Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:108
These are the verses of Allah. We recite them to you, [O Muhammad], in truth; and Allah wants no injustice to the worlds.
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 explanation of the saying of the Exalted: تِلْكَ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ نَتْلُوهَا عَلَيْكَ بِالْحَقِّ وَمَا اللَّهُ يُرِيدُ ظُلْمًا لِلْعَالَمِينَ (108) (These are the signs of Allah, which We recite to you in truth. And Allah desires no injustice for the worlds. (3:108))
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His saying, exalted be His praise, "These are the signs of Allah," He means: these are the signs of Allah.
* * *
We have already explained elsewhere, in what has previously preceded, how the Arabs placed "those" (tilka) and "that yonder" (dhālika) in place of "this" (hādhā) and "these" (hādhihi), in a manner that makes it unnecessary to repeat it here. (84)
* * *
And His saying "the signs of Allah" (85) means: the admonitions of Allah, His lessons, and His proofs. — "We recite them to you" (86), We recite them to you and relate them to you — "in truth" (bi-l-ḥaqq), that is to say: with truthfulness and certainty.
By His saying "These are the signs of Allah" He means only: these signs in which He mentioned the affairs of the believers among the helpers (anṣār) of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as well as the affairs of the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl and the People of the Book, and what He will do with those who are faithful to His covenant, and with those who exchange their religion and who break His covenant after having acknowledged it. Then the Almighty informed His Prophet Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that He recites this to him in truth, and He made known to him that whomever of His creatures He punishes with that with which He announced He would punish them [namely]: (87) the blackening of their faces and their eternal abode in His painful punishment and tremendous infliction of chastisement — and whomever of them He rewards with that with which He rewarded them: the whitening of their faces, their honoring, and the raising of their rank with Him, through their eternal abode in His continuous bliss — that this occurs without any injustice on His part toward either of the two groups, but rather with a right that they have deserved, (88) and with deeds that they previously performed and for which He requited them. Thus He said, exalted be His mention: "And Allah desires no injustice for the worlds," by which He means: and Allah, O Muḥammad, is not — in blackening the faces of these and in making them taste the tremendous punishment, and in whitening the faces of those and in granting them bliss — seeking to place anything of what He did of that outside the place which is its proper place. By this He instructs His servants that, in His wisdom toward His creation, nothing would be fitting other than what He has promised to the people of obedience to Him and faith in Him, and nothing other than what He has threatened against the people of disobedience to Him and unbelief in Him — as a warning from Him to these and glad tidings from Him to those.
* * *
---------------
The footnotes:
(84) See what has previously preceded 1: 225 - 228 / 3: 335.
(85) See the explanation of "āya" (sign) in what preceded in the linguistic indices, entry "ʾyʾ".
(86) See the explanation of "talā" (to recite) in what preceded 2: 409 - 411, 566 - 570 / 6: 466.
(87) In the printed edition it reads: "that whomever He punishes him," but I have adopted what is in the manuscript, for that is correct. And what is between brackets is a necessary addition that the context requires.
(88) In the printed edition it reads: "but with right," and I have adopted what is in the manuscript.
