Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:49
And [recall] when We saved your forefathers from the people of Pharaoh, who afflicted you with the worst torment, slaughtering your [newborn] sons and keeping your females alive. And in that was a great trial from your Lord.
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: وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ (And when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh)
As for the explanation of His words: (and when We saved you) — this is grammatically connected (ʿaṭf) to His words: يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ (O Children of Israel, remember My favor). It is as though He said: Remember My favor which I bestowed upon you, and remember Our beneficence to you — when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh — through Our rescue of you from their hands.
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As for "the people of Pharaoh" (āl Firʿawn): they are the adherents of his religion, his people, and his followers.
The origin of "āl" is "ahl" (family, people); the hāʾ was replaced by a hamza, just as they said "māʾ" (water) — there too they likewise replaced the hāʾ with a hamza, for when they form its diminutive, they say "muwayh," restoring the hāʾ in the diminutive form and returning it to its origin. Likewise, when they form the diminutive of "āl," they say "uhayl." There has also been transmitted, heard from the Arabs, in the diminutive of "āl": "uwayl." One may also say: "So-and-so is of the āl of women" (min āl al-nisāʾ), meaning that he was created from them. And this is also said in the sense that he desires them and longs for them, as the poet said:
Verily, you belong to the kin of women, and they are only for the one near at hand; there is no covenant for the absent.
The most fitting place for "āl" is that it be pronounced with the well-known names, as in their saying: "the house of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ" (āl al-Nabī), "the kin of ʿAlī" (āl ʿAlī), "the kin of ʿAbbās" (āl ʿAbbās), and "the kin of ʿAqīl" (āl ʿAqīl). It is not pleasing to use it with the unknown, or with the names of regions and the like; it is not elegant among the scholars of the Arabic language to say: "I saw the āl of the man," or "the āl of the woman saw me" — nor: "I saw the āl of Basra, and the āl of Kūfa." It has been mentioned, heard transmitted from some of the Arabs, that they say: "I saw the āl of Mecca and the āl of Medina." But that is not widespread in usage in their speech.
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As for "Pharaoh" (Firʿawn): it is said that this was a name by which the kings of the Amalekites (ʿAmāliqa) in Egypt were designated, just as some Roman kings were called "Qayṣar" (Caesar) and some "Hiraql" (Heraclius), and just as the kings of Persia were called "al-Akāsira," whose singular is "Kisrā" (Chosroes), and the kings of Yemen were called "al-Tabābiʿa," whose singular is "Tubbaʿ."
As for "the Pharaoh of Moses," concerning whom Allah the Exalted informed the Children of Israel that He saved them from him: it is said that his name was "al-Walīd ibn Muṣʿab ibn al-Rayyān." Thus Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq mentioned what had been transmitted to him concerning his name.
888 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related that to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: that his name was al-Walīd ibn Muṣʿab ibn al-Rayyān.
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It was only permissible to say: (and when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh), while the address is directed to those who had experienced neither Pharaoh nor those saved from him, because those addressed by this word were the descendants of those whom He saved from Pharaoh and his people. Thus He ascribed to them what had been bestowed of favors upon their forefathers, and likewise the unbelief (kufr) of their forefathers was ascribed to them by way of attribution, just as a person says to another: "We did such-and-such to you, and we did such-and-such to you, and we killed you and took you captive," while the speaker thereby means either his own tribe and kin, or the people of his land and dwelling — whether the one to whom this is said actually experienced what was done to them or not — as al-Akhṭal said in his lampoon against Jarīr ibn ʿAṭiyya:
Verily, al-Hudhayl reached out toward you and attained you at Irāb, where the spoils of war were divided,
In a mighty army that summoned the Arāqim, and its horsemen were not unarmed, nor were they weak, saddle-shy ones.
Jarīr did not encounter al-Hudhayl, nor did he experience him, nor did he experience Irāb or was present there. But because it was one of the battle-days of al-Akhṭal's people against Jarīr's people, he directed the address to him and his people. Likewise is the address of Allah, mighty and exalted, to the one whom He addressed with His words: (and when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh) — because His action, which He performed, was carried out upon the people of the one whom He addressed with the verse and upon their forefathers, He ascribed that action of His, which He performed upon their forefathers, to those addressed by the verse and their people.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ (they imposed upon you the worst punishment)
In His words: (they imposed upon you) there are two manners of explanation. The first: that it is a newly commenced report (khabar mustaʾnaf) about Pharaoh's conduct toward the Children of Israel, so that the meaning is then: and remember My favor to you when I saved you from the people of Pharaoh, while they had formerly imposed upon you the worst punishment. And if that is the explanation, then "they imposed upon you" (yasūmūnakum) is in the nominative (rafʿ).
