Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:18
But the Jews and the Christians say, "We are the children of Allah and His beloved." Say, "Then why does He punish you for your sins?" Rather, you are human beings from among those He has created. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, and to Him is the [final] destination.
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, exalted be His remembrance: En de joden en de christenen zeiden: 'Wij zijn de zonen van Allah en Zijn geliefden.' Zeg: 'Waarom straft Hij u dan voor uw zonden?' (And the Jews and the Christians said: "We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones." Say: "Why then does He punish you for your sins?").
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a report from Allah, mighty and exalted is He, concerning a group of the Jews and the Christians, namely that they made this statement.
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And it has been transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās the naming of those among the Jews who said that.
11613 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freedman of Zayd ibn Thābit, related to me, saying: Saʿīd ibn Jubayr or ʿIkrima related to me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: There came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ Nuʿmān ibn Aḍāʾ, Baḥrī ibn ʿAmr, and Shaʾs ibn ʿAdī; they spoke to him, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spoke to them and called them to Allah and warned them of His vengeance. Thereupon they said: "With what do you instill fear in us, O Muḥammad?! We, by Allah, are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones!!" — like the statement of the Christians. Then Allah, mighty and exalted is He, revealed concerning them: "And the Jews and the Christians said: 'We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones'", to the end of the verse.
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And al-Suddī used to say concerning that what follows:
11614 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "And the Jews and the Christians said: 'We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones'" — as for "the sons of Allah," they said: Verily, Allah revealed to Israel that a portion of your offspring — He will make them enter the Fire, and they will remain therein forty days until it purifies them and consumes their sins; then a caller calls out: that all the circumcised of the offspring of Israel are to come out, and He brings them out. That is His word: Het Vuur zal ons slechts een geteld aantal dagen raken [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 24]. And as for the Christians: a portion of them said concerning the Masīḥ (the Messiah): the son of Allah.
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And the Arabs sometimes let a statement go forth, when they boast, in the form of a report about the community, even though that of which they boasted was the deed of a single individual among them. Thus they say: "We are the noble, the generous," while the generous one among them is but a single one of them, and the one who did that is someone other than the speaker. As Jarīr said:
We felled Abū Mandūsa, the smith (al-qayn), with the spears,
and the blood of the neighbor of Baybah flowed, freshly shed.
So he said "we felled," while the one who felled was a man of the people of Jarīr, someone other than him. He let the statement go forth in the form of a report about a community of which he is one. Likewise, Allah, exalted be His remembrance, reported concerning the Christians that they said that, in this manner, if Allah wills.
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And His word: "and His beloved ones (aḥibbāʾu-hu)" — this is the plural of "beloved (ḥabīb)."
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Allah says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: "Say" to these liars who fabricate falsehoods concerning their Lord: "Why then does He punish you" — your Lord — He says: For what reason does your Lord punish you for your sins, if the matter is as you claimed, namely that you are His sons and His beloved ones? For the beloved does not punish his beloved, while you yourselves acknowledge that He punishes you. That is because the Jews said: Verily, Allah will punish us for forty days, according to the number of days in which we worshipped the calf, and after that He will deliver us all from it. Thereupon Allah said to Muḥammad ﷺ: Say to them: If you, as you say, are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones, why then does He punish you for your sins? He, exalted be His remembrance, makes them know that they are people of fabrication and lying against Allah, mighty and exalted is He.
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The statement concerning the interpretation of His word, praised be His praise: Nee, u bent mensen van wat Hij geschapen heeft; Hij vergeeft wie Hij wil en straft wie Hij wil (Nay, you are human beings from among those He has created; He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, praised be His praise, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Say to them: The matter is not as you claimed, namely that you are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones. "Nay, you are human beings from among those He has created," He says: created from the children of Adam; Allah created you just as the rest of the children of Adam: if you act righteously, you will be recompensed for your good deeds, just as the rest of the children of Adam are recompensed for their good deeds; and if you do evil, you will be recompensed for your evil, just as others than you are recompensed for it. You have nothing with Allah other than what others of His creatures have, for He forgives whom He wills of those who believe in Him their sins, and He passes over him graciously by His favor, and covers them for him by His mercy, so that He does not chastise him for them.
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And we have already expounded the meaning of "forgiveness (maghfira)" in a place other than this with its proofs, so that this absolves us from repeating it in this place.
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= "and punishes whom He wills" — He says: and He exercises justice toward whom He wills of His creatures, and chastises him for his sins, and thereby disgraces him before the witnesses, and does not cover them for him.
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And this is from Allah, mighty and exalted is He, only a threat to these Jews and Christians, who rely upon the high ranks of their excellent predecessors with Allah — those whom Allah, mighty and exalted is He, has favored on account of their obedience to Him, and whom He has chosen on account of their hastening toward His good pleasure and their patience at what befell them in that. He says to them: Do not let yourselves be deceived by the position of these with Me and their ranks with Me, for they attained only what they attained from Me through obedience to Me and preferring My good pleasure over their own preferences — not through wishful fancies. So strive for My obedience, hold fast to My command, and refrain from what I have forbidden you, for I forgive only the sins of whom I will of the people of My obedience, and I punish whom I will to punish of the people of My disobedience — not him whose forefathers stood near to Me through their nearness to Me, while he is My enemy and contradicts My command and My prohibition.
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And al-Suddī used to say concerning that what follows:
11615 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His word: "He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills" — he says: He guides among you whom He wills in this life and forgives him, and He causes to die among you whom He wills in his unbelief (kufr) and punishes him.
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The statement concerning the interpretation of His word, praised be His praise: En aan Allah behoort de heerschappij over de hemelen en de aarde en wat daartussen is, en tot Hem is de terugkeer (18) (And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, and to Him is the return).
Abū Jaʿfar said, He says: To Allah belongs the governance of what is in the heavens and what is on the earth and what is between them, and the disposal thereof, and in His hand is the authority over it, and to Him belongs its dominion; He disposes of it as He wills, and governs it as He chooses, without having any partner in anything thereof, and without anyone besides Him having any dominion therein. Know then, O you who say: Wij zijn de zonen van Allah en Zijn geliefden (We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones), that if He punishes you for your sins, there is for you no one to prevent it against Him and no one to ward it off from Him, because there is no kinship between anyone and Him such that He would favor him on account of it, and because no one besides Him has any dominion in anything such that he could intercede between Him and him, if He wills to punish him for his sins. And to Him is the return of all things and their place of return. So fear, O you fabricators, His chastisement of you for your sins after your return to Him, and do not let yourselves be deceived by wishful fancies and the merits of the forefathers and the predecessors.
