Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:67
O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people. Indeed, Allah does not guide the disbelieving 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 His word: يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ وَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَتَهُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ (67)
(O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not do so, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people. Indeed, Allah does not guide the disbelieving people. (5:67))
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a command from Allah — exalted be His remembrance — to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, to proclaim to these Jews and Christians of the People of the two Books — whose stories He, exalted be His remembrance, has told in this surah, and concerning whom He has mentioned their faults, and the evil of their religions, and their insolence toward their Lord, and their assaults upon their prophets, and their distortion of His Book and their falsification of it, and the corruption of their foods and their nourishment — and to the remaining polytheists (mushrikīn) besides them, to proclaim what has been sent down to him concerning them: their faults, the censure against them, the disparagement of them, the disgrace pronounced upon them, and what He has commanded them and forbidden them; and that he should harbor in himself no fear of them, that they might inflict upon his person any harm when he stood among them for the sake of Allah's command; nor any fear of their great number and the smallness of the number of those who were with him; and that he should feel no apprehension before anyone in the affair of Allah, for Allah — exalted be His remembrance — is sufficient for him against every one of His creatures, and wards off from him the harm of everyone who wishes to harm him. And He — exalted be His remembrance — let him know that, if he fell short in proclaiming to them anything of what had been sent down to him, then by the neglect of that proclamation — even if it were little that he did not proclaim — with regard to the enormity of the sin that he would thereby load upon himself, he stands in the same position as if he had proclaimed nothing at all of His revelation.
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And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation have spoken.
Mention of those who said that:
12270 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not do so, then you have not conveyed His message" — that means: if you conceal a single verse of what has been sent down to you from your Lord, then you have not conveyed My messages.
12271 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord" — the verse. Allah informed His Prophet ﷺ that He would deal with the people on his behalf and would protect him against them, and He commanded him to proclaim. It was mentioned to us that it was said to the Prophet of Allah ﷺ: "Would that you kept yourself hidden!" He then said: "By Allah, I will show my heel to the people as long as I am among them."
12272 - Al-Ḥārith ibn Muḥammad related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sufyān al-Thawrī related to us, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: When there was sent down: "Proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord", he (the Prophet ﷺ) said: "I am only one person, how am I to act? The people are gathering against me!" Then there was sent down: "And if you do not do so, then you have not conveyed His message" — the verse.
12273 - Hannād and Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, both saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Thaʿlaba, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: When there was sent down: "O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not do so, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people", the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Do not guard me, for my Lord has already protected me."
12274 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm and Ibn Wakīʿ related to me, both saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of al-Jurayrī, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq: that some people of the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to keep watch over him in turns. When there was sent down: "And Allah will protect you from the people", he went out and said: "O people, go to your dwelling places, for Allah has already protected me from the people."
12275 - Hannād related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Muḥammad, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, who said: The Prophet ﷺ was guarded by his companions, then Allah — exalted be His remembrance — sent down: "O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord, and if you do not do so, then you have not conveyed His message", to the end of it.
12276 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Al-Ḥārith ibn ʿUbayda Abū Qudāma al-Iyādī related to us, saying: Saʿīd al-Jurayrī related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: The Prophet ﷺ was guarded until this verse was sent down: "And Allah will protect you from the people." She said: Then the Prophet ﷺ put his head out of the tent and said: "O people, depart, for Allah has already protected me."
12277 - ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of al-Quraẓī: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ continued to be guarded, until Allah sent down: "And Allah will protect you from the people."
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The people of interpretation differed concerning the occasion for which this verse was sent down.
Some of them said: It was sent down because of a bedouin who had intended to kill the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and Allah preserved him from him.
Mention of those who said that:
12278 - Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Abū Maʿshar related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī and others, who said: Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ halted somewhere, his companions would choose for him a shady tree, and he would take his midday rest under it. Then a bedouin came to him, drew his sword, and said: "Who will protect you against me?" He said: "Allah!" Then the bedouin's hand began to tremble and the sword fell from his hand. He (the narrator) said: And he struck his head against the tree until his brains were dashed out. Then Allah sent down: "And Allah will protect you from the people."
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And others said: No, it was sent down because he feared the Quraysh, and he was reassured against that.
Mention of those who said that:
12279 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: The Prophet ﷺ feared the Quraysh, and when there was sent down: "And Allah will protect you from the people", he lay down upon his back and then said: "Whoever wishes, let him forsake me" — two or three times.
12280 - Hannād related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of ʿĀmir, on the authority of Masrūq, who said: ʿĀʾisha said: "Whoever tells you that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concealed anything of the revelation has lied!" Then she recited: "O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you" — the verse.
12281 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Mughīra, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, who said: ʿĀʾisha said: "Whoever says that Muḥammad ﷺ concealed anything has lied and has invented the most enormous lie against Allah!" For Allah — exalted be His remembrance — said: "O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord" — the verse.
12282 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind informed us, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, on the authority of Masrūq, who said: ʿĀʾisha said: "Whoever claims that Muḥammad ﷺ concealed anything of the Book of Allah has invented the most enormous lie against Allah! For Allah says: 'O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord' — the verse."
12283 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Al-Layth related to me, saying: Khālid related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm, on the authority of Masrūq ibn al-Ajdaʿ, who said: One day I entered upon ʿĀʾisha and heard her saying: "Indeed, whoever says that Muḥammad concealed anything of the revelation has invented the most enormous lie! For Allah says: 'O Messenger, proclaim what has been sent down to you from your Lord.'"
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And by His word "And Allah will protect you from the people" He means: He restrains them from afflicting you with evil. Its origin comes from "ʿiṣām al-qirba" (the strap of the waterskin), namely that with which it is bound shut, of thongs and cord,
and of this is the saying of the poet:
"And I said: Upon you be Mālik! Indeed, Mālik will protect you, if among the people there is any protector."
That means: he will restrain you (from harm).
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And as for His word "Indeed, Allah does not guide the disbelieving people", that means: Indeed, Allah grants no right guidance to him who deviates from the path of the truth, and removes himself far from the right way, and denies what I have brought to him from Allah's side, and does not submit to the command of Allah and to obedience toward Him in what He has imposed upon him and made obligatory.