Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:101
O you who have believed, do not ask about things which, if they are shown to you, will distress you. But if you ask about them while the Qur'an is being revealed, they will be shown to you. Allah has pardoned that which is past; and Allah is Forgiving and Forbearing.
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: O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you
Abū Jaʿfar said: It is mentioned that this verse was sent down to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ because of questions that certain people put to him, sometimes to test him and sometimes in mockery. One of them said to him: "Who is my father?", and another said to him, when his she-camel had strayed: "Where is my she-camel?" Then the Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, said to them: Do not ask about such matters, like the question of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥudhāfa to him as to who his father was. "which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", He says: if We disclose to you the reality of that about which you ask, then its disclosure and revelation would displease you.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the reports of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ have been transmitted in great number.
Mention of the narration concerning that:
12794 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn Bughayl related to us, saying: Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiya related to us, saying: Abū al-Juwayriya related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said to a bedouin of the Banū Sulaym: Do you know concerning what this verse was sent down: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you"? — until he brought the verse to its end. He said: There was a people who would ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ questions in mockery. A man would say: "Who is my father?" And a man's she-camel would stray, and then he would say: "Where is my she-camel?" Then Allah sent down upon them this verse.
12795 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀmir and Abū Dāwūd related to us, both of them saying: Hishām related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Anas, who said: The people kept asking the Messenger of Allah ﷺ questions until they wearied him with the asking. Then one day he ascended the pulpit and said: "Ask me nothing but I will explain it to you!" Anas said: Then I began to look to the right and to the left, and I saw that every man was wrapping his garment around himself and weeping. Then a man stood up who, when there was dispute, was attributed to other than his father, and he said: O Messenger of Allah, who is my father? He said: "Your father is Ḥudhāfa!" Then ʿUmar stood up and said: We are content with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muḥammad ﷺ as Messenger, and I seek refuge in Allah from the evil of trials! Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I have never seen evil and good as I have today! Paradise and the Fire were depicted for me so that I saw them both behind the wall!" And Qatāda used to mention this narration with this verse: "do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you".
12796 - Muḥammad ibn Maʿmar al-Baḥrānī related to me, saying: Rawḥ ibn ʿUbāda related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: Mūsā ibn Anas informed me, saying: I heard Anas saying: A man said: O Messenger of Allah, who is my father? He said: "Your father is so-and-so!" Then there was sent down: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you".
12797 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His statement: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", he said: He related to us that Anas ibn Mālik had related to them: that the people kept asking the Messenger of Allah ﷺ questions until they wearied him with the asking. Then one day he came out to them and ascended the pulpit and said: "Ask me nothing today but I will explain it to you!" The Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ feared that some matter was imminent before him. Then I did not begin to look to the right or the left without seeing each of them wrapping his head in his garment and weeping. Then a man stood up who in a dispute was attributed to other than his father, and he said: O Prophet of Allah, who is my father? He said: "Your father is Ḥudhāfa!" Thereupon ʿUmar stood up — or he said: then ʿUmar began — and said: We are content with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muḥammad ﷺ as Messenger, seeking refuge in Allah — or he said: I seek refuge in Allah — from the evil of trials! And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: I have never seen in good and evil anything like today; Paradise and the Fire were depicted for me so that I saw them both before the wall.
12798 - Aḥmad ibn Hishām and Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, both of them saying: Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: I asked ʿIkrima, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, about His statement: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", he said: That was on the day that the Prophet ﷺ stood up among them and said: Ask me nothing but I will inform you of it! He said: Then a man stood up — and the Muslims disapproved of his standing up on that day — and he said: O Messenger of Allah, who is my father? He said: Your father is Ḥudhāfa. He said: Then this verse was sent down.
12799 - Al-Ḥusayn ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father, who said: There was sent down: "do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", concerning a man who said: O Messenger of Allah, who is my father? He said: Your father is so-and-so.
