Tafseer of The Pilgrimage · Al-Hajj · 22:25
Indeed, those who have disbelieved and avert [people] from the way of Allah and [from] al-Masjid al-Haram, which We made for the people - equal are the resident therein and one from outside; and [also] whoever intends [a deed] therein of deviation [in religion] or wrongdoing - We will make him taste of a painful punishment.
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.
Allah the Exalted says: Those who have denied the affirmation of Allah's oneness, declared His messengers liars, and refused to accept what was brought to them from their Lord — وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ — He says: and they bar the people from entering Allah's religion, and from the Sacred Mosque which Allah has designated for all the believers without distinction; سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ — He says: equal in what is incumbent upon them with respect to honoring the sanctity of the Sacred Mosque, performing the rituals therein, and residing there wherever one wishes — the permanent resident (al-ʿākif), that is: the one continually present; and the outsider (al-bādī): the one who travels to it from elsewhere.
The exegetes differed over the interpretation of this. Some said: the meaning is that the resident and the outsider are equal therein, in the sense that neither has more right to a dwelling place therein than the other.
Mention of who said that: Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, on the authority of Ibn Sābiṭ, who said: when the pilgrims (al-ḥajjāj) came to Mecca, none of the inhabitants of Mecca had more right to their dwelling place than they; when a man found space, he took up residence there. Theft (al-sariq) then became widespread among them, and each one stole from his own corner, whereupon a man made a door. ʿUmar sent him a message: "Have you made a door against the pilgrims of Allah's House?" He said: "No, I made it only to protect their belongings." And that is His word سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ . He said: the outsider therein is like the resident; no one has more right to a dwelling place than another, unless someone has reached a dwelling place first.
Muḥammad ibn Bashār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥaṣīn, who said: I said to Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: I wish to perform a retreat in seclusion (aʿtakif) in Mecca. He said: then you are a resident (ʿākif). And he recited: سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ .
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of someone whom he named, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ: سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ — the resident are its inhabitants, and the outsider is the one who comes from outside for a stay; they are equal.
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ : he said: the inhabitants of Mecca and others reside in the Sacred Mosque equally.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning the words سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ : he said: the resident therein is the one who lives in Mecca; the outsider is the one who comes to it from elsewhere; they are equal in the dwellings.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ — its inhabitants and non-inhabitants are equal therein.
Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, likewise.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His words سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ : he said: the inhabitants of Mecca and others are equal in the dwelling places.
Others said concerning this the same as what we have said about it.
Mention of who said that: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His words سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ — he said: the resident; والباد — the outsider; Allah's right over them therein is equal.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the words سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ — he said: the resident; والباد — the outsider.
He said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Tumayla related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥamza, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Mujāhid and ʿAṭāʾ: سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ — they said: from its inhabitants; والباد — those who come to it from outside; they are equal in its sanctity.
We chose the view we chose because Allah the Exalted, at the beginning of the verse, mentioned the disbelievers who wished to prevent the believers from performing the rituals in the sacred precinct at the Sacred Mosque, and said: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَالْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ . Then Allah described the Sacred Mosque and said: الَّذِي جَعَلْنَاهُ لِلنَّاسِ — He announced that He has designated it for all people. The disbelievers in Him bar the believers who wish to visit the Mosque from it. Then He said: سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ وَالْبَادِ — it is then clear that His announcement concerning the equality of the resident and the outsider pertains to the meaning with which Allah opened His report about the disbelievers: that they bar the believers from it, and that is undoubtedly the ṭawāf, the performing of the rituals, and the residence — not a report about its ownership versus non-ownership.
It is also said: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ — yaṣuddūna (they bar, in the imperfect tense) is conjoined by way of coordination to kafarū (they disbelieved, in the past tense), because the barring has the meaning of a quality that continuously characterizes them. When that is the meaning, it can only be expressed through the nominal or the imperfect form, not through the past-tense form. Then the meaning is: those who disbelieved, barring from Allah's way is their characteristic — equivalent to Allah's word الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُمْ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ .
