Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:5
Those are upon [right] guidance from their Lord, and it is those who are the successful.
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 commentary on the saying of Him, exalted is His praise: أُولَئِكَ عَلَى هُدًى مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ("They follow the guidance of their Lord").
The exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning whom Allah, exalted is His praise, meant by His saying: "They follow the guidance of their Lord." Some of them said: by this are meant the people of the two previously mentioned qualities, namely: the believers in the unseen (al-ghayb) among the Arabs, and the believers in what was sent down to Muḥammad ﷺ and to the messengers before him. All of them He described as those who follow the guidance from Him, and as those who are the successful.
* Mention of those of the exegetes who said this:
292 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, in a report he mentioned, on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās – and on the authority of Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of some people among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: As for الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ ("those who believe in the unseen"), those are the believers among the Arabs, and وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْـزِلَ إِلَيْكَ ("and those who believe in what was sent down to you"), those are the believers among the People of the Book. Then He joined the two groups together and said: "They follow the guidance of their Lord and they are the successful."
And some of them said: no, by this are meant the God-fearing (al-muttaqūn) who believe in the unseen, and they are those who believe in what was sent down to Muḥammad, and in what was sent down to the messengers before him.
And others said: no, by this are meant those who believe in what was sent down to Muḥammad ﷺ, and in what was before him, and they are the believers among the People of the Book who held Muḥammad ﷺ and what he brought to be true, and who before that were already believers in all the remaining prophets and books.
According to this last interpretation, it is possible that وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنْـزِلَ إِلَيْكَ ("and those who believe in what was sent down to you") is in the case of the genitive (khafḍ), or in the case of the nominative (rafʿ).
As for the nominative, it comes about by two ways: the first is through the conjoining (ʿaṭf) to the pronoun in يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ which refers to "those" (alladhīna); and the second is that it is the predicate (khabar) of a subject, or that "They follow the guidance of their Lord" places it in the nominative.
As for the genitive, it comes about by conjoining to "the God-fearing" (al-muttaqīn). And when it is conjoined to "those" (alladhīna), then two meanings present themselves: the first is that both this and the first "those" belong to the description of the God-fearing. That is according to the interpretation of whoever holds the view that the four verses after Alif-Lām-Mīm were sent down concerning a single category among the categories of believers. And the second possibility is that the second "those" is, in its case-ending, conjoined to "the God-fearing" in the sense of the genitive, while in meaning they are a different category than the first category. That is according to the view of whoever holds that those concerning whom the first two verses among the believers were sent down after His saying Alif-Lām-Mīm are others than those concerning whom the last two verses were sent down, which follow the first two.
It is also possible that the second "those," according to this view, is in the nominative in the sense of a new beginning (istiʾnāf), since it is a subject that begins after the completion of a verse and the closing of a narrative. And the nominative is also permissible therein with the aim of a new beginning, since it stands at the beginning of a verse, even though it belongs to the description of the God-fearing.
The nominative is thus valid therein by four ways, and the genitive by two ways.
The interpretation that, in my view, is most fitting for His saying أُولَئِكَ عَلَى هُدًى مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ("They follow the guidance of their Lord") is what I have mentioned of the saying of Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās, namely that "they" (ulāʾika) is a reference to the two groups, I mean: the God-fearing, and those who believe in what was sent down to you; and that "they" is in the nominative by the referring pronoun that refers back to them in His saying "who follow the guidance of their Lord"; and that the second "those" is conjoined to what preceded the saying, in the manner that we have expounded.
We regard this only as the most fitting interpretation of the verse, because Allah, exalted is His praise, has described the two groups with their praiseworthy description, and then praised them. It would not be fitting for Him, mighty and exalted, to single out one of the two groups with praise, while they are equal in the attributes by which they merited the praise. Just as it is not permissible in His justice that they be equal in the deeds by which they merit the reward, and that He then single out one of the two with the reward without the other, and withhold from the other the reward of his deed. So too is the case with the praise for deeds, for praise is one of the kinds of reward.
As for the meaning of His saying أُولَئِكَ عَلَى هُدًى مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ ("They follow the guidance of their Lord"), its meaning is: that they are upon a light from their Lord, and upon a proof, and upon steadfastness and correctness, through Allah's confirming them and His granting them success to what is correct. As:
293 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to me, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad 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: "They follow the guidance of their Lord": that is, upon a light from their Lord, and steadfastness upon what has come to them.
The commentary on the saying of Him, exalted is His praise: وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ ("And it is they who are the successful") (5)
The interpretation of His saying "And it is they who are the successful" is: it is they who succeed and who attain what they sought from Allah, exalted is His remembrance, through their deeds and their faith in Allah, His books, and His messengers — namely the obtaining of the reward, the eternal abode in the gardens (al-jinān), and the deliverance from that which Allah, blessed and exalted is He, has prepared of punishment for His enemies. As:
294 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Ibn Isḥāq related to us, 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: وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ ("And it is they who are the successful"): that is, those who attained what they sought, and were delivered from the evil from which they fled.
And among the indications that one of the meanings of al-falāḥ (success) is the attainment of the thing sought and the obtaining of the need, is the saying of Labīd ibn Rabīʿa:
"Be sensible — but if you will not be sensible, then truly: he has succeeded who was sensible."
He means: he has obtained his need and hit upon the good. And among that is the saying of the rajaz-poet:
"I lack a mother who bore Riyāḥ, she brought him forth, wide-legged and broad-buttocked,
she thinks that she has borne prosperity! I bear witness: it adds to her no success."
He means: the good and the nearness to her need. And al-falāḥ is a verbal noun (maṣdar) of your saying: aflaḥa fulān, yufliḥu, iflāḥan and falāḥan and falaḥan. And al-falāḥ also means: continued existence, and among that is the saying of Labīd:
"We tread lands all of which were trodden before us, and we hope for continued existence after ʿĀd and Ḥimyar."
He means continued existence. And among that is also the saying of ʿAbīd:
"Persist with what you wish, for sometimes it is attained through weakness, and sometimes the shrewd one is deceived."
He means: live and continue to exist with what you wish. And likewise is the saying of Nābigha of the Banū Dhubyān:
"And every young man will be scattered by Shaʿūb (death), even if he becomes rich, and even if he attains success."
That is: succeeding in his need and continued existence.
