dumb, blind — therefore they do not return) (18)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Since the explanation of the saying of Allah — exalted be His praise —: ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ لا يُبْصِرُونَ ("Allah takes away their light and leaves them in darknesses wherein they do not see") is that which we have described — namely that this is a report from Allah, exalted be His praise, concerning what He will do to the hypocrites (munāfiqūn) in the Hereafter, in the stripping away of their coverings, the disclosing of the disgraceful things of their secrets, and the depriving them of the brightness of their lights, in that He leaves them in the darknesses of the terrors of the Day of Resurrection wherein they wander to and fro, and in its pitch-black nights wherein they do not see — thus it is clear that His saying, exalted be His praise: "Deaf, dumb, blind — therefore they do not return" belongs to that which is placed afterward but whose meaning is foremost. The meaning of the saying is thus: they are those who purchased error in place of guidance, but their trade brought no profit and they were not rightly guided, deaf, dumb, blind — therefore they do not return; their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindled a fire, and when it illuminated his surroundings, Allah took away their light and left them in darknesses wherein they do not see, or as a downpour from the sky.
And since this is the meaning of the saying, it is known that His saying: "Deaf, dumb, blind" may take the case of rafʿ (nominative) in two ways and the case of naṣb (accusative) in two ways:
As for the first of the two ways of rafʿ: it is on the basis of an independent commencement (istiʾnāf), because of the censure (dhamm) it contains. The Arabs sometimes do this in praise and censure, that they use the naṣb or the rafʿ, even though it concerns a report about a particular, known thing (maʿrifa), as the poet said:
"May my people not perish, they who are the poison to the enemies and the affliction to the slaughter-camels,
they who descend upon every battlefield and are pure at the place where the loincloths are knotted."
It is recited both as "al-nāzilūn" (nominative) and "al-nāzilīn" (accusative), and likewise "al-ṭayyibūn" and "al-ṭayyibīn", in the manner of the praise which I have described.
The other way: on the basis of the intended repetition of أُولَئِكَ ("these"), so that the meaning then is: they are those who purchased error in place of guidance, but their trade brought no profit and they were not rightly guided; these are deaf, dumb, blind — therefore they do not return.
As for the first of the two ways of naṣb: that it is a severance (qaṭʿ, i.e. a circumstantial qualifier) from that which is contained in مُهْتَدِينَ ("rightly guided") of the mention of أُولَئِكَ ("these"), because that which is contained therein of their mention is a particular, known thing (maʿrifa), whereas "al-ṣumm" (the deaf) is indefinite (nakira).
The other: that it is a severance from الَّذِينَ ("those who"), because الَّذِينَ is a particular, known thing (maʿrifa) and "al-ṣumm" is indefinite (nakira).
It is also permissible that the naṣb therein be on the basis of censure (dhamm), and that would then be a third way of naṣb.
As for, however, the explanation which we have transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās, by a route other than the transmission of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa from him, in it the rafʿ is permissible only in one way, namely the independent commencement (istiʾnāf).
As for the naṣb, it is permissible therein in two ways: the one is censure (dhamm), and the other is the severance from the "hāʾ and mīm" (the suffix "them") which is in "tarakahum" ("He left them"), or from their mention in لا يُبْصِرُونَ ("they do not see").
We have already set forth which saying is the most correct in the explanation thereof. And the recitation that is the [correct] recitation is the rafʿ and not the naṣb, because it is not permissible for anyone to deviate from the script of the codices (maṣāḥif) of the Muslims. And if one were to recite it in the naṣb, that would be a recitation contrary to the script of their codices.
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a report from Allah, exalted be His praise, concerning the hypocrites (munāfiqūn): that they, through their purchase of error in place of guidance, were not rightly guided to guidance and the truth, but that they are deaf to it and therefore do not hear it, because of the overpowering of Allah's forsaking (khidhlān) over them; dumb regarding the uttering of it and therefore do not utter it — and al-bukm means dumbness (al-khurs), it is the plural of abkam — blind to seeing it and therefore to comprehending it, because Allah has sealed their hearts on account of their hypocrisy (nifāq), so that they are not rightly guided.
And in accordance with that which we have said concerning it, the people of explanation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken:
398 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman (mawlā) of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "Deaf, dumb, blind" — to the good.
399 — Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ 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 comprehend it.
400 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report which 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, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "dumb", they are the mute.
401 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying "Deaf, dumb, blind": deaf to the truth and therefore not hearing it, blind to the truth and therefore not seeing it, dumb to the truth and therefore not uttering it.
The discourse on the explanation of His saying: فَهُمْ لا يَرْجِعُونَ (18)
فَهُمْ لا يَرْجِعُونَ (Therefore they do not return) (18)
Abū Jaʿfar said: And His saying "therefore they do not return" is a report from Allah, exalted be His praise, concerning these hypocrites (munāfiqūn) — whom Allah has characterized by their purchase of error in place of guidance, their deafness to the hearing of the good and the truth, their dumbness regarding the uttering of it, and their blindness to seeing both — that they do not return to abandon their error, and show no repentance by turning away from their hypocrisy (nifāq). Thus He has deprived the believers of the hope that these would see uprightness, or speak the truth, or hear a caller to guidance, or that they would let themselves be admonished and show repentance for their error, just as He has deprived [them] of the hope for the repentance of the leaders of the unbelieving (kuffār) People of the Book and the polytheists (mushrikīn) and their scholars, whom He has characterized in that He has sealed their hearts and their hearing and laid a covering over their eyes.
And in accordance with that which we have said in the explanation thereof, the people of explanation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
402 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda: "therefore they do not return", that is to say: they show no repentance and do not let themselves be admonished.
403 — And Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report which 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, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "therefore they do not return": they do not return to Islam.
And there has been transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās a saying whose meaning is contrary to the meaning of this report, and that is what:
404 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman (mawlā) of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "therefore they do not return", that is to say: they do not return to guidance nor to the good, and they attain no deliverance so long as they remain in the state in which they are.
And this is an explanation whose contrary is indicated by the manifest wording of the recitation. That is because Allah, exalted be His praise, has reported concerning the people that they do not return — from their purchase of error in place of guidance — to the seeking of guidance and the seeing of the truth, without His, exalted be His mention, restricting this in their state to one time to the exclusion of another, or to one state to the exclusion of another. This report which we have mentioned concerning Ibn ʿAbbās, however, indicates that this of their characteristic is restricted to one time — namely so long as they persist in their affair — and that there is for them a way to return from it. And that is, as far as the explanation is concerned, a null assertion, for which there exists no indication, neither from the manifest wording, nor from a report by which such a proof could be established so that it might be accepted.
