Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:39
And those who disbelieve and deny Our signs - those will be companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally."
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.
And His word: وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا أُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ (39)
(And those who disbelieve and deny Our signs — they are the inhabitants of the Fire; therein they shall abide eternally.) (39)
This means: and those who rejected My signs and accused My messengers of lying. The signs of Allah (āyāt Allāh) are His proofs and indications of His oneness and His sovereignty, as well as that which the messengers brought as marks and testimonies thereof, and as proof of their truthfulness in that which they proclaimed about their Lord. We have already explained that the meaning of kufr (disbelief) is the covering up of something.
"They are the inhabitants of the Fire" — that is to say: its people, who are its inhabitants to the exclusion of others, and who shall abide therein eternally, forever, without end and without limit. As [in the following]:
797 — ʿUqbah ibn Sinān al-Baṣrī related this to us, saying: Ghassān ibn Muḍar related to us, saying: Saʿīd ibn Yazīd related to us. — And Sawwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAnbarī related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Abū Maslamah Saʿīd ibn Yazīd related to us. — And Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm and Abū Bakr ibn ʿAwn related to me, both saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Yazīd — on the authority of Abū Naḍrah, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "As for the inhabitants of the Fire who are truly its inhabitants: they neither die therein nor live therein. But there are groups of people whom the Fire has struck on account of their misdeeds or on account of their sins; it truly causes them to die, until, when they have become charcoal, permission is granted for intercession (shafāʿah)."
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Footnotes:
(14) See what preceded on p. 255.
(15) The narration 797 — Ṭabarī has transmitted it here with three isnāds, all of which end with Saʿīd ibn Yazīd. Ibn Kathīr mentioned it (1:158), but he erred and stated that he transmitted it by two routes, whereas they are three, as you see:
"ʿUqbah ibn Sinān ibn ʿUqbah ibn Sinān al-Baṣrī" — Ṭabarī's teacher in the first isnād: trustworthy (thiqah); Abū Ḥātim heard from him and said: "truthful (ṣadūq)." I have not found any biographical entry for him except in al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl 3/1/311. And "Ghassān ibn Muḍar al-Azdī al-Baṣrī": trustworthy, one of the older teachers of Aḥmad; Aḥmad said: "a trustworthy, trustworthy teacher." Al-Bukhārī devoted a biography to him in al-Kabīr 4/1/107, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 3/2/51. And "Abū Bakr ibn ʿAwn" — Ṭabarī's teacher in the third isnād: I have not been able to ascertain who he is. This, however, has no effect on the isnād, for Ṭabarī transmitted it from him and from Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī, both on the authority of Ibn ʿUlayyah. And "Saʿīd ibn Yazīd ibn Maslamah Abū Maslamah al-Azdī al-Baṣrī": a trustworthy tābiʿī, the [transmitters of the] entire [collection] transmitted from him. Al-Bukhārī devoted a biography to him 2/1/476, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 2/1/73. His kunyah is "Abū Maslamah" with a mīm at the beginning. In the tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr it reads "Abū Salamah" with the omission thereof, and that is a misprint.
This narration was transmitted by Muslim (1:67-68) and Ibn Mājah (4309) — both via the route of Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Yazīd Abū Maslamah, with this [isnād]. But with both of them it is longer than here. None of the authors of the six [canonical] books transmitted it except these two, as the reference to it in Jāmiʿ al-uṣūl of Ibn al-Athīr (8085) indicates. Likewise, Imam Aḥmad transmitted it in the Musnad (11093) (3:11, Ḥalabī edition) on the authority of Ibn ʿUlayyah. Aḥmad (11769) (3:78-79) and Muslim (1:68) also transmitted it — both via the route of Shuʿbah, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Yazīd.
In reality it is part of a long narration, and Aḥmad transmitted it in the Musnad, both in extended and in abridged form, via various routes, on the authority of Abū Naḍrah, among which: 11029, 11168, 11218-11220 (3:5, 20, 25-26, Ḥalabī edition).
