Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:98
Whoever is an enemy to Allah and His angels and His messengers and Gabriel and Michael - then indeed, Allah is an enemy to the disbelievers.
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: مَنْ كَانَ عَدُوًّا لِلَّهِ وَمَلائِكَتِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَجِبْرِيلَ وَمِيكَالَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَدُوٌّ لِلْكَافِرِينَ (98)
(Whoever is an enemy of Allah and His angels and His messengers, and of Gabriel and Michael — truly, Allah is an enemy of the disbelievers.) (98)
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is an announcement from Allah — exalted be His praise — [that] whoever is an enemy of Allah, who is hostile to Him, is also hostile to all His angels and messengers. And it is a notification from Him that whoever is hostile to Gabriel (Jibrīl) is thereby hostile to Him and is also hostile to Michael (Mīkāʾīl) and hostile to all His angels and messengers. For those whom Allah mentions in this verse are the protected friends of Allah (awliyāʾ Allah) and the people of His obedience; and whoever, for the sake of Allah, is hostile to a protected friend has thereby been hostile to Allah and has openly challenged Him to war. And whoever is hostile to Allah has thereby been hostile to all the people of His obedience and His protection. For the enemy of Allah is an enemy of His protected friends, and the enemy of the protected friends of Allah is an enemy of Him. Therefore He said to the Jews — who said: "Truly, Gabriel is for us an enemy among the angels, and Michael is our patron among them" —: (Whoever is an enemy of Allah and His angels and His messengers and of Gabriel and Michael, truly, Allah is an enemy of the disbelievers), because the enemy of Gabriel is an enemy of every protected friend of Allah. Thus He — exalted be His praise — informed them that whoever is an enemy of Gabriel is an enemy of all whom He has mentioned — of His angels and His messengers and Michael. And likewise, the enemy of any of Allah's messengers is an enemy of Allah and of every protected friend. And indeed:
1634 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: ʿUbayd Allah — that is, al-ʿAtakī — related to us, on the authority of a man from the Quraysh, who said: The Prophet ﷺ asked the Jews and said: "I ask you by your Book that you recite: do you find in it that ʿĪsā the son of Maryam gave glad tidings about me, that a messenger would come to you whose name is Aḥmad?" They said: "O Allah, we have indeed found you in our Book, but we have detested you because you make property lawful and you shed blood." Then Allah revealed: (Whoever is an enemy of Allah and His angels…) — the verse.
1635 — It was related to me, on the authority of ʿAmmār, who said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, who said: Truly, a Jew met ʿUmar and said to him: "Truly, Gabriel, whom your companion mentions, he is an enemy of ours." Then ʿUmar said to him: (Whoever is an enemy of Allah and His angels and His messengers and of Gabriel and Michael, truly, Allah is an enemy of the disbelievers.) He said: And it was revealed in accordance with the wording of ʿUmar.
* * *
This narration indicates that Allah revealed this verse as a rebuke to the Jews because of their disbelief (kufr) in Muḥammad ﷺ, and as a notification from Him to them that whoever is an enemy of Muḥammad, Allah is an enemy to him, and that the enemy of Muḥammad is, among all people, one of the disbelievers in Allah, who deny His signs.
* * *
If someone were to say: Do Gabriel and Michael not belong to the angels?
Then it is said: Yes, indeed.
If he were to say: What then is the meaning of repeating the mention of the two of them by their names, when the mention of them has already preceded in the verse within the totality of the names of the angels?
Then it is said: The meaning of mentioning the two of them separately by their names is that when the Jews said: "Gabriel is our enemy, and Michael is our patron" — and they claimed that they disbelieved in Muḥammad ﷺ because Gabriel is the companion of Muḥammad ﷺ — Allah informed them that whoever is an enemy of Gabriel, Allah is truly an enemy to him, and that he is among the disbelievers. So He named him explicitly by his name and also Michael by his name, so that none of them would be able to say: "Allah has only said: whoever is an enemy of Allah and His angels and His messengers, and we are not enemies of Allah, nor of His angels, nor of His messengers." For "the angels" is a general designation that can also bear a particular [meaning], and [they might claim that] Gabriel and Michael are not included in it. And likewise His saying: (and His messengers) — [so that one might not say:] "And you, O Muḥammad, are not included in it." Therefore Allah the Exalted named explicitly by name those whom they claimed to be His enemies, specifically, in order thereby to cut off their misleading of the weak among them, and to put an end to their deceptive misrepresentation of matters before the hypocrites (munāfiqīn).
