Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:33
And for all, We have made heirs to what is left by parents and relatives. And to those whom your oaths have bound [to you] - give them their share. Indeed Allah is ever, over all things, a Witness.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: wa-li-kullin jaʿalnā mawāliya mimmā taraka l-wālidāni wa-l-aqrabūn ("And for everyone We have appointed heirs to what the parents and the close relatives leave behind").
Exalted is His praise — He means by His word: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī (heirs)," that is to say: for every one of you, O people, = "We have appointed mawālī." He says: heirs from the sons of his paternal uncle, his brothers, and the remaining members of his ʿaṣaba (paternal relatives) besides them.
* * *
The Arabs call the son of the paternal uncle "al-mawlā." Among that is the saying of the poet:
"And a mawlā for whom we strove, while he cunningly sows evil in our honor, and he hastens toward shameful deeds."
He means thereby: and a cousin (son of the paternal uncle) for whom we strove. Among that too is the saying of al-Faḍl ibn al-ʿAbbās:
"Restrain yourselves, O sons of our uncle, restrain yourselves, O our mawālī, do not bring to light for us what was buried."
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
9258 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Abū Usāma related to us, he said: Idrīs related to us, he said: Ṭalḥa ibn Muṣarrif related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī," he said: heirs.
9259 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī to what the parents leave behind," he said: the mawālī are the ʿaṣaba, that is to say = the heirs.
9260 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Muʾammil related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī," he said: the mawālī are the ʿaṣaba.
9261 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, His word: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī," he said: they are the awliyāʾ (protectors/relatives).
9262 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī," he says: ʿaṣaba.
9263 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī," he said: the mawālī are the relatives of the father, or of the brother, or of the brother's son, or others among the ʿaṣaba.
9264 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī," as for "mawālī," they are the people who inherit.
9265 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī," he said: the mawālī are the ʿaṣaba. They were, in the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya), the mawālī. When the non-Arabs (ʿajam) mingled among the Arabs, they found no designation for them, so Allah — blessed and exalted is He — said: fa-in lam taʿlamū ābāʾahum fa-ikhwānukum fī l-dīni wa-mawālīkum ("If you do not know their fathers, then they are your brothers in religion and your mawālī") [Surah Al-Aḥzāb: 5]. Thus they were called "the mawālī." He said: and "al-mawlā" today is of two kinds: a mawlā who inherits and is inherited from — those are the blood relatives (dhawū l-arḥām) — and a mawlā who is inherited from but does not inherit — those are the ones of manumission (al-ʿatāqa, freed slaves). And he said: do you not see the saying of Zakariyyāʾ: wa-innī khiftu l-mawāliya min warāʾī ("And indeed, I fear the mawālī after me") [Surah Maryam: 5]? Here, then, the mawālī are the heirs.
* * *
He means by His word: "to what the parents and the close relatives leave behind," to what his father and his close relatives have left behind of inheritance.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: the interpretation of the word, then, is: and for every one of you, O people, We have appointed a ʿaṣaba through whom he inherits from what his father and his close relatives have left behind of their inheritance.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: wa-lladhīna ʿaqadat aymānukum fa-ātūhum naṣībahum ("And those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share").
Abū Jaʿfar said: the reciters differ over its reading.
Some of them read it: (wa-lladhīna ʿaqadat aymānukum), with the meaning: and those with whom your oaths have concluded the pact (ḥilf) between you and them. And this is the reading of the general body of the reciters of the Kufans.
* * *
Others read it: (wa-lladhīna ʿāqadat aymānukum), with the meaning: and those with whom your oaths and their oaths have concluded the pact between you and them.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: and what we say about this is: they are two well-known, widely-current readings among the reciters of the cities of the Muslims, with one and the same meaning.
