Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:43
And establish prayer and give zakah and bow with those who bow [in worship and obedience].
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:
وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَارْكَعُوا مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ
(And establish the ritual prayer (ṣalāh), and give the obligatory alms (zakāh), and bow down with those who bow down) (43)
Abū Jaʿfar said: It has been related that the scribes of the Jews and the hypocrites used to command the people to establish the ritual prayer and to give the zakāh, while they themselves did not do so. Therefore Allah commanded them to establish the ritual prayer together with the Muslims who held Muḥammad ﷺ and that with which he came to be true, and to give the zakāh of their wealth together with them, and to submit to Allah and His Messenger just as they submitted.
839 – As it was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, who said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "And establish the ritual prayer and give the zakāh," he said: "Two obligatory duties; so fulfill them for Allah."
We have already set forth the meaning of establishing the ritual prayer in what preceded of this our book, so we preferred not to repeat it.
As for the giving of the zakāh: that is the rendering of the prescribed alms (ṣadaqa). The origin of the word zakāh is the growing, fruit-bearing, and increasing of wealth. Of this one says: "the crop has zakā" (has grown), when that which Allah brings forth from it becomes abundant. And "the expenditure has zakat," when it has become plentiful. And one says: "the odd number has zakā," when, by the addition of that which is added to it, it becomes an even pair, until it thereby becomes paired, as the poet said:
"They were odd or even, fewer than four, they were not created, while the fortune of men struggles."
And another said:
"Their number was not odd, and not even, as the worst of herbs are the points of the thorns (al-safā)."
Abū Jaʿfar said: Al-safā are the thorns of the buhmā plant, and the buhmā is that which is round among the thorns (al-sulāʾ).
By his words "and not even" he means: he did not, by his appearing among them, make them go from odd to even.
The zakāh is only called zakāh – while it is wealth that is set apart from wealth – because of the causing-to-bear-fruit by Allah – through the setting apart of it from that from which it is set apart – of that which remains with the owner of the wealth of his means. It is also possible that it is called zakāh because it is a purification of that which remains of one's wealth, and a freeing of it from containing a wrong against the people who have a right to the shares (ahl al-suhmān), as the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, said, reporting about His prophet Mūsā, Allah's blessings be upon him: أَقَتَلْتَ نَفْسًا زَكِيَّةً [Surah al-Kahf: 74] (Have you killed a pure soul?), by which he means: one free of sins, pure. And as one says of a man: "he is righteous and pure (zakī)" – in that very meaning. And this explanation pleases me more – as for the explanation of the zakāh of wealth – than the first explanation, even though the first is acceptable in its explanation.
And the giving of it (ītāʾuhā) is: the handing over of it to those entitled to it.
As for the explanation of the bowing (al-rukūʿ): that is submission to Allah through obedience. One says of this: "so-and-so has bowed down to this-or-that," when he submits to it. Of this is the saying of the poet:
"She was sold for the paltry price of a base man, and her father called out through her for help against poverty, after he had bowed down."
He means: after he had bowed down on account of the severity of the destitution and the need.
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a command from Allah, whose praise is exalted – to those who have been mentioned of the scribes of the Israelites and their hypocrites – to turn to Him in repentance and contrition, and to establish the ritual prayer and to give the zakāh, and to enter Islam together with the Muslims, and to submit to Him through obedience. And it is a prohibition from Him to them against the concealing of that which they already knew about the prophethood of Muḥammad ﷺ – after His proofs against them had become overwhelming, with that which we have described earlier in what preceded of this our book, and after the excuse had been taken away from them and the warning had been given, and after He had reminded them of His favors toward them and toward their forefathers – out of compassion from Him by that toward them, and as a complete conveyance of the warning.
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Footnotes:
(86) The narration 839 – I have not found it anywhere.
(87) See the preceding, p. 241-242.
(88) Al-Lisān (xasā), and in it occurs: "Al-Farrāʾ: The Arabs say for the even number 'zakā' and for the odd number 'xasā'... He said: and al-Dubayriyya recited to me..." and he recited the verse. And "taʿtaliju" means: they struggle and exert force against one another.
(89) From a man of the Banū Saʿd, then one of the Banū al-Ḥārith, concerning ʿAmr ibn Kaʿb ibn Saʿd. These rajaz verses occur in a report about al-Aghlab al-ʿIjlī (Ṭabaqāt fuḥūl al-shuʿarāʾ: 572 / Muʿjam al-shuʿarāʾ: 490 / al-Aghānī 18: 164). The narration of the Ṭabaqāt and al-Aghānī reads: "as the worst of the pasture-land." And al-raʿy (with kasra and sukūn): the pasture-land itself, and also the grazing place. And al-safā: the thorn of the buhmā and of the ear of grain and of everything that has thorns. He says: "You are among your people like the thorn in the buhmā – the worst and most malicious of it." The first verse is an addition that does not occur in the mentioned sources.
