Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:27
Who break the covenant of Allah after contracting it and sever that which Allah has ordered to be joined and cause corruption on earth. It is those who are the losers.
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 His word: الَّذِينَ يَنْقُضُونَ عَهْدَ اللَّهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مِيثَاقِهِ (Those who break the covenant of Allah after its confirmation)
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a description that Allah — exalted is His mention — gives of the corrupt (fāsiqīn), of whom He reported that, by means of the parable He made for the people of hypocrisy (nifāq), He leads none astray but them. He thus said: And by the parable that He makes — in accordance with what He described previously in the preceding verses — Allah leads none astray except the corrupt, who break the covenant of Allah after its confirmation.
Then the people of knowledge differed concerning the meaning of the covenant (ʿahd) of which Allah describes these corrupt ones as breaking it:
Some said: It is Allah's charge to His creatures, and His command to them concerning that to which He urged them of obedience to Him, and His prohibition to them against that which He forbade them of disobedience to Him, in His Books and through the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ. And their breaking of it is their refraining from acting upon it.
Others said: These verses were in fact revealed concerning the disbelievers among the People of the Book and the hypocrites among them, and them did Allah — exalted is His mention — intend by His word: إنّ الذين كفرُوا سواءٌ عليهم أأنذرتهم (Indeed, those who disbelieve — it is all the same for them whether you warn them), and by His word: ومن الناس مَنْ يَقول آمنَّا بالله وباليوم الآخر (And among the people are those who say: we believe in Allah and in the Last Day). So everything in these verses is a rebuke and chastisement of them, up to the end of their accounts. They said: The covenant of Allah which they broke after its confirmation is that which Allah took from them in the Torah — namely, acting upon what is in it, following Muḥammad ﷺ when he would be sent, and believing in him and in that with which he came from their Lord. And their breaking of it is their denial of it after they had known its truth, and their repudiation of it, and their concealment of the knowledge of it from the people, after they had given Allah, from themselves, the covenant that they would certainly make it clear to the people and would not conceal it. Allah — exalted is His praise — thus reported that they cast it behind their backs and sold it for a paltry price.
And some said: Allah intended by this verse all the people of shirk, kufr, and nifāq. And His covenant with all of them concerning His oneness (tawḥīd) is that which He set up for them of proofs indicating His lordship. And His covenant with them concerning His command and prohibition is that with which He supplied His messengers as proof, the miracles which no one of the people but they can produce, testifying on their behalf to their truthfulness. They said: And their breaking of it is their refraining from acknowledging what has become clear to them as true through the proofs, and their repudiation of the messengers and the Books, while they knew that what they brought was the truth.
And others said: The covenant that Allah — exalted is His mention — mentioned is the covenant He took from them when He brought them forth from the loins of Adam, which He described in His word: وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِنْ بَنِي آدَمَ مِنْ ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَى أَنْفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَى شَهِدْنَا أَنْ تَقُولُوا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَذَا غَافِلِينَ * أَوْ تَقُولُوا إِنَّمَا أَشْرَكَ آبَاؤُنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَكُنَّا ذُرِّيَّةً مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ أَفَتُهْلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ الْمُبْطِلُونَ [Surah Al-Aʿrāf: 172–173] (And when your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their backs, their descendants and made them testify over themselves: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes indeed, we testify — lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: we were unaware of this; or lest you should say: it was only our forefathers who associated partners before, and we were a progeny after them — will You then destroy us for what the falsifiers did?). And their breaking of it is their failure to fulfill it.
The most correct of these statements herein, to me, is the statement of him who said: that these verses were revealed concerning the disbelieving rabbis of the Jews who were in the midst of the place of the emigration (mahjar) of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and what bordered upon it of the remnants of the children of Israel, and whoever of the people of hypocrisy persisted in their shirk, whose accounts we have already set forth in the preceding portion of this book of ours.
And we have already shown that Allah's word — exalted is His praise —: إنّ الذين كفروا سواء عليهم (Indeed, those who disbelieve — it is all the same for them), and His word: ومن الناس من يقول آمنا بالله وباليوم الآخر (And among the people are those who say: we believe in Allah and in the Last Day), were revealed concerning them, and concerning whoever persisted in the same shirk toward Allah as that in which they persisted. However, these verses, even though they were revealed concerning them, are intended, in my view, for everyone who persisted in the same misguidance as they did; and intended by that part of them which corresponds to the description of the hypocrites in particular are all the hypocrites; and intended by that part of them which corresponds to the description of the disbelieving rabbis of the Jews are all who were their likes in their disbelief (kufr).
