Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:199
Then depart from the place from where [all] the people depart and ask forgiveness of Allah. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
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 explanation of the saying of the Exalted: ثُمَّ أَفِيضُوا مِنْ حَيْثُ أَفَاضَ النَّاسُ
(Then pour forth from where the people pour forth)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The exegetes have differed over the explanation of this: who is meant by the command to pour forth from where the people pour forth? And who are "the people" (al-nās) who were commanded to pour forth from the place from which they pour forth?
Some of them said: What is meant by His saying "Then pour forth" are the Quraysh and those whom the Quraysh had begotten, who in the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) were called "al-Ḥums." In Islam they were commanded to pour forth from ʿArafāt, which is the place from which all the remaining people, apart from the Ḥums, poured forth. That was because the Quraysh and those whom the Quraysh had begotten said: "We do not leave the sacred precinct (al-Ḥaram)." Therefore they were not present at the standing-place of the people at ʿArafa together with them, and then Allah commanded them to stand there together with them.
* Mention of who said that:
3831 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭufāwī related to us, saying: Hishām ibn ʿUrwa related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: The Quraysh and those who followed their religion – and they were the Ḥums – used to stand at al-Muzdalifa and say: "We are the community of Allah (qaṭīn Allāh)!", while the rest used to stand at ʿArafa. Then Allah revealed: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth."
3832 – ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith related to us, saying: my father related to me, saying: Abān related to us, saying: Hishām ibn ʿUrwa related to us, on the authority of ʿUrwa: that he wrote to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān: You have written to me about the saying of the Prophet ﷺ to a man of the Anṣār: "I am an Aḥmas." However, I do not know whether the Prophet said that or not; I only heard it related from her [ʿĀʾisha] on his authority. And the Ḥums: that is the religious community of the Quraysh – and they were polytheists (mushrikīn) – and those whom the Quraysh had begotten among Khuzāʿa and Banū Kināna. They did not depart from ʿArafa, but rather departed only from al-Muzdalifa, which is al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām. Banū ʿĀmir too were Ḥums, because the Quraysh had begotten them. To them it was said: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth", for all the Arabs poured forth from ʿArafa, except the Ḥums; they departed, as soon as they reached the morning, from al-Muzdalifa.
3833 – Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī related to me, saying: Abū Tawba related to us, saying: Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ḥusayn ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Arabs used to stand at ʿArafa, while the Quraysh used to stand at a lower place, at al-Muzdalifa. Then Allah revealed: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth", and the Prophet ﷺ raised the standing-place to the standing-place of the Arabs at ʿArafa.
3834 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth": from where the multitude of the people pours forth.
3835 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: al-Ḥakam related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Qays related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: When the day of ʿArafa arrives, Allah descends to the lowest heaven amid the angels and says: Come to Me, My servants, those who have believed in My promise and confirmed My messengers! Then He says: What is their reward? It is answered: That You forgive them. That is His saying: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth, and ask Allah for forgiveness; truly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."
3836 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ = and 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: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth", he said: ʿArafa. He said: The Quraysh said: "We, the Ḥums, are the inhabitants of the sacred precinct (al-Ḥaram); we do not leave the Ḥaram, and we pour forth from al-Muzdalifa." Thereupon they were commanded to proceed to ʿArafa.
3837 – Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth", Qatāda said: The Quraysh, and all their allies and the sons of their sisters, did not pour forth from ʿArafāt, but poured forth from al-Mughammis, and they said: "We are only the people of Allah, so we do not leave His sacred precinct." Then Allah commanded them to pour forth from where the people pour forth, namely from ʿArafāt, and He informed them that the transmitted practices (sunna) of Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl were thus: pouring forth from ʿArafāt.
3838 – Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth", he said: The Arabs used to stand at ʿArafāt, but the Quraysh deemed it beneath their dignity to stand together with them, so the Quraysh used to stand at al-Muzdalifa. Then Allah commanded them to pour forth together with the people from ʿArafāt.