12800 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Sufyān related to me, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: They kept asking the Prophet ﷺ questions until they overwhelmed him. Then he stood up angrily as an orator and said: Ask me! By Allah, you will not ask me anything so long as I stand in this place of mine but I will tell you of it! Then a man stood up and said: Who is my father? He said: Your father is Ḥudhāfa. And his anger grew more intense and he said: Ask me! When the people saw that, their weeping increased, and ʿUmar fell upon his knees and said: We are content with Allah as Lord — Maʿmar said: al-Zuhrī said: Anas said something similar: then ʿUmar fell upon his knees and said: We are content with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muḥammad ﷺ as Messenger. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Verily, by Him in whose hand is my soul, Paradise and the Fire were just now depicted for me in the breadth of this wall, and I have never seen in good and evil anything like today." Al-Zuhrī said: Then the mother of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥudhāfa said: I have never seen a child more disobedient than you! Did you feel secure that your mother might have committed the same as what the people of the Jāhiliyya committed, so that you disgrace her before the people?! He said: By Allah, if he had attributed me to a black slave, I would have followed him.
12801 - 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: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ became angry one day and stood up as an orator and said: Ask me, for you will not ask me anything but I will inform you of it! Then a man of the Quraysh stood up, of the Banū Sahm, named ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥudhāfa, concerning whose lineage slander was spoken. He said: O Messenger of Allah, who is my father? He said: Your father is so-and-so! And he attributed him to his father. Then ʿUmar stood up and kissed his foot and said: O Messenger of Allah, we are content with Allah as Lord, with you as Prophet, with Islam as religion, and with the Qurʾān as guide, so pardon us, may Allah pardon you! And he kept imploring him until he became content. On that day he said: "The child belongs to the marriage bed, and for the adulterer is the stone." (That is to say: the child is attributed to the husband, and the adulterer has no claim.)
12802 - Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Qays related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥaṣīn, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out, while he was angry and his face was glowing red, until he sat down on the pulpit. Then a man stood up and said: Where is my father? He said: In the Fire. Then another stood up and said: Who is my father? He said: Your father is Ḥudhāfa! Then ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb stood up and said: We are content with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, with Muḥammad ﷺ as Prophet, and with the Qurʾān as guide. Truly, O Messenger of Allah, we have only recently emerged from the Jāhiliyya and shirk, and Allah knows who our fathers are! He said: Then his anger subsided, and there was sent down: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you".
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And others said: This verse was sent down to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ because of the question of one who put a question to him about something concerning the affair of the pilgrimage (ḥajj).
Mention of who said that:
12803 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Manṣūr ibn Wardān al-Asadī related to us, saying: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: When this verse was sent down: And to Allah, the pilgrimage to the House is a duty owed by the people, by whoever is able to make the way to it [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān 3:97], they said: O Messenger of Allah, is it every year? He was silent. Then they said again: Is it every year? He was silent. Then he said: No, and had I said "yes," it would have become obligatory! Then Allah sent down this verse: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you".
12804 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Muslim al-Hajarī, on the authority of Ibn ʿIyāḍ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Verily, Allah has prescribed the pilgrimage for you! Then a man said: Is it every year, O Messenger of Allah? He turned away from him, until he repeated it two or three times, and then he said: Who is the questioner? He said: So-and-so! Then he said: By Him in whose hand is my soul, had I said "yes," it would have become obligatory, and had it been made obligatory upon you, you would not have been able to fulfill it, and had you abandoned it, you would have become unbelievers! Then Allah sent down this verse: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", until he brought the verse to its end.
12805 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq related to me, saying: I heard my father say: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid informed us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Ziyād, who said: I heard Abū Hurayra saying: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered a sermon to us and said: O people, Allah has prescribed the pilgrimage for you. Then Miḥṣan al-Asadī stood up and said: Is it every year, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "Verily, had I said 'yes,' it would have become obligatory, and had it become obligatory and you then abandoned it, you would have gone astray. Leave me as long as I leave you, for verily, those who were before you perished only through their many questions and their disagreement with their prophets!" Then Allah, the Exalted, sent down: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", to the end of the verse.
12806 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Ziyād, who said: I heard Abū Hurayra saying: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered a sermon to us — and he mentioned something similar, except that he said: then ʿUkkāsha ibn Miḥṣan al-Asadī stood up.
