Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:276
Allah destroys interest and gives increase for charities. And Allah does not like every sinning disbeliever.
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 explanation of His statement, the Exalted: يَمْحَقُ اللَّهُ الرِّبَا وَيُرْبِي الصَّدَقَاتِ وَاللَّهُ لا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ أَثِيمٍ (276) (Allah destroys usury (ribā) and causes the alms to grow, and Allah does not love anyone who is persistently disbelieving and sinful. (2:276))
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, mighty and exalted, means by His statement "Allah destroys usury (ribā)": Allah causes usury (ribā) to diminish and makes it vanish, as in:
6251 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning "Allah destroys usury (ribā)": He causes it to diminish.
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And this corresponds to the report transmitted on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, that he said:
6252 – "Usury (ribā), however much it may increase, ultimately ends up in little."
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As for His statement "and He causes the alms to grow," by this He means, exalted is His praise, that He multiplies its reward, that He makes it grow and increases it for the giver.
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We have already previously expounded the meaning of "al-ribā" (usury), as well as of "al-irbāʾ" (the causing to grow) and what its origin is, in a manner sufficient to make repetition unnecessary.
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If someone were to ask us: How then does the causing of the alms to grow by Allah take place?
Then the answer is: Through His multiplication of the reward for its giver, as He, exalted is His praise, said: مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ حَبَّةٍ أَنْبَتَتْ سَبْعَ سَنَابِلَ فِي كُلِّ سُنْبُلَةٍ مِائَةُ حَبَّةٍ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 261] (The likeness of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is as the likeness of a grain that brings forth seven ears, in each ear a hundred grains. (2:261)) and as He said: مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ أَضْعَافًا كَثِيرَةً [Surah Al-Baqarah: 245] (Who is it that will lend to Allah a goodly loan, so that He may multiply it for him many times over? (2:245)) and as in:
6253 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr related to us, on the authority of al-Qāsim: that he heard Abū Hurayra say: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Verily, Allah, mighty and exalted, accepts the alms and takes it with His right hand, and He causes it to grow for one of you as one of you raises his foal, until the morsel of food becomes as great as Mount Uḥud. And the confirmation of that is in the Book of Allah, mighty and exalted: أَلَمْ يَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ يَقْبَلُ التَّوْبَةَ عَنْ عِبَادِهِ وَيَأْخُذُ الصَّدَقَاتِ [Surah At-Tawbah: 104] (Do they not know that Allah is the One who accepts the repentance of His servants and takes the alms? (9:104)) and 'Allah destroys usury (ribā) and causes the alms to grow.'"
6254 – Sulaymān ibn ʿUmar ibn Khālid al-Aqṭaʿ related to me, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – and I think that he transmitted it only as marfūʿ (traceable to the Prophet ﷺ) – who said: "Verily, Allah, mighty and exalted, accepts the alms, and He accepts only what is good (ṭayyib)."
6255 – Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī al-Muqaddamī related to me, saying: Rayḥān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: ʿAbbād related to us, on the authority of al-Qāsim, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Verily, Allah, blessed and exalted, accepts the alms, and He accepts thereof only what is good (ṭayyib), and He causes it to grow for its giver as one of you raises his foal or young camel, until the morsel of food becomes as great as Mount Uḥud. And the confirmation of that is in the Book of Allah, mighty and exalted: (Allah destroys usury (ribā) and causes the alms to grow)."
6256 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, saying: Maʿmar related to us, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Verily, when the servant gives an alms out of what is good (ṭayyib), Allah accepts it from him and takes it with His right hand and causes it to grow as one of you raises his foal or young camel. And verily, the man gives a morsel of food as alms, and it grows in the hand of Allah – or he said: in the palm of Allah, mighty and exalted – until it becomes as great as Mount Uḥud. So give alms."
6257 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard Yūnus, on the authority of a companion of his, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, who said: Abū Hurayra said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Verily, Allah, mighty and exalted, accepts the alms with His right hand, and He accepts thereof only that which is good (ṭayyib), and Allah causes the morsel of food of one of you to grow as one of you raises his foal and young camel, until He hands it over on the Day of Resurrection and it is greater than Uḥud."
