Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:154
Then after distress, He sent down upon you security [in the form of] drowsiness, overcoming a faction of you, while another faction worried about themselves, thinking of Allah other than the truth - the thought of ignorance, saying, "Is there anything for us [to have done] in this matter?" Say, "Indeed, the matter belongs completely to Allah." They conceal within themselves what they will not reveal to you. They say, "If there was anything we could have done in the matter, some of us would not have been killed right here." Say, "Even if you had been inside your houses, those decreed to be killed would have come out to their death beds." [It was] so that Allah might test what is in your breasts and purify what is in your hearts. And Allah is Knowing of that within the breasts.
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 discourse on the explanation of His saying: ثُمَّ أَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ الْغَمِّ أَمَنَةً نُعَاسًا يَغْشَى طَائِفَةً مِنْكُمْ وَطَائِفَةٌ قَدْ أَهَمَّتْهُمْ أَنْفُسُهُمْ يَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ ظَنَّ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ (Then, after the grief, He sent down upon you a security: a drowsiness that overcame a group of you, while another group was concerned only with themselves and entertained untrue assumptions about Allah, the assumption of the age of ignorance.)
Abū Jaʿfar says: He—exalted be His praise—means thereby: Then Allah sent down, O believers, after the grief with which your Lord rewarded you following a grief that preceded it—"a security" (amana), that is, safety—upon the sincere and the convinced among you, not upon the people of hypocrisy (nifāq) and doubt.
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Then He—exalted be His praise—clarified what "the security" was that He sent down upon them, and He said: "a drowsiness" (nuʿās), where "the drowsiness" stands in the accusative as an apposition to "the security."
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Then the readers differed over the reading of His saying: "yaghshā" (overcame).
The general readers of the Hijaz, Medina, Basra, and some of the Kufans read it in the masculine, with a yāʾ: (yaghshā).
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And a group of the Kufan readers read it in the feminine: (taghshā) with a tāʾ.
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Those who read it in the masculine assumed that it is the drowsiness that overcame the group of the believers, and not the security; and so they made the verb masculine in accordance with the masculine "the drowsiness."
And those who read it in the feminine assumed that it is the security that overcame them; and so they made it feminine in accordance with the feminine "the security."
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar says: The correct judgment about this is, in my view, that they are two well-known, widespread readings among the readers of the regions, which differ neither in meaning nor in anything else. For "the security" in this place is the drowsiness, and the drowsiness is the security. It thus comes to the same thing, and with whichever of the two the reader reads, he hits upon what is correct in his reading. And so it is with everything in the Qurʾān that is like it, such as His saying: إِنَّ شَجَرَةَ الزَّقُّومِ * طَعَامُ الأَثِيمِ * كَالْمُهْلِ يَغْلِي فِي الْبُطُونِ [Surah ad-Dukhān: 43-45] (Indeed, the tree of az-Zaqqūm is the food of the sinner; like molten metal it boils in the bellies), and أَلَمْ يَكُ نُطْفَةً مِنْ مَنِيٍّ يُمْنَى [Surah al-Qiyāmah: 37] (Was he not a drop of sperm that is emitted?), and وَهُزِّي إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ تُسَاقِطْ [Surah Maryam: 25] (And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree, and it will let fall).
* * *
And if someone were to say: What was the cause for which the two groups that Allah, Mighty and Sublime, mentioned differed from one another in that wherein they differed of their characteristics—so that the one felt secure until it fell asleep, and the other was concerned only with itself until it entertained untrue assumptions about Allah, the assumption of the age of ignorance (jāhiliyya)?
Then it is said: The cause of that was, according to what we have been told, as follows:
8072 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: The polytheists returned on the day of Uhud after what had occurred between them and the Muslims, and they made an appointment with the Prophet ﷺ at Badr in the coming year. He said: Yes! Yes! But the Muslims feared that they would raid Medina, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent a man and said: "Look: if you see that they have mounted their pack animals and are leading their horses by hand, then the people are departing; and if you see that they have mounted their horses and are leading their pack animals by hand, then the people are raiding Medina, so fear Allah and be steadfast." And he prepared them for battle. When the messenger observed them, they had mounted the pack animals in haste and hurry, and he proclaimed their departure in a loud voice. When the believers saw that, they believed the Prophet of Allah ﷺ and they slept; but there remained some people of the hypocrites who supposed that the people would attack them. And Allah, Mighty and Sublime, said, mentioning how the Prophet ﷺ informed them that, if they mounted the pack animals, they would depart, whereupon they slept: "Then, after the grief, He sent down upon you a security: a drowsiness that overcame a group of you, while another group was concerned only with themselves and entertained untrue assumptions about Allah, the assumption of the age of ignorance."