* * *
And as for the explicit mention of the name of Allah in His saying: (truly, Allah is an enemy of the disbelievers), and its repetition therein — although He had already begun the opening of the announcement with the mention of it, for He said: (Whoever is an enemy of Allah and His angels…) — this is so that, if it were expressed by an allusion (kināya), it would not be unclear. For if it had been said: "truly, He is an enemy of the disbelievers," then it would be unclear to the listener who is meant by the [pronoun] "hu" in "fa-innahu": is it Allah, or the messengers of Allah — exalted be His praise —, or Gabriel, or Michael? For if that had come with an allusion as I described, then its meaning would be unclear to whoever has not been informed of who is meant by it, because of the possibility that the saying can bear [multiple things], as I have described. And some of the scholars of the Arabic language used to direct this toward something along the lines of the saying of the poet:
Would that the raven — on the morning that it caws unceasingly — the raven had its jugular veins severed!
[They claimed] that this is the explicit mention of the name whose part [actually] was the allusion to it. But the matter in this case is different from what they said. That is because, if the second "raven" had been referred to [with a pronoun], it would not be unclear to anyone who understands the language of the Arabs that it is an allusion to the name of the first "raven," since there was nothing before it toward which the saying could be directed other than the allusion to the name of the first "raven." But before His saying: (truly, Allah is an enemy of the disbelievers) there are [several] names, so that, if the name of Allah — exalted be His remembrance — had come as an allusion, one would not know who is meant by the allusion of the name, except by an exposition based on a proof (ḥujja). Therefore the matter of the two [cases] differs.
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Footnotes:
(28) In the printed edition it reads: "Yūnus ʿan Bukayr," and that is a pure error.
(29) In the printed edition it reads: "fīmā arā" — and see what has just preceded: 376.
(30) In the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr 1:239 it reads: "anta al-āna fa-ḥaddithnā…" ("you are now [up], so relate to us…"), and that [reading] is good.
(31) The narration 1605 — its isnād is authentic (ṣaḥīḥ). Yūnus ibn Bukayr ibn Wāṣil al-Shaybānī: trustworthy (thiqa); those who criticized him have no proof, and Muslim [narrated] from him in his Ṣaḥīḥ. His biography is in al-Tahdhīb, and in al-Kabīr of al-Bukhārī 4/2/411, and Ibn Saʿd 6:279, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/2/236. In the printed edition it reads here "Yūnus ʿan Bukayr," and that is a clear error. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bahrām — with fatḥa on the bāʾ and sukūn on the hāʾ — al-Fazārī: trustworthy; Aḥmad and Ibn Maʿīn and others declared him trustworthy. Some have criticized him because of his narration on the authority of Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, of whom he is the narrator, but Shahr is likewise trustworthy, as we have indicated in: 1489.
The ḥadīth was narrated by Aḥmad in the Musnad at length: 2514, and by Ibn Saʿd in the Ṭabaqāt 1/1/115–116, both via Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bahrām, with this isnād. Then Aḥmad narrated it: 2515, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Bakkār, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bahrām, with it, but he did not mention its wording, referring to what preceded it. And Aḥmad also narrated it: 2471, abridged, on the authority of Ḥusayn — that is Ibn Muḥammad al-Marwazī — on the authority of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bahrām.
And he also narrated it: 2483, via another route, somewhat longer. And likewise Abū Nuʿaym narrated it in al-Ḥilya 4:304–305 via this route. And al-Haythamī mentioned the narration: 2483, and pointed to the addition that is in narration 2514, in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid 8:241–242, and he said: "Aḥmad and al-Ṭabarānī narrated it, and their narrators are trustworthy." And Ibn Kathīr cited in the Tafsīr 1:238–239 the narration of al-Ṭabarī that is here, and then pointed to the narration of the Musnad: 2514. Then he cited the narration of the Musnad: 2483 therein 1:240, and he also cited the two narrations of the Musnad 2:186–187.
(32) In the printed edition it reads: "fa-ayyuhumā ghalabat ṣāḥibatahā," and the correct [reading] is according to the text of the Sīra of Ibn Hishām 2:191–192.
(33) The text of Ibn Isḥāq in the narration of Ibn Hishām 2:192 reads: "Do you know that the sleep of the one whom you claim I am not — his eyes sleep while his heart is awake? They said: O Allah, yes. He said: Such is my sleep, my eyes sleep while my heart is awake. They said: Then tell us about what Isrāʾīl (Jacob) forbade himself?" And after that there is also a difference in the narration of Ibn Jarīr on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq.
