Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:30
A group [of you] He guided, and a group deserved [to be in] error. Indeed, they had taken the devils as allies instead of Allah while they thought that they were guided.
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: كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return) (29) فَرِيقًا هَدَى وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلالَةُ (a group He has guided, and over another group the going-astray has become rightfully due).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have differed over the explanation of His statement: كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return).
Some of them said: Its explanation is: as He brought you into being in the beginning as wretched ones and felicitous ones, so shall you be raised up on the Day of Resurrection.
Mention of who said this:
14478 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbdallāh related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return, a group He has guided, and over another group the going-astray has become rightfully due), he said: Verily Allah, glorified is He, began the creation of the son of Ādam as a believer and as a disbeliever, as He, exalted is His praise, said: هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ فَمِنْكُمْ كَافِرٌ وَمِنْكُمْ مُؤْمِنٌ (He it is who created you; among you is a disbeliever and among you is a believer) [Sūrat al-Taghābun: 2]. Then on the Day of Resurrection He brings them back as He began their creation, as a believer and as a disbeliever.
14479 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: My father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, he said: Our companions related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: The believer is raised up as a believer, and the disbeliever (kāfir) as a disbeliever.
14480 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḍurays related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Jābir, he said: They are raised up in the state in which they were: the believer in his faith (īmān), and the hypocrite (munāfiq) in his hypocrisy (nifāq).
14481 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: My father related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, he said: They returned to His knowledge concerning them. Have you not heard what Allah says about them: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return)? Have you not heard His statement: (a group He has guided, and over another group the going-astray has become rightfully due)?
14482 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: ʿUbaydallāh related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: They are brought back to His knowledge concerning them.
14483 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Abū Hammām al-Ahwāzī related to us, he said: Mūsā ibn ʿUbayda related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb concerning His statement: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: Whoever was created by Allah in the beginning in the state of wretchedness (al-shiqwa) returns to that upon which Allah created him in the beginning, even if he performs the deeds of the people of felicity — just as Iblīs performed the deeds of the people of felicity and then returned to that upon which his creation was founded in the beginning. And whoever was created in the beginning in felicity returns to that upon which his creation was founded in the beginning, even if he performs the deeds of the people of misery — just as the sorcerers performed the deeds of the people of misery, and then returned to that upon which their creation was founded in the beginning.
14484 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Wiqāʾ ibn Iyās Abū Yazīd, on the authority of Mujāhid: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: The Muslim is raised up as a Muslim, and the disbeliever (kāfir) as a disbeliever.
14485 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Dukayn related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Yazīd, on the authority of Mujāhid: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: The Muslim is raised up as a Muslim, and the disbeliever as a disbeliever.
14486 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Waḍḍāḥ related to us, on the authority of Sālim al-Afṭas, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: As it has been prescribed for you, so shall you be.
14487 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Al-Ḥimmānī related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd, the same.
14488 — 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: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return, a group He has guided, and over another group the going-astray has become rightfully due), he says: as He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return — as We created you, a group rightly guided and a group going astray, so shall you return and as you came forth from the bellies of your mothers.
14489 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, that the Prophet ﷺ said: Every soul is raised up in the state in which it was.
14490 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥafarī related to us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: As it has been prescribed for you, so shall you be.
14491 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Al-Ḥimmānī related to us, he said: Ḥammād ibn Zayd related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: The believer is raised up as a believer, and the disbeliever as a disbeliever.
14492 — 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: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), as a wretched one and as a felicitous one.
14493 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Suwayd related to us, he said: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us by recitation, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
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Others said: Its meaning is: as He created you while you were nothing, so shall you return after perishing.
Mention of who said this:
14494 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: Ghundar related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: As He created you in the beginning while you were nothing and brought you to life, so He causes you to die and then He brings you to life on the Day of Resurrection.
14495 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: As He created you in the beginning in this world, so shall you return alive on the Day of Resurrection.
14496 — 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: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: He began their creation while they were nothing, then they perished, then He brings them back.
14497 — 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 statement: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return, a group He has guided), he says: As We created you the first time, so shall you return.
14498 — 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: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), He brings you to life after your death.
14499 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: (As He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return), he said: As He created them first, so He brings them back last.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The most correct of the statements concerning its explanation is the statement of him who said: Its meaning is: as Allah brought you into being in the beginning as a creation after you were nothing, so shall you return after your perishing as a creation like it; He gathers you for the Day of Resurrection. For Allah, exalted is His remembrance, commanded His Prophet ﷺ to inform, with what is in this verse, a people of polytheists (mushrikīn), people of the jāhiliyya, who did not believe in the return and did not hold the Resurrection to be true. So He commanded him to call them to the acknowledgement that Allah will raise them up on the Day of Resurrection, that He rewards whoever obeys Him, and that He punishes whoever disobeys Him. So He said to him: Say to them: my Lord has commanded justice, and that you set your faces uprightly at every mosque, and that you call upon Him keeping the religion sincerely for Him, and that you acknowledge that — as He brought you into being in the beginning, so shall you return. Thus He omitted the mention of "and that you acknowledge that," just as He omitted the mention of "that" with "set up," since in what was mentioned there was an indication of what was omitted from it.
