Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:65
And you had already known about those who transgressed among you concerning the sabbath, and We said to them, "Be apes, despised."
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: وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ الَّذِينَ اعْتَدَوْا مِنْكُمْ فِي السَّبْتِ (And indeed you have known those among you who transgressed concerning the Sabbath).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by His words "wa-laqad ʿalimtum" (and indeed you have known): and indeed you have come to know (known in the sense of: coming to know). It is like your saying: "I came to know your brother (qad ʿalimtu), whereas I did not know him before," by which is meant: I came to know him, whereas I did not know him before. Thus He said, mighty is His praise: وَآخَرِينَ مِنْ دُونِهِمْ لا تَعْلَمُونَهُمُ اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُهُمْ [Al-Anfāl: 60] (And others besides them whom you do not know, but whom Allah knows), which means: whom you do not know, but whom Allah does know.
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And His words "alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabt" (those who transgressed among you concerning the Sabbath) mean: those who exceeded My limits, and who did what I had forbidden them on the Sabbath day, and who disobeyed My command.
And I have already demonstrated earlier that the origin of "al-iʿtidāʾ" (transgression) is the exceeding of the limit in everything, in a manner that makes it unnecessary to repeat this in this place.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: This verse, and the verses that follow after it — in which He, mighty is His praise, enumerates for the Children of Israel — those who in the time of the Prophet ﷺ dwelt among the abodes of the Anṣār, and with whose mention He began at the beginning of this sūrah, namely what their forefathers committed of breaking Allah's covenant and pact — the agreements they used to conclude; and He warns those who are addressed here that there shall befall them — because of their persistence in their unbelief (kufr), their remaining in their denial of the prophethood of Muḥammad ﷺ, and their failure to follow him and to believe in what he brought them from his Lord — the same as what befell their ancestors of transformation (maskh), the quaking of the earth (rajf), and being struck down by the thunderbolt (ṣaʿq), and that which they could not withstand of the wrath of Allah and His displeasure. As follows:
1138 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "Wa-laqad ʿalimtumu alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabt" — he says: and indeed you have known. And this is a warning to them against disobedience. He says: Beware lest there befall you what befell the people of the Sabbath, when they disobeyed Me, transgressed — he says: behaved insolently — on the Sabbath. He said: Allah sent no prophet but that He commanded him the Friday (al-jumʿa), and informed him of its excellence and its eminence in the heavens and among the angels, and that the Hour will come to pass on that day. So whoever followed the prophets in the past as the community (umma) of Muḥammad ﷺ followed Muḥammad, who accepted the Friday, heard and obeyed, acknowledged its excellence and remained steadfast upon it, as Allah the Exalted had commanded His prophet ﷺ. And whoever did not do that found himself in the position of those whom Allah mentioned in His Book, where He said: "Wa-laqad ʿalimtumu alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabti fa-qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn" (And indeed you have known those among you who transgressed concerning the Sabbath, and We said to them: Be despised apes). And that was because the Jews said to Mūsā — when he commanded them the Friday and informed them of its excellence —: O Mūsā, how can you command us the Friday and prefer it above all the other days, while the Sabbath is the most excellent of all days, for Allah created the heavens, the earth, and the provisions in six days, and on the Sabbath day everything submitted to Him in obedience, and it was the last of the six days? He said: And likewise the Christians said to ʿĪsā the son of Maryam — when he commanded them the Friday — they said to him: How can you command us the Friday, while the first of the days is the most excellent and the master of them, and the first is more excellent, and Allah is One, and the One, the First, is more excellent? Then Allah revealed to ʿĪsā: Leave them with the Sunday, but let them do upon it thus and so — of what He charged them. But they did not do it, and so Allah the Exalted recounted their stories in the Book with their disobedience. He said: And likewise Allah said to Mūsā — when the Jews said to him what they said in the matter of the Sabbath —: Leave them with the Sabbath, that they catch upon it no fish nor anything else, and do nothing, as they said. He said: And so it came to pass that, when it was the Sabbath, the fish appeared at the surface of the water; that is His words: إِذْ تَأْتِيهِمْ حِيتَانُهُمْ يَوْمَ سَبْتِهِمْ شُرَّعًا [Al-Aʿrāf: 163] (when their fish came to them on the day of their Sabbath, at the surface), he says: visible above the