Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:213
Mankind was [of] one religion [before their deviation]; then Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and warners and sent down with them the Scripture in truth to judge between the people concerning that in which they differed. And none differed over the Scripture except those who were given it - after the clear proofs came to them - out of jealous animosity among themselves. And Allah guided those who believed to the truth concerning that over which they had differed, by His permission. And Allah guides whom He wills to a straight 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 commentary on the saying of the Exalted: كَانَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ النَّبِيِّينَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنْذِرِينَ وَأَنْـزَلَ مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ
(Mankind was one community, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners, and He sent down with them the Book in truth, that it might judge between the people concerning that wherein they differed.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the meaning of "the community" (al-umma) in this place, and concerning "the people" (al-nās) whom Allah described as having been one community.
Some of them said: They are those who lived between Adam and Noah, and they were ten generations; all of them followed a law of truth, and then they differed.
* Mention of who said this:
4048 – Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to me, saying: Abū Dāwūd related to us, saying: Hammām ibn Munabbih related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Between Noah and Adam were ten generations, all of them following a law of truth, and they differed, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners. He said: And so it is in the reading of ʿAbdallāh (Ibn Masʿūd): "Mankind was one community, and they differed."
4049 – 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: "Mankind was one community," he said: They were all upon right guidance, and they differed, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners; and the first prophet who was sent was Noah.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The interpretation of "the community" (al-umma) according to this view which we have related from Ibn ʿAbbās is "the religion" (al-dīn), as al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī said:
"I have sworn, and have left for your conscience no doubt at all — and would he who possesses religion sin, while he is obedient?"
He means: he who possesses religion.
* * *
Thus the interpretation of the verse according to the view of these would read: Mankind was a community united upon one creed and one religion, and they differed, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners.
* * *
The root meaning of "the community" (al-umma) is: the group that unites upon one religion. Then the report about "the community" is deemed sufficient in place of the report about "the religion," because it indicates it, as the Exalted, whose praise is sublime, said: وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً [Surah Al-Māʾidah: 48 / Surah Al-Naḥl: 93] (And had Allah willed, He would have made you one community), by which is meant the people of one religion and one creed. Thus Ibn ʿAbbās directed his interpretation of His saying "Mankind was one community" toward the people having been people of one religion until they differed.
* * *
Others said: No, the interpretation of it is: Adam was upon the truth as an imam for his progeny, whereupon Allah sent the prophets among his descendants. They directed the meaning of "the community" (al-umma) toward obedience to Allah, and the call to His oneness and the following of His command, deriving it from the saying of Allah, Mighty and Exalted: إِنَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ كَانَ أُمَّةً قَانِتًا لِلَّهِ حَنِيفًا [Surah Al-Naḥl: 120] (Indeed, Ibrāhīm was a community [unto himself], devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining toward the true faith), whereby He means by His saying "a community" (umma): an imam in good who is emulated and followed.
* Mention of who said this:
4050 – 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: "Mankind was one community," he said: Adam.
4051 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
4052 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His saying: "Mankind was one community," he said: Adam. He said: Between Adam and Noah were ten prophets, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners. Mujāhid said: Adam was, in himself, a community (umma).
* * *
It is as though the one who proclaimed this view deemed it permissible to designate the individual by the name of the group, on account of the gathering, in the one whom he called "the community" (al-umma), of the good qualities that are [normally dispersed] in a large group, as one says: "So-and-so is, in himself, a community," by which one means: he stands in the place of an [entire] community.
And it is possible that He named him thus because he was the cause of the gathering of the [various] groups of people upon that to which he called them of good qualities. Since Adam – Allah's blessing and peace be upon him – was the cause of the gathering of those of his progeny who united upon his religion, up until the state of their mutual disagreement, He therefore named him "a community" (umma).
* * *
Others said: The meaning of it is: Mankind was one community upon one religion on the day He brought forth the progeny of Adam from his loins and showed them to Adam.
