Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:71
O you who have believed, take your precaution and [either] go forth in companies or go forth all together.
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: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا خُذُوا حِذْرَكُمْ فَانْفِرُوا ثُبَاتٍ أَوِ انْفِرُوا جَمِيعًا (71) ("O you who believe, take your precaution and march forth in groups, or march forth all together.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by His statement: "O you who believe" — those who believed in Allah and His Messenger = "take your precaution," take your shield and your weapons with which you protect yourselves against your enemy, in order to fight them and to combat them = "then march forth against them in groups (thubāt)."
* * *
= And this is the plural of "thuba," and "al-thuba" is the band.
= The meaning of the statement is: march forth against your enemy, group after group, armed.
= And among the instances of "al-thuba" is the statement of Zuhayr:
And in the morning I marched forth to a band (thuba) of nobles, intoxicated, attaining what we desire.
And "al-thuba" is sometimes also made plural as "thubīn."
* * *
= "or march forth all together," he says: or march forth all together with your Prophet (the Prophet ﷺ) to fight them.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes spoke.
*Mention of who said that:
9929 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his statement: "take your precaution and march forth in groups (thubāt)," he says: in bands, that is to say: as scattered raiding parties (sarāyā) = "or march forth all together," that is to say: all of you.
9930 - 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 the statement of Allah: "march forth in groups (thubāt)," he said: in separate groups, little by little.
9931 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "march forth in groups (thubāt)," he said: "al-thubāt" are the separate groups.
9932 - Al-Ḥusayn ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, the like of it.
9933 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "march forth in groups (thubāt)," that is the band, and that is the thuba = "or march forth all together," with the Prophet (the Prophet ﷺ).
9934 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning his statement: "march forth in groups (thubāt)," that is to say: in scattered bands.
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Footnotes:
(31) In the printed edition and in the manuscript it reads: "He means by it...," but the context requires what has been adopted.
(32) His dīwān: 72, and the Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda 1: 132, and the Lisān (thbw) and (nshw) and elsewhere. It belongs to verses in which he describes drinking; the intoxication has reached them, and they are in luxury on their day, missing nothing; then he says:
For them there is wine, and a strainer-jug, and musk, with which their skins are drenched, and water.
I walk among the slain who have been struck down, their souls have departed, and the blood did not drip.
They drag the cloaks along, while already there has run through the intoxication of the cup among them, and the singing.
(33) See the Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda 1: 132.
