Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:17
The patient, the true, the obedient, those who spend [in the way of Allah], and those who seek forgiveness before dawn.
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.
Explanation of the words of Allah: الصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْمُنْفِقِينَ ("The patient, the truthful, the devoutly obedient, and those who spend.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words "the patient" (al-ṣābirīn) He means: those who showed patience in adversity and hardship and at the moment of battle (al-baʾs).
And by "the truthful" (al-ṣādiqīn) He means: those who were truthful toward Allah in their word by affirming their acknowledgment of Him and of His messenger and of what he has brought from Him, by acting upon what He has commanded them and refraining from what He has forbidden them.
And by "the devoutly obedient" (al-qānitīn) He means: those who are obedient to Him.
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We have already given the explanation of all these words and their meanings, with the proofs for the correctness of what we have said about them, and with the reports of those who have made a statement about it, in what preceded, with that which relieves us from repeating it in this place.
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Qatāda used to say concerning that what follows:
6752 - Bishr related it to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words "the patient, the truthful, the devoutly obedient, and those who spend": "the truthful": a people whose mouths spoke truth and whose hearts and tongues were upright, and who were truthful in the hidden and the open. "And the patient": a people who showed patience in obedience to Allah, and who refrained with patience from what He has forbidden. "And the devoutly obedient": they are those who are obedient to Allah.
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As for "those who spend" (al-munfiqūn), they are those who give the obligatory alms (zakāh) on their possessions and dispense them as Allah has commanded them to give them, and those who spend their possessions in the ways in which Allah, exalted is His praise, has permitted them to spend them.
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As for "the patient" and "the truthful" and the rest of these words, they stand in the genitive on the basis of being referred back to His words: الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا إِنَّنَا آمَنَّا ("Those who say: Our Lord, indeed we have believed"). And the genitive in these words indicates that His words "those who say" stand in the genitive, on the basis of being referred back to His words: لِلَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ ("for those who are God-fearing, with their Lord").
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Explanation of the words of Allah: وَالْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ بِالأَسْحَارِ ("and those who ask for forgiveness in the last hours of the night") (3:17)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The scholars of exegesis differed concerning the people whose characteristic this description is.
Some of them said: They are those who pray in the last hours of the night.
Mention of who said that:
6753 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and those who ask for forgiveness in the last hours of the night," they are the people of prayer.
6754 - 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 Qatāda: "and those who ask for forgiveness in the last hours of the night," he said: they pray in the last hours of the night.
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Others said: They are those who ask for forgiveness.
Mention of who said that:
6755 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of Ḥurayth ibn Abī Maṭar, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥāṭib, on the authority of his father, who said: In the last part of the night I heard a man in a corner of the mosque who said: Lord, You have commanded me and I have obeyed You, and this is the last part of the night, so forgive me. I looked, and behold, it was Ibn Masʿūd.
6756 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, saying: I asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir about the words of Allah, mighty and exalted: "and those who ask for forgiveness in the last hours of the night," he said: Sulaymān ibn Mūsā related to me, saying: Nāfiʿ related to us: that Ibn ʿUmar used to spend the night in prayer and then say: O Nāfiʿ, have we reached the last part of the night? Whereupon he would say: No. Then he would resume the prayer, and when I said: Yes! he would sit down to ask for forgiveness and to supplicate until he reached the morning.
6757 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of some people of Basra, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, who said: We were commanded to ask for forgiveness seventy times in the last hours of the night.
6758 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb related to us, saying: Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ḍabbī related to us, saying: I heard Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad say: Whoever prays during the night and then at the end of the night asks for forgiveness seventy times is written among those who ask for forgiveness in the last hours of the night.
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Others said: They are those who attend the dawn prayer in congregation.
Mention of who said that:
6759 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn Maslama, the brother of al-Qaʿnabī, related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: I said to Zayd ibn Aslam: Who are "those who ask for forgiveness in the last hours of the night"? He said: They are those who attend the dawn prayer.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of these statements regarding the explanation of His words "and those who ask for forgiveness in the last hours of the night" is the statement of the one who said: They are those who ask their Lord to cover their disgrace thereby.
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"In the last hours of the night" (bi-l-asḥār), and that is the plural of "saḥar" (the last part of the night before dawn).
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The clearest of its meanings is that their asking of Him takes place by means of supplication. It is possible that its meaning is: their striving for His forgiveness by means of deeds and prayer, except that the clearest of its meanings is that which we have mentioned concerning supplication.