* Mention of who said this:
4053 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ concerning His saying: "Mankind was one community" — and on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: They were one community when they were shown to Adam. Then He created them on that day in accordance with the natural disposition toward Islam, and they acknowledged before Him servitude (al-ʿubūdiyya), and they were one community, all of them Muslims. Then they differed after Adam. And Ubayy read: "Mankind was one community, and they differed, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners" up to "concerning that wherein they differed." And Allah sent the messengers and sent down the books only at the time of the disagreement.
4054 – Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: "Mankind was one community," he said: When He brought them forth from the back of Adam, they were never one community except on that day. "Whereupon Allah sent the prophets," he said: This was when the communities had dispersed.
* * *
The interpretation of the verse according to this view is the same as the interpretation of the view of him who says what Ibn ʿAbbās says: that mankind was upon one religion in the period between Adam and Noah — and we have already expounded the meaning of that — except that the time at which the people were one community differs from the time which Ibn ʿAbbās determined.
* * *
Others said, contrary to all this concerning it, and they said: The meaning of His saying "Mankind was one community" is only: upon one religion, whereupon Allah sent the prophets.
* Mention of who said this:
4055 – Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: My father related to me, saying: My uncle related to me, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His saying: "Mankind was one community," he says: It was one religion, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct interpretation of this verse, which most accords with the truth, is that one says: Allah, Mighty and Exalted, informed His servants that mankind was one community upon one religion and one creed. As:
4056 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Mankind was one community," he says: one religion, upon the religion of Adam, and they differed, whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners.
* * *
And the religion which they followed was the religion of truth, as Ubayy ibn Kaʿb said, as:
4057 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, he said: In the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it is: "They differed concerning it," namely concerning Islam.
* * *
And they differed concerning their religion, whereupon Allah, at the time of their disagreement concerning their religion, sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners, "and He sent down with them the Book, that it might judge between the people concerning that wherein they differed," out of mercy from Him whose remembrance is exalted toward His creation, and as a vindication from Him against them.
And it is possible that that time at which they were one community was in the period from Adam to the period of Noah — peace be upon them both — as ʿIkrima transmitted on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, and as Qatāda said.
And it is possible that that was when He showed His creation to Adam. And it is possible that that was at some other time — and there is no indication from the Book of Allah, nor any report whereby the proof is established, concerning which of these times it was. It is therefore not permissible for us to say concerning it anything other than what Allah, Mighty and Exalted, said: that mankind was one community, whereupon Allah, when they differed, sent among them the prophets and messengers. And ignorance of the time of it does not harm us, just as knowledge of it does not benefit us, since knowledge of it is not an act of obedience to Allah.
In any case, the proof of the Qurʾān is clear that those of whom Allah informed that they were one community were one community only upon faith (īmān) and the religion of truth, not upon disbelief in Allah and the ascribing of partners to Him (shirk). That is because Allah, Mighty and Exalted, said in the surah in which "Yūnus" is mentioned: وَمَا كَانَ النَّاسُ إِلا أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَاخْتَلَفُوا وَلَوْلا كَلِمَةٌ سَبَقَتْ مِنْ رَبِّكَ لَقُضِيَ بَيْنَهُمْ فِيمَا فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ [Yūnus: 19] (And mankind was not but one community, then they differed; and were it not for a word that had preceded from your Lord, it would have been judged between them concerning that wherein they differ). Thus He whose remembrance is exalted threatened on account of the disagreement, not on account of the unanimity, nor on account of their having been one community. And had their unanimity before the disagreement been upon disbelief, and the disagreement occurred thereafter, then that could only have been because some of them passed over to faith. And had that been so, then the promise [of reward] in that state would have been more fitting to His wisdom, praise be to Him, than the threat, for it is the state in which some of them turned to His obedience. And it is impossible that He should threaten in the state of repentance and turning back, and refrain from that in the state in which all are united upon disbelief and shirk.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His saying "whereupon Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and as warners," by it He means that He sent messengers who gave good tidings to whoever obeyed Allah of an abundant reward and a noble return. And by His saying "and as warners" He means: who warned whoever disobeyed Allah and disbelieved in Him of the severe punishment, the evil reckoning, and the eternal abode in the Fire. "And He sent down with them the Book in truth, that it might judge between the people concerning that wherein they differed" — by it He means: that the Book — namely the Torah — might judge between the people concerning that wherein the disagreeing ones differed. Thus He, praise be to Him, ascribed "the judgment" to "the Book," and that it is it [the Book] which judges between the people and not the prophets and messengers, since whoever of the prophets and messengers judged with a judgment, judged only in accordance with that to which the Book, which Allah, Mighty and Exalted, had sent down, directed them. Thus the Book, through its indication of that whose description indicated the correctness of the judgment, was judging between the people, even though it was something else that settled the adjudication between them.
