Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:95
Then We exchanged in place of the bad [condition], good, until they increased [and prospered] and said, "Our fathers [also] were touched with hardship and ease." So We seized them suddenly while they did not perceive.
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 word: ثُمَّ بَدَّلْنَا مَكَانَ السَّيِّئَةِ الْحَسَنَةَ حَتَّى عَفَوْا وَقَالُوا قَدْ مَسَّ آبَاءَنَا الضَّرَّاءُ وَالسَّرَّاءُ فَأَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةً وَهُمْ لا يَشْعُرُونَ (95) ("Then We replaced the evil with the good, until they grew numerous and said: 'Adversity and prosperity have already touched our forefathers.' Then We seized them suddenly, while they did not perceive it." (7:95))
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His mention, says: ( ثم بدلنا ) — "then We replaced" for the people of the town whose inhabitants We had seized with adversity and hardship — ( مكان السيئة ) — "in place of the evil," and that is the adversity and the hardship. He called it only "an evil thing" (sayyiʾa) because it belongs to that which harms people — while the "good" (ḥasana) does not harm them, namely prosperity, favor, and ease in livelihood — ( حتى عفوا ) — "until they grew numerous," He says: until they increased in number.
Likewise, of everything that multiplies it is said: "it has become numerous" (qad ʿafā), as the poet said:
But we make the sword bite into the shanks of fat, high-humped she-camels.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes have spoken.
Mention of those who said that:
14873 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: ( مكان السيئة الحسنة ) — "in place of the evil the good," he said: in place of the hardship, prosperity — ( حتى عفوا ) — "until they grew numerous."
14874 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: ( مكان السيئة الحسنة ) — he said: "the evil" is the harm, and "the good" is the prosperity, the wealth, and the offspring.
14875 — Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: ( مكان السيئة الحسنة ) — he said: "the evil" is the harm, and "the good" is the good.
14876 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: ( ثم بدلنا مكان السيئة الحسنة ) — he says: in place of the hardship, prosperity.
14877 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: ( ثم بدلنا مكان السيئة الحسنة حتى عفوا ) — he said: We replaced that which they detested with that which they loved in the life of this world — ( حتى عفوا ) — until they were delivered from that punishment — ( وقالوا قد مس آباءنا الضراء والسراء ) — "and they said: adversity and prosperity have already touched our forefathers."
And they differed concerning the explanation of His word: ( حتى عفوا ) — "until they grew numerous."
Some said something that agrees with what we have said concerning it.
Mention of those who said that:
14878 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: ( حتى عفوا ) — he says: until they grew numerous and their possessions grew numerous.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: ( حتى عفوا ) — he said: they became abundant.
14879 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: ( حتى عفوا ) — he said: their possessions and their children grew numerous.
14880 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
14881 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: ( حتى عفوا ) — until they grew numerous.
14882 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: ( حتى عفوا ) — he said: until they became abundant and numerous.
14883 — ... he said: Jābir ibn Nūḥ related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: ( حتى عفوا ) — he said: until they became abundant.
14884 — ... he said: Al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: ( حتى عفوا ) — that is to say: they became abundant and numerous.
14885 — ... he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rajāʾ related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: ( حتى عفوا ) — he said: until their possessions and their children grew numerous.
Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: ( حتى عفوا ) — they grew numerous as the plants and the plumage (i.e., wealth and property) grow numerous, and then He seized them at that moment ( بغتة وهم لا يشعرون ) — "suddenly, while they did not perceive it."
And others said: its meaning is: until they became joyful.
Mention of those who said that:
14886 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: ( حتى عفوا ) — he says: until they became joyful thereby.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this explanation which Qatāda gave concerning the meaning of "ʿafaw" is an explanation for which there is no ground in the language of the Arabs. For "al-ʿafw" is not known in the sense of joy in anything of their language — unless he meant: until they became joyful through their numerousness and the abundance of their possessions, in which case that would be a valid explanation, however far-fetched.
As for His word: ( وقالوا قد مس آباءنا الضراء والسراء ) — "and they said: adversity and prosperity have already touched our forefathers," this is a report from Allah concerning these people, for whom He had put the good in place of the evil in which they had been — as a gradual enticement (istidrāj) and a trial — that when He did that with them, they said: these are states that have already touched our forefathers who were before us, and that befell our ancestors, and we are nothing but their like: there befalls us what befell them of hardship in livelihood and of prosperity therein — and that is "al-sarrāʾ," because it gives joy (yasurru) to its people.
And the wretched ones were ignorant of giving thanks for the favor of Allah, and through their ignorance they neglected to perpetuate His favor by turning to His obedience and hastening toward abandoning that which He detests through repentance, until His decree came upon them while they did not perceive it.
He, exalted is His majesty, says: ( فأخذناهم بغتة وهم لا يشعرون ) — "then We seized them suddenly, while they did not perceive it," He says: We seized them with destruction and punishment unexpectedly; it came upon them by surprise with its arrival, while they did not know and did not perceive that it would befall them — rather, they were deniers of the fact that it would befall them — until they beheld it and saw it with their own eyes.