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Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His statement "and Allah does not love anyone who is persistently disbelieving and sinful," by this He means: and Allah does not love anyone who persists in disbelief (kufr) toward his Lord, remaining in it, who holds the consuming of usury (ribā) and the feeding of it to others as permissible – "sinful," continuing in sin with respect to that which He has forbidden him, such as the consuming of usury (ribā) and the forbidden and other of his disobediences, who does not restrain himself from it and does not desist from it, and who is not admonished by the admonition of his Lord with which He has admonished him in His revelation and in the verses of His Book.
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Footnotes:
(17) 6252 – Al-Ḥākim transmitted it in al-Mustadrak (2:37) via Isrāʾīl, on the authority of al-Rukayn ibn al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of his father al-Rabīʿ ibn ʿUmayla, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: "Usury (ribā), even though it increases, its outcome ends up in little." Thus also Ibn Kathīr mentioned it from the Musnad via Sharīk, on the authority of al-Rukayn ibn al-Rabīʿ, with that same wording. Then he gave what Ibn Māja transmitted. However, Ibn Kathīr (2:61) adopted the wording of Ṭabarī and rendered the report as it stands in the transmission, not as it occurs in the printed and handwritten version. See also al-Durr al-manthūr (1:365).
(18) In the handwritten and printed version it reads: "He multiplies its reward for its lord" (li-rabbihā), as if meaning: for its giver, and as if the correct reading is what has been established. One says rabba al-maʿrūf wa-l-ṣanīʿa wa-l-niʿma and so forth – yarubbuhā rabban – and rabbabahā (both with doubling): he made it grow, increased it, and made it complete. And the phrase "He makes it grow and increases it for him" is an explanation of His statement "He multiplies its reward." See the following report no. 6253.
(19) See what has just passed, p. 7.
(20) The transmission 6253 – ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr al-Nājī al-Baṣrī, the judge (al-Qāḍī): reliable (thiqa); whoever criticized him did so without proof. We have established his reliability in the commentary on the Musnad (2131, 3316) and demonstrated the error of whoever criticized him without right.
Al-Qāsim: that is Ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, the reliable tābiʿī, the jurist, the imam.
The transmission will yet follow in the explanation of Surah At-Tawbah (vol. 11, p. 15, Būlāq edition), via Abū Kurayb, with this isnād, but there "Wakīʿ related to us" has fallen out. That is an evident error.
Aḥmad transmitted it in the Musnad (10090; 2:371, Ḥalabī edition) via Wakīʿ and via Ismāʿīl – that is Ibn ʿUlayya – both on the authority of ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, with this isnād. He rendered it according to the wording of Wakīʿ, like the transmission of Ṭabarī here.
But into the Musnad a strange error has crept in the recitation of the first verse, for it reads there: "And He is the One who accepts the repentance of His servants and takes the alms." The verse recited in the transmission, however, is that which stands in the transmission of Ṭabarī here: (Do they not know that Allah is the One who accepts the repentance of His servants and takes the alms), and that is verse 104 of Surah At-Tawbah. The other is verse 25 of Surah Ash-Shūrā, and its recitation reads: (And He is the One who accepts the repentance of His servants and pardons the evil deeds), and that is not the place of evidential argument in this transmission.
This error is old in the copies of the Musnad, originating from the old copyists, as witnessed by the fact that this error has also remained in the adoption of this transmission from the Musnad by the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr in Jāmiʿ al-masānīd wa-l-sunan (7:320, photographic manuscript).
Indeed, it has thereafter become apparent to me that the error is even older than this. Perhaps it originates from Wakīʿ or from ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr. For al-Tirmidhī transmitted the report (2:23) via Abū Kurayb – the teacher of Ṭabarī here – on the authority of Wakīʿ, with it. And therein the recitation of the verse has remained erroneous, like the transmission of Aḥmad via Wakīʿ. And its commentator al-Mubārakfūrī cites from the ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī that he said: "Herein there is confusion by some of the transmitters. The correct is: (Do they not know that Allah is the One who accepts the repentance) – the verse. And we have transmitted it correctly in the Book of zakāh of Yūsuf al-Qāḍī."
