Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:40
O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I have bestowed upon you and fulfill My covenant [upon you] that I will fulfill your covenant [from Me], and be afraid of [only] Me.
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, whose remembrance is exalted: يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ (O Children of Israel)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His saying, exalted is His praise, "O Children of Israel" is meant: the children of Yaʿqūb, the son of Isḥāq, the son of Ibrāhīm, the intimate friend of the Most Merciful. And Yaʿqūb was called "Isrāʾīl," which means: the servant of Allah and His chosen one among His creatures. And "Īl" is Allah, and "Isrā" is the servant, as one says: "Jibrīl," in the meaning of: the servant of Allah. And as:
798 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ, on the authority of ʿUmayr, the freedman (mawlā) of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that "Isrāʾīl" is equivalent to your saying: "ʿAbdullāh" (the servant of Allah).
799 — And Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥārith, who said: "Īl" is Allah in Hebrew.
Allah, exalted is His praise, addressed with His saying "O Children of Israel" the scholars (aḥbār) of the Jews from the Children of Israel, who were present in the midst of the region to which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had emigrated. He, exalted is His remembrance, ascribed their lineage to Yaʿqūb, just as He ascribed the offspring of Ādam to Ādam, and said: يَا بَنِي آدَمَ خُذُوا زِينَتَكُمْ عِنْدَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ (O Children of Ādam, take your adornment at every place of prayer) [Surah Al-Aʿrāf: 31], and what resembles that. He addressed them specifically in this verse and in the verse that follows it — among the verses in which He reminded them of His favors — even though there had already descended at the beginning of this Surah that which was sent down concerning them and concerning others — because the proofs and signs which He adduced as argument, which contained reports about their forefathers, narratives about their predecessors, and the histories of matters whose knowledge belonged specifically to them and not to others among the remaining communities: others than they do not possess the same knowledge of the correctness and truth of that as that which they possess, except one who has taken over this knowledge of it from them. Thus He made clear to them — by His granting Muḥammad insight into the knowledge of that, despite the remoteness of his people and his tribe from that knowledge, and the slight degree to which Muḥammad ﷺ occupied himself with the study of the books in which the reports about that were found — that Muḥammad ﷺ could only attain that knowledge through revelation (waḥy) from Allah and His sending it down to him — because they, with respect to the knowledge of the correctness of that, were in a position which no other of the communities occupied than they. Therefore He, exalted is His praise, addressed them specifically with His saying "O Children of Israel." As:
800 — Ibn Ḥumayd related it to us, he said: 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, concerning His saying "O Children of Israel," he said: O People of the Book, [addressed] to the scholars (aḥbār) of the Jews.
# The explanation of His saying: اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ (Remember My favor which I bestowed upon you)
Abū Jaʿfar said: His favor, exalted is His remembrance, with which He favored the Children of Israel, is: that He chose the messengers from among them, that He sent down upon them the books, that He saved them from the trial and the affliction in which they were through Pharaoh and his people, up to the providing of a position of power for them on the earth, the bringing forth of water-springs from the rock, and the feeding with the manna (al-mann) and the quails (al-salwā). Thus He, exalted is His praise, commanded their descendants that what He had formerly granted to their forefathers should be kept in remembrance, and that they should not forget His benefaction to their predecessors and forefathers, so that there should not befall them in the way of punishments what befell those among them who forgot His favors upon them, were ungrateful, and denied His benefactions upon them. As:
801 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman (mawlā) of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "Remember My favor which I bestowed upon you," that is to say: My benefactions upon you and upon your forefathers, when He saved them from Pharaoh and his people.
802 — And al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning His saying "Remember My favor," he said: His favor was that He brought forth from them the prophets and messengers, and sent down upon them the books.
803 — And al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "Remember My favor which I bestowed upon you," by this is meant: His favor with which He favored the Children of Israel, in what has been mentioned and in what lies beyond it: He caused the rock to burst open for them, sent down upon them the manna and the quails, and saved them from the slavery (ʿubūdiyya) of the people of Pharaoh.