The second manner: that "they imposed upon you" is a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl), so that the explanation then reads: and when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh, while they were imposing upon you the worst punishment — so that it is a circumstantial qualifier of "the people of Pharaoh."
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As for the explanation of His words: (they imposed upon you) (yasūmūnakum): that means: they made you undergo, made you taste, and meted out to you. One says of that: "sāmahu khuṭṭata ḍaymin" (he imposed upon him a humiliating treatment), when he metes that out to him and makes him taste it, as the poet said:
When injustice is imposed upon him, his face turns ashen gray.
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As for the explanation of His words: (the worst punishment) (sūʾ al-ʿadhāb): that means: that of the punishment which did them evil. Some have said: the most severe punishment; but if that were the meaning, it would have been said: "aswaʾ al-ʿadhāb" (the very worst punishment).
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If someone says to us: And what was that punishment which they imposed upon them, which did them evil?
Then it is answered: It is that which Allah the Exalted described in His Book, when He said: يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ (they slaughtered your sons and let your women live). And Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said concerning that what:
889 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Ibn Isḥāq informed us, saying: Pharaoh tortured the Children of Israel and made them servants and slaves, and distributed them among his works: a group that built, [a group that plowed], and a group that sowed for him — they were in his works; and whoever of them was not [for him] in a craft of his work, upon him fell the poll-tax (jizya). Thus he imposed upon them — as Allah, mighty and exalted, said — the worst punishment.
Al-Suddī said: He set them to the filthy works, and began to kill their sons and let their women live:
890 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related that to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ (they slaughtered your sons and let your women live)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, exalted be His praise, ascribed that which the people of Pharaoh did to the Children of Israel — their imposition of the worst punishment, their slaughtering of their sons, and their letting their women live — to them, and not to Pharaoh, even though their action was carried out by the power of Pharaoh and at his command, because of the fact that they performed this with their own hands. He thereby made clear that everyone who carries out with his own hands the killing of a soul or the torturing of a living being, even if that is at the command of another, the executor who carries that out is the one to whom the attribution of it belongs, even if the one giving the command compels the executor who is commanded to do that — whether the one giving the command is a ruler, or a brazen brigand, or a wrongful oppressor. Just as He, exalted be His praise, ascribed the slaughtering of the sons of the Children of Israel and the letting their women live to the people of Pharaoh and not to Pharaoh, even though they did what they did by the power of Pharaoh and his command to do so, despite his domination and compulsion over them. Likewise: everyone who kills a soul at the command of another, wrongfully, he is, in our judgment, the one who is killed for it in retaliation (qiṣāṣ), even if he killed that soul under the compulsion of another who compelled him to the killing.
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As for the explanation of their slaughtering of the sons of the Children of Israel and their letting their women live: that was, according to what has been mentioned to us concerning Ibn ʿAbbās and others, as what:
891 — al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd al-Āmulī and Tamīm ibn al-Muntaṣir al-Wāsiṭī related to us, both of them saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: al-Aṣbagh ibn Zayd informed us, saying: al-Qāsim ibn Ayyūb related to us, saying: Saʿīd ibn Jubayr related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Pharaoh and his courtiers discussed among themselves what Allah had promised Abraham, His intimate friend: that He would place in his progeny prophets and kings. They deliberated and reached unanimous agreement upon the decision that he would send out men carrying knives, to go around among the Children of Israel, so that they would not find any newborn male without slaughtering him. And they did that. When they saw that the grown ones of the Children of Israel were dying by their natural lifespan, and that the little ones were being slaughtered, he said: It is little short of you exterminating the Children of Israel, and then you will come to perform yourselves the works and the service which they used to spare you. Therefore kill, in one year, every newborn male, so that their sons diminish; and in another year leave them alone. Thus the mother of Moses became pregnant with Aaron in the year in which the boys were not slaughtered, and she bore him openly and safely; until, when the following year arrived, she became pregnant with Moses.
892 — And ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn al-Haytham related to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār al-Ramādī related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, saying: Abū Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The soothsayers (kahana) said to Pharaoh: In this year a newborn will be born who will take away your kingship. He said: Then Pharaoh appointed over every thousand women a hundred men, and over every hundred ten, and over every ten one man, and he said: Keep watch over every pregnant woman in the city, and when she delivers what she is carrying, look at the child: if it is a boy, slaughter it, and if it is a girl, leave her alone. Those are His words: (they slaughtered your sons and let your women live, and therein lay for you a tremendous trial from your Lord).