* * *
And in the indication of His word "your oaths" — that they are the oaths of the covenant-makers and of those with whom the pact is made — lies sufficient proof, without one needing for that the indication from the reading of His word "ʿaqadat" or "ʿāqadat." For those who read it as "ʿāqadat" said: the concluding of a pact can only take place between two parties, and we need in the wording an indication that this is so. But they overlooked the place of the indication of His word "your oaths," namely that its meaning is: your oaths and the oaths of those with whom the covenant is made, and that the concluding (al-ʿaqd) is merely an attribute of the oaths and not of the covenant-makers. One of them even went so far as to claim that, if this is read as "ʿaqadat aymānukum," the wording needs an implied preposition to safeguard the sentence [from collapse of meaning], so that the meaning of the wording would be: and those for whom your oaths have made a covenant — whereby he deviated from the manner we have indicated about this, namely that by the oaths are meant the oaths of both parties.
* * *
As for "ʿāqadat aymānukum," its interpretation is: the oaths of these have concluded a covenant with the oaths of those, the pact.
Both, then, are close to each other in meaning, even though the reading of him who read it "ʿaqadat aymānukum" without the "alif" is more correct in meaning than the reading of him who read it "ʿāqadat," because of the proof we have mentioned, that in the describing of the oaths with the concluding (al-ʿaqd) there is sufficient indication that they are the oaths of both parties, apart from any indication of that by something else.
* * *
As for the meaning of His word "ʿaqadat aymānukum," it is: your oaths have bound, strengthened and confirmed = your oaths, that is to say: your covenants by which they bound one another to fidelity = "give them their share."
* * *
Then the interpreters differed over the meaning of "the share" (al-naṣīb) that Allah commanded the allies to give one another in Islam.
Some of them said: it is his share in the inheritance, for in the jāhiliyya they used to inherit from one another. Then Allah, in Islam, made obligatory for the one toward the other, by virtue of that pact, and by virtue of something like it in Islam, mutual inheritance such as they had in the jāhiliyya. Then that was abrogated by the obligatory inheritance shares (farāʾiḍ) which He established for the blood relatives and the close relatives.
* Mention of who said that:
9266 — Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, on the authority of Yazīd al-Naḥwī, on the authority of ʿIkrima and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, concerning His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share — indeed, Allah is over all things a witness," he said: the man used to make a pact with a man between whom there was no kinship, and then the one would inherit from the other. Allah abrogated that in [Surat] "al-Anfāl," where He said: wa-ūlū l-arḥāmi baʿḍuhum awlā bi-baʿḍin fī kitābi llāhi inna llāha bi-kulli shayʾin ʿalīm ("And the blood relatives are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah; indeed, Allah is of all things all-knowing") [Surah Al-Anfāl: 75].
9267 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, he said: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Bishr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning the word of Allah: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," he said: the man used to make a covenant with a man and then he would inherit from him. And Abū Bakr — may Allah be pleased with him — made a covenant with a mawlā and inherited from him.
9268 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share": the man used to make a covenant with a man: whichever of the two of them died, the other inherited from him. Then Allah revealed: wa-ūlū l-arḥāmi baʿḍuhum awlā bi-baʿḍin fī kitābi llāhi mina l-muʾminīna wa-l-muhājirīna illā an tafʿalū ilā awliyāʾikum maʿrūfan ("And the blood relatives are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah than the believers and the emigrants, except that you do toward your protected ones a good deed") [Surah Al-Aḥzāb: 6]. He says: except that they leave to their protected ones with whom they had made a covenant a bequest (waṣiyya); that is permitted to them out of a third of the property of the deceased. And that is the good (al-maʿrūf).
9269 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share — indeed, Allah is over all things a witness": the man used to make a covenant in the jāhiliyya with a man and then he would say: "My blood is your blood, my destruction is your destruction (hadamī hadamuka), you inherit from me and I inherit from you, you demand vengeance for me and I demand vengeance for you." Then He established for him a sixth out of the whole of the property in Islam, after which the heirs divided their inheritance. Then that was afterward abrogated in "Surat al-Anfāl," for Allah said: wa-ūlū l-arḥāmi baʿḍuhum awlā bi-baʿḍin fī kitābi llāh ("And the blood relatives are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah") [Surah Al-Anfāl: 75].
