Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:223
Your wives are a place of sowing of seed for you, so come to your place of cultivation however you wish and put forth [righteousness] for yourselves. And fear Allah and know that you will meet Him. And give good tidings to the believers.
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.
**Sūrah al-Baqarah (2:223)**
نساؤكم حرث لكم ("Your women are a tilth for you")
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: نساؤكم حرث لكم ("Your women are a tilth for you"). The Exalted means thereby: your women are the sowing-place of your children, so approach your sowing-place as you wish and where you wish. By "tilth" (ḥarth) only the sowing-place is meant; the tilth is the crop. But because women are among the causes of sowing, they are called "tilth," since the meaning of the word is understood. And in the spirit of what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (the exegetes) have spoken.
Mention of who said that:
3446 – Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Muḥāribī related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Yūnus, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: فأتوا حرثكم ("approach then your tilth"), he said: that is the place where the child sprouts.
3447 – Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: نساؤكم حرث لكم ("Your women are a tilth for you"), as for the tilth, that is a sowing-field in which is plowed and sown.
فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish")
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"). The Exalted means thereby: have intercourse with the sowing-place of your children from whatever manner of approach you wish. The "approaching" (al-ityān) in this place is a circumlocution (euphemism) for the name of sexual intercourse.
The people of interpretation differed concerning the meaning of His saying: أنى شئتم ("as you wish"). Some of them said: the meaning of annā is "how" (kayfa).
Mention of who said that:
3448 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he said: he approaches her as he wishes, so long as he does not approach her in her posterior or during menstruation.
* – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his saying: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"), he said: approach her as you wish, from the front or from the back, so long as you do not approach her in the posterior or during menstruation.
3449 – ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his saying: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he means by the tilth: the private part (the vagina). He says: you approach her as you wish, from the front and from the back and in whatever manner you desire, provided you do not pass beyond the private part to anything else. That is His saying: فأتوهن من حيث أمركم الله ("so approach them from where Allah has commanded you").
3450 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Karīm, on the authority of ʿIkrima: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he said: he approaches her as he wishes, so long as he does not commit the act of the people of Lūṭ.
3451 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he said: he approaches her as he wishes, and he avoids the posterior and menstruation.
3452 – ʿUbayd Allāh 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, he said: Yazīd related to me that Ibn Kaʿb used to say: indeed, His saying فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish") means: approach her lying down, standing, tilted, from the front and from the back, as you wish, so long as it is in her front (vagina).
3453 – Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Ḥuṣayn informed us, on the authority of Murra al-Hamdānī, he said: I heard him narrating: that a man of the Jews met a man of the Muslims and said to him: does one of you approach his wife kneeling (from behind)? He said: yes. He said: that was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He said: then this verse was revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"). He says: as he wishes, provided it is in the private part (vagina).
3454 – Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, his saying: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"): if you wish standing, or sitting, or on the side, so long as he approaches her from the place from which menstruation comes, and does not pass beyond this to anything else.
3455 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"): approach your tilth as you wish through her front, and do not approach her in her posterior. أنى شئتم ("as you wish"), he said: how you wish.
3456 – Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī related to him: that it had reached him that some people from the companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, were sitting together one day while a man of the Jews was near them. One of them began to say: indeed, I approach my wife while she is lying down; and the other said: indeed, I approach her while she is standing; and the other said: indeed, I approach her on her side and kneeling. Then the Jew said: you are nothing but like the cattle, but we approach her only in one posture. Then Allah, the Exalted, revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم ("Your women are a tilth for you"), and that is the front.
And others said: the meaning of أنى شئتم ("as you wish") is "from where you wish," and through whatever manner you prefer.
Mention of who said that:
3457 – Sahl ibn Mūsā al-Rāzī related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Fudayk related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ḥabība al-Ashhalī, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that he abhorred that the woman be approached in her posterior, and he said: the tilth is only in the front, from which offspring and menstruation come forth. And he forbade approaching the woman in her posterior, and he said: indeed, this verse was revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"). He says: through whatever manner you wish.
3458 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: al-ʿAtakī related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he said: her back toward her belly (from behind, in the vagina), without incapacity — that is, by way of the posterior (the position from behind).
3459 – ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Saʿd related to us, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of Yazīd, on the authority of al-Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, he said: indeed, Ibn ʿAbbās used to say: water your crop from the place where it sprouts.
3460 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, his saying: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he says: from where you wish. It has been mentioned to us — and Allah knows best — that the Jews said: indeed, the Arabs approach the women from behind their buttocks, and if they do that, the child comes into the world cross-eyed. Thereupon Allah refuted their talk and said: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish").
