Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:47
O you who were given the Scripture, believe in what We have sent down [to Muhammad], confirming that which is with you, before We obliterate faces and turn them toward their backs or curse them as We cursed the sabbath-breakers. And ever is the decree of Allah accomplished.
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 His word: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ آمِنُوا بِمَا نَـزَّلْنَا مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا مَعَكُمْ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ نَطْمِسَ وُجُوهًا فَنَرُدَّهَا عَلَى أَدْبَارِهَا (O you to whom the Book has been given, believe in what We have sent down, confirming what you already possess, before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His word: "O you to whom the Book has been given" — the Jews of the Children of Israel who were situated around the place of emigration (hijra) of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Allah said to them: O you to whom the Book was sent down and to whom the knowledge thereof was given — "believe", He says: confirm what We have sent down to Muḥammad of the criterion (furqān) — "confirming what you already possess", that is to say: corroborating that which you possess of the Torah which I sent down to Mūsā ibn ʿImrān — "before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts".
* * *
The exegetes differ over the explanation of this.
Some of them said: "The effacing of them" means: the wiping away of their features so that they become like the necks (the hinder parts).
Others said: The meaning of this is that We efface their eyes and make them blind, but the report is framed in the wording of "the face", while what is meant thereby is the faculty of sight — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", that is to say: and We place their eyes on the side of their necks.
* Mention of who said that:
9713 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His word: "O you to whom the Book has been given, believe" up to His word: "before We efface faces" — and the effacing of them is: that they become blind — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", he says: that We make their faces on the side of their necks, so that they walk backwards, and that We make for each of them two eyes in his neck.
9714 - Abū al-ʿĀliya Ismāʿīl ibn al-Haytham al-ʿAbdī related to me, saying: Abū Qutayba related to us, on the authority of Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya al-ʿAwfī concerning His word: "before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts", he said: We make them on the side of their necks, so that they walk backwards upon their heels.
9715 - Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra al-Asadī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya, in like manner — except that he said: the effacing of them is: that He turns them back towards their necks.
9716 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and turn them back to their hinder parts", he said: We turn their faces towards the side of their backs.
* * *
Others said: The meaning of this is rather: before We make a people blind to the truth — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", into error and unbelief.
* Mention of who said that:
9717 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word: "before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts" — We turn them away from the straight path, from the truth — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", he said: into error.
9718 - 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: "before We efface faces" — from the path of truth — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", into error.
9719 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us by recitation, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
9720 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, that al-Ḥasan said: "We efface faces", he says: We efface them, away from the truth — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", towards their error.
9721 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "O you to whom the Book has been given" up to His word: كَمَا لَعَنَّا أَصْحَابَ السَّبْتِ (as We cursed the people of the Sabbath), he said: It was revealed concerning Mālik ibn al-Ṣayyif and Rifāʿa ibn Zayd ibn al-Tābūt, of the tribe of Banū Qaynuqāʿ. As for "before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts", he says: that We make them blind to the truth and cause them to return as unbelievers.
9722 - 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 al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His word: "before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts", that means: that We turn them away from guidance and discernment; and He has already turned them back to their hinder parts, so that they became unbelievers in Muḥammad ﷺ and in that with which he came.
* * *
Others said: The meaning of this is: before We efface their traces from the region in which they are situated, and the quarter where they are — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", towards the place from which they had originally come, from Syria (al-Shām).
* Mention of who said that:
9723 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts", he said: My father used to say: towards Syria.
* * *
Others said: The meaning of this is: "before We efface faces", that is to say that We wipe away their features and smooth them out — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", in that We make the faces into places of hair-growth, just as the faces of the apes are places of hair-growth, for the hair of the Children of Adam is at the hinder part of their faces. They said: When, therefore, the hair grows in their faces, then He has turned them back to their hinder parts, in that He has made them like the necks and the hinder parts of the faces.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the most correct of the statements concerning this is the statement of the one who said: The meaning of His word "before We efface faces" is: before We efface their eyes and wipe away their features and smooth them out like the necks — "and turn them back to their hinder parts", that is to say that We place their eyes at their hinder parts, namely: that We place the faces at the hinder part of the faces. The meaning is then: that We make the faces into necks and the necks into faces, so that they walk backwards, as Ibn ʿAbbās and ʿAṭiyya and those who said that, said.
* * *
And we have said that this is the most correct, because Allah, exalted is His mention, addressed by this āya the Jews whose characteristic He described with His word: أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِنَ الْكِتَابِ يَشْتَرُونَ الضَّلالَةَ (Have you not seen those to whom a portion of the Book was given, who purchase error?). Then He warned them, exalted is His mention, with His word: "O you to whom the Book has been given, believe in what We have sent down, confirming what you already possess, before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts" — by His strength, His might, and the hastening of His punishment upon them, should they not believe in that in which He had commanded them to believe. And there is no doubt that they, when He commanded them to believe in it, were on that day unbelievers.
* * *
Since that is so, the falsity is evident of the statement of the one who said: the explanation of this is: that We make them blind to the truth and bring them back into error. For what is the sense of bringing back into error the one who is already in error? For one only brings something back to that which was outside it. As for him who is already within it, there is no sense in saying of him: "We bring him back into it."
* * *
And since that is so, and it is correct that Allah threatened those whom He named in this āya with the turning of their faces back to their hinder parts — thus the falsity is evident of the explanation of the one who said: the meaning of this is: He threatens them with bringing them back into their error.
* * *
As for those who said: the meaning of this is: before We make the faces into places of hair-growth, in the form of the faces of apes — that is a statement that is at variance with the statement of the exegetes. And it suffices as a witness to its falsity that it diverges from the statement of the people of knowledge among the Companions ﷺ and the Successors and those who came after them of the later generations.
