Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:2
This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah -
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 Allah, exalted be His praise: ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ ("That is the Book").
The majority of the exegetes (mufassirūn) say: the explanation of the saying of Allah, the Exalted, ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") is: "this Book."
* Mention of who said that:
247 – Hārūn ibn Idrīs al-Aṣamm al-Kūfī related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: "ذلك الكتاب ('That is the Book')", he said: that is "this Book."
248 – Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ informed us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, who said: "ذلك الكتاب ('That is the Book')" means: "this Book."
249 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, saying: al-Ḥakam ibn Ẓuhayr related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying "ذلك الكتاب ('That is the Book')", he said: "this Book."
250 – al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His saying "ذلك الكتاب ('That is the Book')": "this Book." He said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "ذلك الكتاب ('That is the Book')" means: "this Book."
If someone were to ask: how is it permissible that "ذلك" ("that") has the meaning "هذا" ("this")? For "هذا" ("this") is, without doubt, a pointing to something that is present and perceived by the eye, whereas "ذلك" ("that") is a pointing to something absent that is not present and not perceived.
The answer is: that is permissible, because everything that has passed — when it has come to an end shortly before the report about it — does indeed take on the meaning of something that is not present, yet it still counts as present for the one addressed. That is like the man who tells another a story, whereupon the listener says: "That, by Allah, is exactly as you said," and "This, by Allah, is as you said," and "It is, by Allah, as you have mentioned" — so he reports about it one time with the meaning of something absent, because it has already come to an end and passed, and another time with the meaning of something present, on account of the nearness of his answer to the words of the speaker, as though it had not yet come to an end. So it is also with "ذلك" ("that") in His saying ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book"). For when He, exalted be His mention, had made the letters الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) precede ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") — the variety of whose meanings we have already described as we have set forth — He said to His Prophet ﷺ: O Muḥammad, this which I have mentioned and made clear to you is the Book. Therefore it is fitting that "ذلك" ("that") is put in the place of "هذا" ("this"), because by it reference was made to the report about the meanings that His saying الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) comprised, after the report about it with الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) had come to an end. Thus, on account of the nearness of the report about it to its coming to an end, it became like something present to which reference is made; and He reported about it with "ذلك" ("that") on account of its having come to an end, whereby the report about it became like the report about something absent. The exegetes have rendered it as being in the meaning of "هذا" ("this"), on account of the nearness of the report about it to its coming to an end, so that it was like something perceived to which reference is made with "هذا" ("this") — in accordance with what we have described concerning the usage of speech that is current among people in their mutual conversations. And as He, exalted be His mention, has said: وَاذْكُرْ إِسْمَاعِيلَ وَالْيَسَعَ وَذَا الْكِفْلِ وَكُلٌّ مِنَ الأَخْيَارِ * هَذَا ذِكْرٌ [Surah Ṣād: 48, 49] ("And remember Ismāʿīl and al-Yasaʿ and Dhū al-Kifl; and all are among the best. This is a remembrance."). This, then, is what "ذلك" ("that") implies when "هذا" ("this") is meant by it.
It is possible that by His saying, exalted be His mention, ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") are meant the sūras that were sent down before Surah Al-Baqarah at Mecca and Medina. It is then as though He, exalted be His praise, said to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: O Muḥammad, know that what the sūras of the Book that I have sent down to you comprise is the Book about which there is no doubt. Thereafter the exegetes rendered it by stating that the meaning of "ذلك" ("that") is "this Book," since those sūras that were sent down before Surah Al-Baqarah belong to the whole of this entire Book of ours, which Allah, mighty and exalted, has sent down to our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ.
The first explanation is more in accordance with what the exegetes have said, because that is the clearest of the meanings of their statement that they have made about "ذلك" ("that").
Some have directed the meaning of "ذلك" ("that") toward something that corresponds to the meaning of the verse of Khufāf ibn Nudba al-Sulamī:
*And though the core of my cavalry was struck,* *yet I deliberately and with certainty chose Mālik as my aim.*
*I say to him, while the lance bends his back:* *"Behold Khufāf — verily, it is I, himself!"*
It is as though he meant: "Behold me; it is I, he." It is thus claimed that "ذلك الكتاب ('That is the Book')" in the meaning of "هذا" ("this") corresponds to this: Khufāf mentioned his own name in the manner of a report about something absent, while reporting about himself. Likewise "ذلك" ("that") was mentioned in the meaning of a report about something absent, while its intent is the pointing to something present and perceived.
