Tafseer of The Exile · Al-Hashr · 59:15
[Theirs is] like the example of those shortly before them: they tasted the bad consequence of their affair, and they will have a painful punishment.
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: كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا ذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (15) ("Like the example of those who shortly before them tasted the evil consequences of their conduct, and for them awaits a painful punishment") (59:15).
The Exalted, whose praise is proclaimed, says: the example of these Jews of the Banū al-Naḍīr and the hypocrites in what Allah will do to them by sending down His punishment upon them, كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ("is like the example of those who were before them"). He says: it is like them.
The exegetes differed concerning whom was meant by "those who were before them." Some of them said: by this the Banū Qaynuqāʿ were meant.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, on the authority of ʿIkrima or Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his saying: كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا ذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ("Like the example of those who shortly before them tasted the evil consequences of their conduct, and for them awaits a painful punishment"): he means the Banū Qaynuqāʿ.
And others said: by this the polytheists of the Quraysh at Badr were meant.
* Mention of who said that:
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 saying: كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا ذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ ("Like the example of those who shortly before them tasted the evil consequences of their conduct"). He said: the disbelievers of the Quraysh.
And the most correct of the sayings is that one says: Allah, Mighty and Exalted, has compared these disbelievers among the People of the Book, with respect to the punishment that He will make them taste, to those who were before them among the deniers of His Messenger ﷺ, whom He destroyed through His wrath. And the affair of the Banū Qaynuqāʿ and the Battle of Badr both took place before the expulsion of the Banū al-Naḍīr, and they all had tasted the evil consequences of their conduct; and Allah, Mighty and Exalted, has singled out none of them in particular so as to place these ones in the comparison with them to the exclusion of others. Everyone who tastes the evil consequences of his conduct and whose term lay shortly before theirs is compared with them in that for which they are intended in the parable.
And His saying: ذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ ("they tasted the evil consequences of their conduct"). He says: the punishment of Allah struck them because of their disbelief in Him.
And His saying: وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ("and for them awaits a painful punishment"). He says: and for them awaits in the Hereafter, alongside the disgrace that struck them in this world, a painful punishment, that is to say: an agonizing one.
