Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:95
But they will never wish for it, ever, because of what their hands have put forth. And Allah is Knowing of the wrongdoers.
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: وَلَنْ يَتَمَنَّوْهُ أَبَدًا بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ (95)
("And they will never wish for it, because of what their hands have sent ahead. And Allah is All-Knowing of the wrongdoers." (2:95))
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is an announcement from Allah — exalted be His praise — concerning the Jews and their aversion to death, and their refusal to comply with that to which they were summoned, namely the wishing for death. This came about because they knew that, were they to do so, the threat would befall them and death would overtake them; and because they knew Muḥammad ﷺ as a messenger sent by Allah to them, while they held him to be a liar; and because they knew that he never conveyed to them any announcement except that it was true, exactly as he had announced. They therefore guarded themselves against wishing for death, out of fear that the punishment of Allah would befall them on account of the sins their hands had acquired, as in the following:
1578 – Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to me, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me — in that which Abū Jaʿfar transmits — on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, or ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: قُلْ إِنْ كَانَتْ لَكُمُ الدَّارُ الآخِرَةُ ("Say: if the Hereafter is for you...") — the verse, that is to say: call down death upon whichever of the two parties is the greater liar. But they refused that before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Allah says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: (and they will never wish for it, because of what their hands have sent ahead), that is to say: because of the knowledge they possess about you, and their disbelief therein.
1579 – 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: (and they will never wish for it), he says: O Muḥammad, they will never wish for it, because they know that they are liars. And had they been truthful, they would have wished for it and longed for the hastening of My honoring; but they never wish for it, because of what their hands have sent ahead.
1580 – Al-Qāsim related to me, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His saying: فَتَمَنَّوُا الْمَوْتَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ ("Then wish for death, if you are truthful") — the Jews were the strongest in their flight from death, and they would never wish for it.
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As for His saying: (because of what their hands have sent ahead) — by this He means: because of what their hands have already done. This is merely a figure of speech, after the manner in which the Arabs express themselves in their speech. For one says to a man who is called to account for a crime he has committed or an offense he has perpetrated and for which he is punished: "This befalls you because of what your hands have perpetrated, and because of what your hands have acquired, and because of what your hands have sent ahead" — and one ascribes that to "the hand." Yet perhaps the offense he committed and for which he deserved the punishment was perpetrated with the tongue, or with the genitals, or with some bodily part other than the hand.
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is said only by ascribing it to "the hand," because the majority of people's offenses are committed by their hands. Thus it became customary in speech to ascribe the offenses that people perpetrate to "their hands," until everything for which a person is punished of that which he committed with the remaining bodily parts was ascribed to a punishment for what his hand has perpetrated.
Therefore He — exalted be His praise — spoke thus to the Arabs: (and they will never wish for it, because of what their hands have sent ahead), by which He means: and the Jews will never wish for death, because of that which they sent ahead during their lifetime of their disbelief in Allah, in their contradicting of His command and obedience to Him by following Muḥammad ﷺ and following that which he brought from Allah — while they find him recorded with them in the Torah, and know that he is a sent prophet. Thus He — exalted be His praise — ascribed that which their hearts enclosed, that which their souls kept hidden, and that which their tongues uttered — of envy toward Muḥammad ﷺ, malice toward him, holding him to be a liar, and denying his messengership — to their hands, and (declared) that it belongs to what their hands have sent ahead, because the Arabs knew the meaning of that in their speech and language. For He — exalted be His praise — sent down the Qurʾān only in their language and in their manner of speech. And concerning Ibn ʿAbbās the following has been transmitted regarding this:
1581 – 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: (because of what their hands have sent ahead), he says: because of what their hands have already done.
1582 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: (because of what their hands have sent ahead), he said: they knew that Muḥammad ﷺ was a prophet, but they concealed it.
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As for His saying: (And Allah is All-Knowing of the wrongdoers) — by this He means — exalted be His praise —: and Allah possesses knowledge of the wrongdoers among the children of Adam — their Jews, their Christians, and all other adherents of religious communities besides them — and of what they do.
And the wrongdoing of the Jews is: their disbelief in Allah through their contradicting of His command and obedience to Him in following Muḥammad ﷺ — after they had sought victory by means of him and his mission — and their denial of his prophethood, while they knew that he was the prophet of Allah and His messenger to them.
And we have already previously expounded the meaning of "wrongdoing" in a manner that makes it unnecessary to repeat it.
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Footnotes:
(9) In the printed edition it reads: "He means the good," which is a scribal error and corruption; the correct reading is what has been established.
(10) The narration 1578 — has already been mentioned under number 1571, and here stands its full text. In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām (1:191) it reads: "the greatest liar before Allah." In the printed edition it reads: "and they said that before the Messenger of Allah...," which is an error; the correct reading is what is in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām. And in the printed edition it reads: "that is to say: because of their knowledge about what they possess..."; what has been established is the text of Ibn Hishām.
(11) See what was treated earlier in (1:523–524).
