Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:79
It is not for a human [prophet] that Allah should give him the Scripture and authority and prophethood and then he would say to the people, "Be servants to me rather than Allah," but [instead, he would say], "Be pious scholars of the Lord because of what you have taught of the Scripture and because of what you have studied."
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 the saying of Allah: مَا كَانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَنْ يُؤْتِيَهُ اللَّهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحُكْمَ وَالنُّبُوَّةَ ثُمَّ يَقُولَ لِلنَّاسِ كُونُوا عِبَادًا لِي مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ ("It is not fitting for any human being that Allah should give him the Book, sound judgement, and prophethood, and that he should then say to the people: Be servants of mine instead of Allah").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His praise, means thereby: it is not fitting for any single human being.
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And "the human being" (al-bashar) is a collective noun for the children of Ādam, which has no singular of its own form, like "the people" (al-qawm) and "the creation" (al-khalq). It can also be the name for a single individual = "that Allah should give him the Book," he says: that Allah should send down to him His Book = "and sound judgement" (al-ḥukm), He means: and that He should teach him the discernment of wisdom = "and prophethood," he says: and that He should give him prophethood = "and that he should then say to the people: Be servants of mine instead of Allah," He means: and that he should then call the people to the worship of himself instead of Allah, while Allah has given him what He has given him of the Book, sound judgement, and prophethood. But when Allah gives him that, then he only calls them to the knowledge of Allah, and urges them to know the precepts of His religion, and that they should be forerunners in the knowledge of Allah's command and prohibition, and leaders in His obedience and worship, by teaching the people the Book and by studying it.
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And it has been said: this verse was sent down concerning a group of the People of the Book who said to the Prophet — Allah's peace and blessings be upon him — : "Do you call us to your worship?" As in:-
7296 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, on the authority of ʿIkrima or Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Abū Rāfiʿ al-Quraẓī said — when the scholars of the Jews and the Christians of the People of Najrān gathered before the Messenger of Allah, Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, and he called them to Islam — : "Do you wish, O Muḥammad, that we should worship you, as the Christians worship ʿĪsā the son of Maryam?" Then a man of the People of Najrān, a Christian who was called ar-Ribbīs, said: "Is that what you want from us, O Muḥammad, and do you call us to that?" — or as he put it. Then the Messenger of Allah, Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Allah preserve us from worshipping anything other than Allah, or from commanding the worship of anything other than Him! For that He did not send me, and to that He did not command me" — or as he put it. Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted is He, sent down concerning this, regarding their words: "It is not fitting for any human being that Allah should give him the Book, sound judgement, and prophethood," the verse, up to His saying بَعْدَ إِذْ أَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ ("after you had been Muslims").
7297 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman of Zayd ibn Thābit, related to me, saying: Saʿīd ibn Jubayr or ʿIkrima related to me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Abū Rāfiʿ al-Quraẓī said, and he mentioned something similar.
7298 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "It is not fitting for any human being that Allah should give him the Book, sound judgement, and prophethood, and that he should then say to the people: Be servants of mine instead of Allah," he says: it is not fitting for any human being that Allah should give him the Book, sound judgement, and prophethood, that he should then command His servants to take him as lord instead of Allah.
7299 - 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 ar-Rabīʿ, something similar.
7300 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: there were people among the Jews who made the people servants of themselves instead of their Lord, through their falsification of the Book of Allah, which they distorted from its place. Then Allah, Mighty and Exalted is He, said: "It is not fitting for any human being that Allah should give him the Book, sound judgement, and prophethood, and that he should then say to the people: Be servants of mine instead of Allah," whereupon he commands the people something other than what Allah has sent down in His Book.
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The explanation of the saying of Allah: وَلَكِنْ كُونُوا رَبَّانِيِّينَ ("But be rabbāniyyīn").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His praise, means thereby: "but" — He says to them: "be rabbāniyyīn." He omitted "the saying," because the indication of the sentence preceding it suffices.
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As for His saying "be rabbāniyyīn," the exegetes differ in their explanation of it.
Some of them said: its meaning is: be sages and scholars.
