Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:26
[Allah] said, "Then indeed, it is forbidden to them for forty years [in which] they will wander throughout the land. So do not grieve over the defiantly disobedient people."
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: "He said: 'Then it shall be forbidden to them for forty years; they shall wander about in the land'" (5:26).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning what grammatically places "the forty" in the accusative.
Some of them said: What places it in the accusative is His saying "forbidden" (muḥarrama). For Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, forbade to the people who disobeyed Him and opposed His command — from the people of Mūsā, who refused to fight the tyrants (the jabbārīn) — the entering of their city for forty years; then He opened it to them and made them dwell therein, and He destroyed the tyrants after a battle which they waged against them, after the forty years had passed and they had come out of the wilderness of wandering.
11690 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, who said: When the people said to them what they said, and Mūsā prayed against them, Allah revealed to Mūsā: "It shall be forbidden to them for forty years; they shall wander about in the land, so do not grieve over the corrupt people (al-qawm al-fāsiqīn)." On that day, according to what is related, they were six hundred thousand fighters. He made them "corrupt" (fāsiqīn) on account of the disobedience they committed. Thus they remained for forty years within a region of six farsakh, or less than that: each day they would journey diligently to get out of it, until they grew weary and halted, and behold, they would find themselves in the dwelling-place from which they had set out. They complained to Mūsā about what had befallen them, whereupon the manna and the quails (al-mann wa-l-salwā) were sent down upon them, and they were given clothing which remained with them; and if a child grew up, it grew along with it in the same measure as that clothing. Mūsā asked his Lord to give them drink, and a stone from the Ṭūr was brought, a white stone; whenever the people halted, he would strike it with his staff, and from it would come forth twelve springs, for each tribe of them a spring, so that each one knew his drinking-place. Until, when the forty years were over — which was a punishment for their transgression and disobedience — He revealed to Mūsā: Command them to journey to the Holy Land, for Allah has protected them against their enemy; and say to them, when they come to the mosque: that they enter through the gate, and prostrate themselves when they enter, and say: "Ḥiṭṭa" — and their saying "Ḥiṭṭa" means: that He remove their sins from them. But most of the people refused and disobeyed; they fell prostrate upon their cheek and said: "Ḥinṭa" (wheat). Then Allah, whose praise is exalted, said: "But those who did wrong changed the word for something other than what was said to them" up to "because of what they used to commit of corruption" (Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:59).
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Others said: No, what places "the forty" in the accusative is "they shall wander about in the land." They said: The meaning of the saying is: He said, then it shall be forbidden to them forever, while they wander about in the land for forty years. They said: No one who said "We will never enter it so long as they are in it; so go you with your Lord and fight, both of you, while we sit here" entered the city of the tyrants, and that because Allah, mighty is His remembrance, forbade it to them. They said: From that people, only Yūshaʿ (Joshua) and Kālab (Caleb) entered it — who had said to them: "Enter upon them through the gate, for when you have entered it, you will be victorious" — and the children of those whom Allah had forbidden the entering; Allah made them wander, so that none of them entered it.
Mention of who said that:
11691 - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb related to us, saying: Abū Hilāl related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning the saying of Allah, the Mighty and Exalted: "It shall be forbidden to them", he said: Forever.
11692 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb related to us, saying: Abū Hilāl related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning the saying of Allah: "They shall wander about in the land", he said: Forty years.
11693 - Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Hārūn al-Naḥwī related to us, saying: Al-Zubayr ibn al-Khirrīt related to me, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His saying: "Then it shall be forbidden to them for forty years; they shall wander about in the land", he said: The forbidding is the state of wandering (al-tīhāʾ).
11694 - Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, who said: Mūsā became angry at his people and prayed against them and said: "Lord, I have power only over myself and over my brother" — the rest of the verse — whereupon Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, said: "Then it shall be forbidden to them for forty years; they shall wander about in the land." When the wandering was imposed upon them, Mūsā regretted it. And his people, who had been obedient to him, came to him and said to him: What have you done to us, O Mūsā! Thus they remained in the wandering. When they came out of the wandering, the manna and the quails were taken away and they ate of the herbs. And Mūsā encountered ʿŪj (Og); Mūsā leapt ten cubits into the air — and his staff was ten cubits, and his height was ten cubits — and he struck the ankle of ʿŪj and killed him. And there remained none of those who had refused to enter the city of the tyrants with Mūsā but that he died and did not live to see the conquest. Then, after the forty years had passed, Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, sent Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn as a prophet; he informed them that he was a prophet, and that Allah had commanded him to fight the tyrants. They gave him the pledge of allegiance and believed him, and he defeated the tyrants, and they fell upon them and killed them, so that a group of the Banū Isrāʾīl would gather upon the neck of one man and strike it without being able to sever it.