water, and that because of their disobedience to Mūsā. And when it was a day other than the Sabbath, they again became a catch as on the remaining days; that is His words: وَيَوْمَ لا يَسْبِتُونَ لا تَأْتِيهِمْ [Al-Aʿrāf: 163] (and on the day they did not keep the Sabbath, they did not come to them). And so the fish did that as long as Allah willed. When they saw them thus, they desired to seize them but feared the punishment; some of them took a few, and these did not refuse to let themselves be taken by him, while he feared the punishment of which Mūsā had warned them on behalf of Allah the Exalted. Then when they saw that the punishment did not befall them, they returned to it, and they informed one another that they had seized the fish without anything befalling them, and they did that more and more, and they supposed that what Mūsā had told them was untrue. And those are the words of Allah, mighty is His praise: "Wa-laqad ʿalimtumu alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabti fa-qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn" — he says: to these who caught the fish — and so Allah transformed them into apes because of their disobedience. He says: Thereupon they lived no longer than three days on earth. [He said: And no transformed being ever lived longer than three days.] And it did not eat, did not drink, and did not reproduce. And Allah had already created the apes, the swine, and the rest of the creatures in the six days that Allah mentioned in His Book. So He transformed this people into the form of apes, and thus He does with whom He wills, as He wills, and transforms him as He wills.
1139 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of ʿIkrima, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: Indeed Allah had imposed upon the Children of Israel only the day that He has also imposed upon you as your festival day — the Friday. But they deviated to the Sabbath and glorified it, and neglected what they had been commanded. When they refused, and held only to the Sabbath, Allah tested them therein, and forbade them what He had permitted them on other days. And they were in a village between Ayla and al-Ṭūr, which was called "Madyan." So Allah forbade them on the Sabbath the fish: the catching and the eating of them. And when it was the Sabbath day, those came to them, at the surface, up to the shore of their sea, until, when the Sabbath had passed, they went away, so that they saw no fish, small or large. Until, when it was the Sabbath day, they came to them at the surface, until, when the Sabbath had passed, they went away. And so they were, until, when the time grew long for them and they craved the fish intensely, a man among them proceeded to seize a fish secretly on the Sabbath day; he threaded a string through it, then released it into the water, drove a peg for it into the shore and tied it, then left it. Until, when it was the next day, he came and took it — as if he meant to say: I did not seize it on the Sabbath day — and he then went off with it and ate it. Until, when it was the next Sabbath day, he repeated the same, and the people noticed the smell of the fish, and the villagers said: By Allah, we have truly noticed the smell of the fish! Then they traced the doing of that man. He said: And they did as he had done, and ate secretly for a long time, without Allah striking them swiftly with a punishment, until they caught them openly and sold them in the markets. And a group among them, of the people of insight and virtue (ahl al-baqiyya), said: Woe to you! Fear Allah! And they forbade them what they were doing. And another group, who had neither eaten the fish nor forbidden the people what they were doing, said: لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا قَالُوا مَعْذِرَةً إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ (Why do you admonish a people whom Allah will destroy or punish with a severe punishment? They said: As an excuse before your Lord, and that they may perhaps become God-fearing) — because of our displeasure at their deeds — وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ [Al-Aʿrāf: 164] (and that they may perhaps become God-fearing). Ibn ʿAbbās said: And while they were in that state, that remaining group awoke in their gatherings and their places of worship, and they missed the other people and did not see them. Then some of them said to others: Indeed, something is the matter with the people! Look what it is! Then they went to look in their houses, and they found them locked, for they had entered by night and had locked them upon themselves, as people lock upon themselves, and they had become apes inside them. And they truly recognized the man by his very person, while he was an ape, and the woman by her very person, while she was a she-ape, and the child by its very person, while it was an ape. He said: Ibn ʿAbbās says: Were it not that Allah mentioned that He had saved those who forbade the evil, we would say that they were all destroyed. They said: And this is the village concerning which Allah said to Muḥammad ﷺ: وَاسْأَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْيَةِ الَّتِي كَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ the verse [Al-Aʿrāf: 163] (And ask them about the village that lay by the sea).
