Tafseer of Yaseen · Yaseen · 36:8
Indeed, We have put shackles on their necks, and they are to their chins, so they are with heads [kept] aloft.
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: إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا فِي أَعْنَاقِهِمْ أَغْلالا فَهِيَ إِلَى الأَذْقَانِ فَهُمْ مُقْمَحُونَ ("Indeed, We have placed around their necks shackles, and they reach up to the chins, so that they are forced to hold up their heads") (36:8).
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: Indeed, We have shackled the right hands of these unbelievers (kuffār) to their necks with chains, so that they cannot stretch them out toward any good thing. In the reading of ʿAbd Allāh (ibn Masʿūd) it reads, as has been transmitted: إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا فِي أَيْمَانِهِمْ أَغْلالا فَهِيَ إِلَى الأذْقَانِ ("Indeed, We have placed shackles upon their right hands, and they reach up to the chins"). And His saying إِلَى الأذْقَانِ ("up to the chins") means: their right hands are bound together with the shackles to their necks. The right hands are thus indicated implicitly, even though they were not mentioned earlier, because the hearers know the meaning of the saying, and because shackles that are around the necks inevitably lead to the hands of the shackled being bound together with them to the necks. Thus the mention that the shackles are around the necks sufficed without mention of the right hands, as the poet said:
"And I do not know, when I turn myself toward some direction and seek the good, which of the two will fall to my lot:
is it the good that I pursue, or the evil that gives me no rest?"
He indicated the evil only implicitly, and mentioned only the good, because the hearer knows from it the intent of the speaker, since evil is customarily mentioned together with good. And "al-adhqān" (the chins) is the plural of "dhaqan" (chin); the chin is the place where the two halves of the jaw come together.
And His saying فَهُمْ مُقْمَحُونَ ("so that they are forced to hold up their heads"): the "muqmaḥ" is the "muqnaʿ" (the one whose head is forced backward), and that consists of the chin being pushed downward until it comes against the chest, after which the head is raised up — according to the saying of some of the scholars of the Arabic language from Basra. And according to the saying of some of the Kufans it is the one who lowers his gaze after he has raised his head.
And in agreement with what we have said about this, the scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
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 إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا فِي أَعْنَاقِهِمْ أَغْلالا فَهِيَ إِلَى الأذْقَانِ فَهُمْ مُقْمَحُونَ, he said: It is like the saying of Allah وَلا تَجْعَلْ يَدَكَ مَغْلُولَةً إِلَى عُنُقِكَ ("And do not make your hand shackled to your neck"); thereby it is meant that their hands are bound to their necks, so that they cannot stretch them out toward the good.
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 saying فَهُمْ مُقْمَحُونَ, he said: they raise up their heads, while their hands are placed upon their mouths.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا فِي أَعْنَاقِهِمْ أَغْلالا فَهِيَ إِلَى الأذْقَانِ فَهُمْ مُقْمَحُونَ: that is, they are shackled and prevented from all good.
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Footnotes:
The two verses are in the wāfir meter, and they are by Suḥaym ibn Wathīl al-Riyāḥī. They were already cited earlier (at 14:157) at the saying of the Exalted سرابيل تقيكم الحرب ("garments that protect you against the war") in Surah al-Naḥl. Here they are cited as proof that the saying "I seek the good, which of the two will fall to my lot" means: which of the good and the evil will fall to my lot, whereby he sufficed with the mention of the good and indicated the evil implicitly, since this was known from the context, as in the saying of the Exalted إنا جعلنا في أعناقهم أغلالا ("Indeed, We have placed around their necks shackles"), where the right hands were not expressly mentioned, because the shackle is only on the right hand and the neck together. Thus the mention of the shackles sufficed without the mention of the right hands. Al-Farrāʾ said in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 267): And His saying إنا جعلنا في أعناقهم أغلالا فهي إلى الأذقان — he indicated "hiya" (these) implicitly, and that refers to the right hands, which were not mentioned. That is because the shackle is only on the right hand, while the neck brings together the right hand and the neck, so that the mention of one of the two suffices for the other. Comparable to it is the saying of the poet: "And I do not know…" (the two verses). He indicated the evil implicitly and mentioned only the good. That is because the evil is mentioned together with the good. And in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh it reads: إنا جعلنا في أيمانهم أغلالا فهي إلى الأذقان ("Indeed, We have placed shackles upon their right hands, and they reach up to the chins"), so that the mention of "the necks" was superfluous in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh, and "the necks" made superfluous what concerns the mention of "the right hands" in the common reading. And "al-dhaqan" (the chin) is the lowest part of the two halves of the jaw.