3461 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: he says: approach the women in [not] their posterior, in any manner. Ibn Jurayj said: I heard ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ saying: we discussed this with Ibn ʿAbbās, and Ibn ʿAbbās said: approach her from where you wish, from the front and from the back. Then a man said: it is as if this is permitted. Thereupon ʿAṭāʾ denied that it was so, and he rejected it, as though he meant only the private part (vagina), from the front and from the back in the vagina.
And others said: the meaning of His saying أنى شئتم ("as you wish") is "when you wish."
Mention of who said that:
3462 – It was related to us on the authority of Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh al-Faḍl ibn Khālid, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His saying: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he says: when you wish.
3463 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Abū Ṣakhr related to us, on the authority of Abū Muʿāwiya al-Bajalī — and that is ʿAmmār al-Duhnī —, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, that he said: while I and Mujāhid were sitting with Ibn ʿAbbās, a man came to him, stood at his head, and said: O Abū al-ʿAbbās — or O Abū al-Faḍl — will you not heal me concerning the verse about menstruation? He said: yes indeed! Then he recited: ويسألونك عن المحيض ("And they ask you about menstruation") until the end of the verse. Then Ibn ʿAbbās said: from where the blood comes, from there you are commanded to approach. The man said to him: O Abū al-Faḍl, what then of the verse that follows it: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish")? He said: woe to you! Is there in the posterior any tilth? If what you say were true, then the verse about menstruation would be abrogated (mansūkh), since you would then, when barred from here (the vagina), be able to turn from here (the posterior)! But rather it is: أنى شئتم ("as you wish"), that is, by night and by day.
And others said: rather the meaning of it is "where you wish" and "from where you wish."
Mention of who said that:
3464 – Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAwn informed us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, he said: when the Qurʾān was recited, Ibn ʿUmar would not speak. He said: one day I recited this verse: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"). Then he said: do you know concerning whom this verse was revealed? I said: no. He said: it was revealed concerning approaching the women in their posterior.
* – Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim Abū Muslim related to me, saying: Abū ʿUmar al-Ḍarīr related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm, the companion of al-Karābīsī, related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAwn, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, he said: I was holding the muṣḥaf (the copy of the Qurʾān) for Ibn ʿUmar when he recited this verse: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"). Then he said: that he approach her in her posterior.
3465 – ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maslama related to us, saying: al-Darāwardī related to us, saying: it was said to Zayd ibn Aslam: indeed, Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir forbids approaching the women in their posterior. Then Zayd said: I bear witness concerning Muḥammad that he told me that he himself did it.
3466 – ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me, saying: Abū Zayd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ghamr related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim related to me, on the authority of Mālik ibn Anas, that it was said to him: O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the people relate on the authority of Sālim: "the slave — or the boorish non-Arab — has lied about my father." Then Mālik said: I bear witness concerning Yazīd ibn Rūmān that he informed me, on the authority of Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, the same as what Nāfiʿ said. Then it was said to him: indeed, al-Ḥārith ibn Yaʿqūb relates on the authority of Abū al-Ḥubāb Saʿīd ibn Yasār, that he asked Ibn ʿUmar and said to him: O Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, we buy slave-girls — may we "acidify" (taḥmīḍ) them? He said: and what is taḥmīḍ? He said: the posterior. Then Ibn ʿUmar said: fie, fie! Would a believer do that? — or he said: a Muslim. Then Mālik said: I bear witness concerning Rabīʿa that he informed me, on the authority of Abū al-Ḥubāb, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, the same as what Nāfiʿ said.
3467 – Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ṭāriq informed us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb informed us, on the authority of Mūsā ibn Ayyūb al-Ghāfiqī, he said: I said to Abū Mājid al-Ziyādī: indeed, Nāfiʿ narrates on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar: concerning the posterior of the woman. Then he said: Nāfiʿ has lied. I accompanied Ibn ʿUmar while Nāfiʿ was a slave, and I heard him say: I have not looked at the private part of my wife since such and such a time.
3468 – Abū Qilāba related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"), he said: in the posterior.
