Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:94
Say, [O Muhammad], "If the home of the Hereafter with Allah is for you alone and not the [other] people, then wish for death, if you should be truthful.
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: قُلْ إِنْ كَانَتْ لَكُمُ الدَّارُ الآخِرَةُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ خَالِصَةً مِنْ دُونِ النَّاسِ فَتَمَنَّوُا الْمَوْتَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ (94)
("Say: If the Hereafter with Allah is exclusively for you, to the exclusion of the rest of mankind, then wish for death, if you are truthful." (2:94))
Abū Jaʿfar said: This verse belongs to that by which Allah furnished His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ with proof against the Jews who were in the midst of his place of emigration, and by which He exposed their rabbis and scholars. That is because Allah, exalted be His praise, commanded His Prophet ﷺ to call them to a just adjudication between him and them, concerning the disagreement that existed between him and them. Just as Allah also commanded him to call the other faction, namely the Christians—when they disagreed with him about ʿĪsā, the blessings of Allah be upon him, and disputed with him about that—to a decisive adjudication between him and them by means of the mutual cursing (mubāhala).¹ And He said to the faction of the Jews: if you are in the right, then wish for death, for that will not harm you, if you are in the right concerning the faith (īmān) and the nearness of rank with Allah that you claim. Rather: if your longing for death is granted when you wish for it, then you only go to repose, away from the weariness of the worldly life, its toil, and the turbidity of existence, and to the winning of nearness to Allah in His gardens—if the matter is as you claim: that the Hereafter belongs exclusively to you, to our exclusion. And if it is not granted to you, then the people will know that you are the liars and that we are in the right in our claim, and our case and your case will become clear to them. The Jews, however, refused to comply with the Prophet ﷺ in this, because they knew that, if they were to wish for death, they would perish, and so they would lose their worldly life and pass over to everlasting disgrace in their Hereafter. Just as the faction of the Christians—who disputed with the Prophet ﷺ about ʿĪsā, when they were called to the mubāhala—refused the mubāhala.
It has been reported to us that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "If the Jews were to wish for death, they would die, and they would behold their places in the Fire. And if those who would engage in the mubāhala with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were to go out, they would return to find neither family nor property."
1566 — Abū Kurayb related this to us, he said: Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī related to us, he said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Karīm, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.²
1567 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿIthām ibn ʿAlī related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: (then wish for death, if you are truthful), he said: If they were to wish for death, one of them would choke on his own saliva.³
1568 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jazarī, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His saying: (then wish for death, if you are truthful), he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: If the Jews were to wish for death, they would die.⁴
1569 — Mūsā related to me, he said: ʿAmr informed us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, the same.
1570 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, he said: Ibn Isḥāq related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me—Abū Jaʿfar said: according to what I transmit: he informed us—on the authority of Saʿīd, or ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: If they had wished for it on the day on which this was said to them, then there would not have remained on the face of the earth a single Jew but he would have died.⁵
Abū Jaʿfar said: Thus—for whoever the affair of the Jews was unclear to on that day—their lying, their slander, and their wrongdoing against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were exposed, and the proof of the Messenger and the proof of his companions over them came to light, and it has—praise be to Allah—remained victorious over them and over others among all the adherents of the religions to this day.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was only commanded to say to them: (wish for death, if you are truthful), because they—as has been conveyed to us—said: نَحْنُ أَبْنَاءُ اللَّهِ وَأَحِبَّاؤُهُ ("We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones" [al-Māʾida: 18]), and they said: لَنْ يَدْخُلَ الْجَنَّةَ إِلا مَنْ كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَى ("None shall enter Paradise except whoever is a Jew or a Christian" [al-Baqara: 111]). Then Allah said to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Say to them, if you are truthful in what you claim, then wish for death. Thus Allah made manifest their lie through their refusal to wish for that, and caused the proof of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to prevail.
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The exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) disagreed concerning the reason why Allah commanded His Prophet ﷺ to call the Jews to wish for death, and in what manner they were commanded to wish for it. Some of them said: they were commanded to wish for it by way of an imprecation against the lying one of the two factions.
