Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:144
Muhammad is not but a messenger. [Other] messengers have passed on before him. So if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels [to unbelief]? And he who turns back on his heels will never harm Allah at all; but Allah will reward the grateful.
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: وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلا رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ أَفَإِنْ مَاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ انْقَلَبْتُمْ عَلَى أَعْقَابِكُمْ وَمَنْ يَنْقَلِبْ عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ فَلَنْ يَضُرَّ اللَّهَ شَيْئًا وَسَيَجْزِي اللَّهُ الشَّاكِرِينَ (144) ("And Muḥammad ﷺ is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away. If then he dies or is killed, would you turn back on your heels? And whoever turns back on his heels does Allah no harm at all. And Allah will reward the thankful.") (144)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means thereby: Muḥammad ﷺ is nothing but a messenger, like a number of the messengers of Allah whom He sent to His creatures, calling to Allah and to obedience to Him — those who, when the terms of their lives drew to an end, died and whom Allah took to Himself. The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: Muḥammad ﷺ is therefore, as regards what Allah will do with him by taking him to Himself when the term of his life draws to an end, in the same position as the rest of the messengers to His creatures who passed away before him and who died when the term of their lives drew to an end.
Then He said to the companions of Muḥammad, rebuking them for the fear and despair they displayed when it was said to them at Uḥud, "Muḥammad has been killed," and reproving the flight of those among them who turned away from their enemy and fled: "If then Muḥammad dies, O people, by the term of his life drawing to an end, or if an enemy kills him — انقلبتم على أعقابكم ('would you turn back on your heels') — this means: would you then apostatize from your religion to which Allah sent Muḥammad to call, and turn back from it as disbelievers in Allah (kāfir) after having believed in it, and after the correctness of that to which Muḥammad called you has become clear to you and the truth of that which he brought you from his Lord? ومن ينقلب على عقبيه ('and whoever turns back on his heels') — He means thereby: and whoever among you apostatizes from his religion and turns back as a disbeliever after his faith, فلن يضر الله شيئا ('does Allah no harm at all') — He says: that will weaken neither the power of Allah nor His dominion, and it will bring about no diminution in His kingdom; rather, he only harms himself by his apostasy (ridda), and he only diminishes his own share by his disbelief. وسيجزي الله الشاكرين ('and Allah will reward the thankful') — He says: and Allah will reward the one who thanks Him for the success and guidance He bestowed upon him to His religion, by his steadfastness upon that which Muḥammad ﷺ brought, should he die or be killed, and by his adherence to his path and his clinging to his religion and faith-community after him. As:
7938 — Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hāshim related to us, saying: Sayf ibn ʿUmar informed us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of Abū Ayyūb, on the authority of ʿAlī, concerning His word: وسيجزي الله الشاكرين ('and Allah will reward the thankful'), namely: the steadfast upon their religion, Abū Bakr and his companions. ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say: Abū Bakr was the most trustworthy of the thankful, and the most trustworthy of the beloved of Allah, and he was the most thankful of them and the most beloved of them to Allah.
7939 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Badr, who said: Verily, Abū Bakr is the most trustworthy of the thankful. And he recited this verse: وسيجزي الله الشاكرين ('and Allah will reward the thankful').
7940 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: وسيجزي الله الشاكرين ('and Allah will reward the thankful'), that is: whoever obeyed Him and acted according to His command.
* * *
And it was mentioned that this verse was revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concerning those among his companions who fled from him at Uḥud.
* Mention of the reports transmitted concerning that:
7941 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away') up to His word: وسيجزي الله الشاكرين ('and Allah will reward the thankful') — that was on the day of Uḥud, when wounding and death befell them, and they announced to one another thereupon the death of the Prophet of Allah ﷺ. Some people said: "Had he been a prophet, he would not have been killed!" And some of the foremost companions of the Prophet of Allah ﷺ said: "Fight for that for which Muḥammad, your prophet, fought, until Allah brings you the victory or until you join him!" Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, said: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل أفائن ماتَ أو قتل انقلبتم على أعقابكم ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away. If then he dies or is killed, would you turn back on your heels?') — He says: if your prophet dies or is killed, would you then apostatize as disbelievers after your faith.
7942 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, in a similar manner — and he added: al-Rabīʿ said: And it was reported to us, and Allah knows best, that a man of the Muhājirūn passed by a man of the Anṣār while the latter lay writhing in his blood, and he said: "O so-and-so, do you know that Muḥammad has been killed?" The man of the Anṣār said: "If Muḥammad has been killed, then he has already delivered the message, so fight for your religion." Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, revealed: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل أفائن مات أو قتل انقلبتم على أعقابكم ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away. If then he dies or is killed, would you turn back on your heels?') — He says: would you then apostatize as disbelievers after your faith.
7943 — 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, who said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ advanced against them on the day of Uḥud — namely against the polytheists (mushrikīn) — he gave the archers a command, and they took up their position at the foot of the mountain, facing the cavalry of the polytheists, and he said: "Do not leave your place, even if you see that we have defeated them, for we shall remain victorious so long as you hold firm in your place." And he set over them ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jubayr, the brother of Khawwāt ibn Jubayr.