And that is because Allah — exalted is His praise — sometimes combines all of them under the description, on account of His having mentioned all of them together at the beginning of the verses that mention their accounts; and sometimes He designates a portion of them specifically with the description, on account of His having distinguished, at the beginning of the verses, between their two groups — I mean: the group of the hypocrites among the idolaters and the people of shirk toward Allah, and the group of the disbelieving rabbis of the Jews. Those, then, who break the covenant of Allah are those who refrain from what Allah charged them with, namely the acknowledgment of Muḥammad ﷺ and of that with which he came, and the making clear of his prophethood to the people — those who keep concealed the plain exposition of it after they had known of it, and of that which Allah had taken from them concerning this, as Allah — exalted is His mention — said: وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ لَتُبَيِّنُنَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ وَلا تَكْتُمُونَهُ فَنَبَذُوهُ وَرَاءَ ظُهُورِهِمْ [Surah Āl ʿImrān: 187] (And when Allah took the covenant of those who were given the Book: you shall certainly make it clear to the people and shall not conceal it — but they cast it behind their backs). And their casting it behind their backs is their breaking of the covenant which He imposed upon them in the Torah, which we have described, and their refraining from acting upon it.
And I said only: that He intended by these verses what I said He intended by them, because the verses — from the beginning of the five and six verses of Surah Al-Baqarah — were revealed concerning them, up to the completion of their accounts. And in the verse that follows the report about the creation of Adam and its exposition, in His word: يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 40] (O children of Israel, remember My favor which I bestowed upon you, and fulfill My covenant, then I shall fulfill your covenant). And His — exalted is His mention — addressing them in particular, with a view to fulfilling it, to the exclusion of the rest of mankind — therein lies an indication that by His word "Those who break the covenant of Allah after its confirmation" are intended their disbelievers and their hypocrites, and whoever of their followers belonged to the polytheistic idolaters in their misguidance. However, the address — even though it is directed to the two groups I have described — encompasses, in its rulings, and in that which Allah has established for them of threat, blame, and punishment, everyone who trod their way and their path of all creatures and all kinds of communities who are addressed with the command and prohibition.
The meaning of the verse is then: And by it He leads none astray except those who refrain from obedience to Allah, who deviate from following His command and prohibition, who violate the covenants of Allah which He has imposed upon them — in the Books which He sent down to His messengers and through the tongue of His prophets — namely, following the command of His Messenger Muḥammad ﷺ and that with which he came, and obedience to Allah regarding what He imposed upon them in the Torah, namely making clear His affair to the people, and informing them that they find him written down with them as a messenger from Allah whose obedience is obligatory, and refraining from concealing this from them. And their violating and breaking of it is their opposing Allah regarding His covenant with them — in that which I described that He imposed upon them — after they had given their Lord the covenant to fulfill it. As our Lord — exalted is His mention — described them with His word: فَخَلَفَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ خَلْفٌ وَرِثُوا الْكِتَابَ يَأْخُذُونَ عَرَضَ هَذَا الأَدْنَى وَيَقُولُونَ سَيُغْفَرُ لَنَا وَإِنْ يَأْتِهِمْ عَرَضٌ مِثْلُهُ يَأْخُذُوهُ أَلَمْ يُؤْخَذْ عَلَيْهِمْ مِيثَاقُ الْكِتَابِ أَنْ لا يَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ إِلا الْحَقَّ [Surah Al-Aʿrāf: 169] (Then there succeeded after them successors who inherited the Book; they took the fleeting goods of this lower life and said: it will be forgiven us — and if there came to them yet another like good, they would take it. Was not the covenant of the Book taken from them that they would say nothing about Allah but the truth?).
As for His word "after its confirmation" (min baʿdi mīthāqihi): He means: after Allah had fixed it firmly therein, by taking His covenants for fulfilling it, with that which He imposed upon them therein. However, "tawaththuq" (confirmation/securing) is a verbal noun of your expression "tawaththaqtu min fulān tawaththuqan" (I secured myself against so-and-so), and "mīthāq" is a noun thereof. And the suffix "-hu" (its) in "mīthāq" refers back to the name of Allah.
And under the ruling of this verse may fall everyone who possessed the trait with which Allah described these corrupt ones among the hypocrites and disbelievers, namely the breaking of the covenant, the severing of the bond of kinship (raḥim), and the spreading of corruption on the earth.
572 — As Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "Those who break the covenant of Allah after its confirmation": So beware of breaking this covenant, for Allah has abhorred the breaking of it and has threatened concerning it, and He has put forward concerning it, in the verses of the Qurʾān, argument, admonition, and counsel. And we do not know of Allah — exalted is His mention — having threatened concerning any sin as He threatened concerning the breaking of the covenant. So whoever gives the covenant of Allah and His pact from the fruit of his heart (i.e., from the sincerity of his heart), let him fulfill it for the sake of Allah.