11695 - ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn al-Haytham related to me, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, saying: Abū Saʿīd said, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, said, when Mūsā had prayed: "Then it shall be forbidden to them for forty years; they shall wander about in the land." He said: Thus they entered the wandering, and everyone who entered the wandering and was past twenty years died in the wandering.
He said: Thus Mūsā died in the wandering, and Hārūn died before him. He said: Thus they remained forty years in their wandering, after which Yūshaʿ, with those who remained with him, attacked the city of the tyrants, and Yūshaʿ conquered the city.
11696 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, said: "It shall be forbidden to them for forty years." The cities were forbidden to them, so that they could not enter any city and were not able to do so; for forty years they only followed the stone-lined wells. — And it has been related to us that Mūsā, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, died within the forty years, and that of them only their children and the two men who said what they said entered Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem).
11697 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: One of the scholars of the first Book related to me, who said: When the Banū Isrāʾīl did what they did — namely their disobedience to their prophet, and their intention to strike Kālab and Yūshaʿ when those two commanded them to enter the city of the tyrants and said to them what they said — the glory of Allah appeared by means of the cloud above the gate of the tent of meeting (qubbat al-zumar) to all of the Banū Isrāʾīl. Then He, whose praise is exalted, said to Mūsā: Until when will this people disobey Me? And until when will they not believe in all the signs that I have placed among them? I shall strike them with death and destroy them, and I shall make for you a people stronger and greater than them. Then Mūsā said: The inhabitants of the land from which You brought out this people by Your might will hear of it, and the inhabitants of these lands, who have heard that You, You are Allah in the midst of this people, will say: if You were to kill this whole people as one man, then the nations who have heard Your name would say: "He killed this people only because He was not able to lead them into the land which He had created for them, so He killed them in the wilderness." But let Your hands be lifted up and let Your reward be great, O Lord, as You have spoken and said to them, for long is Your patience, abundant Your favors, and You forgive sins and do not cast into ruin; and You keep the sin of the fathers upon the children and the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. Forgive then, O Lord, the transgressions of this people by the abundance of Your favors, and as You have forgiven them since You led them out of the land of Egypt until now. Then Allah, whose praise is exalted, said to Mūsā, peace be upon him: I have forgiven them at your word, but as truly as I live, I have filled the whole earth with all My praiseworthiness: the people who have seen My praiseworthiness and My signs which I performed in the land of Egypt and in the wastelands, and who have tested Me ten times and have not obeyed Me — they shall not see the land which I promised their fathers by oath, and whoever has angered Me shall not see it. But My servant Kālab, whose spirit was with Me and who followed My good pleasure — him I shall lead into the land which he has trodden, and his offspring shall see it.
— And the Amalekites (al-ʿAmālīq) and the Canaanites (al-Kanʿāniyyūn) were sitting in the mountains, and then they set out and departed to the wastelands along the way of the Sea of Sūf (the Red Sea). And Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, spoke to Mūsā and Hārūn, and said to them both: Until when will this congregation, this congregation of evil, murmur against Me? I have heard the murmuring of the Banū Isrāʾīl. And He said: I shall surely do with you as I have told you, and your corpses shall surely fall in these wastelands, according to your number, of those who are twenty years old and above, because you have murmured against Me. So do not enter the land toward which I have lifted up My hand, and none of you shall descend into it except Kālab ibn Yūfannā and Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn; and your children shall become your burdens, as you were the spoil. But as for your children who today do not know what lies between good and evil: they shall enter the land, and I know them; for them is the land which I have willed for them. And your corpses shall fall in these wastelands, and you shall wander about in these wastelands according to the number of days in which you explored the land — forty days — for each day a year; and you shall perish for forty years because of your sins, and you shall know that you have murmured before Me. I, I am Allah, who shall do this to this congregation — the congregation of the Banū Isrāʾīl who are threatened before Me — that they shall wander about in the wastelands, and therein they shall die.
— As for the group that Mūsā had sent out to explore the land, and who afterward incited the congregation and spread the message of evil among them: they all died suddenly; and Yūshaʿ and Kālab ibn Yūfannā from the group that had gone out to explore the land remained alive.
