Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:81
Yes, whoever earns evil and his sin has encompassed him - those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally.
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 statement, the Exalted: بَلَى مَنْ كَسَبَ سَيِّئَةً ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed…")
Abū Jaʿfar said: His statement بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed") is a refutation by Allah of those among the Jews who said: لَنْ تَمَسَّنَا النَّارُ إِلا أَيَّامًا مَعْدُودَةً ("The Fire will touch us only for a limited number of days"), and it is an announcement from Him to them that He will punish everyone who ascribes partners (shirk) to Him, and who disbelieves in Him and in His messengers, and whose sins have encompassed him — him He causes to dwell forever in the Fire. For the Garden (janna) is inhabited only by the people of faith (īmān) in Him and in His messenger, the people of obedience to Him, and those who observe His ordained limits (ḥudūd). As:
1420 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr or ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: بلى من كسب سيئة وأحاطت به خطيئته ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed and whose transgression has encompassed him"), that is to say: whoever acts as you acted, and disbelieves in the manner in which you disbelieved, until his disbelief (kufr) encompasses all the good he has — they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide forever.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: As for "balā" (nay): this is an affirmation following every statement at the beginning of which there is a negation, just as "naʿam" (yes) is an affirmation in response to a question in which no negation is implied. Its origin is "bal", which is a reversal (a turning back) from a pure negation, as in your statement: "ʿAmr did not stand, but rather (bal) Zayd." Then the letter "yāʾ" was added to it so that one may pause upon it, since one cannot pause upon "bal", because it is a conjunction and a turning back from the negation. And so that "balā" — I mean the word "balā" — would be exclusively a turning back from the negation, and an affirmation of the action that follows the negation, therefore the "yāʾ" in it indicates the meaning of affirmation and assent (inʿām), while the word-element "bal" indicates the turning back from the negation.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: As for the "sayyiʾa" (evil deed) which Allah mentions in this place: that is ascribing partners to Allah (shirk). As:
1421 – Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, he said: ʿĀṣim related to me, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil: بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed"), he said: ascribing partners to Allah (shirk).
1422 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed"), [means] shirk.
1423 – Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
1424 – Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed"), he said: as for the evil deed, that is shirk.
1425 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, the like of it.
1426 – Mūsā related to me, he said: ʿAmr related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed"), as for the evil deed, those are the sins for which He has held out the Fire in prospect.
1427 – Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed"), he said: shirk. — Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said: سيئة ("an evil deed") [means] shirk.
1428 – 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, concerning His statement: بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed"), that is to say: shirk.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: We have only said that the "sayyiʾa" (evil deed) — concerning which Allah, exalted is His praise, mentioned that whoever earns it and whose transgression encompasses him is among the inhabitants of the Fire who abide therein forever — in this place: that Allah thereby intended only some evil deeds and not all of them, even though the outward wording of it in the recitation is general. That is because Allah pronounced upon the people of it the judgment of eternal abiding in the Fire. And eternal abiding in the Fire applies to the people of disbelief in Allah and not to the people of faith in Him, on account of the abundance of narrations from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that the people of faith do not abide therein forever, and that eternal abiding in the Fire applies to the people of disbelief in Allah and not to the people of faith. For Allah, exalted is His praise, joined to His statement — بلى من كسب سيئة وأحاطت به خطيئته فأولئك أصحاب النار هم فيها خالدون ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed and whose transgression has encompassed him, they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide forever") — His statement: وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ ("And those who believe and do righteous deeds, they are the inhabitants of the Garden, therein they will abide forever"). By that it is known that those to whom eternal abiding in the Fire is due, among the people of evil deeds, are other than those to whom eternal abiding in the Garden is due, among the people of faith.
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And if someone supposes that those to whom eternal abiding in the Garden is due, among those who believed, are only those who did righteous deeds and not those who did evil deeds — well, in Allah's announcement that He — when we avoid the grave sins that have been forbidden to us — effaces our evil deeds and admits us through a noble entrance, there lies that which indicates the soundness of what we have said in the explanation of His statement: بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed"), namely that this refers to specific evil deeds and not to all of them.
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And if someone says to us: Allah, exalted is His praise, has only guaranteed us the effacing of our evil deeds when we avoid the grave sins that have been forbidden to us — what then is the proof that the grave sins do not fall under His statement بلى من كسب سيئة ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed")?
Then it is said: Since it is established that the minor sins do not fall under it, and that what is intended by the āyah is specific and not general, it is established and correct that passing a judgment and pronouncement with it is not permissible for anyone concerning anyone whomsoever, except concerning the one about whom Allah has established it by means of an indication from an irrefutable report that removes the excuse from whomever it reaches. And it is established and correct that Allah, glorified be His mention, intended thereby the people of shirk and disbelief in Him, by the agreement of the entire community (umma). Therefore it has become necessary to judge that the people of shirk and disbelief are among those whom Allah intended by the āyah. As for the people of grave sins: with us the irrefutable reports that remove the excuse from whomever they reach are abundantly present to the effect that they are not intended by the āyah. So whoever denies that — among those who reject the proof of the widely-transmitted reports and the abundant announcements — for him it is obligatory to refrain from giving categorical testimony against the people of grave sins with eternal abiding in the Fire on the basis of this āyah and its likes which have come in general wording concerning them in the threat. Since the explanation of the Qurʾān cannot be attained except through the clarification of the one to whom Allah has entrusted the clarification of the Qurʾān, and since the āyah comes general in the category whose outward wording is general, while it is specific to that category in its inner meaning.