(34) In the Sīra of Ibn Hishām it reads: "hal taʿlamūnahu" ("do you know it"), and that is closer to the correct [reading].
(35) The narration 1606 — it is a mursal ḥadīth, part of which has preceded, with this isnād: 1489. Ibn Kathīr pointed to it 1:239–240, after the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās that precedes it, and he also stated explicitly that Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated it mursal. And it is in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām 2:191–192, with a difference in part of the wording. Ibn Kathīr adduced these two narrations (1605, 1606) and elaborated them, and he treated the discussion of this story fully in his Tafsīr 1:238–245.
(36) In the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr 1:240 it reads: "illā bi-shidda wa-ḥarb wa-qitāl fa-innahu lanā ʿaduww" ("except with severity and war and combat, for he is an enemy to us").
(37) The narration 1607 — this is interrupted (munqaṭiʿ), and Ibn Kathīr mentioned it 1:240, on the authority of this place. And "al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza": preceded in: 631, and he narrated on the authority of the Followers (tābiʿūn).
(38) In the printed edition it reads: "wa-qāla: innamā Rasūl Allah ﷺ adrakat-hu al-ṣalāh," and that is a weak formulation. I have fixed what is in the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr on the authority of al-Ṭabarī 1:240. And his saying "ayyumā" is a question and an exclamation of astonishment, and it is mostly written as "ayma" (with fatḥa, then sukūn, then fatḥa), with the omission of the alif. You say: ayma taqūl? that is: what thing are you saying? And see the Lisān (ayma). He [ʿUmar] is astonished at their action.
(39) In the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr 1:242 it reads: "qad ghalladha ʿalaykum" ("it has been made heavy upon you").
(40) In the printed edition it reads: "ay halaktum" ("that is: you are ruined"), and the correct [reading] is in the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr.
(41) Al-silm: the peaceable one. You say: anā silm li-man sālamanī ("I am peaceable toward whoever keeps peace with me"). [One says:] rajul silm (a peaceable man), wa-qawm silm (a peaceable people), wa-imraʾa silm (a peaceable woman).
(42) In the printed edition it reads: "khirqa," and in the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr "khawkha," and the correct [reading] is "makhrafa" as I have fixed it. And al-makhrafa: the garden, or a path between two rows of date palms. Kharafa al-nakhl wa-al-thamar: he harvested it, and the harvesting of fruits is "al-khurfa" (with ḍamma then sukūn).
(43) In the printed edition it reads: "bi-abī wa-ummī yā Rasūl Allah" ("by my father and my mother, O Messenger of Allah") with the omission of "anta," and I have fixed what is in the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr.
(44) The ḥadīth 1608 — and this is likewise mursal. Ibn Kathīr mentioned it 1:241–243, on the authority of this place, and then on the authority of the Tafsīr of Ibn Abī Ḥātim, via the narration of Mujālid on the authority of ʿĀmir — that is al-Shaʿbī — and something similar will also come via the narration of Mujālid, number: 1614. Then Ibn Kathīr said: "These two isnāds indicate that al-Shaʿbī narrated it on the authority of ʿUmar. But in it there is an interruption between him and ʿUmar, for he did not live in his time." And al-Suyūṭī said in al-Durr al-Manthūr 1:90: "The isnād is authentic, but al-Shaʿbī did not live in the time of ʿUmar."
Ribʿī, with kasra on the rāʾ and the ʿayn without a dot, with a sukūn-bearing single bāʾ between them, and at the end a doubled yāʾ: it is "Ribʿī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Maqsam al-Asadī," known as "Ibn ʿUlayya," like his brother "Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayya." And Ribʿī: trustworthy and reliable, one of the teachers of Aḥmad and Abū Khaythama and others. And ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said: "We counted Ribʿī ibn ʿUlayya among the survivors of our teachers." And in the Musnad: 7444 [it is stated] that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: "He was preferred over his brother." And he has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 2/1/299, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/509–510. Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind: trustworthy, with a good isnād, [who] traced [narrations] back [to the Prophet], one of the memorizers of the Basran [scholars]. His biography is in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 2/1/211–212, and al-Ṣaghīr: 160, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/411–412.
Al-Shaʿbī: it is ʿĀmir ibn Sharāḥīl al-Hamdānī, an imam of lofty standing, one of the great Followers (tābiʿūn). But he did not live in the time of ʿUmar, as Ibn Kathīr said. For he was born in the year 19, or in the year 20.