3469 – Abū Muslim related to me, saying: Abū ʿUmar al-Ḍarīr related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Rawḥ ibn al-Qāsim related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: Abū al-Dardāʾ was asked about approaching the women in their posterior, and he said: does anyone do that except a disbeliever (kāfir)? Rawḥ said: and I was present when Ibn Abī Mulayka was asked about that, and he said: I wanted to do it last night with a slave-girl of mine, but it was made difficult for me, so I resorted to oil or grease. He (Rawḥ) said: then I said to him: subḥāna Allāh! Qatāda informed us that Abū al-Dardāʾ said: does anyone do that except a disbeliever! Then he said: may Allah curse you and curse Qatāda! Then I said: I will never again relate anything on your authority. Afterward I regretted that.
And the adherents of this saying adduced as proof for their opinion what:
3470 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me, saying: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Uways al-Aʿshā informed us, on the authority of Sulaymān ibn Bilāl, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar: that a man approached his wife in her posterior and found within himself a feeling of unease about that. Thereupon Allah revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish").
3471 – Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Nāfiʿ informed me, on the authority of Hishām ibn Saʿd, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār: that a man approached his wife in her posterior in the time of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. The people abhorred that and said: he has approached her from behind. Thereupon Allah, the Exalted, revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish").
And others said: the meaning of it is: approach your tilth as you wish; if you wish, withdraw (ʿazl, coitus interruptus), and if you wish, do not withdraw.
Mention of who said that:
3472 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of ʿĪsā ibn Sinān, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab: فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish"): if you wish, withdraw, and if you wish, do not withdraw.
3473 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Yūnus, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Zāʾida ibn ʿUmayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: if you wish, you withdraw, and if you wish, you do not withdraw.
As for those who said that the meaning of His saying أنى شئتم ("as you wish") is "how you wish, from the front and from the back in the vagina and the front": they said: indeed, the verse was revealed only on account of the censure of a group of Jews, who disapproved of approaching the women in their front from the side of their back. They said: and in that lies a proof for the correctness of what we have said, namely that the meaning of it is as we have said. And they adduced as proof for their saying what:
3474 – Abū Kurayb related to me, saying: al-Muḥāribī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of Abān ibn Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: I laid the muṣḥaf before Ibn ʿAbbās, in three recitations, from its beginning to its end; I stopped at each verse and asked him about it, until I came to this verse: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"). Then Ibn ʿAbbās said: indeed, this clan of Quraysh used to lay the women open in Mecca and enjoy them, from the front and from the back. When they came to Medina, they married among the Anṣār and proceeded to do with them as they did with the women in Mecca. The women disapproved of that and said: this is something we are not accustomed to having done to us. The talk spread until it reached the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Thereupon Allah, the Exalted, revealed concerning this: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"): if you wish from the front, if you wish from the back, and if you wish kneeling. He means by it only the place of the child, namely the tilth. He says: approach the tilth from where you wish.
* – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, with his isnād, something similar.
3475 – Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Ibn Mahdī related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, he said: I heard Jābir saying: indeed, the Jews said: when the man has intercourse with his wife in her front from behind, his child comes into the world cross-eyed. Thereupon Allah, the Exalted, revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish").
* – Mujāhid ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, he said: the Jews said: when the man approaches his wife in her front from her back, and there is a child between the two of them, it comes into the world cross-eyed. Thereupon Allah, the Exalted, revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish").
3476 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, on the authority of Ḥafṣa bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr, on the authority of Umm Salama, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, she said: a man married a woman and wanted to approach her from behind (yujabbiyahā), but she refused that to him and said: until I ask the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Umm Salama said: she mentioned that to me. Then Umm Salama mentioned that to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he said: "Send for her!" When she came, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, recited to her: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish") "through one opening, through one opening (ṣimāman wāḥidan)."
* – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Hishām related to us, on the authority of Sufyān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān, on the authority of Ibn Sābiṭ, on the authority of Ḥafṣa bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr, on the authority of Umm Salama, she said: the Muhājirūn arrived and married among the Anṣār, and they (the Muhājirūn) approached from behind (yujabbūna), whereas the Anṣār did not do that. A woman said to her husband: until I go to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and ask him about that. Then she went to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, but she was ashamed to ask him, so I asked. Then the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, called her and recited to her: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish") "through one opening, through one opening."
* – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, on the authority of Ḥafṣa bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of Umm Salama, on the authority of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, something similar.
* – Ibn Bashshār and Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, both saying: Ibn Mahdī related to us, saying: Sufyān al-Thawrī related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, on the authority of Ḥafṣa bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of Umm Salama, on the authority of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"), he said: "through one opening, through one opening."
