Tafseer of The Inevitable · Al-Waaqia · 56:82
And make [the thanks for] your provision that you deny [the Provider]?
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.
And His word: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ ("And you make your provision (rizq) to be that you deny") — He says: and you make of the denial your thanks to Allah for the provision He has bestowed upon you. This is like the saying of one person to another: "You have made my kindness to you into a wrongdoing against me," in the meaning: you have made the thanks for my kindness, or the reward for my kindness to you, into a wrongdoing against me.
It has been related from al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī that in the dialect of Azd Shanūʾa it is an expression: "How has so-and-so not made rizq" — in the meaning: "How has he not given thanks."
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the commentators have spoken, with disagreement among them.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to me, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Thaʿlabī related to me, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, on the authority of ʿAlī — may Allah be pleased with him — وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ , he said: your thanks.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿUbaydullāh ibn Mūsā related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Thaʿlabī, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, on the authority of ʿAlī, who traced it back to the Prophet ﷺ: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ , he said: your thanks; you say: "We were given rain by such-and-such asterism, and by such-and-such star."
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bakr related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, he said: " وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ , he said: your thanks, that you deny; he said: and they say: 'We were given rain by such-and-such asterism.'"
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Bishr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: never did a people receive rain but that a portion of them became disbelieving (kāfir) by morning, saying: "We were given rain by such-and-such asterism." And Ibn ʿAbbās read: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ .
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Muʿādh ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that he used to read: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ , and then he said: never did the people receive rain in a night but that a portion of the people became polytheist (mushrik) by morning, saying: "We were given rain by such-and-such asterism." He said: and he read: "And you make of the denial your thanks."
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Abū Bishr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ — he says: your thanks for the rain and the mercy that I have sent down upon you; you say: "We were given rain by such-and-such asterism." He said: and that was on their part a disbelief (kufr) concerning the favors He had bestowed upon them.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Sufyān informed us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Umayya, he said — I think it was he, or another —: "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard a man who, after they had received rain, said: 'We were given rain by some of the offshoots of the Lion asterism,' whereupon he said: 'You have lied; rather it is the provision (rizq) of Allah.'"
Yūnus related to me, saying: Sufyān informed us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taymī, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Verily, Allah lets a people enjoy a favor in the morning, or He lets them enjoy it in the evening, and then a people becomes disbelieving (kāfir) by it in the morning, saying: 'We were given rain by such-and-such asterism.'" Muḥammad said: I mentioned this report to Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, whereupon he said: we too have heard this from Abū Hurayra; and the one who was present with ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb — may Allah be pleased with him — when he prayed for rain has informed me: when he performed the rain prayer, he turned to al-ʿAbbās and said: "O ʿAbbās, O uncle of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, how much remains of the asterism of the Pleiades (al-Thurayyā)?" He said: "The learned ones concerning it claim that after its setting it appears at the horizon for seven days." He said: and the seventh day had not yet passed before they received rain.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of ʿAlī, وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ , he said: he read it as "And you make of the denial your thanks"; he says: you have attributed the provision of Allah to the asterism. And their provision, in their own view, depended upon the asterisms, the asterisms of the rain: when the rain came down upon them, they said: "We have been provided by such-and-such asterism," and when it was withheld from them, they denied; and that is their denial.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, concerning His word: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ , he said: there were people who received rain and then said: "We were given rain by such-and-such asterism, we were given rain by such-and-such asterism."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ , he said: their saying concerning the asterisms: "We were given rain by such-and-such asterism and such-and-such asterism." He says: rather say: it comes from Allah and it is His provision.
I was told, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying, concerning His word: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ — he says: Allah has placed your provision in the heaven, and you place it in the asterisms.
Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ṣirārī related to me, saying: Abū Jābir "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Azdī" related to us, saying: Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr related to us, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Umāma, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, he said: "Never did a people receive rain in a night but that a people became disbelieving (kāfir) by it in the morning"; then he read: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ — a speaker says: "We were given rain by such-and-such star."
And others said: rather the meaning of this is: and you make of the denial your portion therein.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ — as for al-Ḥasan, he used to say: how evil is what a people has taken for itself, that they received from the Book of Allah no portion other than the denial of it.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, he said: al-Ḥasan said, concerning His word: وَتَجْعَلُونَ رِزْقَكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ تُكَذِّبُونَ : lost is a servant whose portion from the Book of Allah is nothing other than the denial.
