Tafseer of The Ant · An-Naml · 27:82
And when the word befalls them, We will bring forth for them a creature from the earth speaking to them, [saying] that the people were, of Our verses, not certain [in faith].
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.
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 together — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: وإذا وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ — he said: "it came into force against them."
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وإذا وقع الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ — he said: "when the word became obligatory against them."
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: وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ — he said: "the punishment came into force."
Ibn Jurayj said: the word is the punishment.
Mention of those who shared our opinion concerning the meaning of the word.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وإذا وقع القول عَلَيْهِمْ — and the word is the wrath (al-ghaḍab).
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Hishām, on the authority of Ḥafṣa, who said: I asked Abū al-ʿĀliya about His word: وَإِذَا وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ , whereupon he said: Allah revealed to Nūḥ: أَنَّهُ لَنْ يُؤْمِنَ مِنْ قَوْمِكَ إِلا مَنْ قَدْ آمَنَ . She said: it was as though a covering were lifted from my face.
A group of the scholars (ʿulamāʾ) said: the emergence of this beast which He mentions [takes place] at the moment when people no longer command the good and no longer forbid the evil.
Mention of those who said this:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: al-Ashjāʿī related to me, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Qays, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya al-ʿAwfī, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, concerning His word: وَإِذَا وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الأرْضِ — he said: that is at the moment when they no longer command the good and no longer forbid the evil.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan Abū al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Qays al-Mulāʾī related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, concerning His word: وَإِذَا وَقَعَ الْقَوْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الأرْضِ — he said: that is when the commanding of the good and the forbidding of the evil are abandoned.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Qays, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, concerning His word: أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الأرْضِ تُكَلِّمُهُمْ — he said: at the moment when they no longer command the good and no longer forbid the evil.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Maqdisī related to me, saying: Ashʿath ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Sijistānī related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya, concerning His word: وإذا وقع القول عليهم أخرجنا لهم دابة من الأرض تُكَلِّمُهُمْ — he said: when they no longer acknowledge the good and no longer reject the evil.
It is mentioned that the land from which the beast will emerge is Mecca.
Mention of those who said this:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: al-Ashjāʿī related to me, on the authority of Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, who said: the beast will emerge from a crevice in al-Ṣafā, [a stretch as long as] a horse would gallop for three days, while not even a third of it has yet emerged.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: al-Ḥakam ibn Bashīr related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Qays related to us, on the authority of al-Furāt al-Qazzāz, on the authority of ʿĀmir ibn Wāthila Abū al-Ṭufayl, on the authority of Ḥudhayfa ibn Usayd al-Ghifārī, who said: when the beast emerges, some people see it and say: "By Allah, we have seen the beast." This reaches the imam, who searches for it but finds nothing. Then it emerges again and the people see it once more. This again reaches the imam but he finds nothing. Then he says — and he mentions death against it — then it emerges. When the people see it, they enter the mosque to pray. The beast comes to them and says: "Now you pray?" It marks the unbeliever (kāfir) with a brand and wipes over the forehead of the believer a white radiance. The people will live for some time thereafter, with one saying: "O believer," and another: "O unbeliever."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Maṭar related to us, on the authority of Wāṣil, the freedman of Abū ʿUyayna, on the authority of Abū al-Ṭufayl, on the authority of Ḥudhayfa, and Abū Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qays ibn Saʿd, on the authority of Abū al-Ṭufayl, on the authority of Ḥudhayfa ibn Usayd, concerning His word: أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الأرْضِ تُكَلِّمُهُمْ — he said: the beast makes three appearances: an appearance in a part of the deserts, after which it conceals itself; an appearance in a part of the villages at the moment when the rulers therein shed blood, after which it conceals itself; then, while the people are at the most venerable, greatest, and most eminent of the mosques, the earth moves beneath them, the people flee away, and a group of believers remains behind, saying: "Nothing will save us from Allah." Then the beast appears before them and illuminates their faces like a shining star. Thereupon it departs, and no pursuer overtakes it, and no fugitive escapes from it. It comes to a man who is praying and says: "By Allah, you are not among the people of prayer." The man turns toward it, and it marks him with a brand. It illuminates the face of the believer and marks the unbeliever with a brand. We asked: who, then, are the people on that day? He said: neighbors in the quarters, partners in possessions, and companions on the roads.
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of al-Walīd ibn Jamīʿ, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Mughīra, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Baylamānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar: the people travel by night toward the gathering place, while the beast of the earth accompanies them in the night. They awaken and all of them have been branded by the beast. It leaves no believer untouched, and it leaves no unbeliever or hypocrite (munāfiq) untouched.