* – Muḥammad ibn Maʿmar al-Baḥrānī related to me, saying: Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Ḥaḍramī related to us, saying: Wuhayb related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān related to me, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, he said: I said to Ḥafṣa: indeed, I wish to ask you something, but I am ashamed before you to ask it. She said: ask, O my son, whatever you wish! I said: I ask you about approaching the women in their posterior. She said: Umm Salama related to me, she said: the Anṣār did not approach from behind (lā tujabbī), whereas the Muhājirūn did that. A man of the Muhājirūn married a woman of the Anṣār. Then he mentioned something similar to the narration of Abū Kurayb, on the authority of Muʿāwiya ibn Hishām.
* – Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Wahb ibn Jarīr related to me, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Ibn al-Munkadir, he said: I heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh saying: indeed, the Jews said: when the man approaches his wife kneeling, the child comes into the world cross-eyed. Thereupon was revealed: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish").
3477 – Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṭūsī related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb al-Qummī related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: ʿUmar came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said: O Messenger of Allah, I am ruined! He said: "And what has ruined you?" He said: I turned my saddle around last night. He (the narrator) said: he gave him nothing back (said nothing to him). He said: then Allah revealed to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, this verse: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish") "from the front and from the back, and avoid the posterior and menstruation."
3478 – Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Miṣrī related to us, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥarrānī related to us, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, that ʿĀmir ibn Yaḥyā informed him, on the authority of Ḥanash al-Ṣanʿānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that some people of Ḥimyar came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to ask him about various matters. A man of them said: O Messenger of Allah, I am a man who loves the women, how do you see that? Thereupon Allah, the Exalted, revealed in Sūrah al-Baqarah the exposition of what they asked, and He revealed concerning what the man asked: نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish"). Then the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "And approach her from the front and from the back, provided that is in the private part (vagina)."
And the correct of the saying about this, according to us, is the saying of him who said: the meaning of His saying أنى شئتم ("as you wish") is "through whatever manner you wish." That is because annā in the language of the Arabs is a word which, when speech is begun with it, indicates the question about manners and directions. It is as if the speaker, when he says to a man: "annā lak hādhā al-māl?" ("from where do you have this wealth?"), means: from what manners do you have it? Therefore the one answering replies to it by saying: from such and such, as the Exalted said, reporting about Zakariyyā and his question to Maryam: أنى لك هذا قالت هو من عند الله (3:37) ("From where do you have this? She said: it is from Allah"). And it (annā) is close in meaning to ayna ("where") and kayfa ("how"); therefore their meanings became intermingled, and annā became confusing for the one who hears and interprets it, so that some interpreted it in the meaning of ayna, and some in the meaning of kayfa, and others in the meaning of matā ("when") — while it differs from all of those meanings and they differ from it.
That is because ayna is only an interrogative particle about the places and the locations. One can establish the variety of the meanings of these particles only through the variety of the answers to them. Do you not see that if a questioner were to ask another and say: "ayna māluka?" ("where is your wealth?"), he would say: in such and such a place; and if he were to say to him: "ayna akhūka?" ("where is your brother?"), the answer would be that he says: in such and such a city, or in such and such a spot — he thus answers him with the report about the location of that whose location he asked about, so that one knows that ayna is a question about the place. And if someone were to say to another: "kayfa anta?" ("how are you?"), he would say: well, or in prosperity, or in health — and he informs him about his condition in which he is, so that one then knows that kayfa is a question about the condition of the one whose condition is asked about. And if he were to say to him: "annā yuḥyī Allāh hādhā al-mayyit?" ("how/from where does Allah revive this dead one?"), the answer would be that one says: from such and such a manner, and he then describes a saying like what Allah, the Exalted, described for the one who said: أنى يحيي هذه الله بعد موتها (2:259) ("How does Allah revive this (town) after its death?"), and He did that when He raised him after his death.
And the poets have distinguished this in their poetry. Al-Kumayt ibn Zayd said: "He pondered of annā and of ayna his drink / consulting with his two souls, like the owner of the raging herd of camels." And he also said: "Annā and from where (ayna) has the longing struck you, / from where there is neither youthful love nor doubt?" Thus annā is used for the question about manner, and ayna for the question about place, as if he said: from what manner and from what place has the longing made you return.
