Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:239
And if you fear [an enemy, then pray] on foot or riding. But when you are secure, then remember Allah [in prayer], as He has taught you that which you did not [previously] know.
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: فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ فَرِجَالا أَوْ رُكْبَانًا ("But if you fear, then on foot or mounted") (2:239)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means by this: and stand before Allah in your prayer obedient to Him — in accordance with what we have already set forth concerning its meaning. Now if you fear an enemy of yours, O people, on whose account, at the moment of your encounter with them, you are apprehensive for your own lives, that you cannot [not] pray standing upon your feet on the ground, devout before Allah — then pray "on foot" (rijālan), going on foot upon your legs, while you are in your war, your fighting (qitāl), and your jihād against your enemy — "or mounted" (rukbānan), upon the backs of your mounts. For that then suffices you in place of standing, devout.
* * *
Since we have stated that its meaning is thus, the accusative of "al-rijāl" is permissible on the basis of the elided meaning. That is because the Arabs do this especially in the conditional (jazāʾ), since its second part resembles something joined to the first (maʿṭūf). This is evident from the fact that they say: "If good, then good; and if evil, then evil" (in khayran fa-khayran, wa-in sharran fa-sharran), in the meaning of: if you do good, you will obtain good, and if you do evil, you will obtain evil. Thus they join the answer to the first part, the second part being in the apocopative because of the apocopative of the first. So too His word: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," in the meaning of: if you fear to pray standing on the ground, then pray on foot.
* * *
"Al-rijāl" is the plural of "rājil" and of "rajul." As for the people of the Ḥijāz: they use for the singular of "al-rijāl" the word "rajul." It has been heard from them: "So-and-so walked barefoot on foot (rajulan) to the House of Allah." From some Arab tribes "rajlān" has also been heard for its singular, as a poet of the Banū ʿUqayl said:
It is an obligation upon me, if I behold Laylā in seclusion, that I visit the House of Allah barefoot on foot (rajlān).
Whoever says "rajlān" for the masculine says "rajlā" for the feminine. In the plural of both the masculine and the feminine it is permissible to say: "The people came on foot (rijālā and rajālā)," like "kusālā and kasālā" (lazy ones).
* * *
It is related from some that they read this with doubling: "fa-in khiftum fa-rujjālan." And from some that they read: "fa-rijālan." Neither of the two readings is permissible with us to recite, because of their deviation from the transmitted, widespread recitation in the cities of the Muslims.
* * *
As for "al-rukbān": that is the plural of "rākib." One says: "He is a rider (rākib), and they are rukbān, rakb, rakaba, rikāb, arkub, and urkūb." One says: "An urkūb of people came to us," and the plural is arākīb.
* * *
In accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes of the Qurʾān have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
5535 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Mughīra informed us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, who said: I asked him about His word: "on foot or mounted." He said: At the pursuit one prays in the direction toward which one has turned one's face, mounted or on foot, and one makes the prostration (sujūd) lower than the bowing (rukūʿ), and one prays two rakʿas with a gesture (īmāʾ).
5536 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning His word: "on foot or mounted," he said: The prayer of the smiting (al-ḍirāb, the swordfighting) is two rakʿas, with a gesture.
5537 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, his word: "on foot or mounted," he said: One prays two rakʿas in the direction toward which one's face is, with a gesture.
5538 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr. "on foot or mounted," he said: When the cavalry attacks, then make a gesture.
5539 — Aḥmad related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Mālik, on the authority of Saʿīd, who said: One makes a gesture.
5540 — Aḥmad related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Yūnus, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "on foot or mounted," he said: When it is at the fighting, one prays mounted or on foot, in the direction toward which one's face is, with a gesture.
5541 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted": the companions of Muḥammad ﷺ in the fighting, mounted. When the fear occurs, let the man pray in every direction, standing or mounted, or as he is able, so that he makes a gesture with his head or speaks with his tongue.
5542 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, in similar fashion — except that he said: "or mounted" for the companions of Muḥammad ﷺ. And he also said: "or mounted, or as he is able with his head to make a gesture." The rest of the report is the same as that.
5543 — Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," he said: When they encounter one another at the fighting and they pursue, or are pursued, or a beast of prey pursues them, then their prayer is two takbīrs with a gesture, in whichever direction one is.
5544 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: "on foot or mounted," he said: That is at the fighting. One prays in the direction toward which one's face is, mounted or on foot, when one pursues or is pursued by a beast of prey; then let one pray one rakʿa, with a gesture. And if one cannot do that, then let one perform two takbīrs.
5545 — Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of al-Faḍl ibn Dilham, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," he said: One rakʿa while you walk, while your camel carries you forward and your horse drives you on, in whichever direction it is.
5546 — Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted": as for "on foot," that is upon your legs when you fight; the man prays and makes a gesture with his head, in whichever direction he is, and the rider upon his mount makes a gesture with his head, in whichever direction he is.
5547 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," the āyah, he said: Allah has permitted you, when you are fearful at the fighting, that you pray while you are mounted and while you are going forward, making a gesture with your head in the direction toward which your face is, if you are able to perform two rakʿas; and if not, then one.