3839 – 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, concerning His saying: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth", he said: The Quraysh, and every son of a sister and every ally of theirs, did not pour forth together with the people from ʿArafāt; they used to stand within the Ḥaram and not leave it, saying: "We are only the people of the sacred precinct of Allah, so we do not leave His Ḥaram." Then Allah commanded them to pour forth from where the people pour forth; for the transmitted practices (sunna) of Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl were the pouring forth from ʿArafāt.
3840 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ, who said: The Quraysh – I do not know whether it was before or after [the year of] the Elephant – devised the matter of the Ḥums, an opinion which they agreed upon among themselves. They said: We are the descendants of Ibrāhīm, the people of the sacred place, the custodians of the House, the dwellers and inhabitants of Mecca. None of the Arabs has a right equal to ours, nor a rank equal to ours, and the Arabs accord to no one what they accord to us. Therefore do not magnify anything of the non-sacred territory (al-ḥill) as you magnify the sacred precinct (al-Ḥaram), for if you do that, the Arabs will belittle your sacred place. And they said: They had magnified something of the non-sacred territory as they magnified the sacred precinct. Therefore they abandoned the standing at ʿArafa and the pouring forth from there, while they acknowledged and confessed that it belonged to the sacred sites (al-mashāʿir), to the pilgrimage (ḥajj), and to the religion of Ibrāhīm, and they held that the rest of the people should stand there and pour forth from there. Only they said: We are the people of the sacred precinct, so it does not befit us to leave the sacred place, nor to magnify anything else as we magnify it, we, the Ḥums – and the Ḥums: those are the people of the Ḥaram.
Then they accorded to those among the Arabs whom they had begotten and who dwelt in the non-sacred territory the same status that they themselves had, on account of the fact that they had begotten them: thus there was made lawful for them what was lawful for themselves, and there was made unlawful for them what was unlawful for themselves. And Kināna and Khuzāʿa had gone along with them in that. Then they devised in it matters that had not existed before, until they said: "It does not befit the Ḥums to prepare aqiṭ (dried curd-cheese), nor to cook butter while they are in a state of consecration (iḥrām), nor to enter a tent of hair (wool), nor to seek shade – if they seek shade at all – except in tents of leather, while they are in a state of consecration." Then they went even further in it and said: "It does not befit the people of the non-sacred territory to eat of food that they have brought from the non-sacred territory into the sacred precinct, when they come as pilgrims (ḥajj) or for the lesser pilgrimage (ʿumra); and they may not, when they arrive, perform their first circumambulation of the House except in the garments of the Ḥums, and if they can find none of that, then they circumambulate the House naked." They compelled the Arabs to this, and they submitted to it and accepted what they had prescribed for them. Thus they continued in that, until Allah sent Muḥammad ﷺ, and Allah – when He had established His religion for him and prescribed his pilgrimage – revealed: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth, and ask Allah for forgiveness; truly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful" – by which the Quraysh are meant, and "the people" are the [remaining] Arabs. Thus He raised them in the transmitted practices of the pilgrimage to ʿArafāt, the standing there, and the pouring forth from there. Thus Allah abolished the matter of the Ḥums – and what the Quraysh had devised of it – for the people through Islam, when Allah sent His messenger.
3841 – Baḥr ibn Naṣr related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb related to us, saying: Ibn Abī al-Zinād informed me, on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: The Quraysh used to stand at Quzaḥ, while the people used to stand at ʿArafa. He said: Then Allah revealed it: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth."
* * *
Others said: Those addressed by His saying "Then pour forth" are all the Muslims together, and what is meant by His saying "from where the people pour forth" is [to pour forth] from Jamʿ [= al-Muzdalifa], and by "the people" is meant Ibrāhīm, the friend of the Most Merciful, peace be upon him.
* Mention of who said that:
3842 – It was related to me on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, saying: Hārūn ibn Muʿāwiya al-Fazārī related to us, on the authority of Abū Basṭām, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said: It is Ibrāhīm.
