Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:20
Those to whom We have given the Scripture recognize it as they recognize their [own] sons. Those who will lose themselves [in the Hereafter] do not believe.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: الَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمُ الَّذِينَ خَسِرُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ فَهُمْ لا يُؤْمِنُونَ (20) ("Those to whom We have given the Book recognize it as they recognize their sons; those who have lost their own souls, they do not believe" (6:20)).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is proclaimed, says: Those to whom "We have given the Book," the Torah and the Gospel = they know that He is one single God, not a multiplicity of gods, and that Muḥammad is a messenger sent as a prophet = "as they recognize their sons."
And His statement: "those who have lost their own souls" belongs to the description of the first "those."
* * *
And by His statement "they have lost their own souls" is meant: they have ruined themselves and cast themselves into the fire of hell (jahannam), through their denial that Muḥammad is a messenger sent by Allah, while they knew the truth of that = "they do not believe," that is to say: they do not believe, as a consequence of that loss of their own souls.
* * *
And it has been said: the meaning of "their loss of their own souls" is that every servant has a dwelling place in paradise (janna) and a dwelling place in the Fire. So when the Day of Resurrection arrives, Allah gives to the people of paradise the dwelling places of the people of the Fire in paradise, and gives to the people of the Fire the dwelling places of the people of paradise in the Fire. That is the loss of the losers among them, in that they sold their dwelling places in paradise for the dwelling places of the people of paradise in the Fire, because of what they neglected in the worldly life through their disobedience to Allah and their wrongdoing against themselves. And that is the meaning of the statement of Allah, the Exalted, whose praise is proclaimed: الَّذِينَ يَرِثُونَ الْفِرْدَوْسَ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ ("Those who will inherit the Firdaws; therein they will abide eternally") [Surah Al-Muʾminūn: 11].
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about the meaning of His statement: "Those to whom We have given the Book recognize it as they recognize their sons," the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
13130 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "Those to whom We have given the Book recognize it as they recognize their sons," they know that Islam is the religion of Allah, and that Muḥammad is the messenger of Allah; they find him recorded with them in the Torah and the Gospel.
13131 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "Those to whom We have given the Book recognize it as they recognize their sons," the Christians and the Jews, they recognize the messenger of Allah in their Book, as they recognize their sons.
13132 - 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: "Those to whom We have given the Book recognize it as they recognize their sons," [he means: the Prophet ﷺ = "as they recognize their sons," because his description is with them in the Torah].
13133 - Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning his statement: "Those to whom We have given the Book recognize it as they recognize their sons," he means the Prophet ﷺ. He said: The people of Medina claimed, on the authority of the People of the Book who had embraced Islam, that they said: By Allah, we recognize him better than our sons, because of the characteristic and the description that we find in the Book; but as for our sons, we do not know what the women have brought forth!
------------------
The footnotes:
(8) See the explanation of "losing (khasira)" in what shortly preceded, p. 281, note 1, and the references there.
(9) See Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 329, 230.
(10) See the explanation of the verse that corresponds to this verse in what already preceded 3: 187, 188, [Surah Al-Baqarah 146].
(11) The narration 13132 - this narration is cut off in the printed edition and in the manuscript; the addition between brackets is from al-Durr al-manthūr 3: 8, from the tafsīr of al-Suddī, from the narration of Abū al-Shaykh. It appears that this lacuna is old in the copies of the tafsīr of Abū Jaʿfar, and that the copy of al-Suyūṭī was also cut off here, and that he therefore attributed this narration exclusively to Abū al-Shaykh, and not to Ibn Jarīr.
(12) He means: they do not know whether their sons came forth from their own loins, or whether fornication of those women has become mixed among them! And see the narration of that in the report concerning ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and his question to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām — and Allah knows best what is correct of that — in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 329.