And what indicates that the saying is incorrect of him who interpreted the saying of Allah, the Exalted, فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish") as "how you wish," or interpreted it in the meaning of "where you wish," or in the meaning of "when you wish," or in the meaning of "from where you wish," is that if someone were to say to another: "annā taʾtī ahlaka?" ("from where/how do you approach your wife?"), the answer would be that he says: from her front or from her back — as Allah, the Exalted, reported about Maryam when she was asked: أنى لك هذا ("From where do you have this?"), that she said: هو من عند الله (3:37) ("It is from Allah"). And since that is the answer, it is known that the meaning of the saying of Allah, the Exalted, فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish") is only: approach your tilth from where you wish, from among the manners of approach, and that everything outside that of the interpretations is not an interpretation of the verse.
And since that is the correct, thereby is made clear the incorrectness of the saying of him who claimed that His saying فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("approach then your tilth as you wish") is a proof for the permissibility of approaching the women in the posteriors. For in the posterior nothing is plowed and sown, while the Exalted only said: حرث لكم ("a tilth for you"), so approach the tilth from whichever of its manners you wish. And what sowing-place is there in the posterior, that it should be said: approach it from its (own) manner? And by what we have expounded, the correctness has become clear of the meaning of what is related on the authority of Jābir and Ibn ʿAbbās, namely that this verse was revealed concerning what the Jews said to the Muslims: that when the man approaches the woman from her back into her front, the child comes into the world cross-eyed.
وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves")
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves"). The people of interpretation differed concerning the meaning of it. Some of them said: the meaning of it is: send forth for yourselves the good.
Mention of who said that:
3479 – Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His saying: وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves"), that is the good.
And others said: rather the meaning of it وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves") is: the remembrance of Allah at intercourse and the approaching of the tilth, before one approaches her.
Mention of who said that:
3480 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Kathīr related to me, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wāqid, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, he said: I think on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves"), he said: the pronouncing of the name (of Allah) at intercourse; he says: "bismillāh."
And that which is most fitting for the interpretation of the verse is what we have related on the authority of al-Suddī, namely that His saying وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves") is a command from Allah, the Exalted, to His servants to send forth good and righteous deeds before the Day of their return to their Lord, as a provision which they prepare for themselves at His meeting in the place of the reckoning. For He said, the Exalted: وما تقدموا لأنفسكم من خير تجدوه عند الله (2:110) ("And whatever good you send forth for yourselves, you will find it with Allah"). And we have only said that this is most fitting for the interpretation of the verse because Allah, the Exalted, followed His saying وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves") with the command to fear Him concerning the committing of His acts of disobedience. The most fitting, then, is that what comes before the threat for disobedience is a general command to obedience, in a general sense.
And if someone were to say to us: and what is the nature of the command to obedience in His saying وقدموا لأنفسكم ("and send forth for yourselves"), coming after His saying نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم ("Your women are a tilth for you, so approach your tilth as you wish")? Then it is said: indeed, by it was not meant what you imagined, but rather by it was meant: and send forth for yourselves of the good things to which We have urged you with Our saying: يسألونك ماذا ينفقون قل ما أنفقتم من خير فللوالدين والأقربين ("They ask you what they should spend; say: whatever good you spend is for the parents and the near relatives") and what comes after it of all the remaining matters about which they asked the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and concerning which they were answered with what Allah, the Exalted, mentioned in these verses. Then He said, the Exalted: We have already expounded to you what contains your right guidance and your direction to what makes your Lord pleased with you; so send forth for yourselves the good which He has commanded you, and conclude thereby a covenant with Him, that you may find it with Him when you meet Him at your return; and fear Him concerning His acts of disobedience, lest you approach them, and concerning His limits, lest you neglect them; and know that you will inevitably meet Him at your return, whereupon the doer of good among you is recompensed for his good deed and the doer of evil for his evil.
واتقوا الله واعلموا أنكم ملاقوه وبشر المؤمنين ("and fear Allah and know that you will meet Him, and give glad tidings to the believers")
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: واتقوا الله واعلموا أنكم ملاقوه وبشر المؤمنين ("and fear Allah and know that you will meet Him, and give glad tidings to the believers"). And this is a warning from Allah, the Exalted, to His servants against their committing anything of what He has forbidden them of His acts of disobedience, and a striking of fear into them of His punishment at His meeting, as we have already expounded before; and a command to His Prophet Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he give glad tidings to that one of His servants of triumph on the Day of Resurrection, and of the honor of the Hereafter, and of the eternal abode in the Garden (janna) — that one of them who is a doer of good, a believer in His books and His messengers and in His meeting, whose faith is sincere by his word agreeing with his deed in what his Lord has commanded him and what He has imposed upon him of His obligatory duties and apportioned to him of rights, and by his avoiding what He has commanded him to avoid of His acts of disobedience.