9270 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," he said: the man used to make a covenant in the jāhiliyya with a man and then he would say: "My blood is your blood, you inherit from me and I inherit from you, you demand vengeance for me and I demand vengeance for you." When Islam came, there remained of them some people, and they were commanded to give them their share of the inheritance, namely the sixth. Then that was abrogated by the inheritance regulation, whereupon He said: wa-ūlū l-arḥāmi baʿḍuhum awlā bi-baʿḍ ("And the blood relatives are nearer to one another").
9271 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: al-Ḥajjāj ibn al-Minhāl related to us, he said: Hammām ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: I heard Qatāda say, concerning His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share": that was because the man in the jāhiliyya used to make a covenant with a man and then he would say: "My destruction is your destruction and my blood is your blood, you inherit from me and I inherit from you, you demand vengeance for me and I demand vengeance for you." Then He established for him a sixth out of the whole of the property, after which the heirs divided their inheritance. Then that was afterward abrogated in "al-Anfāl," for He said: wa-ūlū l-arḥāmi baʿḍuhum awlā bi-baʿḍin fī kitābi llāh ("And the blood relatives are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah"), and thus the inheritances passed to the blood relatives.
9272 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of ʿIkrima, he said: this was a pact (ḥilf) that existed in the jāhiliyya; the man used to say to the man: "You inherit from me and I inherit from you, you help me and I help you, you pay the blood-money (taʿqil) on my behalf and I pay the blood-money on your behalf."
9273 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say, concerning His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant": the man used to follow a man and then make a covenant with him: "If I die, then there shall come to you the like of what some of my children inherit!" And this is abrogated.
9274 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His word: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī to what the parents and the close relatives leave behind, and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share": in the jāhiliyya a man used to attach himself to a man and become his follower. When the man then died, the inheritance went to his family and his close relatives, and his follower remained with nothing. Then Allah revealed: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share," and then he would receive something from his inheritance. Afterward Allah revealed: wa-ūlū l-arḥāmi baʿḍuhum awlā bi-baʿḍin fī kitābi llāh ("And the blood relatives are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah").
* * *
Others said: this āya was rather revealed concerning those between whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had established brotherhood, among the emigrants (muhājirīn) and the helpers (anṣār); the one used to inherit from the other by virtue of that brotherhood, then Allah abrogated that by the obligatory inheritance shares and by His word: wa-li-kullin jaʿalnā mawāliya mimmā taraka l-wālidāni wa-l-aqrabūn ("And for everyone We have appointed heirs to what the parents and the close relatives leave behind").
* Mention of who said that:
9275 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Abū Usāma related to us, he said: Idrīs ibn Yazīd related to us, he said: Ṭalḥa ibn Muṣarrif related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share," he said: when the emigrants arrived in Medina, the emigrant inherited from the helper, to the exclusion of his blood relatives, because of the brotherhood that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had established between them. When this āya was revealed: wa-li-kullin jaʿalnā mawāliya ("And for everyone We have appointed heirs"), it abrogated that.
9276 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," [they are] those with whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made a covenant = "give them their share," when no blood relative came who stood between them [and the inheritance]. He said: and this does not exist today; it was only among a group between whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ established brotherhood, and that has ceased. And this belongs to none but the Prophet ﷺ; he established brotherhood between the emigrants and the helpers, but today brotherhood is established between no one.
* * *
Others said: rather this āya was revealed concerning the people of the covenant by pact, but they were commanded to give one another their shares of help, sincere counsel and the like, and not of inheritance.
* Mention of who said that:
9277 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Abū Usāma related to us, he said: Idrīs al-Awdī related to us, he said: Ṭalḥa ibn Muṣarrif related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share" of help, sincere counsel and support (rifāda); and one leaves them a bequest, while the inheritance has come to lapse.
9278 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," he said: there was a pact in the jāhiliyya; in Islam they were commanded to give them their share of the blood-money (al-ʿaql), of consultation and of help, but no inheritance.
9279 — Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, he said: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, that he said about this āya: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share" of assistance, help and pact.