Indeed, the ḥāfiẓ al-Mundhirī likewise passed over this error. He mentioned the transmission in al-Targhīb wa-l-tarhīb (2:19) according to the transmission of al-Tirmidhī, and mentioned the verse like the transmission of the Musnad and al-Tirmidhī – contrary to the recitation.
If that is so, then I consider it more likely that Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī, may Allah have mercy on him, heard it from Abū Kurayb on the authority of Wakīʿ, like the transmission of al-Tirmidhī via Abū Kurayb and the transmission of Aḥmad via Wakīʿ, and that he did not consider it permissible to mention the verse with the erroneous recitation, and so mentioned it correctly. And he acted rightly therein and did it excellently and well.
Al-Tirmidhī said – after his transmission: "This is a ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ transmission. And it has been transmitted on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, something similar."
The transmission of ʿĀʾisha will yet follow: 6255.
Ibn Kathīr mentioned it in the tafsīr (2:62) according to the transmission of Ibn Abī Ḥātim in his tafsīr, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Awdī, on the authority of Wakīʿ, with this isnād, but he did not mention the first verse into which the error had crept.
Al-Suyūṭī mentioned it (1:365) and added the attribution to al-Shāfiʿī, Ibn Abī Shayba, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn Khuzayma, Ibn al-Mundhir and al-Dāraquṭnī in al-Ṣifāt.
Aḥmad also transmitted it (9234) via Khalaf ibn al-Walīd, on the authority of al-Mubārak – that is Ibn Faḍāla – on the authority of ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ṣabra and ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, on the authority of al-Qāsim, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – and he mentioned it in a comparable manner, abridged, and did not mention therein the two verses.
Ibn Kathīr (2:62) referred to this transmission of the Musnad, but into it confusion of the copyists has crept.
The transmission will yet follow in comparable meaning, expanded and abridged, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: 6254, 6256, 6257. And on the authority of ʿĀʾisha: 6255.
We will, at the end of it, point to the rest of the takhrīj (source documentation): 6257.
(21) The transmission 6254 – Sulaymān ibn ʿUmar ibn Khālid al-Aqṭaʿ, al-Qurashī al-ʿĀmirī al-Raqqī: Ibn Abī Ḥātim devoted a biography to him (2/1/131) and mentioned that his father wrote from him. He mentioned no criticism (jarḥ) concerning him.
Ibn al-Mubārak: that is ʿAbdallāh. And Sufyān: that is al-Thawrī.
The transmission is an abridgment of the preceding one. And the doubt about its marfūʿ character – here – does no harm, for the transmission has already been found correct as marfūʿ by the preceding isnād and the other isnāds.
The transmission will also yet follow, with this isnād (vol. 11, p. 15, Būlāq edition), where he did not mention its wording, but only mentioned the beginning of it and then said: "Then he mentioned something similar." This as a reference to the preceding transmission. So it is as if he transmitted it there in expanded form, but without mentioning its full context.
Ibn Kathīr referred in the tafsīr of Surah At-Tawbah (4:235) to this transmission and the preceding one, and made of them one transmission, on the authority of al-Thawrī and Wakīʿ, on the authority of ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, with it. But he did not mention its takhrīj.
(22) The transmission 6255 – Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAṭāʾ ibn Muqaddam, al-Muqaddamī al-Baṣrī, reliable (thiqa), of whom a biography is included in al-Tahdhīb and in al-Kabīr (1/1/179) and with Ibn Abī Ḥātim (4/1/21). In the printed version an error has crept in here in the name of his father: "ʿAmr" instead of "ʿUmar." And it will yet follow with more serious confusion in the printed version: 6809, thus: "Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr wa-Ibn ʿAlī ʿan ʿAṭāʾ al-Muqaddamī"!!
And "al-Muqaddamī": with doubling of the dāl and a fatḥa upon it, an attribution to his great-grandfather "Muqaddam."
