Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:120
If good touches you, it distresses them; but if harm strikes you, they rejoice at it. And if you are patient and fear Allah, their plot will not harm you at all. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do.
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 His word: هَا أَنْتُمْ أُولاءِ تُحِبُّونَهُمْ وَلا يُحِبُّونَكُمْ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْكِتَابِ كُلِّهِ ("Lo, you are those who love them, while they do not love you, and you believe in the whole Book.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, praised be His praise, means thereby: lo, you, O believers, who love them — He says: you love these unbelievers whom I have forbidden you to take as intimate confidants (biṭāna) to the exclusion of the believers, so that you show them affection and associate with them, while they do not love you, but rather conceal within their innermost selves enmity and treachery toward you — "wa-tuʾminūna bil-kitābi kullih" ("and you believe in the whole Book").
The meaning of "al-kitāb" (the Book) in this place is the meaning of the plural, as one says: "the dirham has become plentiful in the hands of the people," with the meaning of the dirhams (plural).
So too with His word: "wa-tuʾminūna bil-kitābi kullih," whose meaning is only: in all the Books: your Book which Allah has sent down to you, and their Book which He has sent down to them, and the remaining Books which Allah has sent down to His servants.
He, exalted is His mention, says: you then — since you, O believers, believe in all the Books, and know that those whom I have forbidden you to take as confidants to the exclusion of yourselves deny all of that by their rejection of all of that, of the covenants which Allah imposed upon them, and their alteration of what is therein of Allah's command and prohibition — you are more entitled to enmity toward them, to aversion from them, and to distrust of them, than they are entitled to enmity and aversion toward you, while they deny a part of the Books and declare a part of them to be a lie. As:
7695 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, saying: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad related to me, on the authority of ʿIkrima or on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "tuʾminūna bil-kitābi kullih," that is: in your Book and their Book and in what preceded before it of Books, while they are unbelieving in your Book; so you are more entitled to aversion from them than they are from you.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And He said: "hā antum ulāʾi" and did not say: "hāʾulāʾi antum," and He separated between "hā" and "ulāʾi" by the designation of the noun of those addressed, because the Arabs do thus with "hādhā" when they intend thereby drawing near (taqrīb) and the manner of ellipsis which requires a completion of the report. That is, for example, that it is said to one of them: "Where are you?", whereupon the one to whom that is said answers: "Hā anā dhā" ("Lo, here I am") — thus he separates between the particle of drawing attention (tanbīh) and "dhā" by the pronoun of his own name, and they almost never say: "hādhā anā" ("this is I"), so as thereafter to make dual and plural in that manner. And sometimes they repeat the particle of drawing attention with "dhā" and say: "hā anā hādhā." And they do that only in what is a drawing near (taqrīb). But when it is not a matter of drawing near and ellipsis, they say: "hādhā huwa" ("this is he") and "hādhā anta" ("this is you"). And likewise they do with the visible nouns; they say: "hādhā ʿAmrun qāʾiman" ("this is ʿAmr, standing"), if "hādhā" is a drawing near (taqrīb). They did that only with the pronoun together with drawing near, in order to distinguish between "hādhā" when it has the meaning of the incomplete which requires a completion, and the same when it has the meaning of the correct noun.
And His word "tuḥibbūnahum" ("you love them") is a report (khabar) of the drawing near (taqrīb).
Abū Jaʿfar said: And in this verse there is a clarification from Allah, mighty and exalted is He, concerning the state of the two groups — I mean the believers and the unbelievers — and the mercy of the people of faith and their compassion toward the people who oppose them, and the hardness of the hearts of the people of unbelief and their coarseness toward the people of faith. As:
7696 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, His word: "hā antum ulāʾi tuḥibbūnahum wa-lā yuḥibbūnakum wa-tuʾminūna bil-kitābi kullih" — by Allah, indeed, the believer loves the hypocrite (munāfiq), takes up his cause, and shows him mercy. And if the hypocrite were able to do to the believer what the believer is able to do over him, he would extirpate him root and branch.
7697 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: the believer is better to the hypocrite than the hypocrite is to the believer; he shows him mercy. And if the hypocrite were able to do over the believer what the believer is able to do over him, he would extirpate him root and branch.
And Mujāhid used to say: this verse was sent down concerning the hypocrites.