9280 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," he said: this was a pact in the jāhiliyya; when Islam came, they were commanded to give them their share of help, loyalty (walāʾ) and consultation, but no inheritance.
9281 — Zakariyyāʾ ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to us, he said: Ibn Jurayj said: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr informed me: that he heard Mujāhid say: it is the pact: "ʿaqadat aymānukum" (your oaths have bound). He said: "give them their share," he said: the help (al-naṣr).
9282 — Zakariyyāʾ ibn Yaḥyā related to me, he said: Ḥajjāj related to us, he said: Ibn Jurayj said: ʿAṭāʾ informed me, he said: it is the pact. He said: "give them their share," he said: the blood-money (al-ʿaql) and the help.
9283 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," he said: there belongs to them their share of help, support (rifāda) and blood-money (al-ʿaql).
9284 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
9285 — Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: al-Ḥimmānī related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," he said: they are the allies (al-ḥulafāʾ).
9286 — Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: al-Ḥimmānī related to us, he said: ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAwwām related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of ʿIkrima, something similar.
9287 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share," as for "ʿaqadat aymānukum," that is the pact, as the man in the jāhiliyya who settled among a tribe and they made a covenant with him that he belonged to them; they shared good and ill with him (yuwāsūnahu bi-anfusihim), and when they had a claim of right or warfare, he was equal with them, and when he had a claim of right or need for help, they would forsake him. When Islam came, they asked about him, but Allah willed nothing other than to strengthen it. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Islam has only increased the allies in stringency."
* * *
Others said: rather this āya was revealed concerning those who in the jāhiliyya adopted the sons of others as their own son; they were commanded in Islam to leave them a bequest at death.
* Mention of who said that:
9288 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: al-Layth related to me, on the authority of ʿUqayl, on the authority of Ibn Shihāb, he said: Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab related to me: that Allah said: "and for everyone We have appointed mawālī to what the parents and the close relatives leave behind, and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share." Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab said: this āya was revealed only concerning those who adopted men who were not their sons as their son and made them inherit. Then Allah revealed concerning them, and gave them a share in the bequest, and brought the inheritance back to the mawālī among the blood relatives and the ʿaṣaba; and Allah refused to give the adopted ones an inheritance from those who claimed them and adopted them as a son, but Allah gave them a share in the bequest.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: and the most correct of the statements about the explanation of His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant," is the statement of him who said: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant for the sake of the pact, and they are the allies." For it is known among all those acquainted with the history and the reports of the Arabs that the concluding of the pact among them used to take place by oaths, covenants and solemn agreements, in the manner that we have mentioned about this in the narration.
Since Allah, exalted is His praise, described only those whose oaths concluded what they concluded between them — to the exclusion of him whose oaths concluded no covenant between them — and since the brotherhood of the Prophet ﷺ between those between whom and himself he established brotherhood among the emigrants and the helpers did not come about through their oaths, and likewise the adoption [did not], it was known that the correct statement about this is the statement of him who said: "it is the pact," to the exclusion of the other, because of the ground we have described.
* * *
As for His word "give them their share," the most fitting of the two interpretations of it is that upon which all agree with regard to its established ruling, namely that the people of the pact that existed in the jāhiliyya and not in Islam give one another their shares of help, sincere counsel and consultation, and not of inheritance. And that is because of the soundness of the report from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he said: "There is no pact (ḥilf) in Islam, and whatever pact existed in the jāhiliyya, Islam has only increased it in stringency."
9289 — That was related to us by Abū Kurayb, he said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of Simāk, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
9290 — And Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Muṣʿab ibn al-Miqdām related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl ibn Yūnus, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the mawlā of the family of Ṭalḥa, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "There is no pact in Islam, and every pact that existed in the jāhiliyya, Islam has only increased it in stringency. And it would not please me to possess the red-brown camels (the most precious property) and for that to break the pact that was concluded in the Dār al-Nadwa (the council house)."
9291 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Shuʿba ibn al-Tawʾam al-Ḍabbī: that Qays ibn ʿĀṣim asked the Prophet ﷺ about the pact, whereupon he said: "There is no pact in Islam, but hold fast to the pact of the jāhiliyya."