12807 - Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abān al-Miṣrī related to us, saying: Abū Zayd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Ghamr related to us, saying: Abū Muṭīʿ Muʿāwiya ibn Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, who said: Sulaym ibn ʿĀmir related to me, saying: I heard Abū Umāma al-Bāhilī saying: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood up among the people and said: The pilgrimage is prescribed for you! Then a man of the bedouins stood up and said: Is it every year? He said: Then the speech of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was cut short, and he was silent and became angry, and he remained silent for a long time. Then he spoke and said: Who is the questioner? The bedouin said: Here I am! Then he said: Woe to you! What gives you the assurance that I would not say "yes," and had I said "yes," it would have become obligatory, and had it become obligatory, you would have become unbelievers! Verily, those who were before you perished only through the leaders of excessive strictness. By Allah, had I declared lawful to you all that is upon the earth, and forbidden to you of it the place of a single footstep, you would fall into that! He said: Then Allah, the Exalted, sent down concerning that: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters", to the end of the verse.
12808 - 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, his statement: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you" — and that was because the Messenger of Allah proclaimed among the people and said: "O people, the pilgrimage is prescribed for you!" Then a man of the Banū Asad stood up and said: O Messenger of Allah, is it every year? Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ became intensely angry and said: By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muḥammad, had I said "yes," it would have become obligatory, and had it become obligatory, you would not have been able to fulfill it, and then you would have become unbelievers. So leave me as long as I leave you, and when I command you something, do it, and when I forbid you something, abstain from it! Then Allah, the Exalted, sent down: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you". He forbade them to ask about the kind of thing about which the Christians asked concerning the table (al-māʾida), whereupon they became unbelievers through it. So Allah, the Exalted, forbade that and said: Do not ask about matters about which, if the Qurʾān is sent down concerning them with strictness, that would displease you, but wait, for when the Qurʾān is sent down, you will not ask about anything but you will find the explanation of it.
12809 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, saying: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his statement: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you, and if you ask about them when the Qurʾān is being sent down, they will be disclosed to you", he said: When the verse of the pilgrimage was sent down, the Prophet ﷺ called out among the people and said: O people, verily, Allah has prescribed the pilgrimage for you, so perform the pilgrimage. They said: O Messenger of Allah, is it a single year or every year? He said: No, rather a single year, and had I said "every year," it would have become obligatory, and had it become obligatory, you would have become unbelievers. Then Allah, the Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, said: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", he said: They asked the Prophet ﷺ about certain matters, and he admonished them, and they ceased.
12810 - 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 statement: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you", he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned the pilgrimage, and it was asked: Is it obligatory, O Messenger of Allah, every year? He said: No, had I said that, it would have become obligatory, and had it become obligatory, you would not have been able to fulfill it, and had you not been able to fulfill it, you would have become unbelievers. Then he said: Ask me, for no man will ask me about anything in this gathering of mine but I will inform him of it, even if he asks me about his father! Then a man stood up and said: Who is my father? He said: Your father is Ḥudhāfa ibn Qays. Then ʿUmar stood up and said: O Messenger, we are content with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muḥammad ﷺ as Prophet, and we seek refuge in Allah from His anger and the anger of His Messenger.
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And others said: Rather, this verse was sent down because they questioned the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, the waṣīla, and the ḥāmī. (These were certain categories of camels and livestock which the pagan Arabs, by customs and vows, set free or regarded as consecrated.)
Mention of who said that:
12811 - Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥabīb ibn al-Shahīd related to me, saying: ʿAttāb ibn Bishr related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās "do not ask about matters", he said: They are the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, the waṣīla, and the ḥām. Do you not see that He says after it: "Allah has not ordained that there should be thus and so"? He said: And as for ʿIkrima, he said: They questioned him about the signs (the miracles), and they were restrained from that. Then he said: "A people before you already asked about it, and afterwards they became unbelievers through it." He said: Then I said: Mujāhid related to me contrary to this on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, so why do you say this? He said: Away with it! [rejection].
12812 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAwn, on the authority of ʿIkrima, who said: It is he who asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: Who is my father? And Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: They are those who questioned the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the baḥīra and the sāʾiba.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the most correct of the statements concerning this is the statement of him who said: This verse was sent down because of the excessive questioning of the questioners to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, like the question of Ibn Ḥudhāfa to him as to who his father was, and the question of him who asked him, when he said: "Allah has prescribed the pilgrimage for you," "Is it every year?", and what resembles that of questions — because of the great number of reports transmitted concerning that on the authority of the Companions, the Successors (tābiʿūn), and the majority of the people of interpretation.
