Tafseer of Luqman · Luqman · 31:16
[And Luqman said], "O my son, indeed if wrong should be the weight of a mustard seed and should be within a rock or [anywhere] in the heavens or in the earth, Allah will bring it forth. Indeed, Allah is Subtle and Acquainted.
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 the Exalted: O my son, if it is [something] the weight of a mustard seed, and it be within a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, then Allah will bring it forth. Verily, Allah is subtle, all-knowing (16).
The grammarians differed concerning the meaning of the hāʾ and the alif that occur in His saying innahā (if it). Some of the grammarians of Basra said: it is a reference to the disobedience and the sin. The meaning of the words is, according to him: O my son, if the disobedience is the weight of a mustard seed, or: if the sin [is that]. And some of the grammarians of Kufa said: this hāʾ is a supporting particle (ʿimād). And he said: he made "taku" feminine, because by it the "ḥabba" (grain, feminine) is meant, and so he directed the feminine form toward that, as the poet said:
And you choke upon the word you have spread
as the shaft of the lance chokes upon the blood (2)
And the proponent of this saying said: it is permissible to put "al-mithqāl" in the accusative and in the nominative. He said: whoever puts it in the nominative puts it in the nominative by "taku," and the indefinite form permitted that there be no predicate for it with "kāna" and "laysa" and their sisters. And whoever puts it in the accusative places in "takun" a concealed, unknown noun, like the hāʾ in His saying innahā in taku (if it...); and equivalent to that is His saying fa-innahā lā taʿmā al-abṣār (for verily, it is not the eyes that become blind). He said: and had it been in yaku mithqāla ḥabba, it would have been correct, and both possibilities would be permissible in it. As for the proponent of the first saying: he puts "mithqāl" in the accusative in his statement, on the basis that it is the predicate and the completion of "kāna"; and he said: some put it in the nominative and made it into the "kāna" that does not require a predicate.
And the more correct of the two sayings in my view is the second saying; for Allah, the Exalted whose mention is exalted, has not promised His servants that He will give them in full the recompense for their evil deeds without the recompense for their good deeds, such that it would be said: if the disobedience is the weight of a mustard seed, Allah brings it forth. Rather, He has promised both [groups of] doers that He will give them in full the recompense for the deeds of both. And since that is so, it is more fitting that the hāʾ in His saying innahā be a supporting particle than that it be a reference to the sin and the disobedience. As for the accusative in "al-mithqāl," that is on the basis that there is a concealed subject in "taku"; and the nominative in it is on the basis that the predicate is concealed, as though it were said: if there be, in the place of the weight of a mustard seed, [something] — for the indefinite nouns conceal their predicates — and then it is explained by the place in which the weight of the seed is located.
And by His saying mithqāla ḥabba (the weight of a grain) is meant: the weight of a grain. The explanation of the words is then: verily, the matter, if it be the weight of a mustard seed, of good or evil that you have done, and it be within a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, then Allah will bring it forth on the Day of Resurrection, until He gives you in full the recompense for it.
And in the same sense as what we have said concerning this, the exegetes spoke.
* The mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: O my son, if it is [something] the weight of a mustard seed: of good or evil.
And the exegetes differed concerning the meaning of His saying: and it be within a rock. Some of them said: by it is meant the rock upon which the earth rests, and that is a saying transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās and others; and they said: it is a green rock.
* The mention of who said that:
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, who said: the rock is green, upon the back of a fish.
Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, in a report that he mentioned on the authority of Abū Mālik, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, and on the authority of Murra, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, and on the authority of some men of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: Allah created the earth upon a fish, and the fish is the "nūn" that Allah mentioned in the Qurʾān — Nūn. By the pen and what they inscribe — and the fish is in the water, and the water is upon the back of a smooth stone, and the smooth stone is upon the back of an angel, and the angel is upon a rock, and the rock is in the wind; and that is the rock that Luqmān mentioned, which is neither in the heaven nor in the earth.
And others said: by it are meant the mountains; they said: and the meaning of the words is: and it be within a mountain.
* The mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: and it be within a rock, that is to say: a mountain.
And His saying: then Allah will bring it forth — some of them explained its meaning as: Allah knows it; but I do not know "yaʾtī bihi" in the meaning of "He knows it," unless the proponent of that meant that Luqmān is only describing Allah by it because Allah knows the places of it, and no place of anything of it is hidden from Him — then that would be an [acceptable] purport.
* The mention of who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Yaḥyā related to us, both of them saying: Abū Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Mālik: and it be within a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, then Allah will bring it forth, he said: Allah knows it.
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Mahdī related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Mālik, the like of it.
And His saying: Verily, Allah is subtle, all-knowing — He says: verily, Allah is subtle in bringing forth the grain from its place, wherever it may be, all-knowing concerning its place.
And in the same sense as what we have said concerning this, the exegetes spoke.
* The mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: Verily, Allah is subtle, all-knowing, that is to say: subtle in bringing it forth, all-knowing concerning its abode.
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The footnotes:
(2) The verse is by al-Aʿshā of Banū Qays ibn Thaʿlaba (his dīwān, Cairo edition with the commentary of Dr. Muḥammad Ḥusayn, p. 123), and it is part of a poem in which he satirizes ʿUmayr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mundhir ibn ʿAbdān, when the latter brought him together with the poet Jahnnām in order to mock him. The verse number is (34). The meaning of "tashraqu" is: to choke; and "ṣadr al-qanāt": its upper part; and "al-qanāt": the lance. Thus. And in "Farāʾid al-qalāʾid, sharḥ mukhtaṣar al-shawāhid" by al-ʿAynī he says: the point of evidence lies in "sharaqat," where he made it feminine although the subject is masculine, namely "al-ṣadr" (the breast), and the analogy would be: "shariqa." But because the "ṣadr," which is the element in the construct state, is a part of that to which it is annexed, it took its rule. Thus.
