Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:2
[This is] a Book revealed to you, [O Muhammad] - so let there not be in your breast distress therefrom - that you may warn thereby and as a reminder to the believers.
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 Allah, exalted be His remembrance: كِتَابٌ أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ ("A Book that has been sent down to you").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His remembrance, means: this Qurʾān, O Muḥammad (the Prophet ﷺ), is a Book that Allah has sent down to you.
* * *
And "the Book" (al-kitāb) is in the nominative on the basis of the meaning: "this is a Book."
* * *
The explanation of His saying: فَلا يَكُنْ فِي صَدْرِكَ حَرَجٌ مِنْهُ ("so let there be no constriction in your breast because of it").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His praise, says to His prophet Muḥammad (the Prophet ﷺ): let your breast not be constricted, O Muḥammad, with respect to warning by it the one whom I have sent you to warn, and conveying it to the one whom I have commanded you to convey it to; and do not doubt that it is from Me; and be patient in carrying out the command of Allah and following His obedience in that which He has obligated upon you and with which He has burdened you of the heaviness of the burdens of prophethood, just as those endowed with firm resolve among the messengers (ūlū al-ʿazm) were patient, for Allah is with you.
* * *
And "al-ḥaraj" (the constriction), that is the narrowness, in the language of the Arabs. We have already clarified its meaning, with the testimonies and proofs of it, at His saying: ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا ("narrow and constricted") [Sūrat al-Anʿām: 125], in a manner that relieves us from repeating it.
* * *
The people of interpretation have said about that what follows:
14316 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: (so let there be no constriction in your breast because of it), he said: do not be in doubt about it.
14317 - 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 saying of Allah: (so let there be no constriction in your breast because of it), he said: doubt.
14318 - 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.
14319 - Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, he said: Maʿmar related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: (so let there be no constriction in your breast because of it), doubt about it.
14320 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, the same.
14321 - 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: (so let there be no constriction in your breast because of it), he said: as for "al-ḥaraj," that is doubt.
14322 - al-Ḥārith related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Abū Saʿd al-Madanī related to us, he said: I heard Mujāhid concerning His saying: (so let there be no constriction in your breast because of it), he said: doubt about the Qurʾān.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this that I have mentioned of the interpretation of the people of interpretation, that is the meaning of what we have said about "al-ḥaraj," for the doubt about it arises only from the constriction of the breast with it and the lack of room to direct it toward its direction which is the correct direction of it. And we have only preferred to express it with the meaning of "al-ḍīq" (the narrowness), because that is the predominant meaning of it in the language of the Arabs, as we have already clarified.
* * *
The explanation of His saying: لِتُنْذِرَ بِهِ وَذِكْرَى لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ("that you may warn by it, and as a reminder to the believers") (2).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His remembrance, means by it: this is a Book that We have sent down to you, O Muḥammad, that you may warn by it the one whom I have commanded you to warn, (and as a reminder to the believers) - and this belongs to that which is placed later but is in meaning placed earlier. And its meaning is: "a Book that has been sent down to you that you may warn by it," and "a reminder to the believers," فَلا يَكُنْ فِي صَدْرِكَ حَرَجٌ مِنْهُ.
And when that is its meaning, then the position of His saying (and a reminder) is in the accusative, with the meaning: We have sent down this Book to you that you may warn by it and remind the believers by it.
* * *
And if it were to be said that its meaning is: this is a Book that has been sent down to you, so let there be no constriction in your breast because of it, in order to warn by it and remind the believers by it - then that would be a statement whose correctness cannot be rejected.
And when the meaning of the words is directed toward this view, then in His saying (and a reminder) there are two possibilities of case-ending:
One of them: the accusative, by referring back to the position of "that you may warn by it."
And the other: the nominative, as an appositive to "the Book," as if it were said: المص * كِتَابٌ أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ ("Alif Lām Mīm Ṣād. A Book that has been sent down to you"), and "a reminder to the believers."