* * *
The commentary on the saying of the Exalted: وَمَا اخْتَلَفَ فِيهِ إِلا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوهُ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ
(And none differed over it except those who were given it, after the clear proofs had come to them, out of mutual transgression.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, praise be to Him, means by His saying "and none differed over it": and none differed concerning the Book which He sent down — namely the Torah — "except those who were given it," by which He means the Jews of the Children of Israel, and they are those who were given the Torah and the knowledge of it. And the "hāʾ" (the pronoun) in His saying "who were given it" refers back to "the Book" which Allah sent down. "After the clear proofs had come to them," by it He means: after the arguments and indications of Allah had come to them that the Book over which they differed, and concerning its rulings, is from Allah, and that it is the truth concerning which it is not permissible for them to differ, nor to act contrary to what is in it.
Thus He, mighty is His remembrance, informed concerning the Jews of the Children of Israel that they contradicted the Book, the Torah, and differed over it, while they possessed knowledge — they passed deliberately to contradiction against Allah, in that wherein they contradicted Him regarding His command and the ruling of His Book.
Then He, mighty is His remembrance, informed that their deliberate committing of the transgression which they committed, and their perpetrating of the disobedience which they perpetrated through their contradiction against His command, proceeded from them only as a mutual transgression (baghy).
* * *
And "al-baghy" (the transgression) is a verbal noun, derived from the saying of one: "So-and-so transgressed against so-and-so (baghā ʿalayhi baghyan)," when he tyrannized over him and transgressed against him and overstepped his bounds. From it is also said of a wound when it festers, of the sea when its water increases and overflows, and of a cloud when it falls upon a land so that it becomes fertile: "baghā" — all of that in one and the same meaning, namely its increase and the overstepping of its bound.
* * *
Thus the meaning of His saying, praise be to Him: "And none differed over it except those who were given it, after the clear proofs had come to them, out of mutual transgression" — is derived from that. He says: The disagreement of these disagreeing ones among the Jews of the Children of Israel concerning My Book which I sent down with My prophet was not out of ignorance of it on their part. No, their disagreement over it, and their contradiction against its ruling, took place after the proof of it had become established against them, out of mutual transgression, out of the seeking of leadership of some over others, and out of the humiliating of some by others. As:
4058 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, he said: Then He returned to the Children of Israel in His saying: "And none differed over it except those who were given it," he says: except those who were given the Book and the knowledge. "After the clear proofs had come to them, out of mutual transgression," he says: out of transgression for the sake of the worldly life and the seeking of its dominion, its splendor, and its adornment — which of them would possess the dominion and the awe among the people. Thus some of them transgressed against others, and some of them struck off the necks of others.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: Then the Arabic grammarians differed concerning the "min" in His saying "after the clear proofs had come to them": what is its grammatical status and its meaning? And what is the correct, coherent meaning of His saying "And none differed over it except those who were given it, after the clear proofs had come to them, out of mutual transgression"?