The first statement, however, is more in accordance with the explanation of the Book, for the reasons we have mentioned.
Some have said: ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") — by it the Tawrāt and the Injīl are meant. And when the explanation of "ذلك" ("that") is directed in this manner, then there is no objection at all for the one who explains it so, because "ذلك" ("that") is then correctly a report about something absent.
* * *
The explanation of His saying: لا رَيْبَ فِيهِ ("No doubt therein").
The explanation of His saying "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')" is "no doubt about it." As:
251 – Hārūn ibn Idrīs al-Aṣamm related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')", he said: no doubt about it.
252 – Salām ibn Sālim al-Khuzāʿī related to me, saying: Khalaf ibn Yāsīn al-Kūfī related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawwād, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ: "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')", he said: no doubt about it.
253 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to me, saying: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, saying: al-Ḥakam ibn Ẓuhayr related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, he said: "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')" means: no doubt about it.
254 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn al-Hamdānī related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, in a narration 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 Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')" means: no doubt about it.
255 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl 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: "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')", he said: no doubt about it.
256 – al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')", he says: no doubt about it.
257 – al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')", he says: no doubt about it.
258 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, concerning His saying "لا ريب فيه ('No doubt therein')", he says: no doubt about it.
The [word rayb] is a verbal noun (maṣdar) of the expression of the speaker: "rābanī al-shayʾ yarībunī rayban" ("the matter made me doubt / disquieted me with doubt"). To this belongs the saying of Sāʿida ibn Juʾayya al-Hudhalī:
*They said: "We left the tribe behind, they had surrounded him;* *there is then no doubt that there lay one slain."*
It is also read as "ḥaṣarū" and "ḥaṣirū"; the pronunciation with fatḥa is more common, but the pronunciation with kasra is permissible. By his words "ḥaṣarū bihi" he means: they encircled him. And by his words "lā rayb" he means: no doubt about it. And by his words "an qad kāna thamma laḥīm" he means one slain; one says "qad luḥima" when someone has been killed.
The [pronominal] hāʾ in "فيه" ("therein") refers back to the Book, as though He said: there is no doubt about that Book that it is from Allah, a guidance (hudā) for the God-fearing.
The explanation of His saying, exalted be His praise: هُدًى ("a guidance").
259 – Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim al-Ghifārī related to me, saying: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Bayān, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī: "هدى ('a guidance')", he said: a guidance away from error.
260 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl al-Suddī, in a narration 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 Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "هدى للمتقين ('a guidance for the God-fearing')", he says: a light for the God-fearing.
The word hudā ("guidance") is in this place a maṣdar of your expression: "hadaytu fulānan al-ṭarīq" ("I showed so-and-so the way") — when you led him to it, pointed him to it, and made it clear to him — "ahdīhi hudan wa-hidāyatan."
If someone were to ask us: is the Book of Allah then only a light for the God-fearing, and only a guidance (rashād) for the believers? Then the answer is: that is as our Lord, mighty and exalted, has described it. If it were a light for others than the God-fearing, and a guidance for others than the believers, then Allah, mighty and exalted, would not have singled out the God-fearing by saying that it is a guidance for them, but He would have made it general for all who have been warned. But it is a guidance for the God-fearing, a healing for what is in the hearts of the believers, a deafness in the ears of the deniers, a blindness for the eyes of the repudiators, and a decisive proof (ḥujja) of Allah against the disbelievers (kāfir). Whoever believes in it is guided, and whoever rejects it is refuted by the proof.
His saying "هدى ('a guidance')" admits of several possible meanings:
The first of them: that it is in the accusative (naṣb), on account of the meaning of separation (qaṭʿ) from "the Book," because it is indefinite (nakira), while "the Book" is definite (maʿrifa). The explanation is then: الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm), ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book"), as guiding for the God-fearing. Therein "ذلك" ("that") is in the nominative by الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm), and الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) by "ذلك" ("that"), and "the Book" is an adjective (naʿt) to "ذلك" ("that").
