Tafseer of The Believers · Al-Muminoon · 23:77
Until when We have opened before them a door of severe punishment, immediately they will be therein in despair.
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 exegetes differed concerning the interpretation of this. Some said: the meaning is: until We opened against them the gate of armed combat (qitāl), so that they were killed on the Day of Badr.
Mention of those who said this:
Isḥāq ibn Shāhīn related to me, saying: Khālid ibn ʿAbdullāh related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the words: حَتَّى إِذَا فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ بَابًا ذَا عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ (Until, when We open against them a gate of severe punishment): "That has passed — it was the Day of Badr."
Ibn al-Muthanná related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — in accordance with what is stated above.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: حَتَّى إِذَا فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ بَابًا ذَا عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ — he said: "The Day of Badr."
Others said: the meaning is: until We opened against them the gate of famine and distress — and that is the gate of severe punishment.
Mention of those who said this:
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 the words: حَتَّى إِذَا فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ بَابًا ذَا عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ — he said: "For the unbelievers of Quraysh: hunger; and what precedes it in the account applies to them as well."
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 — in accordance with what is stated above, except that he said: "and what precedes it likewise."
This view of Mujāhid is the more correct interpretation of the verse, on account of the soundness of the report which we earlier mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās — that this verse was sent down upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in connection with the famine that afflicted Quraysh through the imprecation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the affair of Thumāma ibn Athāl. That took place, without doubt, after the Battle of Badr.
Concerning His words: إِذَا هُمْ فِيهِ مُبْلِسُونَ (then they are therein in despair): that is to say: then these polytheists are, in what We have opened against them of punishment, grieved and remorseful over what they did in the past — their denial of the signs of Allah — at a time when repentance and grief no longer avail them.
