Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:24
But if you do not - and you will never be able to - then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.
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 discourse on the interpretation of His statement, exalted be His praise: فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا وَلَنْ تَفْعَلُوا ("And if you do not do it — and you will never do it").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, means by His statement "and if you do not do it": if you do not produce a sūra the like of it, even though you and your associates and your helpers have collectively exerted yourselves toward that,¹ then through your testing and trial your own incapacity and the incapacity of My entire creation to do so has become clear to you, and you have come to know that it is from Me, after which you persisted in denying it.
And His statement "and you will never do it" means: you will never produce a sūra the like of it.
501 – As Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda: "and if you do not do it, and you will never do it," that is: you are not able to do it and you have no capacity for it.
502 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and if you do not do it, and you will never do it," then the truth has already been made clear to you.
The discourse on the interpretation of His statement, exalted be He: فَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِي وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ ("Then fear the Fire whose fuel is people and stones").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means by His statement "Then fear the Fire": fear that you will enter the Fire because of your denial of My messenger concerning that with which he came to you from Me — namely that it is of My revelation and My sending down — after it has become clear to you that it is My Book and from Me, and after the proof has been established against you that it is My word and My revelation, through your incapacity and the incapacity of My entire creation to produce anything equal to it.
Then the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, described the Fire of which He had warned them that they would enter it, and informed them that people are its fuel and that the stones are its fuel, and He said: "whose fuel is people and stones." By His statement "waqūduhā" (its fuel) He means its firewood. The Arabs make it a maṣdar (verbal noun), although it is a noun, when one pronounces the wāw with a fatḥa (waqūd), in the sense of firewood.
When, however, one pronounces the wāw of "al-wuqūd" with a ḍamma, then it is a maṣdar of the saying of someone: "waqadat al-nār" (the fire blazed), "fa-hiya taqidu wuqūdan wa-qidatan wa-waqadānan wa-waqdan," by which is meant that it was ablaze.
If someone were to ask: and how is it that the stones have been singled out specifically and joined with people, so that they have been made into firewood for the Fire of Hell (jahannam)?
Then it is answered: they are stones of sulphur, and these are — according to what has reached us — the hottest of stones when they are heated.
503 – As Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Misʿar, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maysara al-Zarrād, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, concerning His statement "whose fuel is people and stones," he said: they are stones of sulphur, which Allah created on the day that He created the heavens and the earth, in the lowest heaven, which He keeps ready for the unbelievers (kāfirīn).
504 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna informed us, on the authority of Misʿar, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik al-Zarrād, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, concerning His statement "whose fuel is people and stones," he said: they are stones of sulphur, which Allah made as He willed.
505 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in a report that he mentioned, on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — and on the authority of Murra, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: "Fear the Fire whose fuel is people and stones," as for the stones, they are stones in the Fire of black sulphur, with which they are punished alongside the Fire.
506 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His statement "whose fuel is people and stones," he said: stones of black sulphur in the Fire. He said: and ʿAmr ibn Dīnār said to me: stones harder than these and larger.
507 – Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Misʿar, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maysara, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, he said: stones of sulphur which Allah created with Himself however He willed and as He willed.
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The discourse on the interpretation of His statement: أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَافِرِينَ ("which has been prepared for the unbelievers") (24).
We have already shown earlier in this book of ours that "al-kāfir" in the language of the Arabs is the one who covers something with a covering,² and that Allah, whose praise is exalted, named the unbeliever "kāfir" only because of his denial of His favors toward him and his covering up of His blessings to him.
The meaning of His statement is then: "which has been prepared for the unbelievers," that is: the Fire is prepared for those who deny that Allah is their Lord, the One who created them and created those who were before them, who made the earth a resting-place for them and the sky a structure, and who sent down water from the sky and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for them — those who in His worship set up associates and gods alongside Him, while it is He who alone brought them forth and who alone provides for their food and sustenance.
508 – As Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "which has been prepared for the unbelievers," that is: for the one who is in the same state of unbelief (kufr) as that in which you are.
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Footnotes:
¹ In the printed edition it reads "and you have collectively exerted yourselves," but what is in the manuscript is better, and its explanation follows shortly.
² See what has gone before: p. 255.
(The remaining footnotes concern ḥadīth-critical references and source citations: al-Suyūṭī mentions report 501 in similar wording and attributes it to ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd and Ibn Jarīr [with a misprint "Ibn Jurayj"]; reports 501 and 502 are found in al-Durr al-manthūr 1:35 and in al-Shawkānī 1:40. The wording of al-Ṭabarī in the interpretation of this verse and the next, and what he demonstrates by the last report, indicate that he is of the opinion that the answer to the conditional clause has been omitted, because it is well known and indicated by the context; the answer to the condition is "then the truth has already been made clear to you, and you have continued to persist in denying it and denying My messenger," after which He begins anew: "then fear that you will enter the Fire because of your denial of My messenger...". No one has pointed this out except al-Zamakhsharī, who in his interpretation of the verse in his book al-Kashshāf says the following: "If you say: what is the meaning of His making fearing the Fire conditional upon the absence of their producing a sūra the like of it? Then I say: when they do not produce it and their incapacity to refute becomes clear, then the truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is established for them. And when his truthfulness is established for them, and they then cling to obstinacy and do not submit and do not follow, then they deserve to be punished with the Fire. So it was said to them: if you have clearly perceived the incapacity, then abandon obstinacy. And 'then fear the Fire' was placed in that position, because fearing the Fire is closely connected with abandoning obstinacy, since it is a consequence of it. For whoever fears the Fire abandons obstinacy..." — From this the intent of al-Ṭabarī becomes clear, namely that fearing the Fire does not fall under the condition, nor is it part of the answer to it, and this belongs to the penetrating insight of al-Ṭabarī, may Allah have mercy on him and forgive al-Zamakhsharī.
Concerning reports 503 and 504: Misʿar — with kasra on the mīm, sukūn on the sīn and fatḥa on the ʿayn — is Ibn Kidām, a trustworthy, well-known transmitter, one of the eminent ones. ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maysara al-Hilālī al-Kūfī al-Zarrād: trustworthy, with many narrations, belonging to the younger Successors (tābiʿūn). ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ al-Jumaḥī al-Makkī: a trustworthy Successor. ʿAmr ibn Maymūn al-Awdī: belonging to the great mukhaḍram Successors, was a Muslim during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, but did not see him. Al-Ḥākim narrated the report in al-Mustadrak 2:261 and declared it authentic according to the condition of both shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim]; al-Dhahabī concurred with that. Ibn Kathīr and al-Suyūṭī also mention it with various attributions.
Concerning report 505: Ibn Kathīr 1:111 mentions it without attribution, and al-Suyūṭī 1:36 attributes it solely to Ibn Jarīr. Concerning report 506: in Ibn Kathīr 1:111 without attribution. Concerning report 507: the working-out of its transmission already preceded at 503 and 504. Concerning report 508: in Ibn Kathīr 1:111, al-Durr al-manthūr 1:36 and al-Shawkānī 1:41. The statement "al-mushrikīn" [those who associate partners] is a closer specification of the earlier statement "for those who deny." In the manuscript it reads "in the things" [bi-l-ashyāʾ], which is an error.)
