Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:12
And Allah had already taken a covenant from the Children of Israel, and We delegated from among them twelve leaders. And Allah said, "I am with you. If you establish prayer and give zakah and believe in My messengers and support them and loan Allah a goodly loan, I will surely remove from you your misdeeds and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoever of you disbelieves after that has certainly strayed from the soundness of the way."
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 statement concerning the interpretation of His word, mighty is His remembrance: وَلَقَدْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ وَبَعَثْنَا مِنْهُمُ اثْنَيْ عَشَرَ نَقِيبًا ("And Allah indeed took the covenant of the Children of Israel, and We sent forth from among them twelve overseers").
Abū Jaʿfar said: This verse was sent down as an announcement from Allah, exalted is His praise, to His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and to the believers in him, concerning the nature of those of the Jews who intended to stretch out their hands against them. As:
11567 — Al-Ḥārith ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Mubārak related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word: "And Allah indeed took the covenant of the Children of Israel", he said: the Jews of the People of the Book.
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= And that what they intended of treachery and breaking of the covenant that existed between them and him belongs to their characteristics and the characteristics of their predecessors, their nature and the nature of their forefathers of old = and as an argument for His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, against the Jews, in that He informed him of what they — and not the Arabs — knew of their hidden affairs and their concealed knowledge = and as a rebuke to the Jews for their persistence in error and their clinging to disbelief, despite their knowledge of the falsehood of that upon which they persist.
Allah says to His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: Do not deem great the matter of those of these Jews who intended to stretch out their hands against you with what they plotted against you, nor the matter of the treachery they devised and desired against you, for that belongs to the nature of their predecessors and their forefathers; they go no further than being upon the way of their first ones and the path of their predecessors. Then He, mighty is His remembrance, began the announcement of some of their treacherous deeds, their treachery, their insolence toward their Lord, and their breaking of the covenant that their Creator had concluded with them, despite His favors with which He had favored them and His honors for which He had imposed upon them gratitude. So He said: and Allah indeed took the covenant of the predecessors of those who intended to stretch out their hands against you from the Jews of the Children of Israel — O company of believers — to fulfill it toward Him by His covenants, and to obey Him in what He commanded and forbade them, as:
11568 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning His word: "And Allah indeed took the covenant of the Children of Israel", he said: Allah took their covenants that they would be sincerely devoted to Him and would worship none other than Him.
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= "and We sent forth from among them twelve overseers (naqīb)", He means thereby: and We sent forth from among them twelve guarantors who stood surety for them in fulfilling toward Allah that over which they had concluded a covenant with Him of obligations regarding what He commanded them and what He forbade them.
And "the naqīb" is in the language of the Arabs like the ʿarīf over a people, except that he stands above the "ʿarīf". One says of that: "So-and-so was naqīb (supervisor) over the sons of such-and-such, he is naqīb, nuqūb [carries out supervision]". When one wishes to say that he was not a naqīb and became one, one says: "he became naqīb, he is naqīb, naqāba" = and of "ʿarīf": "he became ʿarīf over them, he is ʿarīf, ʿirāfa". As for "the manākib", they are like helpers who are with the ʿurafāʾ; the singular is "mankib".
And some scholars of Arabic said: it is the trusted guarantor over the people.
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As for the people of interpretation, they differed among themselves concerning its interpretation.
Some said: he is the witness over his people.
Mention of who said that:
11569 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, his word: "And Allah indeed took the covenant of the Children of Israel, and We sent forth from among them twelve overseers", from each tribe a man, a witness over his people.
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And others said: "the naqīb" is the trusted one.
Mention of who said that:
11570 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, he said: "the overseers (nuqabāʾ)" are the trusted ones.
11571 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, the same.