7698 — That Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid.
The explanation of His word: وَإِذَا لَقُوكُمْ قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا عَضُّوا عَلَيْكُمُ الأَنَامِلَ مِنَ الْغَيْظِ ("And when they meet you, they say: We believe. But when they are alone, they bite their fingertips out of rage.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His mention, means thereby: that these whom Allah has forbidden the believers to take as confidants to the exclusion of them, and whom He has described with their quality, when they meet the believers among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, they yield to them with their tongues out of precaution (taqiyya) and out of fear for themselves toward them, and say to them: "We have believed and held to be true what Muḥammad ﷺ has brought." But when they are alone and find themselves in seclusion, where the believers do not see them, they bite — on account of what they see of the concord of the believers, the gathering of their word, and the soundness of their mutual relations — their fingertips (anāmil), which are the tips of their fingers, out of rage at what dwells in them of rancor toward them, and out of grief at the support (a back to lean upon) that they lack to make manifest the enmity with them and to wage war with them.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation said.
Mention of who said that:
7699 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, His word: "wa-idhā laqūkum qālū āmannā wa-idhā khalaw ʿaḍḍū ʿalaykumu al-anāmila mina al-ghayẓ" — when they meet the believers, they say: "We believe," out of nothing but fear for their blood and their possessions, and thus they dissemble this toward them — "wa-idhā khalaw ʿaḍḍū ʿalaykumu al-anāmila mina al-ghayẓ," he says: on account of what they find in their hearts of rage and aversion for that upon which they (the believers) are. If they were to find a wind (strength and the upper hand), they would turn against the believers. Thus are they, just as Allah, mighty and exalted is He, has described them.
7700 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, the same — except that he said: out of rage at their aversion for that upon which they (the believers) are — and he did not say: "if they were to find a wind," and what comes after it.
7701 — ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Muslim related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAmr ibn Mālik al-Nukrī related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: Abū al-Jawzāʾ used to say, when he recited this verse: "wa-idhā laqūkum qālū āmannā wa-idhā khalaw ʿaḍḍū ʿalaykumu al-anāmila mina al-ghayẓ": they are the Ibāḍiyya.
And "al-anāmil" is the plural of "anmala," and one also says "unmula," and sometimes it is formed as the plural "anmul." The poet said:
I love you both, so long as my saliva moistens my throat, and so long as my two palms bear my ten fingertips (anmul).
And they are the tips of the fingers, as:
7702 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "al-anāmil," the tips of the fingers.
7702 m — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, on the authority of Ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, the same.
7703 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "wa-idhā khalaw ʿaḍḍū ʿalaykumu al-anāmil," the fingers.
7704 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, His word: "ʿaḍḍū ʿalaykumu al-anāmila mina al-ghayẓ," he said: they bit on their fingers.
The explanation of His word, mighty and exalted is He: قُلْ مُوتُوا بِغَيْظِكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ (119) ("Say: Die in your rage. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing of what is in the breasts.") (3:119)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, praised be His praise, means thereby: "Say," O Muḥammad, to these Jews whose quality I have described to you, and of whom I have informed you that they, when they meet your Companions, say: "We believe," and when they are alone, bite their fingertips out of rage: "Die in your rage" which you have toward the believers on account of the gathering of their word and the concord of their community.
This speech came in the form of a command, and it is a supplication from Allah to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, that he should supplicate against them that Allah cause them to perish, from grief at what dwells in them of rage toward the believers, before they should see in them what they wish for them of affliction in their religion and of straying after their right guidance. So He said to His prophet ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad: "Perish in your rage" — "inna Allāha ʿalīmun bi-dhāti al-ṣudūr" ("verily, Allah is All-Knowing of what is in the breasts"), He means thereby: verily, Allah has knowledge of what is in the breasts of these who, when they meet the believers, say: "We believe," and of what they conceal toward them of rancor and bitterness, and of what they harbor toward them of enmity and aversion, and of what is in the breasts of all His creatures; He watches over them all in what each of them conceals of good and evil, until He shall requite them all according to what they have sent forward of good and evil, and believed of īmān (faith) and kufr (unbelief), and harbored within their innermost selves toward His Messenger and toward the believers of sincere counsel, or of rancor and hatred.
