Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:58
And when you call to prayer, they take it in ridicule and amusement. That is because they are a people who do not use reason.
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 His saying: وَإِذَا نَادَيْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلاةِ اتَّخَذُوهَا هُزُوًا وَلَعِبًا ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لا يَعْقِلُونَ (58) (And when you call to prayer, they take it as mockery and sport. That is because they are a people who do not understand. (5:58))
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His mention, says: and when your caller, O believers, calls to the prayer, these unbelievers among the Jews, the Christians, and the polytheists (mushrikīn) mock your invitation to it and make it their sport = "that is because they are a people who do not understand." He, exalted is His mention, means by His saying "that" the action which they perform, namely their mockery and their sport with the call to prayer. They do that only on account of their ignorance of their Lord, and because they do not understand what good they have for themselves were they to respond to the prayer, and what works to their detriment in their mockery and their sport with the invitation to it. And if they understood what punishment there is with Allah for whoever among them does that, they would not do it.
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And concerning al-Suddī there is transmitted in the explanation of it what follows:-
12218 - 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: "and when you call to prayer, they take it as mockery and sport" — there was a man of the Christians in Medina who, when he heard the caller call out: "I bear witness that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah," would say: "may the liar be burned!" Then one of the nights his servant came in with fire while he was asleep and his family was asleep, and a spark fell which set the house ablaze, and he burned, he and his family.
