Tafseer of The Criterion · Al-Furqaan · 25:74
And those who say, "Our Lord, grant us from among our wives and offspring comfort to our eyes and make us an example for the righteous."
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: the servants who turn imploringly to Allah in their supplication and entreaty, saying: "Our Lord, grant us from our spouses and our offspring that by which our eyes are comforted" — namely by Your showing us that they act in obedience to You.
In accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes likewise spoke.
— 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 word هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ — they mean: those who act in obedience to You, so that our eyes may be comforted by them in this world and in the hereafter.
Aḥmad ibn al-Miqdam related to me, saying: Ḥazm related to us, saying: I heard Kathīr al-Ḥasan being asked: "O Abū Saʿīd, the word of Allah هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ — is that in this world or in the hereafter?" He answered: "No, rather in this world." It was asked: "What is that?" He said: "The believer who sees his wife and child obeying Allah."
Al-Faḍl ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Sālim ibn Qutayba related to us, saying: Ḥazm related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḥasan — and he mentioned something similar.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of his father, who said: a man from Ḥaḍramawt recited رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ and he said: the comforting of the eyes consists in this, that one sees them acting in obedience to Allah.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj — from what we read to him — concerning His word هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ — he said: they worship You and perfect Your worship, and commit no punishable offenses.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said concerning His word رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ — he said: they worship You and perfect Your worship, and lay no punishable offenses upon us.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ — he said: they implore Allah for their spouses and their offspring that He guide them to Islam.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr, on the authority of his father, who said: we were sitting with al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad and he said: "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was truly sent in the harshest condition in which any prophet was ever sent — during an interruption of revelation and in a state of ignorance (jāhiliyya); they knew no religion better than the worship of idols. He came with a criterion that distinguished between the true and the false, and it separated between father and child, until the man would see his son, his father, and his brother as a disbeliever — while Allah had opened the lock of his heart through Islam — and he knew that if he died he would enter Hell (jahannam). His eye then would not be comforted, for he knew that his beloved was in the Fire. And this is what Allah meant by وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ ... the verse."
Ibn ʿAwf related to me, saying: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-ʿAsqalānī related to me, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, on the authority of Ṣafwān, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Miqdād — something similar.
It is said "grant us a comfort of the eyes" while the spouses and the offspring are mentioned and they are plural; yet it reads قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ in the singular, because qurratu aʿyunin is a verbal noun (maṣdar) from the expression "your eye was comforted (qarra) — a comfort (qurratan)"; and the Arabs rarely use the verbal noun in the plural form.
His word وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا : the exegetes have differed among themselves concerning its interpretation. Some said: its meaning is: make us into leaders (aʾimma) who are followed by those who come after us.
— Mention of who said that:
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Wāṣil related to me, saying: ʿAwn ibn Salām related to me, saying: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra informed us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا — he said: leaders who are followed by us.
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 word وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا — leaders in godfearingness for its adherents who follow us. Ibn Zayd said: as He said to Ibrāhīm: إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا .
Others said: rather its meaning is: make us into an example for the godfearing — we follow them, and those who come after us follow us.
— Mention of who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to me, saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا — leaders who follow those who came before us, and we become leaders for those who come after us.
Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna informed us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا — he said: make us followers of them, followers of their example.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The more appropriate of the two statements is the statement of him who says: its meaning is: make us for the godfearing who avoid Your acts of disobedience and fear Your punishment an imām whom they follow in good works; for they implored their Lord that He make them leaders for the godfearing, and did not ask Him to make the godfearing their leaders. And it reads وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا in the singular, while they said "make us" as a plural, because imām is a verbal noun from the expression "so-and-so led (amma) so-and-so as an imām (imāman)" — as one says: he stood (qāma) a standing (qiyāman) and fasted (ṣāma) on that day a fasting (ṣiyāman). Whoever uses imām in the plural form aʾimma uses it as a noun, as one says: "the companions of Muḥammad are an imām" and "leaders for the people." Whoever uses the singular says: the people take them as an example. This is the statement we have made concerning it, and it is the statement of some of the grammarians of the Kufan circle. Some of the people of Arabic philology of the Basran school said: imām in His word لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا is a plural, as one says: "they are all just men (ʿudūl)." He said: it may also be a citation construction, as when one who is asked "who is your commander (amīr)?" answers: "these are our commander." He cited as proof for that the verse of the poet:
"O my censuring women, do not censure me — for the censurers are not those who hold authority over me."
