Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:70
And leave those who take their religion as amusement and diversion and whom the worldly life has deluded. But remind with the Qur'an, lest a soul be given up to destruction for what it earned; it will have other than Allah no protector and no intercessor. And if it should offer every compensation, it would not be taken from it. Those are the ones who are given to destruction for what they have earned. For them will be a drink of scalding water and a painful punishment because they used to disbelieve.
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 statement: وَذَرِ الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا دِينَهُمْ لَعِبًا وَلَهْوًا وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا وَذَكِّرْ بِهِ أَنْ تُبْسَلَ نَفْسٌ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ لَيْسَ لَهَا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَلِيٌّ وَلا شَفِيعٌ ("And leave those who have taken their religion as play and amusement and whom the worldly life has deluded; and remind by it, lest a soul be delivered up for what it has earned; it has, apart from Allah, no protector and no intercessor.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says to His Prophet ﷺ: Leave these who have taken the religion of Allah and their obedience to Him as play and amusement, so that they made their share of their obedience to Him into mockery of His signs and amusement and derision of them when they heard them and they were recited to them. So turn away from them, for I lie in wait for them, and I am behind chastising them and reckoning with them for what they do, and for their being deluded by the adornments of the worldly life and their forgetting of the return to Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted, and of the destination to Him after death, as in what follows:
13401 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning the statement of Allah: "and leave those who have taken their religion as play and amusement," he said: It is like His statement: ذَرْنِي وَمَنْ خَلَقْتُ وَحِيدًا ("Leave Me with him whom I created alone") [Surah Al-Muddaththir: 11].
13402 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
* * *
Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted, abrogated (nasakha) this verse by His statement: اقْتُلُوا الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدْتُمُوهُمْ ("Kill the polytheists (mushrikīn) wherever you find them") [Surah At-Tawbah: 5]. And thus said a number of the scholars of exegesis.
* Mention of who said that:
13403 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ḥajjāj ibn al-Minhāl related to us, he said: Hammām ibn Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and leave those who have taken their religion as play and amusement," then it was revealed in "Surah Barāʾa (At-Tawbah)," and the command was given to fight them.
13404 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: ʿAbda ibn Sulaymān related to us, he said: I recited to Ibn Abī ʿArūba and he said: Thus I heard it from Qatāda: "and leave those who have taken their religion as play and amusement," then Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted, revealed "Barāʾa (At-Tawbah)," and commanded that they be fought, for He said: اقْتُلُوا الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدْتُمُوهُمْ ("Kill the polytheists (mushrikīn) wherever you find them") [Surah At-Tawbah: 5].
* * *
As for His statement: "and remind by it, lest a soul be delivered up for what it has earned," by it He means: and remind, O Muḥammad, with this Qurʾān these who turn away from you and from it — "lest a soul be delivered up," in the meaning of: lest it be delivered up, as He said: يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ أَنْ تَضِلُّوا ("Allah makes it clear to you, lest you go astray") [Surah An-Nisāʾ: 176], in the meaning of: lest you go astray. The meaning of the statement is thus: and remind them with it so that they may believe and follow the truth that has come to them from Allah, so that their souls not be delivered up by the sins they have earned — but the particle "lā" (not) has been omitted, because the statement indicates it.
* * *
The scholars of exegesis differed concerning the explanation of His statement: "lest a soul be delivered up (tubsala)."
Some of them said: The meaning of it is: lest it be surrendered (tuslama).
* Mention of who said that:
13405 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, on the authority of Yazīd al-Naḥwī, on the authority of ʿIkrima concerning His statement: "lest a soul be delivered up for what it has earned," he said: it is surrendered.
13406 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: "lest a soul be delivered up," he said: lest it be surrendered.
13407 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, the same.
13408 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning the statement of Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted: "lest it be delivered up," he said: it is surrendered.
13409 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "lest a soul be delivered up," he said: it is surrendered.
13410 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ أُبْسِلُوا ("Those are the ones who were delivered up"), they were surrendered.
* * *
And others said: No, the meaning of it is: it is detained (tuḥbas).
* Mention of who said that:
13411 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: "lest a soul be delivered up," he said: it is taken and detained.
13412 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, the same.
13413 - Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "lest a soul be delivered up for what it has earned," lest a soul be taken for what it has earned.
* * *
And others said: The meaning of it is: it is disgraced (tufḍaḥ).
* Mention of who said that:
13414 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and remind by it, lest a soul be delivered up for what it has earned," he says: it is disgraced.
* * *
And others said: The meaning of it is: lest it be recompensed (tujzā).
* Mention of who said that:
13415 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, he said: Al-Kalbī said: "lest it be delivered up," lest it be recompensed.
* * *
The original meaning of "al-ibsāl" is forbidding / declaring inviolable (al-taḥrīm). One says of it: "I declared the place inviolable (absaltu al-makān)," when one forbids it so that it is not approached. To that belongs the saying of the poet:
She rose early to reproach you, after a portion of the night in generosity, forbidden (basl) over you is my reproach and my rebuke.