893 — 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, concerning His words: وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ (and when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh, while they imposed upon you the worst punishment), he said: Pharaoh ruled over them four hundred years. The soothsayers said: In this year a boy will be born in Egypt by whose hand will be your destruction. Thereupon he sent midwives out among the people of Egypt, and when a woman bore a boy, he was brought to Pharaoh and he killed him; and the girls he let live.
894 — And al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq ibn al-Ḥajjāj related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, concerning His words: وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ (and when We saved you from the people of Pharaoh), the verse, he said: Pharaoh ruled over them four hundred years, and there came to him one who said: In Egypt a boy from the Children of Israel will grow up who will gain the upper hand over you, and by whose hand will be your destruction. Thereupon he sent women out in Egypt. And he mentioned the like of the narration of Ādam.
895 — And Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, who said: It was with Pharaoh such that he saw in his sleep that a fire approached from Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis), until it enclosed the houses of Egypt, and it burned the Copts but left the Children of Israel alone, and it destroyed the houses of Egypt. Thereupon he summoned the sorcerers, the soothsayers, the augurs, the trackers, and the astrologers, and he asked them about his dream. They said to him: From this land from which the Children of Israel came — they meant Jerusalem — a man will come forth by whose doing will be the destruction of Egypt. Thereupon he commanded that no boy be born to the Children of Israel without their slaughtering him, and no girl be born without their leaving her alone. And he said to the Copts: Look at your slaves who work outside and bring them in, and set the Children of Israel to perform those filthy works. Thus he set the Children of Israel to the works of their slaves, and they brought their slaves in. That is when Allah, blessed and exalted, says: إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلا فِي الأَرْضِ (Verily, Pharaoh exalted himself arrogantly in the land) — He says: he ruled tyrannically in the land — وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا (and he made its inhabitants into factions) — He means the Children of Israel, when he set them to the filthy works — يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَائِفَةً مِنْهُمْ يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ (oppressing a group of them: he slaughtered their sons) [al-Qaṣaṣ: 4]. Thus no newborn was born to the Children of Israel without being slaughtered, so that the little one did not grow up. And Allah cast death among the old men of the Children of Israel, and it spread rapidly among them. Then the leaders of the Copts came in to Pharaoh, spoke with him, and said: Death has fallen among these, and it is little short of the work falling upon our slaves through the slaughtering of their sons, for the little ones do not reach maturity and the grown ones are dying out! If only you would let a portion of their children live! Thereupon he commanded that they slaughter in one year and leave alone in the other year. When the year in which there was no slaughtering arrived, Aaron was born and was left alone; and when the year in which there was slaughtering arrived, she became pregnant with Moses.
896 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: It was mentioned to me that, when the time of Moses drew near, Pharaoh's astrologers and his soothsayers came to him and said to him: Know that we find in our knowledge that a newborn from the Children of Israel, whose time in which he will be born has overshadowed you, will rob you of your kingship, take from you the upper hand over your rule, drive you out of your land, and change your religion. When they said that to him, he commanded that every newborn born to the Children of Israel, of the boys, be killed, and he commanded that the women be let live. Thus he gathered the midwives among the women [of the people] of his realm and said to them: No boy of the Children of Israel shall fall under your hands [at birth] without your killing him. And they did that. And whoever of the boys was above that [in age] was slaughtered, and he commanded that the pregnant women be tortured until they dropped what was in their wombs.
897 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: It was mentioned to me that he used to command that the reeds be split until they were made like knives, and then one piece was set in a row beside the other, and then the pregnant women from the Children of Israel were brought and set upon them, so that it cut through their feet. Until a woman of them, through labor pains, brought her child into the world, so that it fell between her legs, and she kept trampling it in order thereby to fend off the sharpness of the reed from her foot, on account of the utmost exhaustion that had reached her — until he became excessive in that and almost exterminated them, whereupon it was said to him: You have exterminated the people and cut off the progeny! For they are your slaves and your laborers! Thereupon he commanded that the boys be killed in one year and let live in the other year. Thus Aaron was born in the year in which the boys were let live, and Moses was born in the year in which they were killed.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: What those whose statement we mentioned, of the people of knowledge, have said is: it was the slaughtering by the people of Pharaoh of the sons of the Children of Israel and their letting their women live [— Pharaoh commanded the killing of every newborn born of the sons of the Children of Israel, and the letting their women live —]. The explanation of His words is then — in accordance with the explanation of those whose statement we mentioned —: (and they let your women live): they let them live and did not kill them.
And according to the explanation of those who held the statement which we mentioned concerning Ibn ʿAbbās, Abū al-ʿĀliya, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, and al-Suddī in the explanation of His words: (and they let your women live) — namely that he spared the female children at their birth from death — it necessarily follows that it must be permissible to call the female child in her infancy and after her birth "woman" (imraʾa), and the little girls, while they are still infants, "women" (nisāʾ). For they explained the words of Allah, mighty and exalted, (and they let your women live) as: they let the female children live at birth and did not kill them.
