Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:32
Say, "Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has produced for His servants and the good [lawful] things of provision?" Say, "They are for those who believe during the worldly life [but] exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection." Thus do We detail the verses for a people who know.
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: قُلْ مَنْ حَرَّمَ زِينَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي أَخْرَجَ لِعِبَادِهِ وَالطَّيِّبَاتِ مِنَ الرِّزْقِ ("Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad, to these ignorant ones among the Arabs, who strip themselves naked during their circumambulation around the House (the Kaʿba) and who forbid to themselves what I have permitted them of the good things of provision: Who, O people, has forbidden you the adornment of Allah which He has created for His servants, that you might adorn yourselves with it and beautify yourselves by wearing it, as well as the permitted provision of Allah by which He provides for His creatures for their foods and their drinks?
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The people of interpretation (tafsīr) differed concerning what is meant by "the good things of provision," after they had agreed that "the adornment" is that which we have mentioned.
Some of them said: "The good things of provision" means in this place the meat. And that is because they did not eat it in the state of their iḥrām (the consecrated state during the pilgrimage).
* Mention of who among them said that:
14534 - 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, concerning His statement: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?), that it is the fat (al-wadak).
14535 - Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?), that is what they forbade to themselves. He said: When they performed the ḥajj or the ʿumra, they forbade to themselves the sheep and what comes from it.
14536 - And Yūnus related that to me another time, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah) to the end of the verse, he said: There was a people who forbade to themselves what comes from the sheep: its milk, its butter, and its meat. Then Allah said: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?). He said: And the adornment is of the clothing.
14537 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Ḥabbān ibn Mūsā related to us, he said: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of a man, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, who said: When He sent Muḥammad ﷺ, He said: "This is My prophet, this is My chosen one, follow his example (sunna)" — take his way and his path. The doors were not closed before him, the chamberlains (ḥajaba) were not stationed before him, large platters were not brought to him in the morning nor were they taken back from him. He used to sit on the ground, he ate his food on the ground, he licked his hand, he wore coarse clothing, he rode the donkey and he let someone mount behind him. And he used to say: "Whoever turns away from my sunna does not belong to me." Al-Ḥasan said: How many there are who turn away from his sunna and abandon it! Then there came uncouth folk (ʿulūj), corrupt ones (fussāq), eaters of usury (ribā), and embezzlers of war spoils (ghulūl), whom my Lord has branded as fools and whom He has despised — they claimed that there is no harm for them in what they ate and drank, and that they adorned these houses, while they misinterpreted this verse: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?). But He made that only for the allies of the devil (shayṭān), who have made of it a playground for their belly and their private parts — from a saying that Sufyān did not memorize.
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Others said: Rather, what was meant by it was what the people of the Jāhiliyya (the time of ignorance) forbade of the baḥāʾir and the sawāʾib (certain categories of livestock which they sanctified for superstitious reasons).
* Mention of who said that:
14538 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?), that is what the people of the Jāhiliyya forbade to themselves of their possessions: the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, the waṣīla, and the ḥām (four categories of livestock which in pre-Islamic times were set aside for superstitious reasons).
14539 - 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, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his statement: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?), he said: The people of the Jāhiliyya forbade things that Allah had permitted, of clothing and other things. And that is the statement of Allah: قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ مِنْ رِزْقٍ فَجَعَلْتُمْ مِنْهُ حَرَامًا وَحَلالا ("Say: Have you considered what Allah has sent down for you of provision, of which you have then made a part forbidden and permitted?") [Surah Yūnus: 59]. And this is the same, concerning which Allah sent down: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?).
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: قُلْ هِيَ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا خَالِصَةً يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ("Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, the Exalted whose praise is mentioned, says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Say, O Muḥammad — to these ones to whom I have commanded you to say: مَنْ حَرَّمَ زِينَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي أَخْرَجَ لِعِبَادِهِ وَالطَّيِّبَاتِ مِنَ الرِّزْقِ ("Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?"), when they were unable to give an answer and did not know what to answer you — : the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants and the good things of His provision are for those who held Allah and His Messenger to be true and who followed what was sent down to you from your Lord, in this worldly life, while whoever disbelieves in Allah and His Messenger and contradicts the command of his Lord has shared with them in it in this life. And they are exclusively for those who believed in Allah and His Messenger on the Day of Resurrection, without anyone who disbelieves in Allah and His Messenger and contradicts the command of his Lord sharing in them on that day.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about it, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
14540 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), he says: The Muslims shared with the unbelievers in the good things, so they ate of the good things of his food, wore of the best of his clothing, and married the most virtuous of his women, and on the Day of Resurrection these are exclusively for them.