1140 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his words: "Wa-laqad ʿalimtumu alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabti fa-qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn" (And indeed you have known those among you who transgressed concerning the Sabbath, and We said to them: Be despised apes): The fish were permitted to them, and forbidden to them on the Sabbath day, as a trial from Allah, that He might make manifest who obeys Him from who disobeys Him. And so the people were divided into three kinds: one kind abstained and forbade the disobedience; one kind abstained out of reverence for what Allah had forbidden; and one kind violated what Allah had forbidden and persisted in the disobedience. Then when they refused all but to transgress to what was forbidden them, Allah said to them: كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ (Be despised apes), and so they became apes with tails, lowing, after they had been men and women.
1141 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his words: "Wa-laqad ʿalimtumu alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabt" (And indeed you have known those among you who transgressed concerning the Sabbath), he said: It was forbidden to them to catch the fish on the Sabbath day, and those came to them at the surface on the Sabbath day, and so they were tested thereby, but they transgressed and caught them, and so Allah made them despised apes.
1142 — Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Wa-laqad ʿalimtumu alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabti fa-qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn" — he said: They are the people of "Ayla," and that is the village that lay by the sea, and the fish, when it was the Sabbath day — and Allah had forbidden the Jews to perform any work on the Sabbath — there remained no fish in the sea but that it came forth, until they thrust their snouts out of the water. And when it was the Sunday, they remained in the depth of the sea, so that nothing of them was seen, until it was the Sabbath day. That is His words: وَاسْأَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْيَةِ الَّتِي كَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ إِذْ يَعْدُونَ فِي السَّبْتِ إِذْ تَأْتِيهِمْ حِيتَانُهُمْ يَوْمَ سَبْتِهِمْ شُرَّعًا وَيَوْمَ لا يَسْبِتُونَ لا تَأْتِيهِمْ [Al-Aʿrāf: 163] (And ask them about the village that lay by the sea, when they transgressed on the Sabbath, when their fish came to them on the day of their Sabbath at the surface, and on the day they did not keep the Sabbath, they did not come to them). And some of them craved the fish, and so the man proceeded to dig a pit and make a channel from it to the sea. And when it was the Sabbath day, he opened the channel, and the wave came with the fish, drove them along until it cast them into the pit. And the fish wished to get out, but could not because of the small amount of water in the channel, and so it remained [in it]. And when it was the Sunday, he came and took it. And so the man proceeded to roast the fish, and his neighbor noticed the smell of it, and asked him, and he informed him, and he did the same as what his neighbor had done. Until, when the eating of the fish had spread among them, their scholars said to them: Woe to you! You are indeed catching the fish on the Sabbath day, while that is not permitted to you! But they said: We caught it on the Sunday when we took it. Then the jurists (fuqahāʾ) said: No, but you caught it on the day you opened the water for it so that it entered. But they said: No! And they haughtily refused to stop. Then some of those who forbade them said to others: لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا [Al-Aʿrāf: 164] (Why do you admonish a people whom Allah will destroy or punish with a severe punishment?), he says: Why do you admonish them, while you have already admonished them and they did not obey you? Then some of them said: مَعْذِرَةً إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ [Al-Aʿrāf: 164] (As an excuse before your Lord, and that they may perhaps become God-fearing). Then when they refused, the Muslims said: By Allah, we will not dwell with you in one village. And so they divided the village with a wall, and the Muslims opened a gate and the transgressors of the Sabbath a gate, and Dāwūd cursed them. And so the Muslims went out through their gate and the unbelievers through their gate. And one day the Muslims went out, but the unbelievers did not open their gate. Then when they tarried, the Muslims climbed the wall toward them, and behold, there they were, apes leaping upon one another. Then they opened for them, and they scattered over the earth. That is the words of Allah, mighty and exalted: فَلَمَّا عَتَوْا عَنْ مَا نُهُوا عَنْهُ قُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ [Al-Aʿrāf: 166] (Then when they haughtily refused to stop with what was forbidden them, We said to them: Be despised apes). And that is when He says: لُعِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ عَلَى لِسَانِ دَاوُدَ وَعِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ [Al-Māʾida: 78] (Cursed were those who disbelieved among the Children of Israel by the tongue of Dāwūd and ʿĪsā the son of Maryam), and those are the apes.