5548 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," he said: That is at the swordfighting (musāyafa).
5549 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, concerning His word: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," he said: When the enemies pursue, then it is permitted for them to pray in whichever direction they are, on foot or mounted, while they perform two rakʿas with a gesture. And Qatāda said: One rakʿa suffices.
5550 — 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, concerning His word: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," he said: When they feared the enemy, they prayed two rakʿas, mounted or on foot.
5551 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning His word: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," he said: The man prays in the fighting the obligatory prayer upon his mount and upon his riding camel in the direction toward which his face is, with a gesture at every bowing and prostration, but the prostration is lower than the bowing. That is when the swords meet one another; this is at the pursuit.
5552 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us, saying: My father related to me, saying: Qatāda used to say: If he is able [to perform] two rakʿas, [let him do that], and if not, then one, with a gesture, by choice mounted or on foot. Allah, whose praise is exalted, said: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted."
5553 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us, saying: My father related to me, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said concerning the fearful one who is pursued by the enemy: If he is able to pray two rakʿas [let him do that], and if not, then he prays one rakʿa.
5554 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʿādh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Yūnus, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said: One rakʿa.
5555 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: I asked al-Ḥakam, Ḥammād, and Qatāda about the prayer of the swordfighting (musāyafa), and they said: One rakʿa.
5556 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: I asked al-Ḥakam, Ḥammād, and Qatāda about the prayer of the swordfighting, and they said: One makes a gesture in the direction toward which one's face is.
5557 — Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād, al-Ḥakam, and Qatāda: that they were asked about the prayer at the swordfighting, and they said: One rakʿa in the direction toward which you have your face.
5558 — Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Ashʿath ibn Sawwār, he said: I asked Ibn Sīrīn about the prayer of the one who has been put to flight (al-munhazim), and he said: As best he can.
5559 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Yazīd, on the authority of Abū Naḍra, on the authority of Jābir ibn Ghurāb, he said: We were fighting against the people and over us was appointed Haram ibn Ḥayyān. The time of prayer came and they said: The prayer, the prayer! Then Haram said: Let the man perform one prostration in the direction toward which his face is. He said: And we were turned toward the east.
5560 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of al-Jurayrī, on the authority of Abū Naḍra, he said: Haram ibn Ḥayyān was appointed over an army. They encountered the enemy and he said: Let each of you perform under his shield (junna) one prostration in the direction toward which his face is, or whatever is easy. I asked Abū Naḍra: What does "whatever is easy" mean? He said: One makes a gesture.
5561 — Sawwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Abū Maslama related to us, on the authority of Abū Naḍra, he said: Jābir ibn Ghurāb related to me, saying: We were with Haram ibn Ḥayyān, fighting against the enemy, turned toward the east. The time of prayer came and they said: The prayer! Then he said: Let the man perform under his shield one prostration.
5562 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd ibn Naṣr related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, concerning His word: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," he said: You pray in the direction toward which you have turned, mounted or on foot, and in the direction toward which your mount has turned you, making a gesture, for the obligatory prayer.
5563 — Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Sakūnī related to me, saying: Hiba [Baqiyya] ibn al-Walīd related to us, saying: Al-Masʿūdī related to us, saying: Yazīd al-Faqīr related to me, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, he said: The prayer of fear (ṣalāt al-khawf) is one rakʿa.
5564 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Mūsā ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ concerning this āyah, he said: When he is fearful, he prays in whatever state he is.
5565 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Mālik said — and I asked him about the word of Allah: "on foot or mounted" — he said: Mounted and on foot. If only the people were meant by it, only "rijālan" would have come and the āyah would end there. It means only "rijāl": those going on foot. And he recited: يَأْتُوكَ رِجَالا وَعَلَى كُلِّ ضَامِرٍ (Surah al-Ḥajj: 27) ("They will come to you on foot and on every lean mount"). He said: They come on foot and mounted.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The fear on the basis of which it is permitted for the one praying to perform the obligatory prayer on foot, walking, or mounted, roving about [in the thick of battle], is the fear for one's life at the baring of the swords and the swordfighting in the fight against whom one is commanded to fight — an enemy of the Muslims, or a combatant, or the attack of a beast of prey, or an attacking camel, or a flowing flood in which one fears drowning.
And everything by which it is most likely that a person will perish if he performs the prayer of safety (ṣalāt al-amn) — when it is so, then it is permitted for him to perform the prayer of intense fear in the direction toward which his face is, with a gesture, on the basis of the generality of the Book of Allah: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted." For He has not, on this point, restricted the fear to a single kind, provided the fear has the character I have mentioned.
* * *
We have only said that the fear on the basis of which it is permitted for the one praying to pray thus is that whose most likely consequence is destruction if one performs the prayer with all its prescriptions — and that is the state of intense fear — because of the following:
5566 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd and Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ both related to me, they said: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nāfiʿ, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, he said: The Prophet ﷺ said concerning the prayer of fear: The commander and a group of people with him stand up and they perform one prostration, while a [second] group of them is between them and the enemy. Then those who have performed one prostration with their commander withdraw and take the place of those who have not yet prayed, and those who have not yet prayed advance and perform one prostration with their commander. Then their commander withdraws after he has completed his prayer, and after his prayer each of the two groups performs for itself one prostration. And if there is a fear more intense than that, then "on foot or mounted."