= Then al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām and al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad attacked the polytheists fiercely and defeated them, and the Prophet ﷺ and his companions attacked and defeated Abū Sufyān. When Khālid ibn al-Walīd, who was in command of the cavalry of the polytheists, saw this, he turned about and attacked. But the archers shot at him, and he withdrew. When the archers saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his companions in the midst of the camp of the polytheists, plundering it, they hastened to the spoils (ghanīma), and some of them said: "We shall not abandon the command of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ!" But the greater part of them went off and joined the camp. When Khālid saw the small number of the archers, he called out to his cavalry and then attacked, and he killed the archers and attacked the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. When the polytheists saw that their cavalry was fighting, they called out to one another, and they attacked the Muslims fiercely, defeated them, and killed them.
= Then Ibn Qamīʾa al-Ḥārithī — one of the Banū al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Kināna — came and pelted the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with a stone, and he broke his nose and his front tooth (rubāʿiyya), and wounded him in his face so that he weakened him. His companions scattered away from him, and some of them entered Medina, and some of them went up onto the mountain to the rock and took up their position upon it. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ began to call out to the people: "Come here, servants of Allah! Come here, servants of Allah!" Then thirty men gathered to him, and they began to advance before him, and none held firm except Ṭalḥa and Sahl ibn Ḥunayf. Ṭalḥa protected him, and he was struck with an arrow in his hand so that his hand withered.
= And Ubayy ibn Khalaf al-Jumaḥī came forward — and he had sworn that he would kill the Prophet ﷺ, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ had said: "No, I shall kill him" — and he said: "O liar, whither do you flee?" and he attacked him. Then the Prophet ﷺ stabbed him in the neck-opening of the coat of mail, and he was lightly wounded, and he fell down and bellowed like the bellowing of a bull. They lifted him up and said: "You have no wound! [What then makes you so afraid?]" He said: "Did he not say: 'I shall kill you'? Were it among all the tribes of Rabīʿa and Muḍar, I would kill them!" And it was only a day and part of a day before he died of that wound.
= And it spread among the people that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had been killed, and some of the people at the rock said: "Would that we had a messenger to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy, that he might obtain for us safe-conduct (amana) from Abū Sufyān! O people, verily Muḥammad has been killed, so return to your people before they come to you and kill you." Anas ibn al-Naḍr said: "O people, if Muḥammad has been killed, then the Lord of Muḥammad has not been killed, so fight for that for which Muḥammad ﷺ fought. O Allah, I excuse myself before You for what these say, and I dissociate myself before You from what these have brought!" Then he attacked with his sword and fought until he was killed.
= And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ went on calling out to the people, until he reached the people of the rock. When they saw him, a man placed an arrow on his bow and wished to shoot him, but he said: "I am the Messenger of Allah!" Then they rejoiced when they found the Messenger of Allah ﷺ alive, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ rejoiced when he saw that among his companions there were those by whom he was protected. When they had gathered and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was in their midst, the grief departed from them, and they began to recall the victory and what of it had escaped them, and they recalled their companions who had been killed.
= Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, said to those who had said: "Verily Muḥammad has been killed, so return to your people": وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل أفائن ماتَ أو قتل انقلبتم على أعقابكم ومن ينقلب على عقبيه فلن يضر الله شيئا وسيجزي الله الشاكرين ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away. If then he dies or is killed, would you turn back on your heels? And whoever turns back on his heels does Allah no harm at all. And Allah will reward the thankful.').
7944 — 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: ومن ينقلب على عقبيه ('and whoever turns back on his heels'), he said: he apostatizes.
7945 — 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 his father = and al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of his father =: that a man of the Muhājirūn passed by a man of the Anṣār while the latter lay writhing in his blood, and he said: "O so-and-so, do you know that Muḥammad has been killed!" The man of the Anṣār said: "If Muḥammad has been killed, then he has already delivered the message! So fight for your religion."
7946 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rāfiʿ, a brother of the Banū ʿAdī ibn al-Najjār, related to me, saying: Anas ibn al-Naḍr — the uncle of Anas ibn Mālik — came to ʿUmar and Ṭalḥa ibn ʿAbd Allāh, amid men of the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār who had already given themselves up, and he said: "What makes you sit here?" They said: "Muḥammad, the Messenger of Allah, has been killed!" He said: "What then would you do with life after him? Arise and die for that for which the Messenger of Allah died!" And he went to meet the people and fought until he was killed — and after him Anas ibn Mālik was named.
7947 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Zuhayr related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said: A crier called out on the day of Uḥud, when the companions of Muḥammad ﷺ had been defeated: "Know, verily Muḥammad has been killed, so return to your first religion!" Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, revealed: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away'), the verse.
7948 — 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, who said: On the day of Uḥud it was spread about among the Muslims that the Prophet ﷺ had been killed, and then this verse was revealed: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away'), the verse.