* Mention of who said that:
1571 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, he said: Ibn Isḥāq related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd, or ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: Allah said to His Prophet ﷺ: (Say: If the Hereafter with Allah is exclusively for you, to the exclusion of the rest of mankind, then wish for death, if you are truthful), that is to say: invoke death upon whichever of the two factions is the more lying.⁶
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Others said what follows here:
1572 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to me, he said: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: (Say: If the Hereafter with Allah is exclusively for you, to the exclusion of the rest of mankind)—and that is because they said: لَنْ يَدْخُلَ الْجَنَّةَ إِلا مَنْ كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَى ("None shall enter Paradise except whoever is a Jew or a Christian" [al-Baqara: 111]), and they said: نَحْنُ أَبْنَاءُ اللَّهِ وَأَحِبَّاؤُهُ ("We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones" [al-Māʾida: 18]). Thereupon it was said to them: (then wish for death, if you are truthful).
1573 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ādam related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, he said: The Jews said: (None shall enter Paradise except whoever is a Jew or a Christian), and they said: نَحْنُ أَبْنَاءُ اللَّهِ وَأَحِبَّاؤُهُ ("We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones"). Then Allah said: (Say: If the Hereafter with Allah is exclusively for you, to the exclusion of the rest of mankind, then wish for death, if you are truthful), but they did not do it.
1574 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His saying: (Say: If the Hereafter with Allah is exclusively for you)—the verse, and that is because they said: لَنْ يَدْخُلَ الْجَنَّةَ إِلا مَنْ كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَى ("None shall enter Paradise except whoever is a Jew or a Christian"), and they said: نَحْنُ أَبْنَاءُ اللَّهِ وَأَحِبَّاؤُهُ ("We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones").⁷
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As for the explanation of His saying: (Say: If the Hereafter with Allah is exclusively for you), He says: Say, O Muḥammad: if the felicity of the Hereafter and its delights belong to you, O assembly of Jews, with Allah. He sufficed with mentioning "the abode (al-dār)" instead of mentioning its felicity, because those to whom the verse was addressed knew its meaning. We have already explained the meaning of "the Hereafter (al-dār al-ākhira)" in what preceded, in a manner that excuses us from repeating it in this place.⁸
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As for the explanation of His saying: (exclusively—khāliṣa), He means thereby: pure. As one says: "khalaṣa lī fulān" with the meaning: it became for me alone, it became pure for me. Of this one says: "khalaṣa lī hādhā al-shayʾ," thus "yakhluṣu khulūṣan wa-khāliṣatan," and "al-khāliṣa" is a verbal noun, like "al-ʿāfiya." And one says to a man: "hādhā khulṣānī," that is to say: my confidant to the exclusion of my other companions.
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It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he explained His saying (khāliṣa) as: special, reserved (khāṣṣa). And that is an explanation close in meaning to the explanation we have given concerning it.
1575 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (Say: If the Hereafter is for you), he said: "Say," O Muḥammad, to them—that is to say: the Jews—: "If the Hereafter is for you"—that is to say: Paradise⁹—(with Allah exclusively), He says: especially reserved for you.
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As for His saying: (to the exclusion of the rest of mankind), that which the outward meaning of the revelation indicates is that they said: the Hereafter with Allah belongs exclusively to us, to the exclusion of all mankind. And what makes clear that this was their saying—without their excepting from it anyone of the children of Adam—is Allah's report about them that they said: لَنْ يَدْخُلَ الْجَنَّةَ إِلا مَنْ كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَى ("None shall enter Paradise except whoever is a Jew or a Christian"). Except that from Ibn ʿAbbās a saying is related that reads otherwise:
1576 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (to the exclusion of the rest of mankind), he says: to the exclusion of Muḥammad ﷺ and his companions, whom you mocked and of whom you claimed that the truth lay in your hands, and that the Hereafter belonged to you to their exclusion.
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As for His saying: (then wish for death—fa-tamannaw al-mawt), its explanation is: long for it intensely and will it. It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said in his explanation of it: then ask for death. But "al-tamannī" is not known in the language of the Arabs in the meaning of "the asking (al-masʾala)." I suspect, however, that Ibn ʿAbbās directed the meaning of "al-umniya"—since it is the love and longing of the soul—toward the meaning of wishing and asking, since asking is the longing of the asker to Allah for that which he asks.
1577 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (then wish for death), that is to say: then ask for death, (if you are truthful).