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Allah, mighty is His remembrance, had only commanded Mūsā, His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to send the twelve overseers from his people, the Children of Israel, to the land of the tyrants in Syria (al-Shām), so that they might scout out for Mūsā their reports — when He willed their destruction, and willed that He should give their land and their dwellings as an inheritance to Mūsā and his people, and make it dwelling-places for the Children of Israel, after He had saved them from Pharaoh and his people and brought them out from the land of Egypt. So Mūsā sent those whom Allah had commanded him to send there of the overseers, as:
11572 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, he said: Allah commanded the Children of Israel to march up to Arīḥā (Jericho), and that is the land of Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis). They marched on until, when they were near them, [whereupon] Mūsā sent twelve overseers from all the tribes of the Children of Israel. They set out with the intention of bringing him a report about the tyrants, and a man of the tyrants who was called "ʿŪj" met them, seized the twelve and put them in his waistwrap (the place where the loincloth is fastened), while on his head lay a load of firewood. He went with them to his wife and said: Look at these people who claim that they wish to fight against us!! He threw them down before her and said: Shall I not crush them with my foot! His wife said: Rather leave them be, so that they may inform their people of what they have seen. And he did that. When the people departed, they said to one another: O people, if you tell the Children of Israel the report about these people, they will turn away from the Prophet of Allah, peace be upon him; rather conceal it and report it to the Prophet of Allah, so that the two of them [Mūsā and Hārūn] may form their opinion! So they took from one another the covenant to conceal it. Then they returned, and ten of them went off and broke the covenant; each man began to inform his brother and his father of what he had seen of [the matter of] "ʿŪj". But two men among them kept it silent, and they went to Mūsā and Hārūn and reported to them the account. That is what Allah means when He says: "And Allah indeed took the covenant of the Children of Israel, and We sent forth from among them twelve overseers".
11573 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: "twelve overseers", from each tribe of the Children of Israel a man, whom Mūsā sent to the tyrants. They found them while in the sleeve of one of them two of them [the envoys] could go, and they cast them away [as nothing]; and the cluster of their grapes could only be carried on a pole by five persons of them, and in the half of a pomegranate, when its seeds had been taken out, five or four persons could be seated. So each of the overseers returned and held back his tribe from fighting against them, except Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn (Joshua, son of Nun) and Kālab ibn Yāfanna (Caleb, son of Jephunneh), who commanded the tribes to fight against the tyrants and to wage jihād against them; but they disobeyed these two and obeyed the others.
11574 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, in a similar manner = except that he said: from the Children of Israel men = and he also said: they cast both of them away.
11575 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: Mūsā was commanded to march with the Children of Israel to the Holy Land, and He said: I have prescribed it for you as a dwelling-place, an abode and a habitation; so march to it and wage war against whoever of the enemy is in it, for I will help you against them; and take from your people twelve overseers, from each tribe an overseer who stands over his people regarding their fulfillment of that which they were commanded. And say to them: Allah says to you: إِنِّي مَعَكُمْ لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ وَآتَيْتُمُ الزَّكَاةَ ("I am indeed with you, if you establish the ritual prayer and give the obligatory alms") ... up to His word: فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ ("then he has indeed strayed from the right path"). And Mūsā took from them twelve overseers whom he chose from the tribes as guarantors over their people for that in which they were, regarding their fulfillment of His covenant and His pact. And he took from each tribe the best and most trustworthy man. Allah, mighty and exalted, says: "And Allah indeed took the covenant of the Children of Israel, and We sent forth from among them twelve overseers". So Mūsā marched with them to the Holy Land by the command of Allah, until he halted in the wilderness (al-tīh) between Egypt and Syria = and that is a land in which there is no shelter and no shade. Mūsā called upon his Lord when the heat tormented them, and He shaded them with the clouds, and he supplicated for them for sustenance, whereupon Allah sent down upon them the manna (al-mann) and the quails (al-salwā). And Allah commanded Mūsā and said: Send men to scout out the land of Canaan, which is bestowed upon the Children of Israel, from each tribe a man. So Mūsā sent all the leaders who were among them, [and Allah, mighty and exalted, sent them from the wilderness of Fārān, by the word of Allah, and they were the leaders of the Children of Israel]. And these are the names of the group whom Allah, exalted is His praise, sent from the Children of Israel to the land of Syria, according to what the people of the Torah mention, to scout it out for the Children of Israel: from the tribe of Rūbīl (Reuben): "Shāmūn ibn Zakwwūn" = and from the tribe of Shamʿūn (Simeon): "Shāfāṭ ibn Ḥurrī" = and from the tribe of Yahūdhā (Judah): "Kālab ibn Yūfannā" = and from the tribe of Atīn: "Yajāʾil ibn Yūsuf" = and from the tribe of Yūsuf, that is the tribe of Afrāʾīm (Ephraim): "Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn" = and from the tribe of Binyāmīn (Benjamin): "Falṭ ibn Rafūn" = and from the tribe of Zabālūn (Zebulun): "Jaddī ibn Sūdī" = and from the tribe of Manshā ibn Yūsuf (Manasseh): "Jaddī ibn Sūsā" = and from the tribe of Dān (Dan): "Ḥamlāʾil ibn Jamal" = and from the tribe of Ashar (Asher): "Sātūr ibn Malkīl" = and from the tribe of Naftālī (Naphtali): "Naḥā ibn Wafsī" = and from the tribe of Jād (Gad): "Jūlāyil ibn Mīkī".
