Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:201
But among them is he who says, "Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment 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 explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ (201) ("And among them are those who say: Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the meaning of "the good" (al-ḥasana) that Allah mentions in this place.
Some of them said: what is meant by it is: and among the people are those who say: Our Lord, give us well-being (ʿāfiya) in this world and well-being in the Hereafter.
* The mention of who said that:
3876 - 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: "Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good." He said: in this world well-being, and in the Hereafter well-being. Qatāda said: And a man said: "O Allah, that with which You would punish me in the Hereafter, bring it forward for me in this world." Then he fell ill with a sickness so severe that he wasted away upon his bed. (113) His condition was reported to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet, peace be upon him, came to him, and it was said to him: he has supplicated with such-and-such. Then the Prophet ﷺ said: "No one has the strength to bear Allah's punishment, but say: 'Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.'" Then the man said that, and it was only a few days — or: a short while — until he recovered.
3877 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Saʿīd ibn al-Ḥakam related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb informed us, saying: Ḥumayd related to me, saying: I heard Anas ibn Mālik say: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ visited a man who had become like a plucked chick, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Have you supplicated to Allah for anything? — or: have you asked Allah for anything?" He said: I said: "O Allah, that with which You would punish me in the Hereafter, punish me with it in this world!" He said: "Subḥān Allāh! Can anyone endure that, or bear it? Why did you not say: 'O Allah, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire'?" (114)
* * *
And others said: no, Allah, Mighty and Exalted, intended by "the good" — in this place — in this world: knowledge and worship, and in the Hereafter: the Garden (al-janna).
* The mention of who said that:
3878 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: ʿAbbād related to us, on the authority of Hishām ibn Ḥassān, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "And among them are those who say: Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good." He said: the good in this world is knowledge and worship, and in the Hereafter: the Garden.
3879 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn, on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning His saying: "Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire." He said: worship in this world, and the Garden in the Hereafter.
3880 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Wāqid al-ʿAṭṭār related to us, saying: ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAwwām related to us, on the authority of Hishām, on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning His saying: "Our Lord, give us in this world good." He said: the good in this world is the understanding of the Book of Allah and knowledge.
3881 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: I heard Sufyān al-Thawrī say concerning this verse: "Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good." He said: the good in this world is knowledge and good provision, and in the Hereafter the good is the Garden.
* * *
And others said: "the good" in this world is wealth, and in the Hereafter: the Garden.
* The mention of who said that:
3882 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: "And among them are those who say: Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire." He said: these are the Prophet ﷺ and the believers.
3883 - Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "And among them are those who say: Our Lord, give us in this world good and in the Hereafter good." These are the believers; as for the good of this world, that is wealth, and as for the good of the Hereafter, that is the Garden.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct view concerning that, in my opinion, is that one says: Allah, exalted is His praise, has informed about a group of people who believe in Him and in His Messenger, among them those who have performed the pilgrimage to His House, that they ask their Lord for the good in this world and the good in the Hereafter, and that He protect them from the punishment of the Fire. And "the good" from Allah, Mighty and Exalted, may comprise well-being in the body, livelihood, provision and the like, as well as knowledge and worship.
As for the Hereafter, there is no doubt that it is the Garden, for whoever does not attain it on that Day is deprived of all good things and has lost every form of well-being.
And we have only said that this is the most fitting interpretation of the verse, because Allah, Mighty and Exalted, by His saying — informing about whoever says that — did not specifically designate any single one of the meanings of "the good," and did not set up an indication that specifically points to a part rather than another part being intended by that word. So the necessary position concerning it is what we have said: that it is not permissible to single out any of its meanings, and that one must judge it according to its generality, in accordance with the generality that Allah has given it.
* * *
As for His saying "and protect us from the punishment of the Fire," by it He means: turn away from us the punishment of the Fire.
* * *
One says of this: "waqaytuhu kadhā aqīhi wiqāyatan wa-waqāyatan wa-wiqāʾan" — with a long vowel — and sometimes one says: "waqāka Allāhu waqyan," when you ward off from him some harm or something disagreeable.
--------------------
Footnotes:
(113) "aḍnā al-rajulu": when he becomes chained to the bed by al-ḍanā, which is the severity of the illness until the body wastes away.
(114) The ḥadīth: 3877 — Saʿīd ibn al-Ḥakam: that is "Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam al-Jumaḥī"; he has already been referred to at no. 22, and he is trustworthy and authoritative. "Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb" is al-Ghāfiqī Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Miṣrī; he is trustworthy and retentive of memory, and the compilers of the six books have transmitted from him. Ḥumayd: that is Ibn Abī Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl; he is a trustworthy tābiʿī, who heard from Anas ibn Mālik and from Thābit al-Bunānī on the authority of Anas. Some claimed that he heard only a few narrations from Anas and that the rest are in reality "on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of Anas." The ḥāfiẓ emphatically rejected that and said: "Ḥumayd explicitly declared that he heard much from Anas, and in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī there are a number of them." I have elaborated on this because the transmission of this ḥadīth here contains Ḥumayd's explicit declaration that he heard it from Anas. But Aḥmad and Muslim transmitted it via the ḥadīth of Ḥumayd, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of Anas. Perhaps, then, he heard it from Anas and also from Thābit on the authority of Anas. Aḥmad transmitted it in the Musnad: 12074 (3:107, Ḥalabī edition) on the authority of Ibn Abī ʿAdī and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bakr al-Sahmī — both on the authority of Ḥumayd, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of Anas. Likewise Muslim transmitted it, 2:309, via the route of Ibn Abī ʿAdī on the authority of Ḥumayd, and then via the route of Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith on the authority of Ḥumayd. And Ibn Kathīr mentioned it 1:472-473 from the transmission of the Musnad, and then said: "Muslim alone transmitted it," that is to say: without al-Bukhārī. And al-Suyūṭī mentioned it 1:233 and added the attribution to ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn Ḥibbān, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab. But he erred and also attributed it to al-Bukhārī, whereas I have not found it there, despite Ibn Kathīr's firm assertion that only Muslim transmitted it.