And as for the statement that Mujāhid transmitted on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that is a statement not far removed from the correct one, but the reports transmitted in great number on the authority of the Companions and the Successors contradict it, and for that reason we have refrained from adopting it. Nevertheless, it is not excluded that the question about the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, the waṣīla, and the ḥām was among the questions with which they questioned the Prophet ﷺ and the asking of which Allah disapproved for them, just as Allah disapproved for them the asking about the pilgrimage — "Is it every year, or a single year?" — and just as He disapproved for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥudhāfa the asking about his father. Then the verse was sent down with the prohibition of all those questions, and each of the reporters reported about a part of that for which the verse was sent down, and about something other than that. And this statement is, in my view, the most correct of the statements concerning this, because the ways of the reports with all the mentioned meanings are sound, and referring them to the correct from their various aspects is the most fitting.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement: And if you ask about them when the Qurʾān is being sent down, they will be disclosed to you. Allah has overlooked them, and Allah is forgiving, forbearing (5:101).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says to those of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ whom He had forbidden to question the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about that which He had forbidden them to question him about — concerning obligations that Allah had not imposed upon them, and the permitting of matters that He permitted to them, and the forbidding of matters that He had not forbidden to them before the sending down of the Qurʾān concerning that: O believers who ask about that which they questioned My Messenger about, concerning what I have not sent down by a Book nor by revelation, do not ask about that, for verily, if an explanation of it is revealed to you by revelation and sending down, it will displease you, because the sending down of it, when it comes to you, comes to you only with that in which lies for you trial and testing — whether through the making obligatory of an act for you and the binding imposition of a duty upon you, and in that lies for you burden and binding hardship and effort; or through the forbidding of that with regard to which you, had no revelation come to you concerning the forbidding of it, would have been in spaciousness and ease as to venturing upon it; or through the permitting of that which you supposed to be forbidden, and in that lies for you something unpleasant, in that you are transferred from that which you held to be true to that which you held to be void. But if you ask about it after the Qurʾān has been sent down concerning it, and after a beginning has been made with the explanation of the affair of it in My Book to My Messenger to you, then it will be made easy for you, that which I have sent down to him of the explanation of My Book and the exposition of My sending down and My revelation.
And that is equivalent to the report transmitted on the authority of some of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, namely:
12813 - Hannād ibn al-Sarī related it to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, on the authority of Makḥūl, on the authority of Abū Thaʿlaba al-Khushanī, who said: Verily, Allah, the Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, has prescribed obligations, so do not neglect them; and He has forbidden things, so do not transgress them; and He has set limits (ḥudūd), so do not overstep them; and He has overlooked certain matters without forgetfulness, so do not inquire into them.
12814 - Hannād related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, who said: ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr used to say: Verily, Allah, the Exalted, has permitted and forbidden; what He has permitted, hold that lawful, and what He has forbidden, avoid that; and He has left aside therein certain matters which He neither permitted nor forbade, and that is a pardon (ʿafw) from Allah with which He has remitted it. Then he recited: "O you who believe, do not ask about matters which, if they were disclosed to you, would displease you".
12815 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: al-Ḍaḥḥāk related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj informed us, saying: ʿAṭāʾ informed me, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, that he used to say: Verily, Allah has forbidden and permitted — and then he mentioned something similar.
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And as for His statement: "Allah has overlooked them", by it He means: Allah has remitted for you the asking about the matters that you questioned the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about, and which Allah disapproved for you, in the sense that He does not call you to account for them nor punish you for them, if He knows from you concerning that your repentance and your turning back. "and Allah is forgiving", He says: and Allah covers the sins of whoever repents of them, and refrains from disgracing him in the Hereafter. "forbearing", [full of patience, refraining from] punishing him for it, in that He envelops the one who repents of it with His mercy and His pardon, instead of punishing him for it.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the report is transmitted on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās which we have just mentioned. And that is what:
12816 - 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: "do not ask about matters", he says: Do not ask about matters about which, if the Qurʾān is sent down concerning them with strictness, that would displease you, but wait, for when the Qurʾān is sent down, you will not ask about anything but you will find the explanation of it.
