Tafseer of Muhammad · Muhammad · 47:22
So would you perhaps, if you turned away, cause corruption on earth and sever your [ties of] relationship?
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 exegesis of the saying of the Exalted: فَهَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ أَنْ تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأَرْضِ وَتُقَطِّعُوا أَرْحَامَكُمْ (47:22) (Would it then perhaps be that, if you turn away, you would spread corruption in the land and sever your ties of kinship?)
The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says to those of whom He has described that, when an unambiguous sūra was sent down in which fighting (qitāl) was mentioned, they looked at the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with the look of one who is fainting: ( فَهَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ ) — O people. He says: perhaps that you, if you turn away from that which Allah, the Majestic whose praise is sublime, has sent down, and you part with the rulings of His Book, and you turn your backs on Muḥammad ﷺ and that which he has brought you ( أَنْ تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأرْضِ ) — He says: that you disobey Allah in the land, so that you become unbelievers in Him and thereupon shed blood ( وَتُقَطِّعُوا أَرْحَامَكُمْ ) — and that you return to that in which you were during your time of ignorance (jāhiliyya), namely division and fragmentation, after Allah had already united you through Islam and joined your hearts together thereby.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of exegesis have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying ( فَهَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ ) ... the verse. He says: would it be — see how you have seen the people when they turned away from the Book of Allah: did they not shed forbidden blood, and sever the ties of kinship, and disobey the Most Merciful?
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda ( فَهَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ أَنْ تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأرْضِ وَتُقَطِّعُوا أَرْحَامَكُمْ ), he said: they did it.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Barqī related to me, saying: Ibn Abī Maryam related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar and Sulaymān ibn Bilāl informed us, both of them saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Abī al-Muzarrad al-Madīnī related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Yasār, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that he said: "Allah created the creation, and when He had finished with it, the tie of kinship (al-raḥim) clung to the loins of the Most Merciful. He said: 'Stop!' She said: 'This is the place of one who seeks refuge with You against being severed.' He said: 'Are you then not content that I cut off whoever cuts you off, and join whoever joins you?' She said: 'Indeed.' He said: 'That is then for you.'"
Sulaymān said in his narration: Abū Hurayra said: recite, if you wish ( فَهَلْ عَسَيْتُمْ إِنْ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ أَنْ تُفْسِدُوا فِي الأرْضِ وَتُقَطِّعُوا أَرْحَامَكُمْ ). Some have explained it thus: "would it perhaps be that you, if you take charge of the governance of the people, would spread corruption in the land" — in the meaning of holding authority (wilāya). The reciters, apart from Nāfiʿ, are agreed that the sīn of ( عَسَيْتُمْ ) is read with a fatḥa (ʿasaytum), while Nāfiʿ read it with a kasra (ʿasitum).
The correct ruling according to us is that it is read with a fatḥa on the sīn, on account of the consensus of the proof among the reciters upon that, and because in linguistic usage it has not been heard: "ʿasiya akhūka yaqūm" with a kasra on the sīn and a fatḥa on the yāʾ. If the kasra were correct when a connected pronoun is attached to it, then it would also have to occur with the kasra in the absence of the pronoun; and in their consensus on the fatḥa with the explicit noun lies the clear proof that it is likewise so with the pronoun. And the (particle) that follows ʿasaytum is vocalized with a kasra, and it is a particle of condition, and the "an" that is with tufsidū is in the position of the accusative (naṣb) by ʿasaytum.
