Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:58
And [recall] when We said, "Enter this city and eat from it wherever you will in [ease and] abundance, and enter the gate bowing humbly and say, 'Relieve us of our burdens.' We will [then] forgive your sins for you, and We will increase the doers of good [in goodness and reward]."
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 saying, the Exalted: وَإِذْ قُلْنَا ادْخُلُوا هَذِهِ الْقَرْيَةَ (And when We said: "Enter this town.")
The "town" (al-qarya) — which Allah, mighty is His praise, commanded them to enter and from which they were permitted to eat abundantly wherever they wished — is, according to what has been transmitted to us: Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis).
**Mention of the transmission concerning this:**
999 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "Enter this town," he said: Jerusalem.
1000 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to me, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "And when We said: Enter this town" — as for the town, it is the city of Jerusalem.
1001 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "And when We said: Enter this town," that means Jerusalem.
1002 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: I asked him — namely Ibn Zayd — about His saying: "Enter this town and eat thereof wherever you wish," he said: It is Jericho (Arīḥā), and that lies near Jerusalem.
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The discourse on the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: فَكُلُوا مِنْهَا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمْ رَغَدًا (Then eat thereof wherever you wish, in abundance.)
By this He means: Then eat from this town wherever you wish, a pleasant and ample provision, without reckoning (without accounting). We have already expounded the meaning of "raghad" (abundance) earlier in our book, and we have mentioned the statements of the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) concerning it.
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The discourse on the explanation of His saying, the mention of whom is exalted: وَادْخُلُوا الْبَابَ سُجَّدًا (And enter the gate prostrating.)
As for the "gate" (al-bāb) which they were commanded to enter, concerning it it has been said: it is the Gate of Remission (bāb al-ḥiṭṭa) of Jerusalem.
**Mention of who said that:**
1003 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī 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: "Enter the gate prostrating," he said: the Gate of Remission (bāb al-ḥiṭṭa), of the gate of Aelia (Īliyāʾ), of Jerusalem.
1004 — 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 it.
1005 — 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 enter the gate prostrating" — as for the gate, it is one of the gates of Jerusalem.
1006 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his saying: "And enter the gate prostrating," that it is one of the gates of Jerusalem, and it is called the Gate of Remission (bāb ḥiṭṭa). And as for His saying "prostrating" (sujjadan), Ibn ʿAbbās explained it in the sense of bowing (al-rukūʿ).
1007 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to me, saying: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: "Enter the gate prostrating," he said: bowing through a small gate.
1008 — Al-Ḥasan ibn al-Zibriqān al-Nakhaʿī related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: "Enter the gate prostrating," he said: they were commanded to enter bowing.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The root meaning of "prostration" (al-sujūd) is bowing before the one to whom one prostrates, exalting him thereby. Thus everyone who bows before something to exalt it is "prostrating" (sājid). From this comes the saying of the poet:
With an army in which the dappled horses lose their way in its far reaches, you see the hills thereof prostrating to the hooves.
By his word "prostrating" (sujjadan) he means: humble and submissive. From this also comes the saying of Aʿshā of the Banū Qays ibn Thaʿlaba:
He alternates in his prayers to the King, now prostrating, now supplicating aloud.
That, then, is the explanation of Ibn ʿAbbās of His saying "prostrating" (sujjadan) as "bowing" (rukkaʿan), for the one bowing (rākiʿ) is bent over, even though the one prostrating (sājid) is more deeply bent than he.
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The discourse on the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: وَقُولُوا حِطَّةٌ (And say: "Remission" (ḥiṭṭa).)
The explanation of His word "ḥiṭṭa" is a noun of the pattern "fiʿla," derived from the saying: "Allah has removed your sins from you (ḥaṭṭa), He removes them (yaḥuṭṭuhā) as a removal (ḥiṭṭa)" — on the model of "radda" (rejection), "ḥidda" (sharpness), and "midda" (extension) from "ḥadadtu" (I delimited) and "madadtu" (I extended).
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The exegetes differed concerning its explanation. Some said something along the lines of what we have said concerning it.
**Mention of who said that:**
1009 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us: "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," he said: al-Ḥasan and Qatāda said: that is to say: remove our sins from us.
1010 — Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," by it Allah removes from you your sin and your transgression.
1011 — Al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "Say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," he said: He removes your sins from you.
1012 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his saying: "Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," forgiveness (maghfira).
1013 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, his saying: "Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," he said: He removes your sins from you.