— And when Mūsā, peace be upon him, had delivered this whole address to the Banū Isrāʾīl, the people grieved with a violent grief, and they set out and ascended to the top of the mountain and said: We will climb up to the land of which He, whose praise is exalted, has spoken, because we have sinned. Then Mūsā said to them: "Why do you transgress the word of Allah? Therefore no work will succeed for you; do not climb up, for Allah is not with you, and now you will be defeated before your enemies, for the Amalekites and the Canaanites are before you; so do not become embroiled in the battle, for you have turned against Allah, so that Allah is not with you." But they began to climb the mountain, while the ark in which were the covenants of Allah, mighty is His remembrance, and of Mūsā did not move from the camp — that is, from the tent — until the Amalekites and the Canaanites came down upon that slope and set them ablaze, drove them off and killed them. Thus Allah, mighty is His remembrance, made them wander about for forty years in the wandering on account of the disobedience, until whoever had merited disobedience toward Allah thereby perished. — He said: And when the young generation from their descendants had grown up and their fathers had perished and the forty years had passed in which they had wandered, Mūsā set out with them — and with him were Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn and Kālab ibn Yūfannā, who — it is claimed — was married to Maryam, daughter of ʿImrān, the sister of Mūsā and Hārūn, so that he was their brother-in-law. Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn set out with the Banū Isrāʾīl toward Arīḥā (Jericho) and led them into it, and killed therein the tyrants who were there; then Mūsā entered it with the Banū Isrāʾīl and remained there as long as Allah willed that he should remain, and then Allah took him to Himself, without any creature knowing his grave.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of the two opinions herein is, in my judgment, the opinion of whoever says that "the forty" is placed in the accusative by "the forbidding" (al-taḥrīm), and that His saying "it shall be forbidden to them for forty years" concerns the whole people of Mūsā, not a part of them to the exclusion of another part. For Allah, mighty is His remembrance, applied that generally to the people and did not single out from it a part to the exclusion of another part. And Allah, whose praise is exalted, fulfilled what He had promised them of punishment: He made them wander for forty years and forbade them all, during the forty years which they spent wandering, the entering of the Holy Land, so that none of them entered it — neither small nor great, neither righteous nor corrupt — until the years had passed in which Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, had forbidden them the entering of it. Then He permitted those of them and of their descendants who remained to enter it with the prophet of Allah, Mūsā, and the two men to whom Allah had granted His favor; and the prophet of Allah, Mūsā, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, conquered — if Allah wills — the city of the tyrants, with Yūshaʿ at his vanguard. And that because the scholars who are acquainted with the reports of the ancients agree that ʿŪj ibn ʿAnāq was killed by Mūsā, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Now had he killed him before his entering into the wandering — while he was one of the greatest of the tyrants in stature — then the Banū Isrāʾīl would not have been so afraid of the tyrants as became apparent among them. But that happened — if Allah wills — only after the perishing of the congregation which was afraid and disobeyed its Lord and refused to enter the city of the tyrants with them.
And furthermore: the scholars who are acquainted with the reports of the ancients agree that Balʿam ibn Bāʿūr was among those who aided the tyrants by praying against Mūsā. And it is impossible that that happened while the people of Mūsā refrained from fighting them and waging jihād against them, for aid is needed only for the one who is the target; but when there is no attacker, there is no ground for the need of it.
11698 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Nawf, who said: The resting-couch of ʿŪj was eight hundred cubits, and the height of Mūsā was ten cubits, and his staff ten cubits, and he leapt ten cubits into the air, and he struck ʿŪj and hit his ankle, whereupon he fell down dead; thus he became a bridge for the people, over which they walked.
11699 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Qays related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The staff of Mūsā was ten cubits, and his leap ten cubits, and his height ten cubits; he leapt and struck the ankle of ʿŪj and killed him, and thus he became a bridge for the people of the Nile for a year.
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And the meaning of "they shall wander about in the land" is: they are in bewilderment therein and become lost in it. — Of this it is said of the man who has strayed from the path of truth: "tāʾih" (one wandering). And their wandering was this: for forty years they journeyed each day diligently over about six farsakh to get out of it, and in the evening they would arrive at the place from which they had begun to journey.
11700 - Al-Muthannā related that to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ.
11701 - 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, who said: The Banū Isrāʾīl wandered for forty years; they awoke where they had spent the evening and spent the evening where they had awoken, in their wandering.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: "So do not grieve over the corrupt people" (5:26).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His saying "so do not grieve" (fa-lā taʾsa): so do not grieve.
One says of this: "asiya fulān ʿalā kadhā yaʾsā asan" and "qad asaytu min kadhā", that is: I grieved. Of this is the saying of Imruʾ al-Qays:
My companions halted by her with their mounts turned over me, saying: "Do not perish from grief, and bear yourself with dignity."
He means: do not perish from grief.
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And in accordance with what we have said herein the interpreters spoke.
Mention of who said that:
11702 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "So do not grieve", he says: so do not grieve.
11703 - Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "So do not grieve over the corrupt people", he said: When the wandering was imposed upon them, Mūsā, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, regretted it; and when he regretted it, Allah revealed to him: "So do not grieve over the corrupt people", do not grieve over the people whom I have named "corrupt" (fāsiqīn). Thus he did not grieve.