Mention of who said that:
7301 - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Razīn: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: sages and scholars.
7302 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Razīn: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: sages and scholars.
7303 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Razīn, something similar.
7304 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Razīn: "but be rabbāniyyīn," sages and scholars.
7305 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: be jurists (fuqahāʾ) and scholars.
7306 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: jurists.
7307 - 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.
7308 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: al-Qāsim informed me, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: "but be rabbāniyyīn," he said: jurists.
7309 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: "but be rabbāniyyīn," he said: be jurists and scholars.
7310 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd ar-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir, on the authority of Abū Razīn, concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: scholars and sages = Maʿmar said: Qatāda said it.
7311 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of as-Suddī, concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," as for "the rabbāniyyūn," they are the wise jurists.
7312 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Sufyān informed us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: "the rabbāniyyūn" are the juristic scholars, and they rank above the aḥbār (scribes).
7313 - 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, concerning His saying: "but be rabbāniyyīn," he says: be wise jurists.
7314 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, saying: Bishr ibn ʿImāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥamza ath-Thumālī, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn ʿAqīl, concerning His saying: الرَّبَّانِيُّونَ وَالأَحْبَارُ ("the rabbāniyyūn and the aḥbār") [Sūrat al-Māʾida: 63], he said: the juristic scholars.
7315 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Minjāb, saying: Bishr related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, something similar.
7316 - Ibn Sinān al-Qazzāz related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ashqar related to us, saying: Abū Kudayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn as-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: be wise jurists.
7317 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard aḍ-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," he says: be jurists and scholars.
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And others said: no, they are the God-fearing sages.
Mention of who said that:
7318 - Yaḥyā ibn Ṭalḥa al-Yarbūʿī related to me, saying: Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn as-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: God-fearing sages.
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And others said: no, they are the administrators of the people and their leaders.
Mention of who said that:
7319 - Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: I heard Ibn Zayd say concerning His saying: "be rabbāniyyīn," he said: the rabbāniyyūn are those who raise the people and take them under their care, the administrators of this affair. They raise them: they have authority over them. And he recited: لَوْلا يَنْهَاهُمُ الرَّبَّانِيُّونَ وَالأَحْبَارُ ("Why do the rabbāniyyūn and the aḥbār not forbid them?") [Sūrat al-Māʾida: 63], he said: the rabbāniyyūn are the administrators, and the aḥbār are the scholars.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The most correct of the sayings in my view concerning "the rabbāniyyīn" is that it is a plural of "rabbānī," and that "the rabbānī" is ascribed to "the rabbān," who raises the people (yarubbu), namely the one who sets their affairs in order, and who "raises them" (yarubbuhā) and shows care for them. And from this comes the saying of ʿAlqama ibn ʿAbada:
"And I was a man whose guardianship was transferred to you, and before you others raised me, yet I was lost, O upbringers."
He means by his saying "raised me": before you, the one who raises him and sets things in order took charge of my affairs and stood surety for them, but they did not set them in order, but rather let me go to ruin and so I was lost.
One says of this: "so-and-so raised my affair (rabba), and he raises it (yarubbuhu) with a raising (rabban), and he is the raiser of it (rābbuhu)." When one intends thereby exaggeration in his praise, one says: "he is rabbān," as one says: "he is naʿsān (drowsy)" from their saying: "he became drowsy (naʿasa yanʿusu)." And most of the nouns that come on the form "faʿlān" are those whose verbs in the past have the form "faʿila," like their saying: "he is sakrān (drunk), and ʿaṭshān (thirsty), and rayyān (sated with drink)" from "he became drunk (sakira yaskaru), and he became thirsty (ʿaṭisha yaʿṭashu), and he became sated with drink (rawiya yarwā)." And it can also come from that which in the past has the form "faʿala yafʿulu," like what we said concerning "naʿasa yanʿusu" and "rabba yarubbu."