* * *
As for the statement of the one who said: the meaning of this is: before We efface their faces (regions) in which they are situated, so that We bring them back to Syria from their dwelling-places in the Ḥijāz and Najd — that statement, although it has a plausible aspect, is remote from that which the outward wording of the revelation indicates. That is because the well-known meaning of "the faces" in the language of the Arabs is that which is the opposite of "the necks", and the explanation of the Book of Allah is directed towards what is most current in the language of the people in whose language it was sent down, until there is an indication that something else is meant by it — an indication to which one must submit.
* * *
As for "the effacing" (al-ṭams), that is the wiping out and wiping away to evenness. Of this one says: "the road-marks were effaced, they are effaced, with an effacing", when they are obliterated and effaced, so that they became buried and level with the ground, as Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr said:
From every [camel] with dripping temples, when she sweats, her flank along a road with effaced road-marks, unknown.
He means: "with effaced road-marks", obliterated, buried road-marks. And of this one says of the blind man whose slit between his eyelids is effaced and obliterated: "an effaced blind man (maṭmūs), and a ṭamīs", as Allah, exalted is His mention, said: وَلَوْ نَشَاءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَى أَعْيُنِهِمْ (And had We willed, We would have effaced their eyes) [sūra Yāsīn: 66].
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: "al-gharr" is the slit that lies between the two eyelids.
* * *
And if someone were to say: If the matter is as you have described the explanation of the āya, has that with which He threatened them then come to pass?
It is answered: It has not come to pass, because a group of them believed, among whom were: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, Thaʿlaba ibn Saʿya, Asad ibn Saʿya, Asad ibn ʿUbayd, Mukhayriq, and a group of others. Through their belief it was averted from them.
And among that which demonstrates that this āya was revealed concerning the Jews whose characteristic we have mentioned, is:
9724 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to us — and Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, 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, saying: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ spoke with some of the leaders of the scholars of the Jews, among whom were ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣūriyā and Kaʿb ibn Asad, and he said to them: O community of the Jews, fear Allah and become Muslims! For by Allah, you know that that with which I have come to you is the truth! They said: We do not know that, O Muḥammad! And they denied what they knew and persisted in unbelief. Then Allah revealed concerning them: "O you to whom the Book has been given, believe in what We have sent down, confirming what you already possess, before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts", the āya.
9725 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Jābir ibn Nūḥ related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā ibn al-Mughīra, saying: We were discussing in the presence of Ibrāhīm the conversion of Kaʿb [al-Aḥbār], and he said: Kaʿb converted to Islam in the time of ʿUmar. He came travelling with the intention of visiting Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis), and he passed by Medina. ʿUmar went out to him and said: O Kaʿb, become a Muslim! He said: Do you not read in your Book: مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا التَّوْرَاةَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًا (The likeness of those who were charged with the Torah and then did not bear it is as the likeness of the donkey that carries books) [sūra al-Jumuʿa: 5]? And I have borne the Torah! He [ʿUmar] said: Then he left him be. Thereupon he departed until he reached Ḥimṣ. He said: Then he heard a man of its inhabitants saying sorrowfully: "O you to whom the Book has been given, believe in what We have sent down, confirming what you already possess, before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts", the āya. Then Kaʿb said: O Lord, I believe! O Lord, I submit! out of fear that the āya would strike him. Then he returned and came to his family in Yemen, and afterwards he brought them as Muslims [to Medina].
* * *
The explanation of His word: أَوْ نَلْعَنَهُمْ كَمَا لَعَنَّا أَصْحَابَ السَّبْتِ وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ مَفْعُولا (or We curse them as We cursed the people of the Sabbath, and the command of Allah is ever carried out) (47).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He means by His word, exalted is His mention: "or We curse them", or We curse you, so that We disgrace you and make you into apes — "as We cursed the people of the Sabbath", He says: as We disgraced those who transgressed the Sabbath of your forefathers. This was said in the form of address, in His word: آمِنُوا بِمَا نَـزَّلْنَا مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا مَعَكُمْ (believe in what We have sent down, confirming what you already possess), as He said: حَتَّى إِذَا كُنْتُمْ فِي الْفُلْكِ وَجَرَيْنَ بِهِمْ بِرِيحٍ طَيِّبَةٍ وَفَرِحُوا بِهَا (until, when you are in the ships and they sail with them on a favourable wind, and they rejoice therein) [sūra Yūnus: 22].
And it may be that the meaning is: مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ نَطْمِسَ وُجُوهًا فَنَرُدَّهَا عَلَى أَدْبَارِهَا (before We efface faces and turn them back to their hinder parts), or We curse the possessors of the faces — so that the "hā and mīm" in His word: "or We curse them" refer back to the mention of the possessors of the faces, since there is in the wording an indication thereof.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
9726 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ (O you to whom the Book has been given) up to His word: "or We curse them as We cursed the people of the Sabbath", that is to say: We transform them into apes.
9727 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "or We curse them as We cursed the people of the Sabbath", he says: or We make them into apes.
9728 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "or We curse them as We cursed the people of the Sabbath", or We make them into apes.
9729 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "or We curse them as We cursed the people of the Sabbath", he said: they are the Jews altogether; We curse these as We cursed those of them whom We cursed among the people of the Sabbath.
* * *
As for His word: "and the command of Allah is ever carried out", that means: and everything that Allah commands to be is existent, created, and present; it is not impossible for Him to create anything whose creation He wills. And "the command" (al-amr) in this place means: the commanded thing (al-maʾmūr) — it is called "the command of Allah" because it came into being through His command and by His command. The meaning is: and that which Allah has commanded is carried out.
