Tafseer of The Inner Apartments · Al-Hujuraat · 49:13
O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.
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 saying of the Exalted: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ (13) (O mankind, indeed We have created you from a male and a female and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing among you. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware (13)).
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: O mankind, indeed We have brought your creation into being from the seed of a male among the males and the seed of a female among the females.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Hishām related to us, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad informed us, on the authority of Mujāhid, saying: Allah created the child from the seed of the male and the seed of the female; and He — blessed and exalted is He — said ( يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى ) (O mankind, indeed We have created you from a male and a female).
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad related to us, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying ( إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى ) (indeed We have created you from a male and a female), saying: Allah did not create the child except from the fluid of the male and the female together, for Allah says ( خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنْثَى ) (We have created you from a male and a female).
And His saying ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), He says: and We have made you related to one another, so that some of you are related to others by a remote kinship, and some of you are related to others by a near kinship. He who is related by the remote kinship is the one whose lineage the people of the shuʿūb (peoples) do not trace back further; and that is when it is said to the man of the Arabs: of which people (shaʿb) are you? — whereupon he says: I belong to Muḍar, or to Rabīʿa. As for the people of the near kinship, they are the people of the tribes (qabāʾil), such as Tamīm from Muḍar and Bakr from Rabīʿa. And the closest of the tribes are the afkhādh (subdivisions), such as Shaybān from Bakr and Dārim from Tamīm, and the like. And of the shaʿb is the saying of Ibn Aḥmar al-Bāhilī:
"Of the people of Hamdān, or Saʿd al-ʿAshīra, or Khawlān, or Madhḥij — they became enraptured by it." (1)
And in accordance with what we have said concerning the meaning of His saying ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), the people of interpretation spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, saying: Abū Ḥuṣayn related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), saying: the shuʿūb are the combined groupings (al-jummāʿ), and the qabāʾil are the buṭūn (the subclans).
Khallād ibn Aslam related to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), saying: the shuʿūb are the combined groupings (al-jummāʿ). Khallād said: Abū Bakr said: the qabāʾil are the great tribes, such as the Banū Tamīm; and the qabāʾil are the afkhādh (subdivisions).
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), saying: the shuʿūb are the great multitude (al-jumhūr), and the qabāʾil are the afkhādh.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying ( شُعُوبًا ) (peoples), saying: the remote kinship; ( وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and tribes): less than that.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), saying: the shuʿūb are the remote kinship, and the qabāʾil are as his saying: so-and-so from the Banū so-and-so, and so-and-so from the Banū so-and-so.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا ) (and made you peoples), saying: that is the remote kinship. He said: and the qabāʾil are as you hear it said: so-and-so from the Banū so-and-so.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His saying ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا ) (and made you peoples), saying: as for the shuʿūb, that is the remote kinship.
And some of them said: the shuʿūb are the afkhādh.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), saying: the shuʿūb are the afkhādh, and the qabāʾil are the tribes.
And others said: the shuʿūb are the buṭūn, and the qabāʾil are the afkhādh.
* Mention of who said that:
Yaḥyā ibn Ṭalḥa related to me, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), saying: the shuʿūb are the buṭūn, and the qabāʾil are the great afkhādh.
And others said: the shuʿūb are the lineages (al-ansāb).
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās ( وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ ) (and made you peoples and tribes), saying: the shuʿūb are the lineages.
And His saying ( لِتَعَارَفُوا ) (that you may know one another), He says: that some of you may know others with respect to lineage. The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: We have made these peoples and tribes for you, O mankind, only that some of you may know others with respect to the nearness of kinship to him and its remoteness — not because of any excellence for you therein, nor any nearness that brings you close to Allah; rather, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing of you.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid ( وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ) (and tribes, that you may know one another), saying: We have made this so that you may know one another: so-and-so, son of so-and-so, from such-and-such.
And His saying ( إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ) (indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing among you). The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: indeed, the most noble of you, O mankind, in the sight of your Lord, is the one among you who fears Him most by fulfilling His obligations and avoiding disobedience to Him — not the one among you who is greatest in household, nor the one among you who is most numerous in tribe.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥārith ibn Yazīd, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Rabāḥ, on the authority of ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said: "People, in relation to Ādam and Ḥawwāʾ, are like the remainder of the ṣāʿ-measure that does not fill it. Indeed, Allah will not ask you on the Day of Resurrection about your pedigrees (aḥsāb), nor about your lineages (ansāb); indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing of you."
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥārith ibn Yazīd, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Rabāḥ, on the authority of ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Indeed, these lineages of yours are no cause to revile anyone; you are only the children of Ādam, the remainder of the ṣāʿ-measure that you do not fill. No one has any excellence over another except by religion (dīn) or a good deed. It is enough disgrace for a man that he be coarse, shameless of tongue, miserly, and cowardly."
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: I heard ʿAṭāʾ saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "Three verses the people have rejected: the whole [matter of] asking permission (al-idhn); and He said ( إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ) (indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing of you), while the people said: the most noble of you is the one who is greatest in household; and ʿAṭāʾ said: I have forgotten the third."
And His saying ( إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ ) (indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware). The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: indeed, Allah, O mankind, possesses knowledge of which of you is the most God-fearing in the sight of Allah and the most noble before Him; He possesses thorough knowledge of you and of your interests, and of all your remaining affairs — nothing hidden remains concealed from Him.