And since that is so, there is no ground for one who denies the resurrection after death to be called to the acknowledgement of the manner in which he who is raised up will be raised. Rather, only he who holds the Resurrection to be true is called to that. As for the one who denies it, he is only called to the acknowledgement of it, after which it is explained to him how the conditions of the Resurrection are. Moreover, in the report transmitted from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, namely:
14500 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related this to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, he said: Al-Mughīra ibn al-Nuʿmān related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, he said: People are gathered naked and uncircumcised, and the first to be clothed is Ibrāhīm ﷺ. Then he recited: كَمَا بَدَأْنَا أَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُعِيدُهُ وَعْدًا عَلَيْنَا إِنَّا كُنَّا فَاعِلِينَ (As We began the first creation, so We shall repeat it; a promise binding upon Us. Verily, We shall do it) [Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ: 104].
14501 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Mughīra ibn al-Nuʿmān, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, in a similar manner.
14502 — Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, he said: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of al-Mughīra ibn al-Nuʿmān, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood up among us with an exhortation and said: O people, verily you shall be gathered to Allah, barefoot and uncircumcised: كَمَا بَدَأْنَا أَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُعِيدُهُ وَعْدًا عَلَيْنَا إِنَّا كُنَّا فَاعِلِينَ (As We began the first creation, so We shall repeat it; a promise binding upon Us. Verily, We shall do it).
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— which demonstrates the correctness of the statement that we have made concerning it, namely that its meaning is: that the creatures return to Allah on the Day of Resurrection as a living creation, just as He brought them into being in the beginning in this world as a living creation.
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One says of this: "badaʾa Allāhu al-khalqa yabdaʾuhum" (Allah began the creation, He begins them) and "abdaʾahum yubdiʾuhum ibdāʾan" (He brought them forth, He brings them forth, a bringing-forth), with the meaning of: He created them — two eloquent linguistic forms.
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Then He, exalted is His praise, began the report about that which His knowledge concerning His creatures had preceded and what His decree had carried out over them, and He said: Allah guided a group of them and brought them to the success of good deeds, so that they are rightly guided, and over a group of them the going-astray became rightfully due — away from the guidance and the straight path — by their taking Satan as a guardian instead of Allah.
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And since the interpretation is this, "the first group (al-farīq)" is put in the accusative because "guided (hadā)" governs it, and "the second group" because His statement "has become rightfully due (ḥaqqa)" falls upon the referring pronoun mentioned in "over them (ʿalayhim)," as He, exalted is His praise, said: يُدْخِلُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ فِي رَحْمَتِهِ وَالظَّالِمِينَ أَعَدَّ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا (He admits whom He wills into His mercy; and the wrongdoers — for them He has prepared a painful punishment) [Sūrat al-Insān: 31].
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And whoever interprets it to mean: as He created you in this world in the beginning in two kinds — as a disbeliever and as a believer — so shall you return in the hereafter as two groups: a group He has guided and a group over whom the going-astray has become rightfully due — that one puts the first "a group (farīqan)" in the accusative by His statement "so shall you return (taʿūdūna)," and makes the second of them a conjunction upon it. And we have already set forth what is, in our view, the correct statement concerning it.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement: إِنَّهُمُ اتَّخَذُوا الشَّيَاطِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُهْتَدُونَ (Verily, they took the satans as guardians instead of Allah, and they reckon that they are rightly guided) (30).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His remembrance, says: Verily, the group over whom the going-astray has become rightfully due strayed from the path of Allah and deviated from the straight highway only because they took the satans as helpers and supports instead of Allah, out of ignorance on their part regarding the wrongness of that upon which they were in this; rather, they did that while they reckoned that they were upon guidance and truth, and that the right thing was that which they had done and trodden.
And this is one of the clearest indications of the wrongness of the statement of him who claims that Allah does not punish anyone for a disobedience he committed or a going-astray he held to, except when he commits it after he had knowledge of the correctness of its path, and then commits it out of defiance on his part toward his Lord in it. For if that were so, there would be no difference between the group of going-astray — who strayed while they reckoned that they were rightly guided — and the group of guidance. But Allah, in this verse, has distinguished between the names of the two and the rulings concerning the two.