= These, then, are the names of those whom Mūsā sent to scout out the land for him = and on that day he named "Hūshaʿ ibn Nūn" [henceforth] "Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn". = He sent them and said to them: March in the direction of the sun, leave the mountain, and look at what is in the land, and what the people are who dwell in it — are they strong or weak, are they few or many? And look at their land in which they dwell: is it fertile [or barren]? Does it have trees or not? Pass through it, and bring us of the fruits of that land. And that was at the beginning of the time when the first-fruits of the grape were ripening.
11576 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my paternal uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his word: "and We sent forth from among them twelve overseers", they were from the Children of Israel; Mūsā sent them to look at the city for him. They went and looked at the city, and came back with one grain of their fruits, the load of a man, and said: Estimate the strength and the might of a people by this — these are their fruits! At that moment they were tested and said: We are not able to fight; فَاذْهَبْ أَنْتَ وَرَبُّكَ فَقَاتِلا إِنَّا هَاهُنَا قَاعِدُونَ ("So go, you and your Lord, and fight, the two of you; we remain sitting here") [Surah al-Māʾida: 24].
11577 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj al-Marwazī, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh al-Faḍl ibn Khālid say concerning his word: "and We sent forth from among them twelve overseers": Allah commanded the Children of Israel to march up to the Holy Land with their Prophet Mūsā, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. When they were near the city, Mūsā said to them: Enter it! But they refused and became cowardly, and sent twelve overseers to look at them [the inhabitants]. They went and looked, and came back with one grain of their fruits, the load of a man, and said: Estimate the strength and the might of a people — these are their fruits!! At that moment they said to Mūsā: (Go, you and your Lord, and fight, the two of you; we remain sitting here).
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The statement concerning the interpretation of His word, mighty is His remembrance: وَقَالَ اللَّهُ إِنِّي مَعَكُمْ لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ وَآتَيْتُمُ الزَّكَاةَ وَآمَنْتُمْ بِرُسُلِي وَعَزَّرْتُمُوهُمْ وَأَقْرَضْتُمُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا ("And Allah said: I am indeed with you; if you establish the ritual prayer and give the obligatory alms and believe in My messengers and support them and lend to Allah a goodly loan").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His remembrance, says: and Allah said to the Children of Israel: "I am indeed with you", He says: I will help you against your enemy and My enemy, whom I have commanded you to fight, if you fight against them and fulfill My covenant and My pact that I have concluded with you.
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And in the statement there is an ellipsis; one has contented oneself with what is evident of the statement at the expense of what has been omitted from it. For the meaning of the statement is: and Allah said to them: I am indeed with you = and the mention of "to them" was omitted, because one could content oneself with His word: وَلَقَدْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ ("And Allah indeed took the covenant of the Children of Israel"), since what precedes is an announcement about a people named by name, so that it was known that what follows in the course of the statement is an announcement about them, since the statement was not turned away from them to others.