804 — And Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying "My favor which I bestowed upon you": His favors are general, and no favor is more excellent than Islam, and the remaining favors are subordinate to it. And he recited the saying of Allah: يَمُنُّونَ عَلَيْكَ أَنْ أَسْلَمُوا قُلْ لا تَمُنُّوا عَلَيَّ إِسْلامَكُمْ بَلِ اللَّهُ يَمُنُّ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْ هَدَاكُمْ لِلإِيمَانِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ (They regard it as a favor to you that they have accepted Islam. Say: Do not regard your acceptance of Islam as a favor to me; rather, Allah confers a favor upon you in that He has guided you to faith, if you are truthful) [Surah Al-Ḥujurāt: 17].
And the reminder of Allah, addressed to those whom He, exalted is His praise, reminded of His favors with this verse through the tongue of His messenger Muḥammad ﷺ, is like the reminder which Mūsā — the prayers of Allah be upon him — gave to their forefathers in his time, about which Allah reported that he spoke to them, and that is His saying: وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ يَا قَوْمِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ جَعَلَ فِيكُمْ أَنْبِيَاءَ وَجَعَلَكُمْ مُلُوكًا وَآتَاكُمْ مَا لَمْ يُؤْتِ أَحَدًا مِنَ الْعَالَمِينَ (And when Mūsā said to his people: O my people, remember the favor of Allah upon you, when He appointed prophets among you and made you kings and gave you what He had not given to anyone of the worlds) [Surah Al-Māʾida: 20].
# The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ (And fulfill My covenant, then I will fulfill your covenant) (40)
Abū Jaʿfar said: We have already given previously in this our book our exposition concerning the meaning of the covenant (al-ʿahd), concerning the disagreement of those who disputed in its explanation, and concerning what in our opinion is the correct judgment regarding it. And it is in this place: the covenant of Allah and His charge which He took from the Children of Israel in the Torah, that they should make clear to the people the affair of Muḥammad ﷺ — that he is a messenger, and that they find him recorded among them in the Torah as a prophet of Allah — and that they should believe in him and in what he has brought from Allah.
"Then I will fulfill your covenant": and His covenant with them was that He, if they were to do that, would admit them to the Garden (al-janna), as He, exalted is His praise, said: وَلَقَدْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ وَبَعَثْنَا مِنْهُمُ اثْنَيْ عَشَرَ نَقِيبًا وَقَالَ اللَّهُ إِنِّي مَعَكُمْ لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ وَآتَيْتُمُ الزَّكَاةَ وَآمَنْتُمْ بِرُسُلِي وَعَزَّرْتُمُوهُمْ وَأَقْرَضْتُمُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا لأُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ وَلأُدْخِلَنَّكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الأَنْهَارُ فَمَنْ كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ مِنْكُمْ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ (And indeed, Allah took the covenant of the Children of Israel, and We appointed from among them twelve leaders. And Allah said: I am with you; if you establish the ritual prayer (ṣalāh), give the obligatory alms (zakāh), believe in My messengers, support them, and lend to Allah a goodly loan, then I will surely remit from you your evil deeds and surely admit you to gardens beneath which the rivers flow. Whoever of you disbelieves after that has indeed strayed from the right way) [Surah Al-Māʾida: 12], and as He said: فَسَأَكْتُبُهَا لِلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ بِآيَاتِنَا يُؤْمِنُونَ * الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الرَّسُولَ النَّبِيَّ الأُمِّيَّ الَّذِي يَجِدُونَهُ مَكْتُوبًا عِنْدَهُمْ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالإِنْجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُمْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَاهُمْ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْخَبَائِثَ وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَالأَغْلالَ الَّتِي كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ فَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِهِ وَعَزَّرُوهُ وَنَصَرُوهُ وَاتَّبَعُوا النُّورَ الَّذِي أُنْـزِلَ مَعَهُ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ (I will write it down for those who fear [Me], give the obligatory alms (zakāh), and those who believe in Our signs * Those who follow the messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find recorded among them in the Torah and the Gospel, who commands them to the proper and forbids them the reprehensible, who permits for them the good things and forbids for them the bad things, and who removes from them their burden and the shackles that were upon them. Those, then, who believe in him, support him, help him, and follow the light that was sent down with him — they are the ones who prosper) [Surah Al-Aʿrāf: 156-157].