5567 — Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā al-Umawī related to me, saying: My father related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj related to us, on the authority of Mūsā ibn ʿUqba, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, he said: When they have become intermingled — that is, in the fighting — then it is only the remembrance [of Allah] and the gesture with the head. Ibn ʿUmar said: The Prophet ﷺ said: "And if they are more numerous than that, then they pray standing and mounted."
* * *
Thus the Prophet ﷺ made a distinction between the ruling concerning the prayer of fear outside the state of swordfighting and pursuit, and the ruling concerning the prayer of fear in the state of intense fear and swordfighting, in accordance with what we have related from Ibn ʿUmar. From that it is known that His word, whose praise is exalted: "But if you fear, then on foot or mounted," means only that fear whose character we have described.
In accordance with what Ibn ʿUmar related from the Prophet ﷺ, it is related from Ibn ʿUmar that he used to say:
5568 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, that he said concerning the prayer of fear: One prays with a group of the people one rakʿa, while a [second] group keeps watch. Then they depart with those with whom one has prayed one rakʿa, until they take the place of their companions. Then those latter come and one prays with them one rakʿa, after which one performs the taslīm, and each group stands up and prays [for itself] one rakʿa. He said: And if there is a fear more intense than that, then "on foot or mounted."
* * *
As for the number of rakʿas in that state of the prayer: I prefer that one not shorten the number of them from the state of safety. But if one shortens that and prays one rakʿa, then I deem that valid, because of the following:
5569 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to me, saying: Abū ʿAwāna related to us, on the authority of Bukayr ibn al-Akhnas, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: Allah prescribed the prayer through the tongue of your Prophet ﷺ: in residence four [rakʿas], on a journey two rakʿas, and in fear one rakʿa.
* * *
The explanation of His word: فَإِذَا أَمِنْتُمْ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَمَا عَلَّمَكُمْ مَا لَمْ تَكُونُوا تَعْلَمُونَ ("And when you are secure, then remember Allah as He has taught you what you did not know") (2:239)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The explanation of it is: "And when you are secure," O believers, from your enemy, that he might be able to kill you while you are occupied with your prayer that He has prescribed for you — and [secure] from anyone else for fear of whom, during your prayer, you feared for your own lives — and you have come to rest, "then remember Allah" in your prayer and outside it, with thankfulness to Him, praise and glorification of Him, for that with which He has favored you, namely the favor of attaining the truth from which your enemies among the people of disbelief in Allah have strayed — as He has guided you by teaching you His prescriptions, what He has made permitted and forbidden, and the accounts of the communities that preceded you, and the events that will occur after you — in the near things of this world and the things to come of the Hereafter — which others than you did not know, while He gave you insight into them and into the rest, as a favor from Him to you. Thus He taught you from Himself what you did not know before His teaching of you.
* * *
Mujāhid used to say concerning His word "And when you are secure," which is:
5570 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: "And when you are secure," he said: [that is when] you have departed from the abode of the journey to the abode of residing.
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In accordance with what we have said, Ibn Zayd has spoken:
5571 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "And when you are secure, then remember Allah," he said: When you are secure, then pray the prayer as Allah has prescribed it for you — when the fear came, there was for them a dispensation (rukhṣa).
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And His word here: "then remember Allah," he said: [that is] the prayer, "as He has taught you what you did not know."
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Abū Jaʿfar said: This statement which we have mentioned from Mujāhid — the statement of others than him is more deserving of preference for its correctness over it, because of the consensus of all that, when the fear departs, it is obligatory for the one praying to perform the obligatory prayer — even if he is on a journey — with its bowing, its prostration, and its prescriptions, and standing on the ground, neither walking nor mounted, like that which of it is obligatory for him when he resides in his city and land — except for the shortening that is permitted to him on a journey. In this āyah no mention has been made of the journey, that His word "then remember Allah as He has taught you what you did not know" might relate to it. Mention has only been made of the prayer in the state of safety and in the state of intense fear, and thus Allah, glorified and exalted is He, has made known to His servants the character of what is obligatory upon them of prayer in both states. Then He said: "And when you are secure" — that is, when the fear has departed — then perform your prayer, and My remembrance in it and outside it, like that which I have prescribed for you before the arising of the state of fear.
Moreover: if mention of the journey had been made and Allah, whose praise is exalted, had then wished to make known to His creatures the character of what is obligatory upon them of prayer after their keeping [residence], then He would have said: "And when you reside, then remember Allah as He has taught you what you did not know" — and He would not have said: "And when you are secure."
In His word, whose praise is exalted, "And when you are secure," lies the clear indication of the correctness of the statement of whoever directs the explanation of it toward what we have said about it, and of the contrary of the statement of Mujāhid.