14541 - And al-Muthannā related that to me another time with precisely this isnād (chain of transmission), on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, and he said: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life), that is to say: the Muslims share with the polytheists (mushrikīn) in the good things in the worldly life, and then Allah will allot the good things in the Hereafter exclusively to those who believe, and the polytheists will have nothing of them.
14542 - 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, he said: Allah said to Muḥammad ﷺ: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision? Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), he says: Say: They are in the Hereafter exclusively for whoever believed in Me in the worldly life, without anyone sharing with them in it in the Hereafter. And that is because the adornment in the worldly life is for all the children of Adam, but Allah has made it exclusively for His allies in the Hereafter.
14543 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: My father related to us, on the authority of Salama ibn Nubayṭ, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), he said: The Jews and the Christians share with you in it in the worldly life, but they are exclusively for those who believe on the Day of Resurrection.
14544 - 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: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), exclusively for the believers in the Hereafter, without the unbelievers (kuffār) sharing with them in it. As for the worldly life, in it they did indeed share with them.
14545 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), whoever acted according to faith (īmān) in the worldly life, for him will be the honor of Allah exclusively on the Day of Resurrection, and whoever abandoned faith in the worldly life will appear before his Lord without having any excuse.
14546 - 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: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life), the polytheists share in it with them = (exclusively on the Day of Resurrection), for those who believe.
14547 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk saying concerning His statement: (Say: Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision? Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), he says: The polytheists share with the believers in the worldly life in the clothing, the food, and the drink, and on the Day of Resurrection the clothing, the food, and the drink will belong exclusively to the believers, and the polytheists will have no share in them.
14548 - Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Of the worldly life both the believer and the unbeliever (kāfir) obtain, but the good of the Hereafter will be exclusively for the believers, and the unbeliever will have no share in it.
14549 - Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), he said: These things are on the Day of Resurrection for those who believe, without the people of unbelief sharing with them in it, while they do share with them in it in the worldly life. And when the Day of Resurrection comes, they will have of it neither little nor much.
* * *
And Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said concerning it the following:-
14550 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: Ismāʿīl ibn Abān and Ḥabbawayh al-Rāzī Abū Yazīd related to us, on the authority of Yaʿqūb al-Qummī, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: (Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection), he said: They enjoy them in the worldly life, and the sin of them will not follow them.
* * *
And the reciters (qurrāʾ) differed in the reading of His statement: "khāliṣatan" (exclusively).
Some of the reciters of Medina read it as: "khāliṣatun," with the nominative (rafʿ), in the meaning: Say: They are exclusively for those who believe.
* * *
And the rest of the reciters of the regions read it as: (khāliṣatan), with the accusative (naṣb), as an adverbial qualifier of state (ḥāl) for "lahum" (for them). And the mention of it is omitted from the construction, because the indication that is apparent from the context sufficed, in accordance with what I have described in the explanation of the construction: that the meaning of the construction is: Say: They are for those who believe in the worldly life shared, and they are for them in the Hereafter exclusively. And whoever read it with the accusative made the predicate of "hiya" (they) to be His statement: (for those who believe).
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct of the two readings is, in my judgment, the reading of whoever read it with the accusative, because of the preference of the Arabs for the accusative with the verb when it comes after the noun and the qualification trails behind, even though the nominative is permissible — but that (the accusative) occurs more frequently in their speech.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: كَذَلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ (32) ("Thus do We set forth the signs in detail for a people who know.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says: Just as I have made clear to you what is obligatory upon you concerning the clothing and the adornment, and the permitted of the foods and the drinks and the forbidden thereof, and just as I have distinguished between them for you, O people, so do I make clear all My proofs and My arguments, and the marks of My permitted and My forbidden and My ordinances, for a people who know what is made clear to them and who understand what is distinguished for them.