And to the rejecters of the report that the people of grave sins fall under the exception, the very same question is put that we put to the one who denies the stoning (rajm) of the married adulterer (al-zānī al-muḥṣan), and the lapsing of the obligation of the ritual prayer (ṣalāh) for the menstruating woman during menstruation. For the question to them is equal to the question to these, exactly the same.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: وَأَحَاطَتْ بِهِ خَطِيئَتُهُ ("and whose transgression has encompassed him")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His statement, exalted is His praise, وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him") He means: it gathered itself around him so that he died therein, before turning back (ināba) and repenting (tawba) from it.
* * *
The origin of "the encompassing (iḥāṭa) of a thing" is the surrounding of it, like the "wall" (ḥāʾiṭ) by which a house is enclosed and which surrounds it. Of that also is His statement, exalted is His praise: نَارًا أَحَاطَ بِهِمْ سُرَادِقُهَا ("a Fire whose walls have encompassed them") [al-Kahf: 29].
* * *
The explanation of the āyah is therefore: whoever ascribes partners to Allah and commits numerous sins and dies therein before turning back and repenting — they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide forever. And in accordance with what we have said in the explanation of it, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
1429 – Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: he died in his sin.
1430 – Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Jarīr ibn Nūḥ related to us, he said: al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of Abū Razīn, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: he died therein.
1431 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, he said: Ibn Isḥāq informed me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr or ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: his disbelief encompasses all the good he has.
1432 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to me, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: that for which Allah has made the Fire obligatory.
1433 – Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: as for the transgression, that is the grave sin which makes [the Fire] necessary.
1434 – Al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us [he said: Maʿmar informed us], on the authority of Qatāda: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: the transgression [means]: the grave sins.
1435 – Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Wakīʿ and Yaḥyā ibn Ādam related to us, on the authority of Sallām ibn Miskīn, he said: A man asked al-Ḥasan about His statement: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), whereupon he said: We do not know what the transgression is. O my son, recite the Qurʾān: every āyah for which Allah has held out the Fire in prospect, that is the transgression.
1436 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement: بَلَى مَنْ كَسَبَ سَيِّئَةً وَأَحَاطَتْ بِهِ خَطِيئَتُهُ ("Nay, whoever has earned an evil deed and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: every encompassing sin, that is what Allah has held out the Fire in prospect for.
1437 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Razīn: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: he died in his transgression.
1438 – Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, he said: al-Aʿmash related to us, he said: Masʿūd Abū Razīn related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym, concerning His statement: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: that is the one who dies in his transgression before he repents.
1439 – Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Wakīʿ said: I heard al-Aʿmash say concerning His statement: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"): he died in his sins.
1440 – It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"): the grave sin which makes [the Fire] necessary.
1441 – Mūsā related to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: أحاطت به خطيئته ("whose transgression has encompassed him"): so he died and showed no repentance.
1442 – Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥassān related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: وأحاطت به خطيئته ("and whose transgression has encompassed him"), he said: shirk. Then he recited: وَمَنْ جَاءَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ فَكُبَّتْ وُجُوهُهُمْ فِي النَّارِ ("And whoever comes with the evil deed, their faces will be thrown headlong into the Fire") [al-Naml: 90].
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: فَأُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ ("they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide forever") (81)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His statement, exalted is His praise, "fa-ulāʾika aṣḥāb al-nār hum fīhā khālidūn" ("they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide forever") He means: those who did the evil deeds and whose transgressions have encompassed them, they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide forever.
* * *
And by His statement, exalted is His praise, أصحاب النار ("the inhabitants of the Fire") He means: the people of the Fire. He made them companions of it only on account of their preferring — in their worldly life — that which causes them to fall into it and to fall into its blazing flame, over the deeds that cause them to enter the Garden. Thus He, glorified be His mention, made them — on account of their preferring its causes over the causes of the Garden — companions of it, like the companion of a man who keeps him company and prefers his company over that of others, until he becomes known by it.
* * *
هم فيها ("they therein") means: they abide forever in the Fire. And by His statement خالدون ("abiding forever") He means: continuously abiding. As:
1443 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to me, he said: Salama related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr or ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: هم فيها خالدون ("therein they will abide forever"), that is to say: abiding forever.
1444 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, he said: ʿAmr related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: هم فيها خالدون ("therein they will abide forever"): they will never come out of it.
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Footnotes:
(39) In the printed edition it reads: "that He punishes… thus abiding in the Fire", but the correct reading is what I have established.
(40) Al-inʿām: the affirmation. One says: anʿama: he answered with his word "naʿam" (yes). And that is an affirmation.
(41) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 52–53. Ṭabarī counted the final letter of "balā" as a "yāʾ", whereas al-Farrāʾ counted it as an "alif".
(42) See the explanation of "the outward (al-ẓāhir)" in what preceded: 2: 15 and the references.
(43) See the explanation of "the outward and the inward (al-ẓāhir wa-l-bāṭin)" just now: 2: 15 and the references.
(44) This is a refutation of the Muʿtazila, in their positing of the eternal abiding of the people of faith in the Fire. And the stoning (rajm) of the married adulterer, and the lapsing of the obligation of the ritual prayer for the menstruating woman during menstruation, are among that which has come in the reports without a Qurʾānic text coming concerning it.
(45) The report: 1430 – al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym al-Thawrī al-Kūfī: he is among the greatest and best of the Successors (tābiʿūn), trustworthy, one like him is not questioned. He is given a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and in al-Kabīr of al-Bukhārī 2/1/246 and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/459. His father's name is "Khuthaym", with a ḍamma on the dotted khāʾ, in diminutive form, as Ibn Durayd recorded it in al-Ishtiqāq: 112–113, and the ḥāfiẓ in al-Taqrīb. In the printed edition it reads "Khaytham", with the yāʾ before the thāʾ, and thus the author of al-Khulāṣa recorded it. But that is a pure error.
(46) See what preceded in his discussion concerning "the transgression (al-khaṭīʾa)" in this volume 2: 110.
