Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:21
O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you and do not turn back [from fighting in Allah 's cause] and [thus] become losers."
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, exalted is His praise: يَا قَوْمِ ادْخُلُوا الأَرْضَ الْمُقَدَّسَةَ الَّتِي كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ ("O my people, enter the holy land which Allah has prescribed for you") (5:21).
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a report from Allah, exalted is His mention, about the statement of Mūsā — peace be upon him — to his people of the Banū Isrāʾīl, and about his command to them — by the command of Allah to him — to order them to enter the holy land.
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Then the exegetes differed concerning the land that was meant by "the holy land" (al-arḍ al-muqaddasa).
Some of them said: By it was meant the Mount (al-Ṭūr) and what lies around it.
Mention of who said that:
11644 - 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: "the holy land" is al-Ṭūr and what lies around it.
11645 - 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.
11646 - Al-Ḥārith ibn Muḥammad related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "enter the holy land," he said: al-Ṭūr and what lies around it.
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Others said: It is al-Shām (Syria).
Mention of who said that:
11647 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: "the holy land," he said: That is al-Shām.
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Others said: It is the land of Arīḥā (Jericho).
Mention of who said that:
11648 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "enter the holy land which Allah has prescribed for you," he said: Arīḥā.
11649 - Yūsuf 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: It is Arīḥā.
11650 - ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn al-Haytham related to me, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: It is Arīḥā.
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And it was said: "the holy land" is Damascus, Palestine, and part of Jordan (al-Urdunn).
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By His statement "the holy" (al-muqaddasa) is meant: the purified, the blessed, as:
11651 - 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: "the holy land," he said: the blessed.
11652 - 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.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct of these statements concerning this is that one says: It is the holy land, as the prophet of Allah, Mūsā — peace be upon him — said, for the statement concerning this that it is one particular land and not another cannot be established in its true correctness except by a report (khabar), and there is no report about it upon which one may with certainty base testimony. Nevertheless, it will not fall outside the land that lies between the Euphrates and ʿArīsh of Egypt, on account of the consensus of all the exegetes, biographers (ahl al-siyar), and scholars of the reports concerning this.
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By His statement "which Allah has prescribed for you" He means: that which He has set down in the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ) as being dwellings and abodes for you, and not for the tyrants (al-jabābira) who are in it.
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If someone were to say: How then could He say "which Allah has prescribed for you," when you know that they did not enter it, on account of His statement فَإِنَّهَا مُحَرَّمَةٌ عَلَيْهِمْ ("for indeed it is forbidden to them")? How then can it be set down in the Preserved Tablet that it is dwellings for them, while the inhabiting of it was forbidden to them?
The answer is: It was prescribed for the Banū Isrāʾīl as a dwelling and abode, and they indeed inhabited it, settled in it, and it became theirs, as Allah, exalted and mighty, said. Mūsā said to them: "enter the holy land which Allah has prescribed for you," by which he means: Allah has prescribed it for the Banū Isrāʾīl — and those whom Mūsā commanded to enter it belonged to the Banū Isrāʾīl — and he — peace be upon him — did not mean that Allah, exalted is His mention, had prescribed it precisely to those very ones whom he commanded to enter it.
And if someone were to say: It was prescribed for some of them, for a particular portion of them — and the statement was given in general terms while the particular was meant, since Yūshaʿ (Joshua) and Kālib (Caleb) had indeed entered it and they belonged to those who were addressed by this statement — then that too would be a correct view.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, Ibn Isḥāq spoke.
11653 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq: "which Allah has prescribed for you," that which Allah has bestowed upon you.
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And al-Suddī used to say: The meaning of "kataba" (prescribed) in this place has the meaning of: commanded.
11654 - Mūsā ibn Hārūn related this to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "enter the holy land which Allah has prescribed for you," that which Allah has commanded you.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement, exalted is His praise: وَلا تَرْتَدُّوا عَلَى أَدْبَارِكُمْ فَتَنْقَلِبُوا خَاسِرِينَ ("and do not turn back on your heels, lest you turn back as losers") (5:21).
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a report from Allah, exalted is His mention, about the statement of Mūsā — peace be upon him — to his people of the Banū Isrāʾīl, when he commanded them, by the command of Allah, exalted is His mention, to him, to enter the holy land; that he said to them: Go forth, O people, to the command of Allah which He has charged you with, namely the entering of the holy land — "and do not turn back," he says: do not turn backward, retreating — "on your heels," that is to say: toward the rear; but go forward to the command of Allah which He has charged you with, namely the marching upon the people whom Allah has commanded you to fight and to raid in their land, and indeed, Allah, exalted is His mention, has prescribed it for you as a dwelling and abode.
And by His statement "lest you turn back as losers" He means: lest you return as the disappointed, doomed to perdition.
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And we have already expounded the meaning of "loss" (al-khasāra) in another place, with the proofs that make it superfluous to repeat it here.
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If someone were to say: What was the import of the statement of Mūsā to his people, when he commanded them to enter the holy land: "do not turn back on your heels, lest you turn back as losers" — does he then deserve loss, he who does not enter a land that has been allotted to him?
The answer is: Allah, exalted is His mention, had commanded them to fight whoever was in it of the people of unbelief (ahl al-kufr), and He had made the entering of it obligatory upon them. Thus the people deserved loss by their abandonment of what Allah had then made obligatory upon them, and that for two reasons: the first is the neglect of the obligation of jihād which Allah, exalted is His mention, had imposed upon them; the second is their contradiction of the command of Allah in that they refrained from entering the land, and their statement to their prophet Mūsā — peace be upon him — when he said to them ادْخُلُوا الأَرْضَ الْمُقَدَّسَةَ ("enter the holy land"): "we will never enter it until they depart from it; if they depart from it, then we shall enter."
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And Qatāda used to say concerning this what follows hereafter:
11655 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement يَا قَوْمِ ادْخُلُوا الأَرْضَ الْمُقَدَّسَةَ الَّتِي كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ ("O my people, enter the holy land which Allah has prescribed for you"): they were commanded to it, as they were commanded to the ritual prayer (ṣalāh), the obligatory alms (zakāh), the pilgrimage (ḥajj), and the ʿumra.
