Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:38
And there is no creature on [or within] the earth or bird that flies with its wings except [that they are] communities like you. We have not neglected in the Register a thing. Then unto their Lord they will be gathered.
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: وَمَا مِنْ دَابَّةٍ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلا طَائِرٍ يَطِيرُ بِجَنَاحَيْهِ إِلا أُمَمٌ أَمْثَالُكُمْ مَا فَرَّطْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ ثُمَّ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ يُحْشَرُونَ (38) (And there is no creature on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are communities like yourselves. We have neglected nothing in the Book. Then to their Lord they shall be gathered) (38).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His remembrance, says to His Prophet Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: Say to these people who turn away from you and deny the signs of Allah: O people, do not suppose that Allah is heedless of what you do, or that He will not requite you for what you earn! And how should He be heedless of your deeds, or fail to requite you for them, while He is not heedless of the deed of any creature that crawls upon the earth, small or great, nor of the deed of a bird that flies through the air with its two wings? Rather, He has made all of that into kinds, classified them into kinds, and ranked them into classes, who know one another just as you know one another, and who direct themselves toward that for which they have been made to serve just as you direct yourselves, and for whom is preserved whatever deed they have performed, whether in their favor or to their detriment, and all of that of their deeds is recorded in the original book (umm al-kitāb). Then He, exalted be His remembrance, is the One who causes them to die, then revives them again, and on the Day of Resurrection gives them the requital for their deeds. He says: The Lord who has not neglected the preservation of the deeds of the beasts and the living creatures upon the earth, and the birds in the air, until He preserved for them their movements and their actions and recorded that of them in the original book, and gathered them and then requited them for what had preceded from them in the abode of trial — He is even more inclined not to neglect your deeds and not to be remiss in preserving your actions which you commit, O people, until He gathers you and requites you for the whole of it: if good, then with good, and if evil, then with evil, since He has distinguished you with His favors and spread over you His mercy, which He has not bestowed generally upon any other than you in this world. And you are more obligated to thankfulness to Him and more bound to know what is due to Him from you, on account of the intellect which He has given you by which you distinguish between things, and the faculty of understanding which He has not given to the beasts and the birds, by which you distinguish between what benefits you and what harms you.
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And just as we have said concerning that, so said the people of interpretation (taʾwīl).
* Mention of who said that:
13211 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word "communities like yourselves," he said: kinds ranked into classes, recognized by their names.
13212 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
13213 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word "and there is no creature on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are communities like yourselves," he says: the birds are a community, mankind is a community, and the jinn are a community.
13214 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, His word "but they are communities like yourselves," he says: rather they are creatures like yourselves.
13215 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His word "and there is no creature on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are communities like yourselves," he said: the ant and what is above it of the kinds of living creatures which Allah has created.
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And as for His word "We have neglected nothing in the Book," its meaning is: We have not been remiss in recording anything of it, as in that which:
13216 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn 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: "We have neglected nothing in the Book," we have left out nothing but that we have written it down in the original book.
13217 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word "We have neglected nothing in the Book," he said: We have not neglected the Book; there is nothing but that it is in the Book.
13218 — And Yūnus related it to me once more, saying concerning His word "We have neglected nothing in the Book," he said: all of them are written down in the original book.
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And as for His word "Then to their Lord they shall be gathered," the people of interpretation differed concerning the meaning of "their gathering (ḥashr)" which Allah, exalted be His remembrance, intended in this place.
Some of them said: "their gathering" is their death.
* Mention of who said that:
13219 — Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra al-Asadī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and there is no creature on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are communities like yourselves," Ibn ʿAbbās said: the death of the beasts is their gathering.
13220 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "Then to their Lord they shall be gathered," he said: by the gathering He means death.
13221 — It was related to us on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh al-Faḍl ibn Khālid say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His word "Then to their Lord they shall be gathered": by the gathering He means death.
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And others said: "the gathering" in this place, by it is meant the bringing together for the resurrection of the Hour and the coming of the Resurrection.
* Mention of who said that:
13222 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar = and al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us = on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, on the authority of Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm, on the authority of Abū Hurayra concerning His word: "but they are communities like yourselves. We have neglected nothing in the Book. Then to their Lord they shall be gathered," he said: Allah will gather all the creatures on the Day of Resurrection: the beasts and the living creatures and the birds and all things, and the justice of Allah on that Day will reach so far that He will take retribution for the hornless sheep from the horned sheep. Then He will say: "Be dust," and that is why the unbeliever says: يَا لَيْتَنِي كُنْتُ تُرَابًا [Surah An-Nabaʾ: 40] ("Oh, would that I were dust").
13223 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar = and al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us = on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of someone he named, on the authority of Abū Dharr, who said: While I was with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, two goats butted each other with their horns, and the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Do you know why they butted each other?" They said: We do not know! He said: "But Allah knows, and He will judge between the two of them."
13224 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq ibn Sulaym related to us, saying: Fiṭr ibn Khalīfa related to us, on the authority of Mundhir al-Thawrī, on the authority of Abū Dharr, who said: Two sheep butted each other with their horns in the presence of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he said to me: "O Abū Dharr, do you know why they butted each other?" I said: No! He said: "But Allah knows, and He will judge between the two of them!" Abū Dharr said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not depart from us but that there was no bird fluttering with its wings in the air, except that we mentioned of it some knowledge.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct view concerning that, according to me, is to say: Allah, exalted be His remembrance, has informed that every living creature and every bird will be gathered to Him. And it is permissible that by it is meant the gathering of the Resurrection, and it is permissible that by it is meant the gathering of death, and it is permissible that by it both gatherings together are meant. And there is no indication in the outward wording of the revelation, nor in any report from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as to which of those is meant by His word "Then to their Lord they shall be gathered," since "the gathering (al-ḥashr)" in the language of the Arabs is the bringing together. And to that belongs the word of Allah, exalted be His remembrance: وَالطَّيْرَ مَحْشُورَةً كُلٌّ لَهُ أَوَّابٌ [Surah Ṣād: 19] ("and the birds gathered together, all of them returning to Him"), that is to say: brought together. And since the bringing together is "the gathering," and Allah, exalted be His remembrance, on the Day of Resurrection brings His creation together to Himself and brings them together through death, the most correct view concerning that is that one takes the meaning of the verse in a general sense just as Allah has made it general in its outward wording, and that one says: every living creature and every bird is gathered to Allah after perishing and after the resurrection of the Resurrection, since Allah, exalted be His remembrance, has made it general with His word "Then to their Lord they shall be gathered," and by it has not specified the one gathering to the exclusion of the other.
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And if someone were to say: What then is the import of His word "nor a bird that flies with its two wings"? Does a bird ever fly with anything other than its two wings? What benefit, then, is there in the report about its flying with the two wings?
Then it is said: We have already previously explained that Allah, exalted be His remembrance, sent down this Book in the language of a people, and He addressed them with their manners of speech and with what they recognize as current among one another and use in their language. And since it belongs to their speech, when they wish to lay emphasis in the expression, that they say: "I spoke with so-and-so with my mouth," and "I walked toward him with my foot," and "I struck him with my hand," He, the Exalted, addressed them after the likeness of what they recognize as current in their speech and use in their address. And to that belongs His word, exalted be His remembrance: إِنَّ هَذَا أَخِي لَهُ تِسْعٌ وَتِسْعُونَ نَعْجَةً أُنْثَى [Surah Ṣād: 23] ("Verily, this is my brother; he has ninety-nine female ewes").