Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:60
Say, "Shall I inform you of [what is] worse than that as penalty from Allah? [It is that of] those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of Taghut. Those are worse in position and further astray from the sound way."
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 exegesis of the words of Allah: قُلْ هَلْ أُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِشَرٍّ مِنْ ذَلِكَ مَثُوبَةً عِنْدَ اللَّهِ مَنْ لَعَنَهُ اللَّهُ وَغَضِبَ عَلَيْهِ وَجَعَلَ مِنْهُمُ الْقِرَدَةَ وَالْخَنَازِيرَ ("Say: Shall I inform you of something worse than that, as regards recompense with Allah? It is he whom Allah has cursed and with whom He is wroth, and out of whom He has made apes and swine").
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, exalted is His mention, says to His Prophet Muḥammad, the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him: "Say," O Muḥammad, to these who have made your religion an object of mockery and sport among those who received the Book before you and among the disbelievers — "Shall I inform you," O assembly of the People of the Book, of something that is worse as regards reward than that for which you reproach us on account of our belief in Allah and in what has been sent down to us of the Book of Allah, and what was sent down before us of His books?
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[And "mathūba," its pattern is "mafʿūla"], but because the second radical letter (the "ʿayn" of the verb) dropped out, its vowel was transferred to the "fāʾ," namely the "thāʾ" of "mathūba," so that it takes the form of "maqūla," "maḥūra," and "maḍūfa,"
as the poet said:
"And I used to be, when my neighbor called out about a distressing matter, one who tucks up his waist-wrapper until the shin is laid bare halfway."
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And in the sense of what we have said concerning that, the exegetes spoke.
Mention of who said that:
12220 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "Say: Shall I inform you of something worse than that, as regards recompense with Allah," he says: as regards reward with Allah.
12221 - Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "Shall I inform you of something worse than that, as regards recompense with Allah," he said: "the mathūba" is the reward — "the mathūba of good" and "the mathūba of evil" — and he recited: خَيْرٌ ثَوَابًا (Surah Al-Kahf: 44) ("better as reward").
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As for "man" (whoever) in His word: "it is he whom Allah has cursed," it stands in the position of the khafḍ (genitive), as connected to His word: "of something worse than that." It is as if the exegesis of the words, since that is so, reads: say: shall I inform you of something that is worse as regards recompense with Allah, namely of him whom Allah has cursed.
And if one were to say that it stands in the position of the rafʿ (nominative), that would be correct, as a fresh beginning, in the meaning: that is he whom Allah has cursed — or: and he is the one whom Allah has cursed.
And if one were to say that it stands in the position of the naṣb (accusative), that would not be incorrect, in the meaning: say: shall I inform you of him whom Allah has cursed — whereby "shall I inform you" operates upon "man" and falls upon it.
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As for the meaning of His word: "whom Allah has cursed," that means: whom Allah has removed and driven away from His mercy — "and with whom He is wroth, and out of whom He has made apes and swine," he says: and with whom He is wroth, and out of whom He has made the transmuted ones (al-musūkh): the apes and the swine, out of wrath and anger from Him toward them, so that He hastened for them the humiliation and the punitive measure in this world.
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As for the cause of Allah's transformation of those of them who were changed into apes, we have already mentioned a portion of that in what preceded of this book of ours, and we shall mention the remainder of it, if Allah wills, in a place other than this.
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As for the cause of Allah's transformation of those of them who were changed into swine, that was according to what:
12223 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn Kathīr ibn Aflaḥ, the freedman of Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, who said: it was related to me that the transformation among the Israelites into swine came about thus: a woman of the Israelites was in one of the villages of the Israelites, and in it was the king of the Israelites, and they had gathered upon the road to perdition, except that this woman still held to a remnant of Islam and clung to it. She began to call to Allah, until people gathered around her and followed her in her cause. She said to them: you must surely fight for the religion of Allah and call your people to it; so set out, for I am setting out. She set out, and that king set out with the people against her, and he killed all her companions, and she escaped from their midst. He said: and she called to Allah until the people gathered around her, and when she was satisfied with them, she commanded them to set out; they set out and she set out with them, and they were all struck down and she escaped from their midst. Then she called to Allah until men gathered around her and gave her heed; she commanded them to set out, and they set out and she set out, and they were all struck down and she escaped from their midst, and she returned having lost hope, and she said: Glory be to Allah, had this religion had a protector and helper, He would already have made it victorious! He said: and she passed the night in grief, and the people of the village awoke in the morning while they were running like swine through its quarters; Allah had transformed them during that night. When she awoke in the morning and saw what she saw, she said: today I know that Allah has honored His religion and made His cause victorious! He said: and the transformation into swine among the Israelites came about solely through the doing of that woman.
