Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:75
And among the People of the Scripture is he who, if you entrust him with a great amount [of wealth], he will return it to you. And among them is he who, if you entrust him with a [single] silver coin, he will not return it to you unless you are constantly standing over him [demanding it]. That is because they say, "There is no blame upon us concerning the unlearned." And they speak untruth about Allah while they know [it].
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 word concerning the explanation of His statement: وَمِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ مَنْ إِنْ تَأْمَنْهُ بِقِنْطَارٍ يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ إِنْ تَأْمَنْهُ بِدِينَارٍ لا يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكَ إِلا مَا دُمْتَ عَلَيْهِ قَائِمًا ("And among the People of the Book is he who, if you entrust him with a great sum (qinṭār), will return it to you; and among them is he who, if you entrust him with a dinar, will not return it to you, unless you keep standing over him constantly (to demand it).")
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is an announcement from Allah, Mighty and Exalted: that among the People of the Book — and they are the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl — there are people of trustworthiness who return what has been entrusted to them and do not betray it, and that among them is the betrayer of what has been entrusted to him, the deceiver in his oath, who appropriates it as though it were lawful.
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If someone were to ask: What is the meaning of Allah, Mighty and Exalted, announcing this to His prophet — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — while you know that people have always been thus: among them is he who returns what is entrusted and he who betrays it?
Then the answer is: He — Mighty and Exalted — intended, by His announcement to the believers of their condition — as He has set it forth in His Book with these āyāt — to warn them against entrusting their possessions to them, and to make them fearful of self-deception with respect to them, because many of them regard the possessions of the believers as lawful for themselves.
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The explanation of the words is therefore: and among the People of the Book is he who, if you, O Muḥammad, entrust him with a great quantity of wealth, returns it to you and does not betray you therein; and among them is he who, if you entrust him with a dinar, betrays you therein and does not return it to you, unless you press upon him with demanding and exacting.
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The "bāʾ" in His statement "bi a dinar" (bi-dīnār) and "over" (ʿalā) interchange with each other in this place, just as one says: "I passed by him" (marartu bi-hi) and "I passed over him" (marartu ʿalayhi).
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The people of explanation differed concerning the explanation of His statement "unless you keep standing over him constantly."
Some of them said: "unless you keep constantly pressing upon him to demand it."
Mention of who said that:
7261 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: "unless you keep standing over him constantly," that is to say: unless you demand it and pursue him for it.
7262 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: "unless you keep standing over him constantly," he said: you demand it from him.
7263 - 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, concerning His statement: "unless you keep standing over him constantly," he said: persisting.
7264 - 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 Mujāhid, something similar.
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Others said: its meaning is: "unless you keep standing constantly over his head."
Mention of who said that:
7265 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His statement: "unless you keep standing over him constantly," he says: he acknowledges the trust as long as you keep standing over his head; but when you go away and then come back to demand it, he denies your right — and this concerns both the one who returns it and the denier.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The more sound of the two views concerning the explanation of the āyah is the view of him who said: "its meaning is: unless you keep standing over him constantly with exacting and demanding," according to their manner of speaking: "so-and-so demanded my right from so-and-so until he extracted it for me," that is to say: he exerted himself to free it up and strove to recover it from him until he retrieved it. For Allah, Mighty and Exalted, has described them only with their regarding the possessions of the unlettered ones (al-ummiyyīn) as lawful, and that among them is he who does not discharge his debt except under intense pressing and demanding. And standing over the head of the one who owes the debt does not necessarily entail that he desists from that upon which he stands, namely his regarding as lawful what he deems lawful; rather, it may be that — alongside his regarding the withholding of what he owes to the rightful claimant as lawful — there exists a way to recover it by demanding, litigating, and disputing. That demanding is the "standing" of the owner of the wealth to recover his right from the one who owes it.
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The word concerning the explanation of His statement: ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا لَيْسَ عَلَيْنَا فِي الأُمِّيِّينَ سَبِيلٌ ("That is because they said: there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted is His praise — means by it: that whoever among the Jews regards betrayal as lawful and the denial of the rights that the Arab has against him, so that he does not return what the Arab has entrusted to him except as long as the latter demands it from him and exacts it — he does this because he says: there is no debt nor sin upon us in what we appropriate of the possessions of the Arabs, because they do not stand upon the truth and because they are polytheists (mushrikīn).