Rayḥān ibn Saʿīd al-Nājī al-Baṣrī: one of the teachers of Aḥmad and Isḥāq. Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said: "I see no objection to him." Some have criticized him, but al-Bukhārī devoted a biography to him in al-Kabīr (2/1/301) and mentioned no criticism concerning him. He was the imam of the mosque of ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, as in al-Kabīr and with Ibn Abī Ḥātim (1/2/517). Ibn Ḥibbān and al-ʿIjlī criticized him on account of the rejection of some of what he transmitted on the authority of ʿAbbād. But perhaps he knew him better, since he was the imam of his mosque.
However that may be, he did not stand alone in this transmission on the authority of ʿAbbād, as will become apparent from the takhrīj.
Aḥmad transmitted it in the Musnad (6:251, Ḥalabī edition), on the authority of ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, on the authority of Ḥammād, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha: "that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Verily, Allah causes the date and the morsel of food to grow for one of you, as one of you raises his foal or young camel, until it becomes as great as Uḥud."
And this is a ṣaḥīḥ isnād. But the transmission is abridged.
Thus also Ibn Ḥibbān transmitted it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (5:234-235, from the manuscript of al-Iḥsān), via ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, on the authority of Ḥammād ibn Salama, on the authority of Thābit al-Bunānī, on the authority of al-Qāsim.
Al-Bazzār transmitted it in expanded form, via Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, on the authority of ʿAmra, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – and via al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn ʿUthmān, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, comparable to the transmission of Ṭabarī here, except that he did not mention the verse at the end of it. Ibn Kathīr adopted it (2:62-63).
But al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn ʿUthmān transmitted it on the authority of Abū Hurayra as munqaṭiʿ (with an interrupted chain), for he transmits only on the authority of the tābiʿūn.
Al-Haythamī mentioned it in Majmaʿ al-zawāʾid (3:111) abridged, like the transmission of the Musnad, and said: "Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Awsaṭ, and its transmitters are the transmitters of the Ṣaḥīḥ." Then he mentioned it in expanded form (3:112) and said: "Al-Bazzār transmitted it, and its transmitters are reliable (thiqāt)." But he mentioned it only from the transmission of ʿĀʾisha alone.
Al-Suyūṭī (1:365) mentioned the wording of Ṭabarī here. Then he was negligent in its attribution, and attributed it to al-Bazzār, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ṭabarānī.
(23) The transmission 6256 – "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik": the most likely in my opinion is that it is "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Zanjawayh al-Baghdādī," for he transmits on the authority of ʿAbd al-Razzāq and belongs to the generation of the teachers of Ṭabarī, even though I have not found a text indicating his transmission on the authority of him. But he is a Baghdadi like him. So it is highly plausible that he transmits on the authority of him, indeed, that is the most likely and customary in such a case. And he is reliable (thiqa); al-Nasāʾī and others declared him reliable. A biography of him is in al-Tahdhīb, with Ibn Abī Ḥātim (4/1/5) and in Tārīkh Baghdād (2:345-346).
And among the teachers of Ṭabarī on whose authority he transmitted in the Tārīkh is: "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī al-Shawārib," and he too is reliable, but it is not mentioned about him that he transmitted on the authority of ʿAbd al-Razzāq, and usually such a thing is pointed out. A biography of him is in al-Tahdhīb, with Ibn Abī Ḥātim (4/1/5) and in Tārīkh Baghdād (2:344-345).
Ibn Kathīr stands alone with something of which I do not know what it is. For when he mentioned this transmission (2:62), he mentioned that it is "transmitted by Ibn Jarīr, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Isḥāq"!! And I have not found among the transmitters anyone named so. So I do not know whether it is a mistake of his, or confusion of the copyists.
The transmission Aḥmad transmitted in the Musnad (7622), on the authority of ʿAbd al-Razzāq, with this isnād.
The imam of the imams, Ibn Khuzayma, transmitted it in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd (p. 44), on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr ibn al-Ḥakam – both on the authority of ʿAbd al-Razzāq, with it.
Al-Mundhirī mentioned in al-Targhīb wa-l-tarhīb (2:19) that Ibn Khuzayma likewise transmitted it in his Ṣaḥīḥ.