8073 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: He granted them safety on that day through a drowsiness that overcame them. And only he drowses who feels secure—"that overcame a group of you, while another group was concerned only with themselves and entertained untrue assumptions about Allah, the assumption of the age of ignorance."
8074 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Ibn Abī ʿAdī related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, on the authority of Abū Ṭalḥa, who said: I was among those upon whom, on the day of Uhud, the drowsiness was sent down as a security, until it [my weapon] fell from my hand several times—Abū Jaʿfar says: he means his whip or his sword.
8075 — ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us, he said: Ḥammād ibn Salama related to us, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of Anas, on the authority of Abū Ṭalḥa, who said: I raised my head on the day of Uhud, and I saw no one of the people but that he was swaying to and fro beneath his shield from the drowsiness.
8076 — Ibn Bashshār and Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, they both said: Abū Dāwūd related to us, he said: ʿImrān related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Anas, on the authority of Abū Ṭalḥa, who said: I was among those upon whom, on the day of Uhud, the drowsiness was poured out.
8077 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: Anas ibn Mālik related to us, on the authority of Abū Ṭalḥa: that he was on that day among those whom the drowsiness overcame. He said: The sword fell from my hand, and then I would take it up again, on account of the drowsiness.
8078 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: It was related to us—and Allah knows best—on the authority of Anas: that Abū Ṭalḥa related to them: that he was on that day among those whom the drowsiness overcame. He said: My sword fell from my hand and then I would take it up, and it fell and then I would take it up, and it fell—and the other group were the hypocrites, who had no concern other than themselves, "and entertained untrue assumptions about Allah, the assumption of the age of ignorance," the entire aya.
8079 — Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Tirmidhī related to us, he said: Ḍirār ibn Ṣurad related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Miswar ibn Makhrama, on the authority of his father, who said: I asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf about the saying of Allah, Mighty and Sublime: "Then, after the grief, He sent down upon you a security: a drowsiness." He said: Sleep was cast upon us on the day of Uhud.
8080 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, his saying: "Then, after the grief, He sent down upon you a security: a drowsiness," the aya—and that was on the day of Uhud; they were on that day two groups. As for the believers: Allah covered them with the drowsiness as a security from Him and a mercy.
8081 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, something similar.
8082 — Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, his saying: "a security, a drowsiness," he said: The drowsiness was cast upon them, and that was for them a security.
8083 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Abū Razīn, who said: ʿAbd Allāh said: Drowsiness during battle is a security, and drowsiness during the prayer (ṣalāh) is from the devil.
8084 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: "Then, after the grief, He sent down upon you a security: a drowsiness," he said: He sent down the drowsiness as a security from Him upon the people of conviction in Him, so that they slept without fear.
8085 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his saying: "a security, a drowsiness," he said: Allah cast upon them the drowsiness, and it was "a security for them." And he mentioned that Abū Ṭalḥa said: The drowsiness was cast upon me on that day, and I drowsed until my sword fell from my hand.
8086 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Isḥāq ibn Idrīs related to us, he said: Ḥammād ibn Salama related to us, he said: Thābit informed us, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, on the authority of Abū Ṭalḥa—and Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, on the authority of ʿUrwa, on the authority of al-Zubayr—that they both said: We raised our heads on the day of Uhud and looked, and there was no one of them but that he was leaning against the side of his shield. He said: And he recited this aya: "Then, after the grief, He sent down upon you a security: a drowsiness."
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His saying: وَطَائِفَةٌ قَدْ أَهَمَّتْهُمْ أَنْفُسُهُمْ يَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ ظَنَّ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ (while another group was concerned only with themselves and entertained untrue assumptions about Allah, the assumption of the age of ignorance.)
Abū Jaʿfar says: He—exalted be His praise—means thereby: "and a group of you," O believers, "who were concerned only with themselves," He says: these are the hypocrites, who had no concern other than themselves; they were, out of fear of death for themselves and dread of its onset, so preoccupied that sleep had fled from their eyes, while they entertained about Allah the false assumptions, the assumption of the age of ignorance of the people of shirk regarding Allah, out of doubt about the affair of Allah and out of denial of His Prophet ﷺ, and out of their supposition that Allah would forsake His Prophet and would let the people of disbelief in Him prevail over him; they say: Do we have any share at all in the affair? As follows:
8087 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: And the other group: the hypocrites, who had no concern other than themselves, the most cowardly, the most terrified, and the most averse to the truth of peoples; they entertained about Allah untrue, false assumptions, they were only people of doubt and suspicion about the affair of Allah: يَقُولُونَ لَوْ كَانَ لَنَا مِنَ الأَمْرِ شَيْءٌ مَا قُتِلْنَا هَاهُنَا قُلْ لَوْ كُنْتُمْ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ لَبَرَزَ الَّذِينَ كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقَتْلُ إِلَى مَضَاجِعِهِمْ (they say: If we had any share at all in the affair, we would not have been killed here. Say: Even if you had been in your houses, those for whom death was decreed would still have gone forth to their places of falling).
