Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:99
And We have certainly revealed to you verses [which are] clear proofs, and no one would deny them except the defiantly disobedient.
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.
## Explanation of the words of the Exalted: وَلَقَدْ أَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ آيَاتٍ بَيِّنَاتٍ (And indeed, We have sent down to you clear signs)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His words "And indeed, We have sent down to you signs": We have sent down to you, O Muḥammad, clear signs that point to your prophethood. And those signs are that which the Book of Allah comprised, which He sent down to Muḥammad ﷺ — namely the hidden knowledge of the Jews, the most deeply concealed secrets of their traditions, the reports about their forefathers from among the Children of Israel, and the report about what their books contained, which none knew except their scribes and their ʿulamāʾ — as well as that which their predecessors and their descendants had falsified and altered of their legal rulings (aḥkām) that were in the Torah. Allah brought all of that to light in His Book, which He sent down upon His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. (70) And therein lay, as regards His affair, the clear signs, for whoever was just toward himself and did not allow himself to be driven by envy and wrongful insolence (baghy) to his own ruin. For it is rooted in the natural disposition of everyone of sound disposition to hold as truthful the one who comes with the like of what Muḥammad ﷺ brought of clear signs that are described — without his having learned that from any human being, and without his having taken even the slightest part of it from any mortal. And in accordance with what we have said about this, the tradition is related on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās.
1636 — 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 indeed, We have sent down to you clear signs" — he says: And you recite it to them, and you inform them about it in the morning and in the evening and in between, while you are among them an unlettered one (ummī) who has read no book, and yet you inform them about what they hold in their hands as it truly is. Allah says: Therein lies for them a lesson and a clarification, and it serves them as a proof (ḥujja) — if only they would know.
1637 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the mawlā of Zayd ibn Thābit, related to me, on the authority of ʿIkrima, the mawlā of Ibn ʿAbbās, and on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Ibn Ṣūriyā al-Fiṭyūnī said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: (71) "O Muḥammad, you have not come to us with anything that we recognize, and Allah has not sent down upon you any clear sign by which we would follow you!" Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, sent down: "And indeed, We have sent down to you clear signs, and none rejects them except the perverse (al-fāsiqūn)!" (73)
1638 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the mawlā of Zayd ibn Thābit, related to me, saying: Saʿīd ibn Jubayr — or ʿIkrima — related to me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Ibn Ṣūriyā said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — and he mentioned the like of it. (74)
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## Explanation of the words of the Exalted: وَمَا يَكْفُرُ بِهَا إِلا الْفَاسِقُونَ (99) (And none rejects them except the perverse) (99)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His words "And none rejects them except the perverse": and none denies them. We have already shown in what preceded of this our book that the meaning of "al-kufr" (unbelief) is denial, in a manner that makes it superfluous to repeat that here. (75) Likewise we have clarified the meaning of "al-fisq" (moral corruption), namely that it is the departure from one thing to another. (76)
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The purport of the verse is thus: And indeed, We have sent down to you, in what We have revealed to you of the Book, clear signs that make clear to the ʿulamāʾ of the Children of Israel and their scribes — who deny your prophethood and reject your message (risāla) — that you are truly My messenger to them, and a sent prophet. And none denies those signs — which point to your truthfulness and your prophethood, which I have sent down to you in My Book — and none among them declares them a lie, except the one among them who has departed from his religion, the one among them who neglects the obligations that I have imposed upon him in the Book whose truthfulness he professes as his faith. But as for the one among them who holds fast to his religion, and the one among them who follows the judgment of his Book, he is a believer in what I have sent down to you of My signs — and those are the ones who believed in Allah and held His messenger Muḥammad ﷺ to be truthful, from among the Jews of the Children of Israel.
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**Footnotes:**
(70) In the printed edition it reads: "Allah brought to light in His Book...", which is a sentence that is not correct; the correct reading is what is established here. It means: Allah made public these hidden matters, and those reports, and that which they had falsified of legal rulings in their Torah.
(71) In the printed edition it reads "al-Qiṭyūnī" with a qāf, which is incorrect. He belongs to the Banū Thaʿlaba ibn al-Fiṭyūn (with kasra on the fāʾ, sukūn on the ṭāʾ, and ḍamma on the yāʾ). Al-Suhaylī said: "al-Fiṭyūn is a Hebrew word used for everyone who takes upon himself the governance over the Jews and their kingship." The tradition of Ibn Jarīr reads "Ibn Ṣūriyā", whereas in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām (2:196) it reads "Ibn Ṣalūbā al-Fiṭyūnī". Ibn Hishām, in what he transmitted from the Sīra of Ibn Isḥāq (1:160–161), mentioned "the enemies among the Jews", and among the Banū Thaʿlaba ibn al-Fiṭyūn he reckoned: "ʿAbdullāh ibn Ṣūriyā al-Aʿwar — and in his time there was none with more knowledge of the Torah than he — and Ibn Ṣalūbā, and Mukhayrīq, who was their scribe and who converted to Islam." I have not been able to determine whether it was Ibn Ṣūriyā or Ibn Ṣalūbā with whom the incident took place. Perhaps they are two different traditions of Ibn Isḥāq. See also the tradition: 1638.
(72) In Ibn Hishām: "with a sign by which we would follow you for that, then Allah the Exalted sent down concerning that of His words: 'And indeed, We have sent down to you...'"
(73) The two traditions 1637–1638 are in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām (2:196).
(74) The two traditions 1637–1638 are in the Sīra of Ibn Hishām (2:196).
(75) See what preceded (1:255, 382, 552), and this volume (2:140, 337).
(76) See what preceded (1:409–410), and this volume (2:118).
