Tafseer of The Spoils of War · Al-Anfaal · 8:37
[This is] so that Allah may distinguish the wicked from the good and place the wicked some of them upon others and heap them all together and put them into Hell. It is those who are the losers.
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: li-yamīza Allāhu al-khabītha mina al-ṭayyibi wa-yajʿala al-khabītha baʿḍahu ʿalā baʿḍin fa-yarkumahu jamīʿan fa-yajʿalahu fī jahannama ulāʾika humu al-khāsirūn (37) ("That Allah may separate the bad from the good, and place the bad one upon another and heap it all together and cast it into Hell (jahannam) — they are the ones who are the losers").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is sublime, says: Allah will drive into Hell (jahannam) those who denied their Lord and spend their wealth to turn people away from the path of Allah, in order to make a separation between them — and they are the people of evil, as He has said and named them "the bad" (al-khabīth) — and the believers in Allah and His Messenger, who are "the good" (al-ṭayyibūn), as He, whose praise is exalted, has named them. Thus He, whose praise is exalted, made a separation between them by causing the people of faith in Him and in His Messenger to dwell in His gardens, and by causing the people of disbelief (kufr) to descend into His Fire (al-nār).
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
16067 — Al-Muthannā 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 statement: "li-yamīza Allāhu al-khabītha mina al-ṭayyib": thus He separated the people of felicity from the people of wretchedness.
16068 — 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, who said: Then He mentioned the polytheists (mushrikīn) and what will be done with them on the Day of Resurrection, and said: "li-yamīza Allāhu al-khabītha mina al-ṭayyib", He says: He separates the believer from the disbeliever (kāfir), so that He may place the bad one upon another.
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And the Exalted, whose praise is sublime, means by His statement: "fa-yajʿala al-khabītha baʿḍahu ʿalā baʿḍ", that He will place the disbelievers one upon another. "fa-yarkumahu jamīʿan", He says: that He will make them into a heaped-up mass, and that is that He will bring them together one upon another until they become numerous, as He, whose praise is exalted, has said in the description of the clouds: thumma yuʾallifu baynahu thumma yajʿaluhu rukāman [Sūrat al-Nūr: 43] ("then He joins it together, then makes it into a heaped-up mass"), that is to say: densely packed together, and as:
16069 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "fa-yarkumahu jamīʿan", he said: then He joins it all together, one part upon another.
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And His statement: "fa-yajʿalahu fī jahannam", He says: then He casts the bad, all of it together, into Hell (jahannam). He made the report about them singular, on account of the singularity of His statement: "li-yamīza Allāhu al-khabītha". Then He said: "ulāʾika humu al-khāsirūn", using the plural form, and did not say: "that one is the loser", whereby He would have referred it back to the beginning of the report.
And He means by "ulāʾika" ("they") those who disbelieve, and its interpretation is: these who spend their wealth to turn people away from the path of Allah, "they are the losers". And He means by His statement "al-khāsirūn" (the losers): those whose commercial transaction yielded loss and whose trade suffered loss. And that is because with their wealth they purchased the punishment (ʿadhāb) of Allah in the Hereafter, and by their spending it — upon that on which they spent it, namely the war against the prophet of Allah and the believers in him — they brought down upon themselves humiliation and disgrace.
