Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:8
And of the people are some who say, "We believe in Allah and the Last Day," but they are not believers.
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 Him, whose praise is exalted: وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَمَا هُمْ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ (8)
(And among the people are some who say: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," while they are not believers.) (2:8)
Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His words "and among the people (wa-mina al-nās)", concerning the word "al-nās" there are two views:
The first is that it is a plural which has no singular from its own root; rather their singular is "insān" (a human being), and their feminine singular is "insāna" (a female human being).
The other view is that its original form was "unās", from which the hamza was dropped on account of the frequent use of the word. Then the definite alif and lām (the article) were added to it, and the lām — which was added together with the alif as the definite article — was assimilated into the nūn, as is said in لَكِنَّا هُوَ اللَّهُ رَبِّي (But as for me, He is Allah, my Lord) [Surah Al-Kahf: 38], in accordance with what we have set forth concerning "the name Allah", which is Allah. Some have claimed that "al-nās" is a different linguistic form from "unās", and that the Arabs have been heard to form its diminutive as "nuwais" derived from "al-nās", and that, had its original form been "unās", one would have said in the diminutive "unais", referring it back to its origin.
All the exegetes agree that this āyah was revealed concerning a group belonging to the people of hypocrisy (nifāq), and that this description is their description.
Mention of those among the exegetes who said this, with their names:
312- Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman (mawlā) of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrima, or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: And among the people are some who say: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," while they are not believers — by this are meant the hypocrites among the Aws and the Khazraj, and those who followed their course of conduct.
In this narration of Ibn ʿAbbās their names were mentioned on the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, except that I have refrained from enumerating them out of dislike for lengthening the book by mentioning them.
313- Al-Ḥusayn ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His words: And among the people are some who say: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," while they are not believers — up to where it reaches: فَمَا رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ (so their trade brought no profit, nor were they rightly guided). He said: This concerns the hypocrites.
314- Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn Maymūn related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: This āyah, up to and including the thirteenth [verse], concerns the description of the hypocrites.
315- Al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm 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.
316- 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, the like of it.
317- Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl al-Suddī, in a report that 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, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and on the authority of a number of people among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: And among the people are some who say: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," while they are not believers — these are the hypocrites.
318- Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, concerning His words: And among the people are some who say: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day" — up to فَزَادَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَرَضًا وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (so Allah increased them in sickness, and for them is a painful punishment). He said: These are the people of hypocrisy.
319- Al-Qāsim 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 among the people are some who say: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," while they are not believers. He said: This is the hypocrite, whose word contradicts his deed, his hidden inner self his manifest outer self, his entrance his departure, and his presence his absence.
The explanation of that is: that Allah, whose praise is exalted, when He gathered for His messenger Muḥammad ﷺ his affair in the land of his hijra, and his residence there became established, and Allah made His word triumph there, and Islam spread among the houses of its inhabitants, and the Muslims there overcame those who were among the people of shirk, the idolaters, and those among the People of the Book who were there were humbled — then the scholars of the Jews there displayed to the messenger of Allah ﷺ their rancour, and revealed to him enmity and intense hatred (shanaʾān), out of envy and unlawful insolence, except for a small group among them whom Allah guided to Islam and who thereupon converted, as He, whose praise is exalted, said: وَدَّ كَثِيرٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ لَوْ يَرُدُّونَكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ إِيمَانِكُمْ كُفَّارًا حَسَدًا مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنْفُسِهِمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الْحَقُّ (Many among the People of the Book wished that they could turn you back into unbelievers after your faith, out of envy from themselves, after the truth had become clear to them) [Surah Al-Baqarah: 109].
And in secret they joined with them in hostility toward the Prophet ﷺ and his companions and in plotting calamitous misfortunes against them: a group of people from the clans of the Anṣār, who had given the messenger of Allah ﷺ shelter and had aided him — but who had become hardened in their shirk and their jāhiliyya (time of ignorance). Their names were given to us, but we have preferred not to lengthen the book by mentioning their names and lineages. And they supported them in that secretly, not openly, out of fear of the death penalty for themselves, and of being taken as captives of war (sibāʾ) by the messenger of Allah ﷺ and his companions, and out of inclination toward the Jews on account of the shirk and the poor judgment concerning Islam in which they were.
So when they met the messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the believers in him among his companions, then they said to them — out of fear for themselves —: "We truly believe in Allah, in His messenger and in the Resurrection," and they gave them with their tongues the word of truth, in order to ward off from themselves the judgment of Allah which applies to whoever holds fast to that in which they persisted, namely shirk — a judgment that would befall them if they had made manifest with their tongues the shirk that they harboured in their conviction. And when they met their brethren among the Jews, and the people of shirk and of denying Muḥammad ﷺ and what he had brought, and they secluded themselves with them, then they said: إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِئُونَ (We are truly with you; we were only mocking).
So it is these whom He, whose remembrance is exalted, meant by His words: And among the people are some who say: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," while they are not believers. By His words, the Exalted, as a report about them — "We believe in Allah (āmannā bi-llāh)" — He means: "we have held Allah to be true (ṣaddaqnā bi-llāh)".
And we have already shown earlier in this book of ours that the meaning of īmān is "holding to be true (al-taṣdīq)".
And His words: and in the Last Day (wa-bi-l-yawm al-ākhir) mean: in the Resurrection on the Day of Resurrection. The Day of Resurrection is called "the Last Day" only because it is the last day; there is no day after it, except itself.
If someone were to say: How can there be no day after it, when the hereafter knows no cessation, nor perishing, nor disappearance?
Then it is answered: A day is called "a day (yawm)" among the Arabs only on account of the night that precedes it. If no night precedes the daylight, it is not called "a day". The Day of Resurrection is thus a day after which no night comes, except the night in whose morning the Resurrection breaks; that day is thus the last of the days. For this reason Allah, whose praise is exalted, named it "the Last Day", and described it as "barren (ʿaqīm)". And He described it as a barren day because no night comes after it.
As for the explanation of His words: "while they are not believers (wa-mā hum bi-muʾminīn)", and the fact that He, whose remembrance is exalted, denies them the designation of faith (īmān) — even though He has reported about them that they said with their tongues: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day" — that is, on the part of Allah, mighty and exalted, a giving of the lie to them concerning what they reported about their conviction of faith and their acknowledgment of the Resurrection, and an informing by Him to His prophet ﷺ that what they show him with their mouths is the opposite of what lies hidden in the depths of their hearts, and contrary to that upon which their souls are resolved.
And in this āyah there is a clear proof of the falsity of what the Jahmiyya claimed: namely that īmān is merely holding to be true with the word, to the exclusion of all other meanings beyond that. For Allah, whose praise is exalted, reported about those whom He mentions in His Book among the people of hypocrisy that they said with their tongues: "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day," and then He denied them being believers, since their inner conviction did not confirm that saying of theirs.
And His words "while they are not believers (wa-mā hum bi-muʾminīn)" mean: "not people who hold to be true" that which they claim to hold to be true.