It is also possible that it is in the accusative as a separation from the referring pronoun that refers to the Book in "فيه" ("therein"). Its meaning is then: الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm), that about which there is no doubt, guiding.
It is likewise possible that it is in the accusative in both of the preceding ways — that is, as a separation from the hāʾ in "فيه" ("therein") and from "الكتاب" ("the Book") — proceeding from the view that الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) is a complete sentence, as Ibn ʿAbbās said that its meaning is: "I am Allah; I know." Then ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") is a new, independent report (khabar mustaʾnaf), wherein "the Book" is in the nominative by "ذلك" ("that") and "ذلك" ("that") by "the Book," and "هدى ('guidance')" is a separation from "the Book." Another possibility is that "ذلك" ("that") is in the nominative by the pronoun hāʾ referring back to it in "فيه" ("therein"), and "the Book" is an adjective to it, while "guidance" is a separation from the hāʾ in "فيه" ("therein"). If, however, "guidance" is placed in the nominative position, then it is not permissible that ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") be anything other than a new, independent report, and that الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) be a complete sentence sufficient in itself — except in one way, namely that "هدى ('guidance')" is then placed in the nominative with the meaning of praise (madḥ), as Allah, mighty and exalted, has said: الم * تِلْكَ آيَاتُ الْكِتَابِ الْحَكِيمِ * هُدًى وَرَحْمَةً لِلْمُحْسِنِينَ [Surah Luqmān: 1-3] ("Alif-Lām-Mīm. Those are the verses of the wise Book. A guidance and a mercy for those who do good."), in the reading of the one who reads "رحمةٌ" ("mercy") in the nominative, as praise for the verses.
The nominative in "هدى ('guidance')" is then permissible in three ways: The first of them is what we have mentioned, namely that it is a new, independent praise. The second: that it is made a co-determiner in the nominative of "ذلك" ("that"), whereby "the Book" is an adjective to "ذلك" ("that"). The third: that it is made following (tābiʿ) upon the position of "لا ريب فيه ('no doubt therein')", whereby ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") is in the nominative by the referring pronoun in "فيه" ("therein"). It is then as He, exalted be His mention, has said: وَهَذَا كِتَابٌ أَنْـزَلْنَاهُ مُبَارَكٌ [Surah Al-Anʿām: 92] ("And this is a Book that We have sent down, blessed.").
One of the earlier scholars in the knowledge of Arabic among the Kūfans claimed that الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) is the co-determiner in the nominative of ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book"), with the meaning: "these letters belong to the letters of the alphabet; that is the Book that I promised you to reveal to you." Thereafter he broke that down again in his own words, and broke it down quickly, and tore down what he had built up, and tore it down quickly. For he claimed that the nominative in "هدى ('guidance')" is possible in two ways, and the accusative in two ways. And that one of the two ways of the nominative is: that "the Book" is an adjective to "ذلك" ("that") and "guidance" stands in the nominative position as a predicate (khabar) about "ذلك" ("that"), as though you said: "That is a guidance about which there is no doubt." He said: and if you make "لا ريب فيه ('no doubt therein')" its predicate, then you place "guidance" likewise in the nominative, by making it following upon the position of "لا ريب فيه ('no doubt therein')", as Allah, exalted be His praise, has said: وَهَذَا كِتَابٌ أَنْـزَلْنَاهُ مُبَارَكٌ ("And this is a Book that We have sent down, blessed."), as though He said: "And this is a Book, a guidance, whose characteristic is such and such." He said: as for one of the two ways of the accusative: that you make "the Book" the predicate about "ذلك" ("that") and place "guidance" in the accusative as a separation, because "guidance" is indefinite and joins with something definite, while its predicate has already been completed; therefore you place it in the accusative, because the indefinite cannot be a qualifier of the definite. And if you wish, you place "guidance" in the accusative as a separation from the hāʾ in "فيه" ("therein"), as though you said: "no doubt about it, while it guides."
