Tafseer of Luqman · Luqman · 31:18
And do not turn your cheek [in contempt] toward people and do not walk through the earth exultantly. Indeed, Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful.
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: وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ وَلا تَمْشِ فِي الأَرْضِ مَرَحًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ (18)
(And do not turn your cheek away from people in contempt, and do not walk arrogantly upon the earth; truly, Allah does not love any conceited boaster.) (31:18)
The reciters differed over the reading of His word: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ). Some reciters of Kufa, and some of the people of Medina and of Kufa, read it: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ) according to the pattern (تُفَعِّل). And some Meccans and the majority of the reciters of Medina, Kufa, and Basra read it: (وَلا تُصَاعِرْ) according to the pattern (تُفَاعِل).
The correct judgment regarding this is to say: they are two readings, each of which has been recited by scholars among the reciters; with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct. The explanation of the words is: do not turn your face away from the one to whom you are speaking, out of arrogance and out of disdain for the one to whom you are speaking. The root meaning of (al-ṣaʿar) is a disease that afflicts camels in their necks or their heads, so that their necks turn away from their heads; the arrogant man who exalts himself above people is likened to that. To this belongs the verse of ʿAmr ibn Ḥunayy al-Taghlibī:
"And when the tyrant turned his cheek away, we used to straighten him from his crookedness so that he stood upright again."
The exegetes differed over its explanation. Some of them said something along the lines of what we have said.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ) — he says: do not be arrogant, such that you disdain the servants of Allah and turn your face away from them when they speak to you.
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 word: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ) — he says: do not turn your face away from people out of arrogance.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ) — he said: turning aside and turning the face away from people.
ʿAlī ibn Sahl related to me, saying: Zayd ibn Abī al-Zarqāʾ related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, on the authority of Yazīd, concerning this verse (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ); he said: when someone speaks to you and you turn your face away and turn aside from him out of disdain for him.
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Khālid ibn Ḥayyān al-Raqqī related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn Maymūn ibn Mihrān, who said: it is the man who speaks to another and turns his face away while doing so.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Aswad related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿa related to us, saying: Abū Makīn related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His word: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ); he said: do not turn your face away.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His word: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ); he says: do not turn away from people; he says: turn toward people with your face and your good character.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ); he said: the turning away of the cheek (taṣʿīr al-khadd) is haughtiness and arrogance toward people and disdain for them.
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Abū Makīn, on the authority of ʿIkrima, who said: the turning away.
And others said: He only forbade him to do that toward someone between whom and himself there was aversion (ṣaʿar), not by way of arrogance.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Wakīʿ and Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, they said: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ); he said: it is the man between whom and his brother there is rancor, who then sees him and turns away from him.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ); he said: it is the man between whom and his brother there is rancor, who then turns away from him.
And others said: it is the twisting of the mouth (al-tashdīq, affected or arrogant speaking with a contorted mouth).
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, who said: it is the twisting of the mouth.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, who said: it is al-tashdīq or al-tashadduq ("Ṭabarī is in doubt").
Yaḥyā ibn Ṭalḥa related to us, saying: Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, the same.
And His word: (وَلا تَمْشِ فِي الأرْضِ مَرَحا); he says: and do not walk conceitedly upon the earth.
As it was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His word: (وَلا تَمْشِ فِي الأرْضِ مَرَحا); he says: with haughtiness.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: (وَلا تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ للنَّاسِ ولا تَمْشِ فِي الأرْضِ مَرَحا إنَّ اللهَ لا يُحبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتالٍ فَخُورٍ); he said: He forbade him arrogance. His word: (إنَّ الله لا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتالٍ) — a conceited one, a boaster.
As Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: (كُلَّ مُخْتالٍ فَخُورٍ); he said: conceited. And His word: (فخور — boaster); he said: he enumerates what Allah has bestowed upon him, while he does not thank Allah.
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Footnotes:
(3) The verse is by ʿAmr ibn Ḥunayy (with the nūn) al-Taghlibī (Muʿjam al-shuʿarāʾ of al-Marzubānī, pp. 206–207). He was a renowned knight from the pre-Islamic period (jāhiliyya). He says, concerning their killing of ʿAmr ibn Hind, according to the transmission of Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd:
"We pay the kings the due right so long as they conduct themselves justly toward us, and it is not forbidden to us to kill them. I disdained for them the blood-money of ʿAmr ibn Marthad, when they came to water, and the spear of Ibn Harthama. And when the tyrant turned his cheek away, we used to straighten him from his crookedness so that he stood upright again."
He says: he means: so that you stand upright again. This verse is transmitted from the qaṣīda of al-Mutalammis which begins thus:
"Men reproach me for my mother, but you will never find a man of magnanimity unless he acts magnanimously."
And after it follows the verse, and its ending reads: "we straightened him from his crookedness so that he stood upright again." And others transmit these verses under the name of Jābir ibn Ḥunayy al-Taghlibī. And Abū ʿUbayda said in the explanation of the saying of the Exalted: (ولا تصعر خدك للناس): its meaning is: do not turn your face around, and do not turn your face out of arrogance toward another direction; to this belongs the ṣaʿar that afflicts camels in their heads, so that their necks turn away from their heads. And ʿAmr ibn Ḥunayy al-Taghlibī said: "And when we … so that he stood upright again." And the verse is, in (al-Lisān: ṣaʿr), attributed to al-Mutalammis Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Masīḥ. He said: al-ṣaʿar is a crookedness in the face. And it is said: al-ṣaʿar is specifically a crookedness in the cheek. And sometimes it is an innate trait in the human being and in the male ostrich. And it is said: it is a crookedness in the neck, and a twisting of the face toward one of the two sides. And one says "ṣaʿʿara khaddahu" and "ṣāʿarahu": he inclined it out of arrogance. Al-Mutalammis said: "And when we … so that he stood upright again." He says: when an arrogant one inclined his cheek, we humbled him until his crookedness was straightened again. End.