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Then our Lord, exalted is His praise, began with the oath and said: by way of an oath, if you establish the ritual prayer, O company of the Children of Israel = "and give the obligatory alms", that is to say: you give it to whom I have commanded you to give it = "and believe in My messengers", He says: and you give credence to what My messengers have brought you of the laws of My religion.
And al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas said: this is an address from Allah to the twelve overseers.
11578 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas: that Mūsā, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to the twelve overseers: March against them = that is to say: against the tyrants = and report to me their account and their affair, and do not fear; Allah is indeed with you so long as you establish the ritual prayer and give the obligatory alms and believe in My messengers and support them and lend to Allah a goodly loan.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: What al-Rabīʿ said concerning this is not far from correct, except that it belongs to the judgment of Allah regarding His entire creation, that He is the helper of whoever obeys Him, and the protector of whoever follows His command, avoids His disobedience, and refrains from His sins. Since that is so, and since among His obedience is the establishing of the prayer, the giving of the obligatory alms, the believing in the messengers, and all the rest to which the people were urged, it was known that the wiping away of sins thereby and the entering of the gardens thereby was not restricted to the overseers to the exclusion of the rest of the Children of Israel. Therefore it is so that it is an exhortation to the whole people and an encouragement to them toward that to which He has encouraged them — and that is more correct and more fitting than that it should be an exhortation to some and an encouragement to a select group to the exclusion of the generality.
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And the people of interpretation differed concerning the interpretation of His word: "and support them (ʿazzartumūhum)".
Some said: its interpretation is: and you helped them.
Mention of who said that:
11579 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: "and support them", he said: you helped them.
11580 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
11581 — 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, his word: "and support them", he said: you helped them with the sword.
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And others said: it is obedience and help.
Mention of who said that:
11582 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd say concerning his word: "and support them", he said: "the support (al-taʿzīz)" and "the honoring (al-tawqīr)" is obedience and help.
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And the scholars of Arabic differed concerning its interpretation.
It was related on the authority of Yūnus [al-Ḥarmarī] that he used to say: its interpretation is: you praised them.
11583 — That was related to me on the authority of Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā, on his authority.
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And Abū ʿUbayda used to say: its meaning is: you helped them, supported them, honored them, magnified them, and aided them. And he recited in support of that the following:
And how many a noble one of them, a generous one, And how many a lion who is honored in the assembly (al-nadiyy).
And al-Farrāʾ used to say: "al-ʿazr" is the driving back. "ʿAzartuhu" (I drove him back): when you see someone committing wrong and you say: "Fear Allah", or you restrain him — that is "al-ʿazr".
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the most correct of these statements concerning this is, in my opinion, the statement of whoever said: "its meaning is: you helped them". For Allah, exalted is His praise, said in "Surah al-Fatḥ": إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ شَاهِدًا وَمُبَشِّرًا وَنَذِيرًا * لِتُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَتُعَزِّرُوهُ وَتُوَقِّرُوهُ ("We have indeed sent you as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner, that you may believe in Allah and His messenger and support him and honor him") [Surah al-Fatḥ: 8, 9]. So "al-tawqīr" is the magnifying. And since that is so, the statement concerning this can only be one of the statements that we have mentioned from those whom we have related them. And when it is excluded that its meaning is the magnifying = and since the help can take place both with the hand and with the tongue — as for the hand, by defending him therewith with the sword and otherwise, and as for the tongue, by good praise and the defending of his honor — it is correct that it is the help, since the help encompasses the meaning of all that every speaker has said concerning it of that which we have related from him.
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And as for His word: "and lend to Allah a goodly loan", He says: and you spend in the way of Allah, and that is in the jihād against His enemy and your enemy = "a goodly loan", He says: and you spend what you spend in His way, and you hit the mark in your expenditure of what you spend for that, and you do not transgress therein the limits of Allah, and you do not exchange what He has enjoined upon you and to which He has urged you for anything else.
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If a speaker were to say to us: How is it that He said: "and lend to Allah a goodly loan (qarḍan)" and did not say: "a goodly lending (iqrāḍan)", while you know that the verbal noun of "aqraḍtu" (I lent) is "al-iqrāḍ"?