8088 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, who said: And the other group, the hypocrites, who had no concern other than themselves, entertained about Allah untrue assumptions, the assumption of the age of ignorance, يَقُولُونَ لَوْ كَانَ لَنَا مِنَ الأَمْرِ شَيْءٌ مَا قُتِلْنَا هَاهُنَا (they say: If we had any share at all in the affair, we would not have been killed here). Allah, Mighty and Sublime, said: قُلْ لَوْ كُنْتُمْ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ لَبَرَزَ الَّذِينَ كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقَتْلُ إِلَى مَضَاجِعِهِمْ (Say: Even if you had been in your houses, those for whom death was decreed would still have gone forth to their places of falling), the aya.
8089 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: "while another group was concerned only with themselves," he said: The people of hypocrisy, who were concerned only with themselves out of fear of death, and that because they hoped for no good outcome.
8090 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning his saying: "while another group was concerned only with themselves," to the end of the aya, he said: These are the hypocrites.
* * *
And as for His saying "the assumption of the age of ignorance," thereby He means the people of shirk. As follows:
8091 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his saying: "the assumption of the age of ignorance," he said: The assumption of the people of shirk.
8092 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, his saying: "the assumption of the age of ignorance," he said: The assumption of the people of shirk.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar says: And in the nominative case of His saying "and a group" (wa-ṭāʾifatun) there are two possibilities.
The one: that it is in the nominative by the referring pronoun that refers to it in His saying "who were concerned" (qad ahammathum).
And the other: by His saying "who entertained untrue assumptions about Allah." And had it been placed in the accusative, that would have been permissible, and the "wāw" in His saying "and a group" would be a circumstantial qualifier of the verb, with the meaning: and a group concerned themselves with themselves, as He said: وَالسَّمَاءَ بَنَيْنَاهَا بِأَيْدٍ [Surah adh-Dhāriyāt: 47] (And the heaven, We built it with power).
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His saying: يَقُولُونَ هَلْ لَنَا مِنَ الأَمْرِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ قُلْ إِنَّ الأَمْرَ كُلَّهُ لِلَّهِ يُخْفُونَ فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ مَا لا يُبْدُونَ لَكَ يَقُولُونَ لَوْ كَانَ لَنَا مِنَ الأَمْرِ شَيْءٌ مَا قُتِلْنَا هَاهُنَا (They say: Do we have any share at all in the affair? Say: Indeed, the affair belongs entirely to Allah. They conceal within themselves what they do not disclose to you; they say: If we had any share at all in the affair, we would not have been killed here.)
Abū Jaʿfar says: He means thereby the hypocritical group that was concerned only with themselves; they say: We have no share at all in the affair. Say: Indeed, the affair belongs entirely to Allah; and had we had any share in the affair, we would not have gone forth to fight those who fought us and who killed us. As follows:
8093 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: It was said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy: The Banū al-Khazraj have been killed today! He said: And do we have any share at all in the affair? It was said: Indeed, the affair belongs entirely to Allah!
* * *
And this is a new command from Allah, Mighty and Sublime, with which He says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad, to these hypocrites: "Indeed, the affair belongs entirely to Allah," He disposes of it as He wills and governs it as He loves.
Then He returned to the report concerning the mention of the hypocrisy of the hypocrites, and He said: "They conceal within themselves what they do not disclose to you," He says: these hypocrites, whose characteristic I have described to you, O Muḥammad, conceal within themselves of disbelief and doubt about Allah what they do not disclose to you. Then He informed His Prophet ﷺ about what they concealed among themselves of their hypocrisy, and about the regret that struck them on account of their presence with the Muslims at their battlefield at Uhud, and He said, reporting about their uttering of disbelief and their manifesting of hypocrisy among themselves: "they say: If we had any share at all in the affair, we would not have been killed here," He means thereby that these hypocrites say: Had the going forth to fight those whom we had fought among the polytheists belonged to us, then we would not have gone forth to them, and then none of us would have been killed at the place where they were killed at Uhud.
* * *
And it is mentioned that one of those who made this statement was Muʿattib ibn Qushayr, the brother of the Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf.
* Mention of the report concerning that:
8094 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, he said: Ibn Isḥāq said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, on the authority of al-Zubayr, who said: By Allah, I truly heard the saying of Muʿattib ibn Qushayr, the brother of the Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf, while the drowsiness was overcoming me, and I heard it only as in a dream, when he said: If we had any share at all in the affair, we would not have been killed here!