When the matter herein is as we have described = and "the rabbān" was that which we have mentioned = and "the rabbānī" is the one who is ascribed to someone who possesses the quality I have described = and the one knowledgeable in jurisprudence and wisdom belongs to the reformers, who raise the affairs of the people by teaching them the good and calling them to what is in their interest = and likewise the sage, the one who fears Allah, and the administrator who governs the affairs of the people according to the way which the righteous reformers of the affairs of creation walk, by standing surety among them for what brings about their welfare in this life and the hereafter and what yields them benefit in their religion and their world = then they all deserve to [belong] to those who fall under His saying, Mighty and Exalted is He: "but be rabbāniyyīn."
"The rabbāniyyūn" are thus the pillars of the people in jurisprudence, knowledge, and the affairs of religion and world. And therefore Mujāhid said: "and they rank above the aḥbār," because "the aḥbār" are the scholars, and "the rabbānī" is the one who adds to knowledge and jurisprudence also the insight into statecraft, governance, and standing surety for the affairs of the subjects, as well as for what sets them in order in their world and their religion.
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The explanation of the saying of Allah: بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تُعَلِّمُونَ الْكِتَابَ وَبِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَدْرُسُونَ ("because of what you taught of the Book and because of what you studied") (3:79).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters differ concerning the recitation of this.
The general reciters of the Ḥijāz and some of Basra recite it as (بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ) with a fatḥa on the "tāʾ" and a light "lām" ("because of what you knew of the Book"), He means: because of your knowledge of the Book, your study of it, and your recitation of it.
And they reasoned their choice to recite it thus with the contention that the correct view = thus, were there a doubling (tashdīd) in the "lām" and a ḍamma on the "tāʾ" = then the correct reading in "تدرسون" would have been with a ḍamma on the "tāʾ" and a doubling of the "rāʾ."
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And the general reciters of Kufa recite it as (بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تُعَلِّمُونَ الْكِتَابَ) with a ḍamma on the "tāʾ" of "تعلمون" and a doubling of the "lām," with the meaning: because of your teaching the people the Book and your study of it.
And they reasoned their choice of that with the contention that whoever describes them with teaching has already described them with knowledge, since they only teach after they know what they teach. They said: and there is no one who is described as "teaching" but that he is described as "knowing." They said: but the one who is described as "knowing" is not described as a teacher of another. They said: so the most correct of the two recitations is the most eloquent in the praise of the people, and that is to describe them as those who taught the people the Book, as in:-
7320 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ādam related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, on the authority of Ḥumayd al-Aʿraj, on the authority of Mujāhid, that he recited: "because of what you knew of the Book and because of what you studied," lightly pronounced with a fatḥa on the "tāʾ" = and Ibn ʿUyayna said: they only taught it after they knew it!
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The most correct of the two recitations herein is the recitation of the one who recites it with a ḍamma on the "tāʾ" and a doubling of the "lām." For Allah, Mighty and Exalted is He, described the people as folk who are a pillar for the people in their religion and their world, and folk who bring about reform and upbringing for them and for their affairs.
He, exalted be His praise, says: "but be rabbāniyyīn," according to what we have expounded earlier concerning the meaning of "the rabbānī," and then He, exalted be His mention, informed concerning them that they became folk of reform for the people, and of upbringing for them, by teaching them the Book of their Lord.
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= And "their study" (dirāsa) of it: the reciting of it.
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And it has been said: "their study" is jurisprudence.
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The most fitting of the two explanations regarding the study is what we have said: the reciting of the Book, because it is connected to His saying: "you taught the Book," and "the Book" is the Qurʾān. That the study, then, means the study of the Qurʾān is more obvious than that it means the study of jurisprudence, which is not mentioned.
Mention of who said that:
7321 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ādam said: Abū Zakariyyā said: ʿĀṣim used to recite it: (بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تُعَلِّمُونَ الْكِتَابَ), he said: the Qurʾān =(وَبِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَدْرُسُونَ), he said: jurisprudence.
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The meaning of the verse is thus: but He says to them: be, O people, masters of the people and their leaders in the matter of their religion and their world, rabbāniyyūn through your teaching them the Book of Allah and what it contains of the permitted and the forbidden, the obligatory and the recommended, and the remaining meanings that it comprises of the affairs of their religion, and through your recitation and study of it.