1143 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr 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, concerning his words: "Alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabti fa-qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn". He said: They were not transformed in form; it is only a likeness that Allah set forth for them, like the likeness that He set forth of the donkey that carries books.
1144 — 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: "Wa-laqad ʿalimtumu alladhīna iʿtadaw minkum fī al-sabti fa-qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn". He said: Their hearts were transformed, but they were not transformed into apes; it is only a likeness that Allah set forth for them, like the likeness of the donkey that carries books.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And this statement which Mujāhid made is a statement that contradicts the plain meaning to which the Book of Allah points. And that is because Allah has reported in His Book that He made out of them apes and swine and worshippers of the idol (al-ṭāghūt), as He has reported about them that they said to their prophet: أَرِنَا اللَّهَ جَهْرَةً [Al-Nisāʾ: 153] (Show us Allah openly), and that Allah the Exalted, whose mention is exalted, struck them down by the thunderbolt when they asked that of their Lord, and that they worshipped the calf, whereupon He made their repentance lie in the killing of themselves, and that they were commanded to enter the holy land but they said to their prophet: اذْهَبْ أَنْتَ وَرَبُّكَ فَقَاتِلا إِنَّا هَاهُنَا قَاعِدُونَ [Al-Māʾida: 24] (Go you and your Lord and fight, both of you; we remain sitting here), whereupon He tested them with wandering lost in the wilderness. For equal stands he who says: they were not transformed by Him into apes — while He, exalted is His mention, has reported that He made out of them apes and swine — to another who says: nothing of what Allah reported about the Children of Israel that came forth from them — of opposing their prophets, and the severe punishments and chastisements that Allah brought down upon them — took place. And whoever denies anything of that but acknowledges something else of it, the proof is demanded of him for his statement, and he is confronted — concerning what he denies of it — with what he acknowledges; then the distinction is demanded of him on the basis of a widespread report or a reliable tradition (athar).
This, in addition to the fact that the statement of Mujāhid contradicts the statement of the totality of the authoritative tradition (al-ḥujja), in which error and falsehood are impossible in what it has transmitted unanimously. And as proof of the invalidity of a statement, its unanimity in declaring it erroneous suffices.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ (65) (And We said to them: Be despised apes).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by His words "fa-qulnā lahum" (and We said to them): and We said to those who transgressed concerning the Sabbath — that is, on the Sabbath day.
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And the origin of "al-sabt" is rest and stillness in repose and ease; and for that reason the sleeper is called "masbūt," because of his rest, the stillness of his body, and his repose, as He, mighty is His praise, said: وَجَعَلْنَا نَوْمَكُمْ سُبَاتًا [Al-Nabaʾ: 9] (And We made your sleep a rest), that is: rest for your bodies. And it is a verbal noun (maṣdar) from the saying of the speaker: "sabata fulān yasbutu sabtan" (so-and-so rested, rests, rests).
And it has been said: it was called "sabt" because Allah, mighty is His praise, on the Friday — that is the day before it — finished the creation of His entire creation.
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And His words "kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn" (be despised apes) mean: become thus.
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And "al-khāsiʾ" is the driven away, the chased off, as the dog is chased off. One says of that: "khasaʾtuhu akhsaʾuhu khasʾan wa-khusūʾan, wa-huwa yakhsaʾu khusūʾan" (I drove him away, I drive him away, with driving away and being driven, and he is driven away with being driven away). He said: And one says: "khasaʾtuhu fa-khasaʾa wa-nkhasaʾa" (I drove him away and he went off driven away). And of that is the saying of the rajaz poet:
"Like the dog — when you say to him: go away! (ikhsaʾ) — he goes off driven away (inkhasaʾ)"
that is: when you drive him off, he goes off humbled and lowly.
And thus is the meaning of His words "kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn", that is: removed from the good, humbled and lowly, as:
1145 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning his words: "Kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn" (Be despised apes), he said: humbled.
1146 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
1147 — 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.
1148 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "Khāsiʾīn" (despised), he said: humbled.
1149 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning his words: "Kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn" (Be despised apes), that is: humbled and lowly.
1150 — And it was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "Khāsiʾan" (driven away), that is: humbled.