As for His words سَوَاءً الْعَاكِفُ فِيهِ : the reciters of the major cities read sawāʾun in the nominative, with al-ʿākif as the subject and al-ʿākif thereby the predicate, and with jaʿalnāhu operating upon the pronominal suffix and upon the lām in qawlihi li-l-nāsi — then a new sentence begins with sawāʾ. Thus the Arabs treat sawāʾ when it follows a sentence that is already complete: one says "I passed by a man for whom good and evil are equal (sawāʾun)" — although the genitive reading is also possible. The nominative is, however, preferable here because sawāʾ functions for them as wāḥid (one and the same), as if one says: "I passed by a man for whom good and evil are one." Whoever reads it in the genitive gives it the meaning muʿtadil (evenly balanced for him are good and evil). And whoever sets sawāʾ in the nominative as the start of a new sentence does not apply that construction to muʿtadil, because muʿtadil is an explicit verb whereas sawāʾ is a noun (maṣdar); converting it to a verbal function is like converting ḥasbu in the expression "I passed by a man who is sufficient as a man (ḥasbuka min rajulin)" into a verbal function. It is also reported that some of the reciters read it in the accusative, by having jaʿalnāhu operate upon it; although that has a basis in Arabic, it is a reading that I do not accept as a reading because of its departure from that upon which the authoritative reciters have agreed.
As for His words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقْهُ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ (and whoever intends therein a deviation through wrongdoing, We shall make him taste a painful punishment): Allah the Exalted says: whoever intends therein a deviation (ilḥād) through wrongdoing — that is: whoever treads a byway in the Sacred House through wrongdoing — those We shall make taste a painful torment. The bāʾ is inserted in "bi-ilḥādin" while the meaning is as we have said, just as it is also inserted in تَنْبُتُ بِالدُّهْنِ while the meaning is: it brings forth oil — equivalent to the word of the poet:
بِوَادٍ يَمَانٍ يُنْبِتُ الشَّثَّ صَدْرُهُ وَأَسْفَلُهُ بِالمَرْخِ وَالشَّبَهَانِ
(In a Yemeni valley its upper part brings forth the shath plant, and its lower part the markh tree and the shabahān.)
The meaning of "wa-asfaluhā bi-l-markhi wa-l-shabahān" is: and its lower part brings forth the markh tree and the shabahān. And like the word of the Aʿshā of Banū Thaʿlaba:
ضَمِنَتْ بِرِزْقِ عِيَالِنَا أَرْمَاحُنَا بَيْنَ الْمَرَاجِلِ وَالصَّرِيحِ الأَجْرَدِ
(Our lances have undertaken the provision of our family between the cooking pots and the pure [milk].) That is: our lances have undertaken the provision of our family, in the view of some of the grammarians of Basra. Some of the grammarians of Kufa said: the bāʾ is inserted in it because the interpretation is: "whoever intends that he commit therein a deviation through wrongdoing." They also said that inserting the bāʾ with "an" is easier than with "ilḥād" and the like, because "an" frequently suppresses the prepositions attached to it and functions as a conditional construction, so that it tolerates both the presence and the absence of the preposition — since the grammatical case is not visible in it. With verbal nouns (maṣādir), however, the nominative and the genitive are visible.
The exegetes differed over the meaning of the wrongdoing through which whoever intends the ilḥād therein is made by Allah to taste the painful punishment. Some said: that is the ascribing of partners to Allah (shirk) and the worshipping in His sacred precinct of other than Him.
Mention of who said that: ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ : he said: through shirk.
ʿAlī related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ : that is that one worships therein other than Allah.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of his father, who said: وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ — he said: that is the shirk; whoever commits shirk in Allah's House, Allah torments him.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, likewise.
Others said: it is the unlawful declaration of what is forbidden therein without cause, or the committing of it.