(45) The narration 1609 — in the printed edition it reads: "ḥaddathanī Yaʿqūb qāla ḥaddathanā Ibrāhīm qāla ḥaddathanā Ibn ʿUlayya," and the correct [reading] is what I have fixed: Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī, and it has preceded several times with this isnād, and his narration on the authority of Ibn ʿUlayya.
(46) Al-sana: the drought and the famine.
(47) Sakata al-rajul: the man fell silent. And askata al-rajul (intransitive): his speech was cut off so that he did not speak, and he bowed his head because of a thought that came over him and interrupted him.
(48) The narration 1613 — in al-Durr al-Manthūr 1:91 with a slight deviation in the wording and an abridgement in its narration.
(49) In the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr 1:243 it reads: "mā yanzilāni illā bi-idhni Allah" ("the two of them descend only with the permission of Allah"), and it seems that this is the correct [reading].
(50) What is between the brackets is an indispensable addition, which I have added from the Tafsīr of Ibn Kathīr 1:242, via the narration of Ibn Abī Ḥātim in his Tafsīr.
(51) The ḥadīth 1614 — and this is likewise a mursal isnād, and in it an error has crept in at two places in the printed edition; we have fixed the correct [reading], because we are certain of it. In the printed edition it read: "ḥaddathanā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mighrāʾ qāla ḥaddathanā Zuhayr ʿan Mujāhid ʿan al-Shaʿbī." But among the teachers of Ibn Mighrāʾ there exists no one, nor among the narrators on the authority of "Mujāhid" or "Mujālid," anyone named "Zuhayr." And "Mujāhid on the authority of al-Shaʿbī" is also an error, for the two of them both belong to the great Followers (tābiʿūn), from one and the same generation, and Mujāhid is somewhat older. And ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mighrāʾ did not have the opportunity to narrate on the authority of Mujāhid, nor on the authority of al-Shaʿbī.
And Mujālid: it is Ibn Saʿīd al-Hamdānī, and he is trustworthy; some imams have judged him weak. Among the imams who have narrated from him are: Shuʿba and the two Sufyāns and Ibn al-Mubārak, and we have given preference to declaring the ḥadīth of the elders on his authority authentic, in the commentary on the Musnad: 3781, for the most balanced statement about him is the statement of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī: "The ḥadīth of Mujālid among the younger ones — Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and Abū Usāma — is worth nothing, but the ḥadīth of Shuʿba and Ḥammād ibn Zayd and Hushaym and these elders…" Ibn Ḥātim said: "He means that his memory changed at the end of his life." And Ibn Saʿd mentioned in his biography 6:243 the criticism of Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān against him, and then said: "And despite that, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān narrated from him, and Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated from him, and Shuʿba, and others." And his biography is in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr of al-Bukhārī 4/2/9, and al-Ṣaghīr: 168, 169, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/1/361–362.
Isḥāq ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Rāzī: it is al-Ṭāḥūnī al-Muqriʾ, we have given him a biography in what has preceded: 230. And ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mighrāʾ ibn ʿAyyāḍ al-Dawsī, Abū Zuhayr: trustworthy; some have criticized his narration on the authority of al-Aʿmash, and he has a biography in al-Tahdhīb and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 2/2/290–291.
And this ḥadīth Ibn Kathīr cited 1:242–243, from the Tafsīr of Ibn Abī Ḥātim: "Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj related to us, Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Mujālid, on the authority of ʿĀmir…" — that is al-Shaʿbī — and he mentioned something similar. Then Ibn Kathīr clarified that it is interrupted (munqaṭiʿ), as we have just indicated.
The most likely [view] in my opinion is that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mighrāʾ belongs to those who narrated on the authority of Mujālid after his [mental] change.
(52) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1:63.
(53) His Dīwān: 450, and the Naqāʾiḍ of Jarīr and al-Akhṭal: 87, from his devastating poem in the lampoon of al-Akhṭal, and the pronoun refers to [the tribe] Taghlib, the kinsmen of al-Akhṭal, and preceding it is:
May Allah make the faces of Taghlib ugly, whenever the pilgrims rise up and call out the takbīr and the talbiya.
(54) In the printed edition it reads: "faʿīl," and that is an error.
(55) It is al-Rabīʿ ibn Ziyād al-ʿAbsī, one of the excellent ones among the sons of Fāṭima bint al-Khurshub al-Anmāriyya.
