Tafseer of The Forgiver · Ghafir · 40:4
No one disputes concerning the signs of Allah except those who disbelieve, so be not deceived by their [uninhibited] movement throughout the land.
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 statement of the Exalted: مَا يُجَادِلُ فِي آيَاتِ اللَّهِ إِلا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَلا يَغْرُرْكَ تَقَلُّبُهُمْ فِي الْبِلادِ ("None disputes concerning the signs of Allah except those who disbelieve; so let not their going to and fro throughout the lands deceive you") (40:4).
The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: none disputes concerning the proofs of Allah and His indications of His oneness by denying them, except those who denied His oneness.
And His statement: ( فَلا يَغْرُرْكَ تَقَلُّبُهُمْ فِي الْبِلادِ ) ("so let not their going to and fro throughout the lands deceive you"). He, exalted is His praise, says: let not their roaming about in the lands, and their continued existence and dwelling therein, while they are disbelievers in their Lord, deceive you, O Muḥammad, so that you would think that they have merely been granted respite and travel to and fro, moving freely throughout the lands despite their disbelief in Allah, and that their punishment and chastisement for their disbelief was not hastened because they would be upon something of the truth — for We did not grant them respite for that reason, but rather so that the Book might reach its appointed term and so that the word of the chastisement, the chastisement of your Lord, might be realized against them.
As Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: ( فَلا يَغْرُرْكَ تَقَلُّبُهُمْ فِي الْبِلادِ ) ("so let not their going to and fro throughout the lands deceive you"): their traveling therein, their coming and going.
Then He recounted to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the histories of the nations that denied their messengers, and informed him that, in their disputing with their messengers, they were just like those among his own people, to whom he was sent, who behaved toward him as they did, and that He sent down His chastisement upon them when they reached their appointed term, after His messengers had warned them and warned them of His might — which is mentioned in His Book — as a making-known thereof from Him to His Prophet, that His established way with his people, who trod the same path as those others in denying him and in disputing, is His way of sending down His chastisement upon them and His retributive seizure against them. Thus the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, said: before your people, who deny the message with which you were sent to them as a messenger and dispute with you by means of falsehood, there already denied the people of Nūḥ and the confederates after them — these are the nations that allied and gathered together against their messengers in order to deny them, such as ʿĀd and Thamūd, the people of Lūṭ, the inhabitants of Madyan, and the like of them.
And in the sense of what we have said concerning this, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
