Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:108
And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. Thus We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do.
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: وَلا تَسُبُّوا الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدْوًا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ ("And do not revile those whom they invoke besides Allah, lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge") (6:108).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His remembrance, says to His Prophet Muḥammad, ﷺ, and to those who believe in him: and do not revile those whom the polytheists (mushrikīn) invoke besides Allah as gods and associates, lest the polytheists revile Allah out of ignorance concerning their Lord, and out of transgression without knowledge, as in:
13738 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: (and do not revile those whom they invoke besides Allah, lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge), he said: they said: O Muḥammad, either you cease reviling our gods, or we will revile your Lord! Then Allah forbade them to revile their idols, lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge.
13739 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: (and do not revile those whom they invoke besides Allah, lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge), the Muslims used to revile the idols of the unbelievers (kuffār), and these would throw that back upon them. Then Allah forbade them from giving occasion for the reviling of their Lord, for they were an ignorant people who had no knowledge of Allah.
13740 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (and do not revile those whom they invoke besides Allah, lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge), he said: when death drew near to Abū Ṭālib, the Quraysh said: let us go to this man, that we may ask him to forbid his nephew against us, for we are ashamed to kill him after his (Abū Ṭālib's) death, lest the Arabs say: "He protected him, and when he died, they killed him!" So Abū Sufyān, Abū Jahl, al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith, Umayya and Ubayy the two sons of Khalaf, ʿUqba ibn Abī Muʿayṭ, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and al-Aswad ibn al-Bakhtarī went, and they sent ahead a man of theirs who was called "al-Muṭṭalib", and they said: seek permission from Abū Ṭālib! So he came to Abū Ṭālib and said: these elders of your people wish to enter upon you! So he gave them permission, and they entered upon him and said: O Abū Ṭālib, you are our elder and our chief, and Muḥammad has injured us and injured our gods, and we wish that you summon him and forbid him from mentioning our gods, and then let him be with his god! So he summoned him, and the Prophet of Allah, ﷺ, came. Abū Ṭālib said to him: these are your people and the sons of your uncle! The Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, said: what do you wish? They said: we wish that you leave us with our gods, and we will leave you with your god! Abū Ṭālib said to him: your people have dealt justly with you, so accept it from them! Then the Prophet, ﷺ, said: "Have you considered: if I were to grant you this, would you grant me one word which, if you utter it, you would possess the Arabs and the non-Arabs would submit to you and pay you tribute (kharāj)?" Abū Jahl said: yes, by your father, we will grant it to you, and ten times the like of it; so what is it? He said: say: "There is no god but Allah"! But they refused and were repelled by it. Abū Ṭālib said: O nephew, say something other than that, for your people are alarmed by it! He said: O uncle, I am not one to say anything other than it, even if they were to bring me the sun and place it in my hands, and even if they brought me the sun and placed it in my hands, I would say nothing other than it! He meant to make them despair. Then they became enraged and said: either you cease reviling our gods, or we will revile you and revile the one who commands you (to this). That is His saying: (lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge).
13741 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: the Muslims used to revile the idols of the unbelievers, whereupon the unbelievers reviled Allah in enmity and without knowledge. Then Allah revealed: (and do not revile those whom they invoke besides Allah, lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge).
13742 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: (lest they revile Allah in enmity and without knowledge), he said: when you revile his god, he reviles your God, so do not revile their gods.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the authoritative proof among the reciters of the regions is in agreement on reading it: فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدْوًا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ, with fatḥa on the ʿayn, sukūn on the dāl, and lightening (takhfīf) of the wāw in His saying: (ʿadwan), on the basis that it is a verbal noun (maṣdar) from the expression: "so-and-so transgressed against so-and-so" — when he wronged him and transgressed against him — "he transgresses, a transgression (ʿadwan), a transgression (ʿuduwwan) and a transgression (ʿudwānan)". And "al-iʿtidāʾ" (transgression) is merely the "iftiʿāl" form of it.
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It is related from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī that he used to read it: "ʿuduwwan" with a doubled wāw.
13743 - Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related that to me, saying: al-Qāsim ibn Sallām related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Hārūn, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn Saʿd: فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عُدُوًّا, with ḍamma on the ʿayn, made heavy (doubled).
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And it is mentioned from some of the Baṣrans that he read it: "fa-yasubbū Allāha ʿaduwwan", directing its interpretation to the meaning that they are a group, as He, exalted be His praise, said: فَإِنَّهُمْ عَدُوٌّ لِي إِلا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ ("for they are an enemy to me, except the Lord of the worlds") [Surah Al-Shuʿarāʾ: 77], and as He said: لا تَتَّخِذُوا عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ ("do not take My enemy and your enemy as protectors") [Surah Al-Mumtaḥana: 1], and he then puts "al-ʿaduww" in the accusative (naṣb) on the basis of the circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) in relation to the mention of "the polytheists" in His saying: (fa-yasubbū). Then the interpretation of the words would be: and do not revile, O believers, those whom the polytheists invoke besides Allah, lest the polytheists revile Allah, as enemies of Allah, without knowledge. And when the interpretation is thus, then "al-ʿaduww" is from the description of "the polytheists" and their characteristic, as if it were said: lest the polytheists revile the enemies of Allah, without knowledge. But because "al-ʿaduww" came in the form of the indefinite noun (nakira), while it is a characteristic of the definite, it was put in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl).
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct reading of it, in my opinion, is the reading of him who read with fatḥa on the ʿayn and lightening of the wāw, because of the consensus of the authoritative proof among the reciters on reading it thus. And it is not permissible to deviate from that upon which agreement has been reached.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: كَذَلِكَ زَيَّنَّا لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ عَمَلَهُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ مَرْجِعُهُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("Thus have We made fair-seeming to every community their deeds; then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them of what they used to do") (6:108).
He, exalted be His remembrance, says: just as We have made fair-seeming to these who assign likenesses to their Lord — the idols and the graven images — the worship of the idols and obedience to Satan, by forsaking them with respect to obedience to the Most Merciful, so have We made fair-seeming to every group that has gathered upon a deed of the deeds — whether obedience to Allah or disobedience to Him — their deed upon which they have united. Then their return thereafter and their final destination is to their Lord = "and He will inform them of what they used to do". He says: He will make them stand and inform them of their deeds which they used to perform in the worldly life, and thereafter requite them for it — if it was good then with good, and if it was evil then with evil — or He pardons by His grace, so long as it was not shirk or kufr.