Abū Jaʿfar said: What we consider correct concerning the explanation of this verse is that by this verse the Quraysh are meant, and those among the remaining Arabs who had joined themselves to the Ḥums, on account of the consensus of the proof among the exegetes that this is its explanation.
Since that is so, the explanation of the verse is: "And whoever among those [months] undertakes the pilgrimage as an obligation, for him there is no sexual intercourse, nor licentious conduct (fusūq), nor dispute during the pilgrimage; then pour forth from where the people pour forth, and ask Allah for forgiveness – truly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful – and whatever good you do, Allah knows it."
This, if its explanation is as we have described, belongs to that which is placed first while its meaning is placed last, and that which is placed last while its meaning is placed first, in the manner that we have set forth earlier regarding something similar. And were it not for the consensus whose agreement I have described, that this is its explanation, I would say: The correct of the two explanations for the explanation of the verse is what al-Ḍaḥḥāk said, namely that Allah by His saying "from where the people pour forth" meant: from where Ibrāhīm poured forth. For the pouring forth from ʿArafāt is undoubtedly before the pouring forth from Jamʿ [= al-Muzdalifa], and before the obligation of the remembrance at al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām. Since that is undoubtedly so, and Allah – mighty and exalted is He – only commanded pouring forth from the place from which the people poured forth, after the completion of the mention of the pouring forth from ʿArafāt, and after His command to remember Him at al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām, and He thereafter said: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth" – then from that it was known that He only commanded pouring forth from the place from which they had not yet poured forth, and not from the place from which they had already poured forth. For the place from which they had already poured forth and whose time of pouring forth had already elapsed, of that there is no ground to say: "Pour forth from there."
Since, then, there is no ground for that, and it is inadmissible that Allah – mighty and exalted is He – should command something that has no meaning, the correctness of what he [al-Ḍaḥḥāk] said concerning its explanation would be clear, and the untenability of what contradicts it – were it not for the consensus that we have described and the abundant concurrence of the reports with that which we have mentioned from those whose statement we have transmitted among the exegetes.
* * *
If someone were to say to us: How can it be admissible that its meaning is that, when "the people" (al-nās) is a plural, and Ibrāhīm ﷺ is one person, and Allah – exalted be His mention – says: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth"?
Then it is answered: The Arabs do that frequently: they indicate the singular by the mention of the plural. Among that is the saying of Allah – mighty and exalted is He: الَّذِينَ قَالَ لَهُمُ النَّاسُ إِنَّ النَّاسَ قَدْ جَمَعُوا لَكُمْ [Āl ʿImrān: 173] (Those to whom the people said: "Truly, the people have gathered against you"), while the one who said that was one person, namely – according to what the transmission among the biographers frequently confirms – Nuʿaym ibn Masʿūd al-Ashjaʿī. Among that is also the saying of Allah – mighty and exalted is He: يَا أَيُّهَا الرُّسُلُ كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا [al-Muʾminūn: 51] (O messengers, eat of the good things and do righteous deeds), of which it is said: by it the Prophet ﷺ is meant. Examples of that in the language of the Arabs are more numerous than can be counted.
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَاسْتَغْفِرُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ (199)
(And ask Allah for forgiveness; truly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means – exalted be His praise: When you then pour forth from ʿArafāt, on the way to Minā, then remember Allah at al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām, and call upon Him and worship Him there, just as He has guided you with His guidance and favored you with that with which He pleased His friend (khalīl) Ibrāhīm, and to which He guided him of the prescriptions of His religion – after you had strayed from it.