Ibn Jurayj rejected this from their statement, and he said what:
898 — al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His words: (and they let your women live), he said: they made your women into slave-girls.
With this statement of his, Ibn Jurayj departed from what those whose statement we mentioned said concerning His words: (and they let your women live): namely that it concerns the letting live of the girl-infants, because he held that the designation "women" did not apply to them. Then he fell into something greater than what he rejected, with his explanation of "and they let live" (yastaḥyūna) as "they enslaved" (yastarriqūna) — and that is an explanation that exists in no Arabic language nor in any foreign language. For istiḥyāʾ is only an istifʿāl form derived from "life" (ḥayāt), by analogy with "istibqāʾ" (preserving) from "baqāʾ" (continuance), and "istisqāʾ" (asking for water) from "saqy" (giving drink). And that is far removed from the meaning of enslaving (istirqāq).
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Others have explained His words: (they slaughtered your sons) in the sense: they slaughtered your men, the fathers of your sons, and they rejected that those slaughtered were the infants, while the women are coupled with them. They said: In Allah's report, exalted be His praise, that those let live were the women lies the clear proof that those who were slaughtered were the men and not the little boys; for if those slaughtered had been the infants, it would necessarily have been that those let live were the girl-infants. They said: And in Allah's report, mighty and exalted, that they are the women lies that which clarifies that those slaughtered were the men.
Abū Jaʿfar said: But the adherents of this statement have — besides their departing from the explanation of the people of explanation among the Companions (ṣaḥāba) and the Followers (tābiʿūn) — overlooked the place of correctness. For Allah, exalted be His praise, reported concerning His revelation to the mother of Moses that He commanded her to suckle Moses, and when she feared for him, to place him in the chest and then to cast him into the sea (al-yamm). By this it is known that, if the people only killed the men and left the women alone, the mother of Moses would have had no need to cast Moses into the sea; or if Moses had been a [grown] man, his mother would not have placed him in the chest.
But that is, in our judgment, in accordance with what Ibn ʿAbbās and those whose statement we previously rendered have explained: namely the slaughtering by the people of Pharaoh of the little boys and their sparing of the girls from death. It was only said: (and they let your women live), because the girls were comprehended under their mothers — and their mothers are without doubt women in the letting-live, for they killed neither the small women nor the great. Thus it was said: (and they let your women live), meaning by it the mothers and the newborn girls, as one says: "The men have arrived," even though there are boys among them. So likewise is it with His words: (and they let your women live). As for the males: because only the newborns were slaughtered, it was said: "they slaughtered your sons," and it was not said: they slaughtered your men.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَفِي ذَلِكُمْ بَلاءٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ (and therein lay for you a tremendous trial from your Lord) (49)
As for His words: وَفِي ذَلِكُمْ بَلاءٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ: that means: and in that which We did to you — Our saving of you from that in which you were, namely the punishment of the people of Pharaoh against you, as I have described — lay for you a tremendous trial (balāʾ) from your Lord.
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And by His word "balāʾ" He means: a favor (niʿma), as:
899 — al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: (a tremendous trial from your Lord), he said: a favor.
900 — 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, concerning His words: (and therein lay for you a tremendous trial from your Lord): as for the balāʾ, that is the favor.
901 — And Sufyān related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Mujāhid: (and therein lay for you a tremendous trial from your Lord), he said: a tremendous favor from your Lord.
902 — 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, the like of the narration of Sufyān.
903 — al-Qāsim related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: (and therein lay for you a tremendous trial from your Lord), he said: a tremendous favor.
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The origin of "balāʾ" in the speech of the Arabs is: testing and trial; then it is used for good and evil, because testing and trial can occur with both good and evil, as our Lord, exalted be His praise, said: وَبَلَوْنَاهُمْ بِالْحَسَنَاتِ وَالسَّيِّئَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ (and We tested them with the good things and the bad things, that they might return) [al-Aʿrāf: 168] — He says: We tested them; and as He, exalted be His mention, said: وَنَبْلُوكُمْ بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً (and We try you with evil and good as a trial) [al-Anbiyāʾ: 35]. Then the Arabs call the good "balāʾ" and the evil "balāʾ." However, the most customary is that with evil it is said: "balawtuhu ablūhu balāʾan," and with good: "ablaytuhu ublīhi iblāʾan wa-balāʾan." To that belongs the saying of Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā:
May Allah requite with beneficence what the two of them have done for you, and bring to them both the best trial that He apportions.
Thus he combined the two usages, because he meant: may Allah grant them both the best favors with which He tests His servants.