1014 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj informed me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: ʿAṭāʾ said to me concerning His saying: "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," he said: We heard that it means: He removes their sins from them.
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Others said: Its meaning is: say "There is no god but Allah" (lā ilāha illā Allāh), as if they directed its explanation toward: say that which removes your sins from you, and that is the saying "There is no god but Allah."
**Mention of who said that:**
1015 — Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm and Saʿd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam al-Miṣrī both related to me, they said: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar informed us, saying: al-Ḥakam ibn Abān related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima: "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," he said: say: "There is no god but Allah."
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Others said something in the sense of the saying of ʿIkrima, except that they made the saying they were commanded to utter into: the seeking of forgiveness (al-istighfār).
**Mention of who said that:**
1016 — Al-Ḥasan ibn al-Zibriqān al-Nakhaʿī related to us, Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," he said: they were commanded to seek forgiveness.
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Others said something similar to the saying of ʿIkrima, except that they said: The saying they were commanded to utter is that they should say: this matter is true, as has been said to you.
**Mention of who said that:**
1017 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, he said: Bishr 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 say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," he said: say: this matter is true, as has been said to you.
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The grammarians (ahl al-ʿarabiyya) differed concerning the reason why "al-ḥiṭṭa" is in the nominative (rafʿ).
Some grammarians of Basra said: "Al-ḥiṭṭa" is in the nominative in the sense of: "say: let there be from you a removal (ḥiṭṭa) of our sins," as you say to someone: "samʿuka" (your hearing / heed).
Others among them said: it is a word that Allah commanded them to say in the nominative, and He imposed upon them to pronounce it thus.
Some grammarians of Kufa said: "Al-ḥiṭṭa" is in the nominative because of an implied pronoun "this" (hādhihi), as if He said: and say: "this (hādhihi) is a removal (ḥiṭṭa)."
Others among them said: it is in the nominative because of an implied pronoun with the sense of a predicate, as if He said: say that which is a removal (ḥiṭṭa); then "ḥiṭṭa" in that case would be the predicate (khabar) of "what" (mā).
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Abū Jaʿfar said: What, in my view, is closest to correct in this matter, and most in accordance with the literal text of the Book, is that the nominative of "ḥiṭṭa" rests upon the intention of an omitted predicate, to which the literal recitation points, namely: "our entering through the gate, prostrating, is a removal (ḥiṭṭa)." Thus, in place of repeating that expression, that to which the literal sense of the revelation points sufficed, namely His saying: وَادْخُلُوا الْبَابَ سُجَّدًا (And enter the gate prostrating), just as He, mighty is His praise, said: وَإِذْ قَالَتْ أُمَّةٌ مِنْهُمْ لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا قَالُوا مَعْذِرَةً إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ [al-Aʿrāf: 164] (And when a group among them said: "Why do you admonish a people whom Allah will destroy or punish with a severe punishment?" they said: "As an excuse before your Lord") — that is to say: our admonition to them is an excuse before your Lord. Such, then, in my view, is the explanation of His saying: "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," by which is meant: and when We said: enter this town, and enter the gate, prostrating, and say: our entering thus prostrating is a removal (ḥiṭṭa) of our sins. And this opinion is along the lines of the explanation of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, Ibn Jurayj, and Ibn Zayd, which we have just mentioned.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And as for the explanation according to the saying of ʿIkrima, then it is necessary that the reading of "ḥiṭṭa" be in the accusative (naṣb), for if those people were commanded to say "There is no god but Allah," or to say "we seek Allah's forgiveness," then it is being said to them: say this saying; and "say" (qūlū) then falls upon "al-ḥiṭṭa," for "al-ḥiṭṭa," according to the saying of ʿIkrima, is the saying "There is no god but Allah." And if it is the saying "There is no god but Allah," then the verb "to say" falls upon it, just as when a man directs another to say what is good and says to him: "say good" (qul khayran) in the accusative; and it would not be correct for him to say to him "qul khayrun" (in the nominative), except under great compulsion.
And in the consensus of the reciters upon the nominative of "al-ḥiṭṭa" lies a clear indication against what ʿIkrima said by way of explanation concerning His saying: "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)." And likewise, according to the explanation which we transmitted from al-Ḥasan and Qatāda concerning His saying "And say: Remission (ḥiṭṭa)," it is necessary that the reading of "ḥiṭṭa" be in the accusative. For it is the custom of the Arabs — when they place the verbal nouns (al-maṣādir) in the position of the verbs and omit the verbs — to put those nouns in the accusative. As the poet said:
They were exterminated by the hands of a band and their swords, upon the crowns of the heads, with a Syrian blow.