* * *
Concerning "thumma" (then/thereupon) in His saying ثُمَّ أَفِيضُوا مِنْ حَيْثُ أَفَاضَ النَّاسُ there are two possible explanations:
The first is what al-Ḍaḥḥāk said, namely that the meaning is: Then pour forth and return to Minā from where My friend Ibrāhīm poured forth, from al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām, and ask Me for forgiveness for your sins, for I am Forgiving of that and Merciful toward you. As:
3843 – Ismāʿīl ibn Sayf al-ʿIjlī related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn al-Sarī al-Sulamī related to us, saying: Ibn Kināna – who bears the patronymic Abū Kināna – related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: I asked Allah on the day of ʿArafa to forgive my community its sins, and He answered me that He had already forgiven [them], except its sins between it and My creatures among themselves. Then I repeated the supplication that day, but I was answered with nothing. When the morning of al-Muzdalifa came, I said: O Lord, You are able to compensate the wronged one for the wrong done to him, and to forgive this wrongdoer! And He answered me that He had already forgiven [him]. He said: Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ laughed. We said: O Messenger of Allah, we saw you laugh on a day on which you do not usually laugh! He said: "I laughed at the enemy of Allah, Iblīs, when he heard what he heard, while he was calling out for ruin and destruction and throwing dust upon his head."
3844 – Muslim ibn Ḥātim al-Anṣārī related to me, saying: Bashshār ibn Bukayr al-Ḥanafī related to us – both said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawwād related to us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered an address to us on the evening of ʿArafa and said: "O people, truly, Allah has favored you in this standing-place of yours: He has accepted the doer of good among you, and granted the doer of good what he asked for, and bestowed the doer of evil among you upon the doer of good among you – except the claims that exist among you mutually. Pour forth in the name of Allah." When the morning of Jamʿ [= al-Muzdalifa] came, he said: "O people, truly, Allah has favored you in this standing-place of yours: He has accepted the doer of good among you, and bestowed the doer of evil upon the doer of good among you, and the claims that exist among you mutually, He has taken upon Himself their compensation from what is His. Pour forth in the name of Allah." His companions said: O Messenger of Allah, yesterday you let us pour forth while you were dejected and grieved, and today you let us pour forth while you are joyful and glad! The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I asked my Lord yesterday for something that He did not wish to grant me: I asked Him for [forgiveness of] the claims, and He refused me. But when it was today, Jibrīl came to me and said: Truly, your Lord conveys peace to you and says: The claims – I have guaranteed their compensation from what is Mine."
* * *
These two reports make clear that Allah's forgiveness of the claims that exist among His creatures mutually takes place precisely on the morning of Jamʿ [= al-Muzdalifa], and that is at the time of which He – exalted be His praise – said: "Then pour forth from where the people pour forth, and ask Allah for forgiveness" for your sins, for He is Forgiving of that at that moment, out of favor on His part toward you, Merciful with you.
* * *
The second of the two [explanations]: "Then pour forth" from ʿArafa to al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām, and when you have poured forth there from it [ʿArafa], then remember Allah there, just as He has guided you.
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Footnotes:
(88) Report 3831 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭufāwī, with a ḍamma on the ṭāʾ without a dot: trustworthy (thiqa), belonging to the teachers of Aḥmad, Ibn al-Madīnī, and others. The report is recorded by al-Bukhārī (8:139, Fatḥ) via Ibn al-Madīnī, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Khāzim, on the authority of Hishām, with the same chain, somewhat more extensive. Also recorded by Muslim (1:348) via Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, on the authority of Abū Muʿāwiya, that is Muḥammad ibn Khāzim, with the same chain. "Al-qaṭīn" is the designation for a group, whose singular is "qāṭin" and whose plural is "quṭṭān": those are the inhabitants of a house who reside settled in it and do not leave it. In their saying "We are the qaṭīn of Allah" something has been omitted, namely: the qaṭīn of the House of Allah and His sacred precinct. And if it is taken according to their saying that the qaṭīn are the servants, then the meaning would be: the servants of Allah and the custodians of the affair of His House, without any omission needing to be supposed. That too is a good [interpretation].
(89) See the previously mentioned reports, from no. 3077 to 3087, for in them stands the report about the Anṣārī and the saying of the Messenger of Allah to him.