Some of them said: The "min" in it belongs to "those who were given the Book," and what follows it is a subordinate clause to it. However, he claimed that the meaning of the words is: And none differed over it except those who were given it, out of mutual transgression, after the clear proofs had come to them. Some of them, however, have rejected this and said: There is no [valid] meaning in what this speaker said, nor in the placing of "the transgression" (al-baghy) before the "min," for when that which the "min" governs is "the transgression," then it is an error that it [the transgression] should precede it, because "the transgression" is a verbal noun (maṣdar), and the subordinate clause of a maṣdar does not precede it. And the one who rejected this claimed that "those" (alladhīna) is an exception, and that "after the clear proofs had come to them" is a separate exception, and that the interpretation of the words is: And none differed over it except those who were given it — they differed over it only out of transgression, they differed over it only after the clear proofs had come to them — as though He repeated the saying by way of emphasis.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this second view is more in accord with the interpretation of the verse, for the people differed only after the proof had been established against them and the clear proofs of Allah had come, and likewise they differed only out of transgression. That, then, is more in accord with the interpretation of the verse.
* * *
The commentary on the saying of the Exalted: فَهَدَى اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لِمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ مِنَ الْحَقِّ بِإِذْنِهِ وَاللَّهُ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ (213)
(Then Allah guided those who believed, by His permission, to the truth concerning which they differed. And Allah guides whom He wills to a straight path.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, praise be to Him, means by His saying "Then Allah guided": then Allah granted right discernment to those who believed — and they are the people of faith in Allah and in His messenger Muḥammad ﷺ, who believed him and believed in that with which he came, that it is from Allah — to that concerning which those who were given the Book differed.
And their disagreement in which Allah forsook them, and to which Allah guided those who believed in Muḥammad ﷺ, so that He granted them right discernment in it, concerned the "Friday" (al-jumuʿa): they strayed from it though it had been prescribed for them as it was prescribed for us, and they made of it the "Saturday" (al-sabt). Then he ﷺ said: "We are the last [in time], the first [in rank], except that the Book was given to them before us and it was given to us after them. And this is the day over which they differed, and Allah guided us to it: for the Jews it is tomorrow, and for the Christians the day after tomorrow."
4059 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related this to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿIyāḍ ibn Dīnār al-Laythī, he said: I heard Abū Hurayra saying: Abū al-Qāsim ﷺ said — and he mentioned the tradition.
4060 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: "Then Allah guided those who believed, by His permission, to the truth concerning which they differed," he said: The Prophet ﷺ said: We are the last, the first on the Day of Resurrection; we are the first of mankind to enter the Garden, except that the Book was given to them before us and it was given to us after them. Then Allah guided us, by His permission, to the truth concerning which they differed. This, then, is the day to which Allah guided us, and the people follow us in it: tomorrow is for the Jews, and the day after tomorrow for the Christians.
* * *
And among that concerning which they also differed is what Ibn Zayd said, and it is what:
4061 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related this to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: "Then Allah guided those who believed" to Islam. And they differed concerning the prayer (al-ṣalāh): some of them pray in the direction of the east, and some of them pray in the direction of Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis); and He guided us to the prayer-direction (al-qibla).
And they differed concerning the fasting (al-ṣawm): some of them fast part of the day, and some of them part of the night; and Allah guided us to it. And they differed concerning the day of Friday: the Jews took the Saturday and the Christians took the Sunday; and Allah guided us to it. And they differed concerning Ibrāhīm: the Jews said that he was a Jew, and the Christians said that he was a Christian! Then Allah declared him free of that, and made him a ḥanīf, a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists (mushrikīn) — [contrary to] those among the people of shirk who lay claim to him. And they differed concerning ʿĪsā: the Jews made of him a [fruit of] slander, and the Christians made of him a lord; and Allah guided us to the truth concerning him. This, then, is that which He, praise be to Him, said: "Then Allah guided those who believed, by His permission, to the truth concerning which they differed."