The answer is: Had that been said, it would have been correct, but His word: "a goodly loan (qarḍan)" brought forth the verbal noun from its meaning, not from its wording. For in His word "aqraḍa" lies the meaning of "qaraḍa", just as in the meaning of "aʿṭā" (he gave) lies "akhadha" (he took). So the meaning of the statement is: and you lent to Allah a goodly loan. And a comparable case of that is: وَاللَّهُ أَنْبَتَكُمْ مِنَ الأَرْضِ نَبَاتًا ("And Allah caused you to grow from the earth as a growth") [Surah Nūḥ: 17], since in "anbatakum" lies the meaning of "fa-nabattum" (whereupon you grew), and as Imruʾ al-Qays said:
And I broke her in, so that a refractory one submitted, with what a submission!
since in "ruḍtu" lies the meaning of "adhlaltu" (I subdued), so that "al-idhlāl" as a verbal noun came forth from its meaning, not from its wording.
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The statement concerning the interpretation of His word, mighty is His remembrance: لأُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ وَلأُدْخِلَنَّكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الأَنْهَارُ ("then I shall surely wipe away from you your evil deeds and shall surely admit you to gardens beneath which the rivers flow").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means thereby the Children of Israel; He, exalted is His praise, says to them: if you establish the ritual prayer, O people who have given Me their covenant to fulfill My obedience and follow My command, and you give the obligatory alms and do all the rest for which I have promised you My garden = "then I shall surely wipe away from you your evil deeds", He says: then I shall, by My forgiveness of you and My refraining from punishing you — for your former crimes which you have committed between Me and you — cover your sins which you have committed before, of the worship of the calf and the rest of your corrupting sins
= "and shall surely admit you", together with My covering of that for you by My mercy on the Day of Resurrection = "to gardens beneath which the rivers flow".
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And "the gardens (al-jannāt)" are the orchards.
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And I have only said that the meaning of His word "la-ukaffiranna" is "then I shall surely cover", because "al-kufr" has as its meaning: the denying, the covering, and the concealing, as Labīd said:
In a night in which the clouds covered (kafara) the stars
that is to say: "they covered them". So "al-takfīr" is the tafʿīl-form of "al-kafr".
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And the scholars of Arabic differed concerning the meaning of the "lām" that is in His word "la-ukaffiranna".
Some grammarians of Basra said: the first "lām" has the meaning of the oath = they mean the "lām" that is in His word لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ. They said: and the second has the meaning of another oath.
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And some grammarians of Kufa said: no, the first "lām" stands in place of the oath, so that one contents oneself with it in place of the oath = they mean by the "first lām": لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ. They said: and the second "lām" = that is to say His word: "then I shall surely wipe away from you your evil deeds" = is the answer to it, that is to say to the "lām" that is in His word لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ. And they argued for that statement of theirs by the fact that His word لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ is not complete and cannot be dispensed with from His word: "then I shall surely wipe away from you your evil deeds". And since that is so, it is not permissible that His word "then I shall surely wipe away from you your evil deeds" be an inceptive oath; rather, it is necessary that it be an answer to the oath, since it [the oath formula] cannot be dispensed with from it.
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And His word: (beneath which the rivers flow), He says: beneath the trees of these orchards, which He has admitted you to, the rivers flow.
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The statement concerning the interpretation of His word, mighty is His remembrance: فَمَنْ كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ مِنْكُمْ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ ("Whoever of you disbelieves after that has indeed strayed from the right path") (12).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, mighty is His remembrance, says: whoever of you, O company of the Children of Israel, denies anything of what I have commanded him and abandons it, or commits what I have forbidden him and does it, after I have taken the covenant with him to fulfill toward Me in My obedience and the avoidance of My disobedience = "has indeed strayed from the right path", He says: then he has missed the aim of the clear way and has strayed from the path of the straight road.
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And "the straying (al-ḍalāl)" is the going without guidance, and we have expounded that with its proofs elsewhere.
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And His word "sawāʾ" means thereby: the middle = and "al-sabīl" is the way.
* * *
And we have expounded the interpretation of all that elsewhere, so that this dispenses us from repeating it here.