12224 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word: "and out of whom He has made apes and swine," he said: they were transformed from among the Jews.
12225 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
And for the transformation there is, according to what has been related, a cause other than the one we have mentioned, which we shall mention in its place, if Allah wills.
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The exegesis of the words of Allah: وَعَبَدَ الطَّاغُوتَ أُولَئِكَ شَرٌّ مَكَانًا وَأَضَلُّ عَنْ سَوَاءِ السَّبِيلِ (5:60) ("and who has served the idol (ṭāghūt); these are worse as regards place and further astray from the right path").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters differed concerning the recitation of it.
The reciters of the Hijāz, Syria, Basra, and some of the Kufans recited it: (وَعَبَدَ الطَّاغُوتَ), in the meaning: and out of whom He has made apes and swine and who has served the idol, in the sense of "servant (ʿābid)" — whereby one made "ʿabada" a perfect-tense verb connected to the implicit pronoun, and put "al-ṭāghūt" in the naṣb on account of "ʿabada" falling upon it.
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A group of the Kufans recited it: (وَعَبُدَ الطَّاغُوتَ) with fatḥa on the "ʿayn" of "ʿabd" and ḍamma on its "bāʾ," and khafḍ on "al-ṭāghūt" by annexing "ʿabud" to it. By that they meant: and the servants (khadama) of the idol.
12226 - Al-Muthannā related that to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥammād related to us, he said: Ḥamza related to me, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb, that he recited: (وَعُبَدَ الطَّاغُوتِ); he says: servants — ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: and thus Ḥamza used to recite it.
12227 - Ibn Wakīʿ and Ibn Ḥumayd related to me, both of them said: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash: that he used to recite it thus.
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And al-Farrāʾ used to say: if there exists in it a linguistic form like "ḥadhir" and "ḥadhur," "ʿajil" and "ʿajul," then that is a valid manner — and Allah knows best — and otherwise, if he intends the word of the poet:
"O sons of Lubaynā, verily your mother is a slave-woman (ama), and verily your father is a slave (ʿabud)" —
then this belongs to poetic necessity, and this is permissible in poetry on account of the necessity of the rhymes, but not in the recitation.
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Others recited it: (وَعُبُدَ الطَّاغُوتِ); that has been related on the authority of al-Aʿmash.
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It is as if whoever recited it thus intended the plural of the plural of "ʿabd," as though he made "ʿabd" plural as "ʿabīd" and then made "al-ʿabīd" plural as "ʿubud," like "thimār" and "thumur."
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And it has been related on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar the reciter that he recited it: (وَعُبِدَ الطَّاغُوتُ) ("and the idol was served").
12228 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Abū Jaʿfar the grammarian used to recite it: (وَعُبِدَ الطَّاغُوتُ), as one says: "ʿAbd Allāh was struck."
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Abū Jaʿfar said: This recitation has no meaning, for Allah, exalted is His mention, only began the report with the reproof of certain groups, and among that for which He reproached them was their serving of the idol. But the report that the idol was served does not belong to the kind of report with which He began the verse, nor to the type with which He concluded it, such that it could have a correct exegesis.
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And it has been related that Burayda al-Aslamī recited it: (وعابد الطاغوت) ("and who serves the idol").
12229 - Al-Muthannā related that to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: a shaykh from Basra related to us: that Burayda used to recite it thus.
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And if it were recited: (وَعَبَدَةَ الطَّاغُوتِ) ("and the servants of the idol"), with kasra, then it would have a correct origin in Arabic, even though today I do not permit the recitation with it, since the recitation of the authoritative proof among the reciters differs from it. The manner in which it is permissible in Arabic is that by it is meant "wa-ʿabadat al-ṭāghūt" (the servants of the idol), after which the "hāʾ" was elided on account of the annexation (iḍāfa), as the rajaz-poet said:
"Its governors (wulāh) arose and made him drink ṣarkhad-wine" —
he means: its governors (wulāt) arose, eliding the "tāʾ" of "wulātihā" on account of the annexation.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: As for the recitation of the reciters, it follows one of the two manners that I mentioned first, namely: (وَعَبَدَ الطَّاغُوتَ), with naṣb on "al-ṭāghūt" and making "ʿabada" operate upon it, and taking "ʿabada" as a perfect-tense verb from "al-ʿibāda" (the serving).
