Tafseer of The Believers · Al-Muminoon · 23:61
It is those who hasten to good deeds, and they outstrip [others] therein.
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, exalted be His remembrance, says: those who possess these attributes strive eagerly in virtuous works and seek nearness to Allah through obedience to Him.
As Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning the words: أُولَئِكَ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْخَيْرَاتِ (They hasten to good deeds): "The good deeds are: fear, dread, faith (īmān), and the abstention from ascribing partners to Allah — that is the vying for these good deeds."
Concerning His words: وَهُمْ لَهَا سَابِقُونَ (and they are foremost in them): some said that the meaning of this is that felicity had already been decreed for them with Allah, and that this is their precedence in the good deeds which they perform.
Mention of those who said this:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbdullāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: وَهُمْ لَهَا سَابِقُونَ (and they are foremost in them): he said: "Felicity had already been decreed for them."
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning the words: وَهُمْ لَهَا سَابِقُونَ (and they are foremost in them): "These are the good deeds."
Some explained this thus: "and they go forward toward them." Others explained it as: "and they go forward for their sake."
The most correct opinion in my view is the opinion that Ibn ʿAbbās adopted: that felicity had already been decreed for them with Allah before their hastening to the good deeds, and that they hastened to them because of what had been decreed for them.
I have deemed this the more preferable of the two interpretations, because it is the most obvious meaning, and because if we turn the interpretation of the text in that direction, we are not compelled to shift the "lām" in the words لَهَا سَابِقُونَ from its most common meaning to another.