805 — And as Ibn Ḥumayd related it to us, he said: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman (mawlā) of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima or Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "And fulfill My covenant," which I have laid upon your necks regarding the prophet Muḥammad when he comes to you, "then I will fulfill your covenant," that is to say: I will accomplish for you what I have promised you for affirming and following him, namely the removal of the burden and the shackles that were upon you and that lay around your necks on account of your sins that proceeded from your fresh misdeeds.
806 — And al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning His saying "Fulfill My covenant, then I will fulfill your covenant," he said: His covenant with His servants is the religion of Islam, that they should follow it; "then I will fulfill your covenant," by this the Garden (al-janna) is meant.
807 — And Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Fulfill My covenant, then I will fulfill your covenant": as for "Fulfill My covenant," that is what I have charged you with in the Book. And as for "then I will fulfill your covenant," that is the Garden; I have charged you that, if you act according to My obedience, I will admit you to the Garden.
808 — And al-Qāsim related to me, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His saying "And fulfill My covenant, then I will fulfill your covenant," he said: That is the covenant (al-mīthāq) that was taken from them in [Surah] al-Māʾida: وَلَقَدْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ وَبَعَثْنَا مِنْهُمُ اثْنَيْ عَشَرَ نَقِيبًا (And indeed, Allah took the covenant of the Children of Israel, and We appointed from among them twelve leaders), to the end of the verse [Surah Al-Māʾida: 12]. This, then, is the covenant of Allah which He concluded with them, and it is the covenant of Allah with us; whoever fulfills the covenant of Allah, for him Allah fulfills His covenant.
809 — And it was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, he said: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying "And fulfill My covenant, then I will fulfill your covenant," he says: Fulfill what I have charged you with of obedience to Me, and what I have forbidden you of disobedience to Me, regarding the prophet ﷺ and regarding others; "then I will fulfill your covenant," he says: I will be pleased with you and admit you to the Garden.
810 — And Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying "And fulfill My covenant, then I will fulfill your covenant," he said: Fulfill My command, then I will fulfill what I have promised you. And he recited: إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ (Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth) until he came to وَمَنْ أَوْفَى بِعَهْدِهِ مِنَ اللَّهِ (And who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah?) [Surah Al-Tawba: 111], he said: This is His covenant which He concluded with them.
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# The explanation of the saying of the Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted: وَإِيَّايَ فَارْهَبُونِ (And fear Me alone) (40)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The explanation of His saying "And fear Me alone" is: and fear Me alone, and guard yourselves — O you who neglect My covenant among the Children of Israel, and who deny My messenger of whom I took your oath — regarding the books which I sent down upon My prophets, that you should believe in him and follow him — that I should cause to descend upon you from My punishment, if you do not turn back to Me in repentance and do not turn to Me by following him and acknowledging what I have sent down to him, that which I caused to descend upon those who opposed My command and denied My messengers among your forefathers. As:
811 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related it to me, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman (mawlā) of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "And fear Me alone," that I should cause to descend upon you what I caused to descend upon those who were before you among your forefathers in the way of punishments that you already know, such as the transformation [of shape] (al-maskh) and other than it.
812 — And al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, he said: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to me, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning His saying "And fear Me alone," he says: fear Me then.
813 — And Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "And fear Me alone," he says: and fear Me alone.