7949 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ withdrew on that day together with a group that was with him onto a small hill, while the people were fleeing, and a man stood on the road and asked them: "What has happened to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?" And whenever they passed by him, he asked them about it, and they said: "By Allah, we do not know what has happened!" Then he said: "By Him in whose hand is my soul, if the Prophet ﷺ has been killed, then we shall surrender ourselves to them with our own hands, for they are our kinsmen and our brothers!" And they said: "Muḥammad, had he been alive, would not have been defeated, but he has been killed!" Then they permitted themselves at that moment to flee. Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, revealed to His prophet ﷺ: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away'), the whole verse.
7950 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying, concerning His word: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away'), the verse: People of doubt, sickness, and hypocrisy (nifāq) said, on the day that the people of the Prophet of Allah ﷺ fled and he was wounded above his eyebrow and his front tooth was broken: "Muḥammad has been killed, so join your first religion!" That is His word: أفإئن مات أو قتل انقلبتم على أعقابكم ('If then he dies or is killed, would you turn back on your heels?').
7951 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: أفائن مات أو قتل انقلبتم على أعقابكم ('If then he dies or is killed, would you turn back on your heels?'), he said: Between you and the abandonment of Islam and the turning back on your heels stands nothing but that Muḥammad dies or is killed! And one of these two will surely come to pass: he will surely die, or be killed.
7952 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: وما محمد إلا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل ('And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away') up to His word: وسيجزي الله الشاكرين ('and Allah will reward the thankful'), that is: on account of the people's saying "Muḥammad has been killed" and their flight at that moment and their turning away from their enemy — that is: if your prophet dies or is killed, would you then turn back from your religion as disbelievers as you were, and abandon the jihād against your enemy and the Book of Allah, and that which his prophet left behind of his religion with and among you, when He has already made clear to you, in that which has come to you from Me, that he is mortal and will leave you? ومن ينقلب على عقبيه ('and whoever turns back on his heels'), that is: he turns back from his religion, فلن يضر الله شيئا ('does Allah no harm at all'), that is: that will diminish nothing of the power of Allah, nor of His kingdom, nor of His dominion.
7953 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: He said: The people of sickness, doubt, and hypocrisy said, when the people of the Prophet ﷺ fled: "Muḥammad has been killed, so join your first religion!" Then this verse was revealed.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of the statement is: And Muḥammad is nothing but a messenger; before him the messengers have already passed away — would you then turn back on your heels if Muḥammad dies or is killed? And whoever turns back on his heels does Allah no harm at all. He thus placed the interrogation in the conditional clause (ḥarf al-jazāʾ), while its meaning is that it lies in the response to it. So it is with every interrogation that a condition enters: its meaning is that it lies in the response to it, for the response is a statement standing on its own, and the condition is a stipulation for that statement. Then the response to it is rendered apocopate (majzūm) — and so it is here too — while its meaning is in the nominative (rafʿ), on account of its coming after the condition, as the poet said:
"I swore to him: if you journey through the night, there will ceaselessly go round before you a house of my houses."
The meaning of "lā yazal" ('there will ceaselessly') is in the nominative, but it was rendered apocopate on account of its coming after the condition, so that it stood as a response. And comparable to it is: أَفَإِنْ مِتَّ فَهُمُ الْخَالِدُونَ ('If then you die, would they then be the ones abiding forever?') [Sūrah al-Anbiyāʾ: 34] and فَكَيْفَ تَتَّقُونَ إِنْ كَفَرْتُمْ ('How then will you guard yourselves if you disbelieve?') [Sūrah al-Muzzammil: 17]. And had there stood, in place of فَهُمُ الْخَالِدُونَ ('would they then be the ones abiding forever'), 'yakhludūn' ('would they abide forever'), and it had been said: 'afaʾin mitta yakhludū' ('if then you die, would they abide forever'), then both the nominative and the apocopate would have been permissible therein. And likewise, had there stood, in place of انقلبتم ('would you turn back'), 'tanqalibū' ('would you turn back', apocopate), then both the nominative and the apocopate would have been permissible, for what I have described before. And the repetition of the interrogation a second time at His word انقلبتم ('would you turn back') was omitted, because one was content with the interrogation at the beginning of the statement, and because the interrogation at its beginning indicates its place and position.
And some of the reciters preferred, concerning His word أَئِذَا مِتْنَا وَكُنَّا تُرَابًا وَعِظَامًا أَئِنَّا لَمَبْعُوثُونَ ('When we have died and become dust and bones, shall we then truly be resurrected?') [Sūrah al-Muʾminūn: 82, Sūrah al-Ṣāffāt: 16, Sūrah al-Wāqiʿa: 47], the omission of the repetition of the interrogation at 'aʾinnā', being content with the interrogation in His word 'aʾidhā kunnā turāban' ('when we have become dust'). And he adduces as proof for the correctness of that view the consensus of the reciters over their omission of the repetition of the interrogation at His word انقلبتم ('would you turn back'), being content with the interrogation in His word أفائن مات ('if then he dies'), since this indicated the meaning of the statement and the place of the interrogation therein. And he did something similar throughout the whole Qurʾān.
And we shall, if Allah wills, set forth the correct judgment concerning that when we come to it.