Mention of who said that: Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my paternal uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقْهُ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ : he said: that means that with your tongue or by killing you declare lawful what Allah has forbidden you, and you wrong someone who does you no wrong, and you kill someone who does not kill you — when someone does that, a painful torment has become obligatory upon him.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ — he said: he who performs an evil deed therein.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, likewise.
Abū Kurayb and Naṣr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Awdī related to us, they said: al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh, who said: there is no man who contemplates a sin but it is reckoned against him. Even if a man, while he is far away from this House, has the intention of killing a man in that House, Allah would make him taste the painful punishment.
Mujāhid ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh — Mujāhid said: Yazīd said: Shuʿba said to us that he traces it back to the Prophet ﷺ, but I do not trace it back to the Prophet ﷺ for you — concerning Allah's words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقْهُ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ : he said: if a man contemplates a sin therein while he is far from the House, Allah would make him taste a painful torment.
Al-Faḍl ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim, concerning the words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ : he said: a man contemplates a sin in Mecca while he is in another land without having committed it, and yet it is reckoned against him.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning Allah's words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقْهُ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ : he said: the ilḥād is the wrongdoing in the sacred precinct.
Others said: the meaning of that wrongdoing is the deliberate declaring lawful of the sacred precinct.
Mention of who said that: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ : he said: the one who wishes to declare it lawful deliberately. And it is also said: it is shirk.
Others said: it is the hoarding of food in Mecca.
Mention of who said that: Hārūn ibn Idrīs al-Aṣamm related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Ashʿath, on the authority of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, concerning the words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقْهُ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ : he said: those are the hoarders of food in Mecca.
Others said: it is every forbidden act, even to the point of saying "No, by Allah" and "Yes, by Allah."
Mention of who said that: Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: he had two tents: one in the profane area and one in the sacred area; when he wished to reprimand his family members, he did so in the profane area. He was asked about that and he said: we were transmitted reports that it is among the ilḥād therein for a man to say "No, by Allah" and "Yes, by Allah."
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of Abū Rabʿī, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, who said: ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr used to say: "No, by Allah" and "Yes, by Allah" are among the ilḥād therein.
Abū Jaʿfar says: the most correct of the views we have mentioned concerning the interpretation of this is the view we have mentioned from Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās: that by the wrongdoing in this place is intended every disobedience to Allah. This is because Allah stated His words وَمَنْ يُرِدْ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ in general terms and did not single out any particular wrongdoing — neither by a transmitted report nor by reason. Therefore it applies in its generality. Then the meaning of the words is: whoever intends in the Sacred Mosque to deviate through wrongdoing and to disobey Allah therein, those We shall make taste a painful torment on the Day of Resurrection.
It is also reported that some of the reciters read it as (وَمَنْ يَرِدْ فِيهِ) with a fatḥa on the yāʾ, in the meaning of "whoever visits it" — from waradtu al-makān aridu-hu. That is a reading which, in my judgment, cannot be accepted as a reading, because it departs from the consensus of the authoritative reciters and is far from eloquent Arabic: yaridu is a transitive verb; one says "he visits such-and-such a place or town" (yaridu makān kadhā), but one does not say "he visits in such a place" (yaridu fī makān kadhā). Some Arabists adduced that the Ṭayyiʾ tribe says "I desire you" (raghibtu fīka) in the meaning of "I desire of you" (raghibtu bika), and cited a verse:
وَأَرْغَبُ فِيهَا عَنْ لَقِيطٍ وَرَهْطِهِ وَلَكِنَّنِي عَنْ سِنْبِسٍ لَسْتُ أَرْغَبُ
(I take more interest in her than in Laqīṭ and his clan, but for Sinbas I have no desire.)
In the meaning of: I take more interest in her. Should that be correct as we have mentioned, then it is acceptable in spoken language; but as a Qurʾānic reading it is not acceptable for the reason I have described.