573 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His word: "Those who break the covenant of Allah after its confirmation, and who sever what Allah has commanded to be joined, and who spread corruption on the earth — those are the losers": They are six traits in the people of hypocrisy. When they have the upper hand (ẓaharah), they display these six traits all together: when they speak they lie, when they promise they break their promise, when something is entrusted to them they betray it, and they break the covenant of Allah after its confirmation, and they sever what Allah has commanded to be joined, and they spread corruption on the earth. And when one has the upper hand over them, they display the three traits: when they speak they lie, when they promise they break their promise, and when something is entrusted to them they betray it.
The explanation of His — exalted is He — word: وَيَقْطَعُونَ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ أَنْ يُوصَلَ (And who sever what Allah has commanded to be joined)
Abū Jaʿfar said: And that which Allah urged to be joined and whose severing He blamed in this verse is the bond of kinship (al-raḥim). And He made that clear in His Book, for He said — exalted is He —: فَهَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ أَنْ تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأَرْضِ وَتُقَطِّعُوا أَرْحَامَكُمْ [Surah Muḥammad: 22] (Would it then be that, if you turned away, you would spread corruption on the earth and sever your bonds of kinship?). And He intended by the bond of kinship the relatives whom the womb of a single mother joins together with them and with him. And the severing of it is the wronging of it by refraining from fulfilling that which Allah has imposed as its rights, and the kindness which He has made obligatory toward it. And the joining of it is the fulfilling of what is obligatory toward it, namely the rights of Allah which He has made obligatory for it, and the affectionate care for it in the manner in which affectionate care for it is due.
And the "an" (that) which accompanies "yūṣal" (to be joined) is in the genitive position, in the sense of referring it back to the place of the suffix "-hi" in "bihi". Thus the meaning of the statement was: "and they sever that which Allah has commanded to be joined." And the suffix "-hi" in "bihi" is a reference to the mention "an yūṣal" (that it be joined). And in agreement with what we have said about the explanation of His word "and who sever what Allah has commanded to be joined" — that it is the bond of kinship — Qatāda used to say:
574 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda: "And who sever what Allah has commanded to be joined": By Allah, he severed that which Allah has commanded to be joined, by the severing of the bond of kinship and relationship.
And some have explained that thus: that Allah blamed them for their severing of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the believers in him and their bonds of kinship. And he adduced as evidence for that the general import of the apparent meaning of the verse, and that there is no indication that by it is intended one part of what Allah has commanded to be joined to the exclusion of another part.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this is a manner of explaining the verse that is not far from the correct, but Allah — exalted is His praise — has mentioned the hypocrites in more than one verse of His Book, and described them with the severing of the bonds of kinship. This, then, is the counterpart of that. However, even so, it nonetheless indicates Allah's blame of everyone who severs something which Allah has commanded to be joined, whether it be a bond of kinship or something else.
The explanation of His — exalted is His praise — word: وَيُفْسِدُونَ فِي الأَرْضِ (And who spread corruption on the earth)
Abū Jaʿfar said: And their spreading of corruption on the earth is that which we have previously described, namely their disobedience to their Lord, their disbelief in Him, their repudiation of His Messenger, their denial of his prophethood, and their giving the lie to that which he brought them from Allah being truth from Him.
The explanation of His — exalted is His praise — word: أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ (Those are the ones who are the losers) (27)
Abū Jaʿfar said: And "al-khāsirūn" (the losers) is the plural of "khāsir" (loser). And the losers are those who deprive themselves of their share — through their disobedience to Allah — of His mercy, just as a man incurs loss in his trade through his capital being diminished at his selling. So likewise the disbeliever (kāfir) and the hypocrite incur loss through Allah's withholding from them His mercy which He created for His servants on the Day of Resurrection, at the moment when he is in the direst need of that mercy. One says of this: "khasira al-rajulu yakhsaru khasran wa-khusrānan wa-khasāran" (the man incurred loss, he incurs loss, in various forms), as Jarīr ibn ʿAṭiyya said:
Indeed, Salīṭ is in loss (khasār), truly they are the children of a people created as slaves (aqinna).
He means by his word "in loss": that is, in that which diminishes their share of nobility and generosity. And it has been said: that the meaning of "Those are the ones who are the losers" is: they are the ones who perish. And it is possible that he who said that intended what we have said about the perishing of him whose trait Allah has described with the trait with which He described him in this verse, in that Allah withholds from him what He has withheld from him of His mercy, on account of his disobedience to Him and his disbelief in Him. Thus he based the explanation of the statement upon its meaning, without giving the explanation of the literal nature of the word itself — for the people of explanation (tafsīr) do this at times for many reasons that prompt them to it.
And some have said concerning this what:
575 — was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, saying: Everything that Allah ascribes to other than the people of Islam, in the form of an appellation such as "loser" (khāsir), by it He intends only disbelief (kufr); and what He ascribes to the people of Islam, by it He intends only sin.
