Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:29
Indeed I want you to obtain [thereby] my sin and your sin so you will be among the companions of the Fire. And that is the recompense of wrongdoers."
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, whose mention is mighty: إِنِّي أُرِيدُ أَنْ تَبُوءَ بِإِثْمِي وَإِثْمِكَ فَتَكُونَ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ النَّارِ وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الظَّالِمِينَ (29) (Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin and so become one of the inhabitants of the Fire; and that is the recompense of the wrongdoers.) (5:29)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The exegetes differed concerning the explanation of this.
Some of them said: Its meaning is: Indeed, I want you to bear the sin of your killing me, and your own sin in your disobedience to Allah, and the rest of your sins.
Mention of who said this:
11730 - Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī in his narration, on the authority of Abū Mālik and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — and on the authority of Murra, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd — and on the authority of a number of men among the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" — he says: the sin of killing me, together with your sin that you bear upon your neck — "and so become one of the inhabitants of the Fire."
11731 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" — he says: by killing me, and your sin from before that.
11732 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" — he said: with the sin of killing me and your own sin.
11733 - 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 His word: "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" — he says: Indeed, I want there to rest upon you both your sin and my blood, that you bear both of them together.
11734 - Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid: "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" — he says: Indeed, I want you to bear the sin of killing me — "and your own sin," he said: with what proceeded from you before that.
11735 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh al-Faḍl ibn Khālid say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to me, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" — he said: As for "your own sin," that is the sin he committed before the killing of the soul — namely his brother; and as for "his sin," that is the killing of his brother.
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— And it is as though the proponents of this saying have directed the explanation of His word "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" toward: Indeed, I want you to bear the sin of killing me — whereby "the killing" is omitted and the mention of "the sin" sufficed, since its meaning was understandable to those to whom it was addressed.
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And others said: Its meaning is: Indeed, I want you to bear my sin, so that you carry its burden, as well as your sin of killing me. This is a saying that I have found on the authority of Mujāhid, but I fear it is an error, because the correct of the narration on his authority is that which we mentioned earlier.
Mention of who said this:
11736 - 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: "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me and your own sin" — he says: Indeed, I want there to rest upon you both my sin and my blood, so that you bear both of them together.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of the sayings concerning this is to say: Its explanation is: Indeed, I want you to return bearing your sin of killing me — and that is the meaning of His word "Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me." And as for the meaning of "and your own sin," that is his sin other than the killing of him, namely his disobedience to Allah, whose praise is exalted, in deeds other than this.
And we have said that this is the correct only because of the agreement of the exegetes thereupon. For Allah, whose mention is mighty, has informed us that for every person who acts, the recompense of his deed comes for or against him. And since that is His judgment concerning His creatures, it is not permissible that the sins of the slain person be laid to the charge of the killer; rather, the killer is held to account for his own sin of the forbidden killing and for the rest of his sins of disobedience that he himself committed, not for what the person slain by him committed.
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If a speaker were to say: "Was the killing of the slain person among the children of Ādam then not a disobedience to Allah on the part of the killer?", then it is answered: Indeed yes, and what a tremendous disobedience that is!
If he were to say: "If, then, it was a disobedience to Allah, mighty and exalted, how is it permissible that the slain person willed that from him and said: 'Indeed, I want you to bear the sin against me,' while you have mentioned that its explanation is: Indeed, I want you to bear the sin of killing me?", then [it is answered]: Its meaning is: Indeed, I want you to bear the sin of killing me if you kill me, for I do not kill you; and if you then kill me, then I want you to bear the sin of your disobedience to Allah by killing me. And when he kills him, he inevitably bears it upon himself in the judgment of Allah; so his willing of it does not oblige him to enter into the fault.
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And He means by His word "and so become one of the inhabitants of the Fire, and that is the recompense of the wrongdoers": he says: so that by killing me you become one of the inhabitants of the hellfire (al-jaḥīm) and the fuel of the Fire, abiding therein eternally — "and that is the recompense of the wrongdoers," he says: the Fire is the recompense of those who forsake the way of truth, who deviate from the straight path, who transgress toward what is not permitted to them, beyond what was permitted to them.
And this indicates that Allah, whose mention is mighty, had already commanded and forbidden Ādam after He had sent him down to the earth, and had promised and threatened. Were that not so, the slain person would not have said to the killer: "and so become one of the inhabitants of the Fire" by killing me, nor would he have informed him that that is the recompense of the wrongdoers. Mujāhid used to say: One of the two legs of the killer was hung up from his shin to his thigh, from that day until the Day of Resurrection, and his face is turned toward the sun, wherever it turns he turns with it; in summer there is over him an enclosure of fire, and in winter there is over him an enclosure of snow.
11737 - Al-Qāsim related that to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said that — he said: And ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr said: And truly, we find that the son of Ādam, the killer, shares with the inhabitants of the Fire in the punishment in a rightful apportionment; upon him rests half of their punishment.
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And there has been narrated on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a report that accords with what was narrated on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr.
11738 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us — and Sufyān related to us, saying: Jarīr and Abū Muʿāwiya related to us — h, and Hannād related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya and Wakīʿ related to us — all, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Murra, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, who said: The Prophet ﷺ said: "No soul is killed unjustly but that upon the first son of Ādam rests a share of it, and that is because he was the first to introduce killing."
11739 - Sufyān related to us, saying: My father related to us — h, and Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us — all, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Murra, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, something similar.
11740 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Muhājir, on the authority of Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, who said: No slain person is killed unjustly but that upon the first son of Ādam and upon Satan rests a share of it.
11741 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Ḥakīm ibn Ḥakīm, that it was related to him on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr: that he used to say: The most wretched of mankind is the son of Ādam who killed his brother; no blood is shed upon the earth since he killed his brother until the Day of Resurrection but that a portion of it befalls him, and that is because he was the first to introduce killing.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And this report that we have mentioned on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ makes clear that the saying that al-Ḥasan made concerning the two sons of Ādam whom Allah mentions in this place — namely that they were not the sons of Ādam from his loins, but rather two men among the children of Israel — as well as the saying narrated on his authority — namely that the first to die was Ādam, and that the offering consumed by the fire existed only among the children of Israel — is an error. For the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has informed us concerning this killer who killed his brother: that he was the first to introduce killing. And undoubtedly killing existed before Israel, in any case before his progeny! It is therefore an error of the saying to say: the first to introduce killing was a man among the children of Israel.
And since that is so, it is known that the correct of the sayings is the saying of him who said: "He is the son of Ādam from his loins," because he was the first to introduce killing, and Allah imposed upon him for that the punishment which we have narrated on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.