Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:44
Do you order righteousness of the people and forget yourselves while you recite the Scripture? Then will you not reason?
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: أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنْسَوْنَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ
(Do you command people to piety and forget yourselves?)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of exegesis (the exegetes) have differed concerning the meaning of the piety (al-birr) toward which those addressed in this āyah were urging the people while they forgot themselves — this after they all agree that every obedience to Allāh is called "piety" (birr). Thus the following has been transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās:
840 – Ibn Ḥumayd related this 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: أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنْسَوْنَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ أَفَلا تَعْقِلُونَ (Do you command people to piety and forget yourselves, while you recite the Book? Do you then not understand?) — that is to say: you forbid the people unbelief (kufr) on the basis of what you possess of prophethood and covenantal obligation from the Tawrāt, and you fail yourselves: that is, while you yourselves commit unbelief with respect to what it contains of My covenant with you concerning the affirmation of My Messenger, and you break My covenant, and you deny what you know from My Book.
841 – And Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: 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 statement: (Do you command people to piety) — he says: do you command the people to enter the religion of Muḥammad ﷺ, and other matters which you have been commanded, such as the performance of the ritual prayer (ṣalāh), while you forget yourselves?
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And others have said the following:
842 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related this to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to me, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (Do you command people to piety and forget yourselves) — he said: they used to command the people to obedience to Allāh and to fear of Him, while they were disobedient to Him.
843 – And al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: (Do you command people to piety and forget yourselves) — he said: the Children of Israel used to command the people to obedience to Allāh and to fear of Him and to piety, while they themselves deviated from it; therefore Allāh reproached them for this.
844 – And al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: al-Ḥajjāj related to us, he said: Ibn Jurayj said: (Do you command people to piety) — the People of the Book and the hypocrites used to command the people to fasting and the ritual prayer, while they themselves neglected to act according to what they commanded the people; therefore Allāh reproached them for that. So whoever commands the good, let him be the most diligent of people in performing it.
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And others have said the following:
845 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related this to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said: these Jews — when a man came to them and asked them about something in which there was no [self-]interest, nor bribe, nor any [advantage] for them, then they would command him to the truth. Then Allāh said to them: (Do you command people to piety and forget yourselves, while you recite the Book? Do you then not understand?)
846 – And ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan related to me, he said: Muslim al-Jarmī related to us, he said: Makhlad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, on the authority of Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, on the authority of Abū Qilāba, concerning Allāh's statement: (Do you command people to piety and forget yourselves, while you recite the Book?) — he said: Abū al-Dardāʾ said: a man does not fully comprehend [religious] insight until he hates people for the sake of Allāh, and then turns to himself and hates himself even more vehemently.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: All that has been said by those whose statement we have mentioned concerning the explanation of this āyah is close together in meaning; for even though they differed concerning the nature of the "piety" (al-birr) toward which the people commanded others — those whom Allāh has described with that with which He has described them — they nonetheless agree that they used to command the people to that in which there is good pleasure for Allāh, whether in word or in deed, while through their own actions they deviated from that which they commanded others, toward something else.
The explanation whose correctness is shown by the outward wording of the recitation is then: do you command the people to obedience to Allāh and let yourselves be disobedient to Him? Why then do you not command yourselves that which you command the people of obedience to your Lord? He reproaches them for this and depicts to them as ugly what they have committed.
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And the meaning of "their forgetting of themselves" in this place is comparable to the forgetting concerning which He, exalted is His praise, has said: نَسُوا اللَّهَ فَنَسِيَهُمْ [al-Tawba: 67] (They forgot Allāh, so He forgot them) — in the meaning: they neglected obedience to Allāh, therefore Allāh left them deprived of His reward.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: وَأَنْتُمْ تَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ
(while you recite the Book)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His statement (you recite — tatlūna) He means: you study and read. As:
847 – Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (while you recite the Book) — he says: you study the Book thereby. And by "the Book" He means: the Tawrāt.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: أَفَلا تَعْقِلُونَ (44)
(Do you then not understand?)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His statement (Do you then not understand? — a-fa-lā taʿqilūn) He means: do you then not understand and comprehend the ugliness of that which you commit of disobedience to your Lord — that disobedience whose opposite you command the people and forbid them to commit, while you commit it yourselves? — while you know that that which rests upon you of Allāh's right and obedience to Him, and of following Muḥammad and belief in him and in what he has brought, is equal to that which rests upon the one whom you command to follow him. As:
848 – Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ related this to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (Do you then not understand?) — he says: do you then not comprehend? Thus He forbade them this ugly conduct.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And this points to the correctness of what we have said, namely that the scribes (aḥbār) of the Jews among the Children of Israel commanded others to follow Muḥammad ﷺ, while they themselves said: he has been sent to others than us! — as we have mentioned earlier.
