Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:42
And do not mix the truth with falsehood or conceal the truth while you know [it].
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: وَلا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ (And do not mix the truth with falsehood)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words "and do not mix" (wa-lā talbisū) He means: do not intermingle. For al-labs is the mixing. Of this one says: "labastu ʿalayhi hādhā al-amr albisuhu labsan" when you obscure a matter for someone by mixing it. As in:
822 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, on the authority of Bishr ibn ʿUmāra, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: وَلَلَبَسْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ مَا يَلْبِسُونَ (And We would have obscured for them what they obscure) [Surah Al-Anʿām: 9]. He says: We would have mixed for them what they mix.
And of this is the saying of al-ʿAjjāj:
"When they mixed the truth with fabrication (al-tajannī), they had enough and preferred Zayd over me."
By his words "labasna" (they mixed) he means: they intermingled. As for al-lubs (the wearing of clothes), of it one says: "labistuhu albisuhu lubsan wa-malbasan," and that is the garment that one puts on and wears. And of al-lubs is the saying of al-Akhṭal:
"Truly, before this time I have worn its ages, until grayness covered my head and blazed up."
And of al-labs (the mixing) is the saying of Allah, mighty is His praise: وَلَلَبَسْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ مَا يَلْبِسُونَ (And We would have obscured for them what they obscure) [Surah Al-Anʿām: 9].
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Now if someone were to say to us: "How could they mix the truth with falsehood, while they were unbelievers (kuffār)? And what truth did they have, alongside their disbelief in Allah?"
Then it is answered: Among them were hypocrites (munāfiqūn) who outwardly displayed the affirmation of Muḥammad ﷺ, but inwardly concealed disbelief in him. And the majority of them said: "Muḥammad is a sent prophet, but he was sent to others than us." The mixing of the truth with falsehood by the hypocrite among them consisted of this: that he displayed the truth with his tongue and openly acknowledged Muḥammad ﷺ and what he brought, and that he mixed this outward portion of the truth with what he inwardly concealed. And the mixing by the one among them who acknowledged that he was sent to others than them, but denied that he was sent to them, consisted of this: his acknowledgment that he was sent to others than them — and that is the truth — and his denial that he was sent to them — and that is the falsehood, while Allah had in fact sent him to the whole of creation. That is their mixing of the truth with falsehood, and their obscuring of it. As in:
823 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, 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, concerning His saying: "and do not mix the truth with falsehood." He said: Do not mix the sincerity with the lie.
824 - And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: "and do not mix the truth with falsehood." He says: Do not mix the truth with the falsehood, and give sincere counsel to the servants of Allah in the matter of Muḥammad ﷺ.
825 - And al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said: "and do not mix the truth with falsehood," [that is]: Judaism and Christianity with Islam.
826 - And Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: "and do not mix the truth with falsehood," he said: The truth is the Tawrāh which Allah sent down to Mūsā, and the falsehood is what they wrote with their own hands.
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The explanation of the saying of Him whose remembrance is exalted: وَتَكْتُمُوا الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ (and do not conceal the truth, while you know) (42)
Abū Jaʿfar said: In His saying "and do not conceal the truth" there are two possible interpretations:
The first of them is that Allah, mighty is His praise, forbade them to conceal the truth, just as He forbade them to mix the truth with falsehood. The interpretation of it would then be: and do not mix the truth with falsehood and do not conceal the truth. And His saying "wa-taktumū" (and conceal) would then be in the jussive form (majzūm), by the same operator by which "talbisū" is in the jussive, as a conjunction (ʿaṭf) upon it.
The other possibility of it is that the prohibition of Allah, mighty is His praise, to them pertains [only] to the mixing of the truth with falsehood, and that His saying "and you conceal the truth" is a report from Him about them, namely that they conceal the truth which they know. In that case His saying "wa-taktumū" would be in the accusative (manṣūb), on account of the shift from the meaning of His saying وَلا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ (and do not mix the truth with falsehood), since His saying "and do not mix" is a prohibition, and His saying "and you conceal the truth" is a report conjoined to it, while it is not permitted that the operative particle which operates in "talbisū" — the jussive-making particle — should revert to it. That is the meaning which the grammarians call "ṣarf" (diversion). Its parallel, in meaning and in grammatical inflection, is the saying of the poet:
"Do not forbid a conduct while you yourself practice its like; it is a great disgrace upon you when you do that."
He placed "taʾtiya" (you practice) in the accusative according to the explanation we gave concerning His saying "wa-taktumū," for he did not mean: "do not forbid a conduct and do not practice its like," but rather his meaning is: "do not forbid a conduct while you practice its like." So the first is a prohibition and the second a report, and he placed the report in the accusative because he conjoined it to something that was not of the same form.
As for the first of these two possibilities which we mentioned and which the āya can bear, it is according to the view of Ibn ʿAbbās, namely the one which:
827 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, 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, concerning His saying: "and you conceal the truth." He says: and do not conceal the truth, while you know.
828 - And Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl 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 you conceal the truth," that is to say: and do not conceal the truth.
As for the second of these two possibilities, it is according to the view of Abū al-ʿĀliya and Mujāhid.
829 - Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: "and you conceal the truth, while you know." He said: They concealed the sending of Muḥammad ﷺ.
830 - And Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā ibn Maymūn, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
831 - And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
As for the explanation of the truth which they concealed while they knew it, that is what:
832 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of 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 ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and you conceal the truth." He says: Do not conceal what you possess of knowledge about My messenger and what he has brought, while you find that with you in what you know from the Books that are in your hands.
833 - And Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, 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: "and you conceal the truth." He says: You have indeed known that Muḥammad is the messenger of Allah, and He forbade them that.
834 - And Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the saying of Allah: "and you conceal the truth, while you know." He said: The People of the Book conceal Muḥammad ﷺ, while they find him written down with them in the Tawrāh and the Injīl.
835 - And al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
836 - And Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and you conceal the truth, while you know." He said: The truth is Muḥammad ﷺ.
837 - And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: "and you conceal the truth, while you know." He said: They concealed the sending of Muḥammad ﷺ, while they found him written down with them.
838 - And al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: "You conceal Muḥammad, while you know," while you find him with you in the Tawrāh and the Injīl.
The interpretation of the āya is therefore: And do not obscure for the people — O scholars among the People of the Book — the matter of Muḥammad ﷺ and what he has brought from his Lord, and do not claim that he was sent to some kinds of the nations and not to others, and do not behave hypocritically in his matter, while you indeed know that he was sent to you all and to all the nations besides you; so that you do not thereby mix the sincerity with the lie, and so that you do not thereby conceal what you find in your Book concerning his description and his marks, and that he is My messenger to all of mankind, while you know that he is My messenger, and that what he has brought to you comes from Me, and you know that part of My covenant — which I have taken from you in your Book — is: the belief in him and in what he has brought, and the holding of it to be true.