And the other: (وَعَبُدَ الطَّاغُوتِ), upon the pattern of "faʿul," with khafḍ on "al-ṭāghūt" by annexing "ʿabud" to it.
Since the recitation of the reciters is according to one of these two manners and not according to other manners which have in Arabic a more correct origin than these, the most correct of the two to recite with is the recitation of whoever recited it: (وَعَبَدَ الطَّاغُوتَ), in the meaning: and out of whom He has made apes and swine and who has served the idol, for it has been related that in the recitation of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and of Ibn Masʿūd it is: (وَجَعَلَ مِنْهُمُ الْقِرَدَةَ وَالْخَنَازِيرَ وَعَبَدَ الطَّاغُوتَ), in the meaning: and those who served the idol. In that lies a clear proof of the correctness of the meaning we have mentioned, namely that by it is meant: and who has served the idol, and that the naṣb on "al-ṭāghūt" is better, as I have described in the recitation, on account of making "ʿabada" operate upon it, since the other manner is not widespread among the Arabs nor known in their speech.
Moreover, the linguists disapprove of it and consider it ugly to make something operate upon "man" and "alladhī," the implicit pronouns, together with "min" and "fī" when "min" or "fī" makes them unnecessary, to the point that some of them considered that impossible and did not permit it. And whoever considered that impossible recited it: (وَعَبَدَ الطَّاغُوتَ); that is, according to his view, an error and an incorrect, impermissible inflection.
And others among them permitted it despite its ugliness. According to their view, then, it is necessary that the recitation with it be ugly. And they, despite their disapproval of it in speech, nonetheless chose to recite with it, and to make "jaʿala" operate upon "man" while it is elided together with "min."
And were we to permit ourselves to differ from the community (of reciters) in something concerning which they have been unanimously transmitted, we would have chosen to recite with a recitation other than these two. But what the Muslims have widely transmitted without contradicting one another therein, from that we do not permit ourselves to depart to anything else. Therefore we have not permitted ourselves to recite in deviation from one of the two recitations of which we have mentioned that they did not overstep them.
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And since the recitation according to us is as we have mentioned, the exegesis of the verse is: say: shall I inform you of something worse than that, as regards recompense with Allah — namely of him whom Allah has cursed and with whom He is wroth, and out of whom He has made apes and swine, and who has served the idol.
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And we have already expounded the meaning of "al-ṭāghūt" in what preceded, with the testimonies for it from the reports and otherwise, so that that relieves us from repeating it here.
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As for His word: "these are worse as regards place and further astray from the right path," by His word "these" He means: these whom Allah, exalted is His mention, has mentioned, and they are those whose quality He described when He said: "whom Allah has cursed and with whom He is wroth and out of whom He has made apes and swine and who has served the idol" — and all of that is of the quality of the Jews of the Israelites.
Allah, exalted is His mention, says: these whose quality is this — "are worse as regards place," in the swift world and in the hereafter with Allah, than those of whom you displayed disapproval, O assembly of the Jews, on account of their belief in Allah and in what has been sent down to them from Allah of the Book, and in what was sent down to them before them of the prophets — "and further astray from the right path," Allah, exalted is His mention, says: and you, with all that, O Jews, more severely tread a way that is not the right way, and are further deviated from the path of right guidance and the straight course than they.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And this belongs to the allusion (laḥn) in speech. That is because Allah, exalted is His mention, by this report only intended to inform the Jews, whose quality He described in the verses before this verse, of their ugly deeds and their blameworthy character traits, and of their deserving of His anger through the multitude of their sins and disobediences, until He changed some of them into apes and some into swine — as an address from Him to them concerning that, by way of a veiled reference with the beautiful in the address, and He addressed them with that whose meaning they knew from speech in the most beautiful manner of allusion, and He taught His Prophet, the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him, the most beautiful of good manners, and said to him: say to them, O Muḥammad: are these who believe in Allah and in His books, of whom you make mockery, worse, or he whom Allah has cursed? — and He means those to whom that is said.