(56) Al-Aghānī 14:92, 16:22, and the Lisān (samala), from verses that al-Rabīʿ sent to al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir in a long story, when Labīd said in his rajaz verse:
Calm down, O you who are too noble to be cursed — do not eat with him,
and he claimed that he [a certain person] was the leper of the wicked [woman], and he mentioned of his deed something ugly and repugnant. Then al-Rabīʿ departed from al-Nuʿmān — and he had been his companion — and he sent him his verses:
If I drive away my camels, [it is] not to a space like the space of her whose space — in width nor in length —
wherein, if [the tribe] Lakhm were weighed in its entirety, they would not outweigh a feather of the feathers of Samawʾal.
The grazing [camels] graze there the best of the herbs, not like your pastures of salt and the ghaslūl plant.
So dwell upon your land after me, and sit reclining, now with the physician, now with Ibn Tūfīl.
And Lakhm: they are the kinsmen of the house of al-Mundhir, the kings of al-Ḥīra.
(57) The narration 1625 — al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAnqazī: weak (ḍaʿīf). Abū Zurʿa said: "He is not trustworthy." And he has a biography in Lisān al-Mīzān, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/61–62, and al-Ansāb, on folio: 401. And "al-ʿAnqazī": with fatḥa on the ʿayn without a dot and on the qāf, with a sukūn-bearing nūn between them, and with the zāy. And in the printed edition it reads "al-ʿAbqarī," and that is a misreading (taṣḥīf). And likewise it will come in number: 1655, with the misreading, and we have corrected it there.
(58) In the printed edition it reads: "qāla: lā," and the correct [reading] is what I have fixed.
(59) Perhaps it is "wa-Mīkā." He said: "ʿUbayd" in the diminutive form, as has just preceded.
(60) Perhaps the correct [reading] is that he says: "Isrāf," instead of "Isrā," or the first is "Isrāʾīl" instead of "Isrāfīl."
(61) Al-qaṭʿ: here the [grammatical] circumstantial state (ḥāl). And see what has preceded 1:230–232, 330, 561.
(62) In the printed edition it reads: "wa-hiya taṣdīquhu," and the correct [reading] is what I have fixed; he means: and it is in agreement with him, as has been explained earlier.
(63) See what has preceded 1:166–170, 230, 249, then 549–551.
(64) See what has preceded 1:383.
(65) Thus it stands in the printed edition: "man kāna ʿaduwwan lillāh," and that is not correct, and it seems that the correct [reading] is: "anna man kāna ʿaduwwan lillāh, ʿādāhu wa-ʿādā jamīʿa malāʾikatihi wa-rusulihi" ("that whoever is an enemy of Allah was hostile to Him and hostile to all His angels and His messengers"), with the omission of "man" from "man ʿādāhu."
(66) The ḥadīth 1634 — ʿUbayd Allah al-ʿAtakī: it is ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah, Abū al-Munīb al-ʿAtakī, and he is trustworthy; Ibn Maʿīn and others declared him trustworthy. And al-Bukhārī mentioned him in the book al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, p. 22, and said: "With him are disavowed narrations (manākīr)." And Ibn Abī Ḥātim said 2/2/322 in his biography: "I heard my father say: he is sound in ḥadīth." And he disapproved of al-Bukhārī's including him in the book al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, and he said: "He should be moved." But this ḥadīth is interrupted (munqaṭiʿ), weak in isnād, because Abū al-Munīb narrates only on the authority of the Followers (tābiʿūn).
And the narration was narrated by al-Ḥākim in al-Mustadrak 2:265, via the route of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Jarīr, with it. And al-Dhahabī declared it authentic in his abridgement. And Ibn Kathīr cited it 1:248–249, on the authority of al-Ṭabarī, and then pointed to the narration of al-Ḥākim.
(67) It is Jarīr.
(68) His Dīwān 89, and the Amālī of Ibn al-Shajarī 1:243, and other [works]. And the reading of his Dīwān is "yanʿitu bi-al-nawā" ("foretells the separation"), and that is the good [reading], for preceding it is:
Truly, the raven, with what I detest, is enamored of the separation of the loved ones, cawing unceasingly.
And al-awdāj is the plural of wadaj: that is a vein of the veins that surround the windpipe.
(69) In the printed edition it reads: "wa-in qīla qawluhu fa-inna Allah ʿaduww lil-kāfirīn isman law jāʾa…," and the correct [reading] is what I have fixed. And the correctors of the printed edition guessed blindly — a guess in which there is no good — in correcting the words of al-Ṭabarī.