Abū Jaʿfar [al-Ṭabarī] says: Thus he has abandoned the principle that he had established regarding الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) — namely that it is in the nominative by ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book") — and cast it behind his back. It was incumbent upon him, on the basis of the principle that he had established, to permit the nominative in "هدى ('guidance')" in no way at all, except in one way, and that is by means of the new, independent usage (istiʾnāf), since it is praise. But as for the way of the predicate about "ذلك" ("that"), or the way of the following upon the position of "لا ريب فيه ('no doubt therein')" — according to his own statement it was incumbent that it be an error. That is because, when الم (Alif-Lām-Mīm) is the co-determiner in the nominative of ذلك الكتاب ("That is the Book"), there is undoubtedly the case that "guidance" is then not permitted to be a predicate about "ذلك" ("that") in the meaning of its qualifier in the nominative, nor to be following upon the position of "لا ريب فيه ('no doubt therein')", because its position is then the accusative, on account of the completion of the predicate before it and its being cut off — by its deviation from it — from it.
The explanation of His saying, exalted be His praise: لِلْمُتَّقِينَ ("for the God-fearing") (2).
261 – 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 al-Ḥasan, concerning His saying "للمتقين ('for the God-fearing')", he said: they feared [and avoided] what was forbidden to them, and they fulfilled what was imposed upon them.
262 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "للمتقين ('for the God-fearing')", that is to say: those who guard themselves against the punishment of Allah, mighty and exalted, [which follows] upon the abandonment of the guidance that they know, and who hope for His mercy by giving credence to what He has brought.
263 – 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 narration 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 Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "هدى للمتقين ('a guidance for the God-fearing')", he said: they are the believers.
264 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, saying: al-Aʿmash asked me about "the God-fearing (al-muttaqīn)." He said: I answered him, whereupon he said to me: al-Kalbī was asked about this. I asked him, and he said: they are those who shun the grave sins (kabāʾir al-ithm). He said: then I returned to al-Aʿmash, and he said: we hold that it is so. And he did not reject it.
265 – al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭabarī related to me, saying: Isḥāq ibn al-Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh, saying: ʿUmar Abū Ḥafṣ related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūba, on the authority of Qatāda: "هدى للمتقين ('a guidance for the God-fearing')", they are those whom He has characterized and described, whereby He fixed their characteristic, for He said: الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنْفِقُونَ ("Those who believe in the unseen and establish the ritual prayer (ṣalāh) and who spend from what We have provided them.").
266 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "للمتقين ('for the God-fearing')", he said: the believers who guard themselves against ascribing partners to Me (shirk) and who act in obedience to Me.
The most fitting of the explanations regarding the saying of Allah, exalted be His praise, هدى للمتقين ("a guidance for the God-fearing"), is the explanation of the one who describes the people as those who feared Allah, blessed and exalted be He, with respect to the committing of what He had forbidden them to commit, so that they avoided acts of disobedience to Him, and who feared Him with respect to what He had imposed upon them of obligations (farāʾiḍ), so that they obeyed Him by fulfilling these. That is because Allah, mighty and exalted, has described them with God-fearingness (taqwā), and He has not restricted their God-fearingness toward Him to a part of that to which He has a right from them, to the exclusion of another part. It is therefore not for anyone among the people to restrict the meaning of it to describing them with a particular aspect of God-fearingness toward Allah, mighty and exalted, to the exclusion of another aspect, except on the basis of a proof to which one must submit. For if that — namely that characteristic of the people — were restricted to a specific aspect of the meanings of God-fearingness to the exclusion of the general thereof, then Allah, exalted be His praise, would not have neglected the clarification of it for His servants: either in His Book, or by the mouth of His messenger ﷺ, since in the intellect there exists no indication for the impossibility of describing them with general God-fearingness.
With that, then, the untenability of the statement of the one who claims that the explanation of it is only: those who guarded themselves against ascribing partners (shirk) and who freed themselves from hypocrisy (nifāq) has become clear. For a person can be so and yet be a reprobate (fāsiq) who does not deserve to belong to the God-fearing — unless, according to the one who makes this statement, the meaning of nifāq (hypocrisy) is: the committing of the abominations that Allah, exalted be His praise, has forbidden, and the neglecting of His obligations that He has imposed upon him. For a group among the scholars used indeed to call the one who did that a hypocrite (munāfiq). In that case he — even though he deviates in naming whoever is so with this designation — is correct in his explanation of the saying of Allah, mighty and exalted, "للمتقين ('for the God-fearing')".