Ibn Kathīr adopted it from this place in Ṭabarī – as we have indicated – and then said: "And thus Aḥmad transmitted it on the authority of ʿAbd al-Razzāq. And this is a rare (gharīb) route, with a ṣaḥīḥ isnād, but its wording is strange. And the preserved (al-maḥfūẓ) is what preceded" – he means the transmission of ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr.
But we see in this wording nothing strange, nor any rarity in the isnād! It is ṣaḥīḥ according to the condition of the two shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim).
Moreover, ʿAbd al-Razzāq did not stand alone therein on the authority of Maʿmar, for Muḥammad ibn Thawr followed him therein. For Ṭabarī transmitted it – as will yet follow (vol. 11, pp. 15-16, Būlāq edition) – on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Thawr, on the authority of Maʿmar, with it, in a comparable manner. And this too is a ṣaḥīḥ isnād. For Muḥammad ibn Thawr al-Ṣanʿānī, the devoted worshipper (al-ʿābid): reliable (thiqa); Ibn Maʿīn and Abū Ḥātim declared him reliable, indeed, Abū Zurʿa preferred him over ʿAbd al-Razzāq.
(24) The transmission 6257 – And this is an isnād in which there is an unknown (mubham) transmitter, namely the one on whose authority Yūnus transmitted, and it is highly plausible that this is Ayyūb. But the isnād remains weak (ḍaʿīf) until we find the indication of this unknown one.
And as for the transmission in itself, it is ṣaḥīḥ through the preceding isnāds and others.
And the basis of the meaning is established from the transmission of Abū Hurayra, by many routes:
Al-Bukhārī transmitted it (3:220-223 and 13:352), as did Muslim (1:277-278), al-Tirmidhī (2:22-23), al-Nasāʾī (1:349), Ibn Māja (1842), Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ (5:234-237, from the manuscript of al-Iḥsān) and Ibn Khuzayma in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd (pp. 41-44).
Aḥmad transmitted it in the Musnad – in addition to what we have indicated earlier –: 8363 (2:331, Ḥalabī edition), 8948, 8949 (pp. 381-382), 9234 (p. 404), 9413 (p. 418), 9423 (p. 419), 9561 (p. 431), 10958 (p. 538), 10992 (p. 541).
Al-Bukhārī transmitted it in al-Kabīr, with the concise reference as is his custom (2/1/476).
In the wordings of this transmission has occurred: "in the hand of Allah," and "in the palm of Allah," and "the palm of the Most Merciful (al-Raḥmān)," and similar wordings. Al-Tirmidhī said about that (2:23-24):
"And more than one of the people of knowledge has said concerning this transmission and what resembles it among transmissions about the attributes (al-ṣifāt), and the descent of the Lord, blessed and exalted, every night to the lowest heaven: The transmissions about this stand firm, and we believe in them. And one does not imagine anything, and one does not say: how? Thus it has been transmitted on the authority of Mālik ibn Anas, Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna and ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Mubārak, that they said concerning these transmissions: Let them pass without 'how' (amirrūhā bilā kayf). And thus is the statement of the people of knowledge among the People of the Sunna and the Community (ahl al-sunna wa-l-jamāʿa). As for the Jahmiyya, they have denied these transmissions and said: this is anthropomorphism (tashbīh)! And Allah, blessed and exalted, has in more than one place in His Book mentioned the hand, the hearing and the seeing. The Jahmiyya have interpreted (taʾwīl) these verses and explained them in a manner other than the people of knowledge have explained them! And they said: Allah did not create Ādam with His hand! And they said: the meaning of the hand is only power!! And Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm said: Anthropomorphism (tashbīh) exists only when one says: a hand like a hand, or equal to a hand, or a hearing like a hearing, or equal to a hearing. So when one says: a hearing like a hearing or equal to a hearing – then that is anthropomorphism. But when one says as Allah has said: hand, and hearing, and seeing, and does not say: how, and does not say: equal to a hearing or like a hearing – then that is not anthropomorphism. And it is as Allah, blessed and exalted, has said: (There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing)."