That is to say: forbidden [over you is my reproach and my rebuke]. To that also belongs their saying: "asad bāsil (a fierce lion)," by which is meant: nothing approaches him, as though he has made himself inviolable; then that is made a description of everyone who is strong and is shunned because of his strength. One also says: "give the incantator his bulsa," by which is meant: his wage; and "sharāb basīl (a drink basīl)," in the meaning of abandoned / left behind. Likewise "al-mubsal bi-l-jarīra (the one delivered up by the crime)," that is the one given in pledge for it. He is called "mubsal," because he is forbidden everything except that for which he is given in pledge and with which he is delivered up. To that belongs the saying of ʿAwf ibn al-Aḥwaṣ al-Kilābī:
And my delivering up of my sons without any crime that we committed, and not for blood shed.
And al-Shanfarā said:
There I hope for no life that gladdens me, companion of the nights, delivered up by the crimes.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The explanation of the statement is then: and remind with the Qurʾān these who immerse themselves (busy themselves mockingly) in Our signs, and others who follow their path among the polytheists (mushrikīn), lest a soul be delivered up by its sins and its disbelief (kufr) toward its Lord, and lest it be held in pledge and locked up by what it has earned of crimes, in the chastisement of Allah — "it has, apart from Allah, no one," He says: it has, when it is delivered up by its sins and held in pledge by the misdeeds it has earned, no one who helps it and who rescues it from Allah, who has given it for its sins the recompense due to it — "and no intercessor (shafīʿ)" who intercedes for it, because it has no means to Him.
* * *
The explanation of His statement: وَإِنْ تَعْدِلْ كُلَّ عَدْلٍ لا يُؤْخَذْ مِنْهَا ("And though it offers every ransom (ʿadl), nothing will be taken from it.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: And though the soul that has been delivered up by what it has earned offers, that is to say: "and though it offers every ransom (ʿadl)," that is to say: every redemption (fidāʾ).
* * *
One says of it: "ʿadala yaʿdilu," when someone ransoms, "ʿadlan." To that belongs the statement of Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted: أَوْ عَدْلُ ذَلِكَ صِيَامًا ("or the equivalent (ʿadl) of that in fasting") [Surah Al-Māʾida: 95], that is what is equal to it of another kind.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about that, the scholars of exegesis said.
* Mention of who said that:
13416 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: "and though it offers every ransom, nothing will be taken from it," he said: Even if it came with the earth full of gold, it would not be accepted from it.
13417 - 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 concerning His statement: "and though it offers every ransom, nothing will be taken from it," what would serve as its ransom — even if it came with the earth full of gold to ransom itself with it, it would not be accepted from it.
13418 - Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "and though it offers every ransom, nothing will be taken from it," he said: "and though it offers," and though it ransoms itself — even if it possessed the world and what is in it and ransomed itself with that — "nothing will be taken from him," as ransom for himself, it will not be accepted from him.
* * *
Some of the experts in Arabic explained that in the meaning of: and though it practices every justice (qisṭ), it will not be accepted from it. And he said: it is the repentance (tawba) during life.
But what he said about that has no meaning, for every penitent in this world — Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted, accepts his repentance.
* * *
The explanation of His statement: أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ أُبْسِلُوا بِمَا كَسَبُوا لَهُمْ شَرَابٌ مِنْ حَمِيمٍ وَعَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ ("Those are the ones who were delivered up for what they earned; for them is a drink of boiling water and a painful chastisement (ʿadhāb) because of their disbelief.") (70)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: And these, who — though they ransomed themselves from the chastisement of Allah on the Day of Resurrection with every ransom — from whom nothing would be taken, they are "the ones who were delivered up for what they earned," He says: they were surrendered to the chastisement of Allah, and they were held in pledge for it as recompense for what they earned in this world of sins and misdeeds — "for them is a drink of boiling water (ḥamīm)."
* * *
And "al-ḥamīm" is the hot, in the language of the Arabs. It is originally "maḥmūm (heated)," transformed to the form "faʿīl." To that the bathhouse is called "ḥammām," because it heats the body. To that belongs the statement of Marqash:
In every evening there is for her a censer, in which is prepared aloeswood incense and hot water (ḥamīm).
By it he means hot water. To that belongs the statement of Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī in the description of a horse:
She refuses her milk, when she is stirred, except the sweat (ḥamīm), for it flows abundantly.
By al-ḥamīm he means: the sweat of the horse.
* * *
The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, made only for these whose description He has described in this verse a drink of boiling water, because the hotness of the water does not quench thirst. He thus reports that they, when they are thirsty in jahannam (hell), are not aided with water that gives them drink, but with that by which they increase in thirst on top of the thirst they already have — "and a painful chastisement (ʿadhāb)," He says: and for them also, besides the drink of boiling water of Allah, is the painful chastisement and the lasting humiliation — "because of their disbelief," He says: because of their disbelief (kufr) in this world toward Allah, their denial of His oneness (tawḥīd), and their worship beside Him of gods other than Him.
* * *
13419 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "those are the ones who were delivered up for what they earned," he said: one says: they were surrendered.
13420 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "those are the ones who were delivered up," he said: they were disgraced.
13421 - Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "those are the ones who were delivered up for what they earned," he said: they were seized by what they earned.