(90) Report 3832 – Abān: that is Ibn Yazīd al-ʿAṭṭār, and he is trustworthy (thiqa), declared trustworthy by Ibn Maʿīn, al-Nasāʾī, and others. This report with this wording I have not found anywhere else. Its meaning is established in the report preceding it, and in another, more extensive report, recorded by al-Bukhārī (3:411–413, Fatḥ) via ʿAlī ibn Mushir, and by Muslim (348) via Abū Usāma – both on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, on the authority of his father. See also what has gone before at al-Ṭabarī: 3077–3087. And the saying of ʿUrwa here – "I only heard it related from her on his authority" – by it he means his maternal aunt, ʿĀʾisha, the mother of the believers, and that she transmitted that on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This is clear from the import of the saying and from all the remaining reports. It is possible that he referred to the two of them with the [singular] pronoun because they had been mentioned earlier in the question of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, which he answers with this saying.
(91) Report 3833 – Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī, teacher of al-Ṭabarī: he transmitted from him in the History (1:8, 17) under the name "Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb." Then in 1:67 under the name "Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī" as here. Then in 1:209 under the name "Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Ṭūsī." Thus it is established that he is the same person, and he is given a biography in al-Tahdhīb and in Taʾrīkh Baghdād (5:108–109), under the name "Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Nayzak ibn Ḥabīb, Abū Jaʿfar, known as al-Ṭūsī." He belongs to the teachers of al-Tirmidhī, and Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him among the trustworthy (al-thiqāt). And "Nayzak": with a kasra on the nūn and a fatḥa on the zāy, with a yāʾ between them, as fixed in al-Taqrīb and al-Khulāṣa. Abū Tawba: that is al-Rabīʿ ibn Nāfiʿ al-Ḥalabī, who settled at Ṭarsūs, and he is trustworthy, truthful, an authoritative proof (ḥujja), as Abū Ḥātim said, and he belongs to his teachers and those of imam Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, and others. Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī: that is the ḥāfiẓ, the authoritative proof, the imam of Islam, Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Asmāʾ ibn Khārija ibn Ḥiṣn, and he is the trustworthy, reliably regarded imam. His teacher Sufyān: that is al-Thawrī. Ḥusayn ibn ʿUbayd Allāh: that is Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, and he is weak (ḍaʿīf), declared weak by Ibn Maʿīn, Ibn al-Madīnī, Abū Ḥātim, and others. It is possible that he is here ascribed to his grandfather; earlier still the original reading was "ibn ʿAbd Allāh," which the copyists corrupted. I have established with certainty that it is he, because he is the one who transmits on the authority of ʿIkrima and from whom al-Thawrī transmits, as in his biography at Ibn Abī Ḥātim (1/2/57). Furthermore, in this generation of transmitters there is no one called "Ḥusayn ibn ʿUbayd Allāh"; indeed, there is in al-Tahdhīb, nor in al-Kabīr, nor at Ibn Abī Ḥātim, anyone so named. Indeed, in Lisān al-Mīzān there are transmitters with this name, but they all come after this generation. This report I have not found at anyone other than al-Ṭabarī, and al-Suyūṭī (1:227) ascribed it to no one else.
(92) In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām: "an opinion which they agreed upon and put into circulation."
(93) In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām: "and the inhabitants of Mecca and its dweller."
(94) In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām: "your sacred place."
(95) In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām: "yaʾtaqiṭū" (prepare aqiṭ). Iʾtaqaṭa al-aqiṭ: he made the aqiṭ. And al-aqiṭ: something that is made from churned milk, which is cooked and then left to stand until the whey runs out of it; it is specifically from camel's milk. And salaʾa al-samn: he cooked and processed the butter until he melted the butterfat. And "al-ḥurum" (with two ḍammas) is the plural of "ḥarām." A man [who is] ḥarām: someone in a state of consecration (muḥrim).
(96) "Rafaʿū fī dhālik": they added to it further and exaggerated.
(97) In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām: "from the non-sacred territory into the sacred precinct."
(98) This sentence does not occur in its literal wording in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām.
(99) In the printed edition: "his pilgrimage [ḥijja]," and in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām: "and prescribed for him the transmitted practices of his pilgrimage."
