Tafseer of The Pilgrimage · Al-Hajj · 22:31
Inclining [only] to Allah, not associating [anything] with Him. And he who associates with Allah - it is as though he had fallen from the sky and was snatched by the birds or the wind carried him down into a remote place.
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: Avoid, O people, the worship of the idols and the word of shirk, while you remain upright before Allah in the sincere acceptance of His oneness and in directing obedience and worship purely to Him alone, far from the idols and the images, without associating with Him anything of what exists besides Him. For whoever associates with Allah anything of what exists besides Him — his likeness, in his remoteness from guidance and from attaining the truth, in his ruin and his straying from his Lord, is the likeness of one who has fallen from the sky and been snatched away by birds so that he perishes, or who has been hurled by the wind to a far-off place — that is to say: from far away. From the saying: "may Allah drive him far and farther away" — and for this there are two dialectal forms: asḥaqat-hu al-rīḥ and saḥaqat-hu (the wind blew him far away). From this also the tall date-palm is called "nakhlat saḥūq" (the palm-tree that reaches far); and from this stems the poet's words:
كَانَتْ لَنَا جَارَةٌ فَأَزْعَجَهَا قَاذُورَةٌ تَسْحَقُ النَّوَى قُدُمَا
(There was a neighbor-woman of ours who was driven away by a troublesome she-camel that left her destination behind her without delay.)
There is also reported the reading tasḥaqu. He says: thus is the likeness of one who assigns partners to Allah, in his remoteness from his Lord and from attaining the truth, like the remoteness of one who falls from the sky to the earth, or like the ruin of one who is snatched by birds in the air.
In the direction of what we have said about this the exegetes spoke.
Mention of who said that: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: فَكَأَنَّمَا خَرَّ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ — he said: this is a likeness that Allah has set forth for whoever assigns partners to Allah, in his remoteness from guidance and his ruin. فَتَخْطَفُهُ الطَّيْرُ أَوْ تَهْوِي بِهِ الرِّيحُ فِي مَكَانٍ سَحِيقٍ .
Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, likewise.
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 Allah's words فِي مَكَانٍ سَحِيقٍ — he said: far away.
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.
There stands فَتَخْطَفُهُ الطَّيْرُ whereas earlier there stood فَكَأَنَّمَا خَرَّ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ , and kharra is a past-tense form, whereas takhtafuhu is an imperfect present-tense form — the imperfect present tense is here joined by coordination to the past tense, just as was done in His words إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ — I have already explained that there.