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The people of explanation differed concerning the explanation of it. Some of them said something along the lines of what we have said about it.
Mention of who said that:
7266 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "That is because they said: there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones," the āyah. The Jews said: there is no obligation upon us with respect to what we appropriate of the possessions of the Arabs.
7267 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: "there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones," he said: there is no obligation upon us toward the polytheists — they meant those who do not belong to the People of the Book.
7268 - Muḥammad related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "That is because they said: there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones," he said: it is said to him: what is the matter with you that you do not return what has been entrusted to you? Then he says: there is no debt upon us with respect to the possessions of the Arabs, Allah has made them lawful for us!
7269 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb al-Qummī related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: when there was sent down "And among the People of the Book is he who, if you entrust him with a great sum, will return it to you; and among them is he who, if you entrust him with a dinar, will not return it to you, unless you keep standing over him constantly — that is because they said: there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones," the Prophet — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — said: the enemies of Allah have lied; there is nothing that existed in the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) but it lies beneath my feet, except the trust, for that must be returned to the righteous and the wicked alike.
7270 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Hishām ibn ʿUbayd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Yaʿqūb al-Qummī, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he said: when the Jews said "there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones," by which they meant taking their possessions, the Messenger of Allah — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — then said something similar — except that he said: except that it lies beneath these two feet of mine, except the trust, for that must be returned — and he added nothing to it.
7271 - 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 is because they said: there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones," and that was because the People of the Book said: there is no blame upon us with respect to what we appropriate from these, because they are unlettered. That is His statement: (there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones), to the end of the āyah.
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Others said the following concerning it:
7272 - Al-Qāsim related it to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: "That is because they said: there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones," he said: men of the Muslims had traded with the Jews in the time of ignorance, and when they became Muslims, they demanded from them the price of their sold goods. Then they said: you have no trust deposited with us, and we owe you nothing in repayment, because you have abandoned your religion which you used to follow! He said: and they claimed that they had found this in their Book. Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted, said: وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ ("and they tell lies against Allah while they know").
7273 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Ṣaʿṣaʿa, he said: I said to Ibn ʿAbbās: we wage war against the People of the Book and appropriate something of their fruits? He said: and do you then say as the People of the Book said: "there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones"?!
7274 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ṣaʿṣaʿa: that a man asked Ibn ʿAbbās and said: we appropriate during the military expedition — or: at the date-cluster, the doubt is from al-Ḥasan — of the possessions of the people under dhimma status (ahl al-dhimma) a hen and a sheep. Then Ibn ʿAbbās said: and what do you then say? He said: we say: there is no harm in that for us! He said: this is like what the People of the Book said: "there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones"! Indeed, when they have paid the poll tax for non-Muslims (jizyah), their possessions are not lawful for you except with the consent of their hearts.
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The word concerning the explanation of His statement: وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ (3:75) ("and they tell lies against Allah while they know.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted is His praise — means by it: that those among them who say "there is no blame upon us with respect to the possessions of the unlettered ones among the Arabs if we deceive them therein," through their claim that Allah has made that lawful for us, so that there is no blame upon us if we deceive them therein and neglect their repayment — they tell the lie against Allah deliberately, committing the sin by uttering the lie against Allah, namely that He made that lawful for them. And that is His statement, Mighty and Exalted: "while they know," as in:
7275 - Muḥammad related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "then he tells the lie against Allah while he knows" — He means the one among them who says, when it is said to him: what is the matter with you that you do not return what has been entrusted to you? —: there is no blame upon us with respect to the possessions of the Arabs, Allah has made them lawful for us!
7276 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: "and they tell lies against Allah while they know," He means: their claim that they had found in their Book their statement: لَيْسَ عَلَيْنَا فِي الأُمِّيِّينَ سَبِيلٌ ("there is no obligation upon us toward the unlettered ones").