Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:45
Who averted [people] from the way of Allah and sought to make it [seem] deviant while they were, concerning the Hereafter, disbelievers.
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.
Explanation of the saying of the Exalted: الَّذِينَ يَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَيَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا وَهُمْ بِالآخِرَةِ كَافِرُونَ ("Those who turn away from the path of Allah and desire it to be crooked, and who are disbelievers in the Hereafter") (45).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: the herald between the people of the Garden and the Fire says: أَنْ لَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَى الظَّالِمِينَ ("that the curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers (ẓālimīn)"), those who disbelieved in Allah and turned away from His path (5) = (and desire it to be crooked), He says: they sought the path of Allah = which is His religion (6) = "to change it and alter it, away from the straightness which Allah has given it" (7) = (and who are disbelievers in the Hereafter), He says: and they reject the coming of the Hour and the resurrection in the Hereafter and the reward and the punishment therein.
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The Arabs say, for deviation in religion and the path: "ʿiwaj" with a kasra on the "ʿayn", and for the inclination of a man toward something and his affection for it: "ʿāja ilayhi yaʿūju ʿiyājan wa-ʿawajan wa-ʿiwajan", with the kasra of the "ʿayn" and the fatḥa, (8) as the poet said: (9)
Halt, you two, that we may ask after the dwellings of the clan of Laylā, with an inclination (ʿiwaj) toward them and a turning away. (10)
Al-Farrāʾ mentioned that Abū al-Jarrāḥ recited it to him with the kasra of the "ʿayn" in "ʿiwaj". As for that which is innate in a human being, for it one says: "ʿawaj sāqihi" (the crookedness of his leg), with the fatḥa of the "ʿayn".
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The footnotes:
(5) See the explanation of "al-ṣadd" in the preceding 10:565, note 2, and the references there.
(6) See the explanation of "sabīl Allāh" in the preceding of the linguistic indexes (sabala).
(7) See the explanation of "baghā" in the preceding, p. 286, note 1, and the references there.
(8) See the explanation of "al-ʿiwaj" in the preceding 7:53, 54, and Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda 1:98.
(9) I have not been able to identify its speaker.
(10) Al-Lisān (ʿwj), and his transmission reads: * matā ʿiwajun ilayhā wa-anthināʾu * And in the printed edition it reads: "Halt, you two, that we may weep", and that arises from the bad reading by the editor of the manuscript; and the correct version is what I have established, as is also in the transmission of al-Lisān.