(90) The buhmā: it belongs to the edible herbs (that is, the tender and fresh of them, which are eaten uncooked); it grows as the seed-grain grows, then the plant reaches the point that it becomes equal to the seed-grain; it raises itself to the height of a handspan, and its growth is finer than that of wheat, and its taste is the taste of barley. When it withers there comes out of it a thorn like the thorn of the ear of grain (and that is al-safā), and when it gets into the noses of the camels, they develop an aversion to it, until the people pull it out of their mouths and noses. In the printed edition it reads: "fī al-salā" with doubled yāʾ, and in the manuscript "fī al-sullā" with ḍamma on the sīn and doubled lām. The correct is what I have established; al-sulāʾ is the plural of sulāʾa, and that is the thorn of the date-palm, and he meant by it the safā of the buhmā, that is to say its thorn.
(91) His words "by his appearing among them" mean: by his presence among this people. And al-ʿadīd (in the rajaz verse) comes from their expression: "so-and-so is an ʿadīd of the Banū so-and-so," that is to say: he is counted among them, while he is not of them. He means that he, when he enters among a people, is not counted thereby as anything; for if they were even in number, his entering does not make them odd, and if they were odd, it does not make them even – he is therefore as nothing in the number. He satirizes him and belittles him.
(92) Al-suhmān is the plural of sahm, like al-sihām: and that is the share and the portion.
(93) In the printed edition it reads: "in that meaning," but that is of no value.
(94) This verse belongs to some verses of ʿIṣām ibn ʿUbayd al-Zamānī (of the Banū Zamān ibn Mālik ibn Ṣaʿb ibn ʿAlī ibn Bakr ibn Wāʾil), which Abū Tammām related in al-Waḥshiyyāt no. 130 (a manuscript in my possession), and which al-Jāḥiẓ related in al-Ḥayawān 4: 281, in which occurs: "al-Ziyādī said" – which is a scribal slip and corruption, as you see. These verses belong to a poetic contradiction (munāqaḍa) that there was between al-Zamānī and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ḥafṣa. The occasion was that Yaḥyā married the daughter of Ṭalaba ibn Qays ibn ʿĀṣim al-Minqarī, whereupon ʿIṣām al-Zamānī satirized him and said:
"I see Ḥajr changed and shuddering, and after the sweetness of life turned into bitterness."
Whereupon Yaḥyā answered him with some verses, among them:
"O, who will convey on my behalf to ʿIṣām, that I shall soon break down what he made bitter."
Thus al-Marzubānī related it in Muʿjam al-shuʿarāʾ: 270. And Abū al-Faraj related in his al-Aghānī 10: 75 that Yaḥyā asked Muqātil ibn Ṭalaba al-Minqarī for his daughter and two sisters in marriage, and that this was granted to him. Then Yaḥyā sent for his sons Sulaymān, ʿUmar, and Jamīl, and they came to him, and he married her off to his three sons, and they went in to them, and afterward they carried them off to Ḥajr (a place).
The verses of ʿIṣām al-Zamānī and the counter-verses with which Yaḥyā contended against him belong to the excellent poetry; so read them in al-Waḥshiyyāt, and in al-Ḥayawān, and in al-Shiʿr wa-l-shuʿarāʾ: 740. The narration of al-Ḥayawān and al-Waḥshiyyāt reads:
"She was sold for a trifling low price, and he rid himself of her."
Al-waks: the lowering of the price in the sale. In the manuscript and the printed edition it reads "bi-kasr laʾīm" (for the paltry price of a base man), which is a corruption without meaning, and I suspect that the correct is what I have established by my own judgment. Al-kasr: the least of the little. And his word "biʿat" (she was sold) – the pronoun refers to the daughter of Muqātil ibn Ṭalaba al-Minqarī whom Yaḥyā or one of his sons married. He says: her father sold her for a trifling, mean, paltry price, and married her off while he, through her sale, called out for help against the destitution and poverty that had afflicted him, and married her off to this rich, base, paltry man, in order to help himself with her bride-gift (mahr).
(95) In the printed edition it reads: "and as a conveyance to them..." with the addition.