8095 — Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā al-Umawī related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, on the authority of his father, something similar.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar says: And the readers differed over the reading of it.
The general readers of the Hijaz and Iraq read it: (qul inna l-amra kullahu), with the accusative of "the whole" (al-kull), as a corroborative apposition to "the affair" (al-amr) and a qualifier thereof.
* * *
And some readers of the people of Basra read it: (qul inna l-amra kulluhu li-llāh), with the nominative of "the whole," construing "the whole" as being a noun, and His saying "li-llāh" (belongs to Allah) as its predicate, like one who says: "Indeed, the affair, part of it belongs to ʿAbd Allāh."
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And it is possible that "the whole," in the reading of him who reads it in the accusative, stands in the accusative as an apposition.
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Abū Jaʿfar says: And the reading which in our view is the correct reading is the accusative in "the whole," on account of the agreement of the majority of the readers about it, without the other reading being incorrect in meaning or in Arabic. And had the reading with the nominative therein been widespread among the readers, then it would, in my view, be the same with whichever of those two one reads, on account of the agreement of the meanings thereof, in whichever of its two modes it is read.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His saying: قُلْ لَوْ كُنْتُمْ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ لَبَرَزَ الَّذِينَ كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقَتْلُ إِلَى مَضَاجِعِهِمْ وَلِيَبْتَلِيَ اللَّهُ مَا فِي صُدُورِكُمْ وَلِيُمَحِّصَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ (154) (Say: Even if you had been in your houses, those for whom death was decreed would still have gone forth to their places of falling—and so that Allah might test what is in your breasts and might purify what is in your hearts. And Allah is All-Knowing of what is in the breasts.) (154)
Abū Jaʿfar says: He—exalted be His praise—means thereby: Say, O Muḥammad, to those whose characteristic I have described to you among the hypocrites: Even if you had been in your houses, and had not attended their battlefield with the believers, and had not experienced with them the fight against their enemies among the polytheists—so that there became visible to the believers what you concealed of your hypocrisy and kept hidden of doubt about your religion—"then those for whom death was decreed would still have gone forth," He says: then he for whom death was decreed would still have come forth to the place where his fall was decreed, and he would have gone out from his house to there, until he was struck down at the place where it was decreed for him that he would be struck down.
* * *
And as for His saying "and so that Allah might test what is in your breasts," thereby He means: and so that Allah might test what is in your breasts, O hypocrites, [in the case that] you had gone forth from your houses to your places of falling.
* * *
And by His saying "and so that Allah might test what is in your breasts" He means: and so that Allah might put to the test that which is in your breasts of doubt, so that He might distinguish you—through what He would disclose to the believers of your hypocrisy—from the believers.
* * *
And we have demonstrated in what preceded that the meanings of the counterparts of His saying "so that Allah might test" and "so that Allah might know" and what is like it, although in the outward form of the word the description thereof is attributed to Allah, what is meant thereby is His protégés and the people of His obedience. And that the meaning of it is: and so that the protégés of Allah and the people of His obedience might put to the test that which is in your breasts of doubt and disease, so that they might know you [and distinguish you] from the people of sincerity and conviction—"and might purify what is in your hearts," He says: and so that they might distinguish what is in your hearts of conviction toward Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and the believers, whether of enmity or of loyal allegiance.
* * *
"And Allah is All-Knowing of what is in the breasts," He says: and Allah has knowledge of that which is in the breasts of His creatures of good and evil, and faith (īmān) and disbelief (kufr); nothing of their affairs remains hidden from Him, neither the concealed thereof nor the overt thereof, and He preserves all of that, until He gives them all their recompense according to the measure of their deserving.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about that, Ibn Isḥāq used to say:
8096 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: Allah mentioned their mutual reproaches—that is: the mutual reproaches of the hypocrites—and their regret over what had struck them, and then He said to His Prophet ﷺ, say: "Even if you had been in your houses," and had not attended this place, where Allah—exalted be His praise—has disclosed of you what He has disclosed of your secrets, then he for whom death was decreed would still have gone out to another dwelling place where they would be struck down, so that He might thereby test what is in your breasts—"and might purify what is in your hearts, and Allah is All-Knowing of what is in the breasts," that is: there does not remain hidden from Him what is in their breasts, of that which they concealed from you.
8097 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: al-Ḥārith ibn Muslim related to us, on the authority of Baḥr al-Saqqāʾ, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, who said: He was asked about His saying: "Say: Even if you had been in your houses, those for whom death was decreed would still have gone forth to their places of falling," he said: Allah has decreed for the believers that they fight in His way, and not everyone who fights is killed, but rather there is killed only he for whom Allah has decreed death.