Mujāhid ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: al-Khaybārī related to us, on the authority of Ḥayyān ibn ʿUmayr, on the authority of Ḥassān ibn Ḥamṣa, who said: I heard ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr say: "If I wished, I could put on both my sandals and, without touching the ground, walk in a seated position to the stones between which the beast will emerge. It is as though I already see it emerging just after the departure of a group of pilgrims." He said: "Every time I have performed the pilgrimage, I feared that it would emerge behind us."
ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Āmilī related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Hishām, on the authority of Qays ibn Saʿd, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, who said: I saw ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr — his dwelling was close to al-Ṣafā — raising his foot while he stood and saying: "If I wished, I would not set it down until I set it down upon the spot from which the beast will emerge."
ʿIṣām ibn Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāḥ related to us, saying: my father related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn Saʿīd al-Thawrī related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir related to us, on the authority of Ribʿī ibn Ḥirāsh, who said: I heard Ḥudhayfa ibn al-Yamān say: the Prophet ﷺ spoke — and mentioned the beast, whereupon Ḥudhayfa asked: "O Prophet of Allah, from where will it emerge?" He said: "From the most venerable mosque in the sight of Allah. While ʿĪsā is circumambulating the Kaʿba with the Muslims, the earth moves beneath them, like the swaying of a lamp. Al-Ṣafā splits open on the side of the Masʿā and the beast emerges from al-Ṣafā, its first appearance being its head. It is multicolored, possessing shaggy hair and feathers. No pursuer overtakes it, and no fugitive escapes from it. It brands the people: believer and unbeliever. The believer: it leaves his face like a shining star, and it writes between his eyes: believer. The unbeliever: it pricks between his eyes a black dot: unbeliever."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū al-Ḥusayn related to us, on the authority of Ḥammād ibn Salama, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Jadʿān, on the authority of Aws ibn Khālid, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: the Prophet ﷺ said: "The beast will emerge carrying with it the seal of Sulaymān and the staff of Mūsā. With the staff it illuminates the face of the believer, and with the seal it brands the nose of the unbeliever, until the people of one household gather together and one says: O believer, and the other: O unbeliever."
He said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: it is a beast with shaggy hair and feathers, on four legs, which emerges from one of the valleys of Tihāma. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar said: it pricks in the face of the unbeliever a black dot that spreads over his face, so that his face becomes black. And it pricks in the face of the believer a white dot that spreads over his face, until his face becomes white. The people of one household then sit at the table and distinguish the believer from the unbeliever, and they trade in the markets and distinguish the believer from the unbeliever.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Barqī related to me, saying: Ibn Abī Maryam related to us, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa and Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb related to us — they said: Ibn al-Hād related to us, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥakam, that he heard ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr say: the beast will emerge from a mountain ravine; its head reaches up to the clouds while its legs are upon the earth without having yet emerged. It passes a man who is praying and says: "Prayer is of no benefit to you" — then it brands him.
Ṣāliḥ ibn Mismār related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Fuday related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn ʿIyāḍ related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, that it reached him from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: the beast of the earth will emerge carrying with it the seal of Sulaymān and the staff of Mūsā. The unbeliever it will brand between his eyes with the seal of Sulaymān, and the believer it will wipe his face with the staff of Mūsā, so that it becomes white.
The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of تُكَلِّمُهُمْ . The general body of reciters of the great cities read: تُكَلِّمُهُمْ with a quiescent tāʾ and a doubled lām, in the meaning of: she informs them and speaks with them. Abū Zurʿa ibn ʿAmr read: "تَكْلِمُهُمْ" with an open tāʾ and a light lām, in the meaning of: she brands them.
The reading which I cannot accept apart from that of the reciters of the great cities is the one I have mentioned.
In accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes spoke.
Mention of those who said this:
ʿAlī related to us, 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: أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الأرْضِ تُكَلِّمُهُمْ — he said: she speaks with them.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: أَخْرَجْنَا لَهُمْ دَابَّةً مِنَ الأرْضِ تُكَلِّمُهُمْ — and in some readings it is "she informs them" — she says to them: أن الناس كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا لا يُوقِنُونَ .
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 ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: تُكَلِّمُهُمْ — he said: her speech is that she announces to them: أَنَّ النَّاسَ كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا لا يُوقِنُونَ .
His word: أَنَّ النَّاسَ كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا لا يُوقِنُونَ — the Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of it. The general body of reciters of the Ḥijāz, Basra, and Sham read: "إنَّ النَّاسَ" with a kasra, as the beginning of a statement about the people that they did not believe in the signs of Allah. The general body of reciters of Kufa and some of Basra read: أَنَّ النَّاسَ كَانُوا with a fatḥa, in the meaning of: she speaks to them that the people — so that it then stands in the accusative on account of the intransitive verb "to speak."
The correct word concerning this is that these are two readings which come close to one another in meaning and are extensively widespread in the readings of the great cities. Whichever of the two readings the reciter chooses, he is correct.