9292 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Hushaym related to us, he said: Mughīra informed us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Shuʿba ibn al-Tawʾam, on the authority of Qays ibn ʿĀṣim: that he asked the Prophet ﷺ about the pact; he said: he would then say: "Whatever pact existed in the jāhiliyya, hold fast to it, but there is no pact in Islam."
9293 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of Ibn Judʿān, on the authority of his grandmother, on the authority of Umm Salama: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "There is no pact in Islam, and whatever pact existed in the jāhiliyya, Islam has only increased it in stringency."
9294 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, he said: Ḥusayn al-Muʿallim related to us = and Mujāhid ibn Mūsā related to us, he said: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, he said: Ḥusayn al-Muʿallim related to us = and Ḥātim ibn Bakr al-Ḍabbī related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, on the authority of Ḥusayn al-Muʿallim = he said: my father related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said in his sermon on the day of the conquest of Mecca: "Hold a pact firm, for Islam only increases it in stringency, but forge no new pact in Islam."
9295 — Abū Kurayb and ʿAbda ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣaffār both related to us, they said: Muḥammad ibn Bishr related to us, he said: Zakariyyāʾ ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, he said: Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim: that the Prophet ﷺ said: "There is no pact in Islam, and whatever pact existed in the jāhiliyya, Islam has only increased it in stringency."
9296 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā both related to us, they said: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq related to us = and Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq = on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I was witness to the pact of the Perfumed Ones (ḥilf al-muṭayyabīn) when I was a boy, together with my uncles, and it would not please me to possess the red-brown camels and to break it." — Yaʿqūb added in his narration on the authority of Ibn ʿUlayya: he said: and al-Zuhrī said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Islam has struck no pact but that it only increased it in stringency." He said: and there is no pact in Islam. He said: and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ established reconciliation (taʾlīf) between the Quraysh and the helpers.
9297 — Tamīm ibn al-Muntaṣir related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, he said: when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered Mecca in the year of the conquest, he stood up as a preacher among the people and said: "O people, whatever pact existed in the jāhiliyya, indeed Islam has only increased it in stringency, and there is no pact in Islam."
9298 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, something similar.
9299 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Khālid ibn Makhlad related to us, he said: Sulaymān ibn Bilāl related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, something similar.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: since what we have mentioned on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is sound — and since an āya, when there is disagreement over its ruling, whether it is abrogated (mansūkh) or not, may not be condemned to abrogation — when there is difference of opinion among those disputing about it, and as long as there is a correct ground for the continued validity of its ruling and the denial of abrogation — except by a proof to which one must submit, as we have set forth in more than one place in our books the indication for the correctness of that view — thus it is necessary that the correct ruling concerning the explanation of His word: "and those with whom your oaths have made a covenant, give them their share," is that which we have mentioned of the interpretation, namely that His word "ʿaqadat aymānukum" pertains to the pact, and His word "give them their share" to help, assistance, sincere counsel and consultation, in accordance with what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded about that in the reports we have mentioned on his authority — and not the statement of him who said: "the meaning of His word 'give them their share' is from the inheritance," and that this was a ruling that was then abrogated by His word: wa-ūlū l-arḥāmi baʿḍuhum awlā bi-baʿḍin fī kitābi llāh ("And the blood relatives are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah") — and not any other statement besides that which we have given about its explanation.
And since what we have said about this is correct, it is necessary that the āya is valid (muḥkama) and not abrogated.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement: inna llāha kāna ʿalā kulli shayʾin shahīdā ("Indeed, Allah is over all things a witness") (33).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means thereby, exalted is His praise: so give to those with whom your oaths have made a covenant their share of help, sincere counsel and consultation, for Allah is a witness over what you do of that, and over your remaining deeds; He watches over all of that, and preserves it, until He will requite you all for all of that with the fitting requital: as for the doer of good among you who follows My command and obedience to Me — with good; and as for the doer of evil among you who transgresses My command and My prohibition — with evil. And the meaning of His word "shahīd" is: possessor of testimony over that.