(100) The report 3840 – stands in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām (1:211–216), and in the Sīra there are additions; we have mentioned the differences above.
(101) The report – al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, with a tashdīd on the lām: that is Abū ʿUbayd, the imam, the authoritative proof, author of the book al-Amwāl and other works. Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya al-Fazārī: his biography has gone before at 1222 and 3322. In the printed edition there stands here "Hārūn" [in place of] "Marwān," and that is an obvious error. And "Marwān al-Fazārī" belongs to the teachers of al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, as in his engaging biography in Taʾrīkh Baghdād (12:403–406). Abū Basṭām: that is Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān al-Nabaṭī al-Balkhī, and he is trustworthy, as we have set forth in al-Musnad: 3107. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk: that is Ibn Muzāḥim al-Hilālī al-Khurāsānī, and he is trustworthy, as we mentioned in al-Musnad: 2262. To this report Ibn Kathīr (1:469) referred: that "Ibn Jarīr transmitted it exclusively on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim." Al-Suyūṭī (1:227) erred and mentioned it as a transmission of al-Ṭabarī on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās; it is possible that this occurred to him because of the numerous transmissions of al-Ḍaḥḥāk on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās.
(102) See the index of Arabic subjects in the two preceding volumes.
(103) See the index of Arabic subjects in the two preceding volumes.
(104) See al-Istīʿāb (301), Ibn Saʿd (2/1/42), and Taʾrīkh al-Ṭabarī (3:41–42). Al-Ṭabarī, however, did not follow this opinion in his explanation of the verse from Sūrat Āl ʿImrān (4:118–121, Būlāq).
(105) Al-Ṭabarī will return after a few lines and mention the continuation of the explanation of this part of the verse.
(106) Report 3843 – Ismāʿīl ibn Sayf al-ʿIjlī: I have not been able to establish his identity. In the biographical works I have found only "Ismāʿīl ibn Sayf, Abū Isḥāq" – thus in al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl of Ibn Abī Ḥātim (1/1/176), and that he [Ibn Abī Ḥātim] asked his father about him, whereupon he said: "He is unknown (majhūl)." He has a biography in Lisān al-Mīzān (1:409–410) – even two – and the ḥāfiẓ deemed it probable that it is one and the same person. As it appears to me, he belongs to this generation, but I do not dare to say with certainty that he is this teacher of al-Ṭabarī. ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn al-Sarī al-Sulamī al-Baṣrī: Ibn Maʿīn said: "sound (ṣāliḥ)," and Ibn Shāhīn mentioned him among the trustworthy. Ibn Kināna: that is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kināna ibn ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās, as his name appears from the source citation – hereafter – and as mentioned in the biographies. He is unknown (majhūl), as in al-Taqrīb and al-Khulāṣa; what is meant is that he is of unknown condition (majhūl al-ḥāl). In al-Tahdhīb: "al-Bukhārī said: his transmission has not been found authentic." Ibn Abī Ḥātim did not devote a biography to him, neither among the ʿAbādila nor among the "sons," although he mentioned him in the biography of his father, as will follow hereafter, and they did not name his son. I have found his patronymic "Abū Kināna" only in this place, so it is taken from here. His father "Kināna ibn al-ʿAbbās": al-Bukhārī gave him a biography in al-Kabīr (4/1/236) and said: "Kināna ibn ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās, on the authority of his father; from him his son transmitted." In a similar manner Ibn Abī Ḥātim gave him a biography (3/2/169). Both mentioned no criticism (jarḥ) concerning him and did not name his son. In a similar manner Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him among the trustworthy (p. 317), likewise without naming his son. Then he mentioned him in the book al-Majrūḥīn (folio 192) and said: "Kināna ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī, who transmits on the authority of his father and from whom his son transmits: very objectionable in his transmission (munkar al-ḥadīth jiddan). I do not know whether the confusion in his transmission comes from him or from his son. But from whichever of the two it comes, he is unsound as a proof in what he transmits, on account of the gravity of the objectionable matters (manākīr) that he has transmitted on the authority of the well-known [transmitters]"!! Thus Ibn Ḥibbān spoke with exaggeration, in a place where no exaggeration is fitting! For the learned ḥuffāẓ have mentioned for