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: Thus the guidance of Allah, praise be to Him, to those who believed in Muḥammad and in that with which he came, to the truth concerning which these factions among the Children of Israel, to whom the Book was given, differed, by His permission, was: that He granted them right discernment to the attaining of the truth which was followed by those who lived before the disagreeing ones — those whose characteristics Allah described in this verse, when they were one community. And that is the religion of Ibrāhīm, the ḥanīf, the Muslim, the bosom friend of the Most Merciful (Khalīl al-Raḥmān). Thus they became thereby a middlemost community (umma wasaṭ), as their Lord described them, that they might be witnesses over the people. As:
4062 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "Then Allah guided those who believed to that concerning which they differed," thus Allah guided them at the time of the disagreement, [so that] they held fast to that with which the messengers had come before the disagreement: they held fast to sincere devotion to Allah alone, and the worship of Him without ascribing any partner to Him, and the performance of the prayer (ṣalāh), and the giving of the obligatory alms (zakāh). Thus they held fast to the first command which existed before the disagreement, and they kept themselves far from the disagreement. Thus they were witnesses over the people on the Day of Resurrection; they were witnesses over the people of Noah, the people of Hūd, the people of Ṣāliḥ, the people of Shuʿayb, and the people of Pharaoh, that their messengers had conveyed to them [the message] and that they had given the lie to their messengers. And in the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb it is: (And that they might be witnesses over the people) on the Day of Resurrection (And Allah guides whom He wills to a straight path). And Abū al-ʿĀliya said concerning this verse: it is the way out from the doubts, the errors, and the trials.
4063 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Then Allah guided those who believed to that concerning which they differed," he says: The disbelievers (al-kuffār) differed over it, and Allah guided those who believed to the truth concerning it. And in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it is: "Then Allah guided those who believed to that concerning which they differed," namely concerning Islam.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His saying "by His permission (bi-idhnihi)," by it He means, praise be to Him: through His knowledge of that to which He guided them. And we have already expounded the meaning of "the permission" (al-idhn), when it has the meaning of knowledge, in another place, in a manner that makes it unnecessary to repeat it here.
* * *
As for His saying "And Allah guides whom He wills to a straight path," by it He means: And Allah grants right direction to whom He wills of His creation, and directs him to the straight way upon the truth in which there is no crookedness, as He guided those who believed in Muḥammad ﷺ, when those who were given the Book differed over it out of mutual transgression; thus He granted them right discernment to the attaining of the truth and the correctness concerning it.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And in this verse lies the clear exposition of the correctness of what the people of truth said: that every favor to the servants, in their religion or their worldly life, is from Allah, Mighty and Exalted.
* * *
If someone says to us: What is the meaning of His saying "Then Allah guided those who believed to that concerning which they differed"? Did He guide them to the truth, or did He guide them to the disagreement? If He guided them to the disagreement, then He has indeed led them astray! And if He guided them to the truth, how then is it said: "Then Allah guided those who believed to that concerning which they differed"?
Then it is answered: That is other than the way in which you understood it. The meaning of it is only: Then Allah guided those who believed to the truth concerning that over which those who were given the Book of Allah differed — so that some of them disbelieved by falsifying it, and others of them remained steadfast upon the truth and the correctness concerning it — and they are the people of the Torah who falsified it. Thus Allah guided those who believed of the community (umma) of Muḥammad ﷺ to the truth which they falsified and distorted.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: If what we have said is unclear to one who is heedless, and he says: How is it possible that it is as you said, while "min" in the Book of Allah is with "the truth" (al-ḥaqq) and the "lām" is in His saying "to that concerning which they differed" — and you transfer the "lām" to "the truth" and the "min" to "the disagreement," in the interpretation which you give it, so that you reverse it?
Then it is answered: That occurs in the language of the Arabs and is frequent, and Allah, blessed and exalted, addressed them only in their manner of speech. Among that is the saying of the poet:
"The obligation of what you say was like fornication's being the obligation of the stoning"
— while the stoning is in fact the obligation of fornication (al-zinā) [i.e., the consequence that follows upon it]. And as another said:
"Indeed Sirāj is noble, his renown; the eye is gladdened thereby when you behold him"
— while it is in fact Sirāj who is gladdened by the eye, not the eye by Sirāj.
* * *
And some of them said: The meaning of His saying "Then Allah guided those who believed to the truth concerning which they differed" is that the people of the earlier books differed, so that some of them disbelieved in the book of others, while they are all from Allah; then Allah guided the people of faith in Muḥammad to holding all of them to be true.
And that is a view, except that the first is the sounder of the two views, for Allah informed only of their disagreement concerning one book.