And as the saying of one to a man: "hearing and obeying" (samʿan wa-ṭāʿatan) in the sense of: I hear with a hearing and I obey with an obeying. And as He, mighty is His praise, said: مَعَاذَ اللَّهِ [Yūsuf: 23] (Allah forbid!) in the sense of: we seek refuge with Allah.
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The discourse on the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: نَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ (Then We will forgive you.)
By His saying "Then We will forgive you" He means: We will cover your sins with mercy and conceal them for you, so that We do not disgrace you by punishment for them.
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The root meaning of "al-ghafr" is covering and concealing, so everyone who conceals something is its coverer (ghāfir). From this it comes that the iron helmet made as protection for the head is called "mighfar," because it covers and protects the head. Similar to it is "the scabbard of the sword" (ghimd al-sayf), namely that into which the sword is inserted and concealed. For this reason the fibrous nap of a garment is called "ghafra," because of its covering of the garment and its concealing it between the onlooker and the seeing of it. From this comes the saying of Aws ibn Ḥajar:
I do not reproach my cousin if he was ignorant, and I cover (aghfir) his ignorance if he was greatly ignorant.
By his saying "and I cover his ignorance" he means: I conceal his ignorance from him by my forbearance toward him.
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The discourse on the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: خَطَايَاكُمْ (Your sins.)
And "al-khaṭāyā" is the plural of "khaṭiyya" without hamza, just as "al-maṭāyā" is the plural of "maṭiyya" (mount), and "al-ḥashāyā" the plural of "ḥashiyya" (mattress/cushion). The plural "al-khaṭāyā" was formed without hamza, because the dropping of the hamza in "khaṭiyya" is more frequent than its pronunciation, so it was formed in the plural as "khaṭāyā," on the basis that the singular is without hamza. If "al-khaṭāyā" had been formed as a plural on the basis of "khaṭīʾa" with hamza, then one would say "khaṭāʾiʾ," on the model of "qabīla" and "qabāʾil," and "ṣaḥīfa" and "ṣaḥāʾif." And "khaṭīʾa" may also be formed in the plural with the tāʾ, in which case the hamza is pronounced and one says "khaṭīʾāt." And "al-khaṭīʾa" is of the pattern "faʿīla," derived from "khaṭiʾa al-rajul yakhṭaʾ khiṭʾan" (the man erred, he errs, an erring), and that is when he deviates from the path of truth. From this comes the saying of the poet:
And indeed, two emigrants surrounded him — by Allah's life, they have erred (khaṭiʾā) and perished.
By it he means: they have lost the truth and sinned.
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The discourse on the explanation of His saying, the mention of whom is exalted: وَسَنَزِيدُ الْمُحْسِنِينَ (58) (And We will increase the doers of good.)
The explanation of it is what has been transmitted to us from Ibn ʿAbbās, and that is what:
1018 — Al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "And We will increase the doers of good," whoever of you was a doer of good was increased in his good-doing, and whoever was an errant one, his error We forgive him.
The explanation of the verse, then, is: And when We said: enter this town, while all the good things therein are permitted to you, amply for you without reckoning; and enter the gate, prostrating, and say: this prostration of ours before Allah is a removal (ḥiṭṭa) from our Lord for our sins, by which He removes our transgressions — then We will cover, with mercy, the sins of the sinner among you and conceal them for him, and remove his burdens from him, and We will increase the doer of good among you — over and above Our previous good-doing toward him — with yet more good-doing. Then Allah, mighty is His praise, gave news of their great ignorance, their evil obedience to their Lord, their disobedience toward their prophets, and their mockery of His messengers — despite the tremendous favors of Allah, mighty and exalted, toward them, and the wondrous signs and lessons which He showed them — thereby rebuking their descendants, who were addressed with these verses, and giving them to understand that, if they persist in their denial of Muḥammad ﷺ and their rejection of his prophethood — despite the tremendous favor of Allah by sending him among them to them, and the wondrous proofs which He manifested among them by his hand — they would be none other than their forefathers, whose attributes He described and whose reports He recounted to us in these verses. So He, mighty is His praise, said: فَبَدَّلَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا قَوْلًا غَيْرَ الَّذِي قِيلَ لَهُمْ فَأَنْزَلْنَا عَلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا رِجْزًا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ (But those who did wrong exchanged the word for one other than that which had been said to them; so We sent down upon those who did wrong a plague from heaven) — the verse.