Kināna nothing other than this one transmission. And it is not objectionable as to its meaning, even though there clings to the chain of transmission up to him weakness on account of the unknown condition of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kināna. And about this Kināna Ibn Manda said: "It is said that Kināna had companionship [of the Prophet] (ṣuḥba)," and therefore the ḥāfiẓ mentioned him in al-Iṣāba (5:318) in the second category, among those who have seen [the Prophet], and he pointed out the error of Ibn Ḥibbān, in that the latter mentioned him [first] among the trustworthy "and then placed him out of heedlessness among the weak." The transmission is recorded by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in the supplements to al-Musnad (16276; 4:14–15, Ḥalabī edition) on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Nājī. And it is recorded by Ibn Māja (3013) on the authority of Ayyūb ibn Muḥammad al-Hāshimī. And it is recorded by al-Bayhaqī (5:118) via Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī – all three on the authority of ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn al-Sarī: "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kināna ibn ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī related to us" – and so on, as in the transmission of Ibn Māja. And in the two transmissions of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad and of al-Bayhaqī: "Ibn Kināna ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās related to me." Likewise Abū Dāwūd in the Sunan (5234) transmitted a portion of it, on the authority of ʿĪsā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Birkī and on the authority of Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī, both on the authority of ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn al-Sarī. Al-Mundhirī mentioned it in al-Targhīb wa-l-Tarhīb (2:127–128) as a transmission of Ibn Māja and then as a transmission of al-Bayhaqī. Then he cited from al-Bayhaqī his saying: "This transmission has numerous supporting testimonies (shawāhid), which we have mentioned in the book al-Baʿth. If it is found authentic through its supporting testimonies, then in it lies the proof. And if it is not found authentic, then Allah the Exalted has said: (And He forgives what is below that for whom He wills). And the wrong that some do to others is below the [level of] associating partners (shirk). End of citation." Al-Suyūṭī mentioned it (1:230) and also ascribed it to al-Ṭabarānī and to al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī in al-Mukhtāra.
(107) Report 3844 – Muslim ibn Ḥātim, Abū Ḥātim al-Anṣārī: trustworthy (thiqa), belonging to the teachers of Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī; declared trustworthy by al-Tirmidhī and al-Ṭabarānī. Bashshār ibn Bukayr al-Ḥanafī: after long searching and investigation I have not found a biography of him, so that I even thought it was [a corruption], were it not that I found him likewise mentioned in the chain of transmission of this report in al-Ḥilya of Abū Nuʿaym. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawwād al-Makkī: trustworthy, known for his piety, virtue, and god-fearingness. And whoever criticized him on account of his [theological] opinion has therein no valid argument. The transmission is recorded by Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilya (8:199) with two chains of transmission: via Abū Hishām ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Hārūn al-Ghassānī, and via Bashshār ibn Bukayr al-Ḥanafī – both on the authority of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawwād. Then he said: "The wording is that of Bashshār ibn Bukayr, and the transmission of Abū Hāshim contains abridgments ... Rare (gharīb); ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz stands alone with it, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, and he is not followed in it." Al-Mundhirī mentioned in al-Targhīb wa-l-Tarhīb (2:127) something of similar import, from a transmission of ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit, and then said: "al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Kabīr, and its transmitters are persons who are used as proof in the [collection of] the authentic [transmissions], except that among them is a man who is not named." Likewise al-Haythamī mentioned it in al-Zawāʾid (3:256–257). Then both of them mentioned thereafter a transmission of similar import from Anas ibn Mālik and ascribed it to Abū Yaʿlā. Al-Haythamī said: "In it occurs Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī, and he is weak." Likewise al-Suyūṭī mentioned them both (1:230) without exposition of their [weak] grounds.
