Tafseer of The Emissaries · Al-Mursalaat · 77:26
Of the living and the dead?
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.
It is permissible that by His word كِفَاتًا * أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا ("a place of gathering, for the living and the dead") is meant: it takes in their filth during their lives, and their corpses after their death.
And in accordance with what we have said about this spoke the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl).
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا ("Have We not made the earth a place of gathering"), he says: a shelter (kinn).
ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bayān related to us, saying: Khālid informed us, on the authority of Muslim, on the authority of Zādhān Abū ʿUmar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, that he found a louse in his garment and buried it in the mosque, and then said: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا * أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا .
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, saying: Muslim al-Aʿwar related to us, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, the same.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Layth, who said: Mujāhid said concerning the one who sees the louse in his garment while he is in the mosque — and I do not know whether he said "in the prayer" or not —: if you wish, throw it away, and if you wish, bury it: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا * أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا .
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of Bayān, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا * أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا , he said: its interior for your dead, and its exterior for your living.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad, on the authority of Mujāhid: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا , he said: it takes in their filth; أَحْيَاءً ("living"): it conceals them; وَأَمْوَاتًا ("and dead"): they are buried: it takes them in.
And Ibn Ḥumayd related it to me yet another time and said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad, on the authority of Mujāhid: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا , he said: it takes in their filth and what comes out of them; أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا , he said: it takes them in, as living and as dead.
Mohammed ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا * أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا , he said: the living who dwell in it — Mohammed ibn ʿAmr said: they conceal themselves in it as much as they wish, and al-Ḥārith said: and they conceal themselves in it as much as they wish. And His word: أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا , he said: they are buried in it.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الأَرْضَ كِفَاتًا * أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا : their living dwells in it, and their dead is buried in it.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا , he said: as living atop it, upon its back, and as dead who are buried in it.
The linguists of Arabic have differed concerning what places أَحْيَاءً وَأَمْوَاتًا in the accusative (naṣb). Some grammarians of Basra said: it stands in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). Some grammarians of Kufa said: no, it stands in the accusative because the "gathering" (al-kifāt) applies to it, as though you said: "Have We not made the earth a gathering of living and dead," and when you provide it with nunation, you place it in the accusative, as the one reads who reads: أَوْ إِطْعَامٌ فِي يَوْمٍ ذِي مَسْغَبَةٍ * يَتِيمًا ذَا مَقْرَبَةٍ ("or the feeding, on a day of hunger, of a related orphan"). And this statement seems to me the closest to what is correct.
